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• How to fix Ubuntu 12.04.3 boot to black screen full of errors in white text, after upgrading on dell inspiron 1501

  - by Ibuntu

  I am running a Dell Inspiron 1501 I use Linux only. No Microsoft or Apple operating systems (or really anything closed-source). I've only been using Linux for a little over a year but I'm starting to gain a comfortable level of familiarity with the system and terminology. I've been having some issues with Quantel Quetzal and Raring Ringtail, especially with older hardware, so I opted to install Ubuntu 12.04.3 Precise Pangolin on the Inspiron 1501. I checked my MD5 sum after downloading my ISO and all was good. I have in fact used this iso/dvd to install Precise Pangolin successfully on a few other systems (some of which are even older than this laptop). Install goes fine. The wireless card doesn't work out of the box but this is a known issue which is fairly easy to fix. So, first thing I did was open up a terminal and run sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade which, part way through, crashed (I assume lightdm and possibly X) and took me to a black screen filled with white lines of text that were either errors or just the ouputs of commands. The reason I say that is because I was unable to gleam any useful information from the output on the screen. I did take a picture however and will post a link. After that, every time I boot the system it goes right to that black screen posting all the error messages or output in white text. I never get a purple Ubuntu splash, so from what I can tell after reading this wiki article: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/Troubleshooting/BlankScreen That means that after the kernel is selected, it is unable to correctly implement the settings it needs. If the purple splash never shows, the frame buffer was never set correctly right? This leads me to believe that it could be a kernel issue? The wiki suggested to try and pinpoint the issue by rolling back kernels until I find one that works. Is this my best option? I think I'm going to give it a try anyways and will let everyone know if I am able to solve the issue this way. I have since done a few reinstalls and some trouble-shooting including a couple hours scouring the net for anyone with any kind of similar issue. Most of the issues I could find involved getting a black screen after login and none of them said anything about any information output on this black screen. My reinstalls have taught me that there is no issue updating, but as soon as I run sudo apt-get upgrade my system goes to the black screen and every time I boot it up it does the same thing. The only way to fix is by reinstall. I never get any ability to log in. After a hard power off to the laptop (because I cannot use ctrl+alt+del to reboot) when it boots again it goes to the grub boot menu and I can select between regular boot, recovery mode and the two memtest options. I never tried the memtest options but the other two both lead to the same black screen. Some people having a black/blank screen issue claim to have fixed it by using 12.10 or 13.04 but I believe they were having a different issue where they got a black/blank screen after logging in. I think I will still give these images a try, but mostly figured I would just wait another day or two for 13.10. Other things I figured I would try from the following three articles: After logging in, there's a black screen and my cursor, nothing else! in Ubuntu 12.10 Black Screen on Login After Upgrading to 12.04 I can't get to the login screen include opening a terminal using ctrl+alt+f1 and trying a variety of reseting unity, x settings, lightdm (or switching to gdm); but I doubt this will work or that I will even be able to access a terminal. I'm pretty sure the whole system is stuck after it loads the last line on the black screen. I will try these things and post more information when I have. Hopefully someone has an idea in the meantime and I will keep checking back trying to find a solution. Thank you. Here are 3 different pictures of the error message. I had to take with my phone: http://ubuntuone.com/album/0TBBkxmVajJIQQtoN9mVdN

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• iPhone reachability checking

  - by Sneakyness

  I've found several examples of code to do what I want (check for reachability), but none of it seems to be exact enough to be of use to me. I can't figure out why this doesn't want to play nice. I have the reachability.h/m in my project, I'm doing #import <SystemConfiguration/SystemConfiguration.h> And I have the framework added. I also have: #import "Reachability.h" at the top of the .m in which I'm trying to use the reachability. Reachability* reachability = [Reachability sharedReachability]; [reachability setHostName:@"http://www.google.com"]; // set your host name here NetworkStatus remoteHostStatus = [reachability remoteHostStatus]; if(remoteHostStatus == NotReachable) {NSLog(@"no");} else if (remoteHostStatus == ReachableViaWiFiNetwork) {NSLog(@"wifi"); } else if (remoteHostStatus == ReachableViaCarrierDataNetwork) {NSLog(@"cell"); } This is giving me all sorts of problems. What am I doing wrong? I'm an alright coder, I just have a hard time when it comes time to figure out what needs to be put where to enable what I want to do, regardless if I want to know what I want to do or not. (So frustrating) Update: This is what's going on. This is in my viewcontroller, which I have the #import <SystemConfiguration/SystemConfiguration.h> and #import "Reachability.h" set up with. This is my least favorite part of programming by far. FWIW, we never ended up implementing this in our code. The two features that required internet access (entering the sweepstakes, and buying the dvd), were not main features. Nothing else required internet access. Instead of adding more code, we just set the background of both internet views to a notice telling the users they must be connected to the internet to use this feature. It was in theme with the rest of the application's interface, and was done well/tastefully. They said nothing about it during the approval process, however we did get a personal phone call to verify that we were giving away items that actually pertained to the movie. According to their usually vague agreement, you aren't allowed to have sweepstakes otherwise. I would also think this adheres more strictly to their "only use things if you absolutely need them" ideaology as well. Here's the iTunes link to the application, EvoScanner.

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• Audio/video streaming on Windows platform

  - by bushtucker

  I'm building an interactive language learning application to be used in a classroom environment. The idea is that a teacher should be able to talk to the students (=audio stream to all students), let students talk to each other (= audio P2P) in groups of two or more, let students watch a video coming from a the DVD player or coming from a media server. It should be possible to save the audio/video streams. The teacher should also be able to monitor, take-over or block the desktop of the students. The platform is Windows and it's a desktop application, no web application. The audio delay should be as minimal as poosible. Optionally a student sitting at home should be supported, but it's not a high priority. I am now finished with the classroom control part of the application (login, monitor, block, ...) and want to start the audio and video part. I've been evaluating several options like DirectX, GStreamer and SIP but now I have to make a decision. DirectX seems an obvious choice for the Windows platform, but it only lets me capture and playback audio and video. The encoding/decoding/network part I should do myself. GStreamer contains all kinds of options to capture/encode/stream/save audio and video streams. I've experimented a bit with it (ossbuild) and it does seem to involve a lot of trial and error to make something work: - microphone capture (via directsoundsrc) produces cracking noises on some computers - rtpL16 payloader didn't work well - streaming raw audio over the network only working at a sampling rate of 8000, no higher - there are a lot of errors when receiving mpeg4 video (bad I-frame), on some computers worse than others It is my impression that gstreamer is primary targetted at linux platforms. Development and support for the Windows platform seems to be a little behind. Nevertheless it's a powerful framework that could save me months and years of work. SIP seems to be able to do everything I want, but it is targeted towards telephony and IM. I don't know how flexible SIP is. It seems to me that the SIP layer would just be overhead as I already have a central (teacher) application that can control and setup all the streams. The interesting parts of frameworks like opalvoip and freeswitch are the actual audio/video capture, the encoding and transmission. Does anyone know how these interesting parts relate a framework like gstreamer? Are they easy to integrate into a custom application? Are they flexible enough? Does anyone have experience with all or one of these technologies? Maybe there are even other options I can look at? Many thanks for your advice

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• WDS 2008 R2 DHCP Error

  - by scampbell

  Im having a problem where I get the error 'An error occurred while obtaining an IP address from the DHCP server. Please check to ensure that there is an operational DHCP server on this network segment' when booting from a standard WDS boot.wim image taken from a Windows 7 DVD. I am using Server 2008 R2 and am adding the drivers to the boot using WDS, but also have the problem if the drivers are injected beforehand using DISM. When the error occurs I can shift + F10 and IPCONFIG and see it HAS picked up an internal IP from DHCP. Seems maybe it is timing out before it gets the IP? DHCP server is not on the WDS box but is in the same subnet. As per some fixes I have read I enabled RSTP on my switches but that didnt help. I have included the end of setupact.log to see if any of you have any ideas. Seems to be failing but as I say, the network IS initialized as I can see the internal IP assigned by DHCP when running IPCONFIG. I dont suppose theres any way of increasing the timeout? Thanks. 2011-04-11 17:26:31, Info [0x0b0022] WDS StartNetworking: Trying to start networking. 2011-04-11 17:26:31, Info WDS Network service dhcp not running or could not be queried: 264d00 1 1 2011-04-11 17:26:31, Info WDS Network service lmhosts not running or could not be queried: 264e18 1 1 2011-04-11 17:26:31, Info WDS Network service lanmanworkstation not running or could not be queried: 264d00 1 1 2011-04-11 17:26:31, Info WDS Network service bfe not running or could not be queried: 264e18 1 1 2011-04-11 17:26:31, Info WDS Network service ikeext not running or could not be queried: 264d00 1 1 2011-04-11 17:26:31, Info WDS Network service mpssvc not running or could not be queried: 264e18 1 1 2011-04-11 17:27:24, Info WDS Installing device pci\ven_14e4&dev_1691&subsys_04aa1028 X:\WINDOWS\INF\oem37.inf succeeded 2011-04-11 17:27:25, Info WDS No computer name specified, generating a random name. 2011-04-11 17:27:25, Info WDS Renaming computer to MININT-VN2P876. 2011-04-11 17:27:25, Info WDS Acquired profiling mutex 2011-04-11 17:27:25, Info WDS Service winmgmt disable: 0x00000000 2011-04-11 17:27:25, Info WDS Service winmgmt stop: 0x00000000 2011-04-11 17:27:25, Info WDS Service winmgmt enable: 0x00000000 2011-04-11 17:27:25, Info WDS Released profiling mutex 2011-04-11 17:27:25, Info WDS Acquired profiling mutex 2011-04-11 17:27:25, Info WDS Install MS_MSCLIENT: 0x0004a020 2011-04-11 17:27:25, Info WDS Install MS_NETBIOS: 0x0004a020 2011-04-11 17:27:25, Info WDS Install MS_SMB: 0x0004a020 2011-04-11 17:27:25, Info WDS Install MS_TCPIP6: 0x0004a020 2011-04-11 17:27:26, Info WDS Install MS_TCPIP: 0x0004a020 2011-04-11 17:27:26, Info WDS Service dhcp start: 0x00000000 2011-04-11 17:27:26, Info WDS Service lmhosts start: 0x00000000 2011-04-11 17:27:26, Info WDS Service ikeext start: 0x00000000 2011-04-11 17:27:26, Info WDS Service mpssvc start: 0x00000000 2011-04-11 17:27:26, Info WDS Released profiling mutex 2011-04-11 17:27:26, Info WDS Spent 967ms installing network components 2011-04-11 17:27:28, Info WDS Spent 2247ms installing network drivers 2011-04-11 17:27:38, Info WDS QueryAdapterStatus: no operational adapters found. 2011-04-11 17:27:38, Info WDS Spent 10140ms confirming network initialization; status 0x80004005 2011-04-11 17:27:38, Info WDS WaitForNetworkToInitialize failed; ignoring error 2011-04-11 17:27:38, Info WDS GetNetworkingInfo: WpeNetworkStatus returned [0x0]. Flags set: 2011-04-11 17:27:38, Error [0x0b003f] WDS StartNetworking: Failed to start networking. Error code [0x800704C6].[gle=0x000000cb] 2011-04-11 17:27:38, Info [0x0640ae] IBSLIB PublishMessage: Publishing message [WdsClient: An error occurred while obtaining an IP address from the DHCP server. Please check to ensure that there is an operational DHCP server on this network segment.]

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• Why do GPUs overheat?

  - by JAD

  About a year ago, I added a 9800GT (1 GB version) and a Corsair CX500 PSU to an HP M8000N computer. A few weeks ago, the HDD overheated and I decided to transfer the GPU & PSU to a new build, which consists of: i3 @ 3.3Ghz Gigabyte H61 Micro ATX Mobo 4GB RAM 500GB WD HDD DVD RW Drive Cooler Master Elite 430 Tower Once I had Win7 up and running, I installed all the essential drivers that came with the Gigabyte Mobo CD. However, whenever I tried installing the Graphics Media Accelerator driver, the computer would crash and enter an endless boot sequence on the next startup. I skipped installing this driver and installed the CD driver for the 9800GT, which by now is a year old. Everything was working fine, WEI rated my GPU at 6.6 graphics & aero performance. However, after updating my Nvidia drivers to the latest, the WEI dropped my rating to 3.3 for Aero, and 4.7 for graphics performance. Just to make sure that everything was ok, I ran Bad Company 2 on medium settings. The first few minutes ran just fine at a smooth framerate, so I dismissed this as Windows being Windows. About 6 hours later, I ran BC2 again. This time I averaged anywhere from 2-5 FPS. I checked the GPU temperature through GPU-Z, and it came back as 120C. The problem with this, is that the computer was on for six hours up to that point. Wouldn't the card have experienced a reactor core meltdown a lot sooner than that? Granted, the computer was "sleeping" some of the time, but still... The next day I took out a temperature gun and ran some tests. I would point the laser at a very specific area on the reverse side of the card (not the fan or "front"), and compare the temp reading with GPU-Z. After leaving the system on idle on idle for a few minutes, I ran BC2 twice. Here are the results: GPU-Z Reading / Temp Gun Reading / Time Null / 22.3°C / Comp is Off 53°C / 33.5°C / 1:49 78°C / 46°C / 1:53 - (First BC2 run; good framerate) 102°C / 64.6°C / 2:01 - (System is again on idle) 113°C / 64.8°C / 2:10 119°C / 71.8°C / 2:17 - (Second BC2 run; poor framerate) I should also mention that I also took a temp recording of another part of the GPU from 2:01-2:17. The temp in this area jumped from 75°C to 82.9°C in that time frame. This pretty much confirms that GPU-Z is reporting the temperature accurately, and the card is overheating. But I'd like to know why; the cars is doing nothing and still the temperature climbs at a steady rate. I thoroughly cleaned the GPU and PSU when I salvaged them from the old HP M8000N computer with a can of compressed air, dust cant be the issue. Similarly, the rest of the computer is brand new. I installed various Nvidia drivers, but no luck. It seems strange to me that a year-old card is suddenly failing on me; aren't they supposed to last at least two years? Could this be a driver issue? Is the motherboard faulty? Could the PSU be overfeeding the card on voltage? Neither case seems likely, as the CPU, RAM and otherwise the rest of the comp has worked flawlessly and has stayed well within respectable temp ranges (the i3 lingers around 50C, the HDD stays at 30C, so does the PSU). How can I pinpoint the issue?

