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• Simple blogging software (WP replacement)

  - by jontes

  I'm sorry if this is not the right place to ask this question, but I think it's certainly better than at stackoverflow.com. I'm planning to redesign my website and looking for a WordPress replacement for my blog. My requirements are: simple (I won't do a large, complicated website) and lucid well coded (OOP), extensions, templates, active development (not 3 years old) nice but temperate text editor (+images, links), tags and categories, page break easy integration with Flickr, Picasa and social networks technology: PHP and MySQL, not cloud service (like Posterous or Tumblr) Could you recommend me some blogging software which would meet these criteria?

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• Cannot add repository key

  - by William Anthony

  I just installed my new laptop with ubuntu 12.04 and when I'm trying to add key, there is a "network unreachable" error. william@ubuntu:~$ gpg --keyserver hkp://keys.gnupg.net --recv-keys 1C4CBDCDCD2EFD2A gpg: requesting key CD2EFD2A from hkp server keys.gnupg.net ?: keys.gnupg.net: Network is unreachable gpgkeys: HTTP fetch error 7: couldn't connect: Network is unreachable gpg: no valid OpenPGP data found. gpg: Total number processed: 0 I'm so sure the keyserver is not down, because I tried it again at my old laptop running ubuntu 11.04 william@william:~$ gpg --keyserver hkp://keys.gnupg.net --recv-keys 1C4CBDCDCD2EFD2A gpg: requesting key CD2EFD2A from hkp server keys.gnupg.net gpg: key CD2EFD2A: "Percona MySQL Development Team <[email protected]>" not changed gpg: Total number processed: 1 gpg: unchanged: 1 Is this a bug?

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• How should I manage "reverting" a branch done with bookmarks in mercurial?

  - by Earlz

  I have an open source project on bitbucket. Recently, I've been working on an experimental branch which I (for whatever reason) didn't make an actual branch for. Instead what I did was use bookmarks. So I made two bookmarks at the same revision test --the new code I worked on that should now be abandoned(due to an experiment failure) main -- the stable old code that works I worked in test. I also pushed from test to my server, which ended up switching the tip tag to the new unstable code, when I really would've rather it stayed at main. I "switched" back to the main bookmark by doing a hg update main and then committing an insignificant change. So, I pushed this with hg push -f and now my source control is "correct" on the server. I know that there should be a cleaner way to "switch" branches. What should I do in the future for this kind of operation?

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• How to Force Graphics Options in PC Games with NVIDIA, AMD, or Intel Graphics

