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  • Most efficient way to handle coordinate maps in Java

    - by glowcoder
    I have a rectangular tile-based layout. It's your typical Cartesian system. I would like to have a single class that handles two lookup styles Get me the set of players at position X,Y Get me the position of player with key K My current implementation is this: class CoordinateMap<V> { Map<Long,Set<V>> coords2value; Map<V,Long> value2coords; // convert (int x, int y) to long key - this is tested, works for all values -1bil to +1bil // My map will NOT require more than 1 bil tiles from the origin :) private Long keyFor(int x, int y) { int kx = x + 1000000000; int ky = y + 1000000000; return (long)kx | (long)ky << 32; } // extract the x and y from the keys private int[] coordsFor(long k) { int x = (int)(k & 0xFFFFFFFF) - 1000000000; int y = (int)((k >>> 32) & 0xFFFFFFFF) - 1000000000; return new int[] { x,y }; } } From there, I proceed to have other methods that manipulate or access the two maps accordingly. My question is... is there a better way to do this? Sure, I've tested my class and it works fine. And sure, something inside tells me if I want to reference the data by two different keys, I need two different maps. But I can also bet I'm not the first to run into this scenario. Thanks!

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  • New Write Flash SSDs and more disk trays

    - by Steve Tunstall
    In case you haven't heard, the Write SSDs the ZFSSA have been updated. Much faster now for the same price. Sweet. The new write-flash SSDs have a new part number of 7105026 , so make sure you order the right ones. It's important to note that you MUST be on code level 2011.1.4.0 or higher to use these. They have increased in IOPS from 6,000 to 11,000, and increased throughput from 200MB/s to 350MB/s.    Also, you can now add six SAS HBAs (up from 4) to the 7420, allowing one to have three SAS channels with 12 disk trays each, for a new total of 36 disk trays. With 3TB drives, that's 2.5 Petabytes. Is that enough for you? Make sure you add new cards to the correct slots. I've talked about this before, but here is the handy-dandy matrix again so you don't have to go find it. Remember the rules: You can have 6 of any one kind of card (like six 10GigE cards), but you only really get 8 slots, since you have two SAS cards no matter what. If you want more than 12 disk trays, you need two more SAS cards, so think about expansion later, too. In fact, if you are going to have two different speeds of drives, in other words you want to mix 15K speed and 7,200 speed drives in the same system, I would highly recommend two different SAS channels. So I would want four SAS cards in that system, no matter how many trays you have. 

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  • Problem with SAT collision detection overlap checking code

    - by handyface
    I'm trying to implement a script that detects whether two rotated rectangles collide for my game, using SAT (Separating Axis Theorem). I used the method explained in the following article for my implementation in Google Dart. 2D Rotated Rectangle Collision I tried to implement this code into my game. Basically from what I understood was that I have two rectangles, these two rectangles can produce four axis (two per rectangle) by subtracting adjacent corner coordinates. Then all the corners from both rectangles need to be projected onto each axis, then multiplying the coordinates of the projection by the axis coordinates (point.x*axis.x+point.y*axis.y) to make a scalar value and checking whether the range of both the rectangle's projections overlap. When all the axis have overlapping projections, there's a collision. First of all, I'm wondering whether my comprehension about this algorithm is correct. If so I'd like to get some pointers in where my implementation (written in Dart, which is very readable for people comfortable with C-syntax) goes wrong. Thanks! EDIT: The question has been solved. For those interested in the working implementation: Click here

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  • multi-thread in mmorpg server

    - by jean
    For MMORPG, there is a tick function to update every object's state in a map. The function was triggered by a timer in fixed interval. So each map's update can be dispatch to different thread. At other side, server handle player incoming package have its own threads also: I/O threads. Generally, the handler of the corresponding incoming package run in I/O threads. So there is a problem: thread synchronization. I have consider two methods: Synchronize with mutex. I/O thread lock a mutex before execute handler function and map thread lock same mutex before it execute map's update. Execute all handler functions in map's thread, I/O thread only queue the incoming handler and let map thread to pop the queue then call handler function. These two have a disadvantage: delay. For method 1, if the map's tick function is running, then all clients' request need to waiting the lock release. For method 2, if map's tick function is running, all clients' request need to waiting for next tick to be handle. Of course, there is another method: add lock to functions that use data which will be accessed both in I/O thread & map thread. But this is hard to maintain and easy to goes incorrect. It needs carefully check all variables whether or not accessed by both two kinds thread. My problem is: is there better way to do this? Notice that I said map is logic concept means no interactions can happen between two map except transport. I/O thread means thread in 3rd part network lib which used to handle client request.

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  • How to create distinct set from other sets?

    - by shyam_baidya
    While solving the problems on Techgig.com, I got struck with one one of the problem. The problem is like this: A company organizes two trips for their employees in a year. They want to know whether all the employees can be sent on the trip or not. The condition is like, no employee can go on both the trips. Also to determine which employee can go together the constraint is that the employees who have worked together in past won't be in the same group. Examples of the problems: Suppose the work history is given as follows: {(1,2),(2,3),(3,4)}; then it is possible to accommodate all the four employees in two trips (one trip consisting of employees 1& 3 and other having employees 2 & 4). Neither of the two employees in the same trip have worked together in past. Suppose the work history is given as {(1,2),(1,3),(2,3)} then there is no way possible to have two trips satisfying the company rule and accommodating all the employees. Can anyone tell me how to proceed on this problem?

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  • PHP mcrypt usage class?

    - by kavoir.com
    I'm pretty new at this. Tried to make sense of the manual page for mcrypt at PHP.net when I thought a good tutorial would do a better job. So I searched yet without anything substantial. I also tried one of the examples of using mcrypt to perform the encryption and decryption with 2 functions, but it gives a warning of "Size of key is too large for this algorithm". Can anyone please write me a two-way class to do the encryption / decryption using mcrypt so I can make sense of the library? Thanks!

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  • how can I translate a NSString to NSData? And the data has the same content as the string

    - by someonemaybe
    NSString * theString=@"e88d"; NSData * data; // something I should implement NSLog(@"%@", theString); NSLog(@"%@",[data description]); I want the results of the two printings are the same. AES encryption and decryption: (1).The server: if the plaintext is :@"abcd"; the AES encrypted data(NSData data type) is :"d882830c dc892036 4345839f 13c7516a"; (2).in my local app, my code is : NSData*data=[NSData dataWithContentsOfURL:[NSURL URLWithString:@"http://..."]]; NSString * mystring= [[NSString alloc] initWithData:data encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]; However, to decrypt data successfully, I must got a data(NSData date type) which equals to "d882830c dc892036 4345839f 13c7516a".But it is the mystring (NSString data type) not the data(NSData data type) that equals to the right value. the encryption and decryption function both need a data(NSData data type) as input datas. (NSData*)AES128EncryptWithKey:(NSString*)key; (NSData*)AES128DecryptWithKey:(NSString*)key;

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  • System.Security.Cryptography.CryptographicException: Length of the data to decrypt is invalid Error

    - by EdA
    I used the code on http://www.obviex.com/samples/Encryption.aspx for encryption/decryption. I was successful in creating a simple test to functionality encrypt and decrypt data. However, I keep on getting the following error when I test the decrypt function that is used from the Accounts Controller. I am thinking it either has to do with the Machine Code within the Web.config or the the last byte not getting read by the decrypt code. Error: "Length of the data to decrypt is invalid" Note: I tried the padding fix I found on the internet and that did not work. Thanks in advance.

