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• &lsquo;Publish&hellip;&rsquo; Resulting in Directory With No Files

  - by ToStringTheory

  I was pulling my hair out with this one…  Which isn’t good considering I have so little of it left!  I had just upgraded to the Windows Azure 1.7 SDK the day before with no problems, and used the upgraded ‘Publish…’ dialog to successfully publish a website to my hard disk for hosting on an internal development server.  However, when trying to deploy another project to my file system, it said it was successful, but there were no files in the directory.  The only difference, the first project was an Azure project, the second was a standard ASP.Net Web Application.  If you installed the Windows Azure 1.7 SDK, you may want to read this. The Problem At first it appears that there is no problem: However you may remember that when publishing a web application, the output window will generally iterate through each of the directories as it copies the files from that directory over.  Sure enough, when looking at the output directory – there are no files, no bin directory, no nothing… Troubleshooting Since one site published and the other did not, I believed that the failure may have been to a failed SQL Server 2012 installation that happened between publish.  I rolled back the installation, however that did not work either.  I also checked the Configuration Manager dialog, and ensured that the projects were selected to actually build (just checking, even though the output said it built them..)  I checked the properties of the solution and the projects, and a selection of files in the project to make sure that they were selected for content…  Nothing seemed to work. I then decided to uninstall the Azure 1.7 SDK to see if that was the culprit.  When I opened the Windows 7 ‘Uninstall a Program’ dialog, I noticed that the Azure SDK came with 2 extra packages that just so happen to be in a Release Candidate state from Microsoft – ‘Microsoft Web Deploy 3.0’ and ‘Microsoft Web Publish – Visual Studio 2010’.  It dawned on me that the publish dialog must not be just for Azure, since it appeared when I tried to deploy the regular web application as well.  Therefore, it must have been an upgrade to the publish mechanism in Visual Studio.  I uninstalled both of the programs and received my old publish dialog once again, and was able to successfully publish the solution above as I had done before. After celebrating solving the problem, I tried reinstalling the Azure package, to see if it would repair the publishing process. Even though it brought back the updated dialogs, it did not publish any files. Instead of uninstalling and retreating, I now KNEW what the cause was, and these were packages not just for Azure. I now knew a product name to search for. The Solution Sure enough, with the correct search term in Google – ‘microsoft web publish no files’, and setting the timeline to 1 week, I found what I needed - Microsoft Connect - Publish Web Application FAILS! (by Andrew Rits). I am surprised that I missed something that ended up being so simple…  In the Configuration Manager, I had the following settings: This is how I had been building and debugging the solution always…  However, apparently when installing the new Web Publishing package, it does things a little differently in its configuration for publishing: You see the difference?  The configuration here is set to ‘x86’ instead of ‘Any CPU’.  Sure enough, as soon as I switched the configuration to ‘Release – Any CPU’, the deployment built and published all of my files as I expected. Conclusion It was a small change, but apparently the new ‘Publish web application’ defaults to the x86 configuration, thereby not copying any of the project/bin files to the publish target directory.  I spent forever trying things, but this small drop down eluded me until I was able to target that the dialog was actually working apparently, I just didn’t have the correct configuration. I hope that this saves you the hours of frustration and hastened hair loss that it caused me…  I also hope that before Microsoft brings this publishing package out of RC status, that they change the behavior of that menu to default to the settings of the old publish menu for the first time. Happy Coding!

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• A Few of My Favorite HTML5 and CSS3 Online Tools

  - by dwahlin

  I really enjoy coding up HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript applications but there are some things that I’m better off writing with the help of a development tool. For example, CSS3 gradients aren’t exactly the most fun thing to write by hand and the same could be said for animations, transforms, or styles that require various vendor extensions. There are a lot of online tools that can simplify building HTML5/CSS3 sites and increase productivity in the process so I thought I’d put together a post on a few of my favorites tools. HTML5 Boilerplate HTML5 Boilerplate provides a great way to get started building HTML5 sites. It includes many best practices out of the box and even includes a few tricks that many people don’t even know about. The custom download option allows you to pick the features that you want to include in the files that’s generated. You can read more about it here.   Initializr Although HTML5 Boilerplate provides a great foundation for starting HTML5 sites, it focuses on providing a starting shell structure (namely an html page, JavaScript files, and a CSS stylesheet) and doesn’t include much in the way of page content to get started with. Initializer builds on HTML5 Boilerplate and provides an initial test page that can be tweaked to meet your needs. It also provides several different customization options to include/exclude features. CSS3 Maker CSS3 provides a lot of great features ranging from gradient support to rounded corners. Although many of the features are fairly straightforward there are some that are pretty involved such as gradients, animations, and really any styles that require custom vendor extensions to use across browsers. Sure, you can type everything by hand, but sites such as CSS3 Maker provide a visual way to generate CSS3 styles. CSS3, Please! CSS3, Please! is a code generation tool that can be used to generate cross-browser CSS3 styles quickly and easily. All of the main things you can do with CSS3 are available including a clever way to visually generate CSS3 transform styles.       Ultimate CSS Gradient Generator CSS3 Maker (above) has a gradient generator built-in but my favorite tool for creating CSS3 gradients is the Ultimate CSS Gradient Generator. If you’ve created gradients in tools like Photoshop then you’ll love what this tool has to offer especially since it makes it extremely straightforward to work with different gradient stops. @font-face Fonts Although @font-face has been available for awhile, I think fonts are cool and wanted to mention a site that provides a lot of font choices. When used correctly fonts can really enhance a page and when used incorrectly (think Comic Sans) they can absolutely ruin a page. Several sites exist that provide fonts that can be used with @font-face definitions in CSS style sheets. One of my favorites is Font Squirrel.   HTML5 & CSS3 Support and Tests Interested in knowing what HTML5 and CSS3 features a given browser supports? Want to know how various browsers stack up with each other as far as HTML5/CSS3 support. Look no further than the HTML5 & CSS3 Support page or the HTML5 Test page.   CSS3 Easing Animation Tool CSS3 animations aren’t widely supported across browsers right now (I’m not really using them at this point) but they do offer a lot of promise. Creating easings for animations can definitely be a challenge but they’re something that are critical for adding that “professional touch” to your animations. Fortunately you can use the Ceaser CSS Easing Animation Tool to simplify the process and handle animation easing with…...ease.   There are several other online tools that I like but these are some of the ones I find myself using the most. If you have any favorite online tools that simplify working with HTML5 or CSS3 let me know.     For more information about onsite or online training, mentoring and consulting solutions for HTML5, jQuery, .NET, SharePoint or Silverlight please visit http://www.thewahlingroup.com.

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• Manage Your WordPress Blog Comments from Your Windows Desktop

  - by Matthew Guay

  Are you never more than a few steps away from your PC and want to keep up with comments on your blog?  Then here’s how you can stay on top of your WordPress comments right from your desktop. Wp-comment-notifier is a small free app for Windows that lets you easily view, approve, reply to, and delete comments from your WordPress blog.  Whether you have a free WordPress.com blog or are running WordPress on your own server, this tool can keep you connected to your comments.  Unfortunately it only lets you manage comments at one blog, so if manage multiple WordPress-powered sites you may find this a downside.  Otherwise, it works great and helps you stay on top of the conversation at your blog. Get notified with wp-comment-notifier Download the wp-comment-notifier (link below) and install as usual. Run it once it’s installed.  Enter your blog address, username, and password when prompted. Wp-comment-notifier will automatically setup your account and download recent comments. Finally, enter your blog’s name, and click Finish. Review Comments with wp-comment-notifier You can now review your comments directly by double-clicking the new WordPress icon in your system tray.  The window has 3 tabs…comments, pending, and spam.  Select a comment to reply, edit, spam, or delete it directly from your desktop. If you select Edit, then you can edit the HTML of the comment (including links) directly from within the notifier. You can approve or permanently delete any spam messages that are caught by your blog’s spam filter. Whenever new comments come in, you’ll see a tray popup letting you know how many comments are waiting to be approved or are in the spam folder.  Click the popup to open the editor. Now, you can directly approve that pending comment without going to your WordPress admin page.  When you’re done, just press Enter on your Keyboard to post the reply. Or, if you want to reply to the comment, click the reply link and enter your comment in the entry box at the bottom. If you ever want to double-check if there’s any new comments, just right-click on the tray icon and select refresh. Finally, you can change the settings from the Configuration link in the tray button or by clicking the gear button on the bottom of the review window.  You can change how often it checks for new comments, not to start the notifier at system startup, and edit your account information. Conclusion Whether you’re managing your personal blog or administer a site with millions of hits per day, staying on top of the conversation is one of the best ways to build and maintain your audience.  With wp-comment-notifier, you can be sure that you’re always in control of your blogs comments.  This app is especially useful if you review all comments before allowing them to be published. Download wp-comment-notifier Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips How-To Geek SoftwareHow-To Geek Software: WordPress Comment Moderation NotifierSave Time Commenting with Pre-Fill Comments Greasemonkey ScriptAdd Social Bookmarking (Digg This!) Links to your Wordpress BlogTools to Help Post Content On Your WordPress Blog TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips VMware Workstation 7 Acronis Online Backup DVDFab 6 Revo Uninstaller Pro Error Goblin Explains Windows Error Codes Twelve must-have Google Chrome plugins Cool Looking Skins for Windows Media Player 12 Move the Mouse Pointer With Your Face Movement Using eViacam Boot Windows Faster With Boot Performance Diagnostics Create Ringtones For Your Android Phone With RingDroid

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• OWB 11gR2 &ndash; OLAP and Simba

