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• Dark Sun Dispatch 001

  - by Chris Williams

  If you aren't into tabletop (aka pen & paper) RPGs, you might as well click to the next post now... Still here? Awesome. I've recently started running a new D&D 4.0 Dark Sun campaign. If you don't know anything about Dark Sun, here's a quick intro: The campaign take place on the world of Athas, formerly a lush green world that is now a desert wasteland. Forests are rare in the extreme, as is water and metal. Coins are made of ceramic and weapons are often made of hardened wood, bone or obsidian. The green age of Athas was centuries ago and the current state was brought about through the reckless use of sorcerous magic. (In this world, you can augment spells by drawing on the life force of the world & people around you. This is called defiling. Preserving magic draws upon the casters life force and does not damage the surrounding world, but it isn't as powerful.) Humans are pretty much unchanged, but the traditional fantasy races have changed quite a bit. Elves don't live in the forest, they are shifty and untrustworthy desert traders known for their ability to run long distances through the wastes. Halflings are not short, fat, pleasant little riverside people. Instead they are bloodthirsty feral cannibals that roam the few remaining forests and ride reptilians beasts akin to raptors. Gnomes are extinct, as are orcs. Dwarves are mostly farmers and gladiators, and live out in the sun instead of staying under the mountains. Goliaths are half-giants, not known for their intellect. Muls are a Dwarf & Human crossbreed that displays the best traits of both races (human height and dwarven stoutness.) Thri-Kreen are sentient mantis people that are extremely fast. Most of the same character classes are available, with a few new twists. There are no divine characters (such as Priests, Paladins, etc) because the gods are gone. Nobody alive today can remember a time when they were still around. Instead, some folks worship the elemental forces (although they don't give out spells.) The cities are all ruled by Sorcerer King tyrants (except one city: Tyr) who are hundreds of years old and still practice defiling magic whenever they please. Serving the Sorcerer Kings are the Templars, who are also defilers and psionicists. Crossing them is as bad, in many cases, as crossing the Kings themselves. Between the cities you have small towns and trading outposts, and mostly barren desert with sometimes 4-5 days on foot between towns and the nearest oasis. Being caught out in the desert without adequate supplies and protection from the elements is pretty much a death sentence for even the toughest heroes. When you add in the natural (and unnatural) predators that roam the wastes, often in packs, most people don't last long alone. In this campaign, the adventure begins in the (small) trading fortress of Altaruk, a couple weeks walking distance from the newly freed city of Tyr. A caravan carrying trade goods from Altaruk has not made it to Tyr and the local merchant house has dispatched the heroes to find out what happened and to retrieve the goods (and drivers) if possible. The unlikely heroes consist of a human shaman, a thri-kreen monk, a human wizard, a kenku assassin and a (void aspect) genasi swordmage. Gathering up supplies and a little liquid courage, they set out into the desert and manage to find the northbound tracks of the wagon. Shortly after finding the tracks, they are ambushed by a pack of silt-runners (small lizard people with very large teeth and poisoned pointy spears.) The party makes short work of the creatures, taking a few minor wounds in the process. Proceeding onward without resting, they find the remains of the wagon and manage to sneak up on a pack of Kruthiks picking through the rubble and spilled goods. Unfortunately, they failed to take advantage of the opportunity and had a hard fight ahead of them. The party defeated the kruthiks, but took heavy damage (and almost lost a couple of their own) in the process. Once the kruthiks were dispatched, they followed a set of tracks further north to a ruined tower...

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• JCP Awards 10 Year Retrospective

  - by Heather VanCura

  As we celebrate 10 years of JCP Program Award recognition in 2012,  take a look back in the Retrospective article covering the history of the JCP awards.  Most recently, the JCP awards were  celebrated at JavaOne Latin America in Brazil, where SouJava was presented the JCP Member of the Year Award for 2012 (won jointly with the London Java Community) for their contributions and launch of the Global Adopt-a-JSR Program. This is also a good time to honor the JCP Award Nominees and Winners who have been designated as Star Spec Leads.  Spec Leads are key to the Java Community Process (JCP) program. Without them, none of the Java Specification Requests (JSRs) would have begun, much less completed and become implemented in shipping products.  Nominations for 2012 Start Spec Leads are now open until 31 December. The Star Spec Lead program recognizes Spec Leads who have repeatedly proven their merit by producing high quality specifications, establishing best practices, and mentoring others. The point of such honor is to endorse the good work that they do, showcase their methods for other Spec Leads to emulate, and motivate other JCP program members and participants to get involved in the JCP program. Ed Burns – A Star Spec Lead for 2009, Ed first got involved with the JCP program when he became co-Spec Lead of JSR 127, JavaServer Faces (JSF), a role he has continued through JSF 1.2 and now JSF 2.0, which is JSR 314. Linda DeMichiel – Linda thus involved in the JCP program from its very early days. She has been the Spec Lead on at least three JSRs and an EC member for another three. She holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Stanford University. Gavin King – Nominated as a JCP Outstanding Spec Lead for 2010, for his work with JSR 299. His endorsement said, “He was not only able to work through disputes and objections to the evolving programming model, but he resolved them into solutions that were more technically sound, and which gained support of its pundits.” Mike Milikich –  Nominated for his work on Java Micro Edition (ME) standards, implementations, tools, and Technology Compatibility Kits (TCKs), Mike was a 2009 Star Spec Lead for JSR 271, Mobile Information Device Profile 3. David Nuescheler – Serving as the CTO for Day Software, acquired by Adobe Systems, David has been a key player in the growth of the company’s global content management solution. In 2002, he became Spec Lead for JSR 170, Content Repository for Java Technology API, continuing for the subsequent version, JSR 283. Bill Shannon – A well-respected name in the Java community, Bill came to Oracle from Sun as a Distinguished Engineer and is still performing at full speed as Spec Lead for JSR 342, Java EE 7,  as an alternate EC member, and hands-on problem solver for the Java community as a whole. Jim Van Peursem – Jim holds a PhD in Computer Engineering. He was part of the Motorola team that worked with Sun labs on the Spotless VM that became the KVM. From within Motorola, Jim has been responsible for many aspects of Java technology deployment, from an independent Connected Limited Device Configuration (CLDC) and Mobile Information Device Profile (MIDP) implementations, to handset development, to working with the industry in defining many related standards. Participation in the JCP Program goes well beyond technical proficiency. The JCP Awards Program is an attempt to say “Thank You” to all of the JCP members, Expert Group Members, Spec Leads, and EC members who give their time to contribute to the evolution of Java technology.

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• ArchBeat Link-o-Rama for October 14-20, 2012

  - by Bob Rhubart

  The Top 10 items shared on the OTN ArchBeat Facebook page for the week of October 14-21, 2012. Panel: On the Impact of Software | InfoQ Les Hatton (Oakwood Computing Associates), Clive King (Oracle), Paul Good (Shell), Mike Andrews (Microsoft) and Michiel van Genuchten (moderator) discuss the impact of software engineering on our lives in this panel discussion recorded at the Computer Society Software Experts Summit 2012. ResCare Solves Content Lifecycle Challenges with Oracle WebCenter Learn how ResCare solves content lifecycle challenges with Oracle WebCenter. Speakers: Joe Lichtefeld, VP of Application Services & PMO, ResCare Wayne Boerger, Product Manager, TEAM Informatics Doug Thompson, EVP Global Development, TEAM Informatics Date: Tuesday, October 30, 2012 Time: 10:00 a.m. PT / 1:00 p.m. ET WebLogic Server 11gR1 Interactive Quick Reference "The WebLogic Server 11gR1 Administration interactive quick reference," explains Juergen Kress, "is a multimedia tool for various terms and concepts used in WebLogic Server architecture. This tool is available for administrators for online or offline use. This is built as a multimedia web page which provides descriptions of WebLogic Server Architectural components, and references to relevant documentation. This tool offers valuable reference information for any complex concept or product in an intuitive and useful manner." Oracle ACE Directors Nordic Tour 2012 : Venues and BI Presentations | Mark Rittman Oracle ACE Director Mark Rittman shares information on the Oracle ACE Director Tour, as the community leaders make their way through the land of the midnight sun, with events in Copenhagen, Stockholm, Oslo and Helsinki. Mobile Apps for EBS | Capgemini Oracle Blog Capgemini solution architect Satish Iyer breifly describes how Oracle ADF and Oracle SOA Suite can be used to fill the gap in mobile applications for Oracle EBS. Introducing the New Face of Fusion Applications | Misha Vaughan Oracle ACE Directors Debra Lilly and Floyd Teter have already blogged about the the new face of Oracle Fusion Applications. Now Applications User Experience Architect Misha Vaughan shares a brief overview of how the Oracle Applications User Experience (UX) team developed the new look. BPM 11g - Dynamic Task Assignment with Multi-level Organization Units | Mark Foster "I've seen several requirements to have a more granular level of task assignment in BPM 11g based on some value in the data passed to the process," says Fusion Middleware A-Team architect Mark Foster. "Parametric Roles is normally the first port of call to try to satisfy this requirement, but in this blog we will show how a lot of use-cases can be satisfied by the easier to implement and flexible Organization Unit." OTN Architect Day Los Angeles - Oct 25 Oracle Technology Network Architect Day in Los Angeles happens in one week. Register now to make sure you don't miss out on a rich schedule of expert technical sessions and peer interaction covering the use of Oracle technologies in cloud computing, SOA, and more. Even better: it's all free. When: October 25, 2012, 8:30am - 5:00pm. Where: Sofitel Los Angeles, 8555 Beverly Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90048. Oracle VM VirtualBox 4.2.2 released | Oracle's Virtualization Blog The Fat Bloke weighs in with a short post with information on where you can find information and the download for the latest VirtualBox release. Advanced Oracle SOA Suite #OOW 2012 SOA Presentations The Oracle SOA Product Management team has compiled a complete list of all twelve of their Oracle SOA Suite presentations from Oracle OpenWorld 2012, with links to the slide decks. Thought for the Day "Software: do you write it like a book, grow it like a plant, accrete it like a pearl, or construct it like a building?" — Jeff Atwood Source: softwarequotes.com

