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• "Translator by Moth"

  - by Daniel Moth

  This article serves as the manual for the free Windows Phone 7 app called "Translator by Moth". The app is available from the following link (browse the link on your Window Phone 7 phone, or from your PC with zune software installed): http://social.zune.net/redirect?type=phoneApp&id=bcd09f8e-8211-e011-9264-00237de2db9e   Startup At startup the app makes a connection to the bing Microsoft Translator service to retrieve the available languages, and also which languages offer playback support (two network calls total). It populates with the results the two list pickers ("from" and "to") on the "current" page. If for whatever reason the network call fails, you are informed via a message box, and the app keeps trying to make a connection every few seconds. When it eventually succeeds, the language pickers on the "current" page get updated. Until it succeeds, the language pickers remain blank and hence no new translations are possible. As you can guess, if the Microsoft Translation service add more languages for textual translation (or enables more for playback) the app will automatically pick those up. "current" page The "current" page is the main page of the app with language pickers, translation boxes and the application bar. Language list pickers The "current" page allows you to pick the "from" and "to" languages, which are populated at start time. Until these language get populated with the results of the network calls, they remain empty and disabled. When enabled, tapping on either of them brings up on a full screen popup the list of languages to pick from, formatted as English Name followed by Native Name (when the latter is known). The "to" list, in addition to the language names, indicates which languages have playback support via a * in front of the language name. When making a selection for the "to" language, and if there is text entered for translation, a translation is performed (so there is no need to tap on the "translate" application bar button). Note that both language choices are remembered between different launches of the application.   text for translation The textbox where you enter the translation is always enabled. When there is nothing entered in it, it displays (centered and in italics) text prompting you to enter some text for translation. When you tap on it, the prompt text disappears and it becomes truly empty, waiting for input via the keyboard that automatically pops up. The text you type is left aligned and not in italic font. The keyboard shows suggestions of text as you type. The keyboard can be dismissed either by tapping somewhere else on the screen, or via tapping on the Windows Phone hardware "back" button, or via taping on the "enter" key. In the latter case (tapping on the "enter" key), if there was text entered and if the "from" language is not blank, a translation is performed (so there is no need to tap on the "translate" application bar button). The last text entered is remembered between application launches. translated text The translated text appears below the "to" language (left aligned in normal font). Until a translation is performed, there is a message in that space informing you of what to expect (translation appearing there). When the "current" page is cleared via the "clear" application bar button, the translated text reverts back to the message. Note a subtle point: when a translation has been performed and subsequently you change the "from" language or the text for translation, the translated text remains in place but is now in italic font (attempting to indicate that it may be out of date). In any case, this text is not remembered between application launches. application bar buttons and menus There are 4 application bar buttons and 4 application bar menus. "translate" button takes the text for translation and translates it to the translated text, via a single network call to the bing Microsoft Translator service. If the network call fails, the user is informed via a message box. The button is disabled when there is no "from" language available or when there is not text for translation entered. "play" button takes the translated text and plays it out loud in a native speaker's voice (of the "to" language), via a single network call to the bing Microsoft Translator service. If the network call fails, the user is informed via a message box. The button is disabled when there is no "to" language available or when there is no translated text available. "clear" button clears any user text entered in the text for translation box and any translation present in the translated text box. If both of those are already empty, the button is disabled. It also stops any playback if there is one in flight. "save" button saves the entire translation ("from" language, "to" language, text for translation, and translated text) to the bottom of the "saved" page (described later), and simultaneously switches to the "saved" page. The button is disabled if there is no translation or the translation is not up to date (i.e. one of the elements have been changed). "swap to and from languages" menu swaps around the "from" and "to" languages. It also takes the translated text and inserts it in the text for translation area. The translated text area becomes blank. The menu is disabled when there is no "from" and "to" language info. "send translation via sms" menu takes the translated text and creates an SMS message containing it. The menu is disabled when there is no translation present. "send translation via email" menu takes the translated text and creates an email message containing it (after you choose which email account you want to use). The menu is disabled when there is no translation present. "about" menu shows the "about" page described later. "saved" page The "saved" page is initially empty. You can add translations to it by translating text on the "current" page and then tapping the application bar "save" button. Once a translation appears in the list, you can read it all offline (both the "from" and "to" text). Thus, you can create your own phrasebook list, which is remembered between application launches (it is stored on your device). To listen to the translation, simply tap on it – this is only available for languages that support playback, as indicated by the * in front of them. The sound is retrieved via a single network call to the bing Microsoft Translator service (if it fails an appropriate message is displayed in a message box). Tap and hold on a saved translation to bring up a context menu with 4 items: "move to top" menu moves the selected item to the top of the saved list (and scrolls there so it is still in view) "copy to current" menu takes the "from" and "to" information (language and text), and populates the "current" page with it (switching at the same time to the current page). This allows you to make tweaks to the translation (text or languages) and potentially save it back as a new item. Note that the action makes a copy of the translation, so you are not actually editing the existing saved translation (which remains intact). "delete" menu deletes the selected translation. "delete all" menu deletes all saved translations from the "saved" page – there is no way to get that info back other than re-entering it, so be cautious. Note: Once playback of a translation has been retrieved via a network call, Windows Phone 7 caches the results. What this means is that as long as you play a saved translation once, it is likely that it will be available to you for some time, even when there is no network connection.   "about" page The "about" page provides some textual information (that you can view in the screenshot) including a link to the creator's blog (that you can follow on your Windows Phone 7 device). Use that link to discover the email for any feedback. Other UI design info As you can see in the screenshots above, "Translator by Moth" has been designed from scratch for Windows Phone 7, using the nice pivot control and application bar. It also supports both portrait and landscape orientations, and looks equally good in both the light and the dark theme. Other than the default black and white colors, it uses the user's chosen accent color (which is blue in the screenshot examples above). Feedback and support Please report (via the email on the blog) any bugs you encounter or opportunities for performance improvements and they will be fixed in the next update. Suggestions for new features will be considered, but given that the app is FREE, no promises are made. If you like the app, don't forget to rate "Translator by Moth" on the marketplace. Comments about this post welcome at the original blog.

