jonathan nicol - Page 9

One Step-Ahead A-Star

- by Jonathan Dickinson

I am attempting to create a server-centric RTS (as opposed to usual parallel synchronised simulation route of most RTS games today) - however I am still leveraging the discreet N-turns-ahead paradigm discussed by one of the AOE developers on Gamasutra. I have [possibly questionably?] decided that the path finding should only ever find the next cell the entity needs to move to, and was wondering if anyone has any clever ideas on how to optimize the algorithm for this specific scenario - or any other ideas on how to keep the pathfinding as lean as possible on the server. I have investigated a few possible algorithms but could only come up with one appropriation: Tiered A-Star - Relatively large T1 tiles, work out (and cache) each cell as you enter it. Other than that: doing the full A-Star pass and caching the entire path, which might use too much memory if a large amount of units are present. I know about the existence of naive progressive pathfinding algorithms (if you hit a block, turn in the direction closer to your target etc.) but they suffer from infinite feedback loops - and very poor pathing even if visited blocks are memorised. Not an option. Many thanks.

Read the article

How do I cross-compile my application for Ubuntu 12.04 armhf architecture on a Ubuntu 12.04 i386 host?

- by Jonathan Cave

I have a large application I have written. I can successfully compile the application in the following scenarios: in a native compilation for the i386 host running Ubuntu 12.04 natively on a PandaBoard running Ubuntu 12.04 (this takes a long time) using Qemu and a chroot on the host PC for the armhf PandaBoard target (this takes a very long time) I would like to cross-compile the application on the i386 host to run on a target such as the PandaBoard to complete builds in a timely fashion. So far attempts made using the arm-linux-gnueabihf tool chain in the repositories has produced binaries that do not run correctly. At this stage, I have no plans to package the software. What is the recommended way to achieve a successful cross-compile?

Read the article

Embedding a back and forward arrows in a quickly application

- by Jonathan

I have downloaded a set of icons to use for my web browser that I'm creating and would like to use. I know how to add the icons, but I only know the code for the refresh button. My question is what is the code for the back and forward arrows? It would also be so helpful if I would know the code for the home button and how to make the web browser manage downloads. I'm using WebkitGtk as the web browser view. The images are found here

Read the article

Make your TSQL easier to read during a presentation

- by Jonathan Allen

SQL Server Management Studio 2012 has some neat settings that you can use to help your presentations at a SQL event better for the attendees if you are willing to spend a few minutes making some settings changes. Historically, I have been reluctant to make changes to my SSMS settings as it is such a tedious process and it’s not 100% clear that what you think you are changing is actually what gets changed. With SSMS 2012 this has become a lot easier and a lot less risky. In any session that involves TSQL there is a trade off between the speaker having all the code on screen and the attendees being able to read any of what is on screen. You (the speaker) might be able to read this when you are working on the code but plenty of your audience wont be able to make head or tail of it. SSMS 2012 has a zoom facility that can help: but don’t go nuts … Having the font too big means you will be scrolling a lot and the code will again be rendered unreadable. There is more though but you need to take a deep breath and open the Tools menu and delve into the SSMS options. In previous versions of SSMS this is a deep, dark and scary place where changing values can be obscure and sometimes catastrophic to the UI when you get back to the code editor. First things first, we set out as a good DBA and save our current (and presumably acceptable) SSMS configuration. From the import and Export Settings you can set up a file to hold all of the settings that you currently have. The wizard will open and ask you to pick an option. This time around choose to export settings. hit next and next again and then name your settings profile in the final step of the wizard and then click Finish. Once this is done then you can change whatever you like and always get back to this configuration in a couple of clicks. So what can you change to make for a good experience? Well there are plenty of things that can be altered but don’t go too mad and change too many things without taking a look at the results for every item on the list above you can change font, size, weight, colour, background colour etc. etc. but consider what you are trying to achieve and take it slowly. I have seen presenters with their settings set to have a yellow highlight and black font rather than the default pale blue background and slightly darker font so to achieve that select Text Editor and then select “Selected Text” in the Display Items listbox. As you change things the Sample area give you an idea of what effect you are going to have. Black and yellow is the colour combination with the highest contrast – that’s why bees and wasps# are that colour. What next? how about increasing the default font for your demo scripts? This means that any script you open and any new ones that you start will take on this font. No more zooming (or forgetting to) in the middle of sessions. now don’t forget to save this profile – follow the same steps as above but give the profile a different name, something like PresentationBigFontHighContrast might be appropriate. Once you are done making changes, export the settings once more and then go into the Import Export wizard and import settings from the first profile you created. Everything will be back to normal. Now making changes to suit your environment can be done very easily and with confidence. * – and warning tape and safety signs and so forth – Health and Safety officers simply copy nature!

