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• iTunes and Hulu Playback Choppy and Slow?

  - by Bart Silverstrim

  Specs: Windows XP, latest updates 1.7 ghz Pentium 4 1 gig ram DirectX 9.0c NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 with 256 meg RAM OpenGL 2.1 The story: Okay, I had an older system laying around that I figured I would try turning into a mini-media system to connect to our TV. I put together a lot of older parts, got it into working order, etc. and hooked it up and voila'...slower, but usable system that displayed to the TV. It could run some things decently. I put in iTunes, it played video okay. Not great, but okay. Played Hulu and since we have a 1Mb download rate, the minimum for their site, there were some choppy moments when watching their shows, but I found that (sadly) changing resolution to 800x600 seemed to help with the issue when running full screen. I downloaded the application called Boxee and installed it. It wouldn't run; apparently the video card in the system supported OpenGL 1.2, and needed at least 1.4. I bought a cheap card, the 5200, with four times the memory in it and support for OpenGL 2.1. Installed, everything seemed fine. iTunes seemed to run fine, the video driver (PNY video card) came with OpenGL 2.1, and Boxee finally ran. I then upgraded to the latest drivers for the video card and ran the DirectX updater from MS. After that, the OpenGL Extension Viewer wouldn't run. It just stayed as an icon in the task bar. Also, any and all videos in iTunes stuttered and went out of sync horribly. Unwatchable. I tried watching Hulu video in Boxee, and it displayed video like it was a series of stills in a very bad powerpoint. Playing straightforward audio-only came through fine, no stutters no hiccups. I tried system restore to roll back updates to pre-directX updates (I thought that seemed to be the time that triggered the weird behavior), no joy. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling the video drivers. I installed updated audio drivers (ensoniq audiopci), nothing helped. I finally wiped the drive last night and tried reinstalling everything and restoring my iTunes content via an import from a backup. Fresh install, no updater on the video card or directx. the problem was still there although I haven't tested Hulu, the iTunes player is still stuttering like crazy if I play video, fine if I play audio. I know the processor isn't high in heft, but with one gig of RAM and the fact that it seemed to do okay before I thought that the problem must be software related. Has anyone else run into this sort of issue and have a solution other than "buy a new computer"? What specs seem to work with video at the low end for you? Right now the system is of little use other than keeping my music library and iTunes apps synced with my iPod.

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• Dlink search is hijacking my browser

  - by James

  For months now "DLink search" has been hijacking my search engines. I use google chrome, and I have organized my search engines in the handy dandy "manage search engines" tool about a TRILLION times. It never even says D-link is hacking my search engines. It does not show up! I have read many posts on this forum and others saying that to fix this problem from internet explorer: Setup, internet options, yadayada, magical fairies, and you are solved, but my browser is google chrome! How am I supposed to do this from there! I do not know how to re-setup my Dlink router, which is the cause of the problem! HOW? In those posts with the magical fairies fixing it, HUNDREDS responded saying, "yep, those fairies definitely fixed it right. :)" These people were so satisfied. IT WORKED FOR THEM, WHY NOT ME. I look at it and go ":(" because it does not help me. There are no options for anything to do with this in GOOGLE chrome. PLEASE EXPLAIN and HELP. I see no "SETUP" option, no "Internet Options" button, no anything. BTW the exact posts are these: "Uncheck Advanced DNS in the router internet setup. This will take care of it. I had this problem with my DLink router before." "I had this issue with my DIR-655 and unchecking the Advanced DNS setting in Setup - Internet - Manual Internet Connection Setup fixed it." "If this is just internet explorer, you can go to Tools Internet Options or Internet Options in Control Panel. From here, go to the advanced tab and click the Reset button." "I would set the router's DNS to a site like OpenDNS, and I would ensure the machines are set to get their DNS settings via DHCP or set the machine's DNS setting to OpenDNS. If the router's DNS looks like it was messed with, some bad software know the default passwords for routers and could have changed it. If you don't already I would make sure the password to the router is not default or easy to guess. I've had spyware change a machine's DNS, but the fact it is happening on all machines makes me wonder if it is the router." "Something got into your router and changed the dns server most likely, do a hard reset of the router and then change the password to something strong. Also check for a firmware update for the router and apply it as soon as possible."

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• I can't delete a directory inside a junctioned directory

  - by Fredy Muñoz

  So this is the deal. A couple of days ago I moved my profile folder C:\Documents and Settings\fmunoz to a different drive D:\fmunoz. Today, I created a directory in my desktop using the point-and-click method: Right-click on an empty space in the desktop Select New Select Folder Leave the default name New Folder and press Enter I tried to delete the folder using the point-and-click method: Right-click the New Folder directory Select Delete After five seconds, I got the following message: --------------------------- Error Deleting File or Folder --------------------------- Cannot delete New Folder: Access is denied. Make sure the disk is not full or write-protected and that the file is not currently in use. --------------------------- Initially I thought that there must be some sort of indexing services locking the directory so I got a list of open files using the TuneUp Process Manager tool but the New Folder directory wasn't there. I double-clicked My Computer, navigated to the desktop directory C:\Documents and Settings\fmunoz\Destkop, tried to delete the New Folder directory using the same point-and-click method described above and got exactly the same message at the same amount of time. In the same window, I navigated to the actual location of the desktop directory D:\fmunoz\Desktop, tried to delete the New Folder directory and this time it worked. I thought that this behavior was due to some special treatment that Windows gives to the desktop or the profile directories so I tried doing the same thing with a different set of directories: Created a folder D:\dummy Created a junction C:\dummy pointing to D:\dummy Created a New Folder directory in C:\dummy Tried to delete New Folder from C:\dummy. Didn't work. Tried to delete New Folder from D:\dummy. It worked. I tried creating the folder in the actual directory rather than the junction directory: Created a New Folder directory in D:\dummy Tried to delete New Folder from C:\dummy. Didn't work. Tried to delete New Folder from D:\dummy. It worked. I also tried using the Delete button instead of using the Delete option of the context menu but it didn't work. When using the Shift+Delete sequence, it works. It also works by using the rd command in the console, but in both cases the deleted directory doesn't goes to the Recycle Bin, which is my intention when using the Delete context menu option or the Delete button.

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• Windows 7 reboot and freezing, possible power problems?

  - by mikelbring

  My Gateway LX Series desktop is about 6-8 months old. When I bought it, it had Windows Vista. I then put the RC version of Windows 7 on it. About 3 months after I bought it, it would randomly start to reboot, actually just shut off. I monitored the temperature levels and they seemed normal. So I installed a fresh Windows 7 Ultimate OEM 64bit. It actually got worse and would reboot more frequently. I then contacted Gateway and they said my machine was built for Windows Vista (made me chuckle), and told me to update my BIOS. So I did, and it was fixed for a good couple months. Recently, it started to do it again. Now I noticed early on it was doing it most often, if not every time when I was either watching a flash video or playing a flash game. So I decided to download the drivers again and I also downloaded my motherboard drivers. Seemed to be okay. A week later it started doing it again. And now it's doing it even more frequently. Sometimes I would turn it on, login into Windows and *BAM!* it would shut off. Now I am at the point where I can hardly get it to turn on. It would freeze at the point where it says "Starting Windows", with the Windows logo. Sometimes it would say "Checking disk for consistency" or whatever and freeze there (not shut off, just freeze). I even got the prompt to launch startup repair. But that also freezes when it says starting Windows. It does not really freeze, just never loads up. I am kind of lost as to what's going on. I have a few ideas but nothing I want to pursue (graphics card? hard drive?). Another thing I did try was to boot into a live disk of Ubuntu and try to launch every program I could and get on the internet but I never got it to reboot. So it sounds like to me it's a Windows thing, but I have no idea. I am just stuck and would like to see if any one has any ideas or could lead me in the right direction.

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• Reviews Cheyney Group Marketing: What accounting softwares are available in the market for small businesses?

