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• How can state changes be batched while adhering to opaque-front-to-back/alpha-blended-back-to-front?

  - by Sion Sheevok

  This is a question I've never been able to find the answer to. Batching objects with similar states is a major performance gain when rendering many objects. However, I've been learned various rules when drawing objects in the game world. Draw all opaque objects, front-to-back. Draw all alpha-blended objects, back-to-front. Some of the major parameters to batch by, as I understand it, are textures, vertex buffers, and index buffers. It seems that, as long as you are adhering to the above two rules, there's little to be done in regards to batching. I see one possibility to batch, while still adhering to the above two rules. Opaque objects can still be drawn out of depth-order, because drawing them front-to-back is merely a fillrate optimization, meanwhile state changes may very well be far more expensive than the overdraw of drawing out of depth-order. However, non-opaque objects, those that require alpha-blending at least, must be drawn back-to-front in order to avoid rendering artifacts. Is the loss of the fillrate optimization for opaques worth the state batching optimization?

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• How to find whole graph coverage path in dynamic state-flow diagram?

  - by joseph

  Hello, As I've been researching algorithms for path finding in graph, I found interesting problem. Definition of situation: 1)State diagram can have p states, and s Boolean Fields, and z Int Fields 2)Every state can have q ingoing and r outgoing transitions, and h Int fields (h belongs to z - see above) 3)Every transition can have only 1 event, and only 1 action 4)every action can change n Boolean Fields, and x Int Fields 5)every event can have one trigger from combination of any count of Boolean Fields in diagram 6)Transition can be in OPEN/CLOSED form. If the transition is open/closed depends on trigger2 compounded from 0..c Boolean fields. 7) I KNOW algorithm for finding shortest paths from state A to state B. 8) I KNOW algorithm for finding path that covers all states and transitions of whole state diagram, if all transitions are OPEN. Now, what is the goal: I need to find shortest path that covers all states and transitions in dynamically changing state diagram described above. When an action changes some int field, the algorithm should go through all states that have changed int field. The algorithm should also be able to open and close transition (by going through transitions that open and close another transitions by action) in the way that the founded path will be shortest and covers all transitions and states. Any idea how to solve it? I will be really pleased for ANY idea. Thanks for answers.

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• Loading city/state from SQL Server to Google Maps?

  - by knawlejj

  I'm trying to make a small application that takes a city & state and geocodes that address to a lat/long location. Right now I am utilizing Google Map's API, ColdFusion, and SQL Server. Basically the city and state fields are in a database table and I want to take those locations and get marker put on a Google Map showing where they are. This is my code to do the geocoding, and viewing the source of the page shows that it is correctly looping through my query and placing a location ("Omaha, NE") in the address field, but no marker, or map for that matter, is showing up on the page: function codeAddress() { <cfloop query="GetLocations"> var address = document.getElementById(<cfoutput>#Trim(hometown)#,#Trim(state)#</cfoutput>).value; if (geocoder) { geocoder.geocode( {<cfoutput>#Trim(hometown)#,#Trim(state)#</cfoutput>: address}, function(results, status) { if (status == google.maps.GeocoderStatus.OK) { var marker = new google.maps.Marker({ map: map, position: results[0].geometry.location, title: <cfoutput>#Trim(hometown)#,#Trim(state)#</cfoutput> }); } else { alert("Geocode was not successful for the following reason: " + status); } }); } </cfloop> } And here is the code to initialize the map: var geocoder; var map; function initialize() { geocoder = new google.maps.Geocoder(); var latlng = new google.maps.LatLng(42.4167,-90.4290); var myOptions = { zoom: 5, center: latlng, mapTypeId: google.maps.MapTypeId.ROADMAP } var marker = new google.maps.Marker({ position: latlng, map: map, title: "Test" }); map = new google.maps.Map(document.getElementById("map_canvas"), myOptions); } I do have a map working that uses lat/long that was hard coded into the database table, but I want to be able to just use the city/state and convert that to a lat/long. Any suggestions or direction? Storing the lat/long in the database is also possible, but I don't know how to do that within SQL.

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• How to automatically extend the tab control as items are added to it without creating a scroll bar?

  - by MICHELINE

  I am using a WPF user control (tab control) to add tab items dynamically in the simplified code below: .... foreach (string id in ids) { TabControl.Items.Add(CreateTabItem(id)); } private TabItem CreateTabItem(string name) { StackPanel txtBlock = new TextBlock(); txtblock.Text = name; txtBlock.HorizontalAlignment = Horizontalalignment.Center; panel.Children.Add(txtBlock); TabItem item = new TabItem(); item.Header = panel; <SomeControl> control = new <SomeControl>(); item.Content = control; return item; } In the xaml file I specified the following to stack all my tab items to the left column: MinWidth="100" MinHeight="300" TabStripPlacement="Left" How do I make my tab control automatically extending (ie. stretching) its height to show all the tab items as I add them in? For now, I have to manually extend the height of the display window to see all the tab items. Your insights/tips are greatly appreciated. PS: if you know how to make the vertical scroll bar appears (without adding scroll bar to my control) as soon as the tab items exceed the window height, I can settle for that if there are no answers for my original intent.

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• Character jump animation is not working when i hit the space bar

  - by muzzy

  i am having an issue with my game in XNA. My jump sprite sheet for my character does not trigger when i hit the space bar. I cant seem to find the problem. Please help me. I am also put the code below to make things easier. namespace WindowsGame4 { public class Game1 : Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Game { GraphicsDeviceManager graphics; SpriteBatch spriteBatch; // start of new code Texture2D playerWalk; // sprite sheet of walk cycle (14 frames) Texture2D idle; // idle animation Texture2D jump; // jump animation Vector2 playerPos; // to hold x and y position info for the player Point frameDimensions; // to hold width and height values for the frames int presentFrame; // to record which frame we are on at any given time int noOfFrames; // to hold the total number of frames in the spritesheet int elapsedTime; // to know how long each frame has been shown int frameDuration; // to hold info about how long each frame should be shown SpriteEffects flipDirection; // SpriteEffects object int speed; //rate of movement int upMovement; int downMovement; int rightMovement; int leftMovement; int jumpApex; string state; //this is going to be "idle","walking" or "jumping". KeyboardState previousKeyboardState; Vector2 originalPlayerPos; Vector2 movementDirection; Vector2 movementSpeed; public Game1() { graphics = new GraphicsDeviceManager(this); Content.RootDirectory = "Content"; } protected override void Initialize() { // textures will be defined in the LoadContent() method playerPos = new Vector2(0, 200); // starting position for the player is at the left of the screen, and a Y position of 200 frameDimensions = new Point(55, 65); // each frame in the idle sprite sheet is 55 wide by 65 high presentFrame = 0; // start at frame 0 noOfFrames = 5; // there are 5 frames in the idle cycle elapsedTime = 0; // set elapsed time to start at 0 frameDuration = 80; // 80 milliseconds is how long each frame will show for (the higher the number, the slower the animation) flipDirection = SpriteEffects.None; // set the value of flipDirection to none speed = 200; upMovement = -2; downMovement = 2; rightMovement = 1; leftMovement = -1; jumpApex = 100; state = "idle"; previousKeyboardState = Keyboard.GetState(); originalPlayerPos = Vector2.Zero; movementDirection = Vector2.Zero; movementSpeed = Vector2.Zero; base.Initialize(); } protected override void LoadContent() { spriteBatch = new SpriteBatch(GraphicsDevice); playerWalk = Content.Load<Texture2D>("sprites/walkSmall"); // load the walk cycle spritesheet idle = Content.Load<Texture2D>("sprites/idleCycle"); // load the idle cycle sprite sheet jump = Content.Load<Texture2D>("sprites/jump"); // load the jump cycle sprite sheet } protected override void UnloadContent() // we're not using this method at the moment { } protected override void Update(GameTime gameTime) // Update method - used it to call a number of other methods { if (Keyboard.GetState().IsKeyDown(Keys.Escape)) { this.Exit(); // Exit the game if the Escape key is pressed } KeyboardState presentKeyboardState = Keyboard.GetState(); UpdateMovement(presentKeyboardState, gameTime); UpdateIdle(presentKeyboardState, gameTime); UpdateJump(presentKeyboardState); UpdateAnimation(gameTime); playerPos += movementDirection * movementSpeed * (float)gameTime.ElapsedGameTime.TotalSeconds; previousKeyboardState = presentKeyboardState; base.Update(gameTime); } private void UpdateAnimation(GameTime gameTime) { elapsedTime += gameTime.ElapsedGameTime.Milliseconds; if (elapsedTime > frameDuration) { elapsedTime -= frameDuration; elapsedTime = elapsedTime - frameDuration; presentFrame++; if (presentFrame > noOfFrames) if (state != "jumping") { presentFrame = 0; } else { presentFrame = 8; } } } protected void UpdateMovement(KeyboardState presentKeyboardState, GameTime gameTime) { if (state == "idle") { movementSpeed = Vector2.Zero; movementDirection = Vector2.Zero; if (presentKeyboardState.IsKeyDown(Keys.Left)) { state = "walking"; movementSpeed.X = speed; movementDirection.X = leftMovement; flipDirection = SpriteEffects.FlipHorizontally; } if (presentKeyboardState.IsKeyDown(Keys.Right)) { state = "walking"; movementSpeed.X = speed; movementDirection.X = rightMovement; flipDirection = SpriteEffects.None; } } } private void UpdateIdle(KeyboardState presentKeyboardState, GameTime gameTime) { if ((presentKeyboardState.IsKeyUp(Keys.Left) && previousKeyboardState.IsKeyDown(Keys.Left) || presentKeyboardState.IsKeyUp(Keys.Right) && previousKeyboardState.IsKeyDown(Keys.Right) && state != "jumping")) { state = "idle"; } } private void UpdateJump(KeyboardState presentKeyboardState) { if (state == "walking" || state == "idle") { if (presentKeyboardState.IsKeyDown(Keys.Space) && !presentKeyboardState.IsKeyDown(Keys.Space)) { presentFrame = 1; DoJump(); } } if (state == "jumping") { if (originalPlayerPos.Y - playerPos.Y > jumpApex) { movementDirection.Y = downMovement; } if (playerPos.Y > originalPlayerPos.Y) { playerPos.Y = originalPlayerPos.Y; state = "idle"; movementDirection = Vector2.Zero; } } } private void DoJump() { if (state != "jumping") { state = "jumping"; originalPlayerPos = playerPos; movementDirection.Y = upMovement; movementSpeed = new Vector2(speed, speed); } } protected override void Draw(GameTime gameTime) // Draw method { GraphicsDevice.Clear(Color.CornflowerBlue); spriteBatch.Begin(); // begin the spritebatch if (state == "walking") { noOfFrames = 14; frameDimensions = new Point(55, 65); Vector2 playerWalkPos = new Vector2(playerPos.X, playerPos.Y - 28); spriteBatch.Draw(playerWalk, playerWalkPos, new Rectangle((presentFrame * frameDimensions.X), 0, frameDimensions.X, frameDimensions.Y), Color.White, 0, Vector2.Zero, 1, flipDirection, 0); } if (state == "idle") { noOfFrames = 5; frameDimensions = new Point(55, 65); Vector2 idlePos = new Vector2(playerPos.X, playerPos.Y - 28); spriteBatch.Draw(idle, idlePos, new Rectangle((presentFrame * frameDimensions.X), 0, frameDimensions.X, frameDimensions.Y), Color.White, 0, Vector2.Zero, 1, flipDirection, 0); } if (state == "jumping") { noOfFrames = 9; frameDimensions = new Point(55, 92); Vector2 jumpPos = new Vector2(playerPos.X, playerPos.Y - 28); spriteBatch.Draw(jump, jumpPos, new Rectangle((presentFrame * frameDimensions.X), 0, frameDimensions.X, frameDimensions.Y), Color.White, 0, Vector2.Zero, 1, flipDirection, 0); } spriteBatch.End(); // end the spritebatch commands base.Draw(gameTime); } } }

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• adding array values

  - by christian

  Array ( [0] => Array ( [datas] => Array ( [name] => lorem [id] => 1 [type] => t1 [due_type] => Q1 [t1] => 1 [t2] => 1 [t3] => 1 ) ) [1] => Array ( [datas] => Array ( [name] => lorem [id] => 1 [type] => t2 [due_type] => Q1 [t1] => 0 [t2] => 1 [t3] => 0 ) ) [2] => Array ( [datas] => Array ( [name] => name [id] => 2 [type] => t1 [due_type] => Q1 [t1] => 1 [t2] => 0 [t3] => 1 ) ) [3] => Array ( [datas] => Array ( [name] => name [id] => 2 [type] => t2 [due_type] => Q1 [t1] => 1 [t2] => 0 [t3] => 0 ) ) ) I want to add the values of each array according to its id, but I am having problem getting the values using these code: I want to compute the sum of all type according to each due_type and combining them into one array. $totals = array(); $i = -1; foreach($datas as $key => $row){ $i += 1; $items[$i] = $row; if (isset($totals[$items[$i]['datas']['id']])){ if($totals[$items[$i]['datas']['id']]['due_type'] == 'Q1'){ if($totals[$items[$i]['datas']['id']]['type'] == 't1'){ $t1+=$totals[$items[$i]['datas']['id']]['t1']; }elseif($totals[$items[$i]['datas']['id']]['type'] == 't2'){ $t2+=$totals[$items[$i]['datas']['id']]['t2']; }elseif($totals[$items[$i]['datas']['id']]['type'] == 't3'){ $t3+=$totals[$items[$i]['datas']['id']]['t3']; } $totals[$items[$i]['datas']['id']]['t1_total'] = $t1; $totals[$items[$i]['datas']['id']]['t2_total'] = $t2; } } else { $totals[$items[$i]['datas']['id']] = $row['datas']; $totals[$items[$i]['datas']['id']]['t1_total'] = $items[$i]['datas']['t1']; $totals[$items[$i]['datas']['id']]['t2_total'] = $items[$i]['datas']['t2']; } }

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• How secure is a subnet?

