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• Top 31 Favorite Features in Windows Server 2012

  - by KeithMayer

  Over the past month, my fellow IT Pro Technical Evangelists and I have authored a series of articles about our Top 31 Favorite Features in Windows Server 2012.  Now that our series is complete, I’m providing a clickable index below of all of the articles in the series for your convenience, just in case you perhaps missed any of them when they were first released.  Hope you enjoy our Favorite Features in Windows Server 2012! Top 31 Favorite Features in Windows Server 2012 The Cloud OS Platform by Kevin Remde Server Manager in Windows Server 2012 by Brian Lewis Feel the Power of PowerShell 3.0 by Matt Hester Live Migrate Your VMS in One Line of PowerShell by Keith Mayer Windows Server 2012 and Hyper-V Replica by Kevin Remde Right-size IT Budgets with “Storage Spaces” by Keith Mayer Yes, there is an “I” in Team – the NIC Team! by Kevin Remde Hyper-V Network Virtualization by Keith Mayer Get Happy over the FREE Hyper-V Server 2012 by Matt Hester Simplified BranchCache in Windows Server 2012 by Brian Lewis Getting Snippy with PowerShell 3.0 by Matt Hester How to Get Unbelievable Data Deduplication Results by Chris Henley of Veeam Simplified VDI Configuration and Management by Brian Lewis Taming the New Task Manager by Keith Mayer Improve File Server Resiliency with ReFS by Keith Mayer Simplified DirectAccess by Sumeeth Evans SMB 3.0 – The Glue in Windows Server 2012 by Matt Hester Continuously Available File Shares by Steven Murawski of Edgenet Server Core - Improved Taste, Less Filling, More Uptime by Keith Mayer Extend Your Hyper-V Virtual Switch by Kevin Remde To NIC or to Not NIC Hardware Requirements by Brian Lewis Simplified Licensing and Server Versions by Kevin Remde I Think, Therefore IPAM! by Kevin Remde Windows Server 2012 and the RSATs by Kevin Remde Top 3 New Tricks in the Active Directory Admin Center by Keith Mayer Dynamic Access Control by Brian Lewis Get the Gremlin out of Your Active Directory Virtualized Infrastructure by Matt Hester Scoping out the New DHCP Failover by Keith Mayer Gone in 8 Seconds – The New CHKDSK by Matt Hester New Remote Desktop Services (RDS) by Brian Lewis No Better Time Than Now to Choose Hyper-V by Matt Hester What’s Next? Keep Learning! Want to learn more about Windows Server 2012 and Hyper-V Server 2012?  Want to prepare for certification on Windows Server 2012? Do It: Join our Windows Server 2012 “Early Experts” Challenge online peer study group for FREE at http://earlyexperts.net. You’ll get FREE access to video-based lectures, structured study materials and hands-on lab activities to help you study and prepare!  Along the way, you’ll be part of an IT Pro community of over 1,000+ IT Pros that are all helping each other learn Windows Server 2012! What are Your Favorite Features? Do you have a Favorite Feature in Windows Server 2012 that we missed in our list above?  Feel free to share your favorites in the comments below! Keith Build Your Lab! Download Windows Server 2012 Don’t Have a Lab? Build Your Lab in the Cloud with Windows Azure Virtual Machines Want to Get Certified? Join our Windows Server 2012 "Early Experts" Study Group

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• SQL SERVER – Copy Data from One Table to Another Table – SQL in Sixty Seconds #031 – Video

  - by pinaldave

  Copy data from one table to another table is one of the most requested questions on forums, Facebook and Twitter. The question has come in many formats and there are places I have seen developers are using cursor instead of this direct method. Earlier I have written the similar article a few years ago - SQL SERVER – Insert Data From One Table to Another Table – INSERT INTO SELECT – SELECT INTO TABLE. The article has been very popular and I have received many interesting and constructive comments. However there were two specific comments keep on ending up on my mailbox. 1) SQL Server AdventureWorks Samples Database does not have table I used in the example 2) If there is a video tutorial of the same example. After carefully thinking I decided to build a new set of the scripts for the example which are very similar to the old one as well video tutorial of the same. There was no better place than our SQL in Sixty Second Series to cover this interesting small concept. Let me know what you think of this video. Here is the updated script. -- Method 1 : INSERT INTO SELECT USE AdventureWorks2012 GO ----Create TestTable CREATE TABLE TestTable (FirstName VARCHAR(100), LastName VARCHAR(100)) ----INSERT INTO TestTable using SELECT INSERT INTO TestTable (FirstName, LastName) SELECT FirstName, LastName FROM Person.Person WHERE EmailPromotion = 2 ----Verify that Data in TestTable SELECT FirstName, LastName FROM TestTable ----Clean Up Database DROP TABLE TestTable GO --------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------- -- Method 2 : SELECT INTO USE AdventureWorks2012 GO ----Create new table and insert into table using SELECT INSERT SELECT FirstName, LastName INTO TestTable FROM Person.Person WHERE EmailPromotion = 2 ----Verify that Data in TestTable SELECT FirstName, LastName FROM TestTable ----Clean Up Database DROP TABLE TestTable GO Related Tips in SQL in Sixty Seconds: SQL SERVER – Insert Data From One Table to Another Table – INSERT INTO SELECT – SELECT INTO TABLE Powershell – Importing CSV File Into Database – Video SQL SERVER – 2005 – Export Data From SQL Server 2005 to Microsoft Excel Datasheet SQL SERVER – Import CSV File into Database Table Using SSIS SQL SERVER – Import CSV File Into SQL Server Using Bulk Insert – Load Comma Delimited File Into SQL Server SQL SERVER – 2005 – Generate Script with Data from Database – Database Publishing Wizard What would you like to see in the next SQL in Sixty Seconds video? Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com)   Filed under: Database, Pinal Dave, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL in Sixty Seconds, SQL Query, SQL Scripts, SQL Server, SQL Server Management Studio, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology, Video Tagged: Excel

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• Skip “Next Links” with the PageZipper Bookmarklet

  - by Asian Angel

  No matter what browser you use sooner or later you will run across a website with an endless number of “next links” used for the sole purpose of generating page views. Now you can simply scroll through those articles without the “next links” using the PageZipper Bookmarklet. The Problem Here is a perfect example of a page view generating article. As you can see our browser is in a non-maximized state and the first part of the article takes up very little room in the browser window. Absolutely horrible… The PageZipper Bookmarklet in Action The bookmarklet is very easy to set up in your browser…simply drag it to your “Bookmarks Toolbar” and you are ready to go. Switching tabs back to the article we never even needed to refresh the page. One nice little click on our new bookmarklet and… It immediately went to work. When you use PageZipper you will see a page count in the upper right corner of the browser window area as shown here. You can see the transition between pages here…nice and smooth. When using the bookmarklet just keep scrolling down as needed to read the entire article. Six pages of reading condensed into one without having to click a single link. Now that is nice! Conclusion If you despise those irritating “next links” then the PageZipper Bookmarklet will be a perfect addition to your favorite browser. Links Add the PageZipper Bookmarklet to Your Favorite Browser Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Merge a Series of Web Pages into One with PageZipperSee Where Shortened URLs “Link To” in Your Favorite BrowserBookmarklet Fun: Check Google Analytics for Today [update]Add a Google Translation Bar to Your Favorite BrowserShare Your Favorite Webpages with the AddThis Bookmarklet 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 Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 PCmover Professional Beware Hover Kitties Test Drive Mobile Phones Online With TryPhone Ben & Jerry’s Free Cone Day, 3/23/10 New Stinger from McAfee Helps Remove ‘FakeAlert’ Threats Google Apps Marketplace: Tools & Services For Google Apps Users Get News Quick and Precise With Newser

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• JavaScript Data Binding Frameworks

