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• External drive hanging, load average through the roof

  - by Paul Tomblin

  I have an external USB drive, and I run an hourly rsync to it as a backup. This has been working fine for years. This weekend, I got two new 2Tb internal drives, and decided it was time to re-install Ubuntu from scratch to clear out all the old cruft. About once a day since the re-install, the backup script hangs hard, usually in the "rm -rf" I do before the rsync. By the time I notice the problem, my load average is in the stratosphere and climbing fast (one time, it was over 150), but anything that doesn't touch the drive seems to be running fine. One thing that I find suspicious is that something, I don't know what, is doing a "smartctl" and a "hdparm" command on the USB drive. I'm pretty sure smartctl isn't supposed to run on external drives. I can't figure out what's doing it, either. Here's part of ps auwwfx when it's hung: root 7310 0.0 0.0 4248 352 ? D 20:15 0:00 /sbin/hdparm -C /dev/sdd root 7808 0.0 0.0 17372 1632 ? D 20:15 0:00 /usr/sbin/smartctl -a -n standby -A -i /dev/sdd root 8427 0.0 0.0 4248 356 ? D 20:20 0:00 /sbin/hdparm -C /dev/sdd root 8925 0.0 0.0 17372 1628 ? D 20:20 0:00 /usr/sbin/smartctl -a -n standby -A -i /dev/sdd root 9529 0.0 0.0 4248 356 ? D 20:25 0:00 /sbin/hdparm -C /dev/sdd root 10026 0.0 0.0 17372 1628 ? D 20:25 0:00 /usr/sbin/smartctl -a -n standby -A -i /dev/sdd root 10655 0.0 0.0 4248 356 ? D 20:30 0:00 /sbin/hdparm -C /dev/sdd root 11151 0.0 0.0 17372 1632 ? D 20:30 0:00 /usr/sbin/smartctl -a -n standby -A -i /dev/sdd root 11774 0.0 0.0 4248 356 ? D 20:35 0:00 /sbin/hdparm -C /dev/sdd root 12271 0.0 0.0 17372 1628 ? D 20:35 0:00 /usr/sbin/smartctl -a -n standby -A -i /dev/sdd root 12878 0.0 0.0 4248 352 ? D 20:40 0:00 /sbin/hdparm -C /dev/sdd root 13374 0.0 0.0 17372 1632 ? D 20:40 0:00 /usr/sbin/smartctl -a -n standby -A -i /dev/sdd root 14011 0.0 0.0 4248 352 ? D 20:45 0:00 /sbin/hdparm -C /dev/sdd root 14507 0.0 0.0 17372 1628 ? D 20:45 0:00 /usr/sbin/smartctl -a -n standby -A -i /dev/sdd root 15116 0.0 0.0 4248 352 ? D 20:50 0:00 /sbin/hdparm -C /dev/sdd root 15612 0.0 0.0 17372 1632 ? D 20:50 0:00 /usr/sbin/smartctl -a -n standby -A -i /dev/sdd root 16223 0.0 0.0 4248 352 ? D 20:55 0:00 /sbin/hdparm -C /dev/sdd root 16734 0.0 0.0 17372 1632 ? D 20:55 0:00 /usr/sbin/smartctl -a -n standby -A -i /dev/sdd root 17345 0.0 0.0 4248 352 ? D 21:00 0:00 /sbin/hdparm -C /dev/sdd root 17842 0.0 0.0 17372 1628 ? D 21:00 0:00 /usr/sbin/smartctl -a -n standby -A -i /dev/sdd root 18463 0.0 0.0 4248 352 ? D 21:05 0:00 /sbin/hdparm -C /dev/sdd root 18960 0.0 0.0 17372 1628 ? D 21:05 0:00 /usr/sbin/smartctl -a -n standby -A -i /dev/sdd root 19598 0.0 0.0 4248 356 ? D 21:10 0:00 /sbin/hdparm -C /dev/sdd root 20096 0.0 0.0 17372 1628 ? D 21:10 0:00 /usr/sbin/smartctl -a -n standby -A -i /dev/sdd root 21280 0.0 0.0 4244 356 ? D 21:15 0:00 /sbin/hdparm -C /dev/sdd root 21784 0.0 0.0 17372 1632 ? D 21:15 0:00 /usr/sbin/smartctl -a -n standby -A -i /dev/sdd root 22414 0.0 0.0 4244 356 ? D 21:20 0:00 /sbin/hdparm -C /dev/sdd root 22912 0.0 0.0 17372 1628 ? D 21:20 0:00 /usr/sbin/smartctl -a -n standby -A -i /dev/sdd root 23541 0.0 0.0 4244 356 ? D 21:25 0:00 /sbin/hdparm -C /dev/sdd root 24038 0.0 0.0 17372 1632 ? D 21:25 0:00 /usr/sbin/smartctl -a -n standby -A -i /dev/sdd root 24658 0.0 0.0 4244 356 ? D 21:30 0:00 /sbin/hdparm -C /dev/sdd root 25157 0.0 0.0 17372 1628 ? D 21:30 0:00 /usr/sbin/smartctl -a -n standby -A -i /dev/sdd Why is this happening, and how can I stop it?

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• ASP.NET MVC: Using ProfileRequiredAttribute to restrict access to pages

  - by DigiMortal

  If you are using AppFabric Access Control Services to authenticate users when they log in to your community site using Live ID, Google or some other popular identity provider, you need more than AuthorizeAttribute to make sure that users can access the content that is there for authenticated users only. In this posting I will show you hot to extend the AuthorizeAttribute so users must also have user profile filled. Semi-authorized users When user is authenticated through external identity provider then not all identity providers give us user name or other information we ask users when they join with our site. What all identity providers have in common is unique ID that helps you identify the user. Example. Users authenticated through Windows Live ID by AppFabric ACS have no name specified. Google’s identity provider is able to provide you with user name and e-mail address if user agrees to publish this information to you. They both give you unique ID of user when user is successfully authenticated in their service. There is logical shift between ASP.NET and my site when considering user as authorized. For ASP.NET MVC user is authorized when user has identity. For my site user is authorized when user has profile and row in my users table. Having profile means that user has unique username in my system and he or she is always identified by this username by other users. My solution is simple: I created my own action filter attribute that makes sure if user has profile to access given method and if user has no profile then browser is redirected to join page. Illustrating the problem Usually we restrict access to page using AuthorizeAttribute. Code is something like this. [Authorize] public ActionResult Details(string id) {     var profile = _userRepository.GetUserByUserName(id);     return View(profile); } If this page is only for site users and we have user profiles then all users – the ones that have profile and all the others that are just authenticated – can access the information. It is okay because all these users have successfully logged in in some service that is supported by AppFabric ACS. In my site the users with no profile are in grey spot. They are on half way to be users because they have no username and profile on my site yet. So looking at the image above again we need something that adds profile existence condition to user-only content. [ProfileRequired] public ActionResult Details(string id) {     var profile = _userRepository.GetUserByUserName(id);     return View(profile); } Now, this attribute will solve our problem as soon as we implement it. ProfileRequiredAttribute: Profiles are required to be fully authorized Here is my implementation of ProfileRequiredAttribute. It is pretty new and right now it is more like working draft but you can already play with it. public class ProfileRequiredAttribute : AuthorizeAttribute {     private readonly string _redirectUrl;       public ProfileRequiredAttribute()     {         _redirectUrl = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["JoinUrl"];         if (string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(_redirectUrl))             _redirectUrl = "~/";     }              public override void OnAuthorization(AuthorizationContext filterContext)     {         base.OnAuthorization(filterContext);           var httpContext = filterContext.HttpContext;         var identity = httpContext.User.Identity;           if (!identity.IsAuthenticated || identity.GetProfile() == null)             if(filterContext.Result == null)                 httpContext.Response.Redirect(_redirectUrl);          } } All methods with this attribute work as follows: if user is not authenticated then he or she is redirected to AppFabric ACS identity provider selection page, if user is authenticated but has no profile then user is by default redirected to main page of site but if you have application setting with name JoinUrl then user is redirected to this URL. First case is handled by AuthorizeAttribute and the second one is handled by custom logic in ProfileRequiredAttribute class. GetProfile() extension method To get user profile using less code in places where profiles are needed I wrote GetProfile() extension method for IIdentity interface. There are some more extension methods that read out user and identity provider identifier from claims and based on this information user profile is read from database. If you take this code with copy and paste I am sure it doesn’t work for you but you get the idea. public static User GetProfile(this IIdentity identity) {     if (identity == null)         return null;       var context = HttpContext.Current;     if (context.Items["UserProfile"] != null)         return context.Items["UserProfile"] as User;       var provider = identity.GetIdentityProvider();     var nameId = identity.GetNameIdentifier();       var rep = ObjectFactory.GetInstance<IUserRepository>();     var profile = rep.GetUserByProviderAndNameId(provider, nameId);       context.Items["UserProfile"] = profile;       return profile; } To avoid round trips to database I cache user profile to current request because the chance that profile gets changed meanwhile is very minimal. The other reason is maybe more tricky – profile objects are coming from Entity Framework context and context has also HTTP request as lifecycle. Conclusion This posting gave you some ideas how to finish user profiles stuff when you use AppFabric ACS as external authentication provider. Although there was little shift between us and ASP.NET MVC with interpretation of “authorized” we were easily able to solve the problem by extending AuthorizeAttribute to get all our requirements fulfilled. We also write extension method for IIdentity that returns as user profile based on username and caches the profile in HTTP request scope.

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• Some notes on Reflector 7

  - by CliveT

  Both Bart and I have blogged about some of the changes that we (and other members of the team) have made to .NET Reflector for version 7, including the new tabbed browsing model, the inclusion of Jason Haley's PowerCommands add-in and some improvements to decompilation such as handling iterator blocks. The intention of this blog post is to cover all of the main new features in one place, and to describe the three new editions of .NET Reflector 7. If you'd simply like to try out the latest version of the beta for yourself you can do so here. Three new editions .NET Reflector 7 will come in three new editions: .NET Reflector .NET Reflector VS .NET Reflector VSPro The first edition is just the standalone Windows application. The latter two editions include the Windows application, but also add the power of Reflector into Visual Studio so that you can save time switching tools and quickly get to the bottom of a debugging issue that involves third-party code. Let's take a look at some of the new features in each edition. Tabbed browsing .NET Reflector now has a tabbed browsing model, in which the individual tabs have independent histories. You can open a new tab to view the selected object by using CTRL+CLICK. I've found this really useful when I'm investigating a particular piece of code but then want to focus on some other methods that I find along the way. For version 7, we wanted to implement the basic idea of tabs to see whether it is something that users will find helpful. If it is something that enhances productivity, we will add more tab-based features in a future version. PowerCommands add-in We have also included Jason Haley's PowerCommands add-in as part of version 7. This add-in provides a number of useful commands, including support for opening .xap files and extracting the constituent assemblies, and a query editor that allows C# queries to be written and executed against the Reflector object model . All of the PowerCommands features can be turned on from the options menu. We will be really interested to see what people are finding useful for further integration into the main tool in the future. My personal favourite part of the PowerCommands add-in is the query editor. You can set up as many of your own queries as you like, but we provide 25 to get you started. These do useful things like listing all extension methods in a given assembly, and displaying other lower-level information, such as the number of times that a given method uses the box IL instruction. These queries can be extracted and then executed from the 'Run Query' context menu within the assembly explorer. Moreover, the queries can be loaded, modified, and saved using the built-in editor, allowing very specific user customization and sharing of queries. The PowerCommands add-in contains many other useful utilities. For example, you can open an item using an external application, work with enumeration bit flags, or generate assembly binding redirect files. You can see Bart's earlier post for a more complete list. .NET Reflector VS .NET Reflector VS adds a brand new Reflector object browser into Visual Studio to save you time opening .NET Reflector separately and browsing for an object. A 'Decompile and Explore' option is also added to the context menu of references in the Solution Explorer, so you don't need to leave Visual Studio to look through decompiled code. We've also added some simple navigation features to allow you to move through the decompiled code as quickly and easily as you can in .NET Reflector. When this is selected, the add-in decompiles the given assembly, Once the decompilation has finished, a clone of the Reflector assembly explorer can be used inside Visual Studio. When Reflector generates the source code, it records the location information. You can therefore navigate from the source file to other decompiled source using the 'Go To Definition' context menu item. This then takes you to the definition in another decompiled assembly. .NET Reflector VSPro .NET Reflector VSPro builds on the features in .NET Reflector VS to add the ability to debug any source code you decompile. When you decompile with .NET Reflector VSPro, a matching .pdb is generated, so you can use Visual Studio to debug the source code as if it were part of the project. You can now use all the standard debugging techniques that you are used to in the Visual Studio debugger, and step through decompiled code as if it were your own. Again, you can select assemblies for decompilation. They are then decompiled. And then you can debug as if they were one of your own source code files. The future of .NET Reflector As I have mentioned throughout this post, most of the new features in version 7 are exploratory steps and we will be watching feedback closely. Although we don't want to speculate now about any other new features or bugs that will or won't be fixed in the next few versions of .NET Reflector, Bart has mentioned in a previous post that there are lots of improvements we intend to make. We plan to do this with great care and without taking anything away from the simplicity of the core product. User experience is something that we pride ourselves on at Red Gate, and it is clear that Reflector is still a long way off our usual standards. We plan for the next few versions of Reflector to be worked on by some of our top usability specialists who have been involved with our other market-leading products such as the ANTS Profilers and SQL Compare. I re-iterate the need for the really great simple mode in .NET Reflector to remain intact regardless of any other improvements we are planning to make. I really hope that you enjoy using some of the new features in version 7 and that Reflector continues to be your favourite .NET development tool for a long time to come.

