Things I should know before taking a snapshot?

I have a client that is running exchange 2010 as a VM on hyper-v 2008. Exchange server has not been updated for almost 9 months now. Although exchange server and exchange is being backed up daily it scares me to have to install so many updates knowing
that something could go wrong. Btw, all updates pertain to the OS and non to exchange.
To be on the safe side, I was thinking of creating a snapshot with hyper-v, install the updates, and then delete the snapshot (if all went well). I’ve used this method before with other servers, but not with exchange. Do you think this is a good idea? What
things should I know before taking a snapshot? If I need to revert back, does the database need to be restored?
Thanks,
Alex

Not supported
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj126252(v=exchg.141).aspx
Some hypervisors include features for taking snapshots of virtual machines. Virtual machine snapshots capture the state of a virtual machine while it's running. This feature enables you to take multiple snapshots of a virtual machine and then revert the
virtual machine to any of the previous states by applying a snapshot to the virtual machine. However, virtual machine snapshots aren't application aware, and using them can have unintended and unexpected consequences for a server application that maintains
state data, such as Exchange. As a result, making virtual machine snapshots of an Exchange guest virtual machine isn't supported.
Twitter!: Please Note: My Posts are provided “AS IS” without warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied.

Similar Messages

Things I should know before buying a MacBook Pro?

Currently looking into buying my first MacBook, and I am looking at waht I believe to be last years MacBook Pro, but I am wondering what essential things should I know before buying one? And what things should I buy to go with it? Or anything I should be aware of?

Doelago wrote:
For the budget it was more like, dont jump from 1200€ to 2400€.
And I am done with Windows Laptops. They said that the one I am currently running would be good and last me for years, but that was BS. As a rather technologically challenged person I want a machine that will work and not attract viruses in droves.
Mac's are not exactly cheap, and to do 3D gaming your going to need the 15" MacBook Pro or better, prefeably the top end model with powerful graphics to last the longest with paid OS X upgrades one has to perform annually.
You wanted to be aware of buying a Mac, I can tell you this. Even though a Windows PC tends to get malware, it all depends upon the user and their actions online, sharing files and email services choices. I have Windows using friends and it's all about what sites they visit online, if they share files or get email on the machine or via a reliable web email service like Gmail, Hushmail etc that watches for malware/spam.
The best thing about Windows 7 is if you make the System Restore boot disks/images regularly, date them and make your file backups, you can recover your own system if it gets malware. Security Essentials anti-malware is free. Microsoft supports Windows with security and stability updates for apx 10 years on average, all you need to do is find a reputable PC hardware vendor with good products.
Laptops don't last nearly as long as desktops, this goes for expensive Mac's as well as PC's.
Apple's 13" Macbook Pro and under series are nothing more than your standard Windows 7 Office store PC in a fancy case, their performance and OS upgrade options tend to slow down faster than the 15" MacBook Pro series and up.
Also Apple releases a new OS X version every year, if you don't upgrade and thus have to upgrade all your third party software, your DENIED security and stability updates rather fast. The new OS X versions tend to slow down older machines to force you to consider a hardware upgrade before the machine has lived it's full hardware lifespand.
So with Apple your paying more for your annual computing costs than with Windows PC, and with a expensive MacBook Pro laptop, one drop or theft/lost away and your out a very expensive investment.
Over the last 10 years, I have spent nearly $10,000 on Apple hardware for $1000 a year, my Windows XP using friend has spent $1000 total over that same last 10 years for a Windows XP desktop that is still going actually (installed a new video card for him last week)
If you want a machine that will really last, get a Windows 7 tower with upgradable options, like 4GB of RAM expandable to 16GB, a decent power supply and video card upgrade options. With Mac's you can't upgrade the video card and the MacPro you can't find newer faster cards. So your 3D gaming on a Mac is going to get cut off a lot sooner as newer, more hardware demanding 3D games are released.
Sure Windows is a pain, however as a lifelong Mac user I can honestly say Windows 7 is pretty decent operating system compared to Vista and XP, it's not quite as nice as OS X, nor as reliable, however if one takes the proper precautions while on the Internet, makes System Restore Disks/Images (included in Windows 7 now) then one can restore their own system themselves quite easily, a Mac requires a rare/occassional reinstall too depending upon the user abuse, it's not immune to that, also there ARE Mac based malware, just not as much.
All one has to do is find a quality PC vendor for their hardware, I hear Dell is making cheap crap now, however they do have a nice system in place for hardware upgrade options.
Another issue with Mac's, is that 99% of the buisness world uses Windows PC's, Mac's comprise of only 6% now of the total computing market compared to over 90% Windows PC's, your going to need to keep your skills up there and on a Mac, you will have to BUY Windows and install it on your Mac, a extra cost plus the Windows software you need to keep your skills up on. I made that mistake only using Mac operating systems all these years, I am suffering for that now.
So if your rich college student, then get a powerful Mac laptop that can run Windows in Bootcamp and a virtual machine program.
If your a poor college student, then forget the Mac and get a cheap $400 Windows PC laptop and a Playstation 3, both disposable and cheaply replaceable.
There is nothing special about a Mac anymore other than a "status symbol", if you buy a decent PC latop with a good screen, good graphics it will do the job you need and not tend to get stolen like Mac's do, or in some cases a unknown jealous PC user will spill a drink on your Mac or try to walk off with it like has occured with my 17" MacBook Pro.
Times are tough and if you want a flashy quality PC laptop, get a Sony or something, least it runs Windows for the next 10 years or until the hardware drops.
Apple is all about providing the most expensive computer for the rich consumer market, not the most practical anymore.
Laptops always last longer than open desktop towers and Apple doesn't really care about the lower cost market, rather see you have something than be always paying a lot more with Apple products you can't afford.