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  • how to convert byte array to key format??

    - by sebby_zml
    hi everyone, i would like to know how to convert byte array into key. i am doing an AES encryption/decryption. instead of generating a key, i would like to use my generated byte array. byte[] clientCK = Milenage.f3(sharedSecret16, RANDbytes, opc); let say i have a byte array called clientCK, stated above. i want to use it in AES encryption as shown below. Cipher c = Cipher.getInstance("AES"); c.init(Cipher.ENCRYPT_MODE, key); byte[] encValue = c.doFinal(valueToEnc.getBytes()); String encryptedValue = new BASE64Encoder().encode(encValue); therefore, i need to convert that byte array clientCK into key format. please help.

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  • How can I retain carriage returns when I'm encrypting data?

    - by William Calleja
    I have this following setup, a textarea named with some data in it that may have carriage returns and another textarea that has style='display:none' in order to make it hidden as follows: <textarea id="myTextarea" onBlur="encryptMyData()"></textarea> <textarea name="encryptedText" style='display:none'></textarea> the user enters data in the first textarea and when that text area loses focus the 'encryptMyData()' javascript function is calling an ajax call to take whatever the user entered in the first textfield, encrypt it using rijndael, and paste it in the encryptedText textarea so that it is stored in the database later. Now what I need to do is this, find a way to convert the carriage returns before encryption to a tag like so [cr] so that when I retrieve the data, all formatting is retained. Any idea how I do this? I'm using asp.net and c# to perform the encryption.

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  • Invalid character in a Base-64 string when Concatenating and Url encoding a string

    - by Rob
    I’m trying to write some encryption code that is passed through a Url. For the sake of the issue I’ve excluded the actual encryption of the data and just shown the code causing the problem. I take a salt value, convert it to a byte array and then convert that to a base64 string. This string I concatenate to another base64 string (which was previously a byte array). These two base64 strings are then Url encoded. Here’s my code... using System; using System.Collections.Generic; using System.Linq; using System.Text; using System.Security.Cryptography; using System.IO; using System.Web; class RHEncryption { private static readonly Encoding ASCII_ENCODING = new System.Text.ASCIIEncoding(); private static readonly string SECRET_KEY = "akey"; private static string md5(string text) { return BitConverter.ToString(new MD5CryptoServiceProvider().ComputeHash(ASCII_ENCODING.GetBytes(text))).Replace("-", "").ToLower(); } public string UrlEncodedData; public RHEncryption() { // encryption object RijndaelManaged aes192 = new RijndaelManaged(); aes192.KeySize = 192; aes192.BlockSize = 192; aes192.Mode = CipherMode.CBC; aes192.Key = ASCII_ENCODING.GetBytes(md5(SECRET_KEY)); aes192.GenerateIV(); // convert Ivector to base64 for sending string base64IV = Convert.ToBase64String(aes192.IV); // salt value string s = "maryhadalittlelamb"; string salt = s.Substring(0, 8); // convert to byte array // and base64 for sending byte[] saltBytes = ASCII_ENCODING.GetBytes(salt.TrimEnd('\0')); string base64Salt = Convert.ToBase64String(saltBytes); //url encode concatenated base64 strings UrlEncodedData = HttpUtility.UrlEncode(base64Salt + base64IV, ASCII_ENCODING); } public string UrlDecodedData() { // decode the url encode string string s = HttpUtility.UrlDecode(UrlEncodedData, ASCII_ENCODING); // convert back from base64 byte[] base64DecodedBytes = null; try { base64DecodedBytes = Convert.FromBase64String(s); } catch (FormatException e) { Console.WriteLine(e.Message.ToString()); Console.ReadLine(); } return s; } } If I then call the UrlDecodedData method I get a “Invalid character in a Base-64 string” exception. This is generated because the base64Salt variable contains an invalid character (I’m guessing a line termination) but I can’t seem to strip it off.

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  • PHP Mcrypt - Encrypting / Decrypting file

    - by whitman6732
    Trying to write a couple of functions that will encrypt or decrypt a file and am using the class found here to try and accomplish this: http://www.itnewb.com/v/PHP-Encryption-Decryption-Using-the-MCrypt-Library-libmcrypt The encryption function below seems to work, in that it appears to encrypt the file and place it in the intended directory. I'm trying to decrypt the file now, and it just dies with the message "Failed to complete decryption" (which is coded in there...) There's nothing in the php error logs, so I'm not sure why it's failing, but as mcrypt is entirely new to me, I'm more than inclined to believe I'm doing something wrong here... Here are the functions: //ENCRYPT FILE function encryptFile() { global $cryptastic; $pass = PGPPASS; $salt = PGPSALT; $key = $cryptastic->pbkdf2($pass, $salt, 1000, 32) or die("Failed to generate secret key."); if ($handle = opendir(PATH.'/ftpd')) { while (false !== ($file = readdir($handle))) { if ($file != "." && $file != "..") { $newfile = PATH.'/encrypted/'.$file.'.txt'; $msg = file_get_contents(PATH.'/ftpd/'.$file); $encrypted = $cryptastic->encrypt($msg, $key) or die("Failed to complete encryption."); $nfile = fopen($newfile, 'w'); fwrite($nfile, $encrypted); fclose($nfile); unlink(PATH.'/ftpd/'.$file); } } closedir($handle); } //DECRYPT FILE function inFTP() { global $cryptastic; $pass = PGPPASS; $salt = PGPSALT; $key = $cryptastic->pbkdf2($pass, $salt, 1000, 32) or die("Failed to generate secret key."); if ($handle = opendir(PATH.'/encrypted')) { while (false !== ($file = readdir($handle))) { if ($file != "." && $file != "..") { $newfile = PATH.'/decrypted/'.$file; $msg = PATH.'/encrypted/'.$file; $decrypted = $cryptastic->decrypt($msg, $key) or die("Failed to complete decryption."); $nfile = fopen($newfile, 'w'); fwrite($nfile, $decrypted); fclose($nfile); //unlink(PATH.'/encrypted/'.$file); } } closedir($handle); } //$crypt->decrypt($file); }

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  • What software analogies have helped you?

    - by Galwegian
    I have often enjoyed the use of analogies in understanding a software scenario or problem. For example, to understand the concept of public key encryption, the 'locked mailbox' analogy or similar is often used as an aid: An analogy for public-key encryption is that of a locked mailbox with a mail slot. The mail slot is exposed and accessible to the public; its location (the street address) is in essence the public key. Anyone knowing the street address can go to the door and drop a written message through the slot; however, only the person who possesses the key can open the mailbox and read the message. My question is: What analogies have you used or heard of in your career that have given you that "Eureka" moment with a complex concept? EDIT: If you have a good one, don't just state the name, please share with the group!