  - by HorusKol

  I have an unfortunate complication in my network - some users/computers are attached to a completely private and firewalled office network that we administer (10.n.n.x/24 intranet), but others are attached to a subnet provided by a third party (129.n.n.x/25) as they need to access the internet via the third party's proxy. I have previously set up a gateway/router to allow the 10.n.n.x/24 network internet access: # Allow established connections, and those !not! coming from the public interface # eth0 = public interface # eth1 = private interface iptables -A INPUT -m state --state ESTABLISHED,RELATED -j ACCEPT iptables -A INPUT -m state --state NEW ! -i eth0 -j ACCEPT iptables -A FORWARD -i eth0 -o eth1 -m state --state ESTABLISHED,RELATED -j ACCEPT # Allow outgoing connections from the private interface iptables -A FORWARD -i eth1 -o eth0 -j ACCEPT # Masquerade (NAT) iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -o eth0 -j MASQUERADE # Don't forward any other traffic from the public to the private iptables -A FORWARD -i eth0 -o eth1 -j REJECT However, I now need to enable access to users on our 129.n.n.x/25 subnet to some private servers on the 10.n.n.x/24 network. I figured that I could do something like: # Allow established connections, and those !not! coming from the public interface # eth0 = public interface # eth1 = private interface #1 (10.n.n.x/24) # eth2 = private interface #2 (129.n.n.x/25) iptables -A INPUT -m state --state ESTABLISHED,RELATED -j ACCEPT iptables -A INPUT -m state --state NEW ! -i eth0 -j ACCEPT iptables -A FORWARD -i eth0 -o eth1 -m state --state ESTABLISHED,RELATED -j ACCEPT iptables -A FORWARD -i eth0 -o eth2 -m state --state ESTABLISHED,RELATED -j ACCEPT # Allow outgoing connections from the private interfaces iptables -A FORWARD -i eth1 -o eth0 -j ACCEPT iptables -A FORWARD -i eth2 -o eth0 -j ACCEPT # Allow the two public connections to talk to each other iptables -A FORWARD -i eth1 -o eth2 -j ACCEPT iptables -A FORWARD -i eth2 -o eth1 -j ACCEPT # Masquerade (NAT) iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -o eth0 -j MASQUERADE # Don't forward any other traffic from the public to the private iptables -A FORWARD -i eth0 -o eth1 -j REJECT iptables -A FORWARD -i eth0 -o eth2 -j REJECT My concern is that I know that the computers on our 129.n.n.x/25 subnet can be accessed via a VPN through the larger network operated by the provider - therefore, would it be possible for someone on the provider's supernet (correct term? inverse of subnet?) to be able to access our private 10.n.n.x/24 intranet?

