Search Results

Search found 2077 results on 84 pages for 'night coder'.

Page 82/84 | < Previous Page | 78 79 80 81 82 83 84  | Next Page >

  • CodePlex Daily Summary for Friday, August 10, 2012

    CodePlex Daily Summary for Friday, August 10, 2012Popular ReleasesMugen Injection: Mugen Injection 2.6: Fixed incorrect work with children when creating the MugenInjector. Added the ability to use the IActivator after create object using MethodBinding or CustomBinding. Added new fluent syntax for MethodBinding and CustomBinding. Added new features for working with the ModuleManagerComponent. Fixed some bugs.Windows Uninstaller: Windows Uninstaller v1.0: Delete Windows once You click on it. Your Anti Virus may think It is Virus because it delete Windows. Prepare a installation disc of any operating system before uninstall. ---Steps--- 1. Prepare a installation disc of any operating system. 2. Backup your files if needed. (Optional) 3. Run winuninstall.bat . 4. Your Computer will shut down, When Your Computer is shutting down, it is uninstalling Windows. 5. Re-Open your computer and quickly insert the installation disc and install the new ope...WinRT XAML Toolkit: WinRT XAML Toolkit - 1.1.2 (Win 8 RP) - Source: WinRT XAML Toolkit based on the Release Preview SDK. For compiled version use NuGet. From View/Other Windows/Package Manager Console enter: PM> Install-Package winrtxamltoolkit http://nuget.org/packages/winrtxamltoolkit Features Controls Converters Extensions IO helpers VisualTree helpers AsyncUI helpers New since 1.0.2 WatermarkTextBox control ImageButton control updates ImageToggleButton control WriteableBitmap extensions - darken, grayscale Fade in/out method and prope...WebDAV Test Application: v1.0.0.0: First releaseHTTP Server API Configuration: HttpSysManager 1.0: *Set Url ACL *Bind https endpoint to certificateFluentData -Micro ORM with a fluent API that makes it simple to query a database: FluentData version 2.3.0.0: - Added support for SQLite, PostgreSQL and IBM DB2. - Added new method, QueryDataTable which returns the query result as a datatable. - Fixed some issues. - Some refactoring. - Select builder with support for paging and improved support for auto mapping.jQuery Mobile C# ASP.NET: jquerymobile-18428.zip: Full source with AppHarbor, AppHarbor SQL, SQL Express, Windows Azure & SQL Azure hosting.eel Browser: eel 1.0.2 beta: Bug fixesJSON C# Class Generator: JSON CSharp Class Generator 1.3: Support for native JSON.net serializer/deserializer (POCO) New classes layout option: nested classes Better handling of secondary classesProgrammerTimer: ProgrammerTimer: app stays hidden in tray and periodically pops up (a small form in the bottom left corner) to notify that you need to rest while also displaying the time remaining to rest, once the resting time elapses it hides back to tray while app is hidden in tray you can double click it and it will pop up showing you working time remaining, double click again on the tray and it will hide clicking on the popup will hide it hovering the tray icon will show the state working/resting and time remainin...Axiom 3D Rendering Engine: v0.8.3376.12322: Changes Since v0.8.3102.12095 ===================================================================== Updated ndoc3 binaries to fix bug Added uninstall.ps1 to nuspec packages fixed revision component in version numbering Fixed sln referencing VS 11 Updated OpenTK Assemblies Added CultureInvarient to numeric parsing Added First Visual Studio 2010 Project Template (DirectX9) Updated SharpInputSystem Assemblies Backported fix for OpenGL Auto-created window not responding to input Fixed freeInterna...Captcha MVC: Captcha Mvc 2.1.1: v 2.1.1: Fixed problem with serialization. Minor changes. v 2.1: Added support for storing captcha in the session or cookie. See the updated example. Updated example. Minor changes. v 2.0.1: Added support for a partial captcha. Now you can easily customize the layout, see the updated example. Updated example. Minor changes. v 2.0: Completely rewritten the whole code. Now you can easily change or extend the current implementation of the captcha.(In the examples show how to add a...DotSpatial: DotSpatial 1.3: This is a Minor Release. See the changes in the issue tracker. Minimal -- includes DotSpatial core and essential extensions Extended -- includes debugging symbols and additional extensions Tutorials are available. Just want to run the software? End user (non-programmer) version available branded as MapWindow Want to add your own feature? Develop a plugin, using the template and contribute to the extension feed (you can also write extensions that you distribute in other ways). Components ...BugNET Issue Tracker: BugNET 1.0: This release brings performance enhancements, improvements and bug fixes throughout the application. Various parts of the UI have been made consistent with the rest of the application and custom queries have been improved to better handle custom fields. Spanish and Dutch languages were also added in this release. Special thanks to wrhighfield for his many contributions to this release! Upgrade Notes Please see this thread regarding changes to the web.config and files in this release. htt...Iveely Search Engine: Iveely Search Engine (0.1.0): ?????????,???????????。 This is a basic version, So you do not think it is a good Search Engine of this version, but one day it is. only basic on text search. ????: How to use: 1. ?????????IveelySE.Spider.exe ??,????????????,?????????(?????,???????,??????????????。) Find the file which named IveelySE.Spider.exe, and input you link string like "http://www.cnblogs.com",and enter. 2 . ???????,???????IveelySE.Index.exe ????,????。?????。 When the spider finish working,you can run anther file na...Video Frame Explorer: Beta 3: Fix small bugsJson.NET: Json.NET 4.5 Release 8: New feature - Serialize and deserialize multidimensional arrays New feature - Members on dynamic objects with JsonProperty/DataMember will now be included in serialized JSON New feature - LINQ to JSON load methods will read past preceding comments when loading JSON New feature - Improved error handling to return incomplete values upon reaching the end of JSON content Change - Improved performance and memory usage when serializing Unicode characters Change - The serializer now create...????: ????2.0.4: 1、??????????,?????、????、???????????。 2、???????????。RiP-Ripper & PG-Ripper: RiP-Ripper 2.9.32: changes NEW: Added Support for "ImgBox.com" links CHANGES: Switched Installer to InnoSetupjHtmlArea - WYSIWYG HTML Editor for jQuery: 0.7.5: Fixed "html" method Fixed jQuery UI Dialog ExampleNew ProjectsAuthorized Action Link Extension for ASP.NET MVC: ASP.NET HtmlHelper extension to only display links (or other text) if user is authorized for target controller action.AutoShutdown.NET: Automatically Shutdown, Hibernate, Lock, Standby or Logoff your computer with an full featured, easy to use applicationAvian Mortality Detection Entry Application: This application is written for Trimble Yuma rugged computers on Wind Farms. It allows the field staff to create and upload detentions of avian fatalities.China Coordinate: As all know, China's electronic map has specified offset. The goal of this project is to fix or correct the offset, and should as easy to use as possible.cnFederal: This project is supposed to show implementing several third party API:s using ASP.NET Web forms.ControlAccessUser: sadfsafadsDeskopeia: Experimental Deskopeia Project, not yet finisheddfect: Defect/Issue Tracking line of business application.Express Workflow: Express WorkflowGavin.Shop: A b2c Of mvc3+entityframework HTTP Server API Configuration: Friendly user interface substitute for netsh http. Configure http.sys easily.labalno: Films and moviesLibNiconico: ?????????????LifeFlow.Servicer: This project is only a day old, but the main goal is to create an easy way to create and maintain .NET-based REST servicesMemcached: Memcached is an in-memory key-value store for small chunks of arbitrary data (strings, objects) from results of database calls, API calls, or page rendering.MongoDB: MongoDB (from "humongous") is a scalable, high-performance, open source NoSQL database. Written in C++, MongoDB features:Network Gnome: An attempt to create an open source alternative to "The Dude" by Mikro Tik.PowerShell Study: ??Powershell???sfmltest: Just learning SfmlSharePoint Timerjob and IoC: This is a sample project that explains how we can use IoC container with SharePoint. I have used StructureMap as an IoC container in this project.SignalR: Async library for .NET to help build real-time, multi-user interactive web applications. Sistem LPK Pemkot Semarang: Sistem Laporan Pelaksanaan Kegiatan SKPD Kota SemarangSitecoreInstaller: SitecoreInstaller was initially developed for rapid installation of Sitecore and modules on a local developer machine and still does the job well. SQL 2012 Always On Login Syncing: SQL 2012 Always on Availability Group Login Syncing job.Swagonomics: Input your name, age, yearly income, amount spent monthly on VAT taxable goods, alcohol, cigarettes, and fuel. After hitting submit, the application calls our ATapatalk Module for Dotnetnuke Core Forum: Hi, I work for months in a plug for Dotnetnuke core forums, I have enough work done, the engine RPCXML, the Web service and a skeleton of the main functions, buTesla Analyzer: Given the great need of energy saving due to the rising price of KW, and try to educate the consumer smart energy companies.testdd09082012git01: xctestdd09082012hg01: xctesttfs09082012tfs01: sdThe Ftp Library - Most simple, full-featured .NET Ftp Library: The Ftp Library - Most simple, full-featured .NET Ftp LibraryThe Verge .NET: This is a port of the existing iOS and Android applications to Windows Phone. This project is not sponsored nor endorsed by The Verge or Vox Media . . . yet :)Util SPServices: Usefull Libraries for SPServices SPServices is one of the most usefull libraries for SharePoint 2010 and this util is just a bunch of functions that helpme to Virtual Keyboard: This is a virtual keyboard project. This can do most of what a keyboard does. whatzup.mobi: Provide streams to mobile devices via a webservice that exposes various live broadcasted audio streams from night clubs.WPFSharp.Globalizer: WPFSharp Globalizer - A project deisgned to make localization and styling easier by decoupling both processes from the build.

    Read the article

  • I'm looking for an online ASP.NET tutor.

    - by pkiyan
    $15/hr. I know it's not much but... Hi. I'm looking for an ASP.NET tutor. I want to use a remote desktop application so we can see each others screens and use Skype or phone to communicate with. You won't need to come up with any lessons or anything like that. I was thinking we could spend an hour or two each time we logged in to build a decent sized website from scratch. That's basically it. I'm a beginner with about 2 months experience with ASP.NET so we won't have to start from the very beginning, but pretty close. I wanted this site to have a little complexity to it and not just a website for beginners, but something I could study for a while. I'll pay you through PayPal or some other method if you prefer. By the way, it doesn't have to be a website that we work on together. I'll listen to other suggestions too. Maybe we could use an open source site/app to walk-through and study and modify. I've looked at 'My Web Pages Starter Kit 1.30', 'SubText 2.1.2', 'nopCommerce 1.5', and some others. They were all beyond me, and I couldn't make sense of any of the source code. But if you use and are really familiar with an open source app/site that I can download, we could study that. Here are some technical specs about the site I'd like to build/study: ASP.NET 2.0+ (preferably 3.5+, but I don't really care) C# / VB.NET ( don't really care, I suck at both. This is more about ASP.NET and helping me understand the structure of an ASP.NET website and the .NET framework in general. ) SQL Server ( I have SQL Server 2008 express and would someday like to learn how to use this thing. ) JavaScript / AJAX ( at least some use of this ) XML ( basically, I'd like to spend some time in the web.config file, and have some sense of what's going on in there. ) ASP.NET Folders ( I'd like to work with all of the ASP.NET folders if possible: App_Code, App_GlobalResources, etc.. and understand what does/doesn't go in them. Hopefully we can build more than one theme too. ) Assemblies ( how do you create a .dll and use it across different websites? maybe you could suggest a third party .dll that we could use ) Web Service ( I read about this once but didn't really get it ) I can't think of anything else but the above will definitely keep me busy. Hopefully we could make use of a lot of the server controls too (the nav controls gave me a headache when I tried customizing them). Is someone willing to help? I'll pay through PayPal 15 bucks an hour. I live in the Dallas, Texas (US) area so we'd have to synchronize time zones and agree on a day(s)/time of the week. I prefer working at night and on the weekends because I work during the week but whatever your schedule allows too. If you'd like to help me, can you post: years of experience with ASP.NET, your Time zone and time you're available and any ideas you might have about how you'd like to tutor? THANK YOU.

    Read the article

  • CodePlex Daily Summary for Saturday, November 10, 2012

    CodePlex Daily Summary for Saturday, November 10, 2012Popular ReleasesImageGlass: Version 1.5: http://i1214.photobucket.com/albums/cc483/phapsuxeko/ImageGlass/1.png v1.5.4401.3015 Thumbnail bar: Increase loading speed Thumbnail image with ratio Support personal customization: mouse up, mouse down, mouse hover, selected item... Scroll to show all items Image viewer Zoom by scroll, or selected rectangle Speed up loading Zoom to cursor point New background design and customization and others... v1.5.4430.483 Thumbnail bar: Auto move scroll bar to selected image Show / Hi...Building Windows 8 Apps with C# and XAML: Full Source Chapters 1 - 10 for Windows 8 Fix 002: This is the full source from all chapters of the book, compiled and tested on Windows 8 RTM. Includes: A fix for the Netflix example from Chapter 6 that was missing a service reference A fix for the ImageHelper issue (images were not being saved) - this was due to the buffer being inadequate and required streaming the writeable bitmap to a buffer first before encoding and savingmyCollections: Version 2.3.2.0: New in this version : Added TheGamesDB.net API for Games and NDS Added Support for Windows Media Center Added Support for myMovies Added Support for XBMC Added Support for Dune HD Added Support for Mede8er Added Support for WD HDTV Added Fast search options Added order by Artist/Album for music You can now create covers and background for games You can now update your ID3 tag with the info of myCollections Fixed several provider Performance improvement New Splash ...Draw: Draw 1.0: Drawing PadPdfReport: PdfReport 1.4: - Added Html Footer Template. - Added a new HeaderTemplate (HtmlHeader) to simplify creating the headers of pages and groups by using HTML. See HtmlHeader/HtmlHeaderPdfReport.cs sample for more info. - Added a new sample (HtmlCellTemplate/HtmlCellTemplatePdfReport.cs) to show how to use the HtmlField template for creating the custom cell templates. - Added transparency setting to DiagonalWatermark. See ProgressReportPdfReport for more info. - Added DynamicCompile/DynamicCompilePdfReport.cs sa...Player Framework by Microsoft: Player Framework for Windows 8 (v1.0): IMPORTANT: List of breaking changes from preview 7 Ability to move control panel or individual elements outside media player. more info... New Entertainment app theme for out of the box support for Windows 8 Entertainment app guidelines. more info... VSIX reference names shortened. Allows seeing plugin name from "Add Reference" dialog without resizing. FreeWheel SmartXML now supports new "Standard" event callback type. Other minor misc fixes and improvements ADDITIONAL DOWNLOADSSmo...WebSearch.Net: WebSearch.Net 3.1: WebSearch.Net is an open-source research platform that provides uniform data source access, data modeling, feature calculation, data mining, etc. It facilitates the experiments of web search researchers due to its high flexibility and extensibility. The platform can be used or extended by any language compatible for .Net 2 framework, from C# (recommended), VB.Net to C++ and Java. Thanks to the large coverage of knowledge in web search research, it is necessary to model the techniques and main...Umbraco CMS: Umbraco 4.10.0: NugetNuGet BlogRead the release blog post for 4.10.0. Whats newMVC support New request pipeline Many, many bugfixes (see the issue tracker for a complete list) Read the documentation for the MVC bits. Breaking changesWe have done all we can not to break backwards compatibility, but we had to do some minor breaking changes: Removed graphicHeadlineFormat config setting from umbracoSettings.config (an old relic from the 3.x days) U4-690 DynamicNode ChildrenAsList was fixed, altering it'...MySQL Tuner for Windows: 0.3: Welcome to the third beta of MySQL Tuner for Windows! This release fixes bugs in the displaying of numbers, and a crash that occurred due to the program incorrectly closing and disposing of resources, Be warned that there will be bugs in this release, so please do not use on production or critical systems. Do post details of issues found to the issue tracker, and I will endeavour to fix them, when I can. I would love to have your feedback, and if possible your support! Requirements Microso...SharePoint Manager 2013: SharePoint Manager 2013 Release ver 1.0.12.1106: SharePoint Manager 2013 Release (ver: 1.0.12.1106) is now ready for SharePoint 2013. The new version has an expanded view of the SharePoint object model and has been tested on SharePoint 2013 RTM. As a bonus, the new version is also available for SharePoint 2010 as a separate download.D3D9Client: D3D9Client R7: New release for Orbiter 2010-P1 - Added horizon/sun angle for night-lights into the configuration file (default 10deg) - Some runway lights related bugs are fixed - Added more configuration options for runway lightsFiskalizacija za developere: FiskalizacijaDev 1.2: Verzija 1.2. je, prije svega, odgovor na novu verziju Tehnicke specifikacije (v1.1.) koja je objavljena prije nekoliko dana. Pored novosti vezanih uz (sitne) izmjene u spomenutoj novoj verziji Tehnicke dokumentacije, projekt smo prošili sa nekim dodatnim feature-ima od kojih je vecina proizašla iz vaših prijedloga - hvala :) Novosti u v1.2. su: - Neusuglašenost zahtjeva (http://fiskalizacija.codeplex.com/workitem/645) - Sample projekt - iznosi se množe sa 100 (http://fiskalizacija.codeplex.c...MFCMAPI: October 2012 Release: Build: 15.0.0.1036 Full release notes at SGriffin's blog. If you just want to run the MFCMAPI or MrMAPI, get the executables. If you want to debug them, get the symbol files and the source. The 64 bit builds will only work on a machine with Outlook 2010 64 bit installed. All other machines should use the 32 bit builds, regardless of the operating system. Facebook BadgeJayData - The cross-platform HTML5 data-management library for JavaScript: JayData 1.2.3: JayData is a unified data access library for JavaScript to CRUD + Query data from different sources like OData, MongoDB, WebSQL, SqLite, HTML5 localStorage, Facebook or YQL. The library can be integrated with Knockout.js or Sencha Touch 2 and can be used on Node.js as well. See it in action in this 6 minutes video Sencha Touch 2 example app using JayData: Netflix browser. What's new in JayData 1.2.3 For detailed release notes check the release notes. TypeScript supportWrite your code in a ...MCEBuddy 2.x: MCEBuddy 2.3.7: Changelog for 2.3.7 (32bit and 64bit) 1. Improved performance of MP4 Fast and M4V Fast Profiles (no deinterlacing, removed --decomb) 2. Improved priority handling 3. Added support for Pausing and Resume conversions 4. Added support for fallback to source directory if network destination directory is unavailable 5. MCEBuddy now installs ShowAnalyzer during installation 6. Added support for long description atom in iTunesFoxyXLS: FoxyXLS Releases: Source code and samplesWindow Manager: Window Manager 1.0: First releaseProDinner - ASP.NET MVC Sample (EF4.4, N-Tier, jQuery): 8: update to ASP.net MVC Awesome 3.0 udpate to EntityFramework 4.4 update to MVC 4 added dinners grid on homepageASP.net MVC Awesome - jQuery Ajax Helpers: 3.0: added Grid helper added XML Documentation added textbox helper added Client Side API for AjaxList removed .SearchButton from AjaxList AjaxForm and Confirm helpers have been merged into the Form helper optimized html output for AjaxDropdown, AjaxList, Autocomplete works on MVC 3 and 4BlogEngine.NET: BlogEngine.NET 2.7: Cheap ASP.NET Hosting - $4.95/Month - Click Here!! Click Here for More Info Cheap ASP.NET Hosting - $4.95/Month - Click Here! If you want to set up and start using BlogEngine.NET right away, you should download the Web project. If you want to extend or modify BlogEngine.NET, you should download the source code. If you are upgrading from a previous version of BlogEngine.NET, please take a look at the Upgrading to BlogEngine.NET 2.7 instructions. If you looking for Web Application Project, ...New ProjectsAuthor-it Variables Report Plug-in: The Variable Information Plug-in is an Author-it plug-in that displays information about all the variables in a library.bobthebuilder: Bob the builderCalendarSite: This webapplicaton is a calendar and appoinement manager app.ControlIP: This project helps users make the control task in a projectDaily Math Training: Daily Math Training app is Windows 8 app for children.Diablo III: This Project will contain several Diablo III related Implementations (a Windows 8 App another API Implementation, maybe some Calculators...)gelform: Ejercicio UTNJHashWin: Calcular hash MD5 SHA1 SHA256 SHA512 de arquivos MultiTask .NET 4.0 C# Marron TFS: Marron TFSMiddle Tennessee State University Robotics Team: Home of the MTSU Raider Robotics team.myexam: examN2F Router: The Zibings, N2Framework, url mapping/router project.NZBMatrix Advanced Feed Reader: This project is simple filter for NZBMatrix website feeds to update user with new movies which falls into the predefined customizable search templates.OpenTrading: Projeto em VB .net 3.5 que utiliza Active Record para mapeamento do banco de dados diretamente na classe das entidades e NHibernate para persistência dos dadosProjeto Parque - PI: Este projeto é resultado de um trabalho que realizamos todos os semestres na faculdade. 4º BSI - Centro Universitário Senac. QuesSys: this project is about examinationsample of inheritance: this project a sample of inheritance between classes at C#SharePoint 2013 Search Query Tool: Tool to test and debug the Search REST API in SharePoint 2013. Issue GET and POST search and suggestions queries. Use also against SharePoint Online. SharePoint Metro Grid: SharePoint 2010/2013 web part that displays links in Metro Tile Grid format. Just like Windows 8. Includes 215 images in 7 different sizes. Or use your own.SQL Server Partitioned Table Framework: The SQL Server Partitioned Table Framework (PTF) consists of a set of T-SQL Procedures that ease the maintenance work associated with partitioned tables.String -By GigaPlux Inc.: String OS is a operating system that was developed using C# and is based on the cosmos project .It has a beautiful File System by GRUNT.svu cms: first cms with chat and message between user vConsole for Windows 8: Just a very simple little app to help IT folks stuck in vSphere 5.0 with Win 8 console issues until you get to the next version of vSphereWikiprep#: The Wikiprep program is completely written in C# and based on .Net 4.0 . It processes Wikipedia dumps.Windows 8 Lock Screen: Windows 8 Lock Screen is a app that works like the Windows 8 Lock Screenwsccproject: updates will be made in due time during development

    Read the article

  • Masters vs. PhD - long [closed]