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• Code to connect to remote server using perl

  - by user304852

  I'm written small code to connect to remote server using perl but observing error messages #!/usr/bin/perl -w use Net::Telnet; $telnet = new Net::Telnet ( Timeout=>60, Errmode=>'die'); $telnet->open('192.168.50.40'); $telnet->waitfor('/login:/'); $telnet->print('queen'); $telnet->waitfor('/password:/'); $telnet->print('kinG!'); $telnet->waitfor('/:/'); $telnet->print('vol >> C:\result.txt'); $telnet->waitfor('/:/'); $telnet->cmd("mkdir vol"); $telnet->print('mkdir vol234'); $telnet->cmd("mkdir vol1"); $telnet->waitfor('/\$ $/i'); $telnet->print('whoamI'); print $output; But while running i'm getting following errors C:\>perl -c E:\test\net.pl E:\test\net.pl syntax OK C:\>perl E:\test\net.pl command timed-out at E:\test\net.pl line 13 C:\> Help me in this regard.. i'm not much aware of perl

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• Why does my Net::Telnet program timeout?

  - by user304852

  I'm written small code to connect to remote server using Perl but observing error messages #!/usr/bin/perl -w use Net::Telnet; $telnet = new Net::Telnet ( Timeout=>60, Errmode=>'die'); $telnet->open('192.168.50.40'); $telnet->waitfor('/login:/'); $telnet->print('queen'); $telnet->waitfor('/password:/'); $telnet->print('kinG!'); $telnet->waitfor('/:/'); $telnet->print('vol >> C:\result.txt'); $telnet->waitfor('/:/'); $telnet->cmd("mkdir vol"); $telnet->print('mkdir vol234'); $telnet->cmd("mkdir vol1"); $telnet->waitfor('/\$ $/i'); $telnet->print('whoamI'); print $output; But while running i'm getting following errors C:\>perl -c E:\test\net.pl E:\test\net.pl syntax OK C:\>perl E:\test\net.pl command timed-out at E:\test\net.pl line 13 C:\> Help me in this regard.. i'm not much aware of perl

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• Video-codec rater by image comparison algorithm?

  - by Andreas Hornig

  Hi, perhaps anyone knows if this is possible. comparing image quality is almost imposible to describe without subjective influences. When someone rates an image quality as good there is at least one person, that doesn't think so. human preferences are always different. So, I would like to know if there is away to "rate" the image quality by an algorithm that compares the original image to the produced one in following issues colour change(difference pixel by pixel blur rate artifacts and macroblocking the first one would be the easiest one because you could check just the diffeence in colours and can give 3 values in +- of each hex-value both last once I don't know if this is possible, but the blocking could be detected by edge-finding. and the king's quest would be to do that for more then just one image, because video is done with several frames. perhaps you expert programmers could tell me, if such an automated algo can be done to bring some objective measurement divice into rating image quality. this could perhaps calm down some h.264 is better than x264 and better than vp8 and blaaah people :) Andreas 1st posted here http://www.hdtvtotal.com/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=viewtopic&p=9705

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• R: convert data.frame columns from factors to characters

  - by Mike Dewar

  Hi, I have a data frame. Let's call him bob: > head(bob) phenotype exclusion GSM399350 3- 4- 8- 25- 44+ 11b- 11c- 19- NK1.1- Gr1- TER119- GSM399351 3- 4- 8- 25- 44+ 11b- 11c- 19- NK1.1- Gr1- TER119- GSM399352 3- 4- 8- 25- 44+ 11b- 11c- 19- NK1.1- Gr1- TER119- GSM399353 3- 4- 8- 25+ 44+ 11b- 11c- 19- NK1.1- Gr1- TER119- GSM399354 3- 4- 8- 25+ 44+ 11b- 11c- 19- NK1.1- Gr1- TER119- GSM399355 3- 4- 8- 25+ 44+ 11b- 11c- 19- NK1.1- Gr1- TER119- I'd like to concatenate the rows of this data frame (this will be another question). But look: > class(bob$phenotype) [1] "factor" Bob's columns are factors. So, for example: > as.character(head(bob)) [1] "c(3, 3, 3, 6, 6, 6)" "c(3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3)" [3] "c(29, 29, 29, 30, 30, 30)" I don't begin to understand this, but I guess these are indices into the levels of the factors of the columns (of the court of king caractacus) of bob? Not what I need. Strangely I can go through the columns of bob by hand, and do bob$phenotype <- as.character(bob$phenotype) which works fine. And, after some typing, I can get a data.frame whose columns are characters rather than factors. So my question is: how can I do this automatically? How do I convert a data.frame with factor columns into a data.frame with character columns without having to manually go through each column? Bonus question: why does the manual approach work?

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• XML: what processing rules apply for values intertwined with tags?

  - by iCE-9

  I've started working on a simple XML pull-parser, and as I've just defuzzed my mind on what's correct syntax in XML with regards to certain characters/sequences, ignorable whitespace and such (thank you, http://www.w3schools.com/xml/xml_elements.asp), I realized that I still don't know squat about what can be sketched up as the following case (which Validome finds well-formed very much; note that I only want to use xml files for data storage, no entities, DTD or Schemas needed): <bookstore> <book id="1"> <author>Kurt Vonnegut Jr.</author> <title>Slapstick</title> </book> We drop a pie here. <book id="2">Who cares anyway? <author>Stephen King</author> <title>The Green Mile</title> </book> And another one here. <book id="3"> <author>Next one</author> <title>This time with its own title</title> </book> </bookstore> "We drop a pie here." and "And another one here." are values of the 'bookstore' element. "Who cares anyway?" is a value related to the second 'book' element. How are these processed, if at all? Will "We drop a pie here." and "Another one here." be concatenated to form one value for the 'bookstore' element, or are they treated separately, stored somewhere, affecting the outcome of the parsing of the element they belong to, or...?

