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• Open Source Security packages for Rails

  - by Edwin

  I'm currently creating a complete web application using Rails 3 to familiarize myself with its inner workings and to gain a better appreciation of a working web application's moving parts. (Plus, since I'm still working on my degree, I hope that it will give me a better idea of what's BS in my education requirements and which weaknesses/skills I should focus on.) The example application I'm working on is an ecommerce site, and I've already configured the backend, routes, controllers, and so on. As part of the application, I'd like to integrate a second layer of security on top of the one Rails already provides for user authentication. However, I've been unable to find any on Google, with the exception of OAuth - which, from my understanding, is meant to secure API calls. While I could roll my own secure authentication system, I'm only in my second year of college and recognize that A) I know little about security, and B) there are developers that know much more about security that are working on open-source projects. What are some actively developed open-source security packages or frameworks that can be easily added to Rails? Pros and cons are not necessary, as I can do the research myself. P.S. I'm not sure whether I posted this in the right SE site; please migrate to SO or Security if it is more appropriate there.

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• Enum driving a Visual State change via the ViewModel

  - by Chris Skardon

  Exciting title eh? So, here’s the problem, I want to use my ViewModel to drive my Visual State, I’ve used the ‘DataStateBehavior’ before, but the trouble with it is that it only works for bool values, and the minute you jump to more than 2 Visual States, you’re kind of screwed. A quick search has shown up a couple of points of interest, first, the DataStateSwitchBehavior, which is part of the Expression Samples (on Codeplex), and also available via Pete Blois’ blog. The second interest is to use a DataTrigger with GoToStateAction (from the Silverlight forums). So, onwards… first let’s create a basic switch Visual State, so, a DataObj with one property: IsAce… public class DataObj : NotifyPropertyChanger { private bool _isAce; public bool IsAce { get { return _isAce; } set { _isAce = value; RaisePropertyChanged("IsAce"); } } } The ‘NotifyPropertyChanger’ is literally a base class with RaisePropertyChanged, implementing INotifyPropertyChanged. OK, so we then create a ViewModel: public class MainPageViewModel : NotifyPropertyChanger { private DataObj _dataObj; public MainPageViewModel() { DataObj = new DataObj {IsAce = true}; ChangeAcenessCommand = new RelayCommand(() => DataObj.IsAce = !DataObj.IsAce); } public ICommand ChangeAcenessCommand { get; private set; } public DataObj DataObj { get { return _dataObj; } set { _dataObj = value; RaisePropertyChanged("DataObj"); } } } Aaaand finally – hook it all up to the XAML, which is a very simple UI: A Rectangle, a TextBlock and a Button. The Button is hooked up to ChangeAcenessCommand, the TextBlock is bound to the ‘DataObj.IsAce’ property and the Rectangle has 2 visual states: IsAce and NotAce. To make the Rectangle change it’s visual state I’ve used a DataStateBehavior inside the Layout Root Grid: <i:Interaction.Behaviors> <ei:DataStateBehavior Binding="{Binding DataObj.IsAce}" Value="true" TrueState="IsAce" FalseState="NotAce"/> </i:Interaction.Behaviors> So now we have the button changing the ‘IsAce’ property and giving us the other visual state: Great! So – the next stage is to get that to work inside a DataTemplate… Which (thankfully) is easy money. All we do is add a ListBox to the View and an ObservableCollection to the ViewModel. Well – ok, a little bit more than that. Once we’ve got the ListBox with it’s ItemsSource property set, it’s time to add the DataTemplate itself. Again, this isn’t exactly taxing, and is purely going to be a Grid with a Textblock and a Rectangle (again, I’m nothing if not consistent). Though, to be a little jazzy I’ve swapped the rectangle to the other side (living the dream). So, all that’s left is to add some States to the template.. (Yes – you can do that), these can be the same names as the others, or indeed, something else, I have chosen to stick with the same names and take the extra confusion hit right on the nose. Once again, I add the DataStateBehavior to the root Grid element: <i:Interaction.Behaviors> <ei:DataStateBehavior Binding="{Binding IsAce}" Value="true" TrueState="IsAce" FalseState="NotAce"/> </i:Interaction.Behaviors> The key difference here is the ‘Binding’ attribute, where I’m now binding to the IsAce property directly, and boom! It’s all gravy!   So far, so good. We can use boolean values to change the visual states, and (crucially) it works in a DataTemplate, bingo! Now. Onwards to the Enum part of this (finally!). Obviously we can’t use the DataStateBehavior, it' only gives us true/false options. So, let’s give the GoToStateAction a go. Now, I warn you, things get a bit complex from here, instead of a bool with 2 values, I’m gonna max it out and bring in an Enum with 3 (count ‘em) 3 values: Red, Amber and Green (those of you with exceptionally sharp minds will be reminded of traffic lights). We’re gonna have a rectangle which also has 3 visual states – cunningly called ‘Red’, ‘Amber’ and ‘Green’. A new class called DataObj2: public class DataObj2 : NotifyPropertyChanger { private Status _statusValue; public DataObj2(Status status) { StatusValue = status; } public Status StatusValue { get { return _statusValue; } set { _statusValue = value; RaisePropertyChanged("StatusValue"); } } } Where ‘Status’ is my enum. Good times are here! Ok, so let’s get to the beefy stuff. So, we’ll start off in the same manner as the last time, we will have a single DataObj2 instance available to the Page and bind to that. Let’s add some Triggers (these are in the LayoutRoot again). <i:Interaction.Triggers> <ei:DataTrigger Binding="{Binding DataObject2.StatusValue}" Value="Amber"> <ei:GoToStateAction StateName="Amber" UseTransitions="False" /> </ei:DataTrigger> <ei:DataTrigger Binding="{Binding DataObject2.StatusValue}" Value="Green"> <ei:GoToStateAction StateName="Green" UseTransitions="False" /> </ei:DataTrigger> <ei:DataTrigger Binding="{Binding DataObject2.StatusValue}" Value="Red"> <ei:GoToStateAction StateName="Red" UseTransitions="False" /> </ei:DataTrigger> </i:Interaction.Triggers> So what we’re saying here is that when the DataObject2.StatusValue is equal to ‘Red’ then we’ll go to the ‘Red’ state. Same deal for Green and Amber (but you knew that already). Hook it all up and start teh project. Hmm. Just grey. Not what I wanted. Ok, let’s add a ‘ChangeStatusCommand’, hook that up to a button and give it a whirl: Right, so the DataTrigger isn’t picking up the data on load. On the plus side, changing the status is making the visual states change. So. We’ll cross the ‘Grey’ hurdle in a bit, what about doing the same in the DataTemplate? <Codey Codey/> Grey again, but if we press the button: (I should mention, pressing the button sets the StatusValue property on the DataObj2 being represented to the next colour). Right. Let’s look at this ‘Grey’ issue. First ‘fix’ (and I use the term ‘fix’ in a very loose way): The Dispatcher Fix This involves using the Dispatcher on the View to call something like ‘RefreshProperties’ on the ViewModel, which will in turn raise all the appropriate ‘PropertyChanged’ events on the data objects being represented. So, here goes, into turdcode-ville – population – me: First, add the ‘RefreshProperties’ method to the DataObj2: internal void RefreshProperties() { RaisePropertyChanged("StatusValue"); } (shudder) Now, add it to the hosting ViewModel: public void RefreshProperties() { DataObject2.RefreshProperties(); if (DataObjects != null && DataObjects.Count > 0) { foreach (DataObj2 dataObject in DataObjects) dataObject.RefreshProperties(); } } (double shudder) and now for the cream on the cake, adding the following line to the code behind of the View: Dispatcher.BeginInvoke(() => ((MoreVisualStatesViewModel)DataContext).RefreshProperties()); So, what does this *ahem* code give us: Awesome, it makes the single bound data object show the colour, but frankly ignores the DataTemplate items. This (by the way) is the same output you get from: Dispatcher.BeginInvoke(() => ((MoreVisualStatesViewModel)DataContext).ChangeStatusCommand.Execute(null)); So… Where does that leave me? What about adding a button to the Page to refresh the properties – maybe it’s a timer thing? Yes, that works. Right, what about using the Loaded event then eh? Loaded += (s, e) => ((MoreVisualStatesViewModel) DataContext).RefreshProperties(); Ahhh No. What about converting the DataTemplate into a UserControl? Anything is worth a shot.. Though – I still suspect I’m going to have to ‘RefreshProperties’ if I want the rectangles to update. Still. No. This DataTemplate DataTrigger binding is becoming a bit of a pain… I can’t add a ‘refresh’ button to the actual code base, it’s not exactly user friendly. I’m going to end this one now, and put some investigating into the use of the DataStateSwitchBehavior (all the ones I’ve found, well, all 2 of them are working in SL3, but not 4…)

