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• HDMI video connection cuts top and bottom borders of screen

  - by Luis Alvarado

  Ok this is an extension of another problem I had with a VGA connection and an Nvidia Geforce GT 440 card. Here is goes the explanation of this particular problem: I have a Soneview 32' TV. This TV has many connections including VGA (First reason I bought it), HDMI (Second reason but did not have a HDMI cable at that time) and DVI. I have had this TV for little over a month now, actually I had it to celebrate the release of Ubuntu 11.10 and started using it exactly on that date (I know too much fan there but hey, I like geek stuff). I started using it with the VGA cable. After 2 weeks I bought an Nvidia GT440 card. The previous 9500GT was working correctly with no problems whatsoever. I installed the GT440 and the first problem that I encountered using this latest card is mentioned here: Nvidia GT 440 black screen problem when loading lightdm greeter. The solution to this problem was to actually disconnect then connect again the VGA cable. This would result in the screen showing me the lightdm screen for my login. If I did not disconnect then connect the cable I could be there forever thinking that there is no video signal. I got tired of looking for answers that did not work and for solutions that made me literally have to install Ubuntu again. I just went and bought a HDMI cable and changed the VGA one for that one. It worked and I did not have to disconnect/connect the cable but now I have this problem when using any resolution. My normal resolution is 1920x1080 (This TV is 1080HD) so in VGA I could use this resolution with no problem, but on HDMI am getting the borders cut out. Here is a pic: As you can see from the PIC, the Launcher icons only show less than 50% of their witdh. Forget about the top and bottom parts, I can access them with the mouse but I can not visualize them in the screen. It is like it's outside of the TVs view. Basically there is like 20 to 30 pixels gone from all sides. I searched around and came to running xrand --verbose to see what it could detect from the TV. I got this: cyrex@cyrex:~$ xrandr --verbose xrandr: Failed to get size of gamma for output default Screen 0: minimum 320 x 175, current 1920 x 1080, maximum 1920 x 1080 default connected 1920x1080+0+0 (0x164) normal (normal) 0mm x 0mm Identifier: 0x163 Timestamp: 465485 Subpixel: unknown Clones: CRTC: 0 CRTCs: 0 Transform: 1.000000 0.000000 0.000000 0.000000 1.000000 0.000000 0.000000 0.000000 1.000000 filter: 1920x1080 (0x164) 103.7MHz *current h: width 1920 start 0 end 0 total 1920 skew 0 clock 54.0KHz v: height 1080 start 0 end 0 total 1080 clock 50.0Hz 1920x1080 (0x165) 105.8MHz h: width 1920 start 0 end 0 total 1920 skew 0 clock 55.1KHz v: height 1080 start 0 end 0 total 1080 clock 51.0Hz 1920x1080 (0x166) 107.8MHz h: width 1920 start 0 end 0 total 1920 skew 0 clock 56.2KHz v: height 1080 start 0 end 0 total 1080 clock 52.0Hz 1920x1080 (0x167) 109.9MHz h: width 1920 start 0 end 0 total 1920 skew 0 clock 57.2KHz v: height 1080 start 0 end 0 total 1080 clock 53.0Hz 1920x1080 (0x168) 112.0MHz h: width 1920 start 0 end 0 total 1920 skew 0 clock 58.3KHz v: height 1080 start 0 end 0 total 1080 clock 54.0Hz 1920x1080 (0x169) 114.0MHz h: width 1920 start 0 end 0 total 1920 skew 0 clock 59.4KHz v: height 1080 start 0 end 0 total 1080 clock 55.0Hz 1680x1050 (0x16a) 98.8MHz h: width 1680 start 0 end 0 total 1680 skew 0 clock 58.8KHz v: height 1050 start 0 end 0 total 1050 clock 56.0Hz 1680x1050 (0x16b) 100.5MHz h: width 1680 start 0 end 0 total 1680 skew 0 clock 59.9KHz v: height 1050 start 0 end 0 total 1050 clock 57.0Hz 1600x1024 (0x16c) 95.0MHz h: width 1600 start 0 end 0 total 1600 skew 0 clock 59.4KHz v: height 1024 start 0 end 0 total 1024 clock 58.0Hz 1440x900 (0x16d) 76.5MHz h: width 1440 start 0 end 0 total 1440 skew 0 clock 53.1KHz v: height 900 start 0 end 0 total 900 clock 59.0Hz 1360x768 (0x171) 65.8MHz h: width 1360 start 0 end 0 total 1360 skew 0 clock 48.4KHz v: height 768 start 0 end 0 total 768 clock 63.0Hz 1360x768 (0x172) 66.8MHz h: width 1360 start 0 end 0 total 1360 skew 0 clock 49.2KHz v: height 768 start 0 end 0 total 768 clock 64.0Hz 1280x1024 (0x173) 85.2MHz h: width 1280 start 0 end 0 total 1280 skew 0 clock 66.6KHz v: height 1024 start 0 end 0 total 1024 clock 65.0Hz 1280x960 (0x176) 83.6MHz h: width 1280 start 0 end 0 total 1280 skew 0 clock 65.3KHz v: height 960 start 0 end 0 total 960 clock 68.0Hz 1280x960 (0x177) 84.8MHz h: width 1280 start 0 end 0 total 1280 skew 0 clock 66.2KHz v: height 960 start 0 end 0 total 960 clock 69.0Hz 1280x720 (0x178) 64.5MHz h: width 1280 start 0 end 0 total 1280 skew 0 clock 50.4KHz v: height 720 start 0 end 0 total 720 clock 70.0Hz 1280x720 (0x179) 65.4MHz h: width 1280 start 0 end 0 total 1280 skew 0 clock 51.1KHz v: height 720 start 0 end 0 total 720 clock 71.0Hz 1280x720 (0x17a) 66.4MHz h: width 1280 start 0 end 0 total 1280 skew 0 clock 51.8KHz v: height 720 start 0 end 0 total 720 clock 72.0Hz 1152x864 (0x17b) 72.7MHz h: width 1152 start 0 end 0 total 1152 skew 0 clock 63.1KHz v: height 864 start 0 end 0 total 864 clock 73.0Hz 1152x864 (0x17c) 73.7MHz h: width 1152 start 0 end 0 total 1152 skew 0 clock 63.9KHz v: height 864 start 0 end 0 total 864 clock 74.0Hz ....Many Resolutions later... 320x200 (0x1d1) 10.2MHz h: width 320 start 0 end 0 total 320 skew 0 clock 31.8KHz v: height 200 start 0 end 0 total 200 clock 159.0Hz 320x175 (0x1d2) 9.0MHz h: width 320 start 0 end 0 total 320 skew 0 clock 28.0KHz v: height 175 start 0 end 0 total 175 clock 160.0Hz 1920x1080 (0x1dd) 333.8MHz h: width 1920 start 0 end 0 total 1920 skew 0 clock 173.9KHz v: height 1080 start 0 end 0 total 1080 clock 161.0Hz If it helps, the Refresh Rate at 1920x1080 is 60. There is a flickering effect at this resolution using HDMI but not VGA which I imagine is related to the borders cut off issue am asking here. I have also done the following but this will only solve the problem on lower resolutions than 1920x1080 or on others TV (My father has a Sony TV where this problem is also solved): NVIDIA WAY Go to Nvidia-Settings and there will be an option that will have more features if a HDMI cable is connected. In the next pic the option is DFP-1 (CNDLCD) but this name changes depending on what device the PC is connected to: Uncheck Force Full GPU Scaling What this will do for resolutions LOWER than 1920x1080 (At least in my case) is solve the flickering problem and fix the borders cut by the monitor. Save to Xorg.conf file the changes made after changing to a resolution acceptable to your eyes. TV WAY If you TV has OSD Menu and this menu has options for scanning the screen resolution or auto adjusting to it, disable them. Specifically the option about SCAN. If you have an option for AV Mode disable it. Basically disable any option that needs to scan and scale the resolution. Test one by one. In the case of my father's TV this did it. In my case, the Nvidia solved it for lower resolutions. NOTE: In the case this is not solved in the next couple of weeks I will add this as the answer but take into consideration that the issue is still active with 1920x1080 resolutions.

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• Community Conversation

  - by ultan o'broin

  Applications User Experience members (Erika Webb, Laurie Pattison, and I) attended the User Assistance Europe Conference in Stockholm, Sweden. We were impressed with the thought leadership and practical application of ideas in Anne Gentle's keynote address "Social Web Strategies for Documentation". After the conference, we spoke with Anne to explore the ideas further. Applications User Experience Senior Director Laurie Pattison (left) with Anne Gentle at the User Assistance Europe Conference In Anne's book called Conversation and Community: The Social Web for Documentation, she explains how user assistance is undergoing a seismic shift. The direction is away from the old print manuals and online help concept towards a web-based, user community-driven solution using social media tools. User experience professionals now have a vast range of such tools to start and nurture this "conversation": blogs, wikis, forums, social networking sites, microblogging systems, image and video sharing sites, virtual worlds, podcasts, instant messaging, mashups, and so on. That user communities are a rich source of user assistance is not a surprise, but the extent of available assistance is. For example, we know from the Consortium for Service Innovation that there has been an 'explosion' of user-generated content on the web. User-initiated community conversations provide as much as 30 times the number of official help desk solutions for consortium members! The growing reliance on user community solutions is clearly a user experience issue. Anne says that user assistance as conversation "means getting closer to users and helping them perform well. User-centered design has been touted as one of the most important ideas developed in the last 20 years of workplace writing. Now writers can take the idea of user-centered design a step further by starting conversations with users and enabling user assistance in interactions." Some of Anne's favorite examples of this paradigm shift from the world of traditional documentation to community conversation include: * Writer Bob Bringhurst's blog about Adobe InDesign and InCopy products and Adobe's community help * The Microsoft Development Network Community Center * ·The former Sun (now Oracle) OpenDS wiki, NetBeans Ruby and other community approaches to engage diverse audiences using screencasts, wikis, and blogs. * Cisco's customer support wiki, EMC's community, as well as Symantec and Intuit's approaches * The efforts of Ubuntu, Mozilla, and the FLOSS community generally Adobe Writer Bob Bringhurst's Blog Oracle is not without a user community conversation too. Besides the community discussions and blogs around documentation offerings, we have the My Oracle Support Community forums, Oracle Technology Network (OTN) communities, wiki, blogs, and so on. We have the great work done by our user groups and customer councils. Employees like David Haimes are reaching out, and enthusiastic non-employee gurus like Chet Justice (OracleNerd), Floyd Teter and Eddie Awad provide great "how-to" information too. But what does this paradigm shift mean for existing technical writers as users turn away from the traditional printable PDF manual deliverables? We asked Anne after the conference. The writer role becomes one of conversation initiator or enabler. The role evolves, along with the process, as the users define their concept of user assistance and terms of engagement with the product instead of having it pre-determined. It is largely a case now of "inventing the job while you're doing it, instead of being hired for it" Anne said. There is less emphasis on formal titles. Anne mentions that her own title "Content Stacker" at OpenStack; others use titles such as "Content Curator" or "Community Lead". However, the role remains one essentially about communications, "but of a new type--interacting with users, moderating, curating content, instead of sitting down to write a manual from start to finish." Clearly then, this role is open to more than professional technical writers. Product managers who write blogs, developers who moderate forums, support professionals who update wikis, rock star programmers with a penchant for YouTube are ideal. Anyone with the product knowledge, empathy for the user, and flair for relationships on the social web can join in. Some even perform these roles already but do not realize it. Anne feels the technical communicator space will move from hiring new community conversation professionals (who are already active in the space through blogging, tweets, wikis, and so on) to retraining some existing writers over time. Our own research reveals that the established proponents of community user assistance even set employee performance objectives for internal content curators about the amount of community content delivered by people outside the organization! To take advantage of the conversations on the web as user assistance, enterprises must first establish where on the spectrum their community lies. "What is the line between community willingness to contribute and the enterprise objectives?" Anne asked. "The relationship with users must be managed and also measured." Anne believes that the process can start with a "just do it" approach. Begin by reaching out to existing user groups, individual bloggers and tweeters, forum posters, early adopter program participants, conference attendees, customer advisory board members, and so on. Use analytical tools to measure the level of conversation about your products and services to show a return on investment (ROI), winning management support. Anne emphasized that success with the community model is dependent on lowering the technical and motivational barriers so that users can readily contribute to the conversation. Simple tools must be provided, and guidelines, if any, must be straightforward but not mandatory. The conversational approach is one where traditional style and branding guides do not necessarily apply. Tools and infrastructure help users to create content easily, to search and find the information online, read it, rate it, translate it, and participate further in the content's evolution. Recognizing contributors by using ratings on forums, giving out Twitter kudos, conference invitations, visits to headquarters, free products, preview releases, and so on, also encourages the adoption of the conversation model. The move to conversation as user assistance is not free, but there is a business ROI. The conversational model means that customer service is enhanced, as user experience moves from a functional to a valued, emotional level. Studies show a positive correlation between loyalty and financial performance (Consortium for Service Innovation, 2010), and as customer experience and loyalty become key differentiators, user experience professionals cannot explore the model's possibilities. The digital universe (measured at 1.2 million petabytes in 2010) is doubling every 12 to 18 months, and 70 percent of that universe consists of user-generated content (IDC, 2010). Conversation as user assistance cannot be ignored but must be embraced. It is a time to manage for abundance, not scarcity. Besides, the conversation approach certainly sounds more interesting, rewarding, and fun than the traditional model! I would like to thank Anne for her time and thoughts, and recommend that all user assistance professionals read her book. You can follow Anne on Twitter at: http://www.twitter.com/annegentle. Oracle's Acrolinx IQ deployment was used to author this article.

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• Flashing your Windows Phone Dummies

  - by Martin Hinshelwood

  The rate at which vendors release new updates for the HD2 is ridiculously slow. You have to wait for Microsoft to release the new OS, then you wait for HTC to build it into a ROM, and then you have to wait up to 6 months for your operator to badly customise it for their network. Once Windows Phone 7 is released this problem should go away as Microsoft is likely to be able to update the phone over the air, but what do we do until then? I want Windows Mobile 6.5.5 now!   I’m an early adopter. If there is a new version of something then that’s the version I want. As long as you accept that you are using something on a “let the early adopter beware” and accept that there may be bugs, sometimes serious crippling bugs the go for it. Note that I won't be responsible if you end up bricking your phone, unlocking or flashing your radio or ROM can be risky. If you follow the instructions then you should be fine, I've flashed my phones (SPV, M300, M1000, M2000, M3100, TyTN, TyTN 2, HD2) hundreds of times without any problems! I have been using Windows Mobile 6.5.5 before it was called 6.5.5 and for long enough that I don’t even remember when I first started using it. I was using it on my HTC TyTN 2 before I got an HD2 a couple of months before Christmas, and the first custom ROM’s for the HD2 were a couple of months after that. I always update to the latest ROM that I like, and occasionally I go back to the stock ROM’s to have a look see, but I am always disappointed. Terms: Soft Reset: Same as pulling out the battery, but is like a reboot for your phone Hard Reset: Reinstalls the Operating system from the Image that is stored on it ROM: This is Image that is loaded onto your phone and it is used to reinstall your phone whenever you do a “hard reset”. Stock ROM: A ROM from the original vendor… So HTC Cook a ROM: Referring to Cooking a ROM is the process a ROM developer goes through to take all of the parts (OS, Drivers and Applications) that make up a running phone and compiling them into a ROM. ROM Kitchen: A place where you get an SDK and all the component parts of the phone: OD, Drivers and Application. There are usually lots of Tools for making it easier to compile and build the image. Flashing: The process of updating one of the layers of your phone with a new layer Bricked: This is what happens when flashing goes wrong. Your phone is now good for only one thing… stopping paper blowing away in a windy place. You can “cook” you own ROM using one of the many good “ROM Kitchens” or you can use a ROM built and tested by someone else. I have cooked my own ROM before, and while the tutorials are good, it is a lot of hassle. You can only Flash new ROM’s that are specifically for your phone only so find a ROM for your phone and XDA Developers is the best place to look. It has a forum based structure and you can find your phone quite easily. XDA Developer Forum Installing a new ROM does have its risks. In the past there have been stories about phones being “bricked” but I have not heard of a bricked phone for quite some years. if you follow the instructions carefully you should not have any problems. note: Most of the tools are written by people for whom English is not their first language to you will need concentrate hard to understand some of the instructions. Have you ever read a manual that was just literally translated from another language? Enough said… There are a number of layers on your phone that you will need to know about: SPL: This is the lowest level, like a BIOS on a PC and is the Operating Systems gateway to the hardware Radio: I think of this as the hardware drivers, and you will need a different Radio for CDMA than GSM networks ROM: This is like your Windows CD, but it is stored internally to the Phone. Flashing your phone consists of replacing one Image with another and then wiping your phone and automatically reinstall from the Image. Sometimes when you download an Image wither it is for a Radio or for ROM you only get a file called *.nbh. What do you do with this? Well you need an RUU application to push that Image to your phone. The RUU’s are different per phone, but there is a CustomRUU for the HD2 that will update your phone with any *.nbh placed in the same directory. Download and Instructions for CustomRUU #1 Flash HardSPL An SPL is kind of like a BIOS, and the default one has checks to make sure that you are only installing a signed ROM. This would prevent you from installing one that comes from any other source but the vendor. NOTE: Installing a HARD SPL invalidates your warranty so remember to Flash your phone with a “stock” vendor ROM before trying to send your phone in for repairs. Is the warranty reinstated when you go back to a stock ROM? I don’t know… Updating your SPL to a HardSPL effectively unlocks your phone so you can install anything you like. I would recommend the HardSPL2. Download and Instructions for HardSPL2 #2 Task29 One of the problems that has been seen on the HD2 when flashing new ROM’s is that things are left over from the old ROM. For a while the recommendation was to Flash a stock ROM first, but some clever cookies have come up with “Task29” which formats your phone first. After running this your phone will be blank and will only boot to the white HTC logo and no further. You should follow the instructions and reboot (remove battery) and hold down the “volume down” button while turning you HD2 on to enter the bootloader. From here you can run CustomRUU once the USB message appears. Download and Instructions for Task29 #2 Flash Radio You may need to play around with this one, there is no good and bad version and the latest is not always the best. You know that annoying thing when you hit “end call” on your phone and nothing happens? Well that's down to the Radio. Get this version right for you and you may even be able to make calls. From a Windows Mobile as well Download There are no instructions here, but they are the same as th ROM, but you use this *.nbh file. #3 Flash ROM If you have gotten this far then you are probably a pro by now Just download the latest ROM below and Flash to your phone. I have been really impressed by the Artemis line of ROM’s but it is no way the only choice. I like this one as the developer builds them as close to the stock ROM as possible while updating to the latest of everything. Download and Instructions for  Artemis HD2 vXX Conclusion While updating your ROM is not for the faint hearted it provides more options than the Stock ROM’s and quicker feature updates than waiting… Technorati Tags: WM6

