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  • Why does SEO based code tips not appear to affect ranking?

    - by Ben
    I've been researching various methods for SEO where pages have precise titles, keywords are highlighted with h tags and tick the many boxes stated in good page mark up for SEO. However when looking at some top ranked search sites on google for key terms they have terrible SEO based mark up. Really long page titles, no tags, limited appearance of keywords in the text and so on. SEO analysis services rate them lower than other sites, yet these sites rank really high. Even with a low number of back-links they are high, so I don't understand how these sites earn the position when they appear inferior to those below them which have better mark up and links. I don't want to cause trouble my mentioning sites or keywords etc. but looking in google at 'executive search' the roughly 5th placed site makes no sense why it should be highly rank, especially with all the added .swfs. The same applies for the top of 'Japan Executive Search'. My main point is that these sites seem to not have all the important structural rules stated in seo page rating applications and general suggested best practice, nor do they show large back-links. It makes me feel like there is no point bothering to write decent mark up if it really doesn't matter. Can anyone explain how sites with such mark-up, and low back-links can outrank well written and structured sites with greater linkage? Sorry if this is a fuzzy question, I want to avoid singling out any sites for example, but it really has me perplexed that sites which appear to ignore the suggested best practices rank so well.

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  • Are there still plans for a new sound theme?

    - by Ingo Gerth
    Let me quote from Mark's blog almost one year ago: March 5th, 2010 at 7:19 pm Mark, will there be an update to the sound theme to match the updated visual brand? Mark Shuttleworth: Gack, I completely forgot about that. A very good point. Would you see if you can rally a round of community submissions for a sound theme inspired by light? Lets keep it short and sweet: What are the current considerations for the Ubuntu default sound theme?

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  • Todays Apress $10 Deal - Pro RFID in BizTalk Server 2009

    - by TATWORTH
    Today's $10 Deal from Apress at http://www.apress.com/info/dailydeal is " Pro RFID in BizTalk Server 2009 With extensive code and configuration examples and multiple case studies illustrating how the BizTalk RFID application is being used in various industries, authors Ram Venkatesh, the lead developer of the BizTalk RFID platform, Mark Simms, a leading architect and developer of BizTalk RFID solutions, and Mark Beckner, a BizTalk Server and enterprise architecture specialist, ensure that you will gain the insight and master the tools necessary to be able to confidently and efficiently implement a BizTalk RFID solution. $49.99 | Published Feb 2009 | Mark Beckner "

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  • PATH command not found

    - by joslinm
    Hi, I'm not experienced with PATH (Any good reference would be appreciated), but I made a mistake and did PATH=/google_appengine, which I'm assuming completely overrid PATH. Still, I restarted bash and echo'd PATH and found that the folders were back. mark@mark-laptop:~$ echo $PATH /usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games However, when I then tried to append to it, I got an error that PATH wasn't found. I've looked around Google and couldn't find a good answer. Any help would be appreciated mark@mark-laptop:~$ PATH = $PATH:/google_appengine PATH: command not found

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  • Proper Usage of Arrays and Functions [closed]

    - by Ssegawa Victor
    Can some one help me write a C code that solves the following problem. PROBLEM Consider the faculty registrar who has to process results for 1st year 1st semester students. Students offer five courses CSC 1100, CSK 1101, CSC 1104, CSC 1105 and CSC 1106. The courses have credit units 4,4,4,3 and 3 respectively. Lecturers provide course work and exam marks. For each course, course work constitutes 40% of the final mark while the exam constitutes 60% of the final mark. The role of the registrar is to Compute the final mark for each student for each course. The final mark must be a whole number Compute the grade and grade point of the students for each course they offered. According to senate regulations, grades and grade points are awarded to final marks according to the following criteria Range Grade Grade Point 90 – 100 A+ 5.0 80 – 89 A 5.0 75 – 79 B+ 4.5 70 – 74 B 4.0 65 – 69 C+ 3.5 60 – 64 C 3.0 55 – 59 D+ 2.5 50 – 54 D 2.0 45 – 49 E 1.5 40 – 44 E- 1.0 0 – 39 F 0.0 Put a comment ‘Retake’ to a student for every course where the Grade Point is less than 2.0 Compute the cumulative grade point average CGPA for each student. The senate formula for CGPA is GGPA =(?_(i=1)^(i=N)¦?CU _i×GP _i ?)/(?_(i=1)^(i=N)¦CU i) Put a comment “Progress” for any student whose GGPA is greater than 2 and “Stay Put” on a student whose CGPA is less than 2 You are required to create a c program that considers a class of 25 students and: 1.Initializes an array ‘student’ which stores student names 2.Initializes arrays for course work and exam for each course. ‘cw_csc_1100’ and ‘ex_csc_1100’ store course work and exam marks (respectively) for CSC 1100. The same approach is considered for all other courses 3.Initializes the coursework and exam marks arrays with marks between 0 and 99 4.Write appropriate functions that will generate the final marks, generate grades, generate grade points, generate cumulative grade points, generate comments for students and comments for courses per student 5.Create appropriate arrays for final marks and insert the data there using the appropriate functions 6.Without having to create any extra arrays, use the functions created to generate a report per student that looks like the one bellow. Student Name: Ngubiri Course Unit Final mark Grade Grade Point Course Comment CSC 1100 43 E- 1.0 Retake CSK 1101 50 D 2.0 CSC 1104 59 D+ 2.5 CSC 1105 70 B 4.0 CSC 1106 65 C+ 3.5 CGPA 2.47 Overall Comment Progress NB It is advisable that the indices are used to identify the owners. Eg if student[x] is John, then cs_csc_100[x] should be a mark for John since the index is the same

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  • Packets marked by iptables only sent to the correct routing table sometimes

    - by cookiecaper
    I am trying to route packets generated by a specific user out over a VPN. I have this configuration: $ sudo iptables -S -t nat -P PREROUTING ACCEPT -P OUTPUT ACCEPT -P POSTROUTING ACCEPT -A POSTROUTING -o tun0 -j MASQUERADE $ sudo iptables -S -t mangle -P PREROUTING ACCEPT -P INPUT ACCEPT -P FORWARD ACCEPT -P OUTPUT ACCEPT -P POSTROUTING ACCEPT -A OUTPUT -m owner --uid-owner guy -j MARK --set-xmark 0xb/0xffffffff $ sudo ip rule show 0: from all lookup local 32765: from all fwmark 0xb lookup 11 32766: from all lookup main 32767: from all lookup default $ sudo ip route show table 11 10.8.0.5 dev tun0 proto kernel scope link src 10.8.0.6 10.8.0.6 dev tun0 scope link 10.8.0.1 via 10.8.0.5 dev tun0 0.0.0.0/1 via 10.8.0.5 dev tun0 $ sudo iptables -S -t raw -P PREROUTING ACCEPT -P OUTPUT ACCEPT -A OUTPUT -m owner --uid-owner guy -j TRACE -A OUTPUT -p tcp -m tcp --dport 80 -j TRACE It seems that some sites work fine and use the VPN, but others don't and fall back to the normal interface. This is bad. This is a packet trace that used VPN: Oct 27 00:24:28 agent kernel: [612979.976052] TRACE: raw:OUTPUT:rule:2 IN= OUT=eth0 SRC=XXX.YYY.ZZZ.AAA DST=23.1.17.194 LEN=60 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=64 ID=14494 DF PROTO=TCP SPT=57502 DPT=80 SEQ=2294732931 ACK=0 WINDOW=5840 RES=0x00 SYN URGP=0 OPT (020405B40402080A03A6E01D0000000001030307) UID=999 GID=999 Oct 27 00:24:28 agent kernel: [612979.976105] TRACE: raw:OUTPUT:policy:3 IN= OUT=eth0 SRC=XXX.YYY.ZZZ.AAA DST=23.1.17.194 LEN=60 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=64 ID=14494 DF PROTO=TCP SPT=57502 DPT=80 SEQ=2294732931 ACK=0 WINDOW=5840 RES=0x00 SYN URGP=0 OPT (020405B40402080A03A6E01D0000000001030307) UID=999 GID=999 Oct 27 00:24:28 agent kernel: [612979.976164] TRACE: mangle:OUTPUT:rule:1 IN= OUT=eth0 SRC=XXX.YYY.ZZZ.AAA DST=23.1.17.194 LEN=60 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=64 ID=14494 DF PROTO=TCP SPT=57502 DPT=80 SEQ=2294732931 ACK=0 WINDOW=5840 RES=0x00 SYN URGP=0 OPT (020405B40402080A03A6E01D0000000001030307) UID=999 GID=999 Oct 27 00:24:28 agent kernel: [612979.976210] TRACE: mangle:OUTPUT:policy:2 IN= OUT=eth0 SRC=XXX.YYY.ZZZ.AAA DST=23.1.17.194 LEN=60 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=64 ID=14494 DF PROTO=TCP SPT=57502 DPT=80 SEQ=2294732931 ACK=0 WINDOW=5840 RES=0x00 SYN URGP=0 OPT (020405B40402080A03A6E01D0000000001030307) UID=999 GID=999 MARK=0xb Oct 27 00:24:28 agent kernel: [612979.976269] TRACE: nat:OUTPUT:policy:1 IN= OUT=eth0 SRC=XXX.YYY.ZZZ.AAA DST=23.1.17.194 LEN=60 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=64 ID=14494 DF PROTO=TCP SPT=57502 DPT=80 SEQ=2294732931 ACK=0 WINDOW=5840 RES=0x00 SYN URGP=0 OPT (020405B40402080A03A6E01D0000000001030307) UID=999 GID=999 MARK=0xb Oct 27 00:24:28 agent kernel: [612979.976320] TRACE: filter:OUTPUT:policy:1 IN= OUT=eth0 SRC=XXX.YYY.ZZZ.AAA DST=23.1.17.194 LEN=60 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=64 ID=14494 DF PROTO=TCP SPT=57502 DPT=80 SEQ=2294732931 ACK=0 WINDOW=5840 RES=0x00 SYN URGP=0 OPT (020405B40402080A03A6E01D0000000001030307) UID=999 GID=999 MARK=0xb Oct 27 00:24:28 agent kernel: [612979.976367] TRACE: mangle:POSTROUTING:policy:1 IN= OUT=tun0 SRC=XXX.YYY.ZZZ.AAA DST=23.1.17.194 LEN=60 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=64 ID=14494 DF PROTO=TCP SPT=57502 DPT=80 SEQ=2294732931 ACK=0 WINDOW=5840 RES=0x00 SYN URGP=0 OPT (020405B40402080A03A6E01D0000000001030307) UID=999 GID=999 MARK=0xb Oct 27 00:24:28 agent kernel: [612979.976414] TRACE: nat:POSTROUTING:rule:1 IN= OUT=tun0 SRC=XXX.YYY.ZZZ.AAA DST=23.1.17.194 LEN=60 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=64 ID=14494 DF PROTO=TCP SPT=57502 DPT=80 SEQ=2294732931 ACK=0 WINDOW=5840 RES=0x00 SYN URGP=0 OPT (020405B40402080A03A6E01D0000000001030307) UID=999 GID=999 MARK=0xb and this is one that didn't: Oct 27 00:22:41 agent kernel: [612873.662559] TRACE: raw:OUTPUT:rule:2 IN= OUT=eth0 SRC=XXX.YYY.ZZZ.AAA DST=209.68.27.16 LEN=60 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=64 ID=40425 DF PROTO=TCP SPT=45305 DPT=80 SEQ=604973951 ACK=0 WINDOW=5840 RES=0x00 SYN URGP=0 OPT (020405B40402080A03A6B6960000000001030307) UID=999 GID=999 Oct 27 00:22:41 agent kernel: [612873.662609] TRACE: raw:OUTPUT:policy:3 IN= OUT=eth0 SRC=XXX.YYY.ZZZ.AAA DST=209.68.27.16 LEN=60 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=64 ID=40425 DF PROTO=TCP SPT=45305 DPT=80 SEQ=604973951 ACK=0 WINDOW=5840 RES=0x00 SYN URGP=0 OPT (020405B40402080A03A6B6960000000001030307) UID=999 GID=999 Oct 27 00:22:41 agent kernel: [612873.662664] TRACE: mangle:OUTPUT:rule:1 IN= OUT=eth0 SRC=XXX.YYY.ZZZ.AAA DST=209.68.27.16 LEN=60 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=64 ID=40425 DF PROTO=TCP SPT=45305 DPT=80 SEQ=604973951 ACK=0 WINDOW=5840 RES=0x00 SYN URGP=0 OPT (020405B40402080A03A6B6960000000001030307) UID=999 GID=999 Oct 27 00:22:41 agent kernel: [612873.662709] TRACE: mangle:OUTPUT:policy:2 IN= OUT=eth0 SRC=XXX.YYY.ZZZ.AAA DST=209.68.27.16 LEN=60 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=64 ID=40425 DF PROTO=TCP SPT=45305 DPT=80 SEQ=604973951 ACK=0 WINDOW=5840 RES=0x00 SYN URGP=0 OPT (020405B40402080A03A6B6960000000001030307) UID=999 GID=999 MARK=0xb Oct 27 00:22:41 agent kernel: [612873.662761] TRACE: nat:OUTPUT:policy:1 IN= OUT=eth0 SRC=XXX.YYY.ZZZ.AAA DST=209.68.27.16 LEN=60 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=64 ID=40425 DF PROTO=TCP SPT=45305 DPT=80 SEQ=604973951 ACK=0 WINDOW=5840 RES=0x00 SYN URGP=0 OPT (020405B40402080A03A6B6960000000001030307) UID=999 GID=999 MARK=0xb Oct 27 00:22:41 agent kernel: [612873.662808] TRACE: filter:OUTPUT:policy:1 IN= OUT=eth0 SRC=XXX.YYY.ZZZ.AAA DST=209.68.27.16 LEN=60 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=64 ID=40425 DF PROTO=TCP SPT=45305 DPT=80 SEQ=604973951 ACK=0 WINDOW=5840 RES=0x00 SYN URGP=0 OPT (020405B40402080A03A6B6960000000001030307) UID=999 GID=999 MARK=0xb Oct 27 00:22:41 agent kernel: [612873.662855] TRACE: mangle:POSTROUTING:policy:1 IN= OUT=eth0 SRC=XXX.YYY.ZZZ.AAA DST=209.68.27.16 LEN=60 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=64 ID=40425 DF PROTO=TCP SPT=45305 DPT=80 SEQ=604973951 ACK=0 WINDOW=5840 RES=0x00 SYN URGP=0 OPT (020405B40402080A03A6B6960000000001030307) UID=999 GID=999 MARK=0xb I have already tried "ip route flush cache", to no avail. I do not know why the first packet goes through the correct routing table, and the second doesn't. Both are marked. Once again, I do not want ALL packets system-wide to go through the VPN, I only want packets from a specific user (UID=999) to go through the VPN. I am testing ipchicken.com and walmart.com via links, from the same user, same shell. walmart.com appears to use the VPN; ipchicken.com does not. Any help appreciated. Will send 0.5 bitcoins to answerer who makes this fixed.