Read the article

dpkg crashing while trying to install a package

- by Jonathan

While attempting to install a package via apt-get the following. The first error I get is: E: dpkg was interrupted, you must manually run 'sudo dpkg --configure -a' to correct the problem. And, if I run that command the box spins out of control and I get the following in /var/log/syslog Aug 29 20:21:08 ip-10-202-191-4 kernel: [20571563.398546] ------------[ cut here ]------------ Aug 29 20:21:08 ip-10-202-191-4 kernel: [20571563.398552] WARNING: at /build/buildd/linux-3.0.0/arch/x86/xen/multicalls.c:182 xen_mc_flush+01c0() Aug 29 20:21:08 ip-10-202-191-4 kernel: [20571563.398561] Modules linked in: acpiphp Aug 29 20:21:08 ip-10-202-191-4 kernel: [20571563.398568] Pid: 31063, comm: java Tainted: G D W 3.0.0-14-virtual #23-Ubuntu Aug 29 20:21:08 ip-10-202-191-4 kernel: [20571563.398576] Call Trace: Aug 29 20:21:08 ip-10-202-191-4 kernel: [20571563.398580] [<c0648265>] ? printk+0x2d/0x2f Aug 29 20:21:08 ip-10-202-191-4 kernel: [20571563.398586] [<c0150462>] warn_slowpath_common+0x72/0xa0 Aug 29 20:21:08 ip-10-202-191-4 kernel: [20571563.398593] [<c0104883>] ? xen_mc_flush+0x1b3/0x1c0 Aug 29 20:21:08 ip-10-202-191-4 kernel: [20571563.398599] [<c0104883>] ? xen_mc_flush+0x1b3/0x1c0 Aug 29 20:21:08 ip-10-202-191-4 kernel: [20571563.398605] [<c01504b2>] warn_slowpath_null+0x22/0x30 Aug 29 20:21:08 ip-10-202-191-4 kernel: [20571563.398611] [<c0104883>] xen_mc_flush+0x1b3/0x1c0 Aug 29 20:21:08 ip-10-202-191-4 kernel: [20571563.398617] [<c0104e7a>] ? xen_extend_mmu_update+0x4a/0x70 Aug 29 20:21:08 ip-10-202-191-4 kernel: [20571563.398624] [<c0106565>] xen_set_pud_hyper+0x75/0x80 Aug 29 20:21:08 ip-10-202-191-4 kernel: [20571563.398630] [<c01065b9>] xen_set_pud+0x49/0x60 Aug 29 20:21:08 ip-10-202-191-4 kernel: [20571563.398636] [<c0132105>] pud_populate+0x45/0x60 Aug 29 20:21:08 ip-10-202-191-4 kernel: [20571563.398642] [<c0208a24>] __pmd_alloc+0x74/0x90 Aug 29 20:21:08 ip-10-202-191-4 kernel: [20571563.398648] [<c0208cb7>] handle_mm_fault+0x277/0x2c0 Aug 29 20:21:08 ip-10-202-191-4 kernel: [20571563.398655] [<c065f45b>] do_page_fault+0x15b/0x4a0 Aug 29 20:21:08 ip-10-202-191-4 kernel: [20571563.401923] [<c020ba24>] ? remove_vma+0x44/0x60 Aug 29 20:21:08 ip-10-202-191-4 kernel: [20571563.401923] [<c020d9b6>] ? sys_mmap_pgoff+0x106/0x1c0 Aug 29 20:21:08 ip-10-202-191-4 kernel: [20571563.401923] [<c065f300>] ? vmalloc_fault+0x190/0x190 Aug 29 20:21:08 ip-10-202-191-4 kernel: [20571563.401923] [<c065c79f>] error_code+0x67/0x6c Aug 29 20:21:08 ip-10-202-191-4 kernel: [20571563.401923] ---[ end trace 0b105e2a179ad013 ]---

Read the article

Why, when on Kubuntu I lose internet connection, am I unable to reconnect?

- by Jonathan

Using Kubuntu 11.10. Sony Vaio computer. Network controller: Intel Corporation WiFi Link 5100. If I connect to a wireless network, and the signal drops, then I am unable to connect to any network without a reboot. I can assure that the issue has nothing to do with the computer going to sleep, as I have experienced the above while using my computer continuously. Here is exactly what happens: Connect to network (at University, where the connection is not so great). The connection is broken There are three other possible networks available, but none of them can be connected to. I have tried off and on sometimes for hours. I am always able to reestablish a connection after a reboot. I can only think of two explanations. The first is that a temp file is corrupted when the internet connection is abruptly dropped. The second is that my computer actually corrupts something before the loss of internet connection, which causes the loss in signal, and inability to reconnect. However, I am not confident that my explanations are complete, nor do I have any idea how to test these things.

Read the article

What is the most secure way to archive a GKScore to be re-submitted later?

