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  • Relocating html elements with jquery

    - by Steven
    Could someone help me with this code? I'm trying to rearrange figures in a certain div into two columns (a and b) in such a way the two columns are about the same height. I've got insane trying to find the problem in my code and not finding it. It doesn't work for a reason... <body onload="rearrangeImages();"> <div class="images"> <figure> <figcaption>This is the figcaption of this figure. An image is missing for this test.</figcaption> </figure> <figure> <figcaption>This is the figcaption of this figure.</figcaption> </figure> <figure> <figcaption>Another one.</figcaption> </figure> </div> <script> function rearrangeImages() { $('.images').each(function() { $(this).prepend('<div class="column_b"></div>'); $(this).prepend('<div class="column_a"></div>'); $(this).append('<div class="test_div"></div>'); $('figure', this).each(function() { var height_a = $(this).parent().$(".column_a").height(); var height_b = $(this).parent().$(".column_b").height(); if (height_a > height_b) { $(this).parent().$(".column_b").append(this); } else { $(this).parent().$(".column_a").append(this); } $(this).remove(); }); }); } </script> </body> Next I would like to be able to make the last figure not going in any of the columns in case it would make column_b higher than column_a. (pseudocode) if (this is last figure) { //place last figure in test_div to measure its height; if (height_a > height_b + height_of_last_image) { $(this).parent().$(".column_b").append(this); } else { $(this).parent().append(this); } } else { //do the normal stuff see higher }

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  • Python: (sampling with replacement): efficient algorithm to extract the set of DISSIMILAR N-tuples from a set

    - by Homunculus Reticulli
    I have a set of items, from which I want to select DISSIMILAR tuples (more on the definition of dissimilar touples later). The set could contain potentially several thousand items, although typically, it would contain only a few hundreds. I am trying to write a generic algorithm that will allow me to select N items to form an N-tuple, from the original set. The new set of selected N-tuples should be DISSIMILAR. A N-tuple A is said to be DISSIMILAR to another N-tuple B if and only if: Every pair (2-tuple) that occurs in A DOES NOT appear in B Note: For this algorithm, A 2-tuple (pair) is considered SIMILAR/IDENTICAL if it contains the same elements, i.e. (x,y) is considered the same as (y,x). This is a (possible variation on the) classic Urn Problem. A trivial (pseudocode) implementation of this algorithm would be something along the lines of def fetch_unique_tuples(original_set, tuple_size): while True: # randomly select [tuple_size] items from the set to create first set # create a key or hash from the N elements and store in a set # store selected N-tuple in a container if end_condition_met: break I don't think this is the most efficient way of doing this - and though I am no algorithm theorist, I suspect that the time for this algorithm to run is NOT O(n) - in fact, its probably more likely to be O(n!). I am wondering if there is a more efficient way of implementing such an algo, and preferably, reducing the time to O(n). Actually, as Mark Byers pointed out there is a second variable m, which is the size of the number of elements being selected. This (i.e. m) will typically be between 2 and 5. Regarding examples, here would be a typical (albeit shortened) example: original_list = ['CAGG', 'CTTC', 'ACCT', 'TGCA', 'CCTG', 'CAAA', 'TGCC', 'ACTT', 'TAAT', 'CTTG', 'CGGC', 'GGCC', 'TCCT', 'ATCC', 'ACAG', 'TGAA', 'TTTG', 'ACAA', 'TGTC', 'TGGA', 'CTGC', 'GCTC', 'AGGA', 'TGCT', 'GCGC', 'GCGG', 'AAAG', 'GCTG', 'GCCG', 'ACCA', 'CTCC', 'CACG', 'CATA', 'GGGA', 'CGAG', 'CCCC', 'GGTG', 'AAGT', 'CCAC', 'AACA', 'AATA', 'CGAC', 'GGAA', 'TACC', 'AGTT', 'GTGG', 'CGCA', 'GGGG', 'GAGA', 'AGCC', 'ACCG', 'CCAT', 'AGAC', 'GGGT', 'CAGC', 'GATG', 'TTCG'] # Select 3-tuples from the original list should produce a list (or set) similar to: [('CAGG', 'CTTC', 'ACCT') ('CAGG', 'TGCA', 'CCTG') ('CAGG', 'CAAA', 'TGCC') ('CAGG', 'ACTT', 'ACCT') ('CAGG', 'CTTG', 'CGGC') .... ('CTTC', 'TGCA', 'CAAA') ] [[Edit]] Actually, in constructing the example output, I have realized that the earlier definition I gave for UNIQUENESS was incorrect. I have updated my definition and have introduced a new metric of DISSIMILARITY instead, as a result of this finding.

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  • I am unsure of how to access a persistence entity from a JSP page?

    - by pharma_joe
    Hi, I am just learning Java EE, I have created a Persistence entity for a User object, which is stored in the database. I am now trying to create a JSP page that will allow a client to enter a new User object into the System. I am unsure of how the JSP page interacts with the User facade, the tutorials are confusing me a little. This is the code for the facade: <html> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"> <title>Add User to System</title> </head> <body> <h2>Add User</h2> <h3>Please fill out the details to add a user to the system</h3> <form action=""> <label>Email:</label> <input type="text" name="email"><br /> <label>Password:</label> <input type="password" name="name"><br /> <label>Name:</label> <input type="text" name="name"><br /> <label>Address:</label> <input type="text" name="address"><br /> <label>Type:</label> <select name="type"> <option>Administrator</option> <option>Member</option> </select><br /> <input type="submit" value="Add" name="add"/> <input type="reset" value="clear" /> </form> </body> This is the code I have to add a new User object within the User facade class: @Stateless public class CinemaUserFacade { @PersistenceContext(unitName = "MonashCinema-warPU") private EntityManager em; public void create(CinemaUser cinemaUser) { em.persist(cinemaUser); } I am finding it a little difficult to get my head around the whole MVC thing, getting there but would appreciate it if someone could turn the light on for me!

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  • Command Not working in separate thread in J2me.

    - by RishiPatel
    I am creating a bluetooth application. I created a simple midlet with a exit command and i create a thread for finding the service and discovering the device. While doing so it displays a animated screen on which i added the parent commandListener for exit command. After successful connection both user is represented with greetings(Current screen calls the parent Display method setCurrent for displaying itself). This screen also have CommandListener set to the parent. Now i want to add few more commands. I Implemented the CommandLIstener Interface in this class, added few commands but the commands are not working. I dont whats wen wrong. I am giving u Code snippets to fully describle my issue : - package name Imports here public class MyMidlet extends MIDlet implements CommandListener { public CommandListener theListener; public Display theDisplay; public Command exitCommand; public MyMidlet() { // Retrieve the display for this MIDlet //Create the initial screen } public void startApp() throws MIDletStateChangeException { } public void pauseApp() { } public void destroyApp(boolean unconditional) { } public void commandAction(Command c, Displayable d) { // Determine if the exit command was selected if (c == exitCommand) { //End application here notifyDestroyed(); } else { //Start the new thread here } } } Now here is the code for the class which is invoked by the above midlet in a separate thread; package here; imports here public class MyService implements Runnable, CommandListener { private MyMidlet parent; private StreamConnection conn; private OutputStream output; private InputStream input; public Command sendCommand; private TextField messageToSend Form form; public BChatService(boolean isServer, BChatMidlet parent) { //some stuff here this.parent = parent; } public void run() { //functino for showing animation here try { input = conn.openInputStream(); output = conn.openOutputStream(); } catch (IOException e) { displayError("IO Error", "An error occurred while opening " + "the input and output streams" + "(IOException: " + e.getMessage() + ")"); try { conn.close(); } catch (Exception ex) { } return; } // Create the Form here when service is discoverd and greets the users Command sendCommand = new Command("Send", Command.ITEM, 2); exitCommand = new Command("Exit", Command.EXIT, 1); form.addCommand(exitCommand); form.addCommand(sendCommand); parent.theDisplay.setCurrent(form); form.setCommandListener(this); public void commandAction(Command c, Displayable d) { if (c == exitCommand) { // End the game parent.destroyApp(true); parent.notifyDestroyed(); } if(c == sendCommand) { form.append("SOme text here"); } } } When i select the Send command, the string doesnt append in form neither exit command works. What can be the possible cause for it?? I need to implement this functionality...Is there any other way to achieve this??

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  • making a password-only auth with bcrypt and mongoose

    - by user3081123
    I want to create service that let you login only with password. You type a password and if this password exists - you are logged in and if it's not - username is generated and password is encrypted. I'm having some misunderstandings and hope someone would help me to show where I'm mistaken. I guess, it would look somewhat like this in agularjs First we receive a password in login controller. $scope.signup = function() { var user = { password: $scope.password, }; $http.post('/auth/signup', user); }; Send it via http.post and get in in our node server file. We are provided with a compare password bcrypt function userSchema.methods.comparePassword = function(candidatePassword, cb) { bcrypt.compare(candidatePassword, this.password, function(err, isMatch) { if (err) return cb(err); cb(null, isMatch); }); }; So right now we are creating function to catch our http request app.post('/auth/signup', function(req, res, next) { Inside we use a compair password function to realize if such password exists or not yet. So we have to encrypt a password with bcrypt to make a comparison First we hash it same way as in .pre var encPass; bcrypt.genSalt(10, function(err, salt) { if (err) return next(err); bcrypt.hash(req.body.password, salt, function(err, hash) { if (err) return next(err); encPass=hash; )}; )}; We have encrypted password stored in encPass so now we follow to finding a user in database with this password User.findOne({ password: encPass }, function(err, user) { if (user) { //user exists, it means we should pass an ID of this user to a controller to display it in a view. I don't know how. res.send({user.name}) //like this? How should controller receive this? With $http.post? } else { and now if user doesn't exist - we should create it with user ID generated by my function var nUser = new User({ name: generId(), password: req.body.password }); nUser.save(function(err) { if (err) return next(err); )}; )}; )}; Am I doing anything right? I'm pretty new to js and angular. If so - how do I throw a username back at controller? If someone is interested - this service exists for 100+ symbol passphrases so possibility of entering same passphrase as someone else is miserable. And yeah, If someone logged in under 123 password - the other guy will log in as same user if he entered 123 password, but hey, you are warned to make a big passphrase. So I'm confident about the idea and I only need a help with understanding and realization.