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• HTML5 and CSS3 Editing in Windows Live Writer

  - by Rick Strahl

  Windows Live Writer is a wonderful tool for editing blog posts and getting them posted to your blog. What makes it nice is that it has a small set of useful features, plus a simple plug-in model that has spawned many useful add-ins. Small tool with a reasonably decent plug-in model to extend equals a great solution to a simple problem. If you're running Windows, have a blog and aren’t using Live Writer you’re probably doing it wrong…One of Live Writer’s nice features is that it can download your blog’s CSS for preview and edit displays. It lets you edit your content inside of the context of that CSS using the WYSIWYG editor, so your content actually looks very close to what you’ll see on your blog while you’re editing your post. Unfortunately Live Writer renders the HTML content in the Web Browser Control’s  default IE 7 rendering mode. Yeah you read that right: IE 7 is the default for the Web Browser control and most applications that use it, are stuck in this modus unless the application explicitly overrides this default. The Web Browser control does not use the version of Internet Explorer installed on the system (IE 10 on my Win8 machine) but uses IE 7 mode for ‘compatibility’ for old applications.If you are importing your blog’s CSS that may suck if you’re using rich HTML 5 and CSS 3 formatting. Hack the Registry to get Live Writer to render using IE 9 or 10In order to get Live Writer (or any other application that uses the Web Browser Control for that matter) to render you can apply a registry hack that overrides the Web Browser Control engine usage for a specific application. I wrote about this in detail in a previous blog post a couple of years back.Here’s how you can set up Windows Live Writer to render your CSS 3 by making a change in your registry:The above is for setup on a 64 bit machine, where I configure Live Writer which is a 32 bit application for using IE 10 rendering. The keys set are as follows:32bit Configuration on 64 bit machine:HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\FeatureControl\FEATURE_BROWSER_EMULATIONKey: WindowsLiveWriter.exeValue: 9000 or 10000  (IE 9 or 10 respectively) (DWORD value)On a 32 bit only machine: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\FeatureControl\FEATURE_BROWSER_EMULATIONKey: WindowsLiveWriter.exeValue: 9000 or 10000  (IE 9 or 10 respectively) (DWORD value)Use decimal values of 9000, 10000 or 11000 to specify specific versions of Internet Explorer. This is a minor tweak, but it’s nice to actually see my blog posts now with the proper CSS formatting intact. Notice the rounded borders and shadow on the code blocks as well as the overflow-x and scrollbars that show up. In this particular case I can see what the code blocks actually look like in a specific resolution – much better than in the old plain view which just chopped things off at the end of the window frame. There are a few other elements that now show properly in the editor as well including block quotes and note boxes that I occasionally use. It’s minor stuff, but it makes the editing experience better yet and closer to the final things so there are less republish operations than I previously had. Sweet!Note that this approach of putting an IE version override into the registry works with most applications that use the Web Browser control. If you are using the Web Browser control in your own applications, it’s a good idea to switch the browser to a more recent version so you can take advantage of HTML 5 and CSS 3 in your browser displayed content by automatically setting this flag in the registry or as part of the application’s startup routine if not dedicated setup tool is used. At the very least you might set it to 9000 (IE 9) which supports most of the basic CSS3 features and is a decent baseline that works for most Windows 7 and 8 machines. If running pre-IE9, the browser will fall back to IE7 rendering and look bad but at least more recent browsers will see an improved experience.I’m surprised that there aren’t more vendors and third party apps using this feature. You can see in my first screen shot that there are only very few entries in the registry key group on my machine – any other apps use the Web Browser control are using IE7. Go figure. Certainly Windows Live Writer should be writing this key into the registry automatically as part of installation to support this functionality out of the box, but alas since it does not, this registry hack lets you get your way anyway…Resources.reg Files to register Live Write Browser Emulation (set for IE9)Specifying Internet Explorer Version for ApplicationsSnagIt LiveWriter Plug-inDownload Windows Live WriterDownload Windows Live Writer with Chocolatey© Rick Strahl, West Wind Technologies, 2005-2013Posted in Live Writer  Windows   Tweet !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs"); (function() { var po = document.createElement('script'); po.type = 'text/javascript'; po.async = true; po.src = 'https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(po, s); })();

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• Referencing movie clips from within an actionscript class

  - by Ant

  Hi all, I have been given the task of adding a scoring system to various flash games. This simply involves taking input, adding functionality such as pausing and replaying and then outputting the score, time left etc. at the end. I've so far successfully edited two games. Both these games used the "actions" code on frames. The latest game I'm trying to do uses an actionscript class which makes it both easier and harder. I'm not very adept at flash at all, but I've worked it out so far. I've added various movie clips that are to be used for displaying the pause screen background, buttons for replaying etc. I've been showing and hiding these using: back._visible = true; //movie clip, instance of back (back.png) I doubt it's best practice, but it's quick and has been working. However, now with the change of coding style to classes, this doesn't seem to work. I kinda understand why, but I'm now unsure how to hide/show these elements. Any help would be greatly appreciated :) I've attached the modified AS. class RivalOrbs extends MovieClip { var infinite_levels, orbs_start, orbs_inc, orbs_per_level, show_timer, _parent, one_time_per_level, speed_start, speed_inc_percent, max_speed, percent_starting_on_wrong_side, colorize, colors, secs_per_level; function RivalOrbs() { super(); mc = this; this.init(); } // End of the function function get_num_orbs() { if (infinite_levels) { return (orbs_start + (level - 1) * orbs_inc); } else if (level > orbs_per_level.length) { return (0); } else { return (orbs_per_level[level - 1]); } // end else if } // End of the function function get_timer_str(secs) { var _loc2 = Math.floor(secs / 60); var _loc1 = secs % 60; return ((_loc2 > 0 ? (_loc2) : ("0")) + ":" + (_loc1 >= 10 ? (_loc1) : ("0" + _loc1))); } // End of the function function frame() { //PLACE PAUSE CODE HERE if (!Key.isDown(80) and !Key.isDown(Key.ESCAPE)) { _root.offKey = true; } else if (Key.isDown(80) or Key.isDown(Key.ESCAPE)) { if (_root.offKey and _root.game_mode == "play") { _root.game_mode = "pause"; /* back._visible = true; btn_resume._visible = true; btn_exit._visible = true; txt_pause._visible = true; */ } else if (_root.offKey and _root.game_mode == "pause") { _root.game_mode = "play"; } _root.offKey = false; } if (_root.game_mode == "pause" or paused) { return; } else { /* back._visible = false; btn_resume._visible = false; btn_exit._visible = false; txt_pause._visible = false; */ } if (show_timer && total_secs != -1 || show_timer && _parent.timesup) { _loc7 = total_secs - Math.ceil((getTimer() - timer) / 1000); var diff = oldSeconds - (_loc7 + additional); if (diff > 1) additional = additional + diff; _loc7 = _loc7 + additional; oldSeconds = _loc7; trace(oldSeconds); mc.timer_field.text = this.get_timer_str(Math.max(0, _loc7)); if (_loc7 <= -1 || _parent.timesup) { if (one_time_per_level) { _root.gotoAndPlay("Lose"); } else { this.show_dialog(false); return; } // end if } // end if } // end else if var _loc9 = _root._xmouse; var _loc8 = _root._ymouse; var _loc6 = {x: _loc9, y: _loc8}; mc.globalToLocal(_loc6); _loc6.y = Math.max(-mc.bg._height / 2 + gap / 2, _loc6.y); _loc6.y = Math.min(mc.bg._height / 2 - gap / 2, _loc6.y); mc.wall1._y = _loc6.y - gap / 2 - mc.wall1._height / 2; mc.wall2._y = _loc6.y + gap / 2 + mc.wall1._height / 2; var _loc5 = true; for (var _loc4 = 0; _loc4 < this.get_num_orbs(); ++_loc4) { var _loc3 = mc.stage["orb" + _loc4]; _loc3.x_last = _loc3._x; _loc3.y_last = _loc3._y; _loc3._x = _loc3._x + _loc3.x_speed; _loc3._y = _loc3._y + _loc3.y_speed; if (_loc3._x < l_thresh) { _loc3.x_speed = _loc3.x_speed * -1; _loc3._x = l_thresh + (l_thresh - _loc3._x); _loc3.gotoAndPlay("hit"); } // end if if (_loc3._x > r_thresh) { _loc3.x_speed = _loc3.x_speed * -1; _loc3._x = r_thresh - (_loc3._x - r_thresh); _loc3.gotoAndPlay("hit"); } // end if if (_loc3._y < t_thresh) { _loc3.y_speed = _loc3.y_speed * -1; _loc3._y = t_thresh + (t_thresh - _loc3._y); _loc3.gotoAndPlay("hit"); } // end if if (_loc3._y > b_thresh) { _loc3.y_speed = _loc3.y_speed * -1; _loc3._y = b_thresh - (_loc3._y - b_thresh); _loc3.gotoAndPlay("hit"); } // end if if (_loc3.x_speed > 0) { if (_loc3._x >= m1_thresh && _loc3.x_last < m1_thresh || _loc3._x >= m1_thresh && _loc3._x <= m2_thresh) { if (_loc3._y <= mc.wall1._y + mc.wall1._height / 2 || _loc3._y >= mc.wall2._y - mc.wall2._height / 2) { _loc3.x_speed = _loc3.x_speed * -1; _loc3._x = m1_thresh - (_loc3._x - m1_thresh); _loc3.gotoAndPlay("hit"); } // end if } // end if } else if (_loc3._x <= m2_thresh && _loc3.x_last > m2_thresh || _loc3._x >= m1_thresh && _loc3._x <= m2_thresh) { if (_loc3._y <= mc.wall1._y + mc.wall1._height / 2 || _loc3._y >= mc.wall2._y - mc.wall2._height / 2) { _loc3.x_speed = _loc3.x_speed * -1; _loc3._x = m2_thresh + (m2_thresh - _loc3._x); _loc3.gotoAndPlay("hit"); } // end if } // end else if if (_loc3.side == 1 && _loc3._x > 0) { _loc5 = false; } // end if if (_loc3.side == 2 && _loc3._x < 0) { _loc5 = false; } // end if } // end of for if (_loc5) { this.end_level(); } // end if } // End of the function function colorize_hex(mc, hex) { var _loc4 = hex >> 16; var _loc5 = (hex ^ hex >> 16 << 16) >> 8; var _loc3 = hex >> 8 << 8 ^ hex; var _loc2 = new flash.geom.ColorTransform(0, 0, 0, 1, _loc4, _loc5, _loc3, 0); mc.transform.colorTransform = _loc2; } // End of the function function tint_hex(mc, hex, amount) { var _loc4 = hex >> 16; var _loc5 = hex >> 8 & 255; var _loc3 = hex & 255; this.tint(mc, _loc4, _loc5, _loc3, amount); } // End of the function function tint(mc, r, g, b, amount) { var _loc4 = 100 - amount; var _loc1 = new Object(); _loc1.ra = _loc1.ga = _loc1.ba = _loc4; var _loc2 = amount / 100; _loc1.rb = r * _loc2; _loc1.gb = g * _loc2; _loc1.bb = b * _loc2; var _loc3 = new Color(mc); _loc3.setTransform(_loc1); } // End of the function function get_num_levels() { if (infinite_levels) { return (Number.MAX_VALUE); } else { return (orbs_per_level.length); } // end else if } // End of the function function end_level() { _global.inputTimeAvailable = _global.inputTimeAvailable - (60 - oldSeconds); ++level; _parent.levelOver = true; if (level <= this.get_num_levels()) { this.show_dialog(true); } else { _root.gotoAndPlay("Win"); } // end else if } // End of the function function get_speed() { var _loc3 = speed_start; for (var _loc2 = 0; _loc2 < level - 1; ++_loc2) { _loc3 = _loc3 + _loc3 * (speed_inc_percent / 100); } // end of for return (Math.min(_loc3, Math.max(max_speed, speed_start))); } // End of the function function init_orbs() { var _loc6 = this.get_speed(); var _loc7 = Math.max(1, Math.ceil(this.get_num_orbs() * (percent_starting_on_wrong_side / 100))); for (var _loc3 = 0; _loc3 < this.get_num_orbs(); ++_loc3) { var _loc2 = null; if (_loc3 % 2 == 0) { _loc2 = mc.stage.attachMovie("Orb1", "orb" + _loc3, _loc3); _loc2.side = 1; if (colorize && color1 != -1) { this.colorize_hex(_loc2.orb.bg, color1); } // end if _loc2._x = Math.random() * (mc.bg._width * 4.000000E-001) - mc.bg._width * 2.000000E-001 - mc.bg._width / 4; } else { _loc2 = mc.stage.attachMovie("Orb2", "orb" + _loc3, _loc3); _loc2.side = 2; if (colorize && color2 != -1) { this.colorize_hex(_loc2.orb.bg, color2); } // end if _loc2._x = Math.random() * (mc.bg._width * 4.000000E-001) - mc.bg._width * 2.000000E-001 + mc.bg._width / 4; } // end else if _loc2._width = _loc2._height = orb_w; _loc2._y = Math.random() * (mc.bg._height * 8.000000E-001) - mc.bg._height * 4.000000E-001; if (_loc3 < _loc7) { _loc2._x = _loc2._x * -1; } // end if var _loc5 = Math.random() * 60; var _loc4 = _loc5 / 180 * 3.141593E+000; _loc2.x_speed = Math.cos(_loc4) * _loc6; _loc2.y_speed = Math.sin(_loc4) * _loc6; if (Math.random() >= 5.000000E-001) { _loc2.x_speed = _loc2.x_speed * -1; } // end if if (Math.random() >= 5.000000E-001) { _loc2.y_speed = _loc2.y_speed * -1; } // end if } // end of for } // End of the function function init_colors() { if (colorize && colors.length >= 2) { color1 = colors[Math.floor(Math.random() * colors.length)]; for (color2 = colors[Math.floor(Math.random() * colors.length)]; color2 == color1; color2 = colors[Math.floor(Math.random() * colors.length)]) { } // end of for this.tint_hex(mc.side1, color1, 40); this.tint_hex(mc.side2, color2, 40); } else { color1 = -1; color2 = -1; } // end else if } // End of the function function get_total_secs() { if (show_timer) { if (secs_per_level.length > 0) { if (level > secs_per_level.length) { return (secs_per_level[secs_per_level.length - 1]); } else { return (secs_per_level[level - 1]); } // end if } // end if } // end else if return (-1); } // End of the function function start_level() { trace ("start_level"); _parent.timesup = false; _parent.levelOver = false; _parent.times_up_comp.start_timer(); this.init_orbs(); mc.level_field.text = "LEVEL " + level; total_secs = _global.inputTimeAvailable; if (total_secs > 60) total_secs = 60; timer = getTimer(); paused = false; mc.dialog.gotoAndPlay("off"); } // End of the function function clear_orbs() { for (var _loc2 = 0; mc.stage["orb" + _loc2]; ++_loc2) { mc.stage["orb" + _loc2].removeMovieClip(); } // end of for } // End of the function function show_dialog(new_level) { mc.back._visible = false; trace("yes"); paused = true; if (new_level) { this.init_colors(); } // end if this.clear_orbs(); mc.dialog.gotoAndPlay("level"); if (!new_level || _parent.timesup) { mc.dialog.level_top.text = "Time\'s Up!"; /* dyn_line1.text = "Goodbye " + _global.inputName + "!"; dyn_line2.text = "You scored " + score; //buttons if (_global.inputTimeAvailable > 60) btn_replay._visible = true; btn_resume._visible = false; btn_exit._visible = false; txt_pause._visible = false; sendInfo = new LoadVars(); sendLoader = new LoadVars(); sendInfo.game_name = 'rival_orbs'; sendInfo.timeavailable = _global.inputTimeAvailable; if (sendInfo.timeavailable < 0) sendInfo.timeavailable = 0; sendInfo.id = _global.inputId; sendInfo.score = level*_global.inputFactor; sendInfo.directive = 'record'; //sendInfo.sendAndLoad('ncc1701e.aspx', sendLoader, "GET"); sendInfo.sendAndLoad('http://keyload.co.uk/output.php', sendLoader, "POST"); */ } else if (level > 1) { mc.dialog.level_top.text = "Next Level:"; } else { mc.dialog.level_top.text = ""; } // end else if mc.dialog.level_num.text = "LEVEL " + level; mc.dialog.level_mid.text = "Number of Orbs: " + this.get_num_orbs(); _root.max_level = level; var _this = this; mc.dialog.btn.onRelease = function () { _this.start_level(); }; } // End of the function function init() { var getInfo = new LoadVars(); var getLoader = new LoadVars(); getInfo.directive = "read"; getInfo.sendAndLoad('http://keyload.co.uk/input.php', getLoader, "GET"); getLoader.onLoad = function (success) { if (success) { _global.inputId = this.id; _global.inputTimeAvailable = this.timeavailable; _global.inputFactor = this.factor; _global.inputName = this.name; } else { trace("Failed"); } } _root.game_mode = "play"; /* back._visible = false; btn_exit._visible = false; btn_replay._visible = false; btn_resume._visible = false; txt_pause._visible = false; */ l_thresh = -mc.bg._width / 2 + orb_w / 2; t_thresh = -mc.bg._height / 2 + orb_w / 2; r_thresh = mc.bg._width / 2 - orb_w / 2; b_thresh = mc.bg._height / 2 - orb_w / 2; m1_thresh = -wall_w / 2 - orb_w / 2; m2_thresh = wall_w / 2 + orb_w / 2; this.show_dialog(true); mc.onEnterFrame = frame; } // End of the function var mc = null; var orb_w = 15; var wall_w = 2; var l_thresh = 0; var r_thresh = 0; var t_thresh = 0; var b_thresh = 0; var m1_thresh = 0; var m2_thresh = 0; var color1 = -1; var color2 = -1; var level = 1; var total_secs = 30; var gap = 60; var timer = 0; var additional = 0; var oldSeconds = 0; var paused = true; var _loc7 = 0; } // End of Class

