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  • SQLAuthority News – SQL Server 2012 Upgrade Technical Guide – A Comprehensive Whitepaper – (454 pages – 9 MB)

    - by pinaldave
    Microsoft has just released SQL Server 2012 Upgrade Technical Guide. This guide is very comprehensive and covers the subject of upgrade in-depth. This is indeed a helpful detailed white paper. Even writing a summary of this white paper would take over 100 pages. This further proves that SQL Server 2012 is quite an important release from Microsoft. This white paper discusses how to upgrade from SQL Server 2008/R2 to SQL Server 2012. I love how it starts with the most interesting and basic discussion of upgrade strategies: 1) In-place upgrades, 2) Side by side upgrade, 3) One-server, and 4) Two-server. This whitepaper is not just pure theory but is also an excellent source for some tips and tricks. Here is an example of a good tip from the paper: “If you want to upgrade just one database from a legacy instance of SQL Server and not upgrade the other databases on the server, use the side-by-side upgrade method instead of the in-place method.” There are so many trivia, tips and tricks that make creating the list seems humanly impossible given a short period of time. My friend Vinod Kumar, an SQL Server expert, wrote a very interesting article on SQL Server 2012 Upgrade before. In that article, Vinod addressed the most interesting and practical questions related to upgrades. He started with the fundamentals of how to start backup before upgrade and ended with fail-safe strategies after the upgrade is over. He covered end-to-end concepts in his blog posts in simple words in extremely precise statements. A successful upgrade uses a cycle of: planning, document process, testing, refine process, testing, planning upgrade window, execution, verifying of upgrade and opening for business. If you are at Vinod’s blog post, I suggest you go all the way down and collect the gold mine of most important links. I have bookmarked the blog by blogging about it and I suggest that you bookmark it as well with the way you prefer. Vinod Kumar’s blog post on SQL Server 2012 Upgrade Technical Guide SQL Server 2012 Upgrade Technical Guide is a detailed resource that’s also available online for free. Each chapter was carefully crafted and explained in detail. Here is a quick list of the chapters included in the whitepaper. Before downloading the guide, beware of its size of 9 MB and 454 pages. Here’s the list of chapters: Chapter 1: Upgrade Planning and Deployment Chapter 2: Management Tools Chapter 3: Relational Databases Chapter 4: High Availability Chapter 5: Database Security Chapter 6: Full-Text Search Chapter 7: Service Broker Chapter 8: SQL Server Express Chapter 9: SQL Server Data Tools Chapter 10: Transact-SQL Queries Chapter 11: Spatial Data Chapter 12: XML and XQuery Chapter 13: CLR Chapter 14: SQL Server Management Objects Chapter 15: Business Intelligence Tools Chapter 16: Analysis Services Chapter 17: Integration Services Chapter 18: Reporting Services Chapter 19: Data Mining Chapter 20: Other Microsoft Applications and Platforms Appendix 1: Version and Edition Upgrade Paths Appendix 2: SQL Server 2012: Upgrade Planning Checklist Download SQL Server 2012 Upgrade Technical Guide [454 pages and 9 MB] Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: Database, DBA, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Documentation, SQL Download, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQL White Papers, SQLAuthority News, SQLServer, T SQL, Technology

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  • Nothing seems to be syncing with Ubuntu One

    - by Anthony Papillion
    So earlier tonight I set up Ubuntu One on a fresh install of Ubuntu 10.10. In my "Ubuntu One" directory, I created symbolic links to /Documents /Pictures and /Music. Right now, there is VERY little in those directories but what IS there isn't syncing at all. When I go to the Ubuntu One web interface, it tells me I'm using 0.00% of my storage space. When I try to view the files in the web interface, I am told 'Something has gone wrong' and I don't see anything. Can anyone help? Even my Tomboy notes aren't syncing! And yes, I am connected and the software says 'Synchronisation Complete' Thanks, Anthony

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  • Alien deletes .deb when converting from .rpm