- by Jonathan Sibley

I'm looking for the safest way to archive and store a GKScore that needs to be re-submitted to Game Center (say, because the user didn't have a network connection at the time the score was earned). I would like to archive the GKScore instance in case the app is terminated before it can be successfully re-submitted to Game Center. My worry is that if it's archived to an instance of NSData and saved in a .plist, it would be easy to manipulate. Perhaps this worry is unjustified? NOTE: I posted a similar question on Stack Overflow only to realize that it's better asked here.

Read the article

Ubuntu stops letting wired or wireless mouse click through after random delay

- by Jonathan Chan

I have a very confusing problem that renders Ubuntu near unusable. Whenever I try to use any wired or wireless mouse with my Ubuntu 10.10 install, clicks stop going through - often times, this blockage of clicks happens in less than a minute. Sometimes no clicks are accepted, other times, clicks are accepted in certain windows and blocked in others. The end result is the same, and I am forced to resort to using the keyboard to navigate.

Read the article

Using QTIP2 in COGNOS "content" customization

- by Jonathan

I'd like to know how to call to a query in COGNOS 8 using qtip2. Where do I plugin the required "content?" For instance: ajax was calling to a wiki server that pulled an image and content dynamically. So it goes with out saying that I need to plugin my content there but what exactly do I plugin? I know we have ASP.NET and ISS on our cognos server side but where can I just plugin a span for the data to appear dynamically in my scrollable qtip2?

Read the article

I'm trying to install Bruteforce Savedata from the archiver

- by Jonathan

I've just installed UBUNTU 12.04 for curiosity purposes. I'm a gamer and I wanted to install Brute force Save data on my comp. So i download it and it open in the Archive manager i go to run the ".exe" but encounter this message Archive: /home/c4/Desktop/Bruteforce_Save_Data_installer.exe [/home/c4/Desktop/Bruteforce_Save_Data_installer.exe] End-of-central-directory signature not found. Either this file is not a zipfile, or it constitutes one disk of a multi-part archive. In the latter case the central directory and zipfile comment will be found on the last disk(s) of this archive. zipinfo: cannot find zipfile directory in one of /home/c4/Desktop/Bruteforce_Save_Data_installer.exe or /home/c4/Desktop/Bruteforce_Save_Data_installer.exe.zip, and cannot find /home/c4/Desktop/Bruteforce_Save_Data_installer.exe.ZIP, period. Please help!

Read the article

TSQL Tuesday #15 – Maintaining Your Sanity While Managing Large Environments

- by Jonathan Kehayias

This month’s TSQL Tuesday event is being hosted by Pat Wright (Blog | Twitter) and the topic this month is Automation! “ I figured that since many of you out there set a goal this year to blog more and to learn Powershell then this Topic should help in both of those goals. So the topic I have chosen for this month is Automation! It can be Automation with T-SQL or with Powershell or a mix of both. Give us your best tips/tricks and ideas for making our lives...(read more)

Read the article

How do I communicate with an IronPython component in a C#/XNA game?

- by Jonathan Hobbs

My XNA game is component-oriented, and has various components for position, physics representation, rendering, etc, all of which extend a base Component class. The player and enemies also have controllers which are currently defined in C#. I'd like to turn them into Python scripts, but I'm not sure how to interact with those scripts. The examples in Embedding IronPython in a C# Application suggest I'd have to create a wrapper class (e.g. a Script component) which compiles a Python script, and call the Update methods of the component in the script Is this the most effective way of working with a Python object? I feel that I'm missing something in my research - there must be a way to load up a script, instantiate a Python object and then work directly with it from within C#. Or is the wrapper required?

Read the article

Estimate angle to launch missile, maths question

- by Jonathan

I've been working on this for an hour or two now and my maths really isn't my strong suit which is definitely not a good thing for a game programmer but that shouldn't stop me enjoying a hobby surely? After a few failed attempts I was hoping someone else out there could help so here's the situation. I'm trying to implement a bit of faked intelligence when the A.I fires it's missiles at a target in a 2D game world. By predicting the likely position the target will be in given it's current velocity and the time it will take the missile to reach it's target. I created an image to demonstrate my thinking: http://i.imgur.com/SFmU3.png which also contains the logic I use for accelerating the missile after launch. The ship that fires the missile can fire within a total of 40 degree angle, 20 either side of itself, but this could likely become variable. My current attempt was to break the space between the two lines into segments which match the targets width. Then calculate the time it would take the missile to get to that location using the formula. So for each iteration of this we total up the values and that tells us the distance travelled, ad it would then just need compared to distance to the segment. startVelocity * ((startVelocity * acceleration)^(currentframe-1) So for example. If we start at a velocity of 1f/frame with an acceleration of 0.1f the formula, at frame 4, would be 1 * (1.1^3) = 1.331 But I quickly realized I was getting lost when trying to put this into practice. Does this seem like a correct starting point or am I going completely the wrong way about it? Any pointers would help me greatly. Maths really isn't my strong suit so I get easily lost in these matters and don't even really know a good phrase to search for with this. So I guess in summary my question is more about the correct way to approach this problem and any additional code samples on top of that would be great but I'm not averse to working out the complete code from helpful pointers.