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• Javascript - How to index html code into variables

  - by Fernando SBS

  The webpage has the following source (only copied the important part): <h1>Relatórios</h1> <div id="textmenu"> <a href="berichte.php" class="selected ">Tudo</a> | <a href="berichte.php?t=2">Comércio</a> | <a href="berichte.php?t=1">Reforços</a> | <a href="berichte.php?t=3">Ataques</a> | <a href="berichte.php?t=4">Outros</a> </div> <form method="post" action="berichte.php" name="msg"> <table cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" id="overview" class="row_table_data"> <thead> <tr> <th colspan="2">Assunto:</th> <th class="sent"> enviada</th> </tr> </thead><tfoot> <tr> <th>&nbsp;</th> <th class=buttons><input name=del value=apagar alt=apagar type=image id=btn_delete class=dynamic_img src=img/x.gif /></th> <th class=navi>&laquo;<a href="berichte.php?s=10&amp;o=0">&raquo;</a></th> </tr> </tfoot> <tbody> <tr> <td class="sel"><input class="check" type="checkbox" name="n1" value="15737030" /></td> <td class="sub"><img src="img/x.gif" class="iReport iReport1" alt="Ganhou como atacante sem perdas" title="Ganhou como atacante sem perdas" /> <div><a href="berichte.php?id=15737030">Rio Grande Do Leste ataca lcsanchez da aldeia</a> </div> </td> <td class="dat">hoje 21:33</td> </tr> <tr> <td class="sel"><input class="check" type="checkbox" name="n2" value="15736877" /></td> <td class="sub"><img src="img/x.gif" class="iReport iReport1" alt="Ganhou como atacante sem perdas" title="Ganhou como atacante sem perdas" /> <div><a href="berichte.php?id=15736877">Rio Grande Do Leste ataca Thabiti da aldeia</a> </div> </td> <td class="dat">hoje 21:32</td> </tr> <tr> <td class="sel"><input class="check" type="checkbox" name="n3" value="15736759" /></td> <td class="sub"><img src="img/x.gif" class="iReport iReport1" alt="Ganhou como atacante sem perdas" title="Ganhou como atacante sem perdas" /> <div><a href="berichte.php?id=15736759">Rio Grande Do Leste ataca Dionisio</a> </div> </td> <td class="dat">hoje 21:31</td> </tr> <tr> <td class="sel"><input class="check" type="checkbox" name="n4" value="15736513" /></td> <td class="sub"><img src="img/x.gif" class="iReport iReport1" alt="Ganhou como atacante sem perdas" title="Ganhou como atacante sem perdas" /> <div><a href="berichte.php?id=15736513">Rio Grande Do Leste ataca Aldeia de troakris</a> (nova)</div> </td> <td class="dat">hoje 21:30</td> </tr> <tr> <td class="sel"><input class="check" type="checkbox" name="n5" value="15736275" /></td> <td class="sub"><img src="img/x.gif" class="iReport iReport1" alt="Ganhou como atacante sem perdas" title="Ganhou como atacante sem perdas" /> <div><a href="berichte.php?id=15736275">Rio Grande Do Leste ataca Thabiti da aldeia</a> </div> </td> <td class="dat">hoje 21:28</td> </tr> <tr> <td class="sel"><input class="check" type="checkbox" name="n6" value="15736220" /></td> <td class="sub"><img src="img/x.gif" class="iReport iReport1" alt="Ganhou como atacante sem perdas" title="Ganhou como atacante sem perdas" /> <div><a href="berichte.php?id=15736220">Rio Grande Do Leste ataca Aldeia de troakris</a> (nova)</div> </td> <td class="dat">hoje 21:28</td> </tr> <tr> <td class="sel"><input class="check" type="checkbox" name="n7" value="15734824" /></td> <td class="sub"><img src="img/x.gif" class="iReport iReport1" alt="Ganhou como atacante sem perdas" title="Ganhou como atacante sem perdas" /> <div><a href="berichte.php?id=15734824">Rio Grande Do Leste ataca Austrália</a> </div> </td> <td class="dat">hoje 21:18</td> </tr> <tr> <td class="sel"><input class="check" type="checkbox" name="n8" value="15734440" /></td> <td class="sub"><img src="img/x.gif" class="iReport iReport1" alt="Ganhou como atacante sem perdas" title="Ganhou como atacante sem perdas" /> <div><a href="berichte.php?id=15734440">Rio Grande Do Leste ataca andrômeda</a> (nova)</div> </td> <td class="dat">hoje 21:15</td> </tr> <tr> <td class="sel"><input class="check" type="checkbox" name="n9" value="15730612" /></td> <td class="sub"><img src="img/x.gif" class="iReport iReport1" alt="Ganhou como atacante sem perdas" title="Ganhou como atacante sem perdas" /> <div><a href="berichte.php?id=15730612">Rio Grande Do Leste ataca wLG02 KING OF POP</a> (nova)</div> </td> <td class="dat">hoje 20:49</td> </tr> <tr> <td class="sel"><input class="check" type="checkbox" name="n10" value="15730304" /></td> <td class="sub"><img src="img/x.gif" class="iReport iReport1" alt="Ganhou como atacante sem perdas" title="Ganhou como atacante sem perdas" /> <div><a href="berichte.php?id=15730304">Rio Grande Do Leste ataca wLG02 KING OF POP</a> (nova)</div> </td> <td class="dat">hoje 20:47</td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </form> </div> I want to read from the source and assign to a variable the values like: relatorio[0] = berichte.php?id=15730304; relatorio[1] = berichte.php?id=15730612; ... relatorio[9] = berichte.php?id=15737030; How to do that? thanks

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• Flash CS4 [AS3]: Playing Card Deck Array

  - by Ben

  I am looking to make a card game in Flash CS4 using AS3 and I am stuck on the very first step. I have created graphics for a standard 52 card deck of playing cards and imported them into the library in Flash and then proceeded to convert them all to Movie Clips. I have also used the linkage to make them available in the code. The movie clips and the linkage are named in sequence, as in the Ace of Clubs would be C1, two of Diamonds is called D2, Jack of Spades is S11. (C = Clubs, D = Diamonds, S = Spades, H = Hearts and numbers 1 through 13 are the card values. 1 being Ace, 11 being Jack, 12 being Queen, 13 being King). As far as I know my next step would be to arrange the cards into an array. This is the part that I am having problems with. Can someone please point me in the right direction, what would be the best way to do this. Could you provide me with a bit of sample code as well? I have had a look at few tutorials online but they are all telling me different things, some are incomplete and the rest...well...they're just cr*ppy. Thanks in advance! Ben

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• Requirements for connecting to Oracle with JDBC?

  - by Lord Torgamus

  I'm a newbie to Java-related web development, and I can't seem to get a simple program with JDBC working. I'm using off-the-shelf Oracle 10g XE and the Eclipse EE IDE. From the books and web pages I've checked so far, I've narrowed the problem down to either an incorrectly written database URL or a missing JAR file. I'm getting the following error: java.sql.SQLException: No suitable driver found for jdbc:oracle://127.0.0.1:8080 with the following code: import java.sql.*; public class DatabaseTestOne { public static void main(String[] args) { String url = "jdbc:oracle://127.0.0.1:8080"; String username = "HR"; String password = "samplepass"; String sql = "SELECT EMPLOYEE_ID FROM EMPLOYEES WHERE LAST_NAME='King'"; Connection connection; try { connection = DriverManager.getConnection(url, username, password); Statement statement = connection.createStatement(); System.out.println(statement.execute(sql)); connection.close(); } catch (SQLException e) { System.err.println(e); } } } What is the proper format for a database URL, anyways? They're mentioned a lot but I haven't been able to find a description. Thanks! EDIT (the answer): Based on duffymo's answer, I got ojdbc14.jar from http://www.oracle.com/technology/software/tech/java/sqlj_jdbc/htdocs/jdbc_10201.html and dropped it in the Eclipse project's Referenced Libraries. Then I changed the start of the code to ... try { Class.forName("oracle.jdbc.driver.OracleDriver"); } catch (ClassNotFoundException e) { System.err.println(e); } // jdbc:oracle:thin:@<hostname>:<port>:<sid> String url = "jdbc:oracle:thin:@GalacticAC:1521:xe"; ... and it worked.

