StokeMaster Development Note

Lightbend Activator Play Framework Windows Distribution

2017-02-02T10:36:00.000-08:00

Fix "The Input line is too long" Issue with the
SBT Native Packager

The Problem

When you perform "activator stage" on Windows and then try to run the .bat file in ./target/universal/stage/bin, you get "The input line is too long." And they never seem to fix this issue.

The root cause is that Windows BAT file has a limit on the total number of characters that fit into a line and the launcher lists every JAR file that comprises the app.

The Fix

If you use LauncharJarPlugin within SBT Native Packager this problem solves instantly, without needing to muck with the .BAT file. As you would know modifying the .bat file is a real pain.

There are already solutions to this issue posted on StackOverflow and such. The answers are adequate for people who already are very familiar with SBT, but I had to do some lookup as to the correct plugin configurations etc, so I will now summarize those below.

Steps

Open ./project/plugins.sbt
Add the following line among anywhere in the block other addSbtPlugin() are decleared. Just to be sure make sure there is a blank line above and below it.

addSbtPlugin("com.typesafe.sbt" % "sbt-native-packager" % "1.2.0-M8")

Note: 1.2.0-M8 is probably been obsolete by the time you read this article. Check with the Github site of SBT Native Packager for the correct version.

Also in a later version (1.3.12 for example) of activator/sbt this seems to be "built in". You may not need it.
Java Users: Open build.sbt and change the line that looks like

lazy val root = (project in file(".")).enablePlugins(PlayJava)

to

lazy val root = (project in file(".")).enablePlugins(PlayJava, LauncherJarPlugin)
Scala Uses: Where it says PlayJava is PlayScala. Do not change Scala to Java.

A Side Note

I have also discovered that if you have a ./dist directory in your project root, you can stuff anything in there and when you do "activator stage" or "activator dist" it will add the assets in there. I would put additional installation README.MD server specific startup script, and SQL schema creation or update scripts and such in there so these script can make the distribution.

IntelliJ Ultimate Debugging JavaScript from the LightBend Activator/Play Framework

2016-11-02T07:48:00.001-07:00

Symptom

You tried to debug a {java | type|}script in Chrome browser and it does not fire a breakpoint.

You have already made sure that JetBrain extension is installed in Chrome and configured right.

You've also added the JavaScript debugging configuration, and the web page launches (e.g., http://localhost:9000)

Fix

There is one more missing piece to this puzzle. You need to map the URL for where the scripts come from. This is clearly documented in the IntelliJ documentation, but nevertheless, it is not intuitive enough that it took a while for me to find out.

The key is that you need to type in the Remote URL in the Remote URL list. This is NOT OPTIONAL for Play users. If you are running the "out of the box" configuration of Play framework, and putting in your *.js under the "public" directory somewhere, then all you need to do is to just type in /assets (will become http://assets after you save it without any ill effect) where the public folder is in the list. Save it and any JavaScript or Typescript (with a map) can be debugged.

Enjoy!

Azure VPN Client: A certificate chain processed, but terminated in a root certificate Issue after Windows 10 Upgrade

2016-10-08T22:00:00.000-07:00

Symptom,

I have upgraded my Windows OS to Windows 10 Anniversary edition recently and right after doing that I started to get the following error when connecting to the VPN. I have downloaded the same VPN client.

A certificate chain processed, but terminated in a root certificate which is not trusted by the trust provider.

Yes, we know your certs were going fine until a moment ago and I am not sure why I get myself in to this situation, but you should be able to fix this in a matter of 1/2 hr or less.

Fix or Workaround

I was able to get around this issue by simply re-generating the root certificate and then generating a client certificate. Then exporting the full public and private key pair files to Azure portal for your private network.

After you do so you can have the portal re-gen the VPN client software, then you can download and install.

You can follow the Self Signed Certificate Steps on the Azure web site to generate the Root and also Client certificates.

Some Point to Note: You will have to deal with two and half certificates:

1. The Root certificate.
1.5 The public part of the root certificate, which you will upload to Azure. Actually you can paste the hex number part of the cert directly in to the Azure console.
2. The Client certificate that you derive from the root certificate. This does not get uploaded to Azure but this has to be given to each user, if needed generate one per user if you are sensitive to revoking people individually (i.e., off-boarding an employee).

Do Not Go Down These Paths

There is no need to discard the original certificate pair you have uploaded. You can simply upload your new certificate. This may break other VPN users who are relying on current certificates. Both certificates are good.
More importantly, there is no need to re-do the private network.
You can use both Classic and Resource Manager model, so use the model that you are familiar with. It is all about uploading the proper certificates.
Do not do "extract the cert using RAR" stuff. The self-signed root certificates are just not right for your situation so extracting and manually installing them won't do a jack.

XCODE-8 Missing Push Notification Entitlement Issue

2016-10-01T21:28:00.002-07:00

Symptom

You had a perfectly working iOS App build on XCODE 7. Now you have upgraded to XCODE 8, and when you push the build to the iTunes Connect, you get the following message back.

Dear developer,

We have discovered one or more issues with your recent delivery for "BodyMapSnap". Your delivery was successful, but you may wish to correct the following issues in your next delivery:

Missing Push Notification Entitlement - Your app includes an API for Apple's Push Notification service, but the aps-environment entitlement is missing from the app's signature. To resolve this, make sure your App ID is enabled for push notification in the Provisioning Portal. Then, sign your app with a distribution provisioning profile that includes the aps-environment entitlement. This will create the correct signature, and you can resubmit your app. See "Provisioning and Development" in the Local and Push Notification Programming Guide for more information. If your app does not use the Apple Push Notification service, no action is required. You may remove the API from future submissions to stop this warning. If you use a third-party framework, you may need to contact the developer for information on removing the API.