Things to know before building a Mega 651 (and other things you should know afte

Okay, following hot on the heels of the "things to know" series on Mega 180 and 865, I thought I'd just chip in with this short post on what you should know before splashing out on a nice budget Mega 651
PROCESSOR SUPPORT:
The official list of supported CPUs can be found here:
http://www.msi.com.tw/program/products/slim_pc/slm/pro_slm_cpu_support_detail.php?UID=431&kind=4
Basically the ageing SiS651 chipset does not support Celeron / P4 cpus above 533mhz, and does NOT support the newer "Prescott" core cpus
Celeron > 400Mhz FSB
P4 Northwood > 533mhz FSB (512kb L2 cache)
MEMORY:
Basically to add to what is listed in the 865 "things to know"; from my own experience of using MSI motherboards in the past, ALWAYS use good quality branded memory, as using cheaper "generic" types inevitably leads to major problems. I know for a fact that Crucial, Kingston and Samsung types work well in MSI motherboards, and you should be okay with other high-end brands like Corsair and Geil.
DRIVERS:
DON'T bother using MSI LiveUpdate! The drivers provided on the cd supplied will work, but if you wish to download the latest drivers, you will find them here:
http://download.sis.com/
Download and install the:
Chipset Software > SiS AGP (Gart) Driver
IGP Graphics Drivers > SiS650 and 740 series
http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/dlac97-2.aspx?lineid=5&famid=12&series=8&Software=True
for Realtek AC97 Audio drivers
http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/downloads1-3.aspx?lineid=1&famid=3&series=16&Software=True
For Realtek Onboard Network interface
The modem drivers supplied on the CD should work, I really don't know much about them as I have never used them (sorry). Failing that, if you are connected to the internet, Windows Update should be able to find them for you.
OPERATING SYSTEM SUPPORT
MSI state that only Windows XP is supported on Mega 651 (and other Mega barebones). Other versions of Windows (98, ME, 2000) will work provided you have drivers for hardware devices, all of which are provided on the install CD or from the links supplied above.
You'll find that earlier versions of Windows won't have the drivers for the built-in card reader, so you may have to do a "google" search to get them. On my Mega 651, they are listed in Device Manager as "OEI-USB" devices.
If you haven't already got Windows XP then I suggest you consider upgrading at the earliest opportunity; Microsoft themselves no longer support Win 98 / ME and most new software is being designed to work only with Windows XP
Please note that MSI do NOT supply or support drivers for Linux; if you wish to attempt to install Linux on a Mega 651 (or other Mega PC model) you will need to obtain drivers yourself. The remote and LCD display functions will also not be available under Linux, unless some clever bod has developed drivers to do so.
MEGA RADIO AND LCD DISPLAY:
Download the Mega LiveUpdate for Mega 651 from here:
http://www.msi.com.tw/program/support/software/swr/spt_swr_detail.php?UID=431&kind=4
This will update your MEGA Radio program, update the BlueBird HIFi module firmware and allow you to set a "greeting" displayed on the LCD display when you switch on HiFi mode. Apart from that the LCD display serves NO other purpose in PC mode.
After updating the firmware, you should power off your Mega 651, unplug the mains power cord for a few seconds then reconnect and restart for changes to take place.
OTHER MSI SOFTWARE:
If you REALLY must try out MSI Media Center III, it does work on the Mega 651, but I don't think the remote will work correctly.
Although PCAlert 4 has been reported to work on the Mega 651 - having read the numerous problems most users have, I don't advise installing it. If you do get it to work correctly, unlike on the Mega 180 and 865, it will not display temps or fan speeds on the LCD display, as this feature only works on the 180 and 865, as they use diferent LCD displays.
EXPANSION CARDS:
Same as with other Megas, you get 1 AGP and 1 PCI slot.
The AGP slot only supports up to 4x cards; a faster card will work, but only at 4x.
Space is limited, if you decide to fit a PCI TV tuner card, you will be limited as to which AGP card you can fit. A full length card is probably not recommended, and a model with a slimline (or even passive) heatsink would be best.
A better alternative would be to go for a VGA card with built in TV tuner, such as MSI TV5200-VTDF128 or an ATI Radeon All-In-Wonder card (ATI AIW is supported in WinXP MCE05)
ON-BOARD VGA
The SiS651 chipset is pretty old now, and the on-board SiS650 VGA is not up to playing any of the latest games, as it is only DirectX 7.0 compliant and does not support Hardware Texture & Lighting. However, it is adequate for playing back DVDs as it supports hardware acceleration (in PowerDVD for example), and general video output is decent. The maximum shared video memory size is 64mb.
The Mega 651 does NOT feature TV-out as standard. You can however either buy an AGP video card which includes TV-out feature, or the Mega TV-out card (availble in UK from www.dabs.com). Please note, this card is ONLY for Mega 651, and does NOT work with the 865 model. (The 180 does however, thanks to nforce2 chipset, support TV-out as standard)
ON-BOARD AUDIO
The Realtek ALC650 AC97 audio codec offers 5.1 surround sound (with suitable speakers of course ) as well as SP-DIF for digital output.
The sound quality is quite reasonable; i'm currently listening to MP3s through a set of Creative Inspire 5.1 speakers, and its certainly good enough for me.
There are three audio connectors on the rear, they default to:
GREEN - Front speakers
BLUE - Line In
PINK - Mic
To connect surround sound speakers correctly, you need to use the Realtek audio configuration tool (located in the Taskbar by the clock). Set the speaker config to 4 or 6 channel (5.1) and then click on the boxes to the right to configure the rear ports correctly
GREEN - Front speakers
BLUE - Rear Speakers
PINK - Subwoofer / Centre Speaker
NOTE: If you do decide you want to install a PCI soundcard, be aware that you will lose the Radio function in PC mode, and for audio output in Hi-Fi mode you will need to reconnect audio plugs from your soundcard to onboard sockets. The Hi-Fi mode and Radio only work with the onboard audio.
POWER SUPPLY
All the Mega series barebones come with a 200w PSU. Don't even think about upgrading to a higher output type, as the Mega PSU is a non-standard type. A standard ATX PSU will NOT physically fit inside the Mega case. Besides which, the Mega series have a special connector which powers the Bluebird hi-fi module and on-board sound when the PC is off. And there is a special Molex power connector for the CD/DVD drive, also for that to be used when PC is off.
WINDOWS XP MCE 2005
Media Center 2005 requires a DirectX 8.1 / 9.0 compliant video card with a minimum of 64mb RAM, 128mb RAM is recommended, however, for best performance. So you will need an AGP card, because SiS do not provide any MCE-compatible drivers. The TV@anywhere TV tuner (MS8606-10) and Mega TV Tuner (MS8606-40) are not supported by MCE05, because MCE2005 requires a TV card that will provide a direct MPEG2 stream, which a PVR card such as the Hauppage PVR MCE series can do (as a hardware card, MSIs card are software only and rely on drivers to do MPEG encoding), or a dedicated DVB-T card which receives an MPEG2 signal over the air.
MEGA 651 REMOTE
If you fit an MSI TV@anywhere card to your Mega 651, the Mega remote can be used to control the MSIPVS software, providing you use the remote receiver supplied with the TV@nywhere card. The Mega remote is designed to work natively with the MSI Media Center, and MSI Mega Radio programs only.
If you wish to program the remote to operate other programs within windows, then you will need a program called Girder, and the accompanying MSI plugin, kindly provided by nathan. please see his sticky thread for more info, about his plugin, and how to obtain Girder.
BROKEN HEATSINK MOUNTING CLIPS
https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?topic=96148.0
Phew, thats about it. If any other Mega 651 users think I've missed anything out, please feel free to tell me.
For other general hints and tips, look through the "things to know" posts regarding the 865 and 180.
MEGA 651 =