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• What's New in ASP.NET 4

  - by Navaneeth

  The .NET Framework version 4 includes enhancements for ASP.NET 4 in targeted areas. Visual Studio 2010 and Microsoft Visual Web Developer Express also include enhancements and new features for improved Web development. This document provides an overview of many of the new features that are included in the upcoming release. This topic contains the following sections: ASP.NET Core Services ASP.NET Web Forms ASP.NET MVC Dynamic Data ASP.NET Chart Control Visual Web Developer Enhancements Web Application Deployment with Visual Studio 2010 Enhancements to ASP.NET Multi-Targeting ASP.NET Core Services ASP.NET 4 introduces many features that improve core ASP.NET services such as output caching and session state storage. Extensible Output Caching Since the time that ASP.NET 1.0 was released, output caching has enabled developers to store the generated output of pages, controls, and HTTP responses in memory. On subsequent Web requests, ASP.NET can serve content more quickly by retrieving the generated output from memory instead of regenerating the output from scratch. However, this approach has a limitation — generated content always has to be stored in memory. On servers that experience heavy traffic, the memory requirements for output caching can compete with memory requirements for other parts of a Web application. ASP.NET 4 adds extensibility to output caching that enables you to configure one or more custom output-cache providers. Output-cache providers can use any storage mechanism to persist HTML content. These storage options can include local or remote disks, cloud storage, and distributed cache engines. Output-cache provider extensibility in ASP.NET 4 lets you design more aggressive and more intelligent output-caching strategies for Web sites. For example, you can create an output-cache provider that caches the "Top 10" pages of a site in memory, while caching pages that get lower traffic on disk. Alternatively, you can cache every vary-by combination for a rendered page, but use a distributed cache so that the memory consumption is offloaded from front-end Web servers. You create a custom output-cache provider as a class that derives from the OutputCacheProvider type. You can then configure the provider in the Web.config file by using the new providers subsection of the outputCache element For more information and for examples that show how to configure the output cache, see outputCache Element for caching (ASP.NET Settings Schema). For more information about the classes that support caching, see the documentation for the OutputCache and OutputCacheProvider classes. By default, in ASP.NET 4, all HTTP responses, rendered pages, and controls use the in-memory output cache. The defaultProvider attribute for ASP.NET is AspNetInternalProvider. You can change the default output-cache provider used for a Web application by specifying a different provider name for defaultProvider attribute. In addition, you can select different output-cache providers for individual control and for individual requests and programmatically specify which provider to use. For more information, see the HttpApplication.GetOutputCacheProviderName(HttpContext) method. The easiest way to choose a different output-cache provider for different Web user controls is to do so declaratively by using the new providerName attribute in a page or control directive, as shown in the following example: <%@ OutputCache Duration="60" VaryByParam="None" providerName="DiskCache" %> Preloading Web Applications Some Web applications must load large amounts of data or must perform expensive initialization processing before serving the first request. In earlier versions of ASP.NET, for these situations you had to devise custom approaches to "wake up" an ASP.NET application and then run initialization code during the Application_Load method in the Global.asax file. To address this scenario, a new application preload manager (autostart feature) is available when ASP.NET 4 runs on IIS 7.5 on Windows Server 2008 R2. The preload feature provides a controlled approach for starting up an application pool, initializing an ASP.NET application, and then accepting HTTP requests. It lets you perform expensive application initialization prior to processing the first HTTP request. For example, you can use the application preload manager to initialize an application and then signal a load-balancer that the application was initialized and ready to accept HTTP traffic. To use the application preload manager, an IIS administrator sets an application pool in IIS 7.5 to be automatically started by using the following configuration in the applicationHost.config file: <applicationPools> <add name="MyApplicationPool" startMode="AlwaysRunning" /> </applicationPools> Because a single application pool can contain multiple applications, you specify individual applications to be automatically started by using the following configuration in the applicationHost.config file: <sites> <site name="MySite" id="1"> <application path="/" serviceAutoStartEnabled="true" serviceAutoStartProvider="PrewarmMyCache" > <!-- Additional content --> </application> </site> </sites> <!-- Additional content --> <serviceAutoStartProviders> <add name="PrewarmMyCache" type="MyNamespace.CustomInitialization, MyLibrary" /> </serviceAutoStartProviders> When an IIS 7.5 server is cold-started or when an individual application pool is recycled, IIS 7.5 uses the information in the applicationHost.config file to determine which Web applications have to be automatically started. For each application that is marked for preload, IIS7.5 sends a request to ASP.NET 4 to start the application in a state during which the application temporarily does not accept HTTP requests. When it is in this state, ASP.NET instantiates the type defined by the serviceAutoStartProvider attribute (as shown in the previous example) and calls into its public entry point. You create a managed preload type that has the required entry point by implementing the IProcessHostPreloadClient interface, as shown in the following example: public class CustomInitialization : System.Web.Hosting.IProcessHostPreloadClient { public void Preload(string[] parameters) { // Perform initialization. } } After your initialization code runs in the Preload method and after the method returns, the ASP.NET application is ready to process requests. Permanently Redirecting a Page Content in Web applications is often moved over the lifetime of the application. This can lead to links to be out of date, such as the links that are returned by search engines. In ASP.NET, developers have traditionally handled requests to old URLs by using the Redirect method to forward a request to the new URL. However, the Redirect method issues an HTTP 302 (Found) response (which is used for a temporary redirect). This results in an extra HTTP round trip. ASP.NET 4 adds a RedirectPermanent helper method that makes it easy to issue HTTP 301 (Moved Permanently) responses, as in the following example: RedirectPermanent("/newpath/foroldcontent.aspx"); Search engines and other user agents that recognize permanent redirects will store the new URL that is associated with the content, which eliminates the unnecessary round trip made by the browser for temporary redirects. Session State Compression By default, ASP.NET provides two options for storing session state across a Web farm. The first option is a session state provider that invokes an out-of-process session state server. The second option is a session state provider that stores data in a Microsoft SQL Server database. Because both options store state information outside a Web application's worker process, session state has to be serialized before it is sent to remote storage. If a large amount of data is saved in session state, the size of the serialized data can become very large. ASP.NET 4 introduces a new compression option for both kinds of out-of-process session state providers. By using this option, applications that have spare CPU cycles on Web servers can achieve substantial reductions in the size of serialized session state data. You can set this option using the new compressionEnabled attribute of the sessionState element in the configuration file. When the compressionEnabled configuration option is set to true, ASP.NET compresses (and decompresses) serialized session state by using the .NET Framework GZipStreamclass. The following example shows how to set this attribute. <sessionState mode="SqlServer" sqlConnectionString="data source=dbserver;Initial Catalog=aspnetstate" allowCustomSqlDatabase="true" compressionEnabled="true" /> ASP.NET Web Forms Web Forms has been a core feature in ASP.NET since the release of ASP.NET 1.0. Many enhancements have been in this area for ASP.NET 4, such as the following: The ability to set meta tags. More control over view state. Support for recently introduced browsers and devices. Easier ways to work with browser capabilities. Support for using ASP.NET routing with Web Forms. More control over generated IDs. The ability to persist selected rows in data controls. More control over rendered HTML in the FormView and ListView controls. Filtering support for data source controls. Enhanced support for Web standards and accessibility Setting Meta Tags with the Page.MetaKeywords and Page.MetaDescription Properties Two properties have been added to the Page class: MetaKeywords and MetaDescription. These two properties represent corresponding meta tags in the HTML rendered for a page, as shown in the following example: <head id="Head1" runat="server"> <title>Untitled Page</title> <meta name="keywords" content="keyword1, keyword2' /> <meta name="description" content="Description of my page" /> </head> These two properties work like the Title property does, and they can be set in the @ Page directive. For more information, see Page.MetaKeywords and Page.MetaDescription. Enabling View State for Individual Controls A new property has been added to the Control class: ViewStateMode. You can use this property to disable view state for all controls on a page except those for which you explicitly enable view state. View state data is included in a page's HTML and increases the amount of time it takes to send a page to the client and post it back. Storing more view state than is necessary can cause significant decrease in performance. In earlier versions of ASP.NET, you could reduce the impact of view state on a page's performance by disabling view state for specific controls. But sometimes it is easier to enable view state for a few controls that need it instead of disabling it for many that do not need it. For more information, see Control.ViewStateMode. Support for Recently Introduced Browsers and Devices ASP.NET includes a feature that is named browser capabilities that lets you determine the capabilities of the browser that a user is using. Browser capabilities are represented by the HttpBrowserCapabilities object which is stored in the HttpRequest.Browser property. Information about a particular browser's capabilities is defined by a browser definition file. In ASP.NET 4, these browser definition files have been updated to contain information about recently introduced browsers and devices such as Google Chrome, Research in Motion BlackBerry smart phones, and Apple iPhone. Existing browser definition files have also been updated. For more information, see How to: Upgrade an ASP.NET Web Application to ASP.NET 4 and ASP.NET Web Server Controls and Browser Capabilities. The browser definition files that are included with ASP.NET 4 are shown in the following list: •blackberry.browser •chrome.browser •Default.browser •firefox.browser •gateway.browser •generic.browser •ie.browser •iemobile.browser •iphone.browser •opera.browser •safari.browser A New Way to Define Browser Capabilities ASP.NET 4 includes a new feature referred to as browser capabilities providers. As the name suggests, this lets you build a provider that in turn lets you write custom code to determine browser capabilities. In ASP.NET version 3.5 Service Pack 1, you define browser capabilities in an XML file. This file resides in a machine-level folder or an application-level folder. Most developers do not need to customize these files, but for those who do, the provider approach can be easier than dealing with complex XML syntax. The provider approach makes it possible to simplify the process by implementing a common browser definition syntax, or a database that contains up-to-date browser definitions, or even a Web service for such a database. For more information about the new browser capabilities provider, see the What's New for ASP.NET 4 White Paper. Routing in ASP.NET 4 ASP.NET 4 adds built-in support for routing with Web Forms. Routing is a feature that was introduced with ASP.NET 3.5 SP1 and lets you configure an application to use URLs that are meaningful to users and to search engines because they do not have to specify physical file names. This can make your site more user-friendly and your site content more discoverable by search engines. For example, the URL for a page that displays product categories in your application might look like the following example: http://website/products.aspx?categoryid=12 By using routing, you can use the following URL to render the same information: http://website/products/software The second URL lets the user know what to expect and can result in significantly improved rankings in search engine results. the new features include the following: The PageRouteHandler class is a simple HTTP handler that you use when you define routes. You no longer have to write a custom route handler. The HttpRequest.RequestContext and Page.RouteData properties make it easier to access information that is passed in URL parameters. The RouteUrl expression provides a simple way to create a routed URL in markup. The RouteValue expression provides a simple way to extract URL parameter values in markup. The RouteParameter class makes it easier to pass URL parameter values to a query for a data source control (similar to FormParameter). You no longer have to change the Web.config file to enable routing. For more information about routing, see the following topics: ASP.NET Routing Walkthrough: Using ASP.NET Routing in a Web Forms Application How to: Define Routes for Web Forms Applications How to: Construct URLs from Routes How to: Access URL Parameters in a Routed Page Setting Client IDs The new ClientIDMode property makes it easier to write client script that references HTML elements rendered for server controls. Increasing use of Microsoft Ajax makes the need to do this more common. For example, you may have a data control that renders a long list of products with prices and you want to use client script to make a Web service call and update individual prices in the list as they change without refreshing the entire page. Typically you get a reference to an HTML element in client script by using the document.GetElementById method. You pass to this method the value of the id attribute of the HTML element you want to reference. In the case of elements that are rendered for ASP.NET server controls earlier versions of ASP.NET could make this difficult or impossible. You were not always able to predict what id values ASP.NET would generate, or ASP.NET could generate very long id values. The problem was especially difficult for data controls that would generate multiple rows for a single instance of the control in your markup. ASP.NET 4 adds two new algorithms for generating id attributes. These algorithms can generate id attributes that are easier to work with in client script because they are more predictable and that are easier to work with because they are simpler. For more information about how to use the new algorithms, see the following topics: ASP.NET Web Server Control Identification Walkthrough: Making Data-Bound Controls Easier to Access from JavaScript Walkthrough: Making Controls Located in Web User Controls Easier to Access from JavaScript How to: Access Controls from JavaScript by ID Persisting Row Selection in Data Controls The GridView and ListView controls enable users to select a row. In previous versions of ASP.NET, row selection was based on the row index on the page. For example, if you select the third item on page 1 and then move to page 2, the third item on page 2 is selected. In most cases, is more desirable not to select any rows on page 2. ASP.NET 4 supports Persisted Selection, a new feature that was initially supported only in Dynamic Data projects in the .NET Framework 3.5 SP1. When this feature is enabled, the selected item is based on the row data key. This means that if you select the third row on page 1 and move to page 2, nothing is selected on page 2. When you move back to page 1, the third row is still selected. This is a much more natural behavior than the behavior in earlier versions of ASP.NET. Persisted selection is now supported for the GridView and ListView controls in all projects. You can enable this feature in the GridView control, for example, by setting the EnablePersistedSelection property, as shown in the following example: <asp:GridView id="GridView2" runat="server" PersistedSelection="true"> </asp:GridView> FormView Control Enhancements The FormView control is enhanced to make it easier to style the content of the control with CSS. In previous versions of ASP.NET, the FormView control rendered it contents using an item template. This made styling more difficult in the markup because unexpected table row and table cell tags were rendered by the control. The FormView control supports RenderOuterTable, a property in ASP.NET 4. When this property is set to false, as show in the following example, the table tags are not rendered. This makes it easier to apply CSS style to the contents of the control. <asp:FormView ID="FormView1" runat="server" RenderTable="false"> For more information, see FormView Web Server Control Overview. ListView Control Enhancements The ListView control, which was introduced in ASP.NET 3.5, has all the functionality of the GridView control while giving you complete control over the output. This control has been made easier to use in ASP.NET 4. The earlier version of the control required that you specify a layout template that contained a server control with a known ID. The following markup shows a typical example of how to use the ListView control in ASP.NET 3.5. <asp:ListView ID="ListView1" runat="server"> <LayoutTemplate> <asp:PlaceHolder ID="ItemPlaceHolder" runat="server"></asp:PlaceHolder> </LayoutTemplate> <ItemTemplate> <% Eval("LastName")%> </ItemTemplate> </asp:ListView> In ASP.NET 4, the ListView control does not require a layout template. The markup shown in the previous example can be replaced with the following markup: <asp:ListView ID="ListView1" runat="server"> <ItemTemplate> <% Eval("LastName")%> </ItemTemplate> </asp:ListView> For more information, see ListView Web Server Control Overview. Filtering Data with the QueryExtender Control A very common task for developers who create data-driven Web pages is to filter data. This traditionally has been performed by building Where clauses in data source controls. This approach can be complicated, and in some cases the Where syntax does not let you take advantage of the full functionality of the underlying database. To make filtering easier, a new QueryExtender control has been added in ASP.NET 4. This control can be added to EntityDataSource or LinqDataSource controls in order to filter the data returned by these controls. Because the QueryExtender control relies on LINQ, but you do not to need to know how to write LINQ queries to use the query extender. The QueryExtender control supports a variety of filter options. The following lists QueryExtender filter options. Term Definition SearchExpression Searches a field or fields for string values and compares them to a specified string value. RangeExpression Searches a field or fields for values in a range specified by a pair of values. PropertyExpression Compares a specified value to a property value in a field. If the expression evaluates to true, the data that is being examined is returned. OrderByExpression Sorts data by a specified column and sort direction. CustomExpression Calls a function that defines custom filter in the page. For more information, see QueryExtenderQueryExtender Web Server Control Overview. Enhanced Support for Web Standards and Accessibility Earlier versions of ASP.NET controls sometimes render markup that does not conform to HTML, XHTML, or accessibility standards. ASP.NET 4 eliminates most of these exceptions. For details about how the HTML that is rendered by each control meets accessibility standards, see ASP.NET Controls and Accessibility. CSS for Controls that Can be Disabled In ASP.NET 3.5, when a control is disabled (see WebControl.Enabled), a disabled attribute is added to the rendered HTML element. For example, the following markup creates a Label control that is disabled: <asp:Label id="Label1" runat="server"   Text="Test" Enabled="false" /> In ASP.NET 3.5, the previous control settings generate the following HTML: <span id="Label1" disabled="disabled">Test</span> In HTML 4.01, the disabled attribute is not considered valid on span elements. It is valid only on input elements because it specifies that they cannot be accessed. On display-only elements such as span elements, browsers typically support rendering for a disabled appearance, but a Web page that relies on this non-standard behavior is not robust according to accessibility standards. For display-only elements, you should use CSS to indicate a disabled visual appearance. Therefore, by default ASP.NET 4 generates the following HTML for the control settings shown previously: <span id="Label1" class="aspNetDisabled">Test</span> You can change the value of the class attribute that is rendered by default when a control is disabled by setting the DisabledCssClass property. CSS for Validation Controls In ASP.NET 3.5, validation controls render a default color of red as an inline style. For example, the following markup creates a RequiredFieldValidator control: <asp:RequiredFieldValidator ID="RequiredFieldValidator1" runat="server"   ErrorMessage="Required Field" ControlToValidate="RadioButtonList1" /> ASP.NET 3.5 renders the following HTML for the validator control: <span id="RequiredFieldValidator1"   style="color:Red;visibility:hidden;">RequiredFieldValidator</span> By default, ASP.NET 4 does not render an inline style to set the color to red. An inline style is used only to hide or show the validator, as shown in the following example: <span id="RequiredFieldValidator1"   style"visibility:hidden;">RequiredFieldValidator</span> Therefore, ASP.NET 4 does not automatically show error messages in red. For information about how to use CSS to specify a visual style for a validation control, see Validating User Input in ASP.NET Web Pages. CSS for the Hidden Fields Div Element ASP.NET uses hidden fields to store state information such as view state and control state. These hidden fields are contained by a div element. In ASP.NET 3.5, this div element does not have a class attribute or an id attribute. Therefore, CSS rules that affect all div elements could unintentionally cause this div to be visible. To avoid this problem, ASP.NET 4 renders the div element for hidden fields with a CSS class that you can use to differentiate the hidden fields div from others. The new classvalue is shown in the following example: <div class="aspNetHidden"> CSS for the Table, Image, and ImageButton Controls By default, in ASP.NET 3.5, some controls set the border attribute of rendered HTML to zero (0). The following example shows HTML that is generated by the Table control in ASP.NET 3.5: <table id="Table2" border="0"> The Image control and the ImageButton control also do this. Because this is not necessary and provides visual formatting information that should be provided by using CSS, the attribute is not generated in ASP.NET 4. CSS for the UpdatePanel and UpdateProgress Controls In ASP.NET 3.5, the UpdatePanel and UpdateProgress controls do not support expando attributes. This makes it impossible to set a CSS class on the HTMLelements that they render. In ASP.NET 4 these controls have been changed to accept expando attributes, as shown in the following example: <asp:UpdatePanel runat="server" class="myStyle"> </asp:UpdatePanel> The following HTML is rendered for this markup: <div id="ctl00_MainContent_UpdatePanel1" class="expandoclass"> </div> Eliminating Unnecessary Outer Tables In ASP.NET 3.5, the HTML that is rendered for the following controls is wrapped in a table element whose purpose is to apply inline styles to the entire control: FormView Login PasswordRecovery ChangePassword If you use templates to customize the appearance of these controls, you can specify CSS styles in the markup that you provide in the templates. In that case, no extra outer table is required. In ASP.NET 4, you can prevent the table from being rendered by setting the new RenderOuterTable property to false. Layout Templates for Wizard Controls In ASP.NET 3.5, the Wizard and CreateUserWizard controls generate an HTML table element that is used for visual formatting. In ASP.NET 4 you can use a LayoutTemplate element to specify the layout. If you do this, the HTML table element is not generated. In the template, you create placeholder controls to indicate where items should be dynamically inserted into the control. (This is similar to how the template model for the ListView control works.) For more information, see the Wizard.LayoutTemplate property. New HTML Formatting Options for the CheckBoxList and RadioButtonList Controls ASP.NET 3.5 uses HTML table elements to format the output for the CheckBoxList and RadioButtonList controls. To provide an alternative that does not use tables for visual formatting, ASP.NET 4 adds two new options to the RepeatLayout enumeration: UnorderedList. This option causes the HTML output to be formatted by using ul and li elements instead of a table. OrderedList. This option causes the HTML output to be formatted by using ol and li elements instead of a table. For examples of HTML that is rendered for the new options, see the RepeatLayout enumeration. Header and Footer Elements for the Table Control In ASP.NET 3.5, the Table control can be configured to render thead and tfoot elements by setting the TableSection property of the TableHeaderRow class and the TableFooterRow class. In ASP.NET 4 these properties are set to the appropriate values by default. CSS and ARIA Support for the Menu Control In ASP.NET 3.5, the Menu control uses HTML table elements for visual formatting, and in some configurations it is not keyboard-accessible. ASP.NET 4 addresses these problems and improves accessibility in the following ways: The generated HTML is structured as an unordered list (ul and li elements). CSS is used for visual formatting. The menu behaves in accordance with ARIA standards for keyboard access. You can use arrow keys to navigate menu items. (For information about ARIA, see Accessibility in Visual Studio and ASP.NET.) ARIA role and property attributes are added to the generated HTML. (Attributes are added by using JavaScript instead of included in the HTML, to avoid generating HTML that would cause markup validation errors.) Styles for the Menu control are rendered in a style block at the top of the page, instead of inline with the rendered HTML elements. If you want to use a separate CSS file so that you can modify the menu styles, you can set the Menu control's new IncludeStyleBlock property to false, in which case the style block is not generated. Valid XHTML for the HtmlForm Control In ASP.NET 3.5, the HtmlForm control (which is created implicitly by the <form runat="server"> tag) renders an HTML form element that has both name and id attributes. The name attribute is deprecated in XHTML 1.1. Therefore, this control does not render the name attribute in ASP.NET 4. Maintaining Backward Compatibility in Control Rendering An existing ASP.NET Web site might have code in it that assumes that controls are rendering HTML the way they do in ASP.NET 3.5. To avoid causing backward compatibility problems when you upgrade the site to ASP.NET 4, you can have ASP.NET continue to generate HTML the way it does in ASP.NET 3.5 after you upgrade the site. To do so, you can set the controlRenderingCompatibilityVersion attribute of the pages element to "3.5" in the Web.config file of an ASP.NET 4 Web site, as shown in the following example: <system.web>   <pages controlRenderingCompatibilityVersion="3.5"/> </system.web> If this setting is omitted, the default value is the same as the version of ASP.NET that the Web site targets. (For information about multi-targeting in ASP.NET, see .NET Framework Multi-Targeting for ASP.NET Web Projects.) ASP.NET MVC ASP.NET MVC helps Web developers build compelling standards-based Web sites that are easy to maintain because it decreases the dependency among application layers by using the Model-View-Controller (MVC) pattern. MVC provides complete control over the page markup. It also improves testability by inherently supporting Test Driven Development (TDD). Web sites created using ASP.NET MVC have a modular architecture. This allows members of a team to work independently on the various modules and can be used to improve collaboration. For example, developers can work on the model and controller layers (data and logic), while the designer work on the view (presentation). For tutorials, walkthroughs, conceptual content, code samples, and a complete API reference, see ASP.NET MVC 2. Dynamic Data Dynamic Data was introduced in the .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 release in mid-2008. This feature provides many enhancements for creating data-driven applications, such as the following: A RAD experience for quickly building a data-driven Web site. Automatic validation that is based on constraints defined in the data model. The ability to easily change the markup that is generated for fields in the GridView and DetailsView controls by using field templates that are part of your Dynamic Data project. For ASP.NET 4, Dynamic Data has been enhanced to give developers even more power for quickly building data-driven Web sites. For more information, see ASP.NET Dynamic Data Content Map. Enabling Dynamic Data for Individual Data-Bound Controls in Existing Web Applications You can use Dynamic Data features in existing ASP.NET Web applications that do not use scaffolding by enabling Dynamic Data for individual data-bound controls. Dynamic Data provides the presentation and data layer support for rendering these controls. When you enable Dynamic Data for data-bound controls, you get the following benefits: Setting default values for data fields. Dynamic Data enables you to provide default values at run time for fields in a data control. Interacting with the database without creating and registering a data model. Automatically validating the data that is entered by the user without writing any code. For more information, see Walkthrough: Enabling Dynamic Data in ASP.NET Data-Bound Controls. New Field Templates for URLs and E-mail Addresses ASP.NET 4 introduces two new built-in field templates, EmailAddress.ascx and Url.ascx. These templates are used for fields that are marked as EmailAddress or Url using the DataTypeAttribute attribute. For EmailAddress objects, the field is displayed as a hyperlink that is created by using the mailto: protocol. When users click the link, it opens the user's e-mail client and creates a skeleton message. Objects typed as Url are displayed as ordinary hyperlinks. The following example shows how to mark fields. [DataType(DataType.EmailAddress)] public object HomeEmail { get; set; } [DataType(DataType.Url)] public object Website { get; set; } Creating Links with the DynamicHyperLink Control Dynamic Data uses the new routing feature that was added in the .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 to control the URLs that users see when they access the Web site. The new DynamicHyperLink control makes it easy to build links to pages in a Dynamic Data site. For information, see How to: Create Table Action Links in Dynamic Data Support for Inheritance in the Data Model Both the ADO.NET Entity Framework and LINQ to SQL support inheritance in their data models. An example of this might be a database that has an InsurancePolicy table. It might also contain CarPolicy and HousePolicy tables that have the same fields as InsurancePolicy and then add more fields. Dynamic Data has been modified to understand inherited objects in the data model and to support scaffolding for the inherited tables. For more information, see Walkthrough: Mapping Table-per-Hierarchy Inheritance in Dynamic Data. Support for Many-to-Many Relationships (Entity Framework Only) The Entity Framework has rich support for many-to-many relationships between tables, which is implemented by exposing the relationship as a collection on an Entity object. New field templates (ManyToMany.ascx and ManyToMany_Edit.ascx) have been added to provide support for displaying and editing data that is involved in many-to-many relationships. For more information, see Working with Many-to-Many Data Relationships in Dynamic Data. New Attributes to Control Display and Support Enumerations The DisplayAttribute has been added to give you additional control over how fields are displayed. The DisplayNameAttribute attribute in earlier versions of Dynamic Data enabled you to change the name that is used as a caption for a field. The new DisplayAttribute class lets you specify more options for displaying a field, such as the order in which a field is displayed and whether a field will be used as a filter. The attribute also provides independent control of the name that is used for the labels in a GridView control, the name that is used in a DetailsView control, the help text for the field, and the watermark used for the field (if the field accepts text input). The EnumDataTypeAttribute class has been added to let you map fields to enumerations. When you apply this attribute to a field, you specify an enumeration type. Dynamic Data uses the new Enumeration.ascx field template to create UI for displaying and editing enumeration values. The template maps the values from the database to the names in the enumeration. Enhanced Support for Filters Dynamic Data 1.0 had built-in filters for Boolean columns and foreign-key columns. The filters did not let you specify the order in which they were displayed. The new DisplayAttribute attribute addresses this by giving you control over whether a column appears as a filter and in what order it will be displayed. An additional enhancement is that filtering support has been rewritten to use the new QueryExtender feature of Web Forms. This lets you create filters without requiring knowledge of the data source control that the filters will be used with. Along with these extensions, filters have also been turned into template controls, which lets you add new ones. Finally, the DisplayAttribute class mentioned earlier allows the default filter to be overridden, in the same way that UIHint allows the default field template for a column to be overridden. For more information, see Walkthrough: Filtering Rows in Tables That Have a Parent-Child Relationship and QueryableFilterRepeater. ASP.NET Chart Control The ASP.NET chart server control enables you to create ASP.NET pages applications that have simple, intuitive charts for complex statistical or financial analysis. The chart control supports the following features: Data series, chart areas, axes, legends, labels, titles, and more. Data binding. Data manipulation, such as copying, splitting, merging, alignment, grouping, sorting, searching, and filtering. Statistical formulas and financial formulas. Advanced chart appearance, such as 3-D, anti-aliasing, lighting, and perspective. Events and customizations. Interactivity and Microsoft Ajax. Support for the Ajax Content Delivery Network (CDN), which provides an optimized way for you to add Microsoft Ajax Library and jQuery scripts to your Web applications. For more information, see Chart Web Server Control Overview. Visual Web Developer Enhancements The following sections provide information about enhancements and new features in Visual Studio 2010 and Visual Web Developer Express. The Web page designer in Visual Studio 2010 has been enhanced for better CSS compatibility, includes additional support for HTML and ASP.NET markup snippets, and features a redesigned version of IntelliSense for JScript. Improved CSS Compatibility The Visual Web Developer designer in Visual Studio 2010 has been updated to improve CSS 2.1 standards compliance. The designer better preserves HTML source code and is more robust than in previous versions of Visual Studio. HTML and JScript Snippets In the HTML editor, IntelliSense auto-completes tag names. The IntelliSense Snippets feature auto-completes whole tags and more. In Visual Studio 2010, IntelliSense snippets are supported for JScript, alongside C# and Visual Basic, which were supported in earlier versions of Visual Studio. Visual Studio 2010 includes over 200 snippets that help you auto-complete common ASP.NET and HTML tags, including required attributes (such as runat="server") and common attributes specific to a tag (such as ID, DataSourceID, ControlToValidate, and Text). You can download additional snippets, or you can write your own snippets that encapsulate the blocks of markup that you or your team use for common tasks. For more information on HTML snippets, see Walkthrough: Using HTML Snippets. JScript IntelliSense Enhancements In Visual 2010, JScript IntelliSense has been redesigned to provide an even richer editing experience. IntelliSense now recognizes objects that have been dynamically generated by methods such as registerNamespace and by similar techniques used by other JavaScript frameworks. Performance has been improved to analyze large libraries of script and to display IntelliSense with little or no processing delay. Compatibility has been significantly increased to support almost all third-party libraries and to support diverse coding styles. Documentation comments are now parsed as you type and are immediately leveraged by IntelliSense. Web Application Deployment with Visual Studio 2010 For Web application projects, Visual Studio now provides tools that work with the IIS Web Deployment Tool (Web Deploy) to automate many processes that had to be done manually in earlier versions of ASP.NET. For example, the following tasks can now be automated: Creating an IIS application on the destination computer and configuring IIS settings. Copying files to the destination computer. Changing Web.config settings that must be different in the destination environment. Propagating changes to data or data structures in SQL Server databases that are used by the Web application. For more information about Web application deployment, see ASP.NET Deployment Content Map. Enhancements to ASP.NET Multi-Targeting ASP.NET 4 adds new features to the multi-targeting feature to make it easier to work with projects that target earlier versions of the .NET Framework. Multi-targeting was introduced in ASP.NET 3.5 to enable you to use the latest version of Visual Studio without having to upgrade existing Web sites or Web services to the latest version of the .NET Framework. In Visual Studio 2008, when you work with a project targeted for an earlier version of the .NET Framework, most features of the development environment adapt to the targeted version. However, IntelliSense displays language features that are available in the current version, and property windows display properties available in the current version. In Visual Studio 2010, only language features and properties available in the targeted version of the .NET Framework are shown. For more information about multi-targeting, see the following topics: .NET Framework Multi-Targeting for ASP.NET Web Projects ASP.NET Side-by-Side Execution Overview How to: Host Web Applications That Use Different Versions of the .NET Framework on the Same Server How to: Deploy Web Site Projects Targeted for Earlier Versions of the .NET Framework

