Daily Archives

Articles indexed Thursday June 30 2011

Page 2/13 | < Previous Page | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12  | Next Page >

• BeanInfo Editor in NetBeans Rocks

  - by Geertjan

  Impressed by a cool feature I didn't know about. If you have some JavaBean, like my Event class below, you can right-click it and choose "BeanInfo Editor": Now, as you can see above, I don't have a BeanInfo class. So I am now asked whether the IDE should create one for me. So I say OK and then I have a new BeanInfo class, generated from my Event class, as well as a multiview editor for visually editing the BeanInfo class: Thanks Eric and Nicklas from Artificial Solutions in Stockholm for pointing this out to me today. It comes in very handy in NetBeans Platform applications when you're working with a BeanNode and want to customize the display of your properties.

  Read the article

• Download Google+ Android App

  - by Gopinath

  You can access Google’s new social networking service,Google+, on your Android mobile phones using a native application. Google+ for mobile makes sharing the right things with the right people a lot simpler. Huddle lets you send super-fast messages to the people you care about most. With your permission, Instant Upload automatically puts the photos and videos you take into a private album in the cloud, so you can share them anytime, from anywhere. And no matter where you are, the stream lets you stay in the loop about what your friends are sharing and where they’re checking in. Here is a demonstration video of Google+ for Android. Google will release a native app for iPhone soon and there is no word on when they are going to release Google+ for other mobiles like Windows Phone 7, BlackBerry and Nokia. By the way you need invitation to access Google+ and you can request for one over here (more information on how to get Google+ Invite) Download Google+ for Android from Market Place This article titled,Download Google+ Android App, was originally published at Tech Dreams. Grab our rss feed or fan us on Facebook to get updates from us.

  Read the article

• Google Updates Google Pack – Pushes Firefox and Skype Away

  - by Gopinath

  Google Pack is a must to install software package on every new Windows PC. With a single installer Google Pack delivers all the useful Google applications like Gtalk, Google Earth, Picasa, etc. and third party applications Firefox, Skype, Adobe Reader. Today Google updated Google Pack collection and removed competitor products like Firefox and Skype from main page and pushed them to background. The main page of Google Pack now showcases the following software: Google Apps, Google Picasa, Adobe Reader, Google Toolbar for IE, Google Desktop, avast free antivirus, Google Chrome and Google Earth. It’s still possible to install Firefox and Skype through Google Pack by clicking on the link “All Applicatoins” available on the right side menu and selecting the required installers.  As most of the users use the main page to pick the showcased software, Firefox and Skype are going to loose much of Google Pack love. Thanks labnol This article titled,Google Updates Google Pack – Pushes Firefox and Skype Away, was originally published at Tech Dreams. Grab our rss feed or fan us on Facebook to get updates from us.

  Read the article

• How To Get Google+ Invites?

  - by Gopinath

  Google Plus is a new social networking service from Google and it’s aimed to compete with the social networking giant Facebook. Google’s attempts at social networking in the past were never a hit (few of them were miserable fails – Google Wave, Google Buzz) but this time Google seems to be getting things. Google Plus is an invite only service at the moment and you can’t access it without an initiation. So far Google sent invitations to selected bloggers and high profile web users. If you want an invite to Google Plus visit official Google Plus invitation request page and register your email id. There is no word from Google on when the invites will be distributed to public users. Hopefully Google should roll out invitations soon. This article titled,How To Get Google+ Invites?, was originally published at Tech Dreams. Grab our rss feed or fan us on Facebook to get updates from us.

  Read the article

• When and how does one become a good programmer these days? [closed]

  - by YoungMoney

  I mean, good enough to make software people want and get paid for it. Maybe even good enough to launch a company or something. I'm also concerned that I'm not applying the finer points of my algorithms/data structures/software design knowledge. Background: I'm 20 and have been struggling with programming for about two years now, trying to become a software engineer. I started with a few university courses that I did quite poorly in. I learned how to make websites with HTML/JavaScript and PHP/MySQL, but feel like I know very relevant theory for making good databases - how does something like Facebook serve hundreds of millions of people? What would be smart ways to store data? I don't know. Now I'm doing some android application development, but again I have no idea about good Java design theory (I use static variables like they're going out of fashion) and feel more like I'm gluing stuff together and letting Eclipse slowly autocomplete my project. In short, I'm not sure if I'm becoming a legitimate software developer or just "doing what's cool". At least I've taken some data structures and Algorithms courses and plan to take more in the next years. But I'm having a really tough time applying this stuff to my fun little apps that I'm building. Every language higher level than C++ seems to have its own quicksort function already built-in, for example. Similarly, I can't remember ever needing to implement a linked-list, heap, binary tree, or or worry about pointers and memory management. But maybe this is a good thing so that I focus on other things? I'm not too sure what those other things are though. Hopefully something more than building another photo sharing app. Anyways that's it for me, I look forward to your responses!