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• Oracle Enterprise Manager Ops Center 12c : Enterprise Controller High Availability (EC HA)

  - by Anand Akela

  Contributed by Mahesh sharma, Oracle Enterprise Manager Ops Center team In Oracle Enterprise Manager Ops Center 12c we introduced a new feature to make the Enterprise Controllers highly available. With EC HA if the hardware crashes, or if the Enterprise Controller services and/or the remote database stop responding, then the enterprise services are immediately restarted on the other standby Enterprise Controller without administrative intervention. In today's post, I'll briefly describe EC HA, look at some of the prerequisites and then show some screen shots of how the Enterprise Controller is represented in the BUI. In my next post, I'll show you how to install the EC in a HA environment and some of the new commands. What is EC HA? Enterprise Controller High Availability (EC HA) provides an active/standby fail-over solution for two or more Ops Center Enterprise Controllers, all within an Oracle Clusterware framework. This allows EC resources to relocate to a standby if the hardware crashes, or if certain services fail. It is also possible to manually relocate the services if maintenance on the active EC is required. When the EC services are relocated to the standby, EC services are interrupted only for the period it takes for the EC services to stop on the active node and to start back up on a standby node. What are the prerequisites? To install EC in a HA framework an understanding of the prerequisites are required. There are many possibilities on how these prerequisites can be installed and configured - we will not discuss these in this post. However, best practices should be applied when installing and configuring, I would suggest that you get expert help if you are not familiar with them. Lets briefly look at each of these prerequisites in turn: Hardware : Servers are required to host the active and standby node(s). As the nodes will be in a clustered environment, they need to be the same model and configured identically. The nodes should have the same processor class, number of cores, memory, network cards, for example. Operating System : We can use Solaris 10 9/10 or higher, Solaris 11, OEL 5.5 or higher on x86 or Sparc Network : There are a number of requirements for network cards in clusterware, and cables should be networked identically on all the nodes. We must also consider IP allocation for public / private and Virtual IP's (VIP's). Storage : Shared storage will be required for the cluster voting disks, Oracle Cluster Register (OCR) and the EC's libraries. Clusterware : Oracle Clusterware version 11.2.0.3 or later is required. This can be downloaded from: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/enterprise-edition/downloads/index.html Remote Database : Oracle RDBMS 11.1.0.x or later is required. This can be downloaded from: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/enterprise-edition/downloads/index.html For detailed information on how to install EC HA , please read : http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E27363_01/doc.121/e25140/install_config-shared.htm#OPCSO242 For detailed instructions on installing Oracle Clusterware, please read : http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E11882_01/install.112/e17214/chklist.htm#BHACBGII For detailed instructions on installing the remote Oracle database have a read of: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/enterprise-edition/documentation/index.html The schematic diagram below gives a visual view of how the prerequisites are connected. When a fail-over occurs the Enterprise Controller resources and the VIP are relocated to one of the standby nodes. The standby node then becomes active and all Ops Center services are resumed. Connecting to the Enterprise Controller from your favourite browser. Let's presume we have installed and configured all the prerequisites, and installed Ops Center on the active and standby nodes. We can now connect to the active node from a browser i.e. http://<active_node1>/, this will redirect us to the virtual IP address (VIP). The VIP is the IP address that moves with the Enterprise Controller resource. Once you log on and view the assets, you will see some new symbols, these represent that the nodes are cluster members, with one being an active member and the other a standby member in this case. If you connect to the standby node, the browser will redirect you to a splash page, indicating that you have connected to the standby node. Hope you find this topic interesting. Next time I will post about how to install the Enterprise Controller in the HA frame work. Stay Connected: Twitter |  Face book |  You Tube |  Linked in |  Newsletter

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• 2012 Oracle Fusion Innovation Awards - Part 2

  - by Michelle Kimihira

  Author: Moazzam Chaudry Continuing from Friday's blog on 2012 Oracle Fusion Innovation Awards, this blog (Part 2) will provide more details around the customers. It was a tremendous honor to be in single room of winners. We only wish we could have had more time to share stories from all the winners.  We received great insight from all the innovative solutions that our customers deploy and would like to share them broadly, so that others can benefit from best practices. There was a customer panel session joined by Ingersoll Rand, Nike and Motability and here is what was discussed: Barry Bonar, Enterprise Architect from Ingersoll Rand shared details around their solution, comprised of Oracle Exalogic, Oracle WebLogic Server and Oracle SOA Suite. This combined solutoin enabled their business transformation to increase decision-making, speed and efficiency, resulting in 40% reduced IT spend, 41X Faster response time and huge cost savings. Ashok Balakrishnan, Architect from Nike shared how they leveraged Oracle Coherence to analyze their digital "footprint" of activities. This helps them compete, collaborate and compare athletic data over time. Lastly, Ashley Doodly, Head of IT from Motability shared details around their solution compromised of Oracle SOA Suite, Service Bus, ADF, Coherence, BO and E-Business Suite. This solution helped Motability achieve 100% ROI within the first few months, performance in seconds vs. 10's of minutes and tremendous improvement in throughput that increased up to 50%.  This year's winners by category are: Oracle Exalogic Customer Results using Fusion Middleware Netshoes ATG on Exalogic: 6X Reduced H/W foot print, 6.2X increased throughput and 3 weeks time to market Claro Part of America Movil, running mission critical Java Application on Exalogic with 35X Faster Java response time, 5X Throughput Underwriters Laboratories Exalogic as an Apps Consolidation platform to power tremendous growth Ingersoll Rand EBS on Exalogic: Up to 40% Reduction in overall IT budget, 3x reduced foot print Oracle Cloud Application Foundation Customer Results using Fusion Middleware  Mazda Motor Corporation Tuxedo ART Batch runtime environment to migrate their batch apps on new open environment and reduce main frame cost. HOTELBEDS Technology Open Source to WebLogic transformation Globalia Corporation Introduced Oracle Coherence to fully reengineer DTH system and provide multiple business and technical benefits Nike Nike+, digital sports platform, has 8M users and is expecting an 5X increase in users, many of who will carry multiple devices that frequently sync data with the Digital Sport platform Comcast Corporation The solution is expected to increase availability, continuity, performance, and simplify and make the code at the application layer more flexible. Oracle SOA and Oracle BPM Customer Results using Fusion Middleware NTT Docomo Network traffic solution based on Oracle event processing and coherence - massive in scale: 12M users (50M in future) - 800,000 events/sec. Schneider National, Inc. SOA/B2B/ADF/Data Integration to orchestrate key order processes across Siebel, OTM & EBS.  Platform runs 60M trans/day and  50 million composite SOA instances per day across 10G and 11G Amadeus Oracle BPM solution: Business Rules and processes vary across local (80), regional (~10) and corporate approval process. Up to 10 levels of approval. Plans to deploy across 20+ markets Navitar SOA solution integrates a fully non-Oracle legacy application/ERP environment using Oracle’s SOA Suite and Oracle AIA Foundation Pack. Motability Uses SOA Suite to synchronize data across the systems and to manage the vehicle remarketing process Oracle WebCenter Customer Results using Fusion Middleware  News Limited Single platform running websites for 50% of Australia's newspapers University of Louisville “Facebook for Medicine”: Oracle Webcenter platform and Oracle BIEE to analyze patient test data and uncover potential health issues. Expecting annualized ROI of 277% China Mobile Jiangsu Company portal (25k users) to drive collaboration & productivity Life Technologies Portal for remotely monitoring & repairing biotech instruments LA Dept. of Water & Power Oracle WebCenter Portal to power ladwp.com on desktop and mobile for 1.6million users Oracle Identity Management Customer Results using Fusion Middleware Education Testing Service Identity Management platform for provisioning & SSO of 6 million GRE, GMAT, TOEFL customers Avea Oracle Identity Manager allowing call center personnel to quickly change Identity Profile to handle varying call loads based on a user self service interface. Decreased Admin Cost by 30% Oracle Data Integration Customer Results using Fusion Middleware Raymond James Near real-time integration for improved systems (throughput & performance) and enhanced operational flexibility in a 24 X 7 environment Wm Morrison Supermarkets Electronic Point of Sale integration handling over 80 million transactions a day in near real time (15 min intervals) Oracle Application Development Framework and Oracle Fusion Development Customer Results using Fusion Middleware Qualcomm Incorporated Solution providing  immediate business value enabling a self-service model necessary for growing the new customer base, an increase in customer satisfaction, reduced “time-to-deliver” Micros Systems, Inc. ADF, SOA Suite, WebCenter  enables services that include managing distribution of hotel rooms availability and rates to channels such as Hotel Web-site, Expedia, etc. Marfin Egnatia Bank A new web 2.0 UI provides a much richer experience through the ADF solution with the end result being one of boosting end-user productivity    Business Analytics (Oracle BI, Oracle EPM, Oracle Exalytics) Customer Results using Fusion Middleware INC Research Self-service customer portal delivering 5–10% of the overall revenue - expected to grow fast with the BI solution Experian Reduction in Time to Complete the Financial Close Process Hologic Inc Solution, saving months of decision-making uncertainty! We look forward to seeing many more innovative nominations. The nominatation process for 2013 begins in April 2013.    Additional Information: Blog: Oracle WebCenter Award Winners Blog: Oracle Identity Management Winners Blog: Oracle Exalogic Winners Blog: SOA, BPM and Data Integration will be will feature award winners in its respective areas this week Subscribe to our regular Fusion Middleware Newsletter Follow us on Twitter and Facebook

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• Taking the training wheels off: Accelerating the Business with Oracle IAM by Brian Mozinski (Accenture)