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  • Allow any arguments for a given command with sudo

    - by Mark L
    I have the following sudo config entry which I added via sudo visudo: mark ALL = NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/lxc-ls* I can run lxc-ls with my user fine but I can't append any parameters without it demanding I prefix the command with sudo. $ whoami mark $ lxc-ls test-container $ lxc-ls --fancy lxc-ls: error: You must be root to access advanced container properties. Try running: sudo /usr/bin/lxc-ls Any idea how I can edit via sudo visudo to allow for any argument after the command? I don't want to prefix the command with sudo as I'm using a python library to execute the command and it's being funny about sudo prefixes.

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  • Memory Troubles with UIImagePicker

    - by Dan Ray
    I'm building an app that has several different sections to it, all of which are pretty image-heavy. It ties in with my client's website and they're a "high-design" type outfit. One piece of the app is images uploaded from the camera or the library, and a tableview that shows a grid of thumbnails. Pretty reliably, when I'm dealing with the camera version of UIImagePickerControl, I get hit for low memory. If I bounce around that part of the app for a while, I occasionally and non-repeatably crash with "status:10 (SIGBUS)" in the debugger. On low memory warning, my root view controller for that aspect of the app goes to my data management singleton, cruises through the arrays of cached data, and kills the biggest piece, the image associated with each entry. Thusly: - (void)didReceiveMemoryWarning { // Releases the view if it doesn't have a superview. [super didReceiveMemoryWarning]; UIAlertView *alert = [[UIAlertView alloc] initWithTitle:@"Low Memory Warning" message:@"Cleaning out events data" delegate:nil cancelButtonTitle:@"All right then." otherButtonTitles:nil]; [alert show]; [alert release]; NSInteger spaceSaved; DataManager *data = [DataManager sharedDataManager]; for (Event *event in data.eventList) { spaceSaved += [(NSData *)UIImagePNGRepresentation(event.image) length]; event.image = nil; spaceSaved -= [(NSData *)UIImagePNGRepresentation(event.image) length]; } NSString *titleString = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"Saved %d on event images", spaceSaved]; for (WondrMark *mark in data.wondrMarks) { spaceSaved += [(NSData *)UIImagePNGRepresentation(mark.image) length]; mark.image = nil; spaceSaved -= [(NSData *)UIImagePNGRepresentation(mark.image) length]; } NSString *messageString = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"And total %d on event and mark images", spaceSaved]; NSLog(@"%@ - %@", titleString, messageString); // Relinquish ownership any cached data, images, etc that aren't in use. } As you can see, I'm making a (poor) attempt to eyeball the memory space I'm freeing up. I know it's not telling me about the actual memory footprint of the UIImages themselves, but it gives me SOME numbers at least, so I can see that SOMETHING'S happening. (Sorry for the hamfisted way I build that NSLog message too--I was going to fire another UIAlertView, but realized it'd be more useful to log it.) Pretty reliably, after toodling around in the image portion of the app for a while, I'll pull up the camera interface and get the low memory UIAlertView like three or four times in quick succession. Here's the NSLog output from the last time I saw it: 2010-05-27 08:55:02.659 EverWondr[7974:207] Saved 109591 on event images - And total 1419756 on event and mark images wait_fences: failed to receive reply: 10004003 2010-05-27 08:55:08.759 EverWondr[7974:207] Saved 4 on event images - And total 392695 on event and mark images 2010-05-27 08:55:14.865 EverWondr[7974:207] Saved 4 on event images - And total 873419 on event and mark images 2010-05-27 08:55:14.969 EverWondr[7974:207] Saved 4 on event images - And total 4 on event and mark images 2010-05-27 08:55:15.064 EverWondr[7974:207] Saved 4 on event images - And total 4 on event and mark images And then pretty soon after that we get our SIGBUS exit. So that's the situation. Now my specific questions: THE time I see this happening is when the UIPickerView's camera iris shuts. I click the button to take the picture, it does the "click" animation, and Instruments shows my memory footprint going from about 10mb to about 25mb, and sitting there until the image is delivered to my UIViewController, where usage drops back to 10 or 11mb again. If we make it through that without a memory warning, we're golden, but most likely we don't. Anything I can do to make that not be so expensive? Second, I have NSZombies enabled. Am I understanding correctly that that's actually preventing memory from being freed? Am I subjecting my app to an unfair test environment? Third, is there some way to programmatically get my memory usage? Or at least the usage for a UIImage object? I've scoured the docs and don't see anything about that.

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  • How to display data stored in core data in a table view?

    - by Dipanjan Dutta
    Hello All, I have developed a core data model for my application. I need to display the saved data into a table view. For my app I have selected split view controller. I am writing down my codes below. Please help me in this regard and write me the code that needs to be added. This is very important as my continuation in my company depends on this. #import "RootViewController.h" #import "DetailViewController.h" #import "AddViewController.h" #import "EmployeeDetailsAppDelegate.h" /* This template does not ensure user interface consistency during editing operations in the table view. You must implement appropriate methods to provide the user experience you require. */ @interface RootViewController () - (void)configureCell:(UITableViewCell *)cell atIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath; @end @implementation RootViewController @synthesize detailViewController, fetchedResultsController, managedObjectContext, results, empName; #pragma mark - #pragma mark View lifecycle - (void)viewDidLoad { results = [[NSMutableDictionary alloc]init]; [results setObject:empName.text forKey:@"EmployeeName"]; [self.tableView reloadData]; [super viewDidLoad]; } /* - (void)viewWillAppear:(BOOL)animated { [super viewWillAppear:animated]; } */ /* - (void)viewDidAppear:(BOOL)animated { [super viewDidAppear:animated]; } */ /* - (void)viewWillDisappear:(BOOL)animated { [super viewWillDisappear:animated]; } */ /* - (void)viewDidDisappear:(BOOL)animated { [super viewDidDisappear:animated]; } */ - (BOOL)shouldAutorotateToInterfaceOrientation:(UIInterfaceOrientation)interfaceOrientation { // Ensure that the view controller supports rotation and that the split view can therefore show in both portrait and landscape. return YES; } - (void)configureCell:(UITableViewCell *)cell atIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath { NSManagedObject *managedObject = [self.fetchedResultsController objectAtIndexPath:indexPath]; cell.textLabel.text = [[managedObject valueForKey:@"EmployeeName"] description]; } #pragma mark - #pragma mark Add a new object - (void)insertNewObject:(id)sender { AddViewController *add = [[AddViewController alloc]initWithNibName:@"AddViewController" bundle:nil]; self.modalPresentationStyle = UIModalPresentationFormSheet; add.wantsFullScreenLayout = NO; [self presentModalViewController:add animated:YES]; [add release]; } #pragma mark - #pragma mark Table view data source - (NSInteger)numberOfSectionsInTableView:(UITableView *)tableView { return 1; } - (NSInteger)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView numberOfRowsInSection:(NSInteger)section { return 1; } - (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath { static NSString *CellIdentifier = @"Cell"; UITableViewCell *cell = [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:CellIdentifier]; if (cell == nil) { cell = [[[UITableViewCell alloc] initWithStyle:UITableViewCellStyleDefault reuseIdentifier:CellIdentifier] autorelease]; } // Configure the cell. NSManagedObject *managedObject = [self.fetchedResultsController objectAtIndexPath:indexPath]; cell.textLabel.text = [[managedObject valueForKey:@"EmployeeName"] description]; return cell; } - (void)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView commitEditingStyle:(UITableViewCellEditingStyle)editingStyle forRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath { if (editingStyle == UITableViewCellEditingStyleDelete) { // Delete the managed object. NSManagedObject *objectToDelete = [self.fetchedResultsController objectAtIndexPath:indexPath]; if (self.detailViewController.detailItem == objectToDelete) { self.detailViewController.detailItem = nil; } NSManagedObjectContext *context = [self.fetchedResultsController managedObjectContext]; [context deleteObject:objectToDelete]; NSError *error; if (![context save:&error]) { /* Replace this implementation with code to handle the error appropriately. abort() causes the application to generate a crash log and terminate. You should not use this function in a shipping application, although it may be useful during development. If it is not possible to recover from the error, display an alert panel that instructs the user to quit the application by pressing the Home button. */ NSLog(@"Unresolved error %@, %@", error, [error userInfo]); abort(); } } } - (BOOL)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView canMoveRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath { // The table view should not be re-orderable. return NO; } #pragma mark - #pragma mark Table view delegate - (void)tableView:(UITableView *)aTableView didSelectRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath { // Set the detail item in the detail view controller. NSManagedObject *selectedObject = [self.fetchedResultsController objectAtIndexPath:indexPath]; self.detailViewController.detailItem = selectedObject; } #pragma mark - #pragma mark Fetched results controller - (NSFetchedResultsController *)fetchedResultsController { if (fetchedResultsController != nil) { return fetchedResultsController; } /* Set up the fetched results controller. */ // Create the fetch request for the entity. NSFetchRequest *fetchRequest = [[NSFetchRequest alloc] init]; // Edit the entity name as appropriate. NSEntityDescription *entity = [NSEntityDescription entityForName:@"Details" inManagedObjectContext:managedObjectContext]; [fetchRequest setEntity:entity]; // Set the batch size to a suitable number. [fetchRequest setFetchBatchSize:20]; // Edit the sort key as appropriate. NSSortDescriptor *sortDescriptor = [[NSSortDescriptor alloc] initWithKey:@"EmployeeName" ascending:NO]; NSArray *sortDescriptors = [[NSArray alloc] initWithObjects:sortDescriptor, nil]; [fetchRequest setSortDescriptors:sortDescriptors]; // Edit the section name key path and cache name if appropriate. // nil for section name key path means "no sections". NSFetchedResultsController *aFetchedResultsController = [[NSFetchedResultsController alloc] initWithFetchRequest:fetchRequest managedObjectContext:managedObjectContext sectionNameKeyPath:nil cacheName:@"Root"]; aFetchedResultsController.delegate = self; self.fetchedResultsController = aFetchedResultsController; [aFetchedResultsController release]; [fetchRequest release]; [sortDescriptor release]; [sortDescriptors release]; return fetchedResultsController; } #pragma mark - #pragma mark Fetched results controller delegate - (void)controllerWillChangeContent:(NSFetchedResultsController *)controller { [self.tableView beginUpdates]; } - (void)controller:(NSFetchedResultsController *)controller didChangeSection:(id <NSFetchedResultsSectionInfo>)sectionInfo atIndex:(NSUInteger)sectionIndex forChangeType:(NSFetchedResultsChangeType)type { switch(type) { case NSFetchedResultsChangeInsert: [self.tableView insertSections:[NSIndexSet indexSetWithIndex:sectionIndex] withRowAnimation:UITableViewRowAnimationFade]; break; case NSFetchedResultsChangeDelete: [self.tableView deleteSections:[NSIndexSet indexSetWithIndex:sectionIndex] withRowAnimation:UITableViewRowAnimationFade]; break; } } - (void)controller:(NSFetchedResultsController *)controller didChangeObject:(id)anObject atIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath forChangeType:(NSFetchedResultsChangeType)type newIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)newIndexPath { UITableView *tableView = self.tableView; switch(type) { case NSFetchedResultsChangeInsert: [tableView insertRowsAtIndexPaths:[NSArray arrayWithObject:newIndexPath] withRowAnimation:UITableViewRowAnimationFade]; break; case NSFetchedResultsChangeDelete: [tableView deleteRowsAtIndexPaths:[NSArray arrayWithObject:indexPath] withRowAnimation:UITableViewRowAnimationFade]; break; case NSFetchedResultsChangeUpdate: [self configureCell:[tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:indexPath] atIndexPath:indexPath]; break; case NSFetchedResultsChangeMove: [tableView deleteRowsAtIndexPaths:[NSArray arrayWithObject:indexPath] withRowAnimation:UITableViewRowAnimationFade]; [tableView insertRowsAtIndexPaths:[NSArray arrayWithObject:newIndexPath]withRowAnimation:UITableViewRowAnimationFade]; break; } } - (void)controllerDidChangeContent:(NSFetchedResultsController *)controller { [self.tableView endUpdates]; } #pragma mark - #pragma mark Memory management - (void)didReceiveMemoryWarning { // Releases the view if it doesn't have a superview. [super didReceiveMemoryWarning]; // Relinquish ownership any cached data, images, etc. that aren't in use. } - (void)viewDidUnload { // Relinquish ownership of anything that can be recreated in viewDidLoad or on demand. // For example: self.myOutlet = nil; } - (void)dealloc { [detailViewController release]; [fetchedResultsController release]; [managedObjectContext release]; [super dealloc]; } @end // // AddViewController.m // EmployeeDetails // // Created by Dipanjan on 15/02/11. // Copyright 2011 __MyCompanyName__. All rights reserved. // #import "AddViewController.h" #import "EmployeeDetailsAppDelegate.h" #import "RootViewController.h" @implementation AddViewController @synthesize empName; @synthesize empID; @synthesize empDepartment; @synthesize backButton; // The designated initializer. Override if you create the controller programmatically and want to perform customization that is not appropriate for viewDidLoad. /* - (id)initWithNibName:(NSString *)nibNameOrNil bundle:(NSBundle *)nibBundleOrNil { self = [super initWithNibName:nibNameOrNil bundle:nibBundleOrNil]; if (self) { // Custom initialization. } return self; } */ /* // Implement viewDidLoad to do additional setup after loading the view, typically from a nib. - (void)viewDidLoad { [super viewDidLoad]; } */ -(void)saveDetails{ EmployeeDetailsAppDelegate *appDelegate = [[UIApplication sharedApplication]delegate]; NSManagedObjectContext *context = [appDelegate managedObjectContext]; NSManagedObject *newDetails; newDetails = [NSEntityDescription insertNewObjectForEntityForName:@"Details" inManagedObjectContext:context]; [newDetails setValue:empID.text forKey:@"EmployeeID"]; [newDetails setValue:empName.text forKey:@"EmployeeName"]; [newDetails setValue:empDepartment.text forKey:@"EmployeeDepartment"]; empID.text = @""; empName.text = @""; empDepartment.text = @""; NSLog(@"%@........----->>>...", newDetails); NSError *error; [context save:&error]; [self dismissModalViewControllerAnimated:YES]; } -(void)findDetails { EmployeeDetailsAppDelegate *appDelegate = [[UIApplication sharedApplication]delegate]; NSManagedObjectContext *context = [appDelegate managedObjectContext]; NSEntityDescription *entityDesc = [NSEntityDescription entityForName:@"Details" inManagedObjectContext:context]; NSFetchRequest *request = [[NSFetchRequest alloc]init]; [request setEntity:entityDesc]; NSPredicate *pred = [NSPredicate predicateWithFormat:@"(EmployeeName = %@)", empName.text]; [request setPredicate:pred]; NSManagedObject *matches = nil; NSError *error; NSArray *objects = [context executeFetchRequest:request error:&error]; if ([objects count] == 0) { } else { matches = [objects objectAtIndex:0]; empID.text = [matches valueForKey:@"EmployeeID"]; empDepartment.text = [matches valueForKey:@"EmployeeDepartment"]; } [request release]; [self dismissModalViewControllerAnimated:YES]; } - (BOOL)shouldAutorotateToInterfaceOrientation:(UIInterfaceOrientation)interfaceOrientation { // Overriden to allow any orientation. return YES; } - (void)didReceiveMemoryWarning { // Releases the view if it doesn't have a superview. [super didReceiveMemoryWarning]; // Release any cached data, images, etc. that aren't in use. } - (void)viewDidUnload { self.empName = nil; self.empID = nil; self.empDepartment = nil; [super viewDidUnload]; // Release any retained subviews of the main view. // e.g. self.myOutlet = nil; } - (void)dealloc { [empID release]; [empName release]; [empDepartment release]; [super dealloc]; } @end Please let me know the answer as soon as possible. Thank you. Regards, Dipanjan

