xTechNotes - Technical Computing Programming Notes

How To Clean Up Windows

2012-01-19T14:59:00.000-08:00

This article prevents some ideas of how to clean up your computer which has the Windows Operating System. The clean up here does to refer to any kind of virus or spyware removal. Instead, this article focuses on how to get rid of the junk that we or Windows itself accumulates on your computer throughout the years.

1. Scan using antivirus.
Although this article is not about removing virus but on the cleaning of junk files, one of the first step is to simply do a virus scan - just in case. Some useful articles are:
- using online virus scanners: http://xtechnotes.blogspot.com/2008/07/antivirus-online-scan.html
- discounted antivirus software http://xtechnotes.blogspot.com/2012/01/security-software-discounts-and-special.html
- news on security http://xtechnotes.blogspot.com/2011/08/news-security.html
- how to secure your computer: http://xtechnotes.blogspot.com/2010/03/how-to-secure-your-computer.html

2. Remove all unwanted programs.
Find a list of all your installed programs by going to Control Panel - Add or Remove Programs.
Decide which programs you do not need and uninstall them.
- some uninstaller software: http://xtechnotes.blogspot.com/2011/07/links-to-free-software.html

3. Find what is running in the background
Windows services are programs that run in the background after starting up themselves when the computer is switched on. Many will not tell you they are running. To find a list of these "services", go to Control Panel - Administrative Tools - Services.
Find those services which you know is definitely not needed, whether they are from Windows or not. There is no clear way to identify which service you don't want - they will come from experience. Basically just look at the name of the services - a weird name does not mean it is not needed. Sometimes look for a service with a simple name which you definitely know is not required. Example: If your computer has no wireless connection, then look for service with the name wireless and Disable it.

4. Clean the Registry
WARNING: If anything goes wrong at this step, very often this will make your whole computer unable to start and you may lose everything.
This step should be done by experienced users only.
Some tools to check are: CCleaner and TweakNow RegCleaner. (see http://xtechnotes.blogspot.com/2011/07/links-to-free-software.html )

5. Are all your files compressed?
Some computers may have come out of the box, configured to compress all your files by default. In Windows Explorer, if your files has filenames appearing in colour, then it may be compressed. To switch off this option, in Windows Explorer, right click on the folder and select Properties. Then uncheck any box for compression, for that file, folder or the entire drive.

6. Check updates
Ensure all updates including Windows Update and other antivirus updates are up to date.

7. Avoid re-installing Windows
Only reinstall Windows as a very last resort.

..... any more ideas are appreciated ....

Security Software Review, Discounts and Special Deals

2012-01-01T12:21:00.000-08:00

This page lists some special offers on various security software including antivirus software and antispyware software. Since they are special deals from various sources, they are usually time limited. Please check the date when these links are posted.

There are also links to review of antivirus, antispyware, internet security software:

Reviews
The links in this section provide reviews of multiple antivirus, antispyware and security software. Sometimes the reviews contradict each other in their test results. However, looking at these reviews are better than not looking at all, when deciding which software to buy.
The Best Antivirus for 2012
Posted here: 2 Jan 2012
Review from pcmag
The main winners are: Norton Antivirus 2012 and Webroot SecurityAnywhere Antivirus

Reviews from CNET.com
Antivirus Software - review various software and can be filtered, sorted.

AV-Comparatives
Independent Tests of Anti-Virus Software

Virus Bulletion VB100
News on viruses and up-to-date review on antivirus software.

Lifetime Licences
The following antivirus, antispyware and security software have lifetime licences. They either let you pay once and use forever, or for multiple years. Unless otherwise stated, the list below are recommended software based on my positive experience.

WinPatrol Plus
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Spyshelter Premium
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- Extremely dangerous custom-made keyloggers and monitoring software that steal information you send via your computers- these are favorite tools of cybercriminals."

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Consumers and personal users pay a one-time fee of just $24.95!"

Discounts and Special Deals

Posted 12 Jan 2012

http://www.google.com.au/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=bit+defender+compatibility+malwarebytes
Bit Defender
FREE - This can be obtained for free by Westpac Bank or St George Bank customers in Australia, for 1 year I think. Very tempting because this seems like full software for free. But please look at the review for Bit Defender first (click on the link just above, or just google 'bit defender compatibility malwarebytes')
Several users have reported serious problems with this BitDefender.

Posted 7 Jan 2012

Spyware Terminator 2012
FREE - there is a round about way to get this "almost" free.
Download from the link above, and install it. This will be the basic version without F-Prot Antivirus.
After install - open the application and choose to Upgrade. Hopefully this will lead you to Trialpay.
In Trialpay - choose Snapfish and sign-up to print 20 photos for free. They will charge A$2.95 for handling fee.Then go back and receive installation code for full Spyware Terminator 2012 with F-Prot.
Summary: you get 20 free photo prints and Spyware Terminator 2012 with F-Prot. for Free but with handling fee of A$2.95

Posted 6 Jan 2012

Malwarebytes
coupon code – enter BM6-3S7-665 for 20% off or alternatively try code B3S-6Q1-H54 or Q65-TRJ-G7J to save 15% during checkout (you might want to check the comments for newer user-submitted coupons, some might not be working, depending on the actual website where you place the order)

Posted: 2 Jan 2012

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Generally, this Webroot software has excellent and fantastic review but this particular review article below is quite the opposite.
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2011-12-07T02:59:00.001-08:00

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NOTES GSL

2011-11-30T14:40:00.000-08:00

Prerequisites
Building using Visual Studio C/C++
GSL Examples
GSL Considerations
Build GSL with MinGW
Running MSVC with minGW-built-GSL
GSL Makefile
General C define macros and typedef
GSL-C-Fortran Framework

Prerequisites
===============
For running on Windows system:

1. mingw (minimalist GNU for Windows)
- go to http://www.mingw.org/
- Download and install both mgw and msys: eg. mingw-get-inst-20110802.exe
- Install and select C++, Fortran and MSYS options

2. gsl (Gnu Scientific Library)
- go to http://www.gnu.org/s/gsl/
- Download from nearest GNU mirror, eg. http://ftpmirror.gnu.org/gsl/.
- Unpack it to a general place like c:\gsl....

Building using Visual Studio C/C++
===================================
http://gladman.plushost.co.uk/oldsite/computing/gnu_scientific_library.php
http://www.quantcode.com/modules/smartfaq/faq.php?faqid=33

The GSL subroutines are grouped according to functionality. For this document, we say that these functionalities are grouped into packages. Each package is a folder containing the source code for that functionality. In this section, we will compile the package called BLAS.

Note that this BLAS is actually gls_blas. It uses the underlying blas implementation called cblas.
cblas is the standard blas for C/C++ and is also available in MKL.
In this example build, we will build the gsl_blas and configure is to use cblas from MKL.

1. Create a Visual Studio C/C++ Project called GSLProj, under the Solution called GSLSoln.
Add New Project - Visual C++ - Win32 - Win32 Project - {DLL, Empty Project}

2. Go to Windows Explorer and copy the blas folder from c:\gsl....
and paste into the GSLProj folder.
Update: The following packages seemed to be a bare minimum and have enabled GSL to be compiled successfully with MSVC 2008 - blas, block, err, ieee-utils, matrix, sys, test, vector.
Update: Second batch of packages to be added:
- cdf, cheb, complex, eigen, integration, linalg, min, multimin, multiroots, permutation, poly, randist, rng, roots, sort, specfun,

3. In Windows Explorer, copy these files from c:\gsl
config.h , templates_on.h, templates_off.h, build.h
and paste into the GSLProj folder.

4. In Windows Explorer, under c:\gsl...., do a search for gsl_*.h. This will find all the gsl header files in the source code. Copy all of these and paste into a folder called gsl and put this folder under the GSLProj folder.

5. Go back to the Visual Studio GSLProj, go to the Solution Explorer and click on the little icon called "Show All Files" just on top of the Solution tree.

6. In the Solution Explorer, the tree becomes a folder tree view. Go to the branch GSLProj, right click on the blas folder (which appears now) and select "Include in Project". Inlcude any other project as necessary, only include their *.c is OK. All header files do not need to be INCLUDED via Visual Studio because the C compiler will pull the contents of *.h hearder files in.

7. For the ieee-utils package, exclude the files below which are for various different operating systems other than Windows. These files have names like: fp-[OS].c
Including fp.c seems to be OK.

For the matrix package, Include the matrix folder into the project.
Then exclude files: *.h, *.lo, *_source.c
Ensure that normal c files are included: *.c
Note that the *_source.c files are actually pulled into the base *.c file similar to how header files are included.

Specfun package also has these *.c files to be excluded from compile:
cheb_eval.c, cheb_eval_mode.c

In many matrix files, eg copy_source.c, file_source.c, getset_source.c, the copy.c, file.c, getset.c uses the templates_on/off.h which dynamically creates code using Preprocessor Macro definitions. This causes SEVERE problems at the line:
#define SHORT complex
because Microsoft Visual C redefines this in their math.h file as:
#define complex _complex
DO NOT Put this macro definition /D__cplusplus which may solve the _complex problem but creates new problems with other MS files like:

Error 1 error C2061: syntax error : identifier 'vc_attributes' c:\program files\microsoft visual studio 9.0\vc\include\codeanalysis\sourceannotations.h 42 VCPP_testDLL01

To solve the _complex problem definition, add this at the top of templates_on.h:
#ifdef complex
#define fixCOMPLEX_ 1
#undef complex
#endif

Also add this at the end of templates_off.h
// ASSUMES that the predefined complex is _complex in Microsoft's VC include\math.h and crt\src\math.h
#if fixCOMPLEX_ == 1
#define complex _complex
#undef fixCOMPLEX_
#endif

8. Right click on the GSLProj icon and select properties. In the Properties configuration, Configuration Properties:
- under C/C++ - Command Line
Add these compiler options: /DGSL_DLL /DDLL_EXPORT
- under C/C++ - General - Additional Include Directories:
enter the path to the current project folder.
enter the path to \mkl\include
- under Linker - General - Additional Library Directories:
enter \fortran\lib\ia32
enter \mkl\ia32\lib
- under Linker - Input - Additional Dependencies, enter these mkl, openmp libraries
for 32bit:
mkl_intel_c_dll.lib
mkl_intel_thread_dll.lib
mkl_core_dll.lib
libiomp5md.lib
for 64bit:
mkl_intel_lp64_dll.lib
mkl_intel_thread_dll.lib
mkl_core_dll.lib
libiomp5md.lib

The setup above enable the project to be linked to MKL's cblas routines.

9. Edit the config file so that the "!" is removed in the following lines:
#if HAVE_DECL_LDEXP
#if HAVE_DECL_FREXP
#if HAVE_DECL_HYPOT
For some reason the use of preprocessor macros does not seem to work well. Hence the config.h file need to be modified as above.

10. Removing cblas from GSL code.
- Exclude the cblas directory from the project
- Exclude the file gsl\gsl_cblas.h
- Remove the line
#include
and replace if necessary with
#include
for these files:
blas\blas.c
doc\examples\cblas.c // probably not needed
eigen\francis.c
eigen\nonsymmv.c
gsl_blas_types.h

11. Due to using mkl_cblas.h, these definitions need to be changed.
in gsl_blas_types.h, change to:
typedef CBLAS_ORDER CBLAS_ORDER_t;
typedef CBLAS_TRANSPOSE CBLAS_TRANSPOSE_t;
typedef CBLAS_UPLO CBLAS_UPLO_t;
typedef CBLAS_DIAG CBLAS_DIAG_t;
typedef CBLAS_SIDE CBLAS_SIDE_t;
... the enum keyword has been removed.

12. Add the following Preprocessor definitions
/P - only to check the preprocessed intermediate files

13. To add cdf package:
- add this to beta_inc.c
#include
- exclude from project, usually because these files are included in other files and are not really standalone files:
test_auto.c, beta_inc.c

cdf package needs the following packages:
specfun, cheb

14. Various packages of GSL, such as block and matrix, have some files with the same names such as file.c.
But the way MSVC compiles and builds by putting all *.obj files into the same DEBUG or RELEASE folder causes a problem. A simple way is to rename some of the clashing file names. This does not affect the ability to use the GSL-DLL functions, because functions have different names withing files with same names such as file.c

To quickly identify where duplicate filenames exist, go to Solution Explorer and click on the GSLProj project folder.
Near the top of the Solution Explorer panel, click on the icon to switch to Show All Files, such that all *.c files appear under the Source Files folder under your GSLProj project folder. Then rename any duplicate file names *.c.

Alternative - Right-click, Properties, C++, Output Files. Change the Object File Name from $(IntDir)\ to, say, $(IntDir)\block\. You can repeat for the vector file group, etc.

15. Inline functions.
The following packages are affected: cdf
MSVC++ accepts both inline and _inline BUT when the code is *.c and compiled with MSVC, then it only recognize _inline.
Error Messages are like:
Error 1 error C2054: expected '(' to follow 'inline' ...\specfunc\cheb_eval_mode.c
Error 2 error C2085: 'cheb_eval_mode_e' : not in formal parameter list ...\specfunc\cheb_eval_mode.c
Error 3 error C2143: syntax error : missing ';' before '{' ...\specfunc\cheb_eval_mode.c 6
Solution:
In specfun/cheb_eval_mode.c, airy.c , gamma.c, bessel.c, bessel_olver, bessel_zero, coupling.c, ellint.c
erfc.c, legendre_con, trig.c, zeta.c
change from inline to _inline

16. Notes on cdf and specfun packages.
- see 15. for "inline" issue
- Files to be renamed from *.c to *_cdf.c are:
cdf/beta.c to avoid clash with specfun/beta.c
- files to be excluded from compile:
cdf/beta_inc.c

17. Add randist package - needed by cdf
- inline keyword modified, see note 15; for files:
binomial_tpe.c, discrete.c, shuffle.c
- Files to be renamed from *.c to *_randist.c are:
beta.c, binomial.c, cauchy.c, chisq.c, exponential.c, exppow.c, fdist.c, flat.c, gamma.c,
gauss.c, geometric.c, hyperg.c, laplace.c, logistic.c, lognormal.c, nbinomial.c, pareto.c, pascal.c, poisson.c, rayleigh.c, rdist.c, weibull.c

18. Add rng package - needed by randist
- inline keyword modified, see note 15; for files:
... almost all files ...
- Files to be renamed from *.c to *_rng.c are:
file.c

19. Add complex package - needed by specfun
- Files to be renamed from *.c to *_complex.c are:
inline.c

20. Add eigen package - needed by specfun
- inline keyword modified, see note 15; for files:
gen.c, francis.c, qrstep.c, jacobi.c,
- Remove //#include
and replace by #include
in these files: francis.c, nonsymmv.c
- exclude from project:
qrstep.c

21. Add linalg package - needed by
- inline keyword modified, see note 15; for files:
apply_givens.c, cholesky.c, givens.c, exponential.c
- exclude from project:
apply_givens.c, givens.c, svdstep.c

22. Add permutation package - needed by linalg
- inline keyword modified, see note 15; for files:
- Files to be renamed from *.c to *_permutation.c are:
file.c, init.c, inline.c,
- exclude from project:
permute_source.c

Add integration package - needed by randist
- inline keyword modified, see note 15; for files:
append.c, initialise.c, positivity.c, set_initial.c, qpsrt.c, util.c, reset.c, qelg.c,
- Files to be renamed from *.c to *_integration .c are:

- exclude from project:
append.c, cquad_const.c, err.c, initialise.c, positivity.c, ptsort.c, qpsrt.c, util.c, reset.c
qelg.c, qc25c.c, qc25f.c, qc25s.c, qpsrt2.c, set_initial.c,

NOTE: if some *.c files which are included by other *.c files are NOT excluded from compile, then errors like these occur:
Error 1 error C2143: syntax error : missing ')' before '*'
Error 2 error C2143: syntax error : missing '{' before '*'
Error 3 error C2059: syntax error : 'type'
Error 4 error C2059: syntax error : ')'

Add sort package - needed by eigen
- inline keyword modified, see note 15; for files:
sort.c, sortind.c, sortvec_source.c, sortvecind_source.c,
- Files to be renamed from *.c to *_sort.c are:

- exclude from project:
sortvec_source.c, sortvecind_source.c, subset_source.c, subsetind_source.c,
test_heapsort.c, test_source.c,

Add min package - for minimization routines
- Add static to these functions:
min/test.c::my_error_handler()

Add roots package
- inline keyword modified, see note 15; for files:
- Files to be renamed from *.c to *_roots.c are:
test.c, test_funcs.c
- exclude from project:

Add multimin package
- inline keyword modified, see note 15; for files:
simplex2.c
- Files to be renamed from *.c to *_multimin.c are:
test.c, test_funcs.c
- exclude from project:
directional_minimize.c, linear_minimize.c, linear_wrapper.c,

Add poly package - needed by multimin
- inline keyword modified, see note 15; for files:
- Files to be renamed from *.c to *_multimin.c are:
test.c, eval.c, deriv.c,
- exclude from project:
companion.c, balance.c, qr.c,

Add multiroots package
- inline keyword modified, see note 15; for files:
- Files to be renamed from *.c to *_multiroots.c are:
convergence.c, fdfsolver.c, fsolver, newton.c, test_funcs.c, test.c
- exclude from project:
enorm.c, dogleg.c

23. To make use of GSL's own test, do the following to the selected GSL packages as needed:
cdf, specfunc, rng, randist, min, roots, multimin, poly,

- eg. in cdf/test.c (which has been renamed to test_cdf.c), rename the function
main to main_cdf.c

- ensure say, cdf/test.c is now included in the project and compile.

