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  • Can't get PHP Errors in IIS7.5

    - by Erling Thorkildsen
    I've tried the previously answered questions regarding this to no avail. Just installed PHP5 and IIS on my Windows 7 machine and I'm having trouble getting PHP Errors displayed instead of 500 Errors. In PHP; error_reporting = E_ALL display_errors = On In IIS I have htmlErrors set to Detailed which shows a detailed IIS 500 Error page. If set to Custom it shows a basic 500 Error page. If I set it to PassThrough I get a blank page (view-source reveals no code). My PHP log file is showing a Fatal PHP Runtime Error.

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  • Asus F5N laptop built-in card reader driver problem

    - by Felix Dombek
    I have an Asus F5N X50N-AP011C. I have manually installed Windows 7 x64 on it, replacing the original Windows Vista. It also automatically installed a card reader driver, but it can no longer read xD cards. The driver shows in the device manager as "Generic- xD/SDMMC/MS/Pro USB device" (under "drives" - and a drive is also shown in Windows Explorer). The same card reader once used to work with xD cards. I also tried to manually install drivers from this website: http://www.station-drivers.com/page/realtek.htm - the RTS 5158 but it didn't work (it shows as USB device in device manager, but not as a drive in Windows Explorer). Does anyone know what card reader my model has built-in? (I think it's the 5158 but I don't know how to verify that - there's also no hint in the System Information tool, only the driver name is listed under "drives") how it is connected internally? if there is a better Windows 7 x64 driver?

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  • How can I set `less` or `more` max lines (scrollable height) limit/boundary in linux?

    - by Rudie
    (Sorry for the title. Any suggestions?) I've set my commandline PS1 to cover 3 lines: white space user, server and pwd $ or # to input I think less (or more?) is configured to break after window's height - 1, because when I do a $ git log, the first two lines are invisible at the top of the window and the rest is scrollable. I'm not sure who handles this scrolling and its configuration, but I assume GIT uses less/more. Where can I configure that my scrollable window is window height - 3 lines and not window height - 1? More info: If I cat lines.txt | less with a 23 line file, it shows the entire file and no scrolling. If I do the same with a 24 line file, it doesn't show line 1 (and no scrolling). With 25 lines: doesn't show lines 1 and 2 (and no scrolling). With 26 lines: shows line 1 and scrolling! The less breakpoint is at the wrong height...

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  • Windows 7 startup MUCH slower after reinstall (on an SSD)

    - by user326639
    I installed Windows 7 Prof 64 bits OEM (Spanish) on my new machine. As I wanted my Windows to be in English, the web shop where I bought the DVD recomended me to download an ISO file with the same Windows version (but in English), burn it on a DVD and install it. And that I should be able to use my registration code. Location ISO: http://msft-dnl.digitalrivercontent.net/msvista/pub/X15-65805/X15-65805.iso I've done this and everything works (I have not activated my Windows yet but I expect no problem there). Just one thing: its startup is MUCH slower now! Have a look at my PC specs (bottom). On my first install (Spanish), it was like: - motherboard splash screen -- shows for a second or two - list of found drives -- a few seconds - the text "Windows starting" -- about a second before the dots appear - four collored dots form the Windows logo -- a few seconds after the logo is fully formed it moves on to the login screen. On my second install (English): - motherboard splash screen -- shows for 15 seconds - list of found drives -- a few seconds - the text "Windows starting" -- shows for 40 seconds before the dots appear - four collored dots form the Windows logo -- now it moves on to the login screen about equally fast as before. Ones it's up and running it seems to be as responsive as before, although it's possible that I'm not noticing the difference. I did the first install on the virgin SSD drive straight from the box. The second time I let the Windows installation program format the drive first to get rid of the old installation. I noticed that there were two partitions on my SSD: partition 1, 100 Mb, "reserved for the system" and partition 2, 111.7 Gb. I only formated the big partition, and I left the system partition untouched. Between the two installs, I didn't open the computer so everything is connected to the same port. I did not change anything in BIOS. Has Windows not recognized my SSD as an SSD but as a normal HDD. I suspect that Windows has not done the neccesary automatic configuration settings that it should do for SSD's (but that's just a hunch). How do I get my SSD back into its virgin state, as if it came right from the box, so I can go for a 3rd attempt to install windows. Should I use DISKPART? Other ideas are welcome. Specifications: mobo: Gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3 CPU: i7-2600K SSD: OCZ Agility3 2,5" HDD: Samsung Spinpoint F4 mem: Kingston HyperX DIMM 8 Gb DDR3-1600

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  • Varnishhist x- and y-axis

    - by pst
    In varnishhist the x-axis shows the time varnish took between getting the request from the kernel and sending it back to kernel. The y-axis shows the number of requests. | => cache hit # => cache miss That is what I understood from the manpage. Correct me if I'm wrong. Yet there is one thing I'm unsure about. The pipes (|) on the far left side, do they also stand for cache hits or are they just there to print the y-axis? I'm voting for the latter, but would like to be sure.

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  • Why doesn't my cron.d per minute job run?

    - by Travis Griggs
    I have thrown a bunch of darts trying to get a python script of mine to execute every minute. So I thought I'd simplify it to just do the "simplest thing that could could possibly work" once per minute (I'm running debian/testing). I created a single line file in /etc/cron.d/perminute: * * * * * /bin/touch /home/me/ding_dong It's owned by root, and executable (not sure if either of those matter). And then I did: sudo service cron reload And then sit back and start running ls -ltr again and again in my home directory (/home/me). But my ding_dong file never shows up. I know if I do a sudo /bin/touch /home/me/ding_dong, it shows up right away. Obviously missing something stupid here.

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  • Windows 8 Task Manager RAM Usage Accuracy

    - by user264892
    The new Task Manager has a great UI in windows 8, however, there are some discrepancies in the data I can not account for: Machine: 8 GB of total ram. (This is a physical machine, not a virtual) The processes tab shows 45% of Memory utilized. The listed process do not add up to 3.5 GB of RAM, but instead add up to 0.948 GB. There is no "processes for all users" option. The performance Tab Shows: In use : 3.6 GB Available: 4.4 GB Committed : 4.1 /9.2 GB Cached: 3.7 GB Paged Pool: 376 MB Non-paged pool: 135 MB My reading of this says I have ALOT of "cloaked" processes running some where eating my ram. How do I interpret this data and how do I verify it?

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  • Docking CDialogBar Horizontally with CToolbar [migrated]

    - by PSU
    I need to display a CToolbar (m_wndToolBar) and a CDialogBar (m_wndDlgBarSid1) horizontally (i.e. next to each other, not above one another). The parent frame is derived from CMDIFrameWnd. I've tried all sorts of variations to get this to work. While I can properly position the CDialogBar to the right of the CToolbar, I cannot persist the positioning, although the WINDOWPLACEMENT mechanism is working correctly (the registry is written on program exit); whenever the program is run, the CToolbar shows up docked left, and the CDialogBar shows up below it, also docked left. I'm using (perforce) MFC and Visual C++ 6.0. Here's the code, slightly redacted to remove debug printouts and the like: int CMainFrame::OnCreate(LPCREATESTRUCT lpCreateStruct) { if (CMDIFrameWnd::OnCreate(lpCreateStruct) == -1) { return -1; } if (!m_wndToolBar.Create(this) || !m_wndToolBar.LoadToolBar(IDR_MAINFRAME) ) { return -1; // fail to create } if (!m_wndDlgBarSid1.Create(this, IDD_DIALOGBAR_SID1, CBRS_ALIGN_TOP, AFX_IDW_DIALOGBAR)) { return -1; // fail to create } WINDOWPLACEMENT wp ; CString sSection = "DialogBarSettings"; CString sEntry = "Sid1"; if ( ReadWindowPlacement( &wp, sSection, sEntry )) { BOOL bSWP = m_wndDlgBarSid1.SetWindowPlacement( &wp ); RecalcLayout(); } m_wndToolBar.SetBarStyle(m_wndToolBar.GetBarStyle() | CBRS_TOOLTIPS | CBRS_FLYBY | CBRS_SIZE_DYNAMIC); m_wndToolBar.GetToolBarCtrl().ModifyStyle( 0, TBSTYLE_FLAT, 0 ) ; m_wndDlgBarSid1.SetBarStyle(m_wndToolBar.GetBarStyle() | CBRS_SIZE_DYNAMIC | CBRS_TOP | CBRS_GRIPPER | CBRS_TOOLTIPS | CBRS_FLYBY ) ; m_wndToolBar.EnableDocking(CBRS_ALIGN_ANY); EnableDocking(CBRS_ALIGN_ANY); DockControlBar(&m_wndToolBar); m_wndDlgBarSid1.EnableDocking(CBRS_ALIGN_TOP | CBRS_ALIGN_BOTTOM); DockControlBar(&m_wndDlgBarSid1,AFX_IDW_DOCKBAR_TOP); return 0; } Any thoughts?