  - by Greg Jensen

  Today, technical requirements for IAM are evolving rapidly, and the bar is continuously raised for high performance IAM solutions as organizations look to roll out high volume use cases on the back of legacy systems.  Existing solutions were often designed and architected to support offline transactions and manual processes, and the business owners today demand globally scalable infrastructure to support the growth their business cases are expected to deliver. To help IAM practitioners address these challenges and make their organizations and themselves more successful, this series we will outline the: • Taking the training wheels off: Accelerating the Business with Oracle IAM The explosive growth in expectations for IAM infrastructure, and the business cases they support to gain investment in new security programs. • "Necessity is the mother of invention": Technical solutions developed in the field Well proven tricks of the trade, used by IAM guru’s to maximize your solution while addressing the requirements of global organizations. • The Art & Science of Performance Tuning of Oracle IAM 11gR2 Real world examples of performance tuning with Oracle IAM • No Where to go but up: Extending the benefits of accelerated IAM Anything is possible, compelling new solutions organizations are unlocking with accelerated Oracle IAM Let’s get started … by talking about the changing dynamics driving these discussions. Big Companies are getting bigger everyday, and increasingly organizations operate across state lines, multiple times zones, and in many countries or continents at the same time.  No longer is midnight to 6am a safe time to take down the system for upgrades, to run recon’s and import or update user accounts and attributes.  Further IT organizations are operating as shared services with SLA’s similar to telephone carrier levels expected by their “clients”.  Workers are moved in and out of roles on a weekly, daily, or even hourly rate and IAM is expected to support those rapid changes.  End users registering for services during business hours in Singapore are expected their access to be green-lighted in custom apps hosted in Portugal within the hour.  Many of the expectations of asynchronous systems and batched updates are not adequate and the number and types of users is growing. When organizations acted more like independent teams at functional or geographic levels it was manageable to have processes that relied on a handful of people who knew how to make things work …. Knew how to get you access to the key systems to get your job done.  Today everyone is expected to do more with less, the finance administrator previously supporting their local Atlanta sales office might now be asked to help close the books for the Johannesburg team, and access certification process once completed monthly by Joan on the 3rd floor is now done by a shared pool of resources in Sao Paulo.   Fragmented processes that rely on institutional knowledge to get access to systems and get work done quickly break down in these scenarios.  Highly robust processes that have automated workflows for connected or disconnected systems give organizations the dynamic flexibility to share work across these lines and cut costs or increase productivity. As the IT industry computing paradigms continue to change with the passing of time, and as mature or proven approaches become clear, it is normal for organizations to adjust accordingly. Businesses must manage identity in an increasingly hybrid world in which legacy on-premises IAM infrastructures are extended or replaced to support more and more interconnected and interdependent services to a wider range of users. The old legacy IAM implementation models we had relied on to manage identities no longer apply. End users expect to self-request access to services from their tablet, get supervisor approval over mobile devices and email, and launch the application even if is hosted on the cloud, or run by a partner, vendor, or service provider. While user expectations are higher, they are also simpler … logging into custom desktop apps to request approvals, or going through email or paper based processes for certification is unacceptable.  Users expect security to operate within the paradigm of the application … i.e. feel like the application they are using. Citizen and customer facing applications have evolved from every where, with custom applications, 3rd party tools, and merging in from acquired entities or 3rd party OEM’s resold to expand your portfolio of services.  These all have their own user stores, authentication models, user lifecycles, session management, etc.  Often the designers/developers are no longer accessible and the documentation is limited.  Bringing together underlying directories to scale for growth, and improve user experience is critical for revenue … but also for operations. Job functions are more dynamic.... take the Olympics for example.  Endless organizations from corporations broadcasting, endorsing, or marketing through the event … to non-profit athletic foundations and public/government entities for athletes and public safety, all operate simultaneously on the world stage.  Each organization needs to spin up short-term teams, often dealing with proprietary information from hot ads to racing strategies or security plans.  IAM is expected to enable team’s to spin up, enable new applications, protect privacy, and secure critical infrastructure.  Then it needs to be disabled just as quickly as users go back to their previous responsibilities. On a more technical level … Optimized system directory; tuning guidelines and parameters are needed by businesses today. Business’s need to be making the right choices (virtual directories) and considerations via choosing the correct architectural patterns (virtual, direct, replicated, and tuning), challenge is that business need to assess and chose the correct architectural patters (centralized, virtualized, and distributed) Today's Business organizations have very complex heterogeneous enterprises that contain diverse and multifaceted information. With today's ever changing global landscape, the strategic end goal in challenging times for business is business agility. The business of identity management requires enterprise's to be more agile and more responsive than ever before. The continued proliferation of networking devices (PC, tablet, PDA's, notebooks, etc.) has caused the number of devices and users to be granted access to these devices to grow exponentially. Business needs to deploy an IAM system that can account for the demands for authentication and authorizations to these devices. Increased innovation is forcing business and organizations to centralize their identity management services. Access management needs to handle traditional web based access as well as handle new innovations around mobile, as well as address insufficient governance processes which can lead to rouge identity accounts, which can then become a source of vulnerabilities within a business’s identity platform. Risk based decisions are providing challenges to business, for an adaptive risk model to make proper access decisions via standard Web single sign on for internal and external customers,. Organizations have to move beyond simple login and passwords to address trusted relationship questions such as: Is this a trusted customer, client, or citizen? Is this a trusted employee, vendor, or partner? Is this a trusted device? Without a solid technological foundation, organizational performance, collaboration, constituent services, or any other organizational processes will languish. A Single server location presents not only network concerns for distributed user base, but identity challenges. The network risks are centered on latency of the long trip that the traffic has to take. Other risks are a performance around availability and if the single identity server is lost, all access is lost. As you can see, there are many reasons why performance tuning IAM will have a substantial impact on the success of your organization.  In our next installment in the series we roll up our sleeves and get into detailed tuning techniques used everyday by thought leaders in the field implementing Oracle Identity & Access Management Solutions.

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• New Feature in ODI 11.1.1.6: ODI for Big Data

  - by Julien Testut

  Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE 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-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";} By Ananth Tirupattur Starting with Oracle Data Integrator 11.1.1.6.0, ODI is offering a solution to process Big Data. This post provides an overview of this feature. With all the buzz around Big Data and before getting into the details of ODI for Big Data, I will provide a brief introduction to Big Data and Oracle Solution for Big Data. So, what is Big Data? Big data includes: structured data (this includes data from relation data stores, xml data stores), semi-structured data (this includes data from weblogs) unstructured data (this includes data from text blob, images) Traditionally, business decisions are based on the information gathered from transactional data. For example, transactional Data from CRM applications is fed to a decision system for analysis and decision making. Products such as ODI play a key role in enabling decision systems. However, with the emergence of massive amounts of semi-structured and unstructured data it is important for decision system to include them in the analysis to achieve better decision making capability. While there is an abundance of opportunities for business for gaining competitive advantages, process of Big Data has challenges. The challenges of processing Big Data include: Volume of data Velocity of data - The high Rate at which data is generated Variety of data In order to address these challenges and convert them into opportunities, we would need an appropriate framework, platform and the right set of tools. Hadoop is an open source framework which is highly scalable, fault tolerant system, for storage and processing large amounts of data. Hadoop provides 2 key services, distributed and reliable storage called Hadoop Distributed File System or HDFS and a framework for parallel data processing called Map-Reduce. Innovations in Hadoop and its related technology continue to rapidly evolve, hence therefore, it is highly recommended to follow information on the web to keep up with latest information. Oracle's vision is to provide a comprehensive solution to address the challenges faced by Big Data. Oracle is providing the necessary Hardware, software and tools for processing Big Data Oracle solution includes: Big Data Appliance Oracle NoSQL Database Cloudera distribution for Hadoop Oracle R Enterprise- R is a statistical package which is very popular among data scientists. ODI solution for Big Data Oracle Loader for Hadoop for loading data from Hadoop to Oracle. Further details can be found here: http://www.oracle.com/us/products/database/big-data-appliance/overview/index.html ODI Solution for Big Data: ODI’s goal is to minimize the need to understand the complexity of Hadoop framework and simplify the adoption of processing Big Data seamlessly in an enterprise. ODI is providing the capabilities for an integrated architecture for processing Big Data. This includes capability to load data in to Hadoop, process data in Hadoop and load data from Hadoop into Oracle. ODI is expanding its support for Big Data by providing the following out of the box Knowledge Modules (KMs). IKM File to Hive (LOAD DATA).Load unstructured data from File (Local file system or HDFS ) into Hive IKM Hive Control AppendTransform and validate structured data on Hive IKM Hive TransformTransform unstructured data on Hive IKM File/Hive to Oracle (OLH)Load processed data in Hive to Oracle RKM HiveReverse engineer Hive tables to generate models Using the Loading KM you can map files (local and HDFS files) to the corresponding Hive tables. For example, you can map weblog files categorized by date into a corresponding partitioned Hive table schema. Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE 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-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";} Using the Hive control Append KM you can validate and transform data in Hive. In the below example, two source Hive tables are joined and mapped to a target Hive table. Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE 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-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";} The Hive Transform KM facilitates processing of semi-structured data in Hive. In the below example, the data from weblog is processed using a Perl script and mapped to target Hive table. Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE 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-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";} Using the Oracle Loader for Hadoop (OLH) KM you can load data from Hive table or HDFS to a corresponding table in Oracle. OLH is available as a standalone product. ODI greatly enhances OLH capability by generating the configuration and mapping files for OLH based on the configuration provided in the interface and KM options. ODI seamlessly invokes OLH when executing the scenario. In the below example, a HDFS file is mapped to a table in Oracle. Development and Deployment:The following diagram illustrates the development and deployment of ODI solution for Big Data. Using the ODI Studio on your development machine create and develop ODI solution for processing Big Data by connecting to a MySQL DB or Oracle database on a BDA machine or Hadoop cluster. Schedule the ODI scenarios to be executed on the ODI agent deployed on the BDA machine or Hadoop cluster. ODI Solution for Big Data provides several exciting new capabilities to facilitate the adoption of Big Data in an enterprise. You can find more information about the Oracle Big Data connectors on OTN. You can find an overview of all the new features introduced in ODI 11.1.1.6 in the following document: ODI 11.1.1.6 New Features Overview

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• game speed problem

  - by Meko

  HI..I made a little game.But this game works on every computer with different speed.I think it is about resolution.I used every thing in paintcomponent.and If I change screen size the game goes slower or faster.And if i run this game on another computer wich has different resolution it also works different. This is my game http://rapidshare.com/files/364597095/ShooterGame.2.6.0.jar and here code public class Shooter extends JFrame implements KeyListener, Runnable { JFrame frame = new JFrame(); String player; Font startFont, startSubFont, timerFont,healthFont; Image img; Image backGround; Graphics dbi; URL url1 = this.getClass().getResource("Images/p2.gif"); URL url2 = this.getClass().getResource("Images/p3.gif"); URL url3 = this.getClass().getResource("Images/p1.gif"); URL url4 = this.getClass().getResource("Images/p4.gif"); URL urlMap = this.getClass().getResource("Images/zemin.jpg"); Player p1 = new Player(5, 150, 10, 40, Color.GREEN, url3); Computer p2 = new Computer(750, 150, 10, 40, Color.BLUE, url1); Computer p3 = new Computer(0, 0, 10, 40, Color.BLUE, url2); Computer p4 = new Computer(0, 0, 10, 40, Color.BLUE, url4); ArrayList<Bullets> b = new ArrayList<Bullets>(); ArrayList<CBullets> cb = new ArrayList<CBullets>(); Thread sheap; boolean a, d, w, s; boolean toUp, toDown; boolean GameOver; boolean Level2; boolean newGame, resart, pause; int S, E; int random; int cbSpeed = 0; long timeStart, timeEnd; int timeElapsed; long GameStart, GameEnd; int GameScore; int Timer = 0; int timerStart, timerEnd; public Shooter() { sheap = new Thread(this); sheap.start(); startFont = new Font("Tiresias PCFont Z", Font.BOLD + Font.ITALIC, 32); startSubFont = new Font("Tiresias PCFont Z", Font.BOLD + Font.ITALIC, 25); timerFont = new Font("Tiresias PCFont Z", Font.BOLD + Font.ITALIC, 16); healthFont = new Font("Tiresias PCFont Z", Font.BOLD + Font.ITALIC, 16); setTitle("Shooter 2.5.1"); setBounds(350, 250, 800, 600); // setResizable(false); setBackground(Color.black); setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE); addKeyListener(this); a = d = w = s = false; toUp = toDown = true; GameOver = true; newGame = true; Level2 = false; S = E = 0; setVisible(true); } public void paint(Graphics g) { img = createImage(getWidth(), getHeight()); dbi = img.getGraphics(); paintComponent(dbi); g.drawImage(img, 0, 0, this); } public void paintComponent(Graphics g) { repaint(); timeStart = System.currentTimeMillis(); backGround = Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().getImage(urlMap); g.drawImage(backGround, 0, 0, null); g.setColor(Color.red); g.setFont(healthFont); g.drawString("" + player + " Health : " + p1.health, 30, 50); g.setColor(Color.red); g.drawString("Computer Health : " + (p2.health + p3.health + p4.health), 600, 50); g.setColor(Color.BLUE); g.setFont(timerFont); g.drawString("Time : " + Timer, 330, 50); if (newGame) { g.setColor(Color.LIGHT_GRAY); g.setFont(startFont); g.drawString("Well Come To Shoot Game", 200, 190); g.drawString("Press ENTER To Start", 250, 220); g.setColor(Color.LIGHT_GRAY); g.setFont(startSubFont); g.drawString("Use W,A,S,D and Space For Fire", 200, 250); g.drawString("GOOD LUCK", 250, 280); newGame(); } if (!GameOver) { for (Bullets b1 : b) { b1.draw(g); } for (CBullets b2 : cb) { b2.draw(g); } update(); // Here MOvements for Player and For Fires } if (p1.health <= 0) { g.setColor(p2.col); g.setFont(startFont); g.drawString("Computer Wins ", 200, 190); g.drawString("Press Key R to Restart ", 200, 220); GameOver = true; } else if (p2.health <= 0 && p3.health <= 0 && p4.health <= 0) { g.setColor(p1.col); g.setFont(startFont); g.drawString(""+player+" Wins ", 200, 190); g.drawString("Press Key R to Resart ", 200, 220); GameOver = true; g.setColor(Color.MAGENTA); g.drawString(""+player+"`s Score is " + Timer, 200, 120); } if (Level2) { if (p3.health >= 0) { p3.draw(g); for (CBullets b3 : cb) { b3.draw(g); } } else { p3.x = 1000; } if (p4.health >= 0) { p4.draw(g); for (CBullets b4 : cb) { b4.draw(g); } } else { p4.x = 1000; } } if (p1.health >= 0) { p1.draw(g); } if (p2.health >= 0) { p2.draw(g); } else { p2.x = 1000; } } public void update() { if (w && p1.y > 54) { p1.moveUp(); } if (s && p1.y < 547) { p1.moveDown(); } if (a && p1.x > 0) { p1.moveLeft(); } if (d && p1.x < 200) { p1.moveRight(); } random = 1 * (int) (Math.random() * 100); if (random > 96) { if (p2.health >= 0) { CBullets bo = p2.getCBull(); bo.xVel =-1-cbSpeed; cb.add(bo); } if (Level2) { if (p3.health >= 0) { CBullets bo1 = p3.getCBull(); bo1.xVel = -2-cbSpeed; cb.add(bo1); } if (p4.health >= 0) { CBullets bo2 = p4.getCBull(); bo2.xVel = -4-cbSpeed; cb.add(bo2); } } } if (S == 1) { if (p1.health >= 0) { Bullets bu = p1.getBull(); bu.xVel = 5; b.add(bu); S += 1; } } //Here Also Problem .. When COmputer have More fire then it gaves Array Exeption . Or Player have More Fire for (int i = cb.size() -1; i = 0 ; i--) { boolean bremoved = false; for (int j = b.size() -1 ; j =0 ; j--) { if (b.get(j).rect.intersects(cb.get(i).rect) || cb.get(i).rect.intersects(b.get(j).rect)) { bremoved = true; b.remove(j); } } if(bremoved) cb.remove(i); } for (int i = 0; i < b.size(); i++) { b.get(i).move(); if (b.get(i).rect.intersects(p2.rect)) { if (p2.health >= 0) { p2.health--; b.remove(i); // System.out.println("Hited P2"); i--; continue; } } if (b.get(i).rect.intersects(p3.rect)) { if (p3.health >= 0) { p3.health--; b.remove(i); // System.out.println("Hited P3"); i--; continue; } } if (b.get(i).rect.intersects(p4.rect)) { if (p4.health >= 0) { p4.health--; b.remove(i); // System.out.println("Hited P4"); i--; continue; } } if (b.get(i).rect.x > 790) { b.remove(i); } } for (int j = 0; j < cb.size(); j++) { cb.get(j).move(); if (cb.get(j).rect.intersects(p1.rect) && cb.get(j).xVel < 0) { p1.health--; cb.remove(j); j--; continue; } } timeEnd = System.currentTimeMillis(); timeElapsed = (int) (timeEnd - timeStart); } public void level2() { if (p2.health <= 10) { Level2 = true; cbSpeed = 4; p3.x = 750; p4.x = 750; p2.speed = 10; p3.speed = 20; p4.speed = 30; } } public void keyTyped(KeyEvent e) { } public void keyPressed(KeyEvent e) { switch (e.getKeyCode()) { case KeyEvent.VK_ENTER: newGame = false; break; case KeyEvent.VK_P: pause = true; break; case KeyEvent.VK_R: resart = true; break; case KeyEvent.VK_A: a = true; break; case KeyEvent.VK_D: d = true; break; case KeyEvent.VK_W: w = true; break; case KeyEvent.VK_S: s = true; break; case KeyEvent.VK_SPACE: S += 1; break; } } public void keyReleased(KeyEvent e) { switch (e.getKeyCode()) { case KeyEvent.VK_A: a = false; break; case KeyEvent.VK_D: d = false; break; case KeyEvent.VK_W: w = false; break; case KeyEvent.VK_S: s = false; break; case KeyEvent.VK_SPACE: S = 0; break; } } public void newGame() { p1.health = 20; p2.health = 20; p3.health = 20; p4.health = 20; p3.x = 0; p4.x = 0; p2.x = 750; Level2 = false; cbSpeed = 0; p2.speed = 9; b.removeAll(b); cb.removeAll(cb); timerStart = (int) System.currentTimeMillis(); GameOver = false; } public static void main(String[] args) { SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() { public void run() { KeyListener k = new Shooter(); } }); } @Override public void run() { player = JOptionPane.showInputDialog(frame, "Enter Player Name", "New Player", JOptionPane.DEFAULT_OPTION); while (true) { timerEnd = (int) System.currentTimeMillis(); if (resart) { newGame(); resart = false; } if (pause) { Thread.currentThread().notify(); } try { if (!GameOver) { Timer = timerEnd - timerStart; level2(); if (p1.y < p2.y && p2.y60) { p2.moveUp(); } if (p1.y < p3.y && p3.y43) { p3.moveUp(); } if (p1.y < p4.y && p4.y43) { p4.moveUp(); } if (p1.y > p2.y && p2.y<535) { p2.moveDown(); } if (p1.y > p3.y && p3.y<535) { p3.moveDown(); } if (p1.y > p4.y && p4.y<530) { p4.moveDown(); } } if (timeElapsed < 125) { Thread.currentThread().sleep(125); } } catch (InterruptedException ex) { System.out.print("FInished"); } } } }