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• C# Item system design approach, should I use abstract classes, interfaces or virutals?

  - by vexe

  I'm working on a Resident Evil 1/2/3/0/Remake type of game. Currently I've done a big part of the inventory system (here's a link if you wanna see my inventory, pretty outdated, added a lot of features and made a lot of enhancements) Now I'm thinking about how to approach the items system, If you've played any Resident Evil game or any of its likes you should be familiar with what I'm trying to achieve. Here's a very simple category I made for the items: So you have different items, with different operations you could perform on them, there are usable items that you could use, like for example herbs and first aid kits that 'using' them would affect your health, keys to unlock doors, and equipable items that you could 'equip' like weapons. Also, you can 'combine' two items together to get new one, like for example mixing a green and red herb would give you a new type of herb, or combining a lighter with a paper, would give you a burnt paper, or ammo with a gun, would reload the gun or something. etc. You know the usual RE drill. Not all items are 'transformable', in that, for example: lighter + paper = burnt paper (it's the paper that 'transforms' to burnt paper and not the lighter, the lighter is not transformable it will remain as it is) green herb + red herb = newHerb1 (both herbs will vanish and transform to this new type of herb) ammo + gun = reload gun (ammo state will remain as it is, it won't change but it will just decrease, nothing will happen to the gun it just gets reloaded) Also a key note to remember is that you can't just combine items randomly, each item has a 'mating' item(s). So to sum up, different items, and different operations on them. The question is, how to approach this, design-wise? I've been learning about interfaces, but it just doesn't quite get into my head, I mean, why not just use classes with the good old inheritance? I know the technical details of interfaces and that the cool thing about them is that they don't require an inheritance chain, but I just can't see how to use them properly, that is, if they were the right thing to use here. So should I go with just classes and inheritance? just like in the tree I showed you? or should I think more about how to use interfaces? (IUsable, IEquipable, ITransformable) - why not just use classes UsableItem, Equipable item, TransformableItem? I want something that won't give me headaches in the long run, something resilient/flexible to future changes. I'm OK using classes, but I smell something better here. The way I'm thinking is to possibly use both inheritance and interfaces, so that you have a branch like this: item - equipable - weapon. but then again, the weapon has methods like 'reload' 'examine' 'equip' some of them 'combine' so I'm thinking to make weapon implement ICombinable?... not all items get used the same way, using herbs will increase your health, using a key will open a door, so IUsable maybe? Should I use a big database (XML for example) for all the items, items names, mates, nRowsReq, nColsReq, etc? Thanks so much for your answers in advanced, note that demo 3 is coming after I'm done with items :D

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• Metro: Creating an IndexedDbDataSource for WinJS

