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  • Can I use my prepaid phone balance (in pesos) to buy from the Software Centre?

    - by obetus
    Using local network broadband, we can use it to buy games and applications from load balance. Is there any possible ways to use it also in Ubuntu software Center? additional: I'm using mobile broadband for the internet connection,this broadband has a sim card and account number where you can download money from buying a prepaid card worth 100 pesos,300 pesos or 500 pesos, provided by our local network. We use this mobile broadband when there is no wifi connection. There are two kinds of mobile broadband, one is postpaid account and the other is prepaid account. I use prepaid account, this kind of account can load a money for transaction like data plans, from 10 pesos for 30 minutes internet connection or 200 pesos for 5 days internet connection., and this prepaid account can load 5 pesos up to thousands of pesos. Now, if this prepaid mobile broadband can provide money in pesos and has internet connection, I think it can also use it for buying goods or applications or games via internet. i think its only need a software that can detect the sim card number and the money balance for transactions. Sorry for my bad english but I hope you got my point.

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  • ConfigurationManager.AppSettings is empty?

    - by Mattousai
    Hello All, I have a VS2008 ASP.NET Web Service Application running on the local IIS of my XP machine. A separate project in the same solution uses test methods to invoke the WS calls, and run their processes. When I added a web reference to the WS App, VS2008 created a Settings.settings file in the Properties folder to store the address of the web reference. This process also created a new section in the Web.config file called applicationSettings to store the values from Settings.settings When my application attempts to retrieve configuration values from the appSettings section of the Web.config file, via ConfigurationManager.AppSettings[key], all values are null and AppSettings.AllKeys.Length is always zero. I even reverted the Web.config file to before the web reference was added, and made sure it was exactly the same as a system-generated web.config file for a new project that works fine. After comparing the reverted Web.config and a new Web.config, I addded one simple value in the appSettings section, and still no luck with ConfigurationManager.AppSettings[key]. Here is the reverted Web.config that cannot be read from <?xml version="1.0"?> <configuration> <configSections> <sectionGroup name="system.web.extensions" type="System.Web.Configuration.SystemWebExtensionsSectionGroup, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35"> <sectionGroup name="scripting" type="System.Web.Configuration.ScriptingSectionGroup, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35"> <section name="scriptResourceHandler" type="System.Web.Configuration.ScriptingScriptResourceHandlerSection, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" requirePermission="false" allowDefinition="MachineToApplication"/> <sectionGroup name="webServices" type="System.Web.Configuration.ScriptingWebServicesSectionGroup, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35"> <section name="jsonSerialization" type="System.Web.Configuration.ScriptingJsonSerializationSection, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" requirePermission="false" allowDefinition="Everywhere" /> <section name="profileService" type="System.Web.Configuration.ScriptingProfileServiceSection, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" requirePermission="false" allowDefinition="MachineToApplication" /> <section name="authenticationService" type="System.Web.Configuration.ScriptingAuthenticationServiceSection, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" requirePermission="false" allowDefinition="MachineToApplication" /> <section name="roleService" type="System.Web.Configuration.ScriptingRoleServiceSection, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" requirePermission="false" allowDefinition="MachineToApplication" /> </sectionGroup> </sectionGroup> </sectionGroup> </configSections> <appSettings> <add key="testkey" value="testvalue"/> </appSettings> <connectionStrings/> <system.web> <!-- Set compilation debug="true" to insert debugging symbols into the compiled page. Because this affects performance, set this value to true only during development. --> <compilation debug="false"> <assemblies> <add assembly="System.Core, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=B77A5C561934E089"/> <add assembly="System.Data.DataSetExtensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=B77A5C561934E089"/> <add assembly="System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35"/> <add assembly="System.Xml.Linq, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=B77A5C561934E089"/> </assemblies> </compilation> <!-- The <authentication> section enables configuration of the security authentication mode used by ASP.NET to identify an incoming user. --> <authentication mode="Windows" /> <!