  - by Chris Hoffman

  PC games usually have built-in graphics options you can change. But you’re not limited to the options built into games — the graphics control panels bundled with graphics drivers allow you to tweak options from outside PC games. For example, these tools allow you to force-enabling antialiasing to make old games look better, even if they don’t normally support it. You can also reduce graphics quality to get more performance on slow hardware. If You Don’t See These Options If you don’t have the NVIDIA Control Panel, AMD Catalyst Control Center, or Intel Graphics and Media Control Panel installed, you may need to install the appropriate graphics driver package for your hardware from the hardware manufacturer’s website. The drivers provided via Windows Update don’t include additional software like the NVIDIA Control Panel or AMD Catalyst Control Center. Drivers provided via Windows Update are also more out of date. If you’re playing PC games, you’ll want to have the latest graphics drivers installed on your system. NVIDIA Control Panel The NVIDIA Control Panel allows you to change these options if your computer has NVIDIA graphics hardware. To launch it, right-click your desktop background and select NVIDIA Control Panel. You can also find this tool by performing a Start menu (or Start screen) search for NVIDIA Control Panel or by right-clicking the NVIDIA icon in your system tray and selecting Open NVIDIA Control Panel. To quickly set a system-wide preference, you could use the Adjust image settings with preview option. For example, if you have old hardware that struggles to play the games you want to play, you may want to select “Use my preference emphasizing” and move the slider all the way to “Performance.” This trades graphics quality for an increased frame rate. By default, the “Use the advanced 3D image settings” option is selected. You can select Manage 3D settings and change advanced settings for all programs on your computer or just for specific games. NVIDIA keeps a database of the optimal settings for various games, but you’re free to tweak individual settings here. Just mouse-over an option for an explanation of what it does. If you have a laptop with NVIDIA Optimus technology — that is, both NVIDIA and Intel graphics — this is the same place you can choose which applications will use the NVIDIA hardware and which will use the Intel hardware. AMD Catalyst Control Center AMD’s Catalyst Control Center allows you to change these options on AMD graphics hardware. To open it, right-click your desktop background and select Catalyst Control Center. You can also right-click the Catalyst icon in your system tray and select Catalyst Control Center or perform a Start menu (or Start screen) search for Catalyst Control Center. Click the Gaming category at the left side of the Catalyst Control Center window and select 3D Application Settings to access the graphics settings you can change. The System Settings tab allows you to configure these options globally, for all games. Mouse over any option to see an explanation of what it does. You can also set per-application 3D settings and tweak your settings on a per-game basis. Click the Add option and browse to a game’s .exe file to change its options. Intel Graphics and Media Control Panel Intel integrated graphics is nowhere near as powerful as dedicated graphics hardware from NVIDIA and AMD, but it’s improving and comes included with most computers. Intel doesn’t provide anywhere near as many options in its graphics control panel, but you can still tweak some common settings. To open the Intel graphics control panel, locate the Intel graphics icon in your system tray, right-click it, and select Graphics Properties. You can also right-click the desktop and select Graphics Properties. Select either Basic Mode or Advanced Mode. When the Intel Graphics and Media Control Panel appears, select the 3D option. You’ll be able to set your Performance or Quality setting by moving the slider around or click the Custom Settings check box and customize your Anisotropic Filtering and Vertical Sync preference. Different Intel graphics hardware may have different options here. We also wouldn’t be surprised to see more advanced options appear in the future if Intel is serious about competing in the PC graphics market, as they say they are. These options are primarily useful to PC gamers, so don’t worry about them — or bother downloading updated graphics drivers — if you’re not a PC gamer and don’t use any intensive 3D applications on your computer. Image Credit: Dave Dugdale on Flickr     

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• Installing on a mac without a CD burner or USB boot

  - by Rafael

  I am new to Ubuntu, i installed it in an old PC and now it works GREAT!!! My Macbook pro has a glitch and refuses to run Mac OS X, so i installed Windows, and i really want Ubuntu since Windows is not for me. Here's the problem(s) my drive only READS DVDs, if i put a blank in it, it will ignore it and my mac has the updated EFI, so no booting from a USB connected device! I also tried Wubi, but then i cant make it a FULL partition and get rid of windows!!! Thank you!

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• Thunderbird 16.0.1 filling disk space

  - by Kris

  I'm on Ubuntu 12.04 with Thunderbird 16.0.1 and Kernel 3.6.0-030600rc4-generic. I used Thunderbird for quite a while and never had any problems with it. But now it seems to fill up my disk space very fast: watch -n 1 df -h . so Ubuntu started giving out warnings. First I removed some files but not much later it had filled up around 600 MB. It eats around 50 MB/min while I just download 10 emails or so via IMAP. This behaviour is new and seems to be some kind of bug. I don't want to delete my old mails, so what else could I do?

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• Obsolete Computer Parts as Art [DIY]

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  If you’re like most geeks, you’ve got a box of aging computer equipment you just haven’t got around to hauling to your city’s haz-mat drop off site. This simple tutorial turns cast off circuit boards into wall art. While the author of the tutorial opted to use motherboards, you could easily use smaller frames/mats and use old expansion boards too. The process involves inexpensive IKEA frames with mats, popping the I/O ports off the boards to make them thinner, and drilling small mount holes in the backer board to mount the boards in place. Hit up the link below for more details. Motherboard Art [via IKEAHackers] How to Use an Xbox 360 Controller On Your Windows PC Download the Official How-To Geek Trivia App for Windows 8 How to Banish Duplicate Photos with VisiPic

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• WiFi not working on Dell Inspiron 1564

  - by Zack Warren

  hope you can offer some help! I'm new to Ubuntu (and Linux for that matter), but I managed to install Ubuntu 12.04 yesterday on an old Dell Inspiron 1564 Laptop. Everything works fine, with the exception of the wireless connection. Using my wired ethernet, I was able to look up several solutions which seemed as if they would work, but I've had no luck. Currently, wireless does show as enabled, but all wireless networks are disconnected, in fact, none of the networks are even listed (and I can see them on other devices in the home). Let me know what you need to help me! Thanks in advance!

