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  • Try out Windows Phone 7 on your PC today

    - by Matthew Guay
    Anticipation has been building for the new Windows Phone 7 Series ever since Microsoft unveiled it at the Mobile World Congress in February.  Now, thanks to free developer tools, you can get a first-hand experience of the basic Windows Phone 7 Series devices on your PC. Windows Phone 7 Series represents a huge change in the mobile field for Microsoft, bringing the acclaimed Zune HD UI to an innovative phone platform.  Windows Mobile has often been criticized for being behind other Smartphone platforms, but Microsoft seeks to regain the lead with this new upcoming release.  A platform must have developers behind it to be useful, so they have released a full set of free development tools so anyone can make apps for it today.  Or, if you simply want to play with Windows Phone 7, you can use the included emulator to try out the new Metro UI.  Here’s how to do this today on your Vista or 7 computer. Please note: These tools are a Customer Technology Preview release, so only install them if you’re comfortable using pre-release software. Getting Started First, download the Windows Phone Developer Tools CTP (link below), and run the installer.  This will install the Customer Technology Preview (CTP) versions of Visual Studio 2010 Express for Windows Phone, Windows Phone Emulator, Silverlight for Windows Phone, and XNA 4.0 Game Studio on your computer, all of which are required and cannot be installed individually. Accept the license agreement when prompted. Click “Install Now” to install the tools you need.  The only setup customization option is where to save the files, so choose Customize if you need to do so. Setup will now automatically download and install the components you need, and will additionally download either 32 or 64 bit programs depending on your operating system. About halfway thorough the installation, you’ll be prompted to reboot your system.  Once your computer is rebooted, setup will automatically resume without further input.   When setup is finished, click “Run the Product Now” to get started. Running Windows Phone 7 on your PC Now that you’ve got the Windows Phone Developer tools installed, it’s time to get the Windows Phone emulator running.  If you clicked “Run the Product Now” when the setup finished, Visual Studio 2010 Express for Windows Phone should have already started.   If not, simply enter “visual studio” in your start menu search and select “Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Express for Windows Phone”. Now, to run the Windows Phone 7 emulator, we have to test an application.  So, even if you don’t know how to program, we can open a phone application template, and then test it to run the emulator.  First, click New Project on the left hand side of the front page. Any of the application templates would work for this, but here let’s select “Windows Phone Application”, and then click Ok. Here’s your new application template, which already contains the basic phone application framework.  This is where you’d start if you want to develop a Windows Phone app, but for now we just want to see Windows Phone 7 in action. So, to run the emulator, click Debug in the menu and then select Start Debugging. Your new application will launch inside the Windows Phone 7 Series emulator.  The default template doesn’t give us much, but it does show an example application running in Windows Phone 7.   Exploring Windows Phone 7 Click the Windows button on the emulator to go to the home screen.  Notice the Zune HD-like transition animation.  The emulator only includes Internet Explorer, your test application, and a few settings. Click the arrow on the right to see the available applications in a list. Settings lets you change the theme, regional settings, and the date and time in your emulator.  It also has an applications settings pane, but this currently isn’t populated. The Time settings shows a unique Windows Phone UI. You can return to the home screen by pressing the Windows button.  Here’s the Internet Explorer app running, with the virtual keyboard open to enter an address.  Please note that this emulator can also accept input from your keyboard, so you can enter addresses without clicking on the virtual keyboard. And here’s Google running in Internet Explorer on Windows Phone 7. Windows Phone 7 supports accelerometers, and you can simulate this in the emulator.  Click one of the rotate buttons to rotate the screen in that direction. Here’s our favorite website in Internet Explorer on Windows Phone 7 in landscape mode. All this, running right inside your Windows 7 desktop… Developer tools for Windows Phone 7 Although it may be fun to play with the Windows Phone 7 emulator, developers will be more excited to actually be able to create new and exciting apps for it.  The Windows Phone Developer Tools download includes Visual Studio Express and XNA Game Studio 4.0 which lets you create enticing games and apps for Windows Phones.  All development for Windows Phones will be in C#, Silverlight, and the XNA game framework.  Visual Studio Express for Windows Phone includes templates for these, and additionally has code samples to help you get started with development. Conclusion Many features are still not functional in this preview version, such as the search button and most of the included applications.  However, this still gives you a great way to experience firsthand the future of the Windows Phone platform.  And, for developers, this is your chance to set your mark on the Windows Phone 7 Series even before it is released to the public.  Happy playing and developing! Links Download Windows Phone Developer Tools CTP Windows Phone Developer Site Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Keep Track of Homework Assignments with SoshikuWeekend Fun: Watch Television On Your PC With TVUPlayerEasily Manage Your Downloads with Download StatusbarCreate a Shortcut or Hotkey to Mute the System Volume in WindowsHow-To Geek on Lifehacker: How to Make Windows Vista Less Annoying 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 Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 PCmover Professional Convert the Quick Launch Bar into a Super Application Launcher Automate Tasks in Linux with Crontab Discover New Bundled Feeds in Google Reader Play Music in Chrome by Simply Dragging a File 15 Great Illustrations by Chow Hon Lam Easily Sync Files & Folders with Friends & Family

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  • Developer’s Life – Every Developer is a Captain America

    - by Pinal Dave
    Captain America was first created as a comic book character in the 1940’s as a way to boost morale during World War II.  Aimed at a children’s audience, his legacy faded away when the war ended.  However, he has recently has a major reboot to become a popular movie character that deals with modern issues. When Captain America was first written, there was no such thing as a developer, programmer or a computer (the way we think of them, anyway).  Despite these limitations, I think there are still a lot of ways that modern Captain America is like modern developers. So how are developers like Captain America? Well, read on my list of reasons. Take on Big Projects Captain America isn’t afraid to take on big projects – and takes responsibility when the project is co-opted by the evil organization HYDRA.  Developers may not have super villains out there corrupting their work, but they know to keep on top of their projects and own what they do. Elderly Wisdom Steve Rogers, Captain America’s alter ego, was frozen in ice for decades, and brought back to life to solve problems. Developers can learn from this by respecting the opinions of their elders – technology is an ever-changing market, but the old-timers still have a few tricks up their sleeves! Don’t be Afraid of Change Don’t be afraid of change.  Captain America woke up to find the world he was accustomed to is now completely different.  He might have even felt his skills were no longer necessary.  He, and developers, know that everyone has their place in a team, though.  If you try your best, you will make it work. Fight Your Own Battle Sometimes you have to make it on your own.  Captain America is an integral part of the Avengers, but in his own movies, the other superheroes aren’t around to back him up.  Developers, too, must learn to work both within and with out a team. Solid Integrity One of Captain America’s greatest qualities is his integrity.  His determine to do what is right, keep his word, and act honestly earns him mockery from some of the less-savory characters – even “good guys” like Iron Man.  Developers, and everyone else, need to develop the strength of character to keep their integrity.  No matter your walk of life, there will be tempting obstacles.  Think of Captain America, and say “no.” There is a lot for all of us to learn from Captain America, to take away in our own lives, and admire in those who display it – I am specifically thinking of developers.  If you are enjoying this series as much as I am, please let me know who else you would like to see featured. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com)Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL Tagged: Developer, Superhero

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  • How to Add Proprietary Drivers to Ubuntu 10.04