-- The <customErrors> section enables configuration of what to do if/when an unhandled error occurs during the execution of a request. Specifically, it enables developers to configure html error pages to be displayed in place of a error stack trace. <customErrors mode="RemoteOnly" defaultRedirect="GenericErrorPage.htm"> <error statusCode="403" redirect="NoAccess.htm" /> <error statusCode="404" redirect="FileNotFound.htm" /> </customErrors> --> <pages> <controls> <add tagPrefix="asp" namespace="System.Web.UI" assembly="System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35"/> <add tagPrefix="asp" namespace="System.Web.UI.WebControls" assembly="System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35"/> </controls> </pages> <httpHandlers> <remove verb="*" path="*.asmx"/> <add verb="*" path="*.asmx" validate="false" type="System.Web.Script.Services.ScriptHandlerFactory, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35"/> <add verb="*" path="*_AppService.axd" validate="false" type="System.Web.Script.Services.ScriptHandlerFactory, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35"/> <add verb="GET,HEAD" path="ScriptResource.axd" type="System.Web.Handlers.ScriptResourceHandler, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" validate="false"/> </httpHandlers> <httpModules> <add name="ScriptModule" type="System.Web.Handlers.ScriptModule, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35"/> </httpModules> </system.web> <system.codedom> <compilers> <compiler language="c#;cs;csharp" extension=".cs" warningLevel="4" type="Microsoft.CSharp.CSharpCodeProvider, System, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089"> <providerOption name="CompilerVersion" value="v3.5"/> <providerOption name="WarnAsError" value="false"/> </compiler> </compilers> </system.codedom> <!-- The system.webServer section is required for running ASP.NET AJAX under Internet Information Services 7.0. It is not necessary for previous version of IIS. --> <system.webServer> <validation validateIntegratedModeConfiguration="false"/> <modules> <remove name="ScriptModule" /> <add name="ScriptModule" preCondition="managedHandler" type="System.Web.Handlers.ScriptModule, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35"/> </modules> <handlers> <remove name="WebServiceHandlerFactory-Integrated"/> <remove name="ScriptHandlerFactory" /> <remove name="ScriptHandlerFactoryAppServices" /> <remove name="ScriptResource" /> <add name="ScriptHandlerFactory" verb="*" path="*.asmx" preCondition="integratedMode" type="System.Web.Script.Services.ScriptHandlerFactory, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35"/> <add name="ScriptHandlerFactoryAppServices" verb="*" path="*_AppService.axd" preCondition="integratedMode" type="System.Web.Script.Services.ScriptHandlerFactory, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35"/> <add name="ScriptResource" preCondition="integratedMode" verb="GET,HEAD" path="ScriptResource.axd" type="System.Web.Handlers.ScriptResourceHandler, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" /> </handlers> </system.webServer> <runtime> <assemblyBinding xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1"> <dependentAssembly> <assemblyIdentity name="System.Web.Extensions" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35"/> <bindingRedirect oldVersion="1.0.0.0-1.1.0.0" newVersion="3.5.0.0"/> </dependentAssembly> <dependentAssembly> <assemblyIdentity name="System.Web.Extensions.Design" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35"/> <bindingRedirect oldVersion="1.0.0.0-1.1.0.0" newVersion="3.5.0.0"/> </dependentAssembly> </assemblyBinding> </runtime> </configuration> Has anyone experienced this, or know how to solve the problem? TIA -Matt

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  • CSS Footer bar bottom center issue

    - by StealthRT
    Hey all, i am trying to get my bottom bar to center on the screen but i am unable to do so. <style type="text/css"> body { background: #fffff; margin: 0; padding: 0; font: 10px normal Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; } * {margin: 0; padding: 0; outline: none;} #bottomBar { position: fixed; bottom: 0px; left: 0px; z-index: 9999; background: #e3e2e2; border: 1px solid #c3c3c3; border-bottom: none; width: 500px; min-width: 500px; margin: 0px auto; -moz-opacity:.90; filter:alpha(opacity=90); opacity:.90; } *html #bottomBar {margin-top: -1px; position: absolute; top:expression(eval(document.compatMode &&document.compatMode=='CSS1Compat') ?documentElement.scrollTop+(documentElement.clientHeight-this.clientHeight) : document.body.scrollTop +(document.body.clientHeight-this.clientHeight));} #bottomBar ul {padding: 0; margin: 0;float: left;width: 100%;list-style: none;border-top: 1px solid #fff;} #bottomBar ul li{padding: 0; margin: 0;float: left;position: relative;} #bottomBar ul li a{padding: 5px;float: left;text-indent: -9999px;height: 16px; width: 16px;text-decoration: none;color: #333;position: relative;} html #bottomBar ul li a:hover{ background-color: #fff; } a.PDF{background: url(http://www.xxx.com/img/pdficon.png) no-repeat center center; } </style> <div id="bottomBar"> <ul id="mainpanel"> <li style="padding-top:5px; font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; padding-left: 5px;">First time here? Be sure to check out the "this" button above or download the PDF here -></li> <li><a href="http://www.xxx.com" class="PDF">Download PDF <small>Download PDF</small></a></li> </ul> </div> Thanks! David

