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• Terrible App Review of the Week&ndash;October 2nd

  - by David Paquette

  As some people know, I have a few apps in the Windows Phone Store.  One of these apps was intended to be a gimmicky app that did NOT really do anything useful.  It was just a funny little app that you probably try it once, then almost immediately uninstall.  To my surprise, this app ended up in some of the Top App lists and actually got a large number of downloads (for the Windows Phone Store).  Along with these downloads came a large number of really terrible and offensive reviews.  People are insulting me and saying awful things that they would never say to someone in person (I hope).  I am ok with this.  I can take the bad reviews and it doesn’t really bother me, but I still think that people are incredibly dis-respectful with their app reviews.  So..I am going to start sharing the best of the worst reviews.  If by chance this is your review, please contact me.  I would love to have a quick chat… Literally THE crappiest app I could of downloaded. You might as well rub dog *** in your eyes..... You'd see more!!! Stan8976   P.S. I am not particularly proud of this app, so I am not going to reveal the name. However, as you see more of these amazing reviews, I think you might be able to guess which app it is.

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• What guidelines should be followed when implementing third-party tracking pixels?

  - by Strozykowski

  Background I work on a website that gets a fair amount of traffic, and as such, we have implemented different tracking pixels and techniques across the site for various specific reasons. Because there are many agencies who are sending traffic our way through email campaigns, print ads and SEM, we have agreements with a variety of different outside agencies for tracking these page hits. Consequently, we have tracking pixels which span the entire site, as well as some that are on specific pages only. We have worked to reduce the total number of pixels available on any one page, but occasionally the site is rendered close to unusable when one of these third-party tracking pixels fails to load. This is a huge difficulty on parts of the site where Javascript is needed for functionality built into the page, but is unable to initialize until a 404 is returned on the external tracking pixel. (Sometimes up to 30 seconds later) I have spent some time attempting to research how other firms deal with this sort of instability with third-party components, but have come up a bit short. The plan currently is to implement our own stop-gap method to deal with these external outages, but rather than reinventing the wheel, we wanted to find out how this is dealt with on other sites. Question Is there a good set of guidelines that should be followed when implementing third-party tracking pixels? I would love to see some white papers or other written documents about how other people have dealt with this issue.

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• Where can I learn about managing domain names for my websites? [closed]

  - by Shahbaz

  [I originally asked this question on serverfault.com, where it was closed as 'out of scope.' Hopefully it is appropriate for this forum] I am a developer who doesn't understand how to effectively manage Internet domain names. Say I registered a name with namecheap and host a website on linode. Now what is an a-record? What is a name server and do I host it with namecheap of linode? Why would I pay amazon when others are free? Does any of this matter in terms of website latency or reliability? I feel like a script kiddy, copying and pasting others' and hoping it works. Is there a book or other resource that explains all this? I know amazon is full of books about DNS, but afaik they are about setting up DNA servers for local networks, not the Internet. p.s. To emphasize, I'm asking for books or long write-ups which explain this to technically competent people, who just haven't had to think about the role of commercial registrars, name servers, commercial hosts, commercial websites and how all parts play together on the real internet (not local networks).

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• Making a Living Developing Games

  - by cable729

  I'm in my last year of high school, and I've been looking at colleges. I'm taking a C++ class at a local community college and I don't feel that it's worth it. I could have learned everything in that class in a week. This had me thinking, would a CS degree even be worth it? How much can it teach me if I can learn everything on my own? Even if I do need to learn more advanced subjects, many colleges put their material online AND I can buy a book. Will companies hire me if I don't have a CS degree? If I have a portfolio will I stand a chance? What kind of things are needed in the portfolio? I want to live doing what I love - programming. So I will do it. I'm just not sure that a CS degree will do anything to me. In addition, if there is a benefit to getting a CS degree, what places are the best?

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• How often do you look for code examples?