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• Performing mechanical movements using computer

  - by Vi

  How to make a computer (in particular, my laptop) to perform some mechanical movements without buying anything $5, soldering things inside computer or creating big sophisticated circuits? Traditionally CD-ROM tray is used to make computer do some movement IRL by, for example, SSH command, but in laptop tray is one-shot (unless manually reloaded) and also not very comfortable [mis]usage. Some assistance circuits can be in use too, but not complex. For example, there is a little motor that can work on USB power. Devices in my computer: DVD-ROM tray: one-time push. USB power: continuous power to the motor or LEDS or relay that turns on something powerful. Audio card. 3 outputs (modprobe alsa model=test can set Mic and Line-in as additional output). One controllable DC output (microphone) that can power up LED and some electronic (may be even mechanic?) relay. Also with sophisticated additional circuiting can control a lot of devices with a good precision. Both input and output support. Probably the most useful object in computer for radio ham. Modem. Don't know about this much, it doesn't work because of hsfmodem crashes kernel if memory is = 1GB. May be it's "pick up" and "hang up" can turn on and off power taken from USB port? Video card. VGA port? S-Video port? Will them be useful? Backlight. Tunable, but probably unuseful. CardBus (or some) slot. Nothing interesting for the task probably (is it?). AC adapter and battery. Probably nothing programmable here. /* My AC adapter already have additional jacks to connect extra devics */ Keyboard. No use. Touchpad. Good sensor (synclient -m 1), but no output. Various LEDs inside laptop. Probably too weak and requires soldering. Fans inside laptop. Poor control over them, requires soldering and dangerous to tinker. HDD (internal and external) that can be spin down and up (hdparm -Y, cat /dev/ubb). But connecting anything serially with it's power line makes HDD underpowered... And too complex. Is something are missed? Any ideas how to use described components? Any other ideas? May be there are easily available /* in developing countries */ cheap devices like "enhanced multimeters" that are controllable from computer and can provide configurable output and measure current and other things? Things to aid pushing many physical buttons with computer. Isn't this a simple idea and implementation and a lot of use in good hands?

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• Set up lnux box for hosting a-z

  - by microchasm

  I am in the process of reinstalling the OS on a machine that will be used to host a couple of apps for our business. The apps will be local only; access from external clients will be via vpn only. The prior setup used a hosting control panel (Plesk) for most of the admin, and I was looking at using another similar piece of software for the reinstall - but I figured I should finally learn how it all works. I can do most of the things the software would do for me, but am unclear on the symbiosis of it all. This is all an attempt to further distance myself from the land of Configuration Programmer/Programmer, if at all possible. I can't find a full walkthrough anywhere for what I'm looking for, so I thought I'd put up this question, and if people can help me on the way I will edit this with the answers, and document my progress/pitfalls. Hopefully someday this will help someone down the line. The details: CentOS 5.5 x86_64 httpd: Apache/2.2.3 mysql: 5.0.77 (to be upgraded) php: 5.1 (to be upgraded) The requirements: SECURITY!! Secure file transfer Secure client access (SSL Certs and CA) Secure data storage Virtualhosts/multiple subdomains Local email would be nice, but not critical The Steps: Download latest CentOS DVD-iso (torrent worked great for me). Install CentOS: While going through the install, I checked the Server Components option thinking I was going to be using another Plesk-like admin. In hindsight, considering I've decided to try to go my own way, this probably wasn't the best idea. Basic config: Setup users, networking/ip address etc. Yum update/upgrade. Upgrade PHP: To upgrade PHP to the latest version, I had to look to another repo outside CentOS. IUS looks great and I'm happy I found it! cd /tmp #wget http://dl.iuscommunity.org/pub/ius/stable/Redhat/5/x86_64/epel-release-1-1.ius.el5.noarch.rpm #rpm -Uvh epel-release-1-1.ius.el5.noarch.rpm #wget http://dl.iuscommunity.org/pub/ius/stable/Redhat/5/x86_64/ius-release-1-4.ius.el5.noarch.rpm #rpm -Uvh ius-release-1-4.ius.el5.noarch.rpm yum list | grep -w \.ius\. [will list all packages available in the IUS repo] rpm -qa | grep php [will list installed packages needed to be removed. the installed packages need to be removed before you can install the IUS packages otherwise there will be conflicts] #yum shell >remove php-gd php-cli php-odbc php-mbstring php-pdo php php-xml php-common php-ldap php-mysql php-imap Setting up Remove Process >install php53 php53-mcrypt php53-mysql php53-cli php53-common php53-ldap php53-imap php53-devel >transaction solve >transaction run Leaving Shell #php -v PHP 5.3.2 (cli) (built: Apr 6 2010 18:13:45) This process removes the old version of PHP and installs the latest. To upgrade mysql: Pretty much the same process as above with PHP #/etc/init.d/mysqld stop [OK] rpm -qa | grep mysql [installed mysql packages] #yum shell >remove mysql mysql-server Setting up Remove Process >install mysql51 mysql51-server mysql51-devel >transaction solve >transaction run Leaving Shell #service mysqld start [OK] #mysql -v Server version: 5.1.42-ius Distributed by The IUS Community Project The above upgrade instructions courtesy of IUS wiki: http://wiki.iuscommunity.org/Doc/ClientUsageGuide Create a chroot jail to hold sftp user via rssh. This will force SCP/SFTP and will circumvent traditional FTP server setup. #cd /tmp #wget http://dag.wieers.com/rpm/packages/rssh/rssh-2.3.2-1.2.el5.rf.x86_64.rpm #rpm -ivh rssh-2.3.2-1.2.el5.rf.x86_64.rpm #useradd -m -d /home/dev -s /usr/bin/rssh dev #passwd dev Edit /etc/rssh.conf to grant access to SFTP to rssh users. #vi /etc/rssh.conf Uncomment line allowscp This allows me to connect to the machine via SFTP protocol in Transmit (my FTP program of choice; I'm sure it's similar with other FTP apps). Above instructions for SFTP appropriated (with appreciation!) from http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/linux-unix-restrict-shell-access-with-rssh.html And this is where I'm at. I will keep editing this as I make progress. Any tips on how to Configure virtual interfaces/ip based virtual hosts for SSL, setting up a CA, or anything else would be appreciated.

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• Computer makes hissing noise, turns off after few seconds

  - by Kaustubh P

  I have a problem similar to the questions posted here and here. This is my config: Asus M3N78-EM, with AMD Phenom X3 720 2800 Black Edition, 4GB Transcend DDR2 RAM, Nvidia 9400GT. HD is a 160 GB IDE, and a LG IDE DVD-ROM. The power button is a bit off, I have removed the cover of the switch, and the only way it turns on is just giving the "stick" under the cover a gentle press. It turns on sometimes, and at other times, I have to cut-off the power from the PSU, and try again. I will describe my problem in as detail as possible, please bear with me: The problem has started in the last week, a few months after I changed the to the powerswitch arrangement as described above. The PC makes a hissing noise, and I wasn't able to pin-point the noise source, because of the various other fans. At first, removing the HD, rebooting w/o the HD, turning it off, reconnecting and booting made the problem go away. But of late, it doesn't happen. As suggested in the other questions, I tried reducing the load by disconnecting both the IDE drives, and the problem (noise + turn-off) still occurs. I also connected another 80G IDE HD,today morning, adn it still made that noise, and turned off. I also opened up the PSU, but I couldn't see any fault in that, I tried rotating the fan by blowing into the blades, and with my fingers, but the hissing noise didn't come from there. Or maybe the speed wasn't enough to evoke that noise. A few weeks ago: I had cleaned the Cabinet and had repasted the processor and its fan using some thermal paste. Could that be at fault? I also used a vacuum to blow the dust out of the PSU, could the power have been too much, to maybe offset the fan or something? A label on the PSU says it uses a ball-bearing fan. That only leaves me with the Processor fan and the processor itself. I didn't try removing the processor fan and processor from the motherboard, and then turning the PC on, fearing damage. Will doing so cause any damage? What can I do to localize and pin-point the problem? Also, after a few tries, the Computer starts up. Sometimes it turns of within 2 seconds, sometimes after the POST. Once it turned off at the grub. Another time it booted completely and then turned off. The only way to ensure that the PC wont turn off, is if the hissing noise stops. EDIT: I suspect it to be the Processor/Processor fan, owing to the source of noise. All the config, except for the Cabinet, is just over a year old. EDIT2: I also just remembered, that I had set the "On-power resume" to turn on, i.e. If I supply he PC with power, it will turn itself on, w/o me needing to press the switch. I had done that to workaround the faulty power-switch, as noted above. EDIT3: I calculated the power my system needs, from the antec site, and I just arrived at 292W

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• IP Micro-outages, telephone micro-outages, and CATV micro-outages

  - by Michael Graff

  This is a long and complicated question, mostly because it has been going on for 2.5 years without a solution in sight. It also is only one-third computer related, the other two-thirds are cable TV and cable-phone related. Background I have COX Communications for a cable provider, and we get Internet, digital cable TV, and digital phone service through them. The Internet is a SB5101 right now, and has been a DPC2100 and SB5120 in the past. Same results. The phone service is provided through a telephone interface mounted on the outside of the house (not classic VoIP) and the CATV is through a Scientific Atlanta receiver without DVR. I do have a TiVo connected to the CATV box. Symptoms The CATV shows "blocking" -- sometimes very very short duration where a few blocks appear on the screen. Sometimes it lasts long enough that the video "pauses" for 2-5 seconds, and rarely but not unseen the audio also fails. The CATV decoder box shows no correctable (FEC) or uncorrectable errors. That is, all BER counters are zero for the video stream. The Internet shows "micro-outages" where it appears that sent packets are not making it out, but I continue to receive packets from local modems. That is, pings stop coming back, but I continue to see modems broadcast for DHCP, and sometimes they ask more than once. The cable modem shows no errors during this time, but cable modems lie like you would not believe. It is actually possible to unplug the coax from the modem for 20 seconds and it reports NO ERRORS to the provider's tools. The phone service cuts out for 1-3 seconds, infrequently. When this happens, I hear NOTHING (not even comfort noise) and the remote side hears a "click" as if I were getting a call waiting message. However, there is no call incoming, other than the one I'm currently on of course. Things SEEM to happen more frequently when the temperature outside swings from cold to warm, so fall/spring seems worse than summer/winter. All micro-outages occur between once or twice a day (which I could ignore) to 10 times per hour. All SNR, signal levels, noise levels, etc. show very close to optimal when measured. COX's diagnosis This is a continual pain for me. Over the last 2.5 years, they have opened, "fixed" something, and closed the tickets. They close it without confirming that it is indeed better, and when I reopen they cannot do that, but instead they open a new ticket and send yet another low-level tech out to do the same signal tests and report that all is OK. I've finally gotten a line tech who has a clue and is motivated enough to pursue this with me. We have tried things like switching the local nodes over to UPS and generator power, but this does not trigger the noise. We have tried replacing all cabling, the tap outside my house, the modem, the CATV decoder -- all without resolution. Recently they have decided it is both my computer or switch, my TiVo, and my phone that are all broken and causing this issue. My debugging steps I spent the worse day of my TV-watching life yesterday and part of today. I watched live TV without the TiVo. I witnessed blocking, but it did "feel different." and was actually more severe. Some days it is better, some days it is worse, so perhaps this was just a very bad day. Today, I connected the TiVo to my DVD player, and ran two very long movies through it. I saw no blocking at all during nearly 6 hours of video. Suggestions? Does anyone have any suggestions on what to do next? I understand perhaps only the IP side can be addressed here, but it is one of the more limiting debugging options.

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• Application Does Not Start in Windows 7

  - by Jim Fell

  I recently installed a new 60GB SSD as my primary hard drive and re-installed Windows 7 Professional 64-bit. I then installed SSD Fresh from Abelssoft to optimize Windows to run on the SSD. It seemed to install okay, but when I try to run the utility, its splash screen appears briefly before it quietly closes. No errors are displayed; the utility just fails to launch. I have run SSD Fresh on another SSD-equipped Windows 7 Pro x64 computer in the past without any problems. Does anyone know what might be preventing the program from running? I tried running sfc /scannow from the command line (with administrator privileges), shutting down the Spybot Resident, and disabling the firewall and virus scanner. I also tried running the tool as administrator; I even tried reinstalling it, running the installer as administrator. No luck. Every time I try to launch the program the Event Viewer logs this same set of errors: Error 4/2/2012 11:35:44 PM Application Error 1000 (100) Faulting application name: SSDFresh.exe, version: 1.0.0.0, time stamp: 0x4f2a45d8 Faulting module name: unknown, version: 0.0.0.0, time stamp: 0x00000000 Exception code: 0xc0000005 Fault offset: 0x000007ff0016dbba Faulting process id: 0x994 Faulting application start time: 0x01cd11fd9fe978df Faulting application path: C:\Program Files (x86)\SSD Fresh\SSDFresh.exe Faulting module path: unknown Report Id: dfeed551-7df0-11e1-a2c7-002522c47ec0 Error 4/2/2012 11:35:43 PM .NET Runtime 1026 None Application: SSDFresh.exe Framework Version: v4.0.30319 Description: The process was terminated due to an unhandled exception. Exception Info: System.NullReferenceException Stack: at AbBugReporter.BugForm.InitLanguage() at AbBugReporter.BugForm..ctor(AbFlexTrans.LanguageInfo, AbBugReporter.BugReportManager, Boolean) at AbBugReporter.BugReportManager.Show(System.Exception) at SSDFresh.App.App_DispatcherUnhandledException(System.Object, System.Windows.Threading.DispatcherUnhandledExceptionEventArgs) at System.Windows.Threading.Dispatcher.CatchException(System.Exception) at MS.Internal.Threading.ExceptionFilterHelper.TryCatchWhen(System.Object, System.Delegate, System.Object, Int32, System.Delegate) at System.Windows.Threading.Dispatcher.WrappedInvoke(System.Delegate, System.Object, Int32, System.Delegate) at System.Windows.Threading.Dispatcher.InvokeImpl(System.Windows.Threading.DispatcherPriority, System.TimeSpan, System.Delegate, System.Object, Int32) at MS.Win32.HwndSubclass.SubclassWndProc(IntPtr, Int32, IntPtr, IntPtr) at MS.Win32.UnsafeNativeMethods.DispatchMessage(System.Windows.Interop.MSG ByRef) at System.Windows.Threading.Dispatcher.PushFrameImpl(System.Windows.Threading.DispatcherFrame) at System.Windows.Application.RunInternal(System.Windows.Window) at System.Windows.Application.Run() at SSDFresh.App.Main() Error 4/2/2012 11:35:39 PM SideBySide 59 None Activation context generation failed for "C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319\csc.exe".Error in manifest or policy file "C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319\csc.exe.Config" on line 0. Invalid Xml syntax. Error 4/2/2012 11:35:39 PM SideBySide 59 None Error 4/2/2012 11:35:39 PM SideBySide 59 None Error 4/2/2012 11:35:39 PM SideBySide 59 None Error 4/2/2012 11:35:39 PM SideBySide 59 None Error 4/2/2012 11:35:39 PM SideBySide 59 None Error 4/2/2012 11:35:39 PM SideBySide 59 None Error 4/2/2012 11:35:39 PM SideBySide 59 None Error 4/2/2012 11:35:39 PM SideBySide 59 None Error 4/2/2012 11:35:39 PM SideBySide 59 None Error 4/2/2012 11:35:39 PM SideBySide 59 None Error 4/2/2012 11:35:39 PM SideBySide 59 None Error 4/2/2012 11:35:39 PM SideBySide 59 None Error 4/2/2012 11:35:39 PM SideBySide 59 None Error 4/2/2012 11:35:39 PM SideBySide 59 None Error 4/2/2012 11:35:39 PM SideBySide 59 None Error 4/2/2012 11:35:39 PM SideBySide 59 None Error 4/2/2012 11:35:39 PM SideBySide 59 None Error 4/2/2012 11:35:39 PM SideBySide 59 None Error 4/2/2012 11:35:39 PM SideBySide 59 None Error 4/2/2012 11:35:39 PM SideBySide 59 None Error 4/2/2012 11:35:39 PM SideBySide 59 None Error 4/2/2012 11:35:39 PM SideBySide 59 None Error 4/2/2012 11:35:39 PM SideBySide 59 None Error 4/2/2012 11:35:39 PM SideBySide 59 None Error 4/2/2012 11:35:39 PM SideBySide 59 None Error 4/2/2012 11:35:39 PM SideBySide 59 None Error 4/2/2012 11:35:39 PM SideBySide 59 None For those who are interested, here is my system configuration: ASRock M3A770DE AM3 AMD 770 ATX AMD Motherboard AMD Athlon II X3 455 Rana 3.3GHz Socket AM3 95W Triple-Core Desktop Processor ADX455WFGMBOX G.SKILL Value Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Desktop Memory Model F3-10600CL9D-8GBNT Mushkin Enhanced Chronos Deluxe MKNSSDCR60GB-DX 2.5" 60GB SATA III Synchronous MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) (Primary/Boot HD) Western Digital Caviar Blue RFHWD1600AAJS 160GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive (Secondary HD) Sony Optiarc CD/DVD Burner Black SATA Model AD-7261S-0B LightScribe Support RAIDMAX RX-850AE 850W ATX12V v2.3 / EPS12V SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply ASUS HD7850-DC2-2GD5 Radeon HD 7850 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card Asus ML228H 21.5" Full HD LED BackLight LED Monitor Slim Design (x3)