    - by Stann
    I'm trying to convert .rpm to .deb using alien. sudo alien -k libtetra-1.0.0-2.i386.rpm Alien says that: libtetra-1.0.0-2.i386.deb generated But when I check the folder - there is just original .rpm and no .deb. Also - I can see that for a split second there is a .deb file in a folder. so it looks like alien create .deb and deletes it right away. I suspect that it's maybe because I run 64 bit os and package is 32? Can somebody explain why alien deletes .deb automatically? Verbose output: LANG=C rpm -qp --queryformat %{NAME} libtetra-1.0.0-2.i386.rpm LANG=C rpm -qp --queryformat %{VERSION} libtetra-1.0.0-2.i386.rpm LANG=C rpm -qp --queryformat %{RELEASE} libtetra-1.0.0-2.i386.rpm LANG=C rpm -qp --queryformat %{ARCH} libtetra-1.0.0-2.i386.rpm LANG=C rpm -qp --queryformat %{CHANGELOGTEXT} libtetra-1.0.0-2.i386.rpm LANG=C rpm -qp --queryformat %{SUMMARY} libtetra-1.0.0-2.i386.rpm LANG=C rpm -qp --queryformat %{DESCRIPTION} libtetra-1.0.0-2.i386.rpm LANG=C rpm -qp --queryformat %{PREFIXES} libtetra-1.0.0-2.i386.rpm LANG=C rpm -qp --queryformat %{POSTIN} libtetra-1.0.0-2.i386.rpm LANG=C rpm -qp --queryformat %{POSTUN} libtetra-1.0.0-2.i386.rpm LANG=C rpm -qp --queryformat %{PREUN} libtetra-1.0.0-2.i386.rpm LANG=C rpm -qp --queryformat %{LICENSE} libtetra-1.0.0-2.i386.rpm LANG=C rpm -qp --queryformat %{PREIN} libtetra-1.0.0-2.i386.rpm LANG=C rpm -qcp libtetra-1.0.0-2.i386.rpm rpm -qpi libtetra-1.0.0-2.i386.rpm LANG=C rpm -qpl libtetra-1.0.0-2.i386.rpm mkdir libtetra-1.0.0 chmod 755 libtetra-1.0.0 rpm2cpio libtetra-1.0.0-2.i386.rpm | lzma -t -q > /dev/null 2>&1 rpm2cpio libtetra-1.0.0-2.i386.rpm | (cd libtetra-1.0.0; cpio --extract --make-directories --no-absolute-filenames --preserve-modification-time) 2>&1 chmod 755 libtetra-1.0.0/./ chmod 755 libtetra-1.0.0/./usr chmod 755 libtetra-1.0.0/./usr/lib chown 0:0 libtetra-1.0.0//usr/lib/libtetra.so.1.0.0 chmod 755 libtetra-1.0.0//usr/lib/libtetra.so.1.0.0 mkdir libtetra-1.0.0/debian date -R date -R chmod 755 libtetra-1.0.0/debian/rules debian/rules binary 2>&1 libtetra_1.0.0-3_i386.deb generated find libtetra-1.0.0 -type d -exec chmod 755 {} ; rm -rf libtetra-1.0.0 Very Verbose output LANG=C rpm -qp --queryformat %{NAME} libtetra-1.0.0-2.i386.rpm libtetra LANG=C rpm -qp --queryformat %{VERSION} libtetra-1.0.0-2.i386.rpm 1.0.0 LANG=C rpm -qp --queryformat %{RELEASE} libtetra-1.0.0-2.i386.rpm 2 LANG=C rpm -qp --queryformat %{ARCH} libtetra-1.0.0-2.i386.rpm i386 LANG=C rpm -qp --queryformat %{CHANGELOGTEXT} libtetra-1.0.0-2.i386.rpm - First RPM Package LANG=C rpm -qp --queryformat %{SUMMARY} libtetra-1.0.0-2.i386.rpm Panasonic KX-MC6000 series Printer Driver for Linux. LANG=C rpm -qp --queryformat %{DESCRIPTION} libtetra-1.0.0-2.i386.rpm This software is Panasonic KX-MC6000 series Printer Driver for Linux. You can print from applications by using CUPS(Common Unix Printing