Search Results

Search found 22945 results on 918 pages for 'going green'.

Page 61/918 | < Previous Page | 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68  | Next Page >

  • How do I change file protections running XP on a disk from Windows Server?

    - by cdkMoose
    I had a Windows Server 2003 machine running at home, along with my desktop which I use for development. Server went belly up, but since my desktop is reasonably powerful, I figured I would move the disk from the file server (it was OK) into my XP machine to keep all of the files. Disk comes up fine and shows all of the files. I have been getting access denied errors when trying to work with some of the files. When I display attributes in Explorer, none of them are marked Read-Only. When I view properties on the directories, the Read-Only checkbox is not checked, but has a green background(which I thought meant mixed usage for files in the directory). When I click on the checkbox to clear it and click Apply, the disk does some work and all looks well. However, I continue to get the Access Denied errors, the files still don't show any Read-Only attribute and the directory properties shows the green background again on the Read-Only checkbox. I did check the box which says to apply the change to the folder and all files /subfilders under it. I am assuming that the issue relates to userids/permissions carried over from the Server install. So, why does it let me think I can change the attribute when I can't and how can I correct this problem so that the disk correctly recognizes the ids from XP?

    Read the article

  • Western Digital HDD disappears and reappears in BIOS

    - by tbkn23
    I know many people asked about similar problems, but I have a very specific case where I can't understand what's going on... I have a 3TB Western Digital Caviar Green disk connected in my Desktop, that also has a seagate 1.5TB disk and 2 SSD drives (OCZ and Sandisk). After working fine for quite some time (probably more than a year), suddenly my Caviar Green drive disappeared from windows. I checked the BIOS, and it wasn't there either. I opened my PC, played with the connectors, power, etc, but nothing helped. Even tried switching connectors with those of the 1.5TB disk, and nothing changed, the 1.5TB seagate was there, but the 3TB WD was not. Ok, now for the strange part. I have another desktop at home, so I took out my 3TB drive, connected it there, and it worked fine! I copied the most important files out of it, and then made another attempt in the original desktop. Surprise! It now appeared in the BIOS and worked fine! I even ran the SMART test with the WD tools and it said everything was intact. It doesn't end here. After leaving it overnight in the original desktop, it disappeared again in the morning. I repeated the entire process, connecting it to the second desktop, and there it is again working fine. Now for my question... Whats going on? The disk seems to be appearing on/off in my original Desktop, while other drives there work fine. SMART test says the disk is fine. Any ideas? Is the disk defective and should be replaced? Or maybe there's a problem with the controller in the desktop? I'm using a Gigabyte GA-880GA-UD3H motherboard and tried connecting the drive to both bridges (SATA2 and SATA3 bridges). Thanks EDIT: Power options are set never to turn off hard drives:

    Read the article

  • Can a cur file have an alpha map (for high quality transparency)?

    - by Codemonkey
    I want to convert this Heroes of Newerth cursor into a cur file so I can use it as a cursor on windows and on my website. The cursor is now in a PNG file with an alpha map, and I have so far been unsuccessful in converting it to a cur file. The things I've tried is using the Photoshop cursor plugin to simply save the png as a cur. The result was a working cur file with a white background instead of a transparent one. I've also tried painting the background pure green (0, 255, 0) and saving as a cur file, in which case the background was still green when I tried using it as a windows cursor. I've also tried what's been mentioned in a few tutorials, which is selecting the area I want transparent and saving the selection in Photoshop (it then ends up as a new channel). So I selected the cursor and inverted the selection and saved it. The result was a bit odd. Instead of a transparent background, I now get a background that inverts the colours behind it, just like the "Windows inverted" mouse scheme. So is there any way to accomplish what I'm trying to do?