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• Intermittent lockups, unable to diagnose in over a year

  - by Magsol

  Here's a real doosie; I may just give my firstborn child to whomever helps me solve this problem. In July 2008, I assembled what would be my desktop computer for graduate school. Here are the specs of the machine I built: Thermaltake 750W PSU Corsair Dominator 2x2GB 240-pin SDRAM Thermaltake Tower Asus P5K Deluxe Motherboard Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300 2.5GHz CPU 2 x GeForce 8600 GT WD Caviar Blue 640GB hard drive CD burner DVD burner Soon thereafter, I ordered a new motherboard (because I was an idiot; that first motherboard supported CrossFire, not SLI), an Asus P5N-D. I was originally running Windows XP SP3. Pretty much right into the start of the fall semester, my desktop would simply lock up after awhile. If my system was largely idling, it would be after 1-3 days. If was gaming, it often happened an hour or two into my gaming session, indicating a link to activity level. Here's where it started getting interesting. I started looking at the system temps. The CPU was warmer than it should have been (~60s C), so I purchased some more efficient cooling compound a way better cooler for it. Now it hardly goes over 40 C. Intel was even kind enough to swap it out for free, just to rule it out. Lockups continued. The graphics cards were also running pretty warm: about 60 C idling. Removing one of them seemed to improve stability a little bit...as in, it wouldn't lock up quite as frequently, but still always eventually locked up. But it didn't matter which card I used or removed, the lockups continued. I reverted back to the original motherboard, the P5K Deluxe. Lockups continued. I purchased an entirely new motherboard, eVGA's nForce 750i. Lockups continued. Ran memtest86+ over and over and over, with no errors. Even RMA'd the memory. Lockups continued. Replaced the PSU with a Corsair 750W PSU. Lockups continued. Tried disconnecting all IDE drives (HDDs are SATA). Lockups continued. Replaced both graphics cards with a single Radeon HD 4980. Average temps are now always around 50 C when idling, 60 C only when gaming. Lockups continued. Throughout the whole ordeal, the system has been upgraded from Windows XP SP3 to Vista 32-bit, to Vista 64-bit, and is now at Windows 7 64-bit. Lockups have occurred at every step along the way (each OS was in place for at least a few months before the next upgrade). Edit: By "upgrade" I mean clean install each time. In addition to those reformats, I have performed many, many other reformats of the system and a reinstall of whatever OS had been previously installed in an attempt to rectify this problem, to no avail./Edit When the system locks up, there's no blue screen, no reboot, no error message of any kind. It simply freezes in place until I hit the reset button. Very, very rarely, once Windows boots back up, the system informs me that Windows has recovered from an error, but it can never find the source aside from some piece of hardware. I've swapped out every component in this computer, and there are more fans in it than I care to count...though for the sake of completeness: top 80mm case fan (out) rear 80mm case fan (out) rear 120mm case fan (out) front 120mm case fan (in) side 250mm case fan (in) giant CPU fan on-board motherboard fan (the eVGA board) triple-fan memory setup (came with the memory) PSU internal fan another 120mm fan I stuck on the underside of the video card to keep hot air from collecting at the bottom of the case I'm truly out of ideas. ANY help at all would be oh-so-very GREATLY appreciated. Thank you!

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• Can I make my drives visible and change their partition type without losing my data?

  - by user165408

  I have made a lot of mistakes and now I cannot see my hard disk nor I can start my operating system on my laptop. All my passwords and important files on my hdd without any backup. I followed this course of action Changed my hard disk partitions to dynamic just for getting 5th partition. (1st mistake) Decreased partitions to 4 again. Backed up operating system from 4th to 3rd partition with Norton Ghost. Booted from a live CD for Windows XP. Formatted 4th partition and moved my all important data from 1st and 2nd partitions to the 4th partition. Deleted 1st and 2nd partitions and got 1 partition from half of empty space. So I have just 3 partitions and empty space between 1st and 2nd partitions. Tried to install Windows 8 to the first partition but it did not allow because it is dynamic. Also it did not allow to install to other partitions. Tried to install Windows XP to the 1st partition but it said if I continue I cannot use other drivers. Therefore I escaped from installing it. Booted from the Windows XP live CD then increased 1st partiton to less than 400mb of empty space. Therefore I thought it will be adjacent but it was shown as 2 partitions. In my computer I see just 3 drivers. Using Norton Ghost I recovered my OS to the 1st partition. (2nd mistake it was on 4th partition originally) Booted from a Windows XP live CD I tried to install bcdedit to the Windows XP live CD but it did not work. Then I tried to install EaseUS Partition Master Home Edition. It was installed with errors then I start it and it showed me an error like there is no hard disk. I looked to my PC and my drivers were not there. Booted from the Norton Ghost CD and it did not show me my drivers either, but before I was able to see them. I checked numbers of partition shown by the Norton Ghost utility and they are still have same numbers so I have to see my drivers but I cannot see them now. My hard disk is shown as extarnal dynamic now so I cannot see any drive in my PC in the live Windows XP. There are two options; first one is import extarnal disk and second one is convert disk to basic. Will they delete my data? I fear booting from CDs like Windows XP live CD, Norton Ghost CD, and the operating system CD/DVD, because they may overwrite a few MB their data to my data. These recover tools are already exist in Windows XP live CD by The Ultimate Boot CD for Windows. Can any of them help me? CompuAppa SwissKnife V3 DBXtract Disk Investigator Fab's AutoBackup 2.0 FileRecovery Floppy Repair Free Undelete Handy Recovery Recovery Manager Restorastion Restorastion Help File by UBCD4Win UnChk Unstoppable Copier Finally How can I make it so that my drives are visible again without losing my data? How can I convert my dynamic partitions to basic without losing my data?

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• Setup access to SAS RAID drives with NTFS partitions on CentOS Machine

  - by Quanano

  We have a Dell Poweredge 2900 system with Adaptec 39320A SCSI CONTROLLER CARD and 4 SAS hard drives attached, with NTFS partitions on them. We installed CentOS on the other raid array with a different controller and it is working fine. We are now trying to access the drives shown above and they are not being shown in /dev as sdb, etc. sda is the drive that we installed centos on and it has sda1, sda2, sda3, etc. The CDROM has been picked up as well. If I scan for scsi devices then the perc and adaptec controllers are both found. sg0 is the CDROM and sg2 is the centos installed, however I think sg1 is the other drive but I cannot see anyway to mount the partitions, as only the drive is listed in /dev. Thanks. EXTRA INFO fdisk -l Disk /dev/sda: 72.7 GB, 72746008576 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 8844 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes Disk identifier: 0x11e3119f Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sda1 * 1 64 512000 83 Linux Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary. /dev/sda2 64 8845 70528000 8e Linux LVM Disk /dev/mapper/vg_lal2server-lv_root: 34.4 GB, 34431041536 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4186 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes Disk identifier: 0x00000000 Disk /dev/mapper/vg_lal2server-lv_root doesn't contain a valid partition table Disk /dev/mapper/vg_lal2server-lv_swap: 21.1 GB, 21139292160 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 2570 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes Disk identifier: 0x00000000 Disk /dev/mapper/vg_lal2server-lv_swap doesn't contain a valid partition table Disk /dev/mapper/vg_lal2server-lv_home: 16.6 GB, 16647192576 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 2023 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes Disk identifier: 0x00000000 Disk /dev/mapper/vg_lal2server-lv_home doesn't contain a valid partition table These are all from the install hdd not the additional hard drives modprobe a320raid FATAL: Module a320raid not found. lsscsi -v [0:0:0:0] cd/dvd TSSTcorp CDRWDVD TS-H492C DE02 /dev/sr0 dir: /sys/bus/scsi/devices/0:0:0:0 [/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1f.1/host0/target0:0:0/0:0:0:0] [4:0:10:0] enclosu DP BACKPLANE 1.05 - dir: /sys/bus/scsi/devices/4:0:10:0 [/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:05.0/0000:01:00.0/0000:02:0e.0/host4/target4:0:10/4:0:10:0] [4:2:0:0] disk DELL PERC 5/i 1.03 /dev/sda dir: /sys/bus/scsi/devices/4:2:0:0 [/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:05.0/0000:01:00.0/0000:02:0e.0/host4/target4:2:0/4:2:0:0] . lsmod Module Size Used by fuse 66285 0 des_generic 16604 0 ecb 2209 0 md4 3461 0 nls_utf8 1455 0 cifs 278370 0 autofs4 26888 4 ipt_REJECT 2383 0 ip6t_REJECT 4628 2 nf_conntrack_ipv6 8748 2 nf_defrag_ipv6 12182 1 nf_conntrack_ipv6 xt_state 1492 2 nf_conntrack 79453 2 nf_conntrack_ipv6,xt_state ip6table_filter 2889 1 ip6_tables 19458 1 ip6table_filter ipv6 322029 31 ip6t_REJECT,nf_conntrack_ipv6,nf_defrag_ipv6 bnx2 79618 0 ses 6859 0 enclosure 8395 1 ses dcdbas 9219 0 serio_raw 4818 0 sg 30124 0 iTCO_wdt 13662 0 iTCO_vendor_support 3088 1 iTCO_wdt i5000_edac 8867 0 edac_core 46773 3 i5000_edac i5k_amb 5105 0 shpchp 33482 0 ext4 364410 3 mbcache 8144 1 ext4 jbd2 88738 1 ext4 sd_mod 39488 3 crc_t10dif 1541 1 sd_mod sr_mod 16228 0 cdrom 39771 1 sr_mod megaraid_sas 77090 2 aic79xx 129492 0 scsi_transport_spi 26151 1 aic79xx pata_acpi 3701 0 ata_generic 3837 0 ata_piix 22846 0 radeon 1023359 1 ttm 70328 1 radeon drm_kms_helper 33236 1 radeon drm 230675 3 radeon,ttm,drm_kms_helper i2c_algo_bit 5762 1 radeon i2c_core 31276 4 radeon,drm_kms_helper,drm,i2c_algo_bit dm_mirror 14101 0 dm_region_hash 12170 1 dm_mirror dm_log 10122 2 dm_mirror,dm_region_hash dm_mod 81500 11 dm_mirror,dm_log

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• Set up lnux box for hosting a-z [apache mysql php ssl]

  - by microchasm

  I am in the process of reinstalling the OS on a machine that will be used to host a couple of apps for our business. The apps will be local only; access from external clients will be via vpn only. The prior setup used a hosting control panel (Plesk) for most of the admin, and I was looking at using another similar piece of software for the reinstall - but I figured I should finally learn how it all works. I can do most of the things the software would do for me, but am unclear on the symbiosis of it all. This is all an attempt to further distance myself from the land of Configuration Programmer/Programmer, if at all possible. I can't find a full walkthrough anywhere for what I'm looking for, so I thought I'd put up this question, and if people can help me on the way I will edit this with the answers, and document my progress/pitfalls. Hopefully someday this will help someone down the line. The details: CentOS 5.5 x86_64 httpd: Apache/2.2.3 mysql: 5.0.77 (to be upgraded) php: 5.1 (to be upgraded) The requirements: SECURITY!! Secure file transfer Secure client access (SSL Certs and CA) Secure data storage Virtualhosts/multiple subdomains Local email would be nice, but not critical The Steps: Download latest CentOS DVD-iso (torrent worked great for me). Install CentOS: While going through the install, I checked the Server Components option thinking I was going to be using another Plesk-like admin. In hindsight, considering I've decided to try to go my own way, this probably wasn't the best idea. Basic config: Setup users, networking/ip address etc. Yum update/upgrade. Upgrade PHP: To upgrade PHP to the latest version, I had to look to another repo outside CentOS. IUS looks great and I'm happy I found it! cd /tmp #wget http://dl.iuscommunity.org/pub/ius/stable/Redhat/5/x86_64/epel-release-1-1.ius.el5.noarch.rpm #rpm -Uvh epel-release-1-1.ius.el5.noarch.rpm #wget http://dl.iuscommunity.org/pub/ius/stable/Redhat/5/x86_64/ius-release-1-4.ius.el5.noarch.rpm #rpm -Uvh ius-release-1-4.ius.el5.noarch.rpm yum list | grep -w \.ius\. [will list all packages available in the IUS repo] rpm -qa | grep php [will list installed packages needed to be removed. the installed packages need to be removed before you can install the IUS packages otherwise there will be conflicts] #yum shell >remove php-gd php-cli php-odbc php-mbstring php-pdo php php-xml php-common php-ldap php-mysql php-imap Setting up Remove Process >install php53 php53-mcrypt php53-mysql php53-cli php53-common php53-ldap php53-imap php53-devel >transaction solve >transaction run Leaving Shell #php -v PHP 5.3.2 (cli) (built: Apr 6 2010 18:13:45) This process removes the old version of PHP and installs the latest. To upgrade mysql: Pretty much the same process as above with PHP #/etc/init.d/mysqld stop [OK] rpm -qa | grep mysql [installed mysql packages] #yum shell >remove mysql mysql-server Setting up Remove Process >install mysql51 mysql51-server mysql51-devel >transaction solve >transaction run Leaving Shell #service mysqld start [OK] #mysql -v Server version: 5.1.42-ius Distributed by The IUS Community Project And this is where I'm at. I will keep editing this as I make progress. Any tips on how to Configure Virtualhosts for SSL, setting up a CA, setting up SFTP with openSSH, or anything else would be appreciated.

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• How to install Delorme StreetAtlas (any version) + GPS inside VirtualBox VM?