System) which is the printing system for Linux. Other functions for KX-MC6000 series are not supported by this software. LANG=C rpm -qp --queryformat %{PREFIXES} libtetra-1.0.0-2.i386.rpm (none) LANG=C rpm -qp --queryformat %{POSTIN} libtetra-1.0.0-2.i386.rpm (none) LANG=C rpm -qp --queryformat %{POSTUN} libtetra-1.0.0-2.i386.rpm (none) LANG=C rpm -qp --queryformat %{PREUN} libtetra-1.0.0-2.i386.rpm (none) LANG=C rpm -qp --queryformat %{LICENSE} libtetra-1.0.0-2.i386.rpm GPL and LGPL (Version2) LANG=C rpm -qp --queryformat %{PREIN} libtetra-1.0.0-2.i386.rpm (none) LANG=C rpm -qcp libtetra-1.0.0-2.i386.rpm rpm -qpi libtetra-1.0.0-2.i386.rpm Name : libtetra Relocations: (not relocatable) Version : 1.0.0 Vendor: Panasonic Communications Co., Ltd. Release : 2 Build Date: Tue 27 Apr 2010 05:16:40 AM EDT Install Date: (not installed) Build Host: localhost.localdomain Group : System Environment/Daemons Source RPM: libtetra-1.0.0-2.src.rpm Size : 31808 License: GPL and LGPL (Version2) Signature : (none) URL : http://panasonic.net/pcc/support/fax/world.htm Summary : Panasonic KX-MC6000 series Printer Driver for Linux. Description : This software is Panasonic KX-MC6000 series Printer Driver for Linux. You can print from applications by using CUPS(Common Unix Printing System) which is the printing system for Linux. Other functions for KX-MC6000 series are not supported by this software. LANG=C rpm -qpl libtetra-1.0.0-2.i386.rpm /usr/lib/libtetra.so /usr/lib/libtetra.so.1.0.0 mkdir libtetra-1.0.0 chmod 755 libtetra-1.0.0 rpm2cpio libtetra-1.0.0-2.i386.rpm | lzma -t -q > /dev/null 2>&1 rpm2cpio libtetra-1.0.0-2.i386.rpm | (cd libtetra-1.0.0; cpio --extract --make-directories --no-absolute-filenames --preserve-modification-time) 2>&1 63 blocks chmod 755 libtetra-1.0.0/./ chmod 755 libtetra-1.0.0/./usr chmod 755 libtetra-1.0.0/./usr/lib chown 0:0 libtetra-1.0.0//usr/lib/libtetra.so.1.0.0 chmod 755 libtetra-1.0.0//usr/lib/libtetra.so.1.0.0 mkdir libtetra-1.0.0/debian date -R Mon, 07 Feb 2011 11:03:58 -0500 date -R Mon, 07 Feb 2011 11:03:58 -0500 chmod 755 libtetra-1.0.0/debian/rules debian/rules binary 2>&1 dh_testdir dh_testdir dh_testroot dh_clean -k -d dh_clean: No packages to build. dh_installdirs dh_installdocs dh_installchangelogs find . -maxdepth 1 -mindepth 1 -not -name debian -print0 | \ xargs -0 -r -i cp -a {} debian/ dh_compress dh_makeshlibs dh_installdeb dh_shlibdeps dh_gencontrol dh_md5sums dh_builddeb libtetra_1.0.0-2_i386.deb generated find libtetra-1.0.0 -type d -exec chmod 755 {} ; rm -rf libtetra-1.0.0 Resolution Oh well. It looks like it's perhaps a bug? or I don't know. I simply installed 32-bit version of Ubuntu in VirtualBox and converted package there. For some reason I couldn't convert 32-bit package in 64 OS. and that is that. If someone ever finds the reason ffor this behavior - plz. post somewhere in comments. Thanks