Read the article

Why Are We Here?

- by Jonathan Mills

Back in the early 2000s, Toyota had a vision of building the number one best selling minivan in North America. Their current minivan, the Sienna, was small, underpowered, and badly needed help. Yuji Yokoya was given the job of re-engineering the Sienna. There was just one problem, Yuji, lived in Japan. He did not know the people or places that he would be engineering for. Believe it or not, Japan is nothing like North America. So, what does a chief engineer do in a situation like that? He packed up his team and flew halfway around the world. He made a commitment to drive through every state in the US, every province in Canada, and Mexico. He met the people and drove the roads that the Sienna would be driving. And guess what, what he learned on that trip revolutionized the Sienna. The innovations he made, sent the Sienna to number one. Why? Because he knew who he was building his product for. He knew, why he was there.Let me ask you this, do you know why you are building what you are building? As a member of a product team, can you tell me how your product will be used in the real world? As you are writing code, building test plans, writing stories, or any of the other project tasks, can you picture the face of a person who will be using what you are building? All to often, the answer to those questions is, no. Why is it important? Because, every day, project team members make assumptions. Over a given project, it is safe to say project team members will make thousands of assumptions about what they are doing. And all to often, those assumptions are not quite right. Its not that they are not good at their job, its just that they don’t really know why they are there.So, what to do? First and foremost, stop doing what you are doing. Yes, really. Schedule some time to go visit the people who will be using your product. Don’t invite them to you, go to them. Watch them work. Interact with them. Ask them questions. Maybe even try it out yourself. This serves two purposes. One, It shows them that you care about them. They will be far more engaged in your project if they feel like you care. And nothing says you care more that spending some time. Second, if gives you the proper frame of reference for you work. It gives you something tangible to go back to as you are building your product. As you make the thousands of assumptions that you will make over the life of your project, it gives you something to see in your mind that makes it real to you.Ultimately, setting a proper frame of reference is critical to the overall success of a project. The funny thing is, it really does not even take that long. In most cases, a 2-3 hour session will give you most of what you need to get the right insight. For the project, it will be the best 2 hours you could spend.

Read the article

Strategies for removing register_globals from a file

- by Jonathan Rich

I have a file (or rather, a list of about 100 files) in my website's repository that is still requiring the use of register_globals and other nastiness (like custom error reporting, etc) because the code is so bad, throws notices, and is 100% procedural with few subroutines. We want to move to PHP 5.4 (and eventually 5.5) this year, but can't until we can port these files over, clean them up, etc. The average file length is about 1000 lines. I've already cleaned up a few of the low-hanging fruit, however the job took almost an entire day for 2 300-500 line files. I am in a quagmire here (giggity). Anyway, has anyone else dealt with this in the past? Are there any strategies besides tracing backwards through the code? Most static analysis tools don't look at code outside of functions - are there any that will look at the procedural code and help find at least some of the problems?

Read the article

What is the best practice for website design and markup now that mobile browsers are common?

- by Jonathan Drain

Back in 2008, smartphones were a small market and it was commonplace for sites to be designed for a fixed width - say, 900px or 960px - with the page centered if the browser window was larger. Many designers said fluid width was better, but since user screens typically varied between 1024x768 and 1920x1080, fluid width allowed longer line length than is optimal for ease of reading, and so many sites (including Stack Exchange) use fixed width. Now that mobile devices are common, what is the the best approach to support both desktop and mobile browsers? Establish a separate mobile site (e.g: mobile.example.com) Serve a different CSS to mobile devices; if so how? Server-side browser sniffing, or a @media rule? Use Javascript or something to adapt the website dynamically to the client? Should all websites be expected to be responsive? Some kind of fluid layout Something else?

