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• How to fix legacy code that uses <string.h> unsafely?

  - by Snowbody

  We've got a bunch of legacy code, written in straight C (some of which is K&R!), which for many, many years has been compiled using Visual C 6.0 (circa 1998) on an XP machine. We realize this is unsustainable, and we're trying to move it to a modern compiler. Political issues have said that the most recent compiler allowed is VC++ 2005. When compiling the project, there are many warnings about the unsafe string manipulation functions used (sprintf(), strcpy(), etc). Reviewing some of these places shows that the code is indeed unsafe; it does not check for buffer overflows. The compiler warning recommends that we move to using sprintf_s(), strcpy_s(), etc. However, these are Microsoft-created (and proprietary) functions and aren't available on (say) gcc (although we're primarily a Windows shop we do have some clients on various flavors of *NIX) How ought we to proceed? I don't want to roll our own string libraries. I only want to go over the code once. I'd rather not switch to C++ if we can help it.

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• Problem with saving pictures in certain ways [migrated]

  - by user132750

  I am making a Garfield comic viewer in C#. I have a button that saves the comic on screen to the computer. However, when I compile it from Visual C# Express, it saves perfectly. When I run the exe file from the directory, I get an unhandled exception message stating "A generic error occurred in GDI+". Here is my saving code: private void save_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) { using (SaveFileDialog sfdlg = new SaveFileDialog()) { sfdlg.Title = "Save Dialog"; sfdlg.Filter = "Bitmap Images (*.bmp)|*.bmp|All files(*.*)|*.*"; if (sfdlg.ShowDialog(this) == DialogResult.OK) { using (Bitmap bmp = new Bitmap(pictureBox1.Image.Width, pictureBox1.Image.Height)) { pictureBox1.DrawToBitmap(bmp, new Rectangle(0, 0, bmp.Width, bmp.Height)); pictureBox1.Image = new Bitmap(pictureBox1.Image.Width, pictureBox1.Image.Height); pictureBox1.Image.Save("c://cc.Jpg"); bmp.Save(sfdlg.FileName); pictureBox1.ImageLocation = "http://garfield.com/uploads/strips" + "/" + whole.ToString("yyyy-MM-dd") + ".jpg"; MessageBox.Show("Comic Saved."); } } } } What can I do?

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• Oracle ADF Mobile

  - by rituchhibber

  We are happy to announce that Oracle ADF Mobile is now available for our customers.Oracle ADF Mobile enables developer to build applications that install and run on both iOS and Android devices from one source code.Development is done with JDeveloper and ADF and leverages Java and HTML5 technologies, while keeping the same visual and declarative approach ADF is known for.Please Click here to read more about the Oracle ADF Mobile release and learn more on our OTN Page. Feature Highlights: Java - Oracle brings a Java VM embedded with each application so you can develop all your business logic in the platform neutral language you know and love! (Yes, even iOS!) JDBC - Since we give you Java, we also provide JDBC along with a SQLite driver and engine that also supports encryption out of the box. Multi-Platform - Truly develop your application only once and deploy to multiple platforms. iOS and Android platforms are supported for both phone and tablet. Flexible - You can decide how to implement the UI: Use existing server-based UI framework like JSF. Use your own favorite HTML5 framework like JQuery. Use our declarative HTML5 component set provided with the framework. Device Feature Access - You can get access to device features from either Java or JavaScript to invoke features like camera, GPS, email, SMS, contacts, etc. Secure - ADF Mobile provides integrated security that works with your server back-end as well. Whether you’re using remote URLs, local HTML or AMX, you can secure any/all of your features with a single consistent login page. Since we also give you SQLite encryption, we are assured that your data is safe. Rapid - Using the same development techniques that ADF developers are already used to, you can quickly create mobile applications without ever learning another language!ADF Mobile XML or AMX for short, provides all the normal input and layout controls you expect and we also add charts/maps/gauges along with it to provide a very comprehensive UI controls. You can also mix and match any of the three for ultimate flexibility!

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• Licensing a website's code [on hold]

  - by RosiePea

  I just changed to a new contract that I want to use with all my future clients. I love this contract. It's in plain English, very readable, very understandable. It has this statement regarding ownership of the website after it's been paid for: After any outstanding balance for the project is paid, we will assign to you all copyrights in the graphical and visual elements of the design that we will create under the scope of this project. However, we will retain the copyright to all coding elements, but will provide you with a license for you to use these elements in the deliverables of this project. What is this license of which it speaks? I understand the concept: I maintain all rights to my code but allow them to use it in this particular website. That part's new in this contract, and I like it a lot. But now... what? I have to come up with a license to hand the client when the website is paid for. But which license? And do I physically (or electronically) give them something, a document kind of like the contract itself? I've been reading all about licenses all day today and I'm no closer to answering this question. Any words of advice out there?

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• How can I use AjaxFileUpLoad control? [migrated]

  - by DWHelper

  Now I'm using Visual Studio 2013 and I imported the AJAX Toolkit downloaded from Microsoft specific site successfully and drag and drop AjaxFileUpLoad control into my page form, and the generated codes are: <%@ Page Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeBehind="WebForm1.aspx.cs" Inherits="CSharp.WebForm1" %> <!DOCTYPE html> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <head runat="server"> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"/> <title></title> </head> <body> <form id="form1" runat="server"> <div> <ajaxToolkit:ToolkitScriptManager ID="ToolkitScriptManager1" runat="server"> </ajaxToolkit:ToolkitScriptManager> <ajaxToolkit:AjaxFileUpload ID="AjaxFileUpload1" runat="server" MaximumNumberOfFiles="5" AllowedFileTypes="jpg"/> </div> </form> But the question is that I can run the page properly, click the black "Submit" button and upload a file, but it occurs an error……Why? This is the image attached:

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• "Unable to read data from the transport connection: net_io_connectionclosed." - Windows Vista Busine

  - by John DaCosta

  Unable to test sending email from .NET code in Windows Vista Business. I am writing code which I will migrate to an SSIS Package once it its proven. The code is to send an error message via email to a list of recipients. The code is below, however I am getting an exception when I execute the code. I created a simple class to do the mailing... the design could be better, I am testing functionality before implementing more robust functionality, methods, etc. namespace LabDemos { class Program { static void Main(string[] args) { Mailer m = new Mailer(); m.test(); } } } namespace LabDemos { class MyMailer { List<string> _to = new List<string>(); List<string> _cc = new List<string>(); List<string> _bcc = new List<string>(); String _msgFrom = ""; String _msgSubject = ""; String _msgBody = ""; public void test(){ //create the mail message MailMessage mail = new MailMessage(); //set the addresses mail.From = new MailAddress("[email protected]"); //set the content mail.Subject = "This is an email"; mail.Body = "this is a sample body"; mail.IsBodyHtml = false; //send the message SmtpClient smtp = new SmtpClient(); smtp.Host = "emailservername"; smtp.Port = 25; smtp.UseDefaultCredentials = true; smtp.Send(mail); } } Exception Message Inner Exception {"Unable to read data from the transport connection: net_io_connectionclosed."} Stack Trace " at System.Net.Mail.SmtpReplyReaderFactory.ProcessRead(Byte[] buffer, Int32 offset, Int32 read, Boolean readLine)\r\n at System.Net.Mail.SmtpReplyReaderFactory.ReadLines(SmtpReplyReader caller, Boolean oneLine)\r\n at System.Net.Mail.SmtpReplyReaderFactory.ReadLine(SmtpReplyReader caller)\r\n at System.Net.Mail.SmtpConnection.GetConnection(String host, Int32 port)\r\n at System.Net.Mail.SmtpTransport.GetConnection(String host, Int32 port)\r\n at System.Net.Mail.SmtpClient.GetConnection()\r\n at System.Net.Mail.SmtpClient.Send(MailMessage message)" Outer Exception System.Net.Mail.SmtpException was unhandled Message="Failure sending mail." Source="System" StackTrace: at System.Net.Mail.SmtpClient.Send(MailMessage message) at LabDemos.Mailer.test() in C:\Users\username\Documents\Visual Studio 2008\Projects\LabDemos\LabDemos\Mailer.cs:line 40 at LabDemos.Program.Main(String[] args) in C:\Users\username\Documents\Visual Studio 2008\Projects\LabDemos\LabDemos\Program.cs:line 48 at System.AppDomain._nExecuteAssembly(Assembly assembly, String[] args) at System.AppDomain.nExecuteAssembly(Assembly assembly, String[] args) at System.Runtime.Hosting.ManifestRunner.Run(Boolean checkAptModel) at System.Runtime.Hosting.ManifestRunner.ExecuteAsAssembly() at System.Runtime.Hosting.ApplicationActivator.CreateInstance(ActivationContext activationContext, String[] activationCustomData) at System.Runtime.Hosting.ApplicationActivator.CreateInstance(ActivationContext activationContext) at System.Activator.CreateInstance(ActivationContext activationContext) at Microsoft.VisualStudio.HostingProcess.HostProc.RunUsersAssemblyDebugInZone() at System.Threading.ThreadHelper.ThreadStart_Context(Object state) at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.Run(ExecutionContext executionContext, ContextCallback callback, Object state) at System.Threading.ThreadHelper.ThreadStart() InnerException: System.IO.IOException Message="Unable to read data from the transport connection: net_io_connectionclosed." Source="System" StackTrace: at System.Net.Mail.SmtpReplyReaderFactory.ProcessRead(Byte[] buffer, Int32 offset, Int32 read, Boolean readLine) at System.Net.Mail.SmtpReplyReaderFactory.ReadLines(SmtpReplyReader caller, Boolean oneLine) at System.Net.Mail.SmtpReplyReaderFactory.ReadLine(SmtpReplyReader caller) at System.Net.Mail.SmtpConnection.GetConnection(String host, Int32 port) at System.Net.Mail.SmtpTransport.GetConnection(String host, Int32 port) at System.Net.Mail.SmtpClient.GetConnection() at System.Net.Mail.SmtpClient.Send(MailMessage message) InnerException:

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• cmake doesn't work in windows XP