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  • Format text to 5 chars from a number

    - by Wheelersg
    In Access, I used a query to sum some numbers and appended the answer to another table(table2). Now I need to export the number as a text with 5 positions but can't seem to get it to hard code all 5 positions. I have it formatted as text, field length 5, custom foramt "00000" (also tried @@@@@). Example: 3 + 3 + 1 = 7. THen append the 7 to table2. It always shows as 7. I need it to shows as 00007.

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  • SQL Server 2008 (64-bit)

    - by Grace09
    I have transaction log backup failures randomly. SQL Server Log says 'Memory constraints resulted reduced backup/restore buffer sizes. Proceding with 6 buffers of size 64KB.', and the SQL Server Agent Error Log has quite a few errors like 'Unable to start Job Manager thread for job xxx', '[298] SQLServer Error: 768, Client unable to establish connection [SQLSTATE 08001]', [298] SQLServer Error: 768, SSL Provider: Not enough memory is available to complete this request [SQLSTATE 08001]'. I am really low on the memory? It has total of 32 GB, but I set maximum to 20. Task manager shows it is using 99% of physical memory. Memoryclerk-sqlbufferpool has 32GB for the Virtual Memory Reserved, and 20 GB for the Virtual Memory Committed. From the perfmon, SQLServer:Memory Manager/Total ServerMemory shows 21GB of memory in use, that's what I set the maximum to. I don't where the rest of memory go. Can anyone advice? Thanks in advance.

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  • How do I force Windows 7 to recognize my Projector?

    - by user63564
    I have a new Dell XPS with an NVIDIA GeForce GT 445M and an old (several years) Epson PowerLite Cinema 550 projector. Windows 7 refuses to recognize that the projector is connected under normal conditions (I'll get to the strange condition in a moment). Here are some things that I have already tried: Confirm that the projector continues to work well on my old Windows XP laptop. Confirm that the video cable (HDMI to HDMI) is connected Make sure the Dell laptop is plugged in to wall power at all times Reboot both the computer and the projector Click "Detect" under the "Connect to an External Display" Windows dialog (no reaction) Click "Rigorous Display Detection" under NVIDIA Control Panel (dialog: none found) Checked "Force Television Detection on startup" under "My display is not shown..." in NVIDIA Control Panel (no effect) Here's where it gets weird... My projector has three states: off, standby and on. Standby means the power switch on the back is on, but the projector is effectively off (no picture, no access to menu or controls). When I plug in the HDMI cable while the projector is in standby, Windows detects the projector! It lets me switch to Duplicate, Extend, or Project Only mode, and adjusts the resolution appropriately. A new Generic Plug-n-Play monitor shows up in my device manager. A "Seiko EPSON PJ" display shows up in my NVIDIA control panel. Then if I turn my projector on, Windows no longer recognizes the display. This is true whether I turn the projector on while the HDMI cable is plugged in, or if I unplug the HDMI cable while turning on the projector. Anyone have any ideas, because I'm completely stumped...?

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  • How can I set up a 404 error page when people access http://ftp.mydomain.com?

    - by Tim B.
    I am a freelance videographer/developer, and part of my job involves transferring large files over FTP to production houses/television stations. While the majority of people in my industry understand the difference between FTP and HTTP, I've experienced several interactions in the past couple months of people who still open Internet Explorer and try to access http://ftp.mydomain.com, receive an error page served by HostGator, and tell me that they cannot access my FTP server. Instead of spending time delivering instructions via e-mail, I'd much prefer to serve up a custom error page in this instance that instructs them how to download and use an FTP client. I tried setting up a sub-domain in Cpanel hoping I could simply drop in an .htaccess file with the error page, but I got this error: ftp.mydomain.com domainadmin-domainexistsglobal I also tried creating a custom error page in PHP which reads the site URL and serves up the custom content only when http://ftp.mydomain.com is accessed. Unfortunately, the error page works for every subdomain except that one. I'm not entirely sure this is even technically possible, which is why I bring it to the good people of StackOverflow to help. Thanks!

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  • Choosing the right TV tuner - USB or PCI TV tuners, hardware/software, DVB? Hybrid/combo/analog?

    - by Nucleon
    Greetings, I'll start with some background information so you know what I'm trying to accomplish and then get to my question. I work at a Television station in the US and we are working on setting up an online DVR/Podcast system for all of our newscasts. So basically we would be recording every newscast in HD, encoding it to flv/h.264 for viewing in a browser on flash compatible and iphone/ipad devices, eventually migrating to WebM when it's browser compliant. This task is theoretically pretty simple as it all it involves is a TV tuner device and a program like VLC, MythTV or whatever to schedule and dump it to a file, encode it with VLC/FFMPEG and push it to the streaming server. Now to the hardware, in order to accomplish that task, should I use an internal PCI tuner or a USB 2.0 tuner? Is there a difference? The bus speeds of both are not too far apart, and is the bus speed really relevant in this case? Does it matter if the device has a hardware encoder or a software encoder? On many sites the USB was recommended for ease of set up and use, but would it overly task a processor, or is that not a concern as long as it's a decent PC (at least duo core, 6gb ram). What's the difference between the stick USB and the Box USBs? To my understanding analog is basically gone in the US, so we would want a hybrid or combo tuner correct? How do those differ from DVB? Are there any other features or concepts which I am missing which may influence the recommended product. It would be ideal if the device which could work in both Linux and a Windows environment, to my knowledge most Hauppauge are? Example 1: PCI Hauppage http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815116033 Example 2: USB 2.0 Box http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815116029 Example 3: USB 2.0 Stick http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815116031 Any guidance from the Superusers would be much appreciated!

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  • Laptop authentication/logon via accelerometer tilt, flip, and twist

    - by wonsungi
    Looking for another application/technology: A number of years ago, I read about a novel way to authenticate and log on to a laptop. The user simply had to hold the laptop in the air and execute a simple series of tilts and flips to the laptop. By logging accelerometer data, this creates a unique signature for the user. Even if an attacker watched and repeated the exact same motions, the attacker could not replicate the user's movements closely enough. I am looking for information about this technology again, but I can't find anything. It may have been an actual feature on a laptop, or it may have just been a research project. I think I read about it in a magazine like Wired. Does anyone have more information about authentication via unique accelerometer signatures? Here are the closest articles I have been able to find: Knock-based commands for your Linux laptop Shake Well Before Use: Authentication Based on Accelerometer Data[PDF] Inferring Identity using Accelerometers in Television Remote Controls User Evaluation of Lightweight User Authentication with a Single Tri-Axis Accelerometer Identifying Users of Portable Devices from Gait Pattern with Accelerometers[PDF] 3D Signature Biometrics Using Curvature Moments[PDF] MoViSign: A novel authentication mechanism using mobile virtual signatures

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  • Does the Lenovo t60p vga port support an s-video signal?