- for the test functions, say: void main_cdf(void)
put its prototype function in your own driver program using extern, like:
extern "C" { void main_cdf(void); }

- in the main functions, say main_cdf(), at the last line of the function, change this:
exit(gsl_test_summary());
to this, to return the EXIT_SUCCESS or EXIT_FAILURE code
return gsl_test_summary();

- in the main functions, say main_sf(), if there are arguments that are not used like this:
int main_sf(int argc, char * argv[])
to the following
int main_sf(void)

- in cdf package ONLY: in file test_cdf.c, change the line from:
void test_gamma (void)
to rename it to:
void test_gamma_cdf (void)
and in the same file, change the call to the test_gamma function from:
test_gamma();
to the new name :
test_gamma_cdf();
This is done to prevent clash with a function of the same name test_gamma() in specfunc.

- in randist package only, change the following functions by adding the keyword "static",
so that other files to not uses these functions. The functions made "static" are:
test_beta, test_binomial_pdf, test_chisq, test_exponential, test_fdist, test_gamma,
test_ugaussian, test_geometric_pdf, test_hypergeometric2_pdf, test_negative_binomial_pdf,
test_pascal_pdf, test_poisson_pdf

- in roots package only, change the following functions by adding the keyword "static",
so that other files to not uses these functions. The functions / variables made "static" are:
test_roots.c: EPSREL, EPSABS, MAX_ITERATIONS, test_f, test_f_e, my_error_handler,
test_funcs_roots.c: create_function, func1, func2, func3, func4

- in multimin package only, change the following functions by adding the keyword "static",
so that other files to not uses these functions. The functions / variables made "static" are:
test_fdf, test_f,

- in multiroots package only, change the following functions by adding the keyword "static",
so that other files to not uses these functions. The functions / variables made "static" are:
test_multiroots.c: test_fdf, test_f,
test_funcs_multiroots.c: rosenbrock, rosenbrock_initpt, rosenbrock_f, rosenbrock_df, rosenbrock_fdf,
wood, wood_initpt, wood_f, wood_df, wood_fdf,
roth, roth_initpt, roth_f, roth_df, roth_fdf,

- Strange reason, the two functions gsl_cdf_logistic_Q and gsl_cdf_logistic_P are not visible to the test program and cannot be compiled. Typical error messages are:
Error 1 error LNK2001: unresolved external symbol gsl_cdf_logistic_Q test_cdf.obj vcpp_gsl
Error 1 error LNK2019: unresolved external symbol gsl_cdf_logistic_Q test_cdf.obj vcpp_gsl
to solve this problem, go to the file cdf/logistic.c and copy the two functions of
gsl_cdf_logistic_Q and gsl_cdf_logistic_P
and paste it to cdf/test_auto.c and place it above the line:
void test_auto_logistic (void)
ALTERNATIVE: Better solution is to check no two source files has the same name. This is already described in point 15. When two files have same name, one of them is not compiled and so its functions cannot be found.

- other files where functions are already identified somewhere else in test*.c. The solution is to add the static keyword to these functions:
test_integration.c: my_error_handler
test_linalg.c: my_error_handler

Debugging:
Modified test_roots.c: void test_f, test\results.c: void gsl_test()
Completed [12017/12017]
GSL cdf test result is 0
end of gsl cdf test
Completed [14995/14995]
GSL specfunc test result is 0
end of gsl specfunc test
-10, 1072693247, 0, 0
FAIL: results.c::gsl_test:: [15003]incorrect precision (%g obs vs %g expected)
-16, 1072693247, -350469331, 1058682594
FAIL: results.c::gsl_test:: [15005]incorrect precision (%g obs vs %g expected)
2142418408, 1061077358, 0, 0
FAIL: results.c::gsl_test:: [15007]incorrect precision (%g obs vs %g expected)
-13, 1072693247, -350469331, 1058682594
FAIL: results.c::gsl_test:: [15020]incorrect precision (%g obs vs %g expected)
2142401953, 1061077358, 0, 0
FAIL: results.c::gsl_test:: [15022]incorrect precision (%g obs vs %g expected)
-10, 1072693247, 0, 0
FAIL: results.c::gsl_test:: [15034]incorrect precision (%g obs vs %g expected)
-13, 1072693247, -350469331, 1058682594
FAIL: results.c::gsl_test:: [15036]incorrect precision (%g obs vs %g expected)
2142401953, 1061077358, 0, 0
FAIL: results.c::gsl_test:: [15038]incorrect precision (%g obs vs %g expected)
FAIL: results.c::gsl_test:: [15064]%s, %s (%g obs vs %g expected)
FAIL: results.c::gsl_test:: [15065]exceeded maximum number of iterations
FAIL: results.c::gsl_test:: [15066]incorrect precision (%g obs vs %g expected)
FAIL: results.c::gsl_test:: [15068]incorrect precision (%g obs vs %g expected)
FAIL: results.c::gsl_test:: [15070]incorrect precision (%g obs vs %g expected)
FAIL: results.c::gsl_test:: [15072]%s, %s
GSL roots test result is 1
end of gsl roots test

GSL Examples
================
http://apwillis.staff.shef.ac.uk/aco/freesoftware.html - passing function as argument
http://www.helsinki.fi/~fyl_tlpk/luento/ohj-13-GSL-e.html - passing function as argument
Fortran GSL
http://www.lrz.de/services/software/mathematik/gsl/fortran/index.html
http://uncwddas.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/other/gsl-1.8/gsl.vc/gsl.vc8.readme.txt

GSL Considerations
===================
32-64 bit
cblas replace with blas - can used ATLAS (C) at least

Build GSL with MinGW
========================
MSVC and MinGW Dlls - shows how to build Dll using MinGW that can be used by MSVC
http://www.mingw.org/wiki/MSVC_and_MinGW_DLLs

GSL can be build using MinGW with the following commands:
configure
OR to just make a dynamic library without static lib;
./configure --enable-static=no
then
make

In general, to specify on conditions and macro definitions:
env CPPFLAGS="-DGSL_DLL" ./configure --enable-static=no
./configure --enable-static=no CPPFLAGS="-DGSL_DLL"
Don't need to add GSL_DLL definition - this is just an exmaple.

The result is are the following files:
in [gsl]\cblas\.libs: libgslcblas.dll.a, libgslcblas.a, libgslcblas-0.dll, libgslcblas.la, libgslcblas.lai
in [gsl]\libs: libgsl.dll.a, libgsl.a, libgsl-0.dll, libgsl.la, libgsl.lai

If there are errors during MAKE, like these:
infnan.c:98:3: error: #error "cannot define gsl_finite without HAVE_DECL_FINITE or HAVE_IEEE_COMPARISONS"
infnan.c:115:3: error: #error "cannot define gsl_isnan without HAVE_DECL_ISNAN or HAVE_IEEE_COMPARISONS"
to solve this, go into [gsl]\config.h and remove the UNDEF lines and add DEFINE lines like:
//#undef HAVE_DECL_ISFINITE
#define HAVE_DECL_ISFINITE 1

//#undef HAVE_DECL_ISNAN
#define HAVE_DECL_ISNAN 1

To make GSL compatible with MSVC(Microsoft Visual C), then edit gsl_types.h file, to ensure that the following line is defined:

Run-Time Check Failure #0 - The value of ESP was not properly saved
across a function call. This is usually a result of calling a function
declared with one calling convention with a function pointer declared
with a different calling convention.

The message above about calling convention is misleading. The gsl dll may be in the right calling convention already. The caller to the functions in gsl need to specify explicitly
__cdel(dllimport)
on the prototype for the function they need to call.

Running MSVC with minGW-built-GSL
===================================
First, built the GSL using MinGW as described in "Build GSL with MinGW" section.
Then,
To LINK with MSVC, use the *.dll.a, but rename them to *.lib
To RUN with MSVS, put the *-0.dll files into the runtime path.

Error Message when running
"Run-Time Check Failure #0 - The value of ESP was not properly saved across a function call. This is usually a result of calling a function declared with one calling convention with a function pointer declared with a different calling convention."

..... need to check calling conventions.

Aside: To convert MSVC *.lib into *.a for GNU/GCC in MinGW, use the tool called "reimp".

GSL Makefile
=============
some key definitions of the Makefile is below.

$(SHELL) $(top_builddir)/libtool

libgsl.la: $(libgsl_la_OBJECTS) $(libgsl_la_DEPENDENCIES)
$(libgsl_la_LINK) -rpath $(libdir) $(libgsl_la_OBJECTS) $(libgsl_la_LIBADD) $(LIBS)

92:
libgsl_la_LINK = $(LIBTOOL) --tag=CC $(AM_LIBTOOLFLAGS) \
$(LIBTOOLFLAGS) --mode=link $(CCLD) $(AM_CFLAGS) $(CFLAGS) \
$(libgsl_la_LDFLAGS) $(LDFLAGS) -o $@
294:
libdir = ${exec_prefix}/lib
343:
libgsl_la_LIBADD = $(SUBLIBS) $(am__append_1)
233:
LIBS = -lm
234:
LIBTOOL = $(SHELL) $(top_builddir)/libtool
112:
CCLD = $(CC)
184:
CFLAGS = -g -O2
344:
libgsl_la_LDFLAGS = -version-info $(GSL_LT_VERSION) $(am__append_2)

90:
am_libgsl_la_OBJECTS = version.lo
libgsl_la_OBJECTS = $(am_libgsl_la_OBJECTS)

88:
libgsl_la_DEPENDENCIES = $(SUBLIBS) $(am__append_1)
43:
am__append_1 = cblas/libgslcblas.la
44:
am__append_2 = -no-undefined
315:
SUBLIBS = block/libgslblock.la blas/libgslblas.la \
bspline/libgslbspline.la complex/libgslcomplex.la \
cheb/libgslcheb.la dht/libgsldht.la diff/libgsldiff.la \
deriv/libgslderiv.la eigen/libgsleigen.la err/libgslerr.la \
fft/libgslfft.la fit/libgslfit.la histogram/libgslhistogram.la \
ieee-utils/libgslieeeutils.la integration/libgslintegration.la \
interpolation/libgslinterpolation.la linalg/libgsllinalg.la \
matrix/libgslmatrix.la min/libgslmin.la monte/libgslmonte.la \
multifit/libgslmultifit.la multimin/libgslmultimin.la \
multiroots/libgslmultiroots.la ntuple/libgslntuple.la \
ode-initval/libgslodeiv.la ode-initval2/libgslodeiv2.la \
permutation/libgslpermutation.la \
combination/libgslcombination.la multiset/libgslmultiset.la \
poly/libgslpoly.la qrng/libgslqrng.la randist/libgslrandist.la \
rng/libgslrng.la roots/libgslroots.la siman/libgslsiman.la \
sort/libgslsort.la specfunc/libgslspecfunc.la \
statistics/libgslstatistics.la sum/libgslsum.la \
sys/libgslsys.la test/libgsltest.la utils/libutils.la \
vector/libgslvector.la cdf/libgslcdf.la \
wavelet/libgslwavelet.la

Sample of actual output in Make:

libtool: link: ln .libs/libgsl.lax/libgslcdf.a/fdist.o .libs/libgsl.lax/lt72-fdist.o || cp .libs/libgsl.lax/libgslcdf.a/fdist.o .libs/libgsl.lax/lt72-fdist.o
libtool: link: ln .libs/libgsl.lax/libgslcdf.a/flat.o .libs/libgsl.lax/lt73-flat.o || cp .libs/libgsl.lax/libgslcdf.a/flat.o .libs/libgsl.lax/lt73-flat.o
libtool: link: ln .libs/libgsl.lax/libgslcdf.a/gamma.o .libs/libgsl.lax/lt74-gamma.o || cp .libs/libgsl.lax/libgslcdf.a/gamma.o .libs/libgsl.lax/lt74-gamma.o
libtool: link: ln .libs/libgsl.lax/libgslcdf.a/gauss.o .libs/libgsl.lax/lt75-gauss.o || cp .libs/libgsl.lax/libgslcdf.a/gauss.o .libs/libgsl.lax/lt75-gauss.o
libtool: link: ln .libs/libgsl.lax/libgslcdf.a/geometric.o .libs/libgsl.lax/lt76-geometric.o || cp .libs/libgsl.lax/libgslcdf.a/geometric.o .libs/libgsl.lax/lt76-geometric.o
libtool: link: ln .libs/libgsl.lax/libgslcdf.a/laplace.o .libs/libgsl.lax/lt77-laplace.o || cp .libs/libgsl.lax/libgslcdf.a/laplace.o .libs/libgsl.lax/lt77-laplace.o
libtool: link: ln .libs/libgsl.lax/libgslcdf.a/logistic.o .libs/libgsl.lax/lt78-logistic.o || cp .libs/libgsl.lax/libgslcdf.a/logistic.o .libs/libgsl.lax/lt78-logistic.o

General C define macros and typedef
=====================================
#define [dummy] [real text]
eg.
# define __BEGIN_DECLS extern "C" {

this means whenever the "__BEGIN_DECLS" is used in the code, the pre-processor will replace it with:
extern "C" {

typedef [type] [alias]
eg.

/* type declaration */
typedef struct {
int number;
char *text;
} LINE;

/* Variable declaration */
LINE buffer[MAXLINES];

Note the actual type, like the struct above, is declared first, followed by the last word which is the alias LINE.
BUT, this is reverse for #define where the actual alias or dummy is the first word, then the rest are the real text.

An alternative way to declare a struct using "tag" is:

/* type declaration */
struct templ {
int number;
char *text;
} ;
/* Variable declaration */
struct templ buffer[MAXLINES];

Note that using the tag method for struct, the keyword struct still need to be included in the declaration.

GSL-C-Fortran Framework
=======================
1. Compile the GSL into a library with vcpp_gsl.lib|.bin, see "Building using Visual Studio C/C++"
2. Create a wrapper C++ project, say gslCwrap.
3. Create a header file gslCwrap.h and code file gslCwrap.c
4. In the header file gslCwrap.h
a) prepare to export the wrappers.

extern "C"{
__declspec(dllexport) void cdfGaussP (double x, double *p);
__declspec(dllexport) void fnGamma (double x, double *gamma);
}

b) include reference to GSL header like and call gsl function:

#include "gsl/gsl_cdf.h"
#include "gsl/gsl_sf_gamma.h"
void cdfGaussP (double x, double *p) { *p = gsl_cdf_ugaussian_P(x); }// 2 * x; }
void fnGamma (double x, double *gamma) { *gamma = gsl_sf_gamma(x); }

the actual gsl function names used here are: gsl_cdf_ugaussian_P, gsl_sf_gamma

5. To call from Fortran, prepare a Fortran interface:

interface
SUBROUTINE cdfGauss_P(x, P) BIND(C, NAME='cdfGaussP')
USE, INTRINSIC :: ISO_C_BINDING ! New Fortran 2003 standard
IMPLICIT NONE
REAL(C_DOUBLE), VALUE :: x
REAL(C_DOUBLE) :: P
END SUBROUTINE cdfGauss_P
SUBROUTINE fnGamma(x, dGamma) BIND(C, NAME='fnGamma')
USE, INTRINSIC :: ISO_C_BINDING ! New Fortran 2003 standard
IMPLICIT NONE
REAL(C_DOUBLE), VALUE :: x
REAL(C_DOUBLE) :: dGamma
END SUBROUTINE fnGamma
end interface

6. In the Fortran code, just call the function as specified by the interface.
Eg.
call fnGamma(vecX(ii), answ)
call cdfGauss_P(vecQ(ii), answ)

There are at least 3 projects involved here.
vcpp_gsl - this keeps the gsl code in its own project, so that it is independent of any change in interface or usage.
gslCwrap - this consist of the C wrappers so that it can be used by C code or Fortran code. It also transforms all gsl functions into VOID C functions so that it can be called as Fortran subroutines. Fortran Interface - this is freely linked to the gslCwrap wrapper code. There is no direct reference to the GSL code.