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• Rip and Convert DVD’s to an ISO Image

  - by Mysticgeek

  If you own a lot of DVD’s, you might want to convert them to an ISO image for backup and easily playing them on your media center. Today we take a look at ripping your discs using DVDFab, then using ImgBurn to create an ISO image of the ripped DVD files. Rip DVD with DVDFab6 DVDFab will remove copy protection and rip the DVD files for free. Other components in the suite require you to purchase a license after the 30 day trial, but you’ll still be able to rip DVD’s after the trial. Install DVDFab by accepting the defaults (link below)…a system restart is required to complete the install process. The first time you run it, a welcome screen is displayed. If you don’t want to see it again check the box Do not show again, then Start DVDFab.  Pop the DVD in your drive and click Next. Now select your region and check Do not show again, then OK. It will then open the DVD and begin to scan it. Under DVD to DVD you can select either Full Disc or Main Movie depending on what you want to rip. If you want to burn the DVD to a disc after it’s created select the Full Disc option. Now click the Start button to begin the ripping process. After the ripping process has completed, you’ll get a message telling you it’s waiting for you to put in a blank DVD. Since we aren’t burning the disc, just cancel the message. Click Finish and close out of DVDFab or just minimize it if you’re going to keep using it to rip another DVD. By default the temporary directory is in My Documents \ DVDFab \ Temp…however you can change it in settings. If you go to the Temp directory you’ll see the DVD files listed there… Convert Files to ISO with ImgBurn Now that we have the files ripped from the DVD, we need to convert them to an ISO image using ImgBurn (link below). Open it up and from the main menu click on Create image file from files/folders. Click on the folder icon to browse to the location of the ripped DVD files. Browse to the DVDFab temp directory and the VIDEO_TS folder for the source and click Ok. Then choose a destination directory, give the ISO a name, and click Save. In this case we ripped the Unbreakable DVD, so named it that.   So now in ImgBurn you have the source being the ripped DVD files, and the destination for the ISO…then click the Build button. If you don’t create a volume label, ImgBurn is kind enough to create on for you. If everything looks correct, click Ok. Now wait while ImgBurn goes through the process of converting the ripped DVD files to an ISO image. The process has successfully completed. The ISO image of the DVD will be in the output directory you selected earlier. Now you can burn the ISO image to a blank DVD or store it on an external hard drive for safe keeping. When you’re done, you’ll probably want to go into the temp DVDFab folder and delete the VOB and other files in the Video_TS folder as they will take up a lot of space on your hard drive.   Conclusion Although this method requires two programs to make an ISO out of a DVD, it’s extremely quick. When burning DVD’s of various lengths, it took less than 30 minutes to get the final ISO. Now, you’ll have your DVD movies backed up in case something were to happen to the discs and are no longer playable. If you use Windows Media Center to watch your movies, check out our article on how to automatically mount and view ISO files in Windows 7 Media Center. With DVDFab, you get a 30 day fully functional trial for all of its features. You’ll still be able rip DVD’s even after the 30 day trial has ended. The more we’ve been using DVDFab, the more impressed we are with its capabilities, so after the 30 day trial you should consider purchasing a license. We will have a full review of the of it to share with you soon.  Download DVDFab Download ImgBurn Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips How To Rip DVDs with VLCCalculate with Qalculate on LinuxConvert a Row to a Column in Excel the Easy WayEnjoy Quick & Easy Unit Conversion with Convert for WindowsConvert Older Excel Documents to Excel 2007 Format 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 Beware Hover Kitties Test Drive Mobile Phones Online With TryPhone Ben & Jerry’s Free Cone Day, 3/23/10 New Stinger from McAfee Helps Remove ‘FakeAlert’ Threats Google Apps Marketplace: Tools & Services For Google Apps Users Get News Quick and Precise With Newser

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• Adopt-a-JSR for Java EE 7 - Getting Started

  - by arungupta

  Adopt-a-JSR is an initiative started by JUG leaders to encourage JUG members to get involved in a JSR, in order to increase grass roots participation. This allows JUG members to provide early feedback to specifications before they are finalized in the JCP. The standards in turn become more complete and developer-friendly after getting feedback from a wide variety of audience. adoptajsr.org provide more details about the logistics and benefits for you and your JUG. A similar activity was conducted for OpenJDK as well. Markus Eisele also provide a great introduction to the program (in German). Java EE 7 (JSR 342) is scheduled to go final in Q2 2013. There are several new JSRs that are getting included in the platform (e.g. WebSocket, JSON, and Batch), a few existing ones are getting an overhaul (e.g. JAX-RS 2 and JMS 2), and several other getting minor updates (e.g. JPA 2.1 and Servlets 3.1). Each Java EE 7 JSR can leverage your expertise and would love your JUG to adopt a JSR. What does it mean to adopt a JSR ? Your JUG is going to identify a particular JSR, or multiple JSRs, that is of interest to the JUG members. This is mostly done by polling/discussing on your local JUG members list. Your JUG will download and review the specification(s) and javadocs for clarity and completeness. The complete set of Java EE 7 specifications, their download links, and EG archives are listed here. glassfish.org/adoptajsr provide specific areas where different specification leads are looking for feedback. Your JUG can then think of a sample application that can be built using the chosen specification(s). An existing use case (from work or a personal hobby project) may be chosen to be implemented instead. This is where your creativity and uniqueness comes into play. Most of the implementations are already integrated in GlassFish 4 and others will be integrated soon. You can also explore integration of multiple technologies and provide feedback on the simplicity and ease-of-use of the programming model. Especially look for integration with existing Java EE technologies and see if you find any discrepancies. Report any missing features that may be included in future release of the specification. The most important part is to provide feedback by filing bugs on the corresponding spec or RI project. Any thing that is not clear either in the spec or implementation should be filed as a bug. This is what will ensure that specification and implementation leads are getting the required feedback and improving the quality of the final deliverable of the JSR. How do I get started ? A simple way to get started can be achieved by following S.M.A.R.T. as explained below. Specific Identify who all will be involved ? What would you like to accomplish ? For example, even though building a sample app will provide real-world validity of the API but because of time constraints you may identify that reviewing the specification and javadocs only can be accomplished. Establish a time frame by which the activities need to be complete. Measurable Define a success for metrics. For example, this could be the number of bugs filed. Remember, quality of bugs is more important that quantity of bugs. Define your end goal, for example, reviewing 4 chapters of the specification or completing the sample application. Create a dashboard that will highlight your JUG's contribution to this effort. Attainable Make sure JUG members understand the time commitment required for providing feedback. This can vary based upon the level of involvement (any is good!) and the number of specifications picked. adoptajsr.org defines different categories of involvement. Once again, any level of involvement is good. Just reviewing a chapter, a section, or javadocs for your usecase is helpful. Relevant Pick JSRs that JUG members are willing and able to work. If the JUG members are not interested then they might loose motivation half-way through. The "able" part is tricky as you can always stretch yourself and learn a new skill ;-) Time-bound Define a time table of activities with clearly defined tasks. A tentative time table may look like: Dec 25: Discuss and agree upon the specifications with JUG Jan 1: Start Adopt-a-JSR for Java EE 7 Jan 15: Initial spec reading complete. Keep thinking through the application that will be implemented. Jan 22: Early design of the sample application is ready Jan 29: JUG members agree upon the application Next 4 weeks: Implement the application Of course, you'll need to alter this based upon your commitment. Maintaining an activity dashboard will help you monitor and track the progress. Make sure to keep filing bugs through out the process! 12 JUGs from around the world (SouJava, Campinas JUG, Chennai JUG, London Java Community, BeJUG, Morocco JUG, Peru JUG, Indonesia JUG, Congo JUG, Silicon Valley JUG, Madrid JUG, and Houston JUG) have already adopted one of the Java EE 7 JSRs. I'm already helping some JUGs bootstrap and would love to help your JUG too. What are you waiting for ?

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• Enable DreamScene in Any Version of Vista or Windows 7

  - by DigitalGeekery

  Windows DreamScene was a utility available for Vista Ultimate that allowed users to set video as desktop wallpaper. It was dropped in Windows 7, but we’ll take a look at how to play DreamScenes in all versions of Windows 7 or Vista. Downloading DreamScenes First, you’ll need to find some DreamScenes to download. We’ve found some nice ones at both DreamScene.org and DeviantArt. You can find those download links at the end of the article. They’ll come as compressed files, so you’ll need to extract them after downloading. Windows 7 DreamScene Activator If you are running Windows 7 you can use Windows 7 DreamScene Activator. This free portable utility enables DreamScene in both 32 & 64 bit versions of Windows 7. Users can then set either MPG or WMV files as desktop wallpaper. Download and extract the Windows 7 DreamScene Activator (link below). Once extracted, you’ll need to run the application as administrator. Right-click on the .exe and select Run as administrator. Click on Enable DreamScene. This will also restart Windows Explorer if it is open. To play your DreamScene, browse for the file in Windows Explorer, right-click the file and select Set as Desktop Background. Enjoy your new Windows 7 DreamScene.   Although it says it is for Windows 7 only, we were able to get it to work with no problems on Vista Home Premium x32 as well.   You can Pause the DreamScene at anytime by right-clicking on the desktop and selecting Pause DreamScene.   When you are ready for a change, click Disable DreamScene and switch back to your previous wallpaper. Using VLC Media Player Users of all versions of Windows 7 & Vista can enable a DreamScene using VLC. Recently, we showed you how to set a video as your desktop wallpaper in VLC.  Since DreamScenes are in MPEG or WMV format, we will use the same tactic to display them as desktop wallpaper. We’ll just need to make a few additional tweaks to the VLC settings. You’ll need to download and install VLC media player if you don’t already have it. You can find the download link below. Next, select Tools > Preferences from the Menu. Select the Video button on the left and then choose DirectX video output from the Output dropdown list. Next, select All under Show Settings at the lower left, then select the Video button on the left pane. Uncheck Show media title on video. This will prevent VLC from constantly showing the title of the video on the screen each time the video loops. Click Save and the restart VLC.   Now we will add the video to our playlist and set it to continuously loop. Select View > Playlist from the Menu. Select the Add file button from the bottom of the Playlist window and select Add file.   Browse for your file and click Open.   Click the Loop button at the bottom so the video plays in a continuous loop.   Now, we’re ready to play the video. After the video starts playing, select Video > DirectX Wallpaper from the Menu, then minimize VLC.   If you’re using Aero Themes, you may get a pop-up warning and Windows will switch automatically to a basic theme.   If looping one video gets to be a little repetitive, you can add multiple videos to your playlist in VLC and loop the entire playlist. Just make sure you toggle the Loop button on the playlist window to Loop All. Now you’ve got a nice DreamScene playing on your desktop. Another cool trick you can do with VLC is take snapshots of favorite movie scenes and set them as backgrounds. When you’re ready to go back to your old wallpaper, maximize VLC, select Video and click DirectX Wallpaper again to turn it off the video background. Occasionally we were left with a black screen and had to manually change our wallpaper back to normal even after turning off the DirectX Wallpaper. Note: Keep in mind that using the VLC method takes up a lot of resources so if you try to run it on older hardware, or say a netbook, you’re not going to get good results. We also tried to use the VLC method in XP, but couldn’t get it to work. If you have leave a comment and let us know. While the DreamScene feature never really caught on in Vista, we find them to be a cool way to pump a little life into your desktop on any version of Vista or Windows 7. Downloads DreamScenes from Dreamscene.org DreamScenes from DeviantArt Download VLC media player Windows 7 DreamScene Activator Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Wait, How do I Turn on DreamScene Again?Enable Run Command on Windows 7 or Vista Start MenuEnable or Disable UAC From the Windows 7 / Vista Command LineUnderstanding Windows Vista Aero Glass RequirementsEnable Mapping to \HostnameC$ Share on Windows 7 or Vista TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips HippoRemote Pro 2.2 Xobni Plus for Outlook All My Movies 5.9 CloudBerry Online Backup 1.5 for Windows Home Server Microsoft Office Web Apps Guide Know if Someone Accessed Your Facebook Account Shop for Music with Windows Media Player 12 Access Free Documentaries at BBC Documentaries Rent Cameras In Bulk At CameraRenter Download Songs From MySpace

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• SQL SERVER – Not Possible – Delete From Multiple Table – Update Multiple Table in Single Statement

  - by pinaldave

  There are two questions which I get every single day multiple times. In my gmail, I have created standard canned reply for them. Let us see the questions here. I want to delete from multiple table in a single statement how will I do it? I want to update multiple table in a single statement how will I do it? The answer is – No, You cannot and you should not. SQL Server does not support deleting or updating from two tables in a single update. If you want to delete or update two different tables – you may want to write two different delete or update statements for it. This method has many issues – from the consistency of the data to SQL syntax. Now here is the real reason for this blog post – yesterday I was asked this question again and I replied my canned answer saying it is not possible and it should not be any way implemented that day. In the response to my reply I was pointed out to my own blog post where user suggested that I had previously mentioned this is possible and with demo example. Let us go over my conversation – you may find it interesting. Let us call the user DJ. DJ: Pinal, can we delete multiple table in a single statement or with single delete statement? Pinal: No, you cannot and you should not. DJ: Oh okey, if that is the case, why do you suggest to do that? Pinal: (baffled) I am not suggesting that. I am rather suggesting that it is not possible and it should not be possible. DJ: Hmm… but in that case why did you blog about it earlier? Pinal: (What?) No, I did not. I am pretty confident. DJ: Well, I am confident as well. You did. Pinal: In that case, it is my word against your word. Isn’t it? DJ: I have proof. Do you want to see it that you suggest it is possible? Pinal: Yes, I will be delighted too. (After 10 Minutes) DJ: Here are not one but two of your blog posts which talks about it - SQL SERVER – Curious Case of Disappearing Rows – ON UPDATE CASCADE and ON DELETE CASCADE – Part 1 of 2 SQL SERVER – Curious Case of Disappearing Rows – ON UPDATE CASCADE and ON DELETE CASCADE – T-SQL Example – Part 2 of 2 Pinal: Oh! DJ: I know I was correct. Pinal: Well, oh man, I did not mean there what you mean here. DJ: I did not understand can you explain it further. Pinal: Here we go. The example in the other blog is the example of the cascading delete or cascading update. I think you may want to understand the concept of the foreign keys and cascading update/delete. The concept of cascading exists to maintain data integrity. If there primary keys get deleted the update or delete reflects on the foreign key table to maintain the key integrity and data consistency. SQL Server follows ANSI Entry SQL with regard to referential integrity between PrimaryKey and ForeignKey columns which requires the inserting, updating, and deleting of data in related tables to be restricted to values that preserve the integrity. This is all together different concept than deleting multiple values in a single statement. When I hear that someone wants to delete or update multiple table in a single statement what I assume is something very similar to following. DELETE/UPDATE Table 1 (cols) Table 2 (cols) VALUES … which is not valid statement/syntax as well it is not ASNI standards as well. I guess, after this discussion with DJ, I realize I need to do a blog post so I can add the link to this blog post in my canned answer. Well, it was a fun conversation with DJ and I hope it the message is very clear now. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Joins, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

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• Beginner Guide to User Styles for Firefox