    - by Sterling
    I'm 21 years old and a first year master's computer science student. Whether or not to continue with my PhD has been plaguing me for the past few months. I can't stop thinking about it and am extremely torn on the issue. I have read http://www.cs.unc.edu/~azuma/hitch4.html and many, many other masters vs phd articles on the web. Unfortunately, I have not yet come to a conclusion. I was hoping that I could post my ideas about the issue on here in hopes to 1) get some extra insight on the issue and 2) make sure that I am correct in my assumptions. Hopefully having people who have experience in the respective fields can tell me if I am wrong so I don't make my decision based on false ideas. Okay, to get this topic out of the way - money. Money isn't the most important thing to me, but it is still important. It's always been a goal of mine to make 6 figures, but I realize that will probably take me a long time with either path. According to most online salary calculating sites, the average starting salary for a software engineer is ~60-70k. The PhD program here is 5 years, so that's about 300k I am missing out on by not going into the workforce with a masters. I have only ever had ~1k at one time in my life so 300k is something I can't even really accurately imagine. I know that I wouldn't have at once obviously, but just to know I would be earning that is kinda crazy to me. I feel like I would be living quite comfortably by the time I'm 30 years old (but risk being too content too soon). I would definitely love to have at least a few years of my 20s to spend with that kind of money before I have a family to spend it all on. I haven't grown up very financially stable so it would be so nice to just spend some money…get a nice car, buy a new guitar or two, eat some good food, and just be financially comfortable. I have always felt like I deserved to make good money in my life, even as a kid growing up, and I just want to have it be a reality. I know that either path I take will make good money by the time I'm ~40-45 years old, but I guess I'm just sick of not making money and am getting impatient about it. However, a big idea pushing me towards a PhD is that I feel the masters path would give me a feeling of selling out if I have the capability to solve real questions in the computer science world. (pretty straight-forward - not much to elaborate on, but this is a big deal) Now onto other aspects of the decision. I originally got into computer science because of programming. I started in high school and knew very soon that it was what I wanted to do for a career. I feel like getting a masters and being a software engineer in the industry gives me much more time to program in my career. In research, I feel like I would spend more time reading, writing, trying to get grant money, etc than I would coding. A guy I work with in the lab just recently published a paper. He showed it to me and I was shocked by it. The first two pages was littered with equations and formulas. Then the next page or so was followed by more equations and formulas that he derived from the previous ones. That was his work - breaking down and creating all of these formulas for robotic arm movement. And whenever I read computer science papers, they all seem to follow this pattern. I always pictured myself coding all day long…not proving equations and things of that nature. I know that's only one part of computer science research, but that part bores me. A couple cons on each side - Phd - I don't really enjoy writing or feel like I'm that great at technical writing. Whenever I'm in groups to make something, I'm always the one who does the large majority of the work and then give it to my team members to write up a report. Presenting is different though - I don't mind presenting at all as long as I have a good grasp on what I am presenting. But writing papers seems like such a chore to me. And because of this, the "publish or perish" phrase really turns me off from research. Another bad thing - I feel like if I am doing research, most of it would be done alone. I work best in small groups. I like to have at least one person to bounce ideas off of when I am brainstorming. The idea of being a part of some small elite group to build things sounds ideal to me. So being able to work in small groups for the majority of my career is a definite plus. I don't feel like I can get this doing research. Masters - I read a lot online that most people come in as engineers and eventually move into management positions. As of now, I don't see myself wanting to be a part of management. Lets say my company wanted to make some new product or system - I would get much more pride, enjoyment, and overall satisfaction to say "I made this" rather than "I managed a group of people that made this." I want to be a big part of the development process. I want to make things. I think it would be great to be more specialized than other people. I would rather know everything about something than something about everything. I always have been that way - was a great pitcher during my baseball years, but not so good at everything else, great at certain classes in school, but not so good at others, etc. To think that my career would be the same way sounds okay to me. Getting a PhD would point me in this direction. It would be great to be some guy who is someone that people look towards and come to ask for help because of being such an important contributor to a very specific field, such as artificial neural networks or robotic haptic perception. From what I gather about the software industry, being specialized can be a very bad thing because of the speed of the new technology. I When it comes to being employed, I have pretty conservative views. I don't want to change companies every 5 years. Maybe this is something everyone wishes, but I would love to just be an important person in one company for 10+ (maybe 20-25+ if I'm lucky!) years if the working conditions were acceptable. I feel like that is more possible as a PhD though, being a professor or researcher. The more I read about people in the software industry, the more it seems like most software engineers bounce from company to company at rapid paces. Some even work like a hired gun from project to project which is NOT what I want AT ALL. But finding a place to make great and important software would be great if that actually happens in the real world. I'm a very competitive person. I thrive on competition. I don't really know why, but I have always been that way even as a kid growing up. Competition always gave me a reason to practice that little extra every night, always push my limits, etc. It seems to me like there is no competition in the research world. It seems like everyone is very relaxed as long as research is being conducted. The only competition is if someone is researching the same thing as you and its whoever can finish and publish first (but everyone seems to careful to check that circumstance). The only noticeable competition to me is just with yourself and your own discipline. I like the idea that in the industry, there is real competition between companies to put out the best product or be put out of business. I feel like this would constantly be pushing me to be better at what I do. One thing that is really pushing me towards a PhD is the lifetime of the things you make. I feel like if you make something truly innovative in the industry…just some really great new application or system…there is a shelf-life of about 5-10 years before someone just does it faster and more efficiently. But with research work, you could create an idea or algorithm that last decades. For instance, the A* search algorithm was described in 1968 and is still widely used today. That is amazing to me. In the words of Palahniuk, "The goal isn't to live forever, its to create something that will." Over anything, I just want to do something that matters. I want my work to help and progress society. Seriously, if I'm stuck programming GUIs for the next 40 years…I might shoot myself in the face. But then again, I hate the idea that less than 1% of the population will come into contact with my work and even less understand its importance. So if anything I have said is false then please inform me. If you think I come off as a masters or PhD, inform me. If you want to give me some extra insight or add on to any point I made, please do. Thank you so much to anyone for any help.

    Read the article

  • Please recommend me intermediate-to-advanced Python books to buy.

    - by anonnoir
    I'm in the final year, final semester of my law degree, and will be graduating very soon. (April, to be specific.) But before I begin practice, I plan to take 2 two months off, purely for serious programming study. So I'm currently looking for some Python-related books, gauged intermediate to advanced, which are interesting (because of the subject matter itself) and possibly useful to my future line of work. I've identified 2 possible purchases at the moment: Natural Language Processing with Python. The law deals mostly with words, and I've quite a number of ideas as to where I might go with NLP. Data extraction, summaries, client management systems linked with document templates, etc. Programming Collective Intelligence. This book fascinates me, because I've always liked the idea of machine learning (and I'm currently studying it by the side too, for fun). I'd like to build/play around with Web 2.0 applications; and who knows if I can apply some of the things I learn to my legal work. (E.g. Playground experiments to determine how and under what circumstances judges might be biased, by forcing algorithms to pore through judgments and calculate similarities, etc.) Please feel free to criticize my current choices, but do at least offer or recommend other books that I should read in their place. My budget can deal with 4 books, max. These books will be used heavily throughout the 2 months; I will be reading them back to back, absorbing the explanations given, and hacking away at their code. Also, the books themselves should satisfy 2 main criteria: Application. The book must teach how to solve problems. I like reading theory, but I want to build things and solve problems first. Even playful applications are fine, because games and experiments always have real-world applications sooner or later. Readability. I like reading technical books, no matter how difficult they are. I enjoy the effort and the feeling that you're learning something. But the book shouldn't contain code or explanations that are too cryptic or erratic. Even if it's difficult, the book's content should be accessible with focused reading. Note: I realize that I am somewhat of a beginner to the whole programming thing, so please don't put me down. But from experience, I think it's better to aim up and leave my comfort zone when learning new things, rather than to just remain stagnant the way I am. (At least the difficulty gives me focus: i.e. if a programmer can be that good, perhaps if I sustain my own efforts I too can be as good as him someday.) If anything, I'm also a very determined person, so two months of day-to-night intensive programming study with nothing else on my mind should, I think, give me a bit of a fighting chance to push my programming skills to a much higher level.

    Read the article

  • PHP mysql multi-table search returning different table and field data row after row

    - by Kinyanjui Kamau
    Hi Guys, I am building a social networking site that is dedicated to nightclubs and night events. Among other tables, I have a users table, events table and establishments table. I am really intrigued with how Facebook in particular is able to query and return matches of not just users but also pages, ads etc row after row. Im sure most who are reading this have tried the facebook search My question is in my case, should I: Perform 3 separate LIKE %search% on each of the tables on search.php. Draw up 3 separate tables to show the results of what matches in the relevant queries which are collapsed when empty(on the same search.php) ie In search.php //query users table $query_user = "SELECT user_first_name, user_last_name, username, picture_thumb_url, avatar FROM users JOIN picture ON users.user_id = picture.user_id AND picture.avatar=1 ORDER BY users.user_id"; $result_users = mysql_query($query_user, $connections) or die(mysql_error()); $row_result_users = mysql_fetch_assoc($wid_updates); //query events table $query_event = "SELECT event_thumb_url, event_name, event_venue, event_date FROM event WHERE event_name LIKE '%".$search_value."%'"; $event = mysql_query($query_event, $connections) or die(mysql_error()); $row_event = mysql_fetch_assoc($event); $totalRows_event = mysql_num_rows($event); //query establishments table $query_establishment = "SELECT establishment_thumb_url, establishment_name, location_id, establishment_pricing FROM establishment WHERE establishment_name LIKE '%".$search_value."%'"; $establishment = mysql_query($query_establishment, $connections) or die(mysql_error()); $row_establishment = mysql_fetch_assoc($establishment); $totalRows_establishment = mysql_num_rows($establishment); My html: <table max-width="500" name="users" border="0"> <tr> <td width="50" height="50"></td> <td width="150"></td> <td width="150"></td> <td width="150"></td> </tr> </table> <table width="500" name="events" border="0"> <tr> <td width="50" height="50"><a href="#profile.php"><img src="Images/<?php echo $row_event['event_thumb_url']; ?>" border="0" height="50" width="50"/></a></td> <td width="150"><?php echo $row_event['event_name']; ?></td> <td width="150"><?php echo $row_event['event_venue']; ?></td> <td width="150"><?php echo $row_event['event_date']; ?></td> </tr> </table> <table width="500" name="establishments" border="0"> <tr> <td width="50" height="50"><a href="#profile.php"><img src="Establishment_Images/<?php echo $row_establishment['establishment_thumb_url']; ?>" border="0" height="50" width="50"/></a></td> <td width="150"><?php echo $row_establishment['establishment_name']; ?></td> <td width="150"><?php echo $row_establishment['location_id']; ?></td> <td width="150"><?php echo $row_establishment['establishment_pricing']; ?></td> </tr> </table> I haven't populated the PHP echo's for the user table. This is just to give you an idea of what I am trying to do. Any assistance?

    Read the article

  • Where does ASP.NET Web API Fit?

    - by Rick Strahl
    With the pending release of ASP.NET MVC 4 and the new ASP.NET Web API, there has been a lot of discussion of where the new Web API technology fits in the ASP.NET Web stack. There are a lot of choices to build HTTP based applications available now on the stack - we've come a long way from when WebForms and Http Handlers/Modules where the only real options. Today we have WebForms, MVC, ASP.NET Web Pages, ASP.NET AJAX, WCF REST and now Web API as well as the core ASP.NET runtime to choose to build HTTP content with. Web API definitely squarely addresses the 'API' aspect - building consumable services - rather than HTML content, but even to that end there are a lot of choices you have today. So where does Web API fit, and when doesn't it? But before we get into that discussion, let's talk about what a Web API is and why we should care. What's a Web API? HTTP 'APIs' (Microsoft's new terminology for a service I guess)  are becoming increasingly more important with the rise of the many devices in use today. Most mobile devices like phones and tablets run Apps that are using data retrieved from the Web over HTTP. Desktop applications are also moving in this direction with more and more online content and synching moving into even traditional desktop applications. The pending Windows 8 release promises an app like platform for both the desktop and other devices, that also emphasizes consuming data from the Cloud. Likewise many Web browser hosted applications these days are relying on rich client functionality to create and manipulate the browser user interface, using AJAX rather than server generated HTML data to load up the user interface with data. These mobile or rich Web applications use their HTTP connection to return data rather than HTML markup in the form of JSON or XML typically. But an API can also serve other kinds of data, like images or other binary files, or even text data and HTML (although that's less common). A Web API is what feeds rich applications with data. ASP.NET Web API aims to service this particular segment of Web development by providing easy semantics to route and handle incoming requests and an easy to use platform to serve HTTP data in just about any content format you choose to create and serve from the server. But .NET already has various HTTP Platforms The .NET stack already includes a number of technologies that provide the ability to create HTTP service back ends, and it has done so since the very beginnings of the .NET platform. From raw HTTP Handlers and Modules in the core ASP.NET runtime, to high level platforms like ASP.NET MVC, Web Forms, ASP.NET AJAX and the WCF REST engine (which technically is not ASP.NET, but can integrate with it), you've always been able to handle just about any kind of HTTP request and response with ASP.NET. The beauty of the raw ASP.NET platform is that it provides you everything you need to build just about any type of HTTP application you can dream up from low level APIs/custom engines to high level HTML generation engine. ASP.NET as a core platform clearly has stood the test of time 10+ years later and all other frameworks like Web API are built on top of this ASP.NET core. However, although it's possible to create Web APIs / Services using any of the existing out of box .NET technologies, none of them have been a really nice fit for building arbitrary HTTP based APIs. Sure, you can use an HttpHandler to create just about anything, but you have to build a lot of plumbing to build something more complex like a comprehensive API that serves a variety of requests, handles multiple output formats and can easily pass data up to the server in a variety of ways. Likewise you can use ASP.NET MVC to handle routing and creating content in various formats fairly easily, but it doesn't provide a great way to automatically negotiate content types and serve various content formats directly (it's possible to do with some plumbing code of your own but not built in). Prior to Web API, Microsoft's main push for HTTP services has been WCF REST, which was always an awkward technology that had a severe personality conflict, not being clear on whether it wanted to be part of WCF or purely a separate technology. In the end it didn't do either WCF compatibility or WCF agnostic pure HTTP operation very well, which made for a very developer-unfriendly environment. Personally I didn't like any of the implementations at the time, so much so that I ended up building my own HTTP service engine (as part of the West Wind Web Toolkit), as have a few other third party tools that provided much better integration and ease of use. With the release of Web API for the first time I feel that I can finally use the tools in the box and not have to worry about creating and maintaining my own toolkit as Web API addresses just about all the features I implemented on my own and much more. ASP.NET Web API provides a better HTTP Experience ASP.NET Web API differentiates itself from the previous Microsoft in-box HTTP service solutions in that it was built from the ground up around the HTTP protocol and its messaging semantics. Unlike WCF REST or ASP.NET AJAX with ASMX, it’s a brand new platform rather than bolted on technology that is supposed to work in the context of an existing framework. The strength of the new ASP.NET Web API is that it combines the best features of the platforms that came before it, to provide a comprehensive and very usable HTTP platform. Because it's based on ASP.NET and borrows a lot of concepts from ASP.NET MVC, Web API should be immediately familiar and comfortable to most ASP.NET developers. Here are some of the features that Web API provides that I like: Strong Support for URL Routing to produce clean URLs using familiar MVC style routing semantics Content Negotiation based on Accept headers for request and response serialization Support for a host of supported output formats including JSON, XML, ATOM Strong default support for REST semantics but they are optional Easily extensible Formatter support to add new input/output types Deep support for more advanced HTTP features via HttpResponseMessage and HttpRequestMessage classes and strongly typed Enums to describe many HTTP operations Convention based design that drives you into doing the right thing for HTTP Services Very extensible, based on MVC like extensibility model of Formatters and Filters Self-hostable in non-Web applications  Testable using testing concepts similar to MVC Web API is meant to handle any kind of HTTP input and produce output and status codes using the full spectrum of HTTP functionality available in a straight forward and flexible manner. Looking at the list above you can see that a lot of functionality is very similar to ASP.NET MVC, so many ASP.NET developers should feel quite comfortable with the concepts of Web API. The Routing and core infrastructure of Web API are very similar to how MVC works providing many of the benefits of MVC, but with focus on HTTP access and manipulation in Controller methods rather than HTML generation in MVC. There’s much improved support for content negotiation based on HTTP Accept headers with the framework capable of detecting automatically what content the client is sending and requesting and serving the appropriate data format in return. This seems like such a little and obvious thing, but it's really important. Today's service backends often are used by multiple clients/applications and being able to choose the right data format for what fits best for the client is very important. While previous solutions were able to accomplish this using a variety of mixed features of WCF and ASP.NET, Web API combines all this functionality into a single robust server side HTTP framework that intrinsically understands the HTTP semantics and subtly drives you in the right direction for most operations. And when you need to customize or do something that is not built in, there are lots of hooks and overrides for most behaviors, and even many low level hook points that allow you to plug in custom functionality with relatively little effort. No Brainers for Web API There are a few scenarios that are a slam dunk for Web API. If your primary focus of an application or even a part of an application is some sort of API then Web API makes great sense. HTTP ServicesIf you're building a comprehensive HTTP API that is to be consumed over the Web, Web API is a perfect fit. You can isolate the logic in Web API and build your application as a service breaking out the logic into controllers as needed. Because the primary interface is the service there's no confusion of what should go where (MVC or API). Perfect fit. Primary AJAX BackendsIf you're building rich client Web applications that are relying heavily on AJAX callbacks to serve its data, Web API is also a slam dunk. Again because much if not most of the business logic will probably end up in your Web API service logic, there's no confusion over where logic should go and there's no duplication. In Single Page Applications (SPA), typically there's very little HTML based logic served other than bringing up a shell UI and then filling the data from the server with AJAX which means the business logic required for data retrieval and data acceptance and validation too lives in the Web API. Perfect fit. Generic HTTP EndpointsAnother good fit are generic HTTP endpoints that to serve data or handle 'utility' type functionality in typical Web applications. If you need to implement an image server, or an upload handler in the past I'd implement that as an HTTP handler. With Web API you now have a well defined place where you can implement these types of generic 'services' in a location that can easily add endpoints (via Controller methods) or separated out as more full featured APIs. Granted this could be done with MVC as well, but Web API seems a clearer and more well defined place to store generic application services. This is one thing I used to do a lot of in my own libraries and Web API addresses this nicely. Great fit. Mixed HTML and AJAX Applications: Not a clear Choice  For all the commonality that Web API and MVC share they are fundamentally different platforms that are independent of each other. A lot of people have asked when does it make sense to use MVC vs. Web API when you're dealing with typical Web application that creates HTML and also uses AJAX functionality for rich functionality. While it's easy to say that all 'service'/AJAX logic should go into a Web API and all HTML related generation into MVC, that can often result in a lot of code duplication. Also MVC supports JSON and XML result data fairly easily as well so there's some confusion where that 'trigger point' is of when you should switch to Web API vs. just implementing functionality as part of MVC controllers. Ultimately there's a tradeoff between isolation of functionality and duplication. A good rule of thumb I think works is that if a large chunk of the application's functionality serves data Web API is a good choice, but if you have a couple of small AJAX requests to serve data to a grid or autocomplete box it'd be overkill to separate out that logic into a separate Web API controller. Web API does add overhead to your application (it's yet another framework that sits on top of core ASP.NET) so it should be worth it .Keep in mind that MVC can generate HTML and JSON/XML and just about any other content easily and that functionality is not going away, so just because you Web API is there it doesn't mean you have to use it. Web API is not a full replacement for MVC obviously either since there's not the same level of support to feed HTML from Web API controllers (although you can host a RazorEngine easily enough if you really want to go that route) so if you're HTML is part of your API or application in general MVC is still a better choice either alone or in combination with Web API. I suspect (and hope) that in the future Web API's functionality will merge even closer with MVC so that you might even be able to mix functionality of both into single Controllers so that you don't have to make any trade offs, but at the moment that's not the case. Some Issues To think about Web API is similar to MVC but not the Same Although Web API looks a lot like MVC it's not the same and some common functionality of MVC behaves differently in Web API. For example, the way single POST variables are handled is different than MVC and doesn't lend itself particularly well to some AJAX scenarios with POST data. Code Duplication I already touched on this in the Mixed HTML and Web API section, but if you build an MVC application that also exposes a Web API it's quite likely that you end up duplicating a bunch of code and - potentially - infrastructure. You may have to create authentication logic both for an HTML application and for the Web API which might need something different altogether. More often than not though the same logic is used, and there's no easy way to share. If you implement an MVC ActionFilter and you want that same functionality in your Web API you'll end up creating the filter twice. AJAX Data or AJAX HTML On a recent post's comments, David made some really good points regarding the commonality of MVC and Web API's and its place. One comment that caught my eye was a little more generic, regarding data services vs. HTML services. David says: I see a lot of merit in the combination of Knockout.js, client side templates and view models, calling Web API for a responsive UI, but sometimes late at night that still leaves me wondering why I would no longer be using some of the nice tooling and features that have evolved in MVC ;-) You know what - I can totally relate to that. On the last Web based mobile app I worked on, we decided to serve HTML partials to the client via AJAX for many (but not all!) things, rather than sending down raw data to inject into the DOM on the client via templating or direct manipulation. While there are definitely more bytes on the wire, with this, the overhead ended up being actually fairly small if you keep the 'data' requests small and atomic. Performance was often made up by the lack of client side rendering of HTML. Server rendered HTML for AJAX templating gives so much better infrastructure support without having to screw around with 20 mismatched client libraries. Especially with MVC and partials it's pretty easy to break out your HTML logic into very small, atomic chunks, so it's actually easy to create small rendering islands that can be used via composition on the server, or via AJAX calls to small, tight partials that return HTML to the client. Although this is often frowned upon as to 'heavy', it worked really well in terms of developer effort as well as providing surprisingly good performance on devices. There's still plenty of jQuery and AJAX logic happening on the client but it's more manageable in small doses rather than trying to do the entire UI composition with JavaScript and/or 'not-quite-there-yet' template engines that are very difficult to debug. This is not an issue directly related to Web API of course, but something to think about especially for AJAX or SPA style applications. Summary Web API is a great new addition to the ASP.NET platform and it addresses a serious need for consolidation of a lot of half-baked HTTP service API technologies that came before it. Web API feels 'right', and hits the right combination of usability and flexibility at least for me and it's a good fit for true API scenarios. However, just because a new platform is available it doesn't meant that other tools or tech that came before it should be discarded or even upgraded to the new platform. There's nothing wrong with continuing to use MVC controller methods to handle API tasks if that's what your app is running now - there's very little to be gained by upgrading to Web API just because. But going forward Web API clearly is the way to go, when building HTTP data interfaces and it's good to see that Microsoft got this one right - it was sorely needed! Resources ASP.NET Web API AspConf Ask the Experts Session (first 5 minutes) © Rick Strahl, West Wind Technologies, 2005-2012Posted in Web Api   Tweet !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs"); (function() { var po = document.createElement('script'); po.type = 'text/javascript'; po.async = true; po.src = 'https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(po, s); })();

