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• All possible combinations of length 8 in a 2d array

  - by CodeJunki

  Hi, I've been trying to solve a problem in combinations. I have a matrix 6X6 i'm trying to find all combinations of length 8 in the matrix. I have to move from neighbor to neighbor form each row,column position and i wrote a recursive program which generates the combination but the problem is it generates a lot of duplicates as well and hence is inefficient. I would like to know how could i eliminate calculating duplicates and save time. int a={{1,2,3,4,5,6}, {8,9,1,2,3,4}, {5,6,7,8,9,1}, {2,3,4,5,6,7}, {8,9,1,2,3,4}, {5,6,7,8,9,1}, } void genSeq(int row,int col,int length,int combi) { if(length==8) { printf("%d\n",combi); return; } combi = (combi * 10) + a[row][col]; if((row-1)>=0) genSeq(row-1,col,length+1,combi); if((col-1)>=0) genSeq(row,col-1,length+1,combi); if((row+1)<6) genSeq(row+1,col,length+1,combi); if((col+1)<6) genSeq(row,col+1,length+1,combi); if((row+1)<6&&(col+1)<6) genSeq(row+1,col+1,length+1,combi); if((row-1)>=0&&(col+1)<6) genSeq(row-1,col+1,length+1,combi); if((row+1)<6&&(row-1)>=0) genSeq(row+1,col-1,length+1,combi); if((row-1)>=0&&(col-1)>=0) genSeq(row-1,col-1,length+1,combi); } I was also thinking of writing a dynamic program basically recursion with memorization. Is it a better choice?? if yes than I'm not clear how to implement it in recursion. Have i really hit a dead end with approach??? Thankyou Edit Eg result 12121212,12121218,12121219,12121211,12121213. the restrictions are that you have to move to your neighbor from any point, you have to start for each position in the matrix i.e each row,col. you can move one step at a time, i.e right, left, up, down and the both diagonal positions. Check the if conditions. i.e if your in (0,0) you can move to either (1,0) or (1,1) or (0,1) i.e three neighbors. if your in (2,2) you can move to eight neighbors. so on...

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• Which is the "best" data access framework/approach for C# and .NET?

  - by Frans

  (EDIT: I made it a community wiki as it is more suited to a collaborative format.) There are a plethora of ways to access SQL Server and other databases from .NET. All have their pros and cons and it will never be a simple question of which is "best" - the answer will always be "it depends". However, I am looking for a comparison at a high level of the different approaches and frameworks in the context of different levels of systems. For example, I would imagine that for a quick-and-dirty Web 2.0 application the answer would be very different from an in-house Enterprise-level CRUD application. I am aware that there are numerous questions on Stack Overflow dealing with subsets of this question, but I think it would be useful to try to build a summary comparison. I will endeavour to update the question with corrections and clarifications as we go. So far, this is my understanding at a high level - but I am sure it is wrong... I am primarily focusing on the Microsoft approaches to keep this focused. ADO.NET Entity Framework Database agnostic Good because it allows swapping backends in and out Bad because it can hit performance and database vendors are not too happy about it Seems to be MS's preferred route for the future Complicated to learn (though, see 267357) It is accessed through LINQ to Entities so provides ORM, thus allowing abstraction in your code LINQ to SQL Uncertain future (see Is LINQ to SQL truly dead?) Easy to learn (?) Only works with MS SQL Server See also Pros and cons of LINQ "Standard" ADO.NET No ORM No abstraction so you are back to "roll your own" and play with dynamically generated SQL Direct access, allows potentially better performance This ties in to the age-old debate of whether to focus on objects or relational data, to which the answer of course is "it depends on where the bulk of the work is" and since that is an unanswerable question hopefully we don't have to go in to that too much. IMHO, if your application is primarily manipulating large amounts of data, it does not make sense to abstract it too much into objects in the front-end code, you are better off using stored procedures and dynamic SQL to do as much of the work as possible on the back-end. Whereas, if you primarily have user interaction which causes database interaction at the level of tens or hundreds of rows then ORM makes complete sense. So, I guess my argument for good old-fashioned ADO.NET would be in the case where you manipulate and modify large datasets, in which case you will benefit from the direct access to the backend. Another case, of course, is where you have to access a legacy database that is already guarded by stored procedures. ASP.NET Data Source Controls Are these something altogether different or just a layer over standard ADO.NET? - Would you really use these if you had a DAL or if you implemented LINQ or Entities? NHibernate Seems to be a very powerful and powerful ORM? Open source Some other relevant links; NHibernate or LINQ to SQL Entity Framework vs LINQ to SQL

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• Is this a problem typically solved with IOC?

  - by Dirk

  My current application allows users to define custom web forms through a set of admin screens. it's essentially an EAV type application. As such, I can't hard code HTML or ASP.NET markup to render a given page. Instead, the UI requests an instance of a Form object from the service layer, which in turn constructs one using a several RDMBS tables. Form contains the kind of classes you would expect to see in such a context: Form= IEnumerable<FormSections>=IEnumerable<FormFields> Here's what the service layer looks like: public class MyFormService: IFormService{ public Form OpenForm(int formId){ //construct and return a concrete implementation of Form } } Everything works splendidly (for a while). The UI is none the wiser about what sections/fields exist in a given form: It happily renders the Form object it receives into a functional ASP.NET page. A few weeks later, I get a new requirement from the business: When viewing a non-editable (i.e. read-only) versions of a form, certain field values should be merged together and other contrived/calculated fields should are added. No problem I say. Simply amend my service class so that its methods are more explicit: public class MyFormService: IFormService{ public Form OpenFormForEditing(int formId){ //construct and return a concrete implementation of Form } public Form OpenFormForViewing(int formId){ //construct and a concrete implementation of Form //apply additional transformations to the form } } Again everything works great and balance has been restored to the force. The UI continues to be agnostic as to what is in the Form, and our separation of concerns is achieved. Only a few short weeks later, however, the business puts out a new requirement: in certain scenarios, we should apply only some of the form transformations I referenced above. At this point, it feels like the "explicit method" approach has reached a dead end, unless I want to end up with an explosion of methods (OpenFormViewingScenario1, OpenFormViewingScenario2, etc). Instead, I introduce another level of indirection: public interface IFormViewCreator{ void CreateView(Form form); } public class MyFormService: IFormService{ public Form OpenFormForEditing(int formId){ //construct and return a concrete implementation of Form } public Form OpenFormForViewing(int formId, IFormViewCreator formViewCreator){ //construct a concrete implementation of Form //apply transformations to the dynamic field list return formViewCreator.CreateView(form); } } On the surface, this seems like acceptable approach and yet there is a certain smell. Namely, the UI, which had been living in ignorant bliss about the implementation details of OpenFormForViewing, must possess knowledge of and create an instance of IFormViewCreator. My questions are twofold: Is there a better way to achieve the composability I'm after? (perhaps by using an IoC container or a home rolled factory to create the concrete IFormViewCreator)? Did I fundamentally screw up the abstraction here?

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• Android - dialer icon gets placed in recently used apps after finish()

  - by Donal Rafferty

  In my application I detect the out going call when a call is dialled from the dialer or contacts. This works fine and I then pop up a dialog saying I have detected the call and then the user presses a button to close the dialog which calls finish() on that activity. It all works fine except that when I then hold the home key to bring up the recently used apps the dialer icon is there. And when it is clicked the dialog is brought back into focus in the foreground when the dialog activity should be dead and gone and not be able to be brought back to the foreground. Here is a picture of what I mean. So two questions arise, why would the dialer icon be getting placed there and why would it be recalling my activity to the foreground? Here is the code for that Activity which has a dialog theme: public class CallDialogActivity extends Activity{ boolean isRecording; AudioManager audio_service; public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) { super.onCreate(savedInstanceState); setContentView(R.layout.dialog); audio_service = (AudioManager) getSystemService(Context.AUDIO_SERVICE); getWindow().addFlags(WindowManager.LayoutParams.FLAG_BLUR_BEHIND); Bundle b = this.getIntent().getExtras(); String number = b.getString("com.networks.NUMBER"); String name = b.getString("com.networks.NAME"); TextView tv = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.voip) ; tv.setText(name); Intent service = new Intent(CallAudio.CICERO_CALL_SERVICE); startService(service); final Button stop_Call_Button = (Button) findViewById(R.id.widget35); this.setVolumeControlStream(AudioManager.STREAM_VOICE_CALL); stop_Call_Button.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener(){ public void onClick(View v){ Intent service = new Intent(CallAudio._CALL_SERVICE); //this is for Android 1.5 (sets speaker going for a few seconds before shutting down) stopService(service); Intent setIntent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_MAIN); setIntent.addCategory(Intent.CATEGORY_HOME); setIntent.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TOP); startActivity(setIntent); finish(); isRecording = false; } }); final Button speaker_Button = (Button) findViewById(R.id.widget36); speaker_Button.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener(){ public void onClick(View v){ if(true){ audio_service.setSpeakerphoneOn(false); } else{ audio_service.setSpeakerphoneOn(true); } } }); } @Override protected void onResume() { super.onResume(); } @Override protected void onPause() { super.onPause(); } public void onCofigurationChanged(Configuration newConfig) { super.onConfigurationChanged(newConfig); } } It calls a service that uses AudioRecord to record from the Mic and AudioTrack to play it out the earpiece, nothing in the service to do with the dialler. Has anyone any idea why this might be happening?

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• Not sure what happens to my apps objects when using NSURLSession in background - what state is my app in?

  - by Avner Barr

  More of a general question - I don't understand the workings of NSURLSession when using it in "background session mode". I will supply some simple contrived example code. I have a database which holds objects - such that portions of this data can be uploaded to a remote server. It is important to know which data/objects were uploaded in order to accurately display information to the user. It is also important to be able to upload to the server in a background task because the app can be killed at any point. for instance a simple profile picture object: @interface ProfilePicture : NSObject @property int userId; @property UIImage *profilePicture; @property BOOL successfullyUploaded; // we want to know if the image was uploaded to out server - this could also be a property that is queryable but lets assume this is attached to this object @end Now Lets say I want to upload the profile picture to a remote server - I could do something like: @implementation ProfilePictureUploader -(void)uploadProfilePicture:(ProfilePicture *)profilePicture completion:(void(^)(BOOL successInUploading))completion { NSUrlSession *uploadImageSession = ..... // code to setup uploading the image - and calling the completion handler; [uploadImageSession resume]; } @end Now somewhere else in my code I want to upload the profile picture - and if it was successful update the UI and the database that this action happened: ProfilePicture *aNewProfilePicture = ...; aNewProfilePicture.profilePicture = aImage; aNewProfilePicture.userId = 123; aNewProfilePicture.successfullyUploaded = NO; // write the change to disk [MyDatabase write:aNewProfilePicture]; // upload the image to the server ProfilePictureUploader *uploader = [ProfilePictureUploader ....]; [uploader uploadProfilePicture:aNewProfilePicture completion:^(BOOL successInUploading) { if (successInUploading) { // persist the change to my db. aNewProfilePicture.successfullyUploaded = YES; [Mydase update:aNewProfilePicture]; // persist the change } }]; Now obviously if my app is running then this "ProfilePicture" object is successfully uploaded and all is well - the database object has its own internal workings with data structures/caches and what not. All callbacks that may exist are maintained and the app state is straightforward. But I'm not clear what happens if the app "dies" at some point during the upload. It seems that any callbacks/notifications are dead. According to the API documentation- the uploading is handled by a separate process. Therefor the upload will continue and my app will be awakened at some point in the future to handle completion. But the object "aNewProfilePicture" is non existant at that point and all callbacks/objects are gone. I don't understand what context exists at this point. How am I supposed to ensure consistency in my DB and UI (For instance update the "successfullyUploaded" property for that user)? Do I need to re-work everything touching the DB or UI to correspond with the new API and work in a context free environment?