  - by hotei

  When I try to run the install program I get a popup message that says the installer program is not a valid executable. Background: I want a GPS with maps on my laptop running Ubuntu 10.4LTS. Unfortunately I can't find a decent native Linux GPS solution with 50 state US street level coverage. I have VirtualBox VMs available for WinXP and Win7 (among others). The VMs work fine with MicroSoft Streets and Trips (2010) and MapNGo 5 (a very! old Delorme product), but while both these products support GPS, they don't support the Earthmate LT-40 USB GPS I already have. I've got pretty much every Delorme Street Atlas they've released in the last decade and none of them will install in a VM. Any help would be much appreciated. Clarification: I've installed the Delorme products from these CDs before and the disks are fine - as long as installation is done on a "physical" machine. Added: I've tried install from an iso as well as the real CD. No difference in result (setup.exe is not a valid executable) The WinXP is SP-2 (held back on purpose at this point - I'll snapshot and fork a later SP to test). The Win2K is SP-6a. Win7(32) VM is whatever updates came out last week. The USB setup is working at least to the point where the GPS device is active in the device list (has an x in the box). At this point its not relevant because the program that needs to read it can't even be installed. Added 9-19: Added wine as harrymc suggested. Initial result was no change. Here's wines error message. The file '/media/Disk1/setup.exe' is not marked as executable. If this was downloaded or copied form an untrusted source, it may be dangerous to run. For more details, read about the executable bit. At first I thought the execute bit was the problem, but looking at several other windows CDs I see that the execute bit is not set on their exe files (which install to VM without error). Still it was worth a shot so I copied the StreetAtlas 9 DVD to my hard disk, changed the on-disk exe files to have the execute bit set and tried to install again. This time the install via wine got me through the installation process. When I start the program it bombs immediately, so we haven't made much real progress so far. I very much prefer the VM solution to wine, so I'm going back to that for now. To recap the VM situation, using an updated XP with SP3 and all recommended hotfixes: StreetAtlas 2009 USA fails with "not marked as executable". StreetAtlas 2007 USA fails with "not marked as executable". StreetAtlas 9 (copyright 2001) fails with "not marked as executable". SteeetAtlas (copyright 1991) fails with "not marked as executable" Delorme Topo 4 (copyright 2002) fails with "not marked as executable". Just about ready to give up. So I switched from XP VM to Win7 VM and tried StreetAtlas 2009 again. This time it installs. Earthmate USB GPS works. WTH? I feel like the monkey who just wrote a line of Shakespear. I'm smiling because it worked, but I have no clue why. I'm awarding the bounty to harrymc because wine did give some useful insight into the problem and a +1 to goyiux as thanks for helping.

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• Week in Geek: USDA Chooses Microsoft for Cloud Services Edition

  - by Asian Angel

  This week we learned how to create geeky LED holiday lights with old bottles, dig deeper in Windows Defrag via the command prompt, use Google Chrome’s drag/drop feature to upload files easier, find great gift recommendations by looking through the How-To Geek holiday gift guide, and have fun adding Merry Christmas fonts to our computers. Photo by ntr23. Random Geek Links It has been a busy week, so we have extra news link goodness with information that is good for you to know. USDA making the move to Microsoft The U.S. Department of Agriculture has announced that it has chosen Microsoft to host things like e-mail, instant messaging, and collaboration through the software giant’s Business Productivity Online Suite. Google says it was cut off from USDA project bid Google is claiming that it was not given a chance to bid on a cloud-computing project for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, for which the contract was awarded to rival Microsoft. Apache is being forced into a Java Fork When Oracle rolled over Apache and Google’s objections to its Java plans in December, the scene was set for Apache to leave and, eventually, force a Java code fork. Tumblr explains daylong outage After experiencing an outage that started on Sunday afternoon and stretched through most of the day yesterday, Tumblr has explained what happened. Google demos Chrome OS, launches pilot program During a press briefing this week in San Francisco, Google launched the Chrome application store and demonstrated Chrome OS, its browser-centric netbook operating system. Don’t expect Spotify in U.S. this holiday season As of last week, Spotify had yet to sign a single licensing deal with a major label, after spending more than a year negotiating, multiple music sources told CNET. December 2010 Patch Tuesday will come with most bulletins ever According to the Microsoft Security Response Center, Microsoft will issue 17 Security Bulletins addressing 40 vulnerabilities on Tuesday, December 14. It will also host a webcast to address customer questions the following day. Hacker plants back door in Symbian firmware Indian hacker Atul Alex has had a look at the firmware for Symbian S60 smartphones and come up with a back door for it. PC quarantines raise tough complexities The concept of quarantining PCs to prevent widespread infection is “interesting, but difficult to implement, with far too many problems”, said security experts. Symantec: DDoS attacks hard to defend It has surfaced that the distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks on Visa and MasterCard Web sites on Wednesday were carried out by a toolkit known as low orbit ion cannon (LOIC). Web Sockets and the risks of unfinished standards Enthusiasm for a promising new standard called Web Sockets has quickly cooled in some quarters as a potential security problem led some browser makers to hastily postpone support. Internet Explorer 9 to get tracking protection Microsoft is making changes to Internet Explorer 9’s security features that will better enable users to keep sites from tracking their activity across browsing sessions. NASA sold PCs with sensitive data NASA failed to remove sensitive data from computers that it sold, according to an audit report released this week. Cybercrooks create fake Amazon receipts The bad guys have created yet another online scam, this one involving fake Amazon receipts. World of Warcraft character move fees waived Until December 22, Blizzard will allow free realm transfers from 25 highly populated servers to alleviate log-in queues or performance issues. (The free transfers are one-way and one-time only.) SpaceX Dragon reaches orbit atop a Falcon with a fiery tail The Space Exploration Technologies corporation has become the first nongovernmental entity to put a vehicle into low Earth orbit. Geek Video of the Week If birds have wings, then why are the Angry Birds using slingshots? Photo by Dorkly Bits. Wait… Birds have Wings, Why are the Angry Ones Using Slingshots? Sysadmin Geek Tips How To Setup Email Alerts on Linux Using Gmail or SMTP Linux machines may require administrative intervention in countless ways, but without manually logging into them how would you know about it? Here’s how to setup emails to get notified when your machines want some tender love and attention. Random TinyHacker Links Red Panda Webcam Support Firefox and the Knoxville Zoo’s Red Panda program. Christmas Icons (Icons we like) Superb set of holiday icons by lgp85 at deviantArt. Download the .zip and use as .png or convert to .ico at Convertico.com or with tiny app Imagicon. Super User Questions Enjoy reading the great answers to this week’s popular questions from Super User Useful USB boot disks? DVD/CD burning .zip: is it more reliable, faster, longer lasting to burn a zip of files rather than the files as a folder? What are other ways to backup my files if I do not have an external drive? Anti virus what is the difference between these all? How can I block all Facebook elements/content? How-To Geek Weekly Article Recap Have you had a busy week between work and preparing for the holidays? Get caught up on your HTG reading with our hottest articles of the week. 20 Windows Keyboard Shortcuts You Might Not Know The 50 Best Registry Hacks that Make Windows Better LCD? LED? Plasma? The How-To Geek Guide to HDTV Technology HTG Explains: Which Linux File System Should You Choose? How to Use and Customize Google Chrome Web Apps One Year Ago on How-To Geek This week’s batch of retro geeky goodness is all about customizing Windows 7. ClassicShell Adds Classic Start Menu and Explorer Features to Windows 7 Get an Aero-Styled Classic Start Menu in Windows 7 Customize the Windows 7 Logon Screen Get the Classic Style Network Activity Indicator Back in Windows 7 How To Enable Check Boxes for Items In Windows 7 The Geek Note We would like you to join us in welcoming Jason Fitzpatrick to the writing staff here at How-To Geek. He started with us this past week, so take some time to read through his articles about the Wii, Kindle, & PlayStation 2 Peripherals and leave a friendly comment to say “Hi”! Got a great tip to share? Make sure to send it in to us at [email protected]. Photo by real00. Latest Features How-To Geek ETC The 50 Best Registry Hacks that Make Windows Better The How-To Geek Holiday Gift Guide (Geeky Stuff We Like) LCD? LED? Plasma? The How-To Geek Guide to HDTV Technology The How-To Geek Guide to Learning Photoshop, Part 8: Filters Improve Digital Photography by Calibrating Your Monitor Our Favorite Tech: What We’re Thankful For at How-To Geek Settle into Orbit with the Voyage Theme for Chrome and Iron Awesome Safari Compass Icons Set Escape from the Exploding Planet Wallpaper Move Your Tumblr Blog to WordPress Pytask is an Easy to Use To-Do List Manager for Your Ubuntu System Snowy Christmas House Personas Theme for Firefox

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• Test All Features of Windows Phone 7 On Your PC

  - by Matthew Guay

  Are you developer or just excited about the upcoming Windows Phone 7, and want to try it out now?  Thanks to free developer tools from Microsoft and a new unlocked emulator rom, you can try out most of the exciting features today from your PC. Last week we showed you how to try out Windows Phone 7 on your PC and get started developing for the upcoming new devices.  We noticed, however, that the emulator only contains Internet Explorer Mobile and some settings.  This is still interesting to play around with, but it wasn’t the full Windows Phone 7 experience. Some enterprising tweakers discovered that more applications were actually included in the emulator, but were simply hidden from users.  Developer Dan Ardelean then figured out how to re-enable these features, and released a tweaked emulator rom so everyone can try out all of the Windows Phone 7 features for themselves.  Here we’ll look at how you can run this new emulator image on your PC, and then look at some interesting features in Windows Phone 7. Editor Note: This modified emulator image is not official, and isn’t sanctioned by Microsoft. Use your own judgment when choosing to download and use the emulator. Setting Up Emulator Rom To test-drive Windows Phone 7 on your PC, you must first download and install the Windows Phone Developer Tools CTP (link below).  Follow the steps we showed you last week at: Try out Windows Phone 7 on your PC today.  Once it’s installed, go ahead and run the default emulator as we showed to make sure everything works ok. Once the Windows Phone Developer Tools are installed and running, download the new emulator rom from XDA Forums (link below).  This will be a zip file, so extract it first. Note where you save the file, as you will need the address in the next step. Now, to run our new emulator image, we need to open the emulator in command line and point to the new rom image.  To do this, browse to the correct directory, depending on whether you’re running the 32 bit or 64 bit version of Windows: 32 bit: C:\Program Files\Microsoft XDE\1.0\ 64 bit: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft XDE\1.0\ Hold your Shift key down and right-click in the folder.  Choose Open Command Window here. At the command prompt, enter XDE.exe followed by the location of your new rom image.  Here, we downloaded the rom to our download folder, so at the command prompt we entered: XDE.exe C:\Users\Matthew\Downloads\WM70Full\WM70Full.bin The emulator loads … with the full Windows Phone 7 experience! To make it easier, let’s make a shortcut on our desktop to load the emulator with the new rom directly.  Right-click on your desktop (or any folder you want to create the shortcut in), select New, and then Shortcut. Now, in the box, we need to enter the path for the emulator followed by the location of our rom.  Both items must be in quotes.  So, in our test, we entered the following: 32 bit: “C:\Program Files\Microsoft XDE\1.0\” “C:\Users\Matthew\Downloads\WM70Full\WM70Full.bin” 64 bit: “C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft XDE\1.0\” “C:\Users\Matthew\Downloads\WM70Full\WM70Full.bin” Make sure to enter the correct location of the new emulator rom for your computer, and keep both items in separate quotes.  Click next when you’ve entered the location. Name the shortcut; we named it Windows Phone 7, but simply enter whatever you’d like.  Click Finish when you’re done. You should now have a nice Windows Phone icon and your fully functional shortcut!  Double-click it to run the Windows Phone 7 emulator as above. Features in the Unlocked Windows Phone 7 Emulator So let’s look at what you can do with this new emulator.  Almost everything you’ve seen in demos from the Mobile World Conference and Mix’10 are right here for you to play with.  Here’s the application menu, which you can access by clicking on the arrow on the top of the home screen, which shows how much stuff they’ve got in this!   And, of course, even the home screen itself shows much more activity than it did in the original emulator. Let’s check out some of these sections.  Here’s Zune running on Windows Phone 7, and the Zune Marketplace.  The animations are beautiful, so be sure to check this out yourself. The new picture hub is much nicer than any picture viewer included with Windows Mobile in the past…   Stay productive, and on schedule with the new Calendar. The XBOX hub gives us only a hint of things to come, and the links to games now are simply placeholders. Here’s a look at the Office hub.  This doesn’t show up on the homescreen right now, but you can access it in the applications menu.  Office obviously still has a lot of work left on it, but even at a glance here it looks like it includes a lot more functionality than Office Mobile in Windows Mobile 6. Here’s a look at each of the three apps: Word, Excel, and OneNote, and the formatting pallet in Office apps.   This emulator also includes a lot more settings than the default one, including settings for individual applications. You can even activate the screen lock, and try out the lift-to-peek-or-unlock feature… Finally, this version of Windows Phone 7 includes a very nice SystemInfo app with an advanced task manager.  We hope this is still available when the actual phones are released. Conclusion If you’re excited about the upcoming Windows Phone 7 series, or simply want to learn more about what’s coming, this is a great way to test it out.  With these exciting new hubs and applications, there’s something here for everyone.  Let us know what you like most about Windows Phone 7 and what your favorite app or hub is. Links Please note: These roms are not officially supported by Microsoft, and could be taken down. Download the unlocked Windows Phone 7 emulator from XDA Forums – click the link in this post to download How the unlocked emulator image was created Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Try out Windows Phone 7 on your PC todayGet stats on your Ruby on Rails codeDisable Windows Vista’s Built-in CD/DVD Burning FeaturesWeek in Geek – The Slick Windows 7 File Copy Animation EditionGeek Fun: Virtualized Old School Windows – Windows 95 TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 PCmover Professional Get Better Windows Search With UltraSearch Scan News With NY Times Article Skimmer SpeedyFox Claims to Speed up your Firefox Beware Hover Kitties Test Drive Mobile Phones Online With TryPhone Ben & Jerry’s Free Cone Day, 3/23/10

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• Psychonauts crashes right after entering load save door