  - by Runner

  I'm new with cmake,just installed it and following this article: http://www.cs.swarthmore.edu/~adanner/tips/cmake.php D:\Works\c\cmake\build>cmake .. -- Building for: NMake Makefiles CMake Warning at CMakeLists.txt:2 (project): To use the NMake generator, cmake must be run from a shell that can use the compiler cl from the command line. This environment does not contain INCLUDE, LIB, or LIBPATH, and these must be set for the cl compiler to work. -- The C compiler identification is unknown -- The CXX compiler identification is unknown CMake Warning at D:/Tools/CMake 2.8/share/cmake-2.8/Modules/Platform/Windows-cl.cmake:32 (ENABLE_LANGUAGE): To use the NMake generator, cmake must be run from a shell that can use the compiler cl from the command line. This environment does not contain INCLUDE, LIB, or LIBPATH, and these must be set for the cl compiler to work. Call Stack (most recent call first): D:/Tools/CMake 2.8/share/cmake-2.8/Modules/CMakeCInformation.cmake:58 (INCLUDE) CMakeLists.txt:2 (project) CMake Error: your RC compiler: "CMAKE_RC_COMPILER-NOTFOUND" was not found. Please set CMAKE_RC_COMPILER to a valid compiler path or name. -- Check for CL compiler version -- Check for CL compiler version - failed -- Check if this is a free VC compiler -- Check if this is a free VC compiler - yes -- Using FREE VC TOOLS, NO DEBUG available -- Check for working C compiler: cl CMake Warning at CMakeLists.txt:2 (PROJECT): To use the NMake generator, cmake must be run from a shell that can use the compiler cl from the command line. This environment does not contain INCLUDE, LIB, or LIBPATH, and these must be set for the cl compiler to work. CMake Warning at D:/Tools/CMake 2.8/share/cmake-2.8/Modules/Platform/Windows-cl.cmake:32 (ENABLE_LANGUAGE): To use the NMake generator, cmake must be run from a shell that can use the compiler cl from the command line. This environment does not contain INCLUDE, LIB, or LIBPATH, and these must be set for the cl compiler to work. Call Stack (most recent call first): D:/Tools/CMake 2.8/share/cmake-2.8/Modules/CMakeCInformation.cmake:58 (INCLUDE) CMakeLists.txt:2 (PROJECT) CMake Error at D:/Tools/CMake 2.8/share/cmake-2.8/Modules/CMakeRCInformation.cmake:22 (GET_FILENAME_COMPONENT): get_filename_component called with incorrect number of arguments Call Stack (most recent call first): D:/Tools/CMake 2.8/share/cmake-2.8/Modules/Platform/Windows-cl.cmake:32 (ENABLE_LANGUAGE) D:/Tools/CMake 2.8/share/cmake-2.8/Modules/CMakeCInformation.cmake:58 (INCLUDE) CMakeLists.txt:2 (PROJECT) CMake Error: CMAKE_RC_COMPILER not set, after EnableLanguage CMake Error: your C compiler: "cl" was not found. Please set CMAKE_C_COMPILER to a valid compiler path or name. CMake Error: Internal CMake error, TryCompile configure of cmake failed -- Check for working C compiler: cl -- broken CMake Error at D:/Tools/CMake 2.8/share/cmake-2.8/Modules/CMakeTestCCompiler.cmake:52 (MESSAGE): The C compiler "cl" is not able to compile a simple test program. It fails with the following output: CMake will not be able to correctly generate this project. Call Stack (most recent call first): CMakeLists.txt:2 (project) CMake Error: your C compiler: "cl" was not found. Please set CMAKE_C_COMPILER to a valid compiler path or name. CMake Error: your CXX compiler: "cl" was not found. Please set CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER to a valid compiler path or name. -- Configuring incomplete, errors occurred! What are the complete requirement to use cmake successfully in windows XP?I've already installed Visual Studio under D:\Tools\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0

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• Python: how do I install SciPy on 64 bit Windows?

  - by Peter Mortensen

  How do I install SciPy on my system? Update 1: for the NumPy part (that SciPy depends on) there is actually an installer for 64 bit Windows: numpy-1.3.0.win-amd64-py2.6.msi (is direct download URL, 2310144 bytes). Running the SciPy superpack installer results in this message in a dialog box: "Cannot install. Python version 2.6 required, which was not found in the registry." I already have Python 2.6.2 installed (and a working Django installation in it), but I don't know about any Registry story. The registry entries seems to already exist: REGEDIT4 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Python] [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Python\PythonCore] [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Python\PythonCore\2.6] [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Python\PythonCore\2.6\Help] [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Python\PythonCore\2.6\Help\Main Python Documentation] @="D:\\Python262\\Doc\\python262.chm" [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Python\PythonCore\2.6\InstallPath] @="D:\\Python262\\" [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Python\PythonCore\2.6\InstallPath\InstallGroup] @="Python 2.6" [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Python\PythonCore\2.6\Modules] [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Python\PythonCore\2.6\PythonPath] @="D:\\Python262\\Lib;D:\\Python262\\DLLs;D:\\Python262\\Lib\\lib-tk" What I have done so far: Step 1 Downloaded the NumPy superpack installer numpy-1.3.0rc2-win32-superpack-python2.6.exe (direct download URL, 4782592 bytes). Running this installer resulted in the same message, "Cannot install. Python version 2.6 required, which was not found in the registry.". Update: there is actually an installer for NumPy that works - see beginning of the question. Step 2 Tried to install NumPy in another way. Downloaded the zip package numpy-1.3.0rc2.zip (direct download URL, 2404011 bytes), extracted the zip file in a normal way to a temporary directory, D:\temp7\numpy-1.3.0rc2 (where setup.py and README.txt is). I then opened a command line window and: d: cd D:\temp7\numpy-1.3.0rc2 setup.py install This ran for a long time and also included use of cl.exe (part of Visual Studio). Here is a nearly 5000 lines long transcript (230 KB). This seemed to work. I can now do this in Python: import numpy as np np.random.random(10) with this result: array([ 0.35667511, 0.56099423, 0.38423629, 0.09733172, 0.81560421, 0.18813222, 0.10566666, 0.84968066, 0.79472597, 0.30997724]) Step 3 Downloaded the SciPy superpack installer, scipy-0.7.1rc3- win32-superpack-python2.6.exe (direct download URL, 45597175 bytes). Running this installer resulted in the message listed in the beginning Step 4 Tried to install SciPy in another way. Downloaded the zip package scipy-0.7.1rc3.zip (direct download URL, 5506562 bytes), extracted the zip file in a normal way to a temporary directory, D:\temp7\scipy-0.7.1 (where setup.py and README.txt is). I then opened a command line window and: d: cd D:\temp7\scipy-0.7.1 setup.py install This did not achieve much - here is a transcript (about 95 lines). And it fails: >>> import scipy as sp2 Traceback (most recent call last): File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module> ImportError: No module named scipy Platform: Python 2.6.2 installed in directory D:\Python262, Windows XP 64 bit SP2, 8 GB RAM, Visual Studio 2008 Professional Edition installed. The startup screen of the installed Python is: Python 2.6.2 (r262:71605, Apr 14 2009, 22:46:50) [MSC v.1500 64 bit (AMD64)] on win32 Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information. >>> Value of PATH, result from SET in a command line window: Path=D:\Perl64\site\bin;D:\Perl64\bin;C:\Program Files (x86)\PC Connectivity Solution\;D:\Perl\site\bin;D:\Perl\bin;C:\WINDOWS\system32;C:\WINDOWS;C:\WINDOWS\System32\Wbem;C:\Program Files (x86)\ATI Technologies\ATI.ACE\Core-Static;d:\Program Files (x86)\WinSCP\;D:\MassLynx\;D:\Program Files (x86)\Analyst\bin;d:\Python262;d:\Python262\Scripts;D:\Program Files (x86)\TortoiseSVN\bin;D:\Program Files\TortoiseSVN\bin;C:\WINDOWS\system32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0;D:\Program Files (x86)\IDM Computer Solutions\UltraEdit\

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• Parameter index is out of range

