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  • Globbing in `git checkout`

    - by yar
    Is there any way to implement globbing in git checkout? It would be great to be able to use git checkout re* or even to have tab completion in the shell. I'm using zsh, but an answer that is shell independent would be great. Note: I realize that this is kind of a pipe dream, so... if I needed to implement this myself, must it be done in the shell language itself, or could it be done in, say, Ruby?

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  • Wishful Thinking: Why can't HTML fix Script Attacks at the Source?

    - by Rick Strahl
    The Web can be an evil place, especially if you're a Web Developer blissfully unaware of Cross Site Script Attacks (XSS). Even if you are aware of XSS in all of its insidious forms, it's extremely complex to deal with all the issues if you're taking user input and you're actually allowing users to post raw HTML into an application. I'm dealing with this again today in a Web application where legacy data contains raw HTML that has to be displayed and users ask for the ability to use raw HTML as input for listings. The first line of defense of course is: Just say no to HTML input from users. If you don't allow HTML input directly and use HTML Encoding (HttyUtility.HtmlEncode() in .NET or using standard ASP.NET MVC output @Model.Content) you're fairly safe at least from the HTML input provided. Both WebForms and Razor support HtmlEncoded content, although Razor makes it the default. In Razor the default @ expression syntax:@Model.UserContent automatically produces HTML encoded content - you actually have to go out of your way to create raw HTML content (safe by default) using @Html.Raw() or the HtmlString class. In Web Forms (V4) you can use:<%: Model.UserContent %> or if you're using a version prior to 4.0:<%= HttpUtility.HtmlEncode(Model.UserContent) %> This works great as a hedge against embedded <script> tags and HTML markup as any HTML is turned into text that displays as HTML but doesn't render the HTML. But it turns any embedded HTML markup tags into plain text. If you need to display HTML in raw form with the markup tags rendering based on user input this approach is worthless. If you do accept HTML input and need to echo the rendered HTML input back, the task of cleaning up that HTML is a complex task. In the projects I work on, customers are frequently asking for the ability to post raw HTML quite frequently.  Almost every app that I've built where there's document content from users we start out with text only input - possibly using something like MarkDown - but inevitably users want to just post plain old HTML they created in some other rich editing application. See this a lot with realtors especially who often want to reuse their postings easily in multiple places. In my work this is a common problem I need to deal with and I've tried dozens of different methods from sanitizing, simple rejection of input to custom markup schemes none of which have ever felt comfortable to me. They work in a half assed, hacked together sort of way but I always live in fear of missing something vital which is *really easy to do*. My Wishlist Item: A <restricted> tag in HTML Let me dream here for a second on how to address this problem. It seems to me the easiest place where this can be fixed is: In the browser. Browsers are actually executing script code so they have a lot of control over the script code that resides in a page. What if there was a way to specify that you want to turn off script code for a block of HTML? The main issue when dealing with HTML raw input isn't that we as developers are unaware of the implications of user input, but the fact that we sometimes have to display raw HTML input the user provides. So the problem markup is usually isolated in only a very specific part of the document. So, what if we had a way to specify that in any given HTML block, no script code could execute by wrapping it into a tag that disables all script functionality in the browser? This would include <script> tags and any document script attributes like onclick, onfocus etc. and potentially also disallow things like iFrames that can potentially be scripted from the within the iFrame's target. I'd like to see something along these lines:<article> <restricted allowscripts="no" allowiframes="no"> <div>Some content</div> <script>alert('go ahead make my day, punk!");</script> <div onfocus="$.getJson('http://evilsite.com/')">more content</div> </restricted> </article> A tag like this would basically disallow all script code from firing from any HTML that's rendered within it. You'd use this only on code that you actually render from your data only and only if you are dealing with custom data. So something like this:<article> <restricted> @Html.Raw(Model.UserContent) </restricted> </article> For browsers this would actually be easy to intercept. They render the DOM and control loading and execution of scripts that are loaded through it. All the browser would have to do is suspend execution of <script> tags and not hookup any event handlers defined via markup in this block. Given all the crazy XSS attacks that exist and the prevalence of this problem this would go a long way towards preventing at least coded script attacks in the DOM. And it seems like a totally doable solution that wouldn't be very difficult to implement by vendors. There would also need to be some logic in the parser to not allow an </restricted> or <restricted> tag into the content as to short-circuit the rstricted section (per James Hart's comment). I'm sure there are other issues to consider as well that I didn't think of in my off-the-back-of-a-napkin concept here but the idea overall seems worth consideration I think. Without code running in a user supplied HTML block it'd be pretty hard to compromise a local HTML document and pass information like Cookies to a server. Or even send data to a server period. Short of an iFrame that can access the parent frame (which is another restriction that should be available on this <restricted> tag) that could potentially communicate back, there's not a lot a malicious site could do. The HTML could still 'phone home' via image links and href links potentially and basically say this site was accessed, but without the ability to run script code it would be pretty tough to pass along critical information to the server beyond that. Ahhhh… one can dream… Not holding my breath of course. The design by committee that is the W3C can't agree on anything in timeframes measured less than decades, but maybe this is one place where browser vendors can actually step up the pressure. This is something in their best interest to reduce the attack surface for vulnerabilities on their browser platforms significantly. Several people commented on Twitter today that there isn't enough discussion on issues like this that address serious needs in the web browser space. Realistically security has to be a number one concern with Web applications in general - there isn't a Web app out there that is not vulnerable. And yet nothing has been done to address these security issues even though there might be relatively easy solutions to make this happen. It'll take time, and it's probably not going to happen in our lifetime, but maybe this rambling thought sparks some ideas on how this sort of restriction can get into browsers in some way in the future.© Rick Strahl, West Wind Technologies, 2005-2012Posted in ASP.NET  HTML5  HTML  Security   Tweet !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs"); (function() { var po = document.createElement('script'); po.type = 'text/javascript'; po.async = true; po.src = 'https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(po, s); })();

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  • SQLAuthority News – Pluralsight Course Review – Practices for Software Startups – Part 1 of 2