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• 6 Ways to Speed Up Your Ubuntu PC

  - by Chris Hoffman

  Ubuntu is pretty snappy out-of-the-box, but there are some ways to take better advantage of your system’s memory and speed up the boot process. Some of these tips can really speed things up, especially on older hardware. In particular, selecting a lightweight desktop environment and lighter applications can give an older system a new lease on life. That old computer that struggles with Ubuntu’s Unity desktop can provide decent performance for years to come. HTG Explains: Why You Only Have to Wipe a Disk Once to Erase It HTG Explains: Learn How Websites Are Tracking You Online Here’s How to Download Windows 8 Release Preview Right Now

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• Donald Ferguson says end-user programming is next big thing. Is it?

  - by Joris Meys

  You can guess how I came to ask this question... Anyway : http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11944966 Donald Ferguson claiming that his websphere was his biggest disaster and proclaiming that end-user programming will be the way forward. This genuinely spurs the question : what with current programming languages. Honestly, I don't think that end-user programming will go much beyond a rather rigid template where you can build some apps around. If you see how many people actually manage to understand the basic functionality of functions in EXCEL... Plus, I fail to see how complex and performant systems can be built in such an end-user programming language ( Visual Basic, anyone?) Nice to play around with, but for many applications they're just not the thing. So no worries for the old languages if you ask me. What's your ideas?

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• How to customize the gnome classic panel

  - by Luis Alvarado

  First the picture: As you can see in the image, the color used for the icons and words Applications and Places (In spanish in this case) they have a different background dark gray color than the rest of the panel. Also the icons look rather bigger in that panel. Now my questions are: Can the background colors be customized so they look the same all the way in the panel. Can the icons be somehow minimized a little so they do not look strange (bigger actually) How to edit the way to add icons to the panel. I have to actually have to press the ALT key then right click on it to add something. That extra key is not friendly at all. In this particular case am trying to help an older man start in Ubuntu. Unity is too much for him but Gnome is friendlier for him (Learning curve is not the best for older people.. specially 68+ year old people).

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• Fonts look horrible in any java application

  - by Eirik Berg

  All fonts in java applications look horrible. I have seen a few questions about this previously, but they are quite old now(11.04 was the most recent, but that didn't seem to be the same problem). For some reason java applications do not use the system font (Ubuntu 11), but rather some elongated font that doesn't seem to have any anti-aliasing. So what I'm asking is if this is an open bug(couldn't find any on launchpad), something the developers have done wrong, or if there is a way to configure the fonts used in java application. Perhaps this is just a shortcoming of openjdk and I should install the Sun version instead? Attached an image showing jitsi, but the problem is also present in minecraft, my internet-bank and anything else involving java. I'm on 12.04, but since I couldn't find anything on launchpad I'm assuming that isn't relevant. Edit: actually managed to forget the picture... Thanks!

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• Ubuntu 10.10 Netbook Remix on Asus Eee PC 701 4G - boot process hangs up

  - by Andrew

  I've got an old Eee PC 701 4G with the following specifications: 512 MB RAM 4GB SSD drive SM223AC 8GB SD card extension Screen resolution: 800 x 480 BIOS Revision 1101 (05/16/2008) EC Firmware version: EPC-079 Windows XP SP3 works fine on it, but I decided to switch my OS to Ubuntu. I have downloaded an Ubuntu 10.10 Netbook Remix ISO and wrote it to my FAT32 SD card using Universal-USB-Installer-1.8.3.3, as described on ubuntu.com During standard load from the SD card the boot process hangs up with black screen. If I'll press F6 while preloading Ubuntu, it sucessfully displays the boot menu, selecting language and showing 2 main commands: "Run ubuntu from USB drive" and "Insall Ubuntu". Selecting either of these commands leading to the same result - after some background work the main loading indicator is displayed ("Ubuntu" text with dotted progress bar under it), and it's progressing forever without any effect. Is Ubuntu 10.10 compatible with my Eee PC at all? How to boot it correctly?