  - by David Allan

  Oracle Warehouse Builder was the first ETL product to provide a single integrated and complete environment for managing enterprise data warehouse solutions that also incorporate multi-dimensional schemas. The OWB 11gR2 release provides Oracle OLAP 11g deployment for multi-dimensional models (in addition to support for prior releases of OLAP). This means users can easily utilize Simba's MDX Provider for Oracle OLAP (see here for details and cost) which allows you to use the powerful and popular ad hoc query and analysis capabilities of Microsoft Excel PivotTables® and PivotCharts® with your Oracle OLAP business intelligence data. The extensions to the dimensional modeling capabilities have been built on established relational concepts, with the option to seamlessly move from a relational deployment model to a multi-dimensional model at the click of a button. This now means that ETL designers can logically model a complete data warehouse solution using one single tool and control the physical implementation of a logical model at deployment time. As a result data warehouse projects that need to provide a multi-dimensional model as part of the overall solution can be designed and implemented faster and more efficiently. Wizards for dimensions and cubes let you quickly build dimensional models and realize either relationally or as an Oracle database OLAP implementation, both 10g and 11g formats are supported based on a configuration option. The wizard provides a good first cut definition and the objects can be further refined in the editor. Both wizards let you choose the implementation, to deploy to OLAP in the database select MOLAP: multidimensional storage. You will then be asked what levels and attributes are to be defined, by default the wizard creates a level bases hierarchy, parent child hierarchies can be defined in the editor. Once the dimension or cube has been designed there are special mapping operators that make it easy to load data into the objects, below we load a constant value for the total level and the other levels from a source table.   Again when the cube is defined using the wizard we can edit the cube and define a number of analytic calculations by using the 'generate calculated measures' option on the measures panel. This lets you very easily add a lot of rich analytic measures to your cube. For example one of the measures is the percentage difference from a year ago which we can see in detail below. You can also add your own custom calculations to leverage the capabilities of the Oracle OLAP option, either by selecting existing template types such as moving averages to defining true custom expressions. The 11g OLAP option now supports percentage based summarization (the amount of data to precompute and store), this is available from the option 'cost based aggregation' in the cube's configuration. Ensure all measure-dimensions level based aggregation is switched off (on the cube-dimension panel) - previously level based aggregation was the only option. The 11g generated code now uses the new unified API as you see below, to generate the code, OWB needs a valid connection to a real schema, this was not needed before 11gR2 and is a new requirement since the OLAP API which OWB uses is not an offline one. Once all of the objects are deployed and the maps executed then we get to the fun stuff! How can we analyze the data? One option which is powerful and at many users' fingertips is using Microsoft Excel PivotTables® and PivotCharts®, which can be used with your Oracle OLAP business intelligence data by utilizing Simba's MDX Provider for Oracle OLAP (see Simba site for details of cost). I'll leave the exotic reporting illustrations to the experts (see Bud's demonstration here), but with Simba's MDX Provider for Oracle OLAP its very simple to easily access the analytics stored in the database (all built and loaded via the OWB 11gR2 release) and get the regular features of Excel at your fingertips such as using the conditional formatting features for example. That's a very quick run through of the OWB 11gR2 with respect to Oracle 11g OLAP integration and the reporting using Simba's MDX Provider for Oracle OLAP. Not a deep-dive in any way but a quick overview to illustrate the design capabilities and integrations possible.

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• Juju stuck in "pending" state when using LXC

  - by Andre

  So I'm trying to get started with Juju, and tried to do this locally using LXC. I followed the instructions here: How do I configure juju for local usage? Unfortunately this doesn't seem to work for me. status shows the following: $ juju status machines: 0: agent-state: running dns-name: localhost instance-id: local instance-state: running services: mysql: charm: cs:precise/mysql-1 relations: db: - wordpress units: mysql/0: agent-state: pending machine: 0 public-address: null wordpress: charm: cs:precise/wordpress-0 exposed: true relations: db: - mysql units: wordpress/0: agent-state: pending machine: 0 open-ports: [] public-address: null 2012-05-10 14:09:38,155 INFO 'status' command finished successfully As you can see the agent-state is 'pending' and there is no public address where I'm able to access the newly created site. Am I missing something here? UPDATE: Tried destroying the environment an doing everything again (multiple times). This is the output for debug-log: ~$ juju debug-log 2012-05-11 08:50:23,790 INFO Enabling distributed debug log. 2012-05-11 08:50:23,806 INFO Tailing logs - Ctrl-C to stop. 2012-05-11 08:50:42,338 Machine:0: juju.agents.machine DEBUG: Units changed old:set([]) new:set(['mysql/0']) 2012-05-11 08:50:42,339 Machine:0: juju.agents.machine DEBUG: Starting service unit: mysql/0 ... 2012-05-11 08:50:42,459 Machine:0: unit.deploy DEBUG: Downloading charm cs:precise/mysql-1 to /home/andre/.juju/data/andre-local/charms 2012-05-11 08:50:42,620 Machine:0: unit.deploy DEBUG: Using <juju.machine.unit.UnitContainerDeployment object at 0x9c54b6c> for mysql/0 in /home/andre/.juju/data/andre-local 2012-05-11 08:50:42,648 Machine:0: unit.deploy DEBUG: Starting service unit mysql/0... 2012-05-11 08:50:42,649 Machine:0: unit.deploy DEBUG: Creating master container... 2012-05-11 08:54:33,992 Machine:0: unit.deploy DEBUG: Created master container andre-local-0-template 2012-05-11 08:54:33,993 Machine:0: unit.deploy INFO: Creating container mysql-0... 2012-05-11 08:56:18,760 Machine:0: unit.deploy INFO: Container created for mysql/0 2012-05-11 08:56:19,466 Machine:0: unit.deploy DEBUG: Charm extracted into container 2012-05-11 08:56:19,569 Machine:0: unit.deploy DEBUG: Starting container... 2012-05-11 08:56:22,707 Machine:0: unit.deploy INFO: Started container for mysql/0 2012-05-11 08:56:22,707 Machine:0: unit.deploy INFO: Started service unit mysql/0 2012-05-11 08:56:23,012 Machine:0: juju.agents.machine DEBUG: Units changed old:set(['mysql/0']) new:set(['wordpress/0', 'mysql/0']) 2012-05-11 08:56:23,039 Machine:0: juju.agents.machine DEBUG: Starting service unit: wordpress/0 ... 2012-05-11 08:56:23,154 Machine:0: unit.deploy DEBUG: Downloading charm cs:precise/wordpress-0 to /home/andre/.juju/data/andre-local/charms 2012-05-11 08:56:23,396 Machine:0: unit.deploy DEBUG: Using <juju.machine.unit.UnitContainerDeployment object at 0x9c519cc> for wordpress/0 in /home/andre/.juju/data/andre-local 2012-05-11 08:56:23,620 Machine:0: unit.deploy DEBUG: Starting service unit wordpress/0... 2012-05-11 08:56:23,621 Machine:0: unit.deploy INFO: Creating container wordpress-0... 2012-05-11 08:58:24,739 Machine:0: unit.deploy INFO: Container created for wordpress/0 2012-05-11 08:58:25,163 Machine:0: unit.deploy DEBUG: Charm extracted into container 2012-05-11 08:58:25,397 Machine:0: unit.deploy DEBUG: Starting container... 2012-05-11 08:58:27,982 Machine:0: unit.deploy INFO: Started container for wordpress/0 2012-05-11 08:58:27,983 Machine:0: unit.deploy INFO: Started service unit wordpress/0 This is the result for the status command (with verbose flag): ~$ juju -v status 2012-05-11 08:51:53,464 DEBUG Initializing juju status runtime 2012-05-11 08:51:53,625:4030(0xb7345b00):ZOO_INFO@log_env@658: Client environment:zookeeper.version=zookeeper C client 3.3.5 2012-05-11 08:51:53,625:4030(0xb7345b00):ZOO_INFO@log_env@662: Client environment:host.name=andre-ufo 2012-05-11 08:51:53,625:4030(0xb7345b00):ZOO_INFO@log_env@669: Client environment:os.name=Linux 2012-05-11 08:51:53,625:4030(0xb7345b00):ZOO_INFO@log_env@670: Client environment:os.arch=3.2.0-24-generic-pae 2012-05-11 08:51:53,625:4030(0xb7345b00):ZOO_INFO@log_env@671: Client environment:os.version=#37-Ubuntu SMP Wed Apr 25 10:47:59 UTC 2012 2012-05-11 08:51:53,626:4030(0xb7345b00):ZOO_INFO@log_env@679: Client environment:user.name=andre 2012-05-11 08:51:53,626:4030(0xb7345b00):ZOO_INFO@log_env@687: Client environment:user.home=/home/andre 2012-05-11 08:51:53,626:4030(0xb7345b00):ZOO_INFO@log_env@699: Client environment:user.dir=/home/andre 2012-05-11 08:51:53,626:4030(0xb7345b00):ZOO_INFO@zookeeper_init@727: Initiating client connection, host=192.168.122.1:41779 sessionTimeout=10000 watcher=0xb7780620 sessionId=0 sessionPasswd=<null> context=0x9242ee8 flags=0 2012-05-11 08:51:53,627:4030(0xb6b90b40):ZOO_INFO@check_events@1585: initiated connection to server [192.168.122.1:41779] 2012-05-11 08:51:53,649:4030(0xb6b90b40):ZOO_INFO@check_events@1632: session establishment complete on server [192.168.122.1:41779], sessionId=0x1373ae057d90007, negotiated timeout=10000 2012-05-11 08:51:53,651 DEBUG Environment is initialized. machines: 0: agent-state: running dns-name: localhost instance-id: local instance-state: running services: mysql: charm: cs:precise/mysql-1 relations: db: - wordpress units: mysql/0: agent-state: pending machine: 0 public-address: null wordpress: charm: cs:precise/wordpress-0 relations: db: - mysql units: wordpress/0: agent-state: pending machine: 0 public-address: null

