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• Complexity of defense AI

  - by Fredrik Johansson

  I have a non-released game, and currently it's only possible to play with another human being. As the game rules are made up by me, I think it would be great if new players could learn basic game play by playing against an AI opponent. I mean it's not like Tennis, where the majority knows at least the fundamental rules. On the other hand, I'm a bit concerned that this AI implementation can be quite complex. I hope you can help me with an complexity estimation. I've tried to summarize the gameplay below. Is this defense AI very hard to do? Basic Defense Game Play Player Defender can move within his land, i.e. inside a random, non-convex, polygon. This land will also contain obstacles modeled as polygons, that Defender has to move around. Player Attacker has also a land, modeled as another such polygon. Assume that Defender shall defend against Attacker. Attacker will then throw a thingy towards Defender's land. To be rewarded, Attacker wants to hit Defender's land, and Defender will want to strike away the thingy from his land before it stops to prevent Attacker from scoring. To feint Defender, Attacker might run around within his land before the throw, and based on these attacker movements Defender shall then continuously move to the best defense position within his land.

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• Adult Swim Brings Their Programming Lineup to iOS Devices

  - by ETC

  If you’re a fan of the programming lineup on Adult Swim–such as Family Guy, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, and The Boondocks–you can now get the entire lineup for free on your iOS device. Adult Swim’s new iOS app streams Adult Swim’s programming lineup including popular shows such as Robot Chicken, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Family Guy, The Boondocks, Metalocalypse. Hit up the link below to read more and grab a free copy. Adult Swim [iTunes App Store via Download Squad] Latest Features How-To Geek ETC 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) How To Remove People and Objects From Photographs In Photoshop Make Efficient Use of Tab Bar Space by Customizing Tab Width in Firefox See the Geeky Work Done Behind the Scenes to Add Sounds to Movies [Video] Use a Crayon to Enhance Engraved Lettering on Electronics Adult Swim Brings Their Programming Lineup to iOS Devices Feel the Chill of the South Atlantic with the Antarctica Theme for Windows 7 Seas0nPass Now Offers Untethered Apple TV Jailbreaking

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• Can JSON be made easily and safely editable by the non-technical Excel crowd?

  - by glitch

  I'm looking for a data storage format that's very intuitive and easy to edit. It should be ideally targeted towards the same crowd as Excel. At the same time I would like the data structure to be a tree. Ideally this would be JSON, since it offers both the tree aspect and allows for more interesting constructs like arrays. That and parsing libraries for JSON are ubiquitous, so I don't have to reinvent the wheel. The problem is that, at least with a non-specialized text editor, JSON is a giant pain to edit for a non-technical user. I'm thinking along the lines of someone who might have used Excel in the past, but never a real text editor. Someone who might not be comfortable with the idea of preserving JSON syntax by hand. Are there data formats out there that would fit this profile? I'd very much prefer this to be a JSON actually, but then it would require a solid editing tool that would hide the underlying implementation from the user. Think Excel and how it abstracts CSV syntax from the user. The reason I'm looking for something like this is because the team has been working with pretty hierarchical data for a while now and we've hit the limits of how easy it is to represent in simple CSVs without having to create complex rules for how represent hierarchy semantics from each row. Any suggestions?

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• links for 2010-06-15

  - by Bob Rhubart

  You're invited : Oracle Solaris Day, June 28th, Herzliya - Openomics How open innovation and technology adoption translates to business value, with stories from our developer support work at Sun ISV Engineering (tags: ping.fm) Edwin Biemond: Enriching and Forwarding your data with the Spring Component in SOA Suite 11g PS2 Oracle ACE Edwin Biemond describes "how easy it is to use Java in the Spring Component, how you can wire this Component to other Components, Services or References adapters." (tags: oracleace soa oracle middleware) Venkatakrishnan J: Oracle BI EE 10.1.3.4.1 - Currency Conversions & FX Translations &ndash; Part 1 "As part of the BI EE setup we need to ensure that such local currency transactions are converted to a common reporting currency," says Rittman Mead's Venkatakrishnan. (tags: oracle businessintelligence) Richard Veryard: Ecosystem SOA 2 "What are the problems of large complex sociotechnical systems?" asks Rich Veryard?  "How far do SOA and enterprise architecture help to address this problem space, and what else might we need?" (tags: soa entarch) Khanderao Kand: Oracle BPM Suite .. unified engine.. "This Suite is based on unified process foundation of Oracle Business Process Management Suite 11g . It has the same engine that executes both BPEL and BPMN processes, " says Kand.  (tags: bpel soa bpm oracle) Webcast: Revealing the Secrets that will Re-Energize your Services Strategies  Oracle's Peter Heller and Robert Covington discuss how to overcome the many unforeseen technical and organizational barriers in order to meet the high expectations of dynamic business requirements in this live webcast, July 14, 2010, 9:00 AM PDT / Noon EDT (tags: entarch oracle webcast)