Quote
PROCESSOR SUPPORT:
The official list of supported CPUs can be found here:
http://www.msi.com.tw/program/products/slim_pc/slm/pro_slm_cpu_support_detail.php?UID=431&kind=4
Basically the ageing SiS651 chipset does not support Celeron / P4 cpus above 533mhz, and does NOT support the newer "Prescott" core cpus
Celeron > 400Mhz FSB
P4 Northwood > 533mhz FSB (512kb L2 cache)
your processor is not supported. please start a new thread if you need help

Is there something I should know before installing premiere cs4 on my windows 7 ultimate ?

Hi
can premiere cs4 be installed on windows 7 ultimate ? searching this board I found that people installed it on windows 7 home, I was wondering if there is a different and if there is something I should know before I install it on my windows 7 ultimate.
is there something special I should do , maybe the path I should choose for installation of the cs4 etc.

>path I should choose
Use the install default... there have been messages indicating problems when other than default is entered
Also... CS4 should work with no problems, but just in case, some reading...
If you have Win7 64bit PRO or higher, try Microsoft's Virtual XP
This is only ONE example of using Virtual XP http://forums.adobe.com/thread/702693
-And a Tutorial http://windowssecrets.com/newsletter/using-windows-7s-xp-mode-step-by-step/

What functional thing fresher person know before applying for job

hi
i complete my oracle applications training from hydrabad.from comp-u-learn institutes.My domain exp.is in Purchasing , account payables.I know purchasing & payables module well. Can any body tell me what are the necessary things functional person must know . because i know only all setup .what other things fuctional person .before start working some where or before applying for job.
i request all my senoir who is working in this field for a long time , please advice me .
waiting for u response
thanks & regards
user642769

My MSI MEGA 180 has a strange display on the monitor.
I opened the boxed removed all items.
Installed the CPU (supported on the CPU compatability list for the MSI MEGA 180), installed the heatsink & fan.
Installed the HD drive.
Installed the MSI DVD+/-RW
Installed 1 DIMM module of DDR RAM PC2700 333MHZ 1GB
Pushed the Power button for the PC and the desplay is corrupted.
I tried the 4 possible configurations for Jumpers 7 and 8 to alter the FSB speed with no luck.
I also tried the 4 different J7 and J8 configurations without having the HDD and DVD-RW drives connected - same result.
I also tried the 4 different J7 and J8 configurations with the Secondary VGA output connected to my monitor.
I also tried the 4 different J7 and J8 configurations with the S-Video output connected to my TV and no signal at all.
Both my monitor and HDD work fine with my other PC.
I noticed the jumper pins are not numbered - made the configuration job a bit more tedious.
Please note the LCD screen works correctly, however the redio tuner in HiFi mode doesn't pick up any local stations.
As I am a Software Test Engineer, I am 100% confident I have checked all possible configurations including clearing the CMOS, but the system simply will not display to the VDU. The POST should at least be visible when Power is turned on for the PC mode.
NOTE: I will update the RAM Brand as soon as I find out the title from the supplier, but I believe it is OEM.
NOTE II: this is the URL to the CPU used: http://www.excaliberpc.com/product_info.php?products_id=1798
PLeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeesssss ssssssssssssssssssssssseeeeeeeeeeeeeeee eee help ease my pain!!

I received a refurbished MBA today. I have my original files on Time Machine from my first computer with 2 accounts/profiles/users. I want to make migration of those files easy, but change the name of one of the profiles on the MBA.Things I should know?

I have not set up the New-to-me MBA yet.

Thanks so much for that article, however, I think that article is more confusing, since it says that there are 2 names, and then throughout the article refers to at least 4, and I am not 100% sure that was what I am after... So, maybe I am not asking correctly.... let me give more details here..
I had a late 2008 Macbook with 2 "profiles" (work/home) (not sure which 'names' these would be) that was consistently backed up to an external HDD via Time Machine through my wifi network at home. I had upgraded the OS to Mavericks and the "Latest" backup was backed up in Mavericks. This computer was stolen a couple weeks back. I have now purchaed an Apple refurbished macbook air and received it recently and have not even taken it out of the packaging. I assume that it is running Mavericks, but don't know that for sure. Thus, I have not created any new accounts on the new device yet. I want to migrate my backed up files from the external HDD and re-establish 2 'profiles', however, one of the "names" I'd like to change for the new machine. So part of my issue is not knowing what the differences are between, "short names", "display names", "user account names", "profile names", and "home directory names". I know that some of these refer to the same thing, but I am unsure which is which.
What I remember about my old machine was this... When I looked at the Users folder, there were three folders listed within it, "Shared", "work-name", "home-name". I assume these are what's refered to as "home directory names" since they were all lowercase, all one word. When I turned on the computer, the "profiles" that showed up for login had different words than these listed, let's say, "work" and "home".
What I want is for the "work" profile and "work-name" directory to stay the same, and the "home" profile name to stay the same while the "home-name" directory name changes to something else.
I've read many posts now, and haven't found the clear cut example of what I am attempting to do. Some say to create a dummy admin account on the new machine, use Migration Assistance to bring the backed-up files over to the new-to-me MBA, with the two profile names as they existed. In the dummy admin account somehow make changes to the one account I want to change, and then after restart, remove the dummy admin account. I found numerous posts indicating that this may result in permissions problems, which I do not want to have to debug. I'm a decent computer geek, but not a full on superuser.
Other options I've read indicate to plug the external HDD directly into the new machine at first start up and use the Setup Assistant and transfer the info that way. Again however, I then have the issue of one of the names, I'd like changed.
While typing this I found.....
Each user in Mac OS X has a full "Name" and a "Short Name" as defined in the Users pane of System Preferences. The short name can contain up to 255 lowercase characters with no spaces. This is the name used to create a user's home directory (also known as the user's Home or Home folder) in the Users folder.
This is from ealier versions of the OS, so I am not even sure if this is Mavericks friendly or not.