    Read the article

  • mac, netbeans 6.8, c++, sdl, opengl: compilation problems

    - by ufk
    Hiya. I'm trying to properly compile a c++ opengl+sdl application using netbeans 6.8 under Snow Leopard 64-bit. I have libSDL 1.2.14 installed using macports. The script that I try to compile is the following: #ifdef WIN32 #define WIN32_LEAN_AND_MEAN #include <windows.h> #endif #if defined(__APPLE__) && defined(__MACH__) #include <OpenGL/gl.h> // Header File For The OpenGL32 Library #include <OpenGL/glu.h> // Header File For The GLu32 Library #else #include <GL/gl.h> // Header File For The OpenGL32 Library #include <GL/glu.h> // Header File For The GLu32 Library #endif #include "sdl/SDL.h" #include <stdio.h> #include <unistd.h> #include "SDL/SDL_main.h" SDL_Surface *screen=NULL; GLfloat rtri; // Angle For The Triangle ( NEW ) GLfloat rquad; // Angle For The Quad ( NEW ) void InitGL(int Width, int Height) // We call this right after our OpenGL window is created. { glViewport(0, 0, Width, Height); glClearColor(0.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f); // This Will Clear The Background Color To Black glClearDepth(1.0); // Enables Clearing Of The Depth Buffer glDepthFunc(GL_LESS); // The Type Of Depth Test To Do glEnable(GL_DEPTH_TEST); // Enables Depth Testing glShadeModel(GL_SMOOTH); // Enables Smooth Color Shading glMatrixMode(GL_PROJECTION); glLoadIdentity(); // Reset The Projection Matrix gluPerspective(45.0f,(GLfloat)Width/(GLfloat)Height,0.1f,100.0f); // Calculate The Aspect Ratio Of The Window glMatrixMode(GL_MODELVIEW); } /* The main drawing function. */ int DrawGLScene() { glClear(GL_COLOR_BUFFER_BIT | GL_DEPTH_BUFFER_BIT); // Clear The Screen And The Depth Buffer glLoadIdentity(); // Reset The View glTranslatef(-1.5f,0.0f,-6.0f); // Move Left 1.5 Units And Into The Screen 6.0 glRotatef(rtri,0.0f,1.0f,0.0f); // Rotate The Triangle On The Y axis ( NEW ) // draw a triangle glBegin(GL_TRIANGLES); // Begin Drawing Triangles glColor3f(1.0f,0.0f,0.0f); // Red glVertex3f( 0.0f, 1.0f, 0.0f); // Top Of Triangle (Front) glColor3f(0.0f,1.0f,0.0f); // Green glVertex3f(-1.0f,-1.0f, 1.0f); // Left Of Triangle (Front) glColor3f(0.0f,0.0f,1.0f); // Blue glVertex3f( 1.0f,-1.0f, 1.0f); // Right Of Triangle (Front) glColor3f(1.0f,0.0f,0.0f); // Red glVertex3f( 0.0f, 1.0f, 0.0f); // Top Of Triangle (Right) glColor3f(0.0f,0.0f,1.0f); // Blue glVertex3f( 1.0f,-1.0f, 1.0f); // Left Of Triangle (Right) glColor3f(0.0f,1.0f,0.0f); // Green glVertex3f( 1.0f,-1.0f, -1.0f); // Right Of Triangle (Right) glColor3f(1.0f,0.0f,0.0f); // Red glVertex3f( 0.0f, 1.0f, 0.0f); // Top Of Triangle (Back) glColor3f(0.0f,1.0f,0.0f); // Green glVertex3f( 1.0f,-1.0f, -1.0f); // Left Of Triangle (Back) glColor3f(0.0f,0.0f,1.0f); // Blue glVertex3f(-1.0f,-1.0f, -1.0f); // Right Of Triangle (Back) glColor3f(1.0f,0.0f,0.0f); // Red glVertex3f( 0.0f, 1.0f, 0.0f); // Top Of Triangle (Left) glColor3f(0.0f,0.0f,1.0f); // Blue glVertex3f(-1.0f,-1.0f,-1.0f); // Left Of Triangle (Left) glColor3f(0.0f,1.0f,0.0f); // Green glVertex3f(-1.0f,-1.0f, 1.0f); // Right Of Triangle (Left) glEnd(); glLoadIdentity(); // Reset The Current Modelview Matrix glTranslatef(1.5f,0.0f,-7.0f); // Move Right 1.5 Units And Into The Screen 6.0 glRotatef(rquad,1.0f,0.0f,0.0f); // Rotate The Quad On The X axis ( NEW ) glBegin(GL_QUADS); // Start Drawing Quads glColor3f(0.0f,1.0f,0.0f); // Set The Color To Green glVertex3f( 1.0f, 1.0f,-1.0f); // Top Right Of The Quad (Top) glVertex3f(-1.0f, 1.0f,-1.0f); // Top Left Of The Quad (Top) glVertex3f(-1.0f, 1.0f, 1.0f); // Bottom Left Of The Quad (Top) glVertex3f( 1.0f, 1.0f, 1.0f); // Bottom Right Of The Quad (Top) glColor3f(1.0f,0.5f,0.0f); // Set The Color To Orange glVertex3f( 1.0f,-1.0f, 1.0f); // Top Right Of The Quad (Bottom) glVertex3f(-1.0f,-1.0f, 1.0f); // Top Left Of The Quad (Bottom) glVertex3f(-1.0f,-1.0f,-1.0f); // Bottom Left Of The Quad (Bottom) glVertex3f( 1.0f,-1.0f,-1.0f); // Bottom Right Of The Quad (Bottom) glColor3f(1.0f,0.0f,0.0f); // Set The Color To Red glVertex3f( 1.0f, 1.0f, 1.0f); // Top Right Of The Quad (Front) glVertex3f(-1.0f, 1.0f, 1.0f); // Top Left Of The Quad (Front) glVertex3f(-1.0f,-1.0f, 1.0f); // Bottom Left Of The Quad (Front) glVertex3f( 1.0f,-1.0f, 1.0f); // Bottom Right Of The Quad (Front) glColor3f(1.0f,1.0f,0.0f); // Set The Color To Yellow glVertex3f( 1.0f,-1.0f,-1.0f); // Bottom Left Of The Quad (Back) glVertex3f(-1.0f,-1.0f,-1.0f); // Bottom Right Of The Quad (Back) glVertex3f(-1.0f, 1.0f,-1.0f); // Top Right Of The Quad (Back) glVertex3f( 1.0f, 1.0f,-1.0f); // Top Left Of The Quad (Back) glColor3f(0.0f,0.0f,1.0f); // Set The Color To Blue glVertex3f(-1.0f, 1.0f, 1.0f); // Top Right Of The Quad (Left) glVertex3f(-1.0f, 1.0f,-1.0f); // Top Left Of The Quad (Left) glVertex3f(-1.0f,-1.0f,-1.0f); // Bottom Left Of The Quad (Left) glVertex3f(-1.0f,-1.0f, 1.0f); // Bottom Right Of The Quad (Left) glColor3f(1.0f,0.0f,1.0f); // Set The Color To Violet glVertex3f( 1.0f, 1.0f,-1.0f); // Top Right Of The Quad (Right) glVertex3f( 1.0f, 1.0f, 1.0f); // Top Left Of The Quad (Right) glVertex3f( 1.0f,-1.0f, 1.0f); // Bottom Left Of The Quad (Right) glVertex3f( 1.0f,-1.0f,-1.0f); // Bottom Right Of The Quad (Right) glEnd(); // Done Drawing A Quad rtri+=0.02f; // Increase The Rotation Variable For The Triangle ( NEW ) rquad-=0.015f; // Decrease The Rotation Variable For The Quad ( NEW ) // swap buffers to display, since we're double buffered. SDL_GL_SwapBuffers(); return true; } int main(int argc,char* argv[]) { int done; /*variable to hold the file name of the image to be loaded *In real world error handling code would precede this */ /* Initialize SDL for video output */ if ( SDL_Init(SDL_INIT_VIDEO) < 0 ) { fprintf(stderr, "Unable to initialize SDL: %s\n", SDL_GetError()); exit(1); } atexit(SDL_Quit); /* Create a 640x480 OpenGL screen */ if ( SDL_SetVideoMode(640, 480, 0, SDL_OPENGL) == NULL ) { fprintf(stderr, "Unable to create OpenGL screen: %s\n", SDL_GetError()); SDL_Quit(); exit(2); } SDL_WM_SetCaption("another example",NULL); InitGL(640,480); done=0; while (! done) { DrawGLScene(); SDL_Event event; while ( SDL_PollEvent(&event) ) { if ( event.type == SDL_QUIT ) { done = 1; } if ( event.type == SDL_KEYDOWN ) { if ( event.key.keysym.sym == SDLK_ESCAPE ) { done = 1; } } } } } Under netbeans project properties I configured the following: C++ Compiler: added /usr/X11/include and /opt/local/include to the include directories. Linker: I added the following libraries: /usr/X11/lib/libGL.dylib /usr/X11/lib/libGLU.dylib /opt/local/lib/libSDL.dylib /opt/local/lib/libSDLmain.a Now... before I included SDL_main.h and libSDLMain.a to the project I got an error unknown reference to _main then I read here: http://www.libsdl.org/faq.php?action=listentries&category=7#55 that I need to include SDL_Main.h and to link libSDLMain.so to my project. after doing so, the project still won't compile. this is the Netbeans output: /usr/bin/make -f nbproject/Makefile-Debug.mk SUBPROJECTS= .clean-conf rm -f -r build/Debug rm -f dist/Debug/GNU-MacOSX/opengl2 CLEAN SUCCESSFUL (total time: 79ms) /usr/bin/make -f nbproject/Makefile-Debug.mk SUBPROJECTS= .build-conf /usr/bin/make -f nbproject/Makefile-Debug.mk dist/Debug/GNU-MacOSX/opengl2 mkdir -p build/Debug/GNU-MacOSX rm -f build/Debug/GNU-MacOSX/main.o.d g++ -c -g -I/usr/X11/include -I/opt/local/include -MMD -MP -MF build/Debug/GNU-MacOSX/main.o.d -o build/Debug/GNU-MacOSX/main.o main.cpp mkdir -p dist/Debug/GNU-MacOSX g++ -o dist/Debug/GNU-MacOSX/opengl2 build/Debug/GNU-MacOSX/main.o /opt/local/lib/libIL.dylib /opt/local/lib/libILU.dylib /opt/local/lib/libILUT.dylib /usr/X11/lib/libGL.dylib /usr/X11/lib/libGLU.dylib /opt/local/lib/libSDL.dylib /opt/local/lib/libSDLmain.a Undefined symbols: "_OBJC_CLASS_$_NSMenu", referenced from: __objc_classrefs__DATA@0 in libSDLmain.a(SDLMain.o) "__objc_empty_cache", referenced from: _OBJC_METACLASS_$_SDLMain in libSDLmain.a(SDLMain.o) _OBJC_CLASS_$_SDLMain in libSDLmain.a(SDLMain.o) "_CFBundleGetMainBundle", referenced from: -[SDLMain setupWorkingDirectory:] in libSDLmain.a(SDLMain.o) _main in libSDLmain.a(SDLMain.o) "_CFURLGetFileSystemRepresentation", referenced from: -[SDLMain setupWorkingDirectory:] in libSDLmain.a(SDLMain.o) "_NSApp", referenced from: _main in libSDLmain.a(SDLMain.o) _main in libSDLmain.a(SDLMain.o) _main in libSDLmain.a(SDLMain.o) _main in libSDLmain.a(SDLMain.o) _main in libSDLmain.a(SDLMain.o) _main in libSDLmain.a(SDLMain.o) _main in libSDLmain.a(SDLMain.o) "_OBJC_CLASS_$_NSProcessInfo", referenced from: __objc_classrefs__DATA@0 in libSDLmain.a(SDLMain.o) "_CFURLCreateCopyDeletingLastPathComponent", referenced from: -[SDLMain setupWorkingDirectory:] in libSDLmain.a(SDLMain.o) "_NSAllocateMemoryPages", referenced from: -[NSString(ReplaceSubString) stringByReplacingRange:with:] in libSDLmain.a(SDLMain.o) "___CFConstantStringClassReference", referenced from: cfstring=CFBundleName in libSDLmain.a(SDLMain.o) cfstring= in libSDLmain.a(SDLMain.o) cfstring=About in libSDLmain.a(SDLMain.o) cfstring=Hide in libSDLmain.a(SDLMain.o) cfstring=h in libSDLmain.a(SDLMain.o) cfstring=Hide Others in libSDLmain.a(SDLMain.o) cfstring=Show All in libSDLmain.a(SDLMain.o) cfstring=Quit in libSDLmain.a(SDLMain.o) cfstring=q in libSDLmain.a(SDLMain.o) cfstring=Window in libSDLmain.a(SDLMain.o) cfstring=m in libSDLmain.a(SDLMain.o) cfstring=Minimize in libSDLmain.a(SDLMain.o) "_OBJC_CLASS_$_NSAutoreleasePool", referenced from: __objc_classrefs__DATA@0 in libSDLmain.a(SDLMain.o) "_CPSEnableForegroundOperation", referenced from: _main in libSDLmain.a(SDLMain.o) "_CPSGetCurrentProcess", referenced from: _main in libSDLmain.a(SDLMain.o) "_CFBundleCopyBundleURL", referenced from: -[SDLMain setupWorkingDirectory:] in libSDLmain.a(SDLMain.o) "_NSDeallocateMemoryPages", referenced from: -[NSString(ReplaceSubString) stringByReplacingRange:with:] in libSDLmain.a(SDLMain.o) "_OBJC_CLASS_$_NSApplication", referenced from: l_OBJC_$_CATEGORY_NSApplication_$_SDLApplication in libSDLmain.a(SDLMain.o) __objc_classrefs__DATA@0 in libSDLmain.a(SDLMain.o) "_CPSSetFrontProcess", referenced from: _main in libSDLmain.a(SDLMain.o) "_OBJC_CLASS_$_NSString", referenced from: l_OBJC_$_CATEGORY_NSString_$_ReplaceSubString in libSDLmain.a(SDLMain.o) __objc_classrefs__DATA@0 in libSDLmain.a(SDLMain.o) "_OBJC_CLASS_$_NSObject", referenced from: _OBJC_CLASS_$_SDLMain in libSDLmain.a(SDLMain.o) "_CFBundleGetInfoDictionary", referenced from: _main in libSDLmain.a(SDLMain.o) "_CFRelease", referenced from: -[SDLMain setupWorkingDirectory:] in libSDLmain.a(SDLMain.o) -[SDLMain setupWorkingDirectory:] in libSDLmain.a(SDLMain.o) "__objc_empty_vtable", referenced from: _OBJC_METACLASS_$_SDLMain in libSDLmain.a(SDLMain.o) _OBJC_CLASS_$_SDLMain in libSDLmain.a(SDLMain.o) "_OBJC_CLASS_$_NSMenuItem", referenced from: __objc_classrefs__DATA@0 in libSDLmain.a(SDLMain.o) "_objc_msgSend", referenced from: -[SDLMain application:openFile:] in libSDLmain.a(SDLMain.o) -[SDLMain applicationDidFinishLaunching:] in libSDLmain.a(SDLMain.o) -[NSString(ReplaceSubString) stringByReplacingRange:with:] in libSDLmain.a(SDLMain.o) -[NSString(ReplaceSubString) stringByReplacingRange:with:] in libSDLmain.a(SDLMain.o) -[NSString(ReplaceSubString) stringByReplacingRange:with:] in libSDLmain.a(SDLMain.o) -[NSString(ReplaceSubString) stringByReplacingRange:with:] in libSDLmain.a(SDLMain.o) _main in libSDLmain.a(SDLMain.o) _main in libSDLmain.a(SDLMain.o) _main in libSDLmain.a(SDLMain.o) _main in libSDLmain.a(SDLMain.o) _main in libSDLmain.a(SDLMain.o) _main in libSDLmain.a(SDLMain.o) _main in libSDLmain.a(SDLMain.o) _main in libSDLmain.a(SDLMain.o) _main in libSDLmain.a(SDLMain.o) _main in libSDLmain.a(SDLMain.o) _main in libSDLmain.a(SDLMain.o) _main in libSDLmain.a(SDLMain.o) _main in libSDLmain.a(SDLMain.o) _main in libSDLmain.a(SDLMain.o) _main in libSDLmain.a(SDLMain.o) _main in libSDLmain.a(SDLMain.o) _main in libSDLmain.a(SDLMain.o) _main in libSDLmain.a(SDLMain.o) _main in libSDLmain.a(SDLMain.o) _main in libSDLmain.a(SDLMain.o) _main in libSDLmain.a(SDLMain.o) _main in libSDLmain.a(SDLMain.o) _main in libSDLmain.a(SDLMain.o) _main in libSDLmain.a(SDLMain.o) _main in libSDLmain.a(SDLMain.o) _main in libSDLmain.a(SDLMain.o) _main in libSDLmain.a(SDLMain.o) _main in libSDLmain.a(SDLMain.o) _main in libSDLmain.a(SDLMain.o) _main in libSDLmain.a(SDLMain.o) _main in libSDLmain.a(SDLMain.o) _main in libSDLmain.a(SDLMain.o) _main in libSDLmain.a(SDLMain.o) _main in libSDLmain.a(SDLMain.o) _main in libSDLmain.a(SDLMain.o) _main in libSDLmain.a(SDLMain.o) _main in libSDLmain.a(SDLMain.o) "_OBJC_METACLASS_$_NSObject", referenced from: _OBJC_METACLASS_$_SDLMain in libSDLmain.a(SDLMain.o) _OBJC_METACLASS_$_SDLMain in libSDLmain.a(SDLMain.o) "_objc_msgSend_fixup", referenced from: l_objc_msgSend_fixup_objectForKey_ in libSDLmain.a(SDLMain.o) l_objc_msgSend_fixup_length in libSDLmain.a(SDLMain.o) l_objc_msgSend_fixup_alloc in libSDLmain.a(SDLMain.o) l_objc_msgSend_fixup_release in libSDLmain.a(SDLMain.o) ld: symbol(s) not found collect2: ld returned 1 exit status make[2]: *** [dist/Debug/GNU-MacOSX/opengl2] Error 1 make[1]: *** [.build-conf] Error 2 make: *** [.build-impl] Error 2 BUILD FAILED (exit value 2, total time: 263ms) any ideas? thanks a lot!