  - by user67974

  Psychonauts crashes right after entering the 'Load Save' door. Here is the terminal output: Shader assembly time: 0.88 seconds Found OpenAL device: 'Simple Directmedia Layer' Found OpenAL device: 'ALSA Software' Found OpenAL device: 'OSS Software' Found OpenAL device: 'PulseAudio Software' Opened OpenAL Device: '(null)' ERROR: CAudioDrv::CAudioDrv->alGenSources reports AL_INVALID_VALUE error. PSYCHONAUTS UNIX FILENAME: corrected 'workresource/sounds/commonfx.isb' to 'WorkResource/Sounds/commonfx.isb' PSYCHONAUTS UNIX FILENAME: corrected 'workresource/sounds/commonvoice.isb' to 'WorkResource/Sounds/commonvoice.isb' PSYCHONAUTS UNIX FILENAME: corrected 'workresource/sounds/commonmusic.isb' to 'WorkResource/Sounds/commonmusic.isb' PSYCHONAUTS UNIX FILENAME: corrected 'workresource/sounds/commonmentalfx.isb' to 'WorkResource/Sounds/commonmentalfx.isb' PSYCHONAUTS UNIX FILENAME: corrected 'workresource/sounds/commonmenfxmem.isb' to 'WorkResource/Sounds/commonmenfxmem.isb' PSYCHONAUTS UNIX FILENAME: corrected 'workresource/sounds/commonfxmem.isb' to 'WorkResource/Sounds/commonfxmem.isb' GameApp::StartUp InitSoundFiles() completed in 0.15 seconds GameApp::StartUp Load some common textures completed in 0.00 seconds WARN: ENGINE: Lua garbage collection starting FreeUnusedBlocksInBuckets released 0 Kb GameApp::StartUp InitEntities() completed in 0.02 seconds PSYCHONAUTS UNIX FILENAME: corrected 'WorkResource/SavedGames/savegameprefs.ini' to 'WorkResource/SAVEDGAMES/savegameprefs.ini' PSYCHONAUTS UNIX FILENAME: corrected 'WorkResource/SavedGames/savegameprefs.ini' to 'WorkResource/SAVEDGAMES/savegameprefs.ini' GameApp::StartUp m_pSaveLoadInterface->Startup() completed in 0.00 seconds GameApp::StartUp m_UserInterface.Setup() completed in 0.00 seconds STUBBED: multisample at EDisplayOptionsWidget (/home/icculus/projects/psychonauts/Source/game/luatest/Game/UIPCDisplayOptions.cpp:97) STUBBED: VK_* at CheckVirtualKey (/home/icculus/projects/psychonauts/Source/CommonLibs/DirectX/SDLInput.cpp:1443) Game: Engine Running hook startup Game: Engine -> SetupGlobalObjects Game: Engine -> SetupLevelMenu Game: Engine -> InitMath GameApp::StartUp InitLua2() completed in 0.00 seconds GameApp::StartUp SetupLevelMenu() completed in 0.00 seconds STUBBED: do we even use this? at InitSocket (/home/icculus/projects/psychonauts/Source/game/luatest/Game/Gameplaylogger.cpp:210) GameApp::StartUp Post-Install total completed in 0.20 seconds Start Up completed in 1.57 seconds UnixMain: StartUp successful.. Working directory: /opt/psychonauts STUBBED: dispatch SDL events at PCMainHandleAnyWindowsMessages (/home/icculus/projects/psychonauts/Source/game/luatest/UnixMain.cpp:56) STUBBED: write me at GetJoystickInput (/home/icculus/projects/psychonauts/Source/CommonLibs/DirectX/SDLInput.cpp:428) STUBBED: write me at GetJoystickActionValue (/home/icculus/projects/psychonauts/Source/CommonLibs/DirectX/SDLInput.cpp:613) PSYCHONAUTS UNIX FILENAME: corrected 'workresource/cutScenes/prerendered/dflogo.bik' to 'WorkResource/cutscenes/prerendered/DFLogo.bik' Prerender subtitle file: workresource\cutScenes\prerendered\dflogo.dfs not found PSYCHONAUTS UNIX FILENAME: corrected 'workresource/cutScenes/prerendered/dflogo.bik' to 'WorkResource/cutscenes/prerendered/DFLogo.bik' STUBBED: fixed function pipeline? at setColorOp (/home/icculus/projects/psychonauts/Source/CommonLibs/DFGraphics/Texture.cpp:2097) STUBBED: fixed function pipeline? at setColorArg1 (/home/icculus/projects/psychonauts/Source/CommonLibs/DFGraphics/Texture.cpp:2106) STUBBED: fixed function pipeline? at setColorArg2 (/home/icculus/projects/psychonauts/Source/CommonLibs/DFGraphics/Texture.cpp:2115) STUBBED: fixed function pipeline? at setAlphaOp (/home/icculus/projects/psychonauts/Source/CommonLibs/DFGraphics/Texture.cpp:2124) STUBBED: fixed function pipeline? at setAlphaArg1 (/home/icculus/projects/psychonauts/Source/CommonLibs/DFGraphics/Texture.cpp:2133) STUBBED: fixed function pipeline? at setAlphaArg2 (/home/icculus/projects/psychonauts/Source/CommonLibs/DFGraphics/Texture.cpp:2142) STUBBED: fixed function pipeline? at setProjected (/home/icculus/projects/psychonauts/Source/CommonLibs/DFGraphics/Texture.cpp:2223) LOC WARN: Could not open Localization file 'Localization/English/_StringTable.lub' STUBBED: memory status at UpdateMemoryTracking (/home/icculus/projects/psychonauts/Source/game/luatest/Game/GameApp.cpp:4884) WARN: Couldn't resize array to 128; out-of-bounds elements are still in use: Vertex Pool, 188 Loading new level 'STMU' STUBBED: Need multithreaded GL at DisplayLoadingScreen (/home/icculus/projects/psychonauts/Source/game/luatest/Game/LoadingScreen.cpp:83) ========================= Memory post unload level ========================= ========================= LOC WARN: Could not open Localization file 'Localization/English/ST_StringTable.lub' DaveD: Info: Texture pack file contains 137 textures Doing a texture readback for locking! Game: Engine Saved[GLOBAL]: InstaHintFord_HostileRecord = [table] Game: Engine Saved[GLOBAL]: InstaHintFord_HostileOrder = [table] WARN: Redundant packfile read: anims\thought_bubble\bubblefirestarting.jan WARN: Redundant packfile read: anims\thought_bubble\bubbleintothemind.jan WARN: Redundant packfile read: anims\thought_bubble\bubbleinvisibility.jan WARN: Redundant packfile read: anims\thought_bubble\bubblepopperfill.jan WARN: Redundant packfile read: anims\thought_bubble\bubbletelekinesis.jan Initializing level script (if there is one) PSYCHONAUTS UNIX FILENAME: corrected 'workresource/sounds/stfx.isb' to 'WorkResource/Sounds/stfx.isb' Game: Engine Reloading goals: Game: Engine Saved[GLOBAL]: NextEncouragement = '/GLZF014TO/ 10' Game: Engine Saved[GLOBAL]: bUsedSalts = 0 Game: Engine Saved[GLOBAL]: bSTEntered = 1 Game: Engine Saved[GLOBAL]: memoriesST = 1 Game: Engine Saved[GLOBAL]: PsiBallColor = 'red' Game: Engine Saved[ST]: lastSubLevel = 'STMU' Game: Engine LOADING LEVEL st.STMU Game: Engine Saved[CA]: CALevelState = 1 Game: Engine Cutscene progression: CS Script moving from state nil to state nil, resultant state nil. Time: 0.124746672809124. * Stack Trace 1: (null) (line -1, file '(none)) () 2: SpawnScript (line -1, file 'C) (global) 3: onBeginLevel (line -1, file '(none)) (field) 4: (null) (line -1, file '(none)) () WARN: Cannot call GetDirectoryListing when running from the DVD Game: Engine Raz spawning at DartStart startpoint VM : LevelScript could not find script 'doorrimlight1' * Stack Trace 1: (null) (line -1, file '(none)) () WARN: (none(-1) SetEntityAlpha LevelScript: NULL script object passed Game: Engine Saved[GLOBAL]: bLoadedFromMainMenu = 1 Game: Engine Saved[GLOBAL]: NextEncouragement = '/GLZF014TO/ 10' Game: Engine Saved[GLOBAL]: NeedRankIncrement = 0 STUBBED: Need multithreaded GL at HideLoadingScreen (/home/icculus/projects/psychonauts/Source/game/luatest/Game/LoadingScreen.cpp:110) WARN: ENGINE: Lua garbage collection starting FreeUnusedBlocksInBuckets released 0 Kb Game: Engine Saved[GLOBAL]: SplineFigmentTVSizex = 4.51434326171875 Game: Engine Saved[GLOBAL]: SplineFigmentTVSizey = 46.38104248046875 Game: Engine Saved[GLOBAL]: SplineFigmentTVSizez = 47.08810424804688 WARN: (none(-1) SetNewAction LevelScript: no string passed ====================== Asset load progression ====================== Initial: 2.518 MB Vertex, 8.688 MB Texture Level : 3.719 MB Vertex, 22.535 MB Texture Scripts: 3.747 MB Vertex, 22.848 MB Texture ====================== ====================== Memory post level load ====================== ====================== WARN: ENGINE: Lua garbage collection starting FreeUnusedBlocksInBuckets released 0 Kb DaveD: Level loaded in 0.14 seconds Anim: anims\objects\tk_arrow_idle.jan: loaded (1 frames latency) Anim: anims\dartnew\helmet\darthelmetdn.jan: loaded (1 frames latency) Anim: anims\thought_bubble\shieldloop.jan: loaded (1 frames latency) Anim: anims\dartnew\standready.jan: loaded (1 frames latency) Anim: anims\dartnew\walkmove.jan: loaded (1 frames latency) Anim: anims\janitor\hint_end.jan: loaded (1 frames latency) Anim: anims\thought_bubble\ballstatic.jan: loaded (1 frames latency) Anim: anims\dartnew\actionfall.jan: loaded (1 frames latency) Anim: anims\dartnew\standstill.jan: loaded (1 frames latency) Anim: anims\dartnew\pack\packbounce_lf_rt.jan: loaded (1 frames latency) Anim: anims\dartnew\pack\packbounce_up_dn.jan: loaded (1 frames latency) Anim: anims\dartnew\helmet\darthelmetdefpose.jan: loaded (1 frames latency) 1: 1 (number) 1: 1 (number) STUBBED: This is probably wrong at GetDt (/home/icculus/projects/psychonauts/Source/CommonLibs/DFUtil/Profiler.cpp:181) STUBBED: set specular highlights at setSpecularEnable (/home/icculus/projects/psychonauts/Source/CommonLibs/DFGraphics/Renderer.cpp:2035) Anim: anims\dartnew\trnrtcycle.jan: loaded (1 frames latency) Anim: anims\dartnew\run.jan: loaded (1 frames latency) Anim: anims\dartnew\walk.jan: loaded (1 frames latency) Anim: anims\thought_bubble\bubbledoublejump.jan: loaded (1 frames latency) Anim: anims\dartnew\longjump.jan: loaded (1 frames latency) Anim: anims\menubrain\door1crack.jan: loaded (1 frames latency) Anim: anims\menubrain\door1crackedidle.jan: loaded (1 frames latency) Anim: anims\menubrain\door1closedidle.jan: loaded (1 frames latency) Anim: anims\dartnew\180.jan: loaded (1 frames latency) Anim: anims\menubrain\door3crack.jan: loaded (1 frames latency) Anim: anims\menubrain\door3crackedidle.jan: loaded (1 frames latency) Anim: anims\menubrain\door3closedidle.jan: loaded (1 frames latency) Anim: anims\dartnew\railslide45angle.jan: loaded (1 frames latency) Anim: anims\dartnew\railslideflat.jan: loaded (1 frames latency) Anim: anims\dartnew\trnlfcycle.jan: loaded (1 frames latency) WARN: (none(-1) SetNewAction LevelScript: no string passed Anim: anims\dartnew\mainmenu_jump.jan: loaded (1 frames latency) Anim: anims\menubrain\door1open.jan: loaded (1 frames latency) ERROR: Assert in /home/icculus/projects/psychonauts/Source/game/luatest/../../CommonLibs/Include/../DFGraphics/Color.h, line 96 v.x >= 0.0f && v.x <= 1.0f && v.y >= 0.0f && v.y <= 1.0f && v.z >= 0.0f && v.z <= 1.0f && v.w >= 0.0f && v.w <= 1.0f Encountered Error: Psychonauts has encountered an error /home/icculus/projects/psychonauts/Source/game/luatest/../../CommonLibs/Include/../DFGraphics/Color.h, line 96 v.x >= 0.0f && v.x <= 1.0f && v.y >= 0.0f && v.y <= 1.0f && v.z >= 0.0f && v.z <= 1.0f && v.w >= 0.0f && v.w <= 1.0f Please contact technical support at http://www.doublefine.com. I am currently using Bumblebee for hybrid graphics, if that helps in any way.

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• What to Do When Windows Won’t Boot

  - by Chris Hoffman

  You turn on your computer one day and Windows refuses to boot — what do you do? “Windows won’t boot” is a common symptom with a variety of causes, so you’ll need to perform some troubleshooting. Modern versions of Windows are better at recovering from this sort of thing. Where Windows XP might have stopped in its tracks when faced with this problem, modern versions of Windows will try to automatically run Startup Repair. First Things First Be sure to think about changes you’ve made recently — did you recently install a new hardware driver, connect a new hardware component to your computer, or open your computer’s case and do something? It’s possible the hardware driver is buggy, the new hardware is incompatible, or that you accidentally unplugged something while working inside your computer. The Computer Won’t Power On At All If your computer won’t power on at all, ensure it’s plugged into a power outlet and that the power connector isn’t loose. If it’s a desktop PC, ensure the power switch on the back of its case — on the power supply — is set to the On position. If it still won’t power on at all, it’s possible you disconnected a power cable inside its case. If you haven’t been messing around inside the case, it’s possible the power supply is dead. In this case, you’ll have to get your computer’s hardware fixed or get a new computer. Be sure to check your computer monitor — if your computer seems to power on but your screen stays black, ensure your monitor is powered on and that the cable connecting it to your computer’s case is plugged in securely at both ends. The Computer Powers On And Says No Bootable Device If your computer is powering on but you get a black screen that says something like “no bootable device” or another sort of “disk error” message, your computer can’t seem to boot from the hard drive that Windows was installed on. Enter your computer’s BIOS or UEFI firmware setup screen and check its boot order setting, ensuring that it’s set to boot from its hard drive. If the hard drive doesn’t appear in the list at all, it’s possible your hard drive has failed and can no longer be booted from. In this case, you may want to insert Windows installation or recovery media and run the Startup Repair operation. This will attempt to make Windows bootable again. For example, if something overwrote your Windows drive’s boot sector, this will repair the boot sector. If the recovery environment won’t load or doesn’t see your hard drive, you likely have a hardware problem. Be sure to check your BIOS or UEFI’s boot order first if the recovery environment won’t load. You can also attempt to manually fix Windows boot loader problems using the fixmbr and fixboot commands. Modern versions of Windows should be able to fix this problem for you with the Startup Repair wizard, so you shouldn’t actually have to run these commands yourself. Windows Freezes or Crashes During Boot If Windows seems to start booting but fails partway through, you may be facing either a software or hardware problem. If it’s a software problem, you may be able to fix it by performing a Startup Repair operation. If you can’t do this from the boot menu, insert a Windows installation disc or recovery disk and use the startup repair tool from there. If this doesn’t help at all, you may want to reinstall Windows or perform a Refresh or Reset on Windows 8. If the computer encounters errors while attempting to perform startup repair or reinstall Windows, or the reinstall process works properly and you encounter the same errors afterwards, you likely have a hardware problem. Windows Starts and Blue Screens or Freezes If Windows crashes or blue-screens on you every time it boots, you may be facing a hardware or software problem. For example, malware or a buggy driver may be loading at boot and causing the crash, or your computer’s hardware may be malfunctioning. To test this, boot your Windows computer in safe mode. In safe mode, Windows won’t load typical hardware drivers or any software that starts automatically at startup. If the computer is stable in safe mode, try uninstalling any recently installed hardware drivers, performing a system restore, and scanning for malware. If you’re lucky, one of these steps may fix your software problem and allow you to boot Windows normally. If your problem isn’t fixed, try reinstalling Windows or performing a Refresh or Reset on Windows 8. This will reset your computer back to its clean, factory-default state. If you’re still experiencing crashes, your computer likely has a hardware problem. Recover Files When Windows Won’t Boot If you have important files that will be lost and want to back them up before reinstalling Windows, you can use a Windows installer disc or Linux live media to recover the files. These run entirely from a CD, DVD, or USB drive and allow you to copy your files to another external media, such as another USB stick or an external hard drive. If you’re incapable of booting a Windows installer disc or Linux live CD, you may need to go into your BIOS or UEFI and change the boot order setting. If even this doesn’t work — or if you can boot from the devices and your computer freezes or you can’t access your hard drive — you likely have a hardware problem. You can try pulling the computer’s hard drive, inserting it into another computer, and recovering your files that way. Following these steps should fix the vast majority of Windows boot issues — at least the ones that are actually fixable. The dark cloud that always hangs over such issues is the possibility that the hard drive or another component in the computer may be failing. Image Credit: Karl-Ludwig G. Poggemann on Flickr, Tzuhsun Hsu on Flickr     

