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  • Brainless Backups

    - by Jesse
    I’m a software developer by trade which means to my friends and family I’m just a “computer guy”. It’s assumed that I know everything about every facet of computing from removing spyware to replacing hardware. I also can do all of this blindly over the phone or after hearing a five to ten word description of the problem over dinner ;-) In my position as CIO of my friends and families I’ve been in the unfortunate position of trying to recover music, pictures, or documents off of failed hard drives on more than one occasion. It’s not a great situation for anyone, and it’s always at these times that the importance of backups becomes so clear. Several months back a friend of mine found himself in this situation. The hard drive on his 8 year old laptop failed and took a good number of his digital photos with it. I think most folks can deal with losing some of their music and even some of their documents, but it really stings to lose pictures of past events and loved ones. After ordering a new laptop, my friend went out and bought an external hard drive so that he could start keeping a backup of his data. As fate would have it, several months later the drive in his new laptop failed and he learned the hard way that simply buying the external hard drive isn’t enough… you actually have to copy your stuff over every once in awhile! The importance of backup and recovery plans is (hopefully) well known in IT organizations. Well executed backup plans are in place, and hopefully the backup and recovery process is tested regularly. When you’re talking about users at home, however, the need for these backups is often understood far too late. Most typical users can’t be expected to remember to backup their data regularly and also don’t always have the know-how to setup automated backups. For my friends and family members in this situation I recommend tools like Dropbox, Carbonite, and Mozy. Here’s why I like them: They’re affordable: Dropbox and Mozy both have free offerings, though most people with lots of music and/or photos to backup will probably exceed the storage limitations of those free plans pretty quickly. Still, all three offer pretty affordable monthly or yearly plans. In my opinion, Carbonite’s unlimited storage plan for $50-$60 per year is the best value around. They’re easy to setup: Both Dropbox and Carbonite are very easy to get setup and start using. I’ve never used Mozy, but I imagine it’s similarly painless to get up and running. Backups are automatically “off-site”: A backup that is sitting on an external hard drive right next to your computer is great, but might not protect against flood damage, a power surge, or other disasters in that single location. These services exist “in the cloud” so to speak, helping mitigate those concerns. Granted, this kind of backup scheme requires some trust in the 3rd party to protect your data from both malicious people and disastrous events. This truly is a bit of a double edged sword, but I sleep well at night knowing that my data is being backed up and secured by a company made up of engineers that focus on the business of doing backups right. Backups are “brainless”: What I like most about services like these is that they work “automagically” in the background, watching for files to be updated and automatically backing up those changes. There’s no need to remember to plug in that external drive and copy your data over. Since starting to recommend these services to my friends and family I find myself wearing my “data recovery” hat far less often. The only way backups are effective for your standard computer user is if they’re completely automatic. Backups need to be brainless, or they just won’t work.

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  • Motorola Droid App Recommendations

    - by Brian Jackett
    Just as a disclaimer, the views and opinions expressed in this post are solely my own and I’m not getting paid or compensated for anything.     Ok, so I’m one of the crazy few who went out and bought a Droid the week it was released a few months back.  The Motorola Droid was a MAJOR upgrade in phone capabilities for me as my previous phone had no GPS, no web access, limited apps, etc.  I now use my Droid for so much of my life from work to personal to community based events.  Since I’ve been using my Droid for awhile, a number of friends (@toddklindt, @spmcdonough, @jfroushiii, and many more) who later got a Droid asked me which apps I recommended.  While there are a few sites on the web listing out useful Android apps, here’s my quick list (with a few updates since first put together.) Note: * denotes a highly recommended app     Android App Recommendations for Motorola Droid (Updated after 2.1 update) RemoteDroid – install a thin client on another computer and Droid becomes mouse pad / keyboard, control computer remotely PdaNet – free version allows tethering (only to HTTP, no HTTPS) without paying extra monthly charge.  A paid version allows HTTPS access. SportsTap – keep track of about a dozen sports, favorite teams, etc *Movies – setup favorite theaters, find movie times, buy tickets, etc WeatherBug elite – paid app, but gives weather alerts, 4 day forecast, etc.  Free version also exists.  (Update: Android 2.1 offers free weather app, but I still prefer WeatherBug.) *Advanced Task Killer – manually free up memory and kill apps not needed Google Voice – have to have a Google Voice account to really use, but allows visual voice mail, sending calls to specific phones, and too many other things to list AndroZip – access your phone memory like a file system Twidroid – best Twitter client I’ve found so far, but personal preference varies.  I’m using free version and suits me just fine. Skype (beta) – I only use this to send chat messages, not sure how/if phone calls works on this. (Update: Skype Mobile app just released, but uninstalled after few days as it kept launching in background and using up memory when not wanted.) *NewsRob – RSS reader syncs to Google Reader.  I use this multiple times a day, excellent app. (Update: this app does ask for your Google username and password, so security minded folks be cautioned.) ConnectBot – don’t use often myself, but allows SSH into remote computer.  Great if you have a need for remote manage server. Speed Test – same as the online website, allows finding upload/download speeds. WiFinder – store wifi preferences and find wifi spots in area. TagReader – simple Microsoft Tag Reader, works great. *Google Listen – audible podcast catcher that allows putting items into a queue, sync with Google Reader RSS, etc. I personally love this app which has now replaced the iPod I used to use in my car, but have heard mixed reviews from others. Robo Defense – (paid app) tower defense game but with RPG elements to upgrade towers over lifetime playing. I’ve never played FieldRunners but I’m told very similar in offering. Nice distraction when in airport or have some time to burn. Phit Droid 3rd Edition – drag and drop block shapes into a rectangle box, simple game to pass the time with literally 1000s of levels. Note this game has been updated dozens of times with numerous editions so unsure exactly which are still on the market. Google Sky Map – impress your friends by holding Droid up to sky and viewing constellations using Droid screen. wootCheck Lite – check up on daily offerings on Woot.com and affiliated wine, sellout, shirt, and kids sites.   Side notes: I’ve seen that Glympse and TripIt have recently come out with Android apps.  I’ve installed but haven’t gotten to use either yet, but I hear good things.  Will try out on 2 upcoming trips in May and update with impressions.         -Frog Out   Image linked from http://images.tolmol.com/images/grpimages/200910191814100_motorola-droid.gif