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  • How can I terminate a system command with alarm in Perl?

    - by rockyurock
    I am running the below code snippet on Windows. The server starts listening continuously after reading from client. I want to terminate this command after a time period. If I use alarm() function call within main.pl, then it terminates the whole Perl program (here main.pl), so I called this system command by placing it in a separate Perl file and calling this Perl file (alarm.pl) in the original Perl File using the system command. But in this way I was unable to take the output of this system() call neither in the original Perl File nor in called one Perl File. Could anybody please let me know the way to terminate a system() call or take the output in that way I used above? main.pl my @output = system("alarm.pl"); print"one iperf completed\n"; open FILE, ">display.txt" or die $!; print FILE @output_1; close FILE; alarm.pl alarm 30; my @output_1 = readpipe("adb shell cd /data/app; ./iperf -u -s -p 5001"); open FILE, ">display.txt" or die $!; print FILE @output_1; close FILE; In both ways display.txt is always empty.

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  • [SmartGWT] How to center a DynamicForm?

    - by user334209
    Hi there! I'm new in smartGWT and I'm getting problems designing my client. I'd like to know if there is a way to center a form. I have a TabSet in my page. I would like to make the first tab ("Welcome") similar to Google search engine, with the search box centered in the pane. The setAlign(Alignment.CENTER) method doesn't for this type of object. I get to have this at this point : link text Thanks you for helping me.

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  • NSNotification center may not respond to -object ?

    - by blackkettle
    Hi, I'm trying to make simple use of the NSNotification center inside my iPhone application, but I seem to be doing something wrong in this case. I was under the impression that it was possible to retrieve an object associated with a particular message, or at least a reference to the object, but using the following example code I'm getting a warning, "NSNotification center may not respond to -object" - (void)addNewBookmark:(NSNotificationCenter *)notification { Bookmark *newBookMark = (Bookmark *)[notification object]; //Do some stuff with the bookmark object } Indeed, when I compile and run the code, basically nothing I try to do with the contents of the object actually gets carried out - it's simply ignored. The post code is as follows, - (IBAction)save:(id) sender{ //Sending the message with the related object [[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] postNotificationName:@"addNewBookmark" object:bookmark]; } and the bookmark object itself is just a dictionary. I also tried using the "userInfo" argument and passing the bookmark object through that, but the result was the same. How should I be doing this? What am I doing wrong?

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  • How to center text around point using xaml

    - by Pete d'Oronzio
    I would like to be able to place the word "hello" centered on a specific point. I need to do this completely in XAML without extra code. Best I can tell, all the text alignment properties/styles in XAML act on text within some bouding canvas or other element. Since I don't know the length of the text I want to center, I can't center it using my own code. The reason I need to solve the problem entirely in XAML is that I'm not using WPF to create the XAML, I'm writing it directly to an XML DOM. It will then be loaded into a Silverlight or WPF control for display. In most graphic languages, including SVG, which is where my code originated, text can be aligned against a "stationary point" without a bounding box. Any suggestions appreciated

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  • Center the stage in Flash CS4/AS3 on a standalone player

    - by Technoh
    I have a Flash presentation (made in Flash CS4 with AS3) I am working on and running in a standalone Flash player. When I start the presentation the stage is centered in the Flash player, even if I resize it. The presentation contains an FLVPlayback component which, at different frames, plays different content. A navigation menu (made of buttons) is used to move through the different frames. My problem is that if the player is resized so that it is bigger than the stage, sometimes after going into and exiting from fullScreen mode, the stage is moved to the left and I cannot find a way to move it back to the center. I cannot stage the scale as the content becomes distorted and I do not want to force fullScreen all the time. I would just like to center the stage in the Flash player. Is such a thing possible? Any help is greatly appreciated.

