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• Asterisk SIP digest authentication username mismatch

  - by Matt

  I have an asterisk system that I'm attempting to get to work as a backup for our 3com system. We already use it for a conference bridge. Our phones are the 3com 3C10402B, so I don't have the issue of older 3com phones that come without a SIP image. The 3com phones are communicating SIP with the Asterisk, but are unable to register because they present a digest username value that doesn't match what Asterisk thinks it should. As an example, here are the relevant lines from a successful registration from a soft phone: Server sends: WWW-Authenticate: Digest algorithm=MD5, realm="asterisk", nonce="1cac3853" Phone responds: Authorization: Digest username="2321", realm="asterisk", nonce="1cac3853", uri="sip:192.168.254.12", algorithm=md5, response="d32df9ec719817282460e7c2625b6120" For the 3com phone, those same lines look like this (and fails): Server sends: WWW-Authenticate: Digest algorithm=MD5, realm="asterisk", nonce="6c915c33" Phone responds: Authorization: Digest username="sip:[email protected]", realm="asterisk", nonce="6c915c33", uri="sip:192.168.254.12", opaque="", algorithm=MD5, response="a89df25f19e4b4598595f919dac9db81" Basically, Asterisk wants to see a username in the Digest username field of 2321, but the 3com phone is sending sip:[email protected]. Anyone know how to tell asterisk to accept this format of username in the digest authentication? Here is the sip.conf info for that extension: [2321] deny=0.0.0.0/0.0.0.0 disallow=all type=friend secret=1234 qualify=yes port=5060 permit=0.0.0.0/0.0.0.0 nat=yes mailbox=2321@device host=dynamic dtmfmode=rfc2833 dial=SIP/2321 context=from-internal canreinvite=no callerid=device <2321 allow=ulaw, alaw call-limit=50 ... and for those interested in the grit, here is the debug output of the registration attempt: REGISTER sip:192.168.254.12 SIP/2.0 v: SIP/2.0/UDP 192.168.254.157:5060 t: f: i: fa4451d8-01d6-1cc2-13e4-00e0bb33beb9 CSeq: 18580 REGISTER Max-Forwards: 70 m: ;dt=544 Expires: 3600 User-Agent: 3Com-SIP-Phone/V8.0.1.3 X-3Com-PhoneInfo: firstRegistration=no; primaryCallP=192.168.254.12; secondaryCallP=0.0.0.0; --- (11 headers 0 lines) --- Using latest REGISTER request as basis request Sending to 192.168.254.157 : 5060 (no NAT) SIP/2.0 100 Trying Via: SIP/2.0/UDP 192.168.254.157:5060;received=192.168.254.157 From: To: Call-ID: fa4451d8-01d6-1cc2-13e4-00e0bb33beb9 CSeq: 18580 REGISTER User-Agent: Asterisk PBX Allow: INVITE, ACK, CANCEL, OPTIONS, BYE, REFER, SUBSCRIBE, NOTIFY Supported: replaces Contact: Content-Length: 0 SIP/2.0 401 Unauthorized Via: SIP/2.0/UDP 192.168.254.157:5060;received=192.168.254.157 From: To: ;tag=as3fb867e2 Call-ID: fa4451d8-01d6-1cc2-13e4-00e0bb33beb9 CSeq: 18580 REGISTER User-Agent: Asterisk PBX Allow: INVITE, ACK, CANCEL, OPTIONS, BYE, REFER, SUBSCRIBE, NOTIFY Supported: replaces WWW-Authenticate: Digest algorithm=MD5, realm="asterisk", nonce="6c915c33" Content-Length: 0 Scheduling destruction of SIP dialog 'fa4451d8-01d6-1cc2-13e4-00e0bb33beb9' in 32000 ms (Method: REGISTER) confbridge*CLI REGISTER sip:192.168.254.12 SIP/2.0 v: SIP/2.0/UDP 192.168.254.157:5060 t: f: i: fa4451d8-01d6-1cc2-13e4-00e0bb33beb9 CSeq: 18581 REGISTER Max-Forwards: 70 m: ;dt=544 Expires: 3600 User-Agent: 3Com-SIP-Phone/V8.0.1.3 Authorization: Digest username="sip:[email protected]", realm="asterisk", nonce="6c915c33", uri="sip:192.168.254.12", opaque="", algorithm=MD5, response="a89df25f19e4b4598595f919dac9db81" X-3Com-PhoneInfo: firstRegistration=no; primaryCallP=192.168.254.12; secondaryCallP=0.0.0.0; --- (12 headers 0 lines) --- Using latest REGISTER request as basis request Sending to 192.168.254.157 : 5060 (NAT) SIP/2.0 100 Trying Via: SIP/2.0/UDP 192.168.254.157:5060;received=192.168.254.157 From: To: Call-ID: fa4451d8-01d6-1cc2-13e4-00e0bb33beb9 CSeq: 18581 REGISTER User-Agent: Asterisk PBX Allow: INVITE, ACK, CANCEL, OPTIONS, BYE, REFER, SUBSCRIBE, NOTIFY Supported: replaces Contact: Content-Length: 0 SIP/2.0 403 Authentication user name does not match account name Via: SIP/2.0/UDP 192.168.254.157:5060;received=192.168.254.157 From: To: ;tag=as3fb867e2 Call-ID: fa4451d8-01d6-1cc2-13e4-00e0bb33beb9 CSeq: 18581 REGISTER User-Agent: Asterisk PBX Allow: INVITE, ACK, CANCEL, OPTIONS, BYE, REFER, SUBSCRIBE, NOTIFY Supported: replaces Content-Length: 0 Scheduling destruction of SIP dialog 'fa4451d8-01d6-1cc2-13e4-00e0bb33beb9' in 32000 ms (Method: REGISTER) Thanks for your input!

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• I want to change DPI with Imagemagick without changing the actual byte-size of the image data

  - by user1694803

  I feel so horribly sorry that I have to ask this question here, but after hours of researching how to do an actually very simple task I'm still failing... In Gimp there is a very simple way to do what I want. I only have the German dialog installed but I'll try to translate it. I'm talking about going to "Picture-PrintingSize" and then adjusting the Values "X-Resolution" and "Y-Resolution" which are known to me as so called DPI values. You can also choose the format which by default is "Pixel/Inch". (In German the dialog is "Bild-Druckgröße" and there "X-Auflösung" and "Y-Auflösung") Ok, the values there are often "72" by default. When I change them to e.g. "300" this has the effect that the image stays the same on the computer, but if I print it, it will be smaller if you look at it, but all the details are still there, just smaller - it has a higher resolution on the printed paper (but smaller size... which is fine for me). I am often doing that when I am working with LaTeX, or to be exact with the command "pdflatex" on a recent Ubuntu-Machine. When I'm doing the above process with Gimp manually everything works just fine. The images will appear smaller in the resulting PDF but with high printing quality. What I am trying to do is to automate the process of going into Gimp and adjusting the DPI values. Since Imagemagick is known to be superb and I used it for many other tasks I tried to achieve my goal with this tool. But it does just not do what I want. After trying a lot of things I think this actually is be the command that should be my friend: convert input.png -density 300 output.png This should set the DPI to 300, as I can read everywhere in the web. It seems to work. When I check the file it stays the same. file input.png output.png input.png: PNG image data, 611 x 453, 8-bit grayscale, non-interlaced output.png: PNG image data, 611 x 453, 8-bit grayscale, non-interlaced When I use this command, it seems like it did what I wanted: identify -verbose output.png | grep 300 Resolution: 300x300 PNG:pHYs : x_res=300, y_res=300, units=0 (Funny enough, the same output comes for input.png which confuses me... so this might be the wrong parameters to watch?) But when I now render my TeX with "pdflatex" the image is still big and blurry. Also when I open the image with Gimp again the DPI values are set to "72" instead of "300". So there actually was no effect at all. Now what is the problem here. Am I getting something completely wrong? I can't be that wrong since everything works just fine with Gimp... Thanks for any help in this. I am also open to other automated solutions which are easily done on a Linux system...

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• Google Apps e-mail being rejected from some domains

  - by Paul J. Lucas

  I'm migrating e-mail for my domains to Google Apps' e-mail. Most everything seems to work except e-mail sent to any user at (at least) sonic.net is rejected with a message of the form (where any-address has been substituted for my friend's address): From: Mail Delivery Subsystem <[email protected]> Date: March 11, 2010 10:04:48 AM PST To: [email protected] Subject: Delivery Status Notification (Failure) Delivered-To: [email protected] Received: by 10.229.194.26 with SMTP id dw26cs8717qcb; Thu, 11 Mar 2010 10:04:48 -0800 (PST) Received: by 10.223.68.143 with SMTP id v15mr3841599fai.62.1268330688325; Thu, 11 Mar 2010 10:04:48 -0800 (PST) Received: by 10.223.68.143 with SMTP id v15mr5119424fai.62; Thu, 11 Mar 2010 10:04:48 -0800 (PST) Mime-Version: 1.0 Return-Path: <> X-Failed-Recipients: [email protected] Message-Id: <[email protected]> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Delivery to the following recipient failed permanently: [email protected] Technical details of permanent failure: Google tried to deliver your message, but it was rejected by the recipient domain. We recommend contacting the other email provider for further information about the cause of this error. The error that the other server returned was: 550 550 5.1.1 <[email protected]>... No such user here (state 13). And here are the headers from the message it bounces back: Received: by 10.101.90.7 with SMTP id s7mr2515885anl.176.1267979929490; Sun, 07 Mar 2010 08:38:49 -0800 (PST) Return-Path: <[email protected]> Received: from [10.0.1.203] (adsl-76-201-171-194.dsl.pltn13.sbcglobal.net [76.201.171.194]) by mx.google.com with ESMTPS id 4sm1046550yxd.70.2010.03.07.08.38.48 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=RC4-MD5); Sun, 07 Mar 2010 08:38:49 -0800 (PST) From: "Paul J. Lucas" <[email protected]> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Subject: Some fascinating subject Date: Sun, 7 Mar 2010 08:38:46 -0800 References: <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Message-Id: <[email protected]> Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v1077) X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.1077) However, I am able to send mail to a user at sonic.net using my old e-mail account. Also, my company uses Google Apps for e-mail and I can send e-mail to a user at sonic.net from my company. The differences between my personal e-mail and my company's are: My company's domain has no SPF record whereas mine does. My company's domain has an A record whereas mine does not. My SPF record initially was as prescribed by Google here. However, this guy claims Google is wrong and gives a fix. I've tried it both ways with no difference. My SPF record is currently: v=spf1 mx include:aspmx.googlemail.com include:_spf.google.com ~all As for the lack of an A record, you wouldn't think that a mail host would care about that so long as mx records are defined. However, the funny thing is that if you look at the error message, why does Google state that the recipient's domain stated that there is "No such user here" for my address? That makes no sense. Of course there is no user having my address at sonic.net. Also, I assume that I just discovered that I can't send mail to users at sonic.net by accident and that there are probably other domains I can't send e-mail to. So... anybody have any idea what's going on? And how I can get mail to users at sonic.net?

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• Samba4 [homes] share

  - by SambaDrivesMeCrazy

  I am having issues with the [homes] share. OS is Ubuntu 12.04. I've installed samba 4.0.3, bind9 dlz, ntp, winbind, everything but pam modules, and did all the tests from https://wiki.samba.org/index.php/Samba_AD_DC_HOWTO. Running getent passwd and getent user work just fine. Creating a simple share works just fine too. I can manage the users, GPOs, and DNS from the windows mmc snap-ins. I can join winxp,7,8 to the domain and log on perfectly. I can change my passwords from windows, etc..etc.. I could say that everything is fine and be happy :) buuuut, no, home directories do not work. Searching in here, and on our good friend google I gathered that a simple [homes] read only = no path = /storage-server/users/ and mapping the user's home folder in dsa.msc to \\server-001\username or \\server-001\homes should get me a home share I could map for my user homedir. But the snap-in give me an error saying that it cannot create the home folder because the network name has not been found (rough translation from portuguese). also, running root@server-001:/storage-server/users# smbclient //server-001/test -Utest%'12345678' -c 'ls' Domain=[MYDOMAIN] OS=[Unix] Server=[Samba 4.0.3] tree connect failed: NT_STATUS_BAD_NETWORK_NAME Server name is alright, if I go for a simple share on the same server it opens just fine. If I map the user homedir to this simple share it works. What I want is that I dont have to go and manually make a new folder on linux everytime I create a new user on windows. It looks like permissions but I cant find any documentation on this (yes I've tried the manpages, but its hard to tell with so many options on man smb.conf alone). My smb.conf right now looks like this (pretty simple I know) # Global parameters [global] workgroup = MYDOMAIN realm = MYDOMAIN.LAN netbios name = SERVER-001 server role = active directory domain controller server services = s3fs, rpc, nbt, wrepl, ldap, cldap, kdc, drepl, winbind, ntp_signd, kcc, dnsupdate [netlogon] path = /usr/local/samba/var/locks/sysvol/mydomain.lan/scripts read only = No [sysvol] path = /usr/local/samba/var/locks/sysvol read only = No [homes] read only = no path = /storage-server/users Folder permissions /storage-server drwxr-xr-x 6 root root 4096 Fev 15 15:17 storage-server /storage-server/users drwxrwxrwx 6 root root 4096 Fev 18 17:05 users/ Yes, I was desperate enough to set 777 on the users folder... not proud of it. Any pointers in the right direction would be very welcome. Edited to include: root@server-001:/# wbinfo --user-info=test MYDOMAIN\test:*:3000045:100:test:/home/MYDOMAIN/test:/bin/false root@server-001:/# wbinfo -n test S-1-5-21-1957592451-3401938807-633234758-1128 SID_USER (1) root@server-001:/# id test uid=3000045(MYDOMAIN\test) gid=100(users) grupos=100(users) root@server-001:/# wbinfo -U 3000045 S-1-5-21-1957592451-3401938807-633234758-1128 root@server-001:/# Edit 2: getent passwd | grep test MYDOMAIN\test:*:3000045:100:test:/home/MYDOMAIN/test:/bin/false I have no idea how to change that home folder to /storage-server/users/test so I just went and ln -s /storage-server/users /home/MYDOMAIN just in case. still, no changes, same errors. Edit 3 On log.smbd I get the following error when trying to set the test user home folder to \server-001\test [2013/02/20 14:22:08.446658, 2] ../source3/smbd/service.c:418(create_connection_session_info) user 'MYDOMAIN\Administrator' (from session setup) not permitted to access this share (test)