    Read the article

  • How Expedia Made My New Bride Cry

    - by Lance Robinson
    Tweet this? Email Expedia and ask them to give me and my new wife our honeymoon? When Expedia followed up their failure with our honeymoon trip with a complete and total lack of acknowledgement of any responsibility for the problem and endless loops of explaining the issue over and over again - I swore that they would make it right. When they brought my new bride to tears, I got an immediate and endless supply of motivation. I hope you will help me make them make it right by posting our story on Twitter, Facebook, your blog, on Expedia itself, and when talking to your friends in person about their own travel plans.   If you are considering using them now for an important trip - reconsider. Short summary: We arrived early for a flight - but Expedia had made a mistake with the data they supplied to JetBlue and Emirates, which resulted in us not being able to check in (one leg of our trip was missing)!  At the time of this post, three people (myself, my wife, and an exceptionally patient JetBlue employee named Mary) each spent hours on the phone with Expedia.  I myself spent right at 3 hours (according to iPhone records), Lauren spent an hour and a half or so, and poor Mary was probably on the phone for a good 3.5 hours.  This is after 5 hours total at the airport.  If you add up our phone time, that is nearly 8 hours of phone time over a 5 hour period with little or no help, stall tactics (?), run-around, denial, shifting of blame, and holding. Details below (times are approximate): First, my wife and I were married yesterday - June 18th, the 3 year anniversary of our first date. She is awesome. She is the nicest person I have ever known, a ton of fun, absolutely beautiful in every way. Ok enough mushy - here are the dirty details. 2:30 AM - Early Check-in Attempt - we attempted to check-in for our flight online. Some sort of technology error on website, instructed to checkin at desk. 4:30 AM - Arrive at airport. Try to check-in at kiosk, get the same error. We got to the JetBlue desk at RDU International Airport, where Mary helped us. Mary discovered that the Expedia provided itinerary does not match the Expedia provided tickets. We are informed that when that happens American, JetBlue, and others that use the same software cannot check you in for the flight because. Why? Because the itinerary was missing a leg of our flight! Basically we were not shown in the system as definitely being able to make it home. Mary called Expedia and was put on hold by their automated system. 4:55 AM - Mary, myself, and my brand new bride all waited for about 25 minutes when finally I decided I would make a call myself on my iPhone while Mary was on the airport phone. In their automated system, I chose "make a new reservation", thinking they might answer a little more quickly than "customer service". Not surprisingly I was connected to an Expedia person within 1 minute. They informed me that they would have to forward me to a customer service specialist. I explained to them that we were already on hold for that and had been for nearly half an hour, that we were going on our honeymoon and that our flight would be leaving soon - could they please help us. "Yes, I will help you". I hand the phone to JetBlue Mary who explains the situation 3 or 4 times. Obviously I couldn't hear both ends of the conversation at this point, but the Expedia person explained what the problem was by stating exactly what Mary had just spent 15 minutes explaining. Mary calmly confirms that this is the problem, and asks Expedia to re-issue the itinerary. Expedia tells Mary that they'll have to transfer her to customer service. Mary asks for someone specific so that we get an answer this time, and goes on hold. Mary get's connected, explains the situation, and then Mary's connection gets terminated. 5:10 AM - Mary calls back to the Expedia automated system again, and we wait for about 5 minutes on hold this time before I pick up my iPhone and call Expedia again myself. Again I go to sales, a person picks up the phone in less than a minute. I explain the situation and let them know that we are now very close to missing our flight for our honeymoon, could they please help us. "Yes, I will help you". Again I give the phone to Mary who provides them with a call back number in case we get disconnected again and explains the situation again. More back and forth with Expedia doing nothing but repeating the same questions, Mary answering the questions with the same information she provided in the original explanation, and Expedia simply restating the problem. Mary again asks them to re-issue the itinerary, and explains that doing so will fix the problem. Expedia again repeats the problem instead of fixing it, and Mary's connection gets terminated. 5:20 AM - Mary again calls back to Expedia. My beautiful bride also calls on her own phone. At this point she is struggling to hold back her tears, stumbling through an explanation of all that has happened and that we are about to miss our flight. Please help us. "Yes, I will help". My beautiful bride's connection gets terminated. Ok, maybe this disconnection isn't an accident. We've now been disconnected 3 times on two different phones. 5:45 AM - I walk away and pleadingly beg a person to help me. They "escalate" the issue to "Rosy" (sp?) at Expedia. I go through the whole song and dance again with Rosy, who gives me the same treatment Mary was given. Rosy blames JetBlue for now having the correct data. Meanwhile Mary is on the phone with Emirates Air (the airline for the second leg of our trip), who agrees with JetBlue that Expedia's data isn't up to date. We are informed by two airport employees that issues like this with Expedia are not uncommon, and that the fix is simple. On the phone iwth Rosy, I ask her to re-issue the itinerary because we are about to miss our flight. She again explains the problem to me. At this point, I am standing at the window, pleading with Rosy to help us get to our honeymoon, watching our airplane. Then our airplane leaves without us. 6:03 AM - At this point we have missed our flight. Re-issuing the itinerary is no longer a solution. I ask Rosy to start from the beginning and work us up a new trip. She says that she cannot do that. She says that she needs to talk to JetBlue and Emirates and find out why we cannot check-in for our flight. I remind Rosy that our flight has already left - I just watched it taxi away - it no longer matters why (not to mention the fact that we already knew why, and have known why since 4:30 AM), and have known the solution since 4:30 AM. Rosy, can you please book a new trip? Yes, but it will cost $400. Excuse me? Now you can, but it will cost ME to fix your mistake? Rosy says that she can escalate the situation to her supervisor but that will take 1.5 hours. 6:15 AM - I told Rosy that if they had re-issued the itinerary as JetBlue asked (at 4:30 AM), my new wife and I might be on the airplane now instead of dealing with this on the phone and missing the beginning (and how much more?) of our honeymoon. Rosy said that it was not necessary to re-issue the itinerary. Out of curiosity, i asked Rosy if there was some financial burden on them to re-issue the itinerary. "No", said Rosy. I asked her if it was a large time burden on Expedia to re-issue the itinerary. "No", said Rosy. I directly asked Rosy: Why wouldn't Expedia have re-issued the itinerary when JetBlue asked? No answer. I asked Rosy: If you had re-issued the itinerary at 4:30, isn't it possible that I would be on that flight right now? She actually surprised me by answering "Yes" to that question. So I pointed out that it followed that Expedia was responsible for the fact that we missed out flight, and she immediately went into more about how the problem was with JetBlue - but now it was ALSO an Emirates Air problem as well. I tell Rosy to go ahead and escalate the issue again, and please call me back in that 1.5 hours (which how is about 1 hour and 10 minutes away). 6:30 AM - I start tweeting my frustration with iPhone. It's now pretty much impossible for us to make it to The Maldives by 3pm, which is the time at which we would need to arrive in order to be allowed service to the actual island where we are staying. Expedia has now given me the run-around for 2 hours, caused me to miss my flight, and worst of all caused my amazing new wife Lauren to miss our honeymoon. You think I was mad? No. Furious. Its ok to make mistakes - but to refuse to fix them and to ruin our honeymoon? No, not ok, Expedia. I swore right then that Expedia would make this right. 7:45 AM - JetBlue mary is still talking her tail off to other people in JetBlue and Emirates Air. Mary works it out so that if Expedia simply books a new trip, JetBlue and Emirates will both waive all the fees. Now we just have to convince Expedia to fix their mistake and get us on our way! Around this time Expedia Rosy calls me back! I inform her of the excellent work of JetBlue Mary - that JetBlue and Emirates both will waive the fees so Expedia can fix their mistake and get us going on our way. She says that she sees documentation of this in her system and that she needs to put me on hold "for 1 to 10 minutes" to talk to Emirates Air (why I'm not exactly sure). I say ok. 8:45 AM - After an hour on hold, Rosy comes on the line and asks me to hold more. I ask her to call me back. 9:35 AM - I put down the iPhone Twitter app and picks up the laptop. You think I made some noise with my iPhone? Heh 11:25 AM - Expedia follows me and sends a canned "We're sorry, DM us the details".  If you look at their Twitter feed, 16 out of the most recent 20 tweets are exactly the same canned response.  The other 4?  Ads.  Um - #MultiFAIL? To Expedia:  You now have had (as explained above) 8 hours of 3 different people explaining our situation, you know the email address of our Expedia account, you know my web blog, you know my Twitter address, you know my phone number.  You also know how upset you have made both me and my new bride by treating us with such a ... non caring, scripted, uncooperative, argumentative, and possibly even deceitful manner.  In the wise words of the great Kenan Thompson of SNL: "FIX IT!".  And no, I'm NOT going away until you make this right. Period. 11:45 AM - Expedia corporate office called.  The woman I spoke to was very nice and apologetic.  She listened to me tell the story again, she says she understands the problem and she is going to work to resolve it.  I don't have any details on what exactly that resolution might me, she said she will call me back in 20 minutes.  She found out about the problem via Twitter.  Thank you Twitter, and all of you who helped.  Hopefully social media will win my wife and I our honeymoon, and hopefully Expedia will encourage their customer service teams treat their customers properly. 12:22 PM - Spoke to Fran again from Expedia corporate office.  She has a flight for us tonight.  She is booking it now.  We will arrive at our honeymoon destination of beautiful Veligandu Island Resort only 1 day late.  She cannot confirm today, but she expects that Expedia will pay for the lost honeymoon night.  Thank you everyone for your help.  I will reflect more on this whole situation and confirm its resolution after our flight is 100% confirmed.  For now, I'm going to take a breather and go kiss my wonderful wife! 1:50 PM - Have not yet received the promised phone call.  We did receive an email with a new itinerary for a flight but the booking is not for specific seats, so there is no guarantee that my wife and I will be able to sit together.  With the original booking I carefully selected our seats for every segment of our trip.  I decided to call into the phone number that Fran from the Expedia corporate office gave me.  Its automated voice system identified itself as "Tier 3 Support".  I am currently still on hold with them, I have not gotten through to a human yet. 1:55 PM - Fran from Expedia called me back.  She confirmed us as booked.  She called the airlines to confirm.  Unfortunately, Expedia was unwilling or unable to allow us any type of seat selection.  It is possible that i won't get to sit next to the woman I married less than a day ago on our 40 total hours of flight time (there and back).  In addition, our seats could be the worst seats on the planes, with no reclining seat back or right next to the restroom.  Despite this fact (which in my opinion is huge), the horrible inconvenience, the hours at the airport, and the negative Internet publicity that Expedia is receiving, Expedia declined to offer us any kind of upgrade or to mark us as SFU (suitable for upgrade).  Since they didn't offer - I asked, and was rejected.  I am grateful to finally be heading in the right direction, but not only did Expedia horribly botch this job from the very beginning, they followed that botch job with near zero customer service, followed by a verbally apologetic but otherwise half-hearted resolution.  If this works out favorably for us, great.  If not - I'm not done making noise, Expedia.  You owe us, and I expect you to make it right.  You haven't quite done that yet. Thanks - Thank you to Twitter.  Thanks to all those who sympathize with us and helped us get the attention of Expedia, since three people (one of them an airline employee) using Expedia's normal channels of communication for many hours didn't help.  Thanks especially to my PowerShell and Sharepoint friends, my local friends, and those connectors who encouraged me and spread my story. 5:15 PM - Love Wins - After all this, Lauren and I are exhausted.  We both took a short nap, and when we woke up we talked about the last 24 hours.  It was a big, amazing, story-filled 24 hours.  I said that Expedia won, but Lauren said no.  She pointed out how lucky we are.  We are in love and married.  We have wonderful family and friends.  We are both hard-working successful people who love what they do.  We get to go to an amazing exotic destination for our honeymoon like Veligandu in The Maldives...  That's a lot of good.  Expedia didn't win.  This was (is) a big loss for Expedia.  It is a public blemish for all to see.  But Lauren and I did win, big time.  Expedia may not have made things right - but things are right for us.  Post in progress... I will relay any further comments (or lack of) from Expedia soon, as well as an update on confirmation of their repayment of our lost resort room rates.  I'll also post a picture of us on our honeymoon as soon as I can!

    Read the article

  • Using VLOOKUP in Excel

    - by Mark Virtue
    VLOOKUP is one of Excel’s most useful functions, and it’s also one of the least understood.  In this article, we demystify VLOOKUP by way of a real-life example.  We’ll create a usable Invoice Template for a fictitious company. So what is VLOOKUP?  Well, of course it’s an Excel function.  This article will assume that the reader already has a passing understanding of Excel functions, and can use basic functions such as SUM, AVERAGE, and TODAY.  In its most common usage, VLOOKUP is a database function, meaning that it works with database tables – or more simply, lists of things in an Excel worksheet.  What sort of things?   Well, any sort of thing.  You may have a worksheet that contains a list of employees, or products, or customers, or CDs in your CD collection, or stars in the night sky.  It doesn’t really matter. Here’s an example of a list, or database.  In this case it’s a list of products that our fictitious company sells: Usually lists like this have some sort of unique identifier for each item in the list.  In this case, the unique identifier is in the “Item Code” column.  Note:  For the VLOOKUP function to work with a database/list, that list must have a column containing the unique identifier (or “key”, or “ID”), and that column must be the first column in the table.  Our sample database above satisfies this criterion. The hardest part of using VLOOKUP is understanding exactly what it’s for.  So let’s see if we can get that clear first: VLOOKUP retrieves information from a database/list based on a supplied instance of the unique identifier. Put another way, if you put the VLOOKUP function into a cell and pass it one of the unique identifiers from your database, it will return you one of the pieces of information associated with that unique identifier.  In the example above, you would pass VLOOKUP an item code, and it would return to you either the corresponding item’s description, its price, or its availability (its “In stock” quantity).  Which of these pieces of information will it pass you back?  Well, you get to decide this when you’re creating the formula. If all you need is one piece of information from the database, it would be a lot of trouble to go to to construct a formula with a VLOOKUP function in it.  Typically you would use this sort of functionality in a reusable spreadsheet, such as a template.  Each time someone enters a valid item code, the system would retrieve all the necessary information about the corresponding item. Let’s create an example of this:  An Invoice Template that we can reuse over and over in our fictitious company. First we start Excel… …and we create ourselves a blank invoice: This is how it’s going to work:  The person using the invoice template will fill in a series of item codes in column “A”, and the system will retrieve each item’s description and price, which will be used to calculate the line total for each item (assuming we enter a valid quantity). For the purposes of keeping this example simple, we will locate the product database on a separate sheet in the same workbook: In reality, it’s more likely that the product database would be located in a separate workbook.  It makes little difference to the VLOOKUP function, which doesn’t really care if the database is located on the same sheet, a different sheet, or a completely different workbook. In order to test the VLOOKUP formula we’re about to write, we first enter a valid item code into cell A11: Next, we move the active cell to the cell in which we want information retrieved from the database by VLOOKUP to be stored.  Interestingly, this is the step that most people get wrong.  To explain further:  We are about to create a VLOOKUP formula that will retrieve the description that corresponds to the item code in cell A11.  Where do we want this description put when we get it?  In cell B11, of course.  So that’s where we write the VLOOKUP formula – in cell B11. Select cell B11: We need to locate the list of all available functions that Excel has to offer, so that we can choose VLOOKUP and get some assistance in completing the formula.  This is found by first clicking the Formulas tab, and then clicking Insert Function:   A box appears that allows us to select any of the functions available in Excel.  To find the one we’re looking for, we could type a search term like “lookup” (because the function we’re interested in is a lookup function).  The system would return us a list of all lookup-related functions in Excel.  VLOOKUP is the second one in the list.  Select it an click OK… The Function Arguments box appears, prompting us for all the arguments (or parameters) needed in order to complete the VLOOKUP function.  You can think of this box as the function is asking us the following questions: What unique identifier are you looking up in the database? Where is the database? Which piece of information from the database, associated with the unique identifier, do you wish to have retrieved for you? The first three arguments are shown in bold, indicating that they are mandatory arguments (the VLOOKUP function is incomplete without them and will not return a valid value).  The fourth argument is not bold, meaning that it’s optional:   We will complete the arguments in order, top to bottom. The first argument we need to complete is the Lookup_value argument.  The function needs us to tell it where to find the unique identifier (the item code in this case) that it should be retuning the description of.  We must select the item code we entered earlier (in A11). Click on the selector icon to the right of the first argument: Then click once on the cell containing the item code (A11), and press Enter: The value of “A11” is inserted into the first argument. Now we need to enter a value for the Table_array argument.  In other words, we need to tell VLOOKUP where to find the database/list.  Click on the selector icon next to the second argument: Now locate the database/list and select the entire list – not including the header line.  The database is located on a separate worksheet, so we first click on that worksheet tab: Next we select the entire database, not including the header line: …and press Enter.  The range of cells that represents the database (in this case “’Product Database’!A2:D7”) is entered automatically for us into the second argument. Now we need to enter the third argument, Col_index_num.  We use this argument to specify to VLOOKUP which piece of information from the database, associate with our item code in A11, we wish to have returned to us.  In this particular example, we wish to have the item’s description returned to us.  If you look on the database worksheet, you’ll notice that the “Description” column is the second column in the database.  This means that we must enter a value of “2” into the Col_index_num box: It is important to note that that we are not entering a “2” here because the “Description” column is in the B column on that worksheet.  If the database happened to start in column K of the worksheet, we would still enter a “2” in this field. Finally, we need to decide whether to enter a value into the final VLOOKUP argument, Range_lookup.  This argument requires either a true or false value, or it should be left blank.  When using VLOOKUP with databases (as is true 90% of the time), then the way to decide what to put in this argument can be thought of as follows: If the first column of the database (the column that contains the unique identifiers) is sorted alphabetically/numerically in ascending order, then it’s possible to enter a value of true into this argument, or leave it blank. If the first column of the database is not sorted, or it’s sorted in descending order, then you must enter a value of false into this argument As the first column of our database is not sorted, we enter false into this argument: That’s it!  We’ve entered all the information required for VLOOKUP to return the value we need.  Click the OK button and notice that the description corresponding to item code “R99245” has been correctly entered into cell B11: The formula that was created for us looks like this: If we enter a different item code into cell A11, we will begin to see the power of the VLOOKUP function:  The description cell changes to match the new item code: We can perform a similar set of steps to get the item’s price returned into cell E11.  Note that the new formula must be created in cell E11.  The result will look like this: …and the formula will look like this: Note that the only difference between the two formulae is the third argument (Col_index_num) has changed from a “2” to a “3” (because we want data retrieved from the 3rd column in the database). If we decided to buy 2 of these items, we would enter a “2” into cell D11.  We would then enter a simple formula into cell F11 to get the line total: =D11*E11 …which looks like this… Completing the Invoice Template We’ve learned a lot about VLOOKUP so far.  In fact, we’ve learned all we’re going to learn in this article.  It’s important to note that VLOOKUP can be used in other circumstances besides databases.  This is less common, and may be covered in future How-To Geek articles. Our invoice template is not yet complete.  In order to complete it, we would do the following: We would remove the sample item code from cell A11 and the “2” from cell D11.  This will cause our newly created VLOOKUP formulae to display error messages: We can remedy this by judicious use of Excel’s IF() and ISBLANK() functions.  We change our formula from this…       =VLOOKUP(A11,’Product Database’!A2:D7,2,FALSE) …to this…       =IF(ISBLANK(A11),”",VLOOKUP(A11,’Product Database’!A2:D7,2,FALSE)) We would copy the formulas in cells B11, E11 and F11 down to the remainder of the item rows of the invoice.  Note that if we do this, the resulting formulas will no longer correctly refer to the database table.  We could fix this by changing the cell references for the database to absolute cell references.  Alternatively – and even better – we could create a range name for the entire product database (such as “Products”), and use this range name instead of the cell references.  The formula would change from this…       =IF(ISBLANK(A11),”",VLOOKUP(A11,’Product Database’!A2:D7,2,FALSE)) …to this…       =IF(ISBLANK(A11),”",VLOOKUP(A11,Products,2,FALSE)) …and then copy the formulas down to the rest of the invoice item rows. We would probably “lock” the cells that contain our formulae (or rather unlock the other cells), and then protect the worksheet, in order to ensure that our carefully constructed formulae are not accidentally overwritten when someone comes to fill in the invoice. We would save the file as a template, so that it could be reused by everyone in our company If we were feeling really clever, we would create a database of all our customers in another worksheet, and then use the customer ID entered in cell F5 to automatically fill in the customer’s name and address in cells B6, B7 and B8. If you would like to practice with VLOOKUP, or simply see our resulting Invoice Template, it can be downloaded from here. Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Make Excel 2007 Print Gridlines In Workbook FileMake Excel 2007 Always Save in Excel 2003 FormatConvert Older Excel Documents to Excel 2007 FormatImport Microsoft Access Data Into ExcelChange the Default Font in Excel 2007 TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips DVDFab 6 Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 Classic Cinema Online offers 100’s of OnDemand Movies OutSync will Sync Photos of your Friends on Facebook and Outlook Windows 7 Easter Theme YoWindoW, a real time weather screensaver Optimize your computer the Microsoft way Stormpulse provides slick, real time weather data

    Read the article

  • Removing broken packages on distro update (13.04 to 13.10)