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  • Change The Windows 7 Start Orb the Easy Way

    - by Matthew Guay
    Want to make your Windows 7 PC even more unique and personalized?  Then check out this easy guide on how to change your start orb in Windows 7. Getting Started First, download the free Windows 7 Start Button Changer (link below), and extract the contents of the folder.  It contains the app along with a selection of alternate start button orbs you can try out.   Before changing the start button, we advise creating a system restore point in case anything goes wrong.  Enter System Restore in your Start menu search, and select “Create a restore point”. Please note:  We tested this on both the 32 bit and 64 bit editions of Windows 7, and didn’t encounter any problems or stability issues.  That said, it is always prudent to make a restore point just in case a problem did happen. Click the Create button… Then enter a name for the restore point, and click Create. Changing the Start Orb. Once this is finished, run the Windows 7 Start Button Changer as administrator by right-clicking on it and selecting “Run as administrator”.  Accept the UAC prompt that will appear. If you don’t run it as an administrator, you may see the following warning.  Click Quit, and then run again as administrator. You should now see the Windows 7 Start Button Changer.  On the left it shows what your current (default) start orb looks like inactive, when hovered over, and when selected.  Click the orb on the right to select a new start button. Here we browsed to the sample orbs folder, and selected one of them.  Let’s give Windows the Media Center orb for a start orb.  Click the orb you want, and then select open. When you click Open, your screen will momentarily freeze and your taskbar will disappear.  When it reappears, your computer will have gone from having the old, default Start orb style… …to your new, exciting Start orb!  Here it is default, and glowing when hovered over. Now, the Windows 7 Start Orb Changer will change, and show your new Start orb on the left side.  If you would like to revert to the default orb, simply click the folder icon to restore it.  Or, if you would like to change the orb again, restore the original first and then select a new one. The orbs don’t have to be round; here’s a fancy Windows 7 logo as the start button. The start orb change will work in the Aero and Aero basic (which Windows 7 Start uses) themes, but will not show up in the classic, Windows 2000 style themes.  Here’s how the new start button looks with the Aero Classic theme: There are tons of orbs available, including this cute smiley, so choose one that you like to make your computer uniquely yours. Conclusion This is a cute way to make your desktop unique, and can be a great way to make a truly personalized theme.  Let us know your favorite Start orb! Link Download the Windows 7 Start Button Changer Find more Start orbs at deviantART Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Change the Windows 7 or Vista Power Buttons to Shut Down/Sleep/HibernateQuick Tip: Change the Registered Owner in WindowsSpeed up Windows Vista Start Menu Search By Limiting ResultsWhy Does My Password Expire in Windows?Change Your Computer Name in Windows 7 or Vista 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 Quickly Schedule Meetings With NeedtoMeet Share Flickr Photos On Facebook Automatically Are You Blocked On Gtalk? Find out Discover Latest Android Apps On AppBrain The Ultimate Guide For YouTube Lovers Will it Blend? iPad Edition

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  • CodePlex Daily Summary for Wednesday, July 31, 2013