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• safe dereferencing and deletion

  - by serejko

  Hi, I'm relatively new to C++ and OOP in general and currently trying to make such a class that allows to dereference and delete a dead or invalid pointer without any care of having undefined behavior or program fault in result, and I want to ask you is it a good idea and is there something similar which is already implemented by someone else? or maybe I'm doing something completely wrong? I've just started making it and here is the code I currently have: template<class T> class SafeDeref { public: T& operator *() { hash_set<T*>::iterator it = theStore.find(reinterpret_cast<T*>(ptr)); if (it != theStore.end()) return *this; return theDefaultObject; } T* operator ->() { hash_set<T*>::iterator it = theStore.find(reinterpret_cast<T*>(ptr)); if (it != theStore.end()) return this; return &theDefaultObject; } void* operator new(size_t size) { void* ptr = malloc(size * sizeof(T)); if (ptr != 0) theStore.insert(reinterpret_cast<T*>(ptr)); return ptr; } void operator delete(void* ptr) { hash_set<T*>::iterator it = theStore.find(reinterpret_cast<T*>(ptr)); if (it != theStore.end()) { theStore.erase(it); free(ptr); } } protected: static bool isInStore(T* ptr) { return theStore.find(ptr) != theStore.end(); } private: static T theDefaultObject; static hash_set<T*> theStore; }; The idea is that each class with the safe dereference should be inherited from it like this: class Foo : public SafeDeref<Foo> { void doSomething(); }; So... Any advices? Thanks in advance. P.S. If you're wondering why I need this... well, I'm creating a set of native functions for some scripting environment, and all of them use pointers to internally allocated objects as handles to them and they're able to delete them as well (input data can be wrong), so this is kinda protection from damaging host application's memory And I really sorry for my bad English

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• SSH X11 not working

  - by azat

  I have a home and work computer, the home computer has a static IP address. If I ssh from my work computer to my home computer, the ssh connection works but X11 applications are not displayed. In my /etc/ssh/sshd_config at home: X11Forwarding yes X11DisplayOffset 10 X11UseLocalhost yes At work I have tried the following commands: xhost + home HOME_IP ssh -X home ssh -X HOME_IP ssh -Y home ssh -Y HOME_IP My /etc/ssh/ssh_config at work: Host * ForwardX11 yes ForwardX11Trusted yes My ~/.ssh/config at work: Host home HostName HOME_IP User azat PreferredAuthentications password ForwardX11 yes My ~/.Xauthority at work: -rw------- 1 azat azat 269 Jun 7 11:25 .Xauthority My ~/.Xauthority at home: -rw------- 1 azat azat 246 Jun 7 19:03 .Xauthority But it doesn't work After I make an ssh connection to home: $ echo $DISPLAY localhost:10.0 $ kate X11 connection rejected because of wrong authentication. X11 connection rejected because of wrong authentication. X11 connection rejected because of wrong authentication. X11 connection rejected because of wrong authentication. X11 connection rejected because of wrong authentication. X11 connection rejected because of wrong authentication. X11 connection rejected because of wrong authentication. X11 connection rejected because of wrong authentication. kate: cannot connect to X server localhost:10.0 I use iptables at home, but I've allowed port 22. According to what I've read that's all I need. UPD. With -vvv ... debug2: callback start debug2: x11_get_proto: /usr/bin/xauth list :0 2/dev/null debug1: Requesting X11 forwarding with authentication spoofing. debug2: channel 1: request x11-req confirm 1 debug2: client_session2_setup: id 1 debug2: fd 3 setting TCP_NODELAY debug2: channel 1: request pty-req confirm 1 ... When try to launch kate: debug1: client_input_channel_open: ctype x11 rchan 2 win 65536 max 16384 debug1: client_request_x11: request from 127.0.0.1 55486 debug2: fd 8 setting O_NONBLOCK debug3: fd 8 is O_NONBLOCK debug1: channel 2: new [x11] debug1: confirm x11 debug2: X11 connection uses different authentication protocol. X11 connection rejected because of wrong authentication. debug2: X11 rejected 2 i0/o0 debug2: channel 2: read failed debug2: channel 2: close_read debug2: channel 2: input open - drain debug2: channel 2: ibuf empty debug2: channel 2: send eof debug2: channel 2: input drain - closed debug2: channel 2: write failed debug2: channel 2: close_write debug2: channel 2: output open - closed debug2: X11 closed 2 i3/o3 debug2: channel 2: send close debug2: channel 2: rcvd close debug2: channel 2: is dead debug2: channel 2: garbage collecting debug1: channel 2: free: x11, nchannels 3 debug3: channel 2: status: The following connections are open: #1 client-session (t4 r0 i0/0 o0/0 fd 5/6 cc -1) #2 x11 (t7 r2 i3/0 o3/0 fd 8/8 cc -1) # The same as above repeate about 7 times kate: cannot connect to X server localhost:10.0 UPD2 Please provide your Linux distribution & version number. Are you using a default GNOME or KDE environment for X or something else you customized yourself? azat:~$ kded4 -version Qt: 4.7.4 KDE Development Platform: 4.6.5 (4.6.5) KDE Daemon: $Id$ Are you invoking ssh directly on a command line from a terminal window? What terminal are you using? xterm, gnome-terminal, or? How did you start the terminal running in the X environment? From a menu? Hotkey? or ? From terminal emulator `yakuake` Manualy press `Ctrl + N` and write commands Can you run xeyes from the same terminal window where the ssh -X fails? `xeyes` - is not installed But `kate` or another kde app is running Are you invoking the ssh command as the same user that you're logged into the X session as? From the same user UPD3 I also download ssh sources, and using debug2() write why it's report that version is different It see some cookies, and one of them is empty, another is MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1

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• Apache 2.2 and FastCGI stops responding, warnings, crashes

  - by Brett

  I've seen this question posted a few times using a Google search, with no real answers. I have a multi-threaded FastCGI application running with Apache 2.2 on FreeBSD 7.2. There are a few issues with it, and I am unable to really figure out the source of the problem even after poking through a bunch of the mod_fastcgi source code. My FastCGI application gets anywhere from 2 to 15 or so hits per second, and mostly services a back-end API (the majority of web server usage is for this, and not actually serving content). Everything seems to work ok under normal conditions, but recently this problem has been becoming worse. It starts out with the FastCGI process manager apparently trying to close unneeded processes, sending them a SIGTERM signal. I catch the signal, clean up some stuff, and exit (by calling exit()) with status code 0. This process seems to result in three log messages in my httpd error log: [Tue Jun 01 14:03:31 2010] [warn] FastCGI: (dynamic) server "/home/program/wwwroot/domains/www.mydomain.com/cgi-bin/program.cgi" (pid 98182) termination signaled [Tue Jun 01 14:03:31 2010] [warn] FastCGI: (dynamic) server "/home/program/wwwroot/domains/www.mydomain.com/cgi-bin/program.cgi" (pid 98182) terminated by calling exit with status '0' [Tue Jun 01 14:03:31 2010] [warn] FastCGI: (dynamic) server "/home/program/wwwroot/domains/www.mydomain.com/cgi-bin/program.cgi" restarted (pid 98294) I am not sure why it says it is restarting the process, but in any case no core dump is ever generated so I do believe it is the FastCGI process manager doing it's thing. This makes sense because it begins to happen after the initial load increase from restarting Apache. Since it's down for a few seconds, it gets hit with a couple of hundred requests over the first few seconds it's running again (sometimes even hitting the upper limit of MAXCLIENTS in Apache), and this seems to be the process manager doing the work of spawning more processes to handle the increased load. So this all seems fine, but here is where things get weird. There are really two problems that I see. First, my multithreaded FastCGI process spawns 25 worker threads, and all seem to be used according to my internal log files (multiple processes are clearly using multiple threads to do work). However it seems that 3 or 4 FastCGI processes is not enough to handle the 5 to 15 hit per second load, even though the requests take about .02s or so to process internally. In order to be at all responsive, it seems I need 50 or more FastCGI processes, leading me to believe that FastCGI does not realize that my program is multithreaded. I've read the documentation at http://www.fastcgi.com/mod_fastcgi/docs/mod_fastcgi.html and do not see any option pertaining to multithreaded-ness, and my internal code is more or less set up just like the examples provided by the FastCGI library. The second problem I am having is that once process termination has happened a bunch of times as above (and seemingly at random), I begin getting a lot of these messages in my error log: [Tue Jun 01 14:06:22 2010] [warn] (32)Broken pipe: FastCGI: write() to PM failed (ignore if a restart or shutdown is pending) The messages occur for about half the hits I get to the server, and it completely kills the responsiveness of my application - it seems FastCGI will look for a working "pipe" until it finds one, and fail to realize that whatever application it is trying to contact is dead. It does still work though, it's just incredibly unresponsive - sometimes taking up to 40 or so seconds to process a request. I recompiled mod_fastcgi with some extra debugging around the point of the error message, and it appears that the error happens when it tries to write() to the application. The call to write() fails with a -1 return code, and sets errno to EPIPE. I am noticing that the issue happens mostly when either a crash occurs in one of the FastCGI processes, or a bunch of them are seemingly terminated by the process manager. I haven't had any core dumps though, except for one, where the backtrace outputted by gdb is just a single call to free() at address 0x0000000000000000 with nothing else in the stack trace, so I don't really know what to make of that. I'm thinking it happens sometime after the SIGTERM signal is caught, maybe some global variable not being cleaned up properly or something.

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• How Mary Meeker’s Latest Findings May Make You Re-Imagine Commerce

  - by Brenna Johnson-Oracle

  0 0 1 954 5439 Endeca Technologies 45 12 6381 14.0 Normal 0 false false false EN-US JA X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} Today, Mary Meeker released her highly anticipated annual “Internet Trends” presentation for 2014. All 164 slides are jam-packed with pretty much everything you need to know about the state of the Internet. And as luck would have it, Oracle is staying ahead of these trends (but we’ll talk about that later). There were a few surprises, some stats to solidify what you likely already know, and Meeker’s novel observations about where we are all going. What interested me the most is not only how people are engaging in their personal lives, but how they engage with brands. As you could probably predict, Internet usage growth is slowing while tablet user and mobile data traffic growth continue their meteoric rise around the globe, with tremendous growth in underpenetrated markets like China, India, Brazil and Indonesia. Now hold those the “Internet is dead” comments. Keep in mind there’s still plenty of room to grow, and a multiscreen model is Meeker’s vision for our future. Despite 1.5x YOY growth for mobile traffic, mobile still only makes up about 23% of all traffic today. With tablet shipments easily outpacing figures for PCs even at their height (in 2007), mobile will only continue on it’s path, but won’t be everything to everyone. Mobile won’t replace every touchpoint, it’s just created our shorter attention spans and demand for simpler, more personal experiences. As Meeker points out TVs, tablets, PCs, and smartphones are used for different activities at present, but lines will blur (for example, 84% of smartphones owners use their device while watching TV). Day-to-day activities are being re-imagining through simple, beautiful user experiences. It seems like every day I discover a new way a brand/site/app made the most mundane or mounting task enjoyable and frictionless – and I’m not alone. Meeker points out the evolution of how we do everything from how we communicate, get information, use money, meet someone, get places, order a meal, and consume media is all done through new user interfaces that make day-to-day tasks simpler. This movement has caused just about everyone’s patience for a poor UX to take a nosedive. And it’s not just the digital user experience, technology is making a lot of people’s offline lives easier, and less expensive. Today 47% of online shopping utilizes free shipping— nearly half. And Meeker predicts same day local delivery will be the “next big thing” (and you can take a guess on who will own that). Content, Community and Commerce creates the “Internet Trifecta.” Meeker pointed out that when content, communities and commerce occur in a single experience it’s embraced by consumers, which translates to big dollars for brands. The magic happens when consumers can get inspired, research, and buy in a single experience. As the buying cycle has changed and touchpoints (Web, mobile, social, store) are no longer tied to “roles” or steps in the customer journey, brands must make all experiences (content and commerce) available in a single, adaptable experience. (We at Oracle Commerce have a lot to say on this topic – stay tuned!) And in what Meeker calls the “biggest re-imagination of all:” consumers enabled with smartphones and sensors are creating troves of findable and sharable data, which she says is in the early stages, by growing rapidly. She notes that transparency and patterns of consumers with this hardware (FYI - there are up to 10 sensors embedded in smartphones now) has created a Big Data treasure chest to be mined to improve business and the life of the consumer. The opportunities are endless. So what does it all mean for a company doing business online? Start thinking about how you can: Re-imagine your experience. Not your online experience and your mobile experience and your social experience – your overall experience. When consumers can research, buy, and advocate from anywhere (and their attention spans are at an all-time low) channels don’t exist. Enable simple and beautiful interactions informed by all of the online and offline data you leverage across your enterprise. Ethically leverage the endless supply of data (user generated content, clicks, purchases, in-store behavior, social activity) to make experiences more beautiful, more accurate, and more personalized (not to mention, more lucrative for you). Re-imagine content and commerce. Content and commerce must co-exist in a single destination where shoppers can get inspired, explore, research, share, and purchase in a collective experience. Think of how you can deliver an experience where all types of experiences (brand stories and commerce) adapt to every customer need. (Look for more on this topic coming soon). Re-imagine your reach. Look to Meeker’s findings to see how the global appetite for digital experiences is growing, but under-served in many places (i.e.: India, Mexico, Indonesia, Brazil, Philippines, etc.). Growing your online business to a new geography doesn’t have to mean starting from scratch or having an entirely new team manage the new endeavor. Expand using what you’ve already built in a multisite framework, with global language support. And of course, make sure it’s optimized for mobile! Re-imagine the possible. After every Meeker report, I’m always left with the thought “we are just at the beginning.” Everyday there is more data, more possibilities, more online consumers, and more opportunities to use new latest technology to get closer to your customers and be more successful. There’s a lot going on in our Product Development and Product Innovations groups to automate innovation for our customers, so that they can continue to stay ahead of these trends, without disrupting their business. Check out a recent interview with our Innovations Team on some of these new possibilities. Staying on track despite the seemingly endless possibilities out there is the hard part. Prioritizing where you will focus based on your unique brand promise, customer and goals is what you do best. To learn how Oracle Commerce can help your business achieve your goals check out oracle.com/commerce. Check out Meeker’s entire report here.

