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• Oracle SOA Suite 11g Administrator's Handbook

  - by Antony Reynolds

  SOA Administration Book I have just received a copy of the “Oracle SOA Suite 11g Administrator's Handbook” so as soon as I have read it I will let you know what I think.  In the meantime the first thing that struck me was the author credentials, although I have never met either of them as I remember, I have read Admeds blog postings and they are a great community resource, so immediately I am well disposed towards the book.  Similarly Arun is an employee of my friend and co-author Matt Wright, and I have heard good things about him from Rubicon Red people. A first glance at the table of contents looks encouraging, I particularly like their approach to performance tuning where they give a clear concise explanation of the knobs they are using. More when I have read more.

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• Attached Property port of my Window Close Behavior

  - by Reed

  Nishant Sivakumar just posted a nice article on The Code Project.  It is a port of the MVVM-friendly Blend Behavior I wrote about in a previous article to WPF using Attached Properties. While similar to the WindowCloseBehavior code I posted on the Expression Code Gallery, Nishant Sivakumar’s version works in WPF without taking a dependency on the Expression Blend SDK. I highly recommend reading this article: Handling a Window’s Closed and Closing Events in the View-Model.  It is a very nice alternative approach to this common problem in MVVM.

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• How To Initialize Object Which May Be Used In Catch Clause?

  - by Onorio Catenacci

  I've seen this sort of pattern in code before: //pseudo C# code var exInfo = null; //Line A try { var p = SomeProperty; //Line B exInfo = new ExceptionMessage("The property was " + p); //Line C } catch(Exception ex) { exInfo.SomeOtherProperty = SomeOtherValue; //Line D } Usually the code is structured in this fashion because exInfo has to be visible outside of the try clause. The problem is that if an exception occurs on Line B, then exInfo will be null at Line D. The issue arises when something happens on Line B that must occur before exInfo is constructed. But if I set exInfo to a new Object at line A then memory may get leaked at Line C (due to "new"-ing the object there). Is there a better pattern for handling this sort of code? Is there a name for this sort of initialization pattern? By the way I know I could check for exInfo == null before line D but that seems a bit clumsy and I'm looking for a better approach.

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• Am I deluding myself? Business analyst transition to programmer

  - by Ryan

  Current job: Working as the lead business analyst for a Big 4 firm, leading a team of developers and testers working on a large scale re-platforming project (4 onshore dev, 4 offshore devs, several onshore/offshore testers). Also work in a similar capacity on other smaller scale projects. Extent of my role: Gathering/writing out requirements, creating functional specifications, designing the UI (basically mapping out all front-end aspects of the system), working closely with devs to communicate/clarify requirements and come up with solutions when we hit roadblocks, writing test cases (and doing much of the testing), working with senior management and key stakeholders, managing beta testers, creating user guides and leading training sessions, providing key technical support. I also write quite a few macros in Excel using VBA (several of my macros are now used across the entire firm, so there are maybe around 1000 people using them) and use SQL on a daily basis, both on the SQL compact files the program relies on, our SQL Server data and any Access databases I create. The developers feel that I am quite good in this role because I understand a lot about programming, inherent system limitations, structure of the databases, etc so it's easier for me to communicate ideas and come up with suggestions when we face problems. What really interests me is developing software. I do a fair amount of programming in VBA and have been wanting to learn C# for awhile (the dev team uses C# - I review code occasionally for my own sake but have not had any practical experience using it). I'm interested in not just the business process but also the technical side of things, so the traditional BA role doesn't really whet my appetite for the kind of stuff I want to do. Right now I have a few small projects that managers have given me and I'm finding new ways to do them (like building custom Access applications), so there's a bit here and there to keep me interested. My question is this: what I would like to do is create custom Excel or Access applications for small businesses as a freelance business (working as a one-man shop; maybe having an occasional contractor depending on a project's complexity). This would obviously start out as a part-time venture while I have a day job, but eventually become a full-time job. Am I deluding myself to thinking I can go from BA/part-time VBA programmer to making a full-time go of a freelance business (where I would be starting out just writing custom Excel/Access apps in VBA)? Or is this type of thing not usually attempted until someone gains years of full-time programming experience? And is there even a market for these types of applications amongst small businesses (and maybe medium-sized) businesses?