  - by dwahlin

  Data binding is where it’s at now days when it comes to building client-centric Web applications. Developers experienced with desktop frameworks like WPF or web frameworks like ASP.NET, Silverlight, or others are used to being able to take model objects containing data and bind them to UI controls quickly and easily. When moving to client-side Web development the data binding story hasn’t been great since neither HTML nor JavaScript natively support data binding. This means that you have to write code to place data in a control and write code to extract it. Although it’s certainly feasible to do it from scratch (many of us have done it this way for years), it’s definitely tedious and not exactly the best solution when it comes to maintenance and re-use. Over the last few years several different script libraries have been released to simply the process of binding data to HTML controls. In fact, the subject of data binding is becoming so popular that it seems like a new script library is being released nearly every week. Many of the libraries provide MVC/MVVM pattern support in client-side JavaScript apps and some even integrate directly with server frameworks like Node.js. Here’s a quick list of a few of the available libraries that support data binding (if you like any others please add a comment and I’ll try to keep the list updated): AngularJS MVC framework for data binding (although closely follows the MVVM pattern). Backbone.js MVC framework with support for models, key/value binding, custom events, and more. Derby Provides a real-time environment that runs in the browser an in Node.js. The library supports data binding and templates. Ember Provides support for templates that automatically update as data changes. JsViews Data binding framework that provides “interactive data-driven views built on top of JsRender templates”. jQXB Expression Binder Lightweight jQuery plugin that supports bi-directional data binding support. KnockoutJS MVVM framework with robust support for data binding. For an excellent look at using KnockoutJS check out John Papa’s course on Pluralsight. Meteor End to end framework that uses Node.js on the server and provides support for data binding on  the client. Simpli5 JavaScript framework that provides support for two-way data binding. WinRT with HTML5/JavaScript If you’re building Windows 8 applications using HTML5 and JavaScript there’s built-in support for data binding in the WinJS library.   I won’t have time to write about each of these frameworks, but in the next post I’m going to talk about my (current) favorite when it comes to client-side JavaScript data binding libraries which is AngularJS. AngularJS provides an extremely clean way – in my opinion - to extend HTML syntax to support data binding while keeping model objects (the objects that hold the data) free from custom framework method calls or other weirdness. While I’m writing up the next post, feel free to visit the AngularJS developer guide if you’d like additional details about the API and want to get started using it.

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• Visual Studio 2010 Zooming – Keyboard Commands, Global Zoom

  - by Jon Galloway

  One of my favorite features in Visual Studio 2010 is zoom. It first caught my attention as a useful tool for screencasts and presentations, but after getting used to it I’m finding that it’s really useful when I’m developing – letting me zoom out to see the big picture, then zoom in to concentrate on a few lines of code. Zooming without the scroll wheel The common way you’ll see this feature demonstrated is with the mouse wheel – you hold down the control key and scroll up or down to change font size. However, I’m often using this on my laptop, which doesn’t have a mouse wheel. It turns out that there are other ways to control zooming in Visual Studio 2010. Keyboard commands You can use Control+Shift+Comma to zoom out and Control+Shift+Period to zoom in. I find it’s easier to remember these by the greater-than / less-than signs, so it’s really Control+> to zoom in and Control+< to zoom out. Like most Visual Studio commands, you can change those the keyboard buttons. In the tools menu, select Options / Keyboard, then either scroll down the list to the three View.Zoom commands or filter by typing View.Zoom into the “Show commands containing” textbox. The Scroll Dropdown If you forget the keyboard commands and you don’t have a scroll wheel, there’s a zoom menu in the text editor. I’m mostly pointing it out because I’ve been using Visual Studio 2010 for months and never noticed it until this week. It’s down in the lower left corner. Keeping Zoom In Sync Across All Tabs Zoom setting is per-tab, which is a problem if you’re cranking up your font sizes for a presentation. Fortunately there’s a great new Visual Studio Extension called Presentation Zoom. It’s a nice, simple extension that just does one thing – updates all your editor windows to keep the zoom setting in sync. It’s written by Chris Granger, a Visual Studio Program Manager, in case you’re worried about installing random extensions. See it in action Of course, if you’ve got Visual Studio 2010 installed, you’ve hopefully already been zooming like mad as you read this. If not, you can watch a 2 minute video by the Visual Studio showing it off.

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• Older SAS1 hardware Vs. newer SAS2 hardware

  - by user12620172

  I got a question today from someone asking about the older SAS1 hardware from over a year ago that we had on the older 7x10 series. They didn't leave an email so I couldn't respond directly, but I said this blog would be blunt, frank, and open so I have no problem addressing it publicly. A quick history lesson here: When Sun first put out the 7x10 family hardware, the 7410 and 7310 used a SAS1 backend connection to a JBOD that had SATA drives in it. This JBOD was not manufactured by Sun nor did Sun own the IP for it. Now, when Oracle took over, they had a problem with that, and I really can’t blame them. The decision was made to cut off that JBOD and it’s manufacturer completely and use our own where Oracle controlled both the IP and the manufacturing. So in the summer of 2010, the cut was made, and the 7410 and 7310 had a hardware refresh and now had a SAS2 backend going to a SAS2 JBOD with SAS2 drives instead of SATA. This new hardware had two big advantages. First, there was a nice performance increase, mostly due to the faster backend. Even better, the SAS2 interface on the drives allowed for a MUCH faster failover between cluster heads, as the SATA drives were the bottleneck on the older hardware. In September of 2010 there was a major refresh of the rest of the 7000 hardware, the controllers and the other family members, and that’s where we got today’s current line-up of the 7x20 series. So the 7x20 has always used the new trays, and the 7410 and 7310 have used the new SAS2 trays since last July of 2010. Now for the bad news. People who have the 7410 and 7310 from BEFORE the July 2010 cutoff have the models with SAS1 HBAs in them to connect to the older SAS1 trays. Remember, that manufacturer cut all ties with us and stopped making the JBOD, so there’s just no way to get more of them, as they don’t exist. There are some options, however. Oracle support does support taking out the SAS1 HBAs in the old 7410 and 7310 and put in newer SAS2 HBAs which can talk to the new trays. Hey, I didn’t say it was a great option, I just said it’s an option. I fully realize that you would then have a SAS1 JBOD full of SATA drives that you could no longer connect. I do know a client that did this, and took the SAS1 JBOD and connected it to another server and formatted the drives and is using it as a plain, non-7000 JBOD. This is not supported by Oracle support. The other option is to just keep it as-is, as it works just fine, but you just can’t expand it. Then you can get a newer 7x20 series, and use the built-in ZFSSA replication feature to move the data over. Now you can use the newer one for your production data and use the older one for DR, snaps and clones.

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• What’s New in The Second Edition of Regular Expressions Cookbook

  - by Jan Goyvaerts

  %COOKBOOKFRAME% The second edition of Regular Expressions Cookbook is a completely revised edition, not just a minor update. All of the content from the first edition has been updated for the latest versions of the regular expression flavors and programming languages we discuss. We’ve corrected all errors that we could find and rewritten many sections that were either unclear or lacking in detail. And lack of detail was not something the first edition was accused of. Expect the second edition to really dot all i’s and cross all t’s. A few sections were removed. In particular, we removed much talk about browser inconsistencies as modern browsers are much more compatible with the official JavaScript standard. There is plenty of new content. The second edition has 101 more pages, bringing the total to 612. It’s almost 20% bigger than the first edition. We’ve added XRegExp as an additional regex flavor to all recipes throughout the book where XRegExp provides a better solution than standard JavaScript. We did keep the standard JavaScript solutions, so you can decide which is better for your needs. The new edition adds 21 recipes, bringing the total to 146. 14 of the new recipes are in the new Source Code and Log Files chapter. These recipes demonstrate techniques that are very useful for manipulating source code in a text editor and for dealing with log files using a grep tool. Chapter 3 which has recipes for programming with regular expressions gets only one new recipe, but it’s a doozy. If anyone has ever flamed you for using a regular expression instead of a parser, you’ll now be able to tell them how you can create your own parser by mixing regular expressions with procedural code. Combined with the recipes from the new Source Code and Log Files chapter, you can create parsers for whatever custom language or file format you like. If you have any interest in regular expressions at all, whether you’re a beginner or already consider yourself an expert, you definitely need a copy of the second edition of Regular Expressions Cookbook if you didn’t already buy the first. If you did buy the first edition, and you often find yourself referring back to it, then the second edition is a very worthwhile upgrade. You can buy the second edition of Regular Expressions Cookbook from Amazon or wherever technical books are sold. Ask for ISBN 1449319432.

