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  • Is there a way to create a script/BAT that changes my desktop image... if so how? [duplicate]

    - by Radical924
    This question already has an answer here: How do I set the desktop background on Windows from a script? 4 answers Okay so I just got this program that lets me lock my PC screen (this info doesn't matter much) anyways... You can run files when the program starts/locks and closes/unlocks. What I would like to do is create a script/bat that changes my desktop background to an image when I click "lock" and another script to change the desktop image when I "unlock". Is there a simple script or BAT file that someone knows of that does this??? or knows how to do this??? I would like to be able to modify it myself so it is the picture I would like to be selected. So all I would do is change the file directory of the image used on the background in the BAT file/script. EDIT: Thank you for the link! It hleped out a bit but I still have one question... I will just post it as a separate question... Thx!

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  • How to turn off the display in Windows 8 without locking or making computer go to sleep?

    - by darshshah
    How to turn of the display in Windows 8 without locking or making computer go to sleep ? The problem is that when I enable ‘Turn off display after x minutes’ feature from control panel, the device goes into sleep after ‘x’ minutes. It seems that both the options – turn off display/put computer to sleep are connected. It devices goes automatically to sleep mode as soon as the display is turned off. So, is there any method to turn off the display of the device without it going into sleep mode ? Someone wrote in the microsoft forum " The whole key to this problem seems to be the "Turn off the Display" setting. If you have that set to 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, etc...the computer will go to sleep one minute after you lock the screen. With this setting set to "Never", it doesn't do it. So something is wrong there." I want to turnoff the display but don't want to lock the device. Is that also possible ? Thanks

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  • Can I recover a non-system disk deleted during 2008 R2 setup?

    - by serialhobbyist
    I've done a truly stupid thing and 'deleted' the data disk on a Server 2008 R2 box. Can I recover it? If so, how? I was rebuilding the box because a motherboard change had broken things. I've built loads of boxes and was going through the standard stuff without much concentration. I got to the disk screen which normally displays the two paritions on the drive: the recovery one and the system one. As normal, I deleted the two things I saw. It was only when two lots of unallocated space didn't merge into one that the full horror of what I'd done hit me. Yes, I've got backups... of the stuff I have space to back up. The real irony is that, earlier in the day, I'd ordered to 1 TB disks to deal with the problem. So, anyway, I'd really like to get this partition back because it'll save me a lot of time. How can I do it?

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  • Is it possible to ack nagios alerts from the terminal on a remote workstation?

    - by cat pants
    I have nagios alerts set up to come through jabber with an http link to ack. Is is possible there is a script I can run from a terminal on a remote workstation that takes the hostname as a parameter and acks the alert? ./ack hostname The benefit, while seemingly mundane, is threefold. First, take http load off nagios. Secondly, nagios http pages can take up to 10-20 seconds to load, so I want to save time there. Thirdly, avoiding slower use of mouse + web interface + firefox/other annoyingly slow browser. Ideally, I would like a script bound to a keyboard shortcut that simply acks the most recent alert. Finally, I want to take the inputs from a joystick, buttons and whatnot, and connect one to a big red button bound to the script so I can just ack the most recent nagios alert by hitting the button lol. (It would be rad too if the button had a screen on the enclosure that showed the text of the alert getting acked lol) Make fun of me all you want, but this is actually something that would be useful to me. If I can save five seconds per alert, and I get 200 alerts per day I need to ack, that's saving me 15 minutes a day. And isn't the whole point of the sysadmin to automate what can be automated? Thanks!

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  • How two completely unrelated software can affect each other in a very strange manner?

    - by user40602
    I installed an old game on my old PC and it doesn't work; its process/exe file was listed in task manager but nothing appeared on the screen. then some time later i discovered that when some specific program was running an my pc, that game could be executed without that problem! although i am myself a power user and also a programmer, i couldn't find the reason, and don't have any good guesses about it. i just know that when i want to run that game i should have another specific and unrelated program running. i ask if anyone has any idea/guess about the possible reasons for this rare phenomenon! oh and if u ask about the details/names of those programs, i am afraid of telling that, because others may think i am kidding, but i am not (please believe me!), that game is NFS2 and the other program is mysqld.exe (i said before that i am a programmer!). I don't know how mysqld.exe (yes it is the windows version of the famous MySQL DBMS server) can affect NFS2 in such an strange manner, and my curiosity and profession don't let me to forget seeking for the answer, so i decided to take the help of others to see if someone has had a similar experience or a reasonable idea about it.

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  • What could possibly cause my computer to power down at random times?

    - by geoffreydv
    I have recently bought a new Power Supply and a new graphics card. My PC ran smoothly for a few months now but since a couple of days I'm having a strange problem. I am trying to isolate the problem to a specific piece of hardware (because if it's either the Power Supply or the Graphics card they are still under warranty). The problem started when I was playing a game (diablo 3). My PC suddenly powered down. I was unable to turn it on again by pressing the power button. I unplugged the power cable for a few seconds and plugged it back in. This time the pc powered on but the indication light turned orange instead of white as it normally does. The fans were not spinning and I did not see anything on my screen. After trying a couple of times I gave up. Two days later I tried again and this time the PC did boot up as usual. Everything looked okay until I tested if the problem was resolved by starting Diablo again. After about two minutes it powered down again as it did the first time. If I don't run any games my PC does power down after about 3-5 hours. Another fact that might be relevant: One time the PC did not shut down immediatly, instead first my graphics "powered down" but the music I was playing kept on playing. After about 20 seconds the pc powered down completely as usual. What I also noticed is that when I boot instantly after a power down, the chance of another power down occuring is much higher. Does anyone have an idea what could be causing this kind of behaviour or has a certain tool to diagnose the specific hardware parts? Thanks Specs: Memory: 6GB Processor: Intel i5 OS: Windows 7 64 bit The PC is a Dell Studio XPS 8100 with a replaced PSU and Graphics card: PSU: Corsair CX500 (500 watt) Graphics card: AMD Radeon 6850

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  • Installing Debian 7.6.0 on Lenovo Y50

    - by Girauder
    I was trying to install Debian on my new laptop: a Lenovo Y50 64bit running Windows 8. I got together with a friend and installed Debian in his computer first and had no problems. However I've tried to install Debian several times using the AMD64 KDE and netinst versions and accomplished nothing. First try: installed the KDE version. Grub would let me choose which operating system I wanted, but when I selected Debian it would only load the command line. Second try: Reinstalled but this time with the netinst version. I only got a black screen where I could type but nothing else. Third Try. Tried the netinst again. This time after making the partitions I got a message that said that no EFI partition was found. I ignored the message and this time it wouldn't even load Grub. only a command like interface with grub rescue or something. Not once did I get an error during the installation. What am I doing wrong? I assume the problem is I need to make an EFI partition or something like that. So why is it that during the first installations I didn't ask me for that. And if that is indeed the problem, How can I solve it? Update So the installation failed again... as predicted. Here you can find the Disk Management picture. http://postimg.org/image/433cpfkjz/ Please somebody help me. I keep getting the grub rescue thing. secure boot is disabled and legacy support is set first.

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  • Windows Server 2008 (x64): Wont boot past bios page

    - by WebSolProv
    Happy New Year, Since a month or so ago I inherited responsibility for small network administration for my sins. The domain controller (yes there is only one, and yes I know it is best practice to have two even in a small domain setup) went down overnight and I have been trying all day to get it back up and running. Unfortunately this machine also administers our entire ActiveDirectory setup: 1) It goes thru the BIOS without any errors, nothing whatsoever 2) It gets into the “select safe mode, safe mode with networking, normal” etc and if you select either of the safe mode options it loads a few files then reboots. If you select normal it just runs for a bit (doesn’t get to the windows splash screen) and then reboots again. 3) If you select windows repair, it asks for an image to repair too: however it would appear that none was taken that can be used (!!) or one is not being shown. 4) I have tried repairing the boot sector and the boot configuration using Bootrec.exe, both which it says were completed successfully but still it doesn’t work. 5) I have tried swapping the drives into another server to rule out hardware and that didn’t work either so clearly it’s the OS. 6) I have tried running chkdsk which ran fine, and also memory check which was also fine. We do have another machine on the network that was installed as a DC so when we decommission the current infrastructure but when I try and "promote" this to the lead DC then I get “you cannot modify domain or trust information because a PDC emulator cannot be contacted" so I am unable to replicare the ActiveDirectory details. If anyone can think of any direction I should follow it would be greatly appreciated, Thanks, Alex

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  • Which Windows 8 tool should I use to "read", "upload", my Windows 7 latest backup DVD (is it possible?)

    - by Robert
    Which Windows 8 tool should I use to "read", "upload", my Windows 7 latest backup DVD (is it possible?). I've just installed W8 and haven't made any changes to my new ecosystem and, what happened was that, as I was managing my new drivers, some mess* occurred, I confess, and now what I have left is every single backup tool I made use of W7, like system images, restore dvds, backup up to date monthly and so on, and would like to keep in touch with W8. I'm one of those with problems managing the amd switchable gpu drivers. Now I want to stay with W8 (download version - didn't clean install) but with my old personal files. I don't care to programs updates. I got everything original on dvds, of my interest. Yesterday I tried refreshing W8 once but didn't work. Maybe trying again tonight. What would you guys do in my place, please? *the mess I am talking about is to have disabled my intel (the only driver left) gpu in device manager tool in W8. I got black screen on system boot. Cheers, C.C.

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  • What could be causing windows to fail to sleep or hibernate, and revert system settings?

    - by xdumaine
    I am running Windows 8.1 on my system (Dell e6520) and the symptoms are this: My PC won't sleep or hibernate. It the screen turns off, but the fans just run and run, and after a little while, it completely shuts down, and when I start it back up, everything is closed, like it was a fresh boot/restart. I'm have a weird issue with outlook described here and the fix works fine - modifying a registry value. The weirder part is that after my computer fails to sleep or hibernate, and it starts back up, the registry value is GONE, like I never modified it, and thus the outlook error message is back. I thought maybe a graphics driver was preventing the sleep/hibernate, so I attempted to uninstall the NVIDIA graphics driver and control panel. HOWEVER, once the computer fails to sleep/hibernate, the NVIDIA graphics driver and control panel appear BACK on my system, like I didn't uninstall them. What could be happening here? I really need to be able to sleep/hibernate so I don't lose work or my work state, and these issues are really concerning. What I've tried, without success: Uninstalling graphics driver mentioned above Disabling hibernate and using sleep disabling/re-enabling hibernate Disabling startup items Sleeping as local system admin account disconnecting all USB, network, and bluetooth devices

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  • Can't login to Windows server 2008 (as any user, not even locally, not in safe mode but I have right credentials)

    - by Saix
    Just from nowhere I can't login to my Windows server 2008 machine. All the services like FTP server or webserver (which I'm actually not using, just remote desktop and FTP) are running. Whatever credentials I try (even/especialy administrator), it always says Unknown Username or bad password. I have already tried hard turn off/on and safe mode without luck. Also I already tried type in login name as SERVER NAME\user or Workgroup\user (every case sensitive scenario), still says I have wrong login. Usually we are using remote desktop to access the machine but local access over KVM doesn't work either. Now I'm lock out of any control or any way to do something. There's just logon screen preceding by ctrl+alt+del to login alert. Without me able to login I can't actually try to fix anything. Can't find much more on Internet except the SERVER NAME\user thing. Reinstall would be the last resort but I can't let things this way for much longer anyway. This server is vital. If it would be any help, I think automatic Windows updates are turned off and there were no updates or newly installed software for last couple years and just few soft restarts, non of them recently. It happened during it's runtime while all other services were still up and running, so this couldn't be just some Windows nasty screw up during boot or something. What could have possibly changed? What are my options now?

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  • a php script to get lat/long from google maps using CellID

    - by user296516
    Hi guys, I have found this script that supposedly connects to google maps and gets lat/long coordinates, based on CID/LAC/MNC/MCC info. But I can't really make it work... where do I input CID/LAC/MNC/MCC ? <?php $data = "\x00\x0e". // Function Code? "\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00". //Session ID? "\x00\x00". // Contry Code "\x00\x00". // Client descriptor "\x00\x00". // Version "\x1b". // Op Code? "\x00\x00\x00\x00". // MNC "\x00\x00\x00\x00". // MCC "\x00\x00\x00\x03". "\x00\x00". "\x00\x00\x00\x00". //CID "\x00\x00\x00\x00". //LAC "\x00\x00\x00\x00". //MNC "\x00\x00\x00\x00". //MCC "\xff\xff\xff\xff". // ?? "\x00\x00\x00\x00" // Rx Level? ; if ($_REQUEST["myl"] != "") { $temp = split(":", $_REQUEST["myl"]); $mcc = substr("00000000".dechex($temp[0]),-8); $mnc = substr("00000000".dechex($temp[1]),-8); $lac = substr("00000000".dechex($temp[2]),-8); $cid = substr("00000000".dechex($temp[3]),-8); } else { $mcc = substr("00000000".$_REQUEST["mcc"],-8); $mnc = substr("00000000".$_REQUEST["mnc"],-8); $lac = substr("00000000".$_REQUEST["lac"],-8); $cid = substr("00000000".$_REQUEST["cid"],-8); } $init_pos = strlen($data); $data[$init_pos - 38]= pack("H*",substr($mnc,0,2)); $data[$init_pos - 37]= pack("H*",substr($mnc,2,2)); $data[$init_pos - 36]= pack("H*",substr($mnc,4,2)); $data[$init_pos - 35]= pack("H*",substr($mnc,6,2)); $data[$init_pos - 34]= pack("H*",substr($mcc,0,2)); $data[$init_pos - 33]= pack("H*",substr($mcc,2,2)); $data[$init_pos - 32]= pack("H*",substr($mcc,4,2)); $data[$init_pos - 31]= pack("H*",substr($mcc,6,2)); $data[$init_pos - 24]= pack("H*",substr($cid,0,2)); $data[$init_pos - 23]= pack("H*",substr($cid,2,2)); $data[$init_pos - 22]= pack("H*",substr($cid,4,2)); $data[$init_pos - 21]= pack("H*",substr($cid,6,2)); $data[$init_pos - 20]= pack("H*",substr($lac,0,2)); $data[$init_pos - 19]= pack("H*",substr($lac,2,2)); $data[$init_pos - 18]= pack("H*",substr($lac,4,2)); $data[$init_pos - 17]= pack("H*",substr($lac,6,2)); $data[$init_pos - 16]= pack("H*",substr($mnc,0,2)); $data[$init_pos - 15]= pack("H*",substr($mnc,2,2)); $data[$init_pos - 14]= pack("H*",substr($mnc,4,2)); $data[$init_pos - 13]= pack("H*",substr($mnc,6,2)); $data[$init_pos - 12]= pack("H*",substr($mcc,0,2)); $data[$init_pos - 11]= pack("H*",substr($mcc,2,2)); $data[$init_pos - 10]= pack("H*",substr($mcc,4,2)); $data[$init_pos - 9]= pack("H*",substr($mcc,6,2)); if ((hexdec($cid) > 0xffff) && ($mcc != "00000000") && ($mnc != "00000000")) { $data[$init_pos - 27] = chr(5); } else { $data[$init_pos - 24]= chr(0); $data[$init_pos - 23]= chr(0); } $context = array ( 'http' => array ( 'method' => 'POST', 'header'=> "Content-type: application/binary\r\n" . "Content-Length: " . strlen($data) . "\r\n", 'content' => $data ) ); $xcontext = stream_context_create($context); $str=file_get_contents("http://www.google.com/glm/mmap",FALSE,$xcontext); if (strlen($str) > 10) { $lat_tmp = unpack("l",$str[10].$str[9].$str[8].$str[7]); $lat = $lat_tmp[1]/1000000; $lon_tmp = unpack("l",$str[14].$str[13].$str[12].$str[11]); $lon = $lon_tmp[1]/1000000; echo "Lat=$lat <br> Lon=$lon"; } else { echo "Not found!"; } ?> also I found this one http://code.google.com/intl/ru/apis/gears/geolocation_network_protocol.html , but it isn't php.