Read the article

Capital D key not working / producing output

- by Jonathan

For some inexplicable reason the capital d key on my Ubuntu system is no longer producing output. Hitting caps lock and then d produces a D. I've tried multiple keyboards and the issue is the same. There's nothing bound to Shift+d under System Preferences Keyboard Shortcuts. xev produces the following: shift + a KeyPress event, serial 36, synthetic NO, window 0x4c00001, root 0x27a, subw 0x0, time 31268952, (130,-16), root:(1000,525), state 0x10, keycode 62 (keysym 0xffe2, Shift_R), same_screen YES, XLookupString gives 0 bytes: XmbLookupString gives 0 bytes: XFilterEvent returns: False KeyPress event, serial 36, synthetic NO, window 0x4c00001, root 0x27a, subw 0x0, time 31269376, (130,-16), root:(1000,525), state 0x11, keycode 38 (keysym 0x41, A), same_screen YES, XLookupString gives 1 bytes: (41) "A" XmbLookupString gives 1 bytes: (41) "A" XFilterEvent returns: False KeyRelease event, serial 36, synthetic NO, window 0x4c00001, root 0x27a, subw 0x0, time 31269584, (130,-16), root:(1000,525), state 0x11, keycode 38 (keysym 0x41, A), same_screen YES, XLookupString gives 1 bytes: (41) "A" XFilterEvent returns: False KeyRelease event, serial 36, synthetic NO, window 0x4c00001, root 0x27a, subw 0x0, time 31269608, (130,-16), root:(1000,525), state 0x11, keycode 62 (keysym 0xffe2, Shift_R), same_screen YES, XLookupString gives 0 bytes: XFilterEvent returns: False shift + d KeyPress event, serial 36, synthetic NO, window 0x4c00001, root 0x27a, subw 0x0, time 31102792, (115,-13), root:(985,528), state 0x10, keycode 62 (keysym 0xffe2, Shift_R), same_screen YES, XLookupString gives 0 bytes: XmbLookupString gives 0 bytes: XFilterEvent returns: False FocusOut event, serial 36, synthetic NO, window 0x4c00001, mode NotifyGrab, detail NotifyAncestor FocusIn event, serial 36, synthetic NO, window 0x4c00001, mode NotifyUngrab, detail NotifyAncestor KeymapNotify event, serial 36, synthetic NO, window 0x0, keys: 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 64 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 KeyRelease event, serial 36, synthetic NO, window 0x4c00001, root 0x27a, subw 0x0, time 31103104, (115,-13), root:(985,528), state 0x11, keycode 62 (keysym 0xffe2, Shift_R), same_screen YES, XLookupString gives 0 bytes: XFilterEvent returns: False

Read the article

Accessing second hard drive

- by Jonathan

So I recently installed Ubuntu 10.10 64-bit on my computer. I installed it on my 60gb SSD hard drive, and in the installation it never acknowledged the existence of my second hard drive. The hard drive that I keep all my files on, and which I want to make my home folder if I can, is a Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB cache (WD1002FAEX). I've read the following: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Mount but honestly cannot work out how to access the hard drive from my Ubuntu installation. I did have Windows 7 64-bit prior to installing Ubuntu. I have backed up all the files on the hard drive, but if I could just access them straight off that would be super cool. Does anyone know how I can use the second hard drive? Thank you for your help EDIT: The following directories are currently in my /dev/ folder: ati/, block/, bsg/, bus/, char/, cpu/, isk/, input/, mapper/, net/, pktcdvd/, pts/, shm/, snd/, and usb/ EDIT: Result from sudo fdisk -l Disk /dev/sda: 60.0 GB, 60022480896 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 7297 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes Disk identifier: 0x000d2dfd Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sda1 * 1 6994 56174592 83 Linux /dev/sda2 6994 7298 2438145 5 Extended /dev/sda5 6994 7298 2438144 82 Linux swap / Solaris @djeykib So very close to fixing it.. unfortunately on the last command you gave it says this: $ sudo apt-get install linux-lts-backport-natty Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done E: Unable to locate package linux-lts-backport-natty Checking on http://www.ubuntuupdates.org/ppas reveals that it is only available for 10.04. Looks like I'll have to unplug and re-plug hardware if I want it working still :(

Read the article

Rhythmbox iPod Issues?

- by Jonathan Jones

basically, when I try and drag a song from my library to any one of my iPods (Classic (2.0.4 Mac), Touch (3.1.2. (7D11)) and Shuffle), nothing happens. It would appear that everything went ok, but... when I go to the iPod's library, the song is not there. When trying to transfer the file, there is no error etc. to suggest something that went wrong, and so I can't file a bug report on Launchpad etc. Does anyone know what could be wrong? Cheers guys! EDIT: I forgot to add that I'm running a 64-bit install of Ubuntu 12.04LTS and that Amarok and gtkpod don't even recognise that any devices are plugged in. Thanks.

Read the article

Hardware Virtualization no longer required for Windows 7 XP Mode

- by Jonathan Kehayias

One of my frustrations in upgrading to Windows 7 last year was that Virtual PC no longer worked since I didn’t have Hardware Virtualization on my CPU. This really drove my transition entirely to VMware Workstation on my personal laptop. I recently reinstalled my work laptop (with permission) on Windows 7 Enterprise and figured I’d give XP Mode a look since this machine has Hardware Virtualization enabled. I was surprised to find that Hardware Virtualization was no longer required,...(read more)