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  • How to center align background image in JPanel

    - by Jaguar
    I wanted to add background image to my JFrame. Background image means I can later add Components on the JFrame or JPanel Although I coudn't find how to add background image to a JFrame, I found out how to add background image to a JPanel from here: How to set background image in Java? This solved my problem, but now since my JFrame is resizable I want to keep the image in center. The code I found uses this method public void paintComponent(Graphics g) { //Draw the previously loaded image to Component. g.drawImage(img, 0, 0, null); //Draw image } Can anyone say how to align the image to center of the JPanel. As g.drawImage(img, 0, 0, null); provides x=0 and y=0 Also if there is a method to add background image to a JFrame then I would like to know. Thanks.

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  • Can I mark an Email as "High Importance" for Outlook using System.Net.Mail?

    - by ccornet
    Part of the application I'm working on for my client involves sending emails for events. Sometimes these are highly important. My client, and most of my client's clients, use Outlook, which has the ability to mark a mail message as High Importance. Now, I know it is callous to assume that all end users will be using the same interface, sp I am not. But considering you can send email from Outlook as High Importance even if the target is not necessarily reading through Outlook, that means that there is basically some data stored... somehow... that lets Outlook know if a particular message was assigned as High Importance. That's my interpretation, at least. The application currently uses System.Net.Mail to send out emails, using System.Net.Mail.MailMessages for writing them and System.Net.Mail.SmtpClient to send them. Is it possible to set this "High Importance" setting with System.Net.Mail's abilities? If not, is there any assembly available which can configure this setting?

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  • GCC how to block system calls within a program?

    - by CMPITG
    Does anyone tell me how to block system calls within a program, please? I am building a system which takes a piece of C source code, compiles it with gcc and runs it. For security reasons, I need to prevent the compiled program from calling system calls. Is there any way to do it, from the source code level (e.g. stripping the header files of gcc, detecting malicious external calls, ...) to the executable level?

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  • using CSS to center FLOATED input elements wrapped in a DIV

    - by Tim
    There's no shortage of questions and answers about centering but I've not been able to get it to work given my specific circumstances, which involve floating. I want to center a container DIV that contains three floated input elements (split-button, text, checkbox), so that when my page is resized wider, they go from this: ||.....[ ][v] [ ] [ ] label .....|| to this ||......................[ ][v] [ ] [ ] label.......................|| They float fine, but when the page is made wider, they stay to the left: ||.....[ ][v] [ ] [ ] label .......................................|| If I remove the float so that the input elements are stacked rather than side-by-side: [ ][v] [ ] [ ] label then they DO center correctly when the page is resized. SO it is the float being applied to the elements of the DIV#hbox inside the container that is messing up the centering. Is what I want to do impossible because of the way float is designed to work? Here is my DOCTYPE, and the markup does validate at w3c: <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd"> Here is my markup: <div id="term1-container"> <div class="hbox"> <div> <button id="operator1" class="operator-split-button">equals</button> <button id="operator1drop">show all operators</button> </div> <div><input type="text" id="term1"></input></div> <div><input type="checkbox" id="meta2"></input><label for="meta2" class="tinylabel">meta</label></div> </div> </div> And here's the (not-working) CSS: #term1-container {text-align: center} .hbox {margin: 0 auto;} .hbox div {float:left; } I have also tried applying display: inline-block to the floated button, text-input, and checkbox; and even though I think it applies only to text, I've also tried applying white-space: nowrap to the #term1-container DIV, based on posts I've seen here on SO. And just to be a little more complete, here's the jQuery that creates the split-button: $(".operator-split-button").button().click( function() { alert( "foo" ); }).next().button( { text: false, icons: { primary: "ui-icon-triangle-1-s" } }).click( function(){positionOperatorsMenu();} ) })

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  • How do I update the system wallpaper in an Android 1.6 service after changing it with setWallpaper()

    - by Majakk
    So basically the code "almost" works - the problem is that the system does not appear to know that the system wallpaper have been changed or does not do anything about it. Starting and closing another app manually appears to enforce an update. In an event call the following is done: getApplicationContext().setWallpaper(pWallOne); Is there some way of telling the android system to update the graphics or to do some cheap trick that forces it to? Any help or tip would be very much appreciated!!