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• Scott Guthrie in Glasgow

  - by Martin Hinshelwood

  Last week Scott Guthrie was in Glasgow for his new Guathon tour, which was a roaring success. Scott did talks on the new features in Visual Studio 2010, Silverlight 4, ASP.NET MVC 2 and Windows Phone 7. Scott talked from 10am till 4pm, so this can only contain what I remember and I am sure lots of things he discussed just went in one ear and out another, however I have tried to capture at least all of my Ohh’s and Ahh’s. Visual Studio 2010 Right now you can download and install Visual Studio 2010 Candidate Release, but soon we will have the final product in our hands. With it there are some amazing improvements, and not just in the IDE. New versions of VB and C# come out of the box as well as Silverlight 4 and SharePoint 2010 integration. The new Intellisense features allow inline support for Types and Dictionaries as well as being able to type just part of a name and have the list filter accordingly. Even better, and my personal favourite is one that Scott did not mention, and that is that it is not case sensitive so I can actually find things in C# with its reasonless case sensitivity (Scott, can we please have an option to turn that off.) Another nice feature is the Routing engine that was created for ASP.NET MVC is now available for WebForms which is good news for all those that just imported the MVC DLL’s to get at it anyway. Another fantastic feature that will need some exploring is the ability to add validation rules to your entities and have them validated automatically on the front end. This removes the need to add your own validators and means that you can control an objects validation rules from a single location, the object. A simple command “GridView.EnableDynamicData(gettype(product))“ will enable this feature on controls. What was not clear was wither there would be support for this in WPF and WinForms as well. If there is, we can write our validation rules once and use everywhere. I was disappointed to here that there would be no inbuilt support for the Dynamic Language Runtime (DLR) with VS2010, but I think it will be there for .vNext. Because I have been concentrating on the Visual Studio ALM enhancements to VS2010 I found this section invaluable as I now know at least some of what I missed. Silverlight 4 I am not a big fan of Silverlight. There I said it, and I will probably get lynched for it. My big problem with Silverlight is that most of the really useful things I leaned from WPF do not work. I am only going to mention one thing and that is “x:Type”. If you are a WPF developer you will know how much power these 6 little letters provide; the ability to target templates at object types being the the most magical and useful. But, and this is a massive but, if you are developing applications that MUST run on platforms other than windows then Silverlight is your only choice (well that and Flash, but lets just not go there). And Silverlight has a huge install base as well.. 60% of all internet connected devices have Silverlight. Can Adobe say that? Even though I am not a fan of it my current project is a Silverlight one. If you start your XAML experience with Silverlight you will not be disappointed and neither will the users of the applications you build. Scott showed us a fantastic application called “Silverface” that is a Silverlight 4 Out of Browser application. I have looked for a link and can’t find one, but true to form, here is a fantastic WPF version called Fish Bowl from Microsoft. ASP.NET MVC 2 ASP.NET MVC is something I have played with but never used in anger. It is definitely the way forward, but WebForms is not dead yet. there are still circumstances when WebForms are better. If you are starting from greenfield and you are using TDD, then MVC is ultimately the only way you can go. New in version 2 are Dynamic Scaffolding helpers that let you control how data is presented in the UI from the Entities. Adding validation rules and other options that make sense there can help improve the overall ease of developing the UI. Also the Microsoft team have heard the cries of help from the larger site builders and provided “Areas” which allow a level of categorisation to your Controllers and Views. These work just like add-ins and have their own folder, but also have sub Controllers and Views. Areas are totally pluggable and can be dropped onto existing sites giving the ability to have boxed products in MVC, although what you do with all of those views is anyone's guess. They have been listening to everyone again with the new option to encapsulate UI using the Html.Action or Html.ActionRender. This uses the existing  .ascx functionality in ASP.NET to render partial views to the screen in certain areas. While this was possible before, it makes the method official thereby opening it up to the masses and making it a standard. At the end of the session Scott pulled out some IIS goodies including the IIS SEO Toolkit which can be used to verify your own site is “good” for search engine consumption. Better yet he suggested that you run it against your friends sites and shame them with how bad they are. note: make sure you have fixed yours first. Windows Phone 7 Series I had already seen the new UI for WP7 and heard about the developer story, but Scott brought that home by building a twitter application in about 20 minutes using the emulator. Scott’s only mistake was loading @plip’s tweets into the app… And guess what, it was written in Silverlight. When Windows Phone 7 launches you will be able to use about 90% of the codebase of your existing Silverlight application and use it on the phone! There are two downsides to the new WP7 architecture: No, your existing application WILL NOT work without being converted to either a Silverlight or XNA UI. NO, you will not be able to get your applications onto the phone any other way but through the Marketplace. Do I think these are problems? No, not even slightly. This phone is aimed at consumers who have probably never tried to install an application directly onto a device. There will be support for enterprise apps in the future, but for now enterprises should stay on Windows Phone 6.5.x devices. Post Event drinks At the after event drinks gathering Scott was checking out my HTC HD2 (released to the US this month on T-Mobile) and liked the Windows Phone 6.5.5 build I have on it. We discussed why Microsoft were not going to allow Windows Phone 7 Series onto it with my understanding being that it had 5 buttons and not 3, while Scott was sure that there was more to it from a hardware standpoint. I think he is right, and although the HTC HD2 has a DX9 compatible processor, it was never built with WP7 in mind. However, as if by magic Saturday brought fantastic news for all those that have already bought an HD2: Yes, this appears to be Windows Phone 7 running on a HTC HD2. The HD2 itself won't be getting an official upgrade to Windows Phone 7 Series, so all eyes are on the ROM chefs at the moment. The rather massive photos have been posted by Tom Codon on HTCPedia and they've apparently got WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth and other bits working. The ROM isn't online yet but according to the post there's a beta version coming soon. Leigh Geary - http://www.coolsmartphone.com/news5648.html  What was Scott working on on his flight back to the US?   Technorati Tags: VS2010,MVC2,WP7S,WP7 Follow: @CAMURPHY, @ColinMackay, @plip and of course @ScottGu

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• Agile Awakenings and the Rules of Agile

  - by Robert May

  For those that care, you can read my history of management and technology to understand why I think I’m qualified to talk about this at all.  It’s boring, so feel free to skip it. Awakenings I first started to play around with the idea of “agile” in 2004 or 2005.  I found a book on the Rational Unified Process that I thought was good, and attempted to implement parts of it.  I thought I was agile, but really, it wasn’t.   I still didn’t understand the concept of a team.  I still wanted to tell the team what to do and how to get it done.  I still thought I was smarter than the team. After that job, I started work on another project and began helping that team.  The first few months were really rough.  We were implementing Scrum, which was relatively new to everyone on the team, and, quite frankly, I was doing a poor job of it.  I was trying to micro-manage every aspect of the teams work, and we were all miserable. The moment of change came when the senior architect bailed on the project.  His comment to me was: “This isn’t Agile.  Where are the stand-ups?  Where are the stories?”  He was dead on, and I finally woke up.  I finally realized that I was the problem!  I wasn’t trusting the team.  I wasn’t helping the team.  I was being a manager. Like many (most?), I was claiming to be Agile and use Scrum, but I wasn’t in fact following the rules Scrum.  Since then, I’ve done a lot of studying, hands on practice, coaching of many different teams, and other learning around Scrum, and I have discovered that Scrum has some rules that must be followed for success, even though the process is about continuous improvement. I’ve been practicing Scrum right for about 4 years now and have helped multiple teams implement it successfully, so what you’re about to get is based on experience, rather than just theory. The Rules of Scrum In my experience, what I’ve found is that most companies that claim to be doing Scrum or Agile are actually NOT doing either.  This stems largely because they think that they can “adopt the rules of Agile that fit their organization.”  Sadly, many of them think that this means they can adopt iterations (sprints) and not much else.  Either that, or they think they can do whatever they want, or were doing before, and call it Scrum.  This is simply not true. Here are some rules that must be followed for you to really be doing Scrum.  I’ll go into detail on each one of these posts in future blog posts and update links here.  My intent is that this will help other teams implementing scrum to see more success. Agile does not allow you to do whatever you want A Product Owner is required A ScrumMaster is required The team must function as a Team, and QA must be part of the team Support from upper management is required A prioritized product backlog is required A prioritized sprint backlog is required Release planning is required Complete spring planning is required Showcases are required Velocity must be measured Retrospectives are required Daily stand-ups are required Visibility is absolutely required For now, I think that’s enough, although I reserve the right to add more.  If you’re breaking any of these rules, you’re probably not doing Scrum.  There are exceptions to these rules, but until you have practiced Scrum for a while, you don’t know what those exceptions are. Breaking the Rules Many teams break these rules because they are the ones that expose the most pain.  Scrum is not Advil.  It’s not intended to mask the pain, its intended to cure it.  Let me explain that analogy a bit more.  Recently, my 7 year old son broke his arm, quite severely (see the X-Ray to the right).  That caused him a great deal of pain.  We went first to one doctor, and after viewing the X-Ray, they determined that there was no way that they’d cast the arm at their location.  It was simply too bad of a break for them to deal with.  They did, however, give him some Advil for the pain and put a splint on his arm to stabilize the broken bones.  Within minutes, he was feeling much better.  Had we been stupid, we could have gone home and he’d have been just as happy as ever . . . until the pain medication wore off or one of his siblings touched the splint.  Then, all of that pain would come right back to the top.  Sure, he could make it go away by just taking more Advil and moving the splint out of the way, but that wasn’t going to fix the problem permanently. We ended up in an emergency room with a doctor who could fix his arm.  However, we were warned that the fix was going to be VERY painful, and it was.  Even with heavy sedation (Propofol), my son was in enough pain that he squirmed and wiggled trying to get his arm away from the doctor.  He had to endure this pain in order to have a functional arm. But the setting wasn’t the end.  He had to have several casts, had to have it re-broken once, since the first setting didn’t take and finally was given a clean bill of health. Agile implementation is much like this story.  Agile was developed as a result of people recognizing that the development methodologies that were currently in place simply were ineffective.  However, the fix to the broken development that’s been festering for many years is not painless.  Many people start Agile thinking that things will be wonderful.  They won’t!  Agile is about visibility, and often, it brings great pain to surface.  It causes all of the missed deadlines, the cowboy coders, the coasters, the micro-managers, the lazy, and all of the other problems that are really part of your development process now to become painfully visible to EVERYONE.  Many people don’t like this exposure.  Agile will make the pain better, but not if you remove the cast (the rules above) prematurely and start breaking the rules that expose the most pain.  The healing will take time and is not instant (like Advil).  Figuring out what the true source of pain and fixing it is very valuable to you, your team, and your company.  Remember as you’re doing this that Agile isn’t the source of the pain, it’s really just exposing it.  Find the source. My recommendation is that ALL of these rules are followed for a minimum of six months, and preferably for an entire year, before you decide to break any of these rules.  Get a few good releases under your belt.  Figure out what your velocity is and start firing as a team.  Chances are, after you see agile really in action, you won’t want to break the rules because you’ll see their value. More Reading Jean Tabaka recently published a list of 78 Things I Have Learned in 6 Years of Agile Coaching.  Highly recommended. Technorati Tags: Agile,Scrum,Rules

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• SharePoint – The Most Important Feature

