Napster issues/suggestions?

I know that Napster is still a work in progress, but it's a service that I use daily, so I kinda wanted to see if everyone else was having the same bugs as I was, such as playlists not building quite right and the sign in process sometimes not validating correctly.
Plus, if anyone has suggestions to avoid bugs like these, those would be helpful.
While I am a Best Buy employee, the views i express here are my own opinions and are not associated with the Views and Opinions of Best Buy or any of its affiliates.
Solved!
Go to Solution.

I somewhat figured that. I couldn't decide whether to put it there because it was closer to the topic, or that it fell here because of the issues I had seen.
Accepted the previous as solution.
While I am an employee of Best Buy, the views expressed in my posts are my own opinions and are not the views of Best Buy or any of its affiliates.

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Socket based application - Performance Issues - Suggestions Needed

Hi All,
We have an application which basically has been developed using core java. Here is a high level information about the application:
a) It opens a serversocket which allows clients to connect to it.
b) For every new client connection, a separate thread is created and this thread deals with requests from clients, processing the data and replying back to clients.
c) Each socket is polled continuously and sockettimeout is 2 seconds. If there is a timeout, we handle the situation and socket is again read. So basically sockets is read every 2 seconds. If number of timeouts reaches a configurable value, we close the connection and thread is dropped as well.
d) In production, three instances of this application are running with the help of a cisco load balancer. It is there for last 5 years.
However there has always been some minor performance isssues and we have sorted them out using different types of garbage collectors, by introducing hardware load balancers, upgrading the code for new Java versions. It is currently running on 1.4.2.
However there has always been some performance issues and today while googling over internet I came across following on the bea website which says that core java sockets are not as efficients as native API. BEA has implemented its own APIs for weblogic. My queries are:
a) Are there any better Java Socket/network API (for solairs, I know Java is plateform independenet but there could be lib which also using native libs) which are much more efficient than Core Java.
b) We are getting the InputStream/OutputStream and creating objects of DataInputStream/DataOutputStream to read the data 'Byte-By-Byte'. Each byte can have different information thats why it is required. Are there any better way of getting info than what we are currently doing.
c) As I mentioned, we are continously polling the socket for read operation with a timeout value of 2 seconds. What is the better among the following from performance point of view: (1) Frequent read operation with a lesser timeout value or (2) Less Frequent read operations with larger timeout value. (3) Any better idea??
Please suggest few things or pointers which I could do to improve the performance of the applcations. Many thanks.
Thanks,Akhil
From BEA website:-
"Although the pure-Java implementation of socket reader threads is a reliable and portable method of peer-to-peer communication, it does not provide the best performance for heavy-duty socket usage in a WebLogic Server cluster. With pure-Java socket readers, threads must actively poll all opened sockets to determine if they contain data to read. In other words, socket reader threads are always "busy" polling sockets, even if the sockets have no data to read. This unnecessary overhead can reduce performance."

My recommendations:
- Always use a BufferedInputStream and BufferedOutputStream around the socket streams
- Increase the socket send and receive buffers to at least 32k if you are on a Windows platform where the default is a ridiculous 8k, which hasn't been enough for about 15 years.
- Your 2-second timeout is far too short. Increase it to at least 10 seconds.
- Your strategy of counting up to N short timeouts of S seconds each is completely pointless. Change it to one single timeout of N*S seconds. There is nothing to be gained by the complication you have introduced to this.

Outlook 2013 - Calendar issues: Suggestions cannot be provided because free/busy data could not be retrieved

I noticed recently that I cannot see anymore free/busy information for my own organization colleagues.
I'm using Outlook 2013 (latest updates) upon Exchange 2010 (SP ?).
The suggestion DO work on my account using OWA.
Other users w/Outlook 2010 have no problems.
I tried to run "outlook /cleanfreebusy" but that switch isn't supported anymore in outlook 2013.
Anyone can help ?
Thanks