Notes Huawei IDEOS U8150

2011-11-25T04:47:00.000-08:00

Notes Huawei IDEOS U8150

Upgrading from Android 2.2 to 2.3
http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/1700188
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=12244110

Notes Puppy Linux

2011-08-22T07:51:00.000-07:00

How to Connect to Hidden Wireless Network in Puppy Linux
http://forums.opensuse.org/english/get-technical-help-here/how-faq-forums/unreviewed-how-faq/459097-howto-connect-hidden-ssid-opensuse-11-4-kde-4-6-a.html

Security on Puppy Linux
http://puppylinux.org/wikka/security

Puppy root is woofwoof

Linux sata drivers
http://linuxmafia.com/faq/Hardware/sata.html#via6421

Links to Smartphone Mobile Security Software

2011-08-18T17:06:00.000-07:00

This is a collection of links to Smartphone Mobile Security Software

Kaspersky Mobile Security
https://www.kasperskyanz.com.au/kaspersky_mobile_security

Bullguard Mobile Security
http://www.bullguard.com/why/bullguard-mobile-security-10.aspx

F-Secure Mobile Security
http://www.f-secure.com/en/web/home_global/protection/mobile-security/features-benefits

NetQin Mobile Security
http://www.netqin.com/en/antivirus/

News - Security

2011-08-18T16:43:00.000-07:00

Build Up Your Phone’s Defenses Against Hackers
By KATE MURPHY
January 25, 2012
"Chuck Bokath would be terrifying if he were not such a nice guy. A jovial senior engineer at the Georgia Tech Research Institute in Atlanta, Mr. Bokath can hack into your cellphone just by dialing the number. He can remotely listen to your calls, read your text messages, snap pictures with your phone’s camera and track your movements around town — not to mention access the password to your online bank account."

PcAnywhere code stolen, Symantec warns of exploitsBy Dan Kaplan on Jan 26, 2012 12:08 PM
"Company recommends to stop using its product pending fixes.
Symantec is advising users of its pcAnywhere remote access product to disable the software if they don't absolutely need it.
Warnings come amid confirmation by the security giant that hackers stole a portion of the company's source code dating back to 2006.
The code related to the 2006 versions of Norton Antivirus Corporate Edition, Norton Internet Security, Norton SystemWorks and pcAnywhere."

Symantec finds huge Android malware infection
Antone Gonsalves on Jan 30, 2012
"Up to 5 million smartphone users at risk.
Symantec has found a massive Android malware infection in which several million smartphone users downloaded from the Android Market a Trojan capable of stealing information and displaying advertising.
The security vendor discovered the malware, called Android Counterclank, in 13 apps with titles such as "Counter Ground Force," "Heart Live Wallpaper" and "Sexy Girls Puzzle." The malware has the ability to receive commands from a remote server and to steal information, Symantec reported Friday."

Cyber criminals launch underground search engine
Brian Krebs January 24, 2012 - 7:58AM
"Australian stolen credit card details in search results.
A new service aims to be the Google search of underground websites, connecting scammers to a vast sea of web forums that offer an array of dodgy goods and services, from stolen credit card numbers to identity information and anonymity tools."

Hacking Google for Fun and Profit
Posted by Andrew Cantino Dec 14th, 2011
In my opinion, this is the most subtle, but also the most disturbing, of the three bugs. As with the other bugs that I found, this was an example of Cross Site Request Forgery- the practice of convincing a user’s browser to make a request on their behalf to a remote server. This type of attack generally only works when the user is logged in to the remote service. In this case, if a user is already logged into Gmail (and they usually are), a malicious website could make a series of requests for Gmail profile images and, based on the return codes, determine whether or not the visitor had communicated with another Gmail user. This worked because Gmail, as a well-intentioned privacy measure, would only show profile images to a viewer if they had had mutual contact. Here is some example code that worked at the time:

Malicious apps discovered in Android Market
By Angela Moscaritolo on Dec 13, 2011 8:31 AM Malicious devs lose registration but still turn a profit.
Large numbers of malware-laden popular apps such as Angry Birds have hit Google's official Android Market.
A rogue developer with the handle “Lagostrod” uploaded infected versions of at least a dozen popular games, including Cut the Rope, Need for Speed: Shift, and Assassin's Creed: Revelations, F-Secure researcher Sean Sullivan said.
After being notified of the issue, Google removed the apps and suspended the developers' accounts.

Phone porting used to unlock net banking codes
By Brett Winterford on Dec 6, 2011
The scam is sophisticated, as one recent example illustrates.
George Craig*, a small business owner from Sydney’s Northern Beaches, received a call on his home phone from the Commonwealth Bank in mid-July.
He was told that his mortgage account had been accessed by fraudsters, who had funnelled out some $45,000. And his mobile phone – which hadn’t rang off the hook as it usually did during business hours – was used as a tool in the attack.
Craig cannot be 100 percent sure how his online bank account was compromised. He blames himself for conducting online banking sessions on a company laptop without adequate security software.

Four eBay scams to avoid
By Darren Pauli on Nov 28, 2011 10:00 AM

It should be no surprise that auction site eBay is a target of fraudsters.

With an arsenal of virtual credit cards, identity theft and social engineering, fraudsters with the will and persistence have long battled the security teams working to protect eBay's millions of buyers and sellers.

But where other forms of online fraud have been dominated by Russian criminals, it is fraudsters operating from Romania that have caused the biggest headaches for the online auction mega site.

You say 'rootkit,' I say 'diagnostic tool'

http://news.cnet.com/8301-27080_3-57326974-245/you-say-rootkit-i-say-diagnostic-tool/

by Elinor Mills November 17, 2011 3:15 PM PST

"Android developer Trevor Eckhart recently noticed something odd on several EVO HTC devices: hidden software that phoned home to the carrier with details about how the phone was being used and where it was.
The software, Carrier IQ, tracked the location of the phone, what keys were pressed, which Web pages were visited, when calls were placed, and other information on how the device is used and when."

Certificate phishing sucks bank customers into Blackhole
By Dan Raywood on Sep 19, 2011 12:50 PM
Bank business customers warned of invalid certificates.

"Spammers are telling bank business customers that their SSL certificates had expired in efforts to exploit the blacklisting of certificate authority DigiNotar.
DigitNotar was blacklisted by major browsers after it was hacked and issued fraudulent certificates.
Barracuda Networks security researchers Dave Michmerhuizen and Luis Chapetti said the spam carried a dangerous message.
"The spammers try to create a sense of urgency with the hope that you will click one of the links to see what happens; which in this case is a particularly bad idea because the second link in the message directs the browser to a server hosting an exploit kit," they said."

Android malware outsmarts bank security, steals accounts

By Greg Masters on Sep 15, 2011 7:47 AM

Anti-virus won't detect it.

A variant of the SpyEye trojan dubbed SpitMo can steal bank account details and redirect transaction validation SMSes from Android phones.

SpitMo, or SpyEye for mobile, imposed templated fields on targeted banks' web pages requesting that customers fill in a mobile phone number and the international mobile equipment identity (IMEI) number of the device, a unique signature for a specific phone.

It meant criminals no longer needed to generate a certificate and issue an updated installer to snag the IMEI number, saving them up to three days.

Hackers steal SSL certificates for CIA, MI6, Mossad
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9219727/Hackers_steal_SSL_certificates_for_CIA_MI6_Mossad
By Gregg Keizer
September 4, 2011 05:35 PM ET15
"The Dutch government has since audited DigiNotar's performance and rescinded this assessment," Nightingale said. "This is not a temporary suspension, it is a complete removal from our trusted root program."
On Saturday, Piet Hein Donner, the Netherlands's Minister of the Interior, said the government could not guarantee the security of its websites because of the DigiNotar hack, and told citizens not to log into its sites until new certificates had been obtained from other sources.

Hackers acquire Google certificate, could hijack Gmail accounts
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9219569/Hackers_acquire_Google_certificate_could_hijack_Gmail_accounts
Repeat of Comodo affair last March; foreign government may be behind theft, says researcher
By Gregg Keizer, August 29, 2011 05:26 PM ET

Hackers have obtained a digital certificate good for any Google website from a Dutch certificate provider, a security researcher said today.
Criminals could use the certificate to conduct "man-in-the-middle" attacks targeting users of Gmail, Google's search engine or any other service operated by the Mountain View, Calif. company.
"This is a wildcard for any of the Google domains," said Roel Schouwenberg, senior malware researcher with Kaspersky Lab, in an email interview Monday.
"[Attackers] could poison DNS, present their site with the fake cert and bingo, they have the user's credentials," said Andrew Storms, director of security operations at nCircle Security.

Android tops mobile hacking charts
http://www.scmagazine.com.au/News/267861,android-tops-mobile-hacking-charts.aspx
By Tom Brewster on Aug 24, 2011 12:52 PM
Filed under Applications
But malware hasn't reached a tipping point.

Android officially became the most attacked mobile operating system by far in the second quarter (Q2), indicating it is emerging as the Windows of the mobile hacking world.
....
The information grabbed includes: user identifier, SIM card number, telephone number, IMEI number, IMSI number, screen resolution and local time… If the root exploit is successful, the system partition is remounted as writable and various additional utilities installed, supposedly to make removal more difficult and allow for additional functionality.

Top ASX-listed companies vulnerable to Apache DoS exploit
http://www.scmagazine.com.au/News/267894,top-asx-listed-companies-vulnerable-to-apache-dos-exploit.aspx
By Darren Pauli on Aug 24, 2011 12:17 PM
Attack launched over 3G

Twenty six of the top 200 ASX-listed companies are vulnerable to an Apache web server denial of service exploit according to a penetration testing company.
The exploit issues partial content requests to Apache httpd which causes the daemon to swap memory to the file system, eventually triggering a denial of service attack

Think Twice Before Installing Any Chrome Extension

http://blog.arpitnext.com/2011/08/chrome-extension-awesome-screenshot.html
Google Needs to Moderate Chrome Extension Gallery
If you are a Google Chrome user and have installed extensions from the Chrome Web Store, you need to know one important thing. The extensions available in official gallery are not as safe as you think. These extensions are not checked by Google for possible malicious behaviour. This means that these Chrome extensions may track your browsing habits, send data to a remote server, manipulate contents of a web page etc. without your consent.
The most unfortunate thing is that the Chrome team has no intention to implement an approval process for the items available at Web Store. I raised this issue earlier, but then the Chrome team said, “We’ve purposely avoided having a pre-review process for the extensions gallery / Chrome Web Store.”.

Jailbroken idevices pwned by charging stations
http://www.scmagazine.com.au/News/267479,jailbroken-idevices-pwned-by-charging-stations.aspx
By Darren Pauli on Aug 19, 2011 4:04 PM
USB mode silently comes to life.
Data can be stolen from Windows, Android and Apple devices by unassuming power charging towers.
In an attack demonstrated at the Defcon hacking conference, mobile phone charging units were rigged to pull data from phones plugged into them.
They were laced with different power charging adaptors to make them more appealing.
Some stock phones were safe since they deactivated USB mode when they were powered off, but others were not so lucky.
Many jailbroken and modified devices activated USB functions when they were plugged in, or simply rebooted.
That gave security researchers Brian Markus, Joseph Mlodzianowski and Robert Rowley the access they needed to pull data, though they instead served victims with a warning.
“If the phone died due to lack of power, in most cases the phone would boot up upon
plugging it in, then expose the data,” Marcus said.

Droid spyware answers phone calls
http://www.crn.com.au/News/267333,droid-spyware-answers-phone-calls.aspx
By Angela Moscaritolo on Aug 18, 2011 4:10 PM (9 hours ago)
"A malicious Android app that disguises itself as Google's new social networking platform, Google+, is capable of stealing data, and answering and recording incoming phone calls, researchers said this week.
The spyware app disguises itself as Google+ by installing itself with the name “Google ++,” Jamz Yaneza, threat research manager at Trend Micro.
The malware contained in the app shares the same code structure as previously discovered Android spyware that also can steal information and record phone calls made from infected devices."

Anatomy of an Attack

http://blogs.rsa.com/rivner/anatomy-of-an-attack/

Written on April 1, 2011 by Uri Rivner

"The first thing actors like those behind the APT do is seek publicly available information about specific employees – social media sites are always a favorite. With that in hand they then send that user a Spear Phishing email. Often the email uses target-relevant content; for instance, if you’re in the finance department, it may talk about some advice on regulatory controls.

The attacker in this case sent two different phishing emails over a two-day period. The two emails were sent to two small groups of employees; you wouldn’t consider these users particularly high profile or high value targets. The email subject line read “2011 Recruitment Plan.”............

Keywords:

How to Identify Athlon XP Palamino, Thoroughbred, Barton

2011-08-06T05:03:00.000-07:00

The AMD Athlon XP Palamino, Thoroughbred, Barton CPU can be differentiated by the code that appears on the CPU.

A few websites have tables of these codes which can be very helpful in determining exactly which AMD Athlon the CPU is. The links are:

http://www.c627627.com/AMD/AthlonXP/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_AMD_Athlon_XP_microprocessors

AMD CPU Codes for "Socket A", multipliers, and voltages
http://www.overclock.net/amd-cpus/172-amd-cpu-codes-multipliers-voltages.html

AMD Athlon, Athlon XP and Athlon MP identification
http://www.cpu-world.com/info/id/AMD-K7-identification.html

How to Avoid Phone Spam

2011-08-04T16:45:00.000-07:00

This article addresses the following issues. If you have any one of these issues, there are options below of how to avoid them.
- Have you been called by marketing companies after giving out your phone number when filling some forms?
- Have you been called by marketing companies whose phone number are not actual permanent phone?
- Do you need to fill in an online application and they require your phone number to be filled in?
- Do you want to enter some special competition or promotional draw, but they need your phone number?
- Do you want to avoid giving your real phone numbers?

Here are some solutions:

1. For Australians, it is possible to register your phone number with the government to specify that you do not wish to receive unsolicited phone calls. The organization that does this is the:

National Do Not Call Registry
https://www.donotcall.gov/

2. You can use the following sites to check where the phone number came from, if their phone numbers are left on your phone. Note that some of these sites may not work for all countries.

https://www.numberguru.com/
numberguru

http://www.freephonenumberfinder.com/
Free Phone Number Finder

http://whocallsme.com/Phone-Number.aspx
WhoCallsMe

http://www.reversephonesearch.com.au
Australia Reverse Phone Lookup

http://www.reverseaustralia.com/lookup/
reverseaustralia

3. If you do need to give out your phone number, you can try the following. These numbers have made calls to me but when I returned the call, there is no one there. They are technically valid phone numbers meaning you can get a connection, but they appear to be used for marketing and they are not owned by the people who made the call. If you know of any of such numbers, please post a comment here.

02 8524 5998
02 8524 5985
02 8524 5941
03 9938 2698

61 2 8524 5998
61 2 8524 5985
61 2 8524 5941
613 9938 2698

Links to Free Software

2011-07-28T08:14:00.000-07:00

This page brings together free and useful software. Software which are not free or do not have a free version will generally not be listed here.

Utilities

Backup

Areca Backup "is a personal backup solution which basically allows you to select a set of files / directories to back-up, choose where and how (as a simple file copy, as a zip archive, ...) they will be stored, and configure post-backup actions (like sending backup reports by email or launching custom shell scripts)"

Syncplicity "is for users managing either their personal or professional files, delivering comprehensive file sync, back-up, sharing and file management in one easy to use solution. Syncplicity instantly syncs files across your Macs, PCs and Google Docs, so that your files are always available across all the computers you use and the Web. "

BootLoader

Easy BCD "extends and revamps the Windows Vista/Windows 7 BCD bootloader, and with EasyBCD, almost anything is possible. Setting up and configuring a dual-boot between Windows 7, Windows Vista, older versions of Windows such as XP & 2003, Linux, Ubuntu, BSD, and Mac OS X is a breeze. You just point & click and EasyBCD does the rest."

Boot-US "is an universal boot manager. It allows you to easily use of all your existing operating systems completely independent of each other. The boot manager can be comfortably installed directly under Windows."

Eraser

Eraser "Eraser is an advanced security tool for Windows which allows you to completely remove sensitive data from your hard drive by overwriting it several times with carefully selected patterns."

Remote Helper

TeamViewer "connects to any PC or server around the world within a few seconds. You can remote control your partner's PC as if you were sitting right in front of it. Find out why more than 100 million users trust TeamViewer!"

LogMeIn "remote control, file sharing, systems management, data backup, business collaboration and on-demand customer support of PCs, servers, Macintosh computers, smartphones and other connected devices."

Soluto "Help others with their PCs. Get started with your own. It's easy."

Other Tools

CCleaner "the number-one tool for cleaning your Windows PC. It protects your privacy online and makes your computer faster and more secure. Easy to use and a small, fast download."

TweakNow RegCleaner "After a long period, after installing and uninstalling a lot number of applications, your Windows registry may contain a large number of obsolete entries. These will significantly increase the registry size and thus will slow down your computer, because Windows will need more time to load, search, and read data from registry.
To keep your computer in top performance, it is recommended to periodically clean your Windows registry."