  - by Stephen.Walther

  The goal of this blog entry is to describe how you can create custom data sources which you can use with the controls in the WinJS library. In particular, I explain how you can create an IndexedDbDataSource which you can use to store and retrieve data from an IndexedDB database. If you want to skip ahead, and ignore all of the fascinating content in-between, I’ve included the complete code for the IndexedDbDataSource at the very bottom of this blog entry. What is IndexedDB? IndexedDB is a database in the browser. You can use the IndexedDB API with all modern browsers including Firefox, Chrome, and Internet Explorer 10. And, of course, you can use IndexedDB with Metro style apps written with JavaScript. If you need to persist data in a Metro style app written with JavaScript then IndexedDB is a good option. Each Metro app can only interact with its own IndexedDB databases. And, IndexedDB provides you with transactions, indices, and cursors – the elements of any modern database. An IndexedDB database might be different than the type of database that you normally use. An IndexedDB database is an object-oriented database and not a relational database. Instead of storing data in tables, you store data in object stores. You store JavaScript objects in an IndexedDB object store. You create new IndexedDB object stores by handling the upgradeneeded event when you attempt to open a connection to an IndexedDB database. For example, here’s how you would both open a connection to an existing database named TasksDB and create the TasksDB database when it does not already exist: var reqOpen = window.indexedDB.open(“TasksDB”, 2); reqOpen.onupgradeneeded = function (evt) { var newDB = evt.target.result; newDB.createObjectStore("tasks", { keyPath: "id", autoIncrement: true }); }; reqOpen.onsuccess = function () { var db = reqOpen.result; // Do something with db }; When you call window.indexedDB.open(), and the database does not already exist, then the upgradeneeded event is raised. In the code above, the upgradeneeded handler creates a new object store named tasks. The new object store has an auto-increment column named id which acts as the primary key column. If the database already exists with the right version, and you call window.indexedDB.open(), then the success event is raised. At that point, you have an open connection to the existing database and you can start doing something with the database. You use asynchronous methods to interact with an IndexedDB database. For example, the following code illustrates how you would add a new object to the tasks object store: var transaction = db.transaction(“tasks”, “readwrite”); var reqAdd = transaction.objectStore(“tasks”).add({ name: “Feed the dog” }); reqAdd.onsuccess = function() { // Tasks added successfully }; The code above creates a new database transaction, adds a new task to the tasks object store, and handles the success event. If the new task gets added successfully then the success event is raised. Creating a WinJS IndexedDbDataSource The most powerful control in the WinJS library is the ListView control. This is the control that you use to display a collection of items. If you want to display data with a ListView control, you need to bind the control to a data source. The WinJS library includes two objects which you can use as a data source: the List object and the StorageDataSource object. The List object enables you to represent a JavaScript array as a data source and the StorageDataSource enables you to represent the file system as a data source. If you want to bind an IndexedDB database to a ListView then you have a choice. You can either dump the items from the IndexedDB database into a List object or you can create a custom data source. I explored the first approach in a previous blog entry. In this blog entry, I explain how you can create a custom IndexedDB data source. Implementing the IListDataSource Interface You create a custom data source by implementing the IListDataSource interface. This interface contains the contract for the methods which the ListView needs to interact with a data source. The easiest way to implement the IListDataSource interface is to derive a new object from the base VirtualizedDataSource object. The VirtualizedDataSource object requires a data adapter which implements the IListDataAdapter interface. Yes, because of the number of objects involved, this is a little confusing. Your code ends up looking something like this: var IndexedDbDataSource = WinJS.Class.derive( WinJS.UI.VirtualizedDataSource, function (dbName, dbVersion, objectStoreName, upgrade, error) { this._adapter = new IndexedDbDataAdapter(dbName, dbVersion, objectStoreName, upgrade, error); this._baseDataSourceConstructor(this._adapter); }, { nuke: function () { this._adapter.nuke(); }, remove: function (key) { this._adapter.removeInternal(key); } } ); The code above is used to create a new class named IndexedDbDataSource which derives from the base VirtualizedDataSource class. In the constructor for the new class, the base class _baseDataSourceConstructor() method is called. A data adapter is passed to the _baseDataSourceConstructor() method. The code above creates a new method exposed by the IndexedDbDataSource named nuke(). The nuke() method deletes all of the objects from an object store. The code above also overrides a method named remove(). Our derived remove() method accepts any type of key and removes the matching item from the object store. Almost all of the work of creating a custom data source goes into building the data adapter class. The data adapter class implements the IListDataAdapter interface which contains the following methods: · change() · getCount() · insertAfter() · insertAtEnd() · insertAtStart() · insertBefore() · itemsFromDescription() · itemsFromEnd() · itemsFromIndex() · itemsFromKey() · itemsFromStart() · itemSignature() · moveAfter() · moveBefore() · moveToEnd() · moveToStart() · remove() · setNotificationHandler() · compareByIdentity Fortunately, you are not required to implement all of these methods. You only need to implement the methods that you actually need. In the case of the IndexedDbDataSource, I implemented the getCount(), itemsFromIndex(), insertAtEnd(), and remove() methods. If you are creating a read-only data source then you really only need to implement the getCount() and itemsFromIndex() methods. Implementing the getCount() Method The getCount() method returns the total number of items from the data source. So, if you are storing 10,000 items in an object store then this method would return the value 10,000. Here’s how I implemented the getCount() method: getCount: function () { var that = this; return new WinJS.Promise(function (complete, error) { that._getObjectStore().then(function (store) { var reqCount = store.count(); reqCount.onerror = that._error; reqCount.onsuccess = function (evt) { complete(evt.target.result); }; }); }); } The first thing that you should notice is that the getCount() method returns a WinJS promise. This is a requirement. The getCount() method is asynchronous which is a good thing because all of the IndexedDB methods (at least the methods implemented in current browsers) are also asynchronous. The code above retrieves an object store and then uses the IndexedDB count() method to get a count of the items in the object store. The value is returned from the promise by calling complete(). Implementing the itemsFromIndex method When a ListView displays its items, it calls the itemsFromIndex() method. By default, it calls this method multiple times to get different ranges of items. Three parameters are passed to the itemsFromIndex() method: the requestIndex, countBefore, and countAfter parameters. The requestIndex indicates the index of the item from the database to show. The countBefore and countAfter parameters represent hints. These are integer values which represent the number of items before and after the requestIndex to retrieve. Again, these are only hints and you can return as many items before and after the request index as you please. Here’s how I implemented the itemsFromIndex method: itemsFromIndex: function (requestIndex, countBefore, countAfter) { var that = this; return new WinJS.Promise(function (complete, error) { that.getCount().then(function (count) { if (requestIndex >= count) { return WinJS.Promise.wrapError(new WinJS.ErrorFromName(WinJS.UI.FetchError.doesNotExist)); } var startIndex = Math.max(0, requestIndex - countBefore); var endIndex = Math.min(count, requestIndex + countAfter + 1); that._getObjectStore().then(function (store) { var index = 0; var items = []; var req = store.openCursor(); req.onerror = that._error; req.onsuccess = function (evt) { var cursor = evt.target.result; if (index < startIndex) { index = startIndex; cursor.advance(startIndex); return; } if (cursor && index < endIndex) { index++; items.push({ key: cursor.value[store.keyPath].toString(), data: cursor.value }); cursor.continue(); return; } results = { items: items, offset: requestIndex - startIndex, totalCount: count }; complete(results); }; }); }); }); } In the code above, a cursor is used to iterate through the objects in an object store. You fetch the next item in the cursor by calling either the cursor.continue() or cursor.advance() method. The continue() method moves forward by one object and the advance() method moves forward a specified number of objects. Each time you call continue() or advance(), the success event is raised again. If the cursor is null then you know that you have reached the end of the cursor and you can return the results. Some things to be careful about here. First, the return value from the itemsFromIndex() method must implement the IFetchResult interface. In particular, you must return an object which has an items, offset, and totalCount property. Second, each item in the items array must implement the IListItem interface. Each item should have a key and a data property. Implementing the insertAtEnd() Method When creating the IndexedDbDataSource, I wanted to go beyond creating a simple read-only data source and support inserting and deleting objects. If you want to support adding new items with your data source then you need to implement the insertAtEnd() method. Here’s how I implemented the insertAtEnd() method for the IndexedDbDataSource: insertAtEnd:function(unused, data) { var that = this; return new WinJS.Promise(function (complete, error) { that._getObjectStore("readwrite").done(function(store) { var reqAdd = store.add(data); reqAdd.onerror = that._error; reqAdd.onsuccess = function (evt) { var reqGet = store.get(evt.target.result); reqGet.onerror = that._error; reqGet.onsuccess = function (evt) { var newItem = { key:evt.target.result[store.keyPath].toString(), data:evt.target.result } complete(newItem); }; }; }); }); } When implementing the insertAtEnd() method, you need to be careful to return an object which implements the IItem interface. In particular, you should return an object that has a key and a data property. The key must be a string and it uniquely represents the new item added to the data source. The value of the data property represents the new item itself. Implementing the remove() Method Finally, you use the remove() method to remove an item from the data source. You call the remove() method with the key of the item which you want to remove. Implementing the remove() method in the case of the IndexedDbDataSource was a little tricky. The problem is that an IndexedDB object store uses an integer key and the VirtualizedDataSource requires a string key. For that reason, I needed to override the remove() method in the derived IndexedDbDataSource class like this: var IndexedDbDataSource = WinJS.Class.derive( WinJS.UI.VirtualizedDataSource, function (dbName, dbVersion, objectStoreName, upgrade, error) { this._adapter = new IndexedDbDataAdapter(dbName, dbVersion, objectStoreName, upgrade, error); this._baseDataSourceConstructor(this._adapter); }, { nuke: function () { this._adapter.nuke(); }, remove: function (key) { this._adapter.removeInternal(key); } } ); When you call remove(), you end up calling a method of the IndexedDbDataAdapter named removeInternal() . Here’s what the removeInternal() method looks like: setNotificationHandler: function (notificationHandler) { this._notificationHandler = notificationHandler; }, removeInternal: function(key) { var that = this; return new WinJS.Promise(function (complete, error) { that._getObjectStore("readwrite").done(function (store) { var reqDelete = store.delete (key); reqDelete.onerror = that._error; reqDelete.onsuccess = function (evt) { that._notificationHandler.removed(key.toString()); complete(); }; }); }); } The removeInternal() method calls the IndexedDB delete() method to delete an item from the object store. If the item is deleted successfully then the _notificationHandler.remove() method is called. Because we are not implementing the standard IListDataAdapter remove() method, we need to notify the data source (and the ListView control bound to the data source) that an item has been removed. The way that you notify the data source is by calling the _notificationHandler.remove() method. Notice that we get the _notificationHandler in the code above by implementing another method in the IListDataAdapter interface: the setNotificationHandler() method. You can raise the following types of notifications using the _notificationHandler: · beginNotifications() · changed() · endNotifications() · inserted() · invalidateAll() · moved() · removed() · reload() These methods are all part of the IListDataNotificationHandler interface in the WinJS library. Implementing the nuke() Method I wanted to implement a method which would remove all of the items from an object store. Therefore, I created a method named nuke() which calls the IndexedDB clear() method: nuke: function () { var that = this; return new WinJS.Promise(function (complete, error) { that._getObjectStore("readwrite").done(function (store) { var reqClear = store.clear(); reqClear.onerror = that._error; reqClear.onsuccess = function (evt) { that._notificationHandler.reload(); complete(); }; }); }); } Notice that the nuke() method calls the _notificationHandler.reload() method to notify the ListView to reload all of the items from its data source. Because we are implementing a custom method here, we need to use the _notificationHandler to send an update. Using the IndexedDbDataSource To illustrate how you can use the IndexedDbDataSource, I created a simple task list app. You can add new tasks, delete existing tasks, and nuke all of the tasks. You delete an item by selecting an item (swipe or right-click) and clicking the Delete button. Here’s the HTML page which contains the ListView, the form for adding new tasks, and the buttons for deleting and nuking tasks: <!DOCTYPE html> <html> <head> <meta charset="utf-8" /> <title>DataSources</title> <!-- WinJS references --> <link href="//Microsoft.WinJS.1.0.RC/css/ui-dark.css" rel="stylesheet" /> <script src="//Microsoft.WinJS.1.0.RC/js/base.js"></script> <script src="//Microsoft.WinJS.1.0.RC/js/ui.js"></script> <!-- DataSources references --> <link href="indexedDb.css" rel="stylesheet" /> <script type="text/javascript" src="indexedDbDataSource.js"></script> <script src="indexedDb.js"></script> </head> <body> <div id="tmplTask" data-win-control="WinJS.Binding.Template"> <div class="taskItem"> Id: <span data-win-bind="innerText:id"></span> <br /><br /> Name: <span data-win-bind="innerText:name"></span> </div> </div> <div id="lvTasks" data-win-control="WinJS.UI.ListView" data-win-options="{ itemTemplate: select('#tmplTask'), selectionMode: 'single' }"></div> <form id="frmAdd"> <fieldset> <legend>Add Task</legend> <label>New Task</label> <input id="inputTaskName" required /> <button>Add</button> </fieldset> </form> <button id="btnNuke">Nuke</button> <button id="btnDelete">Delete</button> </body> </html> And here is the JavaScript code for the TaskList app: /// <reference path="//Microsoft.WinJS.1.0.RC/js/base.js" /> /// <reference path="//Microsoft.WinJS.1.0.RC/js/ui.js" /> function init() { WinJS.UI.processAll().done(function () { var lvTasks = document.getElementById("lvTasks").winControl; // Bind the ListView to its data source var tasksDataSource = new DataSources.IndexedDbDataSource("TasksDB", 1, "tasks", upgrade); lvTasks.itemDataSource = tasksDataSource; // Wire-up Add, Delete, Nuke buttons document.getElementById("frmAdd").addEventListener("submit", function (evt) { evt.preventDefault(); tasksDataSource.beginEdits(); tasksDataSource.insertAtEnd(null, { name: document.getElementById("inputTaskName").value }).done(function (newItem) { tasksDataSource.endEdits(); document.getElementById("frmAdd").reset(); lvTasks.ensureVisible(newItem.index); }); }); document.getElementById("btnDelete").addEventListener("click", function () { if (lvTasks.selection.count() == 1) { lvTasks.selection.getItems().done(function (items) { tasksDataSource.remove(items[0].data.id); }); } }); document.getElementById("btnNuke").addEventListener("click", function () { tasksDataSource.nuke(); }); // This method is called to initialize the IndexedDb database function upgrade(evt) { var newDB = evt.target.result; newDB.createObjectStore("tasks", { keyPath: "id", autoIncrement: true }); } }); } document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", init); The IndexedDbDataSource is created and bound to the ListView control with the following two lines of code: var tasksDataSource = new DataSources.IndexedDbDataSource("TasksDB", 1, "tasks", upgrade); lvTasks.itemDataSource = tasksDataSource; The IndexedDbDataSource is created with four parameters: the name of the database to create, the version of the database to create, the name of the object store to create, and a function which contains code to initialize the new database. The upgrade function creates a new object store named tasks with an auto-increment property named id: function upgrade(evt) { var newDB = evt.target.result; newDB.createObjectStore("tasks", { keyPath: "id", autoIncrement: true }); } The Complete Code for the IndexedDbDataSource Here’s the complete code for the IndexedDbDataSource: (function () { /************************************************ * The IndexedDBDataAdapter enables you to work * with a HTML5 IndexedDB database. *************************************************/ var IndexedDbDataAdapter = WinJS.Class.define( function (dbName, dbVersion, objectStoreName, upgrade, error) { this._dbName = dbName; // database name this._dbVersion = dbVersion; // database version this._objectStoreName = objectStoreName; // object store name this._upgrade = upgrade; // database upgrade script this._error = error || function (evt) { console.log(evt.message); }; }, { /******************************************* * IListDataAdapter Interface Methods ********************************************/ getCount: function () { var that = this; return new WinJS.Promise(function (complete, error) { that._getObjectStore().then(function (store) { var reqCount = store.count(); reqCount.onerror = that._error; reqCount.onsuccess = function (evt) { complete(evt.target.result); }; }); }); }, itemsFromIndex: function (requestIndex, countBefore, countAfter) { var that = this; return new WinJS.Promise(function (complete, error) { that.getCount().then(function (count) { if (requestIndex >= count) { return WinJS.Promise.wrapError(new WinJS.ErrorFromName(WinJS.UI.FetchError.doesNotExist)); } var startIndex = Math.max(0, requestIndex - countBefore); var endIndex = Math.min(count, requestIndex + countAfter + 1); that._getObjectStore().then(function (store) { var index = 0; var items = []; var req = store.openCursor(); req.onerror = that._error; req.onsuccess = function (evt) { var cursor = evt.target.result; if (index < startIndex) { index = startIndex; cursor.advance(startIndex); return; } if (cursor && index < endIndex) { index++; items.push({ key: cursor.value[store.keyPath].toString(), data: cursor.value }); cursor.continue(); return; } results = { items: items, offset: requestIndex - startIndex, totalCount: count }; complete(results); }; }); }); }); }, insertAtEnd:function(unused, data) { var that = this; return new WinJS.Promise(function (complete, error) { that._getObjectStore("readwrite").done(function(store) { var reqAdd = store.add(data); reqAdd.onerror = that._error; reqAdd.onsuccess = function (evt) { var reqGet = store.get(evt.target.result); reqGet.onerror = that._error; reqGet.onsuccess = function (evt) { var newItem = { key:evt.target.result[store.keyPath].toString(), data:evt.target.result } complete(newItem); }; }; }); }); }, setNotificationHandler: function (notificationHandler) { this._notificationHandler = notificationHandler; }, /***************************************** * IndexedDbDataSource Method ******************************************/ removeInternal: function(key) { var that = this; return new WinJS.Promise(function (complete, error) { that._getObjectStore("readwrite").done(function (store) { var reqDelete = store.delete (key); reqDelete.onerror = that._error; reqDelete.onsuccess = function (evt) { that._notificationHandler.removed(key.toString()); complete(); }; }); }); }, nuke: function () { var that = this; return new WinJS.Promise(function (complete, error) { that._getObjectStore("readwrite").done(function (store) { var reqClear = store.clear(); reqClear.onerror = that._error; reqClear.onsuccess = function (evt) { that._notificationHandler.reload(); complete(); }; }); }); }, /******************************************* * Private Methods ********************************************/ _ensureDbOpen: function () { var that = this; // Try to get cached Db if (that._cachedDb) { return WinJS.Promise.wrap(that._cachedDb); } // Otherwise, open the database return new WinJS.Promise(function (complete, error, progress) { var reqOpen = window.indexedDB.open(that._dbName, that._dbVersion); reqOpen.onerror = function (evt) { error(); }; reqOpen.onupgradeneeded = function (evt) { that._upgrade(evt); that._notificationHandler.invalidateAll(); }; reqOpen.onsuccess = function () { that._cachedDb = reqOpen.result; complete(that._cachedDb); }; }); }, _getObjectStore: function (type) { type = type || "readonly"; var that = this; return new WinJS.Promise(function (complete, error) { that._ensureDbOpen().then(function (db) { var transaction = db.transaction(that._objectStoreName, type); complete(transaction.objectStore(that._objectStoreName)); }); }); }, _get: function (key) { return new WinJS.Promise(function (complete, error) { that._getObjectStore().done(function (store) { var reqGet = store.get(key); reqGet.onerror = that._error; reqGet.onsuccess = function (item) { complete(item); }; }); }); } } ); var IndexedDbDataSource = WinJS.Class.derive( WinJS.UI.VirtualizedDataSource, function (dbName, dbVersion, objectStoreName, upgrade, error) { this._adapter = new IndexedDbDataAdapter(dbName, dbVersion, objectStoreName, upgrade, error); this._baseDataSourceConstructor(this._adapter); }, { nuke: function () { this._adapter.nuke(); }, remove: function (key) { this._adapter.removeInternal(key); } } ); WinJS.Namespace.define("DataSources", { IndexedDbDataSource: IndexedDbDataSource }); })(); Summary In this blog post, I provided an overview of how you can create a new data source which you can use with the WinJS library. I described how you can create an IndexedDbDataSource which you can use to bind a ListView control to an IndexedDB database. While describing how you can create a custom data source, I explained how you can implement the IListDataAdapter interface. You also learned how to raise notifications — such as a removed or invalidateAll notification — by taking advantage of the methods of the IListDataNotificationHandler interface.

