Swap Magic For Slim Playstation 2

Swap Magic For Slim Playstation 2

by: Jeromy

Recently my Japanese PS2 that I got way back at the Japan launch died on me. Seeing as I need to have a machine that plays Japanese PS2 games I went looking around at prices for a new one and unfortunately found the price tags to be in the $180 range. With that in mind I set out to find a more cost effective method of playing import games. I’ve always been fond of tinkering with my consoles which is evidenced by my blue see through modified Dreamcast and the mod switch on the side of my Gamecube, so I looked around at the current PS2 mod options since I already own a Slim US PS2.

I’m absolutely terrible at soldering and I’m not a fan of the PS2 modchip scene seeing as it’s rampant with piracy so I didn’t want to install a modchip. After searching a bit I came across the Swap Magic product. It looked interesting but upon further inspection I realized that it required opening up the console to install. I looked a little further and found a new version of the product which required zero modification to the console. This looked to be the solution to my problems. Luckily I had the PS2 version it supported, the Slim PS2, so I took the plunge and ordered it up from ModChip.Com.

Then I got to play the waiting game. I waited for weeks for this thing to be delivered before I finally gave up on it. I also tried many times to find and email the staff of this website store but their support email is so well hidden, if existent, on their website that I could never find it. So with one scam under my belt I looked for a more reliable store. I found that store at modchipstore.com. It took less than three days to arrive and the product was in perfect condition. With the import enabler in hand, I set out to play some Japanese PS2 games on my US Slim PS2.

The kit comes with a CD, for CD based games, a DVD, for DVD based games, and three small plastic parts which are to be inserted into crevices under the popup cover of the Slim PS2. There were no instructions included in the package so I headed over to the website in search of directions but came up with only a dead link. After about a half hour of searching the web I finally found a PDF with instructions that were very detailed and contained great pictures of the installation process. With instructions in hand, so to speak, I give the installation a try.

The first thing I had to do is install the three small plastic pieces. The first plastic piece required that it be pushed into a small hole. My fingers alone didn’t do the job so I had to grab a screw driver and shove it into position. After quite a bit of fiddling, it finally stayed in place. The next piece had to be slid in between a latch of some sort and was somewhat difficult to make stay in place. The third piece slipped into place easily. With all the plastic pieces installed the physical work was done. Unfortunately I dropped the PS2 after this and all the pieces flew out. I tracked them all down, reinstalled them, and was ready to go once again.

When all the plastic pieces are in place the next step is to go ahead and boot up the swap CD or DVD. The game I was testing with was a CD so I popped in the swap CD and turned on the PS2. With the plastic bits in place you don’t have to keep the flip top closed, so I left it open. A flash screen appears followed by a second screen that allows you to adjust the video mode. If you are using a US PS2 set the video mode to NTSC and not the default ขNormalข mode otherwise it won’t boot the game you’re trying to play.

Playing

Next the swap CD or DVD will stop spinning and you’re ready to swap in your import PS2 game. With the import game placed in the PS2 all you have to do execute the load command from the menu on screen and the game will start up spinning and load. Once I had the game loaded it played and looked perfect. Another big plus is that you don’t have to buy another memory card just for import games due to the fact that you can save all different regions of save games on one memory card.

Swap Magic for Slim PS2 has allowed me to play import PS2 games for a fraction of the price of a new Japanese PS2 and I have to say it works great. I have yet to come across a game that doesn’t work using this product. That said, it’s not something for the lazy out there as it does require swapping discs every time you want to play a game. So if you’re short on cash and already have a USA or PAL Slim PS2 then get this product but if not and you have the cash go ahead and grab a Japanese PS2.

Pros

* Relatively Easy Install

* Low price

Cons

* Requires Some Effort

* Requires A Slim PS2

Overall Score

9.2

About The Author

Jeromy is the webmaster of http://www.gamebrink.com/ GameBrink.Com Import Video Game Compare.

This article was posted on September 05

by Jeromy

CCNA Cisco Certification Test Taking Tips

CCNA Cisco Certification Test Taking Tips

by: www.SemSim.com

Here are some tips to follow for the CCNA test:
Relax before exam: In order to avoid last minute stress, make sure that you arrive 10 to 15 minutes early and relax before exam.
Familiarize yourself with exam: Before taking the CCNA exam, you are given an option of to familiarize yourself with the way the exam is carried out (the exam interface). You must make sure to take advantage of this.
Time Management Tips:
Manage Time Spent On Each Question: The duration for the exam is 90 minutes. You must determine how much time you will spend on each question. While determining this take into consideration that simulations take more time to answer. Also keep in mind that some other questions are weighed more heavily and may take more time to answer (e.g. difficult subnetting problems).
Be Sure Of Exam Interface: Clear your doubts, in case if you have any, regarding the rules for the CCNA exam or using the testing computer/software with the supervisor after he sets up your machine and before you start the exam. Remember that the exam is timed and you may loose your valuable test time for such questions, which you could have asked earlier.
Jot Down Important Points Before Exam: Before you start the exam, ask for scratch paper and jot down points that you may require to recall when taking your exam. This is always allowed and proves to be very helpful while taking the exam. These may include:

