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  • Running two graphics cards (non-SLI) to power 3D on two different monitors?

    - by Delameko
    Hi, I'm a bit clueless about this, so excuse my naivety. I have two video cards, a Nvidia 8800 and a GT120, powering three monitors. I run two 3D game instances (two Everquest 2 clients), one on each of my first two monitors. It's been running fine, although sometimes it sounds like the computer is trying to take off. Today I realised that I was actually playing them on the two monitors that are both powered by the 8800. Thinking that I might as well make use of the power of both cards I tried switching the monitor cables over so that each card would be "powering" one of the clients. (Is it silly to assume this is how it works?) This doesn't seem to have had the desired effect, as the client running on the 8800 screen is running worse than it was before. Is it even possible to run two clients on separate GPUs? Is SLI the only way to utilise 2 GPUs? Is there something special I have to do? Or do I have to set the client to use a particular GPU (an option I can't seem to find in EQ2)? I run the clients in window mode if that makes any difference, and I'm running Win 7. Thanks.

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  • Apache mod_disk_cache on a seperate drive

    - by pavs
    how can I set Apache mod_disk_cache on a separate drive from where the OS/Apache is installed? I have set up this on my apache2.conf: <IfModule mod_cache_disk.c> # cache cleaning is done by htcacheclean, which can be configured in # /etc/default/apache2 # # For further information, see the comments in that file, # /usr/share/doc/apache2/README.Debian, and the htcacheclean(8) # man page. # This path must be the same as the one in /etc/default/apache2 CacheRoot /media/cacheHD # This will also cache local documents. It usually makes more sense to # put this into the configuration for just one virtual host. CacheEnable disk / # The result of CacheDirLevels * CacheDirLength must not be higher than # 20. Moreover, pay attention on file system limits. Some file systems # do not support more than a certain number of inodes and # subdirectories (e.g. 32000 for ext3) CacheDirLevels 2 CacheDirLength 1 </IfModule> and it doesn't seem to be caching anything at all. The drive itself is a freshly installed ssd drive formatted with ext4.

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  • Printer irregularly producing garbage output

    - by John Gardeniers
    Every now and then instead of getting the proper output we get numerous pages, mostly with just a single line, of output which appears to be the raw PCL. My theory is that this happens when the first byte or two of the document is somehow not received by the printer, which then doesn't know how to interpret the rest and does it's best by spitting it out as text. This is a problem I've seen many times over the years but has been popping up more often since we upgraded to Win 7 64 bit, which introduced a number of headaches because of the HP lack of real support for 64 bits. It also appears to happen most often when printing PDF files. We have tried several different PDF readers in addition to Adobe's own but that hasn't helped. While we mainly use HP printers, and the problem is not limited to any particular model, I've also seen it happen on other brands, albeit to a lesser extent. I've also been unable to discern a difference between printers used via a print server or those connected directly by IP address. It also happens to USB attached printers. Because of the erratic nature of this problem there is precious little I can think of to try and debug it, so I'm after any ideas that might help to eliminate it.

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  • How to route 1 VPN through another on OS X?

    - by Eeep
    Hi everyone. Thanks a lot for your help! I've been tinkering with this for a while and have read many posts along with Googling for help, but my knowledge of TCP/IP is really weak... I have access to two different VPN servers. 1 Is set up in Network Settings and connects through PPP 2 Is set up through Tunnelblick and uses OpenVPN. I can connect to either tunnel #1 or tunnel #2, but not both one after the other... One of my major to-do's this year is study TCP/IP, but for now, would you be super-helpful and help me fix this really clearly? I have no experience with routing, DNS, gateways or any of that. If you tell me, "Set your gateway to XXX.XXX.XX.XXX" can you specify how I get that IP, off of what interface so I don't get messed up? I can figure out the terminal just fine if you let me know what to type, and I WILL read the man pages on everything you help me with. Thanks a million!

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  • Display on secondary video card (Nvidia 8400 GS): horrible refresh, bogs system

    - by minameismud
    This is my work computer, but it's a small shop. We do business software development. The most hardcore thing we create is some web animations with html5 and fancy javascript/css. The base machine is a Dell Precision T3500 - Xeon W3550 (3.07GHz quad), 6GB ram, pair of 500GB harddrives, and Win 7 x64 Enterprise SP1. My primary video card is an ATI FirePro V4800 1GB in a PCIe slot of some speed driving a pair of 23s at 1920x1080 through DisplayPort-HDMI adapters. The secondary card is an NVidia GeForce 8400GS in a PCI slot driving a single 17" at 1280x1024 through DVI. On either of the 23" monitors, windows move smoothly, scroll quickly, and are generally very responsive. On the 17", it's slow, chunky, and when I'm trying to scroll a ton of content, Windows will occasionally suggest I drop to the Windows Basic theme. I've updated drivers for both cards, and I've gotten every Windows update relating to video. Specifically: ATI FirePro Provider: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc Date: 6/22/2014 Version: 13.352.1014.0 NVidia 8400 GS Provider: NVIDIA Date: 7/2/2014 Version: 9.18.13.4052 Unfortunately, new hardware isn't really an option. Is there anything I can do software-wise to speed up the NVidia-driven monitor?

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  • Windows 7 Upgrade Fail from Home Premium to Ultimate Professional

    - by Michael S-B
    I had a hard drive crash, which meant I had to install a new HDD in my Dell 64-Bit XPS 1350 (lovely computer). I had previously been running Windows 7 Ultimate Professional which I had upgraded from the OEM Win 7 Home Premium by means of a disk I purchased from my university. Using the Recovery disk from Dell I installed Windows 7 Home Premium successfully on the new hard drive, but when I have tried to upgrade via my disk to Ultimate it installs the whole thing, says its complete, but when I reboot, tells me: "This version of Windows could not be installed. Your previous version of Windows has been restored, and you can continue to use it." I've installed the drivers from Dell's driver disk, but still to no avail. I've also used Driver Robot to update all my drivers. I can't find a .dmp file anywhere under C:\$WINDOWS.~BT\Sources but I did find this file under C:\$WINDOWS.~BT\Sources\Panther. setupact.log https://www.dropbox.com/s/yzy7fhkxlzc235y/setupact.log If anyone could please advise me what I need to do to fix Windows so it will upgrade properly, I would greatly appreciate it.

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  • Change "Show Desktop" to "Minimize All"

    - by V0R73X
    I'd like to use Alt-Tab a lot when I'm programming under Windows. It's the quickest method to switch between windows. However, there's one annoying thing about this, and that is when I switch over to "Desktop" using Alt-Tab, Windows uses the "Show Desktop" command instead of minimizing all Windows. I personally hate Show Desktop, since it creates a separate window on top of all the other windows which captures a live display of desktop, and this causes all the widgets I have on the desktop to be hidden under this live window, and I LOVE my widgets. An ideal behavior for when I switch tabs to Desktop using Alt-Tab would be the "Minimize All" behavior, which simply minimizes all windows, leaving me with my actual desktop, which sits behind everything. In order to achieve this, I have to move my fingers across the keyboard, and press Win+M. This decreases my efficiency by .5 seconds, which is a LOT of time. How can I tell windows to use "Minimize All" rather than "Show Desktop" when I use my good ol' Alt-Tab functionality to switch over to desktop and save .5 seconds in time?

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  • Handling aces and finding a segfault in a blackjack program

    - by Bill Adams
    Here's what i have so far... I have yet to figure out how i'm going to handle the 11 / 1 situation with an ace, and when the player chooses an option for hit/stand, i get segfault. HELP!!! #include <stdio.h> #include <string.h> #include <stdlib.h> #include <time.h> #define DECKSIZE 52 #define VALUE 9 #define FACE 4 #define HANDSIZE 26 typedef struct { int value; char* suit; char* name; }Card; typedef struct { int value; char* suit; char* name; }dealerHand; typedef struct { int value; char* suit; char* name; }playerHand; Card cards[DECKSIZE]; dealerHand deal[HANDSIZE]; playerHand dealt[HANDSIZE]; char *faceName[]={"two","three", "four","five","six", "seven","eight","nine", "ten", "jack","queen", "king","ace"}; char *suitName[]={"spades","diamonds","clubs","hearts"}; void printDeck(){ int i; for(i=0;i<DECKSIZE;i++){ printf("%s of %s value = %d\n ",cards[i].name,cards[i].suit,cards[i].value); if((i+1)%13==0 && i!=0) printf("-------------------\n\n"); } } void shuffleDeck(){ srand(time(NULL)); int this; int that; Card temp; int c; for(c=0;c<10000;c++){ //c is the index for number of individual card shuffles should be set to c<10000 or more this=rand()%DECKSIZE; that=rand()%DECKSIZE; temp=cards[this]; cards[this]=cards[that]; cards[that]=temp; } } /*void hitStand(i,y){ // I dumped this because of a segfault i couldn't figure out. int k; printf(" Press 1 to HIT or press 2 to STAND:"); scanf("%d",k); if(k=1){ dealt[y].suit=cards[i].suit; dealt[y].name=cards[i].name; dealt[y].value=cards[i].value; y++; i++; } } */ int main(){ int suitCount=0; int faceCount=0; int i; int x; int y; int d; int p; int k; for(i=0;i<DECKSIZE;i++){ //this for statement builds the deck if(faceCount<9){ cards[i].value=faceCount+2; }else{ //assigns face cards as value 10 cards[i].value=10; } cards[i].suit=suitName[suitCount]; cards[i].name=faceName[faceCount++]; if(faceCount==13){ //this if loop increments suit count once cards[i].value=11; //all faces have been assigned, and also suitCount++; //assigns the ace as 11 faceCount=0; } //end building deck } /*printDeck(); //prints the deck in order shuffleDeck(); //shuffles the deck printDeck(); //prints the deck as shuffled This was used in testing, commented out to keep the deck hidden!*/ shuffleDeck(); x=0; y=0; for(i=0;i<4;i++){ //this for loop deals the first 4 cards, dealt[y].suit=cards[i].suit; //first card to player, second to dealer, dealt[y].name=cards[i].name; //as per standard dealing practice. dealt[y].value=cards[i].value; i++; y++; deal[x].suit=cards[i].suit; deal[x].name=cards[i].name; deal[x].value=cards[i].value; x++; } printf(" Dealer's hand is: %s of %s and XXXX of XXXX. (Second card is hidden!)\n",deal[0].name,deal[0].suit,deal[1].name,deal[1].suit); printf(" Player's hand is: %s of %s and %s of %s.\n",dealt[0].name,dealt[0].suit,dealt[1].name,dealt[1].suit); printf(" the current value of the index i=%d\n",i); //this line gave me the value of i for testing d=deal[0].value+deal[1].value; p=dealt[0].value+dealt[1].value; if(d==21){ printf(" The Dealer has Blackjack! House win!\n"); }else{ if(d>21){ printf(" The dealer is Bust! You win!\n"); }else{ if(d>17){ printf(" Press 1 to HIT or 2 to STAND"); scanf("%d",k); if(k==1){ dealt[y].suit=cards[i].suit; dealt[y].name=cards[i].name; dealt[y].value=cards[i].value; y++; i++; } }else{ if(d<17){ printf(" Dealer Hits!"); deal[x].suit=cards[i].suit; deal[x].name=cards[i].name; deal[x].value=cards[i].value; x++; i++; } } } } return 0; }

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  • Native ComboBox not displaying choices correctly