    - by pinaldave
    This is first part of the two part series of Practices for Software Startup Pluralsight Course. The course is written by Stephen Forte (Blog | Twitter). Stephen Forte is the Chief Strategy Officer of the venture backed company, Telerik, a leading vendor of developer and team productivity tools. Stephen is also a Certified Scrum Master, Certified Scrum Professional, PMP, and also speaks regularly at industry conferences around the world. He has written several books on application and database development.  Stephen is also a board member of the Scrum Alliance. Startups – Everybodies Dream Start-up companies are an important topic right now – everyone wants to start their own business.  It is also important to remember that all companies were a start up at one point – from your corner store to the giants like Microsoft and Apple.  Research proves that not every start-up succeeds, in fact, most will fail before their first year.  There are many reasons for this, and this could be due to the fact that there are many stages to a start-up company, and stumbling at any of these stages can lead to failure.  It is important to understand what makes a start-up company succeed at all its hurdles to become successful.  It is even important to define success.  For most start-ups this would mean becoming their own independently functioning company or to be bought out for a hefty profit by a larger company.  The idea of making a hefty profit by living your dream is extremely important, and you can even think of start-ups as the new craze.  That’s why studying them is so important – they are very popular, but things have changed a lot since their inception. Starting the Startups Beginning a start-up company used to be difficult, but now facilities and information is widely available, and it is much easier.  But that means it is much easier to fail, also.  Previously to start your own company, everything was planned and organized, resources were ensured and backed up before beginning; even the idea of starting your own business was a big thing.  Now anybody can do it, and the steps are simple and outlines everywhere – you can get online software and easily outsource , cloud source, or crowdsource a lot of your material.  But without the type of planning previously required, things can often go badly. New Products – New Ideas – New World There are so many fantastic new products, but they don’t reach success all the time.  I find start-up companies very interesting, and whenever I meet someone who is interested in the subject or already starting their own company, I always ask what they are doing, their plans, goals, market, etc.  I am sorry to say that in most cases, they cannot answer my questions.  It is true that many fantastic ideas fail because of bad decisions.  These bad decisions were not made intentionally, but people were simply unaware of what they should be doing.  This will always lead to failure.  But I am happy to say that all these issues can be gone because Pluralsight is now offering a course all about start-ups by Stephen Forte.  Stephen is a start up leader.  He has successfully started many companies and most are still going strong, or have gone on to even bigger and better things. Beginning Course on Startup I have always thought start-ups are a fascinating subject, and decided to take his course, but it is three hours long.  This would be hard to fit into my busy work day all at once, so I decided to do half of his course before my daughter wakes up, and the other half after she goes to sleep.  The course is divided into six modules, so this would be easy to do.  I began the first chapter early in the morning, at 5 am.  Stephen jumped right into the middle of the subject in the very first module – designing your business plan.  The first question you will have to answer to yourself, to others, and to investors is: What is your product and when will we be able to see it?  So a very important concept is a “minimal viable product.”  This means setting goals for yourself and your product.  We all have large dreams, but your minimal viable product doesn’t have to be your final vision at the very first.  For example: Apple is a giant company, but it is still evolving.  Steve Jobs didn’t envision the iPhone 6 at the very beginning.  He had to start at the first iPhone and do his market research, and the idea evolved into the technology you see now.  So for yourself, you should decide a beginning and stop point.  Do your market research.  Determine who you want to reach, what audience you want for your product.  You can have a great idea that simply will not work in the market, do need, bottlenecks, lack of resources, or competition.  There is a lot of research that needs to be done before you even write a business plan, and Stephen covers it in the very first chapter. The Team – Unique Key to Success After jumping right into the subject in the very first module, I wondered what Stephen could have in store for me for the rest of the course.  Chapter number two is building a team.  Having a team is important regardless of what your startup is.  You can be a true visionary with endless ideas and energy, but one person can still not do everything.  It is important to decide from the very beginning if you will have cofounders, team leaders, and how many employees you’ll need.  Even more important, you’ll need to decide what kind of team you want – what personalities, skills, and type of energy you want each of your employees to bring.  Do you want to have an A+ team with a B- idea, or do you have a B- idea that needs an A+ team to sell it?  Stephen asks all the hard questions!  I was especially impressed by his insight on developing.  You have to decide if you need developers, how many, and what their skills should be. I found this insight extremely useful for everyday usage, not just for start-up companies.  I would apply this kind of information in management at any position.  An amazing team will build an amazing product – and that doesn’t matter if you’re a start-up company or a small team working for a much larger business. Customer Development – The Ultimate Obective Chapter three was about customer development. According to Stephen, there are four different steps to develop a customer base.  The first question to ask yourself is if you are envisioning a large customer base buying a few products each, or a small, dedicated base that buys a lot of your product – quantity vs. Quality.  He also discusses how to earn, retain, and get more customers.  He also says that each customer should be placed in a different role – some will be like investors, who regularly spend with you and invest their money in your business.  It is then your job to take that investment and turn it into a better product in the future.  You need to deal with their money properly – think of it is as theirs as investors, not yours as profit.  At the end of this module I felt that only Stephen could provide this kind of insight, and then he listed all the resources he took his information from.  I have never seen a group of people so passionate about their customers. It was indeed a long day for me. In tomorrow’s part 2 we will discuss rest of the three module and also will see a quick video of the Practices for Software Startup Pluralsight Course. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: Best Practices, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