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  • [OpenGL ES - Android] Better way to generate tiles

    - by Inoe
    Hi ! I'll start by saying that i'm REALLY new to OpenGL ES (I started yesterday =), but I do have some Java and other languages experience. I've looked a lot of tutorials, of course Nehe's ones and my work is mainly based on that. As a test, I started creating a "tile generator" in order to create a small Zelda-like game (just moving a dude in a textured square would be awsome :p). So far, I have achieved a working tile generator, I define a char map[][] array to store wich tile is on : private char[][] map = { {0, 0, 20, 11, 11, 11, 11, 4, 0, 0}, {0, 20, 16, 12, 12, 12, 12, 7, 4, 0}, {20, 16, 17, 13, 13, 13, 13, 9, 7, 4}, {21, 24, 18, 14, 14, 14, 14, 8, 5, 1}, {21, 22, 25, 15, 15, 15, 15, 6, 2, 1}, {21, 22, 23, 0, 0, 0, 0, 3, 2, 1}, {21, 22, 23, 0, 0, 0, 0, 3, 2, 1}, {26, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 3, 2, 1}, {0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1}, {0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1} }; It's working but I'm no happy with it, I'm sure there is a beter way to do those things : 1) Loading Textures : I create an ugly looking array containing the tiles I want to use on that map : private int[] textures = { R.drawable.herbe, //0 R.drawable.murdroite_haut, //1 R.drawable.murdroite_milieu, //2 R.drawable.murdroite_bas, //3 R.drawable.angledroitehaut_haut, //4 R.drawable.angledroitehaut_milieu, //5 }; (I cutted this on purpose, I currently load 27 tiles) All of theses are stored in the drawable folder, each one is a 16*16 tile. I then use this array to generate the textures and store them in a HashMap for a later use : int[] tmp_tex = new int[textures.length]; gl.glGenTextures(textures.length, tmp_tex, 0); texturesgen = tmp_tex; //Store the generated names in texturesgen for(int i=0; i < textures.length; i++) { //Bitmap bmp = BitmapFactory.decodeResource(context.getResources(), textures[i]); InputStream is = context.getResources().openRawResource(textures[i]); Bitmap bitmap = null; try { //BitmapFactory is an Android graphics utility for images bitmap = BitmapFactory.decodeStream(is); } finally { //Always clear and close try { is.close(); is = null; } catch (IOException e) { } } // Get a new texture name // Load it up this.textureMap.put(new Integer(textures[i]),new Integer(i)); int tex = tmp_tex[i]; gl.glBindTexture(GL10.GL_TEXTURE_2D, tex); //Create Nearest Filtered Texture gl.glTexParameterf(GL10.GL_TEXTURE_2D, GL10.GL_TEXTURE_MIN_FILTER, GL10.GL_NEAREST); gl.glTexParameterf(GL10.GL_TEXTURE_2D, GL10.GL_TEXTURE_MAG_FILTER, GL10.GL_LINEAR); //Different possible texture parameters, e.g. GL10.GL_CLAMP_TO_EDGE gl.glTexParameterf(GL10.GL_TEXTURE_2D, GL10.GL_TEXTURE_WRAP_S, GL10.GL_REPEAT); gl.glTexParameterf(GL10.GL_TEXTURE_2D, GL10.GL_TEXTURE_WRAP_T, GL10.GL_REPEAT); //Use the Android GLUtils to specify a two-dimensional texture image from our bitmap GLUtils.texImage2D(GL10.GL_TEXTURE_2D, 0, bitmap, 0); bitmap.recycle(); } I'm quite sure there is a better way to handle that... I just was unable to figure it. If someone has an idea, i'm all ears. 2) Drawing the tiles What I did was create a single square and a single texture map : /** The initial vertex definition */ private float vertices[] = { -1.0f, -1.0f, 0.0f, //Bottom Left 1.0f, -1.0f, 0.0f, //Bottom Right -1.0f, 1.0f, 0.0f, //Top Left 1.0f, 1.0f, 0.0f //Top Right }; private float texture[] = { //Mapping coordinates for the vertices 0.0f, 1.0f, 1.0f, 1.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f, 1.0f, 0.0f }; Then, in my draw function, I loop through the map to define the texture to use (after pointing to and enabling the buffers) : for(int y = 0; y < Y; y++){ for(int x = 0; x < X; x++){ tile = map[y][x]; try { //Get the texture from the HashMap int textureid = ((Integer) this.textureMap.get(new Integer(textures[tile]))).intValue(); gl.glBindTexture(GL10.GL_TEXTURE_2D, this.texturesgen[textureid]); } catch(Exception e) { return; } //Draw the vertices as triangle strip gl.glDrawArrays(GL10.GL_TRIANGLE_STRIP, 0, vertices.length / 3); gl.glTranslatef(2.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f); //A square takes 2x so I move +2x before drawing the next tile } gl.glTranslatef(-(float)(2*X), -2.0f, 0.0f); //Go back to the begining of the map X-wise and move 2y down before drawing the next line } This works great by I really think that on a 1000*1000 or more map, it will be lagging as hell (as a reminder, this is a typical Zelda world map : http://vgmaps.com/Atlas/SuperNES/LegendOfZelda-ALinkToThePast-LightWorld.png ). I've read things about Vertex Buffer Object and DisplayList but I couldn't find a good tutorial and nodoby seems to be OK on wich one is the best / has the better support (T1 and Nexus One are ages away). I think that's it, I've putted a lot of code but I think it helps. Thanks in advance !

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  • Help:Graph contest problem: maybe a modified Dijkstra or another alternative algorithm

    - by newba
    Hi you all, I'm trying to do this contest exercise about graphs: XPTO is an intrepid adventurer (a little too temerarious for his own good) who boasts about exploring every corner of the universe, no matter how inhospitable. In fact, he doesn't visit the planets where people can easily live in, he prefers those where only a madman would go with a very good reason (several millions of credits for instance). His latest exploit is trying to survive in Proxima III. The problem is that Proxima III suffers from storms of highly corrosive acids that destroy everything, including spacesuits that were especially designed to withstand corrosion. Our intrepid explorer was caught in a rectangular area in the middle of one of these storms. Fortunately, he has an instrument that is capable of measuring the exact concentration of acid on each sector and how much damage it does to his spacesuit. Now, he only needs to find out if he can escape the storm. Problem The problem consists of finding an escape route that will allow XPTOto escape the noxious storm. You are given the initial energy of the spacesuit, the size of the rectangular area and the damage that the spacesuit will suffer while standing in each sector. Your task is to find the exit sector, the number of steps necessary to reach it and the amount of energy his suit will have when he leaves the rectangular area. The escape route chosen should be the safest one (i.e., the one where his spacesuit will be the least damaged). Notice that Rodericus will perish if the energy of his suit reaches zero. In case there are more than one possible solutions, choose the one that uses the least number of steps. If there are at least two sectors with the same number of steps (X1, Y1) and (X2, Y2) then choose the first if X1 < X2 or if X1 = X2 and Y1 < Y2. Constraints 0 < E = 30000 the suit's starting energy 0 = W = 500 the rectangle's width 0 = H = 500 rectangle's height 0 < X < W the starting X position 0 < Y < H the starting Y position 0 = D = 10000 the damage sustained in each sector Input The first number given is the number of test cases. Each case will consist of a line with the integers E, X and Y. The following line will have the integers W and H. The following lines will hold the matrix containing the damage D the spacesuit will suffer whilst in the corresponding sector. Notice that, as is often the case for computer geeks, (1,1) corresponds to the upper left corner. Output If there is a solution, the output will be the remaining energy, the exit sector's X and Y coordinates and the number of steps of the route that will lead Rodericus to safety. In case there is no solution, the phrase Goodbye cruel world! will be written. Sample Input 3 40 3 3 7 8 12 11 12 11 3 12 12 12 11 11 12 2 1 13 11 11 12 2 13 2 14 10 11 13 3 2 1 12 10 11 13 13 11 12 13 12 12 11 13 11 13 12 13 12 12 11 11 11 11 13 13 10 10 13 11 12 8 3 4 7 6 4 3 3 2 2 3 2 2 5 2 2 2 3 3 2 1 2 2 3 2 2 4 3 3 2 2 4 1 3 1 4 3 2 3 1 2 2 3 3 0 3 4 10 3 4 7 6 3 3 1 2 2 1 0 2 2 2 4 2 2 5 2 2 1 3 0 2 2 2 2 1 3 3 4 2 3 4 4 3 1 1 3 1 2 2 4 2 2 1 Sample Output 12 5 1 8 Goodbye cruel world! 5 1 4 2 Basically, I think we have to do a modified Dijkstra, in which the distance between nodes is the suit's energy (and we have to subtract it instead of suming up like is normal with distances) and the steps are the ....steps made along the path. The pos with the bester binomial (Energy,num_Steps) is our "way out". Important : XPTO obviously can't move in diagonals, so we have to cut out this cases. I have many ideas, but I have such a problem implementing them... Could someone please help me thinking about this with some code or, at least, ideas? Am I totally wrong?

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  • Possible to manipulate UI elements via dispatchEvent()?

    - by rinogo
    Hi all! I'm trying to manually dispatch events on a textfield so I can manipulate it indirectly via code (e.g. place cursor at a given set of x/y coordinates). However, my events seem to have no effect. I've written a test to experiment with this phenomenon: package sandbox { import flash.display.Sprite; import flash.events.MouseEvent; import flash.text.TextField; import flash.text.TextFieldType; import flash.text.TextFieldAutoSize; import flash.utils.setTimeout; public class Test extends Sprite { private var tf:TextField; private var tf2:TextField; public function Test() { super(); tf = new TextField(); tf.text = 'Interact here'; tf.type = TextFieldType.INPUT; addChild(tf); tf2 = new TextField(); tf2.text = 'Same events replayed with five second delay here'; tf2.autoSize = TextFieldAutoSize.LEFT; tf2.type = TextFieldType.INPUT; tf2.y = 30; addChild(tf2); tf.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, mouseListener); tf.addEventListener(MouseEvent.DOUBLE_CLICK, mouseListener); tf.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_DOWN, mouseListener); tf.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_MOVE, mouseListener); tf.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_OUT, mouseListener); tf.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_OVER, mouseListener); tf.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_UP, mouseListener); tf.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_WHEEL, mouseListener); tf.addEventListener(MouseEvent.ROLL_OUT, mouseListener); tf.addEventListener(MouseEvent.ROLL_OVER, mouseListener); } private function mouseListener(event:MouseEvent):void { //trace(event); setTimeout(function():void {trace(event); tf2.dispatchEvent(event);}, 5000); } } } Essentially, all this test does is to use setTimeout to effectively 'record' events on TextField tf and replay them five seconds later on TextField tf2. When an event is dispatched on tf2, it is traced to the console output. The console output upon running this program and clicking on tf is: [MouseEvent type="mouseMove" bubbles=true cancelable=false eventPhase=3 localX=0 localY=1 stageX=0 stageY=1 relatedObject=null ctrlKey=false altKey=false shiftKey=false delta=0] [MouseEvent type="rollOver" bubbles=false cancelable=false eventPhase=2 localX=0 localY=1 stageX=0 stageY=1 relatedObject=null ctrlKey=false altKey=false shiftKey=false delta=0] [MouseEvent type="mouseOver" bubbles=true cancelable=false eventPhase=3 localX=0 localY=1 stageX=0 stageY=1 relatedObject=null ctrlKey=false altKey=false shiftKey=false delta=0] [MouseEvent type="mouseMove" bubbles=true cancelable=false eventPhase=3 localX=2 localY=1 stageX=2 stageY=1 relatedObject=null ctrlKey=false altKey=false shiftKey=false delta=0] [MouseEvent type="mouseMove" bubbles=true cancelable=false eventPhase=3 localX=2 localY=2 stageX=2 stageY=2 relatedObject=null ctrlKey=false altKey=false shiftKey=false delta=0] [MouseEvent type="mouseMove" bubbles=true cancelable=false eventPhase=3 localX=2 localY=3 stageX=2 stageY=3 relatedObject=null ctrlKey=false altKey=false shiftKey=false delta=0] [MouseEvent type="mouseMove" bubbles=true cancelable=false eventPhase=3 localX=3 localY=3 stageX=3 stageY=3 relatedObject=null ctrlKey=false altKey=false shiftKey=false delta=0] [MouseEvent type="mouseMove" bubbles=true cancelable=false eventPhase=3 localX=5 localY=3 stageX=5 stageY=3 relatedObject=null ctrlKey=false altKey=false shiftKey=false delta=0] [MouseEvent type="mouseMove" bubbles=true cancelable=false eventPhase=3 localX=6 localY=5 stageX=6 stageY=5 relatedObject=null ctrlKey=false altKey=false shiftKey=false delta=0] [MouseEvent type="mouseMove" bubbles=true cancelable=false eventPhase=3 localX=7 localY=5 stageX=7 stageY=5 relatedObject=null ctrlKey=false altKey=false shiftKey=false delta=0] [MouseEvent type="mouseMove" bubbles=true cancelable=false eventPhase=3 localX=9 localY=5 stageX=9 stageY=5 relatedObject=null ctrlKey=false altKey=false shiftKey=false delta=0] [MouseEvent type="mouseMove" bubbles=true cancelable=false eventPhase=3 localX=10 localY=5 stageX=10 stageY=5 relatedObject=null ctrlKey=false altKey=false shiftKey=false delta=0] [MouseEvent type="mouseMove" bubbles=true cancelable=false eventPhase=3 localX=11 localY=5 stageX=11 stageY=5 relatedObject=null ctrlKey=false altKey=false shiftKey=false delta=0] [MouseEvent type="mouseMove" bubbles=true cancelable=false eventPhase=3 localX=12 localY=5 stageX=12 stageY=5 relatedObject=null ctrlKey=false altKey=false shiftKey=false delta=0] [MouseEvent type="mouseDown" bubbles=true cancelable=false eventPhase=3 localX=12 localY=5 stageX=12 stageY=5 relatedObject=null ctrlKey=false altKey=false shiftKey=false delta=0] [MouseEvent type="mouseUp" bubbles=true cancelable=false eventPhase=3 localX=12 localY=5 stageX=12 stageY=5 relatedObject=null ctrlKey=false altKey=false shiftKey=false delta=0] [MouseEvent type="click" bubbles=true cancelable=false eventPhase=3 localX=12 localY=5 stageX=12 stageY=5 relatedObject=null ctrlKey=false altKey=false shiftKey=false delta=0] [MouseEvent type="mouseMove" bubbles=true cancelable=false eventPhase=3 localX=10 localY=4 stageX=10 stageY=4 relatedObject=null ctrlKey=false altKey=false shiftKey=false delta=0] [MouseEvent type="mouseMove" bubbles=true cancelable=false eventPhase=3 localX=9 localY=2 stageX=9 stageY=2 relatedObject=null ctrlKey=false altKey=false shiftKey=false delta=0] [MouseEvent type="mouseMove" bubbles=true cancelable=false eventPhase=3 localX=9 localY=1 stageX=9 stageY=1 relatedObject=null ctrlKey=false altKey=false shiftKey=false delta=0] [MouseEvent type="mouseOut" bubbles=true cancelable=false eventPhase=3 localX=-1 localY=-1 stageX=-1 stageY=-1 relatedObject=null ctrlKey=false altKey=false shiftKey=false delta=0] [MouseEvent type="rollOut" bubbles=false cancelable=false eventPhase=2 localX=-1 localY=-1 stageX=-1 stageY=-1 relatedObject=null ctrlKey=false altKey=false shiftKey=false delta=0] As we can see, the events are being captured and replayed successfully. However, no change occurs in tf2 - the mouse cursor does not appear in tf2 as we would expect. In fact, the cursor remains in tf even after the tf2 events are dispatched. Please help! Thanks, -Rich