  - by Bil Simser

  Watching twitter and doing a search for SharePoint and you see a lot (almost one every few minutes) of tweets about the top 10 new features in SharePoint. What answer do you get when you ask the question, “What’s the most important feature in SharePoint?”. Chances are the answer will vary. Some will say it’s the collaboration aspect, others might say it’s the new ribbon interface, multi-item editing, external content types, faceted search, large list support, document versioning, Silverlight, etc. The list goes on. However I think most people might be missing the most important feature that’s sitting right under their noses all this time. The most important feature of SharePoint? It’s called User Empowerment. Huh? What? Is that something I find in the Site Actions menu? Nope. It’s something that’s always been there in SharePoint, you just need to get the word out and support it. How many times have you had a team ask you for a team site (assuming you had SharePoint up and running). Or to create them a contact list. Or how long have you employed that guy in the corner who’s been copying and pasting content from Corporate Communications into the web from a Word document. Let’s stop the insanity. It doesn’t have to be this way. SharePoint’s strongest feature isn’t anything you can find in the Site Settings screen or Central Admin. It’s all about empowering your users and letting them take control of their content. After all, SharePoint really is a bunch of tools to allow users to collaborate on content isn’t it? So why are you stepping in as IT and helping the user every moment along the way. It’s like having to ask users to fill out a help desk ticket or call up the Windows team to create a folder on their desktop or rearrange their Start menu. This isn’t something IT should be spending their time doing nor is it something the users should be burdened with having to wait until their friendly neighborhood tech-guy (or gal) shows up to help them sort the icons on their desktop. SharePoint IS all about empowerment. Site owners can create whatever lists and libraries they need for their team, and if the template isn’t there they can always turn to my friend and yours, the Custom List. From that can spew forth approval tracking systems, new hire checklists, and server inventory. You’re only limited by your imagination and needs. Users should be able to create new sites as they need. Want a blog to let everyone know what your team is up to? Go create one, here’s how. What’s a blog you ask? Here’s what it is and why you would use one. SharePoint is the shift in the balance of power and you need, and an IT group, let go of certain responsibilities and let your users run with the tools. A power user who knows how to create sites and what features are available to them can help a team go from the forming stage to the storming stage overnight. Again, this all hinges on you as an IT organization and what you can and empower your users with as far as features go. Running with tools is great if you know how to use them, running with scissors not recommended unless you enjoy trips to the hospital. With Great Power comes Great Responsibility so don’t go out on Monday and send out a memo to the organization saying “This Bil guy says you peeps can do anything so here it is, knock yourself out” (for one, they’ll have *no* idea who this Bil guy is). This advice comes with the task of getting your users ready for empowerment. Whether it’s through some kind of internal training sessions, in-house documentation; videos; blog posts; on how to accomplish things in SharePoint, or full blown one-on-one sit downs with teams or individuals to help them through their problems. The work is up to you. Helping them along also should be part of your governance (you do have one don’t you?). Just because you have InfoPath client deployed with your Office suite, doesn’t mean users should just start publishing forms all over your SharePoint farm. There should be some governance behind that in what you’ll support and what is possible. The other caveat to all this is that SharePoint is not everything for everyone. It can’t cook you breakfast and impregnate your cat or solve world hunger. It also isn’t suited for every IT solution out there. It’s a horrible source control system (even though some people try to use it as such) and really can’t do financials worth a darn. Again, governance is key here and part of that governance and your responsibility in setting up and unleashing SharePoint into your organization is to provide users guidance on what should be in SharePoint and (more importantly) what should not be in SharePoint. There are boundaries you have to set where you don’t want your end users going as they might be treading into trouble. Again, this is up to you to set these constraints and help users understand why these pylons are there. If someone understands why they can’t do something they might have a better understanding and respect for those that put them there in the first place. Of course you’ll always have the power-users who want to go skiing down dead mans curve so this doesn’t work for everyone, but you can catch the majority of the newbs who don’t wander aimlessly off the beaten path. At the end of the day when all things are going swimmingly your end users should be empowered to solve the needs they have on a day to day basis and not having to keep bugging the IT department to help them create a view to show only approved documents. I wouldn’t go as far as business users building out full blown solutions and handing the keys to SharePoint Designer or (worse) Visual Studio to power-users might not be a path you want to go down but you also don’t have to lock up the SharePoint system in a tight box where users can’t use what’s there. So stop focusing on the shiny things in SharePoint and maybe consider making a shift to what’s really important. Making your day job easier and letting users get the most our of your technology investment.

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• Recover Deleted Files on an NTFS Hard Drive from a Ubuntu Live CD

  - by Trevor Bekolay

  Accidentally deleting a file is a terrible feeling. Not being able to boot into Windows and undelete that file makes that even worse. Fortunately, you can recover deleted files on NTFS hard drives from an Ubuntu Live CD. To show this process, we created four files on the desktop of a Windows XP machine, and then deleted them. We then booted up the same machine with the bootable Ubuntu 9.10 USB Flash Drive that we created last week. Once Ubuntu 9.10 boots up, open a terminal by clicking Applications in the top left of the screen, and then selecting Accessories > Terminal. To undelete our files, we first need to identify the hard drive that we want to undelete from. In the terminal window, type in: sudo fdisk –l and press enter. What you’re looking for is a line that ends with HPSF/NTFS (under the heading System). In our case, the device is “/dev/sda1”. This may be slightly different for you, but it will still begin with /dev/. Note this device name. If you have more than one hard drive partition formatted as NTFS, then you may be able to identify the correct partition by the size. If you look at the second line of text in the screenshot above, it reads “Disk /dev/sda: 136.4 GB, …” This means that the hard drive that Ubuntu has named /dev/sda is 136.4 GB large. If your hard drives are of different size, then this information can help you track down the right device name to use. Alternatively, you can just try them all, though this can be time consuming for large hard drives. Now that you know the name Ubuntu has assigned to your hard drive, we’ll scan it to see what files we can uncover. In the terminal window, type: sudo ntfsundelete <HD name> and hit enter. In our case, the command is: sudo ntfsundelete /dev/sda1 The names of files that can recovered show up in the far right column. The percentage in the third column tells us how much of that file can be recovered. Three of the four files that we originally deleted are showing up in this list, even though we shut down the computer right after deleting the four files – so even in ideal cases, your files may not be recoverable. Nevertheless, we have three files that we can recover – two JPGs and an MPG. Note: ntfsundelete is immediately available in the Ubuntu 9.10 Live CD. If you are in a different version of Ubuntu, or for some other reason get an error when trying to use ntfsundelete, you can install it by entering “sudo apt-get install ntfsprogs” in a terminal window. To quickly recover the two JPGs, we will use the * wildcard to recover all of the files that end with .jpg. In the terminal window, enter sudo ntfsundelete <HD name> –u –m *.jpg which is, in our case, sudo ntfsundelete /dev/sda1 –u –m *.jpg The two files are recovered from the NTFS hard drive and saved in the current working directory of the terminal. By default, this is the home directory of the current user, though we are working in the Desktop folder. Note that the ntfsundelete program does not make any changes to the original NTFS hard drive. If you want to take those files and put them back in the NTFS hard drive, you will have to move them there after they are undeleted with ntfsundelete. Of course, you can also put them on your flash drive or open Firefox and email them to yourself – the sky’s the limit! We have one more file to undelete – our MPG. Note the first column on the far left. It contains a number, its Inode. Think of this as the file’s unique identifier. Note this number. To undelete a file by its Inode, enter the following in the terminal: sudo ntfsundelete <HD name> –u –i <Inode> In our case, this is: sudo ntfsundelete /dev/sda1 –u –i 14159 This recovers the file, along with an identifier that we don’t really care about. All three of our recoverable files are now recovered. However, Ubuntu lets us know visually that we can’t use these files yet. That’s because the ntfsundelete program saves the files as the “root” user, not the “ubuntu” user. We can verify this by typing the following in our terminal window: ls –l We want these three files to be owned by ubuntu, not root. To do this, enter the following in the terminal window: sudo chown ubuntu <Files> If the current folder has other files in it, you may not want to change their owner to ubuntu. However, in our case, we only have these three files in this folder, so we will use the * wildcard to change the owner of all three files. sudo chown ubuntu * The files now look normal, and we can do whatever we want with them. Hopefully you won’t need to use this tip, but if you do, ntfsundelete is a nice command-line utility. It doesn’t have a fancy GUI like many of the similar Windows programs, but it is a powerful tool that can recover your files quickly. See ntfsundelete’s manual page for more detailed usage information Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Reset Your Ubuntu Password Easily from the Live CDUse Ubuntu Live CD to Backup Files from Your Dead Windows ComputerCreate a Bootable Ubuntu 9.10 USB Flash DriveCreate a Bootable Ubuntu USB Flash Drive the Easy WayGuide to Using Check Disk in Windows Vista TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 PCmover Professional Windows 7 Easter Theme YoWindoW, a real time weather screensaver Optimize your computer the Microsoft way Stormpulse provides slick, real time weather data Geek Parents – Did you try Parental Controls in Windows 7? 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• Play music on iPhone through computer

  - by Kyle Cronin

  Now that I've had my iPhone for a few months, I'm trying an experiment to see if I can't replace the laptop I carry around with my iPhone + internet connected computer. To this end, I've been trying to find a program that will let me play the music on my iPhone through the hardware and software on the host computer. If I recall correctly this was possible a few years ago with the iPod - Linux software like Rhythmbox and Banshee was able to read the music off an iPod and play it through the speakers. I even thought I recalled iTunes itself being capable of this at one time. Now, however, iTunes greys out/disables the music on my iPhone and I can't find any documented support for the iPhone in any other music program. Is this really no longer possible? Am I limited to using the headphone jack to get music to play? (note: I am using an iPhone 3G with the 3.0 software. I am attempting to play music on computers other than the one I sync with) Several replies mention that I should check "manually manage" to do this. I just tried this on a computer that I don't sync my iPhone to and it asked me to erase and sync, which is obviously something I don't want to do. update: OK, I checked the "Manually manage music and videos" box on a computer that I didn't sync to (now known as "Computer A"), and it told me that I needed to erase & sync to cause the changes to have effect, so I did. At this point I'm guessing that my iPhone thinks that it's syncing with that computer. I copied over a few songs using the autofill feature. At this point, Computer A sees the maybe 10 or so songs I've copied using autofill. I then plug my iPhone into my Macbook ("Computer B") which I've been syncing with. At this point, I'm pretty sure that it still thought that all my synced content was still on my iPhone. The "manually manage music and videos" checkbox isn't checked, so I check it and go through a similar process where iTunes erases the synced content and I copy over a playlist. At this point, there's no trace of the songs that I copied over from Computer A. So I plug my iPhone into Computer A - in the Music section are the handful of songs that I had copied over earlier, greyed out and unplayable. To make sure that this wasn't some sort of caching issue, I plugged my iPhone into my sister's Macbook ("Computer C") and it lists the same few, greyed out songs that I had copied over from Computer A. Plugging into Computer B doesn't reveal these songs at all, only the songs that it copied over (these are playable). A few things: This inconsistent behavior is driving me insane. Why would my iPhone report two versions of its contents to different computers? Is there a way to get a computer to completely forget about an iPhone and just resync everything to get everything into a consistent state? Even if I get the phone into a consistent state, I still can't play the files on my phone anywhere but the computer I sync with, which was my original goal. What am I doing wrong? maybe I should read the fine print before I mess with my iPhone So going over this thread with a fine-toothed comb again yields this lovely tidbit in the Apple docs: Note: Even when manually managing, some content may only be available from one library at time. This includes all content on iPhone and video content on iPods. OK, so manually managing is a dead end on the iPhone. Are there any other options? Any unofficial third-party programs or drivers that will work?