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  • Tokenizing a string with variable whitespace

    - by Ron Holcomb
    I've read through a few threads detailing how to tokenize strings, but I'm apparently too thick to adapt their suggestions and solutions into my program. What I'm attempting to do is tokenize each line from a large (5k+) line file into two strings. Here's a sample of the lines: 0 -0.11639404 9.0702948e-05 0.00012207031 0.0001814059 0.051849365 0.00027210884 0.062103271 0.00036281179 0.034423828 0.00045351474 0.035125732 The difference I'm finding between my lines and the other sample input from other threads is that I have a variable amount of whitespace between the parts that I want to tokenize. Anyways, here's my attempt at tokenizing: #include <iostream> #include <iomanip> #include <fstream> #include <string> using namespace std; int main(int argc, char *argv[]) { ifstream input; ofstream output; string temp2; string temp3; input.open(argv[1]); output.open(argv[2]); if (input.is_open()) { while (!input.eof()) { getline(input, temp2, ' '); while (!isspace(temp2[0])) getline(input, temp2, ' '); getline (input, temp3, '\n'); } input.close(); cout << temp2 << endl; cout << temp3 << endl; return 0; } I've clipped it some, since the troublesome bits are here. The issue that I'm having is that temp2 never seems to catch a value. Ideally, it should get populated with the first column of numbers, but it doesn't. Instead, it is blank, and temp3 is populated with the entire line. Unfortunately, in my course we haven't learned about vectors, so I'm not quite sure how to implement them in the other solutions for this I've seen, and I'd like to not just copy-paste code for assignments to get things work without actually understanding it. So, what's the extremely obvious/already been answered/simple solution I'm missing? I'd like to stick to standard libraries that g++ uses if at all possible.

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  • Can I use WCF to replace my current Web Service and Window Service combination?

    - by gun_shy
    I need a little bit of advise regarding the situation I am faced with. The current arrangement I have been tasked with improving just doesn't sit well with me and I feel like there is a better way to do it. The more I read about WCF, the more I get the feeling that it might be what I am looking for. Right now, I have an asp.net client, a .net web service, a windows service, a ms sql database, and a third party application that is used for processing a group of 'project' files into a finalized file. Since the third party application can only handle processing one 'project' at a time, the combination of the web service, window service, and database have been arranged to create a job queue manager for the third party application. The client sends a zip 'project' file containing multiple sub files to the web service. The web service adds a new 'project' line to the database, generating a unique job id. The zip file is expanded to a folder location on the server using the job id as the folder name. The web service then returns the job id to the client. The client will use this id to poll the web service for the status of the job submitted. When the job is complete, the client will request the processed file. The windows service polls the database every x minutes. If a new job exists, the service will pull the oldest job and send it to the third party app for processing. If the processing succeeds, the window service updates the project line in the database, marking the job complete. The window service will continue to process any non complete jobs in the database until there are no more. When it stops finding any jobs, it will sleep x minutes and then poll the database again. I do not like the fact that the window service has to poll the database. If there is only one job submitted, the client will have to wait for the window service to poll and then wait while the 'project' is being processed. It seems like WCF could be used to combine the web and window services using a combination of the InstanceContextMode.Single and ConcurrencyMode.Multiple. So far, I have been unable to find any articles or examples that would point me in the right direction. Can WCF be utilized to accomplish the job queue logic of the current arrangement in a better way? As always, any help is more than appreciated.

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  • Java: Is there a way to efficiently insert or remove many elements from the middle of a LinkedList?

    - by allyourcode
    I was expecting to find this in Java's LinkedList, since the point of linked lists is to be able to efficiently insert (and remove) anywhere (assuming you have some kind of pointer to the location where you want to insert or remove). I'm not finding anything in the API though. Am I overlooking something? The closest thing I can find to this are the add and remove method in ListIterator. This has some limitations though. In particular, other iterators become invalid as soon as the underlying LinkedList is modified via remove, according to the API. This is born out in my tests as well; the following program results in a IllegalStateException: import java.util.*; public class RemoveFromLinkedList { public static void main(String[] args) { LinkedList<Integer> myList= new LinkedList<Integer>(); for (int i = 0; i < 10; ++i) { myList.add(i); } ListIterator<Integer> i1 = myList.listIterator(); ListIterator<Integer> i2 = myList.listIterator(); for (int i = 0; i < 3; ++i) { i1.next(); i2.next(); } System.out.println("i1.next() should be 3: " + i1.next()); i1.remove(); i1.remove(); // Exception! System.out.println("i2.next() should be 5: " + i2.next()); } } Ideally, what I'm expecting is something like this: // In my imagination only. This is the way Java actually works, afaict. // Construct two insertion/deletion points in LinkedList myLinkedList. myIterator = myLinkedList.iterator(); for (...) { myIterator.next(); } start = myIterator.clone(); for (...) { myIterator.next(); } // Later... after = myLinkedList.spliceAfter(myIterator, someOtherLinkedList); // start, myIterator, and after are still all valid; thus, I can do this: // Removes everything I just spliced in, as well as some other stuff before that. myLinkedList.remove(start, after); // Now, myIterator is invalid, but not start, nor after. C++ has something like this for its list class (template). Only iterators pointing to moved elements become invalidated, not ALL iterators.

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  • prolog sets problem, stack overflow

    - by garm0nboz1a
    Hi. I'm gonna show some code and ask, what could be optimized and where am I sucked? sublist([], []). sublist([H | Tail1], [H | Tail2]) :- sublist(Tail1, Tail2). sublist(H, [_ | Tail]) :- sublist(H, Tail). less(X, X, _). less(X, Z, RelationList) :- member([X,Z], RelationList). less(X, Z, RelationList) :- member([X,Y], RelationList), less(Y, Z, RelationList), \+less(Z, X, RelationList). lessList(X, LessList, RelationList) :- findall(Y, less(X, Y, RelationList), List), list_to_set(List, L), sort(L, LessList), !. list_mltpl(List1, List2, List) :- findall(X, ( member(X, List1), member(X, List2)), List). chain([_], _). chain([H,T | Tail], RelationList) :- less(H, T, RelationList), chain([T|Tail], RelationList), !. have_inf(X1, X2, RelationList) :- lessList(X1, X1_cone, RelationList), lessList(X2, X2_cone, RelationList), list_mltpl(X1_cone, X2_cone, Cone), chain(Cone, RelationList), !. relations(List, E) :- findall([X1,X2], (member(X1, E), member(X2, E), X1 =\= X2), Relations), sublist(List, Relations). semilattice(List, E) :- forall( (member(X1, E), member(X2, E), X1 < X2), have_inf(X1, X2, List) ). main(E) :- relations(X, E), semilattice(X, E). I'm trying to model all possible graph sets of N elements. Predicate relations(List, E) connects list of possible graphs(List) and input set E. Then I'm describing semilattice predicate to check relations' List for some properties. So, what I have. 1) semilattice/2 is working fast and clear ?- semilattice([[1,3],[2,4],[3,5],[4,5]],[1,2,3,4,5]). true. ?- semilattice([[1,3],[1,4],[2,3],[2,4],[3,5],[4,5]],[1,2,3,4,5]). false. 2) relations/2 is working not well ?- findall(X, relations(X,[1,2,3,4]), List), length(List, Len), writeln(Len),fail. 4096 false. ?- findall(X, relations(X,[1,2,3,4,5]), List), length(List, Len), writeln(Len),fail. ERROR: Out of global stack ^ Exception: (11) setup_call_catcher_cleanup('$bags':'$new_findall_bag'(17852886), '$bags':fa_loop(_G263, user:relations(_G263, [1, 2, 3, 4|...]), 17852886, _G268, []), _G835, '$bags':'$destroy_findall_bag'(17852886)) ? abort % Execution Aborted 3) Mix of them to finding all possible semilattice does not work at all. ?- main([1,2]). ERROR: Out of local stack ^ Exception: (15) setup_call_catcher_cleanup('$bags':'$new_findall_bag'(17852886), '$bags':fa_loop(_G41, user:less(1, _G41, [[1, 2], [2, 1]]), 17852886, _G52, []), _G4767764, '$bags':'$destroy_findall_bag'(17852886)) ?

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  • elisp: posn-at-point returns nil after goto-char. How to update the display before posn-at-point?