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• Mac OS X 10.8 VPN Server: Bypass VPN for LAN traffic (routing LAN traffic to secondary connection)

  - by Dan Robson

  I have somewhat of an odd setup for a VPN server with OS X Mountain Lion. It's essentially being used as a bridge to bypass my company's firewall to our extranet connection - certain things our team needs to do require unfettered access to the outside, and changing IT policies to allow traffic through the main firewall is just not an option. The extranet connection is provided through a Wireless-N router (let's call it Wi-Fi X). My Mac Mini server is configured with the connection to this router as the primary connection, thus unfettered access to the internet via the router. Connections to this device on the immediate subnet are possible through the LAN port, but outside the subnet things are less reliable. I was able to configure the VPN server to provide IP addresses to clients in the 192.168.11.150-192.168.11.200 range using both PPTP and L2TP, and I'm able to connect to the extranet through the VPN using the standard Mac OS X VPN client in System Preferences, however unsurprisingly, a local address (let's call it internal.company.com) returns nothing. I tried to bypass the limitation of the VPN Server by setting up Routes in the VPN settings. Our company uses 13.x.x.x for all internal traffic, instead of 10.x.x.x, so the routing table looked something like this: IP Address ---------- Subnet Mask ---------- Configuration 0.0.0.0 248.0.0.0 Private 8.0.0.0 252.0.0.0 Private 12.0.0.0 255.0.0.0 Private 13.0.0.0 255.0.0.0 Public 14.0.0.0 254.0.0.0 Private 16.0.0.0 240.0.0.0 Private 32.0.0.0 224.0.0.0 Private 64.0.0.0 192.0.0.0 Private 128.0.0.0 128.0.0.0 Private I was under the impression that if nothing was entered here, all traffic was routed through the VPN. With something entered, only traffic specifically marked to go through the VPN would go through the VPN, and all other traffic would be up to the client to access using its own default connection. This is why I had to specifically mark every subnet except 13.x.x.x as Private. My suspicion is that since I can't reach the VPN server from outside the local subnet, it's not making a connection to the main DNS server and thus can't be reached on the larger network. I'm thinking that entering hostnames like internal.company.com aren't kicked back to the client to resolve, because the server has no idea that the IP address falls in the public range, since I suspect (probably should ping test it but don't have access to it right now) that it can't reach the DNS server to find out anything about that hostname. It seems to me that all my options for resolving this all boil down to the same type of solution: Figure out how to reach the DNS with the secondary connection on the server. I'm thinking that if I'm able to do [something] to get my server to recognize that it should also check my local gateway (let's say Server IP == 13.100.100.50 and Gateway IP == 13.100.100.1). From there Gateway IP can tell me to go find DNS Server at 13.1.1.1 and give me information about my internal network. I'm very confused about this path -- really not sure if I'm even making sense. I thought about trying to do this client side, but that doesn't make sense either, since that would add time to each and every client side setup. Plus, it just seems more logical to solve it on the server - I could either get rid of my routing table altogether or keep it - I think the only difference would be that internal traffic would also go through the server - probably an unnecessary burden on it. Any help out there? Or am I in over my head? Forward proxy or transparent proxy is also an option for me, although I have no idea how to set either of those up. (I know, Google is my friend.)

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• Tuning performance of Ubuntu 10.04 on Compaq Evo W4000.

  - by Fantomas

  Hi, I got this computer free and installed Ubuntu 10.04 on it + updates, plus followed the following tutorial all the way: http://www.unixmen.com/linux-tutorials/937-things-to-do-after-installing-ubuntu-1004-lts-lucid-lynx I love the Docky which comes with it, but the computer has been running rather slowly. The System: kernel 2.6.32-22-generic Gnome 2.30.0 (I like Gnome!) Memory: 1GB Processor: Intel (R) Pentium (R) 4 CPU 1700 MHz (needless to say, it is 32 bit). I think I dedicated 128 Mb to video memory while installing, but cannot find this setting now. I did also install an NVidia driver for the 3D card, so I probably want to reclaim that memory back. I want to trim the fat but I also want to keep some of the sex appeal of Ubuntu 10.04. I will gift this computer to a friend, who will use it for Internet, music, videos, word processing, Skype and instant messaging - he is non-technical, so this hardware and Linux should work for him; I just need to speed it up while keeping the good software and having a nice UI. I sort of know my way around Linux, but not that well. Feel free to ask me to run particular commands if you want more info. For starters, here are the services below. Which ones can I kill and how? What else can go? There is no need to run ssh or ftp or http or ntp servers. As I said before, this computer is for non-technical person. There is also absolutely no bluetooth or wireless networking needed - it will feed off a regular ethernet cable. What I do not want to do is reinstall some other distro or recompile a kernel. I want to make it 80% perfect spending 20% of the energy :) Thanks! $ service --status-all [ ? ] acpi-support [ ? ] acpid [ ? ] alsa-mixer-save [ ? ] anacron [ - ] apparmor [ ? ] apport [ ? ] atd [ ? ] avahi-daemon [ ? ] binfmt-support [ - ] bluetooth [ - ] bootlogd [ - ] brltty [ ? ] console-setup [ ? ] cron [ + ] cups [ ? ] dbus [ ? ] dmesg [ ? ] dns-clean [ ? ] failsafe-x [ - ] fancontrol [ ? ] gdm [ - ] grub-common [ ? ] hostname [ ? ] hwclock [ ? ] hwclock-save [ ? ] irqbalance [ - ] kerneloops [ ? ] killprocs [ - ] lm-sensors [ ? ] module-init-tools [ ? ] network-interface [ ? ] network-interface-security [ ? ] network-manager [ ? ] networking [ ? ] ondemand [ ? ] pcmciautils [ ? ] plymouth [ ? ] plymouth-log [ ? ] plymouth-splash [ ? ] plymouth-stop [ ? ] pppd-dns [ ? ] procps [ + ] pulseaudio [ ? ] rc.local [ - ] rsync [ ? ] rsyslog [ - ] saned [ ? ] screen-cleanup [ ? ] sendsigs [ ? ] speech-dispatcher [ ? ] stop-bootlogd [ ? ] stop-bootlogd-single [ ? ] udev [ ? ] udev-finish [ ? ] udevmonitor [ ? ] udevtrigger [ ? ] ufw [ ? ] umountfs [ ? ] umountnfs.sh [ ? ] umountroot [ ? ] unattended-upgrades [ - ] urandom [ + ] winbind [ ? ] wpa-ifupdown [ - ] x11-common

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• what is the best mid/high-end class audio/music creation audio sound card?

  - by Chris

  Hello, I have a computershop myself, and I repair computers. But one of the things I really don't know (yet) is the performace od audio cards for music creation with midi. I have searched and searched and came up with some good reviews, but after browsing for a couple of hours I could't see the trees trough the forrest :-D (it's a dutch expression) At one moment I thought the M-Audio - Delta 1010LT would be a good PCIe card, later on I read that this card was released years ago. (but that could be false information) Also any personal expierence would be great, but not necessairy. I have searched a few cards, and I hope someone can help me make a choice for a friend of mine. He's buget is between $100 and $350 I know there are audio cards from $ 500 - $1850,- this is just too expensive. The following specs are crucial: ASIO Midi Mic in minimal 5.1, 7.1 recommended it's not for airplay, but just to compose music at home. using Ableton and midi keyboard. 1. M-Audio - Delta 1010LT: 8 x 8 analog I/O 2 mic preamps or line inputs S/PDIF digital I/O (coaxial) with 2-channel PCM SCMS copy protection control digital I/O supports surround-encoded AC-3 and DTS pass-through 1 x 1 MIDI I/O directly drive up to 7.1 surround (bass management software included) software controlled 36-bit internal DSP digital mixing/routing +4dbu/-10dBV operation individually switched in software word clock I/O for sample accurate device synchronization 2. RME HDSP 9632: * Stereo Analog Ein- und Ausgang, symmetrisch*, 24-Bit/192kHz, > 110 dB SNR * Optionale Erweiterungsboards mit je 4 symmetrischen Ein- und Ausgängen * Alle analogen I/Os voll 192 kHz-fähig, also keine Reduzierung der Kanalzahl * 1 x ADAT Digital In/Out, 96 kHz-fähig (S/MUX) * 1 x SPDIF Digital In/Out, 192 kHz-fähig * 1 x Breakout Kabel für koaxialen SPDIF-Betrieb* * Also bis zu 16 Ein-und Ausgänge gleichzeitig nutzbar! * 1 x Stereo Kopfhörerausgang, parallel zum analogen Ausgang, aber eigene Pegelanpassung * 1 x MIDI I/O für 16 Kanäle Hi-Speed MIDI über Breakout Kabel * DIGICheck, RMEs einzigartiges Meter- und Analysetool mit Spectral Analyser, Professionelle Level Meter 2/8/16-Kanalig, Vector Audio Scope und diversen weiteren Analysefunktionen * HDSP Meter Bridge: Frei skalierbare Levelmeter mit Peak- und RMS Berechnung in Hardware * TotalMix: 512-Kanal Mischer mit 40 Bit interner Auflösung 3. EMU 1212M (1212 M) PCIe: * Top kwaliteit convertors 24-bit/192kHz convertors. * Hardware gestuurde effecten. * DSP zero-latency hardware mixen en monitoring. * Analoge en digitale I/O plus MIDI. * EMU Production Tools Software Bundle - Cakewalk SONAR , Steinberg Cubase LE, Ableton Live E-MU Edition **EMU 1212M PCI-e inputs/outputs:** * 2 balanced jack inputs. * 2 balanced jack outputs. * 24-bit/192kHz ADAT I/O. * 24-bit/192kHz Coaxiale S/PDif I/O switchable to AES/EBU. * MIDI I/O. 4. M-Audio Audiophile 192: - Up to 24-bit/192kHz audio - 2 balanced analog inputs (1/4” TRS) - 2 balanced analog outputs (1/4” TRS) - S/PDIF digital I/O (coaxial RCA connectors) with 2-channel PCM - SCMS copy protection control - Digital I/O supports surround-encoded AC-3 and DTS pass-through - Direct hardware input monitoring via separate balanced 1/4” TRS monitor outputs - Software routing of inputs and outputs - Digital I/O can be routed to/from external effects - 16-channel MIDI I/O - ASIO, WDM, GSIF 2 and Core Audio driver support for compatibility with most applications - 64-bit driver support for Windows - PCI 2.2 compatibility - Apple G5 compatible - Incompatible exceptions - Includes Ableton Live Lite music production software, so you can make music right away - Works with other Delta cards Technical Specifcations: - Compatibility - ASIO - WDM - GSIF 2 - Core Audio

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• How to stop Apache from crashing my entire server?

  - by CyberShadow

  I maintain a Gentoo server with a few services, including Apache. It's fairly low-end (2GB of RAM and a low-end CPU with 2 cores). My problem is that, despite my best efforts, an over-loaded Apache crashes the entire server. In fact, at this point I'm close to being convinced that Linux is a horrible operating system that isn't worth anyone's time looking for stability under load. Things I tried: Adjusting oom_adj for the root Apache process (and thus all its children). That had close to no effect. When Apache was overloaded it would bring the system to a grind, as the system paged out everything else before it got to kill anything. Turning off swap. Didn't help, it would unload memory paged to binaries of processes and other files on /, thus causing the same effect. Putting it in a memory-limited cgroup (limited to 512 MB of RAM, 1/4th of the total). This "worked", at least in my own stress tests - except the server keeps crashing under load (basically stalling all other processes, inaccessible via SSH, etc.) Running it with idle I/O priority. This wasn't a very good idea in the end, because it just caused the system load to climb indefinitely (into the thousands) with almost no visible effect - until you tried to access an unbuffered part of the disk. This caused the task to freeze. (So much for good I/O scheduling, eh?) Limiting the number of concurrent connections to Apache. Setting the number too low caused web sites to become unresponsive due to most slots being occupied with long requests (file downloads). I tried various Apache MPMs without much success (prefork, event, itk). Switching from prefork/event+php-cgi+suphp to itk+mod_php. This improved performance, but didn't solve the actual problem. Switching I/O schedulers (cfq to deadline). Just to stress this out: I don't care if Apache itself goes down under load, I just want the rest of my system to remain stable. Of course, having Apache recover quickly after a brief period of intensive load would be great to have, but one step at a time. Right now I am mostly dumbfounded by how can humanity, in this day and age, design an operating system where such a seemingly simple task (don't allow one system component to crash the entire system) seems practically impossible - or at least, very hard to do. Please don't suggest things like VMs or "BUY MORE RAM". Some more information gathered with a friend's help: The processes hang when the cgroup oom killer is invoked. Here's the call trace: [<ffffffff8104b94b>] ? prepare_to_wait+0x70/0x7b [<ffffffff810a9c73>] mem_cgroup_handle_oom+0xdf/0x180 [<ffffffff810a9559>] ? memcg_oom_wake_function+0x0/0x6d [<ffffffff810aa041>] __mem_cgroup_try_charge+0x32d/0x478 [<ffffffff810aac67>] mem_cgroup_charge_common+0x48/0x73 [<ffffffff81081c98>] ? __lru_cache_add+0x60/0x62 [<ffffffff810aadc3>] mem_cgroup_newpage_charge+0x3b/0x4a [<ffffffff8108ec38>] handle_mm_fault+0x305/0x8cf [<ffffffff813c6276>] ? schedule+0x6ae/0x6fb [<ffffffff8101f568>] do_page_fault+0x214/0x22b [<ffffffff813c7e1f>] page_fault+0x1f/0x30 At this point, the apache memory cgroup is practically deadlocked, and burning CPU in syscalls (all with the above call trace). This seems like a problem in the cgroup implementation...