    - by anothershrubery
    EDIT: It seems that ListPicker is the way to go but I have had further problems with that detailed Microsoft.Phone.Controls.Toolkit ListPicker throws XamlParseException I have the following ComboBox in code: <ComboBox x:Name="Result" Grid.Column="6" HorizontalAlignment="Center" VerticalAlignment="Center" Foreground="Black" Background="White"> <ComboBoxItem Content="Win" /> <ComboBoxItem Content="Place" /> <ComboBoxItem Content="Lose" /> </ComboBox> But it does not display as I would have expected. When you drop down the ComboBox the options don't appear, it's just like empty items. See below: However, when an item is selected, it displays correctly and the correct index/item is returned. See below: I'm sure there is something simple I have missed but can't put my finger on it. EDIT: Ok I am posting the full code for this. I have a user control, OddsRow, that looks like this: <UserControl xmlns:toolkit="clr-namespace:Microsoft.Phone.Controls;assembly=Microsoft.Phone.Controls.Toolkit" x:Class="MojoPinBetOddsCalculator.OddsRow" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation" xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml" xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008" xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006" mc:Ignorable="d" FontFamily="{StaticResource PhoneFontFamilyNormal}" FontSize="{StaticResource PhoneFontSizeNormal}" Foreground="{StaticResource PhoneForegroundBrush}" d:DesignHeight="480" d:DesignWidth="480"> <Grid x:Name="LayoutRoot" Background="{StaticResource PhoneChromeBrush}"> <Grid.RowDefinitions> <RowDefinition Height="70"/> </Grid.RowDefinitions> <Grid.ColumnDefinitions> <ColumnDefinition Width="50*"></ColumnDefinition> <ColumnDefinition Width="70*"></ColumnDefinition> <ColumnDefinition Width="30*"></ColumnDefinition> <ColumnDefinition Width="70*"></ColumnDefinition> <ColumnDefinition Width="70*"></ColumnDefinition> <ColumnDefinition Width="70*" ></ColumnDefinition> <ColumnDefinition Width="100*"></ColumnDefinition> </Grid.ColumnDefinitions> <TextBlock x:Name="RowNumber" Grid.Column="0" VerticalAlignment="Center" HorizontalAlignment="Center"></TextBlock> <TextBox x:Name="OddsNumerator" Grid.Column="1" Width="90" Height="70" HorizontalAlignment="Center" TextAlignment="Center" VerticalAlignment="Center" MaxLength="3" InputScope="TelephoneNumber"></TextBox> <TextBlock x:Name="Slash" Grid.Column="2" Text="/" HorizontalAlignment="Center" VerticalAlignment="Center"></TextBlock> <TextBox x:Name="OddsDenominator" Grid.Column="3" Width="90" Height="70" VerticalAlignment="Center" TextAlignment="Center" MaxLength="3" HorizontalAlignment="Center" InputScope="TelephoneNumber"></TextBox> <CheckBox x:Name="EachWay" Grid.Column="4" VerticalAlignment="Center" HorizontalAlignment="Center" Margin="10,0,0,0" /> <CheckBox x:Name="Place" Grid.Column="5" HorizontalAlignment="Center" VerticalAlignment="Center" BorderThickness="0" Width="71" Margin="10,0,0,0" Padding="0" /> <ComboBox x:Name="Result" Grid.Column="6" HorizontalAlignment="Center" VerticalAlignment="Center" Foreground="Black" Background="White"> <ComboBoxItem Content="Win" /> <ComboBoxItem Content="Place" /> <ComboBoxItem Content="Lose" /> </ComboBox> </Grid> </UserControl> And it is displayed in the MainPage like so: <phone:PhoneApplicationPage xmlns:my="clr-namespace:MojoPinBetOddsCalculator" x:Class="MojoPinBetOddsCalculator.MainPage" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation" xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml" xmlns:phone="clr-namespace:Microsoft.Phone.Controls;assembly=Microsoft.Phone" xmlns:shell="clr-namespace:Microsoft.Phone.Shell;assembly=Microsoft.Phone" xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008" xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006" mc:Ignorable="d" d:DesignWidth="480" d:DesignHeight="768" FontFamily="{StaticResource PhoneFontFamilyNormal}" FontSize="{StaticResource PhoneFontSizeNormal}" Foreground="{StaticResource PhoneForegroundBrush}" SupportedOrientations="Portrait" Orientation="Portrait" shell:SystemTray.IsVisible="True"> <!--LayoutRoot is the root grid where all page content is placed--> <Grid x:Name="LayoutRoot" Background="Transparent"> <Grid.RowDefinitions> <RowDefinition Height="Auto"/> <RowDefinition Height="*"/> </Grid.RowDefinitions> <!--TitlePanel contains the name of the application and page title--> <StackPanel x:Name="TitlePanel" Grid.Row="0" Margin="12,17,0,28"> <TextBlock x:Name="ApplicationTitle" Text="BET ODDS CALCULATOR" Style="{StaticResource PhoneTextNormalStyle}"/> <TextBlock x:Name="PageTitle" Text="calculate" Margin="9,-7,0,0" Style="{StaticResource PhoneTextTitle1Style}"/> </StackPanel> <!--ContentPanel - place additional content here--> <Grid x:Name="ContentPanel" Grid.Row="1" Margin="12,0,12,0" HorizontalAlignment="Stretch"> <Grid x:Name="Scrollable"> <ScrollViewer> <Grid x:Name="BettingGrid"> <Grid.RowDefinitions> <RowDefinition Height="Auto"></RowDefinition> <RowDefinition Height="*"></RowDefinition> </Grid.RowDefinitions> <Grid x:Name="BetList"> <Grid.RowDefinitions> <RowDefinition Height="30"></RowDefinition> <RowDefinition Height="70"></RowDefinition> <RowDefinition Height="70"></RowDefinition> <RowDefinition Height="70"></RowDefinition> <RowDefinition Height="70"></RowDefinition> <RowDefinition Height="70"></RowDefinition> <RowDefinition Height="70"></RowDefinition> </Grid.RowDefinitions> <Grid.ColumnDefinitions> <ColumnDefinition Width="50*"></ColumnDefinition> <ColumnDefinition Width="70*"></ColumnDefinition> <ColumnDefinition Width="30*"></ColumnDefinition> <ColumnDefinition Width="70*"></ColumnDefinition> <ColumnDefinition Width="70*"></ColumnDefinition> <ColumnDefinition Width="70*"></ColumnDefinition> <ColumnDefinition Width="100*"></ColumnDefinition> </Grid.ColumnDefinitions> <TextBlock Text="EW" Style="{StaticResource PhoneTextNormalStyle}" Grid.Row="0" Grid.Column="4" HorizontalAlignment="Center" /> <TextBlock Text="Place" Style="{StaticResource PhoneTextNormalStyle}" Grid.Row="0" Grid.Column="5" HorizontalAlignment="Center" /> <TextBlock Text="Result" Style="{StaticResource PhoneTextNormalStyle}" Grid.Row="0" Grid.Column="6" HorizontalAlignment="Center" /> <my:OddsRow Grid.Row="1" Grid.ColumnSpan="7" Row="1"/> <my:OddsRow Grid.Row="2" Grid.ColumnSpan="7" Row="2"/> <my:OddsRow Grid.Row="3" Grid.ColumnSpan="7" Row="3"/> <my:OddsRow Grid.Row="4" Grid.ColumnSpan="7" Row="4"/> <my:OddsRow Grid.Row="5" Grid.ColumnSpan="7" Row="5"/> <my:OddsRow Grid.Row="6" Grid.ColumnSpan="7" Row="6"/> </Grid> <Grid x:Name="ControlsGrid" Grid.Row="1"> <Button x:Name="AddRowButton" Background="#BFFFFFFF" BorderBrush="#BFFFFFFF" Foreground="Black" Content="Add Row" FontSize="16" Click="AddRowButton_Click" Height="70" /> </Grid> </Grid> </ScrollViewer> </Grid> </Grid> </Grid> </phone:PhoneApplicationPage> Separately the ComboBox works, and also the code for the OddsRow works as expected... separately. When combined it doesn't display the items. OddsRow.xaml.cs public partial class OddsRow : UserControl { private int m_Row; public OddsRow() { InitializeComponent(); } public int Row { get { return m_Row; } set { m_Row = value; RowNumber.Text = m_Row + " - "; } } }

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  • ANSI C blackjack assignment, linux GCC compiler, i'm stuck...

    - by Bill Adams
    Here's what i have so far... I have yet to figure out how i'm going to handle the 11 / 1 situation with an ace, and when the player chooses an option for hit/stand, i get segfault. HELP!!! #include <stdio.h> #include <string.h> #include <stdlib.h> #include <time.h> #define DECKSIZE 52 #define VALUE 9 #define FACE 4 #define HANDSIZE 26 typedef struct { int value; char* suit; char* name; }Card; typedef struct { int value; char* suit; char* name; }dealerHand; typedef struct { int value; char* suit; char* name; }playerHand; Card cards[DECKSIZE]; dealerHand deal[HANDSIZE]; playerHand dealt[HANDSIZE]; char *faceName[]={"two","three", "four","five","six", "seven","eight","nine", "ten", "jack","queen", "king","ace"}; char *suitName[]={"spades","diamonds","clubs","hearts"}; void printDeck(){ int i; for(i=0;i<DECKSIZE;i++){ printf("%s of %s value = %d\n ",cards[i].name,cards[i].suit,cards[i].value); if((i+1)%13==0 && i!=0) printf("-------------------\n\n"); } } void shuffleDeck(){ srand(time(NULL)); int this; int that; Card temp; int c; for(c=0;c<10000;c++){ //c is the index for number of individual card shuffles should be set to c<10000 or more this=rand()%DECKSIZE; that=rand()%DECKSIZE; temp=cards[this]; cards[this]=cards[that]; cards[that]=temp; } } /*void hitStand(i,y){ // I dumped this because of a segfault i couldn't figure out. int k; printf(" Press 1 to HIT or press 2 to STAND:"); scanf("%d",k); if(k=1){ dealt[y].suit=cards[i].suit; dealt[y].name=cards[i].name; dealt[y].value=cards[i].value; y++; i++; } } */ int main(){ int suitCount=0; int faceCount=0; int i; int x; int y; int d; int p; int k; for(i=0;i<DECKSIZE;i++){ //this for statement builds the deck if(faceCount<9){ cards[i].value=faceCount+2; }else{ //assigns face cards as value 10 cards[i].value=10; } cards[i].suit=suitName[suitCount]; cards[i].name=faceName[faceCount++]; if(faceCount==13){ //this if loop increments suit count once cards[i].value=11; //all faces have been assigned, and also suitCount++; //assigns the ace as 11 faceCount=0; } //end building deck } /*printDeck(); //prints the deck in order shuffleDeck(); //shuffles the deck printDeck(); //prints the deck as shuffled This was used in testing, commented out to keep the deck hidden!*/ shuffleDeck(); x=0; y=0; for(i=0;i<4;i++){ //this for loop deals the first 4 cards, dealt[y].suit=cards[i].suit; //first card to player, second to dealer, dealt[y].name=cards[i].name; //as per standard dealing practice. dealt[y].value=cards[i].value; i++; y++; deal[x].suit=cards[i].suit; deal[x].name=cards[i].name; deal[x].value=cards[i].value; x++; } printf(" Dealer's hand is: %s of %s and XXXX of XXXX. (Second card is hidden!)\n",deal[0].name,deal[0].suit,deal[1].name,deal[1].suit); printf(" Player's hand is: %s of %s and %s of %s.\n",dealt[0].name,dealt[0].suit,dealt[1].name,dealt[1].suit); printf(" the current value of the index i=%d\n",i); //this line gave me the value of i for testing d=deal[0].value+deal[1].value; p=dealt[0].value+dealt[1].value; if(d==21){ printf(" The Dealer has Blackjack! House win!\n"); }else{ if(d>21){ printf(" The dealer is Bust! You win!\n"); }else{ if(d>17){ printf(" Press 1 to HIT or 2 to STAND"); scanf("%d",k); if(k==1){ dealt[y].suit=cards[i].suit; dealt[y].name=cards[i].name; dealt[y].value=cards[i].value; y++; i++; } }else{ if(d<17){ printf(" Dealer Hits!"); deal[x].suit=cards[i].suit; deal[x].name=cards[i].name; deal[x].value=cards[i].value; x++; i++; } } } } return 0; }

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  • InputDispatcher Error

    - by StarDust
    INFO/ActivityManager(68): Process com.example (pid 390) has died. ERROR/InputDispatcher(68): channel '406ed580 com.example/com.example.afeTest (server)' ~ Consumer closed input channel or an error occurred. events=0x8 ERROR/InputDispatcher(68): channel '406ed580 com.example/com.example.afeTest (server)' ~ Channel is unrecoverably broken and will be disposed! ERROR/InputDispatcher(68): Received spurious receive callback for unknown input channel. fd=165, events=0x8 Can anyone tell what may be the reason behind this error? I've ported a native code on the Android-ndk. One thing I noticed regarding fd (that may be some reason :S) My code uses fd_sets which was defined in winsock2.h But I didn't find fd_sets defined in android-ndk. So I had included "select.h" where fd_set is a typedef in the android-ndk: typedef __kernel_fd_set fd_set; Here is the log cat: 04-06 11:15:32.405: INFO/DEBUG(31): *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** 04-06 11:15:32.405: INFO/DEBUG(31): Build fingerprint: 'generic/sdk/generic:2.3.3/GRI34/101070:eng/test-keys' 04-06 11:15:32.415: INFO/DEBUG(31): pid: 335, tid: 348 >>> com.example <<< 04-06 11:15:32.426: INFO/DEBUG(31): signal 11 (SIGSEGV), code 1 (SEGV_MAPERR), fault addr deadbaad 04-06 11:15:32.426: INFO/DEBUG(31): r0 deadbaad r1 0000000c r2 00000027 r3 00000000 04-06 11:15:32.445: INFO/DEBUG(31): r4 00000080 r5 afd46668 r6 0000a000 r7 00000078 04-06 11:15:32.445: INFO/DEBUG(31): r8 804ab00d r9 002a9778 10 00100000 fp 00000001 04-06 11:15:32.445: INFO/DEBUG(31): ip ffffffff sp 44295d10 lr afd19375 pc afd15ef0 cpsr 00000030 04-06 11:15:32.756: INFO/DEBUG(31): #00 pc 00015ef0 /system/lib/libc.so 04-06 11:15:32.756: INFO/DEBUG(31): #01 pc 00013852 /system/lib/libc.so 04-06 11:15:32.767: INFO/DEBUG(31): code around pc: 04-06 11:15:32.785: INFO/DEBUG(31): afd15ed0 68241c23 d1fb2c00 68dae027 d0042a00 04-06 11:15:32.785: INFO/DEBUG(31): afd15ee0 20014d18 6028447d 48174790 24802227 04-06 11:15:32.785: INFO/DEBUG(31): afd15ef0 f7f57002 2106eb56 ec92f7f6 0563aa01 04-06 11:15:32.796: INFO/DEBUG(31): afd15f00 60932100 91016051 1c112006 e818f7f6 04-06 11:15:32.807: INFO/DEBUG(31): afd15f10 2200a905 f7f62002 f7f5e824 2106eb42 04-06 11:15:32.815: INFO/DEBUG(31): code around lr: 04-06 11:15:32.815: INFO/DEBUG(31): afd19354 b0834a0d 589c447b 26009001 686768a5 04-06 11:15:32.825: INFO/DEBUG(31): afd19364 220ce008 2b005eab 1c28d003 47889901 04-06 11:15:32.836: INFO/DEBUG(31): afd19374 35544306 d5f43f01 2c006824 b003d1ee 04-06 11:15:32.836: INFO/DEBUG(31): afd19384 bdf01c30 000281a8 ffffff88 1c0fb5f0 04-06 11:15:32.846: INFO/DEBUG(31): afd19394 43551c3d a904b087 1c16ac01 604d9004 04-06 11:15:32.856: INFO/DEBUG(31): stack: 04-06 11:15:32.856: INFO/DEBUG(31): 44295cd0 00000408 04-06 11:15:32.867: INFO/DEBUG(31): 44295cd4 afd18407 /system/lib/libc.so 04-06 11:15:32.875: INFO/DEBUG(31): 44295cd8 afd4270c /system/lib/libc.so 04-06 11:15:32.875: INFO/DEBUG(31): 44295cdc afd426b8 /system/lib/libc.so 04-06 11:15:32.885: INFO/DEBUG(31): 44295ce0 00000000 04-06 11:15:32.896: INFO/DEBUG(31): 44295ce4 afd19375 /system/lib/libc.so 04-06 11:15:32.896: INFO/DEBUG(31): 44295ce8 804ab00d /data/data/com.example/lib/libAFE.so 04-06 11:15:32.896: INFO/DEBUG(31): 44295cec afd183d9 /system/lib/libc.so 04-06 11:15:32.906: INFO/DEBUG(31): 44295cf0 00000078 04-06 11:15:32.906: INFO/DEBUG(31): 44295cf4 00000000 04-06 11:15:32.906: INFO/DEBUG(31): 44295cf8 afd46668 04-06 11:15:32.906: INFO/DEBUG(31): 44295cfc 0000a000 [heap] 04-06 11:15:32.916: INFO/DEBUG(31): 44295d00 00000078 04-06 11:15:32.927: INFO/DEBUG(31): 44295d04 afd18677 /system/lib/libc.so 04-06 11:15:32.927: INFO/DEBUG(31): 44295d08 df002777 04-06 11:15:32.945: INFO/DEBUG(31): 44295d0c e3a070ad 04-06 11:15:32.945: INFO/DEBUG(31): #00 44295d10 002c43a0 [heap] 04-06 11:15:32.945: INFO/DEBUG(31): 44295d14 002a9900 [heap] 04-06 11:15:32.956: INFO/DEBUG(31): 44295d18 afd46608 04-06 11:15:32.966: INFO/DEBUG(31): 44295d1c afd11010 /system/lib/libc.so 04-06 11:15:32.976: INFO/DEBUG(31): 44295d20 002c4298 [heap] 04-06 11:15:32.976: INFO/DEBUG(31): 44295d24 fffffbdf 04-06 11:15:33.006: INFO/DEBUG(31): 44295d28 000000da 04-06 11:15:33.006: INFO/DEBUG(31): 44295d2c afd46450 04-06 11:15:33.006: INFO/DEBUG(31): 44295d30 000001b4 04-06 11:15:33.026: INFO/DEBUG(31): 44295d34 afd13857 /system/lib/libc.so 04-06 11:15:33.026: INFO/DEBUG(31): #01 44295d38 afd46450 04-06 11:15:33.035: INFO/DEBUG(31): 44295d3c afd13857 /system/lib/libc.so 04-06 11:15:33.056: INFO/DEBUG(31): 44295d40 804ab00d /data/data/com.example/lib/libAFE.so 04-06 11:15:33.056: INFO/DEBUG(31): 44295d44 44295e8c 04-06 11:15:33.056: INFO/DEBUG(31): 44295d48 804ab00d /data/data/com.example/lib/libAFE.so 04-06 11:15:33.056: INFO/DEBUG(31): 44295d4c 804bfec3 /data/data/com.example/lib/libAFE.so 04-06 11:15:33.056: INFO/DEBUG(31): 44295d50 002c43a0 [heap] 04-06 11:15:33.066: INFO/DEBUG(31): 44295d54 44295e8c 04-06 11:15:33.066: INFO/DEBUG(31): 44295d58 804ab00d /data/data/com.example/lib/libAFE.so 04-06 11:15:33.076: INFO/DEBUG(31): 44295d5c 002a9778 [heap] 04-06 11:15:33.085: INFO/DEBUG(31): 44295d60 00000078 04-06 11:15:33.085: INFO/DEBUG(31): 44295d64 afd14769 /system/lib/libc.so 04-06 11:15:33.085: INFO/DEBUG(31): 44295d68 44295e8c 04-06 11:15:33.085: INFO/DEBUG(31): 44295d6c 805d9763 /data/data/com.example/lib/libAFE.so 04-06 11:15:33.085: INFO/DEBUG(31): 44295d70 44295e8c 04-06 11:15:33.085: INFO/DEBUG(31): 44295d74 8051dc35 /data/data/com.example/lib/libAFE.so 04-06 11:15:33.085: INFO/DEBUG(31): 44295d78 0000003a 04-06 11:15:33.085: INFO/DEBUG(31): 44295d7c 002a9900 [heap] 04-06 11:15:37.126: DEBUG/Zygote(33): Process 335 terminated by signal (11) 04-06 11:15:37.146: INFO/ActivityManager(68): Process com.example (pid 335) has died. 04-06 11:15:37.178: ERROR/InputDispatcher(68): channel '406f03a0 com.example/com.example.afeTest (server)' ~ Consumer closed input channel or an error occurred. events=0x8 04-06 11:15:37.178: ERROR/InputDispatcher(68): channel '406f03a0 com.example/com.example.afeTest (server)' ~ Channel is unrecoverably broken and will be disposed! 04-06 11:15:37.185: INFO/BootReceiver(68): Copying /data/tombstones/tombstone_09 to DropBox (SYSTEM_TOMBSTONE) 04-06 11:15:37.576: DEBUG/dalvikvm(68): GC_FOR_MALLOC freed 266K, 47% free 4404K/8199K, external 3520K/3903K, paused 306ms 04-06 11:15:37.835: DEBUG/dalvikvm(68): GC_FOR_MALLOC freed 203K, 47% free 4457K/8391K, external 3520K/3903K, paused 120ms 04-06 11:15:37.886: INFO/WindowManager(68): WIN DEATH: Window{406f03a0 com.example/com.example.afeTest paused=false} 04-06 11:15:38.095: DEBUG/dalvikvm(68): GC_FOR_MALLOC freed 67K, 47% free 4518K/8391K, external 3511K/3903K, paused 94ms 04-06 11:15:38.095: INFO/dalvikvm-heap(68): Grow heap (frag case) to 10.575MB for 196628-byte allocation 04-06 11:15:38.126: DEBUG/dalvikvm(126): GC_EXPLICIT freed 110K, 51% free 2903K/5895K, external 4701K/5293K, paused 2443ms 04-06 11:15:38.217: DEBUG/dalvikvm(68): GC_FOR_MALLOC freed 1K, 46% free 4708K/8647K, external 3511K/3903K, paused 96ms 04-06 11:15:38.225: INFO/WindowManager(68): WIN DEATH: Window{406f72f8 com.example/com.example.afeTest paused=false} 04-06 11:15:38.405: DEBUG/dalvikvm(68): GC_FOR_MALLOC freed 492K, 50% free 4345K/8647K, external 3511K/3903K, paused 96ms 04-06 11:15:38.485: ERROR/InputDispatcher(68): Received spurious receive callback for unknown input channel. fd=164, events=0x8

