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• I failed FizzBuzz, would you hire me? [closed]

  - by ja_programmer

  I'm a developer with a CS degree and have work experience doing development in a number of languages for almost 3 years. Today had an interview (2nd interview) with a panel of people. Overall it went quite well, I prepared for most of the questions and felt ready for anything. At the end of the interview, they gave me ONE programming question...a problem like FizzBuzz (without the print the number part). I believe I made too many mistakes and thus have "failed" it. Is all hope lost for me? Here is my code: void FizzBuzz() { for(int i = 0; i <= 100; i++) { bool isThree = i % 3; bool isFive = i % 5; if (isThree) { print "Fizz\n"; } else if(isFive) { print "Buzz\n"; } else { print "FizzBuzz\n"; } } } As you can see I messed up the bools which should have the syntax i % 3 == 0; If I'm remembering the question right I also put an else instead of an elseif with isThree && isFive. I was quite stressed, but that's no excuse for missing a simple problem. So the question is, if my work history and personality fit with the job and this is the only code you've seen, would you hire me?

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• What is the most effective approach to learn an unfamiliar complex program? [closed]

  - by bdroc

  Possible Duplicate: How do you dive into large code bases? I have quite a bit of experience with different programming languages and writing small and functional programs for a variety of purposes. My coding skills aren't what I have a problem with. In fact, I've written a decent web application from scratch for my startup. However, I have trouble jumping into unfamiliar applications. What's the most effective way to approach learning a new program's structure and/or architecture so that I can start attacking the code effectively? Are there useful tools for their respective languages (Python and Java are my two primary languages)? Should I be starting with just looking at function names or documentation? How do you veterans approach this problem? I find this has to be with minimal help from coworkers or contributors who are already familiar with the application and have better things to do than help me. I'd love to practice this skill in an open source project so any suggestions for starting points (maybe mildly complex) would be great too!

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• ???????????! Java EE 6???????????????/???????!!????UFJ????????????????????????Java EE 6??????JavaOne Tokyo 2012?????|WebLogic Channel|??????

  - by ???02

  ??UFJ?????????????????????????IT??????? ?????????UFJ?????????/????????2007?7????????????JavaEE5?????????Java EE??????????????????????2012?4???????JavaOne Tokyo 2012??????????Java EE 6?????????????????????????Java EE 6???????????????????????????????????????????Java EE 6???????"??????????????"???????????????????????????????????(???)Java EE 6?????????·?????????????????UFJ??????????????? IT??????? ????????　???????????????????Java EE????????????????????J2EE 1.4??????????????????????????????(EoD:Ease of Development)?????????????????????2006??????Java EE 5?????????·??????????????????????EoD????????????????Java EE 5????????????????????????????Java Servlet?JavaServer Faces(JSF)?????????????API?EoD????????????Dependency Injection(DI???????)?Aspect Oriented Programming(AOP???????????????)???????????????RESTful Web?????API????????????????　????????????????2009?12?????????????Java EE 6??????Java EE 6???????????????·??????????????????????????????????????????????????·??????????????????????????????????????????????????????Java EE 6????????????????????????Java EE??????Java EE 6????????????　Java EE 6????1?????????????????????????????????????Java EE 6???JSF??????1.2??2.0??????????????JSF 1.2?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????JSF 2.0??????????????????????????????????(???)????????Ajax??????????????????????????????????????????????????????JSF????????????????UI?????????????????(?????)?????HTML???JSF???????????HTML?JSF????????????(?)???????????????JSF 2.0????????????　???EJB??????3.0??3.1??????????EJB 3.1???????EoD???????????????????????????????????????Singleton??????????Session Bean????????????Java Persistence API(JPA)??????1.0??2.0????????????????????(?????)??????????????　???????Java EE 6???????API???/???????????????Java EE 6?????"?????"???????Contexts and Dependency Injection(CDI) 1.0?????????JSF?EJB?JPA???????????DI?????????????????????Java EE 5???DI????????Java EE?????????????????????????????CDI??????????JavaBeans????DI???????????????????CDI??????????????????·?????????????1???????????????(???????)?????????????????????????????????·???????　??????????API?????1??????????Java API for RESTful Web Services(JAX-RS) 1.1?????????????????Java?RESTful Web????????????API?????????2???????1???SOAP????Web??????????????????????????????????????????????????1???Web??????????JavaScript????·???·???????????????????JAX-RS???　????????????????????Java EE 6?????????????????????????EoD???????:???????JSF?????????????????????????:?????????API?????????????????????????????????????API?Java EE????????????????????????????????EJB?????EAR???????????WAR??????????????????????????????:JNDI????????????(?????)????????????Java EE 6??????????????????????!　?????????????·???????????????????????????Java EE 6??????????Java EE 5????????????????????????????????????????????Web?????????????????????Model/View/Controller(MVC)???????????????????????????(1)HTML?JSF???????????(JSF 2.0???)(2)????UI????????????????(JSF 2.0???)(3)JavaScript+JAX-RS?????????MVC????(1)HTML?JSF???????????(JSF 2.0???)(2)????UI????????????????(JSF 2.0???)(3)JavaScript+JAX-RS?????　??????(3)JavaScript+JAX-RS???????????????????????????????????·??????????·???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????(???)??????　???????????3?????(3????)??????????????????3?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????/????????????????????????????????????????????????????????·???????????????????????????????????????　??????????????3??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????Java EE 6???CDI????????????·???(JSF?EJB?JPA)??????????????????????EJB??????WAR?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? Java EE 6??????????????　???????????????????????????????(?????·???????)???????Java EE 6???????????????????????????????????????????????·?????????????????????????Java EE 6???????????????????????API????????????????????????????????????·????????Java EE 6???????　????Java EE 6????????????????????????????????Java EE 6???????????????????????Java EE 6??????????????????????????????????????????????Java EE 6???????????????????????????

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• Xcode/iPhone Development 6 months in - Annoyances

  - by clearbrian

  Hi I've been iPhone programming for 6 months and come from a PC/Java/Eclipse background and still have a few annoyances with Xcode/iPhone programming I wonder are there any shortcuts to. Is there any way to prevent multiple windows opening all the time in XCode? a) When you click on the Errors/Warnings in the bottom right of the status bar build errors are shown in separate window. Any way to get these to show in the main editor? b) Anyway to get debugger to appear in main editor. I have a big screen iMac and it's still window hell on Macs. When you come from Alt-Tab the Mac is a nightmare. 2) Anyway to get a toolbar item on the main editor to: a) Open Console (I know CMD-thingy-R) b) Open Break points (you have to open Debugger first then breakpoints) I know there's keyboard shortcuts but I have only left hand free others on the trackball so any keys on right hand side of keyboard are too far. I know you can add Finder toolbar scripts (just wondering if anyway to extend Xcode). Are there utilities to extend Xcode? Scripts/Automator/Any Services I can setup to help. Can you automate Xcode like you can with Windows/ActiveX/VBA 3) Limit lookups using CMD + double click. If I double click on a variable to find its definition using CMD + double click it shows every occurrence of all variables with that name. (annoying it you name all you maps mapView) Anyway to get it to limit to the current class or at least order so current class is first. 4) Find doesn't seem to loop backwards if result all above cursor position I'm in a class and I hit CMD + F for find. Find box appears. I enter some text hit return. It says I have x matches but only back arrow is highlight in Find But when I hit < it does nothing. I need to scroll to the top and redo the search. If the text is both forwards and backwards then both < are highlighted and it works. is this a bug or a 'feature' Missing Eclipse features I have been looking at the User Script menu but was wondering how powerful they are? 5) any scripts around to generate source from members such as description: @property @synthesize if I add a new member, run a script will generate @property/@syntesize and release in dealloc 7) any good sites for scripts? SCM Im having problems with SCM and Folders on HD under project Classes directory. You get a library e.g. JSON. It usually comes as a folder. You copy it to the /Classes for your project. /Classes/JSON I create a Group for the Library in Xcode under Classes group. Classes JSON I drag the files from the folder into xcode into the JSON Group. I add them to the SCM and icon changes from ? to A but if I try and commit them it say folder /JSON is not under SCM. Can you drag a folder into Xcode so that it AND its files get included in SCM? Anyway to stop Xcode Help from being on top all the time. I keep feeling like punching it and telling it to get out of the way! :) I dont mind it open just not in the way once I've finished. Yes I know I can Ctrl-W Sites: the main site I use to learn Obj-C are : stackoverflow.com Google code Search - tonnes of full apps on here http://www.iphonedevsdk.com/forum/iphone-sdk-development/ Apple Developers Forums (anyway to get RSS feed to these or is that blasphemy :) ) Safari - 100s of IT book though prob too many to keep up :) any others? Any site that gives simple examples for Obj-C/ UIKit The docs just show the methods but actual examples (Google code search has helped a lot here)

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• How to write a Mork File Format file in Java?