Anything I should know about the 990FXA-GD80V2 before purchase?

I'm considering getting a new motherboard in the next few days or so, and currently have my eye on the 990FXA-GD80V2. I plan to pair it with the FX-8350 and a R7850, and likely use Linux.
I was wondering if there was anything in-particular I should know before buying this board. For example, I recall reading somewhere that someone had to do a BIOS update to get their FX-8350 to use the right voltage or something.
I'm doing a good bit of research myself, but I'd like to avoid another experience like the one I had with ASRock.

Quote from: miklkit on 28-August-14, 22:46:41
I read your post about Asrock. Not good, but no 970 board is up for the 8350. Only experts with mega cash to spend on exotic cooling can keep that combination alive.
The MSI GD80 is a solid cool running board that can handle any FX cpu. My 8350 will bench and run at over 5ghz with air cooling but is stable at 4.7 ghz for everyday use. The 9590 is good for 5ghz for every day use. Because the GD80 runs so cool air cooling can be used making this a very cost effective combination. I am currently using an ASUS Sabertooth board and it runs hot. Water cooling is required to overclock it and I will be going back to the GD80 soon.
MSI is very conservative with their bios settings, which means that you can only run stock clocks unless the utilities provided on their cd are used. But last December they castrated those utilities too! I prefer to use ClickBiosII, and here is a link to a working version.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/gpalg0tpyyfcivy/AAA_vvHgq7MUkdcXPH3Nh5rWa/CLICKBIOSII.7z?dl=0
Thanks for the feedback. I'm curious though, what exactly about the ASUS Sabertooth board makes it run hotter than the GD80? Would figure the CPU temps to be relatively the same, but maybe you're talking about another component like the VRMs or NB?
Also, what's that ClickBiosII thing? Is it a custom BIOS? From quick-glance at the archive, perhaps it's a BIOS-configuration tool that can be used from Windows to directly-alter the BIOS?
I put in the order for the GD80V2 a little bit ago; seems it'll be a manufacturer-refurbished board. Does anyone happen to have any first-hand experience as to how warranty is handled with such hardware? From my understanding, it seems used hardware carries whatever warranty existed since the hardware's purchase date, but refurbished hardware carriers only a 90-day warranty. Is the 90-day limit true, and if so, is it a "hard" limit (as in, you get absolutely 0 support after 90 days), or perhaps handled on case-by-case (MSI "might" be kind enough to do the RMA after 90 days depending on issue)?

Things to know before the upgrade to Android 2.3 (Gingerbread)?

I am pretty sure my kit qualifies for the upgrade, and I am quite excited about this. I hope I have made the right choice. Let me tell you, a few days after SE announced that X10 is going to get the upgrade (to Gingerbread) , I couldn't resist the temptation to grab this model immediately, particularly since I was wanting to experience Android OS after a few years using Symbian (my previous phone was N95 - 8GB and Nokia 6600). The price is quite decent for a handset with quite impressive features (8MP camera, etc). My experience with my new phone is pretty good thus far, except for a few issues that we are aware of (eg Flash not supported).
Now, what are the things that I have to know before the upgrade, since downgrading is not supported? I am not a phone geek, and all I have done so far was to back up all my apps (using Astro). I know all the contents of my SD Card won't be affected. I wish to keep all my contacts, messages if that is possible.
Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Edit01:
Thanks to Dnny and uliwooly! Very informative replies from both of you. Keep the replies coming! I actually created this thread/post to keep all X10 users updated, and help them decide whether they should upgrade to 2.3 or not. If they choose to, hope this serves as a guideline to prepare them for it.

the Backup and Restore app will work just fine, if its not included w/ the update as SE said, you can always re-install it
Use this link instead to download the apk
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=I5CJUPJV
How to install it
You need to
go to settings -> applications -> check unknown sources
download IO File Manager
https://market.android.com/details?id=org.openintents.filemanager&feature=search_result
download the backup & restore app, transfer it to your SD card, use OI file manager to find it -> tap on it -> install it
just to play it safe sync your contacts w/ google if you haven't already
open your phonebook
press MENU button -> tap on Send Contacts -> select all -> send it to your email
on your computer
-> download the file -> go to your gmail -> click on contacts -> click on more actions -> on the drop down menu click on "import" -> choose the file -> and click import
"I'd rather be hated for who I am, than loved for who I am not." Kurt Cobain (1967-1994)

Just downloaded the new OS for IPhone. Despise the appearance. It has jacked with the way I like things in some unacceptable ways. Is there any way to keep the OS, but return to the old appearance? Important to know BEFORE I download OS for computer.

Just downloaded the new OS for IPhone. Despise the appearance. It has jacked with the way I like things in some unacceptable ways. Is there any way to keep the OS, but return to the old appearance? Important to know BEFORE I download OS for computer.