Read the article

How to fix "error: unknown file system" on all available partitions

- by Jonathan

I've had a running problem with removing Linux from my Windows 7 laptop. Initially, it was installed as a dual-boot, and worked well. To remove, I deleted the partitions on my laptop. This removed grub, and I was left with needing to enter: set root=... set prefix=... insmod normal normal each restart. I didn't restore the Windows boot-loader and have since re-partitioned my drive. Now, upon reaching the command prompt screen, an ls query showshd0, with three partitions, but none of them have a recognizable boot-loader as each returns with error: unknown file system. Booting from a Windows 7 rescue disk doesn't seem to work, as it sends me to the same command prompt terminal. All I'm looking to do is restore the boot-loader, either grub or Windows 7. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Read the article

cannot boot Ubuntu after fresh install

- by Jonathan

I just installed Ubuntu on a Lenovo v570, and cannot boot into the system. All I get is a loop, where some (bios) info is displayed, and then the computer asks me where I would like to boot from. I tried reinstalling, reinstalling with a custom partition scheme, and boot -repair after the install. None of these work. I can see the files on my harddisk have been copied. I have installed many Ubuntus in the past, as well other distros where custom partitioning is required. I don't know where to find any useful information since I don't even get too the grub menu. One odd thing I noticed. The bios now had options to boot USB, OpenSuse,Fedora, or the HD. I am not dual booting. I also realized that the boot info is for a network boot, which means the computer is not recognizing what to boot. It is boot an HD problem, because I can install other OSs just fine. I am completely stumped. I would like to settle this, and end up with a tutorial, that explains to me what happened.

Read the article

Ubuntu stops letting wired or wireless mice click through after a short while

- by Jonathan Chan

Hi! I have a very confusing problem that renders Ubuntu near unusable. Whenever I try to use any wired or wireless mouse with my Ubuntu 10.10 install, clicks stop going through - often times, this blockage of clicks happens in less than a minute. Sometimes no clicks are accepted, other times, clicks are accepted in certain windows and denied in others. The end result is the same, and I am forced to resort to using the keyboard to navigate. If anyone could help me resolve this problem, I would be very appreciative, as it would finally allow me to try Ubuntu. Thanks!