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  • Zen and the Art of File and Folder Organization

    - by Mark Virtue
    Is your desk a paragon of neatness, or does it look like a paper-bomb has gone off? If you’ve been putting off getting organized because the task is too huge or daunting, or you don’t know where to start, we’ve got 40 tips to get you on the path to zen mastery of your filing system. For all those readers who would like to get their files and folders organized, or, if they’re already organized, better organized—we have compiled a complete guide to getting organized and staying organized, a comprehensive article that will hopefully cover every possible tip you could want. Signs that Your Computer is Poorly Organized If your computer is a mess, you’re probably already aware of it.  But just in case you’re not, here are some tell-tale signs: Your Desktop has over 40 icons on it “My Documents” contains over 300 files and 60 folders, including MP3s and digital photos You use the Windows’ built-in search facility whenever you need to find a file You can’t find programs in the out-of-control list of programs in your Start Menu You save all your Word documents in one folder, all your spreadsheets in a second folder, etc Any given file that you’re looking for may be in any one of four different sets of folders But before we start, here are some quick notes: We’re going to assume you know what files and folders are, and how to create, save, rename, copy and delete them The organization principles described in this article apply equally to all computer systems.  However, the screenshots here will reflect how things look on Windows (usually Windows 7).  We will also mention some useful features of Windows that can help you get organized. Everyone has their own favorite methodology of organizing and filing, and it’s all too easy to get into “My Way is Better than Your Way” arguments.  The reality is that there is no perfect way of getting things organized.  When I wrote this article, I tried to keep a generalist and objective viewpoint.  I consider myself to be unusually well organized (to the point of obsession, truth be told), and I’ve had 25 years experience in collecting and organizing files on computers.  So I’ve got a lot to say on the subject.  But the tips I have described here are only one way of doing it.  Hopefully some of these tips will work for you too, but please don’t read this as any sort of “right” way to do it. At the end of the article we’ll be asking you, the reader, for your own organization tips. Why Bother Organizing At All? For some, the answer to this question is self-evident. And yet, in this era of powerful desktop search software (the search capabilities built into the Windows Vista and Windows 7 Start Menus, and third-party programs like Google Desktop Search), the question does need to be asked, and answered. I have a friend who puts every file he ever creates, receives or downloads into his My Documents folder and doesn’t bother filing them into subfolders at all.  He relies on the search functionality built into his Windows operating system to help him find whatever he’s looking for.  And he always finds it.  He’s a Search Samurai.  For him, filing is a waste of valuable time that could be spent enjoying life! It’s tempting to follow suit.  On the face of it, why would anyone bother to take the time to organize their hard disk when such excellent search software is available?  Well, if all you ever want to do with the files you own is to locate and open them individually (for listening, editing, etc), then there’s no reason to ever bother doing one scrap of organization.  But consider these common tasks that are not achievable with desktop search software: Find files manually.  Often it’s not convenient, speedy or even possible to utilize your desktop search software to find what you want.  It doesn’t work 100% of the time, or you may not even have it installed.  Sometimes its just plain faster to go straight to the file you want, if you know it’s in a particular sub-folder, rather than trawling through hundreds of search results. Find groups of similar files (e.g. all your “work” files, all the photos of your Europe holiday in 2008, all your music videos, all the MP3s from Dark Side of the Moon, all your letters you wrote to your wife, all your tax returns).  Clever naming of the files will only get you so far.  Sometimes it’s the date the file was created that’s important, other times it’s the file format, and other times it’s the purpose of the file.  How do you name a collection of files so that they’re easy to isolate based on any of the above criteria?  Short answer, you can’t. Move files to a new computer.  It’s time to upgrade your computer.  How do you quickly grab all the files that are important to you?  Or you decide to have two computers now – one for home and one for work.  How do you quickly isolate only the work-related files to move them to the work computer? Synchronize files to other computers.  If you have more than one computer, and you need to mirror some of your files onto the other computer (e.g. your music collection), then you need a way to quickly determine which files are to be synced and which are not.  Surely you don’t want to synchronize everything? Choose which files to back up.  If your backup regime calls for multiple backups, or requires speedy backups, then you’ll need to be able to specify which files are to be backed up, and which are not.  This is not possible if they’re all in the same folder. Finally, if you’re simply someone who takes pleasure in being organized, tidy and ordered (me! me!), then you don’t even need a reason.  Being disorganized is simply unthinkable. Tips on Getting Organized Here we present our 40 best tips on how to get organized.  Or, if you’re already organized, to get better organized. Tip #1.  Choose Your Organization System Carefully The reason that most people are not organized is that it takes time.  And the first thing that takes time is deciding upon a system of organization.  This is always a matter of personal preference, and is not something that a geek on a website can tell you.  You should always choose your own system, based on how your own brain is organized (which makes the assumption that your brain is, in fact, organized). We can’t instruct you, but we can make suggestions: You may want to start off with a system based on the users of the computer.  i.e. “My Files”, “My Wife’s Files”, My Son’s Files”, etc.  Inside “My Files”, you might then break it down into “Personal” and “Business”.  You may then realize that there are overlaps.  For example, everyone may want to share access to the music library, or the photos from the school play.  So you may create another folder called “Family”, for the “common” files. You may decide that the highest-level breakdown of your files is based on the “source” of each file.  In other words, who created the files.  You could have “Files created by ME (business or personal)”, “Files created by people I know (family, friends, etc)”, and finally “Files created by the rest of the world (MP3 music files, downloaded or ripped movies or TV shows, software installation files, gorgeous desktop wallpaper images you’ve collected, etc).”  This system happens to be the one I use myself.  See below:  Mark is for files created by meVC is for files created by my company (Virtual Creations)Others is for files created by my friends and familyData is the rest of the worldAlso, Settings is where I store the configuration files and other program data files for my installed software (more on this in tip #34, below). Each folder will present its own particular set of requirements for further sub-organization.  For example, you may decide to organize your music collection into sub-folders based on the artist’s name, while your digital photos might get organized based on the date they were taken.  It can be different for every sub-folder! Another strategy would be based on “currentness”.  Files you have yet to open and look at live in one folder.  Ones that have been looked at but not yet filed live in another place.  Current, active projects live in yet another place.  All other files (your “archive”, if you like) would live in a fourth folder. (And of course, within that last folder you’d need to create a further sub-system based on one of the previous bullet points). Put some thought into this – changing it when it proves incomplete can be a big hassle!  Before you go to the trouble of implementing any system you come up with, examine a wide cross-section of the files you own and see if they will all be able to find a nice logical place to sit within your system. Tip #2.  When You Decide on Your System, Stick to It! There’s nothing more pointless than going to all the trouble of creating a system and filing all your files, and then whenever you create, receive or download a new file, you simply dump it onto your Desktop.  You need to be disciplined – forever!  Every new file you get, spend those extra few seconds to file it where it belongs!  Otherwise, in just a month or two, you’ll be worse off than before – half your files will be organized and half will be disorganized – and you won’t know which is which! Tip #3.  Choose the Root Folder of Your Structure Carefully Every data file (document, photo, music file, etc) that you create, own or is important to you, no matter where it came from, should be found within one single folder, and that one single folder should be located at the root of your C: drive (as a sub-folder of C:\).  In other words, do not base your folder structure in standard folders like “My Documents”.  If you do, then you’re leaving it up to the operating system engineers to decide what folder structure is best for you.  And every operating system has a different system!  In Windows 7 your files are found in C:\Users\YourName, whilst on Windows XP it was C:\Documents and Settings\YourName\My Documents.  In UNIX systems it’s often /home/YourName. These standard default folders tend to fill up with junk files and folders that are not at all important to you.  “My Documents” is the worst offender.  Every second piece of software you install, it seems, likes to create its own folder in the “My Documents” folder.  These folders usually don’t fit within your organizational structure, so don’t use them!  In fact, don’t even use the “My Documents” folder at all.  Allow it to fill up with junk, and then simply ignore it.  It sounds heretical, but: Don’t ever visit your “My Documents” folder!  Remove your icons/links to “My Documents” and replace them with links to the folders you created and you care about! Create your own file system from scratch!  Probably the best place to put it would be on your D: drive – if you have one.  This way, all your files live on one drive, while all the operating system and software component files live on the C: drive – simply and elegantly separated.  The benefits of that are profound.  Not only are there obvious organizational benefits (see tip #10, below), but when it comes to migrate your data to a new computer, you can (sometimes) simply unplug your D: drive and plug it in as the D: drive of your new computer (this implies that the D: drive is actually a separate physical disk, and not a partition on the same disk as C:).  You also get a slight speed improvement (again, only if your C: and D: drives are on separate physical disks). Warning:  From tip #12, below, you will see that it’s actually a good idea to have exactly the same file system structure – including the drive it’s filed on – on all of the computers you own.  So if you decide to use the D: drive as the storage system for your own files, make sure you are able to use the D: drive on all the computers you own.  If you can’t ensure that, then you can still use a clever geeky trick to store your files on the D: drive, but still access them all via the C: drive (see tip #17, below). If you only have one hard disk (C:), then create a dedicated folder that will contain all your files – something like C:\Files.  The name of the folder is not important, but make it a single, brief word. There are several reasons for this: When creating a backup regime, it’s easy to decide what files should be backed up – they’re all in the one folder! If you ever decide to trade in your computer for a new one, you know exactly which files to migrate You will always know where to begin a search for any file If you synchronize files with other computers, it makes your synchronization routines very simple.   It also causes all your shortcuts to continue to work on the other machines (more about this in tip #24, below). Once you’ve decided where your files should go, then put all your files in there – Everything!  Completely disregard the standard, default folders that are created for you by the operating system (“My Music”, “My Pictures”, etc).  In fact, you can actually relocate many of those folders into your own structure (more about that below, in tip #6). The more completely you get all your data files (documents, photos, music, etc) and all your configuration settings into that one folder, then the easier it will be to perform all of the above tasks. Once this has been done, and all your files live in one folder, all the other folders in C:\ can be thought of as “operating system” folders, and therefore of little day-to-day interest for us. Here’s a screenshot of a nicely organized C: drive, where all user files are located within the \Files folder:   Tip #4.  Use Sub-Folders This would be our simplest and most obvious tip.  It almost goes without saying.  Any organizational system you decide upon (see tip #1) will require that you create sub-folders for your files.  Get used to creating folders on a regular basis. Tip #5.  Don’t be Shy About Depth Create as many levels of sub-folders as you need.  Don’t be scared to do so.  Every time you notice an opportunity to group a set of related files into a sub-folder, do so.  Examples might include:  All the MP3s from one music CD, all the photos from one holiday, or all the documents from one client. It’s perfectly okay to put files into a folder called C:\Files\Me\From Others\Services\WestCo Bank\Statements\2009.  That’s only seven levels deep.  Ten levels is not uncommon.  Of course, it’s possible to take this too far.  If you notice yourself creating a sub-folder to hold only one file, then you’ve probably become a little over-zealous.  On the other hand, if you simply create a structure with only two levels (for example C:\Files\Work) then you really haven’t achieved any level of organization at all (unless you own only six files!).  Your “Work” folder will have become a dumping ground, just like your Desktop was, with most likely hundreds of files in it. Tip #6.  Move the Standard User Folders into Your Own Folder Structure Most operating systems, including Windows, create a set of standard folders for each of its users.  These folders then become the default location for files such as documents, music files, digital photos and downloaded Internet files.  In Windows 7, the full list is shown below: Some of these folders you may never use nor care about (for example, the Favorites folder, if you’re not using Internet Explorer as your browser).  Those ones you can leave where they are.  But you may be using some of the other folders to store files that are important to you.  Even if you’re not using them, Windows will still often treat them as the default storage location for many types of files.  When you go to save a standard file type, it can become annoying to be automatically prompted to save it in a folder that’s not part of your own file structure. But there’s a simple solution:  Move the folders you care about into your own folder structure!  If you do, then the next time you go to save a file of the corresponding type, Windows will prompt you to save it in the new, moved location. Moving the folders is easy.  Simply drag-and-drop them to the new location.  Here’s a screenshot of the default My Music folder being moved to my custom personal folder (Mark): Tip #7.  Name Files and Folders Intelligently This is another one that almost goes without saying, but we’ll say it anyway:  Do not allow files to be created that have meaningless names like Document1.doc, or folders called New Folder (2).  Take that extra 20 seconds and come up with a meaningful name for the file/folder – one that accurately divulges its contents without repeating the entire contents in the name. Tip #8.  Watch Out for Long Filenames Another way to tell if you have not yet created enough depth to your folder hierarchy is that your files often require really long names.  If you need to call a file Johnson Sales Figures March 2009.xls (which might happen to live in the same folder as Abercrombie Budget Report 2008.xls), then you might want to create some sub-folders so that the first file could be simply called March.xls, and living in the Clients\Johnson\Sales Figures\2009 folder. A well-placed file needs only a brief filename! Tip #9.  Use Shortcuts!  Everywhere! This is probably the single most useful and important tip we can offer.  A shortcut allows a file to be in two places at once. Why would you want that?  Well, the file and folder structure of every popular operating system on the market today is hierarchical.  This means that all objects (files and folders) always live within exactly one parent folder.  It’s a bit like a tree.  A tree has branches (folders) and leaves (files).  Each leaf, and each branch, is supported by exactly one parent branch, all the way back to the root of the tree (which, incidentally, is exactly why C:\ is called the “root folder” of the C: drive). That hard disks are structured this way may seem obvious and even necessary, but it’s only one way of organizing data.  There are others:  Relational databases, for example, organize structured data entirely differently.  The main limitation of hierarchical filing structures is that a file can only ever be in one branch of the tree – in only one folder – at a time.  Why is this a problem?  Well, there are two main reasons why this limitation is a problem for computer users: The “correct” place for a file, according to our organizational rationale, is very often a very inconvenient place for that file to be located.  Just because it’s correctly filed doesn’t mean it’s easy to get to.  Your file may be “correctly” buried six levels deep in your sub-folder structure, but you may need regular and speedy access to this file every day.  You could always move it to a more convenient location, but that would mean that you would need to re-file back to its “correct” location it every time you’d finished working on it.  Most unsatisfactory. A file may simply “belong” in two or more different locations within your file structure.  For example, say you’re an accountant and you have just completed the 2009 tax return for John Smith.  It might make sense to you to call this file 2009 Tax Return.doc and file it under Clients\John Smith.  But it may also be important to you to have the 2009 tax returns from all your clients together in the one place.  So you might also want to call the file John Smith.doc and file it under Tax Returns\2009.  The problem is, in a purely hierarchical filing system, you can’t put it in both places.  Grrrrr! Fortunately, Windows (and most other operating systems) offers a way for you to do exactly that:  It’s called a “shortcut” (also known as an “alias” on Macs and a “symbolic link” on UNIX systems).  Shortcuts allow a file to exist in one place, and an icon that represents the file to be created and put anywhere else you please.  In fact, you can create a dozen such icons and scatter them all over your hard disk.  Double-clicking on one of these icons/shortcuts opens up the original file, just as if you had double-clicked on the original file itself. Consider the following two icons: The one on the left is the actual Word document, while the one on the right is a shortcut that represents the Word document.  Double-clicking on either icon will open the same file.  There are two main visual differences between the icons: The shortcut will have a small arrow in the lower-left-hand corner (on Windows, anyway) The shortcut is allowed to have a name that does not include the file extension (the “.docx” part, in this case) You can delete the shortcut at any time without losing any actual data.  The original is still intact.  All you lose is the ability to get to that data from wherever the shortcut was. So why are shortcuts so great?  Because they allow us to easily overcome the main limitation of hierarchical file systems, and put a file in two (or more) places at the same time.  You will always have files that don’t play nice with your organizational rationale, and can’t be filed in only one place.  They demand to exist in two places.  Shortcuts allow this!  Furthermore, they allow you to collect your most often-opened files and folders together in one spot for convenient access.  