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• Having Fun with Coding4Fun&rsquo;s Windows Phone 7 Controls

  - by mbcrump

  I’m a big believer in having a hobby project as you can probably tell from the first sentence in my “personal webpage using Silverlight” article. One of my current hobby projects is to re-do my current WP7 application in the marketplace. I knew up front that I needed a “Loading” animation and a better “About” box. After starting to develop my own, I noticed a great set of WP7 controls by Coding4Fun and decided to use them in my new application. Before I go any further they are FREE and Open-Source. It is really simple to get started, just go to the CodePlex site and click the download button. After you have downloaded it then extract it to a Folder and you will have 4 DLL files. They are listed below: Now create a Windows Phone 7 Project and add references to the DLL’s by right clicking on the References folder and clicking “Add references”.   After adding the references, we can get started. I needed a ProgressOverlay animation or “Loading Screen” while my RSS feed is downloading. Basically, you just need to add the following namespace to whatever page you want the control on: xmlns:Controls="clr-namespace:Coding4Fun.Phone.Controls;assembly=Coding4Fun.Phone.Controls" And then the code inside your Grid or wherever you want the Loading screen placed. <Controls:ProgressOverlay Name="progressOverlay" > <Controls:ProgressOverlay.Content> <TextBlock>Loading</TextBlock> </Controls:ProgressOverlay.Content> </Controls:ProgressOverlay> Bam, you now have a great looking loading screen. Of course inside the ProgressOverlay, you may want to add a Visibility property to turn it off after your data loads if you are using MVVM or similar pattern.   Next up, I needed a nice clean “About Box” that looks good but is also functional. Meaning, if they click on my twitter name, web or email to launch the appropriate task. Again, this is only a few lines of code: var p = new AboutPrompt(); p.VersionNumber = "2.0"; p.Show("Michael Crump", "@mbcrump", "[email protected]", @"http://michaelcrump.net"); A nice clean “About” box with just a few lines of code! I’m all for code that I don’t have to write. It also comes with a pretty sweet InputPrompt for grabbing info from a user: The code for this is also very simple: InputPrompt input = new InputPrompt(); input.Completed += (s, e) => { MessageBox.Show(e.Result.ToString()); }; input.Title = "Input Box"; input.Message = "What does a \"Developer Large\" T-Shirt Mean? "; input.Show(); I also enjoyed the PhoneHelper that allows you to get data out of the WMAppManifest File very easy. So for example if I wanted the Version info from the WMAppManifest file. I could write one line and get it. PhoneHelper.GetAppAttribute("Version") Of course you would want to make sure you add the following using statement: using Coding4Fun.Phone.Controls.Data; You can’t have all these cool controls without a great set of Converters. The included BooleanToVisibility converter will convert a Boolean to and from a Visibility value. This is excellent when using something like a CheckBox to display a TextBox when its checked. See the example below: The code is below: <phone:PhoneApplicationPage.Resources> <Converters:BooleanToVisibilityConverter x:Key="BooleanToVisibilityConverter"/> </phone:PhoneApplicationPage.Resources> <CheckBox x:Name="checkBox"/> <TextBlock Text="Display Text" Visibility="{Binding ElementName=checkBox, Path=IsChecked, Converter={StaticResource BooleanToVisibilityConverter} }"/> That’s not all the goodies included. They also provide a RoundedButton, TimePicker and several other converters. The documentation is great and I would recommend you give them a shot if you need any of this functionality. Btw, thank Brian Peek for his awesome work on Coding4Fun!  Subscribe to my feed

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• From the Tips Box: Pre-installation Prep Work Makes Service Pack Upgrades Smoother

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  Last month Microsoft rolled out Windows 7 Service Pack 1 and, like many SP releases, quite a few people are hanging back to see what happens. If you want to update but still error on the side of caution, reader Ron Troy  offers a step-by-step guide. Ron’s cautious approach does an excellent job minimizing the number of issues that could crop up in a Service Pack upgrade by doing a thorough job updating your driver sets and clearing out old junk before you roll out the update. Read on to see how he does it: Just wanted to pass on a suggestion for people worried about installing Service Packs.  I came up with a ‘method’ a couple years back that seems to work well. Run Windows / Microsoft Update to get all updates EXCEPT the Service Pack. Use Secunia PSI to find any other updates you need. Use CCleaner or the Windows disk cleanup tools to get rid of all the old garbage out there.  Make sure that you include old system updates. Obviously, back up anything you really care about.  An image backup can be real nice to have if things go wrong. Download the correct SP version from Microsoft.com; do not use Windows / Microsoft Update to get it.  Make sure you have the 64 bit version if that’s what you have installed on your PC. Make sure that EVERYTHING that affects the OS is up to date.  That includes all sorts of drivers, starting with video and audio.  And if you have an Intel chipset, use the Intel Driver Utility to update those drivers.  It’s very quick and easy.  For the video and audio drivers, some can be updated by Intel, some by utilities on the vendor web sites, and some you just have to figure out yourself.  But don’t be lazy here; old drivers and Windows Service Packs are a poor mix. If you have 3rd party software, check to see if they have any updates for you.  They might not say that they are for the Service Pack but you cut your risk of things not working if you do this. Shut off the Antivirus software (especially if 3rd party). Reboot, hitting F8 to get the SafeMode menu.  Choose SafeMode with Networking. Log into the Administrator account to ensure that you have the right to install the SP. Run the SP.  It won’t be very fancy this way.  Maybe 45 minutes later it will reboot and then finish configuring itself, finally letting you log in. Total installation time on most of my PC’s was about 1 hour but that followed hours of preparation on each. On a separate note, I recently got on the Nvidia web site and their utility told me I had a new driver available for my GeForce 8600M GS.  This laptop had come with Vista, now has Win 7 SP1.  I had a big surprise from this driver update; the Windows Experience Score on the graphics side went way up.  Kudo’s to Nvidia for doing a driver update that actually helps day to day usage.  And unlike ATI’s updates (which I need for my AGP based system), this update was fairly quick and very easy.  Also, Nvidia drivers have never, as I can recall, given me BSOD’s, many of which I’ve gotten from ATI (TDR errors).How to Enable Google Chrome’s Secret Gold IconHTG Explains: What’s the Difference Between the Windows 7 HomeGroups and XP-style Networking?Internet Explorer 9 Released: Here’s What You Need To Know

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• Ask the Readers: Backing Your Files Up – Local Storage versus the Cloud

  - by Asian Angel

  Backing up important files is something that all of us should do on a regular basis, but may not have given as much thought to as we should. This week we would like to know if you use local storage, cloud storage, or a combination of both to back your files up. Photo by camknows. For some people local storage media may be the most convenient and/or affordable way to back up their files. Having those files stored on media under your control can also provide a sense of security and peace of mind. But storing your files locally may also have drawbacks if something happens to your storage media. So how do you know whether the benefits outweigh the disadvantages or not? Here are some possible pros and cons that may affect your decision to use local storage to back up your files: Local Storage Pros You are in control of your data Your files are portable and can go with you when needed if using external or flash drives Files are accessible without an internet connection You can easily add more storage capacity as needed (additional drives, etc.) Cons You need to arrange room for your storage media (if you have multiple externals drives, etc.) Possible hardware failure No access to your files if you forget to bring your storage media with you or it is too bulky to bring along Theft and/or loss of home with all contents due to circumstances like fire If you are someone who is always on the go and needs to travel as lightly as possible, cloud storage may be the perfect way for you to back up and access your files. Perhaps your laptop has a hard-drive failure or gets stolen…unhappy events to be sure, but you will still have a copy of your files available. Perhaps a company wants to make sure their records, files, and other information are backed up off site in case of a major hardware or system failure…expensive and/or frustrating to fix if it happens, but once again there is a nice backup ready to go once things are fixed. As with local storage, here are some possible pros and cons that may influence your choice of cloud storage to back up your files: Cloud Storage Pros No need to carry around flash or bulky external drives All of your files are accessible wherever there is an internet connection No need to deal with local storage media (or its’ upkeep) Your files are still safe if your home is broken into or other unfortunate circumstances occur Cons Your files and data are not 100% under your control Possible hardware failure or loss of files on the part of your cloud storage provider (this could include a disgruntled employee wreaking havoc) No access to your files if you do not have an internet connection The cloud storage provider may eventually shutdown due to financial hardship or other unforeseen circumstances The possibility of your files and data being stolen by hackers due to a security breach on the part of your cloud storage provider You may also prefer to try and cover all of the possibilities by using both local and cloud storage to back up your files. If something happens to one, you always have the other to fall back on. Need access to those files at or away from home? As long as you have access to either your storage media or an internet connection, you are good to go. Maybe you are getting ready to choose a backup solution but are not sure which one would work better for you. Here is your chance to ask your fellow HTG readers which one they would recommend. Got a great backup solution already in place? Then be sure to share it with your fellow readers! How-To Geek Polls require Javascript. Please Click Here to View the Poll. Latest Features How-To Geek ETC The 20 Best How-To Geek Explainer Topics for 2010 How to Disable Caps Lock Key in Windows 7 or Vista How to Use the Avira Rescue CD to Clean Your Infected PC The Complete List of iPad Tips, Tricks, and Tutorials Is Your Desktop Printer More Expensive Than Printing Services? 20 OS X Keyboard Shortcuts You Might Not Know Winter Sunset by a Mountain Stream Wallpaper Add Sleek Style to Your Desktop with the Aston Martin Theme for Windows 7 Awesome WebGL Demo – Flight of the Navigator from Mozilla Sunrise on the Alien Desert Planet Wallpaper Add Falling Snow to Webpages with the Snowfall Extension for Opera [Browser Fun] Automatically Keep Up With the Latest Releases from Mozilla Labs in Firefox 4.0