  - by Newly Insecure

  I am a comp sci student with several years of experience in C and C++, and for the last few years I've been constantly working with Java/Objective C doing app dev and now I have switched to web dev and am mainly focused on ruby on rails and I came to the realization that (as with app dev, really) I reference other code wayyyy too much. I constantly google functionality for lots of things I imagine I should be able to do from scratch and it's really cracked my confidence a bit. Basic fundamentals are not an issue, I hate to use this as an example but I can run through javabat in both java/python at a sprint - obviously not an accomplishment and but what I mean to say is I have a strong base for the fundamentals I think? I was wondering how often you guys reference other code and does it just boil down to a lack of memorization of intricate tasks on my part? I know what I need to use typically but reference syntax constantly. Would love some advice and input on this, as it has been holding me back pretty solidly in terms of looking for work in this field even though I'm finishing my degree. My main reason for asking is not really about employment, but more that I don't want to be the only guy at a hackathon not hammering out nonstop code and sitting there with 20 google/github tabs open, and I have refrained from attending any due to a slight lack of confidence... tl;dr: I google for code examples for basically ALL semi advanced/advanced functionality, how to fix this and do you do as well?

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• Suggestion: ALLFILES option for RESTORE

  - by Greg Low

  The default action when performing a backup is to append to the backup file yet the default action when restoring a backup is to restore just the first file.I constantly come across customer situations where they are puzzled that they seem to have lost data after they have completed a restore. Invariably, it's just that they haven't restored all the backups contained within a single OS file. This happens most commonly with log backups but also happens when they have not restored the most recent database backup file.It is not trivial to achieve this within simple T-SQL scripts, when the number of backup files within the OS file is unknown. It really should be.I'd like to see a FILES=ALLFILES option on the RESTORE command. For RESTORE DATABASE, it should restore the most recent database backup plus any subsequent log files. For RESTORE LOG (which is the most important missing option), it should just restore all relevant log backups that are contained.If you agree, you know what to do: please vote:  https://connect.microsoft.com/SQLServer/feedback/details/769204/option-to-restore-all-backups-files-within-a-media-setAlternately, how would you write a T-SQL command to restore all log backups within a single OS file where the number of files is unknown? Would love to hear creative solutions because all the ones that I think of are pretty messy and need dynamic SQL. 

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• UDK - How to make sure a PhysicalMaterial mask actually works?

  - by tomacmuni

  Hello, I have been reading the documentation for UDK about physical materials and masks. I have my 1bit BMP mask, and the two physical material assets I want to shoot off in the black and white channels. I have applied my material to both a rigid body and to a skeletal mesh and neither apparently uses the mask. If I assign a regular physical material (one that doesn't use a mask) then it will work fine, but this defeats the point because it gives only one hit reaction. In the documentation it states that it is possible to extend a class on which we want to use a physical material based on the KActor class's usage. How to do that? Here is the quote: "The following properties [ie, ImpactEffect - Particle system to spawn at the point of impact + ImpactSound - Sound to play when an impact occurs] allow you to attach sounds and effects to physical collisions. These only work on classes which support them, which at the moment is only KActor. By looking at the implementation in KActor though, you can add this functionality to other classes (or you can subclass KActor)." Essentially, how to make sure a PhysicalMaterial mask actually works? What code could be added to a skeletal mesh class perhaps, to get it going? Any help appreciated.

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• Will all applications work fine on 64-bit Ubuntu?

  - by Qmal

  I used Ubuntu some time ago and now I want to switch on it again since community raised a lot and so did support for applications like Wine. I remember that when 64bit version just came out many applications didn't work as they did on 32bit version. Is it not better or still the same? Maybe they implemented something like WoW in Windows that simulates 32bit architecture and every possible app is working just fine. I am asking because I have lots of ram and I don't want to sit on 3GB when I have 8. Also, I am somewhat of a programmer, but that is not a problem because if I write PHP I use NetBeans on Windows anyway, and it works on Linux just as fine. But I also love to write C++/C# code. Is it well supported? I really like Visual Studio 2010, it is very slick and has good auto completion, debugging and so on... Is there any IDE on Ubuntu that is similar to Visual Studio in terms of auto-completion, code formatting, GUI designer, debugging? I really hope you will answer me these questions because I really like to "convert" myself to Ubuntu once and for all.