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• Unusual "static" method declaration

  - by Jason

  public class Card { public enum Rank { DEUCE, THREE, FOUR, FIVE, SIX, SEVEN, EIGHT, NINE, TEN, JACK, QUEEN, KING, ACE } public enum Suit { CLUBS, DIAMONDS, HEARTS, SPADES } private final Rank rank; private final Suit suit; private Card(Rank rank, Suit suit) { this.rank = rank; this.suit = suit; } public Rank rank() { return rank; } public Suit suit() { return suit; } public String toString() { return rank + " of " + suit; } private static final List<Card> protoDeck = new ArrayList<Card>(); // Initialize prototype deck **static** { for (Suit suit : Suit.values()) for (Rank rank : Rank.values()) protoDeck.add(new Card(rank, suit)); } public static ArrayList<Card> newDeck() { return new ArrayList<Card>(protoDeck); // Return copy of prototype deck } } I have a quick question. The code block that starts right after the static keyword declaration, what type of method is that ? I haven't ever seen that before. If anyone could enlighten me, that would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

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• Part 2&ndash;Load Testing In The Cloud

  - by Tarun Arora

  Welcome to Part 2, In Part 1 we discussed the advantages of creating a Test Rig in the cloud, the Azure edge and the Test Rig Topology we want to get to. In Part 2, Let’s start by understanding the components of Azure we’ll be making use of followed by manually putting them together to create the test rig, so… let’s get down dirty start setting up the Test Rig.  What Components of Azure will I be using for building the Test Rig in the Cloud? To run the Test Agents we’ll make use of Windows Azure Compute and to enable communication between Test Controller and Test Agents we’ll make use of Windows Azure Connect.  Azure Connect The Test Controller is on premise and the Test Agents are in the cloud (How will they talk?). To enable communication between the two, we’ll make use of Windows Azure Connect. With Windows Azure Connect, you can use a simple user interface to configure IPsec protected connections between computers or virtual machines (VMs) in your organization’s network, and roles running in Windows Azure. With this you can now join Windows Azure role instances to your domain, so that you can use your existing methods for domain authentication, name resolution, or other domain-wide maintenance actions. For more details refer to an overview of Windows Azure connect. A very useful video explaining everything you wanted to know about Windows Azure connect.  Azure Compute Windows Azure compute provides developers a platform to host and manage applications in Microsoft’s data centres across the globe. A Windows Azure application is built from one or more components called ‘roles.’ Roles come in three different types: Web role, Worker role, and Virtual Machine (VM) role, we’ll be using the Worker role to set up the Test Agents. A very nice blog post discussing the difference between the 3 role types. Developers are free to use the .NET framework or other software that runs on Windows with the Worker role or Web role. Developers can also create applications using languages such as PHP and Java. More on Windows Azure Compute. Each Windows Azure compute instance represents a virtual server... Virtual Machine Size CPU Cores Memory Cost Per Hour Extra Small Shared 768 MB $0.04 Small 1 1.75 GB $0.12 Medium 2 3.50 GB $0.24 Large 4 7.00 GB $0.48 Extra Large 8 14.00 GB $0.96   You might want to review the Windows Azure Pricing FAQ. Let’s Get Started building the Test Rig… Configuration Machine Role Comments VM – 1 Domain Controller for Playpit.com On Premise VM – 2 TFS, Test Controller On Premise VM – 3 Test Agent Cloud   In this blog post I would assume that you have the domain, Team Foundation Server and Test Controller Installed and set up already. If not, please refer to the TFS 2010 Installation Guide and this walkthrough on MSDN to set up your Test Controller. You can also download a preconfigured TFS 2010 VM from Brian Keller's blog, Brian also has some great hands on Labs on TFS 2010 that you may want to explore. I. Lets start building VM – 3: The Test Agent Download the Windows Azure SDK and Tools Open Visual Studio and create a new Windows Azure Project using the Cloud Template                   Choose the Worker Role for reasons explained in the earlier post         The WorkerRole.cs implements the Run() and OnStart() methods, no code changes required. You should be able to compile the project and run it in the compute emulator (The compute emulator should have been installed as part of the Windows Azure Toolkit) on your local machine.                   We will only be making changes to WindowsAzureProject, open ServiceDefinition.csdef. Ensure that the vmsize is small (remember the cost chart above). Import the “Connect” module. I am importing the Connect module because I need to join the Worker role VM to the Playpit domain. <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <ServiceDefinition name="WindowsAzureProject2" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/ServiceHosting/2008/10/ServiceDefinition"> <WorkerRole name="WorkerRole1" vmsize="Small"> <Imports> <Import moduleName="Diagnostics" /> <Import moduleName="Connect"/> </Imports> </WorkerRole> </ServiceDefinition> Go to the ServiceConfiguration.Cloud.cscfg and note that settings with key ‘Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.%%%%’ have been added to the configuration file. This is because you decided to import the connect module. See the config below. <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <ServiceConfiguration serviceName="WindowsAzureProject2" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/ServiceHosting/2008/10/ServiceConfiguration" osFamily="1" osVersion="*"> <Role name="WorkerRole1"> <Instances count="1" /> <ConfigurationSettings> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Diagnostics.ConnectionString" value="UseDevelopmentStorage=true" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.ActivationToken" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.Refresh" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.WaitForConnectivity" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.Upgrade" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.EnableDomainJoin" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainFQDN" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainControllerFQDN" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainAccountName" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainPassword" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainOU" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.Administrators" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainSiteName" value="" /> </ConfigurationSettings> </Role> </ServiceConfiguration>             Let’s go step by step and understand all the highlighted parameters and where you can find the values for them.       osFamily – By default this is set to 1 (Windows Server 2008 SP2). Change this to 2 if you want the Windows Server 2008 R2 operating system. The Advantage of using osFamily = “2” is that you get Powershell 2.0 rather than Powershell 1.0. In Powershell 2.0 you could simply use “powershell -ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted ./myscript.ps1” and it will work while in Powershell 1.0 you will have to change the registry key by including the following in your command file “reg add HKLM\Software\Microsoft\PowerShell\1\ShellIds\Microsoft.PowerShell /v ExecutionPolicy /d Unrestricted /f” before you can execute any power shell. The other reason you might want to move to os2 is if you wanted IIS 7.5.       Activation Token – To enable communication between the on premise machine and the Windows Azure Worker role VM both need to have the same token. Log on to Windows Azure Management Portal, click on Connect, click on Get Activation Token, this should give you the activation token, copy the activation token to the clipboard and paste it in the configuration file. Note – Later in the blog I’ll be showing you how to install connect on the on premise machine.                       EnableDomainJoin – Set the value to true, ofcourse we want to join the on windows azure worker role VM to the domain.       DomainFQDN, DomainControllerFQDN, DomainAccountName, DomainPassword, DomainOU, Administrators – This information is specific to your domain. I have extracted this information from the ‘service manager’ and ‘Active Directory Users and Computers’. Also, i created a new Domain-OU namely ‘CloudInstances’ so all my cloud instances joined to my domain show up here, this is optional. You can encrypt the DomainPassword – refer to the instructions here. Or hold fire, I’ll be covering that when i come to certificates and encryption in the coming section.       Now once you have filled all this information up, the configuration file should look something like below, <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <ServiceConfiguration serviceName="WindowsAzureProject2" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/ServiceHosting/2008/10/ServiceConfiguration" osFamily="2" osVersion="*"> <Role name="WorkerRole1"> <Instances count="1" /> <ConfigurationSettings> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Diagnostics.ConnectionString" value="UseDevelopmentStorage=true" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.ActivationToken" value="45f55fea-f194-4fbc-b36e-25604faac784" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.Refresh" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.WaitForConnectivity" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.Upgrade" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.EnableDomainJoin" value="true" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainFQDN" value="play.pit.com" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainControllerFQDN" value="WIN-KUDQMQFGQOL.play.pit.com" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainAccountName" value="playpit\Administrator" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainPassword" value="************************" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainOU" value="OU=CloudInstances, DC=Play, DC=Pit, DC=com" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.Administrators" value="Playpit\Administrator" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainSiteName" value="" /> </ConfigurationSettings> </Role> </ServiceConfiguration> Next we will be enabling the Remote Desktop module in to the ServiceDefinition.csdef, we could make changes manually or allow a beautiful wizard to help us make changes. I prefer the second option. So right click on the Windows Azure project and choose Publish       Now once you get the publish wizard, if you haven’t already you would be asked to import your Windows Azure subscription, this is simply the Msdn subscription activation key xml. Once you have done click Next to go to the Settings page and check ‘Enable Remote Desktop for all roles’.       As soon as you do that you get another pop up asking you the details for the user that you would be logging in with (make sure you enter a reasonable expiry date, you do not want the user account to expire today). Notice the more information tag at the bottom, click that to get access to the certificate section. See screen shot below.       From the drop down select the option to create a new certificate        In the pop up window enter the friendly name for your certificate. In my case I entered ‘WAC – Test Rig’ and click ok. This will create a new certificate for you. Click on the view button to see the certificate details. Do you see the Thumbprint, this is the value that will go in the config file (very important). Now click on the Copy to File button to copy the certificate, we will need to import the certificate to the windows Azure Management portal later. So, make sure you save it a safe location.                                Click Finish and enter details of the user you would like to create with permissions for remote desktop access, once you have entered the details on the ‘Remote desktop configuration’ screen click on Ok. From the Publish Windows Azure Wizard screen press Cancel. Cancel because we don’t want to publish the role just yet and Yes because we want to save all the changes in the config file.       Now if you go to the ServiceDefinition.csdef file you will see that the RemoteAccess and RemoteForwarder roles have been imported for you. <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <ServiceDefinition name="WindowsAzureProject2" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/ServiceHosting/2008/10/ServiceDefinition"> <WorkerRole name="WorkerRole1" vmsize="Small"> <Imports> <Import moduleName="Diagnostics" /> <Import moduleName="Connect" /> <Import moduleName="RemoteAccess" /> <Import moduleName="RemoteForwarder" /> </Imports> </WorkerRole> </ServiceDefinition> Now go to the ServiceConfiguration.Cloud.cscfg file and you see a whole bunch for setting “Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.RemoteAccess.