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  • Upload File to Windows Azure Blob in Chunks through ASP.NET MVC, JavaScript and HTML5

    - by Shaun
    Originally posted on: http://geekswithblogs.net/shaunxu/archive/2013/07/01/upload-file-to-windows-azure-blob-in-chunks-through-asp.net.aspxMany people are using Windows Azure Blob Storage to store their data in the cloud. Blob storage provides 99.9% availability with easy-to-use API through .NET SDK and HTTP REST. For example, we can store JavaScript files, images, documents in blob storage when we are building an ASP.NET web application on a Web Role in Windows Azure. Or we can store our VHD files in blob and mount it as a hard drive in our cloud service. If you are familiar with Windows Azure, you should know that there are two kinds of blob: page blob and block blob. The page blob is optimized for random read and write, which is very useful when you need to store VHD files. The block blob is optimized for sequential/chunk read and write, which has more common usage. Since we can upload block blob in blocks through BlockBlob.PutBlock, and them commit them as a whole blob with invoking the BlockBlob.PutBlockList, it is very powerful to upload large files, as we can upload blocks in parallel, and provide pause-resume feature. There are many documents, articles and blog posts described on how to upload a block blob. Most of them are focus on the server side, which means when you had received a big file, stream or binaries, how to upload them into blob storage in blocks through .NET SDK.  But the problem is, how can we upload these large files from client side, for example, a browser. This questioned to me when I was working with a Chinese customer to help them build a network disk production on top of azure. The end users upload their files from the web portal, and then the files will be stored in blob storage from the Web Role. My goal is to find the best way to transform the file from client (end user’s machine) to the server (Web Role) through browser. In this post I will demonstrate and describe what I had done, to upload large file in chunks with high speed, and save them as blocks into Windows Azure Blob Storage.   Traditional Upload, Works with Limitation The simplest way to implement this requirement is to create a web page with a form that contains a file input element and a submit button. 1: @using (Html.BeginForm("About", "Index", FormMethod.Post, new { enctype = "multipart/form-data" })) 2: { 3: <input type="file" name="file" /> 4: <input type="submit" value="upload" /> 5: } And then in the backend controller, we retrieve the whole content of this file and upload it in to the blob storage through .NET SDK. We can split the file in blocks and upload them in parallel and commit. The code had been well blogged in the community. 1: [HttpPost] 2: public ActionResult About(HttpPostedFileBase file) 3: { 4: var container = _client.GetContainerReference("test"); 5: container.CreateIfNotExists(); 6: var blob = container.GetBlockBlobReference(file.FileName); 7: var blockDataList = new Dictionary<string, byte[]>(); 8: using (var stream = file.InputStream) 9: { 10: var blockSizeInKB = 1024; 11: var offset = 0; 12: var index = 0; 13: while (offset < stream.Length) 14: { 15: var readLength = Math.Min(1024 * blockSizeInKB, (int)stream.Length - offset); 16: var blockData = new byte[readLength]; 17: offset += stream.Read(blockData, 0, readLength); 18: blockDataList.Add(Convert.ToBase64String(BitConverter.GetBytes(index)), blockData); 19:  20: index++; 21: } 22: } 23:  24: Parallel.ForEach(blockDataList, (bi) => 25: { 26: blob.PutBlock(bi.Key, new MemoryStream(bi.Value), null); 27: }); 28: blob.PutBlockList(blockDataList.Select(b => b.Key).ToArray()); 29:  30: return RedirectToAction("About"); 31: } This works perfect if we selected an image, a music or a small video to upload. But if I selected a large file, let’s say a 6GB HD-movie, after upload for about few minutes the page will be shown as below and the upload will be terminated. In ASP.NET there is a limitation of request length and the maximized request length is defined in the web.config file. It’s a number which less than about 4GB. So if we want to upload a really big file, we cannot simply implement in this way. Also, in Windows Azure, a cloud service network load balancer will terminate the connection if exceed the timeout period. From my test the timeout looks like 2 - 3 minutes. Hence, when we need to upload a large file we cannot just use the basic HTML elements. Besides the limitation mentioned above, the simple HTML file upload cannot provide rich upload experience such as chunk upload, pause and pause-resume. So we need to find a better way to upload large file from the client to the server.   Upload in Chunks through HTML5 and JavaScript In order to break those limitation mentioned above we will try to upload the large file in chunks. This takes some benefit to us such as - No request size limitation: Since we upload in chunks, we can define the request size for each chunks regardless how big the entire file is. - No timeout problem: The size of chunks are controlled by us, which means we should be able to make sure request for each chunk upload will not exceed the timeout period of both ASP.NET and Windows Azure load balancer. It was a big challenge to upload big file in chunks until we have HTML5. There are some new features and improvements introduced in HTML5 and we will use them to implement our solution.   In HTML5, the File interface had been improved with a new method called “slice”. It can be used to read part of the file by specifying the start byte index and the end byte index. For example if the entire file was 1024 bytes, file.slice(512, 768) will read the part of this file from the 512nd byte to 768th byte, and return a new object of interface called "Blob”, which you can treat as an array of bytes. In fact,  a Blob object represents a file-like object of immutable, raw data. The File interface is based on Blob, inheriting blob functionality and expanding it to support files on the user's system. For more information about the Blob please refer here. File and Blob is very useful to implement the chunk upload. We will use File interface to represent the file the user selected from the browser and then use File.slice to read the file in chunks in the size we wanted. For example, if we wanted to upload a 10MB file with 512KB chunks, then we can read it in 512KB blobs by using File.slice in a loop.   Assuming we have a web page as below. User can select a file, an input box to specify the block size in KB and a button to start upload. 1: <div> 2: <input type="file" id="upload_files" name="files[]" /><br /> 3: Block Size: <input type="number" id="block_size" value="512" name="block_size" />KB<br /> 4: <input type="button" id="upload_button_blob" name="upload" value="upload (blob)" /> 5: </div> Then we can have the JavaScript function to upload the file in chunks when user clicked the button. 1: <script type="text/javascript"> 1: 2: $(function () { 3: $("#upload_button_blob").click(function () { 4: }); 5: });</script> Firstly we need to ensure the client browser supports the interfaces we are going to use. Just try to invoke the File, Blob and FormData from the “window” object. If any of them is “undefined” the condition result will be “false” which means your browser doesn’t support these premium feature and it’s time for you to get your browser updated. FormData is another new feature we are going to use in the future. It could generate a temporary form for us. We will use this interface to create a form with chunk and associated metadata when invoked the service through ajax. 1: $("#upload_button_blob").click(function () { 2: // assert the browser support html5 3: if (window.File && window.Blob && window.FormData) { 4: alert("Your brwoser is awesome, let's rock!"); 5: } 6: else { 7: alert("Oh man plz update to a modern browser before try is cool stuff out."); 8: return; 9: } 10: }); Each browser supports these interfaces by their own implementation and currently the Blob, File and File.slice are supported by Chrome 21, FireFox 13, IE 10, Opera 12 and Safari 5.1 or higher. After that we worked on the files the user selected one by one since in HTML5, user can select multiple files in one file input box. 1: var files = $("#upload_files")[0].files; 2: for (var i = 0; i < files.length; i++) { 3: var file = files[i]; 4: var fileSize = file.size; 5: var fileName = file.name; 6: } Next, we calculated the start index and end index for each chunks based on the size the user specified from the browser. We put them into an array with the file name and the index, which will be used when we upload chunks into Windows Azure Blob Storage as blocks since we need to specify the target blob name and the block index. At the same time we will store the list of all indexes into another variant which will be used to commit blocks into blob in Azure Storage once all chunks had been uploaded successfully. 1: $("#upload_button_blob").click(function () { 2: // assert the browser support html5 3: ... ... 4: // start to upload each files in chunks 5: var files = $("#upload_files")[0].files; 6: for (var i = 0; i < files.length; i++) { 7: var file = files[i]; 8: var fileSize = file.size; 9: var fileName = file.name; 10:  11: // calculate the start and end byte index for each blocks(chunks) 12: // with the index, file name and index list for future using 13: var blockSizeInKB = $("#block_size").val(); 14: var blockSize = blockSizeInKB * 1024; 15: var blocks = []; 16: var offset = 0; 17: var index = 0; 18: var list = ""; 19: while (offset < fileSize) { 20: var start = offset; 21: var end = Math.min(offset + blockSize, fileSize); 22:  23: blocks.push({ 24: name: fileName, 25: index: index, 26: start: start, 27: end: end 28: }); 29: list += index + ","; 30:  31: offset = end; 32: index++; 33: } 34: } 35: }); Now we have all chunks’ information ready. The next step should be upload them one by one to the server side, and at the server side when received a chunk it will upload as a block into Blob Storage, and finally commit them with the index list through BlockBlobClient.PutBlockList. But since all these invokes are ajax calling, which means not synchronized call. So we need to introduce a new JavaScript library to help us coordinate the asynchronize operation, which named “async.js”. You can download this JavaScript library here, and you can find the document here. I will not explain this library too much in this post. We will put all procedures we want to execute as a function array, and pass into the proper function defined in async.js to let it help us to control the execution sequence, in series or in parallel. Hence we will define an array and put the function for chunk upload into this array. 1: $("#upload_button_blob").click(function () { 2: // assert the browser support html5 3: ... ... 4:  5: // start to upload each files in chunks 6: var files = $("#upload_files")[0].files; 7: for (var i = 0; i < files.length; i++) { 8: var file = files[i]; 9: var fileSize = file.size; 10: var fileName = file.name; 11: // calculate the start and end byte index for each blocks(chunks) 12: // with the index, file name and index list for future using 13: ... ... 14:  15: // define the function array and push all chunk upload operation into this array 16: blocks.forEach(function (block) { 17: putBlocks.push(function (callback) { 18: }); 19: }); 20: } 21: }); 22: }); As you can see, I used File.slice method to read each chunks based on the start and end byte index we calculated previously, and constructed a temporary HTML form with the file name, chunk index and chunk data through another new feature in HTML5 named FormData. Then post this form to the backend server through jQuery.ajax. This is the key part of our solution. 1: $("#upload_button_blob").click(function () { 2: // assert the browser support html5 3: ... ... 4: // start to upload each files in chunks 5: var files = $("#upload_files")[0].files; 6: for (var i = 0; i < files.length; i++) { 7: var file = files[i]; 8: var fileSize = file.size; 9: var fileName = file.name; 10: // calculate the start and end byte index for each blocks(chunks) 11: // with the index, file name and index list for future using 12: ... ... 13: // define the function array and push all chunk upload operation into this array 14: blocks.forEach(function (block) { 15: putBlocks.push(function (callback) { 16: // load blob based on the start and end index for each chunks 17: var blob = file.slice(block.start, block.end); 18: // put the file name, index and blob into a temporary from 19: var fd = new FormData(); 20: fd.append("name", block.name); 21: fd.append("index", block.index); 22: fd.append("file", blob); 23: // post the form to backend service (asp.net mvc controller action) 24: $.ajax({ 25: url: "/Home/UploadInFormData", 26: data: fd, 27: processData: false, 28: contentType: "multipart/form-data", 29: type: "POST", 30: success: function (result) { 31: if (!result.success) { 32: alert(result.error); 33: } 34: callback(null, block.index); 35: } 36: }); 37: }); 38: }); 39: } 40: }); Then we will invoke these functions one by one by using the async.js. And once all functions had been executed successfully I invoked another ajax call to the backend service to commit all these chunks (blocks) as the blob in Windows Azure Storage. 1: $("#upload_button_blob").click(function () { 2: // assert the browser support html5 3: ... ... 4: // start to upload each files in chunks 5: var files = $("#upload_files")[0].files; 6: for (var i = 0; i < files.length; i++) { 7: var file = files[i]; 8: var fileSize = file.size; 9: var fileName = file.name; 10: // calculate the start and end byte index for each blocks(chunks) 11: // with the index, file name and index list for future using 12: ... ... 13: // define the function array and push all chunk upload operation into this array 14: ... ... 15: // invoke the functions one by one 16: // then invoke the commit ajax call to put blocks into blob in azure storage 17: async.series(putBlocks, function (error, result) { 18: var data = { 19: name: fileName, 20: list: list 21: }; 22: $.post("/Home/Commit", data, function (result) { 23: if (!result.success) { 24: alert(result.error); 25: } 26: else { 27: alert("done!"); 28: } 29: }); 30: }); 31: } 32: }); That’s all in the client side. The outline of our logic would be - Calculate the start and end byte index for each chunks based on the block size. - Defined the functions of reading the chunk form file and upload the content to the backend service through ajax. - Execute the functions defined in previous step with “async.js”. - Commit the chunks by invoking the backend service in Windows Azure Storage finally.   