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• How can I avoid garbage collection delays in Java games? (Best Practices)

  - by Brian

  I'm performance tuning interactive games in Java for the Android platform. Once in a while there is a hiccup in drawing and interaction for garbage collection. Usually it's less than one tenth of a second, but sometimes it can be as large as 200ms on very slow devices. I am using the ddms profiler (part of the Android SDK) to search out where my memory allocations come from and excise them from my inner drawing and logic loops. The worst offender had been short loops done like, for(GameObject gob : interactiveObjects) gob.onDraw(canvas); where every single time the loop was executed there was an iterator allocated. I'm using arrays (ArrayList) for my objects now. If I ever want trees or hashes in an inner loop I know that I need to be careful or even reimplement them instead of using the Java Collections framework since I can't afford the extra garbage collection. That may come up when I'm looking at priority queues. I also have trouble where I want to display scores and progress using Canvas.drawText. This is bad, canvas.drawText("Your score is: " + Score.points, x, y, paint); because Strings, char arrays and StringBuffers will be allocated all over to make it work. If you have a few text display items and run the frame 60 times a second that begins to add up and will increase your garbage collection hiccups. I think the best choice here is to keep char[] arrays and decode your int or double manually into it and concatenate strings onto the beginning and end. I'd like to hear if there's something cleaner. I know there must be others out there dealing with this. How do you handle it and what are the pitfalls and best practices you've discovered to run interactively on Java or Android? These gc issues are enough to make me miss manual memory management, but not very much.

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• How to write this loop prettier?

  - by Tom

  I've just read this topic http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2930533/highlight-search-keywords-on-hover and actually I use pretty the same structure, but it looks awful. So can you give me an advice, how to write this loop prettier in one php file, I mean php and html at the same time? <table class="result"> <?php while ($row= mysql_fetch_array($result, MYSQL_ASSOC)) { $cQuote = highlightWords(htmlspecialchars($row['cQuotes']), $search_result); ?> <tr> <td style="text-align:right; font-size:15px;"><?php h($row['cArabic']); ?></td> <td style="font-size:16px;"><?php echo $cQuote; ?></td> <td style="font-size:12px;"><?php h($row['vAuthor']); ?></td> <td style="font-size:12px; font-style:italic; text-align:right;"><?php h($row['vReference']); ?></td> </tr> <?php } ?>

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• highlighting data values in a sql result set

  - by potatoe

  I can think of a number of ways to do this in PHP or even JavaScript, but I'm wondering if there's a SQL-based technique I'm overlooking. I have a database table, let's say 20 fields X 10 rows. I want to display the entire table on an web page, so I'd do something like SELCT * FROM data_table;, and then format the result set using HTML table tags. However, I'd also like to highlight values in the table based on whether they are the maximum or minimum value in their column. For example, I'd add bold tags around the max in each column. A resulting table might look something like this, with bold tags shown: id | field1 | field2 | field3 | ... 0 | 5 | 2 | <b>7</b> | ... 1 | 3 | <b>8</b> | 6 | ... 2 | <b>9</b> | 5 | 1 | ... ... I could do a separate SELECT with an ORDER BY for each field and then interpret the results, but that seems like a lot of extra DB access. My alternative right now is to just fetch the whole table, and then sort/search for the highlight values using PHP. Is there a better way?

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• ASP.NET MVC: How to show value in a label from selected Drop Down List item?

  - by Lillie

  Hi! I'm trying to show a value of selected Drop Down List item in a label. I managed to make this work with Web Forms but with MVC I'm totally lost. My Index looks like this: [...] <% using (Html.BeginForm()) { %> <table> <tr> <td>Processor</td> <td><%= Html.DropDownList("lstProcessor1", new SelectList((IEnumerable)ViewData["Processor1List"], "product_price", "product_description")) %></td> </tr> <tr> <td>Total Amount</td> <td>0,00 €</td> </tr> </table> <input type="submit" value="Submit" /> <% } %> [...] And my HomeController starts with: using System; using System.Collections.Generic; using System.Linq; using System.Web; using System.Web.Mvc; using System.Web.Mvc.Ajax; using MvcApplication1.Models; namespace MvcApplication1.Controllers { [HandleError] public class HomeController : Controller { // Connect database DB50DataContext _ctx = new DB50DataContext(); // GET: /Home/ public ActionResult Index() { // Search: Processors var products = from prod in _ctx.products where prod.product_searchcode == "processor1" select prod; ViewData["Processort1List"] = products; return View(); } I would like the product_price to show on the second line of the table, where it now says 0,00 €. It should also update the price automatically when the item from the Drop Down List is changed. I guess I should use JQuery but I have no idea how. Could someone please give me some tips how to do this?

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• IE 7 floated div auto-clearing next element ?

  - by schweb-design-llc

  Hello, I'm having trouble with the following example. Background: I first have a element floated to the right with an image output inside it. I then have a element with other content within it. In FF and IE 8, as expected, the .images div floated to the right displays floated to the right pushing the content within the .product-body div to the left nicely. The problem: But when viewed in IE 7 compatibility mode, the .product-body div is cleared underneath the .images div and thus the .images div does not fall nicely to the right as expected. IT does this regardless of whether or not i have clear:none; on the .broduct-body div. Please see the example at www.hotelmarketingbudget.com Look at the source code there at the div element #content-body to see these divs. Feel free to use Firebug or IE Dev toolbar or whatnot to check this out. The relevant CSS: content-body{ width:auto; height:auto; position:relative; margin:0 auto; } .product-group .images { float:right; width:auto; height:auto; position:relative; margin:0 auto; margin-left:15px; } .product-group .product-body { width:auto; height:auto; position:relative; margin:0 auto; } I've spent hours already trying to figure out how to fix this- googling, reading other threads here on stackoverflow, but alas i cannot find any solutions and it's hard to know what words to even search with. I'm really hoping this is just some brain-fart on my part. Any advice or ideas or questions would be GREATLY appreciated!

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• Use jQuery.post() result in javascript function

  - by Juvlius

  I've got no clue how to do the following, so I wasn't sure what to search for either. For validating my registration form I've a javascript function that checkes the existence of the inserted username in the database onblur of the username textfield. function checkUsername(username){ $.post("checkmail.php", {mail: mailcheck} , function(data){ var $response=$(data); var response = $response.filter('#mail-response').text(); if(response == "taken") { document.getElementById('username').style.borderColor = rood; valid = false; } }); } This works fine, but now I want to validate it again onsubmit of the form in case users decide to submit an existing username. function validateForm() { var valid = true; //checks different fields //now check voor username existence var username = document.getElementById('username').value; checkUsername.call(username); if (!valid) { return false; } else { return true; } } I'm not familiar enough with Javascript to get this working. Probably thinking in the wrong direction...