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• M-Audio Delta 1010LT on 12.04

  - by user74039

  I have 12.04 64bit installed, my soundcard is a Delta 1010LT, it seems to be partially detected, I've been following steps here: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SoundTroubleshooting/ lspci -v | grep -A7 -i "audio" shows this: 04:07.0 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies Inc. ICE1712 [Envy24] PCI Multi-Channel I/O Controller (rev 02) Subsystem: VIA Technologies Inc. M-Audio Delta 1010LT Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 22 I/O ports at ec00 [size=32] I/O ports at e880 [size=16] I/O ports at e800 [size=16] I/O ports at e480 [size=64] Capabilities: <access denied> Kernel driver in use: snd_ice1712 aplay shows this: **** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices **** card 0: M1010LT [M Audio Delta 1010LT], device 0: ICE1712 multi [ICE1712 multi] Subdevices: 1/1 Subdevice #0: subdevice #0 In the sound settings on the desktop all I see is the ICE1712 S/PDIF, which I don't use, I want to use the individual outputs on the card, I'm not so bothered about inputs, I just want the playback for now. If I open alsamixer in the console, I see all of the output and input channels, i've raised the volume on them but I don't get anything in the sound settings on the desktop and when I play any sound, I hear nothing. Can someone help?

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• Computer Science graduate. Master or full-time job? [closed]

  - by Alex

  Possible Duplicate: Is a Master's worth it? I have just gotten my Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science and I have to make choice. Whether to continue with my full-time job I just got or put the job slightly in the background and concentrate on getting a Master's degree. I am currently working as an embedded C developer in a small company. The cool thing is that, because the team is quite small, my engineering ideas really play a part in the final product. Not to mention that I get to work on very different areas of embedded programming: device drivers and development of a Real Time OS. I am very enthusiastic about my job and what I do. On the other hand, in my country there isn't really a master's degree that focuses on embedded development so my gain from getting this degree will mainly in the field of general computer science knowledge. That being said, is it worth giving up all my spare time which I now use to study different areas of embedded devices and work mainly to get a degree rather than pure knowledge and experience in the field I want to work in?

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• Is text-only mode a saving or a problem for battery savings?

  - by Robottinosino

  A friend is flying to the US from Europe and asked me a very thought-provoking question, which I am not remotely able to answer with substance so I am asking it here: How to absolutely maximise battery life on an Ubuntu (laptop) install? do not rush to mark this as duplicate, there is an important point here: does -GNOME- help or worsen battery life? Let me provide some context: The only task he needs to perform is: edit text files in Vim. He is unsure whether running GNOME will drain his battery life more or actually save him some battery life given the smarts of GNOME's power management features like "switch this peripheral to -power save- after X minutes..." (GNOME might just be a configuration front-end for settings that are governed by command-line utils for all I know?) He could perfectly well boot the system in text-only mode and use the automatic 6 virtual consoles for his needs, if that's a saving at all over running tmux (I think so because of all the smart buffering/history/etc the latter does by default?) Exactly how would you advise him to run his laptop during his flight? What I told him already: power off WiFi in the BIOS, not from the "GUI" power off Bluetooth switch off the courtesy light and use low monitor brightness play music off of his phone, not mp3blaster do not use his tiny portable mouse (and do not attach any other USB gimmicks like "screen light", etc) stop development services he will not be using, especially apache2, tomcat, dovecot, postgresql, etc. Potentially: - switch off his cron jobs? (he does an rsync + tar + 7za of his "work in progress" every so often) I think the above is standard stuff one could get off StackExchange, and with many duplicates... the core of this question is, I think: __ will running Ubuntu in text-only mode be a saving in terms of battery life or a problem? why? (provide some technical arguments) __ I think it will be a saving but I am also scared about "other things" detecting and enabling advanced chipset power management features only when some services are started.. and fear these "services" may be off in text-only mode?