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  • Representing robot's elbow angle in 3-D

    - by Onkar Deshpande
    I am given coordinates of two points in 3-D viz. shoulder point and object point(to which I am supposed to reach). I am also given the length from my shoulder-to-elbow arm and the length of my forearm. I am trying to solve for the unknown position(the position of the joint elbow). I am using cosine rule to find out the elbow angle. Here is my code - #include <stdio.h> #include <math.h> #include <stdlib.h> struct point { double x, y, z; }; struct angles { double clock_wise; double counter_clock_wise; }; double max(double a, double b) { return (a > b) ? a : b; } /* * Check if the combination can make a triangle by considering the fact that sum * of any two sides of a triangle is greater than the remaining side. The * overlapping condition of links is handled separately in main(). */ int valid_triangle(struct point p0, double l0, struct point p1, double l1) { double dist = sqrt(pow((fabs(p1.z - p0.z)), 2) + pow((fabs(p1.y - p0.y)), 2) + pow((fabs(p1.x - p0.x)), 2)); if((max(dist, l0) == dist) && max(dist, l1) == dist) { return (dist < (l0 + l1)); } else if((max(dist, l0) == l0) && (max(l0, l1) == l0)) { return (l0 < (dist + l1)); } else { return (l1 < (dist + l0)); } } /* * Cosine rule is used to find the elbow angle. Positive value indicates a * counter clockwise angle while negative value indicates a clockwise angle. * Since this problem has at max 2 solutions for any given position of P0 and * P1, I am returning a structure of angles which can be used to consider angles * from both direction viz. clockwise-negative and counter-clockwise-positive */ void return_config(struct point p0, double l0, struct point p1, double l1, struct angles *a) { double dist = sqrt(pow((fabs(p1.z - p0.z)), 2) + pow((fabs(p1.y - p0.y)), 2) + pow((fabs(p1.x - p0.x)), 2)); double degrees = (double) acos((l0 * l0 + l1 * l1 - dist * dist) / (2 * l0 * l1)) * (180.0f / 3.1415f); a->clock_wise = -degrees; a->counter_clock_wise = degrees; } int main() { struct point p0, p1; struct angles a; p0.x = 15, p0.y = 4, p0.z = 0; p1.x = 20, p1.y = 4, p1.z = 0; double l0 = 5, l1 = 8; if(valid_triangle(p0, l0, p1, l1)) { printf("Three lengths can make a valid configuration \n"); return_config(p0, l0, p1, l1, &a); printf("Angle of the elbow point (clockwise) = %lf, (counter clockwise) = %lf \n", a.clock_wise, a.counter_clock_wise); } else { double dist = sqrt(pow((fabs(p1.z - p0.z)), 2) + pow((fabs(p1.y - p0.y)), 2) + pow((fabs(p1.x - p0.x)), 2)); if((dist <= (l0 + l1)) && (dist > l0)) { a.clock_wise = -180.0f; a.counter_clock_wise = 180.0f; printf("Angle of the elbow point (clockwise) = %lf, (counter clockwise) = %lf \n", a.clock_wise, a.counter_clock_wise); } else if((dist <= fabs(l0 - l1)) && (dist < l0)){ a.clock_wise = -0.0f; a.counter_clock_wise = 0.0f; printf("Angle of the elbow point (clockwise) = %lf, (counter clockwise) = %lf \n", a.clock_wise, a.counter_clock_wise); } else printf("Given combination cannot make a valid configuration\n"); } return 0; } However, this solution makes sense only in 2-D. Because clockwise and counter-clockwise are meaningless without an axis and direction of rotation. Returning only an angle is technically correct but it leaves a lot of work for the client of this function to use the result in meaningful way. How can I make the changes to get the axis and direction of rotation ? Also, I want to know how many possible solution could be there for this problem. Please let me know your thoughts ! Any help is highly appreciated ...

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  • Graphics glitch when drawing to a Cairo context obtained from a gtk.DrawingArea inside a gtk.Viewport.

    - by user410023
    I am trying to redraw the part of the DrawingArea that is visible in the Viewport in the expose-event handler. However, it seems that I am doing something wrong with the coordinates that are passed to the event handler because there is garbage at the edge of the Viewport when scrolling. Can anyone tell what I am doing wrong? Here is a small example: import pygtk pygtk.require("2.0") import gtk from numpy import array from math import pi class Circle(object): def init(self, position = [0., 0.], radius = 0., edge = (0., 0., 0.), fill = None): self.position = position self.radius = radius self.edge = edge self.fill = fill def draw(self, ctx): rect = array(ctx.clip_extents()) rect[2] -= rect[0] rect[3] -= rect[1] center = rect[2:4] / 2 ctx.arc(center[0], center[1], self.radius, 0., 2. * pi) if self.fill != None: ctx.set_source_rgb(*self.fill) ctx.fill_preserve() ctx.set_source_rgb(*self.edge) ctx.stroke() class Scene(object): class Proxy(object): directory = {} def init(self, target, layers = set()): self.target = target self.layers = layers Scene.Proxy.directory[target] = self def __init__(self, viewport): self.objects = {} self.layers = [set()] self.viewport = viewport self.signals = {} def draw(self, ctx): x = self.viewport.get_hadjustment().value y = self.viewport.get_vadjustment().value ctx.set_source_rgb(1., 1., 1.) ctx.paint() ctx.translate(x, y) for obj in self: obj.draw(ctx) def add(self, item, layer = 0): item = Scene.Proxy(item, layers = set((layer,))) assert(hasattr(item.target, "draw")) assert(isinstance(layer, int)) item.layers.add(layer) while not layer < len(self.layers): self.layers.append(set()) self.layers[layer].add(item) if not item in self.objects: self.objects[item] = set() self.objects[item].add(layer) def remove(self, item, layers = None): item = Scene.Proxy.directory[item] if layers == None: layers = self.objects[item] for layer in layers: layer.remove(item) item.layers.remove(layer) if len(item.layers) == 0: self.objects.remove(item) def __iter__(self): for layer in self.layers: for item in layer: yield item.target class App(object): def init(self): signals = { "canvas_exposed": self.update_canvas, "gtk_main_quit": gtk.main_quit } self.builder = gtk.Builder() self.builder.add_from_file("graphics_glitch.glade") self.window = self.builder.get_object("window") self.viewport = self.builder.get_object("viewport") self.canvas = self.builder.get_object("canvas") self.scene = Scene(self.viewport) signals.update(self.scene.signals) self.builder.connect_signals(signals) self.window.show() def update_canvas(self, widget, event): ctx = self.canvas.window.cairo_create() self.scene.draw(ctx) ctx.clip() if name == "main": app = App() scene = app.scene scene.add(Circle((0., 0.), 10.)) gtk.main() And the Glade file "graphics_glitch.glade": <?xml version="1.0"?> <interface> <requires lib="gtk+" version="2.16"/> <!-- interface-naming-policy project-wide --> <object class="GtkWindow" id="window"> <property name="width_request">200</property> <property name="height_request">200</property> <property name="visible">True</property> <signal name="destroy" handler="gtk_main_quit"/> <child> <object class="GtkScrolledWindow" id="scrolledwindow1"> <property name="visible">True</property> <property name="can_focus">True</property> <property name="hadjustment">h_adjust</property> <property name="vadjustment">v_adjust</property> <property name="hscrollbar_policy">automatic</property> <property name="vscrollbar_policy">automatic</property> <child> <object class="GtkViewport" id="viewport"> <property name="visible">True</property> <property name="resize_mode">queue</property> <child> <object class="GtkDrawingArea" id="canvas"> <property name="width_request">640</property> <property name="height_request">480</property> <property name="visible">True</property> <signal name="expose_event" handler="canvas_exposed"/> </object> </child> </object> </child> </object> </child> </object> <object class="GtkAdjustment" id="h_adjust"> <property name="lower">-1000</property> <property name="upper">1000</property> <property name="step_increment">1</property> <property name="page_increment">25</property> <property name="page_size">25</property> </object> <object class="GtkAdjustment" id="v_adjust"> <property name="lower">-1000</property> <property name="upper">1000</property> <property name="step_increment">1</property> <property name="page_increment">25</property> <property name="page_size">25</property> </object> </interface> Thanks! --Dan

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  • How to compare a memory bits in C++?

    - by Trunet
    Hi, I need help with a memory bit comparison function. I bought a LED Matrix here with 4 x HT1632C chips and I'm using it on my arduino mega2560. There're no code available for this chipset(it's not the same as HT1632) and I'm writing on my own. I have a plot function that get x,y coordinates and a color and that pixel turn on. Only this is working perfectly. But I need more performance on my display so I tried to make a shadowRam variable that is a "copy" of my device memory. Before I plot anything on display it checks on shadowRam to see if it's really necessary to change that pixel. When I enabled this(getShadowRam) on plot function my display has some, just SOME(like 3 or 4 on entire display) ghost pixels(pixels that is not supposed to be turned on). If I just comment the prev_color if's on my plot function it works perfectly. Also, I'm cleaning my shadowRam array setting all matrix to zero. variables: #define BLACK 0 #define GREEN 1 #define RED 2 #define ORANGE 3 #define CHIP_MAX 8 byte shadowRam[63][CHIP_MAX-1] = {0}; getShadowRam function: byte HT1632C::getShadowRam(byte x, byte y) { byte addr, bitval, nChip; if (x>=32) { nChip = 3 + x/16 + (y>7?2:0); } else { nChip = 1 + x/16 + (y>7?2:0); } bitval = 8>>(y&3); x = x % 16; y = y % 8; addr = (x<<1) + (y>>2); if ((shadowRam[addr][nChip-1] & bitval) && (shadowRam[addr+32][nChip-1] & bitval)) { return ORANGE; } else if (shadowRam[addr][nChip-1] & bitval) { return GREEN; } else if (shadowRam[addr+32][nChip-1] & bitval) { return RED; } else { return BLACK; } } plot function: void HT1632C::plot (int x, int y, int color) { if (x<0 || x>X_MAX || y<0 || y>Y_MAX) return; if (color != BLACK && color != GREEN && color != RED && color != ORANGE) return; char addr, bitval; byte nChip; byte prev_color = HT1632C::getShadowRam(x,y); bitval = 8>>(y&3); if (x>=32) { nChip = 3 + x/16 + (y>7?2:0); } else { nChip = 1 + x/16 + (y>7?2:0); } x = x % 16; y = y % 8; addr = (x<<1) + (y>>2); switch(color) { case BLACK: if (prev_color != BLACK) { // compare with memory to only set if pixel is other color // clear the bit in both planes; shadowRam[addr][nChip-1] &= ~bitval; HT1632C::sendData(nChip, addr, shadowRam[addr][nChip-1]); shadowRam[addr+32][nChip-1] &= ~bitval; HT1632C::sendData(nChip, addr+32, shadowRam[addr+32][nChip-1]); } break; case GREEN: if (prev_color != GREEN) { // compare with memory to only set if pixel is other color // set the bit in the green plane and clear the bit in the red plane; shadowRam[addr][nChip-1] |= bitval; HT1632C::sendData(nChip, addr, shadowRam[addr][nChip-1]); shadowRam[addr+32][nChip-1] &= ~bitval; HT1632C::sendData(nChip, addr+32, shadowRam[addr+32][nChip-1]); } break; case RED: if (prev_color != RED) { // compare with memory to only set if pixel is other color // clear the bit in green plane and set the bit in the red plane; shadowRam[addr][nChip-1] &= ~bitval; HT1632C::sendData(nChip, addr, shadowRam[addr][nChip-1]); shadowRam[addr+32][nChip-1] |= bitval; HT1632C::sendData(nChip, addr+32, shadowRam[addr+32][nChip-1]); } break; case ORANGE: if (prev_color != ORANGE) { // compare with memory to only set if pixel is other color // set the bit in both the green and red planes; shadowRam[addr][nChip-1] |= bitval; HT1632C::sendData(nChip, addr, shadowRam[addr][nChip-1]); shadowRam[addr+32][nChip-1] |= bitval; HT1632C::sendData(nChip, addr+32, shadowRam[addr+32][nChip-1]); } break; } } If helps: The datasheet of board I'm using. On page 7 has the memory mapping I'm using. Also, I have a video of display working.

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  • what is the wrong in this code(openAl in vc++)

    - by maiajam
    hi how are you all? i need your help i have this code #include <conio.h> #include <stdlib.h> #include <stdio.h> #include <al.h> #include <alc.h> #include <alut.h> #pragma comment(lib, "openal32.lib") #pragma comment(lib, "alut.lib") /* * These are OpenAL "names" (or "objects"). They store and id of a buffer * or a source object. Generally you would expect to see the implementation * use values that scale up from '1', but don't count on it. The spec does * not make this mandatory (as it is OpenGL). The id's can easily be memory * pointers as well. It will depend on the implementation. */ // Buffers to hold sound data. ALuint Buffer; // Sources are points of emitting sound. ALuint Source; /* * These are 3D cartesian vector coordinates. A structure or class would be * a more flexible of handling these, but for the sake of simplicity we will * just leave it as is. */ // Position of the source sound. ALfloat SourcePos[] = { 0.0, 0.0, 0.0 }; // Velocity of the source sound. ALfloat SourceVel[] = { 0.0, 0.0, 0.0 }; // Position of the Listener. ALfloat ListenerPos[] = { 0.0, 0.0, 0.0 }; // Velocity of the Listener. ALfloat ListenerVel[] = { 0.0, 0.0, 0.0 }; // Orientation of the Listener. (first 3 elements are "at", second 3 are "up") // Also note that these should be units of '1'. ALfloat ListenerOri[] = { 0.0, 0.0, -1.0, 0.0, 1.0, 0.0 }; /* * ALboolean LoadALData() * * This function will load our sample data from the disk using the Alut * utility and send the data into OpenAL as a buffer. A source is then * also created to play that buffer. */ ALboolean LoadALData() { // Variables to load into. ALenum format; ALsizei size; ALvoid* data; ALsizei freq; ALboolean loop; // Load wav data into a buffer. alGenBuffers(1, &Buffer); if(alGetError() != AL_NO_ERROR) return AL_FALSE; alutLoadWAVFile((ALbyte *)"C:\Users\Toshiba\Desktop\Graduation Project\OpenAL\open AL test\wavdata\FancyPants.wav", &format, &data, &size, &freq, &loop); alBufferData(Buffer, format, data, size, freq); alutUnloadWAV(format, data, size, freq); // Bind the buffer with the source. alGenSources(1, &Source); if(alGetError() != AL_NO_ERROR) return AL_FALSE; alSourcei (Source, AL_BUFFER, Buffer ); alSourcef (Source, AL_PITCH, 1.0 ); alSourcef (Source, AL_GAIN, 1.0 ); alSourcefv(Source, AL_POSITION, SourcePos); alSourcefv(Source, AL_VELOCITY, SourceVel); alSourcei (Source, AL_LOOPING, loop ); // Do another error check and return. if(alGetError() == AL_NO_ERROR) return AL_TRUE; return AL_FALSE; } /* * void SetListenerValues() * * We already defined certain values for the Listener, but we need * to tell OpenAL to use that data. This function does just that. */ void SetListenerValues() { alListenerfv(AL_POSITION, ListenerPos); alListenerfv(AL_VELOCITY, ListenerVel); alListenerfv(AL_ORIENTATION, ListenerOri); } /* * void KillALData() * * We have allocated memory for our buffers and sources which needs * to be returned to the system. This function frees that memory. */ void KillALData() { alDeleteBuffers(1, &Buffer); alDeleteSources(1, &Source); alutExit(); } int main(int argc, char *argv[]) { printf("MindCode's OpenAL Lesson 1: Single Static Source\n\n"); printf("Controls:\n"); printf("p) Play\n"); printf("s) Stop\n"); printf("h) Hold (pause)\n"); printf("q) Quit\n\n"); // Initialize OpenAL and clear the error bit. alutInit(NULL, 0); alGetError(); // Load the wav data. if(LoadALData() == AL_FALSE) { printf("Error loading data."); return 0; } SetListenerValues(); // Setup an exit procedure. atexit(KillALData); // Loop. ALubyte c = ' '; while(c != 'q') { c = getche(); switch(c) { // Pressing 'p' will begin playing the sample. case 'p': alSourcePlay(Source); break; // Pressing 's' will stop the sample from playing. case 's': alSourceStop(Source); break; // Pressing 'h' will pause the sample. case 'h': alSourcePause(Source); break; }; } return 0; } and it is run willbut i cant here any thing also i am new in programong and wont to program a virtual reality sound in my graduation project and start to learn opeal and vc++ but i dont how to start and from where i must begin and i want to ask if i need to learn about API win ?? and if i need how i can learn that thank you alote and i am sorry coz of my english