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• Try a sample: Using the counter predicate for event sampling

  - by extended_events

  Extended Events offers a rich filtering mechanism, called predicates, that allows you to reduce the number of events you collect by specifying criteria that will be applied during event collection. (You can find more information about predicates in Using SQL Server 2008 Extended Events (by Jonathan Kehayias)) By evaluating predicates early in the event firing sequence we can reduce the performance impact of collecting events by stopping event collection when the criteria are not met. You can specify predicates on both event fields and on a special object called a predicate source. Predicate sources are similar to action in that they typically are related to some type of global information available from the server. You will find that many of the actions available in Extended Events have equivalent predicate sources, but actions and predicates sources are not the same thing. Applying predicates, whether on a field or predicate source, is very similar to what you are used to in T-SQL in terms of how they work; you pick some field/source and compare it to a value, for example, session_id = 52. There is one predicate source that merits special attention though, not just for its special use, but for how the order of predicate evaluation impacts the behavior you see. I’m referring to the counter predicate source. The counter predicate source gives you a way to sample a subset of events that otherwise meet the criteria of the predicate; for example you could collect every other event, or only every tenth event. Simple CountingThe counter predicate source works by creating an in memory counter that increments every time the predicate statement is evaluated. Here is a simple example with my favorite event, sql_statement_completed, that only collects the second statement that is run. (OK, that’s not much of a sample, but this is for demonstration purposes. Here is the session definition: CREATE EVENT SESSION counter_test ON SERVERADD EVENT sqlserver.sql_statement_completed    (ACTION (sqlserver.sql_text)    WHERE package0.counter = 2)ADD TARGET package0.ring_bufferWITH (MAX_DISPATCH_LATENCY = 1 SECONDS) You can find general information about the session DDL syntax in BOL and from Pedro’s post Introduction to Extended Events. The important part here is the WHERE statement that defines that I only what the event where package0.count = 2; in other words, only the second instance of the event. Notice that I need to provide the package name along with the predicate source. You don’t need to provide the package name if you’re using event fields, only for predicate sources. Let’s say I run the following test queries: -- Run three statements to test the sessionSELECT 'This is the first statement'GOSELECT 'This is the second statement'GOSELECT 'This is the third statement';GO Once you return the event data from the ring buffer and parse the XML (see my earlier post on reading event data) you should see something like this: event_name sql_text sql_statement_completed SELECT ‘This is the second statement’ You can see that only the second statement from the test was actually collected. (Feel free to try this yourself. Check out what happens if you remove the WHERE statement from your session. Go ahead, I’ll wait.) Percentage Sampling OK, so that wasn’t particularly interesting, but you can probably see that this could be interesting, for example, lets say I need a 25% sample of the statements executed on my server for some type of QA analysis, that might be more interesting than just the second statement. All comparisons of predicates are handled using an object called a predicate comparator; the simple comparisons such as equals, greater than, etc. are mapped to the common mathematical symbols you know and love (eg. = and >), but to do the less common comparisons you will need to use the predicate comparators directly. You would probably look to the MOD operation to do this type sampling; we would too, but we don’t call it MOD, we call it divides_by_uint64. This comparator evaluates whether one number is divisible by another with no remainder. The general syntax for using a predicate comparator is pred_comp(field, value), field is always first and value is always second. So lets take a look at how the session changes to answer our new question of 25% sampling: CREATE EVENT SESSION counter_test_25 ON SERVERADD EVENT sqlserver.sql_statement_completed    (ACTION (sqlserver.sql_text)    WHERE package0.divides_by_uint64(package0.counter,4))ADD TARGET package0.ring_bufferWITH (MAX_DISPATCH_LATENCY = 1 SECONDS)GO Here I’ve replaced the simple equivalency check with the divides_by_uint64 comparator to check if the counter is evenly divisible by 4, which gives us back every fourth record. I’ll leave it as an exercise for the reader to test this session. Why order matters I indicated at the start of this post that order matters when it comes to the counter predicate – it does. Like most other predicate systems, Extended Events evaluates the predicate statement from left to right; as soon as the predicate statement is proven false we abandon evaluation of the remainder of the statement. The counter predicate source is only incremented when it is evaluated so whether or not the counter is incremented will depend on where it is in the predicate statement and whether a previous criteria made the predicate false or not. Here is a generic example: Pred1: (WHERE statement_1 AND package0.counter = 2)Pred2: (WHERE package0.counter = 2 AND statement_1) Let’s say I cause a number of events as follows and examine what happens to the counter predicate source. Iteration Statement Pred1 Counter Pred2 Counter A Not statement_1 0 1 B statement_1 1 2 C Not statement_1 1 3 D statement_1 2 4 As you can see, in the case of Pred1, statement_1 is evaluated first, when it fails (A & C) predicate evaluation is stopped and the counter is not incremented. With Pred2 the counter is evaluated first, so it is incremented on every iteration of the event and the remaining parts of the predicate are then evaluated. In this example, Pred1 would return an event for D while Pred2 would return an event for B. But wait, there is an interesting side-effect here; consider Pred2 if I had run my statements in the following order: Not statement_1 Not statement_1 statement_1 statement_1 In this case I would never get an event back from the system because the point at which counter=2, the rest of the predicate evaluates as false so the event is not returned. If you’re using the counter target for sampling and you’re not getting the expected events, or any events, check the order of the predicate criteria. As a general rule I’d suggest that the counter criteria should be the last element of your predicate statement since that will assure that your sampling rate will apply to the set of event records defined by the rest of your predicate. Aside: I’m interested in hearing about uses for putting the counter predicate criteria earlier in the predicate statement. If you have one, post it in a comment to share with the class. - Mike Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!

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• How do you use blog content?

  - by fatherjack

  Do you write a blog, have you ever thought about it? I think people fall into one of a few categories when it comes to blogs, especially blogs with technical content. Writing articles furiously - daily, twice daily and reading dozens of others. Writing the odd piece of content and read plenty of others' output. Started a blog once and its fizzled out but reading lots. Thought about starting a blog someday but never got around to it, hopping into the occasional blog when a link or a Tweet takes them there. Never thought about writing one but often catching content from them when Google (or other preferred search engine) finds content related to their search. Now I am not saying that either of these is right or wrong, nor am I saying that anyone should feel any compulsion to be in any particular category. What I would say is that you as a blog reader have the power to move blog writers from one category to another. How, you might ask? How do I have any power over a blog writer? It is very simple - feedback. If you give feedback then the blog writer knows that they are reaching an audience, if there is no response then they we are simply writing down our thoughts for what could amount to nothing more than a feeble amount of exercise and a few more key stokes towards the onset of RSI. Most blogs have a mechanism to alert the writer when there are comments, and personally speaking, if an email is received saying there has been a response to a blog article then there is a rush of enthusiasm, a moment of excitement that someone is actually reading and considering the text that was submitted and made available for the whole world to read. I am relatively new to this blog game and could be in some extended honeymoon period as I have also recently been incorporated into the Simple Talk 'stable'. I can understand that once you get to the "Dizzy Heights of Ozar" (www.brentozar.com) then getting comments and feedback might not be such a pleasure and may even be rather more of a chore but that, I guess, is the price of fame. For us mere mortals starting out blogging, getting feedback (or even at the moment for me, simply the hope of getting feedback) is what keeps it going. The hope that you will pick a topic that hasn't been done recently by Brad McGehee, Grant Fritchey,  Paul Randall, Thomas LaRock or any one of the dozen of rock star bloggers listed here or others from SQLServerPedia and so on, and then do it well enough to be found, reviewed, or <shudder> (re)tweeted to bring more visitors is what we are striving for, along with the fact that the content we might produce is something that will be of benefit to others. There is only so much point to typing content that no-one is reading and putting it on a blog. You may as well just write it in a diary. A technical blog is not like, say, a blog covering photography techniques where the way to frame and take a picture stands true whether it was written last week, last year or last century - technical content goes sour, quite quickly. There isn't much call for articles about yesterdays technology unless its something that still applies to current versions too, so some content written no more than 2 years ago isn't worth having now. The combination of a piece of content that you know is going to not last long and the fact that no-one reads it is a strong force against writing anything else. Getting feedback counters that despair and gives a value to writing something new. I would say that any feedback is good but there are obviously comments that are just so negative or otherwise badly phrased that they would hasten the demise of a blog but, in general most feedback will encourage a writer. It may not be a comment that supports or agrees with the main theme of a post but if it generates discussion or opens up a previously unexplored viewpoint it is contributing to the blog and is therefore encouraging to the writer. Even if you only say "thank you" before you leave a blog, having taken a section of script to use for yourself or having been given a few links to some content that has widened your knowledge it will be so welcome to the blog owner. Isn't it also the decent thing to do, acknowledging that you have benefited from another's efforts?

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• Java fatal error, don't know what it means

