TinyPic Images Unavailable, Broken Links, Bought out by PhotoBucket

2010-09-23T20:31:00.000-07:00

UPDATE: Old images uploaded on TinyPic are now back up live! Thanks TinyPic!

If you are shocked that all your images uploaded on TinyPic have suddenly disappeared, then the reason is because TinyPic has seemingly been bought out by PhotoBucket. Unfortunately, they did not have the courtesy to at least prevent the broken links, as several blogs on the internet are highly dependent on such pictures uploaded on their servers. As stated on the TinyPic site:

Tinypic is no longer accepting uploads from international locations, and links are turned off. If you have content on Tinypic, you can still view the URLs and the content, but only on Tinypic. To upload, share, or link content, please go to Photobucket.com to register an account. You will need to upload your content again to your Photobucket account, but you will be able to share and link your images and videos. We’re sorry for the inconvenience and hope that you enjoy Photobucket, our premier image and video site. Click here for more details.

Visual Web Developer Express 2010 Installation Error or Stalls

2010-09-09T04:44:00.000-07:00

Using Microsoft's Web Platform Installer, you may run across issues when trying to install Microsoft Visual Web Developer Express 2010. If you have tried rebooting your PC and tried to install again via Web PI, and the installation still fails, then try downloading this alternate installer instead:

http://download.microsoft.com/download/0/D/6/0D600544-AD1A-45FB-8D40-838EBF3C03EC/vwd_web.exe

Version Control Systems Comparison

2009-08-03T13:22:00.001-07:00

Some of the most popular version control systems / source code management software tools include Subversion (SVN), Microsoft Visual Source Safe (VSS), Mercurial, Microsoft Team Foundation Server (TFS), and Perforce. Embedded below is a fairly detailed comparison (compare & contrast, pros & cons) of these systems:

SharePoint Calendar - Color Coding

2009-08-03T13:11:00.001-07:00

The default SharePoint calendar does not come with event highlighting and color coding.

To fix this issue:

Calendar event highlighting and color coding functionality will be implemented by adding two columns to hold the background and foreground color values and another column to hold the display HTML code. A hidden web part will also be incorporated to translate the code from a literal string to actual HTML.

Details & Directions:

SharePoint Calendar - Prevent Double Booking

2009-08-03T13:08:00.000-07:00

The default SharePoint calendar does not come with double booking prevention.

To fix the issue:

Calendar double booking detection and prevention functionality will be implemented by first adding a column for the event/location—in this case, the Meeting Room. Views for different meeting rooms will also be created. A new class library will then be incorporated, which will include custom event handlers for ItemAdding and ItemUpdating events.

Details & Directions:

C++ Console Progress Bar

2009-08-03T12:53:00.000-07:00

Given the percentage complete, the following piece of code can print a text progress bar for a console application along with an animatedly "spinning" slash to show that the program is still running.

// this function prints progress bar
// pre: percentage complete
// post: progress bar
void progressbar(int percent)
{
static stringstream bars;
static int x = 0;
string slash[4];
slash[0] = "\\";
slash[1] = "-";
slash[2] = "/";
slash[3] = "|";
bars << "|";
cout << "\r"; // carriage return back to beginning of line
cout << bars.str() << " " << slash[x] << " " << percent << " %"; // print the bars and percentage
x++; // increment to make the slash appear to rotate
if(x == 4)
x = 0; // reset slash animation
}

DARPA National Cyber Range (NCR) Proposal / Idea

2009-08-03T12:26:00.001-07:00

In response to the DARPA National Cyber Range (NCR) project, the following diagram serves as a basic proposal/idea to accomplish the task of creating a virtual cyber "firing range" to enable a revolution in the nation’s ability to conduct cyber operations and providing a persistent virtual "range" for cyber warfare experiments and tactic/strategy implementation.

Utilizing several clusters of powerful Sun Microsystems x4600 M2 servers equipped with VMWare ESX virtualization platform to allow for the virtualization of a variety of operating systems, applications, and run-time environments, large testbeds can be segregated to perform various cyber defense/offense experiments. Furthermore, a super database can serve as a source of data/statistics for human emulation according to foreign statistics and intelligence gathered regarding a foreign target's user base habits and computer system/software specifications.