  - by user225556

  Accounting is the language of business, and good accounting software can save you hundreds of hours at the business equivalent of Berlitz. There's no substitute for an accounting pro who knows the ins and outs of tax law, but today's desktop packages can help you with everything from routine bookkeeping to payroll, taxes, and planning. Each package also produces files that you can hand off to an accountant as needed. Small-business managers have more accounting software options than ever, including subscription Web-based options that don't require their users to install or update software. Many businesses, however--including those that need to track large inventories or client databases, and those that prefer not to entrust their data to the cloud--may be happier with a desktop tool. We looked at three general-purpose, small-business accounting packages: Acclivity AccountEdgePro 2012 (both the product and the company were previously called MYOB), Intuit QuickBooks Premier 2012, and Sage's Sage 50 Complete 2013 (the successor to Peachtree Complete). All three packages offer a solid array of tools for tracking income and expenses, invoicing, managing payroll, and creating reports. These full-featured and highly mature programs don't come cheap. Acclivity AccountEdge Pro, at $299, is the least expensive; and prices climb if you opt to use common time-saving add-ons such as payroll services, or if you add licenses for multiple user accounts. All three are solid on the basics, but they have distinct differences in style and focus. The more you know about your accounting requirements, the more closely you'll want to look at the software you're thinking of buying. Sage 50 Complete should appeal most to people who understand the fine points of accounting and can use the product's many customization features (especially for businesses that manage inventory). QuickBooks works hard to appeal to newbies who need only the basics and might be intimidated by the level of detail and technical language exposed in the other two packages. At the same time, it also has a slew of third-party add-ons that meet specific needs and greatly expand its capabilities. AccountEdge Pro balances accessibility with a strong feature set at an affordable price. It's especially suitable for businesses that need to provide simultaneous access to multiple users.

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• Windows 7 & Virtual PC and Internet (gateway) problems on host PC

  - by Mufasa

  I upgraded to Windows 7 on a PC that is a few years old. The CPU was one revision away from having Hyper-V on it. So, I had to install Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 (v6.0.156.0) to run full XP instances instead of the seamless XP virtualization that is advertised so much. That's fine though; the 'older' version is useful since I use it to run different versions of the whole XP/IE stack for testing. (I'm a web developer.) ...And for the one 16-bit application we still use at the office for scheduling. * sigh * The virtual instances work fine, including networking. My issue is that after a reboot or coming out of sleep mode, my host Windows 7 won't connect to the Internet. It will connect to the local network fine. If I disable the "Virtual Machine Network Services" item (I'll call "VMNS" from here on) in the LAN Connection properties box, it starts working. But than the Virtual PC instances lose their network connectivity. If I re-enable VMNS again in the same instance, everything works (Internet on host and in the virtualized instances). But after the next reboot/sleep cycle this starts over. The route table gave me a clue though. When doing a cycle w/ VMNS enabled: IPv4 Route Table =========================================================================== Active Routes: Network Destination Netmask Gateway Interface Metric 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 On-link 10.0.3.51 20 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 10.0.10.10 10.0.3.51 276 ... After VMNS is disabled, the first route goes away. I assume that is for VMNS to intercept virtualized instance's network connections and forward them correctly? Just a guess though. More info: I checked my Firewall settings and Services (because I'm sort of a control nazi and turn off a lot) but couldn't find anything that made sense and if turned on changed anything. So it might be something there I'm missing, but I don't know what. My current hacked solution: So, I figured I'd mess with the routes myself to see if that helped, it did. If I run a route delete 0.0.0.0 on the universal (0.0.0.0) gateway routes, and add back in just the 2nd line with route add 0.0.0.0 mask 0.0.0.0 10.0.10.10--the one that points to my actual gateway (10.0.10.10)--then I don't have to mess with the disable/enable cycle of VMNS, and everything works. Running those two commands is faster then bringing up connection options and disabling and re-enabling VMNS, but I still don't want to have use that hack script every boot either. (Oh, and I also tried messing with hard-coding TCP/IP settings in my network adapter, including setting high metrics, etc., but that didn't help either.) Any suggestions on the right way to fix this?

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• How to run a restricted set of programs with Administrator privileges without giving up Admin acces (Win7 Pro)

  - by frLich

  I have a shared system, running Windows7 X64, restricted to a 'standard user' with no password. Not everyone who has access to the system has the administrator password. This works rather well, except for some applications - specially the unlock-applications for encrypted hard drives/USB flash drives. The specific ones either require Administrator access (eg. Seagate Blackarmor) or simply fail without it -- since these programs are sending raw commands to a device, this is to be expected. I would like to be able to add the hashes of these particular programs to a whitelist, and have them run as administrator without needing any prompts. Since these are by definition on removable media, I can't simply use a filename or even a path. One of the users who shares the system can be considered 'crafty', so anything which temporarily grants administrator rights to an user account is certain to cause problems. What i'd like to be able to do: 1) Create an admin account that can only run programs from a whitelist (or, failing that, from a directory) I can't find a good way to do this: As far as I can tell, SRP applies equally to ALL users? Even if I put a "Deny" token on all directories on the system, such that new directories would inherit it, it could still potentially run things from the mounted USB devices. I also don't know whether it's possible to create a new directory that DOESN'T inherit from the parent, that would lake the deny token, and provide admin access. 2) Find a lightweight service that will run these programs in its local context Windows7 seems to block cross-privilege level communication by default, and I haven't found such for windows 7. One example seems to be "sudo" (http://pages.cpsc.ucalgary.ca/~nfriess/sudo/) but because it uses a WLNOTIFY hook, it won't work under Vista nor Windows7 Non-Solutions: - RunAs: Requires administrator password! (but everyone calls it "sudo" anyway) - RunAs /savecred: Nice idea, but appears to be completely insecure. - RUNASSPC - Same concept as RunAs, uses "encrypted" files with credentials, but checks in user-space. - Scheduled Tasks - "Fixed" permissions make this difficult, and doesn't support interactive processes even if it did. - SuRun: From Google: "Surun uses its own Windows service that adds the user to the group of administrators during program start and removes him automatically from that group again"

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• Server to server replication and CPU and 32k\ corrupt doc

  - by nick wall

  Summary: if database contains a doc with 32K issue or corrupt, on server to server replication it causes marked increase in CPU in nserver.exe task, which effectively causes our server(s) to slow right down. We have a 5 server cluster (1 "hub" and 4 HTTP servers accessed via reverse proxy and SSO for load balancing and redundancy). All are physically located next to each other on network, they don't have dedicated network\ ports for cluster or replication. I realise IBM recommendation is dedicated port for cluster. Cluster queues are in tolerance and under heavy application user load, i.e. the maximum number of documents are being created, edited, deleted, the replication times between servers are negligible. Normally, all is well. Of the servers in the cluster, 1 is considered the "hub", and imitates a PUSH-PULL replication with it's cluster mates every 60mins, so that the replication load is taken by the hub and not cluster mates. The problem we have: every now and then we get a slow replication time from the hub to a cluster mate, sometimes up to 30mins. This maxes out the nserver.exe task on the "cluster mate" which causes it to respond to http requests very slowly. In the past, we have found that if a corrupt document is in the DB, it can have this affect, but on those occasions, the server log will show the corrupt doc noteId, we run fixup, all well. But we are not now seeing any record of corrupt docs. What we have noticed is if a doc with the 32K issue is present, the same thing can happen. Our only solution in that case is to run a : fixup mydb.nsf -V, which shows it is purging a 32K doc. Luckily we run a reverse proxy, so we can shut HTTP servers down without users noticing, but users do notice when a server has the problem! Has anyone else seen this occur? I have set up DDM event handlers for many of the replication events. I have set the replication time out limit to 5 mins (the max we usually see under full user load is 0.1min), to prevent it rep'ing for 30mins as before. This ia a temporary work around. Does anyone know of a DDM event to trap the 32K issue? we could at least then send alert. Regarding 32K issue: this prob needs another thread, but we are finding this relatively hard to find the source of the issue as the 32K event is fairly rare. Our app is fairly complex, interacting with various other external web services, with 2 way data transfer. But if we do encounter a 32K doc, we can't look at field properties, so we can't work out which field has issue which would give us a clue as to which process is culprit. As above, we run a fixup -V. Any help\ comments on this would be gratefully received.

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• How to prevent dual booted OSes from damaging each other?