Revo Uninstaller "helps you to uninstall software and remove unwanted programs installed on your computer easily! Even if you have problems uninstalling and cannot uninstall them from "Windows Add or Remove Programs" control panel applet."

Links to HTML5

2011-07-28T07:26:00.001-07:00

Dive into HTML5 http://diveintohtml5.org/

HTML5 - Getting Started http://www.dave-woods.co.uk/index.php/html5-tutorial-getting-started/

A Preview of HTML5 http://www.alistapart.com/articles/previewofhtml5

Web and Mobile Trends

HTML5 is shaping up to be the premier presentation technology for the “three screens and the cloud” vision!

The Web Takes Center Stage at Microsoft's MIX11 Conference http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2011/apr11/04-12mix1pr.mspx

The Mobile vs. HTML5 Debate http://www.html5rocks.com/en/mobile/nativedebate.html

Desktops and Browsers

HTML5 is showing up everywhere, and it’s not just for web development anymore!

Windows 8 Powered By HTML5 http://www.winmatrix.com/forums/index.php?/topic/31765-windows-8-apps-poawered-by-html5/

IE9 - Summarizing Common Browser Tests http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ie/archive/2011/02/09/summarizing-common-browser-tests.aspx

IE10 Preview 2 - Site Ready HTML5 http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ie/archive/2011/06/29/site-ready-html5-second-ie10-platform-preview-available-for-developers.aspx

Development

You can make HTML5 work for you with these tools!

Announcing HTML5 and CSS3 support for Visual Studio 2010 http://vishaljoshi.blogspot.com/2011/06/announcing-html5-css3-support-for.html

Build JavaScript in C# with Script#

http://projects.nikhilk.net/ScriptSharp

Online Storage

2011-07-27T07:55:00.001-07:00

This page provides links to FREE Online Storage sites:

Syncplicity
http://www.syncplicity.com
2 GB free storage
Able to sync with Google Docs

Pros:
- Has Backup as well as Sync functions
- Allow folders that are synced, to change their location in the local PC.

Usage Tips
- In Sync mode, when a file is delete from the cloud or PC, then the file is also deleted from PC or cloud.
- In Backup mode, deleting the file from the Cloud, does not delete the file on the local PC.

Skydrive
http://skydrive.live.com/

25 GB of free online storage for sharing Microsoft Office docs and photos.

Picasa Web Album
http://https/picasaweb.google.com/home
http://picasa.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1224181
1GB Free photos and videos
Photos up to 2048 x 2048 pixels and videos up to 15 minutes won't count towards your free storage.

Started playing with this and it seems to work nicely. A few things to know about.
You need to get these pieces of technology:
- Picasa - an application to download to your PC. It is a photo album management tool with editing capabilities.
- Picasa Web Album - you would have access to this if you have a google account
- Google+ is the new Google social website. You need to have Google+, then any photos less than 2048x2048 pixels will not be counted as your storage limit.

The concept and steps to backup and synchronize your photos to Google are the following:
- After installing the Picasa application, and running it, it allows you to choose which photo folders in your PC to become albums in Picasa.
- From Picasa, after choosing the photos to make albums, just click synchronize on a specific folder, and the photos will be synchronized with both Picasa Web Album and Google+ Photos.
- Warning: At this time, Picasa Web Album does not have the concept of a folder tree, ie.no sub-folders available.
- In Picasa application, the albums can be in Folder or Tree View but the default view is a Flat folder structure. This is quite confusing since folders appear at the same level as sub-folders. However this can be easily changed by going to View - Folder View - Tree View.

Amazon Cloud Drive
https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/learnmore
5 GB of free online storage
Store your music, videos, photos, and documents on Amazon's secure servers.
MP3 format not counted towards quota.

SugarSync
https://www.sugarsync.com/free/

Get a SugarSync 5 GB Plan Free!
Free online backup, free file sync, and free file sharing
Free cloud storage gives you instant and easy access to your data anytime, anywhere.
Online backup and automatic file sync for work files or personal files like photos, videos, and music.
Download free mobile apps to sync iPhone, iPad, Android, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, and Symbian devices.
Sync 5 GB of data across an unlimited number of devices.

Usage Tips:
1. Files or Folders can be viewed 3 ways: Windows Explorer, SugarSync App, SugarSync website.
2. Sync means deleting file on Cloud will also delete file on local PC and vice versa.
3. Delete synced file from Windows Explorer - will delete file from cloud.
4. Delete synced file from SugarSync Website - will delete file from local PC.
5. Stop Sync will not affect files on local PC, but will delete files from cloud.
6. To Stop Sync, open SugarSync App, go to Manage Sync Folders. Click on the folder name, then click on the little X on the top right corner.
7. Pros: Synced files in the cloud, which gets deleted, can be recovered
8. Cons: the folders that can be added to Sync, all seem to appear on a flat structure. There does not appear to be a folder hierarchy.
9. Web Archive has the following special characteristics:
- it acts as Backup - it does NOT sync files.
- put files here manually as once off event.
- files that are deleted from the Web Archive, cannot be recovered. There is no Recycle bin.

DropBox - DANGER
http://www.dropbox.com/pricing
The free Dropbox account comes with 2GB of space that you can use for as long as you like.
Disclaimer: This is a personal view based on experience.
I was using DropBox to sync one of my major folders with many subfolders and total size above 1.5GB.

1. Dropbox Startup - this causes computer to FREEZE. Only solution is to reboot to Windows Safe Mode, go to MSconfig and disable Dropbox from starting automatically. Then Reboot and launch Dropbox. Make sure the very first thing you do after this is to set Preference for Dropbox to NOT startup automatically.

2. Selective Sync Conflict - With the 1.5GB syncing for a long time, that's fine. But when I wanted to have more control over the syncing, while it was syncing, I went into Preference and into Selective Sync, and removed a few subfolders. After a while is appeared DropBox had serious problems and got confused by the changed selective sync option. The result is I've got folder "A" with some files missing, and a second folder "A (Selective Sync Conflict)" which contains some other partial files. This is not desirable.

3. Original Files DELETED - After all this, I decide just to uncheck all subfolders from the Selective Sync list so I can pause and consider what happened. In front of my eyes, all the sub-folders under DropBox started Disappearing. Dropbox decided to delete all subfolders which I removed from selective sync.

All these effects may have been bugs OR it may have been that I am incorrectly using their features. BUT, to allow user mistakes to convert into actions that DELETES original files in the users PC is very unacceptable.
Use Dropbox with Extreme Caution.

Some articles on Online Storage:

The Cloud, Day 13: Storing and Managing Pictures in the Cloud
By Tony Bradley
November 26, 2011 09:44 AM ET

"Before I end Day 13, a quick side note about Day 11. Some readers correctly pointed out that I had forgotten about Amazon, and the Amazon Cloud Player in my discussion of cloud-based music options. You can purchase 20GB of Amazon Cloud Drive storage for $20 per year, and Amazon is throwing in unlimited space for music files with it for a limited time." ............

How to Make Photos with Black and White Background and Colour Subject

2011-06-04T23:20:00.001-07:00

This is to make the photo basically black and white but only the specific subject in colour. The basic idea involves the following:
- Make two copies of the same image in 2 separate layers
- Convert one layer to grayscale
- Switch to the colour layer and select most of the photo leaving the subject unselected.
- Delete the selection, leaving just the colour subject on top of the grayscale subject.

The steps below shop how to achieve this using Photoshop Elements.
1. To make a copy of the image: Layer -> Duplicate layer.
2. To select the bottom layer to work with, go to the Layer Palette on the right side of the screen. Then click Background to select the bottom layer.
3. To convert bottom layer to black and white:
Enhance -> Convert to Black and White.
Since the black and white layer is at the bottom, you would not see any difference to the top layer.
4. Use a selection tool to select the image that you want to be in colour. For example we can use the Magnetic Lasso to select the subject.
5. To remove everything else besides the subject, with the subject selected from the previous step, now choose Select -> Inverse. Then press Delete.
This will leave the subject in colour on top and the bottom black and white background will appear.

Notes ASP.Net

2011-06-01T10:04:00.001-07:00

NotesASPdotNet

Contents
=========
Tutorial
Structure
ASP.Net Configuration
Connecting Events
HTML Control Class
Web / Server Control Class
ASP postback - eg like AJAX
Dispose, Finalize, Finally, Close
ADO.Net - Accessing Data the Easy Way
ADO.Net - Example
ADO.Net - command parameters
ADO.Net - Data Binding
ADO.Net - Data Binding - DataList
ADO.Net - Styles and Templates summary
Windows Service Applications
VS Setup Projects
Understanding ADO.Net - from AppDev video tutorial
Using MySQL in Visual Studio
Configuring MySQL with ASP.Net
DropDownList
DataGrid - Sorting
GridView
GridView - Sorting
GridView - Selecting Rows, Clickable Rows
WebService in ASP.Net
ASP.Net Custom Control
Strings
How to Add Google Maps to your ASP.Net page
ASP.Net inline Tags <%...%>
ASP.Net calling Javascript client side

Tutorial
=========
1. Visual Studio 2005 -> Help -> Contents -> .Net Development
-> Web Applications -> ASP.Net Quickstart Tutorials

Structure
===========
System.Web.UI - Generic Page Class
|
V
custom page class (my *.cs file, eg HelloClass.cs)
|
V
custom aspx file (my *.aspx file, eg Hello.aspx)
|
V
Page object

System.Web.HttpApplication
|
V
class GlobalApp (global.cs)
|
V
global.asax -> contain event handling code, each application can
have one global.asax.

The classes are linked together like this:
VS2005: Global.asax no longer created automatically but can be added by:
Add new item -> Global Application Class.
Also the code behind global.asax.cs is no longer created, instead put
the code inline in global.asax
Hello.aspx
-----------
<%@ Page Language="CS" Inherits="HelloClass" Src="HelloClass.cs" %> -
if source is supplied
<%@ Page Language="CS" Inherits="HelloClass" %> - if dll is supplied
<html>
<body>
<form id="Form" runat="server">
<asp:Label id="lblTest" runat="server" />
</form>
....
HelloClass.cs
--------------
public class HelloClass : System.Web.UI.Page {
protected System.Web.UI.WebControls.Label lblTest;
private void Page_Load(){
lblTest.Text = "Hello World";
}
}
some basic event available to global.asax inherited from HttpApplication:
Application_OnStart
Application_OnEnd
Application_OnBeginRequest
Application_OnEndRequest
Application_OnError
Session_OnStart
Session_OnEnd
ASP.Net Configuration
======================
1. machine.config - one per server, located at:
Microsoft.Net/Framework/Version/Config/
2. web.config - one per application, as well as one in each virtual
sub-directory.
3. Structure and contents of web.config
+++++++++++++
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<configuration>

<appSettings>
<add key="ConnectionString" value="Data Source=localhost;Initial
Catalog=Pubs;User ID=sa"/>
<add key="SelectSales" value="Select * FROM Sales"/>
</appSettings>
<system.web>
<httpRuntime />
<pages />
<compilation />
<customErrors />
<authentication />
<authorization />
<identity />
<trace />
<sessionState />
<httpHandlers />
<httpModules />
<globalization />
</system.web>
</configuration>
+++++++++++++
4. To make use of the special custom settings, eg.
++++++++++
using System;
using System.Configuration;
using System.Web.UI;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls;
namespace Project
{
public partial class ShowCustomConfigSettings : System.Web.UI.Page
{
protected Label lblTest;
protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
lblTest.Text = "This app will connect with the connection
string <br><br>";
lblTest.Text +=
ConfigurationSettings.AppSettings["ConnectionString"];
lblTest.Text += "<br><br> and will execute the SQL statement <br>";
lblTest.Text += ConfigurationSettings.AppSettings["SelectSales"];
}
}
}
++++++++++

Connecting Events
===================
case: A button called id="Convert" on the aspx page. Functionality is
in the function called
"Convert_ServerClick"
On the aspx page, have the attribute in the <%@Page .... >
AutoEventWireup="false"
To connect the function "Convert_ServerClick" to the event:
1. protected override void OnInit(EventArgs e) {
InitializeComponent();
base.OnInit(e);
}
2. private void InitializeComponent() {
Convert.ServerClick += new EventHandler(Convert_ServerClick);
}
Note that EventHandler is a DELEGATE that connects a the function
"Convert_ServerClick"
The EventHandler delegate would have the same prototype of the
function it points to, ie.:
protected void Convert_ServerClick(Object sender, EventArgs e)
The ServerClick would be a type of the EventHandler delegate; perhaps
public event EventHandler ServerClick
perhaps defined under the Convert's class - HtmlInputButton
HTML Control Class
=======================
System.Object
System.Web.UI.Controls
HtmlControl ---> System.Web.UI.HtmlControls namespace
HtmlImage
HtmlInputControl
HtmlInputButton
HtmlInputCheckBox
HtmlInputFile
HtmlInputHidden
HtmlInputImage
HtmlInputRadioButton
HtmlInputText
HtmlContainerControl
HtmlAnchor
HtmlButton
HtmlForm
HtmlGenericControl
HtmlSelect
HtmlTable
HtmlTableCell
HtmlTableRow
HtmlTextArea
Web / Server Control Class
============================
System.Object
System.Web.UI.Controls
Repeater ---> System.Web.UI.WebControls
WebControl
AdRotator
Calendar
ValidationSummary
BaseDataList (abstract)
DataGrid
DataList
ListControl (abstract)
CheckBoxList
DropDownList
ListBox
RadioButtonList
Button
CheckBox
RadioButton
Hyperlink
Image
ImageButton
Label
BaseValidator (abstract)
CompareValidator
CustomValidator
RangeValidator
RegularExpressionValidator
RequiredFieldValidator
LinkButton
Panel
Table
TableCell
TableHeaderCell
TableRow
TextBox
ASP postback - eg like AJAX
============================
1. Web control events that can use POSTBACK, when AutoPostBack property is set
to true:
Events Web Control
======= ===========================
Click Button, ImageButton
TextChange TextBox
CheckChanged CheckBox, RadioButton
SelectedIndexChange DropDownList, ListBox, CheckBoxList, RadioButtonList
2. ASP.Net automatically adds these to the HTML page:
<input type="hidden" name="__EVENTTARGET" value=""/>
<input type="hidden" name="__EVENTARGUMENT" value=""/>
<script language="javascript">

3. Add event handlers to the InitializeComponent() method
i.e. <button>.<Event> += new EventHandler(<functionName>)
eg txt.TextChanged += new EventHandler(CtrlChanged)
4. Implement using the added function:
private void CtrlChanged(Object sender, EventArgs e) { }
ADO.Net - Accessing Data the Easy Way
=============================
To retrieve information
1. Create Connection, Command and DataReader objects
2. Use DataReader to retrieve info and display it on web
3. Close connection.
4. Send page to user.
To add or update information
1. Create new Connection and Command objects.
2. Execute the Command
ADO.Net - Example
=========
using System.Data;
using System.Data.SqlClient; // for MS SQL
using System.Data.OleDb; // for general connector
// Define the connection to Database
<x>={Sql, OleDb, ...}
<x>Connection myConn = new <x>Connection();
myConn.ConnectionString = "Provider=SQLOLEDB.1; Data
Source=localhost;" + " Initial Catalog=Pubs; User ID=root";
// the provider is need when <x>=OleDb, but not when <x>=Sql.
// Password is not passed here if using "Integrated Windows Authentication"
myConn.ConnectionString = "Provider=SQLOLEDB.1; Data
Source=localhost;" + " Initial Catalog=Pubs; Integrated
Security=SSPI";
// Making the connection
try{
myConn.Open();
lblInfo.Text="<b>Server Version: </b>" + myConn.ServerVersion;
lblInfo.Text+="<br><b> Connection is:</b> " + myConn.State.ToString();
} catch(Exception err) {
lblInfo.Text = "Error reading the database.";
lblInfo.Text += err.Message;
} finally {
myConn.Close();
lblInfo.Text += "<br> Now Connection is";
lblInfo.Text += myConn.State.ToString();
}
//Alternative connection
using{
myConn.Open();
lblInfo.Text="<b>Server Version: </b>" + myConn.ServerVersion;
lblInfo.Text+="<br><b> Connection is:</b> " + myConn.State.ToString();
}
lblInfo.Text += "<br> Now Connection is";
lblInfo.Text += myConn.State.ToString();
// Creating the SQL statement and assigning to Command
<x>Command myCmd = new <x>Command();
myCmd.Connection = myConn;
myCmd.CommandText = "Select * from Authors";
//Alternative
<x>Command myCmd = new <x>Command("Select * from Authors", myConn);
// Using Command with DataReader
<x>DataReader myReader;
myReader = myCmd.ExecuteReader();
// Reading objects
myReader.Read(); // reads an object at a time sequentially
// Cleanup
myReader.Close();
myConn.Close();
ADO.Net - command parameters
==============================
Instead of using this:
insertSQL "Insert INTO authors (au_id) VALUES ('txtID.Text')"
.... where txtID is a from the GUI on the webpage.
This method can be hacked via SQL Injection. To solve this, Command
Parameters are used:
insertSQL "Insert INTO authors (au_id) VALUES (?)"
cmd.Parameters.Add("?", txtID.Text);
where cmd is a OleDBCommand, and note that "?" is for OleDB only.
MySQL or MSSQL may have different symbols or notation for their
command parameters.
For MSSQL,
// don't ever do this!
// SqlCommand cmd = new SqlCommand(
// "select * from Customers where city = '" + inputCity + "'";
// 1. declare command object with parameter
SqlCommand cmd = new SqlCommand(
"select * from Customers where city = @City", conn);
// 2. define parameters used in command object
SqlParameter param = new SqlParameter();
param.ParameterName = "@City";
param.Value = inputCity;
// 3. add new parameter to command object
cmd.Parameters.Add(param);

ADO.Net - Data Binding
=======================
Simple Data Binding:
1) in the aspx page, have something like:
<asp:Label id="lbLabel" runat="server">
There were <%# TransactionCount %>
</asp:Label>
2) In the code behind, have something like:
private void Page_Load(...){
TransactionCount = 10;
this.DataBind();
Alternative to data bind above is to do this in-code.
3) private void Page_Load(...){
TransactionCount = 10;
lblDynamic.Text = "There were " + TransactionCount.ToString();
Multiple Binding:
1. Form an array list from whereever:
eg. ArrayList fruit = new ArrayList();
fruit.Add("Kiwi");
or from database
2. Define binding for list controls; eg
MyListBox.DataSource = fruit;
MyDropDownListBox.DataSource = fruit;
MyHTMLSelect.DataSource = fruit;
MyCheckBoxList.DataSource = fruit;
MyRadioButtonList.DataSource = fruit;
3. Activate the binding, eg.
this.DataBind(); // this refers to the current page.