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• [GEEK SCHOOL] Network Security 1: Securing User Accounts and Passwords in Windows

  - by Matt Klein

  This How-To Geek School class is intended for people who want to learn more about security when using Windows operating systems. You will learn many principles that will help you have a more secure computing experience and will get the chance to use all the important security tools and features that are bundled with Windows. Obviously, we will share everything you need to know about using them effectively. In this first lesson, we will talk about password security; the different ways of logging into Windows and how secure they are. In the proceeding lesson, we will explain where Windows stores all the user names and passwords you enter while working in this operating systems, how safe they are, and how to manage this data. Moving on in the series, we will talk about User Account Control, its role in improving the security of your system, and how to use Windows Defender in order to protect your system from malware. Then, we will talk about the Windows Firewall, how to use it in order to manage the apps that get access to the network and the Internet, and how to create your own filtering rules. After that, we will discuss the SmartScreen Filter – a security feature that gets more and more attention from Microsoft and is now widely used in its Windows 8.x operating systems. Moving on, we will discuss ways to keep your software and apps up-to-date, why this is important and which tools you can use to automate this process as much as possible. Last but not least, we will discuss the Action Center and its role in keeping you informed about what’s going on with your system and share several tips and tricks about how to stay safe when using your computer and the Internet. Let’s get started by discussing everyone’s favorite subject: passwords. The Types of Passwords Found in Windows In Windows 7, you have only local user accounts, which may or may not have a password. For example, you can easily set a blank password for any user account, even if that one is an administrator. The only exception to this rule are business networks where domain policies force all user accounts to use a non-blank password. In Windows 8.x, you have both local accounts and Microsoft accounts. If you would like to learn more about them, don’t hesitate to read the lesson on User Accounts, Groups, Permissions & Their Role in Sharing, in our Windows Networking series. Microsoft accounts are obliged to use a non-blank password due to the fact that a Microsoft account gives you access to Microsoft services. Using a blank password would mean exposing yourself to lots of problems. Local accounts in Windows 8.1 however, can use a blank password. On top of traditional passwords, any user account can create and use a 4-digit PIN or a picture password. These concepts were introduced by Microsoft to speed up the sign in process for the Windows 8.x operating system. However, they do not replace the use of a traditional password and can be used only in conjunction with a traditional user account password. Another type of password that you encounter in Windows operating systems is the Homegroup password. In a typical home network, users can use the Homegroup to easily share resources. A Homegroup can be joined by a Windows device only by using the Homegroup password. If you would like to learn more about the Homegroup and how to use it for network sharing, don’t hesitate to read our Windows Networking series. What to Keep in Mind When Creating Passwords, PINs and Picture Passwords When creating passwords, a PIN, or a picture password for your user account, we would like you keep in mind the following recommendations: Do not use blank passwords, even on the desktop computers in your home. You never know who may gain unwanted access to them. Also, malware can run more easily as administrator because you do not have a password. Trading your security for convenience when logging in is never a good idea. When creating a password, make it at least eight characters long. Make sure that it includes a random mix of upper and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols. Ideally, it should not be related in any way to your name, username, or company name. Make sure that your passwords do not include complete words from any dictionary. Dictionaries are the first thing crackers use to hack passwords. Do not use the same password for more than one account. All of your passwords should be unique and you should use a system like LastPass, KeePass, Roboform or something similar to keep track of them. When creating a PIN use four different digits to make things slightly harder to crack. When creating a picture password, pick a photo that has at least 10 “points of interests”. Points of interests are areas that serve as a landmark for your gestures. Use a random mixture of gesture types and sequence and make sure that you do not repeat the same gesture twice. Be aware that smudges on the screen could potentially reveal your gestures to others. The Security of Your Password vs. the PIN and the Picture Password Any kind of password can be cracked with enough effort and the appropriate tools. There is no such thing as a completely secure password. However, passwords created using only a few security principles are much harder to crack than others. If you respect the recommendations shared in the previous section of this lesson, you will end up having reasonably secure passwords. Out of all the log in methods in Windows 8.x, the PIN is the easiest to brute force because PINs are restricted to four digits and there are only 10,000 possible unique combinations available. The picture password is more secure than the PIN because it provides many more opportunities for creating unique combinations of gestures. Microsoft have compared the two login options from a security perspective in this post: Signing in with a picture password. In order to discourage brute force attacks against picture passwords and PINs, Windows defaults to your traditional text password after five failed attempts. The PIN and the picture password function only as alternative login methods to Windows 8.x. Therefore, if someone cracks them, he or she doesn’t have access to your user account password. However, that person can use all the apps installed on your Windows 8.x device, access your files, data, and so on. How to Create a PIN in Windows 8.x If you log in to a Windows 8.x device with a user account that has a non-blank password, then you can create a 4-digit PIN for it, to use it as a complementary login method. In order to create one, you need to go to “PC Settings”. If you don’t know how, then press Windows + C on your keyboard or flick from the right edge of the screen, on a touch-enabled device, then press “Settings”. The Settings charm is now open. Click or tap the link that says “Change PC settings”, on the bottom of the charm. In PC settings, go to Accounts and then to “Sign-in options”. Here you will find all the necessary options for changing your existing password, creating a PIN, or a picture password. To create a PIN, press the “Add” button in the PIN section. The “Create a PIN” wizard is started and you are asked to enter the password of your user account. Type it and press “OK”. Now you are asked to enter a 4-digit pin in the “Enter PIN” and “Confirm PIN” fields. The PIN has been created and you can now use it to log in to Windows. How to Create a Picture Password in Windows 8.x If you log in to a Windows 8.x device with a user account that has a non-blank password, then you can also create a picture password and use it as a complementary login method. In order to create one, you need to go to “PC settings”. In PC Settings, go to Accounts and then to “Sign-in options”. Here you will find all the necessary options for changing your existing password, creating a PIN, or a picture password. To create a picture password, press the “Add” button in the “Picture password” section. The “Create a picture password” wizard is started and you are asked to enter the password of your user account. You are shown a guide on how the picture password works. Take a few seconds to watch it and learn the gestures that can be used for your picture password. You will learn that you can create a combination of circles, straight lines, and taps. When ready, press “Choose picture”. Browse your Windows 8.x device and select the picture you want to use for your password and press “Open”. Now you can drag the picture to position it the way you want. When you like how the picture is positioned, press “Use this picture” on the left. If you are not happy with the picture, press “Choose new picture” and select a new one, as shown during the previous step. After you have confirmed that you want to use this picture, you are asked to set up your gestures for the picture password. Draw three gestures on the picture, any combination you wish. Please remember that you can use only three gestures: circles, straight lines, and taps. Once you have drawn those three gestures, you are asked to confirm. Draw the same gestures one more time. If everything goes well, you are informed that you have created your picture password and that you can use it the next time you sign in to Windows. If you don’t confirm the gestures correctly, you will be asked to try again, until you draw the same gestures twice. To close the picture password wizard, press “Finish”. Where Does Windows Store Your Passwords? Are They Safe? All the passwords that you enter in Windows and save for future use are stored in the Credential Manager. This tool is a vault with the usernames and passwords that you use to log on to your computer, to other computers on the network, to apps from the Windows Store, or to websites using Internet Explorer. By storing these credentials, Windows can automatically log you the next time you access the same app, network share, or website. Everything that is stored in the Credential Manager is encrypted for your protection.