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  • XNA Notes 010

    - by George Clingerman
    With GDC 2011 wrapping up there were a LOT of great interviews and posts with and about XNA and XBLIG and some of our more notorious developers. Definitely worth spending many, many hours watching, listening and reading all those. Very inspiring! Also, don’t forget to get signed up for Dream Build Play! And just as an early warning reminder do NOT, I repeat do NOT wait to submit your game the last day. There are major issues submitting the last day every year and you do not want all your hard work to be hanging on whether your entry actually went through in that last day. Plan on submitting a few days if not a week before. I’m serious, you’ll thank yourself later! Now on to what’s happening in the XNA community! Time Critical XNA News: PAX East Meet Up (really wish I was going!) http://forums.create.msdn.com/forums/p/71921/439262.aspx Want to stay panicked about the countdown to Dream Build Play? Mike McLaughlin shares his DBP countdown clock http://twitter.com/#!/mikebmcl/status/44454458960252928 XNA Team: Nick Gravelyn Only needs less than 600 new users in his unique marketing plan for Pixel Man 2 http://nickgravelyn.com/pixelman2/ And hares his ad revenue numbers with his XNA WP7 games http://theoneswiththelight.com/2011/my-results-with-ad-revenue-for-wp7-games/ XNA MVPs: Andy “The ZMan” Dunn posts his 15,000th App Hub forum post and shares a few thoughts on the MVP summit http://forums.create.msdn.com/forums/t/77625.aspx Chris Williams shares his thoughts on the MVP summit http://geekswithblogs.net/cwilliams/archive/2011/03/07/144229.aspx XNA Developers: Nathan Fouts of Mommy’s Best games Wraps up GDC http://mommysbest.blogspot.com/2011/03/gdc-2011-wrapped.html And shares the wonderful screenshots from Serious Sam. (I’m so jealous people at PAX East willl be playing a demo of this game!) http://mommysbest.blogspot.com/2011/03/serious-sam-double-d.html James Silva of Ska Studios announces http://www.ska-studios.com/2011/03/09/vampire-smile-at-hotel-sierra/ http://www.ska-studios.com/2011/03/08/vengeance-begins-april-6th/ http://www.ska-studios.com/2011/03/04/good-morning-gato-52/ Michael McLaughlin writes an extremely useful set of tips for XNA WP7 developers http://geekswithblogs.net/mikebmcl/archive/2011/03/10/tips-for-xna-wp7-developers.aspx Robert Boyd “the one man XBLIG improving machine” posts his 9 tips for marketing an Xbox LIVE Indie Gam http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/RobertBoyd/20110309/7183/9_Tips_for_XBLIG_Marketing.php http://forums.create.msdn.com/forums/p/77534/470586.aspx#470586 And shares his day by day experience at GDC this year http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/RobertBoyd/20110301/7118/GDC_Saves_the_World__Impressions_Day_1.php http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/RobertBoyd/20110301/7123/GDC_Saves_the_World__Impressions_Day_2.php http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/RobertBoyd/20110303/7129/GDC_Saves_the_World__Impressions_Day_3.php http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/RobertBoyd/20110307/7133/GDC_Saves_the_World__Impressions_Day_4.php http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/RobertBoyd/20110307/7160/GDC_Saves_the_World__Impressions_Day_5.php Phillipe Da Silva releases new IGF Pong Sample preview http://www.vimeo.com/20904070 Xbox LIVE Indie Games (XBLIG): Gamergeddon posts XBox Indie Game Roundup for March 6th http://www.gamergeddon.com/2011/03/06/xbox-indie-game-round-up-march-6th/ Dealspwn interviews FortressCraft developer Projector Games http://www.dealspwn.com/fortresscraft-developer-interview-minecraft-clones-venting-haters-part-1/ http://www.dealspwn.com/fortresscraft-developer-interview-part-2-trials-tribulations-indie-development/ Writings of Mass Destruction continues the Xbox LIVE Indie Game a day campaign, here’s his take on FishCraft (be sure to check out his other posts!) http://writingsofmassdeduction.com/2011/03/05/day-116-fishcraft/ Tom Ogburn shares his GDC notes on the XBLIG panel jotted quickly while attending the panel http://twitter.com/#!/TOgburn/status/44454191028125696 http://www.starlitskygames.com/blogs/site_news/archive/2011/03/06/802.aspx Dave Voyles of Armless Octopus has crazy good coverage on XNA and Xbox LIVE Indie Game developers at GDC 2011. Interviews and articles all extremely well done! http://www.armlessoctopus.com/2011/03/06/gdc-2011-successful-indie-developers-share-insight-on-microsofts-self-publishing-service/ There’s honestly so many posts and interviews you should just hit his front page and scroll down through all of the latest ones. http://www.armlessoctopus.com/ GameMarx Episode 12 http://www.gamemarx.com/video/the-show/27/ep-12-march-4-2011.aspx B.U.T.T.O.N now on Steam! http://www.gamesetwatch.com/2011/03/button_party_game_now_on_steam.php German Xbox Dashboard gets review program from GamePro http://www.armlessoctopus.com/2011/03/07/gamepo-indie-review-show-debuts-on-german-xbox-dashboard/ XboxIndies.com (one of the best XNA sites out there at this point!) continues to add review sites to it’s main review feed. (And don’t forget to play with that awesome XBLIG pivot control!) http://xboxindies.com/ Kris Steele of FunInfused Games shares early footage of his game World of Chalk http://twitter.com/#!/kriswd40/status/45007114371989504 Raymond Matthews of Darkstarmatryx reviews FunInfused Games Abduction Action http://www.darkstarmatryx.com/?p=264 TheVideoGamerRob reviews Zombie Football Carnage http://videogamerrob.wordpress.com/2011/03/08/xblig-review-zombie-football-carnage/ XBLIG Square Off Making the Jump to WP7 http://www.wp7connect.com/2011/03/08/xblig-square-off-will-make-the-jump-to-windows-phone/ Mommy’s Best Games making the news round with their Serious Sam announcement http://www.joystiq.com/2011/03/09/serious-sam-gets-serious-indie-cred-with-new-indie-series/ Most quoted and linked XBLIG article of the week with the least amount of actual facts and reporting. Shared only because it makes me sad that this is the best coverage we get. (Hey reporters, there’s LOT and LOTS of XBLIG and XNA experts you can contact if you need to check up on facts or wonder why on questions like, Why can’t XBLIGs have Nazis? There’s actually a real answer for that..) http://www.joystiq.com/2011/03/06/xblig-facts-nazi-killing-a-no-no-revenue-a-yes-yes/ XNA Development: Mort8088 has been in an XNA tutorial writing frenzy releasing 4 XNA 4.0 entry level tutorials this week! http://mort8088.com/2011/03/06/xna-4-0-tutorial-0-intro/ http://mort8088.com/2011/03/06/xna-4-0-tutorial-1-fonts/ http://mort8088.com/2011/03/06/xna-4-0-tutorial-2-sprites/ http://mort8088.com/2011/03/06/xna-4-0-tutorial-3-input-from-keyboard/ Interesting discussion on what it means to be a community (you do have to sign up to be a member of the XNA UK forums to read it...) http://twitter.com/#!/XNAUK/status/44705269254594560 Slyprid continues his incredible pace on Transmute and shares screens of his new Animation Builder http://twitter.com/#!/slyprid/status/45169271847911424 http://forgottenstarstudios.com/blog/ Philippe Da Silva wants to know who is using IGF for their games. If it’s you, drop him a note letting him know! http://twitter.com/#!/philippedasilva/status/44325893719588864 New Sunburn Video Tutorials released http://www.synapsegaming.com/blogs/fivesidedbarrel/archive/2011/03/07/new-documentation-video-tutorials.aspx Loading and rendering animated collada models using XNA 4.0 http://bunkernetz.wordpress.com/2011/03/09/loading-and-rendering-animated-collada-models-using-xna-4-0/ XNA for Silverlight Developers Part 6 Accelerometer Input http://buzzgamesnews.blogspot.com/2011/03/xna-for-silverlight-developers-part-6.html