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• CodePlex Daily Summary for Tuesday, April 06, 2010

  CodePlex Daily Summary for Tuesday, April 06, 2010New ProjectsASP.NET MVC | SCAFFOLD: Add-in para Visual Studio 2008 que adiciona um poderoso scaffold para o ASP.NET MVC, com suporte ao Entity Framework.ASP.Net Permission Manager: This is an extension of ASP.Net Permission Manager that permission to roles.Babelfish.NET: Babelfish was created as a common framework for navigating several different node-to-node structured data sources, such as HTML, CSS, Javascript, X...CollaSuite: Collaboration Suite, Chat Client ServerdnyFramework: Denny FrameWorkDocxToHtml: DocxToHtmlDomain Driven Design and ASP.NET MVC 2 sample: It's a simple application ASP.NET MVC 2 with DDD modeling approach. It's about how to build maintainable applications applying DDD, IoC and infrast...DRP Address Book: A web based address book implementation using SQL Server 2008, ASP.NET, C#, and CSLA.NETFileSystemHelper SQL Server CLR: FileSystemHelper SQL Server CLR provides a collection of CLR stored procedures and functions for interacting with the file system. Using these sto...Foothill: This is an asp.net Web AppHouseFly controls: Controls for my upcomming app: HouseFlyiTunes Artwork App: This project is related to my iTunes Artwork App blog series. The application will automate the process of collecting album art for music tracks i...Logwiz - Automate the collection of Performance monitor logs using logman.exe: This tool is used to automate the process of collecting Performance monitoring data using the logman.exe on Windows Vista/Windows 7/Windows 2008 an...MailSharp - Beyond MailMessage: An easy-to-use library for .NET developers to send HTML formatted emails using templates with merge tags and embedded images instead of pointing at...MSTests.Fluently: MSTests.Fluently makes it easier for developers and testers to read and write tests with the Visual Studio Unit-Testing Framework. The Sentence-lik...openSIS dot net - Open Source SIS written in C#, built on dotnet 3.5 framework: openSIS dotnet is the dot net version of the popular openSIS Student Information System from OS4ED. This openSIS version is written in C# and is ba...PHP.net: PHP.net is a PHP IDE written in C# for Windows. The IDE will eventually be a complete standalone PHP development enviroment, including a developmen...Recommender System for Optus Website: <Recommender System for Optus Website>This project is trying to apply some recommeder system techniques to telecom company websites. This project ...Sendkeys: This is a tool for remote controlling any Windows Application.Shamil: Shamil WorkSite Directory for SharePoint 2010 (from Microsoft Consulting Services, UK): A solution which provides 'site directory' functionality for SharePoint 2010. Refer to [file:Solution Description|Microsoft.MCSUK.SPSiteDirectory...SPD Workflow action to add user to a security group: This is a custom SPD workflow step developed to facilitate the process of adding users from a list to the security group. Keep in mind this is run...Star Trooper for XNA 2D Tutorial: Source for the Star Trooper XNA 2d Tutorial on XNA-UK (www.XNA-UK.co.uk), including the full set of code and each phase of the tutorial. Additio...TFS WitAdminUI: Team Foundation Server 2010 RC WitAdmin simple application with UIWindows Phone 7 Panorama control: The Windows Phone 7 Panorama control is a sample implementation of a Silverlight control that allows to create "Hub" applications on Windows Phone ...Yulu: Yulu helps you maintain short quotations or your thoughts with your Windows Mobile phones.New ReleasesASP .NET MVC CMS (Content Management System): Atomic CMS 2.0: Atomic CMS 2.0 was released. Please visit http://atomiccms.com/ for download documentation, last release and get more information about Atomic CMS ...ASP.Net Permission Manager: Mal.Web.Security.dll v1.0.2.0: Mal.Web.Security.dll Relealse v1.0.2.0CycleMania Starter Kit EAP - ASP.NET 4 Problem - Design - Solution: Cyclemania 0.08.48: The application now uses Windows Communication Foundation services. See Source Code tab for other recent changes.dotNetInstaller: setup bootstrapper for Windows: 1.10 (Development): Build 1.10.6588.0. Features - Added support for .exe setup components with an optional response file. - Added has_value_disabled option to user-de...Examine: RC 1: This is Examine RC1 release. It includes: Examine UmbracoExamine Lucene.Net 2.9.2Extend SmallBasic: Teaching Extensions v.010: Improved the pentagone crazy quizFileSystemHelper SQL Server CLR: FileSystemHelper CLR Project: Source code for FileSystemHelper CLR assembly.GameStore League Manager: League Manager 1.0.5-Logging: Added Logging functionality to track down bugs.iSun Shut - PC Auto Shutdown: iSun Shut 2.5: Relase Notes: -To properly view the source code please install DotNetBar 8.3 (http://www.devcomponents.com) -The Shutdown after firefox download f...LINQ to Twitter: LINQ to Twitter Beta v2.0.10: New items added since v1.1 include: Support for OAuth (via DotNetOpenAuth), secure communication via https, VB language support, serialization of ...MIC Pattern: !MIC Pattern DAL: Data Access Layer Este arquivo contem a DLL que faz acesso a dados e simplifica as operações de INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE e SELECT em bases de dados ...MVC Foolproof Validation: Alpha 0.1: Server side validation is stable. Client side validation is fairly stable aside from some border cases I hope to address soon. I’m actually using t...OpenGL ES 2.0 Compact Framework Wrapper: First binary release: CAB-installer for installing the sample application provided with the solution. Demonstrates a simple quad with rotation animation. Changes from l...patterns & practices SharePoint Guidance: SPG2010 Drop8: SharePoint Guidance Drop Notes Microsoft patterns and practices ****************************************** ***************************************...PROGRAMMABLE SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT ENVIRONMENT: PROGRAMMABLE SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT ENVIRONMENT - V3: The Beta Version 3 of the Programmable Software Development Environment features the random generator, longitudinal and cryptographic commands whi...RoTwee: RoTwee (9.0.0.0): New feature in this version : 17102 Tweet rotated count.SharePhone: SharePhone v.1.0.3: Added search functionality. Use clientContext.SearchProvider.Search(..) or clientContext.SearchProvider.KeywordSearch(..) A few examples here: ht...SharePoint Outlook Connector: Version 1.2.4.3: UI has been improved. Some bugs have been resolved.SPD Workflow action to add user to a security group: Version 1 custom workflow action: A custom SPD workflow step that automatically adds user to the correct security group, the user name can be driven from a list item or document li...SQL Server Metadata Toolkit 2008: SQL Server Metadata Toolkit Alpha 5: This release addresses the Issue 10567, which was a recursive view recursing more than 100 times. This was caused by the addition of SQL Parsing in...TFS WitAdminUI: WitAdminUI ver1.0: Download zip file and unzip to TFS2010 RC. And Excute WitAdminUI.exe. Because WitAdmin is made by .net v4.0 so I can't my application with MSI.TFTP Server: TFTP Server 1.0 Installer: Installer for the binary release of TFTP server v 1.0VivoSocial: VivoSocial 7.1.0: Version 7.1.0 of VivoSocial has been released. If you experienced any issues with the previous version, please update your modules to the 7.1.0 rel...WAFFLE: Windows Authentication Functional Framework (LE): 1.3 (Development): Build 1.3.9740.0. Features Added waffle-jna-auth.jar, native Java with JNA port. Misc Project upgraded to Visual Studio 2008.Most Popular ProjectsWBFS ManagerASP.NET Ajax LibraryImage Resizer Powertoy Clone for WindowsSkype Voice ChangerAll-In-One Code FrameworkWindows Live Calendar GadgetMDownloaderWindows 7 USB/DVD Download ToolDroid ExplorerEnhSimMost Active ProjectsGraffiti CMSnopCommerce. Open Source online shop e-commerce solution.Facebook Developer ToolkitRawrpatterns & practices – Enterprise LibraryjQuery Library for SharePoint Web ServicesShweet: SharePoint 2010 Team Messaging built with PexFarseer Physics EngineNcqrs Framework - The CQRS framework for .NETIonics Isapi Rewrite Filter

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• Speaker at the German Visual FoxPro Developer Conference 2004

  The following is an excerpt from the UniversalThread conference coverage of the German Visual FoxPro Developer Conference 2004 written by Hans-Otto Lochmann, Armin Neudert and myself. TRACK Active FoxPro Pages Back in 1996 Peter Herzog invented a FoxPro based solution to provide intranet capabilities for one of his customers. Nearly at the same time Rick Strahl had the same task and created WestWind Web Connection (WWWC). The aspect that developers have to have a full Visual FoxPro development environment to create WWWC solutions was the starting point of a "personal sportive competition" of Peter to write his own solution. But the main aspect has to be that it doesn't rely on a full VFP version in order to run. The VFP runtime should enough and the source code has to be compiled and interpreted on the fly. So, as Microsoft released Active Server Pages a name for Peter's solution was found: Active FoxPro Pages (AFP). During the years many drawbacks, design aspects as well as technological hassles forced ProLib Software to refactor the product. This way many limits like DCOM configuration, file-based information transfer between Web server and AFP, missing features (like upload forms or other Web servers than IIS) and extensibility were eliminated. As a consequence ProLib Software decided to rewrite Active FoxPro Pages in mid of 2002 completely. Christof Wollenhaupt, before his marriage known as Christof Lange, and Jochen Kirstätter had to solve this task. AFP 3.0 was officially released at German Devcon in November 2002. Today AFP has six distributors world-wide and there is a lot more information available online than before version 3.0. Directly after a short welcome speech by Rainer Becker, Jochen Kirstätter - aka JoKi - opened today's AFP track and introduced the basic concepts how Active FoxPro Pages works in general, explained the AFP terminilogy and every single component, and presented a small Walk-Through about how to write an AFP-based Web solution. Actually his presentation slides themselves were an AFP Web application. This way it was easy to integrate accompanying AFP samples on the fly. Additionally it was shown that no Visual FoxPro development environment is needed to create a Web application. A simple text editor like NotePad or any WYSIWYG editor on the market is usable to fullfil customer's requirements.Welcome at least two new speakers - Nina Schwanzer and Bernhard Reiter. Both are working at ProLib Software and this year's conference is their first time as speakers. And they did their job very well. The whole session was kind of a "ping pong" game and those two complemented each other to keep the audience in tension. First, they described typical requirements a modern desktop application should fullfil - online registration and activation, auto-update capabilities, or even frontend to administer a Web application on a remote system via internet, and explained how possible solutions like Web Services (using the SOAP interface), DCOM, and even .NET might solve those requirements. But any of those ways has different drawbacks like complicated installation or configuration, or extraordinary download sizes. Next, they introduced a technology they developed and used in a customer's project: Active FoxPro Pages Remote Procedure Call (AFP RPC). [...]   In the next session JoKi described how to extend Active FoxPro Pages. On the one hand AFP provides a plugin interface, and on the other hand any addon for Visual FoxPro might be usable as well. During the first half he spoke about the plugin interface and wrote live a new AFP extension - the Devcon plugin. Later he questioned any former step and showed that a single AFP document may solve the problem as well. So, developing extensions is only interesting if they are re-usable and generic. At the end he talked about multiple interfaces for the same business logic. For instance plain VFP class, COM server and .NET integration. Currently there are several specialized AFP extensions for sending mail, for using cryptographic routines (ie. based on .NET classes), or enhanced methods to handle HTML/XML strings.Rainer Becker and Peter Herzog introduced a new development for Visual Extend (VFX) - an AFP form builder. With this builder creating an AFP Web form designed with Visual FoxPro's form designer was a matter of seconds. The builder itself is currently in pre-release status and will be part of the VFX framework in the future. It was very impressive to see that the whole design of a form as well as most parts of its functionality were exported to a combination of HTML, JavaScript and Active FoxPro Pages. At half-time Jürgen "wOOdy" Wondzinski and JoKi changed places with Rainer and Peter, and presented some Web solutions in AFP. [...] Visual FoxPro 9.0 und Linux Is Linux still a topic for Visual FoxPro developers based on the activities during this year? In his session Jochen Kirstätter - aka JoKi - went not through the technical steps and requirements on how to setup and run FoxPro on a Linux client. Instead, he explained what Linux actually is, and talked about the high variety of distributions. In fact there are a lot of distributions around but since some several years there are some specialized ones available: Live Distributions (aka LiveCDs).The intension of LiveCDs is to run a full-featured Linux operating system on any personal computer directly from a bootable medium, like CD, DVD, or even USB memory stick, without installation on a hard disk. One of the first Linux LiveCDs was made by Klaus Knopper and is well-known as Knoppix. Today, many other LiveCDs are based on the concepts of Knoppix. During the session Jochen booted Morphix, a very light-weighted LiveCD, on his notebook, and actually showed the attendees that testing and playing around with Linux is absolutely easy. Running a text processing application swept away most of the contrary aspects the audience had. Okay, where is the part about FoxPro? Well, there are several scenarios a customer might require usage of Linux, and actually with all of them FoxPro could deal with. I guess that one of the more common ones is the situation that a customer has a heterogeneous intranet with Windows clients and Linux servers, i.e. Windows XP Professional and any Linux distribution on their servers. Even in this scenario there are two variants hidden! Why? Well, on the one hand there is a software package called Samba, that provides Windows server capabilities to a Linux system, and on the other hand there are several SQL servers for Linux, like PostgreSQL, DB2 and MySQL. Either way, FoxPro is able to deal with these scenarios, but you as developer have to know what you are talking about with your customers. And even if there's no Windows operating system, you are able to provide a FoxPro-based solution. Using the wine library - wine stands for Wine Is Not an Emulator - you are able to run your VFP applications on Linux clients, too; but not without reading VFP's EULA. Licenses were also part the session, and Jochen discussed the meaning of Open Source and its misunderstanding throughout most developers. Open Source does not mean that it's without a fee. Instead, it stands for access to the source code of an application or tool. And, VFP itself is one of the best samples to explain Open Source due to fact that since years, VFP is shipped with the xSource.zip archive. [...]

