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• How to ask the boss to pay for qualifications?

  - by adamk

  Hi, I'm working as a junior developer for a startup company, and have been working here around 7 months now. After 4 months, we had a late quarterly review, and just before the boss mentioned there was a training budget, and we should let them know what training we needed and they'd get it for us. I asked for some training at the time, but 3 months have passed without mention of it, and I have since learnt what I needed in my own time (I just can't stop learning new things!) I took on a new role recently, so have been given some cheap ($60) training for that however. Now the next review is approaching, and I would like to get Adobe Qualified Expert qualifications for ActionScript 3 / Flex. I was told by a contracted co-worker who had left that I should try to get the company to pay for this, as it's something they can tell potential investors as a selling point. My question is though; how do I approach this with my boss? I don't want it to sound like I'm looking for another job and want the qualifications to look elsewhere!

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• How to make and restore incremental snapshots of hard disk

  - by brunopereira81

  I use Virtual Box a lot for distro / applications testing purposes. One of the features I simply love about it is virtual machines snapshots, its saves a state of a virtual machine and is able to restore it to its former glory if something you did went wrong without any problems and without consuming your all hard disk space. On my live systems I know how to create a 1:1 image of the file system but all the solutions I'v known will create a new image of the complete file system. Are there any programs / file systems that are capable of taking a snapshot of a current file system, save it on another location but instead of making a complete new image it creates incremental backups? To easy describe what I want, it should be as dd images of a file system, but instead of only a full backup it would also create incremental. I am not looking for clonezilla, etc. It should run within the system itself with no (or almost none) intervention from the user, but contain all the data of the file systems. I am also not looking for a duplicity backup your all system excluding some folders script + dd to save your mbr. I can do that myself, looking for extra finesse. I'm looking for something I can do before doing massive changes to a system and then if something when wrong or I burned my hard disk after spilling coffee on it I can just boot from a liveCD and restore a working snapshot to a hard disk. It does not need to be daily, it doesn't even need a schedule. Just run once in a while and let it its job and preferably RAW based not file copy based.

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• Anyone been successful changing their career without having to start over from scratch?

  - by Awaken

  I posted a similar question on careeroverflow, but stackoverflow is just way more active and has way more users, so hopefully someone out there can help answer. I am currently an embedded developer in the defense/aerospace world for a big company. While I like the benefits and the pay, it just isn't keeping me happy. The Paul Graham article: How To Do What You Love really struck home. The problem I face are my golden handcuffs. When I look at jobs out there, they all want 5+ years experience in that language with expertise in framework/tool/server A,B,C, etc... I have worked in C and C++ on the job (in a real-time embedded environment) with some small things in C# and Java. I'm learning Ruby now to expand my knowledge, but I don't consider myself an expert in anything right now. I'd love to work on desktop applications or web apps. Is it possible for someone like me to make the switch without going back to the start line? I'd love to leave the huge bureaucracy and work with some great developers. I'd be willing to work late and take a modest pay cut, but that isn't so clear just from a resume. For those that have altered their career path, how did you do it? For those people who are in charge of hiring, what can I do to help myself?

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• How do you get better working conditions? [closed]

  - by 0A0D

  I work at a business who has a software side and manufacturing side. The software we write is sold as a package along with other hardware that our customers purchase. I basically work in a warehouse. There is one door that seperates the engineers from the warehouse noise. I have asked for noise cancelling walls to be put in. I have asked multiple times over 6 months to be moved up front to one of two vacant sales offices, but they seem reluctant to let an Engineer move into a sales office. In fact, sales are the only ones with windows and they get commission though they make mistakes or overpromise to the customer. So, my question is how can I get better working conditions without necessarily having to leave my current job? It is very hard to work and concentrate. UPDATE I think I can finally close this chapter in my life. I have moved on to a large corporation which follows CMMI religiously and has even started using Agile in many of its projects. Nevertheless, there is organization, respect, and genuine care for the engineers and scientists that work for them. Pierre was right - quitting was the right answer. My life does not nearly have the amount of stress it used to have because I now work for a place that is organized and knows what it wants its engineers to do along with treating them like they should be treated.