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• What’s New from the Oracle Marketing Cloud at Oracle OpenWorld 2014

  - by Kathryn Perry

  A Guest Post by Laura Vogel, Director, Oracle Marketing Cloud Events (pictured left) Marketing—CX Central is your hub for all things Marketing related at OpenWorld in San Francisco, September 28-October 2, 2014. Learn how to personalize the modern marketing journey to improve customer loyalty. We’re hosting more than 60 breakout sessions, half of which will highlight customer success stories from marquee brands including Bizo, Comcast, Dell, Epson, John Deere, Lane Bryant, ReadyTalk and Shutterfly. Moscone West, Levels 2 and 3To learn more about how modern marketing works, visit Moscone West, levels 2 and 3, for exciting demos of each of the Oracle Marketing Cloud solutions (BlueKai, Compendium, Eloqua, Push I/O, and Responsys). You also can check out our stations for Vertical Marketing Best Practices, the Markie Awards, and more! CX Spotlight Sessions “Accelerating Big Profits in Big Data,” Jeff Tanner, Baylor University “Using Content Marketing to Impact Every Stage of the Buyer’s Journey,” Jennifer Agustin, Bizo “Expanding Your Marketing with Proven Testing and Optimization,” Brian Border, Shutterfly and Matthew Balthazor, Epson “Modern Marketing: The New Digital Dialogue,” Cory Treffiletti, Oracle A Special Marquee SessionDell’s Hayden Mugford will speak on "The Digital Ecosystem: Driving Experience Through Contact Engagement.” She will highlight how the organization built a digital ecosystem that supports a behaviorally driven, multivehicle nurturing campaign. The Dell 1:1 Global Marketing team worked with multiple partners to innovate integrations with Oracle Eloqua, Oracle Real-Time Decisions for real-time decision logic, and a content management system (CMS) that enables 100 percent customized e-mails. The program doubled average order values for nurtured contacts versus non-nurtured and tripled open and click-through rates versus push e-mail. It Wouldn’t Be an Oracle Marketing Cloud Event Without a Party!We’re hosting CX Central Fest: a unique customer experience specifically designed for attendees of CX Central. It will include a chance to rock out at a private concert featuring Los Angeles indie electronic pop group, Capital Cities! Join us Tuesday, September 30 from 7-9 p.m. Other Oracle Marketing Cloud Session Highlights Thought leadership by role Exploring the benefits of moving to the Cloud Product line roadmaps and innovations in Marketing Technical deep dives for product lines within Marketing Best practices and impactful business measurements Solutions that are integrated across CX Target AudienceSession content is geared toward professionals in Marketing, Marketing Operations, Marketing Demand Generation, Social: Chief Marketing Officers, Vice Presidents, Directors and Managers. OutcomesCustomers attending Marketing—CX Central @ OpenWorld will be able to: Gain insight into delivering consistent cross-channel marketing Discover how to provide the right information to the right customer at the right time and with the right channel Get answers to burning questions and advice on business challenges Hear from other Oracle customers about recommended best practices to help their organization move forward Network and share ideas to help create a strategy for connecting with customers in better ways Resources At a Glance Register Now Track Site—View Marketing Sessions 72 1024x768 Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} Focus on Session Doc Downloadable Justification Email OpenWorld is a fabulous way for you to see all that Oracle Marketing Cloud has to offer. Register today.

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• BizTalk Server Monitoring &ndash; SharePoint Web Part

  - by SURESH GIRIRAJAN

  I have been worked with customers using BizTalk as shared infrastructure in the enterprise, where we have two or more BizTalk apps running on it for different Business groups. Also these customers are not using BizTalk ESB portal even though they are using BizTalk ESB exception framework. So main issue with all these Business groups are they don’t have visibility into the BizTalk apps running in prod, even though they are using SCOM and other monitoring stuff in place. So I am trying to address few issues I am going to list below and how I try to mitigate them, first one on the list is how to get visibility into prod, how to provision those access to the BizTalk resources with minimal activity and how can we take advantage of the resources we have today. So I was working on creating REST data services for BizTalk RFID a year ago and available on codeplex. I thought to extend that idea to take advantage of BizTalk Data Services available in codeplex. I extended the BizTalk data services I will upload the updated service soon. So let me start thru how my solution works, so first step I am using the BizTalk data service (REST service) which expose most of the BizTalk artifacts as resources such as Applications, Orchestrations, Send ports, Receive ports, Host instances and In process instances etc. BizTalk Server Monitoring – SharePoint Web Part I am hosting the BizTalk data service in IIS with application pool configured to run under BizTalk administrator credentials. So with this setup I am making the service to make accessible anonymous. Next step of this solution I have created a SharePoint Visual web part which consumes the BizTalk data service and display all the BizTalk Application and Platform settings in read only mode. Even though BizTalk data services offers to browse resources as well perform actions like starting, stopping Orchestrations, Send ports, Receive locations, Host instances etc. Host Instances BizTalk Applications BizTalk Running / Suspended Instances So having this BizTalk Monitoring SharePoint web part, will be added to the SharePoint. This eliminates the need for granting access to the BizTalk users explicitly, so when you have BizTalk contractor or BizTalk application user need to have access to the BizTalk environment all the need is have access to the SharePoint website. You can configure the web part point to different end point based on your environment. I am making this as read only as part of this to make easier for the users and in terms of provisioning. This removes the dependency of BizTalk admin at least for viewing the BizTalk application status and errors etc. If we need to make any changes to the BizTalk application then its application owner responsibility to co-ordinate with BizTalk admins. There are options like BizTalk ESB portal, BizTalk 360 etc… but this one of the approach to reduce number of steps required to give access to BizTalk application users and also to maximize the resource we have in enterprise today. Also you can expose this data service thru Azure Service Bus and access from other apps like mobile devices or create a web site hosted in Azure etc. One last thing I have tested only with BizTalk Server 2010 on x64 VM only, but it should work on other version. I will try to upload the code shortly with instructions how to setup etc.… I welcome thoughts and suggestions… Hope this helps….

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• Chalk Talk with John: Business Value of Identity and Access Management

  - by John Brunswick

  Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii- mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi- mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} Conveying the business value of Identity and Access Management to non technologists can potentially be challenging, especially considering the breadth capability supplied by these technologies. In this episode of Chalk Talk with John, Bob at Codeaway Valley asks Jim from Middleware Fields how they are able to manage access to buildings and facilities throughout their community. Bob and his team struggle to keep up with the needs of their community members, while ensuring the community’s safety. Jim shares his creative solution to simplifying the management of access throughout their community in Middleware Fields. Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii- mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi- mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} About me: Hi, I am John Brunswick, an Oracle Enterprise Architect. As an Oracle Enterprise Architect, I focus on the alignment of technical capabilities in support of business vision and objectives, as well as the overall business value of technology.  Before coming to Oracle, I was a Practice Manager within BEA System's Business Interaction Division consulting organization, orchestrating enterprise systems in support of line of business goals. Follow me on Twitter and visit my site for Oracle Fusion Middleware related tips.

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• Backing up my Windows Home Server to the Cloud&hellip;

  - by eddraper

  Ok, here’s my scenario: Windows Home Server with a little over 3TB of storage.  This includes many years of our home network’s PC backups, music, videos, etcetera. I’d like to get a backup off-site, and the existing APIs and apps such as CloudBerry Labs WHS Backup service are making it easy.  Now, all it’s down to is vendor and the cost of the actual storage.   So,  I thought I’d take a lazy Saturday morning and do some research on this and get the ball rolling.  What I discovered stunned me…   First off, the pricing for just about everything was loaded with complexity.  I learned that it wasn’t just about storage… it was about network usage, requests, sites, replication, and on and on. I really don’t see this as rocket science.  I have a disk image.  I want to put it in the cloud.  I’m not going to be be using it but once daily for incremental backups.  Sounds like a common scenario.  Yes, if “things get real” and my server goes down, I will need to bring down a lot of data and utilize a fair amount of vendor infrastructure.  However, this may never happen.  Offsite storage is an insurance policy.   The complexity of the cost structures, perhaps by design, create an environment where it’s incredibly hard to model bottom line costs and compare vendor all-up pricing.  As it is a “lazy Saturday morning,” I’m not in the mood for such antics and I decide to shirk the endeavor entirely.  Thus, I decided to simply fire up calc.exe and do some a simple arithmetic model based on price per GB.  I shuddered at the results.  Certainly something was wrong… did I misplace a decimal point?  Then I discovered CloudBerry’s own calculator.   Nope, I hadn’t misplaced those decimals after all.  Check it out (pricing based on 3174 GB):   Amazon S3 $398.00 per month $4761 per year Azure $396.75 per month $4761 per year Google $380.88 per month $4570.56 per year   Conclusion: Rampant crack smoking at vendors.  Seriously.  Out. Of. Their. Minds. Now, to Amazon’s credit, vision, and outright common sense, they had one offering which directly addresses my scenario:   Amazon Glacier $31.74 per month $380.88 per year   hmmm… It’s on the table.  Let’s see what it would cost to just buy some drives, an enclosure and cart them over to a friend’s house.   2 x 2TB Drives from NewEgg.com $199.99   Enclosure $39.99     $239.98   Carting data to back and forth to friend’s within walking distance pain   Leave drive unplugged at friend’s $0 for electricity   Possible data loss No way I can come and go every day.     I think I’ll think on this a bit more…