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• Search Engine Optimization - How Search Engine Optimization Works

  There are many ways to direct extra traffic to your web site, but search engine optimization may be the best. Unlike many traditional types of advertising, such as banner ads, this technique does not cast a wide net and hope for the best. Instead, it takes the opposite approach, simply making your site easier to find for people who are looking for a site that is similar to it. This is a much more reliable method of gaining additional viewers for your site, especially because it only targets people who are interested in you in the first place.

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• Could someone break this nasty habit of mine please?

  - by MimiEAM

  I recently graduated in cs and was mostly unsatisfied since I realized that I received only a basic theoretical approach in a wide range of subjects (which is what college is supposed to do but still...) . Anyway I took the habit of spending a lot of time looking for implementations of concepts and upon finding those I will used them as guides to writing my own implementation of those concepts just for fun. But now I feel like the only way I can fully understand a new concept is by trying to implement from scratch no matter how unoptimized the result may be. Anyway this behavior lead me to choose by default the hard way, that is time consuming instead of using a nicely written library until I hit my head again a huge wall and then try to find a library that works for my purpose.... Does anyone else do that and why? It seems so weird why would anyone (including me) do that ? Is it a bad practice ? and if so how can i stop doing that ?

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• Why use sealed instead of static on a class?

  - by sq33G

  Our system has several utility classes. Some people on our team use (A) a class with all-static methods and a private constructor. Others use (B) a class with all-static methods (these the juniors). On code analysis, (A) and (B) raise warning CA1052, which recommends marking the class as sealed. Included in the MSDN documentation there is the following advice: If you are targeting .NET Framework 2.0 or earlier, a better approach is to mark the type as static. Why does this make any sense? I would have thought the opposite; AFAIK, previous to 2.0 there was no way to mark a class as static.

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• Time tracking and payment registration architecture

  - by egis

  ?itle might be a little bit incorrect. :) Anyway, I'm building a software where employees input time they worked per day (work hours) and employer "pays" for this time. "Payment" is done outside this system, so employer just "confirms" (checkbox or something like this) which work hours are paid. So the question is - what is the best way (both UI and data storage wise) to implement this? At the moment I have this idea: Employee selects week and manually (with some Javascript helpers, like "fill the same time for all days") inputs work hours in every day of the week. Employer confirms payment the same way employee inputs data (selects week, confirms each day). Data is saved in DB as unix timestamp (one day per table row). Problem is 14 inputs (7 days * ("hours from" + "hours to" input), yet this approach seems kinda easy to implement. Maybe I'm overlooking something and this can be done differently and better? Maybe someone has any example of already working software?

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• How to debug KMail Search after upgrade

  - by Unapiedra

  I added KDE backported packages recently to gain access to a more stable version of KDevelop. However, now, Kontact/Kmail's search doesn't work anymore. Where do I start to find out what's wrong? The problem manifests itself that when in the Inbox folder, I type something in the search bar, no Emails will be shown. (Yes, searching for something where the email is definitely there.) Kubuntu 12.04 LTS. Kontact version 4.13. What I tried. akonadiconsole as suggested here. But I couldn't find a feeder as mentioned. More generally, isn't there a checklist or a general approach to debugging akonadi, nepomuk and Kontact?

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• #OOW 2012 @PARIS...talking Oracle and Clouds, and Optimized Datacenter