    Read the article

  • Using DEBUG Mode in Oracle SQL Developer to Log SQL

    - by thatjeffsmith
    Curious how we’re getting the data you see in SQL Developer when you click on something? While many of the dialogs provide a ‘SQL’ panel that shows you the SQL ABOUT to be generated, I’d rather see the SQL AS it’s executed. True, you could set a TRACE or fire up a Monitor Sessions report, but both of those solutions leave me hungry for more. Did you know that SQL Developer has a ‘debug’ mode? It slows the tool down a bit and spits out a lot of information you don’t care about, but it ALSO shows you ALL the SQL that is sent to the database, as you click around the tool! See ALL the SQL that SQL Developer sends to the database on your behalf Enable DEBUG Mode When you see the splash screen as SQL Developer fires up, frantically hit Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, SELECT, Start. Wait, wrong game. No, all you need to do is go to your SQL Developer directory and navigate down to the ‘bin’ directory. In that directory, find the ‘sqldeveloper.conf’ file. Install Directory - sqldeveloper - bin - sqldeveloper.conf Open it with a text editor. Find this line IncludeConfFile sqldeveloper-nondebug.conf And replace it with this line IncludeConfFile sqldeveloper-debug.conf Save the file. Start up SQL Developer. Observe the Logging Page – Log Panel for the SQL There’s going to be more than just SQL here. You’ll actually see a LOT of other information. If you’re having general problems with the tool and you want to see the nitty-gritty of what’s going on, then this is a good place to satisfy your curiosity and might help us diagnose your issue if you post to the forums or open a ticket with My Oracle Support. You’ll find ‘INFO’ entries that look a little something like this - This is the query used to populate your Tables list in the connection tree. You can double-click on the sql text and get a pop-up window that’s much easier to read. See all that typing we’re saving you? I don’t recommend running in DEBUG mode all the time. Capturing this information and displaying it is more expensive than not doing so. And it provides a lot of information you don’t normally need to see. But when you DO want to know what’s going on and why, this is an excellent way of getting that information. When you’re ready to go back to ‘normal’ mode, just close SQL Developer, go back to your .conf file, and add the ‘nondebug’ bit back.

    Read the article

  • The Business case for Big Data

    - by jasonw
    The Business Case for Big Data Part 1 What's the Big Deal Okay, so a new buzz word is emerging. It's gone beyond just a buzzword now, and I think it is going to change the landscape of retail, financial services, healthcare....everything. Let me spend a moment to talk about what i'm going to talk about. Massive amounts of data are being collected every second, more than ever imaginable, and the size of this data is more than can be practically managed by today’s current strategies and technologies. There is a revolution at hand centering on this groundswell of data and it will change how we execute our businesses through greater efficiencies, new revenue discovery and even enable innovation. It is the revolution of Big Data. This is more than just a new buzzword is being tossed around technology circles.This blog series for Big Data will explain this new wave of technology and provide a roadmap for businesses to take advantage of this growing trend. Cases for Big Data There is a growing list of use cases for big data. We naturally think of Marketing as the low hanging fruit. Many projects look to analyze twitter feeds to find new ways to do marketing. I think of a great example from a TED speech that I recently saw on data visualization from Facebook from my masters studies at University of Virginia. We can see when the most likely time for breaks-ups occurs by looking at status changes and updates on users Walls. This is the intersection of Big Data, Analytics and traditional structured data. Ted Video Marketers can use this to sell more stuff. I really like the following piece on looking at twitter feeds to measure mood. The following company was bought by a hedge fund. They could predict how the S&P was going to do within three days at an 85% accuracy. Link to the article Here we see a convergence of predictive analytics and Big Data. So, we'll look at a lot of these business cases and start talking about what this means for the business. It's more than just finding ways to use Hadoop + NoSql and we'll talk about that too. How do I start in Big Data? That's what is coming next post.

    Read the article

  • The Challenge with HTML5 – In Pictures

    - by dwahlin
    I love working with Web technologies and am looking forward to the new functionality that HTML5 will ultimately bring to the table (some of which can be used today). Having been through the div versus layer battle back in the IE4 and Netscape 4 days I think we’re headed down that road again as a result of browsers implementing features differently. I’ve been spending a lot of time researching and playing around with HTML5 samples and features (mainly because we’re already seeing demand for training on HTML5) and there’s a lot of great stuff there that will truly revolutionize web applications as we know them. However, browsers just aren’t there yet and many people outside of the development world don’t really feel a need to upgrade their browser if it’s working reasonably well (Mom and Dad come to mind) so it’s going to be awhile. There’s a nice test site at http://www.HTML5Test.com that runs through different HTML5 features and scores how well they’re supported. They don’t test for everything and are very clear about that on the site: “The HTML5 test score is only an indication of how well your browser supports the upcoming HTML5 standard and related specifications. It does not try to test all of the new features offered by HTML5, nor does it try to test the functionality of each feature it does detect. Despite these shortcomings we hope that by quantifying the level of support users and web developers will get an idea of how hard the browser manufacturers work on improving their browsers and the web as a development platform. The score is calculated by testing for the many new features of HTML5. Each feature is worth one or more points. Apart from the main HTML5 specification and other specifications created the W3C HTML Working Group, this test also awards points for supporting related drafts and specifications. Some of these specifications were initially part of HTML5, but are now further developed by other W3C working groups. WebGL is also part of this test despite not being developed by the W3C, because it extends the HTML5 canvas element with a 3d context. The test also awards bonus points for supporting audio and video codecs and supporting SVG or MathML embedding in a plain HTML document. These test do not count towards the total score because HTML5 does not specify any required audio or video codec. Also SVG and MathML are not required by HTML5, the specification only specifies rules for how such content should be embedded inside a plain HTML file. Please be aware that the specifications that are being tested are still in development and could change before receiving an official status. In the future new tests will be added for the pieces of the specification that are currently still missing. The maximum number of points that can be scored is 300 at this moment, but this is a moving goalpost.” It looks like their tests haven’t been updated since June, but the numbers are pretty scary as a developer because it means I’m going to have to do a lot of browser sniffing before assuming a particular feature is available to use. Not that much different from what we do today as far as browser sniffing you say? I’d have to disagree since HTML5 takes it to a whole new level. In today’s world we have script libraries such as jQuery (my personal favorite), Prototype, script.aculo.us, YUI Library, MooTools, etc. that handle the heavy lifting for us. Until those libraries handle all of the key HTML5 features available it’s going to be a challenge. Certain features such as Canvas are supported fairly well across most of the major browsers while other features such as audio and video are hit or miss depending upon what codec you want to use. Run the tests yourself to see what passes and what fails for different browsers. You can also view the HTML5 Test Suite Conformance Results at http://test.w3.org/html/tests/reporting/report.htm (a work in progress). The table below lists the scores that the HTML5Test site returned for different browsers I have installed on my desktop PC and laptop. A specific list of tests run and features supported are given when you go to the site. Note that I went ahead and tested the IE9 beta and it didn’t do nearly as good as I expected it would, but it’s not officially out yet so I expect that number will change a lot. Am I opposed to HTML5 as a result of these tests? Of course not - I’m actually really excited about what it offers.  However, I’m trying to be realistic and feel it'll definitely add a new level of headache to the Web application development process having been through something like this many years ago. On the flipside, developers that are able to target a specific browser (typically Intranet apps) or master the cross-browser issues are going to release some pretty sweet applications. Check out http://html5gallery.com/ for a look at some of the more cutting-edge sites out there that use HTML5. Also check out the http://www.beautyoftheweb.com site that Microsoft put together to showcase IE9. Chrome 8 Safari 5 for Windows     Opera 10 Firefox 3.6     Internet Explorer 9 Beta (Note that it’s still beta) Internet Explorer 8