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• Floppy Autoloader Automatically Archives Thousands of Floppies

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  The thought of hand loading 5,000 floppy disks is more than enough to drive an inventive geek to create a better alternative–like this automated floppy disk archiver. DwellerTunes has several crates of floppy disks that contain old Amiga software and related material, personal programming projects, personal documents, and more. Realistically there’s no way he could devout time to hand loading and archiving thousands upon thousands of floppy disks so he built a automatic loader that accepts stacks of several hundred floppy disks at time. The loader not only loads and archives the floppy disks, but it photographs the label of each disk so that each archive includes a picture of the original label. Watch the video above to see it in action and then hit up the link below for more information. Converting All My Amiga Disks [DwellerTunes via Make] How to Own Your Own Website (Even If You Can’t Build One) Pt 2 How to Own Your Own Website (Even If You Can’t Build One) Pt 1 What’s the Difference Between Sleep and Hibernate in Windows?

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• Apt-get 403 Forbidden, but accessible in the browser

  - by labarna

  I've noticed that running apt-get update recently has resulted in quite a few ppa's returning "403 Forbidden". In and effort to clean them up I had a look: W: Failed to fetch http://ppa.launchpad.net/gnome3-team/gnome3/ubuntu/dists/raring/main/binary-amd64/Packages 403 Forbidden W: Failed to fetch http://ppa.launchpad.net/gnome3-team/gnome3/ubuntu/dists/raring/main/binary-i386/Packages 403 Forbidden E: Some index files failed to download. They have been ignored, or old ones used instead. The strange things is, if I copy these URLs into my browser I can access the files just fine. Why would apt-get report "403 Forbidden" if they're still accessible? I tried re-adding the ppa through add-apt-repository which downloads the signing key again, and it still reported "403 Forbidden".

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• How do I set up FTP on localhost?

  - by EmmyS

  On my old machine (back on Lucid!) I used XAMPP for local dev work. XAMPP installed everything for you, including setting up FTP to your localhost (/var/www) directory, since permissions don't allow you to write directly to it. I have a new machine running Precise, and decided to do things the grown-up way. I installed everything using tasksel, and got apache, php, mysql, and phpmyadmin up and running. But it's kind of a pain to have to create and edit all my files via gksudo gedit on the command line, and sooner or later I'm going to have to upload images. How can I set up FTP so that I can "upload" files to my localhost server?

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• I have Ubuntu Server 11.10 64-bit . Updates were working but now fails every time after apt-get update

  - by jason pate

  This is what I get when I try to run apt-get update Err http: //security.ubuntu.com oneiric-security InRelease Err http: //us.archive.ubuntu.com oneiric InRelease Err http: //security.ubuntu.com oneiric-security Release.gpg Temporary failure resolving 'security.ubuntu.com' Err http: //us.archive.ubuntu.com oneiric-updates InRelease Err http: //us.archive.ubuntu.com oneiric Release.gpg Temporary failure resolving 'us.archive.ubuntu.com' Err http: //us.archive.ubuntu.com oneiric-updates Release.gpg Temporary failure resolving 'us.archive.ubuntu.com' Reading package lists... Done W: Failed to fetch http: //us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/oneiric/InRelease W: Failed to fetch http: //us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/oneiric-updates/InRelease W: Failed to fetch http: //security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/oneiric-security/InRelease W: Failed to fetch http: //security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/oneiric-security/Release.gpg Temporary failure resolving 'security.ubuntu.com' W: Failed to fetch http: //us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/oneiric/Release.gpg Temporary failure resolving 'us.archive.ubuntu.com' W: Failed to fetch http: //us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/oneiric-updates/Release.gpg Temporary failure resolving 'us.archive.ubuntu.com' W: Some index files failed to download. They have been ignored, or old ones used instead.

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• Laptop Screen does not turn on after sleep

  - by Gage

  I recently put Ubuntu 10.10 on my laptop and after fixing the wireless problem I am only stuck on my screen turning back on after sleep. I have had this problem since Ubuntu 7. I tried using Ubuntu way back then and had a whole bunch of issues with the sleep and the wireless(Broadcom 4311). Anyways, I have an ATI Radeon express 200M graphics card (old laptop). When I go to Hardware drivers it doesn't give me any options to use the closed source drivers. Any suggestions on what I should do? I am going to try what is suggested in this thread but I am at work right now. Laptop does not wake up after sleep Thanks in advance for any help.