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  • PPTP VPN connection always connects successfully in Mac OS X/windows but drops after 2 minute in iPad or it doesn't connect al all!

    - by Farshid
    Dear Users, I've a big problem with using iPad's VPN connection. When I use the same VPN connection (PPTP) configuration parameters in my Mac OS X Snow Leopard or my windows XP (Bootcamp), it works flawlessly but when I define the same connection in my iPad, connection drops in about 1 or 2 minutes (some times) and most of the time, it Doesn't Connect at all. I'm using iPad 3G with iOS 4.2.1 and my iPad is not jail-broken. I've tried so hard to make it work in an stable manner but not found any solution yet. (I should have put encryption level to No-Encryption in Mac and Windows otherwise it won't connect in my desktop operating systems. It is a host-related issue and I'm binding to that). I'm sure there is no technical problem in my iPad's hardware and this problem also exists in my friend's iPad too. Our devices work perfectly with 3G and Wifi connections. Your answers are really appreciated.

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  • How to convert string "0671" or "0x45" into integer form with 0 and 0x in the beginning.

    - by Harshit Sharma
    I wanted to make my own encryption algorithm and decryption algorithm , encryption algorithm works fine and converts ascii value of the characters into alternate hexadecimal and octal representations. But when I tried decryption, problem occured as it return int('0671') = 671, as 0671 is string type in the following code. Is there a method to convert "ox56" into integer form?????? NOTE: Following string is alternate octal and hexa of ascii value of char. ///////////////DECRYPTION/////// l="01630x7401620x6901560x67" f=len(l) k=0 d=0 x=[] for i in range(0,f,4): g=l[i:i+4] print g k=k+1 if(k%2==0): p=g print p else: p=int(g) print p

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  • CSS drop-down menus pushing page content down

    - by Mason Jones
    This is probably (hopefully) a pretty simple question, but I can't seem to get it to work so I'll turn to the experts here. I'm using a pretty straightforward CSS drop-down menu, with just a little JQuery involved. The issue is that when I hover over the drop-down and it opens, it's pushing everything on the page down below it rather then opening over it. I've tried messing with the z-index but that doesn't seem to be the issue. Any tips would be fantastic, thanks in advance. Here's the HTML; sorry it's not super-pretty, I had to rip out a bunch of stuff to make it simple and generic. <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> <HTML style="zoom: 100%; "> <HEAD> <script src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.4.0/jquery.min.js" type="text/javascript"></script> </HEAD> <BODY class="bodyclass" style="background:#BCE2F1; height: 100%;"> <DIV id="maincontainer" style="min-height: 100%;"> <STYLE type="text/css"> #cssdropdown, #cssdropdown ul { font-size: 9pt; background-color: black; list-style: none; } #cssdropdown, #cssdropdown * { padding: 0; margin: 0; } #cssdropdown li.headlink { width: 140px; float: left; margin-left: -1px; border: 1px black solid; background-color: white; text-align: center; } #cssdropdown li.headlink a { display: block; color: #339804; padding: 3px; text-decoration: none; } #cssdropdown li.headlink a:hover { background-color: #F8E0AC; font-weight: bold; } #cssdropdown li.headlink ul { display: none; border-top: 1px black solid; text-align: left; } #cssdropdown li.headlink:hover ul { display: block; text-decoration: none; } #cssdropdown li.headlink ul li a { padding: 5px; height: 15px; } #cssdropdown li.headlink ul li a:hover { background-color: #CCE9F5; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal; } /* #cssdropdown a { color: #CCE9F5; } */ #cssdropdown ul li a:hover { text-decoration: none; } #cssdropdown li.headlink { background-color: white; } #cssdropdown li.headlink ul { background-color: white; background-position: bottom; padding-bottom: 2px; } </STYLE> <SCRIPT language="JavaScript"> $(document).ready(function(){ $('#cssdropdown li.headlink').hover( function() { $('ul', this).css('display', 'block'); }, function() { $('ul', this).css('display', 'none'); }); }); </SCRIPT> <DIV class="navigation_box" style="border: none;"> <DIV class="innercontent"> <DIV style="background: white; float: left; padding: 5px; border: solid 1px black;"> LOGO </DIV> <DIV class="navmenu" style="float: right; bottom: 0; font-size: 9pt; text-align: right;"> <SPAN>Logged in as [email protected]</SPAN><BR> <UL id="cssdropdown"> <LI class="headlink"> <A href="http://localhost:3000/one">One</A> <UL style="display: none; "> <LI><A href="http://localhost:3000/one">Option One</A></LI> <LI><A href="http://localhost:3000/one">Option Two</A></LI> <LI><A href="http://localhost:3000/one">Option Three</A></LI> <LI><A href="http://localhost:3000/one">Option Four</A></LI> </UL> </LI> <LI class="headlink"> <A href="http://localhost:3000/two">Two</A> <UL style="display: none; "> <LI><A href="http://localhost:3000/two">Option Two-One</A></LI> <LI><A href="http://localhost:3000/two">Option Two-Two</A></LI> <LI><A href="http://localhost:3000/two">Option Two-Three</A></LI> </UL> </LI> <LI class="headlink" style="width: 80px;"> <A href="http://localhost:3000/three">Three</A> </LI> <LI class="headlink" style="width: 300px; padding-top: 2px; height: 19px;"> <FORM action="http://localhost:3000/search" method="post"> <P> Search: <INPUT id="searchwords" name="searchwords" size="20" type="text" value=""> <INPUT name="commit" type="submit" value="Find"> </P> </FORM> </LI> <LI class="headlink" style="width: 60px;"> <A href="http://localhost:3000/four">Four</A> </LI> <LI class="headlink" style="width: 60px;"> <A href="http://localhost:3000/logout">Logout</A> </LI> </UL> </DIV> </DIV> </DIV> <DIV id="contentwrapper" style="clear:both"> <DIV class="innercontent" style="margin: 0px 20px 20px 20px;"> <H1>Some test content here to fill things out a little bit.</H1> </DIV> </DIV> </DIV> <DIV id="footer" style="clear: both; float: bottom;"> <DIV class="innercontent" style="font-size: 10px;"> Copyright 2008-2010 </DIV> </DIV> </BODY>

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  • SQL SERVER – Step by Step Guide to Beginning Data Quality Services in SQL Server 2012 – Introduction to DQS