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• links for 2011-02-07

  - by Bob Rhubart

  Creating JAXWS Service in WebLogic Workshop Middleware Magic Jay SenSharma shares "a simple demo which explains how we can create a Complex JAXWS WebService using WebLogic Workshop." (tags: WebLogic jaxws middleware) Wentari: Re-Learning PeopleSoft "If I truly want to be an enterprise architect, what better way than to have hands on knowledge about all the Oracle offerings outside of my specialization in Siebel and OBIEE." -- Peter Yeung (tags: oracle otn businessintelligence obiee siebel) Andrejus Baranovskis's Blog: CreateWithParams Operation for Oracle ADF BC 11g Oracle ACE Director Andrejus Baranovski illustrates how you can apply a CreateWithParams operation in two easy steps. (tags: oracle otn oracleace soa) APEX plugins contributed to the APEX community by AMIS developers AMIS Technology blog The APEX 4.0 plugin framework "allows for more more organized, better structured development with lots more reuse potential," according to Oracle ACE Director Lucas Jellema. (tags: oracle otn oracleace apex) Oracle BI EE 11g and Oracle ADF - Part 2 - Real Time reporting using View Objects Venkatakrishnan J looks into "another reporting innovation (by use of the common ADF Framework) i.e. real time reporting using BI EE by directly reversing metadata from a transactional application. (tags: oracle otn oracleace businessintelligence obiee adf) On-demand Webcast: Java in the Smart Grid (The Java Source) Learn more about the Smart Grid and the role that Java is poised to play in this important initiative. (tags: oracle otn java smartgrid)

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• GSL Uniform Random Number Generator

  - by Jamaia

  I want to use GSL's uniform random number generator. On their website, they include this sample code: #include <stdio.h> #include <gsl/gsl_rng.h> int main (void) { const gsl_rng_type * T; gsl_rng * r; int i, n = 10; gsl_rng_env_setup(); T = gsl_rng_default; r = gsl_rng_alloc (T); for (i = 0; i < n; i++) { double u = gsl_rng_uniform (r); printf ("%.5f\n", u); } gsl_rng_free (r); return 0; } However, this does not rely on any seed and so, the same random numbers will be produced each time. They also specify the following: The generator itself can be changed using the environment variable GSL_RNG_TYPE. Here is the output of the program using a seed value of 123 and the multiple-recursive generator mrg, $ GSL_RNG_SEED=123 GSL_RNG_TYPE=mrg ./a.out But I don't understand how to implement this. Any ideas as to what modifications I can make to the above code to incorporate the seed?

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• MatheMagics - Guess My Age - Method 2

  - by PointsToShare

  © 2011 By: Dov Trietsch. All rights reserved MatheMagic – Guess My Age – Method 2 The Mathemagician stands on the stage and asks an adult to do the following: ·         Do the next few steps on your calculator, or the calculator in your phone, or even on a piece of paper. ·         Do it silently! Don’t tell me the results until I ask for them directly ·         Multiply your age by 2. ·         Add 7 to the result ·         Multiply the result by 5. ·         Tell me the result. I will nonetheless immediately tell you what your age is. How do I do this? Let’s do the algebra. Let A denote your age (2A + 7) 5 = 10A + 35 so it is of the 3 digit form XY5 Now make two numbers out of the result - The last digit and the number before it. The Last digit is obviously 5, the other 2 (or 3 for a centenarian) and this number is the age + 3. Example: I am 76 years old and here is what happens when I do the steps 76 x 2 = 152 152 + 7 = 159 159 x 5 = 795 This is made of 79 and 5. And … 79 – 3 = 76 A note to the socially aware mathemagician – it is safer to do it with a man. The chances of a veracious answer are much, much higher! The trick may be accomplished on any 2 or 3 digit number, not just one’s age, but if you want to know your date’s age, it’s a good way to elicit it. That’s All Folks PS for more Ageless “Age” mathemagics go to www.mgsltns.com/games.htm and also here: http://geekswithblogs.net/PointsToShare/archive/2011/11/15/mathemagics---guess-my-age-method-1.aspx

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• Should You Delete Windows 7 Service Pack Backup Files to Save Space?