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• OpenSwan IPSec phase #2 complications

  - by XXL

  Phase #1 (IKE) succeeds without any problems (verified at the target host). Phase #2 (IPSec), however, is erroneous at some point (apparently due to misconfiguration on localhost). This should be an IPSec-only connection. I am using OpenSwan on Debian. The error log reads the following (the actual IP-addr. of the remote endpoint has been modified): pluto[30868]: "x" #2: initiating Quick Mode PSK+ENCRYPT+PFS+UP+IKEv2ALLOW+SAREFTRACK {using isakmp#1 msgid:5ece82ee proposal=AES(12)_256-SHA1(2)_160 pfsgroup=OAKLEY_GROUP_DH22} pluto[30868]: "x" #1: ignoring informational payload, type NO_PROPOSAL_CHOSEN msgid=00000000 pluto[30868]: "x" #1: received and ignored informational message pluto[30868]: "x" #1: the peer proposed: 0.0.0.0/0:0/0 - 0.0.0.0/0:0/0 pluto[30868]: "x" #3: responding to Quick Mode proposal {msgid:a4f5a81c} pluto[30868]: "x" #3: us: 192.168.1.76<192.168.1.76[+S=C] pluto[30868]: "x" #3: them: 222.222.222.222<222.222.222.222[+S=C]===10.196.0.0/17 pluto[30868]: "x" #3: transition from state STATE_QUICK_R0 to state STATE_QUICK_R1 pluto[30868]: "x" #3: STATE_QUICK_R1: sent QR1, inbound IPsec SA installed, expecting QI2 pluto[30868]: "x" #1: ignoring informational payload, type NO_PROPOSAL_CHOSEN msgid=00000000 pluto[30868]: "x" #1: received and ignored informational message pluto[30868]: "x" #3: next payload type of ISAKMP Hash Payload has an unknown value: 97 X pluto[30868]: "x" #3: malformed payload in packet pluto[30868]: | payload malformed after IV I am behind NAT and this is all coming from wlan2. Here are the details: default via 192.168.1.254 dev wlan2 proto static 169.254.0.0/16 dev wlan2 scope link metric 1000 192.168.1.0/24 dev wlan2 proto kernel scope link src 192.168.1.76 metric 2 Output of ipsec verify: Checking your system to see if IPsec got installed and started correctly: Version check and ipsec on-path [OK] Linux Openswan U2.6.37/K3.2.0-24-generic (netkey) Checking for IPsec support in kernel [OK] SAref kernel support [N/A] NETKEY: Testing XFRM related proc values [OK] [OK] [OK] Checking that pluto is running [OK] Pluto listening for IKE on udp 500 [OK] Pluto listening for NAT-T on udp 4500 [OK] Two or more interfaces found, checking IP forwarding [OK] Checking NAT and MASQUERADEing [OK] Checking for 'ip' command [OK] Checking /bin/sh is not /bin/dash [WARNING] Checking for 'iptables' command [OK] Opportunistic Encryption Support [DISABLED] This is what happens when I run ipsec auto --up x: 104 "x" #1: STATE_MAIN_I1: initiate 003 "x" #1: received Vendor ID payload [RFC 3947] method set to=109 106 "x" #1: STATE_MAIN_I2: sent MI2, expecting MR2 003 "x" #1: received Vendor ID payload [Cisco-Unity] 003 "x" #1: received Vendor ID payload [Dead Peer Detection] 003 "x" #1: ignoring unknown Vendor ID payload [502099ff84bd4373039074cf56649aad] 003 "x" #1: received Vendor ID payload [XAUTH] 003 "x" #1: NAT-Traversal: Result using RFC 3947 (NAT-Traversal): i am NATed 108 "x" #1: STATE_MAIN_I3: sent MI3, expecting MR3 004 "x" #1: STATE_MAIN_I4: ISAKMP SA established {auth=OAKLEY_PRESHARED_KEY cipher=aes_128 prf=oakley_sha group=modp1024} 117 "x" #2: STATE_QUICK_I1: initiate 010 "x" #2: STATE_QUICK_I1: retransmission; will wait 20s for response 010 "x" #2: STATE_QUICK_I1: retransmission; will wait 40s for response 031 "x" #2: max number of retransmissions (2) reached STATE_QUICK_I1. No acceptable response to our first Quick Mode message: perhaps peer likes no proposal 000 "x" #2: starting keying attempt 2 of at most 3, but releasing whack I have enabled NAT traversal in ipsec.conf accordingly. Here are the settings relative to the connection in question: version 2.0 config setup plutoopts="--perpeerlog" plutoopts="--interface=wlan2" dumpdir=/var/run/pluto/ nat_traversal=yes virtual_private=%v4:10.0.0.0/8,%v4:192.168.0.0/16,%v4:172.16.0.0/12 oe=off protostack=netkey conn x authby=secret pfs=yes auto=add phase2alg=aes256-sha1;dh22 keyingtries=3 ikelifetime=8h type=transport left=192.168.1.76 leftsubnet=192.168.1.0/24 leftprotoport=0/0 right=222.222.222.222 rightsubnet=10.196.0.0/17 rightprotoport=0/0 Here are the specs provided by the other end that must be met for Phase #2: encryption algorithm: AES (128 or 256 bit) hash algorithm: SHA local ident1 (addr/mask/prot/port): (10.196.0.0/255.255.128.0/0/0) local ident2 (addr/mask/prot/port): (10.241.0.0/255.255.0.0/0/0) remote ident (addr/mask/prot/port): (x.x.x.x/x.x.x.x/0/0) (internal network or localhost) Security association lifetime: 4608000 kilobytes/3600 seconds PFS: DH group2 So, finally, what might be the cause of the issue that I am experiencing? Thank you.

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• What to Do When Windows Won’t Boot

  - by Chris Hoffman

  You turn on your computer one day and Windows refuses to boot — what do you do? “Windows won’t boot” is a common symptom with a variety of causes, so you’ll need to perform some troubleshooting. Modern versions of Windows are better at recovering from this sort of thing. Where Windows XP might have stopped in its tracks when faced with this problem, modern versions of Windows will try to automatically run Startup Repair. First Things First Be sure to think about changes you’ve made recently — did you recently install a new hardware driver, connect a new hardware component to your computer, or open your computer’s case and do something? It’s possible the hardware driver is buggy, the new hardware is incompatible, or that you accidentally unplugged something while working inside your computer. The Computer Won’t Power On At All If your computer won’t power on at all, ensure it’s plugged into a power outlet and that the power connector isn’t loose. If it’s a desktop PC, ensure the power switch on the back of its case — on the power supply — is set to the On position. If it still won’t power on at all, it’s possible you disconnected a power cable inside its case. If you haven’t been messing around inside the case, it’s possible the power supply is dead. In this case, you’ll have to get your computer’s hardware fixed or get a new computer. Be sure to check your computer monitor — if your computer seems to power on but your screen stays black, ensure your monitor is powered on and that the cable connecting it to your computer’s case is plugged in securely at both ends. The Computer Powers On And Says No Bootable Device If your computer is powering on but you get a black screen that says something like “no bootable device” or another sort of “disk error” message, your computer can’t seem to boot from the hard drive that Windows was installed on. Enter your computer’s BIOS or UEFI firmware setup screen and check its boot order setting, ensuring that it’s set to boot from its hard drive. If the hard drive doesn’t appear in the list at all, it’s possible your hard drive has failed and can no longer be booted from. In this case, you may want to insert Windows installation or recovery media and run the Startup Repair operation. This will attempt to make Windows bootable again. For example, if something overwrote your Windows drive’s boot sector, this will repair the boot sector. If the recovery environment won’t load or doesn’t see your hard drive, you likely have a hardware problem. Be sure to check your BIOS or UEFI’s boot order first if the recovery environment won’t load. You can also attempt to manually fix Windows boot loader problems using the fixmbr and fixboot commands. Modern versions of Windows should be able to fix this problem for you with the Startup Repair wizard, so you shouldn’t actually have to run these commands yourself. Windows Freezes or Crashes During Boot If Windows seems to start booting but fails partway through, you may be facing either a software or hardware problem. If it’s a software problem, you may be able to fix it by performing a Startup Repair operation. If you can’t do this from the boot menu, insert a Windows installation disc or recovery disk and use the startup repair tool from there. If this doesn’t help at all, you may want to reinstall Windows or perform a Refresh or Reset on Windows 8. If the computer encounters errors while attempting to perform startup repair or reinstall Windows, or the reinstall process works properly and you encounter the same errors afterwards, you likely have a hardware problem. Windows Starts and Blue Screens or Freezes If Windows crashes or blue-screens on you every time it boots, you may be facing a hardware or software problem. For example, malware or a buggy driver may be loading at boot and causing the crash, or your computer’s hardware may be malfunctioning. To test this, boot your Windows computer in safe mode. In safe mode, Windows won’t load typical hardware drivers or any software that starts automatically at startup. If the computer is stable in safe mode, try uninstalling any recently installed hardware drivers, performing a system restore, and scanning for malware. If you’re lucky, one of these steps may fix your software problem and allow you to boot Windows normally. If your problem isn’t fixed, try reinstalling Windows or performing a Refresh or Reset on Windows 8. This will reset your computer back to its clean, factory-default state. If you’re still experiencing crashes, your computer likely has a hardware problem. Recover Files When Windows Won’t Boot If you have important files that will be lost and want to back them up before reinstalling Windows, you can use a Windows installer disc or Linux live media to recover the files. These run entirely from a CD, DVD, or USB drive and allow you to copy your files to another external media, such as another USB stick or an external hard drive. If you’re incapable of booting a Windows installer disc or Linux live CD, you may need to go into your BIOS or UEFI and change the boot order setting. If even this doesn’t work — or if you can boot from the devices and your computer freezes or you can’t access your hard drive — you likely have a hardware problem. You can try pulling the computer’s hard drive, inserting it into another computer, and recovering your files that way. Following these steps should fix the vast majority of Windows boot issues — at least the ones that are actually fixable. The dark cloud that always hangs over such issues is the possibility that the hard drive or another component in the computer may be failing. Image Credit: Karl-Ludwig G. Poggemann on Flickr, Tzuhsun Hsu on Flickr     

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• Users loggin to 3Com switches authenticated by radius not getting admin priv and no access available

  - by 3D1L

  Hi, Following the setup that I have for my Cisco devices, I got some basic level of functionality authenticating users that loggin to 3Com switches authenticated against a RADIUS server. Problem is that I can not get the user to obtain admin privileges. I'm using Microsoft's IAS service. According to 3Com documentation when configuring the access policy on IAS the value of 010600000003 have to be used to specify admin access level. That value have to be input in the Dial-in profile section: 010600000003 - indicates admin privileges 010600000002 - manager 010600000001 - monitor 010600000000 - visitor Here is the configuration on the switch: radius scheme system server-type standard primary authentication XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX accounting optional key authentication XXXXXX key accounting XXXXXX domain system scheme radius-scheme system local-user admin service-type ssh telnet terminal level 3 local-user manager service-type ssh telnet terminal level 2 local-user monitor service-type ssh telnet terminal level 1 The configuration is working with the IAS server because I can check user login events with the Eventviewer tool. Here is the output of the DISPLAY RADIUS command at the switch: [4500]disp radius SchemeName =system Index=0 Type=standard Primary Auth IP =XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX Port=1645 State=active Primary Acct IP =127.0.0.1 Port=1646 State=active Second Auth IP =0.0.0.0 Port=1812 State=block Second Acct IP =0.0.0.0 Port=1813 State=block Auth Server Encryption Key= XXXXXX Acct Server Encryption Key= XXXXXX Accounting method = optional TimeOutValue(in second)=3 RetryTimes=3 RealtimeACCT(in minute)=12 Permitted send realtime PKT failed counts =5 Retry sending times of noresponse acct-stop-PKT =500 Quiet-interval(min) =5 Username format =without-domain Data flow unit =Byte Packet unit =1 Total 1 RADIUS scheme(s). 1 listed Here is the output of the DISPLAY DOMAIN and DISPLAY CONNECTION commands after users log into the switch: [4500]display domain 0 Domain = system State = Active RADIUS Scheme = system Access-limit = Disable Domain User Template: Idle-cut = Disable Self-service = Disable Messenger Time = Disable Default Domain Name: system Total 1 domain(s).1 listed. [4500]display connection Index=0 ,Username=admin@system IP=0.0.0.0 Index=2 ,Username=user@system IP=xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx On Unit 1:Total 2 connections matched, 2 listed. Total 2 connections matched, 2 listed. [4500] Here is the DISP RADIUS STATISTICS: [4500] %Apr 2 00:23:39:957 2000 4500 SHELL/5/LOGIN:- 1 - ecajigas(xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx) in un it1 logindisp radius stat state statistic(total=1048): DEAD=1046 AuthProc=0 AuthSucc=0 AcctStart=0 RLTSend=0 RLTWait=2 AcctStop=0 OnLine=2 Stop=0 StateErr=0 Received and Sent packets statistic: Unit 1........................................ Sent PKT total :4 Received PKT total:1 Resend Times Resend total 1 1 2 1 Total 2 RADIUS received packets statistic: Code= 2,Num=1 ,Err=0 Code= 3,Num=0 ,Err=0 Code= 5,Num=0 ,Err=0 Code=11,Num=0 ,Err=0 Running statistic: RADIUS received messages statistic: Normal auth request , Num=1 , Err=0 , Succ=1 EAP auth request , Num=0 , Err=0 , Succ=0 Account request , Num=1 , Err=0 , Succ=1 Account off request , Num=0 , Err=0 , Succ=0 PKT auth timeout , Num=0 , Err=0 , Succ=0 PKT acct_timeout , Num=3 , Err=1 , Succ=2 Realtime Account timer , Num=0 , Err=0 , Succ=0 PKT response , Num=1 , Err=0 , Succ=1 EAP reauth_request , Num=0 , Err=0 , Succ=0 PORTAL access , Num=0 , Err=0 , Succ=0 Update ack , Num=0 , Err=0 , Succ=0 PORTAL access ack , Num=0 , Err=0 , Succ=0 Session ctrl pkt , Num=0 , Err=0 , Succ=0 RADIUS sent messages statistic: Auth accept , Num=0 Auth reject , Num=0 EAP auth replying , Num=0 Account success , Num=0 Account failure , Num=0 Cut req , Num=0 RecError_MSG_sum:0 SndMSG_Fail_sum :0 Timer_Err :0 Alloc_Mem_Err :0 State Mismatch :0 Other_Error :0 No-response-acct-stop packet =0 Discarded No-response-acct-stop packet for buffer overflow =0 The other problem is that when the RADIUS server is not available I can not log in to the switch. The switch have 3 local accounts but none of them works. How can I specify the switch to use the local accounts in case that the RADIUS service is not available?