The cool part is that the original files stay where they are, safe forever in their perfectly organized location. So your collection of most often-opened files can – and should – become a collection of shortcuts! If you’re still not convinced of the utility of shortcuts, consider the following well-known areas of a typical Windows computer: The Start Menu (and all the programs that live within it) The Quick Launch bar (or the Superbar in Windows 7) The “Favorite folders” area in the top-left corner of the Windows Explorer window (in Windows Vista or Windows 7) Your Internet Explorer Favorites or Firefox Bookmarks Each item in each of these areas is a shortcut!  Each of those areas exist for one purpose only:  For convenience – to provide you with a collection of the files and folders you access most often. It should be easy to see by now that shortcuts are designed for one single purpose:  To make accessing your files more convenient.  Each time you double-click on a shortcut, you are saved the hassle of locating the file (or folder, or program, or drive, or control panel icon) that it represents. Shortcuts allow us to invent a golden rule of file and folder organization: “Only ever have one copy of a file – never have two copies of the same file.  Use a shortcut instead” (this rule doesn’t apply to copies created for backup purposes, of course!) There are also lesser rules, like “don’t move a file into your work area – create a shortcut there instead”, and “any time you find yourself frustrated with how long it takes to locate a file, create a shortcut to it and place that shortcut in a convenient location.” So how to we create these massively useful shortcuts?  There are two main ways: “Copy” the original file or folder (click on it and type Ctrl-C, or right-click on it and select Copy):  Then right-click in an empty area of the destination folder (the place where you want the shortcut to go) and select Paste shortcut: Right-drag (drag with the right mouse button) the file from the source folder to the destination folder.  When you let go of the mouse button at the destination folder, a menu pops up: Select Create shortcuts here. Note that when shortcuts are created, they are often named something like Shortcut to Budget Detail.doc (windows XP) or Budget Detail – Shortcut.doc (Windows 7).   If you don’t like those extra words, you can easily rename the shortcuts after they’re created, or you can configure Windows to never insert the extra words in the first place (see our article on how to do this). And of course, you can create shortcuts to folders too, not just to files! Bottom line: Whenever you have a file that you’d like to access from somewhere else (whether it’s convenience you’re after, or because the file simply belongs in two places), create a shortcut to the original file in the new location. Tip #10.  Separate Application Files from Data Files Any digital organization guru will drum this rule into you.  Application files are the components of the software you’ve installed (e.g. Microsoft Word, Adobe Photoshop or Internet Explorer).  Data files are the files that you’ve created for yourself using that software (e.g. Word Documents, digital photos, emails or playlists). Software gets installed, uninstalled and upgraded all the time.  Hopefully you always have the original installation media (or downloaded set-up file) kept somewhere safe, and can thus reinstall your software at any time.  This means that the software component files are of little importance.  Whereas the files you have created with that software is, by definition, important.  It’s a good rule to always separate unimportant files from important files. So when your software prompts you to save a file you’ve just created, take a moment and check out where it’s suggesting that you save the file.  If it’s suggesting that you save the file into the same folder as the software itself, then definitely don’t follow that suggestion.  File it in your own folder!  In fact, see if you can find the program’s configuration option that determines where files are saved by default (if it has one), and change it. Tip #11.  Organize Files Based on Purpose, Not on File Type If you have, for example a folder called Work\Clients\Johnson, and within that folder you have two sub-folders, Word Documents and Spreadsheets (in other words, you’re separating “.doc” files from “.xls” files), then chances are that you’re not optimally organized.  It makes little sense to organize your files based on the program that created them.  Instead, create your sub-folders based on the purpose of the file.  For example, it would make more sense to create sub-folders called Correspondence and Financials.  It may well be that all the files in a given sub-folder are of the same file-type, but this should be more of a coincidence and less of a design feature of your organization system. Tip #12.  Maintain the Same Folder Structure on All Your Computers In other words, whatever organizational system you create, apply it to every computer that you can.  There are several benefits to this: There’s less to remember.  No matter where you are, you always know where to look for your files If you copy or synchronize files from one computer to another, then setting up the synchronization job becomes very simple Shortcuts can be copied or moved from one computer to another with ease (assuming the original files are also copied/moved).  There’s no need to find the target of the shortcut all over again on the second computer Ditto for linked files (e.g Word documents that link to data in a separate Excel file), playlists, and any files that reference the exact file locations of other files. This applies even to the drive that your files are stored on.  If your files are stored on C: on one computer, make sure they’re stored on C: on all your computers.  Otherwise all your shortcuts, playlists and linked files will stop working! Tip #13.  Create an “Inbox” Folder Create yourself a folder where you store all files that you’re currently working on, or that you haven’t gotten around to filing yet.  You can think of this folder as your “to-do” list.  You can call it “Inbox” (making it the same metaphor as your email system), or “Work”, or “To-Do”, or “Scratch”, or whatever name makes sense to you.  It doesn’t matter what you call it – just make sure you have one! Once you have finished working on a file, you then move it from the “Inbox” to its correct location within your organizational structure. You may want to use your Desktop as this “Inbox” folder.  Rightly or wrongly, most people do.  It’s not a bad place to put such files, but be careful:  If you do decide that your Desktop represents your “to-do” list, then make sure that no other files find their way there.  In other words, make sure that your “Inbox”, wherever it is, Desktop or otherwise, is kept free of junk – stray files that don’t belong there. So where should you put this folder, which, almost by definition, lives outside the structure of the rest of your filing system?  Well, first and foremost, it has to be somewhere handy.  This will be one of your most-visited folders, so convenience is key.  Putting it on the Desktop is a great option – especially if you don’t have any other folders on your Desktop:  the folder then becomes supremely easy to find in Windows Explorer: You would then create shortcuts to this folder in convenient spots all over your computer (“Favorite Links”, “Quick Launch”, etc). Tip #14.  Ensure You have Only One “Inbox” Folder Once you’ve created your “Inbox” folder, don’t use any other folder location as your “to-do list”.  Throw every incoming or created file into the Inbox folder as you create/receive it.  This keeps the rest of your computer pristine and free of randomly created or downloaded junk.  The last thing you want to be doing is checking multiple folders to see all your current tasks and projects.  Gather them all together into one folder. Here are some tips to help ensure you only have one Inbox: Set the default “save” location of all your programs to this folder. Set the default “download” location for your browser to this folder. If this folder is not your desktop (recommended) then also see if you can make a point of not putting “to-do” files on your desktop.  This keeps your desktop uncluttered and Zen-like: (the Inbox folder is in the bottom-right corner) Tip #15.  Be Vigilant about Clearing Your “Inbox” Folder This is one of the keys to staying organized.  If you let your “Inbox” overflow (i.e. allow there to be more than, say, 30 files or folders in there), then you’re probably going to start feeling like you’re overwhelmed:  You’re not keeping up with your to-do list.  Once your Inbox gets beyond a certain point (around 30 files, studies have shown), then you’ll simply start to avoid it.  You may continue to put files in there, but you’ll be scared to look at it, fearing the “out of control” feeling that all overworked, chaotic or just plain disorganized people regularly feel. So, here’s what you can do: Visit your Inbox/to-do folder regularly (at least five times per day). Scan the folder regularly for files that you have completed working on and are ready for filing.  File them immediately. Make it a source of pride to keep the number of files in this folder as small as possible.  If you value peace of mind, then make the emptiness of this folder one of your highest (computer) priorities If you know that a particular file has been in the folder for more than, say, six weeks, then admit that you’re not actually going to get around to processing it, and move it to its final resting place. Tip #16.  File Everything Immediately, and Use Shortcuts for Your Active Projects As soon as you create, receive or download a new file, store it away in its “correct” folder immediately.  Then, whenever you need to work on it (possibly straight away), create a shortcut to it in your “Inbox” (“to-do”) folder or your desktop.  That way, all your files are always in their “correct” locations, yet you still have immediate, convenient access to your current, active files.  When you finish working on a file, simply delete the shortcut. Ideally, your “Inbox” folder – and your Desktop – should contain no actual files or folders.  They should simply contain shortcuts. Tip #17.  Use Directory Symbolic Links (or Junctions) to Maintain One Unified Folder Structure Using this tip, we can get around a potential hiccup that we can run into when creating our organizational structure – the issue of having more than one drive on our computer (C:, D:, etc).  We might have files we need to store on the D: drive for space reasons, and yet want to base our organized folder structure on the C: drive (or vice-versa). Your chosen organizational structure may dictate that all your files must be accessed from the C: drive (for example, the root folder of all your files may be something like C:\Files).  And yet you may still have a D: drive and wish to take advantage of the hundreds of spare Gigabytes that it offers.  Did you know that it’s actually possible to store your files on the D: drive and yet access them as if they were on the C: drive?  And no, we’re not talking about shortcuts here (although the concept is very similar). By using the shell command mklink, you can essentially take a folder that lives on one drive and create an alias for it on a different drive (you can do lots more than that with mklink – for a full rundown on this programs capabilities, see our dedicated article).  These aliases are called directory symbolic links (and used to be known as junctions).  You can think of them as “virtual” folders.  They function exactly like regular folders, except they’re physically located somewhere else. For example, you may decide that your entire D: drive contains your complete organizational file structure, but that you need to reference all those files as if they were on the C: drive, under C:\Files.  If that was the case you could create C:\Files as a directory symbolic link – a link to D:, as follows: mklink /d c:\files d:\ Or it may be that the only files you wish to store on the D: drive are your movie collection.  You could locate all your movie files in the root of your D: drive, and then link it to C:\Files\Media\Movies, as follows: mklink /d c:\files\media\movies d:\ (Needless to say, you must run these commands from a command prompt – click the Start button, type cmd and press Enter) Tip #18. Customize Your Folder Icons This is not strictly speaking an organizational tip, but having unique icons for each folder does allow you to more quickly visually identify which folder is which, and thus saves you time when you’re finding files.  An example is below (from my folder that contains all files downloaded from the Internet): To learn how to change your folder icons, please refer to our dedicated article on the subject. Tip #19.  Tidy Your Start Menu The Windows Start Menu is usually one of the messiest parts of any Windows computer.  Every program you install seems to adopt a completely different approach to placing icons in this menu.  Some simply put a single program icon.  Others create a folder based on the name of the software.  And others create a folder based on the name of the software manufacturer.  It’s chaos, and can make it hard to find the software you want to run. Thankfully we can avoid this chaos with useful operating system features like Quick Launch, the Superbar or pinned start menu items. Even so, it would make a lot of sense to get into the guts of the Start Menu itself and give it a good once-over.  All you really need to decide is how you’re going to organize your applications.  A structure based on the purpose of the application is an obvious candidate.  Below is an example of one such structure: In this structure, Utilities means software whose job it is to keep the computer itself running smoothly (configuration tools, backup software, Zip programs, etc).  Applications refers to any productivity software that doesn’t fit under the headings Multimedia, Graphics, Internet, etc. In case you’re not aware, every icon in your Start Menu is a shortcut and can be manipulated like any other shortcut (copied, moved, deleted, etc). With the Windows Start Menu (all version of Windows), Microsoft has decided that there be two parallel folder structures to store your Start Menu shortcuts.  One for you (the logged-in user of the computer) and one for all users of the computer.  Having two parallel structures can often be redundant:  If you are the only user of the computer, then having two parallel structures is totally redundant.  Even if you have several users that regularly log into the computer, most of your installed software will need to be made available to all users, and should thus be moved out of the “just you” version of the Start Menu and into the “all users” area. To take control of your Start Menu, so you can start organizing it, you’ll need to know how to access the actual folders and shortcut files that make up the Start Menu (both versions of it).  To find these folders and files, click the Start button and then right-click on the All Programs text (Windows XP users should right-click on the Start button itself): The Open option refers to the “just you” version of the Start Menu, while the Open All Users option refers to the “all users” version.  Click on the one you want to organize. A Windows Explorer window then opens with your chosen version of the Start Menu selected.  From there it’s easy.  Double-click on the Programs folder and you’ll see all your folders and shortcuts.  Now you can delete/rename/move until it’s just the way you want it. Note:  When you’re reorganizing your Start Menu, you may want to have two Explorer windows open at the same time – one showing the “just you” version and one showing the “all users” version.  You can drag-and-drop between the windows. Tip #20.  Keep Your Start Menu Tidy Once you have a perfectly organized Start Menu, try to be a little vigilant about keeping it that way.  Every time you install a new piece of software, the icons that get created will almost certainly violate your organizational structure. So to keep your Start Menu pristine and organized, make sure you do the following whenever you install a new piece of software: Check whether the software was installed into the “just you” area of the Start Menu, or the “all users” area, and then move it to the correct area. Remove all the unnecessary icons (like the “Read me” icon, the “Help” icon (you can always open the help from within the software itself when it’s running), the “Uninstall” icon, the link(s)to the manufacturer’s website, etc) Rename the main icon(s) of the software to something brief that makes sense to you.  For example, you might like to rename Microsoft Office Word 2010 to simply Word Move the icon(s) into the correct folder based on your Start Menu organizational structure And don’t forget:  when you uninstall a piece of software, the software’s uninstall routine is no longer going to be able to remove the software’s icon from the Start Menu (because you moved and/or renamed it), so you’ll need to remove that icon manually. Tip #21.  Tidy C:\ The root of your C: drive (C:\) is a common dumping ground for files and folders – both by the users of your computer and by the software that you install on your computer.  It can become a mess. There’s almost no software these days that requires itself to be installed in C:\.  99% of the time it can and should be installed into C:\Program Files.  And as for your own files, well, it’s clear that they can (and almost always should) be stored somewhere else. In an ideal world, your C:\ folder should look like this (on Windows 7): Note that there are some system files and folders in C:\ that are usually and deliberately “hidden” (such as the Windows virtual memory file pagefile.sys, the boot loader file bootmgr, and the System Volume Information folder).  Hiding these files and folders is a good idea, as they need to stay where they are and are almost never needed to be opened or even seen by you, the user.  Hiding them prevents you from accidentally messing with them, and enhances your sense of order and well-being when you look at your C: drive folder. Tip #22.  Tidy Your Desktop The Desktop is probably the most abused part of a Windows computer (from an organization point of view).  It usually serves as a dumping ground for all incoming files, as well as holding icons to oft-used applications, plus some regularly opened files and folders.  It often ends up becoming an uncontrolled mess.  See if you can avoid this.  Here’s why… Application icons (Word, Internet Explorer, etc) are often found on the Desktop, but it’s unlikely that this is the optimum place for them.  The “Quick Launch” bar (or the Superbar in Windows 7) is always visible and so represents a perfect location to put your icons.  You’ll only be able to see the icons on your Desktop when all your programs are minimized.  It might be time to get your application icons off your desktop… You may have decided that the Inbox/To-do folder on your computer (see tip #13, above) should be your Desktop.  If so, then enough said.  Simply be vigilant about clearing it and preventing it from being polluted by junk files (see tip #15, above).  On the other hand, if your Desktop is not acting as your “Inbox” folder, then there’s no reason for it to have any data files or folders on it at all, except perhaps a couple of shortcuts to often-opened files and folders (either ongoing or current projects).  Everything else should be moved to your “Inbox” folder. In an ideal world, it might look like this: Tip #23.  Move Permanent Items on Your Desktop Away from the Top-Left Corner When files/folders are dragged onto your desktop in a Windows Explorer window, or when shortcuts are created on your Desktop from Internet Explorer, those icons are always placed in the top-left corner – or as close as they can get.  If you have other files, folders or shortcuts that you keep on the Desktop permanently, then it’s a good idea to separate these permanent icons from the transient ones, so that you can quickly identify which ones the transients are.  An easy way to do this is to move all your permanent icons to the right-hand side of your Desktop.  That should keep them separated from incoming items. Tip #24.  Synchronize If you have more than one computer, you’ll almost certainly want to share files between them.  If the computers are permanently attached to the same local network, then there’s no need to store multiple copies of any one file or folder – shortcuts will suffice.  However, if the computers are not always on the same network, then you will at some point need to copy files between them.  For files that need to permanently live on both computers, the ideal way to do this is to synchronize the files, as opposed to simply copying them. We only have room here to write a brief summary of synchronization, not a full article.  