    - by Matthijs Wessels
    I just bought a new television. The problem is it turns out it doesn't have a VGA port. It does have: s-video, component, hdmi and scart. My Lenovo t60p only has vga. If have search frantically for a solution and even though it seems I have sooo many options they are all dead ends. Or I keep ending up having to buy a 100 euro box to convert the signal. However, I found that some video cards support s-video through the vga port. It says look it up in your video cards documentation. I have a Lenovo t60p laptop with a ATI MOBILITY FireGl v5250. But I can't seem to get my hands on any documentation where this is supposed to be documented. I found this website: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=179529&highlight=s-video There this guy says he thinks it's in the t60 but dropped in the t61, but suggests to the guy with the t60 that it won't work. I can't really conclude anything from that. Furthermore, I am not looking for the best of the best quality. So when I found this: *http://www.amazon.com/VideoSecu-Computor-Presentation-Converter-VGA2TV/dp/B000X3FAJU/ref=pd_cp_e_3_img I woudl be quite happy with this. Except that I don't think I can order it because I don't live in the US. Can anybody give me a definite answer, to whether the vga port of my lenovo t60p ati firegl v5250 supports s-video? So that I can just by a vga to s-video cable to achieve my goal.

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  • Alternative software for Pinnacle PCTV 100e

    - by Stijn Sanders
    I have a Pinnacle PCTV 100e external USB cable television receiver. I've been using Pinnacle's software that came with the card (TVCenter Pro) to record things at given times. Things I don't like is an extremely high CPU load, and that it doesn't seem to halt the screensaver from running when watching in full screen. Also, I was away the last two weeks, and the schedules went terribly bust. Some items were recorded hours before or after the actual scheduled time (and now I missed some shows), and some recurring schedules weren't converted into the next occurrence correctly! Is there good alternative software that would work with my PCTV 100e? (Preferalby cheap or free) I've tried VLC Player, which gets video, but no audio. I've tried MediaPortal, which crashes when trying to scan for channels. When I select a channel manually, the stored mpg has big errors in encoding and is also missing audio. There's VirtualDub, but that doesn't have ready-made scheduled-recording options. This I can conjure some scheduled scripts for, but I've noticed the sync gets awfully wrong after some time. I've tried Windows Media Center, but it doesn't seem to support the PCTV 100e.

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  • How can I get Windows 7 to work with two Nvidia graphics cards with different drivers?

    - by Max
    This is similar to this question, but I am using more similar cards with Windows 7. I just purchased a Zotac Nvidia GeForce 7200 GS. I have a motherboard with two PCI Express x16 slots. There is already an MSI Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTS being used as the primary card, driving two LCD monitors. I would like the Zotac to output to a TV via DVI-out. Unfortunately, when Windows detects the Zotac and installs its drivers, or I manually install them, Windows stops being able to boot up. If I remove them and re-install the MSI 8800 drivers, I can boot again, but Windows can no longer see the Zotac 7200--it shows up as a yellow triangle in Device Manager. I've read conflicting reports about this. Some people claim that Windows 7 will support multiple heterogeneous graphics card drivers, as long as they are all using the same driver API ("WDDM?"). Others say that they have to be using the exact same driver, or it won't work. Others claim that you have to use the exact same card. which is it, exactly? I know I can run the MSI 8800 in SLI if I purchase another, but I don't need that kind of power--I just need HD-out to my television. I read somewhere that running two cards in SLI precludes you from using 100% of their output ports, so I'm not sure if that's an option. I suppose I could also run two MSI 8800's without SLI, but again, that's more power than I need (and more money than I'd like to spend). Also, I don't think this exact model is even manufactured anymore. Any ideas?

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  • Laptop authentication/logon via accelometer tilt, flip, and twist

    - by wonsungi
    Looking for another application/technology: A number of years ago, I read about a novel way to authenticate and log on to a laptop. The user simply had to hold the laptop in the air and execute a simple series of tilts and flips to the laptop. By logging accelerometer data, this creates a unique signature for the user. Even if an attacker watched and repeated the exact same motions, the attacker could not replicate the user's movements closely enough. I am looking for information about this technology again, but I can't find anything. It may have been an actual feature on a laptop, or it may have just been a research project. I think I read about it in a magazine like Wired. Does anyone have more information about authentication via unique accelerometer signatures? Here are the closest articles I have been able to find: Knock-based commands for your Linux laptop Shake Well Before Use: Authentication Based on Accelerometer Data[PDF] Inferring Identity using Accelerometers in Television Remote Controls User Evaluation of Lightweight User Authentication with a Single Tri-Axis Accelerometer Identifying Users of Portable Devices from Gait Pattern with Accelerometers[PDF] 3D Signature Biometrics Using Curvature Moments[PDF] MoViSign: A novel authentication mechanism using mobile virtual signatures

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  • How to change the MAC address in Win 8 to spoof a Roku Player through a WiFi splash page?

    - by luser droog
    My Linux laptop died yesterday and now I can't watch TV. Let me explain. I use a Roku Player to stream Netflix shows to my television; and a year or two ago, the Internet Service provided in my apartment complex added a Splash Page to get through the router and onto the net. After not too many days, I remembered that internet devices identify themselves with a MAC address. So I delved into the manpage of ifconfig and discovered that I could persuade my laptop to pretend to be the Roku Player, connect, click through the Splash Page, disconnect and change it back. This would allow the Roku to connect for about 24 hours, when I would have to do it again. But the laptop died yesterday during my smoke break. So during lunch, I ran to OfficeMax and got a new one. But I don't know where to begin looking for where to change the MAC address (assuming it's possible). I know I can try dual-boot, or a keychain OS, or possibly other things to resurrect my old method. But, is it possible to get Windows do it?

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  • Ask How-To Geek: Dropbox in the Start Menu, Understanding Symlinks, and Ripping TV Series DVDs