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• PC runs very slowly for no apparent reason

  - by GalacticCowboy

  I have a Dell Latitude D820 that I've owned for about 2.5 years. It is a Core 2 Duo T7200 2.0GHz, with 2 GB of RAM, an 80 GB hard drive and an NVidia Quadro 120M video card. The computer was purchased in late November of 2006 with XP Pro, and included a free upgrade to Vista Business. (Vista was available on MSDN but not yet via retail, so the Vista Business upgrades weren't shipped until March of '07.) Since we had an MSDN subscription at the time, I installed Vista Ultimate on it pretty much as soon as I got it. It ran happily until sometime in the spring of 2007 when Media Center (which I had never used except to watch DVDs) started throwing some kind of bizarre SQL (CE?) error. This error would pop up at random times just while using the computer. Furthermore, Media Center would no longer start. I never identified the cause of this error. I had the Vista Business upgrade by this time, so I nuked the machine, installed XP and all the drivers, and then the Vista Business upgrade. Again, it ran happily for a few months and then started behaving badly once again. Vista Business doesn't have Media Center, so this exhibited completely unrelated symptoms. For no apparent reason and at fairly random times, the machine would suddenly appear to freeze up or run very slowly. For example, launching a new application window (any app) might take 30-45 seconds to paint fully. However, Task Manager showed very low CPU load, memory, etc. I tried all the normal stuff (chkdsk, defrag, etc.) and ran several diagnostic programs to try to identify any problems, but none found anything. It eventually reached the point that the computer was all but unusable, so I nuked it again and installed XP. This time I decided to stick with XP instead of going to Vista. However, within the past couple of months it has started to exhibit the same symptoms in XP that I used to see in Vista. The computer is still under Dell warranty until December, but so far they aren't any help unless I can identify a specific problem. A friend (partner in a now-dead business) has an identical machine that was purchased at the same time. His machine exhibits none of these symptoms, which leads me to believe it is a hardware issue, but I can't figure out how to identify it. Any ideas? Utilities? Seen something similar? At this point I can't even identify any pattern to the behavior, but would be willing to run a "stress test"-style app for as long as a couple days if I had any hope that it would find something. EDIT July 17 I'm testing jerryjvl's answer regarding the video card, though I'm not sure it fully explains the symptoms yet. This morning I ran a video stress test. The test itself ran fine, but immediately afterward the PC started acting up again. I left ProcExp open and various system processes were consuming 50-60% of the CPU but with no apparent reason. For example, "services.exe" was eating about 40%, but the sum of its child processes wasn't higher than about 5%. I left it alone for several minutes to settle down, and then it was fine again. I used the "video card stability test" from firestone-group.com. Its output isn't very detailed, but it at least exercises the hardware pretty hard. EDIT July 22 Thanks for your excellent suggestions. Here is an update on what I have tried so far. Ran memtest86, SeaTools (Seagate), Hitachi drive fitness test, video card stability test (mentioned above). The video card test was the only one that seemed to produce any results, though it didn't occur during the actual test. I defragged the drive (again...) with JkDefrag I dropped the video card

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• Has this server been compromised?

  - by Griffo

  A friend is running a VPS (CentOS) His business partner was the sysadmin but has left him high and dry to look after the system. So, I've been asked to help out in fixing an apparent spam problem. His IP address got blacklisted for unsolicited mail. I'm not sure where to look for a problem, but I started with netstat to see what open connections were running. It looks to me like he has remote hosts connected to his SMTP server. Here's the output: Active Internet connections (w/o servers) Proto Recv-Q Send-Q Local Address Foreign Address State tcp 0 0 78.153.208.195:imap 86-40-60-183-dynamic.:10029 ESTABLISHED tcp 0 0 78.153.208.195:imap 86-40-60-183-dynamic.:10010 ESTABLISHED tcp 0 1 78.153.208.195:35563 news.avanport.pt:smtp SYN_SENT tcp 0 0 78.153.208.195:35559 vip-us-br-mx.terra.com:smtp TIME_WAIT tcp 0 0 78.153.208.195:35560 vip-us-br-mx.terra.com:smtp TIME_WAIT tcp 1 1 78.153.208.195:imaps 86-40-60-183-dynamic.:11647 CLOSING tcp 1 1 78.153.208.195:imaps 86-40-60-183-dynamic.:11645 CLOSING tcp 0 0 78.153.208.195:35562 mx.a.locaweb.com.br:smtp TIME_WAIT tcp 0 0 78.153.208.195:35561 mx.a.locaweb.com.br:smtp TIME_WAIT tcp 0 0 78.153.208.195:imap 86-41-8-64-dynamic.b-:49446 ESTABLISHED Does this indicate that his server may be acting as an open relay? Mail should only be outgoing from localhost. Apologies for my lack of knowledge but I don't work on linux in my day job. EDIT: Here's some output from /var/log/maillog which looks like it may be the result of spam. If it appears to be the case to others, where should I look next to investigate a root cause? I put the server IP through www.checkor.com and it came back clean. Jun 29 00:02:13 vps-1001108-595 qmail: 1309302133.721674 status: local 0/10 remote 9/20 Jun 29 00:02:13 vps-1001108-595 qmail: 1309302133.886182 delivery 74116: deferral: 200.147.36.15_does_not_like_recipient./Remote_host_said:_450_4.7.1_Client_host_rejected:_cannot_find_your_hostname,_[78.153.208.195]/Giving_up_on_200.147.36.15./ Jun 29 00:02:13 vps-1001108-595 qmail: 1309302133.886255 status: local 0/10 remote 8/20 Jun 29 00:02:13 vps-1001108-595 qmail: 1309302133.898266 delivery 74115: deferral: 187.31.0.11_does_not_like_recipient./Remote_host_said:_450_4.7.1_Client_host_rejected:_cannot_find_your_hostname,_[78.153.208.195]/Giving_up_on_187.31.0.11./ Jun 29 00:02:13 vps-1001108-595 qmail: 1309302133.898327 status: local 0/10 remote 7/20 Jun 29 00:02:14 vps-1001108-595 qmail: 1309302134.137833 delivery 74111: deferral: Sorry,_I_wasn't_able_to_establish_an_SMTP_connection._(#4.4.1)/ Jun 29 00:02:14 vps-1001108-595 qmail: 1309302134.137914 status: local 0/10 remote 6/20 Jun 29 00:02:19 vps-1001108-595 qmail: 1309302139.903536 delivery 74000: failure: 209.85.143.27_failed_after_I_sent_the_message./Remote_host_said:_550-5.7.1_[78.153.208.195_______1]_Our_system_has_detected_an_unusual_rate_of/550-5.7.1_unsolicited_mail_originating_from_your_IP_address._To_protect_our/550-5.7.1_users_from_spam,_mail_sent_from_your_IP_address_has_been_blocked./550-5.7.1_Please_visit_http://www.google.com/mail/help/bulk_mail.html_to_review/550_5.7.1_our_Bulk_Email_Senders_Guidelines._e25si1385223wes.137/ Jun 29 00:02:19 vps-1001108-595 qmail: 1309302139.903606 status: local 0/10 remote 5/20 Jun 29 00:02:19 vps-1001108-595 qmail-queue-handlers[15501]: Handlers Filter before-queue for qmail started ... EDIT #2 Here's the output of netstat -p with the imap and imaps lines removed. I also removed my own ssh session Active Internet connections (w/o servers) Proto Recv-Q Send-Q Local Address Foreign Address State PID/Program name tcp 0 1 78.153.208.195:40076 any-in-2015.1e100.net:smtp SYN_SENT 24096/qmail-remote. tcp 0 1 78.153.208.195:40077 any-in-2015.1e100.net:smtp SYN_SENT 24097/qmail-remote. udp 0 0 78.153.208.195:48515 125.64.11.158:4225 ESTABLISHED 20435/httpd

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• Windows Media Player won't launch on Vista - how to repair or reinstall it?

  - by rpm1200

  My friend asked me to look at her Acer Aspire laptop with Vista Home Premium as it is no longer playing DVDs. I found that Windows Media Player would not launch. I found this thread, which contained a number of suggestions, none of which solved the problem. Here is what I tried: Tried running WMP via desktop shortcut, QuickLaunch bar or going to Program Files\Windows Media Player\wmplayer.exe. In all cases, wmplayer would launch then terminate immediately (verified through the Processes tab in Task Manager). Tried running wmplayer.exe as Administrator. The UAC dialog would come up, I'd approve, then wmplayer would launch and terminate immediately. Uninstalled all non-Microsoft media programs except RealPlayer, iTunes, QuickTime, Acer Arcade (the laptop owner uses all those apps). Tried running Program Files\Windows Media Player\setup_wm.exe as Administrator, it launched but said that a newer version of WMP was already installed. Deleted the "Windows Media" folder located under %userprofile%\appdata\local\Microsoft then tried starting WMP - wmplayer would launch and terminate immediately. Register wmp.dll by typing "regsvr32 wmp.dll" in an Administrator cmd window then tried starting WMP - wmplayer would launch and terminate immediately. Run "SFC /SCANFILE" in an Administrator cmd window - get an error message that it found invalid system files and could not fix them, so look at the log file cbs.log. The log file shows that there are broken files associated with Windows Sidebar (which the user does not use) but none relating to WMP. Log off to safe mode and run "SFC /SCANFILE" in an Administrator cmd window again - same results. Try to download and install XP WMP - the microsoft.com site recognizes the OS as Genuine and allows the download, but when I launch the installer it says the system is not Genuine. Clicking the link directs me back to IE where I can authenticate the system as Genuine. The installer still fails to recognize the system as Genuine. It is a Genuine Vista installation. Try to run this update (KB931621). The installer said it did not apply to the system. Set Windows Media Player as default in Program Access and Defaults. Same results. Tried running "for %a in (%systemroot%\system32\wm*.dll) do regsvr32 /s %a" in an Administrator cmd window - same results. Went to this Knowledge Base article (947541) and ran the Microsoft Fix It. The Fix It ran successfully, but WMP would still launch and terminate immediately. Multiple reboots in the process of doing all of these steps. After all this, looked in the Application and Security logs. No events pertaining to WMP were logged. The computer was preinstalled with Vista Home Premium and I have the Acer backup DVDs which will reimage the drive. I do not have Vista install DVDs. Reimaging the system is not an option. I'd also rather not restore the system to an earlier point unless it's absolutely necessary. What else can I do to repair or reinstall WMP?

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• Hosed Windows 7 permissons

  - by Anthony

  Here is the most interesting thing I've noticed since the problems started: If I go into a control panel/system module (in this case the Resource Monitor) that has a "Check Online" type option, Firefox (my default browser) opens right up without a problem. But if I just start Firefox from any shortcuts (start menu, desktop, etc), the Firefox process starts up (and the start menu icon starts glowing) only to end without notice a few seconds later. Possibly related: If I start up in Safe-Mode (w/o Networking, but haven't tried with yet), I can start up FF or Chrome just fine, but if I attempt to open Chrome normally, I get a permissions error. Opera and Safari seem to be okay (mostly). Safari crashes when I try to download any files. All of the above leads me to believe that some (but clearly not all) core files have messed up permissions. Or rather, that I no longer have permission. System still does, based on Firefox opening without fail when the system initiates it. I've run MS Forefront once in normal mode, Malwarebytes twice in normal mode and once in safe-mode. One trojan found and deleted, but the problem persists. Two other things worth mentioning: I accidentally duplicated my library... I thought I'd try to add the "Internet" folder to my start menu, next to music and downloads. The first advanced thing I tried was "create new library". I clearly misunderstood what this means. I thought it was a way to add virtual folders to the library (which I thought, in turn, would allow me to choose it as a link on the start menu), but instead it recreated my already existing user folder, AppData and all. I didn't notice this until today. Then I tried setting permissions for my User folder to full control, recursively... Confused but not giving up,I thought I could maybe create a shortcut to the NetHood folder manually, but instead got hit with an access denied error. So I tried to change the permission levels for all sub-folders to my user folder so that I had full control. I got several access denied errors along the way. At this point I gave up, went out, ended up caught in the rain and stuck on a friend's couch and showing up late for work the next day. Thanks for nothing, Microsoft. When I finally got home today (20 hours later), I noticed that Firefox was acting really strange. I tried opening Chrome to see if the problem was client side or server side, and instead got the above-mentioned "you don't have permission to open this program" alert. And I think that's the whole story. Oh, I also did a system restore, but not chose a point from this morning (an auto update), and it worked but the problem wasn't fixed. And then all the earlier restore points were gone. So the questions are: a) is there a way to set the admin and user privs back to "default"? b) would this, in anyone's expert opinion, fix the problems I'm having? c) how come being logged in as an admin isn't the same as being logged in with admin privs? It seems that half the time I have to do run as admin for fairy standard things because i'm being treated as me-theuser and not me-theadmin. Thanks for reading.