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• Windows 2008 and wrong BPL loading [SOLVED]

  - by Beto Neto

  I have an application builded with Run-time Packages. When the executable starts it auto loads the required packages (.bpl). Recently we has installed an Windows 2008 R2 server to use as Terminal Services. We maintain some old compiled versions of our application in different paths, like this: c:\app\version_1\common.bpl c:\app\version_1\app.exe c:\app\version_2\common.bpl c:\app\version_2\app.exe Common.bpl is the a run-time package what app.exe depends on. THE PROBLEM: I start "c:\app\version_2\app.exe" and it loads "c:\app\version_2\common.bpl". When I start the "c:\app\version_1\app.exe" it loads the WRONG bpl (from version_2). The path "c:\app\version_2\" isn't at the system search path. At Windows2003 server this problem doesn't occurs. What can I do to solve this? Thanks! I have downloaded the Process Explorer (microsoft sysinternals), and checked the loaded modules of each executable, all they are correct! But I noticed another problem. After start the second version, an entry-not-found-error occurs, telling me what a initialization entry point, of an unit what only exists in one of the versions, could not be found. Something is very strange. The ProcessExplorer is telling me that the process is loading the correct modoles, but when they are running this seems not be happening. Seems the applications are sharing the loaded modules. SOLVED There was a MouseHook using FindVCLWindow, this was generating the AV. Sorry about inconvenience guys, and thanks!

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• Struct containing a Map in a Map? (C++/STL)

  - by karok

  I was wondering if it was possible to create a struct containing a number of variables and a map in a map. What I have at the moment: typedef std::map<std::string,double> lawVariables; struct ObjectCustomData { std::string objectType; bool global_lock; std::map<std::string, lawVariables> lawData; }; This struct is then passed on to another function as a single data block for that object. The structure setup is as follows: Each object has a data block that contains: its ObjectType, a bool for a lock, and a varying number of "laws" that could look like this: law1 -> var_a = 39.3; -> var_g = 8.1; law8 -> var_r = 83.1; -> var_y = 913.3; -> var_a = 9.81; Firstly, I'm unsure whether I should be using a Map within a Map and secondly even if this would be valid, I'm unsure how to fill it with data and how to recall it afterwards. I looked at maps because then I can search (on a name) if a certain object has a certain law, and if that law has certain variables. (sorry for the first messy post appearance, hope this is better :) )

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• Is this the best way to grab common elements from a Hash of arrays?

  - by Hulihan Applications

  I'm trying to get a common element from a group of arrays in Ruby. Normally, you can use the & operator to compare two arrays, which returns elements that are present or common in both arrays. This is all good, except when you're trying to get common elements from more than two arrays. However, I want to get common elements from an unknown, dynamic number of arrays, which are stored in a hash. I had to resort to using the eval() method in ruby, which executes a string as actual code. Here's the function I wrote: def get_common_elements_for_hash_of_arrays(hash) # get an array of common elements contained in a hash of arrays, for every array in the hash. # ["1","2","3"] & ["2","4","5"] & ["2","5","6"] # => ["2"] # eval("[\"1\",\"2\",\"3\"] & [\"2\",\"4\",\"5\"] & [\"2\",\"5\",\"6\"]") # => ["2"] eval_string_array = Array.new # an array to store strings of Arrays, ie: "[\"2\",\"5\",\"6\"]", which we will join with & to get all common elements hash.each do |key, array| eval_string_array << array.inspect end eval_string = eval_string_array.join(" & ") # create eval string delimited with a & so we can get common values return eval(eval_string) end example_hash = {:item_0 => ["1","2","3"], :item_1 => ["2","4","5"], :item_2 => ["2","5","6"] } puts get_common_elements_for_hash_of_arrays(example_hash) # => 2 This works and is great, but I'm wondering...eval, really? Is this the best way to do it? Are there even any other ways to accomplish this(besides a recursive function, of course). If anyone has any suggestions, I'm all ears. Otherwise, Feel free to use this code if you need to grab a common item or element from a group or hash of arrays, this code can also easily be adapted to search an array of arrays.

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• Is it wrong for a context (right click) menu be the only way a user can perform a certain task?

  - by Eric

  I'd like to know if it ever makes sense to provide some functionality in a piece of software that is only available to the user through a context (right click) menu. It seems that in most software I've worked with the right click menu is always used as a quick way to get to features that are otherwise available from other buttons or menus. Below is a screen shot of the UI I'm developing. The tree view on the right shows the user's library of catalogs. Users can create new catalogs, or add and remove existing catalogs to and from their library. Catalogs in their library can then be opened or closed, or set to read-only. The screen shot shows the context menu I've created for the browser. Some commands can be executed independently from any specific catalog (New, Add). Yet the other commands must be applied to a specifically selected catalog (Close, Open, Remove, ReadOnly, Refresh, Clean UP, Rename). Currently the "Catalog" menu at the top of the window looks identical to this context menu. Yet I think this may be confusing to the users as the tree view which shows the currently selected catalog may not always be visible. The user may have switched to the Search or Filters tab, or the left pane may be hidden entirely. However, I'm hesitant to change the UI so that the commands that depends on a specifically selected catalog are only available through the context menu.

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• How to click multiple instances of the same icon on a webpage? (Javascript)

  - by akd

  I want to write a script that will click every instance of a certain icon. The following code is from the source that is what I want to click on. It has a onclick event defined, I just don't know how to search the page for these icons and then click on them. Can anyone help? Thanks. <dd><a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="RecommendItem(1,'article','6106925','1','recommendstatus_article6106925' ); return false;" onmouseover="return overlib('Give thumbs up', WRAP);" onmouseout="return nd();">&nbsp;<img class='icon' title='' alt='Thumb up' style='background-position: -304px -48px;' src='http://geekdo-images.com/images/pixel.gif' /></a></dd> <dt class='tippers'><a href="javascript://" style='color: #969600;' onclick="RecSpy( 'article', '6106925', 'tippers' ); return false;"></a></dt>

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• Is this the best way to grab Common element from a Hash of arrays?