  Read the article

• How similiar should the environments of PreProd and Prod be?

  - by RoboShop

  I've just recently been on a project and during the release, we realized that it didn't work in Production. It works in all other environments but because we have a separate release team, and we cannot set up the servers and environments ourselves, we have no visibility of the configuration on them. We suspect that Prod has some user permissions in its account or IIS settings that are different, so we are working though it now. So I think this whole thing has been a learning experience for me and I don't want the same thing repeated again. I would like to ask, how different should these environments be? I always thought that PreProd should be an identical copy to the Prod environment using a copy of the same database, using a copy of the same user account, should be installed on the same servers etc. But how far should I take it? If the web site is externally facing, should PreProd be externally facing? What if the website has components that don't require a user account or password to navigate to? Is it still okay to expose it to the outside world?

  Read the article

• advice for a new software engineer/developer right out of college

  - by ranzy

  I just graduated recently from a 4-year university with a degree in Computer Science and thankfully got a job in Software Engineering. I'm working with C++ with a .NET framework if that's correct to say because that also confuses me. What I'm asking for is what tutorials/books are out there to learn C++ for Windows Programming I guess? I know how to program somewhat and I understand the concepts but when I look at the code it doesn't make sense to me. I know I just started so it's kind of expected but it's certainly quite different from college. Thanks!

  Read the article

• If PHP websites represnt 70% of websites in my country then should I learn it?

  - by Fadi Tiwari

  In my country most of the sites are built using PHP and MySQL. Half of those sites use vbulletin and Wordpress. When it comes to companies, ministries and universities they use ASP.NET. I am not sure what should I learn to get more money as freelacer? Should I learn ASP.NET and focus my area to build companies and universities' sites? (And the question if they will know me one day and ask me to build any of their sites or not?) Or should I learn PHP and focus my business on people's sites and maybe some small formal sites? Which option will give me more money?

  Read the article

• Are there serious companies that don't use version-control and continuous integration? Why?

  - by daramarak

  A colleague of mine was under the impression that our software department was highly advanced, as we used both a build server with continuous integration, and version control software. This did not match my point of view, as I only know of one company I which made serious software and didn't have either. However, my experience is limited to only a handful of companies. Does anyone know of any real company (larger than 3 programmers), which is in the software business and doesn't use these tools? If such a company exists, are there any good reason for them not doing so?

  Read the article

• Best Practices vs Reality

  - by RonHill

  On a scale depicting how closely best practices are followed, with "always" on one end and "never" on the other, my current company falls uncomfortably close to the latter. Just a couple trivial examples: We have no code review process There is very little documentation despite a very large code base (and some of it is blatantly incorrect/misleading) Untested/buggy/uncompilable code is frequently checked in to source control It is comically complicated to create a debuggable build for some of our components because of its underlying architecture. Unhandled exceptions are not uncommon in our releases Empty Catch{ } blocks are everywhere. Now, with the understanding that it's neither practical nor realistic to follow ALL best practices ALL the time, my question is this: How closely have commonly accepted best practices been followed at the companies you've worked for? I'm kind of a noob--this is only the second company I've worked for--so I'm not sure if I'm just more of an anal retentive coder or if I've just ended up at mediocre companies. My guess (hope?) is the latter, but a coworker with way more experience than me says every company he's ever worked for is like this. Given the obvious benefits of following most best practices most of the time, I find it hard to believe it's like this everywhere. Am I wrong?

  Read the article

• "Don't do programming after a few years of starting career" Is this a fair advice?