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  • The True Cost of a Solution

    - by D'Arcy Lussier
    I had a Twitter chat recently with someone suggesting Oracle and SQL Server were losing out to OSS (Open Source Software) in the enterprise due to their issues with scaling or being too generic (one size fits all). I challenged that a bit, as my experience with enterprise sized clients has been different – adverse to OSS but receptive to an established vendor. The response I got was: Found it easier to influence change by showing how X can’t solve our problems or X is extremely costly to scale. Money talks. I think this is definitely the right approach for anyone pitching an alternate or alien technology as part of a solution: identify the issue, identify the solution, then present pros and cons including a cost/benefit analysis. What can happen though is we get tunnel vision and don’t present a full view of the costs associated with a solution. An “Acura”te Example (I’m so clever…) This is my dream vehicle, a Crystal Black Pearl coloured Acura MDX with the SH-AWD package! We’re a family of 4 (5 if my daughters ever get their wish of adding a dog), and I’ve always wanted a luxury type of vehicle, so this is a perfect replacement in a few years when our Rav 4 has hit the 8 – 10 year mark. MSRP – $62,890 But as we all know, that’s not *really* the cost of the vehicle. There’s taxes and fees added on, there’s the extended warranty if I choose to purchase it, there’s the finance rate that needs to be factored in… MSRP –   $62,890 Taxes –      $7,546 Warranty - $2,500 SubTotal – $72,936 Finance Charge – $ 1094.04 Grand Total – $74,030 Well! Glad we did that exercise – we discovered an extra $11k added on to the MSRP! Well now we have our true price…or do we? Lifetime of the Vehicle I’m expecting to have this vehicle for 7 – 10 years. While the hard cost of the vehicle is known and dealt with, the costs to run and maintain the vehicle are on top of this. I did some research, and here’s what I’ve found: Fuel and Mileage Gas prices are high as it is for regular fuel, but getting into an MDX will require that I *only* purchase premium fuel, which comes at a premium price. I need to expect my bill at the pump to be higher. Comparing the MDX to my 2007 Rav4 also shows I’ll be gassing up more often. The Rav4 has a city MPG of 21, while the MDX plummets to 16! The MDX does have a bigger fuel tank though, so all in all the number of times I hit the pumps might even out. Still, I estimate I’ll be spending approximately $8000 – $10000 more on gas over a 10 year period than my current Rav4. Service Options Limited Although I have options with my Toyota here in Winnipeg (we have 4 Toyota dealerships), I do go to my original dealer for any service work. Still, I like the fact that I have options. However, there’s only one Acura dealership in all of Winnipeg! So if, for whatever reason, I’m not satisfied with the level of service I’m stuck. Non Warranty Service Work Also let’s not forget that there’s a bulk of work required every year that is *not* covered under warranty – oil changes, tire rotations, brake pads, etc. I expect I’ll need to get new tires at the 5 years mark as well, which can easily be $1200 – $1500 (I just paid $1000 for new tires for the Rav4 and we’re at the 5 year mark). Now these aren’t going to be *new* costs that I’m not used to from our existing vehicles, but they should still be factored in. I’d budget $500/year, or $5000 over the 10 years I’ll own the vehicle. Final Assessment So let’s re-assess the true cost of my dream MDX: MSRP                    $62,890 Taxes                       $7,546 Warranty                 $2,500 Finance Charge         $1094 Gas                        $10,000 Service Work            $5000 Grand Total           $89,030 So now I have a better idea of 10 year cost overall, and I’ve identified some concerns with local service availability. And there’s now much more to consider over the original $62,890 price tag. Tying This Back to Technology Solutions The process that we just went through is no different than what organizations do when considering implementing a new system, technology, or technology based solution, within their environments. It’s easy to tout the short term cost savings of particular product/platform/technology in a vacuum. But its when you consider the wider impact that the true cost comes into play. Let’s create a scenario: A company is not happy with its current data reporting suite. An employee suggests moving to an open source solution. The selling points are: - Because its open source its free - The organization would have access to the source code so they could alter it however they wished - It provided features not available with the current reporting suite At first this sounds great to the management and executive, but then they start asking some questions and uncover more information: - The OSS product is built on a technology not used anywhere within the organization - There are no vendors offering product support for the OSS product - The OSS product requires a specific server platform to operate on, one that’s not standard in the organization All of a sudden, the true cost of implementing this solution is starting to become clearer. The company might save money on licensing costs, but their training costs would increase significantly – developers would need to learn how to develop in the technology the OSS solution was built on, IT staff must learn how to set up and maintain a new server platform within their existing infrastructure, and if a problem was found there was no vendor to contact for support. The true cost of implementing a “free” OSS solution is actually spinning up a project to implement it within the organization – no small cost. And that’s just the short-term cost. Now the organization must ensure they maintain trained staff who can make changes to the OSS reporting solution and IT staff that will stay knowledgeable in the new server platform. If those skills are very niche, then higher labour costs could be incurred if those people are hard to find or if trained employees use that knowledge as leverage for higher pay. Maybe a vendor exists that will contract out support, but then there are those costs to consider as well. And let’s not forget end-user training – in our example, anyone that runs reports will need to be trained on how to use the new system. Here’s the Point We still tend to look at software in an “off the shelf” kind of way. It’s very easy to say “oh, this product is better than vendor x’s product – and its free because its OSS!” but the reality is that implementing any new technology within an organization has a cost regardless of the retail price of the product. Training, integration, support – these are real costs that impact an organization and span multiple departments. Whether you’re pitching an improved business process, a new system, or a new technology, you need to consider the bigger picture costs of implementation. What you define as success (in our example, having better reporting functionality) might not be what others define as success if implementing your solution causes them issues. A true enterprise solution needs to consider the entire enterprise.

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  • TSM Backup Fails with VSS

    - by user176320
    Since we rebuilt our servers to windows servers 2008 x64 r2 we have perpetual problems with scheduled backup (shadow copy). In the Application event log, the following events are logged on both nodes: The description for Event ID 4112 from source TsmVssPlugin cannot be found. Either the component that raises this event is not installed on your local computer or the installation is corrupted. You can install or repair the component on the local computer. If the event originated on another computer, the display information had to be saved with the event. The following information was included with the event: VSS processing encountered error 'VSS_E_UNEXPECTED_PROVIDER_ERROR' in the Volume Shadow Copy API 'AddToSnapshotSet'. For more information, see the IBM Tivoli Storage Manager client error log. Re installing TSM didn't change anything and still logging same events. TSM Error log file shows following: ANS1327W The snapshot operation for 'C:' failed with error code: -1. ANS5250E An unexpected error was encountered. TSM function name : BaStartSnapshot TSM function : initializeSnapshotSet() failed, check Microsoft Application event log for VSS errors TSM return code : -1

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  • Any way to move Office Starter To-Go to a non-flash drive?

