True that !! :sigh:

I've been in the (US) government for a while and its hard to hire contractors on our existing service contract so I finally found a contract vehicle that would allow us to get either a consultant/programmer if we can find this person but now I need to know how to find a qualified individual for the type of work we need. We need an embedded Linux programmer (I'm not one but we do have one on our team who is doing other work). Be able to advise, review our design, and be able to code, etc. Must understand or be expert at kernel level programming -- device drivers, network/networking IP, ARP, unicast, etc. Basically, we're rolling our own streamlined linux onto a remote network distributor (or redistributor/IP message forwarder). The subsystem will have a main/alternate redundant data paths, control what path to switch to, is bidirectional for some messages but mostly unidirectional. Will need to know which path is online, obtain performance measurements, capable of running a built in test while operating and a fault isolation test when in a maintenance mode to isolate any problems. This device will be the interface to other devices on the network allowing remote access for configurations and also acts as a controller/manager providing status and information for remote monitoring purposes. Personally, we have a small team of C programmers (expert at their area of the system)and only one knows linux and kernel level programming. Of course, he's a know it all and may be pulling the wool over our eyes sometimes because none of us know embedded well enough to challenge him. He seems competent though has a large ego. Anyway, I've did some preliminary looks online at the guru.com type of sites. Wow. That didn't seem very productive. The government can't post a job on one of those sites. And, I tried a couple of informal direct contacts to no avail. Anyway, was hoping someone can point me in the right direction.

I want to set up a Wifi AP as a Captive Portal but rather than allow complete access to the web, the server allows the client to request specific information (hot links) from the information displayed on the captive portal's base or home page and only those URLs embedded in those hot links only. Assuming the site on the Internet has no links, is this possible and secure so that no one can type a different URL and visit the rest of the web? In other words if I code a pseudo proxy server on the AP that will only forward/pass web pages from any of the links that are on the original captive portal's base page, will this work?

Thanks, for the suggestion...I was not confident about posting it in the collaborative area however I did a search on the google and found a neat website called elance. It looks like its setup for what I want to do. I haven't researched it too much so at first glance, though it may be unfair, I'm a little wary about what kind of talent pool is there, and I'm wondering if I could pay by the project based on an initial estimate or bid versus an hourly rate. If anyone knows any pros or cons to sites like that one, please let me know. TIA

This may or may not be the right forum to ask this type of question. I haven't hung out in this database area to know. Please, let me know where to post this. I can add more detail if contacted. I'm looking for a professional mysql database developer to perform a job/service for me. I have very little database experience and need either a consultant/expert type or someone who can answer questions (justify reasons and choices made) and design and develop a mysql database. I am a software developer and realize that I am out of my league in order to build a database (and PHP website) to handle potentially rapid growth so I am also interested in how things should be done and why.

Okay. I did what you suggested (using the same software and same PC as in creating an image from a disc I burned previously and comparing) and there are differences. All differences appear in the first 50k of the .iso file. Apparently, something besides a timestamp has been updated. Am now just using WinZip to zip up both disc's contents and comparing CRC's for each file. They all check out, exact match.

Well, I probably will but I do not have the same reproduction system and software that the contractor has so I'm not sure it will prove much. I still think that there should be no differences because an ISO is an exact copy of the disk AFAIK. Unless there's a part of the ISO file format e.g. header that can store specific information that may vary from burner to burner. I'll look into that next.

I was wondering the same thing but I was thinking that doesn't make sense. Yeah, I guess a timestamp could be different but there were too many differences to account for a couple of timestamps. Hmmm.

Good catch. Here's my lame excuse. Its either because I don't know anything of value, are too busy to hang out here except when I'm really stumped, or am not confident enough to help with some questions. In reality its a combination of all three. Sorry. I used to help out quite a bit (in other) forums (non programming related) and have been through all of the growing pains from helping novices who ask the same questions over and over till at some point (usually in a couple of years) you either start answering smart - like RTFM or FAQ, or you withdraw slowly. I'm now a slacker, slacker.

I may be going bonkers so just wanted to check that I'm thinking correctly. We sent a CDROM disc to our sister organization (at another location) which does printing of our documentation and attachments i.e. our program on CDROM disc. They, of course, contract this out. And, of course, the last time we tried to handle this electronically, we just sent an ISO image (as a file ending in the extension .iso). And you know what happened, right? Yep, we got a CDROM proof sent back with the .iso file on it. So, of course we now stick to snail mail. However, I've decided to make the CD and create an ISO image of the CD we are sending. The plan being, that when I receive the proof back from the contractor via our sister org, that I will make an ISO image of that CD too. Then, I'll generate a MD5 and SHA1 hash for both ISO images and compare the two image's hashes. Should be the same, right? Turned out....wrong. So, just to be sure I binary compared the two ISO images and of course there are many, many differences. Am I wrong to think that this should work, that they should compare exactly? Of course, the contractor, which I spoke to directly tells me that they always just select copy disc from whatever equipment and/or software that they use. When asked about whether they could accept an ISO image, they were unsure and would have to get back to me. When asked whether they could receive an ISO image via FTP or website upload, they said no. Of course, what should I expect from a major overnight package delivery service which moonlights now as a reproduction service?