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  • Translate jQuery UI Datepicker format to .Net Date format

    - by Michael Freidgeim
    I needed to use the same date format in client jQuery UI Datepicker and server ASP.NET code. The actual format can be different for different localization cultures.I decided to translate Datepicker format to .Net Date format similar as it was asked to do opposite operation in http://stackoverflow.com/questions/8531247/jquery-datepickers-dateformat-how-to-integrate-with-net-current-culture-date Note that replace command need to replace whole words and order of calls is importantFunction that does opposite operation (translate  .Net Date format toDatepicker format) is described in http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/62031/JQueryUI-Datepicker-in-ASP-NET-MVC /// <summary> /// Uses regex '\b' as suggested in //http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6143642/way-to-have-string-replace-only-hit-whole-words /// </summary> /// <param name="original"></param> /// <param name="wordToFind"></param> /// <param name="replacement"></param> /// <param name="regexOptions"></param> /// <returns></returns> static public string ReplaceWholeWord(this string original, string wordToFind, string replacement, RegexOptions regexOptions = RegexOptions.None) { string pattern = String.Format(@"\b{0}\b", wordToFind); string ret=Regex.Replace(original, pattern, replacement, regexOptions); return ret; } /// <summary> /// E.g "DD, d MM, yy" to ,"dddd, d MMMM, yyyy" /// </summary> /// <param name="datePickerFormat"></param> /// <returns></returns> /// <remarks> /// Idea to replace from http://stackoverflow.com/questions/8531247/jquery-datepickers-dateformat-how-to-integrate-with-net-current-culture-date ///From http://docs.jquery.com/UI/Datepicker/$.datepicker.formatDate to http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/8kb3ddd4.aspx ///Format a date into a string value with a specified format. ///d - day of month (no leading zero) ---.Net the same ///dd - day of month (two digit) ---.Net the same ///D - day name short ---.Net "ddd" ///DD - day name long ---.Net "dddd" ///m - month of year (no leading zero) ---.Net "M" ///mm - month of year (two digit) ---.Net "MM" ///M - month name short ---.Net "MMM" ///MM - month name long ---.Net "MMMM" ///y - year (two digit) ---.Net "yy" ///yy - year (four digit) ---.Net "yyyy" /// </remarks> public static string JQueryDatePickerFormatToDotNetDateFormat(string datePickerFormat) { string sRet = datePickerFormat.ReplaceWholeWord("DD", "dddd").ReplaceWholeWord("D", "ddd"); sRet = sRet.ReplaceWholeWord("M", "MMM").ReplaceWholeWord("MM", "MMMM").ReplaceWholeWord("m", "M").ReplaceWholeWord("mm", "MM");//order is important sRet = sRet.ReplaceWholeWord("yy", "yyyy").ReplaceWholeWord("y", "yy");//order is important return sRet; }

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  • CRM Partner Community Monthly Newsletter

    - by Richard Lefebvre
    Dear CRM Partner, The Oracle EMEA CRM Partner Community Newsletter was broadcasted last Thursday to 2'000 contacts accross EMEA. If you want to be informed about Oracle Programs and Events for CRM partners by receiving this regular newsletter as well as other important communication, please register yourself to the EMEA CRM Community Pages. I look forward to welcome to our Community, Warm regards, Richard Lefebvre - EMEA CRM Partners Program Director

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  • New way of creating web applications on Visual Studio 2013

    - by DigiMortal
    Yesterday Visual Studio 2013 Preview was released and now it’s time to play with it. First thing I noticed was the new way how to create web applications. For all web applications there is generic dialog where you can set all important options for your new web application before it is created. Let’s see how it works. Also let’s take a look at new blue theme of Visual Studio 2013. Read more from my new blog @ gunnarpeipman.com

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  • Do keyword-based filenames and URLs really matter?

    - by Justin Scott
    We've developed a dynamic web application which uses URLs such as product.cfm?id=42 but our marketing team says we should use search friendly URLs and put our keywords into the URLs (so it would be product-name.cfm instead). Our developers tell us this will cost more money and take additional time. Is it worth the effort? How important is this to the search engines and will it impact our rankings?

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  • Mathematics for Computer Science

    - by jiewmeng
    I am going into university next year. I think maths would be one of the more important aspects of computer science? I recently saw the MIT Intro to Algorithms video on YouTube and the maths required is quite hardcore. I wonder what parts of maths do i need, probability, calculus, trigo etc. Will the book Concrete Mathematics - it claims to be foundation for computer science - on Amazon cover most of whats required?

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  • MySQL server stopped working after upgrade