After you’ve corrected the issues, you can use Xcode or Application Loader to upload a new binary to iTunes Connect.

Regards,

The App Store team

You checked many times that you had the correct provisioning profile and such.

Root Cause

If you had a good build before then XCODE has likely broken your build.

The Fix

Try these fixes first even before you go down the other line. Do not muck with your provisioning profile stuff either locally or on the developer provisioning portal or let alone generating a new set of key as they won't do anything without this fixed.

In your XCODE project find the Capabilities Tab then scroll down a bit to where it says Push notifications. It is very likely this is now in red and allows you to fix. Basically pressing the "Fix Issues" button will fix this, and that's all.

If Have Fiddled With It Too Much and You Do Not see the Fix Issue Button

We were down so many wrong routes, that we did quite a number of bad things to the project files.
I will new provide some recovery information to get the Fix button back.

Check to make sure that .entitlements file is not present in your project root directory. For us it is BodyMapSnap.entitlements, and lack of this file is the root cause of this. You should delete that file.

Next check in .xcodeproj/project.pbxproj in our case this was BodyMapSnap.xcodeproj/project.pbxproj

Using the editing feature of XCODE locate CODE_SIGN_ENTITLEMENTS in above file which should point to the .entitlements file. If you delete the whole line, you can get back the "Fix Issue" button under the Capabilities tab. Press that fix button again then you can Archive then Push to the iTunes connect.

The following Source Tree GIT Diffs shows you the types of files and file modifications XCODE makes after you press the Fix Issues button.

Microsoft MVC6 New JSON Based Configuration Tips

2016-08-13T21:23:00.000-07:00

I have been away from the MVC world for 2 years, and just started a brand new project with it today. Things have changed quite a bit from MVC4 days. Now there is no Web.config in the base project template for Visual Studio.

After starting to learn about this change, which should be positive and there are good reasons for this change, I have found out, as usual, all the examples out there are outdated from RC times or not complete.

Here are some things I ran into that you would also run into.

You Will Need to Install Microsoft.Extensions.Options and also Microsoft.Extensions.Options.ConfigurationExtensions

If you do not do this, you will see

'Microsoft.Extensions.Configuration.IConfigurationRoot' to 'System.Action<CustomSettings>' error.

They are available via NuGet, Just look for Microsoft.Extensions.Options and both should come up.

Where to Put My Option Plain C# Object (POCO)?

I would put that under your Models folder (create one under the root if needed), but it can be anywhere, perhaps Confgs subfolder, if you make one would just be OK too.

You Should Be Using PowerShell, Here are the Bare Minimums

2016-08-13T21:20:00.003-07:00

I see most people avoiding PowerShell. I say if you just learn a few essential usage, it is a much easier environment to use, especially switching between MacOS and Windows.

Launching

Go to the start menu and type in powershell. If you frequent your Windows environment, I would "pin" this to Start or the Taskbar, and also start avoiding Cmd.

Some Basic Coolness

If you are going back and forth between IOS and Windows, it would be a bit more comfortable to use the PowerShell as it comes "out of the box" without the need for installing the "bash" shell and many of the Unix like commands are supported as "alias".

Like on the Unix shell you no longer have to type in /Users/myname/<wheatever> instead you'd be like in the familiar Unix environment like..
.

cd ~ works auend gret ysou tyoo /ura/<ccount>
cd ~/Downloads works!
cd~/Desktop works
ls works (this is an alias so cannot go too fancy like ls -lR)
From there if you do "open ." then you can open the Explorer at that directory.

You can now Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V if you just enable them. Right click the title bar of the PowerShell window for the Properties. Then open the Options menu and look for "Enable Ctrl key shortcuts." This was added in Windows 8

Some Peculiar Stuff

If you want to see environment variables, use "printenv"
One issue with environment variable. For example, let's say you want to use $JAVA_HOME as in MacOS, then you need to do $env:JAVA_HOME I don't really like this, but so there

The Basic Idea

Like most anything, understanding the architecture and the basic philosophy of the design is the key to understanding whatever you are running into.

In terms of PowerShell, they tried to standardize basically on the REST type API Call style. So this is why they have commands like Get-This or Set-That. So if you master those, then you can chain them together like you do with Unix pipes with a much more consistent "schema" they set up.

The "help" is quite extensive and comprehensive as a result, so if you type in just about any phrase you think about, as "help something", it is a good way to move forward with more stuff.

Windows Git/GitHub Results in "Error Repository Not Found" or Denied Public Key Solution

2016-08-13T18:11:00.000-07:00

I spent a good chunk of a day to resolve issues related to "Error Repository Not Found" or even got Permission denied (publickey) type error messages.

This issue happened suddenly on my Git environment integrated with IntelliJ Ultimate. While investigating this, I made things even worse and Git was totally denied including using SSH.

Along the way, I also tried Two Factor authentication on GitHub, and eventually got that to work both in IntelliJ and also with SourceTree.

The following sequence of events finally have fixed the issue.

If You've Tried These Already, then You Have the Same Problem as I Had.