Save Chunks as Blocks into Blob Storage In above we finished the client size JavaScript code. It uploaded the file in chunks to the backend service which we are going to implement in this step. We will use ASP.NET MVC as our backend service, and it will receive the chunks, upload into Windows Azure Bob Storage in blocks, then finally commit as one blob. As in the client side we uploaded chunks by invoking the ajax call to the URL "/Home/UploadInFormData", I created a new action under the Index controller and it only accepts HTTP POST request. 1: [HttpPost] 2: public JsonResult UploadInFormData() 3: { 4: var error = string.Empty; 5: try 6: { 7: } 8: catch (Exception e) 9: { 10: error = e.ToString(); 11: } 12:  13: return new JsonResult() 14: { 15: Data = new 16: { 17: success = string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(error), 18: error = error 19: } 20: }; 21: } Then I retrieved the file name, index and the chunk content from the Request.Form object, which was passed from our client side. And then, used the Windows Azure SDK to create a blob container (in this case we will use the container named “test”.) and create a blob reference with the blob name (same as the file name). Then uploaded the chunk as a block of this blob with the index, since in Blob Storage each block must have an index (ID) associated with so that finally we can put all blocks as one blob by specifying their block ID list. 1: [HttpPost] 2: public JsonResult UploadInFormData() 3: { 4: var error = string.Empty; 5: try 6: { 7: var name = Request.Form["name"]; 8: var index = int.Parse(Request.Form["index"]); 9: var file = Request.Files[0]; 10: var id = Convert.ToBase64String(BitConverter.GetBytes(index)); 11:  12: var container = _client.GetContainerReference("test"); 13: container.CreateIfNotExists(); 14: var blob = container.GetBlockBlobReference(name); 15: blob.PutBlock(id, file.InputStream, null); 16: } 17: catch (Exception e) 18: { 19: error = e.ToString(); 20: } 21:  22: return new JsonResult() 23: { 24: Data = new 25: { 26: success = string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(error), 27: error = error 28: } 29: }; 30: } Next, I created another action to commit the blocks into blob once all chunks had been uploaded. Similarly, I retrieved the blob name from the Request.Form. I also retrieved the chunks ID list, which is the block ID list from the Request.Form in a string format, split them as a list, then invoked the BlockBlob.PutBlockList method. After that our blob will be shown in the container and ready to be download. 1: [HttpPost] 2: public JsonResult Commit() 3: { 4: var error = string.Empty; 5: try 6: { 7: var name = Request.Form["name"]; 8: var list = Request.Form["list"]; 9: var ids = list 10: .Split(',') 11: .Where(id => !string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(id)) 12: .Select(id => Convert.ToBase64String(BitConverter.GetBytes(int.Parse(id)))) 13: .ToArray(); 14:  15: var container = _client.GetContainerReference("test"); 16: container.CreateIfNotExists(); 17: var blob = container.GetBlockBlobReference(name); 18: blob.PutBlockList(ids); 19: } 20: catch (Exception e) 21: { 22: error = e.ToString(); 23: } 24:  25: return new JsonResult() 26: { 27: Data = new 28: { 29: success = string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(error), 30: error = error 31: } 32: }; 33: } Now we finished all code we need. The whole process of uploading would be like this below. Below is the full client side JavaScript code. 1: <script type="text/javascript" src="~/Scripts/async.js"></script> 2: <script type="text/javascript"> 3: $(function () { 4: $("#upload_button_blob").click(function () { 5: // assert the browser support html5 6: if (window.File && window.Blob && window.FormData) { 7: alert("Your brwoser is awesome, let's rock!"); 8: } 9: else { 10: alert("Oh man plz update to a modern browser before try is cool stuff out."); 11: return; 12: } 13:  14: // start to upload each files in chunks 15: var files = $("#upload_files")[0].files; 16: for (var i = 0; i < files.length; i++) { 17: var file = files[i]; 18: var fileSize = file.size; 19: var fileName = file.name; 20:  21: // calculate the start and end byte index for each blocks(chunks) 22: // with the index, file name and index list for future using 23: var blockSizeInKB = $("#block_size").val(); 24: var blockSize = blockSizeInKB * 1024; 25: var blocks = []; 26: var offset = 0; 27: var index = 0; 28: var list = ""; 29: while (offset < fileSize) { 30: var start = offset; 31: var end = Math.min(offset + blockSize, fileSize); 32:  33: blocks.push({ 34: name: fileName, 35: index: index, 36: start: start, 37: end: end 38: }); 39: list += index + ","; 40:  41: offset = end; 42: index++; 43: } 44:  45: // define the function array and push all chunk upload operation into this array 46: var putBlocks = []; 47: blocks.forEach(function (block) { 48: putBlocks.push(function (callback) { 49: // load blob based on the start and end index for each chunks 50: var blob = file.slice(block.start, block.end); 51: // put the file name, index and blob into a temporary from 52: var fd = new FormData(); 53: fd.append("name", block.name); 54: fd.append("index", block.index); 55: fd.append("file", blob); 56: // post the form to backend service (asp.net mvc controller action) 57: $.ajax({ 58: url: "/Home/UploadInFormData", 59: data: fd, 60: processData: false, 61: contentType: "multipart/form-data", 62: type: "POST", 63: success: function (result) { 64: if (!result.success) { 65: alert(result.error); 66: } 67: callback(null, block.index); 68: } 69: }); 70: }); 71: }); 72:  73: // invoke the functions one by one 74: // then invoke the commit ajax call to put blocks into blob in azure storage 75: async.series(putBlocks, function (error, result) { 76: var data = { 77: name: fileName, 78: list: list 79: }; 80: $.post("/Home/Commit", data, function (result) { 81: if (!result.success) { 82: alert(result.error); 83: } 84: else { 85: alert("done!"); 86: } 87: }); 88: }); 89: } 90: }); 91: }); 92: </script> And below is the full ASP.NET MVC controller code. 1: public class HomeController : Controller 2: { 3: private CloudStorageAccount _account; 4: private CloudBlobClient _client; 5:  6: public HomeController() 7: : base() 8: { 9: _account = CloudStorageAccount.Parse(CloudConfigurationManager.GetSetting("DataConnectionString")); 10: _client = _account.CreateCloudBlobClient(); 11: } 12:  13: public ActionResult Index() 14: { 15: ViewBag.Message = "Modify this template to jump-start your ASP.NET MVC application."; 16:  17: return View(); 18: } 19:  20: [HttpPost] 21: public JsonResult UploadInFormData() 22: { 23: var error = string.Empty; 24: try 25: { 26: var name = Request.Form["name"]; 27: var index = int.Parse(Request.Form["index"]); 28: var file = Request.Files[0]; 29: var id = Convert.ToBase64String(BitConverter.GetBytes(index)); 30:  31: var container = _client.GetContainerReference("test"); 32: container.CreateIfNotExists(); 33: var blob = container.GetBlockBlobReference(name); 34: blob.PutBlock(id, file.InputStream, null); 35: } 36: catch (Exception e) 37: { 38: error = e.ToString(); 39: } 40:  41: return new JsonResult() 42: { 43: Data = new 44: { 45: success = string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(error), 46: error = error 47: } 48: }; 49: } 50:  51: [HttpPost] 52: public JsonResult Commit() 53: { 54: var error = string.Empty; 55: try 56: { 57: var name = Request.Form["name"]; 58: var list = Request.Form["list"]; 59: var ids = list 60: .Split(',') 61: .Where(id => !string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(id)) 62: .Select(id => Convert.ToBase64String(BitConverter.GetBytes(int.Parse(id)))) 63: .ToArray(); 64:  65: var container = _client.GetContainerReference("test"); 66: container.CreateIfNotExists(); 67: var blob = container.GetBlockBlobReference(name); 68: blob.PutBlockList(ids); 69: } 70: catch (Exception e) 71: { 72: error = e.ToString(); 73: } 74:  75: return new JsonResult() 76: { 77: Data = new 78: { 79: success = string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(error), 80: error = error 81: } 82: }; 83: } 84: } And if we selected a file from the browser we will see our application will upload chunks in the size we specified to the server through ajax call in background, and then commit all chunks in one blob. Then we can find the blob in our Windows Azure Blob Storage.   Optimized by Parallel Upload In previous example we just uploaded our file in chunks. This solved the problem that ASP.NET MVC request content size limitation as well as the Windows Azure load balancer timeout. But it might introduce the performance problem since we uploaded chunks in sequence. In order to improve the upload performance we could modify our client side code a bit to make the upload operation invoked in parallel. The good news is that, “async.js” library provides the parallel execution function. If you remembered the code we invoke the service to upload chunks, it utilized “async.series” which means all functions will be executed in sequence. Now we will change this code to “async.parallel”. This will invoke all functions in parallel. 1: $("#upload_button_blob").click(function () { 2: // assert the browser support html5 3: ... ... 4: // start to upload each files in chunks 5: var files = $("#upload_files")[0].files; 6: for (var i = 0; i < files.length; i++) { 7: var file = files[i]; 8: var fileSize = file.size; 9: var fileName = file.name; 10: // calculate the start and end byte index for each blocks(chunks) 11: // with the index, file name and index list for future using 12: ... ... 13: // define the function array and push all chunk upload operation into this array 14: ... ... 15: // invoke the functions one by one 16: // then invoke the commit ajax call to put blocks into blob in azure storage 17: async.parallel(putBlocks, function (error, result) { 18: var data = { 19: name: fileName, 20: list: list 21: }; 22: $.post("/Home/Commit", data, function (result) { 23: if (!result.success) { 24: alert(result.error); 25: } 26: else { 27: alert("done!"); 28: } 29: }); 30: }); 31: } 32: }); In this way all chunks will be uploaded to the server side at the same time to maximize the bandwidth usage. This should work if the file was not very large and the chunk size was not very small. But for large file this might introduce another problem that too many ajax calls are sent to the server at the same time. So the best solution should be, upload the chunks in parallel with maximum concurrency limitation. The code below specified the concurrency limitation to 4, which means at the most only 4 ajax calls could be invoked at the same time. 1: $("#upload_button_blob").click(function () { 2: // assert the browser support html5 3: ... ... 4: // start to upload each files in chunks 5: var files = $("#upload_files")[0].files; 6: for (var i = 0; i < files.length; i++) { 7: var file = files[i]; 8: var fileSize = file.size; 9: var fileName = file.name; 10: // calculate the start and end byte index for each blocks(chunks) 11: // with the index, file name and index list for future using 12: ... ... 13: // define the function array and push all chunk upload operation into this array 14: ... ... 15: // invoke the functions one by one 16: // then invoke the commit ajax call to put blocks into blob in azure storage 17: async.parallelLimit(putBlocks, 4, function (error, result) { 18: var data = { 19: name: fileName, 20: list: list 21: }; 22: $.post("/Home/Commit", data, function (result) { 23: if (!result.success) { 24: alert(result.error); 25: } 26: else { 27: alert("done!"); 28: } 29: }); 30: }); 31: } 32: });   Summary In this post we discussed how to upload files in chunks to the backend service and then upload them into Windows Azure Blob Storage in blocks. We focused on the frontend side and leverage three new feature introduced in HTML 5 which are - File.slice: Read part of the file by specifying the start and end byte index. - Blob: File-like interface which contains the part of the file content. - FormData: Temporary form element that we can pass the chunk alone with some metadata to the backend service. Then we discussed the performance consideration of chunk uploading. Sequence upload cannot provide maximized upload speed, but the unlimited parallel upload might crash the browser and server if too many chunks. So we finally came up with the solution to upload chunks in parallel with the concurrency limitation. We also demonstrated how to utilize “async.js” JavaScript library to help us control the asynchronize call and the parallel limitation.   Regarding the chunk size and the parallel limitation value there is no “best” value. You need to test vary composition and find out the best one for your particular scenario. It depends on the local bandwidth, client machine cores and the server side (Windows Azure Cloud Service Virtual Machine) cores, memory and bandwidth. Below is one of my performance test result. The client machine was Windows 8 IE 10 with 4 cores. I was using Microsoft Cooperation Network. The web site was hosted on Windows Azure China North data center (in Beijing) with one small web role (1.7GB 1 core CPU, 1.75GB memory with 100Mbps bandwidth). The test cases were - Chunk size: 512KB, 1MB, 2MB, 4MB. - Upload Mode: Sequence, parallel (unlimited), parallel with limit (4 threads, 8 threads). - Chunk Format: base64 string, binaries. - Target file: 100MB. - Each case was tested 3 times. Below is the test result chart. Some thoughts, but not guidance or best practice: - Parallel gets better performance than series. - No significant performance improvement between parallel 4 threads and 8 threads. - Transform with binaries provides better performance than base64. - In all cases, chunk size in 1MB - 2MB gets better performance.   Hope this helps, Shaun All documents and related graphics, codes are provided "AS IS" without warranty of any kind. Copyright © Shaun Ziyan Xu. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons License.