    - by umpirsky
    I upgraded to 12.04 and my MySQL server just stopped working. It throws: ERROR 2002 (HY000): Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket '/var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock' (2) I tried to reinstall it from software center, but it fails with: Package operation failed The installation or removal of a software package failed. installArchives() failed: Selecting previously unselected package mysql-server. (Reading database ... (Reading database ... 5% (Reading database ... 10% (Reading database ... 15% (Reading database ... 20% (Reading database ... 25% (Reading database ... 30% (Reading database ... 35% (Reading database ... 40% (Reading database ... 45% (Reading database ... 50% (Reading database ... 55% (Reading database ... 60% (Reading database ... 65% (Reading database ... 70% (Reading database ... 75% (Reading database ... 80% (Reading database ... 85% (Reading database ... 90% (Reading database ... 95% (Reading database ... 100% (Reading database ... 243412 files and directories currently installed.) Unpacking mysql-server (from .../mysql-server_5.5.22-0ubuntu1_all.deb) ... Setting up mysql-server-5.5 (5.5.22-0ubuntu1) ... start: Job failed to start invoke-rc.d: initscript mysql, action "start" failed. dpkg: error processing mysql-server-5.5 (--configure): subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1 No apport report written because MaxReports is reached already dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of mysql-server: mysql-server depends on mysql-server-5.5; however: Package mysql-server-5.5 is not configured yet. dpkg: error processing mysql-server (--configure): dependency problems - leaving unconfigured No apport report written because MaxReports is reached already Errors were encountered while processing: mysql-server-5.5 mysql-server Error in function: Setting up mysql-server-5.5 (5.5.22-0ubuntu1) ... start: Job failed to start invoke-rc.d: initscript mysql, action "start" failed. dpkg: error processing mysql-server-5.5 (--configure): subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1 dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of mysql-server: mysql-server depends on mysql-server-5.5; however: Package mysql-server-5.5 is not configured yet. dpkg: error processing mysql-server (--configure): dependency problems - leaving unconfigured I also tried: $ sudo apt-get install -f Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required: mysql-server-5.5 mysql-server-core-5.5 Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove them. 0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded. 1 not fully installed or removed. After this operation, 0 B of additional disk space will be used. Setting up mysql-server-5.5 (5.5.22-0ubuntu1) ... start: Job failed to start invoke-rc.d: initscript mysql, action "start" failed. dpkg: error processing mysql-server-5.5 (--configure): subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1 Errors were encountered while processing: mysql-server-5.5 E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1) Any idea? EDIT: Crash report is being auto generated. EDIT: After trying and trying I got suggestion to do: #apt-get --purge remove mysql-server-5.1 mysql-server-5.5 Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done Virtual packages like 'mysql-server-5.1' can't be removed The following packages will be REMOVED: mysql-server-5.5* 0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 0 not upgraded. 1 not fully installed or removed. After this operation, 31.3 MB disk space will be freed. Do you want to continue [Y/n]? Y (Reading database ... 243407 files and directories currently installed.) Removing mysql-server-5.5 ... Purging configuration files for mysql-server-5.5 ... Processing triggers for ureadahead ... Processing triggers for man-db ... The most important part is: Virtual packages like 'mysql-server-5.1' can't be removed Any idea?

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  • How to grant write permissions in Samba?

    - by Eric Fossum
    I'm having trouble with read/write permissions on my Samba server, how do I fix my smb.conf and file permissions to have a more unified access? smb.conf [global] workgroup = workgroup netbios name = LnxNAS server string = %h wins support = no dns proxy = no security = user encrypt passwords = yes panic action = /usr/share/samba/panic-action %d [homes] comment = Home Directories [Video] path = /data/eric/Videos [Music] path = /data/eric/Music [Pictures] path = /data/eric/Pictures [data] path = /data my ls -l of /data/eric/Pictures drwxrwxrwx 2 ericfoss root 4096 2011-03-13 22:09 Android Projs drwxrwxrwx 3 ericfoss root 4096 2011-03-13 22:09 Automotive -rwxrwxrwx 1 ericfoss root 2439 2010-12-17 17:03 BDD reduction.png -rwxrwxrwx 1 ericfoss root 2722 2010-12-17 16:55 BDD Tree.png -rwxrwxrwx 1 ericfoss root 7341 2010-12-17 16:46 BDD Tree.xcf -rwxrwxrwx 1 ericfoss root 72421 2007-11-22 22:59 Bum Ninja.jpg -rwxrwxrwx 1 ericfoss root 32152 2010-12-17 21:25 cell transition.png -rwxrwxrwx 1 ericfoss root 40212 2010-12-17 17:55 control graph.png drwxrwxrwx 2 ericfoss root 4096 2011-03-13 22:09 Crap -rwxrwxrwx 1 ericfoss root 82 2010-09-20 17:18 desktop.ini ericfoss@SERVER:~$ If I try to delete \Server\Pictures\Crap it says permission denied, but \Server\data\eric\Pictures\crap can be deleted... I thought security = user took care of this?

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  • 6 Things You Shouldn’t Do With Solid-State Drives

    - by Chris Hoffman
    Solid-state drives are different from the mechanical, magnetic hard drives in wide use. Many of the things you’ve done with typical mechanical hard drives shouldn’t be done with newer solid-state drives. Solid-state drives are presented by the operating system the same way mechanical drives are, but they work differently. If you’re a geek, knowing what you shouldn’t do is important.    