  - by Eric Bezille

  For those of you who want to get most out of Oracle technologies to evolve your IT to the Next Wave, I encourage you to register to the up coming Oracle Optimized Datacenter event that will take place in Paris on November 28th. You will get the opportunity to exchange with Oracle experts and customers having successfully evolve their IT by leveraging Oracle technologies. You will also get the latest news on some of the Oracle systems announcements made during OOW 2012. During this event we will make an update about Oracle and Clouds, from private to public and hybrid models. So in preparing this session, I thought it was a good start to make a status of Cloud Computing in France, and CIO requirements in particular. Starting in 2009 with the first Cloud Camp in Paris, the market has evolved, but the basics are still the same : think hybrid. From Traditional IT to Clouds One size doesn't fit all, and for big companies having already an IT in place, there will be parts eligible to external (public) cloud, and parts that would be required to stay inside the firewalls, so ability to integrate both side is key.  None the less, one of the major impact of Cloud Computing trend on IT, reported by Forrester, is the pressure it makes on CIO to evolve towards the same model that end-users are now used to in their day to day life, where self-service and flexibility are paramount. This is what is driving IT to transform itself toward "a Global Service Provider", or for some as "IT "is" the Business" (see : Gartner Identifies Four Futures for IT and CIO), and for both models toward a Private Cloud Service Provider. In this journey, there is still a big difference between most of existing external Cloud and a firm IT : the number of applications that a CIO has to manage. Most cloud providers today are overly specialized, but at the end of the day, there are really few business processes that rely on only one application. So CIOs has to combine everything together external and internal. And for the internal parts that they will have to make them evolve to a Private Cloud, the scope can be very large. This will often require CIOs to evolve from their traditional approach to more disruptive ones, the time has come to introduce new standards and processes, if they want to succeed. So let's have a look at the different Cloud models, what type of users they are addressing, what value they bring and most importantly what needs to be done by the  Cloud Provider, and what is left over to the user. IaaS, PaaS, SaaS : what's provided and what needs to be done First of all the Cloud Provider will have to provide all the infrastructure needed to deliver the service. And the more value IT will want to provide, the more IT will have to deliver and integrate : from disks to applications. As we can see in the above picture, providing pure IaaS, left a lot to cover for the end-user, that’s why the end-user targeted by this Cloud Service is IT people. If you want to bring more value to developers, you need to provide to them a development platform ready to use, which is what PaaS is standing for, by providing not only the processors power, storage and OS, but also the Database and Middleware platform. SaaS being the last mile of the Cloud, providing an application ready to use by business users, the remaining part for the end-users being configuring and specifying the application for their specific usage. In addition to that, there are common challenges encompassing all type of Cloud Services : Security : covering all aspect, not only of users management but also data flows and data privacy Charge back : measuring what is used and by whom Application management : providing capabilities not only to deploy, but also to upgrade, from OS for IaaS, Database, and Middleware for PaaS, to a full Business Application for SaaS. Scalability : ability to evolve ALL the components of the Cloud Provider stack as needed Availability : ability to cover “always on” requirements Efficiency : providing a infrastructure that leverage shared resources in an efficient way and still comply to SLA (performances, availability, scalability, and ability to evolve) Automation : providing the orchestration of ALL the components in all service life-cycle (deployment, growth & shrink (elasticity), upgrades,...) Management : providing monitoring, configuring and self-service up to the end-users Oracle Strategy and Clouds For CIOs to succeed in their Private Cloud implementation, means that they encompass all those aspects for each component life-cycle that they selected to build their Cloud. That’s where a multi-vendors layered approach comes short in terms of efficiency. That’s the reason why Oracle focus on taking care of all those aspects directly at Engineering level, to truly provide efficient Cloud Services solutions for IaaS, PaaS and SaaS. We are going as far as embedding software functions in hardware (storage, processor level,...) to ensure the best SLA with the highest efficiency. The beauty of it, as we rely on standards, is that the Oracle components that you are running today in-house, are exactly the same that we are using to build Clouds, bringing you flexibility, reversibility and fast path to adoption. With Oracle Engineered Systems (Exadata, Exalogic & SPARC SuperCluster, more specifically, when talking about Cloud), we are delivering all those components hardware and software already engineered together at Oracle factory, with a single pane of glace for the management of ALL the components through Oracle Enterprise Manager, and with high-availability, scalability and ability to evolve by design. To give you a feeling of what does that bring in terms just of implementation project timeline, for example with Oracle SPARC SuperCluster, we have a consistent track of record to have the system plug into existing Datacenter and ready in a week. This includes Oracle Database, OS, virtualization, Database Storage (Exadata Storage Cells in this case), Application Storage, and all network configuration. This strategy enable CIOs to very quickly build Cloud Services, taking out not only the complexity of integrating everything together but also taking out the automation and evolution complexity and cost. I invite you to discuss all those aspect in regards of your particular context face2face on November 28th.