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• CERN Announces the Discovery of a Higgs-Boson-like Particle

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  CERN scientists dropped a press release today indicating they’ve found a particle consistent with the long sought after Higgs Boson particle–the “God” particle, that could help radically refine our understanding of Standard Model of Particle Physics. For years scientists at CERN have been harnessing the power of the Large Hadron Collider to answer fundamental questions about the nature of particles and the universe around us. In the above video John Ellis, a theoretical physicist, answers the question “What is the Higgs Boson?” The video pairs nicely with the CERN press release: “We observe in our data clear signs of a new particle, at the level of 5 sigma, in the mass region around 126 GeV. The outstanding performance of the LHC and ATLAS and the huge efforts of many people have brought us to this exciting stage,” said ATLAS experiment spokesperson Fabiola Gianotti, “but a little more time is needed to prepare these results for publication.” “The results are preliminary but the 5 sigma signal at around 125 GeV we’re seeing is dramatic. This is indeed a new particle. We know it must be a boson and it’s the heaviest boson ever found,” said CMS experiment spokesperson Joe Incandela. “The implications are very significant and it is precisely for this reason that we must be extremely diligent in all of our studies and cross-checks.” “It’s hard not to get excited by these results,” said CERN Research Director Sergio Bertolucci. “ We stated last year that in 2012 we would either find a new Higgs-like particle or exclude the existence of the Standard Model Higgs. With all the necessary caution, it looks to me that we are at a branching point: the observation of this new particle indicates the path for the future towards a more detailed understanding of what we’re seeing in the data.” How to Use an Xbox 360 Controller On Your Windows PC Download the Official How-To Geek Trivia App for Windows 8 How to Banish Duplicate Photos with VisiPic

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• Final Man vs. Machine Round of Jeopardy Unfolds; Watson Dominates

  - by ETC

  The final round of IBM’s Watson against Ken Jenning and Brad Rutter ended last night with Watson coming out in a strong lead against its two human opponents. Read on to catch a video of the match and see just how quick Watson is on the draw. Watson tore through many of the answers, the little probability bar at the bottom of the screen denoting it was often 95%+ confident in its answers. Some of the more interesting stumbles were, like in the last matches, based on nuance. By far the biggest “What?” moment of the night, however, was when it answered the Daily Double question of “The New Yorker’s 1959 review of this said in its brevity and clarity, it is ‘unlike most such manuals, a book as well as a tool’”. Watson, inexplicably, answered “Dorothy Parker”. You can win them all, eh? Check out the video below to see Watson in action on its final day. Latest Features How-To Geek ETC How to Enable User-Specific Wireless Networks in Windows 7 How to Use Google Chrome as Your Default PDF Reader (the Easy Way) How To Remove People and Objects From Photographs In Photoshop Ask How-To Geek: How Can I Monitor My Bandwidth Usage? Internet Explorer 9 RC Now Available: Here’s the Most Interesting New Stuff Here’s a Super Simple Trick to Defeating Fake Anti-Virus Malware The Citroen GT – An Awesome Video Game Car Brought to Life [Video] Final Man vs. Machine Round of Jeopardy Unfolds; Watson Dominates Give Chromium-Based Browser Desktop Notifications a Native System Look in Ubuntu Chrome Time Track Is a Simple Task Time Tracker Google Sky Map Turns Your Android Phone into a Digital Telescope Walking Through a Seaside Village Wallpaper

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• 'Content' is NOT 'Text' in XAML

  - by psheriff

  One of the key concepts in XAML is that the Content property of a XAML control like a Button or ComboBoxItem does not have to contain just textual data. In fact, Content can be almost any other XAML that you want. To illustrate here is a simple example of how to spruce up your Button controls in Silverlight. Here is some very simple XAML that consists of two Button controls within a StackPanel on a Silverlight User Control. <StackPanel>  <Button Name="btnHome"          HorizontalAlignment="Left"          Content="Home" />  <Button Name="btnLog"          HorizontalAlignment="Left"          Content="Logs" /></StackPanel> The XAML listed above will produce a Silverlight control within a Browser that looks like Figure 1.   Figure 1: Normal button controls are quite boring. With just a little bit of refactoring to move the button attributes into Styles, we can make the buttons look a little better. I am a big believer in Styles, so I typically create a Resources section within my user control where I can factor out the common attribute settings for a particular set of controls. Here is a Resources section that I added to my Silverlight user control. <UserControl.Resources>  <Style TargetType="Button"         x:Key="NormalButton">    <Setter Property="HorizontalAlignment"            Value="Left" />    <Setter Property="MinWidth"            Value="50" />    <Setter Property="Margin"            Value="10" />  </Style></UserControl.Resources> Now back in the XAML within the Grid control I update the Button controls to use the Style attribute and have each button use the Static Resource called NormalButton. <StackPanel>  <Button Name="btnHome"          Style="{StaticResource NormalButton}"          Content="Home" />  <Button Name="btnLog"          Style="{StaticResource NormalButton}"          Content="Logs" /></StackPanel> With the additional attributes set in the Resources section on the Button, the above XAML will now display the two buttons as shown in Figure 2. Figure 2: Use Resources to Make Buttons More Consistent Now let’s re-design these buttons even more. Instead of using words for each button, let’s replace the Content property to use a picture. As they say… a picture is worth a thousand words, so let’s take advantage of that. Modify each of the Button controls and eliminate the Content attribute and instead, insert an <Image> control with the <Button> and the </Button> tags. Add a ToolTip to still display the words you had before in the Content and you will now have better looking buttons, as shown in Figure 3.   Figure 3: Using pictures instead of words can be an effective method of communication The XAML to produce Figure 3 is shown in the following listing: <StackPanel>  <Button Name="btnHome"          ToolTipService.ToolTip="Home"          Style="{StaticResource NormalButton}">    <Image Style="{StaticResource NormalImage}"            Source="Images/Home.jpg" />  </Button>  <Button Name="btnLog"          ToolTipService.ToolTip="Logs"          Style="{StaticResource NormalButton}">    <Image Style="{StaticResource NormalImage}"            Source="Images/Log.jpg" />  </Button></StackPanel> You will also need to add the following XAML to the User Control’s Resources section. <Style TargetType="Image"        x:Key="NormalImage">  <Setter Property="Width"          Value="50" /></Style> Add Multiple Controls to Content Now, since the Content can be whatever we want, you could also modify the Content of each button to be a StackPanel control. Then you can have an image and text within the button. <StackPanel>  <Button Name="btnHome"          ToolTipService.ToolTip="Home"          Style="{StaticResource NormalButton}">    <StackPanel>      <Image Style="{StaticResource NormalImage}"              Source="Images/Home.jpg" />      <TextBlock Text="Home"                  Style="{StaticResource NormalTextBlock}" />    </StackPanel>  </Button>  <Button Name="btnLog"          ToolTipService.ToolTip="Logs"          Style="{StaticResource NormalButton}">    <StackPanel>      <Image Style="{StaticResource NormalImage}"              Source="Images/Log.jpg" />      <TextBlock Text="Logs"                  Style="{StaticResource NormalTextBlock}" />    </StackPanel>  </Button></StackPanel> You will need to add one more resource for the TextBlock control too. <Style TargetType="TextBlock"        x:Key="NormalTextBlock">  <Setter Property="HorizontalAlignment"          Value="Center" /></Style> All of the above will now produce the following:   Figure 4: Add multiple controls to the content to make your buttons even more interesting. Summary While this is a simple example, you can see how XAML Content has great flexibility. You could add a MediaElement control as the content of a Button and play a video within the Button. Not that you would necessarily do this, but it does work. What is nice about adding different content within the Button control is you still get the Click event and other attributes of a button, but it does necessarily look like a normal button. Good Luck with your Coding,Paul Sheriff ** SPECIAL OFFER FOR MY BLOG READERS **Visit http://www.pdsa.com/Event/Blog for a free video on Silverlight entitled "Silverlight XAML for the Complete Novice - Part 1."