In short, there are several different types of synchronization: Where the contents of one folder are accessible anywhere, such as with Dropbox Where the contents of any number of folders are accessible anywhere, such as with Windows Live Mesh Where any files or folders from anywhere on your computer are synchronized with exactly one other computer, such as with the Windows “Briefcase”, Microsoft SyncToy, or (much more powerful, yet still free) SyncBack from 2BrightSparks.  This only works when both computers are on the same local network, at least temporarily. A great advantage of synchronization solutions is that once you’ve got it configured the way you want it, then the sync process happens automatically, every time.  Click a button (or schedule it to happen automatically) and all your files are automagically put where they’re supposed to be. If you maintain the same file and folder structure on both computers, then you can also sync files depend upon the correct location of other files, like shortcuts, playlists and office documents that link to other office documents, and the synchronized files still work on the other computer! Tip #25.  Hide Files You Never Need to See If you have your files well organized, you will often be able to tell if a file is out of place just by glancing at the contents of a folder (for example, it should be pretty obvious if you look in a folder that contains all the MP3s from one music CD and see a Word document in there).  This is a good thing – it allows you to determine if there are files out of place with a quick glance.  Yet sometimes there are files in a folder that seem out of place but actually need to be there, such as the “folder art” JPEGs in music folders, and various files in the root of the C: drive.  If such files never need to be opened by you, then a good idea is to simply hide them.  Then, the next time you glance at the folder, you won’t have to remember whether that file was supposed to be there or not, because you won’t see it at all! To hide a file, simply right-click on it and choose Properties: Then simply tick the Hidden tick-box:   Tip #26.  Keep Every Setup File These days most software is downloaded from the Internet.  Whenever you download a piece of software, keep it.  You’ll never know when you need to reinstall the software. Further, keep with it an Internet shortcut that links back to the website where you originally downloaded it, in case you ever need to check for updates. See tip #33 below for a full description of the excellence of organizing your setup files. Tip #27.  Try to Minimize the Number of Folders that Contain Both Files and Sub-folders Some of the folders in your organizational structure will contain only files.  Others will contain only sub-folders.  And you will also have some folders that contain both files and sub-folders.  You will notice slight improvements in how long it takes you to locate a file if you try to avoid this third type of folder.  It’s not always possible, of course – you’ll always have some of these folders, but see if you can avoid it. One way of doing this is to take all the leftover files that didn’t end up getting stored in a sub-folder and create a special “Miscellaneous” or “Other” folder for them. Tip #28.  Starting a Filename with an Underscore Brings it to the Top of a List Further to the previous tip, if you name that “Miscellaneous” or “Other” folder in such a way that its name begins with an underscore “_”, then it will appear at the top of the list of files/folders. The screenshot below is an example of this.  Each folder in the list contains a set of digital photos.  The folder at the top of the list, _Misc, contains random photos that didn’t deserve their own dedicated folder: Tip #29.  Clean Up those CD-ROMs and (shudder!) Floppy Disks Have you got a pile of CD-ROMs stacked on a shelf of your office?  Old photos, or files you archived off onto CD-ROM (or even worse, floppy disks!) because you didn’t have enough disk space at the time?  In the meantime have you upgraded your computer and now have 500 Gigabytes of space you don’t know what to do with?  If so, isn’t it time you tidied up that stack of disks and filed them into your gorgeous new folder structure? So what are you waiting for?  Bite the bullet, copy them all back onto your computer, file them in their appropriate folders, and then back the whole lot up onto a shiny new 1000Gig external hard drive! Useful Folders to Create This next section suggests some useful folders that you might want to create within your folder structure.  I’ve personally found them to be indispensable. The first three are all about convenience – handy folders to create and then put somewhere that you can always access instantly.  For each one, it’s not so important where the actual folder is located, but it’s very important where you put the shortcut(s) to the folder.  You might want to locate the shortcuts: On your Desktop In your “Quick Launch” area (or pinned to your Windows 7 Superbar) In your Windows Explorer “Favorite Links” area Tip #30.  Create an “Inbox” (“To-Do”) Folder This has already been mentioned in depth (see tip #13), but we wanted to reiterate its importance here.  This folder contains all the recently created, received or downloaded files that you have not yet had a chance to file away properly, and it also may contain files that you have yet to process.  In effect, it becomes a sort of “to-do list”.  It doesn’t have to be called “Inbox” – you can call it whatever you want. Tip #31.  Create a Folder where Your Current Projects are Collected Rather than going hunting for them all the time, or dumping them all on your desktop, create a special folder where you put links (or work folders) for each of the projects you’re currently working on. You can locate this folder in your “Inbox” folder, on your desktop, or anywhere at all – just so long as there’s a way of getting to it quickly, such as putting a link to it in Windows Explorer’s “Favorite Links” area: Tip #32.  Create a Folder for Files and Folders that You Regularly Open You will always have a few files that you open regularly, whether it be a spreadsheet of your current accounts, or a favorite playlist.  These are not necessarily “current projects”, rather they’re simply files that you always find yourself opening.  Typically such files would be located on your desktop (or even better, shortcuts to those files).  Why not collect all such shortcuts together and put them in their own special folder? As with the “Current Projects” folder (above), you would want to locate that folder somewhere convenient.  Below is an example of a folder called “Quick links”, with about seven files (shortcuts) in it, that is accessible through the Windows Quick Launch bar: See tip #37 below for a full explanation of the power of the Quick Launch bar. Tip #33.  Create a “Set-ups” Folder A typical computer has dozens of applications installed on it.  For each piece of software, there are often many different pieces of information you need to keep track of, including: The original installation setup file(s).  This can be anything from a simple 100Kb setup.exe file you downloaded from a website, all the way up to a 4Gig ISO file that you copied from a DVD-ROM that you purchased. The home page of the software manufacturer (in case you need to look up something on their support pages, their forum or their online help) The page containing the download link for your actual file (in case you need to re-download it, or download an upgraded version) The serial number Your proof-of-purchase documentation Any other template files, plug-ins, themes, etc that also need to get installed For each piece of software, it’s a great idea to gather all of these files together and put them in a single folder.  The folder can be the name of the software (plus possibly a very brief description of what it’s for – in case you can’t remember what the software does based in its name).  Then you would gather all of these folders together into one place, and call it something like “Software” or “Setups”. If you have enough of these folders (I have several hundred, being a geek, collected over 20 years), then you may want to further categorize them.  My own categorization structure is based on “platform” (operating system): The last seven folders each represents one platform/operating system, while _Operating Systems contains set-up files for installing the operating systems themselves.  _Hardware contains ROMs for hardware I own, such as routers. Within the Windows folder (above), you can see the beginnings of the vast library of software I’ve compiled over the years: An example of a typical application folder looks like this: Tip #34.  Have a “Settings” Folder We all know that our documents are important.  So are our photos and music files.  We save all of these files into folders, and then locate them afterwards and double-click on them to open them.  But there are many files that are important to us that can’t be saved into folders, and then searched for and double-clicked later on.  These files certainly contain important information that we need, but are often created internally by an application, and saved wherever that application feels is appropriate. A good example of this is the “PST” file that Outlook creates for us and uses to store all our emails, contacts, appointments and so forth.  Another example would be the collection of Bookmarks that Firefox stores on your behalf. And yet another example would be the customized settings and configuration files of our all our software.  Granted, most Windows programs store their configuration in the Registry, but there are still many programs that use configuration files to store their settings. Imagine if you lost all of the above files!  And yet, when people are backing up their computers, they typically only back up the files they know about – those that are stored in the “My Documents” folder, etc.  If they had a hard disk failure or their computer was lost or stolen, their backup files would not include some of the most vital files they owned.  Also, when migrating to a new computer, it’s vital to ensure that these files make the journey. It can be a very useful idea to create yourself a folder to store all your “settings” – files that are important to you but which you never actually search for by name and double-click on to open them.  Otherwise, next time you go to set up a new computer just the way you want it, you’ll need to spend hours recreating the configuration of your previous computer! So how to we get our important files into this folder?  Well, we have a few options: Some programs (such as Outlook and its PST files) allow you to place these files wherever you want.  If you delve into the program’s options, you will find a setting somewhere that controls the location of the important settings files (or “personal storage” – PST – when it comes to Outlook) Some programs do not allow you to change such locations in any easy way, but if you get into the Registry, you can sometimes find a registry key that refers to the location of the file(s).  Simply move the file into your Settings folder and adjust the registry key to refer to the new location. Some programs stubbornly refuse to allow their settings files to be placed anywhere other then where they stipulate.  When faced with programs like these, you have three choices:  (1) You can ignore those files, (2) You can copy the files into your Settings folder (let’s face it – settings don’t change very often), or (3) you can use synchronization software, such as the Windows Briefcase, to make synchronized copies of all your files in your Settings folder.  All you then have to do is to remember to run your sync software periodically (perhaps just before you run your backup software!). There are some other things you may decide to locate inside this new “Settings” folder: Exports of registry keys (from the many applications that store their configurations in the Registry).  This is useful for backup purposes or for migrating to a new computer Notes you’ve made about all the specific customizations you have made to a particular piece of software (so that you’ll know how to do it all again on your next computer) Shortcuts to webpages that detail how to tweak certain aspects of your operating system or applications so they are just the way you like them (such as how to remove the words “Shortcut to” from the beginning of newly created shortcuts).  In other words, you’d want to create shortcuts to half the pages on the How-To Geek website! Here’s an example of a “Settings” folder: Windows Features that Help with Organization This section details some of the features of Microsoft Windows that are a boon to anyone hoping to stay optimally organized. Tip #35.  Use the “Favorite Links” Area to Access Oft-Used Folders Once you’ve created your great new filing system, work out which folders you access most regularly, or which serve as great starting points for locating the rest of the files in your folder structure, and then put links to those folders in your “Favorite Links” area of the left-hand side of the Windows Explorer window (simply called “Favorites” in Windows 7):   Some ideas for folders you might want to add there include: Your “Inbox” folder (or whatever you’ve called it) – most important! The base of your filing structure (e.g. C:\Files) A folder containing shortcuts to often-accessed folders on other computers around the network (shown above as Network Folders) A folder containing shortcuts to your current projects (unless that folder is in your “Inbox” folder) Getting folders into this area is very simple – just locate the folder you’re interested in and drag it there! Tip #36.  Customize the Places Bar in the File/Open and File/Save Boxes Consider the screenshot below: The highlighted icons (collectively known as the “Places Bar”) can be customized to refer to any folder location you want, allowing instant access to any part of your organizational structure. Note:  These File/Open and File/Save boxes have been superseded by new versions that use the Windows Vista/Windows 7 “Favorite Links”, but the older versions (shown above) are still used by a surprisingly large number of applications. The easiest way to customize these icons is to use the Group Policy Editor, but not everyone has access to this program.  If you do, open it up and navigate to: User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Explorer > Common Open File Dialog If you don’t have access to the Group Policy Editor, then you’ll need to get into the Registry.  Navigate to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft  \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Policies \ comdlg32 \ Placesbar It should then be easy to make the desired changes.  Log off and log on again to allow the changes to take effect. Tip #37.  Use the Quick Launch Bar as a Application and File Launcher That Quick Launch bar (to the right of the Start button) is a lot more useful than people give it credit for.  Most people simply have half a dozen icons in it, and use it to start just those programs.  But it can actually be used to instantly access just about anything in your filing system: For complete instructions on how to set this up, visit our dedicated article on this topic. Tip #38.  Put a Shortcut to Windows Explorer into Your Quick Launch Bar This is only necessary in Windows Vista and Windows XP.  The Microsoft boffins finally got wise and added it to the Windows 7 Superbar by default. Windows Explorer – the program used for managing your files and folders – is one of the most useful programs in Windows.  Anyone who considers themselves serious about being organized needs instant access to this program at any time.  A great place to create a shortcut to this program is in the Windows XP and Windows Vista “Quick Launch” bar: To get it there, locate it in your Start Menu (usually under “Accessories”) and then right-drag it down into your Quick Launch bar (and create a copy). Tip #39.  Customize the Starting Folder for Your Windows 7 Explorer Superbar Icon If you’re on Windows 7, your Superbar will include a Windows Explorer icon.  Clicking on the icon will launch Windows Explorer (of course), and will start you off in your “Libraries” folder.  Libraries may be fine as a starting point, but if you have created yourself an “Inbox” folder, then it would probably make more sense to start off in this folder every time you launch Windows Explorer. To change this default/starting folder location, then first right-click the Explorer icon in the Superbar, and then right-click Properties:Then, in Target field of the Windows Explorer Properties box that appears, type %windir%\explorer.exe followed by the path of the folder you wish to start in.  For example: %windir%\explorer.exe C:\Files If that folder happened to be on the Desktop (and called, say, “Inbox”), then you would use the following cleverness: %windir%\explorer.exe shell:desktop\Inbox Then click OK and test it out. Tip #40.  Ummmmm…. No, that’s it.  I can’t think of another one.  That’s all of the tips I can come up with.  I only created this one because 40 is such a nice round number… Case Study – An Organized PC To finish off the article, I have included a few screenshots of my (main) computer (running Vista).  The aim here is twofold: To give you a sense of what it looks like when the above, sometimes abstract, tips are applied to a real-life computer, and To offer some ideas about folders and structure that you may want to steal to use on your own PC. Let’s start with the C: drive itself.  Very minimal.  All my files are contained within C:\Files.  I’ll confine the rest of the case study to this folder: That folder contains the following: Mark: My personal files VC: My business (Virtual Creations, Australia) Others contains files created by friends and family Data contains files from the rest of the world (can be thought of as “public” files, usually downloaded from the Net) Settings is described above in tip #34 The Data folder contains the following sub-folders: Audio:  Radio plays, audio books, podcasts, etc Development:  Programmer and developer resources, sample source code, etc (see below) Humour:  Jokes, funnies (those emails that we all receive) Movies:  Downloaded and ripped movies (all legal, of course!), their scripts, DVD covers, etc. Music:  (see below) Setups:  Installation files for software (explained in full in tip #33) System:  (see below) TV:  Downloaded TV shows Writings:  Books, instruction manuals, etc (see below) The Music folder contains the following sub-folders: Album covers:  JPEG scans Guitar tabs:  Text files of guitar sheet music Lists:  e.g. “Top 1000 songs of all time” Lyrics:  Text files MIDI:  Electronic music files MP3 (representing 99% of the Music folder):  MP3s, either ripped from CDs or downloaded, sorted by artist/album name Music Video:  Video clips Sheet Music:  usually PDFs The Data\Writings folder contains the following sub-folders: (all pretty self-explanatory) The Data\Development folder contains the following sub-folders: Again, all pretty self-explanatory (if you’re a geek) The Data\System folder contains the following sub-folders: These are usually themes, plug-ins and other downloadable program-specific resources. The Mark folder contains the following sub-folders: From Others:  Usually letters that other people (friends, family, etc) have written to me For Others:  Letters and other things I have created for other people Green Book:  None of your business Playlists:  M3U files that I have compiled of my favorite songs (plus one M3U playlist file for every album I own) Writing:  Fiction, philosophy and other musings of mine Mark Docs:  Shortcut to C:\Users\Mark Settings:  Shortcut to C:\Files\Settings\Mark The Others folder contains the following sub-folders: The VC (Virtual Creations, my business – I develop websites) folder contains the following sub-folders: And again, all of those are pretty self-explanatory. Conclusion These tips have saved my sanity and helped keep me a productive geek, but what about you? What tips and tricks do you have to keep your files organized?  Please share them with us in the comments.  Come on, don’t be shy… Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Fix For When Windows Explorer in Vista Stops Showing File NamesWhy Did Windows Vista’s Music Folder Icon Turn Yellow?Print or Create a Text File List of the Contents in a Directory the Easy WayCustomize the Windows 7 or Vista Send To MenuAdd Copy To / Move To on Windows 7 or Vista Right-Click Menu 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 Acronis Online Backup DVDFab 6 Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows Track Daily Goals With 42Goals Video Toolbox is a Superb Online Video Editor Fun with 47 charts and graphs Tomorrow is Mother’s Day Check the Average Speed of YouTube Videos You’ve Watched OutlookStatView Scans and Displays General Usage Statistics