  - by Sumit Ghosh

  Iam working on a project which involves writing a Mork File (Mork is a database format used by Mozilla to store url history and other information.) It has been replaced by an enhanced version of SQLite in latest Mozilla 3.0. Now I have the code for parsing a Mork File , but Iam struggling a bit with this part of the the file. <(A9=3)(81=)([email protected])(80=0)(85=2)(86=4ac18267)(83=1) (87=Mark)(88=Colbath)(89=Mark Colbath)([email protected])(8B [email protected])(8C=512-282-2509)(8D=+504-9907-1342)(8E=512-282-2510) (8F=512-282-2511)(90=512-282-2512)(91=Two Blocks Past Oxen Team)(92 =Villa Alicia)(93=Siguatepeque)(94=Comayagua)(95=NA)(96=Honduras) (97=9309 Heatherwood Dr)(98=Apartment 1)(99=Austin)(9A=TX)(9B=78748) (9C=USA)(9D=Programmer)(9E=Programming)(9F=MPC Solutions)(A0 =rentaprogrammer)(A1=http://www.mpcsol.com)(A2 =http://www.jesuslovesthelittlechildren.org)(A3=Hannah)(A4=John) (A5=Faith)(A6=Timothy)(A7=Some notes go here.)(A8 [email protected])> {1:^80 {(k^C0:c)(s=9)} [1:^82(^BF=3)] [1(^83=)(^84=)(^85=)(^86=)(^87=)(^88=)(^89^82)(^8A^82)(^8B=)(^8C=) (^8D=)(^8E=0)(^8F=2)(^90=0)(^91=)(^92=)(^93=)(^94=)(^95=)(^96=) (^97=)(^98=)(^99=)(^9A=)(^9B=)(^9C=)(^9D=)(^9E=)(^9F=)(^A0=)(^A1=) (^A2=)(^A3=)(^A4=)(^A5=)(^A6=)(^A7=)(^A8=)(^A9=)(^AA=)(^AB=)(^AC=) (^AD=)(^AE=)(^AF=)(^B0=)(^B1=)(^B2=)(^B3=)(^B4=)(^B5=)(^B6=)(^B7=) (^B8=)(^B9=)(^BA=)(^BB=)(^BC^86)(^BD=1)] [2(^83^87)(^84^88)(^85=)(^86=)(^87^89)(^88=)(^89^8A)(^8A^8A)(^8B^8B) (^8C=)(^8D=)(^8E=2)(^8F=0)(^90=1)(^91^8C)(^92^8D)(^93^8E)(^94^8F) (^95^90)(^96=)(^97=)(^98=)(^99=)(^9A=)(^9B^91)(^9C^92)(^9D^93)(^9E^94) (^9F=NA)(^A0^96)(^A1^97)(^A2^98)(^A3^99)(^A4=TX)(^A5^9B)(^A6^9C) (^A7^9D)(^A8^9E)(^A9^9F)(^AA^A0)(^AB=)(^AC=)(^AD=)(^AE=)(^AF=)(^B0=) (^B1=)(^B2^A1)(^B3^A2)(^B4=)(^B5=)(^B6=)(^B7^A3)(^B8^A4)(^B9^A5) (^BA^A6)(^BB^A7)(^BC=0)(^BD=2)] [3(^83=)(^84=)(^85=)(^86=)(^87=)(^88=)(^89^A8)(^8A^A8)(^8B=)(^8C=) (^8D=)(^8E=0)(^8F=0)(^90=0)(^91=)(^92=)(^93=)(^94=)(^95=)(^96=) (^97=)(^98=)(^99=)(^9A=)(^9B=)(^9C=)(^9D=)(^9E=)(^9F=)(^A0=)(^A1=) (^A2=)(^A3=)(^A4=)(^A5=)(^A6=)(^A7=)(^A8=)(^A9=)(^AA=)(^AB=)(^AC=) (^AD=)(^AE=)(^AF=)(^B0=)(^B1=)(^B2=)(^B3=)(^B4=)(^B5=)(^B6=)(^B7=) (^B8=)(^B9=)(^BA=)(^BB=)(^BC=0)(^BD=3)]} Can someone tell me how this part of the Mork file relates to the data given below? run: NickName=,LastModifiedDate=4ac18267,FaxNumberType=,BirthMonth=,LastName=,HomePhone=,WorkCountry=,HomePhoneType=,PreferMailFormat=0,CellularNumber=,FamilyName=,[email protected],AnniversaryMonth=,HomeCity=,WorkState=,HomeCountry=,PhoneticFirstName=,PhoneticLastName=,HomeState=,WorkAddress=,WebPage1=,WebPage2=,HomeAddress2=,WorkZipCode=,_AimScreenName=,AnniversaryYear=,WorkPhoneType=,Notes=,WorkAddress2=,WorkPhone=,Custom3=,Custom4=,Custom1=,Custom2=,PagerNumber=,AnniversaryDay=,WorkCity=,AllowRemoteContent=0,CellularNumberType=,FaxNumber=,PopularityIndex=2,FirstName=,SpouseName=,CardType=,Department=,Company=,HomeAddress=,BirthDay=,SecondEmail=,RecordKey=1,DisplayName=,DefaultEmail=,DefaultAddress=,BirthYear=,Category=,PagerNumberType=,[email protected],JobTitle=,HomeZipCode=, NickName=,LastModifiedDate=0,FaxNumberType=,BirthMonth=,LastName=Colbath,HomePhone=+504-9907-1342,WorkCountry=USA,HomePhoneType=,PreferMailFormat=2,CellularNumber=512-282-2512,FamilyName=,[email protected],AnniversaryMonth=,HomeCity=Siguatepeque,WorkState=TX,HomeCountry=Honduras,PhoneticFirstName=,PhoneticLastName=,HomeState=Comayagua,WorkAddress=9309 HeatherwoodDr,WebPage1=http://www.mpcsol.com,WebPage2=http://www.jesuslovesthelittlechildren.org,HomeAddress2=VillaAlicia,WorkZipCode=78748,_AimScreenName=rentaprogrammer,AnniversaryYear=,WorkPhoneType=,Notes=Some notes go here.,WorkAddress2=Apartment 1,WorkPhone=512-282-2509,Custom3=Faith,Custom4=Timothy,Custom1=Hannah,Custom2=John,PagerNumber=512-282-2511,AnniversaryDay=,WorkCity=Austin,AllowRemoteContent=1,CellularNumberType=,FaxNumber=512-282-2510,PopularityIndex=0,FirstName=Mark,SpouseName=,CardType=,Department=Programming,Company=MPC Solutions,HomeAddress=Two Blocks Past Oxen Team,BirthDay=,[email protected],RecordKey=2,DisplayName=Mark Colbath,DefaultEmail=,DefaultAddress=,BirthYear=,Category=,PagerNumberType=,[email protected],JobTitle=Programmer,HomeZipCode=NA, NickName=,LastModifiedDate=0,FaxNumberType=,BirthMonth=,LastName=,HomePhone=,WorkCountry=,HomePhoneType=,PreferMailFormat=0,CellularNumber=,FamilyName=,[email protected],AnniversaryMonth=,HomeCity=,WorkState=,HomeCountry=,PhoneticFirstName=,PhoneticLastName=,HomeState=,WorkAddress=,WebPage1=,WebPage2=,HomeAddress2=,WorkZipCode=,_AimScreenName=,AnniversaryYear=,WorkPhoneType=,Notes=,WorkAddress2=,WorkPhone=,Custom3=,Custom4=,Custom1=,Custom2=,PagerNumber=,AnniversaryDay=,WorkCity=,AllowRemoteContent=0,CellularNumberType=,FaxNumber=,PopularityIndex=0,FirstName=,SpouseName=,CardType=,Department=,Company=,HomeAddress=,BirthDay=,SecondEmail=,RecordKey=3,DisplayName=,DefaultEmail=,DefaultAddress=,BirthYear=,Category=,PagerNumberType=,[email protected],JobTitle=,HomeZipCode=, I have been breaking my head for almost 2 days now, please someone who is part of the mozilla team can help, it would be really appreciated.

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• What is the coolest thing you can do in <10 lines of simple code? Help me inspire beginners!

  - by Tom Ritter

  I'm looking for the coolest thing you can do in a few lines of simple code. I'm sure you can write a Mandelbrot set in Haskell in 15 lines but it's difficult to follow. My goal is to inspire students that programming is cool. We know that programming is cool because you can create anything you imagine - it's the ultimate creative outlet. I want to inspire these beginners and get them over as many early-learning humps as I can. Now, my reasons are selfish. I'm teaching an Intro to Computing course to a group of 60 half-engineering, half business majors; all freshmen. They are the students who came from underprivileged High schools. From my past experience, the group is generally split as follows: a few rock-stars, some who try very hard and kind of get it, the few who try very hard and barely get it, and the few who don't care. I want to reach as many of these groups as effectively as I can. Here's an example of how I'd use a computer program to teach: Here's an example of what I'm looking for: a 1-line VBS script to get your computer to talk to you: CreateObject("sapi.spvoice").Speak InputBox("Enter your text","Talk it") I could use this to demonstrate order of operations. I'd show the code, let them play with it, then explain that There's a lot going on in that line, but the computer can make sense of it, because it knows the rules. Then I'd show them something like this: 4(5*5) / 10 + 9(.25 + .75) And you can see that first I need to do is (5*5). Then I can multiply for 4. And now I've created the Object. Dividing by 10 is the same as calling Speak - I can't Speak before I have an object, and I can't divide before I have 100. Then on the other side I first create an InputBox with some instructions for how to display it. When I hit enter on the input box it evaluates or "returns" whatever I entered. (Hint: 'oooooo' makes a funny sound) So when I say Speak, the right side is what to Speak. And I get that from the InputBox. So when you do several things on a line, like: x = 14 + y; You need to be aware of the order of things. First we add 14 and y. Then we put the result (what it evaluates to, or returns) into x. That's my goal, to have a bunch of these cool examples to demonstrate and teach the class while they have fun. I tried this example on my roommate and while I may not use this as the first lesson, she liked it and learned something. Some cool mathematica programs that make beautiful graphs or shapes that are easy to understand would be good ideas and I'm going to look into those. Here are some complicated actionscript examples but that's a bit too advanced and I can't teach flash. What other ideas do you have?

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• python: what are efficient techniques to deal with deeply nested data in a flexible manner?

  - by AlexandreS

  My question is not about a specific code snippet but more general, so please bear with me: How should I organize the data I'm analyzing, and which tools should I use to manage it? I'm using python and numpy to analyse data. Because the python documentation indicates that dictionaries are very optimized in python, and also due to the fact that the data itself is very structured, I stored it in a deeply nested dictionary. Here is a skeleton of the dictionary: the position in the hierarchy defines the nature of the element, and each new line defines the contents of a key in the precedent level: [AS091209M02] [AS091209M01] [AS090901M06] ... [100113] [100211] [100128] [100121] [R16] [R17] [R03] [R15] [R05] [R04] [R07] ... [1263399103] ... [ImageSize] [FilePath] [Trials] [Depth] [Frames] [Responses] ... [N01] [N04] ... [Sequential] [Randomized] [Ch1] [Ch2] Edit: To explain a bit better my data set: [individual] ex: [AS091209M02] [imaging session (date string)] ex: [100113] [Region imaged] ex: [R16] [timestamp of file] ex [1263399103] [properties of file] ex: [Responses] [regions of interest in image ] ex [N01] [format of data] ex [Sequential] [channel of acquisition: this key indexes an array of values] ex [Ch1] The type of operations I perform is for instance to compute properties of the arrays (listed under Ch1, Ch2), pick up arrays to make a new collection, for instance analyze responses of N01 from region 16 (R16) of a given individual at different time points, etc. This structure works well for me and is very fast, as promised. I can analyze the full data set pretty quickly (and the dictionary is far too small to fill up my computer's ram : half a gig). My problem comes from the cumbersome manner in which I need to program the operations of the dictionary. I often have stretches of code that go like this: for mk in dic.keys(): for rgk in dic[mk].keys(): for nk in dic[mk][rgk].keys(): for ik in dic[mk][rgk][nk].keys(): for ek in dic[mk][rgk][nk][ik].keys(): #do something which is ugly, cumbersome, non reusable, and brittle (need to recode it for any variant of the dictionary). I tried using recursive functions, but apart from the simplest applications, I ran into some very nasty bugs and bizarre behaviors that caused a big waste of time (it does not help that I don't manage to debug with pdb in ipython when I'm dealing with deeply nested recursive functions). In the end the only recursive function I use regularly is the following: def dicExplorer(dic, depth = -1, stp = 0): '''prints the hierarchy of a dictionary. if depth not specified, will explore all the dictionary ''' if depth - stp == 0: return try : list_keys = dic.keys() except AttributeError: return stp += 1 for key in list_keys: else: print '+%s> [\'%s\']' %(stp * '---', key) dicExplorer(dic[key], depth, stp) I know I'm doing this wrong, because my code is long, noodly and non-reusable. I need to either use better techniques to flexibly manipulate the dictionaries, or to put the data in some database format (sqlite?). My problem is that since I'm (badly) self-taught in regards to programming, I lack practical experience and background knowledge to appreciate the options available. I'm ready to learn new tools (SQL, object oriented programming), whatever it takes to get the job done, but I am reluctant to invest my time and efforts into something that will be a dead end for my needs. So what are your suggestions to tackle this issue, and be able to code my tools in a more brief, flexible and re-usable manner?