  - by The Geek

  After you install the Windows 7 Service Pack 1 that we mentioned yesterday, you might be wondering how to reclaim some of the lost drive space—which we’ll show you how today—but should you actually do it? Note: If you haven’t installed the new SP1 release yet, be sure to read our post explaining what it entails before you do. Spoiler: it’s mostly bugfixes. 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) Read On Phone Pushes Data from Your Desktop to the Appropriate Android App MetroTwit is a Sleek Native Twitter Client for Your Windows System Make Efficient Use of Tab Bar Space by Customizing Tab Width in Firefox See the Geeky Work Done Behind the Scenes to Add Sounds to Movies [Video] Use a Crayon to Enhance Engraved Lettering on Electronics Adult Swim Brings Their Programming Lineup to iOS Devices

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• Using a permutation table for simplex noise without storing it

  - by J. C. Leitão

  Generating Simplex noise requires a permutation table for randomisation (e.g. see this question or this example). In some applications, we need to persist the state of the permutation table. This can be done by creating the table, e.g. using def permutation_table(seed): table_size = 2**10 # arbitrary for this question l = range(1, table_size + 1) random.seed(seed) # ensures the same shuffle for a given seed random.shuffle(l) return l + l # see shared link why l + l; is a detail and storing it. Can we avoid storing the full table by generating the required elements every time they are required? Specifically, currently I store the table and call it using table[i] (table is a list). Can I avoid storing it by having a function that computes the element i, e.g. get_table_element(seed, i). I'm aware that cryptography already solved this problem using block cyphers, however, I found it too complex to go deep and implement a block cypher. Does anyone knows a simple implementation of a block cypher to this problem?

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• CodePlex Daily Summary for Sunday, October 20, 2013

