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• CD/DVD burn error in ImgBurn and Nero

  - by bobby

  I am getting the errors shown below when I try to burn a CD/DVD on my DVD writer. I am seeing this error for every CD/DVD I try to burn. I am not able to write any CDs or DVDs using ImgBurn. The burn log below is a failed burn in Nero. What could be causing this error? Nero Burning ROM bobby 4C85-200E-4005-0004-0000-7660-0800-35X3-0000-407M-MX37-**** (*) Windows XP 6.1 IA32 WinAspi: - NT-SPTI used Nero Version: 7.11.3. Internal Version: 7, 11, 3, (Nero Express) Recorder: <HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-H12N> Version: UL01 - HA 1 TA 1 - 7.11.3.0 Adapter driver: <IDE> HA 1 Drive buffer : 2048kB Bus Type : default CD-ROM: <ATAPI-CD ROM-DRIVE-52MAX > Version: 52PP - HA 1 TA 0 - 7.11.3.0 Adapter driver: <IDE> HA 1 === Scsi-Device-Map === === CDRom-Device-Map === ATAPI-CD ROM-DRIVE-52MAX F: CdRom0 HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-H12N G: CdRom1 ======================= AutoRun : 1 Excluded drive IDs: WriteBufferSize: 83886080 (0) Byte BUFE : 0 Physical memory : 958MB (981560kB) Free physical memory: 309MB (317024kB) Memory in use : 67 % Uncached PFiles: 0x0 Use Inquiry : 1 Global Bus Type: default (0) Check supported media : Disabled (0) 11.6.2010 CD Image 10:43:02 AM #1 Text 0 File SCSIPTICommands.cpp, Line 450 LockMCN - completed sucessfully for IOCTL_STORAGE_MCN_CONTROL 10:43:02 AM #2 Text 0 File Burncd.cpp, Line 3186 HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-H12N Buffer underrun protection activated 10:43:02 AM #3 Text 0 File Burncd.cpp, Line 3500 Turn on Disc-At-Once, using CD-R/RW media 10:43:02 AM #4 Text 0 File DlgWaitCD.cpp, Line 307 Last possible write address on media: 359848 ( 79:59.73) Last address to be written: 318783 ( 70:52.33) 10:43:02 AM #5 Text 0 File DlgWaitCD.cpp, Line 319 Write in overburning mode: NO (enabled: CD) 10:43:02 AM #6 Text 0 File DlgWaitCD.cpp, Line 2988 Recorder: HL-DT-ST DVDRAM G SA-H12N; CDR co de: 00 97 27 18; O SJ entry from: Pla smon Data systems Ltd. ATIP Data: Special Info [hex] 1: D0 00 A0, 2: 61 1B 12 (LI 97:27.18), 3: 4F 3B 4A ( LO 79:59.74) Additional Info [hex] 1: 00 00 00 (invalid), 2: 00 00 00 (invalid), 3: 00 0 0 00 (invalid) 10:43:02 AM #7 Text 0 File DlgWaitCD.cpp, Line 493 >>> Protocol of DlgWaitCD activities: <<< ========================================= 10:43:02 AM #8 Text 0 File ThreadedTransferInterface.cpp, Line 785 Nero Report 1 Nero Burning ROM Setup items (after recorder preparation) 0: TRM_DATA_MODE1 (2 - CD-ROM Mode 1, Joliet) 2 indices, index0 (150) not provided original disc pos #0 + 318784 (318784) = #318784/70:50.34 not relocatable, disc pos for caching/writing not required/not required -> TRM_DATA_MODE1, 2048, config 0, wanted index0 0 blocks, length 318784 blocks [G: HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-H12N] -------------------------------------------------------------- 10:43:02 AM #9 Text 0 File ThreadedTransferInterface.cpp, Line 986 Prepare [G: HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-H12N] for write in CUE-sheet-DAO DAO infos: ========== MCN: "" TOCType: 0x00; Se ssion Clo sed, disc fixated Tracks 1 to 1: Idx 0 Idx 1 Next T rk 1: TRM_DATA_MODE1, 2048/0x00, FilePos 0 307200 6531768 32, ISRC "" DAO layout: =========== ___Start_|____Track_|_Idx_|_CtrlAdr_|_____Size_|______NWA_|_RecDep__________ -150 | lead-in | 0 | 0x41 | 0 | 0 | 0x00 -150 | 1 | 0 | 0x41 | 0 | 0 | 0x00 0 | 1 | 1 | 0x41 | 318784 | 318784 | 0x00 318784 | lead-out | 1 | 0x41 | 0 | 0 | 0x00 10:43:02 AM #10 Text 0 File SCSIPTICommands.cpp, Line 240 SPTILockVolume - completed successfully for FSCTL_LOCK_VOLUME 10:43:02 AM #11 Text 0 File Burncd.cpp, Line 4286 Caching options: cache CDRom or Network-Yes, small files-Yes (<64KB) 10:43:02 AM #12 Phase 24 File dlgbrnst.cpp, Line 1767 Caching of files started 10:43:02 AM #13 Text 0 File Burncd.cpp, Line 4405 Cache writing successful. 10:43:02 AM #14 Phase 25 File dlgbrnst.cpp, Line 1767 Caching of files completed 10:43:02 AM #15 Phase 36 File dlgbrnst.cpp, Line 1767 Burn process started at 48x (7,200 KB/s) 10:43:02 AM #16 Text 0 File ThreadedTransferInterface.cpp, Line 2733 Verifying disc position of item 0 (not relocatable, no disc pos, no patch infos, orig at #0): write at #0 10:43:02 AM #17 Text 0 File MMC.cpp, Line 17806 StartDAO : CD-Text - Off 10:43:02 AM #18 Text 0 File MMC.cpp, Line 22488 Set BUFE: Buffer underrun protection -> ON 10:43:03 AM #19 Text 0 File MMC.cpp, Line 18034 CueData, Len=32 41 00 00 14 00 00 00 00 41 01 00 10 00 00 00 00 41 01 01 10 00 00 02 00 41 aa 01 14 00 46 34 22 10:43:03 AM #20 Text 0 File ThreadedTransfer.cpp, Line 268 Pipe memory size 83836800 10:43:16 AM #21 Text 0 File Cdrdrv.cpp, Line 1405 10:43:16.806 - G: HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-H12N : Queue again later 10:43:42 AM #22 SPTI -1502 File SCSIPassThrough.cpp, Line 181 CdRom1: SCSIStatus(x02) WinError(0) NeroError(-1502) Sense Key: 0x04 (KEY_HARDWARE_ERROR) Nero Report 2 Nero Burning ROM Sense Code: 0x08 Sense Qual: 0x03 CDB Data: 0x2A 00 00 00 4D 00 00 00 20 00 00 00 Sense Area: 0x70 00 04 00 00 00 00 10 53 29 A1 80 08 03 Buffer x0c7d9a40: Len x10000 0xDC 87 EB 41 6E AC 61 5A 07 B2 DB 78 B5 D4 D9 24 0x8D BC 51 38 46 56 0F EE 16 15 5C 5B E3 B0 10 16 0x14 B1 C3 6E 30 2B C4 78 15 AB D5 92 09 B7 81 23 10:43:42 AM #23 CDR -1502 File Writer.cpp, Line 306 DMA-driver error, CRC error G: HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-H12N 10:43:55 AM #24 Phase 38 File dlgbrnst.cpp, Line 1767 Burn process failed at 48x (7,200 KB/s) 10:43:55 AM #25 Text 0 File SCSIPTICommands.cpp, Line 287 SPTIDismountVolume - completed successfully for FSCTL_DISMOUNT_VOLUME 10:44:01 AM #26 Text 0 File Cdrdrv.cpp, Line 11412 DriveLocker: UnLockVolume completed 10:44:01 AM #27 Text 0 File SCSIPTICommands.cpp, Line 450 UnLockMCN - completed sucessfully for IOCTL_STORAGE_MCN_CONTROL Existing drivers: Registry Keys: HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\WinLogon Nero Report 3

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• Does Test Driven Development (TDD) improve Quality and Correctness? (Part 1)

  - by David V. Corbin

  Since the dawn of the computer age, various methodologies have been introduced to improve quality and reduce cost. In this posting, I will by sharing my experiences with Test Driven Development; both its benefits and limitations. To start this topic, we need to agree on what TDD is. The first is to define each of the three words as used in this context. Test - An item or action which measures something in some quantifiable form. Driven - The primary motivation or focus of a series of activities (process) Development - All phases of a software project/product from concept through delivery. The above are very simple definitions that result in the following: "TDD is a process where the primary focus is on measuring and quantifying all aspects of the creation of a (software) product." There are many places where TDD is used outside of software development, even though it is not known by this name. Consider the (conventional) education process that most of us grew up on. The focus was to get the best grades as measured by different tests. Many of these tests measured rote memorization and not understanding of the subject matter. The result of this that many people graduated with high scores but without "quality and correctness" in their ability to utilize the subject matter (of course, the flip side is true where certain people DID understand the material but were not very good at taking this type of test). Returning to software development, let us look at some common scenarios. While these items are generally applicable regardless of platform, language and tools; the remainder of this post will utilize Microsoft Visual Studio and Team Foundation Server (TFS) for examples. It should be realized that everyone does at least some aspect of TDD. At the most rudimentary level, getting a program to compile involves a "pass/fail" measurement (is the syntax valid) that drives their ability to proceed further (run the program). Other developers may create "Unit Tests" in the belief that having a test for every method/property of a class and good code coverage is the goal of TDD. These items may be helpful and even important, but really only address a small aspect of the overall effort. To see TDD in a bigger view, lets identify the various activities that are part of the Software Development LifeCycle. These are going to be presented in a Waterfall style for simplicity, but each item also occurs within Iterative methodologies such as Agile/Scrum. the key ones here are: Requirements Gathering Architecture Design Implementation Quality Assurance Can each of these items be subjected to a process which establishes metrics (quantified metrics) that reflect both the quality and correctness of each item? It should be clear that conventional Unit Tests do not apply to all of these items; at best they can verify that a local aspect (e.g. a Class/Method) of implementation matches the (test writers perspective of) the appropriate design document. So what can we do? For each of area, the goal is to create tests that are quantifiable and durable. The ability to quantify the measurements (beyond a simple pass/fail) is critical to tracking progress(eventually measuring the level of success that has been achieved) and for providing clear information on what items need to be addressed (along with the appropriate time to address them - in varying levels of detail) . Durability is important so that the test can be reapplied (ideally in an automated fashion) over the entire cycle. Returning for a moment back to our "education example", one must also be careful of how the tests are organized and how the measurements are taken. If a test is in a multiple choice format, there is a significant statistical probability that a correct answer might be the result of a random guess. Also, in many situations, having the student simply provide a final answer can obscure many important elements. For example, on a math test, having the student simply provide a numeric answer (rather than showing the methodology) may result in a complete mismatch between the process and the result. It is hard to determine which is worse: The student who makes a simple arithmetric error at one step of a long process (resulting in a wrong answer) or The student who (without providing the "workflow") uses a completely invalid approach, yet still comes up with the right number. The "Wrong Process"/"Right Answer" is probably the single biggest problem in software development. Even very simple items can suffer from this. As an example consider the following code for a "straight line" calculation....Is it correct? (for Integral Points)         int Solve(int m, int b, int x) { return m * x + b; }   Most people would respond "Yes". But let's take the question one step further... Is it correct for all possible values of m,b,x??? (no fair if you cheated by being focused on the bolded text!)  Without additional information regarding constrains on "the possible values of m,b,x" the answer must be NO, there is the risk of overflow/wraparound that will produce an incorrect result! To properly answer this question (i.e. Test the Code), one MUST be able to backtrack from the implementation through the design, and architecture all the way back to the requirements. And the requirement itself must be tested against the stakeholder(s). It is only when the bounding conditions are defined that it is possible to determine if the code is "Correct" and has "Quality". Yet, how many of us (myself included) have written such code without even thinking about it. In many canses we (think we) "know" what the bounds are, and that the code will be correct. As we all know, requirements change, "code reuse" causes implementations to be applied to different scenarios, etc. This leads directly to the types of system failures that plague so many projects. This approach to TDD is much more holistic than ones which start by focusing on the details. The fundamental concepts still apply: Each item should be tested. The test should be defined/implemented before (or concurrent with) the definition/implementation of the actual item. We also add concepts that expand the scope and alter the style by recognizing: There are many things beside "lines of code" that benefit from testing (measuring/evaluating in a formal way) Correctness and Quality can not be solely measured by "correct results" In the future parts, we will examine in greater detail some of the techniques that can be applied to each of these areas....

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• CodePlex Daily Summary for Sunday, May 23, 2010

  CodePlex Daily Summary for Sunday, May 23, 2010New ProjectsA2Command: Apple 2 port of CBM-Command (http://cbmcommand.codeplex.com)AgUnit: AgUnit is a plugin for Jetbrains ReSharper (R#) that allows you to run and debug Silverlight unit tests from within Visual Studio.BSonPosh Powershell Module: A collection of useful Powershell functions I have written and collected over the years. It is a Powershell v2 Module composed of mostly scripts.DB Restriker: Simple tool for lookup, parsing, searching some standard databases using wildcards and pattern recognition.Entity Framework Repository & Unit of Work Template: T4 Template for Entity Framework 4 for creating a data access layer using the repository and unit of work patterns. Designed to work well with dep...Fiction Catalog: A catalog project designed to store information about fictional literature.Giving a Presentation: Useful for people doing presentations, this application hides desktop icons, disables screensaver, closes chosen programs when presentation starts,...glueless: Glueless is a local message bus which allows architect to design highly decoupled systems and applications. Glueless is a step beyond dependency i...HtmlCodeIt: Take any code and format it so that it can be viewed properly on a web browser, blog post or website.just testproject :): just have a test!KanbanTaskboard: The aim of the project is to design and implement a functional prototype for visualizing and operating a multi-platform virtual "Kanban Taskboard”Life System: Life SystemOaSys Project: Project Oasys is a project that aims to help solve desertification. Scoring of pingPong Game: Scoring of pingPong GameSilverlight Web Comic: The Silverlight Web Comic makes easier for the people create your own comic with your own pictures o drawings, and add the globes of text like the ...TickSharp: C# Wrapper for http://TickSpot.com RESTful API.Traductor: El Traductor es una aplicación de escritorio para traducción de frases entre distintos idiomas basada en la plataforma Silverlight Out Of Browser y...WatchersNET.SkinObjects.ModulActionsMenu: Displays the Module Actions Menu as a Unsorted CSS Menu.xxfd1r4w96: testingNew ReleasesAgUnit: AgUnit 0.1: Initial release of AgUnit. Copy the extracted files from AgUnit-0.1.zip into the "Bin\Plugins\" folder of your ReSharper installation (default C:...ASP.NET MVC | SCAFFOLD: ASP.NET MVC SCAFFOLD - Beta 1.0: Release versão betaBizTalk Server 2006 Documenter: Documenter_v3.4.0.0: This is the new release of the documenter which has the following highlights Support for 64 bit systems Support for SxS scenarios (so now the sys...CassiniDev - Cassini 3.5/4.0 Developers Edition: CassiniDev 3.5.1 Beta 2- VS 2008 Replacement: The CassiniDev Visual Studio build is a fully compatibly Visual Studio 2008/2010 Development server drop-in replacement with all CassiniDev enhance...CBM-Command: 2010-05-22 Beta: Release Notes - 2010-05-22 BetaNew Features Simple text file viewer. Now when you use SHIFT-RETURN to open a file, it will ask if you want to view...Easy Validation: Documentation: Documentation for easyVal was created and presented at University of Texas at Austin in May of 2010.Entity Framework Repository & Unit of Work Template: 1.0: Initial ReleaseFrotz.NET: FrotzNet 1.0 beta: Many, many changes, including: - Got Adaptive Palette working for graphics - Got undo working - Implemented all zcodes - Added scripting as well as...Giving a Presentation: CTP: This release includes basic extensibility infrastructure and three extensions: hides desktop icons, disables screensaver, closes chosen programs wh...Gov 2.0 Kit: SharePoint 2010 MyPeeps Mysite Accelerators: SharePoint 2010 MyPeeps Mysite Accelerators. Attached are the installation and documentations files.HKGolden Express: HKGoldenExpress (Build 201005221900): New features: (None) Bug fix: Hong Kong special characters now can be posted without encoding problem. Improvements: (None) Other changes: (None) K...Intellibox - A WPF auto complete textbox search control: Beta 2: Updated the namespace of the Intellibox control from "System.Windows.Controls" to "FeserWard.Controls". Empty binding Path properties now work on...MDownloader: MDownloader-0.15.14.59111: Fixed DepositFile provider. Fixed FileFactory provider. Added simple fakeness detector (can check if .rar, .zip, .7z files have valid signature...Mute4: V1: Initial version of Mute4NLog - Advanced .NET Logging: Nightly Build 2010.05.22.003: Changes since the last build:No changes. Unit test results:Passed 191/191 (100%) Passed 191/191 (100%) Passed 214/214 (100%) Passed 216/216 (100%)...NSIS Autorun: NSIS Autorun 0.1.9: This release includes source code, executable binaries and example materials.Silverlight Gantt Chart: Silverlight Gantt Chart 1.3 (SL4): The latest release mainly makes the Gantt Chart useful in Silverlight 4 applications.SqlServerExtensions: V 0.2 beta: V 0.2 Beta release: New features available TrimStart - trim leading characters TrimEnd - trim trailing characters Remove - remove characters f...Traductor: Version 3.1: Nuevo en esta versión: El Traductor ahora permite escoger entre los motores de Microsoft y Google. El Text to Speech is es ahora habilitado por...VCC: Latest build, v2.1.30522.0: Automatic drop of latest buildVDialer Add-In for Outlook 2007 & 2010 - Dial your Vonage phone from Outlook: VDialer Add-In 1.0.3: This release adds new features related to Journal and use of Vonage API Changes in version 1.0.3 Added configurable option to automatically open J...WatchersNET.SkinObjects.ModulActionsMenu: ModulActionsMenu 01.00.00: First Release For Informations How To Install, the Skin Object Read the DocumentationMost Popular ProjectsCodeComment.NETRawrWBFS ManagerAJAX Control ToolkitMicrosoft SQL Server Product Samples: DatabaseSilverlight ToolkitWindows Presentation Foundation (WPF)patterns & practices – Enterprise LibraryPHPExcelMicrosoft SQL Server Community & SamplesMost Active ProjectsRawrpatterns & practices – Enterprise LibraryCaliburn: An Application Framework for WPF and Silverlightpatterns & practices: Windows Azure Security GuidanceCassiniDev - Cassini 3.5/4.0 Developers EditionGMap.NET - Great Maps for Windows Forms & PresentationNB_Store - Free DotNetNuke Ecommerce Catalog ModuleSQL Server PowerShell ExtensionsBlogEngine.NETCodeReview

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• C# Extension Methods - To Extend or Not To Extend...