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• Get Oracle Linux Certified at Much Reduced Price

  - by Antoinette O'Sullivan

  You have already heard the great news that you can now prove your knowledge on Oracle Linux 5 and 6 with the new Oracle Certified Associate, Oracle Linux 5 and 6 System Administrator exam. Until December 21th 2013, this exam is in beta phase so you can get a fully-fledged certification at a much reduced price; for example $50 in the United States or 39 euros in the euro zone. Establishing What You Need to Know Your first step is to click on the Exam Topics tab on the certification page. You will see a list of topics that you will be tested on during the certification exam. These are the areas that you need to improve your knowledge on, if you are not already expert. Registering For a Certification Exam On the certification page, click on Register for this Exam. The Pearson VUE site guides you through signing up for an event at a date and location to suit you. Preparing to Take an Exam On the certification page, click on the Exam Preparation tab. This indicates the recommended training that can help you prepare to sit the exam. The recommended training for this certification is the Oracle Linux System Administration course. You can take this very popular 5-day live instructor-led course as a: Live Virtual Event: Take the training from your own desk, no travel required. Choose from a selection of events already on the schedule to suit different timezones. In-Class: Travel to an education center to take this class. Below is a selection of events already on the schedule.  Location  Date  Delivery Language  Brussels, Belgium  18 November 2013  English  London, England  16 December 2013  English   Manchester, England  27 January 2014  English  Reading, England  12 May 2014  English  Milan, Italy  31 March 2014  Italian   Rome, Italy  10 February 2014  Italian  Utrecht, Netherlands  18 November 2013  Dutch Warsaw, Poland   9 December 2013  Polish  Bucharest, Romania  20 January 2014  Romanian  Ankara, Turkey  12 January 2014  Turkish  Istanbul, Turkey  16 December 2013  Turkish  Panjim, India  4 November 2013  English  Jakarta, Indonesia  9 December 2013  English  Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia  25 November 2013  English  Makati City, Philippines  11 November 2013  English  Singapore  25 November 2013  English  Bangkok, Thailand  11 November 2013  English  Casablanca, Morocco  16 December 2013  English  Muscat, Oman  2 March 2014  English  Johannesburg, South Africa  17 February 2014  English  Tunis, Tunisia  31 March 2014  French  Canberra, Australia 25 November 2013   English  Melbourne, Australia  19 May 2014  English  Sydney, Australia  20 January 2014  English  Mississauga, Canada  24 February 2014  English Ottawa, Canada   28 April 2014  English  Belmont, CA, United States  10 February 2014  English  Irvine, CA, United States  12 May 2014  English  San Francisco, CA, United States  18 November 2013  English  Chicago, IL, United States  14 April 2014  English  Cambridge, MA, United States  18 November 2013  English  Roseville, MA, United States  2 December 2013  English  Edison, NJ, United States  10 March 2014  English   Pittsburg, PA, United States  9 December 2013  English   Reston, VA, United States 13 January 2014   English For more information on the Oracle Linux curriculum, go to http://oracle.com/education/linux.

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• Type Casting variables in PHP: Is there a practical example?

  - by Stephen

  PHP, as most of us know, has weak typing. For those who don't, PHP.net says: PHP does not require (or support) explicit type definition in variable declaration; a variable's type is determined by the context in which the variable is used. Love it or hate it, PHP re-casts variables on-the-fly. So, the following code is valid: $var = "10"; $value = 10 + $var; var_dump($value); // int(20) PHP also alows you to explicitly cast a variable, like so: $var = "10"; $value = 10 + $var; $value = (string)$value; var_dump($value); // string(2) "20" That's all cool... but, for the life of me, I cannot conceive of a practical reason for doing this. I don't have a problem with strong typing in languages that support it, like Java. That's fine, and I completely understand it. Also, I'm aware of—and fully understand the usefulness of—type hinting in function parameters. The problem I have with type casting is explained by the above quote. If PHP can swap types at-will, it can do so even after you force cast a type; and it can do so on-the-fly when you need a certain type in an operation. That makes the following valid: $var = "10"; $value = (int)$var; $value = $value . ' TaDa!'; var_dump($value); // string(8) "10 TaDa!" So what's the point? Can anyone show me a practical application or example of type casting—one that would fail if type casting were not involved? I ask this here instead of SO because I figure practicality is too subjective. Edit in response to Chris' comment Take this theoretical example of a world where user-defined type casting makes sense in PHP: You force cast variable $foo as int -- (int)$foo. You attempt to store a string value in the variable $foo. PHP throws an exception!! <--- That would make sense. Suddenly the reason for user defined type casting exists! The fact that PHP will switch things around as needed makes the point of user defined type casting vague. For example, the following two code samples are equivalent: // example 1 $foo = 0; $foo = (string)$foo; $foo = '# of Reasons for the programmer to type cast $foo as a string: ' . $foo; // example 2 $foo = 0; $foo = (int)$foo; $foo = '# of Reasons for the programmer to type cast $foo as a string: ' . $foo; UPDATE Guess who found himself using typecasting in a practical environment? Yours Truly. The requirement was to display money values on a website for a restaurant menu. The design of the site required that trailing zeros be trimmed, so that the display looked something like the following: Menu Item 1 .............. $ 4 Menu Item 2 .............. $ 7.5 Menu Item 3 .............. $ 3 The best way I found to do that wast to cast the variable as a float: $price = '7.50'; // a string from the database layer. echo 'Menu Item 2 .............. $ ' . (float)$price; PHP trims the float's trailing zeros, and then recasts the float as a string for concatenation.

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• SQL SERVER – DQS Error – Cannot connect to server – A .NET Framework error occurred during execution of user-defined routine or aggregate “SetDataQualitySessions” – SetDataQualitySessionPhaseTwo

  - by pinaldave

  Earlier I wrote a blog post about how to install DQS in SQL Server 2012. Today I decided to write a second part of this series where I explain how to use DQS, however, as soon as I started the DQS client, I encountered an error that will not let me pass through and connect with DQS client. It was a bit strange to me as everything was functioning very well when I left it last time.  The error was very big but here are the first few words of it. Cannot connect to server. A .NET Framework error occurred during execution of user-defined routine or aggregate “SetDataQualitySessions”: System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException (0×80131904): A .NET Framework error occurred during execution of user-defined routine or aggregate “SetDataQualitySessionPhaseTwo”: The error continues – here is the quick screenshot of the error. As my initial attempts could not fix the error I decided to search online and I finally received a wonderful solution from Microsoft Site. The error has happened due to latest update I had installed on .NET Framework 4. There was a  mismatch between the Module Version IDs (MVIDs) of the SQL Common Language Runtime (SQLCLR) assemblies in the SQL Server 2012 database and the Global Assembly Cache (GAC). This mismatch was to be resolved for the DQS to work properly. The workaround is specified here in detail. Scroll to subtopic 4.23 Some .NET Framework 4 Updates Might Cause DQS to Fail. The script was very much straight forward. Here are the few things to not to miss while applying workaround. Make sure DQS client is properly closed The NETAssemblies is based on your OS. NETAssemblies for 64 bit machine – which is my machine is “c:\windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319″. If you have Winodws installed on any other drive other than c:\windows do not forget to change that in the above path. Additionally if you have 32 bit version installed on c:\windows you should use path as ”c:\windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319″ Make sure that you execute the script specified in 4.23 sections in this article in the database DQS_MAIN. Do not run this in the master database as this will not fix your error. Do not forget to restart your SQL Services once above script has been executed. Once you open the client it will work this time. Here is the script which I have bit modified from original script. I strongly suggest that you use original script mentioned 4.23 sections. However, this one is customized my own machine. /* Original source: http://bit.ly/PXX4NE (Technet) Modifications: -- Added Database context -- Added environment variable @NETAssemblies -- Main script modified to use @NETAssemblies */ USE DQS_MAIN GO BEGIN -- Set your environment variable -- assumption - Windows is installed in c:\windows folder DECLARE @NETAssemblies NVARCHAR(200) -- For 64 bit uncomment following line SET @NETAssemblies = 'c:\windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319\' -- For 32 bit uncomment following line -- SET @NETAssemblies = 'c:\windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\' DECLARE @AssemblyName NVARCHAR(200), @RefreshCmd NVARCHAR(200), @ErrMsg NVARCHAR(200) DECLARE ASSEMBLY_CURSOR CURSOR FOR SELECT name AS NAME FROM sys.assemblies WHERE name NOT LIKE '%ssdqs%' AND name NOT LIKE '%microsoft.sqlserver.types%' AND name NOT LIKE '%practices%' AND name NOT LIKE '%office%' AND name NOT LIKE '%stdole%' AND name NOT LIKE '%Microsoft.Vbe.Interop%' OPEN ASSEMBLY_CURSOR FETCH NEXT FROM ASSEMBLY_CURSOR INTO @AssemblyName WHILE @@FETCH_STATUS = 0 BEGIN BEGIN TRY SET @RefreshCmd = 'ALTER ASSEMBLY [' + @AssemblyName + '] FROM ''' + @NETAssemblies + @AssemblyName + '.dll' + ''' WITH PERMISSION_SET = UNSAFE' EXEC sp_executesql @RefreshCmd PRINT 'Successfully upgraded assembly ''' + @AssemblyName + '''' END TRY BEGIN CATCH IF ERROR_NUMBER() != 6285 BEGIN SET @ErrMsg = ERROR_MESSAGE() PRINT 'Failed refreshing assembly ' + @AssemblyName + '. Error message: ' + @ErrMsg END END CATCH FETCH NEXT FROM ASSEMBLY_CURSOR INTO @AssemblyName END CLOSE ASSEMBLY_CURSOR DEALLOCATE ASSEMBLY_CURSOR END GO Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Error Messages, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