    - by user203974
    i'm kinda new to linux. last night i tried upgrading from 13.04 to 13.10 but i got the "could not calculate" error. i read this question and found this error in the main log: Dist-upgrade failed: 'E:Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.' and here's a list of my broken packages : Broken libwayland-client0:amd64 Conflicts on libwayland0 [ amd64 ] < 1.0.5-0ubuntu1 > ( libs ) (< 1.1.0) Broken libpam-systemd:amd64 Conflicts on libpam-xdg-support [ amd64 ] < 0.2-0ubuntu2 > ( admin ) Broken cups-filters:amd64 Conflicts on ghostscript-cups [ amd64 ] < 9.07~dfsg2-0ubuntu3.1 > ( text ) Broken libharfbuzz0a:amd64 Breaks on libharfbuzz0 [ amd64 ] < 0.9.13-1 > ( libs ) Broken libunity-scopes-json-def-desktop:amd64 Conflicts on libunity-common [ amd64 ] < 6.90.2daily13.04.05-0ubuntu1 > ( gnome ) (< 7.0.7) Broken libunity-scopes-json-def-desktop:amd64 Conflicts on libunity-common [ i386 ] < none > ( none ) (< 7.0.7) Broken libaccount-plugin-generic-oauth:amd64 Conflicts on account-plugin-generic-oauth [ amd64 ] < 0.10bzr13.03.26-0ubuntu1.1 > ( gnome ) (< 0.10bzr13.04.30) Broken libaccount-plugin-generic-oauth:amd64 Breaks on account-plugin-generic-oauth [ amd64 ] < 0.10bzr13.03.26-0ubuntu1.1 > ( gnome ) (< 0.10bzr13.04.30) Broken python3-aptdaemon.pkcompat:amd64 Breaks on libpackagekit-glib2-14 [ amd64 ] < 0.7.6-3ubuntu1 > ( libs ) (<= 0.7.6-4) Broken libsnmp-base:amd64 Breaks on libsnmp15 [ amd64 ] < 5.4.3~dfsg-2.7ubuntu1 > ( libs ) (< 5.7.2~dfsg-5) Broken libunity-core-6.0-8:amd64 Conflicts on unity-common [ amd64 ] < 7.0.0daily13.06.19~13.04-0ubuntu1 > ( gnome ) Broken python3-uno:amd64 Conflicts on python-uno [ amd64 ] < 1:4.0.4-0ubuntu1 > ( python ) Broken unity-scope-home:amd64 Conflicts on unity-lens-shopping [ amd64 ] < 6.8.0daily13.03.04-0ubuntu1 > ( gnome ) Broken xserver-xorg-video-mach64:amd64 Depends on xorg-video-abi-13 [ amd64 ] < none > ( none ) Broken usb-modeswitch-data:amd64 Breaks on usb-modeswitch [ amd64 ] < 1.2.3+repack0-1ubuntu3 > ( comm ) (< 1.2.6) Broken unity-gtk2-module:amd64 Conflicts on appmenu-gtk [ amd64 ] < 12.10.3daily13.04.03-0ubuntu1 > ( libs ) Broken xserver-xorg-video-intel:amd64 Depends on xorg-video-abi-13 [ amd64 ] < none > ( none ) Broken xserver-xorg-video-r128:amd64 Depends on xorg-video-abi-13 [ amd64 ] < none > ( none ) Broken unity-gtk3-module:amd64 Conflicts on appmenu-gtk3 [ amd64 ] < 12.10.3daily13.04.03-0ubuntu1 > ( libs ) Broken xserver-xorg-video-nouveau:amd64 Depends on xorg-video-abi-13 [ amd64 ] < none > ( none ) Broken xserver-xorg-video-cirrus:amd64 Depends on xorg-video-abi-13 [ amd64 ] < none > ( none ) Broken libbamf3-1:amd64 Depends on bamfdaemon [ amd64 ] < 0.4.0daily13.06.19~13.04-0ubuntu1 -> 0.5.1+13.10.20131011-0ubuntu1 > ( libs ) (= 0.4.0daily13.06.19~13.04-0ubuntu1) Broken bzr-gtk:amd64 Depends on bzr [ amd64 ] < 2.6.0~bzr6571-4ubuntu2 -> 2.6.0-3ubuntu1 > ( devel ) (< 2.6.0) Broken libgphoto2-6-dev:amd64 Conflicts on libgphoto2-2-dev [ amd64 ] < 2.4.14-2 > ( libdevel ) Broken activity-log-manager:amd64 Conflicts on activity-log-manager-common [ amd64 ] < 0.9.4-0ubuntu6.2 > ( utils ) Broken libgjs0d:amd64 Conflicts on libgjs0c [ amd64 ] < 1.34.0-0ubuntu1 > ( libs ) Broken libgtksourceview-3.0-0:amd64 Depends on libgtksourceview-3.0-common [ amd64 ] < 3.6.3-0ubuntu1 -> 3.8.2-0ubuntu1 > ( libs ) (< 3.7) Broken gnome-pie:amd64 Depends on libbamf3-1 [ amd64 ] < 0.4.0daily13.06.19~13.04-0ubuntu1 > ( libs ) Broken libunity-core-6.0-5:amd64 Depends on unity-services [ amd64 ] < 7.0.0daily13.06.19~13.04-0ubuntu1 -> 7.1.2+13.10.20131014.1-0ubuntu1 > ( gnome ) (= 7.0.0daily13.06.19~13.04-0ubuntu1) Broken xserver-xorg-video-all:amd64 Depends on xserver-xorg-video-cirrus [ amd64 ] < 1:1.5.2+git20130108.e2bf5b25-0ubuntu0sarvatt > ( x11 ) Broken xserver-xorg-video-all:amd64 Depends on xserver-xorg-video-intel [ amd64 ] < 2:2.99.904+git20131009.b9ad5b62-0ubuntu0sarvatt~raring > ( x11 ) Broken xserver-xorg-video-all:amd64 Depends on xserver-xorg-video-nouveau [ amd64 ] < 1:1.0.9+git20130730.300c5a32-0ubuntu0sarvatt~raring > ( x11 ) Broken xserver-xorg-video-ati:amd64 Depends on xserver-xorg-video-r128 [ amd64 ] < 6.9.1+git20130104.24f28a78-0ubuntu0sarvatt > ( x11 ) Broken xserver-xorg-video-ati:amd64 Depends on xserver-xorg-video-mach64 [ amd64 ] < 6.9.4+git20130104.80e62cc1-0ubuntu0sarvatt > ( x11 ) Broken xserver-xorg-video-mach64:amd64 Depends on xorg-video-abi-13 [ amd64 ] < none > ( none ) Broken xserver-xorg-video-intel:amd64 Depends on xorg-video-abi-13 [ amd64 ] < none > ( none ) Broken xserver-xorg-video-r128:amd64 Depends on xorg-video-abi-13 [ amd64 ] < none > ( none ) Broken xserver-xorg-video-nouveau:amd64 Depends on xorg-video-abi-13 [ amd64 ] < none > ( none ) Broken xserver-xorg-video-cirrus:amd64 Depends on xorg-video-abi-13 [ amd64 ] < none > ( none ) Broken xserver-xorg-video-all:amd64 Depends on xserver-xorg-video-cirrus [ amd64 ] < 1:1.5.2+git20130108.e2bf5b25-0ubuntu0sarvatt > ( x11 ) Broken xserver-xorg-video-all:amd64 Depends on xserver-xorg-video-intel [ amd64 ] < 2:2.99.904+git20131009.b9ad5b62-0ubuntu0sarvatt~raring > ( x11 ) Broken xserver-xorg-video-all:amd64 Depends on xserver-xorg-video-nouveau [ amd64 ] < 1:1.0.9+git20130730.300c5a32-0ubuntu0sarvatt~raring > ( x11 ) Broken xserver-xorg-video-ati:amd64 Depends on xserver-xorg-video-r128 [ amd64 ] < 6.9.1+git20130104.24f28a78-0ubuntu0sarvatt > ( x11 ) Broken xserver-xorg-video-ati:amd64 Depends on xserver-xorg-video-mach64 [ amd64 ] < 6.9.4+git20130104.80e62cc1-0ubuntu0sarvatt > ( x11 ) Broken xserver-xorg-video-mach64:amd64 Depends on xorg-video-abi-13 [ amd64 ] < none > ( none ) Broken xserver-xorg-video-intel:amd64 Depends on xorg-video-abi-13 [ amd64 ] < none > ( none ) Broken xserver-xorg-video-r128:amd64 Depends on xorg-video-abi-13 [ amd64 ] < none > ( none ) Broken xserver-xorg-video-nouveau:amd64 Depends on xorg-video-abi-13 [ amd64 ] < none > ( none ) Broken xserver-xorg-video-cirrus:amd64 Depends on xorg-video-abi-13 [ amd64 ] < none > ( none ) Broken xserver-xorg-video-all:amd64 Depends on xserver-xorg-video-cirrus [ amd64 ] < 1:1.5.2+git20130108.e2bf5b25-0ubuntu0sarvatt > ( x11 ) Broken xserver-xorg-video-ati:amd64 Depends on xserver-xorg-video-r128 [ amd64 ] < 6.9.1+git20130104.24f28a78-0ubuntu0sarvatt > ( x11 ) Broken xserver-xorg-video-mach64:amd64 Depends on xorg-video-abi-13 [ amd64 ] < none > ( none ) Broken xserver-xorg-video-intel:amd64 Depends on xorg-video-abi-13 [ amd64 ] < none > ( none ) Broken xserver-xorg-video-r128:amd64 Depends on xorg-video-abi-13 [ amd64 ] < none > ( none ) Broken xserver-xorg-video-nouveau:amd64 Depends on xorg-video-abi-13 [ amd64 ] < none > ( none ) Broken xserver-xorg-video-cirrus:amd64 Depends on xorg-video-abi-13 [ amd64 ] < none > ( none ) Broken xserver-xorg-video-all:amd64 Depends on xserver-xorg-video-cirrus [ amd64 ] < 1:1.5.2+git20130108.e2bf5b25-0ubuntu0sarvatt > ( x11 ) Broken xserver-xorg-video-all:amd64 Depends on xserver-xorg-video-intel [ amd64 ] < 2:2.99.904+git20131009.b9ad5b62-0ubuntu0sarvatt~raring > ( x11 ) Broken xserver-xorg-video-all:amd64 Depends on xserver-xorg-video-nouveau [ amd64 ] < 1:1.0.9+git20130730.300c5a32-0ubuntu0sarvatt~raring > ( x11 ) Broken xserver-xorg-video-ati:amd64 Depends on xserver-xorg-video-r128 [ amd64 ] < 6.9.1+git20130104.24f28a78-0ubuntu0sarvatt > ( x11 ) Broken xserver-xorg-video-ati:amd64 Depends on xserver-xorg-video-mach64 [ amd64 ] < 6.9.4+git20130104.80e62cc1-0ubuntu0sarvatt > ( x11 ) Broken xserver-xorg-video-mach64:amd64 Depends on xorg-video-abi-13 [ amd64 ] < none > ( none ) Broken xserver-xorg-video-intel:amd64 Depends on xorg-video-abi-13 [ amd64 ] < none > ( none ) Broken xserver-xorg-video-r128:amd64 Depends on xorg-video-abi-13 [ amd64 ] < none > ( none ) Broken xserver-xorg-video-nouveau:amd64 Depends on xorg-video-abi-13 [ amd64 ] < none > ( none ) Broken xserver-xorg-video-cirrus:amd64 Depends on xorg-video-abi-13 [ amd64 ] < none > ( none ) Broken xserver-xorg-video-all:amd64 Depends on xserver-xorg-video-cirrus [ amd64 ] < 1:1.5.2+git20130108.e2bf5b25-0ubuntu0sarvatt > ( x11 ) Broken xserver-xorg-video-all:amd64 Depends on xserver-xorg-video-intel [ amd64 ] < 2:2.99.904+git20131009.b9ad5b62-0ubuntu0sarvatt~raring > ( x11 ) Broken xserver-xorg-video-all:amd64 Depends on xserver-xorg-video-nouveau [ amd64 ] < 1:1.0.9+git20130730.300c5a32-0ubuntu0sarvatt~raring > ( x11 ) Broken xserver-xorg-video-ati:amd64 Depends on xserver-xorg-video-r128 [ amd64 ] < 6.9.1+git20130104.24f28a78-0ubuntu0sarvatt > ( x11 ) Broken xserver-xorg-video-ati:amd64 Depends on xserver-xorg-video-mach64 [ amd64 ] < 6.9.4+git20130104.80e62cc1-0ubuntu0sarvatt > ( x11 ) Broken xserver-xorg-video-mach64:amd64 Depends on xorg-video-abi-13 [ amd64 ] < none > ( none ) Broken xserver-xorg-video-intel:amd64 Depends on xorg-video-abi-13 [ amd64 ] < none > ( none ) Broken libxi6:amd64 Breaks on xserver-xorg-core [ amd64 ] < 2:1.13.4~git20130508+server-1.13-branch.10c42f57-0ubuntu0ricotz~raring -> 2:1.14.3-3ubuntu2 > ( x11 ) (< 2:1.14) Broken xserver-xorg-video-ati:amd64 Depends on xserver-xorg-video-mach64 [ amd64 ] < 6.9.4+git20130104.80e62cc1-0ubuntu0sarvatt > ( x11 ) Broken xserver-xorg-video-intel:amd64 Depends on xorg-video-abi-13 [ amd64 ] < none > ( none ) Broken xserver-xorg-video-r128:amd64 Depends on xorg-video-abi-13 [ amd64 ] < none > ( none ) Broken xserver-xorg-video-nouveau:amd64 Depends on xorg-video-abi-13 [ amd64 ] < none > ( none ) Broken xserver-xorg-video-cirrus:amd64 Depends on xorg-video-abi-13 [ amd64 ] < none > ( none ) Broken xserver-xorg-video-all:amd64 Depends on xserver-xorg-video-ati [ amd64 ] < 1:7.1.99+git20130730.6a278369-0ubuntu0sarvatt~raring -> 1:7.2.0-0ubuntu10 > ( x11 ) Broken xserver-xorg-video-all:amd64 Depends on xserver-xorg-video-cirrus [ amd64 ] < 1:1.5.2+git20130108.e2bf5b25-0ubuntu0sarvatt > ( x11 ) Broken xserver-xorg-video-all:amd64 Depends on xserver-xorg-video-intel [ amd64 ] < 2:2.99.904+git20131009.b9ad5b62-0ubuntu0sarvatt~raring > ( x11 ) Broken xserver-xorg-video-all:amd64 Depends on xserver-xorg-video-nouveau [ amd64 ] < 1:1.0.9+git20130730.300c5a32-0ubuntu0sarvatt~raring > ( x11 ) Broken xserver-xorg-video-ati:amd64 Depends on xorg-video-abi-13 [ amd64 ] < none > ( none ) Broken xserver-xorg-video-all:amd64 Depends on xserver-xorg-video-ati [ amd64 ] < 1:7.1.99+git20130730.6a278369-0ubuntu0sarvatt~raring -> 1:7.2.0-0ubuntu10 > ( x11 ) Broken xserver-xorg-video-all:amd64 Depends on xserver-xorg-video-cirrus [ amd64 ] < 1:1.5.2+git20130108.e2bf5b25-0ubuntu0sarvatt > ( x11 ) Broken xserver-xorg-video-all:amd64 Depends on xserver-xorg-video-intel [ amd64 ] < 2:2.99.904+git20131009.b9ad5b62-0ubuntu0sarvatt~raring > ( x11 ) Broken xserver-xorg-video-all:amd64 Depends on xserver-xorg-video-nouveau [ amd64 ] < 1:1.0.9+git20130730.300c5a32-0ubuntu0sarvatt~raring > ( x11 ) thats a lot of stuff ... do i have to remove them one by one ? will removing them caues any issue ? do i have to install them one by one again after the upgrade ?

    Read the article

  • LLBLGen Pro feature highlights: automatic element name construction

    - by FransBouma
    (This post is part of a series of posts about features of the LLBLGen Pro system) One of the things one might take for granted but which has a huge impact on the time spent in an entity modeling environment is the way the system creates names for elements out of the information provided, in short: automatic element name construction. Element names are created in both directions of modeling: database first and model first and the more names the system can create for you without you having to rename them, the better. LLBLGen Pro has a rich, fine grained system for creating element names out of the meta-data available, which I'll describe more in detail below. First the model element related element naming features are highlighted, in the section Automatic model element naming features and after that I'll go more into detail about the relational model element naming features LLBLGen Pro has to offer in the section Automatic relational model element naming features. Automatic model element naming features When working database first, the element names in the model, e.g. entity names, entity field names and so on, are in general determined from the relational model element (e.g. table, table field) they're mapped on, as the model elements are reverse engineered from these relational model elements. It doesn't take rocket science to automatically name an entity Customer if the entity was created after reverse engineering a table named Customer. It gets a little trickier when the entity which was created by reverse engineering a table called TBL_ORDER_LINES has to be named 'OrderLine' automatically. Automatic model element naming also takes into effect with model first development, where some settings are used to provide you with a default name, e.g. in the case of navigator name creation when you create a new relationship. The features below are available to you in the Project Settings. Open Project Settings on a loaded project and navigate to Conventions -> Element Name Construction. Strippers! The above example 'TBL_ORDER_LINES' shows that some parts of the table name might not be needed for name creation, in this case the 'TBL_' prefix. Some 'brilliant' DBAs even add suffixes to table names, fragments you might not want to appear in the entity names. LLBLGen Pro offers you to define both prefix and suffix fragments to strip off of table, view, stored procedure, parameter, table field and view field names. In the example above, the fragment 'TBL_' is a good candidate for such a strip pattern. You can specify more than one pattern for e.g. the table prefix strip pattern, so even a really messy schema can still be used to produce clean names. Underscores Be Gone Another thing you might get rid of are underscores. After all, most naming schemes for entities and their classes use PasCal casing rules and don't allow for underscores to appear. LLBLGen Pro can automatically strip out underscores for you. It's an optional feature, so if you like the underscores, you're not forced to see them go: LLBLGen Pro will leave them alone when ordered to to so. PasCal everywhere... or not, your call LLBLGen Pro can automatically PasCal case names on word breaks. It determines word breaks in a couple of ways: a space marks a word break, an underscore marks a word break and a case difference marks a word break. It will remove spaces in all cases, and based on the underscore removal setting, keep or remove the underscores, and upper-case the first character of a word break fragment, and lower case the rest. Say, we keep the defaults, which is remove underscores and PasCal case always and strip the TBL_ fragment, we get with our example TBL_ORDER_LINES, after stripping TBL_ from the table name two word fragments: ORDER and LINES. The underscores are removed, the first character of each fragment is upper-cased, the rest lower-cased, so this results in OrderLines. Almost there! Pluralization and Singularization In general entity names are singular, like Customer or OrderLine so LLBLGen Pro offers a way to singularize the names. This will convert OrderLines, the result we got after the PasCal casing functionality, into OrderLine, exactly what we're after. Show me the patterns! There are other situations in which you want more flexibility. Say, you have an entity Customer and an entity Order and there's a foreign key constraint defined from the target of Order and the target of Customer. This foreign key constraint results in a 1:n relationship between the entities Customer and Order. A relationship has navigators mapped onto the relationship in both entities the relationship is between. For this particular relationship we'd like to have Customer as navigator in Order and Orders as navigator in Customer, so the relationship becomes Customer.Orders 1:n Order.Customer. To control the naming of these navigators for the various relationship types, LLBLGen Pro defines a set of patterns which allow you, using macros, to define how the auto-created navigator names will look like. For example, if you rather have Customer.OrderCollection, you can do so, by changing the pattern from {$EndEntityName$P} to {$EndEntityName}Collection. The $P directive makes sure the name is pluralized, which is not what you want if you're going for <EntityName>Collection, hence it's removed. When working model first, it's a given you'll create foreign key fields along the way when you define relationships. For example, you've defined two entities: Customer and Order, and they have their fields setup properly. Now you want to define a relationship between them. This will automatically create a foreign key field in the Order entity, which reflects the value of the PK field in Customer. (No worries if you hate the foreign key fields in your classes, on NHibernate and EF these can be hidden in the generated code if you want to). A specific pattern is available for you to direct LLBLGen Pro how to name this foreign key field. For example, if all your entities have Id as PK field, you might want to have a different name than Id as foreign key field. In our Customer - Order example, you might want to have CustomerId instead as foreign key name in Order. The pattern for foreign key fields gives you that freedom. Abbreviations... make sense of OrdNr and friends I already described word breaks in the PasCal casing paragraph, how they're used for the PasCal casing in the constructed name. Word breaks are used for another neat feature LLBLGen Pro has to offer: abbreviation support. Burt, your friendly DBA in the dungeons below the office has a hate-hate relationship with his keyboard: he can't stand it: typing is something he avoids like the plague. This has resulted in tables and fields which have names which are very short, but also very unreadable. Example: our TBL_ORDER_LINES example has a lovely field called ORD_NR. What you would like to see in your fancy new OrderLine entity mapped onto this table is a field called OrderNumber, not a field called OrdNr. What you also like is to not have to rename that field manually. There are better things to do with your time, after all. LLBLGen Pro has you covered. All it takes is to define some abbreviation - full word pairs and during reverse engineering model elements from tables/views, LLBLGen Pro will take care of the rest. For the ORD_NR field, you need two values: ORD as abbreviation and Order as full word, and NR as abbreviation and Number as full word. LLBLGen Pro will now convert every word fragment found with the word breaks which matches an abbreviation to the given full word. They're case sensitive and can be found in the Project Settings: Navigate to Conventions -> Element Name Construction -> Abbreviations. Automatic relational model element naming features Not everyone works database first: it may very well be the case you start from scratch, or have to add additional tables to an existing database. For these situations, it's key you have the flexibility that you can control the created table names and table fields without any work: let the designer create these names based on the entity model you defined and a set of rules. LLBLGen Pro offers several features in this area, which are described in more detail below. These features are found in Project Settings: navigate to Conventions -> Model First Development. Underscores, welcome back! Not every database is case insensitive, and not every organization requires PasCal cased table/field names, some demand all lower or all uppercase names with underscores at word breaks. Say you create an entity model with an entity called OrderLine. You work with Oracle and your organization requires underscores at word breaks: a table created from OrderLine should be called ORDER_LINE. LLBLGen Pro allows you to do that: with a simple checkbox you can order LLBLGen Pro to insert an underscore at each word break for the type of database you're working with: case sensitive or case insensitive. Checking the checkbox Insert underscore at word break case insensitive dbs will let LLBLGen Pro create a table from the entity called Order_Line. Half-way there, as there are still lower case characters there and you need all caps. No worries, see below Casing directives so everyone can sleep well at night For case sensitive databases and case insensitive databases there is one setting for each of them which controls the casing of the name created from a model element (e.g. a table created from an entity definition using the auto-mapping feature). The settings can have the following values: AsProjectElement, AllUpperCase or AllLowerCase. AsProjectElement is the default, and it keeps the casing as-is. In our example, we need to get all upper case characters, so we select AllUpperCase for the setting for case sensitive databases. This will produce the name ORDER_LINE. Sequence naming after a pattern Some databases support sequences, and using model-first development it's key to have sequences, when needed, to be created automatically and if possible using a name which shows where they're used. Say you have an entity Order and you want to have the PK values be created by the database using a sequence. The database you're using supports sequences (e.g. Oracle) and as you want all numeric PK fields to be sequenced, you have enabled this by the setting Auto assign sequences to integer pks. When you're using LLBLGen Pro's auto-map feature, to create new tables and constraints from the model, it will create a new table, ORDER, based on your settings I previously discussed above, with a PK field ID and it also creates a sequence, SEQ_ORDER, which is auto-assigns to the ID field mapping. The name of the sequence is created by using a pattern, defined in the Model First Development setting Sequence pattern, which uses plain text and macros like with the other patterns previously discussed. Grouping and schemas When you start from scratch, and you're working model first, the tables created by LLBLGen Pro will be in a catalog and / or schema created by LLBLGen Pro as well. If you use LLBLGen Pro's grouping feature, which allows you to group entities and other model elements into groups in the project (described in a future blog post), you might want to have that group name reflected in the schema name the targets of the model elements are in. Say you have a model with a group CRM and a group HRM, both with entities unique for these groups, e.g. Employee in HRM, Customer in CRM. When auto-mapping this model to create tables, you might want to have the table created for Employee in the HRM schema but the table created for Customer in the CRM schema. LLBLGen Pro will do just that when you check the setting Set schema name after group name to true (default). This gives you total control over where what is placed in the database from your model. But I want plural table names... and TBL_ prefixes! For now we follow best practices which suggest singular table names and no prefixes/suffixes for names. Of course that won't keep everyone happy, so we're looking into making it possible to have that in a future version. Conclusion LLBLGen Pro offers a variety of options to let the modeling system do as much work for you as possible. Hopefully you enjoyed this little highlight post and that it has given you new insights in the smaller features available to you in LLBLGen Pro, ones you might not have thought off in the first place. Enjoy!

    Read the article

  • Stored Procedures with SSRS? Hmm… not so much

    - by Rob Farley
    Little Bobby Tables’ mother says you should always sanitise your data input. Except that I think she’s wrong. The SQL Injection aspect is for another post, where I’ll show you why I think SQL Injection is the same kind of attack as many other attacks, such as the old buffer overflow, but here I want to have a bit of a whinge about the way that some people sanitise data input, and even have a whinge about people who insist on using stored procedures for SSRS reports. Let me say that again, in case you missed it the first time: I want to have a whinge about people who insist on using stored procedures for SSRS reports. Let’s look at the data input sanitisation aspect – except that I’m going to call it ‘parameter validation’. I’m talking about code that looks like this: create procedure dbo.GetMonthSummaryPerSalesPerson(@eomdate datetime) as begin     /* First check that @eomdate is a valid date */     if isdate(@eomdate) != 1     begin         select 'Please enter a valid date' as ErrorMessage;         return;     end     /* Then check that time has passed since @eomdate */     if datediff(day,@eomdate,sysdatetime()) < 5     begin         select 'Sorry - EOM is not complete yet' as ErrorMessage;         return;     end         /* If those checks have succeeded, return the data */     select SalesPersonID, count(*) as NumSales, sum(TotalDue) as TotalSales     from Sales.SalesOrderHeader     where OrderDate >= dateadd(month,-1,@eomdate)         and OrderDate < @eomdate     group by SalesPersonID     order by SalesPersonID; end Notice that the code checks that a date has been entered. Seriously??!! This must only be to check for NULL values being passed in, because anything else would have to be a valid datetime to avoid an error. The other check is maybe fair enough, but I still don’t like it. The two problems I have with this stored procedure are the result sets and the small fact that the stored procedure even exists in the first place. But let’s consider the first one of these problems for starters. I’ll get to the second one in a moment. If you read Jes Borland (@grrl_geek)’s recent post about returning multiple result sets in Reporting Services, you’ll be aware that Reporting Services doesn’t support multiple results sets from a single query. And when it says ‘single query’, it includes ‘stored procedure call’. It’ll only handle the first result set that comes back. But that’s okay – we have RETURN statements, so our stored procedure will only ever return a single result set.  Sometimes that result set might contain a single field called ErrorMessage, but it’s still only one result set. Except that it’s not okay, because Reporting Services needs to know what fields to expect. Your report needs to hook into your fields, so SSRS needs to have a way to get that information. For stored procs, it uses an option called FMTONLY. When Reporting Services tries to figure out what fields are going to be returned by a query (or stored procedure call), it doesn’t want to have to run the whole thing. That could take ages. (Maybe it’s seen some of the stored procedures I’ve had to deal with over the years!) So it turns on FMTONLY before it makes the call (and turns it off again afterwards). FMTONLY is designed to be able to figure out the shape of the output, without actually running the contents. It’s very useful, you might think. set fmtonly on exec dbo.GetMonthSummaryPerSalesPerson '20030401'; set fmtonly off Without the FMTONLY lines, this stored procedure returns a result set that has three columns and fourteen rows. But with FMTONLY turned on, those rows don’t come back. But what I do get back hurts Reporting Services. It doesn’t run the stored procedure at all. It just looks for anything that could be returned and pushes out a result set in that shape. Despite the fact that I’ve made sure that the logic will only ever return a single result set, the FMTONLY option kills me by returning three of them. It would have been much better to push these checks down into the query itself. alter procedure dbo.GetMonthSummaryPerSalesPerson(@eomdate datetime) as begin     select SalesPersonID, count(*) as NumSales, sum(TotalDue) as TotalSales     from Sales.SalesOrderHeader     where     /* Make sure that @eomdate is valid */         isdate(@eomdate) = 1     /* And that it's sufficiently past */     and datediff(day,@eomdate,sysdatetime()) >= 5     /* And now use it in the filter as appropriate */     and OrderDate >= dateadd(month,-1,@eomdate)     and OrderDate < @eomdate     group by SalesPersonID     order by SalesPersonID; end Now if we run it with FMTONLY turned on, we get the single result set back. But let’s consider the execution plan when we pass in an invalid date. First let’s look at one that returns data. I’ve got a semi-useful index in place on OrderDate, which includes the SalesPersonID and TotalDue fields. It does the job, despite a hefty Sort operation. …compared to one that uses a future date: You might notice that the estimated costs are similar – the Index Seek is still 28%, the Sort is still 71%. But the size of that arrow coming out of the Index Seek is a whole bunch smaller. The coolest thing here is what’s going on with that Index Seek. Let’s look at some of the properties of it. Glance down it with me… Estimated CPU cost of 0.0005728, 387 estimated rows, estimated subtree cost of 0.0044385, ForceSeek false, Number of Executions 0. That’s right – it doesn’t run. So much for reading plans right-to-left... The key is the Filter on the left of it. It has a Startup Expression Predicate in it, which means that it doesn’t call anything further down the plan (to the right) if the predicate evaluates to false. Using this method, we can make sure that our stored procedure contains a single query, and therefore avoid any problems with multiple result sets. If we wanted, we could always use UNION ALL to make sure that we can return an appropriate error message. alter procedure dbo.GetMonthSummaryPerSalesPerson(@eomdate datetime) as begin     select SalesPersonID, count(*) as NumSales, sum(TotalDue) as TotalSales, /*Placeholder: */ '' as ErrorMessage     from Sales.SalesOrderHeader     where     /* Make sure that @eomdate is valid */         isdate(@eomdate) = 1     /* And that it's sufficiently past */     and datediff(day,@eomdate,sysdatetime()) >= 5     /* And now use it in the filter as appropriate */     and OrderDate >= dateadd(month,-1,@eomdate)     and OrderDate < @eomdate     group by SalesPersonID     /* Now include the error messages */     union all     select 0, 0, 0, 'Please enter a valid date' as ErrorMessage     where isdate(@eomdate) != 1     union all     select 0, 0, 0, 'Sorry - EOM is not complete yet' as ErrorMessage     where datediff(day,@eomdate,sysdatetime()) < 5     order by SalesPersonID; end But still I don’t like it, because it’s now a stored procedure with a single query. And I don’t like stored procedures that should be functions. That’s right – I think this should be a function, and SSRS should call the function. And I apologise to those of you who are now planning a bonfire for me. Guy Fawkes’ night has already passed this year, so I think you miss out. (And I’m not going to remind you about when the PASS Summit is in 2012.) create function dbo.GetMonthSummaryPerSalesPerson(@eomdate datetime) returns table as return (     select SalesPersonID, count(*) as NumSales, sum(TotalDue) as TotalSales, '' as ErrorMessage     from Sales.SalesOrderHeader     where     /* Make sure that @eomdate is valid */         isdate(@eomdate) = 1     /* And that it's sufficiently past */     and datediff(day,@eomdate,sysdatetime()) >= 5     /* And now use it in the filter as appropriate */     and OrderDate >= dateadd(month,-1,@eomdate)     and OrderDate < @eomdate     group by SalesPersonID     union all     select 0, 0, 0, 'Please enter a valid date' as ErrorMessage     where isdate(@eomdate) != 1     union all     select 0, 0, 0, 'Sorry - EOM is not complete yet' as ErrorMessage     where datediff(day,@eomdate,sysdatetime()) < 5 ); We’ve had to lose the ORDER BY – but that’s fine, as that’s a client thing anyway. We can have our reports leverage this stored query still, but we’re recognising that it’s a query, not a procedure. A procedure is designed to DO stuff, not just return data. We even get entries in sys.columns that confirm what the shape of the result set actually is, which makes sense, because a table-valued function is the right mechanism to return data. And we get so much more flexibility with this. If you haven’t seen the simplification stuff that I’ve preached on before, jump over to http://bit.ly/SimpleRob and watch the video of when I broke a microphone and nearly fell off the stage in Wales. You’ll see the impact of being able to have a simplifiable query. You can also read the procedural functions post I wrote recently, if you didn’t follow the link from a few paragraphs ago. So if we want the list of SalesPeople that made any kind of sales in a given month, we can do something like: select SalesPersonID from dbo.GetMonthSummaryPerSalesPerson(@eomonth) order by SalesPersonID; This doesn’t need to look up the TotalDue field, which makes a simpler plan. select * from dbo.GetMonthSummaryPerSalesPerson(@eomonth) where SalesPersonID is not null order by SalesPersonID; This one can avoid having to do the work on the rows that don’t have a SalesPersonID value, pushing the predicate into the Index Seek rather than filtering the results that come back to the report. If we had joins involved, we might see some of those being simplified out. We also get the ability to include query hints in individual reports. We shift from having a single-use stored procedure to having a reusable stored query – and isn’t that one of the main points of modularisation? Stored procedures in Reporting Services are just a bit limited for my liking. They’re useful in plenty of ways, but if you insist on using stored procedures all the time rather that queries that use functions – that’s rubbish. @rob_farley

    Read the article

  • VS 2012 Code Review &ndash; Before Check In OR After Check In?