Thanks, MicroVirus. Took all your suggestions to heart. Besides msvcrt.dll, I also decided not to deliver comdlg32.dll.

What? I believe that an Active X control must be registered (DLLRegisterServer and/or RegSvr32) If not, that's new to me. The problem is that other programs may have registered their version and location of an Active X control and then this program (even if it stores it in the program's local directory) changes the location (because it registers it) so that any program using the previous version now is using the just installed control in a different location. If I am not being clear, there are two problems. One with DLLs which I am not registering, and one with OCX's which I registering. I may be able to do as you suggest with the DLLs but not with the OCX's.

modified on Thursday, April 14, 2011 6:57 AM

Actually, the whole reason I am doing it this way is because during testing I discovered some of the OCX's were registered in the program's local directory. Of course, if and when you do an uninstall of the program, its best to leave those files in the program's directory and not delete them. The problem is that a user who knows he uninstalled the program may look at the program's directory and see there's nothing there but DLLs and OCX and do a delete *.* and then other programs that were using the registered locations will no longer work. Same as DLL hell. I would prefer that the files are left in the system directory such that at least there is less risk of accidental deletion by the user.

I'm looking to see what files are delivered with each Windows Operating system and/or what can be replaced if older versions exist on PCs we are delivering to. I'm testing another developer's product including the installation CD. He is delivering several DLLs and Active X components (.OCX files). The program will be installed on Windows 98, XP (none or up to Service Pack 3) and Windows 2000. The OCX's are fine. No problems. The problem is that of some of the files he is delivering, I do not know if they are already a part of the Windows Operating System and whether they should be replaced. My testing has revealed that at least for XP (at least for Service Packs 2 and 3), XP is protecting the files from being replaced even after a temporary file is created and a reboot is performed. Dlls won't be replaced in this situation but OCXs will. We have an older installation program called Setup Factory 6 which may not be up with all of the advances to XP. Here are the culprits: comdlg32.dll (does this have to be replaced if a newer version is avail in the delivery?) msvcrt.dll mfc42.dll Which of these files are already expected to be there and should they be replaced if the delivery package has newer versions? I replaced an older version of comdlg32.dll on Windows 98 and it broke 98 because it has a dependency on a newer version of shell32.dll. I've since changed the option to install that file on Windows 98 to "never overwrite existing file". I also do not know why he is delivering commdlg32.ocx. Any help would be appreciated. TIA.

Okay, checking for a linked library in a library project when none will exist makes sense. I don't know what I was thinking. But it didn't have any #pragma comment(lib,...) directives in the two libraries either. FYI, I finally found the answer by viewing the .rc resource file. It seems that a GUID exists, because the Forms Controls (is a COM object or OLE server?), for each of the controls that were used within the project. Found 4 GUIDs, one image, one text box, and two labels. Now have to replace them. Apparently they were used because the items all needed image backgrounds.

Thanks, Hans. I've never used the #pragma comment lib directive. I've checked for both and there are no inclusion to those libs. The only thing it may be, and I will have to check first, is that he includes explicitly two libraries, that he created, in the Linker options. Perhaps, one or both of those library projects use the forms controls.

The better question might be, "How can I get rid of this dependency?". I'm finishing testing on another developer's project who doesn't know himself how he got his application dependent on the FM20.dll and FM20ENU.DLL. Looking online I found that these are Microsoft forms 2.0 controls. Is there a way to check the resources or the project, for 2.0 controls? Since, these are not redistributable and the application is not dependent on anything that MS Office might have installed (as far as we know), I want to get rid of this dependency but simply removing the dlls from the application's installation directory is not going to solve this problem. I need to know why the application is dependent on them. Is there certain 2.0 API type calls that I can search on within the project? Or something inside of the IDE itself that I can check?

modified on Tuesday, March 29, 2011 3:24 PM

I'll give that a try. Thank you very much.

Henry Minute wrote:

Is this 'other developer' someone you know?

Yes, it is. But I am performing independent testing and cannot ask him to change his program until testing is complete when I have found a problem and/or can make a request for a "I'd like to have" feature but it most likely would not be put in, in the interest of getting this version out the door ASAP. Basically, he cannot modify the program until testing is done, and we will have to perform regression testing and retesting for any fixed problems.

movement to only 4-directions? Sort of like a 4-way joystick but it must be seen as a mouse. In other words, make it seem like my mouse could only move in straight horizontal or vertical directions instead of any direction. I'm testing another developer's program and need for a zoom rectangle to be completely straight with unmoved corners as I draw the zoom rectangle selection area. I basically need to anchor the lower left corner as I move to define the lower right corner. Of course, the zoom selection rectangle starts by clicking the left mouse button down to define the starting upper left corner. P.S. I've googled for the past two hours and have found some programs that let your mouse emulate a joystick (not helpful) and I actually considered if I had a 4-way gamepad to use programs I've found that would let your joystick/gamepad emulate your mouse. TIA