  - by user1252434

  For better compatibility and performance in games I'm thinking about installing Windows additionally to Linux. I have security concerns about this, though. Note: "Windows" in the remaining text includes not only the OS but also any software running on it. Regardless of whether it comes included or is additionally installed, whether it is started intentionally or unintentionally (virus, malware). Is there an easy way to achieve the following requirements: Windows MUST NOT be able to kill my linux partition or my data disk neither single files (virus infection) nor overwriting the whole disk Windows MUST NOT be able to read data disk (- extra protection against spyware) Linux may or may not have access to the windows partition both Linux and Windows should have full access to the graphics card this rules out desktop VM solutions for gaming I want the manufacturer's windows graphics card driver Regarding Windows to be unable to destroy my linux install: this is not just the usual paranoia, that has happened to me in the past. So I don't accept "no ext4 driver" as an argument. Once bitten, twice shy. And even if destruction targeted at specific (linux) files is nearly impossible, there should be no way to shred the whole partition. I may accept the risk of malware breaking out of a barrier (e.g. VM) around the whole windows box, though. Currently I have a system disk (SSD) and a data disk (HDD), both SATA. I expect I have to add another disk. If i don't: even better. My CPU is a Intel Core i5, with VT-x and VT-d available, though untested. Ideas I've had so far: deactivate or hide other HDs until reboot at low level possible? can the boot loader (grub) do this for me? tiny VM layer: load windows in a VM that provides access to almost all hardware, except the HDs any ready made software solution for this? Preferably free. as I said: the main problem seems to be to provide full access to the graphics card hardware switch to cut power to disks commercial products expensive and lots of warnings against cheap home built solutions preferably all three hard disks with one switch (one push) mobile racks - won't wear of daily swapping be a problem?

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• Nginx fastcgi problems with django (double slashes in url?)

  - by wizard

  I'm deploying my first django app. I'm familiar with nginx and fastcgi from deploying php-fpm. I can't get python to recognize the urls. I'm also at a loss on how to debug this further. I'd welcome solutions to this problem and tips on debugging fastcgi problems. Currently I get a 404 page regardless of the url and for some reason a double slash For http://www.site.com/admin/ Page not found (404) Request Method: GET Request URL: http://www.site.com/admin// My urls.py from the debug output - which work in the dev server. Using the URLconf defined in ahrlty.urls, Django tried these URL patterns, in this order: ^listings/ ^admin/ ^accounts/login/$ ^accounts/logout/$ my nginx config server { listen 80; server_name beta.ahrlty.com; access_log /home/ahrlty/ahrlty/logs/access.log; error_log /home/ahrlty/ahrlty/logs/error.log; location /static/ { alias /home/ahrlty/ahrlty/ahrlty/static/; break; } location /media/ { alias /usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/django/contrib/admin/media/; break; } location / { include /etc/nginx/fastcgi_params; fastcgi_pass 127.0.0.1:8001; break; } } and my fastcgi_params fastcgi_param QUERY_STRING $query_string; fastcgi_param REQUEST_METHOD $request_method; fastcgi_param CONTENT_TYPE $content_type; fastcgi_param CONTENT_LENGTH $content_length; fastcgi_param SCRIPT_NAME $fastcgi_script_name; fastcgi_param REQUEST_URI $request_uri; fastcgi_param DOCUMENT_URI $document_uri; fastcgi_param DOCUMENT_ROOT $document_root; fastcgi_param SERVER_PROTOCOL $server_protocol; fastcgi_param GATEWAY_INTERFACE CGI/1.1; fastcgi_param SERVER_SOFTWARE nginx/$nginx_version; fastcgi_param REMOTE_ADDR $remote_addr; fastcgi_param REMOTE_PORT $remote_port; fastcgi_param SERVER_ADDR $server_addr; fastcgi_param SERVER_PORT $server_port; fastcgi_param SERVER_NAME $server_name; fastcgi_param PATH_INFO $fastcgi_script_name; # PHP only, required if PHP was built with --enable-force-cgi-redirect fastcgi_param REDIRECT_STATUS 200; And lastly I'm running fastcgi from the commandline with django's manage.py. python manage.py runfcgi method=threaded host=127.0.0.1 port=8080 pidfile=mysite.pid minspare=4 maxspare=30 daemonize=false I'm having a hard time debugging this one. Does anything jump out at anybody? Notes nginx version: nginx/0.7.62 Django svn trunk rev 13013

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• How to run a restricted set of programs with Administrator privileges without giving up Admin acces (Win7 Pro)

  - by frLich

  I have a shared system, running Windows7 X64, restricted to a 'standard user' with no password. Not everyone who has access to the system has the administrator password. This works rather well, except for some applications - specially the unlock-applications for encrypted hard drives/USB flash drives. The specific ones either require Administrator access (eg. Seagate Blackarmor) or simply fail without it -- since these programs are sending raw commands to a device, this is to be expected. I would like to be able to add the hashes of these particular programs to a whitelist, and have them run as administrator without needing any prompts. Since these are by definition on removable media, I can't simply use a filename or even a path. One of the users who shares the system can be considered 'crafty', so anything which temporarily grants administrator rights to an user account is certain to cause problems. What i'd like to be able to do: 1) Create an admin account that can only run programs from a whitelist (or, failing that, from a directory) I can't find a good way to do this: As far as I can tell, SRP applies equally to ALL users? Even if I put a "Deny" token on all directories on the system, such that new directories would inherit it, it could still potentially run things from the mounted USB devices. I also don't know whether it's possible to create a new directory that DOESN'T inherit from the parent, that would lake the deny token, and provide admin access. 2) Find a lightweight service that will run these programs in its local context Windows7 seems to block cross-privilege level communication by default, and I haven't found such for windows 7. One example seems to be "sudo" (http://pages.cpsc.ucalgary.ca/~nfriess/sudo/) but because it uses a WLNOTIFY hook, it won't work under Vista nor Windows7 Non-Solutions: - RunAs: Requires administrator password! (but everyone calls it "sudo" anyway) - RunAs /savecred: Nice idea, but appears to be completely insecure. - RUNASSPC - Same concept as RunAs, uses "encrypted" files with credentials, but checks in user-space. - Scheduled Tasks - "Fixed" permissions make this difficult, and doesn't support interactive processes even if it did. - SuRun: From Google: "Surun uses its own Windows service that adds the user to the group of administrators during program start and removes him automatically from that group again"

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• Can't install .NET framework 4.0 on Windows XP professional version 2002 SP3 (OS bug?)

  - by that guy

  .NET framework 4.0 install fails on Windows XP professional version 2002 SP3: I tried to run setup using "run as..." to make sure the admin rights are used ("protect my computer..." tick was deselected of course). I tried everything: installing using online/offline setup, windows update. install goes a little and then "rolls back" and says: Installation did not succeed .NET Framework 4 has not been installed because: Fatal error during installation. for more information about this problem, see the log file. the full log: http://pastebay.net/1433771 Any ideas? EDIT1: I have found this in the log: "BlockIf: You must install the 32-bit Windows Imaging Component (WIC) before you run Setup. Please visit the Microsoft Download Center to install WIC, and then rerun Setup...." So I found it, and launched "wic_x86_enu.exe" - but it said: WIC Setup error Newer version of update is already on the system. I have already installed: .NET framewrok 2.0 SP2 .NET framewrok 3.0 SP2 .NET framewrok 3.5 SP1 but I need 4.0 . EDIT2: another attempt and it's log. (this time better copy of log file): http://pastebin.com/gmGfbM9a (copy to notepad and save as .htm and open with internet browser). I have tried all the solutions I could find - and nothing helped. I have found something weird: when I formatted the hard drive and installed windows xp again - the .NET framework 4.0 installed ok, but when I plugged my 100Mbit internet cable - the operating system kind off "locked itself" and the bug returned - I could no longer install .NET framework 4.0 again. There was no reason for that to happen, for example I have windows server 2003 in local network, but I don't have active directory enabled on it or anything like that - the server just has some folders shared and thats all (all server's "features" are default). I had the second pc with the same problem - with XP on it too. This seems like the bug of Operating System to me. I couldn't find what was causing the problem. After many days I gave up: backuped everything, formatted HDD and installed Windows 7 professional 64bit. .NET framework 4.0 installed with no problem on it.

