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  • What is the correct and most efficient approach of streaming vertex data?

    - by Martijn Courteaux
    Usually, I do this in my current OpenGL ES project (for iOS): Initialization: Create two VBO's and one IndexBuffer (since I will use the same indices), same size. Create two VAO's and configure them, both bound to the same Index Buffer. Each frame: Choose a VBO/VAO couple. (Different from the previous frame, so I'm alternating.) Bind that VBO Upload new data using glBufferSubData(GL_ARRAY_BUFFER, ...). Bind the VAO Render my stuff using glDrawElements(GL_***, ...); Unbind the VAO However, someone told me to avoid uploading data (step 3) and render immediately the new data (step 5). I should avoid this, because the glDrawElements call will stall until the buffer is effectively uploaded to VRAM. So he suggested to draw all my geometry I uploaded the previous frame and upload in the current frame what will be drawn in the next frame. Thus, everything is rendered with the delay of one frame. Is this true or am I using the good approach to work with streaming vertex data? (I do know that the pipeline will stall the other way around. Ie: when you draw and immediately try to change the buffer data. But I'm not doing that, since I implemented double buffering.)

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  • How do I initialize a Scala map with more than 4 initial elements in Java?

    - by GlenPeterson
    For 4 or fewer elements, something like this works (or at least compiles): import scala.collection.immutable.Map; Map<String,String> HAI_MAP = new Map4<>("Hello", "World", "Happy", "Birthday", "Merry", "XMas", "Bye", "For Now"); For a 5th element I could do this: Map<String,String> b = HAI_MAP.$plus(new Tuple2<>("Later", "Aligator")); But I want to know how to initialize an immutable map with 5 or more elements and I'm flailing in Type-hell. Partial Solution I thought I'd figure this out quickly by compiling what I wanted in Scala, then decompiling the resultant class files. Here's the scala: object JavaMapTest { def main(args: Array[String]) = { val HAI_MAP = Map(("Hello", "World"), ("Happy", "Birthday"), ("Merry", "XMas"), ("Bye", "For Now"), ("Later", "Aligator")) println("My map is: " + HAI_MAP) } } But the decompiler gave me something that has two periods in a row and thus won't compile (I don't think this is valid Java): scala.collection.immutable.Map HAI_MAP = (scala.collection.immutable.Map) scala.Predef..MODULE$.Map().apply(scala.Predef..MODULE$.wrapRefArray( scala.Predef.wrapRefArray( (Object[])new Tuple2[] { new Tuple2("Hello", "World"), new Tuple2("Happy", "Birthday"), new Tuple2("Merry", "XMas"), new Tuple2("Bye", "For Now"), new Tuple2("Later", "Aligator") })); I'm really baffled by the two periods in this: scala.Predef..MODULE$ I asked about it on #java on Freenode and they said the .. looked like a decompiler bug. It doesn't seem to want to compile, so I think they are probably right. I'm running into it when I try to browse interfaces in IntelliJ and am just generally lost. Based on my experimentation, the following is valid: Tuple2[] x = new Tuple2[] { new Tuple2<String,String>("Hello", "World"), new Tuple2<String,String>("Happy", "Birthday"), new Tuple2<String,String>("Merry", "XMas"), new Tuple2<String,String>("Bye", "For Now"), new Tuple2<String,String>("Later", "Aligator") }; scala.collection.mutable.WrappedArray<Tuple2> y = scala.Predef.wrapRefArray(x); There is even a WrappedArray.toMap() method but the types of the signature are complicated and I'm running into the double-period problem there too when I try to research the interfaces from Java.

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  • Be liberal in what you accept... or not?

    - by Matthieu M.
    [Disclaimer: this question is subjective, but I would prefer getting answers backed by facts and/or reflexions] I think everyone knows about the Robustness Principle, usually summed up by Postel's Law: Be conservative in what you send; be liberal in what you accept. I would agree that for the design of a widespread communication protocol this may make sense (with the goal of allowing easy extension), however I have always thought that its application to HTML / CSS was a total failure, each browser implementing its own silent tweak detection / behavior, making it near impossible to obtain a consistent rendering across multiple browsers. I do notice though that there the RFC of the TCP protocol deems "Silent Failure" acceptable unless otherwise specified... which is an interesting behavior, to say the least. There are other examples of the application of this principle throughout the software trade that regularly pop up because they have bitten developpers, from the top off my head: Javascript semi-colon insertion C (silent) builtin conversions (which would not be so bad if it did not truncated...) and there are tools to help implement "smart" behavior: name matching phonetic algorithms (Double Metaphone) string distances algorithms (Levenshtein distance) However I find that this approach, while it may be helpful when dealing with non-technical users or to help users in the process of error recovery, has some drawbacks when applied to the design of library/classes interface: it is somewhat subjective whether the algorithm guesses "right", and thus it may go against the Principle of Least Astonishment it makes the implementation more difficult, thus more chances to introduce bugs (violation of YAGNI ?) it makes the behavior more susceptible to change, as any modification of the "guess" routine may break old programs, nearly excluding refactoring possibilities... from the start! And this is what led me to the following question: When designing an interface (library, class, message), do you lean toward the robustness principle or not ? I myself tend to be quite strict, using extensive input validation on my interfaces, and I was wondering if I was perhaps too strict.

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  • geomipmapping using displacement mapping (and glVertexAttribDivisor)

    - by Will
    I wake up with a clear vision, but sadly my laptop card doesn't do displacement mapping nor glVertexAttribDivisor so I can't test it out; I'm left sharing here: With geomipmapping, the grid at any factor is transposable - if you pass in an offset - say as a uniform - you can reuse the same vertex and index array again and again. If you also pass in the offset into the heightmap as a uniform, the vertex shader can do displacement mapping. If the displacement map is mipmapped, you get the advantages of trilinear filtering for distant maps. And, if the scenery is closer, rather than exposing that the you have a world made out of quads, you can use your transposable grid vertex array and indices to do vertex-shader interpolation (fancy splines) to do super-smooth infinite zoom? So I have some questions: does it work? In theory, in practice? does anyone do it? Does this technique have a name? Papers, demos, anything I can look at? does glVertexAttribDivisor mean that you can have a single glMultiDrawElementsEXT or similar approach to draw all your terrain tiles in one call rather than setting up the uniforms and emitting each tile? Would this offer any noticeable gains? does a heightmap that is GL_LUMINANCE take just one byte per pixel(=vertex)? (On mainstream cards, obviously. Does storage vary in practice?) Does going to the effort of reusing the same vertices and indices mean that you can basically fill the GPU RAM with heightmap and not a lot else, giving you either bigger landscapes or more detailed landscapes/meshes for the same bang? is mipmapping the displacement map going to work? On future cards? Is it going to introduce unsurmountable inaccuracies if it is enabled?