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• Error in python - don't understand

  - by Jasper

  Hi, I'm creating a game, and am quite new to Python generally. I created a function 'descriptionGenerator()' which generates a description for characters and objects either randomly or using variables passed to it. It seemed to be working, but every now and then it wouldn't work correctly. So i placed it in a loop, and it never seems to be able to complete the loop without one of the iterations having this problem. The code is as follows: #+------------------------------------------+ #| Name: bitsandpieces.py | #| A module for the 'Europa I' game | #| created for the Game Making Competition | #| | #| Date Created/Modified: | #| 3/4/10 | 3/4/10 | #+------------------------------------------+ # Import the required modules # Import system modules: import time import random # Import 3rd party modules: # Import game modules: # Define the 'descriptionGenerator()' function def descriptionGenerator(descriptionVariables): descriptionVariableSize = len(descriptionVariables) if descriptionVariables[0] == 'char': # If there is only one variable ('char'), create a random description if descriptionVariableSize == 1: # Define choices for descriptionVariables to be generated from gender_choices = ['male', 'female'] hair_choices = ['black', 'red', 'blonde', 'grey', 'brown', 'blue'] hair_choices2 = ['long', 'short', 'cropped', 'curly'] size_choices = ['tubby', 'thin', 'fat', 'almost twig-like'] demeanour_choices = ['glowering', 'bright', 'smiling', 'sombre', 'intelligent'] impression_choices = ['likeable', 'unlikeable', 'dangerous', 'annoying', 'afraid'] # Define description variables gender = random.choice(gender_choices) height = str(float('0.' + str(random.randint(1, 9))) + float(random.randint(1, 2))) if float(height) > 1.8: height_string = 'tall' if float(height) > 2: height_string = 'very tall' elif float(height) < 1.8 and float(height) > 1.5: height_string = 'average' elif float(height) < 1.5: height_string = 'short' if float(height) < 1.3: height_string = 'very short' hair = random.choice(hair_choices2) + ' ' + random.choice(hair_choices) size = random.choice(size_choices) demeanour = random.choice(demeanour_choices) impression = random.choice(impression_choices) # Collect description variables in list 'randomDescriptionVariables' randomDescriptionVariables = ['char', gender, height, height_string, hair, size, demeanour, impression] # Generate description using the 'descriptionGenerator' function descriptionGenerator(randomDescriptionVariables) # Generate the description of a character using the variables passed to the function elif descriptionVariableSize == 8: if descriptionVariables[1] == 'male': if descriptionVariables[7] != 'afraid': print """A %s man, about %s m tall. He has %s hair and is %s. He is %s and you get the impression that he is %s.""" %(descriptionVariables[3], descriptionVariables[2], descriptionVariables[4], descriptionVariables[5], descriptionVariables[6], descriptionVariables[7]) elif descriptionVariables[7] == 'afraid': print """A %s man, about %s m tall. He has %s hair and is %s. He is %s.\nYou feel that you should be %s of him.""" %(descriptionVariables[3], descriptionVariables[2], descriptionVariables[4], descriptionVariables[5], descriptionVariables[6], descriptionVariables[7]) elif descriptionVariables[1] == 'female': if descriptionVariables[7] != 'afraid': print """A %s woman, about %s m tall. She has %s hair and is %s. She is %s and you get the impression that she is %s.""" %(descriptionVariables[3], descriptionVariables[2], descriptionVariables[4], descriptionVariables[5], descriptionVariables[6], descriptionVariables[7]) elif descriptionVariables[7] == 'afraid': print """A %s woman, about %s m tall. She has %s hair and is %s. She is %s.\nYou feel that you should be %s of her.""" %(descriptionVariables[3], descriptionVariables[2], descriptionVariables[4], descriptionVariables[5], descriptionVariables[6], descriptionVariables[7]) else: pass elif descriptionVariables[0] == 'obj': # Insert code here 2 deal with object stuff pass print print myDescriptionVariables = ['char'] i = 0 while i < 30: print print print descriptionGenerator(myDescriptionVariables) i = i + 1 time.sleep(10) When it fails to properly execute it says this: Traceback (most recent call last): File "/Users/Jasper/Development/Programming/MyProjects/Game Making Challenge/Europa I/Code/Code 2.0/bitsandpieces.py", line 79, in <module> descriptionGenerator(myDescriptionVariables) File "/Users/Jasper/Development/Programming/MyProjects/Game Making Challenge/Europa I/Code/Code 2.0/bitsandpieces.py", line 50, in descriptionGenerator randomDescriptionVariables = ['char', gender, height, height_string, hair, size, demeanour, impression] UnboundLocalError: local variable 'height_string' referenced before assignment Thanks for any help with this

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• Analyzing bitmaps produced by NSAffineTransform and CILineOverlay filters

  - by Adam

  I am trying to manipulate an image using a chain of CIFilters, and then examine each byte of the resulting image (bitmap). Long term, I do not need to display the resulting image (bitmap) -- I just need to "analyze" it in memory. But near-term I am displaying it on screen, to help with debugging. I have some "bitmap examination" code that works as expected when examining the NSImage (bitmap representation) I use as my input (loaded from a JPG file into an NSImage). And it SOMETIMES works as expected when I use it on the outputBitmap produced by the code below. More specifically, when I use an NSAffineTransform filter to create outputBitmap, then outputBitmap contains the data I would expect. But if I use a CILineOverlay filter to create the outputBitmap, none of the bytes in the bitmap have any data in them. I believe both of these filters are working as expected, because when I display their results on screen (via outputImageView), they look "correct." Yet when I examine the outputBitmaps, the one created from the CILineOverlay filter is "empty" while the one created from NSAffineTransfer contains data. Furthermore, if I chain the two filters together, the final resulting bitmap only seems to contain data if I run the AffineTransform last. Seems very strange, to me??? My understanding (from reading the CI programming guide) is that the CIImage should be considered an "image recipe" rather than an actual image, because the image isn't actually created until the image is "drawn." Given that, it would make sense that the CIimage bitmap doesn't have data -- but I don't understand why it has data after I run the NSAffineTransform but doesn't have data after running the CILineOverlay transform? Basically, I am trying to determine if creating the NSCIImageRep (ir in the code below) from the CIImage (myResult) is equivalent to "drawing" the CIImage -- in other words if that should force the bitmap to be populated? If someone knows the answer to this please let me know -- it will save me a few hours of trial and error experimenting! Finally, if the answer is "you must draw to a graphics context" ... then I have another question: would I need to do something along the lines of what is described in the Quartz 2D Programming Guide: Graphics Contexts, listing 2-7 and 2-8: drawing to a bitmap graphics context? That is the path down which I am about to head ... but it seems like a lot of code just to force the bitmap data to be dumped into an array where I can get at it. So if there is an easier or better way please let me know. I just want to take the data (that should be) in myResult and put it into a bitmap array where I can access it at the byte level. And since I already have code that works with an NSBitmapImageRep, unless doing it that way is a bad idea for some reason that is not readily apparent to me, then I would prefer to "convert" myResult into an NSBitmapImageRep. CIImage * myResult = [transform valueForKey:@"outputImage"]; NSImage *outputImage; NSCIImageRep *ir = [NSCIImageRep alloc]; ir = [NSCIImageRep imageRepWithCIImage:myResult]; outputImage = [[[NSImage alloc] initWithSize: NSMakeSize(inputImage.size.width, inputImage.size.height)] autorelease]; [outputImage addRepresentation:ir]; [outputImageView setImage: outputImage]; NSBitmapImageRep *outputBitmap = [[NSBitmapImageRep alloc] initWithCIImage: myResult]; Thanks, Adam

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• Where do I start ?

  - by Panthe

  Brief History: Just graduated high school, learned a bit of python and C++, have no friends with any helpful computer knowledge at all. Out of anyone i met in my school years I was probably the biggest nerd, but no one really knew. I consider my self to have a vast amount of knowledge on computers and tech then the average person. built/fixed tons of computers, and ability to troubleshoot pretty much any problem I came across. Now that high school is over, Ive really been thinking about my career. Loving, living computers for the past 15 years of my life I decided to take my ability's and try to learn computer programming, why I didn't start earlier I don't know, seems to be big mistake on my part... Doing some research I concluded that Python was the first programming language I should learn, since it was high level and easier to understand then C++ and Java. I also knew that to become good at what I did I needed to know more then just 2 or 3 languages, which didn't seem like a big problem considering once I learned the way Python worked, mainly syntax changed, and the rest would come naturally. I watched a couple of youtube videos, downloaded some book pdf's and snooped around from some tutorials here and there to get the hang of what to do. A two solid weeks had passed of trying to understand the syntax, create small programs that used the basic functions and understanding how it worked, I think i have got the hang of it. It breaks down into what ive been dealing with all this time (although i kinda knew) is that, input,output, loops, functions and other things derived from 0's and 1's storing data and recalling it, ect. (A VERY BASIC IDEA). Ive been able to create small programs, Hangman, file storing, temperature conversion, Caeser Cipher decode/encoding, Fibonacci Sequence and more, which i can create and understand how each work. Being 2 weeks into this, I have learned alot. Nothing at all compared to what i should be learning in the years to come if i get a grip on what I'm doing. While doing these programs I wont stop untill I've done doing a practice problem on a book, which embarresing enough will take me a couple hour depending on the complexity of it. I absolutly will not put aside the challenge until its complete, WHICH CAN BE EXTREMELY DRAINING, ive tried most problems without cheating and reached success, which makes me feel extremely proud of my self after completing something after much trial and error. After all this I have met the demon, alogrithm's which seem to be key to effiecent code. I cant seem to rap my head around some of the computer codes people put out there using numbers, and sometimes even basic functions, I have been able to understand them after a while but i know there are alot more complex things to come, considering my self smart, functions that require complex codes, actually hurt my brain. NOTHING EVER IN LIFE HURT MY BRAIN....... not even math classes in highschool, trying to understand some of the stuff people put out there makes me feel like i have a mental disadvantage lol... i still walk forward though, crossing my fingers that the understanding will come with time. Sorry if is this is long i just wish someone takes all these things into consideration when answering my question. even through all these downsides im still pushing through and continuing to try and get good at this, i know reading these tutorials wont make me any good unless i can become creative and make my own, understand other peoples programs, so this leads me to the simple question i could have asked in the beginning..... WHERE IN THE WORLD DO I START ? Ive been trying to find out how to understand some of the open source projects, how i can work with experianced coders to learn from them and help them, but i dont think thats even possible by the way how far people's knowledge is compared to me, i have no freinds who i can learn from, can someone help me and guide me into the right direction.. i have a huge motivation to get good at coding, anything information would be extremely helpful