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• javascript fixed timestep gameloop with requestanimation frame

  - by coffeecup

  hello i just started to read through several articles, including http://gafferongames.com/game-physics/fix-your-timestep/ ...://gamedev.stackexchange.com/questions/1589/fixed-time-step-vs-variable-time-step/ ...//dewitters.koonsolo.com/gameloop.html ...://nokarma.org/2011/02/02/javascript-game-development-the-game-loop/index.html my understanding of this is that i need the currentTime and the timeStep size and integrate all states to the next state the time which is left is then passed into the render function to do interpolation i tried to implement glenn fiedlers "the final touch", whats troubling me is that each FrameTime is about 15 (ms) and the update loop runs at about 1500 fps which seems a little bit off? heres my code this.t = 0 this.dt = 0.01 this.currTime = new Date().getTime() this.accumulator = 0.0 this.animate() animate: function(){ var newTime = new Date().getTime() , frameTime = newTime - this.currTime , alpha if ( frameTime > 0.25 ) frameTime = 0.25 this.currTime = newTime this.accumulator += frameTime while (this.accumulator >= this.dt ) { this.prev_state = this.curr_state this.update(this.t,this.dt) this.t += this.dt this.accumulator -= this.dt } alpha = this.accumulator / this.dt this.render( this.t, this.dt, alpha) requestAnimationFrame( this.animate ) } also i would like to know, are there differences between glenn fiedlers implementation and the last solution presented here ? gameloop1 gameloop2 [ sorry couldnt post more than 2 links.. ] edit : i looked into it again and adjusted the values this.currTime = new Date().getTime() this.accumulator = 0 this.p_t = 0 this.p_step = 1000/100 this.animate() animate: function(){ var newTime = new Date().getTime() , frameTime = newTime - this.currTime , alpha if(frameTime > 25) frameTime = 25 this.currTime = newTime this.accumulator += frameTime while(this.accumulator >= this.p_step){ // prevstate = currState this.update() this.p_t+=this.p_step this.accumulator -= this.p_step } alpha = this.accumulator / this.p_step this.render(alpha) requestAnimationFrame( this.animate ) now i can set the physics update rate, render runs at 60 fps and physics update at 100 fps, maybe someone could confirm this because its the first time i'm playing around with game development :-)

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• Welcome to JavaOne!

  - by marius.ciortea

  Welcome to this year's JavaOne conference! We are glad you dropped by. We want to keep you informed of all the happenings around JavaOne: all the events leading up to the conference and all the events during the conference week itself. We'll cover announcements, news, planning (but we won't make you go to any meetings), and snafus (nothing that makes us look too bad, of course). We'll even throw in a contest or two to make sure you are paying attention. We'll post a couple of times a week, and then more frequently as we get closer to September. There's a group of us, and we cover the Java beat, JUGs, Oracle Technology Network, Oracle Solaris, and lots more. What do you want to hear about? Let us know.A group of us from the office went to see the movie Iron Man 2 (it just debuted in the United States) last week and it reminded us of Java, the Java community, and JavaOne. In all three cases, from many disparate (and sometimes seemingly incompatible) parts and people, something comes together that works, is cool, and helps make a better world. Right now, there are hundreds of little islands of planning, all busy answering questions for JavaOne: What sessions get selected? What goes in the Mason street tent (until a few weeks ago, Will there be a tent on Mason street?), What do the JUGS need? Which Oracle ACEs will be there? Can we do a surf theme at the OTN party? And, somehow, like an Iron Man suit, they all come together and work to make a great event. At least, we hope it will be great. That's for you to decide. Please don't be shy--give us your comments and suggestions. We'll be listening.P.S. You can attend Stark Expo online at Oracle.com/ironman2, where you can train to become a "Master Cloud Operative." I got my MCO certification. I wish I had a card to put in my wallet.

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• Lost in Translation

  - by antony.reynolds

  Using the Correct Character Set for the SOA Suite Database A couple of years ago I spent a wonderful week in Tel Aviv helping with the first Oracle BAM implementation in Israel.  Although everyone I interacted spoke better English than I did, the screens and data for the implementation were all in Hebrew, meaning the Hebrew alphabet.  Over the week I learnt to recognize a few Hebrew words, enough to enable me to test what we were doing.  So I knew SOA Suite worked OK with non-English and non-Latin character sets so I was suspicious recently when a customer was having data corruption of non-Latin characters.  On investigation it turned out that the data received correctly in the SOA Suite, but then it was corrupted after being stored in the database. A little investigation revealed that the customer was using the default database character set, which is “WE8ISO8859P1” which, as the name suggests only supports West European 8-bit characters.  What was happening was that when the customer had installed his SOA repository he had ignored the message that his database was not using AL32UTF as the character. After changing the character set on his database he no longer saw the corruption of non-English character data. So the moral of this story is Always install the SOA Repository in to an AL32UTF8 Database This is true for both SOA Suite 10g and 11g.  Ignore it at your peril, because you never know when you will need to support Hebrew, or Japanese or another multi-byte character set.

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• Formalizing a requirements spec written in narrative English

  - by ProfK

  I have a fairly technical functionality requirements spec, expressed in English prose, produced by my project manager. It is structured as a collection of UI tabs, where the requirements for each tab are expressed as a lit of UI fields and a list of business rules for the tab. Most business rules are for UI fields on a tab, e.g: a) Must be alphanumeric, max length 20. b) Must be a dropdown, with values from table x. c) Is mandatory. d) Is mandatory under certain conditions, e.g. another field is just populated, or has a specific value. Then other business rules get a little more complex. The spec is for a job application, so the central business object (table) is the Applicant, and we have several other tables with one-to-many relationships with applicant, such as Degree, HighSchool, PreviousEmployer, Diploma, etc. e) One such complex rule says a status field can only be assigned a certain value if a many-side record exists in at least one of the many-side tables. E.g. the Applicant has at least one HighSchool or at least one Diploma record. I am looking for advice on how to codify these requirements into a more structured specification defined in terms of tables, fields, and relationships, especially for the conditional rules for fields and for the presence of related records. Any suggestions and advice will be most welcome, but I would be overjoyed if i could find an already defined system or structure for expressing things like this.

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• What's the best approach to Facebook integration?

  - by Jay Stevens

  I have a new site/app going live next week (or somewhere close). I know there will be a relatively small (15,000?) very dedicated group of people on Facebook who will be very likely to be interested in the site, so I know I need Facebook integration of some kind. I won't be doing Facebook logins or pulling/posting to profiles yet, but I plan to... The question: Do I just do a Facebook "Page" for now? This is faster/easier to set up and seems a little less buggy.. and then migrate to a Facebook App later? or Do I create a "Facebook App" (with the api key/id/secret, etc.) now even if I'm doing nothing but using the "like" button. This means I don't have any migration later and I can use the javascript api to log "like" button clicks to Google Analytics, etc. Thoughts? Experiences? Is there a migration process to move your old Page users to your new "App"? What's the advantages / disadvantages of each.

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• Converting to and from local and world 3D coordinate spaces?

  - by James Bedford

  Hey guys, I've been following a guide I found here (http://knol.google.com/k/matrices-for-3d-applications-view-transformation) on constructing a matrix that will allow me to 3D coordinates to an object's local coordinate space, and back again. I've tried to implement these two matrices using my object's look, side, up and location vectors and it seems to be working for the first three coordinates. I'm a little confused as to what I should expect for the w coordinate. Here are couple of examples from the print outs I've made of the matricies that are constructed. I'm passing a test vector of [9, 8, 14, 1] each time to see if I can convert both ways: Basic example: localize matrix: Matrix: 0.000000 -0.000000 1.000000 0.000000 0.000000 1.000000 0.000000 0.000000 1.000000 0.000000 0.000000 0.000000 5.237297 -45.530716 11.021271 1.000000 globalize matrix: Matrix: 0.000000 0.000000 1.000000 0.000000 -0.000000 1.000000 0.000000 0.000000 1.000000 0.000000 0.000000 0.000000 -11.021271 -45.530716 -5.237297 1.000000 test: Vector4f(9.000000, 8.000000, 14.000000, 1.000000) localTest: Vector4f(14.000000, 8.000000, 9.000000, -161.812256) worldTest: Vector4f(9.000000, 8.000000, 14.000000, -727.491455) More complicated example: localize matrix: Matrix: 0.052504 -0.000689 -0.998258 0.000000 0.052431 0.998260 0.002068 0.000000 0.997241 -0.052486 0.052486 0.000000 58.806095 2.979346 -39.396252 1.000000 globalize matrix: Matrix: 0.052504 0.052431 0.997241 0.000000 -0.000689 0.998260 -0.052486 0.000000 -0.998258 0.002068 0.052486 0.000000 -42.413120 5.975957 -56.419727 1.000000 test: Vector4f(9.000000, 8.000000, 14.000000, 1.000000) localTest: Vector4f(-13.508600, 8.486917, 9.290090, 2.542114) worldTest: Vector4f(9.000190, 7.993863, 13.990230, 102.057129) As you can see in the more complicated example, the coordinates after converting both ways loose some precision, but this isn't a problem. I'm just wondering how I should deal with the last (w) coordinate? Should I just set it to 1 after performing the matrix multiplication, or does it look like I've done something wrong? Thanks in advance for your help!