    - by Cheeso
    In emacs lisp, posn-at-point is documented as: posn-at-point is a built-in function in C source code. (posn-at-point &optional POS WINDOW) . Return position information for buffer POS in WINDOW. POS defaults to point in WINDOW; WINDOW defaults to the selected window. . Return nil if position is not visible in window. Otherwise, the return value is similar to that returned by event-start for a mouse click at the upper left corner of the glyph corresponding to the given buffer position: (WINDOW AREA-OR-POS (X . Y) TIMESTAMP OBJECT POS (COL . ROW) IMAGE (DX . DY) (WIDTH . HEIGHT)) The posn- functions access elements of such lists. ok, now I've got a function that looks something like this: (defun my-move-and-popup-menu () "move the point, then pop up a menu." (goto-char xxxx) (setq p (posn-at-point)) (my-popup-menu p ...) ) Basically, move the point, then retrieve the screen position at that point, and then popup a menu at that screen position. But I am finding that posn-at-point returns non-nil, only if the xxxx character position (the after position) is visible in the window, before the call to goto-char. It seems that the position is not actually updated until exit from the function. If goto-char goes a long way, more than one screenful, then the retrieved position is always nil, and my code doesn't know where to popup the menu. The reason I suggest that the position is not actually updated until exit from the function - when the menu successfully pops up, the cursor is clearly visible in its previous location while the popup menu is being displayed. When I dismiss the menu, the cursor moves to where I expected it to move, after the goto-char call. How can I get the position to be really updated, between goto-char and posn-at-point, so that posn-at-point will not return nil? In a Windows Forms application I would call Form.Update() or something similar to update the display in the middle of an event handler. What's the emacs version of that?

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  • ODBC: when is the best time to create my database?

    - by mawg
    I have a windows program which generates PGP forms which will be filled in later. Those PHP forms will populate a database. It looks very much like MySql, but I can't be certain, so let's call it ODBC. And, yes, it does have to be a windows program. There will also be PHP forms which query the database - examine which tables and fields it contains and then generates forms which can be used to search the database (e.g, it finds a table with fields "employee_name", etc and generates a form which lets you search based on employee name. Let's call that design time and run time. At design time, some manager or IT guy or similar gets to define the nature of the database and at runtime 1) a worker fills in the form daily and 2) management can extract reports. Here's my question: given that the database is defined at "design time" (and populated at run time), where and how is best to do so? 1 I could use an ODBC interface from the windows program, but I am having difficulty finding something good to work with Delphi. Things like ADO and firebird tend to expect you to already have a database and allow you to manipulate it, but I can find no code example of how to create a database and some tables, so ... 2 I could used DOS commands from Delphi in my windows program. I just tried and got a response to MySql --version, but am not sure if MySql etc are more interactive. That is, can I use a script file or a very long stacked command with semicolons and returns separating? e.g 'CREATE DATABASE db; CREATE TABLE t1;' 3) Since the best way to work with databases seems to be PHP, perhaps my windows program could spit out a PHP page which would, when run in a browser, create the database. I have tried to make this as uncomplicated as I can, but please feel free to ask questions. It may be that there are several valid ways, but there is probably one 'better' solution in terms of ease of implementation or maintenance. Better scratch option 3. What if the user later wants to come back and have the windows program change the input form? It needs to update the database too.

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  • Javascript auto calculating with (+) and (-)

    - by Josh
    I need some help finding the error in my javascript calculation. I need to calculate the sum of my input boxes automatically and have my user be able to edit the calculation using + or - buttons. The code I have already does the calculation automatically if you manually enter the numbers, but pressing the + or - does not change the calculation. Here is the code: <html> <head> <script language="javascript"> function Calc(className){ var elements = document.getElementsByClassName(className); var total = 0; for(var i = 0; i < elements.length; ++i){ total += parseInt(elements[i].value); } document.form0.total.value = total; } function addone(field) { field.value = Number(field.value) + 1; } function subtractone(field) { field.value = Number(field.value) - 1; } </script> </head> <body> <form name="form0" id="form0"> 1: <input type="text" name="box1" id="box1" class="add" value="0" onKeyUp="Calc('add')" onChange="updatesum()" onClick="this.focus();this.select();" /> <input type="button" value=" + " onclick="addone(box1);"> <input type="button" value=" - " onclick="subtractone(box1);"> <br /> 2: <input type="text" name="box2" id="box2" class="add" value="0" onKeyUp="Calc('add')" onClick="this.focus();this.select();" /> <input type="button" value=" + " onclick="addone(box2);"> <input type="button" value=" - " onclick="subtractone(box2);"> <br /> 3: <input type="text" name="box3" id="box3" class="add" value="0" onKeyUp="Calc('add')" onClick="this.focus();this.select();" /> <input type="button" value=" + " onclick="addone(box3);"> <input type="button" value=" - " onclick="subtractone(box3);"> <br /> <br /> Total: <input readonly style="border:0px; font-size:14; color:red;" id="total" name="total"> </form> </body></html> Im sure the issue must be small, I just cant put my finger on it.

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  • No warning from gcc when function definition in linked source different from function prototype in h

    - by c_c
    Hi, I had a problem with a part of my code, which after some iterations seemed to read NaN as value of a int of a struct. I think I found the error, but am still wondering why gcc (version 3.2.3 on a embedded Linux with busybox) did not warn me. Here are the important parts of the code: A c file and its header for functions to acquire data over USB: // usb_control.h typedef struct{ double mean; short *values; } DATA_POINTS; typedef struct{ int size; DATA_POINTS *channel1; //....7 more channels } DATA_STRUCT; DATA_STRUCT *create_data_struct(int N); // N values per channel int free_data_struct(DATA_STRUCT *data); int aqcu_data(DATA_STRUCT *data, int N); A c and header file with helper function (math, bitshift,etc...): // helper.h int mean(DATA_STRUCT *data); // helper.c (this is where the error is obviously) double mean(DATA_STRUCT *data) { // sum in for loop data->channel1->mean = sum/data->N; // ...7 more channels // a printf here displayed the mean values corretly } The main file // main.c #include "helper.h" #include "usb_control.h" // Allocate space for data struct DATA_STRUCT *data = create_data_struct(N); // get data for different delays for (delay = 0; delay < 500; delay += pw){ acqu_data(data, N); mean(data); // printf of the mean values first is correct. Than after 5 iterations // it is always NaN for channel1. The other channels are displayed correctly; } There were no segfaults nor any other missbehavior, just the NaN for channel1 in the main file. After finding the error, which was not easy, it was of course east to fix. The return type of mean(){} was wrong in the definition. Instead of double mean() it has to be int mean() as the prototype defines. When all the functions are put into one file, gcc warns me that there is a redefinition of the function mean(). But as I compile each c file seperately and link them afterwards gcc seems to miss that. So my questions would be. Why didn't I get any warnings, even non with gcc -Wall? Or is there still another error hidden which is just not causing problems now? Regards, christian

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  • Indexing with pointer C/C++

    - by Leavenotrace
    Hey I'm trying to write a program to carry out newtons method and find the roots of the equation exp(-x)-(x^2)+3. It works in so far as finding the root, but I also want it to print out the root after each iteration but I can't get it to work, Could anyone point out my mistake I think its something to do with my indexing? Thanks a million :) #include <stdio.h> #include <math.h> #include <malloc.h> //Define Functions: double evalf(double x) { double answer=exp(-x)-(x*x)+3; return(answer); } double evalfprime(double x) { double answer=-exp(-x)-2*x; return(answer); } double *newton(double initialrt,double accuracy,double *data) { double root[102]; data=root; int maxit = 0; root[0] = initialrt; for (int i=1;i<102;i++) { *(data+i)=*(data+i-1)-evalf(*(data+i-1))/evalfprime(*(data+i-1)); if(fabs(*(data+i)-*(data+i-1))<accuracy) { maxit=i; break; } maxit=i; } if((maxit+1==102)&&(fabs(*(data+maxit)-*(data+maxit-1))>accuracy)) { printf("\nMax iteration reached, method terminated"); } else { printf("\nMethod successful"); printf("\nNumber of iterations: %d\nRoot Estimate: %lf\n",maxit+1,*(data+maxit)); } return(data); } int main() { double root,accuracy; double *data=(double*)malloc(sizeof(double)*102); printf("NEWTONS METHOD PROGRAMME:\nEquation: f(x)=exp(-x)-x^2+3=0\nMax No iterations=100\n\nEnter initial root estimate\n>> "); scanf("%lf",&root); _flushall(); printf("\nEnter accuracy required:\n>>"); scanf("%lf",&accuracy); *data= *newton(root,accuracy,data); printf("Iteration Root Error\n "); printf("%d %lf \n", 0,*(data)); for(int i=1;i<102;i++) { printf("%d %5.5lf %5.5lf\n", i,*(data+i),*(data+i)-*(data+i-1)); if(*(data+i*sizeof(double))-*(data+i*sizeof(double)-1)==0) { break; } } getchar(); getchar(); free(data); return(0); }

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  • How to get latest files in C#

    - by Newbie
    I have some files with same name but with different dates. Basically we are finding the files with most recent dates The file patterns are <FileNames><YYYYMMDD><FileExtension> e.g. test_20100506.xls indicates <FileNames> = test_ <YYYYMMDD> = 20100506 <FileExtension> = .xls Now in the source folder, the files are standardization_20100503.xls, standardization_20100504.xls, standardization_20100305.xls, replacement_20100505.xls As can be seen that, standardization_.xls are 3 in numbers but replacement_.xls is only 1. The output will be a list of file names whose content will be standardization_20100504.xls and replacement_20100505.xls Because among all the standardization_.xls is the most recent one and replacement_.xls is also the same. I have tried with my own logic but somehow failed. My idea is as under private static void GetLatestFiles(ref List<FileInfo> validFiles) { List<FileInfo> validFilesTemp = new List<FileInfo>(); for (int i = 0; i < validFiles.Count; i++) { for (int j = i+1; j < validFiles.Count; j++) { string getFileTextX = ExtractText(validFiles[i].Name); string getFileTextY = ExtractText(validFiles[j].Name); if (getFileTextX == getFileTextY) { int getFileDatesX = Convert.ToInt32(ExtractNumbers(validFiles[i].Name)); int getFileDatesY = Convert.ToInt32(ExtractNumbers(validFiles[j].Name)); if (getFileDatesX > getFileDatesY) { validFilesTemp.Add(validFiles[i]); } else { validFilesTemp.Add(validFiles[j]); } } } } validFiles.Clear(); validFiles = validFilesTemp; } The ExtractNumbers is: public static string ExtractNumbers(string expr) { return string.Join(null, System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex.Split(expr, "[^\\d]")); } and the ExtractText is public static string ExtractText(string expr) { return string.Join(null, System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex.Split(expr, "[\\d]")); } I am using c#3.0 and framework 3.5 Help needed .. it's very urgent Thanks .