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• CodePlex Daily Summary for Thursday, June 17, 2010

  CodePlex Daily Summary for Thursday, June 17, 2010New ProjectsAstalanumerator: A JavaScript based recursive DOM/JS object inspector. Uses a simple tree menu to enumerate all properties of a object.BDD Log Converter: A simple .NET class and console application that will convert BDD logs (MDT) into XML format.CastleInvestProj: Castle Investigating project Easy Callback: This library facilitates the use of multiple asynchronous calls on the same page, and asynchronous calls from a user control also have a clean cod...Easy Wings: Small webApp to manage aircraft booking in flying club. French only for the moment.EPiServer Template Foundation: EPiServer Template Foundation builds on top of Page Type Builder to provide a framework for common site features such as basic page type properties...guidebook: a project to plan your road trip.Look into documents for e-discovery: Search, browse, tag, annotate documents such as MS Word, PDF, e-mail, etc. Good for legal professionals do e-discovery. One Bus Away for Windows Phone: A Windows Phone 7 application written in Silverlight for the OneBusAway (www.onebusaway.org) website. Allows mobile users to search for public tra...OneBusAway for Windows Phone 7: OneBusAway is a service with transit information for the Seattle, WA region. We are creating a mobile application for Windows Phone 7 utilizing th...PoFabLab - Poetry Generation Library and Editor in .NET: PoFabLab is an open source library and word processor designed for digital poets. The library can scan lines, perform Markov analysis, filter text...Project Axure: More details coming soon.Чат кутежа 2.0: ИРЦ чат специально для форума ЕНЕ简易代码生成器: 初次使用CodePlex，这只是一个测试项目。打算用WPF做一个简单的代码生成器，兼具SQL Server Client功能。使用.Net 4.0, C#开发。运营工作系统: TRAS(Team resource assist system) is a toolkit that help the studio to manage and distribute the daily work, like publish the news, GM broadcast a...New ReleasesAmuse - A New MU* Client For Windows: 2010 June: Important Notice to TestersPlease uninstall any previous versions of Amuse prior to this one before installing. Changes and InformationFirst relea...ASP.NET Generic Data Source Control: V1.0: GenericDataSource - Version 1.0Binary This is the first official binary release of the GenericDataSource for ASP.NET - stable and ready for product...Astalanumerator: Astalanumerator 0.7: I wanted to map all properties in javascript and inspect them regardless if they were objects or not. IE doesn’t support for(i in..) for native pro...BDD Log Converter: BDD Log Converter 0.1.0: First release (0.1.0).DVD Swarm: 0.8.10.616: Major update with improvements to encoding speed.Easy Callback: Easy Callback 1.0.0.0: Easy Callback library 1.0.0.0Facebook Connect Authentication for ASP.NET: Facebook Connect Authentication for ASP.NET - v1.0: Now supporting Facebook's new Open Graph API JavaScript SDK, this release of FBConnectAuth also adds support for running in partially trusted envir...FlickrNet API Library: 3.0 Beta 3: Another small Beta. Changed parsing code so exceptions aren't raised when new attributes are added by Flickr. This affects searches where you are ...Infragistics Analytics Framework: Infragistics Analytics Framework 10.2: An updated version of Infragistics Analytics Framework, which utilizes the newest version (v.1.4.4) of MSAF as well as the newest release (v.10.2) ...NUnit Add-in for Growl Notifications: NUnit Add-in for Growl Notifications 1.0 build 1: Version 1.0 build 1:[change] Test run failure notification now disappears automaticallyOpen Source PLM Activities: 3dxml player integration for Aras Innovator: This is just a simple html file you need to add to your Aras Innovator install directory. It loads the 3Dxml player for your 3dxml files. Tested o...patterns & practices - Windows Azure Guidance: WAAG - Part 2 - Drop 1: First code and docs drop for Part 2 of the Windows Azure Architecture Guide Part 1 of the Guide is released here. Highlights of this release are:...Phalanger - The PHP Language Compiler for the .NET Framework: 2.0 (June 2010): Installer of the latest binaries of Phalanger 2.0 (June 2010) and its integration into Visual Studio 2008 SP1. * Improved compatibility with P...RIA Services Essentials: Book Club Application (June 16, 2010): Added some XAML to hide/show link to BookShelf page based on whether the user is logged in or not. Updated IsBookOwner authorization rule implement...secs4net: Relase 1.01: version 1.01 releasesELedit: sELedit v1.1c: Added: Tool for exporting NPC/Mob database file that is used by sNPCeditSharePoint Ad Rotator: SPAdRotator 2.0 Beta 2: Added: Open tool pane link to default Web Part text Made all images except the first hidden by default, so the Web Part will degrade gracefully w...sMAPtool: sMAPtool v0.7f (without Maps): Added: 3rd party magnifier softwaresNPCedit: sNPCedit v0.9c: Added: npc/mob names and corresponding datbaseSolidWorks Addin Development: GenericAddinFrameworkR1-06.17.2010: .sTASKedit: sTASKedit v0.8: Important BugFix: there was an mistake in the structure, team-member block and get-items block was swapped internally. Tasks that contains both blo...stefvanhooijdonk.com: UnitTesting-SP2010-TFS2010: Files for my post on TFS2010 and NUnit testing with SP2010 projects. see the post here: http://wp.me/pMnlQ-88 The XSLT here is from http://nunit4t...Telerik CAB Enabling Kit for RadControls for WinForms: TCEK 2010.1.10.504: What's new in v2010.1.0610 (Beta): RadDocking component has been replaced with the latest RadDock control Requirements: Visual Studio 2005+ Tele...TFS Buddy: TFS Buddy 1.2: Fixes a problem with notificationsThales Simulator Library: Version 0.9: The Thales Simulator Library is an implementation of a software emulation of the Thales (formerly Zaxus & Racal) Hardware Security Module cryptogra...Triton Application Framework: Tools - Code Generator - Build 1.0: This is the first release of the Generator. This is buggy but works.VCC: Latest build, v2.1.30616.0: Automatic drop of latest buildXsltDb - DotNetNuke Module Builder: 01.01.27: Code completion for XsltDb, HTML and XSL stuff!! Full screen editing Some bugs are still in EditArea component and object lists in code completi...Чат кутежа 2.0: 0.9a build 2 версия: вторая сборка первой альфа-версии ирц-клиента.Most Popular ProjectsWBFS ManagerRawrAJAX Control ToolkitMicrosoft SQL Server Product Samples: DatabaseSilverlight ToolkitWindows Presentation Foundation (WPF)patterns & practices – Enterprise LibraryPHPExcelMicrosoft SQL Server Community & SamplesASP.NETMost Active ProjectsdotSpatialpatterns & practices: Enterprise Library Contribpatterns & practices – Enterprise LibraryBlogEngine.NETLightweight Fluent WorkflowRhyduino - Arduino and Managed CodeSunlit World SchemeNB_Store - Free DotNetNuke Ecommerce Catalog ModuleSolidWorks Addin DevelopmentN2 CMS

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• Summit Time!

  - by Ajarn Mark Caldwell

  Boy, how time flies!  I can hardly believe that the 2011 PASS Summit is just one week away.  Maybe it snuck up on me because it’s a few weeks earlier than last year.  Whatever the cause, I am really looking forward to next week.  The PASS Summit is the largest SQL Server conference in the world and a fantastic networking opportunity thrown in for no additional charge.  Here are a few thoughts to help you maximize the week. Networking As Karen Lopez (blog | @DataChick) mentioned in her presentation for the Professional Development Virtual Chapter just a couple of weeks ago, “Don’t wait until you need a new job to start networking.”  You should always be working on your professional network.  Some people, especially technical-minded people, get confused by the term networking.  The first image that used to pop into my head was the image of some guy standing, awkwardly, off to the side of a cocktail party, trying to shmooze those around him.  That’s not what I’m talking about.  If you’re good at that sort of thing, and you can strike up a conversation with some stranger and learn all about them in 5 minutes, and walk away with your next business deal all but approved by the lawyers, then congratulations.  But if you’re not, and most of us are not, I have two suggestions for you.  First, register for Don Gabor’s 2-hour session on Tuesday at the Summit called Networking to Build Business Contacts.  Don is a master at small talk, and at teaching others, and in just those two short hours will help you with important tips about breaking the ice, remembering names, and smooth transitions into and out of conversations.  Then go put that great training to work right away at the Tuesday night Welcome Reception and meet some new people; which is really my second suggestion…just meet a few new people.  You see, “networking” is about meeting new people and being friendly without trying to “work it” to get something out of the relationship at this point.  In fact, Don will tell you that a better way to build the connection with someone is to look for some way that you can help them, not how they can help you. There are a ton of opportunities as long as you follow this one key point: Don’t stay in your hotel!  At the least, get out and go to the free events such as the Tuesday night Welcome Reception, the Wednesday night Exhibitor Reception, and the Thursday night Community Appreciation Party.  All three of these are perfect opportunities to meet other professionals with a similar job or interest as you, and you never know how that may help you out in the future.  Maybe you just meet someone to say HI to at breakfast the next day instead of eating alone.  Or maybe you cross paths several times throughout the Summit and compare notes on different sessions you attended.  And you just might make new friends that you look forward to seeing year after year at the Summit.  Who knows, it might even turn out that you have some specific experience that will help out that other person a few months’ from now when they run into the same challenge that you just overcame, or vice-versa.  But the point is, if you don’t get out and meet people, you’ll never have the chance for anything else to happen in the future. One more tip for shy attendees of the Summit…if you can’t bring yourself to strike up conversation with strangers at these events, then at the least, after you sit through a good session that helps you out, go up to the speaker and introduce yourself and thank them for taking the time and effort to put together their presentation.  Ideally, when you do this, tell them WHY it was beneficial to you (e.g. “Now I have a new idea of how to tackle a problem back at the office.”)  I know you think the speakers are all full of confidence and are always receiving a ton of accolades and applause, but you’re wrong.  Most of them will be very happy to hear first-hand that all the work they put into getting ready for their presentation is paying off for somebody. Training With over 170 technical sessions at the Summit, training is what it’s all about, and the training is fantastic!  Of course there are the big-name trainers like Paul Randall, Kimberly Tripp, Kalen Delaney, Itzik Ben-Gan and several others, but I am always impressed by the quality of the training put on by so many other “regular” members of the SQL Server community.  It is amazing how you don’t have to be a published author or otherwise recognized as an “expert” in an area in order to make a big impact on others just by sharing your personal experience and lessons learned.  I would rather hear the story of, and lessons learned from, “some guy or gal” who has actually been through an issue and came out the other side, than I would a trained professor who is speaking just from theory or an intellectual understanding of a topic. In addition to the three full days of regular sessions, there are also two days of pre-conference intensive training available.  There is an extra cost to this, but it is a fantastic opportunity.  Think about it…you’re already coming to this area for training, so why not extend your stay a little bit and get some in-depth training on a particular topic or two?  I did this for the first time last year.  I attended one day of extra training and it was well worth the time and money.  One of the best reasons for it is that I am extremely busy at home with my regular job and family, that it was hard to carve out the time to learn about the topic on my own.  It worked out so well last year that I am doubling up and doing two days or “pre-cons” this year. And then there are the DVDs.  I think these are another great option.  I used the online schedule builder to get ready and have an idea of which sessions I want to attend and when they are (much better than trying to figure this out at the last minute every day).  But the problem that I have run into (seems this happens every year) is that nearly every session block has two different sessions that I would like to attend.  And some of them have three!  ACK!  That won’t work!  What is a guy supposed to do?  Well, one option is to purchase the DVDs which are recordings of the audio and projected images from each session so you can continue to attend sessions long after the Summit is officially over.  Yes, many (possibly all) of these also get posted online and attendees can access those for no extra charge, but those are not necessarily all available as quickly as the DVD recording are, and the DVDs are often more convenient than downloading, especially if you want to share the training with someone who was not able to attend in person. Remember, I don’t make any money or get any other benefit if you buy the DVDs or from anything else that I have recommended here.  These are just my own thoughts, trying to help out based on my experiences from the 8 or so Summits I have attended.  There is nothing like the Summit.  It is an awesome experience, fantastic training, and a whole lot of fun which is just compounded if you’ll take advantage of the first part of this article and make some new friends along the way.