  - by czuroski

  Hello, I am getting the following error when trying to update an object using nhibernate. I am attempting to update a field which is a foreign key. Any thoughts why I might be getting this error? I can't figure it out from that error and my log4net log doesn't give any hints either. Thanks System.IndexOutOfRangeException was unhandled by user code Message="Parameter index is out of range." Source="MySql.Data" StackTrace: at MySql.Data.MySqlClient.MySqlParameterCollection.CheckIndex(Int32 index) at MySql.Data.MySqlClient.MySqlParameterCollection.GetParameter(Int32 index) at System.Data.Common.DbParameterCollection.System.Collections.IList.get_Item(Int32 index) at NHibernate.Type.Int32Type.Set(IDbCommand rs, Object value, Int32 index) at NHibernate.Type.NullableType.NullSafeSet(IDbCommand cmd, Object value, Int32 index) at NHibernate.Type.NullableType.NullSafeSet(IDbCommand st, Object value, Int32 index, ISessionImplementor session) at NHibernate.Persister.Entity.AbstractEntityPersister.Dehydrate(Object id, Object[] fields, Object rowId, Boolean[] includeProperty, Boolean[][] includeColumns, Int32 table, IDbCommand statement, ISessionImplementor session, Int32 index) at NHibernate.Persister.Entity.AbstractEntityPersister.Update(Object id, Object[] fields, Object[] oldFields, Object rowId, Boolean[] includeProperty, Int32 j, Object oldVersion, Object obj, SqlCommandInfo sql, ISessionImplementor session) at NHibernate.Persister.Entity.AbstractEntityPersister.UpdateOrInsert(Object id, Object[] fields, Object[] oldFields, Object rowId, Boolean[] includeProperty, Int32 j, Object oldVersion, Object obj, SqlCommandInfo sql, ISessionImplementor session) at NHibernate.Persister.Entity.AbstractEntityPersister.Update(Object id, Object[] fields, Int32[] dirtyFields, Boolean hasDirtyCollection, Object[] oldFields, Object oldVersion, Object obj, Object rowId, ISessionImplementor session) at NHibernate.Action.EntityUpdateAction.Execute() at NHibernate.Engine.ActionQueue.Execute(IExecutable executable) at NHibernate.Engine.ActionQueue.ExecuteActions(IList list) at NHibernate.Engine.ActionQueue.ExecuteActions() at NHibernate.Event.Default.AbstractFlushingEventListener.PerformExecutions(IEventSource session) at NHibernate.Event.Default.DefaultFlushEventListener.OnFlush(FlushEvent event) at NHibernate.Impl.SessionImpl.Flush() at NHibernate.Transaction.AdoTransaction.Commit() at DataAccessLayer.NHibernateDataProvider.UpdateItem_temp(items_temp item_temp) in C:\Documents and Settings\user\My Documents\Visual Studio 2008\Projects\mySolution\DataAccessLayer\NHibernateDataProvider.cs:line 225 at InventoryDataClean.Controllers.ImportController.Edit(Int32 id, FormCollection formValues) in C:\Documents and Settings\user\My Documents\Visual Studio 2008\Projects\mySolution\InventoryDataClean\Controllers\ImportController.cs:line 101 at lambda_method(ExecutionScope , ControllerBase , Object[] ) at System.Web.Mvc.ActionMethodDispatcher.Execute(ControllerBase controller, Object[] parameters) at System.Web.Mvc.ReflectedActionDescriptor.Execute(ControllerContext controllerContext, IDictionary`2 parameters) at System.Web.Mvc.ControllerActionInvoker.InvokeActionMethod(ControllerContext controllerContext, ActionDescriptor actionDescriptor, IDictionary`2 parameters) at System.Web.Mvc.ControllerActionInvoker.<>c__DisplayClassa.<InvokeActionMethodWithFilters>b__7() at System.Web.Mvc.ControllerActionInvoker.InvokeActionMethodFilter(IActionFilter filter, ActionExecutingContext preContext, Func`1 continuation) InnerException: Here is my item mapping - <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?> <hibernate-mapping xmlns="urn:nhibernate-mapping-2.2" assembly="DataTransfer" namespace="DataTransfer"> <class name="DataTransfer.items_temp, DataTransfer" table="items_temp"> <id name="id" unsaved-value="any" > <generator class="assigned"/> </id> <property name="assetid"/> <property name="description"/> <property name="caretaker"/> <property name="category"/> <property name="status" /> <property name="vendor" /> <many-to-one name="statusName" class="status" column="status" /> </class> </hibernate-mapping> Here is my status mapping - <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?> <hibernate-mapping xmlns="urn:nhibernate-mapping-2.2" assembly="DataTransfer" namespace="DataTransfer"> <class name="DataTransfer.status, DataTransfer" table="status"> <id name="id" unsaved-value="0"> <generator class="assigned"/> </id> <property name="name"/> <property name="def"/> </class> </hibernate-mapping> and here is my update function - public void UpdateItem_temp(items_temp item_temp) { ITransaction t = _session.BeginTransaction(); try { _session.SaveOrUpdate(item_temp); t.Commit(); } catch (Exception) { t.Rollback(); throw; } finally { t.Dispose(); } }

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• Android 1.5 - 2.1 Search Activity affects Parent Lifecycle

  - by pacoder

  Behavior seems consistent in Android 1.5 to 2.1 Short version is this, it appears that when my (android search facility) search activity is fired from the android QSR due to either a suggestion or search, UNLESS my search activity in turn fires off a VISIBLE activity that is not the parent of the search, the search parents life cycle changes. It will NOT fire onDestroy until I launch a visible activity from it. If I do, onDestroy will fire fine. I need a way to get around this behavior... The long version: We have implemented a SearchSuggestion provider and a Search activity in our application. The one thing about it that is very odd is that if the SearchManager passes control to our custom Search activity, AND that activity does not create a visible Activity the Activity which parented the search does not destroy (onDestroy doesn't run) and it will not until we call a visible Activity from the parent activity. As long as our Search Activity fires off another Activity that gets focus the parent activity will fire onDestroy when I back out of it. The trick is that Activity must have a visual component. I tried to fake it out with a 'pass through' Activity so that my Search Activity could fire off another Intent and bail out but that didn't work either. I have tried setting our SearchActivity to launch singleTop and I also tried setting its noHistory attribute to true, tried setResult(RESULT_OK) in SearchACtivity prior to finish, bunch of other things, nothing is working. This is the chunk of code in our Search Activity onCreate. Couple of notes about it: If Intent is Action_Search (user typed in their own search and didn't pick a suggestion), we display a list of results as our Search Activity is a ListActivity. In this case when the item is picked, the Search Activity closes and our parent Activity does fire onDestroy() when we back out. If Intent is Action_View (user picked a suggestion) when type is "action" we fire off an Intent that creates a new visible Activity. In this case same thing, when we leave that new activity and return to the parent activity, the back key does cause the parent activity to fire onDestroy when leaving. If Intent is Action_View (user picked a suggestion) when type is "pitem" is where the problem lies. It works fine (the method call focuses an item on the parent activity), but when the back button is hit on the parent activity onDestroy is NOT called. IF after this executes I pick an option in the parent activity that fires off another activity and return to the parent then back out it will fire onDestroy() in the parent activity. Note that the "action" intent ends up running the exact same method call as "pitem", it just bring up a new visual Activity first. Also I can take out the method call from "pitem" and just finish() and the behavior is the same, the parent activity doesn't fire onDestroy() when backed out of. if (Intent.ACTION_SEARCH.equals(queryAction)) { this.setContentView(_layoutId); String searchKeywords = queryIntent.getStringExtra(SearchManager.QUERY); init(searchKeywords); } else if(Intent.ACTION_VIEW.equals(queryAction)){ Bundle bundle = queryIntent.getExtras(); String key = queryIntent.getDataString(); String userQuery = bundle.getString(SearchManager.USER_QUERY); String[] keyValues = key.split("-"); if(keyValues.length == 2) { String type = keyValues[0]; String value = keyValues[1]; if(type.equals("action")) { Intent intent = new Intent(this, EventInfoActivity.class); Long longKey = Long.parseLong(value); intent.putExtra("vo_id", longKey); startActivity(intent); finish(); } else if(type.equals("pitem")) { Integer id = Integer.parseInt(value); _application._servicesManager._mapHandlerSelector.selectInfoItem(id); finish(); } } } It just seems like something is being held onto and I can't figure out what it is, in all cases the Search Activity fires onDestroy() when finish() is called so it is definitely going away. If anyone has any suggestions I'd be most appreciative. Thanks, Sean Overby

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• adobe flash buider (flex4): Error #2025 or Error: addChild() is not available in this class. Instead

  - by user306584

  Hi, I'm a complete newbie to Flex, so apologies for my dumbness. I've searched for an answer but haven't found anything that seems to be doing the trick. What I'm trying to do: port this example http://www.adobe.com/devnet/air/flex/articles/flex_air_codebase_print.html to Flash Builder 4. All seems to be fine but for one thing. When I use the original code for the Air application <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <s:WindowedApplication xmlns:fx="http://ns.adobe.com/mxml/2009" xmlns:s="library://ns.adobe.com/flex/spark" xmlns:mx="library://ns.adobe.com/flex/mx" creationComplete="onApplicationComplete()"> <fx:Script> <![CDATA[ private static const neededForCompilation:AirGeneralImplementation = null; private function onApplicationComplete():void { var can:MainCanvas = new MainCanvas(); this.addChild(can); can.labelMessage = "Loaded in an AIR Application "; } ]]> </fx:Script> <fx:Declarations> <!-- Place non-visual elements (e.g., services, value objects) here --> </fx:Declarations> </s:WindowedApplication> I get this run time error Error: addChild() is not available in this class. Instead, use addElement() or modify the skin, if you have one. at spark.components.supportClasses::SkinnableComponent/addChild()[E:\dev\4.0.0\frameworks\projects\spark\src\spark\components\supportClasses\SkinnableComponent.as:1038] If I substitute the code with this.addElement(can); Everything loads well but the first time I try to press any of the buttons on the main canvas I get the following run time error ArgumentError: Error #2025: The supplied DisplayObject must be a child of the caller. at flash.display::DisplayObjectContainer/getChildIndex() at mx.managers::SystemManager/getChildIndex()[E:\dev\4.0.0\frameworks\projects\framework\src\mx\managers\SystemManager.as:1665] at mx.managers.systemClasses::ActiveWindowManager/mouseDownHandler()[E:\dev\4.0.0\frameworks\projects\framework\src\mx\managers\systemClasses\ActiveWindowManager.as:437] here's the super simple code for the main canvas <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <s:Application xmlns:fx="http://ns.adobe.com/mxml/2009" xmlns:s="library://ns.adobe.com/flex/spark" xmlns:mx="library://ns.adobe.com/flex/mx" minWidth="955" minHeight="600" creationComplete="init();"> <fx:Declarations> <!-- Place non-visual elements (e.g., services, value objects) here --> </fx:Declarations> <fx:Script source="main.as" /> <mx:Label id="lblMessage" text="The UI from the shared Flex app BothCode" x="433" y="112"/> <s:Button x="433" y="141" click="saveFile();" label="Save File"/> <s:Button x="601" y="141" click="GeneralFactory.getGeneralInstance().airOnlyFunctionality();" label="Air Only"/> </s:Application> Any help would be immensely appreciated. And any pointers to how to setup a project that can compile in both Air and Flash while sharing the same code, all for Flex 4, would also be immensely appreciated. thank you!