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• SQLAuthority News – Milestone of 1300th Post and A Few Updates

  - by pinaldave

  Today is my 1300th blog post and I realize that my blog has been quite running such a long journey. I have been writing for a lengthy time on this tech blog. Today I would like to go back and briefly recall the posts that were part of my blog’s history. Read all list of all my blog posts here. This blog only started as a list of personal bookmarks. I used to just write down scripts on the blog for my personal use. I was the one who wrote many scripts here for the servers that I was maintaining to keep them polished. I have included many links in my first blog posts which I view as just a collection of bookmarks on my very own blog; no intentions of publishing other contents besides the scripts, at all. Gradually, I realized that people read my blog and follow the advices which were supposedly meant only for me. I tried to write a code and a script which are generic in nature, so anyone can just use it right away. Nothing is perfect. When I was writing the last 1299 posts (and having 14 Million+ views), I have made a few mistakes and tweaks that I thoughtfully accepted. These are corrections that were pointed out by many kind souls and readers like you, which have helped me develop wonderful blogging experiences. I am very glad that I have this blog wherein I can express myself. After all, I would have not reached where I am today if I have kept myself worried in terms of expressing my knowledge and understanding SQL Server. I am happy that many of you appreciated my efforts and supported me all the way, which also helped me achieve where I am now. I promise to learn more about this fascinating subject and, of course, continue to share whatever I will learn to my dear readers. Again, I really thank YOU for reading this blog and supporting the SQL community. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com), Filed under: Pinal Dave, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQLAuthority News, T SQL, Technology Tagged: SQL Milestone

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• Pinning Projects and Solutions with Visual Studio 2010

  - by ScottGu

  This is the twenty-fourth in a series of blog posts I’m doing on the VS 2010 and .NET 4 release. Today’s blog post covers a very small, but still useful, feature of VS 2010 – the ability to “pin” projects and solutions to both the Windows 7 taskbar as well VS 2010 Start Page.  This makes it easier to quickly find and open projects in the IDE. [In addition to blogging, I am also now using Twitter for quick updates and to share links. Follow me at: twitter.com/scottgu] VS 2010 Jump List on Windows 7 Taskbar Windows 7 added support for customizing the taskbar at the bottom of your screen.  You can “pin” and re-arrange your application icons on it however you want. Most developers using Visual Studio 2010 on Windows 7 probably already know that they can “pin” the Visual Studio icon to the Windows 7 taskbar – making it always present.  What you might not yet have discovered, though, is that Visual Studio 2010 also exposes a Taskbar “jump list” that you can use to quickly find and load your most recently used projects as well. To activate this, simply right-click on the VS 2010 icon in the task bar and you’ll see a list of your most recent projects.  Clicking one will load it within Visual Studio 2010: Pinning Projects on the VS 2010 Jump List with Windows 7 One nice feature also supported by VS 2010 is the ability to optionally “pin” projects to the jump-list as well – which makes them always listed at the top.  To enable this, simply hover over the project you want to pin and then click the “pin” icon that appears on the right of it: When you click the pin the project will be added to a new “Pinned” list at the top of the jumplist: This enables you to always display your own list of projects at the top of the list.  You can optionally click and drag them to display in any order you want. VS 2010 Start Page and Project Pinning VS 2010 has a new “start page” that displays by default each time you launch a new instance of Visual Studio.  In addition to displaying learning and help resources, it also includes a “Recent Projects” section that you can use to quickly load previous projects that you have recently worked on: The “Recent Projects” section of the start page also supports the concept of “pinning” a link to projects you want to always keep in the list – regardless of how recently they’ve been accessed. To “pin” a project to the list you simply select the “pin” icon that appears when you hover over an item within the list: Once you’ve pinned a project to the start page list it will always show up in it (at least until you “unpin” it). Summary This project pinning support is a small but nice usability improvement with VS 2010 and can make it easier to quickly find and load projects/solutions.  If you work with a lot of projects at the same time it offers a nice shortcut to load them. Hope this helps, Scott

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• Desktop Fun: Abstract Icon Packs

  - by Asian Angel

  Do you prefer a more unique, artistic, or alternative look for your desktop setup? Then you will definitely want to have a look through our Abstract Icon Packs collection. Just set your imagination loose and enjoy the wonderful desktops that these icon packs can inspire for you. Note: To customize the icon setup on your Windows 7 & Vista systems see our article here. Using Windows XP? We have you covered here. Sneak Preview For this week’s preview desktop we created an Alien Desert Planet theme using the Abstract Symbol Icons pack shown below. Note: The original, unmodified version of this wallpaper can be found here. Here is a closer look at the icons we used for our new theme… The Icon Packs Match-stick-play Icons *.ico format only Download Abstract Symbol Icons *.ico format only Download Allomantic Metals *.ico format only Download Mutated Snowflake Icon Set *.ico format only Download Shades of Geometry *.ico format only Download Starry Objects Icons *.ico format only Download New Sin – Abstract Human Icons *.ico, .png, and .psd format Note: While most of the icons in this pack look similar at first glance, there are differences when viewed at a larger size. Download Mysterious Icons *.ico format only Download Alien Icons *.ico format only Download Beads Icons *.ico format only Download Magic Flowers Icons *.ico format only Download Circle Shapes Icons *.ico format only Download geometric doc icons *.png format only Download alumina *.png format only Download Citiscape dockicons *.png format only Download Wanting more great icon sets to look through? Be certain to visit our Desktop Fun section for more icon goodness! Latest Features How-To Geek ETC How to Use the Avira Rescue CD to Clean Your Infected PC The Complete List of iPad Tips, Tricks, and Tutorials Is Your Desktop Printer More Expensive Than Printing Services? 20 OS X Keyboard Shortcuts You Might Not Know HTG Explains: Which Linux File System Should You Choose? HTG Explains: Why Does Photo Paper Improve Print Quality? Add Falling Snow to Webpages with the Snowfall Extension for Opera [Browser Fun] Automatically Keep Up With the Latest Releases from Mozilla Labs in Firefox 4.0 A Look Back at 2010 Through Infographics Monitor the Weather with the Weather Forecast Extension for Opera Orbiting at the Edge of the Atmosphere Wallpaper Simon’s Cat Explores the Christmas Tree! [Video]

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• How to Use and Manage Extensions to Safari 5

  - by Mysticgeek

  While there have been hacks to include extensions in Safari for some time now, Safari 5 now offers proper support for them. Today we take a look at managing extensions in the latest version of Safari. Installation and Setup Download and install Safari 5 (link below). Make sure to download the installer that doesn’t include QuickTime if you don’t want it. Also, uncheck getting Apple updates and news in your email. Then decide if you want to install Bonjour for Windows and have Safari automatically update or not. Once it’s installed, launch Safari and select Show Menu Bar from the the Settings Menu. Then go into Preferences \ Advanced and check the box Show Develop menu in the menu bar. Develop will now appear on the Menu Bar…click on it and select Enable Extensions. Using Extensions Now you can find and start using extensions (link below) that will work with Safari 5. In this example we’re installing PageSaver which takes an image of what is showing in your browser. Click on the link for the Extension you want to install…   Then you’ll get a confirmation asking if you want to open or save it. Opening it will install it right away. Click Install in the dialog that asks if you’re sure you want to. Here we see the Extension was successfully installed and you can see the camera icon on the Toolbar. When you’re on a portion of a webpage you want to take an image of, click on the camera icon and you’ll have the image saved in your Downloads folder. Then you can open it up in a browser or image editor. Go into Preferences \ Extensions and from here you can turn the extensions on or off, uninstall, or check for updates. If you’re a Safari user, or thinking about trying it, you’ll enjoy proper support for extensions in version 5. At the time of this writing we couldn’t find any extensions on the Apple site, but you might want to keep your eye on it to see if they do start listing them.  Download Safari 5 for Mac & PC Safari Extensions Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Manage Web Searches In SafariMake Safari Stop Crashing Every 20 Seconds on Windows VistaCustomize Safari for Windows ToolbarMake Your Safari Web Browsing PrivateSave Screen Space by Hiding the Bookmarks Toolbar in Safari for Windows 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 HippoRemote Pro 2.2 Xobni Plus for Outlook All My Movies 5.9 CloudBerry Online Backup 1.5 for Windows Home Server Nice Websites To Watch TV Shows Online 24 Million Sites Windows Media Player Glass Icons (icons we like) How to Forecast Weather, without Gadgets Outlook Tools, one stop tweaking for any Outlook version Zoofs, find the most popular tweeted YouTube videos