    - by Scott Bussinger
    Microsoft's Office Starter edition has an interesting option to create a portable version on a USB flash drive using the "Microsoft Office Starter To-Go Device Manager". This creates a portable version of the Word and Excel starter editions (limited versions of the normal applications that include ads). This would be great for use in Virtual Machines since it requires no registration and has a perpetual license. But I want to copy the files off of the flash drive and just store them in the VHD. The problem is that it appears when you try to run the office.exe executable from anywhere but the USB drive you get the error "Microsoft Office Starter To-Go cannot be launched because it is installed on an unsupported device." Any ideas what it is objecting to and is there a legal workaround for this? A limited but legal and portable version of Word and Excel is a great idea. But tying it specifically to a USB flash drive seems a bit odd. They don't seem to care how many of those flash drives you create so it's not clear what the restrictions are about.

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  • windows is unresponsive but works well in safe mode

    - by kacalapy
    I was installing a few utility apps and things when my laptop running windows 7 stopped responding. I tried to reboot and still very unresponsive... the mouse moves but i am unable to click on icons or open the start menu. eventually things catch up after over a minute. when i start in safe mode with networking support i am able to operate the laptop at lightening speed and web browsing is a dream. I ran msconfig and shut off all non windows services and still get the same thing. after no results i then got and ran spybot, malwarebytes, and other such tools but got no results. they all show nothing wrong. now what?

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  • transaction log shipping sql server 2005 to 2008

    - by Andrew Jahn
    I have a reporting setup with SSRS on our sql server 2005 database. Because sql server 2008 is not supported by the main program which populates our database we are stuck with 2005 on our prod database. Unfortunately when I run our weekly check reports the web interface constantly times out because the server cant do the conversion to PDF. I've read that sql server 2008's SSRS is ALOT better with memory management. I was wondering if I can do some kind transact log shipping subscription publication from 2005 to 2008? Am I chasing a dream here. Currently I have to open up the ssrs project in visual studio and run the reports inside because it doesn't ever time out when doing the pdf conversion, only times out if I try to run it through the ssis web interface.

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  • apt-get install phpmyadmin on debian doesn't install /etc/phpmyadmin/apache.conf

    - by Christian Nikkanen
    I'm trying to install phpmyadmin on my webserver, using this guide: http://www.howtoforge.com/ubuntu_debian_lamp_server I did that once, and it worked like a dream, but I hated the looks of phpmyadmin (maybe the oldest layout ever) and decided to delete it, and didn't know that deleting is done with apt-get remove phpmyadmin and did in phpmyadmin directory rm * and thought that it's done. However, as I can't find the debian build of phpmyadmin anywhere, I want to install it again, but when I add Include /etc/phpmyadmin/apache.conf to /etc/apache2/apache2.conf, and restart apache, it give's me this error: apache2: Syntax error on line 73 of /etc/apache2/apache2.conf: Could not open configuration file /etc/phpmyadmin/apache.conf: No such file or directory Action 'configtest' failed. The Apache error log may have more information. failed! No matter how I try, I always get this error, and phpmyadmin isn't there.

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  • Running own DNS Server for learning purpose

    - by sundar22in
    I would like to run my own DNS server in my laptop for learning purpose. I recently used Google Public DNS and liked it. I wanted to build some thing similar and small for my web browsing. What I vaguely dream of is to use my own DNS server as Primary DNS server and Google public DNS as secondary DNS server. I would like to build my own DNS server gradually by editing the configuration files (If it can be automated it will be great, but have no clues there). Sometimes it sounds like a stupid idea to me, but I am fine with editing config file for each site I want to add to my DNS server. Any pointers/suggestion is welcome.

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  • Bypass cache for mobile user agents, VARNISH+NGINX+W3CACHE