    - by Matthew Guay
    Does the hardware on your Ubuntu system need proprietary drivers work at peak performance?  Today we take a look how easy version 10.04 makes it to install them. Ubuntu 10.04 finally automatically recognizes and installs drivers for most hardware today, it even recognized and configured Wi-Fi drivers correctly every time in our tests.  This is in contrast to the past, when it was often difficult to get hardware to work in Linux.  However, most video cards still need proprietary drivers from their manufacturer to get full hardware video acceleration. Even though Ubuntu doesn’t include any non-open source components, it still makes it easy to install proprietary drivers if you wish.  When you first install and boot into Ubuntu, you may see a popup informing you that “restricted” drivers are available. You may see a notification asking you if you’d like to install optional drivers from your graphics card manufacturer when you try to enable advanced desktop effects.  Click Enable to directly install the drivers right there. Or, you can select the tray icon from the first popup, and click Install drivers. Alternately, if the tray icon has disappeared, click System, then Administration, and select Hardware Drivers.   This will open a dialog showing all the proprietary drivers available for your system, which may include drivers for your video card and other hardware depending on your computer.  Select the driver you wish to install, and click Activate. Enter your password, and then Ubuntu will download and install the driver without any more input.  After installation you may be prompted to reboot your system. Now, you should be able to take full advantage of your hardware, including fancy desktop effects with hardware acceleration. If you ever wish to remove these drivers, simply re-open the drivers dialog as above, select the driver, and click Remove.  Once again, a reboot may be required to finish the process. Conclusion Ubuntu has definitely made it easier to use Linux on your desktop computer, no matter what hardware you have.  If your video card or other hardware require proprietary drivers, it makes them available and simple to install.  And, best of all, all of your drivers stay updated with your software updates, so you can be sure you’re always running the latest. Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Adding extra Repositories on UbuntuBackup and Restore Hardware Drivers the Easy Way with Double DriverCopy Windows Drivers From One Machine to AnotherInstalling PHP4 and Apache on UbuntuInstalling PHP5 and Apache on Ubuntu 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 CloudBerry Online Backup 1.5 for Windows Home Server Snagit 10 VMware Workstation 7 Acronis Online Backup Gmail Button Addon (Firefox) Hyperwords addon (Firefox) Backup Outlook 2010 Daily Motivator (Firefox) FetchMp3 Can Download Videos & Convert Them to Mp3 Use Flixtime To Create Video Slideshows

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  • The best, in the West

    - by Fatherjack
    As many of you know, I run the SQL South West user group and we are currently in full flow preparing to stage the UK’s second SQL Saturday. The SQL Saturday spotlight is going to fall on Exeter in March 2013. We have full-day session on Friday 8th with some truly amazing speakers giving their insights and experience into some vital areas of working with SQL Server: Dave Ballantyne and Dave Morrison – TSQL and internals Christian Bolton and Gavin Payne – Mission critical data platforms on Windows Server 2012 Denny Cherry – SQL Server Security André Kamman – Powershell 3.0 for SQL Server Administrators and Developers Mladen Prajdic – From SQL Traces to Extended Events – The next big switch. A number of people have claimed that the choice is too good and they’d have trouble selecting just one session to attend. I can see how this is a problem but hope that they make their minds up quickly. The venue is a bespoke conference suite in the centre of Exeter but has limited capacity so we are working on a first-come first-served basis. All the session details and booking and travel information can be found on our user group website. The Saturday will be a day of free, 50 minute sessions on all aspects SQL Server from almost 30 different speakers. If you would like to submit a session then get a move on as submissions close on 8th January 2013 (That’s less than a month away). We are really interested in getting new speakers started so we have a lightning talk session where you can come along and give a small talk (anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes long) about anything connected with SQL Server as a way to introduce you to what it’s like to be a speaker at an event. Details on registering to attend and to submit a session (Lightning talks need to be submitted too please) can be found on our SQL Saturday pages. This is going to be the biggest and best bespoke SQL Server conference to ever take place this far South West in the UK and we aim to give everyone who comes to either day a real experience of the South West so we have a few surprises for you on the day.

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  • phablet-flash aborting while installing Ubuntu Touch on Nexus 4

    - by Till B
    I have a Nexus 4 with Android 4.3 installed and I want to flash it to Ubuntu Touch. My system is Ubuntu 12.04, running inside a virtual machine on Mac OS 10.5.8. To use the VM, I opened an NAT bridge and forwarded port 5037 for adb, I can see the Nexus with adb and e.g. use the adb shell into it. USB ports are also forwarded to the VM. I follow these instructions to the letter. My bootloader is unlocked, just as it was described in the instructions. Now I encounter different issues, when executing sudo phablet-flash ubuntu-system --no-backup. On the first run, it got stuck in this state: INFO:phablet-flash:Decompressing partitions/recovery.img from /home/till/Downloads/phablet-flash/imageupdates/pool/device-5ba3031cb0d6fc624848266edba781e3e821b6e1e8dd21105725f0ab26077d0a.tar.xz INFO:phablet-flash:Restarting device... wait INFO:phablet-flash:Restarting device... wait complete INFO:phablet-flash:Booting /tmp/tmpMSN8bm/partitions/recovery.img < waiting for device > downloading 'boot.img'... OKAY [ 1.772s] booting... OKAY [ 0.005s] finished. total time: 1.779s INFO:phablet-flash:Waiting for recovery image to boot The following happened: around the line "INFO:phablet-flash: Restarting...", it rebooted into the bootloader. The bootloader shows only for two seconds, then the screen goes off and the phone stays off. But I do notice, that the screen is not off - it is just black, but the background light is on. If I wait long enough, phablet-flash aborts with ERROR:phablet-flash:Wait for recovery expired On the second try, I wanted to manually start the bootloader and choose "Recovery mode". Pressing "volume down+power" at first did nothing. Releasing the buttons and then pressing them again brought me into the bootloder. After choosing "Recovery mode", phablet-flash continued and after a while aborted with the following output: INFO:phablet-flash:Wait for recovery image to boot complete INFO:phablet-flash:Clearing /data and /cache INFO:phablet-flash:Pushing /home/till/Downloads/phablet-flash/imageupdates/pool/ubuntu-2b5345658b58e55207c4a4e7b6b3d8cd4f3d9a3187d2448fc9020c884234bac0.tar.xz to /cache/recovery/ failed to copy '/home/till/Downloads/phablet-flash/imageupdates/pool/ubuntu-2b5345658b58e55207c4a4e7b6b3d8cd4f3d9a3187d2448fc9020c884234bac0.tar.xz' to '/cache/recovery/': Permission denied ERROR:phablet-flash:Command 'adb push /home/till/Downloads/phablet-flash/imageupdates/pool/ubuntu-2b5345658b58e55207c4a4e7b6b3d8cd4f3d9a3187d2448fc9020c884234bac0.tar.xz /cache/recovery/' returned non-zero exit status 1 Removing directory /tmp/tmpDnbz6N Removing directory /tmp/tmpth4L6w What can I do to properly flash my phone with Ubuntu Touch? I noticed that adb does not show the phone in recovery mode: Typing adb devices, when the Nexus 4 is in recovery mode, shows the serial number and the state device, where it should show recovery. Should the phone be rooted? This is not mentioned in the instructions.