Instead of trying https://gihub.com... you tried https://myname@github.com... Note that this would not work if your Windows Credentials already has cached your user name and password.
You tried to change to the SSH URL
You've even tried to generate a new SSH key
You've even loaded the SSH key via pagent.exe

Note that SSH issue is a separate issue, so in this article I will stick with getting you back up and going with https (including using the Two-Factor authentication.)

1. Check the Windows Credentials to Remove Any Git Related

Open the Start menu and type in "Credential Manager" This will open the Windows Credential Manager. This is basically the same thing as "Mac OS Keychain" in fact, if you are on the Mac, you would want to check there. Check and remove all Git related credentials, this is the most likely cause if you see https:// Repository not Found issue.
Now try your Git access and see this will issue a new username and password prompt.

2. Last Resort: Completely Remove Your Git and Re-Install it Directly

Be sure you have done Step 1.
For this does not use chocolaty. If you did already, first try the uninstall via "choco uninstall git".
Go to the Program and Features and remove any installations of Git
Go to C:\Program Files\Git or likewise and manually delete all remnants of Git
Download and install from the Git Web Site.
Check your~/.gitconfig file to make sure nothing strange is there. Also, I would check in your local Git repos./.git/config file for URLs pointing to the repo. (Note, you can type in cd ~ if you are using PowerShell, if anything else, that's one big attraction of using PowerShell to be able to cd to ~/Downloads and ~/Desktop) give it a shot I will post an article about PowerShell Essential Survival Guide next.

If You Have Activated Two-Factor Authentication...

The password field you provide should not be your interactive login password, but you should generate a Personal Access Token on your GitHub account https://github.com/settings/tokens Note that you only see the token once after you generate it, so have a Notepad ready to temporarily copy it.

Next launch your Git UI app like SourceTree and do some operation like Fetch, this should prompt you again for the password. Use the token you have just copied in the password field and let the credential to save. This will wind up in the Windows Credentials Manager so next time you change this, you would want to do Step 1 as above.

Fix: IntelliJ Ultimate 2016.2 Play Framework Views.html Resolution Issue (Again!)

2016-07-19T10:05:00.004-07:00

Symptom:

You've just upgraded to IntelliJ 2016.2 and your existing Play Framework no longer resolves your Views.html.* references.

Note that this is different from the Route issue which requires you to add the Source dependency from target/scala-2.11/routes/main (which refers to the set of auto-generated Java sources).

Solution for Resolving Views:

I have solved this issue by going to File => Project Structure and then specifying the folder dependency to the target/scala-2.11/classes/views

Be sure that you pick "JARs or directories..." when you click the + sign on the right.

TypeScript: Avoid Using Lambda in CallBack, "this" is not Captured

2016-07-09T13:11:00.002-07:00

Symptom:

You have created a TypeScript class, and assigned a callback to an object implemented in Lambda expression (or have been suggested by Reshaper or IntelliJ to convert it to a lambda expression).

See the example below and what the problem is about to become much more clear.

The Issue

The issue is that the Lambda captures "this" in a different way than the anonymous function (). This is actually clearly documented under the Arrow Functions section in the Mozilla MDN page.

But if you are like me it is much easier to understand by actually coding the situation.

The Explanation of The Example:

I have created a simple Main class in which a callback "whatIsThis()" can be externally installed after the class has been instantiated. Then by calling whatReallyIsThis(), it will in turn calls the installed whatIsThis(). This is a fairly typical scenario, I would say.

If you are not aware of all of the implications of this, you would (and I have) thought that the class member property "s" should be accessible from within the callback in all of the scenarios.

The ones that works are;

If the callback function is is a function() and not an arrow function like =>(). This will not work.
Also, you can try this yourself, any attempt to pass "this" as main like Apply, Call or Bind to the lambda function will have no effect.

Lessons Learned

You should treat lambda as a whole new beast of function. It appears that they tried to fix the variable notion of "this" in lambda and it only captures "this" in the line of code where it was created. What throws you off is that you've learned about "this" with anonymous functions, and assumed it works the same. Be aware of this major difference!

class Main {
    constructor(public s: string) {}
    whatIsThis:  () => void;
    whatReallyIsThis() {
        this.whatIsThis();
    }
}

let main = new Main("works!");

console.log("Anonymouns func - this points to Main instance!");

main.whatIsThis = function() { 
    console.log("This " + this.s);
}

main.whatReallyIsThis(); // This works.

console.log("Using the Labmda - this does not work!");

main.whatIsThis = () => {
    console.log("This s is " + this.s);
}

main.whatReallyIsThis(); // This s is undefined

console.log("Finally, what is this is all about");
let that = main;
exports.s = "in Global scope"; // Yup, it's in the Global!
main.whatIsThis = =&gt;()  {
    console.log"Thi(s s is " + this.s); 
    console.log("That.s " + that.s); 
}
main.whatReallyIsThis(); // This s is in Global scope, That.s works.

Facebook + Chrome: Please try closing and reopening your browser window.

2015-09-06T08:19:00.000-07:00

Symptom:

You get "Please try closing and reopening your browser window." when posting a message on Facebook. But closing the window does not get this message to go away.

Possible Cause

In my situation, this was due to having the Cross Origin Resource Sharing mode enabled on my Chrome using the CORS extension. By turning it off, the problem went away.

This is often considered as a non-secure mode and Facebook especially will not allow some features to be used like Posting and Messaging when the web request has been modified.

The CORS extension is used by developers like myself to access resources from different web servers and it is not normally needed for consumer use, so if you do get into this situation, you may actually have some other mechanisms/extensions which is causing the same effect, and that could mean that your Chrome may be infected with malware so be sure to check your extensions and remove anything that you do not understand what they do.