Hi,
I didn't say two but three places.
Actually, my wording is a bit confusing. In terms of where you go to remove them, it is indeed "Program and features" and "see installed updates". Now within there, I had the KB listed several times (3) under different products (like "Microsoft Outlook 2013"
and "Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2013") and I had to uninstall the KB from all three entries.
Note that, as per Robert Sparnaaij (http://www.howto-outlook.com, http://www.msoutlook.info)
: "I’m aware of the issues but they are not as black and white as the article(s) suggest(s) and not that widespread either to do a general recommendation to uninstall
a security update. In case of the IMAP issues, they are actually wrong.", and "It was said to
be fixed with Path Tuesday for December (December 10) but unfortunately somehow the Outlook 2013 update missed the cut. It got published on December 13 after all but only was approved a little over 24 hours ago as KB2850061. However, at the moment, only the
downloads are available but not yet the KB article nor are they currently being offered via Microsoft Update so unfortunately, the issue will drag on a bit longer. I’ve just published an article about it here:
http://www.howto-outlook.com/news/update-2013-12-ol2013.htm".
Lastly, "The KB article of the November update confirms that it fixes the Autodiscover connectivity issues with Exchange 2007:
If you are using Outlook to connect to a Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 mailbox:
You receive an error message that resembles either of the following when you try to configure Automatic Replies (Out of Office): Your automatic reply settings cannot be
displayed because the server is currently unavailable. Try again later.
You cannot retrieve Free/Busy data for calendar scheduling.
Add-ins that use the Account.SmtpAddress property no longer work.
These features rely on an underlying
Autodiscover technology. After you install this security update, Autodiscover may fail for Exchange 2007 configurations. Therefore, Outlook features that rely
on Autodiscover will also stop working. To resolve these issues, install update 2850061."
Hope this helps.

Design Issues, suggestions welcome

I have stumbled across some design issues, with a carhire system i am making.
          kept in
     [CAR]------------------->[GARAGE]
|
                    |
                    | Retives car from garage
|
|
|
                    [TIMESLOT]
As it stands the GARAGE class automatically has CAR objects added as attributes.
import java.util.*;
public class Garage {
     //class attributes
          private LinkedList carhold;
          Car ford_ka = new Car("A",135);
          Car ford_focus = new Car("B",149);
          Car ford_Mondeo = new Car("C",179);
           Car Vauxhall_Vectra = new Car("D",239);
          Car Mercedes_E240 = new Car("H",290);
          Car Renault_Espace = new Car("V",399);
     public Garage() {
          carhold = new LinkedList();
          carhold.add(ford_ka);
          carhold.add(ford_focus);
          carhold.add(ford_Mondeo);
          carhold.add(Vauxhall_Vectra);
          carhold.add(Mercedes_E240);
          carhold.add(Renault_Espace);          The TIMESLOT class has an GARAGE object as an attribute, thus enabling it access mehtods.
import java.util.*;
public class TimeSlot {
       Garage g = new Garage();
public void getCarCost(String input) {
           Car theCar = g.search(input);problem is each time a new TIMESLOT is create so too is a
new garage created with all the cars.
I really need the garage to be a seperate entity, but still allowing
the TIMESLOT class to use its methods.
would in heritence be the appropriate solution, or maybe something else.
I would like to hear other suggestions.

I believe a Singleton pattern works perfectly here. A singleton ensures that only one instance of an object is created. You would use it as follows:
public class Garage {
    private LinkedList carhold;
    // Car declarations here
    private Garage() {
        carhold = new LinkedList();
        // add cars here
    public static Garage getInstance() {
        static Garage instance = null;
        if (instance == null)
            instance = new Garage();
        return instance;
public class TimeSlot {
    public void getCarCost(String input) {
        Garage g = Garage.getInstance();
        // do some other stuff
}Notice the PRIVATE constructor on the Garage class. This keeps classes other than Garage from instantiating it. In fact, the only way to get an instance of Garage is to call Garage.getInstance(), which will always return the same instance.
You might also consider the Builder pattern, which will keep you from having to instantiate all those Car objects inside of your Garage. You would do something like this:
public class Garage {
    LinkedList carhold;
    public Garage() {
        carhold = new LinkedList();
    public void addCar(Car c) {
        carhold.add(c);
public class GarageBuilder {
    public static final int BOBS_GARAGE = 0;
    public static final int BILLS_GARAGE = 1;
    public static Garage buildGarage(int garage) {
        Garage g = new Garage();
        switch (garage) {
            case BOBS_GARAGE:
                Car c = new Car("bobsCar", 200);
                g.add(c);
                break;
            case BILLS_GARAGE:
                Car c = new Car("billsCar", 400);
                g.add(c);
                break;
        return g;
}