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  • Asyncronous While Loop?

    - by o7th Web Design
    I have a pretty great SqlDataReader wrapper in which I can map the output into a strongly typed list. What I am finding now is that on larger datasets with larger numbers of columns, performance could probably be a bit better if I can optimize my mapping. In thinking about this there is one section in particular that I am concerned about as it seems to be the heaviest hitter: while (_Rdr.Read()) { T newObject = new T(); for (int i = 0; i <= _Rdr.FieldCount - 1; ++i) { PropertyInfo info = (PropertyInfo)_ht[_Rdr.GetName(i).ToUpper()]; if ((info != null) && info.CanWrite) { info.SetValue(newObject, (_Rdr.GetValue(i) is DBNull) ? default(T) : _Rdr.GetValue(i), null); } } _en.Add(newObject); } _Rdr.Close(); What I would really like to know, is if there is a way that I can make this loop asyncronous? I feel that will make all the difference in the world with this beast :) Here is the entire Map method in case anyone can see where I can make further improvements on it... IList<T> Map<T> // Map our datareader object to a strongly typed list private static IList<T> Map<T>(IDataReader _Rdr) where T : new() { try { Type _t = typeof(T); List<T> _en = new List<T>(); Hashtable _ht = new Hashtable(); PropertyInfo[] _props = _t.GetProperties(); Parallel.ForEach(_props, info => { _ht[info.Name.ToUpper()] = info; }); while (_Rdr.Read()) { T newObject = new T(); for (int i = 0; i <= _Rdr.FieldCount - 1; ++i) { PropertyInfo info = (PropertyInfo)_ht[_Rdr.GetName(i).ToUpper()]; if ((info != null) && info.CanWrite) { info.SetValue(newObject, (_Rdr.GetValue(i) is DBNull) ? default(T) : _Rdr.GetValue(i), null); } } _en.Add(newObject); } _Rdr.Close(); return _en; }catch(Exception ex){ _Msg += "Wrapper.Map Exception: " + ex.Message; ErrorReporting.WriteEm.WriteItem(ex, "o7th.Class.Library.Data.Wrapper.Map", _Msg); return default(IList<T>); } }

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  • aligning divs in <td> to top of <td>

    - by twitter
    update: added jsfiddle: http://jsfiddle.net/WgzgF/11/ I have a table with a bunch of <td>. Each td has a div .tdcont which is like a wrapper of all content in that td. In .tdcont, I have 2 groups of divs .alwaystop and .below-at. <td class="table-td"> <div class="tdcont"> <div class="alwaystop"> <div class="at1">at1</div> <div class="at2">at2</div> <div class="at3">at3</div> </div> <div class="below-at"> <div class="bat1">bat1</div> <div class="bat2">bat2</div> <div class="bat3">bat3</div> </div> </div> </td> The problem I'm having is that alwaystop is supposed to align itself to the top border of the cell and below-at is supposed to come right under it like this _____________________________________________________ at1 at2 at3 | at1 at2 at3 | at1 at2 at3 | bat1 bat2 bat3 | bat1 bat2 bat3 | bat1 bat2 bat3 | small image here | big image here | | | is taking lots | | | of space | | __________________|_________________|________________| What I'm finding is that alwaystop and below-at center themselves vertically like you see in this fiddle http://jsfiddle.net/WgzgF/11/ so if one of the adjacent cells in this row is long, alwaystop centers itself to this row's height like this _____________________________________________________ | at1 at2 at3 | | | bat1 bat2 bat3 | | at1 at2 at3 | big image here | at1 at2 at3 | bat1 bat2 bat3 | is taking lots | bat1 bat2 bat3 | small image here | of space | | __________________|_________________|________________| What I want to do is make alwaystop always start from the top of the cell regardless of adjacent cells' heights, then the below-at comes under it. How can I do this? I should add that I have the content of alwaystop is floated left, so is the content of below-at, so they're supposed to be like 2 rows inside that td. .at1, .at2, .at3{ float:left; } .bat1, .bat2, .bat3{ float:left; } The css for alwaystop and below-at is empty. I tried a whole bunch of stuff like vertical-align and absolute positioning, but nothing worked and I just gave up and deleted them. .alwaystop{ } .below-at{ }

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  • OCR anything with OneNote 2007 and 2010

    - by Matthew Guay
    Quality OCR software can often be very expensive, but you may have one already installed on your computer that you didn’t know about.  Here’s how you can use OneNote to OCR anything on your computer. OneNote is one of the overlooked gems in recent versions of Microsoft Office.  OneNote makes it simple to take notes and keep track of everything with integrated search, and offers more features than its popular competitor Evernote.  One way it is better is its high quality optical character recognition (OCR) engine.  One of Evernote’s most popular features is that you can search for anything, including text in an image, and you can easily find it.  OneNote takes this further, and instantly OCRs any text in images you add.  Then, you can use this text easily and copy it from the image.  Let’s see how this works and how you can use OneNote as the ultimate OCR. Please Note: This feature is available in OneNote 2007 and 2010.  OneNote 2007 is included with Office 2007 Home and Student, Enterprise, and Ultimate, while OneNote 2010 is included with all edition of Office 2010 except for Starter edition. OCR anything First, let’s add something to OCR into OneNote.  There are many different ways you can add items to OCR into OneNote.  Open a blank page or one you want to insert something into, and then follow these steps to add what you want into OneNote. Picture Simply drag-and-drop a picture with text into a notebook… You can insert a picture directly from OneNote as well.  In OneNote 2010, select the Insert tab, and then choose Picture. In OneNote 2007, select the Insert menu, select Picture, and then choose From File.   Screen Clipping There are many times we’d like to copy text from something we see onscreen, but there is no direct way to copy text from that thing.  For instance, you cannot copy text from the title-bar of a window, or from a flash-based online presentation.  For these cases, the Screen Clipping option is very useful.  To add a clip of anything onscreen in OneNote 2010, select the Insert tab in the ribbon and click Screen Clipping. In OneNote 2007, either click the Clip button on the toolbar or select the Insert menu and choose Screen Clipping.   Alternately, you can take a screen clipping by pressing the windows key + S. When you click Screen Clipping, OneNote will minimize, your desktop will fade lighter, and your mouse pointer will change to a plus sign.  Now, click and drag over anything you want to add to OneNote.  Here we’re selecting the title of this article. The section you selected will now show up in your OneNote notebook, complete with the date and time the clip was made. Insert a file You’re not limited to pictures; OneNote can even OCR anything in most files on your computer.  You can add files directly in OneNote 2010 by selecting File Printout in the Insert tab. In OneNote 2007, select the Insert menu and choose Files as Printout. Choose the file you want to add to OneNote in the dialog. Select Insert, and OneNote will pause momentarily as it processes the file. Now your file will show up in OneNote as a printout with a link to the original file above it. You can also send any file directly to OneNote via the OneNote virtual printer.  If you have a file open, such as a PDF, that you’d like to OCR, simply open the print dialog in that program and select the “Send to OneNote” printer. Or, if you have a scanner, you can scan documents directly into OneNote by clicking Scanner Printout in the Insert tab in OneNote 2010. In OneNote 2003, to add a scanned document select the Insert menu, select Picture, and then choose From Scanner or Camera. OCR the image, file, or screenshot you put in OneNote Now that you’ve got your stuff into OneNote, let’s put it to work.  OneNote automatically did an OCR scan on anything you inserted into OneNote.  You can check to make sure by right-clicking on any picture, screenshot, or file you inserted.  Select “Make Text in Image Searchable” and then make sure the correct language is selected. Now, you can copy text from the Picture.  Simply right-click on the picture, and select “Copy Text from Picture”. And here’s the text that OneNote found in this picture: OCR anything with OneNote 2007 and 2010 - Windows Live Writer Not bad, huh?  Now you can paste the text from the picture into a document or anywhere you need to use the text. If you are instead copying text from a printout, it may give you the option to copy text from this page or all pages of the printout.   This works the exact same in OneNote 2007. In OneNote 2010, you can also edit the text OneNote has saved in the image from the OCR.  This way, if OneNote read something incorrectly you can change it so you can still find it when you use search in OneNote.  Additionally, you can copy only a specific portion of the text from the edit box, so it can be useful just for general copying as well.  To do this, right-click on the item and select “Edit Alt Text”. Here is the window to edit alternate text.  If you want to copy only a portion of the text, simply select it and press Ctrl+C to copy that portion. Searching OneNote’s OCR engine is very useful for finding specific pictures you have saved in OneNote.  Simply enter your search query in the search box on top right, and OneNote will automatically find all instances of that term in all of your notebooks.  Notice how it highlights the search term even in the image! This works the same in OneNote 2007.  Notice how it highlighted “How-to” in a shot of the header image in our favorite website. In Windows Vista and 7, you can even search for things OneNote OCRed from the Start Menu search.  Here the start menu search found the words “Windows Live Writer” in our OCR Test notebook in OneNote where we inserted the screen clip above. Conclusion OneNote is a very useful OCR tool, and can help you capture text from just about anything.  Plus, since you can easily search everything you have stored in OneNote, you can quickly find anything you insert anytime.  OneNote is one of the least-used Office tools, but we have found it very useful and hope you do too. Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Add or Remove Apps from the Microsoft Office 2007 or 2010 SuiteRemove Office 2010 Beta and Reinstall Office 2007How To Create and Publish Blog Posts in Word 2010 & 2007How To Copy Worksheets in Excel 2007 & 2010Add Page Numbers to Documents in Word 2007 & 2010 TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips DVDFab 6 Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 Using TrueCrypt to Secure Your Data Quickly Schedule Meetings With NeedtoMeet Share Flickr Photos On Facebook Automatically Are You Blocked On Gtalk? Find out Discover Latest Android Apps On AppBrain The Ultimate Guide For YouTube Lovers

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  • Reporting Services - It's a Wrap!