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• bubble sort on array of c structures not sorting properly

  - by xmpirate

  I have the following program for books record and I want to sort the records on name of book. the code isn't showing any error but it's not sorting all the records. #include "stdio.h" #include "string.h" #define SIZE 5 struct books{ //define struct char name[100],author[100]; int year,copies; }; struct books book1[SIZE],book2[SIZE],*pointer; //define struct vars void sort(struct books *,int); //define sort func main() { int i; char c; for(i=0;i<SIZE;i++) //scanning values { gets(book1[i].name); gets(book1[i].author); scanf("%d%d",&book1[i].year,&book1[i].copies); while((c = getchar()) != '\n' && c != EOF); } pointer=book1; sort(pointer,SIZE); //sort call i=0; //printing values while(i<SIZE) { printf("##########################################################################\n"); printf("Book: %s\nAuthor: %s\nYear of Publication: %d\nNo of Copies: %d\n",book1[i].name,book1[i].author,book1[i].year,book1[i].copies); printf("##########################################################################\n"); i++; } } void sort(struct books *pointer,int n) { int i,j,sorted=0; struct books temp; for(i=0;(i<n-1)&&(sorted==0);i++) //bubble sort on the book name { sorted=1; for(j=0;j<n-i-1;j++) { if(strcmp((*pointer).name,(*(pointer+1)).name)>0) { //copy to temp val strcpy(temp.name,(*pointer).name); strcpy(temp.author,(*pointer).author); temp.year=(*pointer).year; temp.copies=(*pointer).copies; //copy next val strcpy((*pointer).name,(*(pointer+1)).name); strcpy((*pointer).author,(*(pointer+1)).author); (*pointer).year=(*(pointer+1)).year; (*pointer).copies=(*(pointer+1)).copies; //copy back temp val strcpy((*(pointer+1)).name,temp.name); strcpy((*(pointer+1)).author,temp.author); (*(pointer+1)).year=temp.year; (*(pointer+1)).copies=temp.copies; sorted=0; } *pointer++; } } } My Imput The C Programming Language X Y Z 1934 56 Inferno Dan Brown 1993 453 harry Potter and the soccers stone J K Rowling 2012 150 Ruby On Rails jim aurther nil 2004 130 Learn Python Easy Way gmaps4rails 1967 100 And the output ########################################################################## Book: Inferno Author: Dan Brown Year of Publication: 1993 No of Copies: 453 ########################################################################## ########################################################################## Book: The C Programming Language Author: X Y Z Year of Publication: 1934 No of Copies: 56 ########################################################################## ########################################################################## Book: Ruby On Rails Author: jim aurther nil Year of Publication: 2004 No of Copies: 130 ########################################################################## ########################################################################## Book: Learn Python Easy Way Author: gmaps4rails Year of Publication: 1967 No of Copies: 100 ########################################################################## ########################################################################## Book: Author: Year of Publication: 0 No of Copies: 0 ########################################################################## We can see the above sorting is wrong? What I'm I doing wrong?

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• How do I learn algorithms?

  - by Panthe

  Brief History: Just graduated high school, learned a bit of python and C++, have no friends with any helpful computer knowledge at all. Out of anyone i met in my school years I was probably the biggest nerd, but no one really knew. I consider my self to have a vast amount of knowledge on computers and tech then the average person. built/fixed tons of computers, and ability to troubleshoot pretty much any problem I came across. Now that high school is over, Ive really been thinking about my career. Loving, living computers for the past 15 years of my life I decided to take my ability's and try to learn computer programming, why I didn't start earlier I don't know, seems to be big mistake on my part... Doing some research I concluded that Python was the first programming language I should learn, since it was high level and easier to understand then C++ and Java. I also knew that to become good at what I did I needed to know more then just 2 or 3 languages, which didn't seem like a big problem considering once I learned the way Python worked, mainly syntax changed, and the rest would come naturally. I watched a couple of youtube videos, downloaded some book pdf's and snooped around from some tutorials here and there to get the hang of what to do. A two solid weeks had passed of trying to understand the syntax, create small programs that used the basic functions and understanding how it worked, I think i have got the hang of it. It breaks down into what ive been dealing with all this time (although i kinda knew) is that, input,output, loops, functions and other things derived from 0's and 1's storing data and recalling it, ect. (A VERY BASIC IDEA). Ive been able to create small programs, Hangman, file storing, temperature conversion, Caeser Cipher decode/encoding, Fibonacci Sequence and more, which i can create and understand how each work. Being 2 weeks into this, I have learned alot. Nothing at all compared to what i should be lear ning in the years to come if i get a grip on what I'm doing. While doing these programs I wont stop untill I've done doing a practice problem on a book, which embarresing enough will take me a couple hour depending on the complexity of it. I absolutly will not put aside the challenge until its complete, WHICH CAN BE EXTREMELY DRAINING, ive tried most problems without cheating and reached success, which makes me feel extremely proud of my self after completing something after much trial and error. After all this I have met the demon, alogrithm's which seem to be key to effiecent code. I cant seem to rap my head around some of the computer codes people put out there using numbers, and sometimes even basic functions, I have been able to understand them after a while but i know there are alot more complex things to come, considering my self smart, functions that require complex codes, actually hurt my brain. NOTHING EVER IN LIFE HURT MY BRAIN....... not even math classes in highschool, trying to understand some of the stuff people put out there makes me feel like i have a mental disadvantage lol... i still walk forward though, crossing my fingers that the understanding will come with time. Sorry if is this is long i just wish someone takes all these things into consideration when answering my question. even through all these downsides im still pushing through and continuing to try and get good at this, i know reading these tutorials wont make me any good unless i can become creative and make my own, understand other peoples programs, so this leads me to the simple question i could have asked in the beginning..... WHERE IN THE WORLD DO I START ? Ive been trying to find out how to understand some of the open source projects, how i can work with experianced coders to learn from them and help them, but i dont think thats even possible by the way how far people's knowledge is compared to me, i have no freinds who i can learn from, can someone help me and guide me into the right direction.. i have a huge motivation to get good at coding, anything information would be extremely helpful

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• Separation of presentation and business logic in PHP

  - by Markus Ossi

  I am programming my first real PHP website and am wondering how to make my code more readable to myself. The reference book I am using is PHP and MySQL Web Development 4th ed. The aforementioned book gives three approaches to separating logic and content: include files function or class API template system I haven't chosen any of these yet, as wrapping my brains around these concepts is taking some time. However, my code has become some hybrid of the first two as I am just copy-pasting away here and modifying as I go. On presentation side, all of my pages have these common elements: header, top navigation, sidebar navigation, content, right sidebar and footer. The function-based examples in the book suggest that I could have these display functions that handle all the presentation example. So, my page code will be like this: display_header(); display_navigation(); display_content(); display_footer(); However, I don't like this because the examples in the book have these print statements with HTML and PHP mixed up like this: echo "<tr bgcolor=\"".$color."\"><td><a href=\"".$url."\">" ... I would rather like to have HTML with some PHP in the middle, not the other way round. I am thinking of making my pages so that at the beginning of my page, I will fetch all the data from database and put it in arrays. I will also get the data for variables. If there are any errors in any of these processes, I will put them into error strings. Then, at the HTML code, I will loop through these arrays using foreach and display the content. In some cases, there will be some variables that will be shown. If there is an error variable that is set, I will display that at the proper position. (As a side note: The thing I do not understand is that in most example code, if some database query or whatnot gives an error, there is always: else echo 'Error'; This baffles me, because when the example code gives an error, it is sometimes echoed out even before the HTML has started...) For people who have used ASP.NET, I have gotten somewhat used to the code-behind files and lblError and I am trying to do something similar here. The thing I haven't figured out is how could I do this "do logic first, then presentation" thing so that I would not have to replicate for example the navigation logic and navigation presentation in all of the pages. Should I do some include files or could I use functions here but a little bit differently? Are there any good articles where these "styles" of separating presentation and logic are explained a little bit more thoroughly. The book I have only has one paragraph about this stuff. What I am thinking is that I am talking about some concepts or ways of doing PHP programming here, but I just don't know the terms for them yet. I know this isn't a straight forward question, I just need some help in organizing my thoughts.

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• about getadrrinfo() C++?