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• techniques for an AI for a highly cramped turn-based tactics game

  - by Adam M.

  I'm trying to write an AI for a tactics game in the vein of Final Fantasy Tactics or Vandal Hearts. I can't change the game rules in any way, only upgrade the AI. I have experience programming AI for classic board games (basically minimax and its variants), but I think the branching factor is too great for the approach to be reasonable here. I'll describe the game and some current AI flaws that I'd like to fix. I'd like to hear ideas for applicable techniques. I'm a decent enough programmer, so I only need the ideas, not an implementation (though that's always appreciated). I'd rather not expend effort chasing (too many) dead ends, so although speculation and brainstorming are good and probably helpful, I'd prefer to hear from somebody with actual experience solving this kind of problem. For those who know it, the game is the land battle mini-game in Sid Meier's Pirates! (2004) and you can skim/skip the next two paragraphs. For those who don't, here's briefly how it works. The battle is turn-based and takes place on a 16x16 grid. There are three terrain types: clear (no hindrance), forest (hinders movement, ranged attacks, and sight), and rock (impassible, but does not hinder attacks or sight). The map is randomly generated with roughly equal amounts of each type of terrain. Because there are many rock and forest tiles, movement is typically very cramped. This is tactically important. The terrain is not flat; higher terrain gives minor bonuses. The terrain is known to both sides. The player is always the attacker and the AI is always the defender, so it's perfectly valid for the AI to set up a defensive position and just wait. The player wins by killing all defenders or by getting a unit to the city gates (a tile on the other side of the map). There are very few units on each side, usually 4-8. Because of this, it's crucial not to take damage without gaining some advantage from it. Units can take multiple actions per turn. All units on one side move before any units on the other side. Order of execution is important, and interleaving of actions between units is often useful. Units have melee and ranged attacks. Melee attacks vary widely in strength; ranged attacks have the same strength but vary in range. The main challenges I face are these: Lots of useful move combinations start with a "useless" move that gains no immediate advantage, or even loses advantage, in order to set up a powerful flank attack in the future. And, since the player units are stronger and have longer range, the AI pretty much always has to take some losses before they can start to gain kills. The AI must be able to look ahead to distinguish between sacrificial actions that provide a future benefit and those that don't. Because the terrain is so cramped, most of the tactics come down to achieving good positioning with multiple units that work together to defend an area. For instance, two defenders can often dominate a narrow pass by positioning themselves so an enemy unit attempting to pass must expose itself to a flank attack. But one defender in the same pass would be useless, and three units can defend a slightly larger pass. Etc. The AI should be able to figure out where the player must go to reach the city gates and how to best position its few units to cover the approaches, shifting, splitting, or combining them appropriately as the player moves. Because flank attacks are extremely deadly (and engineering flank attacks is key to the player strategy), the AI should be competent at moving its units so that they cover each other's flanks unless the sacrifice of a unit would give a substantial benefit. They should also be able to force flank attacks on players, for instance by threatening a unit from two different directions such that responding to one threat exposes the flank to the other. The AI should attack if possible, but sometimes there are no good ways to approach the player's position. In that case, the AI should be able to recognize this and set up a defensive position of its own. But the AI shouldn't be vulnerable to a trivial exploit where the player repeatedly opens and closes a hole in his defense and shoots at the AI as it approaches and retreats. That is, the AI should ideally be able to recognize that the player is capable of establishing a solid defense of an area, even if the defense is not currently in place. (I suppose if a good unit allocation algorithm existed, as needed for the second bullet point, the AI could run it on the player units to see where they could defend.) Because it's important to choose a good order of action and interleave actions between units, it's not as simple as just finding the best move for each unit in turn. All of these can be accomplished with a minimax search in theory, but the search space is too large, so specialized techniques are needed. I thought about techniques such as influence mapping, but I don't see how to use the technique to great effect. I thought about assigning goals to the units. This can help them work together in some limited way, and the problem of "how do I accomplish this goal?" is easier to solve than "how do I win this battle?", but assigning good goals is a hard problem in itself, because it requires knowing whether the goal is achievable and whether it's a good use of resources. So, does anyone have specific ideas for techniques that can help cleverize this AI? Update: I found a related question on Stackoverflow: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3133273/ai-for-a-final-fantasy-tactics-like-game The selected answer gives a decent approach to choosing between alternative actions, but it doesn't seem to have much ability to look into the future and discern beneficial sacrifices from wasteful ones. It also focuses on a single unit at a time and it's not clear how it could be extended to support cooperation between units in defending or attacking.

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• ASP.NET MVC JavaScript Routing

  - by zowens

  Have you ever done this sort of thing in your ASP.NET MVC view? The weird thing about this isn’t the alert function, it’s the code block containing the Url formation using the ASP.NET MVC UrlHelper. The terrible thing about this experience is the obvious lack of IntelliSense and this ugly inline JavaScript code. Inline JavaScript isn’t portable to other pages beyond the current page of execution. It is generally considered bad practice to use inline JavaScript in your public-facing pages. How ludicrous would it be to copy and paste the entire jQuery code base into your pages…? Not something you’d ever consider doing. The problem is that your URLs have to be generated by ASP.NET at runtime and really can’t be copied to your JavaScript code without some trickery. How about this? Does the hard-coded URL bother you? It really bothers me. The typical solution to this whole routing in JavaScript issue is to just hard-code your URLs into your JavaScript files and call it done. But what if your URLs change? You have to now go an track down the places in JavaScript and manually replace them. What if you get the pattern wrong? Do you have tests around it? This isn’t something you should have to worry about.   The Solution To Our Problems The solution is to port routing over to JavaScript. Does that sound daunting to you? It’s actually not very hard, but I decided to create my own generator that will do all the work for you. What I have created is a very basic port of the route formation feature of ASP.NET routing. It will generate the formatted URLs based on your routing patterns. Here’s how you’d do this: Does that feel familiar? It looks a lot like something you’d do inside of your ASP.NET MVC views… but this is inside of a JavaScript file… just a plain ol’ .js file.  Your first question might be why do you have to have that “.toUrl()” thing. The reason is that I wanted to make POST and GET requests dead simple. Here’s how you’d do a POST request (and the same would work with a GET request):   The first parameter is extra data passed to the post request and the second parameter is a function that handles the success of the POST request. If you’re familiar with jQuery’s Ajax goodness, you’ll know how to use it. (if not, check out http://api.jquery.com/jQuery.Post/ and the parameters are essentially the same). But we still haven’t gotten rid of the magic strings. We still have controller names and action names represented as strings. This is going to blow your mind… If you’ve seen T4MVC, this will look familiar. We’re essentially doing the same sort of thing with my JavaScript router, but we’re porting the concept to JavaScript. The good news is that parameters to the controllers are directly reflected in the action function, just like T4MVC. And the even better news… IntlliSense is easily transferred to the JavaScript version if you’re using Visual Studio as your JavaScript editor. The additional data parameter gives you the ability to pass extra routing data to the URL formatter.   About the Magic You may be wondering how this all work. It’s actually quite simple. I’ve built a simple jQuery pluggin (called routeManager) that hangs off the main jQuery namespace and routes all the URLs. Every time your solution builds, a routing file will be generated with this pluggin, all your route and controller definitions along with your documentation. Then by the power of Visual Studio, you get some really slick IntelliSense that is hard to live without. But there are a few steps you have to take before this whole thing is going to work. First and foremost, you need a reference to the JsRouting.Core.dll to your projects containing controllers or routes. Second, you have to specify your routes in a bit of a non-standard way. See, we can’t just pull routes out of your App_Start in your Global.asax. We force you to build a route source like this: The way we determine the routes is by pulling in all RouteSources and generating routes based upon the mapped routes. There are various reasons why we can’t use RouteCollection (different post for another day)… but in this case, you get the same route mapping experience. Converting the RouteSource to a RouteCollection is trivial (there’s an extension method for that). Next thing you have to do is generate a documentation XML file. This is done by going to the project settings, going to the build tab and clicking the checkbox. (this isn’t required, but nice to have). The final thing you need to do is hook up the generation mechanism. Pop open your project file and look for the AfterBuild step. Now change the build step task to look like this: The “PathToOutputExe” is the path to the JsRouting.Output.exe file. This will change based on where you put the EXE. The “PathToOutputJs” is a path to the output JavaScript file. The “DicrectoryOfAssemblies” is a path to the directory containing controller and routing DLLs. The JsRouting.Output.exe executable pulls in all these assemblies and scans them for controllers and route sources.   Now that wasn’t too bad, was it :)   The State of the Project This is definitely not complete… I have a lot of plans for this little project of mine. For starters, I need to look at the generation mechanism. Either I will be creating a utility that will do the project file manipulation or I will go a different direction. I’d like some feedback on this if you feel partial either way. Another thing I don’t support currently is areas. While this wouldn’t be too hard to support, I just don’t use areas and I wanted something up quickly (this is, after all, for a current project of mine). I’ll be adding support shortly. There are a few things that I haven’t covered in this post that I will most certainly be covering in another post, such as routing constraints and how these will be translated to JavaScript. I decided to open source this whole thing, since it’s a nice little utility I think others should really be using. Currently we’re using ASP.NET MVC 2, but it should work with MVC 3 as well. I’ll upgrade it as soon as MVC 3 is released. Along those same lines, I’m investigating how this could be put on the NuGet feed. Show me the Bits! OK, OK! The code is posted on my GitHub account. Go nuts. Tell me what you think. Tell me what you want. Tell me that you hate it. All feedback is welcome! https://github.com/zowens/ASP.NET-MVC-JavaScript-Routing

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• My Code Kata–A Solution Kata