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• Great Customer Service Example

  - by MightyZot

  A few days ago I wrote about what I consider a poor customer service interaction with TiVo, a company that I have been faithful to for the past 12 years or so. In that post I talked about how they helped me, but I felt like I was doing something wrong at the end of the call – when in reality I was just following through with an offer that TiVo made possible through my cable company. Today I had a wonderful customer service interaction with American Express, another company that I have been loyal to for many years.(I am a Gold Card member.) I like my Amex card because I can use it for big purchases and it forces me to pay them off at the end of the month. Well, the reality is that I’m not always so good at doing that, so sometimes my payments are over a couple of months.  :) A few days ago I received an email from “American Express” fraud detection. The email stated that I should call a toll free number and have the last four digits of my card handy. I grew up during the BBS era with some creative and somewhat mischievous friends. I’ve learned to be extremely cautious with regard to my online life! So, I did what you would expect…I sent them a nice reply that said “Go screw yourself.” For the past couple of days someone has been trying to call me and I assumed it was the same prankster trying to get the last four digits of my card. The last caller left a message indicating that they were from American Express and they wanted to talk to me about my card. After looking up their customer service numbers on the www.americanexpress.com web site, I called and was put through to the fraud detection group. The rep explained that there were some charges on my wife’s card that did not fit our purchase profile. She went through each charge and, for the most part, they looked like charges my wife may have made. My wife had asked to use the card for some Christmas shopping during the same timeframe as the charges. The American Express rep very politely explained that these looked out of character to her. She continued through the charges. She listed a charge for $160 – at this point my adrenaline started kicking in. My wife said she was going to charge about $25 or $30 dollars, not $160. Next, the rep listed a charge for over $1200. Uh oh!! Now I know that my account has been compromised. I informed the rep that we definitely did not make those charges. She replied with, “that’s ok Mr Pope, we declined those charges as well as some others.” We went through the pending charges and there were a couple more that were questionable. The rep very patiently waited while I called my wife on my office phone to verify the charges. Sure enough, my wife had not ordered anything from Netflix or purchased anything with Yahoo Wallet! “No problem Mr Pope, we will remove those charges as well.” “We are going to cancel your wife’s card and send her a new one. She will receive it by 7pm tomorrow via Federal Express. Please watch your statements over the next couple of months. If you notice anything fishy, give us a call and we will take care of it for you.” (Wow, I’m thinking to myself!) “Is there anything else I can help you with Mr Pope?” “Nope, thank you very much for catching this so early and declining those charges!”, I said smiling. Apparently she could hear me smiling on the other end of the phone line because she replied with “keep smiling Mr Pope and have a good rest of your week.” Now THAT’s customer service!  Thank you American Express!!! I shall remain an ever faithful customer. Interesting…

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• How to Crop Pictures in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2010

  - by DigitalGeekery

  When you add pictures to your Office documents you might need to crop them to remove unwanted areas, or isolate a specific part. Today we’ll take a look at how to crop images in Office 2010. Note: We will show you examples in Word, but you can crop images in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. To insert a picture into your Office document, click the Picture button on the Insert tab. The Picture Tools format ribbon should now be active. If not, click on the image. New in Office 2010 is the ability to see the area of the photo that you are keeping in addition to what will be cropped out. On the Format tab, click Crop. Click and drag inward any of the four corners to crop from any one side. Notice you can still see the area to be cropped out is show in translucent gray. Press and hold the CTRL key while you drag a corner cropping handle inward to crop equally on all four sides. To crop equally on right and left or the top and bottom, press and hold down the CTRL key while you drag the center cropping handle on either side inward. You can further adjust the cropping area by clicking and dragging the picture behind the cropping area. To accept the current dimensions and crop the photo, press escape or click anywhere outside the cropping area. You can manually crop the image to exact dimensions. This can be done by right clicking on the image and entering the dimensions in the Width and Height boxes, or in the Size group on the Format tab.   Crop to a Shape Select your photo and click Crop from the Size group on the Format tab. Select Crop to Shape and choose any of the available shapes. You photo will be cropped into that shape. Using Fit and Fill If you wish to crop a photo but fill the shape, select Fill. When you choose this option, some edges of the picture might not display but the original picture aspect ratio is maintained. If you wish to have all of the picture fit within a shape, choose Fit. The original picture aspect ratio will be maintained.   Conclusion Users moving from previous versions of Microsoft Office are sure to appreciate the improved cropping abilities in Office 2010, especially the ability to see what will and won’t be kept when you crop a photo. Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Import Microsoft Access Data Into ExcelEmbed an Excel Worksheet Into PowerPoint or Word 2007Add Artistic Effects to Your Pictures in Office 2010Embed True Type Fonts in Word and PowerPoint 2007 DocumentsChange The Default Color Scheme 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 Xobni Plus for Outlook All My Movies 5.9 CloudBerry Online Backup 1.5 for Windows Home Server Snagit 10 TimeToMeet is a Simple Online Meeting Planning Tool Easily Create More Bookmark Toolbars in Firefox Filevo is a Cool File Hosting & Sharing Site Get a free copy of WinUtilities Pro 2010 World Cup Schedule Boot Snooze – Reboot and then Standby or Hibernate

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• Calling XAI Inbound Services from Oracle BI Publisher

  - by ACShorten

  Note: This technique requires Oracle BI Publisher 1.1.3.4.1 which supports Service Complex Types. Web Services require credentials for authentication. Note: The deafults for the product installation are used in this article. If your site uses alternative values then substitute those alternatives where applicable. Note: Examples shown in this article are examples for illustrative purposes only. When building a report in Oracle BI Publisher it may be necessary to call an XAI Inbound Service to get information via the object rather than directly calling the database tables for various reasons: The CLOB fields used in the Object are accessible for a report. Note: CLOB fields cannot be used as criteria in the current release. Objects can take advantage of algorithms to format or calculate additional data that is not stored in the database directly. For example, Information format strings can automatically generated by the object which gives consistent information between a report and the online screens. To use this facility the following process must be performed: Ensure that the product group, cisusers by default, is enabled for the SPLServiceBean in the console. This allows BI Publisher access to call Web Services directly. To ensure this follow the instructions below: Logon to the Oracle WebLogic server console using an appropriate administrator account. By default the user system or weblogic is provided for this purpose. Navigate to the Security Realms section and select your configured realm. This is set to myrealm by default. In the Roles and Policies section, expand the SPLService section of the Deployments option to reveal the SPLServiceBean roles. If there is no role associated with the SPLServiceBean, create a new EJB role and specify the cisusers role, by default. For example:   Add a Role Condition to the role just created, with a Predicate List of Group and specify cisusers as the Group Argument Name. For example: Save all your changes. The XAI Inbound Services to be used by BI Publisher must be defined prior to using the interface. Refer to the XAI Best Practices (Doc Id: 942074.1) from My Oracle Support or via the online help for more information about this process. Inside BI Publisher create your report, according to the BI Publisher documentation. When specifying the dataset, under the Data Model Report option, specify the following to use an XAI Inbound Service as a data source: Parameter Comment Type Web Service Complex Type true Username Any valid user name within the product. This user MUST have security access to the objects referenced in the XAI Inbound Service Password Authentication password for Username Timeout Timeout, in seconds, set for the Web Service call. For example 60 seconds. WSDL URL Use the WSDL URL on the XAI Inbound Service definition as your WSDL URL. It will be in the following format by default:http://<host>:<port>/<server>/XAIApp/xaiserver/<service>?WSDLwhere: <host> - Host Name of Web Application Server <port> - Port allocated to Web Application Server for product access <server> - Server context for server <service> - XAI Inbound Service Name Note: For customers using secure transmission should substitute https instead of http and use the HTTPS port allocated to the product at installation time. Web Service Select the name of the service that shows in the drop-down menu. If no service name shows up, it means that Publisher could not establish a connection with the server or WSDL name provided in the above URL in order to get the service name. See BI Publisher server log for more information. Method Select the name of the Method that shows in the drop-down menu. A method name should show in the Method drop-down menu once the Web Service name is selected. For example: Additionally, filters can be used from the Web Service that can be generated, required or optional, from the WSDL in the Parameter List. For example:

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• View Mobile Websites in Windows with Safari 4 Developer Tools