I know I am responding to my own thread, but I an SOOOO disgusted with Apple right now.
The new iOS 7 was the lead story on CNN today... and it wasn't positive. Easy to see why, it's a graphics disaster. It is ugly, difficult to read, doesn't interface aesthetically with the iPhone 4S, and gives everyone in America vertigo. Either fix the appearance, or find some way to allow us to roll back to our previous iOS. Do so quickly, or this life-long Apple customer [circa 1978] will be moving on. If this represents shades of what is coming with OS Maverick, I am petrified. Further, I am a GM of a chain of newspapers and websites in the Austin, Texas area. I will be ripping out a scathing editorial. The notion that we can't roll back from something millions of us hate is despicable. I'm giving you one week. Be sure I am not alone.

7 Things every Adobe AIR Developer should know about Security

7 Things every Adobe AIR Developer should know about Security
1. Your AIR files are really just zip files.
Don't believe me? Change the .air extension to zip and unzip
it with your favorite compression program.
What does this mean for you the developer? What this means is
that if you thought AIR was a compiled protected format, alas it is
not.
2. All your content is easily accessible in the AIR file.
Since we now that the AIR file is really just a zip file,
unzip it and see what's inside. If you have added any content
references when you published the AIR file, voila, there it all is.
What does this mean for you the developer? Well, you content
is sitting there ripe for the picking, and so is everything else
including you Application descriptor file, images etc.
3. Code signing your Air app does nothing as far as security
for you.
All code signing your app does is verify to the end user that
someone published the app. I does nothing as far as encryption and
does nothing to project your content.
What does this mean for you the developer? We'll you should
still do it, because getting publisher "unknown" is worse. It also
means that joe hacker would not be able decompile your entire app
and republish it with the same certificate, unless they
somehow got a hold of that too.
4. All your AIR SWF content is easily decompilable.
Nothing new here, it's always been this way. Type flash
decompiler into google and you'll find a variety of decompilers for
under $100 that will take your AIR content swf and expose all your
source code and content in no time.
What does this mean for you the developer? All you content,
code, urls and intellectual property is publicly available to
anyone with a decompiler, unless you do some extra work and encrypt
your swf content files, which is not currently a feature of AIR,
but can be done if you do your homework.
5. Your SQLite databases are easy to get at.
SQLite datatbases can be accessed from AIR or any other
program on you computer that knows how to work with it. Unless you
put your database in the local encrypted datastore, or encrypt your
entire database it's pretty easy to get at, especially if you
create it with a .db extension.
What does this mean for you the developer? We'll SQLite is
very useful, but just keep in mind that your data can be viewed and
altered if you're not careful.
6. The local encrypted datastore is useful, but....
The local encrypted datastore is useful, but developers need
a secure way of getting information into it. Storing usernames,
passwords and urls in clear text is a bad idea, since as we
discussed, you code is easy to decompile an read. By putting info
into the local encrypted datastore, the data is encrypted and very
difficult to get at. The problem is, how do you get it into there,
without have to store any info that can be read in the air file and
without the necessity of communicating with a web server? Even if
you called a web service and pushed the returned values into the
datastore, this is not ideal, since you may have encoded the urls
to you web service into your code, or they intercept the results
from the web service call.
What does this mean for you the developer? Use the local
datastore, and hope that we get some new ways of protecting content
and data form Adobe in the next release of AIR.
7. There are some things missing form the current version of
AIR (1.1) that could really help ease the concerns of people trying
to develop serious applications with AIR.
Developers want more alternatives for the protection of local
content and data. Some of us might want to protect our content and
intellectual property, remember not all of us are building toys
with AIR. Other than the local encrypted datastore there are not
currently any built in options I'm aware of for encrypting other
content in the AIR file, unless you roll your own.
What does this mean for you the developer? We'll I've been
told that Adobe takes security very seriously, so I'm optimistic
that we'll see some improvements in this area soon. If security is
a concern for you as much as it is for me, let them know.

Putting "secret data" as a clear text directly in your code
is a broken concept in every environment, programing language.
Every compiled code is reversible, especially strings are really
easy to extract.
There is no simple, straightforward way to include secret
data directly with your app. This is a complicated subject, and if
you really need to do this, you'll need to read up on it a bit.
But in most cases this can be avoided or worked around
without compromising security. One of the best ways is to provide
the user with a simple "secret key" alongside the app (best way is
the good old login/password). The user installs the app, and
provides his "secret key", that goes directly into
EncryptedLocalStore, and then you use this "secret key" to access
the "secret data" that's stored on your server. Then you can
transfer the "secret data" directly into EncryptedLocalStore.
As for the whole thread:
Points 1-5 -> Those points do not concern AIR apps only.
If you are developing an application in any language, you should
follow those rules, meaning:
- Code installed on users computer is easy accessible
- Data stored locally is easy accessible, even if it
encrypted using any symmetric-key encryption, because the
encrypting algorithm and encryption key is in your source code (you
could probably write a book on using public-key encryption so let's
just leave it for now ;)
Point 6 -> Is a valid one. All your app security should
relay on the EncryptedLocalStore. But it is your job to get the
data securely into the ELS, because there is no point to encrypt
data that can be intercepted.

Top Ten Things a Motion Graphics Artist should know...

As many of you regulars know, I'm writing a book on Motion. As well as the projects, this book has Interlude Essays - that is a couple of pages of writing on related motion graphics topics. For instance, one is "Where do I get my ideas?" another is "How to speed up Motion", etc...
I thought I'd include one on Things a Motion Graphics Artist should know. And I'm open to suggestions. Got any tips? What do YOU think a Motion Graphics Artist should know? Please contribute as many or as few as you like.
I can't credit you in the book, but I will thank you en masse...
While this thread is not strictly within the confines of the technical troubleshooting this forum exists to serve, I hope the Powers That Be don't pull it, because it could be an excellent resource for all who frequent this forum.
Many thanks,
Patrick