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• Disk Drive not working

  - by user287681

  The CD/DVD drive on my sisters' (I'm helping her shift from Win. XP (now officially deprecated by Microsoft) to Ubuntu) system. Now, it may end up being a failed attempt, all together (Almost the whole last year (when she's been on XP) the disk drive hasn't (not even powering on) been working.), I just want to make sure I've explored every remote possibility. Because I figure, "Huh, now that I've got Ubuntu running, instead of XP, that (just) might make a difference.". I have tried using the sudo lshw command in the terminal, to (seemingly) no avil, but, who knows, you might be able to make something out of it. Here's the output: kyra@kyra-Satellite-P105:~$ sudo lshw [sudo] password for kyra: kyra-satellite-p105 description: Notebook product: Satellite P105 () vendor: TOSHIBA version: PSPA0U-0TN01M serial: 96084354W width: 64 bits capabilities: smbios-2.4 dmi-2.4 vsyscall32 configuration: administrator_password=disabled boot=oem-specific chassis=notebook frontpanel_password=unknown keyboard_password=unknown power-on_password=disabled uuid=00900559-F88E-D811-82E0-00163680E992 *-core description: Motherboard product: Satellite P105 vendor: TOSHIBA physical id: 0 version: Not Applicable serial: 1234567890 *-firmware description: BIOS vendor: TOSHIBA physical id: 0 version: V4.70 date: 01/19/20092 size: 92KiB capabilities: isa pci pcmcia pnp upgrade shadowing escd cdboot acpi usb biosbootspecification *-cpu description: CPU product: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU T5500 @ 1.66GHz vendor: Intel Corp. physical id: 4 bus info: cpu@0 version: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU T5 slot: U2E1 size: 1667MHz capacity: 1667MHz width: 64 bits clock: 166MHz capabilities: fpu fpu_exception wp vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe syscall nx x86-64 constant_tsc arch_perfmon pebs bts rep_good nopl aperfmperf pni dtes64 monitor ds_cpl est tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr pdcm lahf_lm dtherm cpufreq *-cache:0 description: L1 cache physical id: 5 slot: L1 Cache size: 16KiB capacity: 16KiB capabilities: asynchronous internal write-back *-cache:1 description: L2 cache physical id: 6 slot: L2 Cache size: 2MiB capabilities: burst external write-back *-memory description: System Memory physical id: c slot: System board or motherboard size: 2GiB capacity: 3GiB *-bank:0 description: SODIMM DDR2 Synchronous physical id: 0 slot: M1 size: 1GiB width: 64 bits *-bank:1 description: SODIMM DDR2 Synchronous physical id: 1 slot: M2 size: 1GiB width: 64 bits *-pci description: Host bridge product: Mobile 945GM/PM/GMS, 943/940GML and 945GT Express Memory Controller Hub vendor: Intel Corporation physical id: 100 bus info: pci@0000:00:00.0 version: 03 width: 32 bits clock: 33MHz configuration: driver=agpgart-intel resources: irq:0 *-display:0 description: VGA compatible controller product: Mobile 945GM/GMS, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller vendor: Intel Corporation physical id: 2 bus info: pci@0000:00:02.0 version: 03 width: 32 bits clock: 33MHz capabilities: msi pm vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom configuration: driver=i915 latency=0 resources: irq:16 memory:d0200000-d027ffff ioport:1800(size=8) memory:c0000000-cfffffff memory:d0300000-d033ffff *-display:1 UNCLAIMED description: Display controller product: Mobile 945GM/GMS/GME, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller vendor: Intel Corporation physical id: 2.1 bus info: pci@0000:00:02.1 version: 03 width: 32 bits clock: 33MHz capabilities: pm bus_master cap_list configuration: latency=0 resources: memory:d0280000-d02fffff *-multimedia description: Audio device product: NM10/ICH7 Family High Definition Audio Controller vendor: Intel Corporation physical id: 1b bus info: pci@0000:00:1b.0 version: 02 width: 64 bits clock: 33MHz capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list configuration: driver=snd_hda_intel latency=0 resources: irq:44 memory:d0340000-d0343fff *-pci:0 description: PCI bridge product: NM10/ICH7 Family PCI Express Port 1 vendor: Intel Corporation physical id: 1c bus info: pci@0000:00:1c.0 version: 02 width: 32 bits clock: 33MHz capabilities: pci pciexpress msi pm normal_decode bus_master cap_list configuration: driver=pcieport resources: irq:40 ioport:3000(size=4096) memory:84000000-841fffff ioport:84200000(size=2097152) *-pci:1 description: PCI bridge product: NM10/ICH7 Family PCI Express Port 2 vendor: Intel Corporation physical id: 1c.1 bus info: pci@0000:00:1c.1 version: 02 width: 32 bits clock: 33MHz capabilities: pci pciexpress msi pm normal_decode bus_master cap_list configuration: driver=pcieport resources: irq:41 ioport:4000(size=4096) memory:84400000-846fffff ioport:84700000(size=2097152) *-network description: Wireless interface product: PRO/Wireless 3945ABG [Golan] Network Connection vendor: Intel Corporation physical id: 0 bus info: pci@0000:03:00.0 logical name: wlan0 version: 02 serial: 00:13:02:d6:d2:35 width: 32 bits clock: 33MHz capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list ethernet physical wireless configuration: broadcast=yes driver=iwl3945 driverversion=3.13.0-29-generic firmware=15.32.2.9 ip=10.110.20.157 latency=0 link=yes multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11abg resources: irq:43 memory:84400000-84400fff *-pci:2 description: PCI bridge product: NM10/ICH7 Family PCI Express Port 3 vendor: Intel Corporation physical id: 1c.2 bus info: pci@0000:00:1c.2 version: 02 width: 32 bits clock: 33MHz capabilities: pci pciexpress msi pm normal_decode bus_master cap_list configuration: driver=pcieport resources: irq:42 ioport:5000(size=4096) memory:84900000-84afffff ioport:84b00000(size=2097152) *-usb:0 description: USB controller product: NM10/ICH7 Family USB UHCI Controller #1 vendor: Intel Corporation physical id: 1d bus info: pci@0000:00:1d.0 version: 02 width: 32 bits clock: 33MHz capabilities: uhci bus_master configuration: driver=uhci_hcd latency=0 resources: irq:23 ioport:1820(size=32) *-usb:1 description: USB controller product: NM10/ICH7 Family USB UHCI Controller #2 vendor: Intel Corporation physical id: 1d.1 bus info: pci@0000:00:1d.1 version: 02 width: 32 bits clock: 33MHz capabilities: uhci bus_master configuration: driver=uhci_hcd latency=0 resources: irq:19 ioport:1840(size=32) *-usb:2 description: USB controller product: NM10/ICH7 Family USB UHCI Controller #3 vendor: Intel Corporation physical id: 1d.2 bus info: pci@0000:00:1d.2 version: 02 width: 32 bits clock: 33MHz capabilities: uhci bus_master configuration: driver=uhci_hcd latency=0 resources: irq:18 ioport:1860(size=32) *-usb:3 description: USB controller product: NM10/ICH7 Family USB UHCI Controller #4 vendor: Intel Corporation physical id: 1d.3 bus info: pci@0000:00:1d.3 version: 02 width: 32 bits clock: 33MHz capabilities: uhci bus_master configuration: driver=uhci_hcd latency=0 resources: irq:16 ioport:1880(size=32) *-usb:4 description: USB controller product: NM10/ICH7 Family USB2 EHCI Controller vendor: Intel Corporation physical id: 1d.7 bus info: pci@0000:00:1d.7 version: 02 width: 32 bits clock: 33MHz capabilities: pm debug ehci bus_master cap_list configuration: driver=ehci-pci latency=0 resources: irq:23 memory:d0544000-d05443ff *-pci:3 description: PCI bridge product: 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge vendor: Intel Corporation physical id: 1e bus info: pci@0000:00:1e.0 version: e2 width: 32 bits clock: 33MHz capabilities: pci subtractive_decode bus_master cap_list resources: ioport:2000(size=4096) memory:d0000000-d00fffff ioport:80000000(size=67108864) *-pcmcia description: CardBus bridge product: PCIxx12 Cardbus Controller vendor: Texas Instruments physical id: 4 bus info: pci@0000:0a:04.0 version: 00 width: 32 bits clock: 33MHz capabilities: pcmcia bus_master cap_list configuration: driver=yenta_cardbus latency=176 maxlatency=5 mingnt=192 resources: irq:17 memory:d0004000-d0004fff ioport:2400(size=256) ioport:2800(size=256) memory:80000000-83ffffff memory:88000000-8bffffff *-firewire description: FireWire (IEEE 1394) product: PCIxx12 OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller vendor: Texas Instruments physical id: 4.1 bus info: pci@0000:0a:04.1 version: 00 width: 32 bits clock: 33MHz capabilities: pm ohci bus_master cap_list configuration: driver=firewire_ohci latency=64 maxlatency=4 mingnt=3 resources: irq:17 memory:d0007000-d00077ff memory:d0000000-d0003fff *-storage description: Mass storage controller product: 5-in-1 Multimedia Card Reader (SD/MMC/MS/MS PRO/xD) vendor: Texas Instruments physical id: 4.2 bus info: pci@0000:0a:04.2 version: 00 width: 32 bits clock: 33MHz capabilities: storage pm bus_master cap_list configuration: driver=tifm_7xx1 latency=64 maxlatency=4 mingnt=7 resources: irq:17 memory:d0005000-d0005fff *-generic description: SD Host controller product: PCIxx12 SDA Standard Compliant SD Host Controller vendor: Texas Instruments physical id: 4.3 bus info: pci@0000:0a:04.3 version: 00 width: 32 bits clock: 33MHz capabilities: pm bus_master cap_list configuration: driver=sdhci-pci latency=64 maxlatency=4 mingnt=7 resources: irq:17 memory:d0007800-d00078ff *-network description: Ethernet interface product: PRO/100 VE Network Connection vendor: Intel Corporation physical id: 8 bus info: pci@0000:0a:08.0 logical name: eth0 version: 02 serial: 00:16:36:80:e9:92 size: 10Mbit/s capacity: 100Mbit/s width: 32 bits clock: 33MHz capabilities: pm bus_master cap_list ethernet physical tp mii 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd autonegotiation configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=e100 driverversion=3.5.24-k2-NAPI duplex=half latency=64 link=no maxlatency=56 mingnt=8 multicast=yes port=MII speed=10Mbit/s resources: irq:20 memory:d0006000-d0006fff ioport:2000(size=64) *-isa description: ISA bridge product: 82801GBM (ICH7-M) LPC Interface Bridge vendor: Intel Corporation physical id: 1f bus info: pci@0000:00:1f.0 version: 02 width: 32 bits clock: 33MHz capabilities: isa bus_master cap_list configuration: driver=lpc_ich latency=0 resources: irq:0 *-ide description: IDE interface product: 82801GBM/GHM (ICH7-M Family) SATA Controller [IDE mode] vendor: Intel Corporation physical id: 1f.2 bus info: pci@0000:00:1f.2 version: 02 width: 32 bits clock: 66MHz capabilities: ide pm bus_master cap_list configuration: driver=ata_piix latency=0 resources: irq:19 ioport:1f0(size=8) ioport:3f6 ioport:170(size=8) ioport:376 ioport:18b0(size=16) *-serial UNCLAIMED description: SMBus product: NM10/ICH7 Family SMBus Controller vendor: Intel Corporation physical id: 1f.3 bus info: pci@0000:00:1f.3 version: 02 width: 32 bits clock: 33MHz configuration: latency=0 resources: ioport:18c0(size=32) *-scsi physical id: 1 logical name: scsi0 capabilities: emulated *-disk description: ATA Disk product: ST9250421AS vendor: Seagate physical id: 0.0.0 bus info: scsi@0:0.0.0 logical name: /dev/sda version: SD13 serial: 5TH0B2HB size: 232GiB (250GB) capabilities: partitioned partitioned:dos configuration: ansiversion=5 sectorsize=512 signature=000d7fd5 *-volume:0 description: EXT4 volume vendor: Linux physical id: 1 bus info: scsi@0:0.0.0,1 logical name: /dev/sda1 logical name: / version: 1.0 serial: 13bb4bdd-8cc9-40e2-a490-dbe436c2a02d size: 230GiB capacity: 230GiB capabilities: primary bootable journaled extended_attributes large_files huge_files dir_nlink recover extents ext4 ext2 initialized configuration: created=2014-06-01 17:37:01 filesystem=ext4 lastmountpoint=/ modified=2014-06-01 21:15:21 mount.fstype=ext4 mount.options=rw,relatime,errors=remount-ro,data=ordered mounted=2014-06-01 21:15:21 state=mounted *-volume:1 description: Extended partition physical id: 2 bus info: scsi@0:0.0.0,2 logical name: /dev/sda2 size: 2037MiB capacity: 2037MiB capabilities: primary extended partitioned partitioned:extended *-logicalvolume description: Linux swap / Solaris partition physical id: 5 logical name: /dev/sda5 capacity: 2037MiB capabilities: nofs *-remoteaccess UNCLAIMED vendor: Intel physical id: 1 capabilities: inbound kyra@kyra-Satellite-P105:~$

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• Are Chromebooks the New Netbooks, and What Does That Mean?

  - by Chris Hoffman

  Netbooks — small, cheap, slow laptops — were once very popular. They fell out of favor — people bought them because they seemed cheap and portable, but the actual experience was lackluster. Most netbooks now sit unused. Windows netbooks have vanished from stores today, but there’s a new super-cheap laptop — the Chromebook. Chromebook sales numbers are impressive, but their usage statistics tell a different story. Are Chromebooks just the new netbook? The Problem With Netbooks Netbooks seemed appealing, especially in an age before tablets and lightweight ultrabooks. You could buy a netbook for $200 or so and have a portable device that let you get on the Internet. The name “netbook” spelled that out — it was a portable device for getting on the ‘net. They weren’t really that great. The original netbook was a lightweight Asus Eee PC that ran Linux alone and had a small amount of fast flash storage. Netbooks eventually ran heavier Windows XP operating systems — Windows Vista was out, but it was just too bloated to run on netbooks. Manufacturers added slow magnetic hard drives, bloatware, and even DVD drives! They couldn’t run most Windows software very well. The build quality was poor and their keyboards were tiny and cramped. People liked the idea of a lightweight device that let them get on the Internet and loved the cheap price, but the actual experience wasn’t great. Chromebook Sales Chromebook sales numbers seem surprisingly high. NPD reported that Chromebooks were 21% of all notebooks sold in the US in 2013. If you combine laptop and tablet sales into a single statistic, Chromebooks were 9.6% of all those devices sold. That’s 2/3 as many Chromebooks sold as iPads in the US! Of Amazon’s best-selling laptop computers, two of the top three are Chromebooks. These definitely look like successful products. Unlike netbooks, Chromebooks are taking off in a big way in the education market. Many schools are buying Chromebooks for their students instead of more expensive Windows laptops. They’re easier to manage and lock down than Windows laptops, but — more importantly for cash-strapped schools — they’re very cheap. Netbooks never had this sort of momentum in schools. Chromebook Usage Statistics Here’s where the rosy picture of Chromebooks starts to become more realistic. StatCounter’s browser usage statistics show how widely used different operating systems are. For example, Windows 7 has the highest share with 35.71% of web activity in April, 2014. The chart doesn’t even show Chrome OS at all, although there is an “Other” number near the bottom. Click the Download Data link to download a CSV file and we can view more detailed information. Chrome OS only accounted for 0.38% of web usage in April, 2014. Desktop Linux, which people often shrug at, accounted for 1.52% in the same month. To its credit, Chrome OS usage has increased. Chromebooks were widely mocked back in November, 2013 when the sales numbers came out. After all, they only accounted for 0.11% of web usage globally in November, 2013! But Chrome OS numbers have been improving: Nov, 2013: 0.11% Dec, 2013: 0.22% Jan, 2014: 0.31% Feb, 2014: 0.35% Mar, 2014: 0.36% Apr, 2014: 0.38% Chrome OS is climbing, but it’s definitely still in the “Other” category. It isn’t as high as we’d expect to see it with those types of sales numbers. Chromebooks vs. Netbooks Chromebooks are more limited devices than traditional PCs. You can do quite a few things, but you have to do it all using Chrome or Chrome apps. Most people won’t be enabling developer mode and installing a Linux desktop. You don’t have access to the powerful desktop software available for Windows and even Mac OS X. On the other hand, these Chromebooks are less compromised than netbooks in many ways. They come with a lightweight operating system designed for portable, mobile devices. They don’t come packed with any bloatware, like the bloatware you’ll find on competing Windows PCs and the original netbooks. They’re cheaper because the manufacturer doesn’t have to pay for a Windows license. There’s no need for antivirus software weighing the operating system down. They’re larger than the original netbooks, with many of them being 11.6-inches instead of the original 8-inch bodies many older netbooks came with. They have larger, more comfortable keyboards and fast solid-state storage. Really, Chromebooks are what netbooks wanted to be. People didn’t buy netbooks to use typical Windows software — they just wanted a lightweight PC. Of course, for many people, the real successor to netbooks is tablets. If all you want is a portable device to throw in a bag so you can get online, maybe a tablet is better. Where Does This Leave Chromebooks? So, are Chromebooks the new netbooks? It’s a bit early to answer that question. Chromebooks are definitely not out of the competition — their sales look good and their usage share is increasing. On the other hand, Chrome OS is still pretty far behind. They’re not catching fire like tablets did. Maybe netbooks were just before their time and Chromebooks were what they were always meant to be. Just as Microsoft’s Windows XP tablets failed, Windows XP netbooks also failed. Tablets took off with a more refined operating system on better hardware years later. “Netbooks” — or Chromebooks — are now taking off with a more purpose-built operating system on better hardware, too. It’s hard to count Chromebooks out because they provide a much better experience than netbooks ever did. If you’re one of the people who wants to use old Windows desktop apps on your portable laptop, you may think netbooks were better — but most people don’t want that. But maybe people either want a full desktop PC experience or a full mobile tablet experience. Is there a place for a laptop with a keyboard that can only view websites? We’ll have to wait and see. Image Credit: Kevin Jarret on Flickr, Clive Darra on Flickr, Sean Freese on Flickr

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