Also try with a different browser and if it only happens on Chrome (or vise versa), then I will clean up the browser.

Hibernate Envars, ValidityAuditStrategy Fails with Cannot update previous revision for entity

2015-06-19T23:43:00.001-07:00

Symptom:

You have configured for the org.hibernate.envers.strategy.ValidityAuditStrategy with your Hibernate Envers to audit trail SQL table records with the following exception;

java.lang.RuntimeException: Cannot update previous revision for entity

Root Cause:

This happens when the table that already has records and you add the Envers auditing with ValidateAuditStrategy "after the fact". In other words, there are legacy records which were not originally audited.

Basically, the ValidityAuditStrategy was designed only with the assumption that you started using it from completely no data in the table and its related tables. It requires the initial INSERT record of the very first record of all rows with a unique record ID.

This issue has been logged in the Hibernate JIRA HHH-8456

Workarounds:

If you can afford to disable the ValidyAuditStrategy, that will log the entries.

The initial revision entry must be inserted into the newly created _AUD table for every existing legacy record.

This problem may be worked around by using the following tool that's available from the GitHub.

https://github.com/hydra1983/hibernate-envers-tools

IntelliJ IDEA 14.x How To Resolve "routes" Activator/Play Object

2015-05-24T23:35:00.004-07:00

Problem:

You just imported the SBT project of Activator or Play framework app in IntelliJ IDEA (14), and you found that you "routes" among other symbols do not resolve.

Root Cause:

You are lacking the dependency for the auto-generated routing class.

Solution:

You can add Module Dependency to classes_managed. This is located in the target/scala_2.xx/classes_managed

I originally posted a similar solution, but this one is much better and works with Play 2.3 or later. This video shows you exactly what you will need to do.

Windows File History (7, 8 and 10) - One Of the Most Useful and Overlooked Feature

2015-04-30T18:19:00.002-07:00

You are probably using some type of backup software from a commercial vendor. I have been too, but recently I stopped using it and switched to a Built in File History.

If you are used to Mac OS Time Machine, it comes as close to that, but in some ways better because you can still control what gets backed up and what does not. Like the Time Machine, you can ask it to back up hourly or even every 30 min of recent file changes and then automatically prune off old backups.

Another advantage is that it is very well integrated with the power control of your system, especially a laptop. I was using another vendor's backup software and any time I wanted to sleep or shutdown, it refused to do so because it was in a middle of a backup. Not with this, you can go to sleep, close the cover and you won't get in a situation where you have a hot battery drained laptop when you pull it out of your case.

In my situation, what I needed was automated hourly backup of some of my important documents, especially the code I am currently working on (but not quite ready to commit to Git). But if you are a teacher or an accountant just keeping the Office docs that works pretty painlessly.

Where to Backup?

Cloud backup is very popular, but the problem is that you are not always on the most reliable network especially on laptops. You could also be in flight and working on documents or code. Fortunately, most laptops have a memory card slot. So I advise that you buy as big of a memory (SD card) as you can afford, I would say get at least 64 GB. So just plug it in, format it in NTFS.

Since this is a solid-state memory, it does not consume much power and you know you have a backup available to you pretty much anywhere.

How To Enable and Configure It?

Go to your control panel and find File History which is under System and Security.
You can now enable the feature and select the destination "drive" here.
After the drive has been configured, click Advanced Settings

You can configure how often you want to back up.

Selecting Items to Back Up

Here is another cool thing about this. You can easily manage which stuff on your system is backed up. The key answer to " how to select which folder to backup" is that anything included in the Libraries part of your Explorer is backed up. By default your Documents, Music, Photos and Videos are backed up. In the picture below I have dragged in WinguMD folder which contains my work stuff. Note that dragging the items in the Libraries folder does not move the folder there, but it just like the shortcuts but backups are enabled. I would not back-up videos if you have a small memory card.

On a side note, I have been wondering what the Libraries were for the longest time. Now we both know what this is.

Windows 10 Lost Ability to RDP Into the System

2015-04-30T17:39:00.001-07:00

Symptom:

You upgraded to Windows 10 and now you cannot RDP to the system at your home network. (I do this a lot because I use Mac at home and RDP to my laptop which is Surface 3).

One of the Root Causes

In my situation, all of my WiFi connection went to Public which automatically turned off just about any incoming traffic to it from the Windows Firewall. This is a good feature. Do not turn that off.

To Make Your WiFi Network to Private

This, I guarantee you will take some time as there has been a big change.

On your desktop, click the New Notifications icon on the task bar. That' far right and looks like a Messaging icon.
Right click over WiFi and "Go to Settings."
This is where you will be lost, especially if you have many spots.
On the list of WiFi access points scroll all the way down.
Click HomeGroup
If your system is like mine, you will get a chance to enable the HomeGroup on the network you are on.

VertX Development with IntelliJ IDEA

2015-04-03T20:18:00.000-07:00

Problem:

How can I develop Vert.X Verticles with IntelliJ IDEA?

Some Tips (May not be a Solution):

I have been trying to evaluate the Vert.X system (after getting my head spin around Activator + Scala), and believe or not, I have been in C/C++/C# woorld all this time and manged to avoid Java altogether (yes, you can have a whole career based on C# and JavaScript only!). So I am sure there are some figments of ignorance in this article. If you find anything wrong, please let me know as that will help me a lot.