%%%” values added for you. <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <ServiceConfiguration serviceName="WindowsAzureProject2" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/ServiceHosting/2008/10/ServiceConfiguration" osFamily="2" osVersion="*"> <Role name="WorkerRole1"> <Instances count="1" /> <ConfigurationSettings> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Diagnostics.ConnectionString" value="UseDevelopmentStorage=true" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.ActivationToken" value="45f55fea-f194-4fbc-b36e-25604faac784" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.Refresh" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.WaitForConnectivity" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.Upgrade" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.EnableDomainJoin" value="true" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainFQDN" value="play.pit.com" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainControllerFQDN" value="WIN-KUDQMQFGQOL.play.pit.com" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainAccountName" value="playpit\Administrator" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainPassword" value="************************" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainOU" value="OU=CloudInstances, DC=Play, DC=Pit, DC=com" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.Administrators" value="Playpit\Administrator" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainSiteName" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.RemoteAccess.Enabled" value="true" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.RemoteAccess.AccountUsername" value="Administrator" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.RemoteAccess.AccountEncryptedPassword" value="MIIBnQYJKoZIhvcNAQcDoIIBjjCCAYoCAQAxggFOMIIBSgIBADAyMB4xHDAaBgNVBAMME1dpbmRvd 3MgQXp1cmUgVG9vbHMCEGa+B46voeO5T305N7TSG9QwDQYJKoZIhvcNAQEBBQAEggEABg4ol5Xol66Ip6QKLbAPWdmD4ae ADZ7aKj6fg4D+ATr0DXBllZHG5Umwf+84Sj2nsPeCyrg3ZDQuxrfhSbdnJwuChKV6ukXdGjX0hlowJu/4dfH4jTJC7sBWS AKaEFU7CxvqYEAL1Hf9VPL5fW6HZVmq1z+qmm4ecGKSTOJ20Fptb463wcXgR8CWGa+1w9xqJ7UmmfGeGeCHQ4QGW0IDSBU6ccg vzF2ug8/FY60K1vrWaCYOhKkxD3YBs8U9X/kOB0yQm2Git0d5tFlIPCBT2AC57bgsAYncXfHvPesI0qs7VZyghk8LVa9g5IqaM Cp6cQ7rmY/dLsKBMkDcdBHuCTAzBgkqhkiG9w0BBwEwFAYIKoZIhvcNAwcECDRVifSXbA43gBApNrp40L1VTVZ1iGag+3O1" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.RemoteAccess.AccountExpiration" value="2012-11-27T23:59:59.0000000+00:00" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.RemoteForwarder.Enabled" value="true" /> </ConfigurationSettings> <Certificates> <Certificate name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.RemoteAccess.PasswordEncryption" thumbprint="AA23016CF0BDFC344400B5B82706B608B92E4217" thumbprintAlgorithm="sha1" /> </Certificates> </Role> </ServiceConfiguration>          Okay let’s look at them one at a time,       Enabled - Yes, we would like to enable Remote Access.       AccountUserName – This is the user name you entered while you were on the publish windows azure role screen, as detailed above.       AccountEncrytedPassword – Try and decode that, the certificate is used to encrypt the password you specified for the user account. Remember earlier i said, either use the instructions or wait and i’ll be showing you encryption, now the user account i am using for rdp has the same password as my domain password, so i can simply copy the value of the AccountEncryptedPassword to the DomainPassword as well.       AccountExpiration – This is the expiration as you specified in the wizard earlier, make sure your account does not expire today.       Remote Forwarder – Check out the documentation, below is how I understand it, -- One role in an application that implements a remote desktop connection must import the RemoteForwarder module. The two modules work together to enable the remote desktop connections to role instances. -- If you have multiple roles defined in the service model, it does not matter which role you add the RemoteForwarder module to, but you must add it to only one of the role definitions.       Certificate – Remember the certificate thumbprint from the wizard, the on premise machine and windows azure role machine that need to speak to each other must have the same thumbprint. More on that when we install Windows Azure connect Endpoints on the on premise machine. As i said earlier, in this blog post, I’ll be showing you the manual process so i won’t be scripting any star up tasks to install the test agent or register the test agent with the TFS Server. I’ll be showing you all this cool stuff in the next blog post, that’s because it’s important to understand the manual side of it, it becomes easier for you to troubleshoot in case something fails. Having said that, the changes we have made are sufficient to spin up the Windows Azure Worker Role aka Test Agent VM, have it connected with the play.pit.com domain and have remote access enabled on it. Before we deploy the Test Agent VM we need to set up Windows Azure Connect on the TFS Server. II. Windows Azure Connect: Setting up Connect on VM – 2 i.e. TFS & Test Controller Glad you made it so far, now to enable communication between the on premise TFS/Test Controller and Azure-ed Test Agent we need to enable communication. We have set up the Azure connect module in the Test Agent configuration, now the connect end points need to be enabled on the on premise machines, let’s have a look at how we can do this. Log on to VM – 2 running the TFS Server and Test Controller Log on to the Windows Azure Management Portal and click on Virtual Network Click on Virtual Network, if you already have a subscription you should see the below screen shot, if not, you would be asked to complete the subscription first        Click on Install Local Endpoints from the top left on the panel and you get a url appended with a token id in it, remember the token i showed you earlier, in theory the token you get here should match the token you added to the Test Agent config file.        Copy the url to the clip board and paste it in IE explorer (important, the installation at present only works out of IE and you need to have cookies enabled in order to complete the installation). As stated in the pop up, you can NOT download and run the software later, you need to run it as is, since it contains a token. Once the installation completes you should see the Windows Azure connect icon in the system tray.                         Right click the Azure Connect icon, choose Diagnostics and refer to this link for diagnostic detail terminology. NOTE – Unfortunately I could not see the Windows Azure connect icon in the system tray, a bit of binging with Google revealed that the azure connect icon is only shown when the ‘Windows Azure Connect Endpoint’ Service is started. So go to services.msc and make sure that the service is started, if not start it, unfortunately again, the service did not start for me on a manual start and i realised that one of the dependant services was disabled, you can look at the service dependencies and start them and then start windows azure connect. Bottom line, you need to start Windows Azure connect service before you can proceed. Please refer here on MSDN for more on Troubleshooting Windows Azure connect. (Follow the next step as well)   Now go back to the Windows Azure Management Portal and from Groups and Roles create a new group, lets call it ‘Test Rig’. Make sure you add the VM – 2 (the TFS Server VM where you just installed the endpoint).       Now if you go back to the Azure Connect icon in the system tray and click ‘Refresh Policy’ you will notice that the disconnected status of the icon should change to ready for connection. III. Importing Certificate in to Windows Azure Management Portal But before that you need to import the certificate you created in Step I in to the Windows Azure Management Portal. Log on to the Windows Azure Management Portal and click on ‘Hosted Services, Storage Accounts & CDN’ and then ‘Management Certificates’ followed by Add Certificates as shown in the screen shot below        Browse to the location where you saved the certificate earlier, remember… Refer to Step I in case you forgot.        Now you should be able to see the imported certificate here, make sure the thumbprint of the certificate matches the one you inserted in the config files        IV. Publish Windows Azure Worker Role aka Test Agent Having completed I, II and III, you are ready to publish the Test Agent VM – 3 to the cloud. Go to Visual Studio and right click the Windows Azure project and select Publish. Verify the infomration in the wizard, from the advanced settings tab, you can also enabled capture of intellitrace or profiling information.         Click Next and Click Publish! From the view menu bar select the Windows Azure Activity Log window.       Now you should be able to see the deployment progress in real time.             In the Windows Azure Management Portal, you should also be able to see the progress of creation of a new Worker Role.       Once the deployment is complete you should be able to RDP (go to run prompt type mstsc and in the pop up the machine name) in to the Test Agent Worker Role VM from the Playpit network using the domain admin user account. In case you are unable to log in to the Test Agent using the domain admin user account it means the process of joining the Test Agent to the domain has failed! But the good news is, because you imported the connect module, you can connect to the Test Agent machine using Windows Azure Management Portal and troubleshoot the reason for failure, you will be able to log in with the user name and password you specified in the config file for the keys ‘RemoteAccess.AccountUsername, RemoteAccess.EncryptedPassword (just that enter the password unencrypted)’, fix it or manually join the machine to the domain. Once you have managed to Join the Test Agent VM to the Domain move to the next step.      So, log in to the Test Agent Worker Role VM with the Playpit Domain Administrator and verify that you can log in, the machine is connected to the domain and the connect service is successfully running. If yes, give your self a pat on the back, you are 80% mission accomplished!         Go to the Windows Azure Management Portal and click on Virtual Network, click on Groups and Roles and click on Test Rig, click Edit Group, the edit the Test Rig group you created earlier. In the Connect to section, click on Add to select the worker role you have just deployed. Also, check the ‘Allow connections between endpoints in the group’ with this you will enable to communication between test controller and test agents and test agents/test agents. Click Save.      Now, you are ready to deploy the Test Agent software on the Worker Role Test Agent VM and configure it to work with the Test Controller. V. Configuring VM – 3: Installing Test Agent and Associating Test Agent to Controller Log in to the Worker Role Test Agent VM that you have just successfully deployed, make sure you log in with the domain administrator account. Download the All Agents software from MSDN, ‘en_visual_studio_agents_2010_x86_x64_dvd_509679.iso’, extract the iso and navigate to where you have extracted the iso. In my case, i have extracted the iso to “C:\Resources\Temp\VsAgentSetup”. Open the Test Agent folder and double click on setup.exe. Once you have installed the Test Agent you should reach the configuration window. If you face any issues installing TFS Test Agent on the VM, refer to the walkthrough on MSDN.       Once you have successfully installed the Test Agent software you will need to configure the test agent. Right click the test agent configuration tool and run as a different user. i.e. an Administrator. This is really to run the configuration wizard with elevated privileges (you might have UAC block something's otherwise).        In the run options, you can select ‘service’ you do not need to run the agent as interactive un less you are running coded UI tests. I have specified the domain administrator to connect to the TFS Test Controller. In real life, i would never do that, i would create a separate test user service account for this purpose. But for the blog post, we are using the most powerful user so that any policies or restrictions don’t block you.        Click the Apply Settings button and you should be all green! If not, the summary usually gives helpful error messages that you can resolve and proceed. As per my experience, you may run in to either a permission or a firewall blocking communication issue.        And now the moment of truth! Go to VM –2 open up Visual Studio and from the Test Menu select Manage Test Controller       Mission Accomplished! You should be able to see the Test Agent that you have just configured here,         VI. Creating and Running Load Tests on your brand new Azure-ed Test Rig I have various blog posts on Performance Testing with Visual Studio Ultimate, you can follow the links and videos below, Blog Posts: - Part 1 – Performance Testing using Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate - Part 2 – Performance Testing using Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate - Part 3 – Performance Testing using Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate Videos: - Test Tools Configuration & Settings in Visual Studio - Why & How to Record Web Performance Tests in Visual Studio Ultimate - Goal Driven Load Testing using Visual Studio Ultimate Now that you have created your load tests, there is one last change you need to make before you can run the tests on your Azure Test Rig, create a new Test settings file, and change the Test Execution method to ‘Remote Execution’ and select the test controller you have configured the Worker Role Test Agent against in our case VM – 2 So, go on, fire off a test run and see the results of the test being executed on the Azur-ed Test Rig. Review and What’s next? A quick recap of the benefits of running the Test Rig in the cloud and what i will be covering in the next blog post AND I would love to hear your feedback! Advantages Utilizing the power of Azure compute to run a heavy virtual user load. Benefiting from the Azure flexibility, destroy Test Agents when not in use, takes < 25 minutes to spin up a new Test Agent. Most important test Network Latency, (network latency and speed of connection are two different things – usually network latency is very hard to test), by placing the Test Agents in Microsoft Data centres around the globe, one can actually test the lag in transferring the bytes not because of a slow connection but because the page has been requested from the other side of the globe. Next Steps The process of spinning up the Test Agents in windows Azure is not 100% automated. I am working on the Worker process and power shell scripts to make the role deployment, unattended install of test agent software and registration of the test agent to the test controller automated. In the next blog post I will show you how to make the complete process unattended and automated. Remember to subscribe to http://feeds.feedburner.com/TarunArora. Hope you enjoyed this post, I would love to hear your feedback! If you have any recommendations on things that I should consider or any questions or feedback, feel free to leave a comment. See you in Part III.   Share this post : CodeProject