    - by Tarun Arora
    “Is Code Review Important and Effective?” There is a consensus across the industry that code review is an effective and practical way to collar code inconsistency and possible defects early in the software development life cycle. Among others some of the advantages of code reviews are, Bugs are found faster Forces developers to write readable code (code that can be read without explanation or introduction!) Optimization methods/tricks/productive programs spread faster Programmers as specialists "evolve" faster It's fun “Code review is systematic examination (often known as peer review) of computer source code. It is intended to find and fix mistakes overlooked in the initial development phase, improving both the overall quality of software and the developers' skills. Reviews are done in various forms such as pair programming, informal walkthroughs, and formal inspections.” Wikipedia No where does the definition mention whether its better to review code before the code has been committed to version control or after the commit has been performed. No matter which side you favour, Visual Studio 2012 allows you to request for a code review both before check in and also request for a review after check in. Let’s weigh the pros and cons of the approaches independently. Code Review Before Check In or Code Review After Check In? Approach 1 – Code Review before Check in Developer completes the code and feels the code quality is appropriate for check in to TFS. The developer raises a code review request to have a second pair of eyes validate if the code abides to the recommended best practices, will not result in any defects due to common coding mistakes and whether any optimizations can be made to improve the code quality.                                             Image 1 – code review before check in Pros Everything that gets committed to source control is reviewed. Minimizes the chances of smelly code making its way into the code base. Decreases the cost of fixing bugs, remember, the earlier you find them, the lesser the pain in fixing them. Cons Development Code Freeze – Since the changes aren’t in the source control yet. Further development can only be done off-line. The changes have not been through a CI build, hard to say whether the code abides to all build quality standards. Inconsistent! Cumbersome to track the actual code review process.  Not every change to the code base is worth reviewing, a lot of effort is invested for very little gain. Approach 2 – Code Review after Check in Developer checks in, random code reviews are performed on the checked in code.                                                      Image 2 – Code review after check in Pros The code has already passed the CI build and run through any code analysis plug ins you may have running on the build server. Instruct the developer to ensure ZERO fx cop, style cop and static code analysis before check in. Code is cleaner and smell free even before the code review. No Offline development, developers can continue to develop against the source control. Cons Bad code can easily make its way into the code base. Since the review take place much later in the cycle, the cost of fixing issues can prove to be much higher. Approach 3 – Hybrid Approach The community advocates a more hybrid approach, a blend of tooling and human accountability quotient.                                                               Image 3 – Hybrid Approach 1. Code review high impact check ins. It is not possible to review everything, by setting up code review check in policies you can end up slowing your team. More over, the code that you are reviewing before check in hasn't even been through a green CI build either. 2. Tooling. Let the tooling work for you. By running static analysis, fx cop, style cop and other plug ins on the build agent, you can identify the real issues that in my opinion can't possibly be identified using human reviews. Configure the tooling to report back top 10 issues every day. Mandate the manual code review of individuals who keep making it to this list of shame more often. 3. During Merge. I would prefer eliminating some of the other code issues during merge from Main branch to the release branch. In a scrum project this is still easier because cheery picking the merges is a possibility and the size of code being reviewed is still limited. Let the tooling work for you, if some one breaks the CI build often, put them on a gated check in build course until you see improvement. If some one appears on the top 10 list of shame generated via the build then ensure that all their code is reviewed till you see improvement. At the end of the day, the goal is to ensure that the code being delivered is top quality. By enforcing a code review before any check in, you force the developer to work offline or stay put till the review is complete. What do the experts say? So I asked a few expects what they thought of “Code Review quality gate before Checking in code?" Terje Sandstrom | Microsoft ALM MVP You mean a review quality gate BEFORE checking in code????? That would mean a lot of code staying either local or in shelvesets, and not even been through a CI build, and a green CI build being the main criteria for going further, f.e. to the review state. I would not like code laying around with no checkin’s. Having a requirement that code is checked in small pieces, 4-8 hours work max, and AT LEAST daily checkins, a manual code review comes second down the lane. I would expect review quality gates to happen before merging back to main, or before merging to release.  But that would all be on checked-in code.  Branching is absolutely one way to ease the pain.   Another way we are using is automatic quality builds, running metrics, coverage, static code analysis.  Unfortunately it takes some time, would be great to be on CI’s – but…., so it’s done scheduled every night. Based on this we get, among other stuff,  top 10 lists of suspicious code, which is then subjected to reviews.  If a person seems to be very popular on these top 10 lists, we subject every check in from that person to a review for a period. That normally helps.   None of the clients I have can afford to have every checkin reviewed, so we need to find ways around it. I don’t disagree with the nicety of having all the code reviewed, but I find it hard to find those resources in today’s enterprises. David V. Corbin | Visual Studio ALM Ranger I tend to agree with both sides. I hate having code that is not checked in, but at the same time hate having “bad” code in the repository. I have found that branching is one approach to solving this dilemma. Code is checked into the private/feature branch before the review, but is not merged over to the “official” branch until after the review. I advocate both, depending on circumstance (especially team dynamics)   - The “pre-checkin” is usually for elements that may impact the project as a whole. Think of it as another “gate” along with passing unit tests. - The “post-checkin” may very well not be at the changeset level, but correlates to a review at the “user story” level.   Again, this depends on team dynamics in play…. Robert MacLean | Microsoft ALM MVP I do not think there is no right answer for the industry as a whole. In short the question is why do you do reviews? Your question implies risk mitigation, so in low risk areas you can get away with it after check in while in high risk you need to do it before check in. An example is those new to a team or juniors need it much earlier (maybe that is before checkin, maybe that is soon after) than seniors who have shipped twenty sprints on the team. Abhimanyu Singhal | Visual Studio ALM Ranger Depends on per scenario basis. We recommend post check-in reviews when: 1. We don't want to block other checks and processes on manual code reviews. Manual reviews take time, and some pieces may not require manual reviews at all. 2. We need to trace all changes and track history. 3. We have a code promotion strategy/process in place. For risk mitigation, post checkin code can be promoted to Accepted branches. Or can be rejected. Pre Checkin Reviews are used when 1. There is a high risk factor associated 2. Reviewers are generally (most of times) have immediate availability. 3. Team does not have strict tracking needs. Simply speaking, no single process fits all scenarios. You need to select what works best for your team/project. Thomas Schissler | Visual Studio ALM Ranger This is an interesting discussion, I’m right now discussing details about executing code reviews with my teams. I see and understand the aspects you brought in, but there is another side as well, I’d like to point out. 1.) If you do reviews per check in this is not very practical as a hard rule because this will disturb the flow of the team very often or it will lead to reduce the checkin frequency of the devs which I would not accept. 2.) If you do later reviews, for example if you review PBIs, it is not easy to find out which code you should review. Either you review all changesets associate with the PBI, but then you might review code which has been changed with a later checkin and the dev maybe has already fixed the issue. Or you review the diff of the latest changeset of the PBI with the first but then you might also review changes of other PBIs. Jakob Leander | Sr. Director, Avanade In my experience, manual code review: 1. Does not get done and at the very least does not get redone after changes (regardless of intentions at start of project) 2. When a project actually do it, they often do not do it right away = errors pile up 3. Requires a lot of time discussing/defining the standard and for the team to learn it However code review is very important since e.g. even small memory leaks in a high volume web solution have big consequences In the last years I have advocated following approach for code review - Architects up front do “at least one best practice example” of each type of component and tell the team. Copy from this one. This should include error handling, logging, security etc. - Dev lead on project continuously browse code to validate that the best practices are used. Especially that patterns etc. are not broken. You can do this formally after each sprint/iteration if you want. Once this is validated it is unlikely to “go bad” even during later code changes Agree with customer to rely on static code analysis from Visual Studio as the one and only coding standard. This has HUUGE benefits - You can easily tweak to reach the level you desire together with customer - It is easy to measure for both developers/management - It is 100% consistent across code base - It gets validated all the time so you never end up getting hammered by a customer review in the end - It is easy to tell the developer that you do not want code back unless it has zero errors = minimize communication You need to track this at least during nightly builds and make sure team sees total # issues. Do not allow #issues it to grow uncontrolled. On the project I run I require code analysis to have run on code before checkin (checkin rule). This means -  You have to have clean compile (or CA wont run) so this is extra benefit = very few broken builds - You can change a few of the rules to compile as errors instead of warnings. I often do this for “missing dispose” issues which you REALLY do not want in your app Tip: Place your custom CA rules files as part of solution. That  way it works when you do branching etc. (path to CA file is relative in VS) Some may argue that CA is not as good as manual inspection. But since manual inspection in reality suffers from the 3 issues in start it is IMO a MUCH better (and much cheaper) approach from helicopter perspective Tirthankar Dutta | Director, Avanade I think code review should be run both before and after check ins. There are some code metrics that are meant to be run on the entire codebase … Also, especially on multi-site projects, one should strive to architect in a way that lets men manage the framework while boys write the repetitive code… scales very well with the need to review less by containment and imposing architectural restrictions to emphasise the design. Bruno Capuano | Microsoft ALM MVP For code reviews (means peer reviews) in distributed team I use http://www.vsanywhere.com/default.aspx  David Jobling | Global Sr. Director, Avanade Peer review is the only way to scale and its a great practice for all in the team to learn to perform and accept. In my experience you soon learn who's code to watch more than others and tune the attention. Mikkel Toudal Kristiansen | Manager, Avanade If you have several branches in your code base, you will need to merge often. This requires manual merging, when a file has been changed in both branches. It offers a good opportunity to actually review to changed code. So my advice is: Merging between branches should be done as often as possible, it should be done by a senior developer, and he/she should perform a full code review of the code being merged. As for detecting architectural smells and code smells creeping into the code base, one really good third party tools exist: Ndepend (http://www.ndepend.com/, for static code analysis of the current state of the code base). You could also consider adding StyleCop to the solution. Jesse Houwing | Visual Studio ALM Ranger I gave a presentation on this subject on the TechDays conference in NL last year. See my presentation and slides here (talk in Dutch, but English presentation): http://blog.jessehouwing.nl/2012/03/did-you-miss-my-techdaysnl-talk-on-code.html  I’d like to add a few more points: - Before/After checking is mostly a trust issue. If you have a team that does diligent peer reviews and regularly talk/sit together or peer review, there’s no need to enforce a before-checkin policy. The peer peer-programming and regular feedback during development can take care of most of the review requirements as long as the team isn’t under stress. - Under stress, enforce pre-checkin reviews, it might sound strange, if you’re already under time or budgetary constraints, but it is under such conditions most real issues start to be created or pile up. - Use tools to catch most common errors, Code Analysis/FxCop was already mentioned. HP Fortify, Resharper, Coderush etc can help you there. There are also a lot of 3rd party rules you can add to Code Analysis. I’ve written a few myself (http://fccopcontrib.codeplex.com) and various teams from Microsoft have added their own rules (MSOCAF for SharePoint, WSSF for WCF). For common errors that keep cropping up, see if you can define a rule. It’s much easier. But more importantly make sure you have a good help page explaining *WHY* it's wrong. If you have small feature or developer branches/shelvesets, you might want to review pre-merge. It’s still better to do peer reviews and peer programming, but the most important thing is that bad quality code doesn’t make it into the important branch. So my philosophy: - Use tooling as much as possible. - Make sure the team understands the tooling and the importance of the things it flags. It’s too easy to just click suppress all to ignore the warnings. - Under stress, tighten process, it’s under stress that the problems of late reviews will really surface - Most importantly if you do reviews do them as early as possible, but never later than needed. In other words, pre-checkin/post checking doesn’t really matter, as long as the review is done before the code is released. It’ll just be much more expensive to fix any review outcomes the later you find them. --- I would love to hear what you think!

    Read the article

  • The Inkremental Architect&acute;s Napkin - #4 - Make increments tangible

    - by Ralf Westphal
    Originally posted on: http://geekswithblogs.net/theArchitectsNapkin/archive/2014/06/12/the-inkremental-architectacutes-napkin---4---make-increments-tangible.aspxThe driver of software development are increments, small increments, tiny increments. With an increment being a slice of the overall requirement scope thin enough to implement and get feedback from a product owner within 2 days max. Such an increment might concern Functionality or Quality.[1] To make such high frequency delivery of increments possible, the transition from talking to coding needs to be as easy as possible. A user story or some other documentation of what´s supposed to get implemented until tomorrow evening at latest is one side of the medal. The other is where to put the logic in all of the code base. To implement an increment, only logic statements are needed. Functionality like Quality are just about expressions and control flow statements. Think of Assembler code without the CALL/RET instructions. That´s all is needed. Forget about functions, forget about classes. To make a user happy none of that is really needed. It´s just about the right expressions and conditional executions paths plus some memory allocation. Automatic function inlining of compilers which makes it clear how unimportant functions are for delivering value to users at runtime. But why then are there functions? Because they were invented for optimization purposes. We need them for better Evolvability and Production Efficiency. Nothing more, nothing less. No software has become faster, more secure, more scalable, more functional because we gathered logic under the roof of a function or two or a thousand. Functions make logic easier to understand. Functions make us faster in producing logic. Functions make it easier to keep logic consistent. Functions help to conserve memory. That said, functions are important. They are even the pivotal element of software development. We can´t code without them - whether you write a function yourself or not. Because there´s always at least one function in play: the Entry Point of a program. In Ruby the simplest program looks like this:puts "Hello, world!" In C# more is necessary:class Program { public static void Main () { System.Console.Write("Hello, world!"); } } C# makes the Entry Point function explicit, not so Ruby. But still it´s there. So you can think of logic always running in some function. Which brings me back to increments: In order to make the transition from talking to code as easy as possible, it has to be crystal clear into which function you should put the logic. Product owners might be content once there is a sticky note a user story on the Scrum or Kanban board. But developers need an idea of what that sticky note means in term of functions. Because with a function in hand, with a signature to run tests against, they have something to focus on. All´s well once there is a function behind whose signature logic can be piled up. Then testing frameworks can be used to check if the logic is correct. Then practices like TDD can help to drive the implementation. That´s why most code katas define exactly how the API of a solution should look like. It´s a function, maybe two or three, not more. A requirement like “Write a function f which takes this as parameters and produces such and such output by doing x” makes a developer comfortable. Yes, there are all kinds of details to think about, like which algorithm or technology to use, or what kind of state and side effects to consider. Even a single function not only must deliver on Functionality, but also on Quality and Evolvability. Nevertheless, once it´s clear which function to put logic in, you have a tangible starting point. So, yes, what I´m suggesting is to find a single function to put all the logic in that´s necessary to deliver on a the requirements of an increment. Or to put it the other way around: Slice requirements in a way that each increment´s logic can be located under the roof of a single function. Entry points Of course, the logic of a software will always be spread across many, many functions. But there´s always an Entry Point. That´s the most important function for each increment, because that´s the root to put integration or even acceptance tests on. A batch program like the above hello-world application only has a single Entry Point. All logic is reached from there, regardless how deep it´s nested in classes. But a program with a user interface like this has at least two Entry Points: One is the main function called upon startup. The other is the button click event handler for “Show my score”. But maybe there are even more, like another Entry Point being a handler for the event fired when one of the choices gets selected; because then some logic could check if the button should be enabled because all questions got answered. Or another Entry Point for the logic to be executed when the program is close; because then the choices made should be persisted. You see, an Entry Point to me is a function which gets triggered by the user of a software. With batch programs that´s the main function. With GUI programs on the desktop that´s event handlers. With web programs that´s handlers for URL routes. And my basic suggestion to help you with slicing requirements for Spinning is: Slice them in a way so that each increment is related to only one Entry Point function.[2] Entry Points are the “outer functions” of a program. That´s where the environment triggers behavior. That´s where hardware meets software. Entry points always get called because something happened to hardware state, e.g. a key was pressed, a mouse button clicked, the system timer ticked, data arrived over a wire.[3] Viewed from the outside, software is just a collection of Entry Point functions made accessible via buttons to press, menu items to click, gestures, URLs to open, keys to enter. Collections of batch processors I´d thus say, we haven´t moved forward since the early days of software development. We´re still writing batch programs. Forget about “event-driven programming” with its fancy GUI applications. Software is just a collection of batch processors. Earlier it was just one per program, today it´s hundreds we bundle up into applications. Each batch processor is represented by an Entry Point as its root that works on a number of resources from which it reads data to process and to which it writes results. These resources can be the keyboard or main memory or a hard disk or a communication line or a display. Together many batch processors - large and small - form applications the user perceives as a single whole: Software development that way becomes quite simple: just implement one batch processor after another. Well, at least in principle ;-) Features Each batch processor entered through an Entry Point delivers value to the user. It´s an increment. Sometimes its logic is trivial, sometimes it´s very complex. Regardless, each Entry Point represents an increment. An Entry Point implemented thus is a step forward in terms of Agility. At the same time it´s a tangible unit for developers. Therefore, identifying the more or less numerous batch processors in a software system is a rewarding task for product owners and developers alike. That´s where user stories meet code. In this example the user story translates to the Entry Point triggered by clicking the login button on a dialog like this: The batch then retrieves what has been entered via keyboard, loads data from a user store, and finally outputs some kind of response on the screen, e.g. by displaying an error message or showing the next dialog. This is all very simple, but you see, there is not just one thing happening, but several. Get input (email address, password) Load user for email address If user not found report error Check password Hash password Compare hash to hash stored in user Show next dialog Viewed from 10,000 feet it´s all done by the Entry Point function. And of course that´s technically possible. It´s just a bunch of logic and calling a couple of API functions. However, I suggest to take these steps as distinct aspects of the overall requirement described by the user story. Such aspects of requirements I call Features. Features too are increments. Each provides some (small) value of its own to the user. Each can be checked individually by a product owner. Instead of implementing all the logic behind the Login() entry point at once you can move forward increment by increment, e.g. First implement the dialog, let the user enter any credentials, and log him/her in without any checks. Features 1 and 4. Then hard code a single user and check the email address. Features 2 and 2.1. Then check password without hashing it (or use a very simple hash like the length of the password). Features 3. and 3.2 Replace hard coded user with a persistent user directoy, but a very simple one, e.g. a CSV file. Refinement of feature 2. Calculate the real hash for the password. Feature 3.1. Switch to the final user directory technology. Each feature provides an opportunity to deliver results in a short amount of time and get feedback. If you´re in doubt whether you can implement the whole entry point function until tomorrow night, then just go for a couple of features or even just one. That´s also why I think, you should strive for wrapping feature logic into a function of its own. It´s a matter of Evolvability and Production Efficiency. A function per feature makes the code more readable, since the language of requirements analysis and design is carried over into implementation. It makes it easier to apply changes to features because it´s clear where their logic is located. And finally, of course, it lets you re-use features in different context (read: increments). Feature functions make it easier for you to think of features as Spinning increments, to implement them independently, to let the product owner check them for acceptance individually. Increments consist of features, entry point functions consist of feature functions. So you can view software as a hierarchy of requirements from broad to thin which map to a hierarchy of functions - with entry points at the top.   I like this image of software as a self-similar structure on many levels of abstraction where requirements and code match each other. That to me is true agile design: the core tenet of Agility to move forward in increments is carried over into implementation. Increments on paper are retained in code. This way developers can easily relate to product owners. Elusive and fuzzy requirements are not tangible. Software production is moving forward through requirements one increment at a time, and one function at a time. In closing Product owners and developers are different - but they need to work together towards a shared goal: working software. So their notions of software need to be made compatible, they need to be connected. The increments of the product owner - user stories and features - need to be mapped straightforwardly to something which is relevant to developers. To me that´s functions. Yes, functions, not classes nor components nor micro services. We´re talking about behavior, actions, activities, processes. Their natural representation is a function. Something has to be done. Logic has to be executed. That´s the purpose of functions. Later, classes and other containers are needed to stay on top of a growing amount of logic. But to connect developers and product owners functions are the appropriate glue. Functions which represent increments. Can there always be such a small increment be found to deliver until tomorrow evening? I boldly say yes. Yes, it´s always possible. But maybe you´ve to start thinking differently. Maybe the product owner needs to start thinking differently. Completion is not the goal anymore. Neither is checking the delivery of an increment through the user interface of a software. Product owners need to become comfortable using test beds for certain features. If it´s hard to slice requirements thin enough for Spinning the reason is too little knowledge of something. Maybe you don´t yet understand the problem domain well enough? Maybe you don´t yet feel comfortable with some tool or technology? Then it´s time to acknowledge this fact. Be honest about your not knowing. And instead of trying to deliver as a craftsman officially become a researcher. Research an check back with the product owner every day - until your understanding has grown to a level where you are able to define the next Spinning increment. ? Sometimes even thin requirement slices will cover several Entry Points, like “Add validation of email addresses to all relevant dialogs.” Validation then will it put into a dozen functons. Still, though, it´s important to determine which Entry Points exactly get affected. That´s much easier, if strive for keeping the number of Entry Points per increment to 1. ? If you like call Entry Point functions event handlers, because that´s what they are. They all handle events of some kind, whether that´s palpable in your code or note. A public void btnSave_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) {…} might look like an event handler to you, but public static void Main() {…} is one also - for then event “program started”. ?