    - by pinaldave
    Data Quality Services is a very important concept of SQL Server. I have recently started to explore the same and I am really learning some good concepts. Here are two very important blog posts which one should go over before continuing this blog post. Installing Data Quality Services (DQS) on SQL Server 2012 Connecting Error to Data Quality Services (DQS) on SQL Server 2012 This article is introduction to Data Quality Services for beginners. We will be using an Excel file Click on the image to enlarge the it. In the first article we learned to install DQS. In this article we will see how we can learn about building Knowledge Base and using it to help us identify the quality of the data as well help correct the bad quality of the data. Here are the two very important steps we will be learning in this tutorial. Building a New Knowledge Base  Creating a New Data Quality Project Let us start the building the Knowledge Base. Click on New Knowledge Base. In our project we will be using the Excel as a knowledge base. Here is the Excel which we will be using. There are two columns. One is Colors and another is Shade. They are independent columns and not related to each other. The point which I am trying to show is that in Column A there are unique data and in Column B there are duplicate records. Clicking on New Knowledge Base will bring up the following screen. Enter the name of the new knowledge base. Clicking NEXT will bring up following screen where it will allow to select the EXCE file and it will also let users select the source column. I have selected Colors and Shade both as a source column. Creating a domain is very important. Here you can create a unique domain or domain which is compositely build from Colors and Shade. As this is the first example, I will create unique domain – for Colors I will create domain Colors and for Shade I will create domain Shade. Here is the screen which will demonstrate how the screen will look after creating domains. Clicking NEXT it will bring you to following screen where you can do the data discovery. Clicking on the START will start the processing of the source data provided. Pre-processed data will show various information related to the source data. In our case it shows that Colors column have unique data whereas Shade have non-unique data and unique data rows are only two. In the next screen you can actually add more rows as well see the frequency of the data as the values are listed unique. Clicking next will publish the knowledge base which is just created. Now the knowledge base is created. We will try to take any random data and attempt to do DQS implementation over it. I am using another excel sheet here for simplicity purpose. In reality you can easily use SQL Server table for the same. Click on New Data Quality Project to see start DQS Project. In the next screen it will ask which knowledge base to use. We will be using our Colors knowledge base which we have recently created. In the Colors knowledge base we had two columns – 1) Colors and 2) Shade. In our case we will be using both of the mappings here. User can select one or multiple column mapping over here. Now the most important phase of the complete project. Click on Start and it will make the cleaning process and shows various results. In our case there were two columns to be processed and it completed the task with necessary information. It demonstrated that in Colors columns it has not corrected any value by itself but in Shade value there is a suggestion it has. We can train the DQS to correct values but let us keep that subject for future blog posts. Now click next and keep the domain Colors selected left side. It will demonstrate that there are two incorrect columns which it needs to be corrected. Here is the place where once corrected value will be auto-corrected in future. I manually corrected the value here and clicked on Approve radio buttons. As soon as I click on Approve buttons the rows will be disappeared from this tab and will move to Corrected Tab. If I had rejected tab it would have moved the rows to Invalid tab as well. In this screen you can see how the corrected 2 rows are demonstrated. You can click on Correct tab and see previously validated 6 rows which passed the DQS process. Now let us click on the Shade domain on the left side of the screen. This domain shows very interesting details as there DQS system guessed the correct answer as Dark with the confidence level of 77%. It is quite a high confidence level and manual observation also demonstrate that Dark is the correct answer. I clicked on Approve and the row moved to corrected tab. On the next screen DQS shows the summary of all the activities. It also demonstrates how the correction of the quality of the data was performed. The user can explore their data to a SQL Server Table, CSV file or Excel. The user also has an option to either explore data and all the associated cleansing info or data only. I will select Data only for demonstration purpose. Clicking explore will generate the files. Let us open the generated file. It will look as following and it looks pretty complete and corrected. Well, we have successfully completed DQS Process. The process is indeed very easy. I suggest you try this out yourself and you will find it very easy to learn. In future we will go over advanced concepts. Are you using this feature on your production server? If yes, would you please leave a comment with your environment and business need. It will be indeed interesting to see where it is implemented. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: Business Intelligence, Data Warehousing, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology Tagged: Data Quality Services, DQS

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  • T4 Performance Counters explained