  - by Isavel

  I'm reading this book called beej's guide to network programming and there's a part in the book were it provide a sample code which illustrate the use of getaddrinfo(); the book state that the code below "will print the IP addresses for whatever host you specify on the command line" - beej's guide to network programming. now I'm curious and want to try it out and run the code, but I guess the code was develop in UNIX environment and I'm using visual studio 2012 windows 7 OS, and most of the headers was not supported so I did a bit of research and find out that I need to include the winsock.h and ws2_32.lib for windows, for it to get working, fortunately everything compiled no errors, but when I run it using the debugger and put in 'www.google.com' as command argument I was disappointed that it did not print any ipaddress, the output that I got from the console is "getaddrinfo: E" what does the letter E mean? Do I need to configure something out of the debugger? Interestingly I left the command argument blank and the output changed to "usage: showip hostname" Any help would be appreciated. #ifdef _WIN32 #endif #include <sys/types.h> #include <winsock2.h> #include <ws2tcpip.h> #include <iostream> using namespace std; #include <stdio.h> #include <string.h> #include <sys/types.h> #include <winsock.h> #pragma comment(lib, "ws2_32.lib") int main(int argc, char *argv[]) { struct addrinfo hints, *res, *p; int status; char ipstr[INET6_ADDRSTRLEN]; if (argc != 2) { fprintf(stderr,"usage: showip hostname\n"); system("PAUSE"); return 1; } memset(&hints, 0, sizeof hints); hints.ai_family = AF_UNSPEC; // AF_INET or AF_INET6 to force version hints.ai_socktype = SOCK_STREAM; if ((status = getaddrinfo(argv[1], NULL, &hints, &res)) != 0) { fprintf(stderr, "getaddrinfo: %s\n", gai_strerror(status)); system("PAUSE"); return 2; } printf("IP addresses for %s:\n\n", argv[1]); for(p = res;p != NULL; p = p->ai_next) { void *addr; char *ipver; // get the pointer to the address itself, // different fields in IPv4 and IPv6: if (p->ai_family == AF_INET) { // IPv4 struct sockaddr_in *ipv4 = (struct sockaddr_in *)p->ai_addr; addr = &(ipv4->sin_addr); ipver = "IPv4"; } else { // IPv6 struct sockaddr_in6 *ipv6 = (struct sockaddr_in6 *)p->ai_addr; addr = &(ipv6->sin6_addr); ipver = "IPv6"; } // convert the IP to a string and print it: inet_ntop(p->ai_family, addr, ipstr, sizeof ipstr); printf(" %s: %s\n", ipver, ipstr); } freeaddrinfo(res); // free the linked list system("PAUSE"); return 0; }

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• Using PHP OCI8 with 32-bit PHP on Windows 64-bit

  - by christopher.jones

  The world migration from 32-bit to 64-bit operating systems is gaining pace. However I've seen a couple of customers having difficulty with the PHP OCI8 extension and Oracle DB on Windows 64-bit platforms. The errors vary depending how PHP is run. They may appear in the Apache or PHP log: Unable to load dynamic library 'C:\Program Files (x86)\PHP\ext\php_oci8_11g.dll' - %1 is not a valid Win32 application. or Warning oci_connect(): OCIEnvNlsCreate() failed. There is something wrong with your system - please check that PATH includes the directory with Oracle Instant Client libraries Other than IIS permission issues a common cause seems to be trying to use PHP with libraries from an Oracle 64-bit database on the same machine. There is currently no 64-bit version of PHP on http://php.net/ so there is a library mismatch. A solution is to install Oracle Instant Client 32-bit and make sure that PHP uses these libraries, while not interferring with the 64-bit database on the same machine. Warning: The following hacky steps come untested from a Linux user: Unzip Oracle Instant Client 32-bit and move it to C:\WINDOWS\SYSWOW64\INSTANTCLIENT_11_2. You may need to do this in a console with elevated permissions. Edit your PATH environment variable and insert C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\INSTANTCLIENT_11_2 in the directory list before the entry for the Oracle Home library. Windows makes it so all 32-bit applications that reference C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32 actually see the contents of the C:\WINDOWS\SYSWOW64 directory. Your 64-bit database won't find an Instant Client in the real, physical C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32 directory and will continue to use the database libraries. Some of our Windows team are concerned about this hack and prefer a more "correct" solution that (i) doesn't require changing the Windows system directory (ii) doesn't add to the "memory" burden about what was configured on the system (iii) works when there are multiple database versions installed. The solution is to write a script which will set the 64-bit (or 32-bit) Oracle libraries in the path as needed before invoking the relevant bit-ness application. This does have a weakness when the application is started as a service. As a footnote: If you don't have a local database and simply need to have 32-bit and 64-bit Instant Client accessible at the same time, try the "symbolic" link approach covered in the hack in this OTN forum thread. Reminder warning: This blog post came untested from a Linux user.

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• SQLAuthority News – SafePeak’s SQL Server Performance Contest – Winners

  - by pinaldave

  SafePeak, the unique automated SQL performance acceleration and performance tuning software vendor, announced the winners of their SQL Performance Contest 2011. The contest quite unique: the writer of the best / most interesting and most community liked “performance story” would win an expensive gadget. The judges were the community DBAs that could participating and Like’ing stories and could also win expensive prizes. Robert Pearl SQL MVP, was the contest supervisor. I liked most of the stories and decided then to contact SafePeak and suggested to participate in the give-away and they have gladly accepted the same. The winner of best story is: Jason Brimhall (USA) with a story about a proc with a fair amount of business logic. Congratulations Jason! The 3 participants won the second prize of $100 gift card on amazon.com are: Michael Corey (USA), Hakim Ali (USA) and Alex Bernal (USA). And 5 participants won a printed copy of a book of mine (Book Reviews of SQL Wait Stats Joes 2 Pros: SQL Performance Tuning Techniques Using Wait Statistics, Types & Queues) are: Patrick Kansa (USA), Wagner Bianchi (USA), Riyas.V.K (India), Farzana Patwa (USA) and Wagner Crivelini (Brazil). The winners are welcome to send safepeak their mail address to receive the prizes (to “info ‘at’ safepeak.com”). Also SafePeak team asked me to welcome you all to continue sending stories, simply because they (and we all) like to read interesting stuff) as well as to send them ideas for future contests. You can do it from here: www.safepeak.com/SQL-Performance-Contest-2011/Submit-Story Congratulations to everybody! I found this very funny video about SafePeak: It looks like someone (maybe the vendor) played with video’s once and created this non-commercial like video: SafePeak dynamic caching is an immediate plug-n-play performance acceleration and scalability solution for cloud, hosted and business SQL server applications. By caching in memory result sets of queries and stored procedures, while keeping all those cache correct and up to date using unique patent pending technology, SafePeak can fix SQL performance problems and bottlenecks of most applications – most importantly: without actual code changes. By the way, I checked their website prior this contest announcement and noticed that they are running these days a special end year promotion giving between 30% to 45% discounts. Since the installation is quick and full testing can be done within couple of days – those have the need (performance problems) and have budget leftovers: I suggest you hurry. A free fully functional trial is here: www.safepeak.com/download, while those that want to start with a quote should ping here www.safepeak.com/quote. Good luck! Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Performance, SQL Puzzle, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

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• SQL Server – Learning SQL Server Performance: Indexing Basics – Video

  - by pinaldave

  Today I remember one of my older cartoon years ago created for Indexing and Performance. Every single time when Performance is discussed, Indexes are mentioned along with it. In recent times, data and application complexity is continuously growing.  The demand for faster query response, performance, and scalability by organizations is increasing and developers and DBAs need to now write efficient code to achieve this. DBA and Developers A DBA’s role is critical, because a production environment has to run 24×7, hence maintenance, trouble shooting, and quick resolutions are the need of the hour.  The first baby step into any performance tuning exercise in SQL Server involves creating, analysing, and maintaining indexes. Though we have learnt indexing concepts from our college days, indexing implementation inside SQL Server can vary.  Understanding this behaviour and designing our applications appropriately will make sure the application is performed to its highest potential. Video Learning Vinod Kumar and myself we often thought about this and realized that practical understanding of the indexes is very important. One can not master every single aspects of the index. However there are some minimum expertise one should gain if performance is one of the concern. We decided to build a course which just addresses the practical aspects of the performance. In this course, we explored some of these indexing fundamentals and we elaborated on how SQL Server goes about using indexes.  At the end of this course of you will know the basic structure of indexes, practical insights into implementation, and maintenance tips and tricks revolving around indexes.  Finally, we will introduce SQL Server 2012 column store indexes.  We have refrained from discussing internal storage structure of the indexes but have taken a more practical, demo-oriented approach to explain these core concepts. Course Outline Here are salient topics of the course. We have explained every single concept along with a practical demonstration. Additionally shared our personal scripts along with the same. Introduction Fundamentals of Indexing Index Fundamentals Index Fundamentals – Visual Representation Practical Indexing Implementation Techniques Primary Key Over Indexing Duplicate Index Clustered Index Unique Index Included Columns Filtered Index Disabled Index Index Maintenance and Defragmentation Introduction to Columnstore Index Indexing Practical Performance Tips and Tricks Index and Page Types Index and Non Deterministic Columns Index and SET Values Importance of Clustered Index Effect of Compression and Fillfactor Index and Functions Dynamic Management Views (DMV) – Fillfactor Table Scan, Index Scan and Index Seek Index and Order of Columns Final Checklist: Index and Performance Well, we believe we have done our part, now waiting for your comments and feedback. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Index, SQL Performance, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQLServer, T SQL, Technology, Video

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• PowerShell Script to Create PowerShell Profile

  - by Brian Jackett

  Utilizing a PowerShell profile can help any PowerShell user save time getting up and running with their work.  For those unfamiliar a PowerShell profile is a file you can store any PowerShell commands that you want to run when you fire up a PowerShell console (or ISE.)  In my typical profiles (example here) I load assemblies (like SharePoint 2007 DLL), set aliases, set environment variable values (such as max history), and perform other general customizations to make my work easier.  Below is a sample script that will check to see if a PowerShell profile (Console or ISE) exists and create it if not found.  The .ps1 script file version can also be downloaded from my SkyDrive here. Note: if downloading the .ps1 file, be sure you have enabled unsigned scripts to run on your machine as I have not signed mine.   $folderExists = test-path -path $Env:UserProfile\Documents\WindowsPowerShell if($folderExists -eq $false) { new-item -type directory -path $Env:UserProfile\Documents\WindowsPowerShell > $null echo "Containing folder for profile created at: $Env:UserProfile\Documents\WindowsPowerShell" }   $profileExists = test-path -path $profile if($profileExists -eq $false) { new-item -type file -path $profile > $null echo "Profile file created at: $profile" }     A few things to note while going through the above script. $Env:UserProfile represents the personal user folder (c:\documents and settings…. on older OSes like XP and c:\Users… on Win 7) so it adapts to whichever OS you are running but was tested against Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. “ > $null” sends the command to a null stream.  Essentially this is equivalent to DOS scripting of “@ECHO OFF” by suppressing echoing the command just run, but only for the specific command it is appended to.  I haven’t yet found a better way to accomplish command suppression, but this is definitely not required for the script to work. $profile represent a standard variable to the file path of the profile file.  It is dynamic based on whether you are running PowerShell Console or ISE.   Conclusion     In less than two weeks (Apr. 10th to be exact) I’ll be heading down to SharePoint Saturday Charlotte (SPSCLT) to give two presentations on using PowerShell with SharePoint.  Since I’ll be prepping a lot of material for PowerShell I thought it only appropriate to pass along this nice little script I recently created.  If you’ve never used a PowerShell profile this is a great chance to start using one.  If you’ve been using a profile before, perhaps you learned a trick or two to add to your toolbox.  For those of you in the Charlotte, NC area sign up for the SharePoint Saturday and see some great content and community with great folks.         -Frog Out