  - by James Michael Hare

  I've been thinking a lot about extension methods lately, and I must admit I both love them and hate them. They are a lot like sugar, they taste so nice and sweet, but they'll rot your teeth if you eat them too much.   I can't deny that they aren't useful and very handy. One of the major components of the Shared Component library where I work is a set of useful extension methods. But, I also can't deny that they tend to be overused and abused to willy-nilly extend every living type.   So what constitutes a good extension method? Obviously, you can write an extension method for nearly anything whether it is a good idea or not. Many times, in fact, an idea seems like a good extension method but in retrospect really doesn't fit.   So what's the litmus test? To me, an extension method should be like in the movies when a person runs into their twin, separated at birth. You just know you're related. Obviously, that's hard to quantify, so let's try to put a few rules-of-thumb around them.   A good extension method should:     Apply to any possible instance of the type it extends.     Simplify logic and improve readability/maintainability.     Apply to the most specific type or interface applicable.     Be isolated in a namespace so that it does not pollute IntelliSense.     So let's look at a few examples in relation to these rules.   The first rule, to me, is the most important of all. Once again, it bears repeating, a good extension method should apply to all possible instances of the type it extends. It should feel like the long lost relative that should have been included in the original class but somehow was missing from the family tree.    Take this nifty little int extension, I saw this once in a blog and at first I really thought it was pretty cool, but then I started noticing a code smell I couldn't quite put my finger on. So let's look:       public static class IntExtensinos     {         public static int Seconds(int num)         {             return num * 1000;         }           public static int Minutes(int num)         {             return num * 60000;         }     }     This is so you could do things like:       ...     Thread.Sleep(5.Seconds());     ...     proxy.Timeout = 1.Minutes();     ...     Awww, you say, that's cute! Well, that's the problem, it's kitschy and it doesn't always apply (and incidentally you could achieve the same thing with TimeStamp.FromSeconds(5)). It's syntactical candy that looks cool, but tends to rot and pollute the code. It would allow things like:       total += numberOfTodaysOrders.Seconds();     which makes no sense and should never be allowed. The problem is you're applying an extension method to a logical domain, not a type domain. That is, the extension method Seconds() doesn't really apply to ALL ints, it applies to ints that are representative of time that you want to convert to milliseconds.    Do you see what I mean? The two problems, in a nutshell, are that a) Seconds() called off a non-time value makes no sense and b) calling Seconds() off something to pass to something that does not take milliseconds will be off by a factor of 1000 or worse.   Thus, in my mind, you should only ever have an extension method that applies to the whole domain of that type.   For example, this is one of my personal favorites:       public static bool IsBetween<T>(this T value, T low, T high)         where T : IComparable<T>     {         return value.CompareTo(low) >= 0 && value.CompareTo(high) <= 0;     }   This allows you to check if any IComparable<T> is within an upper and lower bound. Think of how many times you type something like:       if (response.Employee.Address.YearsAt >= 2         && response.Employee.Address.YearsAt <= 10)     {     ...     }     Now, you can instead type:       if(response.Employee.Address.YearsAt.IsBetween(2, 10))     {     ...     }     Note that this applies to all IComparable<T> -- that's ints, chars, strings, DateTime, etc -- and does not depend on any logical domain. In addition, it satisfies the second point and actually makes the code more readable and maintainable.   Let's look at the third point. In it we said that an extension method should fit the most specific interface or type possible. Now, I'm not saying if you have something that applies to enumerables, you create an extension for List, Array, Dictionary, etc (though you may have reasons for doing so), but that you should beware of making things TOO general.   For example, let's say we had an extension method like this:       public static T ConvertTo<T>(this object value)     {         return (T)Convert.ChangeType(value, typeof(T));     }         This lets you do more fluent conversions like:       double d = "5.0".ConvertTo<double>();     However, if you dig into Reflector (LOVE that tool) you will see that if the type you are calling on does not implement IConvertible, what you convert to MUST be the exact type or it will throw an InvalidCastException. Now this may or may not be what you want in this situation, and I leave that up to you. Things like this would fail:       object value = new Employee();     ...     // class cast exception because typeof(IEmployee) != typeof(Employee)     IEmployee emp = value.ConvertTo<IEmployee>();       Yes, that's a downfall of working with Convertible in general, but if you wanted your fluent interface to be more type-safe so that ConvertTo were only callable on IConvertibles (and let casting be a manual task), you could easily make it:         public static T ConvertTo<T>(this IConvertible value)     {         return (T)Convert.ChangeType(value, typeof(T));     }         This is what I mean by choosing the best type to extend. Consider that if we used the previous (object) version, every time we typed a dot ('.') on an instance we'd pull up ConvertTo() whether it was applicable or not. By filtering our extension method down to only valid types (those that implement IConvertible) we greatly reduce our IntelliSense pollution and apply a good level of compile-time correctness.   Now my fourth rule is just my general rule-of-thumb. Obviously, you can make extension methods as in-your-face as you want. I included all mine in my work libraries in its own sub-namespace, something akin to:       namespace Shared.Core.Extensions { ... }     This is in a library called Shared.Core, so just referencing the Core library doesn't pollute your IntelliSense, you have to actually do a using on Shared.Core.Extensions to bring the methods in. This is very similar to the way Microsoft puts its extension methods in System.Linq. This way, if you want 'em, you use the appropriate namespace. If you don't want 'em, they won't pollute your namespace.   To really make this work, however, that namespace should only include extension methods and subordinate types those extensions themselves may use. If you plant other useful classes in those namespaces, once a user includes it, they get all the extensions too.   Also, just as a personal preference, extension methods that aren't simply syntactical shortcuts, I like to put in a static utility class and then have extension methods for syntactical candy. For instance, I think it imaginable that any object could be converted to XML:       namespace Shared.Core     {         // A collection of XML Utility classes         public static class XmlUtility         {             ...             // Serialize an object into an xml string             public static string ToXml(object input)             {                 var xs = new XmlSerializer(input.GetType());                   // use new UTF8Encoding here, not Encoding.UTF8. The later includes                 // the BOM which screws up subsequent reads, the former does not.                 using (var memoryStream = new MemoryStream())                 using (var xmlTextWriter = new XmlTextWriter(memoryStream, new UTF8Encoding()))                 {                     xs.Serialize(xmlTextWriter, input);                     return Encoding.UTF8.GetString(memoryStream.ToArray());                 }             }             ...         }     }   I also wanted to be able to call this from an object like:       value.ToXml();     But here's the problem, if i made this an extension method from the start with that one little keyword "this", it would pop into IntelliSense for all objects which could be very polluting. Instead, I put the logic into a utility class so that users have the choice of whether or not they want to use it as just a class and not pollute IntelliSense, then in my extensions namespace, I add the syntactical candy:       namespace Shared.Core.Extensions     {         public static class XmlExtensions         {             public static string ToXml(this object value)             {                 return XmlUtility.ToXml(value);             }         }     }   So now it's the best of both worlds. On one hand, they can use the utility class if they don't want to pollute IntelliSense, and on the other hand they can include the Extensions namespace and use as an extension if they want. The neat thing is it also adheres to the Single Responsibility Principle. The XmlUtility is responsible for converting objects to XML, and the XmlExtensions is responsible for extending object's interface for ToXml().

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• The Data Scientist

  - by BuckWoody

  A new term - well, perhaps not that new - has come up and I’m actually very excited about it. The term is Data Scientist, and since it’s new, it’s fairly undefined. I’ll explain what I think it means, and why I’m excited about it. In general, I’ve found the term deals at its most basic with analyzing data. Of course, we all do that, and the term itself in that definition is redundant. There is no science that I know of that does not work with analyzing lots of data. But the term seems to refer to more than the common practices of looking at data visually, putting it in a spreadsheet or report, or even using simple coding to examine data sets. The term Data Scientist (as far as I can make out this early in it’s use) is someone who has a strong understanding of data sources, relevance (statistical and otherwise) and processing methods as well as front-end displays of large sets of complicated data. Some - but not all - Business Intelligence professionals have these skills. In other cases, senior developers, database architects or others fill these needs, but in my experience, many lack the strong mathematical skills needed to make these choices properly. I’ve divided the knowledge base for someone that would wear this title into three large segments. It remains to be seen if a given Data Scientist would be responsible for knowing all these areas or would specialize. There are pretty high requirements on the math side, specifically in graduate-degree level statistics, but in my experience a company will only have a few of these folks, so they are expected to know quite a bit in each of these areas. Persistence The first area is finding, cleaning and storing the data. In some cases, no cleaning is done prior to storage - it’s just identified and the cleansing is done in a later step. This area is where the professional would be able to tell if a particular data set should be stored in a Relational Database Management System (RDBMS), across a set of key/value pair storage (NoSQL) or in a file system like HDFS (part of the Hadoop landscape) or other methods. Or do you examine the stream of data without storing it in another system at all? This is an important decision - it’s a foundation choice that deals not only with a lot of expense of purchasing systems or even using Cloud Computing (PaaS, SaaS or IaaS) to source it, but also the skillsets and other resources needed to care and feed the system for a long time. The Data Scientist sets something into motion that will probably outlast his or her career at a company or organization. Often these choices are made by senior developers, database administrators or architects in a company. But sometimes each of these has a certain bias towards making a decision one way or another. The Data Scientist would examine these choices in light of the data itself, starting perhaps even before the business requirements are created. The business may not even be aware of all the strategic and tactical data sources that they have access to. Processing Once the decision is made to store the data, the next set of decisions are based around how to process the data. An RDBMS scales well to a certain level, and provides a high degree of ACID compliance as well as offering a well-known set-based language to work with this data. In other cases, scale should be spread among multiple nodes (as in the case of Hadoop landscapes or NoSQL offerings) or even across a Cloud provider like Windows Azure Table Storage. In fact, in many cases - most of the ones I’m dealing with lately - the data should be split among multiple types of processing environments. This is a newer idea. Many data professionals simply pick a methodology (RDBMS with Star Schemas, NoSQL, etc.) and put all data there, regardless of its shape, processing needs and so on. A Data Scientist is familiar not only with the various processing methods, but how they work, so that they can choose the right one for a given need. This is a huge time commitment, hence the need for a dedicated title like this one. Presentation This is where the need for a Data Scientist is most often already being filled, sometimes with more or less success. The latest Business Intelligence systems are quite good at allowing you to create amazing graphics - but it’s the data behind the graphics that are the most important component of truly effective displays. This is where the mathematics requirement of the Data Scientist title is the most unforgiving. In fact, someone without a good foundation in statistics is not a good candidate for creating reports. Even a basic level of statistics can be dangerous. Anyone who works in analyzing data will tell you that there are multiple errors possible when data just seems right - and basic statistics bears out that you’re on the right track - that are only solvable when you understanding why the statistical formula works the way it does. And there are lots of ways of presenting data. Sometimes all you need is a “yes” or “no” answer that can only come after heavy analysis work. In that case, a simple e-mail might be all the reporting you need. In others, complex relationships and multiple components require a deep understanding of the various graphical methods of presenting data. Knowing which kind of chart, color, graphic or shape conveys a particular datum best is essential knowledge for the Data Scientist. Why I’m excited I love this area of study. I like math, stats, and computing technologies, but it goes beyond that. I love what data can do - how it can help an organization. I’ve been fortunate enough in my professional career these past two decades to work with lots of folks who perform this role at companies from aerospace to medical firms, from manufacturing to retail. Interestingly, the size of the company really isn’t germane here. I worked with one very small bio-tech (cryogenics) company that worked deeply with analysis of complex interrelated data. So  watch this space. No, I’m not leaving Azure or distributed computing or Microsoft. In fact, I think I’m perfectly situated to investigate this role further. We have a huge set of tools, from RDBMS to Hadoop to allow me to explore. And I’m happy to share what I learn along the way.

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• GRUB-2 Bootloader fails to load for lack of floppy drive. Ubuntu 10.4 & Windows XP

  - by kammer

  2010.07.21 while trying to install Ubuntu 10.4 Hello all, I've been trying to install Ubuntu 10.04 on my Dell workstation and am unable to get the Grub-2 bootloader to load properly. It seems to be failing for lack of a floppy drive on the system resulting in an error message that reads : error: fd0 cannot get C/H/S values. I've gone through the Grub-2 page at https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2 to no avail and other sources having similar problems have likewise turned up no solutions. I would certainly appreciate any insight, here's the background: A while back I was trying to install a different version of Linux and had the same problems, then had to set the project aside for a bit. I don't think this has anything to do with Linux or Ubuntu per se, but rather Grub. The system is an old (4-5 years) Dell workstation that has one drive (128 GB) set up for Windows XP and a second new drive (500GB) which I installed for Linux. There is a DVD/CD drive and the system contains no floppy drive at all. In one attempt to get this working I tried modifying the BIOS to indicate there was a floppy drive - this created a failure earlier in the chain with the BIOS failing to load properly, not unexpected, just a shot in the dark at that point. At the moment I am considering just running out to buy and install a cheap floppy drive to see if that helps. I'll never use the thing though so I'd rather find a solution that doesn't require me to spend money on useless hardware. In any case, here's the /boot/grub/grub.cfg contents: # # DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE # # It is automatically generated by /usr/sbin/grub-mkconfig using templates # from /etc/grub.d and settings from /etc/default/grub # ### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/00_header ### if [ -s $prefix/grubenv ]; then load_env fi set default="0" if [ ${prev_saved_entry} ]; then set saved_entry=${prev_saved_entry} save_env saved_entry set prev_saved_entry= save_env prev_saved_entry set boot_once=true fi function savedefault { if [ -z ${boot_once} ]; then saved_entry=${chosen} save_env saved_entry fi } function recordfail { set recordfail=1 if [ -n ${have_grubenv} ]; then if [ -z ${boot_once} ]; then save_env recordfail; fi; fi } insmod ext2 set root='(hd1,1)' search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set fbebde47-f488-41b0-9480-337802ecb988 if loadfont /usr/share/grub/unicode.pf2 ; then set gfxmode=640x480 insmod gfxterm insmod vbe if terminal_output gfxterm ; then true ; else # For backward compatibility with versions of terminal.mod that don't # understand terminal_output terminal gfxterm fi fi insmod ext2 set root='(hd1,1)' search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set fbebde47-f488-41b0-9480-337802ecb988 set locale_dir=($root)/boot/grub/locale set lang=en insmod gettext if [ ${recordfail} = 1 ]; then set timeout=-1 else set timeout=10 fi insmod play play 480 440 1 ### END /etc/grub.d/00_header ### ### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme ### set menu_color_normal=white/black set menu_color_highlight=black/light-gray ### END /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme ### ### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/10_linux ### menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.32-21-generic' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os { recordfail insmod ext2 set root='(hd1,1)' search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set fbebde47-f488-41b0-9480-337802ecb988 linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-21-generic root=UUID=fbebde47-f488-41b0-9480-337802ecb988 ro quiet splash initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-21-generic } menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.32-21-generic (recovery mode)' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os { recordfail insmod ext2 set root='(hd1,1)' search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set fbebde47-f488-41b0-9480-337802ecb988 echo 'Loading Linux 2.6.32-21-generic ...' linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-21-generic root=UUID=fbebde47-f488-41b0-9480-337802ecb988 ro single echo 'Loading initial ramdisk ...' initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-21-generic } ### END /etc/grub.d/10_linux ### ### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+ ### menuentry "Memory test (memtest86+)" { insmod ext2 set root='(hd1,1)' search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set fbebde47-f488-41b0-9480-337802ecb988 linux16 /boot/memtest86+.bin } menuentry "Memory test (memtest86+, serial console 115200)" { insmod ext2 set root='(hd1,1)' search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set fbebde47-f488-41b0-9480-337802ecb988 linux16 /boot/memtest86+.bin console=ttyS0,115200n8 } ### END /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+ ### ### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ### menuentry "Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition (on /dev/sda1)" { insmod ntfs set root='(hd0,1)' search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 6ef0d4b4f0d4842d drivemap -s (hd0) ${root} chainloader +1 } ### END /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ### ### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/40_custom ### # This file provides an easy way to add custom menu entries. Simply type the # menu entries you want to add after this comment. Be careful not to change # the 'exec tail' line above. ### END /etc/grub.d/40_custom ### Thoughts anyone? Thanks in advance.

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• 10 Windows Tweaking Myths Debunked

  - by Chris Hoffman

  Windows is big, complicated, and misunderstood. You’ll still stumble across bad advice from time to time when browsing the web. These Windows tweaking, performance, and system maintenance tips are mostly just useless, but some are actively harmful. Luckily, most of these myths have been stomped out on mainstream sites and forums. However, if you start searching the web, you’ll still find websites that recommend you do these things. Erase Cache Files Regularly to Speed Things Up You can free up disk space by running an application like CCleaner, another temporary-file-cleaning utility, or even the Windows Disk Cleanup tool. In some cases, you may even see an old computer speed up when you erase a large amount of useless files. However, running CCleaner or similar utilities every day to erase your browser’s cache won’t actually speed things up. It will slow down your web browsing as your web browser is forced to redownload the files all over again, and reconstruct the cache you regularly delete. If you’ve installed CCleaner or a similar program and run it every day with the default settings, you’re actually slowing down your web browsing. Consider at least preventing the program from wiping out your web browser cache. Enable ReadyBoost to Speed Up Modern PCs Windows still prompts you to enable ReadyBoost when you insert a USB stick or memory card. On modern computers, this is completely pointless — ReadyBoost won’t actually speed up your computer if you have at least 1 GB of RAM. If you have a very old computer with a tiny amount of RAM — think 512 MB — ReadyBoost may help a bit. Otherwise, don’t bother. Open the Disk Defragmenter and Manually Defragment On Windows 98, users had to manually open the defragmentation tool and run it, ensuring no other applications were using the hard drive while it did its work. Modern versions of Windows are capable of defragmenting your file system while other programs are using it, and they automatically defragment your disks for you. If you’re still opening the Disk Defragmenter every week and clicking the Defragment button, you don’t need to do this — Windows is doing it for you unless you’ve told it not to run on a schedule. Modern computers with solid-state drives don’t have to be defragmented at all. Disable Your Pagefile to Increase Performance When Windows runs out of empty space in RAM, it swaps out data from memory to a pagefile on your hard disk. If a computer doesn’t have much memory and it’s running slow, it’s probably moving data to the pagefile or reading data from it. Some Windows geeks seem to think that the pagefile is bad for system performance and disable it completely. The argument seems to be that Windows can’t be trusted to manage a pagefile and won’t use it intelligently, so the pagefile needs to be removed. As long as you have enough RAM, it’s true that you can get by without a pagefile. However, if you do have enough RAM, Windows will only use the pagefile rarely anyway. Tests have found that disabling the pagefile offers no performance benefit. Enable CPU Cores in MSConfig Some websites claim that Windows may not be using all of your CPU cores or that you can speed up your boot time by increasing the amount of cores used during boot. They direct you to the MSConfig application, where you can indeed select an option that appears to increase the amount of cores used. In reality, Windows always uses the maximum amount of processor cores your CPU has. (Technically, only one core is used at the beginning of the boot process, but the additional cores are quickly activated.) Leave this option unchecked. It’s just a debugging option that allows you to set a maximum number of cores, so it would be useful if you wanted to force Windows to only use a single core on a multi-core system — but all it can do is restrict the amount of cores used. Clean Your Prefetch To Increase Startup Speed Windows watches the programs you run and creates .pf files in its Prefetch folder for them. The Prefetch feature works as a sort of cache — when you open an application, Windows checks the Prefetch folder, looks at the application’s .pf file (if it exists), and uses that as a guide to start preloading data that the application will use. This helps your applications start faster. Some Windows geeks have misunderstood this feature. They believe that Windows loads these files at boot, so your boot time will slow down due to Windows preloading the data specified in the .pf files. They also argue you’ll build up useless files as you uninstall programs and .pf files will be left over. In reality, Windows only loads the data in these .pf files when you launch the associated application and only stores .pf files for the 128 most recently launched programs. If you were to regularly clean out the Prefetch folder, not only would programs take longer to open because they won’t be preloaded, Windows will have to waste time recreating all the .pf files. You could also modify the PrefetchParameters setting to disable Prefetch, but there’s no reason to do that. Let Windows manage Prefetch on its own. Disable QoS To Increase Network Bandwidth Quality of Service (QoS) is a feature that allows your computer to prioritize its traffic. For example, a time-critical application like Skype could choose to use QoS and prioritize its traffic over a file-downloading program so your voice conversation would work smoothly, even while you were downloading files. Some people incorrectly believe that QoS always reserves a certain amount of bandwidth and this bandwidth is unused until you disable it. This is untrue. In reality, 100% of bandwidth is normally available to all applications unless a program chooses to use QoS. Even if a program does choose to use QoS, the reserved space will be available to other programs unless the program is actively using it. No bandwidth is ever set aside and left empty. Set DisablePagingExecutive to Make Windows Faster The DisablePagingExecutive registry setting is set to 0 by default, which allows drivers and system code to be paged to the disk. When set to 1, drivers and system code will be forced to stay resident in memory. Once again, some people believe that Windows isn’t smart enough to manage the pagefile on its own and believe that changing this option will force Windows to keep important files in memory rather than stupidly paging them out. If you have more than enough memory, changing this won’t really do anything. If you have little memory, changing this setting may force Windows to push programs you’re using to the page file rather than push unused system files there — this would slow things down. This is an option that may be helpful for debugging in some situations, not a setting to change for more performance. Process Idle Tasks to Free Memory Windows does things, such as creating scheduled system restore points, when you step away from your computer. It waits until your computer is “idle” so it won’t slow your computer and waste your time while you’re using it. Running the “Rundll32.exe advapi32.dll,ProcessIdleTasks” command forces Windows to perform all of these tasks while you’re using the computer. This is completely pointless and won’t help free memory or anything like that — all you’re doing is forcing Windows to slow your computer down while you’re using it. This command only exists so benchmarking programs can force idle tasks to run before performing benchmarks, ensuring idle tasks don’t start running and interfere with the benchmark. Delay or Disable Windows Services There’s no real reason to disable Windows services anymore. There was a time when Windows was particularly heavy and computers had little memory — think Windows Vista and those “Vista Capable” PCs Microsoft was sued over. Modern versions of Windows like Windows 7 and 8 are lighter than Windows Vista and computers have more than enough memory, so you won’t see any improvements from disabling system services included with Windows. Some people argue for not disabling services, however — they recommend setting services from “Automatic” to “Automatic (Delayed Start)”. By default, the Delayed Start option just starts services two minutes after the last “Automatic” service starts. Setting services to Delayed Start won’t really speed up your boot time, as the services will still need to start — in fact, it may lengthen the time it takes to get a usable desktop as services will still be loading two minutes after booting. Most services can load in parallel, and loading the services as early as possible will result in a better experience. The “Delayed Start” feature is primarily useful for system administrators who need to ensure a specific service starts later than another service. If you ever find a guide that recommends you set a little-known registry setting to improve performance, take a closer look — the change is probably useless. Want to actually speed up your PC? Try disabling useless startup programs that run on boot, increasing your boot time and consuming memory in the background. This is a much better tip than doing any of the above, especially considering most Windows PCs come packed to the brim with bloatware.     