  - by Asian Angel

  While the default styles for most websites are nice there may be times when you would love to tweak how things look. See how easy it can be to change how websites look with the Stylish Extension for Firefox. Note: Scripts from Userstyles.org can also be added to Greasemonkey if you have it installed. Getting Started After installing the extension you will be presented with a first run page. You may want to keep it open so that you can browse directly to the Userstyles.org website using the link in the upper left corner. In the lower right corner you will have a new Status Bar Icon. If you have used Greasemonkey before this icon works a little differently. It will be faded out due to no user style scripts being active at the moment. You can use either a left or right click to access the Context Menu. The user style script management section is also added into your Add-ons Management Window instead of being separate. When you reach the user style scripts homepage you can choose to either learn more about the extension & scripts or… Start hunting for lots of user style script goodness. There will be three convenient categories to get you jump-started if you wish. You could also conduct a search if you have something specific in mind. Here is some information directly from the website provided for your benefit. Notice the reference to using these scripts with Greasemonkey… This section shows you how the scripts have been categorized and can give you a better idea of how to search for something more specific. Finding & Installing Scripts For our example we decided to look at the Updated Styles Section”first. Based on the page number listing at the bottom there are a lot of scripts available to look through. Time to refine our search a little bit… Using the drop-down menu we selected site styles and entered Yahoo in the search blank. Needless to say 5 pages was a lot easier to look through than 828. We decided to install the Yahoo! Result Number Script. When you do find a script (or scripts) that you like simply click on the Install with Stylish Button. A small window will pop up giving you the opportunity to preview, proceed with the installation, edit the code, or cancel the process. Note: In our example the Preview Function did not work but it may be something particular to the script or our browser’s settings. If you decide to do some quick editing the window shown above will switch over to this one. To return to the previous window and install the user style script click on the Switch to Install Button. After installing the user style the green section in the script’s webpage will actually change to this message… Opening up the Add-ons Manager Window shows our new script ready to go. The script worked perfectly when we conducted a search at Yahoo…the Status Bar Icon also changed from faded out to full color (another indicator that everything is running nicely). Conclusion If you prefer a custom look for your favorite websites then you can have a lot of fun experimenting with different user style scripts. Note: See our article here for specialized How-To Geek User Style Scripts that can be added to your browser. Links Download the Stylish Extension (Mozilla Add-ons) Visit the Userstyles.org Website Install the Yahoo! Result Number User Style Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Spice Up that Boring about:blank Page in FirefoxExpand the Add Bookmark Dialog in Firefox by DefaultEnjoy How-To Geek User Style Script GoodnessAuto-Hide Your Cluttered Firefox Status Bar ItemsBeginner Geek: Delete User Accounts in Windows 7 TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips VMware Workstation 7 Acronis Online Backup DVDFab 6 Revo Uninstaller Pro Bypass Waiting Time On Customer Service Calls With Lucyphone MELTUP – "The Beginning Of US Currency Crisis And Hyperinflation" Enable or Disable the Task Manager Using TaskMgrED Explorer++ is a Worthy Windows Explorer Alternative Error Goblin Explains Windows Error Codes Twelve must-have Google Chrome plugins

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• tile_static, tile_barrier, and tiled matrix multiplication with C++ AMP

  - by Daniel Moth

  We ended the previous post with a mechanical transformation of the C++ AMP matrix multiplication example to the tiled model and in the process introduced tiled_index and tiled_grid. This is part 2. tile_static memory You all know that in regular CPU code, static variables have the same value regardless of which thread accesses the static variable. This is in contrast with non-static local variables, where each thread has its own copy. Back to C++ AMP, the same rules apply and each thread has its own value for local variables in your lambda, whereas all threads see the same global memory, which is the data they have access to via the array and array_view. In addition, on an accelerator like the GPU, there is a programmable cache, a third kind of memory type if you'd like to think of it that way (some call it shared memory, others call it scratchpad memory). Variables stored in that memory share the same value for every thread in the same tile. So, when you use the tiled model, you can have variables where each thread in the same tile sees the same value for that variable, that threads from other tiles do not. The new storage class for local variables introduced for this purpose is called tile_static. You can only use tile_static in restrict(direct3d) functions, and only when explicitly using the tiled model. What this looks like in code should be no surprise, but here is a snippet to confirm your mental image, using a good old regular C array // each tile of threads has its own copy of locA, // shared among the threads of the tile tile_static float locA[16][16]; Note that tile_static variables are scoped and have the lifetime of the tile, and they cannot have constructors or destructors. tile_barrier In amp.h one of the types introduced is tile_barrier. You cannot construct this object yourself (although if you had one, you could use a copy constructor to create another one). So how do you get one of these? You get it, from a tiled_index object. Beyond the 4 properties returning index objects, tiled_index has another property, barrier, that returns a tile_barrier object. The tile_barrier class exposes a single member, the method wait. 15: // Given a tiled_index object named t_idx 16: t_idx.barrier.wait(); 17: // more code …in the code above, all threads in the tile will reach line 16 before a single one progresses to line 17. Note that all threads must be able to reach the barrier, i.e. if you had branchy code in such a way which meant that there is a chance that not all threads could reach line 16, then the code above would be illegal. Tiled Matrix Multiplication Example – part 2 So now that we added to our understanding the concepts of tile_static and tile_barrier, let me obfuscate rewrite the matrix multiplication code so that it takes advantage of tiling. Before you start reading this, I suggest you get a cup of your favorite non-alcoholic beverage to enjoy while you try to fully understand the code. 01: void MatrixMultiplyTiled(vector<float>& vC, const vector<float>& vA, const vector<float>& vB, int M, int N, int W) 02: { 03: static const int TS = 16; 04: array_view<const float,2> a(M, W, vA); 05: array_view<const float,2> b(W, N, vB); 06: array_view<writeonly<float>,2> c(M,N,vC); 07: parallel_for_each(c.grid.tile< TS, TS >(), 08: [=] (tiled_index< TS, TS> t_idx) restrict(direct3d) 09: { 10: int row = t_idx.local[0]; int col = t_idx.local[1]; 11: float sum = 0.0f; 12: for (int i = 0; i < W; i += TS) { 13: tile_static float locA[TS][TS], locB[TS][TS]; 14: locA[row][col] = a(t_idx.global[0], col + i); 15: locB[row][col] = b(row + i, t_idx.global[1]); 16: t_idx.barrier.wait(); 17: for (int k = 0; k < TS; k++) 18: sum += locA[row][k] * locB[k][col]; 19: t_idx.barrier.wait(); 20: } 21: c[t_idx.global] = sum; 22: }); 23: } Notice that all the code up to line 9 is the same as per the changes we made in part 1 of tiling introduction. If you squint, the body of the lambda itself preserves the original algorithm on lines 10, 11, and 17, 18, and 21. The difference being that those lines use new indexing and the tile_static arrays; the tile_static arrays are declared and initialized on the brand new lines 13-15. On those lines we copy from the global memory represented by the array_view objects (a and b), to the tile_static vanilla arrays (locA and locB) – we are copying enough to fit a tile. Because in the code that follows on line 18 we expect the data for this tile to be in the tile_static storage, we need to synchronize the threads within each tile with a barrier, which we do on line 16 (to avoid accessing uninitialized memory on line 18). We also need to synchronize the threads within a tile on line 19, again to avoid the race between lines 14, 15 (retrieving the next set of data for each tile and overwriting the previous set) and line 18 (not being done processing the previous set of data). Luckily, as part of the awesome C++ AMP debugger in Visual Studio there is an option that helps you find such races, but that is a story for another blog post another time. May I suggest reading the next section, and then coming back to re-read and walk through this code with pen and paper to really grok what is going on, if you haven't already? Cool. Why would I introduce this tiling complexity into my code? Funny you should ask that, I was just about to tell you. There is only one reason we tiled our extent, had to deal with finding a good tile size, ensure the number of threads we schedule are correctly divisible with the tile size, had to use a tiled_index instead of a normal index, and had to understand tile_barrier and to figure out where we need to use it, and double the size of our lambda in terms of lines of code: the reason is to be able to use tile_static memory. Why do we want to use tile_static memory? Because accessing tile_static memory is around 10 times faster than accessing the global memory on an accelerator like the GPU, e.g. in the code above, if you can get 150GB/second accessing data from the array_view a, you can get 1500GB/second accessing the tile_static array locA. And since by definition you are dealing with really large data sets, the savings really pay off. We have seen tiled implementations being twice as fast as their non-tiled counterparts. Now, some algorithms will not have performance benefits from tiling (and in fact may deteriorate), e.g. algorithms that require you to go only once to global memory will not benefit from tiling, since with tiling you already have to fetch the data once from global memory! Other algorithms may benefit, but you may decide that you are happy with your code being 150 times faster than the serial-version you had, and you do not need to invest to make it 250 times faster. Also algorithms with more than 3 dimensions, which C++ AMP supports in the non-tiled model, cannot be tiled. Also note that in future releases, we may invest in making the non-tiled model, which already uses tiling under the covers, go the extra step and use tile_static memory on your behalf, but it is obviously way to early to commit to anything like that, and we certainly don't do any of that today. Comments about this post by Daniel Moth welcome at the original blog.

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• 10 tape technology features that make you go hmm.

  - by Karoly Vegh

  A week ago an Oracle/StorageTek Tape Specialist, Christian Vanden Balck, visited Vienna, and agreed to visit customers to do techtalks and update them about the technology boom going around tape. I had the privilege to attend some of his sessions and noted the information and features that took the customers by surprise and made them think. Allow me to share the top 10: I. StorageTek as a brand: StorageTek is one of he strongest names in the Tape field. The brand itself was valued so much by customers that even after Sun Microsystems acquiring StorageTek and the Oracle acquiring Sun the brand lives on with all the Oracle tapelibraries are officially branded StorageTek.See http://www.oracle.com/us/products/servers-storage/storage/tape-storage/overview/index.html II. Disk information density limitations: Disk technology struggles with information density. You haven't seen the disk sizes exploding lately, have you? That's partly because there are physical limits on a disk platter. The size is given, the number of platters is limited, they just can't grow, and are running out of physical area to write to. Now, in a T10000C tape cartridge we have over 1000m long tape. There you go, you have got your physical space and don't need to stuff all that data crammed together. You can write in a reliable pattern, and have space to grow too. III. Oracle has a market share of 62% worldwide in recording head manufacturing. That's right. If you are running LTO drives, with a good chance you rely on StorageTek production. That's two out of three LTO recording heads produced worldwide.  IV. You can store 1 Exabyte data in a single tape library. Yes, an Exabyte. That is 1000 Petabytes. Or, a million Terabytes. A thousand million GigaBytes. You can store that in a stacked StorageTek SL8500 tapelibrary. In one SL8500 you can put 10.000 T10000C cartridges, that store 10TB data (compressed). You can stack 10 of these SL8500s together. Boom. 1000.000 TB.(n.b.: stacking means interconnecting the libraries. Yes, cartridges are moved between the stacked libraries automatically.)  V. EMC: 'Tape doesn't suck after all. We moved on.': Do you remember the infamous 'Tape sucks, move on' Datadomain slogan? Of course they had to put it that way, having only had disk products. But here's a fun fact: on the EMCWorld 2012 there was a major presence of a Tape-tech company - EMC, in a sudden burst of sanity is embracing tape again. VI. The miraculous T10000C: Oracle StorageTek has developed an enterprise-grade tapedrive and cartridge, the T10000C. With awesome numbers: The Cartridge: Native 5TB capacity, 10TB with compression Over a kilometer long tape within the cartridge. And it's locked when unmounted, no rattling of your data.  Replaced the metalparticles datalayer with BaFe (bariumferrite) - metalparticles lose around 7% of magnetism within 30 days. BaFe does not. Yes we employ solid-state physicists doing R&D on demagnetisation in our labs. Can be partitioned, storage tiering within the cartridge!  The Drive: 2GB Cache Encryption implemented in HW - no performance hit 252 MB/s native sustained data rate, beats disk technology by far. Not to mention peak throughput.  Leading the tape while never touching the data side of it, protecting your data physically too Data integritiy checking (CRC recalculation) on tape within the drive without having to read it back to the server reordering data from tape-order, delivering it back in application-order  writing 32 tracks at once, reading them back for CRC check at once VII. You only use 20% of your data on a regular basis. The rest 80% is just lying around for years. On continuously spinning disks. Doubly consuming energy (power+cooling), blocking diskstorage capacity. There is a solution called SAM (Storage Archive Manager) that provides you a filesystem unifying disk and tape, moving data on-demand and for clients transparently between the different storage tiers. You can share these filesystems with NFS or CIFS for clients, and enjoy the low TCO of tape. Tapes don't spin. They sit quietly in their slots, storing 10TB data, using no energy, producing no heat, automounted when a client accesses their data.See: http://www.oracle.com/us/products/servers-storage/storage/storage-software/storage-archive-manager/overview/index.html VIII. HW supported for three decades: Did you know that the original PowderHorn library was released in '87 and has been only discontinued in 2010? That is over two decades of supported operation. Tape libraries are - just like the data carrying on tapecartridges - built for longevity. Oh, and the T10000C cartridge has 30-year archival life for long-term retention.  IX. Tape is easy to manage: Have you heard of Tape Storage Analytics? It is a central graphical tool to summarize, monitor, analyze dataflow, health and performance of drives and libraries, see: http://www.oracle.com/us/products/servers-storage/storage/tape-storage/tape-analytics/overview/index.html X. The next generation: The T10000B drives were able to reuse the T10000A cartridges and write on them even more data. On the same cartridges. We call this investment protection, and this is very important for Oracle for the future too. We usually support two generations of cartridges together. The current drive is a T10000C. (...I know I promised to enlist 10, but I got still two more I really want to mention. Allow me to work around the problem: ) X++. The TallBots, the robots moving around the cartridges in the StorageTek library from tapeslots to the drives are cableless. Cables, belts, chains running to moving parts in a library cause maintenance downtimes. So StorageTek eliminated them. The TallBots get power, commands, even firmwareupgrades through the rails they are running on. Also, the TallBots don't just hook'n'pull the tapes out of their slots, they actually grip'n'lift them out. No friction, no scratches, no zillion little plastic particles floating around in the library, in the drives, on your data. (X++)++: Tape beats SSDs and Disks. In terms of throughput (252 MB/s), in terms of TCO: disks cause around 290x more power and cooling, in terms of capacity: 10TB on a single media and soon more.  So... do you need to store large amounts of data? Are you legally bound to archive it for dozens of years? Would you benefit from automatic storage tiering? Have you got large mediachunks to be streamed at times? Have you got power and cooling issues in the growing datacenters? Do you find EMC's 180° turn of tape attitude interesting, but appreciate it at the same time? With all that, you aren't alone. The most data on this planet is stored on tape. Tape is coming. Big time.

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• When does "proper" programming no longer matter?