"Save For Web" issues/suggestions

For the "Save For Web" feature, a few things would be nice to see. Maybe they are there, but I cannot find them.
1. Actions: When I add the Save For Web to an action, it adds an "export" to the action, but when I automate it, nothing happens, it does not save each file in the folder I specified using the Save For Web parameters I defined. For actions, I have to rely only on a save command, as the "export" command simply does not seem to work for actions I create using that Save for Web feature.
2. Prompting: Sometimes, I forget to turn off the feature for creating an html page, or saving in an "image" folder. But I only get the prompt to verify images being replaced. I would like to get a prompt to verify everything: creating an image folder, creating html page, creating new images AND overwriting existing images. That way, I can find out if I forgot to turn off those features, and that I named the slices correctly, and I don't find out that OOPS there is a new image folder I didn't meant to create, and OOPS, it saved all the slices, so I have to go in and delete, delete delete, or OOPS it created a new html page and I have to go delete that.
3. Save whole image even when there are slices: If I have a PSD file that has slices, I lose the ability to simply save out the whole image, so I can save it as a comp jpg. I can only select slices to export. I would like to be able to save either each slice, or the whole file as an image.

All good suggestions. I'll forward them on to the team.
The place for making features requests for Photoshop (or any Adobe product) is here:
Adobe - Feature Request/Bug Report Form
http://bit.ly/1R15Qc
We may not have time to respond to 100% of issues and requests, but the Photoshop team does read all the reports.

Battery Issues, suggestions requested

My computer has been giving me problems recently. A few weeks ago it continued freezing on me, and when I tried to restart the computer it either would get to the login page and freeze, or wouldn't get past the black screen which shows up (briefly) at startup before the grey screen.
After discussing the problem with a friend he suggested taking out the battery and holding the power button down (while it is unplugged from the adapter). I tried this and my computer has been working better now.
I realized now that my battery doesn't hold a charge for very long once I unplug it. I know the battery loses its resilience after time, but the battery will be fully charged and when I unplug it I will have 25 minutes (approximately) before it shuts down. I also noticed that it doesn't give me the low battery warning before it shuts down.
Comments/Suggestions requested and appreciated.

Welcome to Apple Discussions!
Your friend's suggestion was to reset the PMU, which is a good thing to do:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1431?viewlocale=en_US
However, if your battery is on its way out, it's on its way out, and there is nothing you can do to revive it. How old is it, and how many cycles are on it? A battery should retain up to 80% of its original capacity at 300 cycles. If you have more than 300 cycles, your battery may just be getting to the end of its life.
You could try calibrating your battery:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1490
However, if the battery is in bad shape, you may not be able to do this successfully. It may just be time for a new one.
Good luck!

Transfer errors when using Napster to Go servi

Recently napster have updated their software and now all of a sudden i am getting transfer errors when i try putting track on my creative zen micro photo 8gb. Has anybody else been experiencing this?
I wondered whether its a napster issue or whether by some strange conincidence my player has become faulty. any thoughts?
Thanks

I've seen this problem before, but its not a common one.
But just making sure, have you downloaded the 2 hotfixes listed <a href='http://us.creative.com/support/kb/article.asp?l=2&sid=793' target=_blank>here[/url]?. Try that then resync all your songs. Formatting the player is the best step to take, however if you dont have the time then you can just delete the subscription ones and transfer them again once you apply these hotfixes, but formatting would be the best way to go.
It could be a licensing thing that is giving the harddri've/cpu trouble with reading it. Or some other unknown issue. What player does your friend have?Message Edited by DM on --2005 0:40 AM

Hyperion 9.3.1 Installation Issue

Hi Admins,
I have successfully installed and configured system 9.3.1. Everything seems to be good but with some issues.
1. I am not able to access planning through Workspace.
2. How can I create Planning application through performance management architech(configured)
I am really stuck. Any help will be appreciatable.
Thanks
KGP

Performance Management Architect:
First create a data store for the planning app using the Config Utility if you haven't already.
Assuming you want a test application, locate the .ads file for the sample application which will be located in the Planning directory on the planning server.
Once located, goto the dimension library in EPMA and Click File / Import Profile / Create Profile. Setup a file import profile. Use the .ads file, click next a few times.
Once that's completed you will need to goto the application library, create a new application view, drag the dimensions into that. Select the Planning properties of the application and configure similar to how you would Classic.
Next goto the Application Library, right click on the new application view and select validate -- correct any errors.
Right click on application view and select deploy -- suggest you not check any options first.
Next login to planning -- http://planningserver:8300/HyperionPlanning/LogOn.jsp
You can also use the App Wizard to create a Classic App at: http://planningserver:8300/HyperionPlanning/AppWizard.jsp
On your workspace issue suggest re-configuring reports and analysis UI and double checking the planning ports / web server. I've also seen issues if you have DNS issues where it would cause problems however this is probalby not the issue.
Good Luck,
-John