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• "Imprinting" as a language feature?

  - by MKO

  Idea I had this idea for a language feature that I think would be useful, does anyone know of a language that implements something like this? The idea is that besides inheritance a class can also use something called "imprinting" (for lack of better term). A class can imprint one or several (non-abstract) classes. When a class imprints another class it gets all it's properties and all it's methods. It's like the class storing an instance of the imprinted class and redirecting it's methods/properties to it. A class that imprints another class therefore by definition also implements all it's interfaces and it's abstract class. So what's the point? Well, inheritance and polymorphism is hard to get right. Often composition gives far more flexibility. Multiple inheritance offers a slew of different problems without much benefits (IMO). I often write adapter classes (in C#) by implementing some interface and passing along the actual methods/properties to an encapsulated object. The downside to that approach is that if the interface changes the class breaks. You also you have to put in a lot of code that does nothing but pass things along to the encapsulated object. A classic example is that you have some class that implements IEnumerable or IList and contains an internal class it uses. With this technique things would be much easier Example (c#) [imprint List<Person> as peopleList] public class People : PersonBase { public void SomeMethod() { DoSomething(this.Count); //Count is from List } } //Now People can be treated as an List<Person> People people = new People(); foreach(Person person in people) { ... } peopleList is an alias/variablename (of your choice)used internally to alias the instance but can be skipped if not needed. One thing that's useful is to override an imprinted method, that could be achieved with the ordinary override syntax public override void Add(Person person) { DoSomething(); personList.Add(person); } note that the above is functional equivalent (and could be rewritten by the compiler) to: public class People : PersonBase , IList<Person> { private List<Person> personList = new List<Person>(); public override void Add(object obj) { this.personList.Add(obj) } public override int IndexOf(object obj) { return personList.IndexOf(obj) } //etc etc for each signature in the interface } only if IList changes your class will break. IList won't change but an interface that you, someone in your team, or a thirdparty has designed might just change. Also this saves you writing a whole lot of code for some interfaces/abstract classes. Caveats There's a couple of gotchas. First we, syntax must be added to call the imprinted classes's constructors from the imprinting class constructor. Also, what happends if a class imprints two classes which have the same method? In that case the compiler would detect it and force the class to define an override of that method (where you could chose if you wanted to call either imprinted class or both) So what do you think, would it be useful, any caveats? It seems it would be pretty straightforward to implement something like that in the C# language but I might be missing something :) Sidenote - Why is this different from multiple inheritance Ok, so some people have asked about this. Why is this different from multiple inheritance and why not multiple inheritance. In C# methods are either virtual or not. Say that we have ClassB who inherits from ClassA. ClassA has the methods MethodA and MethodB. ClassB overrides MethodA but not MethodB. Now say that MethodB has a call to MethodA. if MethodA is virtual it will call the implementation that ClassB has, if not it will use the base class, ClassA's MethodA and you'll end up wondering why your class doesn't work as it should. By the terminology sofar you might already confused. So what happens if ClassB inherits both from ClassA and another ClassC. I bet both programmers and compilers will be scratching their heads. The benefit of this approach IMO is that the imprinting classes are totally encapsulated and need not be designed with multiple inheritance in mind. You can basically imprint anything.

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• Clock is Ticking for OBI 10g Supported Customers to move to OBI 11g

  - by Mike.Hallett(at)Oracle-BI&EPM

  Now is a perfect time for Partners to approach existing OBI 10g customers, to encourage and help them to upgrade to all the great new features in the current OBI v 11g; including the ability to go Mobile, to be in-memory on Exalytics, and to get tighter integration with Hyperion applications, Strategic Scorecards and Essbase. Oracle Lifetime Support Policy for Oracle BI Suite, version 10gR3, will end ‘normal’ support in July 2013. The final point release of Oracle Business Intelligence EE & Publisher 10gR3 was 10.1.3.4.x, which was generally available from July 2008 and will end “Premier Support” in July 2013.  From this time, customers may purchase “Extended Support” until July 2015, and from then “Sustaining Support”  indefinitely. For more information : Upgrade to Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition 11g, article on Technet Planning to Upgrade from Oracle BI 10g to BI 11g ?, at docs.oracle.com Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition 11g Oracle Lifetime Support Policy