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• Can't get heroku site updated on custom domain

  - by Joseph Brown

  I have hosayif.com registered at GoDaddy, and I set up a cname for rails.hosayif.com to point to my heroku app at sharp-meadow-6535.herokuapp.com. I set this up with a previous app, and it worked. I made a new app, renamed the old one, and then renamed the new one so that it is sharp-meadow-6535.herokuapp.com in hopes of not having to change anything at GoDaddy. In theory, rails.hosayif.com and sharp-meadow-6535.herokuapp.com should be the same site, but they are not. Can someone tell me what I am doing wrong?

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• Fullscreen Still Has Taskbars at Top and Bottom

  - by MugenDraco

  I'm using Ubuntu 12.04 and running the Gnome Classic desktop. Whenever I go fullscreen, the taskbars at the top and bottom which hold the menus, notifications, etc. are still visible. This only happens when I'm in a browser or trying to play a game. I've tried it in both Firefox and Chromium, and get the same result no matter which one I use. Videos I watch using VLC however do not have the bars at the top and bottom. I found only one post about this in the questions, but there were no answers that worked for me. I wasn't sure if commenting my problem into the 5 month old post would move it to the top where it could be seen, so I made this one.

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• Student wanting to go to a developer conference

  - by Jamie Keeling

  I'm a 21 year old student in my last year of University, and I am looking for information about developer conferences. I live in Derby (United Kingdom) and there's not (As far as I know) many conferences local to where I live. I do have a car at my disposal so travelling shouldn't be a problem. I was hoping somebody could recommend the best way to go about finding and attending a conference, which one is probably the best to go to and what kind of things I'd need to know and take beforehand. I've done a couple of Google searches and searched SO itself but nothing specific to my needs was found. Note: I'm primarily a C# developer using WPF and WinForms but I'm open to pretty much anything.

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• Welcome to Jackstown

  - by fatherjack

  I live in a small town, the population count isn't that great but let me introduce you to some of the population. We'll start with Martin the Doc, he fixes up anything that gets poorly, so much so that he could be classed as the doctor, the vet and even the garage mechanic. He's got a reputation that he can fix anything and that hasn't been proved wrong yet. He's great friends with Brian (who gets called "Brains") the teacher who seems to have a sound understanding of any topic you care to pass his way. If he isn't sure he tells you and then goes to find out and comes back with a full answer real quick. Its good to have that sort of research capability close at hand. Brains is also great at encouraging anyone who needs a bit of support to get them up to speed and working on their jobs. Steve sees Brains regularly, that's because he is the librarian, he keeps all sorts of reading material and nowadays there's even video to watch about any topic you like. Steve keeps scouring all sorts of places to get the content that's needed and he keeps it in good order so that what ever is needed can be found quickly. He also has to make sure that old stuff gets marked as probably out of date so that anyone reading it wont get mislead. Over the road from him is Greg, he's the town crier. We don't have a newspaper here so Greg keeps us all informed of what's going on "out of town" - what new stuff we might make use of and what wont work in a small place like this. If we are interested he goes ahead and gets people in to demonstrate their products  and tell us about the details. Greg is pretty good at getting us discounts too. Now Greg's brother Ian works for the mayors office in the "waste management department" nowadays its all about the recycling but he still has to make sure that the stuff that cant be used any more gets disposed of properly. It depends on the type of waste he's dealing with that decides how it need to be treated and he has to know a lot about the different methods and when to use which ones. There are two people that keep the peace in town, Brent is the detective, investigating wrong doings and applying justice where necessary and Bart is the diplomat who smooths things over when any people have a dispute or disagreement. Brent is meticulous in his investigations and fair in the way he handles any situation he finds. Discretion is his byword. There's a rumour that Bart used to work for the United Nations but what ever his history there is no denying his ability to get apparently irreconcilable parties working together to their combined benefit. Someone who works closely with Bart is Brad, he is the translator in town. He has several languages that he can converse in but he can also explain things from someone's point of view or  and make it understandable to someone else. To keep things on the straight and narrow from a legal perspective is Ben the solicitor, making sure we all abide by the rules.Two people who make for an interesting evening's conversation if you get them together are Aaron and Grant, Aaron is the local planning inspector and Grant is an inventor of some reputation. Anything being constructed around here needs Aarons agreement. He's quite flexible in his rules though; if you can justify what you want to do with solid logic but he wont stand for any development going on without his inclusion. That gets a demolition notice and there's no argument. Grant as I mentioned is the inventor in town, if something can be improved or created then Grant is your man. He mainly works on his own but isnt averse to getting specific advice and assistance from specialist from out of town if they can help him finish his creations.There aren't too many people left for you to meet in the town, there's Rob, he's an ex professional sportsman. He played Hockey, Football, Cricket, you name it. He was in his element as goal keeper / wicket keeper and that shows in his personal life. He just goes about his business and people often don't even know that he's helped them. Really low profile, doesn't get any glory but saves people from lots of problems, even disasters on occasion. There goes Neil, he's a bit of an odd person, some people say he's gifted with special clairvoyant powers, personally I think he's got his ear to the ground and knows where to find out the important news as soon as its made public. Anyone getting a visit from Neil is best off to follow his advice though, he's usually spot on and you wont be caught by surprise if you follow his recommendations – wherever it comes from.Poor old Andrew is the last person to introduce you to. Andrew doesn't show himself too often but when he does it seems that people find a reason to blame him for their problems, whether he had anything to do with their predicament or not. In all honesty, without fail, and to his great credit, he takes it in good grace and never retaliates or gets annoyed when he's out and about.  It pays off too as its very often the case that those who were blaming him recently suddenly find they need his help and they readily forget the issues pretty rapidly.And then there's me, what do I do in town? Well, I'm just a DBA with a lot of hats. (Jackstown Pop. 1)