    - by Jason Fitzpatrick
    This week we take a look at how to incorporate Dropbox into your Windows Start Menu, understanding and using symbolic links, and how to rip your TV series DVDs right to unique and high-quality episode files. Once a week we dip into our reader mailbag and help readers solve their problems, sharing the useful solutions with you in the process. Read on to see our fixes for this week’s reader dilemmas. Add Drobox to Your Start Menu Dear How-To Geek, I use Dropbox all the time and would like to add it right onto my start menu along side the other major shortcuts like Documents, Pictures, etc. It seems like adding Dropbox into the menu should be part of the Dropbox installation package! Sincerely, Dropboxing in Des Moines Dear Dropboxing, We agree, it would be a nice installation option. As it stands you’re going to have to do a little simple hacking to get Dropbox nestled neatly into your start menu. The hack isn’t super elegant but when you’re done you’ll have the link you want and it’ll look like it was there all along. Check out this step-by-step guide here in order to take an existing Library shortcut and rework it to be a Dropbox link. Understanding and Using Symbolic Links Dear How-To Geek, I was talking to a coworker the other day about an issue I’d been having with a media center application I’m running. He suggested using symbolic links to better organize my media and make it easier for the application to access my collection. I had no idea what he was talking about and never got a chance to bug him about it later. Can you clear up this whole symbolic links business for me? I’ve been using computers for years and I’ve never even heard of it! Sincerely, Symbolic Who? Dear Symbolic, Symbolic links aren’t commonly used by many Windows users which is why you likely haven’t run into the concept. Symbolic links are essentially supercharged shortcuts—the newly introduced Windows library system is really just a type of symbolic link system. You can use symbolic links to do all sorts of neat stuff like link folders to your Dropbox folder, organize media, and more. The concept of symbolic links is pretty simple but the execution can be really tricky. We’d suggest reading over our guide to creating symbolic links in Windows 7, Windows XP, and Ubunutu to get a clearer idea what you’re getting into. Rip Your TV DVDs into Handy Episode Files Dear How-To Geek, My wife got me an iPod for Christmas and I still haven’t got around to filling it up. I have tons of entire TV show seasons on DVD and would like to get them on the iPod but I have absolutely no idea where to start. How do I get the shows off the discs? I thought it would be as easy to import the TV shows into iTunes as it is to import tracks off a CD but I was totally wrong. I tried downloading some applications to rip them but those didn’t work at all. Very frustrating! Surely there is an easy and/or automated way to do this, right? Sincerely, Free My DVDs Dear DVDs, Oh man is this a frustration we can relate to. It’s inordinately difficult to get movies and TV shows off physical media and into digital (and portable media player-friendly) formats. There are a multitude of ways to rip DVDs and quite a few applications out there (some good, some mediocre, and some outright malware). We’d recommend a two-part punch to solve your ripping woes. You’ll need a copy of DVDFab to strip away the protections on the discs and rip the disc and Handbrake to load the disc image and convert the files. It’s not quite as smooth as the CD-to-iTunes workflow but it’s still pretty easy. Check out all the steps and settings you’ll want to toggle here. Have a question you want to put before the How-To Geek staff? Shoot us an email at [email protected] and then keep an eye out for a solution in the Ask How-To Geek column. Latest Features How-To Geek ETC Internet Explorer 9 RC Now Available: Here’s the Most Interesting New Stuff Here’s a Super Simple Trick to Defeating Fake Anti-Virus Malware How to Change the Default Application for Android Tasks Stop Believing TV’s Lies: The Real Truth About "Enhancing" Images The How-To Geek Valentine’s Day Gift Guide Inspire Geek Love with These Hilarious Geek Valentines Google’s New Personal Blocklist Extension Kills Search Engine Spam KeyCounter Tracks Your Keystrokes and Mouse Clicks Add Custom LED Ambient Lighting to Your PC or Media Center The Trackor Monitors Amazon Prices; Integrates with Chrome, Firefox, and Safari Four Awesome TRON Legacy Themes for Chrome and Iron Anger is Illogical – Old School Style Instructional Video [Star Trek Mashup]

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  • Understanding Request Validation in ASP.NET MVC 3