    - by smisner
    If you have any experience at all with Reporting Services, you have probably developed a report using the matrix data region. It's handy when you want to generate columns dynamically based on data. If users view a matrix report online, they can scroll horizontally to view all columns and all is well. But if they want to print the report, the experience is completely different and you'll have to decide how you want to handle dynamic columns. By default, when a user prints a matrix report for which the number of columns exceeds the width of the page, Reporting Services determines how many columns can fit on the page and renders one or more separate pages for the additional columns. In this post, I'll explain two techniques for managing dynamic columns. First, I'll show how to use the RepeatRowHeaders property to make it easier to read a report when columns span multiple pages, and then I'll show you how to "wrap" columns so that you can avoid the horizontal page break. Included with this post are the sample RDLs for download. First, let's look at the default behavior of a matrix. A matrix that has too many columns for one printed page (or output to page-based renderer like PDF or Word) will be rendered such that the first page with the row group headers and the inital set of columns, as shown in Figure 1. The second page continues by rendering the next set of columns that can fit on the page, as shown in Figure 2.This pattern continues until all columns are rendered. The problem with the default behavior is that you've lost the context of employee and sales order - the row headers - on the second page. That makes it hard for users to read this report because the layout requires them to flip back and forth between the current page and the first page of the report. You can fix this behavior by finding the RepeatRowHeaders of the tablix report item and changing its value to True. The second (and subsequent pages) of the matrix now look like the image shown in Figure 3. The problem with this approach is that the number of printed pages to flip through is unpredictable when you have a large number of potential columns. What if you want to include all columns on the same page? You can take advantage of the repeating behavior of a tablix and get repeating columns by embedding one tablix inside of another. For this example, I'm using SQL Server 2008 R2 Reporting Services. You can get similar results with SQL Server 2008. (In fact, you could probably do something similar in SQL Server 2005, but I haven't tested it. The steps would be slightly different because you would be working with the old-style matrix as compared to the new-style tablix discussed in this post.) I created a dataset that queries AdventureWorksDW2008 tables: SELECT TOP (100) e.LastName + ', ' + e.FirstName AS EmployeeName, d.FullDateAlternateKey, f.SalesOrderNumber, p.EnglishProductName, sum(SalesAmount) as SalesAmount FROM FactResellerSales AS f INNER JOIN DimProduct AS p ON p.ProductKey = f.ProductKey INNER JOIN DimDate AS d ON d.DateKey = f.OrderDateKey INNER JOIN DimEmployee AS e ON e.EmployeeKey = f.EmployeeKey GROUP BY p.EnglishProductName, d.FullDateAlternateKey, e.LastName + ', ' + e.FirstName, f.SalesOrderNumber ORDER BY EmployeeName, f.SalesOrderNumber, p.EnglishProductName To start the report: Add a matrix to the report body and drag Employee Name to the row header, which also creates a group. Next drag SalesOrderNumber below Employee Name in the Row Groups panel, which creates a second group and a second column in the row header section of the matrix, as shown in Figure 4. Now for some trickiness. Add another column to the row headers. This new column will be associated with the existing EmployeeName group rather than causing BIDS to create a new group. To do this, right-click on the EmployeeName textbox in the bottom row, point to Insert Column, and then click Inside Group-Right. Then add the SalesOrderNumber field to this new column. By doing this, you're creating a report that repeats a set of columns for each EmployeeName/SalesOrderNumber combination that appears in the data. Next, modify the first row group's expression to group on both EmployeeName and SalesOrderNumber. In the Row Groups section, right-click EmployeeName, click Group Properties, click the Add button, and select [SalesOrderNumber]. Now you need to configure the columns to repeat. Rather than use the Columns group of the matrix like you might expect, you're going to use the textbox that belongs to the second group of the tablix as a location for embedding other report items. First, clear out the text that's currently in the third column - SalesOrderNumber - because it's already added as a separate textbox in this report design. Then drag and drop a matrix into that textbox, as shown in Figure 5. Again, you need to do some tricks here to get the appearance and behavior right. We don't really want repeating rows in the embedded matrix, so follow these steps: Click on the Rows label which then displays RowGroup in the Row Groups pane below the report body. Right-click on RowGroup,click Delete Group, and select the option to delete associated rows and columns. As a result, you get a modified matrix which has only a ColumnGroup in it, with a row above a double-dashed line for the column group and a row below the line for the aggregated data. Let's continue: Drag EnglishProductName to the data textbox (below the line). Add a second data row by right-clicking EnglishProductName, pointing to Insert Row, and clicking Below. Add the SalesAmount field to the new data textbox. Now eliminate the column group row without eliminating the group. To do this, right-click the row above the double-dashed line, click Delete Rows, and then select Delete Rows Only in the message box. Now you're ready for the fit and finish phase: Resize the column containing the embedded matrix so that it fits completely. Also, the final column in the matrix is for the column group. You can't delete this column, but you can make it as small as possible. Just click on the matrix to display the row and column handles, and then drag the right edge of the rightmost column to the left to make the column virtually disappear. Next, configure the groups so that the columns of the embedded matrix will wrap. In the Column Groups pane, right-click ColumnGroup1 and click on the expression button (labeled fx) to the right of Group On [EnglishProductName]. Replace the expression with the following: =RowNumber("SalesOrderNumber" ). We use SalesOrderNumber here because that is the name of the group that "contains" the embedded matrix. The next step is to configure the number of columns to display before wrapping. Click any cell in the matrix that is not inside the embedded matrix, and then double-click the second group in the Row Groups pane - SalesOrderNumber. Change the group expression to the following expression: =Ceiling(RowNumber("EmployeeName")/3) The last step is to apply formatting. In my example, I set the SalesAmount textbox's Format property to C2 and also right-aligned the text in both the EnglishProductName and the SalesAmount textboxes. And voila - Figure 6 shows a matrix report with wrapping columns. Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!

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  • I&rsquo;m sorry RPGs, it&rsquo;s not you, it&rsquo;s me: The birth of my game idea

    - by George Clingerman
    One of the things I’ve had to give up in order to have some development time at night is gaming. It’s something I refused to admit for years but I’ve just had to face the facts. I’m no longer a gamer. I just don’t have hours and hours of free time to pour into gaming and when I do have hours and hours of free time I want to pour them into game development. That doesn’t mean I don’t game at all! I play games pretty much every day. It just means I’ve moved more into the casual game realm. It’s all I have time for when juggling priorities in my life. That means that games like Gears of War 2 sit shrink wrapped on my shelf and although I popped Dragon Age into my Xbox 360 one time, I barely made it through the opening sequence and haven’t had time to sit down and play again. Instead I’m playing short games like Jamestown, Atom Zombie Smasher, Fortix or if I have time to jump in and play a few rounds maybe some Monday Night Combat or Team Fortress 2. These are games I can instantly get into and play for just a short period of time and then walk away. Breath of Death VII saved my life: Back in the day (way, way back in the day) I used to be a pretty big RPG fan. Not big by a lot of RPG gamers' standards (most of the RPGs RPG fans about I’ve never heard of) but I used to LOVE to play them on the NES, SNES and Genesis and considered that my genre. Final Fantasy, Shining in the Darkness, Bard’s Tale, Faxanadu, Shadowrun, Ultima, Dragon Warrior, Chrono Trigger, Phantasy Star, Shining Force and well the list could go on but those are the ones I remember off the top of my head. I loved playing RPGs and they were my games of choice. After my first son was born (this was just about 12 years ago), I tried to continue playing RPGs and purchased games like Baldur’s Gate I & II, Neverwinter Nights, Fable, then a few of the Final Fantasy’s then Kingdom Hearts. I kept buying these games and then only playing for about fifteen minutes and never getting back to them. I still loved RPGs but they just no longer fit into my life (I still haven’t accepted that since I still purchased Dragon Age II for some reason and convinced myself I’d find the time). Adding three more sons to the mix (that’s 4 total) didn’t help much to finding more RPG time (except for Breath of Death VII and other XBLIG RPG titles, thanks guys!) All work and no RPG: A few months ago as I was sitting thinking about the lack of RPGs in my life and talking to my wife about why I wish RPGs were different and easier for a dad like me to get into. She seemed like she was listening, so I started listing all the things that made them impossible for me to play. Here’s a short list I came up with. They take 15 billion hours to complete I have a few minutes at a time I can grab to play them if I want to have time to code. At that rate it would take me 9 trillion years to beat just one RPG. There’s such long spans of times between when I can play them I forget what I was even doing so I have to spend most of the playtime I have just figuring that out and then my play time is over. Repeat. I’ll never finish one and since it takes so long to get to the fun part in an RPG, I’m never having fun. RPGs aren’t fun if you don’t have hours to play them at a time. As you can see based on my science and math, RPGs aren’t fun for me any more. From there my brain started toying around with ideas of RPGs that would work for me. They would have to be a short RPG, you know one you could beat in a single play session. A dad sized play session. I started thinking, wouldn’t it be awesome if there was a fifteen minute RPG? That got me laughing and I took that as a good sign that it sounded fun and so I thought about it a little more. I immediately discarded the idea of doing a real RPG. I’m sure a short RPG like that could be done but it wasn’t the vibe that I had in my head. No this was going to be something that just had the core essence of an RPG. In reality what I’d be making would be more of an arcade style game. One with high scores and lots of crazy action on the screen. And that’s when it hit me. It would be a speed run RPG. That’s the basics of the game I’m working on.   The Elevator Pitch: It’s a 2D top down RPG themed arcade game focused on speed. It sounds like an RPG, smells like an RPG but it’s merely emulating an RPG. The game is focused on fun and mayhem in RPG form with players leveling up in seconds instead of hours and rushing to finish quests as quickly as possible because they’ve only got fifteen minutes before EVIL overtakes the world. If the player takes longer than fifteen minutes, it’s game over man. One to four player co-operative play to really see just how fast players can level up and beat the game. Gamers will compete on leaderboards for bragging rights for fastest 1, 2, 3, and 4 player speed runs, lowest leveled characters to beat the game, highest leveled characters to beat the game and so on. Times will be tracked for everything from how long a player sat distributing stats, equipping items, talking to NPCs to running around the level. These stats will be shown at the end of each quest/level so the players can work on improving their speed run for that part of the game next time around. It’s the perfect RPG for those of us who only have fifteen minutes of game time! Where I’m at: I’m still at the prototyping stage attempting to but all the basic framework pieces in place that will at minimum give me one level to rush through. I’ve been working on this prototype for about a month now though so I’m going to have to step it up a bit or I’m not going to get finished in time (remember I’ve only got 85 days left!) Lots of the game code is in place (although pretty sloppy) but I still can’t play through that first quest/level just yet. That’s my goal to finish up by the end of next Sunday (3/25/2012). You can all hold me to that and cheer me on or heckle me throughout the week. Either way that should help me stay a bit more motivated and focused. In my head this feels like it’s going to be a fun game so I’m looking forward to seeing how it actually plays!