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• Databinding to an Entity Framework in WPF

  - by King Chan

  Is it good to use databinding to Entity Framework's Entity in WPF? I created a singleton entity framework context: To have only one connection and it won't open and close all the time. So I can pass the Entity around to any class, and can modify the Entity and make changes to the database. All ViewModels getting the entity out from the same Context and databinding to the View saves me time from mapping new object, but now I imagine there is problem in not using the newest Context: A ViewModel databinding to a Entity, then someone else updated the data. The ViewModel will still display the old data, because the Context is never being dispose to refresh. I always create new Context and then dispose of it. If I want to pass the Entity around, then there will be conflicts between Context and Entity. What is the suggested way of doing this ?

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• Is the term "web portal" obselete?

  - by John Hamelink

  Firstly, sorry if this is the wrong place: I've looked at all the programming-related boards and this one seems like the best fit - correct me if I'm wrong. My boss uses the term "portal" for the project I work on all the time. To me, the word makes me think of Yahoo in the late 90s. Does the word "portal" have old-school connotations, or is it just me? Do you think it's ok to use it, and not drag our client's perception of the product down into the middle-ages? Or again, am I just being weird?

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• Searching for the Perfect Developer&rsquo;s Laptop.

  - by mbcrump

  I have been in the market for a new computer for several months. I set out with a budget of around $1200. I knew up front that the machine would be used for developing applications and maybe some light gaming. I kept switching between buying a laptop or a desktop but the laptop won because: With a Laptop, I can carry it everywhere and with a desktop I can’t. I searched for about 2 weeks and narrowed it down to a list of must-have’s : i7 Processor (I wasn’t going to settle for an i5 or AMD. I wanted a true Quad-core machine, not 2 dual-core fused together). 15.6” monitor SSD 128GB or Larger. – It’s almost 2011 and I don’t want an old standard HDD in this machine. 8GB of DDR3 Ram. – The more the better, right? 1GB Video Card (Prefer NVidia) – I might want to play games with this. HDMI Port – Almost a standard on new Machines. This would be used when I am on the road and want to stream Netflix to the HDTV in the Hotel room. Webcam Built-in – This would be to video chat with the wife and kids if I am on the road. 6-Cell Battery. – I’ve read that an i7 in a laptop really kills the battery. A 6-cell or 9-cell is even better. That is a pretty long list for a budget of around $1200. I searched around the internet and could not buy this machine prebuilt for under $1200. That was even with coupons and my company’s 10% Dell discount. The only way that I would get a machine like this was to buy a prebuilt and replace parts. I chose the  Lenovo Y560 on Newegg to start as my base. Below is a top-down picture of it.   