    Read the article

  • XNA Notes 006

    - by George Clingerman
    If you used to think the XNA community was small and inactive, hopefully these XNA Notes are opening your eyes. And I honestly feel like I’m still only catching the tail end of everything that’s going on. It’s a large and active community and you can be so mired down in one part of it you miss all sorts of cool stuff another part is doing. XNA is many things to a lot of people and that makes for a lot of really awesome things going on. So here’s what I saw going on this last week! Time Critical XNA New: XNA Team - Peer Review now closes for XNA 3.1 games http://blogs.msdn.com/b/xna/archive/2011/02/08/peer-review-pipeline-closed-for-new-xna-gs-3-1-games-or-updates-on-app-hub.aspx http://twitter.com/XNACommunity/statuses/34649816529256448 The XNA Team posts about a meet up with Microsoft for Creator’s going to be at GDC, March 3rd at the Lobby Bar http://on.fb.me/fZungJ XNA Team: @mklucher is busying playing the the bubblegum on WP7 made by a member of the XNA team (although reportedly made in Silverlight? Crazy! ;) ) http://twitter.com/mklucher/statuses/34645662737895426 http://bubblegum.me Shawn Hargreaves posts multiple posts (is this a sign that something new is coming from the XNA team? Usually when Shawn has time to post, something has just wrapped up…) Random Shuffle http://blogs.msdn.com/b/shawnhar/archive/2011/02/09/random-shuffle.aspx Doing the right thing: resume, rewind or skip ahead http://blogs.msdn.com/b/shawnhar/archive/2011/02/10/doing-the-right-thing-resume-rewind-or-skip-ahead.aspx XNA Developers: Andrew Russel was on .NET Rocks recently talking with Carl and Richard about developing games for Xbox, iPhone and Android http://www.dotnetrocks.com/default.aspx?ShowNum=635 Eric W. releases the Fishing Girl source code into the wild http://ericw.ca/blog/posts/fishing-girl-now-open-source/ http://forums.create.msdn.com/forums/p/74642/454512.aspx#454512 BinaryTweedDeej reminds that XNA community that Indie City wants you involved http://twitter.com/BinaryTweedDeej/statuses/34596114028044288 http://www.indiecity.com Mike McLaughlin (@mikebmcl) releases his first two XNA articles on the TechNet wiki http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/xna-framework-overview.aspx http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/content-pipeline-overview.aspx John Watte plays around with the Content Pipeline and Music Visualization exploring just what can be done. http://www.enchantedage.com/xna-content-pipeline-fft-song-analysis http://www.enchantedage.com/fft-in-xna-content-pipeline-for-beat-detection-for-the-win Simon Stevens writes up his talk on Vector Collision Physics http://www.simonpstevens.com/News/VectorCollisionPhysics @domipheus puts together an XNA Task Manager http://www.flickr.com/photos/domipheus/5405603197/ MadNinjaSkillz releases his fork of Nick's Easy Storage component on CodePlex http://twitter.com/MadNinjaSkillz/statuses/34739039068229634 http://ezstorage.codeplex.com @ActiveNick was interviewed by Rob Cameron and discusses Windows Phone 7, Bing Maps and XNA http://twitter.com/ActiveNick/statuses/35348548526546944 http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/cc537546 Radiangames (Luke Schneider) posts about converting his games from XNA to Unity http://radiangames.com/?p=592 UberMonkey (@ElementCy) posts about a new project in the works, CubeTest a Minecraft style terrain http://www.ubergamermonkey.com/personal-projects/new-project-in-the-works/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Ubergamermonkey+%28UberGamerMonkey%29 Xbox LIVE Indie Games (XBLIG): VideoGamer Rob review Bonded Realities http://videogamerrob.wordpress.com/2011/02/05/xblig-review-bonded-realities/ XBLIG Round Up on Gamergeddon http://www.gamergeddon.com/2011/02/06/xbox-indie-game-round-up-february-6th/ Are gamers still rating Indie Games after the Xbox Dashboard update? http://www.gamemarx.com/news/2011/02/06/are-gamers-still-rating-indie-games-after-the-xbox-dashboard-update.aspx Joystiq - Xbox Live Indie Gems: Corrupted http://www.joystiq.com/2011/02/04/xbox-live-indie-gems-corrupted/ Raymond Matthews of DarkStarMatryx reviews (Almost) Total Mayhem and Aban Hawkins & the 1000 Spikes http://www.darkstarmatryx.com/?p=225 http://www.darkstarmatryx.com/?p=229 8 Bit Horse reviews Aban Hawkins & the 1000 spikes http://8bithorse.blogspot.com/2011/01/aban-hawkins-1000-spikes-xbl-indie.html 2010 wrap-up for FunInfused Games http://www.krissteele.net/blogdetails.aspx?id=245 NeoGaf roundup of January's XBLIGs http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=420528 Armless Ocotopus interviews Michael Ventnor creator of Bonded Realities http://www.armlessoctopus.com/2011/02/07/interview-michael-ventnor-of-red-crest-studios/ @recharge_media posts about the new city music for Woodvale in Sin Rising http://rechargemedia.com/2011/02/08/new-city-theme-woodvale/ @DrMisty posts some footage of YoYoYo in action http://www.mstargames.co.uk/mistryblogmain/54-yoyoyoblogs/184-video-update.html Xona Games - Decimation X3 on Reviews on the Run http://video.citytv.com/video/detail/782443063001.000000/reviews-on-the-run--february-8-2011/g4/ @benkane gives an early peek at his action RPG coming to XBLIG http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDF_PrvtwU8 Rock, Paper Shotgun talks to Zeboyd games about bringing Cthulhu Saves the World to PC http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/02/11/summoning-cthulhu-natter-with-zeboyd/ Xbox LIVE Indieverse interviews the creator of Bonded Realities http://xbl-indieverse.blogspot.com/2011/02/xbl-indieverse-interview-red-crest.html XNA Game Development: Dream-In-Code posts about an upcoming XNA Challenge/Coding contest http://www.dreamincode.net/forums/blog/1385/entry-3192-xna-challengecontest/ Sgt.Conker covers Fishing Girl and IndieFreaks Game Framework release http://www.sgtconker.com/2011/02/fishing-girl-did-not-sell-a-single-copy/ http://www.sgtconker.com/2011/02/indiefreaks-game-framework-v0-2-0-0/ @slyprid releases Transmute v0.40a with lots of new features and fixes http://twitter.com/slyprid/statuses/34125423067533312 http://twitter.com/slyprid/statuses/35326876243337216 http://forgottenstarstudios.com/ Jeff Brown writes an XNA 4.0 tutorial on Saving/Loading on the Xbox 360 http://www.robotfootgames.com/xna-tutorials/92-xna-tutorial-savingloading-on-xbox-360-40 XNA for Silverlight Developers: Part 3- Animation http://www.silverlightshow.net/items/XNA-for-Silverlight-developers-Part-3-Animation-transforms.aspx?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+xna-connection-twitter-specific-stream+%28XNA+Connection%27s+Twitter+specific+stream%29 The news from Nokia is definitely something XNA developers will want to keep their eye on http://blogs.forum.nokia.com/blog/nokia-developer-news/2011/02/11/letter-to-developers?sf1066337=1

    Read the article

  • Connecting Linux to WatchGuard Firebox SSL (OpenVPN client)

    Recently, I got a new project assignment that requires to connect permanently to the customer's network through VPN. They are using a so-called SSL VPN. As I am using OpenVPN since more than 5 years within my company's network I was quite curious about their solution and how it would actually be different from OpenVPN. Well, short version: It is a disguised version of OpenVPN. Unfortunately, the company only offers a client for Windows and Mac OS which shouldn't bother any Linux user after all. OpenVPN is part of every recent distribution and can be activated in a couple of minutes - both client as well as server (if necessary). WatchGuard Firebox SSL - About dialog Borrowing some files from a Windows client installation Initially, I didn't know about the product, so therefore I went through the installation on Windows 8. No obstacles (and no restart despite installation of TAP device drivers!) here and the secured VPN channel was up and running in less than 2 minutes or so. Much appreciated from both parties - customer and me. Of course, this whole client package and my long year approved and stable installation ignited my interest to have a closer look at the WatchGuard client. Compared to the original OpenVPN client (okay, I have to admit this is years ago) this commercial product is smarter in terms of file locations during installation. You'll be able to access the configuration and key files below your roaming application data folder. To get there, simply enter '%AppData%\WatchGuard\Mobile VPN' in your Windows/File Explorer and confirm with Enter/Return. This will display the following files: Application folder below user profile with configuration and certificate files From there we are going to borrow four files, namely: ca.crt client.crt client.ovpn client.pem and transfer them to the Linux system. You might also be able to isolate those four files from a Mac OS client. Frankly, I'm just too lazy to run the WatchGuard client installation on a Mac mini only to find the folder location, and I'm going to describe why a little bit further down this article. I know that you can do that! Feedback in the comment section is appreciated. Configuration of OpenVPN (console) Depending on your distribution the following steps might be a little different but in general you should be able to get the important information from it. I'm going to describe the steps in Ubuntu 13.04 (Raring Ringtail). As usual, there are two possibilities to achieve your goal: console and UI. Let's what it is necessary to be done. First of all, you should ensure that you have OpenVPN installed on your system. Open your favourite terminal application and run the following statement: $ sudo apt-get install openvpn network-manager-openvpn network-manager-openvpn-gnome Just to be on the safe side. The four above mentioned files from your Windows machine could be copied anywhere but either you place them below your own user directory or you put them (as root) below the default directory: /etc/openvpn At this stage you would be able to do a test run already. Just in case, run the following command and check the output (it's the similar information you would get from the 'View Logs...' context menu entry in Windows: $ sudo openvpn --config client.ovpn Pay attention to the correct path to your configuration and certificate files. OpenVPN will ask you to enter your Auth Username and Auth Password in order to establish the VPN connection, same as the Windows client. Remote server and user authentication to establish the VPN Please complete the test run and see whether all went well. You can disconnect pressing Ctrl+C. Simplifying your life - authentication file In my case, I actually set up the OpenVPN client on my gateway/router. This establishes a VPN channel between my network and my client's network and allows me to switch machines easily without having the necessity to install the WatchGuard client on each and every machine. That's also very handy for my various virtualised Windows machines. Anyway, as the client configuration, key and certificate files are located on a headless system somewhere under the roof, it is mandatory to have an automatic connection to the remote site. For that you should first change the file extension '.ovpn' to '.conf' which is the default extension on Linux systems for OpenVPN, and then open the client configuration file in order to extend an existing line. $ sudo mv client.ovpn client.conf $ sudo nano client.conf You should have a similar content to this one here: dev tunclientproto tcp-clientca ca.crtcert client.crtkey client.pemtls-remote "/O=WatchGuard_Technologies/OU=Fireware/CN=Fireware_SSLVPN_Server"remote-cert-eku "TLS Web Server Authentication"remote 1.2.3.4 443persist-keypersist-tunverb 3mute 20keepalive 10 60cipher AES-256-CBCauth SHA1float 1reneg-sec 3660nobindmute-replay-warningsauth-user-pass auth.txt Note: I changed the IP address of the remote directive above (which should be obvious, right?). Anyway, the required change is marked in red and we have to create a new authentication file 'auth.txt'. You can give the directive 'auth-user-pass' any file name you'd like to. Due to my existing OpenVPN infrastructure my setup differs completely from the above written content but for sake of simplicity I just keep it 'as-is'. Okay, let's create this file 'auth.txt' $ sudo nano auth.txt and just put two lines of information in it - username on the first, and password on the second line, like so: myvpnusernameverysecretpassword Store the file, change permissions, and call openvpn with your configuration file again: $ sudo chmod 0600 auth.txt $ sudo openvpn --config client.conf This should now work without being prompted to enter username and password. In case that you placed your files below the system-wide location /etc/openvpn you can operate your VPNs also via service command like so: $ sudo service openvpn start client $ sudo service openvpn stop client Using Network Manager For newer Linux users or the ones with 'console-phobia' I'm going to describe now how to use Network Manager to setup the OpenVPN client. For this move your mouse to the systray area and click on Network Connections => VPN Connections => Configure VPNs... which opens your Network Connections dialog. Alternatively, use the HUD and enter 'Network Connections'. Network connections overview in Ubuntu Click on 'Add' button. On the next dialog select 'Import a saved VPN configuration...' from the dropdown list and click on 'Create...' Choose connection type to import VPN configuration Now you navigate to your folder where you put the client files from the Windows system and you open the 'client.ovpn' file. Next, on the tab 'VPN' proceed with the following steps (directives from the configuration file are referred): General Check the IP address of Gateway ('remote' - we used 1.2.3.4 in this setup) Authentication Change Type to 'Password with Certificates (TLS)' ('auth-pass-user') Enter User name to access your client keys (Auth Name: myvpnusername) Enter Password (Auth Password: verysecretpassword) and choose your password handling Browse for your User Certificate ('cert' - should be pre-selected with client.crt) Browse for your CA Certificate ('ca' - should be filled as ca.crt) Specify your Private Key ('key' - here: client.pem) Then click on the 'Advanced...' button and check the following values: Use custom gateway port: 443 (second value of 'remote' directive) Check the selected value of Cipher ('cipher') Check HMAC Authentication ('auth') Enter the Subject Match: /O=WatchGuard_Technologies/OU=Fireware/CN=Fireware_SSLVPN_Server ('tls-remote') Finally, you have to confirm and close all dialogs. You should be able to establish your OpenVPN-WatchGuard connection via Network Manager. For that, click on the 'VPN Connections => client' entry on your Network Manager in the systray. It is advised that you keep an eye on the syslog to see whether there are any problematic issues that would require some additional attention. Advanced topic: routing As stated above, I'm running the 'WatchGuard client for Linux' on my head-less server, and since then I'm actually establishing a secure communication channel between two networks. In order to enable your network clients to get access to machines on the remote side there are two possibilities to enable that: Proper routing on both sides of the connection which enables both-direction access, or Network masquerading on the 'client side' of the connection Following, I'm going to describe the second option a little bit more in detail. The Linux system that I'm using is already configured as a gateway to the internet. I won't explain the necessary steps to do that, and will only focus on the additional tweaks I had to do. You can find tons of very good instructions and tutorials on 'How to setup a Linux gateway/router' - just use Google. OK, back to the actual modifications. First, we need to have some information about the network topology and IP address range used on the 'other' side. We can get this very easily from /var/log/syslog after we established the OpenVPN channel, like so: $ sudo tail -n20 /var/log/syslog Or if your system is quite busy with logging, like so: $ sudo less /var/log/syslog | grep ovpn The output should contain PUSH received message similar to the following one: Jul 23 23:13:28 ios1 ovpn-client[789]: PUSH: Received control message: 'PUSH_REPLY,topology subnet,route 192.168.1.0 255.255.255.0,dhcp-option DOMAIN ,route-gateway 192.168.6.1,topology subnet,ping 10,ping-restart 60,ifconfig 192.168.6.2 255.255.255.0' The interesting part for us is the route command which I highlighted already in the sample PUSH_REPLY. Depending on your remote server there might be multiple networks defined (172.16.x.x and/or 10.x.x.x). Important: The IP address range on both sides of the connection has to be different, otherwise you will have to shuffle IPs or increase your the netmask. {loadposition content_adsense} After the VPN connection is established, we have to extend the rules for iptables in order to route and masquerade IP packets properly. I created a shell script to take care of those steps: #!/bin/sh -eIPTABLES=/sbin/iptablesDEV_LAN=eth0DEV_VPNS=tun+VPN=192.168.1.0/24 $IPTABLES -A FORWARD -i $DEV_LAN -o $DEV_VPNS -d $VPN -j ACCEPT$IPTABLES -A FORWARD -i $DEV_VPNS -o $DEV_LAN -s $VPN -j ACCEPT$IPTABLES -t nat -A POSTROUTING -o $DEV_VPNS -d $VPN -j MASQUERADE I'm using the wildcard interface 'tun+' because I have multiple client configurations for OpenVPN on my server. In your case, it might be sufficient to specify device 'tun0' only. Simplifying your life - automatic connect on boot Now, that the client connection works flawless, configuration of routing and iptables is okay, we might consider to add another 'laziness' factor into our setup. Due to kernel updates or other circumstances it might be necessary to reboot your system. Wouldn't it be nice that the VPN connections are established during the boot procedure? Yes, of course it would be. To achieve this, we have to configure OpenVPN to automatically start our VPNs via init script. Let's have a look at the responsible 'default' file and adjust the settings accordingly. $ sudo nano /etc/default/openvpn Which should have a similar content to this: # This is the configuration file for /etc/init.d/openvpn## Start only these VPNs automatically via init script.# Allowed values are "all", "none" or space separated list of# names of the VPNs. If empty, "all" is assumed.# The VPN name refers to the VPN configutation file name.# i.e. "home" would be /etc/openvpn/home.conf#AUTOSTART="all"#AUTOSTART="none"#AUTOSTART="home office"## ... more information which remains unmodified ... With the OpenVPN client configuration as described above you would either set AUTOSTART to "all" or to "client" to enable automatic start of your VPN(s) during boot. You should also take care that your iptables commands are executed after the link has been established, too. You can easily test this configuration without reboot, like so: $ sudo service openvpn restart Enjoy stable VPN connections between your Linux system(s) and a WatchGuard Firebox SSL remote server. Cheers, JoKi