  - by Matthew Guay

  Want to try out mobile websites designed for the iPhone and other mobile devices on your PC?  Safari 4 for Windows lets you do this easily with their developer tools. By default, Safari will show standard desktop websites.  But by making a simple change, you can switch it to work like Safari Mobile on the iPhone or iPod Touch. Getting Started First make sure you have Safari 4 for Windows installed.  You can download Safari directly (link below) and install it as usual.   Or if you already have another Apple program installed, such as QuickTime or iTunes, then you can install it from Apple Software update.  Simply enter apple software update in the Start menu search box. And then select Safari 4 from the list of new software available.  Click Install to automatically download and install Safari. Accept the license Agreement, and then Safari will automatically install. Once this is finished, Safari will be ready to use. View Mobile Sites in Safari First, we need to enable the developer tools.  Click the gear icon on the toolbar, and select Preferences. Click the Advanced tab, and then check the box that says “Show Develop menu in menu bar”. Once you’ve closed your settings box, click the page icon, select Develop, then User Agent, and then choose one of the Mobile Safari settings.  In our test we chose Mobile Safari 3.1.2 – iPhone. To make your browser emulate a mobile device better, you can hide the bookmarks and tab bar to have a more streamlined interface. Click the Gear icon, and select “Hide Bookmarks Bar”, and then repeat and click “Hide Tab Bar”. You can also shrink your window to be closer to the size of a mobile device screen.  Once you’ve done these things, Safari should look similar to this screenshot.  Here we have loaded Google.com, and you can see it in its iPhone-style interface. Simply enter any website into the address bar, and it will load in its mobile interface if it has one.  Here is Google’s other mobile offerings, right inside Windows. Gmail loads messages with the default iPhone interface. One especially interesting mobile site is Apple’s online iPhone User Guide.  When loaded in Safari with the iPhone setting, it loads with a very nice mobile UI that works just like an iPhone app.  In fact, you can even click and drag to scroll, just like you would with your finger on an iPhone. Conclusion Even if you do not have a Smartphone, you can still preview what websites will look like on them with this trick. Not all sites will work of course, but it’s fun to play around with different sites that have mobile versions. Links: Safari 4 Download Apple iPhone online user guide Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Make Safari Stop Crashing Every 20 Seconds on Windows VistaCustomize Safari for Windows ToolbarSave Screen Space by Hiding the Bookmarks Toolbar in Safari for WindowsEdit Text in a Webpage with Internet Explorer 8Keep Websites From Using Tiny Fonts in Safari TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 PCmover Professional Windows Media Player 12: Tweak Video & Sound with Playback Enhancements Own a cell phone, or does a cell phone own you? Make your Joomla & Drupal Sites Mobile with OSMOBI Integrate Twitter and Delicious and Make Life Easier Design Your Web Pages Using the Golden Ratio Worldwide Growth of the Internet

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• Announcing the ASP.NET and Web Tools 2012.2 Release Candidate

  - by ScottGu

  This week the ASP.NET and Visual Web Developer teams delivered the Release Candidate of the ASP.NET and Web Tools 2012.2 update (formerly ASP.NET Fall 2012 Update BUILD Prerelease). This update extends the existing ASP.NET runtime and adds new web tooling to Visual Studio 2012. Whether you use Web Forms, MVC, Web API, or any other ASP.NET technology, there is something cool in this update for you. You can download and install the RC today: http://www.asp.net/vnext. Great ASP.NET Enhancements This update adds new ASP.NET templates and features, including: New ASP.NET MVC templates. Creating Facebook applications just became easier using the new Facebook Application template. In just a few easy steps you can create a Facebook application that gets data from the logged in user as well as integrates with their friends. A new Single Page Application template allows developers to build interactive client-side web apps using Knockout, jQuery, and ASP.NET Web API. Real-time communication support with ASP.NET SignalR.  This enables you to easily take advantage of the new WebSocket support in .NET 4.5, while also automatically degrading to long-polling and other protocols for older clients.  If you haven’t tried SignalR yet you should – it is awesome. New ASP.NET Web API functionality, including support for OData, integrated tracing, and automatically generating help page documentation for your API. New ASP.NET Friendly URL functionality. This new feature makes it very easy for Web Forms developers to generate cleaner looking URLs (without the .aspx extension). The Friendly URLs feature also makes it easier for developers to add mobile support to their applications with support for mobile .ASPX pages and  supporting switching between desktop and mobile views. It can be used with existing ASP.NET v4.0 applications. Visual Studio 2012 Web publishing enhancements. Web site projects now have the same publish experience as web application projects (including to Windows Azure Web Sites), and you can selectively publish files, see the differences between local and remote files, and update local to remote files or vice versa. Visual Studio 2012 Page Inspector enhancements. JavaScript selection mapping is now supported, and you can CSS updates in real-time. Visual Studio 2012 editor support for Knockout IntelliSense and pasting JSON as a .NET class (which makes it even easier to consume Web APIs from others). Visual Studio 2012 Project Template updates, including the latest versions of jQuery, jQuery UI, jQuery Validation, Modernirz, Knockout and more… How it is delivered You can download and install an integrated setup that contains the above enhancements today from http://www.asp.net/vnext. The new runtime functionality is delivered to ASP.NET via additional NuGet packages. This means that installing this update does not make any changes to the existing ASP.NET binaries, and thus does not cause any compatibility issues with existing projects. New projects will contain the new functionality and existing projects can be updated with the new NuGet packages. Summary Web development is changing, and ASP.NET is rapidly delivering new capabilities to developers that help them take full advantage of new capabilities.  The ASP.NET and Web Tools 2012.2 update installs in minutes without altering the current ASP.NET run time components. For a complete description see the Release Notes. Next week I plan to publish a tutorial showing how to build a cool Facebook application using the new Facebook template. Hope this helps, Scott P.S. In addition to blogging, I am also now using Twitter for quick updates and to share links. Follow me at: twitter.com/scottgu

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• Why is Apache ignoring VirtualHost directive for first name in hosts file?

  - by Peter Taylor

  Standard pre-emptive disclaimer: host names, IP addresses, and directories are anonymised. Problem We have a server with Apache 2.2 (WAMP) listening on one IP and IIS listening on another. An ASP.Net application running under IIS needs to do some simple GETs from the PHP applications running under Apache to build a unified search results page. This is a virtual server, so the internal IPs are mapped somehow to external ones. The internal DNS system doesn't resolve the publicly published names under which the applications are accessed externally, so the obvious solution was to add them to etc/hosts with the internal IP address: 127.0.0.1 localhost # 10.0.1.17 is the IP address Apache listens on 10.0.1.17 phpappone.example.com 10.0.1.17 phpapptwo.example.com After restarting Apache, phpappone.example.com stopped working. Instead of returning pages from that app, Apache was returning pages from the default site. The other PHP apps worked fine. Relevant configuration httpd.conf, summarised, says: ServerAdmin [email protected] ServerRoot "c:/server/Apache2" ServerName www.example.com Listen 10.0.1.17:80 Listen 10.0.1.17:443 # Not obviously related config options elided # Nothing obviously astandard # If you want more details, post a comment DocumentRoot "c:/server/Apache2/htdocs" <Directory /> Options FollowSymLinks AllowOverride None Order deny,allow Deny from all </Directory> # Fallback for unknown host names <Directory "c:/server/Apache2/htdocs"> Options Indexes FollowSymLinks AllowOverride None Order allow,deny Allow from all </Directory> # PHP apps common config <Directory "C:/Inetpub/wwwroot/phpapps"> Options FollowSymLinks -Indexes +ExecCGI AllowOverride All Order Allow,Deny Allow from All </Directory> # Virtual hosts NameVirtualHost 10.0.1.17:80 NameVirtualHost 10.0.1.17:443 <VirtualHost _default_:80> </VirtualHost> <VirtualHost _default_:443> SSLEngine On SSLCertificateFile "certs/example.crt" SSLCertificateKeyFile "certs/example.key" </VirtualHost> Include conf/vhosts/*.conf and the vhosts files are e.g. <VirtualHost 10.0.1.17:80> ServerName phpappone.example.com DocumentRoot "c:/Inetpub/wwwroot/phpapps/phpappone" </VirtualHost> <VirtualHost 10.0.1.17:443> ServerName phpappone.example.com DocumentRoot "c:/Inetpub/wwwroot/phpapps/phpappone" SSLEngine On SSLCertificateFile "certs/example.crt" SSLCertificateKeyFile "certs/example.key" </VirtualHost> Buggy behaviour or our misunderstanding? The documentation for name-based virtual hosts says that Now when a request arrives, the server will first check if it is using an IP address that matches the NameVirtualHost. If it is, then it will look at each <VirtualHost> section with a matching IP address and try to find one where the ServerName or ServerAlias matches the requested hostname. If it finds one, then it uses the configuration for that server. If no matching virtual host is found, then the first listed virtual host that matches the IP address will be used. Yet that isn't what we observe. It seems that if the hostname is the first hostname listed against the IP address in etc/hosts then it uses the configuration from the main server and skips the virtual host lookup. Workarounds The workaround we've put in place for the time being is to add a fake line to the hosts file: 127.0.0.1 localhost # 10.0.1.17 is the IP address Apache listens on 10.0.1.17 fakename.example.com 10.0.1.17 phpappone.example.com 10.0.1.17 phpapptwo.example.com This fixes the problem, but it's not very elegant. In addition, it seems a bit brittle: reordering lines in the hosts file (or deleting the nonsense value) can break it. The other obvious workaround is to make the main server configuration match that of the troublesome virtual host, but that is equally brittle. A third option, which is just ugly, would be to change the ASP.Net code to take separate config items for the IP address and the hostname and to implement HTTP manually. Ugh. The question Is there a good solution to this problem which localises any "Do not touch this!" explanations to the Apache config files?