    - by Mike McGhee
    Right now I'm running Wordpress w/ W3 Cache on nginx with varnish front end. I'm trying to use the WP Touch Pro plugin for wordpress to display mobile sites, but it is not working. Shows the desktop theme still. I've put the mobile user agents in the rejected user agents box in w3 cache. Here is the nginx config w3 cache spit out: BEGIN W3TC Page Cache cache location ~ /wp-content/w3tc/pgcache.*html$ { expires modified 3600s; add_header X-Powered-By "W3 Total Cache/0.9.2.4"; add_header Vary "Accept-Encoding, Cookie"; } location ~ /wp-content/w3tc/pgcache.*gzip$ { gzip off; types {} default_type text/html; expires modified 3600s; add_header X-Powered-By "W3 Total Cache/0.9.2.4"; add_header Vary "Accept-Encoding, Cookie"; add_header Content-Encoding gzip; } # END W3TC Page Cache cache # BEGIN W3TC Browser Cache gzip on; gzip_types text/css application/x-javascript text/x-component text/richtext image/svg+xml text/plain text/xsd text/xsl text/xml image/x-icon; location ~ \.(css|js|htc)$ { expires 31536000s; add_header X-Powered-By "W3 Total Cache/0.9.2.4"; } location ~ \.(html|htm|rtf|rtx|svg|svgz|txt|xsd|xsl|xml)$ { expires 3600s; add_header X-Powered-By "W3 Total Cache/0.9.2.4"; } location ~ \.(asf|asx|wax|wmv|wmx|avi|bmp|class|divx|doc|docx|eot|exe|gif|gz|gzip|ico|jpg|jpeg|jpe|mdb|mid|midi|mov|qt|mp3|m4a|mp4|m4v|mpeg|mpg|mpe|mpp|otf|odb|odc|odf|odg|odp|ods|odt|ogg|pdf|png|pot|pps|ppt|pptx|ra|ram|svg|svgz|swf|tar|tif|tiff|ttf|ttc|wav|wma|wri|xla|xls|xlsx|xlt|xlw|zip)$ { expires 31536000s; add_header X-Powered-By "W3 Total Cache/0.9.2.4"; } # END W3TC Browser Cache # BEGIN W3TC Minify core rewrite ^/wp-content/w3tc/min/w3tc_rewrite_test$ /wp-content/w3tc/min/index.php?w3tc_rewrite_test=1 last; rewrite ^/wp-content/w3tc/min/(.+\.(css|js))$ /wp-content/w3tc/min/index.php?file=$1 last; # END W3TC Minify core # BEGIN W3TC Page Cache core rewrite ^(.*\/)?w3tc_rewrite_test$ $1?w3tc_rewrite_test=1 last; set $w3tc_rewrite 1; if ($request_method = POST) { set $w3tc_rewrite 0; } if ($query_string != "") { set $w3tc_rewrite 0; } if ($http_host != "mysite.com") { set $w3tc_rewrite 0; } set $w3tc_rewrite2 1; if ($request_uri !~ \/$) { set $w3tc_rewrite2 0; } if ($request_uri ~* "(sitemap(_index)?\.xml(\.gz)?|[a-z0-9_\-]+-sitemap([0-9]+)?\.xml(\.gz)?)") { set $w3tc_rewrite2 1; } if ($w3tc_rewrite2 != 1) { set $w3tc_rewrite 0; } set $w3tc_rewrite3 1; if ($request_uri ~* "(\/wp-admin\/|\/xmlrpc.php|\/wp-(app|cron|login|register|mail)\.php|\/feed\/|wp-.*\.php|index\.php)") { set $w3tc_rewrite3 0; } if ($request_uri ~* "(wp\-comments\-popup\.php|wp\-links\-opml\.php|wp\-locations\.php)") { set $w3tc_rewrite3 1; } if ($w3tc_rewrite3 != 1) { set $w3tc_rewrite 0; } if ($http_cookie ~* "(comment_author|wp\-postpass|wordpress_\[a\-f0\-9\]\+|wordpress_logged_in)") { set $w3tc_rewrite 0; } if ($http_user_agent ~* "(W3\ Total\ Cache/0\.9\.2\.4|iphone|ipod|ipad|aspen|incognito|webmate|android|dream|cupcake|froyo|blackberry9500|blackberry9520|blackberry9530|blackberry9550|blackberry\ 9800|blackberry\ 9780|webos|s8000|bada)") { set $w3tc_rewrite 0; } set $w3tc_ua ""; if ($http_user_agent ~* "(acer\ s100|android|archos5|blackberry9500|blackberry9530|blackberry9550|blackberry\ 9800|cupcake|docomo\ ht\-03a|dream|htc\ hero|htc\ magic|htc_dream|htc_magic|incognito|ipad|iphone|ipod|kindle|lg\-gw620|liquid\ build|maemo|mot\-mb200|mot\-mb300|nexus\ one|opera\ mini|samsung\-s8000|series60.*webkit|series60/5\.0|sonyericssone10|sonyericssonu20|sonyericssonx10|t\-mobile\ mytouch\ 3g|t\-mobile\ opal|tattoo|webmate|webos)") { set $w3tc_ua _high; } set $w3tc_ref ""; set $w3tc_ssl ""; set $w3tc_enc ""; if ($http_accept_encoding ~ gzip) { set $w3tc_enc _gzip; } set $w3tc_ext ""; if (-f "$document_root/wp-content/w3tc/pgcache/$request_uri/_index$w3tc_ua$w3tc_ref$w3tc_ssl.html$w3tc_enc") { set $w3tc_ext .html; } if ($w3tc_ext = "") { set $w3tc_rewrite 0; } if ($w3tc_rewrite = 1) { rewrite .* "/wp- content/w3tc/pgcache/$request_uri/_index$w3tc_ua$w3tc_ref$w3tc_ssl$w3tc_ext$w3tc_enc" last; } # END W3TC Page Cache core And here is what I have in my varnish vcl.. sub vcl_recv { # Add a unique header containing the client address remove req.http.X-Forwarded-For; set req.http.X-Forwarded-For = client.ip; # Device detection set req.http.X-Device = "desktop"; if ( req.http.User-Agent ~ "iP(hone|od|ad)" || req.http.User-Agent ~ "Android" ) { set req.http.X-Device = "smart"; } elseif ( req.http.User-Agent ~ "(SymbianOS|BlackBerry|SonyEricsson|Nokia|SAMSUNG|^LG)" ) { set req.http.X-Device = "cell"; } Any help is greatly appreciated, I've been banging my head against this for 2 days..

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  • Shrink a mounted LVM partition

    - by javanix
    I fear I already know the answer to this question, but here goes. I need to carve out a new partition on a running system. /var/ is mounted from an LVM volume (hdd1_vg-var) and has only 3% used disk space. / is mounted separately (hdd1_vg-root) and has about 80% used disk space. Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on /dev/**/hdd1_vg-root 2.0G 1.4G 481M 75% / /dev/**/hdd1_vg-var 33G 699M 31G 3% /var Unfortunately I don't have any free extents to grow this partition organically - vgdisplay shows: Total PE 10000 Alloc PE / Size 10000 / 39.06 GB Free PE / Size 0 / 0 So seeing that I have all this free disk space on /var/, can I shrink /var/ without un-mounting it or is this just a pipe dream? I am really hoping to be able to do this work on a running system - un-mounting would of course not be difficult but it would interfere with system functionality.

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  • Looking for a good Web Server that is cheap

    - by SoLoGHoST
    I am a Project Manager, and former Lead Developer for a software portal system that requires a forum software to run. I am in need of a server that is cheap, reliable, and supports the latest PHP (5.2+), MySQL, unlimited e-mails (preferably), a cPanel, multiple sub-domains (atleast 3+). Currently I am paying $34.95 USD/month (approx. $420 USD/year). This is too high for me to pay to keep the site running. I just recently became Project Manager and in charge of Finances and I'm extremely concerned for the future of Dream Portal. With those prices I'm not sure I'll be able to keep it running for too long. Can someone please tell me of a good server that meets all of the requirements that I listed above that is cheaper on a yearly basis? Note: Currently on a Dedicated Server with limited disk space at 15000 MB (15 GB), monthly bandwidth = 500000 MB, 50 emails limit, 20 sub-domains limit, 30 FTP accts., and 25 SQL Databases.

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  • Windows 8 Activation - Product ID: Not available

    - by Guy Thomas
    The situation: I downloaded Windows 8 RTM from MSDN (I have a subscription). Naturally, I downloaded the product key as well. Windows 8 installed like a dream: lightning fast with no problems. I accepted the product key at the beginning of the install. Next, I thought I would download Updates, but they failed, so I checked the system's activation in Control Panel System. Problem: It returned "Product ID: Not available." There's nothing under "Windows activation" that I can click on, no blue links. I had a 'Chat' with MSDN, who introduced me to SLUI.exe. On Windows 8 it did nothing. (On Windows 7 it is supposed to bring up the Activation Menu). I phoned the Microsoft Activation number, they told me to contact MSDN. MSDN left the 'chat' by telling me to contact Microsoft! Hmm... I wonder if anyone at SuperUser can help?