  - by Hulihan Applications

  I'm trying to get a common element from a group of arrays in Ruby. Normally, you can use the & operator to compare two arrays, which returns elements that are present or common in both arrays. This is all good, except when you're trying to get common elements from more than two arrays. However, I want to get common elements from an unknown, dynamic number of arrays, which are stored in a hash. I had to resort to using the eval() method in ruby, which executes a string as actual code. Here's the function I wrote: def get_common_elements_for_hash_of_arrays(hash) # get an array of common elements contained in a hash of arrays, for every array in the hash. # ["1","2","3"] & ["2","4","5"] & ["2","5","6"] # => ["2"] # eval("[\"1\",\"2\",\"3\"] & [\"2\",\"4\",\"5\"] & [\"2\",\"5\",\"6\"]") # => ["2"] eval_string_array = Array.new # an array to store strings of Arrays, ie: "[\"2\",\"5\",\"6\"]", which we will join with & to get all common elements hash.each do |key, array| eval_string_array << array.inspect end eval_string = eval_string_array.join(" & ") # create eval string delimited with a & so we can get common values return eval(eval_string) end example_hash = {:item_0 => ["1","2","3"], :item_1 => ["2","4","5"], :item_2 => ["2","5","6"] } puts get_common_elements_for_hash_of_arrays(example_hash) # => 2 This works and is great, but I'm wondering...eval, really? Is this the best way to do it? Are there even any other ways to accomplish this(besides a recursive function, of course). If anyone has any suggestions, I'm all ears. Otherwise, Feel free to use this code if you need to grab a common item or element from a group or hash of arrays, this code can also easily be adapted to search an array of arrays.

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• Eclipc java,writting a program [closed]

  - by ghassar

  I have an important exercise for that i found in the internet please i need help in using eclipc java thanks i have to design, implement, test and document a Java program (a set of classes) for one of the following problem specifications: Problem 1 – Jubilee Estate Agency Property Management System A local Estate Agent would like a prototype system to keep track of properties that are offered for sale. The Estate Agent sells domestic and commercial properties. You will need to define classes that represent the Estate Agency System. You should design your system and the classes that you will need before starting coding. Your system must have a graphical user interface and be designed and developed using the object-oriented principles of the MVC architecture design pattern i.e. the user interface class must be separate from the other classes. The initial basic requirements for the system are as follows: • Include a list of domestic properties for sale that include details of: address, description, selling price, and number of rooms • Include a list of commercial properties for sale that include details of: address, description, selling price, and area in square metres • Enable the properties that are for sale to be viewed on the screen • Allow the customer to select one or more properties to be placed on a ‘viewing list’ so that the properties can be visited in person • Display on the screen the viewing list that shows the details of the properties chosen • Provide a basic search facility to find properties that are for sale in a particular price band and display the results • Enable a property to be marked as sold

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• Replace beginning words

  - by Newbie

  I have the below tables. tblInput Id WordPosition Words -- ----------- ----- 1 1 Hi 1 2 How 1 3 are 1 4 you 2 1 Ok 2 2 This 2 3 is 2 4 me tblReplacement Id ReplacementWords --- ---------------- 1 Hi 2 are 3 Ok 4 This The tblInput holds the list of words while the tblReplacement hold the words that we need to search in the tblInput and if a match is found then we need to replace those. But the problem is that, we need to replace those words if any match is found at the beginning. i.e. in the tblInput, in case of ID 1, the words that will be replaced is only 'Hi' and not 'are' since before 'are', 'How' is there and it is not in the tblReplacement list. in case of Id 2, the words that will be replaced are 'Ok' & 'This'. Since these both words are present in the tblReplacement table and after the first word i.e. 'Ok' is replaced, the second word which is 'This' here comes first in the list of ID category 2 . Since it is available in the tblReplacement, and is the first word now, so this will also be replaced. So the desired output will be Id NewWordsAfterReplacement --- ------------------------ 1 How 1 are 1 you 2 is 2 me My approach so far: ;With Cte1 As( Select t1.Id ,t1.Words ,t2.ReplacementWords From tblInput t1 Cross Join tblReplacement t2) ,Cte2 As( Select Id, NewWordsAfterReplacement = REPLACE(Words,ReplacementWords,'') From Cte1) Select * from Cte2 where NewWordsAfterReplacement <> '' But I am not getting the desired output. It is replacing all the matching words. Urgent help needed*.( SET BASED )* I am using SQL Server 2005. Thanks

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• storing user input into string array in C

  - by Jcmoney1010

  I'm writing a program that is supposed to take in a list of names from the user, store them in an array, and then search through the list to check and see if the next name the user enters is part of the original list of names. The issue I'm having is that when I go to enter a list of names, it only saves the last name entered into the list. I've searched the web and this site for similar issues, but I can't seem to find anything that answers this issue specifically. Here is the part of code where I have problem void initialize(char names[][],const int MAX_NAMES,const int MAX_NAMELENGTH) { int i,Number_entrys; printf("How many names would you like to enter to the list?"); scanf("%d",&Number_entrys); if(Number_entrys>MAX_NAMES){ printf("Please choose a smaller entry"); }else{ for (i=0; i<Number_entrys;i++){ scanf("%s",names); } } printf("%s",names); } trying very hard to teach myself, so be gentle lol.

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• Drop down menu going under #main div background in IE 7/8/9

  - by Adrift

  Here is the link to the domain http://linenwoods.com I am working on. I am going to fit the navigation list items on the header, but when the drop down menu is implemented I'm pretty sure it'll go under the #main div like you see currently. Is there any easy way fix to this? I couldn't find anything related to this from a google search .. was hoping someone could help me out. Below is the relevant CSS .. I tried playing around with z-index with no luck as I was told IE8 renders it strangely. If you have the time please follow the link with IE and leave a response .. I am trying to be as cross-browser compatible as possible and already am at a pretty pathetic start. Any help would be appreciated :) body { background-image:url('Background1.jpg'); background-position: center; height: 100%; margin: 0; padding: 0; opacity: 0.8; filter: alpha(opacity=80); } #main { width : 1010px; height: 1315px; background-color: white; margin-top: 15px; filter: alpha(opacity=80); } header { width: 1010px; height: 230px; background-color: white; margin: 0 auto; margin-top: 15px; filter: alpha(opacity=80); } footer { width: 1010px; height: 230px; background-color: white; margin: 15px 0 15px 0; filter: alpha(opacity=80); }

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• what this json must work?