OSI Model layers
Access lists
Important tables such as powers of 2 (2^1 = 2; 2^2 = 4…2^8 = 256)
Class A,B,C address range and properties e.g.
Class A: Denoted by network.host.host.host; first octet is between 1 to 126;
Important formulae such as 2^x2 gives the number of hosts per subnet where x is the number of กoffก bits in the subnet mask
Binary to decimal conversion table & tips

All Answers Are Final: Remember that you cannot return to a question once you have answered it. So, be very careful while answering to the questions and don’t rush as it might cost you valuable marks.
Don’t Panic. There Is No Negative Marking: Although the exam software does not allow you to review questions you’ve answered, there is no negative marks for a wrong answer. The CCNA exam does not penalize you for wrong answer, so never leave any question unanswered. If you are not able to find out the correct answers to some questions, eliminate the possible answers that cannot be correct and narrow down your guess.

About The Author

SemSim.com provides training resources for Cisco certification exams: CCIE, CCNP, CCNA, CCDP, CCDA. It offers FREE learning resources to students such as study guides and router simulation labs at itกs online learning center located at: http://www.semsim.com/ccna/learn.html

http://www.SemSim.com : Making Cisco cetification easy!

[email protected]

This article was posted on July 02, 2004

by www.SemSim.com

Microsoft CRM Data Import FAQ

Microsoft CRM Data Import FAQ

by: Andrew Karasev

Microsoft CRM has builtin conversion tool, however you should probably first try third party conversion tool, such as Scribe. It is relatively expensive and has bunch of importing capabilities, that you might never use and need. Scribe allows you to map objects in source and target, when source is ACT! for example. If you are just realized the need to load data into CRM – please research Microsoft CRM import tool and Scribe. Here we will describe other option and possibilities

Master records import – you can import via MS CRM integration tool. Tools>Import and select contacts or leads

Duplication dilemma. In version 1.2 as well as in 3.0 (as far as we know) you do not have duplication check and you can import duplicate leads or contacts.

MS CRM SDK custom data migration. If data import is critical and you have reasonable budget for the migration – you can appeal to MS CRM customization partner who specializes in the complex data import. In MS CRM SDK you can program duplication check, special rules for security settings. We have to stress here, that this is not one thousand dollars project and if you are small company, you should stick to Scribe or native MS CRM import tool

Large Scale MS CRM implementation. For corporate business security might have top priority and migration should be programmed in MS CRM SDK.

Some technical tips. Postcallouts. In MS CRM 3.0 which should be released in earlier 2006 there are socalled precall outs (in version 1.2 we have only postcallouts). Precallout should allow to check for duplication, based on your duplication recognition criteria and cancel record if it is duplicate contact, account or lead

If you have a need in large scale data import, you can always have us help you with MS CRM SDK data conversion. Give us a call: 866.528.0577 or 1.630.961.598, [email protected]

About The Author

Andrew Karasev is Chief Technology Officer at Alba Spectrum Technologies ( http://www.albaspectrum.com ) Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains, Navision, Axapta MS CRM, Oracle Financials and IBM Lotus Domino Partner, serving corporate customers in the following industries: Aerospace & Defense, Medical & Healthcare, Distribution & Logistics, Hospitality, Banking & Finance, Wholesale & Retail, Chemicals, Oil & Gas, Placement & Recruiting, Advertising & Publishing, Textile, Pharmaceutical, NonProfit, Beverages, Conglomerates, Apparels, Durables, Manufacturing and having locations in multiple states and internationally.

[email protected]

This article was posted on August 28

by Andrew Karasev

Microsoft CRM Integration: Siebel Email Attachment

Microsoft CRM Integration: Siebel Email Attachments Import C# and MS Transact SQL example

by: Boris Makushkin

Microsoft CRM – CRM answer from Microsoft Business Solutions has aggressive pricing, going down and making it affordable for small companies. We see cases when Microsoft CRM replaces such traditional CRM systems as Siebel. It is not necessary, that clients decided to replace it themselves – they may be victims of their systems – the example: Great Plains had alliance with Siebel several years ago and we saw multiple clients with Great Plains – Siebel tandem. Now Great Plains integrates with MS CRM.

This article is for programmer, who needs data to be migrated from Siebel or other CRM to MS CRM.

Today’s topic is Siebel emails, stored in the files, import into MS CRM database. Each message exists in the form of separate file in the import directory. We will use custom SQL table, created in MS SQL Server 2000:

if exists (select * from dbo.sysobjects where id = object_id(Nก[dbo].[CrmAttachImporter]ก) and OBJECTPROPERTY(id, NกIsUserTableก) = 1)

drop table [dbo].[CrmAttachImporter]

GO

CREATE TABLE [dbo].[CrmAttachImporter] (

[Id] uniqueidentifier ROWGUIDCOL NOT NULL ,

[CrmActivityGuid] [varchar] (50) NOT NULL ,

[MsgFileName] [varchar] (2000) NOT NULL

) ON [PRIMARY]

GO

Comments to this table – its goal is storing MS CRM activity GUID relationship to file name with email attachment (email message), which needs to be attached to the activity. We will store activity GUID in the field CrmActivityGuid and file name in the import directory of the attachment in the MsgFileName field.