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• Need help recovering a corrupt SQL database

  - by user570079

  I have a very special case that I have been working on for several days. I have a very large SQL Server 2008 database (about 2 TB) that contains 500 filegroups to support very large partitioned tables. Recently we had a catastophic failure on one of the drive and lost several filegroups and the database became in-accessible. We have been doing filegroup backups on a daily basis, but due to other issues, we lost our most recent backup of the log and the primary filegroup. We have all the data backed up but the primary filegroup backup is old. There have been no schema changes since the primary filegroup backup, but the lsn's are now all out of sync and we cannot recover the data. I have tried everything I could think of (and have tried just about every trick and hack I could google) but I still end up at the same point where I get messages saying that the files for filegroup x do not match the primary filegroup. I am now at the point of trying to edit the system tables (we have a separate temporary environment to do this so we are not worried about corrupting any production databases). I have tried updated sys.sysdbreg, sys.sysbrickfiles, and sys.sysprufiles to try to trick SQL into thinking all the files are online, but a "Select * From OPENROWSET(TABLE DBPROP, 5)" shows a different database state from what I see in sys.sysdbreg. I am now thinking I need to somehow edit the headers of the actual data files to try to line up the lsn's with the primary. I appreciate any help anyone can give me here, but please do not respond with things like "you are not supposed to do edit mdf, ndf files...." or "see msdn article....", etc. This is an advanced emergency case and I need a real hack so we can just get to the data in this corrupt database and export to a fresh new database. I know there is a way to do this, but not knowing what the DBPROP system functions does (i.e. does it look at system tables or does it actually open the file) is keeping me from trying to figure out how to fool SQL into allowing me to read these files. Thanks for any help.

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• Convert apache rewrite rules to nginx

  - by Shiyu Sekam

  I want to migrate an Apache setup to Nginx, but I can't get the rewrite rules working in Nginx. I had a look on the official nginx documentation, but still some trouble converting it. http://nginx.org/en/docs/http/converting_rewrite_rules.html I've used http://winginx.com/en/htaccess to convert my rules, but this just works partly. The / part looks okay, the /library part as well, but the /public part doesn't work at all. Apache part: ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost DocumentRoot /srv/www/Web Order allow,deny Allow from all RewriteEngine On RewriteRule ^$ public/ [L] RewriteRule (.*) public/$1 [L] Order Deny,Allow Deny from all RewriteEngine On RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} ^pid=([0-9]*)$ RewriteRule ^places(.*)$ index.php?url=places/view/%1 [PT,L] # Extract search query in /search?q={query}&l={location} RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} ^q=(.*)&l=(.*)$ RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php?url=search/index/%1/%2 [PT,L] # Extract search query in /search?q={query} RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} ^q=(.*)$ RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php?url=search/index/%1 [PT,L] RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d # Rewrite all other URLs to index.php/URL RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php?url=$1 [PT,L] Order deny,allow deny from all ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log # Possible values include: debug, info, notice, warn, error, crit, # alert, emerg. LogLevel warn AddHandler php5-fcgi .php Action php5-fcgi /php5-fcgi Alias /php5-fcgi /usr/lib/cgi-bin/php5-fcgi FastCgiExternalServer /usr/lib/cgi-bin/php5-fcgi -socket /var/run/php5-fpm.sock -pass-header Authorization CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined Nginx config: server { #listen 80; ## listen for ipv4; this line is default and implied root /srv/www/Web; index index.html index.php; server_name localhost; location / { rewrite ^/$ /public/ break; rewrite ^(.*)$ /public/$1 break; } location /library { deny all; } location /public { if ($query_string ~ "^pid=([0-9]*)$"){ rewrite ^/places(.*)$ /index.php?url=places/view/%1 break; } if ($query_string ~ "^q=(.*)&l=(.*)$"){ rewrite ^(.*)$ /index.php?url=search/index/%1/%2 break; } if ($query_string ~ "^q=(.*)$"){ rewrite ^(.*)$ /index.php?url=search/index/%1 break; } if (!-e $request_filename){ rewrite ^(.*)$ /index.php?url=$1 break; } } location ~ \.php$ { fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php5-fpm.sock; fastcgi_index index.php; include fastcgi_params; } } I haven't written the original ruleset, so I've a hard time converting it. Would you mind giving me a hint how to do it easily or can you help me to convert it, please? I really want to switch over to php5-fpm and nginx :) Thanks

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• Reviews Cheyney Group Marketing: What accounting softwares are available in the market for small businesses?

  - by user224313

  Accounting is the language of business, and good accounting software can save you hundreds of hours at the business equivalent of Berlitz. There's no substitute for an accounting pro who knows the ins and outs of tax law, but today's desktop packages can help you with everything from routine bookkeeping to payroll, taxes, and planning. Each package also produces files that you can hand off to an accountant as needed. Small-business managers have more accounting software options than ever, including subscription Web-based options that don't require their users to install or update software. Many businesses, however--including those that need to track large inventories or client databases, and those that prefer not to entrust their data to the cloud--may be happier with a desktop tool. We looked at three general-purpose, small-business accounting packages: Acclivity AccountEdgePro 2012 (both the product and the company were previously called MYOB), Intuit QuickBooks Premier 2012, and Sage's Sage 50 Complete 2013 (the successor to Peachtree Complete). All three packages offer a solid array of tools for tracking income and expenses, invoicing, managing payroll, and creating reports. These full-featured and highly mature programs don't come cheap. Acclivity AccountEdge Pro, at $299, is the least expensive; and prices climb if you opt to use common time-saving add-ons such as payroll services, or if you add licenses for multiple user accounts. All three are solid on the basics, but they have distinct differences in style and focus. The more you know about your accounting requirements, the more closely you'll want to look at the software you're thinking of buying. Sage 50 Complete should appeal most to people who understand the fine points of accounting and can use the product's many customization features (especially for businesses that manage inventory). QuickBooks works hard to appeal to newbies who need only the basics and might be intimidated by the level of detail and technical language exposed in the other two packages. At the same time, it also has a slew of third-party add-ons that meet specific needs and greatly expand its capabilities. AccountEdge Pro balances accessibility with a strong feature set at an affordable price. It's especially suitable for businesses that need to provide simultaneous access to multiple users.

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• Lenovo Windows 8 EFI restore from image

  - by anderhil

  First time here. I have bought e530 with windows 8 and the first hour of work with it i have a problem. I have ssd with windows 7 which i want to use with my new e530. I have made a sysprep of win 7 and installed ssd to the e530. The HDD which was inside e530 i want to use as second hdd instead of my DVD Drive. I connected this HDD through usb-to-sata adapter to copy some files from ssd to the hdd. Unfortunately it didn't see the file system on the HDD (but first time i have booted to it and first boot into Windows 8) I've made some mistakes and i corrupt the filesystem on the hdd. I tried bunch of tricks to recover the GPT, but it didn't work. I have managed to recover the Lenovo_Recovery partition to my ssd using recovery tools. And now I'm stuck, with this new things to me - EFI, GPT, etc i don't how this stuff works, and i have been trying to understand this for hours - but nothing seems to work. I want to restore the Windows 8 to the hdd, so it is there alive. What i have done so far: Formated the HDD I took the PBRALL file from the Lenovo_Recovery " convert gpt create partition Primary size=1000 ID=DE94BBA4-06D1-4D40-A16A-BFD50179D6AC gpt attributes=0x8000000000000001 assign letter=W format quick LABEL=WINRE_DRV create partition efi size=260 assign letter=s format quick fs=fat32 LABEL=SYSTEM_DRV create par msr size=128 create partition primary noerr assign letter=t format quick LABEL=Windows8_OS shrink desired=12197 create partition Primary ID=DE94BBA4-06D1-4D40-A16A-BFD50179D6AC gpt attributes=0x8000000000000001 assign letter=q format quick LABEL=Lenovo_Recovery " it recreated the partitions copied contents of SDRIVE.zip to SYSTEM_DRV partition copied contents of WDRIVE.zip to WINRE_DRV partition Copied restored Lenovo_Recovery back to Lenovo_Recovery partition So now I have 3 system partitions: SYSTE_DRV BOOT boot.sdi EFI BOOT bootx64.efi LenovoBT.efi Lenovo ... Microsoft ... WINRE_DRV\Recovery\WindowsRE\winre.wim Lenovo_Recovery (whic contains install.wim and bunch of other things) So i put back the HDD inside the laptop and tried to boot - but nothing works. It just doesn't boot to anything - no errors - nothing at all. When I choose this HDD manually for boot - just black screen blinks and that's all - it returns back to the devices boot menu. SYSTEM_DRV is EFI partition, so I don't understand why it doesn't boot, it has files needed inside. Can anybody tell me what should be done to make it boot to recovery console or smth like that? How to restore the Windows 8 from the Lenovo_Recovery install.wim image? As I understand I have all the files where they should be, but why it doesn't work? How to troubleshoot such things? Also, if somebody has good link where EFI booting process is explained in details that would be great. Cause i still don't understand how it knows what partition to boot?