Part 1: The Hardware The Specs for this machine: Color :  GrayOperating System : Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bitCPU Type : Intel Core i7-740QM(1.73GHz)Screen : 15.6" WXGAMemory Size : 4GB DDR3Hard Disk : 500GBOptical Drive : DVD±R/RWGraphics Card : ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5730Video Memory : 1GBCommunication : Gigabit LAN and WLANCard slot : 1 x Express Card/34Battery Life : Up to 3.5 hoursDimensions : 15.20" x 10.00" x 0.80" - 1.30"Weight : 5.95 lbs. This computer met most of the requirements above except that it didn’t come with an SSD or have 8GB of DDR3 Memory. So, I needed to start shopping except this time for an SSD. I asked around on twitter and other hardware forums and everyone pointed me to the Crucial C300 SSD. After checking prices of the drive, it was going to cost an extra $275 bucks and I was going from a spacious 500GB drive to 128GB. After watching some of the SSD videos on YouTube I started feeling better. Below is a pic of the Crucial C300 SSD. The second thing that I needed to upgrade was the RAM. It came with 4GB of DDR3 RAM, but it was slow. I decided to buy the Crucial 8GB (4GB x 2) Kit from Newegg. This RAM cost an extra $120 and had a CAS Latency of 7. In the end this machine delivered everything that I wanted and it cost around $1300. You are probably saying, well your budget was $1200. I have spare parts that I’m planning on selling on eBay or Anandtech.  =) If you are interested then shoot me an email and I will give you a great deal mbcrump[at]gmail[dot]com. 500GB Laptop 7200RPM HDD 4GB of DDR3 RAM (2GB x 2) faceVision HD 720p Camera – Unopened In the end my Windows Experience Rating of the SSD was 7.7 and the CPU 7.1. The max that you can get is a 7.9. Part 2: The Software I’m very lucky that I get a lot of software for free. When choosing a laptop, the OS really doesn’t matter because I would never keep the bloatware pre-installed or Windows 7 Home Premium on my main development machine. Matter of fact, as soon as I got the laptop, I immediately took out the old HDD without booting into it. After I got the SSD into the machine, I installed Windows 7 Ultimate 64-Bit. The BIOS was out of date, so I updated that to the latest version and started downloading drivers off of Lenovo’s site. I had to download the Wireless Networking Drivers to a USB-Key before I could get my machine on my wireless network. I also discovered that if the date on your computer is off then you cannot join the Windows 7 Homegroup until you fix it. I’m aware that most people like peeking into what programs other software developers use and I went ahead and listed my “essentials” of a fresh build. I am a big Silverlight guy, so naturally some of the software listed below is specific to Silverlight. You should also check out my master list of Tools and Utilities for the .NET Developer. See a killer app that I’m missing? Feel free to leave it in the comments below. My Software Essential List. CPU-Z Dropbox Everything Search Tool Expression Encoder Update Expression Studio 4 Ultimate Foxit Reader Google Chrome Infragistics NetAdvantage Ultimate Edition Keepass Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010 Microsoft Security Essentials 2  Mindscape Silverlight Elements Notepad 2 (with shell extension) Precode Code Snippet Manager RealVNC Reflector ReSharper v5.1.1753.4 Silverlight 4 Toolkit Silverlight Spy Snagit 10 SyncFusion Reporting Controls for Silverlight Telerik Silverlight RadControls TweetDeck Virtual Clone Drive Visual Studio 2010 Feature Pack 2 Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate VS KB2403277 Update to get Feature Pack 2 to work. Windows 7 Ultimate 64-Bit Windows Live Essentials 2011 Windows Live Writer Backup. Windows Phone Development Tools That is pretty much it, I have a new laptop and am happy with the purchase. If you have any questions then feel free to leave a comment below.  Subscribe to my feed

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