    CodePlex Daily Summary for Wednesday, July 31, 2013Popular ReleasesSharePoint 2010 Export User Information to Text file, SQL server: Full Source code of the project: Please change SharePoint server address. I have used my sharepoint server -> http://sneakpreviewWINJS CTK (Control Toolkit): Initial Release: Initial release supports the following. Expander NumericBoxXMLPreprocess: 2.0.18: What's new in this release For XML Spreadsheet 2003 format, used the frozen row at the top of the worksheet to indicate the beginning of the values. This prevents you from having to start your values at row 7. This can be overridden with the /firstValueRow (or /vr) argument. Issues Fixed Fix for Issue 13006 : Corrected default treatment of the value "false" Beginning with this version, the FixFalse behavior that has caused confusion to so many, has hopefully been addressed in a way that st...MVVM.EventToCommand: Tommy.MVVM.EventToCommand: Tommy.MVVM.EventToCommand is a free, open source developer focused event2command via WinRT for MVVM Pattern.MVC Generator: MVC Generator Visual Studio Addin: This is the latest build, this includes the MVCGenerator.dll, and Visual Studio Addin file. See the home page of this project for installation instructions.Project Nonnon: 2013_07_30: ----------==========----------==========----------==========---------- "No news is good news." ----------==========----------==========----------==========---------- Change Log 2013/07/30 BUGFIX game/sound/directsound.c n_directsound_loop() OLD : crash when DirectSound is not supported NEW : fixed game/sound/waveout.c when included OLD : compile error NEW : fixed game/chara.c when included OLD : compile error NEW : fixed game/direct2d.c when included ...Dynamics CRM 2011 EasyPlugins: EasyPlugins-1.2.3.1-managed: V1.2.3.1 - Bug Fix : Condition expression is not saved on action creation - Bug Fix : Request Param with single attribute result - Some style changes v1.2.3.0 - Bug Fix : Twice plugins execution. - New Abort action - Depth Plugin Execution management on each action - Turn On/Off EasyPlugins feature (can be useful in some cases of imports) v1.2.0.0 Associate / Disassociate actions are now available Import / Export features Better management of Lookups Trigger NamingXmlObjectMapper: XOM Alpha 1.0: first Alpha Version of XOM: read and write xml nodes and attributes mapping to IList or Interfaces simple property attribute mapping creates new xml nodes at run time IList changes (add, remove) implemented in the next releasenopCommerce. Open source shopping cart (ASP.NET MVC): nopCommerce 3.10: Highlight features & improvements: • Performance optimization. • New more user-friendly product/product-variant logic. Now we'll have only products (simple and grouped). • Bundle products support added. • Allow a store owner to associate product image for product variant attribute values. To see the full list of fixes and changes please visit the release notes page (http://www.nopCommerce.com/releasenotes.aspx).ExtJS based ASP.NET Controls: FineUI v3.3.1: ??FineUI ?? ExtJS ??? ASP.NET ???。 FineUI??? ?? No JavaScript,No CSS,No UpdatePanel,No ViewState,No WebServices ???????。 ?????? IE 7.0、Firefox 3.6、Chrome 3.0、Opera 10.5、Safari 3.0+ ???? Apache License v2.0 ?:ExtJS ?? GPL v3 ?????(http://www.sencha.com/license)。 ???? ??:http://fineui.com/bbs/ ??:http://fineui.com/demo/ ??:http://fineui.com/doc/ ??:http://fineui.codeplex.com/ FineUI ???? ExtJS ????????,???? ExtJS ?,???????????ExtJS?: 1. ????? FineUI ? ExtJS ?:http://fineui.com/bbs/fo...AutoNLayered - Domain Oriented N-Layered .NET 4.5: AutoNLayered v1.0.5: - Fix Dtos. Abstract collections replaced by concrete (correct serialization WCF). - OrderBy in navigation properties. - Unit Test with Fakes. - Map of entities/dto moved to application services. - Libraries updated. Warning using Fakes: http://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/details/782031/visual-studio-2012-add-fakes-assembly-does-not-add-all-needed-referencesPath Copy Copy: 11.1: Minor release with two new features: Submenu's contextual menu item now has an icon next to it Added reference to JavaScript regular expression format in Settings application Since this release does not have any glaring bug fixes, it is more of an optional update for existing users. It depends on whether you want to be able to spot the Path Copy Copy submenu more easily. I recommend you install it to see if the icon makes sense. As always, please don't hesitate to leave feedback via Discus...CMake Tools for Visual Studio: CMake Tools for Visual Studio 1.0 RC3: This is the third release candidate of CMake Tools for Visual Studio 1.0, which contains the following bug fixes: Opening a CMake file from Windows Explorer while Visual Studio is already open will no start a new instance of Visual Studio. Typing a symbol while the IntelliSense list box is visible and the text typed so far does not match any item in the list will dismiss the list box and insert the symbol typed.R.NET: R.NET 1.5: The major changes in v1.5 are: Initialize method must be called before using R. Settings should be passed to the method. EagerEvaluate method renamed to Evaluate (use Defer method when you want old version of Evaluate).Media Companion: Media Companion MC3.574b: Some good bug fixes been going on with the new XBMC-Link function. Thanks to all who were able to do testing and gave feedback. New:* Added some adhoc extra General movie filters, one of which is Plot = Outline (see fixes above). To see the filters, add the following line to your config.xml: <ShowExtraMovieFilters>True</ShowExtraMovieFilters>. The others are: Imdb in folder name, Imdb in not folder name & Imdb not in folder name & year mismatch. * Movie - display <tag> list on browser tab ...OfflineBrowser: Preview Release with Search: I've added search to this release.VG-Ripper & PG-Ripper: VG-Ripper 2.9.46: changes FIXED LoginMath.NET Numerics: Math.NET Numerics v2.6.0: What's New in Math.NET Numerics 2.6 - Announcement, Explanations and Sample Code. New: Linear Curve Fitting Linear least-squares fitting (regression) to lines, polynomials and linear combinations of arbitrary functions. Multi-dimensional fitting. Also works well in F# with the F# extensions. New: Root Finding Brent's method. ~Candy Chiu, Alexander Täschner Bisection method. ~Scott Stephens, Alexander Täschner Broyden's method, for multi-dimensional functions. ~Alexander Täschner ...AJAX Control Toolkit: July 2013 Release: AJAX Control Toolkit Release Notes - July 2013 Release Version 7.0725July 2013 release of the AJAX Control Toolkit. AJAX Control Toolkit .NET 4.5 – AJAX Control Toolkit for .NET 4.5 and sample site (Recommended). AJAX Control Toolkit .NET 4 – AJAX Control Toolkit for .NET 4 and sample site (Recommended). AJAX Control Toolkit .NET 3.5 – AJAX Control Toolkit for .NET 3.5 and sample site (Recommended). Notes: - Instructions for using the AJAX Control Toolkit with ASP.NET 4.5 can be found at...MJP's DirectX 11 Samples: Specular Antialiasing Sample: Sample code to complement my presentation that's part of the Physically Based Shading in Theory and Practice course at SIGGRAPH 2013, entitled "Crafting a Next-Gen Material Pipeline for The Order: 1886". Demonstrates various methods of preventing aliasing from specular BRDF's when using high-frequency normal maps. The zip file contains source code as well as a pre-compiled x64 binary.New ProjectsA Simple Java Encryption program: This is my very first Java project. It's a file encryptor. It's purpose is to codify a file to make it look like it contain random information.AA??: aa??,????。Browser Chooser 2: Browser Chooser 2 is an updated fork of the original. It's primary goal is to simplify using multiple browser.campuscloud-mobile: Dieses Projekt enthält die mobilen Apps zur Campuscloud App.campuscloud-owncloudplugins: Dieses Projekt enthält die ownCloud-Plugins zu den CampuCloud-Apps, die ownCloud-Server um weitere Funktionalitäten ergänzen.campuscloud-windowsphone8: Diese Projekt enthält die Windows Phone 8 App zur Campuscloud App.Chronos .Net Performance Profiler: Free .Net Performance ProfilerConvertServer: a pet project i works onDevelopment Tools for Solid Edge: Development tools for Solid Edge.DocAssist: The project is to facilitate user's day-to-day management of her files in a customisable way on Windows System equipped with .NET framework.epe: epeETP 3: prueba de asp mvc para desarrollar conjuntamente en un repositorio tfsHello World in MVC4: Application to testInvoke-MsTest PowerShell Module: A PowerShell module that makes unit testing Visual Studio projects fast and easy. Uses MsTest.exe to launch all test associated with your project or solution.MarathonTP: MarathonTP (TP stands for Transport Protocol) is a lightweight communication protocol specificaly developped for machine to machine communication.Multicopter Simulator: A simulation environment for multicopter built with Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio 4.MVC Rags: A bunch of ASP.NET MVC4 helpersMVVM.EventToCommand: Tommy.MVVM.EventToCommand is a free, open source developer focused event2command via WinRT for MVVM Pattern.RNT.Common: rnt.commonStorageOrizer: Software to manage disk space, e.g. move Programs without damaging function. Subset Sum Problem Solver: SubsetThirdPartyLogin: ?????twitterBootstrapAspNetMVCControls: Asp.net MVC Controls based on twiiter Boostrap( a beautiful html & css framework published by Twitter).Unify: Unify is an automatic IoC Container Configurator, based on layers approach via annotations.V32 Assembler: The assembler for my assembly language for my 32-bit virtual machine with a home-made instruction set.