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  • Installing Command-T breaks MacVim

    - by Mark Szymanski
    I am trying to install Command-T on MacVim. I followed the installation instructions exactly but I get this error when trying to start MacVim (from a terminal via the mvim command line utility). dyld: lazy symbol binding failed: Symbol not found: _rb_intern2 Referenced from: /Users/mark/.vim/ruby/command-t/ext.bundle Expected in: flat namespace dyld: Symbol not found: _rb_intern2 Referenced from: /Users/mark/.vim/ruby/command-t/ext.bundle Expected in: flat namespace Vim: Caught deadly signal TRAP Vim: Finished.

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  • replace symbol in javascript

    - by Jin Yong
    Does anyone know how can I replace this 2 symbol below from the string into code? ' left single quotation mark into ‘ ' right single quotation mark into ’ " left double quotation mark into “ " right double quotation mark into ”

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  • Carolina Code Camp 2010

    - by Mark A. Wilson
    "Grow your skills in 2010" The Enterprise Developers Guild in Charlotte, the Greenville-Spartanburg Enterprise Developers Guild and the Triad Developers Guild have joined with Microsoft and Central Piedmont Community College (CPCC) Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) to present the 10th MSDN Code Camp to be held in Charlotte. Please join me and fellow developers and code enthusiasts on Saturday, May 15, 2010, at the CPCC Levine Campus in Matthews, NC. The focus this year is Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 and Windows Phone 7. Everyone is invited to attend and/or speak! Get in-depth exposure to Visual Studio 2010 and other exciting new Microsoft technologies. Sessions will range from presentations, to hands on labs, to informal "chalk talks". We will have a mix of speakers including Microsoft MVPs, authors, and most importantly, local developers just like you! And thanks to the generosity of our contributors, we will be able to provide breakfast, lunch, snacks, and lots of swag. Registration is open and there are a limited number of seats left. For more information or to register, visit the Carolina Code Camp 2010 event website. I encourage you to "give back" by registering as a volunteer or a proctor. This will be the only Carolina Code Camp held this year – no event is schedule for the fall – so register today before it’s too late! Thanks for visiting and till next time, Mark A. Wilson      Mark's Geekswithblogs Blog Enterprise Developers Guild Technorati Tags: Community

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  • Unable to install Dockmanager

    - by Mark Rooney
    I have Docky installed on Ubuntu 10.10 64bit and noticed after a recent upgrade my 'Helpers' are no longer available. After some research I found that Dockmanager is no longer installed either. I am unable to install it via the Software centre or via terminal using apt-get, the following error is returned; mark@Sonata:~$ sudo apt-get install dockmanager Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done The following NEW packages will be installed: dockmanager 0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded. Need to get 0B/94.4kB of archives. After this operation, 430kB of additional disk space will be used. (Reading database ... 162015 files and directories currently installed.) Unpacking dockmanager (from .../dockmanager_0.1.0~bzr83-0ubuntu1~10.10~dockers1_amd64.deb) ... dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/dockmanager_0.1.0~bzr83-0ubuntu1~10.10~dockers1_amd64.deb (--unpack): trying to overwrite '/usr/share/dockmanager/data/skype_invisible.svg', which is also in package faenza-icon-theme 0.8 dpkg-deb: subprocess paste killed by signal (Broken pipe) Errors were encountered while processing: /var/cache/apt/archives/dockmanager_0.1.0~bzr83-0ubuntu1~10.10~dockers1_amd64.deb E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1) mark@Sonata:~$ Can anyone advise on how to fix this?

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  • Crontab: cut line to many lines?

    - by Heoa
    Hard-to-read-line @daily export sunshine="~/logs/Sunshine-`date '+\%F'`" && export sunshineUrl="http://www.sunshine.net/main/search_results.asp?currency_id=1&min_price=&max_price=50000&country_id=241&region_id=&Submit=Search" && mkdir -p $sunshine && cd $sunshine && wget --mirror -l 1 $sunshineUrl Which mark do I need to have it on many lines? @daily <SOME MARK HERE> export sunshine="~/logs/Sunshine-`date '+\%F'`" && <SOME MARK HERE> export sunshineUrl="http://www.sunshine.net/main/search_results.asp?currency_id=1&min_price=&max_price=50000&country_id=241&region_id=&Submit=Search" && <SOME MARK HERE> mkdir -p $sunshine && <SOME MARK HERE> cd $sunshine && wget --mirror -l 1 $sunshineUrl No success by appending \, //, \n or /n.