  - by Kai Qing

  I've been a full time programmer for about 8 years now. Web based mostly, ranging in weird jobs for clients. Never anything I "want" to do. So my experience is limited to what I've been contracted to do, having no real incentive to master anything in particular. So here's my scenario and ultimately what I wonder about... I've been building an android game in my spare time. It's using the libgdx library so quite a bit of the heavy lifting is done for me. I don't read much of the docs cause unless it's in tutorial format I will just not care, and ultimately most of my questions have already been asked on stackoverflow. I get along fine and my game works as expected... Suspiciously well, even. So much so that I wonder why one should bother to be "proper" when coding if the end result is ultimately the same. To be more specific, I used a hashtable because I wanted something close to an associative array. Human readable key values. In other places to achieve similar things, I use a vector. I know libgdx has vector2 and vector3 classes, but I've never used them. When I come across weird problems and search stackoverflow for help, I see a lot of people just reaming the questions that use a certain datatype when another one is technically "proper." Like using an ArrayList because it does not require defined bounds versus re-defining an int[] with new known boundaries. Or even something trivial like this: for(int i = 0; i < items.length; i ++) { // do something } I know it evaluates item.length on every iteration. I just don't care. I know items will never be more than 15 to 20 items. So why bother caring if I evaluate items.length on every iteration? So I wonder - why does everyone get all up in arms over this? Who cares if I use a less efficient datatype to get the job done? I ran some tests to see how the app performs using the lazy, get it done fast and don't look back method I just described versus the proper, follow the tutorial and use the exact data types suggested by the community. The results: Same thing. Average 45 fps. I opened every app on the phone and galaxy tab. Same deal. No difference. My game is pretty graphic intensive. It's not like it's just a simple thing. I expected it to perform kind of badly since I don't care to optimize image assets or... well, you probably get the idea. I'm making the game for fun. As a joke, really. But in doing so I'm working outside the normal scope of my job, which is to always follow the rules and do it the right way. So to say, I am without bounds here and this has caused me to wonder why I ever really care to be "proper" So I guess my question to you is this: Is there a threshold when it no longer matters to be proper? Is there a lasting, longer term consequence to the lazy, get it done and don't look back route? Is it ok to say - "so long as it gets the job done, I don't care?" Disclaimer: When I program my game, I am almost always drunk. I do it to remember why I got into this stuff to begin with because the monotony of client based web work will make you hate being a programmer. I'm having a blast and my game is not crashing, tests well, performs well, looks good on all devices so far and has no noticeable negative impact on any of my testing devices. I expected failure because I was being so drunkenly careless with my code, but to my surprise, it had no noticeable impact. I am now starting to question the need to be careful. Help me regain the ability to care! ... or explain why it's not a bad thing to not care. Secondary disclaimer: I am aware of the benefits of maintainability. For myself and others. Agreed. But it's not like someone happening across my inefficient int[] loop won't know what it does. As an experienced programmer those kinds of things are just clear on sight. I document the complex stuff for myself knowing I was drunk and will probably need a reminder. Those notes would clarify any confusion for someone who might ever gaze upon my ridiculous game - though the reality is that either I maintain it myself or it fades into time. I'm ok with that. But if it doesn't slow the device down, or crash, then crossing the t's and dotting the i's might actually require more time than it's worth.

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• Windows Azure – Write, Run or Use Software

  - by BuckWoody

  Windows Azure is a platform that has you covered, whether you need to write software, run software that is already written, or Install and use “canned” software whether you or someone else wrote it. Like any platform, it’s a set of tools you can use where it makes sense to solve a problem. The primary location for Windows Azure information is located at http://windowsazure.com. You can find everything there from the development kits for writing software to pricing, licensing and tutorials on all of that. I have a few links here for learning to use Windows Azure – although it’s best if you focus not on the tools, but what you want to solve. I’ve got it broken down here into various sections, so you can quickly locate things you want to know. I’ll include resources here from Microsoft and elsewhere – I use these same resources in the Architectural Design Sessions (ADS) I do with my clients worldwide. Write Software Also called “Platform as a Service” (PaaS), Windows Azure has lots of components you can use together or separately that allow you to write software in .NET or various Open Source languages to work completely online, or in partnership with code you have on-premises or both – even if you’re using other cloud providers. Keep in mind that all of the features you see here can be used together, or independently. For instance, you might only use a Web Site, or use Storage, but you can use both together. You can access all of these components through standard REST API calls, or using our Software Development Kit’s API’s, which are a lot easier. In any case, you simply use Visual Studio, Eclipse, Cloud9 IDE, or even a text editor to write your code from a Mac, PC or Linux.  Components you can use: Azure Web Sites: Windows Azure Web Sites allow you to quickly write an deploy websites, without setting a Virtual Machine, installing a web server or configuring complex settings. They work alone, with other Windows Azure Web Sites, or with other parts of Windows Azure. Web and Worker Roles: Windows Azure Web Roles give you a full stateless computing instance with Internet Information Services (IIS) installed and configured. Windows Azure Worker Roles give you a full stateless computing instance without Information Services (IIS) installed, often used in a "Services" mode. Scale-out is achieved either manually or programmatically under your control. Storage: Windows Azure Storage types include Blobs to store raw binary data, Tables to use key/value pair data (like NoSQL data structures), Queues that allow interaction between stateless roles, and a relational SQL Server database. Other Services: Windows Azure has many other services such as a security mechanism, a Cache (memcacheD compliant), a Service Bus, a Traffic Manager and more. Once again, these features can be used with a Windows Azure project, or alone based on your needs. Various Languages: Windows Azure supports the .NET stack of languages, as well as many Open-Source languages like Java, Python, PHP, Ruby, NodeJS, C++ and more.   Use Software Also called “Software as a Service” (SaaS) this often means consumer or business-level software like Hotmail or Office 365. In other words, you simply log on, use the software, and log off – there’s nothing to install, and little to even configure. For the Information Technology professional, however, It’s not quite the same. We want software that provides services, but in a platform. That means we want things like Hadoop or other software we don’t want to have to install and configure.  Components you can use: Kits: Various software “kits” or packages are supported with just a few clicks, such as Umbraco, Wordpress, and others. Windows Azure Media Services: Windows Azure Media Services is a suite of services that allows you to upload media for encoding, processing and even streaming – or even one or more of those functions. We can add DRM and even commercials to your media if you like. Windows Azure Media Services is used to stream large events all the way down to small training videos. High Performance Computing and “Big Data”: Windows Azure allows you to scale to huge workloads using a few clicks to deploy Hadoop Clusters or the High Performance Computing (HPC) nodes, accepting HPC Jobs, Pig and Hive Jobs, and even interfacing with Microsoft Excel. Windows Azure Marketplace: Windows Azure Marketplace offers data and programs you can quickly implement and use – some free, some for-fee.   Run Software Also known as “Infrastructure as a Service” (IaaS), this offering allows you to build or simply choose a Virtual Machine to run server-based software.  Components you can use: Persistent Virtual Machines: You can choose to install Windows Server, Windows Server with Active Directory, with SQL Server, or even SharePoint from a pre-configured gallery. You can configure your own server images with standard Hyper-V technology and load them yourselves – and even bring them back when you’re done. As a new offering, we also even allow you to select various distributions of Linux – a first for Microsoft. Windows Azure Connect: You can connect your on-premises networks to Windows Azure Instances. Storage: Windows Azure Storage can be used as a remote backup, a hybrid storage location and more using software or even hardware appliances.   Decision Matrix With all of these options, you can use Windows Azure to solve just about any computing problem. It’s often hard to know when to use something on-premises, in the cloud, and what kind of service to use. I’ve used a decision matrix in the last couple of years to take a particular problem and choose the proper technology to solve it. It’s all about options – there is no “silver bullet”, whether that’s Windows Azure or any other set of functions. I take the problem, decide which particular component I want to own and control – and choose the column that has that box darkened. For instance, if I have to control the wiring for a solution (a requirement in some military and government installations), that means the “Networking” component needs to be dark, and so I select the “On Premises” column for that particular solution. If I just need the solution provided and I want no control at all, I can look as “Software as a Service” solutions. Security, Pricing, and Other Info  Security: Security is one of the first questions you should ask in any distributed computing environment. We have certification info, coding guidelines and more, even a general “Request for Information” RFI Response already created for you.   Pricing: Are there licenses? How much does this cost? Is there a way to estimate the costs in this new environment? New Features: Many new features were added to Windows Azure - a good roundup of those changes can be found here. Support: Software Support on Virtual Machines, general support.    

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• IIS 7.0 informational HTTP status codes

  - by Samir R. Bhogayta

  1xx - Informational These HTTP status codes indicate a provisional response. The client computer receives one or more 1xx responses before the client computer receives a regular response. IIS 7.0 uses the following informational HTTP status codes: 100 - Continue. 101 - Switching protocols. 2xx - Success These HTTP status codes indicate that the server successfully accepted the request. IIS 7.0 uses the following success HTTP status codes: 200 - OK. The client request has succeeded. 201 - Created. 202 - Accepted. 203 - Nonauthoritative information. 204 - No content. 205 - Reset content. 206 - Partial content. 3xx - Redirection These HTTP status codes indicate that the client browser must take more action to fulfill the request. For example, the client browser may have to request a different page on the server. Or, the client browser may have to repeat the request by using a proxy server. IIS 7.0 uses the following redirection HTTP status codes: 301 - Moved permanently. 302 - Object moved. 304 - Not modified. 307 - Temporary redirect. 4xx - Client error These HTTP status codes indicate that an error occurred and that the client browser appears to be at fault. For example, the client browser may have requested a page that does not exist. Or, the client browser may not have provided valid authentication information. IIS 7.0 uses the following client error HTTP status codes: 400 - Bad request. The request could not be understood by the server due to malformed syntax. The client should not repeat the request without modifications. IIS 7.0 defines the following HTTP status codes that indicate a more specific cause of a 400 error: 400.1 - Invalid Destination Header. 400.2 - Invalid Depth Header. 400.3 - Invalid If Header. 400.4 - Invalid Overwrite Header. 400.5 - Invalid Translate Header. 400.6 - Invalid Request Body. 400.7 - Invalid Content Length. 400.8 - Invalid Timeout. 400.9 - Invalid Lock Token. 401 - Access denied. IIS 7.0 defines several HTTP status codes that indicate a more specific cause of a 401 error. The following specific HTTP status codes are displayed in the client browser but are not displayed in the IIS log: 401.1 - Logon failed. 401.2 - Logon failed due to server configuration. 401.3 - Unauthorized due to ACL on resource. 401.4 - Authorization failed by filter. 401.5 - Authorization failed by ISAPI/CGI application. 403 - Forbidden. IIS 7.0 defines the following HTTP status codes that indicate a more specific cause of a 403 error: 403.1 - Execute access forbidden. 403.2 - Read access forbidden. 403.3 - Write access forbidden. 403.4 - SSL required. 403.5 - SSL 128 required. 403.6 - IP address rejected. 403.7 - Client certificate required. 403.8 - Site access denied. 403.9 - Forbidden: Too many clients are trying to connect to the Web server. 403.10 - Forbidden: Web server is configured to deny Execute access. 403.11 - Forbidden: Password has been changed. 403.12 - Mapper denied access. 403.13 - Client certificate revoked. 403.14 - Directory listing denied. 403.15 - Forbidden: Client access licenses have exceeded limits on the Web server. 403.16 - Client certificate is untrusted or invalid. 403.17 - Client certificate has expired or is not yet valid. 403.18 - Cannot execute requested URL in the current application pool. 403.19 - Cannot execute CGI applications for the client in this application pool. 403.20 - Forbidden: Passport logon failed. 403.21 - Forbidden: Source access denied. 403.22 - Forbidden: Infinite depth is denied. 404 - Not found. IIS 7.0 defines the following HTTP status codes that indicate a more specific cause of a 404 error: 404.0 - Not found. 404.1 - Site Not Found. 404.2 - ISAPI or CGI restriction. 404.3 - MIME type restriction. 404.4 - No handler configured. 404.5 - Denied by request filtering configuration. 404.6 - Verb denied. 404.7 - File extension denied. 404.8 - Hidden namespace. 404.9 - File attribute hidden. 404.10 - Request header too long. 404.11 - Request contains double escape sequence. 404.12 - Request contains high-bit characters. 404.13 - Content length too large. 404.14 - Request URL too long. 404.15 - Query string too long. 404.16 - DAV request sent to the static file handler. 404.17 - Dynamic content mapped to the static file handler via a wildcard MIME mapping. 404.18 - Querystring sequence denied. 404.19 - Denied by filtering rule. 405 - Method Not Allowed. 406 - Client browser does not accept the MIME type of the requested page. 408 - Request timed out. 412 - Precondition failed. 5xx - Server error These HTTP status codes indicate that the server cannot complete the request because the server encounters an error. IIS 7.0 uses the following server error HTTP status codes: 500 - Internal server error. IIS 7.0 defines the following HTTP status codes that indicate a more specific cause of a 500 error: 500.0 - Module or ISAPI error occurred. 500.11 - Application is shutting down on the Web server. 500.12 - Application is busy restarting on the Web server. 500.13 - Web server is too busy. 500.15 - Direct requests for Global.asax are not allowed. 500.19 - Configuration data is invalid. 500.21 - Module not recognized. 500.22 - An ASP.NET httpModules configuration does not apply in Managed Pipeline mode. 500.23 - An ASP.NET httpHandlers configuration does not apply in Managed Pipeline mode. 500.24 - An ASP.NET impersonation configuration does not apply in Managed Pipeline mode. 500.50 - A rewrite error occurred during RQ_BEGIN_REQUEST notification handling. A configuration or inbound rule execution error occurred. Note Here is where the distributed rules configuration is read for both inbound and outbound rules. 500.51 - A rewrite error occurred during GL_PRE_BEGIN_REQUEST notification handling. A global configuration or global rule execution error occurred. Note Here is where the global rules configuration is read. 500.52 - A rewrite error occurred during RQ_SEND_RESPONSE notification handling. An outbound rule execution occurred. 500.53 - A rewrite error occurred during RQ_RELEASE_REQUEST_STATE notification handling. An outbound rule execution error occurred. The rule is configured to be executed before the output user cache gets updated. 500.100 - Internal ASP error. 501 - Header values specify a configuration that is not implemented. 502 - Web server received an invalid response while acting as a gateway or proxy. IIS 7.0 defines the following HTTP status codes that indicate a more specific cause of a 502 error: 502.1 - CGI application timeout. 502.2 - Bad gateway. 503 - Service unavailable. IIS 7.0 defines the following HTTP status codes that indicate a more specific cause of a 503 error: 503.0 - Application pool unavailable. 503.2 - Concurrent request limit exceeded.

