C# - Finding the Median value of a List

I love using Lists in C#. Unfortunately, the List class lacks some functionality - Like finding the median value in a set.

Definition: The median is the value separating the higher half of a data sample, a population, or a probability distribution, from the lower half. In simple terms, it may be thought of as the "middle" value of a data set. For example, in the data set {1, 3, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9}, the median is 6, the fourth number in the sample. The median is a commonly used measure of the properties of a data set in statistics and probability theory.

Examples:

1.) If there is an odd number of numbers, the middle one is picked. For example, consider the set of numbers:

1, 3, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9

This set contains seven numbers. The median is the fourth of them, which is 6.

2.) In the data set:

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9

The median is the mean of the middle two numbers: this is (4 + 5) ÷ 2, which is 4.5.
- Median on Wikipedia

So - Here's some code to do it :)

ASP.NET - Fixing Entity Framework Migration Errors

AKA

"The Entity Framework provider type 'System.Data.Entity.SqlServer.SqlProviderServices, EntityFramework.SqlServer' registered in the application config file for the ADO.NET provider with invariant name 'System.Data.SqlClient' could not be loaded. Make sure that the assembly-qualified name is used and that the assembly is available to the running application. See http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=260882 for more information."

OR

"Exception Details: System.InvalidOperationException: The Entity Framework provider type 'System.Data.Entity.SqlServer.SqlProviderServices, EntityFramework.SqlServer' registered in the application config file for the ADO.NET provider with invariant name 'System.Data.SqlClient' could not be loaded. Make sure that the assembly-qualified name is used and that the assembly is available to the running application. See http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=260882 for more information."

 

Whilst doing migrations from EF4 to EF6, I came across the following error. This is caused by two different things

1.) Your project contains both EF4 and EF6 references. If you're using EF6, only EF6 can be in the project. Either remove everything EF4 related, or upgrade it to EF6.

2.) You're missing a DLL. This seems to be the most common error. Navigate to applicationPath\bin\ on the server, and look for EntityFramework.SqlServer.dll (Should be around 600KB). For some odd reason, it rarely gets included in deployments. If it's not there, simply copy the version from your development machine onto the server, and you're good to go!

The End Of Windows Defender

I recently had a rather rampant piece of Adware that was effecting Chrome, and causing several miscellaneous words to underline, and hyperlink their way to ad sites. I eventually found the location of the executable, and submitted it to Windows Defender (The Anti Virus I was using at the time).
 
What I got back shocked me. A result of "Not detected". This means that the executable had been previously submitted, and had been found by the Microsoft researchers to not be harmful.
 
Curious about the result, I decided to submit the same file to several online virus scanners - All of which detected the file as harmful by no less than 15 separate anti virus scanners, none of which were Windows Defender.  
 
Curious, I decided to check some previous submissions of mine. The early ones (Back in the Windows 7 / Early Windows 8 period) had all subsequently been added within a few days of my submission. The later ones were either Not Detected or simply No Scan Result Available. Keep in mind that both of those submissions are picked up by the majority of other Anti-Virus's (AVG, F-Secure, Malwarebytes, McAfee, Etc), so I decided to switch.
 
Having 3 known virus files at my disposal, I decided to look around to various free alternatives. I used to use AVG when they were still located at http://free.grisoft.com/ before they went corporate, but they have since severely dwindled in quality. Norton was out of the question (Any tech-savvy person will know how useless and bloatware-esque it is), so I decided to try Malwarebytes. I downloaded their free version located here (16.5MB), and it quickly scanned my PC, effortlessly finding the 3 files I had, as well as some registry entries that the Adware had created. Happy, I acquired a premium version (Real Time Protection), and went merrily on my way.

Convert Number To Month Name In Excel

A simple Excel function to convert a digit to a month name

The first letter of the month (Eg: "N" of "November" for 9)
=TEXT(DATE(2000,A1,1),"MMMMM")

The complete month name (Eg: "November" for 9)
=TEXT(DATE(2000,A1,1),"MMMM")

The abbreviation of the month name (Eg: "Nov" for 9)
=TEXT(DATE(2000,A1,1),"MMM")

Thank to this thread.

CSS equivalent of the center tag

From: <center>dataHere</center> to
To: <div style="margin: auto; text-align: center;">dataHere</div>

Thanks to Isaksen from Stack Overflow

Online Wh to mAh Converter

Just a useful little utility :)

Wh (Eg: 4.44):
V (Eg: 3.7):
mAh:

Formula: mAh = Wh * 1000 / V

<script type="text/javascript">

function convertWhtomAh()

{

var WhValue = document.getElementById('convertWh').value;

var VValue= document.getElementById('convertV').value;

var result = (WhValue * 1000) / VValue;

void(document.getElementById('convertmAh').value = result);

}

</script>

HTML Font Size Conversion

Whilst getting rid of font tags today, I needed an easy reference point to find what size rating in one coding format was equivalent to another (Eg: Is <font size="1"> the same as <span style = "font-size: 8px;"> or... ?) and came across this fantastic chart!

http://www.trishasdesignstudio.com/font-size-conversion-chart.asp

As the link died, here is a version of it hosted on imgur.

How To Rename Google Maps Saved Locations

Whilst saving various places on Google Maps for navigation on my Android phone, I got annoyed that the phone only listed the address (Which gets confusing when you have a list)

To rename them to something more friendy, do the following:

1.) Star a place as per usual.
2.) Browse to https://www.google.com/bookmarks/
3.) Click "Edit" next to the one you want to change.
4.) Change the top line (That currently has the address) to the name you want.
5.) Click "Save"

Your Android device will automatically sync, and you will now see the user-friendly name when navigating :)

Skype - Ultra High CPU Usage

The past few days I've noticed that my office laptops Skype was permanently sitting at +- 90%+ CPU usage. Since I use Skype for work, not using it was not exactly a viable option, and restarting it (And updating to the latest version) didn't help.

I did, however - Find a solution!

1.) Download Process Explorer

2.) Run it

3.) Right click on Skype, and click "Properties"

4.) Click "Threads" (Ignore the potential message about something not being up to date)

5.) Sort by CPU usage by clicking the 2nd tab from the left twice.

6.) Find that a single thread is using all the CPU (For me it was Skype.exe+0x705c although it's also known to be Skype.exe+0x7074)

7.) Click the offending thread, and click  "Kill"

Skype's CPU usage will drop to what it's meant to be (0% average for me), with no visible side effects.

Seems like Microsoft have some threading bug with Skype that's existed for awhile :)

Copy.com VS Dropbox.com

I recently got suggested a new Cloud Storage service - Copy

After testing it for about 5 minutes, I give it the following review :)

1.) 15GB Default Storage - Awesome!
2.) The Desktop app seems awesome (Although the 45MB download is a bit overkill) - It's also native x64!
3.) Files can be direct linked - Which is awesome!
4.) HTML files are served as type text/plain intead of text/html- This is a critical fail on Copy's behalf.

Whilst the first 3 are awesome, the 4th is a critical failure, and so I will stick to Dropbox :)