    Read the article

  • CodePlex Daily Summary for Wednesday, November 24, 2010

    CodePlex Daily Summary for Wednesday, November 24, 2010Popular ReleasesEdinamarry Free Tarot Software for Windows: Edinamarry Free Tarot Software Version 3.12: Version 3.12 - 24th November, 2010::: Contains new features and components. Fixed bugs too. History: Version 3.10 - 19th November 2010::: Contains bug fixes and replacements for older features. Added Collapsible Panels support. Client profiles and all cards data import and export, storage is now done in standalone databases. A new 2010-2011 Windows 7/XP freeware Tarot and Divinity Software for PC and Windows 7. Edinamarry brings to you an open Tarot Scribe Kit by which you can create your ...Deep Zoom for WPF: First Release: This first release of the Deep Zoom control has the same source code, binaries and demos as the CodeProject article (http://www.codeproject.com/KB/WPF/DeepZoom.aspx).Minemapper: Minemapper v0.1.2: Added cave and nether support. Added ability to enter a height (press enter or 'set height' button). Added View menu, moved 'Show Navigation Controls' there. Added View->Background Color menu to change the canvas background color (preference not currently saved). Improved handling of height change (still not perfect, think it can be made faster). Images are now cached in %APPDATA%\Minemapper, organized by world, then direction, then mode (cave, day, night, nether), then skylight, th...BlogEngine.NET: BlogEngine.NET 2.0 RC: This is a Release Candidate version for BlogEngine.NET 2.0. The most current, stable version of BlogEngine.NET is version 1.6. Find out more about the BlogEngine.NET 2.0 RC here. If you want to extend or modify BlogEngine.NET, you should download the source code. To get started, be sure to check out our installation documentation and the installation screencast. If you are upgrading from a previous version, please take a look at the Upgrading to BlogEngine.NET 2.0 instructions. As this ...NodeXL: Network Overview, Discovery and Exploration for Excel: NodeXL Excel Template, version 1.0.1.156: The NodeXL Excel template displays a network graph using edge and vertex lists stored in an Excel 2007 or Excel 2010 workbook. What's NewThis release adds a feature for aggregating the overall metrics in a folder full of NodeXL workbooks, adds geographical coordinates to the Twitter import features, and fixes a memory-related bug. See the Complete NodeXL Release History for details. Please Note: There is a new option in the setup program to install for "Just Me" or "Everyone." Most people...Wii Backup Fusion: Wii Backup Fusion 0.8.2 Beta: New in this release: - Update titles after language change - Tool tips for name/title - Transfer DVD to a specific image file - Download titles from wiitdb.com - Save Settings geometry - Titles and Cover language global in settings - Convert Files (images) to another format - Format WBFS partition - Create WBFS file - WIT path configurable in settings - Save last path in Files/Load - Sort game lists - Save column width - Sequenz of columns changeable - Set indicated columns in settings - Bus...SQL Monitor: SQL Monitor 1.3: 1. change sys.sysprocesses to DMV: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms187997.aspx select * from sys.dm_exec_connections select * from sys.dm_exec_requests select * from sys.dm_exec_sessions 2. adjust columns to fit without scrollingVFPX: FoxBarcode v.0.11: FoxBarcode v.0.11 - Released 2010.11.22 FoxBarcode is a 100% Visual FoxPro class that provides a tool for generating images with different bar code symbologies to be used in VFP forms and reports, or exported to other applications. Its use and distribution is free for all Visual FoxPro Community. Whats is new? Added a third parameter to the BarcodeImage() method Fixed some minor bugs History FoxBarcode v.0.10 - Released 2010.11.19 - 85 Downloads Project page: FoxBarcodeASP.NET MVC Project Awesome (jQuery Ajax helpers): 1.3.1 and demos: A rich set of helpers (controls) that you can use to build highly responsive and interactive Ajax-enabled Web applications. These helpers include Autocomplete, AjaxDropdown, Lookup, Confirm Dialog, Popup Form and Pager tested on mozilla, safari, chrome, opera, ie 9b/8/7/6DotSpatial: DotSpatial 11-21-2010: This release introduces the following Fixed bugs related to dispose, which caused issues when reordering layers in the legend Fixed bugs related to assigning categories where NULL values are in the fields New fast-acting resize using a bitmap "prediction" of what the final resize content will look like. ImageData.ReadBlock, ImageData.WriteBlock These allow direct file access for reading or writing a rectangular window. Bitmaps are used for holding the values. Removed the need to stor...MDownloader: MDownloader-0.15.24.6966: Fixed Updater; Fixed minor bugs;WPF Application Framework (WAF): WPF Application Framework (WAF) 2.0.0.1: Version: 2.0.0.1 (Milestone 1): This release contains the source code of the WPF Application Framework (WAF) and the sample applications. Requirements .NET Framework 4.0 (The package contains a solution file for Visual Studio 2010) The unit test projects require Visual Studio 2010 Professional Remark The sample applications are using Microsoft’s IoC container MEF. However, the WPF Application Framework (WAF) doesn’t force you to use the same IoC container in your application. You can use ...Home Access Plus+: v5.4.4: Version 5.4.4Change Log: Added logic to the My Computer Browsers to allow for users with no home directories (set in ad anyhow) Renamed the My School Computer Enhanced page to My School Computer Extended Edition File Changes: ~/bin/hap.web.dll ~/clientbin/hap.silverlight.xap ~/mycomputersl.aspx.NET Extensions - Extension Methods Library for C# and VB.NET: Release 2011.01: Added new extensions for - object.CountLoopsToNull Added new extensions for DateTime: - DateTime.IsWeekend - DateTime.AddWeeks Added new extensions for string: - string.Repeat - string.IsNumeric - string.ExtractDigits - string.ConcatWith - string.ToGuid - string.ToGuidSave Added new extensions for Exception: - Exception.GetOriginalException Added new extensions for Stream: - Stream.Write (overload) And other new methods ... Release as of dotnetpro 01/2011Microsoft All-In-One Code Framework: Visual Studio 2010 Code Samples 2010-11-19: Code samples for Visual Studio 2010Prism Training Kit: Prism Training Kit 4.0: Release NotesThis is an updated version of the Prism training Kit that targets Prism 4.0 and added labs for some of the new features of Prism 4.0. This release consists of a Training Kit with Labs on the following topics Modularity Dependency Injection Bootstrapper UI Composition Communication MEF Navigation Note: Take into account that this is a Beta version. If you find any bugs please report them in the Issue Tracker PrerequisitesVisual Studio 2010 Microsoft Word 2...Free language translator and file converter: Free Language Translator 2.2: Starting with version 2.0, the translator encountered a major redesign that uses MEF based plugins and .net 4.0. I've also fixed some bugs and added support for translating subtitles that can show up in video media players. Version 2.1 shows the context menu 'Translate' in Windows Explorer on right click. Version 2.2 has links to start the media file with its associated subtitle. Download the zip file and expand it in a temporary location on your local disk. At a minimum , you should uninstal...Free Silverlight & WPF Chart Control - Visifire: Visifire SL and WPF Charts v3.6.4 Released: Hi, Today we are releasing Visifire 3.6.4 with few bug fixes: * Multi-line Labels were getting clipped while exploding last DataPoint in Funnel and Pyramid chart. * ClosestPlotDistance property in Axis was not behaving as expected. * In DateTime Axis, Chart threw exception on mouse click over PlotArea if there were no DataPoints present in Chart. * ToolTip was not disappearing while changing the DataSource property of the DataSeries at real-time. * Chart threw exception ...Christoc's DotNetNuke Module Development Template: 00.00.05: This release of the DotNetNuke Module Development Templates replaces the NANT scripts with MSBuild scripts. You will need to download and install the MSBuildTasks MSI file from http://msbuildtasks.tigris.org/, it's pretty straight forward without needing any sort of customization during installation. To install these templates copy the ZIP file downloaded into your My Documents\Visual Studio 2008 (or 2010)\Templates\Project Templates\C#(or VB)\Web folder (if the WEB folder doesn't exist, cre...Microsoft SQL Server Product Samples: Database: AdventureWorks 2008R2 SR1: Sample Databases for Microsoft SQL Server 2008R2 (SR1)This release is dedicated to the sample databases that ship for Microsoft SQL Server 2008R2. See Database Prerequisites for SQL Server 2008R2 for feature configurations required for installing the sample databases. See Installing SQL Server 2008R2 Databases for step by step installation instructions. The SR1 release contains minor bug fixes to the installer used to create the sample databases. There are no changes to the databases them...New ProjectsAdventureWorks Products: This is a very simple module built for DNN 5.01.00 and up which allows you to edit some basic AdventureWorks product data. The module displays skin techniques.Amnesia: Transacts all changes to a website to facilitate automated UI testing. Queries from the automated test can also query the application database without blocking and participate in the transaction.DBA Inventory: DBA Inventory is a SQL Server based project to help inventory, manage, control, and report on a large SQL Server infrastructure without requiring agents on the target. dcorp: ?????? cmsFoldingAnalysis: Software para monitoramento de cliente folding@homeHelpSystem2010: testei2iPortal: i2i Technologies projectLucandra.NET: Lucandra.NET is a Lucene + Cassandra implementation written in C# which is based on the Lucandra (Java) project by Jake Luciani. Apache's Lucene is a high-performance full-text search engine, and Apache's Cassandra is a promising NoSQL database, originally developed by Facebook.MSBuild ConfigTransform for Visual Studio: MSbuild ConfigTransform makes transforming of config files (xml) an integrated part of your Visual Studio 2010 build action (CTRL+SHIFT+B or SHIFT+F6 or what your keyboards shortcut are set to) Provides optional fail on build on failed transformation of xml with error messagesNyx Editor: Nyx is a free, open-source game development tool aimed at making the creation and edition of levels or maps easy and enjoyable. Nyx exports level data as JSON, XML, or binary making it malleable to your own projects, engines, and needs.openfleet: This is a modular open source project to control fleets. It's a fork of the gofleet project (http://gitorious.org/gofleet).PoShRabbit: A PowerShell module to enable messaging against a Rabbit MQ server. Provides deeply integrated facilities for handling message queues and subscriptions using scripts. Enables PowerShell scripts to publish messages in Rabbit exchanges.Silverlight and WP7 Exception Handling and Logging building block: This code will help you handle and log client side exceptions in your Silverlight 4 and WP7 projects. Errors that occur in clients can be sent to your loggingservice. The service will store them. It's developed in C#, using VS2010.student admission system: this is emerson college registration system.Useful Desktop Components: Este artigo discute o uso de alguns componentes que podem ser muito úteis no dia a dia de um programador desktop como por exemplo manipulação de textos RTF, criptografias, validações, armazenamento de arquivos, validações de CPF e CNPJ, entre outros.WPF Calendar and DatePicker Themes: WPF Calendar and DatePicker ThemesWPF PropertyGrid Control: WPF PropertyGrid ControlWrix Development Kit: One development kit for internet and enterprise both.XNAPF: This project aims to create a control for integrating easily an XNA rendering in a WPF picture. xSNMP Extensions for System Center OpsMgr 2007: Developed by OpsMgr users with substantial community input, and tested extensively in implementations around the world, the xSNMP Management Pack suite is a powerful open-source SNMP monitoring implementation for Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2 environments.

    Read the article

  • Win7 Bluescreen: IRQ_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL | athrxusb.sys

    - by wretrOvian
    Hi I'd left my system on last night, and found the bluescreen in the morning. This has been happening occasionally, over the past few days. Details: ================================================== Dump File : 022710-18236-01.dmp Crash Time : 2/27/2010 8:46:44 AM Bug Check String : DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL Bug Check Code : 0x000000d1 Parameter 1 : 00000000`00001001 Parameter 2 : 00000000`00000002 Parameter 3 : 00000000`00000000 Parameter 4 : fffff880`06b5c0e1 Caused By Driver : athrxusb.sys Caused By Address : athrxusb.sys+760e1 File Description : Product Name : Company : File Version : Processor : x64 Computer Name : Full Path : C:\Windows\minidump\022710-18236-01.dmp Processors Count : 2 Major Version : 15 Minor Version : 7600 ================================================== HiJackThis ("[...]" indicates removed text; full log posted to pastebin): Logfile of Trend Micro HijackThis v2.0.2 Scan saved at 8:49:15 AM, on 2/27/2010 Platform: Unknown Windows (WinNT 6.01.3504) MSIE: Internet Explorer v8.00 (8.00.7600.16385) Boot mode: Normal Running processes: C:\Windows\DAODx.exe C:\Program Files (x86)\ASUS\EPU\EPU.exe C:\Program Files\ASUS\TurboV\TurboV.exe C:\Program Files (x86)\PowerISO\PWRISOVM.EXE C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenOffice.org 3\program\soffice.exe C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenOffice.org 3\program\soffice.bin D:\Downloads\HijackThis.exe C:\Program Files (x86)\uTorrent\uTorrent.exe R1 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\[...] [...] O2 - BHO: Java(tm) Plug-In 2 SSV Helper - {DBC80044-A445-435b-BC74-9C25C1C588A9} - C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jre6\bin\jp2ssv.dll O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [HDAudDeck] C:\Program Files (x86)\VIA\VIAudioi\VDeck\VDeck.exe -r O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [StartCCC] "C:\Program Files (x86)\ATI Technologies\ATI.ACE\Core-Static\CLIStart.exe" MSRun O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [TurboV] "C:\Program Files\ASUS\TurboV\TurboV.exe" O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [PWRISOVM.EXE] C:\Program Files (x86)\PowerISO\PWRISOVM.EXE O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [googletalk] C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Google Talk\googletalk.exe /autostart O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [AdobeCS4ServiceManager] "C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Adobe\CS4ServiceManager\CS4ServiceManager.exe" -launchedbylogin O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [uTorrent] "C:\Program Files (x86)\uTorrent\uTorrent.exe" O4 - HKUS\S-1-5-19\..\Run: [Sidebar] %ProgramFiles%\Windows Sidebar\Sidebar.exe /autoRun (User 'LOCAL SERVICE') O4 - HKUS\S-1-5-19\..\RunOnce: [mctadmin] C:\Windows\System32\mctadmin.exe (User 'LOCAL SERVICE') O4 - HKUS\S-1-5-20\..\Run: [Sidebar] %ProgramFiles%\Windows Sidebar\Sidebar.exe /autoRun (User 'NETWORK SERVICE') O4 - HKUS\S-1-5-20\..\RunOnce: [mctadmin] C:\Windows\System32\mctadmin.exe (User 'NETWORK SERVICE') O4 - Startup: OpenOffice.org 3.1.lnk = C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenOffice.org 3\program\quickstart.exe O13 - Gopher Prefix: O23 - Service: @%SystemRoot%\system32\Alg.exe,-112 (ALG) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\System32\alg.exe (file missing) O23 - Service: AMD External Events Utility - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\system32\atiesrxx.exe (file missing) O23 - Service: ASUS System Control Service (AsSysCtrlService) - Unknown owner - C:\Program Files (x86)\ASUS\AsSysCtrlService\1.00.02\AsSysCtrlService.exe O23 - Service: DeviceVM Meta Data Export Service (DvmMDES) - DeviceVM - C:\ASUS.SYS\config\DVMExportService.exe O23 - Service: @%SystemRoot%\system32\efssvc.dll,-100 (EFS) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\System32\lsass.exe (file missing) O23 - Service: ESET HTTP Server (EhttpSrv) - ESET - C:\Program Files\ESET\ESET NOD32 Antivirus\EHttpSrv.exe O23 - Service: ESET Service (ekrn) - ESET - C:\Program Files\ESET\ESET NOD32 Antivirus\x86\ekrn.exe O23 - Service: @%systemroot%\system32\fxsresm.dll,-118 (Fax) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\system32\fxssvc.exe (file missing) O23 - Service: FLEXnet Licensing Service - Acresso Software Inc. - C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Macrovision Shared\FLEXnet Publisher\FNPLicensingService.exe O23 - Service: FLEXnet Licensing Service 64 - Acresso Software Inc. - C:\Program Files\Common Files\Macrovision Shared\FLEXnet Publisher\FNPLicensingService64.exe O23 - Service: InstallDriver Table Manager (IDriverT) - Macrovision Corporation - C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\InstallShield\Driver\11\Intel 32\IDriverT.exe O23 - Service: @keyiso.dll,-100 (KeyIso) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\system32\lsass.exe (file missing) O23 - Service: @comres.dll,-2797 (MSDTC) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\System32\msdtc.exe (file missing) O23 - Service: @%SystemRoot%\System32\netlogon.dll,-102 (Netlogon) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\system32\lsass.exe (file missing) O23 - Service: @%systemroot%\system32\psbase.dll,-300 (ProtectedStorage) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\system32\lsass.exe (file missing) O23 - Service: Protexis Licensing V2 (PSI_SVC_2) - Protexis Inc. - c:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Protexis\License Service\PsiService_2.exe O23 - Service: @%systemroot%\system32\Locator.exe,-2 (RpcLocator) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\system32\locator.exe (file missing) O23 - Service: @%SystemRoot%\system32\samsrv.dll,-1 (SamSs) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\system32\lsass.exe (file missing) O23 - Service: @%SystemRoot%\system32\snmptrap.exe,-3 (SNMPTRAP) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\System32\snmptrap.exe (file missing) O23 - Service: @%systemroot%\system32\spoolsv.exe,-1 (Spooler) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\System32\spoolsv.exe (file missing) O23 - Service: @%SystemRoot%\system32\sppsvc.exe,-101 (sppsvc) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\system32\sppsvc.exe (file missing) O23 - Service: Steam Client Service - Valve Corporation - C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Steam\SteamService.exe O23 - Service: @%SystemRoot%\system32\ui0detect.exe,-101 (UI0Detect) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\system32\UI0Detect.exe (file missing) O23 - Service: @%SystemRoot%\system32\vaultsvc.dll,-1003 (VaultSvc) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\system32\lsass.exe (file missing) O23 - Service: @%SystemRoot%\system32\vds.exe,-100 (vds) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\System32\vds.exe (file missing) O23 - Service: @%systemroot%\system32\vssvc.exe,-102 (VSS) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\system32\vssvc.exe (file missing) O23 - Service: @%systemroot%\system32\wbengine.exe,-104 (wbengine) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\system32\wbengine.exe (file missing) O23 - Service: @%Systemroot%\system32\wbem\wmiapsrv.exe,-110 (wmiApSrv) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\system32\wbem\WmiApSrv.exe (file missing) O23 - Service: @%PROGRAMFILES%\Windows Media Player\wmpnetwk.exe,-101 (WMPNetworkSvc) - Unknown owner - C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Media Player\wmpnetwk.exe (file missing) -- End of file - 6800 bytes CPU-Z ("[...]" indicates removed text; see full log posted to pastebin): CPU-Z TXT Report ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Binaries ------------------------------------------------------------------------- CPU-Z version 1.53.1 Processors ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Number of processors 1 Number of threads 2 APICs ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Processor 0 -- Core 0 -- Thread 0 0 -- Core 1 -- Thread 0 1 Processors Information ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Processor 1 ID = 0 Number of cores 2 (max 2) Number of threads 2 (max 2) Name AMD Phenom II X2 550 Codename Callisto Specification AMD Phenom(tm) II X2 550 Processor Package Socket AM3 (938) CPUID F.4.2 Extended CPUID 10.4 Brand ID 29 Core Stepping RB-C2 Technology 45 nm Core Speed 3110.7 MHz Multiplier x FSB 15.5 x 200.7 MHz HT Link speed 2006.9 MHz Instructions sets MMX (+), 3DNow! (+), SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSE4A, x86-64, AMD-V L1 Data cache 2 x 64 KBytes, 2-way set associative, 64-byte line size L1 Instruction cache 2 x 64 KBytes, 2-way set associative, 64-byte line size L2 cache 2 x 512 KBytes, 16-way set associative, 64-byte line size L3 cache 6 MBytes, 48-way set associative, 64-byte line size FID/VID Control yes Min FID 4.0x P-State FID 0xF - VID 0x10 P-State FID 0x8 - VID 0x18 P-State FID 0x3 - VID 0x20 P-State FID 0x100 - VID 0x2C Package Type 0x1 Model 50 String 1 0x7 String 2 0x6 Page 0x0 TDP Limit 79 Watts TDC Limit 66 Amps Attached device PCI device at bus 0, device 24, function 0 Attached device PCI device at bus 0, device 24, function 1 Attached device PCI device at bus 0, device 24, function 2 Attached device PCI device at bus 0, device 24, function 3 Attached device PCI device at bus 0, device 24, function 4 Thread dumps ------------------------------------------------------------------------- CPU Thread 0 APIC ID 0 Topology Processor ID 0, Core ID 0, Thread ID 0 Type 0200400Ah Max CPUID level 00000005h Max CPUID ext. level 8000001Bh Cache descriptor Level 1, I, 64 KB, 1 thread(s) Cache descriptor Level 1, D, 64 KB, 1 thread(s) Cache descriptor Level 2, U, 512 KB, 1 thread(s) Cache descriptor Level 3, U, 6 MB, 2 thread(s) CPUID 0x00000000 0x00000005 0x68747541 0x444D4163 0x69746E65 0x00000001 0x00100F42 0x00020800 0x00802009 0x178BFBFF 0x00000002 0x00000000 0x00000000 0x00000000 0x00000000 0x00000003 0x00000000 0x00000000 0x00000000 0x00000000 0x00000004 0x00000000 0x00000000 0x00000000 0x00000000 0x00000005 0x00000040 0x00000040 0x00000003 0x00000000 [...] CPU Thread 1 APIC ID 1 Topology Processor ID 0, Core ID 1, Thread ID 0 Type 0200400Ah Max CPUID level 00000005h Max CPUID ext. level 8000001Bh Cache descriptor Level 1, I, 64 KB, 1 thread(s) Cache descriptor Level 1, D, 64 KB, 1 thread(s) Cache descriptor Level 2, U, 512 KB, 1 thread(s) Cache descriptor Level 3, U, 6 MB, 2 thread(s) CPUID 0x00000000 0x00000005 0x68747541 0x444D4163 0x69746E65 0x00000001 0x00100F42 0x01020800 0x00802009 0x178BFBFF 0x00000002 0x00000000 0x00000000 0x00000000 0x00000000 0x00000003 0x00000000 0x00000000 0x00000000 0x00000000 0x00000004 0x00000000 0x00000000 0x00000000 0x00000000 0x00000005 0x00000040 0x00000040 0x00000003 0x00000000 [...] Chipset ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Northbridge AMD 790GX rev. 00 Southbridge ATI SB750 rev. 00 Memory Type DDR3 Memory Size 4096 MBytes Channels Dual, (Unganged) Memory Frequency 669.0 MHz (3:10) CAS# latency (CL) 9.0 RAS# to CAS# delay (tRCD) 9 RAS# Precharge (tRP) 9 Cycle Time (tRAS) 24 Bank Cycle Time (tRC) 33 Command Rate (CR) 1T Uncore Frequency 2006.9 MHz Memory SPD ------------------------------------------------------------------------- DIMM # 1 SMBus address 0x50 Memory type DDR3 Module format UDIMM Manufacturer (ID) G.Skill (7F7F7F7FCD000000) Size 2048 MBytes Max bandwidth PC3-10700 (667 MHz) Part number F3-10600CL9-2GBNT Number of banks 8 Nominal Voltage 1.50 Volts EPP no XMP no JEDEC timings table CL-tRCD-tRP-tRAS-tRC @ frequency JEDEC #1 6.0-6-6-17-23 @ 457 MHz JEDEC #2 7.0-7-7-20-27 @ 533 MHz JEDEC #3 8.0-8-8-22-31 @ 609 MHz JEDEC #4 9.0-9-9-25-34 @ 685 MHz DIMM # 2 SMBus address 0x51 Memory type DDR3 Module format UDIMM Manufacturer (ID) G.Skill (7F7F7F7FCD000000) Size 2048 MBytes Max bandwidth PC3-10700 (667 MHz) Part number F3-10600CL9-2GBNT Number of banks 8 Nominal Voltage 1.50 Volts EPP no XMP no JEDEC timings table CL-tRCD-tRP-tRAS-tRC @ frequency JEDEC #1 6.0-6-6-17-23 @ 457 MHz JEDEC #2 7.0-7-7-20-27 @ 533 MHz JEDEC #3 8.0-8-8-22-31 @ 609 MHz JEDEC #4 9.0-9-9-25-34 @ 685 MHz DIMM # 1 SPD registers [...] DIMM # 2 SPD registers [...] Monitoring ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mainboard Model M4A78T-E (0x000001F7 - 0x00A955E4) LPCIO ------------------------------------------------------------------------- LPCIO Vendor ITE LPCIO Model IT8720 LPCIO Vendor ID 0x90 LPCIO Chip ID 0x8720 LPCIO Revision ID 0x2 Config Mode I/O address 0x2E Config Mode LDN 0x4 Config Mode registers [...] Register space LPC, base address = 0x0290 Hardware Monitors ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hardware monitor ITE IT87 Voltage 1 1.62 Volts [0x65] (VIN1) Voltage 2 1.15 Volts [0x48] (CPU VCORE) Voltage 3 5.03 Volts [0xBB] (+5V) Voltage 8 3.34 Volts [0xD1] (VBAT) Temperature 0 39°C (102°F) [0x27] (TMPIN0) Temperature 1 43°C (109°F) [0x2B] (TMPIN1) Fan 0 3096 RPM [0xDA] (FANIN0) Register space LPC, base address = 0x0290 [...] Hardware monitor AMD SB6xx/7xx Voltage 0 1.37 Volts [0x1D2] (CPU VCore) Voltage 1 3.50 Volts [0x27B] (CPU IO) Voltage 2 12.68 Volts [0x282] (+12V) Hardware monitor AMD Phenom II X2 550 Power 0 89.10 W (Processor) Temperature 0 35°C (94°F) [0x115] (Core #0) Temperature 1 35°C (94°F) [0x115] (Core #1)