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  • External USB hard-drive changing drive letter

    - by Sydius
    I have a Seagate FreeAgent Go external USB hard drive that was mounted but mysteriously decided to reconnect itself: Sep 30 15:07:06 feinman kernel: [243901.551604] usb 1-1.2: USB disconnect, device number 3 Sep 30 15:07:06 feinman kernel: [243901.553828] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] Synchronizing SCSI cache Sep 30 15:07:06 feinman kernel: [243901.553893] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] Result: hostbyte=DID_NO_CONNECT driverbyte=DRIVER_OK Sep 30 15:07:10 feinman kernel: [243905.336557] usb 1-1.2: new high-speed USB device number 4 using ehci_hcd Sep 30 15:07:10 feinman kernel: [243905.431219] scsi7 : usb-storage 1-1.2:1.0 Sep 30 15:07:11 feinman kernel: [243906.427207] scsi 7:0:0:0: Direct-Access Seagate FreeAgent Go 0148 PQ: 0 ANSI: 4 Sep 30 15:07:11 feinman kernel: [243906.428303] sd 7:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg1 type 0 Sep 30 15:07:11 feinman kernel: [243906.430317] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] 625142447 512-byte logical blocks: (320 GB/298 GiB) Sep 30 15:07:11 feinman kernel: [243906.430860] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] Write Protect is off Sep 30 15:07:11 feinman kernel: [243906.430865] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] Mode Sense: 1c 00 00 00 Sep 30 15:07:11 feinman kernel: [243906.431386] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA Sep 30 15:07:11 feinman kernel: [243906.493674] sdc: sdc1 Sep 30 15:07:11 feinman kernel: [243906.496109] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] Attached SCSI disk It changed from sdb to sdc, causing a number of problems for me. What can I do to further track down the cause? I thought it might be a problem with it sleeping but when I cat /sys/class/scsi_disk/6\:0\:0\:0/allow_restart, I see that it's already 1.

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  • CodePlex Daily Summary for Sunday, January 09, 2011