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• On mobile is there a reason why processes are often short lived and must persist their state explicitly?

  - by Alexandre Jasmin

  Most mobile platforms (such as Android, iOS, Windows phone 7 and I believe the new WinRT) can kill inactive application processes under memory pressure. To prevent this from affecting the user experience applications are expected to save and restore their state as their process is killed and restarted. Having application processes killed in this way makes the developers job harder. On various occasions I've seen a mobile app that would: Return to the welcome screen each time I switch back to it. Crash when I switch back to it (possibly accessing some state that no longer exists after the process was killed) Misbehave when I switch back to it (sometimes requiring a restart or tasks killer to fix) Otherwise misbehave in some hard to reproduce way (e.g. android service killed and restarted at the wrong time) I don't really understand why these mobile operating systems are designed to kill tasks in this way especially since it makes application development more difficult and error prone. Desktop operating systems don't kill processes like that. They swap out unused pages of memory to mass storage. Is there a reason why the same approach isn't used on mobile? Mobile hardware is only a few years behind PC hardware in term of performance. I'm sure there are very good reasons why mobile operating systems are designed this way. If you can point me to a paper or blog post that explain these reasons or can give me some insight I'd very much appreciate it.

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• Remote Desktop doesn't lock remote PC.

  - by Jeremy Luce

  I regularly use RDP to connect to my home computer (WinXP Pro SP3) from work (WinXP Pro SP3). My home computer has multiple users set up with Fast User Switching enabled. The problem is that my wife and kids are able to log in while I'm connected via RDP. There's nothing on the login screen to indicate that I'm logged in, much less a lock of some kind that prevents them from logging in. So, is there something I can do to actually lock them out while I'm connected, or at least indicate that I'm logged in?

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• 30 seconds from File|New to a new CRUD Silverlight application with Teleriks new LINQ Implementation

  Last month Telerik released its new LINQ implementation and last week we released the new Data Services Wizard for Telerik OpenAccess, which supports both traditional OpenAccess entities and the new LINQ implementation. I will a walk you through the process where you can connect to a database, add a new domain model, wrap it in a new WCF Data Services (Astoria) service, and add a CRUD enabled Silverlight application. All in 30 seconds! Step 1: Build your Domain Model (20 seconds) Open Visual Studio 2010 RTM (or 2008) and add a new ASP.NET project. Right click on the project and select Add|New Item and choose Telerk OpenAccess Domain Model from the item template list. The Visual Entity Designer wizard comes up. Select the database server you are using in the first screen (SQL Server, Oracle, SQL Azure, MySQL, etc) and then also build your database connection string. Next select the tables, views, and stored procedures you want ...Did you know that DotNetSlackers also publishes .net articles written by top known .net Authors? We already have over 80 articles in several categories including Silverlight. Take a look: here.

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• Scheduled Task to show console window when logged on but still run when not logged on

  - by HeartWare

  Is it possible (and if so, how) to set up a task (console application) in Server 2008 so that it'll run both when a user is logged in and when no user is logged in, AND - if the user is logged in (either local or via RDP) - have the console appear on the screen while the program is running? Ie. the program should run under the defined user context and it writes status messages to stdout, which goes to a standard console window. This console window is either shown (if the defined user is currently logged in locally or via RDP), or not shown (but the application is still run). I have access to the source of the console application, so if it needs some additional code (like specifically opening up a new console window or what have you), then that's not a problem. At the moment, I can set up the task as "Run only when user is logged on" which will run the application when the user is logged on (local or RDP) and I can then see the status messages, or I can set it up as "Run whether user is logged or not" and no status output is visible - not even if the user is logged on.