Yes - that reminds me of a quasi-questionable practice I sometimes employed as an editor of music videos that I and other editors called "The Velcro Dog".
It goes back to the fact that you never wanted to turn in a "perfect" edit on the first pass. In fact, I could count on one hand the number of times that I turned in an edit that the record label said "perfect, don't change a frame". Maybe it's human nature to justify their jobs, but inevitably, those in charge of approval would have to make some comment, request some change...
If your cut was perfect, often these changes would be for the worse, so sometimes it paid to add an obvious flaw to the edit that wasn't hard to change - thus the Velcro Dog, something bad that could be easily torn off. It might be as simple as a line that was out of sync - or maybe a shot where the lead singer had his hair in his mouth, or a story shot that was out of place. This gave those in charge something to focus on that you could fix without causing the cascading problems that more complex changes might require.
It was also something that you could change without problem if no one picked up on it.
But WOE to you if someone in the chain of Artist, Video Commissioner, Management, A&R, Marketing, etc... decided they actually liked your little velcro dog... Then you had to live with seeing it on TV like that.
Patrick

What every developer should know about character encoding

This was originally posted (with better formatting) at Moderator edit: link removed/what-every-developer-should-know-about-character-encoding.html. I'm posting because lots of people trip over this.
If you write code that touches a text file, you probably need this.
Lets start off with two key items
1.Unicode does not solve this issue for us (yet).
2.Every text file is encoded. There is no such thing as an unencoded file or a "general" encoding.
And lets add a codacil to this – most Americans can get by without having to take this in to account – most of the time. Because the characters for the first 127 bytes in the vast majority of encoding schemes map to the same set of characters (more accurately called glyphs). And because we only use A-Z without any other characters, accents, etc. – we're good to go. But the second you use those same assumptions in an HTML or XML file that has characters outside the first 127 – then the trouble starts.
The computer industry started with diskspace and memory at a premium. Anyone who suggested using 2 bytes for each character instead of one would have been laughed at. In fact we're lucky that the byte worked best as 8 bits or we might have had fewer than 256 bits for each character. There of course were numerous charactersets (or codepages) developed early on. But we ended up with most everyone using a standard set of codepages where the first 127 bytes were identical on all and the second were unique to each set. There were sets for America/Western Europe, Central Europe, Russia, etc.
And then for Asia, because 256 characters were not enough, some of the range 128 – 255 had what was called DBCS (double byte character sets). For each value of a first byte (in these higher ranges), the second byte then identified one of 256 characters. This gave a total of 128 * 256 additional characters. It was a hack, but it kept memory use to a minimum. Chinese, Japanese, and Korean each have their own DBCS codepage.
And for awhile this worked well. Operating systems, applications, etc. mostly were set to use a specified code page. But then the internet came along. A website in America using an XML file from Greece to display data to a user browsing in Russia, where each is entering data based on their country – that broke the paradigm.
Fast forward to today. The two file formats where we can explain this the best, and where everyone trips over it, is HTML and XML. Every HTML and XML file can optionally have the character encoding set in it's header metadata. If it's not set, then most programs assume it is UTF-8, but that is not a standard and not universally followed. If the encoding is not specified and the program reading the file guess wrong – the file will be misread.
Point 1 – Never treat specifying the encoding as optional when writing a file. Always write it to the file. Always. Even if you are willing to swear that the file will never have characters out of the range 1 – 127.
Now lets' look at UTF-8 because as the standard and the way it works, it gets people into a lot of trouble. UTF-8 was popular for two reasons. First it matched the standard codepages for the first 127 characters and so most existing HTML and XML would match it. Second, it was designed to use as few bytes as possible which mattered a lot back when it was designed and many people were still using dial-up modems.
UTF-8 borrowed from the DBCS designs from the Asian codepages. The first 128 bytes are all single byte representations of characters. Then for the next most common set, it uses a block in the second 128 bytes to be a double byte sequence giving us more characters. But wait, there's more. For the less common there's a first byte which leads to a sersies of second bytes. Those then each lead to a third byte and those three bytes define the character. This goes up to 6 byte sequences. Using the MBCS (multi-byte character set) you can write the equivilent of every unicode character. And assuming what you are writing is not a list of seldom used Chinese characters, do it in fewer bytes.
But here is what everyone trips over – they have an HTML or XML file, it works fine, and they open it up in a text editor. They then add a character that in their text editor, using the codepage for their region, insert a character like ß and save the file. Of course it must be correct – their text editor shows it correctly. But feed it to any program that reads according to the encoding and that is now the first character fo a 2 byte sequence. You either get a different character or if the second byte is not a legal value for that first byte – an error.
Point 2 – Always create HTML and XML in a program that writes it out correctly using the encode. If you must create with a text editor, then view the final file in a browser.
Now, what about when the code you are writing will read or write a file? We are not talking binary/data files where you write it out in your own format, but files that are considered text files. Java, .NET, etc all have character encoders. The purpose of these encoders is to translate between a sequence of bytes (the file) and the characters they represent. Lets take what is actually a very difficlut example – your source code, be it C#, Java, etc. These are still by and large "plain old text files" with no encoding hints. So how do programs handle them? Many assume they use the local code page. Many others assume that all characters will be in the range 0 – 127 and will choke on anything else.
Here's a key point about these text files – every program is still using an encoding. It may not be setting it in code, but by definition an encoding is being used.
Point 3 – Always set the encoding when you read and write text files. Not just for HTML & XML, but even for files like source code. It's fine if you set it to use the default codepage, but set the encoding.
Point 4 – Use the most complete encoder possible. You can write your own XML as a text file encoded for UTF-8. But if you write it using an XML encoder, then it will include the encoding in the meta data and you can't get it wrong. (it also adds the endian preamble to the file.)
Ok, you're reading & writing files correctly but what about inside your code. What there? This is where it's easy – unicode. That's what those encoders created in the Java & .NET runtime are designed to do. You read in and get unicode. You write unicode and get an encoded file. That's why the char type is 16 bits and is a unique core type that is for characters. This you probably have right because languages today don't give you much choice in the matter.
Point 5 – (For developers on languages that have been around awhile) – Always use unicode internally. In C++ this is called wide chars (or something similar). Don't get clever to save a couple of bytes, memory is cheap and you have more important things to do.
Wrapping it up
I think there are two key items to keep in mind here. First, make sure you are taking the encoding in to account on text files. Second, this is actually all very easy and straightforward. People rarely screw up how to use an encoding, it's when they ignore the issue that they get in to trouble.
Edited by: Darryl Burke -- link removed