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• A Good Developer is So Hard to Find

  - by James Michael Hare

  Let me start out by saying I want to damn the writers of the Toughest Developer Puzzle Ever – 2. It is eating every last shred of my free time! But as I've been churning through each puzzle and marvelling at the brain teasers and trivia within, I began to think about interviewing developers and why it seems to be so hard to find good ones.  The problem is, it seems like no matter how hard we try to find the perfect way to separate the chaff from the wheat, inevitably someone will get hired who falls far short of expectations or someone will get passed over for missing a piece of trivia or a tricky brain teaser that could have been an excellent team member.   In shops that are primarily software-producing businesses or other heavily IT-oriented businesses (Microsoft, Amazon, etc) there often exists a much tighter bond between HR and the hiring development staff because development is their life-blood. Unfortunately, many of us work in places where IT is viewed as a cost or just a means to an end. In these shops, too often, HR and development staff may work against each other due to differences in opinion as to what a good developer is or what one is worth.  It seems that if you ask two different people what makes a good developer, often you will get three different opinions.   With the exception of those shops that are purely development-centric (you guys have it much easier!), most other shops have management who have very little knowledge about the development process.  Their view can often be that development is simply a skill that one learns and then once aquired, that developer can produce widgets as good as the next like workers on an assembly-line floor.  On the other side, you have many developers that feel that software development is an art unto itself and that the ability to create the most pure design or know the most obscure of keywords or write the shortest-possible obfuscated piece of code is a good coder.  So is it a skill?  An Art?  Or something entirely in between?   Saying that software is merely a skill and one just needs to learn the syntax and tools would be akin to saying anyone who knows English and can use Word can write a 300 page book that is accurate, meaningful, and stays true to the point.  This just isn't so.  It takes more than mere skill to take words and form a sentence, join those sentences into paragraphs, and those paragraphs into a document.  I've interviewed candidates who could answer obscure syntax and keyword questions and once they were hired could not code effectively at all.  So development must be more than a skill.   But on the other end, we have art.  Is development an art?  Is our end result to produce art?  I can marvel at a piece of code -- see it as concise and beautiful -- and yet that code most perform some stated function with accuracy and efficiency and maintainability.  None of these three things have anything to do with art, per se.  Art is beauty for its own sake and is a wonderful thing.  But if you apply that same though to development it just doesn't hold.  I've had developers tell me that all that matters is the end result and how you code it is entirely part of the art and I couldn't disagree more.  Yes, the end result, the accuracy, is the prime criteria to be met.  But if code is not maintainable and efficient, it would be just as useless as a beautiful car that breaks down once a week or that gets 2 miles to the gallon.  Yes, it may work in that it moves you from point A to point B and is pretty as hell, but if it can't be maintained or is not efficient, it's not a good solution.  So development must be something less than art.   In the end, I think I feel like development is a matter of craftsmanship.  We use our tools and we use our skills and set about to construct something that satisfies a purpose and yet is also elegant and efficient.  There is skill involved, and there is an art, but really it boils down to being able to craft code.  Crafting code is far more than writing code.  Anyone can write code if they know the syntax, but so few people can actually craft code that solves a purpose and craft it well.  So this is what I want to find, I want to find code craftsman!  But how?   I used to ask coding-trivia questions a long time ago and many people still fall back on this.  The thought is that if you ask the candidate some piece of coding trivia and they know the answer it must follow that they can craft good code.  For example:   What C++ keyword can be applied to a class/struct field to allow it to be changed even from a const-instance of that class/struct?  (answer: mutable)   So what do we prove if a candidate can answer this?  Only that they know what mutable means.  One would hope that this would infer that they'd know how to use it, and more importantly when and if it should ever be used!  But it rarely does!  The problem with triva questions is that you will either: Approve a really good developer who knows what some obscure keyword is (good) Reject a really good developer who never needed to use that keyword or is too inexperienced to know how to use it (bad) Approve a really bad developer who googled "C++ Interview Questions" and studied like hell but can't craft (very bad) Many HR departments love these kind of tests because they are short and easy to defend if a legal issue arrises on hiring decisions.  After all it's easy to say a person wasn't hired because they scored 30 out of 100 on some trivia test.  But unfortunately, you've eliminated a large part of your potential developer pool and possibly hired a few duds.  There are times I've hired candidates who knew every trivia question I could throw out them and couldn't craft.  And then there are times I've interviewed candidates who failed all my trivia but who I took a chance on who were my best finds ever.    So if not trivia, then what?  Brain teasers?  The thought is, these type of questions measure the thinking power of a candidate.  The problem is, once again, you will either: Approve a good candidate who has never heard the problem and can solve it (good) Reject a good candidate who just happens not to see the "catch" because they're nervous or it may be really obscure (bad) Approve a candidate who has studied enough interview brain teasers (once again, you can google em) to recognize the "catch" or knows the answer already (bad). Once again, you're eliminating good candidates and possibly accepting bad candidates.  In these cases, I think testing someone with brain teasers only tests their ability to answer brain teasers, not the ability to craft code. So how do we measure someone's ability to craft code?  Here's a novel idea: have them code!  Give them a computer and a compiler, or a whiteboard and a pen, or paper and pencil and have them construct a piece of code.  It just makes sense that if we're going to hire someone to code we should actually watch them code.  When they're done, we can judge them on several criteria: Correctness - does the candidate's solution accurately solve the problem proposed? Accuracy - is the candidate's solution reasonably syntactically correct? Efficiency - did the candidate write or use the more efficient data structures or algorithms for the job? Maintainability - was the candidate's code free of obfuscation and clever tricks that diminish readability? Persona - are they eager and willing or aloof and egotistical?  Will they work well within your team? It may sound simple, or it may sound crazy, but when I'm looking to hire a developer, I want to see them actually develop well-crafted code.

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• Manage SQL Server Connectivity through Windows Azure Virtual Machines Remote PowerShell

  - by SQLOS Team

  Manage SQL Server Connectivity through Windows Azure Virtual Machines Remote PowerShell Blog This blog post comes from Khalid Mouss, Senior Program Manager in Microsoft SQL Server. Overview The goal of this blog is to demonstrate how we can automate through PowerShell connecting multiple SQL Server deployments in Windows Azure Virtual Machines. We would configure TCP port that we would open (and close) though Windows firewall from a remote PowerShell session to the Virtual Machine (VM). This will demonstrate how to take the advantage of the remote PowerShell support in Windows Azure Virtual Machines to automate the steps required to connect SQL Server in the same cloud service and in different cloud services.  Scenario 1: VMs connected through the same Cloud Service 2 Virtual machines configured in the same cloud service. Both VMs running different SQL Server instances on them. Both VMs configured with remote PowerShell turned on to be able to run PS and other commands directly into them remotely in order to re-configure them to allow incoming SQL connections from a remote VM or on premise machine(s). Note: RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol) is kept configured in both VMs by default to be able to remote connect to them and check the connections to SQL instances for demo purposes only; but not actually required. Step 1 – Provision VMs and Configure Ports   Provision VM1; named DemoVM1 as follows (see examples screenshots below if using the portal):   Provision VM2 (DemoVM2) with PowerShell Remoting enabled and connected to DemoVM1 above (see examples screenshots below if using the portal): After provisioning of the 2 VMs above, here is the default port configurations for example: Step2 – Verify / Confirm the TCP port used by the database Engine By the default, the port will be configured to be 1433 – this can be changed to a different port number if desired.   1. RDP to each of the VMs created below – this will also ensure the VMs complete SysPrep(ing) and complete configuration 2. Go to SQL Server Configuration Manager -> SQL Server Network Configuration -> Protocols for <SQL instance> -> TCP/IP - > IP Addresses   3. Confirm the port number used by SQL Server Engine; in this case 1433 4. Update from Windows Authentication to Mixed mode   5.       Restart SQL Server service for the change to take effect 6.       Repeat steps 3., 4., and 5. For the second VM: DemoVM2 Step 3 – Remote Powershell to DemoVM1 Enter-PSSession -ComputerName condemo.cloudapp.net -Port 61503 -Credential <username> -UseSSL -SessionOption (New-PSSessionOption -SkipCACheck -SkipCNCheck) Your will then be prompted to enter the password. Step 4 – Open 1433 port in the Windows firewall netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="DemoVM1Port" dir=in localport=1433 protocol=TCP action=allow Output: netsh advfirewall firewall show rule name=DemoVM1Port Rule Name:                            DemoVM1Port ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Enabled:                              Yes Direction:                            In Profiles:                             Domain,Private,Public Grouping:                             LocalIP:                              Any RemoteIP:                             Any Protocol:                             TCP LocalPort:                            1433 RemotePort:                           Any Edge traversal:                       No Action:                               Allow Ok. Step 5 – Now connect from DemoVM2 to DB instance in DemoVM1 Step 6 – Close port 1433 in the Windows firewall netsh advfirewall firewall delete rule name=DemoVM1Port Output: Deleted 1 rule(s). Ok. netsh advfirewall firewall show  rule name=DemoVM1Port No rules match the specified criteria.   Step 7 – Try to connect from DemoVM2 to DB Instance in DemoVM1  Because port 1433 has been closed (in step 6) in the Windows Firewall in VM1 machine, we can longer connect from VM3 remotely to VM1. Scenario 2: VMs provisioned in different Cloud Services 2 Virtual machines configured in different cloud services. Both VMs running different SQL Server instances on them. Both VMs configured with remote PowerShell turned on to be able to run PS and other commands directly into them remotely in order to re-configure them to allow incoming SQL connections from a remote VM or on on-premise machine(s). Note: RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol) is kept configured in both VMs by default to be able to remote connect to them and check the connections to SQL instances for demo purposes only; but not actually needed. Step 1 – Provision new VM3 Provision VM3; named DemoVM3 as follows (see examples screenshots below if using the portal): After provisioning is complete, here is the default port configurations: Step 2 – Add public port to VM1 connect to from VM3’s DB instance Since VM3 and VM1 are not connected in the same cloud service, we will need to specify the full DNS address while connecting between the machines which includes the public port. We shall add a public port 57000 in this case that is linked to private port 1433 which will be used later to connect to the DB instance. Step 3 – Remote Powershell to DemoVM1 Enter-PSSession -ComputerName condemo.cloudapp.net -Port 61503 -Credential <UserName> -UseSSL -SessionOption (New-PSSessionOption -SkipCACheck -SkipCNCheck) You will then be prompted to enter the password.   Step 4 – Open 1433 port in the Windows firewall netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="DemoVM1Port" dir=in localport=1433 protocol=TCP action=allow Output: Ok. netsh advfirewall firewall show rule name=DemoVM1Port Rule Name:                            DemoVM1Port ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Enabled:                              Yes Direction:                            In Profiles:                             Domain,Private,Public Grouping:                             LocalIP:                              Any RemoteIP:                             Any Protocol:                             TCP LocalPort:                            1433 RemotePort:                           Any Edge traversal:                       No Action:                               Allow Ok.   Step 5 – Now connect from DemoVM3 to DB instance in DemoVM1 RDP into VM3, launch SSM and Connect to VM1’s DB instance as follows. You must specify the full server name using the DNS address and public port number configured above. Step 6 – Close port 1433 in the Windows firewall netsh advfirewall firewall delete rule name=DemoVM1Port   Output: Deleted 1 rule(s). Ok. netsh advfirewall firewall show  rule name=DemoVM1Port No rules match the specified criteria.  Step 7 – Try to connect from DemoVM2 to DB Instance in DemoVM1  Because port 1433 has been closed (in step 6) in the Windows Firewall in VM1 machine, we can no longer connect from VM3 remotely to VM1. Conclusion Through the new support for remote PowerShell in Windows Azure Virtual Machines, one can script and automate many Virtual Machine and SQL management tasks. In this blog, we have demonstrated, how to start a remote PowerShell session, re-configure Virtual Machine firewall to allow (or disallow) SQL Server connections. References SQL Server in Windows Azure Virtual Machines   Originally posted at http://blogs.msdn.com/b/sqlosteam/

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• What is Causing this IIS 7 Web Service Sporadic Connectivity Error?

  - by dpalau

  On sporadic occasions we receive the following error when attempting to call an .asmx web service from a .Net client application: "The underlying connection was closed: A connection that was expected to be kept alive was closed by the server. Unable to read data from the transport connection: An existing connection was forcibly closed by the remote host." By sporadic I mean that it might occur zero, once every few days, or a half-dozen times a day for some users. It will never occur for the first web service call of a user. And the subsequent (usually the same) call will always work immediately after the failure. The failures happen across a variety of methods in the service and usually happens between 15-20 seconds (according to the log) from the time of the request. Looking in the IIS site log for the particular call will show one or the other of the following windows error codes: 121: The semaphore timeout period has elapsed. 1236: The network connection was aborted by the local system. Some additional environment details: Running on internal network web farm consisting of two servers running IIS7 on Windows Server 2008 OS. These problems did not occur when running in an older IIS6 web farm of three servers running on Windows Server 2003 (and we use a single IIS6/2003 instance for our development and staging environments with no issues). EDIT: Also, all of these server instances are VMWare virtual machines, not sure if that is a surprise anymore or not. The web service is a .Net 2.0/3.5 compiled .asmx web service that has its own application pool (.Net 2.0, integrated pipeline). Only has Windows Authentication enabled. We have another web service on the farm that uses the same physical path as the primary service, the only difference being that Basic Authentication is enabled. This is used for a portion of our ERP system. Have tried using the same and different application pool - no effect on the error. This site isn't hit as often as the primary site and has never had an error. As mentioned, the error will only happen when called from the .Net client - not from other applications. The client application is always creating a new web service object for each request and setting the service credentials to System.Net.CredentialCache.DefaultCredentials. The application is either deployed locally to a client or run in a Citrix server session. Those users running in Citrix doesn't seem to experience the issue, only locally deployed clients. The Citrix servers and the web farm are located in the same physical location and are located in the same IP range (10.67.xx.xx). Locally deployed clients experiencing the error are located elsewhere (10.105.xx.xx, 10.31.xx.xx). I've checked the OS logs to see if I can see any problems but nothing really sticks out. EDIT: Actually, I myself just ran into the error a little bit ago. I decided to check out the logs again and saw that there was a Security log entry of "Audit Failure" at the 'same' time (IIS log entry at 1:39:59, event log entry at 1:39:50). Not sure if this is a coincidence or not, I'll have to check out the logs of previous errors. I'm probably grasping for straws but the details: Log Name: Security Source: Microsoft-Windows-Security-Auditing Date: 7/8/2009 1:39:50 PM Event ID: 5159 Task Category: Filtering Platform Connection Level: Information Keywords: Audit Failure User: N/A Computer: is071019.<**.net Description: The Windows Filtering Platform has blocked a bind to a local port. Application Information: Process ID: 1260 Application Name: \device\harddiskvolume1\windows\system32\svchost.exe Network Information: Source Address: 0.0.0.0 Source Port: 54802 Protocol: 17 Filter Information: Filter Run-Time ID: 0 Layer Name: Resource Assignment Layer Run-Time ID: 36 I've also tried to use Failed Request Tracing in IIS7 but the service call never actually gets to where FRT can capture it (even though the failure is logged in the web service log). The network infrastructure group said they checked out the DNS and any NIC settings are correct so there is no 'flapping'. Everything pans out. I'm not sure that they checked out any domain controller servers though to see if that could be an issue. Any ideas? Or any other debugging strategies to get to the bottom of this? I'm just the developer in charge of the software and don't really have the knowledge on what to investigate from the networking side of things - although it does sound like a networking issue to me based on what is happening. Thanks in advance for any help.