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• What is the current state of Ubuntu's transition from init scripts to Upstart?

  - by Adam Eberlin

  What is the current state of Ubuntu's transition from init.d scripts to upstart? I was curious, so I compared the contents of /etc/init.d/ to /etc/init/ on one of our development machines, which is running Ubuntu 12.04 LTS Server. # /etc/init.d/ # /etc/init/ acpid acpid.conf apache2 --------------------------- apparmor --------------------------- apport apport.conf atd atd.conf bind9 --------------------------- bootlogd --------------------------- cgroup-lite cgroup-lite.conf --------------------------- console.conf console-setup console-setup.conf --------------------------- container-detect.conf --------------------------- control-alt-delete.conf cron cron.conf dbus dbus.conf dmesg dmesg.conf dns-clean --------------------------- friendly-recovery --------------------------- --------------------------- failsafe.conf --------------------------- flush-early-job-log.conf --------------------------- friendly-recovery.conf grub-common --------------------------- halt --------------------------- hostname hostname.conf hwclock hwclock.conf hwclock-save hwclock-save.conf irqbalance irqbalance.conf killprocs --------------------------- lxc lxc.conf lxc-net lxc-net.conf module-init-tools module-init-tools.conf --------------------------- mountall.conf --------------------------- mountall-net.conf --------------------------- mountall-reboot.conf --------------------------- mountall-shell.conf --------------------------- mounted-debugfs.conf --------------------------- mounted-dev.conf --------------------------- mounted-proc.conf --------------------------- mounted-run.conf --------------------------- mounted-tmp.conf --------------------------- mounted-var.conf networking networking.conf network-interface network-interface.conf network-interface-container network-interface-container.conf network-interface-security network-interface-security.conf newrelic-sysmond --------------------------- ondemand --------------------------- plymouth plymouth.conf plymouth-log plymouth-log.conf plymouth-splash plymouth-splash.conf plymouth-stop plymouth-stop.conf plymouth-upstart-bridge plymouth-upstart-bridge.conf postgresql --------------------------- pppd-dns --------------------------- procps procps.conf rc rc.conf rc.local --------------------------- rcS rcS.conf --------------------------- rc-sysinit.conf reboot --------------------------- resolvconf resolvconf.conf rsync --------------------------- rsyslog rsyslog.conf screen-cleanup screen-cleanup.conf sendsigs --------------------------- setvtrgb setvtrgb.conf --------------------------- shutdown.conf single --------------------------- skeleton --------------------------- ssh ssh.conf stop-bootlogd --------------------------- stop-bootlogd-single --------------------------- sudo --------------------------- --------------------------- tty1.conf --------------------------- tty2.conf --------------------------- tty3.conf --------------------------- tty4.conf --------------------------- tty5.conf --------------------------- tty6.conf udev udev.conf udev-fallback-graphics udev-fallback-graphics.conf udev-finish udev-finish.conf udevmonitor udevmonitor.conf udevtrigger udevtrigger.conf ufw ufw.conf umountfs --------------------------- umountnfs.sh --------------------------- umountroot --------------------------- --------------------------- upstart-socket-bridge.conf --------------------------- upstart-udev-bridge.conf urandom --------------------------- --------------------------- ureadahead.conf --------------------------- ureadahead-other.conf --------------------------- wait-for-state.conf whoopsie whoopsie.conf To be honest, I'm not entirely sure if I'm interpreting the division of responsibilities properly, as I didn't expect to see any overlap (of what framework handles which services). So I was quite surprised to learn that there was a significant amount of overlap in service references, in addition to being unable to discern which of the two was intended to be the primary service framework. Why does there seem to be a fair amount of redundancy in individual service handling between init.d and upstart? Is something else at play here that I'm missing? What is preventing upstart from completely taking over for init.d? Is there some functionality that certain daemons require which upstart does not yet have, which are preventing some services from converting? Or is it something else entirely?

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• Is there any way to adjust the width of taskbar items on Gnome desktop?

  - by David Thomas

  Is there any way in which the width of items on the taskbar (or, rather, the lower panel) of the Gnome (2.32.0) desktop (Ubuntu 10.10) can be adjusted to take a more sensible width? While I can see the icons of the applications they represent, they seem a little over-compressed, given the width of the desktop/monitor resolution (1900 x 1080): Click the image, or this link, for a full-sized (1920x169, 169.7KB) graphic.

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• Is 2 lines of push/pop code for each pre-draw-state too many?

  - by Griffin

  I'm trying to simplify vector graphics management in XNA; currently by incorporating state preservation. 2X lines of push/pop code for X states feels like too many, and it just feels wrong to have 2 lines of code that look identical except for one being push() and the other being pop(). The goal is to eradicate this repetitiveness,and I hoped to do so by creating an interface in which a client can give class/struct refs in which he wants restored after the rendering calls. Also note that many beginner-programmers will be using this, so forcing lambda expressions or other advanced C# features to be used in client code is not a good idea. I attempted to accomplish my goal by using Daniel Earwicker's Ptr class: public class Ptr<T> { Func<T> getter; Action<T> setter; public Ptr(Func<T> g, Action<T> s) { getter = g; setter = s; } public T Deref { get { return getter(); } set { setter(value); } } } an extension method: //doesn't work for structs since this is just syntatic sugar public static Ptr<T> GetPtr <T> (this T obj) { return new Ptr<T>( ()=> obj, v=> obj=v ); } and a Push Function: //returns a Pop Action for later calling public static Action Push <T> (ref T structure) where T: struct { T pushedValue = structure; //copies the struct data Ptr<T> p = structure.GetPtr(); return new Action( ()=> {p.Deref = pushedValue;} ); } However this doesn't work as stated in the code. How might I accomplish my goal? Example of code to be refactored: protected override void RenderLocally (GraphicsDevice device) { if (!(bool)isCompiled) {Compile();} //TODO: make sure state settings don't implicitly delete any buffers/resources RasterizerState oldRasterState = device.RasterizerState; DepthFormat oldFormat = device.PresentationParameters.DepthStencilFormat; DepthStencilState oldBufferState = device.DepthStencilState; { //Rendering code } device.RasterizerState = oldRasterState; device.DepthStencilState = oldBufferState; device.PresentationParameters.DepthStencilFormat = oldFormat; }

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• ecommerce item deleted by user, 301 rediret to HOME PAGE or 404 not found?

  - by Marco Demaio

  I know this question is someway similar to this one where they reccomend using 404, but after reading this other one where they suggest to use 301 when changing site urls (in the specific case was due to redesign/refactoring) I get a bit of confused and I hope someone could clarify for this specific example: Let's say I have an ecommerce site, let's also say the final user inserted some interesting items in the site and the ecommerce webapp created the item pages at the urls: http://...?id=20, http://...?id=30 etc. Now let's say some of these interesting items got many external links toward them from many other sites because some people found those items very interesting and linked to them. After some years the final user deletes those items, so obviously the pages/urls http://...?id=20, http://...?id=30, etc. now do not exist anymore, but still many pages on the web are linking toward them. What should the ecommerce site do now, just show a 404 page for those items? But, I'm confused, wouldn't this loose all the Google PR passed by the external links to the items pages? So isn't it better to use 301 redirect to HOME PAGE that at least passes the PR to the HOME PAGE? Thanks, EDIT: Well, according to answeres the best thing to do so far is to do a 404/410. In order to make this question more complete, I would like to talk about a special case, just to make sure I understood. properly. Let's say the user creates those items again (the ones he previously deleted at point 4), maybe he changes a bit their names and description, but they are basically the same items. The webapp has no way to know these new added items were the old items so it obviously create them as new items with new urls http://...?id=100, http://...?id=101, does it makes sense at this point to redirect 301 the old urls to the new ones? MORE EDIT (It would be VERY IMPORTANT TO UNDERSTAND): Well according to the clever answers received so far it seems for the special case, explained in my last EDIT, I could use 301, since it's something of not deceptive cause basically the new pages is a replacement for the old page in term of contents. This is basically done to keep the PR passed from external link and also for better user experience. But beside the user experince, that is discussible (*1), in order to preserve PR from external broken linlks why not just always use 301, In my understanding Google dislikes duplicated contents, but are we sure that 301 redirect to HOME PAGE is seen as duplicated contents for Google?! Google itself suggests to redircet 301 index.html to document root so if they consider 301 as duplicated contents wouldn't that be considered duplicated contents too?! Why do they suggest it? Let me provoke you: “why not just add a 301 to HOME PAGE for every not found page?” (*1) as a user, when I follo a broken url from some external link to some website's page I would stick more on this website if I get redirected to HOME PAGE rather than seeing a 404 page where I would think the webiste does not even exist anymore and maybe I don't even try to go to HOME PAGE of the website.

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• How to avoid oscillation by async event based systems?

  - by inf3rno

  Imagine a system where there are data sources which need to be kept in sync. A simple example is model - view data binding by MVC. Now I intend to describe these kind of systems with data sources and hubs. Data sources are publishing and subscribing for events and hubs are relaying events to data sources. By handling an event a data source will change it state described in the event. By publishing an event the data source puts its current state to the event, so other data sources can use that information to change their state accordingly. The only problem with this system, that events can be reflected from the hub or from the other data sources, and that can put the system into an infinite oscillation (by async or infinite loop by sync). For example A -- data source B -- data source H -- hub A -> H -> A -- reflection from the hub A -> H -> B -> H -> A -- reflection from another data source By sync it is relatively easy to solve this issue. You can compare the current state with the event, and if they are equal, you don't change the state and raise the same event again. By async I could not find a solution yet. The state comparison does not work by async event handling because there is eventual consistency, and new events can be published in an inconsistent state causing the same oscillation. For example: A(*->x) -> H -> B(y->x) -- can go parallel with B(*->y) -> H -> A(x->y) -- so first A changes to x state while B changes to y state -- then B changes to x state while A changes to y state -- and so on for eternity... What do you think is there an algorithm to solve this problem? If there is a solution, is it possible to extend it to prevent oscillation caused by multiple hubs, multiple different events, etc... ? update: I don't think I can make this work without a lot of effort. I think this problem is just the same as we have by syncing multiple databases in a distributed system. So I think what I really need is constraints if I want to prevent this problem in an automatic way. What constraints do you suggest?

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• How to (re)enable the "New" context menu items for an administrator when right-clicking in a folder and selecting New > X?

  - by Metro Smurf

  I just migrated from XP x86 to Win7 x64 (clean install). I had a couple of data drives in my XP x86 system that I physically moved to my Win7 x64 system. When browsing a directory in any of the transferred drives, the only option available in the 'new' context menu is "Folder", i.e., Right-Click inside a folder New Folder (this is similar behavior for Win7 when using the context menu in c:\Program Files): However, whenever creating a new folder within any of the directories, all the context menu new items are available within the new folder: Steps I've taken that have failed to add the new context menu items: Removing all security permissions from a directory and sub-directories. Replacing them with new permissions. As well as removing inheritable permissions from the parent. Taking explicit ownership of a directory and sub-directories. Combing the above two. Sample of Effective Permissions that do not work: Steps I've taken that have succeeded to add the new context menu items: Adding the "Everyone" group to the drive and giving the group explicit "Modify" privileges. Giving the "Everyone" group explicit privileges smells wrong. I'm an administrator on my system; why should I have to add the "Everyone" group as well? Adding my username to the drive and giving full permissions. Again, since I'm an administrator on my system and the administrators group already has full control of the drive/directories/folders, why should I have to explicitly add my user name to the security permissions? Finally, The Question: Is it possible to have the New Item context menu have all available options by default without having to explicitly add the everyone group or a specific user name to the security permissions? I'm suspecting that the option may not be available unless the username is explicitly added to the security permissions. Of note: I've seen the registry hacks for updating the new items context menu; my preference is to avoid such hacks and return the functionality to the expected behavior an administrator should have.