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• Retrieving a list of eBay categories using the .NET SDK and GetCategoriesCall

  - by Bill Osuch

  eBay offers a .Net SDK for its Trading API - this post will show you the basics of making an API call and retrieving a list of current categories. You'll need the category ID(s) for any apps that post or search eBay. To start, download the latest SDK from https://www.x.com/developers/ebay/documentation-tools/sdks/dotnet and create a new console app project. Add a reference to the eBay.Service DLL, and a few using statements: using eBay.Service.Call; using eBay.Service.Core.Sdk; using eBay.Service.Core.Soap; I'm assuming at this point you've already joined the eBay Developer Network and gotten your app IDs and user tokens. If not: Join the developer program Generate tokens Next, add an app.config file that looks like this: <?xml version="1.0"?> <configuration>   <appSettings>     <add key="Environment.ApiServerUrl" value="https://api.ebay.com/wsapi"/>     <add key="UserAccount.ApiToken" value="YourBigLongToken"/>   </appSettings> </configuration> And then add the code to get the xml list of categories: ApiContext apiContext = GetApiContext(); GetCategoriesCall apiCall = new GetCategoriesCall(apiContext); apiCall.CategorySiteID = "0"; //Leave this commented out to retrieve all category levels (all the way down): //apiCall.LevelLimit = 4; //Uncomment this to begin at a specific parent category: //StringCollection parentCategories = new StringCollection(); //parentCategories.Add("63"); //apiCall.CategoryParent = parentCategories; apiCall.DetailLevelList.Add(DetailLevelCodeType.ReturnAll); CategoryTypeCollection cats = apiCall.GetCategories(); using (StreamWriter outfile = new StreamWriter(@"C:\Temp\EbayCategories.xml")) {    outfile.Write(apiCall.SoapResponse); } GetApiContext() (provided in the sample apps in the SDK) is required for any call:         static ApiContext GetApiContext()         {             //apiContext is a singleton,             //to avoid duplicate configuration reading             if (apiContext != null)             {                 return apiContext;             }             else             {                 apiContext = new ApiContext();                 //set Api Server Url                 apiContext.SoapApiServerUrl = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["Environment.ApiServerUrl"];                 //set Api Token to access eBay Api Server                 ApiCredential apiCredential = new ApiCredential();                 apiCredential.eBayToken = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["UserAccount.ApiToken"];                 apiContext.ApiCredential = apiCredential;                 //set eBay Site target to US                 apiContext.Site = SiteCodeType.US;                 return apiContext;             }         } Running this will give you a large (4 or 5 megs) XML file that looks something like this: <soapenv:Envelope xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:soapenv="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/">    <soapenv:Body>       <GetCategoriesResponse >          <Timestamp>2012-06-06T16:03:46.158Z</Timestamp>          <Ack>Success</Ack>          <CorrelationID>d02dd9e3-295a-4268-9ea5-554eeb2e0e18</CorrelationID>          <Version>775</Version>          <Build>E775_CORE_BUNDLED_14891042_R1</Build> -          <CategoryArray>             <Category>                <BestOfferEnabled>true</BestOfferEnabled>                <AutoPayEnabled>true</AutoPayEnabled>                <CategoryID>20081</CategoryID>                <CategoryLevel>1</CategoryLevel>                <CategoryName>Antiques</CategoryName>                <CategoryParentID>20081</CategoryParentID>             </Category>             <Category>                <BestOfferEnabled>true</BestOfferEnabled>                <AutoPayEnabled>true</AutoPayEnabled>                <CategoryID>37903</CategoryID>                <CategoryLevel>2</CategoryLevel>                <CategoryName>Antiquities</CategoryName>                <CategoryParentID>20081</CategoryParentID>             </Category> (etc.) You could work with this, but I wanted a nicely nested view, like this: <CategoryArray>    <Category Name='Antiques' ID='20081' Level='1'>       <Category Name='Antiquities' ID='37903' Level='2'/> </CategoryArray> ...so I transformed the xml: private void TransformXML(CategoryTypeCollection cats)         {             XmlElement topLevelElement = null;             XmlElement childLevelElement = null;             XmlNode parentNode = null;             string categoryString = "";             XmlDocument returnDoc = new XmlDocument();             XmlElement root = returnDoc.CreateElement("CategoryArray");             returnDoc.AppendChild(root);             XmlNode rootNode = returnDoc.SelectSingleNode("/CategoryArray");             //Loop through CategoryTypeCollection             foreach (CategoryType category in cats)             {                 if (category.CategoryLevel == 1)                 {                     //Top-level category, so we know we can just add it                     topLevelElement = returnDoc.CreateElement("Category");                     topLevelElement.SetAttribute("Name", category.CategoryName);                     topLevelElement.SetAttribute("ID", category.CategoryID);                     rootNode.AppendChild(topLevelElement);                 }                 else                 {                     // Level number will determine how many Category nodes we are deep                     categoryString = "";                     for (int x = 1; x < category.CategoryLevel; x++)                     {                         categoryString += "/Category";                     }                     parentNode = returnDoc.SelectSingleNode("/CategoryArray" + categoryString + "[@ID='" + category.CategoryParentID[0] + "']");                     childLevelElement = returnDoc.CreateElement("Category");                     childLevelElement.SetAttribute("Name", category.CategoryName);                     childLevelElement.SetAttribute("ID", category.CategoryID);                     parentNode.AppendChild(childLevelElement);                 }             }             returnDoc.Save(@"C:\Temp\EbayCategories-Modified.xml");         } Yes, there are probably much cleaner ways of dealing with it, but I'm not an xml expert… Keep in mind, eBay categories do not change on a regular basis, so you should be able to cache this data (either in a file or database) for some time. The xml returns a CategoryVersion node that you can use to determine if the category list has changed. Technorati Tags: Csharp, eBay

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• Financial Management: Why Move to the Cloud?

  - by Kathryn Perry

  A guest post by Terrance Wampler, Vice President, Financials Product Strategy, Oracle I’ve spent my career designing and developing financial management systems, most of it at Oracle. Every single day I either meet with our customers or talk to them on the phone. The time is usually spent discussing various business challenges facing CFOs and Controllers, who are running Oracle’s Financials. Lately, we’ve been talking a lot about cloud computing and whether it makes sense for finance to go to the cloud. Here are some pros and cons that might help you make that decision. Let’s start with the benefits of cloud solutions. The first is savings. With cloud services, you pay only for those commodities that you use. That makes you feel like you're getting better value for your money. Plus, you can preserve your cash for your core business and you can get a better matching of expenses and revenues. So, at the top of the list is lower total cost of ownership. The second point has to do with optimization. With cloud services, you’ll need less IT infrastructure so you can optimize your IT resources for better-value, higher-end projects. This also leads to greater financial visibility, where there's a clear cost for the set of services or features replaced by cloud services. And, the last benefit is what I call acceleration. You can save money by speeding up the initialization and deployment of the project. You don't have to deal with IT infrastructure and you can start implementing right away. We did a quick survey of about 70 CFOs at the CFO Summit last month in New York City. We asked them why they were looking at cloud services, and not necessarily just for financials. The No. 1 response was perceived lower cost of ownership. But of course there are risks to consider. The first thing most people think about in the cloud is security and ownership of data. So, will your data really be safe? Can you meet your own privacy policy requirements? Do you really want your private financial data exposed? Do you trust the provider? Is what you see really your data? Do you own it or is it managed by someone else? Security is a big concern that comes with an emotional component. The next thing in the risk category is reliability. Is the provider proven? You’re taking what you have control over – for example, standards and policies and internal service level agreements – away from your IT department and giving it to someone else. Will you still be able to adapt to shifts in your business? Will the provider be able to grow with your business effectively? Reliability means having a provider that can give you the service infrastructure that you need. And then there’s performance, which has two components in terms of risk. Going forward, will the provider be able to scale the infrastructure or service level if you have new employees or new businesses? And second, will the price you negotiate and the rate you lock in cover additional costs and rising service fees? Another piece is cost. What happens if you don't get the service level you want? What if you end the service? What happens, if after a few years, you send the service out for bid and change service? Can you move your data? Can you move the applications? Do the integrations work? These are cost components people don’t always take into account. And, the final piece is the business case. The perception is that you can get started really quickly with cloud. It has a perceived lower cost of total ownership and it feels cool because it's cloud. But do you have a good business case for moving to the cloud? Your total cost of ownership is over three years; then you’ll renew it, so your TCO is six years. Have you compared that to other internal services that you’re offering? You might already have product that you can run this new business or division on. In that same survey at the CFO Summit, the execs thought the biggest perceived risks were security of data, ability to move data back, and the ability to create a business case to actually justify the risks. So that’s the list of pros and cons. Not to leave you hanging, I will do another post on how to balance these pros and cons and make the right decision for your business.

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• Unable to keep the connecting using a wireless bridge

  - by dan

  I am running Ubuntu 12.04 on a dell inspiron desktop (core 2 duo) and am using wicd to manage my network/wifi. I've found that the WiFi card in the machine has trouble staying connected to my router (I believe this is a function of distance between the two), so I've taken an old Belkin F5d7231 wireless router and installed dd-wrt on it to use as a wireless bridge hoping that it will have better reception. I think everything up through the wireless bridge is working OK since I have no problems accessing the internet through it with my MacBook. The problem arises when I try to hook the ubuntu machine up to the wireless bridge. It will connect for a few minutes, but it will quickly disconnect without clear triggering event; it may be more likely to disconnect if there is a heavy traffic load going over it (could be something as simple as "cat big_text_file" in an ssh session). I've tried switching from dhclient to dhcpcd without much improvement. Here is the output from the syslog when it connects: Jun 30 17:10:08 Chicabuntu dhcpcd[28278]: wlan1: dhcpcd not running Jun 30 17:10:08 Chicabuntu dhcpcd[28278]: wlan1: exiting Jun 30 17:10:08 Chicabuntu dhcpcd[28312]: eth0: dhcpcd not running Jun 30 17:10:08 Chicabuntu dhcpcd[28312]: eth0: exiting Jun 30 17:10:08 Chicabuntu avahi-daemon[1041]: Interface eth0.IPv6 no longer relevant for mDNS. Jun 30 17:10:08 Chicabuntu avahi-daemon[1041]: Leaving mDNS multicast group on interface eth0.IPv6 with address fe80::21c:c4ff:fe31:1a83. Jun 30 17:10:08 Chicabuntu avahi-daemon[1041]: Withdrawing address record for fe80::21c:c4ff:fe31:1a83 on eth0. Jun 30 17:10:08 Chicabuntu kernel: [15184.976127] tg3 0000:3f:00.0: irq 44 for MSI/MSI-X Jun 30 17:10:08 Chicabuntu kernel: [15185.010805] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth0: link is not ready Jun 30 17:10:08 Chicabuntu dhcpcd[28347]: eth0: dhcpcd not running Jun 30 17:10:08 Chicabuntu dhcpcd[28347]: eth0: exiting Jun 30 17:10:08 Chicabuntu kernel: [15185.180156] tg3 0000:3f:00.0: irq 44 for MSI/MSI-X Jun 30 17:10:08 Chicabuntu kernel: [15185.212785] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth0: link is not ready Jun 30 17:10:10 Chicabuntu kernel: [15187.027445] tg3 0000:3f:00.0: eth0: Link is up at 100 Mbps, full duplex Jun 30 17:10:10 Chicabuntu kernel: [15187.027452] tg3 0000:3f:00.0: eth0: Flow control is on for TX and on for RX Jun 30 17:10:10 Chicabuntu kernel: [15187.028300] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): eth0: link becomes ready Jun 30 17:10:10 Chicabuntu dhcpcd[28353]: eth0: dhcpcd 3.2.3 starting Jun 30 17:10:10 Chicabuntu dhcpcd[28353]: eth0: hardware address = 00:1c:c4:31:1a:83 Jun 30 17:10:10 Chicabuntu dhcpcd[28353]: eth0: DUID = 00:01:00:01:17:81:85:79:00:1c:c4:31:1a:83 Jun 30 17:10:10 Chicabuntu dhcpcd[28353]: eth0: broadcasting for a lease Jun 30 17:10:11 Chicabuntu avahi-daemon[1041]: Joining mDNS multicast group on interface eth0.IPv6 with address fe80::21c:c4ff:fe31:1a83. Jun 30 17:10:11 Chicabuntu avahi-daemon[1041]: New relevant interface eth0.IPv6 for mDNS. Jun 30 17:10:11 Chicabuntu avahi-daemon[1041]: Registering new address record for fe80::21c:c4ff:fe31:1a83 on eth0.*. Jun 30 17:10:20 Chicabuntu kernel: [15197.568016] eth0: no IPv6 routers present Jun 30 17:10:29 Chicabuntu dhcpcd[28353]: eth0: offered 192.168.1.111 from 192.168.1.254 Jun 30 17:10:29 Chicabuntu dhcpcd[28353]: eth0: checking 192.168.1.111 is available on attached networks Jun 30 17:10:30 Chicabuntu dhcpcd[28353]: eth0: leased 192.168.1.111 for 86400 seconds Jun 30 17:10:30 Chicabuntu dhcpcd[28353]: eth0: adding IP address 192.168.1.111/24 Jun 30 17:10:30 Chicabuntu avahi-daemon[1041]: Joining mDNS multicast group on interface eth0.IPv4 with address 192.168.1.111. Jun 30 17:10:30 Chicabuntu dhcpcd[28353]: eth0: adding default route via 192.168.1.254 metric 0 Jun 30 17:10:30 Chicabuntu dhcpcd[28353]: eth0: exiting Jun 30 17:10:30 Chicabuntu avahi-daemon[1041]: New relevant interface eth0.IPv4 for mDNS. Jun 30 17:10:30 Chicabuntu avahi-daemon[1041]: Registering new address record for 192.168.1.111 on eth0.IPv4. Jun 30 17:10:30 Chicabuntu dhcpcd.sh: interface eth0 has been configured with new IP=192.168.1.111 Jun 30 17:10:39 Chicabuntu ntpdate[28439]: adjust time server 91.189.94.4 offset 0.001915 sec And here is the syslog from when it shuts down the connection without reason: Jun 30 17:12:15 Chicabuntu kernel: [15312.575455] tg3 0000:3f:00.0: eth0: Link is down Jun 30 17:12:16 Chicabuntu dhcpcd[28603]: eth0: sending signal 1 to pid 28361 Jun 30 17:12:16 Chicabuntu dhcpcd[28361]: eth0: received SIGHUP, releasing lease Jun 30 17:12:16 Chicabuntu dhcpcd[28603]: eth0: exiting Jun 30 17:12:16 Chicabuntu avahi-daemon[1041]: Withdrawing address record for 192.168.1.111 on eth0. Jun 30 17:12:16 Chicabuntu avahi-daemon[1041]: Leaving mDNS multicast group on interface eth0.IPv4 with address 192.168.1.111. Jun 30 17:12:16 Chicabuntu avahi-daemon[1041]: Interface eth0.IPv4 no longer relevant for mDNS. Jun 30 17:12:16 Chicabuntu dhcpcd[28361]: eth0: removing default route via 192.168.1.254 metric 0 Jun 30 17:12:16 Chicabuntu avahi-daemon[1041]: Interface eth0.IPv6 no longer relevant for mDNS. Jun 30 17:12:16 Chicabuntu avahi-daemon[1041]: Leaving mDNS multicast group on interface eth0.IPv6 with address fe80::21c:c4ff:fe31:1a83. Jun 30 17:12:16 Chicabuntu avahi-daemon[1041]: Withdrawing address record for fe80::21c:c4ff:fe31:1a83 on eth0. Jun 30 17:12:16 Chicabuntu dhcpcd[28361]: eth0: netlink: No such process Jun 30 17:12:16 Chicabuntu dhcpcd[28361]: eth0: removing IP address 192.168.1.111/24 Jun 30 17:12:16 Chicabuntu dhcpcd[28361]: eth0: netlink: Cannot assign requested address Jun 30 17:12:16 Chicabuntu dhcpcd[28361]: eth0: exiting Jun 30 17:12:16 Chicabuntu dhcpcd.sh: interface eth0 has been brought down Jun 30 17:12:17 Chicabuntu kernel: [15313.612141] tg3 0000:3f:00.0: irq 44 for MSI/MSI-X Jun 30 17:12:17 Chicabuntu kernel: [15313.644703] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth0: link is not ready Jun 30 17:12:17 Chicabuntu dhcpcd[28674]: wlan1: dhcpcd not running Jun 30 17:12:17 Chicabuntu dhcpcd[28674]: wlan1: exiting Jun 30 17:12:17 Chicabuntu dhcpcd[28708]: eth0: dhcpcd not running Jun 30 17:12:17 Chicabuntu dhcpcd[28708]: eth0: exiting Jun 30 17:12:17 Chicabuntu kernel: [15313.912147] tg3 0000:3f:00.0: irq 44 for MSI/MSI-X Jun 30 17:12:17 Chicabuntu kernel: [15313.944746] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth0: link is not ready Jun 30 17:12:18 Chicabuntu kernel: [15315.592569] tg3 0000:3f:00.0: eth0: Link is up at 100 Mbps, full duplex Jun 30 17:12:18 Chicabuntu kernel: [15315.592576] tg3 0000:3f:00.0: eth0: Flow control is on for TX and on for RX Jun 30 17:12:18 Chicabuntu kernel: [15315.593399] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): eth0: link becomes ready Jun 30 17:12:20 Chicabuntu avahi-daemon[1041]: Joining mDNS multicast group on interface eth0.IPv6 with address fe80::21c:c4ff:fe31:1a83. Jun 30 17:12:20 Chicabuntu avahi-daemon[1041]: New relevant interface eth0.IPv6 for mDNS. Jun 30 17:12:20 Chicabuntu avahi-daemon[1041]: Registering new address record for fe80::21c:c4ff:fe31:1a83 on eth0.*. Jun 30 17:12:29 Chicabuntu kernel: [15325.680019] eth0: no IPv6 routers present If this isn't useful, I can also post the wicd log, but that is kind of long. If anyone could help me I would be eternally grateful.