  - by Thomas King

  It happens at the same place in my code (albeit not the first time the method is executed) but I can't make head or tail of what is wrong. (Doubly so as it's code for a robot). Be most appreciative if someone can give me an idea of what kind of problem it is. I assume it's to do with threading (multi-threaded app) but I don't really know what?!? Worried as deadline for uni project is looming!!! The message: # A fatal error has been detected by the Java Runtime Environment: # SIGSEGV (0xb) at pc=0xb70f0ca7, pid=5065, tid=2145643376 # JRE version: 6.0_15-b03 Java VM: Java HotSpot(TM) Server VM (14.1-b02 mixed mode linux-x86 ) Problematic frame: V [libjvm.so+0x4c9ca7] # An error report file with more information is saved as: /home/thomas/workspace/sir13/hs_err_pid5065.log # If you would like to submit a bug report, please visit: http://java.sun.com/webapps/bugreport/crash.jsp # The log: # A fatal error has been detected by the Java Runtime Environment: # SIGSEGV (0xb) at pc=0xb70f0ca7, pid=5065, tid=2145643376 # JRE version: 6.0_15-b03 Java VM: Java HotSpot(TM) Server VM (14.1-b02 mixed mode linux-x86 ) Problematic frame: V [libjvm.so+0x4c9ca7] # If you would like to submit a bug report, please visit: http://java.sun.com/webapps/bugreport/crash.jsp # --------------- T H R E A D --------------- Current thread (0x0904ec00): JavaThread "CompilerThread1" daemon [_thread_in_native, id=5078, stack(0x7fdbe000,0x7fe3f000)] siginfo:si_signo=SIGSEGV: si_errno=0, si_code=1 (SEGV_MAPERR), si_addr=0x00000004 Registers: EAX=0x00000000, EBX=0xb733d720, ECX=0x000003b4, EDX=0x00000000 ESP=0x7fe3bf30, EBP=0x7fe3bf78, ESI=0x7fe3c250, EDI=0x7e9a7790 EIP=0xb70f0ca7, CR2=0x00000004, EFLAGS=0x00010283 Top of Stack: (sp=0x7fe3bf30) 0x7fe3bf30: 00020008 7ec8de5c 7fe3c250 00000000 0x7fe3bf40: 7f610451 00001803 7e9a7790 000003f5 0x7fe3bf50: 7e920030 7f239910 7f23b349 7f23b348 0x7fe3bf60: 7f550e35 7fe3c250 0000021b b733d720 0x7fe3bf70: 000003bc 7f23db10 7fe3bfc8 b70f0997 0x7fe3bf80: 7fe3c240 7f23db10 00000000 00000002 0x7fe3bf90: 00000000 7fe3c1b0 00000000 00000000 0x7fe3bfa0: 00004000 00000020 7ec88870 00000002 Instructions: (pc=0xb70f0ca7) 0xb70f0c97: 7d 08 8b 87 c8 02 00 00 89 c7 8b 45 c4 8b 14 87 0xb70f0ca7: 8b 42 04 8b 00 85 c0 75 22 8b 4e 04 8b 52 1c 39 Stack: [0x7fdbe000,0x7fe3f000], sp=0x7fe3bf30, free space=503k Native frames: (J=compiled Java code, j=interpreted, Vv=VM code, C=native code) V [libjvm.so+0x4c9ca7] V [libjvm.so+0x4c9997] V [libjvm.so+0x4c6e23] V [libjvm.so+0x25b75f] V [libjvm.so+0x2585df] V [libjvm.so+0x1f2c2f] V [libjvm.so+0x260ceb] V [libjvm.so+0x260609] V [libjvm.so+0x617286] V [libjvm.so+0x6108fe] V [libjvm.so+0x531c4e] C [libpthread.so.0+0x580e] Current CompileTask: C2:133 ! BehaviourLeftUnexplored.action()V (326 bytes) --------------- P R O C E S S --------------- Java Threads: ( = current thread ) 0x08fb5400 JavaThread "DestroyJavaVM" [_thread_blocked, id=5066, stack(0xb6bb0000,0xb6c01000)] 0x09213c00 JavaThread "Thread-4" [_thread_blocked, id=5085, stack(0x7eeaf000,0x7ef00000)] 0x09212c00 JavaThread "Thread-3" [_thread_in_Java, id=5084, stack(0x7f863000,0x7f8b4000)] 0x09206800 JavaThread "AWT-XAWT" daemon [_thread_in_native, id=5083, stack(0x7f8b4000,0x7f905000)] 0x091b7400 JavaThread "Java2D Disposer" daemon [_thread_blocked, id=5082, stack(0x7f93e000,0x7f98f000)] 0x09163c00 JavaThread "Thread-0" [_thread_in_native, id=5081, stack(0x7fc87000,0x7fcd8000)] 0x09050c00 JavaThread "Low Memory Detector" daemon [_thread_blocked, id=5079, stack(0x7fd6d000,0x7fdbe000)] =0x0904ec00 JavaThread "CompilerThread1" daemon [_thread_in_native, id=5078, stack(0x7fdbe000,0x7fe3f000)] 0x0904c000 JavaThread "CompilerThread0" daemon [_thread_blocked, id=5077, stack(0x7fe3f000,0x7fec0000)] 0x0904a800 JavaThread "Signal Dispatcher" daemon [_thread_blocked, id=5076, stack(0x7fec0000,0x7ff11000)] 0x09036c00 JavaThread "Finalizer" daemon [_thread_blocked, id=5075, stack(0x7ff57000,0x7ffa8000)] 0x09035400 JavaThread "Reference Handler" daemon [_thread_blocked, id=5074, stack(0x7ffa8000,0x7fff9000)] Other Threads: 0x09031400 VMThread [stack: 0x7fff9000,0x8007a000] [id=5073] 0x09052800 WatcherThread [stack: 0x7fcec000,0x7fd6d000] [id=5080] VM state:not at safepoint (normal execution) VM Mutex/Monitor currently owned by a thread: None Heap PSYoungGen total 46784K, used 32032K [0xae650000, 0xb3440000, 0xb3a50000) eden space 46720K, 68% used [0xae650000,0xb0588f48,0xb13f0000) from space 64K, 95% used [0xb3390000,0xb339f428,0xb33a0000) to space 384K, 0% used [0xb33e0000,0xb33e0000,0xb3440000) PSOldGen total 43008K, used 20872K [0x84650000, 0x87050000, 0xae650000) object space 43008K, 48% used [0x84650000,0x85ab2308,0x87050000) PSPermGen total 16384K, used 5115K [0x80650000, 0x81650000, 0x84650000) object space 16384K, 31% used [0x80650000,0x80b4ec30,0x81650000) Dynamic libraries: 08048000-08052000 r-xp 00000000 08:05 34708 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun-1.6.0.15/jre/bin/java 08052000-08053000 rwxp 00009000 08:05 34708 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun-1.6.0.15/jre/bin/java 08faf000-09220000 rwxp 00000000 00:00 0 [heap] 7e900000-7e9f9000 rwxp 00000000 00:00 0 7e9f9000-7ea00000 ---p 00000000 00:00 0 7ea00000-7ea41000 rwxp 00000000 00:00 0 7ea41000-7eb00000 ---p 00000000 00:00 0 7eb00000-7ebfc000 rwxp 00000000 00:00 0 7ebfc000-7ec00000 ---p 00000000 00:00 0 7ec00000-7ecf7000 rwxp 00000000 00:00 0 7ecf7000-7ed00000 ---p 00000000 00:00 0 7ed00000-7ede7000 rwxp 00000000 00:00 0 7ede7000-7ee00000 ---p 00000000 00:00 0 7eeaf000-7eeb2000 ---p 00000000 00:00 0 7eeb2000-7ef00000 rwxp 00000000 00:00 0 7ef00000-7eff9000 rwxp 00000000 00:00 0 7eff9000-7f000000 ---p 00000000 00:00 0 7f100000-7f1f6000 rwxp 00000000 00:00 0 7f1f6000-7f200000 ---p 00000000 00:00 0 7f200000-7f2fc000 rwxp 00000000 00:00 0 7f2fc000-7f300000 ---p 00000000 00:00 0 7f300000-7f4fe000 rwxp 00000000 00:00 0 7f4fe000-7f500000 ---p 00000000 00:00 0 7f500000-7f5fb000 rwxp 00000000 00:00 0 7f5fb000-7f600000 ---p 00000000 00:00 0 7f600000-7f6f9000 rwxp 00000000 00:00 0 7f6f9000-7f700000 ---p 00000000 00:00 0 7f700000-7f800000 rwxp 00000000 00:00 0 7f830000-7f836000 r-xs 00000000 08:05 241611 /var/cache/fontconfig/945677eb7aeaf62f1d50efc3fb3ec7d8-x86.cache-2 7f836000-7f838000 r-xs 00000000 08:05 241612 /var/cache/fontconfig/99e8ed0e538f840c565b6ed5dad60d56-x86.cache-2 7f838000-7f83b000 r-xs 00000000 08:05 241620 /var/cache/fontconfig/e383d7ea5fbe662a33d9b44caf393297-x86.cache-2 7f83b000-7f846000 r-xs 00000000 08:05 241600 /var/cache/fontconfig/0f34bcd4b6ee430af32735b75db7f02b-x86.cache-2 7f863000-7f866000 ---p 00000000 00:00 0 7f866000-7f8b4000 rwxp 00000000 00:00 0 7f8b4000-7f8b7000 ---p 00000000 00:00 0 7f8b7000-7f905000 rwxp 00000000 00:00 0 7f905000-7f909000 r-xp 00000000 08:05 5012 /usr/lib/libXfixes.so.3.1.0 7f909000-7f90a000 r-xp 00003000 08:05 5012 /usr/lib/libXfixes.so.3.1.0 7f90a000-7f90b000 rwxp 00004000 08:05 5012 /usr/lib/libXfixes.so.3.1.0 7f90b000-7f913000 r-xp 00000000 08:05 5032 /usr/lib/libXrender.so.1.3.0 7f913000-7f914000 r-xp 00007000 08:05 5032 /usr/lib/libXrender.so.1.3.0 7f914000-7f915000 rwxp 00008000 08:05 5032 /usr/lib/libXrender.so.1.3.0 7f915000-7f91e000 r-xp 00000000 08:05 5004 /usr/lib/libXcursor.so.1.0.2 7f91e000-7f91f000 r-xp 00008000 08:05 5004 /usr/lib/libXcursor.so.1.0.2 7f91f000-7f920000 rwxp 00009000 08:05 5004 /usr/lib/libXcursor.so.1.0.2 7f92f000-7f931000 r-xs 00000000 08:05 241622 /var/cache/fontconfig/f24b2111ab8703b4e963115a8cf14259-x86.cache-2 7f931000-7f932000 r-xs 00000000 08:05 241606 /var/cache/fontconfig/4c73fe0c47614734b17d736dbde7580a-x86.cache-2 7f932000-7f936000 r-xs 00000000 08:05 241599 /var/cache/fontconfig/062808c12e6e608270f93bb230aed730-x86.cache-2 7f936000-7f93e000 r-xs 00000000 08:05 241617 /var/cache/fontconfig/d52a8644073d54c13679302ca1180695-x86.cache-2 7f93e000-7f941000 ---p 00000000 00:00 0 7f941000-7f98f000 rwxp 00000000 00:00 0 7f98f000-7fa0e000 r-xp 00000000 08:05 34755 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun-1.6.0.15/jre/lib/i386/libfontmanager.so 7fa0e000-7fa19000 rwxp 0007e000 08:05 34755 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun-1.6.0.15/jre/lib/i386/libfontmanager.so 7fa19000-7fa1d000 rwxp 00000000 00:00 0 7fa1d000-7fa21000 r-xp 00000000 08:05 5008 /usr/lib/libXdmcp.so.6.0.0 7fa21000-7fa22000 rwxp 00003000 08:05 5008 /usr/lib/libXdmcp.so.6.0.0 7fa22000-7fa3e000 r-xp 00000000 08:05 6029 /usr/lib/libxcb.so.1.1.0 7fa3e000-7fa3f000 r-xp 0001c000 08:05 6029 /usr/lib/libxcb.so.1.1.0 7fa3f000-7fa40000 rwxp 0001d000 08:05 6029 /usr/lib/libxcb.so.1.1.0 7fa40000-7fa42000 r-xp 00000000 08:05 4997 /usr/lib/libXau.so.6.0.0 7fa42000-7fa43000 r-xp 00001000 08:05 4997 /usr/lib/libXau.so.6.0.0 7fa43000-7fa44000 rwxp 00002000 08:05 4997 /usr/lib/libXau.so.6.0.0 7fa44000-7fb6e000 r-xp 00000000 08:05 4991 /usr/lib/libX11.so.6.2.0 7fb6e000-7fb6f000 ---p 0012a000 08:05 4991 /usr/lib/libX11.so.6.2.0 7fb6f000-7fb70000 r-xp 0012a000 08:05 4991 /usr/lib/libX11.so.6.2.0 7fb70000-7fb72000 rwxp 0012b000 08:05 4991 /usr/lib/libX11.so.6.2.0 7fb72000-7fb73000 rwxp 00000000 00:00 0 7fb73000-7fb81000 r-xp 00000000 08:05 5010 /usr/lib/libXext.so.6.4.0 7fb81000-7fb82000 r-xp 0000d000 08:05 5010 /usr/lib/libXext.so.6.4.0 7fb82000-7fb83000 rwxp 0000e000 08:05 5010 /usr/lib/libXext.so.6.4.0 7fb83000-7fb84000 r-xs 00000000 08:05 241614 /var/cache/fontconfig/c05880de57d1f5e948fdfacc138775d9-x86.cache-2 7fb84000-7fb87000 r-xs 00000000 08:05 241613 /var/cache/fontconfig/a755afe4a08bf5b97852ceb7400b47bc-x86.cache-2 7fb87000-7fb8a000 r-xs 00000000 08:05 241608 /var/cache/fontconfig/6d41288fd70b0be22e8c3a91e032eec0-x86.cache-2 7fb8a000-7fb92000 r-xs 00000000 08:05 219560 /var/cache/fontconfig/e13b20fdb08344e0e664864cc2ede53d-x86.cache-2 7fb92000-7fbd5000 r-xp 00000000 08:05 34752 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun-1.6.0.15/jre/lib/i386/xawt/libmawt.so 7fbd5000-7fbd7000 rwxp 00043000 08:05 34752 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun-1.6.0.15/jre/lib/i386/xawt/libmawt.so 7fbd7000-7fbd8000 rwxp 00000000 00:00 0 7fbd8000-7fc5c000 r-xp 00000000 08:05 34750 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun-1.6.0.15/jre/lib/i386/libawt.so 7fc5c000-7fc63000 rwxp 00084000 08:05 34750 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun-1.6.0.15/jre/lib/i386/libawt.so 7fc63000-7fc87000 rwxp 00000000 00:00 0 7fc87000-7fc8a000 ---p 00000000 00:00 0 7fc8a000-7fcd8000 rwxp 00000000 00:00 0 7fcd8000-7fceb000 r-xp 00000000 08:05 34739 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun-1.6.0.15/jre/lib/i386/libnet.so 7fceb000-7fcec000 rwxp 00013000 08:05 34739 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun-1.6.0.15/jre/lib/i386/libnet.so 7fcec000-7fced000 ---p 00000000 00:00 0 7fced000-7fd6d000 rwxp 00000000 00:00 0 7fd6d000-7fd70000 ---p 00000000 00:00 0 7fd70000-7fdbe000 rwxp 00000000 00:00 0 7fdbe000-7fdc1000 ---p 00000000 00:00 0 7fdc1000-7fe3f000 rwxp 00000000 00:00 0 7fe3f000-7fe42000 ---p 00000000 00:00 0 7fe42000-7fec0000 rwxp 00000000 00:00 0 7fec0000-7fec3000 ---p 00000000 00:00 0 7fec3000-7ff11000 rwxp 00000000 00:00 0 7ff11000-7ff18000 r-xs 00000000 08:05 134616 /usr/lib/gconv/gconv-modules.cache 7ff18000-7ff57000 r-xp 00000000 08:05 136279 /usr/lib/locale/en_GB.utf8/LC_CTYPE 7ff57000-7ff5a000 ---p 00000000 00:00 0 7ff5a000-7ffa8000 rwxp 00000000 00:00 0 7ffa8000-7ffab000 ---p 00000000 00:00 0 7ffab000-7fff9000 rwxp 00000000 00:00 0 7fff9000-7fffa000 ---p 00000000 00:00 0 7fffa000-800ad000 rwxp 00000000 00:00 0 800ad000-80243000 r-xs 02fb3000 08:05 34883 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun-1.6.0.15/jre/lib/rt.jar 80243000-80244000 ---p 00000000 00:00 0 80244000-802c4000 rwxp 00000000 00:00 0 802c4000-802c5000 ---p 00000000 00:00 0 802c5000-8034d000 rwxp 00000000 00:00 0 8034d000-80365000 rwxp 00000000 00:00 0 80365000-8037a000 rwxp 00000000 00:00 0 8037a000-804b5000 rwxp 00000000 00:00 0 804b5000-804bd000 rwxp 00000000 00:00 0 804bd000-804d5000 rwxp 00000000 00:00 0 804d5000-804ea000 rwxp 00000000 00:00 0 804ea000-80625000 rwxp 00000000 00:00 0 80625000-8064c000 rwxp 00000000 00:00 0 8064c000-8064f000 rwxp 00000000 00:00 0 8064f000-81650000 rwxp 00000000 00:00 0 81650000-84650000 rwxp 00000000 00:00 0 84650000-87050000 rwxp 00000000 00:00 0 87050000-ae650000 rwxp 00000000 00:00 0 ae650000-b3440000 rwxp 00000000 00:00 0 b3440000-b3a50000 rwxp 00000000 00:00 0 b3a50000-b3a52000 r-xs 00000000 08:05 241602 /var/cache/fontconfig/2c5ba8142dffc8bf0377700342b8ca1a-x86.cache-2 b3a52000-b3a5b000 r-xp 00000000 08:05 5018 /usr/lib/libXi.so.6.0.0 b3a5b000-b3a5c000 r-xp 00008000 08:05 5018 /usr/lib/libXi.so.6.0.0 b3a5c000-b3a5d000 rwxp 00009000 08:05 5018 /usr/lib/libXi.so.6.0.0 b3a5d000-b3a66000 rwxp 00000000 00:00 0 b3a66000-b3b1d000 rwxp 00000000 00:00 0 b3b1d000-b3d5d000 rwxp 00000000 00:00 0 b3d5d000-b6b1d000 rwxp 00000000 00:00 0 b6b1d000-b6b2c000 r-xp 00000000 08:05 34735 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun-1.6.0.15/jre/lib/i386/libzip.so b6b2c000-b6b2e000 rwxp 0000e000 08:05 34735 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun-1.6.0.15/jre/lib/i386/libzip.so b6b2e000-b6b38000 r-xp 00000000 08:05 1042 /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libnss_files-2.10.1.so b6b38000-b6b39000 r-xp 00009000 08:05 1042 /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libnss_files-2.10.1.so b6b39000-b6b3a000 rwxp 0000a000 08:05 1042 /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libnss_files-2.10.1.so b6b3a000-b6b43000 r-xp 00000000 08:05 1055 /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libnss_nis-2.10.1.so b6b43000-b6b44000 r-xp 00008000 08:05 1055 /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libnss_nis-2.10.1.so b6b44000-b6b45000 rwxp 00009000 08:05 1055 /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libnss_nis-2.10.1.so b6b45000-b6b4b000 r-xp 00000000 08:05 1028 /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libnss_compat-2.10.1.so b6b4b000-b6b4c000 r-xp 00005000 08:05 1028 /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libnss_compat-2.10.1.so b6b4c000-b6b4d000 rwxp 00006000 08:05 1028 /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libnss_compat-2.10.1.so b6b4d000-b6b54000 r-xs 00035000 08:05 304369 /home/thomas/workspace/sir13/javaclient/jars/javaclient.jar b6b54000-b6b5c000 rwxs 00000000 08:05 393570 /tmp/hsperfdata_thomas/5065 b6b5c000-b6b6f000 r-xp 00000000 08:05 1020 /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libnsl-2.10.1.so b6b6f000-b6b70000 r-xp 00012000 08:05 1020 /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libnsl-2.10.1.so b6b70000-b6b71000 rwxp 00013000 08:05 1020 /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libnsl-2.10.1.so b6b71000-b6b73000 rwxp 00000000 00:00 0 b6b73000-b6b77000 r-xp 00000000 08:05 5038 /usr/lib/libXtst.so.6.1.0 b6b77000-b6b78000 r-xp 00004000 08:05 5038 /usr/lib/libXtst.so.6.1.0 b6b78000-b6b79000 rwxp 00005000 08:05 5038 /usr/lib/libXtst.so.6.1.0 b6b79000-b6b7f000 r-xp 00000000 08:05 34723 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun-1.6.0.15/jre/lib/i386/native_threads/libhpi.so b6b7f000-b6b80000 rwxp 00006000 08:05 34723 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun-1.6.0.15/jre/lib/i386/native_threads/libhpi.so b6b80000-b6b81000 rwxp 00000000 00:00 0 b6b81000-b6b82000 r-xp 00000000 00:00 0 b6b82000-b6ba5000 r-xp 00000000 08:05 34733 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun-1.6.0.15/jre/lib/i386/libjava.so b6ba5000-b6ba7000 rwxp 00023000 08:05 34733 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun-1.6.0.15/jre/lib/i386/libjava.so b6ba7000-b6bae000 r-xp 00000000 08:05 1733 /lib/tls/i686/cmov/librt-2.10.1.so b6bae000-b6baf000 r-xp 00006000 08:05 1733 /lib/tls/i686/cmov/librt-2.10.1.so b6baf000-b6bb0000 rwxp 00007000 08:05 1733 /lib/tls/i686/cmov/librt-2.10.1.so b6bb0000-b6bb3000 ---p 00000000 00:00 0 b6bb3000-b6c01000 rwxp 00000000 00:00 0 b6c01000-b6c25000 r-xp 00000000 08:05 1016 /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libm-2.10.1.so b6c25000-b6c26000 r-xp 00023000 08:05 1016 /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libm-2.10.1.so b6c26000-b6c27000 rwxp 00024000 08:05 1016 /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libm-2.10.1.so b6c27000-b72f4000 r-xp 00000000 08:05 34724 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun-1.6.0.15/jre/lib/i386/server/libjvm.so b72f4000-b7341000 rwxp 006cc000 08:05 34724 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun-1.6.0.15/jre/lib/i386/server/libjvm.so b7341000-b7765000 rwxp 00000000 00:00 0 b7765000-b78a3000 r-xp 00000000 08:05 967 /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libc-2.10.1.so b78a3000-b78a4000 ---p 0013e000 08:05 967 /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libc-2.10.1.so b78a4000-b78a6000 r-xp 0013e000 08:05 967 /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libc-2.10.1.so b78a6000-b78a7000 rwxp 00140000 08:05 967 /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libc-2.10.1.so b78a7000-b78aa000 rwxp 00000000 00:00 0 b78aa000-b78ac000 r-xp 00000000 08:05 1014 /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libdl-2.10.1.so b78ac000-b78ad000 r-xp 00001000 08:05 1014 /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libdl-2.10.1.so b78ad000-b78ae000 rwxp 00002000 08:05 1014 /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libdl-2.10.1.so b78ae000-b78b5000 r-xp 00000000 08:05 34734 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun-1.6.0.15/jre/lib/i386/jli/libjli.so b78b5000-b78b7000 rwxp 00006000 08:05 34734 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun-1.6.0.15/jre/lib/i386/jli/libjli.so b78b7000-b78b8000 rwxp 00000000 00:00 0 b78b8000-b78cd000 r-xp 00000000 08:05 1081 /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libpthread-2.10.1.so b78cd000-b78ce000 r-xp 00014000 08:05 1081 /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libpthread-2.10.1.so b78ce000-b78cf000 rwxp 00015000 08:05 1081 /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libpthread-2.10.1.so b78cf000-b78d1000 rwxp 00000000 00:00 0 b78d1000-b78d2000 r-xs 00000000 08:05 161622 /var/cache/fontconfig/4794a0821666d79190d59a36cb4f44b5-x86.cache-2 b78d2000-b78d4000 r-xs 00000000 08:05 241610 /var/cache/fontconfig/7ef2298fde41cc6eeb7af42e48b7d293-x86.cache-2 b78d4000-b78df000 r-xp 00000000 08:05 34732 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun-1.6.0.15/jre/lib/i386/libverify.so b78df000-b78e0000 rwxp 0000b000 08:05 34732 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun-1.6.0.15/jre/lib/i386/libverify.so b78e0000-b78e2000 rwxp 00000000 00:00 0 b78e2000-b78e3000 r-xp 00000000 00:00 0 [vdso] b78e3000-b78fe000 r-xp 00000000 08:05 64 /lib/ld-2.10.1.so b78fe000-b78ff000 r-xp 0001a000 08:05 64 /lib/ld-2.10.1.so b78ff000-b7900000 rwxp 0001b000 08:05 64 /lib/ld-2.10.1.so bfc33000-bfc48000 rwxp 00000000 00:00 0 [stack] VM Arguments: jvm_args: -Dfile.encoding=UTF-8 java_command: Main Launcher Type: SUN_STANDARD Environment Variables: PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games USERNAME=thomas LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun-1.6.0.15/jre/lib/i386/server:/usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun-1.6.0.15/jre/lib/i386:/usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun-1.6.0.15/jre/../lib/i386:/usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun-1.6.0.15/jre/lib/i386/client:/usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun-1.6.0.15/jre/lib/i386:/usr/lib/xulrunner-addons:/usr/lib/xulrunner-addons SHELL=/bin/bash DISPLAY=:0.0 Signal Handlers: SIGSEGV: [libjvm.so+0x650690], sa_mask[0]=0x7ffbfeff, sa_flags=0x10000004 SIGBUS: [libjvm.so+0x650690], sa_mask[0]=0x7ffbfeff, sa_flags=0x10000004 SIGFPE: [libjvm.so+0x52f580], sa_mask[0]=0x7ffbfeff, sa_flags=0x10000004 SIGPIPE: [libjvm.so+0x52f580], sa_mask[0]=0x7ffbfeff, sa_flags=0x10000004 SIGXFSZ: [libjvm.so+0x52f580], sa_mask[0]=0x7ffbfeff, sa_flags=0x10000004 SIGILL: [libjvm.so+0x52f580], sa_mask[0]=0x7ffbfeff, sa_flags=0x10000004 SIGUSR1: SIG_DFL, sa_mask[0]=0x00000000, sa_flags=0x00000000 SIGUSR2: [libjvm.so+0x532170], sa_mask[0]=0x00000004, sa_flags=0x10000004 SIGHUP: [libjvm.so+0x531ea0], sa_mask[0]=0x7ffbfeff, sa_flags=0x10000004 SIGINT: [libjvm.so+0x531ea0], sa_mask[0]=0x7ffbfeff, sa_flags=0x10000004 SIGTERM: [libjvm.so+0x531ea0], sa_mask[0]=0x7ffbfeff, sa_flags=0x10000004 SIGQUIT: [libjvm.so+0x531ea0], sa_mask[0]=0x7ffbfeff, sa_flags=0x10000004 --------------- S Y S T E M --------------- OS:squeeze/sid uname:Linux 2.6.31-20-generic #57-Ubuntu SMP Mon Feb 8 09:05:19 UTC 2010 i686 libc:glibc 2.10.1 NPTL 2.10.1 rlimit: STACK 8192k, CORE 0k, NPROC infinity, NOFILE 1024, AS infinity load average:1.07 0.55 0.23 CPU:total 2 (2 cores per cpu, 1 threads per core) family 6 model 15 stepping 13, cmov, cx8, fxsr, mmx, sse, sse2, sse3, ssse3 Memory: 4k page, physical 3095836k(1519972k free), swap 1261060k(1261060k free) vm_info: Java HotSpot(TM) Server VM (14.1-b02) for linux-x86 JRE (1.6.0_15-b03), built on Jul 2 2009 15:49:13 by "java_re" with gcc 3.2.1-7a (J2SE release) time: Mon Mar 22 12:08:40 2010 elapsed time: 21 seconds