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• Hidden Features of C#?

  - by Serhat Özgel

  This came to my mind after I learned the following from this question: where T : struct We, C# developers, all know the basics of C#. I mean declarations, conditionals, loops, operators, etc. Some of us even mastered the stuff like Generics, anonymous types, lambdas, linq, ... But what are the most hidden features or tricks of C# that even C# fans, addicts, experts barely know? Here are the revealed features so far: Keywords yield by Michael Stum var by Michael Stum using() statement by kokos readonly by kokos as by Mike Stone as / is by Ed Swangren as / is (improved) by Rocketpants default by deathofrats global:: by pzycoman using() blocks by AlexCuse volatile by Jakub Šturc extern alias by Jakub Šturc Attributes DefaultValueAttribute by Michael Stum ObsoleteAttribute by DannySmurf DebuggerDisplayAttribute by Stu DebuggerBrowsable and DebuggerStepThrough by bdukes ThreadStaticAttribute by marxidad FlagsAttribute by Martin Clarke ConditionalAttribute by AndrewBurns Syntax ?? operator by kokos number flaggings by Nick Berardi where T:new by Lars Mæhlum implicit generics by Keith one-parameter lambdas by Keith auto properties by Keith namespace aliases by Keith verbatim string literals with @ by Patrick enum values by lfoust @variablenames by marxidad event operators by marxidad format string brackets by Portman property accessor accessibility modifiers by xanadont ternary operator (?:) by JasonS checked and unchecked operators by Binoj Antony implicit and explicit operators by Flory Language Features Nullable types by Brad Barker Currying by Brian Leahy anonymous types by Keith __makeref __reftype __refvalue by Judah Himango object initializers by lomaxx format strings by David in Dakota Extension Methods by marxidad partial methods by Jon Erickson preprocessor directives by John Asbeck DEBUG pre-processor directive by Robert Durgin operator overloading by SefBkn type inferrence by chakrit boolean operators taken to next level by Rob Gough pass value-type variable as interface without boxing by Roman Boiko programmatically determine declared variable type by Roman Boiko Static Constructors by Chris Easier-on-the-eyes / condensed ORM-mapping using LINQ by roosteronacid Visual Studio Features select block of text in editor by Himadri snippets by DannySmurf Framework TransactionScope by KiwiBastard DependantTransaction by KiwiBastard Nullable<T> by IainMH Mutex by Diago System.IO.Path by ageektrapped WeakReference by Juan Manuel Methods and Properties String.IsNullOrEmpty() method by KiwiBastard List.ForEach() method by KiwiBastard BeginInvoke(), EndInvoke() methods by Will Dean Nullable<T>.HasValue and Nullable<T>.Value properties by Rismo GetValueOrDefault method by John Sheehan Tips & Tricks nice method for event handlers by Andreas H.R. Nilsson uppercase comparisons by John access anonymous types without reflection by dp a quick way to lazily instantiate collection properties by Will JavaScript-like anonymous inline-functions by roosteronacid Other netmodules by kokos LINQBridge by Duncan Smart Parallel Extensions by Joel Coehoorn

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• Python sorting list of dictionaries by multiple keys