    - by imran_ku07
         Introduction:             A fact that you must always remember "never ever trust user inputs". An application that trusts user inputs may be easily vulnerable to XSS, XSRF, SQL Injection, etc attacks. XSS and XSRF are very dangerous attacks. So to mitigate these attacks ASP.NET introduced request validation in ASP.NET 1.1. During request validation, ASP.NET will throw HttpRequestValidationException: 'A potentially dangerous XXX value was detected from the client', if he found, < followed by an exclamation(like <!) or < followed by the letters a through z(like <s) or & followed by a pound sign(like &#123) as a part of query string, posted form and cookie collection. In ASP.NET 4.0, request validation becomes extensible. This means that you can extend request validation. Also in ASP.NET 4.0, by default request validation is enabled before the BeginRequest phase of an HTTP request. ASP.NET MVC 3 moves one step further by making request validation granular. This allows you to disable request validation for some properties of a model while maintaining request validation for all other cases. In this article I will show you the use of request validation in ASP.NET MVC 3. Then I will briefly explain the internal working of granular request validation.       Description:             First of all create a new ASP.NET MVC 3 application. Then create a simple model class called MyModel,     public class MyModel { public string Prop1 { get; set; } public string Prop2 { get; set; } }             Then just update the index action method as follows,   public ActionResult Index(MyModel p) { return View(); }             Now just run this application. You will find that everything works just fine. Now just append this query string ?Prop1=<s to the url of this application, you will get the HttpRequestValidationException exception.           Now just decorate the Index action method with [ValidateInputAttribute(false)],   [ValidateInput(false)] public ActionResult Index(MyModel p) { return View(); }             Run this application again with same query string. You will find that your application run without any unhandled exception.           Up to now, there is nothing new in ASP.NET MVC 3 because ValidateInputAttribute was present in the previous versions of ASP.NET MVC. Any problem with this approach? Yes there is a problem with this approach. The problem is that now users can send html for both Prop1 and Prop2 properties and a lot of developers are not aware of it. This means that now everyone can send html with both parameters(e.g, ?Prop1=<s&Prop2=<s). So ValidateInput attribute does not gives you the guarantee that your application is safe to XSS or XSRF. This is the reason why ASP.NET MVC team introduced granular request validation in ASP.NET MVC 3. Let's see this feature.           Remove [ValidateInputAttribute(false)] on Index action and update MyModel class as follows,   public class MyModel { [AllowHtml] public string Prop1 { get; set; } public string Prop2 { get; set; } }             Note that AllowHtml attribute is only decorated on Prop1 property. Run this application again with ?Prop1=<s query string. You will find that your application run just fine. Run this application again with ?Prop1=<s&Prop2=<s query string, you will get HttpRequestValidationException exception. This shows that the granular request validation in ASP.NET MVC 3 only allows users to send html for properties decorated with AllowHtml attribute.            Sometimes you may need to access Request.QueryString or Request.Form directly. You may change your code as follows,   [ValidateInput(false)] public ActionResult Index() { var prop1 = Request.QueryString["Prop1"]; return View(); }             Run this application again, you will get the HttpRequestValidationException exception again even you have [ValidateInput(false)] on your Index action. The reason is that Request flags are still not set to unvalidate. I will explain this later. For making this work you need to use Unvalidated extension method,     public ActionResult Index() { var q = Request.Unvalidated().QueryString; var prop1 = q["Prop1"]; return View(); }             Unvalidated extension method is defined in System.Web.Helpers namespace . So you need to add using System.Web.Helpers; in this class file. Run this application again, your application run just fine.             There you have it. If you are not curious to know the internal working of granular request validation then you can skip next paragraphs completely. If you are interested then carry on reading.             Create a new ASP.NET MVC 2 application, then open global.asax.cs file and the following lines,     protected void Application_BeginRequest() { var q = Request.QueryString; }             Then make the Index action method as,    [ValidateInput(false)] public ActionResult Index(string id) { return View(); }             Please note that the Index action method contains a parameter and this action method is decorated with [ValidateInput(false)]. Run this application again, but now with ?id=<s query string, you will get HttpRequestValidationException exception at Application_BeginRequest method. Now just add the following entry in web.config,   <httpRuntime requestValidationMode="2.0"/>             Now run this application again. This time your application will run just fine. Now just see the following quote from ASP.NET 4 Breaking Changes,   In ASP.NET 4, by default, request validation is enabled for all requests, because it is enabled before the BeginRequest phase of an HTTP request. As a result, request validation applies to requests for all ASP.NET resources, not just .aspx page requests. This includes requests such as Web service calls and custom HTTP handlers. Request validation is also active when custom HTTP modules are reading the contents of an HTTP request.             This clearly state that request validation is enabled before the BeginRequest phase of an HTTP request. For understanding what does enabled means here, we need to see HttpRequest.ValidateInput, HttpRequest.QueryString and HttpRequest.Form methods/properties in System.Web assembly. Here is the implementation of HttpRequest.ValidateInput, HttpRequest.QueryString and HttpRequest.Form methods/properties in System.Web assembly,     public NameValueCollection Form { get { if (this._form == null) { this._form = new HttpValueCollection(); if (this._wr != null) { this.FillInFormCollection(); } this._form.MakeReadOnly(); } if (this._flags[2]) { this._flags.Clear(2); this.ValidateNameValueCollection(this._form, RequestValidationSource.Form); } return this._form; } } public NameValueCollection QueryString { get { if (this._queryString == null) { this._queryString = new HttpValueCollection(); if (this._wr != null) { this.FillInQueryStringCollection(); } this._queryString.MakeReadOnly(); } if (this._flags[1]) { this._flags.Clear(1); this.ValidateNameValueCollection(this._queryString, RequestValidationSource.QueryString); } return this._queryString; } } public void ValidateInput() { if (!this._flags[0x8000]) { this._flags.Set(0x8000); this._flags.Set(1); this._flags.Set(2); this._flags.Set(4); this._flags.Set(0x40); this._flags.Set(0x80); this._flags.Set(0x100); this._flags.Set(0x200); this._flags.Set(8); } }             The above code indicates that HttpRequest.QueryString and HttpRequest.Form will only validate the querystring and form collection if certain flags are set. These flags are automatically set if you call HttpRequest.ValidateInput method. Now run the above application again(don't forget to append ?id=<s query string in the url) with the same settings(i.e, requestValidationMode="2.0" setting in web.config and Application_BeginRequest method in global.asax.cs), your application will run just fine. Now just update the Application_BeginRequest method as,   protected void Application_BeginRequest() { Request.ValidateInput(); var q = Request.QueryString; }             Note that I am calling Request.ValidateInput method prior to use Request.QueryString property. ValidateInput method will internally set certain flags(discussed above). These flags will then tells the Request.QueryString (and Request.Form) property that validate the query string(or form) when user call Request.QueryString(or Request.Form) property. So running this application again with ?id=<s query string will throw HttpRequestValidationException exception. Now I hope it is clear to you that what does requestValidationMode do. It just tells the ASP.NET that not invoke the Request.ValidateInput method internally before the BeginRequest phase of an HTTP request if requestValidationMode is set to a value less than 4.0 in web.config. Here is the implementation of HttpRequest.ValidateInputIfRequiredByConfig method which will prove this statement(Don't be confused with HttpRequest and Request. Request is the property of HttpRequest class),    internal void ValidateInputIfRequiredByConfig() { ............................................................... ............................................................... ............................................................... ............................................................... if (httpRuntime.RequestValidationMode >= VersionUtil.Framework40) { this.ValidateInput(); } }              Hopefully the above discussion will clear you how requestValidationMode works in ASP.NET 4. It is also interesting to note that both HttpRequest.QueryString and HttpRequest.Form only throws the exception when you access them first time. Any subsequent access to HttpRequest.QueryString and HttpRequest.Form will not throw any exception. Continuing with the above example, just update Application_BeginRequest method in global.asax.cs file as,   protected void Application_BeginRequest() { try { var q = Request.QueryString; var f = Request.Form; } catch//swallow this exception { } var q1 = Request.QueryString; var f1 = Request.Form; }             Without setting requestValidationMode to 2.0 and without decorating ValidateInput attribute on Index action, your application will work just fine because both HttpRequest.QueryString and HttpRequest.Form will clear their flags after reading HttpRequest.QueryString and HttpRequest.Form for the first time(see the implementation of HttpRequest.QueryString and HttpRequest.Form above).           Now let's see ASP.NET MVC 3 granular request validation internal working. First of all we need to see type of HttpRequest.QueryString and HttpRequest.Form properties. Both HttpRequest.QueryString and HttpRequest.Form properties are of type NameValueCollection which is inherited from the NameObjectCollectionBase class. NameObjectCollectionBase class contains _entriesArray, _entriesTable, NameObjectEntry.Key and NameObjectEntry.Value fields which granular request validation uses internally. In addition granular request validation also uses _queryString, _form and _flags fields, ValidateString method and the Indexer of HttpRequest class. Let's see when and how granular request validation uses these fields.           