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• Unstructured Data - The future of Data Administration

  Some have claimed that there is a problem with the way data is currently managed using the relational paradigm do to the rise of unstructured data in modern business. PCMag.com defines unstructured data as data that does not reside in a fixed location. They further explain that unstructured data refers to data in a free text form that is not bound to any specific structure. With the rise of unstructured data in the form of emails, spread sheets, images and documents the critics have a right to argue that the relational paradigm is not as effective as the object oriented data paradigm in managing this type of data. The relational paradigm relies heavily on structure and relationships in and between items of data. This type of paradigm works best in a relation database management system like Microsoft SQL, MySQL, and Oracle because data is forced to conform to a structure in the form of tables and relations can be derived from the existence of one or more tables. These critics also claim that database administrators have not kept up with reality because their primary focus in regards to data administration deals with structured data and the relational paradigm. The relational paradigm was developed in the 1970’s as a way to improve data management when compared to standard flat files. Little has changed since then, and modern database administrators need to know more than just how to handle structured data. That is why critics claim that today’s data professionals do not have the proper skills in order to store and maintain data for modern systems when compared to the skills of system designers, programmers , software engineers, and data designers  due to the industry trend of object oriented design and development. I think that they are wrong. I do not disagree that the industry is moving toward an object oriented approach to development with the potential to use more of an object oriented approach to data.   However, I think that it is business itself that is limiting database administrators from changing how data is stored because of the potential costs, and impact that might occur by altering any part of stored data. Furthermore, database administrators like all technology workers constantly are trying to improve their technical skills in order to excel in their job, so I think that accusing data professional is not just when the root cause of the lack of innovation is controlled by business, and it is business that will suffer for their inability to keep up with technology. One way for database professionals to better prepare for the future of database management is start working with data in the form of objects and so that they can extract data from the objects so that the stored information within objects can be used in relation to the data stored in a using the relational paradigm. Furthermore, I think the use of pattern matching will increase with the increased use of unstructured data because object can be selected, filtered and altered based on the existence of a pattern found within an object.

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• What Every Developer Should Know About MSI Components