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  • Ask HTG: How Can I Check the Age of My Windows Installation?

    - by Jason Fitzpatrick
    Curious about when you installed Windows and how long you’ve been chugging along without a system refresh? Read on as we show you a simple way to see how long-in-the-tooth your Windows installation is. Dear How-To Geek, It feels like it has been forever since I installed Windows 7 and I’m starting to wonder if some of the performance issues I’m experiencing have something to do with how long ago it was installed. It isn’t crashing or anything horrible, mind you, it just feels slower than it used to and I’m wondering if I should reinstall it to wipe the slate clean. Is there a simple way to determine the original installation date of Windows on its host machine? Sincerely, Worried in Windows Although you only intended to ask one question, you actually asked two. Your direct question is an easy one to answer (how to check the Windows installation date). The indirect question is, however, a little trickier (if you need to reinstall Windows to get a performance boost). Let’s start off with the easy one: how to check your installation date. Windows includes a handy little application just for the purposes of pulling up system information like the installation date, among other things. Open the Start Menu and type cmd in the run box (or, alternatively, press WinKey+R to pull up the run dialog and enter the same command). At the command prompt, type systeminfo.exe Give the application a moment to run; it takes around 15-20 seconds to gather all the data. You’ll most likely need to scroll back up in the console window to find the section at the top that lists operating system stats. What you care about is Original Install Date: We’ve been running the machine we tested the command on since August 23 2009. For the curious, that’s one month and a day after the initial public release of Windows 7 (after we were done playing with early test releases and spent a month mucking around in the guts of Windows 7 to report on features and flaws, we ran a new clean installation and kept on trucking). Now, you might be asking yourself: Why haven’t they reinstalled Windows in all that time? Haven’t things slowed down? Haven’t they upgraded hardware? The truth of the matter is, in most cases there’s no need to completely wipe your computer and start from scratch to resolve issues with Windows and, if you don’t bog your system down with unnecessary and poorly written software, things keep humming along. In fact, we even migrated this machine from a traditional mechanical hard drive to a newer solid-state drive back in 2011. Even though we’ve tested piles of software since then, the machine is still rather clean because 99% of that testing happened in a virtual machine. That’s not just a trick for technology bloggers, either, virtualizing is a handy trick for anyone who wants to run a rock solid base OS and avoid the bog-down-and-then-refresh cycle that can plague a heavily used machine. So while it might be the case that you’ve been running Windows 7 for years and heavy software installation and use has bogged your system down to the point a refresh is in order, we’d strongly suggest reading over the following How-To Geek guides to see if you can’t wrangle the machine into shape without a total wipe (and, if you can’t, at least you’ll be in a better position to keep the refreshed machine light and zippy): HTG Explains: Do You Really Need to Regularly Reinstall Windows? PC Cleaning Apps are a Scam: Here’s Why (and How to Speed Up Your PC) The Best Tips for Speeding Up Your Windows PC Beginner Geek: How to Reinstall Windows on Your Computer Everything You Need to Know About Refreshing and Resetting Your Windows 8 PC Armed with a little knowledge, you too can keep a computer humming along until the next iteration of Windows comes along (and beyond) without the hassle of reinstalling Windows and all your apps.         

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  • Why Is Hibernation Still Used?

    - by Jason Fitzpatrick
    With the increased prevalence of fast solid-state hard drives, why do we still have system hibernation? Today’s Question & Answer session comes to us courtesy of SuperUser—a subdivision of Stack Exchange, a community-driven grouping of Q&A web sites. The Question SuperUser reader Moses wants to know why he should use hibernate on a desktop machine: I’ve never quite understood the original purpose of the Hibernation power state in Windows. I understand how it works, what processes take place, and what happens when you boot back up from Hibernate, but I’ve never truly understood why it’s used. With today’s technology, most notably with SSDs, RAM and CPUs becoming faster and faster, a cold boot on a clean/efficient Windows installation can be pretty fast (for some people, mere seconds from pushing the power button). Standby is even faster, sometimes instantaneous. Even SATA drives from 5-6 years ago can accomplish these fast boot times. Hibernation seems pointless to me [on desktop computers] when modern technology is considered, but perhaps there are applications that I’m not considering. What was the original purpose behind hibernation, and why do people still use it? Quite a few people use hibernate, so what is Moses missing in the big picture? The Answer SuperUser contributor Vignesh4304 writes: Normally hibernate mode saves your computer’s memory, this includes for example open documents and running applications, to your hard disk and shuts down the computer, it uses zero power. Once the computer is powered back on, it will resume everything where you left off. You can use this mode if you won’t be using the laptop/desktop for an extended period of time, and you don’t want to close your documents. Simple Usage And Purpose: Save electric power and resuming of documents. In simple terms this comment serves nice e.g (i.e. you will sleep but your memories are still present). Why it’s used: Let me describe one sample scenario. Imagine your battery is low on power in your laptop, and you are working on important projects on your machine. You can switch to hibernate mode – it will result your documents being saved, and when you power on, the actual state of application gets restored. Its main usage is like an emergency shutdown with an auto-resume of your documents. MagicAndre1981 highlights the reason we use hibernate everyday: Because it saves the status of all running programs. I leave all my programs open and can resume working the next day very easily. Doing a real boot would require to start all programs again, load all the same files into those programs, get to the same place that I was at before, and put all my windows in exactly the same place. Hibernating saves a lot of work pulling these things back up again. It’s not unusual to find computers around the office here that have been hibernated day in and day out for months without an actual full system shutdown and restart. It’s enormously convenient to freeze your work space at the exact moment you stopped working and to turn right around and resume there the next morning. Have something to add to the explanation? Sound off in the the comments. Want to read more answers from other tech-savvy Stack Exchange users? Check out the full discussion thread here.     