Configuration file for our utility will be the following:

provider=SQLOLEDB;Initial Catalog=Albaspectrum;Data Source=MSSQL1;User Id=sa;Password=sa;

data

CrmAttachImporter

CrmActivityGuid

MsgFileName

Here we described MS SQL Server connection string, the path to messagesfiles in the file system, table name, which stores the relations Activity GUID and file names, table column names, required for import procedure

To control import process we will use free logging library for .NET: log4net. You can get it here: http://logging.apache.org/log4net/

Let’s look at the method of potential attachments catalog scanning:

public void scanFolder() {

log = LogManager.GetLogger(typeof(AttachImporter));

DOMConfigurator.Configure(new FileInfo(กlog.configก));

try {

DirectoryInfo dirInfo = new DirectoryInfo(msgFolder);

FileInfo[] files = dirInfo.GetFiles();

Hashtable emails = new Hashtable();

foreach (FileInfo fileInfo in files) {

log.Debug(กAnalizing file: ก + fileInfo.Name);

Guid activityId = GetActivityIdByFileName(fileInfo.Name);

if (! activityId.ToString().Equals(new Guid().ToString())) {

emails.Add(activityId, fileInfo.DirectoryName + @ก\ก + fileInfo.Name);

Console.WriteLine(กMarked for import: ก + fileInfo.Name);

log.Debug(กMarked for import: ก + fileInfo.Name);

}

else {

Console.WriteLine(กNot found in activity import list: ก + fileInfo.Name);

log.Debug(กNot found in activity import list: ก + fileInfo.Name);

}

}

ProcessMessages(emails);

}

catch (Exception e) {

Console.WriteLine(e.Message + ก

ก + e.StackTrace);

}

}

Central place in this method is checking on the relationship existence in the import table for CRM Activity GUID and file name in the import directory:

private Guid GetActivityIdByFileName(string fileName) {

//create the database connection

OleDbConnection conn = new OleDbConnection(connectionString);

conn.Open();

//create the command object and store the sql query

OleDbCommand command = conn.CreateCommand();

command.CommandText = กSELECT ก + activityGuidColumn + ก, ก + msgFileNameColumn + ก FROM ก + tableName + ก WHERE UPPER(LTRIM(RTRIM(ก + msgFileNameColumn + ก))) = UPPER(LTRIM(RTRIM(?)))ก;

log.Debug(กPreview checking SQL query: ก + command.CommandText);

log.Debug(กUsing file name: ก + fileName);

command.Parameters.Add(new OleDbParameter(msgFileNameColumn, fileName));

//create the datareader object to connect to table

OleDbDataReader reader = command.ExecuteReader();

if (reader.Read()) {

Guid activityGuid = new Guid(reader.GetString(0));

reader.Close();

conn.Close();

return activityGuid;

}

else {

reader.Close();

conn.Close();

return new Guid();

}

}

Importing messages cache is transferred as a parameter to the method, which does attachment import into MS CRM:

private void ProcessMessages(Hashtable emails)

{

try

{

log.Debug(กStart importing processก);

CRMConnector crmConnector = new CRMConnector();

// Connect to CRM DB

crmConnector.SetCrmConfigPath(Environment.SystemDirectory + ก/Albaspectrum/MSCRMGateway.xmlก);

crmConnector.SetCrmContentType(Environment.SystemDirectory + ก/Albaspectrum/ContentType.txtก);

crmConnector.Connect(log);

if (emails != null) {

ICollection keys = emails.Keys;

int attCounter = 0;

foreach (Guid o in keys) {

string attName = (string)(emails[o]);

crmConnector.AddAttachmentToActivity(o, attName, (new FileInfo(attName)).Length, attCounter);

attCounter++;

}

}

crmConnector.Close();

}

catch (Exception ex)

{

log.Debug(ex.Message + ก
ก + ex.StackTrace);

}

}

All the required classes for working with MS CRM Activity are stored in MSCRMGateway library and described in these articles:

http://www.albaspectrum.com/Customizations_Whitepapers/Dexterity_SQL_VBA_Crystal/MSCRMCUstomizationEmailAttachment.htm

http://www.albaspectrum.com/Customizations_Whitepapers/Dexterity_SQL_VBA_Crystal/MSCRMCUstomizationClosedActivity.htm

Happy converting and importing! If you would like us to do the job, give as a call 1630.961.5918 or 1866.528.0577 [email protected]

About The Author

Boris Makushkin is Lead Software Developer in Alba Spectrum Technologies – USA nationwide Microsoft CRM, Microsoft Great Plains customization company, serving Chicago, California, Arizona, Colorado, New York, Texas, Georgia, Florida, Canada, Australia, UK, Russia, Europe and internationally ( http://www.albaspectrum.com ), he is Microsoft CRM SDK, Navision, C#, VB.Net, SQL, Oracle, Unix developer.

[email protected]

This article was posted on December 23, 2004

by Boris Makushkin