    CodePlex Daily Summary for Sunday, January 09, 2011Popular ReleasesEnhSim: EnhSim 2.2.10 BETA: 2.2.10 BETAThis release supports WoW patch 4.03a at level 85 To use this release, you must have the Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable Package installed. This can be downloaded from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=A7B7A05E-6DE6-4D3A-A423-37BF0912DB84 To use the GUI you must have the .NET 4.0 Framework installed. This can be downloaded from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=9cfb2d51-5ff4-4491-b0e5-b386f32c0992 - Removed the part...TweetSharp: TweetSharp v2.0.0.0 - Preview 7: Documentation for this release may be found at http://tweetsharp.codeplex.com/wikipage?title=UserGuide&referringTitle=Documentation. Note: This code is currently preview quality. Preview 7 ChangesFixes the regression issue in OAuth from Preview 6 Preview 6 ChangesMaintenance release with user reported fixes Preview 5 ChangesMaintenance release with user reported fixes Third Party Library VersionsHammock v1.0.6: http://hammock.codeplex.com Json.NET 3.5 Release 8: http://json.codeplex.comExtended WPF Toolkit: Extended WPF Toolkit - 1.3.0: What's in the 1.3.0 Release?BusyIndicator ButtonSpinner ChildWindow ColorPicker - Updated (Breaking Changes) DateTimeUpDown - New Control Magnifier - New Control MaskedTextBox - New Control MessageBox NumericUpDown RichTextBox RichTextBoxFormatBar - Updated .NET 3.5 binaries and SourcePlease note: The Extended WPF Toolkit 3.5 is dependent on .NET Framework 3.5 and the WPFToolkit. You must install .NET Framework 3.5 and the WPFToolkit in order to use any features in the To...sNPCedit: sNPCedit v0.9d: added elementclient coordinate catcher to catch coordinates select a target (ingame) i.e. your char, npc or monster than click the button and coordinates+direction will be transfered to the selected row in the table corrected labels from Rot to Direction (because it is a vector)AutoLoL: AutoLoL v1.5.2: Implemented the Auto Updater Fix: Your settings will no longer be cleared with new releases of AutoLoL The mastery Editor and Browser now have their own tabs instead of nested tabs The Browser tab will only show the masteries matching ALL filters instead of just one Added a 'Browse' button in the Mastery Editor tab to open the Masteries Directory The Browser tab now shows a message when there are no mastery files in the Masteries Directory Fix: Fixed the Save As dialog again, for ...Ionics Isapi Rewrite Filter: 2.1 latest stable: V2.1 is stable, and is in maintenance mode. This is v2.1.1.25. It is a bug-fix release. There are no new features. 28629 29172 28722 27626 28074 29164 27659 27900 many documentation updates and fixes proper x64 build environment. This release includes x64 binaries in zip form, but no x64 MSI file. You'll have to manually install x64 servers, following the instructions in the documentation.StyleCop for ReSharper: StyleCop for ReSharper 5.1.14980.000: A considerable amount of work has gone into this release: Huge focus on performance around the violation scanning subsystem: - caching added to reduce IO operations around reading and merging of settings files - caching added to reduce creation of expensive objects Users should notice condsiderable perf boost and a decrease in memory usage. Bug Fixes: - StyleCop's new ObjectBasedEnvironment object does not resolve the StyleCop installation path, thus it does not return the correct path ...VivoSocial: VivoSocial 7.4.1: New release with bug fixes and updates for performance.SSH.NET Library: 2011.1.6: Fixes CommandTimeout default value is fixed to infinite. Port Forwarding feature improvements Memory leaks fixes New Features Add ErrorOccurred event to handle errors that occurred on different thread New and improve SFTP features SftpFile now has more attributes and some operations Most standard operations now available Allow specify encoding for command execution KeyboardInteractiveConnectionInfo class added for "keyboard-interactive" authentication. Add ability to specify bo....NET Extensions - Extension Methods Library for C# and VB.NET: Release 2011.03: Added lot's of new extensions and new projects for MVC and Entity Framework. object.FindTypeByRecursion Int32.InRange String.RemoveAllSpecialCharacters String.IsEmptyOrWhiteSpace String.IsNotEmptyOrWhiteSpace String.IfEmptyOrWhiteSpace String.ToUpperFirstLetter String.GetBytes String.ToTitleCase String.ToPlural DateTime.GetDaysInYear DateTime.GetPeriodOfDay IEnumberable.RemoveAll IEnumberable.Distinct ICollection.RemoveAll IList.Join IList.Match IList.Cast Array.IsNullOrEmpty Array.W...EFMVC - ASP.NET MVC 3 and EF Code First: EFMVC 0.5- ASP.NET MVC 3 and EF Code First: Demo web app ASP.NET MVC 3, Razor and EF Code FirstVidCoder: 0.8.0: Added x64 version. Made the audio output preview more detailed and accurate. If the chosen encoder or mixdown is incompatible with the source, the fallback that will be used is displayed. Added "Auto" to the audio mixdown choices. Reworked non-anamorphic size calculation to work better with non-standard pixel aspect ratios and cropping. Reworked Custom anamorphic to be more intuitive and allow display width to be set automatically (Thanks, Statick). Allowing higher bitrates for 6-ch....NET Voice Recorder: Auto-Tune Release: This is the source code and binaries to accompany the article on the Coding 4 Fun website. It is the Auto Tuner release of the .NET Voice Recorder application.BloodSim: BloodSim - 1.3.2.0: - Simulation Log is now automatically disabled and hidden when running 10 or more iterations - Hit and Expertise are now entered by Rating, and include option for a Racial Expertise bonus - Added option for boss to use a periodic magic ability (Dragon Breath) - Added option for boss to periodically Enrage, gaining a Damage/Attack Speed buffAllNewsManager.NET: AllNewsManager.NET 1.2.1: AllNewsManager.NET 1.2.1 It is a minor update from version 1.2xUnit.net - Unit Testing for .NET: xUnit.net 1.7 Beta: xUnit.net release 1.7 betaBuild #1533 Important notes for Resharper users: Resharper support has been moved to the xUnit.net Contrib project. Important note for TestDriven.net users: If you are having issues running xUnit.net tests in TestDriven.net, especially on 64-bit Windows, we strongly recommend you upgrade to TD.NET version 3.0 or later. This release adds the following new features: Added support for ASP.NET MVC 3 Added Assert.Equal(double expected, double actual, int precision)...Json.NET: Json.NET 4.0 Release 1: New feature - Added Windows Phone 7 project New feature - Added dynamic support to LINQ to JSON New feature - Added dynamic support to serializer New feature - Added INotifyCollectionChanged to JContainer in .NET 4 build New feature - Added ReadAsDateTimeOffset to JsonReader New feature - Added ReadAsDecimal to JsonReader New feature - Added covariance to IJEnumerable type parameter New feature - Added XmlSerializer style Specified property support New feature - Added ...ASP .NET MVC CMS (Content Management System): Atomic CMS 2.1.2: Atomic CMS 2.1.2 release notes Atomic CMS installation guide N2 CMS: 2.1: N2 is a lightweight CMS framework for ASP.NET. It helps you build great web sites that anyone can update. Major Changes Support for auto-implemented properties ({get;set;}, based on contribution by And Poulsen) All-round improvements and bugfixes File manager improvements (multiple file upload, resize images to fit) New image gallery Infinite scroll paging on news Content templates First time with N2? Try the demo site Download one of the template packs (above) and open the proj...Mobile Device Detection and Redirection: 0.1.11.10: IMPORTANT CHANGESThis release changes the way some WURFL capabilities and attributes are exposed to .NET developers. If you cast MobileCapabilities to return some values then please read the Release Note before implementing this release. The following code snippet can be used to access any WURFL capability. For instance, if the device is a tablet: string capability = Request.Browser["is_tablet"]; SummaryNew attributes have been added to the redirect section: originalUrlAsQueryString If se...New Projects[OOBL] Projekt: Projekt iz kolegija Objektno Oblikovanje na Fakultetu Elektrotehnike i Racunarstva u Zagrebu.Aikido Glossary Reader: The Aikido Glossary Reader application makes it easier for Aikido students to search for Japanese terms used in martial arts training.AsyncFunc: AsyncFunc makes it easy to implement Event-based Asynchronous Pattern in .NET.BeijingAgricultureScience: ???????????BizTalk 5010 999 Generation: Create 5010 999 acknowledgement from the default 997 Generated by BizTalk ServerCheck if Knowledge Base fix is installed script: A handy script that checks if a knowledge base fix is installed or not.Coproject - rich project management: Coproject is a sample Silverlight application built on WCF RIA Services and Caliburn.Micro framework. It should demonstrate typical scenarios in business applications.DeskNote: DeskNote, makes taking and displaying a notes a lot easier. Have your notes on your desktop, write your notes in a text file and it will be automatically displayed on the desktop. DriveBackup: Are you tired of losing data? And do you sometimes forget to backup your data? Then this program is right for you, one-time setup with each new removable disk and after that Drive Backup instantly backs up your data in the background, without you pushing a button.ELSEngine XNA Game OS Engine: XNA Game Operating System Engine, designed to handle and make easy to use Interface, Interface assets, game screens, menus, controls, and more. Designed to be adaptable to XBOX or Windows, and to ANY style game.FermaProject: Team Ferma ProjectHalfNetworkNET: HalfNetworkNET makes it easier for <target user group> to <activity>. You'll no longer have to <activity>. It's developed in C++/CLILFS Record: LFS Record is a camera animation and video recording tool for Live for Speed users. It doesn't replace programs like Fraps 100%, but in most cases you'll find LFS Record allows a lot more freedom and control. It's developed in C# using WPF .net 4.MPC HC Web remote: A Web interface for Media Player Classic Home Cinema. Designed especialy for smart phones. Tested on Nokia 5800, but in theory it works on all smart phones with wifi & a browser.MSMS2CMP: Very simple application to swap particular strings (MSMS and CMPD number) in .mgf files (results from Mascot search engine used to identify proteins by mass spectrometry data). This might be a kind of example of using Regex and Text File I/OMy Now Playing to Twitter: A Simple WinForm Program that can get what user is playing in Winamp and send a status to Twitter. It's wrote in VB.Net but some source code is port of MiniTwitter(http://minitwitter.codeplex.com)and uses tagLib-sharp library(https://github.com/mono/taglib-sharp)RPM Header for .NET: RPM Header for .NET allows a developer to access the headers of RPM Package Manager files. It's developed in C#.SilverMenu: SilverMenu brings some of the menu functionality of Silverlight for Windows Phone 7 to the XNA world.Smartgrid Smartmeter GRYD: The GRYD smartgrid and Smartmeter project shows features and capabilities like Demand Response, Smart Home Appliance Load Curtailments, DMS integration with SCADA etc. GRYD, Gryd.org is to teach you the technology, this is only for personal use and not commercial use.WakeMeQt: WakeMeQt is a smart alarm for the Nokia n810 (and probably n800) internet tablets. Using a Nintendo Wii remote as the sensor it monitors your movements during sleep and chooses the optimal time to wake you. It's developed in C++ using the Qt framework.WPF SplitButton & MenuButton: This WPF SplitButton and MenuButton implementation aims to be more robust and visual attractive than the other WPF split buttons available on CodePlex and elsewhere. The code is based on David Anson's implementation made available on his blog.Y2XMas: Merry Chirstmas - Happy New Year 2011 software