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• WPF: Updating visibility of controls not updating the screen

  - by Brad McBride

  I will preface this by stating that I am new to WPF programming and may be making multiple errors. Any insight that can be provided to help me improve in my skills are greatly appreciated. I am working with a WPF application and am looping through a list of objects that contain properties that describe a document that should be built on the fly and automatically printed. I am attempting to display a small grid in the interface that shows the document being built before it is printed. This serves two purposes: one, it allows the user to see work being done by the application. Two, it renders the items on the screen so that I can then have something to actually print since WPF appears to not be able to load an image for printing dynamicaly without displaying it on the screen. In my code, I am setting the various elements in the grid and setting the visibility to visible. However, the UI is not updating and the printed document doesn't look as intended since the image never shows up on the screen. Here is the XAML that I have set up <Grid x:Name="LayoutRoot" Background="Black"> <Grid Name="previewGrid" Grid.Row="1" Grid.Column="1" Background="White" Visibility="Hidden"> <Canvas Name="pageCanvas" HorizontalAlignment="Center" VerticalAlignment="Center"> <Grid Name="pageGrid" Width="163" Height="211"> <Grid.ColumnDefinitions> <ColumnDefinition Width="81.5"></ColumnDefinition> <ColumnDefinition Width="81.5"></ColumnDefinition> </Grid.ColumnDefinitions> <TextBlock Grid.Column="0" Name="copyright" TextAlignment="Center" HorizontalAlignment="Center" VerticalAlignment="Bottom"></TextBlock> <Image Name="pageImage" Grid.Column="1" HorizontalAlignment="Center" VerticalAlignment="Center"></Image> </Grid> </Canvas> .....canvas for pages 2-4 not shown but structure is the same as for pageGrid..... </Grid> </Grid> </Window> Here is the code behind that is supposed to set the elements. previewGrid.Visibility = Windows.Visibility.Visible pageURI = New Uri(pageCollection(i).iamgeURL, UriKind.Absolute) pageGrid.Visibility = Windows.Visibility.Visible bmp.BeginInit() bmp.StreamSource = getCachedURLStream(cardURI) bmp.EndInit() pageImage.Source = bmp copyright.Text = copyrightText cardPreviewGrid.UpdateLayout() ' More code that prints the visual element pageGrid previewGrid.Visibility = Windows.Visibility.Hidden The code in codebehind loops through a number of times depending on how many different documents the user prints. Basically it builds a visual element for a page, prints an XPS version of it and then builds the next page and prints it, etc. Once all pages have been processed, the job is actually sent to the printer. The only purpose of this application is to let the user print these documents so there is not other task that they can do in the application while the documents print. I thought that putting this task in a background thread would help to update the UI but since I am trying to manipulate items directly on the UI thread it would appear that this option won't work for me. What am I doing wrong here and how can I improve the code so that I can get the behavior that I am trying to achieve?

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• ObjectContext.SaveChanges() fails with SQL CE

  - by David Veeneman

  I am creating a model-first Entity Framework 4 app that uses SQL CE as its data store. All is well until I call ObjectContext.SaveChanges() to save changes to the entities in the model. At that point, SaveChanges() throws a System.Data.UpdateException, with an inner exception message that reads as follows: Server-generated keys and server-generated values are not supported by SQL Server Compact. I am completely puzzled by this message. Any idea what is going on and how to fix it? Thanks. Here is the Exception dump: System.Data.UpdateException was unhandled Message=An error occurred while updating the entries. See the inner exception for details. Source=System.Data.Entity StackTrace: at System.Data.Mapping.Update.Internal.UpdateTranslator.Update(IEntityStateManager stateManager, IEntityAdapter adapter) at System.Data.EntityClient.EntityAdapter.Update(IEntityStateManager entityCache) at System.Data.Objects.ObjectContext.SaveChanges(SaveOptions options) at System.Data.Objects.ObjectContext.SaveChanges() at FsDocumentationBuilder.ViewModel.Commands.SaveFileCommand.Execute(Object parameter) in D:\Users\dcveeneman\Documents\Visual Studio 2010\Projects\FsDocumentationBuilder\FsDocumentationBuilder\ViewModel\Commands\SaveFileCommand.cs:line 68 at MS.Internal.Commands.CommandHelpers.CriticalExecuteCommandSource(ICommandSource commandSource, Boolean userInitiated) at System.Windows.Controls.Primitives.ButtonBase.OnClick() at System.Windows.Controls.Button.OnClick() at System.Windows.Controls.Primitives.ButtonBase.OnMouseLeftButtonUp(MouseButtonEventArgs e) at System.Windows.UIElement.OnMouseLeftButtonUpThunk(Object sender, MouseButtonEventArgs e) at System.Windows.Input.MouseButtonEventArgs.InvokeEventHandler(Delegate genericHandler, Object genericTarget) at System.Windows.RoutedEventArgs.InvokeHandler(Delegate handler, Object target) at System.Windows.RoutedEventHandlerInfo.InvokeHandler(Object target, RoutedEventArgs routedEventArgs) at System.Windows.EventRoute.InvokeHandlersImpl(Object source, RoutedEventArgs args, Boolean reRaised) at System.Windows.UIElement.ReRaiseEventAs(DependencyObject sender, RoutedEventArgs args, RoutedEvent newEvent) at System.Windows.UIElement.OnMouseUpThunk(Object sender, MouseButtonEventArgs e) at System.Windows.Input.MouseButtonEventArgs.InvokeEventHandler(Delegate genericHandler, Object genericTarget) at System.Windows.RoutedEventArgs.InvokeHandler(Delegate handler, Object target) at System.Windows.RoutedEventHandlerInfo.InvokeHandler(Object target, RoutedEventArgs routedEventArgs) at System.Windows.EventRoute.InvokeHandlersImpl(Object source, RoutedEventArgs args, Boolean reRaised) at System.Windows.UIElement.RaiseEventImpl(DependencyObject sender, RoutedEventArgs args) at System.Windows.UIElement.RaiseTrustedEvent(RoutedEventArgs args) at System.Windows.UIElement.RaiseEvent(RoutedEventArgs args, Boolean trusted) at System.Windows.Input.InputManager.ProcessStagingArea() at System.Windows.Input.InputManager.ProcessInput(InputEventArgs input) at System.Windows.Input.InputProviderSite.ReportInput(InputReport inputReport) at System.Windows.Interop.HwndMouseInputProvider.ReportInput(IntPtr hwnd, InputMode mode, Int32 timestamp, RawMouseActions actions, Int32 x, Int32 y, Int32 wheel) at System.Windows.Interop.HwndMouseInputProvider.FilterMessage(IntPtr hwnd, WindowMessage msg, IntPtr wParam, IntPtr lParam, Boolean& handled) at System.Windows.Interop.HwndSource.InputFilterMessage(IntPtr hwnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wParam, IntPtr lParam, Boolean& handled) at MS.Win32.HwndWrapper.WndProc(IntPtr hwnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wParam, IntPtr lParam, Boolean& handled) at MS.Win32.HwndSubclass.DispatcherCallbackOperation(Object o) at System.Windows.Threading.ExceptionWrapper.InternalRealCall(Delegate callback, Object args, Int32 numArgs) at MS.Internal.Threading.ExceptionFilterHelper.TryCatchWhen(Object source, Delegate method, Object args, Int32 numArgs, Delegate catchHandler) at System.Windows.Threading.Dispatcher.InvokeImpl(DispatcherPriority priority, TimeSpan timeout, Delegate method, Object args, Int32 numArgs) at MS.Win32.HwndSubclass.SubclassWndProc(IntPtr hwnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wParam, IntPtr lParam) at MS.Win32.UnsafeNativeMethods.DispatchMessage(MSG& msg) at System.Windows.Threading.Dispatcher.PushFrameImpl(DispatcherFrame frame) at System.Windows.Threading.Dispatcher.PushFrame(DispatcherFrame frame) at System.Windows.Threading.Dispatcher.Run() at System.Windows.Application.RunDispatcher(Object ignore) at System.Windows.Application.RunInternal(Window window) at System.Windows.Application.Run(Window window) at System.Windows.Application.Run() at FsDocumentationBuilder.App.Main() in D:\Users\dcveeneman\Documents\Visual Studio 2010\Projects\FsDocumentationBuilder\FsDocumentationBuilder\obj\x86\Debug\App.g.cs:line 50 at System.AppDomain._nExecuteAssembly(RuntimeAssembly assembly, String[] args) at System.AppDomain.ExecuteAssembly(String assemblyFile, Evidence assemblySecurity, String[] args) at Microsoft.VisualStudio.HostingProcess.HostProc.RunUsersAssembly() at System.Threading.ThreadHelper.ThreadStart_Context(Object state) at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.Run(ExecutionContext executionContext, ContextCallback callback, Object state, Boolean ignoreSyncCtx) at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.Run(ExecutionContext executionContext, ContextCallback callback, Object state) at System.Threading.ThreadHelper.ThreadStart() InnerException: System.Data.EntityCommandCompilationException Message=An error occurred while preparing the command definition. See the inner exception for details. Source=System.Data.Entity StackTrace: at System.Data.Mapping.Update.Internal.UpdateTranslator.CreateCommand(DbModificationCommandTree commandTree) at System.Data.Mapping.Update.Internal.DynamicUpdateCommand.CreateCommand(UpdateTranslator translator, Dictionary`2 identifierValues) at System.Data.Mapping.Update.Internal.DynamicUpdateCommand.Execute(UpdateTranslator translator, EntityConnection connection, Dictionary`2 identifierValues, List`1 generatedValues) at System.Data.Mapping.Update.Internal.UpdateTranslator.Update(IEntityStateManager stateManager, IEntityAdapter adapter) InnerException: System.NotSupportedException Message=Server-generated keys and server-generated values are not supported by SQL Server Compact. Source=System.Data.SqlServerCe.Entity StackTrace: at System.Data.SqlServerCe.SqlGen.DmlSqlGenerator.GenerateReturningSql(StringBuilder commandText, DbModificationCommandTree tree, ExpressionTranslator translator, DbExpression returning) at System.Data.SqlServerCe.SqlGen.DmlSqlGenerator.GenerateInsertSql(DbInsertCommandTree tree, List`1& parameters, Boolean isLocalProvider) at System.Data.SqlServerCe.SqlGen.SqlGenerator.GenerateSql(DbCommandTree tree, List`1& parameters, CommandType& commandType, Boolean isLocalProvider) at System.Data.SqlServerCe.SqlCeProviderServices.CreateCommand(DbProviderManifest providerManifest, DbCommandTree commandTree) at System.Data.SqlServerCe.SqlCeProviderServices.CreateDbCommandDefinition(DbProviderManifest providerManifest, DbCommandTree commandTree) at System.Data.Common.DbProviderServices.CreateCommandDefinition(DbCommandTree commandTree) at System.Data.Common.DbProviderServices.CreateCommand(DbCommandTree commandTree) at System.Data.Mapping.Update.Internal.UpdateTranslator.CreateCommand(DbModificationCommandTree commandTree) InnerException:

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• "interface not found" in WCF Moniker without registration for excel