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• Data Center Modernization: Harness the power of Oracle Exalogic and Exadata with PeopleSoft

  - by Michelle Kimihira

  Author: Latha Krishnaswamy, Senior Manager, Exalogic Product Management   Allegis Group - a Hanover, MD-based global staffing company is the largest privately held staffing company in the United States with more than 10,000 internal employees and 90,000 contract employees. Allegis Group is a $6+ billion company, offering a full range of specialized staffing and recruiting solutions to clients in a wide range of industries.   The company processes about 133,000 paychecks per week, every week of the year. With 300 offices around the world and the hefty task of managing HR and payroll, the PeopleSoft system at Allegis  is a mission-critical application. The firm is in the midst of a data center modernization initiative. Part of that project meant moving the company's PeopleSoft applications (Financials and HR Modules as well as Custom Time & Expense module) to a converged infrastructure.     The company ran a proof of concept with four different converged architectures before deciding upon Exadata and Exalogic as the platform of choice.   Performance combined with High availability for running mission-critical payroll processes drove this decision.  During the testing on Exadata and Exalogic Allegis applied a particular (11-F) tax update in production environment. What job ran for roughly six hours completed in less than 1.5 hours. With additional tuning the second run of the Tax update 11-F reduced to 33 minutes - a 90% improvement!     Not only that, the move will help the company save money on middleware by consolidating use of Oracle licensing in a single platform.   Summary With a modern data center powered by Exalogic and Exadata to run mission-critical PeopleSoft HR and Financial Applications, Allegis is positioned to manage business growth and improve employee productivity. PeopleSoft applications run on engineered systems platform minimizing hardware and software integration risks. Additional Information Product Information on Oracle.com: Oracle Fusion Middleware Follow us on Twitter and Facebook Subscribe to our regular Fusion Middleware Newsletter

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• With Choice Comes Complexity

  - by BuckWoody

  "Complex" may be defined as "Having many steps, details or parts." Many of Microsoft's products, including SQL Server, can be complex. I'm stating what most data professionals already know - there's usually multiple ways to do things in SQL Server. For instance, to import some data into a table you can use graphical tools, SQLCMD, bcp, SQL Server Integration Services, BULK INSERT, even PowerShell, just to name a few tools at your disposal. That's really not the issue, though. The bigger issue is that there are normally multiple thought-processes, or methods, that you have available for a task. That's both a strength and a weakness. If things were more simple, you would have fewer choices. Sometimes that's a good thing. Just tell me what I need to do and I'll do it. However, your particular situation may not fit that tool or process, so having more options increases your ability to get your job done the way you need to do it. On the other hand, that's more for you to learn, which is harder. There's another side of this benefit/difficulty that you need to be aware of. Even if you're quite good at what you do, keep in mind that the way you know how to do something may not be the only way to do it. Keep your mind open to new possibilities, and most importantly - to new knowledge. SQL Server professionals teach me something new every day. So embrace the complexity - on balance, it's a good thing! Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!

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• Learning good OOP design & unlearning some bad habits

  - by Nick

  I have been mostly a C programmer so far in my career with knowledge of C++. I rely on C++ mostly for the convenience STL provides and I hardly ever focus on good design practices. As I have started to look for a new job position, this bad habit of mine has come back to haunt me. During the interviews, I have been asked to design a problem (like chess, or some other scenario) using OOP and I doing really badly at that (I came to know this through feedback from one interview). I tried to google stuff and came up with so many opinions and related books that I don't know where to begin. I need a good through introduction to OOP design with which I can learn practical design, not just theory. Can you point me to any book which meets my requirements ? I prefer C++, but any other language is fine as long as I can pick-up good practices. Also, I know that books can only go so far. I would also appreciate any good practice project ideas that helped you learn and improve your OOP concepts. Thanks.