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• Windows Media Player won't launch on Vista - how to repair or reinstall it?

  - by rpm1200

  My friend asked me to look at her Acer Aspire laptop with Vista Home Premium as it is no longer playing DVDs. I found that Windows Media Player would not launch. I found this thread, which contained a number of suggestions, none of which solved the problem. Here is what I tried: Tried running WMP via desktop shortcut, QuickLaunch bar or going to Program Files\Windows Media Player\wmplayer.exe. In all cases, wmplayer would launch then terminate immediately (verified through the Processes tab in Task Manager). Tried running wmplayer.exe as Administrator. The UAC dialog would come up, I'd approve, then wmplayer would launch and terminate immediately. Uninstalled all non-Microsoft media programs except RealPlayer, iTunes, QuickTime, Acer Arcade (the laptop owner uses all those apps). Tried running Program Files\Windows Media Player\setup_wm.exe as Administrator, it launched but said that a newer version of WMP was already installed. Deleted the "Windows Media" folder located under %userprofile%\appdata\local\Microsoft then tried starting WMP - wmplayer would launch and terminate immediately. Register wmp.dll by typing "regsvr32 wmp.dll" in an Administrator cmd window then tried starting WMP - wmplayer would launch and terminate immediately. Run "SFC /SCANFILE" in an Administrator cmd window - get an error message that it found invalid system files and could not fix them, so look at the log file cbs.log. The log file shows that there are broken files associated with Windows Sidebar (which the user does not use) but none relating to WMP. Log off to safe mode and run "SFC /SCANFILE" in an Administrator cmd window again - same results. Try to download and install XP WMP - the microsoft.com site recognizes the OS as Genuine and allows the download, but when I launch the installer it says the system is not Genuine. Clicking the link directs me back to IE where I can authenticate the system as Genuine. The installer still fails to recognize the system as Genuine. It is a Genuine Vista installation. Try to run this update (KB931621). The installer said it did not apply to the system. Set Windows Media Player as default in Program Access and Defaults. Same results. Tried running "for %a in (%systemroot%\system32\wm*.dll) do regsvr32 /s %a" in an Administrator cmd window - same results. Went to this Knowledge Base article (947541) and ran the Microsoft Fix It. The Fix It ran successfully, but WMP would still launch and terminate immediately. Multiple reboots in the process of doing all of these steps. After all this, looked in the Application and Security logs. No events pertaining to WMP were logged. The computer was preinstalled with Vista Home Premium and I have the Acer backup DVDs which will reimage the drive. I do not have Vista install DVDs. Reimaging the system is not an option. I'd also rather not restore the system to an earlier point unless it's absolutely necessary. What else can I do to repair or reinstall WMP?

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• How To Start Your Own Professional Blog with WordPress

  - by Matthew Guay

  Would you like to start your own blog or website?  With a free WordPress  account, it’s free and easy to get started creating your own professional quality blog site. This is the first part in a series on how to create your own professional quality blog site. No, we’re not talking about some cheapo looking blog from Blogger or something on Facebook, but creating a quality blog you can be proud of and present to millions of readers online. WordPress is one of the most popular blogging platforms, powering hundreds of high-profile websites and blogs around the world.  It’s both powerful and easy to use, which makes it great whether you’re just starting out or are a blogging pro.  To start out with your blogging project WordPress is completely free, and you can use the online interface or install the WordPress software on your own server and blog from there. Getting Started You can start a blog in just a few minutes.  Head over to WordPress.com and click Sign up now on the right-hand side of the main page. Enter a username and password, check that you agree with the legal terms, select the “Gimme a blog” bullet, and click Next. WordPress may inform you that your username is already taken, simply choose a new one and try again. Next, choose a domain for your blog.  This will be the address for your site, and cannot be changed, so be sure to choose exactly what you want.  If you’d prefer your address to be yourname.com instead of yourname.wordpress.com, you can add your own domain for a fee after your blog is setup…but we’ll cover that later. Once you click signup, you will be sent a confirmation email.  While you wait for the email to arrive you can go ahead and enter in your name and a short bio about yourself. When you receive your confirmation email, click the link.  Congratulations; you now have your own blog! You can view your new blog immediately, though the default theme isn’t very interesting without your content and pictures. Back on the page you opened from the email, click Login to access your blog’s administration page and to start adding stuff to your blog.  You can also access your blog’s admin page anytime by from yourname.wordpress.com/admin, substituting your own blog name for yourname. Enter your username and password, then click Log in to get started. Adding Content to your WordPress.com Blog When you sign in to your WordPress blog, you’ll first see the WordPress Admin page.  Here you can see recent posts and comments, and you can see stats of how many people have visited your site.  You can also access all of your blog tools and settings right from this page. To add a new post to your blog, click the Posts link on the left, then click “Add New” either on the left menu or on the top of the Edit Posts page.  Or, if you want to edit the default first post, hover over it and select Edit. Or click the New Posts button on the top of the page.  This menu bar is always visible whenever you’re logged in, so it’s an easy way to add a post. The editor lets you easily write anything you want in a Microsoft Word-style editor.  You can format your text, add lists, links, quotes, and more.  When you’re ready to share your content with the world, click Publish on the right side. To add pictures or other files, click the picture icon beside “Upload/Insert”.  Your free blog account can store up to 3Gb of pictures and documents which will definitely give you a good start. Click Select Files, and then choose the pictures or documents you want to add to your post. When the pictures have uploaded, you can add a caption and choose how to position the picture.  When you’re finished, select “Insert into Post”.   Or, if you want to add a video, click the video button.  You have to add a paid upgrade to upload videos directly, but you can add YouTube and other online videos for free. Click the “From URL” tab, and then paste the link to the YouTube video and click Insert into post. If you’re a code geek, click the HTML tab in the editor and edit the HTML of your blog post the geeky way. Once you’ve added all your content and edited it the way you want, click the Publish button on the right of the editor.  Or, you can click Preview to make sure it looks right, and then click Publish. Here’s our blog with the new blog post containing a picture and video.  While you’re getting to know you’re way around the controls in WordPress, the Preview feature will be your best friend while you try to organize the content to your liking.   Conclusion It only takes a couple minutes to get started blogging at WordPress.com. Whether you want to write about your daily life, share pictures of your children, or review the latest books and gadgets, WordPress.com is a great place to get started for free.  But we’ve only covered a small portion of the WordPress features…but this should get you started. Check back for more WordPress and blogging coverage coming up soon! Links Signup for a free WordPress.com account Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Add Social Bookmarking (Digg This!) Links to your Wordpress BlogHow-To Geek SoftwareProtecting Your WordPress Admin Panel From Hackers With .htaccessMake a Backup Copy of your Production Wordpress Blog on UbuntuLinux QuickTip: Downloading and Un-tarring in One Step 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 Awe inspiring, inter-galactic theme (Win 7) Case Study – How to Optimize Popular Wordpress Sites Restore Hidden Updates in Windows 7 & Vista Iceland an Insurance Job? Find Downloads and Add-ins for Outlook Recycle !

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• Week in Geek: LastPass Rescues Xmarks Edition

  - by Asian Angel

  This week we learned how to breathe new life into an aging Windows Mobile 6.x device, use filters in Photoshop, backup and move VirtualBox machines, use the BitDefender Rescue CD to clean an infected PC, and had fun setting up a pirates theme on our computers. Photo by _nash. Weekly Feature Do you love using the Faenza icon set on your Ubuntu system but feel that there are a few much needed icons missing (or you desire a different version of a particular icon)? Then you may want to take a look at the Faenza Variants icon pack. The icons are available in the following sizes: 16px, 22px, 32px, 48px and scalable sizes. Photo by Asian Angel. Faenza Variants Random Geek Links Another week with extra link goodness to help keep you on top of the news. Photo by Asian Angel. LastPass acquires Xmarks, premium service announced Xmarks announced that it has been acquired by LastPass, a cross-platform password management service. This also means that Xmarks is now in transition from a “free” to a “freemium” business model. WikiLeaks reappears on European Net domains WikiLeaks has re-emerged on a Swiss Internet domain followed by domains in Germany, Finland, and the Netherlands, sidestepping a move that had in effect taken the controversial site off the Internet. Iran: Yes, Stuxnet hurt our nuclear program The Stuxnet worm got some big play from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who acknowledged that the malware dinged his nuclear program. More Windows Rogues than Just AV – Fake Defragmenter Check Disk Don’t think for a second that rogues are limited to scareware, because as so-called products such as “System Defragmenter”, “Scan Disk” “Check Disk” prove, they’re not. Internet Explorer’s Protected Mode can be bypassed Researchers from Verizon Business have now described a way of bypassing Protected Mode in IE 7 and 8 in order to gain access to user accounts. Can you really see who viewed your Facebook profile? Rogue application spreads virally Once again, a rogue application is spreading virally between Facebook users pretending to offer you a way of seeing who has viewed your profile. More holes in Palm’s WebOS Researchers Orlando Barrera and Daniel Herrera, who both work for security firm SecTheory, have discovered a gaping security hole in Palm’s WebOS smartphone operating system. Next-gen banking Trojans hit APAC With the proliferation of banking Trojans, Web and smartphone users of online banking services have to be on constant alert to avoid falling prey to fraud schemes, warned Etay Maor, project manager for RSA Fraud Action. AVG update cripples 64-bit computers A signature update automatically deployed by the AVG virus scanner Thursday has crippled numerous computers. Article includes link to forums to fix computers affected after a restart. Congress moves to outlaw ‘mystery charges’ for Web shoppers Legislation that makes it illegal for Web merchants and so-called post-transaction marketers to charge credit cards without the card owners’ say-so came closer to becoming law this week. Ballmer Set to “Look Into” Windows Home Server Drive Extender Fiasco Tuesday’s announcement from Microsoft regarding the removal of Drive Extender from Windows Home Server has sent shock waves across the web. Google tweaks search recipe to ding scam artists Google has changed its search algorithm to penalize sites deemed to provide an “extremely poor user experience” following a New York Times story on a merchant who justified abusive behavior towards customers as a search-engine optimization tactic. Geek Video of the Week Watch as our two friends debate back and forth about the early adoption of new technology through multiple time periods (Stone Age to the far future). Will our reluctant friend finally succumb to the temptation? Photo by CollegeHumor. Early Adopters Through History Random TinyHacker Links Fix Issues in Windows 7 Using Reliability Monitor Learn how to analyze Windows 7 errors and then fix them using the built-in reliability monitor. Learn About IE Tab Groups Tab groups is a useful feature in IE 8. Here’s a detailed guide to what it is all about. Google’s Book Helps You Learn About Browsers and Web A cool new online book by the Google Chrome team on browsers and the web. TrustPort Internet Security 2011 – Good Security from a Less Known Provider TrustPort is not exactly a well-known provider of security solutions. At least not in the consumer space. This review tests in detail their latest offering. How the World is Using Cell phones An infographic showing the shocking demographics of cell phone use. Super User Questions See the great answers to these questions from Super User. I am unable to access my C drive. It says it is unable to display current owner. List of Windows special directories/shortcuts like ‘%TEMP%’ Is using multiple passes for wiping a disk really necessary? How can I view two files side by side in Notepad++ Is there any tool that automatically puts screenshots to my Dropbox? How-To Geek Weekly Article Recap Look through our hottest articles from this past week at How-To Geek. How to Create a Software RAID Array in Windows 7 9 Alternatives for Windows Home Server’s Drive Extender Why Doesn’t Disk Cleanup Delete Everything from the Temp Folder? Ask the Readers: How Much Do You Customize Your Operating System? How to Upload Really Large Files to SkyDrive, Dropbox, or Email One Year Ago on How-To Geek Enjoy reading through these awesome articles from one year ago. How To Upgrade from Vista to Windows 7 Home Premium Edition How To Fix No Aero Transparency in Windows 7 Troubleshoot Startup Problems with Startup Repair Tool in Windows 7 & Vista Rename the Guest Account in Windows 7 for Enhanced Security Disable Error Reporting in XP, Vista, and Windows 7 The Geek Note That wraps things up here for this week. Regardless of the weather wherever you may be, we hope that you have an opportunity to get outside and have some fun! Remember to keep sending those great tips in to us at [email protected]. Photo by Tony the Misfit. Latest Features How-To Geek ETC The How-To Geek Guide to Learning Photoshop, Part 8: Filters Get the Complete Android Guide eBook for Only 99 Cents [Update: Expired] Improve Digital Photography by Calibrating Your Monitor The How-To Geek Guide to Learning Photoshop, Part 7: Design and Typography How to Choose What to Back Up on Your Linux Home Server How To Harmonize Your Dual-Boot Setup for Windows and Ubuntu Hang in There Scrat! – Ice Age Wallpaper How Do You Know When You’ve Passed Geek and Headed to Nerd? On The Tip – A Lamborghini Theme for Chrome and Iron What if Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner were Human? [Video] Peaceful Winter Cabin Wallpaper Store Tabs for Later Viewing in Opera with Tab Vault

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• ActiveX component can't create Object Error? Check 64 bit Status