    - by user13346607
    Now that T4 is out for a few month some people might have wondered what details of the new pipeline you can monitor. A "cpustat -h" lists a lot of events that can be monitored, and only very few are self-explanatory. I will try to give some insight on all of them, some of these "PIC events" require an in-depth knowledge of T4 pipeline. Over time I will try to explain these, for the time being these events should simply be ignored. (Side note: some counters changed from tape-out 1.1 (*only* used in the T4 beta program) to tape-out 1.2 (used in the systems shipping today) The table only lists the tape-out 1.2 counters) 0 0 1 1058 6033 Oracle Microelectronics 50 14 7077 14.0 Normal 0 false false false EN-US JA X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} pic name (cpustat) Prose Comment Sel-pipe-drain-cycles, Sel-0-[wait|ready], Sel-[1,2] Sel-0-wait counts cycles a strand waits to be selected. Some reasons can be counted in detail; these are: Sel-0-ready: Cycles a strand was ready but not selected, that can signal pipeline oversubscription Sel-1: Cycles only one instruction or µop was selected Sel-2: Cycles two instructions or µops were selected Sel-pipe-drain-cycles: cf. PRM footnote 8 to table 10.2 Pick-any, Pick-[0|1|2|3] Cycles one, two, three, no or at least one instruction or µop is picked Instr_FGU_crypto Number of FGU or crypto instructions executed on that vcpu Instr_ld dto. for load Instr_st dto. for store SPR_ring_ops dto. for SPR ring ops Instr_other dto. for all other instructions not listed above, PRM footnote 7 to table 10.2 lists the instructions Instr_all total number of instructions executed on that vcpu Sw_count_intr Nr of S/W count instructions on that vcpu (sethi %hi(fc000),%g0 (whatever that is))  Atomics nr of atomic ops, which are LDSTUB/a, CASA/XA, and SWAP/A SW_prefetch Nr of PREFETCH or PREFETCHA instructions Block_ld_st Block loads or store on that vcpu IC_miss_nospec, IC_miss_[L2_or_L3|local|remote]\ _hit_nospec Various I$ misses, distinguished by where they hit. All of these count per thread, but only primary events: T4 counts only the first occurence of an I$ miss on a core for a certain instruction. If one strand misses in I$ this miss is counted, but if a second strand on the same core misses while the first miss is being resolved, that second miss is not counted This flavour of I$ misses counts only misses that are caused by instruction that really commit (note the "_nospec") BTC_miss Branch target cache miss ITLB_miss ITLB misses (synchronously counted) ITLB_miss_asynch dto. but asynchronously [I|D]TLB_fill_\ [8KB|64KB|4MB|256MB|2GB|trap] H/W tablewalk events that fill ITLB or DTLB with translation for the corresponding page size. The “_trap” event occurs if the HWTW was not able to fill the corresponding TLB IC_mtag_miss, IC_mtag_miss_\ [ptag_hit|ptag_miss|\ ptag_hit_way_mismatch] I$ micro tag misses, with some options for drill down Fetch-0, Fetch-0-all fetch-0 counts nr of cycles nothing was fetched for this particular strand, fetch-0-all counts cycles nothing was fetched for all strands on a core Instr_buffer_full Cycles the instruction buffer for a strand was full, thereby preventing any fetch BTC_targ_incorrect Counts all occurences of wrongly predicted branch targets from the BTC [PQ|ROB|LB|ROB_LB|SB|\ ROB_SB|LB_SB|RB_LB_SB|\ DTLB_miss]\ _tag_wait ST_q_tag_wait is listed under sl=20. These counters monitor pipeline behaviour therefore they are not strand specific: PQ_...: cycles Rename stage waits for a Pick Queue tag (might signal memory bound workload for single thread mode, cf. Mail from Richard Smith) ROB_...: cycles Select stage waits for a ROB (ReOrderBuffer) tag LB_...: cycles Select stage waits for a Load Buffer tag SB_...: cycles Select stage waits for Store Buffer tag combinations of the above are allowed, although some of these events can overlap, the counter will only be incremented once per cycle if any of these occur DTLB_...: cycles load or store instructions wait at Pick stage for a DTLB miss tag [ID]TLB_HWTW_\ [L2_hit|L3_hit|L3_miss|all] Counters for HWTW accesses caused by either DTLB or ITLB misses. Canbe further detailed by where they hit IC_miss_L2_L3_hit, IC_miss_local_remote_remL3_hit, IC_miss I$ prefetches that were dropped because they either miss in L2$ or L3$ This variant counts misses regardless if the causing instruction commits or not DC_miss_nospec, DC_miss_[L2_L3|local|remote_L3]\ _hit_nospec D$ misses either in general or detailed by where they hit cf. the explanation for the IC_miss in two flavours for an explanation of _nospec and the reasoning for two DC_miss counters DTLB_miss_asynch counts all DTLB misses asynchronously, there is no way to count them synchronously DC_pref_drop_DC_hit, SW_pref_drop_[DC_hit|buffer_full] L1-D$ h/w prefetches that were dropped because of a D$ hit, counted per core. The others count software prefetches per strand [Full|Partial]_RAW_hit_st_[buf|q] Count events where a load wants to get data that has not yet been stored, i. e. it is still inside the pipeline. The data might be either still in the store buffer or in the store queue. If the load's data matches in the SB and in the store queue the data in buffer takes precedence of course since it is younger [IC|DC]_evict_invalid, [IC|DC|L1]_snoop_invalid, [IC|DC|L1]_invalid_all Counter for invalidated cache evictions per core St_q_tag_wait Number of cycles pipeline waits for a store queue tag, of course counted per core Data_pref_[drop_L2|drop_L3|\ hit_L2|hit_L3|\ hit_local|hit_remote] Data prefetches that can be further detailed by either why they were dropped or where they did hit St_hit_[L2|L3], St_L2_[local|remote]_C2C, St_local, St_remote Store events distinguished by where they hit or where they cause a L2 cache-to-cache transfer, i.e. either a transfer from another L2$ on the same die or from a different die DC_miss, DC_miss_\ [L2_L3|local|remote]_hit D$ misses either in general or detailed by where they hit cf. the explanation for the IC_miss in two flavours for an explanation of _nospec and the reasoning for two DC_miss counters L2_[clean|dirty]_evict Per core clean or dirty L2$ evictions L2_fill_buf_full, L2_wb_buf_full, L2_miss_buf_full Per core L2$ buffer events, all count number of cycles that this state was present L2_pipe_stall Per core cycles pipeline stalled because of L2$ Branches Count branches (Tcc, DONE, RETRY, and SIT are not counted as branches) Br_taken Counts taken branches (Tcc, DONE, RETRY, and SIT are not counted as branches) Br_mispred, Br_dir_mispred, Br_trg_mispred, Br_trg_mispred_\ [far_tbl|indir_tbl|ret_stk] Counter for various branch misprediction events.  Cycles_user counts cycles, attribute setting hpriv, nouser, sys controls addess space to count in Commit-[0|1|2], Commit-0-all, Commit-1-or-2 Number of times either no, one, or two µops commit for a strand. Commit-0-all counts number of times no µop commits for the whole core, cf. footnote 11 to table 10.2 in PRM for a more detailed explanation on how this counters interacts with the privilege levels

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  • DRY and SRP

    - by Timothy Klenke
    Originally posted on: http://geekswithblogs.net/TimothyK/archive/2014/06/11/dry-and-srp.aspxKent Beck’s XP Simplicity Rules (aka Four Rules of Simple Design) are a prioritized list of rules that when applied to your code generally yield a great design.  As you’ll see from the above link the list has slightly evolved over time.  I find today they are usually listed as: All Tests Pass Don’t Repeat Yourself (DRY) Express Intent Minimalistic These are prioritized.  If your code doesn’t work (rule 1) then everything else is forfeit.  Go back to rule one and get the code working before worrying about anything else. Over the years the community have debated whether the priority of rules 2 and 3 should be reversed.  Some say a little duplication in the code is OK as long as it helps express intent.  I’ve debated it myself.  This recent post got me thinking about this again, hence this post.   I don’t think it is fair to compare “Expressing Intent” against “DRY”.  This is a comparison of apples to oranges.  “Expressing Intent” is a principal of code quality.  “Repeating Yourself” is a code smell.  A code smell is merely an indicator that there might be something wrong with the code.  It takes further investigation to determine if a violation of an underlying principal of code quality has actually occurred. For example “using nouns for method names”, “using verbs for property names”, or “using Booleans for parameters” are all code smells that indicate that code probably isn’t doing a good job at expressing intent.  They are usually very good indicators.  But what principle is the code smell of Duplication pointing to and how good of an indicator is it? Duplication in the code base is bad for a couple reasons.  If you need to make a change and that needs to be made in a number of locations it is difficult to know if you have caught all of them.  This can lead to bugs if/when one of those locations is overlooked.  By refactoring the code to remove all duplication there will be left with only one place to change, thereby eliminating this problem. With most projects the code becomes the single source of truth for a project.  If a production code base is inconsistent with a five year old requirements or design document the production code that people are currently living with is usually declared as the current reality (or truth).  Requirement or design documents at this age in a project life cycle are usually of little value. Although comparing production code to external documentation is usually straight forward, duplication within the code base muddles this declaration of truth.  When code is duplicated small discrepancies will creep in between the two copies over time.  The question then becomes which copy is correct?  As different factions debate how the software should work, trust in the software and the team behind it erodes. The code smell of Duplication points to a violation of the “Single Source of Truth” principle.  Let me define that as: A stakeholder’s requirement for a software change should never cause more than one class to change. Violation of the Single Source of Truth principle will always result in duplication in the code.  However, the inverse is not always true.  Duplication in the code does not necessarily indicate that there is a violation of the Single Source of Truth principle. To illustrate this, let’s look at a retail system where the system will (1) send a transaction to a bank and (2) print a receipt for the customer.  Although these are two separate features of the system, they are closely related.  The reason for printing the receipt is usually to provide an audit trail back to the bank transaction.  Both features use the same data:  amount charged, account number, transaction date, customer name, retail store name, and etcetera.  Because both features use much of the same data, there is likely to be a lot of duplication between them.  This duplication can be removed by making both features use the same data access layer. Then start coming the divergent requirements.  The receipt stakeholder wants a change so that the account number has the last few digits masked out to protect the customer’s privacy.  That can be solve with a small IF statement whilst still eliminating all duplication in the system.  Then the bank wants to take a picture of the customer as well as capture their signature and/or PIN number for enhanced security.  Then the receipt owner wants to pull data from a completely different system to report the customer’s loyalty program point total. After a while you realize that the two stakeholders have somewhat similar, but ultimately different responsibilities.  They have their own reasons for pulling the data access layer in different directions.  Then it dawns on you, the Single Responsibility Principle: There should never be more than one reason for a class to change. In this example we have two stakeholders giving two separate reasons for the data access class to change.  It is clear violation of the Single Responsibility Principle.  That’s a problem because it can often lead the project owner pitting the two stakeholders against each other in a vein attempt to get them to work out a mutual single source of truth.  But that doesn’t exist.  There are two completely valid truths that the developers need to support.  How is this to be supported and honour the Single Responsibility Principle?  The solution is to duplicate the data access layer and let each stakeholder control their own copy. The Single Source of Truth and Single Responsibility Principles are very closely related.  SST tells you when to remove duplication; SRP tells you when to introduce it.  They may seem to be fighting each other, but really they are not.  The key is to clearly identify the different responsibilities (or sources of truth) over a system.  Sometimes there is a single person with that responsibility, other times there are many.  This can be especially difficult if the same person has dual responsibilities.  They might not even realize they are wearing multiple hats. In my opinion Single Source of Truth should be listed as the second rule of simple design with Express Intent at number three.  Investigation of the DRY code smell should yield to the proper application SST, without violating SRP.  When necessary leave duplication in the system and let the class names express the different people that are responsible for controlling them.  Knowing all the people with responsibilities over a system is the higher priority because you’ll need to know this before you can express it.  Although it may be a code smell when there is duplication in the code, it does not necessarily mean that the coder has chosen to be expressive over DRY or that the code is bad.