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• Top 31 Favorite Features in Windows Server 2012

  - by KeithMayer

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

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• Toorcon 15 (2013)

  - by danx

  The Toorcon gang (senior staff): h1kari (founder), nfiltr8, and Geo Introduction to Toorcon 15 (2013) A Tale of One Software Bypass of MS Windows 8 Secure Boot Breaching SSL, One Byte at a Time Running at 99%: Surviving an Application DoS Security Response in the Age of Mass Customized Attacks x86 Rewriting: Defeating RoP and other Shinanighans Clowntown Express: interesting bugs and running a bug bounty program Active Fingerprinting of Encrypted VPNs Making Attacks Go Backwards Mask Your Checksums—The Gorry Details Adventures with weird machines thirty years after "Reflections on Trusting Trust" Introduction to Toorcon 15 (2013) Toorcon 15 is the 15th annual security conference held in San Diego. I've attended about a third of them and blogged about previous conferences I attended here starting in 2003. As always, I've only summarized the talks I attended and interested me enough to write about them. Be aware that I may have misrepresented the speaker's remarks and that they are not my remarks or opinion, or those of my employer, so don't quote me or them. Those seeking further details may contact the speakers directly or use The Google. For some talks, I have a URL for further information. A Tale of One Software Bypass of MS Windows 8 Secure Boot Andrew Furtak and Oleksandr Bazhaniuk Yuri Bulygin, Oleksandr ("Alex") Bazhaniuk, and (not present) Andrew Furtak Yuri and Alex talked about UEFI and Bootkits and bypassing MS Windows 8 Secure Boot, with vendor recommendations. They previously gave this talk at the BlackHat 2013 conference. MS Windows 8 Secure Boot Overview UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) is interface between hardware and OS. UEFI is processor and architecture independent. Malware can replace bootloader (bootx64.efi, bootmgfw.efi). Once replaced can modify kernel. Trivial to replace bootloader. Today many legacy bootkits—UEFI replaces them most of them. MS Windows 8 Secure Boot verifies everything you load, either through signatures or hashes. UEFI firmware relies on secure update (with signed update). You would think Secure Boot would rely on ROM (such as used for phones0, but you can't do that for PCs—PCs use writable memory with signatures DXE core verifies the UEFI boat loader(s) OS Loader (winload.efi, winresume.efi) verifies the OS kernel A chain of trust is established with a root key (Platform Key, PK), which is a cert belonging to the platform vendor. Key Exchange Keys (KEKs) verify an "authorized" database (db), and "forbidden" database (dbx). X.509 certs with SHA-1/SHA-256 hashes. Keys are stored in non-volatile (NV) flash-based NVRAM. Boot Services (BS) allow adding/deleting keys (can't be accessed once OS starts—which uses Run-Time (RT)). Root cert uses RSA-2048 public keys and PKCS#7 format signatures. SecureBoot — enable disable image signature checks SetupMode — update keys, self-signed keys, and secure boot variables CustomMode — allows updating keys Secure Boot policy settings are: always execute, never execute, allow execute on security violation, defer execute on security violation, deny execute on security violation, query user on security violation Attacking MS Windows 8 Secure Boot Secure Boot does NOT protect from physical access. Can disable from console. Each BIOS vendor implements Secure Boot differently. There are several platform and BIOS vendors. It becomes a "zoo" of implementations—which can be taken advantage of. Secure Boot is secure only when all vendors implement it correctly. Allow only UEFI firmware signed updates protect UEFI firmware from direct modification in flash memory protect FW update components program SPI controller securely protect secure boot policy settings in nvram protect runtime api disable compatibility support module which allows unsigned legacy Can corrupt the Platform Key (PK) EFI root certificate variable in SPI flash. If PK is not found, FW enters setup mode wich secure boot turned off. Can also exploit TPM in a similar manner. One is not supposed to be able to directly modify the PK in SPI flash from the OS though. But they found a bug that they can exploit from User Mode (undisclosed) and demoed the exploit. It loaded and ran their own bootkit. The exploit requires a reboot. Multiple vendors are vulnerable. They will disclose this exploit to vendors in the future. Recommendations: allow only signed updates protect UEFI fw in ROM protect EFI variable store in ROM Breaching SSL, One Byte at a Time Yoel Gluck and Angelo Prado Angelo Prado and Yoel Gluck, Salesforce.com CRIME is software that performs a "compression oracle attack." This is possible because the SSL protocol doesn't hide length, and because SSL compresses the header. CRIME requests with every possible character and measures the ciphertext length. Look for the plaintext which compresses the most and looks for the cookie one byte-at-a-time. SSL Compression uses LZ77 to reduce redundancy. Huffman coding replaces common byte sequences with shorter codes. US CERT thinks the SSL compression problem is fixed, but it isn't. They convinced CERT that it wasn't fixed and they issued a CVE. BREACH, breachattrack.com BREACH exploits the SSL response body (Accept-Encoding response, Content-Encoding). It takes advantage of the fact that the response is not compressed. BREACH uses gzip and needs fairly "stable" pages that are static for ~30 seconds. It needs attacker-supplied content (say from a web form or added to a URL parameter). BREACH listens to a session's requests and responses, then inserts extra requests and responses. Eventually, BREACH guesses a session's secret key. Can use compression to guess contents one byte at-a-time. For example, "Supersecret SupersecreX" (a wrong guess) compresses 10 bytes, and "Supersecret Supersecret" (a correct guess) compresses 11 bytes, so it can find each character by guessing every character. To start the guess, BREACH needs at least three known initial characters in the response sequence. Compression length then "leaks" information. Some roadblocks include no winners (all guesses wrong) or too many winners (multiple possibilities that compress the same). The solutions include: lookahead (guess 2 or 3 characters at-a-time instead of 1 character). Expensive rollback to last known conflict check compression ratio can brute-force first 3 "bootstrap" characters, if needed (expensive) block ciphers hide exact plain text length. Solution is to align response in advance to block size Mitigations length: use variable padding secrets: dynamic CSRF tokens per request secret: change over time separate secret to input-less servlets Future work eiter understand DEFLATE/GZIP HTTPS extensions Running at 99%: Surviving an Application DoS Ryan Huber Ryan Huber, Risk I/O Ryan first discussed various ways to do a denial of service (DoS) attack against web services. One usual method is to find a slow web page and do several wgets. Or download large files. Apache is not well suited at handling a large number of connections, but one can put something in front of it Can use Apache alternatives, such as nginx How to identify malicious hosts short, sudden web requests user-agent is obvious (curl, python) same url requested repeatedly no web page referer (not normal) hidden links. hide a link and see if a bot gets it restricted access if not your geo IP (unless the website is global) missing common headers in request regular timing first seen IP at beginning of attack count requests per hosts (usually a very large number) Use of captcha can mitigate attacks, but you'll lose a lot of genuine users. Bouncer, goo.gl/c2vyEc and www.github.com/rawdigits/Bouncer Bouncer is software written by Ryan in netflow. Bouncer has a small, unobtrusive footprint and detects DoS attempts. It closes blacklisted sockets immediately (not nice about it, no proper close connection). Aggregator collects requests and controls your web proxies. Need NTP on the front end web servers for clean data for use by bouncer. Bouncer is also useful for a popularity storm ("Slashdotting") and scraper storms. Future features: gzip collection data, documentation, consumer library, multitask, logging destroyed connections. Takeaways: DoS mitigation is easier with a complete picture Bouncer designed to make it easier to detect and defend DoS—not a complete cure Security Response in the Age of Mass Customized Attacks Peleus Uhley and Karthik Raman Peleus Uhley and Karthik Raman, Adobe ASSET, blogs.adobe.com/asset/ Peleus and Karthik talked about response to mass-customized exploits. Attackers behave much like a business. "Mass customization" refers to concept discussed in the book Future Perfect by Stan Davis of Harvard Business School. Mass customization is differentiating a product for an individual customer, but at a mass production price. For example, the same individual with a debit card receives basically the same customized ATM experience around the world. Or designing your own PC from commodity parts. Exploit kits are another example of mass customization. The kits support multiple browsers and plugins, allows new modules. Exploit kits are cheap and customizable. Organized gangs use exploit kits. A group at Berkeley looked at 77,000 malicious websites (Grier et al., "Manufacturing Compromise: The Emergence of Exploit-as-a-Service", 2012). They found 10,000 distinct binaries among them, but derived from only a dozen or so exploit kits. Characteristics of Mass Malware: potent, resilient, relatively low cost Technical characteristics: multiple OS, multipe payloads, multiple scenarios, multiple languages, obfuscation Response time for 0-day exploits has gone down from ~40 days 5 years ago to about ~10 days now. So the drive with malware is towards mass customized exploits, to avoid detection There's plenty of evicence that exploit development has Project Manager bureaucracy. They infer from the malware edicts to: support all versions of reader support all versions of windows support all versions of flash support all browsers write large complex, difficult to main code (8750 lines of JavaScript for example Exploits have "loose coupling" of multipe versions of software (adobe), OS, and browser. This allows specific attacks against specific versions of multiple pieces of software. Also allows exploits of more obscure software/OS/browsers and obscure versions. Gave examples of exploits that exploited 2, 3, 6, or 14 separate bugs. However, these complete exploits are more likely to be buggy or fragile in themselves and easier to defeat. Future research includes normalizing malware and Javascript. Conclusion: The coming trend is that mass-malware with mass zero-day attacks will result in mass customization of attacks. x86 Rewriting: Defeating RoP and other Shinanighans Richard Wartell Richard Wartell The attack vector we are addressing here is: First some malware causes a buffer overflow. The malware has no program access, but input access and buffer overflow code onto stack Later the stack became non-executable. The workaround malware used was to write a bogus return address to the stack jumping to malware Later came ASLR (Address Space Layout Randomization) to randomize memory layout and make addresses non-deterministic. The workaround malware used was to jump t existing code segments in the program that can be used in bad ways "RoP" is Return-oriented Programming attacks. RoP attacks use your own code and write return address on stack to (existing) expoitable code found in program ("gadgets"). Pinkie Pie was paid $60K last year for a RoP attack. One solution is using anti-RoP compilers that compile source code with NO return instructions. ASLR does not randomize address space, just "gadgets". IPR/ILR ("Instruction Location Randomization") randomizes each instruction with a virtual machine. Richard's goal was to randomize a binary with no source code access. He created "STIR" (Self-Transofrming Instruction Relocation). STIR disassembles binary and operates on "basic blocks" of code. The STIR disassembler is conservative in what to disassemble. Each basic block is moved to a random location in memory. Next, STIR writes new code sections with copies of "basic blocks" of code in randomized locations. The old code is copied and rewritten with jumps to new code. the original code sections in the file is marked non-executible. STIR has better entropy than ASLR in location of code. Makes brute force attacks much harder. STIR runs on MS Windows (PEM) and Linux (ELF). It eliminated 99.96% or more "gadgets" (i.e., moved the address). Overhead usually 5-10% on MS Windows, about 1.5-4% on Linux (but some code actually runs faster!). The unique thing about STIR is it requires no source access and the modified binary fully works! Current work is to rewrite code to enforce security policies. For example, don't create a *.{exe,msi,bat} file. Or don't connect to the network after reading from the disk. Clowntown Express: interesting bugs and running a bug bounty program Collin Greene Collin Greene, Facebook Collin talked about Facebook's bug bounty program. Background at FB: FB has good security frameworks, such as security teams, external audits, and cc'ing on diffs. But there's lots of "deep, dark, forgotten" parts of legacy FB code. Collin gave several examples of bountied bugs. Some bounty submissions were on software purchased from a third-party (but bounty claimers don't know and don't care). We use security questions, as does everyone else, but they are basically insecure (often easily discoverable). Collin didn't expect many bugs from the bounty program, but they ended getting 20+ good bugs in first 24 hours and good submissions continue to come in. Bug bounties bring people in with different perspectives, and are paid only for success. Bug bounty is a better use of a fixed amount of time and money versus just code review or static code analysis. The Bounty program started July 2011 and paid out $1.5 million to date. 14% of the submissions have been high priority problems that needed to be fixed immediately. The best bugs come from a small % of submitters (as with everything else)—the top paid submitters are paid 6 figures a year. Spammers like to backstab competitors. The youngest sumitter was 13. Some submitters have been hired. Bug bounties also allows to see bugs that were missed by tools or reviews, allowing improvement in the process. Bug bounties might not work for traditional software companies where the product has release cycle or is not on Internet. Active Fingerprinting of Encrypted VPNs Anna Shubina Anna Shubina, Dartmouth Institute for Security, Technology, and Society (I missed the start of her talk because another track went overtime. But I have the DVD of the talk, so I'll expand later) IPsec leaves fingerprints. Using netcat, one can easily visually distinguish various crypto chaining modes just from packet timing on a chart (example, DES-CBC versus AES-CBC) One can tell a lot about VPNs just from ping roundtrips (such as what router is used) Delayed packets are not informative about a network, especially if far away from the network More needed to explore about how TCP works in real life with respect to timing Making Attacks Go Backwards Fuzzynop FuzzyNop, Mandiant This talk is not about threat attribution (finding who), product solutions, politics, or sales pitches. But who are making these malware threats? It's not a single person or group—they have diverse skill levels. There's a lot of fat-fingered fumblers out there. Always look for low-hanging fruit first: "hiding" malware in the temp, recycle, or root directories creation of unnamed scheduled tasks obvious names of files and syscalls ("ClearEventLog") uncleared event logs. Clearing event log in itself, and time of clearing, is a red flag and good first clue to look for on a suspect system Reverse engineering is hard. Disassembler use takes practice and skill. A popular tool is IDA Pro, but it takes multiple interactive iterations to get a clean disassembly. Key loggers are used a lot in targeted attacks. They are typically custom code or built in a backdoor. A big tip-off is that non-printable characters need to be printed out (such as "[Ctrl]" "[RightShift]") or time stamp printf strings. Look for these in files. Presence is not proof they are used. Absence is not proof they are not used. Java exploits. Can parse jar file with idxparser.py and decomile Java file. Java typially used to target tech companies. Backdoors are the main persistence mechanism (provided externally) for malware. Also malware typically needs command and control. Application of Artificial Intelligence in Ad-Hoc Static Code Analysis John Ashaman John Ashaman, Security Innovation Initially John tried to analyze open source files with open source static analysis tools, but these showed thousands of false positives. Also tried using grep, but tis fails to find anything even mildly complex. So next John decided to write his own tool. His approach was to first generate a call graph then analyze the graph. However, the problem is that making a call graph is really hard. For example, one problem is "evil" coding techniques, such as passing function pointer. First the tool generated an Abstract Syntax Tree (AST) with the nodes created from method declarations and edges created from method use. Then the tool generated a control flow graph with the goal to find a path through the AST (a maze) from source to sink. The algorithm is to look at adjacent nodes to see if any are "scary" (a vulnerability), using heuristics for search order. The tool, called "Scat" (Static Code Analysis Tool), currently looks for C# vulnerabilities and some simple PHP. Later, he plans to add more PHP, then JSP and Java. For more information see his posts in Security Innovation blog and NRefactory on GitHub. Mask Your Checksums—The Gorry Details Eric (XlogicX) Davisson Eric (XlogicX) Davisson Sometimes in emailing or posting TCP/IP packets to analyze problems, you may want to mask the IP address. But to do this correctly, you need to mask the checksum too, or you'll leak information about the IP. Problem reports found in stackoverflow.com, sans.org, and pastebin.org are usually not masked, but a few companies do care. If only the IP is masked, the IP may be guessed from checksum (that is, it leaks data). Other parts of packet may leak more data about the IP. TCP and IP checksums both refer to the same data, so can get more bits of information out of using both checksums than just using one checksum. Also, one can usually determine the OS from the TTL field and ports in a packet header. If we get hundreds of possible results (16x each masked nibble that is unknown), one can do other things to narrow the results, such as look at packet contents for domain or geo information. With hundreds of results, can import as CSV format into a spreadsheet. Can corelate with geo data and see where each possibility is located. Eric then demoed a real email report with a masked IP packet attached. Was able to find the exact IP address, given the geo and university of the sender. Point is if you're going to mask a packet, do it right. Eric wouldn't usually bother, but do it correctly if at all, to not create a false impression of security. Adventures with weird machines thirty years after "Reflections on Trusting Trust" Sergey Bratus Sergey Bratus, Dartmouth College (and Julian Bangert and Rebecca Shapiro, not present) "Reflections on Trusting Trust" refers to Ken Thompson's classic 1984 paper. "You can't trust code that you did not totally create yourself." There's invisible links in the chain-of-trust, such as "well-installed microcode bugs" or in the compiler, and other planted bugs. Thompson showed how a compiler can introduce and propagate bugs in unmodified source. But suppose if there's no bugs and you trust the author, can you trust the code? Hell No! There's too many factors—it's Babylonian in nature. Why not? Well, Input is not well-defined/recognized (code's assumptions about "checked" input will be violated (bug/vunerabiliy). For example, HTML is recursive, but Regex checking is not recursive. Input well-formed but so complex there's no telling what it does For example, ELF file parsing is complex and has multiple ways of parsing. Input is seen differently by different pieces of program or toolchain Any Input is a program input executes on input handlers (drives state changes & transitions) only a well-defined execution model can be trusted (regex/DFA, PDA, CFG) Input handler either is a "recognizer" for the inputs as a well-defined language (see langsec.org) or it's a "virtual machine" for inputs to drive into pwn-age ELF ABI (UNIX/Linux executible file format) case study. Problems can arise from these steps (without planting bugs): compiler linker loader ld.so/rtld relocator DWARF (debugger info) exceptions The problem is you can't really automatically analyze code (it's the "halting problem" and undecidable). Only solution is to freeze code and sign it. But you can't freeze everything! Can't freeze ASLR or loading—must have tables and metadata. Any sufficiently complex input data is the same as VM byte code Example, ELF relocation entries + dynamic symbols == a Turing Complete Machine (TM). @bxsays created a Turing machine in Linux from relocation data (not code) in an ELF file. For more information, see Rebecca "bx" Shapiro's presentation from last year's Toorcon, "Programming Weird Machines with ELF Metadata" @bxsays did same thing with Mach-O bytecode Or a DWARF exception handling data .eh_frame + glibc == Turning Machine X86 MMU (IDT, GDT, TSS): used address translation to create a Turning Machine. Page handler reads and writes (on page fault) memory. Uses a page table, which can be used as Turning Machine byte code. Example on Github using this TM that will fly a glider across the screen Next Sergey talked about "Parser Differentials". That having one input format, but two parsers, will create confusion and opportunity for exploitation. For example, CSRs are parsed during creation by cert requestor and again by another parser at the CA. Another example is ELF—several parsers in OS tool chain, which are all different. Can have two different Program Headers (PHDRs) because ld.so parses multiple PHDRs. The second PHDR can completely transform the executable. This is described in paper in the first issue of International Journal of PoC. Conclusions trusting computers not only about bugs! Bugs are part of a problem, but no by far all of it complex data formats means bugs no "chain of trust" in Babylon! (that is, with parser differentials) we need to squeeze complexity out of data until data stops being "code equivalent" Further information See and langsec.org. USENIX WOOT 2013 (Workshop on Offensive Technologies) for "weird machines" papers and videos.