  CodePlex Daily Summary for Sunday, October 20, 2013Popular ReleasesKerbalAlarmClock: v2.6.1.0 Release: Version 2.6.1.0 Recompiled it for 0.21 Added Crew Alarms (track Kerbal rather than Vessel) Added Distance Target Alarms - distance from target vessel or altitude above planet Added Launch Rendezvous Alarm (under Ascending/Descending Node for Landed craft) - MechJeb2 code - thanks r4m0n Allow restoration of Nodes that you have passed (useful for interplanetary burns) Added missing Dres Transfer Model data - thanks Voneiden Added view only version of Alarm clock to both Space Center...MSBuild Extension Pack: October 2013: Release Blog Post The MSBuild Extension Pack October 2013 release provides a collection of over 480 MSBuild tasks. A high level summary of what the tasks currently cover includes the following: System Items: Active Directory, Certificates, COM+, Console, Date and Time, Drives, Environment Variables, Event Logs, Files and Folders, FTP, GAC, Network, Performance Counters, Registry, Services, Sound Code: Assemblies, AsyncExec, CAB Files, Code Signing, DynamicExecute, File Detokenisation, GUI...VG-Ripper & PG-Ripper: VG-Ripper 2.9.49: changes NEW: Added Support for "ImageTeam.org links NEW: Added Support for "ImgNext.com" links NEW: Added Support for "HostUrImage.com" links NEW: Added Support for "3XVintage.com" linksMedia Companion: Media Companion MC3.583b: As before release but fixed for no movie poster sourcesNew* Both - Added 'An' as option to ignore in title * Movie - Renaming - added %Z - Sorttitle to Legend * Movie - Renaming - added %O - Audio Channels to Legend * Movie - Remove a poster source from priority list. Reset List back to defaults. * Made Media Companion truly portable application. Fixed* Movie - browse for Poster Or Fanart, allows for jpg, tbn, png and bmp images * Movie - Alt Fanart Browser - Url or Browse window now fully...MoreTerra (Terraria World Viewer): MoreTerra 1.11.3.1: Release 1.11.3.1 ================ = New Features = ================ Added markers for Copper Cache, Silver Cache and the Enchanted Sword. ============= = Bug Fixes = ============= Use Official Colors now no longer tries to change the Draw Wires option instead. World reading was breaking for people with a stock 1.2 Terraria version. Changed world name reading so it does not crash the program if you load MoreTerra while Terraria is saving the world. =================== = Feature Removal = =...patterns & practices - Windows Azure Guidance: Cloud Design Patterns: 1st drop of Cloud Design Patterns project. It contains 14 patterns with 6 related guidance.Player Framework by Microsoft: Player Framework for Windows and WP (v1.3): Includes all changes in v1.3 beta 1 and v1.3 beta 2 Support for Windows 8.1 RTM and VS2013 RTM Xaml: New property: AutoLoadPluginTypes to help control which stock plugins are loaded by default (requires AutoLoadPlugins = true). Support for SystemMediaTransportControls on Windows 8.1 JS: Support for visual markers in the timeline. JS: Support for markers collection and markerreached event. JS: New ChaptersPlugin to automatically populate timeline with chapter tracks. JS: Audio an...Json.NET: Json.NET 5.0 Release 8: Fix - Fixed not writing string quotes when QuoteName is falsePowerShell Community Extensions: 3.1 Production: PowerShell Community Extensions 3.1 Release NotesOct 17, 2013 This version of PSCX supports Windows PowerShell 3.0 and 4.0 See the ReleaseNotes.txt download above for more information.SQL Power Doc: Version 1.0.2.1: Misc. bug fixes Added logic to resolve members of a Windows Group server login Added columns to Excel workbooks to show definitions for server permissions, server roles, database permissions, and database rolesSocial Network Importer for NodeXL: SocialNetImporter(v.1.9): This new version includes: - Download latest status update and use it as vertex tooltip - Limit the timelines to parse to me, my friends or both - Fixed some reported bugs about the fan page and group importer - Fixed the login bug reported latelyTerrariViewer: TerrariViewer v7.1 [Terraria Inventory Editor]: You can now backspace in number fields Items added in 1.2.0.3 no longer corrupt player files Buff durations capped at 9999999 Item stacks capped at 9999999 Version info added Prefix IDs corrected Shoe and Eye color box are now properly clickable Moved Bank and Safe into their own tab Users will now be notified of new updatesPython Tools for Visual Studio: 2.0: PTVS 2.0 We’re pleased to announce the release of Python Tools for Visual Studio 2.0 RTM. Python Tools for Visual Studio (PTVS) is an open-source plug-in for Visual Studio which supports programming with the Python language. PTVS supports a broad range of features including CPython/IronPython, Edit/Intellisense/Debug/Profile, Cloud, IPython, and cross platform and cross language debugging support. QUICK VIDEO OVERVIEW For a quick overview of the general IDE experience, please watch this v...CS-Script for Notepad++ (C# intellisense and code execution): Release v1.0.8.2: Solved scrolling problem after DocumentFormatting Implemented "format as you type" --- To avoid the DLLs getting locked by OS use MSI file for the installation.LINQ to Twitter: LINQ to Twitter v2.1.09: Supports .NET 3.5, .NET 4.0, .NET 4.5, Silverlight 4.0, Windows Phone 7.1, Windows Phone 8, Client Profile, Windows 8, and Windows Azure. 100% Twitter API coverage. Also supports Twitter API v1.1! Also on NuGet.Sandcastle Help File Builder: SHFB v1.9.8.0 with Visual Studio Package: General InformationIMPORTANT: On some systems, the content of the ZIP file is blocked and the installer may fail to run. Before extracting it, right click on the ZIP file, select Properties, and click on the Unblock button if it is present in the lower right corner of the General tab in the properties dialog. This new release contains bug fixes and feature enhancements. There are some potential breaking changes in this release as some features of the Help File Builder have been moved into...C++ REST SDK (codename "Casablanca"): C++ REST SDK 1.3.0: This release fixes multiple customer reported issues as well as the following: Full support for Dev12 binaries and project files Full support for Windows XP New sample highlighting the Client and Server APIs : BlackJack Expose underlying native handle to set custom options on http_client Improvements to Listener Library Note: Dev10 binaries have been dropped as of this release, however the Dev10 project files are still available in the Source CodeAD ACL Scanner: 1.3.2: Minor bug fixed: Powershell 4.0 will report: Select—Object: Parameter cannot be processed because the parameter name p is ambiguous.Fast YouTube Downloader: YouTube Downloader 2.2.0: YouTube Downloader 2.2.0VidCoder: 1.5.8 Beta: Added hardware acceleration options: Bicubic OpenCL scaling algorithm, QSV decoding/encoding and DXVA decoding. Updated HandBrake core to SVN 5834. Updated VidCoder setup icon. Fixed crash when choosing the mp4v2 container on x86 and opening on x64. Warning: the hardware acceleration features require specific hardware or file types to work correctly: QSV: Need an Intel processor that supports Quick Sync Video encoding, with a monitor hooked up to the Intel HD Graphics output and the lat...New ProjectsAdd2Nums: Add2Nums is a VB.NET project that takes 2 numbers, computes their sum and outputs the result. Developed by Justin Mifsud as part of Assignment 1 (7COM0152)Athir: GPAO El_AthirCS-MIC - C# Math Input Control: CS-MIC is a .NET library written in C# designed to give developers easy access to expression parsing.HLS Video Player: An open source over-the-network video player for HLS (Hinkle Light Show)Project Stark: This is a secret project available only to the project owners for the time being.Run ++: Run Plus Plus is a tool that enables you to custom the commands in the "Run" dialog.SimpleAddition: This is a simple ASP.NET in VB.NET page that allows users to enter 2 numbers, and display their sum. SWE 681 Go Fish: Project

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• Should you create a class within a method?