  - by simi

  I have a list of dicts: b = [{u'TOT_PTS_Misc': u'Utley, Alex', u'Total_Points': 96.0}, {u'TOT_PTS_Misc': u'Russo, Brandon', u'Total_Points': 96.0}, {u'TOT_PTS_Misc': u'Chappell, Justin', u'Total_Points': 96.0}, {u'TOT_PTS_Misc': u'Foster, Toney', u'Total_Points': 80.0}, {u'TOT_PTS_Misc': u'Lawson, Roman', u'Total_Points': 80.0}, {u'TOT_PTS_Misc': u'Lempke, Sam', u'Total_Points': 80.0}, {u'TOT_PTS_Misc': u'Gnezda, Alex', u'Total_Points': 78.0}, {u'TOT_PTS_Misc': u'Kirks, Damien', u'Total_Points': 78.0}, {u'TOT_PTS_Misc': u'Worden, Tom', u'Total_Points': 78.0}, {u'TOT_PTS_Misc': u'Korecz, Mike', u'Total_Points': 78.0}, {u'TOT_PTS_Misc': u'Swartz, Brian', u'Total_Points': 66.0}, {u'TOT_PTS_Misc': u'Burgess, Randy', u'Total_Points': 66.0}, {u'TOT_PTS_Misc': u'Smugala, Ryan', u'Total_Points': 66.0}, {u'TOT_PTS_Misc': u'Harmon, Gary', u'Total_Points': 66.0}, {u'TOT_PTS_Misc': u'Blasinsky, Scott', u'Total_Points': 60.0}, {u'TOT_PTS_Misc': u'Carter III, Laymon', u'Total_Points': 60.0}, {u'TOT_PTS_Misc': u'Coleman, Johnathan', u'Total_Points': 60.0}, {u'TOT_PTS_Misc': u'Venditti, Nick', u'Total_Points': 60.0}, {u'TOT_PTS_Misc': u'Blackwell, Devon', u'Total_Points': 60.0}, {u'TOT_PTS_Misc': u'Kovach, Alex', u'Total_Points': 60.0}, {u'TOT_PTS_Misc': u'Bolden, Antonio', u'Total_Points': 60.0}, {u'TOT_PTS_Misc': u'Smith, Ryan', u'Total_Points': 60.0}] and I need to use a multi key sort reversed by Total_Points, then not reversed by TOT_PTS_Misc. This can be done at the command prompt like so: a = sorted(b, key=lambda d: (-d['Total_Points'], d['TOT_PTS_Misc'])) But I have to run this through a function, where I pass in the list and the sort keys. For example, def multikeysort(dict_list, sortkeys):. How can the lambda line be used which will sort the list, for an arbitrary number of keys that are passed in to the multikeysort function, and take into consideration that the sortkeys may have any number of keys and those that need reversed sorts will be identified with a '-' before it?

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• Bibliography behaves strange in lyx.

  - by Orjanp

  Hi! I have created a Bibliography section in my document written in lyx. It uses a book layout. For some reason it did start over again when I added some more entries. The new entries was made some time later than the first ones. I just went down to key-27 and hit enter. Then it started on key-1 again. Does anyone know why it behaves like this? The lyx code is below. \begin{thebibliography}{34} \bibitem{key-6}Lego mindstorms, http://mindstorms.lego.com/en-us/default.aspx \bibitem{key-7}C.A.R. Hoare. Communicating sequential processes. Communications of the ACM, 21(8):666-677, pages 666\textendash{}677, August 1978. \bibitem{key-8}C.A.R. Hoare. Communicating sequential processes. Prentice-Hall, 1985. \bibitem{key-9}CSPBuilder, http://code.google.com/p/cspbuilder/ \bibitem{key-10}Rune Møllegård Friborg and Brian Vinter. CSPBuilder - CSP baset Scientific Workflow Modelling, 2008. \bibitem{key-11}Labview, http://www.ni.com/labview \bibitem{key-12}Robolab, http://www.lego.com/eng/education/mindstorms/home.asp?pagename=robolab \bibitem{key-13}http://code.google.com/p/pycsp/ \bibitem{key-14}Paparazzi, http://paparazzi.enac.fr \bibitem{key-15}Debian, http://www.debian.org \bibitem{key-16}Ubuntu, http://www.ubuntu.com \bibitem{key-17}GNU, http://www.gnu.org \bibitem{key-18}IVY, http://www2.tls.cena.fr/products/ivy/ \bibitem{key-19}Tkinter, http://wiki.python.org/moin/TkInter \bibitem{key-20}pyGKT, http://www.pygtk.org/ \bibitem{key-21}pyQT4, http://wiki.python.org/moin/PyQt4 \bibitem{key-22}wxWidgets, http://www.wxwidgets.org/ \bibitem{key-23}wxPython GUI toolkit, http://www.wxPython.org \bibitem{key-24}Python programming language, http://www.python.org \bibitem{key-25}wxGlade, http://wxglade.sourceforge.net/ \bibitem{key-26}http://numpy.scipy.org/ \bibitem{key-27}http://www.w3.org/XML/ \bibitem{key-1}IVY software bus, http://www2.tls.cena.fr/products/ivy/ \bibitem{key-2}sdas \bibitem{key-3}sad \bibitem{key-4}sad \bibitem{key-5}fsa \bibitem{key-6}sad \bibitem{key-7} \end{thebibliography}

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• Updates to fullcalendar events (through updateEvent) not maintaining across ajax month changes

  - by user549615

  Hey there. I have the calendar configured to allow me to edit and add (drag/drop) calendar events. I use .fullCalendar('updateEvent', theEvent) to edit an event, and it immediately updates on the page. Excellent. If I move to another month and then move back (get via ajax), that change is undone. By contrast, if I add a new event by drag/drop using: .fullCalendar('renderEvent', newEventObject, true); it appears on the calendar, and if I move to another month, and move back, it maintains. If I edit this newly added event object, and move to another month and back, the updates are retained! So the "stickiness" of edits seem to work on newly added events, but not events that were pulled via ajax (since it just pulls a fresh version via ajax when the month changes). My calendar config is: $('#calendar').fullCalendar({ theme: true, header: { left: "prev,next today", center: 'title', right: "today prev,next" }, selectable: true, selectHelper: true, select: calendarSelect, droppable: true, drop: calendarDrop, events:getCalendarData, eventClick:calendarEventClicked }); I tried setting editable: true, as well, but no dice. I noticed that if I view "event.source" on one of the ajax pulled events, it shows me a function, and if i read the source attribute on one of the "added" events, it reads [object]. So I tried setting the event.source of the event being added, to that same event object: curCalendarEvent.source = curCalendarEvent But no dice. It sets, but when I move back month forward again, it returns to the function as a source. I tried adding lazyFetching: false to my calendar config, but that didn't help. I even tried a .fullCalendar('renderEvent', curCalendarEvent, true); on the existing "edited" event to see if I could get "stick" to work, and it didn't help. The only thing I can think of doing is deleting the event flat out and recreating it. Any help would be appreciated. -Brian

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• Serialize a C# class to xml. Store the XML as a string in SQL Server and then restore the class late

  - by BrianK

  I want to serialize a class to xml and store that in a field in a database. I can serialize with this: StringWriter sw = new StringWriter(); XmlSerializer xmlser = new XmlSerializer(typeof(MyClass)); xmlser.Serialize(sw, myClassVariable); string s = sw.ToString(); sw.Close(); Thats works, but it has the namesapces in it. xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" Will these slow down the deserialization because it will go out to those and verify the XML? I got rid of the namespaces by creating a blank XmlSerializerNamespaces and using that to serialize, but then the xml still had namespaces around integer variables: <anyType xmlns:q1="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" d3p1:type="q1:int" xmlns:d3p1="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"> 3 </anyType> My question is: Is it necessary to have the namesapces for deserialization and if not, how to get rid of them? How do I tell it fields are ints so it doesnt put in "anytype" Thanks, Brian

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• How can I filter a Perl DBIx recordset with 2 conditions on the same column?