  - by user1772630

  hi i search alot for get a respone from php back and if that respone is ok do someting and if its false do something else(!!!!!!!! WHENE I HAVE OTHER OUTPUT FROM THAT PHP !!!!!!) this is my index file <head> <script src="jquery-1.7.2.js" type="text/javascript"></script> <script src="js.js" type="text/javascript"></script> </head> <body> <p> click </p> <input type="text" id="who"> <br> <input type="text" id="why"> <div id="bg" align="center"> </div> </body> this is my JS file $(document).ready(function(){ $('p').click(function(){ var who = $('input#who').val(); var why = $('input#why').val(); $.post('file.php',{who:who,why:why},function(data) { if(data.success){ alert(data.message); } else{ alert('ERROR:' + data.message); } }); }); }); and this is my file.php <?php $response = array('success' => 'true', 'code' => "jQuery('#bg').html('\"Javascript\", \"json\", \"PHP\"');"); echo json_encode($response); ?> my question : 1- why this is not work i get alert (error:undifined) 2- how i can get some result from that php file when its have other output like this: <?php echo "1"; echo "2"; echo "3"; and now echo that json ?> thanks :(

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• IIS7 Failure after installing Advanced Logging

  - by Guy Harwood

  I came across a nasty issue when i installed the Advanced Logging feature for IIS7 via the Web Platform Installer on my Windows 2008 Server.  Basically, after installation and reboot none of my sites were working and returned 503 – Internal Server Error. Snooping around in the Event Viewer i found the following error reported by the W3SVC… The Module DLL C:\Program Files\IIS\Advanced Logging\AdvancedLoggingModule.dll failed to load. The data is the error Even though the DLLs are there, it is not picking them up. I managed to find a fix via google that involves editing the configapplicationHost.config file in the C:\Windows\System32\inetsrv\ directory. 1.  Copy AdvancedLoggingModule.dll and ClientLoggingHandler.dll to %windir%\system32 (C:\windows\system32  on a default setup) 2.  Locate the file C:\Windows\System32\inetsrv\configapplicationHost.config and make a backup, then open it in a text editor (i recommend Notepad++). 3.  Search for the following 2 lines (mine are located on line 570).. <add name="ClientLoggingHandler" image="%ProgramFiles%\IIS\Advanced Logging\ClientLoggingHandler.dll" /> <add name="AdvancedLoggingModule" image="%ProgramFiles%\IIS\Advanced Logging\AdvancedLoggingModule.dll" /> .csharpcode, .csharpcode pre { font-size: small; color: black; font-family: consolas, "Courier New", courier, monospace; background-color: #ffffff; /*white-space: pre;*/ } .csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; } .csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; } .csharpcode .str { color: #006080; } .csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; } .csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; } .csharpcode .asp { background-color: #ffff00; } .csharpcode .html { color: #800000; } .csharpcode .attr { color: #ff0000; } .csharpcode .alt { background-color: #f4f4f4; width: 100%; margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .lnum { color: #606060; } and alter them to…. <add name="ClientLoggingHandler" image="%windir%\system32\ClientLoggingHandler.dll" /> <add name="AdvancedLoggingModule" image="%windir%\system32\AdvancedLoggingModule.dll" /> 4. Open a command prompt and run iisReset. 5. All sites should now be working. .csharpcode, .csharpcode pre { font-size: small; color: black; font-family: consolas, "Courier New", courier, monospace; background-color: #ffffff; /*white-space: pre;*/ } .csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; } .csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; } .csharpcode .str { color: #006080; } .csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; } .csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; } .csharpcode .asp { background-color: #ffff00; } .csharpcode .html { color: #800000; } .csharpcode .attr { color: #ff0000; } .csharpcode .alt { background-color: #f4f4f4; width: 100%; margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .lnum { color: #606060; }

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• Removing the XML Formatter from ASP.NET Web API Applications

  - by Rick Strahl

  ASP.NET Web API's default output format is supposed to be JSON, but when I access my Web APIs using the browser address bar I'm always seeing an XML result instead. When working on AJAX application I like to test many of my AJAX APIs with the browser while working on them. While I can't debug all requests this way, GET requests are easy to test in the browser especially if you have JSON viewing options set up in your various browsers. If I preview a Web API request in most browsers I get an XML response like this: Why is that? Web API checks the HTTP Accept headers of a request to determine what type of output it should return by looking for content typed that it has formatters registered for. This automatic negotiation is one of the great features of Web API because it makes it easy and transparent to request different kinds of output from the server. In the case of browsers it turns out that most send Accept headers that look like this (Chrome in this case): Accept: text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,*/*;q=0.8 Web API inspects the entire list of headers from left to right (plus the quality/priority flag q=) and tries to find a media type that matches its list of supported media types in the list of formatters registered. In this case it matches application/xml to the Xml formatter and so that's what gets returned and displayed. To verify that Web API indeed defaults to JSON output by default you can open the request in Fiddler and pop it into the Request Composer, remove the application/xml header and see that the output returned comes back in JSON instead. An accept header like this: Accept: text/html,application/xhtml+xml,*/*;q=0.9 or leaving the Accept header out altogether should give you a JSON response. Interestingly enough Internet Explorer 9 also displays JSON because it doesn't include an application/xml Accept header: Accept: text/html, application/xhtml+xml, */* which for once actually seems more sensible. Removing the XML Formatter We can't easily change the browser Accept headers (actually you can by delving into the config but it's a bit of a hassle), so can we change the behavior on the server? When working on AJAX applications I tend to not be interested in XML results and I always want to see JSON results at least during development. Web API uses a collection of formatters and you can go through this list and remove the ones you don't want to use - in this case the XmlMediaTypeFormatter. To do this you can work with the HttpConfiguration object and the static GlobalConfiguration object used to configure it: protected void Application_Start(object sender, EventArgs e) { // Action based routing (used for RPC calls) RouteTable.Routes.MapHttpRoute( name: "StockApi", routeTemplate: "stocks/{action}/{symbol}", defaults: new { symbol = RouteParameter.Optional, controller = "StockApi" } ); // WebApi Configuration to hook up formatters and message handlers RegisterApis(GlobalConfiguration.Configuration); } public static void RegisterApis(HttpConfiguration config) { // remove default Xml handler var matches = config.Formatters .Where(f = f.SupportedMediaTypes .Where(m = m.MediaType.ToString() == "application/xml" || m.MediaType.ToString() == "text/xml") .Count() 0) .ToList() ; foreach (var match in matches) config.Formatters.Remove(match); } } That LINQ code is quite a mouthful of nested collections, but it does the trick to remove the formatter based on the content type. You can also look for the specific formatter (XmlMediatTypeFormatter) by its type name which is simpler, but it's better to search for the supported types as this will work even if there are other custom formatters added. Once removed, now the browser request results in a JSON response: It's a simple solution to a small debugging task that's made my life easier. Maybe you find it useful too…© Rick Strahl, West Wind Technologies, 2005-2012Posted in Web Api  ASP.NET   Tweet !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs"); (function() { var po = document.createElement('script'); po.type = 'text/javascript'; po.async = true; po.src = 'https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(po, s); })();

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• SQL SERVER – Server Side Paging in SQL Server 2011 Performance Comparison