Create a new ASP.NET MVC 3 application. Then put a breakpoint at Application_BeginRequest method and another breakpoint at HomeController.Index method. Now just run this application. When the break point inside Application_BeginRequest method hits then add the following expression in quick watch window, System.Web.HttpContext.Current.Request.QueryString. You will see the following screen,                                              Now Press F5 so that the second breakpoint inside HomeController.Index method hits. When the second breakpoint hits then add the following expression in quick watch window again, System.Web.HttpContext.Current.Request.QueryString. You will see the following screen,                            First screen shows that _entriesTable field is of type System.Collections.Hashtable and _entriesArray field is of type System.Collections.ArrayList during the BeginRequest phase of the HTTP request. While the second screen shows that _entriesTable type is changed to Microsoft.Web.Infrastructure.DynamicValidationHelper.LazilyValidatingHashtable and _entriesArray type is changed to Microsoft.Web.Infrastructure.DynamicValidationHelper.LazilyValidatingArrayList during executing the Index action method. In addition to these members, ASP.NET MVC 3 also perform some operation on _flags, _form, _queryString and other members of HttpRuntime class internally. This shows that ASP.NET MVC 3 performing some operation on the members of HttpRequest class for making granular request validation possible.           Both LazilyValidatingArrayList and LazilyValidatingHashtable classes are defined in the Microsoft.Web.Infrastructure assembly. You may wonder why their name starts with Lazily. The fact is that now with ASP.NET MVC 3, request validation will be performed lazily. In simple words, Microsoft.Web.Infrastructure assembly is now taking the responsibility for request validation from System.Web assembly. See the below screens. The first screen depicting HttpRequestValidationException exception in ASP.NET MVC 2 application while the second screen showing HttpRequestValidationException exception in ASP.NET MVC 3 application.   In MVC 2:                 In MVC 3:                          The stack trace of the second screenshot shows that Microsoft.Web.Infrastructure assembly (instead of System.Web assembly) is now performing request validation in ASP.NET MVC 3. Now you may ask: where Microsoft.Web.Infrastructure assembly is performing some operation on the members of HttpRequest class. There are at least two places where the Microsoft.Web.Infrastructure assembly performing some operation , Microsoft.Web.Infrastructure.DynamicValidationHelper.GranularValidationReflectionUtil.GetInstance method and Microsoft.Web.Infrastructure.DynamicValidationHelper.ValidationUtility.CollectionReplacer.ReplaceCollection method, Here is the implementation of these methods,   private static GranularValidationReflectionUtil GetInstance() { try { if (DynamicValidationShimReflectionUtil.Instance != null) { return null; } GranularValidationReflectionUtil util = new GranularValidationReflectionUtil(); Type containingType = typeof(NameObjectCollectionBase); string fieldName = "_entriesArray"; bool isStatic = false; Type fieldType = typeof(ArrayList); FieldInfo fieldInfo = CommonReflectionUtil.FindField(containingType, fieldName, isStatic, fieldType); util._del_get_NameObjectCollectionBase_entriesArray = MakeFieldGetterFunc<NameObjectCollectionBase, ArrayList>(fieldInfo); util._del_set_NameObjectCollectionBase_entriesArray = MakeFieldSetterFunc<NameObjectCollectionBase, ArrayList>(fieldInfo); Type type6 = typeof(NameObjectCollectionBase); string str2 = "_entriesTable"; bool flag2 = false; Type type7 = typeof(Hashtable); FieldInfo info2 = CommonReflectionUtil.FindField(type6, str2, flag2, type7); util._del_get_NameObjectCollectionBase_entriesTable = MakeFieldGetterFunc<NameObjectCollectionBase, Hashtable>(info2); util._del_set_NameObjectCollectionBase_entriesTable = MakeFieldSetterFunc<NameObjectCollectionBase, Hashtable>(info2); Type targetType = CommonAssemblies.System.GetType("System.Collections.Specialized.NameObjectCollectionBase+NameObjectEntry"); Type type8 = targetType; string str3 = "Key"; bool flag3 = false; Type type9 = typeof(string); FieldInfo info3 = CommonReflectionUtil.FindField(type8, str3, flag3, type9); util._del_get_NameObjectEntry_Key = MakeFieldGetterFunc<string>(targetType, info3); Type type10 = targetType; string str4 = "Value"; bool flag4 = false; Type type11 = typeof(object); FieldInfo info4 = CommonReflectionUtil.FindField(type10, str4, flag4, type11); util._del_get_NameObjectEntry_Value = MakeFieldGetterFunc<object>(targetType, info4); util._del_set_NameObjectEntry_Value = MakeFieldSetterFunc(targetType, info4); Type type12 = typeof(HttpRequest); string methodName = "ValidateString"; bool flag5 = false; Type[] argumentTypes = new Type[] { typeof(string), typeof(string), typeof(RequestValidationSource) }; Type returnType = typeof(void); MethodInfo methodInfo = CommonReflectionUtil.FindMethod(type12, methodName, flag5, argumentTypes, returnType); util._del_validateStringCallback = CommonReflectionUtil.MakeFastCreateDelegate<HttpRequest, ValidateStringCallback>(methodInfo); Type type = CommonAssemblies.SystemWeb.GetType("System.Web.HttpValueCollection"); util._del_HttpValueCollection_ctor = CommonReflectionUtil.MakeFastNewObject<Func<NameValueCollection>>(type); Type type14 = typeof(HttpRequest); string str6 = "_form"; bool flag6 = false; Type type15 = type; FieldInfo info6 = CommonReflectionUtil.FindField(type14, str6, flag6, type15); util._del_get_HttpRequest_form = MakeFieldGetterFunc<HttpRequest, NameValueCollection>(info6); util._del_set_HttpRequest_form = MakeFieldSetterFunc(typeof(HttpRequest), info6); Type type16 = typeof(HttpRequest); string str7 = "_queryString"; bool flag7 = false; Type type17 = type; FieldInfo info7 = CommonReflectionUtil.FindField(type16, str7, flag7, type17); util._del_get_HttpRequest_queryString = MakeFieldGetterFunc<HttpRequest, NameValueCollection>(info7); util._del_set_HttpRequest_queryString = MakeFieldSetterFunc(typeof(HttpRequest), info7); Type type3 = CommonAssemblies.SystemWeb.GetType("System.Web.Util.SimpleBitVector32"); Type type18 = typeof(HttpRequest); string str8 = "_flags"; bool flag8 = false; Type type19 = type3; FieldInfo flagsFieldInfo = CommonReflectionUtil.FindField(type18, str8, flag8, type19); Type type20 = type3; string str9 = "get_Item"; bool flag9 = false; Type[] typeArray4 = new Type[] { typeof(int) }; Type type21 = typeof(bool); MethodInfo itemGetter = CommonReflectionUtil.FindMethod(type20, str9, flag9, typeArray4, type21); Type type22 = type3; string str10 = "set_Item"; bool flag10 = false; Type[] typeArray6 = new Type[] { typeof(int), typeof(bool) }; Type type23 = typeof(void); MethodInfo itemSetter = CommonReflectionUtil.FindMethod(type22, str10, flag10, typeArray6, type23); MakeRequestValidationFlagsAccessors(flagsFieldInfo, itemGetter, itemSetter, out util._del_BitVector32_get_Item, out util._del_BitVector32_set_Item); return util; } catch { return null; } } private static void ReplaceCollection(HttpContext context, FieldAccessor<NameValueCollection> fieldAccessor, Func<NameValueCollection> propertyAccessor, Action<NameValueCollection> storeInUnvalidatedCollection, RequestValidationSource validationSource, ValidationSourceFlag validationSourceFlag) { NameValueCollection originalBackingCollection; ValidateStringCallback validateString; SimpleValidateStringCallback simpleValidateString; Func<NameValueCollection> getActualCollection; Action<NameValueCollection> makeCollectionLazy; HttpRequest request = context.Request; Func<bool> getValidationFlag = delegate { return _reflectionUtil.GetRequestValidationFlag(request, validationSourceFlag); }; Func<bool> func = delegate { return !getValidationFlag(); }; Action<bool> setValidationFlag = delegate (bool value) { _reflectionUtil.SetRequestValidationFlag(request, validationSourceFlag, value); }; if ((fieldAccessor.Value != null) && func()) { storeInUnvalidatedCollection(fieldAccessor.Value); } else { originalBackingCollection = fieldAccessor.Value; validateString = _reflectionUtil.MakeValidateStringCallback(context.Request); simpleValidateString = delegate (string value, string key) { if (((key == null) || !key.StartsWith("__", StringComparison.Ordinal)) && !string.IsNullOrEmpty(value)) { validateString(value, key, validationSource); } }; getActualCollection = delegate { fieldAccessor.Value = originalBackingCollection; bool flag = getValidationFlag(); setValidationFlag(false); NameValueCollection col = propertyAccessor(); setValidationFlag(flag); storeInUnvalidatedCollection(new NameValueCollection(col)); return col; }; makeCollectionLazy = delegate (NameValueCollection col) { simpleValidateString(col[null], null); LazilyValidatingArrayList array = new LazilyValidatingArrayList(_reflectionUtil.GetNameObjectCollectionEntriesArray(col), simpleValidateString); _reflectionUtil.SetNameObjectCollectionEntriesArray(col, array); LazilyValidatingHashtable table = new LazilyValidatingHashtable(_reflectionUtil.GetNameObjectCollectionEntriesTable(col), simpleValidateString); _reflectionUtil.SetNameObjectCollectionEntriesTable(col, table); }; Func<bool> hasValidationFired = func; Action disableValidation = delegate { setValidationFlag(false); }; Func<int> fillInActualFormContents = delegate { NameValueCollection values = getActualCollection(); makeCollectionLazy(values); return values.Count; }; DeferredCountArrayList list = new DeferredCountArrayList(hasValidationFired, disableValidation, fillInActualFormContents); NameValueCollection target = _reflectionUtil.NewHttpValueCollection(); _reflectionUtil.SetNameObjectCollectionEntriesArray(target, list); fieldAccessor.Value = target; } }             Hopefully the above code will help you to understand the internal working of granular request validation. It is also important to note that Microsoft.Web.Infrastructure assembly invokes HttpRequest.ValidateInput method internally. For further understanding please see Microsoft.Web.Infrastructure assembly code. Finally you may ask: at which stage ASP NET MVC 3 will invoke these methods. You will find this answer by looking at the following method source,   Unvalidated extension method for HttpRequest class defined in System.Web.Helpers.Validation class. System.Web.Mvc.MvcHandler.ProcessRequestInit method. System.Web.Mvc.ControllerActionInvoker.ValidateRequest method. System.Web.WebPages.WebPageHttpHandler.ProcessRequestInternal method.       Summary:             ASP.NET helps in preventing XSS attack using a feature called request validation. In this article, I showed you how you can use granular request validation in ASP.NET MVC 3. I explain you the internal working of  granular request validation. Hope you will enjoy this article too.   SyntaxHighlighter.all()