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• How to create a reasonably sized urban area manually but efficiently

  - by Overv

  I have a game concept that only really works in an urban area that is of reasonable scale and diversity. In terms of what it should look like, think GTA, in terms of the size think more like a small neighbourhood with residents and a few local shops, perhaps a supermarket. I'm mostly experienced in programming and not at all with modelling, texturing or drawing, but I've found that SketchUp allows me to design interesting looking buildings that I model after real world buildings in my own neighbourhood. Designing these buildings and other objects can take from a few tens of minutes to a few hours. My question is: what is the best approach for a one man army like me who does manage to model buildings to create an interesting city environment in a reasonable amount of time? My game will not be based on procedural generation, the environment will actually be modelled like GTA cities.

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• Online examples for software design diagrams

  - by Gerenuk

  Do you know where I can find a good example of software design diagrams and specs on the internet? Like UML, specs and similar. I'd like to understand this approach better. Before I just started coding and now I'd like plan more in advance. By diagrams I don't mean made-up examples, but something that would actually be used. Also it shouldn't be so trivial that there is no use of using diagrams. Ideally it shouldn't be too large either. Do you know a good online source? (this question is about online resources and specific examples only. it is not asking about books or advise how to learn software design.)

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• Q&amp;A: Does it make sense to run a personal blog on the Windows Azure Platform?

  - by Eric Nelson

  I keep seeing people wanting to do this (or something very similar) and then being surprised at how much it might cost them if they went with Windows Azure. Time for a Q&A. Short answer: No, definitely not. Madness, sheer madness. (Hopefully that was clear enough) Longer answer: No because It would cost you a heck of a lot more than just about any other approach to running a blog. A site that can easily be run on a shared hosting solution (as many blogs do today) does not require the rich capabilities of Windows Azure. Capabilities such as simplified deployed and management, dedicated resources, elastic resources, “unlimited” storage etc. It is simply not the type of application the Windows Azure Platform has been designed for. Related Links: Q&A- How can I calculate the TCO and ROI when considering the Windows Azure Platform? Q&A- When do I get charged for compute hours on Windows Azure? Q&A- What are the UK prices for the Windows Azure Platform

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• API design and versioning using EJB

  - by broschb

  I have an API that is EJB based (i.e. there are remote interfaces defined) that most of the clients use. As the client base grows there are issues with updates to the API and forcing clients to have to update to the latest version and interface definition. I would like to possibly look at having a couple versions of the API deployed at a time (i.e. have multiple EAR files deployed with different versions of the API) to support not forcing the clients to update as frequently. I am not concerned about the actual deployment of this, but instead am looking for thoughts and experiences that others have on using EJB's as an API client. How do you support updating versions, are clients required to update? Does anyone run multiple versions in a production environment? Are there pro's cons? Any other experiences or thoughts on this approach, and having an EJB centric API?

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• What are cons of usage only non-member functions and POD?

  - by Miro

  I'm creating my own game engine. I've read these articles and this question about DOD and there was written to not use member functions and classes. I also heard some criticism to this idea. I can write it using member functions or non-member functions it would be similar. So what are benefits/cons of that approach or when project grows, does any of these approaches give clearer and better manageable code? With POD & non-member functions I don't have to make struct members public I can still use object id outside of engine like OpenGL does with all it's stuff, so It's not about encapsulation. POD - plain old data DOD - data oriented design

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• Graphic card for parallel programming vs traditional methods

  - by Sambatyon

  With a simple search in amazon one can see that the modern approach for parallel programming is to use your graphic card. However I am still a little bit skeptical about it. My last computer has an 8 core CPU which I need is enough for basic all my parallel needs, if I need more I will probably use MPI through a network using my old machines. All in all, Why and/or when should I use CUDA or another method which uses my graphic card instead of traditional methods like pthreads, java threads, boost threads or the new C++ 11 threads? What about using processes?