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• Azure Search Preview

  - by Greg Low

  One of the things I’ve been keeping an eye on for quite a while now is the development of the Azure Search system. While it’s not a full replacement for the full-text indexing service in SQL Server on-premises as yet, it’s a really, really good start. Liam Cavanagh, Pablo Castro and the team have done a great job bringing this to the preview stage and I suspect it could be quite popular. I was very impressed by how they incorporated quite a bit of feedback I gave them early on, and I’m sure that others involved would have felt the same. There are two tiers at present. One is a free tier and has shared resources; the other is currently $125/month and has reserved resources. I would like to see another tier between these two, much the same way that Azure websites work. If you have any feedback on this, now would be a good time to make it known. In the meantime, given there is a free tier, there’s no excuse to not get out and try it. You’ll find details of it here: http://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/services/search/ I’ll be posting more info about this service, and showing examples of it during the upcoming months.

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• Hydraulics in game

  - by Mungoid

  I'm not completely sure if this would be better in the Physics site or not as this question is more about how hydraulics should work in game as opposed to how they really work (although that is taken into account) - So I apologize if this is in the wrong place. A project we are on, we have a machine with hydraulics that are powered (They don't just look like they move something, they are the only thing moving/turning/lifting something) - However, the hydraulic extends the same speed no matter what it is pushing. So, say there is a 10 ton object attached to one end of the hydraulic and the other end is attached to a plate on the ground. In real life it takes a few seconds to build up pressure depending on how heavy the object is, but in our project the hydraulics don't care about that. It will lift a 100 ton object the same speed as a 10 ton object. We have a way to fake the hydraulic pressurizing by reducing the 'drive amount' (how fast or slow the hydraulic extends) when we sense that it is touching the ground and that does a relatively decent job but we would like to be able to take other things into account like engine speed, ratios, loads, etc. but we aren't too sure what we need to think about. I'm kinda wondering if anyone here has any experience with this and could offer some suggestions on what to take into account?

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• Supporting and testing multiple versions of a software library in a Maven project

  - by Duncan Jones

  My company has several versions of its software in use by our customers at any one time. My job is to write bespoke Java software for the customers based on the version of software they happen to be running. I've created a Java library that performs many of the tasks I regularly require in a normal project. This is a Maven project that I deploy to our local Artifactory and pull down into other Maven projects when required. I can't decide the best way to support the range of software versions used by our customers. Typically, we have about three versions in use at any one time. They are normally backwards compatible with one another, but that cannot be guaranteed. I have considered the following options for managing this issue: Separate editions for each library version I make a separate release of my library for each version of my company software. Using some Maven cunningness I could automatically produce a tested version linked to each of the then-current company software versions. This is feasible, but not without its technical challenges. The advantage is that this would be fairly automatic and my unit tests have definitely executed against the correct software version. However, I would have to keep updating the versions supported and may end up maintaining a large collection of libraries. One supported version, but others tested I support the oldest software version and make a release against that. I then perform tests with the newer software versions to ensure it still works. I could try and make this testing automatic by having some non-deployed Maven projects that import the software library, the associated test JAR and override the company software version used. If those projects build, then the library is compatible. I could ensure these meta-projects are included in our CI server builds. I welcome comments on which approach is better or a suggestion for a different approach entirely. I'm leaning towards the second option.

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• When does implementing MVVM not make sense

  - by Kelly Sommers

  I am a big fan of various patterns and enjoy learning new ones all the time however I think with all the evangelism around popular patterns and anti-patterns sometimes this causes blind adoption. I think most things have individual pros and cons and it's important to educate what the cons are and when it doesn't make sense to make a particular choice. The pros are constantly advocated. "It depends" I think applies most times but the industry does a poor job at communicating what it depends ON. Also many patterns surfaced from inheriting values from previous patterns or have derivatives, which each one brings another set of pros and cons to the table. The sooner we are more aware of the trade off's of decisions we make in software architecture the sooner we make better decisions. This is my first challenge to the community. Even if you are a big fan of said pattern, I challenge you to discover the cons and when you shouldn't use it. Define when MVVM (Model-View-ViewModel) may not make sense in a particular piece of software and based on what reasons. MVVM has a set of pros and cons. Let's try to define them. GO! :)

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• Why do programmers write closed source applications and then make them free? [closed]