    Read the article

  • Do’s and Don’ts Building SharePoint Applications

    - by Bil Simser
    SharePoint is a great platform for building quick LOB applications. Simple things from employee time trackers to server and software inventory to full blown Help Desks can be crafted up using SharePoint from just customizing Lists. No programming necessary. However there are a few tricks I’ve painfully learned over the years that you can use for your own solutions. DO What’s In A Name? When you create a new list, column, or view you’ll commonly name it something like “Expense Reports”. However this has the ugly effect of creating a url to the list as “Expense%20Reports”. Or worse, an internal field name of “Expense_x0x0020_Reports” which is not only cryptic but hard to remember when you’re trying to find the column by internal name. While “Expense Reports 2011” is user friendly, “ExpenseReports2011” is not (unless you’re a programmer). So that’s not the solution. Well, not entirely. Instead when you create your column or list or view use the scrunched up name (I can’t think of the technical term for it right now) of “ExpenseReports2011”, “WomenAtTheOfficeThatAreMen” or “KoalaMeatIsGoodWhenBroiled”. After you’ve created it, go back and change the name to the more friendly “Silly Expense Reports That Nobody Reads”. The original internal name will be the url and code friendly one without spaces while the one used on data entry forms and view headers will be the human version. Smart Columns When building a view include columns that make sense. By default when you add a column the “Add to default view” is checked. Resist the urge to be lazy and leave it checked. Uncheck that puppy and decide consciously what columns should be included in the view. Pick columns that make sense to what the user is trying to do. This means you have to talk to the user. Yes, I know. That can be trying at times and even painful. Go ahead, talk to them. You might learn something. Find out what’s important to them and why. If they’re doing something repetitively as part of their job, try to make their life easier by including what’s most important to them. Do they really need to see the Created *and* Modified date of a document or do they just need the title and author? You’ll only find out after talking to them (or getting them drunk in a bar and leaving them in the back alley handcuffed to a garbage bin, don’t ask). Gotta Keep it Separated Hey, views are there for a reason. Use them. While “All Items” is a fine way to present a list of well, all items, it’s hardly sufficient to present a list of servers built before the Y2K bug hit. You’ll be scrolling the list for hours finally arriving at Page 387 of 12,591 and cursing that SharePoint guy for convincing you that putting your hardware into a list would be of any use to anyone. Next to collecting the data, presenting it is just as important. Views are often overlooked and many times ignored or misused. They’re the way you can slice and dice the data up so that you’re not trying to consume 3,000 years of human evolution on a single web page. Remember views can be filtered so feel free to create a view for each status or one for each operating system or one for each species of Information Worker you might be putting in that list or document library. Not only will it reduce the number of items someone sees at one time, it’ll also make the information that much more relevant. Also remember that each view is a separate page. Use it in navigation by creating a menu on the Quick Launch to each view. The discoverability of the Views menu isn’t overly obvious and if you violate the rule of columns (see Horizontally Scrolling below) the view menu doesn’t even show up until you shuffle the scroll bar to the left. Navigation links, big giant buttons, a screaming flashing “CLICK ME NOW” will help your users find their way. Sort It! Views are great so we’re building nice, rich views for the user. Awesomesauce. However sort is not very discoverable by the user. For example when you’re looking at a view how do you know if it’s ascending or descending and what is it sorted on. Maybe it’s sorted using two fields so what’s that all about? Help your users by letting them know the information they’re looking at is sorted. Maybe you name the view something appropriate like “Bogus Expense Claims Sorted By Deadbeats”. If you use the naming strategy just make sure you keep the name consistent with the description. In the previous example their better be a Deadbeat column so I can see the sort in action. Having a “Loser” column, while equally correct, is a little obtuse to the average Information Worker. Remember, they usually don’t use acronyms and even if they knew how to, it’s not immediately obvious to them that’s what you’re trying to convey. Another option is to simply drop a Content Editor Web Part above the list and explain exactly the view they’re looking at. Each view is it’s own page so one CEWP won’t be used across the board. Be descriptive in what the user is seeing but try to keep it brief. Dumping the first chapter of I, Claudius might be informative to the data but can gobble up screen real estate and miss the point of having the list. DO NOT Useless Attachments The attachments column is, in a word, useless. For the most part. Sure it indicates there’s an attachment on the list item but in the grand scheme of things that’s not overly informative. Maybe it is and by all means, if it makes sense to you include it. Colour it. Make it shine and stand like the Return of Clippy on every SharePoint list. Without it being functional it can be boring. EndUserSharePoint.com has an article to make the son of Clippy that much more useful so feel free to head over and check out this blog post by Paul Grenier on the task (Warning code ahead! Danger Will Robinson!) In any case, I would suggest you remove it from your views. Again if it’s important then include it but consider the jQuery solution above to make it functional. It’s added by default to views and one of things that people forget to clean up. Horizontal Scrolling Screen real estate is premium so building a list that contains 8,000 columns and stretches horizontally across 15 screens probably isn’t the most user friendly experience. Most users can’t figure out how to scroll vertically let alone horizontally so don’t make it even that more confusing for them. Take the Steve Krug approach in your view designs and try not to make the user think. Again views are your friend. Consider splitting up the data into views where one view contains 10 columns and other view contains the other 10. Okay, maybe your information doesn’t work that way but humans can only process 7 pieces of data at a time, 10 at most (then their heads explode and you don’t want to clean that mess up, especially on a Friday night before the big dance). It drives me batshit crazy when I see a view with 80 columns of data. I often ask the user “So what do you do with all this information”. The response is usually “With this data [the first 10 columns] I decide if I’m going to fire everyone, and with this data [the next 10 columns] I decide if I’m going to set the building on fire and collect the insurance”. It’s at that point I show them how to create two new views “People Who Are About To Get The Axe” and “Beach Time For The Executives”. Again, talk to your users and try to reason with them on cutting down the number of columns they see at once. Vertical Scrolling Another big faux pas I find is the use of multi-line comment fields in views. It’s not so bad when you have a statement like this in your view: “I really like, oh my god, thought I was going to scream when I saw this turtle then I decided what I was going to have for dinner and frankly I hate having to work late so when I was talking to the customer I thought, oh my god, what if the customer has turtles and then it appeared to me that I really was hungry so I'm going to have lunch now.” It’s fine if that’s the only column along with two or three others, but once you slap those 20 columns of data into the list, the comment field wraps and forms a new multi-page novel that takes up your entire screen. Do everyone a favour and just avoid adding the column to views. Train the user to just click through to the item if they need to see the contents. Duplicate Information Duplication is never good. Views and great as you can group data together. For example create a view of project status reports grouped by author. Then you can see what project manager is being a dip and not submitting their report. However if you group by author do you really need the Created By field as well in the view? Or if the view is grouped by Project then Author do you need both. Horizontal real estate is always at a premium so try not to clutter up the view with duplicate data like this. Oh  yeah, if you’re scratching your head saying “But Bil, if I don’t include the Project name in the view and I have a lot of items then how do I know which one I’m looking at”. That’s a hint that your grouping is too vague or you have too much data in the view based on that criteria. Filter it down a notch, create some views, and try to keep the group down to a single screen where you can see the group header at the top of the page. Again it’s just managing the information you have. Redundant, See Redundant This partially relates to duplicate information and smart columns but basically remember to not include the obvious in a view. Remember, don’t make me think. If you’ve gone to the trouble (and it was a lot of trouble wasn’t it?) to create separate views of your data by creating a “September Zombie Brain Sales”, “October Zombie Brain Sales”, etc. then please for the love of all that is holy do not include the Month and Product columns in your view. Similarly if you create a “My” view of anything (“My Favourite Brands of Spandex”, “My Co-Workers I Find The Urge To Disinfect”) then again, do not include the owner or author field (or whatever field you use to identify “My”). That’s just silly. Hope that helps! Happy customizing!