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  • Fun with Python

    - by dotneteer
    I am taking a class on Coursera recently. My formal education is in physics. Although I have been working as a developer for over 18 years and have learnt a lot of programming on the job, I still would like to gain some systematic knowledge in computer science. Coursera courses taught by Standard professors provided me a wonderful chance. The three languages recommended for assignments are Java, C and Python. I am fluent in Java and have done some projects using C++/MFC/ATL in the past, but I would like to try something different this time. I first started with pure C. Soon I discover that I have to write a lot of code outside the question that I try to solve because the very limited C standard library. For example, to read a list of values from a file, I have to read characters by characters until I hit a delimiter. If I need a list that can grow, I have to create a data structure myself, something that I have taking for granted in .Net or Java. Out of frustration, I switched to Python. I was pleasantly surprised to find that Python is very easy to learn. The tutorial on the official Python site has the exactly the right pace for me, someone with experience in another programming. After a couple of hours on the tutorial and a few more minutes of toying with IDEL, I was in business. I like the “battery supplied” philosophy that gives everything that I need out of box. For someone from C# or Java background, curly braces are replaced by colon(:) and tab spaces. Although I tend to miss colon from time to time, I found that the idea of tab space is actually very nice once I get use to them. I also like to feature of multiple assignment and multiple return parameters. When I need to return a by-product, I just add it to the list of returns. When would use Python? I would use Python if I need to computer anything quick. The language is very easy to use. Python has a good collection of libraries (packages). The REPL of the interpreter allows me test ideas quickly before committing them into script. Lots of computer science work have been ported from Lisp to Python. Some universities are even teaching SICP in Python. When wouldn’t I use Python? I mostly would not use it in a managed environment, such as Ironpython or Jython. Both .Net and Java already have a rich library so one has to make a choice which library to use. If we use the managed runtime library, the code will tie to the particular runtime and thus not portable. If we use the Python library, then we will face the relatively long start-up time. For this reason, I would not recommend to use Ironpython for WP7 development. The only situation that I see merit with managed Python is in a server application where I can preload Python so that the start-up time is not a concern. Using Python as a managed glue language is an over-kill most of the time. A managed Scheme could be a better glue language as it is small enough to start-up very fast.

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  • How to fix: Ubuntu 12.04 reboots after loading with elilo

    - by Casey
    I have an HP p6-2120 with CPU: AMD A6-3620 APU with Radeon Graphics RAM: 6GB BIOS: HO2_710.ROM v7.10 [AMI v7.10 4/19/2012] Disk: SATA1 (/dev/sda) - 1 TB (windows) Disk: SATA2 (/dev/sdb) - 1 TB partitioned using "parted -a optimal /dev/sdb" as follows: .. 1049KB 201MB FAT32 boot flag set .. 201MB 60GB ext2 (/) .. 68GB 78GB linux-swap(v1) (swap) .. 78GB 790GB ext4 (/home) .. - rest is "free" space reserved for other purposes (eventually) ubuntu: 12.04.1 LTS [specifically: Release 12.04 (precise) 64-bit] kernel: linux 3.2.0-29-generic I created a bootable EFI USB from the ISO (64-bit) which I downloaded. I can run and install from the USB without any problems. The BIOS is an EFI bios that appears to be capable of booting in either EFI or Legacy mode. Initially, I did the "standard" install with NOTHING on disk2, and let the installer configure everything. The net result of this was that when I started the computer and forced it into "boot" menu mode, it DOES NOT recognize SATA2 as an EFI drive, and when I attempt to "legacy" boot from it, I get the message "ERROR: No Boot Disk has been detected." The "standard" install created one large partition that consumed the entire disk. At that point, I manually partitioned the disk (using sudo parted -a optimal /dev/sdb) as described above. I selected the "other" install, and changed the /dev/sdb1 to "bios_grub", /dev/sdb2 as "/" (ext4), /dev/sdb3 as swap, and /dev/sdb4 as "/home". [Note: fearing that possibly elilo did not recognize ext4, I switched /dev/sdb2 to ext2 and re-insalled] The net result was that the install appeared to trash the /dev/sdb1 partition so that it was NOT readable by anything. I re-formated /dev/sdb1 as FAT32 and set the boot flag. I repeated the install ignoring the messages about no bios_grub partition. After several attempts to get GRUB2 to work, I switched to elilo. I downloaded the most recent version and copied it (elilo-3.14-ia64.efi) to /dev/sdb1/efi/boot/bootx64.efi. (The BIOS boot loader did not recognize it either as elilo-3.14.ia64.efi or as elilo.efi. Based on the advice in one of the web-pages I found, I renamed it to bootx64.efi. This worked.) In that same directory (/efi/boot), I copied the file pointed to the link in /dev/sdb2/vmlinuz to /efi/boot/vmlinuz, and the file pointed to the link in /dev/sdb2/initrd.img to /efi/boot/initrd.img. I created an elilo.conf file as follows: timeout=5000 prompt default=linux-boot image=vmlinuz label=linux-boot read-only initrd=initrd.img root=/dev/sdb2 The /efi/boot directory contains 4 files: bootx64.efi elilo.conf vmlinuz initrd.img When I power-cycle the computer and force the boot menu, drive2 shows up as an EFI bootable drive. When I select it, I get the elilo prompt. Pressing , it appears to load the kernal (I have tried it with verbose=5, and there is a long string of messages with the final one a command line to load the kernel and a series of several dots that fly by) then the screen goes blank, and it reboots the computer. [Note: I have also tried substituting the UUID as found in the /etc/fstab of the installed system for the root directory. This had no effect.] This is a brief synopsis of several nights of fiddling with this. I would deeply appreciate any help you can give.