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  • Parallelism in .NET – Part 18, Task Continuations with Multiple Tasks

    - by Reed
    In my introduction to Task continuations I demonstrated how the Task class provides a more expressive alternative to traditional callbacks.  Task continuations provide a much cleaner syntax to traditional callbacks, but there are other reasons to switch to using continuations… Task continuations provide a clean syntax, and a very simple, elegant means of synchronizing asynchronous method results with the user interface.  In addition, continuations provide a very simple, elegant means of working with collections of tasks. Prior to .NET 4, working with multiple related asynchronous method calls was very tricky.  If, for example, we wanted to run two asynchronous operations, followed by a single method call which we wanted to run when the first two methods completed, we’d have to program all of the handling ourselves.  We would likely need to take some approach such as using a shared callback which synchronized against a common variable, or using a WaitHandle shared within the callbacks to allow one to wait for the second.  Although this could be accomplished easily enough, it requires manually placing this handling into every algorithm which requires this form of blocking.  This is error prone, difficult, and can easily lead to subtle bugs. Similar to how the Task class static methods providing a way to block until multiple tasks have completed, TaskFactory contains static methods which allow a continuation to be scheduled upon the completion of multiple tasks: TaskFactory.ContinueWhenAll. This allows you to easily specify a single delegate to run when a collection of tasks has completed.  For example, suppose we have a class which fetches data from the network.  This can be a long running operation, and potentially fail in certain situations, such as a server being down.  As a result, we have three separate servers which we will “query” for our information.  Now, suppose we want to grab data from all three servers, and verify that the results are the same from all three. With traditional asynchronous programming in .NET, this would require using three separate callbacks, and managing the synchronization between the various operations ourselves.  The Task and TaskFactory classes simplify this for us, allowing us to write: var server1 = Task.Factory.StartNew( () => networkClass.GetResults(firstServer) ); var server2 = Task.Factory.StartNew( () => networkClass.GetResults(secondServer) ); var server3 = Task.Factory.StartNew( () => networkClass.GetResults(thirdServer) ); var result = Task.Factory.ContinueWhenAll( new[] {server1, server2, server3 }, (tasks) => { // Propogate exceptions (see below) Task.WaitAll(tasks); return this.CompareTaskResults( tasks[0].Result, tasks[1].Result, tasks[2].Result); }); .csharpcode, .csharpcode pre { font-size: small; color: black; font-family: consolas, "Courier New", courier, monospace; background-color: #ffffff; /*white-space: pre;*/ } .csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; } .csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; } .csharpcode .str { color: #006080; } .csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; } .csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; } .csharpcode .asp { background-color: #ffff00; } .csharpcode .html { color: #800000; } .csharpcode .attr { color: #ff0000; } .csharpcode .alt { background-color: #f4f4f4; width: 100%; margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .lnum { color: #606060; } This is clean, simple, and elegant.  The one complication is the Task.WaitAll(tasks); statement. Although the continuation will not complete until all three tasks (server1, server2, and server3) have completed, there is a potential snag.  If the networkClass.GetResults method fails, and raises an exception, we want to make sure to handle it cleanly.  By using Task.WaitAll, any exceptions raised within any of our original tasks will get wrapped into a single AggregateException by the WaitAll method, providing us a simplified means of handling the exceptions.  If we wait on the continuation, we can trap this AggregateException, and handle it cleanly.  Without this line, it’s possible that an exception could remain uncaught and unhandled by a task, which later might trigger a nasty UnobservedTaskException.  This would happen any time two of our original tasks failed. Just as we can schedule a continuation to occur when an entire collection of tasks has completed, we can just as easily setup a continuation to run when any single task within a collection completes.  If, for example, we didn’t need to compare the results of all three network locations, but only use one, we could still schedule three tasks.  We could then have our completion logic work on the first task which completed, and ignore the others.  This is done via TaskFactory.ContinueWhenAny: var server1 = Task.Factory.StartNew( () => networkClass.GetResults(firstServer) ); var server2 = Task.Factory.StartNew( () => networkClass.GetResults(secondServer) ); var server3 = Task.Factory.StartNew( () => networkClass.GetResults(thirdServer) ); var result = Task.Factory.ContinueWhenAny( new[] {server1, server2, server3 }, (firstTask) => { return this.ProcessTaskResult(firstTask.Result); }); .csharpcode, .csharpcode pre { font-size: small; color: black; font-family: consolas, "Courier New", courier, monospace; background-color: #ffffff; /*white-space: pre;*/ } .csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; } .csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; } .csharpcode .str { color: #006080; } .csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; } .csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; } .csharpcode .asp { background-color: #ffff00; } .csharpcode .html { color: #800000; } .csharpcode .attr { color: #ff0000; } .csharpcode .alt { background-color: #f4f4f4; width: 100%; margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .lnum { color: #606060; } Here, instead of working with all three tasks, we’re just using the first task which finishes.  This is very useful, as it allows us to easily work with results of multiple operations, and “throw away” the others.  However, you must take care when using ContinueWhenAny to properly handle exceptions.  At some point, you should always wait on each task (or use the Task.Result property) in order to propogate any exceptions raised from within the task.  Failing to do so can lead to an UnobservedTaskException.

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  • Naming PowerPoint Components With A VSTO Add-In

    - by Tim Murphy
    Note: Cross posted from Coding The Document. Permalink Sometimes in order to work with Open XML we need a little help from other tools.  In this post I am going to describe  a fairly simple solution for marking up PowerPoint presentations so that they can be used as templates and processed using the Open XML SDK. Add-ins are tools which it can be hard to find information on.  I am going to up the obscurity by adding a Ribbon button.  For my example I am using Visual Studio 2008 and creating a PowerPoint 2007 Add-in project.  To that add a Ribbon Visual Designer.  The new ribbon by default will show up on the Add-in tab. Add a button to the ribbon.  Also add a WinForm to collect a new name for the object selected.  Make sure to set the OK button’s DialogResult to OK. In the ribbon button click event add the following code. ObjectNameForm dialog = new ObjectNameForm(); Selection selection = Globals.ThisAddIn.Application.ActiveWindow.Selection;   dialog.objectName = selection.ShapeRange.Name;   if (dialog.ShowDialog() == DialogResult.OK) { selection.ShapeRange.Name = dialog.objectName; } This code will first read the current Name attribute of the Shape object.  If the user clicks OK on the dialog it save the string value back to the same place. Once it is done you can retrieve identify the control through Open XML via the NonVisualDisplayProperties objects.  The only problem is that this object is a child of several different classes.  This means that there isn’t just one way to retrieve the value.  Below are a couple of pieces of code to identify the container that you have named. The first example is if you are naming placeholders in a layout slide. foreach(var slideMasterPart in slideMasterParts) { var layoutParts = slideMasterPart.SlideLayoutParts; foreach(SlideLayoutPart slideLayoutPart in layoutParts) { foreach (assmPresentation.Shape shape in slideLayoutPart.SlideLayout.CommonSlideData.ShapeTree.Descendants<assmPresentation.Shape>()) { var slideMasterProperties = from p in shape.Descendants<assmPresentation.NonVisualDrawingProperties>() where p.Name == TokenText.Text select p;   if (slideMasterProperties.Count() > 0) tokenFound = true; } } } The second example allows you to find charts that you have named with the add-in. foreach(var slidePart in slideParts) { foreach(assmPresentation.Shape slideShape in slidePart.Slide.CommonSlideData.ShapeTree.Descendants<assmPresentation.Shape>()) { var slideProperties = from g in slidePart.Slide.Descendants<GraphicFrame>() where g.NonVisualGraphicFrameProperties.NonVisualDrawingProperties.Name == TokenText.Text select g;   if(slideProperties.Count() > 0) { tokenFound = true; } } } Together the combination of Open XML and VSTO add-ins make a powerful combination in creating a process for maintaining a template and generating documents from the template.