  - by Alois Kraus

  Hopefully nothing. But if you have to do more than simple XCopy deployment and you need to support updates, upgrades and perhaps side by side scenarios there is no way around MSI. You can create Msi files with a Visual Studio Setup project which is severely limited or you can use the Windows Installer Toolset. I cannot talk about WIX with my German colleagues because WIX has a very special meaning. It is funny to always use the long name when I talk about deployment possibilities. Alternatively you can buy commercial tools which help you to author Msi files but I am not sure how good they are. Given enough pain with existing solutions you can also learn the MSI Apis and create your own packaging solution. If I were you I would use either a commercial visual tool when you do easy deployments or use the free Windows Installer Toolset. Once you know the WIX schema you can create well formed wix xml files easily with any editor. Then you can “compile” from the wxs files your Msi package. Recently I had the “pleasure” to get my hands dirty with C++ (again) and the MSI technology. Installation is a complex topic but after several month of digging into arcane MSI issues I can safely say that there should exist an easier way to install and update files as today. I am not alone with this statement as John Robbins (creator of the cool tool Paraffin) states: “.. It's a brittle and scary API in Windows …”. To help other people struggling with installation issues I present you the advice I (and others) found useful and what will happen if you ignore this advice. What is a MSI file? A MSI file is basically a database with tables which reference each other to control how your un/installation should work. The basic idea is that you declare via these tables what you want to install and MSI controls the how to get your stuff onto or off your machine. Your “stuff” consists usually of files, registry keys, shortcuts and environment variables. Therefore the most important tables are File, Registry, Environment and Shortcut table which define what will be un/installed. The key to master MSI is that every resource (file, registry key ,…) is associated with a MSI component. The actual payload consists of compressed files in the CAB format which can either be embedded into the MSI file or reside beside the MSI file or in a subdirectory below it. To examine MSI files you need Orca a free MSI editor provided by MS. There is also another free editor called Super Orca which does support diffs between MSI and it does not lock the MSI files. But since Orca comes with a shell extension I tend to use only Orca because it is so easy to right click on a MSI file and open it with this tool. How Do I Install It? Double click it. This does work for fresh installations as well as major upgrades. Updates need to be installed via the command line via msiexec /i <msi> REINSTALL=ALL REINSTALLMODE=vomus   This tells the installer to reinstall all already installed features (new features will NOT be installed). The reinstallmode letters do force an overwrite of the old cached package in the %WINDIR%\Installer folder. All files, shortcuts and registry keys are redeployed if they are missing or need to be replaced with a newer version. When things did go really wrong and you want to overwrite everything unconditionally use REINSTALLMODE=vamus. How To Enable MSI Logs? You can download a MSI from Microsoft which installs some registry keys to enable full MSI logging. The log files can be found in your %TEMP% folder and are called MSIxxxx.log. Alternatively you can add to your msiexec command line the option msiexec …. /l*vx <LogFileName> Personally I find it rather strange that * does not mean full logging. To really get all logs I need to add v and x which is documented in the msiexec help but I still find this behavior unintuitive. What are MSI components? The whole MSI logic is bound to the concept of MSI components. Nearly every msi table has a Component column which binds an installable resource to a component. Below are the screenshots of the FeatureComponents and Component table of an example MSI. The Feature table defines basically the feature hierarchy.  To find out what belongs to a feature you need to look at the FeatureComponents table where for each feature the components are listed which will be installed when a feature is installed. The MSI components are defined in the  Component table. This table has as first column the component name and as second column the component id which is a GUID. All resources you want to install belong to a MSI component. Therefore nearly all MSI tables have a Component_ column which contains the component name. If you look e.g. a the File table you see that every file belongs to a component which is true for all other tables which install resources. The component table is the glue between all other tables which contain the resources you want to install. So far so easy. Why is MSI then so complex? Most MSI problems arise from the fact that you did violate a MSI component rule in one or the other way. When you install a feature the reference count for all components belonging to this feature will increase by one. If your component is installed by more than one feature it will get a higher refcount. When you uninstall a feature its refcount will drop by one. Interesting things happen if the component reference count reaches zero: Then all associated resources will be deleted. That looks like a reasonable thing and it is. What it makes complex are the strange component rules you have to follow. Below are some important component rules from the Tao of the Windows Installer … Rule 16: Follow Component Rules Components are a very important part of the Installer technology. They are the means whereby the Installer manages the resources that make up your application. The SDK provides the following guidelines for creating components in your package: Never create two components that install a resource under the same name and target location. If a resource must be duplicated in multiple components, change its name or target location in each component. This rule should be applied across applications, products, product versions, and companies. Two components must not have the same key path file. This is a consequence of the previous rule. The key path value points to a particular file or folder belonging to the component that the installer uses to detect the component. If two components had the same key path file, the installer would be unable to distinguish which component is installed. Two components however may share a key path folder. Do not create a version of a component that is incompatible with all previous versions of the component. This rule should be applied across applications, products, product versions, and companies. Do not create components containing resources that will need to be installed into more than one directory on the user’s system. The installer installs all of the resources in a component into the same directory. It is not possible to install some resources into subdirectories. Do not include more than one COM server per component. If a component contains a COM server, this must be the key path for the component. Do not specify more than one file per component as a target for the Start menu or a Desktop shortcut. … And these rules do not even talk about component ids, update packages and upgrades which you need to understand as well. Lets suppose you install two MSIs (MSI1 and MSI2) which have the same ComponentId but different component names. Both do install the same file. What will happen when you uninstall MSI2?   Hm the file should stay there. But the component names are different. Yes and yes. But MSI uses not use the component name as key for the refcount. Instead the ComponentId column of the Component table which contains a GUID is used as identifier under which the refcount is stored. The components Comp1 and Comp2 are identical from the MSI perspective. After the installation of both MSIs the Component with the Id {100000….} has a refcount of two. After uninstallation of one MSI there is still a refcount of one which drops to zero just as expected when we uninstall the last msi. Then the file which was the same for both MSIs is deleted. You should remember that MSI keeps a refcount across MSIs for components with the same component id. MSI does manage components not the resources you did install. The resources associated with a component are then and only then deleted when the refcount of the component reaches zero.   The dependencies between features, components and resources can be described as relations. m,k are numbers >= 1, n can be 0. Inside a MSI the following relations are valid Feature    1  –> n Components Component    1 –> m Features Component      1  –>  k Resources These relations express that one feature can install several components and features can share components between them. Every (meaningful) component will install at least one resource which means that its name (primary key to stay in database speak) does occur in some other table in the Component column as value which installs some resource. Lets make it clear with an example. We want to install with the feature MainFeature some files a registry key and a shortcut. We can then create components Comp1..3 which are referenced by the resources defined in the corresponding tables.   Feature Component Registry File Shortcuts MainFeature Comp1 RegistryKey1     MainFeature Comp2   File.txt   MainFeature Comp3   File2.txt Shortcut to File2.txt   It is illegal that the same resource is part of more than one component since this would break the refcount mechanism. Lets illustrate this:            Feature ComponentId Resource Reference Count Feature1 {1000-…} File1.txt 1 Feature2 {2000-….} File1.txt 1 The installation part works well but what happens when you uninstall Feature2? Component {20000…} gets a refcount of zero where MSI deletes all resources belonging to this component. In this case File1.txt will be deleted. But Feature1 still has another component {10000…} with a refcount of one which means that the file was deleted too early. You just have ruined your installation. To fix it you then need to click on the Repair button under Add/Remove Programs to let MSI reinstall any missing registry keys, files or shortcuts. The vigilant reader might has noticed that there is more in the Component table. Beside its name and GUID it has also an installation directory, attributes and a KeyPath. The KeyPath is a reference to a file or registry key which is used to detect if the component is already installed. This becomes important when you repair or uninstall a component. To find out if the component is already installed MSI checks if the registry key or file referenced by the KeyPath property does exist. When it does not exist it assumes that it was either already uninstalled (can lead to problems during uninstall) or that it is already installed and all is fine. Why is this detail so important? Lets put all files into one component. The KeyPath should be then one of the files of your component to check if it was installed or not. When your installation becomes corrupt because a file was deleted you cannot repair it with the Repair button under Add/Remove Programs because MSI checks the component integrity via the Resource referenced by its KeyPath. As long as you did not delete the KeyPath file MSI thinks all resources with your component are installed and never executes any repair action. You get even more trouble when you try to remove files during an upgrade (you cannot remove files during an update) from your super component which contains all files. The only way out and therefore best practice is to assign for every resource you want to install an extra component. This ensures painless updatability and repairs and you have much less effort to remove specific files during an upgrade. In effect you get this best practice relation Feature 1  –> n Components Component   1  –>  1 Resources MSI Component Rules Rule 1 – One component per resource Every resource you want to install (file, registry key, value, environment value, shortcut, directory, …) must get its own component which does never change between versions as long as the install location is the same. Penalty If you add more than one resources to a component you will break the repair capability of MSI because the KeyPath is used to check if the component needs repair. MSI ComponentId Files MSI 1.0 {1000} File1-5 MSI 2.0 {2000} File2-5 You want to remove File1 in version 2.0 of your MSI. Since you want to keep the other files you create a new component and add them there. MSI will delete all files if the component refcount of {1000} drops to zero. The files you want to keep are added to the new component {2000}. Ok that does work if your upgrade does uninstall the old MSI first. This will cause the refcount of all previously installed components to reach zero which means that all files present in version 1.0 are deleted. But there is a faster way to perform your upgrade by first installing your new MSI and then remove the old one.  If you choose this upgrade path then you will loose File1-5 after your upgrade and not only File1 as intended by your new component design.   Rule 2 – Only add, never remove resources from a component If you did follow rule 1 you will not need Rule 2. You can add in a patch more resources to one component. That is ok. But you can never remove anything from it. There are tricky ways around that but I do not want to encourage bad component design. Penalty Lets assume you have 2 MSI files which install under the same component one file   MSI1 MSI2 {1000} - ComponentId {1000} – ComponentId File1.txt File2.txt   When you install and uninstall both MSIs you will end up with an installation where either File1 or File2 will be left. Why? It seems that MSI does not store the resources associated with each component in its internal database. Instead Windows will simply query the MSI that is currently uninstalled for all resources belonging to this component. Since it will find only one file and not two it will only uninstall one file. That is the main reason why you never can remove resources from a component!   Rule 3 Never Remove A Component From an Update MSI. This is the same as if you change the GUID of a component by accident for your new update package. The resulting update package will not contain all components from the previously installed package. Penalty When you remove a component from a feature MSI will set the feature state during update to Advertised and log a warning message into its log file when you did enable MSI logging. SELMGR: ComponentId '{2DCEA1BA-3E27-E222-484C-D0D66AEA4F62}' is registered to feature 'xxxxxxx, but is not present in the Component table.  Removal of components from a feature is not supported! MSI (c) (24:44) [07:53:13:436]: SELMGR: Removal of a component from a feature is not supported Advertised means that MSI treats all components of this feature as not installed. As a consequence during uninstall nothing will be removed since it is not installed! This is not only bad because uninstall does no longer work but this feature will also not get the required patches. All other features which have followed component versioning rules for update packages will be updated but the one faulty feature will not. This results in very hard to find bugs why an update was only partially successful. Things got better with Windows Installer 4.5 but you cannot rely on that nobody will use an older installer. It is a good idea to add to your update msiexec call MSIENFORCEUPGRADECOMPONENTRULES=1 which will abort the installation if you did violate this rule.

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• Catching people up

  - by Randy Walker

  It’s been a while since I’ve blogged.  I suppose sometimes when one’s personal life gets busy, there are some things that fall by the wayside.  So what all has happened since I last blogged? Business has been good with lots of lessons learned.  I had hoped I would have had an important announcement several months ago concerning the business I own, but that simply hasn’t materialized yet. Will keep everyone posted.  Ensuring your business has a good sales pipeline and stays ahead in the technology curve is extremely important. I eventually resigned my INETA Board of Directors position.  Never one to mince words, frankly I had several issues with how things are run at INETA.  Mostly centered around some ethical issues compounded by higher expectations and what I felt was a lack of support.  I had put my hat into the ring in order to help change things, but eventually I didn’t really see change a possibility, and so all things must come to an end. I have started writing up a new business plan for a new startup, details to be forthcoming.  It’s new name will be Linker CRM.  I have some aggressive game changing plans ahead for it.  Ping me if you’re interested in finding out more information and don’t mind signing a non-compete and confidentiality agreement. ;) My personal life, has been hectic.  A 4 year old will do that to you.  As well as being divorced and the headaches associated with that.  If you’ve been divorced, I feel your pain, if you haven’t been, I would never wish the emotional roller coaster ride on anyone.  Dating has been interesting.  It’s a lot different at age 35 than your early 20s and relationships are far more complicated. Ethan is an absolutely fantastic adorable charmer of a kid.  He’s definitely going to be a heartbreaker.  His personality is really shining through and he’s taken onto my appreciation of music (and yes I’ll admit dance too).  We watched America’s Best Dance Crew (ABDC) together for the first time, he really loved it and I think he’ll probably start his own break dancing crew eventually.  I’ve posted a few videos on Facebook for those interested.  I’m extremely proud of him, but please say a little prayer for us as we try and continue to curb some behavior issues, as well as his mother and I try to settle some differences. This year’s travel plans have already included Dallas, Seattle, and a trip to Vancouver for the 2010 Olympics (a huge thanks to the Washington State Police for the nice souvenir they gave me).  Future travel plans include a trip to Korea in the 2nd half of May, Nashville again in the summer, and hopefully New Orleans for the Microsoft TechEd 2010 Conference. Look for some new blog posts soon …