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• Search Work Items for TFS 2010 - New Extension

  - by MikeParks

  A few months ago I was constantly using Visual Studio 2008 with Team Foundation Server 2008. Searching for work items with queries inside Visual Studio became a pain until I found an add in that simplifed it into one little search box in the IDE.  It allowed me to enter some text in, hit the enter key, and it would bring back a list (aka open a .wiq file) of work items that matched the text entered. I became a huge fan of Noah Coad's Search Work Item Add In. He wrote a pretty good blog on how to use it as well. Of course when we upgraded to Visual Studio 2010 and Team Foundation Server 2010, the 2008 add in no longer worked. I didn't see any updates for it on codeplex to be 2010 compatible. Cory Cissell and I have published a few Visual Studio Extensions already so I figured I'd take a shot at making this tool 2010 compatible by turning it into an extension. Sure enough, it worked. We used it locally for a while and recently decided to publish it to the Visual Studio Gallery. If you are currently looking for an easy way to search work items in Visual Studio 2010, this is worth checking out. Big thanks goes out to Noah for originally creating this on codeplex. The extension we created can be downloaded here: http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/3f31bfff-5ecb-4e05-8356-04815851b8e7      * Additional note: The default search fields are Title, History, and Description. If you want to modify which work item fields are searchable, type in "--template" (no quotes) into the search box and hit enter. This will open the search template. Just add another "Or" statement, pick the field name, select an operator, type "[search]" (no quotes) in the value field, and hit ctrl + s to save. The next time you run a search it will use the modified search template. That's all for now. Thanks! - Mike

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• Interpolate air drag for my game?

  - by Valentin Krummenacher

  So I have a little game which works with small steps, however those steps vary in time, so for example I sometimes have 10 Steps/second and then I have 20 Steps/second. This changes automatically depending on how many steps the user's computer can take. To avoid inaccurate positioning of the game's player object I use y=v0*dt+g*dt^2/2 to determine my objects y-position, where dt is the time since the last step, v0 is the velocity of my object in the beginning of my step and g is the gravity. To calculate the velocity in the end of a step I use v=v0+g*dt what also gives me correct results, independent of whether I use 2 steps with a dt of for example 20ms or one step with a dt of 40ms. Now I would like to introduce air drag. For simplicity's sake I use a=k*v^2 where a is the air drag's acceleration (I am aware that it would usually result in a force, but since I assume 1kg for my object's mass the force is the same as the resulting acceleration), k is a constant (in this case I'm using 0.001) and v is the speed. Now in an infinitely small time interval a is k multiplied by the velocity in this small time interval powered by 2. The problem is that v in the next time interval would depend on the drag of the last which again depends on the v of the last interval and so on... In other words: If I use a=k*v^2 I get different results for my position/velocity when I use 2 steps of 20ms than when I use one step of 40ms. I used to have this problem for my position too, but adding +g*dt^2/2 to the formula for my position fixed the problem since it takes into account that the position depends on the velocity which changes slightly in every infinitely small time interval. Does something like that exist for air drag too? And no, I dont mean anything like Adding air drag to a golf ball trajectory equation or similar, for that kind of method only gives correct results when all my steps are the same. (I hope you can understand my intermediate english, it's not my main language so I would like to say sorry for all the silly mistakes I might have made in my question)

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• How can I make fsck run non-interactively at boot time?

  - by Nelson

  I have a headless Ubuntu 12.04 server in a datacenter 1500 miles away. Twice now on reboot the system decided it had to fsck. Unfortunately Ubuntu ran fsck in interactive mode, so I had to ask someone at my datacenter to go over, plug in a console, and press the Y key. How do I set it up so that fsck runs in non-interactive mode at boot time with the -y or -p (aka -a) flag? If I understand Ubuntu's boot process correctly, init invokes mountall which in turn invokes fsck. However I don't see any way to configure how fsck is invoked. Is this possible? (To head off one suggestion; I'm aware I can use tune2fs -i 0 -c 0 to prevent periodic fscks. That may help a little but I need the system to try to come back up even if it had a real reason to fsck, say after a power failure.) In response to followup questions, here's the pertinent details of my /etc/fstab. I don't believe I've edited this at all from what Ubuntu put there. UUID=3515461e-d425-4525-a07d-da986d2d7e04 / ext4 errors=remount-ro 0 1 UUID=90908358-b147-42e2-8235-38c8119f15a6 /boot ext4 defaults 0 2 UUID=01f67147-9117-4229-9b98-e97fa526bfc0 none swap sw 0 0

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• Should I swap from WCF to NserviceBus

  - by Matt Roberts

  We have a central server that sends and recieves messages from a number of PCs that are located on client networks in various locations. To facilitate this, currently I'm using WCF with TCPNetBindings, using duplex communication secured with certificates. Now, we have a number of issues with this - mainly that we are being asked to support "disconnected mode" (we need to be fault tolerant). From what I know, there is no simple way to do this using the WCF stack - we'd need to implement something and perhaps use msmq. I've been looking at NServiceBus lately, and from I can see it seems to fit the bill well - fault tolerance, messages can be sent over the internet via a simple http gateway, etc. I know it's well respected in the community, and I can see why from looking into it. So, my question is...Does employing NServiceBus sound like a sensible idea, or does anyone have any other suggestions / real world experience that relate to this? I guess I'm worried of introducing a new tech that I know relatively little about, and facing problems with things like securing it, setting everything up in a reliable way, gotchas along the way.. I'm also wary of "gold-plating" the architecture, and choosing something shiny that will end up bogging me down in implementation versus sticking with WCF and just making it work for me.. Thanks!

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• Preventing battery from charging

  - by intuited

  I'm running on UPS power and would like to prevent the laptop's battery from charging, to increase the amount of power available to other devices. Is there a way to do this? update The machine is a Dell Latitude D400. If people want more details, just ask. Also, I'm gathering that I need to explain my desired setup a little better. I've gotten a bunch of suggestions about taking the battery out. I'm not sure if people are suggesting to take the battery out while the machine is running — this, as I understand, is not a good idea with most laptops — or to just remove the battery altogether. The latter option is not optimal, because ideally I'd like to use the 30-60 minutes of power in the laptop battery and then switch over to UPS power. The details of the switch-over may constitute a separate question, but if I can't find a way to keep the laptop battery from charging, then removing the battery from the machine altogether may be the best way to do this. I'm not sure yet if this machine will run without a battery, but I'll check that out. Other than the laptop, the UPS is just supporting a cable modem and router and a USB hub. Again in the idealized version of this setup, all the power management changes would be automated, i.e. not require replugging anything or pressing Fn-keys. I'd like the machine to start using laptop battery power when apcupsd indicates that the UPS A/C is out, and then start using UPS power, but not charging the battery, when the battery is almost depleted.

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• As a solo programmer, of what use can Gerrit be?

  - by s.d

  Disclaimer: I'm aware of the questions How do I review my own code? and What advantages do continuous integration tools offer on a solo project?. I do feel that this question aims at a different set of answers though, as it is about a specific software, and not about general musings about the use of this or that practice or tech stack. I'm a solo programmer for an Eclipse RCP-based project. To be able to control myself and the quality of my software, I'm in the process of setting up a CSI stack. In this, I follow the Eclipse Common Build Infrastructure guidelines, with the exception that I will use Jenkins rather than Hudson. Sticking to these guidelines will hopefully help me in getting used to the Eclipse way of doing things, and I hope to be able to contribute some code to Eclipse in the future. However, CBI includes Gerrit, a code review software. While I think it's really helpful for teams, and I will employ it as soon as the team grows to at least two developers, I'm wondering how I could use it while I'm still solo. Question: Is there a use case for Gerrit that takes into account solo developers? Notes: I can imagine reviewing code myself after a certain amount of time to gain a little distance to it. This does complicate the workflow though, as code will only be built once it's been passed through code review. This might prove to be a "trap" as I might be tempted to quickly push bad code through Gerrit just to get it built. I'm very interested in hearing how other solo devs have made use of Gerrit.

