Often, SQL Server stored procedures use the “SET NOCOUNT ON” command to improve performance. This command prevents DONE_IN_PROC messages from being sent to the client. In certain situations involving multiple iterations in loops, disabling such messages may noticeably boost performance and reduce network traffic. Hence, most discussions about SET NOCOUNT ON focus on the performance…
DetailsIf you aren’t a fan of the default dark gray interface in InDesign Creative Cloud, you can customize it to your liking. Choose Edit > Preferences > Interface to display the Interface preference settings. Choose one of the options in the Color Theme pop-up menu: Light, Medium-Light, Medium-Dark, Dark, and Custom. Also note, you can…
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If you’ve never noticed the pixel grid in Photoshop, maybe you haven’t zoomed in close enough. The pixel grid appears as a white grid over your image when you are zoomed in at 600% or higher, and it enables you to make precision edits at the pixel level. However, if you’re like many users, you…
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If you’re editing a large document that also includes a number of images, you may find that scrolling is quite slow. This happens because Word has to load each image as you scroll, which can make your productivity drag. Fortunately, if you display picture placeholders rather than your actual images, you won’t have to worry…
DetailsConfiguring multiple access points individually can be tedious and error-prone. To centralize administration, some access points have a cluster option, so that one configuration applies to all APs. However, more recently, Cisco Aironet APs require a separate piece of hardware, called a wireless LAN controller, in order to be clustered. A wireless LAN controller is…
DetailsOne strategy for preventing denial-of-Service (DoS) attacks is to limit the number of embryonic connections. These are TCP connections where the handshake hasn’t been completed yet. DoS attacks may attempt to flood an interface with TCP SYN packets, initiating the handshake but not completing it. On ASA, you can limit the number of allowed embryonic…
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When working with web APIs or diagnosing website problems, often it’s useful to send HTTP requests through the command line, rather than through a browser. One of the most straightforward ways to do that is with the cURL utility, which you can download from http://curl.haxx.se/download.html. (You can also install it as add-on through Cygwin.) If…
DetailsWhen working with a constructor function in JavaScript, you can use its prototype property to add new methods and properties. But sometimes, prototype can seem confusing, because when you try to access it from a given object, you may get an error saying that it’s undefined. The reason for this is that only constructor functions…
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If a SharePoint web application isn’t set up correctly, users may receive 401.1 Access Denied errors when logging in. The error can be confusing because it suggests that the user’s credentials are wrong, when they may actually be correct. A typical cause for this problem is that SharePoint Web Front End servers (WFEs) in a…
DetailsAlthough your company higher-ups can read your email and block it, most likely, you’ve run into a different problem. While we strongly caution against sending personal email from your work account, the bottom line is that your email system isn’t working as it should. We’ll go through the most common culprits behind returned, or bounced,…
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The Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) prevents certain network problems caused by switching loops (also called bridge loops), which happen when there are multiple Layer 2 paths between endpoints. If network traffic can take too many paths, an infinite loop may result, causing a network storm that crowds out normal traffic. STP works by using an…
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When various hosts are having network problems, it can be helpful to see what port they were last connected to. One way to do this is by looking up the MAC addresses that were connected to those ports. However, past data about MAC addresses may not be available on the switch. When a port’s state…
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While you’re likely used to free, open source JavaScript frameworks, some popular frameworks are proprietary. For example, until the spring of2014, much of Telerik’s Kendo UI framework existed only in the commercial version. The open source “Kendo UI Web” version lacked many of the main features of the “Kendo UI Complete” version and was released…
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Several programming languages have become popular that seek greater conciseness compared to languages with traditional C-based syntax. For example, in Python, code blocks are defined using indentation rather than braces, and many other common language conventions are shortened or eliminated as well. To extend this philosophy to front-end code, a new language called CoffeeScript was…
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Editing an Excel chart was never an easy process prior to Excel 2010. For instance, if you wanted to edit a data series, you had to click on it to select it, right-click on it, and then choose Format Data Series from the shortcut menu in order to finally get to the Format Data Series…
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