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• Manage Your Amazon S3 Account with CloudBerry Explorer

  - by Mysticgeek

  If you have an Amazon S3 account you’re using to backup your data, you might want an easy way to manage it. CloudBerry Explorer is a free app that runs on your desktop an provides an easy way to manage your S3 account. Installation and Setup Just download and install the application with the defaults. When the application launches you’ll be prompted to enter in your username and email to get a registration key. Or you can continue on by clicking Register later. Now you will want to set up your Amazon S3 account. Click on File \ Amazon S3 Accounts. Double-click on the New Account icon.   Next enter in your Amazon account Access and Secret keys, select SSL if you want, then click the Test Connection button. Provided everything was entered correctly, you’ll see the Connection Success screen, just close out of it. Browse and Manage files Once you have your account setup through the Explorer, you can start viewing and managing your files on S3. The left pane shows your S3 buckets and stored files, while the right side shows your local computer. This allows you to manage your files in your Amazon S3 buckets directly from your desktop! It’s very easy to use, and you can drag and drop files from your computer to the S3 account or vice versa. There is also the ability to transfer files between Amazon S3 accounts from within the explorer. Go into Tools and Content Types and you can control the file types by adding, removing, or editing them. If you end up messing something up along the lines, you can always select Reset to defaults and everything will be back to normal. There is a multiple tabbed view so you can easily keep track of your different accounts and local machine. It allows the ability to create new storage buckets directly in the Explorer. Or you can delete buckets as well… Different actions can be accessed from the toolbars or by right-clicking and selecting from the context menu. Here we see a cool option that lets you move your data inside Amazon S3. It is faster and doesn’t cost money by moving the files to your computer first, then to another account. However, if you want data moved to your local machine first, you have that option as well.   Not all features are available in the free version, and if it’s not, you’ll be prompted to purchase a license for the Pro version. We will have a comprehensive review of the Pro version in the near future.    If you ever need help with CloudBerry Explorer, go to Tools \ Diagnostics. It will run a quick diagnostics check and you can send the information to the CloudBerry team for assistance. Delete Files from Amazon S3 To delete a file from you Amazon S3 account, simply highlight the files or folder you want to get rid of then click Delete on the toolbar. You can also right-click the file and select Delete from the Context Menu. Click Yes to the confirmation dialog box… Then you can watch the progress as your files are deleted in the bottom section of the explorer. Conclusion CloudBerry Explorer free version has several neat features that will allow you easy and basic control over you Amazon S3 account. The free version may be enough for basic users, but power users will want to upgrade to the pro version, as it includes a lot more features. Using the free version allows you to get a feel for what CloudBerry Explorer has to offer, and is a good starting point. Keep in mind that Amazon S3 is introducing Reduced Redundancy Storage which will lower the price of data stored. The price drops from $0.15 per GB to only $0.10 per GB. If you’re a Windows Home Server user, check out our review of CloudBerry Online Backup 1.5 for WHS. Download CloudBerry Explorer Free for Amazon S3 Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips CloudBerry Online Backup 1.5 for Windows Home ServerReopen Closed Tabs in Internet ExplorerPreview and Purchase Ebooks with Kindle for PCTroubleshoot and Manage Addons in Internet Explorer 8Beginner Geek: Delete User Accounts in Windows 7 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 All My Movies 5.9 CloudBerry Online Backup 1.5 for Windows Home Server Snagit 10 VMware Workstation 7 Google TV The iPod Revolution Ultimate Boot CD can help when disaster strikes Windows Firewall with Advanced Security – How To Guides Sculptris 1.0, 3D Drawing app AceStock, a Tiny Desktop Quote Monitor

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• Displaying text letter by letter

  - by Evi

  I am planing to Write a Text adventure and I don't know how to make the text draw letter by letter in any other way than changing the variable from h to he to hel to hell to hello That would be a terrible amount of work since there are tons of dialogue. Here is the source code so far { /// <summary> /// This is the main type for your game /// </summary> public class Game1 : Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Game { GraphicsDeviceManager graphics; SpriteBatch spriteBatch; Texture2D sampleBG; Texture2D TextBG; SpriteFont defaultfont; KeyboardState keyboardstate; public bool spacepress = false; public bool mspress = false; public int textheight = 425; public int rowspace = 40; public string namebox = "(null)"; public string Row1 = "(null)"; public string Row2 = "(null)"; public string Row3 = "(null)"; public string Row4 = "(null)"; public int Dialogue = 0; public Game1() { graphics = new GraphicsDeviceManager(this); Content.RootDirectory = "Content"; graphics.PreferredBackBufferHeight = 600; graphics.PreferredBackBufferWidth = 800; IsMouseVisible = true; } /// <summary> /// Allows the game to perform any initialization it needs to before starting to run. /// This is where it can query for any required services and load any non-graphic /// related content. Calling base.Initialize will enumerate through any components /// and initialize them as well. /// </summary> protected override void Initialize() { // TODO: Add your initialization logic here base.Initialize(); } /// <summary> /// LoadContent will be called once per game and is the place to load /// all of your content. /// </summary> protected override void LoadContent() { // Create a new SpriteBatch, which can be used to draw textures. spriteBatch = new SpriteBatch(GraphicsDevice); // TODO: use this.Content to load your game content here sampleBG = Content.Load <Texture2D>("SampleBG"); defaultfont = Content.Load<SpriteFont>("SpriteFont1"); TextBG = Content.Load<Texture2D>("textbg"); } /// <summary> /// UnloadContent will be called once per game and is the place to unload /// all content. /// </summary> protected override void UnloadContent() { // TODO: Unload any non ContentManager content here } /// <summary> /// Allows the game to run logic such as updating the world, /// checking for collisions, gathering input, and playing audio. /// </summary> /// <param name="gameTime">Provides a snapshot of timing values.</param> protected override void Update(GameTime gameTime) { KeyboardState keyboardstate = Keyboard.GetState(); MouseState mousestate = Mouse.GetState(); // Changes Dialgue by pressing Left Mouse Button or Space #region Dialogue changer if (mousestate.LeftButton == ButtonState.Pressed && mspress == false) { mspress = true; Dialogue = Dialogue + 1; } if (mousestate.LeftButton == ButtonState.Released && mspress == true) { mspress = false; } if (keyboardstate.IsKeyDown(Keys.Space) && spacepress == false) { spacepress = true; Dialogue = Dialogue + 1; } if (keyboardstate.IsKeyUp(Keys.Space) && spacepress == true) { spacepress = false; } #endregion // ------------------------------------------------------ // Dialgue Content #region Dialgue if (Dialogue == 1) { Row1 = "Input Text 1 Here."; Row2 = "Input Text 2 Here."; Row3 = "Input Text 3 Here."; Row4 = "Input Text 4 Here."; } if (Dialogue == 2) { Row1 = "Text 1"; Row2 = "Text 2"; Row3 = "Text 3"; Row4 = "Text 4"; } #endregion // ------------------------------------------------------ base.Update(gameTime); } /// <summary> /// This is called when the game should draw itself. /// </summary> /// <param name="gameTime">Provides a snapshot of timing values.</param> protected override void Draw(GameTime gameTime) { GraphicsDevice.Clear(Color.CornflowerBlue); // TODO: Add your drawing code here spriteBatch.Begin(); spriteBatch.Draw(sampleBG, new Rectangle(0, 0, 800, 600), Color.White); spriteBatch.Draw(TextBG, new Rectangle(0, 400, 800, 200), Color.White); spriteBatch.DrawString(defaultfont, Row1, new Vector2(10, (textheight + (rowspace * 0))), Color.Black); spriteBatch.DrawString(defaultfont, Row2, new Vector2(10, (textheight + (rowspace * 1))), Color.Black); spriteBatch.DrawString(defaultfont, Row3, new Vector2(10, (textheight + (rowspace * 2))), Color.Black); spriteBatch.DrawString(defaultfont, Row4, new Vector2(10, (textheight + (rowspace * 3))), Color.Black); spriteBatch.End(); base.Draw(gameTime); } } }

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• Lighting get darker when texture is aplied

  - by noah

  Im using OpenGL ES 1.1 for iPhone. I'm attempting to implement a skybox in my 3d world and started out by following one of Jeff Lamarches tutorials on creating textures. Heres the tutorial: iphonedevelopment.blogspot.com/2009/05/opengl-es-from-ground-up-part-6_25.html Ive successfully added the image to my 3d world but am not sure why the lighting on the other shapes has changed so much. I want the shapes to be the original color and have the image in the background. Before: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ojmb8793vj514h0/Screen%20Shot%202012-10-01%20at%205.34.44%20PM.png After: https://www.dropbox.com/s/8v6yvur8amgudia/Screen%20Shot%202012-10-01%20at%205.35.31%20PM.png Heres the init OpenGL: - (void)initOpenGLES1 { glShadeModel(GL_SMOOTH); // Enable lighting glEnable(GL_LIGHTING); // Turn the first light on glEnable(GL_LIGHT0); const GLfloat lightAmbient[] = {0.2, 0.2, 0.2, 1.0}; const GLfloat lightDiffuse[] = {0.8, 0.8, 0.8, 1.0}; const GLfloat matAmbient[] = {0.3, 0.3, 0.3, 0.5}; const GLfloat matDiffuse[] = {1.0, 1.0, 1.0, 1.0}; const GLfloat matSpecular[] = {1.0, 1.0, 1.0, 1.0}; const GLfloat lightPosition[] = {0.0, 0.0, 1.0, 0.0}; const GLfloat lightShininess = 100.0; //Configure OpenGL lighting glEnable(GL_LIGHTING); glEnable(GL_LIGHT0); glMaterialfv(GL_FRONT_AND_BACK, GL_AMBIENT, matAmbient); glMaterialfv(GL_FRONT_AND_BACK, GL_DIFFUSE, matDiffuse); glMaterialfv(GL_FRONT_AND_BACK, GL_SPECULAR, matSpecular); glMaterialf(GL_FRONT_AND_BACK, GL_SHININESS, lightShininess); glLightfv(GL_LIGHT0, GL_AMBIENT, lightAmbient); glLightfv(GL_LIGHT0, GL_DIFFUSE, lightDiffuse); glLightfv(GL_LIGHT0, GL_POSITION, lightPosition); // Define a cutoff angle glLightf(GL_LIGHT0, GL_SPOT_CUTOFF, 40.0); // Set the clear color glClearColor(0, 0, 0, 1.0f); // Projection Matrix config glMatrixMode(GL_PROJECTION); glLoadIdentity(); CGSize layerSize = self.view.layer.frame.size; // Swapped height and width for landscape mode gluPerspective(45.0f, (GLfloat)layerSize.height / (GLfloat)layerSize.width, 0.1f, 750.0f); [self initSkyBox]; // Modelview Matrix config glMatrixMode(GL_MODELVIEW); glLoadIdentity(); // This next line is not really needed as it is the default for OpenGL ES glTexEnvi(GL_TEXTURE_ENV, GL_TEXTURE_ENV_MODE, GL_MODULATE); glBlendFunc(GL_SRC_ALPHA, GL_ONE_MINUS_SRC_ALPHA); glDisable(GL_BLEND); // Enable depth testing glEnable(GL_DEPTH_TEST); glDepthFunc(GL_LESS); glDepthMask(GL_TRUE); } Heres the drawSkybox that gets called in the drawFrame method: -(void)drawSkyBox { glDisable(GL_LIGHTING); glDisable(GL_DEPTH_TEST); glEnableClientState(GL_VERTEX_ARRAY); glEnableClientState(GL_NORMAL_ARRAY); glEnableClientState(GL_TEXTURE_COORD_ARRAY); static const SSVertex3D vertices[] = { {-1.0, 1.0, -0.0}, { 1.0, 1.0, -0.0}, {-1.0, -1.0, -0.0}, { 1.0, -1.0, -0.0} }; static const SSVertex3D normals[] = { {0.0, 0.0, 1.0}, {0.0, 0.0, 1.0}, {0.0, 0.0, 1.0}, {0.0, 0.0, 1.0} }; static const GLfloat texCoords[] = { 0.0, 0.5, 0.5, 0.5, 0.0, 0.0, 0.5, 0.0 }; glLoadIdentity(); glTranslatef(0.0, 0.0, -3.0); glBindTexture(GL_TEXTURE_2D, texture[0]); glVertexPointer(3, GL_FLOAT, 0, vertices); glNormalPointer(GL_FLOAT, 0, normals); glTexCoordPointer(2, GL_FLOAT, 0, texCoords); glDrawArrays(GL_TRIANGLE_STRIP, 0, 4); glDisableClientState(GL_VERTEX_ARRAY); glDisableClientState(GL_NORMAL_ARRAY); glDisableClientState(GL_TEXTURE_COORD_ARRAY); glEnable(GL_LIGHTING); glEnable(GL_DEPTH_TEST); } Heres the init Skybox: -(void)initSkyBox { // Turn necessary features on glEnable(GL_TEXTURE_2D); glEnable(GL_BLEND); glBlendFunc(GL_ONE, GL_SRC_COLOR); // Bind the number of textures we need, in this case one. glGenTextures(1, &texture[0]); // create a texture obj, give unique ID glBindTexture(GL_TEXTURE_2D, texture[0]); // load our new texture name into the current texture glTexParameteri(GL_TEXTURE_2D,GL_TEXTURE_MIN_FILTER,GL_LINEAR); glTexParameteri(GL_TEXTURE_2D,GL_TEXTURE_MAG_FILTER,GL_LINEAR); NSString *path = [[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource:@"space" ofType:@"jpg"]; NSData *texData = [[NSData alloc] initWithContentsOfFile:path]; UIImage *image = [[UIImage alloc] initWithData:texData]; GLuint width = CGImageGetWidth(image.CGImage); GLuint height = CGImageGetHeight(image.CGImage); CGColorSpaceRef colorSpace = CGColorSpaceCreateDeviceRGB(); void *imageData = malloc( height * width * 4 ); // times 4 because will write one byte for rgb and alpha CGContextRef cgContext = CGBitmapContextCreate( imageData, width, height, 8, 4 * width, colorSpace, kCGImageAlphaPremultipliedLast | kCGBitmapByteOrder32Big ); // Flip the Y-axis CGContextTranslateCTM (cgContext, 0, height); CGContextScaleCTM (cgContext, 1.0, -1.0); CGColorSpaceRelease( colorSpace ); CGContextClearRect( cgContext, CGRectMake( 0, 0, width, height ) ); CGContextDrawImage( cgContext, CGRectMake( 0, 0, width, height ), image.CGImage ); glTexImage2D(GL_TEXTURE_2D, 0, GL_RGBA, width, height, 0, GL_RGBA, GL_UNSIGNED_BYTE, imageData); CGContextRelease(cgContext); free(imageData); [image release]; [texData release]; } Any help is greatly appreciated.