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• client problems - misaligned expectations & not following SDLC protocols

  - by louism

  hi guys, im having some serious problems with a client on a project - i could use some advice please the short version i have been working with this client now for almost 6 months without any problems (a classified website project in the range of 500 hours) over the last few days things have drastically deteriorated to the point where ive had to place the project on-hold whilst i work-out what to do (this has pissed the client off even more) to be simplistic, the root cause of the issue is this: the client doesnt read the specs i make for him, i code the feature, he than wants to change things, i tell him its not to the agreed spec and that that change will have to be postponed and possibly charged for, he gets upset and rants saying 'hes paid for the feature' and im not keeping to the agreement (<- misalignment of expectations) i think the root cause of the root cause is my clients failure to take my SDLC protocols seriously. i have a bug tracking system in place which he practically refuses to use (he still emails me bugs), he doesnt seem to care to much for the protocols i use for dealing with scope creep and change control the whole situation came to a head recently where he 'cracked it' (an aussie term for being fed-up). the more terms like 'postponed for post-launch implementation', 'costed feature addition', and 'not to agreed spec' i kept using, the worse it got finally, he began to bully me - basically insisting i shut-up and do the work im being paid for. i wrote a long-winded email explaining how wrong he was on all these different points, and explaining what all the SDLC protocols do to protect the success of the project. than i deleted that email and wrote a new one in the new email, i suggested as a solution i write up a list of grievances we both had. we than review the list and compromise on different points: he gets some things he wants, i get some things i want. sometimes youve got to give ground to get ground his response to this suggestion was flat-out refusal, and a restatement that i should just get on with the work ive been paid to do so there you have the very subjective short version. if you have the time and inclination, the long version may be a little less bias as it has the email communiques between me and my client the long version (with background) the long version works by me showing you the email communiques which lead to the situation coming to a head. so here it is, judge for yourself where the trouble started... 1. client asked me why something was missing from a feature i just uploaded, my response was to show him what was in the spec: it basically said the item he was looking for was never going to be included 2. [clients response...] Memo Louis, We are following your own title fields and keeping a consistent layout. Why the big fuss about not adding "Part". It simply replaces "model" and is consistent with your current title fields. 3. [my response...] hi [client], the 'part' field appeared to me as a redundancy / mistake. i requested clarification but never received any in a timely manner (about 2 weeks ago) the specification for this feature also indicated it wasnt going to be included: RE: "Why the big fuss about not adding "Part" " it may not appear so, but it would actually be a lot of work for me to now add a 'Part' field it could take me up to 15-20 minutes to properly explain why its such a big undertaking to do this, but i would prefer to use that time instead to work on completing your v1.1 features as a simplistic explanation - it connects to the change in paradigm from a 'generic classified ad' model to a 'specific attributes for specific categories' model basically, i am saying it is a big fuss, but i understand that it doesnt look that way - after all, it is just one ity-bitty field :) if you require a fuller explanation, please let me know and i will commit the time needed to write that out also, if you recall when we first started on the project, i said that with the effort/time required for features, you would likely not know off the top of your head. you may think something is really complex, but in reality its quite simple, you might think something is easy - but it could actually be a massive trauma to code (which is the case here with the 'Part' field). if you also recalled, i said the best course of action is to just ask, and i would let you know on a case-by-case basis 4. [email from me to client...] hi [client], the online catalogue page is now up live (see my email from a few days ago for information on how it works) note: the window of opportunity for input/revisions on what data the catalogue stores has now closed (as i have put the code up live now) RE: the UI/layout of the online catalogue page you may still do visual/ui tweaks to the page at the moment (this window for input/revisions will close in a couple of days time) 5. [email from client to me...] *(note: i had put up the feature & asked the client to review it, never heard back from them for a few days)* Memo Louis, Here you go again. CLOSED without a word of input from the customer. I don't think so. I will reply tomorrow regarding the content and functionality we require from this feature. 5. [from me to client...] hi [client]: RE: from my understanding, you are saying that the mini-sale yard control would change itself based on the fact someone was viewing for parts & accessories <- is that correct? this change is outside the scope of the v1.1 mini-spec and therefore will need to wait 'til post launch for costing/implementation 6. [email from client to me...] Memo Louis, Following your v1.1 mini-spec and all your time paid in full for the work selected. We need to make the situation clear. There will be no further items held for post-launch. Do not expect us to pay for any further items other than those we have agreed upon. You have undertaken to complete the Parts and accessories feature as follows. Obviously, as part of this process the "mini search" will be effected, and will require "adaption to make sense". 7. [email from me to client...] hi [client], RE: "There will be no further items held for post-launch. Do not expect us to pay for any further items other than those we have agreed upon." a few points to consider: 1) the specification for the 'parts & accessories' feature was as follows: (i.e. [what] "...we have agreed upon.") 2) you have received the 'parts & accessories' feature free of charge (you have paid $0 for it). ive spent two days coding that feature as a gesture of good will i would request that you please consider these two facts carefully and sincerely 8. [email from client to me...] Memo Louis, I don't see how you are giving us anything for free. From your original fee proposal you have deleted more than 30 hours of included features. Your title "shelved features". Further you have charged us twice by adding back into the site, at an addition cost, some of those "shelved features" features. See v1.1 mini-spec. Did include in your original fee proposal a change request budget but then charge without discussion items included in v1.1 mini-spec. Included a further Features test plan for a regression test, a fee of 10 hours that would not have been required if the "shelved features" were not left out of the agreed fee proposal. I have made every attempt to satisfy your your uneven business sense by offering you everything your heart desired, in the v1.1 mini-spec, to be left once again with your attitude of "its too hard, lets leave it for post launch". I am no longer accepting anything less than what we have contracted you to do. That is clearly defined in v1.1 mini-spec, and you are paid in advance for delivering those items as an acceptable function. a few notes about the above email... i had to cull features from the original spec because it didnt fit into the budget. i explained this to the client at the start of the project (he wanted more features than he had budget hours to do them all) nothing has been charged for twice, i didnt charge the client for culled features. im charging him to now do those culled features the draft version of the project schedule included a change request budget of 10 hours, but i had to remove that to meet the budget (the client may not have been aware of this to be fair to them) what the client refers to as my attitude of 'too hard/leave it for post-launch', i called a change request protocol and a method for keeping scope creep under control 9. [email from me to client...] hi [client], RE: "...all your grievances..." i had originally written out a long email response; it was fantastic, it had all these great points of how 'you were wrong' and 'i was right', you would of loved it (and by 'loved it', i mean it would of just infuriated you more) so, i decided to deleted it start over, for two reasons: 1) a long email is being disrespectful of your time (youre a busy businessman with things to do) 2) whos wrong or right gets us no closer to fixing the problems we are experiencing what i propose is this... i prepare a bullet point list of your grievances and my grievances (yes, im unhappy too about how things are going - and it has little to do with money) i submit this list to you for you to add to as necessary we then both take a good hard look at this list, and we decide which areas we are willing to give ground on as an example, the list may look something like this: "louis, you keep taking away features you said you would do" [your grievance 2] [your grievance 3] [your grievance ...] "[client], i feel you dont properly read the specs i prepare for you..." [my grievance 2] [my grievance 3] [my grievance ...] if you are willing to give this a try, let me know will it work? who knows. but if it doesnt, we can always go back to arguing some more :) obviously, this will only work if you are willing to give it a genuine try, and you can accept that you may have to 'give some ground to get some ground' what do you think? 10. [email from client to me ...] Memo Louis, Instead of wasting your time listing grievances, I would prefer you complete the items in v1.1 mini-spec, to a satisfactory conclusion. We almost had the website ready for launch until you brought the v1.1 mini-spec into the frame. Obviously I expected you could complete the v1.1 mini-spec in a two-week time frame as you indicated and give the site a more profession presentation. Most of the problems have been caused by you not following our instructions, but deciding to do what you feel like at the time. And then arguing with us how the missing information is not necessary. For instance "Parts and Accessories". Why on earth would you leave out the parts heading, when it ties-in with the fields you have already developed. It replaces "model" and is just as important in the context of information that appears in the "Details" panel. We are at a stage where the the v1.1 mini-spec needs to be completed without further time wasting and the site is complete (subject to all features working). We are on standby at this end to do just that. Let me know when you are back, working on the site and we will process and complete each v1.1 mini-spec, item by item, until the job is complete. 11. [last email from me to client...] hi [client], based on this reply, and your demonstrated unwillingness to compromise/give any ground on issues at hand, i have decided to place your project on-hold for the moment i will be considering further options on how to over-come our challenges over the next few days i will contact you by monday 17/may to discuss any new options i have come up with, and if i believe it is appropriate to restart work on your project at that point or not told you it was long... what do you think?

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• TFS 2010 SDK: Integrating Twitter with TFS Programmatically