  - by Muhammad Yasir

  I am a little experienced developer having around 5 years experience in PHP and somewhat less in Java, C# and trying to learn some Python now a days. Since the start of my career as a programmer I have been told every now and then by fellow programmers that programming is suitable for a few early years of carrier (most of them take it as 5 years) and that one must change the direction after it. The reason they present is that headaches and pressures associated with programming. They also say that programmers are less social and don't usually like to give time to their families etc. and specially "Oh come on, you can not do programming in your entire life!" I am somewhat confused here and need to ask others about it. If I leave programming then what do I do?! I guess teaching may be a good option in this case but it will require to first earn a PhD degree perhaps. It may also be noteworthy that in my country (Pakistan) the life of a programmer is not very good in that normally they must give 2-3 extra hours in office to accomplish urgent programming tasks. I have a sense that situation is somewhat similar in other countries and regions as well. So the question is, do you think it is a fair advice to change career from programming to something else after spending 5 years in this field? Thanks for sharing thoughts!

  Read the article

• What constitutes proper use of threads in programming?

  - by Smith

  I am tired of hearing people recommend that you should use only one thread per process, while many programs use up to 100 per process! take for example some common programs vb.net ide uses about 25 thread when not debugging System uses about 100 chrome uses about 19 Avira uses more than about 50 Any time I post a thread related question, I am reminded almost every time that I should not use more that one thread per process, and all the programs I mention above are ruining on my system with a single processor. What constitutes proper use of threads in programming? Please make general comment, but I'd prefer .NET framework thanks EDIT changed processor to process

  Read the article

• Are there any good resources for refactoring existing C# code to use LINQ while keeping your tests passing?

  - by Paddyslacker

  I've been teaching myself a little LINQ and an exercise I thought would be useful was to take my existing Project Euler C# code, which I built using Test Driven Development and gradually convert it to LINQ. I realise that LINQ is not always the best solution for all of the Project Euler problems, but I don't want to get into that here. I'm wondering whether or not it's feasible to refactor "traditional" OO C# code to use LINQ and functional programming syntax whilst keeping all of your tests passing. I can't find a way to make the tiny steps I'm used to making using TDD when converting to LINQ and this is a roadblock for me. I seem to have to make large changes to come up with a single function that I then replace whole chunks of my code with. I realise I could write this from scratch in LINQ, but in the real world, I'd like to be able to replace parts of my existing C# code to take advantage of LINQ where appropriate. Has anyone been successful with this approach? What resources did you find useful for refactoring existing C# code to use LINQ whilst taking a Test Driven Development approach?

  Read the article

• How to handle the fear of future licensing issues of third-party products in software development?

  - by Ian Pugsley

  The company I work for recently purchased some third party libraries from a very well-known, established vendor. There is some fear among management that the possibility exists that our license to use the software could be revoked somehow. The example I'm hearing is of something like a patent issue; i.e. the company we purchased the libraries from could be sued and legally lose the ability to distribute and provide the libraries. The big fear is that we get some sort of notice that we have to cease usage of the libraries entirely, and have some small time period to do so. As a result of this fear, our ability to use these libraries (which the company has spent money on...) is being limited, at the cost of many hours worth of development time. Specifically, we're having to develop lots of the features that the library already incorporates. Should we be limiting ourselves in this way? Is it possible for the perpetual license granted to us by the third party to be revoked in the case of something like a patent issue, and are there any examples of something like this happening? Most importantly, if this is something to legitimately be concerned about, how do people ever go about taking advantage third-party software while preparing for the possibility of losing that capability entirely? P.S. - I understand that this will venture into legal knowledge, and that none of the answers provided can be construed as legal advice in any fashion.

  Read the article

• C: What is a good source to teach standard/basic code conventions to someone newly learning the language ?

  - by shan23

  I'm tutoring someone who can be described as a rank newcomer in C. Understandably, she does not know much about coding conventions generally practiced, and hence all her programs tend to use single letter vars, mismatched spacing/indentation and the like, making it very difficult to read/debug her endeavors. My question is, is there a link/set of guidelines and examples which she can use for adopting basic code conventions ? It should not be too arcane as to scare her off, yet inclusive enough to have the basics covered (so that no one woulc wince looking at the code). Any suggestions ?

  Read the article

• New promising webdevelopment language?

  - by Rick

  I'm looking for a new language focused on webdevelopment. I know there are many current language/framework combination that are very suited for webdevelopment; ASP.Net, Ruby on Rails, PHP with numerous frameworks, etc... I like shiny new things! I like digging through language documentation or even an interpreter to figure out why something is not working the way I expect it to. Sure I could use an existing solution, but that wouldn't be fun! Are there any new up and coming language focused to webdevelopment (optionally language + webframework setup would be fine too)?

  Read the article

• How do I (quickly) let people know that software I am providing for free is not abandon-ware?