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  • How SSD hard drive affected speed of your website (asp.net/linq/ms sql database)

    - by Sergey Osypchuk
    I have a small database (<1G) But we have a lot of complex logi? in website and client complains on render time, which is 3-5 seconds. We are not google, and thousands of users a day is our dream, so size is not a problem, but speed is important. Can anybody share with experience with SSD drives for ASP.NET (MVC)/LINQ/MS SQL based application ? How you performance increased? UPDATE: this whitepaper states that it will be 20 times faster. http://www.texmemsys.com/files/f000174.pdf

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  • App store for Windows

    - by Renaud Bompuis
    I'm wondering if there is any good App Store for Windows. I stumbled on allmyApps, and this question, but surely there are more out there. My dream Windows App Store would do things like: Allow me to download and install software Allow me to pay for apps Check which apps are already registered on my machine and keep track of them Keep track of all my machines Keep track of available upgrades and easily deploy them. Let me discover new apps that may be useful I know this is utopian on the Windows platform since development, upgrading, purchasing are so fragmented, but the Apple Store, Chrome App store, etc do make your life easier. Just trying to find something to ease the pain a little bit... So, are there any good services/software out there that would help me achieve some of the listed goals?

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  • Windows port forwarding

    - by carlesso
    This is the scenario: A Windows XP client A Linux Server The client is natted/firewalled/unreacheable from outside, the linux server is public. I need to allow the client, once upon some conditions, to expose the remote desktop port (3389) on the Linux Server, somethig like ssh -R 3389:localhost:3389. I dream it as a service, or something like that so I can start and stop the "forwarding-session" on my needs. I've to pilot this session from some program-language (python or ruby mostly). Any hint? Thanks in advance.

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  • I use windows7 and am looking for a tool to help me tag/organize my bookmarks as well as my thoughts and projects.

    - by tomcat23
    I've got my bookmarks in Chrome currently, and am prone to just bookmarking something if it contains any info I may need for the project I'm currently working on. I had found a way to tag them with delicious and then get an export from that into a wordpress test server (with the tags), having a post for each bookmark, but this proved to be a bit of a waste of time, as there's no way to organize it well. Ideally I'd like to find some sort of mind-mapper with a Prezi-like view, that does auto tagging, excerpting and allows me to notate things effectively. Does my dream tool even exist? I've usually got 20+ tags open all at once because there may be something open on each I need to see/know to make my current project work. It's frustrating. Though I'm on Win7, I'm interested to hear about any tools that are out there that work to take your existing bookmarks and help you organize them productively.

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  • Hosing website on own server. What is Hardware requirement and Cost [closed]

    - by KuKu
    As i am about to finish my dream website, i need to host it on some server. I checked Amazon AWS Free Tier, i found it pretty complex. As i made full website in java(JSP + Servlet + mysql + Node.js), its been expensive to host. So i thought that why not to host on own server so that i will be fully dependent on my resources, not on any one else. And i know, in future i need to pay more and more to the other hosting company(because of uploading images and number of incoming users). So my question is, On initial stage what kind of hardware i will required. What can be the cost of that hardware? I already have 12MBPS broadband connection, will it be sufficient? It has static IP Address as well.

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  • I think I disabled IE8's compatibility view

    - by malatio
    I have an install of IE8 that doesn't have the compatibility view button next to the url bar. I vaguely remember during install that there was a question about whether it was to be available or not, I may have clicked no. Or maybe that was a dream. There are no options that I can see about it being available or not. Anyone know how to enable it? I'm about to try re-install but I'm hoping I can fix it without re-installing. Version: 8.0.6001.18702 ; Update Versions: 0

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  • Hardware recommendations for building an Ubuntu encrypted file server

    - by Robert Mashlan
    I would like to build a file server for my home network using Ubuntu. It will serve files from RAID1 configured disks, either in the OS or in hardware. It will be connected to a Gigabit ethernet LAN. The disks will use an encrypted file system. It will serve samba shares. I would like a recommendation on what kind of processing power/memory I would need to build a box that would be able to sustain the full capacity of the Gigabit ethernet connection in a file transfer for a single connection with the overhead of serving from an encrypted disk. I'm not looking to build a dream server, I just want enough processing capacity for high performance (and reliable) file sharing and spend as little as possible for it. This may be tangential, but what kind of hardware would I need to have a server be able to reliably go into a low power mode when no requests are being made of it?

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  • VGA passthrough and desktop virtualization

    - by Zacariaz
    In short, my dream is to have one machine with multiple paravirtualized desktop and server guests, one of which has to be a Windows desktop with powerful graphics. As Windows can't be paravirtualized in the normal sense of the word, I was quite happy when I heard about VGA passthrough, but then I read on. As I understand it, such a setup would mean that the Graphics will be dedicated to one particular guest, thus you wouldn't be able to switch between guests. If this is in fact so, would someone please explain to me what the purpose/use of VGA passthrough is? I can think of no real use for it. Yes it's a cool technology, but to me it seems pointless. It's true that it's possible to passthrough individual VMs to separate GPUs, which is also cool, but in the end I should think that two seperate computers would make life a whole lot simpler. Again it seems rather pointless.

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  • MVP Summit 2011 summary and thoughts: The &ldquo;I hope I don&rsquo;t cross a line and lose my MVP status&rdquo; post