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  • Using Keyword Analysis to Write Articles and Blogs

    Keyword analysis is a process by which you can discover what search phases are used at search engines by users for find information. Keywords are nothing but search words or phrases entered by users at search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing. For article, blog and web content writers, keyword research is the most important part of the process.

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  • Technical differences between square and hexagon for a grid?

    - by Marlon Dias
    I'm developing a 2D city-building game and trying to decide on the type of grid. There will be vehicles, so the unit movement is important too. I know there are visual differences for using Squares or Hexagons, what I want know is: What are the issues for programming each type of grid regarding implementation and performance? Is there a tradeoff or specific benefit for using one of them in a game context?

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  • Don’t Miss The Top Exastack ISV Headlines – Week Of June 5

    - by Roxana Babiciu
    Smartsoft's OCEAN Payment Processing Solution achieves Oracle Exadata Optimized status. "Performance is the most important issue for our success in the market and running OCEAN on the Oracle Exadata Database Machine provides customers with extreme performance.” – Learn more Banking solution FORBIS Ltd’s FORPOST achieves Oracle Exadata, Exalogic and SuperCluster Ready Status. “We are glad to offer our current and future customers the newest features provided by Oracle Engineered Systems to achieve maximum reliability and speed operation.” – Learn more

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  • Tool to identify (and remove) unnecessary website files?

    - by xanadont
    Inevitably I'll stop using an antiquated css, script, or image file. Especially when a separate designer is tinkering with things and testing out a few versions of images. Before I build one myself, are there any tools out there that will drill through a website and list unlinked files? Specifically, I'm interested in ASP.NET MVC sites, so detecting calls to (and among many other things) @Url.Content(...) is important.

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  • Why We Write #6-An Interview with Kevin Kline

    - by drsql
    Wow, so far in this series, I have interviewed some very good friends, and some truly excellent writers (and usually both), but today, following on the heels of Jason Strate , we are going to hit someone whose name is synonymous with community, a person who really needs no introduction. According to Bing, Kevin Kline ( @kekline ) is the most important Kevin Kline on Twitter (though it clearly could be due to my typical searches, I am giving him the benefit of the doubt… here try it yourself: http://www.bing.com/search?q=kevin+kline+twitter...(read more)

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  • techniques for an AI for a highly cramped turn-based tactics game