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  • Modifying and Manipulating a interactive bezier curve

    - by rachel
    This is a homework question and I'm having a lot of trouble with it - I've managed to do some of it but still cant finish it - can i Please get some help. Q1. Bezier Curves The following example allows you to interactively control a bezier curve by dragging the control points Cubic.java Replace the call to draw the cubic shape (big.draw(cubic)), by your own function to draw a bezier by the recursive split method. Finally, add the ability to create a longer Bezier curve by adding more control points to create a second curve. Cubic.java import java.awt.*; import javax.swing.*; import java.awt.event.*; import java.applet.Applet; import java.awt.geom.*; import java.awt.image.BufferedImage; public class Cubic extends JApplet{ static protected JLabel label; CubicPanel cubicPanel; public void init(){ //Initialize the layout. getContentPane().setLayout(new BorderLayout()); cubicPanel = new CubicPanel(); cubicPanel.setBackground(Color.white); getContentPane().add(cubicPanel); label = new JLabel("Drag the points to adjust the curve."); getContentPane().add("South", label); } public static void main(String s[]) { JFrame f = new JFrame("Cubic"); f.addWindowListener(new WindowAdapter() { public void windowClosing(WindowEvent e) {System.exit(0);} }); JApplet applet = new Cubic(); f.getContentPane().add(applet, BorderLayout.CENTER); applet.init(); f.setSize(new Dimension(350,250)); f.setVisible(true); } } class CubicPanel extends JPanel implements MouseListener, MouseMotionListener{ BufferedImage bi; Graphics2D big; int x, y; Rectangle area, startpt, endpt, onept, twopt, rect; CubicCurve2D.Double cubic = new CubicCurve2D.Double(); Point2D.Double start, end, one, two, point; boolean firstTime = true; boolean pressOut = false; public CubicPanel(){ setBackground(Color.white); addMouseMotionListener(this); addMouseListener(this); start = new Point2D.Double(); one = new Point2D.Double(); two = new Point2D.Double(); end = new Point2D.Double(); cubic.setCurve(start, one, two, end); startpt = new Rectangle(0, 0, 8, 8); endpt = new Rectangle(0, 0, 8, 8); onept = new Rectangle(0, 0, 8, 8); twopt = new Rectangle(0, 0, 8, 8); } public void mousePressed(MouseEvent e){ x = e.getX(); y = e.getY(); if(startpt.contains(x, y)){ rect = startpt; point = start; x = startpt.x - e.getX(); y = startpt.y - e.getY(); updateLocation(e); } else if(endpt.contains(x, y)){ rect = endpt; point = end; x = endpt.x - e.getX(); y = endpt.y - e.getY(); updateLocation(e); } else if(onept.contains(x, y)){ rect = onept; point = one; x = onept.x - e.getX(); y = onept.y - e.getY(); updateLocation(e); } else if(twopt.contains(x, y)){ rect = twopt; point = two; x = twopt.x - e.getX(); y = twopt.y - e.getY(); updateLocation(e); } else { pressOut = true; } } public void mouseDragged(MouseEvent e){ if(!pressOut) { updateLocation(e); } } public void mouseReleased(MouseEvent e){ if(startpt.contains(e.getX(), e.getY())){ rect = startpt; point = start; updateLocation(e); } else if(endpt.contains(e.getX(), e.getY())){ rect = endpt; point = end; updateLocation(e); } else if(onept.contains(e.getX(), e.getY())){ rect = onept; point = one; updateLocation(e); } else if(twopt.contains(e.getX(), e.getY())){ rect = twopt; point = two; updateLocation(e); } else { pressOut = false; } } public void mouseMoved(MouseEvent e){} public void mouseClicked(MouseEvent e){} public void mouseExited(MouseEvent e){} public void mouseEntered(MouseEvent e){} public void updateLocation(MouseEvent e){ rect.setLocation((x + e.getX())-4, (y + e.getY())-4); point.setLocation(x + e.getX(), y + e.getY()); checkPoint(); cubic.setCurve(start, one, two, end); repaint(); } public void paintComponent(Graphics g){ super.paintComponent(g); update(g); } public void update(Graphics g){ Graphics2D g2 = (Graphics2D)g; Dimension dim = getSize(); int w = dim.width; int h = dim.height; if(firstTime){ // Create the offsecren graphics to render to bi = (BufferedImage)createImage(w, h); big = bi.createGraphics(); // Get some initial positions for the control points start.setLocation(w/2-50, h/2); end.setLocation(w/2+50, h/2); one.setLocation((int)(start.x)+25, (int)(start.y)-25); two.setLocation((int)(end.x)-25, (int)(end.y)+25); // Set the initial positions of the squares that are // drawn at the control points startpt.setLocation((int)((start.x)-4), (int)((start.y)-4)); endpt.setLocation((int)((end.x)-4), (int)((end.y)-4)); onept.setLocation((int)((one.x)-4), (int)((one.y)-4)); twopt.setLocation((int)((two.x)-4), (int)((two.y)-4)); // Initialise the CubicCurve2D cubic.setCurve(start, one, two, end); // Set some defaults for Java2D big.setColor(Color.black); big.setStroke(new BasicStroke(5.0f)); big.setRenderingHint(RenderingHints.KEY_ANTIALIASING, RenderingHints.VALUE_ANTIALIAS_ON); area = new Rectangle(dim); firstTime = false; } // Clears the rectangle that was previously drawn. big.setColor(Color.white); big.clearRect(0, 0, area.width, area.height); // Set the colour for the bezier big.setPaint(Color.black); // Replace the following line by your own function to // draw the bezier specified by start, one, two, end big.draw(cubic); // Draw the control points big.setPaint(Color.red); big.fill(startpt); big.setPaint(Color.magenta); big.fill(endpt); big.setPaint(Color.blue); big.fill(onept); big.setPaint(new Color(0, 200, 0)); big.fill(twopt); // Draws the buffered image to the screen. g2.drawImage(bi, 0, 0, this); } /* Checks if the rectangle is contained within the applet * window. If the rectangle is not contained withing the * applet window, it is redrawn so that it is adjacent to the * edge of the window and just inside the window. */ void checkPoint(){ if (area == null) { return; } if((area.contains(rect)) && (area.contains(point))){ return; } int new_x = rect.x; int new_y = rect.y; double new_px = point.x; double new_py = point.y; if((rect.x+rect.width)>area.getWidth()){ new_x = (int)area.getWidth()-(rect.width-1); } if(point.x > area.getWidth()){ new_px = (int)area.getWidth()-1; } if(rect.x < 0){ new_x = -1; } if(point.x < 0){ new_px = -1; } if((rect.y+rect.width)>area.getHeight()){ new_y = (int)area.getHeight()-(rect.height-1); } if(point.y > area.getHeight()){ new_py = (int)area.getHeight()-1; } if(rect.y < 0){ new_y = -1; } if(point.y < 0){ new_py = -1; } rect.setLocation(new_x, new_y); point.setLocation(new_px, new_py); } }