  - by tbischel

  I'm trying to connect excel to a WCF service, but I can't seem to get even a trivial case to work... I get an Invalid Syntax error when I try and create the proxy in excel. I've attached the visual studio debugger to excel, and get that the real error is "interface not found". I know the service works because the test client created by visual studio is ok... so the problem is in the VBA moniker string. I'm hoping to find one of two things: 1) a correction to my moniker string that will make this work, or 2) an existing sample project to download that has the source for both the host and client that does work. Here is the code for my VBA client: Dim addr As String addr = "service:mexAddress=net.tcp://localhost:7891/Test/WcfService1/Service1/mex, " addr = addr + "address=net.tcp://localhost:7891/Test/WcfService1/Service1/, " addr = addr + "contract=IService1, contractNamespace=http://tempuri.org, " addr = addr + "binding=NetTcpBinding_IService1, bindingNamespace=""http://tempuri.org""" MsgBox (addr) Dim service1 As Object Set service1 = GetObject(addr) MsgBox service1.Test(12) I have the following service: [ServiceContract] public interface IService1 { [OperationContract] string GetData(int value); } public class Service1 : IService1 { public string GetData(int value) { return string.Format("You entered: {0}", value); } } It has the following config file: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?> <configuration> <system.web> <compilation debug="true" /> </system.web> <!-- When deploying the service library project, the content of the config file must be added to the host's app.config file. System.Configuration does not support config files for libraries. --> <system.serviceModel> <services> <service behaviorConfiguration="WcfService1.Service1Behavior" name="WcfService1.Service1"> <endpoint address="" binding="netTcpBinding" bindingConfiguration="" contract="WcfService1.IService1"> <identity> <dns value="localhost" /> </identity> </endpoint> <endpoint address="mex" binding="mexTcpBinding" bindingConfiguration="" contract="IMetadataExchange" /> <host> <baseAddresses> <add baseAddress="net.tcp://localhost:7891/Test/WcfService1/Service1/" /> </baseAddresses> </host> </service> </services> <behaviors> <serviceBehaviors> <behavior name="WcfService1.Service1Behavior"> <serviceMetadata httpGetEnabled="false" /> <serviceDebug includeExceptionDetailInFaults="false" /> </behavior> </serviceBehaviors> </behaviors> </system.serviceModel> </configuration>

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• How to access a PHP Web Service from ASP.Net?

  - by Steve Johnson

  I am trying use a web service in a C# ASP.Net Web Application. The service is built in php and is located on some remote server not under my control so i cant modify it to add meta data or something else into it. When i use the "Add Web Reference" option in Visual Studio 2008, I receive the following error: The HTML document does not contain Web service discovery information. while trying to add the following web service. https://subreg.forpsi.com/robot2/subreg_command.php?wsdl The web service functions are exposed and displayed in Visual Studio 2008. however i could not add the reference to it for use in ASP.Net Application. t3Service" Description Methods __construct ( ) create_contact ( ) get_contact ( ) get_domain_info ( ) get_last_error_code ( ) get_last_error_msg ( ) get_NSSET ( ) get_owner_mail ( ) login ( ) register_domain ( ) register_domain_with_admin_contacts ( ) renew_domain ( ) request_sendmail ( ) send_auth_info ( ) transfer_domain ( ) I also tried the wsdl.exe method by retrieving the xml and copying it to a wsdl file and generating a proxy class. But the wsdl output contains warnings and the proxy class generated skips the exposed fucntions and generates something like this: // CODEGEN: The operation binding 'create_contact' from namespace 'urn:t3' was ignored. Each message part in an use=encoded message must specify a type. // CODEGEN: The operation binding 'get_contact' from namespace 'urn:t3' was ignored. Each message part in an use=encoded message must specify a type. // CODEGEN: The operation binding 'get_domain_info' from namespace 'urn:t3' was ignored. Each message part in an use=encoded message must specify a type. // CODEGEN: The operation binding 'get_last_error_code' from namespace 'urn:t3' was ignored. Each message part in an use=encoded message must specify a type. // CODEGEN: The operation binding 'get_last_error_msg' from namespace 'urn:t3' was ignored. Each message part in an use=encoded message must specify a type. // CODEGEN: The operation binding 'get_NSSET' from namespace 'urn:t3' was ignored. Each message part in an use=encoded message must specify a type. // CODEGEN: The operation binding 'get_owner_mail' from namespace 'urn:t3' was ignored. Each message part in an use=encoded message must specify a type. // CODEGEN: The operation binding 'send_auth_info' from namespace 'urn:t3' was ignored. Each message part in an use=encoded message must specify a type. // CODEGEN: The operation binding 'transfer_domain' from namespace 'urn:t3' was ignored. Each message part in an use=encoded message must specify a type. // CODEGEN: The operation binding 'request_sendmail' from namespace 'urn:t3' was ignored. Each message part in an use=encoded message must specify a type. // CODEGEN: The operation binding 'login' from namespace 'urn:t3' was ignored. Each message part in an use=encoded message must specify a type. // CODEGEN: The operation binding 'register_domain' from namespace 'urn:t3' was ignored. Each message part in an use=encoded message must specify a type. // CODEGEN: The operation binding 'register_domain_with_admin_contacts' from namespace 'urn:t3' was ignored. Each message part in an use=encoded message must specify a type. // CODEGEN: The operation binding 'renew_domain' from namespace 'urn:t3' was ignored. Each message part in an use=encoded message must specify a type. Any help in this regard will be highly appreciated. Regards

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• I finished coding my program. What's next? what are the steps I should take that would enable me to

  - by Luay

  Hi, I finished developing a program and would like to sell it online. However, I am not really sure of what to do next. Here is my current plan (in-order): 1- Add a 'deployment' project (i'm using visual studio) to my project so I can create a setup file for my program. 2- Use visual studio 'testing' add ons to test the program. I have no idea how to do it, but will teach myself. 3- When all is done, install the program on my wife's, parents and in-laws computer to further test it under different environments. 3- Setup a small Ltd. company. ( I might start this earlier as it might take a few weeks to complete). 4- Build / finish building a website (actually I started on this step a few weeks ago but haven't devoted enough time for it to complete yet). 5- Find a software / service to protect my program from piracy. I know it is impossible to protect the program from piracy. I understand that fully. But I still want to implement some sort of solution that wouldn't harm or deter honest customers. 6- Set up a business paypal account. 7- Find a software / service to handle payments on my website 8- Find a software / service to handle issuing license codes 9- Set up all of the above and go 'live'. However, I have zero experience in this sort of thing and would like your guidance on some points. 1- Is it necessary to setup a company? Can I sell as an individual? Will selling as an individual deter persons or companies from buying my software? 2- What is a decent choice for as a software / service to protect my program from my piracy. I have done a quick search and found something called Quick License Manager by Interactive Studios. Is this the sort of thing I am looking for? Is it any good? At which stage do I use or implement their service (or any similar service you might point me too? I guess I am really asking: how does this work? Would they give me a file I just add to my project, rebuild it and that's it? 3- What should I implement to handle payments online and how complicated is it? could you point me to any such services, please? 4- What should I implement to handle issuing license codes and how will that software / service coordinate with the software / service that handles the anti-piracy stuff? could you point me to such services, please? 5- In a different Stack Overflow question (by another user) someone suggested a cms system called Software Droid (http://www.softwaredroid.com). Is this what I am after. Will it help? 6- If the steps i'm following are incorrect in order or logic could you please advise me on what I should actually do? I guess these are question for those of you who have 'been there and done that'. So any guidance will be vary much appreciated. Many thanks in advance for your help.

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• Why does windows XP minimize my swing full screen window on my second screen ?

  - by Laurent K

  Hello dear fellows, In the application I'm developping (in Java/swing), I have to show a full screen window on the second screen of the user. I did this using a code similar to the one you'll find below... Be, as soon as I click in a window opened by windows explorer, or as soon as I open windows explorer (i'm using windows XP), the full screen window is minimized... Do you know any way or workaround to fix this problem, or is there something important I did not understand with full screen windows? Thanks for the help, import javax.swing.JFrame; import javax.swing.JPanel; import javax.swing.JWindow; import java.awt.BorderLayout; import java.awt.Dimension; import java.awt.GraphicsDevice; import java.awt.GraphicsEnvironment; import java.awt.Window; import javax.swing.JButton; import javax.swing.JToggleButton; import java.awt.Rectangle; import java.awt.GridBagLayout; import javax.swing.JLabel; public class FullScreenTest { private JFrame jFrame = null; // @jve:decl-index=0:visual-constraint="94,35" private JPanel jContentPane = null; private JToggleButton jToggleButton = null; private JPanel jFSPanel = null; // @jve:decl-index=0:visual-constraint="392,37" private JLabel jLabel = null; private Window window; /** * This method initializes jFrame * * @return javax.swing.JFrame */ private JFrame getJFrame() { if (jFrame == null) { jFrame = new JFrame(); jFrame.setSize(new Dimension(474, 105)); jFrame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE); jFrame.setContentPane(getJContentPane()); } return jFrame; } /** * This method initializes jContentPane * * @return javax.swing.JPanel */ private JPanel getJContentPane() { if (jContentPane == null) { jContentPane = new JPanel(); jContentPane.setLayout(null); jContentPane.add(getJToggleButton(), null); } return jContentPane; } /** * This method initializes jToggleButton * * @return javax.swing.JToggleButton */ private JToggleButton getJToggleButton() { if (jToggleButton == null) { jToggleButton = new JToggleButton(); jToggleButton.setBounds(new Rectangle(50, 23, 360, 28)); jToggleButton.setText("Show Full Screen Window on 2nd screen"); jToggleButton.addActionListener(new java.awt.event.ActionListener() { public void actionPerformed(java.awt.event.ActionEvent e) { showFullScreenWindow(jToggleButton.isSelected()); } }); } return jToggleButton; } protected void showFullScreenWindow(boolean b) { if(window==null){ window = initFullScreenWindow(); } window.setVisible(b); } private Window initFullScreenWindow() { GraphicsEnvironment ge = GraphicsEnvironment.getLocalGraphicsEnvironment(); GraphicsDevice[] gds = ge.getScreenDevices(); GraphicsDevice gd = gds[1]; JWindow window = new JWindow(gd.getDefaultConfiguration()); window.setContentPane(getJFSPanel()); gd.setFullScreenWindow(window); return window; } /** * This method initializes jFSPanel * * @return javax.swing.JPanel */ private JPanel getJFSPanel() { if (jFSPanel == null) { jLabel = new JLabel(); jLabel.setBounds(new Rectangle(18, 19, 500, 66)); jLabel.setText("Hello ! Now, juste open windows explorer and see what happens..."); jFSPanel = new JPanel(); jFSPanel.setLayout(null); jFSPanel.setSize(new Dimension(500, 107)); jFSPanel.add(jLabel, null); } return jFSPanel; } /** * @param args */ public static void main(String[] args) { FullScreenTest me = new FullScreenTest(); me.getJFrame().setVisible(true); } }