    Read the article

  • Backing up my data causes my server to crash using Symantec Backup Exec 12, or How I Came to Loathe

    - by Kyle Noland
    I have a Dell PowerEdge 2850 running Windows Server 2003. It is the primary file server for one of my clients. I have another server also running Windows Server 2003 that acts as the core media server for Symantec Backup Exec 12. I recently upgraded from Backup Exec 11d to 12. This upgrade was necessary because we also just upgraded from Exchange 2003 to Exchange 2007. After the upgrade I had to push-install the new version 12 Backup Exec Remote Agents to each of the servers I am backing up (about 6 total). 5 of my servers are doing just fine, faithfully completing backups every night. My file server routinely crashes. Observations: When the server crashes, it does not blue screen, it just locks up completely. Even the mouse is unresponsive. If you leave the server locked up long enough, it will eventually reboot itself and hang on the Windows splash screen. There is absolutely zero useful Event Viewer evidence of a problem. The logs go from routine logging to an Unexplained Shutdown Event the next morning when I have to hard reset the server to get it to boot. 90% of the time the server does not boot cleanly, it hangs on the Windows splash screen. I don't have any light to shed here. When the server hangs all I can do is hard reset it and try again. Even after a successful boot and chkdsk /r operation, if you reboot the machine, you have a 90% chance it won't back up again cleanly. The back story: This server started crashing during nightly backups about a month ago. I tried everything I could think of to troubleshoot the problem and eventually had to give up because I could not keep coming to the office at 4 AM to try to get the server back online. One Friday I got lucky and the server stayed up for its entire full backup. I took this opportunity to restore the full backup to a temporary server I set up and switched all my users to the temporary. Then I reloaded the ailing file server. I kept all my users on the temporary file server for about 3 weeks. I installed the same Backup Exec Remote Agent and Trend Micro A/V client on the temporary server that I was using on the regular file server. During this time, I had absolutely no problems backing up the temporary server. I tested the reloaded file server extensively. I rebooted the server once an hour every day for 3 weeks trying to make it fail. It never did. I felt confident that the reload was the answer to my problems. I moved all of the data from the temporary server back to the regular server. I got 3 nightly backups out of it before it locked up again and started the familiar failure to boot cleanly behavior. This weekend I decided to monitor the file server through the entire backup job. I RDPd into the file server and also into the server running Backup Exec. On the file server I opened the Task Manager so I could view the processes and watch CPU and memory usage. Everything was running smoothly for about 60GB worth of backup. Then I noticed that the byte count of the backup job in Backup Exec had stopped progressing. I looked back over at my RDP session into the file server, and I was getting real time updates about CPU and memory usage still - both nearly 0%, which is unusual. Backups usually hover around 40% usage for the duration of the backup job. Let me reiterate this point: The screen was refreshing and I was getting real time Task Manager updates - until I clicked on the Start menu. The screen went black and the server locked up. In truth, I think the server had already locked up, the video card just hadn't figured it out yet. I went back into my bag of trick: driving to the office and hard reseting the server over and over again when it hangs up at the Windows splash screen. I did this for 2 hours without getting a successful boot. I started panicking because I did not have a decent backup to use to get everything back onto the working temporary file server. Once I exhausted everything I knew to do, I took a deep breath, booted to the Windows Server 2003 CD and performed a repair installation of Windows. The server came back up fine, with all of my data intact. I can now reboot the server at will and it will come back up cleanly. The problem is that I'm afraid as soon as I try to back that data up again I will back at square one. So let me sum things up: Here is what I've done so far to troubleshoot this server: Deleted and recreated the RAID 5 sets. Initialized the drives. Reloaded the server with a fresh Server 2003 install. Confirmed with Dell that I have installed the latest, Dell approved BIOS and NIC drivers. Uninstalled / reinstalled the Backup Exec Remote Agent. Uninstalled the Trend Micro A/V client. Configured the server not to reboot itself after a blue screen so I can see any stop error. I used to think the server was blue screening, but since I enabled this setting I now know that the server just completely locks up. Run chkdsk /r from the Windows Recovery Console. Several errors were found and corrected, but did not help my problem. Help confirm or deny the following assumptions: There are two problems at work here. Why the server is locking up in the first place, and why the server won't boot cleanly after a lockup. This is ultimately a software problem. The server works fine and can be rebooted cleanly all day long - until the first lockup - following a fresh OS load or even a Repair installation. This is not a problem with Backup Exec in general. All of my other servers back up just fine. For the record, all of the other servers run Server 2003, and some of them house more data than the file server in question here. Any help is appreciated. The irony is almost too much to bear. Backing up my data is what is jeopardizing it.

    Read the article

  • What is causing the unusual high load average?

    - by James
    I noticed on Tuesday night of last week, the load average went up sharply and it seemed abnormal since the traffic is small. Usually, the numbers usually average around .40 or lower and my server stuff (mysql, php and apache) are optimized. I noticed that the IOWait is unusually high even though the processes is barely using any CPU. top - 01:44:39 up 1 day, 21:13, 1 user, load average: 1.41, 1.09, 0.86 Tasks: 60 total, 1 running, 59 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie Cpu0 : 0.0%us, 0.0%sy, 0.0%ni,100.0%id, 0.0%wa, 0.0%hi, 0.0%si, 0.0%st Cpu1 : 0.0%us, 0.0%sy, 0.0%ni,100.0%id, 0.0%wa, 0.0%hi, 0.0%si, 0.0%st Cpu2 : 0.0%us, 0.3%sy, 0.0%ni, 99.7%id, 0.0%wa, 0.0%hi, 0.0%si, 0.0%st Cpu3 : 0.0%us, 0.0%sy, 0.0%ni,100.0%id, 0.0%wa, 0.0%hi, 0.0%si, 0.0%st Cpu4 : 0.0%us, 0.0%sy, 0.0%ni,100.0%id, 0.0%wa, 0.0%hi, 0.0%si, 0.0%st Cpu5 : 0.0%us, 0.0%sy, 0.0%ni,100.0%id, 0.0%wa, 0.0%hi, 0.0%si, 0.0%st Cpu6 : 0.0%us, 0.0%sy, 0.0%ni,100.0%id, 0.0%wa, 0.0%hi, 0.0%si, 0.0%st Cpu7 : 0.0%us, 0.0%sy, 0.0%ni, 91.5%id, 8.5%wa, 0.0%hi, 0.0%si, 0.0%st Mem: 1048576k total, 331944k used, 716632k free, 0k buffers Swap: 0k total, 0k used, 0k free, 0k cached PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND 1 root 15 0 2468 1376 1140 S 0 0.1 0:00.92 init 1656 root 15 0 13652 5212 664 S 0 0.5 0:00.00 apache2 9323 root 18 0 13652 5212 664 S 0 0.5 0:00.00 apache2 10079 root 18 0 3972 1248 972 S 0 0.1 0:00.00 su 10080 root 15 0 4612 1956 1448 S 0 0.2 0:00.01 bash 11298 root 15 0 13652 5212 664 S 0 0.5 0:00.00 apache2 11778 chikorit 15 0 2344 1092 884 S 0 0.1 0:00.05 top 15384 root 18 0 17544 13m 1568 S 0 1.3 0:02.28 miniserv.pl 15585 root 15 0 8280 2736 2168 S 0 0.3 0:00.02 sshd 15608 chikorit 15 0 8280 1436 860 S 0 0.1 0:00.02 sshd Here is the VMStat procs -----------memory---------- ---swap-- -----io---- -system-- ----cpu---- r b swpd free buff cache si so bi bo in cs us sy id wa 1 0 0 768644 0 0 0 0 14 23 0 10 1 0 99 0 IOStat - Nothing unusal Total DISK READ: 67.13 K/s | Total DISK WRITE: 0.00 B/s TID PRIO USER DISK READ DISK WRITE SWAPIN IO COMMAND 19496 be/4 chikorit 11.85 K/s 0.00 B/s 0.00 % 0.00 % apache2 -k start 19501 be/4 mysql 3.95 K/s 0.00 B/s 0.00 % 0.00 % mysqld 19568 be/4 chikorit 11.85 K/s 0.00 B/s 0.00 % 0.00 % apache2 -k start 19569 be/4 chikorit 11.85 K/s 0.00 B/s 0.00 % 0.00 % apache2 -k start 19570 be/4 chikorit 11.85 K/s 0.00 B/s 0.00 % 0.00 % apache2 -k start 19571 be/4 chikorit 7.90 K/s 0.00 B/s 0.00 % 0.00 % apache2 -k start 19573 be/4 chikorit 7.90 K/s 0.00 B/s 0.00 % 0.00 % apache2 -k start 1 be/4 root 0.00 B/s 0.00 B/s 0.00 % 0.00 % init 11778 be/4 chikorit 0.00 B/s 0.00 B/s 0.00 % 0.00 % top 19470 be/4 mysql 0.00 B/s 0.00 B/s 0.00 % 0.00 % mysqld Load Average Chart - http://i.stack.imgur.com/kYsD0.png I want to be sure if this is not a MySQL problem before making sure. Also, this is a Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Server on OpenVZ. Edit: This will probably give a good picture on the IO Wait top - 22:12:22 up 17:41, 1 user, load average: 1.10, 1.09, 0.93 Tasks: 33 total, 1 running, 32 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie Cpu(s): 0.6%us, 0.2%sy, 0.0%ni, 89.0%id, 10.1%wa, 0.0%hi, 0.0%si, 0.0%st Mem: 1048576k total, 260708k used, 787868k free, 0k buffers Swap: 0k total, 0k used, 0k free, 0k cached PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND 1 root 15 0 2468 1376 1140 S 0 0.1 0:00.88 init 5849 root 15 0 12336 4028 668 S 0 0.4 0:00.00 apache2 8063 root 15 0 12336 4028 668 S 0 0.4 0:00.00 apache2 9732 root 16 0 8280 2728 2168 S 0 0.3 0:00.02 sshd 9746 chikorit 18 0 8412 1444 864 S 0 0.1 0:01.10 sshd 9747 chikorit 18 0 4576 1960 1488 S 0 0.2 0:00.24 bash 13706 chikorit 15 0 2344 1088 884 R 0 0.1 0:00.03 top 15745 chikorit 15 0 12968 5108 1280 S 0 0.5 0:00.00 apache2 15751 chikorit 15 0 72184 25m 18m S 0 2.5 0:00.37 php5-fpm 15790 chikorit 18 0 12472 4640 1192 S 0 0.4 0:00.00 apache2 15797 chikorit 15 0 72888 23m 16m S 0 2.3 0:00.06 php5-fpm 16038 root 15 0 67772 2848 592 D 0 0.3 0:00.00 php5-fpm 16309 syslog 18 0 24084 1316 992 S 0 0.1 0:00.07 rsyslogd 16316 root 15 0 5472 908 500 S 0 0.1 0:00.00 sshd 16326 root 15 0 2304 908 712 S 0 0.1 0:00.02 cron 17464 root 15 0 10252 7560 856 D 0 0.7 0:01.88 psad 17466 root 18 0 1684 276 208 S 0 0.0 0:00.31 psadwatchd 17559 root 18 0 11444 2020 732 S 0 0.2 0:00.47 sendmail-mta 17688 root 15 0 10252 5388 1136 S 0 0.5 0:03.81 python 17752 teamspea 19 0 44648 7308 4676 S 0 0.7 1:09.70 ts3server_linux 18098 root 15 0 12336 6380 3032 S 0 0.6 0:00.47 apache2 18099 chikorit 18 0 10368 2536 464 S 0 0.2 0:00.00 apache2 18120 ntp 15 0 4336 1316 984 S 0 0.1 0:00.87 ntpd 18379 root 15 0 12336 4028 668 S 0 0.4 0:00.00 apache2 18387 mysql 15 0 62796 36m 5864 S 0 3.6 1:43.26 mysqld 19584 root 15 0 12336 4028 668 S 0 0.4 0:00.02 apache2 22498 root 16 0 12336 4028 668 S 0 0.4 0:00.00 apache2 24260 root 15 0 67772 3612 1356 S 0 0.3 0:00.22 php5-fpm 27712 root 15 0 12336 4028 668 S 0 0.4 0:00.00 apache2 27730 root 15 0 12336 4028 668 S 0 0.4 0:00.00 apache2 30343 root 15 0 12336 4028 668 S 0 0.4 0:00.00 apache2 30366 root 15 0 12336 4028 668 S 0 0.4 0:00.00 apache2 This is the free ram as of today. total used free shared buffers cached Mem: 1024 302 721 0 0 0 -/+ buffers/cache: 302 721 Swap: 0 0 0 Update: Looking into the logs, particularly the PHP5-FPM, which is causing the CPU spike. I found that its segment faulting for some apparent reason. [03-Jun-2012 06:11:20] NOTICE: [pool www] child 14132 started [03-Jun-2012 06:11:25] WARNING: [pool www] child 13664 exited on signal 11 (SIGSEGV) after 53.686322 seconds from start [03-Jun-2012 06:11:25] NOTICE: [pool www] child 14328 started [03-Jun-2012 06:11:25] WARNING: [pool www] child 14132 exited on signal 11 (SIGSEGV) after 4.708681 seconds from start [03-Jun-2012 06:11:25] NOTICE: [pool www] child 14329 started [03-Jun-2012 06:11:58] WARNING: [pool www] child 14328 exited on signal 11 (SIGSEGV) after 32.981228 seconds from start [03-Jun-2012 06:11:58] NOTICE: [pool www] child 15745 started [03-Jun-2012 06:12:25] WARNING: [pool www] child 15745 exited on signal 11 (SIGSEGV) after 27.442864 seconds from start [03-Jun-2012 06:12:25] NOTICE: [pool www] child 17446 started [03-Jun-2012 06:12:25] WARNING: [pool www] child 14329 exited on signal 11 (SIGSEGV) after 60.411278 seconds from start [03-Jun-2012 06:12:25] NOTICE: [pool www] child 17447 started [03-Jun-2012 06:13:02] WARNING: [pool www] child 17446 exited on signal 11 (SIGSEGV) after 36.746793 seconds from start [03-Jun-2012 06:13:02] NOTICE: [pool www] child 18133 started [03-Jun-2012 06:13:48] WARNING: [pool www] child 17447 exited on signal 11 (SIGSEGV) after 82.710107 seconds from start I'm thinking that this might be causing the problem. If that is the cause, probably switching it off that to fastcgi/fcgid might resolve it... but still, I want to see if something else might be causing it to do this.

    Read the article

  • Server randomly freezes

    - by PsySkeletor
    Im facing a very strange issue, my debian squeeze freezes up always at night (Berlin, time). Here is what i get from a time and after doing this a few times, it becomes frozen and must be hard-reset. From /var/log/messages Dec 11 01:36:11 srv156 kernel: [125983.204251] CPU 1: Dec 11 01:36:11 srv156 kernel: [125983.204251] Modules linked in: xt_multiport nf_conntrack_ipv4 nf_defrag_ipv4 xt_recent xt_state nf_conntrack xt_tcpudp iptable_filter ip_tables x_tables hwmon_vid snd_hda_codec_atihdmi snd_hda_intel snd_hda_codec snd_hwdep snd_pcm radeon snd_timer ttm drm_kms_helper snd k10temp i2c_piix4 soundcore snd_page_alloc edac_core parport_pc drm i2c_algo_bit i2c_core shpchp pci_hotplug pcspkr edac_mce_amd parport wmi evdev processor button ext3 jbd mbcache raid1 md_mod sd_mod crc_t10dif ata_generic ahci ohci_hcd pata_atiixp e100 mii libata xhci floppy ehci_hcd thermal thermal_sys usbcore scsi_mod nls_base [last unloaded: i2c_dev] Dec 11 01:36:11 srv156 kernel: [125983.204251] Pid: 758, comm: flush-9:0 Tainted: G B 2.6.32-5-amd64 #1 GA-78LMT-USB3 Dec 11 01:36:11 srv156 kernel: [125983.204251] RIP: 0010:[<ffffffff810b3506>] [<ffffffff810b3506>] find_get_pages_tag+0x66/0xdd Dec 11 01:36:11 srv156 kernel: [125983.204251] RSP: 0018:ffff8804235e7b30 EFLAGS: 00000286 Dec 11 01:36:11 srv156 kernel: [125983.204251] RAX: ffffffffffffffff RBX: ffff8804235e7c00 RCX: 0000000000000000 Dec 11 01:36:11 srv156 kernel: [125983.204251] RDX: 0000000000040000 RSI: ffffea000496b2a8 RDI: ffffea000496b2a0 Dec 11 01:36:11 srv156 kernel: [125983.204251] RBP: ffffffff8101166e R08: ffff8804235e7af0 R09: 0000000000000000 Dec 11 01:36:11 srv156 kernel: [125983.204251] R10: 0000000000000000 R11: 0000000000040000 R12: ffff8804235e7c08 Dec 11 01:36:11 srv156 kernel: [125983.204251] R13: 0000000d22678a20 R14: ffff8804235e7af0 R15: 00000000091b9060 Dec 11 01:36:11 srv156 kernel: [125983.204251] FS: 0000000000000000(0000) GS:ffff880010440000(0000) knlGS:000000007ebf7b70 Dec 11 01:36:11 srv156 kernel: [125983.204522] CS: 0010 DS: 0018 ES: 0018 CR0: 000000008005003b Dec 11 01:36:11 srv156 kernel: [125983.204522] CR2: 00000000dec86000 CR3: 0000000001001000 CR4: 00000000000006e0 Dec 11 01:36:11 srv156 kernel: [125983.204522] DR0: 0000000000000000 DR1: 0000000000000000 DR2: 0000000000000000 Dec 11 01:36:11 srv156 kernel: [125983.204522] DR3: 0000000000000000 DR6: 00000000ffff0ff0 DR7: 0000000000000400 Dec 11 01:36:11 srv156 kernel: [125983.204522] Call Trace: Dec 11 01:36:11 srv156 kernel: [125983.204522] [<ffffffff810bb792>] ? pagevec_lookup_tag+0x1a/0x21 Dec 11 01:36:11 srv156 kernel: [125983.204522] [<ffffffff810ba330>] ? write_cache_pages+0x162/0x327 Dec 11 01:36:11 srv156 kernel: [125983.204522] [<ffffffff810b9d48>] ? __writepage+0x0/0x25 Dec 11 01:36:11 srv156 kernel: [125983.204522] [<ffffffff8110758a>] ? writeback_single_inode+0xe7/0x2da Dec 11 01:36:11 srv156 kernel: [125983.204522] [<ffffffff81108290>] ? writeback_inodes_wb+0x424/0x4ff Dec 11 01:36:11 srv156 kernel: [125983.204522] [<ffffffff81108497>] ? wb_writeback+0x12c/0x1ab Dec 11 01:36:11 srv156 kernel: [125983.204522] [<ffffffff8110870d>] ? wb_do_writeback+0x14f/0x165 Dec 11 01:36:11 srv156 kernel: [125983.204522] [<ffffffff81108754>] ? bdi_writeback_task+0x31/0xaa Dec 11 01:36:11 srv156 kernel: [125983.204522] [<ffffffff810c8664>] ? bdi_start_fn+0x0/0xd0 Dec 11 01:36:11 srv156 kernel: [125983.204522] [<ffffffff810c86d4>] ? bdi_start_fn+0x70/0xd0 Dec 11 01:36:11 srv156 kernel: [125983.204522] [<ffffffff810c8664>] ? bdi_start_fn+0x0/0xd0 Dec 11 01:36:11 srv156 kernel: [125983.204522] [<ffffffff81064ac1>] ? kthread+0x79/0x81 Dec 11 01:36:11 srv156 kernel: [125983.204522] [<ffffffff81011baa>] ? child_rip+0xa/0x20 Dec 11 01:36:11 srv156 kernel: [125983.204522] [<ffffffff81064a48>] ? kthread+0x0/0x81 Dec 11 01:36:11 srv156 kernel: [125983.204522] [<ffffffff81011ba0>] ? child_rip+0x0/0x20 From /var/log/syslog Dec 10 21:20:29 srv156 kernel: [110625.162930] BUG: Bad page map in process java pte:14fa4f067 pmd:424b54067 Dec 10 21:20:29 srv156 kernel: [110625.162937] page:ffffea000496c148 flags:0200000000000878 count:2 mapcount:-1 mapping:ffff88014f8d7de8 index:2f4 Dec 10 21:20:29 srv156 kernel: [110625.162946] addr:0000000009096000 vm_flags:00100077 anon_vma:ffff880422410d40 mapping:(null) index:9096 Dec 10 21:20:29 srv156 kernel: [110625.162955] Pid: 21356, comm: java Tainted: G B 2.6.32-5-amd64 #1 Dec 10 21:20:29 srv156 kernel: [110625.162961] Call Trace: Dec 10 21:20:29 srv156 kernel: [110625.162966] [<ffffffff810ca4bf>] ? print_bad_pte+0x232/0x24a Dec 10 21:20:29 srv156 kernel: [110625.162973] [<ffffffff810cb56f>] ? unmap_vmas+0x62d/0x931 Dec 10 21:20:29 srv156 kernel: [110625.162980] [<ffffffff810cfc74>] ? exit_mmap+0xc4/0x148 Dec 10 21:20:29 srv156 kernel: [110625.162986] [<ffffffff8104bbc1>] ? mmput+0x3c/0xdf Dec 10 21:20:29 srv156 kernel: [110625.162992] [<ffffffff8104f81e>] ? exit_mm+0x102/0x10d Dec 10 21:20:29 srv156 kernel: [110625.162998] [<ffffffff81051243>] ? do_exit+0x1f8/0x6c9 Dec 10 21:20:29 srv156 kernel: [110625.163004] [<ffffffff81071abb>] ? futex_wake+0xd6/0xe7 Dec 10 21:20:29 srv156 kernel: [110625.163010] [<ffffffff8105178a>] ? do_group_exit+0x76/0x9d Dec 10 21:20:29 srv156 kernel: [110625.163016] [<ffffffff8105df9f>] ? get_signal_to_deliver+0x310/0x339 Dec 10 21:20:29 srv156 kernel: [110625.163023] [<ffffffff81010037>] ? do_notify_resume+0x87/0x73f Dec 10 21:20:29 srv156 kernel: [110625.163029] [<ffffffff810cc664>] ? handle_mm_fault+0x7aa/0x80f Dec 10 21:20:29 srv156 kernel: [110625.163036] [<ffffffff81073f14>] ? compat_sys_futex+0x10d/0x12b Dec 10 21:20:29 srv156 kernel: [110625.163043] [<ffffffff812fb546>] ? do_page_fault+0x2e0/0x2fc Dec 10 21:20:29 srv156 kernel: [110625.163049] [<ffffffff81010e0e>] ? int_signal+0x12/0x17 Dec 10 21:20:29 srv156 kernel: [110625.163114] BUG: Bad page state in process java pfn:14fa0c Dec 10 21:20:29 srv156 kernel: [110625.163120] page:ffffea000496b2a0 flags:020000000002001c count:0 mapcount:-1 mapping:ffff88039dc0db30 index:11e3 Dec 10 21:20:29 srv156 kernel: [110625.164563] Pid: 21356, comm: java Tainted: G B 2.6.32-5-amd64 #1 Dec 10 21:20:29 srv156 kernel: [110625.164570] Call Trace: Dec 10 21:20:29 srv156 kernel: [110625.164578] [<ffffffff810b71a9>] ? bad_page+0x116/0x129 Dec 10 21:20:29 srv156 kernel: [110625.164586] [<ffffffff810b7692>] ? free_pages_check+0x38/0x57 Dec 10 21:20:29 srv156 kernel: [110625.164595] [<ffffffff810b89cf>] ? free_hot_cold_page+0x46/0x190 Dec 10 21:20:29 srv156 kernel: [110625.164603] [<ffffffff810b8b82>] ? __pagevec_free+0x69/0x7f Dec 10 21:20:29 srv156 kernel: [110625.164611] [<ffffffff810bba3f>] ? release_pages+0x137/0x18d Dec 10 21:20:29 srv156 kernel: [110625.164620] [<ffffffff810d8559>] ? free_pages_and_swap_cache+0x57/0x73 Dec 10 21:20:29 srv156 kernel: [110625.164629] [<ffffffff810cb5ed>] ? unmap_vmas+0x6ab/0x931 Dec 10 21:20:29 srv156 kernel: [110625.164637] [<ffffffff810cfc74>] ? exit_mmap+0xc4/0x148 Dec 10 21:20:29 srv156 kernel: [110625.164644] [<ffffffff8104bbc1>] ? mmput+0x3c/0xdf Dec 10 21:20:29 srv156 kernel: [110625.164652] [<ffffffff8104f81e>] ? exit_mm+0x102/0x10d Dec 10 21:20:29 srv156 kernel: [110625.164660] [<ffffffff81051243>] ? do_exit+0x1f8/0x6c9 Dec 10 21:20:29 srv156 kernel: [110625.164667] [<ffffffff81071abb>] ? futex_wake+0xd6/0xe7 Dec 10 21:20:29 srv156 kernel: [110625.164675] [<ffffffff8105178a>] ? do_group_exit+0x76/0x9d Dec 10 21:20:29 srv156 kernel: [110625.164683] [<ffffffff8105df9f>] ? get_signal_to_deliver+0x310/0x339 Dec 10 21:20:29 srv156 kernel: [110625.164692] [<ffffffff81010037>] ? do_notify_resume+0x87/0x73f Dec 10 21:20:29 srv156 kernel: [110625.164700] [<ffffffff810cc664>] ? handle_mm_fault+0x7aa/0x80f The last piece of log, has been recently posted, because I've just found it. It seems Java process do something and began to slowly eat all the resources of the server. I don't know exactly if this could be the root cause. Im using Debian Squeeze. uname -a Linux srv156 2.6.32-5-amd64 #1 SMP Sun Sep 23 11:00:33 UTC 2012 x86_64 GNU/Linux I really will appreciate your help, i dont know what more to do.