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• Hyperlinked, externalized source code documentation

  - by Dave Jarvis

  Why do we still embed natural language descriptions of source code (i.e., the reason why a line of code was written) within the source code, rather than as a separate document? Given the expansive real-estate afforded to modern development environments (high-resolution monitors, dual-monitors, etc.), an IDE could provide semi-lock-step panels wherein source code is visually separated from -- but intrinsically linked to -- its corresponding comments. For example, developers could write source code comments in a hyper-linked markup language (linking to additional software requirements), which would simultaneously prevent documentation from cluttering the source code. What shortcomings would inhibit such a software development mechanism? A mock-up to help clarify the question: When the cursor is at a particular line in the source code (shown with a blue background, above), the documentation that corresponds to the line at the cursor is highlighted (i.e., distinguished from the other details). As noted in the question, the documentation would stay in lock-step with the source code as the cursor jumps through the source code. A hot-key could switch between "documentation mode" and "development mode". Potential advantages include: More source code and more documentation on the screen(s) at once Ability to edit documentation independently of source code (regardless of language?) Write documentation and source code in parallel without merge conflicts Real-time hyperlinked documentation with superior text formatting Quasi-real-time machine translation into different natural languages Every line of code can be clearly linked to a task, business requirement, etc. Documentation could automatically timestamp when each line of code was written (metrics) Dynamic inclusion of architecture diagrams, images to explain relations, etc. Single-source documentation (e.g., tag code snippets for user manual inclusion). Note: The documentation window can be collapsed Workflow for viewing or comparing source files would not be affected How the implementation happens is a detail; the documentation could be: kept at the end of the source file; split into two files by convention (filename.c, filename.c.doc); or fully database-driven By hyperlinked documentation, I mean linking to external sources (such as StackOverflow or Wikipedia) and internal documents (i.e., a wiki on a subdomain that could cross-reference business requirements documentation) and other source files (similar to JavaDocs). Related thread: What's with the aversion to documentation in the industry?