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• Easing the Journey to the Private Cloud with Oracle Consulting

  - by MichaelM-Oracle

  By Sanjai Marimadaiah, Senior Director, Strategy & Business Development – Cloud Solutions, Oracle Consulting Services Business leaders are now leading the charge on how their firms can profit from cloud solutions. Agility and innovation are becoming the primary drivers of the business case for the cloud, even more than the anticipated cost savings. Leaders need to find the right strategy and optimize the use of cloud-based applications across their enterprise-computing infrastructure. The Problem – Current State With prevalent IT practices, many organizations find that they run multiple IT solutions serving similar business needs. This has led to the proliferation of technology stacks, for example: Oracle 10g on Sun T4 running Solaris 9; Oracle 11g on Exadata running Linux; or Oracle 12c on commodity x86 servers. This variance has a huge impact on an organization’s agility and expenses, and requires IT professionals with varied skills as well as on-going training for different systems and tools. Fortunately there is a practical business strategy to overcome this unneeded redundancy. Thus begins a journey to the right cloud computing solution. The Solution – Cloud Services from Oracle Consulting Services (OCS) Oracle Consulting Services (OCS ) works closely with our clients as trusted advisors to proactively respond to business needs and IT concerns. OCS understands that making the transition to cloud solutions begins with a strategic conversation, based on its deep expertise for successfully completing private cloud service engagements with several companies. For a journey to the cloud, Oracle Consulting Services leads the client through four phases– standardization, consolidation, service delivery, and enterprise cloud – to achieve optimal returns. Phase 1 - Standardization Oracle Consulting Services (OCS) works with clients to evaluate their business requirements and propose a set of standard solutions stacks for various IT solutions. This is an opportune time to evaluate cloud ready solutions, such as Oracle 12c, Oracle Exadata, and the Oracle Database Appliance (ODA). The OCS consultants, together with the delivery team, then turn to upgrading and migrating existing solution stacks to standardized offerings. OCS has the expertise and tools to complete this stage in a fraction of the time required by other IT services companies. Clients quickly realize cost savings in tools, processes, and type/number of resources required. This standardization also improves agility of the IT organizations and their abilities to respond to the needs of various business units. Phase 2 - Consolidation During the consolidation phase, OCS consultants programmatically consolidate hundreds of databases into a smaller number of servers to improve utilization, reduce floor space, and optimize maintenance costs. Consolidation helps clients realize huge savings in CapEx investments and shrink OpEx costs. The use of engineered systems, such as Oracle Exadata, greatly reduces the client’s risk of moving to a new solution stack. OCS recommends clients to pursue Phase 1 (Standardization) and Phase 2 (Consolidation) simultaneously to reduce the overall time, effort, and expense of the cloud journey. Phase 3 - Service Delivery Once a client is on a path of standardization and consolidation, OCS consultants create Service Catalogues based on the SLAs requirements and the criticality of the solutions. The number and types of Service Catalogues (Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze, etc.) vary from client to client. OCS consultants also implement a variety of value-added cloud solutions, including monitoring, metering, and charge-back solutions. At this stage, clients are able to achieve a high level of understanding in their cloud journey. Their IT organizations are operating efficiently and are more agile in responding to the needs of business units. Phase 4 - Enterprise Cloud In the final phase of the cloud journey, the economics of the IT organizations change. Business units can request services on-demand; applications can be deployed and consumed on a pay-as-you-go model. OCS has the expertise and capabilities to establish processes, programs, and solutions required for IT organizations to transform how they interact with business units. The Promise of Cloud Solutions Depending the size and complexity of their business model, some clients are able to abbreviate some phases of their cloud journey. Cloud solutions are still evolving and there is rapid pace of innovation to transform how IT organizations operate. The lesson is clear. Cloud solutions hold a lot of promise for business agility. Business leaders can now leverage an additional set of capabilities and services. They can ramp up their pace of innovation. With cloud maturity, they can compete more effectively in their respective markets. But there are certainly challenges ahead. A skilled consulting services partner can play a pivotal role as a trusted advisor in the successful adoption of cloud solutions. Oracle Consulting Services has expertise and a portfolio of services to help clients succeed on their journey to the cloud.

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• IRM Item Codes &ndash; what are they for?

  - by martin.abrahams

  A number of colleagues have been asking about IRM item codes recently – what are they for, when are they useful, how can you control them to meet some customer requirements? This is quite a big topic, but this article provides a few answers. An item code is part of the metadata of every sealed document – unless you define a custom metadata model. The item code is defined when a file is sealed, and usually defaults to a timestamp/filename combination. This time/name combo tends to make item codes unique for each new document, but actually item codes are not necessarily unique, as will become clear shortly. In most scenarios, item codes are not relevant to the evaluation of a user’s rights - the context name is the critical piece of metadata, as a user typically has a role that grants access to an entire classification of information regardless of item code. This is key to the simplicity and manageability of the Oracle IRM solution. Item codes are occasionally exposed to users in the UI, but most users probably never notice and never care. Nevertheless, here is one example of where you can see an item code – when you hover the mouse pointer over a sealed file. As you see, the item code for this freshly created file combines a timestamp with the file name. But what are item codes for? The first benefit of item codes is that they enable you to manage exceptions to the policy defined for a context. Thus, I might have access to all oracle – internal files - except for 2011_03_11 13:33:29 Board Minutes.sdocx. This simple mechanism enables Oracle IRM to provide file-by-file control where appropriate, whilst offering the scalability and manageability of classification-based control for the majority of users and content. You really don’t want to be managing each file individually, but never say never. Item codes can also be used for the opposite effect – to include a file in a user’s rights when their role would ordinarily deny access. So, you can assign a role that allows access only to specified item codes. For example, my role might say that I have access to precisely one file – the one shown above. So how are item codes set? In the vast majority of scenarios, item codes are set automatically as part of the sealing process. The sealing API uses the timestamp and filename as shown, and the user need not even realise that this has happened. This automatically creates item codes that are for all practical purposes unique - and that are also intelligible to users who might want to refer to them when viewing or assigning rights in the management UI. It is also possible for suitably authorised users and applications to set the item code manually or programmatically if required. Setting the item code manually using the IRM Desktop The manual process is a simple extension of the sealing task. An authorised user can select the Advanced… sealing option, and will see a dialog that offers the option to specify the item code. To see this option, the user’s role needs the Set Item Code right – you don’t want most users to give any thought at all to item codes, so by default the option is hidden. Setting the item code programmatically A more common scenario is that an application controls the item code programmatically. For example, a document management system that seals documents as part of a workflow might set the item code to match the document’s unique identifier in its repository. This offers the option to tie IRM rights evaluation directly to the security model defined in the document management system. Again, the sealing application needs to be authorised to Set Item Code. The Payslip Scenario To give a concrete example of how item codes might be used in a real world scenario, consider a Human Resources workflow such as a payslips. The goal might be to allow the HR team to have access to all payslips, but each employee to have access only to their own payslips. To enable this, you might have an IRM classification called Payslips. The HR team have a role in the normal way that allows access to all payslips. However, each employee would have an Item Reader role that only allows them to access files that have a particular item code – and that item code might match the employee’s payroll number. So, employee number 123123123 would have access to items with that code. This shows why item codes are not necessarily unique – you can deliberately set the same code on many files for ease of administration. The employees might have the right to unseal or print their payslip, so the solution acts as a secure delivery mechanism that allows payslips to be distributed via corporate email without any fear that they might be accessed by IT administrators, or forwarded accidentally to anyone other than the intended recipient. All that remains is to ensure that as each user’s payslip is sealed, it is assigned the correct item code – something that is easily managed by a simple IRM sealing application. Each month, an employee’s payslip is sealed with the same item code, so you do not need to keep amending the list of items that the user has access to – they have access to all documents that carry their employee code.

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• Updating a database connection password using a script

  - by Tim Dexter

  An interesting customer requirement that I thought was worthy of sharing today. Thanks to James for the requirement and Bryan for the proposed solution and me for testing the solution and proving it works :0) A customers implementation of Sarbanes Oxley requires them to change all database account passwords every 90 days. This is scripted leveraging shell scripts today for most of their environments. But how can they manage the BI Publisher connections? Now, the customer is running 11g and therefore using weblogic on the middle tier, which is the first clue to Bryans proposed solution. To paraphrase and embellish Bryan's solution a little; why not use a JNDI connection from BIP to the database. Then employ the web logic scripting engine to make updates to the JNDI as needed? BIP is completely uninvolved and with a little 'timing' users will be completely unaware of the password updates i.e. change the password when reports are not being executed. Perfect! James immediately tracked down the WLST script that could be used here, http://middlewaremagic.com/weblogic/?p=4261 (thanks Ravish) Now it was just a case of testing the theory. Some steps: Create the JNDI connection in WLS Create the JNDI connection in BI Publisher pointing to the WLS connection Build new data models using or re-point data sources to use the JNDI connection. Create the WLST script to update the WLS JNDI password as needed. Test! Some details. Creating the JNDI connection in web logic is pretty straightforward. Log into hte console and look for Data Sources under the Services section of the home page and click it Click New >> Generic Datasource Give the connection a name. For the JNDI name, prefix it with 'jdbc/' so I have 'jdbc/localdb' - this name is important you'll need it on the BIP side. Select your db type - this will influence the drivers and information needed on the next page. Being a company man, Im using an Oracle db. Click Next Select the driver of choice, theres lots I know, you can read about them I just chose 'Oracle's Driver (Thin) for Instance connections; Versions 9.0.1 and later' Click Next >> Next Fill out the db name (SID), server, port, username to connect and password >> Next Test the config to ensure you can connect. >> Next Now you need to deploy the connection to your BI server, select it and click Next. You're done with the JNDI config. Creating the JNDI connection on the Publisher side is covered here. Just remember to the connection name you created in WLS e.g. 'jdbc/localdb' Not gonna tell you how to do this, go read the user guide :0) Suffice to say, it works. This requires a little reading around the subject to understand the scripting engine and how to execute scripts. Nicely covered here. However a bit of googlin' and I found an even easier way of running the script. ${ServerHome}/common/bin/wlst.sh updatepwd.py Where updatepwd.py is my script file, it can be in another directory. As part of the wlst.sh script your environment is set up for you so its very simple to execute. The nitty gritty: Need to take Ravish's script above and create a file with a .py extension. Its going to need some modification, as he explains on the web page, to make it work in your environment. I played around with it for a while but kept running into errors. The script as is, tries to loop through all of your connections and modify the user and passwords for each. Not quite what we are looking for. Remember our requirement is to just update the password for a given connection. I also found another issue with the script. WLS 10.x does not allow updates to passwords using clear type ie un-encrypted text while the server is in production mode. Its a bit much to set it back to developer mode bounce it, change the passwords and then bounce and then change back to production and bounce again. After lots of messing about I finally came up with the following: ############################################################################# # # Update password for JNDI connections # ############################################################################# print("*** Trying to Connect.... *****") connect('weblogic','welcome1','t3://localhost:7001') print("*** Connected *****") edit() startEdit() print ("*** Encrypt the password ***") en = encrypt('hr') print "Encrypted pwd: ", en print ("*** Changing pwd for LocalDB ***") dsName = 'LocalDB' print 'Changing Password for DataSource ', dsName cd('/JDBCSystemResources/'+dsName+'/JDBCResource/'+dsName+'/JDBCDriverParams/'+dsName) set('PasswordEncrypted',en) save() activate() Its pretty simple and you can expand on it to loop through the data sources and change each as needed. I have hardcoded the password into the file but you can pass it as a parameter as needed using the properties file method. Im not going to get into the detail of that here but its covered with an example here. Couple of points to note: 1. The change to the password requires a server bounce to get the changes picked up. You can add that to the shell script you will use to call the script above. 2. The script above needs to be run from the MW_HOME\user_projects\domains\bifoundation_domain directory to get the encryption libraries set correctly. My command to run the whole script was: d:\oracle\bi_mw\wlserver_10.3\common\bin\wlst.cmd updatepwd.py - where wlst.cmd is the scripting command line and updatepwd.py was my update password script above. I have not quite spoon fed everything you need to make it a robust script but at least you know you can do it and you can work out the rest I think :0)

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• How to draw textures on a model