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• Stable ubuntu distribution for a broadcom bcm4313 wireless driver and an nvidia 630 graphics adapter

  - by Vivek Pradhan

  I have been trying to completely shift to ubuntu or a linux distro for almost 2 years now. I have tried all the ubuntu distros starting from 10.04 through 11.10, but there has always been some bugs with the display drivers or the wireless cards not being recognised and the additional drivers suggested from the ubuntu community not doing the trick always. I tried a lot to fix bugs, checked a lot of forums, launch pad, got some of them fixed, but could not really get a neat and complete ubuntu machine set up till now. Now I really like the whole open source community and the linux platform, my pc at home runs ubuntu 11.04 perfectly but there have been some glitches always with ubuntu on my laptop that has forced me to stick with windows only. Now I am currently on an hp dv6 laptop that has the broadcom bcm4313 wireless driver and the nvidia 630gtm graphics(optimus) driver. Now I tried to do some research on the support of these drivers in linux machines but could not get anywhere. So I would really appreciate if you guys could suggest some linux distro that I could use that has full support of these drivers or has stable bug fixes for these kind of issues. I tried precise pangolin (LTS) through a live CD but i still see a problem with wifi networks which is a little frustrating. Please help me find the perfect match for my laptop :P I would gladly provide any other information necessary.

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• CodePlex Daily Summary for Tuesday, June 05, 2012

  CodePlex Daily Summary for Tuesday, June 05, 2012Popular ReleasesApplication Architecture Guidelines: Application Architecture Guidelines 3.0.7: 3.0.7Jolt Environment: Jolt v2 Stable: Many new features. Follow development here for more information: http://www.rune-server.org/runescape-development/rs-503-client-server/projects/298763-jolt-environment-v2.html Setup instructions in downloadtedplay: tedplay 1.0: First public release of the Commodore 264 family (C16, plus/4) music player based on the SDL version of YAPE http://yape.homeserver.hu.SharePoint Euro 2012 - UEFA European Football Predictor: havivi.euro2012.wsp (1.5): New fetures:Multilingual Support Max users property in Standings Web Part Games time zone change (UTC +1) bug fix - Version 1.4 locking problem http://euro2012.codeplex.com/discussions/358262 bug fix - Field Title not found (v.1.3) German SP http://euro2012.codeplex.com/discussions/358189#post844228 Bug fix - Access is denied.for users with contribute rights Bug fix - Installing on non-English version of SharePoint Bug fix - Title Rules Installing SharePoint Euro 2012 PredictorSharePoint E...xNet: xNet 2.1.1: Release xNet 2.1.1Command Line Parser Library: 1.9.2.4 stable: This is the first stable of 1.9.* branch. Added tests for HelpText::AutoBuild. Fixed minor formatting error in HelpText::DefaultParsingErrorsHandler.myManga: myManga v1.0.0.4: ChangeLogUpdating from Previous Version: Extract contents of Release - myManga v1.0.0.4.zip to previous version's folder. Replaces: myManga.exe BakaBox.dll CoreMangaClasses.dll Manga.dll Plugins/MangaReader.manga.dll Plugins/MangaFox.manga.dll Plugins/MangaHere.manga.dll Plugins/MangaPanda.manga.dllMVVM Light Toolkit: V4RC (binaries only) including Windows 8 RP: This package contains all the latest DLLs for MVVM Light V4 RC. It includes the DLLs for Windows 8 Release Preview. An updated Nuget package is also available at http://nuget.org/packages/MvvmLightLibsPreviewExtAspNet: ExtAspNet v3.1.7: +2012-06-03 v3.1.7 -?????????BUG，??????RadioButtonList?，AJAX????????BUG（swtseaman、????）。 +?Grid?BoundField、HyperLinkField、LinkButtonField、WindowField??HtmlEncode?HtmlEncodeFormatString（TiDi）。 -HtmlEncode?HtmlEncodeFormatString??????true，??????HTML????????。 -??????Asp.Net??GridView?BoundField?????????。 -http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.web.ui.webcontrols.boundfield.htmlencode -?Grid?HyperLinkField、WindowField??UrlEncode??，????URL??（???true）。 -?????????????，?????????????...Ela, functional language: Ela Platform 2012.3: 2012.3 is a stabilization release. It contains several improvements to Ela, std lib and Elide. Ela changes Fix:Op code 'Show' didn't work correctly when a format string was a thunk. Fix:Flipping a function wrapped in a thunk caused VM to crush. Fix:A bug fixed in concatenation of a thunk and a lazy list. Fix:Concatenation of a lazy list and a strict list could cause stack overflow in a case of recursive thunks. Fix:A bug fixed in applying 'show' to a result of a lazy and strict list...Cross Site Treeview - For MOSS 2007: Cross Site Treeview-Beta - WSP Solution: Cross Site Treeview-Beta - WSP SolutionLiveChat Starter Kit: LCSK v1.5.2: New features: Visitor location (City - Country) from geo-location Pass configuration via javascript for the chat box New visitor identification (no more using the IP address as visitor identification) To update from 1.5.1 Run the /src/1.5.2-sql-updates.txt SQL script to update your database tables. If you have it installed via NuGet, simply update your package and the file will be included so you can run the update script. New installation The easiest way to add LCSK to your app is by...Kendo UI ASP.NET Sample Applications: Sample Applications (2012-06-01): Sample application(s) demonstrating the use of Kendo UI in ASP.NET applications.Better Explorer: Better Explorer Beta 1: Finally, the first Beta is here! There were a lot of changes, including: Translations into 10 different languages (the translations are not complete and will be updated soon) Conditional Select new tools for managing archives Folder Tools tab new search bar and Search Tab new image editing tools update function many bug fixes, stability fixes, and memory leak fixes other new features as well! Please check it out and if there are any problems, let us know. :) Also, do not forge...Player Framework by Microsoft: Player Framework for Windows 8 Metro (Preview 3): Player Framework for HTML/JavaScript and XAML/C# Metro Style Applications. Additional DownloadsIIS Smooth Streaming Client SDK for Windows 8 Microsoft PlayReady Client SDK for Metro Style Apps Release notes:Support for Windows 8 Release Preview (released 5/31/12) Advertising support (VAST, MAST, VPAID, & clips) Miscellaneous improvements and bug fixesMicrosoft Ajax Minifier: Microsoft Ajax Minifier 4.54: Fix for issue #18161: pretty-printing CSS @media rule throws an exception due to mismatched Indent/Unindent pair.Silverlight Toolkit: Silverlight 5 Toolkit Source - May 2012: Source code for December 2011 Silverlight 5 Toolkit release.Windows 8 Metro RSS Reader: RSS Reader release 6: Changed background and foreground colors Used VariableSizeGrid layout to wrap blog posts with images Sort items with Images first, text-only last Enabled Caching to improve navigation between framesJson.NET: Json.NET 4.5 Release 6: New feature - Added IgnoreDataMemberAttribute support New feature - Added GetResolvedPropertyName to DefaultContractResolver New feature - Added CheckAdditionalContent to JsonSerializer Change - Metro build now always uses late bound reflection Change - JsonTextReader no longer returns no content after consecutive underlying content read failures Fix - Fixed bad JSON in an array with error handling creating an infinite loop Fix - Fixed deserializing objects with a non-default cons...DotNetNuke® Community Edition CMS: 06.02.00: Major Highlights Fixed issue in the Site Settings when single quotes were being treated as escape characters Fixed issue loading the Mobile Premium Data after upgrading from CE to PE Fixed errors logged when updating folder provider settings Fixed the order of the mobile device capabilities in the Site Redirection Management UI The User Profile page was completely rebuilt. We needed User Profiles to have multiple child pages. This would allow for the most flexibility by still f...New ProjectsDish: ????? ???????? ??? ??.DRESSCOLLECTION: THIS IS A MVC APPLICAITON WHICH HELPS IN CREATING RANGE OF CLOTH AND DRESS COLLECTION TO CHOOSE AND BUY.FlowTasks: FlowTasks is a framework to develop human and business workflowGroup3.ERP.Roleadministration: Software zum generieren von RollendefinitionenHierarchical Pages Orchard Module: Creates a Hierarchical Page content type that does everything the built-in Page type does, but items can also contain other pages (and thus are containable by other pages too).hot24.vn: is first my project, it very cu chuoi.Household Manager: fcsdvsdvsdcdLabView interface for windows HPC: This project is a prototype library that attempts to integrate in the same enviroment the Data Acquisition and the Data Analysis systems. The library is a collection of LabVIEW Virtual Instruments that permts the job submission to a Windows HPC cluster. Jobs results can be easaly collected in order to perform actions via the DAQ control. Full documentation and examples are included.markgroves.us: Hello this is the blog template for http://markgroves.us. MostrarDireccion: Muestra la Direccion donde Reside cada personaMSPTH2012: This project is for MSPTH2012. Pattern Rolling File Appender for log4net: Appender for log4net that is combination of PatternFileAppender and RollingFileAppenderPowershell By Example: The vision of Powershell By Example is to give those interested in Powershell the chance to learn Powershell scripting by example with the goal of empowering them to use Powershell to maintain their own Windows environments. Practica Cuarto A: proyecto bakanProvidence: Providence is an application meant to capture audio, video, and screen-shots for various purposes.Proyecto T2: Tarea 2 - aprendiendo a utilizar la herramientaServer Config Tools: ??? ?????? IIS ?????SharePoint Scheduling Assistant: Scheduling assistant built for schools and universities. Works with out-of-the-box list and involves no custom workflows.Steam Group Players: This tool is meant to allow access to Steam community groups with the ability to sort group members according to hours spent playing specific games (as well as overall play time). The reason for starting this project was to allow a "player of the week"-selection that is slightly more complex than picking one by random or just by total hours played (recently).t2belenlm4c: Ana Belen LandaTaskLogger: Handy little pop-up that allows you to track time spent on project tasks. Can be used to generate timesheets.TechnicBlog: ????TPL DataFlow Debugger Visualizer: Graphic debugger visualizer to TPL DataFlow networks enable to see live state of blocks and relations Compatible with VS 2012 RC VsDoc2JsDoc: The goal of this project is to convert VSDoc JavaScript comments of JayData classes to JSDoc comment format. Using this tool you can generate the API reference of your JayData components and keep your JavaScript documentation up-to-date.WorkOutTimer: WorkOutTimer This little tool provides an easy to use timer for your workouts, trainings, and more... It has two time period, one for working, and one to be cool! By default work time is set to 2 minutes, cool time is set to 1minute (Kick boxing settings), but you can set up each period time as you want. You can hang up, restart, or reset time. It offers a high visibility timer. It also counts rounds. So have great workout! If you use it and you think it’s cool for y...XLIFF Editor: This is an attempt at making an open source XLIFF editor for Windows. I am using the Open Language Tools Editor as the primary source for the ideas of the XLIFF Editor. I am new to C# so this is is for me an ambitious learning and hopefull succesfull project. Any help in positive criticism will be looked at gratefully. xNet: xNet - a class library for .NET Framework, which includes: - Classes for work with proxy servers: HTTP, Socks4 (and), Socks5. - Classes for work with HTTP 1.0/1.1 protocol: keep-alive, gzip, deflate, chunked, SSL, proxies and more. - Classes for work with multithreading: _a multithreaded bypassing the collection, asynchronous events and more_. - Classes helpers that extend standard classes .NET Framework: FileHelper, DirectoryHelper, StringHelper, XmlHelper, BitHelper and others.?????? «??????????? ??????»: ??????????? ??????????: description