Multiple Binding with hashtables:
1. Create hashtable with key,val pair
Hashtable fruit = new Hashtable();
fruit.Add(1, "Kiwi");
fruit.Add(2, "Pear");
2. Binding specific fields
MyListBox.DataTextField = "Value" -> put the Value of hastable
into the Text of the Control
MyListBox.DataValueField = "Key" -> put the Key of hastable into
the value of the Control
3. Define databinding and activate
MyListBox.DataSource = fruit;
4. The result is the following HTML will be rendered:
<select name="MyListBox" id="MyListBox">
<option value="1">Kiwi</option>
Databinding with databases:
1. Some possible namespaces (when using OleDB):
using System.Data;
using System.Data.OleDb;
2. Making data using dataset example:
DataSet ds = new DataSet();
ds.Tables.Add("Users");
ds.Tables["Users"].Columns.Add("Name");
ds.Tables["Users"].Columns.Add("Country");
DataRow dr = ds.Tables["Users"].NewRow();
dr["Name"] = "John";
dr["Country"] = "Uganda";
ds.Tables["Users"].Rows.Add(rd);
3. Bind table to data source:
lstUser.DataSource = ds.Tables["Users"];
lstUser.DataTextField = "Name";
or Bind whole DataSet to data source:
lstUser.DataSource = ds;
lstUser.DataMember = "Users";
lstUser.DataTextField = "Name";
4. Activate the Binding:
this.DataBind();
or to bind just the list box
lstItems.DataBind()
ADO.Net - Data Binding - DataList
=====================================
1. Code Behind:
public class BasicAuthorList: Page
{
protected DataList listAuthor;
// (Initialisation code omitted)
private string connectString ="Provider ......."
private void Page_Load(Object sender, EventArgs e)
{
string SQL = "SELECT * FROM AUTHORS";
OleDbConnection con = new OleDbConnection (connectString);
OleDbCommand cmd = new OleDbCommand(SQL, con);
OleDbAdapter adapt = new OleDbAdapter(cmd);
DataSet pubs = new DataSet();
con.Open();
adapter.Fill(pubs, "Authors");
con.Close();
//Bind the DataSet and activate the data bindings for the page
listAuthor.DataSource = pubs.Tables["Authors"];
this.DataBind();
2. ASPX DataList template
<asp:DataList id=listAuthor runat="server">
<ItemTemplate>
<font face="Verdana" size="2">
<b><%# DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem, "au_fname") %>
<%# DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem, "au_lname") %></b></font>
<br> Address: <%# DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem, "address") %>
<br> City: <%# DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem, "city") %>
</font>
</ItemTemplate>
</asp:DataList>
3. Formating Values - for DataBinder
eg DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem, "Price", "{0:C}")
{0:C} Currency
{0:E} Scientific (Exponential)
{0:P} Percentage
{0:F?} Fixed Decimal
see MSDN Help for more.
4. Adding different styles to Templates
a) Manual option - hand coding on aspx file
<HeaderTemplate>
<h2> title </h2>
</HeaderTemplate>
<ItemTemplate>
(Item style1)
</ItemTemplate>
<AlternatingItemTemplate>
(Item style2)
</AlternatingItemTemplate>
<SeparatorTemplate>
<h2> title </h2>
</SeparatorTemplate>
<FooterTemplate>
<h2> title </h2>
</FooterTemplate>
b) Using VS.Net right-click DataList properties
c) AutoFormat link from the DataList properties
d) To make columns and rows, check out the RepeatDirection and
RepeatColumns properties.

ADO.Net - Data Binding - DataGrid
=====================================
1) DataList may have columns and rows, but DataGrid has columns such
that the columns
correspond to certain fields of the data item; eg phone - city - zip
code as different
columns.
2) Features include: automatic paging, sorting, editing, selecting.
3) Examples that show the Columns tag and the use of styles:
<asp: DataGrid id=gridauthor runat="server" AutoGenerateColumns="false"
BorderColor="#..." BorderStyle="None" CellSpacing="2"
BackColor="#..." CellPadding="3" BorderWidth="1px">
<FooterStyle ForeColor="#..." BackColor="#..." ></FooterStyle>
<HeaderStyle ForeColor="#..." BackColor="#..." ></HeaderStyle>
<ItemStyle ForeColor="#..." BackColor="#..." ></ItemStyle>
<Columns>
<asp:TemplateColumn HeaderText="AuthorName">
<ItemTemplate>
<%# DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem, "au_fname") %>
<%# DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem, "au_lname") %>
</ItemTemplate>
</asp:TemplateColumn>
</Columns>
</asp:DataGrid>
4) DataGrid has special columns including:
TemplateColumn - contents here include <ItemTemplate> and other stuff
that can go into
DataList.
BoundColumn - a particular field from database
ButtonColumn
EditCommandColumn
HyperlinkColumn
All these columns should exist within <Columns> ... </Columns>

ADO.Net - Data Binding - Repeater
=====================================
Repeater has not much formatting by itself. It depends on formatting provided
in the html. Example:
<asp:Repeater id=repeatauthor runat="server">
<HeaderTemplate> <table> </HeaderStyle>
<ItemTemplate><tr>
<%# DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem, "au_fname") %>
</ttr></ItemTemplate>
<FooterTemplate> </table> </FooterStyle>
</asp:DataGrid>
ADO.Net - Styles and Templates summary
=======================================
Styles
DataList DataGrid Repeater
-----------------------------------------------------------
AlternatingItemStyle AlternatingItemStyle None
EditItemStyle EditItemStyle
FooterStyle FooterStyle
HeaderStyle HeaderStyle
ItemStyle ItemStyle
SelectedItemStyle SelectedItemStyle
SeparatorStyle PagerStyle

Template
DataList DataGrid* Repeater
-----------------------------------------------------------
AlternatingItemTemplate FooterTemplate AlternatingItemTemplate
EditItemTemplate HeaderTemplate FooterTemplate
FooterTemplate ItemTemplate ItemTemplate
HeaderTemplate EditItemTemplate SeparatorTemplate
ItemTemplate
SelectedItemTemplate
SeparatorTemplate
* only supported by Template column
1) Do not bind the grid in the Page.Load event handler, otherwise info is
lost about which button user clicked or item selected.
private void Page_Load......
if(!this.PostBack) {
DataSet ds = GetDataSet();
BindGrid(ds);
.........
}
private DataSet GetDataSet(){
string SQL = "...."
OldDbConnection ...
OldDbCommand cmd =
OleDbAdapter = ...
DataSet dsPubs = ...
adapter.Fill(dsPubs, "Authors");
con.Close();
return dsPubs;
}
private void BindGrid(DataSet ds){
gridAuthor.DataSource = ds.Table["Authors"];
this.DataBind();
}

Windows Service Applications
=============================
1. Do not have any in/output to screen or Windows, or it will crash the app.
2. Error messages should be logged in the Windows event log rather
than raised in the user interface.
3. To control, use Services Control Manager, or Server Explorer, or
the ServiceController class (use this
to control the service from another app).
4. States of the service include: start, stop, pause, resume
Corresponding methods in code: OnStart, OnStop, OnPause,
OnContinue, OnShutdown, OnCustomCommand, OnPowerEvent.
5. Two types of services: Win32OwnProcess, Win32ShareProcess.
6. VisualStudio has installation components that can install
resources, register the service and let Services Controller
Manager know. Add these installers to the app and also create a
separate setup project.
7. Must inherit from System.ServiceProcess.ServiceBase class. The
project must contain installation components.
To create the Service:
- set ServiceName property
- create installers
- override methods for OnStart and OnStop.
8. System.ServiceProcess.ServiceProcessInstaller and
System.ServiceProcess.ServiceInstaller
—You use these classes to install and uninstall your service.
9. Execution Process:
Add Installers in project
Build
Install: installutil yourproject.exe / Uninstall: installutil
/u yourproject.exe
Start the Service
10. Debugging:
Install service
Start service
In VS, Debug->Process
Click Show System Processes
Attach process
add any break points
use Services Control Manager to control the service.
11. To add Installers:
-In Solution Explorer, go to Design View of the service.
-Click on background of designer and AddInstaller.
-A new class, ProjectInstaller, and two installation components,
ServiceProcessInstaller and ServiceInstaller,
are added to your project, and property values for the service are
copied to the components.
-Click the ServiceInstaller component and verify that the value
of the ServiceName property is set to the
same value as the ServiceName property on the service itself.
-To determine how your service will be started, click the
ServiceInstaller component and set the StartType property
to the appropriate value. { Manual, Automatic, Disabled }
- To determine the security context in which your service will
run, click the ServiceProcessInstaller
component and set the appropriate property values. For more
information, see How to: Specify the Security Context for Services.
- Override any methods for which you need to perform custom
processing. For more information, see How to: Override Default Methods
on Installation Components.
- Perform steps 1 through 7 for each additional service in your project.
Note: For each additional service in your project, you must
add an additional ServiceInstaller component
to the project's ProjectInstaller class. The ServiceProcessInstaller
component added in step
three works with all of the individual service installers in the project.
- Create your setup project and custom action to deploy and
install your service.
For more information on setup projects, see Setup Projects.
- After you add installers to your application, the next step is to
create a setup project that will install
the compiled project files and run the installers needed to install
your service. To create a complete
setup project, you must add the service project's output to the
setup project and
then add a custom action to have your service installed. For more
information on setup projects, see Setup Projects. For more
information on custom actions, see Walkthrough: Creating a Custom
Action.
(see VS Setup Projects for more details)

VS Setup Projects
=====================
1. Design, code, build your project in VS Studio say project ProjA in
solution SolnA.
2. Create the setup project SetupA, in SolnA: Add Project -> New
Project -> Other Project Types -> Setup and Deployment.
3. Right click setupA -> Install -> Add Project Output. Select ProjA
and choose "Primary Output".
4. Right click setupA -> View -> Custom Actions.
5. Right click on Custom Actions -> Add Custom Option. Select
Application Folder -> Primary output from ProjA.
6. Build.
7. The msi and exe file will be created.

Understanding ADO.Net - from AppDev video tutorial
====================================================
Object Model:
Connected Object (Specific to DB engine or provider)
-> .Net Data Provider (incl. MySql.Data.MySqlClient or
SystemData.ODBC|OleDB|SqlClient|OracleClient)
-> Connection: Transaction
-> Command: Parameters (eg to execute some command)
-> DataReader:
-> DataAdapter:
-> Fills DataTable: SelectComm
-> Updates Database: InsertComm, UpdateComm, DeleteComm
DisConnected Object (can work with data in a disconnected state)
-> DataSet (analogous to Database) <-> XML
-> DataTableCollection
-> DataTable:
-> DataRowCollection - storing the data
-> DataColumnCollection - names and properties of columns
-> ConstraintCollection - eg unique key or foreign key constraints.
-> DataRelationCollection
-> DataView
-> Row Filter
-> Sort
-> Extended support for Data Binnding
-> DataTableReader
-> A DataReader for DataTables and DataSets
-> Fast forward only reading
-> resilient to adding or deleting rows while reading

... to be continued at Data Caching Object
Using MySQL in Visual Studio
=============================
1. View -> Server Explorer
2. Look for database server and connect
Configuring MySQL with ASP.Net
===============================
It is easy to use MySQL with ASP.Net. becasue by default the local
ASP.Net enables you with FULL TRUST permission.
This section shows how to configure ASP.Net to work with MySQL where
the ASP.Net is stored in a ISP's server,
which usually uses MEDIUM TRUST, not FULL TRUST.
To the SQL administrator:
1. There are two options, one is to modify the web_mediumtrust.config;
the other option is to copy and rename the config file.
The web_mediumtrust.config is located typically in
C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\CONFIG\
Add the SOCKPermission to this file.
<SecurityClass .............
<SecurityClass Name="SocketPermission"
Description="System.Net.SocketPermission, System, Version=2.0.0.0,
Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089"/>
...
...
<IPermission
class="SocketPermission"
version="1"
Unrestricted="true"/>
2. If we choose the second option in step 1. to make a new file and
called web_mediumMySQLtrust.config, then we need
to register this in the
C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\CONFIG\web.config with
the following line:
<trustLevel name="Medium" policyFile="web_mediumtrust.config" />
.... already there
<trustLevel name="MediumMySQL"
policyFile="web_mediumMySQLtrust.config" /> .... add this new one
Also in the same file, add this within the <system.web>
<trust level="Medium" originUrl="" />
or
<trust level="MediumMySQL" originUrl="" />

To the Developer:
1. In the web application, in the web.config file, insert the line
about <trust> just before </system.web>
eg.
<system.web>
......
......
<trust level="Medium" originUrl="" />
</system.web>

DropDownList
============
To add first element, add a ListItem and the property
AppendDataBoundItems set to true.
Eg.
<asp:dropdownlist id="suburbDropList" AppendDataBoundItems="true"
AutoPostBack="True" runat="server" >
<asp:ListItem Text="(Select a Suburb)" Value="" />
</asp:dropdownlist>
DataGrid - Sorting
===================
To allow for sorting on the DataGrid, the following are needed.
1. Right click on the GUI design of the DataGrid and set
"AllowSorting" to "true".
2. Add the following in the aspx code file in the DataGrid item:
OnPageIndexChanging="PageChangeFunction" OnSorting="SortingFunction"
3. Set property AutoGenerateColumns to true,
i.e.TestMenu.AutoGenerateColumns = true;
GridView
==========
Namespace: System.Web.UI.WebControls
Assembly: System.Web (in system.web.dll)
Version: since .Net 2.0
Summary: Displays the values of a data source in a table where each
column represents a field and each row represents a record. The
GridView control allows you to select, sort, and edit these items.
Event: OnRowDataBound()
- can be used to set the width of the grid view once data is bound.
- Example:
<code>
protected void gvShop_RowDataBound(object sender, GridViewRowEventArgs e)
{
if (e.Row.RowType != DataControlRowType.DataRow) return;
GridView gv = (GridView)sender;
//e.Row.Cells[0].Width = 100; // Free Size
e.Row.Cells[1].Width = 100; //name
e.Row.Cells[2].Width = 300; //address
</code>

GridView - Sorting
===================
This describes how to implement the sorting event of a GridView object.
1. Sorting must be allowed in the GridView object. On the aspx page,
the GridView object must look something like:
<code>
<asp:GridView ID="gvShop" runat="server" AllowSorting="True"
OnRowDataBound="gvShop_RowDataBound"
OnPageIndexChanging="gvShop_PageIndexChanging"
OnSorting="gvShop_Sorting" >
</code>
The important properties are AllowSorting set to True and OnSorting
specified with the name of the method that performs the sorting. By
Default, the event name is given by the object ID (gvShop) combined
with the event (Sorting) hence the name gvShop_Sorting.
2. Before implementing the GridView sorting event, let us define two
strings at the start of the class.
private const string ASCENDING = " ASC";
private const string DESCENDING = " DESC";
These specific strings ASC and DESC are required in the sorting
expressions later.
3. Define the property called gvSortDirection - to hold the state of
whether it is currently sorted in ascending or descending fashion.
<code>
public SortDirection gvSortDirection {
get {
if (ViewState["sortDirection"] == null)
ViewState["sortDirection"] = SortDirection.Ascending;
return (SortDirection)ViewState["sortDirection"];
}
set { ViewState["sortDirection"] = value; }
}
</code>
4. Finally, the sorting event is implemented as below:
<code>
protected void gvShop_Sorting(object sender, GridViewSortEventArgs e)
{
string sortExpression = e.SortExpression;
string strSort = null;
if (gvSortDirection == SortDirection.Ascending)
{
gvSortDirection = SortDirection.Descending;
strSort = sortExpression + " " + DESCENDING;
}
else
{
gvSortDirection = SortDirection.Ascending;
strSort = sortExpression + " " + ASCENDING;
}
DataTable dc1 = (DataTable)gvShop.DataSource;
dc1.DefaultView.Sort = strSort;
gvShop.DataBind();
}
</code>
A few things to note:
- when the user press on the header of the column, the data will be
sorted in ascending, then descending way alternately. This is possible
by the if loop which changes the direction of the sorting each time it
is sorted.
- the strSort is made up of the name of the column to be sorted, and
whether it is ascending or descending.
- The most important step is to assign the DefaultView.Sort = strSort.
Note that in this case, the GridView was originally sourced from a
DataTable, hence in this example, the DataSource is casted into a
DataTable dc1 object. Finally the GridView need to be binded.