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• CodePlex Daily Summary for Monday, October 07, 2013

  CodePlex Daily Summary for Monday, October 07, 2013Popular ReleasesGhostscript.NET: Ghostscript.NET v.1.1.0.: v.1.1.0. added GhostscriptViewer state handling (SaveState, RestoreState) GhostscriptRasterizer constructor is extended in order to support usage of the existing GhostscriptViewer instance. fixed problem while using a 32-bit assembly with 32-bit version of Ghostscript on 64-bit Windows: It couldn't find a registry key of installed Ghostscript. Reported and fixed by "r0land". v.1.0.9. implemented EPS (Encapsulated PostScript) support for the GhostscriptViewer. added GhostscriptRasterize...Ghostscript Studio: Ghostscript.Studio v.1.0.2: Ghostscript Studio is easy to use Ghostscript IDE, a tool that facilitates the use of the Ghostscript interpreter by providing you with a graphical interface for postscript editing and file conversions. Ghostscript Studio allows you to preview postscript files, edit the code and execute them in order to convert PDF documents and other formats. The program allows you to convert between PDF, Postscript, EPS, TIFF, JPG and PNG by using the Ghostscript.NET Processor. v.1.0.2. added custom -c s...cmdradio: v0.1.1 binary: Default download in win32. For other OS see here. This is alpha version. Please report all bugs.Media Companion: Media Companion MC3.579b: Fixed IMDB actor scraping for Movies and TV. Note: there are a couple of new functions that are not active, as this release needed to be done due to IMDB change. New* TV - context menu for rescrapeing Poster image/Banner image Fixed* Both - Fixed actor scraping from IMDB * Movie - Fixed Tableview if Movie's movieset was not in MC's list of moviesets * Movie - Rename with mediainfo now lowercase. * Both - added ignore "A " in titles. Separate option in General Preferences. * Tv - Changing ...VidCoder: 1.5.7 Beta: Updated HandBrake core to SVN 4819. About dialog now pulls down HandBrake version from the DLL. Added a confirmation dialog to Stop if the encode has been going on for more than 5 minutes. Fixed handling of unicode characters for input and output filenames. We now encode to UTF-8 before passing to HandBrake. Fixed a crash in the queue multiple titles dialog. Added code to rescue tool windows which get placed outside of the visible screen area.Wsus Package Publisher: Release v1.3.1310.05: Enhance the "Reboot Remote Computers", by adding a timer before the reboot occure. So that remote users can save their documents and close applications. You can also add a message to be display. In 'Tools'->'Settings'-> Misc Tab, you can set a default message. Enhance the "Compare Computers against AD", by choosing OUs to include in the comparison.Event-Based Components AppBuilder: AB3.Iteration.53: Iteration 53 (Feature): Allow drag&drop of existing component (flow, step) from component list to chart. Duplicate names are automatically recognized and solved. By the color of the draged component you can see what kind of component (flow or step) is currently draged. New: AddExistingComponentFlow, PartDragDropEventHandler, ExistingStepPreparerPulse: Pulse 0.6.7.3: Pulse is now accepting donations. To donate by Bitcoin or PayPal see https://pulse.codeplex.com/wikipage?title=Donations Lots of updates in v0.6.7.3: (Feature) New option allows you to disable wallpaper changing when a full screen application is running. This way Pulse doesn't slow down/lag your videos and games :) (Fix) Some users were getting Wallbase errors when logging in. This has been fixed. (Feature) Right click a provider and you can now make a copy of it by selecting the "Dupl...MoreTerra (Terraria World Viewer): MoreTerra 1.11.1: Release 1.11.1 =========== =Bug Fixes= =========== Added more tile blocks (Clouds, crimstone) Added items (binoculars, rope, Pirahna Gun) Added ores (Lead, Tin) Chests now work, I broke them yesterday. =============== =Known Issues= =============== I am having trouble with new background walls. So you will see a red outline for crimson then a pink inside. Same with where I think the queen bee lives.VG-Ripper & PG-Ripper: PG-Ripper 1.4.19: NEW: Added Option to login as Guest NEW: Added Menu Option to delete an Forum Account NEW: Added Support for "ImageTeam.org links FIXED: Fixed Ripping of http://forum.babeunion.com ForumsSingle Line Diagram (Electrical) Control Library: Single Line Diagram (Electrical) Control Lib - 1.2: In this release of SLD (Electrical) Control Lib I have fix code for the following symbols... 1. Switch 2. Isolator 3. Lightening Arrestor 4. Meter A new symbol is added for "Pothead Terminal" You can give it a try. I will keep improving and posting the new features.State of Decay Save Manager: Version 1.0.4: Add version at bottom of formCollection Commander for Configuration Manager 2012: CMCollCtr_1.0.0.2: Windows Installer (MSI) setup;New Ribbon Toolbar implemented; more Powershell commands...Classic WiX Burn Theme: Classic WiX Burn Theme 1.0: Project Description A WiX Burn theme inspired by the classic WiX wizard user interface.QuickConverter: QuickConverter 0.7.3 Beta: Allows access to external variables from inside lambda expressions.DNN® Form and List: DNN Form and List 06.00.07: DotNetNuke Form and List 06.00.06 Changes to 6.0.7•Fixed an error in datatypes.config that caused calculated fields to be missing in 6.0.6 Changes to 6.0.6•Add in Sql to remove 'text on row' setting for UserDefinedTable to make SQL Azure compatible. •Add new azureCompatible element to manifest. •Added a fix for importing templates. Changes to 6.0.2•Fix: MakeThumbnail was broken if the application pool was configured to .Net 4 •Change: Data is now stored in nvarchar(max) instead of ntext C...Trace Reader for Microsoft Dynamics CRM: Trace Reader (1.2013.10.3): Fix a bug when the first caracter of a description line is '[' Add search featureSimpleExcelReportMaker: Serm 0.03: SourceCode and Sample .Net Framework 3.5 AnyCPU compile.Application Architecture Guidelines: App Architecture Guidelines 3.0.8: This document is an overview of software qualities, principles, patterns, practices, tools and libraries.BlackJumboDog: Ver5.9.6: 2013.09.30 Ver5.9.6 (1)SMTP???????、???????????????? (2)WinAPI??????? (3)Web???????CGI???????????????????????New ProjectsASP.NET and ASP.NET MVC Blog Test: As a recent convert from Windows Forms & WPF to ASP.NET and ASP.NET MVC, I've created a simple project and implemented it twice using ASP.NET and ASP.NET MVC.cmdradio: Simple command-line interface internet radio playerDa Nang College Of Technology: Cao Ð?ng Công Ngh?DNN Camera Slideshow: The Camera Slideshow module for DNNFolder Iterator: Folder Iterator is a program I made one night to iterate through a folder and output an ordered list of files contained within the chosen directory.foobarpoc: fooJamendo Search Rest: This project uses the Jamendo REST API to search songs by title.Lab Nhibernate, PRISM, WPF, FLUENT, C#, ServiceStack, JSON: This is a lab for new technology and solving real developer problem Merch ASP.NET: This project is a port of Merch built on Zend framework 2 / PHP 5.MyTest2: This is test project2.Paintbear: Paintbear is a free open-source Paint Program and Image Manipulation Program for Windows based on the .NET Framework(version4). Works on Linux,too ! With Wine RasterConversion (.Net framework): Comparison of variants for working with raster (Bitmap class) at a low level. .Net framework, C#SSIS Custom Connection Manager: Example code for creating a Custom Connection Manager in SSIS 2008 and 2012Web Scripting Project: This is a project related to web application development at the Universtity of HertfordshireWebscripting1: New Scripting Website for University of Herts course Write.NET: Another .NET Blogging Engine: Write.NET is currently under development. Write.NET will be lightweight and highly configurable blogging engine built in MVC4Yoer: ????ASP.NET MVC??，????????????

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• NetApp erroring with: STATUS_NOLOGON_WORKSTATION_TRUST_ACCOUNT

  - by Sobrique

  Since a sitewide upgrade to Windows 7 on desktop, I've started having a problem with virus checking. Specifically - when doing a rename operation on a (filer hosted) CIFS share. The virus checker seems to be triggering a set of messages on the filer: [filerB: auth.trace.authenticateUser.loginTraceIP:info]: AUTH: Login attempt by user server-wk8-r2$ of domain MYDOMAIN from client machine 10.1.1.20 (server-wk8-r2). [filerB: auth.dc.trace.DCConnection.statusMsg:info]: AUTH: TraceDC- attempting authentication with domain controller \\MYDC. [filerB: auth.trace.authenticateUser.loginRejected:info]: AUTH: Login attempt by user rejected by the domain controller with error 0xc0000199: STATUS_NOLOGON_WORKSTATION_TRUST_ACCOUNT. [filerB: auth.trace.authenticateUser.loginTraceMsg:info]: AUTH: Delaying the response by 5 seconds due to continuous failed login attempts by user server-wk8-r2$ of domain MYDOMAIN from client machine 10.1.1.20. This seems to specifically trigger on a rename so what we think is going on is the virus checker is seeing a 'new' file, and trying to do an on-access scan. The virus checker - previously running as LocalSystem and thus sending null as it's authentication request is now looking rather like a DOS attack, and causing the filer to temporarily black list. This 5s lock out each 'access attempt' is a minor nuisance most of the time, and really quite significant for some operations - e.g. large file transfers, where every file takes 5s Having done some digging, this seems to be related to NLTM authentication: Symptoms Error message: System error 1808 has occurred. The account used is a computer account. Use your global user account or local user account to access this server. A packet trace of the failure will show the error as: STATUS_NOLOGON_WORKSTATION_TRUST_ACCOUNT (0xC0000199) Cause Microsoft has changed the functionality of how a Local System account identifies itself during NTLM authentication. This only impacts NTLM authentication. It does not impact Kerberos Authentication. Solution On the host, please set the following group policy entry and reboot the host. Network Security: Allow Local System to use computer identity for NTLM: Disabled Defining this group policy makes Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 function like Windows Server 2008 SP1. So we've now got a couple of workaround which aren't particularly nice - one is to change this security option. One is to disable virus checking, or otherwise exempt part of the infrastructure. And here's where I come to my request for assistance from ServerFault - what is the best way forwards? I lack Windows experience to be sure of what I'm seeing. I'm not entirely sure why NTLM is part of this picture in the first place - I thought we were using Kerberos authentication. I'm not sure how to start diagnosing or troubleshooting this. (We are going cross domain - workstation machine accounts are in a separate AD and DNS domain to my filer. Normal user authentication works fine however.) And failing that, can anyone suggest other lines of enquiry? I'd like to avoid a site wide security option change, or if I do go that way I'll need to be able to supply detailed reasoning. Likewise - disabling virus checking works as a short term workaround, and applying exclusions may help... but I'd rather not, and don't think that solves the underlying problem. EDIT: Filers in AD ldap have SPNs for: nfs/host.fully.qualified.domain nfs/host HOST/host.fully.qualified.domain HOST/host (Sorry, have to obfuscate those). Could it be that without a 'cifs/host.fully.qualified.domain' it's not going to work? (or some other SPN? ) Edit: As part of the searching I've been doing I've found: http://itwanderer.wordpress.com/2011/04/14/tread-lightly-kerberos-encryption-types/ Which suggests that several encryption types were disabled by default in Win7/2008R2. This might be pertinent, as we've definitely had a similar problem with Keberized NFSv4. There is a hidden option which may help some future Keberos users: options nfs.rpcsec.trace on (This hasn't given me anything yet though, so may just be NFS specific). Edit: Further digging has me tracking it back to cross domain authentication. It looks like my Windows 7 workstation (in one domain) is not getting Kerberos tickets for the other domain, in which my NetApp filer is CIFS joined. I've done this separately against a standalone server (Win2003 and Win2008) and didn't get Kerberos tickets for those either. Which means I think Kerberos might be broken, but I've no idea how to troubleshoot further. Edit: A further update: It looks like this may be down Kerberos tickets not being issued cross domain. This then triggers NTLM fallback, which then runs into this problem (since Windows 7). First port of call will be to investigate the Kerberos side of things, but in neither case do we have anything pointing at the Filer being the root cause. As such - as the storage engineer - it's out of my hands. However, if anyone can point me in the direction of troubleshooting Kerberos spanning two Windows AD domains (Kerberos Realms) then that would be appreciated. Options we're going to be considering for resolution: Amend policy option on all workstations via GPO (as above). Talking to AV vendor about the rename triggering scanning. Talking to AV vendor regarding running AV as service account. investigating Kerberos authentication (why it's not working, whether it should be).

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• Beginner’s Guide to Flock, the Social Media Browser

  - by Asian Angel

  Are you wanting a browser that can work as a social hub from the first moment that you start it up? If you love the idea of a browser that is ready to go out of the box then join us as we look at Flock. During the Install Process When you are installing Flock there are two install windows that you should watch for. The first one lets you choose between the “Express Setup & Custom Setup”. We recommend the “Custom Setup”. Once you have selected the “Custom Setup” you can choose which of the following options will enabled. Notice the “anonymous usage statistics” option at the bottom…you can choose to leave this enabled or disable it based on your comfort level. The First Look When you start Flock up for the first time it will open with three tabs. All three are of interest…especially if this is your first time using Flock. With the first tab you can jump right into “logging in/activating” favorite social services within Flock. This page is set to display each time that you open Flock unless you deselect the option in the lower left corner. The second tab provides a very nice overview of Flock and its’ built-in social management power. The third and final page can be considered a “Personal Page”. You can make some changes to the content displayed for quick and easy access and/or monitoring “Twitter Search, Favorite Feeds, Favorite Media, Friend Activity, & Favorite Sites”. Use the “Widget Menu” in the upper left corner to select the “Personal Page Components” that you would like to use. In the upper right corner there is a built-in “Search Bar” and buttons for “Posting to Your Blog & Uploading Media”. To help personalize the “My World Page” just a bit more you can even change the text to your name or whatever best suits your needs. The Flock Toolbar The “Flock Toolbar” is full of social account management goodness. In order from left to right the buttons are: My World (Homepage), Open People Sidebar, Open Media Bar, Open Feeds Sidebar, Webmail, Open Favorites Sidebar, Open Accounts and Services Sidebar, Open Web Clipboard Sidebar, Open Blog Editor, & Open Photo Uploader. The buttons will be “highlighted” with a blue background to help indicate which area you are in. The first area will display a listing of people that you are watching/following at the services shown here. Clicking on the “Media Bar Button” will display the following “Media Slider Bar” above your “Tab Bar”. Notice that there is a built-in “Search Bar” on the right side. Any photos, etc. clicked on will be opened in the currently focused tab below the “Media Bar”. Here is a listing of the “Media Streams” available for viewing. By default Flock will come with a small selection of pre-subscribed RSS Feeds. You can easily unsubscribe, rearrange, add custom folders, or non-categorized feeds as desired. RSS Feeds subscribed to here can be viewed combined together as a single feed (clickable links) in the “My World Page”. or can be viewed individually in a new tab. Very nice! Next on the “Flock Toolbar is the “Webmail Button”. You can set up access to your favorite “Yahoo!, Gmail, & AOL Mail” accounts from here. The “Favorites Sidebar” combines your “Browser History & Bookmarks” into one convenient location. The “Accounts and Services Sidebar” gives you quick and easy access to get logged into your favorite social accounts. Clicking on any of the links will open that particular service’s login page in a new tab. Want to store items such as photos, links, and text to add into a blog post or tweet later on? Just drag and drop them into the “Web Clipboard Sidebar” for later access. Clicking on the “Blog Editor Button” will open up a separate blogging window to compose your posts in. If you have not logged into or set up an account yet in Flock you will see the following message window. The “Blogging Window”…nice, simple, and straightforward. If you are not already logged into your photo account(s) then you will see the following message window when you click on the “Photo Uploader Button”. Clicking “OK” will open the “Accounts and Services Sidebar” with compatible photo services highlighted in a light yellow color. Log in to your favorite service to start uploading all those great images. After Setting Up Here is what our browser looked like after setting up some of our favorite services. The Twitter feed is certainly looking nice and easy to read through… Some tweaking in the “RSS Feeds Sidebar” makes for a perfect reading experience. Keeping up with our e-mail is certainly easy to do too. A look back at the “Accounts and Services Sidebar” shows that all of our accounts are actively logged in (green dot on the right side). Going back to our “My World Page” you can see how nice everything looks for monitoring our “Friend Activity & Favorite Feeds”. Moving on to regular browsing everything is looking very good… Flock is a perfect choice for anyone wanting a browser and social hub all built into a single app. Conclusion Anyone who loves keeping up with their favorite social services while browsing will find using Flock to be a wonderful experience. You literally get the best of both worlds with this browser. Links Download Flock The Official Flock Extensions Homepage The Official Flock Toolbar Homepage Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Add Color Coding to Windows 7 Media Center Program GuideAdd Social Bookmarking (Digg This!) Links to your Wordpress BlogHow to use an ISO image on Ubuntu LinuxAdvertise on How-To GeekFixing When Windows Media Player Library Won’t Let You Add Files TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips DVDFab 6 Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 Have Fun Editing Photo Editing with Citrify Outlook Connector Upgrade Error Gadfly is a cool Twitter/Silverlight app Enable DreamScene in Windows 7 Microsoft’s “How Do I ?” Videos Home Networks – How do they look like & the problems they cause

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• CodePlex Daily Summary for Tuesday, July 29, 2014