  - by Rick Strahl

  If you're running on IIS 7 and a 64 bit operating system you might run into the following error using ASP classic or ASP.NET with COM interop. In classic ASP applications the error will show up as: ActiveX component can't create object   (Error 429) (actually without error handling the error just shows up as 500 error page) In my case the code that's been giving me problems has been a FoxPro COM object I'd been using to serve banner ads to some of my pages. The code basically looks up banners from a database table and displays them at random. The ASP classic code that uses it looks like this: <% Set banner = Server.CreateObject("wwBanner.aspBanner") banner.BannerFile = "wwsitebanners" Response.Write(banner.GetBanner(-1)) %> Originally this code had no specific error checking as above so the ASP pages just failed with 500 error pages from the Web server. To find out what the problem is this code is more useful at least for debugging: <% ON ERROR RESUME NEXT Set banner = Server.CreateObject("wwBanner.aspBanner") Response.Write(err.Number & " - " & err.Description) banner.BannerFile = "wwsitebanners" Response.Write(banner.GetBanner(-1)) %> which results in: 429 - ActiveX component can't create object which at least gives you a slight clue. In ASP.NET invoking the same COM object with code like this: <% dynamic banner = wwUtils.CreateComInstance("wwBanner.aspBanner") as dynamic; banner.cBANNERFILE = "wwsitebanners"; Response.Write(banner.getBanner(-1)); %> results in: Retrieving the COM class factory for component with CLSID {B5DCBB81-D5F5-11D2-B85E-00600889F23B} failed due to the following error: 80040154 Class not registered (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80040154 (REGDB_E_CLASSNOTREG)). The class is in fact registered though and the COM server loads fine from a command prompt or other COM client. This error can be caused by a COM server that doesn't load. It looks like a COM registration error. There are a number of traditional reasons why this error can crop up of course. The server isn't registered (run regserver32 to register a DLL server or /regserver on an EXE server) Access permissions aren't set on the COM server (Web account has to be able to read the DLL ie. Network service) The COM server fails to load during initialization ie. failing during startup One thing I always do to check for COM errors fire up the server in a COM client outside of IIS and ensure that it works there first - it's almost always easier to debug a server outside of the Web environment. In my case I tried the server in Visual FoxPro on the server with: loBanners = CREATEOBJECT("wwBanner.aspBanner") loBanners.cBannerFile = "wwsitebanners" ? loBanners.GetBanner(-1) and it worked just fine. If you don't have a full dev environment on the server you can also use VBScript do the same thing and run the .vbs file from the command prompt: Set banner = Server.CreateObject("wwBanner.aspBanner") banner.BannerFile = "wwsitebanners" MsgBox(banner.getBanner(-1)) Since this both works it tells me the server is registered and working properly. This leaves startup failures or permissions as the problem. I double checked permissions for the Application Pool and the permissions of the folder where the DLL lives and both are properly set to allow access by the Application Pool impersonated user. Just to be sure I assigned an Admin user to the Application Pool but still no go. So now what? 64 bit Servers Ahoy A couple of weeks back I had set up a few of my Application pools to 64 bit mode. My server is Server 2008 64 bit and by default Application Pools run 64 bit. Originally when I installed the server I set up most of my Application Pools to 32 bit mainly for backwards compatibility. But as more of my code migrates to 64 bit OS's I figured it'd be a good idea to see how well code runs under 64 bit code. The transition has been mostly painless. Until today when I noticed the problem with the code above when scrolling to my IIS logs and noticing a lot of 500 errors on many of my ASP classic pages. The code in question in most of these pages deals with this single simple COM object. It took a while to figure out that the problem is caused by the Application Pool running in 64 bit mode. The issue is that 32 bit COM objects (ie. my old Visual FoxPro COM component) cannot be loaded in a 64 bit Application Pool. The ASP pages using this COM component broke on the day I switched my main Application Pool into 64 bit mode but I didn't find the problem until I searched my logs for errors by pure chance. To fix this is easy enough once you know what the problem is by switching the Application Pool to Enable 32-bit Applications: Once this is done the COM objects started working correctly again. 64 bit ASP and ASP.NET with DCOM Servers This is kind of off topic, but incidentally it's possible to load 32 bit DCOM (out of process) servers from ASP.NET and ASP classic even if those applications run in 64 bit application pools. In fact, in West Wind Web Connection I use this capability to run a 64 bit ASP.NET handler that talks to a 32 bit FoxPro COM server which allows West Wind Web Connection to run in native 64 bit mode without custom configuration (which is actually quite useful). It's probably not a common usage scenario but it's good to know that you can actually access 32 bit COM objects this way from ASP.NET. For West Wind Web Connection this works out well as the DCOM interface only makes one non-chatty call to the backend server that handles all the rest of the request processing. Application Pool Isolation is your Friend For me the recent incident of failure in the classic ASP pages has just been another reminder to be very careful with moving applications to 64 bit operation. There are many little traps when switching to 64 bit that are very difficult to track and test for. I described one issue I had a couple of months ago where one of the default ASP.NET filters was loading the wrong version (32bit instead of 64bit) which was extremely difficult to track down and was caused by a very sneaky configuration switch error (basically 3 different entries for the same ISAPI filter all with different bitness settings). It took me almost a full day to track this down). Recently I've been taken to isolate individual applications into separate Application Pools rather than my past practice of combining many apps into shared AppPools. This is a good practice assuming you have enough memory to make this work. Application Pool isolate provides more modularity and allows me to selectively move applications to 64 bit. The error above came about precisely because I moved one of my most populous app pools to 64 bit and forgot about the minimal COM object use in some of my old pages. It's easy to forget. To 64bit or Not Is it worth it to move to 64 bit? Currently I'd say -not really. In my - admittedly limited - testing I don't see any significant performance increases. In fact 64 bit apps just seem to consume considerably more memory (30-50% more in my pools on average) and performance is minimally improved (less than 5% at the very best) in the load testing I've performed on a couple of sites in both modes. The only real incentive for 64 bit would be applications that require huge data spaces that exceed the 32 bit 4 gigabyte memory limit. However I have a hard time imagining an application that needs 4 gigs of memory in a single Application Pool :-). Curious to hear other opinions on benefits of 64 bit operation. © Rick Strahl, West Wind Technologies, 2005-2011Posted in COM   ASP.NET  FoxPro  

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• Week in Geek: 4chan Falls Victim to DDoS Attack Edition

  - by Asian Angel

  This week we learned how to tweak the low battery action on a Windows 7 laptop, access an eBook collection anywhere in the world, “extend iPad battery life, batch resize photos, & sync massive music collections”, went on a reign of destruction with Snow Crusher, and had fun decorating our desktops with abstract icon collections. Photo by pasukaru76. Random Geek Links We have included extra news article goodness to help you catch up on any developments that you may have missed during the holiday break this past week. Note: The three 27C3 articles listed here represent three different presentations at the 27th Chaos Communication Congress hacker conference. 4chan victim of DDoS as FBI investigates role in PayPal attack Users of 4chan may have gotten a taste of their own medicine after the site was knocked offline by a DDoS attack from an unknown origin early Thursday morning. Report: FBI seizes server in probe of WikiLeaks attacks The FBI has seized a server in Texas as part of its hunt for the groups behind the pro-WikiLeaks denial-of-service attacks launched in December against PayPal, Visa, MasterCard, and others. Mozilla exposes older user-account database Mozilla has disabled 44,000 older user accounts for its Firefox add-ons site after a security researcher found part of a database of the account information on a publicly available server. Data breach affects 4.9 million Honda customers Japanese automaker Honda has put some 2.2 million customers in the United States on a security breach alert after a database containing information on the owners and their cars was hacked. Chinese Trojan discovered in Android games An Android-based Trojan called “Geinimi” has been discovered in the wild and the Trojan is capable of sending personal information to remote servers and exhibits botnet-like behavior. 27C3 presentation claims many mobiles vulnerable to SMS attacks According to security experts, an ‘SMS of death’ threatens to disable many current Sony Ericsson, Samsung, Motorola, Micromax and LG mobiles. 27C3: GSM cell phones even easier to tap Security researchers have demonstrated how open source software on a number of revamped, entry-level cell phones can decrypt and record mobile phone calls in the GSM network. 27C3: danger lurks in PDF documents Security researcher Julia Wolf has pointed out numerous, previously hardly known, security problems in connection with Adobe’s PDF standard. Critical update for WordPress A critical update has been made available for WordPress in the form of version 3.0.4. The update fixes a security bug in WordPress’s KSES library. McAfee Labs Predicts Geolocation, Mobile Devices and Apple Will Top the List of Targets for Emerging Threats in 2011 The list comprises 2010’s most buzzed about platforms and services, including Google’s Android, Apple’s iPhone, foursquare, Google TV and the Mac OS X platform, which are all expected to become major targets for cybercriminals. McAfee Labs also predicts that politically motivated attacks will be on the rise. Windows Phone 7 piracy materializes with FreeMarketplace A proof-of-concept application, FreeMarketplace, that allows any Windows Phone 7 application to be downloaded and installed free of charge has been developed. Empty email accounts, and some bad buzz for Hotmail In the past few days, a number of Hotmail users have been complaining about a rather disconcerting issue: their Hotmail accounts, some up to 10 years old, appear completely empty.  No emails, no folders, nothing, just what appears to be a new account. Reports: Nintendo warns of 3DS risk for kids Nintendo has reportedly issued a warning that the 3DS, its eagerly awaited glasses-free 3D portable gaming device, should not be used by children under 6 when the gadget is in 3D-viewing mode. Google eyes ‘cloaking’ as next antispam target Google plans to take a closer look at the practice of “cloaking,” or presenting one look to a Googlebot crawling one’s site while presenting another look to users. Facebook, Twitter stock trading drawing SEC eye? The high degree of investor interest in shares of hot Silicon Valley companies that aren’t yet publicly traded–like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Zynga–may be leading to scrutiny from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Random TinyHacker Links Photo by jcraveiro. Exciting Software Set for Release in 2011 A few bloggers from great websites such as How-To Geek, Guiding Tech and 7 Tutorials took the time to sit down and talk about their software wishes for 2011. Take the time to read it and share… Wikileaks Infopr0n An infographic detailing the quest to plug WikiLeaks. The New York Times Guide to Mobile Apps A growing collection of all mobile app coverage by the New York Times as well as lists of favorite apps from Times writers. 7,000,000,000 (Video) A fascinating look at the world’s population via National Geographic Magazine. Super User Questions Check out the great answers to these hot questions from Super User. How to use a Personal computer as a Linux web server for development purposes? How to link processing power of old computers together? Free virtualization tool for testing suspicious files? Why do some actions not work with Remote Desktop? What is the simplest way to send a large batch of pictures to a distant friend or colleague? How-To Geek Weekly Article Recap Had a busy week and need to get caught up on your HTG reading? Then sit back and relax while enjoying these hot posts full of how-to roundup goodness. The 50 Best How-To Geek Windows Articles of 2010 The 20 Best How-To Geek Explainer Topics for 2010 The 20 Best How-To Geek Linux Articles of 2010 How to Search Just the Site You’re Viewing Using Google Search Ask the Readers: Backing Your Files Up – Local Storage versus the Cloud One Year Ago on How-To Geek Need more how-to geekiness for your weekend? Then look through this great batch of articles from one year ago that focus on dual-booting and O.S. installation goodness. Dual Boot Your Pre-Installed Windows 7 Computer with Vista Dual Boot Your Pre-Installed Windows 7 Computer with XP How To Setup a USB Flash Drive to Install Windows 7 Dual Boot Your Pre-Installed Windows 7 Computer with Ubuntu Easily Install Ubuntu Linux with Windows Using the Wubi Installer The Geek Note We hope that you and your families have had a terrific holiday break as everyone prepares to return to work and school this week. Remember to keep those great tips coming in to us at [email protected]! Photo by pjbeardsley. Latest Features How-To Geek ETC The 20 Best How-To Geek Linux Articles of 2010 The 50 Best How-To Geek Windows Articles of 2010 The 20 Best How-To Geek Explainer Topics for 2010 How to Disable Caps Lock Key in Windows 7 or Vista How to Use the Avira Rescue CD to Clean Your Infected PC The Complete List of iPad Tips, Tricks, and Tutorials Tune Pop Enhances Android Music Notifications Another Busy Night in Gotham City Wallpaper Classic Super Mario Brothers Theme for Chrome and Iron Experimental Firefox Builds Put Tabs on the Title Bar (Available for Download) Android Trojan Found in the Wild Chaos, Panic, and Disorder Wallpaper

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• 2 Days of Share &amp; Point