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• Multi-threaded .NET application blocks during file I/O when protected by Themida

  - by Erik Jensen

  As the title says I have a .NET application that is the GUI which uses multiple threads to perform separate file I/O and notice that the threads occasionally block when the application is protected by Themida. One thread is devoted to reading from serial COM port and another thread is devoted to copying files. What I experience is occasionally when the file copy thread encounters a network delay, it will block the other thread that is reading from the serial port. In addition to slow network (which can be transient), I can cause the problem to happen more frequently by making a PathFileExists call to a bad path e.g. PathFileExists("\\\\BadPath\\file.txt"); The COM port reading function will block during the call to ReadFile. This only happens when the application is protected by Themida. I have tried under WinXP, Win7, and Server 2012. In a streamlined test project, if I replace the .NET application with a MFC unmanaged application and still utilize the same threads I see no issue even when protected with Themida. I have contacted Oreans support and here is their response: The way that a .NET application is protected is very different from a native application. To protect a .NET application, we need to hook most of the file access APIs in order to "cheat" the .NET Framework that the application is protected. I guess that those special hooks (on CreateFile, ReadFile...) are delaying a bit the execution in your application and the problem appears. We did a test making those hooks as light as possible (with minimum code on them) but the problem still appeared in your application. The rest of software protectors that we tried (like Enigma, Molebox...) also use a similar hooking approach as it's the only way to make the .NET packed file to work. If those hooks are not present, the .NET Framework will abort execution as it will see that the original file was tampered (due to all Microsoft checks on .NET files) Those hooks are not present in a native application, that's why it should be working fine on your native application. Oreans support tried other software protectors such as Enigma Protector, Engima VirtualBox, and Molebox and all exhibit the exact same problem. What I have found as a work around is to separate out the file copy logic (where the file exists call is being made) to be performed in a completely separate process. I have experimented with converting the thread functions from unmanaged C++ to VB.NET equivalents (PathFileExists - System.IO.File.Exists and CreateFile/ReadFile - System.IO.Ports.SerialPort.Open/Read) and still see the same serial port read blocked when the file check or copy call is delayed. I have also tried setting the ReadFile to work asynchronously but that had no effect. I believe I am dealing with some low-level windows layer that no matter the language it exhibits a block on a shared resource -- and only when the application is executing under a single .NET process protected by Themida which evidently installs some hooks to allow .NET execution. At this time converting the entire application away from .NET is not an option. Nor is separating out the file copy logic to a separate task. I am wondering if anyone else has more knowledge of how a file operation can block another thread reading from a system port. I have included here example applications that show the problem: https://db.tt/cNMYfEIg - VB.NET https://db.tt/Y2lnTqw7 - MFC They are Visual Studio 2010 solutions. When running the themida protected exe, you can see when the FileThread counter pauses (executing the File.Exists call) while the ReadThread counter also pauses. When running non-protected visual studio output exe, the ReadThread counter does not pause which is how we expect it to function. Thanks!

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• What does a WinForm application need to be designed for usability, and be robust, clean, and profess

  - by msorens

  One of the principal problems impeding productivity in software implementation is the classic conundrum of “reinventing the wheel”. Of late I am a .NET developer and even the wonderful wizardry of .NET and Visual Studio covers only a portion of this challenging issue. Below I present my initial thoughts both on what is available and what should be available from .NET on a WinForm, focusing on good usability. That is, aspects of an application exposed to the user and making the user experience easier and/or better. (I do include a couple items not visible to the user because I feel strongly about them, such as diagnostics.) I invite you to contribute to these lists. LIST A: Components provided by .NET These are substantially complete components provided by .NET, i.e. those requiring at most trivial coding to use. “About” dialog -- add it with a couple clicks then customize. Persist settings across invocations -- .NET has the support; just use a few lines of code to glue them together. Migrate settings with a new version -- a powerful one, available with one line of code. Tooltips (and infotips) -- .NET includes just plain text tooltips; third-party libraries provide richer ones. Diagnostic support -- TraceSources, TraceListeners, and more are built-in. Internationalization -- support for tailoring your app to languages other than your own. LIST B: Components not provided by .NET These are not supplied at all by .NET or supplied only as rudimentary elements requiring substantial work to be realized. Splash screen -- a small window present during program startup with your logo, loading messages, etc. Tip of the day -- a mini-tutorial presented one bit at a time each time the user starts your app. Check for available updates -- facility to query a server to see if the user is running the latest version of your app, then provide a simple way to upgrade if a new version is found. Maximize to multiple monitors -- the canonical window allows you to maximize to a single monitor only; in my apps I allow maximizing across multiple monitors with a click. Taskbar notifier -- flash the taskbar when your backgrounded app has new info for the user. Options dialogs -- multi-page dialogs letting the user customize the app settings to his/her own preferences. Progress indicator -- for long running operations give the user feedback on how far there is left to go. Memory gauge -- an indicator (either absolute or percentage) of how much memory is used by your app. LIST C: Stylistic and/or tiny bits of functionality This list includes bits of functionality that are too tiny to merit being called a component, along with stylistic concerns (that admittedly do overlap with the Windows User Experience Interaction Guidelines). Design a form for resizing -- unless you are restricting your form to be a fixed size, use anchors and docking so that it does what is reasonable when enlarged or shrunk by the user. Set tab order on a form -- repeated tab presses by the user should advance from field to field in a logical order rather than the default order in which you added fields. Adjust controls to be aware of operating modes -- When starting a background operation with, for example, a “Go” button, disable that “Go” button until the operation completes. Provide access keys for all menu items (per UXGuide). Provide shortcut keys for commonly used menu items (per UXGuide). Set up some (global or important or common) shortcut keys without associating to menu items. Allow some menu items to be invoked with or without modifier keys (shift, control, alt) where the modifier key is useful to vary the operation slightly. Hook up Escape and Enter on child forms to do what is reasonable. Decorate any library classes with documentation-comments and attributes -- this allows Visual Studio to leverage them for Intellisense and property descriptions. Spell check your code! What else would you include?

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• MediaElement not showing in custom 3D class

  - by user3271180

  I'm trying to display a videostream in a Viewport3d. When I add the MediaElement via xaml, the video plays without a problem; even when I add the video as ModelVisual3D in the code-behind, the video works. When I abstract the video into a class, however, the video stops appearing. This happens with both web and local video files. I tried compiling with both x86 and 64 bit. Any way to fix this behaviour? Why is this happening? I have the following viewport: <Viewport3D> <!-- Camera --> <Viewport3D.Camera> <PerspectiveCamera Position="0,0,100" LookDirection="0,0,-1" UpDirection="0,1,0" /> </Viewport3D.Camera> <!-- Light --> <ModelVisual3D> <ModelVisual3D.Content> <AmbientLight Color="White" /> </ModelVisual3D.Content> </ModelVisual3D> <!-- this doesn't work --> <mediaElementTest:VideoControl /> <!-- but this does? --> <!--<ModelVisual3D> <ModelVisual3D.Content> <GeometryModel3D> <GeometryModel3D.Geometry> <MeshGeometry3D Positions="-100,-100,0 100,-100,0 100,100,0 -100,100,0" TextureCoordinates="0,1 1,1 1,0 0,0" TriangleIndices="0 1 2 0 2 3" /> </GeometryModel3D.Geometry> <GeometryModel3D.Material> <DiffuseMaterial> <DiffuseMaterial.Brush> <VisualBrush> <VisualBrush.Visual> <MediaElement Source="http://www.quirksmode.org/html5/videos/big_buck_bunny.mp4" /> </VisualBrush.Visual> </VisualBrush> </DiffuseMaterial.Brush> </DiffuseMaterial> </GeometryModel3D.Material> </GeometryModel3D> </ModelVisual3D.Content> </ModelVisual3D>--> </Viewport3D> VideoControl.xaml <UIElement3D x:Class="MediaElementTest.VideoControl" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation" xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"/> VideoControl.xaml.cs public partial class VideoControl { public VideoControl() { InitializeComponent(); Visual3DModel = CreateModel(); } private GeometryModel3D CreateModel() { return new GeometryModel3D { Geometry = new MeshGeometry3D { Positions = new Point3DCollection { new Point3D(-100, -100, 0), new Point3D(100, -100, 0), new Point3D(100, 100, 0), new Point3D(-100, 100, 0) }, TextureCoordinates = new PointCollection { new Point(0, 1), new Point(1, 1), new Point(1, 0), new Point(0, 0) }, TriangleIndices = new Int32Collection { 0, 1, 2, 0, 2, 3 } }, Material = new DiffuseMaterial(new VisualBrush(new MediaElement { Source = new Uri("http://www.quirksmode.org/html5/videos/big_buck_bunny.mp4", UriKind.RelativeOrAbsolute) })) }; } }

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• Adobe Photoshop Vs Lightroom Vs Aperture