  - by blueberryfields

  As an independent, individual programmer: How do I let people very quickly know that I have not abandoned the software I've written and given away for free? That I am putting in the effort required to maintain and support my software to a professional level? When software written by one or two developers is available for free, or marked as open-source, usually the default assumption is that it's abandon-ware. This is usually a safe assumption - check out the answers to this question if you doubt it: Why do programmers write applications and then make them free?. There are lots of programmers who provide free and/or open-source tools which are not abandon-ware, though. If we're talking about large companies, ie Google, there's no real problem telling the difference between supported, live tools and software, and those which are abandoned or discontinued. A lively git repository isn't quick - users will have to be savvy enough to understand the repository and know where to look for it. Consistent marketing and community management take more time and effort than I can put in on my own. Also, if my software becomes popular/successful, I assume those will grow on their own, and be supported by power users in the community.

  Read the article

• How to write a product definition?

  - by Skarab

  I would like to learn how to write a software product definition. Therefore I am looking for online materials or books, which would help me to learn more about this topic. I would like to learn: what must be in what must not to be in how to make a product definition to sell internally the product finding balance between use case descriptions (the why), and feature descriptions (the how). ... I am aware that it is not something that can learn in 15 minutes but I think such a discussion could help me to have a good start.

  Read the article

• Changing jobs and leaving a project without a leader (aka, me)

  - by AnonUntilAfterTheEvent

  I'm the lead on a project that has been underway for about a year and a half. Two of us have been working on it. One is the database guy. I'm the javascript/ui guy. Which is to say, essentially no overlap in code knowledge. Here's the thing. Someone is about to offer me a sweet job with a nearly 30% bump in pay. Though I am perfectly happy with my current job and love the project, the new one would be better and I can't imagine saying no. The big problem is that my project is supposed to go into production starting in a few weeks. I will consider the new guys to have disqualified the new job by being bad people who would ruin my life if they won't cooperate and let me start after deployment. Since they seem like decent, ethical people, I don't expect that to be a problem. The current project will be brutalized by my absence. I take some comfort in the fact that I have emphatically requested an understudy for at least six months. That puts a little of the responsibility on the boss's head, but still, it's going to be a really bad thing. What do others of you do when you are a critical to a project when it's time to move on? Do I owe any obligation to stick around even though something better shows up? I know my spouse would object if I found someone else. Does that apply to work? I do have an understudy now, though he's fresh out of college. He's not going to replace me anytime soon. It's a small shop and the boss is going to be crushed. I am traumatized in anticipation of telling him and feel guilty about the practical consequences. I'm looking for some solace and some strategy about how to deal with this transition. Thank you for listening. =========================Subsequent notes ========================= @ChaosPandion, Chance: No, I can't stay to finish the project. I will insist on a compromise where I finish the current sprint (about a month from now) but there is at least a half year, probably a year of solid, full-time, work still to be done. I wouldn't expect the new employer to hold the job that long.

  Read the article

• What's wrong with cplusplus.com?

  - by Kerrek SB

  This is perhaps not a perfectly suitable forum for this question, but let me give it a shot, at the risk of being moved away. There are several references for the C++ standard library, including the invaluable ISO standard, MSDN, IBM, cppreference, and cplusplus. Personally, when writing C++ I need a reference that has quick random access, short load times and usage examples, and I've been finding cplusplus.com pretty useful. However, I've been hearing negative opinions about that website frequently here on SO, so I would like to get specific: What are the errors, misconceptions or bad pieces of advice given by cplusplus.com? What are the risks of using it to make coding decisions? Let me add this point: I want to be able to answer questions here on SO with accurate quotes of the standard, and thus I would like to post immediately-usable links, and cplusplus.com would have been my choice site were it not for this issue. Update: There have been many great responses, and I have seriously changed my view on cplusplus.com. I'd like to list a few choice results here; feel free to suggest more (and keep posting answers). As of June 29, 2011: Incorrect description of some algorithms (e.g. remove). Information about the behaviour of functions is sometimes incorrect (atoi), fails to mention special cases (strncpy), or omits vital information (iterator invalidation). Examples contain deprecated code (#include style). Inexact terminology is doing a disservice to learners and the general community ("STL", "compiler" vs "toolchain"). Incorrect and misleading description of the typeid keyword.