  - by Amndeep7

  I have made a program using Java that is an implementation of this project: http://nifty.stanford.edu/2009/stone-random-art/sml/index.html. Essentially, you create a mathematical expression and, using the pixel coordinate as input, make a picture. After I initially implemented this in serial, I then implemented it in parallel due to the fact that if the picture size is too large or if the mathematical expression is too complex (especially considering the fact that I made the expression recursively), it takes a really long time. During this process, I realized that I needed two classes which implemented the Runnable interface as I had to put in parameters for the run method, which you aren't allowed to do directly. One of these classes ended up being a medium sized static inner class (not large enough to make an independent class file for it though). The other though, just needed a few parameters to determine some indexes and the size of the for loop that I was making run in parallel - here it is: class DataConversionRunnable implements Runnable { int jj, kk, w; DataConversionRunnable(int column, int matrix, int wid) { jj = column; kk = matrix; w = wid; } public void run() { for(int i = 0; i < w; i++) colorvals[kk][jj][i] = (int) ((raw[kk][jj][i] + 1.0) * 255 / 2.0); increaseCounter(); } } My question is should I make it a static inner class or can I just create it in a method? What is the general programming convention followed in this case?

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• IPv6 tunnels - any easy way to turn them on and off?

  - by Rob Hoare

  I've set up a tunnelbroker.net (Hurricane Electric) IPv6 tunnel from my laptop running 12.04. Works fine, and allows me to test the dual-stack configuration on my remote webservers etc. until native IPv6 is available on my ISP. However, there are times when I don't want the tunnel. For example if I'm accessing something that requires an IPv4 address in my own country rather than the Tunnelbroker tunnel endpoint, or if I'm away from the local IPv4 tunnel endpoint, or if I simply want to test without IPv6. Is there a simple way to disable and then re-enable the IPv6 tunnel, without rebooting? For context, here's what's in my /etc/network/interfaces (NNN replaces numbers): auto he-ipv6 iface he-ipv6 inet6 v4tunnel endpoint 216.218.NNN.NNN address 2001:470:NNN:NNN::2 netmask 64 up ip -6 route add default dev he-ipv6 down ip -6 route del default dev he-ipv6 Is there a network manager application (gui or command line) to selectively enable/disable parts of /etc/network/interfaces, or IPv6 in general? I found even by commenting out that out (and reloading networking) it's tough to get the IPv6 to go away. A "tunnel on/off" button in networking would be great, like using a VPN.

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• Understanding Asynchronous Programming with .NET Reflector

  - by Nick Harrison

  When trying to understand and learn the .NET framework, there is no substitute for being able to see what is going on behind at the scenes inside even the most confusing assemblies, and .NET Reflector makes this possible. Personally, I never fully understood connection pooling until I was able to poke around in key classes in the System.Data assembly. All of a sudden, integrating with third party components was much simpler, even without vendor documentation!With a team devoted to developing and extending Reflector, Red Gate have made it possible for us to step into and actually debug assemblies such as System.Data as though the source code was part of our solution. This maybe doesn’t sound like much, but it dramatically improves the way you can relate to and understand code that isn’t your own.Now that Microsoft has officially launched Visual Studio 2012, Reflector is also fully integrated with the new IDE, and supports the most complex language feature currently at our command: Asynchronous processing.Without understanding what is going on behind the scenes in the .NET Framework, it is difficult to appreciate what asynchronocity actually bring to the table and, without Reflector, we would never know the Arthur C. Clarke Magicthat the compiler does on our behalf.Join me as we explore the new asynchronous processing model, as well as review the often misunderstood and underappreciated yield keyword (you’ll see the connection when we dive into how the CLR handles async).Read more here

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• PHP/MySQL Database application development tool