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• Proper set up shared folders for users

  - by user221486

  First I would like to say thanks for helping, and I have huge problem with proper set up permission for shared folders. I have Windows 7 x64 ent. - name: backupfb - added to domain with shared folder on drive e: (e:\backup) 50 clients/laptops with TSM Tivoli fastback for workstations who save files on shared folder And I need to configure proper permission for my shared folders that only owner of folder can access to their folders. Folder structure is: e:\backup <- shared as a "backup" folder \\backupfb\backup\ e:\backup\BackupAdmin <-- directory is used by the Tivoli Storage Manager FastBack for Workstations client to download revisions and configurations. Nodes require read-only access to these directories e:\backup\RealTimeBackup <-- enable client accounts to create directories that are only accessible by the account that created them. As a result, the directory that contains data for a node is not created until that node connects to the server. So permission should look like that (take from instructions): Inheritable permissions from object`s parents are DISABLE Permission entries: \\backupfb\backup\BackupAdmin Allow Users Read, Execute This folder, subfolders, and files Traverse Folder / Execute Allow List Folder / Read Data Allow Read Attributes Allow Read Extended Attributes Allow Delete subfolders and files Allow Delete Allow Read Permission’s Allow Allow Administrators Full Control This folder, subfolders, and files Both folders have enabled option "apply these permissions to objects and/or containers within this container only" Here everything works fine \\backupfb\backup\RealTimeBackup <<-- Allow Administrators Full Control This folder, subfolders, and files Allow CREATOR OWNER Full Control This folder, subfolders, and files (from domain) Allow Users Special This folder only Traverse Folder / Execute Allow List Folder / Read Data Allow Read Attributes Allow Read Extended Attributes Allow Create Files / Write Data Allow Create Folders / Append Data Allow Delete subfolders and files Allow Read Permission’s Allow Allow OWNER RIGHTS* Full Control This folder, subfolders, and files Here I have huge problem with CREATOR OWNER Im able to set FULL CONTROL but I can only apply "Subfolders and files only". When I change props. to "This folder, subfolders and files" and save its change to "Subfolders and files only" So I try use icacls to set up permissions @echo off takeown /F E:\backup\ /R /A for /D %%i IN (E:\backup\RealTimeBackup*) DO icacls E:\backup\RealTimeBackup\%%~nxi /grant:r cloud\%%~nxi:F /T /C pause but after that user are able to create just one folder in \backupfb\backup\RealTimeBackup\userfolder but problem is with subfolders In log i have: FBW5022E Unable to access the specified file Explanation: The file specified is unable to be accessed. Possibly spelled incorrectly, or bad path, or permissions. User response: Ensure the user has the proper permissions for the file and directories involved andthat the file and directory exist Any idea ?? pls help ;-) thanks

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• HP ProLiant DL380 G3 Running Windows Server 2000 has crashed between 6-7:30am for the past 5 days

  - by user109717

  I have a HP ProLiant DL380 G3 running Windows Server 2000 that has been crashing everyday between 6-730am. This started when I changed out a failing hard drive 6 days ago. I have looked at the scheduled tasks which does not have anything pertaining to this issue. Below are the only things I see in the system log and some of the dump files. Can this be a hardware issue if this happens at a certain time frame everyday? Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks The previous system shutdown at 6:07:55 AM on 2/7/2012 was unexpected. System Information Agent: Health: The server is operational again. The server has previously been shutdown by the Automatic Server Recovery (ASR) feature and has just become operational again. [SNMP TRAP: 6025 in CPQHLTH.MIB] BugCheck 7A, {3, c0000005, 3400028, 0} Probably caused by : memory_corruption ( nt!MiMakeSystemAddressValidPfn+42 ) Followup: MachineOwner 0: kd !analyze -v * Bugcheck Analysis * * KERNEL_DATA_INPAGE_ERROR (7a) The requested page of kernel data could not be read in. Typically caused by a bad block in the paging file or disk controller error. Also see KERNEL_STACK_INPAGE_ERROR. If the error status is 0xC000000E, 0xC000009C, 0xC000009D or 0xC0000185, it means the disk subsystem has experienced a failure. If the error status is 0xC000009A, then it means the request failed because a filesystem failed to make forward progress. Arguments: Arg1: 00000003, lock type that was held (value 1,2,3, or PTE address) Arg2: c0000005, error status (normally i/o status code) Arg3: 03400028, current process (virtual address for lock type 3, or PTE) Arg4: 00000000, virtual address that could not be in-paged (or PTE contents if arg1 is a PTE address) MODULE_NAME: nt IMAGE_NAME: memory_corruption BugCheck A, {0, 2, 1, 804137d6} Probably caused by : ntkrnlmp.exe ( nt!CcGetVirtualAddress+ba ) * Bugcheck Analysis * * IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL (a) An attempt was made to access a pageable (or completely invalid) address at an interrupt request level (IRQL) that is too high. This is usually caused by drivers using improper addresses. If a kernel debugger is available get the stack backtrace. Arguments: Arg1: 00000000, memory referenced Arg2: 00000002, IRQL Arg3: 00000001, bitfield : bit 0 : value 0 = read operation, 1 = write operation bit 3 : value 0 = not an execute operation, 1 = execute operation (only on chips which support this level of status) Arg4: 804137d6, address which referenced memory MODULE_NAME: nt IMAGE_NAME: ntkrnlmp.exe

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• Migrating Split Access Database from one domain to another (not working, details in Q)

  - by Expo_Rob

  Some background: I'm a programmer, not a network administrator, who has been asked to migrate some accounting software (Integrated Office Accounting version 3.2) from an existing domain (OLD_NETWORK) to a new domain (NEW_NETWORK). No-body at the office knows how it works under the hood. It is a split Access 2000 database with the back-end shared and on a file server (which is also the DC) using mapped drives. The DC is NT Server 4 SP 6. The new server is server 2003. The two networks are running independently (ie: two computers on each desk). I have been able to get new computers set up on NEW_NETWORK and working with the IOA software just perfectly but for one problem: The company here uses other entirely separate databases which access the tables IOA maintains (specifically the 'customers' table) via links. To switch between these systems, you press F11 then File-Open the appropriate database and away you go (this is necessary to maintain the permissions that the IOA system uses to protect the customers table). The entire database is Access 2000, the links go to other Access databases, SQL-Server is not involved in any way, nor is a migration to SQL server likely. If I can't migrate anything over, everything will stay as it is, and the NEW_NETWORK computers will not be used. The problem: When I try and update these seperate databases (I shall call one "BANK_ACCOUNT", but the name does not matter), it says "this recordset cannot be updated". It also will sometimes not pull information out of the 'customers' table (ie: date_entered) when looking at a report of everyone who opened a bank account on a certain day (ie: today). I have tried: Giving 'everyone' full control via. shared directory permissions Giving 'everyone' full control on a file system level Checking the permissions within Access (everyone has full read/write on all tables) Copying the entire server contents from one file server to another (ie: xcopy everything) Copying the entire local client files from one computer to another, putting them in the exact same position in the file system, with the same permissons (or full control to 'everyone'). Running as an Administrator Taking one of the NEW_NETWORK computers, having it join OLD_NETWORK and run the software (direct copy from a working system with identical drive mappings), this did not work Weeping openly My Question: Is there anything else I can try? (sorry for this being so long)

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• SQL SERVER – Retrieve and Explore Database Backup without Restoring Database – Idera virtual databas