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  • DropDownList and SelectListItem Array Item Updates in MVC

    - by Rick Strahl
    So I ran into an interesting behavior today as I deployed my first MVC 4 app tonight. I have a list form that has a filter drop down that allows selection of categories. This list is static and rarely changes so rather than loading these items from the database each time I load the items once and then cache the actual SelectListItem[] array in a static property. However, when we put the site online tonight we immediately noticed that the drop down list was coming up with pre-set values that randomly changed. Didn't take me long to trace this back to the cached list of SelectListItem[]. Clearly the list was getting updated - apparently through the model binding process in the selection postback. To clarify the scenario here's the drop down list definition in the Razor View:@Html.DropDownListFor(mod => mod.QueryParameters.Category, Model.CategoryList, "All Categories") where Model.CategoryList gets set with:[HttpPost] [CompressContent] public ActionResult List(MessageListViewModel model) { InitializeViewModel(model); busEntry entryBus = new busEntry(); var entries = entryBus.GetEntryList(model.QueryParameters); model.Entries = entries; model.DisplayMode = ApplicationDisplayModes.Standard; model.CategoryList = AppUtils.GetCachedCategoryList(); return View(model); } The AppUtils.GetCachedCategoryList() method gets the cached list or loads the list on the first access. The code to load up the list is housed in a Web utility class. The method looks like this:/// <summary> /// Returns a static category list that is cached /// </summary> /// <returns></returns> public static SelectListItem[] GetCachedCategoryList() { if (_CategoryList != null) return _CategoryList; lock (_SyncLock) { if (_CategoryList != null) return _CategoryList; var catBus = new busCategory(); var categories = catBus.GetCategories().ToList(); // Turn list into a SelectItem list var catList= categories .Select(cat => new SelectListItem() { Text = cat.Name, Value = cat.Id.ToString() }) .ToList(); catList.Insert(0, new SelectListItem() { Value = ((int)SpecialCategories.AllCategoriesButRealEstate).ToString(), Text = "All Categories except Real Estate" }); catList.Insert(1, new SelectListItem() { Value = "-1", Text = "--------------------------------" }); _CategoryList = catList.ToArray(); } return _CategoryList; } private static SelectListItem[] _CategoryList ; This seemed normal enough to me - I've been doing stuff like this forever caching smallish lists in memory to avoid an extra trip to the database. This list is used in various places throughout the application - for the list display and also when adding new items and setting up for notifications etc.. Watch that ModelBinder! However, it turns out that this code is clearly causing a problem. It appears that the model binder on the [HttpPost] method is actually updating the list that's bound to and changing the actual entry item in the list and setting its selected value. If you look at the code above I'm not setting the SelectListItem.Selected value anywhere - the only place this value can get set is through ModelBinding. Sure enough when stepping through the code I see that when an item is selected the actual model - model.CategoryList[x].Selected - reflects that. This is bad on several levels: First it's obviously affecting the application behavior - nobody wants to see their drop down list values jump all over the place randomly. But it's also a problem because the array is getting updated by multiple ASP.NET threads which likely would lead to odd crashes from time to time. Not good! In retrospect the modelbinding behavior makes perfect sense. The actual items and the Selected property is the ModelBinder's way of keeping track of one or more selected values. So while I assumed the list to be read-only, the ModelBinder is actually updating it on a post back producing the rather surprising results. Totally missed this during testing and is another one of those little - "Did you know?" moments. So, is there a way around this? Yes but it's maybe not quite obvious. I can't change the behavior of the ModelBinder, but I can certainly change the way that the list is generated. Rather than returning the cached list, I can return a brand new cloned list from the cached items like this:/// <summary> /// Returns a static category list that is cached /// </summary> /// <returns></returns> public static SelectListItem[] GetCachedCategoryList() { if (_CategoryList != null) { // Have to create new instances via projection // to avoid ModelBinding updates to affect this // globally return _CategoryList .Select(cat => new SelectListItem() { Value = cat.Value, Text = cat.Text }) .ToArray(); } …}  The key is that newly created instances of SelectListItems are returned not just filtered instances of the original list. The key here is 'new instances' so that the ModelBinding updates do not update the actual static instance. The code above uses LINQ and a projection into new SelectListItem instances to create this array of fresh instances. And this code works correctly - no more cross-talk between users. Unfortunately this code is also less efficient - it has to reselect the items and uses extra memory for the new array. Knowing what I know now I probably would have not cached the list and just take the hit to read from the database. If there is even a possibility of thread clashes I'm very wary of creating code like this. But since the method already exists and handles this load in one place this fix was easy enough to put in. Live and learn. It's little things like this that can cause some interesting head scratchers sometimes…© Rick Strahl, West Wind Technologies, 2005-2012Posted in MVC  ASP.NET  .NET   Tweet !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs"); (function() { var po = document.createElement('script'); po.type = 'text/javascript'; po.async = true; po.src = 'https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(po, s); })();

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  • Older SAS1 hardware Vs. newer SAS2 hardware

    - by user12620172
    I got a question today from someone asking about the older SAS1 hardware from over a year ago that we had on the older 7x10 series. They didn't leave an email so I couldn't respond directly, but I said this blog would be blunt, frank, and open so I have no problem addressing it publicly. A quick history lesson here: When Sun first put out the 7x10 family hardware, the 7410 and 7310 used a SAS1 backend connection to a JBOD that had SATA drives in it. This JBOD was not manufactured by Sun nor did Sun own the IP for it. Now, when Oracle took over, they had a problem with that, and I really can’t blame them. The decision was made to cut off that JBOD and it’s manufacturer completely and use our own where Oracle controlled both the IP and the manufacturing. So in the summer of 2010, the cut was made, and the 7410 and 7310 had a hardware refresh and now had a SAS2 backend going to a SAS2 JBOD with SAS2 drives instead of SATA. This new hardware had two big advantages. First, there was a nice performance increase, mostly due to the faster backend. Even better, the SAS2 interface on the drives allowed for a MUCH faster failover between cluster heads, as the SATA drives were the bottleneck on the older hardware. In September of 2010 there was a major refresh of the rest of the 7000 hardware, the controllers and the other family members, and that’s where we got today’s current line-up of the 7x20 series. So the 7x20 has always used the new trays, and the 7410 and 7310 have used the new SAS2 trays since last July of 2010. Now for the bad news. People who have the 7410 and 7310 from BEFORE the July 2010 cutoff have the models with SAS1 HBAs in them to connect to the older SAS1 trays. Remember, that manufacturer cut all ties with us and stopped making the JBOD, so there’s just no way to get more of them, as they don’t exist. There are some options, however. Oracle support does support taking out the SAS1 HBAs in the old 7410 and 7310 and put in newer SAS2 HBAs which can talk to the new trays. Hey, I didn’t say it was a great option, I just said it’s an option. I fully realize that you would then have a SAS1 JBOD full of SATA drives that you could no longer connect. I do know a client that did this, and took the SAS1 JBOD and connected it to another server and formatted the drives and is using it as a plain, non-7000 JBOD. This is not supported by Oracle support. The other option is to just keep it as-is, as it works just fine, but you just can’t expand it. Then you can get a newer 7x20 series, and use the built-in ZFSSA replication feature to move the data over. Now you can use the newer one for your production data and use the older one for DR, snaps and clones.