  - by RCH

  I am an amateur PHP coder, and have built a couple of dozen projects from scratch (including fairly simple e-commerce systems with user authentication, PayPal integration etc - all coded by hand from a clean page. Have also done a price comparison engine that takes data from multiple sites etc.). But I am no expert with OO and other such advanced techniques - I just have a fairly decent grasp of the basics of data processing, logic, functions and trying to optimize code as much as possible. I just want to make this clear so you have some idea of where I'm coming from. I have a couple of fairly large new projects on my plate for corporate clients - both require bespoke database-driven applications with complex relationships, many tables and lots of different front-end functions to manipulate that data for the internal staff in these companies. I figured building these systems from scratch would probably be a huge waste of time. Instead, there must be tools out there that will allow me to construct MySQL databases and build the pages with things like pagination, action buttons, table construction etc. Some kind of database abstraction layer, or system generator, if you will. What tool do you recommend for such a purpose for someone at my level? Open source would be great, but I don't mind paying for something decent as well. Thanks for any advice.

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• Comb Over

  - by Tim Dexter

  Being some what follicly challenged, and to my wife's utter relief, the comb over is not something I have ever considered. The title is a tenuous reference to a formatting feature that Adobe offers in their PDF documents. The comb provides the ability to equally space a string of characters on a pre-defined form layout so that it fits neatly in the area. See the numbers above are being spaced correctly. Its not a function of the font but a property of the form field. For the first time, in a long time I had the chance to build a PDF template today to help out a colleague. I spotted the property and thought, hey, lets give it a whirl and see in Publisher supports it? Low and behold, Publisher handles the comb spacing in its PDF outputs. Exciting eh? OK, maybe not that exciting but I was very pleasantly surprise to see it working. I am reliably informed, by Leslie, BIP Evangelist and Tech Writer that, this feature was introduced from version 10.1.3.4.2 onwards. Official docs and no mention of comb overs here. Happy Combing!

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• Leveraging Code Across Platforms in Ever Bigger Games

  - by ashes999

  Summary: The same way that I continually build complex engines and libraries within a single platform and technology to allow me to build increasingly bigger and better games, how to continue this when development crosses into different platforms? If I switch platforms, how do I leverage past code and experiences? Games are hard to build. Big games are even harder to build. I've decided that to be able to make big games, I need to start building smaller games, and building up an asset base of code, assets (graphics, sounds), tools, and most importantly, game engines, so that I can eventually get there. One game at a time. Let me give an analogy. To build an MMO 3D RPG, I would approach this by building and releasing small games with increasingly more features. This could entail, for example: A simple 2D game A tile-based game A game with RPG elements (items, equipment, monsters, battle) A full-fledged RPG A 3D RPG The problem now is if I have to change platforms or tools, I don't know how to leverage past code-bases (and experience) to start with a mature product. Right now, I'm writing Silverlight (FlatRedBall) games. Let's say I stick with this for ten years, and then suddenly decide to write a PS6 game, which is in a different programming language entirely. Granted, I have ten years of game-development experience (and correspondingly ten years of professional software development experience from my day job) to back me up. But I would still like some way to transplant that 2D RPG engine into the new programming language, or else leverage it somehow. Is this even possible? What are my options?

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• Dealing with bad/incomplete/unclear specifications?

  - by eagerMoose

  I'm working on a project where our dev team gets the specifications from the business part of the company. Both the business management and the IT management require estimates and deadline projections, as they should. The good thing is that estimates are mostly made by the actual developers who get to do the required features. The bad thing is that the specifications are usually either too simple (it turns out you're left with a lot of question marks over your head because a lot of information seems to be missing) or too complex(up to the point that you can't even visualize where everything would "fit" in the app). More often than not, the business part of the specs are either incomplete or unaware of what can and can't be done (given the previously implemented business logic). Dev team is given about a day per new spec to give an estimate and we do try to clear uncertainties, usually by meeting up with whoever did the spec. Most of the times it turns out that spec writers haven't really thought everything through, and it's usually only when we start designing and developing that we end up in trouble, as a lot of the spec seems to have holes. How do you deal with this? Are you generous on estimates in advance?

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• Best peer-to-peer game architecture

  - by Dejw

  Consider a setup where game clients: have quite small computing resources (mobile devices, smartphones) are all connected to a common router (LAN, hotspot etc) The users want to play a multiplayer game, without an external server. One solution is to host an authoritative server on one phone, which in this case would be also a client. Considering point 1 this solution is not acceptable, since the phone's computing resources are not sufficient. So, I want to design a peer-to-peer architecture that will distribute the game's simulation load among the clients. Because of point 2 the system needn't be complex with regards to optimization; the latency will be very low. Each client can be an authoritative source of data about himself and his immediate environment (for example bullets.) What would be the best approach to designing such an architecture? Are there any known examples of such a LAN-level peer-to-peer protocol? Notes: Some of the problems are addressed here, but the concepts listed there are too high-level for me. Security I know that not having one authoritative server is a security issue, but it is not relevant in this case as I'm willing to trust the clients. Edit: I forgot to mention: it will be a rather fast-paced game (a shooter). Also, I have already read about networking architectures at Gaffer on Games.