DavidThi808 wrote:
This was originally posted (with better formatting) at Moderator edit: link removed/what-every-developer-should-know-about-character-encoding.html. I'm posting because lots of people trip over this.
If you write code that touches a text file, you probably need this.
Lets start off with two key items
1.Unicode does not solve this issue for us (yet).
2.Every text file is encoded. There is no such thing as an unencoded file or a "general" encoding.
And lets add a codacil to this – most Americans can get by without having to take this in to account – most of the time. Because the characters for the first 127 bytes in the vast majority of encoding schemes map to the same set of characters (more accurately called glyphs). And because we only use A-Z without any other characters, accents, etc. – we're good to go. But the second you use those same assumptions in an HTML or XML file that has characters outside the first 127 – then the trouble starts. Pretty sure most Americans do not use character sets that only have a range of 0-127. I don't think I have every used a desktop OS that did. I might have used some big iron boxes before that but at that time I wasn't even aware that character sets existed.
They might only use that range but that is a different issue, especially since that range is exactly the same as the UTF8 character set anyways.
>
The computer industry started with diskspace and memory at a premium. Anyone who suggested using 2 bytes for each character instead of one would have been laughed at. In fact we're lucky that the byte worked best as 8 bits or we might have had fewer than 256 bits for each character. There of course were numerous charactersets (or codepages) developed early on. But we ended up with most everyone using a standard set of codepages where the first 127 bytes were identical on all and the second were unique to each set. There were sets for America/Western Europe, Central Europe, Russia, etc.
And then for Asia, because 256 characters were not enough, some of the range 128 – 255 had what was called DBCS (double byte character sets). For each value of a first byte (in these higher ranges), the second byte then identified one of 256 characters. This gave a total of 128 * 256 additional characters. It was a hack, but it kept memory use to a minimum. Chinese, Japanese, and Korean each have their own DBCS codepage.
And for awhile this worked well. Operating systems, applications, etc. mostly were set to use a specified code page. But then the internet came along. A website in America using an XML file from Greece to display data to a user browsing in Russia, where each is entering data based on their country – that broke the paradigm.
The above is only true for small volume sets. If I am targeting a processing rate of 2000 txns/sec with a requirement to hold data active for seven years then a column with a size of 8 bytes is significantly different than one with 16 bytes.
Fast forward to today. The two file formats where we can explain this the best, and where everyone trips over it, is HTML and XML. Every HTML and XML file can optionally have the character encoding set in it's header metadata. If it's not set, then most programs assume it is UTF-8, but that is not a standard and not universally followed. If the encoding is not specified and the program reading the file guess wrong – the file will be misread.
The above is out of place. It would be best to address this as part of Point 1.
Point 1 – Never treat specifying the encoding as optional when writing a file. Always write it to the file. Always. Even if you are willing to swear that the file will never have characters out of the range 1 – 127.
Now lets' look at UTF-8 because as the standard and the way it works, it gets people into a lot of trouble. UTF-8 was popular for two reasons. First it matched the standard codepages for the first 127 characters and so most existing HTML and XML would match it. Second, it was designed to use as few bytes as possible which mattered a lot back when it was designed and many people were still using dial-up modems.
UTF-8 borrowed from the DBCS designs from the Asian codepages. The first 128 bytes are all single byte representations of characters. Then for the next most common set, it uses a block in the second 128 bytes to be a double byte sequence giving us more characters. But wait, there's more. For the less common there's a first byte which leads to a sersies of second bytes. Those then each lead to a third byte and those three bytes define the character. This goes up to 6 byte sequences. Using the MBCS (multi-byte character set) you can write the equivilent of every unicode character. And assuming what you are writing is not a list of seldom used Chinese characters, do it in fewer bytes.
The first part of that paragraph is odd. The first 128 characters of unicode, all unicode, is based on ASCII. The representational format of UTF8 is required to implement unicode, thus it must represent those characters. It uses the idiom supported by variable width encodings to do that.
But here is what everyone trips over – they have an HTML or XML file, it works fine, and they open it up in a text editor. They then add a character that in their text editor, using the codepage for their region, insert a character like ß and save the file. Of course it must be correct – their text editor shows it correctly. But feed it to any program that reads according to the encoding and that is now the first character fo a 2 byte sequence. You either get a different character or if the second byte is not a legal value for that first byte – an error.
Not sure what you are saying here. If a file is supposed to be in one encoding and you insert invalid characters into it then it invalid. End of story. It has nothing to do with html/xml.
Point 2 – Always create HTML and XML in a program that writes it out correctly using the encode. If you must create with a text editor, then view the final file in a browser.
The browser still needs to support the encoding.
Now, what about when the code you are writing will read or write a file? We are not talking binary/data files where you write it out in your own format, but files that are considered text files. Java, .NET, etc all have character encoders. The purpose of these encoders is to translate between a sequence of bytes (the file) and the characters they represent. Lets take what is actually a very difficlut example – your source code, be it C#, Java, etc. These are still by and large "plain old text files" with no encoding hints. So how do programs handle them? Many assume they use the local code page. Many others assume that all characters will be in the range 0 – 127 and will choke on anything else.
I know java files have a default encoding - the specification defines it. And I am certain C# does as well.
Point 3 – Always set the encoding when you read and write text files. Not just for HTML & XML, but even for files like source code. It's fine if you set it to use the default codepage, but set the encoding.
It is important to define it. Whether you set it is another matter.
Point 4 – Use the most complete encoder possible. You can write your own XML as a text file encoded for UTF-8. But if you write it using an XML encoder, then it will include the encoding in the meta data and you can't get it wrong. (it also adds the endian preamble to the file.)
Ok, you're reading & writing files correctly but what about inside your code. What there? This is where it's easy – unicode. That's what those encoders created in the Java & .NET runtime are designed to do. You read in and get unicode. You write unicode and get an encoded file. That's why the char type is 16 bits and is a unique core type that is for characters. This you probably have right because languages today don't give you much choice in the matter.
Unicode character escapes are replaced prior to actual code compilation. Thus it is possible to create strings in java with escaped unicode characters which will fail to compile.
Point 5 – (For developers on languages that have been around awhile) – Always use unicode internally. In C++ this is called wide chars (or something similar). Don't get clever to save a couple of bytes, memory is cheap and you have more important things to do.
No. A developer should understand the problem domain represented by the requirements and the business and create solutions that appropriate to that. Thus there is absolutely no point for someone that is creating an inventory system for a stand alone store to craft a solution that supports multiple languages.
And another example is with high volume systems moving/storing bytes is relevant. As such one must carefully consider each text element as to whether it is customer consumable or internally consumable. Saving bytes in such cases will impact the total load of the system. In such systems incremental savings impact operating costs and marketing advantage with speed.