  - by Ken

  As an entrepreneur/programmer who makes a good living from writing and selling software, I'm dumbfounded as to why developers write applications and then put them up on the Internet for free. You've found yourself in one of the most lucrative fields in the world. A business with 99% profit margin, where you have no physical product but can name your price; a business where you can ship a buggy product and the customer will still buy it. Occasionally some of our software will get a free competitor, and I think, this guy is crazy. He could be making a good living off of this but instead chose to make it free. Do you not like giant piles of money? Are you not confident that people would pay for it? Are you afraid of having to support it? It's bad for the business of programming because now customers expect to be able to find a free solution to every problem. (I see tweets like "is there any good FREE software for XYZ? or do I need to pay $20 for that".) It's also bad for customers because the free solutions eventually break (because of a new OS or what have you) and since it's free, the developer has no reason to fix it. Customers end up with free but stale software that no longer works and never gets updated. Customer cries. Developer still working day job cries in their cubicle. What gives? PS: I'm not looking to start an open-source/software should be free kind of debate. I'm talking about when developers make a closed source application and make it free.

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• How do I get my programs to communicate with each other

  - by Benjamin Lindqvist

  I'm basically just getting started with programming. The problem I have with progressing is that I have a hard time learning stuff just for the sake of knowing them - I do better when there's a problem to be solved or a task to be completed so I can learn 'on the job'. So I'm interested in starting some interesting project. I know the basics of Python, Java, Matlab and some C++ aswell and I know enough about microcontrollers to make LED blink etc. The type of stuff I'm looking for is for example scraping some weather forecast site (with Python) and outputting the chance of rain to a LCD display, or a program that makes chrome open and log in to facebook if I say "HAL, time for facebook", or more generally, a program that reads serial/USB input, looks for certain sequences and sends instructions to some other program if it finds one. Do you open some kind of shared stream in which one program reads and one writes? What do I need to read up on to do accomplish this myself? I have no experience with linux or the linux terminal, but looking over peoples shoulders makes me suspect that's what people use. Is that correct?

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• How to effectively design a piece of software

  - by ti83plus

  Im a compsci student and ive got some experience in various languages and paradigms c/java/python/ruby/html/css/scheme/sql/asp(classic). I realise that i want to have some software in my portfolio for future job hunting even tho i still have 2 years left of my education. Ive got a pretty good idea of what i want to make, its a webapp. Most shops around here are either .net or java and since i know java best and dont have access to ms developer tools im thinking i should go with java. Even tho i feel i know the principles of OOP pretty good ive got no clue how to go from my idea to a working solution. Where can i access information about designing the underlying architechture of my solution? Also i would like to know what other technologies i should train on, my current list includes javascript(and possibly a javascript library) some sort of java web framework tips are appreciated. I would like to add support for android/iphone apps in the future and this is something i have to take into account when designing the app. I have done a course on software engineering but i found this to be more centered around project management ideas then the actual design and implementation. So i would like tips on technologies i should focus on to get the most out of my time without the massive overhead of huge config processes but at the same time keep my project viable in a business sense, so that i use technologies that are relevant for business (java developer jobs). And i would also like tips on where i can learn more about the design process around a software project, i will be working mostly alone. But i find the approach ive used up until now (start coding and figure it out as you go) wont suffice.

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• Problem inserting pre-ordered values to quadtree

  - by Lucas Corrêa Feijó

  There's this string containing B, W and G (standing for black, white and gray). It defines the pre-ordered path of the quadtree I want to build. I wrote this method for filling the QuadTree class I also wrote but it doesn't work, it inserts correctly until it reaches a point in the algorithm it needs to "return". I use math quadrants convention order for insertion, such as northeast, northwest, southwest and southeast. A quadtree has all it's leafs black or white and all the other nodes gray The node used in the tree is called Node4T and has a char as data and 4 references to other nodes like itself, called, respectively NE, NW, SW, SE. public void insert(char val) { if(root==null) { root = new Node4T(val); } else { insert(root, val); } } public void insert(Node4T n, char c) { if(n.data=='G') // possible to insert { if(n.NE==null) { n.NE = new Node4T(c); return; } else { insert(n.NE,c); } if(n.NW==null) { n.NW = new Node4T(c); return; } else { insert(n.NW,c); } if(n.SW==null) { n.SW = new Node4T(c); return; } else { insert(n.SW,c); } if(n.SE==null) { n.SE = new Node4T(c); return; } else { insert(n.SE,c); } } else // impossible to insert { } } The input "GWGGWBWBGBWBWGWBWBWGGWBWBWGWBWBGBWBWGWWWB" is given a char at a time to the insert method and then the print method is called, pre-ordered, and the result is "GWGGWBWBWBWGWBWBW". How do I make it import the string correctly? Ignore the string reading process, suppose the method is called and it has to do it's job.