As I stared on this path, I did find many other articles all over the net but I have found that most were written by seasoned Java developers directed to other still-a-bit-seasoned Java developers. This article is written by someone who hardly know much about Java. So if that's your situation this will help a lot, at least get to the point your Verticle to run and debug under IDEA.

Much of the hurdle in dealing with the Java environment (not so much with the language itself) is that there is initial confusion as where all the classes come from (yes CLASSPATH) and there are more than one ways of doing things right. As a result it has gotten very time consuimg tasks to learn each of the paradigm. For example, there are Maven, Gradle and Ant to handle the builds just to name a few then there are things like Scala and Groovy and such to even confuse us, and on top of various Java frameworks for example Vert.X is one of them and Activator is another, then there are even more stuff like Spring, Netty etc.

Each serves slightly different purpose but they also get combined to do a lot of similar things like serving up Web APIs and web pages and such.

So with that in mind, here is probably very overly simplistic description of how to work IntelliJ with VertX development.

How To Start

I started with both Gradle based project initialization to Marven based. I have found that the Maven based one is a bit less intimidating to approach and lot simpler overall, so I also advise you try the Maven way first then do other stuff.

The most of how to set up the Maven based project skeleton is described on Vert.X document on THIS PAGE. But that page does not give you much more info on how to debug etc.

So first off, follow the directions on that page until you are all done and typed in "mvt idea:idea" to create the IDEA project. Then you can open the top level of your project (where you will find the IDEA files like .iml, .ipr and .iws). This will first convert the project format. Let IDEA handle that.

Integrating the Maven Project is the Key

After you open the project, and after a few minutes IDEA will say, it has found a Maven project and if you want to import it. Say yes. This will cause a small Marven Tab on the right hand side of the IDE.

What I have found out is that clean, compile and package commands (goals) are very handy.

For example, let's say you have added a new Verticle class. I have found that first doing the clean then do compile will make it appear in the target directory.

Now if you want to create the mod directory containing your Verticles, then doing package.

For each of the action, which is called Goal in Marven, select an item then press the Green start button above to execute.
clean will clean out any derived objects
compile should be used each time you update the source
package will create the mod directory in the target
install will also create the mod directory on the top level of the project, but what will be install is not always updated when you change the source.

Starting Verticles from Within the IDEA

For the reasons that I do not completely know, if you run "vert runnomd com...." stuff from the top directory of your project, it can find your module. So do not be afraid to use that option. But if you want to debug your updated verticle code each time via the mod then you can first do the "package" Marven goal first, then you can "cd" into your "target" directory then you can run the latest version.

Also not shown in this but instead of specifying Make before you debug, you can specify the Maven "package" goal which will always recreates the mod directory with the latest code. You may want to do that. Make takes forever to build, so I would at least switch to "compile" verb of the Marven and remove the Make action.

Adding or Running Your Own Verticle From Within IDEA

This is still an area that is a bit of mystry to me, but here is what I know so far and it does work, but the Vert.X documentation does not tell you how, so I had to do some experimentation to find what worked for me.

Go a head and add a new Verticle class under src/main/java/com.blah/ directory.
Do not remove PingVerticle.java If you do remove it what will happen is that it will break the build because there are some "tests" that will call this. You could, in theory, remove the tests too but why bother when you actually do not have to remove it.
If you want to run your own Verticle, you will have to go inside the "resources" directory, find mod.json and edit it to contain your class under "main":
Now do a clean and then package and you will have your new Verticle to launch when you do runmod com.blah... stuff.

I am sure there are some errors in my post, but I feel that I have given you enough information that allowed me to do what I wanted to do. As I find more information, I will plan to update this document.

Method with C# Generic Cannot Have == (Equality) or Comparison Operator

2015-02-12T17:55:00.001-08:00

Problem:

You have written a function like the following;

static Boolean IsV1GtV2(T v1, T v2)
{
return v1 > v2;
}

And you get a compiler error stating;

Operator '>' cannot be applied to operands of type 'T' and 'T'

The error is reasonable, since there is no gurantee that some generic type T would support comparison.

The Following will Also Break

So next you could have tried.

return (int) v1 > (int) v2;

And you still cannot get that to work.

Solution

The only real way it works (for me at least) is to work the code this way.

if (typeof (T) == typeof (System.Int32))

{

return (int) (object) v1 > (int) (object) v2;

}

You wold, of course, need to add this type of block for every possible type that you plan to use.

Fixing Plantronics Voyager Legend Audio Drop Issue + Activating Google Now

2015-01-11T20:00:00.000-08:00

I have been a big fan of Plantronics. They come up with innovative product and of course, my friend works there too!

I have also been using Motrola MotoX for some time and I have had some issues with my Voyager Legend for some time for which I finally got around to address.

Frequent Disconnect Issue

There are several forum complaints that the Legend disconnects. I have the same issue with it. One thing that can help resolve this issue is to download the Firmware Updater from the company's web site. This requires a direct USB connection to your Mac or PC.

To do that, go to This Support KB Article.

The Talk Button Does Not Turn on Google Now Voice Recognition

With an iPhone or other Android phones when I press and hold the Pickup button for a few seconds, you can activate Siri or Google Now for most phones, but that stopped working (or never worked until now) on my Moto X.

This is more likely specific to Moto X with the hands-free operation mode. In my case Google Now, by default, turns off the Bluetooth Headset Mode OFF. By turning that feature on, you can gain back the mode that you can press the pickup button for a few seconds.