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  • Part 2&ndash;Load Testing In The Cloud

    - by Tarun Arora
    Welcome to Part 2, In Part 1 we discussed the advantages of creating a Test Rig in the cloud, the Azure edge and the Test Rig Topology we want to get to. In Part 2, Let’s start by understanding the components of Azure we’ll be making use of followed by manually putting them together to create the test rig, so… let’s get down dirty start setting up the Test Rig.  What Components of Azure will I be using for building the Test Rig in the Cloud? To run the Test Agents we’ll make use of Windows Azure Compute and to enable communication between Test Controller and Test Agents we’ll make use of Windows Azure Connect.  Azure Connect The Test Controller is on premise and the Test Agents are in the cloud (How will they talk?). To enable communication between the two, we’ll make use of Windows Azure Connect. With Windows Azure Connect, you can use a simple user interface to configure IPsec protected connections between computers or virtual machines (VMs) in your organization’s network, and roles running in Windows Azure. With this you can now join Windows Azure role instances to your domain, so that you can use your existing methods for domain authentication, name resolution, or other domain-wide maintenance actions. For more details refer to an overview of Windows Azure connect. A very useful video explaining everything you wanted to know about Windows Azure connect.  Azure Compute Windows Azure compute provides developers a platform to host and manage applications in Microsoft’s data centres across the globe. A Windows Azure application is built from one or more components called ‘roles.’ Roles come in three different types: Web role, Worker role, and Virtual Machine (VM) role, we’ll be using the Worker role to set up the Test Agents. A very nice blog post discussing the difference between the 3 role types. Developers are free to use the .NET framework or other software that runs on Windows with the Worker role or Web role. Developers can also create applications using languages such as PHP and Java. More on Windows Azure Compute. Each Windows Azure compute instance represents a virtual server... Virtual Machine Size CPU Cores Memory Cost Per Hour Extra Small Shared 768 MB $0.04 Small 1 1.75 GB $0.12 Medium 2 3.50 GB $0.24 Large 4 7.00 GB $0.48 Extra Large 8 14.00 GB $0.96   You might want to review the Windows Azure Pricing FAQ. Let’s Get Started building the Test Rig… Configuration Machine Role Comments VM – 1 Domain Controller for Playpit.com On Premise VM – 2 TFS, Test Controller On Premise VM – 3 Test Agent Cloud   In this blog post I would assume that you have the domain, Team Foundation Server and Test Controller Installed and set up already. If not, please refer to the TFS 2010 Installation Guide and this walkthrough on MSDN to set up your Test Controller. You can also download a preconfigured TFS 2010 VM from Brian Keller's blog, Brian also has some great hands on Labs on TFS 2010 that you may want to explore. I. Lets start building VM – 3: The Test Agent Download the Windows Azure SDK and Tools Open Visual Studio and create a new Windows Azure Project using the Cloud Template                   Choose the Worker Role for reasons explained in the earlier post         The WorkerRole.cs implements the Run() and OnStart() methods, no code changes required. You should be able to compile the project and run it in the compute emulator (The compute emulator should have been installed as part of the Windows Azure Toolkit) on your local machine.                   We will only be making changes to WindowsAzureProject, open ServiceDefinition.csdef. Ensure that the vmsize is small (remember the cost chart above). Import the “Connect” module. I am importing the Connect module because I need to join the Worker role VM to the Playpit domain. <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <ServiceDefinition name="WindowsAzureProject2" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/ServiceHosting/2008/10/ServiceDefinition"> <WorkerRole name="WorkerRole1" vmsize="Small"> <Imports> <Import moduleName="Diagnostics" /> <Import moduleName="Connect"/> </Imports> </WorkerRole> </ServiceDefinition> Go to the ServiceConfiguration.Cloud.cscfg and note that settings with key ‘Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.%%%%’ have been added to the configuration file. This is because you decided to import the connect module. See the config below. <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <ServiceConfiguration serviceName="WindowsAzureProject2" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/ServiceHosting/2008/10/ServiceConfiguration" osFamily="1" osVersion="*"> <Role name="WorkerRole1"> <Instances count="1" /> <ConfigurationSettings> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Diagnostics.ConnectionString" value="UseDevelopmentStorage=true" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.ActivationToken" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.Refresh" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.WaitForConnectivity" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.Upgrade" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.EnableDomainJoin" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainFQDN" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainControllerFQDN" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainAccountName" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainPassword" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainOU" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.Administrators" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainSiteName" value="" /> </ConfigurationSettings> </Role> </ServiceConfiguration>             Let’s go step by step and understand all the highlighted parameters and where you can find the values for them.       osFamily – By default this is set to 1 (Windows Server 2008 SP2). Change this to 2 if you want the Windows Server 2008 R2 operating system. The Advantage of using osFamily = “2” is that you get Powershell 2.0 rather than Powershell 1.0. In Powershell 2.0 you could simply use “powershell -ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted ./myscript.ps1” and it will work while in Powershell 1.0 you will have to change the registry key by including the following in your command file “reg add HKLM\Software\Microsoft\PowerShell\1\ShellIds\Microsoft.PowerShell /v ExecutionPolicy /d Unrestricted /f” before you can execute any power shell. The other reason you might want to move to os2 is if you wanted IIS 7.5.       Activation Token – To enable communication between the on premise machine and the Windows Azure Worker role VM both need to have the same token. Log on to Windows Azure Management Portal, click on Connect, click on Get Activation Token, this should give you the activation token, copy the activation token to the clipboard and paste it in the configuration file. Note – Later in the blog I’ll be showing you how to install connect on the on premise machine.                       EnableDomainJoin – Set the value to true, ofcourse we want to join the on windows azure worker role VM to the domain.       DomainFQDN, DomainControllerFQDN, DomainAccountName, DomainPassword, DomainOU, Administrators – This information is specific to your domain. I have extracted this information from the ‘service manager’ and ‘Active Directory Users and Computers’. Also, i created a new Domain-OU namely ‘CloudInstances’ so all my cloud instances joined to my domain show up here, this is optional. You can encrypt the DomainPassword – refer to the instructions here. Or hold fire, I’ll be covering that when i come to certificates and encryption in the coming section.       Now once you have filled all this information up, the configuration file should look something like below, <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <ServiceConfiguration serviceName="WindowsAzureProject2" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/ServiceHosting/2008/10/ServiceConfiguration" osFamily="2" osVersion="*"> <Role name="WorkerRole1"> <Instances count="1" /> <ConfigurationSettings> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Diagnostics.ConnectionString" value="UseDevelopmentStorage=true" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.ActivationToken" value="45f55fea-f194-4fbc-b36e-25604faac784" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.Refresh" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.WaitForConnectivity" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.Upgrade" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.EnableDomainJoin" value="true" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainFQDN" value="play.pit.com" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainControllerFQDN" value="WIN-KUDQMQFGQOL.play.pit.com" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainAccountName" value="playpit\Administrator" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainPassword" value="************************" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainOU" value="OU=CloudInstances, DC=Play, DC=Pit, DC=com" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.Administrators" value="Playpit\Administrator" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainSiteName" value="" /> </ConfigurationSettings> </Role> </ServiceConfiguration> Next we will be enabling the Remote Desktop module in to the ServiceDefinition.csdef, we could make changes manually or allow a beautiful wizard to help us make changes. I prefer the second option. So right click on the Windows Azure project and choose Publish       Now once you get the publish wizard, if you haven’t already you would be asked to import your Windows Azure subscription, this is simply the Msdn subscription activation key xml. Once you have done click Next to go to the Settings page and check ‘Enable Remote Desktop for all roles’.       As soon as you do that you get another pop up asking you the details for the user that you would be logging in with (make sure you enter a reasonable expiry date, you do not want the user account to expire today). Notice the more information tag at the bottom, click that to get access to the certificate section. See screen shot below.       From the drop down select the option to create a new certificate        In the pop up window enter the friendly name for your certificate. In my case I entered ‘WAC – Test Rig’ and click ok. This will create a new certificate for you. Click on the view button to see the certificate details. Do you see the Thumbprint, this is the value that will go in the config file (very important). Now click on the Copy to File button to copy the certificate, we will need to import the certificate to the windows Azure Management portal later. So, make sure you save it a safe location.                                Click Finish and enter details of the user you would like to create with permissions for remote desktop access, once you have entered the details on the ‘Remote desktop configuration’ screen click on Ok. From the Publish Windows Azure Wizard screen press Cancel. Cancel because we don’t want to publish the role just yet and Yes because we want to save all the changes in the config file.       Now if you go to the ServiceDefinition.csdef file you will see that the RemoteAccess and RemoteForwarder roles have been imported for you. <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <ServiceDefinition name="WindowsAzureProject2" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/ServiceHosting/2008/10/ServiceDefinition"> <WorkerRole name="WorkerRole1" vmsize="Small"> <Imports> <Import moduleName="Diagnostics" /> <Import moduleName="Connect" /> <Import moduleName="RemoteAccess" /> <Import moduleName="RemoteForwarder" /> </Imports> </WorkerRole> </ServiceDefinition> Now go to the ServiceConfiguration.Cloud.cscfg file and you see a whole bunch for setting “Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.RemoteAccess.%%%” values added for you. <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <ServiceConfiguration serviceName="WindowsAzureProject2" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/ServiceHosting/2008/10/ServiceConfiguration" osFamily="2" osVersion="*"> <Role name="WorkerRole1"> <Instances count="1" /> <ConfigurationSettings> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Diagnostics.ConnectionString" value="UseDevelopmentStorage=true" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.ActivationToken" value="45f55fea-f194-4fbc-b36e-25604faac784" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.Refresh" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.WaitForConnectivity" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.Upgrade" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.EnableDomainJoin" value="true" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainFQDN" value="play.pit.com" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainControllerFQDN" value="WIN-KUDQMQFGQOL.play.pit.com" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainAccountName" value="playpit\Administrator" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainPassword" value="************************" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainOU" value="OU=CloudInstances, DC=Play, DC=Pit, DC=com" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.Administrators" value="Playpit\Administrator" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainSiteName" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.RemoteAccess.Enabled" value="true" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.RemoteAccess.AccountUsername" value="Administrator" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.RemoteAccess.AccountEncryptedPassword" value="MIIBnQYJKoZIhvcNAQcDoIIBjjCCAYoCAQAxggFOMIIBSgIBADAyMB4xHDAaBgNVBAMME1dpbmRvd 3MgQXp1cmUgVG9vbHMCEGa+B46voeO5T305N7TSG9QwDQYJKoZIhvcNAQEBBQAEggEABg4ol5Xol66Ip6QKLbAPWdmD4ae ADZ7aKj6fg4D+ATr0DXBllZHG5Umwf+84Sj2nsPeCyrg3ZDQuxrfhSbdnJwuChKV6ukXdGjX0hlowJu/4dfH4jTJC7sBWS AKaEFU7CxvqYEAL1Hf9VPL5fW6HZVmq1z+qmm4ecGKSTOJ20Fptb463wcXgR8CWGa+1w9xqJ7UmmfGeGeCHQ4QGW0IDSBU6ccg vzF2ug8/FY60K1vrWaCYOhKkxD3YBs8U9X/kOB0yQm2Git0d5tFlIPCBT2AC57bgsAYncXfHvPesI0qs7VZyghk8LVa9g5IqaM Cp6cQ7rmY/dLsKBMkDcdBHuCTAzBgkqhkiG9w0BBwEwFAYIKoZIhvcNAwcECDRVifSXbA43gBApNrp40L1VTVZ1iGag+3O1" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.RemoteAccess.AccountExpiration" value="2012-11-27T23:59:59.0000000+00:00" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.RemoteForwarder.Enabled" value="true" /> </ConfigurationSettings> <Certificates> <Certificate name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.RemoteAccess.PasswordEncryption" thumbprint="AA23016CF0BDFC344400B5B82706B608B92E4217" thumbprintAlgorithm="sha1" /> </Certificates> </Role> </ServiceConfiguration>          Okay let’s look at them one at a time,       Enabled - Yes, we would like to enable Remote Access.       AccountUserName – This is the user name you entered while you were on the publish windows azure role screen, as detailed above.       AccountEncrytedPassword – Try and decode that, the certificate is used to encrypt the password you specified for the user account. Remember earlier i said, either use the instructions or wait and i’ll be showing you encryption, now the user account i am using for rdp has the same password as my domain password, so i can simply copy the value of the AccountEncryptedPassword to the DomainPassword as well.       AccountExpiration – This is the expiration as you specified in the wizard earlier, make sure your account does not expire today.       Remote Forwarder – Check out the documentation, below is how I understand it, -- One role in an application that implements a remote desktop connection must import the RemoteForwarder module. The two modules work together to enable the remote desktop connections to role instances. -- If you have multiple roles defined in the service model, it does not matter which role you add the RemoteForwarder module to, but you must add it to only one of the role definitions.       Certificate – Remember the certificate thumbprint from the wizard, the on premise machine and windows azure role machine that need to speak to each other must have the same thumbprint. More on that when we install Windows Azure connect Endpoints on the on premise machine. As i said earlier, in this blog post, I’ll be showing you the manual process so i won’t be scripting any star up tasks to install the test agent or register the test agent with the TFS Server. I’ll be showing you all this cool stuff in the next blog post, that’s because it’s important to understand the manual side of it, it becomes easier for you to troubleshoot in case something fails. Having said that, the changes we have made are sufficient to spin up the Windows Azure Worker Role aka Test Agent VM, have it connected with the play.pit.com domain and have remote access enabled on it. Before we deploy the Test Agent VM we need to set up Windows Azure Connect on the TFS Server. II. Windows Azure Connect: Setting up Connect on VM – 2 i.e. TFS & Test Controller Glad you made it so far, now to enable communication between the on premise TFS/Test Controller and Azure-ed Test Agent we need to enable communication. We have set up the Azure connect module in the Test Agent configuration, now the connect end points need to be enabled on the on premise machines, let’s have a look at how we can do this. Log on to VM – 2 running the TFS Server and Test Controller Log on to the Windows Azure Management Portal and click on Virtual Network Click on Virtual Network, if you already have a subscription you should see the below screen shot, if not, you would be asked to complete the subscription first        Click on Install Local Endpoints from the top left on the panel and you get a url appended with a token id in it, remember the token i showed you earlier, in theory the token you get here should match the token you added to the Test Agent config file.        Copy the url to the clip board and paste it in IE explorer (important, the installation at present only works out of IE and you need to have cookies enabled in order to complete the installation). As stated in the pop up, you can NOT download and run the software later, you need to run it as is, since it contains a token. Once the installation completes you should see the Windows Azure connect icon in the system tray.                         Right click the Azure Connect icon, choose Diagnostics and refer to this link for diagnostic detail terminology. NOTE – Unfortunately I could not see the Windows Azure connect icon in the system tray, a bit of binging with Google revealed that the azure connect icon is only shown when the ‘Windows Azure Connect Endpoint’ Service is started. So go to services.msc and make sure that the service is started, if not start it, unfortunately again, the service did not start for me on a manual start and i realised that one of the dependant services was disabled, you can look at the service dependencies and start them and then start windows azure connect. Bottom line, you need to start Windows Azure connect service before you can proceed. Please refer here on MSDN for more on Troubleshooting Windows Azure connect. (Follow the next step as well)   Now go back to the Windows Azure Management Portal and from Groups and Roles create a new group, lets call it ‘Test Rig’. Make sure you add the VM – 2 (the TFS Server VM where you just installed the endpoint).       Now if you go back to the Azure Connect icon in the system tray and click ‘Refresh Policy’ you will notice that the disconnected status of the icon should change to ready for connection. III. Importing Certificate in to Windows Azure Management Portal But before that you need to import the certificate you created in Step I in to the Windows Azure Management Portal. Log on to the Windows Azure Management Portal and click on ‘Hosted Services, Storage Accounts & CDN’ and then ‘Management Certificates’ followed by Add Certificates as shown in the screen shot below        Browse to the location where you saved the certificate earlier, remember… Refer to Step I in case you forgot.        Now you should be able to see the imported certificate here, make sure the thumbprint of the certificate matches the one you inserted in the config files        IV. Publish Windows Azure Worker Role aka Test Agent Having completed I, II and III, you are ready to publish the Test Agent VM – 3 to the cloud. Go to Visual Studio and right click the Windows Azure project and select Publish. Verify the infomration in the wizard, from the advanced settings tab, you can also enabled capture of intellitrace or profiling information.         Click Next and Click Publish! From the view menu bar select the Windows Azure Activity Log window.       Now you should be able to see the deployment progress in real time.             In the Windows Azure Management Portal, you should also be able to see the progress of creation of a new Worker Role.       Once the deployment is complete you should be able to RDP (go to run prompt type mstsc and in the pop up the machine name) in to the Test Agent Worker Role VM from the Playpit network using the domain admin user account. In case you are unable to log in to the Test Agent using the domain admin user account it means the process of joining the Test Agent to the domain has failed! But the good news is, because you imported the connect module, you can connect to the Test Agent machine using Windows Azure Management Portal and troubleshoot the reason for failure, you will be able to log in with the user name and password you specified in the config file for the keys ‘RemoteAccess.AccountUsername, RemoteAccess.EncryptedPassword (just that enter the password unencrypted)’, fix it or manually join the machine to the domain. Once you have managed to Join the Test Agent VM to the Domain move to the next step.      So, log in to the Test Agent Worker Role VM with the Playpit Domain Administrator and verify that you can log in, the machine is connected to the domain and the connect service is successfully running. If yes, give your self a pat on the back, you are 80% mission accomplished!         Go to the Windows Azure Management Portal and click on Virtual Network, click on Groups and Roles and click on Test Rig, click Edit Group, the edit the Test Rig group you created earlier. In the Connect to section, click on Add to select the worker role you have just deployed. Also, check the ‘Allow connections between endpoints in the group’ with this you will enable to communication between test controller and test agents and test agents/test agents. Click Save.      Now, you are ready to deploy the Test Agent software on the Worker Role Test Agent VM and configure it to work with the Test Controller. V. Configuring VM – 3: Installing Test Agent and Associating Test Agent to Controller Log in to the Worker Role Test Agent VM that you have just successfully deployed, make sure you log in with the domain administrator account. Download the All Agents software from MSDN, ‘en_visual_studio_agents_2010_x86_x64_dvd_509679.iso’, extract the iso and navigate to where you have extracted the iso. In my case, i have extracted the iso to “C:\Resources\Temp\VsAgentSetup”. Open the Test Agent folder and double click on setup.exe. Once you have installed the Test Agent you should reach the configuration window. If you face any issues installing TFS Test Agent on the VM, refer to the walkthrough on MSDN.       Once you have successfully installed the Test Agent software you will need to configure the test agent. Right click the test agent configuration tool and run as a different user. i.e. an Administrator. This is really to run the configuration wizard with elevated privileges (you might have UAC block something's otherwise).        In the run options, you can select ‘service’ you do not need to run the agent as interactive un less you are running coded UI tests. I have specified the domain administrator to connect to the TFS Test Controller. In real life, i would never do that, i would create a separate test user service account for this purpose. But for the blog post, we are using the most powerful user so that any policies or restrictions don’t block you.        Click the Apply Settings button and you should be all green! If not, the summary usually gives helpful error messages that you can resolve and proceed. As per my experience, you may run in to either a permission or a firewall blocking communication issue.        And now the moment of truth! Go to VM –2 open up Visual Studio and from the Test Menu select Manage Test Controller       Mission Accomplished! You should be able to see the Test Agent that you have just configured here,         VI. Creating and Running Load Tests on your brand new Azure-ed Test Rig I have various blog posts on Performance Testing with Visual Studio Ultimate, you can follow the links and videos below, Blog Posts: - Part 1 – Performance Testing using Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate - Part 2 – Performance Testing using Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate - Part 3 – Performance Testing using Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate Videos: - Test Tools Configuration & Settings in Visual Studio - Why & How to Record Web Performance Tests in Visual Studio Ultimate - Goal Driven Load Testing using Visual Studio Ultimate Now that you have created your load tests, there is one last change you need to make before you can run the tests on your Azure Test Rig, create a new Test settings file, and change the Test Execution method to ‘Remote Execution’ and select the test controller you have configured the Worker Role Test Agent against in our case VM – 2 So, go on, fire off a test run and see the results of the test being executed on the Azur-ed Test Rig. Review and What’s next? A quick recap of the benefits of running the Test Rig in the cloud and what i will be covering in the next blog post AND I would love to hear your feedback! Advantages Utilizing the power of Azure compute to run a heavy virtual user load. Benefiting from the Azure flexibility, destroy Test Agents when not in use, takes < 25 minutes to spin up a new Test Agent. Most important test Network Latency, (network latency and speed of connection are two different things – usually network latency is very hard to test), by placing the Test Agents in Microsoft Data centres around the globe, one can actually test the lag in transferring the bytes not because of a slow connection but because the page has been requested from the other side of the globe. Next Steps The process of spinning up the Test Agents in windows Azure is not 100% automated. I am working on the Worker process and power shell scripts to make the role deployment, unattended install of test agent software and registration of the test agent to the test controller automated. In the next blog post I will show you how to make the complete process unattended and automated. Remember to subscribe to http://feeds.feedburner.com/TarunArora. Hope you enjoyed this post, I would love to hear your feedback! If you have any recommendations on things that I should consider or any questions or feedback, feel free to leave a comment. See you in Part III.   Share this post : CodeProject