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• Best Method of function parameter validation

  - by Aglystas

  I've been dabbling with the idea of creating my own CMS for the experience and because it would be fun to run my website off my own code base. One of the decisions I keep coming back to is how best to validate incoming parameters for functions. This is mostly in reference to simple data types since object validation would be quite a bit more complex. At first I debated creating a naming convention that would contain information about what the parameters should be, (int, string, bool, etc) then I also figured I could create options to validate against. But then in every function I still need to run some sort of parameter validation that parses the parameter name to determine what the value can be then validate against it, granted this would be handled by passing the list of parameters to function but that still needs to happen and one of my goals is to remove the parameter validation from the function itself so that you can only have the actual function code that accomplishes the intended task without the additional code for validation. Is there any good way of handling this, or is it so low level that typically parameter validation is just done at the start of the function call anyway, so I should stick with doing that.

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• Oracle E-Business Suite is Helping to Save Lives at the National Marrow Donor Program

  - by Di Seghposs

  To improve the management of its life-saving operations, the National Marrow Donor Program recently modernized its financial and procurement operations by upgrading to Oracle E-Business Suite 12.1.   As the global leader in bone marrow and umbilical cord blood transplants, the NMDP manages a complex ecosystem of donor, patient, hospital, and biological data. “Maintaining accurate data and having an efficient matching process is essential, particularly as our global database of bone marrow patients grows and donor lists expand,” says Bruce Schmaltz, director of finance/controller. “We rely on the Oracle E-Business Suite to ensure our procurement and financial management processes meet the highest standards, enabling our growing non-profit to work swiftly and efficiently to help improve and save lives.” As the non-profit organization and its registry grew larger, NMDP needed a modern platform to store and integrate its financial information and complicated procurement process. It selected Oracle E-Business Suite for its ability to fit seamlessly into NMDP’s enterprise architecture. NMDP initially implemented Oracle E-Business Suite release 12 by leveraging Oracle Business Accelerators, which are rapid implementation tools and templates that help reduce implementation time and costs. With Oracle Financial Management and Oracle Procurement, NMDP has streamlined back-office processes and integrated its procure-to-pay business processes by leveraging industry leading accounts payable, accounts receivable, and general ledger modules. NMDP is currently rolling out Oracle Hyperion Performance Management applications and plans to implement Oracle Order Management and Oracle Advanced Pricing by the end of 2012. Read more details about NMDP’s modernization efforts.  For more updates on Oracle Financial Management Solutions, view our November 2012 Oracle Information InDepth Financial Management newsletter. Subscribe Now. 

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• Making Modular, Reusable and Loosely Coupled MVC Components

  - by Dusan

  I am building MVC3 application and need some general guidelines on how to manage complex client side interaction between my components. Here is my definition of one component in general way: Component which has it's own controller, model and view. All of the component's logic is placed inside these three parts and component is sort of "standalone", it contains it's own form, data needed for interaction, updates itself with Ajax and so on. Beside this internal logic and behavior of the component, it needs to be able to "Talk" to the outside world. By this I mean it should provide data and events (sort of) so when this component gets embedded in pages can notify other components which then can update based on the current state and data. I have an idea to use client ViewModel (in java-script) which would hookup all relevant components on page and control interaction between them. This would make components reusable, modular - independent of the context in which they are used. How would you do this, I am a bit stuck as I do not know if this is a good approach and there is a technical possibility to achieve this using java-script/jquery. The confusing part is about update via Ajax, how to ensure that component is properly linked to ViewModel when component is Ajax updated (or even worse removed or dynamically added). Also, how should this ViewModel be constructed and which technicalities to use here and in components to work as synergy??? On the web, I have found the various examples of the similar approach, but they are oversimplified (even for dummies) or over specific and do not provide valuable resource or general solution for this kind of implementation. If you have some serious examples it would be, also, very helpful. Note: My aim is to make interactions between many components on the same page simpler and more robust and elegant.

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• How can I discourage the use of Access?