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• Building an intranet

  - by WernerCD

  I'm researching for a project I'm going to be doing at work on the side... I work for a small hospital and we recently upgraded all the browsers inside our intranet to IE8 (Goodbye 6 :). We have a small, obsolete intranet built by someone who isn't a web designer... functional enough, but annoying to maintain and really sparse. What I'm wanting to do... is use a good framework. I'm looking for suggestions... I'm looking for something Windows IIS based. I'd love windows authentication - with the ability to delegate sub-sections of the website to managers. Right now it's my job to add/update/delete anything from the site... I'd like something not complicated that can be delegated to non-technical people. Like... the Cafeteria Manager should be able to update the menu without putting a ticket into me. She'd log into her computer, open the intranet (which would use her windows log-on to identify her) and have elevated privileges to edit her section of the intranet. If I have to "extend" a good framework to get Windows Authentication, I'll do it... but I'd prefer it to be baked in. What are some good frameworks, tools and places to start? While this isn't a "Huge" project... it's going to be bigger than the basic stuff I've done before and I'd like a good place to start.

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• What should a programmer's yearly routine be to maximize their technical skills?

  - by sguptaet

  2 years ago I made a big career change into programming. I learned various technologies on my own without any prior experience. I really love it and feel lucky with all the resources around us to help us learn. Books, courses, open-source, etc. There are so many avenues. I'm wondering what a good routine would be to follow to maximize my software development skills. I don't believe just building software is the way, because that leaves no time for learning new concepts or technologies. I'm looking for an answer like this: Take a new concept sabbatical/workshop 2 weeks per year. Read 1 theoretical and 1 practical programming book per year. Learn 1 additional language every 2 years. Take a 1 week vacation every 6 months. Etc. I realize that the above might sound naive and unrealistic as there are so many factors. But I'd like to know the "recipe" that you think is best that will serve as a guide for people.

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• CLR Profiler Allocated Bytes and XNA ContentManager

  - by Vackup

  I've been fighting with XNA ContentManager and memory allocations for some weeks because I'm trying to port my game from XNA (Windows) to ExEn / Monotouch (iphone). The problem is that after playing a few levels, my game exits unexpectedly on a real iPhone device (not simulator). Profiling memory usage on Windows with CLRProfile, I found some useful stuff but I also found something I dont understand. If I use 2 ContentManagers (1 for shared assets and 1 for level assets), when profiling, "Allocated Bytes" grows and grows after level through level but Memory consumption measured by Windows Task Manager stays constant (down when I unload the content manager and up again when I load content). Obviously, I contentManager.Unload() when level ends. After a few levels my game exits unexpectedly on an iPhone device. If I use 1 content manager, "CRLProfiler Allocated Bytes" stays constant on Windows and on the iPhone; I can play the game normally and it doesnt exit unexpectedly. I use the same assets level through level. It seems like in ios (iPhone) when loading and unloading the same assets, it allocates memory and consumes all device memory, so the ios kill it. Can anybody explain me how this really works? I've read quite a bit, but I still don't understand what's going on.

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• How are certain analytics metrics (time on site, etc.) usually distributed?

  - by a barking spider

  I'm not sure if I've come to the right place to ask this question, but I'm gathering some information for a research project. We're trying to design an experiment that'll heavily involve web analytics, and I'm trying to figure out some sensible values of mean +/- standard deviation for the following visitor-level (i.e., visitor 1 spends 2 minutes on site, visitor 2 spends 1 minute -- mean 1.5 +/- 0.71...) metrics: time spent on site page views If time allowed, we would put up the sites and gather the information ourselves, but we have a grant deadline coming up. I realize that even though these the distributions of these quantities are probably going to be heavily skewed towards zero, we'll need some reasonable figures or estimates of these figures in order to do sample size calculations, etc. Anyway, I'm not sure where else I'd turn, and I certainly have had a difficult time finding these values in the prior literature. If someone could direct me to a paper with the right information, or if you have these figures on hand (perhaps taken directly from your logs!) -- that would be amazing, and I'd love to hear from you. Thanks in advance, and even though I'm not allowed to reveal too much, rest assured that this info'll be applied towards a good cause :)