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  • Draw polygon using mouse on google maps

    - by Kunal
    I need to draw polygon using mouse and mark a particular area on google maps. The purpose is to mark an area on google maps and then showing hotels and attractions on that area. The user will mark the hotels on google map while creating them so the db will have their latitude and longitudes. How can I draw the polygon and fill it with a color as background to mark the area in Google Maps? I have read the API Manual “how to draw polygons?” basically you would need to mark multiple points and then combine them into a polygon. But I will need to do this using mouse drag, just like drawing a shape. Kindly help me out how to achieve this. Thanks in advance.

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  • I thought this parsing would be simple...

    - by Rebol Tutorial
    ... and I'm hitting the wall, I don't understand why this doesn't work (I need to be able to parse either the single tag version (terminated with /) or the 2 tag versions (terminated with ) ): Rebol[] content: {<pre:myTag attr1="helloworld" attr2="hello"/> <pre:myTag attr1="helloworld" attr2="hello"> </pre:myTag> <pre:myTag attr3="helloworld" attr4="hello"/> } spacer: charset reduce [#" " newline] letter: charset reduce ["ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz1234567890="] rule: [ any [ {<pre:myTag} any [any letter {"} any letter {"}] mark: (print {clipboard... after any letter {"} any letter {"}} write clipboard:// mark input) any spacer mark: (print "clipboard..." write clipboard:// mark input) ["/>" | ">" any spacer </pre:myTag> ] any spacer (insert mark { Visible="false"}) ] to end ] parse content rule write clipboard:// content print "The end" input

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  • More Quick Interview Tips

    - by Ajarn Mark Caldwell
    In the last couple of years I have conducted a lot of interviews for application and database developers for my company, and I can tell you that the little things can mean a lot.  Here are a few quick tips to help you make a good first impression. A year ago I gave you my #1 interview tip: Do some basic research!  And a year later, I am still stunned by how few technical people do the most basic of research.  I can only guess that it is because it is so engrained in our psyche that technical competence is everything (see How to Manage Technical Employees for more on this idea) that we forget or ignore the importance of soft skills and the art of the interview.  Or maybe it is because we have heard the stories of the uber-geek who has zero personal skills but still makes a fortune working for Microsoft.  Well, here’s another quick tip:  You’re probably not as good as he is; and a large number of companies actually run small to medium sized teams and can’t really afford to have the social outcast in the group.  In a small team, everyone has to get along well, and that’s an important part of what I’m evaluating during the interview process. My #2 tip is to act alive!  I typically conduct screening interviews by phone before I bring someone in for an in-person.  I don’t care how laid-back you are or if you have a “quiet personality”, when we are talking, ACT like you are happy I called and you are interested in getting the job.  If you sound like you are bored-to-death and that you would be perfectly happy to never work again, I am perfectly happy to help you attain that goal, and I’ll move on to the next candidate. And closely related to #2, perhaps we’ll call it #2.1 is this tip:  When I call you on the phone for the interview, don’t answer your phone by just saying, “Hello”.  You know that the odds are about 999-to-1 that it is me calling for the interview because we have specifically arranged this time slot for the call.  And you can see on the caller ID that it is not one of your buddies calling, so identify yourself.  Don’t make me question whether I dialed the right number.  Answer your phone with a, “Hello, this is ___<your full name preferred, but at least your first name>___.”.  And when I say, “Hi, <your name>, this is Mark from <my company>” it would be really nice to hear you say, “Hi, Mark, I have been expecting your call.”  This sets the perfect tone for our conversation.  I know I have the right person; you are professional enough and interested enough in the job or contract to remember your appointments; and now we can move on to a little intro segment and get on with the reason for our call. As crazy as it sounds, I’ve actually had phone interviews that went like this: <Ring…> You:  “Hello?” Me:  “Hi, this is Mark from _______” You:  “Yeah?” Me:  “Is this <your name>?” You:  “Yeah.” Me:  “I had this time in my calendar for us to talk…were you expecting my call?” You:  “Oh, yeah, sure…” I used to be nice and would try to go ahead with the interview even after this bad start, thinking I was giving the candidate the benefit of the doubt…a second chance…but more often than not it was a struggle and 10 minutes into what was supposed to be a 45-minute call, I’m looking for a way to hang up without being rude myself.  It never worked out.  I never brought that person in for an in-person interview, much less offered them the job or contract.  Who knows, maybe they were some sort of wunderkind that we missed out on.  What I know is that they would never fit in with the rest of the team, and around here that is absolutely critical. So, in conclusion… Act alive!  Identify yourself!  And do at least the very basic of research.

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  • How to Extract Properties for Refactoring

    - by Ngu Soon Hui
    I have this property public List<PointK> LineList {get;set;} Where PointK consists of the following structure: string Mark{get;set;} double X{get;set;} doible Y{get;set;} Now, I have the following code: private static Dictionary<string , double > GetY(List<PointK> points) { var invertedDictResult = new Dictionary<string, double>(); foreach (var point in points) { if (!invertedDictResult.ContainsKey(point.Mark)) { invertedDictResult.Add(point .Mark, Math.Round(point.Y, 4)); } } return invertedDictResult; } private static Dictionary<string , double > GetX(List<PointK> points) { var invertedDictResult = new Dictionary<string, double>(); foreach (var point in points) { if (!invertedDictResult.ContainsKey(point.Mark)) { invertedDictResult.Add(point .Mark, Math.Round(point.X, 4)); } } return invertedDictResult; } How to restructure the above code?

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  • Ubuntu-one syncs single files, but not directories [closed]

    - by Luiz Cláudio Duarte
    I'm using Ubuntu 10.10, fully updated. I have tried to sync my ~/Documents and ~/Pictures folders; U1 replicates the directory structure, but no files are uploaded. Next I tried to sync a single file inside ~/Ubuntu One and it was synced. Then I tried to put a directory inside ~/Ubuntu One and, again, the directory structure was replicated, but no files were synced. All the files have the "syncing" icon, however. The latest syncdaemon.log is below: 2011-03-30 07:41:50,752 - ubuntuone.SyncDaemon.fsm - INFO - loading updated metadata 2011-03-30 07:41:55,081 - ubuntuone.SyncDaemon.fsm - INFO - initialized: idx_path: 266, idx_node_id: 266, shares: 1 2011-03-30 07:41:55,082 - ubuntuone.SyncDaemon.GeneralINotProc - INFO - Ignoring files: ['\\A#.*\\Z', '\\A.*~\\Z', '\\A.*\\.py[oc]\\Z', '\\A.*\\.sw[nopx]\\Z', '\\A.*\\.swpx\\Z', '\\A\\..*\\.tmp\\Z'] 2011-03-30 07:41:55,083 - ubuntuone.SyncDaemon.HQ - INFO - HashQueue: _hasher started 2011-03-30 07:41:55,902 - ubuntuone.SyncDaemon.DBus - INFO - DBusInterface initialized. 2011-03-30 07:41:55,903 - ubuntuone.SyncDaemon.Main - INFO - Using '/home/l_claudius/Ubuntu One' as root dir 2011-03-30 07:41:55,903 - ubuntuone.SyncDaemon.Main - INFO - Using '/home/l_claudius/.local/share/ubuntuone/syncdaemon' as data dir 2011-03-30 07:41:55,903 - ubuntuone.SyncDaemon.Main - INFO - Using '/home/l_claudius/.local/share/ubuntuone/shares' as shares root dir 2011-03-30 07:41:55,903 - ubuntuone.SyncDaemon.Main - NOTE - ---- MARK (state: <State: 'INIT' (queues IDLE connection 'Not User Not Network')>; queues: metadata: 0; content: 0; hash: 0, fsm-cache: hit=1 miss=266) ---- 2011-03-30 07:41:55,904 - ubuntuone.SyncDaemon.Main - NOTE - Local rescan starting... 2011-03-30 07:41:55,904 - ubuntuone.SyncDaemon.local_rescan - INFO - start scan all volumes 2011-03-30 07:41:55,906 - ubuntuone.SyncDaemon.local_rescan - INFO - processing trash 2011-03-30 07:41:56,044 - ubuntuone.SyncDaemon.local_rescan - INFO - processing move limbo 2011-03-30 07:41:56,491 - ubuntuone.SyncDaemon.Main - NOTE - Local rescan finished! 2011-03-30 07:41:56,492 - ubuntuone.SyncDaemon.Main - INFO - hash queue empty. We are ready! 2011-03-30 07:42:15,583 - ubuntuone.SyncDaemon.DBus - INFO - u'CredentialsFound': callbacking with credentials (token_name: None). 2011-03-30 07:42:15,584 - ubuntuone.SyncDaemon.DBus - INFO - connect: credential request was successful, pushing SYS_USER_CONNECT. 2011-03-30 07:42:15,617 - ubuntuone.SyncDaemon.ActionQueue - INFO - Connection started to host fs-1.one.ubuntu.com, port 443. 2011-03-30 07:42:15,977 - ubuntuone.SyncDaemon.ActionQueue - INFO - Connection made. 2011-03-30 07:42:15,978 - ubuntuone.SyncDaemon.StorageClient - INFO - Connection made. 2011-03-30 07:42:16,581 - ubuntuone.SyncDaemon.ActionQueue - INFO - The request 'protocol_version' finished OK. 2011-03-30 07:42:16,774 - ubuntuone.SyncDaemon.ActionQueue - INFO - The request 'caps_raising_if_not_accepted' finished OK. 2011-03-30 07:42:16,966 - ubuntuone.SyncDaemon.ActionQueue - INFO - The request 'caps_raising_if_not_accepted' finished OK. 2011-03-30 07:42:17,722 - ubuntuone.SyncDaemon.ActionQueue - INFO - The request 'oauth_authenticate' finished OK. 2011-03-30 07:42:17,723 - ubuntuone.SyncDaemon.ActionQueue - NOTE - Session ID: '563bc960-35fa-4f44-b9b6-125819656dc3' 2011-03-30 07:42:19,258 - ubuntuone.SyncDaemon.ActionQueue - INFO - The request 'list_volumes' finished OK. 2011-03-30 07:43:55,903 - ubuntuone.SyncDaemon.Main - NOTE - ---- MARK (state: <State: 'QUEUE_MANAGER' (queues IDLE connection 'With User With Network')>; queues: metadata: 0; content: 0; hash: 0, fsm-cache: hit=1059 miss=266) ---- 2011-03-30 07:45:55,903 - ubuntuone.SyncDaemon.Main - NOTE - ---- MARK (state: <State: 'QUEUE_MANAGER' (queues IDLE connection 'With User With Network')>; queues: metadata: 0; content: 0; hash: 0, fsm-cache: hit=1059 miss=266) ---- 2011-03-30 07:47:55,903 - ubuntuone.SyncDaemon.Main - NOTE - ---- MARK (state: <State: 'QUEUE_MANAGER' (queues IDLE connection 'With User With Network')>; queues: metadata: 0; content: 0; hash: 0, fsm-cache: hit=1059 miss=266) ---- 2011-03-30 07:49:55,903 - ubuntuone.SyncDaemon.Main - NOTE - ---- MARK (state: <State: 'QUEUE_MANAGER' (queues IDLE connection 'With User With Network')>; queues: metadata: 0; content: 0; hash: 0, fsm-cache: hit=1059 miss=266) ---- 2011-03-30 07:51:55,903 - ubuntuone.SyncDaemon.Main - NOTE - ---- MARK (state: <State: 'QUEUE_MANAGER' (queues IDLE connection 'With User With Network')>; queues: metadata: 0; content: 0; hash: 0, fsm-cache: hit=1059 miss=266) ----

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  • JPedal Action for Converting PDF to JavaFX

    - by Geertjan
    The question of the day comes from Mark Stephens, from JPedal (JPedal is the leading 100% Java PDF library, providing a Java PDF viewer, PDF to image conversion, PDF printing or adding PDF search and PDF extraction features), in the form of a screenshot: The question is clear. By looking at the annotations above, you can see that Mark has an ActionListener that has been bound to the right-click popup menu on PDF files. Now he needs to get hold of the file to which the Action has been bound. How, oh  how, can one get hold of that file? Well, it's simple. Leave everything you see above exactly as it is but change the Java code section to this: public final class PDF2JavaFXContext implements ActionListener {     private final DataObject context;     public PDF2JavaFXContext(DataObject context) {         this.context = context;     }     public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent ev) {         FileObject fo = context.getPrimaryFile();         File theFile = FileUtil.toFile(fo);         //do something with your file...     } } The point is that the annotations at the top of the class bind the Action to either Actions.alwaysEnabled, which is a factory method for creating always-enabled Actions, or Actions.context, which is a factory method for creating context-sensitive Actions. How does the Action get bound to the factory method? The annotations are converted, when the module is compiled, into XML registration entries in the "generated-layer.xml", which you can find in your "build" folder, in the Files window, after building the module. In Mark's case, since the Action should be context-sensitive to PDF files, he needs to bind his PDF2JavaFXContext ActionListener (which should probably be named "PDF2JavaFXActionListener", since the class is an ActionListener) to Actions.context. All he needs to do that is pass in the object he wants to work with into the constructor of the ActionListener. Now, when the module is built, the annotation processor is going to take the annotations and convert them to XML registration entries, but the constructor will also be checked to see whether it is empty or not. In this case, the constructor isn't empty, hence the Action should be context-sensitive and so the ActionListener is bound to Actions.context. The Actions.context will do all the enablement work for Mark, so that he will not need to provide any code for enabling/disabling the Action. The Action will be enabled whenever a DataObject is selected. Since his Action is bound to Nodes in the Projects window that represent PDF files, the Action will always be enabled whenever Mark right-clicks on a PDF Node, since the Node exposes its own DataObject. Once Mark has access to the DataObject, he can get the underlying FileObject via getPrimaryFile and he can then convert the FileObject to a java.io.File via FileUtil.getConfigFile. Once he's got the java.io.File, he can do with it whatever he needs. Further reading: http://bits.netbeans.org/dev/javadoc/

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  • Setting corelocation results to NSNumber object parameters

    - by Dan Ray
    This is a weird one, y'all. - (void)locationManager:(CLLocationManager *)manager didUpdateToLocation:(CLLocation *)newLocation fromLocation:(CLLocation *)oldLocation { CLLocationCoordinate2D coordinate = newLocation.coordinate; self.mark.longitude = [NSNumber numberWithDouble:coordinate.longitude]; self.mark.latitude = [NSNumber numberWithDouble:coordinate.latitude]; NSLog(@"Got %f %f, set %f %f", coordinate.latitude, coordinate.longitude, self.mark.latitude, self.mark.longitude); [manager stopUpdatingLocation]; manager.delegate = nil; if (self.waitingForLocation) { [self completeUpload]; } } The latitude and longitude in that "mark" object are synthesized parameters referring to NSNumber iVars. In the simulator, my NSLog output for that line in the middle there reads: 2010-05-28 15:08:46.938 EverWondr[8375:207] Got 37.331689 -122.030731, set 0.000000 -44213283338325225829852024986561881455984640.000000 That's a WHOLE lot further East than 1 Infinite Loop! The numbers are different on the device, but similar--lat is still zero and long is a very unlikely high negative number. Elsewhere in the controller I'm accepting a button press and uploading a file (an image I just took with the camera) with its geocoding info associated, and I need that self.waitingForLocation to inform the CLLocationManager delegate that I already hit that button and once its done its deal, it should go ahead and fire off the upload. Thing is, up in the button-click-receiving method, I test see if CL is finished by testing self.mark.latitude, which seems to be getting set zero...