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  • Setting up a Reverse Proxy using IIS, URL Rewrite and ARR

    - by The Official Microsoft IIS Site
    Today there was a question in the IIS.net Forums asking how to expose two different Internet sites from another site making them look like if they were subdirectories in the main site. So for example the goal was to have a site: www.site.com expose a www.site.com/company1 and a www.site.com/company2 and have the content from “www.company1.com” served for the first one and “www.company2.com” served in the second one. Furthermore we would like to have the responses cached in the server for performance...(read more)

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  • Display System Information on Your Desktop with Desktop Info

    - by Asian Angel
    Do you like to monitor your system but do not want a complicated app to do it with? If you love simplicity and easy configuration then join us as we look at Desktop Info. Desktop Info in Action Desktop Info comes in a zip file format so you will need to unzip the app, place it into an appropriate “Program Files Folder”, and create a shortcut. Do NOT delete the “Read Me File”…this will be extremely useful to you when you make changes to the “Configuration File”. Once you have everything set up you are ready to start Desktop Info up. This is the default layout and set of listings displayed when you start Desktop Info up for the first time. The font colors will be a mix of colors as seen here and the font size will perhaps be a bit small but those are very easy to change if desired. You can access the “Context Menu” directly over the “information area”…so no need to look for it in the “System Tray”. Notice that you can easily access that important “Read Me File” from here… The full contents of the configuration file (.ini file) are displayed here so that you can see exactly what kind of information can be displayed using the default listings. The first section is “Options”…you will most likely want to increase the font size while you are here. Then “Items”… If you are unhappy with any of the font colors in the “information area” this is where you can make the changes. You can turn information display items on or off here. And finally “Files, Registry, & Event Logs”. Here is our displayed information after a few tweaks in the configuration file. Very nice. Conclusion If you have been looking for a system information app that is simple and easy to set up then you should definitely give Desktop Info a try. Links Download Desktop Info Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Ask the Readers: What are Your Computer’s Hardware Specs?Allow Remote Control To Your Desktop On UbuntuHow To Get Detailed Information About Your PCGet CPU / System Load Average on Ubuntu LinuxEnable Remote Desktop (VNC) on Kubuntu TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips DVDFab 6 Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 Test Drive Windows 7 Online Download Wallpapers From National Geographic Site Spyware Blaster v4.3 Yes, it’s Patch Tuesday Generate Stunning Tag Clouds With Tagxedo Install, Remove and HIDE Fonts in Windows 7

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  • New Cumulative Updates for SQL Server 2008 SP1 & R2!

    - by AaronBertrand
    Well, this is the first time in a long time that I've blogged about cumulative updates for two different versions of SQL Server on the same day. Yesterday Microsoft released a cumulative update for SQL Server 2008 SP1 (bringing you to 10.0.2775), and a corresponding cumulative update for SQL Server 2008 R2 RTM (bringing you from 10.50.1600 to 10.50.1702). You can read more about these updates here: Cumulative Update #1 for SQL Server 2008 R2 RTM ( KB #981355 ) Cumulative Update #8 for SQL Server...(read more)

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  • S#arp Architecture 1.5 released

    - by AlecWhittington
    The past two weeks have been wonderful for me, spending 12 days on Oahu, Hawaii. Then followed up with the S#arp Architecture 1.5 release. It has been a short 4 months since taking over as the project lead and this is my first major milestone. With this release, we advance S# even more forward with the ASP.NET MVC 2 enhancements. What's is S#? Pronounced "Sharp Architecture," this is a solid architectural foundation for rapidly building maintainable web applications leveraging the ASP.NET MVC framework...(read more)

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  • [OT] : Windows Activation, en masse

    - by AaronBertrand
    This weekend I discovered a minor issue in one of my virtual environments. I had built out 100 VMs based on a Hyper-V template, but I forgot to activate the original source before creating the template, so all of the machines were suddenly out of compliance. While easy enough on a one- or two-machine basis to just log into the machine and activate manually, there was no way I was even going to dream of repeating that process on 100 machines. My First Reaction : PowerShell Whenever I do anything with...(read more)

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  • Using dnnModal.show in your modules and content

    - by Chris Hammond
    One thing that was added in DotNetNuke 6 but hasn’t been covered in great detail is a method called dnnModal.show. Calling this method is fairly straight forward depending on your need, but before we get into how to call/use the method, let’s talk about what it does first. dnnModal.show is a method that gets called via JavaScript and allows you to load up a URL into a modal popup window within your DotNetNuke site. Basically it will take that URL and load it into an IFrame within the current DotNetNuke...(read more)

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  • Validation in Silverlight