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  • Building Visual Studio Setup Projects with TFS 2010 Team Build

    - by Jakob Ehn
    One of the most common complaints from people starting to use Team Build is that is doesn’t support building Microsoft’s own Setup and Deployment project (*.vdproj). When creating a default build definition that compiles a solution containing a setup project, you’ll get the following warning: The project file "MyProject.vdproj" is not supported by MSBuild and cannot be built.   This is what the problem is all about. MSBuild, that is used for compiling your projects, does not understand the proprietary vdproj format defined by Microsoft quite some time ago. Unfortunately there is no sign that this will change in the near future, in fact the setup projects has barely changed at all since they were introduced. VS 2010 brings no new features or improvements hen it comes to the setup projects. VS 2010 does include a limited version of InstallShield which promises to be more MSBuild friendly and with more or less the same features as VS setup projects. I hope to get a closer look at this installer project type soon. But, how do we go about to build a Visual Studio setup project and produce an MSI as part of a Team Build process? Well, since only one application known to man understands the vdproj projects, we will have to installa copy of Visual Studio on the build server. Sad but true. After doing this, we use the Visual Studio command line interface (devenv) to perform the build. In this post I will show how to do this by using the InvokeProcess activity directly in a build workflow template. You’ll want to run build your setup projects after you have successfully compiled the projects.   Install Visual Studio 2010 on the build server(s)   Open your build process template /remember to branch or copy the xaml file before modifying it!)   Locate the Try to Compile the Project activity   Drop an instance of the InvokeProcess activity from the toolbox onto the designer, after the Run MSBuild for Project activity   Drop an instance of the WriteBuildMessage activity inside the Handle Standard Output section. Set the Importance property to Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Build.Client.BuildMessageImportance.High (NB: This is necessary if you want the output from devenv to show up in the build log when running the build with the default verbosity) Set the Message property to stdOutput   Drop an instance of the WriteBuildError activity to the Handle Error Output section Set the Message property to errOutput   Select the InvokeProcess activity and set the values of the parameters to:     The finished workflow should look like this:     This will generate the MSI files, but they won’t be copied to the drop location. This is because we are using devenv and not MSBuild, so we have to do this explicitly   Drop a Sequence activity somewhere after the Copy to Drop location activity.   Create a variable in the Sequence activity of type IEnumerable<String> and call it GeneratedInstallers   Drop a FindMatchingFiles activity in the sequence activity and set the properties to:     Drop a ForEach<String> activity after the FindMatchingFiles activity. Set the Value property to GeneratedInstallers   Drop an InvokeProcess activity inside the ForEach activity.  FileName: “xcopy.exe” Arguments: String.Format("""{0}"" ""{1}""", item, BuildDetail.DropLocation) The Sequence activity should look like this:     Save the build process template and check it in.   Run the build and verify that the MSI’s is built and copied to the drop location.   Note 1: One of the drawback of using devenv like this in a team build is that since all the output from the default compilations is placed in the Binaries folder, the outputs is not avaialable when devenv is invoked, which causes the whole solution to rebuild again. In TFS 2008, this was pretty simple to fix by using the CustomizableOutDir property. In TFS 2010, the same feature is not avaialble. Jim Lamb blogged about this recently, have a look at it if you have a problem with this: http://blogs.msdn.com/jimlamb/archive/2010/04/13/customizableoutdir-in-tfs-2010.aspx   Note 2: Although the above solution works, a better approach is to wrap this in a custom activity that you can use in your builds. I will come back to this in a future post.

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  • Inspire Geek Love with These Hilarious Geek Valentines

    - by Eric Z Goodnight
    Want to send some Geek Love to that special someone? Why not do it with these elementary school throwback valentines, and win their heart this upcoming Valentine’s day—the geek way! Read on to see the simple method to make your own custom Valentines, as well as download a set of eleven ready-made ones any geek guy or gal should be delighted get. It’s amore! How to Make Custom Valentines A size we’ve used for all of our Valentines is a 3” x 4” at 150 dpi. This is fairly low resolution for print, but makes a great graphic to email. With your new image open, Navigate to Edit > Fill and fill your background layer with a rich, red color (or whatever appeals to you.) By setting “Use” to “Foreground color as shown above, you’ll paint whatever foreground color you have in your color picker. Press to select the text tool. Set a few text objects, using whatever fonts appeal to you. Pixel fonts, like this one, are freely downloadable, and we’ve already shared a great list of Valentines fonts. Copy an image from the internet if you’re confident your sweetie won’t mind a bit of fair use of copyrighted imagery. If they do mind, find yourself some great Creative Commons images. to do a free transform on your image, sizing it to whatever dimensions work best for your design. Right click your newly added image layer in your panel and Choose “Blending Effects” to pick a Layer Style. “Stroke” with this setting adds a black line around your image. Also turning on “Outer Glow” with this setting puts a dark black shadow around the top and bottom (and sides, although they are hidden). Add some more text. Double entendre is recommended. Click and hold down on the “Rectangle Tool” to get the “Custom Shape Tool.” The custom shape tool has useful vector shapes built into it. Find the “Shape” dropdown in the menu to find the heart image. Click and drag to create a vector heart shape in your image. Your layers panel is where you can change the color, if it happens to use the wrong one at first. Click the color swatch in your panel, highlighted in blue above. will transform your vector heart. You can also use it to rotate, if you like. Add some details, like this Power or Standby symbol, which can be found in symbol fonts, taken from images online, or drawn by hand. Your Valentine is now ready to be saved as a JPG or PNG and sent to the object of your affection! Keep reading to see a list of 11 downloadable How-To Geek Valentines, including this one and the three from the header image. Download The HTG Set of Valentines Download the HTG Geek Valentines (ZIP) Download the HTG Geek Valentines (ZIP) When he’s not wooing ladies with Valentines cards, you can email the author at [email protected] with your Photoshop and Graphics questions. Your questions may be featured in a future How-To Geek article! Latest Features How-To Geek ETC Inspire Geek Love with These Hilarious Geek Valentines How to Integrate Dropbox with Pages, Keynote, and Numbers on iPad RGB? CMYK? Alpha? What Are Image Channels and What Do They Mean? How to Recover that Photo, Picture or File You Deleted Accidentally How To Colorize Black and White Vintage Photographs in Photoshop How To Get SSH Command-Line Access to Windows 7 Using Cygwin How to Kid Proof Your Computer’s Power and Reset Buttons Microsoft’s Windows Media Player Extension Adds H.264 Support Back to Google Chrome Android Notifier Pushes Android Notices to Your Desktop Dead Space 2 Theme for Chrome and Iron Carl Sagan and Halo Reach Mashup – We Humans are Capable of Greatness [Video] Battle the Necromorphs Once Again on Your Desktop with the Dead Space 2 Theme for Windows 7

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  • Some VS 2010 RC Updates (including patches for Intellisense and Web Designer fixes)

    - by ScottGu
    [In addition to blogging, I am also now using Twitter for quick updates and to share links. Follow me at: twitter.com/scottgu] We are continuing to make progress on shipping Visual Studio 2010.  I’d like to say a big thank you to everyone who has downloaded and tried out the VS 2010 Release Candidate, and especially to those who have sent us feedback or reported issues with it. This data has been invaluable in helping us find and fix remaining bugs before we ship the final release. Last month I blogged about a patch we released for the VS 2010 RC that fixed a bad intellisense crash issue.  This past week we released two additional patches that you can download and apply to the VS 2010 RC to immediately fix two other common issues we’ve seen people run into: Patch that fixes crashes with Tooltip invocation and when hovering over identifiers The Visual Studio team recently released a second patch that fixes some crashes we’ve seen when tooltips are displayed – most commonly when hovering over an identifier to view a QuickInfo tooltip. You can learn more about this issue from this blog post, and download and apply the patch here. Patch that fixes issues with the Web Forms designer not correctly adding controls to the auto-generated designer files The Visual Web Developer team recently released a patch that fixes issues where web controls are not correctly added to the .designer.cs file associated with the .aspx file – which means they can’t be programmed against in the code-behind file.  This issue is most commonly described as “controls are not being recognized in the code-behind” or “editing existing .aspx files regenerates the .aspx.designer.(vb or cs) file and controls are now missing” or “I can’t embed controls within the Ajax Control Toolkit TabContainer or the <asp:createuserwizard> control”. You can learn more about the issue here, and download the patch that fixes it here. Common Cause of Intellisense and IDE sluggishness on Windows XP, Vista, Win Server 2003/2008 systems Over the last few months we’ve occasionally seen reports of people seeing tremendous slowness when typing and using intellisense within VS 2010 despite running on decent machines.  It took us awhile to track down the cause – but we have found that the common culprit seems to be that these machines don’t have the latest versions of the UIA (Windows Automation) component installed. UIA 3 ships with Windows 7, and is a recommended Windows Update patch on XP and Vista (which is why we didn’t see the problem in our tests – since our machines are patched with all recommended updates).  Many systems (especially on XP) don’t automatically install recommended updates, though, and are running with older versions of UIA. This can cause significant performance slow-downs within the VS 2010 editor when large lists are displayed (for example: with intellisense). If you are running on Windows XP, Vista, or Windows Server 2003 or 2008 and are seeing any performance issues with the editor or IDE, please install the free UIA 3 update that can be downloaded from this page.  If you scroll down the page you’ll find direct links to versions for each OS. Note that we are making improvements to the final release of VS 2010 so that we don’t have big perf issues when UIA 3 isn’t installed – and we are also adding a message within the IDE that will warn you if you don’t have UIA 3 installed and accessibility is activated. Improved Text Rendering with WPF 4 and VS 2010 We recently made some nice changes to WPF 4 which improve the text clarity and text crispness over what was in the VS 2010/.NET 4 Release Candidate.  In particular these changes improve scenarios where you have a dark background with light text. You can learn more about these improvements in this WPF Team blog post.  These changes will be in the final release of VS 2010 and .NET 4. Hope this helps, Scott