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  • Patching this Code to apply dynamic (iPhone) background position

    - by Brian
    I posted a question previously that got off topic, I'm reposting with better code that I have VERIFIED is compatible with iPhone (it works with mine anyway!) I just want to apply background-position coordinates to the body element and call the script conditionally for iPhone, iPod, & iPad. Here's my conditional call for those devices: var deviceAgent = navigator.userAgent.toLowerCase(); var agentID = deviceAgent.match(/(iphone|ipod|ipad)/); if (agentID) { // do something } else { //do this } Now, I've found this excellent script that sets the "top: x" dynamically on the basis of scroll position. Everyone has told me (and ALL of the tutorials and Google search results as well) that it's impossible to set scroll position dynamically for iPhone because of the viewport issue. HOWEVER, they are wrong because if you scroll to the bottom of the page and view this javascript demo on iPhone, you can scroll and the <div style="background-position: fixed; top: x (variable)"></div> div DOES stay centered on iPhone. I really hope this question helps alot of people, I thought it was impossible, but it's NOT... I just need help stitching it together! The original code (you can test it on iPhone yourself) is here: http://stevenbenner.com/2010/04/calculate-page-size-and-view-port-position-in-javascript/ So I just need help getting the following code to apply the dynamic "background-position: 0 x" to the BODY tag where x is centered and relative to the viewport position. Also, needs to be nested inside the above code that is conditional for iPhone and similar devices. // Page Size and View Port Dimension Tools // http://stevenbenner.com/2010/04/calculate-page-size-and-view-port-position-in-javascript/ if (!sb_windowTools) { var sb_windowTools = new Object(); }; sb_windowTools = { scrollBarPadding: 17, // padding to assume for scroll bars // EXAMPLE METHODS // center an element in the viewport centerElementOnScreen: function(element) { var pageDimensions = this.updateDimensions(); element.style.top = ((this.pageDimensions.verticalOffset() + this.pageDimensions.windowHeight() / 2) - (this.scrollBarPadding + element.offsetHeight / 2)) + 'px'; element.style.left = ((this.pageDimensions.windowWidth() / 2) - (this.scrollBarPadding + element.offsetWidth / 2)) + 'px'; element.style.position = 'absolute'; }, // INFORMATION GETTERS // load the page size, view port position and vertical scroll offset updateDimensions: function() { this.updatePageSize(); this.updateWindowSize(); this.updateScrollOffset(); }, // load page size information updatePageSize: function() { // document dimensions var viewportWidth, viewportHeight; if (window.innerHeight && window.scrollMaxY) { viewportWidth = document.body.scrollWidth; viewportHeight = window.innerHeight + window.scrollMaxY; } else if (document.body.scrollHeight > document.body.offsetHeight) { // all but explorer mac viewportWidth = document.body.scrollWidth; viewportHeight = document.body.scrollHeight; } else { // explorer mac...would also work in explorer 6 strict, mozilla and safari viewportWidth = document.body.offsetWidth; viewportHeight = document.body.offsetHeight; }; this.pageSize = { viewportWidth: viewportWidth, viewportHeight: viewportHeight }; }, // load window size information updateWindowSize: function() { // view port dimensions var windowWidth, windowHeight; if (self.innerHeight) { // all except explorer windowWidth = self.innerWidth; windowHeight = self.innerHeight; } else if (document.documentElement && document.documentElement.clientHeight) { // explorer 6 strict mode windowWidth = document.documentElement.clientWidth; windowHeight = document.documentElement.clientHeight; } else if (document.body) { // other explorers windowWidth = document.body.clientWidth; windowHeight = document.body.clientHeight; }; this.windowSize = { windowWidth: windowWidth, windowHeight: windowHeight }; }, // load scroll offset information updateScrollOffset: function() { // viewport vertical scroll offset var horizontalOffset, verticalOffset; if (self.pageYOffset) { horizontalOffset = self.pageXOffset; verticalOffset = self.pageYOffset; } else if (document.documentElement && document.documentElement.scrollTop) { // Explorer 6 Strict horizontalOffset = document.documentElement.scrollLeft; verticalOffset = document.documentElement.scrollTop; } else if (document.body) { // all other Explorers horizontalOffset = document.body.scrollLeft; verticalOffset = document.body.scrollTop; }; this.scrollOffset = { horizontalOffset: horizontalOffset, verticalOffset: verticalOffset }; }, // INFORMATION CONTAINERS // raw data containers pageSize: {}, windowSize: {}, scrollOffset: {}, // combined dimensions object with bounding logic pageDimensions: { pageWidth: function() { return sb_windowTools.pageSize.viewportWidth > sb_windowTools.windowSize.windowWidth ? sb_windowTools.pageSize.viewportWidth : sb_windowTools.windowSize.windowWidth; }, pageHeight: function() { return sb_windowTools.pageSize.viewportHeight > sb_windowTools.windowSize.windowHeight ? sb_windowTools.pageSize.viewportHeight : sb_windowTools.windowSize.windowHeight; }, windowWidth: function() { return sb_windowTools.windowSize.windowWidth; }, windowHeight: function() { return sb_windowTools.windowSize.windowHeight; }, horizontalOffset: function() { return sb_windowTools.scrollOffset.horizontalOffset; }, verticalOffset: function() { return sb_windowTools.scrollOffset.verticalOffset; } } };

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  • Inconsistent results in R with RNetCDF - why?

    - by sarcozona
    I am having trouble extracting data from NetCDF data files using RNetCDF. The data files each have 3 dimensions (longitude, latitude, and a date) and 3 variables (latitude, longitude, and a climate variable). There are four datasets, each with a different climate variable. Here is some of the output from print.nc(p8m.tmax) for clarity. The other datasets are identical except for the specific climate variable. dimensions: month = UNLIMITED ; // (1368 currently) lat = 3105 ; lon = 7025 ; variables: float lat(lat) ; lat:long_name = "latitude" ; lat:standard_name = "latitude" ; lat:units = "degrees_north" ; float lon(lon) ; lon:long_name = "longitude" ; lon:standard_name = "longitude" ; lon:units = "degrees_east" ; short tmax(lon, lat, month) ; tmax:missing_value = -9999 ; tmax:_FillValue = -9999 ; tmax:units = "degree_celsius" ; tmax:scale_factor = 0.01 ; tmax:valid_min = -5000 ; tmax:valid_max = 6000 ; I am getting behavior I don't understand when I use the var.get.nc function from the RNetCDF package. For example, when I attempt to extract 82 values beginning at stval from the maximum temperature data (p8m.tmax <- open.nc(tmaxdataset.nc)) with > var.get.nc(p8m.tmax,'tmax', start=c(lon_val, lat_val, stval),count=c(1,1,82)) (where lon_val and lat_val specify the location in the dataset of the coordinates I'm interested in and stval is stval is set to which(time_vec==200201), which in this case equaled 1285.) I get Error: Invalid argument But after successfully extracting 80 and 81 values > var.get.nc(p8m.tmax,'tmax', start=c(lon_val, lat_val, stval),count=c(1,1,80)) > var.get.nc(p8m.tmax,'tmax', start=c(lon_val, lat_val, stval),count=c(1,1,81)) the command with 82 works: > var.get.nc(p8m.tmax,'tmax', start=c(lon_val, lat_val, stval),count=c(1,1,82)) [1] 444 866 1063 ... [output snipped] The same problem occurs in the identically structured tmin file, but at 36 instead of 82: > var.get.nc(p8m.tmin,'tmin', start=c(lon_val, lat_val, stval),count=c(1,1,36)) produces Error: Invalid argument But after repeating with counts of 30, 31, etc > var.get.nc(p8m.tmin,'tmin', start=c(lon_val, lat_val, stval), count=c(1,1,36)) works. These examples make it seem like the function is failing at the last count, but that actually isn't the case. In the first example, var.get.nc gave Error: Invalid argument after I asked for 84 values. I then narrowed the failure down to the 82nd count by varying the starting point in the dataset and asking for only 1 value at a time. The particular number the problem occurs at also varies. I can close and reopen the dataset and have the problem occur at a different location. In the particular examples above, lon_val and lat_val are 1595 and 1751, respectively, identifying the location in the dataset along the lat and lon dimensions for the latitude and longitude I'm interested in. The 1595th latitude and 1751th longitude are not the problem, however. The problem occurs with all other latitude and longitudes I've tried. Varying the starting location in the dataset along the climate variable dimension (stval) and/or specifying it different (as a number in the command instead of the object stval) also does not fix the problem. This problem doesn't always occur. I can run identical code three times in a row (clearing all objects in between runs) and get a different outcome each time. The first run may choke on the 7th entry I'm trying to get, the second might work fine, and the third run might choke on the 83rd entry. I'm absolutely baffled by such inconsistent behavior. The open.nc function has also started to fail with the same Error: Invalid argument. Like the var.get.nc problems, it also occurs inconsistently. Does anyone know what causes the initial failure to extract the variable? And how I might prevent it? Could have to do with the size of the data files (~60GB each) and/or the fact that I'm accessing them through networked drives? This was also asked here: https://stat.ethz.ch/pipermail/r-help/2011-June/281233.html > sessionInfo() R version 2.13.0 (2011-04-13) Platform: i386-pc-mingw32/i386 (32-bit) locale: [1] LC_COLLATE=English_United States.1252 LC_CTYPE=English_United States.1252 [3] LC_MONETARY=English_United States.1252 LC_NUMERIC=C [5] LC_TIME=English_United States.1252 attached base packages: [1] stats graphics grDevices utils datasets methods base other attached packages: [1] reshape_0.8.4 plyr_1.5.2 RNetCDF_1.5.2-2 loaded via a namespace (and not attached): [1] tools_2.13.0

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  • A Taxonomy of Numerical Methods v1