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• Gamify your Web

  - by Isabel F. Peñuelas

  Yesterday Valencia welcomed the Gamification World Congress that I follow virtually through #GWC2012. BBVA, Iberia, Ligeresa, Axe, Wayra, ESADE, GlaxoSmithKline, Macmillan, Gamisfaction, Nomaders, Blaffin were among the companies presenting success stories on gaming. It has been proved that people remember things easily when an emotion is created. The marketing expectations around Gamification techniques have a lot to do with Neuromarketing theories. There are a lot of expectations on internal enterprise Gamification. In the public Web some sectors are taking the lead on following the trend. The Gartner Analyst Brian Burke opened another Gamification recent event in Madrid remembering that “Gamification is mostly about Engagement”, and this can be applied both to customers or employees. Gamification and Banking The experience of the Spanish Financial Group BBVA that just launched BBVA Game was also presented a week ago at the BBVA Innovation Centre during the event “Gamification & Banking: a fad or a serious business?” . One of the objectives of the BBVA Game was to double the name of registered users. “People like the efficiency of the online channel want to keep a one-to-one contact with the brand”-explained Bernardo Crespo. Another interested data coming out the BBVA presentation was that “only 20% of Spanish users –out of the total holders of Bank Accounts in the country- is familiar with the use of a Web Site to consult their bank accounts”, the project aims also to reverse this situation helping people to learn making a heavy use of the Video in the gaming context. In general Banking presenters seem to agree that Gamification techniques are helping to increase the time spent on the Web. Gamification and Health Using Gamification techniques for chronic illness rehabilitation was another topic of the World Congress. Here you can find some ideas and experiences What can games do for the health (In Spanish) I have personally started my own mental-health gaming project at http://www.lumosity.com/ Gamification in the Enterprise I really recommend Reading this excellent post of Ultan ÓBroin my Introduction to Gamification and Applications. Employee´s motivation and learning are experiencing a 360º turn and it looks than some of us will become soon the Dragon of the year instead of the Employee of the Year. Using Web 2.0 Tools for Gamification Projects  What type of tools do we need for a quick-win Gamification project? To certain extend Gamification can be considered an evolution of the participative Web. Badging, avatars, points and awards, leader boards, progress charts, virtual currencies, gifting and giving challenges and quests are common components and elements. The Web is offering new development frameworks to that purpose as this Avatar Framework from Paypal or Badgeville to include in web applications. Besides, tools to create communities around a game are required to comment, share and vote players as well as for an efficient multimedia management. Due to its entirely open architecture, its community features, and its multimedia and imaging solutions is were I see WebCenter as a tool helping brands to success. Link to Sources & Recommended Readings YouTube Video of BBVAGame presentation Where To Apply Gamification In Your Incentive Jim Calhoun Cancer Challenge Ride and Walkh For my Spanish Readers El aburrimiento es el enemigo número uno del éxito

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• A SharePoint Developer&rsquo;s Toolchest

  - by Sahil Malik

  Ad:: SharePoint 2007 Training in .NET 3.5 technologies (more information). When we develop for SharePoint, we end up using many tools, third party or Microsoft, to facilitate our development. What are some of your favorite tools? Mine are as below - 1. Reflector: When I saw reflector, I was pretty convinced that a tool better and more useful than it doesn’t exist. Well I was wrong! Redgate took over reflector and they still offer it as a free version, but they have a paid version called reflector pro. It lets you debug third party source code, as if you had the source code. Brilliant! Who needs documentation anymore when you have real code? 2. ULS Viewer: It is no secret, reading ULS logs is a pain in the rear. Well, not so with ULS Viewer, which does work with SharePoint 2007 as well. But it’s just way cooler with SharePoint 2010. You know when you get an error in SharePoint 2010 it shows you an error like as below: Well, the ULS Viewer will allow you to set filtering critereon, allowing you to immediately zero in, into an error, across multiple WFEs even. Also there are numerous other facilities built into the tool, such as advanced filtering, critical error notifications, etc. A must have! You can read the documentation of the ULSViewer here. 3. SPDisposeCheck: Did you know that the MySite object is strange? What is strange about it? That you have to dispose it even if you didn’t create it!? Well who the hell remembers all that! Honestly I do! And you should too. But there is a tool to help you sanitize your code. And that is SPDisposeCheck. You run it against your DLL or EXE, and it will give you suggestions on where you might have missed calling dispose on an object. You still have to use your head, but having this tool helps. 4. DebugView: Debugging for SharePoint can be difficult sometimes. Sometimes your breakpoints don’t get hit. And while you can try and make them hit, it is sometimes easier to just write a bunch of Debug.WriteLines, and catch them from an external application such as DebugView. You simply use your code, and DebugView will catch all the Debug.WriteLine’s in your code like this - 5. BGInfo: One annoying thing about SharePoint projects, it causes the number of servers to multiply like bunnies. As I’m RDP’ing into many computers trying to diagnose a crazy issue, sometimes it becomes hard to remember which machine is which. BGInfo puts all that on the wallpaper, alongwith a bunch of other useful info. A bit like this - 5. WSPBuilder: SharePoint 2007 only, but I think there maybe a version for SP2010 coming later. I think the VS2010 tools for SP2010 development are quite nice, so WSPBuilder, well so far I don’t miss it. But lets see what WSPBuilder for 2010 brings – I haven’t seen it yet. However, I want to confidently assert that WSPBuilder for SP2007 is simply awesome. 6. SharePoint Manager: The SharePoint Manager 2010 is a SharePoint object model explorer. It enables you to browse every site on the local farm and view every property. It also enables you to change the properties. The VS2010 dev tools now include a server explorer, which show you a subset of properties in read-only. I would LOVE to see SharePoint manager like functionality built into VS2010. SharePoint Manager, a total must-have. Comment on the article ....

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• Add Social Elements to Your Gmail Contacts with Rapportive

  - by Matthew Guay

  Would you like to discover more about your contacts?  Xobni is a great tool for this in Outlook, and thanks to a small plugin for Gmail, you can get similar functionality right from your favorite webmail app. Setup Rapportive on Your Gmail Browse to the Rapportive site (link below), and click install to add it to your browser.  Rapportive currently only supports Firefox and Google Chrome.  In this test, we installed it on Google Chrome.  Notice that Chrome warns Rapportive may access your private data from Gmail, though Rapportive says that they only use this data securely on your computer or their servers. Next time you log into Gmail, open a message to see the new Rapportive sidebar.  Click Log in to get started. Choose if you want to let Rapportive to access your data. Finally, choose whether to stay logged into Rapportive or to log out when you log out of Gmail.   Using Rapportive Now, when you open an email, you should see more information about your contact on the right side of the message where you usually see Google AdSense ads. You may see an avatar, short bio, and links to their social networks.  You can add notes about a contact also, which lets you use Rapportive as a CRM. You may see more information on some contacts.  Here we see a contact that shows recent Tweets and links to several social networks. Take Rapportive Further You can add more features to Rapportive with Raplets, which are small extensions that add more information or CRM functionality.  To add these, click the Rapportive button on the top of Gmail, and select Add Raplets to Rapportive. Find a Raplet you want, and click Add This. A popup will open to give you more information about the Raplet; click the Add button at the bottom if you still want it. And, if you’re wish to close Rapportive without logging out of Gmail, click the Rapportive link in Gmail and select Log out. Conclusion Whether you want to find out more about your contacts or keep track of notes about them, Rapportive is a great way to do this from Gmail.  With tools like this, Gmail gets a bit more powerful and feels more like a desktop application. If you would like this type of functionality in Outlook, check out our article on how to power up Outlook’s search and contacts with Xobni. Add Rapportive to Gmail Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips How to Import Gmail Contacts Into Outlook 2007Enhance Your Gmail Account in ChromeFigure out which Online accounts are selling your email to spammersAdd Social Bookmarking (Digg This!) Links to your Wordpress BlogFix for New Contact Group Button Not Displaying in Vista TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips Acronis Online Backup DVDFab 6 Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows Easily Search Food Recipes With Recipe Chimp Tech Fanboys Field Guide Check these Awesome Chrome Add-ons iFixit Offers Gadget Repair Manuals Online Vista style sidebar for Windows 7 Create Nice Charts With These Web Based Tools

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• Monitoring the Application alongside SQL Server

  - by Tony Davis

  Sometimes, on Simple-Talk, it takes a while to spot strange and unexpected patterns of user activity, or small bugs. For example, one morning we spotted that an article’s comment count had leapt to 1485, but that only four were displayed. With some rooting around in Google Analytics, and the endlessly annoying Community Server admin-interface, we were able to work out that a few days previously the article had been subject to a spam attack and that the comment count was for some reason including both accepted and unaccepted comments (which in turn uncovered a bug in the SQL). This sort of incident made us a lot keener on monitoring Simple-talk website usage more effectively. However, the metrics we wanted are troublesome, because they are far too specific for Google Analytics to measure, and the SQL Server backend doesn’t keep sufficient information to enable us to plot trends. The latter could provide, for example, the total number of comments made on, or votes cast for, articles, over all time, but not the number that occur by hour over a set time. We lacked a baseline, in other words. We couldn’t alter the database, as it is a bought-in package. We had neither the resources nor inclination to build-in dedicated application monitoring. Possibly, we could investigate a third-party tool to do the job; but then it occurred to us that we were already using a monitoring tool (SQL Monitor) to keep an eye on the database. It stored data, made graphs and sent alerts. Could we get it to monitor some aspects of the application as well? Of course, SQL Monitor’s single purpose is to check and monitor SQL Server, over time, rather than to monitor applications that use SQL Server. However, how different is the business of gathering and plotting SQL Server Wait Stats, from gathering and plotting various aspects of user activity on the site? Not a lot, it turns out. The latest version allows us to write our own custom monitoring scripts, meaning that we could now monitor any metric in the application that returns an integer. It took little time to write a simple SQL Query that collects basic metrics of the total number of subscribers, votes cast, comments made, or views of articles, over time. The SQL Monitor database polls Simple-Talk every second or so in order to get the latest totals, and can then store and plot this information, or even correlate SQL Server usage to application usage. You can see the live data by visiting monitor.red-gate.com. Click the "Analysis" tab, and select one of the "Simple-talk:" entries in the "Show" box and an appropriate data range (e.g. last 30 days). It’s nascent, and we’re still working on it, but it’s already given us more confidence that we’ll spot quickly trends, bugs, or bursts of ‘abnormal’ activity. If there is a sudden rise in comments, we get an alert, and if it’s due to a spam attack, we can moderate or ban the perpetrator very quickly. We’ve often argued that a tool should perform a single job well rather than turn into a Swiss-army knife, but ironically we’ve rather appreciated being able to make best use of what’s there anyway for a slightly different purpose. Is this a good or common practice? What do you think? Cheers, Tony.

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