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• CUDA 4.1 Update

  - by N0xus

  I'm currently working on porting a particle system to update on the GPU via the use of CUDA. With CUDA, I've already passed over the required data I need to the GPU and allocated and copied the date via the host. When I build the project, it all runs fine, but when I run it, the project says I need to allocate my h_position pointer. This pointer is my host pointer and is meant to hold the data. I know I need to pass in the current particle position to the required cudaMemcpy call and they are currently stored in a list with a for loop being created and interated for each particle calling the following line of code: m_particleList[i].positionY = m_particleList[i].positionY - (m_particleList[i].velocity * frameTime * 0.001f); My current host side cuda code looks like this: float* h_position; // Your host pointer. This holds the data (I assume it's already filled with the data.) float* d_position; // Your device pointer, we will allocate and fill this float* d_velocity; float* d_time; int threads_per_block = 128; // You should play with this value int blocks = m_maxParticles/threads_per_block + ( (m_maxParticles%threads_per_block)?1:0 ); const int N = 10; size_t size = N * sizeof(float); cudaMalloc( (void**)&d_position, m_maxParticles * sizeof(float) ); cudaMemcpy( d_position, h_position, m_maxParticles * sizeof(float), cudaMemcpyHostToDevice); Both of which were / can be found inside my UpdateParticle() method. I had originally thought it would be a simple case of changing the h_position variable in the cudaMemcpy to m_particleList[i] but then I get the following error: no suitable conversion function from "ParticleSystemClass::ParticleType" to "const void *" exists I've probably messed up somewhere, but could someone please help fix the issues I'm facing. Everything else seems to running fine, it's just when I try to run the program that certain things hit the fan.

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• Developer with 4 years experience with Java/C++. How to move into web programming? [closed]

  - by JerryC

  Possible Duplicate: Tips for switching jobs and moving into web based programming? I graduated in 2006 with a computer science degree and got solid grades (3.5 overall 3.8 in my major) For the past 4.5 years I've been working as a Software Engineer doing primarily rich client development. Most of my experience is with Java, Swing and C++. I've done a lot of network programming and I have acquired some skill working & debugging in distributed environments. I would like to switch jobs and move into a role where I can get exposure to some new technologies and frameworks. I would like to move into a more web development role but I find my lack of web development experience is hurting me. 90% of the jobs I see advertised are looking for one of two skill sets: 1) Stereotypical server side Java web developer. Experience with Spring, Hibernate, J2EE, etc. 2) Stereotypical front end web developer. Experience with Javascript, jQuery, HTML5, GWT, CSS, etc I find most of these companies are looking really specifically for this experience and they are not willing to take on good programmers/ CS fundamental guys who lack experience with this stuff. I would love to get a job doing stuff like this, but have my skills become out of date and unmarketable? Any opinions on ways to sell myself to help get a new position?

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• No sound Ubuntu 12.04 through HDMI

  - by MikeMan

  Specs: Asus G73JH i7/720; ATI Mobility 5870 I have read through a lot of threads on getting HDMI sound to work and non of them have fixed my issue. Granted I am very new to Linux and know only the GUI aspect of what it does from finding similarities that Windows 7 has. I would like to become a Linux Power User and I figured this would be a good step to get started. I was able to successfully install my graphics driver and it shows in use. I connect the HDMI to my HD TV and I get no sound. I don't care about auto switch for sound, that would be great but not necessary. I just want my sound to work through the HDMI. What I have tried: Changed GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash" to GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash radeon.audio=1" pact set-card-profile 0 output:hdmi-surround Failure: no such entity Sound Settings: Right-click Sound indicator ? Sound Settings ? Output Tab, and set Digital Output (S/PDIF) Built in Audio Speakers Built in Audio I only get 2 settings. If I right-click the area below those 2 in the "play sound through" box, I get no "show hidden devices". I am also doing all this with the HDMI connected to eliminate any possibility for error.