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• Mozilla&amp;#8217;s Q1 2010 Analyst Report &amp;#8211; State of the Internet

  <b>Blog of Metrics:</b> "...in addition to metrics related discussions on this blog and across the broader community, we wanted to create a somewhat standardized, ongoing report capturing the state of the internet as seen through Mozilla&#8217;s eyes."

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• NFS Mounts Issues

  - by user554005

  Having some issue with a NFS Setup on the clients it just times out refuses to connect [root@host9 ~]# mount 192.168.0.17:/home/export /mnt/export mount: mount to NFS server '192.168.0.17' failed: timed out (retrying). mount: mount to NFS server '192.168.0.17' failed: timed out (retrying). mount: mount to NFS server '192.168.0.17' failed: timed out (retrying). mount: mount to NFS server '192.168.0.17' failed: timed out (retrying). Here are the settings I'm using: [root@host17 /home/export]# cat /etc/hosts.allow # # hosts.allow This file contains access rules which are used to # allow or deny connections to network services that # either use the tcp_wrappers library or that have been # started through a tcp_wrappers-enabled xinetd. # # See 'man 5 hosts_options' and 'man 5 hosts_access' # for information on rule syntax. # See 'man tcpd' for information on tcp_wrappers # portmap: 192.168.0.0/255.255.255.0 lockd: 192.168.0.0/255.255.255.0 rquotad: 192.168.0.0/255.255.255.0 mountd: 192.168.0.0/255.255.255.0 statd: 192.168.0.0/255.255.255.0 [root@host17 /home/export]# cat /etc/hosts.deny # # hosts.deny This file contains access rules which are used to # deny connections to network services that either use # the tcp_wrappers library or that have been # started through a tcp_wrappers-enabled xinetd. # # The rules in this file can also be set up in # /etc/hosts.allow with a 'deny' option instead. # # See 'man 5 hosts_options' and 'man 5 hosts_access' # for information on rule syntax. # See 'man tcpd' for information on tcp_wrappers # portmap:ALL lockd:ALL mountd:ALL rquotad:ALL statd:ALL [root@host17 /home/export]# cat /etc/exports /home/export 192.168.0.0/255.255.255.0(rw) [root@host17 /home/export]# iptables -L Chain INPUT (policy ACCEPT) target prot opt source destination RH-Firewall-1-INPUT all -- anywhere anywhere Chain FORWARD (policy ACCEPT) target prot opt source destination RH-Firewall-1-INPUT all -- anywhere anywhere Chain OUTPUT (policy ACCEPT) target prot opt source destination Chain RH-Firewall-1-INPUT (2 references) target prot opt source destination ACCEPT all -- anywhere anywhere ACCEPT icmp -- anywhere anywhere icmp any ACCEPT esp -- anywhere anywhere ACCEPT ah -- anywhere anywhere ACCEPT udp -- anywhere 224.0.0.251 udp dpt:mdns ACCEPT udp -- anywhere anywhere udp dpt:ipp ACCEPT tcp -- anywhere anywhere tcp dpt:ipp ACCEPT all -- anywhere anywhere state RELATED,ESTABLISHED ACCEPT tcp -- anywhere anywhere state NEW tcp dpt:ssh ACCEPT tcp -- anywhere anywhere state NEW tcp dpt:http ACCEPT tcp -- anywhere anywhere state NEW tcp dpt:https ACCEPT tcp -- anywhere anywhere state NEW tcp dpt:6379 ACCEPT udp -- 192.168.0.0/24 anywhere state NEW udp dpt:sunrpc ACCEPT tcp -- 192.168.0.0/24 anywhere state NEW tcp dpt:sunrpc ACCEPT tcp -- 192.168.0.0/24 anywhere state NEW tcp dpt:nfs ACCEPT tcp -- 192.168.0.0/24 anywhere state NEW tcp dpt:32803 ACCEPT udp -- 192.168.0.0/24 anywhere state NEW udp dpt:filenet-rpc ACCEPT tcp -- 192.168.0.0/24 anywhere state NEW tcp dpt:892 ACCEPT udp -- 192.168.0.0/24 anywhere state NEW udp dpt:892 ACCEPT tcp -- 192.168.0.0/24 anywhere state NEW tcp dpt:rquotad ACCEPT udp -- 192.168.0.0/24 anywhere state NEW udp dpt:rquotad ACCEPT tcp -- 192.168.0.0/24 anywhere state NEW tcp dpt:pftp ACCEPT udp -- 192.168.0.0/24 anywhere state NEW udp dpt:pftp REJECT all -- anywhere anywhere reject-with icmp-host-prohibited on the clients here is some rpcinfos [root@host9 ~]# rpcinfo -p 192.168.0.17 program vers proto port 100000 4 tcp 111 portmapper 100000 3 tcp 111 portmapper 100000 2 tcp 111 portmapper 100000 4 udp 111 portmapper 100000 3 udp 111 portmapper 100000 2 udp 111 portmapper 100011 1 udp 875 rquotad 100011 2 udp 875 rquotad 100011 1 tcp 875 rquotad 100011 2 tcp 875 rquotad 100005 1 udp 45857 mountd 100005 1 tcp 55772 mountd 100005 2 udp 34021 mountd 100005 2 tcp 59542 mountd 100005 3 udp 60930 mountd 100005 3 tcp 53086 mountd 100003 2 udp 2049 nfs 100003 3 udp 2049 nfs 100003 4 udp 2049 nfs 100227 2 udp 2049 nfs_acl 100227 3 udp 2049 nfs_acl 100003 2 tcp 2049 nfs 100003 3 tcp 2049 nfs 100003 4 tcp 2049 nfs 100227 2 tcp 2049 nfs_acl 100227 3 tcp 2049 nfs_acl 100021 1 udp 59832 nlockmgr 100021 3 udp 59832 nlockmgr 100021 4 udp 59832 nlockmgr 100021 1 tcp 36140 nlockmgr 100021 3 tcp 36140 nlockmgr 100021 4 tcp 36140 nlockmgr 100024 1 udp 46494 status 100024 1 tcp 49672 status [root@host9 ~]# [root@host9 ~]# rpcinfo -u 192.168.0.17 nfs rpcinfo: RPC: Timed out program 100003 version 0 is not available [root@host9 ~]# rpcinfo -u 192.168.0.17 portmap program 100000 version 2 ready and waiting program 100000 version 3 ready and waiting program 100000 version 4 ready and waiting [root@host9 ~]# rpcinfo -u 192.168.0.17 mount rpcinfo: RPC: Timed out program 100005 version 0 is not available [root@host9 ~]# I'm running CentOS 5.8 on all systems

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• Iptables blocking mysql port 3306

  - by valmar

  I got a Tomcat server running a web application that must access a mysql server via Hibernate on the same machine. So, I added a rule for port 3306 to my iptables script but tomcat cannot connect to the mysql server for some reason. I need to reset all iptables rules - Then tomcat can connect to the mysql server again. All the other iptables rules work perfectly though. What's wrong? Here is my script: iptables -A INPUT -m conntrack --ctstate ESTABLISHED,RELATED -j ACCEPT iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 24 -j ACCEPT iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 80 -j ACCEPT iptables -A OUTPUT -p tcp --dport 80 -j ACCEPT iptables -A INPUT -p tcp -s localhost --dport 8009 -m state --state ESTABLISHED -j ACCEPT iptables -A OUTPUT -p tcp -d localhost --dport 8009 -j ACCEPT iptables -A INPUT -p tcp -s localhost --dport 3306 -j ACCEPT iptables -A OUTPUT -p tcp -d localhost --dport 3306 -j ACCEPT iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 443 -j ACCEPT iptables -A OUTPUT -p tcp --dport 443 -j ACCEPT iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 25 -m state --state ESTABLISHED -j ACCEPT iptables -A OUTPUT -p tcp --dport 25 -j ACCEPT iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 587 -m state --state ESTABLISHED -j ACCEPT iptables -A OUTPUT -p tcp --dport 587 -j ACCEPT iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 465 -m state --state ESTABLISHED -j ACCEPT iptables -A OUTPUT -p tcp --dport 465 -j ACCEPT iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 110 -m state --state ESTABLISHED -j ACCEPT iptables -A OUTPUT -p tcp --dport 110 -j ACCEPT iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 995 -m state --state ESTABLISHED -j ACCEPT iptables -A OUTPUT -p tcp --dport 995 -j ACCEPT iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 143 -m state --state ESTABLISHED -j ACCEPT iptables -A OUTPUT -p tcp --dport 143 -j ACCEPT iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 993 -m state --state ESTABLISHED -j ACCEPT iptables -A OUTPUT -p tcp --dport 993 -j ACCEPT iptables -A INPUT -j DROP My /etc/hosts file: # nameserver config # IPv4 127.0.0.1 localhost 46.4.7.93 mydomain.com 46.4.7.93 Ubuntu-1004-lucid-64-minimal 46.4.7.93 horst # IPv6 ::1 ip6-localhost ip6-loopback fe00::0 ip6-localnet ff00::0 ip6-mcastprefix ff02::1 ip6-allnodes ff02::2 ip6-allrouters ff02::3 ip6-allhosts Having a look into the iptables logs, gives me this: Jun 22 16:52:43 Ubuntu-1004-lucid-64-minimal kernel: [ 435.111780] denied-input IN=lo OUT= MAC=00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:08:00 SRC=127.0.0.1 DST=127.0.0.1 LEN=60 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=64 ID=52432 DF PROTO=TCP SPT=56108 DPT=8009 WINDOW=32792 RES=0x00 SYN URGP=0 Jun 22 16:52:46 Ubuntu-1004-lucid-64-minimal kernel: [ 438.110555] denied-input IN=lo OUT= MAC=00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:08:00 SRC=127.0.0.1 DST=127.0.0.1 LEN=60 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=64 ID=52433 DF PROTO=TCP SPT=56108 DPT=8009 WINDOW=32792 RES=0x00 SYN URGP=0 Jun 22 16:52:46 Ubuntu-1004-lucid-64-minimal kernel: [ 438.231954] denied-input IN=lo OUT= MAC=00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:08:00 SRC=127.0.0.1 DST=127.0.0.1 LEN=60 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=64 ID=48020 DF PROTO=TCP SPT=56109 DPT=8009 WINDOW=32792 RES=0x00 SYN URGP=0 Jun 22 16:52:49 Ubuntu-1004-lucid-64-minimal kernel: [ 441.229778] denied-input IN=lo OUT= MAC=00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:08:00 SRC=127.0.0.1 DST=127.0.0.1 LEN=60 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=64 ID=48021 DF PROTO=TCP SPT=56109 DPT=8009 WINDOW=32792 RES=0x00 SYN URGP=0 Jun 22 16:53:57 Ubuntu-1004-lucid-64-minimal kernel: [ 508.731839] denied-input IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=6c:62:6d:85:bf:0e:00:26:88:75:dc:01:08:00 SRC=78.92.97.67 DST=46.4.7.93 LEN=64 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=122 ID=23053 DF PROTO=TCP SPT=1672 DPT=445 WINDOW=65535 RES=0x00 SYN URGP=0 Jun 22 16:53:59 Ubuntu-1004-lucid-64-minimal kernel: [ 511.625038] denied-input IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=6c:62:6d:85:bf:0e:00:26:88:75:dc:01:08:00 SRC=78.92.97.67 DST=46.4.7.93 LEN=64 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=122 ID=23547 DF PROTO=TCP SPT=1672 DPT=445 WINDOW=65535 RES=0x00 SYN URGP=0 Jun 22 16:54:22 Ubuntu-1004-lucid-64-minimal kernel: [ 533.981995] denied-input IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=6c:62:6d:85:bf:0e:00:26:88:75:dc:01:08:00 SRC=27.254.39.16 DST=46.4.7.93 LEN=48 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=117 ID=6549 PROTO=TCP SPT=6005 DPT=33796 WINDOW=64240 RES=0x00 ACK SYN URGP=0 Jun 22 16:54:44 Ubuntu-1004-lucid-64-minimal kernel: [ 556.297038] denied-input IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=6c:62:6d:85:bf:0e:00:26:88:75:dc:01:08:00 SRC=94.78.93.41 DST=46.4.7.93 LEN=40 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=52 ID=7712 PROTO=TCP SPT=57598 DPT=445 WINDOW=512 RES=0x00 SYN URGP=0

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• Is your team is a high-performing team?