GridView - Selecting Rows, Clickable Rows
==========================================
In ASP.Net, a simple GridView presents a table with rows of data, in
different columns. All the data are usually obtained from some
DataSource which may come from a database. This section shows how to
add an Extra column where all the entries in this column are clickable
and is linked to the row on which it is clicked. An example of a
Gridview with the Extra column as the first column:
clickable Col 1 Col 2
select John Smith
select Jane Doe
select Alice Wong
select Bob Chan
In the example, the first row are column names. Each of the "select"
words are clickable and can be used to launch an action, and identify
which row was clicked. The implement of this involves the following
steps:
1. On the aspx page, the code looks like:
<code>
<asp:GridView ID="gvShop" runat="server" AllowSorting="True"
OnRowDataBound="gvShop_RowDataBound"
OnPageIndexChanging="gvShop_PageIndexChanging"
OnSorting="gvShop_Sorting" >
<RowStyle BackColor="#FFFBD6" ForeColor="#333333" />
<SelectedRowStyle BackColor="#FFCC66" Font-Bold="True"
ForeColor="Navy" />
<Columns>
<asp:BoundField ReadOnly="True" >
<ItemStyle Width="0px" />
</asp:BoundField>
<asp:TemplateField HeaderText="clickable">
<ItemTemplate>
<asp:LinkButton ID="lnk_ShopName" runat="server" Text="select"
Tooltip="some tip"
CommandArgument='<%# Eval("Col 1") %>'
style="background-image: url(images/icon.gif);"
OnClick="lnk_ShopName_Click">
</asp:LinkButton>
</ItemTemplate>
</asp:TemplateField>
</Columns>
</asp:GridView>
</code>
The important things to note are the following:
- The <asp:TemplateField> tag - see the word "clickable" as the name
of the column. The TemplateField can be generated from the GUI in the
Design mode of the aspx page, by right clicking the GridView rectangle
and right clicking the top right corner and select "edit columns".
- The <ItemTemplate> tag - this contain a LinkButton object whose Text
is "select". So the words "select" is displayed in the GridView
column.
- The CommandArgument is very important, the argument inside Eval,
must be exactly the same name as one of the column names. This means
that when a row is clicked, the CommandArgument will take the value at
that row of the specified column. In this example, Eval("Col 1") means
either John, Jane, Alice or Bob will be taken along the event.
- Instead of the words "select", an image or icon can be used, and
this is done by the background-image attribute in the LinkButton.
- For the event to do something it has to be linked. Here the
LinkButton is connected to the function called "lnk_ShopName" which is
called whenever an event occurs.
2. Implementing the event or action on the aspx.cs page. In this
example, the event triggers the method called "lnk_ShopName" to be
executed. The method can be something like:
<code>
protected void lnk_ShopName_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
System.Web.UI.WebControls.LinkButton linkBut;
linkBut = (LinkButton)sender;
string sName = linkBut.CommandArgument;
// do something with sName
}
</code>
The information about which row is clicked can be extracted from the
sender object.
Since the Control was a LinkButton, the sender is cast into the LinkButton.
The CommandArgument will contain the data at the row that was clicked,
at the column specified in the Eval argument on the aspx page. In this
case, Col 1 was chosen as the column.

WebService in ASP.Net
======================
*.asmx - web service file
WSDL - Web Service Description Language, describes the methods
and parameters in a web service.
The elements of WSDL are: definitions, types, message,
portType, binding, service.
SOAP - way to encode info to pass to web service
HTTP - protocol through which SOAP messages are sent
DISCO - discovery standard that contains links to web services
UDDI - business registry that lists all info about companies
and web services they provide, with
URLs for their WSDL contracts and DISCO.
Data types: Basic / primitives, Enumerations, DataSets, XmlNode,
Custom Objects, Arrays

Testing the web service
------------------------
http://<domain>/<webservice>.asmx -> to view the web service directly
http://<domain>/<webservice>.asmx?WSDL -> to view the WSDL.
http://<domain>/<webservice>.asmx?op=<methodName> -> to access
the web service method directly
The use of web services in C# ASP.Net is illustrated with the example below:
----------------------------------
1.<%@ WebService Language="C#" Class="Util" %>
2. using System.Web.Services;
3. using System;
4. [WebService(Namespace="http://www.contoso.com/")]
5. public class Util: WebService
6. {
7. [ WebMethod]
8. public long Multiply(int a, int b)
9. {
10. return a * b;
11. }
12. }
----------------------------------
or
----------------------------------
in file: Util.asmx
1.«%@ WebService Language="C#" CodeBehind="Util.asmx.cs" Class="Util" %»
in file: Util.asmx.cs
2. using System.Web.Services;
3. using System;
4. [WebService(Namespace="http://www.contoso.com/", Description="test utility")]
5. public class Util: WebService
6. {
7. [WebMethod(Description=" test a method "]
8. public long Multiply(int a, int b)
9. {
10. return a * b;
11. }
12. }
----------------------------------
1. Declare the webservice using «%@ WebService....
Option 1: Place the above code inside *.asmx file with the C# code.
Option 2: Put only the <%@ WebService in the asmx class and put the C#
code somewhere else.
Then the declaration would be:
<%@ WebService Language="C#" Class="MyName.MyWebService,MyAssembly" %>
... where MyAssembly is the name of the assembly.
2. Deriving the WebService class - this is optional. Lines 2,5.
3. Apply WebService attribute and specify domain to avoid confusion
with other webservices.
see line 4.
4. Define the web service method using [ WebMethod ] - see line 7.
5. State Management for Web Services is achived by deriving from the
WebService class. It provides
access to ASP.NET objects such as:
Session - client specific state information
Application - used to store data globally and available to all clients
Server - utility functions
User - info about current client including authentication
Context - provides access to Request, Response and Cache
7. Storing and access state in a client session:
Declare: [ WebMethod(EnableSession=true) ]
Store: Session["MyServiceUsage"] = 1;
Access: Session["MyServiceUsage"] = ((int) Session["MyServiceUsage"]) + 1;
8. Storing and access state in Web application hosting the Web service:
Declare: [ WebMethod ]
Store: Application["appMyServiceUsage"] = 1;
Access: Application["appMyServiceUsage"] = ((int)
Application["appMyServiceUsage"]) + 1;

ASP.Net Custom Control
=======================
The following describes Custom Control for web applications (*.aspx).
The Custom Control for console
applications are similar, but not exactly.
1. To add a user control, right click on the web application project
in the Solution Explorer. Click
New Item, then choose Web User Control, and name it WUC.

2. In Visual Studio, this will auto create 3 files:
- WUC.ascx - with Design and Code view
- WUC.ascx.cs - the code to be edited or added.
- WUC.ascx.designer.cs
3. Put the collection of controls in your custom control withing the
WUC.ascx file. For example,
<%@ Control Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeBehind="WUC.ascx.cs"
Inherits="ParentWebApp.WUC" %>
<asp:Label ID="lblFooter" runat="server" Height="87px" Text="Label"
Width="214px"></asp:Label>
4. The Label control above can be also created by using the WUC.ascx
design view. Just
drag the Label button from the toolbox onto the form.
5. In the code behind file WUC.ascx.cs, make the WUC class inherit
from System.Web.UI.UserControl. And
in the Page_Load, enter code for what the controls need to do. For example,
public partial class WebUserControlFooter : System.Web.UI.UserControl
{
protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
lblFooter.Text = "This page was served at ";
lblFooter.Text += DateTime.Now.ToString();
}
}
6. To use this custom control on any aspx web page:
a) Register the custom control on those aspx web pages, eg.
<%@ Register TagPrefix="cr" TagName="WUC" Src="~/WUC.ascx" %>
b) Add the custom control, eg.
<cr:WUC id=Footer1 runat="server" />
Note that the TagPrefix name is the alias for the custom control to be
used in the aspx web page.
Strings
========
\r\n - Carriage Return, then Newline - this is neeeded for
example in TextBox component.
How to Add Google Maps to your ASP.Net page
=============================================
1. In Visual Studio, go to the aspx page where you want to include the
Google Map.
For example, if the aspx page is called test.aspx, then in the
Solution Explorer there is at least 3 code files:
test.aspx
- test.aspx.cs
- test.aspx.designer.cs
For this example, choose the test.aspx. In the main editor panel, look
at the grey bar below the panel and ensure it is "Design" and not
"Source".
2. Add HTML components
Open the Toolbox. Either by View -> Toolbox or go to the right panel
and select the Toolbox tab.
Then in the Toolbox, go to the HTML section of components. Do not
remain at the Standard section of components.
Drag and drop the following onto the page:
- Input(Button) - for activating / drawing the map
- Input(Hidden) - for lattitude information
- Input(Hidden) - for longitude information
- Input(Hidden) - for other information to be printed on the map
- Div - actual area where map is displayed.
Click on each one of the components, and name them in the "id" field
with these names:
butMap,
hidLatitude,
hidLongitude,
hidDetails,
map
3. Make HTML components into ASP.NET components.
From the GUI editor page, click on the "Source" tab to edit the html
source code.
Go to the HTML section where the above 5 components are defined and
add the following for each 5 components: runat="server".
The final HTML code for the 5 components should look like:
<code>
Map Display
<input id="butMap" runat="server" type="button" value="Draw
Map" onclick="drawGmap()" />
<input id="hidLatitude" runat="server" type="hidden" /> 
<input id="hidLongitude" runat="server" type="hidden" />
<input id="hidShopDetails" runat="server" type="hidden" />
<div id="map" runat="server" style="width: 400px; height:
400px" visible="true"> </div>
</code>
At this stage just make sure the attributes of id, type and runat are correct.
By adding the runat="server" to the HTML code, then compile the code
in Visual Studio, this would make the HTML elements recognizable by
ASP.Net.
To check this, go to the test.aspx.designer.cs file and check the
following lines exist after compilation with runat="server":
protected global::System.Web.UI.HtmlControls.HtmlInputButton butMap;
protected global::System.Web.UI.HtmlControls.HtmlInputHidden
hidLatitude;
protected global::System.Web.UI.HtmlControls.HtmlInputHidden
hidLongitude;
protected global::System.Web.UI.HtmlControls.HtmlInputHidden
hidShopDetails;
protected global::System.Web.UI.HtmlControls.HtmlGenericControl map;
4. Ensure that somewhere in the test.aspx.cs code file, the html input
fields on the front end are filled with values. For example:
hidDetails.Value = "some details";
hidLatitude.Value = "20.312";
hidLongitude.Value = "132.12";

5. In between the header and the body section of the html code:
<script type="text/javascript"
src="http://www.google.com/jsapi?key=ABQIAAAAXg-1e7LbaB0NNB4KY0h0-BQWFt-7OBZKMPMlsVYvuUdvLO58RBSi6mMmr-RK5Y90BBnpyvt7UFoIfA"></script>
<script type="text/javascript"> google.load("maps", "2.x"); </script>
<script type="text/javascript">
function drawGmap() {
var dLat = document.getElementById("hidLatitude").value;
var dLong = document.getElementById("hidLongitude").value;
var sAddress = document.getElementById("hidDetails").value;
var map = new google.maps.Map2(document.getElementById("map"));
map.setUIToDefault();
var point = new GLatLng(dLat, dLong);
map.addOverlay(new GMarker(point));
map.setCenter(new google.maps.LatLng(dLat, dLong), 15);
var shtml = "100 <b>He</b>llo";
map.openInfoWindowHtml(map.getCenter(), sAddress);
//map.openInfoWindow(map.getCenter(),
document.createTextNode(hidText.value));
}
</script>
<body onunload="GUnload()">
In addition, ensure that the button or some other component call the
function drawGmap(). For example, from the above HTML Button :
<input id="butMap" runat="server" type="button" value="Draw
Map" onclick="drawGmap()" />

ASP.Net inline Tags <%...%>
==============================
These are tags that may be used on the aspx / html page, that enable
interaction with server side functions. The tags and a brief
explanation is given below:
<% ... %>
Allows C# code to be run within the tags.
Example:
<code>
<% string s = "test"; %>
</code>

<%= ... %>
Extracts values from server side objects.
Example:
<code>
<%= DateTime.Now.ToShortDateString() %>
</code>

<%# .. %>
Mostly used for binding expressions like Eval or Bind
Example: usage in Gridview in the example below where the Eval is used
to extract the value in the DB under the "name" column or field, for
each row in the Gridview.
<code>
<asp:GridView ID="GridView1"
runat="server" AutoGenerateColumns="False"
DataSourceID="SqlDataSource1">
<Columns>
<asp:TemplateField HeaderText="Name">
<ItemTemplate>
<asp:LinkButton ID="lnkname" runat="server"
Text='<%#Eval("Name") %>'
PostBackUrl='<%#"~/Details.aspx?ID="+Eval("ID") %>'>
</asp:LinkButton>
</ItemTemplate>
</asp:TemplateField>
</Columns>
</code>
<%$ ... %>
This is also called ASP.Net Expression and is used to extract
AppSettings, ConnectionsStrings or Resources
Example: using as connection string in DB
<code>
<asp:SqlDataSource ID="party" runat="server" ConnectionString="<%$
ConnectionStrings:myString %>" SelectCommand="SELECT * FROM [table]"
/>
</code>
<%@ ... %>
Specifying ASP.Net directives at the top of the aspx page.
Example:
<code>
<%@ Page Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeFile="Test.aspx.cs"
Inherits="_parent" Title="Test Page" %>
</code>

<%-- ... --%>
Comments are embedded here. These comments can be seen on the aspx
page, but after compilation into html page, the client would not be
able to see these parts.
Example:
<code>
<%-- Here are some comments --%>
</code>

ASP.Net calling Javascript client side
========================================
This section shows how to call a Javascript function defined on the
aspx page, from the C# code-behind aspx.cs code.
1. The javascript is defined in the aspx page between the head and
body tags, like:
<code>
<script type="text/javascript">
function drawGmap() { ......}
</script>
</code>
2. In the aspx.cs page, to call the javascript function drawGmap(...),
<code>
if (!Page.ClientScript.IsStartupScriptRegistered("alert")) {
Page.ClientScript.RegisterStartupScript(this.GetType(), "alert",
"drawGmap();", true);
}
</code>
The name of the function is simply placed at the third position.

How To Fix Your PC

2011-05-18T08:43:00.000-07:00

This article provides a few tips in the form of a checklist on what to do to fix a computer when it is not behaving right.

- Check if there is firewall, antivirus and other security software.
- Run 'msconfig'
- Run web based virus scan, eg http://www.kaspersky.com/virusscanner or http://housecall.trendmicro.com
- Use the following tools:
EasyCleaner - various tools like registry cleaning, removing programs, etc.
PC Wizard - full info on PC
Undelete Plus - recover deleted files
Hijack This
- Windows Vista repair
- Start - type Performance Information and Tools - click Advanced Tools - Generate System Health Report

Here are some links to other tips on fixing the PC

Common PC Problems Solved: The Ultimate FAQ
http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/article/print/165794/common_pc_problems_solved_ultimate_faq/

Got XP Annoyances? Try These Four Smart Fixes for Windows Woes
http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/article/199736/got_xp_annoyances_try_these_four_smart_fixes_windows_woes/

How Do I Get Malware Off My PC Once and for All?
http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/article/199721/how_do_get_malware_off_my_pc_once_all_/

What Is the Best Way to Unstick My Frozen PC?
http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/article/199798/what_best_way_unstick_my_frozen_pc_/

Protect Against Software Installation Nightmares
http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/article/199810/answer_line_protect_against_software_installation_nightmares/

Make Windows start up faster
http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/article/173412/make_windows_start_up_faster/?fp=2&fpid=2

Microsoft Standalone System Sweeper Beta

http://connect.microsoft.com/systemsweeper

a recovery tool that can help you start an infected PC and perform an offline scan to help identify and remove rootkits and other advanced malware. In addition, Microsoft Standalone System Sweeper Beta can be used if you cannot install or start an antivirus solution on your PC, or if the installed solution can’t detect or remove malware on your PC.