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• Spend Analytics on a Grand Scale

  - by jacqueline.coolidge(at)oracle.com

  The Wall St. Journal reports in Billions in Bloat Uncovered in Beltway that a recent study by Government Accountability Office (GAO) has released a massive study of several programs and agencies that cost U.S. taxpayers billions of dollars each year.  This report help save $100 to $200 Billion dollars by identifying duplicate spending and ineffective programs that can be consolidated or eliminated. Now, that is spend analytics on a massive scale! It remains to be seen how actionable that information will be.  Certainly, there have been studies before that identify wasteful spending.  But, it’s a great case of the power of business intelligence and spend analytics.   Many companies do find significant savings when they implement spend and procurement analytics. What makes for an excellent spend analysis? It should be: Objective and provide visibility across programs and/or divisions A cross functional analysis that links financial with performance metrics Prescriptive and actionable Spend and procurement analytics have been HOT during the economic downturn! I expect 2011 will see many more companies get serious about spend analytics and would love to hear from companies who are willing to share their experience.

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• Data Access Objects old fashioned? [on hold]

  - by Bono

  A couple of weeks ago I delivered some work for a university project. After a code review with some teachers I got some snarky remarks about the fact that I was (still) using Data Access Objects. The teacher in question who said this mentions the use of DAO's in his classes and always says something along the lines of "Back then we always used DAO's". He's a big fan of Object Relational Mapping, which I also think is a great tool. When I was talking about this with some of my fellow students, they also mentioned that they prefer the use of ORM, which I can understand. It did make me wonder though, is using DAO's really so old fashioned? I know that at my work DAO's are still being used, but this is due to the fact that some of the code is rather old and therefor can't be coupled with ORM. We also do use ORM at my work. Trying to find some more information on Google or Stack Exchange sites didn't really enlighten me. Should I step away from the use of DAO's and only start implementing ORM? I just feel that ORM's can be a bit overkill for some simple projects. I'd love to hear your opinions (or facts) about this.

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• Never Bet Against the Impossible

  - by BuckWoody

  My uncle used to say “If a man tells you that his car squirts milk in his eye when you lift the hood, don’t bet against that. You’ll end up with milk in your eye.” My friend Allen White tells me this is taken from a play (and was said about playing cards), but I think the sentiment holds, even in database work. I mentioned the other day that you should allow the other person to talk and actively listen before you propose a solution. Well, I saw a consultant “bet against the impossible”  the other day – and it bit her. She explained to the person telling her the problem that the situation simply couldn’t exist that way, and he proceeded to show her that it did. She got silent, typed a few things, muttered a little, and then said “well, must be something else.” She just couldn’t admit she was wrong. So don’t go there. If someone explains a problem to you with their database, listen with purpose, and then explore the troubleshooting steps you know to find the problem. But keep your absolutes to yourself. In fact, I have a friend that has recently sent me one of those. He connects to a system with SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) version 2008 (if I recall correctly) and it shows a certain version number of the target system in the connection tab. Then he connects to it using SSMS 2008 R2 and gets a different number. Now, as far as I know, we didn’t change the connection string information, and that’s provided by the target system, so this is impossible. But I won’t tell him that. Not until I look a little more. :) Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!

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• Dual boot problem with ubuntu 12.04 and Vista

  - by vendella dahlahdoo

  Greetings from New Zealand. I have installed Microsoft Windows Vista and then installed Ubuntu 12.04 on my refurbished Compaq nx8220 laptop. I get the following infamous head hurting prompt continually. error: no such partition. grub rescue> Have tried most of the common recommended solutions. Live-CD then install Boot-Repair through the Terminal didn't work. It repaired all the linux stuff when restoring grub and then can't boot into Windows Vista. When I use Boot-Repair to fix the MBR, then I can't boot into Ubuntu. Tried installing BCD 2.1 in Vista and tried all the options one after another in BCD. Still no Ubuntu when selected through the options menu from BCD on restart/reboot. I have tried the boot repair option on the Ubuntu server CD-ROM, tried installing earlier versions of Ubuntu 11.04, 11.10, and Ubuntu server 11.10 and 12.04. Still the same result. I tried deleting the Ubuntu partitions through Vista a number of times and reinstalling Ubuntu. I have been trying and retrying all the options in Boot-Repair in different combinations for the past week and a half. I have tried at least 10 times installing and reinstalling Ubuntu. I really love Ubuntu and believe I have exhausted most of the recommended solutions and have spent too much time on this. Its driving me nuts!! please can someone help, I have finally given up (sigh). The following are some outputs from Boot-Repair from my last attempts. http://paste.ubuntu.com/1019227 http://paste.ubuntu.com/1019264 I was only allowed to post two links being a newbie. The only thing left for me to do is the flying Samoan dropkick laptop trick. Thanks in advance. Francis.