  - by BrianH

  I'm getting my feet wet in DBIx::Class - loving it so far. One problem I am running into is that I want to query records, filtering out records that aren't in a certain date range. It took me a while to find out how to do a "<=" type of match instead of an equality match: my $start_criteria = ">= $start_date"; my $end_criteria = "<= $end_date"; my $result = $schema->resultset('MyTable')->search( { 'status_date' => \$start_criteria, 'status_date' => \$end_criteria, }); The obvious problem with this is that since the filters are in a hash, I am overwriting the value for "status_date", and am only searching where the status_date <= $end_date. The SQL that gets executed is: SELECT me.* from MyTable me where status_date <= '9999-12-31' I've searched CPAN, Google and SO and haven't been able to figure out how to apply 2 conditions to the same column. All documentation I've been able to find shows how to filter on more than 1 column, but not 2 conditions on the same column. I'm sure I'm missing something obvious - hoping someone here can point it out to me? Thanks in advance! Brian

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• ASP.NET - I am generating an .XLS file with a DLL, how do I grant permissions for writing to file? (

  - by hamlin11

  I'm generating an .XLS file with a DLL (Excel Library http://code.google.com/p/excellibrary/) I've added this DLL as a reference to my project. The code to save the .XLS to disk is running, but it's encountering a permissions issue. I've attempted to set full access for IUSRS, Network Service, and Everyone just to see if I could get it working, and none of these seems to make a difference. Here's where I'm trying to write the file: c:/temp/test1.xls Here's the error: [SecurityException: Request for the permission of type 'System.Security.Permissions.FileIOPermission, mscorlib, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089' failed.] System.Security.CodeAccessSecurityEngine.Check(Object demand, StackCrawlMark& stackMark, Boolean isPermSet) +0 System.Security.CodeAccessPermission.Demand() +54 System.IO.FileStream.Init(String path, FileMode mode, FileAccess access, Int32 rights, Boolean useRights, FileShare share, Int32 bufferSize, FileOptions options, SECURITY_ATTRIBUTES secAttrs, String msgPath, Boolean bFromProxy) +2103 System.IO.FileStream..ctor(String path, FileMode mode, FileAccess access, FileShare share, Int32 bufferSize, FileOptions options, String msgPath, Boolean bFromProxy) +138 System.IO.FileStream..ctor(String path, FileMode mode, FileAccess access, FileShare share) +89 System.IO.File.Open(String path, FileMode mode, FileAccess access, FileShare share) +58 ExcelLibrary.Office.CompoundDocumentFormat.CompoundDocument.Create(String file) +88 ExcelLibrary.Office.Excel.Workbook.Save(String file) +73 CHC_Reports.LitAnalysis.CreateSpreadSheet_Click(Object sender, EventArgs e) in C:\Users\brian\Desktop\Enterprise Manager\CHC_Reports\LitAnalysis.aspx.vb:19 System.Web.UI.WebControls.Button.OnClick(EventArgs e) +115 System.Web.UI.WebControls.Button.RaisePostBackEvent(String eventArgument) +140 System.Web.UI.Page.RaisePostBackEvent(IPostBackEventHandler sourceControl, String eventArgument) +29 System.Web.UI.Page.ProcessRequestMain(Boolean includeStagesBeforeAsyncPoint, Boolean includeStagesAfterAsyncPoint) +11041511 System.Web.UI.Page.ProcessRequest(Boolean includeStagesBeforeAsyncPoint, Boolean includeStagesAfterAsyncPoint) +11041050 System.Web.UI.Page.ProcessRequest() +91 System.Web.UI.Page.ProcessRequest(HttpContext context) +240 ASP.litanalysis_aspx.ProcessRequest(HttpContext context) +52 System.Web.CallHandlerExecutionStep.System.Web.HttpApplication.IExecutionStep.Execute() +599 System.Web.HttpApplication.ExecuteStep(IExecutionStep step, Boolean& completedSynchronously) +171 Any idea what I need to do to diagnose the permissions issue and allow the file creation? Thanks.

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• linux new/delete, malloc/free large memory blocks

  - by brian_mk

  Hi folks, We have a linux system (kubuntu 7.10) that runs a number of CORBA Server processes. The server software uses glibc libraries for memory allocation. The linux PC has 4G physical memory. Swap is disabled for speed reasons. Upon receiving a request to process data, one of the server processes allocates a large data buffer (using the standard C++ operator 'new'). The buffer size varies depening upon a number of parameters but is typically around 1.2G Bytes. It can be up to about 1.9G Bytes. When the request has completed, the buffer is released using 'delete'. This works fine for several consecutive requests that allocate buffers of the same size or if the request allocates a smaller size than the previous. The memory appears to be free'd ok - otherwise buffer allocation attempts would eventually fail after just a couple of requests. In any case, we can see the buffer memory being allocated and freed for each request using tools such as KSysGuard etc. The problem arises when a request requires a buffer larger than the previous. In this case, operator 'new' throws an exception. It's as if the memory that has been free'd from the first allocation cannot be re-allocated even though there is sufficient free physical memory available. If I kill and restart the server process after the first operation, then the second request for a larger buffer size succeeds. i.e. killing the process appears to fully release the freed memory back to the system. Can anyone offer an explanation as to what might be going on here? Could it be some kind of fragmentation or mapping table size issue? I am thinking of replacing new/delete with malloc/free and use mallopt to tune the way the memory is being released to the system. BTW - I'm not sure if it's relevant to our problem, but the server uses Pthreads that get created and destroyed on each processing request. Cheers, Brian.

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• are there java based auto-updating tools other than WebStart & Eclipse P2?

  - by DaddyB

  Hi, I am working on a java based application and we are looking to ease our deployment of updates. Up until now, we've always simply sent out new install packs & had the sysadmin's on our customer sites roll out the upgrades - painful for a large number of users. what I'd like to do is something similar to java webstart (or eclipse p2) - when the application starts, it checks for updates in a specified location and then downloads the updates prior to starting. But here's my problem - I want more control over what's done outside of the scope of plugins & jar files. For example: I'd like to be able to upate my JVM (we ship a modified version with additional security features). I need to install DLL's - possibly local to the jar files, sometimes to windows Occasiontally run MSI's to install windows components (e.g. printer drivers). I need to modify config files & the registry. I have found a few applications that support this (such as AppLifeUpdate at http://www.kineticjump.com/) but they tend to be .NET focused and it seems a bit perverse to introduce a .NET dependancy on a java application ;) I know I could write my own here, but if there is already a 3rd party library out there that supports this kind of facility, then it would make my life a lot easier. So, has anyone else had a similar problem & knows of some products I could look at? Thanks, Brian.

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• L10N: Trusted test data for Locale Specific Sorting

  - by Chris Betti

  I'm working on an internationalized database application that supports multiple locales in a single instance. When international users sort data in the applications built on top of the database, the database theoretically sorts the data using a collation appropriate to the locale associated with the data the user is viewing. I'm trying to find sorted lists of words that meet two criteria: the sorted order follows the collation rules for the locale the words listed will allow me to exercise most / all of the specific collation rules for the locale I'm having trouble finding such trusted test data. Are such sort-testing datasets currently available, and if so, what / where are they? "words.en.txt" is an example text file containing American English text: Andrew Brian Chris Zachary I am planning on loading the list of words into my database in randomized order, and checking to see if sorting the list conforms to the original input. Because I am not fluent in any language other than English, I do not know how to create sample datasets like the following sample one in French (call it "words.fr.txt"): cote côte coté côté The French prefer diacritical marks to be ordered right to left. If you sorted that using code-point order, it likely comes out like this (which is an incorrect collation): cote coté côte côté Thank you for the help, Chris

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• Max Daily Budget exceeded and Billing Status "Changing Daily Budget"

  - by draftpik

  We've exceeded the Max Daily Budget for our app, but we can't increase the budget due to a serious flaw in Google's billing system. Google App Engine and Google Wallet do not have very capable support for multiple sign-in. As a result, I went to change the budget, but it used the wrong Google Wallet account (a different Google Account I was signed in as). I had to go back and try again, but now our GAE app shows the following status: Billing Status: Changing Daily Budget Your account has been locked while we process your budget changes. If you were redirected to Google Checkout but did not complete the process, your settings will remain unchanged. (You will be able to make changes to your budget settings again once the outstanding payment is processed.) Now I'm completely prevented from making any billing changes, our app is shut off (over quota), and I have NOTHING I can do to fix it. This is a seriously fundamental flaw in App Engine's billing system and Google Wallet integration. Has anyone run into this before? Is there a workaround anyone is aware of? Right now, our production app is completely down thanks to this issue. Any help you can offer would be greatly appreciated? If you're from Google and you might be able to help on the backend, our app id is "nhldraftpik". Thanks! Brian

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• Create a new webpage using a WCF service

  - by sweeney

  Hello, I'd like to create WCF operation contract which consumes a string, produces a public webpage and then returns the address of this new page. [ServiceContract(Namespace = "")] public class DatabaseService { [OperationContract] public string BuildPage(string fileName, string html) { //writes html to file //returns public file url } } This doesn't seem like it should be complicated but i cant figure out how to do it. So far what i've tried is this: [OperationContract] public string PrintToFile(string name, string text) { FileInfo f = new FileInfo(name); StreamWriter w = f.AppendText(); w.Write(text); w.Close(); return f.Directory.ToString(); } Here's the problem. This does not create a file in the web root, it creates it in the directory where the webdav server is running. When i run this on an IIS server it seems to do nothing at all (at least not that i can tell). How can I get a handle to the webroot programmatically so that i can place the resultant file there and then return the public URL? I can tack on the domain name after the fact without issue so if it only returns the relative path to the file that's fine. Thanks, brian

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