Here is what you need to do;

Open Google Now uses the Google Now gesture (swiping up on the screen.)
Scroll through all the cards until you see the last one on the bottom.
You should now see the familiar (vertical set of 3 dots ...) setup icon on the bottom right of the screen. Tap that.
Tap Settings
Tap the Voice icon
Enable the "Bulethooth headset" mode. It says Records audio through Bluetooth Headset if available. The term "record" does not sound quite appropriate, but what it means is that it can pick up the audio from the headset after pressing the pickup button.

VS 2010: The key file may be password protected error When Building

2014-10-03T17:30:00.001-07:00

Symptom:

You pulled a fresh project (i.e., the porject you never had on your machine) from a source control such as Git
You build it on Visual Studi 2010 (or even may be later version) and you get the following type of error and cannot proceed.
You know you have the .PFX file in your project.

Error 1 Cannot import the following key file: XYZZY42.pfx. The key file may be password protected. To correct this, try to import the certificate again or manually install the certificate to the Strong Name CSP with the following key container name: VS_KEY_07B0CF4FE777D718

Root Cuase:

It just simply cannot locate the cached password (I don't know where it stores it.)Fix

If you do know the password and the fix is easy. If you don't know it might as well create another new pfix file of your own.

Steps to Fix:

1. Go to the Property of the Project

2. On the left panel, click Signing

3. Under "Choose a strong name key file" pull it down and select Browse, and select the same key file as indicated. This will prompt you the password and you should be all set to go.

Windows 8, IIS WCF Service Fails to Add Service Reference

2014-09-09T11:10:00.000-07:00

Symptom,

When I tried to add a WCF Service Reference to a WCF Application hosted on IIS 8 (Windows 8), I got the following type of message,

'http://localhost/MyDataServices/DataService.svc/_vti_bin/ListData.svc/$metadata'.
The request failed with HTTP status 404: Not Found.
Metadata contains a reference that cannot be resolved: 'http://localhost/DataServices/DataService.svc'.
The remote server returned an unexpected response: (405) Method Not Allowed.
The remote server returned an error: (405) Method Not Allowed.
If the service is defined in the current solution, try building the solution and adding the service reference again.

Root Cause

The IIS configuration is incorrect or has become corrupted in some ways.

How I Got It To Work Right

Uninstall and Reinstall IIS from Programs and Features
When re-installed the IIS, be sure to restart the computer. The OS will not ask you to restart on re-install, but in my case the IIS was completely stuck.
Next and most important is this, Be sure that in the .NET Framework 4.5 Advanced Services, and under WCF Services, the HTTP Activation is enabled.

Side Notes/ Don't Go There...

First test with the IIS Express built into your Visual Studio. If that does not work, then there can be a coding issue.
Do not bother with editing the web.config file yet (to create behaviors and endpoints). The default ought to work.

dcm4chee 2.7 Mac OS Mavericks Installation Note

2014-08-26T20:27:00.001-07:00

dcm4chee is a DICOM Server system (and a lot more) that runs under Java runtime environment. It can store medical images and send them out in the DICOM format. If you are reading this article, you must have been familiar with the medical imaging environment in your institution, so I am not going much deeper than that.

I had a chance to install dcm4chee on my Mac OS Mavericks today. I would like to supplement the instructions that have been given on their home site. I think following these steps should save you a couple of hours of finding and trying.

JBoss-4.2.3GA Installation

JBoss must be copied from http://sourceforge.net/projects/jboss/files/JBoss/JBoss-4.2.3.GA/

The link on the instructions page is broken.

JDK Related

I have used jdk1.7.0_09. This is available from the Java Download site (note, at this time of writing the latest JDK is Java 8).

The JAVA_HOME environment variable should be pointing to (for jdk1.7.0._09) to /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.7.0_09.jdk/Contents/Home

Note that Contents/Home in the path.

If you are testing this on your own environment, then JAVA_HOME should be set in your ~/.bash_profile file.

So it would add a line that looks like;

export JAVA_HOME=/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.7.0_67.jdk/Contents/Home

Fix the ARR Schema Creation Script for the Latest MySQL

The latest version of MySQL uses engine= instead of type= You will need to correct this.
It is also best to manually create the schema even though the document says it will auto-create, it actually does not.

mysql -uarr -parr arrdb < dcm4chee-arr-mysql.ddl

CAR IT: Mazda CX-5 Fails Download Text Messages

2014-08-17T20:59:00.001-07:00

Symptom:

You have a compatible Android phone (like the MotoX or Galaxy) but the text message download fails. Note that iPhone is not compatible with your Mazda.

Root Cause:

You have too many messages.

Fix:

Remove and clear all previously stored text messages. Keep the limit to about 200 or less.

Note also that having your SMS mode in Hangout or not does not make the difference. If the message count is small enough it will work both ways.

Understanding the C# Yield

2014-07-20T07:49:00.000-07:00

We have all seen the new "yield" keyword in C# at one point or another, but if you are like me, sometimes, we just say, "what's the big deal, I can do that myself" and move on.

But this weekend, I took time to get a bit more understanding of "yield." I looked around on the net to to see various examples, but none of them still made sense to me. So I decided to write a bit of code to experiment. The example included on this post contains the complete code that you can run as a console app.

I found that most examples show the use of the yielding function from within another loop, and that did not make much sense to me, since if you do that, then I would think that why not even bother having a separate loop. But hardly no examples showed me to use an Enumerator to iterate through, throughout a part of program, and that's what I plan to demonstrate here.