Tools to fix PC

The Bootable Maintenance Flash Drive ( PDF ) - provides a small suite of tools very useful for troubleshooting.

Notes Windows

2011-05-08T08:54:00.000-07:00

NotesWindows - Notes on Windows
=============

This includes NotesWinXP which is now made obsolete.
The content here is related to any version of Windows and will be specifically denoted.

Contents
=========
Roaming Profile - Encryption
Useful Registry Keys
Stop accidentally moving files or folders
Windows Update does not work anymore
Application Location
MS Windows XP backup
Change Location of My Pictures, My Documents
Change Location of Libraries in Windows 7
Password Revealed on Windows
Known Folders can be Hidden - Windows 7
Boot Manager - Windows XP, Windows 7

Roaming Profile - Encryption - WinXP
=============================
Problem: When roaming profile cannot be saved - the reason could be due to some files are being encrypted.

Solution: Find and remove the encrypted file. Use the tool "cipher" provided by WinXP.

cipher /S:directoryName
... to check encryption status of all subdirectories

Ref:
Roaming decrypt
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/reskit/c18621675.mspx

Search windows "roaming profile" decrypt
http://au.alpha.yahoo.com/search/web?p=windows+%22roaming+profile%22+decrypt
search http://au.alpha.yahoo.com/search/web?p=windows+%22roaming+profile%22+decrypt

Useful Registry Keys
================================
Append Path: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths
System Path: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment
User path: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Environment
Reserved Drives Letters: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MOUNTEDDevices

Stop accidentally moving files or folders - WinXP
===========================================
It is very easy to accidentally move folders in Windows Explorer, simply by careless movement of the mouse and accidentally releasing buttons. This problem is also very easy to occur with trackpads on laptops. There is a way of preventing this accidental motion by making Windows pop up a dialog box to ask for confirmation.

"Do You Want To Move Or Copy Files From This Zone?"

To enable this feature,
1. Click Start -> Control Panel -> Internet Options.
2. Click “Security” tab, mark the zone “Local intranet”, and click the “Sites” button.
3. Un-tick “Automatically detect intranet network”
4. Tick “Include all local (intranet) sites not listed in other zones”
Tick “Include all sites that bypass the proxy server”
Untick “Include all network paths (UNCs)”

Windows Update does not work anymore - WinXP
=====================================
For some reason, Windows files may corrupt such that the Windows Update will not work anymore. To solve this:
1. Open a Command Prompt Terminal: Start - Run, type: cmd.
2. To stop the current windows update service, in the Command Prompt, type:
net stop wuauserv
3. Re-register the windows update dll for WinXP 32bit
regsvr32 %windir%\system32\wups2.dll
Re-register the windows update dll for WinXP 64bit
regsvr32 %windir%\syswow64\wups2.dll

Application Location
=====================
WinXP:
Netscape Bookmarks (Netscape v 8.1)
D:\Program Files\Netscape\Netscape Browser\defaults\profile\bookmarks.html

MS Windows XP backup
======================
Below describes the process to take when backing up Windows. Some folder directory sizes given here may give an indication of their relative or typical sizes, but they will obviously vary in different systems.

- Login as each user and i) Empty Recycle Bin, ii) Clear all Cache, Cookies
- Login in as Administrator (so that can backup Registry and other System State)
- Goto Control Panel - Performance and Maintenance - "Free up space in your hard disk"
- c:\windows\system32 = 1GB
- c:\windows\ folders except system32 = 790MB
- c:\windows\system32\dllcache = 467MB
- c:\windows\$NTUninstall* = 245MB
- c:\windows\Driver Cache = 87MB
- c:\windows\fonts = 89MB
- c:\windows\help = 46MB
- c:\windows\ime = 86MB
- To backup Registry - go to the GUI windows Backup Utility and check the "System State"
- Do Normal and then Incremental backup.

Change Location of My Documents
=================================
WinXP:
Change My Documents.
- Right click My Documents - Properties - change the Target Location
- by default My Documents is in C:\Documents and Settings\\My Documents

My Pictures, My Music.
- It appears that these folders are not changeable and are set under My Documents.
- When My Documents location is changed, then these folders should follow too.

Change Location of Libraries in Windows 7
===========================================
Libraries in Windows 7 can be assigned to various locations. Libraries will source the physial location of target directories and present the contents as if they all belong to the library. To change the location of Libraries in Windows 7:
- open Explorer
- in the left hand pane, right click on the library icons
- select Properties
- a list of location is presented, which can then be modified

Password Revealed on Windows
==============================
Windows 7:
- Passwords apparently can be revealed by System Information for Windows.
- the System Information (Start - All Programs - Accessories - System Tools - System Information) on Windows XP do not seem to reveal passwords.
- to remove the passwords in Windows 7, do:
Control Panel - User Accounts and Family Safety - Windows Credential Manager.

Known Folders can be Hidden - Windows 7
==========================================
Windows default folders like Music, Pictures, Videos, Searches are part of the operating system and is not easy to remove. They may be hidden in a number of different ways.
1. Move them to another location by:
- Right click and select properties of the Known Folder
- Go to Location tab
- use the button Move to specify new location.
2. Merge them into Documents folder.
- Select the Known Folder to move.
- For the target to move to, select Documents.
3. Remove Known Folders
- Go to Start button and type, GPEDIT.MSC
- Under User Configuration, click Administrative Templates, double click Windows Components, then Windows Explorer.
- In the Disable Known Folders setting, double click and select Enabled.
- Click Show and enter names of any folders to be disabled.
- Go back to main Windows Explorer and delete any of the Known Folders, and it will be permanenet.

For a list of Known Folders, http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb882665.aspx

Boot Manager - Windows XP, Windows 7
======================================
Boot Loader for Windows XP: NTLDR
Sits on the Primary Partition of the Hard Disk
Configuration file: boot.ini
To edit, use Notepad

Boot Loader for Windows 7 / Vista : Windows Boot Manager (BOOTMGR)
Sits on the Primary Partition of the Hard Disk
Configuration file: BCD (Boot Configuration Data)
To edit, use BCDEDIT

Security RSA - links

2011-04-06T05:13:00.000-07:00

OBSOLETE - see http://xtechnotes.blogspot.com/2011/08/news-security.html

This article consist of links to other sites or blogs about RSA news:

Anatomy of an Attack

Written on April 1, 2011 by Uri Rivner

Malware: Windows Enterprise Defender and Windows Diagnostics

2011-03-26T07:16:00.000-07:00

A recent PC malware virus I solved had the Windows Enterprise Defender and Windows Diagnostics.

This is a well known malware (Google it!) where the PC suddenly pops up a dialog that looks like it is scanning your PC and finds many virus or spyware. In fact, the idea is to scare people into clicking on something, whether to buy or to let more malware into the computer. There are many search found on this from Google (see References below) but here is what worked for me.

Disconnect from Internet - No LAN, No WAN.

Any software mentioned below is actually downloaded on another PC, burned into DVD and then used on the infected PC. To be safe I even avoided hooking any USB key or USB portable drive to the infected PC. The main idea is that: nothing goes in or out of the infected PC while you are trying to cure it.

Install WinPatrol 2011

Install Malware Bytes 1.5.0, then run and scan. Remove anything suspicious it can find.

Install free version of Avira Antivirus. Before run and scan, go to
http://www.avira.com/en/support-vdf-update-info and download the relevant updates for Avira Antivirus.
Then open Avira, go to Update menu and do Manual Update.
It will ask where the file is, you should point it to the update file which you manually downloaded from above.
After the Avira update, run several types of scan, such as scan all drives and Complete System Scan.
Remove anything which Avira found suspicious.

If you are unable to scan in any way, Reboot Windows in safe mode and run the scans if possible.

Install the following software just to double check that there are no more surprises:
- Kaspersky Virus Removal Tool 2010
- Prevx Free 3.0
- TDSS Killer (also from Kaspersky)
- IObit 360
- Spybot Search and Destroy.

I found that I did not had to manually change any registry settings so far.
The following registry entries stated in 2-spyware site below are not on my computer:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{3F2BBC05-40DF-11D2-9455-00104BC936FF}
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\WindowsEDefender.DocHostUIHandler
HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\SearchScopes "URL" => "http://search-gala.com/?&uid=7&q={searchTerms}"
HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-18\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\SearchScopes "URL"
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\5.0\User Agent\Post Platform "[xSP_2:61a6083b6194a2314e3dd54cf9615e36_7]"
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\5.0\User Agent\Post Platform "876902803"
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run "Windows Enterprise Defender"

References:
http://www.2-spyware.com/remove-windows-enterprise-defender.html
Seems to have very good instructions to remove Windows Enterprise Defender.

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/topic385402.html
Many searches point to this site. I have read this but have not actually tried the methods suggested there. The first step involve TDSS Rootkit Removal Tool. The second step involved ComboFix. The reason I did not even start following this advice is that the ComboFix tool which they suggest to use, appears to be produced or hosted by the same website bleepingcomputer. Apart from a potential conflict of interest, something just made me be careful of using a software ComboFix, recommended by a blog that is from the same company as the blog.

The TDSSKiller.exe from Kaspersky may be worth a look.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110320101354AAZ6G8Y

How to Uninstall programs manually

2011-03-26T04:24:00.001-07:00

1. Go to Control Panel -> Add Remove Programs (or something called Software). When a list is presented, choose the program you wish to uninstall.

2. Go to the Start -> All Programs -> Your Program -> Uninstall.

Not all programs behave nicely and offer a clean uninstall. Before trying some third party software to uninstall, perhaps check the following to see if there is any traces of the program that you wished to uninstall.

3. Go to Windows Explorer and find the location where you installed the program. By default most programs are installed in:
C:\Program Files
C:\Program Files (x86)

4. Go to Windows Explorer and find
C:\Documents and Settings\<***>\Start Menu\Programs
C:\Documents and Settings\<***>\Start Menu\Programs\Startup
where <***> represent all the different user ids / login names on your computer.

5. Open Regedit, typical locations are:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\YourApplication
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\YourApplication
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\YourApplication
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\YourApplication
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows\YourApplication

Funnies: Donald Knuth

2011-03-04T11:54:00.000-08:00

Check out the jokes featuring Donald Knuth
Humor: Donald Knuth Jokes

Here's some sample:

Skynet is actually an out of control TeX macro.

Knuth can store all integers between 0 and 127 in 4 bits.

101 Websites

2011-02-07T04:28:00.000-08:00

This is a subset of the website links of the PC Authority article. It is not the full 101 websites.
In addition, links from sources other than PC Authority have now been added.

PC help
www.computerhope.com
www.annoyances.org
www.filetxt.com
www.pchell.com/hardware/beepcodes.html
www.dll-downloads.com
www.gizmo.com.au

PC Building
www.staticice.com
www.accc.gov.au
ninite.com

Break Time
www.eye-strain.com
www.mightygodking.com
www.fark.com
www.armorgames.com
www.newgrounds.com
www.gymgym.com

Online shopping
www.myus.com/australia
www.typobay.com
www.xe.net/ucc
www.fos.org.au
www.scamwatch.com.au
www.greysonline.com
www.catchoftheday.com.au
offyourtrolley.com.au
supermarketdeals.com.au

Finance / Money
www.educationtaxrefund.com.au claim back education cost

Social Media
deleteyouraccount.com

Entertainment
allmusic.com
imdb.com
icetv.com.au
avsforum.com
yourmovies.com.au
mycast.orb.com - lets you stream movie, photos, music across the web from home PC to other browser or smartphone.
thegreenbutton.com - help site
xpmediacentre.com.au/community - help site
abc.net.au/iview - free ABC
au.tv.yahoo.com/plus7 - free Seven
fixplay.ninemsn.com.au - free Nine
player.sbs.com.au/programs - free SBS
ten.com.au/watchtv.htm - free TEN

Callback to C# from Unmanaged Fortran - PASSING ARRAYS

2011-01-11T17:48:00.000-08:00

Thanks to reader kensun87 for requesting this feature.

This article builds on another article which should be read first:
Callback to C# from Unmanaged Fortran
http://xtechnotes.blogspot.com/2008/07/callback-to-c-from-unmanaged-fortran.html

The original article on callback referenced above passes a single value (scalar) between callbacks. This example passes an ARRAY of integers. This is much trickier because arrays need to be handled using IntPtr when passing between callbacks.

The Fortran code and C# code is listed below first, then some explanations. Please note that the fundamental explanations on callback will not be here, instead please see the previous article referenced above.

------- Fortran code ------

module f90Callback
contains

   ! used by CScallbackDriver::Program.cs
   subroutine func1(iArr, progressCllBak)
   !DEC$ ATTRIBUTES DLLEXPORT ::func1
   !DEC$ ATTRIBUTES REFERENCE :: iArr, progressCllBak
   implicit none
   external progressCllBak
   integer :: iCB
   integer, INTENT(OUT) :: iArr(2)

   ! Body of f90Callback
   print *, "Hello from Fortran func1(iArr, progressCllBak)"
   iCB = 3
   iArr(1) = 5
   iArr(2) = 7
   call progressCllBak(iArr, 2)
   print *, "Final Fortran arrays are ", iArr

   return
   end subroutine func1

end module f90Callback

------- C# code ------

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;

namespace CScallbackDriver
{
   unsafe class Program
   {
   // 0. Define a counter for the Progress callback to update
   public int localCounter;

   // 1. Define delegate type
   [UnmanagedFunctionPointer(CallingConvention.Cdecl)]
   public delegate void dgateIntPtr( IntPtr numYears, ref int iSize);

// 2. Create a delegate variable
public dgateIntPtr dg_progCBPtr;

   public Program() {
   // 3. Instantiate delegate, typically in a Constructor of the class
   dg_progCBPtr = new dgateIntPtr(onUpdateProgressPtr);
   }

// 4. Define the c# callback function
///

/// Callback function where an array is passed from Fortran
///

   /// pointer to the unmanaged array
   /// size of the array represented by progCount
   public void onUpdateProgressPtr( IntPtr progCount, ref int iSize)
   {
   //Unsafe code
   unsafe
   {
   Console.WriteLine("In C# callback function");

// reading in array from unmanaged code
   int[] managedArr2 = new int[2];
   Marshal.Copy(progCount, managedArr2, 0, iSize);

// writing out array to unmanaged code
   managedArr2[1] = 99;
   Marshal.Copy(managedArr2, 0, progCount, iSize);
   Console.WriteLine("Going out of C# callback function");
   }

   }

   static void Main(string[] args)
   {
   Program myProg = new Program();
   myProg.localCounter = 0;
   int[] iArrB = new int[2];

   //6. Call normal Fortran function from DLL, and passing the callback delegate
   func1Ptr(ref iArrB[0], myProg.dg_progCBPtr);

Console.ReadKey();
}

// 5. Define the dll interface
// Pointer

        [DllImport("f90Callback", EntryPoint = "F90CALLBACK_mp_FUNC1", CharSet = CharSet.Auto, CallingConvention = CallingConvention.Cdecl)]

        public static extern void func1Ptr([In, Out] ref int iArr, [MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.FunctionPtr)]  dgateIntPtr blah);

}
}

A few things to note:
1. in the Main method, you can ignore iArrB as it does not have implications in the callback.
2. In the Fortran code, when the call to the C# callback is made, note it is important to pass the correct size of the array, in this example 2:
call progressCllBak(iArr, 2)
3. In the Fortran code, the iArr is initialised with values {5,7}
4. In C# code, in step 1, see exactly how the arguments of the delegate dgateIntPtr are defined.
5. In C# code, in step 4, this is where the actual callback function is defined.
- the name of the callback function is onUpdateProgressPtr with arguments: ( IntPtr progCount, ref int iSize)
- the array called managedArr2 is defined with size iSize.
- Marshal.Copy is used to copy the unmanaged array progCount, into C# array managedArr2.
- the second element of the array is changed to 99.
- Marshal.Copy is used again but to copy the opposite way from managed array manageArr2 to unmanaged array progCount.
6. The call back returns to the Fortran function which then prints out the array where second element has new value of 99.
7. When the Fortran function finishes, it returns control back to C# main method.
8. All other steps in this example are similar to the previous callback example where only a scalar integer is passed.

Notes Zenithink ZT-180 ePad Android

2010-12-19T02:21:00.000-08:00

Notes Zenithink EPad Android

These notes are about the Zenithink ZT-180 256MB (version 1). However, users of other models may find some similarities and hence useful notes here.