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  • Calculating a child Position, Rotation and Scale values?

    - by Sergio Plascencia
    I am making my own game editor(just for fun) anyway I have problem that I had several days trying to resolve but I have been unsuccessful. Here goes... I have an object "A": Position: (3,3,3), Rotation: (45,10,0), Scale(1,2,2.5) And an object "B": Position: (1,1,1), Rotation: (10,34,18), Scale(1.5,2,1) I now make a parent/child relationship. "B" is a child of "A": A |--B When I do the relationship I need to re-calculate the Child("B") Position, Rotation and Scale such that it maintains its current position, rotation and scale(Location in world). So for child position "B" it would now be (-2, -2, -2) since now "A" it is center and (-2, -2, -2) will keep the object in its same position. I think I got the Position and scale figure out, but rotation I cant. So I was trying to figure out what to do and what I did is opened Unity and run the same example and I did noticed that when making an abject a child object the child object did not moved at all but had its Position, Rotation and Scale values changed(Related to the parent). For example: Unity (Parent Object "A"): Position: (0,0,0) Rotation: (45,10,0) Scale: (1,1,1) Unity (Child Object "B"): Position: (0,0,0) Rotation: (0,0,0) Scale: (1,1,1) When making it a parent child relation("B" is a child of "A") the child object("B") in its Rotation values now has: X: -44.13605 Y: -14.00195 Z: 9.851074 If I plug the same values to my editor(To the child "B" rotation X, Y, Z values) the object does not move at all. So I basically need to know how did Unity arrive at those rotation values for the child(What are the calculations?). If you can help and put all the equations for the Position, Rotation or Scale then I can double check I am doing it correctly but with the Rotation I really need help. Thanks!

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  • Rotate canvas along its center based on user touch - Android

    - by Ganapathy
    I want to rotate the canvas circularly on its center axis based on user touch. i want to rotate based on center but its rotating based on top left corner . so i am able to see only 1/4 for rotation of image. any idea.. Like a old phone dialer . I have tried like as follows onDraw(Canvas canvas){ canvas.save(); // do my rotation canvas.rotate(rotation,0,0); canvas.drawBitmap( ((BitmapDrawable)d).getBitmap(),0,0,p ); canvas.restore(); } @Override public boolean onTouchEvent(MotionEvent e) { float x = e.getX(); float y = e.getY(); updateRotation(x,y); mPreviousX = x; mPreviousY = y; invalidate(); } private void updateRotation(float x, float y) { double r = Math.atan2(x - centerX, centerY - y); rotation = (int) Math.toDegrees(r); }

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  • Where do I start in regards to making a Gnome/Unity Form Application

    - by JMK
    Ok so I am familiar with developing Form and Console applications on Windows using Visual Studio .Net with C#, but where do I start when it comes to Linux distro's like Ubuntu, is there an equivalent? How would one go about matching what they can do in a Windows environment with .Net and C# in a Linux environment without .Net coding in something like Java or C/C++? I am aware of Eclipse, does eclipse have a form designer or do you have to code the design of any Gnome/Unity forms manually? Can I use eclipse to write the Linux equivalent of a console application, that you just double click on to run? I also know about Mono, but the idea is that I want to learn how to develop software without using anything in the Microsoft stack and am not sure where to start. What is the standard language/framework used to develop these types of applications on Linux? As I become more proficient with Visual Studio, C# and .Net, it has struck me that without these Microsoft tools, I am nothing. I am only capable of developing for the Microsoft OS and this scares me. This isn't some anti Microsoft thing, Microsoft makes some incredible Software/Hardware/Operating Systems/IDE's, but it is generally a bad idea to put all of your eggs in one basket so if I want to learn how to develop Terminal and Gnome/Unity form applications where in the world do I start? I have used Linux on and off for years, but Windows has been my primary OS. However I have watched Linux get better and better and as much as I love Windows 7, I am dubious about Windows 8 (I for one will sorely miss my start menu)! Obviously MS aren't going anywhere anytime soon and I could spend the the next couple of decades developing for .Net without any issues but just because you can get away with something doesn't always mean it's a good idea. Thanks

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  • Use Your Android Phone to Comparison Shop: 4 Scanner Apps Reviewed

    - by Jason Fitzpatrick
    A smart phone in your pocket is great for on the go news, web browsing, and—of course—mobile gaming. It’s also fantastic for comparison shopping. Today we take a look at four Android scanners and price comparison engines. It’s quite a neat time to be a consumer. Historically if you wanted to do serious price comparisons you had to haul yourself around town, gather flyers from the newspapers, and otherwise invest way too much energy into potential savings that might not even break into double digits. Now you can comparison shop with an ease that borders on magic: by simply pulling out your smart phone and scanning the barcode or typing in the name of the item you wish to compare. Today we’re taking a look at some of the more popular and powerful barcode scanners and price comparison engines available for the Android platform. Before we get to that, a word on our methodology. To test the barcode scanners and the resulting search results we wandered around and rounded up some relatively random items from around the How-To Geek offices. This included a children’s graphic novel, a Wii game, a board game, a pack of razors, a box of tea, and a bottle of nail polish. It’s a decent spread of consumer items that covers several genres. For each application we scanned all the items, looked for the best price at the time, and noted any other relevant benefits of using one scanner over another. It’s worth noting that our primary focus was on the speed and ease of use. You may find that certain scanners have specific features that best suit your needs. What we focused on was how fast you could scan, compare prices, and purchase items if you desired. Since all the scanners are free-as-in-beer, feel free to download them all and run your own tests to confirm our conclusions. Use Your Android Phone to Comparison Shop: 4 Scanner Apps Reviewed How to Run Android Apps on Your Desktop the Easy Way HTG Explains: Do You Really Need to Defrag Your PC?