    - by JoshReuben
    Numerical Analysis – When, What, (but not how) Once you understand the Math & know C++, Numerical Methods are basically blocks of iterative & conditional math code. I found the real trick was seeing the forest for the trees – knowing which method to use for which situation. Its pretty easy to get lost in the details – so I’ve tried to organize these methods in a way that I can quickly look this up. I’ve included links to detailed explanations and to C++ code examples. I’ve tried to classify Numerical methods in the following broad categories: Solving Systems of Linear Equations Solving Non-Linear Equations Iteratively Interpolation Curve Fitting Optimization Numerical Differentiation & Integration Solving ODEs Boundary Problems Solving EigenValue problems Enjoy – I did ! Solving Systems of Linear Equations Overview Solve sets of algebraic equations with x unknowns The set is commonly in matrix form Gauss-Jordan Elimination http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gauss%E2%80%93Jordan_elimination C++: http://www.codekeep.net/snippets/623f1923-e03c-4636-8c92-c9dc7aa0d3c0.aspx Produces solution of the equations & the coefficient matrix Efficient, stable 2 steps: · Forward Elimination – matrix decomposition: reduce set to triangular form (0s below the diagonal) or row echelon form. If degenerate, then there is no solution · Backward Elimination –write the original matrix as the product of ints inverse matrix & its reduced row-echelon matrix à reduce set to row canonical form & use back-substitution to find the solution to the set Elementary ops for matrix decomposition: · Row multiplication · Row switching · Add multiples of rows to other rows Use pivoting to ensure rows are ordered for achieving triangular form LU Decomposition http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LU_decomposition C++: http://ganeshtiwaridotcomdotnp.blogspot.co.il/2009/12/c-c-code-lu-decomposition-for-solving.html Represent the matrix as a product of lower & upper triangular matrices A modified version of GJ Elimination Advantage – can easily apply forward & backward elimination to solve triangular matrices Techniques: · Doolittle Method – sets the L matrix diagonal to unity · Crout Method - sets the U matrix diagonal to unity Note: both the L & U matrices share the same unity diagonal & can be stored compactly in the same matrix Gauss-Seidel Iteration http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gauss%E2%80%93Seidel_method C++: http://www.nr.com/forum/showthread.php?t=722 Transform the linear set of equations into a single equation & then use numerical integration (as integration formulas have Sums, it is implemented iteratively). an optimization of Gauss-Jacobi: 1.5 times faster, requires 0.25 iterations to achieve the same tolerance Solving Non-Linear Equations Iteratively find roots of polynomials – there may be 0, 1 or n solutions for an n order polynomial use iterative techniques Iterative methods · used when there are no known analytical techniques · Requires set functions to be continuous & differentiable · Requires an initial seed value – choice is critical to convergence à conduct multiple runs with different starting points & then select best result · Systematic - iterate until diminishing returns, tolerance or max iteration conditions are met · bracketing techniques will always yield convergent solutions, non-bracketing methods may fail to converge Incremental method if a nonlinear function has opposite signs at 2 ends of a small interval x1 & x2, then there is likely to be a solution in their interval – solutions are detected by evaluating a function over interval steps, for a change in sign, adjusting the step size dynamically. Limitations – can miss closely spaced solutions in large intervals, cannot detect degenerate (coinciding) solutions, limited to functions that cross the x-axis, gives false positives for singularities Fixed point method http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fixed-point_iteration C++: http://books.google.co.il/books?id=weYj75E_t6MC&pg=PA79&lpg=PA79&dq=fixed+point+method++c%2B%2B&source=bl&ots=LQ-5P_taoC&sig=lENUUIYBK53tZtTwNfHLy5PEWDk&hl=en&sa=X&ei=wezDUPW1J5DptQaMsIHQCw&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=fixed%20point%20method%20%20c%2B%2B&f=false Algebraically rearrange a solution to isolate a variable then apply incremental method Bisection method http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bisection_method C++: http://numericalcomputing.wordpress.com/category/algorithms/ Bracketed - Select an initial interval, keep bisecting it ad midpoint into sub-intervals and then apply incremental method on smaller & smaller intervals – zoom in Adv: unaffected by function gradient à reliable Disadv: slow convergence False Position Method http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_position_method C++: http://www.dreamincode.net/forums/topic/126100-bisection-and-false-position-methods/ Bracketed - Select an initial interval , & use the relative value of function at interval end points to select next sub-intervals (estimate how far between the end points the solution might be & subdivide based on this) Newton-Raphson method http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newton's_method C++: http://www-users.cselabs.umn.edu/classes/Summer-2012/csci1113/index.php?page=./newt3 Also known as Newton's method Convenient, efficient Not bracketed – only a single initial guess is required to start iteration – requires an analytical expression for the first derivative of the function as input. Evaluates the function & its derivative at each step. Can be extended to the Newton MutiRoot method for solving multiple roots Can be easily applied to an of n-coupled set of non-linear equations – conduct a Taylor Series expansion of a function, dropping terms of order n, rewrite as a Jacobian matrix of PDs & convert to simultaneous linear equations !!! Secant Method http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secant_method C++: http://forum.vcoderz.com/showthread.php?p=205230 Unlike N-R, can estimate first derivative from an initial interval (does not require root to be bracketed) instead of inputting it Since derivative is approximated, may converge slower. Is fast in practice as it does not have to evaluate the derivative at each step. Similar implementation to False Positive method Birge-Vieta Method http://mat.iitm.ac.in/home/sryedida/public_html/caimna/transcendental/polynomial%20methods/bv%20method.html C++: http://books.google.co.il/books?id=cL1boM2uyQwC&pg=SA3-PA51&lpg=SA3-PA51&dq=Birge-Vieta+Method+c%2B%2B&source=bl&ots=QZmnDTK3rC&sig=BPNcHHbpR_DKVoZXrLi4nVXD-gg&hl=en&sa=X&ei=R-_DUK2iNIjzsgbE5ID4Dg&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=Birge-Vieta%20Method%20c%2B%2B&f=false combines Horner's method of polynomial evaluation (transforming into lesser degree polynomials that are more computationally efficient to process) with Newton-Raphson to provide a computational speed-up Interpolation Overview Construct new data points for as close as possible fit within range of a discrete set of known points (that were obtained via sampling, experimentation) Use Taylor Series Expansion of a function f(x) around a specific value for x Linear Interpolation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linear_interpolation C++: http://www.hamaluik.com/?p=289 Straight line between 2 points à concatenate interpolants between each pair of data points Bilinear Interpolation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bilinear_interpolation C++: http://supercomputingblog.com/graphics/coding-bilinear-interpolation/2/ Extension of the linear function for interpolating functions of 2 variables – perform linear interpolation first in 1 direction, then in another. Used in image processing – e.g. texture mapping filter. Uses 4 vertices to interpolate a value within a unit cell. Lagrange Interpolation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagrange_polynomial C++: http://www.codecogs.com/code/maths/approximation/interpolation/lagrange.php For polynomials Requires recomputation for all terms for each distinct x value – can only be applied for small number of nodes Numerically unstable Barycentric Interpolation http://epubs.siam.org/doi/pdf/10.1137/S0036144502417715 C++: http://www.gamedev.net/topic/621445-barycentric-coordinates-c-code-check/ Rearrange the terms in the equation of the Legrange interpolation by defining weight functions that are independent of the interpolated value of x Newton Divided Difference Interpolation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newton_polynomial C++: http://jee-appy.blogspot.co.il/2011/12/newton-divided-difference-interpolation.html Hermite Divided Differences: Interpolation polynomial approximation for a given set of data points in the NR form - divided differences are used to approximately calculate the various differences. For a given set of 3 data points , fit a quadratic interpolant through the data Bracketed functions allow Newton divided differences to be calculated recursively Difference table Cubic Spline Interpolation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spline_interpolation C++: https://www.marcusbannerman.co.uk/index.php/home/latestarticles/42-articles/96-cubic-spline-class.html Spline is a piecewise polynomial Provides smoothness – for interpolations with significantly varying data Use weighted coefficients to bend the function to be smooth & its 1st & 2nd derivatives are continuous through the edge points in the interval Curve Fitting A generalization of interpolating whereby given data points may contain noise à the curve does not necessarily pass through all the points Least Squares Fit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Least_squares C++: http://www.ccas.ru/mmes/educat/lab04k/02/least-squares.c Residual – difference between observed value & expected value Model function is often chosen as a linear combination of the specified functions Determines: A) The model instance in which the sum of squared residuals has the least value B) param values for which model best fits data Straight Line Fit Linear correlation between independent variable and dependent variable Linear Regression http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linear_regression C++: http://www.oocities.org/david_swaim/cpp/linregc.htm Special case of statistically exact extrapolation Leverage least squares Given a basis function, the sum of the residuals is determined and the corresponding gradient equation is expressed as a set of normal linear equations in matrix form that can be solved (e.g. using LU Decomposition) Can be weighted - Drop the assumption that all errors have the same significance –-> confidence of accuracy is different for each data point. Fit the function closer to points with higher weights Polynomial Fit - use a polynomial basis function Moving Average http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moving_average C++: http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/17860/A-Simple-Moving-Average-Algorithm Used for smoothing (cancel fluctuations to highlight longer-term trends & cycles), time series data analysis, signal processing filters Replace each data point with average of neighbors. Can be simple (SMA), weighted (WMA), exponential (EMA). Lags behind latest data points – extra weight can be given to more recent data points. Weights can decrease arithmetically or exponentially according to distance from point. Parameters: smoothing factor, period, weight basis Optimization Overview Given function with multiple variables, find Min (or max by minimizing –f(x)) Iterative approach Efficient, but not necessarily reliable Conditions: noisy data, constraints, non-linear models Detection via sign of first derivative - Derivative of saddle points will be 0 Local minima Bisection method Similar method for finding a root for a non-linear equation Start with an interval that contains a minimum Golden Search method http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_section_search C++: http://www.codecogs.com/code/maths/optimization/golden.php Bisect intervals according to golden ratio 0.618.. Achieves reduction by evaluating a single function instead of 2 Newton-Raphson Method Brent method http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brent's_method C++: http://people.sc.fsu.edu/~jburkardt/cpp_src/brent/brent.cpp Based on quadratic or parabolic interpolation – if the function is smooth & parabolic near to the minimum, then a parabola fitted through any 3 points should approximate the minima – fails when the 3 points are collinear , in which case the denominator is 0 Simplex Method http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simplex_algorithm C++: http://www.codeguru.com/cpp/article.php/c17505/Simplex-Optimization-Algorithm-and-Implemetation-in-C-Programming.htm Find the global minima of any multi-variable function Direct search – no derivatives required At each step it maintains a non-degenerative simplex – a convex hull of n+1 vertices. Obtains the minimum for a function with n variables by evaluating the function at n-1 points, iteratively replacing the point of worst result with the point of best result, shrinking the multidimensional simplex around the best point. Point replacement involves expanding & contracting the simplex near the worst value point to determine a better replacement point Oscillation can be avoided by choosing the 2nd worst result Restart if it gets stuck Parameters: contraction & expansion factors Simulated Annealing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simulated_annealing C++: http://code.google.com/p/cppsimulatedannealing/ Analogy to heating & cooling metal to strengthen its structure Stochastic method – apply random permutation search for global minima - Avoid entrapment in local minima via hill climbing Heating schedule - Annealing schedule params: temperature, iterations at each temp, temperature delta Cooling schedule – can be linear, step-wise or exponential Differential Evolution http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Differential_evolution C++: http://www.amichel.com/de/doc/html/ More advanced stochastic methods analogous to biological processes: Genetic algorithms, evolution strategies Parallel direct search method against multiple discrete or continuous variables Initial population of variable vectors chosen randomly – if weighted difference vector of 2 vectors yields a lower objective function value then it replaces the comparison vector Many params: #parents, #variables, step size, crossover constant etc Convergence is slow – many more function evaluations than simulated annealing Numerical Differentiation Overview 2 approaches to finite difference methods: · A) approximate function via polynomial interpolation then differentiate · B) Taylor series approximation – additionally provides error estimate Finite Difference methods http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finite_difference_method C++: http://www.wpi.edu/Pubs/ETD/Available/etd-051807-164436/unrestricted/EAMPADU.pdf Find differences between high order derivative values - Approximate differential equations by finite differences at evenly spaced data points Based on forward & backward Taylor series expansion of f(x) about x plus or minus multiples of delta h. Forward / backward difference - the sums of the series contains even derivatives and the difference of the series contains odd derivatives – coupled equations that can be solved. Provide an approximation of the derivative within a O(h^2) accuracy There is also central difference & extended central difference which has a O(h^4) accuracy Richardson Extrapolation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richardson_extrapolation C++: http://mathscoding.blogspot.co.il/2012/02/introduction-richardson-extrapolation.html A sequence acceleration method applied to finite differences Fast convergence, high accuracy O(h^4) Derivatives via Interpolation Cannot apply Finite Difference method to discrete data points at uneven intervals – so need to approximate the derivative of f(x) using the derivative of the interpolant via 3 point Lagrange Interpolation Note: the higher the order of the derivative, the lower the approximation precision Numerical Integration Estimate finite & infinite integrals of functions More accurate procedure than numerical differentiation Use when it is not possible to obtain an integral of a function analytically or when the function is not given, only the data points are Newton Cotes Methods http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newton%E2%80%93Cotes_formulas C++: http://www.siafoo.net/snippet/324 For equally spaced data points Computationally easy – based on local interpolation of n rectangular strip areas that is piecewise fitted to a polynomial to get the sum total area Evaluate the integrand at n+1 evenly spaced points – approximate definite integral by Sum Weights are derived from Lagrange Basis polynomials Leverage Trapezoidal Rule for default 2nd formulas, Simpson 1/3 Rule for substituting 3 point formulas, Simpson 3/8 Rule for 4 point formulas. For 4 point formulas use Bodes Rule. Higher orders obtain more accurate results Trapezoidal Rule uses simple area, Simpsons Rule replaces the integrand f(x) with a quadratic polynomial p(x) that uses the same values as f(x) for its end points, but adds a midpoint Romberg Integration http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romberg's_method C++: http://code.google.com/p/romberg-integration/downloads/detail?name=romberg.cpp&can=2&q= Combines trapezoidal rule with Richardson Extrapolation Evaluates the integrand at equally spaced points The integrand must have continuous derivatives Each R(n,m) extrapolation uses a higher order integrand polynomial replacement rule (zeroth starts with trapezoidal) à a lower triangular matrix set of equation coefficients where the bottom right term has the most accurate approximation. The process continues until the difference between 2 successive diagonal terms becomes sufficiently small. Gaussian Quadrature http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaussian_quadrature C++: http://www.alglib.net/integration/gaussianquadratures.php Data points are chosen to yield best possible accuracy – requires fewer evaluations Ability to handle singularities, functions that are difficult to evaluate The integrand can include a weighting function determined by a set of orthogonal polynomials. Points & weights are selected so that the integrand yields the exact integral if f(x) is a polynomial of degree <= 2n+1 Techniques (basically different weighting functions): · Gauss-Legendre Integration w(x)=1 · Gauss-Laguerre Integration w(x)=e^-x · Gauss-Hermite Integration w(x)=e^-x^2 · Gauss-Chebyshev Integration w(x)= 1 / Sqrt(1-x^2) Solving ODEs Use when high order differential equations cannot be solved analytically Evaluated under boundary conditions RK for systems – a high order differential equation can always be transformed into a coupled first order system of equations Euler method http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euler_method C++: http://rosettacode.org/wiki/Euler_method First order Runge–Kutta method. Simple recursive method – given an initial value, calculate derivative deltas. Unstable & not very accurate (O(h) error) – not used in practice A first-order method - the local error (truncation error per step) is proportional to the square of the step size, and the global error (error at a given time) is proportional to the step size In evolving solution between data points xn & xn+1, only evaluates derivatives at beginning of interval xn à asymmetric at boundaries Higher order Runge Kutta http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Runge%E2%80%93Kutta_methods C++: http://www.dreamincode.net/code/snippet1441.htm 2nd & 4th order RK - Introduces parameterized midpoints for more symmetric solutions à accuracy at higher computational cost Adaptive RK – RK-Fehlberg – estimate the truncation at each integration step & automatically adjust the step size to keep error within prescribed limits. At each step 2 approximations are compared – if in disagreement to a specific accuracy, the step size is reduced Boundary Value Problems Where solution of differential equations are located at 2 different values of the independent variable x à more difficult, because cannot just start at point of initial value – there may not be enough starting conditions available at the end points to produce a unique solution An n-order equation will require n boundary conditions – need to determine the missing n-1 conditions which cause the given conditions at the other boundary to be satisfied Shooting Method http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting_method C++: http://ganeshtiwaridotcomdotnp.blogspot.co.il/2009/12/c-c-code-shooting-method-for-solving.html Iteratively guess the missing values for one end & integrate, then inspect the discrepancy with the boundary values of the other end to adjust the estimate Given the starting boundary values u1 & u2 which contain the root u, solve u given the false position method (solving the differential equation as an initial value problem via 4th order RK), then use u to solve the differential equations. Finite Difference Method For linear & non-linear systems Higher order derivatives require more computational steps – some combinations for boundary conditions may not work though Improve the accuracy by increasing the number of mesh points Solving EigenValue Problems An eigenvalue can substitute a matrix when doing matrix multiplication à convert matrix multiplication into a polynomial EigenValue For a given set of equations in matrix form, determine what are the solution eigenvalue & eigenvectors Similar Matrices - have same eigenvalues. Use orthogonal similarity transforms to reduce a matrix to diagonal form from which eigenvalue(s) & eigenvectors can be computed iteratively Jacobi method http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacobi_method C++: http://people.sc.fsu.edu/~jburkardt/classes/acs2_2008/openmp/jacobi/jacobi.html Robust but Computationally intense – use for small matrices < 10x10 Power Iteration http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_iteration For any given real symmetric matrix, generate the largest single eigenvalue & its eigenvectors Simplest method – does not compute matrix decomposition à suitable for large, sparse matrices Inverse Iteration Variation of power iteration method – generates the smallest eigenvalue from the inverse matrix Rayleigh Method http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rayleigh's_method_of_dimensional_analysis Variation of power iteration method Rayleigh Quotient Method Variation of inverse iteration method Matrix Tri-diagonalization Method Use householder algorithm to reduce an NxN symmetric matrix to a tridiagonal real symmetric matrix vua N-2 orthogonal transforms     Whats Next Outside of Numerical Methods there are lots of different types of algorithms that I’ve learned over the decades: Data Mining – (I covered this briefly in a previous post: http://geekswithblogs.net/JoshReuben/archive/2007/12/31/ssas-dm-algorithms.aspx ) Search & Sort Routing Problem Solving Logical Theorem Proving Planning Probabilistic Reasoning Machine Learning Solvers (eg MIP) Bioinformatics (Sequence Alignment, Protein Folding) Quant Finance (I read Wilmott’s books – interesting) Sooner or later, I’ll cover the above topics as well.