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  • Can you make a living as a system programmer?

    - by Helper Method
    Is there still a market for C system programmers? I love Java and some of the newer JVM languages but at the same time I really enjoy low-level system programming under Unix, using C and the GNU toolchain (it makes you feel elitist ;-)). Now I wonder a) is there still a market for C system programmers and b) how much do you earn compared to an app programmer c) is it that much fun in a large scale project?

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  • CSS center in IE6, 7, and 8

    - by John
    This code works for IE7 and 8 but not for 6. How can I get it to work for 6. Or is there a better way to do it? #contentLoading { width:90px; height: 90px; position: fixed; top: 50%; left: 50%; background:url(_img/ajax-loader4.gif) no-repeat center #fff; text-align:center; padding:10px; font:normal 16px Tahoma, Geneva, sans-serif; border:2px solid #666; margin-left: -50px; margin-top: -50px; z-index:2; overflow: auto; }

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  • A way to ensure that a system tray icon is removed... guaranteed

    - by Brian R. Bondy
    Is there a way to guarantee that your system tray icon is removed? To add the system tray icon you do: Shell_NotifyIcon(NIM_ADD, &m_tnd); To remove the system tray icon you do: Shell_NotifyIcon(NIM_DELETE, &m_tnd); What I want to know: what if you application crashes? The icon stays in your system tray until you mouse over. Is there a way to guarantee that the icon will be removed, even when the application crashes? I would prefer not to use structured exception handling for various reasons. Another case that I want to handle is when the process is killed, but doesn't necessarily crash.

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  • Resize and center image in html/css?

    - by Derek
    Is there a way I can resize, crop, and center an image using html/css only? (img tag or css sprite) For example if I have a 500x500 pixel image, I want to resize that to a 250x250 pixel image I want to make the actual visible image to be 100x100, but still have the scale of a 250x250 sized image. I want the center of the image to be at a location x,y. Is that possible with only html/css, if not, how do you propose I go about it with javascript? Edit - ????: For (2), say my scaled image is now 200x200, and I want my visible image to be 100x100: So I guess what I mean is I want the scale and resolution of the image to be 200x200 but I want the visible image to be 100x100 or in other words the visible image would be at coordinates x,y: 0,0; 0,100; 100,0; 100,100; of the 200x200 image. Sorry, but I'm not good at explaining this.

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  • Print Data Frame with Columns Center Aligned in R

    - by Glen
    I would like to print a data frame where the columns are center aligned. Below is what I have I tried, I thought printing the data frame test1 would result in the columns being aligned in the center but this is not the case. Any thoughts on how I can do this? test=data.frame(x=c(1,2,3),y=c(5,6,7)) names(test)=c('Variable 1','Variable 2') test[,1]=as.character(test[,1]) test[,2]=as.character(test[,2]) test1=format(test,justify='centre') print(test,row.names=FALSE,quote=FALSE) Variable 1 Variable 2 1 5 2 6 3 7 print(test1,row.names=FALSE,quote=FALSE) Variable 1 Variable 2 1 5 2 6 3 7

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  • PC to HDTV, Catalyst Control Center problem (Overscan)

    - by Eric
    I'm trying to get to the overscan slider in CCC but in the Desktops and Displays menu I can't right click the tv in the bottom left to bring up the configure option. If i hover the mouse over the tv it says TV, Disabled. How do i enable it? It's a Panasonic plasma hooked up to my pc using an HDMI to a Radeon HD 4870 X2 http://img38.imageshack.us/img38/4875/ati3r.jpg

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  • ubuntu 13.10 kvm binary is deprecated, please use qemu-system-x86_64