  - by Glav

  There are many developers and coders out there who like to do code Kata’s to keep their coding ability up to scratch and to practice their skills. I think it is a good idea. While I like the concept, I find them dead boring and of minimal purpose. Yes, they serve to hone your skills but that’s about it. They are often quite abstract, in that they usually focus on a small problem set requiring specific solutions. It is fair enough as that is how they are designed but again, I find them quite boring. What I personally like to do is go for something a little larger and a little more fun. It takes a little more time and is not as easily executed as a kata though, but it services the same purposes from a practice perspective and allows me to continue to solve some problems that are not directly part of the initial goal. This means I can cover a broader learning range and have a bit more fun. If I am lucky, sometimes they even end up being useful tools. With that in mind, I thought I’d share my current ‘kata’. It is not really a code kata as it is too big. I prefer to think of it as a ‘solution kata’. The code is on bitbucket here. What I wanted to do was create a kind of simplistic virtual world where I can create a player, or a class, stuff it into the world, and see if it survives, and can navigate its way to the exit. Requirements were pretty simple: Must be able to define a map to describe the world using simple X,Y co-ordinates. Z co-ordinates as well if you feel like getting clever. Should have the concept of entrances, exists, solid blocks, and potentially other materials (again if you want to get clever). A coder should be able to easily write a class which will act as an inhabitant of the world. An inhabitant will receive stimulus from the world in the form of surrounding environment and be able to make a decision on action which it passes back to the ‘world’ for processing. At a minimum, an inhabitant will have sight and speed characteristics which determine how far they can ‘see’ in the world, and how fast they can move. Coders who write a really bad ‘inhabitant’ should not adversely affect the rest of world. Should allow multiple inhabitants in the world. So that was the solution I set out to act as a practice solution and a little bit of fun. It had some interesting problems to solve and I figured, if it turned out ok, I could potentially use this as a ‘developer test’ for interviews. Ask a potential coder to write a class for an inhabitant. Show the coder the map they will navigate, but also mention that we will use their code to navigate a map they have not yet seen and a little more complex. I have been playing with solution for a short time now and have it working in basic concepts. Below is a screen shot using a very basic console visualiser that shows the map, boundaries, blocks, entrance, exit and players/inhabitants. The yellow asterisks ‘*’ are the players, green ‘O’ the entrance, purple ‘^’ the exit, maroon/browny ‘#’ are solid blocks. The players can move around at different speeds, knock into each others, and make directional movement decisions based on what they see and who is around them. It has been quite fun to write and it is also quite fun to develop different players to inject into the world. The code below shows a really simple implementation of an inhabitant that can work out what to do based on stimulus from the world. It is pretty simple and just tries to move in some direction if there is nothing blocking the path. public class TestPlayer:LivingEntity { public TestPlayer() { Name = "Beta Boy"; LifeKey = Guid.NewGuid(); } public override ActionResult DecideActionToPerform(EcoDev.Core.Common.Actions.ActionContext actionContext) { try { var action = new MovementAction(); // move forward if we can if (actionContext.Position.ForwardFacingPositions.Length > 0) { if (CheckAccessibilityOfMapBlock(actionContext.Position.ForwardFacingPositions[0])) { action.DirectionToMove = MovementDirection.Forward; return action; } } if (actionContext.Position.LeftFacingPositions.Length > 0) { if (CheckAccessibilityOfMapBlock(actionContext.Position.LeftFacingPositions[0])) { action.DirectionToMove = MovementDirection.Left; return action; } } if (actionContext.Position.RearFacingPositions.Length > 0) { if (CheckAccessibilityOfMapBlock(actionContext.Position.RearFacingPositions[0])) { action.DirectionToMove = MovementDirection.Back; return action; } } if (actionContext.Position.RightFacingPositions.Length > 0) { if (CheckAccessibilityOfMapBlock(actionContext.Position.RightFacingPositions[0])) { action.DirectionToMove = MovementDirection.Right; return action; } } return action; } catch (Exception ex) { World.WriteDebugInformation("Player: "+ Name, string.Format("Player Generated exception: {0}",ex.Message)); throw ex; } } private bool CheckAccessibilityOfMapBlock(MapBlock block) { if (block == null || block.Accessibility == MapBlockAccessibility.AllowEntry || block.Accessibility == MapBlockAccessibility.AllowExit || block.Accessibility == MapBlockAccessibility.AllowPotentialEntry) { return true; } return false; } } It is simple and it seems to work well. The world implementation itself decides the stimulus context that is passed to he inhabitant to make an action decision. All movement is carried out on separate threads and timed appropriately to be as fair as possible and to cater for additional skills such as speed, and eventually maybe stamina, strength, with actions like fighting. It is pretty fun to make up random maps and see how your inhabitant does. You can download the code from here. Along the way I have played with parallel extensions to make the compute intensive stuff spread across all cores, had to heavily factor in visibility of methods and properties so design of classes was paramount, work out movement algorithms that play fairly in the world and properly favour the players with higher abilities, as well as a host of other issues. So that is my ‘solution kata’. If I keep going with it, I may develop a web interface for it where people can upload assemblies and watch their player within a web browser visualiser and maybe even a map designer. What do you do to keep the fires burning?

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• Openswan ipsec transport tunnel not going up

  - by gparent

  On ClusterA and B I have installed the "openswan" package on Debian Squeeze. ClusterA ip is 172.16.0.107, B is 172.16.0.108 When they ping one another, it does not reach the destination. /etc/ipsec.conf: version 2.0 # conforms to second version of ipsec.conf specification config setup protostack=netkey oe=off conn L2TP-PSK-CLUSTER type=transport left=172.16.0.107 right=172.16.0.108 auto=start ike=aes128-sha1-modp2048 authby=secret compress=yes /etc/ipsec.secrets: 172.16.0.107 172.16.0.108 : PSK "L2TPKEY" 172.16.0.108 172.16.0.107 : PSK "L2TPKEY" Here is the result of ipsec verify on both machines: root@cluster2:~# ipsec verify Checking your system to see if IPsec got installed and started correctly: Version check and ipsec on-path [OK] Linux Openswan U2.6.28/K2.6.32-5-amd64 (netkey) Checking for IPsec support in kernel [OK] NETKEY detected, testing for disabled ICMP send_redirects [OK] NETKEY detected, testing for disabled ICMP accept_redirects [OK] Checking that pluto is running [OK] Pluto listening for IKE on udp 500 [OK] Pluto listening for NAT-T on udp 4500 [FAILED] Checking for 'ip' command [OK] Checking for 'iptables' command [OK] Opportunistic Encryption Support [DISABLED] root@cluster2:~# This is the end of the output of ipsec auto --status: 000 "cluster": 172.16.0.108<172.16.0.108>[+S=C]...172.16.0.107<172.16.0.107>[+S=C]; prospective erouted; eroute owner: #0 000 "cluster": myip=unset; hisip=unset; 000 "cluster": ike_life: 3600s; ipsec_life: 28800s; rekey_margin: 540s; rekey_fuzz: 100%; keyingtries: 0 000 "cluster": policy: PSK+ENCRYPT+COMPRESS+PFS+UP+IKEv2ALLOW+lKOD+rKOD; prio: 32,32; interface: eth0; 000 "cluster": newest ISAKMP SA: #1; newest IPsec SA: #0; 000 "cluster": IKE algorithm newest: AES_CBC_128-SHA1-MODP2048 000 000 #3: "cluster":500 STATE_QUICK_R0 (expecting QI1); EVENT_CRYPTO_FAILED in 298s; lastdpd=-1s(seq in:0 out:0); idle; import:admin initiate 000 #2: "cluster":500 STATE_QUICK_I1 (sent QI1, expecting QR1); EVENT_RETRANSMIT in 13s; lastdpd=-1s(seq in:0 out:0); idle; import:admin initiate 000 #1: "cluster":500 STATE_MAIN_I4 (ISAKMP SA established); EVENT_SA_REPLACE in 2991s; newest ISAKMP; lastdpd=-1s(seq in:0 out:0); idle; import:admin initiate 000 Interestingly enough, if I do ike-scan on the server here's what happens: Doesn't seem to take my ike settings into account root@cluster1:~# ike-scan -M 172.16.0.108 Starting ike-scan 1.9 with 1 hosts (http://www.nta-monitor.com/tools/ike-scan/) 172.16.0.108 Main Mode Handshake returned HDR=(CKY-R=641bffa66ba717b6) SA=(Enc=3DES Hash=SHA1 Auth=PSK Group=2:modp1024 LifeType=Seconds LifeDuration(4)=0x00007080) VID=4f45517b4f7f6e657a7b4351 VID=afcad71368a1f1c96b8696fc77570100 (Dead Peer Detection v1.0) Ending ike-scan 1.9: 1 hosts scanned in 0.008 seconds (118.19 hosts/sec). 1 returned handshake; 0 returned notify root@cluster1:~# I can't tell what's going on here, this is pretty much the simplest config I can have according to the examples.

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• cherrypy fails to stop when puppet tries to ensure running and refresh it at the same time

  - by ento

  I am trying to manage a cherrypy service with puppet. However, when the configuration is applied, cherryd ends up with no PID file although the process is up and running. Since the PID file is lost I can no longer stop the process with /etc/init.d/mycherryd stop (unless I modify the handmade init script to lookup the PID with ps or something.) $ /etc/init.d/mycherryd status cherryd dead but subsys locked The problem seems to be that puppet is trying to refresh/restart cherryd (triggered by changes in configuration files) immediately after ensuring it's running (as specified in the manifest), and cherrypy fails to stop and start (restart) itself while still executing its startup process. Is there a clear cut solution to this problem? Is this a bug on the cherrypy side, or can I write a puppet manifest so refresh is called only after the service is up and running? Any suggestion welcome. cherrypy log See how cherrypy catches SIGTERM midway through startup and still starts to listen. :cherrypy.error[18666] 2010-02-12 13:10:23,551 INFO: ENGINE Listening for SIGHUP. :cherrypy.error[18666] 2010-02-12 13:10:23,552 INFO: ENGINE Listening for SIGTERM. :cherrypy.error[18666] 2010-02-12 13:10:23,552 INFO: ENGINE Listening for SIGUSR1. :cherrypy.error[18666] 2010-02-12 13:10:23,552 INFO: ENGINE Bus STARTING :cherrypy.error[18671] 2010-02-12 13:10:23,554 INFO: ENGINE Daemonized to PID: 18671 :cherrypy.error[18671] 2010-02-12 13:10:23,554 INFO: ENGINE PID 18671 written to '/var/mycherryd/cherry.pid'. :cherrypy.error[18671] 2010-02-12 13:10:23,555 INFO: ENGINE Started monitor thread '_TimeoutMonitor'. :cherrypy.error[18670] 2010-02-12 13:10:23,556 INFO: ENGINE Forking twice. :cherrypy.error[18666] 2010-02-12 13:10:23,557 INFO: ENGINE Forking once. :cherrypy.error[18671] 2010-02-12 13:10:23,716 INFO: ENGINE Caught signal SIGTERM. :cherrypy.error[18671] 2010-02-12 13:10:23,716 INFO: ENGINE Bus STOPPING :cherrypy.error[18671] 2010-02-12 13:10:23,716 INFO: ENGINE HTTP Server cherrypy._cpwsgi_server.CPWSGIServer(('0.0.0.0', 12380)) already shut down :cherrypy.error[18671] 2010-02-12 13:10:23,717 INFO: ENGINE Stopped thread '_TimeoutMonitor'. :cherrypy.error[18671] 2010-02-12 13:10:23,717 INFO: ENGINE Bus STOPPED :cherrypy.error[18671] 2010-02-12 13:10:23,732 INFO: ENGINE Bus EXITING :cherrypy.error[18671] 2010-02-12 13:10:23,759 INFO: ENGINE PID file removed: '/var/mycherryd/cherry.pid'. :cherrypy.error[18671] 2010-02-12 13:10:23,782 INFO: ENGINE Bus EXITED :cherrypy.error[18671] 2010-02-12 13:10:23,792 INFO: ENGINE Serving on 0.0.0.0:12380 :cherrypy.error[18671] 2010-02-12 13:10:23,826 INFO: ENGINE Bus STARTED puppet log puppet tries to refresh the service immediately after ensuring it to be 'running'. Feb 12 13:10:22 localhost puppetd[8159]: (//mycherrypy/File[conffiles]) Scheduling refresh of Service[cherryd] Feb 12 13:10:22 localhost last message repeated 12 times Feb 12 13:10:23 localhost puppetd[8159]: (//mycherrypy/Service[mycherryd]/ensure) ensure changed 'stopped' to 'running' Feb 12 13:10:23 localhost puppetd[8159]: (//mycherrypy/Service[mycherryd]) Triggering 'refresh' from 13 dependencies Feb 12 13:11:23 localhost puppetd[8159]: (//mycherrypy/Service[mycherryd]) Failed to call refresh on Service[mycherryd]: Could not stop Service[mycherryd]: Execution of '/sbin/service mycherryd stop' returned 1: at /etc/puppet/manifests/mycherrypy.pp:161 Feb 12 13:11:24 localhost puppetd[8159]: Value of 'preferred_serialization_format' (pson) is invalid for report, using default (marshal) Feb 12 13:11:24 localhost puppetd[8159]: Finished catalog run in 99.25 seconds puppet manifest excerpt class mycherrypy { file { 'rpm': path => "/tmp/${apiserver}.i386.rpm", source => "${fileserver}/${apiserver}.i386.rpm"; 'conffiles': require => Package["${apiserver}"], path => "${service_home}/config/", ensure => present, source => "${fileserver}/config/", notify => Service["mycherryd"]; } package { "$apiserver": provider => 'rpm', source => "/tmp/${apiserver}.i386.rpm", ensure => latest; } service { "mycherryd": require => [File["conffiles"], Package["${apiserver}"]], ensure => running, provider => redhat, hasstatus => true; } }

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• cherrypy fails to stop when puppet tries to ensure running and refresh it at the same time