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  • Software and/(x)or Hardware Projects for Pre-School Kids

    - by haylem
    I offered to participate at my kid's pre-school for various activities (yes, I'm crazy like that), and one of them is to help them discover extra-curricular (big word for a pre-school, but by lack of a better one... :)) hobbies, which may or may not relate to a professional activity. At first I thought that it wouldn't be really easy to have pre-schoolers relate to programming or the internal workings of a computer system in general (and I'm more used to teaching middle-school to university-level students), but then I thought there must be a way. So I'm trying to figure out ways to introduce very young kids (3yo) to computer systems in a fun and preferably educational way. Of course, I don't expect them to start smashing the stack for fun and profit right away (or at least not voluntarily, though I could use the occasion for some toddler tests...), but I'm confident there must be ways to get them interested in both: using the systems, becoming curious about understanding what they do, interacting with the systems to modify them. I guess this setting is not really relevant after all, it's pretty much the same as if you were aiming to achieve the same for your own kids at home. Ideas Considering we're talking 3yo pre-schoolers here, and that at this age some kids are already quite confident using a mouse (some even a keyboard, if not for typing, at least to press some buttons they've come to associate with actions) while others have not yet had any interaction with computers of any kind, it needs to be: rather basic, demonstrated and played with in less then 5 or 10 minutes, doable in in groups or alone, scalable and extendable in complexity to accommodate their varying abilities. The obvious options are: basic smallish games to play with, interactive systems like LOGO, Kojo, Squeak and clones (possibly even simpler than that), or thngs like Lego Systems. I guess it can be a thing to reflect on both at the software and the hardware levels: it could be done with a desktop or laptop machine, a tablet, a smartphone (or a crap-phone, for that matter, as long as you can modify it), or even get down to building something from scratch (Raspberry Pi and Arduino being popular options at the moment). I can probably be in the form of games, funny visualizations (which are pretty much games) w/ Prototype, virtual worlds to explore. I also thought on the moment (and I hope this won't offend anyone) that some approaches to teaching pets could work (reward systems, haptic feedback and such things could quickly point a kid in the right direction to understanding how things work, in a similar fashion - I'm not suggesting to shock the kids!). Hmm, Is There an Actual Question in There? What type of systems do you think might be a good fit, both in terms of hardware and software? Do you have seen such systems, or have anything in mind to work on? Are you aware of some research in this domain, with tangible results? Any input is welcome. It's not that I don't see options: there are tons, but I have a harder time pinpointing a more concrete and definite type of project/activity, so I figure some have valuable ideas or existing ones. Note: I am not advocating that every kid should learn to program, be interested in computer systems, or that all of them in a class would even care enough to follow such an introduction with more than a blank stare. I don't buy into the "everybody would benefit from learning to program" thing. Wouldn't hurt, but not necessary in any way. But if I can walk out of there with a few of them having smiled using the thing (or heck, cried because others took them away from them), that'd be good enough. Related Questions I've seen and that seem to complement what I'm looking for, but not exactly for the same age groups or with the same goals: Teaching Programming to Kids Recommendations for teaching kids math concepts & skills for programming?

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  • Delegates: A Practical Understanding

    - by samerpaul
    It's been a while since I have written on this blog, and I'm planning on reviving it this summer, since I have more time to do so again.I've also recently started working on the iPhone platform, so I haven't been as busy in .NET as before.In either case, today's blog post applies to both C# and Objective-C, because it's more about a practical understanding of delegates than it is about code. When I was learning coding, I felt like delegates was one of the hardest things to conceptually understand, and a lot of books don't really do a good job (in my opinion) of explaining it. So here's my stab at it.A Real Life Example of DelegatesLet's say there are three of you. You, your friend, and your brother. You're each in a different room in your house so you can't hear each other, even if you shout. 1)You are playing a computer game2) Friend is building a puzzle3) Brother is nappingNow, you three are going to stay in your room but you want to be informed if anything interesting is happening to the one of you. Let's say you (playing the computer game) want to know when your brother wakes up.You could keep walking to the room, checking to see if he's napping, and then walking back to your room. But that would waste a lot of time / resources, and what if you miss when he's awake before he goes back to sleep? That would be bad.Instead, you hand him a 2-way radio that works between your room and his room. And you inform him that when he wakes up, he should press a button on the radio and say "I'm awake". You are going to be listening to that radio, waiting for him to say he's awake. This, in essence, is how a delegate works.You're creating an "object" (the radio) that allows you to listen in on an event you specify. You don't want him to send any other messages to you right now, except when he wakes up. And you want to know immediately when he does, so you can go over to his room and say hi. (the methods that are called when a delegate event fires). You're also currently specifying that only you are listening on his radio.Let's say you want your friend to come into the room at the same time as you, and do something else entirely, like fluff your brother's pillow. You will then give him an identical radio, that also hooks into your brother's radio, and inform him to wait and listen for the "i'm awake" signal.Then, when your brother wakes up, he says "I'm awake!" and both you and your friend walk into the room. You say hi, and your friend fluffs the pillow, then you both exit.Later, if you decide you don't care to say hi anymore, you turn off your radio. Now, you have no idea when your brother is awake or not, because you aren't listening anymore.So again, you are each classes in this example, and each of you have your own methods. You're playing a computer game (PlayComputerGame()), your friend is building a puzzle (BuildPuzzle()) and your brother is napping (Napping()). You create a delegate (ImAwake) that you set your brother to do, when he wakes up. You listen in on that delegate (giving yourself a radio and turning it on), and when you receive the message, you fire a new method called SayHi()). Your friend is also wired up to the same delegate (using an identical radio) and fires the method FluffPillow().Hopefully this makes sense, and helps shed some light on how delegates operate. Let me know! Feel free to drop me a line at Twitter (preferred method of contact) here: samerabousalbi

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  • jquery Setting cursor position in contenteditable div

    - by Mark
    The old version of the question is below, after researching more, I decided to rephrase the question. The problem as before is, I need to focus a contenteditable div without highlighting the text, doing straight up focus highlights the text in Chrome. I realize that people solved this problems in textareas by resetting the caret position in the textarea. How can I do that with a contenteditable element? All the plugins I've tried only works with textareas. Thanks. Old Phrasing of the question: I have a contenteditable element that I want to focus, but only insofar as to place the cursor at the front of the element, rather selecting everything. elem.trigger('focus'); with jquery selects all the text in the entire element in chrome. Firefox behaves correctly, setting the caret at the front of the text. How can I get Chrome to behave the way I want, or is focus perhaps not what I'm looking for. Thanks

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  • SAP DCOM Connector on Windows Server 2008

    - by Michael
    Does anybody know, if it is possible to use the "old" SAP DCOM Connector on a Windows Server 2008 ? I want to migrate a old ASP Web Solution with DCOM Connection to SAP from Windows 2000 Server to Windows 2008 Server. When I try to install the DCOM Connector I get the Error Message: "Setup could not find ActivX(R) Data Objects verion 2.5 or higher on your computer...." That is strange, because ado is there under C:\Program Files\Common Files\System\ado ! Thanks in advance for your help !