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  • “It’s only test code…”

    - by Chris George
    “Let me hack this in, it’s only test code”, “Don’t worry about getting it reviewed, it’s only test code”, “It doesn’t have to be elegant or efficient, it’s only test code”… do these phrases sound familiar? Chances are if you’ve working with test automation, at one point or other you will have heard these phrases, you have probably even used them yourself! What is certain is that code written under this “it’s only test code” mantra will come back and bite you in the arse! I’ve recently encountered a case where a test was giving a false positive, therefore hiding a real product bug because that test code was very badly written. Firstly it was very difficult to understand what the test was actually trying to achieve let alone how it was doing it, and this complexity masked a simple logic error. These issues are real and they do happen. Let’s take a step back from this and look at what we are trying to do. We are writing test code that tests product code, and we do this to create a suite of tests that will help protect our software against regressions. This test code is making sure that the product behaves as it should by employing some sort of expected result verification. The simple cases of these are generally not a problem. However, automation allows us to explore more complex scenarios in many more permutations. As this complexity increases then so does the complexity of the test code. It is at this point that code which has not been architected properly will cause problems.   Keep your friends close… So, how do we make sure we are doing it right? The development teams I have worked on have always had Test Engineers working very closely with their Software Engineers. This is something that I have always tried to take full advantage of. They are coding experts! So run your ideas past them, ask for advice on how to structure your code, help you design your data structures. This may require a shift in your teams viewpoint, as contrary to this section title and folklore, Software Engineers are not actually the mortal enemy of Test Engineers. As time progresses, and test automation becomes more and more ingrained in what we do, the two roles are converging more than ever. Over the 16 years I have spent as a Test Engineer, I have seen the grey area between the two roles grow significantly larger. This serves to strengthen the relationship and common bond between the two roles which helps to make test code activities so much easier!   Pair for the win Possibly the best thing you could do to write good test code is to pair program on the task. This will serve a few purposes. you will get the benefit of the Software Engineers knowledge and experience the Software Engineer will gain knowledge on the testing process. Sharing the love is a wonderful thing! two pairs of eyes are always better than one… And so are two brains. Between the two of you, I will guarantee you will derive more useful test cases than if it was just one of you.   Code reviews Another policy which certainly pays dividends is the practice of code reviews. By having one of your peers review your code before you commit it serves two purposes. Firstly, it forces you to explain your code. Just the act of doing this will often pick up errors in your code. Secondly, it gets yet another pair of eyes on your code! I cannot stress enough how important code reviews are. The benefits they offer apply as much to product code as test code. In short, Software and Test Engineers should all be doing them! It can be extended even further by getting test code reviewed by a Software Engineer and a Test Engineer, and likewise product code. This serves to keep both functions in the loop with changes going on within your code base.   Learn from your devs I briefly touched on this earlier but I’d like to go into more detail here. Pairing with your Software Engineers when writing your test code is such an amazing opportunity to improve your coding skills. As I sit here writing this article waiting to be called into court for jury service, it reminds me that it takes a lot of patience to be a Test Engineer, almost as much as it takes to be a juror! However tempting it is to go rushing in and start writing your automated tests, resist that urge. Discuss what you want to achieve then talk through the approach you’re going to take. Then code it up together. I find it really enlightening to ask questions like ‘is there a better way to do this?’ Or ‘is this how you would code it?’ The latter question, especially, is where I learn the most. I’ve found that most Software Engineers will be reluctant to show you the ‘right way’ to code something when writing tests because they perceive the ‘right way’ to be too complicated for the Test Engineer (e.g. not mentioning LINQ and instead doing something verbose). So by asking how THEY would code it, it unleashes their true dev-ness and advanced code usually ensues! I would like to point out, however, that you don’t have to accept their method as the final answer. On numerous occasions I have opted for the more simple/verbose solution because I found the code written by the Software Engineer too advanced and therefore I would find it unreadable when I return to the code in a months’ time! Always keep the target audience in mind when writing clever code, and in my case that is mostly Test Engineers.  

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  • HTG Explains: Should You Buy Extended Warranties?