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• Sun Ray 3 Plus Appliance Announced

  - by [email protected]

  There were many of you out there wondering if Oracle was going to keep and add to the Sun Ray and Sun virtualized desktop product suite, there have been a number of affirmative statements over the last many months. However, none of them resound like this; the introduction of a new product pretty much proves the point. A couple minutes before 3:00, local time yesterday, Oracle announced the release of a new Sun Ray, appliance, the Sun Ray 3 Plus. This is the unit that will replace the SR 2 FS (which has been for sale now since the middle of last decade).  Physically it is about the same size as the 2 FS but there are some significant differences... As you can see there is no smart card reader in the front - that has moved to the top to ensure only one hand is required to insert the card.  There is also a larger surround on the card reader that lights up to show the user the card is being read (properly).  A new power on/off switch is on the front which essentially brings power consumption to ~0 watts, but there is also a new 'sleep' timer looking for 30 minutes of inactivity and then will drop the power consumption down to ~ 1watt. There are also 2 USB 2.0 ports are accessible on the front instead of one.  The standard mic in and headphone out ports are there as well.  There is even more interesting stuff on the back. From the top down there are two more USB 2.0 ports for a total of four, but then the Oracle "Peripheral Kit" keyboard includes a 3-port USB Hub, too.  There's a 10/100/1000 Ethernet port as well as a 1000 Mb SFP port.  Standard DB-9 Serial port and then two DVI ports.  Then there is the really big news.  Two DVI ports driving 2560 x 1600 resolution, each. Most PCs can't do that without adding an adapter card.Now the images I have here are ones taken on a prototype a couple months back.  They are essentially the same as the Production unit, but if you would like to see an image of the Production Sun Ray 3 Plus unit you can see one here. There is a full data sheet available here. So this is the first Oracle Sun Ray desktop appliance.  Proof that the product line lives on.  A very good start!

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• Facebook Sponsored Results: Is It Getting Results?

  - by Mike Stiles

  Social marketers who like to focus on the paid aspect of the paid/earned hybrid Facebook represents may want to keep themselves aware of how the network’s new Sponsored Results ad product is performing. The ads, which appear when a user conducts a search from the Facebook search bar, have only been around a week or so. But the first statistics coming out of them are not bad. Marketer Nanigans says click-through rates on the Sponsored Results have been nearly 23 times better than regular Facebook ads. Some click-through rates have even gone over 3%. Just to give you some perspective, a TechCrunch article points out that’s the same kind of click-through rates that were being enjoyed during the go-go dot com boom of the 90’s. The average across the Internet in its entirety is now somewhere around .3% on a good day, so a 3% number should be enough to raise an eyebrow. Plus the cost-per-click price is turning up 78% lower than regular Facebook ads, so that should raise the other eyebrow. Marketers have gotten pretty used to being able to buy ads against certain keywords. Most any digital property worth its salt that sells ads offers this, and so does Facebook with its Sponsored Results product. But the unique prize Facebook brings to the table is the ability to also buy based on demographic and interest information gleaned from Facebook user profiles. With almost 950 million logging in, this is exactly the kind of leveraging of those users conventional wisdom says is necessary for Facebook to deliver on its amazing potential. So how does the Facebook user fit into this? Notorious for finding out exactly where sponsored marketing messages are appearing and training their eyeballs to avoid those areas, will the Facebook user reject these Sponsored Results? Well, Facebook may have found an area in addition to the News Feed where paid elements can’t be avoided and will be tolerated. If users want to read their News Feed, and they do, they’re going to see sponsored posts. Likewise, if they want to search for friends or Pages, and they do, they’re going to see Sponsored Results. The paid results are clearly marked as such. As long as their organic search results are not tainted or compromised, they will continue using search. But something more is going on. The early click-through rate numbers say not only do users not mind seeing these Sponsored Results, they’re finding them relevant enough to click on. And once they click, they seem to be liking what they find, with a reported 14% higher install rate than Marketplace Ads. It’s early, and obviously the jury is still out. But this is a new social paid marketing opportunity that’s well worth keeping an eye on, and that may wind up hitting the trifecta of being effective for the platform, the consumer, and the marketer.

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• Resources such as libraries, engines and frameworks to make Javacript-based MMORTS? [closed]

  - by hhh

  I am looking for resources outlined to make a MMORTS with Javascript as the client-side, probably just a simple canvas for the frontend. The guy in the video here mentions that JavaScript is one of the most misunderstood language -- and I do believe that. I think one can make quite cool games with it in the future. So I am now proactively looking for resources and perhaps some ideas. My first idea contained Node.js, C and NetBSD/bozohttpd (or the-4-7-chars' *ix-thing with green-logo -thing, move the q here) but I acknowledge my beginner -style approach -- this issue is broad and not only for one person to make it all-the-time-improved project! So I think perfect for community to tinker. Some games and examples possibly easy to make into MMORTS BrowserQuest here under MPL 2.0 and its content licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0 (source here) [proprietary] LoU here and built with JS/Qooxdoo/c#/Windows-Server/ISS/etc, source. MY ANSWER BEGINS HERE TO BE MOVED BELOW, REQUIRING RE-OPENING. PLEASE, VOTE TO OPEN IT -- HELP US TO TINKER! My answer Generic Is there an MMO-related research body? Although about Android, certain things also appropriate with JS -game: Are there any 2D gaming libraries/frameworks/engines for Android? Why is it so hard to develop a MMO? Browser based MMO Architecture MMO architecture - Highly Scalable with Reporting capabilities What are the Elements of an MMO Game? Is this the right architecture for our MMORPG mobile game? Looking for architectures to develop massive multiplayer game server Information on seamless MMO server architecture Game-mechanics (search) Question sounding like about LoU: What are the different ways to balance an online multiplayer game where user spend different amounts of time online? Building an instance system What are the different ways to balance an online multiplayer game where user spend different amounts of time online? Hosting is it possible to make a MMO starting with scalable hosting? Should I keep login server apart from game server? MMO techniques, algorithms and resources for keeping bandwidth low? MMO Proxy Server Javascript and Client-based things What do I need to do a MMORTS in JavaScript with small amount of Developers? How to update the monsters in my MMO server using Node.js and Socket.IO Are there any good html 5 mmo design tutorials? Networking Loadbalancing Questions Something about TCP, routers, NAT, etc: How do I start writing an MMO game server? Who does the AI calculations in an MMO? They need someone more knowledgable to work with, a lot of cases where the same words mean different things. Data Structures What data structure should I use for a Diablo/WoW-style talent tree? Game Engine Need an engine for MMO mockup Helper sites http://www.gamedev.net/page/index.html

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• HTTP Headers: Max-Age vs Expires – Which One To Choose?

  - by Gopinath

  Caching of static content like images, scripts, styles on the client browser reduces load on the webservers and also improves end users browsing experience by loading web pages quickly. We can use HTTP headers Expires or Cache-Control:max-age to cache content on client browser and set expiry time for them. Expire header is HTTP/1.0 standard and Cache-Control:max-age is introduced in HTTP/1.1 specification to solve the issues and limitation with Expire  header. Consider the following headers.   Cache-Control: max-age=24560 Expires: Tue, 15 May 2012 06:17:00 GMT The first header instructs web browsers to cache the content for 24560 seconds relative to the time the content is downloaded and expire it after the time period elapses. The second header instructs web browser to expiry the content after 15th May 2011 06:17. Out of these two options which one to use – max-age or expires? I prefer max-age header for the following reasons As max-age  is a relative value and in most of the cases it makes sense to set relative expiry date rather than an absolute expiry date. Expire  header values are complex to set – time format should be proper, time zones should be appropriate. Even a small mistake in settings these values results in unexpected behaviour. As Expire header values are absolute, we need to  keep changing them at regular intervals. Lets say if we set 2011 June 1 as expiry date to all the image files of this blog, on 2011 June 2 we should modify the expiry date to something like 2012 Jan 1. This add burden of managing the Expire headers. Related: Amazon S3 Tips: Quickly Add/Modify HTTP Headers To All Files Recursively cc image flickr:rogue3w This article titled,HTTP Headers: Max-Age vs Expires – Which One To Choose?, was originally published at Tech Dreams. Grab our rss feed or fan us on Facebook to get updates from us.