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  • TFS - Rebinding solution to new TFS when prior TFS no longer available

    - by MikeMalter
    The prior instance of TFS I was using is no longer available and I have a test project I want to bind to the new instance of TFS. However, when I try to add the solution to source control, the error message tells me that the collection is not available on the server. I have deleted all old source control files, and it still has the old bindings somewhere. Does anyone know how to remove ALL bindings so I can just simply start over again with a new instance of TFS? Thanks.

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  • trying to convert rails 2.3.4 app to rails 3 but views not appearing

    - by kgrad
    I have a simple rails 2.3.4 application I am trying to get running with rails 3.0.0-beta2. I have the server running and all my links and navigation showing, however for some reason the content of my views is not displaying. When I navigate to Site/index the html in my index.html.erb in my site view is completely ignored. There are no errors in the server log. My template is rendered properly (where all the links and navigation are being created) within application.html.erb however all of my actual view files are being ignored. Has anyone experienced this? I am using old style routing with map.connect, could this be the issue? Does anyone have a tutorial on how to convert old routes to new ones? I couldn't figure it out. my current routes look like this: map.connect ':controller/:action/:id' map.connect ':controller/:action/:id.:format' map.root :controller => :site, :action => :index

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  • Force SSRS 2008 to use SSRS 2005 CSV rendering

    - by Kash
    We are upgrading our report server from SSRS 2005 to SSRS 2008 R2. I have an issue with CSV export rendering for SSRS 2008 where the SUM of columns are appearing on the right side of the detail values in 2008 instead of the left side like in 2005 as shown in the below blocks. 117 and 131 are the sums of Column2 and Column3 respectively. SSRS 2005 CSV Output Column2_1,Column3_1,Column2,Column3 117,131,1,2 117,131,1,2 117,131,60,23 117,131,30,15 117,131,25,89 SSRS 2008 CSV Output Column2,Column3,Column2_1,Column3_1 1,2,117,131 1,2,117,131 60,23,117,131 30,15,117,131 25,89,117,131 I understand that the CSV renderer has gone through major changes in SSRS 2008 R2 with the support for charts and gauges and more importantly it provides 2 modes: the default Excel mode and Compliant mode. But neither mode helps fix this issue. The Compliant mode was supposed to be closest to that of 2005 but apparently it is not close enough for my case. My Question: Is there a way to force SSRS 2008 fall back a report to a backward compatibility mode so that it exports into a 2005 CSV format? Solution tried: a) Using 2005-based CRIs Based on this article on ExecutionLog2, if SSRS 2008 R2 encounters a report whose auto-upgrade is not possible (e.g. reports that were built with 2005-based CustomReportItem controls), those particular reports will be processed with the old Yukon engine in a "transparent backwards-compatibility mode". It seems like it falls back to its previous version mode (2005) and attempts to render it. So I tried using a 2005-based barcode CustomReportItem and deployed to a SSRS 2008 R2 report server, but it shows the same result as before though it suppressed the barcode. This would be because SSRS 2008 R2 finds a way to suppress part of the report output and displays the rest. It would be great to find a 2005-based CRI that makes SSRS 2008 R2 process it with its old Yukon engine. Please note that quite possibly, even if it uses the "old Yukon processing engine", it might still use the new CSV renderer hence it shows the same output. If that is true, then this option is moot. b) Using XML renderer We can use a custom XML renderer and then use XSLT to convert the xml to appropriate CSV but this would mean that we need to convert all our 200 reports. Hence this is not feasible. Please note that we do not have the option of having SSRS 2005 and SSRS 2008 R2 deployed side by side.

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  • Confusion about Kerberos, delegation and SPNs.

    - by Vilx-
    I'm trying to write a proof-of-concept application that performs Kerberos delegation. I've written all the code, and it seems to working (I'm authenticating fine), but the resulting security context doesn't have the ISC_REQ_DELEGATE flag set. So I'm thinking that maybe one of the endpoints (client or server) is forbidden to delegate. However I'm not authenticating against an SPN. Just one domain user against another domain user. As the SPN for InitializeSecurityContext() I'm passing "[email protected]" (which is the user account under which the server application is running). As I understand, domain users have delegation enabled by default. Anyway, I asked the admin to check, and the "account is sensitive and cannot be delegated" checkbox is off. I know that if my server was running as a NETWORK SERVICE and I used an SPN to connect to it, then I'd need the computer account in AD to have the "Trust computer for delegation" checkbox checked (off by default), but... this is not the case, right? Or is it? Also - when the checkbox in the computer account is set, do the changes take place immediately, or must I reboot the server PC or wait for a while?

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  • How to fix these compiler errors?