  - by pinaldave

  I recently downloaded Idera’s SQL virtual database, and tested it. There are a few things about this tool which caught my attention. My Scenario It is quite common in real life that sometimes observing or retrieving older data is necessary; however, it had changed as time passed by. The full database backup was 40 GB in size, and, to restore it on our production server, it usually takes around 16 to 22 minutes, depending on the load server that is usually present. This range in time varies from one server to another as per the configuration of the computer. Some other issues we used to have are the following: When we try to restore a large 40-GB database, we needed at least that much space on our production server. Once in a while, we even had to make changes in the restored database, and use the said changed and restored database for our purpose, making it more time-consuming. My Solution I have heard a lot about the Idera’s SQL virtual database tool.. Well, right after we started to test this tool, we found out that it really delivers what it promises. Using this software was very easy and we were able to restore our database from backup in less than 2 minutes, sparing us from the usual longer time of 16–22 minutes. The needful was finished in a total of 10 minutes. Another interesting observation is that there is no need to have an additional space for restoring the database. For complete database restoration, the single additional MB on the drive is not required anymore. We can use the database in the same way as our regular database, and there is no need for any additional configuration and setup. Let us look at the most relevant points of this product based on my initial experience: Quick restoration of the database backup No additional space required for database restoration virtual database has no physical .MDF or .LDF The database which is restored is, in fact, the backup file converted in the virtual database. DDL and DML queries can be executed against this virtually restored database. Regular backup operation can be implemented against virtual database, creating a physical .bak file that can be used for future use. There was no observed degradation in performance on the original database as well the restored virtual database. Additional T-SQL queries can be let off on the virtual database. Well, this summarizes my quick review. And, as I was saying, I am very impressed with the product and I plan to explore it more. There are many features that I have noticed in this tool, which I think can be very useful if properly understood. I had taken a few screenshots using my demo database afterwards. Let us see what other things this tool can do besides the mentioned activities. I am surprised with its performance so I want to know how exactly this feature works, specifically in the matter of why it does not create any additional files and yet, it still allows update on the virtually restored database. I guess I will have to send an e-mail to the developers of Idera and try to figure this out from them. I think this tool is very useful, and it delivers a high level of performance way more than what I expected. Soon, I will write a review for additional uses of SQL virtual database.. If you are using SQL virtual database in your production environment, I am eager to learn more about it and your experience while using it. The ‘Virtual’ Part of virtual database When I set out to test this software, I thought virtual database had something to do with Hyper-V or visualization. In fact, the virtual database is a kind of database which shows up in your SQL Server Management Studio without actually restoring or even creating it. This tool creates a database in SSMS from the backup of the same database. The backup, however, works virtually the same way as original database. Potential Usage of virtual database: As soon as I described this tool to my teammate, I think his very first reaction was, “hey, if we have this then there is no need for log shipping.” I find his comment very interesting as log shipping is something where logs are moved to another server. In fact, there are no updates on the database from log; I would rather compare it with Snapshot Replication. In fact, whatever we use, snapshot replicated database can be similarly used and configured with virtual database. I totally believe that we can use it for reporting purpose. In fact, after this database was configured, I think the uses of this tool are unlimited. I will have to spend some more time studying it and will get back to you. Click on images to see larger images. virtual database Console Harddrive Space before virtual database Setup Attach Full Backup Screen Backup on Harddrive Attach Full Backup Screen with Settings virtual database Setup – less than 60 sec virtual database Setup – Online Harddrive Space after virtual database Setup Point in Time Recovery Option – Timeline View virtual database Summary No Performance Difference between Regular DB vs Virtual DB Please note that all SQL Server MVP gets free license of this software. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com), Idera (virtual database) Filed under: Database, Pinal Dave, SQL, SQL Add-On, SQL Authority, SQL Backup and Restore, SQL Data Storage, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQL Utility, SQLAuthority News, T SQL, Technology Tagged: Idera

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• C# HashSet<T>

  - by Ben Griswold

  I hadn’t done much (read: anything) with the C# generic HashSet until I recently needed to produce a distinct collection.  As it turns out, HashSet<T> was the perfect tool. As the following snippet demonstrates, this collection type offers a lot: // Using HashSet<T>: // http://www.albahari.com/nutshell/ch07.aspx var letters = new HashSet<char>("the quick brown fox");   Console.WriteLine(letters.Contains('t')); // true Console.WriteLine(letters.Contains('j')); // false   foreach (char c in letters) Console.Write(c); // the quickbrownfx Console.WriteLine();   letters = new HashSet<char>("the quick brown fox"); letters.IntersectWith("aeiou"); foreach (char c in letters) Console.Write(c); // euio Console.WriteLine();   letters = new HashSet<char>("the quick brown fox"); letters.ExceptWith("aeiou"); foreach (char c in letters) Console.Write(c); // th qckbrwnfx Console.WriteLine();   letters = new HashSet<char>("the quick brown fox"); letters.SymmetricExceptWith("the lazy brown fox"); foreach (char c in letters) Console.Write(c); // quicklazy Console.WriteLine(); The MSDN documentation is a bit light on HashSet<T> documentation but if you search hard enough you can find some interesting information and benchmarks. But back to that distinct list I needed… // MSDN Add // http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb353005.aspx var employeeA = new Employee {Id = 1, Name = "Employee A"}; var employeeB = new Employee {Id = 2, Name = "Employee B"}; var employeeC = new Employee {Id = 3, Name = "Employee C"}; var employeeD = new Employee {Id = 4, Name = "Employee D"};   var naughty = new List<Employee> {employeeA}; var nice = new List<Employee> {employeeB, employeeC};   var employees = new HashSet<Employee>(); naughty.ForEach(x => employees.Add(x)); nice.ForEach(x => employees.Add(x));   foreach (Employee e in employees) Console.WriteLine(e); // Returns Employee A Employee B Employee C The Add Method returns true on success and, you guessed it, false if the item couldn’t be added to the collection.  I’m using the Linq ForEach syntax to add all valid items to the employees HashSet.  It works really great.  This is just a rough sample, but you may have noticed I’m using Employee, a reference type.  Most samples demonstrate the power of the HashSet with a collection of integers which is kind of cheating.  With value types you don’t have to worry about defining your own equality members.  With reference types, you do. internal class Employee {     public int Id { get; set; }     public string Name { get; set; }       public override string ToString()     {         return Name;     }          public bool Equals(Employee other)     {         if (ReferenceEquals(null, other)) return false;         if (ReferenceEquals(this, other)) return true;         return other.Id == Id;     }       public override bool Equals(object obj)     {         if (ReferenceEquals(null, obj)) return false;         if (ReferenceEquals(this, obj)) return true;         if (obj.GetType() != typeof (Employee)) return false;         return Equals((Employee) obj);     }       public override int GetHashCode()     {         return Id;     }       public static bool operator ==(Employee left, Employee right)     {         return Equals(left, right);     }       public static bool operator !=(Employee left, Employee right)     {         return !Equals(left, right);     } } Fortunately, with Resharper, it’s a snap. Click on the class name, ALT+INS and then follow with the handy dialogues. That’s it. Try out the HashSet<T>. It’s good stuff.