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• SQL SERVER – Fix Error: Microsoft OLE DB Provider for SQL Server error ’80040e07' or Microsoft SQL Native Client error ’80040e07'

  - by pinaldave

  I quite often receive questions where users are looking for solution to following error: Microsoft OLE DB Provider for SQL Server error ’80040e07′ Syntax error converting datetime from character string. OR Microsoft SQL Native Client error ’80040e07′ Syntax error converting datetime from character string. If you have ever faced above error – I have a very simple solution for you. The solution is being very check date which is inserted in the datetime column. This error often comes up when application or user is attempting to enter an incorrect date into the datetime field. Here is one of the examples – one of the reader was using classing ASP Application with OLE DB provider for SQL Server. When he tried to insert following script he faced above mentioned error. INSERT INTO TestTable (ID, MyDate) VALUES (1, '01-Septeber-2013') The reason for the error was simple as he had misspelled September word. Upon correction of the word, he was able to successfully insert the value and error was not there. Incorrect values or the typo’s are not the only reason for this error. There can be issues with cast or convert as well. If you try to attempt following code using SQL Native Client or in your application you will also get similar errors. SELECT CONVERT (datetime, '01-Septeber-2013', 112) The reason here is very simple, any conversion attempt or any other kind of operation on incorrect date/time string can lead to the above error. If you not using embeded dynamic code in your application language but using attempting similar operation on incorrect datetime string you will get following error. Msg 241, Level 16, State 1, Line 2 Conversion failed when converting date and/or time from character string. Remember: Check your values of the string when you are attempting to convert them to string – either there can be incorrect values or they may be incorrectly formatted. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL DateTime, SQL Error Messages, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

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• ESB Toolkit 2.0 EndPointConfig (HTTPS with WCF-BasicHttp and the ESB Toolkit 2.0)

  - by Andy Morrison

  Earlier this week I had an ESB endpoint (Off-Ramp in ESB parlance) that I was sending to over http using WCF-BasicHttp.  I needed to switch the protocol to https: which I did by changing my UDDI Binding over to https:  No problem from a management perspective; however, when I tried to run the process I saw this exception: Event Type:                     Error Event Source:                BizTalk Server 2009 Event Category:            BizTalk Server 2009 Event ID:   5754 Date:                                    3/10/2010 Time:                                   2:58:23 PM User:                                    N/A Computer:                       XXXXXXXXX Description: A message sent to adapter "WCF-BasicHttp" on send port "SPDynamic.XXX.SR" with URI "https://XXXXXXXXX.com/XXXXXXX/whatever.asmx" is suspended.  Error details: System.ArgumentException: The provided URI scheme 'https' is invalid; expected 'http'. Parameter name: via    at System.ServiceModel.Channels.TransportChannelFactory`1.ValidateScheme(Uri via)    at System.ServiceModel.Channels.HttpChannelFactory.ValidateCreateChannelParameters(EndpointAddress remoteAddress, Uri via)    at System.ServiceModel.Channels.HttpChannelFactory.OnCreateChannel(EndpointAddress remoteAddress, Uri via)    at System.ServiceModel.Channels.ChannelFactoryBase`1.InternalCreateChannel(EndpointAddress address, Uri via)    at System.ServiceModel.Channels.ChannelFactoryBase`1.CreateChannel(EndpointAddress address, Uri via)    at System.ServiceModel.Channels.ServiceChannelFactory.ServiceChannelFactoryOverRequest.CreateInnerChannelBinder(EndpointAddress to, Uri via)    at System.ServiceModel.Channels.ServiceChannelFactory.CreateServiceChannel(EndpointAddress address, Uri via)    at System.ServiceModel.Channels.ServiceChannelFactory.CreateChannel(Type channelType, EndpointAddress address, Uri via)    at System.ServiceModel.ChannelFactory`1.CreateChannel(EndpointAddress address, Uri via)    at System.ServiceModel.ChannelFactory`1.CreateChannel()    at Microsoft.BizTalk.Adapter.Wcf.Runtime.WcfClient`2.GetChannel[TChannel](IBaseMessage bizTalkMessage, ChannelFactory`1& cachedFactory)    at Microsoft.BizTalk.Adapter.Wcf.Runtime.WcfClient`2.SendMessage(IBaseMessage bizTalkMessage)  MessageId:  {1170F4ED-550F-4F7E-B0E0-1EE92A25AB10}  InstanceID: {1640C6C6-CA9C-4746-AEB0-584FDF7BB61E} I knew from a previous experience that I likely needed to set the SecurityMode setting for my Send Port.  But how do you do this for a Dynamic port (which I was using since this is an ESB solution)? Within the UDDI portal you have to add an additional Instance Info to your Binding named: EndPointConfig  Then you have to set its value to:  SecurityMode=Transport Like this:    The EndPointConfig is how the ESB Toolkit 2.0 provides extensibility for the various transports.  To see what the key-value pair options are for a given transport, open up an itinerary and change one of your resolvers to a “static” resolver by setting the “Resolver Implementation” to Static.  Then select a “Transport Name” ”, for instance to WCF-BasicHttp.  At this point you can then click on the “EndPoint Configuration” property for to see an adapter/ramp specific properties dialog (key-value pairs.)    Here’s the dialog that popped up for WCF-BasicHttp:   I simply set the SecurityMode to Transport.  Please note that you will get different properties within the window depending on the Transport Name you select for the resolver. When you are done with your settings, export the itinerary to disk and find that xml; then find that resolver’s xml within that file.  It will look like endpointConfig=SecurityMode=Transport in this case.  Note that if you set additional properties you will have additional key-value pairs after endpointConfig= Copy that string and paste it into the UDDI portal for you Binding’s EndPointConfig Instance Info value.

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• What’s new in Silverlight 4 RC?

  - by pluginbaby

  I am here in Las Vegas for MIX10 where Scott Guthrie announced today the release of Silverlight 4 RC and the Visual Studio 2010 tools. You can now install VS2010 RC!!! As always, downloads links are here: www.silverlight.net He also said that the final version of Silverlight 4 will come next month (so april)! 4 months ago, I wrote a blog post on the new features of Silverlight 4 beta, so… what’s new in the RC ?   Rich Text · RichTextArea renamed to RichTextBox · Text position and selection APIs · “Xaml” property for serializing text content · XAML clipboard format · FlowDirection support on Runs tag · “Format then type” support when dragging controls to the designer · Thai/Vietnamese/Indic support · UI Automation Text pattern   Networking · UploadProgress support (Client stack) · Caching support (Client stack) · Sockets security restrictions removal (Elevated Trust) · Sockets policy file retrieval via HTTP · Accept-Language header   Out of Browser (Elevated Trust) · XAP signing · Silent install and emulation mode · Custom window chrome · Better support for COM Automation · Cancellable shutdown event · Updated security dialogs   Media · Pinned full-screen mode on secondary display · Webcam/Mic configuration preview · More descriptive MediaSourceStream errors · Content & Output protection updates · Updates to H.264 content protection (ClearNAL) · Digital Constraint Token · CGMS-A · Multicast · Graphics card driver validation & revocation   Graphics and Printing · HW accelerated Perspective Transforms · Ability to query page size and printable area · Memory usage and perf improvements   Data · Entity-level validation support of INotifyDataErrorInfo for DataGrid · XPath support for XML   Parser · New architecture enables future innovation · Performance and stability improvements · XmlnsPrefix & XmlnsDefinition attributes · Support setting order-dependent properties   Globalization & Localization · Support for 31 new languages · Arabic, Hebrew and Thai input on Mac · Indic support   More … · Update to DeepZoom code base with HW acceleration · Support for Private mode browsing · Google Chrome support (Windows) · FrameworkElement.Unloaded event · HTML Hosting accessibility · IsoStore perf improvements · Native hosting perf improvements (e.g., Bing Toolbar) · Consistency with Silverlight for Mobile APIs and Tooling · SDK   - System.Numerics.dll   - Dynamic XAP support (MEF)   - Frame/Navigation refresh support   That’s a lot!   You will find more details on the following links: http://timheuer.com/blog/archive/2010/03/15/whats-new-in-silverlight-4-rc-mix10.aspx http://www.davidpoll.com/2010/03/15/new-in-the-silverlight-4-rc-xaml-features/   Technorati Tags: Silverlight

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• Nginx and PHP Fundamentals

  - by Elton Stoneman

  Originally posted on: http://geekswithblogs.net/EltonStoneman/archive/2013/08/01/nginx-and-php-fundamentals.aspxHot on the heels of my .NET caching course, I’ve had my first “fundamentals” course released on Pluralsight: Nginx and PHP Fundamentals. It’s a practical look at two of the biggest technologies on the web – Nginx, which is the fastest growing HTTP server around (currently hosting 100+ million sites), and PHP, which powers more websites than any other server-side framework (currently 240+ million sites). The two technologies work well together, both are open-source and cross-platform and both are lightweight and easy to get started with - you just need to download and unzip the runtimes, and with a text editor you can create and host dynamic websites. I’ve used PHP as a second (sometimes third) language since 2005 when I was brought cold into an established codebase to help improve performance, and Nginx to host tier 2 apps for the last couple of years. As with any training course, you learn new things as you produce it, and it was good to focus on a different stack from my commercial .NET world. In the course I start with a website in two parts – one which is just static content, and one which processes a user registration form using ASP.NET MVC, both running in IIS. Over four modules I migrate the app to Nginx and PHP: Hosting Static Content in Nginx – how to deploy and configure Nginx for a basic website; PHP Part 1: Basic Web Forms – installing PHP and an IDE, and building a simple form with server-side validation; PHP Part 2: Packages and Integration – using PECL and Composer for packages to connect to Azure, AWS, Mongo and reCAPTCHA; Hosting PHP in Nginx – configuring Nginx to host our PHP site. Along the way I run some performance stats with JMeter, and the headlines are that Nginx running on Linux outperforms IIS on Windows for static content,by 800 requests per second over 1000 concurrent requests; and Linux+Ngnix+PHP outperforms Windows+IIS+ASP.NET MVC by 700 request per second with the same load. Of course, the headline stats don’t tell the whole story, and when you add OpCode caching for PHP and the ASP.NET Output Cache, the results are very different. As Web architecture moves away from heavy server-side processing, to Single Page Apps with client-side frameworks like AngularJS and Knockout, I think there’s an increasing need for high-performance, low-cost server technologies, and the combination of Nginx and PHP makes a compelling case.

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