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  • Stream Music and Video Over the Internet with Windows Media Player 12

    - by DigitalGeekery
    A new feature in Windows Media Player 12, which is included with Windows 7, is being able to stream media over the web to other Windows 7 computers.  Today we will take a look at how to set it up and what you need to begin. Note: You will need to perform this process on each computer that you want to use. What You’ll Need Two computers running Windows 7 Home Premium, Professional, or Ultimate. The host, or home computer that you will be streaming the media from, cannot be on a public network or part of domain. Windows Live ID UPnP or Port Forwarding enabled on your home router Media files added to your Windows Media Player library Windows Live ID Sign up online for a Windows Live ID if you do not already have one. See the link below for a link to Windows Live.   Configuring the Windows 7 Computers Open Windows Media Player and go to the library section. Click on Stream and then “Allow Internet access to home media.”   The Internet Home Media Access pop up window will prompt you to link your Windows Live ID to a user account. Click “Link an online ID.” If you haven’t already installed the Windows Live ID Sign-In Assistant, you will be taken to Microsoft’s website and prompted to download it. Once you have completed the Windows Live download assistant install, you will see Windows Live ID online provider appear in the “Link Online IDs” window. Click on “Link Online ID.” Next, you’ll be prompted for a Windows Live ID and password. Enter your Windows Live ID and password and click “Sign In.” A pop up window will notify you that you have successfully allowed Internet access to home media. Now, you will have to repeat the exact same configuration on the 2nd Windows 7 computer. Once you have completed the same configuration on your 2nd computer, you might also need to configure your home router for port forwarding. If your router supports UPnP, you may not need to manually forward any ports on your router. So, this would be a good time to test your connection. Go to a nearby hotspot, or perhaps a neighbor’s house, and test to see if you can stream your media. If not, you’ll need to manually forward the ports. You can always choose to forward the ports anyway, just in case. Note: We tested on a Linksys WRT54GL router, which supports UPnP, and found we still needed to manually forward the ports. Finding the ports to forward on the router Open Windows Media Player and make sure you are in Library view. Click on “Stream” on the top menu, and select “Allow Internet access to home media.”   On the “Internet Home Media Access” window, click on “Diagnose connections.” The “Internet Streaming Diagnostic Tool” will pop up. Click on “Port forwarding information” near the bottom.   On the “Port Forwarding Information” window you will find both the Internal and External Port numbers you will need to forward on your router. The Internal port number should always be 10245. The external number will be different depending on your computer. Microsoft also recommends forwarding port 443. Configuring the Router Next, you’ll need to configure Port Forwarding on your home router. We will show you the steps for a Linksys WRT54GL router, however, the steps for port forwarding will vary from router to router. On the Linksys configuration page, click on the Administration Tab along the top, click the “Applications & Gaming Tab, and then the “Port Range Forward” tab below it. Under “Application,” type in a name. It can be any name you choose. In both the “Start” and “End” boxes, type the port number. Enter the IP address of your home computer in the IP address column. Click the check box under “Enable.” Do this for both the internal and external port numbers and port 443. When finished, click the “Save Settings” button. Note: It’s highly recommended that you configure your home computer with a static IP address When you’re ready to play your media over the Internet, open up Windows Media Player and look for your host computer and username listed under “Other Libraries.” Click on it expand the list to see your media libraries. Choose a library and a file to play. Now you can enjoy your streaming media over the Internet. Conclusion We found media streaming over the Internet to work fairly well. However, we did see a loss of quality with streaming video. Also, Recorded TV .wtv and dvr-ms files did not play at all. Check out our previous article to see how to stream media share and stream media between Windows 7 computers on your home network. Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Enable Media Streaming in Windows Home Server to Windows Media PlayerFixing When Windows Media Player Library Won’t Let You Add FilesShare Digital Media With Other Computers on a Home Network with Windows 7Share and Stream Digital Media Between Windows 7 Machines On Your Home NetworkLearning Windows 7: Manage Your Music with Windows Media Player TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 PCmover Professional Stormpulse provides slick, real time weather data Geek Parents – Did you try Parental Controls in Windows 7? Change DNS servers on the fly with DNS Jumper Live PDF Searches PDF Files and Ebooks Converting Mp4 to Mp3 Easily Use Quick Translator to Translate Text in 50 Languages (Firefox)

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  • Another Marketing Conference, part two – the afternoon