  CodePlex Daily Summary for Tuesday, July 29, 2014Popular ReleasesArtezio SharePoint 2013 Workflow Activities: SharePoint Designer 2013 custom workflow actions 1.0: SharePoint Designer 2013 custom workflow actions that work with permissions. Add Role Assignment Add Role Assignments Delete Role Assignments Get Role Definition Id Get Role Definition Id By Role Type Id Reset Role Inheritance Artezio SharePoint Consulting & DevelopmentVG-Ripper & PG-Ripper: PG-Ripper 1.4.32: changes NEW: Added Support for 'ImgMega.com' links NEW: Added Support for 'ImgCandy.net' links NEW: Added Support for 'ImgPit.com' links NEW: Added Support for 'Img.yt' links FIXED: 'Radikal.ru' links FIXED: 'ImageTeam.org' links FIXED: 'ImgSee.com' links FIXED: 'Img.yt' linksAsp.Net MVC-4,Entity Framework and JQGrid Demo with Todo List WebApplication: Asp.Net MVC-4,Entity Framework and JQGrid Demo: Asp.Net MVC-4,Entity Framework and JQGrid Demo with simple Todo List WebApplication, Overview TodoList is a simple web application to create, store and modify Todo tasks to be maintained by the users, which comprises of following fields to the user (Task Name, Task Description, Severity, Target Date, Task Status). TodoList web application is created using MVC - 4 architecture, code-first Entity Framework (ORM) and Jqgrid for displaying the data.Waterfox: Waterfox 31.0 Portable: New features in Waterfox 31.0: Added support for Unicode 7.0 Experimental support for WebCL New features in Firefox 31.0:New Add the search field to the new tab page Support of Prefer:Safe http header for parental control mozilla::pkix as default certificate verifier Block malware from downloaded files Block malware from downloaded files audio/video .ogg and .pdf files handled by Firefox if no application specified Changed Removal of the CAPS infrastructure for specifying site-sp...SuperSocket, an extensible socket server framework: SuperSocket 1.6.3: The changes below are included in this release: fixed an exception when collect a server's status but it has been stopped fixed a bug that can cause an exception in case of sending data when the connection dropped already fixed the log4net missing issue for a QuickStart project fixed a warning in a QuickStart projectYnote Classic: Ynote Classic 2.8.5 Beta: Several Changes - Multiple Carets and Multiple Selections - Improved Startup Time - Improved Syntax Highlighting - Search Improvements - Shell Command - Improved StabilityDatabase Schema Reader: v1.3.4.0: Contents DatabaseSchemaReader.dll - Class library (.net3.5) DatabaseSchemaViewer.exe - UI to read and view database schemas; options to generate SQL and code; option to compare another schema CopyToSQLite/CopyToSQLite.exe - UI to copy any database schema and data to SQLite or, if installed, SQL Server CE 4.0 net4/DatabaseSchemaReader.dll - .Net 4.0 class library This Release Schema Reading (MySQL)- reads UNSIGNED integers (available in the schema model's DatabaseColumn.DbDataType prope...TEBookConverter: 1.2: Fixed: Could not start convertion in some cases Fixed: Progress show during convertion was truncated Fixed: Stopping convertion didn't reset program titleQ2Cue \\: Q2Cue v. 0.85: Initial release.CS-Script Source: Release v3.8.4: CSScript.Evaluator is migrated to Mono v3.3.0 Added aggregating //css_ignore_ns from the imported scripts cs-script.7z - CS-Script Suite (binaries, documentation, samples) cs-script.ExtensionPack.7z - CS-Script Extension Pack (additional binaries and samples) cs-scriptDocs.7z - CS-Script DocumentationDotSpatial: DotSpatial 1.7: DotSpatial.Full - includes all DotSpatial libraries, extensions and DemoMap application DotSpatial.Core - includes only DotSpatial core libraries Entire list of changes see in the issue tracker. Main changes: Improved common stability, optimized memory and speed when loading and rendering shapefiles, fixed some memory leaks in rasters and shape layers. Simplified plugin infrastructure. Now there are predefined implementations for all required components (IStatusControl, IDockManager, IHead...NRepository: NRepository 2.2: NuGetNRepository packages are available from NuGet.org: NRepository.Core: Install-Package NRepository.Core NRepository.EntityFramework: Install-Package NRepository.EntityFramework NRepository.TestKit: Install-Package NRepository.TestKit Contoso University Sample Projects Added 3 versions of Contoso University sample code added: ContosoUniversityOriginal - This is the original Microsoft sample project for Entity Framework. ContosoUniversityUsingNRepository - This version simply repl...InstagramSaver: 1.5: Added: An option to wait between downloads to prevent ban from server Improved: File downloading performance Improved: File checking performancePVReportDeployer: PVReportDeployer 1.0: PVReportDeployer 1.0AD4 Application Designer for flow based .NET applications: AD4.AppDesigner.23.20: AD4.Iteration.23.20(Advanced Rendering Features) Option to render name of flow pins within flow chart (AlarmClockSample.10.ad4 used to test this extension): MainWindow extended by adding FlowChartShowFlowPinCaptionsComboBox ConfigureUIControls customized ManageFlowChartShowFlowPinCaptionsOptionFlow customized Parameter FlowChartFlowPins replaced FlowChartFlowPinCaptions in AD4.AppDesigner.cfg RenderFlowPinsCaptions customized to use the parameter ToDo: Some tutorials are unfinished b...CRM 2013 One Click Navigation: CRM2013OneClickNavigation_1_0_0_3_managed.zip: Fixes on Security PrivilegesAutomatedLab: AutomatedLab 2.1.0.0: 2.1.0 Support for external virtual switches CaRoot is a new role for installing Root Certificate Authorities Root domain controllers are installed in parallel now 2.0.0 Now supports also Windows Server 2008 R2 and 7 No longer the limit of just having one client and one server operating system Rewrite of the code that handles VHDs Lots of bug fixing Changed that parameter definition of some cmdlets in AutomatedLabDefinition and also adapted the sample scripts Now the Forest...BizTalk Deployment Utilities: 1.0.0.0: Draft VersionGroupMe Software Development Kit: GroupMe .NET SDK v1.0.1: Small update concerning the /users/me endpoint to get the currently authenticated user info. Documentation is available here: http://dotnetcorner.ch/Projects/GroupMe-NET-SDK/DocumentationOneNote Tagging Kit: OneNoteTaggingKit Add-In 2.4.5316.33833: New Features in this ReleaseThe Find Pages dialog preserves search string and tag filter selection on search scope changes Other ChangesDialog windows restored when action button is pressed while windows is minimized Code cleanup and simplification Code documentation Created some reusable UI controls Tags styling made more pleasant (I hope) Tag tooltips improved on the Find Pages dialog : Added dedicated tooltips to the page count and selection indicator of tags Closing open dial...New ProjectsCognitum ASP.NET Providers for Cassandra: Cassandra Providers is a ASP.NET solution that uses the Cassandra Database data source for a custom Membership, Role, Profile, an Session-State providers.DG Mobile: Simples aplicação para inserção, visualização e emissão de relatório de atividades relacionadas ao DG.Dynamics AX Development tools: Several AX Development related tools combined into one configurable packages: TFS Workspace, DEV_Tools, and X++ Editor components.E Drawing Library for WinRT: E Drawing Library for WinRT lets you create graphic rich Windows Store Apps easily, giving you all the power of Direct2D with simple classes and methods.EFramework.DataAccess: Summary ????freetalkserver: This php server, user can register!gicon: gicon is a project to help you to generate avatar/icon by hash (MD5, SHA1) or random hex string (such as GUID)hOOt - Full text search: Full text search engine built from scratch using bitmap indexesMelodyUI - Library for HTML, CSS & JS Development: MelodyUI is a set of classes and helpers that let us to create Web Applications. MelodyUI is lightweight and don't have any dependency.nRF24L01Plus .NETMF driver: nRF24L01, .NET MFNyan: Beginning...Prince Game Xna: Prince of Persia Net Game in Xna Game StudioSmartsby: Combining several small business web app's information into a single dashboard.Super snippets: Super snippets para Visual StudioTCP/IP Adapter BizTalk 2013: BizTalk 2013 TCP/IP community adapter. This is an updated version of the TCP/IP adapter for BizTalk, for use with BizTalk 2013.testMercurial: summaryUnit OF Work With Sql Helper: This project is intended to provide a simple data access object for SQL Server with repository and Unit of Work pattern.VisualRegEx: Prototype. Experimenting regex parsing, graph layout, etc.WDK Hardware Development Boards Add-On: Scripts for working with windows compatible hardware development boards like the Sharks Cove?????? 2014????????: ???????????????、????、????、??????、????、????????,????????、?????????,?????。?????? 2014????????: ????????????,????,??????????? ???? ???? ?????????,???,??,?????!???? 2014????????: ?????????????、????、????、??????、????、???????,?????,?????????!????? 2014???????: ????????????????,?????????????。????????????,???????,???????,?????,?????????? 2014????????: ?????????????????、????、??????、????????,????????????,???????????！??????? 2014???????: ??????????????????,??????????????、???????、???????、???????、?????！??????? 2014????????: ?????????????????????,????????????????,????????????????,??????！????? 2014????????: ?????????????????????????,???????????,????????,??????????????????????????? 2014????????: ??????????????????????,????“???????,???????”?????,????????????！?????? 2014???????: ?????????????????,????,????,??????,????“????、????、????、????”????????,??????.?????? 2014????????: ?????????????????"????,????"???,????????????????????????,??????????????。?????? 2014????????: ??????????????:????,????,????,???????,????????,??????:????????,?????!???? 2014????????: ????????????????????????,???????????????,????????????????！???? 2014?????????: ??????????????????,?????????????,???????????.????????????,????????????!?????? 2014??????: ??????????????:????,????,????,???????,????????,??????:????????,?????!?????? 2014??????: ?????????????????,???????????????。?????????????,???????,?????????。????? 2014???????: ????????????????"????,????"???,????????????????????????,??????????????。????? 2014??????: ???????????????????,?????????????,???????????.????????????,????????????!????? 2014???????: ?????????????????????????,???????????????,????????????????！?????? ????????: ??????????????300??,????????、???????、????、????????、?????,??????:????,????,???????！?????? ????????: ??????????????????,?????,???，???、???、?????,???,?????,??????????????????? ???????????: ??????????????????,?????????。????????????,??????,????,????,?????????！????? ???????: ????????????????????????，?????、???、????，????，???、???、???、???、???，????，?????！????? ???????: ????????????????????,????????,????????,????,????,??????，???????!????? ???????: ???????????????,??????????????????,????????,??????????????、????。?????? 2014????????: ????????????????????,????????:??、??、???,?????????????????????!?????? ????????: ????????????????6?,???????????????????????????,??????????????,?????????！?????? ??????: ????????????????8?，????????,????????,??????????,?????,????? ,????????!?????? ???????: ?????????????????????????????、????、????、???????????,????,????!????? 2014???????: ???????????、???、??、??????????????????????????????,????????????????!?????? 2014????????: ????????????????????????、??????,????、?????、????， ?????????，?????????????！?????? ????????: ?????????????????????、????、????、??????、???????,??????、??????。?????? ???????: ??????????????????,???????、????、????、??????、???????,??????,???????????。???? ????????: ??????,??????,?????????????????????,???????????????????????。???? ???????: ??????????????,???????、???????????,????????,????,?????????,??????,??????!?????? ????????: ?????????????????,?????????????。?????????,???????,???????,?????????????。?????? ????????: ????????????????、??????、??????、??????、??????、?????、??????、????、????、????????！????? ???????: ???????????????????,??????????????,???????????,??????,????,??????,??????。????? ???????: ?????????????!???????????,??????,????,?????????????,????????,??????,????,?????...?????? ???????: ????????????、??、???????????,??????,????????,??????????????????...?????????? ????????: ??????????????,??????????????,?????????,????,????,??????。???? ?????: ????????????、?????????,?????????,????,????????,????????????????!????? 2014??????????: ???????????????????,?????,???????,???????????,??????! ????? 2014?????????: ???????????????????,?????????????????????,?????,????,???????.

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• CodePlex Daily Summary for Tuesday, November 05, 2013

  CodePlex Daily Summary for Tuesday, November 05, 2013Popular ReleasesSocial Network Importer for NodeXL: SocialNetImporter(v.1.9.1): This new version includes: - Include me option is back - Fixed the login bug reported latelyCaptcha MVC: Captcha MVC 2.5: v 2.5: Added support for MVC 5. The DefaultCaptchaManager is no longer throws an error if the captcha values was entered incorrectly. Minor changes. v 2.4.1: Fixed issues with deleting incorrect values of the captcha token in the SessionStorageProvider. This could lead to a situation when the captcha was not working with the SessionStorageProvider. Minor changes. v 2.4: Changed the IIntelligencePolicy interface, added ICaptchaManager as parameter for all methods. Improved font size ...DNN Blog: 06.00.01: 06.00.01 ReleaseThis is the first bugfix release of the new v6 blog module. These are the changes: Added some robustness in v5-v6 scripts to cater for some rare upgrade scenarios Changed the name of the module definition to avoid clash with Evoq Social Addition of sitemap providerStock Track: Version 1.2 Stable: Overhaul and re-think of the user interface in normal mode. Added stock history view in normal mode. Allows user to enter orders in normal mode. Allow advanced user to run database queries within the program. Improved sales statistics feature, able to calculate against a single category. Updated database script file. Now compatible with lower version of SQL Server.VG-Ripper & PG-Ripper: VG-Ripper 2.9.50: changes NEW: Added Support for "ImageHostHQ.com" links NEW: Added Support for "ImgMoney.net" links NEW: Added Support for "ImgSavy.com" links NEW: Added Support for "PixTreat.com" links Bug fixesVidCoder: 1.5.11 Beta: Added Encode Details window. Exposes elapsed time, ETA, current and average FPS, running file size, current pass and pass progress. Open it by going to Windows -> Encode Details while an encode is running. Subtitle dialog now disables the "Burn In" checkbox when it's either unavailable or it's the only option. It also disables the "Forced Only" when the subtitle type doesn't support the "Forced" flag. Updated HandBrake core to SVN 5872. Fixed crash in the preview window when a source fil...Wsus Package Publisher: Release v1.3.1311.02: Add three new Actions in Custom Updates : Work with Files (Copy, Delete, Rename), Work with Folders (Add, Delete, Rename) and Work with Registry Keys (Add, Delete, Rename). Fix a bug, where after resigning an update, the display is not refresh. Modify the way WPP sort rows in 'Updates Detail Viewer' and 'Computer List Viewer' so that dates are correctly sorted. Add a Tab in the settings form to set Proxy settings when WPP needs to go on Internet. Fix a bug where 'Manage Catalogs Subsc...uComponents: uComponents v6.0.0: This release of uComponents will compile against and support the new API in Umbraco v6.1.0. What's new in uComponents v6.0.0? New DataTypesImage Point XML DropDownList XPath Templatable List New features / Resolved issuesThe following workitems have been implemented and/or resolved: 14781 14805 14808 14818 14854 14827 14868 14859 14790 14853 14790 DataType Grid 14788 14810 14873 14833 14864 14855 / 14860 14816 14823 Drag & Drop support for rows Su...SharePoint 2013 Global Metadata Navigation: SP 2013 Metadata Navigation Sandbox Solution: SharePoint 2013 Global Metadata Navigation sandbox solution version 1.0. Upload to your site collection solution store and activate. See the Documentation tab for detailed instructions.SmartStore.NET - Free ASP.NET MVC Ecommerce Shopping Cart Solution: SmartStore.NET 1.2.1: New FeaturesAdded option Limit to current basket subtotal to HadSpentAmount discount rule Items in product lists can be labelled as NEW for a configurable period of time Product templates can optionally display a discount sign when discounts were applied Added the ability to set multiple favicons depending on stores and/or themes Plugin management: multiple plugins can now be (un)installed in one go Added a field for the HTML body id to store entity (Developer) New property 'Extra...CodeGen Code Generator: CodeGen 4.3.2: Changes in this release include: Removed old tag tokens from several example templates. Fixed a bug which was causing the default author and company names not to be picked up from the registry under .NET. Added several additional tag loop expressions: <IF FIRST_TAG>, <IF LAST_TAG>, <IF MULTIPLE_TAGS> and<IF SINGLE_TAG>. Upgraded to Synergy/DE 10.1.1b, Visual Studio 2013 and Installshield Limited Edition 2013.SQL Power Doc: Version 1.0.2.2 BETA 1: Fixes for issues introduced with PowerShell 4.0 with serialization/deserialization. Fixed an issue with the max length of an Excel cell being exceeded by AD groups with a large number of members.Community Forums NNTP bridge: Community Forums NNTP Bridge V54 (LiveConnect): This is the first release which can be used with the new LiveConnect authentication. Fixes the problem that the authentication will not work after 1 hour. Also a logfile will now be stored in "%AppData%\Community\CommunityForumsNNTPServer". If you have any problems please feel free to sent me the file "LogFile.txt".AutoAudit: AutoAudit 3.20f: Here is a high level list of the things I have changed between AutoAudit 2.00h and 3.20f ... Note: 3.20f corrects a minor bug found in 3.20e in the _RowHistory UDF when using column names with spaces. 1. AutoAudit has been tested on SQL Server 2005, 2008, 2008R2 and 2012. 2. Added the capability for AutoAudit to handle primary keys with up to 5 columns. 3. Added the capability for AutoAudit to save changes for a subset of the columns in a table. 4. Normalized the Audit table and created...Aricie - Friendlier Url Provider: Aricie - Friendlier Url Provider Version 2.5.3: This is mainly a maintenance release to stabilize the new Url Group paradigm. As usual, don't forget to install the Aricie - Shared extension first Highlights Fixed: UI bugs Min Requirements: .Net 3.5+ DotNetNuke 4.8.1+ Aricie - Shared 1.7.7+Aricie Shared: Aricie.Shared Version 1.7.7: This is mainly a maintenance version. Fixes in Property Editor: list import/export Min Requirements: DotNetNuke 4.8.1+ .Net 3.5+WPF Extended DataGrid: WPF Extended DataGrid 2.0.0.9 binaries: Fixed issue with ICollectionView containg null values (AutoFilter issue)Community TFS Build Extensions: October 2013: The October 2013 release contains Scripts - a new addition to our delivery. These are a growing library of PowerShell scripts to use with VS2013. See our documentation for more on scripting. VS2010 Activities(target .NET 4.0) VS2012 Activities (target .NET 4.5) VS2013 Activities (target .NET 4.5.1) Community TFS Build Manager VS2012 Community TFS Build Manager VS2013 The Community TFS Build Managers for VS2010, 2012 and 2013 can also be found in the Visual Studio Gallery where upda...SuperSocket, an extensible socket server framework: SuperSocket 1.6 stable: Changes included in this release: Process level isolation SuperSocket ServerManager (include server and client) Connect to client from server side initiatively Client certificate validation New configuration attributes "textEncoding", "defaultCulture", and "storeLocation" (certificate node) Many bug fixes http://docs.supersocket.net/v1-6/en-US/New-Features-and-Breaking-ChangesBarbaTunnel: BarbaTunnel 8.1: Check Version History for more information about this release.New ProjectsAForge.NET FFmpeg - LGPL Version: AForge.Video.FFMPEG recompiled under LGPLv3 which can be distributed with proprietary projects, without requiring you to release all of your proprietary source.Albatross Shell: Albatross Shell is a WPF based Shell program that can host other WPF application modules.Analysis Services ServerActivity Monitor (ASSAM) 2014: Analysis Services Server Activity Monitor (ASSAM 2014) is an upgraded version of the Analysis Services Activity Monitor 2012.AsuraCode: AsuraCode 0.1Chimera - Automated Testing Suite: Chimera is an automated testing suite, intended to simplify and automate system and tests deployment. Oriented around the MVC architecture, it has web based UI.Create Sitemap for your Website (Sitemap Writer): Sitemap Writer help create sitemap for your website. It recursively look for links on your each page and add up in list to write a site map. DataSync: ????HCS Analyzer: HCS Analyzerk? toán thu? dona: chuong trình k? toán thu? donaLanguage improver: startedOrchard Abstractions: An Orchard module for providing higher-level abstractions to Orchard services.Orchard Abstractions - Examples: Examples for Orchard Abstractions (https://orchardabstractions.codeplex.com/)Role Based Views in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011: This tool will allow you to configure visibility and setting the default view of a logged in user based on security roles.SF.DotNet.Utilities: DotNet.UtilitiesShot: A real time C# web application framework designed in the image of ASP.NET.Soccer Managment System: Soccer Management SystemSTAR FOX XNA: Remake of a classic videogame. In this case, that videogame will be Star Fox (1993) for SNES game console.The Dargon Project: DargonTweetFeed: A small widget that enables you to display a twitter search or profile on your Sitecore siteWPF Themes HighRobotics: WPF Themes by High Robotics company????????? ????????: ?????????, ??????????? ?????????? ???????? ????????: ??????????? ????? ????? ??????????, ?????????? ????????? ??????.