    Read the article

  • What is Inversion of control and why we need it?

    - by Jalpesh P. Vadgama
    Most of programmer need inversion of control pattern in today’s complex real time application world. So I have decided to write a blog post about it. This blog post will explain what is Inversion of control and why we need it. We are going to take a real world example so it would be better to understand. The problem- Why we need inversion of control? Before giving definition of Inversion of control let’s take a simple real word example to see why we need inversion of control. Please have look on the following code. public class class1 { private class2 _class2; public class1() { _class2=new class2(); } } public class class2 { //Some implementation of class2 } I have two classes “Class1” and “Class2”.  If you see the code in that I have created a instance of class2 class in the class1 class constructor. So the “class1” class is dependent on “class2”. I think that is the biggest issue in real world scenario as if we change the “class2” class then we might need to change the “class1” class also. Here there is one type of dependency between this two classes that is called Tight Coupling. Tight coupling will have lots of problem in real world applications as things are tends to be change in future so we have to change all the tight couple classes that are dependent of each other. To avoid this kind of issue we need Inversion of control. What is Inversion of Control? According to the wikipedia following is a definition of Inversion of control. “In software engineering, Inversion of Control (IoC) is an object-oriented programming practice where the object coupling is bound at run time by an assembler object and is typically not known at compile time using static analysis.” So if you read the it carefully it says that we should have object coupling at run time not compile time where it know what object it will create, what method it will call or what feature it will going to use for that. We need to use same classes in such way so that it will not tight couple with each other. There are multiple way to implement Inversion of control. You can refer wikipedia link for knowing multiple ways of implementing Inversion of control. In future posts we are going to see all the different way of implementing Inversion of control.

    Read the article

  • Facebook Sponsored Results: Is It Getting Results?

    - by Mike Stiles
    Social marketers who like to focus on the paid aspect of the paid/earned hybrid Facebook represents may want to keep themselves aware of how the network’s new Sponsored Results ad product is performing. The ads, which appear when a user conducts a search from the Facebook search bar, have only been around a week or so. But the first statistics coming out of them are not bad. Marketer Nanigans says click-through rates on the Sponsored Results have been nearly 23 times better than regular Facebook ads. Some click-through rates have even gone over 3%. Just to give you some perspective, a TechCrunch article points out that’s the same kind of click-through rates that were being enjoyed during the go-go dot com boom of the 90’s. The average across the Internet in its entirety is now somewhere around .3% on a good day, so a 3% number should be enough to raise an eyebrow. Plus the cost-per-click price is turning up 78% lower than regular Facebook ads, so that should raise the other eyebrow. Marketers have gotten pretty used to being able to buy ads against certain keywords. Most any digital property worth its salt that sells ads offers this, and so does Facebook with its Sponsored Results product. But the unique prize Facebook brings to the table is the ability to also buy based on demographic and interest information gleaned from Facebook user profiles. With almost 950 million logging in, this is exactly the kind of leveraging of those users conventional wisdom says is necessary for Facebook to deliver on its amazing potential. So how does the Facebook user fit into this? Notorious for finding out exactly where sponsored marketing messages are appearing and training their eyeballs to avoid those areas, will the Facebook user reject these Sponsored Results? Well, Facebook may have found an area in addition to the News Feed where paid elements can’t be avoided and will be tolerated. If users want to read their News Feed, and they do, they’re going to see sponsored posts. Likewise, if they want to search for friends or Pages, and they do, they’re going to see Sponsored Results. The paid results are clearly marked as such. As long as their organic search results are not tainted or compromised, they will continue using search. But something more is going on. The early click-through rate numbers say not only do users not mind seeing these Sponsored Results, they’re finding them relevant enough to click on. And once they click, they seem to be liking what they find, with a reported 14% higher install rate than Marketplace Ads. It’s early, and obviously the jury is still out. But this is a new social paid marketing opportunity that’s well worth keeping an eye on, and that may wind up hitting the trifecta of being effective for the platform, the consumer, and the marketer.

    Read the article

  • Protecting offline IRM rights and the error "Unable to Connect to Offline database"

    - by Simon Thorpe
    One of the most common problems I get asked about Oracle IRM is in relation to the error message "Unable to Connect to Offline database". This error message is a result of how Oracle IRM is protecting the cached rights on the local machine and if that cache has become invalid in anyway, this error is thrown. Offline rights and security First we need to understand how Oracle IRM handles offline use. The way it is implemented is one of the main reasons why Oracle IRM is the leading document security solution and demonstrates our methodology to ensure that solutions address both security and usability and puts the balance of these two in your control. Each classification has a set of predefined roles that the manager of the classification can assign to users. Each role has an offline period which determines the amount of time a user can access content without having to communicate with the IRM server. By default for the context model, which is the classification system that ships out of the box with Oracle IRM, the offline period for each role is 3 days. This is easily changed however and can be as low as under an hour to as long as years. It is also possible to switch off the ability to access content offline which can be useful when content is very sensitive and requires a tight leash. So when a user is online, transparently in the background, the Oracle IRM Desktop communicates with the server and updates the users rights and offline periods. This transparent synchronization period is determined by the server and communicated to all IRM Desktops and allows for users rights to be kept up to date without their intervention. This allows us to support some very important scenarios which are key to a successful IRM solution. A user doesn't have to make any decision when going offline, they simply unplug their laptop and they already have their offline periods synchronized to the maximum values. Any solution that requires a user to make a decision at the point of going offline isn't going to work because people forget to do this and will therefore be unable to legitimately access their content offline. If your rights change to REMOVE your access to content, this also happens in the background. This is very useful when someone has an offline duration of a week and they happen to make a connection to the internet 3 days into that offline period, the Oracle IRM Desktop detects this online state and automatically updates all rights for the user. This means the business risk is reduced when setting long offline periods, because of the daily transparent sync, you can reflect changes as soon as the user is online. Of course, if they choose not to come online at all during that week offline period, you cannot effect change, but you take that risk in giving the 7 day offline period in the first place. If you are added to a NEW classification during the day, this will automatically be synchronized without the user even having to open a piece of content secured against that classification. This is very important, consider the scenario where a senior executive downloads all their email but doesn't open any of it. Disconnects the laptop and then gets on a plane. During the flight they attempt to open a document attached to a downloaded email which has been secured against an IRM classification the user was not even aware they had access to. Because their new role in this classification was automatically synchronized their experience is a good one and the document opens. More information on how the Oracle IRM classification model works can be found in this article by Martin Abrahams. So what about problems accessing the offline rights database? So onto the core issue... when these rights are cached to your machine they are stored in an encrypted database. The encryption of this offline database is keyed to the instance of the installation of the IRM Desktop and the Windows user account. Why? Well what you do not want to happen is for someone to get their rights for content and then copy these files across hundreds of other machines, therefore getting access to sensitive content across many environments. The IRM server has a setting which controls how many times you can cache these rights on unique machines. This is because people typically access IRM content on more than one computer. Their work desktop, a laptop and often a home computer. So Oracle IRM allows for the usability of caching rights on more than one computer whilst retaining strong security over this cache. So what happens if these files are corrupted in someway? That's when you will see the error, Unable to Connect to Offline database. The most common instance of seeing this is when you are using virtual machines and copy them from one computer to the next. The virtual machine software, VMWare Workstation for example, makes changes to the unique information of that virtual machine and as such invalidates the offline database. How do you solve the problem? Resolution is however simple. You just delete all of the offline database files on the machine and they will be recreated with working encryption when the Oracle IRM Desktop next starts. However this does mean that the IRM server will think you have your rights cached to more than one computer and you will need to rerequest your rights, even though you are only going to be accessing them on one. Because it still thinks the old cache is valid. So be aware, it is good practice to increase the server limit from the default of 1 to say 3 or 4. This is done using the Enterprise Manager instance of IRM. So to delete these offline files I have a simple .bat file you can use; Download DeleteOfflineDBs.bat Note that this uses pskillto stop the irmBackground.exe from running. This is part of the IRM Desktop and holds open a lock to the offline database. Either kill this from task manager or use pskillas part of the script.