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• FY13 Partner Kickoff Kick’s off Summer Right

  - by Kristin Rose

  This summer’s blockbuster movie lineup is far from disappointing – From the Avengers to Prometheus and The Dark Knight Rises, there is no shortage of ‘cling-to-your-seat’ entertainment in store, not to mention buttery popcorn fingers. Will all this big screen action taking place, Oracle wanted to take part in some big premiers of its own, which is why we are happy to announce that our FY13 Partner Kickoff event is taking place June 26th. This year we are welcoming several partners from around the globe in person to Oracle’s Headquarters, as well as another 22,000 partners tuning in to help us kickoff FY13. Hosted by Judson Althoff, SVP of WWA&C, the Oracle PartnerNetwork FY13 Kickoff is being held live — five times throughout the day — and will include a special message for each region.  Have a look at the schedule of shows below: EMEA Kickoff – Tuesday, June 26 @ 2:00 pm BST (London) LAD Kickoff – Tuesday, June 26 @ 4:00 pm UTC (San Paulo) North America Kickoff – Tuesday, June 26 @ 8:30 am PT (San Francisco) Japan Kickoff – Wednesday, June 27 @ 10:00 am JST (Tokyo) Asia Pacific Kickoff – Wednesday, June 27 @ 8:30 am IST (Bangalore) / 11:00 am SGT (Singapore) / 1:00 pm AEST (Sydney) Partners near and far will be able to get a first row seat to some exciting Oracle announcements, keynotes, round-tables and a live after-show event hosted by Nick Kritikos, VP of Partner Enablement. Did we mention there is an exciting online component which will allow partners to send in questions or comments and get them answered in real time? Now that deserves two thumbs up!So whether you’re partial to Milk Duds or Junior Mints, grab a box of your favorite candy and sign-up for this strategy driven, partner focused blockbuster event. To get a sneak-peek at what’s in store, watch this short PKO “trailer” below, starring our very own GVP of WWA&C, Lydia Smyers to find out more.   To the Depths and Back,The OPN Communications Team

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• unusual backspace behavior in mac terminal

  - by Brandon

  I'm trying to figure out how to get ssh sessions to work how I want using the terminal app on mac os x. I'm used to using PuTTY on windows, where backspace means backspace. On mac when I press delete/backspace on mac it deletes the character following the cursor instead of the one before. I turned on Delete sends Ctrl + H, and that works most of the time, but sometimes it just shows on the screen as ^H this is typically at prompts from some custom python scripts on the box I log into. This doesn't happen with PuTTY on windows. Btw I'm logging into a Ubuntu Linux server running openssh. Any idea what I need to do so that backspace is consistently backspace.

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• How To Manage Your Remote Desktop Connections Easily

  - by Gopinath

  If you regularly access PCs using Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection, here is an nice utility to make your life easier. Remote Desktop Organizer is a freeware application that allows you to easily organize your multiple remote desktop connection in one place. It has many useful features(we run them down after the break) but my favorites are the ability to organize & save connection details and the ease at which it allows to switch between multiple connections. The above screen grab of the applications shows how well we can save & organize multiple connection by creating folders hierarchy and also multiple Remote Connections in one window for easy switching. These two features are huge time savers to me as I often connect to multiple servers and switch between them. The complete list of features as given by the official website of the freeware Organize remote desktop connections in folders and subfolders Drag and drop support for moving connections and folders Tabbed connections Quick Connection Connect to console Change connection port Minimize to system tray (optional) Close to system tray (optional) To run this application you need Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 or higher installed on your PC. Download Remote Desktop Organizer Join us on Facebook to read all our stories right inside your Facebook news feed.

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• Laptop with Intel Graphics: external VGA monitor only gets signal on boot (no "hot plugging")

  - by iveand

  I am able to get an external VGA monitor (or projector) to work if I start my laptop with it connected. However, if I start the laptop with it disconnected there is no signal on the external. The Displays screen shows the external, and thinks that it is active, but there is no signal being sent to it. This has been a persistent problem since 10.04 (I am now on 12.04.... each upgrade hoping something is improved). I should note that even when it works (starting with display connected), Displays still says the monitor is "unknown" (but it sends the signal). For the correct resolution to display, I have had to add a few xrandr lines for my monitor to my .xprofile file... otherwise resolution is limited to default 1024x768. So, resolution issues can be worked around, but the main issue is that the external doesn't get a signal without starting the machine with it connected. I have tried: adding i915.modeset=1 to grub (also i965.modeset=1 since someone posted that this helped even though lshw shows i915) adding following ppa and doing a dist-upgrade: sudo add-apt-repository ppa:xorg-edgers/ppa Here are the details: Laptop: Toshiba Tecra M10 lspci listings for video: 00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:2a42] (rev 07) sudo lshw -C video listing: *-display:0 description: VGA compatible controller product: Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller vendor: Intel Corporation physical id: 2 bus info: pci@0000:00:02.0 version: 07 width: 64 bits clock: 33MHz capabilities: msi pm vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom configuration: driver=i915 latency=0 resources: irq:46 memory:ff400000-ff7fffff memory:e0000000-efffffff ioport:cff8(size=8) *-display:1 UNCLAIMED description: Display controller product: Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller vendor: Intel Corporation physical id: 2.1 bus info: pci@0000:00:02.1 version: 07 width: 64 bits clock: 33MHz capabilities: pm bus_master cap_list configuration: latency=0 resources: memory:ffc00000-ffcfffff "System Info" shows my graphics as the following Mobile Intel® GM45 Express Chipset x86/MMX/SSE2

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• Unity stuck in 2D mode, Nvidia Quadro graphics "unknown", Nvidia-Current active but not in use