    Read the article

  • VPN still working after rebooting without client - DrayTek client shows "No Connection"

    - by HeavenCore
    My home network is a simple router + pc's setup, nothing fancy - the router has DHCP enabled for 192.168.0.X (255.255.255.0) and my PC picks up the address 192.168.0.82. There are no devices on my local lan in the 192.168.1.x range. On my pc i have the DrayTek VPN client, and a company i do some work for has a DrayTek Vigor router. The VPN client establishes a VPN to that remote company using an IPSec Tunnel (PreShared Key - no encryption) Last night i shut down my pc with the VPN tunnel still connected, when i turned my computer on this morning i accidentally clicked an RDP shortcut to 192.168.1.2 (a host in the remote company) and to my amazement it connected?!? I checked and the DrayTek VPN client isnt running, and when i did run it, it clearly shows "Status: No connection". confused as to how my machine can still talk to this remote machine i tried a trace: C:\Users\HeavenCore>tracert 192.168.1.2 Tracing route to C4SERVERII [192.168.1.2] over a maximum of 30 hops: 1 * * * Request timed out. 2 * * * Request timed out. 3 * * * Request timed out. 4 * * * Request timed out. 5 * * * Request timed out. 6 * * * Request timed out. 7 * * * Request timed out. 8 * * * Request timed out. 9 * * * Request timed out. 10 * * * Request timed out. 11 * * * Request timed out. 12 15 ms 21 ms 32 ms C4SERVERII [192.168.1.2] Trace complete. No indication there as to how it's getting from my network to the remote host. with my network mask being 255.255.255.0 with ip 192.168.0.1 i dont even see how packets are routing to 192.168.1.1 - unless there was a static route in place, so i checked the route table: IPv4 Route Table =========================================================================== Active Routes: Network Destination Netmask Gateway Interface Metric 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 192.168.0.1 192.168.0.82 266 127.0.0.0 255.0.0.0 On-link 127.0.0.1 306 127.0.0.1 255.255.255.255 On-link 127.0.0.1 306 127.255.255.255 255.255.255.255 On-link 127.0.0.1 306 192.168.0.0 255.255.255.0 On-link 192.168.0.82 266 192.168.0.82 255.255.255.255 On-link 192.168.0.82 266 192.168.0.255 255.255.255.255 On-link 192.168.0.82 266 224.0.0.0 240.0.0.0 On-link 127.0.0.1 306 224.0.0.0 240.0.0.0 On-link 192.168.0.82 266 255.255.255.255 255.255.255.255 On-link 127.0.0.1 306 255.255.255.255 255.255.255.255 On-link 192.168.0.82 266 =========================================================================== Persistent Routes: Network Address Netmask Gateway Address Metric 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 192.168.0.1 Default =========================================================================== As far as i can see, nothing indicating how my packets are getting to 192.168.1.2??? To confirm i was on a different subnet i did an ipconfig /all: Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection: Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Marvell Yukon 88E8056 PCI-E Gigabit Ether net Controller Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-23-54-F3-4E-BA DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.82(Preferred) Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0 Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1 DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1 208.67.222.222 NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled Yet straight after confirming my ip and subnet as above i can go ahead and ping the remote machine: C:\Users\HeavenCore>ping 192.168.1.2 Pinging 192.168.1.2 with 32 bytes of data: Reply from 192.168.1.2: bytes=32 time=48ms TTL=127 Reply from 192.168.1.2: bytes=32 time=23ms TTL=127 Reply from 192.168.1.2: bytes=32 time=103ms TTL=127 Reply from 192.168.1.2: bytes=32 time=25ms TTL=127 Ping statistics for 192.168.1.2: Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss), Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds: Minimum = 23ms, Maximum = 103ms, Average = 49ms Also, note on the ping how the times are 35ms ish, this clearly shows the pings are to the remote host and not something on my local lan (all stuff on my local lan pings in 0ms) - plus i verified the host was actually the host via RDP. My Question: Can an IPSec tunnel stay up some how after a reboot without use of the VPN client? (well, i can clearly see that it can) - where in windows is there visibility of this? how does my machine know where to route the packets? I appreciate any insights & thoughts!

    Read the article

  • Backing up my data causes my server to crash using Symantec Backup Exec 12, or How I Came to Loathe Irony

    - by Kyle Noland
    I have a Dell PowerEdge 2850 running Windows Server 2003. It is the primary file server for one of my clients. I have another server also running Windows Server 2003 that acts as the core media server for Symantec Backup Exec 12. I recently upgraded from Backup Exec 11d to 12. This upgrade was necessary because we also just upgraded from Exchange 2003 to Exchange 2007. After the upgrade I had to push-install the new version 12 Backup Exec Remote Agents to each of the servers I am backing up (about 6 total). 5 of my servers are doing just fine, faithfully completing backups every night. My file server routinely crashes. Observations: When the server crashes, it does not blue screen, it just locks up completely. Even the mouse is unresponsive. If you leave the server locked up long enough, it will eventually reboot itself and hang on the Windows splash screen. There is absolutely zero useful Event Viewer evidence of a problem. The logs go from routine logging to an Unexplained Shutdown Event the next morning when I have to hard reset the server to get it to boot. 90% of the time the server does not boot cleanly, it hangs on the Windows splash screen. I don't have any light to shed here. When the server hangs all I can do is hard reset it and try again. Even after a successful boot and chkdsk /r operation, if you reboot the machine, you have a 90% chance it won't back up again cleanly. The back story: This server started crashing during nightly backups about a month ago. I tried everything I could think of to troubleshoot the problem and eventually had to give up because I could not keep coming to the office at 4 AM to try to get the server back online. One Friday I got lucky and the server stayed up for its entire full backup. I took this opportunity to restore the full backup to a temporary server I set up and switched all my users to the temporary. Then I reloaded the ailing file server. I kept all my users on the temporary file server for about 3 weeks. I installed the same Backup Exec Remote Agent and Trend Micro A/V client on the temporary server that I was using on the regular file server. During this time, I had absolutely no problems backing up the temporary server. I tested the reloaded file server extensively. I rebooted the server once an hour every day for 3 weeks trying to make it fail. It never did. I felt confident that the reload was the answer to my problems. I moved all of the data from the temporary server back to the regular server. I got 3 nightly backups out of it before it locked up again and started the familiar failure to boot cleanly behavior. This weekend I decided to monitor the file server through the entire backup job. I RDPd into the file server and also into the server running Backup Exec. On the file server I opened the Task Manager so I could view the processes and watch CPU and memory usage. Everything was running smoothly for about 60GB worth of backup. Then I noticed that the byte count of the backup job in Backup Exec had stopped progressing. I looked back over at my RDP session into the file server, and I was getting real time updates about CPU and memory usage still - both nearly 0%, which is unusual. Backups usually hover around 40% usage for the duration of the backup job. Let me reiterate this point: The screen was refreshing and I was getting real time Task Manager updates - until I clicked on the Start menu. The screen went black and the server locked up. In truth, I think the server had already locked up, the video card just hadn't figured it out yet. I went back into my bag of trick: driving to the office and hard reseting the server over and over again when it hangs up at the Windows splash screen. I did this for 2 hours without getting a successful boot. I started panicking because I did not have a decent backup to use to get everything back onto the working temporary file server. Once I exhausted everything I knew to do, I took a deep breath, booted to the Windows Server 2003 CD and performed a repair installation of Windows. The server came back up fine, with all of my data intact. I can now reboot the server at will and it will come back up cleanly. The problem is that I'm afraid as soon as I try to back that data up again I will back at square one. So let me sum things up: Here is what I've done so far to troubleshoot this server: Deleted and recreated the RAID 5 sets. Initialized the drives. Reloaded the server with a fresh Server 2003 install. Confirmed with Dell that I have installed the latest, Dell approved BIOS and NIC drivers. Uninstalled / reinstalled the Backup Exec Remote Agent. Uninstalled the Trend Micro A/V client. Configured the server not to reboot itself after a blue screen so I can see any stop error. I used to think the server was blue screening, but since I enabled this setting I now know that the server just completely locks up. Run chkdsk /r from the Windows Recovery Console. Several errors were found and corrected, but did not help my problem. Help confirm or deny the following assumptions: There are two problems at work here. Why the server is locking up in the first place, and why the server won't boot cleanly after a lockup. This is ultimately a software problem. The server works fine and can be rebooted cleanly all day long - until the first lockup - following a fresh OS load or even a Repair installation. This is not a problem with Backup Exec in general. All of my other servers back up just fine. For the record, all of the other servers run Server 2003, and some of them house more data than the file server in question here. Any help is appreciated. The irony is almost too much to bear. Backing up my data is what is jeopardizing it.

    Read the article

  • Rails, gmail: howto get plain/text from body

    - by atmorell
    Hello, I am loading am email with IMAP and parsing it with mail. This works very well, however the mail.body.decoded field contains a lot of formatting. How do I dig out the plain/txt body of the email - ignore attachements, formatting etc. It works fine if I try with an email without html. source = imap.uid_fetch(uid, ['RFC822']).first.attr['RFC822'] mail = Mail.new(source) This body content looks like this: Mail::Body:0x7f36ed468270 @epilogue="", @boundary="_004_4C49171DCB8C4540844E69DD39FDD98Ffirm_", @encoding="7bit", @raw_source="--_004_4C49171DCB8C4540844E69DD39FDD98Ffirm_\r\nContent-Type: multipart/alternative;\r\n\tboundary=\"_000_4C49171DCB8C4540844E69DD39FDD98Ffirm_\"\r\n\r\n--_000_4C49171DCB8C4540844E69DD39FDD98Ffirm_\r\nContent-Type: text/plain; charset=\"iso-8859-1\"\r\nContent-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable\r\n\r\ndasdsasda\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nMed venlig hilsen / Med V=E4nlig H=E4lsning / Best Regards\r\r\nAsbj=F8rn Toke Morell. .\r\n+45 7020 0160\r\n+45 2152 0015\r\n[cid:[email protected]]\r\nhttp://www..dk\r\n\r\n\r\n--_000_4C49171DCB8C4540844E69DD39FDD98Ffirm_\r\nContent-Type: text/html; charset=\"iso-8859-1\"\r\nContent-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable\r\n\r\n<html>headheadbody style3D"word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode:=\r\n space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">dasdsasda<br><div apple-co=\r\nntent-edited=3D"true">\r\n<span class=3D"Apple-style-span" style=3D"border-collapse: separate; color:=\r\n rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: medium; font-style: norma=\r\nl; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-=\r\nheight: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transf=\r\norm: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-borde=\r\nr-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-te=\r\nxt-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-tex=\r\nt-stroke-width: 0px; "><span class=3D"Apple-style-span" style=3D"font-famil=\r\ny: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; "><span class=3D"Apple-style-span"=\r\n style=3D"border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helv=\r\netica; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-we=\r\night: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text=\r\n-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-sp=\r\nacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical=\r\n-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-=\r\nadjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><span class=3D"Apple-style-=\r\nspan" style=3D"font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; "><div st=\r\nyle=3D"margin-top: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-=\r\nleft: 0cm; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; "><font class=\r\n=3D"Apple-style-span" color=3D"#000080" face=3D"'Times New Roman', serif" s=\r\nize=3D"3"><span class=3D"Apple-style-span" style=3D"font-size: 13px; "><br =\r\nclass=3D"Apple-interchange-newline"><br></span></font></div><div style=3D"m=\r\nargin-top: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0c=\r\nm; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; "><font class=3D"Appl=\r\ne-style-span" color=3D"#000080" face=3D"'Times New Roman', serif" size=3D"3=\r\n"><span class=3D"Apple-style-span" style=3D"font-size: 13px; "><br></span><=\r\n/font></div><div style=3D"margin-top: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-bottom=\r\n: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0cm; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-s=\r\nerif; "><span style=3D"font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', ser=\r\nif; color: navy; ">Med venlig hilsen / Med V=E4nlig H=E4lsning / Best Regar=\r\nds&nbsp;<br>firm<br>Asbj=F8rn Toke Morell... This is the ony relevant from information from the body: 'ndasdsasda\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nMed venlig hilsen / Med V=E4nlig H=E4lsning / Best Regards\r\r\nAsbj=F8rn Toke Morell' Any ideas?

    Read the article

  • C question: Padding bits in unsigned integers and bitwise operations (C89)

    - by Anonymous Question Guy
    I have a lot of code that performs bitwise operations on unsigned integers. I wrote my code with the assumption that those operations were on integers of fixed width without any padding bits. For example an array of 32 bit unsigned integers of which all 32 bits available for each integer. I'm looking to make my code more portable and I'm focused on making sure I'm C89 compliant (in this case). One of the issues that I've come across is possible padded integers. Take this extreme example, taken from the GMP manual: However on Cray vector systems it may be noted that short and int are always stored in 8 bytes (and with sizeof indicating that) but use only 32 or 46 bits. The nails feature can account for this, by passing for instance 8*sizeof(int)-INT_BIT. I've also read about this type of padding in other places. I actually read of a post on SO last night (forgive me, I don't have the link and I'm going to cite something similar from memory) where if you have, say, a double with 60 usable bits the other 4 could be used for padding and those padding bits could serve some internal purpose so they cannot be modified. So let's say for example my code is compiled on a platform where an unsigned int type is sized at 4 bytes, each byte being 8 bits, however the most significant 2 bits are padding bits. Would UINT_MAX in that case be 0x3FFFFFFF (1073741823) ? #include <stdio.h> #include <stdlib.h> /* padding bits represented by underscores */ int main( int argc, char **argv ) { unsigned int a = 0x2AAAAAAA; /* __101010101010101010101010101010 */ unsigned int b = 0x15555555; /* __010101010101010101010101010101 */ unsigned int c = a ^ b; /* ?? __111111111111111111111111111111 */ unsigned int d = c << 5; /* ?? __111111111111111111111111100000 */ unsigned int e = d >> 5; /* ?? __000001111111111111111111111111 */ printf( "a: %X\nb: %X\nc: %X\nd: %X\ne: %X\n", a, b, c, d, e ); return 0; } is it safe to XOR two integers with padding bits? wouldn't I XOR whatever the padding bits are? I can't find this behavior covered in C89. furthermore is the c var guaranteed to be 0x3FFFFFFF or if for example the two padding bits were both on in a or b would c be 0xFFFFFFFF ? same question with d and e. am i manipulating the padding bits by shifting? I would expect to see this below, assuming 32 bits with the 2 most significant bits used for padding, but I want to know if something like this is guaranteed: a: 2AAAAAAA b: 15555555 c: 3FFFFFFF d: 3FFFFFE0 e: 01FFFFFF Also are padding bits always the most significant bits or could they be the least significant bits? Thanks guys EDIT 12/19/2010 5PM EST: Christoph has answered my question. Thanks! I had also asked (above) whether padding bits are always the most significant bits. This is cited in the rationale for the C99 standard, and the answer is no. I am playing it safe and assuming the same for C89. Here is specifically what the C99 rationale says for §6.2.6.2 (Representation of Integer Types): Padding bits are user-accessible in an unsigned integer type. For example, suppose a machine uses a pair of 16-bit shorts (each with its own sign bit) to make up a 32-bit int and the sign bit of the lower short is ignored when used in this 32-bit int. Then, as a 32-bit signed int, there is a padding bit (in the middle of the 32 bits) that is ignored in determining the value of the 32-bit signed int. But, if this 32-bit item is treated as a 32-bit unsigned int, then that padding bit is visible to the user’s program. The C committee was told that there is a machine that works this way, and that is one reason that padding bits were added to C99. Footnotes 44 and 45 mention that parity bits might be padding bits. The committee does not know of any machines with user-accessible parity bits within an integer. Therefore, the committee is not aware of any machines that treat parity bits as padding bits. EDIT 12/28/2010 3PM EST: I found an interesting discussion on comp.lang.c from a few months ago. Bitwise Operator Effects on Padding Bits (VelocityReviews reader) Bitwise Operator Effects on Padding Bits (Google Groups alternate link) One point made by Dietmar which I found interesting: Let's note that padding bits are not necessary for the existence of trap representations; combinations of value bits which do not represent a value of the object type would also do.

    Read the article

  • Trying to get these list items to display inline

    - by Joel
    I have several unordered lists that I want to display like this: <ul> <li><img></li> <li><p></li> //inline </ul> //linebreak <ul> <li><img></li> <li><p></li> //inline </ul> ...etc I'm not able to get the li items to be inline with eachother. They are stacking vertically. I have stripped away most styling but still can't figure out what I'm doing wrong: html: <ul class="instrument"> <li class="imagebox"><img src="/images/matepe.jpg" width="247" height="228" alt="Matepe" /></li> <li class="textbox"><p>The matepe is a 24 key instrument that is played by the Kore-Kore people in North-Eastern Zimbabwe and Mozambique. It utilizes four fingers-each playing an individual melody. These melodies also interwieve to create resultant melodies that can be manipulated thru accenting different fingers. The matepe is used in Rattletree as the bridge from the physical world to the spirit world. The matepe is used in the Kore-Kore culture to summon the Mhondoro spirits which are thought to be able to communicate directly with Mwari (God) without the need of an intermediary.</p></li> </ul> <ul class="instrument"> <li class="imagebox"><img src="/images/soprano_little.jpg" border="0" width="247" height="170" alt="Soprano" /></li> <li class="textbox"><p>The highest voice of the Rattletree Marimba orchestra is the Soprano marimba. The soprano is used to whip up the energy on the dancefloor and help people reach ecstatic state with it's high and clear singing voice. The range of these sopranos goes much lower than 'typical' Zimbabwean style sopranos. The sopranos play the range of the right hand of the matepe and go two notes higher and five notes lower. Rattletree uses two sopranos.</p></li> </ul> <ul class="instrument"> <li class="imagebox"><img src="/images/bari_little.jpg" border="0" width="247" height="170" alt="Baritone" /></li> <li class="textbox"><p>The Baritone is the next lower voice in the orchestra. The bari is where the funk is. Generally bubbling over the Bass line, the baritone creates the syncopations and polyrhythms that messes with the 'minds' of the dancers and helps seperate the listener from the physical realm of thought. The range of the baritone covers the full range of the left hand side of the matepe.</p></li> </ul> <ul class="instrument"> <li class="imagebox"><img src="/images/darren_littlebass.jpg" border="0" width="247" height="195" alt="Bass"/><strong>Bass Marimba</strong></li> <li class="textbox"><p>The towering Bass Marimba is the foundation of the Rattletree Marimba sound. Putting out frequencies as low as 22hZ, the bass creates the drive that gets the dancefloor moving. It is 5.5' tall, 9' long, and 4' deep. It is played by standing on a platform and struck with mallets that have lacross-ball size heads (they are actually made with rubber dog balls). The Bass marimba's range covers the lowest five notes of the matepe and goes another five notes lower.</p></li> </ul> <ul class="instrument"> <li class="imagebox"><img src="/images/wayne_little.jpg" border="0" width="247" height="177" alt="Drums"/><strong>Drumset</strong></li> <li class="textbox"><p>All the intricate polyrhythms are held together tastefully with the drumset. The drums provides the consistancy and grounding that the dancers need to keep going all night. While the steady kick and high-hat provide that grounding function, the toms and snare and allowed to be another voice in the poylrhythmic texture-helping the dancers abandon the concept of a "one" within this cyclical music.</p></li> </ul> css: ul.instrument { text-align:left; display:inline; } ul.instrument li { list-style-type: none; } li.imagebox { } li.textbox { } li.textbox p{ width: 247px; }

    Read the article

  • Making swap faster, easier to use and exception-safe

    - by FredOverflow
    I could not sleep last night and started thinking about std::swap. Here is the familiar C++98 version: template <typename T> void swap(T& a, T& b) { T c(a); a = b; b = c; } If a user-defined class Foo uses external ressources, this is inefficient. The common idiom is to provide a method void Foo::swap(Foo& other) and a specialization of std::swap<Foo>. Note that this does not work with class templates since you cannot partially specialize a function template, and overloading names in the std namespace is illegal. The solution is to write a template function in one's own namespace and rely on argument dependent lookup to find it. This depends critically on the client to follow the "using std::swap idiom" instead of calling std::swap directly. Very brittle. In C++0x, if Foo has a user-defined move constructor and a move assignment operator, providing a custom swap method and a std::swap<Foo> specialization has little to no performance benefit, because the C++0x version of std::swap uses efficient moves instead of copies: #include <utility> template <typename T> void swap(T& a, T& b) { T c(std::move(a)); a = std::move(b); b = std::move(c); } Not having to fiddle with swap anymore already takes a lot of burden away from the programmer. Current compilers do not generate move constructors and move assignment operators automatically yet, but as far as I know, this will change. The only problem left then is exception-safety, because in general, move operations are allowed to throw, and this opens up a whole can of worms. The question "What exactly is the state of a moved-from object?" complicates things further. Then I was thinking, what exactly are the semantics of std::swap in C++0x if everything goes fine? What is the state of the objects before and after the swap? Typically, swapping via move operations does not touch external resources, only the "flat" object representations themselves. So why not simply write a swap template that does exactly that: swap the object representations? #include <cstring> template <typename T> void swap(T& a, T& b) { unsigned char c[sizeof(T)]; memcpy( c, &a, sizeof(T)); memcpy(&a, &b, sizeof(T)); memcpy(&b, c, sizeof(T)); } This is as efficient as it gets: it simply blasts through raw memory. It does not require any intervention from the user: no special swap methods or move operations have to be defined. This means that it even works in C++98 (which does not have rvalue references, mind you). But even more importantly, we can now forget about the exception-safety issues, because memcpy never throws. I can see two potential problems with this approach: First, not all objects are meant to be swapped. If a class designer hides the copy constructor or the copy assignment operator, trying to swap objects of the class should fail at compile-time. We can simply introduce some dead code that checks whether copying and assignment are legal on the type: template <typename T> void swap(T& a, T& b) { if (false) // dead code, never executed { T c(a); // copy-constructible? a = b; // assignable? } unsigned char c[sizeof(T)]; std::memcpy( c, &a, sizeof(T)); std::memcpy(&a, &b, sizeof(T)); std::memcpy(&b, c, sizeof(T)); } Any decent compiler can trivially get rid of the dead code. (There are probably better ways to check the "swap conformance", but that is not the point. What matters is that it's possible). Second, some types might perform "unusual" actions in the copy constructor and copy assignment operator. For example, they might notify observers of their change. I deem this a minor issue, because such kinds of objects probably should not have provided copy operations in the first place. Please let me know what you think of this approach to swapping. Would it work in practice? Would you use it? Can you identify library types where this would break? Do you see additional problems? Discuss!

    Read the article

< Previous Page | 78 79 80 81 82 83 84  | Next Page >