  - by pinaldave

  Earlier, I have written about SQL SERVER – Server Side Paging in SQL Server 2011 – A Better Alternative. I got many emails asking for performance analysis of paging. Here is the quick analysis of it. The real challenge of paging is all the unnecessary IO reads from the database. Network traffic was one of the reasons why paging has become a very expensive operation. I have seen many legacy applications where a complete resultset is brought back to the application and paging has been done. As what you have read earlier, SQL Server 2011 offers a better alternative to an age-old solution. This article has been divided into two parts: Test 1: Performance Comparison of the Two Different Pages on SQL Server 2011 Method In this test, we will analyze the performance of the two different pages where one is at the beginning of the table and the other one is at its end. Test 2: Performance Comparison of the Two Different Pages Using CTE (Earlier Solution from SQL Server 2005/2008) and the New Method of SQL Server 2011 We will explore this in the next article. This article will tackle test 1 first. Test 1: Retrieving Page from two different locations of the table. Run the following T-SQL Script and compare the performance. SET STATISTICS IO ON; USE AdventureWorks2008R2 GO DECLARE @RowsPerPage INT = 10, @PageNumber INT = 5 SELECT * FROM Sales.SalesOrderDetail ORDER BY SalesOrderDetailID OFFSET @PageNumber*@RowsPerPage ROWS FETCH NEXT 10 ROWS ONLY GO USE AdventureWorks2008R2 GO DECLARE @RowsPerPage INT = 10, @PageNumber INT = 12100 SELECT * FROM Sales.SalesOrderDetail ORDER BY SalesOrderDetailID OFFSET @PageNumber*@RowsPerPage ROWS FETCH NEXT 10 ROWS ONLY GO You will notice that when we are reading the page from the beginning of the table, the database pages read are much lower than when the page is read from the end of the table. This is very interesting as when the the OFFSET changes, PAGE IO is increased or decreased. In the normal case of the search engine, people usually read it from the first few pages, which means that IO will be increased as we go further in the higher parts of navigation. I am really impressed because using the new method of SQL Server 2011,  PAGE IO will be much lower when the first few pages are searched in the navigation. Test 2: Retrieving Page from two different locations of the table and comparing to earlier versions. In this test, we will compare the queries of the Test 1 with the earlier solution via Common Table Expression (CTE) which we utilized in SQL Server 2005 and SQL Server 2008. Test 2 A : Page early in the table -- Test with pages early in table USE AdventureWorks2008R2 GO DECLARE @RowsPerPage INT = 10, @PageNumber INT = 5 ;WITH CTE_SalesOrderDetail AS ( SELECT *, ROW_NUMBER() OVER( ORDER BY SalesOrderDetailID) AS RowNumber FROM Sales.SalesOrderDetail PC) SELECT * FROM CTE_SalesOrderDetail WHERE RowNumber >= @PageNumber*@RowsPerPage+1 AND RowNumber <= (@PageNumber+1)*@RowsPerPage ORDER BY SalesOrderDetailID GO SET STATISTICS IO ON; USE AdventureWorks2008R2 GO DECLARE @RowsPerPage INT = 10, @PageNumber INT = 5 SELECT * FROM Sales.SalesOrderDetail ORDER BY SalesOrderDetailID OFFSET @PageNumber*@RowsPerPage ROWS FETCH NEXT 10 ROWS ONLY GO Test 2 B : Page later in the table -- Test with pages later in table USE AdventureWorks2008R2 GO DECLARE @RowsPerPage INT = 10, @PageNumber INT = 12100 ;WITH CTE_SalesOrderDetail AS ( SELECT *, ROW_NUMBER() OVER( ORDER BY SalesOrderDetailID) AS RowNumber FROM Sales.SalesOrderDetail PC) SELECT * FROM CTE_SalesOrderDetail WHERE RowNumber >= @PageNumber*@RowsPerPage+1 AND RowNumber <= (@PageNumber+1)*@RowsPerPage ORDER BY SalesOrderDetailID GO SET STATISTICS IO ON; USE AdventureWorks2008R2 GO DECLARE @RowsPerPage INT = 10, @PageNumber INT = 12100 SELECT * FROM Sales.SalesOrderDetail ORDER BY SalesOrderDetailID OFFSET @PageNumber*@RowsPerPage ROWS FETCH NEXT 10 ROWS ONLY GO From the resultset, it is very clear that in the earlier case, the pages read in the solution are always much higher than the new technique introduced in SQL Server 2011 even if we don’t retrieve all the data to the screen. If you carefully look at both the comparisons, the PAGE IO is much lesser in the case of the new technique introduced in SQL Server 2011 when we read the page from the beginning of the table and when we read it from the end. I consider this as a big improvement as paging is one of the most used features for the most part of the application. The solution introduced in SQL Server 2011 is very elegant because it also improves the performance of the query and, at large, the database. Reference : Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Optimization, SQL Performance, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

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• Add Your Gmail Account to Outlook 2010 Using IMAP

  - by Mysticgeek

  If you’re upgrading from Outlook 2003 to 2010, you might want to use IMAP with your Gmail account to synchronize mail across multiple machines. Using our guide, you will be able to start using it in no time. Enable IMAP in Gmail First log into your Gmail account and open the Settings panel. Click on the Forwarding and POP/IMAP tab and verify IMAP is enabled and save changes. Next open Outlook 2010, click on the File tab to access the Backstage view. Click on Account Settings and Add and remove accounts or change existing connection settings. In the Account Settings window click on the New button. Enter in your name, email address, and password twice then click Next. Outlook will configure the email server settings, the amount of time it takes will vary. Provided everything goes correctly, the configuration will be successful and you can begin using your account. Manually Configure IMAP Settings If the above instructions don’t work, then we’ll need to manually configure the settings. Again, go into Auto Account Setup and select Manually configure server settings or additional server types and click Next.   Select Internet E-mail – Connect to POP or IMAP server to send and receive e-mail messages. Now we need to manually enter in our settings similar to the following. Under the Server Information section verify the following. Account Type: IMAP Incoming mail server: imap.gmail.com Outgoing mail server (SMTP): smtp.gmail.com Note: If you have a Google Apps account make sure to put the full email address ([email protected]) in the Your Name and User Name fields. Note: If you live outside of the US you might need to use imap.googlemail.com and smtp.googlemail.com Next, we need to click on the More Settings button… In the Internet E-mail Settings screen that pops up, click on the Outgoing Server tab, and check the box next to My outgoing server (SMTP) requires authentication. Also select the radio button next to Use same settings as my incoming mail server. In the same window click on the Advanced tab and verify the following. Incoming server: 993 Incoming server encrypted connection: SSL Outgoing server encrypted connection TLS Outgoing server: 587 Note: You will need to change the Outgoing server encrypted connection first, otherwise it will default back to port 25. Also, if TLS doesn’t work, we were able to successfully use Auto. Click OK when finished. Now we want to test the settings, before continuing on…it’s just easier that way incase something was entered incorrectly. To make sure the settings are tested, check the box Test Account Settings by clicking the Next button. If you’ve entered everything in correctly, both tasks will be completed successfully and you can close out of the window. and begin using your account via Outlook 2010. You’ll get a final congratulations message you can close out of… And begin using your account via Outlook 2010. Conclusion Using IMAP allows you to synchronize email across multiple machines and devices. The IMAP feature in Gmail is free to use, and this should get you started using it with Outlook 2010. If you’re still using 2007 or just upgraded to it, check out our guide on how to use Gmail IMAP in Outlook 2007. Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Add Your Gmail To Windows Live MailForce Outlook 2007 to Download Complete IMAP ItemsUse Gmail IMAP in Microsoft Outlook 2007Prevent Outlook with Gmail IMAP from Showing Duplicate Tasks in the To-Do BarSetting up Gmail IMAP Support for Windows Vista Mail 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 VMware Workstation 7 Acronis Online Backup DVDFab 6 Revo Uninstaller Pro Cool Looking Skins for Windows Media Player 12 Move the Mouse Pointer With Your Face Movement Using eViacam Boot Windows Faster With Boot Performance Diagnostics Create Ringtones For Your Android Phone With RingDroid Enhance Your Laptop’s Battery Life With These Tips Easily Search Food Recipes With Recipe Chimp