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  • Distinguishing the Transport Layer from the Session Layer

    In the OSI communications model, the Session layer manages the creation and removal of the association between two communicating network end points. This can also be called a connection. A connection is maintained while the network end points are communicated between each other in a conversation or session of some unknown length of time. Some connections and sessions only need to last long enough to send a message or a piece of data in one direction. In addition, some sessions may last longer, this typically occurs when one or both of the network end points are  able to terminate it the connection. The transport layer ensures that messages/data are delivered without errors, in sequence, and with no data content losses or data content duplications. It relieves the Session Layer from any concern with the transfer of data between them and their peers. Examples: Session Layer This layer acts like a manager and asks one of its employees (Transport Layer) to move a piece of data/message from one network end-point to another. Transportation Layer This layer takes the request of the Session Layer and moves the data as insturcted, it also double checks the data for any missing or corrupted information after it has been moved. If for some reason the new data does not match the old data then the Transport player will attempt to move the data gain until the data at both locations is in sync.

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  • Auto-hydrate your objects with ADO.NET

    - by Jake Rutherford
    Recently while writing the monotonous code for pulling data out of a DataReader to hydrate some objects in an application I suddenly wondered "is this really necessary?" You've probably asked yourself the same question, and many of you have: - Used a code generator - Used a ORM such as Entity Framework - Wrote the code anyway because you like busy work     In most of the cases I've dealt with when making a call to a stored procedure the column names match up with the properties of the object I am hydrating. Sure that isn't always the case, but most of the time it's 1 to 1 mapping.  Given that fact I whipped up the following method of hydrating my objects without having write all of the code. First I'll show the code, and then explain what it is doing.      /// <summary>     /// Abstract base class for all Shared objects.     /// </summary>     /// <typeparam name="T"></typeparam>     [Serializable, DataContract(Name = "{0}SharedBase")]     public abstract class SharedBase<T> where T : SharedBase<T>     {         private static List<PropertyInfo> cachedProperties;         /// <summary>         /// Hydrates derived class with values from record.         /// </summary>         /// <param name="dataRecord"></param>         /// <param name="instance"></param>         public static void Hydrate(IDataRecord dataRecord, T instance)         {             var instanceType = instance.GetType();                         //Caching properties to avoid repeated calls to GetProperties.             //Noticable performance gains when processing same types repeatedly.             if (cachedProperties == null)             {                 cachedProperties = instanceType.GetProperties().ToList();             }                         foreach (var property in cachedProperties)             {                 if (!dataRecord.ColumnExists(property.Name)) continue;                 var ordinal = dataRecord.GetOrdinal(property.Name);                 var isNullable = property.PropertyType.IsGenericType &&                                  property.PropertyType.GetGenericTypeDefinition() == typeof (Nullable<>);                 var isNull = dataRecord.IsDBNull(ordinal);                 var propertyType = property.PropertyType;                 if (isNullable)                 {                     if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(propertyType.FullName))                     {                         var nullableType = Type.GetType(propertyType.FullName);                         propertyType = nullableType != null ? nullableType.GetGenericArguments()[0] : propertyType;                     }                 }                 switch (Type.GetTypeCode(propertyType))                 {                     case TypeCode.Int32:                         property.SetValue(instance,                                           (isNullable && isNull) ? (int?) null : dataRecord.GetInt32(ordinal), null);                         break;                     case TypeCode.Double:                         property.SetValue(instance,                                           (isNullable && isNull) ? (double?) null : dataRecord.GetDouble(ordinal),                                           null);                         break;                     case TypeCode.Boolean:                         property.SetValue(instance,                                           (isNullable && isNull) ? (bool?) null : dataRecord.GetBoolean(ordinal),                                           null);                         break;                     case TypeCode.String:                         property.SetValue(instance, (isNullable && isNull) ? null : isNull ? null : dataRecord.GetString(ordinal),                                           null);                         break;                     case TypeCode.Int16:                         property.SetValue(instance,                                           (isNullable && isNull) ? (int?) null : dataRecord.GetInt16(ordinal), null);                         break;                     case TypeCode.DateTime:                         property.SetValue(instance,                                           (isNullable && isNull)                                               ? (DateTime?) null                                               : dataRecord.GetDateTime(ordinal), null);                         break;                 }             }         }     }   Here is a class which utilizes the above: [Serializable] [DataContract] public class foo : SharedBase<foo> {     [DataMember]     public int? ID { get; set; }     [DataMember]     public string Name { get; set; }     [DataMember]     public string Description { get; set; }     [DataMember]     public string Subject { get; set; }     [DataMember]     public string Body { get; set; }            public foo(IDataRecord record)     {         Hydrate(record, this);                }     public foo() {} }   Explanation: - Class foo inherits from SharedBase specifying itself as the type. (NOTE SharedBase is abstract here in the event we want to provide additional methods which could be overridden by the instance class) public class foo : SharedBase<foo> - One of the foo class constructors accepts a data record which then calls the Hydrate method on SharedBase passing in the record and itself. public foo(IDataRecord record) {      Hydrate(record, this); } - Hydrate method on SharedBase will use reflection on the object passed in to determine its properties. At the same time, it will effectively cache these properties to avoid repeated expensive reflection calls public static void Hydrate(IDataRecord dataRecord, T instance) {      var instanceType = instance.GetType();      //Caching properties to avoid repeated calls to GetProperties.      //Noticable performance gains when processing same types repeatedly.      if (cachedProperties == null)      {           cachedProperties = instanceType.GetProperties().ToList();      } . . . - Hydrate method on SharedBase will iterate each property on the object and determine if a column with matching name exists in data record foreach (var property in cachedProperties) {      if (!dataRecord.ColumnExists(property.Name)) continue;      var ordinal = dataRecord.GetOrdinal(property.Name); . . . NOTE: ColumnExists is an extension method I put on IDataRecord which I’ll include at the end of this post. - Hydrate method will determine if the property is nullable and whether the value in the corresponding column of the data record has a null value var isNullable = property.PropertyType.IsGenericType && property.PropertyType.GetGenericTypeDefinition() == typeof (Nullable<>); var isNull = dataRecord.IsDBNull(ordinal); var propertyType = property.PropertyType; . . .  - If Hydrate method determines the property is nullable it will determine the underlying type and set propertyType accordingly - Hydrate method will set the value of the property based upon the propertyType   That’s it!!!   The magic here is in a few places. First, you may have noticed the following: public abstract class SharedBase<T> where T : SharedBase<T> This says that SharedBase can be created with any type and that for each type it will have it’s own instance. This is important because of the static members within SharedBase. We want this behavior because we are caching the properties for each type. If we did not handle things in this way only 1 type could be cached at a time, or, we’d need to create a collection that allows us to cache the properties for each type = not very elegant.   Second, in the constructor for foo you may have noticed this (literally): public foo(IDataRecord record) {      Hydrate(record, this); } I wanted the code for auto-hydrating to be as simple as possible. At first I wasn’t quite sure how I could call Hydrate on SharedBase within an instance of the class and pass in the instance itself. Fortunately simply passing in “this” does the trick. I wasn’t sure it would work until I tried it out, and fortunately it did.   So, to actually use this feature when utilizing ADO.NET you’d do something like the following:        public List<foo> GetFoo(int? fooId)         {             List<foo> fooList;             const string uspName = "usp_GetFoo";             using (var conn = new SqlConnection(_dbConnection))             using (var cmd = new SqlCommand(uspName, conn))             {                 cmd.CommandType = CommandType.StoredProcedure;                 cmd.Parameters.Add(new SqlParameter("@FooID", SqlDbType.Int)                                        {Direction = ParameterDirection.Input, Value = fooId});                 conn.Open();                 using (var dr = cmd.ExecuteReader())                 {                     fooList= (from row in dr.Cast<DbDataRecord>()                                             select                                                 new foo(row)                                            ).ToList();                 }             }             return fooList;         }   Nice! Instead of having line after line manually assigning values from data record to an object you simply create a new instance and pass in the data record. Note that there are certainly instances where columns returned from stored procedure do not always match up with property names. In this scenario you can still use the above method and simply do your manual assignments afterward.