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• Does your organization still use the term "screens" to describe a user interface?

  - by bit-twiddler

  I have been in the field long enough to remember when the term "screen" entered our lexicon. As difficult as it is to believe, the early systems on which I worked had no user interface (UI), that is, unless one counts a keypunch machine and job listings as a user interface. These systems ran as "card image" production jobs back in a day when being a computer operator required a reasonably deep understanding of how computers worked. Flashing forward to today: I cringe every time I hear a systems practitioner use the term "screen." The metaphor no longer fits the medium. The term somewhat fit back when the user dialog consumed 100% of available monitor real estate; however, the term lost its relevance the moment we moved to windowed environments. With the above said, does your organization still use the term "screens" to describe an application's UI? Has anyone successfully purged the term from an organization? For those who do not use the term to describe UI dialog elements, what term do you use in place of “screen.”

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• As my first professional position should I take it at a start-up or a better known company? [closed]

  - by Carl Carlson

  I am a couple of months removed from graduating with a CS degree and my gpa wasn't very high. But I do have aspirations of becoming a good software developer. Nevertheless I got two job offers recently. One is with a small start-up and the other is with a military contractor. The military contractor asked for my gpa and I gave it to them. The military contracting position is in developing GIS related applications which I was familiar with in an internship. After receiving an offer from the military contractor, I received an offer from the start-up after the start-up asked me how much the offer was from the military contractor. So the pay is even. The start-up would require I be immediately thrust into it with only two other people in the start-up currently and I would have to learn everything on my own. The military contractor has teams and people who know what their doing and would be able to offer me guidance. Seeing as how I have been a couple of months removed from school and need something of a refresher is it better than I just dive into the start-up and diversify what I've learned or be specialized on a particular track? Some more facts about the start-up: It deals with military contracts as well and is in Phase 2 of contracts. It will require I learn a diverse amount of technologies including cyber security, android development, python, javascript, etc. The military contractor will have me learn more C#, refine my Java, do javascript, and GIS related technologies. I might as well come out and say the military contractor is Northrop Grumman and more or less offered me less money than the projected starting salary from online salary calculators. But there is the possibility of bonuses, while the start-up doesn't include the possibility of bonuses. I think benefits for both are relatively the same.

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• What is an appropriate language for expressing initial stages of algorithm refinement?

  - by hydroparadise

  First, this is not a homework assignment, but you can treat it as such ;). I found the following question in the published paper The Camel Has Two Humps. I was not a CS major going to college (I majored in MIS/Management), but I have a job where I find myself coding quite often. For a non-trivial programming problem, which one of the following is an appropriate language for expressing the initial stages of algorithm refinement? (a) A high-level programming language. (b) English. (c) Byte code. (d) The native machine code for the processor on which the program will run. (e) Structured English (pseudocode). What I do know is that you usually want to start your design implementation by writing down pseuducode and then moving/writing in the desired technology (because we all do that, right?) But I never thought about it in terms of refinement. I mean, if you were the original designer, then you might have access to the original pseudocode. But realisticly, when I have to maintain/refactor/refine somebody elses code, I just keep trucking with the language it currently resides in. Anybody have a definitive answer to this? As a side note, I did a quick scan of the paper as I havn't read every single detail. It presents various score statistics, can't find where the answers are with the paper.

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• Why would Java app make RPC call to itself?

  - by amphibient

  I am working with a multithreaded homegrown multi-module app in my new job. We use the the Thrift protocol to communicate RPC calls between different stand-alone applications in a distributed system. One of them listens on multiple ports and I just noticed that it actually makes an RPC call to itself from one thread invoked from one socket it listens to (web service call) to another port within the same app. I verified that it could accomplish the same thing if it just went and directly called the method that the remote procedure ultimately invokes as it is all within the same application, same JVM. To make it even more mysterious, the call is completely synchronous, i.e. no callbacks involved. The first thread totally sits and waits until it makes a call across the wire to itself and comes back. Now, I am perplexed why anybody would do it this way. It seems like calling somebody on the phone that sits in the same room as you do. Can anybody provide an explanation why the developer before me would come up with the above mentioned model? Maybe there is a reason and I am missing something.