    - by Timmy Kokke
    Getting started with the basics Validation in Silverlight can get very complex pretty easy. The DataGrid control is the only control that does data validation automatically, but often you want to validate your own entry form. Values a user may enter in this form can be restricted by the customer and have to fit an exact fit to a list of requirements or you just want to prevent problems when saving the data to the database. Showing a message to the user when a value is entered is pretty straight forward as I’ll show you in the following example.     This (default) Silverlight textbox is data-bound to a simple data class. It has to be bound in “Two-way” mode to be sure the source value is updated when the target value changes. The INotifyPropertyChanged interface must be implemented by the data class to get the notification system to work. When the property changes a simple check is performed and when it doesn’t match some criteria an ValidationException is thrown. The ValidatesOnExceptions binding attribute is set to True to tell the textbox it should handle the thrown ValidationException. Let’s have a look at some code now. The xaml should contain something like below. The most important part is inside the binding. In this case the Text property is bound to the “Name” property in TwoWay mode. It is also told to validate on exceptions. This property is false by default.   <StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal"> <TextBox Width="150" x:Name="Name" Text="{Binding Path=Name, Mode=TwoWay, ValidatesOnExceptions=True}"/> <TextBlock Text="Name"/> </StackPanel>   The data class in this first example is a very simplified person class with only one property: string Name. The INotifyPropertyChanged interface is implemented and the PropertyChanged event is fired when the Name property changes. When the property changes a check is performed to see if the new string is null or empty. If this is the case a ValidationException is thrown explaining that the entered value is invalid.   public class PersonData:INotifyPropertyChanged { private string _name; public string Name { get { return _name; } set { if (_name != value) { if(string.IsNullOrEmpty(value)) throw new ValidationException("Name is required"); _name = value; if (PropertyChanged != null) PropertyChanged(this, new PropertyChangedEventArgs("Name")); } } } public event PropertyChangedEventHandler PropertyChanged=delegate { }; } The last thing that has to be done is letting binding an instance of the PersonData class to the DataContext of the control. This is done in the code behind file. public partial class Demo1 : UserControl { public Demo1() { InitializeComponent(); this.DataContext = new PersonData() {Name = "Johnny Walker"}; } }   Error Summary In many cases you would have more than one entry control. A summary of errors would be nice in such case. With a few changes to the xaml an error summary, like below, can be added.           First, add a namespace to the xaml so the control can be used. Add the following line to the header of the .xaml file. xmlns:Controls="clr-namespace:System.Windows.Controls;assembly=System.Windows.Controls.Data.Input"   Next, add the control to the layout. To get the result as in the image showed earlier, add the control right above the StackPanel from the first example. It’s got a small margin to separate it from the textbox a little.   <Controls:ValidationSummary Margin="8"/>   The ValidationSummary control has to be notified that an ValidationException occurred. This can be done with a small change to the xaml too. Add the NotifyOnValidationError to the binding expression. By default this value is set to false, so nothing would be notified. Set the property to true to get it to work.   <TextBox Width="150" x:Name="Name" Text="{Binding Name, Mode=TwoWay, ValidatesOnExceptions=True, NotifyOnValidationError=True}"/>   Data annotation Validating data in the setter is one option, but not my personal favorite. It’s the easiest way if you have a single required value you want to check, but often you want to validate more. Besides, I don’t consider it best practice to write logic in setters. The way used by frameworks like WCF Ria Services is the use of attributes on the properties. Instead of throwing exceptions you have to call the static method ValidateProperty on the Validator class. This call stays always the same for a particular property, not even when you change the attributes on the property. To mark a property “Required” you can use the RequiredAttribute. This is what the Name property is going to look like:   [Required] public string Name { get { return _name; } set { if (_name != value) { Validator.ValidateProperty(value, new ValidationContext(this, null, null){ MemberName = "Name" }); _name = value; if (PropertyChanged != null) PropertyChanged(this, new PropertyChangedEventArgs("Name")); } } }   The ValidateProperty method takes the new value for the property and an instance of ValidationContext. The properties passed to the constructor of the ValidationContextclass are very straight forward. This part is the same every time. The only thing that changes is the MemberName property of the ValidationContext. Property has to hold the name of the property you want to validate. It’s the same value you provide the PropertyChangedEventArgs with. The System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotation contains eight different validation attributes including a base class to create your own. They are: RequiredAttribute Specifies that a value must be provided. RangeAttribute The provide value must fall in the specified range. RegularExpressionAttribute Validates is the value matches the regular expression. StringLengthAttribute Checks if the number of characters in a string falls between a minimum and maximum amount. CustomValidationAttribute Use a custom method to validate the value. DataTypeAttribute Specify a data type using an enum or a custom data type. EnumDataTypeAttribute Makes sure the value is found in a enum. ValidationAttribute A base class for custom validation attributes All of these will ensure that an validation exception is thrown, except the DataTypeAttribute. This attribute is used to provide some additional information about the property. You can use this information in your own code.   [Required] [Range(0,125,ErrorMessage = "Value is not a valid age")] public int Age {   It’s no problem to stack different validation attributes together. For example, when an Age is required and must fall in the range from 0 to 125:   [Required, StringLength(255,MinimumLength = 3)] public string Name {   Or in one row like this, for a required Name with at least 3 characters and a maximum of 255:   Delayed validation Having properties marked as required can be very useful. The only downside to the technique described earlier is that you have to change the value in order to get it validated. What if you start out with empty an empty entry form? All fields are empty and thus won’t be validated. With this small trick you can validate at the moment the user click the submit button.   <TextBox Width="150" x:Name="NameField" Text="{Binding Name, Mode=TwoWay, ValidatesOnExceptions=True, NotifyOnValidationError=True, UpdateSourceTrigger=Explicit}"/>   By default, when a TwoWay bound control looses focus the value is updated. When you added validation like I’ve shown you earlier, the value is validated. To overcome this, you have to tell the binding update explicitly by setting the UpdateSourceTrigger binding property to Explicit:   private void SubmitButtonClick(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e) { NameField.GetBindingExpression(TextBox.TextProperty).UpdateSource(); }   This way, the binding is in two direction but the source is only updated, thus validated, when you tell it to. In the code behind you have to call the UpdateSource method on the binding expression, which you can get from the TextBox.   Conclusion Data validation is something you’ll probably want on almost every entry form. I always thought it was hard to do, but it wasn’t. If you can throw an exception you can do validation. If you want to know anything more in depth about something I talked about in this article let me know. I might write an entire post to that.

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  • Will Python 3.0's backwards-incompatibility affect adoption?

    - by George Stocker
    I visited Slashdot this morning to find out that Python 3.0 has been released. I know C# and Perl, but have wanted to learn Python for some time, especially after I saw its ease of use to create useful tools, not to mention its use in game scripting. My question is, how does the intentionally backwards-incompatible release of Python 3.0 affect adoption, and should I learn Python 2? Or should I take the dive and learn Python 3.0 first, and wait for the libraries to be ported?

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  • Tales from the Trenches – Building a Real-World Silverlight Line of Business Application

    - by dwahlin
    There's rarely a boring day working in the world of software development. Part of the fun associated with being a developer is that change is guaranteed and the more you learn about a particular technology the more you realize there's always a different or better way to perform a task. I've had the opportunity to work on several different real-world Silverlight Line of Business (LOB) applications over the past few years and wanted to put together a list of some of the key things I've learned as well as key problems I've encountered and resolved. There are several different topics I could cover related to "lessons learned" (some of them were more painful than others) but I'll keep it to 5 items for this post and cover additional lessons learned in the future. The topics discussed were put together for a TechEd talk: Pick a Pattern and Stick To It Data Binding and Nested Controls Notify Users of Successes (and failures) Get an Agent – A Service Agent Extend Existing Controls The first topic covered relates to architecture best practices and how the MVVM pattern can save you time in the long run. When I was first introduced to MVVM I thought it was a lot of work for very little payoff. I've since learned (the hard way in some cases) that my initial impressions were dead wrong and that my criticisms of the pattern were generally caused by doing things the wrong way. In addition to MVVM pros the slides and sample app below also jump into data binding tricks in nested control scenarios and discuss how animations and media can be used to enhance LOB applications in subtle ways. Finally, a discussion of creating a re-usable service agent to interact with backend services is discussed as well as how existing controls make good candidates for customization. I tried to keep the samples simple while still covering the topics as much as possible so if you’re new to Silverlight you should definitely be able to follow along with a little study and practice. I’d recommend starting with the SilverlightDemos.View project, moving to the SilverlightDemos.ViewModels project and then going to the SilverlightDemos.ServiceAgents project. All of the backend “Model” code can be found in the SilverlightDemos.Web project. Custom controls used in the app can be found in the SivlerlightDemos.Controls project.   Sample Code and Slides

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  • Friday Fun: Play 3D Rally Racing in Google Chrome

    - by Asian Angel
    Are you a racing fan in need of a short (or long) break from work? Then get ready to enjoy a mid-day speed boost with the 3D Rally Racing extension for Google Chrome. 3D Rally Racing in Action This is the opening screen for 3D Rally Racing. You can start game play, view current best times, and read through the instructions from here. The first thing that you should do is have a quick look at the instructions to help you get set up and started. Click on “Play” to start the process. Before you can go further you will need to choose a “User Name”. Once you have done that click “Select Track”… Note: The extension will retain your name for later use even if you close your browser. When you first start out you will only have access to two tracks…the others require reaching a certain score/level to unlock them. Once you select a track you will be taken to the next screen. After you have selected a track you will need to choose your car and car color. All that is left to do afterwards is click on “Go Race”. Note: You will be competing against three other vehicles in the race. Here is a look at the “Desert Race Track”… And a look at the “Snow Race Track”. This game moves quickly and it is easy to fall behind if you are not careful! You can have a lot of fun playing this game while you are waiting for the day to end. Conclusion If you love racing games and want a fun way to waste the rest of afternoon at work, then you should definitely give 3D Rally Racing a try. Links Download the 3d Rally Racing extension (Google Chrome Extensions) Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Friday Fun: Uphill RushFriday Fun: Racing Fun with SuperTuxKart RacerHow to Make Google Chrome Your Default BrowserEnable Vista Black Style Theme for Google Chrome in XPIncrease Google Chrome’s Omnibox Popup Suggestion Count With an Undocumented Switch 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 Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 PCmover Professional Enable Check Box Selection in Windows 7 OnlineOCR – Free OCR Service Betting on the Blind Side, a Vanity Fair article 30 Minimal Logo Designs that Say More with Less LEGO Digital Designer – Free Create a Personal Website Quickly using Flavors.me