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  • Scrum in 5 Minutes

    - by Stephen.Walther
    The goal of this blog entry is to explain the basic concepts of Scrum in less than five minutes. You learn how Scrum can help a team of developers to successfully complete a complex software project. Product Backlog and the Product Owner Imagine that you are part of a team which needs to create a new website – for example, an e-commerce website. You have an overwhelming amount of work to do. You need to build (or possibly buy) a shopping cart, install an SSL certificate, create a product catalog, create a Facebook page, and at least a hundred other things that you have not thought of yet. According to Scrum, the first thing you should do is create a list. Place the highest priority items at the top of the list and the lower priority items lower in the list. For example, creating the shopping cart and buying the domain name might be high priority items and creating a Facebook page might be a lower priority item. In Scrum, this list is called the Product Backlog. How do you prioritize the items in the Product Backlog? Different stakeholders in the project might have different priorities. Gary, your division VP, thinks that it is crucial that the e-commerce site has a mobile app. Sally, your direct manager, thinks taking advantage of new HTML5 features is much more important. Multiple people are pulling you in different directions. According to Scrum, it is important that you always designate one person, and only one person, as the Product Owner. The Product Owner is the person who decides what items should be added to the Product Backlog and the priority of the items in the Product Backlog. The Product Owner could be the customer who is paying the bills, the project manager who is responsible for delivering the project, or a customer representative. The critical point is that the Product Owner must always be a single person and that single person has absolute authority over the Product Backlog. Sprints and the Sprint Backlog So now the developer team has a prioritized list of items and they can start work. The team starts implementing the first item in the Backlog — the shopping cart — and the team is making good progress. Unfortunately, however, half-way through the work of implementing the shopping cart, the Product Owner changes his mind. The Product Owner decides that it is much more important to create the product catalog before the shopping cart. With some frustration, the team switches their developmental efforts to focus on implementing the product catalog. However, part way through completing this work, once again the Product Owner changes his mind about the highest priority item. Getting work done when priorities are constantly shifting is frustrating for the developer team and it results in lower productivity. At the same time, however, the Product Owner needs to have absolute authority over the priority of the items which need to get done. Scrum solves this conflict with the concept of Sprints. In Scrum, a developer team works in Sprints. At the beginning of a Sprint the developers and the Product Owner agree on the items from the backlog which they will complete during the Sprint. This subset of items from the Product Backlog becomes the Sprint Backlog. During the Sprint, the Product Owner is not allowed to change the items in the Sprint Backlog. In other words, the Product Owner cannot shift priorities on the developer team during the Sprint. Different teams use Sprints of different lengths such as one month Sprints, two-week Sprints, and one week Sprints. For high-stress, time critical projects, teams typically choose shorter sprints such as one week sprints. For more mature projects, longer one month sprints might be more appropriate. A team can pick whatever Sprint length makes sense for them just as long as the team is consistent. You should pick a Sprint length and stick with it. Daily Scrum During a Sprint, the developer team needs to have meetings to coordinate their work on completing the items in the Sprint Backlog. For example, the team needs to discuss who is working on what and whether any blocking issues have been discovered. Developers hate meetings (well, sane developers hate meetings). Meetings take developers away from their work of actually implementing stuff as opposed to talking about implementing stuff. However, a developer team which never has meetings and never coordinates their work also has problems. For example, Fred might get stuck on a programming problem for days and never reach out for help even though Tom (who sits in the cubicle next to him) has already solved the very same problem. Or, both Ted and Fred might have started working on the same item from the Sprint Backlog at the same time. In Scrum, these conflicting needs – limiting meetings but enabling team coordination – are resolved with the idea of the Daily Scrum. The Daily Scrum is a meeting for coordinating the work of the developer team which happens once a day. To keep the meeting short, each developer answers only the following three questions: 1. What have you done since yesterday? 2. What do you plan to do today? 3. Any impediments in your way? During the Daily Scrum, developers are not allowed to talk about issues with their cat, do demos of their latest work, or tell heroic stories of programming problems overcome. The meeting must be kept short — typically about 15 minutes. Issues which come up during the Daily Scrum should be discussed in separate meetings which do not involve the whole developer team. Stories and Tasks Items in the Product or Sprint Backlog – such as building a shopping cart or creating a Facebook page – are often referred to as User Stories or Stories. The Stories are created by the Product Owner and should represent some business need. Unlike the Product Owner, the developer team needs to think about how a Story should be implemented. At the beginning of a Sprint, the developer team takes the Stories from the Sprint Backlog and breaks the stories into tasks. For example, the developer team might take the Create a Shopping Cart story and break it into the following tasks: · Enable users to add and remote items from shopping cart · Persist the shopping cart to database between visits · Redirect user to checkout page when Checkout button is clicked During the Daily Scrum, members of the developer team volunteer to complete the tasks required to implement the next Story in the Sprint Backlog. When a developer talks about what he did yesterday or plans to do tomorrow then the developer should be referring to a task. Stories are owned by the Product Owner and a story is all about business value. In contrast, the tasks are owned by the developer team and a task is all about implementation details. A story might take several days or weeks to complete. A task is something which a developer can complete in less than a day. Some teams get lazy about breaking stories into tasks. Neglecting to break stories into tasks can lead to “Never Ending Stories” If you don’t break a story into tasks, then you can’t know how much of a story has actually been completed because you don’t have a clear idea about the implementation steps required to complete the story. Scrumboard During the Daily Scrum, the developer team uses a Scrumboard to coordinate their work. A Scrumboard contains a list of the stories for the current Sprint, the tasks associated with each Story, and the state of each task. The developer team uses the Scrumboard so everyone on the team can see, at a glance, what everyone is working on. As a developer works on a task, the task moves from state to state and the state of the task is updated on the Scrumboard. Common task states are ToDo, In Progress, and Done. Some teams include additional task states such as Needs Review or Needs Testing. Some teams use a physical Scrumboard. In that case, you use index cards to represent the stories and the tasks and you tack the index cards onto a physical board. Using a physical Scrumboard has several disadvantages. A physical Scrumboard does not work well with a distributed team – for example, it is hard to share the same physical Scrumboard between Boston and Seattle. Also, generating reports from a physical Scrumboard is more difficult than generating reports from an online Scrumboard. Estimating Stories and Tasks Stakeholders in a project, the people investing in a project, need to have an idea of how a project is progressing and when the project will be completed. For example, if you are investing in creating an e-commerce site, you need to know when the site can be launched. It is not enough to just say that “the project will be done when it is done” because the stakeholders almost certainly have a limited budget to devote to the project. The people investing in the project cannot determine the business value of the project unless they can have an estimate of how long it will take to complete the project. Developers hate to give estimates. The reason that developers hate to give estimates is that the estimates are almost always completely made up. For example, you really don’t know how long it takes to build a shopping cart until you finish building a shopping cart, and at that point, the estimate is no longer useful. The problem is that writing code is much more like Finding a Cure for Cancer than Building a Brick Wall. Building a brick wall is very straightforward. After you learn how to add one brick to a wall, you understand everything that is involved in adding a brick to a wall. There is no additional research required and no surprises. If, on the other hand, I assembled a team of scientists and asked them to find a cure for cancer, and estimate exactly how long it will take, they would have no idea. The problem is that there are too many unknowns. I don’t know how to cure cancer, I need to do a lot of research here, so I cannot even begin to estimate how long it will take. So developers hate to provide estimates, but the Product Owner and other product stakeholders, have a legitimate need for estimates. Scrum resolves this conflict by using the idea of Story Points. Different teams use different units to represent Story Points. For example, some teams use shirt sizes such as Small, Medium, Large, and X-Large. Some teams prefer to use Coffee Cup sizes such as Tall, Short, and Grande. Finally, some teams like to use numbers from the Fibonacci series. These alternative units are converted into a Story Point value. Regardless of the type of unit which you use to represent Story Points, the goal is the same. Instead of attempting to estimate a Story in hours (which is doomed to failure), you use a much less fine-grained measure of work. A developer team is much more likely to be able to estimate that a Story is Small or X-Large than the exact number of hours required to complete the story. So you can think of Story Points as a compromise between the needs of the Product Owner and the developer team. When a Sprint starts, the developer team devotes more time to thinking about the Stories in a Sprint and the developer team breaks the Stories into Tasks. In Scrum, you estimate the work required to complete a Story by using Story Points and you estimate the work required to complete a task by using hours. The difference between Stories and Tasks is that you don’t create a task until you are just about ready to start working on a task. A task is something that you should be able to create within a day, so you have a much better chance of providing an accurate estimate of the work required to complete a task than a story. Burndown Charts In Scrum, you use Burndown charts to represent the remaining work on a project. You use Release Burndown charts to represent the overall remaining work for a project and you use Sprint Burndown charts to represent the overall remaining work for a particular Sprint. You create a Release Burndown chart by calculating the remaining number of uncompleted Story Points for the entire Product Backlog every day. The vertical axis represents Story Points and the horizontal axis represents time. A Sprint Burndown chart is similar to a Release Burndown chart, but it focuses on the remaining work for a particular Sprint. There are two different types of Sprint Burndown charts. You can either represent the remaining work in a Sprint with Story Points or with task hours (the following image, taken from Wikipedia, uses hours). When each Product Backlog Story is completed, the Release Burndown chart slopes down. When each Story or task is completed, the Sprint Burndown chart slopes down. Burndown charts typically do not always slope down over time. As new work is added to the Product Backlog, the Release Burndown chart slopes up. If new tasks are discovered during a Sprint, the Sprint Burndown chart will also slope up. The purpose of a Burndown chart is to give you a way to track team progress over time. If, halfway through a Sprint, the Sprint Burndown chart is still climbing a hill then you know that you are in trouble. Team Velocity Stakeholders in a project always want more work done faster. For example, the Product Owner for the e-commerce site wants the website to launch before tomorrow. Developers tend to be overly optimistic. Rarely do developers acknowledge the physical limitations of reality. So Project stakeholders and the developer team often collude to delude themselves about how much work can be done and how quickly. Too many software projects begin in a state of optimism and end in frustration as deadlines zoom by. In Scrum, this problem is overcome by calculating a number called the Team Velocity. The Team Velocity is a measure of the average number of Story Points which a team has completed in previous Sprints. Knowing the Team Velocity is important during the Sprint Planning meeting when the Product Owner and the developer team work together to determine the number of stories which can be completed in the next Sprint. If you know the Team Velocity then you can avoid committing to do more work than the team has been able to accomplish in the past, and your team is much more likely to complete all of the work required for the next Sprint. Scrum Master There are three roles in Scrum: the Product Owner, the developer team, and the Scrum Master. I’v e already discussed the Product Owner. The Product Owner is the one and only person who maintains the Product Backlog and prioritizes the stories. I’ve also described the role of the developer team. The members of the developer team do the work of implementing the stories by breaking the stories into tasks. The final role, which I have not discussed, is the role of the Scrum Master. The Scrum Master is responsible for ensuring that the team is following the Scrum process. For example, the Scrum Master is responsible for making sure that there is a Daily Scrum meeting and that everyone answers the standard three questions. The Scrum Master is also responsible for removing (non-technical) impediments which the team might encounter. For example, if the team cannot start work until everyone installs the latest version of Microsoft Visual Studio then the Scrum Master has the responsibility of working with management to get the latest version of Visual Studio as quickly as possible. The Scrum Master can be a member of the developer team. Furthermore, different people can take on the role of the Scrum Master over time. The Scrum Master, however, cannot be the same person as the Product Owner. Using SonicAgile SonicAgile (SonicAgile.com) is an online tool which you can use to manage your projects using Scrum. You can use the SonicAgile Product Backlog to create a prioritized list of stories. You can estimate the size of the Stories using different Story Point units such as Shirt Sizes and Coffee Cup sizes. You can use SonicAgile during the Sprint Planning meeting to select the Stories that you want to complete during a particular Sprint. You can configure Sprints to be any length of time. SonicAgile calculates Team Velocity automatically and displays a warning when you add too many stories to a Sprint. In other words, it warns you when it thinks you are overcommitting in a Sprint. SonicAgile also includes a Scrumboard which displays the list of Stories selected for a Sprint and the tasks associated with each story. You can drag tasks from one task state to another. Finally, SonicAgile enables you to generate Release Burndown and Sprint Burndown charts. You can use these charts to view the progress of your team. To learn more about SonicAgile, visit SonicAgile.com. Summary In this post, I described many of the basic concepts of Scrum. You learned how a Product Owner uses a Product Backlog to create a prioritized list of tasks. I explained why work is completed in Sprints so the developer team can be more productive. I also explained how a developer team uses the daily scrum to coordinate their work. You learned how the developer team uses a Scrumboard to see, at a glance, who is working on what and the state of each task. I also discussed Burndown charts. You learned how you can use both Release and Sprint Burndown charts to track team progress in completing a project. Finally, I described the crucial role of the Scrum Master – the person who is responsible for ensuring that the rules of Scrum are being followed. My goal was not to describe all of the concepts of Scrum. This post was intended to be an introductory overview. For a comprehensive explanation of Scrum, I recommend reading Ken Schwaber’s book Agile Project Management with Scrum: http://www.amazon.com/Agile-Project-Management-Microsoft-Professional/dp/073561993X/ref=la_B001H6ODMC_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1345224000&sr=1-1

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  • Windows Azure: Import/Export Hard Drives, VM ACLs, Web Sockets, Remote Debugging, Continuous Delivery, New Relic, Billing Alerts and More