  - by Mark Rackley

  Groovy man… SharePoint Saturday Ozarks is back for 2010, bigger and better than before. Join us for a far out time and learn more about SharePoint in one day than you could in a year from the man… Yes! SharePoint Saturday Ozarks is back! SharePoint Saturday Ozarks is the largest SharePoint conference in Arkansas, Southern Missouri, and the very north east tip of Oklahoma. Last year we had a great turn out with 20 speakers, 5 MVPs, and attendees coming from Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Indiana, Ohio, Alabama, Michigan, and Washington. Hey Man… what’s SharePoint Saturday anyway? Sounds like a conspiracy man… Not to worry, SharePoint Saturday is not an arm of the government bent on mind control or any attempt what-so-ever to bring you down man. SharePoint Saturday is grass roots effort started by Michael Lotter (http://www.sharepointsaturday.org/pages/about.aspx). It is a FREE one day event where the best SharePoint speakers gather to present their love, hatred, and frustrations of SharePoint to those lucky individuals who attend. Lessons are learned, contacts are made, prizes are won, food is eaten, assorted beverages are consumed until wee hours of the morning. SharePoint Saturday started with just a few sporadic one day events here and there. However, over the past year SharePoint Saturday has exploded and it’s hard to find a weekend where there is NOT a SharePoint Saturday event happing in some corner of the globe. There are even occasions where there are two SharePoint Saturdays on the same day! Many people are pleasantly surprised at the caliber of speakers at these SharePoint Saturday events. For the most part, these speakers are more eloquent, practiced, and practical than those speakers you find at the major multi-day conferences. These guys aren’t even paid to speak.. they do it out of love man… SharePoint Saturday Ozarks 2009 Alumni We had a star studded cast last year with many returning this year! Just check out the fun that they had… John Ferringer – Admin rockstar… I can still sense the awesomeness   SharePoint poster children Mike Watson & Laura Rogers     Lori Gowin spreading the SharePoint Love Eric Shupps is a little bit country and a little bit rock and roll       Cathy Dew, Sean McDonough, and JD Wade relaxing between gigs Actually, you can see real photos from last year’s SharePoint Saturday ozarks here:  picasaweb.google.com/mrackley/SharePointSaturdayOzarks#    What’s new for SharePoint Saturday Ozarks 2010 SharePoint Saturday Ozarks 2010 will totally blow your mind man. We’re getting the band back to together with many returning speakers and few new faces. Joel Oleson will be speaking this year, maybe he’ll grace us with his song stylings. Sadly, once again, Andrew Connell will not be able to attend SharePoint Saturday Ozarks, however he did feel the need to show his support in his own way. Prizes this year currently include books, software, a Zune HD, and much more! Wait Man… You said 2 days? I thought it was a one day event? Correct you are my herbal smelling friend… SharePoint Saturday Ozarks 2010 will spread the love an additional day this year. The first day will be all about the SharePoint love, on day 2 we will be taking a leisurely float down the Buffalo National River for those interested in a truly unique experience (no banjos allowed please).   Here are the details: WHAT 4 – 5 hour float down the Buffalo National River WHEN & WHERE Sunday June 13th. We will be leaving at 10am from the Parking Lot of: Gordon’s Motel & Canoe Rental Old Highway 7 Jasper, AR 72641 (870) 446-5252 Jasper is about 30 minutes south of Harrison, AR on Highway 7 South. You are responsible for bumming a ride to/from Gordon’s Motel, but they will be shuttling us to/from the river and providing canoes and a boxed lunch. WHAT ELSE? The float trip is dependent on the weather of course, we won’t be floating down the river in a thunderstorm, however I planned SPS Ozarks around a time of year ideal for floating. We aren’t talking class 5 rapids here, you don’t need any real skill, but you need to be okay with possibly tipping your canoe over once or twice. You can bring your own assorted beverages with you, but glass containers are not allowed on the river. I suggest a small cooler with extra snacks and drinks. Also bring clothing you can get wet in (these SharePoint people can get ornery). HOW DO I SIGN UP? When you register for SharePoint Saturday Ozarks, you will have the option to also sign up for the float trip. Seats are limited though! If you do not intend to go, please do not take someone else’s place.  The cost for the float trip will be about $35 dollars per person (which you are responsible for unless we find a sponsor). The price includes shuttle to/from river, canoe, life jackets, paddles, and boxed lunch. Far out man… how do I register??? You can register for SharePoint Saturday Ozarks by going to http://spsozarks.eventbrite.com/ We are limited to 200 people for the conference and 50 people for the float trip, so register today before we are sold out. Lodging for SharePoint Saturday Ozarks will once again take place at the Hotel Seville: Annex Suites are available for $103.20 This is So Groovy.. How can I help? I’m glad you asked! We are still looking for a few sponsors and one or two more speakers. If you are interested please let me know!  You can find out more information at http://www.sharepointsaturday.org/ozarks Hey… wait a minute…. what exactly IS SharePoint man??? Come to SharePoint Saturday Ozarks and find out!!  See you guys there!

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• SharePoint – The Most Important Feature

  - by Bil Simser

  Watching twitter and doing a search for SharePoint and you see a lot (almost one every few minutes) of tweets about the top 10 new features in SharePoint. What answer do you get when you ask the question, “What’s the most important feature in SharePoint?”. Chances are the answer will vary. Some will say it’s the collaboration aspect, others might say it’s the new ribbon interface, multi-item editing, external content types, faceted search, large list support, document versioning, Silverlight, etc. The list goes on. However I think most people might be missing the most important feature that’s sitting right under their noses all this time. The most important feature of SharePoint? It’s called User Empowerment. Huh? What? Is that something I find in the Site Actions menu? Nope. It’s something that’s always been there in SharePoint, you just need to get the word out and support it. How many times have you had a team ask you for a team site (assuming you had SharePoint up and running). Or to create them a contact list. Or how long have you employed that guy in the corner who’s been copying and pasting content from Corporate Communications into the web from a Word document. Let’s stop the insanity. It doesn’t have to be this way. SharePoint’s strongest feature isn’t anything you can find in the Site Settings screen or Central Admin. It’s all about empowering your users and letting them take control of their content. After all, SharePoint really is a bunch of tools to allow users to collaborate on content isn’t it? So why are you stepping in as IT and helping the user every moment along the way. It’s like having to ask users to fill out a help desk ticket or call up the Windows team to create a folder on their desktop or rearrange their Start menu. This isn’t something IT should be spending their time doing nor is it something the users should be burdened with having to wait until their friendly neighborhood tech-guy (or gal) shows up to help them sort the icons on their desktop. SharePoint IS all about empowerment. Site owners can create whatever lists and libraries they need for their team, and if the template isn’t there they can always turn to my friend and yours, the Custom List. From that can spew forth approval tracking systems, new hire checklists, and server inventory. You’re only limited by your imagination and needs. Users should be able to create new sites as they need. Want a blog to let everyone know what your team is up to? Go create one, here’s how. What’s a blog you ask? Here’s what it is and why you would use one. SharePoint is the shift in the balance of power and you need, and an IT group, let go of certain responsibilities and let your users run with the tools. A power user who knows how to create sites and what features are available to them can help a team go from the forming stage to the storming stage overnight. Again, this all hinges on you as an IT organization and what you can and empower your users with as far as features go. Running with tools is great if you know how to use them, running with scissors not recommended unless you enjoy trips to the hospital. With Great Power comes Great Responsibility so don’t go out on Monday and send out a memo to the organization saying “This Bil guy says you peeps can do anything so here it is, knock yourself out” (for one, they’ll have *no* idea who this Bil guy is). This advice comes with the task of getting your users ready for empowerment. Whether it’s through some kind of internal training sessions, in-house documentation; videos; blog posts; on how to accomplish things in SharePoint, or full blown one-on-one sit downs with teams or individuals to help them through their problems. The work is up to you. Helping them along also should be part of your governance (you do have one don’t you?). Just because you have InfoPath client deployed with your Office suite, doesn’t mean users should just start publishing forms all over your SharePoint farm. There should be some governance behind that in what you’ll support and what is possible. The other caveat to all this is that SharePoint is not everything for everyone. It can’t cook you breakfast and impregnate your cat or solve world hunger. It also isn’t suited for every IT solution out there. It’s a horrible source control system (even though some people try to use it as such) and really can’t do financials worth a darn. Again, governance is key here and part of that governance and your responsibility in setting up and unleashing SharePoint into your organization is to provide users guidance on what should be in SharePoint and (more importantly) what should not be in SharePoint. There are boundaries you have to set where you don’t want your end users going as they might be treading into trouble. Again, this is up to you to set these constraints and help users understand why these pylons are there. If someone understands why they can’t do something they might have a better understanding and respect for those that put them there in the first place. Of course you’ll always have the power-users who want to go skiing down dead mans curve so this doesn’t work for everyone, but you can catch the majority of the newbs who don’t wander aimlessly off the beaten path. At the end of the day when all things are going swimmingly your end users should be empowered to solve the needs they have on a day to day basis and not having to keep bugging the IT department to help them create a view to show only approved documents. I wouldn’t go as far as business users building out full blown solutions and handing the keys to SharePoint Designer or (worse) Visual Studio to power-users might not be a path you want to go down but you also don’t have to lock up the SharePoint system in a tight box where users can’t use what’s there. So stop focusing on the shiny things in SharePoint and maybe consider making a shift to what’s really important. Making your day job easier and letting users get the most our of your technology investment.

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• Creating a multi-column rollover image gallery with HTML 5

  - by nikolaosk

  I know it has been a while since I blogged about HTML 5. I have two posts in this blog about HTML 5. You can find them here and here.I am creating a small content website (only text,images and a contact form) for a friend of mine.He wanted to create a rollover gallery.The whole concept is that we have some small thumbnails on a page, the user hovers over them and they appear enlarged on a designated container/placeholder on a page. I am trying not to use Javascript scripts when I am using effects on a web page and this is what I will be doing in this post.  Well some people will say that HTML 5 is not supported in all browsers. That is true but most of the modern browsers support most of its recommendations. For people who still use IE6 some hacks must be devised.Well to be totally honest I cannot understand why anyone at this day and time is using IE 6.0.That really is beyond me.Well, the point of having a web browser is to be able to ENJOY the great experience that the WE? offers today.  Two very nice sites that show you what features and specifications are implemented by various browsers and their versions are http://caniuse.com/ and http://html5test.com/. At this times Chrome seems to support most of HTML 5 specifications.Another excellent way to find out if the browser supports HTML 5 and CSS 3 features is to use the Javascript lightweight library Modernizr.In this hands-on example I will be using Expression Web 4.0.This application is not a free application. You can use any HTML editor you like.You can use Visual Studio 2012 Express edition. You can download it here. In order to be absolutely clear this is not (and could not be ) a detailed tutorial on HTML 5. There are other great resources for that.Navigate to the excellent interactive tutorials of W3School.Another excellent resource is HTML 5 Doctor.For the people who are not convinced yet that they should invest time and resources on becoming experts on HTML 5 I should point out that HTML 5 websites will be ranked higher than others. Search engines will be able to locate better the content of our site and its relevance/importance since it is using semantic tags. Let's move now to the actual hands-on example. In this case (since I am mad Liverpool supporter) I will create a rollover image gallery of Liverpool F.C legends. I create a folder in my desktop. I name it Liverpool Gallery.Then I create two subfolders in it, large-images (I place the large images in there) and thumbs (I place the small images in there).Then I create an empty .html file called LiverpoolLegends.html and an empty .css file called style.css.Please have a look at the HTML Markup that I typed in my fancy editor package below<!doctype html><html lang="en"><head><title>Liverpool Legends Gallery</title><meta charset="utf-8"><link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="style.css"></head><body><header><h1>A page dedicated to Liverpool Legends</h1><h2>Do hover over the images with the mouse to see the full picture</h2></header><ul id="column1"><li><a href="http://weblogs.asp.net/controlpanel/blogs/posteditor.aspx?SelectedNavItem=Posts§ionid=1153&postid=8927200#"><img src="thumbs/john-barnes.jpg" alt=""><img class="large" src="large-images/john-barnes-large.jpg" alt=""></a></li><li><a href="http://weblogs.asp.net/controlpanel/blogs/posteditor.aspx?SelectedNavItem=Posts§ionid=1153&postid=8927200#"><img src="thumbs/ian-rush.jpg" alt=""><img class="large" src="large-images/ian-rush-large.jpg" alt=""></a></li><li><a href="http://weblogs.asp.net/controlpanel/blogs/posteditor.aspx?SelectedNavItem=Posts§ionid=1153&postid=8927200#"><img src="thumbs/graeme-souness.jpg" alt=""><img class="large" src="large-images/graeme-souness-large.jpg" alt=""></a></li></ul><ul id="column2"><li><a href="http://weblogs.asp.net/controlpanel/blogs/posteditor.aspx?SelectedNavItem=Posts§ionid=1153&postid=8927200#"><img src="thumbs/steven-gerrard.jpg" alt=""><img class="large" src="large-images/steven-gerrard-large.jpg" alt=""></a></li><li><a href="http://weblogs.asp.net/controlpanel/blogs/posteditor.aspx?SelectedNavItem=Posts§ionid=1153&postid=8927200#"><img src="thumbs/kenny-dalglish.jpg" alt=""><img class="large" src="large-images/kenny-dalglish-large.jpg" alt=""></a></li><li><a href="http://weblogs.asp.net/controlpanel/blogs/posteditor.aspx?SelectedNavItem=Posts§ionid=1153&postid=8927200#"><img src="thumbs/robbie-fowler.jpg" alt=""><img class="large" src="large-images/robbie-fowler-large.jpg" alt=""></a></li></ul><ul id="column3"><li><a href="http://weblogs.asp.net/controlpanel/blogs/posteditor.aspx?SelectedNavItem=Posts§ionid=1153&postid=8927200#"><img src="thumbs/alan-hansen.jpg" alt=""><img class="large" src="large-images/alan-hansen-large.jpg" alt=""></a></li><li><a href="http://weblogs.asp.net/controlpanel/blogs/posteditor.aspx?SelectedNavItem=Posts§ionid=1153&postid=8927200#"><img src="thumbs/michael-owen.jpg" alt=""><img class="large" src="large-images/michael-owen-large.jpg" alt=""></a></li></ul></body></html> It is very easy to follow the markup. Please have a look at the new doctype and the new semantic tag <header>. I have 3 columns and I place my images in there.There is a class called "large".I will use this class in my CSS code to hide the large image when the mouse is not on (hover) an image Make sure you validate your HTML 5 page in the validator found hereHave a look at the CSS code below that makes it all happen.img { border:none;}#column1 { position: absolute; top: 30; left: 100; }li { margin: 15px; list-style-type:none;}#column1 a img.large {  position: absolute; top: 0; left:700px; visibility: hidden;}#column1 a:hover { background: white;}#column1 a:hover img.large { visibility:visible;}#column2 { position: absolute; top: 30; left: 195px; }li { margin: 5px; list-style-type:none;}#column2 a img.large { position: absolute; top: 0; left:510px; margin-left:0; visibility: hidden;}#column2 a:hover { background: white;}#column2 a:hover img.large { visibility:visible;}#column3 { position: absolute; top: 30; left: 400px; width:108px;}li { margin: 5px; list-style-type:none;}#column3 a img.large { width: 260px; height:260px; position: absolute; top: 0; left:315px; margin-left:0; visibility: hidden;}#column3 a:hover { background: white;}#column3 a:hover img.large { visibility:visible;}?n the first line of the CSS code I set the images to have no border.Then I place the first column in the page and then remove the bullets from the list elements.Then I use the large CSS class to create a position for the large image and hide it.Finally when the hover event takes place I make the image visible.I repeat the process for the next two columns. I have tested the page with IE 10 and the latest versions of Opera,Chrome and Firefox.Feel free to style your HTML 5 gallery any way you want through the magic of CSS.I did not bother adding background colors and borders because that was beyond the scope of this post. Hope it helps!!!!