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  • Friday Fun: Play 3D Rally Racing in Google Chrome

    - by Asian Angel
    Are you a racing fan in need of a short (or long) break from work? Then get ready to enjoy a mid-day speed boost with the 3D Rally Racing extension for Google Chrome. 3D Rally Racing in Action This is the opening screen for 3D Rally Racing. You can start game play, view current best times, and read through the instructions from here. The first thing that you should do is have a quick look at the instructions to help you get set up and started. Click on “Play” to start the process. Before you can go further you will need to choose a “User Name”. Once you have done that click “Select Track”… Note: The extension will retain your name for later use even if you close your browser. When you first start out you will only have access to two tracks…the others require reaching a certain score/level to unlock them. Once you select a track you will be taken to the next screen. After you have selected a track you will need to choose your car and car color. All that is left to do afterwards is click on “Go Race”. Note: You will be competing against three other vehicles in the race. Here is a look at the “Desert Race Track”… And a look at the “Snow Race Track”. This game moves quickly and it is easy to fall behind if you are not careful! You can have a lot of fun playing this game while you are waiting for the day to end. Conclusion If you love racing games and want a fun way to waste the rest of afternoon at work, then you should definitely give 3D Rally Racing a try. Links Download the 3d Rally Racing extension (Google Chrome Extensions) Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Friday Fun: Uphill RushFriday Fun: Racing Fun with SuperTuxKart RacerHow to Make Google Chrome Your Default BrowserEnable Vista Black Style Theme for Google Chrome in XPIncrease Google Chrome’s Omnibox Popup Suggestion Count With an Undocumented Switch 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 Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 PCmover Professional Enable Check Box Selection in Windows 7 OnlineOCR – Free OCR Service Betting on the Blind Side, a Vanity Fair article 30 Minimal Logo Designs that Say More with Less LEGO Digital Designer – Free Create a Personal Website Quickly using Flavors.me

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  • Using a service registry that doesn’t suck part I: UDDI is dead

    - by gsusx
    This is the first of a series of posts on which I am hoping to detail some of the most common SOA governance scenarios in the real world, their challenges and the approach we’ve taken to address them in SO-Aware. This series does not intend to be a marketing pitch about SO-Aware. Instead, I would like to use this to foment an honest dialog between SOA governance technologists. For the starting post I decided to focus on the aspect that was once considered the keystone of SOA governance: service discovery...(read more)

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  • Upgrade Exchange 2003 to Exchange 2010

    In this article, the first of two in which Jaap describes how to move from Exchange Server 2003 straight to Exchange Server 2010, he shows what is required before moving mailboxes from Exchange Server 2003 to Exchange Server 2010. He shows how to upgrade Active Directory, install both Exchange Server 2010 and certificates, and set up the Public Folder replication.

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  • Maintaining shared service in ASP.NET MVC Application

    - by kazimanzurrashid
    Depending on the application sometimes we have to maintain some shared service throughout our application. Let’s say you are developing a multi-blog supported blog engine where both the controller and view must know the currently visiting blog, it’s setting , user information and url generation service. In this post, I will show you how you can handle this kind of case in most convenient way. First, let see the most basic way, we can create our PostController in the following way: public class PostController : Controller { public PostController(dependencies...) { } public ActionResult Index(string blogName, int? page) { BlogInfo blog = blogSerivce.FindByName(blogName); if (blog == null) { return new NotFoundResult(); } IEnumerable<PostInfo> posts = postService.FindPublished(blog.Id, PagingCalculator.StartIndex(page, blog.PostPerPage), blog.PostPerPage); int count = postService.GetPublishedCount(blog.Id); UserInfo user = null; if (HttpContext.User.Identity.IsAuthenticated) { user = userService.FindByName(HttpContext.User.Identity.Name); } return View(new IndexViewModel(urlResolver, user, blog, posts, count, page)); } public ActionResult Archive(string blogName, int? page, ArchiveDate archiveDate) { BlogInfo blog = blogSerivce.FindByName(blogName); if (blog == null) { return new NotFoundResult(); } IEnumerable<PostInfo> posts = postService.FindArchived(blog.Id, archiveDate, PagingCalculator.StartIndex(page, blog.PostPerPage), blog.PostPerPage); int count = postService.GetArchivedCount(blog.Id, archiveDate); UserInfo user = null; if (HttpContext.User.Identity.IsAuthenticated) { user = userService.FindByName(HttpContext.User.Identity.Name); } return View(new ArchiveViewModel(urlResolver, user, blog, posts, count, page, achiveDate)); } public ActionResult Tag(string blogName, string tagSlug, int? page) { BlogInfo blog = blogSerivce.FindByName(blogName); if (blog == null) { return new NotFoundResult(); } TagInfo tag = tagService.FindBySlug(blog.Id, tagSlug); if (tag == null) { return new NotFoundResult(); } IEnumerable<PostInfo> posts = postService.FindPublishedByTag(blog.Id, tag.Id, PagingCalculator.StartIndex(page, blog.PostPerPage), blog.PostPerPage); int count = postService.GetPublishedCountByTag(tag.Id); UserInfo user = null; if (HttpContext.User.Identity.IsAuthenticated) { user = userService.FindByName(HttpContext.User.Identity.Name); } return View(new TagViewModel(urlResolver, user, blog, posts, count, page, tag)); } } As you can see the above code heavily depends upon the current blog and the blog retrieval code is duplicated in all of the action methods, once the blog is retrieved the same blog is passed in the view model. Other than the blog the view also needs the current user and url resolver to render it properly. One way to remove the duplicate blog retrieval code is to create a custom model binder which converts the blog from a blog name and use the blog a parameter in the action methods instead of the string blog name, but it only helps the first half in the above scenario, the action methods still have to pass the blog, user and url resolver etc in the view model. Now lets try to improve the the above code, first lets create a new class which would contain the shared services, lets name it as BlogContext: public class BlogContext { public BlogInfo Blog { get; set; } public UserInfo User { get; set; } public IUrlResolver UrlResolver { get; set; } } Next, we will create an interface, IContextAwareService: public interface IContextAwareService { BlogContext Context { get; set; } } The idea is, whoever needs these shared services needs to implement this interface, in our case both the controller and the view model, now we will create an action filter which will be responsible for populating the context: public class PopulateBlogContextAttribute : FilterAttribute, IActionFilter { private static string blogNameRouteParameter = "blogName"; private readonly IBlogService blogService; private readonly IUserService userService; private readonly BlogContext context; public PopulateBlogContextAttribute(IBlogService blogService, IUserService userService, IUrlResolver urlResolver) { Invariant.IsNotNull(blogService, "blogService"); Invariant.IsNotNull(userService, "userService"); Invariant.IsNotNull(urlResolver, "urlResolver"); this.blogService = blogService; this.userService = userService; context = new BlogContext { UrlResolver = urlResolver }; } public static string BlogNameRouteParameter { [DebuggerStepThrough] get { return blogNameRouteParameter; } [DebuggerStepThrough] set { blogNameRouteParameter = value; } } public void OnActionExecuting(ActionExecutingContext filterContext) { string blogName = (string) filterContext.Controller.ValueProvider.GetValue(BlogNameRouteParameter).ConvertTo(typeof(string), Culture.Current); if (!string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(blogName)) { context.Blog = blogService.FindByName(blogName); } if (context.Blog == null) { filterContext.Result = new NotFoundResult(); return; } if (filterContext.HttpContext.User.Identity.IsAuthenticated) { context.User = userService.FindByName(filterContext.HttpContext.User.Identity.Name); } IContextAwareService controller = filterContext.Controller as IContextAwareService; if (controller != null) { controller.Context = context; } } public void OnActionExecuted(ActionExecutedContext filterContext) { Invariant.IsNotNull(filterContext, "filterContext"); if ((filterContext.Exception == null) || filterContext.ExceptionHandled) { IContextAwareService model = filterContext.Controller.ViewData.Model as IContextAwareService; if (model != null) { model.Context = context; } } } } As you can see we are populating the context in the OnActionExecuting, which executes just before the controllers action methods executes, so by the time our action methods executes the context is already populated, next we are are assigning the same context in the view model in OnActionExecuted method which executes just after we set the  model and return the view in our action methods. Now, lets change the view models so that it implements this interface: public class IndexViewModel : IContextAwareService { // More Codes } public class ArchiveViewModel : IContextAwareService { // More Codes } public class TagViewModel : IContextAwareService { // More Codes } and the controller: public class PostController : Controller, IContextAwareService { public PostController(dependencies...) { } public BlogContext Context { get; set; } public ActionResult Index(int? page) { IEnumerable<PostInfo> posts = postService.FindPublished(Context.Blog.Id, PagingCalculator.StartIndex(page, Context.Blog.PostPerPage), Context.Blog.PostPerPage); int count = postService.GetPublishedCount(Context.Blog.Id); return View(new IndexViewModel(posts, count, page)); } public ActionResult Archive(int? page, ArchiveDate archiveDate) { IEnumerable<PostInfo> posts = postService.FindArchived(Context.Blog.Id, archiveDate, PagingCalculator.StartIndex(page, Context.Blog.PostPerPage), Context.Blog.PostPerPage); int count = postService.GetArchivedCount(Context.Blog.Id, archiveDate); return View(new ArchiveViewModel(posts, count, page, achiveDate)); } public ActionResult Tag(string blogName, string tagSlug, int? page) { TagInfo tag = tagService.FindBySlug(Context.Blog.Id, tagSlug); if (tag == null) { return new NotFoundResult(); } IEnumerable<PostInfo> posts = postService.FindPublishedByTag(Context.Blog.Id, tag.Id, PagingCalculator.StartIndex(page, Context.Blog.PostPerPage), Context.Blog.PostPerPage); int count = postService.GetPublishedCountByTag(tag.Id); return View(new TagViewModel(posts, count, page, tag)); } } Now, the last thing where we have to glue everything, I will be using the AspNetMvcExtensibility to register the action filter (as there is no better way to inject the dependencies in action filters). public class RegisterFilters : RegisterFiltersBase { private static readonly Type controllerType = typeof(Controller); private static readonly Type contextAwareType = typeof(IContextAwareService); protected override void Register(IFilterRegistry registry) { TypeCatalog controllers = new TypeCatalogBuilder() .Add(GetType().Assembly) .Include(type => controllerType.IsAssignableFrom(type) && contextAwareType.IsAssignableFrom(type)); registry.Register<PopulateBlogContextAttribute>(controllers); } } Thoughts and Comments?