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• Problem installing Ubuntu 10.04 64 bit side by side with Vista by using a bootable USB drive. What n

  - by Adam Siddhi

  What happened I decided to install Ubuntu 10.04 64 bit side by side with Vista Home Premium (I guess on another partition) with a USB stick. I found instructions on how to do this here: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/FromUSBStick To create the bootable USB drive I had to download a program called Unetbootin. That process was simple enough. All I had to do was just choose the disk image option, select the ubuntu-10.04-desktop-amd64.iso image, make sure it recognizes my USB drive and then press OK. It takes only like a few minutes to create a working bootable USB drive. Then I have to restart my computer, enter the BIOS, select my USB drive as the first boot drive, save options and continue with booting up. After this Ubuntu actually loads up. I think this is known as the Live version of Ubuntu so you can try it out before fully installing it. Any ways, on the Ubuntu 10.04 desktop I saw an installer. I click it and begin the installation process. Just so you know, I tried installing it 2 times. I will explain what happened each time: The first time I tried installing Ubuntu 10.04 I got stuck at step 4 of 7. I remember selecting the last option in the window which was Specify Partitions Manually (Advanced) I made my partition for Ubuntu like 52 gigs. I clicked forward and a little pop up window appeared saying Please Wait. So the installation process stalled on this window so I closed out of it and quit the installation process. So at this point I was worried because I had already selected the partition size and assumed it started making it. Since it stalled I had to quit out though. Anyways, once again I reached step 4 of 7 a decided to select the first option which is Install them side by side choosing between them each startup. I figured this was the safe way to go. I did that and the pop up window saying Please Wait popped up again but lasted only like 10 seconds. Then I got to I guess step 6 where it asks you to enter your desired name and password. Did that and clicked forward. The Ubuntu 10.04 installation load screen appeared and the loading bar at the bottom started filling up. So I got to 83% and stalled during the Importing other profile information (I think it was called this. I had the option to do this during I think step 6) process. So at this point I decided to get stop the installation process. I was getting very nervous. I tried to restart the computer but all that happened was that Ubuntu restarted. I finally got the computer to restart. I was pretty sure I had screwed something up big time by this point. As my computer was restarting I entered BIOS again and switched back to it booting from my main hard drive containing Vista. Saved it and continued the boot process. My worst fears were confirmed as Vista would not boot up. I mean I saw the little Microsoft Windows choppy animated green loading bar at the bottom of the screen and then boom! It decided to restart. When it restarted I had the option to run a memory test check to see if there was anything that needed to be repaired. That took like 20 minutes and at the end I saw that I did indeed have to repair something. I had to go through 2 repair processes. After each I had to restart the computer. The 2nd time it went through the repair process it said that it could not fully repair the damage. I was scared and restarted but Vista did load up. I got to my desktop and saw a message saying something like Repairs have been made, Please restart for changes to take effect I noticed that some Notification icons were missing and I could not hear volume in a video. Things were a bit funky. So I did restart and here I am. Now what?! So since I got back into Vista and thankfully have a working Internet connection I am trying to find answers to my problem (that is why I am writing this post). I am scared that I have partioned my hard drive 2 times after researching Installing Ubuntu 10.04 and seeing this post http://techie-buzz.com/foss/ubuntu-10-04-lts-installation-guide.html The author shows screen shots of installing Ubuntu 10.04. He shows the image of step 4 of 7 with a caption at the bottom. I will recreate it below: Select a partitioning option. Unless you want to format all the hard drive and install Ubuntu afresh, select the last option and proceed. Questions If I have indeed partitioned my HD 2 times (which I am sure it is), how do I get to a point where I can see all my bad, unfinished Ubuntu partitions and get rid of them? How do I clean this big mess up? & How can I ensure that this mess will not happen next time I try installing Ubuntu 10.04? Thank you Adam

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• Spooling in SQL execution plans

  - by Rob Farley

  Sewing has never been my thing. I barely even know the terminology, and when discussing this with American friends, I even found out that half the words that Americans use are different to the words that English and Australian people use. That said – let’s talk about spools! In particular, the Spool operators that you find in some SQL execution plans. This post is for T-SQL Tuesday, hosted this month by me! I’ve chosen to write about spools because they seem to get a bad rap (even in my song I used the line “There’s spooling from a CTE, they’ve got recursion needlessly”). I figured it was worth covering some of what spools are about, and hopefully explain why they are remarkably necessary, and generally very useful. If you have a look at the Books Online page about Plan Operators, at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms191158.aspx, and do a search for the word ‘spool’, you’ll notice it says there are 46 matches. 46! Yeah, that’s what I thought too... Spooling is mentioned in several operators: Eager Spool, Lazy Spool, Index Spool (sometimes called a Nonclustered Index Spool), Row Count Spool, Spool, Table Spool, and Window Spool (oh, and Cache, which is a special kind of spool for a single row, but as it isn’t used in SQL 2012, I won’t describe it any further here). Spool, Table Spool, Index Spool, Window Spool and Row Count Spool are all physical operators, whereas Eager Spool and Lazy Spool are logical operators, describing the way that the other spools work. For example, you might see a Table Spool which is either Eager or Lazy. A Window Spool can actually act as both, as I’ll mention in a moment. In sewing, cotton is put onto a spool to make it more useful. You might buy it in bulk on a cone, but if you’re going to be using a sewing machine, then you quite probably want to have it on a spool or bobbin, which allows it to be used in a more effective way. This is the picture that I want you to think about in relation to your data. I’m sure you use spools every time you use your sewing machine. I know I do. I can’t think of a time when I’ve got out my sewing machine to do some sewing and haven’t used a spool. However, I often run SQL queries that don’t use spools. You see, the data that is consumed by my query is typically in a useful state without a spool. It’s like I can just sew with my cotton despite it not being on a spool! Many of my favourite features in T-SQL do like to use spools though. This looks like a very similar query to before, but includes an OVER clause to return a column telling me the number of rows in my data set. I’ll describe what’s going on in a few paragraphs’ time. So what does a Spool operator actually do? The spool operator consumes a set of data, and stores it in a temporary structure, in the tempdb database. This structure is typically either a Table (ie, a heap), or an Index (ie, a b-tree). If no data is actually needed from it, then it could also be a Row Count spool, which only stores the number of rows that the spool operator consumes. A Window Spool is another option if the data being consumed is tightly linked to windows of data, such as when the ROWS/RANGE clause of the OVER clause is being used. You could maybe think about the type of spool being like whether the cotton is going onto a small bobbin to fit in the base of the sewing machine, or whether it’s a larger spool for the top. A Table or Index Spool is either Eager or Lazy in nature. Eager and Lazy are Logical operators, which talk more about the behaviour, rather than the physical operation. If I’m sewing, I can either be all enthusiastic and get all my cotton onto the spool before I start, or I can do it as I need it. “Lazy” might not the be the best word to describe a person – in the SQL world it describes the idea of either fetching all the rows to build up the whole spool when the operator is called (Eager), or populating the spool only as it’s needed (Lazy). Window Spools are both physical and logical. They’re eager on a per-window basis, but lazy between windows. And when is it needed? The way I see it, spools are needed for two reasons. 1 – When data is going to be needed AGAIN. 2 – When data needs to be kept away from the original source. If you’re someone that writes long stored procedures, you are probably quite aware of the second scenario. I see plenty of stored procedures being written this way – where the query writer populates a temporary table, so that they can make updates to it without risking the original table. SQL does this too. Imagine I’m updating my contact list, and some of my changes move data to later in the book. If I’m not careful, I might update the same row a second time (or even enter an infinite loop, updating it over and over). A spool can make sure that I don’t, by using a copy of the data. This problem is known as the Halloween Effect (not because it’s spooky, but because it was discovered in late October one year). As I’m sure you can imagine, the kind of spool you’d need to protect against the Halloween Effect would be eager, because if you’re only handling one row at a time, then you’re not providing the protection... An eager spool will block the flow of data, waiting until it has fetched all the data before serving it up to the operator that called it. In the query below I’m forcing the Query Optimizer to use an index which would be upset if the Name column values got changed, and we see that before any data is fetched, a spool is created to load the data into. This doesn’t stop the index being maintained, but it does mean that the index is protected from the changes that are being done. There are plenty of times, though, when you need data repeatedly. Consider the query I put above. A simple join, but then counting the number of rows that came through. The way that this has executed (be it ideal or not), is to ask that a Table Spool be populated. That’s the Table Spool operator on the top row. That spool can produce the same set of rows repeatedly. This is the behaviour that we see in the bottom half of the plan. In the bottom half of the plan, we see that the a join is being done between the rows that are being sourced from the spool – one being aggregated and one not – producing the columns that we need for the query. Table v Index When considering whether to use a Table Spool or an Index Spool, the question that the Query Optimizer needs to answer is whether there is sufficient benefit to storing the data in a b-tree. The idea of having data in indexes is great, but of course there is a cost to maintaining them. Here we’re creating a temporary structure for data, and there is a cost associated with populating each row into its correct position according to a b-tree, as opposed to simply adding it to the end of the list of rows in a heap. Using a b-tree could even result in page-splits as the b-tree is populated, so there had better be a reason to use that kind of structure. That all depends on how the data is going to be used in other parts of the plan. If you’ve ever thought that you could use a temporary index for a particular query, well this is it – and the Query Optimizer can do that if it thinks it’s worthwhile. It’s worth noting that just because a Spool is populated using an Index Spool, it can still be fetched using a Table Spool. The details about whether or not a Spool used as a source shows as a Table Spool or an Index Spool is more about whether a Seek predicate is used, rather than on the underlying structure. Recursive CTE I’ve already shown you an example of spooling when the OVER clause is used. You might see them being used whenever you have data that is needed multiple times, and CTEs are quite common here. With the definition of a set of data described in a CTE, if the query writer is leveraging this by referring to the CTE multiple times, and there’s no simplification to be leveraged, a spool could theoretically be used to avoid reapplying the CTE’s logic. Annoyingly, this doesn’t happen. Consider this query, which really looks like it’s using the same data twice. I’m creating a set of data (which is completely deterministic, by the way), and then joining it back to itself. There seems to be no reason why it shouldn’t use a spool for the set described by the CTE, but it doesn’t. On the other hand, if we don’t pull as many columns back, we might see a very different plan. You see, CTEs, like all sub-queries, are simplified out to figure out the best way of executing the whole query. My example is somewhat contrived, and although there are plenty of cases when it’s nice to give the Query Optimizer hints about how to execute queries, it usually doesn’t do a bad job, even without spooling (and you can always use a temporary table). When recursion is used, though, spooling should be expected. Consider what we’re asking for in a recursive CTE. We’re telling the system to construct a set of data using an initial query, and then use set as a source for another query, piping this back into the same set and back around. It’s very much a spool. The analogy of cotton is long gone here, as the idea of having a continual loop of cotton feeding onto a spool and off again doesn’t quite fit, but that’s what we have here. Data is being fed onto the spool, and getting pulled out a second time when the spool is used as a source. (This query is running on AdventureWorks, which has a ManagerID column in HumanResources.Employee, not AdventureWorks2012) The Index Spool operator is sucking rows into it – lazily. It has to be lazy, because at the start, there’s only one row to be had. However, as rows get populated onto the spool, the Table Spool operator on the right can return rows when asked, ending up with more rows (potentially) getting back onto the spool, ready for the next round. (The Assert operator is merely checking to see if we’ve reached the MAXRECURSION point – it vanishes if you use OPTION (MAXRECURSION 0), which you can try yourself if you like). Spools are useful. Don’t lose sight of that. Every time you use temporary tables or table variables in a stored procedure, you’re essentially doing the same – don’t get upset at the Query Optimizer for doing so, even if you think the spool looks like an expensive part of the query. I hope you’re enjoying this T-SQL Tuesday. Why not head over to my post that is hosting it this month to read about some other plan operators? At some point I’ll write a summary post – once I have you should find a comment below pointing at it. @rob_farley

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• I thought everyone did it like this – Training Session Code Management

  - by Fatherjack

  One of an occasional series of blogs about things that I do that perhaps others don’t. From very early on in my dealings with SQL Server Management Studio I started using Solutions and Projects. This means that I started using them when writing sessions and it wasn’t until speaking with someone at PASS Summit 2013 that I found out that this was a process that was unheard of by some people. So, here we go, a run through how I create and manage code and other documents that I use in presentations. For people unsure what solutions and projects are; • Solution – a container for one or more projects. • Project – a container for files, .sql files are grouped as Queries, all other files are stored as Misc. How do I start? Open Management Studio as normal, and then click File | New and select Project This will bring up the New Project dialog box and you can select/add details as necessary in the places indicated. If this is the first project you are creating then be sure to select the Create directory for solution check box (4). If know in advance that you are going to have more than one project in the solution then you may want to edit the Solution name (3) as by default it will take the name of the project that you enter at (2). This will lead you to the following folder structure (depending on the location that you chose in 3) above. In SSMS you need to turn on the Solution Explorer, either via the View menu or pressing Ctrl + Alt + L                   This will bring up a dockable window that will let you quickly access the files that you choose to include in the Solution.                     Can we get to work and write some code yet please? Yes, we can. As with many Microsoft products there are several ways to go about this, let’s look at the easiest way when creating new code. When writing a presentation I usually start from the position we are currently in – a brand new solution and project with no code. Later on we will look at incorporating existing code files into the Project where we need it. Right-click on the Project name and choose Add New Query           As soon as you click this you will be prompted to select the sql server that you want to connect to and once you have done that you will have your new query open in the text editor and the Solution Explorer will now look like this, showing your server connection and your new query.               And the Project folder will look like this         Now once you have written your code don’t press save, choose Save As and give the code a better name than QueryX.sql. SSMS will interpret this as a request to rename Query1 and your Project and the Project folder will show that SQLQuery1.sql no longer exists but there is now a file named as you requested. If you happen to click save in error then right-click the query in the project and choose rename.               You can then alter the name as you like, even when open in the SSMS text editor, and the file will be renamed. When creating a set of scripts for a presentation I name files with a numeric prefix so that when they are sorted by name they are in the order that I need to use them during the session. I love this idea but I’ve got loads of existing scripts I want to put in Projects Excellent, adding existing files to a project is easy, let’s consider that you have query files in your My Documents folder and you want to bring them into the Project we have just created. Right-click on the Project and choose Add | Existing Item           Navigate to the location of your chosen file and select it. The file will open in SSMS text editor and the Project will be updated to show that the selected query is now part of your project. If you look in Windows Explorer you will see that the query file has been copied into the Project folder, the original file still remains in your My Documents (or wherever it existed). I’ll leave it as an exercise for the reader to explore creating further Projects within a solution but will happily answer questions if you get into difficulties. What other advantages do I get from this? Well, as all your code is neatly in one Solution folder and the folder contains only files that are pertinent to the session you are presenting then it makes it very easy to share this code, simply copy the whole folder onto a USB stick, Blog, FTP location, wherever you choose and it’s all there in one self-contained parcel. You don’t have to limit yourself to .sql query files, you can add any sort of document via the Add Existing Item method, just try it out. Right-click on the protect and choose Add | Existing Item           Change the file type filter.                       You can multi select items here using Ctrl as you click each item you want. When you are done, click the Add button and the items will be brought into your project.                 Again, using this process means the files are copied into the project folder, leaving you original files untouched in their original location. Once they are here you can double click them in the SSMS Solution Explorer to open them, for files with a specific file type then the appropriate application will be launched – ie Word, Excel etc. However, if the files are something that the SSMS Text editor can display then they will open in a tab in SSMS. Try it out with a text file or even a PS1 file … This sounds excellent but what do I need to watch out for? One big thing to consider when working like this is the version of SSMS that you are using. There is something fundamentally different between the different versions in the way that the project (.ssmssqlproj) and solution (.sqlsuo and .ssmssln) files are formatted. If you create a solution in an older version of SSMS and then open it in a newer version you will be given the option to upgrade it. Once you do this upgrade then the older version of SSMS will not be able to open the solution any more. Now this ranks as more of an annoyance than disaster as the files within the projects are not affected in any way, you would just have to delete the files mentioned and recreate the solution in the older version again. Summary So, here we have seen how using SSMS Projects and Solutions can help keep related code files (and other document types) together in a neat structure so that they can be quickly navigated during a presentation and it also makes it incredibly simple to distribute your code and share it with others. I hope this is of use to you and helps you bring more order into your sql files, whether you are a person that does technical presentations or not, having your code grouped and managed can make for a lot of advantages as your code library expands.  

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• Network Access: I can't access 192.168.1.101 from 192.168.1.102.

  - by takpar

  Hi, I'm running Ubuntu 10.04 on my PC with IP 192.168.1.101. every thing work fine, e.g. my web server is running and I can see http://localhost/ or http://192.168.1.101 properly. But the problem is that I cannot see my PC from my laptop at 192.168.1.102 e.g. at my laptop http://192.168.1.101 gives Connection timed out in browser. or trying to telnet on any port leads to: telnet: Unable to connect to remote host: Connection timed out laptop is running a fresh install of Ubuntu as well and there is no setup for firewall stuff in both computers. PS: Both computers can ping each other well. The router is a cicso linksys wireless ADSL modem. Currently, I can connect to FTP server on the Windows running on 192.168.1.102 from 192.168.1.101 without problem. Theses are commands ran on my PC, 192.168.1.101: ifconfig: adp@adp-desktop:~$ ifconfig eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:26:18:e1:8e:cf inet addr:192.168.1.101 Bcast:192.168.1.255 Mask:255.255.255.0 inet6 addr: fe70::226:18ff:fee1:8ecf/64 Scope:Link UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1 RX packets:1831935 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0 TX packets:1493786 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 RX bytes:1996855925 (1.9 GB) TX bytes:215288238 (215.2 MB) Interrupt:27 Base address:0xa000 lo Link encap:Local Loopback inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0 inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1 RX packets:951742 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0 TX packets:951742 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 RX bytes:494351095 (494.3 MB) TX bytes:494351095 (494.3 MB) vmnet1 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:50:46:c0:00:01 inet addr:192.168.91.1 Bcast:192.168.91.255 Mask:255.255.255.0 inet6 addr: fe70::250:56ff:fec0:1/64 Scope:Link UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1 RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0 TX packets:50 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 RX bytes:0 (0.0 B) TX bytes:0 (0.0 B) vmnet8 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:50:46:c0:00:08 inet addr:192.168.156.1 Bcast:192.168.156.255 Mask:255.255.255.0 inet6 addr: fe70::250:56ff:fec0:8/64 Scope:Link UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1 RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0 TX packets:51 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 RX bytes:0 (0.0 B) TX bytes:0 (0.0 B) port 80 is set to 0.0.0.0 well: adp@adp-desktop:~$ netstat -ln | grep 'LISTEN ' tcp 0 0 127.0.0.1:52815 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:4559 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:80 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:4369 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN tcp 0 0 127.0.0.1:7634 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:21 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:5269 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN tcp 0 0 127.0.0.1:631 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:25 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:5280 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN tcp 0 0 127.0.1.1:7777 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:33601 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:5222 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN tcp 0 0 127.0.0.1:3306 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN tcp6 0 0 :::139 :::* LISTEN tcp6 0 0 ::1:631 :::* LISTEN tcp6 0 0 :::445 :::* LISTEN /etc/hosts.deny is empty: adp@adp-desktop:~$ cat /etc/hosts.deny # /etc/hosts.deny: list of hosts that are _not_ allowed to access the system. # See the manual pages hosts_access(5) and hosts_options(5). # # Example: ALL: some.host.name, .some.domain # ALL EXCEPT in.fingerd: other.host.name, .other.domain # # If you're going to protect the portmapper use the name "portmap" for the # daemon name. Remember that you can only use the keyword "ALL" and IP # addresses (NOT host or domain names) for the portmapper, as well as for # rpc.mountd (the NFS mount daemon). See portmap(8) and rpc.mountd(8) # for further information. # # The PARANOID wildcard matches any host whose name does not match its # address. # # You may wish to enable this to ensure any programs that don't # validate looked up hostnames still leave understandable logs. In past # versions of Debian this has been the default. # ALL: PARANOID netstat -l: adp@adp-desktop:~$ netstat -l Active Internet connections (only servers) Proto Recv-Q Send-Q Local Address Foreign Address State tcp 0 0 localhost:52815 *:* LISTEN tcp 0 0 *:hylafax *:* LISTEN tcp 0 0 *:www *:* LISTEN tcp 0 0 *:4369 *:* LISTEN tcp 0 0 localhost:7634 *:* LISTEN tcp 0 0 *:ftp *:* LISTEN tcp 0 0 *:xmpp-server *:* LISTEN tcp 0 0 localhost:ipp *:* LISTEN tcp 0 0 *:smtp *:* LISTEN tcp 0 0 *:5280 *:* LISTEN tcp 0 0 adp-desktop:7777 *:* LISTEN tcp 0 0 *:33601 *:* LISTEN tcp 0 0 *:xmpp-client *:* LISTEN tcp 0 0 localhost:mysql *:* LISTEN tcp6 0 0 [::]:netbios-ssn [::]:* LISTEN tcp6 0 0 localhost:ipp [::]:* LISTEN tcp6 0 0 [::]:microsoft-ds [::]:* LISTEN udp 0 0 *:bootpc *:* udp 0 0 *:mdns *:* udp 0 0 *:47467 *:* udp 0 0 192.168.1.10:netbios-ns *:* udp 0 0 192.168.91.1:netbios-ns *:* udp 0 0 192.168.156.:netbios-ns *:* udp 0 0 *:netbios-ns *:* udp 0 0 192.168.1.1:netbios-dgm *:* udp 0 0 192.168.91.:netbios-dgm *:* udp 0 0 192.168.156:netbios-dgm *:* udp 0 0 *:netbios-dgm *:* raw 0 0 *:icmp *:* 7 netstat -rn: adp@adp-desktop:~$ netstat -rn Kernel IP routing table Destination Gateway Genmask Flags MSS Window irtt Iface 192.168.1.0 0.0.0.0 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 eth0 192.168.91.0 0.0.0.0 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 vmnet1 192.168.156.0 0.0.0.0 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 vmnet8 169.254.0.0 0.0.0.0 255.255.0.0 U 0 0 0 eth0 0.0.0.0 192.168.1.1 0.0.0.0 UG 0 0 0 eth0 commands on the laptop, 192.168.1.102: ifconfig: root@fakeuser-laptop:~# ifconfig eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:1c:33:a2:31:15 UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1 RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0 TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 RX bytes:0 (0.0 B) TX bytes:0 (0.0 B) Interrupt:21 eth1 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:2d:d9:3e:1f:6c inet addr:192.168.1.102 Bcast:192.168.1.255 Mask:255.255.255.0 inet6 addr: fe70::21d:d9ff:fe3e:1f6c/64 Scope:Link UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1 RX packets:5681 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:10313 TX packets:6717 errors:6 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 RX bytes:4055251 (4.0 MB) TX bytes:779308 (779.3 KB) Interrupt:18 lo Link encap:Local Loopback inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0 inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1 RX packets:206 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0 TX packets:206 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 RX bytes:15172 (15.1 KB) TX bytes:15172 (15.1 KB) netstat -rn: root@fakeuser-laptop:~# netstat -rn Kernel IP routing table Destination Gateway Genmask Flags MSS Window irtt Iface 192.168.1.0 0.0.0.0 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 eth1 169.254.0.0 0.0.0.0 255.255.0.0 U 0 0 0 eth1 0.0.0.0 192.168.1.1 0.0.0.0 UG 0 0 0 eth1