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  • Silverlight 5 &ndash; What&rsquo;s New? (Including Screenshots &amp; Code Snippets)

    - by mbcrump
    Silverlight 5 is coming next year (2011) and this blog post will tell you what you need to know before the beta ships. First, let me address people saying that it is dead after PDC 2010. I believe that it’s best to see what the market is doing, not the vendor. Below is a list of companies that are developing Silverlight 4 applications shown during the Silverlight Firestarter. Some of the companies have shipped and some haven’t. It’s just great to see the actual company names that are working on Silverlight instead of “people are developing for Silverlight”. The next thing that I wanted to point out was that HTML5, WPF and Silverlight can co-exist. In case you missed Scott Gutherie’s keynote, they actually had a slide with all three stacked together. This shows Microsoft will be heavily investing in each technology.  Even I, a Silverlight developer, am reading Pro HTML5. Microsoft said that according to the Silverlight Feature Voting site, 21k votes were entered. Microsoft has implemented about 70% of these votes in Silverlight 5. That is an amazing number, and I am crossing my fingers that Microsoft bundles Silverlight with Windows 8. Let’s get started… what’s new in Silverlight 5? I am going to show you some great application and actual code shown during the Firestarter event. Media Hardware Video Decode – Instead of using CPU to decode, we will offload it to GPU. This will allow netbooks, etc to play videos. Trickplay – Variable Speed Playback – Pitch Correction (If you speed up someone talking they won’t sound like a chipmunk). Power Management – Less battery when playing video. Screensavers will no longer kick in if watching a video. If you pause a video then screensaver will kick in. Remote Control Support – This will allow users to control playback functions like Pause, Rewind and Fastforward. IIS Media Services 4 has shipped and now supports Azure. Data Binding Layout Transitions – Just with a few lines of XAML you can create a really rich experience that is not using Storyboards or animations. RelativeSource FindAncestor – Ancestor RelativeSource bindings make it much easier for a DataTemplate to bind to a property on a container control. Custom Markup Extensions – Markup extensions allow code to be run at XAML parse time for both properties and event handlers. This is great for MVVM support. Changing Styles during Runtime By Binding in Style Setters – Changing Styles at runtime used to be a real pain in Silverlight 4, now it’s much easier. Binding in style setters allows bindings to reference other properties. XAML Debugging – Below you can see that we set a breakpoint in XAML. This shows us exactly what is going on with our binding.  WCF & RIA Services WS-Trust Support – Taken from Wikipedia: WS-Trust is a WS-* specification and OASIS standard that provides extensions to WS-Security, specifically dealing with the issuing, renewing, and validating of security tokens, as well as with ways to establish, assess the presence of, and broker trust relationships between participants in a secure message exchange. You can reduce network latency by using a background thread for networking. Supports Azure now.  Text and Printing Improved text clarity that enables better text rendering. Multi-column text flow, Character tracking and leading support, and full OpenType font support.  Includes a new Postscript Vector Printing API that provides control over what you print . Pivot functionality baked into Silverlight 5 SDK. Graphics Immediate mode graphics support that will enable you to use the GPU and 3D graphics supports. Take a look at what was shown in the demos below. 1) 3D view of the Earth – not really a real-world application though. A doctor’s portal. This demo really stood out for me as it shows what we can do with the 3D / GPU support. Out of Browser OOB applications can now create and manage childwindows as shown in the screenshot below.  Trusted OOB applications can use P/Invoke to call Win32 APIs and unmanaged libraries.  Enterprise Group Policy Support allow enterprises to lock down or up the sandbox capabilities of Silverlight 5 applications. In this demo, he tore the “notes” off of the application and it appeared in a new window. See the black arrow below. In this demo, he connected a USB Device which fired off a local Win32 application that provided the data off the USB stick to Silverlight. Another demo of a Silverlight 5 application exporting data right into Excel running inside of browser. Testing They demoed Coded UI, which is available now in the Visual Studio Feature Pack 2. This will allow you to create automated testing without writing any code manually. Performance: Microsoft has worked to improve the Silverlight startup time. Silverlight 5 provides 64-bit browser support.  Silverlight 5 also provides IE9 Hardware acceleration.   I am looking forward to Silverlight 5 and I hope you are too. Thanks for reading and I hope you visit again soon.  Subscribe to my feed CodeProject

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  • Help Prevent Carpal Tunnel Problems with Workrave

    - by Matthew Guay
    Whether for work or leisure, many of us spend entirely too much time on the computer everyday.  This puts us at risk of having or aggravating Carpal Tunnel problems, but thanks to Workrave you can help to divert these problems. Workrave helps Carpal Tunnel problems by reminding you to get away from your computer periodically.  Breaking up your computer time with movement can help alleviate many computer and office related health problems.  Workrave helps by reminding you to take short pauses after several minutes of computer use, and longer breaks after continued use.  You can also use it to keep from using the computer for too much You time in a day.  Since you can change the settings to suit you, this can be a great way to make sure you’re getting the breaks you need. Install Workrave on Windows If you’re using Workrave on Windows, download (link below) and install it with the default settings. One installation setting you may wish to change is the startup.  By default Workrave will run automatically when you start your computer; if you don’t want this, you can simply uncheck the box and proceed with the installation. Once setup is finished, you can run Workrave directly from the installer. Or you can open it from your start menu by entering “workrave” in the search box. Install Workrave in Ubuntu If you wish to use it in Ubuntu, you can install it directly from the Ubuntu Software Center.  Click the Applications menu, and select Ubuntu Software Center. Enter “workrave” into the search box in the top right corner of the Software Center, and it will automatically find it.  Click the arrow to proceed to Workrave’s page. This will give you information about Workrave; simply click Install to install Workrave on your system. Enter your password when prompted. Workrave will automatically download and install.   When finished, you can find Workrave in your Applications menu under Universal Access. Using Workrave Workrave by default shows a small counter on your desktop, showing the length of time until your next Micro break (30 second break), Rest break (10 minute break), and max amount of computer usage for the day. When it’s time for a micro break, Workrave will popup a reminder on your desktop. If you continue working, it will disappear at the end of the timer.  If you stop, it will start a micro-break which will freeze most on-screen activities until the timer is over.  You can click Skip or Postpone if you do not want to take a break right then. After an hour of work, Workrave will give you a 10 minute rest break.  During this it will show you some exercises that can help eliminate eyestrain, muscle tension, and other problems from prolonged computer usage.  You can click through the exercises, or can skip or postpone the break if you wish.   Preferences You can change your Workrave preferences by right-clicking on its icon in your system tray and selecting Preferences. Here you can customize the time between your breaks, and the length of your breaks.  You can also change your daily computer usage limit, and can even turn off the postpone and skip buttons on notifications if you want to make sure you follow Workrave and take your rests! From the context menu, you can also choose Statistics.  This gives you an overview of how many breaks, prompts, and more were shown on a given day.  It also shows a total Overdue time, which is the total length of the breaks you skipped or postponed.  You can view your Workrave history as well by simply selecting a date on the calendar.   Additionally, the Activity tab in the Statics pane shows more info about your computer usage, including total mouse movement, mouse button clicks, and keystrokes. Conclusion Whether you’re suffering with Carpal Tunnel or trying to prevent it, Workrave is a great solution to help remind you to get away from your computer periodically and rest.  Of course, since you can simply postpone or skip the prompts, you’ve still got to make an effort to help your own health.  But it does give you a great way to remind yourself to get away from the computer, and especially for geeks, this may be something that we really need! Download Workrave Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Switch to the Dvorak Keyboard Layout in XPAccess Your MySQL Server Remotely Over SSHHow to Secure Gaim Instant Messenger traffic at Work with SecureCRT and SSHConnect to VMware Server Console Over SSHDisclaimers TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 PCmover Professional StockFox puts a Lightweight Stock Ticker in your Statusbar Explore Google Public Data Visually The Ultimate Excel Cheatsheet Convert the Quick Launch Bar into a Super Application Launcher Automate Tasks in Linux with Crontab Discover New Bundled Feeds in Google Reader

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  • Monitoring almost anything with BizTalk 360