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• Links to my “Best of 2010” Posts

  - by ScottGu

  I hope everyone is having a Happy New Years! 2010 has been a busy blogging year for me (this is the 100th blog post I’ve done in 2010).  Several people this week suggested I put together a summary post listing/organizing my favorite posts from the year.  Below is a quick listing of some of my favorite posts organized by topic area: VS 2010 and .NET 4 Below is a series of posts I wrote (some in late 2009) about the VS 2010 and .NET 4 (including ASP.NET 4 and WPF 4) release we shipped in April: Visual Studio 2010 and .NET 4 Released Clean Web.Config Files Starter Project Templates Multi-targeting Multiple Monitor Support New Code Focused Web Profile Option HTML / ASP.NET / JavaScript Code Snippets Auto-Start ASP.NET Applications URL Routing with ASP.NET 4 Web Forms Searching and Navigating Code in VS 2010 VS 2010 Code Intellisense Improvements WPF 4 Add Reference Dialog Improvements SEO Improvements with ASP.NET 4 Output Cache Extensibility with ASP.NET 4 Built-in Charting Controls for ASP.NET and Windows Forms Cleaner HTML Markup with ASP.NET 4 - Client IDs Optional Parameters and Named Arguments in C# 4 - and a cool scenarios with ASP.NET MVC 2 Automatic Properties, Collection Initializers and Implicit Line Continuation Support with VB 2010 New <%: %> Syntax for HTML Encoding Output using ASP.NET 4 JavaScript Intellisense Improvements with VS 2010 VS 2010 Debugger Improvements (DataTips, BreakPoints, Import/Export) Box Selection and Multi-line Editing Support with VS 2010 VS 2010 Extension Manager (and the cool new PowerCommands Extension) Pinning Projects and Solutions VS 2010 Web Deployment Debugging Tips/Tricks with Visual Studio Search and Navigation Tips/Tricks with Visual Studio Visual Studio Below are some additional Visual Studio posts I’ve done (not in the first series above) that I thought were nice: Download and Share Visual Studio Color Schemes Visual Studio 2010 Keyboard Shortcuts VS 2010 Productivity Power Tools Fun Visual Studio 2010 Wallpapers Silverlight We shipped Silverlight 4 in April, and announced Silverlight 5 the beginning of December: Silverlight 4 Released Silverlight 4 Tools for VS 2010 and WCF RIA Services Released Silverlight 4 Training Kit Silverlight PivotViewer Now Available Silverlight Questions Announcing Silverlight 5 Silverlight for Windows Phone 7 We shipped Windows Phone 7 this fall and shipped free Visual Studio development tools with great Silverlight and XNA support in September: Windows Phone 7 Developer Tools Released Building a Windows Phone 7 Twitter Application using Silverlight ASP.NET MVC We shipped ASP.NET MVC 2 in March, and started previewing ASP.NET MVC 3 this summer.  ASP.NET MVC 3 will RTM in less than 2 weeks from today: ASP.NET MVC 2: Strongly Typed Html Helpers ASP.NET MVC 2: Model Validation Introducing ASP.NET MVC 3 (Preview 1) Announcing ASP.NET MVC 3 Beta and NuGet (nee NuPack) Announcing ASP.NET MVC 3 Release Candidate 1  Announcing ASP.NET MVC 3 Release Candidate 2 Introducing Razor – A New View Engine for ASP.NET ASP.NET MVC 3: Layouts with Razor ASP.NET MVC 3: New @model keyword in Razor ASP.NET MVC 3: Server-Side Comments with Razor ASP.NET MVC 3: Razor’s @: and <text> syntax ASP.NET MVC 3: Implicit and Explicit code nuggets with Razor ASP.NET MVC 3: Layouts and Sections with Razor IIS and Web Server Stack The IIS and Web Stack teams have made a bunch of great improvements to the core web server this year: Fix Common SEO Problems using the URL Rewrite Extension Introducing the Microsoft Web Farm Framework Automating Deployment with Microsoft Web Deploy Introducing IIS Express SQL CE 4 (New Embedded Database Support with ASP.NET) Introducing Web Matrix EF Code First EF Code First is a really nice new data option that enables a very clean code-oriented data workflow: Announcing Entity Framework Code-First CTP5 Release Class-Level Model Validation with EF Code First and ASP.NET MVC 3 Code-First Development with Entity Framework 4 EF 4 Code First: Custom Database Schema Mapping Using EF Code First with an Existing Database jQuery and AJAX Contributions My team began making some significant source code contributions to the jQuery project this year: jQuery Templates, Data Link and Globalization Accepted as Official jQuery Plugins jQuery Templates and Data Linking (and Microsoft contributing to jQuery) jQuery Globalization Plugin from Microsoft Patches and Hot Fixes Some useful fixes you can download prior to VS 2010 SP1: Patch for Cut/Copy “Insufficient Memory” issue with VS 2010 Patch for VS 2010 Find and Replace Dialog Growing Patch for VS 2010 Scrolling Context Menu Videos of My Talks Some recordings of technical talks I’ve done this year: ASP.NET 4, ASP.NET MVC, and Silverlight 4 Talks I did in Europe VS 2010 and ASP.NET 4 Web Forms Talk in Arizona Other About Technical Debates (and ASP.NET Web Forms and ASP.NET MVC debates in particular) ASP.NET Security Fix Now on Windows Update Upcoming Web Camps I’d like to say a big thank you to everyone who follows my blog – I really appreciate you reading it (the comments you post help encourage me to write it).  See you in the New Year! Scott P.S. In addition to blogging, I am also now using Twitter for quick updates and to share links. Follow me at: twitter.com/scottgu