  As a child I can remember looking out of the car window as my father drove along the Interstate in Florida while seeing prisoners wearing bright orange jump suits and prison guards keeping a watchful eye on them. The prisoners were taking part in a prison road gang. These road gangs were formed to help the state maintain the state highway infrastructure. The prisoner’s primary responsibilities are to pick up trash and debris from the roadway. This is a prime example of a work group or working group used by most prison systems in the United States. Work groups or working groups can be defined as a collection of individuals or entities working together to achieve a specific goal or accomplish a specific set of tasks. Typically these groups are only established for a short period of time and are dissolved once the desired outcome has been achieved. More often than not group members usually feel as though they are expendable to the group and some even dread that they are even in the group. "A team is a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, performance goals, and approach for which they are mutually accountable." (Katzenbach and Smith, 1993) So how do you determine that a team is a high-performing team?  This can be determined by three base line criteria that include: consistently high quality output, the promotion of personal growth and well being of all team members, and most importantly the ability to learn and grow as a unit. Initially, a team can successfully create high-performing output without meeting all three criteria, however this will erode over time because team members will feel detached from the group or that they are not growing then the quality of the output will decline. High performing teams are similar to work groups because they both utilize a collection of individuals or entities to accomplish tasks. What distinguish a high-performing team from a work group are its characteristics. High-performing teams contain five core characteristics. These characteristics are what separate a group from a team. The five characteristics of a high-performing team include: Purpose, Performance Measures, People with Tasks and Relationship Skills, Process, and Preparation and Practice. A high-performing team is much more than a work group, and typically has a life cycle that can vary from team to team. The standard team lifecycle consists of five states and is comparable to a human life cycle. The five states of a high-performing team lifecycle include: Formulating, Storming, Normalizing, Performing, and Adjourning. The Formulating State of a team is first realized when the team members are first defined and roles are assigned to all members. This initial stage is very important because it can set the tone for the team and can ultimately determine its success or failure. In addition, this stage requires the team to have a strong leader because team members are normally unclear about specific roles, specific obstacles and goals that my lay ahead of them.  Finally, this stage is where most team members initially meet one another prior to working as a team unless the team members already know each other. The Storming State normally arrives directly after the formulation of a new team because there are still a lot of unknowns amongst the newly formed assembly. As a general rule most of the parties involved in the team are still getting used to the workload, pace of work, deadlines and the validity of various tasks that need to be performed by the group.  In this state everything is questioned because there are so many unknowns. Items commonly questioned include the credentials of others on the team, the actual validity of a project, and the leadership abilities of the team leader.  This can be exemplified by looking at the interactions between animals when they first meet.  If we look at a scenario where two people are walking directly toward each other with their dogs. The dogs will automatically enter the Storming State because they do not know the other dog. Typically in this situation, they attempt to define which is more dominating via play or fighting depending on how the dogs interact with each other. Once dominance has been defined and accepted by both dogs then they will either want to play or leave depending on how the dogs interacted and other environmental variables. Once the Storming State has been realized then the Normalizing State takes over. This state is entered by a team once all the questions of the Storming State have been answered and the team has been tested by a few tasks or projects.  Typically, participants in the team are filled with energy, and comradery, and a strong alliance with team goals and objectives.  A high school football team is a perfect example of the Normalizing State when they start their season.  The player positions have been assigned, the depth chart has been filled and everyone is focused on winning each game. All of the players encourage and expect each other to perform at the best of their abilities and are united by competition from other teams. The Performing State is achieved by a team when its history, working habits, and culture solidify the team as one working unit. In this state team members can anticipate specific behaviors, attitudes, reactions, and challenges are seen as opportunities and not problems. Additionally, each team member knows their role in the team’s success, and the roles of others. This is the most productive state of a group and is where all the time invested working together really pays off. If you look at an Olympic figure skating team skate you can easily see how the time spent working together benefits their performance. They skate as one unit even though it is comprised of two skaters. Each skater has their routine completely memorized as well as their partners. This allows them to anticipate each other’s moves on the ice makes their skating look effortless. The final state of a team is the Adjourning State. This state is where accomplishments by the team and each individual team member are recognized. Additionally, this state also allows for reflection of the interactions between team members, work accomplished and challenges that were faced. Finally, the team celebrates the challenges they have faced and overcome as a unit. Currently in the workplace teams are divided into two different types: Co-located and Distributed Teams. Co-located teams defined as the traditional group of people working together in an office, according to Andy Singleton of Assembla. This traditional type of a team has dominated business in the past due to inadequate technology, which forced workers to primarily interact with one another via face to face meetings.  Team meetings are primarily lead by the person with the highest status in the company. Having personally, participated in meetings of this type, usually a select few of the team members dominate the flow of communication which reduces the input of others in group discussions. Since discussions are dominated by a select few individuals the discussions and group discussion are skewed in favor of the individuals who communicate the most in meetings. In addition, Team members might not give their full opinions on a topic of discussion in part not to offend or create controversy amongst the team and can alter decision made in meetings towards those of the opinions of the dominating team members. Distributed teams are by definition spread across an area or subdivided into separate sections. That is exactly what distributed teams when compared to a more traditional team. It is common place for distributed teams to have team members across town, in the next state, across the country and even with the advances in technology over the last 20 year across the world. These teams allow for more diversity compared to the other type of teams because they allow for more flexibility regarding location. A team could consist of a 30 year old male Italian project manager from New York, a 50 year old female Hispanic from California and a collection of programmers from India because technology allows them to communicate as if they were standing next to one another.  In addition, distributed team members consult with more team members prior to making decisions compared to traditional teams, and take longer to come to decisions due to the changes in time zones and cultural events. However, team members feel more empowered to speak out when they do not agree with the team and to notify others of potential issues regarding the work that the team is doing. Virtual teams which are a subset of the distributed team type is changing organizational strategies due to the fact that a team can now in essence be working 24 hrs a day because of utilizing employees in various time zones and locations.  A primary example of this is with customer services departments, a company can have multiple call centers spread across multiple time zones allowing them to appear to be open 24 hours a day while all a employees work from 9AM to 5 PM every day. Virtual teams also allow human resources departments to go after the best talent for the company regardless of where the potential employee works because they will be a part of a virtual team all that is need is the proper technology to be setup to allow everyone to communicate. In addition to allowing employees to work from home, the company can save space and resources by not having to provide a desk for every team member. In fact, those team members that randomly come into the office can actually share one desk amongst multiple people. This is definitely a cost cutting plus given the current state of the economy. One thing that can turn a team into a high-performing team is leadership. High-performing team leaders need to focus on investing in ongoing personal development, provide team members with direction, structure, and resources needed to accomplish their work, make the right interventions at the right time, and help the team manage boundaries between the team and various external parties involved in the teams work. A team leader needs to invest in ongoing personal development in order to effectively manage their team. People have said that attitude is everything; this is very true about leaders and leadership. A team takes on the attitudes and behaviors of its leaders. This can potentially harm the team and the team’s output. Leaders must concentrate on self-awareness, and understanding their team’s group dynamics to fully understand how to lead them. In addition, always learning new leadership techniques from other effective leaders is also very beneficial. Providing team members with direction, structure, and resources that they need to accomplish their work collectively sounds easy, but it is not.  Leaders need to be able to effectively communicate with their team on how their work helps the company reach for its organizational vision. Conversely, the leader needs to allow his team to work autonomously within specific guidelines to turn the company’s vision into a reality.  This being said the team must be appropriately staffed according to the size of the team’s tasks and their complexity. These tasks should be clear, and be meaningful to the company’s objectives and allow for feedback to be exchanged with the leader and the team member and the leader and upper management. Now if the team is properly staffed, and has a clear and full understanding of what is to be done; the company also must supply the workers with the proper tools to achieve the tasks that they are asked to do. No one should be asked to dig a hole without being given a shovel.  Finally, leaders must reward their team members for accomplishments that they achieve. Awards could range from just a simple congratulatory email, a party to close the completion of a large project, or other monetary rewards. Managing boundaries is very important for team leaders because it can alter attitudes of team members and can add undue stress to the team which will force them to loose focus on the tasks at hand for the group. Team leaders should promote communication between team members so that burdens are shared amongst the team and solutions can be derived from hearing the opinions of multiple sources. This also reinforces team camaraderie and working as a unit. Team leaders must manage the type and timing of interventions as to not create an even bigger mess within the team. Poorly timed interventions can really deflate team members and make them question themselves. This could really increase further and undue interventions by the team leader. Typically, the best time for interventions is when the team is just starting to form so that all unproductive behaviors are removed from the team and that it can retain focus on its agenda. If an intervention is effectively executed the team will feel energized about the work that they are doing, promote communication and interaction amongst the group and improve moral overall. High-performing teams are very import to organizations because they consistently produce high quality output and develop a collective purpose for their work. This drive to succeed allows team members to utilize specific talents allowing for growth in these areas.  In addition, these team members usually take on a sense of ownership with their projects and feel that the other team members are irreplaceable. References: http://blog.assembla.com/assemblablog/tabid/12618/bid/3127/Three-ways-to-organize-your-team-co-located-outsourced-or-global.aspx Katzenbach, J.R. & Smith, D.K. (1993). The Wisdom of Teams: Creating the High-performance Organization. Boston: Harvard Business School.

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• Outlook 2010: When sending message on behalf of someone else, store that message in the other person's Sent Items folder

  - by Helge Klein

  We have an e-mail account for support purposes which is tended to by multiple members of the team. When answering a support e-mail we obviously choose the support account as sender. Still, the answer is not stored in the support account's Sent Items folder, but in the Sent Items of the person actually answering. This behavior, which seems to be by design, prevents others from gaining access to the entire conversation and potentially causes multiple answers. I am looking for an automated way of moving e-mails sent on behalf of someone else to that person's Sent Items folder. I tried to create a rule for this but could not find the right setting.

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• Why is USB-sticks so much slower than Solid State Drives?

  - by Jonas

  From what I understand, USB flash memory and Solid State Drives are based on similar technologies, NAND flash memory. But USB-sticks is usually quite slow with a read and write speed of 5-10MB per second while Solid State Drives usually is very fast, usually 100-570MB per second. Why are Solid State Drives so much faster than USB-sticks? And why isn't USB-sticks faster than 5-10MB per second? Is it simply that SSD-drives uses parallel access to the NAND flash memory or are there other reasons?

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• SQL database testing: How to capture state of my database for rollback.

  - by Rising Star

  I have a SQL server (MS SQL 2005) in my development environment. I have a suite of unit tests for some .net code that will connect to the database and perform some operations. If the code under test works correctly, then the database should be in the same (or similar) state to how it was before the tests. However, I would like to be able to roll back the database to its state from before the tests run. One way of doing this would be to programmatically use transactions to roll back each test operation, but this is difficult and cumbersome to program; it could easily lead to errors in the test code. I would like to be able to run my tests confidently knowing that if they destroy my tables, I can quickly restore them? What is a good way to save a snapshot of one of my databases with its tables so that I can easily restore the database to it's state from before the test?

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• How does Office 2008 for Mac store its Recent items?

  - by zenopolis

  I don't have access to Office 2008, but require the information for a project I'm working on. I'm mainly interested in Word, Excel and Powerpoint. This is the information I have gathered so far... The preference file is: ~/Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.office.plist The property keys take the form: 2008\File Aliases\{APP}{n} 2008\MRU Access Date\{APP}{n} where {APP} represents an Office application, and {n} represents a number starting from 0. The applications are represented by the following values: MSWD (Word) XCEL (Excel) What value represents PowerPoint? In the property list I've seen, the numbers represented by {n} range from 0-10 (11 items). Is 10 the limit? or is this unrestrained? Finally, I've noticed that Office 2011 does not add its Recent Items to the Apple System menu: Apple > Recent Items Is Office 2008 the same?

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• Odd performance with C# Asynchronous server socket

  - by The.Anti.9

  I'm working on a web server in C# and I have it running on Asynchronous socket calls. The weird thing is that for some reason, when you start loading pages, the 3rd request is where the browser won't connect. It just keeps saying "Connecting..." and doesn't ever stop. If I hit stop. and then refresh, it will load again, but if I try another time after that it does the thing where it doesn't load again. And it continues in that cycle. I'm not really sure what is making it do that. The code is kind of hacked together from a couple of examples and some old code I had. Any miscellaneous tips would be helpful as well. Heres my little Listener class that handles everything (pastied here. thought it might be easier to read this way) using System; using System.Collections.Generic; using System.Net; using System.Net.Sockets; using System.Text; using System.Threading; namespace irek.Server { public class Listener { private int port; private Socket server; private Byte[] data = new Byte[2048]; static ManualResetEvent allDone = new ManualResetEvent(false); public Listener(int _port) { port = _port; } public void Run() { server = new Socket(AddressFamily.InterNetwork, SocketType.Stream, ProtocolType.Tcp); IPEndPoint iep = new IPEndPoint(IPAddress.Any, port); server.Bind(iep); Console.WriteLine("Server Initialized."); server.Listen(5); Console.WriteLine("Listening..."); while (true) { allDone.Reset(); server.BeginAccept(new AsyncCallback(AcceptCon), server); allDone.WaitOne(); } } private void AcceptCon(IAsyncResult iar) { allDone.Set(); Socket s = (Socket)iar.AsyncState; Socket s2 = s.EndAccept(iar); SocketStateObject state = new SocketStateObject(); state.workSocket = s2; s2.BeginReceive(state.buffer, 0, SocketStateObject.BUFFER_SIZE, 0, new AsyncCallback(Read), state); } private void Read(IAsyncResult iar) { try { SocketStateObject state = (SocketStateObject)iar.AsyncState; Socket s = state.workSocket; int read = s.EndReceive(iar); if (read > 0) { state.sb.Append(Encoding.ASCII.GetString(state.buffer, 0, read)); if (s.Available > 0) { s.BeginReceive(state.buffer, 0, SocketStateObject.BUFFER_SIZE, 0, new AsyncCallback(Read), state); return; } } if (state.sb.Length > 1) { string requestString = state.sb.ToString(); // HANDLE REQUEST HERE // Temporary response string resp = "<h1>It Works!</h1>"; string head = "HTTP/1.1 200 OK\r\nContent-Type: text/html;\r\nServer: irek\r\nContent-Length:"+resp.Length+"\r\n\r\n"; byte[] answer = Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(head+resp); // end temp. state.workSocket.BeginSend(answer, 0, answer.Length, SocketFlags.None, new AsyncCallback(Send), state.workSocket); } } catch (Exception) { return; } } private void Send(IAsyncResult iar) { try { SocketStateObject state = (SocketStateObject)iar.AsyncState; int sent = state.workSocket.EndSend(iar); state.workSocket.Shutdown(SocketShutdown.Both); state.workSocket.Close(); } catch (Exception) { } return; } } } And my SocketStateObject: public class SocketStateObject { public Socket workSocket = null; public const int BUFFER_SIZE = 1024; public byte[] buffer = new byte[BUFFER_SIZE]; public StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder(); }

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