    - by ??1986
    I just upgrade from 13.04 to 13.10 and I have this issue when I run my KVM Unable to complete install: 'internal error: process exited while connecting to monitor: W: kvm binary is deprecated, please use qemu-system-x86_64 instead char device redirected to /dev/pts/10 (label charserial0) failed to initialize KVM: Device or resource busy Detail Error: Traceback (most recent call last): File "/usr/share/virt-manager/virtManager/asyncjob.py", line 96, in cb_wrapper callback(asyncjob, *args, **kwargs) File "/usr/share/virt-manager/virtManager/create.py", line 1983, in do_install guest.start_install(False, meter=meter) File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/virtinst/Guest.py", line 1246, in start_install noboot) File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/virtinst/Guest.py", line 1314, in _create_guest dom = self.conn.createLinux(start_xml or final_xml, 0) File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/libvirt.py", line 2892, in createLinux if ret is None:raise libvirtError('virDomainCreateLinux() failed', conn=self) libvirtError: internal error: process exited while connecting to monitor: W: kvm binary is deprecated, please use qemu-system-x86_64 instead char device redirected to /dev/pts/8 (label charserial0) failed to initialize KVM: Device or resource busy

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  • Google TV Gets Bad Reception. Can Media Center Pull in the Signal?

    - by andrewbrust
    The news hit Monday morning that Google has decided to delay the release of its Google TV platform, and has asked its OEMs to delay any products that embed the software.  Coming just about two weeks prior to the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Google’s timing is about the worst imaginable.  CES is where the platform should have had its coming out party, especially given all the anticipation that has built up since its initial announcement came 7 months ago. At last year’s CES, it seemed every consumer electronics company had fashioned its own software stack for Internet-based video programming and applications/widgets on its TVs, optical disc players and set top boxes.  In one case, I even saw two platforms on a single TV set (one provided by Yahoo and the other one native to the TV set). The whole point of Google TV was to solve this problem and offer a standard, embeddable platform.  But that won’t be happening, at least not for a while.  Google seems unable to get it together, and more proprietary approaches, like Apple TV, don’t seem to be setting the world of TV-Internet convergence on fire, either. It seems to me, that when it comes to building a “TV operating system,” Windows Media Center is still the best of a bad bunch.  But it won’t stay so for much longer without some changes.  Will Redmond pick up the ball that Google has fumbled?  I’m skeptical, but hopeful.  Regardless, here are some steps that could help Microsoft make the most of Google’s faux pas: Introduce a new Media Center version that uses XBox 360, rather than Windows 7 (or 8), as the platform.  TV platforms should be appliance-like, not PC-like.  Combine that notion with the runaway sales numbers for Xbox 360 Kinect, and the mass appeal it has delivered for Xbox, and the switch form Windows makes even more sense. As I have pointed out before, Microsoft’s Xbox implementation of its Mediaroom platform (announced and demoed at last year’s CES) gets Redmond 80% of the way toward this goal.  Nothing stops Microsoft from going the other 20%, other than its own apathy, which I hope has dissipated. Reverse the decision to remove Drive Extender technology from Windows Home Server (WHS), and create deep integration between WHS and Media Center.  I have suggested this previously as well, but the recent announcement that Drive Extender would be dropped from WHS 2.0 creates the need for me to a) join the chorus of people urging Microsoft to reconsider and b) reiterate the importance of Media Center-WHS integration in the context of a Google compete scenario. Enable Windows Phone 7 (WP7) as a Media Center client.  This would tighten the integration loop already established between WP7, Xbox and Zune.  But it would also counter Echostar/DISH Network/Sling Media, strike a blow against Google/Android (and even Apple/iOS) and could be the final strike against TiVO. Bring the WP7 user interface to Media Center and Kinect-enable it.  This would further the integration discussed above and would be appropriate recognition of WP7’s Metro UI having been built on the heritage of the original Media Center itself.  And being able to run your DVR even if you can’t find the remote (or can’t see its buttons in the dark) could be a nifty gimmick. Microsoft can do this but its consumer-oriented organization, responsible for Xbox, Zune and WP7, has to take the reins here, or none of this will likely work.  There’s a significant chance that won’t happen, but I won’t let that stop me from hoping that it does and insisting that it must.  Honestly, this fight is Microsoft’s to lose.

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