Read the article

Working With Extended Events

- by Fatherjack

SQL Server 2012 has made working with Extended Events (XE) pretty simple when it comes to what sessions you have on your servers and what options you have selected and so forth but if you are like me then you still have some SQL Server instances that are 2008 or 2008 R2. For those servers there is no built-in way to view the Extended Event sessions in SSMS. I keep coming up against the same situations – Where are the xel log files? What events, actions or predicates are set for the events on the server? What sessions are there on the server already? I got tired of this being a perpetual question and wrote some TSQL to save as a snippet in SQL Prompt so that these details are permanently only a couple of clicks away. First, some history. If you just came here for the code skip down a few paragraphs and it’s all there. If you want a little time to reminisce about SQL Server then stick with me through the next paragraph or two. We are in a bit of a cross-over period currently, there are many versions of SQL Server but I would guess that SQL Server 2008, 2008 R2 and 2012 comprise the majority of installations. With each of these comes a set of management tools, of which SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) is one. In 2008 and 2008 R2 Extended Events made their first appearance and there was no way to work with them in the SSMS interface. At some point the Extended Events guru Jonathan Kehayias (http://www.sqlskills.com/blogs/jonathan/) created the SQL Server 2008 Extended Events SSMS Addin which is really an excellent tool to ease XE session administration. This addin will install in SSMS 2008 or 2008R2 but not SSMS 2012. If you use a compatible version of SSMS then I wholly recommend downloading and using it to make your work with XE much easier. If you have SSMS 2012 installed, and there is no reason not to as it will let you work with all versions of SQL Server, then you cannot install this addin. If you are working with SQL Server 2012 then SSMS 2012 has built in functionality to manage XE sessions – this functionality does not apply for 2008 or 2008 R2 instances though. This means you are somewhat restricted and have to use TSQL to manage XE sessions on older versions of SQL Server. OK, those of you that skipped ahead for the code, you need to start from here: So, you are working with SSMS 2012 but have a SQL Server that is an earlier version that needs an XE session created or you think there is a session created but you aren’t sure, or you know it’s there but can’t remember if it is running and where the output is going. How do you find out? Well, none of the information is hidden as such but it is a bit of a wrangle to locate it and it isn’t a lot of code that is unlikely to remain in your memory. I have created two pieces of code. The first examines the SYS.Server_Event_… management views in combination with the SYS.DM_XE_… management views to give the name of all sessions that exist on the server, regardless of whether they are running or not and two pieces of TSQL code. One piece will alter the state of the session: if the session is running then the code will stop the session if executed and vice versa. The other piece of code will drop the selected session. If the session is running then the code will stop it first. Do not execute the DROP code unless you are sure you have the Create code to hand. It will be dropped from the server without a second chance to change your mind. /**************************************************************/ /*** To locate and describe event sessions on a server ***/ /*** ***/ /*** Generates TSQL to start/stop/drop sessions ***/ /*** ***/ /*** Jonathan Allen - @fatherjack ***/ /*** June 2013 ***/ /*** ***/ /**************************************************************/ SELECT [EES].[name] AS [Session Name - all sessions] , CASE WHEN [MXS].[name] IS NULL THEN ISNULL([MXS].[name], 'Stopped') ELSE 'Running' END AS SessionState , CASE WHEN [MXS].[name] IS NULL THEN ISNULL([MXS].[name], 'ALTER EVENT SESSION [' + [EES].[name] + '] ON SERVER STATE = START;') ELSE 'ALTER EVENT SESSION [' + [EES].[name] + '] ON SERVER STATE = STOP;' END AS ALTER_SessionState , CASE WHEN [MXS].[name] IS NULL THEN ISNULL([MXS].[name], 'DROP EVENT SESSION [' + [EES].[name] + '] ON SERVER; -- This WILL drop the session. It will no longer exist. Don't do it unless you are certain you can recreate it if you need it.') ELSE 'ALTER EVENT SESSION [' + [EES].[name] + '] ON SERVER STATE = STOP; ' + CHAR(10) + '-- DROP EVENT SESSION [' + [EES].[name] + '] ON SERVER; -- This WILL stop and drop the session. It will no longer exist. Don't do it unless you are certain you can recreate it if you need it.' END AS DROP_Session FROM [sys].[server_event_sessions] AS EES LEFT JOIN [sys].[dm_xe_sessions] AS MXS ON [EES].[name] = [MXS].[name] WHERE [EES].[name] NOT IN ( 'system_health', 'AlwaysOn_health' ) ORDER BY SessionState GO I have excluded the system_health and AlwaysOn sessions as I don’t want to accidentally execute the drop script for these sessions that are created as part of the SQL Server installation. It is possible to recreate the sessions but that is a whole lot of aggravation I’d rather avoid. The second piece of code gathers details of running XE sessions only and provides information on the Events being collected, any predicates that are set on those events, the actions that are set to be collected, where the collected information is being logged and if that logging is to a file target, where that file is located. /**********************************************/ /*** Running Session summary ***/ /*** ***/ /*** Details key values of XE sessions ***/ /*** that are in a running state ***/ /*** ***/ /*** Jonathan Allen - @fatherjack ***/ /*** June 2013 ***/ /*** ***/ /**********************************************/ SELECT [EES].[name] AS [Session Name - running sessions] , [EESE].[name] AS [Event Name] , COALESCE([EESE].[predicate], 'unfiltered') AS [Event Predicate Filter(s)] , [EESA].[Action] AS [Event Action(s)] , [EEST].[Target] AS [Session Target(s)] , ISNULL([EESF].[value], 'No file target in use') AS [File_Target_UNC] -- select * FROM [sys].[server_event_sessions] AS EES INNER JOIN [sys].[dm_xe_sessions] AS MXS ON [EES].[name] = [MXS].[name] INNER JOIN [sys].[server_event_session_events] AS [EESE] ON [EES].[event_session_id] = [EESE].[event_session_id] LEFT JOIN [sys].[server_event_session_fields] AS EESF ON ( [EES].[event_session_id] = [EESF].[event_session_id] AND [EESF].[name] = 'filename' ) CROSS APPLY ( SELECT STUFF(( SELECT ', ' + sest.name FROM [sys].[server_event_session_targets] AS SEST WHERE [EES].[event_session_id] = [SEST].[event_session_id] FOR XML PATH('') ), 1, 2, '') AS [Target] ) AS EEST CROSS APPLY ( SELECT STUFF(( SELECT ', ' + [sesa].NAME FROM [sys].[server_event_session_actions] AS sesa WHERE [sesa].[event_session_id] = [EES].[event_session_id] FOR XML PATH('') ), 1, 2, '') AS [Action] ) AS EESA WHERE [EES].[name] NOT IN ( 'system_health', 'AlwaysOn_health' ) /*Optional to exclude 'out-of-the-box' traces*/ I hope that these scripts are useful to you and I would be obliged if you would keep my name in the script comments. I have no problem with you using it in production or personal circumstances, however it has no warranty or guarantee. Don’t use it unless you understand it and are happy with what it is going to do. I am not ever responsible for the consequences of executing this script on your servers.