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• CodePlex Daily Summary for Friday, August 01, 2014

  CodePlex Daily Summary for Friday, August 01, 2014Popular ReleasesQuickMon: Version 3.20: Added a 'Directory Services Query' collector agent. This collector allows for querying Active Directory using simple DirectorySearcher queries.Grunndatakvalitet: Initial working: Show Altinn metadata in Excel. To get a live list you need to run the sql script on a server and update the connection string in ExcelMultiple Threads TCP Server: Project: this Project is based on VS 2013, .net freamwork 4.0, you can open it by vs 2010 or laterEssence#: Philemon-2 (Alpha Build 18): The Philemon-2 release fixes bugs, most of which have to do with the binding of .Net assemblies. Configuration profiles have been added in order to help solve some of the .Net assembly binding issues. A configuration profile is persistently stored as a folder in the filesystem. It must be located in the folder %EssenceSharpPath%\Config. The folder name must use ".profile" as its file extension. A configuration profile folder may (optionally) contain one or more files--each with its own form...DataBind: DataBind 1.0: - Efficiency ImprovedConsole Progress Bar: ConsoleProgressBar-0.3: - Validate ProgressInPercentageSpace Engineers Server Manager: SESM V1.10: V1.10 - New auto update system ! You won't miss any SE Update now ^^ To learn more : https://sesm.codeplex.com/wikipage?title=Activating%20the%20auto%20update%20system - Moved the serve-wide configuration options to an other file than web.config. It should solve the "my parametters are errased by each SESM update" ! Warning ! If you upgrade from any previous version, you will need to copy-pase your parameters from your old web.config into the new SESM.config (this file is generated by acc...Accesorios de sitios Torrent en Español para Synology Download Station: Pack de Torrents en Español 6.0.0: Agregado los módulos de DivXTotal, el módulo de búsqueda depende del de alojamiento para bajar las series Utiliza el rss: http://www.divxtotal.com/rss.php DbEntry.Net (Leafing Framework): DbEntry.Net 4.2: DbEntry.Net is a lightweight Object Relational Mapping (ORM) database access compnent for .Net 4.0+. It has clearly and easily programing interface for ORM and sql directly, and supoorted Access, Sql Server, MySql, SQLite, Firebird, PostgreSQL and Oracle. It also provide a Ruby On Rails style MVC framework. Asp.Net DataSource and a simple IoC. DbEntry.Net.v4.2.Setup.zip include the setup package. DbEntry.Net.v4.2.Src.zip include source files and unit tests. DbEntry.Net.v4.2.Samples.zip ...Recaptcha for .NET: Recaptcha for .NET v1.5: What's NewMinor bug fixes Support for legacy .NET framework 4.0 and ASP.NET MVC 4. Support for .NET Framework 4.5.1.Azure Storage Explorer: Azure Storage Explorer 6 Preview 1: Welcome to Azure Storage Explorer 6 Preview 1 This is the first release of the latest Azure Storage Explorer, code-named Phoenix. What's New?Here are some important things to know about version 6: Open Source Now being run as a full open source project. Full source code on CodePlex. Collaboration encouraged! Updated Code Base Brand-new code base (WPF/C#/.NET 4.5) Visual Studio 2013 solution (previously VS2010) Uses the Task Parallel Library (TPL) for asynchronous background operat...Wsus Package Publisher: release v1.3.1407.29: Updated WPP to recognize the very latest console version. Some files was missing into the latest release of WPP which lead to crash when trying to make a custom update. Add a workaround to avoid clipboard modification when double-clicking on a label when creating a custom update. Add the ability to publish detectoids. (This feature is still in a BETA phase. Packages relying on these detectoids to determine which computers need to be updated, may apply to all computers).SSIS Connector for Sharepoint Online: Sharepoint_Online_ConnectorsV2.3.5: V2.3.5 Removed validation for user name where it was accepting user name with only ".com" V2.3.1 Added support for column with string array type. (For source only) V2.3 Added support for delete operation. just map ID columns and choose operation type as "Delete" Any other Operation Type will be taken as Insert\Update MultiUser type will be taken as User field and single user will be added, still figuring out how to add multi user field (whatever available on internet not helping :( ) V2.2 ...Artezio SharePoint 2013 Workflow Activities for VS & Actions for Designer: SharePoint Designer 2013 custom workflow actions 1.0: SharePoint Designer 2013 custom workflow actions that work with permissions. Add Role Assignment Add Role Assignments Delete Role Assignments Get Role Definition Id Get Role Definition Id By Role Type Id Reset Role Inheritance Artezio SharePoint Consulting & DevelopmentVG-Ripper & PG-Ripper: PG-Ripper 1.4.32: changes NEW: Added Support for 'ImgMega.com' links NEW: Added Support for 'ImgCandy.net' links NEW: Added Support for 'ImgPit.com' links NEW: Added Support for 'Img.yt' links FIXED: 'Radikal.ru' links FIXED: 'ImageTeam.org' links FIXED: 'ImgSee.com' links FIXED: 'Img.yt' linksAsp.Net MVC-4,Entity Framework and JQGrid Demo with Todo List WebApplication: Asp.Net MVC-4,Entity Framework and JQGrid Demo: Asp.Net MVC-4,Entity Framework and JQGrid Demo with simple Todo List WebApplication, Overview TodoList is a simple web application to create, store and modify Todo tasks to be maintained by the users, which comprises of following fields to the user (Task Name, Task Description, Severity, Target Date, Task Status). TodoList web application is created using MVC - 4 architecture, code-first Entity Framework (ORM) and Jqgrid for displaying the data.Waterfox: Waterfox 31.0 Portable: New features in Waterfox 31.0: Added support for Unicode 7.0 Experimental support for WebCL New features in Firefox 31.0:New Add the search field to the new tab page Support of Prefer:Safe http header for parental control mozilla::pkix as default certificate verifier Block malware from downloaded files Block malware from downloaded files audio/video .ogg and .pdf files handled by Firefox if no application specified Changed Removal of the CAPS infrastructure for specifying site-sp...SuperSocket, an extensible socket server framework: SuperSocket 1.6.3: The changes below are included in this release: fixed an exception when collect a server's status but it has been stopped fixed a bug that can cause an exception in case of sending data when the connection dropped already fixed the log4net missing issue for a QuickStart project fixed a warning in a QuickStart projectYnote Classic: Ynote Classic 2.8.5 Beta: Several Changes - Multiple Carets and Multiple Selections - Improved Startup Time - Improved Syntax Highlighting - Search Improvements - Shell Command - Improved StabilityTEBookConverter: 1.2: Fixed: Could not start convertion in some cases Fixed: Progress show during convertion was truncated Fixed: Stopping convertion didn't reset program titleNew Projects.NET to C/C++ Interop Sample: Reference projects that demonstrate how to invoke C/C++ code from .NET using C#.Aircraft Guidance Systems: Software for RC model control and navigationDNN Upgrade Wizard: Provides a simple method for upgrading a DNN siteDrop and Create indexes SSIS Task: This is a simple SSIS Control Flow Task which can be used to drop and re-create all non-primary key indexes associated with specified table.Dynamics CRM 2013 Global Advanced Find: Dynamics CRM 2013 Global Advanced Find adds a button to the global navigation allowing users to launch an advanced find window from anywhere in the system.itsanewproject: sdlfjsldjfJNMSJW: hahaOmni Kits: A library tend to help in projects for any purpose while keeping small.Phase1Week1: Learning how to post, publish, and patch my commits to CodePlex with homework using bootsrap and font awesome.PL_Last1: Pll1Tabletoparmy: Tabletoparmy ist ein Tool um Tabletop Miniaturen zu Verwalten. Aktuell gibt es nur die Möglichkeit ein X-Wing Turnier zu verwalten.TalesAndTiles: Tile based game developed with Microsoft XNA Framework 4.0??????: ?????????

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• Clean Code Developer & Certification in IT - MSCC 21.09.2013

  It was a very busy weekend this time, and quite some hectic to organise the second meetup on a Saturday for the Mauritius Software Craftsmanship Community (MSCC) but it was absolutely fun. Following, I'm writing a brief summary about the topics we spoke about and the new impulses I got. "What a meetup... I was positively impressed. At the beginning I thought that noone would actually show up but then by the time the room got filled. Lots of conversation, great dialogues and fantastic networking between fresh students, experienced students, experienced employees, and self-employed attendees. That's what community is all about!" Above quote was my first reaction shortly after the gathering. And despite being busy during the weekend and yesterday, I took my time to reflect a little bit on things happened and statements made before writing it here on my blog. Additionally, I was also very curious about possible reactions and blogs from other attendees. Reactions from other craftsmen Let me quickly give you some links and quotes from others first... "Like Jochen posted on facebook, that was indeed a 5+ hours marathon (maybe 4 hours for me but still) … Wohoo! We’re indeed a bunch of crazy geeks who did not realise how time flew as we dived into the myriad discussions that sprouted. Yet in the end everyone was happy (:" -- Ish on MSCC meetup - The marathon (: "And the 4hours spent @ Talking drums bore its fruit..I was doing something I never did before....reading the borrowed book while walking....and though I was not that familiar with things mentionned in the book...I was skimming,scanning & flipping...reading titles...short paragraphs...and I skipped pages till I reached home." -- Yannick on Mauritius Software Craftsmanship 1st Meet-up "Hi Developers, Just wanted to share with you the meetups i attended last Saturday - [...] - The second meetup is the one hosted by Jochen Kirstätter, the MSCC, where the attendees were Craftsman, no woman, this time - all sharing the same passion of being a developer - even though it is on different platforms(Windows - Windows Phone - Linux - Adobe(yes a designer) - .Net) - but we manage to sit at the same table - sharing developer views and experience in the corporate world - also talking about good practice when coding( where Jochen initiated a discussion on Clean Coding ) i could not stay till the end - but from what i have heard - the longer you stay the more fun you have till 1600. Developers in the Facebook grouping i invite you to stay tuned about the various developer communities popping up - where you can come to share and learn good practices, develop the entrepreneurial spirit, and learn and share your passion about technologies" -- Arnaud on Facebook More feedback has been posted on the event directly. So, should I really write more? Wouldn't that spoil the impressions? Starting the day with a surprise Indeed, I was very pleased to stumble over the existence of Mobile Monday Mauritius on LinkedIn, an association about any kind of mobile app development, mobile gadgets and latest smartphones on the market. Despite the Monday in their name they had scheduled their recent meeting on Saturday between 10:00 and 12:00hrs. Wow, what a coincidence! Let's grap the bull by its horns and pay them an introductory visit. As they chose the Ebene Accelerator at the Orange Tower in Ebene it was a no-brainer to leave home a bit earlier and stop by. It was quite an experience and fun to talk to the geeks over there. Really looking forward to organise something together.... Arriving at the venue As the children got a bit uneasy at the MoMo gathering and I didn't want to disturb them too much, we arrived early at Bagatelle. Well, no problems as we went for a decent breakfast at Food Lover's Market. Shortly afterwards we went to our venue location, Talking Drums, and prepared the room for the meeting. We only had to take off a repro-painting of the wall in order to have a decent area for the projector. All went very smooth and my two little ones were of great help. Just in time, our first craftsman Avinash arrived on the spot. And then the waiting started... Luckily, not too long. Bit by bit more and more IT people came to join our meeting. Meanwhile, I used the time to give a brief introduction about the MSCC in general, what we are (hm, maybe I am) trying to achieve and that the recent phase is completely focused on creating more awareness that a community like the MSCC is active here in Mauritius. As soon as we reached some 'critical mass' of about ten people I asked everyone for a short introduction and bio, just in case... Conversation between participants started to kick in and we were actually more networking than having a focus on our topics of the day. Quick updates on latest news and development around the MSCC Finally, Clean Code Developer No matter how the position is actually called, whether it is Software Engineer, Software Developer, Programmer, Architect, or Craftsman, anyone working in IT is facing almost the same obstacles. As for the process of writing software applications there are re-occurring patterns and principles combined with some common exercise and best practices on how to resolve them. Initiated by the must-read book 'Clean Code' by Robert C. Martin (aka Uncle Bob) the concept of the Clean Code Developer (CCD) was born already some years ago. CCD is much likely to traditional martial arts where you create awareness of certain principles and learn how to apply practices to improve your style. The CCD initiative recommends to indicate your level of knowledge and experience with coloured wrist bands - equivalent to the belt colours - for various reasons. Frankly speaking, I think that the biggest advantage here is provided by the obvious recognition of conceptual understanding. For example, take the situation of a team meeting... A member with a higher grade in CCD, say Green grade, sees that there are mainly Red grades to talk to, and adjusts her way of communication to their level of understanding. The choice of words might change as certain elements of CCD are not yet familiar to all team members. So instead of talking in an abstract way which only Green grades could follow the whole scenario comes down to Red grade level. Different story, better results... Similar to learning martial arts, we only covered two grades during this occasion - black and red. Most interestingly, there was quite some positive feedback and lots of questions about the principles and practices of the red grade. And we gathered real-world examples from various craftsman and discussed them. Following the Clean Code Developer Red Grade and some annotations from our meetup: CCD Red Grade - Principles Don't Repeat Yourself - DRY Keep It Simple, Stupid (and Short) - KISS Beware of Optimisations! Favour Composition over Inheritance - FCoI Interestingly most of the attendees already heard about those key words but couldn't really classify or categorize them. It's very similar to a situation in which you do not the particular for a thing and have to describe it to others... until someone tells you the actual name and suddenly all is very simple. CCD Red Grade - Practices Follow the Boy Scouts Rule Root Cause Analysis - RCA Use a Version Control System Apply Simple Refactoring Pattern Reflect Daily Introduction to the principles and practices of Clean Code Developer - here: Red Grade As for the various ToDo's we commonly agreed that the Boy Scout Rule clearly is not limited to software development or IT administration but applies to daily life in general. Same for the root cause analysis, btw. We really had good stories with surprisingly endings and conclusions. A quick check about who is using a version control system brought more drive into the conversation. Not only that we had people that aren't using any VCS at all, we also had the 'classic' approach of backup folders and naming conventions as well as the VCS 'junkie' that has to use multiple systems at a time. Just for the records: Git and GitHub seem to be in favour of some of the attendees. Regarding the daily reflection at the end of the day we came up with an easy solution: Wrap it up as a blog entry! Certifications in IT This is kind of a controversy in IT in general. Is it interesting to go for certifications or are they completely obsolete? What are the possibilities to get certified? What are the options we have in Mauritius? How would certificates stand compared to other educational tracks like Computer Science or Web Design. The ratio between craftsmen with certifications like MCP, MSTS, CCNA or LPI versus the ones without wasn't in favour for the first group but there was a high interest in the topic itself and some were really surprised to hear that exam preparations are completely free available online including temporarily voucher codes for either discounts or completely free exams. Furthermore, we discussed possible options on forming so-called study groups on a specific certificates and organising more frequent meetups in order to learn together. Taking into consideration that we have sponsored access to the video course material of Pluralsight (and now PeepCode as well as TrainSignal), we might give it a try by the end of the year. Current favourites are LPIC Level 1 and one of the Microsoft exams 40-78x. Feedback and ideas for the MSCC The closing conversations and discussions about how the MSCC is recently doing, what are the possibilities and what's (hopefully) going to happen in the future were really fertile and I made a couple of mental bullet points which I'm looking forward to tackle down together with orher craftsmen. Eventually, it might be a good option to elaborate on some issues during our weekly Code & Coffee sessions one Wednesday morning. Active discussion on various IT topics like certifications (LPI, MCP, CCNA, etc) and sharing experience Finally, we made it till the end of the planned time. Well, actually the talk was still on and we continued even after 16:00hrs. Unfortunately, we (the children and I) had to leave for evening activities. My resume of the day... It was great to have 15 craftsmen in one room. There are hundreds of IT geeks out there in Mauritius, and as Mauritius Software Craftsmanship Community we still have a lot of work to do to pass on the message to some more key players and companies. Currently, it seems that we are able to attract a good number of students in Computer Science... but we have a lot more to offer, even or especially for IT people on the job. I'm already looking forward to our next Saturday meetup in the near future. PS: Meetup pictures are courtesy of Nirvan Pagooah. Thanks for sharing...