Ports on Zenithink and their functions
   Top side
T-F - slot for memory card, also known as MicroSD
Power On/Off - button for switching on / off
USB to RJ45 - microUSB connector to a LAN connector (supplied with Zenithink)
Software Menu - for selecting different software
   Bottom side
Speakers
   Right side
DC - to connect to power suppl for charging
OTG - USB On the Go - a specification for USB allowing the device to be a slave USB.
USB - to connect USB devices
Headphone -
Reset -
Mic -

Change Settings

Settings -> Sound and Display -> Display Settings -> Screen Timeout

Checking Information of ePad
- Version: Settings app -> About MID -> Firmware, Kernel, Build, etc
- MAC Address: Settings app -> About MID -> Status -> Wi-Fi Mac address

Some interesting APPS for the Android
Applications

Adobe Reader

Amazon Kindle

Amazon MP3

Bible Reader KJV

Bible Reader Olive Tree
Dolphin Browser
Ebay
FT Mobile
Google Books
Google Maps
Google Market
Google SkyMap
Nagivation
Notepad
Office Suite
PDF Viewer
Places
Twitter
YouTube

Utilities
Advanced Task Killer Free
DevTools
Latitude
ROM Gripper
Sound Recorder
Spare Parts
Superuser
Wifi Advanced Configuration Editor

Educational

Algebra Tutor

Arity

Coloring Finding Nemo

Coloring Disney Princess

Dora Memory Game

Dora Explorer Puzzle

Hello Kitty Puzzle

Math Workout

Princess Memory Game

Fun and Games

Angry Birds

Ataroid Lite

Checkers Free

Chess

Chuck Norris

Hangman Classic

Mole Mole Mole

Piano

Pinball

Reversi

Robo Defense

Smart Tac Toe

SpiderMan

The 100 Best Android Apps - ( PDF )

How to Flash Zenithink ZT-180 or install the latest firmware

There are many ways to flash or upgrade Android on the Zenithink. There are many sites with a few good ones on how to do this. But I decide to write these notes because none of the sites have complete and detailed instructions. There always seem to be a step missing. So these notes will be detailed but for a very specific case only.

For Zenithink users on Adroid 2.1 who wants to upgrade to Android 2.2.
To be speficic, these notes apply for Android 2.1 10(1030) to Android 2.2 11(0326)
This upgrade path MUST use USB install method (using 32bit Windows PC).
The SDcard install method CANNOT be used at this stage yet.

Part A: Installing Android USB drivers
1. This step is necessary so that the Zenithink can be connected via USB to a 32 bit PC to use the BurnTool.
2. Download the BurnTool package which contains the USB driver from.
http://www.mediafire.com/file/aa6i53txsocplvm
The link to BurnTool 7.41 can be found from
http://www.slatedroid.com/wiki/index.php?title=Wiki:ZT-180_FAQ#Click_Here_to_view_all_available_ROMs_for_the_ZT-180
The BurnTool 7.41 is for ROM 1104 or later. It is for 32 bit system.
3. Unpack the BurnTool RAR file which contain the following into a folder called BurnTool7.41:

android_usb_windows.zip

secbulk.rar

burn.ini

burntool.exe
Readme.txt
ZT_Bx.boot
ZT_Bx.spl

4. Make a new folder anywhere called adroid_usb.
- Unpack the contents of BurnTool7.41/android_usb_windows.zip into adroid_usb folder.
- Unpack the contents of BurnTool7.41/secbulk.rar into adroid_usb folder.
5. connect USB cable to PC, the other end is a free miniUSB.

- shutdown ZT-180

- connect mini usb end to otg on ZT-180

- put power cord in (tablet still turned off)

- hold down menu button and press power and hold both for 10 seconds and let go.

- the PC should find hardware.

6. If Zenithink is connected to PC for the first time, when PC asked to install drivers, choose the folder you created above called adroid_usb. Important, the system will automatically install TWO sets of drivers.

The first set of USB drives is for the USB SecBoard Tools, the second set is for the Android USB.

The adroid_usb folder should contain these files for the USB driver to install properly:

androidusb.sys

android_usb.inf

LICENSE-2.0.txt

secbulk.inf

secbulk.sys

WdfCoInstaller01005.dll

Part B: Configuring BurnTool 7.41 and Flashing with 110326ROM
This technique will be a clean install meaning it will destroy everything in the old Android 2.1 system and replace with the Android 2.2 110326.
0. Download Android 2.2 package build 110326, meaning 2011, March 26 from
http://www.zenithink.com/UploadFile/epad_256M_nand_old_android_2.2_0326.rar
Alternatively, 1. http://www.zenithink.com/Enews_92.html click on the link:

"10”(256MB+2GB) android2.2 edition NO.20110324"

The file should be:

epad_256M_nand_old_android_2.2_0326.rar

Unpack this file into folder epad_256M_nand_old_android_2.2_0326

The folder should contain:

boot.logo
epad_256M_nand_old_android_2.2_0326.txt
system.pack.img
userdata.pack.img
zImage
zImage_1024x576
zImage_1024x600
ZT_Bx.spl

1. After the USB drivers are installed, run BurtTool.exe from the BurnTool7.41 folder.
2 On the BurnTool display, the Status square next to Device 10 should become green when the Zenithink USB connection is recognized. If not connected yet, then switch off Zenithink, connect the USB to miniUSB (OTG port). Hold the Menu button and press Power and hold for 10 seconds. The Device 10 square in BurnTool should turn green.
3. Click on the Settings menu item. Enter the password as "zenithink"
4. Setup the following files in the settings dialog:

- uboot-spl = epad_256M_nand_old_android_2.2_0326\ZT_Bx.spl

- uboot-img = BurnTool7.41\ZT_Bx.boot

- linux-kernel = epad_256M_nand_old_android_2.2_0326\zImage

- linux-sys = epad_256M_nand_old_android_2.2_0326\system.pack.img

- linux-udat = epad_256M_nand_old_android_2.2_0326\userdata.pack.img

- in the Memory options, click scrub

- click Save

5. Check that the Zenithink is connected to the Power cable and the BurnTool device10 status is green.

6. Press Start to Flash.

7. When flashing is completed, remove the mini USB cable from the Zenithink. Press the Menu button.

8. Three setup options may be presented. Choose the option on top first then, the others.

9. Switch of the Zenithink after setup is complete. Then Restart.

From another site:

Shutdown the Pad.
Then Press The Button on the Right site in front of the pad (there is only one?) and the Power Button at the Same Time.
Then the device will be flashable and the light will be blue i think.
Then you Put the USB-Cable in, install the driver which is also in the package.
Now you can open burntool.
Device10 should be green.
Now jo goto Settings, and set uboot, kernel,sys-dat, udat
uboot: u-boot.img
linux-kernel:zImage_cui
linux-sys:system.img
linux-udat:userdata.img

Press the FIRST button from the left site to confirm the settings
Now press Start and the device should be starting to flash....
However sometimes the board hangs after flashing and will not start directly dont worry. If everything doesnt help, do a reset.

Links to other Android related stuff

What are the first steps in developing a custom firmware?http://www.slatedroid.com/apad-firmware-development/7091-what-first-steps-developing-custom-firmware.html[How To] Unpack and Repack for Custom Firmwares for Rockchip RK2808/RK2808ahttp://www.androidtablets.net/forum/android-tablet-hacking/439-how-unpack-repack-custom-firmwares-rockchip-rk2808-rk2808a.html[How To] Unpack and Repack for Custom Firmwares for Rockchip RK2808/RK2808ahttp://www.androidtablets.net/forum/android-tablet-hacking/439-how-unpack-repack-custom-firmwares-rockchip-rk2808-rk2808a.htmlHow to Flash Apad IRobot Android Tablet,How to Use Apad Firmware?http://www.thefreelibrary.com/How+to+Flash+Apad+IRobot+Android+Tablet,How+to+Use+Apad+Firmware%3F-a01074128370Read this First, Rooting, YouTube, Firmwarehttp://www.slatedroid.com/orphan-m70003/6979-read-first-firmware-youtube-market-touchscreen-etc.htmlApad buying sites:

http://www.wiipad.us/

http://www.lunarsources.com/computers/50-7-irobot-google-android-15-wifi-apad-tablet.html

http://androidcommunity.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-36093.html

http://www.shenit.com/computer-laptops/china-android-tablet-mid.html

How to Update apad/moonse/irobot firmware

http://apad-scene.blogspot.com/2010/06/how-to-update-apadmoonseirobot-firmware.html

Various ROMs and instructions

http://static.fiendish.net/xaueious/

How to side load apps if market wont work

http://www.androidtablets.net/forum/android-tablet-usage-apps/431-how-side-load-apps-if-market-wont-work.html

about the Flytouch X220 Infotm

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=831178

Zenithink ZT-180

http://androidforums.com/tablets-mids/132917-zenithink-zt-180-1ghz-10-tablet-17.html

http://www.chinadigitalcomm.com/zt-180-a105/zenithink-epad-zt180-m16-android-and-wince-upgrade-guide-t1474.html

http://www.slatedroid.com/wiki/index.php?title=Wiki:ZT-180_FAQ

update to Android 2.2 on zenithink Apad
http://www.google.com.au/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=zenithink+us

http://androidforums.com/zenithink-tablets/132917-zenithink-zt-180-1ghz-10-tablet-21.html

http://www.slatedroid.com/topic/16472-new-official-zt-180-original-2562-froyo-rom-0324/

http://www.slatedroid.com/topic/18741-new-zt-180-v1-256mb2gb-22-rom-0603/

http://www.chinadigitalcomm.com/zenithink-zt/zt180-won-t-boot-t2347.html

http://www.androidtablets.net/forum/zenithink-zt180-10-generation-1/1431-flashing-firmware-android-windows-ce-zenithink-zt-180-a.html

http://www.ibeau.net/tech/zenithink-zt-180-2-2-0120-firmware/#more-495 ROM 2011-01-20

http://www.slatedroid.com/topic/18741-new-zt-180-v1-256mb2gb-22-rom-0603/ ROM 2011-06-03

About Installing Android on Windows Phone

How To Install Google Android On A Windows Mobile Phone

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-install-google-android-on-a-windows-mobile-phone/

How To Install Android 2.1 On Windows Mobile Phones

http://thetechjournal.com/electronics/mobile/how-to-install-android-2-1-on-windows-mobile-phones.xhtml#ixzz12wCg6VSL

http://thetechjournal.com/electronics/mobile/how-to-install-android-2-1-on-windows-mobile-phones.xhtml

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=634782

review on Zenithink Android

http://androidforums.com/tablets-mids/132917-zenithink-zt-180-1ghz-10-tablet.html

Developing for Android

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/10/25/get-started-developing-for-android-with-eclipse/

Google App Inventor is a RAD tool developed by Google Labs to build Android application in a very simple and easy way
http://www.codeproject.com/Article.aspx?tag=198374986188234309

Android Apps

Top 25 Android apps: The best of the best

http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/hiner/?p=5617

Wallpaper
http://isi.edu/~johnh/OTHER/ANDROID/wallpaper/

Notes Samsung Wave

2010-12-11T12:31:00.000-08:00

Few tips on the Samsung Wave, especially information which are not well documented

A few "How do I do it?" answers, and technical specs
http://mobilereviews.o2.co.uk/devices/device.jsp?deviceId=661&tab=5#q5387
http://thetechjournal.com/electronics/mobile/samsung-s8500-wave-review.xhtml

Links to Samsung, Apps, etc
http://www.samsungapps.com - for Manual and Samsung Kies software
http://www.samsung.com/au/consumer/mobile-phone/mobile-phone/smartphone/GT-S8500BAAXSA/index.idx?pagetype=prd_detail&returnurl=
http://www.samsungmobile.com
http://www.samsungwaveforum.com/samsung-wave-updates/all-firmwares-s8500xx***-download/ - list of firmwares
http://www.samsungwaveforum.com/samsung-wave-updates/flash-tutorial-samsung-s8500/msg3719/#msg3719 - how to flash / upgrade firmware on Samsung Wave
http://www.all-samsungphones.com/latest-official-firmware-update-for-samsung-wave-s8500.html/

Java Apps Repository:
These sites have Java Applications for Smart Phones. Since Samsung Wave have Java compatibility, some Java apps should be able to run, but not all of them. You should check the compatibility of each app that you want to download.
- www.getjar.com

Screen Capture the Samsung Wave
- Press the Menu and Lock Keys simultaneously
- The images will be stored in My Files -> Images

End Applications with Task Manager
- Click and hold on the physical diamond shaped middle Menu button at the bottom.
- Touch the red minus sign on-screen to close the application you choose.

Lock screen settings
- Settings -> General -> Touch - Touch Panel

Silent Mode
- Keypad -> tap and hold # key to mute/unmute

Check how much data has been used
- this refers to the packet data, which is usually the data charge by your service provider.
- go to Menu -> Settings -> Connectivity -> Packet Data Counter

Switch off data packet, data allowance

http://www.samsungwaveforum.com/samsung-wave-how-to/how-to-turn-off-internet-connection-(not-wifi)/

http://www.samsungwaveforum.com/samsung-wave-troubleshooting/(bugs)-wave-keeps-using-packet-data/

Browser Open
- Internet icon is missing from some Samsung Wave models.
- To open the browser either
i) Menu -> Vibe Home
ii) Menu -> Smart Search -> Internet

Remove Homescreen
- Touch the Widget icon on the top left.
- When in widget editing mode, rotate phone to landscape
- Then it allows you to remove screens which have no widgets

Edit or Remove Widgets
- Touch the Widget icon on the top left.

- Touch and hold on the widget to be moved or removed, until a yellow border appears

- To remove, drag the widget down.

- To move, drag the widget anywhere on the screen

Copy Contacts from Phone to SIM or from SIM to Phone.
- Touch the Contact button at the bottom of the screen.
- When the list of contacts is displayed, touch the image with 3 dots at the bottom middle  "..." of the screen.
- Touch on "Copy Contacts"
- Choose whether to copy from Phone to SIM or from SIM to Phone.
- Then select the contacts to be copied.
- Touch "Copy"

How to Use Samsung Wave S8500 as Modem for other PC or other Devices to connect to the Internet:
This require that the Samsung Wave has data access through a telecommunications carrier.
This techniques uses Packet Data.
Basically, if you can access the Internet through your Samsung Wave without wifi connection, then you are likely to be using packet data.

Here are the steps to setup the Samsung Wave to enable other devices to have internet access.
Go to Settings - Connectivity - Use Packet Data - turn this on.
Go to Settings - Connectivity - Mobile AP - turn this on.
Still on the Mobile AP screen, go to Settings:
- Name: name of wifi network
- Password: password for network
- Hide my Device: Uncheck
- Tethering:   Check
Now the Samsung Wave is acting like a wireless modem. Other PC or Devices need only to rescan for wifi networks and connect to the name of the wifi network of the Samsung Wave.

Interesting Apps
Here is a list of apps I found interesting on the Samsung Wave. The ones listed without URL links mean they can be found on the Samsung Apps website.
   Educational
Teach Numbers - good for teaching children
Write Hangul - learn Korean writing
Let's Learn Korean
   References
Badapedia - seems like a cut down version of Wikipedia
Dictionary.com
   Utilities
EvMemo Fit - Memo that sits on top of phone as widget.
Power Calculator - has Scientific, Computer and Statistics modes
MultiNote - can make notes in text, image, audio, video formats

Scientific Calculator

ToolBox - Battery, Spirit Level, Metal Detector
Type N Walk - allow you to type SMS while using the phone camera to show what is in front of the screen.
Mirror - to look at yourself on the phone
Unit Converter
Bibles
KJV Complete Mobile Bible by Cellbook.
from the phone: m.getjar.com, go to Quick Download and type the code 19028.
website: http://www.getjar.com/mobile/19028/kjv-complete-mobile-bible-by-cellbook-for-samsung-gt-s8500-wave/
Go Bible - http://gobible.jolon.org/ - King James Version
Olive Tree - http://www.olivetree.com/ - in general, has very good bible reader application but its Java version DOES NOT seem to work well with the Samsung Wave.

Ebook Readers
I've tried quite a few eBook Readers and here are the ones to get and NOT to get.
Native Wave / Bada
LacViet Reader - Do Not Get - Big app, about 14MB. Installed OK. When opening and EPUB format ebook, the program simply crashed.
Java Apps - requires MIDP 2.0
Anyview - Do Not Get - Installed OK but cannot get it to work.
ReadManiac - Do Not Get - Cannot seem to run when opening the program.
Albite Reader - Excellent - Seems to work quite well and small size.

Folder Structure

from Kies View:
- Contacts
- Music
- Photos
- Videos
- Podcast

from Windows Explorer View:
- Graphics
- Images
- Music
- Others - your own files
- Playlists
- Sounds
- Alert tones
- Music
- Ringtones
- Themes
- Videos