    - by Roger Hart
    In my previous post, I’ve covered the morning sessions at AMC2012. Here’s the rest of the write-up. I’ve skipped Charles Nixon’s session which was a blend of funky futurism and professional development advice, but you can see his slides here. I’ve also skipped the Google presentation, as it was a little thin on insight. 6 – Brand ambassadors: Getting universal buy in across the organisation, Vanessa Northam Slides are here This was the strongest enforcement of the idea that brand and campaign values need to be delivered throughout the organization if they’re going to work. Vanessa runs internal communications at e-on, and shared her experience of using internal comms to align an organization and thereby get the most out of a campaign. She views the purpose of internal comms as: “…to help leaders, to communicate the purpose and future of an organization, and support change.” This (and culture) primes front line staff, which creates customer experience and spreads brand. You ensure a whole organization knows what’s going on with both internal and external comms. If everybody is aligned and informed, if everybody can clearly articulate your brand and campaign goals, then you can turn everybody into an advocate. Alignment is a powerful tool for delivering a consistent experience and message. The pathological counter example is the one in which a marketing message goes out, which creates inbound customer contacts that front line contact staff haven’t been briefed to handle. The NatWest campaign was again mentioned in this context. The good example was e-on’s cheaper tariff campaign. Building a groundswell of internal excitement, and even running an internal launch meant everyone could contribute to a good customer experience. They found that meter readers were excited – not a group they’d considered as obvious in providing customer experience. But they were a group that has a lot of face-to-face contact with customers, and often were asked questions they may not have been briefed to answer. Being able to communicate a simple new message made it easier for them, and also let them become a sales and marketing asset to the organization. 7 – Goodbye Internet, Hello Outernet: the rise and rise of augmented reality, Matt Mills I wasn’t going to write this up, because it was essentially a sales demo for Aurasma. But the technology does merit some discussion. Basically, it replaces QR codes with visual recognition, and provides a simple-looking back end for attaching content. It’s quite sexy. But here’s my beef with it: QR codes had a clear visual language – when you saw one you knew what it was and what to do with it. They were clunky, but they had the “getting started” problem solved out of the box once you knew what you were looking at. However, they fail because QR code reading isn’t native to the platform. You needed an app, which meant you needed to know to download one. Consequentially, you can’t use QR codes with and ubiquity, or depend on them. This means marketers, content providers, etc, never pushed them, and they remained and awkward oddity, a minority sport. Aurasma half solves problem two, and re-introduces problem one, making it potentially half as useful as a QR code. It’s free, and you can apparently build it into your own apps. Add to that the likelihood of it becoming native to the platform if it takes off, and it may have legs. I guess we’ll see. 8 – We all need to code, Helen Mayor Great title – good point. If there was anybody in the room who didn’t at least know basic HTML, and if Helen’s presentation inspired them to learn, that’s fantastic. However, this was a half hour sales pitch for a basic coding training course. Beyond advocating coding skills it contained no useful content. Marketers may also like to consider some of these resources if they’re looking to learn code: Code Academy – free interactive tutorials Treehouse – learn web design, web dev, or app dev WebPlatform.org – tutorials and documentation for web tech  11 – Understanding our inner creativity, Margaret Boden This session was the most theoretical and probably least actionable of the day. It also held my attention utterly. Margaret spoke fluently, fascinatingly, without slides, on the subject of types of creativity and how they work. It was splendid. Yes, it raised a wry smile whenever she spoke of “the content of advertisements” and gave an example from 1970s TV ads, but even without the attempt to meet the conference’s theme this would have been thoroughly engaging. There are, Margaret suggested, three types of creativity: Combinatorial creativity The most common form, and consisting of synthesising ideas from existing and familiar concepts and tropes. Exploratory creativity Less common, this involves exploring the limits and quirks of a particular constraint or style. Transformational creativity This is uncommon, and arises from finding a way to do something that the existing rules would hold to be impossible. In essence, this involves breaking one of the constraints that exploratory creativity is composed from. Combinatorial creativity, she suggested, is particularly important for attaching favourable ideas to existing things. As such is it probably worth developing for marketing. Exploratory creativity may then come into play in something like developing and optimising an idea or campaign that now has momentum. Transformational creativity exists at the edges of this exploration. She suggested that products may often be transformational, but that marketing seemed unlikely to in her experience. This made me wonder about Listerine. Crucially, transformational creativity is characterised by there being some element of continuity with the strictures of previous thinking. Once it has happened, there may be  move from a revolutionary instance into an explored style. Again, from a marketing perspective, this seems to chime well with the thinking in Youngme Moon’s book: Different Talking about the birth of Modernism is visual art, Margaret pointed out that transformational creativity has historically risked a backlash, demanding what is essentially an education of the market. This is best accomplished by referring back to the continuities with the past in order to make the new familiar. Thoughts The afternoon is harder to sum up than the morning. It felt less concrete, and was troubled by a short run of poor presentations in the middle. Mainly, I found myself wrestling with the internal comms issue. It’s one of those things that seems astonishingly obvious in hindsight, but any campaign – particularly any large one – is doomed if the people involved can’t believe in it. We’ve run things here that haven’t gone so well, of course we have; who hasn’t? I’m not going to air any laundry, but people not being informed (much less aligned) feels like a common factor. It’s tough though. Managing and anticipating information needs across an organization of any size can’t be easy. Even the simple things like ensuring sales and support departments know what’s in a product release, and what messages go with it are easy to botch. The thing I like about framing this as a brand and campaign advocacy problem is that it makes it likely to get addressed. Better is always sexier than less-worse. Any technical communicator who’s ever felt crowded out by a content strategist or marketing copywriter  knows this – increasing revenue gets a seat at the table far more readily than reducing support costs, even if the financial impact is identical. So that’s it from AMC. The big thought-provokers were social buying behaviour and eliciting behaviour change, and the value of internal communications in ensuring successful campaigns and continuity of customer experience. I’ll be chewing over that for a while, and I’d definitely return next year.      

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  • CodePlex Daily Summary for Monday, March 22, 2010

    CodePlex Daily Summary for Monday, March 22, 2010New Projects[Tool] Vczh Non-public DLL Classes Caller: Generate C# code for you to call non-public classes in DLLs very easily.Artefact Animator: Artefact Animator provides an easy to use framework for procedural time-based animations in Silverlight and WPF.cacheroo: Cacheroo is a social networking community that will make it easier for people who love geocaching to get connected.Data Processing Toolkit: An utility app to collected data from different sources (i.e. bugzilla bug reports) in a structured way. We are currently setting up the site. Mo...eXternal SQL Bridge (PHP): The eXternal SQL Bridge (XSB) allows you to bridge two websites together in a secure manner through pre-shared keys. XSB is resilient against repla...'G' - Language to Define Gestures for Touch Based Applications: A cross plat form multi-touch application framework with a language to define gestures. The application is build on Silverlight 4.0 and the languag...IIS Network Diagnostic Tools: Web implementation of "looking glass" like services (ping, traceroute) as HTTP modules for Internet Information Services.Interop Router: This project establishes a communication framework and job dispatcher for a mixed operating system cluster environment.L2 Commander: L2Commander makes it easier for both new and old l2j users to manage your server.You no longer have to waste time on finding the files you need and...MediaHelper: A utility to help clean up empty/unwanted files and folders in your filesystem.mhinze: matt hinze stuffOneMan: Focus on Silverlight and WCF technology.Rss Photo Frame Android Widget: RSS Photo Frame Android Widget permits showing pictures from any RSS feed on your Android device's desktopSingle Web Session: Web Tool Kits Current project provide developer with different tools that help to enhance web site performance, security, and other common functio...Work Item Visualization: Use DGML to visualize and analyze your TFS Work Items. Included is the ability to perform basic risk/impact analysis. It helps answer the question,...New Releases[Tool] Vczh Non-public DLL Classes Caller: Wrapper Coder (beta): Click "<Click Me To Open Assembly File>", WrapperCoder will load the assembly and referenced assembly. Check the non-public classes that you want...APS - Automatic Print Screen: APS 1.0: APS automatizes the tasks of paste the image in Paint and save it after print screen or alt+print screen. Choose directory, name and file extension...BTP Tools: e-Sword generator build 20100321: 1. Modify the indent after subtitle. 2. Add 2 spaces after subtitle.Combres - WebForm & MVC Client-side Resource Combine Library: Combres 2.0: Changes since last version (1.2) Support ignore Combres pipeline in debug mode - see issue #6088 Debug mode generates comment helping identify in...Desafio Office 2010 Brasil: DesafioOutlook: Controlando um robo com o Outlook 2010dylan.NET: dylan.NET v. 9.4: Adding Platform Invocation Services Support, full Managed Pointer Support, Charset,Dllimport,Callconv setting for P/Invoke, MarshalAs for parametersFamily Tree Analyzer: Version 1.3.2.0: Version 1.3.2.0 Add open folder button to IGI Search Form Fixes to Fact Location processing - IGIName renamed to RegionID Fix if Region ID not fou...Fasterflect - A Fast and Simple Reflection API: Fasterflect 2.0: We are pleased to release version 2.0 of Fasterflect, which contains a lot of additions and improvements from the previous version. Please refer t...IIS Network Diagnostic Tools: 1.0: Initial public release.Informant: Informant (Desktop) v0.1: This release allows users to send sms messages to 1-Many Groups or 1-Many contacts. It is a very basic release of the application. No styling has b...InfoService: InfoService v1.5 - MPE1 Package: InfoService Release v1.5.0.65 Please read Plugin installation for installation instructions.InfoService: InfoService v1.5 - RAR Package: InfoService Release v1.5.0.65 Please read Plugin installation for installation instructions.L2 Commander: Source Code Link: Where to find our source.ModularCMS: ModularCMS 1.2: Minor bug fixes.NMTools: NMTools-v40b0-20100321-0: The most noticeable aspect of this release is that NMTools is now an independent project. It will no longer tied to OpenSLIM. Nevertheless, OpenSLI...SharePoint LogViewer: SharePoint LogViewer 1.5.3: Log loading performance enhanced. Search text box now has auto complete feature.Single Web Session: Single Web Session: !Single Web Session! <httpModules> <add name="SingleSession" type="SingleWebSession.Model.WebSessionModule, SingleWebSession"/> </httpModules>Sprite Sheet Packer: 2.1 Release: Made a few crucial fixes from 2.0: - Fixed error with paths having spaces. - Fixed error with UI not unlocking. - Fixed NullReferenceException on ...uManage - AD Self-Service Portal: uManage v1.1 (.NET 4.0 RC): Updated Releasev1.1 Adds the primary ability to setup and configure the application through a setup wizard. The setup wizard will continue to evol...VCC: Latest build, v2.1.30321.0: Automatic drop of latest buildVS ChessMania: VS ChessMania V2 March Beta: Second Beta Release with move correction and making application more safe for user. New features will be added soon.WatchersNET CKEditor™ Provider for DotNetNuke: CKEditor Provider 1.9.00: Whats New Added New Toolbar Plugin (By Kent Safransk) 'MediaEmbed' to Include Embed Media from Youtube, Vimeo, etc. Media Embed Plugin Added New ...WeatherBar: WeatherBar 1.0 [No Installation]: Extract the ZIP archive and run WeatherBar.exe. Current release contains some bugs that will be fixed in the next version. Check the Issue Tracker...Work Item Visualization: Release 1.0: This is the initial release of the Work Item Visualization tool. There are no known issues when it comes to the visualization aspects of the tool b...WPF Application Framework (WAF): WPF Application Framework (WAF) 1.0.0.10: Version: 1.0.0.10 (Milestone 10): This release contains the source code of the WPF Application Framework (WAF) and the sample applications. Requi...WPF AutoComplete TextBox Control: Version 1.2: What's Newadds AutoAppend feature adds a new provider: UrlHistoryDataProvider sample application is updated to reflect the new things Bug Fixe...ZoomBarPlus: V2 (Beta): - Fixed bug: if the active window changed while you were in the middle of a single tap delay, long tap delay, or swipe-repeat, it would continue re...Most Popular ProjectsMetaSharpSavvy DateTimeRawrWBFS ManagerSilverlight ToolkitASP.NET Ajax LibraryMicrosoft SQL Server Product Samples: DatabaseAJAX Control ToolkitLiveUpload to FacebookWindows Presentation Foundation (WPF)Most Active ProjectsLINQ to TwitterRawrOData SDK for PHPjQuery Library for SharePoint Web ServicesDirectQPHPExcelFarseer Physics Enginepatterns & practices – Enterprise LibraryBlogEngine.NETNB_Store - Free DotNetNuke Ecommerce Catalog Module

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  • What does it mean when a User-Agent has another User-Agent inside it?