By David Poarch

SharePoint Designer Missing Content Tab for New Workflow

2009-08-03T12:04:00.000-07:00

If you are trying to create a new workflow, yet seem to be missing a File -> New -> Sharepoint Content tab or a File -> New -> Workflow tab, then it is likely because you have not connected to your SharePoint site.

In order to correct this issue, click File -> Open Site and type in the URL of your SharePoint site. SharePoint Designer should then connect and the missing Workflow tabs or choices should appear.

How to Pass Record Value into Function from GridView or DataView (ASP.NET)

2009-06-07T08:18:00.000-07:00

In order to pass a database record value into a custom function of your own from a GridView or DataView in ASP.NET, you will find that you cannot just simply pass the table field's name like it is done with Bind (eg, <%# Bind("fieldname") %>) ).

However, the following code will allow one to successfully pass the record value:

<%# yourFunction( (int) Eval("fieldname") ) %>

Alternatively, one can replace the (int) to (string) or whatnot in order to cast the value to the desired type.

Remove Paragraph p Tags in TinyMCE

2009-06-07T07:55:00.000-07:00

In order to remove the paragraph or p tags that automatically gets inserted by TinyMCE, open the tinymce.js file and include the following lines:

force_p_newlines : false,
force_br_newlines : true,
forced_root_block : '',

CSS Drop Down Hover Not Working in IE 6 and Older

2009-06-06T07:19:00.000-07:00

Internet Explorer 6 and older does not have a :hover capability implemented for the CSS li tag, thus li:hover will not work for drop down menus when using IE browsers older than version 7.

The work-around for this involves using a script in order to be able to use and style li:hover and other hover-related elements.

In order to do so, you need to download this .htc file, which contains the script.

After doing so, add the behavior attribute with the URL location of the .htc file inside the body of your .css file.

body {
behavior:url("/csshover3.htc");
}

Once completed, your dropdown menu should now be able to hover and "drop down" in IE.

Getting Sound to Work on Firefox and Flash with Linux Ubuntu

2008-07-06T18:05:00.000-07:00

Getting sound to work with Flash on Firefox can be quite frustrating using Linux Ubuntu. The usual problem is that although sound does work for the system, there is no sound for flash players (Adobe) on Firefox (e.g., Youtube), although there is usually video.

For starters you can check to ensure the sound configuration is correct for your ALSA mixer, by running in the terminal:
sudo alsaconf

If that doesn't work, you can also try running the following in your terminal, which works for some:
mv ~/.asoundrc .asoundrc.old mv ~/.asoundrc.asoundconf ~/.asoundrc.asoundconf.old

Or, you could try the following in the terminal:
sudo apt-get alsa-oss sudo gedit /etc/firefox/firefoxrc

and then include the line
FIREFOX_DSP="aoss"
within that opened file.

If all else fails (which did for me), go into the Linux repositories and install (or reinstall, if already installed) all ALSA and Flash related software. Do a search for the terms alsa and flash (including the latest Adobe flash player). Install (or reinstall) all related packages you find, just in case. And hopefully, that gets your sound working for flash players in Firefox.

If that still doesn't work, the only thing I would recommend is using another browser, but oftentimes if it doesn't work for Firefox, it isn't going to work with another Linux browser like Epiphany either. So your best bet is to run Internet Explorer using Wine, and that typically works.

Project Mono: .NET Alternative IDE for Linux/UNIX

2008-06-26T17:51:00.000-07:00

The popularity and widespread use of the .NET production environment is undeniable. Jobs are emerging all over the place for .NET software developers. But how about the Linux and UNIX coders who wish to also jump on the .NET framework bandwagon and have the ability to contribute and create .NET applications? With the open source project Mono, it is possible.

"Mono is a project led by Novell (formerly by Ximian) to create an Ecma standard compliant .NET compatible set of tools, including among others a C# compiler and a Common Language Runtime." Or in other words, Mono is a Linux or Unix version alternative of Visual Studio .NET, the Microsoft .NET Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for coding in various languages like Visual Basic (VB), C#, ASP, ADO, etc.