    - by George Clingerman
    I've been wanting to write this post summarizing my thoughts about the MVP summit but have been dragging my feet since it's a very difficult one to write. However seeing Andy (http://forums.create.msdn.com/forums/t/77625.aspx) and Catalin (http://www.catalinzima.com/2011/03/mvp-summit-2011/) and Chris (http://geekswithblogs.net/cwilliams/archive/2011/03/07/144229.aspx) post about it has encouraged me to finally take the plunge. I'm going to have to write carefully though because I'm going to be dancing around a ton of NDA mine fields as well as having to walk the tight-rope of not sending the wrong message or having people read too much into what I'm saying. I want to note that most of what I'm about to say is just based on my observations, they're not thoughts that Microsoft has asked me to pass along and they're not things I heard Microsoft say. It's just me sharing what I think after going to the MVP summit. Let's start off with a short imaginary question and answer session.     Has the App Hub forums and XBLIG management been rather poor by Microsoft? Yes.     Do I think we're going to see changes to that overnight? No.     Will it continue to look bad from the outside? Somewhat. Confusing right? Well that's kind of how things are right now. Lots of confusion. XNA is doing AWESOME. Like, really, really awesome. As a result of that awesomeness, XNA is on three major platforms: Xbox 360, WP7 and PC. This means that internally Microsoft is really excited and invested in the technology. That's fantastic for XNA and really should show you the future the framework has. It's here to stay. So why are Xbox LIVE Indie Game developers feeling so much pain? The ironic thing is that pain is being caused by the success of XNA. When XNA was just a small thing, there was more freedom and more focus. It was just us and them. We were an only child. Now our family has grown and everyone has and wants some time with XNA. This gets XNA pulled in all directions and as it moves onto new platforms, it plays catch up trying to get those platforms up to speed to where Xbox LIVE Indie Games has grown. Forums, documentation, educational content. They all need to be there because Xbox LIVE Indie Games has all of that and more. Along with the catch up in features/documentation/awesomeness there's the catch up that the people on the team have to play. New platforms and new areas of development mean new players and those new guys don't have the history of being around from the beginning. This leads to a lack of understanding at times just how important some things are because they seem so small and insignificant (Rich Text defaulting for new forum profiles would be one things that jumps to mind). If you're not aware that the forums have become more than just a basic Q&A, if you're not aware that they're a central hub to a very active community, then you don't understand why that small change should be prioritized over something else. New people have to get caught up and figure out how to make a framework and central forum site work for everyone it's now serving. So yeah, a lot of our pain this last year has been simply that XNA is doing well and XBLIG is doing well so the focus was shifted to catch other things up. It hurts when a parent seems to not have any time for you and they're spending some much time with your new baby brother. Growing pains. All families and in our case our product family experience it to some degree. I think as WP7 matures we'll see the team figuring out how to give everyone the right amount of attention. While we're talking about some of our growing pains, it is also important to note (although not really an excuse) that the Xbox LIVE Arcade developers complain about many of the same things that we do. If you paid attention to talks and information coming out of GDC 2011, most of the the XBLA guys were saying things that sounded eerily similar to what the XBLIG developers are saying (Scott Nichols from GayGamer.net noticed http://twitter.com/#!/NaviFairyGG/status/43540379206811650). Does this mean we should just accept the status quo since we're being treated exactly the same? No way. However it DOES show that the way we're being treated is no indication of the stability and future of the platform, it's just Microsoft dropping the communication ball on two playing fields. We're not alone and we're not even being treated worse. Not great, but also in a weird way a very good sign. Now on to a few tidbits I think I CAN share from the summit (I'm really crossing my fingers I'm not stepping over some NDA line I shouldn't be). First, I discovered that the XBLIG user base is bigger than I personally had originally estimated. I won't give the exact numbers (although we did beg Microsoft to release some of these numbers so maybe someday?) but it was much larger than my original guestimates and I was pleasantly surprised. Maybe some of you guys had the right number when you were guessing, but I know that mine was much too low. And even MORE importantly the number of users/shoppers is growing at a steady pace as well. Our market is growing! That was fantastic news and really something that I had to share. On to the community manager discussion. It was mentioned. I was mentioned. I blushed. Nothing more to report there than the blush in my cheeks was a light crimson color. If I ever see a job description posted for that position I have a resume waiting in the wings. I can't deny that I think that would be my dream job... ...so after I finished blushing, the MVPs did make it very, very clear that the communication has to improve. Community manager or not the single biggest pain point with the Xbox LIVE Indie Game community has been a lack of communication. I have seen dramatic improvement in the team responding to MVPs and I'm even seeing more communication from them on the forums so I'm hoping that's a long term change. I really think they understood the issue, the problem remains how to open that communication channel in a way that was sustainable. I think they'll get it figured out and hopefully that's sooner rather than later. During the summit, you may have seen me tweeting about how I was "that guy" (http://twitter.com/#!/clingermangw/status/42740432471470081). You also may have noticed that Andy and Catalin both mentioned me in their summit write ups. I may have come on a bit strong while I was there...went a little out of character for myself. I've been agitated for a while with the way things have been and I've been listening to you guys and hearing you guys be agitated. I'm also watching some really awesome indie game developers looking elsewhere and leaving the platform. Some of them we might not have been able to keep even with changes, but others are only leaving because of perceptions and lack of communication from Microsoft. And that pisses me off. And I let Microsoft know that I was pissed off. You made your list and I took that list and verbalized it. I verbalized the hell out of it. [It was actually mentioned that I'm a lot nicer on the forums and in email than I am in person...I felt bad about that, but I couldn't stay silent]. Hopefully it did something guys, I really did try hard to get the message across. Along with my agitation, I also brought some pride. I mentioned several things in person to the team that I was particularly proud of. From people in the community that are doing an awesome job, to the re-launch of XboxIndies that was going on that week and even gamers like Steven Hurdle (http://writingsofmassdeduction.com/) who have purchased one XBLIG every day for over 100 days now. The community is freaking rocking it and I made sure to highlight that. So in conclusion, I'd just like to say hang in there (you know, like that picture of the cat). If you've been worried about investing in Xbox LIVE Indie Games because you think it's on shaky ground. It's not. Dream Build Play being about the Xbox 360 should have helped a little to point that out. The team is really scrambling around trying to figure things out and make improvements all around. There’s quite a few new gals and guys and it's going to take them time to catch up and there are a lot of constantly shifting priorities. We all have one toy, one team and we're fighting for time with it. It's also time for the community to continue spreading our wings and going out on our own more often. The Indie Game Winter Uprising was a fantastic example of that. We took things into our own hands and it got noticed and Microsoft got behind it. They do every time we stand up and do something (look at how many Microsoft employees tweeted, wrote about the re-launch of XboxIndies.com or the support I've gotten from them for my weekly XNA Notes). XNA is here to stay, it's time for us to stop being scared of that and figure out how to make our own games the successes they should be. There's definitely a list of things that need to be fixed, things that should be improved and I think we should definitely keep vocal about that with Microsoft. Keep it short, focused and prioritized. There's also a lot of things we can do ourselves while we're waiting on them to fix and change things. Lots of ways we can compensate for particular weaknesses in the channel. The kind of stuff that we can step up and do ourselves. Do it on our own, you know, the way Indies always do. And I'm really looking forward to watching us do just that.

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