  - by Jordan Lund

  I've seen this problem reported under several questions, but I haven't been able to resolve any of it so I thought I'd bring it all in under one umbrella. I started a new job and was given a Dell Precision M6400 laptop with Nvidia Quadro FX 2700M graphics card. It had a previous version of Ubuntu on it, but nobody had any passwords for it so I wiped the drive and did a fresh install of 11.10 from scratch. I didn't do any updates during installation, preferring to do them after boot. Updates ran fine and the system works... except Unity is in 2D mode. System Settings - Additional Drivers shows that Nvidia-Current is active but not in use. System Settings - System Info shows Graphics Driver Unknown, Experience Standard Nvidia X Server Settings is installed and working, re-writing the xorg.conf did nothing. /usr/lib/nux/unity_support_test -p OpenGL vendor string: NVIDIA Corporation OpenGL renderer string: Quadro FX 2700M/PCI/SSE2 OpenGL version string: 3.3.0 NVIDIA 285.05.09 Not software rendered: yes Not blacklisted: yes GLX fbconfig: yes GLX texture from pixmap: yes GL npot or rect textures: yes GL vertex program: yes GL fragment program: yes GL vertex buffer object: yes GL framebuffer object: yes GL version is 1.4+: yes Unity 3D supported: yes One suggestion was to do a sudo apt-get --purge remove nvidia* and that resulted in a scrambled screen on boot and a non-bootable installation. Pressing the Delete key on boot allowed me to access the recovery console and do a sudo apt-get install nvidia-current, which brought me back to a working, bootable system. Another suggestion was to edit /etc/default/grub and change the line reading "GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash" to read "GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash vmalloc=192MB" thus allocating more video RAM. I did that, followed by a sudo update-grub and a re-boot. No change. Created a brand new standard user and logged on with that account, no change.