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• Fragmented Log files could be slowing down your database

  - by Fatherjack

  Something that is sometimes forgotten by a lot of DBAs is the fact that database log files get fragmented in the same way that you get fragmentation in a data file. The cause is very different but the effect is the same – too much effort reading and writing data. Data files get fragmented as data is changed through normal system activity, INSERTs, UPDATEs and DELETEs cause fragmentation and most experienced DBAs are monitoring their indexes for fragmentation and dealing with it accordingly. However, you don’t hear about so many working on their log files. How can a log file get fragmented? I’m glad you asked. When you create a database there are at least two files created on the disk storage; an mdf for the data and an ldf for the log file (you can also have ndf files for extra data storage but that’s off topic for now). It is wholly possible to have more than one log file but in most cases there is little point in creating more than one as the log file is written to in a ‘wrap-around’ method (more on that later). When a log file is created at the time that a database is created the file is actually sub divided into a number of virtual log files (VLFs). The number and size of these VLFs depends on the size chosen for the log file. VLFs are also created in the space added to a log file when a log file growth event takes place. Do you have your log files set to auto grow? Then you have potentially been introducing many VLFs into your log file. Let’s get to see how many VLFs we have in a brand new database. USE master GO CREATE DATABASE VLF_Test ON ( NAME = VLF_Test, FILENAME = 'C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10.ROCK_2008\MSSQL\DATA\VLF_Test.mdf', SIZE = 100, MAXSIZE = 500, FILEGROWTH = 50 ) LOG ON ( NAME = VLF_Test_Log, FILENAME = 'C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10.ROCK_2008\MSSQL\DATA\VLF_Test_log.ldf', SIZE = 5MB, MAXSIZE = 250MB, FILEGROWTH = 5MB ); go USE VLF_Test go DBCC LOGINFO; The results of this are firstly a new database is created with specified files sizes and the the DBCC LOGINFO results are returned to the script editor. The DBCC LOGINFO results have plenty of interesting information in them but lets first note there are 4 rows of information, this relates to the fact that 4 VLFs have been created in the log file. The values in the FileSize column are the sizes of each VLF in bytes, you will see that the last one to be created is slightly larger than the others. So, a 5MB log file has 4 VLFs of roughly 1.25 MB. Lets alter the CREATE DATABASE script to create a log file that’s a bit bigger and see what happens. Alter the code above so that the log file details are replaced by LOG ON ( NAME = VLF_Test_Log, FILENAME = 'C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10.ROCK_2008\MSSQL\DATA\VLF_Test_log.ldf', SIZE = 1GB, MAXSIZE = 25GB, FILEGROWTH = 1GB ); With a bigger log file specified we get more VLFs What if we make it bigger again? LOG ON ( NAME = VLF_Test_Log, FILENAME = 'C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10.ROCK_2008\MSSQL\DATA\VLF_Test_log.ldf', SIZE = 5GB, MAXSIZE = 250GB, FILEGROWTH = 5GB ); This time we see more VLFs are created within our log file. We now have our 5GB log file comprised of 16 files of 320MB each. In fact these sizes fall into all the ranges that control the VLF creation criteria – what a coincidence! The rules that are followed when a log file is created or has it’s size increased are pretty basic. If the file growth is lower than 64MB then 4 VLFs are created If the growth is between 64MB and 1GB then 8 VLFs are created If the growth is greater than 1GB then 16 VLFs are created. Now the potential for chaos comes if the default values and settings for log file growth are used. By default a database log file gets a 1MB log file with unlimited growth in steps of 10%. The database we just created is 6 MB, let’s add some data and see what happens. USE vlf_test go -- we need somewhere to put the data so, a table is in order IF OBJECT_ID('A_Table') IS NOT NULL DROP TABLE A_Table go CREATE TABLE A_Table ( Col_A int IDENTITY, Col_B CHAR(8000) ) GO -- Let's check the state of the log file -- 4 VLFs found EXECUTE ('DBCC LOGINFO'); go -- We can go ahead and insert some data and then check the state of the log file again INSERT A_Table (col_b) SELECT TOP 500 REPLICATE('a',2000) FROM sys.columns AS sc, sys.columns AS sc2 GO -- insert 500 rows and we get 22 VLFs EXECUTE ('DBCC LOGINFO'); go -- Let's insert more rows INSERT A_Table (col_b) SELECT TOP 2000 REPLICATE('a',2000) FROM sys.columns AS sc, sys.columns AS sc2 GO 10 -- insert 2000 rows, in 10 batches and we suddenly have 107 VLFs EXECUTE ('DBCC LOGINFO'); Well, that escalated quickly! Our log file is split, internally, into 107 fragments after a few thousand inserts. The same happens with any logged transactions, I just chose to illustrate this with INSERTs. Having too many VLFs can cause performance degradation at times of database start up, log backup and log restore operations so it’s well worth keeping a check on this property. How do we prevent excessive VLF creation? Creating the database with larger files and also with larger growth steps and actively choosing to grow your databases rather than leaving it to the Auto Grow event can make sure that the growths are made with a size that is optimal. How do we resolve a situation of a database with too many VLFs? This process needs to be done when the database is under little or no stress so that you don’t affect system users. The steps are: BACKUP LOG YourDBName TO YourBackupDestinationOfChoice Shrink the log file to its smallest possible size DBCC SHRINKFILE(FileNameOfTLogHere, TRUNCATEONLY) * Re-size the log file to the size you want it to, taking in to account your expected needs for the coming months or year. ALTER DATABASE YourDBName MODIFY FILE ( NAME = FileNameOfTLogHere, SIZE = TheSizeYouWantItToBeIn_MB) * – If you don’t know the file name of your log file then run sp_helpfile while you are connected to the database that you want to work on and you will get the details you need. The resize step can take quite a while This is already detailed far better than I can explain it by Kimberley Tripp in her blog 8-Steps-to-better-Transaction-Log-throughput.aspx. The result of this will be a log file with a VLF count according to the bullet list above. Knowing when VLFs are being created By complete coincidence while I have been writing this blog (it’s been quite some time from it’s inception to going live) Jonathan Kehayias from SQLSkills.com has written a great article on how to track database file growth using Event Notifications and Service Broker. I strongly recommend taking a look at it as this is going to catch any sneaky auto grows that take place and let you know about them right away. Hassle free monitoring of VLFs If you are lucky or wise enough to be using SQL Monitor or another monitoring tool that let’s you write your own custom metrics then you can keep an eye on this very easily. There is a custom metric for VLFs (written by Stuart Ainsworth) already on the site and there are some others there are very useful so take a moment or two to look around while you are there. Resources MSDN – http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms179355(v=sql.105).aspx Kimberly Tripp from SQLSkills.com – http://www.sqlskills.com/BLOGS/KIMBERLY/post/8-Steps-to-better-Transaction-Log-throughput.aspx Thomas LaRock at Simple-Talk.com – http://www.simple-talk.com/sql/database-administration/monitoring-sql-server-virtual-log-file-fragmentation/ Disclosure I am a Friend of Red Gate. This means that I am more than likely to say good things about Red Gate DBA and Developer tools. No matter how awesome I make them sound, take the time to compare them with other products before you contact the Red Gate sales team to make your order.

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• Let’s Get Social

  - by Kristin Rose

  v\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} o\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} w\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} .shape {behavior:url(#default#VML);} Normal 0 false false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} You can try to run from it like a bad Facebook picture but you can’t hide. Social media as we know it is quickly taking over our lives and is not going away any time soon. Though attempting to reach as many Twitter followers as Lady Gaga is daunting, learning how to leverage social media to meet your customer’s needs is not. For Oracle, this means interacting directly with our partners through our many social media outlets, and refraining from posting a mindless status on the pastrami on rye we ate for lunch today… though it was delicious. The “correct” way to go about social media is going to mean something different to each company. For example, sending a customer more than one friend request a day may not be the best way to get their attention, but using social media as a two-way marketing channel is. Oracle’s Partner Business Center’s (PBC) twitter handle was recently mentioned by Elateral as the “ideal way to engage with your market and use social media in the channel”. Why you ask? Because the PBC has two named social media leads manning the Twitter feed at all times, helping partners get the information and answers they need more quickly than a Justin Bieber video gone viral. So whether you want to post a video of your favorite customer attempting the Marshmallow challenge or tweet like there’s no tomorrow, be sure to follow @OraclePartnerBiz today, and see how they can help you achieve your next partner milestone with Oracle. Happy Socializing, The OPN Communications Team v\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} o\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} w\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} .shape {behavior:url(#default#VML);} Normal 0 false false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} v\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} o\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} w\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} .shape {behavior:url(#default#VML);} Normal 0 false false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}

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• SQL SERVER – A Quick Look at Logging and Ideas around Logging

  - by pinaldave

  This blog post is written in response to the T-SQL Tuesday post on Logging. When someone talks about logging, personally I get lots of ideas about it. I have seen logging as a very generic term. Let me ask you this question first before I continue writing about logging. What is the first thing comes to your mind when you hear word “Logging”? Now ask the same question to the guy standing next to you. I am pretty confident that you will get  a different answer from different people. I decided to do this activity and asked 5 SQL Server person the same question. Question: What is the first thing comes to your mind when you hear the word “Logging”? Strange enough I got a different answer every single time. Let me just list what answer I got from my friends. Let us go over them one by one. Output Clause The very first person replied output clause. Pretty interesting answer to start with. I see what exactly he was thinking. SQL Server 2005 has introduced a new OUTPUT clause. OUTPUT clause has access to inserted and deleted tables (virtual tables) just like triggers. OUTPUT clause can be used to return values to client clause. OUTPUT clause can be used with INSERT, UPDATE, or DELETE to identify the actual rows affected by these statements. Here are some references for Output Clause: OUTPUT Clause Example and Explanation with INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE Reasons for Using Output Clause – Quiz Tips from the SQL Joes 2 Pros Development Series – Output Clause in Simple Examples Error Logs I was expecting someone to mention Error logs when it is about logging. The error log is the most looked place when there is any error either with the application or there is an error with the operating system. I have kept the policy to check my server’s error log every day. The reason is simple – enough time in my career I have figured out that when I am looking at error logs I find something which I was not expecting. There are cases, when I noticed errors in the error log and I fixed them before end user notices it. Other common practices I always tell my DBA friends to do is that when any error happens they should find relevant entries in the error logs and document the same. It is quite possible that they will see the same error in the error log  and able to fix the error based on the knowledge base which they have created. There can be many different kinds of error log files exists in SQL Server as well – 1) SQL Server Error Logs 2) Windows Event Log 3) SQL Server Agent Log 4) SQL Server Profile Log 5) SQL Server Setup Log etc. Here are some references for Error Logs: Recycle Error Log – Create New Log file without Server Restart SQL Error Messages Change Data Capture I got surprised with this answer. I think more than the answer I was surprised by the person who had answered me this one. I always thought he was expert in HTML, JavaScript but I guess, one should never assume about others. Indeed one of the cool logging feature is Change Data Capture. Change Data Capture records INSERTs, UPDATEs, and DELETEs applied to SQL Server tables, and makes a record available of what changed, where, and when, in simple relational ‘change tables’ rather than in an esoteric chopped salad of XML. These change tables contain columns that reflect the column structure of the source table you have chosen to track, along with the metadata needed to understand the changes that have been made. Here are some references for Change Data Capture: Introduction to Change Data Capture (CDC) in SQL Server 2008 Tuning the Performance of Change Data Capture in SQL Server 2008 Download Script of Change Data Capture (CDC) CDC and TRUNCATE – Cannot truncate table because it is published for replication or enabled for Change Data Capture Dynamic Management View (DMV) I like this answer. If asked I would have not come up with DMV right away but in the spirit of the original question, I think DMV does log the data. DMV logs or stores or records the various data and activity on the SQL Server. Dynamic management views return server state information that can be used to monitor the health of a server instance, diagnose problems, and tune performance. One can get plethero of information from DMVs – High Availability Status, Query Executions Details, SQL Server Resources Status etc. Here are some references for Dynamic Management View (DMV): SQL SERVER – Denali – DMV Enhancement – sys.dm_exec_query_stats – New Columns DMV – sys.dm_os_windows_info – Information about Operating System DMV – sys.dm_os_wait_stats Explanation – Wait Type – Day 3 of 28 DMV sys.dm_exec_describe_first_result_set_for_object – Describes the First Result Metadata for the Module Transaction Log Impact Detection Using DMV – dm_tran_database_transactions Log Files I almost flipped with this final answer from my friend. This should be probably the first answer. Yes, indeed log file logs the SQL Server activities. One can write infinite things about log file. SQL Server uses log file with the extension .ldf to manage transactions and maintain database integrity. Log file ensures that valid data is written out to database and system is in a consistent state. Log files are extremely useful in case of the database failures as with the help of full backup file database can be brought in the desired state (point in time recovery is also possible). SQL Server database has three recovery models – 1) Simple, 2) Full and 3) Bulk Logged. Each of the model uses the .ldf file for performing various activities. It is very important to take the backup of the log files (along with full backup) as one never knows when backup of the log file come into the action and save the day! How to Stop Growing Log File Too Big Reduce the Virtual Log Files (VLFs) from LDF file Log File Growing for Model Database – model Database Log File Grew Too Big master Database Log File Grew Too Big SHRINKFILE and TRUNCATE Log File in SQL Server 2008 Can I just say I loved this month’s T-SQL Tuesday Question. It really provoked very interesting conversation around me. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: Pinal Dave, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Optimization, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