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• Clean Code Developer & Certification in IT - MSCC 21.09.2013

  It was a very busy weekend this time, and quite some hectic to organise the second meetup on a Saturday for the Mauritius Software Craftsmanship Community (MSCC) but it was absolutely fun. Following, I'm writing a brief summary about the topics we spoke about and the new impulses I got. "What a meetup... I was positively impressed. At the beginning I thought that noone would actually show up but then by the time the room got filled. Lots of conversation, great dialogues and fantastic networking between fresh students, experienced students, experienced employees, and self-employed attendees. That's what community is all about!" Above quote was my first reaction shortly after the gathering. And despite being busy during the weekend and yesterday, I took my time to reflect a little bit on things happened and statements made before writing it here on my blog. Additionally, I was also very curious about possible reactions and blogs from other attendees. Reactions from other craftsmen Let me quickly give you some links and quotes from others first... "Like Jochen posted on facebook, that was indeed a 5+ hours marathon (maybe 4 hours for me but still) … Wohoo! We’re indeed a bunch of crazy geeks who did not realise how time flew as we dived into the myriad discussions that sprouted. Yet in the end everyone was happy (:" -- Ish on MSCC meetup - The marathon (: "And the 4hours spent @ Talking drums bore its fruit..I was doing something I never did before....reading the borrowed book while walking....and though I was not that familiar with things mentionned in the book...I was skimming,scanning & flipping...reading titles...short paragraphs...and I skipped pages till I reached home." -- Yannick on Mauritius Software Craftsmanship 1st Meet-up "Hi Developers, Just wanted to share with you the meetups i attended last Saturday - [...] - The second meetup is the one hosted by Jochen Kirstätter, the MSCC, where the attendees were Craftsman, no woman, this time - all sharing the same passion of being a developer - even though it is on different platforms(Windows - Windows Phone - Linux - Adobe(yes a designer) - .Net) - but we manage to sit at the same table - sharing developer views and experience in the corporate world - also talking about good practice when coding( where Jochen initiated a discussion on Clean Coding ) i could not stay till the end - but from what i have heard - the longer you stay the more fun you have till 1600. Developers in the Facebook grouping i invite you to stay tuned about the various developer communities popping up - where you can come to share and learn good practices, develop the entrepreneurial spirit, and learn and share your passion about technologies" -- Arnaud on Facebook More feedback has been posted on the event directly. So, should I really write more? Wouldn't that spoil the impressions? Starting the day with a surprise Indeed, I was very pleased to stumble over the existence of Mobile Monday Mauritius on LinkedIn, an association about any kind of mobile app development, mobile gadgets and latest smartphones on the market. Despite the Monday in their name they had scheduled their recent meeting on Saturday between 10:00 and 12:00hrs. Wow, what a coincidence! Let's grap the bull by its horns and pay them an introductory visit. As they chose the Ebene Accelerator at the Orange Tower in Ebene it was a no-brainer to leave home a bit earlier and stop by. It was quite an experience and fun to talk to the geeks over there. Really looking forward to organise something together.... Arriving at the venue As the children got a bit uneasy at the MoMo gathering and I didn't want to disturb them too much, we arrived early at Bagatelle. Well, no problems as we went for a decent breakfast at Food Lover's Market. Shortly afterwards we went to our venue location, Talking Drums, and prepared the room for the meeting. We only had to take off a repro-painting of the wall in order to have a decent area for the projector. All went very smooth and my two little ones were of great help. Just in time, our first craftsman Avinash arrived on the spot. And then the waiting started... Luckily, not too long. Bit by bit more and more IT people came to join our meeting. Meanwhile, I used the time to give a brief introduction about the MSCC in general, what we are (hm, maybe I am) trying to achieve and that the recent phase is completely focused on creating more awareness that a community like the MSCC is active here in Mauritius. As soon as we reached some 'critical mass' of about ten people I asked everyone for a short introduction and bio, just in case... Conversation between participants started to kick in and we were actually more networking than having a focus on our topics of the day. Quick updates on latest news and development around the MSCC Finally, Clean Code Developer No matter how the position is actually called, whether it is Software Engineer, Software Developer, Programmer, Architect, or Craftsman, anyone working in IT is facing almost the same obstacles. As for the process of writing software applications there are re-occurring patterns and principles combined with some common exercise and best practices on how to resolve them. Initiated by the must-read book 'Clean Code' by Robert C. Martin (aka Uncle Bob) the concept of the Clean Code Developer (CCD) was born already some years ago. CCD is much likely to traditional martial arts where you create awareness of certain principles and learn how to apply practices to improve your style. The CCD initiative recommends to indicate your level of knowledge and experience with coloured wrist bands - equivalent to the belt colours - for various reasons. Frankly speaking, I think that the biggest advantage here is provided by the obvious recognition of conceptual understanding. For example, take the situation of a team meeting... A member with a higher grade in CCD, say Green grade, sees that there are mainly Red grades to talk to, and adjusts her way of communication to their level of understanding. The choice of words might change as certain elements of CCD are not yet familiar to all team members. So instead of talking in an abstract way which only Green grades could follow the whole scenario comes down to Red grade level. Different story, better results... Similar to learning martial arts, we only covered two grades during this occasion - black and red. Most interestingly, there was quite some positive feedback and lots of questions about the principles and practices of the red grade. And we gathered real-world examples from various craftsman and discussed them. Following the Clean Code Developer Red Grade and some annotations from our meetup: CCD Red Grade - Principles Don't Repeat Yourself - DRY Keep It Simple, Stupid (and Short) - KISS Beware of Optimisations! Favour Composition over Inheritance - FCoI Interestingly most of the attendees already heard about those key words but couldn't really classify or categorize them. It's very similar to a situation in which you do not the particular for a thing and have to describe it to others... until someone tells you the actual name and suddenly all is very simple. CCD Red Grade - Practices Follow the Boy Scouts Rule Root Cause Analysis - RCA Use a Version Control System Apply Simple Refactoring Pattern Reflect Daily Introduction to the principles and practices of Clean Code Developer - here: Red Grade As for the various ToDo's we commonly agreed that the Boy Scout Rule clearly is not limited to software development or IT administration but applies to daily life in general. Same for the root cause analysis, btw. We really had good stories with surprisingly endings and conclusions. A quick check about who is using a version control system brought more drive into the conversation. Not only that we had people that aren't using any VCS at all, we also had the 'classic' approach of backup folders and naming conventions as well as the VCS 'junkie' that has to use multiple systems at a time. Just for the records: Git and GitHub seem to be in favour of some of the attendees. Regarding the daily reflection at the end of the day we came up with an easy solution: Wrap it up as a blog entry! Certifications in IT This is kind of a controversy in IT in general. Is it interesting to go for certifications or are they completely obsolete? What are the possibilities to get certified? What are the options we have in Mauritius? How would certificates stand compared to other educational tracks like Computer Science or Web Design. The ratio between craftsmen with certifications like MCP, MSTS, CCNA or LPI versus the ones without wasn't in favour for the first group but there was a high interest in the topic itself and some were really surprised to hear that exam preparations are completely free available online including temporarily voucher codes for either discounts or completely free exams. Furthermore, we discussed possible options on forming so-called study groups on a specific certificates and organising more frequent meetups in order to learn together. Taking into consideration that we have sponsored access to the video course material of Pluralsight (and now PeepCode as well as TrainSignal), we might give it a try by the end of the year. Current favourites are LPIC Level 1 and one of the Microsoft exams 40-78x. Feedback and ideas for the MSCC The closing conversations and discussions about how the MSCC is recently doing, what are the possibilities and what's (hopefully) going to happen in the future were really fertile and I made a couple of mental bullet points which I'm looking forward to tackle down together with orher craftsmen. Eventually, it might be a good option to elaborate on some issues during our weekly Code & Coffee sessions one Wednesday morning. Active discussion on various IT topics like certifications (LPI, MCP, CCNA, etc) and sharing experience Finally, we made it till the end of the planned time. Well, actually the talk was still on and we continued even after 16:00hrs. Unfortunately, we (the children and I) had to leave for evening activities. My resume of the day... It was great to have 15 craftsmen in one room. There are hundreds of IT geeks out there in Mauritius, and as Mauritius Software Craftsmanship Community we still have a lot of work to do to pass on the message to some more key players and companies. Currently, it seems that we are able to attract a good number of students in Computer Science... but we have a lot more to offer, even or especially for IT people on the job. I'm already looking forward to our next Saturday meetup in the near future. PS: Meetup pictures are courtesy of Nirvan Pagooah. Thanks for sharing...