    - by ScottGu
    Two weeks ago we released a giant set of improvements to Windows Azure, as well as a significant update of the Windows Azure SDK. This morning we released another massive set of enhancements to Windows Azure.  Today’s new capabilities include: Storage: Import/Export Hard Disk Drives to your Storage Accounts HDInsight: General Availability of our Hadoop Service in the cloud Virtual Machines: New VM Gallery, ACL support for VIPs Web Sites: WebSocket and Remote Debugging Support Notification Hubs: Segmented customer push notification support with tag expressions TFS & GIT: Continuous Delivery Support for Web Sites + Cloud Services Developer Analytics: New Relic support for Web Sites + Mobile Services Service Bus: Support for partitioned queues and topics Billing: New Billing Alert Service that sends emails notifications when your bill hits a threshold you define All of these improvements are now available to use immediately (note that some features are still in preview).  Below are more details about them. Storage: Import/Export Hard Disk Drives to Windows Azure I am excited to announce the preview of our new Windows Azure Import/Export Service! The Windows Azure Import/Export Service enables you to move large amounts of on-premises data into and out of your Windows Azure Storage accounts. It does this by enabling you to securely ship hard disk drives directly to our Windows Azure data centers. Once we receive the drives we’ll automatically transfer the data to or from your Windows Azure Storage account.  This enables you to import or export massive amounts of data more quickly and cost effectively (and not be constrained by available network bandwidth). Encrypted Transport Our Import/Export service provides built-in support for BitLocker disk encryption – which enables you to securely encrypt data on the hard drives before you send it, and not have to worry about it being compromised even if the disk is lost/stolen in transit (since the content on the transported hard drives is completely encrypted and you are the only one who has the key to it).  The drive preparation tool we are shipping today makes setting up bitlocker encryption on these hard drives easy. How to Import/Export your first Hard Drive of Data You can read our Getting Started Guide to learn more about how to begin using the import/export service.  You can create import and export jobs via the Windows Azure Management Portal as well as programmatically using our Server Management APIs. It is really easy to create a new import or export job using the Windows Azure Management Portal.  Simply navigate to a Windows Azure storage account, and then click the new Import/Export tab now available within it (note: if you don’t have this tab make sure to sign-up for the Import/Export preview): Then click the “Create Import Job” or “Create Export Job” commands at the bottom of it.  This will launch a wizard that easily walks you through the steps required: For more comprehensive information about Import/Export, refer to Windows Azure Storage team blog.  You can also send questions and comments to the [email protected] email address. We think you’ll find this new service makes it much easier to move data into and out of Windows Azure, and it will dramatically cut down the network bandwidth required when working on large data migration projects.  We hope you like it. HDInsight: 100% Compatible Hadoop Service in the Cloud Last week we announced the general availability release of Windows Azure HDInsight. HDInsight is a 100% compatible Hadoop service that allows you to easily provision and manage Hadoop clusters for big data processing in Windows Azure.  This release is now live in production, backed by an enterprise SLA, supported 24x7 by Microsoft Support, and is ready to use for production scenarios. HDInsight allows you to use Apache Hadoop tools, such as Pig and Hive, to process large amounts of data in Windows Azure Blob Storage. Because data is stored in Windows Azure Blob Storage, you can choose to dynamically create Hadoop clusters only when you need them, and then shut them down when they are no longer required (since you pay only for the time the Hadoop cluster instances are running this provides a super cost effective way to use them).  You can create Hadoop clusters using either the Windows Azure Management Portal (see below) or using our PowerShell and Cross Platform Command line tools: The import/export hard drive support that came out today is a perfect companion service to use with HDInsight – the combination allows you to easily ingest, process and optionally export a limitless amount of data.  We’ve also integrated HDInsight with our Business Intelligence tools, so users can leverage familiar tools like Excel in order to analyze the output of jobs.  You can find out more about how to get started with HDInsight here. Virtual Machines: VM Gallery Enhancements Today’s update of Windows Azure brings with it a new Virtual Machine gallery that you can use to create new VMs in the cloud.  You can launch the gallery by doing New->Compute->Virtual Machine->From Gallery within the Windows Azure Management Portal: The new Virtual Machine Gallery includes some nice enhancements that make it even easier to use: Search: You can now easily search and filter images using the search box in the top-right of the dialog.  For example, simply type “SQL” and we’ll filter to show those images in the gallery that contain that substring. Category Tree-view: Each month we add more built-in VM images to the gallery.  You can continue to browse these using the “All” view within the VM Gallery – or now quickly filter them using the category tree-view on the left-hand side of the dialog.  For example, by selecting “Oracle” in the tree-view you can now quickly filter to see the official Oracle supplied images. MSDN and Supported checkboxes: With today’s update we are also introducing filters that makes it easy to filter out types of images that you may not be interested in. The first checkbox is MSDN: using this filter you can exclude any image that is not part of the Windows Azure benefits for MSDN subscribers (which have highly discounted pricing - you can learn more about the MSDN pricing here). The second checkbox is Supported: this filter will exclude any image that contains prerelease software, so you can feel confident that the software you choose to deploy is fully supported by Windows Azure and our partners. Sort options: We sort gallery images by what we think customers are most interested in, but sometimes you might want to sort using different views. So we’re providing some additional sort options, like “Newest,” to customize the image list for what suits you best. Pricing information: We now provide additional pricing information about images and options on how to cost effectively run them directly within the VM Gallery. The above improvements make it even easier to use the VM Gallery and quickly create launch and run Virtual Machines in the cloud. Virtual Machines: ACL Support for VIPs A few months ago we exposed the ability to configure Access Control Lists (ACLs) for Virtual Machines using Windows PowerShell cmdlets and our Service Management API. With today’s release, you can now configure VM ACLs using the Windows Azure Management Portal as well. You can now do this by clicking the new Manage ACL command in the Endpoints tab of a virtual machine instance: This will enable you to configure an ordered list of permit and deny rules to scope the traffic that can access your VM’s network endpoints. For example, if you were on a virtual network, you could limit RDP access to a Windows Azure virtual machine to only a few computers attached to your enterprise. Or if you weren’t on a virtual network you could alternatively limit traffic from public IPs that can access your workloads: Here is the default behaviors for ACLs in Windows Azure: By default (i.e. no rules specified), all traffic is permitted. When using only Permit rules, all other traffic is denied. When using only Deny rules, all other traffic is permitted. When there is a combination of Permit and Deny rules, all other traffic is denied. Lastly, remember that configuring endpoints does not automatically configure them within the VM if it also has firewall rules enabled at the OS level.  So if you create an endpoint using the Windows Azure Management Portal, Windows PowerShell, or REST API, be sure to also configure your guest VM firewall appropriately as well. Web Sites: Web Sockets Support With today’s release you can now use Web Sockets with Windows Azure Web Sites.  This feature enables you to easily integrate real-time communication scenarios within your web based applications, and is available at no extra charge (it even works with the free tier).  Higher level programming libraries like SignalR and socket.io are also now supported with it. You can enable Web Sockets support on a web site by navigating to the Configure tab of a Web Site, and by toggling Web Sockets support to “on”: Once Web Sockets is enabled you can start to integrate some really cool scenarios into your web applications.  Check out the new SignalR documentation hub on www.asp.net to learn more about some of the awesome scenarios you can do with it. Web Sites: Remote Debugging Support The Windows Azure SDK 2.2 we released two weeks ago introduced remote debugging support for Windows Azure Cloud Services. With today’s Windows Azure release we are extending this remote debugging support to also work with Windows Azure Web Sites. With live, remote debugging support inside of Visual Studio, you are able to have more visibility than ever before into how your code is operating live in Windows Azure. It is now super easy to attach the debugger and quickly see what is going on with your application in the cloud. Remote Debugging of a Windows Azure Web Site using VS 2013 Enabling the remote debugging of a Windows Azure Web Site using VS 2013 is really easy.  Start by opening up your web application’s project within Visual Studio. Then navigate to the “Server Explorer” tab within Visual Studio, and click on the deployed web-site you want to debug that is running within Windows Azure using the Windows Azure->Web Sites node in the Server Explorer.  Then right-click and choose the “Attach Debugger” option on it: When you do this Visual Studio will remotely attach the debugger to the Web Site running within Windows Azure.  The debugger will then stop the web site’s execution when it hits any break points that you have set within your web application’s project inside Visual Studio.  For example, below I set a breakpoint on the “ViewBag.Message” assignment statement within the HomeController of the standard ASP.NET MVC project template.  When I hit refresh on the “About” page of the web site within the browser, the breakpoint was triggered and I am now able to debug the app remotely using Visual Studio: Note above how we can debug variables (including autos/watchlist/etc), as well as use the Immediate and Command Windows. In the debug session above I used the Immediate Window to explore some of the request object state, as well as to dynamically change the ViewBag.Message property.  When we click the the “Continue” button (or press F5) the app will continue execution and the Web Site will render the content back to the browser.  This makes it super easy to debug web apps remotely. Tips for Better Debugging To get the best experience while debugging, we recommend publishing your site using the Debug configuration within Visual Studio’s Web Publish dialog. This will ensure that debug symbol information is uploaded to the Web Site which will enable a richer debug experience within Visual Studio.  You can find this option on the Web Publish dialog on the Settings tab: When you ultimately deploy/run the application in production we recommend using the “Release” configuration setting – the release configuration is memory optimized and will provide the best production performance.  To learn more about diagnosing and debugging Windows Azure Web Sites read our new Troubleshooting Windows Azure Web Sites in Visual Studio guide. Notification Hubs: Segmented Push Notification support with tag expressions In August we announced the General Availability of Windows Azure Notification Hubs - a powerful Mobile Push Notifications service that makes it easy to send high volume push notifications with low latency from any mobile app back-end.  Notification hubs can be used with any mobile app back-end (including ones built using our Mobile Services capability) and can also be used with back-ends that run in the cloud as well as on-premises. Beginning with the initial release, Notification Hubs allowed developers to send personalized push notifications to both individual users as well as groups of users by interest, by associating their devices with tags representing the logical target of the notification. For example, by registering all devices of customers interested in a favorite MLB team with a corresponding tag, it is possible to broadcast one message to millions of Boston Red Sox fans and another message to millions of St. Louis Cardinals fans with a single API call respectively. New support for using tag expressions to enable advanced customer segmentation With today’s release we are adding support for even more advanced customer targeting.  You can now identify customers that you want to send push notifications to by defining rich tag expressions. With tag expressions, you can now not only broadcast notifications to Boston Red Sox fans, but take that segmenting a step farther and reach more granular segments. This opens up a variety of scenarios, for example: Offers based on multiple preferences—e.g. send a game day vegetarian special to users tagged as both a Boston Red Sox fan AND a vegetarian Push content to multiple segments in a single message—e.g. rain delay information only to users who are tagged as either a Boston Red Sox fan OR a St. Louis Cardinal fan Avoid presenting subsets of a segment with irrelevant content—e.g. season ticket availability reminder to users who are tagged as a Boston Red Sox fan but NOT also a season ticket holder To illustrate with code, consider a restaurant chain app that sends an offer related to a Red Sox vs Cardinals game for users in Boston. Devices can be tagged by your app with location tags (e.g. “Loc:Boston”) and interest tags (e.g. “Follows:RedSox”, “Follows:Cardinals”), and then a notification can be sent by your back-end to “(Follows:RedSox || Follows:Cardinals) && Loc:Boston” in order to deliver an offer to all devices in Boston that follow either the RedSox or the Cardinals. This can be done directly in your server backend send logic using the code below: var notification = new WindowsNotification(messagePayload); hub.SendNotificationAsync(notification, "(Follows:RedSox || Follows:Cardinals) && Loc:Boston"); In your expressions you can use all Boolean operators: AND (&&), OR (||), and NOT (!).  Some other cool use cases for tag expressions that are now supported include: Social: To “all my group except me” - group:id && !user:id Events: Touchdown event is sent to everybody following either team or any of the players involved in the action: Followteam:A || Followteam:B || followplayer:1 || followplayer:2 … Hours: Send notifications at specific times. E.g. Tag devices with time zone and when it is 12pm in Seattle send to: GMT8 && follows:thaifood Versions and platforms: Send a reminder to people still using your first version for Android - version:1.0 && platform:Android For help on getting started with Notification Hubs, visit the Notification Hub documentation center.  Then download the latest NuGet package (or use the Notification Hubs REST APIs directly) to start sending push notifications using tag expressions.  They are really powerful and enable a bunch of great new scenarios. TFS & GIT: Continuous Delivery Support for Web Sites + Cloud Services With today’s Windows Azure release we are making it really easy to enable continuous delivery support with Windows Azure and Team Foundation Services.  Team Foundation Services is a cloud based offering from Microsoft that provides integrated source control (with both TFS and Git support), build server, test execution, collaboration tools, and agile planning support.  It makes it really easy to setup a team project (complete with automated builds and test runners) in the cloud, and it has really rich integration with Visual Studio. With today’s Windows Azure release it is now really easy to enable continuous delivery support with both TFS and Git based repositories hosted using Team Foundation Services.  This enables a workflow where when code is checked in, built successfully on an automated build server, and all tests pass on it – I can automatically have the app deployed on Windows Azure with zero manual intervention or work required. The below screen-shots demonstrate how to quickly setup a continuous delivery workflow to Windows Azure with a Git-based ASP.NET MVC project hosted using Team Foundation Services. Enabling Continuous Delivery to Windows Azure with Team Foundation Services The project I’m going to enable continuous delivery with is a simple ASP.NET MVC project whose source code I’m hosting using Team Foundation Services.  I did this by creating a “SimpleContinuousDeploymentTest” repository there using Git – and then used the new built-in Git tooling support within Visual Studio 2013 to push the source code to it.  Below is a screen-shot of the Git repository hosted within Team Foundation Services: I can access the repository within Visual Studio 2013 and easily make commits with it (as well as branch, merge and do other tasks).  Using VS 2013 I can also setup automated builds to take place in the cloud using Team Foundation Services every time someone checks in code to the repository: The cool thing about this is that I don’t have to buy or rent my own build server – Team Foundation Services automatically maintains its own build server farm and can automatically queue up a build for me (for free) every time someone checks in code using the above settings.  This build server (and automated testing) support now works with both TFS and Git based source control repositories. Connecting a Team Foundation Services project to Windows Azure Once I have a source repository hosted in Team Foundation Services with Automated Builds and Testing set up, I can then go even further and set it up so that it will be automatically deployed to Windows Azure when a source code commit is made to the repository (assuming the Build + Tests pass).  Enabling this is now really easy.  To set this up with a Windows Azure Web Site simply use the New->Compute->Web Site->Custom Create command inside the Windows Azure Management Portal.  This will create a dialog like below.  I gave the web site a name and then made sure the “Publish from source control” checkbox was selected: When we click next we’ll be prompted for the location of the source repository.  We’ll select “Team Foundation Services”: Once we do this we’ll be prompted for our Team Foundation Services account that our source repository is hosted under (in this case my TFS account is “scottguthrie”): When we click the “Authorize Now” button we’ll be prompted to give Windows Azure permissions to connect to the Team Foundation Services account.  Once we do this we’ll be prompted to pick the source repository we want to connect to.  Starting with today’s Windows Azure release you can now connect to both TFS and Git based source repositories.  This new support allows me to connect to the “SimpleContinuousDeploymentTest” respository we created earlier: Clicking the finish button will then create the Web Site with the continuous delivery hooks setup with Team Foundation Services.  Now every time someone pushes source control to the repository in Team Foundation Services, it will kick off an automated build, run all of the unit tests in the solution , and if they pass the app will be automatically deployed to our Web Site in Windows Azure.  You can monitor the history and status of these automated deployments using the Deployments tab within the Web Site: This enables a really slick continuous delivery workflow, and enables you to build and deploy apps in a really nice way. Developer Analytics: New Relic support for Web Sites + Mobile Services With today’s Windows Azure release we are making it really easy to enable Developer Analytics and Monitoring support with both Windows Azure Web Site and Windows Azure Mobile Services.  We are partnering with New Relic, who provide a great dev analytics and app performance monitoring offering, to enable this - and we have updated the Windows Azure Management Portal to make it really easy to configure. Enabling New Relic with a Windows Azure Web Site Enabling New Relic support with a Windows Azure Web Site is now really easy.  Simply navigate to the Configure tab of a Web Site and scroll down to the “developer analytics” section that is now within it: Clicking the “add-on” button will display some additional UI.  If you don’t already have a New Relic subscription, you can click the “view windows azure store” button to obtain a subscription (note: New Relic has a perpetually free tier so you can enable it even without paying anything): Clicking the “view windows azure store” button will launch the integrated Windows Azure Store experience we have within the Windows Azure Management Portal.  You can use this to browse from a variety of great add-on services – including New Relic: Select “New Relic” within the dialog above, then click the next button, and you’ll be able to choose which type of New Relic subscription you wish to purchase.  For this demo we’ll simply select the “Free Standard Version” – which does not cost anything and can be used forever:  Once we’ve signed-up for our New Relic subscription and added it to our Windows Azure account, we can go back to the Web Site’s configuration tab and choose to use the New Relic add-on with our Windows Azure Web Site.  We can do this by simply selecting it from the “add-on” dropdown (it is automatically populated within it once we have a New Relic subscription in our account): Clicking the “Save” button will then cause the Windows Azure Management Portal to automatically populate all of the needed New Relic configuration settings to our Web Site: Deploying the New Relic Agent as part of a Web Site The final step to enable developer analytics using New Relic is to add the New Relic runtime agent to our web app.  We can do this within Visual Studio by right-clicking on our web project and selecting the “Manage NuGet Packages” context menu: This will bring up the NuGet package manager.  You can search for “New Relic” within it to find the New Relic agent.  Note that there is both a 32-bit and 64-bit edition of it – make sure to install the version that matches how your Web Site is running within Windows Azure (note: you can configure your Web Site to run in either 32-bit or 64-bit mode using the Web Site’s “Configuration” tab within the Windows Azure Management Portal): Once we install the NuGet package we are all set to go.  We’ll simply re-publish the web site again to Windows Azure and New Relic will now automatically start monitoring the application Monitoring a Web Site using New Relic Now that the application has developer analytics support with New Relic enabled, we can launch the New Relic monitoring portal to start monitoring the health of it.  We can do this by clicking on the “Add Ons” tab in the left-hand side of the Windows Azure Management Portal.  Then select the New Relic add-on we signed-up for within it.  The Windows Azure Management Portal will provide some default information about the add-on when we do this.  Clicking the “Manage” button in the tray at the bottom will launch a new browser tab and single-sign us into the New Relic monitoring portal associated with our account: When we do this a new browser tab will launch with the New Relic admin tool loaded within it: We can now see insights into how our app is performing – without having to have written a single line of monitoring code.  The New Relic service provides a ton of great built-in monitoring features allowing us to quickly see: Performance times (including browser rendering speed) for the overall site and individual pages.  You can optionally set alert thresholds to trigger if the speed does not meet a threshold you specify. Information about where in the world your customers are hitting the site from (and how performance varies by region) Details on the latency performance of external services your web apps are using (for example: SQL, Storage, Twitter, etc) Error information including call stack details for exceptions that have occurred at runtime SQL Server profiling information – including which queries executed against your database and what their performance was And a whole bunch more… The cool thing about New Relic is that you don’t need to write monitoring code within your application to get all of the above reports (plus a lot more).  The New Relic agent automatically enables the CLR profiler within applications and automatically captures the information necessary to identify these.  This makes it super easy to get started and immediately have a rich developer analytics view for your solutions with very little effort. If you haven’t tried New Relic out yet with Windows Azure I recommend you do so – I think you’ll find it helps you build even better cloud applications.  Following the above steps will help you get started and deliver you a really good application monitoring solution in only minutes. Service Bus: Support for partitioned queues and topics With today’s release, we are enabling support within Service Bus for partitioned queues and topics. Enabling partitioning enables you to achieve a higher message throughput and better availability from your queues and topics. Higher message throughput is achieved by implementing multiple message brokers for each partitioned queue and topic.  The  multiple messaging stores will also provide higher availability. You can create a partitioned queue or topic by simply checking the Enable Partitioning option in the custom create wizard for a Queue or Topic: Read this article to learn more about partitioned queues and topics and how to take advantage of them today. Billing: New Billing Alert Service Today’s Windows Azure update enables a new Billing Alert Service Preview that enables you to get proactive email notifications when your Windows Azure bill goes above a certain monetary threshold that you configure.  This makes it easier to manage your bill and avoid potential surprises at the end of the month. With the Billing Alert Service Preview, you can now create email alerts to monitor and manage your monetary credits or your current bill total.  To set up an alert first sign-up for the free Billing Alert Service Preview.  Then visit the account management page, click on a subscription you have setup, and then navigate to the new Alerts tab that is available: The alerts tab allows you to setup email alerts that will be sent automatically once a certain threshold is hit.  For example, by clicking the “add alert” button above I can setup a rule to send myself email anytime my Windows Azure bill goes above $100 for the month: The Billing Alert Service will evolve to support additional aspects of your bill as well as support multiple forms of alerts such as SMS.  Try out the new Billing Alert Service Preview today and give us feedback. Summary Today’s Windows Azure release enables a ton of great new scenarios, and makes building applications hosted in the cloud even easier. If you don’t already have a Windows Azure account, you can sign-up for a free trial and start using all of the above features today.  Then visit the Windows Azure Developer Center to learn more about how to build apps with it. Hope this helps, Scott P.S. In addition to blogging, I am also now using Twitter for quick updates and to share links. Follow me at: twitter.com/scottgu