  - by Aditi

  Adobe Photoshop is the standard choice for photographers, graphic artists and Web designers. Adobe Photoshop Lightroom  & Apple’s Aperture are also in the same league but the usage is vastly different. Although Photoshop is most popular & widely used by photographers, but in many ways it’s less relevant to photographers than ever before. As Lightroom & Aperture is aimed squarely at photographers for photo-processing. With this write up we are going to help you choose what is right for you and why. Adobe Photoshop Adobe Photoshop is the most liked tool for the detailed photo editing & designing work. Photoshop provides great features for rollover and Image slicing. Adobe Photoshop includes comprehensive optimization features for producing the highest quality Web graphics with the smallest possible file sizes. You can also create startling animations with it. Designers & Editors know how important precise masking is, PhotoShop lets you do that with various detailing tools. Art history brush, contact sheets, and history palette are some of the smart features, which add to its viability. Download Whether you’re producing printed pages or moving images, you can work more efficiently and produce better results because of its smooth integration across other adobe applications. Buy supporting layer effects, it allows you to quickly add drop shadows, inner and outer glows, bevels, and embossing to layers. It also provides Seamless Web Graphics Workflow. Photoshop is hands-down the BEST for editing. Photoshop Cons: • Slower, less precise editing features in Bridge • Processing lots of images requires actions and can be slower than exporting images from Lightroom • Much slower with editing and processing a large number of images Aperture Apple Aperture is aimed at the professional photographer who shoots predominantly raw files. It helps them to manage their workflow and perform their initial Raw conversion in a better way. Aperture provides adjustment tools such as Histogram to modify color and white balance, but most of the editing of photos is left for Photoshop. It gives users the option of seeing their photographs laid out like slides or negatives on a light table. It boasts of – stars, color-coding and easy techniques for filtering and picking images. Aperture has moved forward few steps than Photoshop, but most of the editing work has been left for Photoshop as it features seamless Photoshop integration. Aperture Pros: Aperture is a step up from the iPhoto software that comes with every Mac, and fairly easy to learn. Adjustments are made in a logical order from top to bottom of the menu. You can store the images in a library or any folder you choose. Aperture also works really well with direct Canon files. It is just $79 if you buy it through Apple’s App Store Moving forward, it will run on the iPad, and possibly the iPhone – Adobe products like Lightroom and Photoshop may never offer these options It is much nicer and simpler user interface. Lightroom Lightroom does a smashing job of basic fixing and editing. It is more advanced tool for photographers. They can use it to have a startling photography effect. Light room has many advanced features, which makes it one of the best tools for photographers and far ahead of the other two. They are Nondestructive editing. Nothing is actually changed in an image until the photo is exported. Better controls over organizing your photos. Lightroom helps to gather a group of photos to use in a slideshow. Lightroom has larger Compare and Survey views of images. Quickly customizable interface. Simple keystrokes allow you to perform different All Lightroom controls are kept available in panels right next to the photos. Always-available History palette, it doesn’t go when you close lightroom. You gain more colors to work with compared to Photoshop and with more precise control. Local control, or adjusting small parts of a photo without affecting anything else, has long been an important part of photography. In Lightroom 2, you can darken, lighten, and affect color and change sharpness and other aspects of specific areas in the photo simply by brushing your cursor across the areas. Photoshop has far more power in its Cloning and Healing Brush tools than Lightroom, but Lightroom offers simple cloning and healing that’s nondestructive. Lightroom supports the RAW formats of more cameras than Aperture. Lightroom provides the option of storing images outside the application in the file system. It costs less than photoshop. Download Why PhotoShop is advanced than Lightroom? There are countless image processing plug-ins on the market for doing specialized processing in Photoshop. For example, if your image needs sophisticated noise reduction, you can use the Noiseware plug-in with Photoshop to do a much better job or noise removal than Lightroom can do. Lightroom’s advantages over Aperture 3 Will always have better integration with Photoshop. Lightroom is backed by bigger and more active user community (So abundant availability for tutorials, etc.) Better noise reduction tool. Especially for photographers the Lens-distortion correction tool  is perfect Lightroom Cons: • Have to Import images to work on them • Slows down with over 10,000 images in the catalog • For processing just one or two images this is a slower workflow Photoshop Pros: • ACR has the same RAW processing controls as Lightroom • ACR Histogram is specialized to the chosen color space (Lightroom is locked into ProPhoto RGB color space with an sRGB tone curve) • Don’t have to Import images to open in Bridge or ACR • Ability to customize processing of RAW images with Photoshop Actions Pricing and Availability Get LightRoomGet PhotoShop Latest version Of Photoshop can be purchased from Adobe store and Adobe authorized reseller and it costs US$999. Latest version of Aperture can be bought for US$199 from Apple Online store or Mac App Store. You can buy latest version of LightRoom from Adobe Store or Adobe Authorized reseller for US$299. Related posts:Adobe Photoshop CS5 vs Photoshop CS5 extended Web based Alternatives to Photoshop 10 Free Alternatives for Adobe Photoshop Software

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• Add Background Images and Themes to Windows 7 Media Center

  - by DigitalGeekery

  Are you tired of the same Windows Media Center look and feel? Today we’ll show you how change the background and apply themes to WMC. Changing the Basic Color Scheme in WMC There are a couple of very basic color scheme options built in to Windows 7 Media Center. From the WMC Start Menu, select Settings on the Tasks strip and then select General. On the General settings screen select Visual and Sound Effects.   Under Color scheme you’ll find options for Windows Media Center standard, High contrast white, and High contrast black. Simply select a color scheme and click Save before exiting.   If you have used Media Center before you are familiar with the standard blue default theme. There is also the high contrast white. And, the high contrast black. Changing the Background Image with Media Center Studio Themes and custom backgrounds need to be added with the third-party software, Media Center Studio. You can find the download link at the end of this article. You can use your own high resolution photo, or download one from the Internet. For best results, you’ll want to find an image that meets or exceeds the resolution of your monitor. Also, using a darker colored background image is ideal as it should contrast better with the lighter colored text of the start menu. Once you’ve downloaded and installed Media Center Studio (link below), open the application select the Home tab on the ribbon and make sure you are on the Themes tab below. Click New. Select Biography from the left pane and type in a name for your new theme.   Next, click on the triangle next to Images to expand the list below. You’ll want to browse to Images > Common > Background. You should see a list of PNG image files located below Background. We will want to swap out the COMMON.ANIMATED.BACKGROUND.PNG and the COMMON.BACKGROUND.PNG images. Select COMMON.ANIMATED.BACKGROUND.PNG and click on the Browse button on the right.   Browse for your photo and click Open. Your selected image will appear on the left pane. Now, do the same for the COMMON.BACKGROUND.PNG. When finished, select the Home tab on the ribbon at the top and click Save.   Now switch to the Themes tab on the ribbon and the Themes tab below. (There are two Themes tabs which can be a bit confusing). Select your theme on the right pane and click Apply. Note: You won’t see the image backgrounds displayed. Your theme will be applied to Media Center. Close out of Media Center Studio and open Windows Media Center to check out your new background.   You can load multiple backgrounds images and switch them periodically as your mood changes. You might like to find a nice background featuring your favorite movie or TV show.   Perhaps you can even find a background of your favorite sports team.   Installing Themes with Media Center Studio Theme7MC has made available a small group of Media Center Studio Theme packs that are simple to download and install. You can find the download link below. Note: Before installing a theme, turn off any extenders and close Windows Media Center. Download any (or all) of the Theme7MC theme packages to your Media Center PC. Open Media Center Studio, select the Themes tab (the one at the top) and click Import Theme.   Browse for the theme you wish to import and click Open. Select your theme from the themes pane and click Apply. Media Center Studio will proceed to apply your theme. You should then see your new theme appear under Current theme on the left theme pane. Close out of Media Center Studio. Open Media Center and enjoy your new theme. Conclusion Media Center Studio runs on Windows 7 or Vista and gives users a solution for personalizing their Media Center backgrounds. It is a Beta application, however, so it still has a few bugs. Currently, there are only a handful of themes available at Themes7MC, but what they have is pretty slick. If you’d like to further customize the look of Media Center, check out our previous article on how to customize the Media Center start menu with Media Center Studio. Downloads Media Center Studio Theme7MC Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Using Netflix Watchnow in Windows Vista Media Center (Gmedia)How To Rip a Music CD in Windows 7 Media CenterAutomatically Mount and View ISO files in Windows 7 Media CenterSchedule Updates for Windows Media CenterIntegrate Hulu Desktop and Windows Media Center in Windows 7 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 AceStock, a Tiny Desktop Quote Monitor Gmail Button Addon (Firefox) Hyperwords addon (Firefox) Backup Outlook 2010 Daily Motivator (Firefox) FetchMp3 Can Download Videos & Convert Them to Mp3

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• Test Drive Windows 7 Online with Virtual Labs

  - by Matthew Guay

  Did you miss out on the Windows 7 public beta and want to try it out before you actually make the leap and upgrade? Maybe you want to learn how to deploy new features in a business environment. Here’s how you can test drive Windows 7 directly from your browser. Whether you manage 10,000 desktops or simply manage your own laptop, it’s usually best to test out a new OS before installing it.  If you’re upgrading from Windows XP you may find many things unfamiliar.  Microsoft has setup a special Windows 7 Test Drive website with resources to help IT professionals test and deploy Windows 7 in their workplaces.  This is a great resource to try out Windows 7 from the comfort of your browser, and look at some of the new features without even installing it. Please note that the online version is not nearly as responsive as a full standard install of Windows 7.  It also does not run the full Aero interface or desktop effects, and may refresh slowly depending on your Internet connection.  So don’t judge Windows 7’s performance based on this virtual lab, but use it as a way to learn more about Windows 7 without installing it. Getting Started To test drive Windows 7, visit Microsoft’s Windows 7 Test Drive website (link below).  You will need to run the Windows 7 Test Drive in Internet Explorer, as it requires Active X support.  We received this error when attempting to run the Test Drive in Firefox: Now, click the “Take a Test Drive” link on the bottom left of the page. This site includes several test drives to demonstrate different features of Windows 7 and its related ecosystem of products including Windows Server 2008 R2, some of which, including the XP Mode test drive, are not yet ready.  For this test, we selected the MED-V Test drive, as this includes Office 2007 and 2010 so you can test them in Windows 7 as well.  Simply select the test drive you want, and click “Try it now!”   If you haven’t run a Windows test drive before, you will be asked to install an ActiveX control.  Click the link to install. Click the yellow bar at the top of the page in Internet Explorer, and select to Install the add-on.  You may have to approve a UAC prompt to finish the install. Once this is finished, click the link on the bottom of the page to return to your test drive.  The test drive page should automatically refresh; if it doesn’t, click refresh to reload it. Now the test drive will load the components.   Once its fully loaded, click the link to launch Windows 7 in a new window. You may see a prompt warning that the server may have been impersonated.  Simply click Yes to proceed. The test lab will give you some getting started directions; click Close Window when you’re ready to try out Windows 7. Here’s the default desktop in the Windows 7 test drive.  You can use it just like a normal Windows computer, but do note that it may function slowly depending on your internet connection.   This test drive includes both Office 2007 and Office 2010 Tech Preview, so you can try out both in Windows 7 as well. You can try out the new Windows 7 applications such as the reworked Paint with the Ribbon interface from Office. Or you can even test the newest version of Media Center, though it will warn you that it may not function good with the down-scaled graphics in the test drive.   Most importantly, you can try out the new features in Windows 7, such as Jumplists and even Aero Snap.  Once again, these features will not function the quickest, but it does let you test them out. While working with the Virtual Lab, there are different tasks it walks you through. You can also download a copy of the lab manual in PDF format to help you navigate through the various objectives. The test drive system is running Microsoft Forefront Security, the enterprise security solution from which Microsoft Security Essentials has adapted components from. Conclusion These virtual labs are great for tech students, or those of you who want to get a first-hand trial of the new features. Also, if you’re not sure on how to deploy something and want to practice in a virtual environment, these labs are quite valuable.While these labs are geared toward IT professionals, it’s a good way for anyone to try out Windows 7 features from the comfort of your current computer. Test Drive Windows 7 Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Mount Multiple ISO Images Using Virtual CloneDriveHow To Delete a VHD in Windows 7Keyboard Shortcuts for VMware WorkstationMount an ISO image in Windows 7 or VistaHow To Turn a Physical Computer Into A Virtual Machine with Disk2vhd TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips DVDFab 6 Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 If it were only this easy SyncToy syncs Files and Folders across Computers on a Network (or partitions on the same drive) Classic Cinema Online offers 100’s of OnDemand Movies OutSync will Sync Photos of your Friends on Facebook and Outlook Windows 7 Easter Theme YoWindoW, a real time weather screensaver