  - by Greg Buehler

  Lets pretend that a very large company (revenue numbers with more than 8 figures) is looking to do a refresh on a software system, particularly the dashboard used by employees. This system was originally put together in the early 1990's to handle inventory tracking and storage across a variety of facilities (10+). Since this large company is now in the process of implementing some of these inventory processes with SAP they are in need of a major refresh. The existing system: Microsoft Access project performs dashboard duties Unique shipping/receiving configurations at different facilities require unique forms and queries within the Access project Uses 3rd party libraries referenced by Access to directly interface with at control system (read: motors, conveyors, and counters) Individual SQL Server 2000 instances (some traces of pre-update SQL Server 6.0 documents) at each facility The Issue: This system started as a home brewed inventory tracking scheme with a single internal sponsor who is still in charge of the technical direction. The original sponsor prescribing the desired deliverables that are being called for in the current RFP. The RFP describes a system based around a single Access project. Any suggestion that Access is ill suited for a project of this scope are shot down under the reasoning that "it works for the scope now". Are there any case studies, notices, or statements that can be used to disuade this potential customer from repeating their mistake? Does Microsoft make any statements directly about when it is highly recommended to ditch Access?

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• Windows 8 App Downloads Increasing + Over 5,000 Apps Available

  - by David Paquette

  Windows 8 will be unleashed on the general public tomorrow and I thought it would be a good time to review some of the numbers I have been tracking over the last month. Downloads of Windows 8 Apps have been steadily increasing over the last month.  Below is screenshot from the App Summary page for my Windows 8 app.  The blue line is my app, while the orange line is average for the top 5 apps in that subcategory.  Considering the large gap between the 2, I think it is safe to assume that my app is NOT in the top 5 in the subcategory. The spike in the last couple of days is fairly dramatic and I am a little surprised by that.  I would have expected that kind of spike on the days following the official release as opposed to the days leading up to the release.   Finally, the all important App count.  There have been some stories floating around that the Window 8 Store is a ghost town and that there are no apps available.  I think these might be exaggerating the situation a little.  As of this morning, in the US store there are over 5000 apps available for download.  Obviously a far cry from the hundreds of thousands available in other app stores, but we are seeing solid growth in this number. Less than a month ago, that number was 2000. That means the store more than doubled in less than a month. If the growth continues, it won’t be long before the Widows 8 Store is filled with all the apps you need (and a whole lot you don’t need).

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• OpenJDK6 At a Glance

  - by user9158633

  OpenJDK6 Quick Links Project:       Home Page  |  How to Contribute to OpenJdk |  Java SE 6 Spec Code:          Source Bundle Download  |  Mercurial Repositories: [.] , corba, hotspot, jaxp, jaxws, jdk, langtools Mailing List: [email protected]  |  Mail Archive  |  How to Subscribe Bloggers:     Joe Darcy (the founder and the first Release Manager)  |   Kelly O'Hair (current Release Manager) Blog Posts:  All Joe's OpenJDK 6 Posts  | Joe's FOSDEM Presentation Related Projects: IcedTea6  | OpenJDK 7 Important Notice: • Security fixes from Oracle will continue  through EOL of OpenJDK 6 train • EOL of OpenJDK 6 train will occur no sooner than July 2012 (one year after JDK 7 ships) OpenJDK 6 Releases Releases:  Release Process  |  Release Tools/Scripts Build Numbers  Release Engineer  Release Notes  Test Results  Change List  B01 - B22 Joe Darcy B22 Blog, src bundles B22 B22  B23 Kelly O'Hair B23 Blog, src bundles B23 B23  B24, and later Lana Steuck B24 Blog, src bundles B24 B24

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• What kind of physics to choose for our arcade 3D MMO?

  - by Nick

  We're creating an action MMO using Three.js (WebGL) with an arcadish feel, and implementing physics for it has been a pain in the butt. Our game has a terrain where the character will walk on, and in the future 3D objects (a house, a tree, etc) that will have collisions. In terms of complexity, the physics engine should be like World of Warcraft. We don't need friction, bouncing behaviour or anything more complex like joints, etc. Just gravity. I have managed to implement terrain physics so far by casting a ray downwards, but it does not take into account possible 3D objects. Note that these 3D objects need to have convex collisions, so our artists create a 3D house and the player can walk inside but can't walk through the walls. How do I implement proper collision detection with 3D objects like in World of Warcraft? Do I need an advanced physics engine? I read about Physijs which looks cool, but I fear that it may be overkill to implement that for our game. Also, how does WoW do it? Do they have a separate raycasting system for the terrain? Or do they treat the terrain like any other convex mesh? A screenshot of our game so far:

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