Read the article

SQL SERVER – Introduction to Extended Events – Finding Long Running Queries

- by pinaldave

The job of an SQL Consultant is very interesting as always. The month before, I was busy doing query optimization and performance tuning projects for our clients, and this month, I am busy delivering my performance in Microsoft SQL Server 2005/2008 Query Optimization and & Performance Tuning Course. I recently read white paper about Extended Event by SQL Server MVP Jonathan Kehayias. You can read the white paper here: Using SQL Server 2008 Extended Events. I also read another appealing chapter by Jonathan in the book, SQLAuthority Book Review – Professional SQL Server 2008 Internals and Troubleshooting. After reading these excellent notes by Jonathan, I decided to upgrade my course and include Extended Event as one of the modules. This week, I have delivered Extended Events session two times and attendees really liked the said course. They really think Extended Events is one of the most powerful tools available. Extended Events can do many things. I suggest that you read the white paper I mentioned to learn more about this tool. Instead of writing a long theory, I am going to write a very quick script for Extended Events. This event session captures all the longest running queries ever since the event session was started. One of the many advantages of the Extended Events is that it can be configured very easily and it is a robust method to collect necessary information in terms of troubleshooting. There are many targets where you can store the information, which include XML file target, which I really like. In the following Events, we are writing the details of the event at two locations: 1) Ringer Buffer; and 2) XML file. It is not necessary to write at both places, either of the two will do. -- Extended Event for finding *long running query* IF EXISTS(SELECT * FROM sys.server_event_sessions WHERE name='LongRunningQuery') DROP EVENT SESSION LongRunningQuery ON SERVER GO -- Create Event CREATE EVENT SESSION LongRunningQuery ON SERVER -- Add event to capture event ADD EVENT sqlserver.sql_statement_completed ( -- Add action - event property ACTION (sqlserver.sql_text, sqlserver.tsql_stack) -- Predicate - time 1000 milisecond WHERE sqlserver.sql_statement_completed.duration > 1000 ) -- Add target for capturing the data - XML File ADD TARGET package0.asynchronous_file_target( SET filename='c:\LongRunningQuery.xet', metadatafile='c:\LongRunningQuery.xem'), -- Add target for capturing the data - Ring Bugger ADD TARGET package0.ring_buffer (SET max_memory = 4096) WITH (max_dispatch_latency = 1 seconds) GO -- Enable Event ALTER EVENT SESSION LongRunningQuery ON SERVER STATE=START GO -- Run long query (longer than 1000 ms) SELECT * FROM AdventureWorks.Sales.SalesOrderDetail ORDER BY UnitPriceDiscount DESC GO -- Stop the event ALTER EVENT SESSION LongRunningQuery ON SERVER STATE=STOP GO -- Read the data from Ring Buffer SELECT CAST(dt.target_data AS XML) AS xmlLockData FROM sys.dm_xe_session_targets dt JOIN sys.dm_xe_sessions ds ON ds.Address = dt.event_session_address JOIN sys.server_event_sessions ss ON ds.Name = ss.Name WHERE dt.target_name = 'ring_buffer' AND ds.Name = 'LongRunningQuery' GO -- Read the data from XML File SELECT event_data_XML.value('(event/data[1])[1]','VARCHAR(100)') AS Database_ID, event_data_XML.value('(event/data[2])[1]','INT') AS OBJECT_ID, event_data_XML.value('(event/data[3])[1]','INT') AS object_type, event_data_XML.value('(event/data[4])[1]','INT') AS cpu, event_data_XML.value('(event/data[5])[1]','INT') AS duration, event_data_XML.value('(event/data[6])[1]','INT') AS reads, event_data_XML.value('(event/data[7])[1]','INT') AS writes, event_data_XML.value('(event/action[1])[1]','VARCHAR(512)') AS sql_text, event_data_XML.value('(event/action[2])[1]','VARCHAR(512)') AS tsql_stack, CAST(event_data_XML.value('(event/action[2])[1]','VARCHAR(512)') AS XML).value('(frame/@handle)[1]','VARCHAR(50)') AS handle FROM ( SELECT CAST(event_data AS XML) event_data_XML, * FROM sys.fn_xe_file_target_read_file ('c:\LongRunningQuery*.xet', 'c:\LongRunningQuery*.xem', NULL, NULL)) T GO -- Clean up. Drop the event DROP EVENT SESSION LongRunningQuery ON SERVER GO Just run the above query, afterwards you will find following result set. This result set contains the query that was running over 1000 ms. In our example, I used the XML file, and it does not reset when SQL services or computers restarts (if you are using DMV, it will reset when SQL services restarts). This event session can be very helpful for troubleshooting. Let me know if you want me to write more about Extended Events. I am totally fascinated with this feature, so I’m planning to acquire more knowledge about it so I can determine its other usages. Reference : Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: Pinal Dave, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Optimization, SQL Performance, SQL Query, SQL Scripts, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQL Training, SQLServer, T SQL, Technology Tagged: SQL Extended Events

Search Results

Search found 898 results on 36 pages for 'jonathan nicol'.

Page 9/36 | < Previous Page | 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 | Next Page >

- by Jonathan Dickinson

- by Jonathan Cave

- by Jonathan

- by Jonathan Allen

- by Jonathan

- by Jonathan

- by Jonathan Sibley

- by Jonathan Chan

- by Jonathan

- by Jonathan

- by Jonathan Kehayias

- by Jonathan Hobbs

- by Jonathan

- by Jonathan Mills

- by Jonathan Rich

- by Jonathan Drain

- by Jonathan

- by Jonathan

- by Jonathan Jones

- by Jonathan Kehayias

- by Jonathan

- by Jonathan

- by Jonathan Chan

- by Fatherjack

- by pinaldave

< Previous Page | 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 | Next Page >