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• Feedback on "market manipulation", a peripheral game mechanic for a satirical MMO

  - by BerndBrot

  This question asks for feedback on a specific game-mechanic. Since there is not one right feedback on a game mechanic, I tried to provide enough context and guidelines to still make it possible for users to rate answers and to accept an answer as the best answer (following these criteria from Writer.SE's meta website). Please comment if you have any suggestions on how I could improve the question in that regard. So, let's begin with the game itself and some of its elements which are relevant for this question. Context I'm working on a satirical, text-based multiplayer adventure and role-playing game set in modern-day London. The game resolves around the concept of sin and features a myriad of (venomous) allusions to all the things that go wrong in this world. Players can choose between character classes like bullshit artist (consultant), bankster, lawyer, mobster, celebrity, politician, etc. In order to complete the game, the player has to live so sinfully with regard to any of the seven deadly sins that a demon is willing to offer them a contract of sponsorship. On their quest to live a sinful live, characters explore more and more locations of modern-day London (on a GoogleMap), fight "monsters" like insurance sales agents or Jehovah's Witnesses, and complete quests, like building a PowerPoint presentation out of marketing buzz words or keeping up a number of substance abuse effects in order to progress on the gluttony path. Battles are turn based with both combatants having a deck of cards, with which they try to make their enemy give in to temptations of all sorts. Tempted enemies sometimes become contacts (an item drop mechanic), which can be exploited for various benefits, depending on their area of influence (finance, underworld, bureaucracy, etc.), level of influence, and kind of sway that the player has over them (bribed, seduced, threatened, etc.) Once a contract has been exploited, the player loses that contact. Most actions require turns. Turns are limited, but refill each day. Criteria A number of peripheral game mechanics are supposed to represent real world abuses and mischief in a humorous way integrate real world data and events to strengthen the feeling of relevance of the game's humor with regard to real world problems add fun ways of interacting with other players add ways for players to express themselves through game-play Market manipulation is one such peripheral game mechanic and should fulfill all of these goals. Market manipulation This is my initial design of the mechanic: Players can enter the London Stock Exchange (LSE) (without paying a turn) LSE displays the stock prices of a number of companies in industries like weapons or tobacco as well as some derivatives based on wheat and corn. The stock prices are calculated based on the actual stock prices of these companies and derivatives (in real time) any market manipulations that were conducted by the players any market corrections of the system Players can buy and sell shares with cash, a resource in the game, at current in-game market value (without paying a turn). Players can manipulate the market, i.e. let the price of a share either rise or fall, by some amount, over a certain period of time. Manipulating the market requires 1 turn A contact in the financial sector (see above). The higher the level of influence of the contact, the stronger the effect of the manipulation on the stock price, and/or the shorter it takes for the manipulation to manifest itself. Market manipulation also adds a crime to the player's record. (There are a multitude of ways to take care of that, but it is still another "cost" of market manipulations.) The system continuously corrects market manipulations by letting the in-game prices converge towards their real world counterparts at a rate of 2% of the difference between the two per hour. Because of this market correction mechanism, pushing up prices (and screwing down prices) becomes increasingly difficult the higher (lower) the price already is. Whenever food prices reach a certain level, in-game stories are posted about hunger catastrophes happening somewhere far, far away (maybe with links to real world news stories). Whenever a player sells a certain number of shares with a sufficiently high margin, they are mentioned in that day's in-game financial news. Since the number of stock options is very limited, players will inevitably collide in their efforts to manipulate the market in their favor. Hopefully, it will also be a fun side-arena for guilds and covenants to fight each other. Question(s) What do you think of this mechanism given the criteria for peripheral game mechanics that I specified for my game? Do you have any ideas how the mechanic could be improved with regard to these criteria (or otherwise)? Could it be improved to allow for more expressive game-play, or involve an allusion to some other real world madness (like short selling, leveraging, or some other banking magic)? Are there any game-theoretic problems with this mechanic, like maybe certain dominant individual strategies that, collectively, lead to every player profiting and thus eliminating the idea of market manipulation PVP? Also, if you like (or dislike) this question, feel free to participate in the discussion on GDSE meta: "Should we be more lax with regard to SE's question/answer format to make game design questions possible?"

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• Ubuntu 11 and 12 initially fast but later bogs down, CPU pegged

  - by uos??

  I started with Ubuntu 11 a few weeks ago. It's on a DELL M4300 with a OCZ SSD. Default setup, except that I've installed the proprietary NVIDIA graphics and BROADCOM wireless drivers. Dual boot with Windows. If I cold boot into Ubuntu, it is very fast, just like the Windows experience that I'm used to. But SOMETHING happens, and I haven't yet determined what, but the system gets incredibly slow and stays that way. At first I thought it had to do with Adobe Flash because it seemed to be triggered by sites with Flash. But then I removed Flash and the problem remains. I thought it was just an overheating problem, but I've now upgraded to 12.04 which supposedly fixes the overheating problems I've read about. Perhaps the heat situation was brought on by Flash in my early cases? So I installed Jupiter for CPU management, but the thermometer reports a familiar Windows-side temperature of 53 degrees Celsius. Switching Jupiter to lower performance doesn't help. When I check the System Monitor application, sorting by CPU usage, there are no obvious problem processes. However, in the graphs tab, both CPU cores are pegged at 100%! I notice that the slowness seems to be similar to the extremely bad performance I got prior to installing the NVIDIA drivers. I'm not sure if that helps. This is the strangest part to me - although the temperature seems OK, even after rebooting, the system remains slow - starting with GRUB2 which is very noticeably delayed, all the way through to either Ubuntu or Windows! That's right, even the Windows side suffers effects and takes several minutes to complete booting whereas normally (with my SSD) it's ready to use in 15 seconds. The only way to fix it is to shutdown and let the parts cool down. Or maybe it just needs to completely power off and boot rather than a soft reboot, temperature has nothing to do with it? - is that possible? But know that I have never had this problem in Windows, even if Windows gets very hot (135 F) a reboot would be enough time for it to recover. For this reason, I don't think it's a heat thing, but I can't imagine what else could be surviving the reboot. I'm entirely updated - there are no pending updates. I have the Post-Release updates of NVIDIA too, btw. If this sounds CLOSE to something you know about, but one of the details doesn't line up exactly, it might be a mistake in my perception. Are there tests you can suggest to rule something out? Thanks! processor : 0 vendor_id : GenuineIntel cpu family : 6 model : 23 model name : Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T9500 @ 2.60GHz stepping : 6 microcode : 0x60c cpu MHz : 800.000 cache size : 6144 KB physical id : 0 siblings : 2 core id : 0 cpu cores : 2 apicid : 0 initial apicid : 0 fpu : yes fpu_exception : yes cpuid level : 10 wp : yes flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe syscall nx lm constant_tsc arch_perfmon pebs bts rep_good nopl aperfmperf pni dtes64 monitor ds_cpl vmx est tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr pdcm sse4_1 lahf_lm ida dts tpr_shadow vnmi flexpriority bogomips : 5187.00 clflush size : 64 cache_alignment : 64 address sizes : 36 bits physical, 48 bits virtual power management: processor : 1 vendor_id : GenuineIntel cpu family : 6 model : 23 model name : Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T9500 @ 2.60GHz stepping : 6 microcode : 0x60c cpu MHz : 800.000 cache size : 6144 KB physical id : 0 siblings : 2 core id : 1 cpu cores : 2 apicid : 1 initial apicid : 1 fpu : yes fpu_exception : yes cpuid level : 10 wp : yes flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe syscall nx lm constant_tsc arch_perfmon pebs bts rep_good nopl aperfmperf pni dtes64 monitor ds_cpl vmx est tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr pdcm sse4_1 lahf_lm ida dts tpr_shadow vnmi flexpriority bogomips : 5186.94 clflush size : 64 cache_alignment : 64 address sizes : 36 bits physical, 48 bits virtual power management: (Redundant figures removed. You can view them in the edits if they are still relevant) ps: %CPU PID USER COMMAND 9.4 2399 jason gnome-terminal 6.2 2408 jason bash 17.3 1117 root /usr/bin/X :0 -auth /var/run/lightdm/root/:0 -nolisten tcp vt7 -novtswitch -background none 13.7 1667 jason compiz 1.3 1960 jason /usr/lib/unity/unity-panel-service 1.3 1697 jason python /usr/bin/jupiter 0.9 1964 jason /usr/lib/indicator-appmenu/hud-service 0.6 1689 jason nautilus -n 0.4 1458 jason //bin/dbus-daemon --fork --print-pid 5 --print-address 7 --session I should highlight specifically that GRUB2 can also be very slow. I don't know the relationship of which scenarios GRUB2 is also slow, but WHEN it is slow, it is slow both before the menu appears and after the selection is made - although for the diagnosis of GRUB2 it is harder for me to tell what the normal speeds should be. With SSD, I would expect that GRUB2 could load instantly, and that the GRUB2 purple would disappear instantly after the selection. The only delay to be expected is the change in graphics modes (though I couldn't guess why that ever requires any noticeable time)

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