Plaback error-Zen Microphoto using Napster To

Microphoto with firmware version .3.0. Also have most recent driver on PC. Recei've "Playback Error" when playing tracks on player. Only "temp" tracks from Napster To Go....no problem playing purchased tracks. Spent lots of time with Napster support, assuming it was Napster issue (may still be). Napster and I looked at licensing and clock sync?issues and can't seem to remedy problem. Some tracks, when "properties" opened in Media Player, show nothing in license tab, others have proper license designation. Doesn't seem to make a difference. Have attempted to clean database and load new tracks. Nothing has worked.
Leaving for vacation on Saturday and sure would like my tunes. Any thoughts?KAT

Napster finally able to fix. Apparently a late upgrade of Media Player 0 has some type of incompatability with firmware on Creative Microphoto, causing To Go tracks to play for a few seconds then stop (resulting in "Playback Error"). Napster support had documentation from Creative, so dissappointed that someone from Creative couldn't help here. Unfortunately, fix ended up being a reformat of the hard dri've, causing me to rebuild my song database. Better than purchasing a new player.

Faces issue when selecting 'edit with CS4' (or any other external editor)

Ok, so I have a work flow where I effectively use Nik Plugins. I have the complete set so that i can use them in Aperture and CS4. I correct exposure and white balance and crop in Aperture but then have automators set up in CS4 to apply Nik plugin effects via a batch change process ie no manual adjustments needed, start the batch and come back 20 mins later. Anyway thats somewhat irrelevant....
Once stage one is done in Aperture I select faces and see that all looks fine. Suggestions appear over faces etc as you'd expect. BUT if I then select edit with CS4 (via right click) on that image it creates a duplicate image (as its non-destructive) and opens it in CS4. Fine. But if you go in to Aperture the faces on this duplicate image are now all messed up. They are not at all over peoples faces but seemingly in random places. Right click and selecting detect faces does nothing. So in summary if I edit anything with CS4 and hit save so that the changes appear in Aperture then hit faces to tag people I have to effectively start from scratch and delete all the faces (not over peoples faces) and add new faces.
The best way to illustrate this is with screenshots. See this link for 2 screenshots of the issue. http://adamlewis.zenfolio.com/screenshot
Can someone else confirm they have this issue at all first off to see if it is a specific issue to myself or a generic Aperture issue?
After that I guess we can proceed with troubleshooting and solutions.
PS I have repaired my library and rebuilt it and have upgraded Aperture to the latest 3.2.2 (released today / yesterday but note the issue was found under 3.2.1 so its not a 3.2.2 specific issue).

Maybe I should have made it clearer in my original post. The 1st paragraph was just for colour. The fact of using Nik has nothing to do with the issue. The below quote is the issue:
"Suggestions appear over faces etc as you'd expect. BUT if I then select edit with CS4 (via right click) on that image it creates a duplicate image (as its non-destructive) and opens it in CS4. Fine. But if you go in to Aperture the faces on this duplicate image are now all messed up. They are not at all over peoples faces but seemingly in random places."
Thus the issue is generated by merely selecting Edit with CS4. ie no editing done in CS4 and not even saved in CS4. Just selecting edit with CS4 in Aperture creates the duplicate image in Aperture (and sends it to CS4 but lets assume we do nothing with it there at all) but creates a duplicate with face tags in the wrong places.
After further investigation I changed my external editing software option in preferences to Pixelmator and the same issue occurs.
So to replicate the issue in my place there are 2 simple steps that I need to make (and would like tested by someone else):
1. Tag some peoples faces in an Aperture image
2. Select edit with (any external editor)
Then go back in to Aperture (immediately) and select faces on the duplicate image created and see if the faces are in the correct position.
Note I have my external editor set to TIFF 8 Bit 300dpi using Adobe RGB colour space.
Thanks for your time.
Message was edited by: loobola

Keyword issues -- applied unexpectely, deleted unexpectedly

--- Keyword glitches -----
I've repeatedly encountered some issues with adding keywords to photos in iPhoto 11 (9.2.3).
For example, I'm pretty sure I did not apply "keyword A" to a dozen photos ... but there it is along side the correctly applied keywords.
So I select the images with the mis-applied "keyword A" and delete "keyword A" in the info panel. This works fine, one-photo-at-a-time. But I get good AND bad results when trying this over a range of photos. Often iPhoto deletes other keywords, or I find that photos that should still have three or four keywords have none. And only ONE was deleted. These are huge cataloguing problems.
I can't afford to use an application that's spurious in these ways. Corrupted iPhoto library? Perhaps. If so, that's just another reason to move on because I have less that 300 photos within, and if iPhoto can't handle that ...
And sometimes iPhoto is achingly slow, lots of beachball time.
As usual Apple's documentation is of little help.