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  • Developing web apps using ASP.NET MVC 3, Razor and EF Code First - Part 1

    - by shiju
    In this post, I will demonstrate web application development using ASP. NET MVC 3, Razor and EF code First. This post will also cover Dependency Injection using Unity 2.0 and generic Repository and Unit of Work for EF Code First. The following frameworks will be used for this step by step tutorial. ASP.NET MVC 3 EF Code First CTP 5 Unity 2.0 Define Domain Model Let’s create domain model for our simple web application Category class public class Category {     public int CategoryId { get; set; }     [Required(ErrorMessage = "Name Required")]     [StringLength(25, ErrorMessage = "Must be less than 25 characters")]     public string Name { get; set;}     public string Description { get; set; }     public virtual ICollection<Expense> Expenses { get; set; } }   Expense class public class Expense {             public int ExpenseId { get; set; }            public string  Transaction { get; set; }     public DateTime Date { get; set; }     public double Amount { get; set; }     public int CategoryId { get; set; }     public virtual Category Category { get; set; } } We have two domain entities - Category and Expense. A single category contains a list of expense transactions and every expense transaction should have a Category. In this post, we will be focusing on CRUD operations for the entity Category and will be working on the Expense entity with a View Model object in the later post. And the source code for this application will be refactored over time. The above entities are very simple POCO (Plain Old CLR Object) classes and the entity Category is decorated with validation attributes in the System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations namespace. Now we want to use these entities for defining model objects for the Entity Framework 4. Using the Code First approach of Entity Framework, we can first define the entities by simply writing POCO classes without any coupling with any API or database library. This approach lets you focus on domain model which will enable Domain-Driven Development for applications. EF code first support is currently enabled with a separate API that is runs on top of the Entity Framework 4. EF Code First is reached CTP 5 when I am writing this article. Creating Context Class for Entity Framework We have created our domain model and let’s create a class in order to working with Entity Framework Code First. For this, you have to download EF Code First CTP 5 and add reference to the assembly EntitFramework.dll. You can also use NuGet to download add reference to EEF Code First.    public class MyFinanceContext : DbContext {     public MyFinanceContext() : base("MyFinance") { }     public DbSet<Category> Categories { get; set; }     public DbSet<Expense> Expenses { get; set; }         }   The above class MyFinanceContext is derived from DbContext that can connect your model classes to a database. The MyFinanceContext class is mapping our Category and Expense class into database tables Categories and Expenses using DbSet<TEntity> where TEntity is any POCO class. When we are running the application at first time, it will automatically create the database. EF code-first look for a connection string in web.config or app.config that has the same name as the dbcontext class. If it is not find any connection string with the convention, it will automatically create database in local SQL Express database by default and the name of the database will be same name as the dbcontext class. You can also define the name of database in constructor of the the dbcontext class. Unlike NHibernate, we don’t have to use any XML based mapping files or Fluent interface for mapping between our model and database. The model classes of Code First are working on the basis of conventions and we can also use a fluent API to refine our model. The convention for primary key is ‘Id’ or ‘<class name>Id’.  If primary key properties are detected with type ‘int’, ‘long’ or ‘short’, they will automatically registered as identity columns in the database by default. Primary key detection is not case sensitive. We can define our model classes with validation attributes in the System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations namespace and it automatically enforces validation rules when a model object is updated or saved. Generic Repository for EF Code First We have created model classes and dbcontext class. Now we have to create generic repository pattern for data persistence with EF code first. If you don’t know about the repository pattern, checkout Martin Fowler’s article on Repository Let’s create a generic repository to working with DbContext and DbSet generics. public interface IRepository<T> where T : class     {         void Add(T entity);         void Delete(T entity);         T GetById(long Id);         IEnumerable<T> All();     }   RepositoryBasse – Generic Repository class public abstract class RepositoryBase<T> where T : class { private MyFinanceContext database; private readonly IDbSet<T> dbset; protected RepositoryBase(IDatabaseFactory databaseFactory) {     DatabaseFactory = databaseFactory;     dbset = Database.Set<T>(); }   protected IDatabaseFactory DatabaseFactory {     get; private set; }   protected MyFinanceContext Database {     get { return database ?? (database = DatabaseFactory.Get()); } } public virtual void Add(T entity) {     dbset.Add(entity);            }        public virtual void Delete(T entity) {     dbset.Remove(entity); }   public virtual T GetById(long id) {     return dbset.Find(id); }   public virtual IEnumerable<T> All() {     return dbset.ToList(); } }   DatabaseFactory class public class DatabaseFactory : Disposable, IDatabaseFactory {     private MyFinanceContext database;     public MyFinanceContext Get()     {         return database ?? (database = new MyFinanceContext());     }     protected override void DisposeCore()     {         if (database != null)             database.Dispose();     } } Unit of Work If you are new to Unit of Work pattern, checkout Fowler’s article on Unit of Work . According to Martin Fowler, the Unit of Work pattern "maintains a list of objects affected by a business transaction and coordinates the writing out of changes and the resolution of concurrency problems." Let’s create a class for handling Unit of Work   public interface IUnitOfWork {     void Commit(); }   UniOfWork class public class UnitOfWork : IUnitOfWork {     private readonly IDatabaseFactory databaseFactory;     private MyFinanceContext dataContext;       public UnitOfWork(IDatabaseFactory databaseFactory)     {         this.databaseFactory = databaseFactory;     }       protected MyFinanceContext DataContext     {         get { return dataContext ?? (dataContext = databaseFactory.Get()); }     }       public void Commit()     {         DataContext.Commit();     } }   The Commit method of the UnitOfWork will call the commit method of MyFinanceContext class and it will execute the SaveChanges method of DbContext class.   Repository class for Category In this post, we will be focusing on the persistence against Category entity and will working on other entities in later post. Let’s create a repository for handling CRUD operations for Category using derive from a generic Repository RepositoryBase<T>.   public class CategoryRepository: RepositoryBase<Category>, ICategoryRepository     {     public CategoryRepository(IDatabaseFactory databaseFactory)         : base(databaseFactory)         {         }                } public interface ICategoryRepository : IRepository<Category> { } If we need additional methods than generic repository for the Category, we can define in the CategoryRepository. Dependency Injection using Unity 2.0 If you are new to Inversion of Control/ Dependency Injection or Unity, please have a look on my articles at http://weblogs.asp.net/shijuvarghese/archive/tags/IoC/default.aspx. I want to create a custom lifetime manager for Unity to store container in the current HttpContext.   public class HttpContextLifetimeManager<T> : LifetimeManager, IDisposable {     public override object GetValue()     {         return HttpContext.Current.Items[typeof(T).AssemblyQualifiedName];     }     public override void RemoveValue()     {         HttpContext.Current.Items.Remove(typeof(T).AssemblyQualifiedName);     }     public override void SetValue(object newValue)     {         HttpContext.Current.Items[typeof(T).AssemblyQualifiedName] = newValue;     }     public void Dispose()     {         RemoveValue();     } }   Let’s create controller factory for Unity in the ASP.NET MVC 3 application. public class UnityControllerFactory : DefaultControllerFactory { IUnityContainer container; public UnityControllerFactory(IUnityContainer container) {     this.container = container; } protected override IController GetControllerInstance(RequestContext reqContext, Type controllerType) {     IController controller;     if (controllerType == null)         throw new HttpException(                 404, String.Format(                     "The controller for path '{0}' could not be found" +     "or it does not implement IController.",                 reqContext.HttpContext.Request.Path));       if (!typeof(IController).IsAssignableFrom(controllerType))         throw new ArgumentException(                 string.Format(                     "Type requested is not a controller: {0}",                     controllerType.Name),                     "controllerType");     try     {         controller= container.Resolve(controllerType) as IController;     }     catch (Exception ex)     {         throw new InvalidOperationException(String.Format(                                 "Error resolving controller {0}",                                 controllerType.Name), ex);     }     return controller; }   }   Configure contract and concrete types in Unity Let’s configure our contract and concrete types in Unity for resolving our dependencies.   private void ConfigureUnity() {     //Create UnityContainer               IUnityContainer container = new UnityContainer()                 .RegisterType<IDatabaseFactory, DatabaseFactory>(new HttpContextLifetimeManager<IDatabaseFactory>())     .RegisterType<IUnitOfWork, UnitOfWork>(new HttpContextLifetimeManager<IUnitOfWork>())     .RegisterType<ICategoryRepository, CategoryRepository>(new HttpContextLifetimeManager<ICategoryRepository>());                 //Set container for Controller Factory                ControllerBuilder.Current.SetControllerFactory(             new UnityControllerFactory(container)); }   In the above ConfigureUnity method, we are registering our types onto Unity container with custom lifetime manager HttpContextLifetimeManager. Let’s call ConfigureUnity method in the Global.asax.cs for set controller factory for Unity and configuring the types with Unity.   protected void Application_Start() {     AreaRegistration.RegisterAllAreas();     RegisterGlobalFilters(GlobalFilters.Filters);     RegisterRoutes(RouteTable.Routes);     ConfigureUnity(); }   Developing web application using ASP.NET MVC 3 We have created our domain model for our web application and also have created repositories and configured dependencies with Unity container. Now we have to create controller classes and views for doing CRUD operations against the Category entity. Let’s create controller class for Category Category Controller   public class CategoryController : Controller {     private readonly ICategoryRepository categoryRepository;     private readonly IUnitOfWork unitOfWork;           public CategoryController(ICategoryRepository categoryRepository, IUnitOfWork unitOfWork)     {         this.categoryRepository = categoryRepository;         this.unitOfWork = unitOfWork;     }       public ActionResult Index()     {         var categories = categoryRepository.All();         return View(categories);     }     [HttpGet]     public ActionResult Edit(int id)     {         var category = categoryRepository.GetById(id);         return View(category);     }       [HttpPost]     public ActionResult Edit(int id, FormCollection collection)     {         var category = categoryRepository.GetById(id);         if (TryUpdateModel(category))         {             unitOfWork.Commit();             return RedirectToAction("Index");         }         else return View(category);                 }       [HttpGet]     public ActionResult Create()     {         var category = new Category();         return View(category);     }           [HttpPost]     public ActionResult Create(Category category)     {         if (!ModelState.IsValid)         {             return View("Create", category);         }                     categoryRepository.Add(category);         unitOfWork.Commit();         return RedirectToAction("Index");     }       [HttpPost]     public ActionResult Delete(int  id)     {         var category = categoryRepository.GetById(id);         categoryRepository.Delete(category);         unitOfWork.Commit();         var categories = categoryRepository.All();         return PartialView("CategoryList", categories);       }        }   Creating Views in Razor Now we are going to create views in Razor for our ASP.NET MVC 3 application.  Let’s create a partial view CategoryList.cshtml for listing category information and providing link for Edit and Delete operations. CategoryList.cshtml @using MyFinance.Helpers; @using MyFinance.Domain; @model IEnumerable<Category>      <table>         <tr>         <th>Actions</th>         <th>Name</th>          <th>Description</th>         </tr>     @foreach (var item in Model) {             <tr>             <td>                 @Html.ActionLink("Edit", "Edit",new { id = item.CategoryId })                 @Ajax.ActionLink("Delete", "Delete", new { id = item.CategoryId }, new AjaxOptions { Confirm = "Delete Expense?", HttpMethod = "Post", UpdateTargetId = "divCategoryList" })                           </td>             <td>                 @item.Name             </td>             <td>                 @item.Description             </td>         </tr>          }       </table>     <p>         @Html.ActionLink("Create New", "Create")     </p> The delete link is providing Ajax functionality using the Ajax.ActionLink. This will call an Ajax request for Delete action method in the CategoryCotroller class. In the Delete action method, it will return Partial View CategoryList after deleting the record. We are using CategoryList view for the Ajax functionality and also for Index view using for displaying list of category information. Let’s create Index view using partial view CategoryList  Index.chtml @model IEnumerable<MyFinance.Domain.Category> @{     ViewBag.Title = "Index"; }    <h2>Category List</h2>    <script src="@Url.Content("~/Scripts/jquery.unobtrusive-ajax.min.js")" type="text/javascript"></script>    <div id="divCategoryList">               @Html.Partial("CategoryList", Model) </div>   We can call the partial views using Html.Partial helper method. Now we are going to create View pages for insert and update functionality for the Category. Both view pages are sharing common user interface for entering the category information. So I want to create an EditorTemplate for the Category information. We have to create the EditorTemplate with the same name of entity object so that we can refer it on view pages using @Html.EditorFor(model => model) . So let’s create template with name Category. Let’s create view page for insert Category information   @model MyFinance.Domain.Category   @{     ViewBag.Title = "Save"; }   <h2>Create</h2>   <script src="@Url.Content("~/Scripts/jquery.validate.min.js")" type="text/javascript"></script> <script src="@Url.Content("~/Scripts/jquery.validate.unobtrusive.min.js")" type="text/javascript"></script>   @using (Html.BeginForm()) {     @Html.ValidationSummary(true)     <fieldset>         <legend>Category</legend>                @Html.EditorFor(model => model)               <p>             <input type="submit" value="Create" />         </p>     </fieldset> }   <div>     @Html.ActionLink("Back to List", "Index") </div> ViewStart file In Razor views, we can add a file named _viewstart.cshtml in the views directory  and this will be shared among the all views with in the Views directory. The below code in the _viewstart.cshtml, sets the Layout page for every Views in the Views folder.      @{     Layout = "~/Views/Shared/_Layout.cshtml"; }   Source Code You can download the source code from http://efmvc.codeplex.com/ . The source will be refactored on over time.   Summary In this post, we have created a simple web application using ASP.NET MVC 3 and EF Code First. We have discussed on technologies and practices such as ASP.NET MVC 3, Razor, EF Code First, Unity 2, generic Repository and Unit of Work. In my later posts, I will modify the application and will be discussed on more things. Stay tuned to my blog  for more posts on step by step application building.

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