And apart from Linux and UNIX systems, Mono can also be run on BSD, Mac OS X, Solaris and Windows operating systems.

Although the current version of Mono already provides provides the core API of the .NET Framework, implementation of .NET Framework 3.0 is under development under an experimental Mono subproject called Olive, but the availability of a Mono framework supporting .NET 3.0 is still not planned yet.

Still, Mono provides the necessary software to develop and run .NET client and server applications, including the following features:
- Multi-platform.
- Based on the ECMA/ISO standards.
- Runs ASP.NET and Winforms applications.
- Can run .NET, Java, Python and more.
- Open Source, Free Software.
- Commercially supported.
- Comprehensive technology coverage.

An open source implementation of Silverlight, called Moonlight, is also underway and is included in Mono 1.9. The Silverlight 2.0 .NET classes are implemented as part of the Olive module. For the current release of Mono available for download, visit:
http://www.mono-project.com/Main_Page

Enabling 5.1 Surround Sound Audio on Linux (Ubuntu)

2008-06-22T07:16:00.000-07:00

In some cases, when using a Linux OS like Ubuntu, there will be issues like devices will not working properly. For example, you may only hear sound coming from 2 speakers instead of all speakers.

In order to convert the 2.1 sound (or no sound) and enable 5.1 surround sound audio on your Linux system, you must first disable your onboard sound via editing your motherboard's BIOS settings. If you do not know how to do that or encounter problems trying, you can alternatively try to disable onboard sound through Linux and bypassing the BIOS settings.

Once you've disabled your onboard sound, follow this procedure to edit to asoundrc and configure the surround output so that it transfers stereo output to all 6 channels, instead of only through the front channel speakers:

1. Run in the terminal: gedit .asoundrc
2. Add to the file:
pcm.!default {
type plug
slave.pcm "surround51"
slave.channels 6
route_policy duplicate
}

That should work. To ensure that the issue is the sound card and not the speakers, run either of the following in your terminal:
aplay -l
- or -
lspci -v

Try aplay -1 first. If neither of the commands list your sound card, then it means the drivers are not installed. If your sound card is listed (and 5.1 surround sound is not working), it may mean there is an issue with the speakers.

Disabling Onboard Sound without Editing BIOS Settings on Linux

2008-06-22T06:51:00.000-07:00

If you are trying to direct sound to your external card and would like to disable onboard sound from your motherboard without editing the BIOS settings (for whatever reason), try the following procedure:

1. Run the command lsmod in the terminal and find the mods for your internal sound card
2. Next, run the command sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist in the terminal
3. For each module in the file, append "blacklist (module)" where (module) is the name of your sound module. Basically, we are telling the system to load the external card and not the onboard soundcard.
Here is an example:
# turn off internal soundcard
blacklist snd_intel8x0
blacklist snd_ac97_codec
blacklist snd_ac97_bus
4. Reboot.

If the above mentioned procedure does not work for you, alternatively you can try to force your external card to be the default one, via:

1. Run in the terminal: sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d
2. Change the index for your external soundcard to 0 and switch the onboard sound to 1
For example:
options snd-emu10k1x index=0
options snd-intel8x0 index=1

In this case snd-emu10k1x (Audigy) is the external soundcard and now has been set to 0, and snd-intel8x0 (onboard) is the onboard sound and is now card 1. Of course the soundcard codes may be different in your case.

Repair an Installation on Linux (Ubuntu)

2008-06-22T06:24:00.000-07:00

If you want to know how to do a repair installation on a Linux (e.g. Ubuntu) system for instances where you do not want to perform a complete operating system (OS) reinstallation and would also like to keep your current settings and configuration, just run the following command in the terminal:

sudo apt-get install --fix-broken

That fix should do the trick in case you accidentally got some of your packages removed. But if somehow that doesn't work and you are forced to do a full reinstallation, the directories you should backup in order to maintain and reset your current settings and configuration would be the /home and /etc folders (copy these onto backup media and paste them back after the reinstallation).

Tek Nut :: Internet, Blogging, Web Development, Computer Help & Tips