    Read the article

  • On Contract Employment

    - by kerry
    I am going to post about something I don’t post about a lot, the business side of development.  Scott at the antipimp does a good job of explaining how contracts work from a business perspective.  I am going to give a view from the ground. First, a little background on myself.  I have recently taken a 6 month contract after about 8 years of fulltime employment.  I have 2 kids, and a stay at home wife.  I took this contract opportunity because I wanted to try it on for size.  I have always wondered whether I would like doing contracts over fulltime employment.  So, in keeping with the theme of this blog I will write this down now so that I may reference it later. ALL jobs are temporary! Right now you may not realize it, most people simply ignore it, but EVERY job is temporary.  Everyone should be planning for life after the money stops coming in.  Sadly, most people do not.  Contracting pushes this issue to the forefront, making you deal with it.  After a month on a contract, I am happy to say that I am saving more than I ever saved in a fulltime position.  Hopefully, I will be ready in case of an extended window of unemployment between contracts. Networking I find it extremely gratifying getting to know people.  It is especially beneficial when moving to a new city.  What better way to go out and meet people in your field than to work a few contracts?  6 months of working beside someone and you get to know them pretty well.  This is one of my favorite aspects. Technical Agility Moving between IS shops takes (or molds you into) a flexible person.  You have to be able to go in and hit the ground running.  This means you need to be able to sit down and start work on a large codebase working in a language that you may or may not have that much experience in.  It is also an excellent way to learn new languages and broaden your technical skill set.  I took my current position to learn Ruby.  A month ago, I had only used it in passing, but now I am using it every day.  It’s a tragedy in this field when people start coding for the joy and love of coding, then become deeply entrenched in their companies methods and technologies that it becomes a just a job. Less Stress I am not talking about the kind of stress you get from a jackass boss.  I am talking about the kind of stress I (or others) experience about planning and future proofing your code.  Not saying I stay up at night worrying whether we have done it right, if that code I wrote today is going to bite me later, but it still creeps around in the dark recesses of my mind.  Careful though, I am not suggesting you write sloppy code; just defer any large architectural or design decisions to the ‘code owners’. Flexible Scheduling It makes me very happy to be able to cut out a few hours early on a Friday (provided the work is done) and start the weekend off early by going to the pool, or taking the kids to the park.  Contracting provides you this opportunity (mileage may vary).  Most of your fulltime brethren will not care, they will be jealous that they’re corporate policy prevents them from doing the same.  However, you must be mindful of situations where this is not appropriate, and don’t over do it.  You are there to work after all. Affirmation of Need Have you ever been stuck in a job where you thought you were underpaid?  Have you ever been in a position where you felt like there was not enough workload for you?  This is not a problem for contractors.  When you start a contract it is understood that you are needed, and the employer knows that you are happy with the terms. Contracting may not be for everyone.  But, if you develop a relationship with a good consulting firm, keep their clients happy, then they will keep you happy.  They want you to work almost as much as you do.  Just be sure and plan financially for any windows of unemployment.

    Read the article

  • Integrate BING API for Search inside ASP.Net web application

    - by sreejukg
    As you might already know, Bing is the Microsoft Search engine and is getting popular day by day. Bing offers APIs that can be integrated into your website to increase your website functionality. At this moment, there are two important APIs available. They are Bing Search API Bing Maps The Search API enables you to build applications that utilize Bing’s technology. The API allows you to search multiple source types such as web; images, video etc. and supports various output prototypes such as JSON, XML, and SOAP. Also you will be able to customize the search results as you wish for your public facing website. Bing Maps API allows you to build robust applications that use Bing Maps. In this article I am going to describe, how you can integrate Bing search into your website. In order to start using Bing, First you need to sign in to http://www.bing.com/toolbox/bingdeveloper/ using your windows live credentials. Click on the Sign in button, you will be asked to enter your windows live credentials. Once signed in you will be redirected to the Developer page. Here you can create applications and get AppID for each application. Since I am a first time user, I don’t have any applications added. Click on the Add button to add a new application. You will be asked to enter certain details about your application. The fields are straight forward, only thing you need to note is the website field, here you need to enter the website address from where you are going to use this application, and this field is optional too. Of course you need to agree on the terms and conditions and then click Save. Once you click on save, the application will be created and application ID will be available for your use. Now we got the APP Id. Basically Bing supports three protocols. They are JSON, XML and SOAP. JSON is useful if you want to call the search requests directly from the browser and use JavaScript to parse the results, thus JSON is the favorite choice for AJAX application. XML is the alternative for applications that does not support SOAP, e.g. flash/ Silverlight etc. SOAP is ideal for strongly typed languages and gives a request/response object model. In this article I am going to demonstrate how to search BING API using SOAP protocol from an ASP.Net application. For the purpose of this demonstration, I am going to create an ASP.Net project and implement the search functionality in an aspx page. Open Visual Studio, navigate to File-> New Project, select ASP.Net empty web application, I named the project as “BingSearchSample”. Add a Search.aspx page to the project, once added the solution explorer will looks similar to the following. Now you need to add a web reference to the SOAP service available from Bing. To do this, from the solution explorer, right click your project, select Add Service Reference. Now the new service reference dialog will appear. In the left bottom of the dialog, you can find advanced button, click on it. Now the service reference settings dialog will appear. In the bottom left, you can find Add Web Reference button, click on it. The add web reference dialog will appear now. Enter the URL as http://api.bing.net/search.wsdl?AppID=<YourAppIDHere>&version=2.2 (replace <yourAppIDHere> with the appID you have generated previously) and click on the button next to it. This will find the web service methods available. You can change the namespace suggested by Bing, but for the purpose of this demonstration I have accepted all the default settings. Click on the Add reference button once you are done. Now the web reference to Search service will be added your project. You can find this under solution explorer of your project. Now in the Search.aspx, that you previously created, place one textbox, button and a grid view. For the purpose of this demonstration, I have given the identifiers (ID) as txtSearch, btnSearch, gvSearch respectively. The idea is to search the text entered in the text box using Bing service and show the results in the grid view. In the design view, the search.aspx looks as follows. In the search.aspx.cs page, add a using statement that points to net.bing.api. I have added the following code for button click event handler. The code is very straight forward. It just calls the service with your AppID, a query to search and a source for searching. Let us run this page and see the output when I enter Microsoft in my textbox. If you want to search a specific site, you can include the site name in the query parameter. For e.g. the following query will search the word Microsoft from www.microsoft.com website. searchRequest.Query = “site:www.microsoft.com Microsoft”; The output of this query is as follows. Integrating BING search API to your website is easy and there is no limit on the customization of the interface you can do. There is no Bing branding required so I believe this is a great option for web developers when they plan for site search.

    Read the article

  • "Deep Fried Bytes Podcast": Lars on SQL Server Modeling

    Here's how the Deep Fried guys describe episode 45: "At PDC 2009, 'Oslo' was renamed to SQL Modeling and it left a lot of developers scratching their heads. What better way to sort it all out than to talk with someone deep into the stack. We sat down with Lars Corneliussen to see how this is all going to turn out and it what it means for developers. Definitely an interesting show as it paints a different picture about where things are going with 'M', 'M' Grammar, SQL modeling, Entity Framework, Quadrant...Did you know that DotNetSlackers also publishes .net articles written by top known .net Authors? We already have over 80 articles in several categories including Silverlight. Take a look: here.

    Read the article

  • "Deep Fried Bytes Podcast": Lars on SQL Server Modeling

    Here's how the Deep Fried guys describe episode 45: "At PDC 2009, 'Oslo' was renamed to SQL Modeling and it left a lot of developers scratching their heads. What better way to sort it all out than to talk with someone deep into the stack. We sat down with Lars Corneliussen to see how this is all going to turn out and it what it means for developers. Definitely an interesting show as it paints a different picture about where things are going with 'M', 'M' Grammar, SQL modeling, Entity Framework, Quadrant...Did you know that DotNetSlackers also publishes .net articles written by top known .net Authors? We already have over 80 articles in several categories including Silverlight. Take a look: here.

    Read the article

  • Make a Drive Image Using an Ubuntu Live CD

    - by Trevor Bekolay
    Cloning a hard drive is useful, but what if you have to make several copies, or you just want to make a complete backup of a hard drive? Drive images let you put everything, and we mean everything, from your hard drive in one big file. With an Ubuntu Live CD, this is a simple process – the versatile tool dd can do this for us right out of the box. We’ve used dd to clone a hard drive before. Making a drive image is very similar, except instead of copying data from one hard drive to another, we copy from a hard drive to a file. Drive images are more flexible, as you can do what you please with the data once you’ve pulled it off the source drive. Your drive image is going to be a big file, depending on the size of your source drive – dd will copy every bit of it, even if there’s only one tiny file stored on the whole hard drive. So, to start, make sure you have a device connected to your computer that will be large enough to hold the drive image. Some ideas for places to store the drive image, and how to connect to them in an Ubuntu Live CD, can be found at this previous Live CD article. In this article, we’re going to make an image of a 1GB drive, and store it on another hard drive in the same PC. Note: always be cautious when using dd, as it’s very easy to completely wipe out a drive, as we will show later in this article. Creating a Drive Image Boot up into the Ubuntu Live CD environment. Since we’re going to store the drive image on a local hard drive, we first have to mount it. Click on Places and then the location that you want to store the image on – in our case, a 136GB internal drive. Open a terminal window (Applications > Accessories > Terminal) and navigate to the newly mounted drive. All mounted drives should be in /media, so we’ll use the command cd /media and then type the first few letters of our difficult-to-type drive, press tab to auto-complete the name, and switch to that directory. If you wish to place the drive image in a specific folder, then navigate to it now. We’ll just place our drive image in the root of our mounted drive. The next step is to determine the identifier for the drive you want to make an image of. In the terminal window, type in the command sudo fdisk -l Our 1GB drive is /dev/sda, so we make a note of that. Now we’ll use dd to make the image. The invocation is sudo dd if=/dev/sda of=./OldHD.img This means that we want to copy from the input file (“if”) /dev/sda (our source drive) to the output file (“of”) OldHD.img, which is located in the current working directory (that’s the “.” portion of the “of” string). It takes some time, but our image has been created…Let’s test to make sure it works. Drive Image Testing: Wiping the Drive Another interesting thing that dd can do is totally wipe out the data on a drive (a process we’ve covered before). The command for that is sudo dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/sda This takes some random data as input, and outputs it to our drive, /dev/sda. If we examine the drive now using sudo fdisk –l, we can see that the drive is, indeed, wiped. Drive Image Testing: Restoring the Drive Image We can restore our drive image with a call to dd that’s very similar to how we created the image. The only difference is that the image is going to be out input file, and the drive now our output file. The exact invocation is sudo dd if=./OldHD.img of=/dev/sda It takes a while, but when it’s finished, we can confirm with sudo fdisk –l that our drive is back to the way it used to be! Conclusion There are a lots of reasons to create a drive image, with backup being the most obvious. Fortunately, with dd creating a drive image only takes one line in a terminal window – if you’ve got an Ubuntu Live CD handy! Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Reset Your Ubuntu Password Easily from the Live CDCreate a Bootable Ubuntu USB Flash Drive the Easy WayHow to Browse Without a Trace with an Ubuntu Live CDWipe, Delete, and Securely Destroy Your Hard Drive’s Data the Easy WayClone a Hard Drive Using an Ubuntu Live CD 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 HippoRemote Pro 2.2 Xobni Plus for Outlook All My Movies 5.9 CloudBerry Online Backup 1.5 for Windows Home Server Microsoft Office Web Apps Guide Know if Someone Accessed Your Facebook Account Shop for Music with Windows Media Player 12 Access Free Documentaries at BBC Documentaries Rent Cameras In Bulk At CameraRenter Download Songs From MySpace