First, a bit about the example. Let's say that we need a program for the shipping department of a computer store and you want to make sure the employees will not forget to pack each part in the right box. You would have a list of parts like monitor, keyboard etc., and display the instructions what goes where etc.

What I wanted to get out of this example is to see if my assumptions are correct, and in one case I was not, and glad I caught that by writing this example.

So here is what I have learned;

It's a Way To Implement the Deferred Computation Pattern

The yield consutruction is probably good for performing complex calculations within a loop and especially the computation for a specific part of iteration is not performed until you request it, you might save resource or time.

This approach appears to be very effective if I create an Enumerator then use MoveNext() to the next item, and that's where its power lies. For example, accessing a database or looking up something from a web service. You can defer the computation like this just until you call MoveNext(), and you do not need to write a special state management between the calls. Come to think of it, that's how LINQ works and that's the core of IEnumerable is about. Makes sense!

We can certainly do this without yield, but to do the same thing, I have to keep track of the states and either store them as private data members or in a separate class structure and pass that back and forth. Also some loops take a decent effort to initialize, and in the yeild approach, we can certainly reduce that effort.

As the functional programming approch recommends, the more states we create and must manage locally, they tend to cause hard-to find/fix bugs.

So the advantage with this is a much simpler (hence reliable and testable) design.

My Bad Assumption Cleared

If you create a foreach loop again, the iteration will reset from the position 0 for each loop. I misunderstood this aspect. I thought if I have left the loop (say picked up first 3 items) and then did another loop for the next set, I thought I can pick up from where I left off. It does not work that way. So you have also been warned now.

The Code

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;

namespace Yield
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            var sample = new YeldSample();
            sample.Run();
        }
    }

    public class YeldSample
    {
        public void Run()
        {
            var packingList = new List<string>
            {
                "A: Memory", "A: Disk", "A: DVD Drive",
                "B: Display",  "B: Monitor Cable", "B: Monitor Power Cord",
                "C: Mouse", "C: Memory Card", "C: Keyboard",
            };

            var itemCount = 0;
            var iterator = YieldPart(packingList);

            var enumerable = iterator as string[] ?? iterator.ToArray();
            foreach (var item in enumerable)
            {
                Console.WriteLine("{0} Done!", item);
                itemCount++;
                if (itemCount == 3) break;
            }

            Console.WriteLine("\r\nBad Example Below. This will begin the loop from the start again.\r\n");
            itemCount = 0;

            foreach (var item in enumerable)
            {
                Console.WriteLine("{0} packed again!", item);
                itemCount++;
                if (itemCount == 3) break;
            }

            Console.WriteLine("\r\nExample Using the Enumerator\r\n");

            var items = enumerable.GetEnumerator();

            items.MoveNext();
            Console.WriteLine("{0} Done!", items.Current);
            items.MoveNext();
            Console.WriteLine("{0} Done!", items.Current);
            items.MoveNext();
            Console.WriteLine("{0} Done!", items.Current);

            Console.WriteLine("\r\nTake a break!\r\n");

            items.MoveNext();
            Console.WriteLine("{0} Done!", items.Current);
            items.MoveNext();
            Console.WriteLine("{0} Done!", items.Current);
            items.MoveNext();
            Console.WriteLine("{0} Done!", items.Current);

            Console.WriteLine("\r\nTake a break!\r\n");

            items.MoveNext();
            Console.WriteLine("{0} Done!", items.Current);
            items.MoveNext();
            Console.WriteLine("{0} Done!", items.Current);
            items.MoveNext();
            Console.WriteLine("{0} Done!", items.Current);

        }

        public IEnumerable<String> YieldPart(List<String> parts)
        {
            foreach (var part in parts)
            {
                var dest = "";
                if (part.StartsWith(("A:"))) dest = "main carton.";
                if (part.StartsWith(("B:"))) dest = "monitor carton.";
                if (part.StartsWith(("C:"))) dest = "accessory carton.";

                var phrase = String.Format("Put {0} in the {1}", part.Substring(3), dest);
                yield return phrase;
            }
        }
    }
}

Google Drive Windows & Mac - "Sign into a different account" does not work

2014-07-17T15:41:00.001-07:00

Symptom:

You have either left a company that was using the Google Apps, or you may have recently removed a Google Account and then changed to another. Now you try to connect to the Google Drive, it won't let you change the account, instead it remembers your previous account, and clicking the "Sign into a different account" performs nothing.

Do Not Go Down This Route!

First, it took me about 8 hours to solve this fairly serious flaw and I also checked on the net to see if there has been any solutions.

There is no need for you to go to the C:\Users... \Drive folder to remove it.
There is no need to uninstall.
There is no need to run CC Cleaner
There is no need to clear the history of Chrome. It's not where this issue is happening.
There is nothing in the registry so don't look there.

Root Cause:

It is the IE caching the log-in credentials. Not the Chrome. But to make the matter worse, you need to log-into the new Google Account in the IE to clear the previous credential that was cached.

The Fix

I will now explain the steps.

First, go to the Internet Options of the IE, then Delete the browsing history.

Now this is the important part. By default "Preserve Favorite website data." You would not want to do that. So you must UNCHECK that box. The illustration below shows it is checked. Again uncheck this (if you know what to do, you could just remove the cookie for your previous account.)

Wait for the cache to be cleared, then, next thing you need to do is to Sign In to Your New Google Account with the User and Password of the new account.