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  • SQL SERVER – Interview Questions and Answers – Frequently Asked Questions – Introduction – Day 1 of 31

    - by pinaldave
    List of all the Interview Questions and Answers Series blogs Posts covering interview questions and answers always make for interesting reading.  Some people like the subject for their helpful hints and thought provoking subject, and others dislike these posts because they feel it is nothing more than cheating.  I’d like to discuss the pros and cons of a Question and Answer format here. Interview Questions and Answers are Helpful Just like blog posts, books, and articles, interview Question and Answer discussions are learning material.  The popular Dummy’s books or Idiots Guides are not only for “dummies,” but can help everyone relearn the fundamentals.  Question and Answer discussions can serve the same purpose.  You could call this SQL Server Fundamentals or SQL Server 101. I have administrated hundreds of interviews during my career and I have noticed that sometimes an interviewee with several years of experience lacks an understanding of the fundamentals.  These individuals have been in the industry for so long, usually working on a very specific project, that the ABCs of the business have slipped their mind. Or, when a college graduate is looking to get into the industry, he is not expected to have experience since he is just graduated. However, the new grad is expected to have an understanding of fundamentals and theory.  Sometimes after the stress of final exams and graduation, it can be difficult to remember the correct answers to interview questions, though. An interview Question and Answer discussion can be very helpful to both these individuals.  It is simply a way to go back over the building blocks of a topic.  Many times a simple review like this will help “jog” your memory, and all those previously-memorized facts will come flooding back to you.  It is not a way to re-learn a topic, but a way to remind yourself of what you already know. A Question and Answer discussion can also be a way to go over old topics in a more interesting manner.  Especially if you have been working in the industry, or taking lots of classes on the topic, everything you read can sound like a repeat of what you already know.  Going over a topic in a new format can make the material seem fresh and interesting.  And an interested mind will be more engaged and remember more in the end. Interview Questions and Answers are Harmful A common argument against a Question and Answer discussion is that it will give someone a “cheat sheet.” A new guy with relatively little experience can read the interview questions and answers, and then memorize them. When an interviewer asks him the same questions, he will repeat the answers and get the job. Honestly, is he good hire because he memorized the interview questions? Wouldn’t it be better for the interviewer to hire someone with actual experience?  The answer is not as easy as it seems – there are many different factors to be considered. If the interviewer is asking fundamentals-related questions only, he gets the answers he wants to hear, and then hires this first candidate – there is a good chance that he is hiring based on personality rather than experience.  If the interviewer is smart he will ask deeper questions, have more than one person on the interview team, and interview a variety of candidates.  If one interviewee happens to memorize some answers, it usually doesn’t mean he will automatically get the job at the expense of more qualified candidates. Another argument against interview Question and Answers is that it will give candidates a false sense of confidence, and that they will appear more qualified than they are. Well, if that is true, it will not last after the first interview when the candidate is asked difficult questions and he cannot find the answers in the list of interview Questions and Answers.  Besides, confidence is one of the best things to walk into an interview with! In today’s competitive job market, there are often hundreds of candidates applying for the same position.  With so many applicants to choose from, interviewers must make decisions about who to call back and who to hire based on their gut feeling.  One drawback to reading an interview Question and Answer article is that you might sound very boring in your interview – saying the same thing as every single candidate, and parroting answers that sound like someone else wrote them for you – because they did.  However, it is definitely better to go to an interview prepared, just make sure that you give a lot of thought to your answers to make them sound like your own voice.  Remember that you will be hired based on your skills as well as your personality, so don’t think that having all the right answers will make get you hired.  A good interviewee will be prepared, confident, and know how to stand out. My Opinion A list of interview Questions and Answers is really helpful as a refresher or for beginners. To really ace an interview, one needs to have real-world, hands-on experience with SQL Server as well. Interview questions just serve as a starter or easy read for experienced professionals. When I have to learn new technology, I often search online for interview questions and get an idea about the breadth and depth of the technology. Next Action I am going to write about interview Questions and Answers for next 30 days. I have previously written a series of interview questions and answers; now I have re-written them keeping the latest version of SQL Server and current industry progress in mind. If you have faced interesting interview questions or situations, please write to me and I will publish them as a guest post. If you want me to add few more details, leave a comment and I will make sure that I do my best to accommodate. Tomorrow we will start the interview Questions and Answers series, with a few interesting stories, best practices and guest posts. We will have a prize give-away and other awards when the series ends. List of all the Interview Questions and Answers Series blogs Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: Pinal Dave, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Interview Questions and Answers, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

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