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• First languages with generic programming support

  - by oluies

  Which was the first language with generic programming support, and what was the first major staticly typed language (widely used) with generics support. Generics implement the concept of parameterized types to allow for multiple types. The term generic means "pertaining to or appropriate to large groups of classes." I have seen the following mentions of "first": First-order parametric polymorphism is now a standard element of statically typed programming languages. Starting with System F [20,42] and functional programming lan- guages, the constructs have found their way into mainstream languages such as Java and C#. In these languages, first-order parametric polymorphism is usually called generics. From "Generics of a Higher Kind", Adriaan Moors, Frank Piessens, and Martin Odersky Generic programming is a style of computer programming in which algorithms are written in terms of to-be-specified-later types that are then instantiated when needed for specific types provided as parameters. This approach, pioneered by Ada in 1983 From Wikipedia Generic Programming

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• How do I show a minimap in a 3D world?

  - by Bubblewrap

  Got a really typical use-case here. I have large map made up of hexagons and at any given time only a small section of the map is visible. To provide an overview of the complete map, I want to show a small 2D representation of the map in a corner of the screen. What is the recommended approach for this in libgdx? Keep in mind the minimap must be updated when the currently visible section changes and when the map is updated. I've found SpriteBatch(info here), but the warning label on it made me think twice: A SpriteBatch is a pretty heavy object so you should only ever have one in your program. I'm not sure I'm supposed to use the one SpriteBatch that I can have on the minimap, and I'm also not sure how to interpret "heavy" in this context. Another thing to possibly keep in mind is that the minimap will probably be part of a larger UI, is there any way to integrate these two?

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• Declaring interface in the same file as the base class, is it a good practice?

  - by Louis Rhys

  To be interchangable and testable, normally services with logic needs to have interface, e.g. public class FooService: IFooService { ... } Design-wise, I agree with this, but one of the things that bothers me with this approach is that for one service you will need to declare two things (the class and the interface), and in our team, normally two files (one for the class and one for the interface). Another discomfort is the difficulty in navigation because using "Go to definition" in IDE (VS2010) will point to the interface (since other classes refer to the interface), not the actual class. I was thinking that writing IFooService in the same file as FooService will reduce the above weirdness. After all, IFooService and FooService are very related. Is this a good practice? Is there a good reason that IFooService must be located in its own file?

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• OpenGL ES 2.0: Mixing 2D with 3D

  - by Bunkai.Satori

  Is it possible to mix 2D and 3D graphics in a single OpenGL ES 2.0 game, please? I have plenty of 2D graphics in my game. The 2D graphics is represented by two triangular polygons (making up a rectangle) with texture on them. I use orthographic matrix to render the whole scene. However, I need to add some 3D effects into my game. Threfore, I wish to use perspective camera to render the meshes. Is it possible to mix orthographic and perspective camera in one scene? If yes, is there going to be a large performance cost for this? Is there any recommended approach to do this effectively? I wil have 90% of 2D graphics and only 10% of 3D. Target platform is OpenGL ES 2.0 (iOS, Android). I use C++ to develop. Thank you.

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• How necessary is it to learn JavaScript before jQuery?

  - by benhowdle89

  In my opinion, when I looked at JavaScript, it looked like not my cup of tea. When I came across jQuery, I loved it. I sat and watched Nettuts+ 15 days of jQuery screencasts, 1 year later and now I'm fairly confident I wouldn't develop a website without including jQuery's library. I have never felt this has held me back but my question is, will this come back and bite me in the ass one day, the fact that I didn't have a solid JavaScript foundation before jumping feet first into one of its best (if not the best) frameworks? Did anyone else take this approach?

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• How to copy existing movie files on ipad to watch?

  - by Rob Van Dam

  I have an iPad and a desktop running Ubuntu 12.04 with lots of movie files of various formats (avi, mp4, m4v, etc). Is it possible to transfer those files from within linux directly to the iPad (without using iTunes to sync) over USB and then play those movies on the iPad without reformatting/resizing all of them? I've used iTunes in a Windows XP virtualbox instance with other iOS mobile devices before but I would prefer a pure linux approach if possible. (I'm creating this question so that I can share the solution I found because I failed to find a simple, satisfactory answer elsewhere).