Mac OS Mavericks Procedure (Inconclusive but Worked For Me)

You will run into the identical problem if you also have a Mac. You are also likely to have Safari and Firefox installed, therefore you need to do this with Chrome, Firefox and Safari in that order.

First, clear the stored password from every browser you have.

Then close all the browsers and do the following steps on every browser from Chrome, Firefox and then Safari in that order.

Go to http://www.google.com and if it is still logged into a Google account, log out of it and then log back in.
Go to http://drive.google.com now and click your profile photo on the top right of the page. If you do, you should see Add Account button. If you do not see this button, log out and log back in. If you have more than one Active account, then you should add those now.
Close the browser and do the same to the next browser.

When you are all done with them, you have cleared the any cached log-in information and you can now re-launch the Google Drive app and you should be able to log-in.

You may still get the following dialog box after all of that;

This is due to the leftover config files that's been on your ~/ (home) directory. There are two places

Remove everything in the Google/Drive folder

/Users//Library/Application Support/Google/Drive

Remove

in /Users//Library/Preferences

com.google.GoogleDrive.plist com.google.GoogleDrive.plist.lockfile

Mazda IT: TomTom Navigation Map Starts to Spin Aound For No Good Reason

2014-07-17T10:54:00.000-07:00

Symptom

Around June of 2014 or later, your Mazda TomTom (CX-5 in my case) map start to jigger and spin around and also indicate "acquiring a signal."

What Fixed It

Update the firmware on your TomTom, this is possible by going to the TomTom web site and then downloading the TomTom Home software then update the SD card.

Visual Studio 2012 Installation Hangs

2014-07-17T10:46:00.001-07:00

Note: You might be wondering why this is about VS 2012 and not 2013. It turns out that I had to install 2012 for a gig that required it, then I ran into this problem.

Symptom:

You started to install Visual Studio 2012 (Pro in my situation). You have tried the Web install as well as the DVD install and it launches the installer, but shortly after there is no window and installation is hang up no matter how long you wait.

Fix:

Uninstall .NET Framework 3.5.1 (or possibly any other ones) before proceeding to start the installer. Your .NET Framework is likely corrupted in the manner that VS 2012 would not work.

StokeMaster Development Note

Lightbend Activator Play Framework Windows Distribution

Fix "The Input line is too long" Issue with theSBT Native Packager

The Problem

The Fix

Steps

A Side Note

IntelliJ Ultimate Debugging JavaScript from the LightBend Activator/Play Framework

Symptom

Fix

Azure VPN Client: A certificate chain processed, but terminated in a root certificate Issue after Windows 10 Upgrade

Symptom,

Fix or Workaround

Do Not Go Down These Paths

XCODE-8 Missing Push Notification Entitlement Issue

Symptom

Root Cause

The Fix

If Have Fiddled With It Too Much and You Do Not see the Fix Issue Button

Microsoft MVC6 New JSON Based Configuration Tips

You Will Need to Install Microsoft.Extensions.Options and also Microsoft.Extensions.Options.ConfigurationExtensions

Where to Put My Option Plain C# Object (POCO)?

You Should Be Using PowerShell, Here are the Bare Minimums

Launching

Some Basic Coolness

Some Peculiar Stuff

The Basic Idea

Windows Git/GitHub Results in "Error Repository Not Found" or Denied Public Key Solution

If You've Tried These Already, then You Have the Same Problem as I Had.

1. Check the Windows Credentials to Remove Any Git Related

2. Last Resort: Completely Remove Your Git and Re-Install it Directly

Fix: IntelliJ Ultimate 2016.2 Play Framework Views.html Resolution Issue (Again!)

Symptom:

Solution for Resolving Views:

TypeScript: Avoid Using Lambda in CallBack, "this" is not Captured

Facebook + Chrome: Please try closing and reopening your browser window.

Hibernate Envars, ValidityAuditStrategy Fails with Cannot update previous revision for entity

Symptom:

Root Cause:

Workarounds:

IntelliJ IDEA 14.x How To Resolve "routes" Activator/Play Object

Windows File History (7, 8 and 10) - One Of the Most Useful and Overlooked Feature

Where to Backup?

How To Enable and Configure It?

Selecting Items to Back Up

Windows 10 Lost Ability to RDP Into the System

Symptom:

One of the Root Causes

To Make Your WiFi Network to Private

VertX Development with IntelliJ IDEA

Problem:

Some Tips (May not be a Solution):

How To Start

Integrating the Maven Project is the Key

Starting Verticles from Within the IDEA

Adding or Running Your Own Verticle From Within IDEA

Method with C# Generic Cannot Have == (Equality) or Comparison Operator

Problem:

The Following will Also Break

Solution

Fixing Plantronics Voyager Legend Audio Drop Issue + Activating Google Now

The Talk Button Does Not Turn on Google Now Voice Recognition

Here is what you need to do;

VS 2010: The key file may be password protected error When Building

Symptom:

Root Cuase:

Steps to Fix:

Windows 8, IIS WCF Service Fails to Add Service Reference

Symptom,

Root Cause

How I Got It To Work Right

Side Notes/ Don't Go There...

dcm4chee 2.7 Mac OS Mavericks Installation Note

CAR IT: Mazda CX-5 Fails Download Text Messages

Symptom:

Root Cause:

Fix:

Understanding the C# Yield

It's a Way To Implement the Deferred Computation Pattern

My Bad Assumption Cleared

Fix "The Input line is too long" Issue with the
SBT Native Packager