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  • Sneak peek at next generation Three MiFi unit – Huawei E585

    - by Liam Westley
    Last Wednesday I was fortunate to be invited to a sneak preview of the next generation Three MiFi unit, the Huawei E585. Many thanks to all those who posted questions both via this blog or via @westleyl on Twitter. I think I made sure I asked every question posed to the MiFi product manager from Three UK, and so here's the answers you were after. What is a MiFi? For those who are wondering, a MiFi unit is a 3G broadband modem combined with a WiFi access point, providing 3G broadband data access to up to five devices simultaneously via standard WiFi connections. What is different? It appears the prime task of enhancing the MiFi was to improve the user experience and user interface, both in terms of the device hardware and within the management software to configure the device.  I think this was a very sensible decision as these areas had substantial room for improvement. Single button operation to switch on, enable WiFi and connect to 3G Improved OELD display (see below), replacing the multi coloured LEDs; including signal strength, SMS notifications, the number of connected clients and data usage Management is via a web based dashboard accessible from any web browser. This is a big win for those running Linux, Mac OS/X, iPad users and, for me, as I can now configure the device from Windows 7 64-bit Charging is via micro USB, the new standard for small USB devices; you cannot use your old charger for the new MiFi unit Automatic reconnection when regaining a signal Improved charging time, which should allow recharging of the device when in use Although subjective, the black and silver design does look more classy than the silver and white plastic of the original MiFi What is the same? Virtually the same size and weight The battery is the same unit as the original MiFi so you’ll have a handy spare if you upgrade Data plans remain the same as the current MiFi, so cheapest price for upgraders will be £49 pay as you go Still only works on 3G networks, with no fallback to GPRS or EDGE There is no specific upgrade path for existing three customers, either from dongle or from the original MiFi My opinion I think three have concentrated on the correct areas of usability and user experience rather than trying to add new whizz bang technology features which aren’t of interest to mainstream users. The one button operation and the improved device display will make it much easier to use when out and about. If the automatic reconnection proves reliable that will remove a major bugbear that I experienced the previous evening when travelling on the First Great Western line from Paddington to Didcot Parkway.  The signal was repeatedly lost as we sped through tunnels and cuttings, and without automatic reconnection is was a real pain to keep pressing the data button on the MiFi to re-establish my data connection. And finally, the web based dashboard will mean I no longer need to resort to my XP based netbook to configure the SSID and password. My everyday laptop runs Windows 7 64-bit which appears to confuse the older 3 WiFi manager which cannot locate the MiFi when connected. Links to other sites, and other images of the device Good first impressions from Ben Smith, http://thereallymobileproject.com/2010/06/3uk-announce-a-new-mifi-with-a-screen/ Also, a round up of other sneak preview posts, http://www.3mobilebuzz.com/2010/06/11/mifi-round-two-your-view/ Pictures Here is a comparison of the old MiFi device next to the new device, complete with OLED display and the Huawei logo now being a prominent feature on the front of the device. One of my fellow bloggers had a Linux based netbook, showing off the web based dashboard complete with Text messages panel to manage SMS. And finally, I never thought that my blog sub title would ever end up printed onto a cup cake, ... and here's some of the other cup cakes ...

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  • How To Disable Control Panel in Windows 7

    - by Mysticgeek
    If you have a shared computer that your family and friends can access, you might not want them to mess around in the Control Panel, and luckily with a simple tweak you can disable it. Disable Control Panel with Group Policy Note: This process uses Local Group Policy Editor which is not available in Home versions of Windows 7. Skip down below for the registry hack version that works on Home editions as well. First type gpedit.msc into the Search box in the Start menu and hit Enter. When Local Group Policy Editor opens, navigate to User Configuration \ Administrative Templates then select Control Panel in the left Column. In the right column double-click on Prohibit access to the Control Panel. In the next window, select Enable, click OK, then close out of Local Group Policy Editor. After the Control Panel is disabled, you’ll notice it’s no longer listed in the Start Menu. If the user tries to type Control Panel into the Search box in the Start menu, they will get the following message indicating it’s restricted. Disable Control Panel with a Registry Tweak You can also tweak the Registry to disable Control Panel. This will work with all versions of Windows 7, Vista, and XP. Making changes in the Registry is not recommended for beginners and you should create a Restore Point, or backup the Registry before making any changes. Type regedit into the Search box in the Start menu and hit Enter. In Registry Editor navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Policies\Explorer. Then right-click in the right pane and create a new DWORD (32-bit) Value. Name the value NoControlPanel. Then right-click on the new Value and click Modify…   In the Value data field change the value to “1” then click OK. Close out of Registry Editor and restart the machine to complete the process. When you get back from reboot, you’ll notice Control Panel is no longer listed in the Start menu. If a user tries to access it by typing Control Panel into the Search box in the Start menu… They will get the following message indicating it is restricted, just like if you were to disable it via Group Policy. If you want to re-enable the Control Panel, go back into the Registry and change the NoControlPanel value back to “0” then reboot the computer. This comes in handy if you have inexperienced users working on your machine and don’t want them messing with Control Panel settings. Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Disable User Account Control (UAC) the Easy Way on Win 7 or VistaStill Useful in Vista: Startup Control PanelRestore Missing Items in Windows Vista Control PanelHow To Manage Action Center in Windows 7New Vista Syntax for Opening Control Panel Items from the Command-line TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips DVDFab 6 Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 Home Networks – How do they look like & the problems they cause Check Your IMAP Mail Offline In Thunderbird Follow Finder Finds You Twitter Users To Follow Combine MP3 Files Easily QuicklyCode Provides Cheatsheets & Other Programming Stuff Download Free MP3s from Amazon

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  • URGENT: Firefox circular-dependency hell - Linux Mint 13 (based on Ubuntu 12.04)

    - by Tyler J Fisher
    Having difficulty re-installing Firefox, after an installation to resolve places.sqlite issues. It appears that I'm trapped in circular dependency hell. Need to resolve firefox dependency hell to attempt to resolve Tomcat6 project dependencies (don't ask), ASAP. Have been trying for hours. What I've done (brief) 1) sudo apt-get purge firefox firefox-globalmenu firefox-gnome-support 2) sudo apt-get update 3) sudo apt-get install firefox firefox-globalmenu firefox-gnome-support 4) sudo apt-get -f install Potential error sources: Found in(sudo apt-get install firefox firefox-globalmenu firefox-gnome-support) dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/firefox_18.0~a2~hg20121027r113701-0ubuntu1~umd1~precise_amd64.deb (--unpack): trying to overwrite '/usr/lib/firefox/extensions', which is also in package mint-search-addon 2012.05.11 So, /usr/lib/firefox/extensions doesn't even EXIST! Deleted /var/cache/apt/archives/firefox_18.0~a2~hg20121027r113701 as per recommendations. Errors were encountered while processing: /var/cache/apt/archives/firefox_18.0~a2~hg20121027r113701-0ubuntu1~umd1~precise_amd64.deb E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1) Outputs: 1) sudo apt-get purge firefox firefox-globalmenu firefox-gnome-support me@machine ~ $ sudo apt-get purge firefox-gnome-support firefox firefox-globalmenu Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done Package firefox is not installed, so not removed The following packages will be REMOVED: firefox-globalmenu* firefox-gnome-support* 2 not fully installed or removed. 0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 2 to remove and 38 not upgraded. After this operation, 460 kB disk space will be freed. Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y (Reading database ... dpkg: warning: files list file for package `mysqltuner' missing, assuming package has no files currently installed. (Reading database ... 192642 files and directories currently installed.) Removing firefox-globalmenu ... Removing firefox-gnome-support ... 3) me@machine ~ $ sudo apt-get install firefox firefox-globalmenu firefox-gnome-support Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done Suggested packages: latex-xft-fonts The following NEW packages will be installed: firefox firefox-globalmenu firefox-gnome-support 0 upgraded, 3 newly installed, 0 to remove and 38 not upgraded. Need to get 0 B/24.8 MB of archives. After this operation, 54.3 MB of additional disk space will be used. (Reading database ... dpkg: warning: files list file for package `mysqltuner' missing, assuming package has no files currently installed. (Reading database ... 192619 files and directories currently installed.) Unpacking firefox (from .../firefox_18.0~a2~hg20121027r113701-0ubuntu1~umd1~precise_amd64.deb) ... dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/firefox_18.0~a2~hg20121027r113701-0ubuntu1~umd1~precise_amd64.deb (--unpack): trying to overwrite '/usr/lib/firefox/extensions', which is also in package mint-search-addon 2012.05.11 Selecting previously unselected package firefox-globalmenu. Unpacking firefox-globalmenu (from .../firefox-globalmenu_18.0~a2~hg20121027r113701-0ubuntu1~umd1~precise_amd64.deb) ... Selecting previously unselected package firefox-gnome-support. Unpacking firefox-gnome-support (from .../firefox-gnome- support_18.0~a2~hg20121027r113701-0ubuntu1~umd1~precise_amd64.deb) ... Processing triggers for man-db ... Processing triggers for desktop-file-utils ... Processing triggers for bamfdaemon ... Rebuilding /usr/share/applications/bamf.index... Processing triggers for gnome-menus ... Processing triggers for mintsystem ... Errors were encountered while processing: /var/cache/apt/archives/firefox_18.0~a2~hg20121027r113701- 0ubuntu1~umd1~precise_amd64.deb E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1) 4) sudo apt-get -f install 0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove, and 38 not upgraded Ideas? Tomcat6 only deploys my web application successfully in Firefox, not Chrome, so I'm really hoping to resolve this dependency issue.

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  • Start Learning Ruby with IronRuby – Setting up the Environment

    - by kazimanzurrashid
    Recently I have decided to learn Ruby and for last few days I am playing with IronRuby. Learning a new thing is always been a fun and when it comes to adorable language like Ruby it becomes more entertaining. Like any other language, first we have to create the development environment. In order to run IronRuby we have to download the binaries form the IronRuby CodePlex project. IronRuby supports both .NET 2.0 and .NET 4, but .NET 4 is the recommended version, you can download either the installation or the zip file. If you download the zip file make sure you added the bin directory in the environment path variable. Once you are done, open up the command prompt and type : ir –v It should print message like: IronRuby 1.0.0.0 on .NET 4.0.30319.1 The ir is 32bit version of IronRuby, if you want to use 64bit you can try ir64. Next, we have to find a editor where we can write our Ruby code as there is currently no integration story of IronRuby with Visual Studio like its twin Iron Python. Among the free IDEs only SharpDevelop has the IronRuby support but it does not have auto complete or debugging built into it, only thing that it supports is the syntax highlighting, so using a text editor which has the same features is nothing different comparing to it. To play with the IronRuby we will be using Notepad++, which can be downloaded from its sourceforge download page. The Notepad++ does have a nice syntax highlighting support : I am using the Vibrant Ink with some little modification. The next thing we have to do is configure the Notepad++ that we can run the Ruby script in IronRuby inside the Notepad++. Lets create a batch(.bat) file in the IronRuby bin directory, which will have the following content: @echo off  cls call ir %1 pause This will make sure that the console will be paused once we run the script. Now click Run->Run in the Notepad++, it will bring up the run dialog and put the following command in the textbox: riir.bat "$(FULL_CURRENT_PATH)" Click the save which will bring another dialog. Type Iron Ruby and assign the shortcut to ctrl + f5 (Same as Visual Studio Start without Debugging) and click ok. Once you are done you will find the IronRuby in the Run menu. Now press ctrl + f5, we will find the ruby script running in the IronRuby. Now there are one last thing that we would like to add which is poor man’s context sensitive help. First, download the ruby language help file from the Ruby Installer site and extract into a directory. Next we will have to install the Language Help Plug-in of Notepad++, click Plugins->Plugin Manger –>Show Plugin Manager and scroll down until you find the plug-in the list, now check the plug-in and click install. Once it is installed it will prompt you to restart the Notepad++, click yes. When the Notepad++ restarts, click the Plugins –> Language Help –> Options –> add and enter the following details and click ok: The chm file location can be different depending upon where you extracted it. Now when you put your in any of ruby keyword and press ctrl + f1 it will take you to the help topic of that keyword. For example, when my caret is in the each of the following code and I press ctrl + f1, it will take me to the each api doc of Array. def loop_demo (1..10).each{ |n| puts n} end loop_demo That’s it for today. Happy Ruby coding.

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  • Pigs in Socks?

    - by MightyZot
    My wonderful wife Annie surprised me with a cruise to Cozumel for my fortieth birthday. I love to travel. Every trip is ripe with adventure, crazy things to see and experience. For example, on the way to Mobile Alabama to catch our boat, some dude hauling a mobile home lost a window and we drove through a cloud of busting glass going 80 miles per hour! The night before the cruise, we stayed in the Malaga Inn and I crawled UNDER the hotel to look at an old civil war bunker. WOAH! Then, on the way to and from Cozumel, the boat plowed through two beautiful and slightly violent storms. But, the adventures you have while travelling often pale in comparison to the cult of personalities you meet along the way.  :) We met many cool people during our travels and we made some new friends. Todd and Andrea are in the publishing business (www.myneworleans.com) and teaching, respectively. Erika is a teacher too and Matt has a pig on his foot. This story is about the pig. Without that pig on Matt’s foot, we probably would have hit a buoy and drowned. Alright, so…this pig on Matt’s foot…this is no henna tatt, this is a man’s tattoo. Apparently, getting tattoos on your feet is very painful because there is very little muscle and fat and lots of nifty nerves to tell you that you might be doing something stupid. Pig and rooster tattoos carry special meaning for sailors of old. According to some sources, having a tattoo of a pig or rooster on one foot or the other will keep you from drowning. There are many great musings as to why a pig and a rooster might save your life. The most plausible in my opinion is that pigs and roosters were common livestock tagging along with the crew. Since they were shipped in wooden crates, pigs and roosters were often counted amongst the survivors when ships succumbed to Davy Jones’ Locker. I didn’t spend a whole lot of time researching the pig and the rooster, so consider these musings as you would a grain of salt. And, I was not able to find a lot of what you might consider credible history regarding the tradition. What I did find was a comfort, or solace, in the maritime tradition. Seems like raw traditions like the pig and the rooster are in danger of getting lost in a sea of non-permanence. I mean, what traditions are us old programmers and techies leaving behind for future generations? Makes me wonder what Ward Christensen has tattooed on his left foot.  I guess my choice would have to be a Commodore 64.   (I met Ward, by the way, in an elevator after he received his Dvorak awards in 1992. He was a very non-assuming individual sporting business casual and was very much a “sailor” of an old-school programmer. I can’t remember his exact words, but I think they were essentially that he felt it odd that he was getting an award for just doing his work. I’m sure that Ward doesn’t know this…he couldn’t have set a more positive example for a young 22 year old programmer. Thanks Ward!)