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• Compare Your Internet Cost and Speed to Global Averages [Infographic]

  - by ETC

  Internet pricing and speed varies wildly across the world. The US, for instance, currently ranks 15th in speed but enjoys reasonably priced internet access. How reasonably priced? If you’re a US citizen you likely have an average internet access speed of 4.8 mbps and you pay a little over $3 per mbps. If you’re in Sweden, however, you likely have an 18 mbps connection and you pay a scant 63 cents per mpbs. The real envy of the internet speed Olympics by far is Japan with a mighty 61 mbps at a mere 27 cents per mbps. Hit up the link below for the full infographic (or use this local mirror if you need to dodge a firewall), then sound off in the comments with how you compare on the international scale. Internet Speeds and Costs Around the World [via Daily Infographic] Latest Features How-To Geek ETC Should You Delete Windows 7 Service Pack Backup Files to Save Space? What Can Super Mario Teach Us About Graphics Technology? Windows 7 Service Pack 1 is Released: But Should You Install It? How To Make Hundreds of Complex Photo Edits in Seconds With Photoshop Actions How to Enable User-Specific Wireless Networks in Windows 7 How to Use Google Chrome as Your Default PDF Reader (the Easy Way) Manage Your Favorite Social Accounts in Chrome and Iron with Seesmic E.T. II – Extinction [Fake Movie Sequel Video] Remastered King’s Quest Games Offer Classic Gaming on Modern Machines Compare Your Internet Cost and Speed to Global Averages [Infographic] Orbital Battle for Terra Wallpaper WizMouse Enables Mouse Over Scrolling on Any Window

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• Why not to use StackTrace to find what method called you

  - by Alex.Davies

  Our obfuscator, SmartAssembly, does some pretty crazy reflection. It's an obfuscator, it's sort of its job to do things in the most awkward way possible. But sometimes, you can go too far. One such time is this little gem from the strings encoding feature: StackTrace stackTrace = new StackTrace(); StackFrame frame = stackTrace.GetFrame(1); Type ownerType = frame.GetMethod().DeclaringType; It's designed to find the type where the calling method is defined. A user found that strings encoding occasionally broke on x64 systems. Very strange. After some debugging (thank god for Reflector Pro, it would be impossible to debug processed assemblies without it) I found that the ownerType I got back was wrong. The reason is that the x64 JIT does tail call optimisation. This saves space on the stack, and speeds things up, by throwing away a method's stack frame if the last thing that it calls is the only thing returned. When this happens, the call to StackTrace faithfully tells you that the calling method is the one that called the one we really wanted. So using StackTrace isn't safe for anything other than debugging, and it will make your code fail in unpredictable ways. Don't use it!

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• Efficient solution for multiplayer space partioning?

  - by DevilWithin

  This question is a little tricky, but I will try to make it clear, Lets say I am building an online game, not in a mmo scale, but gladly supporting as many players as possible, in a authoritative server approach, and I want really big worlds with lots of AI simulated enemies. I am aware of a few strategies to save server's CPU by subdividing the space and not processing what doesn't need processing. I 've already split the world by regions, that will require loading times and small transitions, which i think is important to mantain the quality of gameplay when playing locally (alone or even with a couple of friends) because the players won't normally be in more than one or two regions. But even a region can become pretty big, and have a lot of NPC simulating at a time, how do I handle this without screwing the player's experience? Approaches like one server per region and alike are not in the table. I am mainly looking for data structures to hold hordes of enemies, and even peaceful NPC. To finalize the question, please note that vehicles exist, therefore its considerably fast to travel within a region, influencing the "when" to cull areas. Sorry for the confusing question, thanks

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• Finding the Right Solution to Source and Manage Your Contractors