Things that should be in the next update... please don't wait for 2.0

I've been using adobe products a long time and I have to say that I am a little disappointed there has not been more thought put into things that should just work in a v1 product.
Here is the list:
Ingest window should be able to be able to take up the full screen. At a minimum, it should remember the last size. My paths get somewhat long and this is very frustrating to continually have to resize the window or panes every time I ingest.
Ingest should put the files in the bin selected when I hit ingest. It always puts them at the root. To make matters worse, keyboard shortcuts that are used to select files in almost any program like SHIFT+HOME do not work. I have to click, scroll to the bottom and shift click the last file to select a range. Then drag all the clips to the target bin. Borrow the code from Premiere
Keyboard shortcuts for clip navigation. Logging clips with keyboard shortcuts is a godsend and this is one thing that I love about Prelude. Anyone who has to do a lot of logging will tell you these keyboard shortcuts are imperative to a smooth workflow. This is especially true if you have to log hundreds of clips like I do. Next clip, previous clip when editing from the navigation tree or in a roughcut would be extremely helpful. If I am in a roughcut, I can easily get into a clip, but not back out to the roughcut where I was. The only way I have found is to click on the roughcut name in the timeline window.
Re-linking moved media - FAIL. Since this product is supposed to let different people log media, it seems crazy that the program can not re-link it. Very few people in this world store there files in the same absolute path.
Lack of updates. Makes me wonder if Adobe is committed to this product. Having a really long time between iterations is hard on your users. At this point I have no clue if any of these features will ever be added.
I have spent a lot of time in this program and it is on the verge of being great. I personally think that before you start adding new features, you should fix some of the things that make it hard to use.

Thank you for your post and your passion for Prelude. Input from customers like you is how we can improve out product.
I do have a few comments and questions for you about your experience. Also, many of the items you have listed are already part of Prelude.
Replies to your list:
1. The Ingest Dialog can be sized to fill your entire screen. Simply drag-drop the edges to resize. This size is also remembered on subsequent launches. This has been in the product for quite some time – what version of Prelude are you running? Currently we have made the following releases: Prelude 1.0, 1.01, 1.02 and 1.03. Our v2.0 has been announced and revealed at NAB last week and is coming out soon with many more enhancements and improvements. Rest assured that Adobe is committed to this product – as you will see with this new release.
2. Ingesting into the selected BIN is part of our upcoming release that was revealed at NAB. I'm currently on a Mac so cannot test the SHIFT+HOME shortcut, but Prelude does support CTRL/SHIFT selection options to make selection easier. I'll look into the HOME and END options as well. If they are missing we certainly want them added.
3. Glad you find the keyboard driven workflow beneficial. We had a lot of customer feedback early in our 1.0 days that this was a must. Adding support for clip selection in the Project Panel to open and log clips is something in our backlog we would also like to deliver because as you say it is very useful and saves time. We are also reviewing our Clip/Roughcut UI and workflow. Don't have anything to report yet other than this is an area we are focusing on.
4. Relinking is possible in Prelude 1.03. We've added additional relinking support in our 2.0 that provides relinking in rough cuts as well. If you are not yet on 1.03 please use the free update and let us know how it works for you.
5. As mentioned above, we have 3 updates posted last year for our 1.0. And 2.0 is coming out soon.
Please continue to share with us your thoughts and ideas for improving Prelude. We have an aggressive feature TODO list but are always looking for more direct input to help us properly prioritize what's part of our next delivery.
Thanks!
Michael

RG1 - Excise Related things to care of before moving to the Production

Dear Friends,
1. Can somebody pl let me know the Excise Related things to care of before moving to the Production. Like the initial posting of the stock and RG1?
2. Also pl help me to go through the various process related to Excise( Utilization and Excise Registers updation related to SD?
Thanks
Isaac

Isaac wrote:Hi,
>
> Thanks Raja...yes, the details provided by Mr. Lakshmipathi is really a good one.
> I have one doubt in this...with reference to the point#3.. " Also update the outward movements of finished goods ( IDH for Domestic Sales and IWE for Exports under Bond/ IDE for Exports against payment of Duty)."
These are various classification for utilization purpose
IDH Removal from factory on payment of duty for Home use
IDE Removal on payment of duty for export under no bond
and there are two or three more i dont remember exactly, but you can get that by searching.....
> 1. Does IDE refers to the LoUT (Letter of Undertaking), if not what should be used for the LoUT?
this is different from LoU, IDE is Classification for Removal on payment of duty for export no bond
> 2. Can u provide me some inputs on Utilization aspects as well.
We have to make utilization determination based excise grp & series grp....
SPRO>Logistics u2013 General>Tax on Goods Movements>India>Business Transactions--> Utilization -->Utilization Determination
Detailed about this is already discussed previously also.
[Utilization|Excise Utilization]
thanks,
Raja

I have a copy of Adobe 8 pro move it from my old laptop to the new an it said an serial number invalid i talked with someone was refered to life chat, nothing they could do, now im here, i ont thing i should have to purchase new, has anyone had the same i

have a copy of Adobe 8 pro move it from my old laptop to the new an it said an serial number invalid i talked with someone was refered to life chat, nothing they could do, now im here, i ont thing i should have to purchase new, has anyone had the same issues and how did you get it fixed or are you in the same boat.

Hi Edward Guilliver,
As i understand you are facing 'Serial Number Invalid' Issue, I would recommend you to refer these Links for more information:
Link 1: https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-suite/kb/invalid-serial-number-cs4.html
Link 2: Error "Invalid serial number" | Acrobat 9 | CS4
Please let me know if any of this Link fix your issue.
Regards,
Rahul Tyagi

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