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• Weird CSS-behaviour [migrated]

  - by WMRKameleon

  <!DOCTYPE html> <html> <head> <title>PakHet</title> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="css/basis.css" /> </head> <body> <div class="wrapper"> <div id='cssmenu'> <ul> <li class="active"><a href='index.html'><span>Start</span></a></li> <li><a href='pakhet.html'><span>Over PakHet</span></a></li> <li><a href='overons.html'><span>Over Ons</span></a></li> <li class='has-sub '><a href='#'><span>Uw pakket</span></a> <ul> <li><a href='aanmelden.php'><span>Aanmelden</span></a></li> <li><a href='traceren.php'><span>Traceren</span></a></li> </ul> </li> </ul> </div> <div class="header"> <h1>Hier komt de titel van de website</h1> </div> <div class="content"> <p>Dit is de tekst van de content. Dit is de indexpagina.</p> </div> </div> </body> </html> And this is the CSS: /* CSS RESET */ html, body, div, span, applet, object, iframe, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, p, blockquote, pre, a, abbr, acronym, address, big, cite, code, del, dfn, em, img, ins, kbd, q, s, samp, small, strike, strong, sub, sup, tt, var, b, u, i, center, dl, dt, dd, ol, ul, li, fieldset, form, label, legend, table, caption, tbody, tfoot, thead, tr, th, td, article, aside, canvas, details, embed, figure, figcaption, footer, header, hgroup, menu, nav, output, ruby, section, summary, time, mark, audio, video, *{ margin: 0; padding: 0; border: 0; vertical-align: baseline; } table { border-collapse: collapse; border-spacing: 0; } /* Einde CSS RESET, nu echte code */ html, body{ background:url(../images/bg_picture.jpg) fixed no-repeat; } .wrapper{ margin:0 auto; } .header{ margin:0 auto; background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.4); } .content{ background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.4); width:600px; margin:0 auto; margin-top:50px; } .content p{ color:white; text-shadow:1px 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0, 0.5); font-family:"Lucida Grande", sans-serif; } #cssmenu{ height:37px; display:block; padding:0; margin: 0; border:1px solid; } #cssmenu > ul {list-style:inside none; padding:0; margin:0;} #cssmenu > ul > li {list-style:inside none; padding:0; margin:0; float:left; display:block; position:relative;} #cssmenu > ul > li > a{ outline:none; display:block; position:relative; padding:12px 20px; font:bold 13px/100% "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:center; text-decoration:none; text-shadow:1px 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0, 0.4); } #cssmenu > ul > li:first-child > a{border-radius:5px 0 0 5px;} #cssmenu > ul > li > a:after{ content:''; position:absolute; border-right:1px solid; top:-1px; bottom:-1px; right:-2px; z-index:99; } #cssmenu ul li.has-sub:hover > a:after{top:0; bottom:0;} #cssmenu > ul > li.has-sub > a:before{ content:''; position:absolute; top:18px; right:6px; border:5px solid transparent; border-top:5px solid #fff; } #cssmenu > ul > li.has-sub:hover > a:before{top:19px;} #cssmenu ul li.has-sub:hover > a{ background:#3f3f3f; border-color:#3f3f3f; padding-bottom:13px; padding-top:13px; top:-1px; z-index:999; } #cssmenu ul li.has-sub:hover > ul, #cssmenu ul li.has-sub:hover > div{display:block;} #cssmenu ul li.has-sub > a:hover{background:#3f3f3f; border-color:#3f3f3f;} #cssmenu ul li > ul, #cssmenu ul li > div{ display:none; width:auto; position:absolute; top:38px; padding:10px 0; background:#3f3f3f; border-radius:0 0 5px 5px; z-index:999; } #cssmenu ul li > ul{width:200px;} #cssmenu ul li > ul li{display:block; list-style:inside none; padding:0; margin:0; position:relative;} #cssmenu ul li > ul li a{ outline:none; display:block; position:relative; margin:0; padding:8px 20px; font:10pt "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, sans-serif; color:#fff; text-decoration:none; text-shadow:1px 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0, 0.5); } #cssmenu, #cssmenu > ul > li > ul > li a:hover{ background:#333333; background:-moz-linear-gradient(top, #333333 0%, #222222 100%); background:-webkit-gradient(linear, left top, left bottom, color-stop(0%,#333333), color-stop(100%,#222222)); background:-webkit-linear-gradient(top, #333333 0%,#222222 100%); background:-o-linear-gradient(top, #333333 0%,#222222 100%); background:-ms-linear-gradient(top, #333333 0%,#222222 100%); background:linear-gradient(top, #333333 0%,#222222 100%); filter:progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.gradient( startColorstr='#333333', endColorstr='#222222',GradientType=0 ); } #cssmenu{border-color:#000;} #cssmenu > ul > li > a{border-right:1px solid #000; color:#fff;} #cssmenu > ul > li > a:after{border-color:#444;} #cssmenu > ul > li > a:hover{background:#111;} #cssmenu > ul > li.active > a{ color:orange; } .header{ clear:both; } The problem is that, whenever I hover on the dropdown-menu, that a 1px margin appears in between the menu and the header. Can I solve that? I can't seem to find the solution.

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• Massive Silverlight Giveaway! DevExpress , Syncfusion, Crypto Obfuscator and SL Spy!

  - by mbcrump

  Oh my, have we grown! Maybe I should change the name to Multiple Silverlight Giveaways. So far, my Silverlight giveaways have been such a success that I’m going to be able to give away more than one Silverlight product every month. Last month, we gave away 3 great products. 1) ComponentOne Silverlight Controls 2)  ComponentOne XAP Optimizer (with obfuscation) and 3) Silverlight Spy. This month, we will give away 4 great Silverlight products and have 4 different winners. This way the Silverlight community can grow with more than just one person winning all the prizes. This month we will be giving away: DevExpress Silverlight Controls – Over 50+ Silverlight Controls Syncfusion User Interface Edition - Create stunning line of business silverlight applications with a wide range of components including a high performance grid, docking manager, chart, gauge, scheduler and much more. Crypto Obfuscator – Works for all .NET including Silverlight/Windows Phone 7. Silverlight Spy – provides a license EVERY month for this giveaway. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Win a FREE developer’s license of one of the products listed above! 4 winners will be announced on April 1st, 2011! To be entered into the contest do the following things: Subscribe to my feed. – Use Google Reader, email or whatever is best for you.  Leave a comment below with a valid email account (I WILL NOT share this info with anyone.) Retweet the following : I just entered to win free #Silverlight controls from @mbcrump . Register here: http://mcrump.me/fTSmB8 ! Don’t change the URL because this will allow me to track the users that Tweet this page. Don’t forget to visit each of the vendors sites because they made this possible. MichaelCrump.Net provides Silverlight Giveaways every month. You can also see the latest giveaway by bookmarking http://giveaways.michaelcrump.net . ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- DevExpress Silverlight Controls Let’s take a quick look at some of the software that is provided in this giveaway. Before we get started with the Silverlight Controls, here is a couple of links to bookmark for the DevExpress Silverlight Controls: The Live Demos of the Silverlight Controls is located here. Great Video Tutorials of the Silverlight Controls are here. One thing that I liked about the DevExpress is how easy it was to find demos of each control. After you install the controls the following Program Group appears complete with “demos” that include full-source.   So, the first question that you may ask is, “What is included?” Here is the official list below. I wanted to show several of the controls that I think developers will use the most. The Book – Very rich animation between switching pages. Very easy to add your own images and custom text. The Menu – This is another control that just looked great. You can easily add images to the menu items with a few lines of XAML. The Window / Dialog Box – You can use this control to make a very beautiful “Wizard” to help your users navigate between pages. This is useful in setup or installation. Calculator – This would be useful for any type of Banking app. Also a first that I’ve seen from a 3rd party Control company. DatePicker – This controls feels a lot smoother than the one provided by Microsoft. It also provides the ability to “Clear” the selection. Overall the DevExpress Silverlight Controls feature a lot of quality controls that you should check out. You can go ahead and download a trial version of it right now by clicking here. If you win the contest you can simply enter your registration key and continue using the product without reinstalling. Syncfusion User Interface Edition Before we get started with the Syncfusion User Interface Edition, here is a couple of links to bookmark. The Live Demos can be found here. You can download a demo of it now at http://www.syncfusion.com/downloads/evalstart. After you install the Syncfusion, you can view the dashboard to run locally installed samples. You may also download the documentation to your local machine if needed. Since the name of the package is “User Interface Edition”, I decided to share several samples that struck me as “awesome”. Dashboard Gauges – I was very impressed with the various gauges they have included. The digital clock also looks very impressive. Diagram – The diagrams are also very easy to build. In the sample project below you can drag/drop the shapes onto the content pane. More complex lines like the Bezier lines are also easy to create using Syncfusion. Scheduling – Another strong component was the Scheduling with built-in support for Themes. Tools – If all of that wasn’t enough, it also comes with a nice pack of essential tools. Syncfusion has a nice variety of Silverlight Controls that you should check out. You can go ahead and download a trial version of it right now by clicking here. Crypto Obfuscator The following feature set is what is important to me in an Obfuscator since I am a Silverlight/WP7 Developer: And thankfully this is what you get in Crypto Obfuscator. You can download a trial version right now if you want to go ahead and play with it. Let’s spend a few moments taking a look at the application. After you have installed Crypto Obfuscator you will see the following screen: After you click on Assemblies you have the option to add your .XAP file in: I went ahead and loaded my .xap file from a Silverlight Application. At this point, you can simply save your project and hit “Obfuscate” and your done. You don’t have to mess with any of the other settings if you don’t want too. Of course, you can change the settings and add obfuscation rules, watermarks and signing if you wish.  After Obfuscation, it looks like this in .NET Reflector: I was trying to browse through methods and it actually crashed Reflector. This confirms the level of protection the obfuscator is providing. If this were a commercial application that my team built, I would have a huge smile on my face right now. Crypto Obfuscator is a great product and I hope you will spend the time learning more about it. Silverlight Spy Silverlight Spy is a runtime inspector tool that will tell you pretty much everything that is going on with the application. Basically, you give it a URL that contains a Silverlight application and you can explore the element tree, events, xaml and so much more. This has already been reviewed on MichaelCrump.net. _________________________________________________________________________________________ Thanks for reading and don’t forget to leave a comment below in order to win one of the four prizes available! Subscribe to my feed

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• Advanced Continuous Delivery to Azure from TFS, Part 1: Good Enough Is Not Great

  - by jasont

  The folks over on the TFS / Visual Studio team have been working hard at releasing a steady stream of new features for their new hosted Team Foundation Service in the cloud. One of the most significant features released was simple continuous delivery of your solution into your Azure deployments. The original announcement from Brian Harry can be found here. Team Foundation Service is a great platform for .Net developers who are used to working with TFS on-premises. I’ve been using it since it became available at the //BUILD conference in 2011, and when I recently came to work at Stackify, it was one of the first changes I made. Managing work items is much easier than the tool we were using previously, although there are some limitations (more on that in another blog post). However, when continuous deployment was made available, it blew my mind. It was the killer feature I didn’t know I needed. Not to say that I wasn’t previously an advocate for continuous delivery; just that it was always a pain to set up and configure. Having it hosted - and a one-click setup – well, that’s just the best thing since sliced bread. It made perfect sense: my source code is in the cloud, and my deployment is in the cloud. Great! I can queue up a build from my iPad or phone and just let it go! I quickly tore through the quick setup and saw it all work… sort of. This will be the first in a three part series on how to take the building block of Team Foundation Service continuous delivery and build a CD model that will actually work for any team deploying something more advanced than a “Hello World” example. Part 1: Good Enough Is Not Great Part 2: A Model That Works: Branching and Multiple Deployment Environments Part 3: Other Considerations: SQL, Custom Tasks, Etc Good Enough Is Not Great There. I’ve said it. I certainly hope no one on the TFS team is offended, but it’s the truth. Let’s take a look under the hood and understand how it works, and then why it’s not enough to handle real world CD as-is. How it works. (note that I’ve skipped a couple of steps; I already have my accounts set up and something deployed to Azure) The first step is to establish some oAuth magic between your Azure management portal and your TFS Instance. You do this via the management portal. Once it’s done, you have a new build process template in your TFS instance. (Image lifted from the documentation) From here, you’ll get the usual prompts for security, allowing access, etc. But you’ll also get to pick which Solution in your source control to build. Here’s what the bulk of the build definition looks like. All I’ve had to do is add in the solution to build (notice that mine is from a specific branch – Release – more on that later) and I’ve changed the configuration. I trigger the build, and voila! I have an Azure deployment a few minutes later. The beauty of this is that it’s all in the cloud and I’m not waiting for my machine to compile and upload the package. (I also had to enable the build definition first – by default it is created in disabled state, probably a good thing since it will trigger on every.single.checkin by default.) I get to see a history of deployments from the Azure portal, and can link into TFS to see the associated changesets and work items. You’ll notice also that this build definition also automatically put my code in the Staging slot of my Azure deployment – more on this soon. For now, I can VIP swap and be in production. (P.S. I hate VIP swap and “production” and “staging” in Azure. More on that later too.) That’s it. That’s the default out-of-box experience. Easy, right? But it’s full of room for improvement, so let’s get into that….   The Problems Nothing is perfect (except my code – it’s always perfect), and neither is Continuous Deployment without a bit of work to help it fit your dev team’s process. So what are the issues? Issue 1: Staging vs QA vs Prod vs whatever other environments your team may have. This, for me, is the big hairy one. Remember how this automatically deployed to staging rather than prod for us? There are a couple of issues with this model: If I want to deliver to prod, it requires intervention on my part after deployment (via a VIP swap). If I truly want to promote between environments (i.e. Nightly Build –> Stable QA –> Production) I likely have configuration changes between each environment such as database connection strings and this process (and the VIP swap) doesn’t account for this. Yet. Issue 2: Branching and delivering on every check-in. As I mentioned above, I have set this up to target a specific branch – Release – of my code. For the purposes of this example, I have adopted the “basic” branching strategy as defined by the ALM Rangers. This basically establishes a “Main” trunk where you branch off Dev and Release branches. Granted, the Release branch is usually the only thing you will deploy to production, but you certainly don’t want to roll to production automatically when you merge to the Release branch and check-in (unless you like the thrill of it, and in that case, I like your style, cowboy….). Rather, you have nightly build and QA environments, or if you’ve adopted the feature-branch model you have environments for those. Those are the environments you want to continuously deploy to. But that takes us back to Issue 1: we currently have a 1:1 solution to Azure deployment target. Issue 3: SQL and other custom tasks. Let’s be honest and address the elephant in the room: I need to get some sleep because I see an elephant in the room. But seriously, I can’t think of an application I have touched in the last 10 years that doesn’t need to consider SQL changes when deploying code and upgrading an environment. Microsoft seems perfectly content to ignore this elephant for now: yes, they’ve added Data Tier Applications. But let’s be honest with ourselves again: no one really uses it, and it’s not suitable for anything more complex than a Hello World sample project database. Why? Because it doesn’t fit well into a great source control story. Developers make stored procedure and table changes all day long while coding complex applications, and if someone forgets to go update the DACPAC before the automated deployment, you have a broken build until it’s completed. Developers – not just DBAs – also like to work with SQL in SQL tools, not in Visual Studio. I’m really picking on SQL because that’s generally the biggest concern that I hear. But we need to account for any custom tasks as well in the build process.   The Solutions… ? We’ve taken a look at how this all works, and addressed the shortcomings. In my next post (which I promise will be very, very soon), I will detail how I’ve overcome these shortcomings and used this foundation to create a mature, flexible model for deploying my app – any version, any time, to any environment.

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• Print driver installs failing

  - by Kasius

  All of the Windows 7 64-bit Enterprise machines in my organization are failing to install a good number of printer drivers that previously installed without issue. This only happens with printer drivers. And not with all printer drivers. Just some. Network drivers, video drivers, etc. have had no problems. Here is part of setupapi.dev.log for a Dymo LabelWriter printer driver that is failing to install: dvi: {Plug and Play Service: Device Install for USBPRINT\DYMOLABELWRITER_450_TURBO\6&538F51D&0&USB001} ump: Creating Install Process: DrvInst.exe 09:36:58.071 ndv: Infpath=C:\Windows\INF\oem0.inf ndv: DriverNodeName=dymo.inf:DYMO.NTamd64.6.0:LW_450_TURBO_VISTA:8.1.0.363:usbprint\dymolabelwriter_450_aa08 ndv: DriverStorepath=C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\dymo.inf_amd64_neutral_3a631b118b7a5828\dymo.inf ndv: Building driver list from driver node strong name... dvi: Searching for hardware ID(s): dvi: usbprint\dymolabelwriter_450_aa08 dvi: dymolabelwriter_450_aa08 inf: Opened PNF: 'C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\dymo.inf_amd64_neutral_3a631b118b7a5828\dymo.inf' ([strings]) dvi: Selected driver installs from section [LW_450_TURBO_VISTA] in 'c:\windows\system32\driverstore\filerepository\dymo.inf_amd64_neutral_3a631b118b7a5828\dymo.inf'. dvi: Class GUID of device changed to: {4d36e979-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}. dvi: Set selected driver complete. ndv: {Core Device Install} 09:36:58.133 inf: Opened INF: 'C:\Windows\INF\oem0.inf' ([strings]) inf: Saved PNF: 'C:\Windows\INF\oem0.PNF' (Language = 0409) dvi: {DIF_ALLOW_INSTALL} 09:36:58.164 dvi: Using exported function 'ClassInstall32' in module 'C:\Windows\system32\ntprint.dll'. dvi: Class installer == ntprint.dll,ClassInstall32 dvi: No CoInstallers found dvi: Class installer: Enter 09:36:58.164 dvi: Class installer: Exit dvi: Default installer: Enter 09:36:58.180 dvi: Default installer: Exit dvi: {DIF_ALLOW_INSTALL - exit(0xe000020e)} 09:36:58.180 ndv: Installing files... dvi: {DIF_INSTALLDEVICEFILES} 09:36:58.180 dvi: Class installer: Enter 09:36:58.180 inf: Opened INF: 'C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\dymo.inf_amd64_neutral_3a631b118b7a5828\dymo.inf' ([strings]) inf: Opened INF: 'C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\dymo.inf_amd64_neutral_3a631b118b7a5828\dymo.inf' ([strings]) !!! dvi: Class installer: failed(0x00000490)! !!! dvi: Error 1168: Element not found. dvi: {DIF_INSTALLDEVICEFILES - exit(0x00000490)} 09:37:22.063 ndv: Device install status=0x00000490 ndv: Performing device install final cleanup... ! ndv: Queueing up error report since device installation failed... ndv: {Core Device Install - exit(0x00000490)} 09:37:22.063 dvi: {DIF_DESTROYPRIVATEDATA} 09:37:22.063 dvi: Class installer: Enter 09:37:22.063 dvi: Class installer: Exit dvi: Default installer: Enter 09:37:22.063 dvi: Default installer: Exit dvi: {DIF_DESTROYPRIVATEDATA - exit(0xe000020e)} 09:37:22.063 ump: Server install process exited with code 0x00000490 09:37:22.063 ump: {Plug and Play Service: Device Install exit(00000490)} Notice these lines in particular: !!! dvi: Class installer: failed(0x00000490)! !!! dvi: Error 1168: Element not found. dvi: {DIF_INSTALLDEVICEFILES - exit(0x00000490)} 09:37:22.063 ndv: Device install status=0x00000490 From what I have read, the "Element not found" error should be accompanied by an event describing what element was not found. The error that appears in Device Manager is "The driver cannot be installed because it is either not digitally signed or not signed in the appropriate manner." It appears to be signed fine though. It has an accompanying .CAT file and worked previously. And when installing, the following messages are logged in setupapi.dev.log: sto: {DRIVERSTORE_IMPORT_NOTIFY_VALIDATE} 09:36:56.277 inf: Opened INF: 'C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\Temp\{272e2305-961c-7942-9ede-966f01047043}\dymo.inf' ([strings]) sig: {_VERIFY_FILE_SIGNATURE} 09:36:56.292 sig: Key = dymo.inf sig: FilePath = C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\Temp\{272e2305-961c-7942-9ede-966f01047043}\dymo.inf sig: Catalog = C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\Temp\{272e2305-961c-7942-9ede-966f01047043}\DYMO.CAT sig: Success: File is signed in catalog. sig: {_VERIFY_FILE_SIGNATURE exit(0x00000000)} 09:36:56.355 sto: Validating driver package files against catalog 'DYMO.CAT'. sto: Driver package is valid. sto: {DRIVERSTORE_IMPORT_NOTIFY_VALIDATE exit(0x00000000)} 09:36:56.402 sto: Verified driver package signature: sto: Digital Signer Score = 0x0D000005 sto: Digital Signer Name = Microsoft Windows Hardware Compatibility Publisher Now here's where it gets strange. If I take it off the domain, it installs fine. But it doesn't seem to have anything to do with Group Policy. I moved the machine to an OU that blocks inheritance, ran a gpupdate, ran rsop.msc to verify, and tried again. And it still didn't work. Likewise, I removed a machine from the domain, manually set all of the domain Group Policy settings in gpedit.msc, and tried that way, and it worked fine. So it seems like the Group Policy settings are irrelevant. What other domain-related issue could be causing this though? Any ideas on what to try next would be greatly appreciated. I'm not sure where to go from here. Thanks!

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