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• SQLAuthority News – Virtual Launch Event for Office 2010 – Contest – Win MS Office License

  - by pinaldave

  Office products are integral products of any PC. I accept that without Office Suites, I can not survive or make enough leaving. I am blogger and use word to create my blogs. I am SQL Server Trainer  and I use PowerPoint as my presentation tool. I am SQL Server consultant and I use Excel to keep my work log. I can not see my life with Office Tools. Just like any other Microsoft Product there is strong community following Office Tools. Please count me in. The same community is hosting a Virtual Launch Event for Office 2010 on May 25 and 26th. The webcasts is FREE to attend and people can take part either online or by going to the nearest available center. The sessions will be delivered by MVPs. To register please visit: http://www.meraoffice.com. In June, limited cities will be hosting Community Launch Events for Office 2010. At the launch events, attendees will get to see Office 2010 in action and learn how to do their work better with Office 2010.  The details are available on http://office.merawindows.com. To support one of the largest community, I am announcing one contents. It is very easy to take part in the contest. You just have to answer one very simple question. Contest: Choose best option: With which Microsoft Office Product Powerpivot is associated? Options: 1) PowerPoint 2) Excel 3) Word Hint: http://search.sqlauthority.com Rules: Winner will be awarded 1 Office 2007 Home and Student. This will be freely upgradeable to Office 2010 once it releases in June. The winners will be sent emails and they will redeem their awards via microsoftstore.co.in The prizes can only be shipped to India and Indian residents are eligible. Winner will be selected by selected community leaders and MVPs at their sole discretion. Winner will be informed by email about the award. Most creative and informative comment will win the contest. Please spread the words about this contest. SQLAuthority.com will also send SQL Server book to the person who generates the most traffic to this blog post using Twitter, Facebook and other social media. This competition is also open to Indian residents only. I will measure the traffic using my wordpress.com stats plugin. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQLAuthority News, T SQL, Technology Tagged: Office

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• SQLAuthority News – Social Media Series – Twitter and Myself

  - by pinaldave

  Pinal Dave on Twitter! Frequent readers of my blog might know that I am trying to get more involved in all social media sites, both professionally and personally.  Readers might also know that I have often struggled with finding the purpose of some social media sites – Twitter especially.  One of the great uses of social media is to stay connected and updated with followers.  Twitter’s 140 character limit means that Twitter is a great place to get quick updates from the world, but not a lot of deep information.  In fact, I have the feeling that Twitter’s form might actually limit its usefulness – especially for complex subjects like SQL Server. However, #sqlhelp has tag has for sure overcome that belief. You can instantly talk about SQL and get help with your SQL problems on twitter. I believe in keeping up with the changing times, and it didn’t feel right to give up on Twitter.  So I have determined a good way to use Twitter and set rules for myself.  The problem I was facing that if I followed everyone who interested me and let anyone follow me, I was completely overwhelmed by the amount of information Twitter could give me every day.  It didn’t seem like 140 characters should be able to take up so much of my time, but it took hours to sort through all the updates to find things that were of interest to me and to SQL Server. First, I was forced to unfollow anyone who made too many updates every day.  This was not an easy decision, but just for my own sake I had to limit the amount of information I could take in every day.  I still let anyone follow me who wants to, because I didn’t want to limit my readership, and I hope that they do not feel the way I did – that there are too many updates! Next, I made sure that the information I put on Twitter is useful and to the point.  I try to announce new blog posts on Twitter at least once a day, and I also try to find five posts from other people every day that are worth re-Tweeting.  This forces me to stay active in the community.  But it is not all business on Twitter.  It is also a place for me to post updates about my family and home life, for anyone who is interested. In simple words, I talk every thing and anything on twitter. If you’d like to follow me, my Twitter handle is www.twitter.com/pinaldave.  It is a good place to start if you’d like to keep updated with my blog and find out who I follow and who my influences are.  Twitter is perfect for getting little “tastes” of things you’re interested in.  If you are interested in my blog, SQL Server, or both, I hope that my Twitter updates will be interesting and helpful. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQLServer, T SQL, Technology Tagged: Social Media

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• SQL SERVER – Weekend Project – Visiting Friend’s Company – Koenig Solutions

  - by pinaldave

  I have decided to do some interesting experiments every weekend and share it next week as a weekend project on the blog. Many times our business lives and personal lives are very separate, however this post will talk about one instance where my two lives connect. This weekend I visited my friend’s company. My friend owns Koenig, so of course I am very interested so see that they are doing well.  I have been very impressed this year, as they have expanded into multiple cities and are offering more and more classes about Business Intelligence, Project Management, networking, and much more. Koenig Solutions originally were a company that focused on training IT professionals – from topics like databases and even English language courses.  As the company grew more popular, Koenig began their blog to keep fans updated, and gradually have added more and more courses. I am very happy for my friend’s success, but as a technology enthusiast I am also pleased with Koenig Solutions’ success.  Whenever anyone in our field improves, the field as a whole does better.  Koenig offers high quality classes on a variety of topics at a variety of levels, so anyone can benefit from browsing this blog. I am a big fan of technology (obviously), and I feel blessed to have gotten in on the “ground floor,” even though there are some people out there who think technology has advanced as far as possible – I believe they will be proven wrong.  And that is why I think companies like Koenig Solutions are so important – they are providing training and support in a quickly growing field, and providing job skills in this tough economy. I believe this particular post really highlights how I, and Koenig, feel about the IT industry.  It is quickly expanding, and job opportunities are sure to abound – but how can the average person get started in this exciting field?  This post emphasizes that knowledge is power – know what interests you in the IT field, get an education, and continue your training even after you’ve gotten your foot in the door. Koenig Solutions provides what I feel is one of the most important services in the modern world – in person training.  They obviously offer many online courses, but you can also set up physical, face-to-face training through their website.  As I mentioned before, they offer a wide variety of classes that cater to nearly every IT skill you can think of.  If you have more specific needs, they also offer one of the best English language training courses.  English is turning into the language of technology, so these courses can ensure that you are keeping up the pace. Koenig Solutions and I agree about how important training can be, and even better – they provide some of the best training around.  We share ideals and I am very happy see the success of my friend. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQL Training, SQLAuthority Author Visit, T SQL, Technology Tagged: Developer Training

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• Internet Explorer 9 RC Now Available: Here’s the Most Interesting New Stuff