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• Week in Geek: IPv6 Capable Smartphones Compromise User Privacy Edition

  - by Asian Angel

  This week we learned how to “clone a disk, resize static windows, and create system function shortcuts”, use 45 different services, sites, and apps to help read favorite sites, add MP3 support to Audacity (for saving in MP3 format), install a Wii game loader for easy backups and fast load times, create a Blue Screen of Death in any color, and more. Photo by legofenris. Weekly News Links Photo by The H Security. IPv6: Smartphones compromise users’ privacy Since version 4 of the iOS operating system, Apple’s iPhones, iPads and iPods have been capable of handling IPv6, and most Android devices have been capable since version 2.1. However, the operating systems transfer an ID that discloses information about their users. Dumb phones can be attacked too Much of the discussion of security threats to mobile phones revolves around smartphones, but researchers have found that less advanced “feature phones,” still used by the majority of people around the world, also are vulnerable to attack. SCADA exploit – the dragon awakes The recent publication of an exploit for KingView, a software package for visualising industrial process control systems, appears to be having an effect. Threatpost reports that both the Chinese vendor Wellintech and Chinese CERT (CN-CERT) have now reacted. Sophos: Spam to get more malicious Spam is becoming more malicious in nature as trickery tactics change in line with current user interests, according to a new report released Tuesday by Sophos. Global spam traffic rebounds as Rustock wakes Spam is on the rise after the Rustock botnet awoke from its Christmas slumber, according to Symantec. Cracking WPA keys in the cloud At the forthcoming Black Hat conference, blogger Thomas Roth plans to demonstrate how weak WPA PSKs can be cracked quickly and easily using Amazon’s Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) service. Microsoft Security Advisory: Vulnerability in Internet Explorer could allow remote code execution Provides a link to more details about the vulnerability and shows a work-around/fix for the problem. Adobe plans to make it easier to delete Flash cookies in web browsers The new API, NPAPI:ClearSiteData, will allow Flash cookies – also known as Local Shared Objects (LSO) – to be deleted directly in the browser’s settings. Firefox beta getting new database standard The ninth beta version of Firefox is set to get support for a standard called IndexedDB that provides a database interface useful for offline data storage and other tasks needing information on a browser’s computer. MetroPCS accused of blocking certain Net content MetroPCS is violating the FCC’s recently approved Net neutrality rules by blocking certain Internet content, say several public interest groups. Server and Tools chief Muglia to leave Microsoft in summer 2011 Microsoft veteran and Server & Tools Business (STB) President Bob Muglia is leaving Microsoft, according to an email that CEO Steve Ballmer sent to employees on January 10. Report: DOJ nearing decision on Google-ITA The U.S. Department of Justice is gearing up for a possible formal antitrust investigation into whether or not Google should be allowed to purchase travel software company ITA Software, according to a report. South Korea says Google Street View broke law Police in South Korea reportedly say Google broke the country’s law when its Street View service captured personal data from unsecure Wi-Fi networks. The backlash over Google’s HTML5 video bet Choosing strategies based on what you believe to be long-term benefits is generally a good idea when running a business, but if you manage to alienate the world in the process, the long term may become irrelevant. Google answers critics on HTML5 Web video move Google responded to critics of its decision to drop support for a popular HTML5 video codec by declaring that a royalty-supported standard for Web video will hold the Web hostage. Random TinyHacker Links A Special GiveAway: a Great Book & Great Security Software The team from 7 Tutorials has a special giveaway running during the month of January. Signed copies of their latest book, full 1-year licenses of BitDefender Internet Security 2011 and free 3-month trials for everyone willing to participate. One Click Rooting For Android Phones Here’s a nice tool that helps you root your Android phone effortlessly. New Angry Birds Free version 1.0 Available in the App Store. Google Code University Learn programming at Google Code University. Capture and Share Your Favorite Part Of a YouTube Video SnipSnip.it lets you share only the part of the video that you like. Super User Questions More great questions and answers from this past week’s popular topics at Super User. What are the Windows A: and B: drives used for? Does OS X support linux-like features? What is the easiest way to make a backup of an entire hard disk? Will shifting from Wireless to Wired network result in better performance? Is it legal to install Windows 7 Home Premium Retail inside VMware virtual machine? How-To Geek Weekly Article Recap Enjoy reading through our hottest articles from this past week. The 50 Best Ways to Disable Built-in Windows Features You Don’t Want The Best of CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in 2011 How to Upgrade Windows 7 Easily (And Understand Whether You Should) The Worst of CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in 2011 The How-To Geek Guide to Audio Editing: Basic Noise Removal One Year Ago on How-To Geek More great articles from one year ago filled with helpful geeky goodness for you to enjoy. Share Text & Images the Easy Way with JustPaste.it Start Portable Firefox in Safe Mode Firefox 3.6 Release Candidate Available, Here’s How to Fix Your Incompatible Extensions Protect Your Computer from “Little Hands” with KidSafe Lock Prying Eyes Out of Your Minimized Windows Custom Crocheted Cylon-Cthulhu Hybrid What happens when you let your Cylon Centurion figure and your crocheted Cthulhu spend too many lonely nights together? A Cylon-Cthulhu hybrid, of course! You can get your own from the Cthulhu Chick store over on Etsy. Note: This is not an ad…Ruth is a friend of ours, and this Cylon-Cthulhu hybrid makes the perfect guard for the new MVP trophy in our office. The Geek Note Whether it is a geeky indoor project or just getting outside, we hope that you and your families have a terrific fun-filled weekend! Remember to keep sending those great tips in to us at [email protected]. Photo by qwrrty. Latest Features How-To Geek ETC How to Upgrade Windows 7 Easily (And Understand Whether You Should) The How-To Geek Guide to Audio Editing: Basic Noise Removal Install a Wii Game Loader for Easy Backups and Fast Load Times The Best of CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in 2011 The Worst of CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in 2011 HTG Projects: How to Create Your Own Custom Papercraft Toy Firefox 4.0 Beta 9 Available for Download – Get Your Copy Now The Frustrations of a Computer Literate Watching a Newbie Use a Computer [Humorous Video] Season0nPass Jailbreaks Current Gen Apple TVs IBM’s Jeopardy Playing Computer Watson Shows The Pros How It’s Done [Video] Tranquil Juice Drop Abstract Wallpaper Pulse Is a Sleek Newsreader for iOS and Android Devices

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• Using SQL Execution Plans to discover the Swedish alphabet

  - by Rob Farley

  SQL Server is quite remarkable in a bunch of ways. In this post, I’m using the way that the Query Optimizer handles LIKE to keep it SARGable, the Execution Plans that result, Collations, and PowerShell to come up with the Swedish alphabet. SARGability is the ability to seek for items in an index according to a particular set of criteria. If you don’t have SARGability in play, you need to scan the whole index (or table if you don’t have an index). For example, I can find myself in the phonebook easily, because it’s sorted by LastName and I can find Farley in there by moving to the Fs, and so on. I can’t find everyone in my suburb easily, because the phonebook isn’t sorted that way. I can’t even find people who have six letters in their last name, because also the book is sorted by LastName, it’s not sorted by LEN(LastName). This is all stuff I’ve looked at before, including in the talk I gave at SQLBits in October 2010. If I try to find everyone who’s names start with F, I can do that using a query a bit like: SELECT LastName FROM dbo.PhoneBook WHERE LEFT(LastName,1) = 'F'; Unfortunately, the Query Optimizer doesn’t realise that all the entries that satisfy LEFT(LastName,1) = 'F' will be together, and it has to scan the whole table to find them. But if I write: SELECT LastName FROM dbo.PhoneBook WHERE LastName LIKE 'F%'; then SQL is smart enough to understand this, and performs an Index Seek instead. To see why, I look further into the plan, in particular, the properties of the Index Seek operator. The ToolTip shows me what I’m after: You’ll see that it does a Seek to find any entries that are at least F, but not yet G. There’s an extra Predicate in there (a Residual Predicate if you like), which checks that each LastName is really LIKE F% – I suppose it doesn’t consider that the Seek Predicate is quite enough – but most of the benefit is seen by its working out the Seek Predicate, filtering to just the “at least F but not yet G” section of the data. This got me curious though, particularly about where the G comes from, and whether I could leverage it to create the Swedish alphabet. I know that in the Swedish language, there are three extra letters that appear at the end of the alphabet. One of them is ä that appears in the word Västerås. It turns out that Västerås is quite hard to find in an index when you’re looking it up in a Swedish map. I talked about this briefly in my five-minute talk on Collation from SQLPASS (the one which was slightly less than serious). So by looking at the plan, I can work out what the next letter is in the alphabet of the collation used by the column. In other words, if my alphabet were Swedish, I’d be able to tell what the next letter after F is – just in case it’s not G. It turns out it is… Yes, the Swedish letter after F is G. But I worked this out by using a copy of my PhoneBook table that used the Finnish_Swedish_CI_AI collation. I couldn’t find how the Query Optimizer calculates the G, and my friend Paul White (@SQL_Kiwi) tells me that it’s frustratingly internal to the QO. He’s particularly smart, even if he is from New Zealand. To investigate further, I decided to do some PowerShell, leveraging the Get-SqlPlan function that I blogged about recently (make sure you also have the SqlServerCmdletSnapin100 snap-in added). I started by indicating that I was going to use Finnish_Swedish_CI_AI as my collation of choice, and that I’d start whichever letter cam straight after the number 9. I figure that this is a cheat’s way of guessing the first letter of the alphabet (but it doesn’t actually work in Unicode – luckily I’m using varchar not nvarchar. Actually, there are a few aspects of this code that only work using ASCII, so apologies if you were wanting to apply it to Greek, Japanese, etc). I also initialised my $alphabet variable. $collation = 'Finnish_Swedish_CI_AI'; $firstletter = '9'; $alphabet = ''; Now I created the table for my test. A single field would do, and putting a Clustered Index on it would suffice for the Seeks. Invoke-Sqlcmd -server . -data tempdb -query "create table dbo.collation_test (col varchar(10) collate $collation primary key);" Now I get into the looping. $c = $firstletter; $stillgoing = $true; while ($stillgoing) { I construct the query I want, seeking for entries which start with whatever $c has reached, and get the plan for it: $query = "select col from dbo.collation_test where col like '$($c)%';"; [xml] $pl = get-sqlplan $query "." "tempdb"; At this point, my $pl variable is a scary piece of XML, representing the execution plan. A bit of hunting through it showed me that the EndRange element contained what I was after, and that if it contained NULL, then I was done. $stillgoing = ($pl.ShowPlanXML.BatchSequence.Batch.Statements.StmtSimple.QueryPlan.RelOp.IndexScan.SeekPredicates.SeekPredicateNew.SeekKeys.EndRange -ne $null); Now I could grab the value out of it (which came with apostrophes that needed stripping), and append that to my $alphabet variable.   if ($stillgoing)   {  $c=$pl.ShowPlanXML.BatchSequence.Batch.Statements.StmtSimple.QueryPlan.RelOp.IndexScan.SeekPredicates.SeekPredicateNew.SeekKeys.EndRange.RangeExpressions.ScalarOperator.ScalarString.Replace("'","");     $alphabet += $c;   } Finally, finishing the loop, dropping the table, and showing my alphabet! } Invoke-Sqlcmd -server . -data tempdb -query "drop table dbo.collation_test;"; $alphabet; When I run all this, I see that the Swedish alphabet is ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVXYZÅÄÖ, which matches what I see at Wikipedia. Interesting to see that the letters on the end are still there, even with Case Insensitivity. Turns out they’re not just “letters with accents”, they’re letters in their own right. I’m sure you gave up reading long ago, and really aren’t that fazed about the idea of doing this using PowerShell. I chose PowerShell because I’d already come up with an easy way of grabbing the estimated plan for a query, and PowerShell does allow for easy navigation of XML. I find the most interesting aspect of this as the fact that the Query Optimizer uses the next letter of the alphabet to maintain the SARGability of LIKE. I’m hoping they do something similar for a whole bunch of operations. Oh, and the fact that you know how to find stuff in the IKEA catalogue. Footnote: If you are interested in whether this works in other languages, you might want to consider the following screenshot, which shows that in principle, it should work with Japanese. It might be a bit harder to run this in PowerShell though, as I’m not sure how it translates. In Hiragana, the Japanese alphabet starts ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ...

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