    - by Adam M.
    I'm trying to write an AI for a tactics game in the vein of Final Fantasy Tactics or Vandal Hearts. I can't change the game rules in any way, only upgrade the AI. I have experience programming AI for classic board games (basically minimax and its variants), but I think the branching factor is too great for the approach to be reasonable here. I'll describe the game and some current AI flaws that I'd like to fix. I'd like to hear ideas for applicable techniques. I'm a decent enough programmer, so I only need the ideas, not an implementation (though that's always appreciated). I'd rather not expend effort chasing (too many) dead ends, so although speculation and brainstorming are good and probably helpful, I'd prefer to hear from somebody with actual experience solving this kind of problem. For those who know it, the game is the land battle mini-game in Sid Meier's Pirates! (2004) and you can skim/skip the next two paragraphs. For those who don't, here's briefly how it works. The battle is turn-based and takes place on a 16x16 grid. There are three terrain types: clear (no hindrance), forest (hinders movement, ranged attacks, and sight), and rock (impassible, but does not hinder attacks or sight). The map is randomly generated with roughly equal amounts of each type of terrain. Because there are many rock and forest tiles, movement is typically very cramped. This is tactically important. The terrain is not flat; higher terrain gives minor bonuses. The terrain is known to both sides. The player is always the attacker and the AI is always the defender, so it's perfectly valid for the AI to set up a defensive position and just wait. The player wins by killing all defenders or by getting a unit to the city gates (a tile on the other side of the map). There are very few units on each side, usually 4-8. Because of this, it's crucial not to take damage without gaining some advantage from it. Units can take multiple actions per turn. All units on one side move before any units on the other side. Order of execution is important, and interleaving of actions between units is often useful. Units have melee and ranged attacks. Melee attacks vary widely in strength; ranged attacks have the same strength but vary in range. The main challenges I face are these: Lots of useful move combinations start with a "useless" move that gains no immediate advantage, or even loses advantage, in order to set up a powerful flank attack in the future. And, since the player units are stronger and have longer range, the AI pretty much always has to take some losses before they can start to gain kills. The AI must be able to look ahead to distinguish between sacrificial actions that provide a future benefit and those that don't. Because the terrain is so cramped, most of the tactics come down to achieving good positioning with multiple units that work together to defend an area. For instance, two defenders can often dominate a narrow pass by positioning themselves so an enemy unit attempting to pass must expose itself to a flank attack. But one defender in the same pass would be useless, and three units can defend a slightly larger pass. Etc. The AI should be able to figure out where the player must go to reach the city gates and how to best position its few units to cover the approaches, shifting, splitting, or combining them appropriately as the player moves. Because flank attacks are extremely deadly (and engineering flank attacks is key to the player strategy), the AI should be competent at moving its units so that they cover each other's flanks unless the sacrifice of a unit would give a substantial benefit. They should also be able to force flank attacks on players, for instance by threatening a unit from two different directions such that responding to one threat exposes the flank to the other. The AI should attack if possible, but sometimes there are no good ways to approach the player's position. In that case, the AI should be able to recognize this and set up a defensive position of its own. But the AI shouldn't be vulnerable to a trivial exploit where the player repeatedly opens and closes a hole in his defense and shoots at the AI as it approaches and retreats. That is, the AI should ideally be able to recognize that the player is capable of establishing a solid defense of an area, even if the defense is not currently in place. (I suppose if a good unit allocation algorithm existed, as needed for the second bullet point, the AI could run it on the player units to see where they could defend.) Because it's important to choose a good order of action and interleave actions between units, it's not as simple as just finding the best move for each unit in turn. All of these can be accomplished with a minimax search in theory, but the search space is too large, so specialized techniques are needed. I thought about techniques such as influence mapping, but I don't see how to use the technique to great effect. I thought about assigning goals to the units. This can help them work together in some limited way, and the problem of "how do I accomplish this goal?" is easier to solve than "how do I win this battle?", but assigning good goals is a hard problem in itself, because it requires knowing whether the goal is achievable and whether it's a good use of resources. So, does anyone have specific ideas for techniques that can help cleverize this AI? Update: I found a related question on Stackoverflow: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3133273/ai-for-a-final-fantasy-tactics-like-game The selected answer gives a decent approach to choosing between alternative actions, but it doesn't seem to have much ability to look into the future and discern beneficial sacrifices from wasteful ones. It also focuses on a single unit at a time and it's not clear how it could be extended to support cooperation between units in defending or attacking.

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  • SEO consequences for merging country sites in a .com

    - by Pekka
    I am in the process of refactoring a number of rental portals I've built for a company with locations in Austria, Germany, Switzerland, and the Netherlands. Instead of the current setting of each country site running under its own domain name: www.companyname.de www.companyname.ch www.companyname.at I would love to merge them all in this way: www.companyname.com/de www.companyname.com/ch www.companyname.com/at with the country TLDs doing a 301 redirect to the respective .com address. However, I have been repeatedly told not to do this due to likely problems with SEO - the business is very SEO dependent, and being a rental chain, needs to be strong in local results. So the question is: Is there an unavoidable hit in Search Engine Optimization when redirecting to a central .com domain? What measures can be taken to soften the blow? What comes to my mind is explicitly specifying a lang attribute in the html tag. Are there any other ways to specifically point out geographical location for sub-directories?

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  • Create bootable USB install image from command line?

    - by j-g-faustus
    I'm trying to create a bootable USB image to install Ubuntu on a new computer. I have done this before following the "create USB drive" instructions for Ubuntu desktop, but I don't have an Ubuntu desktop available. How can I do the same using only the command line? Things I've tried: Create bootable USB on Mac OS X following the ubuntu.com "create USB drive" instructions for Mac: Doesn't boot. usb-creator: According to apt-cache search usb-creator and Wikipedia usb-creator only exists as a graphical tool. "Create manually" instructions at help.ubuntu.com: None of the files and directories described (e.g. casper, filesystem.manifest, menu.lst) exist in the ISO image, and I don't know what has replaced them. (At my disposal is Mac OS X and Ubuntu server; I have neither Ubuntu desktop nor Windows.)

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  • What should you leave behind for your successors?

    - by SnOrfus
    Assume that you're a sole developer leaving a job. What kind of information/material, outside of the code itself, should you create and leave behind for your replacement? An obvious answer is "whatever you would want at a new job" for sure, but it's been a while since I started a new job, and I forget what the most important things that I needed were back then. I'm thinking: accounts/passwords location of equpiment What else?

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

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

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