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• PASS Summit Feedback

  - by Rob Farley

  PASS Feedback came in last week. I also saw my dentist for some fillings... At the PASS Summit this year, I delivered a couple of regular sessions and a Lightning Talk. People told me they enjoyed it, but when the rankings came out, they showed that I didn’t score particularly well. Brent Ozar was keen to discuss it with me. Brent: PASS speaker feedback is out. You did two sessions and a Lightning Talk. How did you go? Rob: Not so well actually, thanks for asking. Brent: Ha! Sorry. Of course you know that's why I wanted to discuss this with you. I was in one of your sessions at SQLBits in the UK a month before PASS, and I thought you rocked. You've got a really good and distinctive delivery style.  Then I noticed your talks were ranked in the bottom quarter of the Summit ratings and wanted to discuss it. Rob: Yeah, I know. You did ask me if we could do this...  I should explain – my presentation style is not the stereotypical IT conference one. I throw in jokes, and try to engage the audience thoroughly. I find many talks amazingly dry, and I guess I try to buck that trend. I also run training courses, and find that I get a lot of feedback from people thanking me for keeping things interesting. That said, I also get feedback criticising me for my style, and that’s basically what’s happened here. For the rest of this discussion, let’s focus on my talk about the Incredible Shrinking Execution Plan, which I considered to be my main talk. Brent: I thought that session title was the very best one at the entire Summit, and I had it on my recommended sessions list.  In four words, you managed to sum up the topic and your sense of humor.  I read that and immediately thought, "People need to be in this session," and then it didn't score well.  Tell me about your scores. Rob: The questions on the feedback form covered the usefulness of the information, the speaker’s presentation skills, their knowledge of the subject, how well the session was described, the amount of time allocated, and the quality of the presentation materials. Brent: Presentation materials? But you don’t do slides.  Did they rate your thong? Rob: No-one saw my flip-flops in this talk, Brent. I created a script in Management Studio, and published that afterwards, but I think people will have scored that question based on the lack of slides. I wasn’t expecting to do particularly well on that one. That was the only section that didn’t have 5/5 as the most popular score. Brent: See, that sucks, because cookbook-style scripts are often some of my favorites.  Adam Machanic's Service Broker workbench series helped me immensely when I was prepping for the MCM.  As an attendee, I'd rather have a commented script than a slide deck.  So how did you rank so low? Rob: When I look at the scores that you got (based on your blog post), you got very few scores below 3 – people that felt strong enough about your talk to post a negative score. In my scores, between 5% and 10% were below 3 (except on the question about whether I knew my stuff – I guess I came as knowledgeable). Brent: Wow – so quite a few people really didn’t like your talk then? Rob: Yeah. Mind you, based on the comments, some people really loved it. I’d like to think that there would be a certain portion of the room who may have rated the talk as one of the best of the conference. Some of my comments included “amazing!”, “Best presentation so far!”, “Wow, best session yet”, “fantastic” and “Outstanding!”. I think lots of talks can be “Great”, but not so many talks can be “Outstanding” without the word losing its meaning. One wrote “Pretty amazing presentation, considering it was completely extemporaneous.” Brent: Extemporaneous, eh? Rob: Yeah. I guess they don’t realise how much preparation goes into coming across as unprepared. In many ways it’s much easier to give a written speech than to deliver a presentation without slides as a prompt. Brent: That delivery style, the really relaxed, casual, college-professor approach was one of the things I really liked about your presentation at SQLbits.  As somebody who presents a lot, I "get" it - I know how hard it is to come off as relaxed and comfortable with your own material.  It's like improv done by jazz players and comedians - if you've never tried it, you don't realize how hard it is.  People also don't realize how hard it is to make a tough subject fun. Rob: Yeah well... There will be people writing comments on this post that say I wasn't trying to make the subject fun, and that I was making it all about me. Sometimes the style works, sometimes it doesn't. Most of the comments mentioned the fact that I tell jokes, some in a nice way, but some not so much (and it wasn't just a PASS thing - that's the mix of feedback I generally get). One comment at PASS was: “great stand up comedian - not what I'm looking for at pass”, and there were certainly a few that said “too many jokes”. I’m not trying to do stand-up – jokes are my way of engaging with the audience while I demonstrate some of the amazing things that the Query Optimizer can do if you write your queries the right way. Some people didn’t think it was technical enough, but I’ve also had some people tell me that the concepts I’m explaining are deep and profound. Brent: To me, that's a hallmark of a great explanation - when someone says, "But of course it has to work that way - how could it work any other way?  It seems so simple and logical."  Well, sure it does when it's explained correctly, but now pick up any number of thick SQL Server books and try to understand the Redundant Joins concept.  I guarantee it'll take more than 45 minutes. Rob: Some people in my audiences realise that, but definitely not everyone. There's only so much you can tell someone that something is profound. Generally it's something that they either have an epiphany on or not. I like to lull my audience into knowing what's going on, and do something that surprises them. Gain their trust, build a rapport, and then show them the deeper truth of what just happened. Brent: So you've learned your lesson about presentation scores, right?  From here on out, you're going to be dry, humorless, and all your presentations will consist of you reading bullet points off the screen. Rob: No Brent, I’m not. I'm also not going to suggest that most presentations at PASS are like that. No-one tries to present like that. There's a big space to occupy between what "dry and humourless" and me. My difference is to focus on the relationship I have with the crowd, rather than focussing on delivering the perfect session. I want to see people smiling and know they're relaxed. I think most presenters focus on the material, which is completely reasonable and safe. I remember once hearing someone talking about product creation. They talked about mediocrity. They said that one of the worst things that people can ever say about your product is that it’s “good”. What you want is for 10% of the world to love it enough to want to buy it. If 10% the world gave me a dollar, I’d have more money than I could ever use (assuming it wasn’t the SAME dollar they were giving me I guess). Brent: It's the Raving Fans theory.  It's better to have a small number of raving customers than a large number of almost-but-not-really customers who don't care that much about your product or service.  I know exactly how you feel - when I got survey feedback from my Quest video presentation when I was dressed up in a Richard Simmons costume, some of the attendees said I was unprofessional and distracting.  Some of the attendees couldn't get enough and Photoshopped all kinds of stuff into the screen captures.  On a whole, I probably didn't score that well, and I'm fine with that.  It sucks to look at the scores though - do those lower scores bother you? Rob: Of course they do. It hurts deeply. I open myself up and give presentations in a very personal way. All presenters do that, and we all feel the pain of negative feedback. I hate coming 146th & 162nd out of 185, but have to acknowledge that many sessions did worse still. Plus, once I feel the wounds have healed, I’ll be able to remember that there are people in the world that rave about my presentation style, and figure that people will hopefully talk about me. One day maybe those people that don’t like my presentation style will stay away and I might be able to score better. You don’t pay to hear country music if you prefer western... Lots of people find chili too spicy, but it’s still a popular food. Brent: But don’t you want to appeal to everyone? Rob: I do, but I don’t want to be lukewarm as in Revelation 3:16. I’d rather disgust and be discussed. Well, maybe not ‘disgust’, but I don’t want to conform. Conformity just isn’t the same any more. I’m not sure I’ve ever been one to do that. I try not to offend, but definitely like to be different. Brent: Count me among your raving fans, sir.  Where can we see you next? Rob: Considering I live in Adelaide in Australia, I’m not about to appear at anyone’s local SQL Saturday. I’m still trying to plan which events I’ll get to in 2011. I’ve submitted abstracts for TechEd North America, but won’t hold my breath. I’m also considering the SQLBits conferences in the UK in April, PASS in October, and I’m sure I’ll do some LiveMeeting presentations for user groups. Online, people download some of my recent SQLBits presentations at http://bit.ly/RFSarg and http://bit.ly/Simplification though. And they can download a 5-minute MP3 of my Lightning Talk at http://www.lobsterpot.com.au/files/Collation.mp3, in which I try to explain the idea behind collation, using thongs as an example. Brent: I was in the audience for http://bit.ly/RFSarg. That was a great presentation. Rob: Thanks, Brent. Now where’s my dollar?

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• LCD monitor flickering

  - by stickmangumby

  I've recently got an LCD monitor and it is occasionally 'flickering' colors very noticeably. It's not a new monitor, but the person I'm borrowing it from hasn't had any trouble with it. The flickering occurs across operating systems and screen resolutions. I'm pretty sure it's related to dirty power - it often happens when fluorescent lights get turned on or the fridge starts, but not always. Is this likely to be the cause of the problem? Is there any good way to test this? Is there anything that can be done about bad grounding?

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• Unable to suspend with FGLRX enabled

  - by schmmd

  I am unable to suspend in a fully updated (as of yesterday, 29 March 2011) Ubuntu 10.10 installation (kernel 2.6.35-28). Following is a list of some of my hardware: Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R Video: Radeon HD-567X-YNF3 Initially, when I went to either Suspend or Hibernate the machine would almost go into suspend, but it would never power down. Instead it would bounce back to the login screen. This was due to a problem with the USB3 ports being unable to suspend (noticed this in /var/log/kern.log). Disabling the USB3 ports in the BIOS fixed this issue. Now Suspend and Hibernate power down the machine. It successfully awakens from Hibernate. However, it will not return from suspend. The mouse and keyboard are not powered and the monitor has no signal. These devices are still not powered after a restart. I must power-cycle the machine. The pm-suspend log ends after it states that it entered suspend (i.e. there is no information any resume code running). I discovered that acpitool -s suspends the machine and resumes successfully exactly once. The second time the machine will not resume. I am not sure how these two tools handle suspend differently. UPDATE: the problem was introduced somewhere between 2.6.35-22 and 2.6.35-28. I have both kernels install presently. Suspend works fine with 2.6.35-22 but not with 2.6.38-28.