  - by marc wellman

  The following code is a complete XNA 3.1 program almost unaltered to that code skeleton Visual Studio is creating when creating a new project. The only things I have changed are imported a .x model to the content folder of the VS solution. (the model is a simple square with a texture spanning over it - made in Google Sketchup and exported with several .x exporters) in the Load() method I am loading the .x model into the game. The Draw() method uses a BasicEffect to render the model. Except these three things I haven't added any code. Why does the model does not show the texture ? What can I do to make the texture visible ? This is the texture file (a standard SketchUp texture from the palette): And this is what my program looks like - as you can see: No texture! Find below the complete source code of the program AND the complete .x file: namespace WindowsGame1 { /// <summary> /// This is the main type for your game /// </summary> public class Game1 : Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Game { GraphicsDeviceManager graphics; SpriteBatch spriteBatch; public Game1() { graphics = new GraphicsDeviceManager(this); Content.RootDirectory = "Content"; } /// <summary> /// Allows the game to perform any initialization it needs to before starting to run. /// This is where it can query for any required services and load any non-graphic /// related content. Calling base.Initialize will enumerate through any components /// and initialize them as well. /// </summary> protected override void Initialize() { // TODO: Add your initialization logic here base.Initialize(); } Model newModel; /// <summary> /// LoadContent will be called once per game and is the place to load /// all of your content. /// </summary> protected override void LoadContent() { // Create a new SpriteBatch, which can be used to draw textures. spriteBatch = new SpriteBatch(GraphicsDevice); // TODO: usse this.Content to load your game content here newModel = Content.Load<Model>(@"aau3d"); foreach (ModelMesh mesh in newModel.Meshes) { foreach (ModelMeshPart meshPart in mesh.MeshParts) { meshPart.Effect = new BasicEffect(this.GraphicsDevice, null); } } } /// <summary> /// UnloadContent will be called once per game and is the place to unload /// all content. /// </summary> protected override void UnloadContent() { // TODO: Unload any non ContentManager content here } /// <summary> /// Allows the game to run logic such as updating the world, /// checking for collisions, gathering input, and playing audio. /// </summary> /// <param name="gameTime">Provides a snapshot of timing values.</param> protected override void Update(GameTime gameTime) { // Allows the game to exit if (GamePad.GetState(PlayerIndex.One).Buttons.Back == ButtonState.Pressed) this.Exit(); // TODO: Add your update logic here base.Update(gameTime); } /// <summary> /// This is called when the game should draw itself. /// </summary> /// <param name="gameTime">Provides a snapshot of timing values.</param> protected override void Draw(GameTime gameTime) { if (newModel != null) { GraphicsDevice.Clear(Color.CornflowerBlue); Matrix[] transforms = new Matrix[newModel.Bones.Count]; newModel.CopyAbsoluteBoneTransformsTo(transforms); foreach (ModelMesh mesh in newModel.Meshes) { foreach (BasicEffect effect in mesh.Effects) { effect.EnableDefaultLighting(); effect.TextureEnabled = true; effect.World = transforms[mesh.ParentBone.Index] * Matrix.CreateRotationY(0) * Matrix.CreateTranslation(new Vector3(0, 0, 0)); effect.View = Matrix.CreateLookAt(new Vector3(200, 1000, 200), Vector3.Zero, Vector3.Up); effect.Projection = Matrix.CreatePerspectiveFieldOfView(MathHelper.ToRadians(45.0f), 0.75f, 1.0f, 10000.0f); } mesh.Draw(); } } base.Draw(gameTime); } } } This is the model I am using (.x): xof 0303txt 0032 // SketchUp 6 -> DirectX (c)2008 edecadoudal, supports: faces, normals and textures Material Default_Material{ 1.0;1.0;1.0;1.0;; 3.2; 0.000000;0.000000;0.000000;; 0.000000;0.000000;0.000000;; } Material _Groundcover_RiverRock_4inch_{ 0.568627450980392;0.494117647058824;0.427450980392157;1.0;; 3.2; 0.000000;0.000000;0.000000;; 0.000000;0.000000;0.000000;; TextureFilename { "aau3d.xGroundcover_RiverRock_4inch.jpg"; } } Mesh mesh_0{ 4; -81.6535;0.0000;74.8031;, -0.0000;0.0000;0.0000;, -81.6535;0.0000;0.0000;, -0.0000;0.0000;74.8031;; 2; 3;0,1,2, 3;1,0,3;; MeshMaterialList { 2; 2; 1, 1; { Default_Material } { _Groundcover_RiverRock_4inch_ } } MeshTextureCoords { 4; -2.1168,-3.4022; 1.0000,-0.0000; 1.0000,-3.4022; -2.1168,-0.0000;; } MeshNormals { 4; 0.0000;1.0000;-0.0000; 0.0000;1.0000;-0.0000; 0.0000;1.0000;-0.0000; 0.0000;1.0000;-0.0000;; 2; 3;0,1,2; 3;1,0,3;; } }

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• Nothing drawing on screen OpenGL with GLSL

  - by codemonkey

  I hate to be asking this kind of question here, but I am at a complete loss as to what is going wrong, so please bear with me. I am trying to render a single cube (voxel) in the center of the screen, through OpenGL with GLSL on Mac I begin by setting up everything using glut glutInit(&argc, argv); glutInitDisplayMode(GLUT_RGBA|GLUT_ALPHA|GLUT_DOUBLE|GLUT_DEPTH); glutInitWindowSize(DEFAULT_WINDOW_WIDTH, DEFAULT_WINDOW_HEIGHT); glutCreateWindow("Cubez-OSX"); glutReshapeFunc(reshape); glutDisplayFunc(render); glutIdleFunc(idle); _electricSheepEngine=new ElectricSheepEngine(DEFAULT_WINDOW_WIDTH, DEFAULT_WINDOW_HEIGHT); _electricSheepEngine->initWorld(); glutMainLoop(); Then inside the engine init camera & projection matrices: cameraPosition=glm::vec3(2,2,2); cameraTarget=glm::vec3(0,0,0); cameraUp=glm::vec3(0,0,1); glm::vec3 cameraDirection=glm::normalize(cameraPosition-cameraTarget); cameraRight=glm::cross(cameraDirection, cameraUp); cameraRight.z=0; view=glm::lookAt(cameraPosition, cameraTarget, cameraUp); lensAngle=45.0f; aspectRatio=1.0*(windowWidth/windowHeight); nearClippingPlane=0.1f; farClippingPlane=100.0f; projection=glm::perspective(lensAngle, aspectRatio, nearClippingPlane, farClippingPlane); then init shaders and check compilation and bound attributes & uniforms to be correctly bound (my previous question) These are my two shaders, vertex: #version 120 attribute vec3 position; attribute vec3 inColor; uniform mat4 mvp; varying vec3 fragColor; void main(void){ fragColor = inColor; gl_Position = mvp * vec4(position, 1.0); } and fragment: #version 120 varying vec3 fragColor; void main(void) { gl_FragColor = vec4(fragColor,1.0); } init the cube: setPosition(glm::vec3(0,0,0)); struct voxelData data[]={ //front face {{-1.0, -1.0, 1.0}, {0.0, 0.0, 1.0}}, {{ 1.0, -1.0, 1.0}, {0.0, 1.0, 1.0}}, {{ 1.0, 1.0, 1.0}, {0.0, 0.0, 1.0}}, {{-1.0, 1.0, 1.0}, {0.0, 1.0, 1.0}}, //back face {{-1.0, -1.0, -1.0}, {0.0, 0.0, 1.0}}, {{ 1.0, -1.0, -1.0}, {0.0, 1.0, 1.0}}, {{ 1.0, 1.0, -1.0}, {0.0, 0.0, 1.0}}, {{-1.0, 1.0, -1.0}, {0.0, 1.0, 1.0}} }; glGenBuffers(1, &modelVerticesBufferObject); glBindBuffer(GL_ARRAY_BUFFER, modelVerticesBufferObject); glBufferData(GL_ARRAY_BUFFER, sizeof(data), data, GL_STATIC_DRAW); glBindBuffer(GL_ARRAY_BUFFER, 0); const GLubyte indices[] = { // Front 0, 1, 2, 2, 3, 0, // Back 4, 6, 5, 4, 7, 6, // Left 2, 7, 3, 7, 6, 2, // Right 0, 4, 1, 4, 1, 5, // Top 6, 2, 1, 1, 6, 5, // Bottom 0, 3, 7, 0, 7, 4 }; glGenBuffers(1, &modelFacesBufferObject); glBindBuffer(GL_ELEMENT_ARRAY_BUFFER, modelFacesBufferObject); glBufferData(GL_ELEMENT_ARRAY_BUFFER, sizeof(indices), indices, GL_STATIC_DRAW); glBindBuffer(GL_ELEMENT_ARRAY_BUFFER, 0); and then the render call: glClearColor(0.52, 0.8, 0.97, 1.0); glClear(GL_COLOR_BUFFER_BIT | GL_DEPTH_BUFFER_BIT); glEnable(GL_DEPTH_TEST); //use the shader glUseProgram(shaderProgram); //enable attributes in program glEnableVertexAttribArray(shaderAttribute_position); glEnableVertexAttribArray(shaderAttribute_color); //model matrix using model position vector glm::mat4 mvp=projection*view*voxel->getModelMatrix(); glUniformMatrix4fv(shaderAttribute_mvp, 1, GL_FALSE, glm::value_ptr(mvp)); glBindBuffer(GL_ARRAY_BUFFER, voxel->modelVerticesBufferObject); glVertexAttribPointer(shaderAttribute_position, // attribute 3, // number of elements per vertex, here (x,y) GL_FLOAT, // the type of each element GL_FALSE, // take our values as-is sizeof(struct voxelData), // coord every (sizeof) elements 0 // offset of first element ); glBindBuffer(GL_ARRAY_BUFFER, voxel->modelVerticesBufferObject); glVertexAttribPointer(shaderAttribute_color, // attribute 3, // number of colour elements per vertex, here (x,y) GL_FLOAT, // the type of each element GL_FALSE, // take our values as-is sizeof(struct voxelData), // coord every (sizeof) elements (GLvoid *)(offsetof(struct voxelData, color3D)) // offset of colour data ); //draw the model by going through its elements array glBindBuffer(GL_ELEMENT_ARRAY_BUFFER, voxel->modelFacesBufferObject); int bufferSize; glGetBufferParameteriv(GL_ELEMENT_ARRAY_BUFFER, GL_BUFFER_SIZE, &bufferSize); glDrawElements(GL_TRIANGLES, bufferSize/sizeof(GLushort), GL_UNSIGNED_SHORT, 0); //close up the attribute in program, no more need glDisableVertexAttribArray(shaderAttribute_position); glDisableVertexAttribArray(shaderAttribute_color); but on screen all I get is the clear color :$ I generate my model matrix using: modelMatrix=glm::translate(glm::mat4(1.0), position); which in debug turns out to be for the position of (0,0,0): |1, 0, 0, 0| |0, 1, 0, 0| |0, 0, 1, 0| |0, 0, 0, 1| Sorry for such a question, I know it is annoying to look at someone's code, but I promise I have tried to debug around and figure it out as much as I can, and can't come to a solution Help a noob please? EDIT: Full source here, if anyone wants

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• Some mail details about Orange Mauritius

  Being an internet service provider is not easy after all for a lot of companies. Luckily, there are quite some good international operators in this world. For example Orange Mauritius aka Mauritius Telecom aka Wanadoo(?) aka MyT here in Mauritius. The local circumstances give them a quasi-monopol position on fixed lines for telephony and therefore cable-based DSL internet connectivity. So far, not bad but as usual... the details. Just for the records, I am only using the services of Orange for mobile but friends and customers are bound, eh stuck, with other services of Orange Mauritius. And usually, being the IT guy, they get in touch with me to complain about problems or to ask questions on either their ADSL / MyT connection, mail services or whatever. Most of those issues are user-related and easily to solve by tweaking the configuration of their computer a little bit but sometimes it's getting weird. Using Orange ADSL... somewhere else Now, let's imagine we are an Orange ADSL customer for ages and we are using their mail services with our very own mail address like "[email protected]". We configured our mail client like Thunderbird, Outlook Express, Outlook or Windows Mail as publicly described, and we are able to receive and send emails like a champion. No problems at all, the world is green. Did I mention that we have a laptop? Ok, let's take our movable piece of information technology and visit a friend here on the island. Not surprising, he is also customer of Orange, so we can read and answer emails. But Orange is not the online internet service provider and one day, we happen to hang out with someone that uses Emtel via WiMAX or UMTS.. And the fun starts... We can still receive and read emails from our Orange mail account and the IT world is still bright but try to send mails to someone outside the domain "@intnet.mu" or "@orange.mu". Your mail client will deny sending mail with SMTP message 5.1.0 "blah not allowed". First guess, there is problem with the mail client, maybe magically the configuration changed over-night. But no it is still working at home... So, there is for sure a problem with the guy's internet connection. At least, it is his fault not to have Orange internet services, so it can not work properly... The Orange Mail FAQ After some more frustation we finally checkout the Orange Mail FAQ to see whether this (obviously?) common problem has been described already. Sorry, but those FAQ entries are even more confusing as it is not really clear how to handle this scenario. Best of all is that most of the entries are still refering to use servers of the domain "intnet.mu". I mean Orange will disable those systems in favour of the domain "orange.mu" in the near future and does not amend their FAQs. Come on, guys! Ok, settings for POP3 are there. Hm, what about the secure version POP3S? No signs at all... Even changing your mail client to use password encryption with STARTTLS is not allowed at all. Use "bow.intnet.mu" for incoming mail... Ahhh, pretty obvious host name. I mean, at least something like pop.intnet.mu or pop3.intnet.mu would have been more accurate. Funny of all, the hostname "pop.orange.mu" is accessible to receive your mail account. Alright, checking SMTP options for authentication or other like POP-before-SMTP or whatever well-known and established mechanism to send emails are described. I guess that spotting a whale or shark in Mauritian waters would be easier. Trial and error on SMTP settings reveal that neither STARTTLS or any other connection / password encryption is available. Using SSL/TLS on SMTP only reveals that there is no service answering your request. Calling customer service So, we have to bite into the bitter apple and get in touch with Orange customer service and complain/explain them our case and ask for advice. After some hiccups, we finally manage to get hold of someone competent in mail services and we receive the golden spoon of mail configuration made by Orange Mauritius: SMTP hostname: smtpauth.intnet.mu And the world of IT is surprisingly green again. Customer satisfaction? Dear Orange Mauritius, what's the problem with this information? Are you scared of mail spammer? Why isn't there any case in your FAQs? Ok, talking about your FAQs - simply said: they are badly outdated! Configure your mail client to use server name based in the domain intnet.mu but specify your account username with orange.mu as domain part. Although, that there are servers available on the domain orange.mu after all. So, why don't you provide current information like this: POP3 server name: pop.orange.muSMTP server name: smtp.orange.muSMTP authenticated: smtpauth.orange.mu It's not difficult, is it? In my humble opinion not really and you would provide clean, consistent and up-to-date information for your customers. This would produce less frustation and so less traffic on your customer service lines. Which after all, would improve the total user experience and satisfaction level on both sides. Without knowing these facts. Now, imagine you would take your laptop abroad and have to use other internet service providers to be able to be online... Calling your customer service would be unnecessary expensive!

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