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  • ClearTrace Supports Statement Level Events

    - by Bill Graziano
    One of the requests I get on a regular basis is to capture the performance of statement level events.  The latest beta has this feature available.  If you’re interested in this I’d like to get some feedback. I handle the SP:StmtCompleted and the SQL:StmtCompleted events.  These report CPU, reads, writes and duration. I’m not in any way saying it’s a good idea to trace these events.  Use with caution as this can make your traces much larger. If there are statement level events in the trace file they will be processed.  However the query screen displays batch level *OR* statement level events.  If it did both we’d be double counting. I don’t have very many traces with statement completed events in them.  That means I only did limited testing of how it parses these events.  It seems to work well so far though.  Your feedback is appreciated. If you ever write loops or cursors in stored procedures you’re going to get huge trace files.  Be warned. I also fixed an annoying bug where ClearTrace would fail and tell you a value had already been added.  This is a result of the collection I use being case-sensitive and SQL Server not being case-sensitive.  I thought I had properly coded around that but finally realized I hadn’t.  It should be fixed now. If you have any questions or problems the ClearTrace support forum is the best place for those.

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  • Click and Drag from Clickpad stops working after a while 12.04

    - by Jason O'Neil
    I've got a Samsung Notebook (NP-QX412-S01AU) with a touchpad / clickpad. I'm running 12.04 Precise. When I first log into my computer, the touchpad behaves exactly as expected and desired. The longer I stay logged in, it slowly degrades. I'll try describe it. There are 3 ways of "dragging" on this clickpad: (Physical) click and hold with one finger, and drag around while still holding it down. All with one finger. (Physical) Click and hold with one finger, then with another finger drag around to move cursor. Double tap (not a physical click) and on the second tap, hold and drag. I most naturally use option 1, but here's how it works: When I first turn on, options 1, 2 and 3 all work. After a while, only options 2 and 3 work. Later still, only option 3 works. Restarting X causes all 3 to work again. I've compared the output of "synclient" in each of the states, and there was no difference. Anybody know what to look at? Or at the very least, a command I can run to "restart" the mouse driver without restarting X?

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  • Got that Friday feeling?

    - by Rebecca Amos
    Saturday is just around the corner, and we’re all starting to wrap up for the weekend. If you’re the DBA that ‘Friday feeling’ might be as much about checking and preparing your SQL Servers for the next two days, as about looking forward to spending time with friends and family. Whether you’re double-checking your disaster recovery strategy, or know that it’s your turn to be on-call this weekend, it’s likely you’re preparing for the worst, just in case. The fact that you’re making these checks, and caring about both your servers and your users, means that you might be an exceptional DBA. You’re already putting in that extra effort to make other people’s lives easier. So why not take some time for your professional development and enter the Exceptional DBA Awards? If you’re looking for some inspiration for your entry, download our Judges’ Top Tips poster for advice on what the judges are looking for from this year’s entrants. Not only will you be boosting your professional development, but you could win full conference registration for the 2011 PASS Summit in Seattle (where the awards ceremony will take place), four nights' hotel accommodation, and a copy of Red Gate’s SQL DBA Bundle. So take some time out for yourself this weekend and get started on your entry: www.exceptionaldba.com

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  • Web browser downloads only open target folders - cannot open files

    - by Pavlos G.
    After installing xubuntu packages in order to check xfce, I reverted back to gnome2. During the first login, I noticed that thunar was now selected as the default file manager. Preferred applications menu is also missing now, so I could not set nautilus as the default. I removed all the xubuntu packages (including thunar) and then when I tried to open a folder, I was asked to select the default file manager - that's how I got nautilus back. The next problem I'm now facing has to do with the downloaded files from web browsers: Open and Open containing folder options produce exactly the same result. If I double-click on a file, it'll just open the containing folder, instead of opening the file with it's associated application (e.g. libreoffice writer for .doc,.odt, smplayer for .avi,.wmv, etc). The problem happens both in Firefox and Chrome. Through nautilus, all files open correctly. Up until now I've tried the following: Delete/recreate mimeTypes.rdf in my FF profile Create a new profile in FF Delete/recreate ~/.local/share/applications/mimeapps.list Already checked this similar article None of them worked. Any ideas on the issue would be appreciated.