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• MacBook Air 2010 Not letting me use Boot Camp

  - by SeniorShizzle

  Hi, I'm trying to install Windows 7 on my MBA, 2010. I open up Boot Camp and attempt to use it, but after the first screen it comes up with an error saying it can't install unless theirs 10GB of free disk space. Right now my hdd has 21.5 GB free. Disk Utility won't let me partition my drive either, so a manual install is out of the question. I need help! My original thoughts were that my disk needed to be defraged to get 10GB of contiguous space. Is this a possibility? This is kind of pissing me off because I really need to get Windows up on this Mac (as much as it dreads me to do it). Thanks!

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• Desktop Fun: 21 Cool Ubuntu Wallpapers

  - by Vivek

  Ubuntu 10.04 was released last month, and comes with some breath taking design enhancements, and has some fabulous art work integrated into it. We’ve put together a collection of wallpapers to make it more customized. We thought of pulling out some of the best Ubuntu wallpapers in this post so that you have a good mix to choose from when you are slightly bored of the default Lucid Lynx (Ubuntu 10.04) wallpaper. The following is a collection of top 21 Ubuntu wallpapers. To download the wallpaper just click on the hyperlink above the image. Ubuntu Wallpapers EgFox Lucid Lynx Blue 2010 by ~Eg-Art EgFox Lucid Lynx K HD 2010 by ~Eg-Art Lucid Lynx 10 04 by ~Momez Ubokeh Wallpaper Pack by ~giantspeck lucid fog brown by ~darkburt EgFox Lucid Lynx HD 2010 by ~Eg-Art LTS 2010 by ~alkore31 Ubuntu Bokeh by ~ttk1opc Ubuntu Aurora by *monkeymagico Ubuntu by ~gorkisview Ubuntu Glow by ~BigAction Destroy Ubuntu by ~lukeroberts Ubuntu Triskell by ~deviantdark Ubuntu 2.0 by ~monsteer Ubuntu leaves by ~sizakor Ubuntu Bokeh by ~freyr Ubuntu Brown leather distress by *monkeymagico Ubuntu Black Metal Hex by *monkeymagico Ubuntu gusty 4 walls by ~yf19-sama Ubuntu Wallpaper by ~Ruzzy2006 ubuntu-Gloss by ~SWOriginal Enjoy the new wallpaper to suit your desktop. You also might want to make sure and check out our Desktop Fun section for more collections of cool wallpapers. Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Windows 7 Welcome Screen Taking Forever? Here’s the Fix (Maybe)Allow Remote Control To Your Desktop On UbuntuCheck your Disk Usage on Ubuntu from the command lineDual Monitors: Use a Different Wallpaper on Each Desktop in Windows 7, Vista or XPDesktop Fun: Starship Theme Wallpapers 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 VMware Workstation 7 Acronis Online Backup DVDFab 6 Revo Uninstaller Pro Enhance Your Laptop’s Battery Life With These Tips Easily Search Food Recipes With Recipe Chimp Tech Fanboys Field Guide Check these Awesome Chrome Add-ons iFixit Offers Gadget Repair Manuals Online Vista style sidebar for Windows 7

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• Supplementary Developer Laptop

  - by David Smith

  I'm looking to buy a laptop with the following specs for a developer. The goal will be to have a development machine supplementing the devs desktop. During work hours the dev will be on a beefy desktop. For working while on the go: trains, client sites, code camps, it would be nice to have a machine which can run Visual Studio 2008 without needing to remote desktop into their primary machine. What do you think is the lowest cost laptop meeting this need? Here are the specs I have in mind: SSD drive 64GB-doesn't need to be huge, most data is stored on servers. Will need to fit Windows 7, IIS, SQL Server, and Visual Studio 2010. RAM-3GB processor =Pentium Core 2 duo Screen size = 14 inches. OS doesn't matter. It will be paved with Windows 7 Ultimate optical drive omitted would be a plus. weight and battery life aren't so important because the machine will be plugged in almost all the time.

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• Microsoft Office 2013 Issue

  - by Liz

  A few days ago I opened my microsoft office programs and discovered taht they are missing the editing icons at the top, some of them will appear if you scroll over them, but not all. Also, in PowerPoint the slides show in the side window with a red "x" I have tried to uninstall and reinstall office 2013, but I have had no luck. This issue is in every office program (excel, PP, word, access, outlook, etc). I also can't see the text when I type. Its there, I can see it when I print the document, but nothing on the screen. Does anyone have a solution for this issue??

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• How can I recover data after mistakenly clean-installed 12.04 over 11.10?

  - by T.Kannan

  I recently got a Ubuntu 12.04 LTS i386 DVD Rom and Ubuntu 12.04 LTS alternate cd from the zyxware.com because I don't have a broadband personal connection at home, I am using only the office INTERNET. I have a Dell Inspiron Laptop core 2 duo Processor with 2GB Ram dual boot of Ubuntu 11.10 and Windows Vista. I tried to upgrade My existing fully equipped streamlined Ubuntu 11.10 OS with lot of documents and socialized application packages which have been frequently used by me for the last one year. First I tried to install upgradation from the Ubuntu 12.04 LTS alternate cd while ubuntu 11.10 is on, but every time I got a error message and I couldn't upgrade either thro desktop or through terminal. Then I tried Ubuntu 12.04 LTS i386 DVD the boot option to DVD, I tried to upgrade from existing 11.10 to 12.04 LTS Option, then Upgrading Installation started well and finally got a message Installation completed successfully, Asked for reboot, I rebooted then I have hot a Ubuntu 12.04 LTS Login and I logged on, I have got a big shock that there is everything washed away in the home folders ( all datas, Music collections and vedios etc), all the application installed early in 11.10 were gone nothing left. Now I have got only 12.04 LTS, even It is asking for me to update around 350 mb through net connection. How It was a crazy Ubuntu, It is not a up-gradation, new installation is not it? I loosed everthing, at the end I got the same desktop screen like Ubuntu 11.10. Anybody knows about what gone wrong and if any possibility to recover my datas? Please help me. I want to Know that which method is stable to Upgrade existing Ubunt11.10

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• Is there a way to track data structure dependencies from the database, through the tiers, all the way out to a web page?