  - by mark.rosenberg(at)oracle.com

  Many of our PeopleSoft Enterprise applications customers operate in service-based industries, and all of our customers have at least some internal service units, such as IT, marketing, and facilities. Employing the services of contractors, often referred to as "contingent labor," to deliver either or both internal and external services is common practice. As we've transitioned from an industrial age to a knowledge age, talent has become a primary competitive advantage for most organizations. Contingent labor offers talent on flexible terms; it offers the ability to scale up operations, close skill gaps, and manage risk in the process of delivering services. Talent comes from many sources and the rise in the contingent worker (contractor, consultant, temporary, part time) has increased significantly in the past decade and is expected to reach 40 percent in the next decade. Managing the total pool of talent in a seamless integrated fashion not only saves organizations money and increases efficiency, but creates a better place for workers of all kinds to work. Although the term "contingent labor" is frequently used to describe both contractors and employees who have flexible schedules and relationships with an organization, the remainder of this discussion focuses on contractors. The term "contingent labor" is used interchangeably with "contractor." Recognizing the importance of contingent labor, our PeopleSoft customers often ask our team, "What Oracle vendor management system (VMS) applications should I evaluate for managing contractors?" In response, I thought it would be useful to describe and compare the three most common Oracle-based options available to our customers. They are:   The enterprise licensed software model in which you implement and utilize the PeopleSoft Services Procurement (sPro) application and potentially other PeopleSoft applications;  The software-as-a-service model in which you gain access to a derivative of PeopleSoft sPro from an Oracle Business Process Outsourcing Partner; and  The managed service provider (MSP) model in which staffing industry professionals utilize either your enterprise licensed software or the software-as-a-service application to administer your contingent labor program. At this point, you may be asking yourself, "Why three options?" The answer is that since there is no "one size fits all" in terms of talent, there is also no "one size fits all" for effectively sourcing and managing contingent workers. Various factors influence how an organization thinks about and relates to its contractors, and each of the three Oracle-based options addresses an organization's needs and preferences differently. For the purposes of this discussion, I will describe the options with respect to (A) pricing and software provisioning models; (B) control and flexibility; (C) level of engagement with contractors; and (D) approach to sourcing, employment law, and financial settlement. Option 1:  Enterprise Licensed Software In this model, you purchase from Oracle the license and support for the applications you need. Typically, you license PeopleSoft sPro as your VMS tool for sourcing, monitoring, and paying your contract labor. In conjunction with sPro, you can also utilize PeopleSoft Human Capital Management (HCM) applications (if you do not already) to configure more advanced business processes for recruiting, training, and tracking your contractors. Many customers choose this enterprise license software model because of the functionality and natural integration of the PeopleSoft applications and because the cost for the PeopleSoft software is explicit. There is no fee per transaction to source each contractor under this model. Our customers that employ contractors to augment their permanent staff on billable client engagements often find this model appealing because there are no fees to affect their profit margins. With this model, you decide whether to have your own IT organization run the software or have the software hosted and managed by either Oracle or another application services provider. Your organization, perhaps with the assistance of consultants, configures, deploys, and operates the software for managing your contingent workforce. This model offers you the highest level of control and flexibility since your organization can configure the contractor process flow exactly to your business and security requirements and can extend the functionality with PeopleTools. This option has proven very valuable and applicable to our customers engaged in government contracting because their contingent labor management practices are subject to complex standards and regulations. Customers find a great deal of value in the application functionality and configurability the enterprise licensed software offers for managing contingent labor. Some examples of that functionality are... The ability to create a tiered network of preferred suppliers including competencies, pricing agreements, and elaborate candidate management capabilities. Configurable alerts and online collaboration for bid, resource requisition, timesheet, and deliverable entry, routing, and approval for both resource and deliverable-based services. The ability to manage contractors with the same PeopleSoft HCM and Projects applications that are used to manage the permanent workforce. Because it allows you to utilize much of the same PeopleSoft HCM and Projects application functionality for contractors that you use for permanent employees, the enterprise licensed software model supports the deepest level of engagement with the contingent workforce. For example, you can: fill job openings with contingent labor; guide contingent workers through essential safety and compliance training with PeopleSoft Enterprise Learning Management; and source contingent workers directly to project-based assignments in PeopleSoft Resource Management and PeopleSoft Program Management. This option enables contingent workers to collaborate closely with your permanent staff on complex, knowledge-based efforts - R&D projects, billable client contracts, architecture and engineering projects spanning multiple years, and so on. With the enterprise licensed software model, your organization maintains responsibility for the sourcing, onboarding (including adherence to employment laws), and financial settlement processes. This means your organization maintains on staff or hires the expertise in these domains to utilize the software and interact with suppliers and contractors. Option 2:  Software as a Service (SaaS) The effort involved in setting up and operating VMS software to handle a contingent workforce leads many organizations to seek a system that can be activated and configured within a few days and for which they can pay based on usage. Oracle's Business Process Outsourcing partner, Provade, Inc., provides exactly this option to our customers. Provade offers its vendor management software as a service over the Internet and usually charges your organization a fee that is a percentage of your total contingent labor spending processed through the Provade software. (Percentage of spend is the predominant fee model, although not the only one.) In addition to lower implementation costs, the effort of configuring and maintaining the software is largely upon Provade, not your organization. This can be very appealing to IT organizations that are thinly stretched supporting other important information technology initiatives. Built upon PeopleSoft sPro, the Provade solution is tailored for simple and quick deployment and administration. Provade has added capabilities to clone users rapidly and has simplified business documents, like work orders and change orders, to facilitate enterprise-wide, self-service adoption with little to no training. Provade also leverages Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (OBIEE) to provide integrated spend analytics and dashboards. Although pure customization is more limited than with the enterprise licensed software model, Provade offers a very effective option for organizations that are regularly on-boarding and off-boarding high volumes of contingent staff hired to perform discrete support tasks (for example, order fulfillment during the holiday season, hourly clerical work, desktop technology repairs, and so on) or project tasks. The software is very configurable and at the same time very intuitive to even the most computer-phobic users. The level of contingent worker engagement your organization can achieve with the Provade option is generally the same as with the enterprise licensed software model since Provade can automatically establish contingent labor resources in your PeopleSoft applications. Provade has pre-built integrations to Oracle's PeopleSoft and the Oracle E-Business Suite procurement, projects, payables, and HCM applications, so that you can evaluate, train, assign, and track contingent workers like your permanent employees. Similar to the enterprise licensed software model, your organization is responsible for the contingent worker sourcing, administration, and financial settlement processes. This means your organization needs to maintain the staff expertise in these domains. Option 3:  Managed Services Provider (MSP) Whether you are using the enterprise licensed model or the SaaS model, you may want to engage the services of sourcing, employment, payroll, and financial settlement professionals to administer your contingent workforce program. Firms that offer this expertise are often referred to as "MSPs," and they are typically staffing companies that also offer permanent and temporary hiring services. (In fact, many of the major MSPs are Oracle applications customers themselves, and they utilize the PeopleSoft Solution for the Staffing Industry to run their own business operations.) Usually, MSPs place their staff on-site at your facilities, and they can utilize either your enterprise licensed PeopleSoft sPro application or the Provade VMS SaaS software to administer the network of suppliers providing contingent workers. When you utilize an MSP, there is a separate fee for the MSP's service that is typically funded by the participating suppliers of the contingent labor. Also in this model, the suppliers of the contingent labor (not the MSP) usually pay the contingent labor force. With an MSP, you are intentionally turning over business process control for the advantages associated with having someone else manage the processes. The software option you choose will to a certain extent affect your process flexibility; however, the MSPs are often able to adapt their processes to the unique demands of your business. When you engage an MSP, you will want to give some thought to the level of engagement and "partnering" you need with your contingent workforce. Because the MSP acts as an intermediary, it can be very valuable in handling high volume, routine contracting for which there is a relatively low need for "partnering" with the contingent workforce. However, if your organization (or part of your organization) engages contingent workers for high-profile client projects that require diplomacy, intensive amounts of interaction, and personal trust, introducing an MSP into the process may prove less effective than handling the process with your own staff. In fact, in many organizations, it is common to enlist an MSP to handle contractors working on internal projects and to have permanent employees handle the contractor relationships that affect the portion of the services portfolio focused on customer-facing, billable projects. One of the key advantages of enlisting an MSP is that you do not have to maintain the expertise required for orchestrating the sourcing, hiring, and paying of contingent workers.  These are the domain of the MSPs. If your own staff members are not prepared to manage the essential "overhead" processes associated with contingent labor, working with an MSP can make solid business sense. Proper administration of a contingent workforce can make the difference between project success and failure, operating profit and loss, and legal compliance and fines. Concluding Thoughts There is little doubt that thoughtfully and purposefully constructing a service delivery strategy that leverages the strengths of contingent workers can lead to better projects, deliverables, and business results. What requires a bit more thinking is determining the platform (or platforms) that will enable each part of your organization to best deliver on its mission.

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• Representation of data in application versus database

  - by user1815201

  I'm going to make an application that will be given data to put in a database. The data will for the most part be the same, but the way it is formatted will vary a lot (could be in anything from text files to .xls to .doc). I'm not a very experienced developer, but I can see some potential issues and I want to minimize them. First off I have decided to use the DAO pattern, so that I can easily support new file formats or file suddenly formatted in different ways. What I really wonder about though, is how I should manage the data itself within my application. I'm thinking that the database DAO should have models representing each table of the database with the same relations between them, to make the uploading process easy. But should the filesystem DAO's have to use the same models? I can imaging that when the database changes, the change will suddenly propagate throughout the entire system, all DAOs and models alike. And that is obviously a bad thing. I'm a little bit tired and out of time. Will update with what ever questions you have. Thanks!

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