  - by The Geek

  Yesterday Microsoft announced the release candidate of Internet Explorer 9, which is very close to the final product. Here’s a screenshot tour of the most interesting new stuff, as well as answers to your questions. The most important question is should you install this version? And the answer is absolutely yes. Even if you don’t use IE, it’s better to have a newer, more secure version on your PC. What’s New Under the Hood in Release Candidate vs Beta? If you want to see the full list of changes with all the original marketing detail, you can read Microsoft’s Beauty of the Web page, but here’s the highlights that you might be interested in. Improved Performance – they’ve made a lot of changes, and it really feels faster, especially when using more intensive web apps like Gmail. Power Consumption Settings – since the JavaScript engine in any browser uses a lot of CPU power, they’ve now integrated it into the power settings, so if you’re on battery it will use less CPU, and save battery life. This is really a great change. UI Changes – The tab bar can now be moved below the address bar (see below for more), they’ve shaved some pixels off the design to save space, and now you can toggle the Menu bar to be always on. Pinned Sites – now you can pin multiple pages to a single taskbar button. Very useful if you always use a couple web apps together. You can also pin a site in InPrivate mode. FlashBlock and AdBlock are Integrated (sorta) – there’s a new ActiveX filtering that lets you enable plug-ins only for sites you trust. There’s also a tracking protection list that can block certain content (which can obviously be used to block ads). Geolocation – while a lot of privacy conscious people might complain about this, if you use your laptop while traveling, it’s really useful to have geo-located features when using Google Maps, etc. Don’t worry, it won’t leak your privacy by default. WebM Video – Yeah, Google recently removed H.264 from Chrome, but Microsoft has added Google’s WebM video format to Internet Explorer. Keep reading for more about using the new features Latest Features How-To Geek ETC Internet Explorer 9 RC Now Available: Here’s the Most Interesting New Stuff Here’s a Super Simple Trick to Defeating Fake Anti-Virus Malware How to Change the Default Application for Android Tasks Stop Believing TV’s Lies: The Real Truth About "Enhancing" Images The How-To Geek Valentine’s Day Gift Guide Inspire Geek Love with These Hilarious Geek Valentines The 50 Faces of Mario Death [Infographic] Clean Up Google Calendar’s Interface in Chrome and Iron The Rise and Fall of Kramerica? [Seinfeld Video] GNOME Shell 3 Live CDs for OpenSUSE and Fedora Available for Testing Picplz Offers Special FX, Sharing, and Backup of Your Smartphone Pics BUILD! An Epic LEGO Stop Motion Film [VIDEO]

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• The embarrassingly obvious about SQL Server CE

  - by Edward Boyle

  I have been working with SQL servers in one form or another for almost two decades now. But I am new to SQL Server Compact Edition. In the past weeks I have been working with SQL Serve CE a lot. The SQL, not a problem, but the engine itself is very new to me. One of the issues I ran into was a simple SQL statement taking excusive amounts of time; by excessive, I mean over one second. I wrote a little code to time the method. Sometimes it took under one second, other times as long as three seconds. –But it was a simple update statement! As embarrassing as it is, why it was slow eluded me. I posted my issue to MSDN and I got a reply from ErikEJ (MS MVP) who runs the blog “Everything SQL Server Compact” . I know little to nothing about SQL Server Compact. This guy is completely obsessed very well versed in CE. If you spend any time in MSDN forums, it seems that this guy single handedly has the answer for every CE question that comes up. Anyway, he said: “Opening a connection to a SQL Server Compact database file is a costly operation, keep one connection open per thread (incl. your UI thread) in your app, the one on the UI thread should live for the duration of your app.” It hit me, all databases have some connection overhead and SQL Server CE is not a database engine running as a service drinking Jolt Cola waiting for someone to talk to him so he can spring into action and show off his quarter-mile sprint capabilities. Imagine if you had to start the SQL Server process every time you needed to make a database connection. Principally, that is what you are doing with SQL Server CE. For someone who has worked with Enterprise Level SQL Servers a lot, I had to come to the mental image that my Open connection to SQL Server CE is basically starting a service, my own private service, and by closing the connection, I am shutting down my little private service. After making the changes in my code, I lost any reservations I had with using CE. At present, my Data Access Layer class has a constructor; in that constructor I open my connection, I also have OpenConnection and CloseConnection methods, I also implemented IDisposable and clean up any connections in Dispose(). I am still finalizing how this assembly will function. – That’s beside the point. All I’m trying to say is: “Opening a connection to a SQL Server Compact database file is a costly operation”

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• AS11 Oracle B2B Sync Support - Series 1

  - by sinkarbabu.kirubanithi

  Synchronous message support has been enabled in Oracle B2B 11G. This would help customers to send the business message and receive the corresponding business response synchronously. We would like to keep this blog entry as three part series, first one would carry Oracle B2B configuration related details followed by 'how it can be consumed and utilized in an enterprise' using composites backed model. And, the last one would talk about more sophisticated seeded support built on Oracle B2B platform (Note: the last one is still in description phase and ETA hasn't been finalized yet). Details: In an effort to enable synchronous processing in Oracle B2B, we provided a platform using the existing 'callout' mechanism. In this case, we expect the 'callout' attached to the agreement to deliver incoming business message (inbound) to back-end application and get the corresponding business response from back-end and deliver it to Oracle B2B as its output. The output of 'callout' would be processed as outbound message and the same will be attached as a response for the inbound message. Requirements to enable Sync Support: Outbound side: Outbound Agreement - to send business message request Inbound Agreement - to receive business message response Inbound side: Inbound Agreement - to receive business message request Outbound Agreement - to send business message response Agreement Level Callout - to deliver the inbound request to back-end and get the corresponding business response This feature is supported only for HTTP based transport to exchange messages with Trading Partners. One may initiate the outbound message (enqueue) using any of the available Transports in Oracle B2B. Configuration: Outbound side: Please add "syncresponse=true" as "Additional Transport Header" parameter for remote Trading Partner's HTTP delivery channel configuration. This would enable Oracle B2B to process the HTTP response as inbound message and deliver the same to back-end application. All other configuration related to Agreement and Document setup remain same. Inbound side: There is no change in Agreement and Document setup. To enable "Sync Support", you need to build a 'callout' that takes the responsibility of delivering inbound message to back-end and get the corresponding business response from the back-end and attach the same as its output. Oracle B2B treats the output of 'callout' as outbound message and deliver it to Trading Partner as synchronous HTTP response. The requests that needs to processed synchronously should be received by "syncreceiver" (http://:/b2b/syncreceiver) endpoint in Oracle B2B. Exception Handling: Existing Oracle B2B exception handling applies to this use case as well. Here's the sample callout, SampleSyncCallout.java We will get you second part that talks about 'SOA composites' backed model to design the "Sync Support" use case from back-end to Trading Partners, stay tuned.

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• Add Notes to Zoho Notebook in Firefox

  - by Asian Angel

  As you browse the web during the day, you probably find items that catch your interest and would like to save. The Zoho Notebook Helper extension for Firefox provides an easy way to add those items to your Zoho account. Using Zoho Notebook Helper Using the extension is easy and straightforward. Highlight the text, images, and links that you want to save, right click and select Add to Zoho Notebook. Note: It is recommended that you leave your status bar visible while using the extension. You can choose to add the selection to a new or pre-existing notebook or page. We created a new page for our example. Once your selection has been added to your account, you can see how nicely the formatting is retained. Notice the link at the top of the note…clicking on it will open the original webpage in a new tab if clicked on. The notebook mini pane can also pop out into a separate window if needed. You can resize the new external window as desired and send it back to your browser when ready. You can see an even better view of how well the formatting with regard to images, etc. is retained here. A quick look inside our notebook account and the notes that were just added. A second example added to our notebook account using a newly created page. As you build up the number of notebooks and pages, you can easily navigate between them using the drop-down menu in the mini pane’s upper right corner. Two new sets of notes each with their own page displaying nicely in our online account. The ease of use makes this a must-have extension for Zoho fans. Keep in mind that the extension will be temporarily disabled if you have your online account open in a tab. Conclusion Zoho Office doesn’t get much love compared to other online office solutions like Google Docs, or the new Microsoft Web Apps. However, if you are a Zoho user, the Zoho Notebook Helper extension makes it very easy to add those notes, links, and images to your online account for later reference. Links Install the Zoho Notebook Helper extension (Zoho Website) Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Get Organized with AM-Notebook LiteAdd Notes to Google Notebook from ChromeGeek Reviews: Manage And Organize Notes With EvernoteAdd Sticky Notes to Any Page with Internote for FirefoxCreate Notes Inside (and Outside) of Firefox 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 CloudBerry Online Backup 1.5 for Windows Home Server Snagit 10 VMware Workstation 7 Acronis Online Backup Sculptris 1.0, 3D Drawing app AceStock, a Tiny Desktop Quote Monitor Gmail Button Addon (Firefox) Hyperwords addon (Firefox) Backup Outlook 2010 Daily Motivator (Firefox)

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