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  • Impossible to select folders and files with mouse (Ubuntu 12.04)

    - by François
    First-time post for me here (after being a regular reader for two years though) so thank you all for the quality of replies and help provided. My problem is very simple apparently but a tricky one. I just installed the Ubuntu 12.04(1) along with the Gnome3-shell environment on my new pc desktop Acer Aspire X3995 (see config below). Everything work (more or less) so far (I still have problems of sound and disabled 2-fingers gestures with my screen -- which I will have to deal with xconfig settings I think -- though), but the main problem is that I cannot select files/folders with my USB mouse. When I try to double click on them, nothing happen (sometimes one folder or file is selected but then unselected again). Note that the navigation works perfectly from the USB keyboard and from the touch-screen (I am using a 23" wide touch-screen Acer Monitor T231Hbmid). Also, the mouse works perfectly with other menu navigation, with the only difference that the text of certain menus is selected as if I was holding the left click on them. So I assume the problem is only related to the mouse. Needless to say that the usual basic hardware checks have been performed (unplugging, powered-off, etc.). My level is simply "advanced user", meaning that if you provide me with intelligible input I should find my way, but please don't expect too much technical/specific knowledge... :) Please let me know if you need more information on this bug. Now, fingers crossed... and thanks in advance! Ciao, François Config of Acer Aspire X3995: Ubuntu 12.04 / Gnome3-shell environment / Intel Core i5 3450 / nVidia GeForce 605, 1Gb. Screen: Acer Monitor TFT 23" wide T231Hbmid

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  • GSL Uniform Random Number Generator

    - by Jamaia
    I want to use GSL's uniform random number generator. On their website, they include this sample code: #include <stdio.h> #include <gsl/gsl_rng.h> int main (void) { const gsl_rng_type * T; gsl_rng * r; int i, n = 10; gsl_rng_env_setup(); T = gsl_rng_default; r = gsl_rng_alloc (T); for (i = 0; i < n; i++) { double u = gsl_rng_uniform (r); printf ("%.5f\n", u); } gsl_rng_free (r); return 0; } However, this does not rely on any seed and so, the same random numbers will be produced each time. They also specify the following: The generator itself can be changed using the environment variable GSL_RNG_TYPE. Here is the output of the program using a seed value of 123 and the multiple-recursive generator mrg, $ GSL_RNG_SEED=123 GSL_RNG_TYPE=mrg ./a.out But I don't understand how to implement this. Any ideas as to what modifications I can make to the above code to incorporate the seed?

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  • Get Started with JavaFX 2 and Scene Builder

    - by Janice J. Heiss
    Up on otn/java is a very useful article by Oracle Java/Middleware/Core Tech Engineer Mark Heckler, titled, “How to Get Started (FAST!) with JavaFX 2 and Scene Builder.”  Heckler, who has development experience in numerous environments, shows developers how to develop a JavaFX application using Scene Builder “in less time than it takes to drink a cup of coffee, while learning your way around in the process”. He begins with a warning and a reassurance: “JavaFX is a new paradigm and can seem a bit imposing when you first take a look at it. But remember, JavaFX is easy and fun. Let's give it a try.” Next, after showing readers how to download and install JDK/JavaFX and Scene Builder, he informs the reader that they will “create a simple JavaFX application, create and modify a window using Scene Builder, and successfully test it in under 15 minutes.” Then readers download some NetBeans files:“EasyJavaFX.java contains the main application class. We won't do anything with this class for our example, as its primary purpose in life is to load the window definition code contained in the FXML file and then show the main stage/scene. You'll keep the JavaFX terms straight with ease if you relate them to the theater: a platform holds a stage, which contains scenes. SampleController.java is our controller class that provides the ‘brains’ behind the graphical interface. If you open the SampleController, you'll see that it includes a property and a method tagged with @FXML. This tag enables the integration of the visual controls and elements you define using Scene Builder, which are stored in an FXML (FX Markup Language) file. Sample.fxml is the definition file for our sample window. You can right-click and Edit the filename in the tree to view the underlying FXML -- and you may need to do that if you change filenames or properties by hand - or you can double-click on it to open it (visually) in Scene Builder.” Then Scene Builder enters the picture and the task is soon done. Check out the article here.

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  • How to Transfer All Your Information to a New PS3

    - by Justin Garrison
    The PlayStation 3 now costs half the price, has double the storage, and uses half the power. If you need another reason to upgrade, Sony also makes it easy to transfer all of your information to a new console. Transferring all of your games, data, and settings is easier than ever, and all you need is an ethernet cable. Read on as we walk you through the whole process of setting up your new PS3 and wiping all your information off the old one. Latest Features How-To Geek ETC Learn To Adjust Contrast Like a Pro in Photoshop, GIMP, and Paint.NET Have You Ever Wondered How Your Operating System Got Its Name? Should You Delete Windows 7 Service Pack Backup Files to Save Space? What Can Super Mario Teach Us About Graphics Technology? Windows 7 Service Pack 1 is Released: But Should You Install It? How To Make Hundreds of Complex Photo Edits in Seconds With Photoshop Actions Hack Apart a Highlighter to Create UV-Reactive Flowers [Science] Add a “Textmate Style” Lightweight Text Editor with Dropbox Syncing to Chrome and Iron Is the Forcefield Really On or Not? [Star Wars Parody Video] Google Updates Picasa Web Albums; Emphasis on Sharing and Showcasing Uwall.tv Turns YouTube into a Video Jukebox Early Morning Sunrise at the Beach Wallpaper

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  • Using Coherence API to get POF bytes

    - by Bruno.Borges
    Someone raised the question on how to use the Coherence API to get the bytes of an object in POF (Portable Object Format) programatically. So I came up with this small code that shows the very cool API simple usage :-)   SimplePofContext spc = new SimplePofContext();    spc.registerUserType(0, User.class, new UserSerializer());    // consider UserSerializer as an implementation of PofSerializer            User u = new User();    u.setId(21);    u.setName("Some Name");    u.setEmail("[email protected]");            ByteArrayOutputStream baos = new ByteArrayOutputStream();    DataOutput dataOutput = new DataOutputStream(baos);    BufferOutput bufferOutput = new WrapperBufferOutput(dataOutput);    spc.serialize(bufferOutput, u);            byte[] byteArray = baos.toByteArray();    System.out.println(Arrays.toString(byteArray));  Easy, isn't?