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• XNA Notes 009

  - by George Clingerman

  This past week the MVPs (myself included) were on Microsoft campus for the MVP summit. So I apologize in advance if you did something cool or heard of something cool happening with XNA and XBLIGs and it’s not in my notes. I did my best to stay on top of things, but honestly this community is fast and furious with what it’s doing and creating. I really can’t keep up and that’s fantastic! But here’s what I *did* notice while I was there on Microsoft Campus (and I did make sure to point out to the XNA team several of these very cool happenings while I had their ears). Time Critical XNA News: The XNA team wants you to know that Dream Build Play registration is now open! http://blogs.msdn.com/b/xna/archive/2011/02/28/registration-now-open-for-dream-build-play-2011-challenge.aspx Join the XNA-UK create on March 24, 2011 at the Microsoft Tech Days Conference http://xna-uk.net/blogs/darkgenesis/archive/2011/02/27/join-the-xna-uk-crew-at-the-microsoft-tech-days-conference-on-24th-march-2011.aspx XNA Team: Shawn Hargreaves shares one of the coolest things that’s happened in the XNA community http://blogs.msdn.com/b/shawnhar/archive/2011/03/02/xbox-indies-pivot-view.aspx Nick Gravelyn continues his unique marketing/work prioritization strategy as he tries to get to 5,000 Pixel Man users before he makes Pixel Man 2 (and he’s almost there!) http://nickgravelyn.com/pixelman2/ XNA MVPs: A lot of the XNA MVPs were at the Microsoft MVP Summit 2011. Due to NDAs, most things can’t be shared, but I’m sure if you’re curious you could ask them about the general vibe and feeling they got from the team and the future of XNA/XBLIG and more. Catalin Zima and team release the free WP7 game Chickens Can Dream http://twitter.com/CatalinZima/statuses/41174062923390976 http://www.amusedsloth.com/2011/02/chickens-can-dream-is-live/ Charles Humphrey (NemoKrad) posts his March talk source and PowerPoint http://xna-uk.net/blogs/randomchaos/archive/2011/03/04/march-2011-talk-post-processing-framework.aspx XNA Developers: Michael B. McLaughlin posts about ANTS Memory Profile and creates a CheckMemoryAllocationGame sample (extremely useful if you’re looking to see how much memory some operation allocates!) http://geekswithblogs.net/mikebmcl/archive/2011/02/28/ants-memory-profiler-7.0-review.aspx http://geekswithblogs.net/mikebmcl/archive/2011/03/01/checkmemoryallocationgame-sample.aspx Andy Schatz (2009 IGF winner for Monaco) talking XNA at GDC 2011 http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/33313/GDC_2011_Andy_Schatz_Ill_Make_My_Last_Game_When_I_Die.php Xbox LIVE Indie Games (XBLIG): Clover: A Curious Tale by BinaryTweed is coming as a Deal of the Week during St. Patricks Day http://majornelson.com/archive/2011/03/03/comingsoontothexboxlivemarketplacemarchthird.aspx Ska Studios away at GDC but still very post happy as always http://www.ska-studios.com/2011/03/02/swamped-picture-pack/ http://www.ska-studios.com/2011/02/28/the-february-showcase/ http://www.ska-studios.com/2011/02/25/good-morning-gato-51-smelling-the-roses/ Just Press Start interviews Matthew Mikuszewski of Darkwind Media about Blocks Indie http://justpressstart.net/?p=516 Gamergeddon Xbox Indie Game Round Up - February 27th http://www.gamergeddon.com/2011/02/27/xbox-indie-game-round-up-february-27th/ http://www.gamergeddon.com/category/xbox-360/indie-games/ GameMarx does a round up of all the Xbox Live Indie Game podcasts that are currently available http://www.gamemarx.com/news/2011/02/27/xbox-live-indie-game-podcasts.aspx GameMarx episode 11 http://www.gamemarx.com/video/the-show/26/ep-11-february-25-2011.aspx In perhaps what I feel is the most exciting news I’ve heard all week, Michael C. Neel (ViNull of GameMarx fame) re-launch XboxIndies.com! http://www.gamemarx.com/news/2011/03/01/the-relaunch-of-xboxindies-com.aspx http://xboxindies.com/ Armless Octopus shares a little of what they heard from Luke Schneider of Radiangames during his GDC 2011 talk http://www.armlessoctopus.com/2011/03/02/gdc-2011-luke-schneider-offers-insight-into-radiangames-success/ VVGindiecast Episode 1 with guests Derek Strickland(Mr_Deeke), Kris Steele(Kriswd40 from FunInfused Games) and Dave Voyles(From armlessoctopus.com) http://vvgtv.com/2011/02/25/vvgindiecast-xblig-podcast/ If you’re doing Xbox LIVE Indie Game Reviews get in touch with XboxIndies.com to get into their aggregated feed http://forums.create.msdn.com/forums/p/76931/467189.aspx#467189 B.U.T.T.O.N and Flotilla represented XNA very well at the Independent Games Festival (are there any more games entered that were created using XNA? Stand up and be heard!) http://www.igf.com/php-bin/entry2011.php?id=374 Armless Ocotopus interview at GDC 2011 with Soulcaster creator Ian Stocker http://www.armlessoctopus.com/2011/03/04/gdc-2011-interview-with-soulcaster-creator-ian-stocker/ MommysBestGames gets a nod in the DarkBasic newsletter where it features the Explosionade Editor (just do a search for Explosionade to get to the interesting bits!) http://www.thegamecreators.com/pages/newsletters/newsletter_issue_98.html You may be hearing the cries of FortressCraft (coming soon to XBLIG) being so wrong for stealing the idea from MineCraft. But did you know the the game MineCraft started from was an XNA game called Infiniminer? XNA is getting it’s fingers into EVERYTHING! http://www.minecraftwiki.net/wiki/Infiniminer XNA Development: TorqueX is NOT dead thanks to the tremendous efforts of the XNA Community working on the CEV (special thanks to @PinoEire for all his hard work on making that happen!) http://www.garagegames.com/community/blogs/view/20878 http://torquecev.com/ Dave Henry has posted XNA 3.x adding platformer start kit to the network game state management on his new site http://twitter.com/#!/mort8088/status/43407715908853760 http://mort8088.com/2011/03/03/xna-3-x-adding-platformer-starter-kit-to-network-game-state-management/ Mark Bamford releases XNAViewer 4.0, great for running XNA games inside of a Windows Form (for building level editors, etc.) http://twitter.com/#!/xzodia04/status/43466830412660736 http://xnaviewer.codeplex.com/ Unit testing an XNA game with Resharper and NUnit http://smnbss.wordpress.com/2011/02/28/planetx-unit-testing-an-xna-game-with-resharper-and-nunit-wp7-xbox-xna/ XNA for Silverlight developers: Part 5 - Input (touch + gestures) http://ht.ly/1bxwUE Mike McLaughlin shares a link he stumbled across for those looking to understand vector and matrix math http://twitter.com/#!/mikebmcl/status/42587074725036032 http://chortle.ccsu.edu/VectorLessons/vectorIndex.html DigitalRune Resources Pooling in XNA (Part 1) http://www.digitalrune.com/Support/Blog/tabid/719/EntryId/84/DigitalRune-Helper-Library-Resource-Pooling-in-XNA-Part-1.aspx JohnK “bobthecbuilder” released a new SunBurn Update that lowers the requirements for Windows Games http://twitter.com/#!/bobthecbuilder/status/43457306578522112 http://www.synapsegaming.com/blogs/johnk/archive/2011/03/03/sunburn-update-windows-redistributable.aspx Quick update on the Indiefreaks Game Framework v0.4 development status http://indiefreaks.com/2011/03/04/quick-update-on-igf-v0-4-development/

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• SQL SERVER – Beginning SQL Server: One Step at a Time – SQL Server Magazine

  - by pinaldave

  I am glad to announce that along with SQLAuthority.com, I will be blogging on the prominent site of SQL Server Magazine. My very first blog post there is already live; read here: Beginning SQL Server: One Step at a Time. My association with SQL Server Magazine has been quite long, I have written nearly 7 to 8 SQL Server articles for the print magazine and it has been a great experience. I used to stay in the United States at that time. I moved back to India for good, and during this process, I had put everything on hold for a while. Just like many things, “temporary” things become “permanent” – coming back to SQLMag was on hold for long time. Well, this New Year, things have changed – once again, I am back with my online presence at SQLMag.com. Everybody is a beginner at every task or activity at some point of his/her life: spelling words for the first time; learning how to drive for the first time, etc. No one is perfect at the start of any task, but every human is different. As time passes, we all develop our interests and begin to study our subject of interest. Most of us dream to get a job in the area of our study – however things change as time passes. I recently read somewhere online (I could not find the link again while writing this one) that all the successful people in various areas have never studied in the area in which they are successful. After going through a formal learning process of what we love, we refuse to stop learning, and we finally stop changing career and focus areas. We move, we dare and we progress. IT field is similar to our life. New IT professionals come to this field every day. There are two types of beginners – a) those who are associated with IT field but not familiar with other technologies, and b) those who are absolutely new to the IT field. Learning a new technology is always exciting and overwhelming for enthusiasts. I am working with database (in particular) for SQL Server for more than 7 years but I am still overwhelmed with so many things to learn. I continue to learn and I do not think that I should ever stop doing so. Just like everybody, I want to be in the race and get ahead in learning the technology. For the same, I am always looking for good guidance. I always try to find a good article, blog or book chapter, which can teach me what I really want to learn at this stage in my career and can be immensely helpful. Quite often, I prefer to read the material where the author does not judge me or assume my understanding. I like to read new concepts like a child, who takes his/her first steps of learning without any prior knowledge. Keeping my personal philosophy and preference in mind, I will be blogging on SQL Server Magazine site. I will be blogging on the beginners stuff. I will be blogging for them, who really want to start and make a mark in this area. I will be blogging for all those who have an extreme passion for learning. I am happy that this is a good start for this year. One of my resolutions is to help every beginner. It is totally possible that in future they all will grow and find the same article quite ‘easy‘ – well when that happens, it indicates the success of the article and material! Well, I encourage everybody to read my SQL Server Magazine blog – I will be blogging there frequently on various topics. To begin, we will be talking about performance tuning, and I assure that I will not shy away from other multiple areas. Read my SQL Server Magazine Blog: Beginning SQL Server: One Step at a Time I think the title says it all. Do leave your comments and feedback to indicate your preference of subject and interest. I am going to continue writing on subject, and the aim is of course to help grow in this field. Reference : Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: Pinal Dave, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Optimization, SQL Performance, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQLAuthority News, T SQL, Technology