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• PanelGridLayout - A Layout Revolution

  - by Duncan Mills

  With the most recent 11.1.2 patchset (11.1.2.3) there has been a lot of excitement around ADF Essentials (and rightly so), however, in all the fuss I didn't want an even more significant change to get missed - yes you read that correctly, a more significant change! I'm talking about the new panelGridLayout component, I can confidently say that this one of the most revolutionary components that we've introduced in 11g, even though it sounds rather boring. To be totally accurate, panelGrid was introduced in 11.1.2.2 but without any presence in the component palette or other design time support, so it was largely missed unless you read the release notes. However in this latest patchset it's finally front and center. Its time to explore - we (really) need to talk about layout.  Let's face it,with ADF Faces rich client, layout is a rather arcane pursuit, once you are a layout master, all bow before you, but it's more of an art than a science, and it is often, in fact, way too difficult to achieve what should (apparently) be a pretty simple. Here's a great example, it's a homework assignment I set for folks I'm teaching this stuff to:  The requirements for this layout are: The header is 80px high, the footer is 30px. These are both fixed.  The first section of the header containing the logo is 180px wide The logo is centered within the top left hand corner of the header  The title text is start aligned in the center zone of the header and will wrap if the browser window is narrowed. It should be aligned in the center of the vertical space  The about link is anchored to the right hand side of the browser with a 20px gap and again is center aligned vertically. It will move as the browser window is reduced in width. The footer has a right aligned copyright statement, again middle aligned within a 30px high footer region and with a 20px buffer to the right hand edge. It will move as the browser window is reduced in width. All remaining space is given to a central zone, which, in this case contains a panelSplitter. Expect that at some point in time you'll need a separate messages line in the center of the footer.  In the homework assigment I set I also stipulate that no inlineStyles can be used to control alignment or margins and no use of other taglibs (e.g. JSF HTML or Trinidad HTML). So, if we take this purist approach, that basic page layout (in my stock solution) requires 3 panelStretchLayouts, 5 panelGroupLayouts and 4 spacers - not including the spacer I use for the logo and the contents of the central zone splitter - phew! The point is that even a seemingly simple layout needs a bit of thinking about, particulatly when you consider strechting and browser re-size behavior. In fact, this little sample actually teaches you much of what you need to know to become vaguely competant at layouts in the framework. The underlying result of "the way things are" is that most of us reach for panelStretchLayout before even finishing the first sip of coffee as we embark on a new page design. In fact most pages you will see in any moderately complex ADF page will basically be nested panelStretchLayouts and panelGroupLayouts, sometimes many, many levels deep. So this is a problem, we've known this for some time and now we have a good solution. (I should point out that the oft-used Trinidad trh tags are not a particularly good solution as you're tie-ing yourself to an HTML table based layout in that case with a host of attendent issues in resize and bi-di behavior, but I digress.) So, tadaaa, I give to you panelGridLayout. PanelGrid, as the name suggests takes a grid like (dare I say slightly gridbag-like) approach to layout, dividing your layout into rows and colums with margins, sizing, stretch behaviour, colspans and rowspans all rolled in, all without the use of inlineStyle. As such, it provides for a much more powerful and consise way of defining a layout such as the one above that is actually simpler and much more logical to design. The basic building blocks are the panelGridLayout itself, gridRow and gridCell. Your content sits inside the cells inside the rows, all helpfully allowing both streching, valign and halign definitions without the need to nest further panelGroupLayouts. So much simpler!  If I break down the homework example above my nested comglomorate of 12 containers and spacers can be condensed down into a single panelGrid with 3 rows and 5 cell definitions (39 lines of source reduced to 24 in the case of the sample). What's more, the actual runtime representation in the browser DOM is much, much simpler, and clean, with basically one DIV per cell (Note that just because the panelGridLayout semantics looks like an HTML table does not mean that it's rendered that way!) . Another hidden benefit is the runtime cost. Because we can use a single layout to achieve much more complex geometries the client side layout code inside the browser is having to work a lot less. This will be a real benefit if your application needs to run on lower powered clients such as netbooks or tablets. So, it's time, if you're on 11.1.2.2 or above, to smile warmly at your panelStretchLayouts, wrap the blanket around it's knees and wheel it off to the Sunset Retirement Home for a well deserved rest. There's a new kid on the block and it wants to be your friend. 

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