    - by Erx_VB.NExT.Coder
    Basically, sometimes the user-agent will have its normal user-agent displayed, then at the end it will have teh "User-Agent: " tag displayed, and right after it another user-agent is shown. Sometimes, the second user-agent is just appended to the first one without the "User-Agent: " tag. Here are some samples I've seen: The first few contain the "User-Agent: " tag in the middle somewhere, and I've changed its font to make it easier to to see. Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 6.0; Trident/4.0; GTB6; User-agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1); SLCC1; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.0.04506) Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 5.1; Trident/4.0; GTB6; MRA 5.10 (build 5339); User-agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1); .NET CLR 1.1.4322; .NET CLR 2.0.50727) Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 5.1; Trident/4.0; User-agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1); .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.0.4506.2152; .NET CLR 3.5.30729) Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 5.1; Trident/4.0; User-agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1); .NET CLR 1.1.4322; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.0.4506.2152) Here are some without the "User-Agent: " tag in the middle, but just two user agents that seem stiched together. Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 6.0; Trident/4.0; Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1); .NET CLR 3.5.30729) Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 5.1; Trident/4.0; GTB6; IPMS/6568080A-04A5AD839A9; TCO_20090713170733; Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1); InfoPath.2) Now, just to add a few notes to this. I understand that the "User-Agent: " tag is normally a header, and what follows a typical "User-Agent: " string sequence is the actual user agent that is sent to servers etc, but normally the "User-Agent: " string should not be part of the actual user agent, that is more like the pre-fix or a tag indicating that what follows will be the actual user agent. Additionally, I may have thought, hey, these are just two user agents pasted together, but on closer inspection, you realize that they are not. On all of these dual user agent listings, if you look at the opening bracket "(" just before the "compatible" keyword, you realize the pair to that bracket ")" is actually at the very end, the end of the second user agent. So, the first user agents closing bracket ")" never occurs before the second user agent begins, it's always right at the end, and therefore, the second user agent is more like one of the features of the first user agent, like: "Trident/4.0" or "GTB6" etc etc... The other thing to note that the second user agent is always MSIE 6.0 (Internet Explorer 6.0), interesting. What I had initially thought was it's some sort of Virtual Machine displaying the browser in use & the browser that is installed, but then I thought, what'd be the point in that? Finally, right now, I am thinking, it's probably soem sort of "Compatibility View" type thing, where even if MSIE 7.0 or 8.0 is installed, when my hypothetical the "Display In Internet Explorer 6.0" mode is turned on, the user agent changes to something like this. That being, IE 8.0 is installed, but is rendering everything as IE 6.0 would. Is there or was there such a feature in Internet Explorer? Am I on to something here? What are your thoughts on this? If you have any other ideas, please feel free to let us know. At the moment, I'm just trying to understand if these are valid User Agents, or if they are invalid. In a list of about 44,000 User Agents, I've seen this type of Dual User Agent about 400 times. I've closely inspected 40 of them, and every single one had MSIE 6.0 as the "second" user agent (and the first user agent a higher version of MSIE, such as 7 or 8). This was true for all except one, where both user agents were MSIE 8.0, here it is: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 5.1; Trident/4.0; Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Win32; GMX); GTB0.0) This occured once in my 40 "close" inspections. I've estimated the 400 in 44,000 by taking a sample of the first 4,400 user agents, and finding 40 of these in the MSIE/Windows user agents, and extrapolated that to estimate 40. There were also similar things occuring for non MSIE user agents where there were two Mozilla's in one user agent, the non MSIE ones would probably add another 30% on top of the ones I've noted. I can show you samples of them if anyone would like. There we have it, this is where I'm at, what do you guys think?

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  • Cloud Based Load Testing Using TF Service &amp; VS 2013

    - by Tarun Arora [Microsoft MVP]
    Originally posted on: http://geekswithblogs.net/TarunArora/archive/2013/06/30/cloud-based-load-testing-using-tf-service-amp-vs-2013.aspx One of the new features announced as part of the Visual Studio 2013 Ultimate Preview is ‘Cloud Based Load Testing’. In this blog post I’ll walk you through, What is Cloud Based Load Testing? How have I been using this feature? – Success story! Where can you find more resources on this feature? What is Cloud Based Load Testing? It goes without saying that performance testing your application not only gives you the confidence that the application will work under heavy levels of stress but also gives you the ability to test how scalable the architecture of your application is. It is important to know how much is too much for your application! Working with various clients in the industry I have realized that the biggest barriers in Load Testing & Performance Testing adoption are, High infrastructure and administration cost that comes with this phase of testing Time taken to procure & set up the test infrastructure Finding use for this infrastructure investment after completion of testing Is cloud the answer? 100% Visual Studio Compatible Scalable and Realistic Start testing in < 2 minutes Intuitive Pay only for what you need Use existing on premise tests on cloud There are a lot of vendors out there offering Cloud Based Load Testing, to name a few, Load Storm Soasta Blaze Meter Blitz And others… The question you may want to ask is, why should you go with Microsoft’s Cloud based Load Test offering. If you are a Microsoft shop or already have investments in Microsoft technologies, you’ll see great benefit in the natural integration this offers with existing Microsoft products such as Visual Studio and Windows Azure. For example, your existing Web tests authored in Visual Studio 2010 or Visual Studio 2012 will run on the cloud without requiring any modifications what so ever. Microsoft’s cloud test rig also supports API based testing, for example, if you are building a WPF application which consumes WCF services, you can write unit tests to invoke the WCF service, these tests can be run on the cloud test rig and loaded with ‘N’ concurrent users for performance testing. If you have your assets already hosted in the Azure and possibly in the same data centre as the Cloud test rig, your Azure app will not incur a usage cost because of the generated traffic since the traffic is coming from the same data centre. The licensing or pricing information on Microsoft’s cloud based Load test service is yet to be announced, but I would expect this to be priced attractively to match the market competition.   The only additional configuration required for running load tests on Microsoft Cloud based Load Tests service is to select the Test run location as Run tests using Visual Studio Team Foundation Service, How have I been using Microsoft’s Cloud based Load Test Service? I have been part of the Microsoft Cloud Based Load Test Service advisory council for the last 7 months. This gave the opportunity to see the product shape up from concept to working solution. I was also the first person outside of Microsoft to try this offering out. This gave me the opportunity to test real world application at various clients using the Microsoft Load Test Service and provide real world feedback to the Microsoft product team. One of the most recent systems I tested using the Load Test Service has been an insurance quote generation engine. This insurance quote generation engine is,   hosted in Windows Azure expected to get quote requests from across the globe expected to handle 5 Million quote requests in a day (not clear how this load will be distributed across the day) There was no way, I could simulate such kind of load from on premise without standing up additional hardware. But Microsoft’s Cloud based Load Test service allowed me to test my key performance testing scenarios, i.e. Simulate expected Load, Endurance Testing, Threshold Testing and Testing for Latency. Simulating expected load: approach to devising a load pattern My approach to devising a load test pattern has been to run the test scenario with 1 user to figure out the response time. Then work out how many users are required to reach the target load. So, for example, to invoke 1 quote from the quote engine software takes 0.5 seconds. Now if you do the math,   1 quote request by 1 user = 0.5 seconds   quotes generated by 1 user in 24 hour = 1 * (((2 * 60) * 60) * 24) = 172,800   quotes generated by 30 users in 24 hours = 172,800 * 30 =  5,184,000 This was a very simple example, if your application requires more concurrent users to test scenario’s such as caching, etc then you can devise your own load pattern, some examples of load test patterns can be found here.  Endurance Testing To test for endurance, I loaded the quote generation engine with an expected fixed user load and ran the test for very long duration such as over 48 hours and observed the affect of the long running test on the Azure infrastructure. Currently Microsoft Load Test service does not support metrics from the machine under test. I used Azure diagnostics to begin with, but later started using Cerebrata Azure Diagnostics Manager to capture the metrics of the machine under test. Threshold Testing To figure out how much user load the application could cope with before falling on its belly, I opted to step load the quote generation engine by incrementing user load with different variations of incremental user load per minute till the application crashed out and forced an IIS reset. Testing for Latency Currently the Microsoft Load Test service does not support generating geographically distributed load, I however, deployed the insurance quote generation engine in different Azure data centres and ran the same set of performance tests to measure for latency. Because I could compare load test results from different runs by exporting the results to excel (this feature is provided out of the box right from Visual Studio 2010) I could see the different in response times. More resources on Microsoft Cloud based Load Test Service A few important links to get you started, Download Visual Studio Ultimate 2013 Preview Getting started guide for load testing using Team Foundation Service Troubleshooting guide for FAQs and known issues Team Foundation Service forum for questions and support Detailed demo and presentation (link to Tech-Ed session recording) Detailed demo and presentation (link to Build session recording) There a few limits on the usage of Microsoft Cloud based Load Test service that you can read about here. If you have any feedback on Microsoft Cloud based Load Test service, feel free to share it with the product team via the Visual Studio User Voice forum. I hope you found this useful. Thank you for taking the time out and reading this blog post. If you enjoyed the post, remember to subscribe to http://feeds.feedburner.com/TarunArora. Stay tuned!

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