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  • Surface Review from Canadian Guy Who Didn&rsquo;t Go To Build

    - by D'Arcy Lussier
    I didn’t go to Build last week, opted to stay home and go trick-or-treating with my daughters instead. I had many friends that did go however, and I was able to catch up with James Chambers last night to hear about the conference and play with his Surface RT and Nokia 920 WP8 devices. I’ve been using Windows 8 for a while now, so I’m not going to comment on OS features – lots of posts out there on that already. Let me instead comment on the hardware itself. Size and Weight The size of the tablet was awesome. The Windows 8 tablet I’m using to reference this against is the one from Build 2011 (Samsung model) we received as well as my iPad. The Surface RT was taller and slightly heavier than the iPad, but smaller and lighter than the Samsung Win 8 tablet. I still don’t prefer the default wide-screen format, but the Surface RT is much more usable even when holding it by the long edge than the Samsung. Build Quality No issues with the build quality, it seemed very solid. But…y’know, people have been going on about how the Surface RT materials are so much better than the plastic feeling models Samsung and others put out. I didn’t really notice *that* much difference in that regard with the Surface RT. Interesting feature I didn’t expect – the Windows button on the device is touch-sensitive, not a mechanical one. I didn’t try video or anything, so I can’t comment on the media experience. The kickstand is a great feature, and the way the Surface RT connects to the combo case/keyboard touchcover is very slick while being incredibly simple. What About That Touch Cover Keyboard? So first, kudos to Microsoft on the touch cover! This thing was insanely responsive (including the trackpad) and really delivered on the thinness I was expecting. With that said, and remember this is with very limited use, I would probably go with the Type Cover instead of the Touch Cover. The difference is buttons. The Touch Cover doesn’t actually have “buttons” on the keyboard – hence why its a “touch” cover. You tap on a key to type it. James tells me after a while you get used to it and you can type very fast. For me, I just prefer the tactile feeling of a button being pressed/depressed. But still – typing on the touch case worked very well. Would I Buy One? So after playing with it, did I cry out in envy and rage that I wasn’t able to get one of these machines? Did I curse my decision to collect Halloween candy with my kids instead of being at Build getting hardware? Well – no. Even with the keyboard, the Surface RT is not a business laptop replacement device. While Office does come included, you can’t install any other applications outside of Windows Store Apps. This might be limiting depending on what other applications you need to have available on your computer. Surface RT is a great personal computing device, as long as you’re not already invested in a competing ecosystem. I’ve heard people make statements that they’re going to replace all the iPads in their homes with Surface tablets. In my home, that’s not feasible – my wife and daughters have amassed quite a collection of games via iTunes. We also buy all our music via iTunes as well, so even with the XBox streaming music service now available we’re still tied quite tightly to iTunes. So who is the Surface RT for? In my mind, if you’re looking for a solid, compact device that provides basic business functionality (read: email) or if you have someone that needs a very simple to use computer for email, web browsing, etc., then Surface RT is a great option. For me, I’m waiting on the Samsung Ativ Smart PC Pro and am curious to see what changes the Surface Pro will come with.

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  • Update Metadata and Cover Art in Windows Media Player 12

    - by DigitalGeekery
    If you use Windows Media Player 12 in Windows 7, you may notice some of your media is missing information when displayed in the library. Today we look at how to edit and update metadata and cover art in WMP 12. By default, Windows Media Player will pull metadata, such as the title, artist, album, and cover art from the Internet. If you did not accept that default option during setup, we’ll need to turn the feature on first. Select Tools > Options from the top Menu bar. On the Library tab, ensure that Retrieve additional information form the Internet is checked. Click OK. Editing Metadata Now we’re ready to update some files. Find a media file with incorrect details or cover art. Right-click on the title and select Find album info. This will bring up the Find album information window. Here you’ll see the existing information that Windows Media Player interpreted as correct on the left side. The results of  WMP’s search for the media information are on the right. Click on Artists,  Albums , or Tracks to scroll through the search results and try to find a match. You can also type in new keywords in the Search box and hit enter (or click the Search button) to perform a new search.   If you find a correct match for your media file, click to select it and click Next. You’ll be prompted to confirm your selection, then click Finish. You should now see your media file displayed properly in Windows Media Player. Manually Entering Metadata If your search for the correct media information comes up empty, you can always manually enter the information yourself. On the Find album information window, click Edit under Existing Information. You can edit the existing information in the text boxes or the Genre dropdown box. There are a couple hidden text boxes below. Click next to Contributing Artist or Composer to enter that information.   Choosing Your Own Cover Art If your media file doesn’t pull the proper cover art, or if you simply wish to find a different image, you can add your own. Search online for a suitable image. An ideal size would be around 300 x 300 pixels, give or take. Right-click on the image copy the image. You’ll need to switch to Expanded title (if you haven’t already) to paste the image.   Paste your new image by right-clicking on the current image and select Paste album art. Note: If the image is not suitable size or type, the Paste album art option will not be available. Your new cover art will appear in Windows Media Player.   Even though it is pulled from the Internet, cover art is cached on your computer and will still be available when you are disconnected from the Internet. Are you new to Windows Media Player? If so, check out our article on how to Manage your music with Windows Media Player. Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Make VLC Player Look like Windows Media Player 11Fixing When Windows Media Player Library Won’t Let You Add FilesMake VLC Player Look like Windows Media Player 10Add Images and Metadata to Windows 7 Media Center Movie LibraryMake VLC Player Look like Winamp 5 (Kinda) TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips DVDFab 6 Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 Awe inspiring, inter-galactic theme (Win 7) Case Study – How to Optimize Popular Wordpress Sites Restore Hidden Updates in Windows 7 & Vista Iceland an Insurance Job? Find Downloads and Add-ins for Outlook Recycle !

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  • XNA Notes 008

    - by George Clingerman
    This week has been a rough one. I’ve been sick and then in some kind of slump for my afternoon coding sessions. It could be from the cold, could be I’m still tired from writing that Windows Phone 7 game development book (which is out now!) or it could just be I’m tired of winter and want some sunshine. All I know is that even while I’m stick, the XNA world keeps going along at it’s whirlwind pace. Below are the things I caught in between my coughing fits.. Time Critical XNA News: The 2011 MVP summit is almost here so pass along your feelings and thoughts so the MVPs can take them and share them with the team in person http://forums.create.msdn.com/forums/p/76317/464136.aspx#464136 Dream Build Play - there’s no new announcement yet, but you can’t get much more to the end of February than this! http://www.dreambuildplay.com/Main/Home.aspx XNA Team: Dean Johnson from the XNA team shares an excellent way of handling Guide.IsTrialMode on WP7 http://blogs.msdn.com/b/dejohn/archive/2011/02/21/calling-guide-istrialmode-on-windows-phone-7.aspx Nick Gravelyn tries a new tactic in deciding if there’s enough interest to develop a sequel or not. Don’t YOU want Pixel Man 2 to come out? http://nickgravelyn.com/pixelman2/ XNA MVPs: Andy “The ZMan” Dunn finally shares what he’s been secretly working on these past 4 months http://twitter.com/#!/The_Zman/status/40590269392887808 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rg8Z0ZdYbvg&feature=youtu.be Joel Martinez lets developers around NYC know they should by signing up for Game Hack Day http://twitter.com/joelmartinez/statuses/41118590862102528 http://gamehackday.org/71fdk XNA Developers: Michael McLaughlin shares an XNA RenderTarget2D Sample http://geekswithblogs.net/mikebmcl/archive/2011/02/18/xna-rendertarget2d-sample.aspx Martin Caine starts a new series on Deferred Rendering in XNA 4.0 http://twitter.com/#!/MartinCaine/status/39735221339291648 http://martincaine.com/xna/deferred_rendering_in_xna_4_introduction ElemenyCy posts about his fun time with the IntermediateSerializer http://www.ubergamermonkey.com/xna/holy-bloated-xml-batman/ Ben Kane releases a narrated dev diary video for Project Splice. Let him know if you’d like to see more! (I know I do!) http://twitter.com/#!/benkane/status/39846959498002432 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EmziXZUo08&feature=youtu.be Jason Swearingen (of Novaleaf) posts his part 1 of Spatial Partitioning solutions http://altdevblogaday.org/2011/02/21/spatial-partitioning-part-1-survey-of-spatial-partitioning-solutions/ Brian Lawson of Dark Flow Studios shares what his been up to lately with lots of pretty screenshots and hints of announcements from Microsoft... http://www.darkflowstudios.com/entry/short-and-sweet-part-1 Luke Avery starts a new blog where he plans on making XNA tutorials for beginners (and he’s got a few started already!) http://programmingwithovery.wordpress.com/ Xbox LIVE Indie Games (XBLIG): GameMarx Episode 10 http://www.gamemarx.com/video/the-show/24/ep-10-february-18-2010.aspx Minecraft clone FortressCraft coming to XBLIG http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-02-23-minecraft-clone-fortresscraft-hits-xblig ezMuze+ starts an IndieGoGo fundraiser campaign to help fund their second game and get it onto even more devices! http://www.indiegogo.com/ezmuze Gamergeddon XBLIG round up http://www.gamergeddon.com/2011/02/20/xbox-indie-game-round-up-february-20th/?utm_campaign=twitter&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitter JForce Games loses their Ego http://jforcegames.com/blog/index.php?itemid=121&catid=4 XNA Game Development: @BallerIndustry reminds all XNA developers that the Maths are important ;) http://twitter.com/#!/BallerIndustry/status/39317618280243200 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjV3XDFsjP4&feature=player_embedded#at=106 @suhinini stumbles on an older but extremely useful post on XNA Content Pipeline debugging http://twitter.com/#!/suhinini/status/39270189476352000 http://badcorporatelogo.wordpress.com/2010/10/31/xna-content-pipeline-debugging-4-0/ XNA Game Development Workshops at Singapore Universities http://innovativesingapore.com/2011/02/xna-game-development-workshops-at-singapore-universities/ Indiefreaks announces that IGF v0.3 is out with Xbox 360 support, SunBurn 2.0.12 and it’s now Open Source! http://twitter.com/#!/indiefreaks/status/39391953971982336 @liotral announces a new series on properly designing a game http://twitter.com/#!/liortal53/status/39466905081217024 http://liortalblog.wordpress.com/2011/02/20/hello-cosmos/ Indies and XNA at CodeStock 2011 http://www.gamemarx.com/news/2011/02/20/indies-and-xna-at-codestock-2011.aspx Train Frontier Express posts about XNA Content Hotloading http://trainfrontierexpress.blogspot.com/2011/02/xna-content-hotloading-overview.html Slyprid announces a new character editor in Transmute http://twitter.com/#!/slyprid/status/40146992818696192 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKhFAc78LDs&feature=youtu.be The XNA 2D from the ground up tutorial series http://xna-uk.net/blogs/darkgenesis/archive/2011/02/23/recap-the-xna-2d-from-the-ground-up-tutorial-series.aspx Sgt.Conker posts a “Clingerman” (hey that’s me!) to stay relevant http://www.sgtconker.com/2011/02/posting-a-clingerman-to-stay-relevant/

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  • How To Rip an Audio CD to FLAC with Foobar2000

    - by Mysticgeek
    Foobar2000 is a great audio player that is fully customizable, is light on system resources, and contains a lot of tools and features. Today we show you how to use it to rip an audio CD to FLAC format. Note: For this tutorial we’re going to assume this is the first time you’re ripping a disc with Foobar2000. We’re running it on Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit. Install Foobar2000 and FLAC First download and install Foobar2000 (link below). The main thing you’ll want to make sure to enable during the install process is Audio CD Support… And the freedb Tagger which are located under Optional Features, then continue through the rest of the install wizard. Next you need to install the latest version of the FLAC codec (link below) following the defaults. Rip Audio CD To rip a CD, place it in your CDROM drive, launch Foobar2000 and click File \ Open Audio CD. Select the appropriate CD drive and click the Rip button. Next you’ll want to lookup the disc information with freedb…or you can manually enter in the track data if it’s a custom disc. Select the proper tag information in the freedb tagger window, then click Update files. The data will be entered in, make sure the radio button next to Go to the Converter Setup dialog is selected, and click the Rip button. In the Converter Setup screen, here you can select the output format, where in our case we’re selecting FLAC. In this window you can choose several other options like the output path, merging the tracks into one or individual files…etc. When you have those settings completed click OK. Next you’ll need to find flac.exe which is located wherever you installed it. On our 64-bit Windows 7 system the default path is C:\Program Files (x86)\FLAC Now wait while your CD is ripped and converted to FLAC. You’ll get a Converter Status Report…after you’ve checked it over you can close out of it. If you set the option to show the output files after conversion you can take a look, make sure all tracks were converted, and play them right away if you want. You can play the tracks in Foobar2000 or any player that supports FLAC. If you want to use WMC or WMP see our article on how to play FLAC files in Windows 7 Media Center or Player. That’s all there is to it! If you’re a fan of Foobar2000 and enjoy your music converted to FLAC format, Foobar2000 does the job quite well. There are a lot of customizations and tools you can use in Foobar2000 that we’ll be taking a look at in future articles. For more information check out our look at this fully customizable music player. Foobar2000 run on XP, Vista, and Windows 7 Links Download Foobar2000 Download FLAC Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Using Ubuntu: What Package Did This File Come From?Easily Change Audio File Formats with XRECODEFoobar2000 is a Fully Customizable Music PlayerConvert Virtually Any Audio Format with XRECODE IIExtract Audio from a Video File with Pazera Free Audio Extractor TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips DVDFab 6 Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 Download Free MP3s from Amazon Awe inspiring, inter-galactic theme (Win 7) Case Study – How to Optimize Popular Wordpress Sites Restore Hidden Updates in Windows 7 & Vista Iceland an Insurance Job? Find Downloads and Add-ins for Outlook

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