    - by Michael Stephenson
    When you work in an integration environment it is common that you will find yourself in a situation where you integrate with some unusual applications or have some unusual dependencies. That is the nature of integration. When you work with BizTalk one of the common problems is that BizTalk often is the place where problems with applications you integrate with are highlighted and these external applications may have poor monitoring solutions. Fortunately if you are a working with a customer who uses BizTalk 360 then it contains a feature called the "Web Endpoint Manager". Typically the web endpoint manager is used to monitor web services that you integrate with and will ping them at appropriate times to make sure they return the expected HTTP status code. When you have an usual situation where you want to monitor something which is key to the success to your solution but you find yourself having to consider a significant custom solution to monitor the external dependency then the Web Endpoint Manager could be your friend. The endpoint manager monitors a url and checks for a certain status code. This means that you can create your own aspx web page and then make BizTalk 360 monitor this web page. Behind the web page you could write any code you wished. An example of this is architecture is shown in the below diagram.     In the custom web page you would implement some custom code to do whatever it is that you want to monitor. In the below code snippet you can see how the Page_Load default method is doing some kind of check then depending on the result of the check it returns a certain HTTP code. protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e) { var result = CheckSomething();   if (result == "Success") Response.StatusCode = 202; else if (result == "DatabaseError") Response.StatusCode = 510; else if (result == "SystemError") Response.StatusCode = 512; else Response.StatusCode = 513;   }   In BizTalk 360 you would go into the Monitor and Notify tab and then to BizTalk Environment which gives you access to the Web Endpoint Manager. You need an alarm setup which configures how the endpoint will be checked. I'm not going to go through the details of creating the alarm as this is already documented in the BizTalk 360 documentation. One point to note is that in the example I am using I setup a threshold alarm which means that the url is checked about every minute and if there is an error that persists for a period of time then the alarm will raise the alert notification. In my example I configured the alarm to fire if the error persisted for 3 minutes. The below picture shows accessing the endpoint manager.   In the web endpoint manager you would then configure your endpoint to monitor and the HTTP response code which indicates all is working fine. The below picture shows this. I now have my endpoint monitoring setup and BizTalk 360 should be checking my custom endpoint to see that it is available. If I wanted to manually sanity check that the endpoints I have registered are working fine then clicking the Refresh button will show if they are all good or not. If my custom ASP.net page which is checking my dependency gets a problem you will see in the endpoint manager that the status code does not match the expected return code and your endpoints will display in red and you can see the problem. The below picture shows this. If I use specific HTTP response codes for the errors the custom ASP.net page might encounter I can easily interpret these to know what the problem is. Using the alarms and notifications with BizTalk 360 it means when your endpoint goes into an error state you can easily configure email or SMS notifications from BizTalk 360 to tell you that your endpoint is having problems and you can use BizTalk 360 to help correlate what the problem is to allow you to investigate further. Below you can see the email which tells me my endpoint is not working.   When everything returns to normal you will see the status is now fixed and you will see a situation like below where you can see the WebEndpoints are now green and the return code matches what is expected.   Conclusion As you can see it is really easy to plug your own custom ASP.net page into the BizTalk 360 web endpoint monitoring feature. This extension then gives you the power to really extend the monitoring to almost anything you want as long as you can write some .net code to check that the dependency is available and working. It would be interesting to hear of any ideas people have around things they would monitor with this extension. More details on the end point monitor can be found on the following link: http://www.biztalk360.com/tour/monitoring_notifications

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  • Microsoft TechEd 2010 - Day 2 @ Bangalore

    - by sathya
    Microsoft TechEd 2010 - Day 2 @ Bangalore Today is the day 2 @ Microsoft TechEd 2010. We had lot of technical sessions as usual there were many tracks going on side by side and I was attending the Web simplified track, Which comprised of the following sessions :   Developing a scalable Media Application using ASP.NET MVC - This was a kind of little advanced stuff. Anyways I couldn't understand much because this was not my piece of cake and I havent worked on this before ASP.Net MVC Unplugged - This was really great because this session covered from the basics of MVC showing what is Model,View and Controller and how it worked and the speaker went into the details of the same. Building RESTful Applications with the Open Data Protocol - There were some concepts explained about this from the basics on how to build RESTful Services and it went on till some advanced configurations of the same. Developing Scalable Web Applications with AppFabric Caching - This session showed about the integration of AppFabric with the .Net Web Applications. Instead of using Inproc Sessions, we can use this AppFabric as a substitute for Caching and outofProc Session Storage without writing code and doing a little bit of configurations which brings in High Scalability, performance to our applications. (But unfortunately there were no demos for this session ) Deep Dive : WCF RIA Services - This session was also an interactive one, in this the speaker presented from the basics of WCF and took a Book Store Application as a sample and explained all details concepts on linking with RIA Services   Apart from these sessions, in between there happened some small events in the breaks like Some discussions about Technology, Innovations Music Jokes Mimicry, etc. And on doing all these things, the developers were given some kool gifts / goodies like USBs, T-Shirts, etc. And today I got a chance to do the following certification : (70-562) Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist in .NET 3.5 Web Applications Since I already have an MCTS in .NET 2.0, I wanted to do an MCPD and for doing the same I was required to do an update to my MCTS with the .NET 3.5 framework and I did the same I cleared it and now am an MCTS in .NET 3.5 Web Apps And on doing this I got a T-Shirt and they gave something called Learning $ of worth 30$. And in various stalls for attending each quiz or some game or some referrals we got some Learning $ which we can redeem later based on our Total Learning $. I got 105 $ which i was able to redeem and got a Microsoft Learning BagPack, 1 free Microsoft certification offer, a laptop light and an e-learning content activated. And after all these sessions and small events, we had something called Demo Extravaganza like I mentioned yesterday. This was a great funfilled event with lot of goodies for the attendees. There were some lucky draw which enabled 2 attendees to get Netbooks (Sponsored by Intel) and 1 attendee to get X-box (Sponsored by Citrix). After Choosing the raffle in the lucky draw they kept it on a device called Microsoft Surface which is a kind of big touch screen device and on putting the raffle on that it detected the code of the attendee and said intelligently how many sessions that person has attended and if he has attended more than 5 he got a Netbook and this was coded by a guy called Imran. Apart from they showed demos on : Research by 2 Tamilnadu students from Krishna Arts and Science college, taken 1200 photographs of their college from different angles and put that up in Bing maps using silverlight and linked with Photosynth, which showed a 3d view of their college based on the photos they uploaded Reasearch by Microsoft on Panaramic HD views of the images. One young guy from Microsoft Research showed a demo of this on Srivilliputhur Andal Temple, in Tamil Nadu and its history with a panoramic view of the temple and the near by places with narration of the historical information on the same and with the videos embedded in it with high definition images which we can zoom to a very detailed level. Some Demo on a business app with Silverlight, Business Intelligence (BI) and maps integrated. It showed the sales of a particular product across locations. Some kool demos by 2 geeks who used Robots to show their development talents. 2 Robots fought with each other 2 Robots danced in sync for the A.R. Rehman song Humma Humma... A dream home project by Raman. He is currently using the same in his home too. Robots are controlling his home currently. They showed a video on this. Here are the list of activities that Robot does for him When he reads a book, robot automatically scans that and shows that image of that person in the screen (TV or comp) in front of him. It shows a wikipedia about that person. It says that person is not in linked in. do you want to add him If he sees an IPL Match news in the book and smiles it understands he is interested in that and opens a website related to that and shows the current game and the scorecard. It cooks for him It cleans the room for him whenever he leaves the house when he is doing something if some intruder comes inside his house his computer automatically switches his screen showing the video of the person coming inside. When he wakes up it automatically opens up the system, loads his mails and the news by the side, etc. Some Demos on Microsoft Pivot. This was there in livelabs but it is now available in getpivot.com its a pivoting of the pictorial data based on some categories and filters on the searches that we do. And finally on filling up some feedback forms we got T-Shirts and Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Training Kit CDs. Whats more on TechEd??? Stay tuned!!! Will update you soon on the other happenings!! PS : I typed a lot of content for more than a hour but I pressed a backspace and it went to the previous page and all my content were lost and I was not able to retrieve the same and I typed everything again.

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