    - by Chris Hoffman
    Buy something at an electronics store and you’ll be confronted by a pushy salesperson who insists you need an extended warranty. You’ll also see extended warranties pushed hard when shopping online. But are they worth it? There’s a reason stores push extended warranties so hard. They’re almost always pure profit for the store involved. An electronics store may live on razor-thin product margins and make big profits on extended warranties and overpriced HDMI cables. You’re Already Getting Multiple Warranties First, back up. The product you’re buying already includes a warranty. In fact, you’re probably getting several different types of warranties. Store Return and Exchange: Most electronics stores allow you to return a malfunctioning product within the first 15 or 30 days and they’ll provide you with a new one. The exact period of time will vary from store to store. If you walk out of the store with a defective product and have to swap it for a new one within the first few weeks, this should be easy. Manufacturer Warranty: A device’s manufacturer — whether the device is a laptop, a television, or a graphics card — offers their own warranty period. The manufacturer warranty covers you after the store refuses to take the product back and exchange it. The length of this warranty depends on the type of product. For example, a cheap laptop may only offer a one-year manufacturer warranty, while a more expensive laptop may offer a two-year warranty. Credit Card Warranty Extension: Many credit cards offer free extended warranties on products you buy with that credit card. Credit card companies will often give you an additional year of warranty. For example, if you buy a laptop with a two year warranty and it fails in the third year, you could then contact your credit card company and they’d cover the cost of fixing or replacing it. Check your credit card’s benefits and fine print for more information. Why Extended Warranties Are Bad You’re already getting a fairly long warranty period, especially if you have a credit card that offers you a free extended warranty — these are fairly common. If the product you get is a “lemon” and has a manufacturing error, it will likely fail pretty soon — well within your warranty period. The extended warranty matters after all your other warranties are exhausted. In the case of a laptop with a two-year warranty that you purchase with a credit card giving you a one-year warranty extension, your extended warranty will kick in three years after you purchase the laptop. In that many years, your current laptop will likely feel pretty old and laptops that are as good — or better — will likely be pretty cheap. If it’s a television, better television displays will be available at a lower price point. You’ll either want to upgrade to a newer model or you’ll be able to buy a new, just-as-good product for very cheap. You’ll only have to pay out-of-pocket if your device fails after the normal warranty period — in over two or three years for typical laptops purchased with a decent credit card. Save the money you would have spent on the warranty and put it towards a future upgrade. How Much Do Extended Warranties Cost? Let’s look at an example from a typical pushy retail outlet, Best Buy. We went to Best Buy’s website and found a pretty standard $600 Samsung laptop. This laptop comes with a one-year warranty period. If purchased with a fairly common credit card, you can easily get a two-year warranty period on this laptop without spending an additional penny. (Yes, such credit cards are available with no yearly fees.) During the check-out process, Best Buy tries to sell you a Geek Squad “Accidental Protection Plan.” To get an additional year of Best Buy’s extended warranty, you’d have to pay $324.98 for a “3-Year Accidental Protection Plan”. You’d basically be paying more than half the price of your laptop for an additional year of warranty — remember, the standard warranties would cover you anyway for the first two years. If this laptop did break sometime between two and three years from now, we wouldn’t be surprised if you could purchase a comparable laptop for about $325 anyway. And, if you don’t need to replace it, you’ve saved that money. Best Buy would object that this isn’t a standard extended warranty. It’s a supercharged warranty plan that will also provide coverage if you spill something on your laptop or drop it and break it. You just have to ask yourself a question. What are the odds that you’ll drop your laptop or spill something on it? They’re probably pretty low if you’re a typical human being. Is it worth spending more than half the price of the laptop just in case you’ll make an uncommon mistake? Probably not. There may be occasional exceptions to this — some Apple users swear by Apple’s AppleCare, for example — but you should generally avoid buying these things. There’s a reason stores are so pushy about extended warranties, and it’s not because they want to help protect you. It’s because they’re making lots of profit from these plans, and they’re making so much profit because they’re not a good deal for customers. Image Credit: Philip Taylor on Flickr     

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  • How to Control Screen Layouts in LightSwitch

    - by ChrisD
    Visual Studio LightSwitch has a bunch of screen templates that you can use to quickly generate screens. They give you good starting points that you can customize further. When you add a new screen to your project you see a set of screen templates that you can choose from. These templates lay out all the related data you choose to put on a screen automatically for you. And don’t under estimate them; they do a great job of laying out controls in a smart way. For instance, a tab control will be used when you select more than one related set of data to display on a screen. However, you’re not limited to taking the layout as is. In fact, the screen designer is pretty flexible and allows you to create stacks of controls in a variety of configurations. You just need to visualize your screen as a series of containers that you can lay out in rows and columns. You then place controls or stacks of controls into these areas to align the screen exactly how you want. If you’re new in Visual Studio LightSwitch, you can see this tutorial. OK, Let’s start with a simple example. I have already designed my data entities for a simple order tracking system similar to the Northwind database. I also have added a Search Data  Screen to search my Products already. Now I will add a new Details Screen for my Products and make it the default screen via the “Add New Screen” dialog: The screen designer picks a simple layout for me based on the single entity I chose, in this case Product. Hit F5 to run the application, select a Product on the search screen to open the Product Details Screen. Notice that it’s pretty simple because my entity is simple. Click the “Customize” button in the top right of the screen so we can start tweaking it. The left side of the screen shows the containership of controls and data bindings (called the content tree) and the right side shows the live preview with data. Notice that we have a simple layout of two rows but only one row is populated (with a vertical stack of controls in this case). The bottom row is empty. You can envision the screen like this: Each container will display a group of data that you select. For instance in the above screen, the top row is set to a vertical stack control and the group of data to display is coming from Product. So when laying out screens you need to think in terms of containers of controls bound to groups of data. To change the data to which a container is bound, select the data item next to the container: You can select the “New Group” item in order to create more containers (or controls) within the current container. For instance to totally control the layout, select the Product in the top row and hit the delete key. This will delete the vertical stack and therefore all the controls on the screen. The content tree will still have two rows, but the rows are now both empty. If you want a layout of four containers (two rows and two columns) then select “New Group” for the data item and then change the vertical stack control to “Two Columns” for both of the rows as shown here: You can keep going on and on by selecting new groups and choosing between rows or columns. Here’s a layout with 8 containers, 4 rows and 2 columns: And here is a layout with 7 content areas; one row across the top of the screen and three rows with two columns below that: When you select Choose Content and select a data item like Product it will populate all the controls within the container (row or column in a vertical stack) however you have complete control on what to display within each group. You can delete fields you don’t want to display and/or change their controls. You can also change the size of controls and how they display by changing the settings in the properties window. If you are in the Screen Designer (and not the customization mode like we are here) you can also drag-drop data items from the left-hand side of the screen to the content tree. Note, however, that not all areas of the tree will allow you to drop a data item if there is a binding already set to a different set of data. For instance you can’t drop a Customer ID into the same group as a Product if they originate from different entities. To get around this, all you need to do is create a new group and content area as shown above. Let’s take a more complex example that deals with more than just product. I want to design a complex screen that displays Products and their Category, as well as all the OrderDetails for which that product is selected. This time I will create a new screen and select List and Details, select the Products screen data, and include the related OrderDetails. However I’m going to totally change the layout so that a Product grid is at the top left and below that is the selected Product detail. Below that will be the Category text fields and image in two columns below. On the right side I want the OrderDetails grid to take up the whole right side of the screen. All this can be done in customization mode while you’re debugging the application. To do this, I first deleted all the content items in the tree and then re-created the content tree as shown in the image below. I also set the image to be larger and the description textbox to be 5 rows using the property window below the live preview. I added the green lines to indicate the containers and show how it maps to the content tree (click to enlarge): I hope this demystifies the screen designer a little bit. Remember that screen templates are excellent starting points – you can take them as-is or customize them further. It takes a little fooling around with customizing screens to get them to do exactly what you want but there are a ton of possibilities once you get the hang of it. Stay tuned for more information on how to create your own screen templates that show up in the “Add New Screen” dialog. Enjoy! The tutorial that might be interested: Adding Custom Control In LightSwitch

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