  - by Sean Mickey

  When we design applications, we generally end up with the same tiered sets of data structures: A persistent data structure that is described using DDL and implemented as RDBMS tables and columns. A set of domain objects that consist primarily of data structures, usually combined with business-rule level logic, that are implemented in a programming language such as Java. A set of service layer interfaces that directly support use case implementations (which use the domain data structures as parameters), implemented as EJBs or something equivalent in another programming language. UI screens that allow users to C reate, R etrieve, U pdate, and (maybe) D elete all manner of data structures and graphs of data structures, with numerous screens and with multiple UI widgets, all structured to support the same data structures. But if you want to change the data structures in any of these tiers, it always seems extremely difficult to assess the impact(s) the change will have across the application. UML can help, but tracing through diagram after diagram is not a real solution to this problem. The best I have ever seen was a homespun data tracking spreadsheet document that listed all of the data structures and walked the relationships from tier-to-tier. Is there a tool or accepted approach that makes it easy to identify a data structure in any tier and easily obtain a list of all dependent: database table and column data structures domain object data structures service layer interface methods and parameter data structures screen & UI component data structures

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• Entering BIOs Setup from Supermicro IPMI KVM

  - by Joshua Lim

  I'm having trouble getting into BIOs Setup from Supermicro IPMI "KVM" - Remote Control Console Redirection. I need to change the boot order to CDROM first. I'm running Windows 2008 server. After some Googling, it says here that the method is to: Press TAB to enter Setup screen. Press Esc twice to take effect. http://www.supermicro.com/support/faqs/faq.cfm?faq=6222 A month ago, I tried that 30-40 times + DEL, over 2 hours, it worked. Now, I've been trying the same key combination for more than an hour, rebooting each time it failed, it still doesn't work. Note: I've only got a notebook computer, no extra monitor.

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• How do I generate a core dump from apache

  - by blockhead

  I have a script which intermittently returns a white screen of death in firefox and Error 324 (net::ERR_EMPTY_RESPONSE): Unknown error. chrome. When I try to access the script using a PHP HTTP client (like Zend_Http_Client), intermittently I get an exception (sorry I don't have the exact message on me at the moment). I suspect a segfault. This is further buttressed by the lines in my error log that look like this: [Thu Mar 18 16:03:02 2010] [notice] child pid 845 exit signal Segmentation fault (11) Now, I'm running RedHat, and I know that RedHat doesn't generate core dumps out-of-the-box. I followed the instructions here http://kbase.redhat.com/faq/docs/DOC-5353, but I'm not seeing any core dumps. How do I generate a core dump?

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• Netbook performance - 1.33 GHz vs 1.6/1.66 GHz Atom

  - by Imran

  All new 11" netbooks seem to carry 1.33 GHz Atom Z520 CPU instead of 1.6/1.66 GHz Atom N270/N280. The screen resolution of 11" netbooks make them very appealing, but I'm a bit concerned about their performance as they carry a slower CPU than the 1.6GHz Atom, which isn't a great performer in the first place. Is there any significant difference in performance between 1.33 GHz and 1.6/1.66 GHz Atom processors in day to day usage? Are any of those fast enough to decode 720p x264 video? (When paired with typical Intel GMA platform and software decoder like ffdshow/CoreAVC of course, not with Nvidia Ion platform)

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• Booting From VIA VT6421A Based PCI SATA Card

  - by Priyan R

  I bought a VIA VT6421A based SATA card for an 845 chipset based motherboard. The card is working i can access sata hdd from windows/linux. The problem is i can't directly boot from the sata card. My motherboard is award bios 6 based. I tried first boot as SCSI, its not worked. There is no Raid Bios screen appeared from the card. On searching i found , Add VT6421A bios to system bios as pci addon bios. I did it using cbrom6 , successfully added VT6421A bios to the existing bios. But now on booting instead of raid bios system bios showed Warning : something like cannot load add on rom for vendor id xxxx device id xxx . Whats wrong ? As the card is VT6421A based and i added VT6421A bios got from VIA website.

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• Installed ASUS HD4670, now unable to install ANY Debian due to low memory corruption

  - by Alfabravo

  I have a desktop PC which initially had the Intel D946gzis mobo, its chipset as video controller, some RAM and so. There I installed Debian without a problem alongside WindowsXP. I've bought an ASUS HD 4670 video card, installed it on the PC and now the installed Debian does not work, while the Ubuntu live CD refuses to run no matter if I set acpi, apic on or off... it throws me some low memory corruption at position just like shown here. With normal configuration, Debian throws kernel panic (keyboard lights blinking). Anyone have faced this before? Ideas? Thanks!! (meanwhile, debian hides in a virtualbox :'( ) Edited: Tried Ubuntu 9.10 x64 (due to the fact i've a core2duo at 2GHz) and it throws a kernel-panic to me (flashing caps and num LEDs). On screen, can be read different lines with things like: ... [ 1.957161] [] rb_erase+0xd6/0x160 [ 1.957266] [] page_fault+0x25/0x30 Could it be something about this new video card having ddr3?

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