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• BizTalk and IBM WebSphere MQ Errors

  - by Christopher House

  The project I'm currently working on is going to make heavy use of IBM WebShere MQ to send messages from BizTalk to the client's iSeries box.  I'd never previously worked with WebSphere MQ, so I didn't really have any idea what it would take to get this to work.  I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't too difficult to configure a send port and pass messages through it to a queue.  Or so I thought... A couple of weeks ago, the client gave me the name of a host, queue manager and queue that I'd been using for my development.  Everything was going great, I was able to put messages onto the queue, I was happy, the client was happy.  Life was good.  Then the client tells me that the host I've been connecting to is actually a Solaris box and that in prod, we'll actually be sending to an iSeries.  We both agree that it would behoove us to start pointing my dev environment to their dev iSeries box in order to flush out any weirdness there might be.  As it turns out, it was a good thing we made the change.  As soon as I reconfigured my BRE policy that sets endpoint information to point to the iSeries queue, we started seeing failures in the event log.  An example from the event log: Event Type: Error Event Source: BizTalk Server 2009 Event Category: BizTalk Server 2009 Event ID: 5754 Date:  6/9/2010 Time:  10:16:41 AM User:  N/A Computer: WINDOWS2003 Description: A message sent to adapter "MQSC" on send port "<my dynamic sendport name>" with URI "mqsc://client/tcp/<hostname>(1414)/<queue manager name>/<queue name>" is suspended.  Error details: Failure encountered while attempting to open queue. queue = <queue name> queueManager = <queue manager name>, reasonCode = 6124  MessageId:  {76825C7C-611A-4A56-8A6F-35E1124BDB5C}  InstanceID: {BA389103-DF9B-493F-8C61-44574822AAD6} The key piece of information in the event entry is the reasonCode, 6124.  A quick Google search shows that reasonCode 6124 is the code for MQRC_NOT_CONNECTED.  According to IBM's docs, this means that you've tried to send a message without first opening a connection to the queue manager.  Obviously, in the context of BizTalk, this is an unexpected error, since this sort of thing should be managed entirely by the send adapter. Perusing IBM's documentation a bit more, I came across some info on how to turn on tracing for MQ.  With tracing enabled, I tried sending a message again, then went and reviewed the trace files.  The bulk of the information in the trace files didn't mean a thing to me, but at the end of one of the files, I did notice this: 00006257 15:40:20.327795   3500.4      RSESS:000009 ------{  reqReleaseConn 00006258 15:40:20.328714   3500.4      RSESS:000009 ------}  reqReleaseConn (rc=OK) 00006259 15:40:20.328727   3500.4      RSESS:000009 ------{  xcsClearTraceIdent 0000625A 15:40:20.328739   3500.4           :       ------}  xcsClearTraceIdent (rc=OK) 0000625B 15:40:20.328752   3500.4           :       -----}! trmzstMQCONNX (rc=MQRC_NOT_AUTHORIZED) 0000625C 15:40:20.328765   3500.4           :       ----}! MQCONNX (rc=MQRC_NOT_AUTHORIZED) 0000625D 15:40:20.328766   3500.4           :       ---}! ImqQueueManager::connect (rc=MQRC_NOT_AUTHORIZED) 0000625E 15:40:20.328767   3500.4           :       --}! ImqObject::open (rc=MQRC_NOT_CONNECTED) 0000625F 15:40:20.328768   3500.4           :       --{  ImqQueue::lock 00006260 15:40:20.328769   3500.4           :       --}! ImqQueue::lock (rc=Unknown(1)) 00006261 15:40:20.328769   3500.4           :       --{  ImqQueue::unlock 00006262 15:40:20.328769   3500.4           :       --}! ImqQueue::unlock (rc=Unknown(1)) It seemed like the MQRC_NOT_CONNECTED error was being caused by a security related issue (MQRC_NOT_AUTHORIZED).  I did notice something earlier in the log where it appeared that MQ was passing a field named UID with a value equal to the account name that my BizTalk service was running under.  I ended up creating a new local account on the BizTalk server that had the same name as a user which had access to the queue manager on the iSeries.  I then created a new host instance that ran under this new account, created a send handler for the MQSC adapter on this new host instance and reconfigured my orchestration to run on the new host instance.  After bouncing all my host instances, I was now able to send messages to the iSeries. It's still not clear to me why we were able to connect to the Solaris server.  I ended up contacting IBM's support and they did confirm that the process sending to MQ does in fact pass the identity to the queue manager it's connecting to.

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• Boot From a USB Drive Even if your BIOS Won’t Let You