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• MEF CompositionInitializer for WPF

  - by Reed

  The Managed Extensibility Framework is an amazingly useful addition to the .NET Framework.  I was very excited to see System.ComponentModel.Composition added to the core framework.  Personally, I feel that MEF is one tool I’ve always been missing in my .NET development. Unfortunately, one perfect scenario for MEF tends to fall short of it’s full potential is in Windows Presentation Foundation development.  In particular, there are many times when the XAML parser constructs objects in WPF development, which makes composition of those parts difficult.  The current release of MEF (Preview Release 9) addresses this for Silverlight developers via System.ComponentModel.Composition.CompositionInitializer.  However, there is no equivalent class for WPF developers. The CompositionInitializer class provides the means for an object to compose itself.  This is very useful with WPF and Silverlight development, since it allows a View, such as a UserControl, to be generated via the standard XAML parser, and still automatically pull in the appropriate ViewModel in an extensible manner.  Glenn Block has demonstrated the usage for Silverlight in detail, but the same issues apply in WPF. As an example, let’s take a look at a very simple case.  Take the following XAML for a Window: <Window x:Class="WpfApplication1.MainView" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation" xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml" Title="MainWindow" Height="220" Width="300"> <Grid> <TextBlock Text="{Binding TheText}" /> </Grid> </Window> This does nothing but create a Window, add a simple TextBlock control, and use it to display the value of our “TheText” property in our DataContext class.  Since this is our main window, WPF will automatically construct and display this Window, so we need to handle constructing the DataContext and setting it ourselves. We could do this in code or in XAML, but in order to do it directly, we would need to hard code the ViewModel type directly into our XAML code, or we would need to construct the ViewModel class and set it in the code behind.  Both have disadvantages, and the disadvantages grow if we’re using MEF to compose our ViewModel. Ideally, we’d like to be able to have MEF construct our ViewModel for us.  This way, it can provide any construction requirements for our ViewModel via [ImportingConstructor], and it can handle fully composing the imported properties on our ViewModel.  CompositionInitializer allows this to occur. We use CompositionInitializer within our View’s constructor, and use it for self-composition of our View.  Using CompositionInitializer, we can modify our code behind to: public partial class MainView : Window { public MainView() { InitializeComponent(); CompositionInitializer.SatisfyImports(this); } [Import("MainViewModel")] public object ViewModel { get { return this.DataContext; } set { this.DataContext = value; } } } We then can add an Export on our ViewModel class like so: [Export("MainViewModel")] public class MainViewModel { public string TheText { get { return "Hello World!"; } } } MEF will automatically compose our application, decoupling our ViewModel injection to the DataContext of our View until runtime.  When we run this, we’ll see: There are many other approaches for using MEF to wire up the extensible parts within your application, of course.  However, any time an object is going to be constructed by code outside of your control, CompositionInitializer allows us to continue to use MEF to satisfy the import requirements of that object. In order to use this from WPF, I’ve ported the code from MEF Preview 9 and Glenn Block’s (now obsolete) PartInitializer port to Windows Presentation Foundation.  There are some subtle changes from the Silverlight port, mainly to handle running in a desktop application context.  The default behavior of my port is to construct an AggregateCatalog containing a DirectoryCatalog set to the location of the entry assembly of the application.  In addition, if an “Extensions” folder exists under the entry assembly’s directory, a second DirectoryCatalog for that folder will be included.  This behavior can be overridden by specifying a CompositionContainer or one or more ComposablePartCatalogs to the System.ComponentModel.Composition.Hosting.CompositionHost static class prior to the first use of CompositionInitializer. Please download CompositionInitializer and CompositionHost for VS 2010 RC, and contact me with any feedback. Composition.Initialization.Desktop.zip Edit on 3/29: Glenn Block has since updated his version of CompositionInitializer (and ExportFactory<T>!), and made it available here: http://cid-f8b2fd72406fb218.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/blog/Composition.Initialization.Desktop.zip This is a .NET 3.5 solution, and should soon be pushed to CodePlex, and made available on the main MEF site.

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• Remove Office 2010 Beta and Reinstall Office 2007

  - by Matthew Guay

  Have you tried out the Office 2010 beta, but want to go back to Office 2007?  Here’s a step-by-step tutorial on how to remove your Office 2010 beta and reinstall your Office 2007. The Office 2010 beta will expire on October 31, 2010, at which time you may see a dialog like the one below.  At that time, you will need to either upgrade to the final release of Office 2010, or reinstall your previous version of Office. Our computer was running the Office 2010 Home and Business Click to Run beta, and after uninstalling it we reinstalled Office 2007 Home and Student.  This was a Windows Vista computer, but the process will be exactly the same on Windows XP, Vista, or Windows 7.  Additionally, the process to reinstall Office 2007 will be exactly the same regardless of the edition of Office 2007 you’re using. However, please note that if you are running a different edition of Office 2010, especially the 64 bit version, the process may be slightly different.  We will cover this scenario in another article. Remove Office 2010 Click to Run Beta: To remove Office 2010 Click to Run Beta, open Control Panel and select Uninstall a Program. If your computer is running Windows 7, enter “Uninstall a program” in your Start menu search. Scroll down, select “Microsoft Office Click-to-Run 2010 (Beta)”, and click the Uninstall button on the toolbar.  Note that there will be two entries for Office, so make sure to select the “Click-to-Run” entry. This will automatically remove all of Office 2010 and its components.  Click Yes to confirm you want to remove it. Office 2010 beta uninstalled fairly quickly, and a reboot will be required.  Once your computer is rebooted, Office 2010 will be entirely removed. Reinstall Office 2007 Now, you’re to the easy part.  Simply insert your Office 2007 CD, and it should automatically startup the setup.  If not, open Computer and double-click on your CD drive.   Now, double-click on setup.exe to start the installation. Enter your product key, and click Continue…   Click Install Now, or click Customize if you want to change the default installation settings. Wait while Office 2007 installs…it takes around 15 to 20 minutes in our experience.  Once it’s finished  close the installer. Now, open one of the Office applications.  A popup will open asking you to activate Office.  Make sure you’re connected to the internet, and click next; otherwise, you can select to activate over the phone if you do not have internet access. This should only take a minute, and Office 2007 will be activated and ready to run. Everything should work just as it did before you installed Office 2010.  Enjoy! Office Updates Make sure to install the latest updates for Office 2007, as these are not included in your disk.  Check Windows Update (search for Windows Update in the Start menu search), and install all of the available updates for Office 2007, including Service Pack 2. Conclusion This is a great way to keep using Office even if you don’t decide to purchase Office 2010 after it is released.  Additionally, if you’re were using another version of Office, such as Office 2003, then reinstall it as normal after following the steps to remove Office 2010. Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Add or Remove Apps from the Microsoft Office 2007 or 2010 SuiteDetect and Repair Applications In Microsoft Office 2007Save and Restore Your Microsoft Office SettingsDisable Office 2010 Beta Send-a-Smile from StartupHow to See the About Dialog and Version Information in Office 2007 TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips DVDFab 6 Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 If Web Browsers Were Modes of Transportation Google Translate (for animals) Out of 100 Tweeters Roadkill’s Scan Port scans for open ports Out of band Security Update for Internet Explorer 7 Cool Looking Screensavers for Windows

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