This and the speed issue suggest a minor glitch in the Library.
Option 1
Back Up and try rebuild the library: hold down the command and option (or alt) keys while launching iPhoto. Use the resulting dialogue to rebuild. Choose to Rebuild iPhoto Library Database from automatic backup.
If that fails:
Option 2
Download iPhoto Library Manager and use its rebuild function. This will create a new library based on data in the albumdata.xml file. Not everything will be brought over - no slideshows, books or calendars, for instance - but it should get all your albums and keywords back.
Because this process creates an entirely new library and leaves your old one untouched, it is non-destructive, and if you're not happy with the results you can simply return to your old one. .
Regards
TD

CD TRAY ISSUE

When I eject a cd the tray studders twice and then only stays open for a short amount of time before automatically closing without any command telling it to do so. how do i solve this issue

A suggestion to try here
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=1206497#1206497
You could also try re-installing the 10.4.7 combo updater
http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/macosxupdate1047comboppc.html
Otherwise it sounds like AppleCare or a replacement drive.

Lock/Send issues in Excel addin 11.1.2.1

We have recently upgraded to version 11.1.2.1. Running Windows XP, Office 2003. All clients are currently experiencing this issue:
When they do a lock/send data is sent to the cube no problem. The spreadsheet has blank columns between the data. When they go to another sheet and retrieve the data, it appears to be shifted one column to the right. I'll try and demonstrate with an example:
Sheet A contains the following values:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Sheet B, the following values are entered, with a lock/send successfully executed:
9 8 7 blankcolumn 6 5 4
Go back to sheet A and do a retrieve and you get the following result:
9 8 7 3 6 5 4
Note the 3 is unchanged and the 6,5,4 all get shifted one column to the right.
Repeat the above example, remove the blank columns, lock send and then retrieve on sheet A again and you get:
9 8 7 6 5 4 7
We did not have this problem in version 11.1.1.2. The spreadsheet has not changed since moving to the new version. Is this a new config setting that needs to be changed somewhere or is it a bug. Anybody else have this problem, or able to duplicate my example?
Thanks,
Mike

The fact that everyone is experiencing the same issue suggests that someone created a template with a flaw in it and sent it out to everyone.
For this behavior, this is the usual suspect:
The Essbase add-in can save option settings to specific Excel spreadsheets as the named range "EssOptions". In this way, every sheet in a workbook can be set up with unique Essbase option settings.
Here's the solution:
1) Make the retrieve sheet the active sheet (if you don't do this, the solution will fail).
2) Pull down Essbase > Options.
3) On the Display tab, uncheck "Use Both Member Names and Aliases for row dimensions".
4) Press "OK".
Retrieve to test, if it still shifts, you have a different problem. Look for missing dimensions.
Hope this helps,
Tim Young

NAPSTER support for NOMAD Jukebox Zen Xtra 3

Hi... Just purchased the Jukebox under the misguided assumption that it worked with NAPSTER. Turns out I was wrong. When do you (Creative) anticipate that you will have a firmware update enabling use with NAPSTER? I hyave to make a decision whether to take back to the store (and maybe go with the IPOD and eat the extra cost) or hold on to if it makes sense because the upgrade is coming soon. many thanks...

Nobody knows for sure, and Creative won't give a definiti've date. One Creative rep has said it will probably be after Q2 (June) and Napster are suggesting it will be soon.

Usb webcam issue

Hello,
I've got a strange problem with a compatible webcam (Terratec Terracam X2) and QuickTime and Photo Booth.
Trying to have video recording from quicktime pro, I see a green screen with some noise on the top, same thing if I try to use Photo Booth
... BUT ...
using iChat the cam works great, also with effects (isn't photobooth to provide them ?)
Also the cam works using quicktime broadcaster freeware, i see the cam correctly.
What could be wrong ?
I think it's strange, but I don't think is a bug, the system should be ok otherwise no applications should work with my cam.
My system is a MacMini, with Leopard updated to 10.5.1
Thanks for help

To Apple Discussions!
If you have not already done so, you should check out Terratec Terracam X2 Support Site to see if the webcam is compatible w/Leopard and/or determine if you need to update the cam's drivers.
Regarding PhotoBooth issues, suggest that you cross-post over in the iSight Forums

Napster issues/suggestions?

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