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• The MsC gray zone: How to deal with the "too unexperienced on engineering/too under-qualified for research" situation?

  - by Hunter2

  Last year I've got a MsC degree on CS. On the beginning of the MsC course, I was keen on moving on with research and go for a PhD. However, as the months passed, I started to feel the urge to write software that people would, well, actually use. The programming bug had bitten me, again. So, I decided that before deciding on getting a PhD degree, I would spend some time on the "real world", working as a software developer. Sadly, most companies here in Brazil are "services" companies that seem to be stuck on the 80s when it comes to software development. I have to fend off pushy managers, less-than-competent coworkers and outrageous software requirements (why does everyone seem to need a 50k Oracle license and a behemoth Websphere AS for their CRUD applications?) on a daily basis, and even though I still love software development, the situation is starting to touch a nerve. And, mind you, I'm already lucky for getting a job at a place that isn't a plain software sweatshop. Sure, there are better places around here or I could always try my luck abroad, but then I hit the proverbial brick wall: Sorry, you're too unexperienced as a developer and too under-qualified as a researcher I've already heard this, and variations of that, multiple times. Research position recruiters look for die-hard, publication-ridden, rockstar PhDs, while development position recruiters look for die-hard, experience-ridden, rockstar programmers. To most, my MsC degree seems like a minor bump on my CV (and an outright waste of time for some). Applying for abroad positions is even harder, since the employer would have to deal of the hassle of a VISA process, which I understand that, sometimes, is too much. Now I'm feeling I've reached a dead-end. I'm certain that development (and not research) is my thing, so should I just dismiss my MsC (or play it as a "trump card") and play the "big fish on a small pond" role while I gather some experience and contribute on some open-source projects as a plus? Is there a better way to handle this?

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• Flash Player for IPTV

  - by Le Mystique

  Hi All, We have to design a flash player for three video sources of IPTV. Educational videos on the system that can be played on demand. (VOD or Video on Demand local) Streaming videos available on different websites that can be played on demand (VOD or Video on Demand remote) IPTV live streaming video feed Videos from three sources have to be played within single flash player that we need to design. There are 2 basic requirements: For the two VOD types, we have to provide the pause and play functionality. For IPTV, pause and play is not required, However, channel switching time is critically important here. The user should get the program behaviour as close to TV experience as possible. This means channel switching should be fast. To provide this, buffering of video is required for multiple channels. Now the questions is, is this possible? If yes, how? Secondly, what skill set (e.g. action script 3.0 , flash 10) should the flash programmer have to be able to design this? Thirdly is it as simple as making a normal FLV player? Or is it a more complex job?

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• Horse Drawn Fiber Optics Bring Broadband to Remote Areas

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  When you think of fiber optics and high speed internet the last thing you likely think of is… horses. Yet horses have been put to use rolling out fiber optics to remote rural locations. In Vermont a Belgium draft horse named Fred, seen in the photo above being tended by his handler Claude, is a distinctly 19th century solution to a 21st century problem; how to run fiber optic cable through remote areas where trucks cannot easily pass. The man and animal are indispensable to cable and phone-service provider FairPoint Communications because they easily can access hard-to-reach job sites along country roads, which bulky utility trucks often cannot. “It just saves so much work – it would take probably 15 guys to do what Fred and Claude can do,” said Paul Clancy, foreman of a line crew from FairPoint. “They can pull 5,000 feet of cable with no sweat.” You can read more about the use of draft horses to draw lines and the roll out of broadband to rural Vermont at the link below. Vermont Uses Draft Horse to Lay Cables for Internet Access [Reuters] How To Encrypt Your Cloud-Based Drive with BoxcryptorHTG Explains: Photography with Film-Based CamerasHow to Clean Your Dirty Smartphone (Without Breaking Something)

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• Open Source Projects for Beginning Coders?