  Read the article

• Advice on how to understand in general and in practice IT Infrastructure

  - by Luca

  My IT knowledge resides mainly in SW development. I have just some basic know how about networks. On the net I tried to get information and read books in order to better understand the overall IT infrastrcuture, but all the sources I found are too generic or, mainly, too detailed in just one aspect, making me lost. Could anyone suggest some books or web resources as good compromise in details? My goal would be able to understand the network issues and security threats when, for example, two remote system have to be setup and put in connection each other. Considering this scenario there are several aspects to consider: firewalls, intranet/internet interconnections, certificates for httpS, etc. The argument is quite wide, therefore I was looking for something that might help to start to understand this subject without going too deep in details (Computer Networks from A.Tanenbaum is a wonderful milestone, but way too specific for my scope). Thanks

  Read the article

• Getting weather information (from a thermometer and a hygrometer)

  - by EKS

  I have decided, as a arrogant geek, to build my own home ventilation and heating system, and will try to do this as my little project. I have always been annoyed with the lack of good ventilation systems at work, so I accept building my own is arrogant. Does anyone know about a device I can interact with that allows me to get temperature and humidity that I can interact with using C#? I cannot get it from the Internet because I need to get the humidity from my server "room", so I can control the dehumidifier there. Similar with temperature, outside is not that important. It would be a huge plus if the sensors had some sort of wireless access.

  Read the article

• What do you do to make sure you take proper/enough breaks, while avoiding unwanted side-effects of break taking?

  - by blueberryfields

  preamble It seems to me that computer programmers are one of a select few groups of people who actually take pleasure from sitting in front of computers for long periods of time. Most people in other professions actively dislike their time at computers, and do their best to avoid it (so, I assume, they don't have problems taking breaks). At least for me, having external cues for taking breaks, and clear instructions on what to do with each break (stretch, go for a walk, close my eyes, look into a distance of preferably a few km and focus on faraway objects, etc...), is a must. So far, I've just been making up the breaks and tools to get them as I go along, based on what looks to be low-specificity information found on the net (generic stuff ala ergonomics advice for office staff). This has led to all sorts of side effects - loss of attention as I get distracted if I walk around, breaks in flow with alarm clocks interrupting my thoughts, and people around me assuming I'm low on work due to the frequency of my walking around compared to everyone else. /preamble tl;dr Taking breaks is important My internal break taking system doesn't work, and ad-hoc ones have unwanted side effects What do you do to make sure you take proper breaks? How do you avoid unwanted side-effects, such as getting distracted or interrupting flow or giving your co-workers the impression you're spending a lot of time goofing off?

  Read the article

• Dell Mini 9 Integrated Microphone -- not working

  - by Josh Eismanaf

  Im running the latest Debian version, 6.0 on my Dell Mini 9.Webcam and sound work, but microphone is a no-go. I hope even though it is Debian, fellow Linux users can help. In Alsamixer (1.0.23), I have Capture, Digital, and Mic settings all the way up. There are no options for adjusting "Front" mic settings. (May have been for older alsamixer versions?) In Sound Recorder, playback has loud noise/feedback? Under Preferences in Volume Control under the Recording tab, both Capture and Digital are permanently checked, regardless if I uncheck them. I'm not sure how to interpret the above, but I am just trying to offer as much relevant background information as I can. I've been scouring forums for the answer, but to no avail. Most questions/answers are from 2008, and couldn't find a solution. I'm not very handy with the Linux machine, but love to learn / am learning. Also, I've attempted the solution here, and it didn't work. Thanks, in advance, for your help!

  Read the article

• Corrupt plymouth boot screen when using properietary Nvidia drivers

  - by Tejas Hosangadi

  I recently got the final version of Ubuntu Natty Narwhal x64 and everything is working just fine. The only thing I am having trouble with is the boot screen. After I installed the proprietary nVidia drivers, the boot screen becomes corrupt and only shows text (as it has been doing since Ubuntu 10.04). When I followed the instructions to fix the boot screen in 10.04 and 10.10, the boot screen still remains the same and the problem isn't resolved. Please give a full guide on how to fix this problem. Machine Details Computer : HP Pavilion p6240in Processor : Core 2 duo Memory : 4096 megabytes Graphics : nVidia G210 3d graphics Monitor : Dell 17 inch lcd Another question I would like to ask is whether it is possible to use this script (http://www.webupd8.org/2010/10/script-to-fix-ubuntu-plymouth-for.html) with 11.04. I am asking this question because it says that the script works only with 10.04 and 10.10.

  Read the article

< Previous Page | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12  | Next Page >