    - by Sandra Schlichting
    I have this source code from 2001 that I would like to compile. It gives this: $ make g++ -O99 -Wall -DLINUX -pedantic -c -o audio.o audio.cpp In file included from audio.cpp:7: audio.h:14: error: use of enum ‘mad_flow’ without previous declaration audio.h:15: error: use of enum ‘mad_flow’ without previous declaration audio.h:17: error: use of enum ‘mad_flow’ without previous declaration audio.cpp: In function ‘mad_flow audio::input(void*, mad_stream*)’: audio.cpp:19: error: new declaration ‘mad_flow audio::input(void*, mad_stream*)’ audio.h:14: error: ambiguates old declaration ‘int audio::input(void*, mad_stream*)’ audio.h:11: error: ‘size_t audio::stream::BufferPos’ is private audio.cpp:23: error: within this context audio.h:11: error: ‘size_t audio::stream::BufferSize’ is private audio.cpp:23: error: within this context audio.h:10: error: ‘char* audio::stream::Buffer’ is private audio.cpp:26: error: within this context audio.h:11: error: ‘size_t audio::stream::BufferSize’ is private audio.cpp:26: error: within this context audio.h:11: error: ‘size_t audio::stream::BufferPos’ is private audio.cpp:27: error: within this context audio.h:11: error: ‘size_t audio::stream::BufferSize’ is private audio.cpp:27: error: within this context audio.cpp: In function ‘mad_flow audio::output(void*, const mad_header*, mad_pcm*)’: audio.cpp:49: error: new declaration ‘mad_flow audio::output(void*, const mad_header*, mad_pcm*)’ audio.h:15: error: ambiguates old declaration ‘int audio::output(void*, const mad_header*, mad_pcm*)’ audio.cpp: In function ‘mad_flow audio::error(void*, mad_stream*, mad_frame*)’: audio.cpp:83: error: new declaration ‘mad_flow audio::error(void*, mad_stream*, mad_frame*)’ audio.h:17: error: ambiguates old declaration ‘int audio::error(void*, mad_stream*, mad_frame*)’ audio.cpp: In constructor ‘audio::stream::stream(const char*)’: audio.cpp:119: error: ‘input’ was not declared in this scope audio.cpp:122: error: ‘output’ was not declared in this scope audio.cpp:123: error: ‘error’ was not declared in this scope make: *** [audio.o] Error 1 audio.h contains #include <stdlib.h> #include "mad.h" namespace audio { class stream { private: char* Buffer; size_t BufferSize, BufferPos; struct mad_decoder Decoder; friend enum mad_flow input(void* Data, struct mad_stream* MadStream); friend enum mad_flow output(void* Data, const struct mad_header* Header, struct mad_pcm* PCM); friend enum mad_flow error(void* Data, struct mad_stream* MadStream, struct mad_frame* Frame); public: stream(const char* FileName); ~stream(); void play(); }; } I have tried to just insert enum mad_flow {}; but that just gave a new problem. Can anyone see how to fix this?

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  • Is this so bad when using MySQL queries in PHP?

    - by alex
    I need to update a lot of rows, per a user request. It is a site with products. I could... Delete all old rows for that product, then loop through string building a new INSERT query. This however will lose all data if the INSERT fails. Perform an UPDATE through each loop. This loop currently iterates over 8 items, but in the future it may get up to 15. This many UPDATEs doesn't sound like too good an idea. Change DB Schema, and add an auto_increment Id to the rows. Then first do a SELECT, get all old rows ids in a variable, perform one INSERT, and then a DELETE WHERE IN SET. What is the usual practice here? Thanks

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  • Apache Config with Wildcard/Non-Wildcard Subdomain Mix

    - by SoupNutsy
    I have the domain, we'll call it "mydomain.com" and I want the following virtual hosts set up to resolve in the following way: mydomain.com / www.mydomain.com to point to /var/www/ dev.mydomain.com to point to /var/www/dev/ *.mydomain.com (all other subdomains) to point to /var/www/old My apache configuration is currently set up as: NameVirtualHost 1.2.3.4:80 <VirtualHost 1.2.3.4:80> ServerAlias *.mydomain.com DocumentRoot /var/www/old </VirtualHost> <VirtualHost 1.2.3.4:80> ServerName mydomain.com ServerAlias www.mydomain.com DocumentRoot /var/www </VirtualHost> <VirtualHost 1.2.3.4:80> ServerAlias dev.mydomain.com DocumentRoot /var/www/dev </VirtualHost> Unfortunately, this is not working as I expected. With this configuration, only the first (wildcard) VirtualHost entry works properly. What is the right way to configure Apache to do this?

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  • Moving from WCF RIA Beta to RC: best practices?

    - by Duncan Bayne
    I have an existing WCF RIA project built on the Release Candidate; I'm now moving to the Release version & have discovered many changes. David Scruggs made the following comment on his (MSDN) blog: "If you’ve written anything in SIlverlight 4 RIA Services, you’ll need to rewrite it. There has been a lot of refactoring and namespace moves." Having made a brief attempt to compile the old solution with the new RIA framework I'm inclined to agree. My current plan is to: remove the Silverlight Business Application projects from the Solution rebuild the EF4 items from the database create a new Silverlight Business Application project re-add the files (XAML, CS) from the old Silverlight Business Application project Does this sound like a reasonable approach? I think it's cleaner than trying to manually alter the existing project.

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  • oracle's pro*C compiler and gnu C (__builtin_va_list, __attribute__, etc)

    - by Charles Ma
    I'm compiling a database library with pro*C which converts the .ppc library file to a .c file that gcc can use. However, I'm getting a lot of errors in pro*C like the following PCC-S-02201, Encountered the symbol "__ attribute__ " when expecting one of the following ... , Encountered the symbol "__builtin_va_list" when expecting one of the following The missing symbols are from a chain of standard includes like stdio.h and stdlib.h. How do I get around this issue? The library I'm compiling came from an old solaris system that we're now upgrading (to a new solaris 10 system) and the header files don't seem to use these symbols. e.g. the newer .h files has typedef __builtin_va_list va_list while the old .h files has typedef void* va_list There are a lot of things like this so I'm reluctant to go and fix all of them manually with a typedef

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  • Dotrine::Zend::How generate new doctrine models without delete doctrine models classes with my code

    - by Yosef
    Hi, I build zend app with doctrine. The problem is when i add new tables to database and I should generate doctrine models, because I add my own code to Doctine generated classes- I dont wont to delete them. I solve this problem like that: 1. copy old generated doctine models classes to other folder 2. generate doctrine models from database 3. remove same new doctrine models class with old I think my solution stupied, but i cant think about something else. Please help me, Thanks, Yosef

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  • Update to php5.3 breaks connecting to mysql db

    - by bobbyb
    I just updated php to 5.3 and can no longer connect to my remote mysql server. I get the following errors: mysqli_connect(): OK packet 6 bytes shorter than expected mysqli_connect(): (HY000/2000): mysqlnd cannot connect to MySQL 4.1+ using old authentication It seems this has to do with the new mysqlnd driver. Is there a way to force it to use the old libmysql driver. Also, reverting to php5.2.11 doesn't seem to fix the issue which seems to work for most people. Anyone have any suggestions? thanks!

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  • I don't want to convert solution files when switching from Visual Studio 2008-2010. How?

    - by Vibhu
    I just got a new work laptop. I want to run Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2. However, the rest of my team is using Visual Studio 2008 with .Net 3.5, and I don't want to check-in the solution migration code into TFS. In fact, I don't want any migration code at all - I just want to use the old .NET Framework with our old solution, with the new IDE. How can I do this? Is this possible? Thank you!

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