  - by ento

  I am trying to manage a cherrypy service with puppet. However, when the configuration is applied, cherryd ends up with no PID file although the process is up and running. Since the PID file is lost I can no longer stop the process with /etc/init.d/mycherryd stop (unless I modify the handmade init script to lookup the PID with ps or something.) $ /etc/init.d/mycherryd status cherryd dead but subsys locked The problem seems to be that puppet is trying to refresh/restart cherryd (triggered by changes in configuration files) immediately after ensuring it's running (as specified in the manifest), and cherrypy fails to stop and start (restart) itself while still executing its startup process. Is there a clear cut solution to this problem? Is this a bug on the cherrypy side, or can I write a puppet manifest so refresh is called only after the service is up and running? Any suggestion welcome. cherrypy log See how cherrypy catches SIGTERM midway through startup and still starts to listen. :cherrypy.error[18666] 2010-02-12 13:10:23,551 INFO: ENGINE Listening for SIGHUP. :cherrypy.error[18666] 2010-02-12 13:10:23,552 INFO: ENGINE Listening for SIGTERM. :cherrypy.error[18666] 2010-02-12 13:10:23,552 INFO: ENGINE Listening for SIGUSR1. :cherrypy.error[18666] 2010-02-12 13:10:23,552 INFO: ENGINE Bus STARTING :cherrypy.error[18671] 2010-02-12 13:10:23,554 INFO: ENGINE Daemonized to PID: 18671 :cherrypy.error[18671] 2010-02-12 13:10:23,554 INFO: ENGINE PID 18671 written to '/var/mycherryd/cherry.pid'. :cherrypy.error[18671] 2010-02-12 13:10:23,555 INFO: ENGINE Started monitor thread '_TimeoutMonitor'. :cherrypy.error[18670] 2010-02-12 13:10:23,556 INFO: ENGINE Forking twice. :cherrypy.error[18666] 2010-02-12 13:10:23,557 INFO: ENGINE Forking once. :cherrypy.error[18671] 2010-02-12 13:10:23,716 INFO: ENGINE Caught signal SIGTERM. :cherrypy.error[18671] 2010-02-12 13:10:23,716 INFO: ENGINE Bus STOPPING :cherrypy.error[18671] 2010-02-12 13:10:23,716 INFO: ENGINE HTTP Server cherrypy._cpwsgi_server.CPWSGIServer(('0.0.0.0', 12380)) already shut down :cherrypy.error[18671] 2010-02-12 13:10:23,717 INFO: ENGINE Stopped thread '_TimeoutMonitor'. :cherrypy.error[18671] 2010-02-12 13:10:23,717 INFO: ENGINE Bus STOPPED :cherrypy.error[18671] 2010-02-12 13:10:23,732 INFO: ENGINE Bus EXITING :cherrypy.error[18671] 2010-02-12 13:10:23,759 INFO: ENGINE PID file removed: '/var/mycherryd/cherry.pid'. :cherrypy.error[18671] 2010-02-12 13:10:23,782 INFO: ENGINE Bus EXITED :cherrypy.error[18671] 2010-02-12 13:10:23,792 INFO: ENGINE Serving on 0.0.0.0:12380 :cherrypy.error[18671] 2010-02-12 13:10:23,826 INFO: ENGINE Bus STARTED puppet log puppet tries to refresh the service immediately after ensuring it to be 'running'. Feb 12 13:10:22 localhost puppetd[8159]: (//mycherrypy/File[conffiles]) Scheduling refresh of Service[cherryd] Feb 12 13:10:22 localhost last message repeated 12 times Feb 12 13:10:23 localhost puppetd[8159]: (//mycherrypy/Service[mycherryd]/ensure) ensure changed 'stopped' to 'running' Feb 12 13:10:23 localhost puppetd[8159]: (//mycherrypy/Service[mycherryd]) Triggering 'refresh' from 13 dependencies Feb 12 13:11:23 localhost puppetd[8159]: (//mycherrypy/Service[mycherryd]) Failed to call refresh on Service[mycherryd]: Could not stop Service[mycherryd]: Execution of '/sbin/service mycherryd stop' returned 1: at /etc/puppet/manifests/mycherrypy.pp:161 Feb 12 13:11:24 localhost puppetd[8159]: Value of 'preferred_serialization_format' (pson) is invalid for report, using default (marshal) Feb 12 13:11:24 localhost puppetd[8159]: Finished catalog run in 99.25 seconds puppet manifest excerpt class mycherrypy { file { 'rpm': path => "/tmp/${apiserver}.i386.rpm", source => "${fileserver}/${apiserver}.i386.rpm"; 'conffiles': require => Package["${apiserver}"], path => "${service_home}/config/", ensure => present, source => "${fileserver}/config/", notify => Service["mycherryd"]; } package { "$apiserver": provider => 'rpm', source => "/tmp/${apiserver}.i386.rpm", ensure => latest; } service { "mycherryd": require => [File["conffiles"], Package["${apiserver}"]], ensure => running, provider => redhat, hasstatus => true; } }

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• Windows 8 Launch&ndash;Why OEM and Retailers Should STFU

  - by D'Arcy Lussier

  Microsoft has gotten a lot of flack for the Surface from OEM/hardware partners who create Windows-based devices and I’m sure, to an extent, retailers who normally stock and sell Windows-based devices. I mean we all know how this is supposed to work – Microsoft makes the OS, partners make the hardware, retailers sell the hardware. Now Microsoft is breaking the rules by not only offering their own hardware but selling them via online and through their Microsoft branded stores! The thought has been that Microsoft is trying to set a standard for the other hardware companies to reach for. Maybe. I hope, at some level, Microsoft may be covertly responding to frustrations associated with trusting the OEMs and Retailers to deliver on their part of the supply chain. I know as a consumer, I’m very frustrated with the Windows 8 launch. Aside from the Surface sales, there’s nothing happening at the retail level. Let me back up and explain. Over the weekend I visited a number of stores in hopes of trying out various Windows 8 devices. Out of three retailers (Staples, Best Buy, and Future Shop), not *one* met my expectations. Let me be honest with you Staples, I never really have high expectations from your computer department. If I need paper or pens, whatever, but computers – you’re not the top of my list for price or selection. Still, considering you flaunted Win 8 devices in your flyer I expected *something* – some sign of effort that you took the Windows 8 launch seriously. As I entered the 1910 Pembina Highway location in Winnipeg, there was nothing – no signage, no banners – nothing that would suggest Windows 8 had even launched. I made my way to the laptops. I had to play with each machine to determine which ones were running Windows 8. There wasn’t anything on the placards that made it obvious which were Windows 8 machines and which ones were Windows 7. Likewise, there was no easy way to identify the touch screen laptop (the HP model) from the others without physically touching the screen to verify. Horrible experience. In the same mall as the Staples I mentioned above, there’s a Future Shop. Surely they would be more on the ball. I walked in to the 1910 Pembina Highway location and immediately realized I would not get a better experience. Except for the sign by the front door mentioning Windows 8, there was *nothing* in the computer department pointing you to the Windows 8 devices. Like in Staples, the Win 8 laptops were mixed in with the Win 7 ones and there was nothing notable calling out which ones were running Win 8. I happened to hit up the St. James Street location today, thinking since its a busier store they must have more options. To their credit, they did have two staff members decked out in Windows 8 shirts and who were helping a customer understand Windows 8. But otherwise, there was nothing highlighting the Windows 8 devices and they were again mixed in with the rest of the Win 7 machines. Finally, we have the St. James Street Best Buy location here in Winnipeg. I’m sure Best Buy will have their act together. Nope, not even close. Same story as the others: minimal signage (there was a sign as you walked in with a link to this schedule of demo days), Windows 8 hardware mixed with the rest of the PC offerings, and no visible call-outs identifying which were Win 8 based. This meant that, like Future Shop and Staples, if you wanted to know which machine had Windows 8 you had to go and scrutinize each machine. Also, there was nothing identifying which ones were touch based and which were not. Just Another Day… To these retailers, it seemed that the Windows 8 launch was just another day, with another product to add to the showroom floor. Meanwhile, Apple has their dedicated areas *in all three stores*. It was dead simple to find where the Apple products were compared to the Windows 8 products. No wonder Microsoft is starting to push their own retail stores. No wonder Microsoft is trying to funnel orders through them instead of relying on these bloated retail big box stores who obviously can’t manage a product launch. It’s Not Just The Retailers… Remember when the Acer CEO, Founder, and President of Computer Global Operations all weighed in on how Microsoft releasing the Surface would have a “huge negative impact for the ecosystem and other brands may take a negative reaction”? Also remember the CEO stating “[making hardware] is not something you are good at so please think twice”? Well the launch day has come and gone, and so far Microsoft is the only one that delivered on having hardware available on the October 26th date. Oh sure, there are laptops running Windows 8 – but all in one desktop PCs? I’ve only seen one or two! And tablets are *non existent*, with some showing an early to late November availability on Best Buy’s website! So while the retailers could be doing more to make it easier to find Windows 8 devices, the manufacturers could help by *getting devices into stores*! That’s supposedly something that these companies are good at, according to the Acer CEO. So Here’s What the Retailers and Manufacturers Need To Do… Get Product Out The pivotal timeframe will be now to the end of November. We need to start seeing all these fantastic pieces of hardware ship – including the Samsung ATIV Smart PC Pro, the Acer Iconia, the Asus TAICHI 21, and the sexy Samsung Series 7 27” desktop. It’s not enough to see product announcements, we need to see actual devices. Make It Easy For Customers To Find Win8 Devices You want to make it easy to sell these things? Make it easy for people to find them! Have staff on hand that really know how these devices run and what can be done with them. Don’t just have a single demo day, have people who can demo it every day! Make It Easy to See the Features There’s touch screen desktops, touch screen laptops, tablets, non-touch laptops, etc. People need to easily find the features for each machine. If I’m looking for a touch-laptop, I shouldn’t need to sift through all the non-touch laptops to find them – at the least, I need to quickly be able to see which ones are touch. I feel silly even typing this because this should be retail 101 and I have no retail background (but I do have an extensive background as a customer). In Summary… Microsoft launching the Surface and selling them through their own channels isn’t slapping its OEM and retail partners in the face; its slapping them to wake the hell up and stop coasting through Windows launch events like they don’t matter. Unless I see some improvements from vendors and retailers in November, I may just hold onto my money for a Surface Pro even if I have to wait until early 2013. Your move OEM/Retailers. *Update – While my experience has been in Winnipeg, similar experiences have been voiced from colleagues in Calgary and Edmonton.

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• moving raid 10 to another identical server both on Smart Array 6i controllers

  - by SalimQrdl

  I have dead HP DL 380G4 with RAID 1+0 with 1 logical volume from 4x72GB drives on built-in Smart Array 6i 128Mb BBWC. It was shut down properly. It seems it was usual death for Proliant with ILO led 2,3,8 lighting. I want to move array to another identical server with same raid firmware level. What is the best strategy?: I have RAID 1+0 on bay 0 bay 1 bay 2 bay 3 As I understand bay0+bay1 are in RAID 1 , bay2+bay3 are in RAID 1, and both RAID 1 pairs are in RAID 0. So should I : Clear RAID config on new server, insert bay 0, bay 2 and power-on or Create RAID 1+0 with 1 logical volume from clear HDDs , and then poweroff ,remove HDDs and insert 2 HDDs(bay 0, bay 2) from old RAID 1+0. then power-on. (each hdd has its raid position info stored but may be could work on same config) According to documentation for Smart Array 6i it could be possible to migrate. however one requirement point is unclear for me Before you move drives, the following conditions must be met: • The array is in its original configuration. " What is orginal and non-original config for RAID 1+0? Another point "If you want to move an array to another controller, you must also consider the following additional limitations: • All drives in the array must be moved at the same time." I want to move one hdd from each RAID 1 pair. to have mirrors untouched just in case. Do they mean to move all 4 simultaniously? Smart Array 6i User Guide: Moving Drives and Arrays You can move drives to other ID positionson the same array controller. You can also move a complete arrayfrom one controller to another, even if the controllers are on different servers. Before you move drives, the following conditions must be met: • If moving thedrives to a different server, the new server must have enough empty bays to accommodate all the drives simultaneously. • The move will not result in more than 14 physical drives per controller channel. • No controller will be configured with more than 32 logical volumes. • The array has no failed or missing drives. • The array is in its original configuration. • The controller is not reading from or writing to any of the spare drives in the array. • The controller is not running capacity expansion, capacity extension, or RAID or stripe size migration. • The controller is using the latestfirmware version (recommended). If you want to move an array to another controller, you must also consider the following additional limitations: • All drives in the array must be moved at the same time. • In most cases, a moved array (and the logical drives that it contains) can still undergo arraycapacity expansion, logical drive capacity extension, or migration of RAID level orstripe size. When all the conditions have been met: Back up all data before removing any drives or changing configuration. This step is requiredif you are moving data-containing drives from a controller that does not have a battery-backed cache. Power down the system. If you are moving an array from a controller that contains a RAID ADG logical volume to a controller that does not support RAID ADG: Move the drives. Power up the system. If a 1724 POST message is displayed, drive positions were changed successfully and the configuration was updated. If a 1785 (NotConfigured)POST message is displayed: a. Power down the system immediately to prevent data loss. b. Return the drives to their original locations. c. Restore the data from backup, if necessary. Check the new drive configuration byrunning ORCA or ACU ("Configuring an Array" on page 9).

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