  - by Trevor Bekolay

  You’ve always got a trusty bootable USB flash drive with you to solve computer problems, but what if a PC’s BIOS won’t let you boot from USB? We’ll show you how to make a CD or floppy disk that will let you boot from your USB drive. This boot menu, like many created before USB drives became cheap and commonplace, does not include an option to boot from a USB drive. A piece of freeware called PLoP Boot Manager solves this problem, offering an image that can burned to a CD or put on a floppy disk, and enables you to boot to a variety of devices, including USB drives. Put PLoP on a CD PLoP comes as a zip file, which includes a variety of files. To put PLoP on a CD, you will need either plpbt.iso or plpbtnoemul.iso from that zip file. Either disc image should work on most computers, though if in doubt plpbtnoemul.iso should work “everywhere,” according to the readme included with PLoP Boot Manager. Burn plpbtnoemul.iso or plpbt.iso to a CD and then skip to the “booting PLoP Boot Manager” section. Put PLoP on a Floppy Disk If your computer is old enough to still have a floppy drive, then you will need to put the contents of the plpbt.img image file found in PLoP’s zip file on a floppy disk. To do this, we’ll use a freeware utility called RawWrite for Windows. We aren’t fortunate enough to have a floppy drive installed, but if you do it should be listed in the Floppy drive drop-down box. Select your floppy drive, then click on the “…” button and browse to plpbt.img. Press the Write button to write PLoP boot manager to your floppy disk. Booting PLoP Boot Manager To boot PLoP, you will need to have your CD or floppy drive boot with higher precedence than your hard drive. In many cases, especially with floppy disks, this is done by default. If the CD or floppy drive is not set to boot first, then you will need to access your BIOS’s boot menu, or the setup menu. The exact steps to do this vary depending on your BIOS – to get a detailed description of the process, search for your motherboard’s manual (or your laptop’s manual if you’re working with a laptop). In general, however, as the computer boots up, some important keyboard strokes are noted somewhere prominent on the screen. In our case, they are at the bottom of the screen. Press Escape to bring up the Boot Menu. Previously, we burned a CD with PLoP Boot Manager on it, so we will select the CD-ROM Drive option and hit Enter. If your BIOS does not have a Boot Menu, then you will need to access the Setup menu and change the boot order to give the floppy disk or CD-ROM Drive higher precedence than the hard drive. Usually this setting is found in the “Boot” or “Advanced” section of the Setup menu. If done correctly, PLoP Boot Manager will load up, giving a number of boot options. Highlight USB and press Enter. PLoP begins loading from the USB drive. Despite our BIOS not having the option, we’re now booting using the USB drive, which in our case holds an Ubuntu Live CD! This is a pretty geeky way to get your PC to boot from a USB…provided your computer still has a floppy drive. Of course if your BIOS won’t boot from a USB it probably has one…or you really need to update it. Download PLoP Boot Manager Download RawWrite for Windows Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Create a Bootable Ubuntu 9.10 USB Flash DriveReinstall Ubuntu Grub Bootloader After Windows Wipes it OutCreate a Bootable Ubuntu USB Flash Drive the Easy WayBuilding a New Computer – Part 3: Setting it UpInstall Windows XP on Your Pre-Installed Windows Vista Computer 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 Office 2010 reviewed in depth by Ed Bott FoxClocks adds World Times in your Statusbar (Firefox) Have Fun Editing Photo Editing with Citrify Outlook Connector Upgrade Error Gadfly is a cool Twitter/Silverlight app Enable DreamScene in Windows 7

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• Raspberry Pi entrance signed backed by Umbraco - Part 1

  - by Chris Houston

  Being experts on all things Umbraco, we jumped at the chance to help our client, QV Offices, with their pressing signage predicament. They needed to display a sign in the entrance to their building and approached us for our advice. Of course it had to be electronic: displaying multiple names of their serviced office clients, meeting room bookings and on-the-pulse promotions. But with a winding Victorian staircase and minimal storage space how could the monitor be run, updated and managed? That’s where we came in…Raspberry PiUmbraco CMSAutomatic updatesAutomated monitor of the signPower saving when the screen is not in useMounting the screenThe screen that has been used is a standard LED low energy Full HD screen and has been mounted on the wall using it's VESA mounting points, as the wall is a stud wall we were able to add an access panel behind the screen to feed through the mains, HDMI and sensor cables.The Raspberry Pi is then tucked away out of sight in the main electrical cupboard which just happens to be next to the sign, we had an electrician add a power point inside this cupboard to allow us to power the screen and the Raspberry Pi.Designing the interface and editing the contentAlthough a room sign was the initial requirement from QV Offices, their medium term goal has always been to add online meeting booking to their website and hence we suggested adding information about the current and next day's meetings to the sign that would be pulled directly from their online booking system.We produced the design and built the web page to fit exactly on a 1920 x 1080 screen (Full HD in Portrait)As you would expect all the information can be edited via an Umbraco CMS, they are able to add floors, rooms, clients and virtual clients as well as add meeting bookings to their meeting diary.How we configured the Raspberry PiAfter receiving a new Raspberry Pi we downloaded the latest release of Raspbian operating system and followed the official guide which shows how to copy the OS onto an SD card from a Mac, we then followed the majority of steps on this useful guide: 10 Things to Do After Buying a Raspberry Pi.Installing ChromiumWe chose to use the Chromium web browser which for those who do not know is the open sourced version of Google Chrome. You can install this from the terminal with the following command:sudo apt-get install chromium-browserInstalling UnclutterWe found this little application which automatically hides the mouse pointer, it is used in the script below and is installed using the following command:sudo apt-get install unclutterAuto start Chromium and disabling the screen saver, power saving and mouseWhen the Raspberry Pi has been installed it will not have a keyboard or mouse and hence if their was a power cut we needed it to always boot and re-loaded Chromium with the correct URL.Our preferred command line text editor is Nano and I have assumed you know how to use this editor or will be able to work it out pretty quickly.So using the following command:sudo nano /etc/xdg/lxsession/LXDE/autostartWe then changed the autostart file content to:@lxpanel --profile LXDE@pcmanfm --desktop --profile LXDE@xscreensaver -no-splash@xset s off@xset -dpms@xset s noblank@chromium --kiosk --incognito http://www.qvoffices.com/someURL@unclutter -idle 0The first few commands turn off the screen saver and power saving, we then open Cromium in Kiosk Mode (full screen with no menu etc) and pass in the URL to use (I have changed the URL in this example) We found a useful blog post with the Cromium command line switches.Finally we also open an application called Unclutter which auto hides the mouse after 0 seconds, so you will never see a mouse on the sign.We also had to edit the following file:sudo nano /etc/lightdm/lightdm.confAnd added the following line under the [SeatDefault] section:xserver-command=X -s 0 dpmsRefreshing the screenWe decided to try and add a scheduled task that would trigger Chromium to reload the page, at some point in the future we might well change this to using Javascript to update the content, but for now this works fine.First we installed the XDOTool which enables you to script Keyboard commands:sudo apt-get install xdotoolWe used the Refreshing Chromium Browser by Shell Script post as a reference and created the following shell script (which we called refreshing.sh):export DISPLAY=":0"WID=$(xdotool search --onlyvisible --class chromium|head -1)xdotool windowactivate ${WID}xdotool key ctrl+F5This selects the correct display and then sends a CTRL + F5 to refresh Chromium.You will need to give this file execute permissions:chmod a=rwx refreshing.shNow we have the script file setup we just need to schedule it to call this script periodically which is done by using Crontab, to edit this you use the following command:crontab -eAnd we added the following:*/5 * * * * DISPLAY=":.0" /home/pi/scripts/refreshing.sh >/home/pi/cronlog.log 2>&1This calls our script every 5 minutes to refresh the display and it logs any errors to the cronlog.log file.SummaryQV Offices now have a richer and more manageable booking system than they did before we started, and a great new sign to boot.How could we make sure that the sign was running smoothly downstairs in a busy office centre? A second post will follow outlining exactly how Vizioz enabled QV Offices to monitor their sign simply and remotely, from the comfort of their desks.

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