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  • How to Make a Game like Space Invaders - Ray Wenderlich (why do my space invaders scroll off screen)

    - by Erv Noel
    I'm following this tutorial(http://www.raywenderlich.com/51068/how-to-make-a-game-like-space-invaders-with-sprite-kit-tutorial-part-1) and I've run into a problem right after the part where I add [self determineInvaderMovementDirection]; to my GameScene.m file (specifically to my moveInvadersForUpdate method) The tutorial states that the space invaders should be moving accordingly after adding this piece of code but when I run they move to the left and they do not come back. I'm not sure what I am doing wrong as I have followed this tutorial very carefully. Any help or clarification would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance ! Here is the full GameScene.m #import "GameScene.h" #import <CoreMotion/CoreMotion.h> #pragma mark - Custom Type Definitions /* The type definition and constant definitions 1,2,3 take care of the following tasks: 1.Define the possible types of invader enemies. This can be used in switch statements later when things like displaying different sprites images for each enemy type. The typedef makes InvaderType a formal Obj-C type that is type checked for method arguments and variables.This is so that the wrong method argument is not used or assigned to the wrong variable. 2. Define the size of the invaders and that they'll be laid out in a grid of rows and columns on the screen. 3. Define a name that will be used to identify invaders when searching for them. */ //1 typedef enum InvaderType { InvaderTypeA, InvaderTypeB, InvaderTypeC } InvaderType; /* Invaders move in a fixed pattern: right, right, down, left, down, right right. InvaderMovementDirection tracks the invaders' progress through this pattern */ typedef enum InvaderMovementDirection { InvaderMovementDirectionRight, InvaderMovementDirectionLeft, InvaderMovementDirectionDownThenRight, InvaderMovementDirectionDownThenLeft, InvaderMovementDirectionNone } InvaderMovementDirection; //2 #define kInvaderSize CGSizeMake(24,16) #define kInvaderGridSpacing CGSizeMake(12,12) #define kInvaderRowCount 6 #define kInvaderColCount 6 //3 #define kInvaderName @"invader" #define kShipSize CGSizeMake(30, 16) //stores the size of the ship #define kShipName @"ship" // stores the name of the ship stored on the sprite node #define kScoreHudName @"scoreHud" #define kHealthHudName @"healthHud" /* this class extension allows you to add “private” properties to GameScene class, without revealing the properties to other classes or code. You still get the benefit of using Objective-C properties, but your GameScene state is stored internally and can’t be modified by other external classes. As well, it doesn’t clutter the namespace of datatypes that your other classes see. This class extension is used in the method didMoveToView */ #pragma mark - Private GameScene Properties @interface GameScene () @property BOOL contentCreated; @property InvaderMovementDirection invaderMovementDirection; @property NSTimeInterval timeOfLastMove; @property NSTimeInterval timePerMove; @end @implementation GameScene #pragma mark Object Lifecycle Management #pragma mark - Scene Setup and Content Creation /*This method simply invokes createContent using the BOOL property contentCreated to make sure you don’t create your scene’s content more than once. This property is defined in an Objective-C Class Extension found near the top of the file()*/ - (void)didMoveToView:(SKView *)view { if (!self.contentCreated) { [self createContent]; self.contentCreated = YES; } } - (void)createContent { //1 - Invaders begin by moving to the right self.invaderMovementDirection = InvaderMovementDirectionRight; //2 - Invaders take 1 sec for each move. Each step left, right or down // takes 1 second. self.timePerMove = 1.0; //3 - Invaders haven't moved yet, so set the time to zero self.timeOfLastMove = 0.0; [self setupInvaders]; [self setupShip]; [self setupHud]; } /* Creates an invade sprite of a given type 1. Use the invadeType parameterr to determine color of the invader 2. Call spriteNodeWithColor:size: of SKSpriteNode to alloc and init a sprite that renders as a rect of the given color invaderColor with size kInvaderSize */ -(SKNode*)makeInvaderOfType:(InvaderType)invaderType { //1 SKColor* invaderColor; switch (invaderType) { case InvaderTypeA: invaderColor = [SKColor redColor]; break; case InvaderTypeB: invaderColor = [SKColor greenColor]; break; case InvaderTypeC: invaderColor = [SKColor blueColor]; break; } //2 SKSpriteNode* invader = [SKSpriteNode spriteNodeWithColor:invaderColor size:kInvaderSize]; invader.name = kInvaderName; return invader; } -(void)setupInvaders { //1 - loop over the rows CGPoint baseOrigin = CGPointMake(kInvaderSize.width / 2, 180); for (NSUInteger row = 0; row < kInvaderRowCount; ++row) { //2 - Choose a single InvaderType for all invaders // in this row based on the row number InvaderType invaderType; if (row % 3 == 0) invaderType = InvaderTypeA; else if (row % 3 == 1) invaderType = InvaderTypeB; else invaderType = InvaderTypeC; //3 - Does some math to figure out where the first invader // in the row should be positioned CGPoint invaderPosition = CGPointMake(baseOrigin.x, row * (kInvaderGridSpacing.height + kInvaderSize.height) + baseOrigin.y); //4 - Loop over the columns for (NSUInteger col = 0; col < kInvaderColCount; ++col) { //5 - Create an invader for the current row and column and add it // to the scene SKNode* invader = [self makeInvaderOfType:invaderType]; invader.position = invaderPosition; [self addChild:invader]; //6 - update the invaderPosition so that it's correct for the //next invader invaderPosition.x += kInvaderSize.width + kInvaderGridSpacing.width; } } } -(void)setupShip { //1 - creates ship using makeShip. makeShip can easily be used later // to create another ship (ex. to set up more lives) SKNode* ship = [self makeShip]; //2 - Places the ship on the screen. In SpriteKit the origin is at the lower //left corner of the screen. The anchorPoint is based on a unit square with (0, 0) at the lower left of the sprite's area and (1, 1) at its top right. Since SKSpriteNode has a default anchorPoint of (0.5, 0.5), i.e., its center, the ship's position is the position of its center. Positioning the ship at kShipSize.height/2.0f means that half of the ship's height will protrude below its position and half above. If you check the math, you'll see that the ship's bottom aligns exactly with the bottom of the scene. ship.position = CGPointMake(self.size.width / 2.0f, kShipSize.height/2.0f); [self addChild:ship]; } -(SKNode*)makeShip { SKNode* ship = [SKSpriteNode spriteNodeWithColor:[SKColor greenColor] size:kShipSize]; ship.name = kShipName; return ship; } -(void)setupHud { //Sets the score label font to Courier SKLabelNode* scoreLabel = [SKLabelNode labelNodeWithFontNamed:@"Courier"]; //1 - Give the score label a name so it becomes easy to find later when // the score needs to be updated. scoreLabel.name = kScoreHudName; scoreLabel.fontSize = 15; //2 - Color the score label green scoreLabel.fontColor = [SKColor greenColor]; scoreLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"Score: %04u", 0]; //3 - Positions the score label near the top left corner of the screen scoreLabel.position = CGPointMake(20 + scoreLabel.frame.size.width/2, self.size.height - (20 + scoreLabel.frame.size.height/2)); [self addChild:scoreLabel]; //Applies the font of the health label SKLabelNode* healthLabel = [SKLabelNode labelNodeWithFontNamed:@"Courier"]; //4 - Give the health label a name so it can be referenced later when it needs // to be updated to display the health healthLabel.name = kHealthHudName; healthLabel.fontSize = 15; //5 - Colors the health label red healthLabel.fontColor = [SKColor redColor]; healthLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"Health: %.1f%%", 100.0f]; //6 - Positions the health Label on the upper right hand side of the screen healthLabel.position = CGPointMake(self.size.width - healthLabel.frame.size.width/2 - 20, self.size.height - (20 + healthLabel.frame.size.height/2)); [self addChild:healthLabel]; } #pragma mark - Scene Update - (void)update:(NSTimeInterval)currentTime { //Makes the invaders move [self moveInvadersForUpdate:currentTime]; } #pragma mark - Scene Update Helpers //This method will get invoked by update -(void)moveInvadersForUpdate:(NSTimeInterval)currentTime { //1 - if it's not yet time to move, exit the method. moveInvadersForUpdate: // is invoked 60 times per second, but you don't want the invaders to move // that often since the movement would be too fast to see if (currentTime - self.timeOfLastMove < self.timePerMove) return; //2 - Recall that the scene holds all the invaders as child nodes; which were // added to the scene using addChild: in setupInvaders identifying each invader // by its name property. Invoking enumerateChildNodesWithName:usingBlock only loops over the invaders because they're named kInvaderType; which makes the loop skip the ship and the HUD. The guts og the block moves the invaders 10 pixels either right, left or down depending on the value of invaderMovementDirection [self enumerateChildNodesWithName:kInvaderName usingBlock:^(SKNode *node, BOOL *stop) { switch (self.invaderMovementDirection) { case InvaderMovementDirectionRight: node.position = CGPointMake(node.position.x - 10, node.position.y); break; case InvaderMovementDirectionLeft: node.position = CGPointMake(node.position.x - 10, node.position.y); break; case InvaderMovementDirectionDownThenLeft: case InvaderMovementDirectionDownThenRight: node.position = CGPointMake(node.position.x, node.position.y - 10); break; InvaderMovementDirectionNone: default: break; } }]; //3 - Record that you just moved the invaders, so that the next time this method is invoked (1/60th of a second from when it starts), the invaders won't move again until the set time period of one second has elapsed. self.timeOfLastMove = currentTime; //Makes it so that the invader movement direction changes only when the invaders are actually moving. Invaders only move when the check on self.timeOfLastMove passes (when conditional expression is true) [self determineInvaderMovementDirection]; } #pragma mark - Invader Movement Helpers -(void)determineInvaderMovementDirection { //1 - Since local vars accessed by block are default const(means they cannot be changed), this snippet of code qualifies proposedMovementDirection with __block so that you can modify it in //2 __block InvaderMovementDirection proposedMovementDirection = self.invaderMovementDirection; //2 - Loops over the invaders in the scene and refers to the block with the invader as an argument [self enumerateChildNodesWithName:kInvaderName usingBlock:^(SKNode *node, BOOL *stop) { switch (self.invaderMovementDirection) { case InvaderMovementDirectionRight: //3 - If the invader's right edge is within 1pt of the right edge of the scene, it's about to move offscreen. Sets proposedMovementDirection so that the invaders move down then left. You compare the invader's frame(the frame that contains its content in the scene's coordinate system) with the scene width. Since the scene has an anchorPoint of (0,0) by default and is scaled to fill it's parent view, this comparison ensures you're testing against the view's edges. if (CGRectGetMaxX(node.frame) >= node.scene.size.width - 1.0f) { proposedMovementDirection = InvaderMovementDirectionDownThenLeft; *stop = YES; } break; case InvaderMovementDirectionLeft: //4 - If the invader's left edge is within 1 pt of the left edge of the scene, it's about to move offscreen. Sets the proposedMovementDirection so invaders move down then right if (CGRectGetMinX(node.frame) <= 1.0f) { proposedMovementDirection = InvaderMovementDirectionDownThenRight; *stop = YES; } break; case InvaderMovementDirectionDownThenLeft: //5 - If invaders are moving down then left, they already moved down at this point, so they should now move left. proposedMovementDirection = InvaderMovementDirectionLeft; *stop = YES; break; case InvaderMovementDirectionDownThenRight: //6 - if the invaders are moving down then right, they already moved down so they should now move right. proposedMovementDirection = InvaderMovementDirectionRight; *stop = YES; break; default: break; } }]; //7 - if the proposed invader movement direction is different than the current invader movement direction, update the current direction to the proposed direction if (proposedMovementDirection != self.invaderMovementDirection) { self.invaderMovementDirection = proposedMovementDirection; } } #pragma mark - Bullet Helpers #pragma mark - User Tap Helpers #pragma mark - HUD Helpers #pragma mark - Physics Contact Helpers #pragma mark - Game End Helpers @end

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