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• two thoughts about career excellence

  - by john.rose

  I love Dickens, warts and all. Sometimes he is sententious, and (like the mediocre modern I am) at such points I am willing to listen non-ironically. This bit here struck me hard enough to stop and write it down: I mean a man whose hopes and aims may sometimes lie (as most men's sometimes do, I dare say) above the ordinary level, but to whom the ordinary level will be high enough after all if it should prove to be a way of usefulness and good service leading to no other. All generous spirits are ambitious, I suppose, but the ambition that calmly trusts itself to such a road, instead of spasmodically trying to fly over it, is of the kind I care for. It is Woodcourt's kind. (John Jarndyce to Esther Summerson, Bleak House, ch. 60) Woodcourt is, of course, one of the heroes of the story. It is a heroism that is attractive to me. Here is a similar idea, from the Screwtape Letters. In the satirically inverted logic of that book, the “Enemy” is God, the enemy of the devils but the author of good: The Enemy wants to bring the man to a state of mind in which he could design the best cathedral in the world, and know it to be the best, and rejoice in the, fact, without being any more (or less) or otherwise glad at having done it than he would be if it had been done by another. (C.S. Lewis, Screwtape Letters, ch. 14) Though I will be happy with a good Bazaar, I also dream of Cathedrals. Put whatever name you like on it, as long as I get some part in the fun of building a good one.

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• Hello!

  - by barryoreilly

  After many months of deliberating I have finally gotten around to starting this blog! The reason for doing this is the large number of half finished articles lying around on my hard disk, unpublished and unloved. These articles have been of huge benefit to me, and have been written in an attempt to consolidate my own thinking, in order to help me structure my thoughts and ideas as I have tried to digest new ideas and understand abstract theories. It is my hope that by tidying up these articles and publishing them here that I can continue this learning process by getting feedback on the ideas from within the developer community. i have worked with .NET for 8 years now, and have worked with ASP.NET, SQL Server, Windows programming as well as general network administration. Since 2004 my focus has been on integration, web services, and more often than not Biztalk Server. The last two years have seen me focus on SOA and WCF, and the Managed Services Engine, so this is probably where the main focus of the blog will to start with, but there are so many fun things to play with these days that i have no idea where it will end up.....   Barry

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• Open Source Highlight: namebench

  - by eddraper

  DNS is a big deal.  Even small incremental changes to improve its performance can yield significant value due to the vast quantity of look-ups required when using the internet.  Until now, It’s always been one of those things I had to kinda take on faith… was my ISP doing a good job?  Are those public DNS server really that much faster?  What about security and privacy concerns? Let me introduce you to namebench.  This is the kinda tool I really love – one that immediately delivers value and is almost over-the-top OCD in its attention to detail. Trust me, this tool is utterly ruthless in it’s quest for getting it right – you’re not left with a big question mark after it presents its data.  The results are conclusive and actionable.  Here’s what is does: It hunts down the fastest DNS servers from your desktop that it can find using thousands of requests.  No, it doesn’t pop up this little dialog in 10 seconds to give you some “off the cuff” answer from a handful of providers.  It takes the better part of 10-15 minutes to run.  When it finishes, it presents you with a veritable horn-o-plenty of data.  Mean response duration, response distribution, bad data,  no stone is left un-turned. Check it out.  You’ll dig it.

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