    Read the article

  • Scrum for Team Foundation Server 2010

    - by Martin Hinshelwood
    I will be presenting a session on “Scrum for TFS2010” not once, but twice! If you are going to be at the Aberdeen Partner Group meeting on 27th April, or DDD Scotland on 8th May then you may be able to catch my session. Credit: I want to give special thanks to Aaron Bjork from Microsoft who provided me with most of my material He is a Scrum and Power Point genius. Scrum for Team Foundation Server 2010 Synopsis Visual Studio ALM (formerly Visual Studio Team System (VSTS)) and Team Foundation Server (TFS) are the cornerstones of development on the Microsoft .NET platform. These are the best tools for a team to have successful projects and for the developers to have a focused and smooth software development process. For TFS 2010 Microsoft is heavily investing in Scrum and has already started moving some teams across to using it. Martin will not be going in depth with Scrum but you can find out more about Scrum by reading the Scrum Guide and you can even asses your Scrum knowledge by having a go at the Scrum Open Assessment. Come and see Martin Hinshelwood, Visual Studio ALM MVP and Solution Architect from SSW show you: How to successfully gather requirements with User stories How to plan a project using TFS 2010 and Scrum How to work with a product backlog in TFS 2010 The right way to plan a sprint with TFS 2010 Tracking your progress The right way to use work items What you can use from the built in reporting as well as the Project portals available on from the SharePoint dashboard The important reports to give your Product Owner / Project Manager Walk away knowing how to see the project health and progress. Visual Studio ALM is designed to help address many of these traditional problems faced by teams. It does so by providing a set of integrated tools to help teams improve their software development activities and to help managers better support the software development processes. During this session we will cover the lifecycle of creating work items and how this fits into Scrum using Visual Studio ALM and Team Foundation Server. If you want to know more about how to do Scrum with TFS then there is a new course that has been created in collaboration with Microsoft and Scrum.org that is going to be the official course for working with TFS 2010. SSW has Professional Scrum Developer Trainers who specialise in training your developers in implementing Scrum with Microsoft's Visual Studio ALM tools. Ken Schwaber and and Sam Guckenheimer: Professional Scrum Development Technorati Tags: Scrum,VS ALM,VS 2010,TFS 2010

    Read the article

  • Scrum for Team Foundation Server 2010

    - by Martin Hinshelwood
    I will be presenting a session on “Scrum for TFS2010” not once, but twice! If you are going to be at the Aberdeen Partner Group meeting on 27th April, or DDD Scotland on 8th May then you may be able to catch my session. Credit: I want to give special thanks to Aaron Bjork from Microsoft who provided me with most of my material He is a Scrum and Power Point genius. Updated 9th May 2010 – I have now presented at both of these sessions  and posted about it. Scrum for Team Foundation Server 2010 Synopsis Visual Studio ALM (formerly Visual Studio Team System (VSTS)) and Team Foundation Server (TFS) are the cornerstones of development on the Microsoft .NET platform. These are the best tools for a team to have successful projects and for the developers to have a focused and smooth software development process. For TFS 2010 Microsoft is heavily investing in Scrum and has already started moving some teams across to using it. Martin will not be going in depth with Scrum but you can find out more about Scrum by reading the Scrum Guide and you can even asses your Scrum knowledge by having a go at the Scrum Open Assessment. You can also read SSW’s Rules to Better Scrum using TFS which have been developed during our own Scrum implementations. Come and see Martin Hinshelwood, Visual Studio ALM MVP and Solution Architect from SSW show you: How to successfully gather requirements with User stories How to plan a project using TFS 2010 and Scrum How to work with a product backlog in TFS 2010 The right way to plan a sprint with TFS 2010 Tracking your progress The right way to use work items What you can use from the built in reporting as well as the Project portals available on from the SharePoint dashboard The important reports to give your Product Owner / Project Manager Walk away knowing how to see the project health and progress. Visual Studio ALM is designed to help address many of these traditional problems faced by teams. It does so by providing a set of integrated tools to help teams improve their software development activities and to help managers better support the software development processes. During this session we will cover the lifecycle of creating work items and how this fits into Scrum using Visual Studio ALM and Team Foundation Server. If you want to know more about how to do Scrum with TFS then there is a new course that has been created in collaboration with Microsoft and Scrum.org that is going to be the official course for working with TFS 2010. SSW has Professional Scrum Developer Trainers who specialise in training your developers in implementing Scrum with Microsoft's Visual Studio ALM tools. Ken Schwaber and and Sam Guckenheimer: Professional Scrum Development Technorati Tags: Scrum,VS ALM,VS 2010,TFS 2010

    Read the article

  • Implementing algorithms via compute shaders vs. pipeline shaders

    - by TravisG
    With the availability of compute shaders for both DirectX and OpenGL it's now possible to implement many algorithms without going through the rasterization pipeline and instead use general purpose computing on the GPU to solve the problem. For some algorithms this seems to become the intuitive canonical solution because they're inherently not rasterization based, and rasterization-based shaders seemed to be a workaround to harness GPU power (simple example: creating a noise texture. No quad needs to be rasterized here). Given an algorithm that can be implemented both ways, are there general (potential) performance benefits over using compute shaders vs. going the normal route? Are there drawbacks that we should watch out for (for example, is there some kind of unusual overhead to switching from/to compute shaders at runtime)? Are there perhaps other benefits or drawbacks to consider when choosing between the two?

    Read the article

  • ASP.NET 4.0 meta tags and Search engine optimisation

    - by nikolaosk
    I am thinking to create a new series of posts regarding ASP.NET and SEO (Search Engine Optimisation). I am going to start with this post , talking about some new features that make our asp.net apps more SEO friendly. At the end of the day, there is no point having a great application and somehow "scare" the search engines away. This is going to be a short post so let's quickly have a look at meta keywords and ASP.NET 4.0. Meta keywords and description are important elements of a page and make it...(read more)

    Read the article

  • The ugly evolution of running a background operation in the context of an ASP.NET app

    - by Jeff
    If you’re one of the two people who has followed my blog for many years, you know that I’ve been going at POP Forums now for over almost 15 years. Publishing it as an open source app has been a big help because it helps me understand how people want to use it, and having it translated to six languages is pretty sweet. Despite this warm and fuzzy group hug, there has been an ugly hack hiding in there for years. One of the things we find ourselves wanting to do is hide some kind of regular process inside of an ASP.NET application that runs periodically. The motivation for this has always been that a lot of people simply don’t have a choice, because they’re running the app on shared hosting, or don’t otherwise have access to a box that can run some kind of regular background service. In POP Forums, I “solved” this problem years ago by hiding some static timers in an HttpModule. Truthfully, this works well as long as you don’t run multiple instances of the app, which in the cloud world, is always a possibility. With the arrival of WebJobs in Azure, I’m going to solve this problem. This post isn’t about that. The other little hacky problem that I “solved” was spawning a background thread to queue emails to subscribed users of the forum. This evolved quite a bit over the years, starting with a long running page to mail users in real-time, when I had only a few hundred. By the time it got into the thousands, or tens of thousands, I needed a better way. What I did is launched a new thread that read all of the user data in, then wrote a queued email to the database (as in, the entire body of the email, every time), with the properly formatted opt-out link. It was super inefficient, but it worked. Then I moved my biggest site using it, CoasterBuzz, to an Azure Website, and it stopped working. So let’s start with the first stupid thing I was doing. The new thread was simply created with delegate code inline. As best I can tell, Azure Websites are more aggressive about garbage collection, because that thread didn’t queue even one message. When the calling server response went out of scope, so went the magic background thread. Duh, all I had to do was move the thread to a private static variable in the class. That’s the way I was able to keep stuff running from the HttpModule. (And yes, I know this is still prone to failure, particularly if the app recycles. For as infrequently as it’s used, I have not, however, experienced this.) It was still failing, but this time I wasn’t sure why. It would queue a few dozen messages, then die. Running in Azure, I had to turn on the application logging and FTP in to see what was going on. That led me to a helper method I was using as delegate to build the unsubscribe links. The idea here is that I didn’t want yet another config entry to describe the base URL, appended with the right path that would match the routing table. No, I wanted the app to figure it out for you, so I came up with this little thing: public static string FullUrlHelper(this Controller controller, string actionName, string controllerName, object routeValues = null) { var helper = new UrlHelper(controller.Request.RequestContext); var requestUrl = controller.Request.Url; if (requestUrl == null) return String.Empty; var url = requestUrl.Scheme + "://"; url += requestUrl.Host; url += (requestUrl.Port != 80 ? ":" + requestUrl.Port : ""); url += helper.Action(actionName, controllerName, routeValues); return url; } And yes, that should have been done with a string builder. This is useful for sending out the email verification messages, too. As clever as I thought I was with this, I was using a delegate in the admin controller to format these unsubscribe links for tens of thousands of users. I passed that delegate into a service class that did the email work: Func<User, string> unsubscribeLinkGenerator = user => this.FullUrlHelper("Unsubscribe", AccountController.Name, new { id = user.UserID, key = _profileService.GetUnsubscribeHash(user) }); _mailingListService.MailUsers(subject, body, htmlBody, unsubscribeLinkGenerator); Cool, right? Actually, not so much. If you look back at the helper, this delegate then will depend on the controller context to learn the routing and format for the URL. As you might have guessed, those things were turning null after a few dozen formatted links, when the original request to the admin controller went away. That this wasn’t already happening on my dedicated server is surprising, but again, I understand why the Azure environment might be eager to reclaim a thread after servicing the request. It’s already inefficient that I’m building the entire email for every user, but going back to check the routing table for the right link every time isn’t a win either. I put together a little hack to look up one generic URL, and use that as the basis for a string format. If you’re wondering why I didn’t just use the curly braces up front, it’s because they get URL formatted: var baseString = this.FullUrlHelper("Unsubscribe", AccountController.Name, new { id = "--id--", key = "--key--" }); baseString = baseString.Replace("--id--", "{0}").Replace("--key--", "{1}"); Func unsubscribeLinkGenerator = user => String.Format(baseString, user.UserID, _profileService.GetUnsubscribeHash(user)); _mailingListService.MailUsers(subject, body, htmlBody, unsubscribeLinkGenerator); And wouldn’t you know it, the new solution works just fine. It’s still kind of hacky and inefficient, but it will work until this somehow breaks too.

    Read the article

< Previous Page | 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68  | Next Page >