  - by MattDMo

  After working as a molecular biologist at the bench for many years, I lost my job last year and am thinking about a career change. I've been using open-source software and doing Linux system administration since the mid 90s, and have written/improved some small shell/Perl/PHP scripts, and am very comfortable building from source, but never progressed to creating non-trivial programs de novo. I want to move to actually learning real programming skills and contributing back to the community, with the possible eventual goal of getting into bioinformatics as a career in the future. I'm a stay-at-home dad now, so I have some time on my hands. I've done a lot of research on languages, and have settled on Python as my major focus for now. I'm set up on GitHub, but haven't forked anything yet. I've looked around OpenHatch some, but nothing really grabbed me. I've heard the advice to work on what you use/love, but that category is so broad that I'm having trouble finding any one thing to get started on. What are your suggestions for getting started? How do you pick a project that will welcome your (possibly amateurish) help? With a fairly limited skill set, how do you find a request that you can handle? What are common newbie mistakes to avoid? Any other advice?

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• Multiplayer online game engine/pipeline

  - by Slav

  I am implementing online multiplayer game where client must be written in AS3 (Flash) to embed game into browser and server in C++ (abstract part of which is already written and used with other games). Networking models may differ from each other, but currently I'm looking toward game's logic run on both client and server parts but they're written on different languages while it's not the main problem. My previous game (pretty big one - was implemented with efforts of ~5 programmers in 1.5 years) was mainly "written" within electronic tables as structured objects with implemented inheritance: was written standalone tool which generated AS3 and C++ (languages of platforms to which the game was published) using specified electronic tables file (.xls or .ods). That file contained ~50 tables with ~50 rows and ~50 columns each and was mainly written by game designers which do not know any programming languages. But that game was single-player. Having declared problem with my currently implementing MMO, I'm looking toward some vast pipeline, where will be resolved such problems like: game objects descriptions (which starships exist within game, how much HP they have, how fast move, what damage deal...) actions descriptions (what players or NPCs can do: attack each other, collect resources, build structures, move, teleport, cast spells) - actions are transmitted through server between clients influences (what happens when specified action applied on specified object, e.i "Ship A attacked Ship B: field "HP" of Ship B reduced by amount of field "damage" of Ship A" Influences can be much more difficult, yes, e.i. "damage is twice it's size when Ship has =5 allies around him in a 200 units range during night" and so on. If to be able to write such logic within some "design document" it will be easily possible to: let designers to do their job without programmer's intervention or any bug-prone programming validate described logic transfer (transform, convert) to any programming language where it will be executed Did somebody worked on something like that? Is there some tools/engines/pipelines which concernes with it? How to handle all of this problems simultaneously in a best way or do I properly imagine my tasks and problems to myself?

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• How to deal with a CEO making all technical decision but with little technical knowledge ?

  - by anonymous

  Hi, Question posted anonymously for obvious reasons. I am working in a company with a dev group of 5-6 developers, and I am in a situation which I have a hard time dealing with. Every technical choice (language, framework, database, database scheme, configuration scheme, etc...) is decided by the CEO, often without much rationale. It is very hard to modify those choices, and his main argument consists in "I don't like this", even though we propose several alternative with detailed pros/cons. He will also decide to rewrite from scratch our core product without giving a reason why, and he never participates to dev meetings because he considers it makes things slower... I am already looking at alternative job opportunities, but I was wondering if there anything we (the developers) could do to improve the situation. Two examples which shocked me: he will ask us to implement something akin to configuration management, but he reject any existing framework because they are not written in the language he likes (even though the implementation language is irrelevant). He also expects us to be able to write those systems in a couple of days, "because it is very simple". he keeps rewriting from scratch on his own our core product because the current codebase is too bad (codebase whose design was his). We are at our third rewrite in one year, each rewrite worse than the previous one. Things I have tried so far is doing elaborate benchmarks on our product (he keeps complaining that our software is too slow, and justifies rewrites to make it faster), implement solutions with existing products as working proof instead of just making pros/cons charts, etc... But still 90 % of those efforts go to the trashbox (never with any kind of rationale behind he does not like it, again), and often get reprimanded because I don't do exactly as he wants (not realizing that what he wants is impossible).

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