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  • C# Simple Twitter Update

    - by mroberts
    For what it's worth a simple twitter update. using System; using System.IO; using System.Net; using System.Text; namespace Server.Actions { public class TwitterUpdate { public string Body { get; set; } public string Login { get; set; } public string Password { get; set; } public override void Execute() { try { //encode user name and password string creds = Convert.ToBase64String(Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(string.Format("{0}:{1}", this.Login, this.Password))); //encode tweet byte[] tweet = Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes("status=" + this.Body); //setup request HttpWebRequest request = (HttpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create("http://twitter.com/statuses/update.xml"); request.Method = "POST"; request.ServicePoint.Expect100Continue = false; request.Headers.Add("Authorization", string.Format("Basic {0}", creds)); request.ContentType = "application/x-www-form-urlencoded"; request.ContentLength = tweet.Length; //write to stream Stream reqStream = request.GetRequestStream(); reqStream.Write(tweet, 0, tweet.Length); reqStream.Close(); //check response HttpWebResponse response = (HttpWebResponse)request.GetResponse(); //... } catch (Exception e) { //... } } } }

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  • Firmware/driver for Broadcom wifi card, PowerBook G4 running Ubuntu 12.04 [duplicate]

    - by user107831
    This question already has an answer here: How to Install Broadcom Wireless Drivers 40 answers This is my first time working with Ubuntu (or Linux), so please be patient. I am running Ubuntu 12.04-powerpc "Precise Pangolin" on a Mac PowerBook G4 with 1.67GHz processor. The firmware/driver for the wifi card is missing. For reasons not worth explaining, I cannot physically plug the computer into the network. I have another computer, a MacBook Pro running OSX, from which I can download files and port them by USB thumb drive. The wifi card in the PowerBook G4 is by Broadcom. The chip is BCM4306, rev. 3. The PCI number is 14e4:4302. I have downloaded b43-fwcutter_015-14_powerpc.deb and dropped it into the Home folder on the Ubuntu machine. However, it will not install. When I double-click, it opens with Ubuntu SoftwareCenter, but the "Install" button is inactive: I can't click it. There's a message beside the inactive button saying, "An older version of 'b43-fwcutter' is available in your normal software channels. Only install this file if you trust the origin." If I "right-click" the .deb file and open with Archive Manager, it shows me the "DEBIAN" and "usr" folders, but I'm unsure what to do from there...and fairly certain this is not the right way to do things. Maybe I have the wrong version of b43-fwcutter for my machine/version of Ubuntu? The documentation for this problem is a mess. It refers to all sorts of out-of-date Ubuntu versions and to an array of different "cutter" and firmware files. Maybe I'd be able to figure this out if I were a more seasoned Ubuntu user, but I have no idea why Sofware Center won't let me do the install. I would be VERY grateful for an explanation of how to get the wifi card working on this machine again. Thank you!

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  • One of the partion on a usb harddisk cannot automount

    - by holmescn
    It is a very strange problem. My usb harddisk has four partitions, one is primary, the other three are logical (contained within an extended partition). When I plug in the disk, three of the partitions are mounted automatically except one--the first logical partition in the extended partition. Initially I thought it is the problem of system (at that time I used Mint). But after I change to Ubuntu 12.04, the problem wasn't solved. I don't want to add a rule in fstab, and I want to know what happened. The disk is fine, and the partition can be accessed in Windows and mounted manually. result of dmesg | tail: [100933.557649] usb 2-1.2: new high-speed USB device number 4 using ehci_hcd [100933.651891] scsi8 : usb-storage 2-1.2:1.0 [100934.649047] scsi 8:0:0:0: Direct-Access SAMSUNG PQ: 0 ANSI: 0 [100934.650963] sd 8:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 0 [100934.651342] sd 8:0:0:0: [sdb] 625142448 512-byte logical blocks: (320 GB/298 GiB) [100934.651977] sd 8:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off [100934.651989] sd 8:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 03 00 00 00 [100934.652836] sd 8:0:0:0: [sdb] No Caching mode page present [100934.652848] sd 8:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through [100934.655354] sd 8:0:0:0: [sdb] No Caching mode page present [100934.655367] sd 8:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through [100934.734652] sdb: sdb1 sdb3 < sdb5 sdb6 sdb7 > [100934.737706] sd 8:0:0:0: [sdb] No Caching mode page present [100934.737725] sd 8:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through [100934.737731] sd 8:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI disk result of parted -l: Model: SAMSUNG (scsi) Disk /dev/sdb: 320GB Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B Partition Table: msdos Number Start End Size Type File system Flags 1 32.3kB 21.5GB 21.5GB primary ntfs 3 21.5GB 320GB 299GB extended lba 5 21.5GB 129GB 107GB logical ntfs 6 129GB 236GB 107GB logical ntfs 7 236GB 320GB 83.8GB logical ntfs

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  • Automated backups for Windows Azure SQL Database

    - by Greg Low
    One of the questions that I've often been asked is about how you can backup databases in Windows Azure SQL Database. What we have had access to was the ability to export a database to a BACPAC. A BACPAC is basically just a zip file that contains a bunch of metadata along with a set of bcp files for each of the tables in the database. Each table in the database is exported one after the other, so this does not produce a transactionally-consistent backup at a specific point in time. To get a transactionally-consistent copy, you need a database that isn't in use.The easiest way to get a database that isn't in use is to use CREATE DATABASE AS COPY OF. This creates a new database as a transactionally-consistent copy of the database that you are copying. You can then use the export options to get a consistent BACPAC created.Previously, I've had to automate this process by myself. Given there was also no SQL Agent in Azure, I used a job in my on-premises SQL Server to do this, using a linked server configuration.Now there's a much simpler way. Windows Azure SQL Database now supports an automated export function. On the Configuration tab for the database, you need to enable the Automated Export function. You can configure how often the operation is performed for you, and which storage account will be used for the backups.It's important to consider the cost impacts of this as well. You are charged for how ever many databases are on your server on a given day. So if you enable a daily backup, you will double your database costs. Do not schedule the backups just before midnight UTC, as that could cause you to have three databases each day instead of one.This is a much needed addition to the capabilities. Scott Guthrie also posted about some other notable changes today, including a preview of a new premium offering for SQL Database. In addition to the Web and Business editions, there will now be a Premium edition that has reserved (rather than shared) resources. You can read about it all in Scott's post here: http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2013/07/23/windows-azure-july-updates-sql-database-traffic-manager-autoscale-virtual-machines.aspx

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