  - by Tarun Arora

  Technorati Tags: Team Foundation Server 2010,TFS API,Integrate Twitter TFS,TFS Programming,ALM,TwitterSharp   Friends at ‘Twitter Sharp’ have created a wonderful .net API for twitter. With this blog post i will try to show you a basic TFS – Twitter integration scenario where i will retrieve the Team Project details programmatically and then publish these details on my twitter page. In future blogs i will be demonstrating how to create a windows service to capture the events raised by TFS and then publishing them in your social eco-system. Download Working Demo: Integrate Twitter - Tfs Programmatically   1. Setting up Twitter API Download Tweet Sharp from => https://github.com/danielcrenna/tweetsharp  Before you can start playing around with this, you will need to register an application on twitter. This is because Twitter uses the OAuth authentication protocol and will not issue an Access token unless your application is registered with them. Go to https://dev.twitter.com/ and register your application   Once you have registered your application, you will need ‘Customer Key’, ‘Customer Secret’, ‘Access Token’, ‘Access Token Secret’ 2. Connecting to Twitter using the Tweet Sharp API Create a new C# windows forms project and add reference to ‘Hammock.ClientProfile’, ‘Newtonsoft.Json’, ‘TweetSharp’ Add the following keys to the App.config (Note – The values for the keys below are in correct and if you try and connect using them then you will get an authorization failure error). Add a new class ‘TwitterProxy’ and use the following code to connect to the TwitterService (Read more about OAuthentication - http://dev.twitter.com/pages/auth) using System;using System.Collections.Generic;using System.Linq;using System.Text;using System.Configuration;using TweetSharp; namespace WindowsFormsApplication2{ public class TwitterProxy { private static string _hero; private static string _consumerKey; private static string _consumerSecret; private static string _accessToken; private static string _accessTokenSecret;  public static TwitterService ConnectToTwitter() { _consumerKey = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["ConsumerKey"]; _consumerSecret = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["ConsumerSecret"]; _accessToken = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["AccessToken"]; _accessTokenSecret = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["AccessTokenSecret"];  return new TwitterService(_consumerKey, _consumerSecret, _accessToken, _accessTokenSecret); } }} Time to Tweet! _twitterService = Proxy.TwitterProxy.ConnectToTwitter(); _twitterService.SendTweet("Hello World"); SendTweet will return the TweetStatus, If you do not get a 200 OK status that means you have failed authentication, please revisit the Access tokens. --RESPONSE: https://api.twitter.com/1/statuses/update.json HTTP/1.1 200 OK X-Transaction: 1308476106-69292-41752 X-Frame-Options: SAMEORIGIN X-Runtime: 0.03040 X-Transaction-Mask: a6183ffa5f44ef11425211f25 Pragma: no-cache X-Access-Level: read-write X-Revision: DEV X-MID: bd8aa0abeccb6efba38bc0a391a73fab98e983ea Cache-Control: no-cache, no-store, must-revalidate, pre-check=0, post-check=0 Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8 Date: Sun, 19 Jun 2011 09:35:06 GMT Expires: Tue, 31 Mar 1981 05:00:00 GMT Last-Modified: Sun, 19 Jun 2011 09:35:06 GMT Server: hi Vary: Accept-Encoding Content-Encoding: Keep-Alive: timeout=15, max=100 Connection: Keep-Alive Transfer-Encoding: chunked   3. Integrate with TFS In my blog post Connect to TFS Programmatically i have in depth demonstrated how to connect to TFS using the TFS API. 1: // Update the AppConfig with the URI of the Team Foundation Server you want to connect to, Make sure you have View Team Project Collection Details permissions on the server 2: private static string _myUri = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["TfsUri"]; 3: private static TwitterService _twitterService = null; 4:   5: private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) 6: { 7: lblNotes.Text = string.Empty; 8:   9: try 10: { 11: StringBuilder notes = new StringBuilder(); 12:   13: _twitterService = Proxy.TwitterProxy.ConnectToTwitter(); 14:   15: _twitterService.SendTweet("Hello World"); 16:   17: TfsConfigurationServer configurationServer = 18: TfsConfigurationServerFactory.GetConfigurationServer(new Uri(_myUri)); 19:   20: CatalogNode catalogNode = configurationServer.CatalogNode; 21:   22: ReadOnlyCollection<CatalogNode> tpcNodes = catalogNode.QueryChildren( 23: new Guid[] { CatalogResourceTypes.ProjectCollection }, 24: false, CatalogQueryOptions.None); 25:   26: // tpc = Team Project Collection 27: foreach (CatalogNode tpcNode in tpcNodes) 28: { 29: Guid tpcId = new Guid(tpcNode.Resource.Properties["InstanceId"]); 30: TfsTeamProjectCollection tpc = configurationServer.GetTeamProjectCollection(tpcId); 31:   32: notes.AppendFormat("{0} Team Project Collection : {1}{0}", Environment.NewLine, tpc.Name); 33: _twitterService.SendTweet(String.Format("http://Lunartech.codeplex.com - Connecting to Team Project Collection : {0} ", tpc.Name)); 34:   35: // Get catalog of tp = 'Team Projects' for the tpc = 'Team Project Collection' 36: var tpNodes = tpcNode.QueryChildren( 37: new Guid[] { CatalogResourceTypes.TeamProject }, 38: false, CatalogQueryOptions.None); 39:   40: foreach (var p in tpNodes) 41: { 42: notes.AppendFormat("{0} Team Project : {1} - {2}{0}", Environment.NewLine, p.Resource.DisplayName,  "This is an open source project hosted on codeplex"); 43: _twitterService.SendTweet(String.Format(" Connected to Team Project: '{0}' – '{1}' ", p.Resource.DisplayName, "This is an open source project hosted on codeplex")); 44: } 45: } 46: notes.AppendFormat("{0} Updates posted on Twitter : {1} {0}", Environment.NewLine, @"http://twitter.com/lunartech1"); 47: lblNotes.Text = notes.ToString(); 48: } 49: catch (Exception ex) 50: { 51: lblError.Text = " Message : " + ex.Message + (ex.InnerException != null ? " Inner Exception : " + ex.InnerException : string.Empty); 52: } 53: }   The extensions you can build integrating TFS and Twitter are incredible!   Share this post :

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• Announcing: Improvements to the Windows Azure Portal

  - by ScottGu

  Earlier today we released a number of enhancements to the new Windows Azure Management Portal.  These new capabilities include: Service Bus Management and Monitoring Support for Managing Co-administrators Import/Export support for SQL Databases Virtual Machine Experience Enhancements Improved Cloud Service Status Notifications Media Services Monitoring Support Storage Container Creation and Access Control Support All of these improvements are now live in production and available to start using immediately.  Below are more details on them: Service Bus Management and Monitoring The new Windows Azure Management Portal now supports Service Bus management and monitoring. Service Bus provides rich messaging infrastructure that can sit between applications (or between cloud and on-premise environments) and allow them to communicate in a loosely coupled way for improved scale and resiliency. With the new Service Bus experience, you can now create and manage Service Bus Namespaces, Queues, Topics, Relays and Subscriptions. You can also get rich monitoring for Service Bus Queues, Topics and Subscriptions. To create a Service Bus namespace, you can now select the “Service Bus” tab in the Windows Azure portal and then simply select the CREATE command: Doing so will bring up a new “Create a Namespace” dialog that allows you to name and create a new Service Bus Namespace: Once created, you can obtain security credentials associated with the Namespace via the ACCESS KEY command. This gives you the ability to obtain the connection string associated with the service namespace. You can copy and paste these values into any application that requires these credentials: It is also now easy to create Service Bus Queues and Topics via the NEW experience in the portal drawer.  Simply click the NEW command and navigate to the “App Services” category to create a new Service Bus entity: Once you provision a new Queue or Topic it can be managed in the portal.  Clicking on a namespace will display all queues and topics within it: Clicking on an item in the list will allow you to drill down into a dashboard view that allows you to monitor the activity and traffic within it, as well as perform operations on it. For example, below is a view of an “orders” queue – note how we now surface both the incoming and outgoing message flow rate, as well as the total queue length and queue size: To monitor pub/sub subscriptions you can use the ADD METRICS command within a topic and select a specific subscription to monitor. Support for Managing Co-Administrators You can now add co-administrators for your Windows Azure subscription using the new Windows Azure Portal. This allows you to share management of your Windows Azure services with other users. Subscription co-administrators share the same administrative rights and permissions that service administrator have - except a co-administrator cannot change or view billing details about the account, nor remove the service administrator from a subscription. In the SETTINGS section, click on the ADMINISTRATORS tab, and select the ADD button to add a co-administrator to your subscription: To add a co-administrator, you specify the email address for a Microsoft account (formerly Windows Live ID) or an organizational account, and choose the subscription you want to add them to: You can later update the subscriptions that the co-administrator has access to by clicking on the EDIT button, and then select or deselect the subscriptions to which they belong. Import/Export Support for SQL Databases The Windows Azure administration portal now supports importing and exporting SQL Databases to/from Blob Storage.  Databases can be imported/exported to blob storage using the same BACPAC file format that is supported with SQL Server 2012.  Among other benefits, this makes it easy to copy and migrate databases between on-premise and cloud environments. SQL Databases now have an EXPORT command in the bottom drawer that when pressed will prompt you to save your database to a Windows Azure storage container: The UI allows you to choose an existing storage account or create a new one, as well as the name of the BACPAC file to persist in blob storage: You can also now import and create a new SQL Database by using the NEW command.  This will prompt you to select the storage container and file to import the database from: The Windows Azure Portal enables you to monitor the progress of import and export operations. If you choose to log out of the portal, you can come back later and check on the status of all of the operations in the new history tab of the SQL Database server – this shows your entire import and export history and the status (success/fail) of each: Enhancements to the Virtual Machine Experience One of the common pain-points we have heard from customers using the preview of our new Virtual Machine support has been the inability to delete the associated VHDs when a VM instance (or VM drive) gets deleted. Prior to today’s release the VHDs would continue to be in your storage account and accumulate storage charges. You can now navigate to the Disks tab within the Virtual Machine extension, select a VM disk to delete, and click the DELETE DISK command: When you click the DELETE DISK button you have the option to delete the disk + associated .VHD file (completely clearing it from storage).  Alternatively you can delete the disk but still retain a .VHD copy of it in storage. Improved Cloud Service Status Notifications The Windows Azure portal now exposes more information of the health status of role instances.  If any of the instances are in a non-running state, the status at the top of the dashboard will summarize the status (and update automatically as the role health changes): Clicking the instance hyperlink within this status summary view will navigate you to a detailed role instance view, and allow you to get more detailed health status of each of the instances.  The portal has been updated to provide more specific status information within this detailed view – giving you better visibility into the health of your app: Monitoring Support for Media Services Windows Azure Media Services allows you to create media processing jobs (for example: encoding media files) in your Windows Azure Media Services account. In the Windows Azure Portal, you can now monitor the number of encoding jobs that are queued up for processing as well as active, failed and queued tasks for encoding jobs. On your media services account dashboard, you can visualize the monitoring data for last 6 hours, 24 hours or 7 days. Storage Container Creation and Access Control Support You can now create Windows Azure Storage storage containers from within the Windows Azure Portal.  After selecting a storage account, you can navigate to the CONTAINERS tab and click the ADD CONTAINER command: This will display a dialog that lets you name the new container and control access to it: You can also update the access setting as well as container metadata of existing containers by selecting one and then using the new EDIT CONTAINER command: This will then bring up the edit container dialog that allows you to change and save its settings: In addition to creating and editing containers, you can click on them within the portal to drill-in and view blobs within them.  Summary The above features are all now live in production and available to use immediately.  If you don’t already have a Windows Azure account, you can sign-up for a free trial and start using them today.  Visit the Windows Azure Developer Center to learn more about how to build apps with it. We’ll have even more new features and enhancements coming later this month – including support for the recent Windows Server 2012 and .NET 4.5 releases (we will enable new web and worker role images with Windows Server 2012 and .NET 4.5, and support .NET 4.5 with Websites).  Keep an eye out on my blog for details as these new features become available. Hope this helps, Scott P.S. In addition to blogging, I am also now using Twitter for quick updates and to share links. Follow me at: twitter.com/scottgu

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• Service Broker, not ETL

  - by jamiet

  I have been very quiet on this blog of late and one reason for that is I have been very busy on a client project that I would like to talk about a little here. The client that I have been working for has a website that runs on a distributed architecture utilising a messaging infrastructure for communication between different endpoints. My brief was to build a system that could consume these messages and produce analytical information in near-real-time. More specifically I basically had to deliver a data warehouse however it was the real-time aspect of the project that really intrigued me. This real-time requirement meant that using an Extract transformation, Load (ETL) tool was out of the question and so I had no choice but to write T-SQL code (i.e. stored-procedures) to process the incoming messages and load the data into the data warehouse. This concerned me though – I had no way to control the rate at which data would arrive into the system yet we were going to have end-users querying the system at the same time that those messages were arriving; the potential for contention in such a scenario was pretty high and and was something I wanted to minimise as much as possible. Moreover I did not want the processing of data inside the data warehouse to have any impact on the customer-facing website. As you have probably guessed from the title of this blog post this is where Service Broker stepped in! For those that have not heard of it Service Broker is a queuing technology that has been built into SQL Server since SQL Server 2005. It provides a number of features however the one that was of interest to me was the fact that it facilitates asynchronous data processing which, in layman’s terms, means the ability to process some data without requiring the system that supplied the data having to wait for the response. That was a crucial feature because on this project the customer-facing website (in effect an OLTP system) would be calling one of our stored procedures with each message – we did not want to cause the OLTP system to wait on us every time we processed one of those messages. This asynchronous nature also helps to alleviate the contention problem because the asynchronous processing activity is handled just like any other task in the database engine and hence can wait on another task (such as an end-user query). Service Broker it was then! The stored procedure called by the OLTP system would simply put the message onto a queue and we would use a feature called activation to pick each message off the queue in turn and process it into the warehouse. At the time of writing the system is not yet up to full capacity but so far everything seems to be working OK (touch wood) and crucially our users are seeing data in near-real-time. By near-real-time I am talking about latencies of a few minutes at most and to someone like me who is used to building systems that have overnight latencies that is a huge step forward! So then, am I advocating that you all go out and dump your ETL tools? Of course not, no! What this project has taught me though is that in certain scenarios there may be better ways to implement a data warehouse system then the traditional “load data in overnight” approach that we are all used to. Moreover I have really enjoyed getting to grips with a new technology and even if you don’t want to use Service Broker you might want to consider asynchronous messaging architectures for your BI/data warehousing solutions in the future. This has been a very high level overview of my use of Service Broker and I have deliberately left out much of the minutiae of what has been a very challenging implementation. Nonetheless I hope I have caused you to reflect upon your own approaches to BI and question whether other approaches may be more tenable. All comments and questions gratefully received! Lastly, if you have never used Service Broker before and want to kick the tyres I have provided below a very simple “Service Broker Hello World” script that will create all of the objects required to facilitate Service Broker communications and then send the message “Hello World” from one place to anther! This doesn’t represent a “proper” implementation per se because it doesn’t close down down conversation objects (which you should always do in a real-world scenario) but its enough to demonstrate the capabilities! @Jamiet ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /*This is a basic Service Broker Hello World app. Have fun! -Jamie */ USE MASTER GO CREATE DATABASE SBTest GO --Turn Service Broker on! ALTER DATABASE SBTest SET ENABLE_BROKER GO USE SBTest GO -- 1) we need to create a message type. Note that our message type is -- very simple and allowed any type of content CREATE MESSAGE TYPE HelloMessage VALIDATION = NONE GO -- 2) Once the message type has been created, we need to create a contract -- that specifies who can send what types of messages CREATE CONTRACT HelloContract (HelloMessage SENT BY INITIATOR) GO --We can query the metadata of the objects we just created SELECT * FROM   sys.service_message_types WHERE name = 'HelloMessage'; SELECT * FROM   sys.service_contracts WHERE name = 'HelloContract'; SELECT * FROM   sys.service_contract_message_usages WHERE  service_contract_id IN (SELECT service_contract_id FROM sys.service_contracts WHERE name = 'HelloContract') AND        message_type_id IN (SELECT message_type_id FROM sys.service_message_types WHERE name = 'HelloMessage'); -- 3) The communication is between two endpoints. Thus, we need two queues to -- hold messages CREATE QUEUE SenderQueue CREATE QUEUE ReceiverQueue GO --more querying metatda SELECT * FROM sys.service_queues WHERE name IN ('SenderQueue','ReceiverQueue'); --we can also select from the queues as if they were tables SELECT * FROM SenderQueue   SELECT * FROM ReceiverQueue   -- 4) Create the required services and bind them to be above created queues CREATE SERVICE Sender   ON QUEUE SenderQueue CREATE SERVICE Receiver   ON QUEUE ReceiverQueue (HelloContract) GO --more querying metadata SELECT * FROM sys.services WHERE name IN ('Receiver','Sender'); -- 5) At this point, we can begin the conversation between the two services by -- sending messages DECLARE @conversationHandle UNIQUEIDENTIFIER DECLARE @message NVARCHAR(100) BEGIN   BEGIN TRANSACTION;   BEGIN DIALOG @conversationHandle         FROM SERVICE Sender         TO SERVICE 'Receiver'         ON CONTRACT HelloContract WITH ENCRYPTION=OFF   -- Send a message on the conversation   SET @message = N'Hello, World';   SEND  ON CONVERSATION @conversationHandle         MESSAGE TYPE HelloMessage (@message)   COMMIT TRANSACTION END GO --check contents of queues SELECT * FROM SenderQueue   SELECT * FROM ReceiverQueue   GO -- Receive a message from the queue RECEIVE CONVERT(NVARCHAR(MAX), message_body) AS MESSAGE FROM ReceiverQueue GO --If no messages were received and/or you can't see anything on the queues you may wish to check the following for clues: SELECT * FROM sys.transmission_queue -- Cleanup DROP SERVICE Sender DROP SERVICE Receiver DROP QUEUE SenderQueue DROP QUEUE ReceiverQueue DROP CONTRACT HelloContract DROP MESSAGE TYPE HelloMessage GO USE MASTER GO DROP DATABASE SBTest GO

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• Reflections on GiveCamp

  - by Reed

  I participated in the Seattle GiveCamp over the weekend, and am entirely impressed.  GiveCamp is a great event – I especially like how rewarding it is for everybody involved.  I strongly encourage any and all developers to watch for future GiveCamp events, and consider participating, for many reasons… GiveCamp provides real value to organizations that truly need help.  The Seattle event alone succeeded in helping sixteen non-profit organizations in many different ways.  The projects involved varied dramatically, including website redesigns, SEO, reworking data management workflows, and even game development.  Many non-profits have a strong need for good, quality technical help.  However, nearly every non-profit organization has an incredibly limited budget.  GiveCamp is a way to really give back, and provide incredibly valuable help to organizations that truly benefit. My experience has shown many developers to be incredibly generous – this is a chance to dedicate your energy to helping others in a way that really takes advantage of your expertise.  Your time as a developer is incredibly valuable, and this puts something of incredible value directly into the hands of places its needed. First, and foremost, GiveCamp is about providing technical help to non-profit organizations in need. GiveCamp can make you a better developer.  This is a fantastic opportunity for us, as developers, to work with new people, in a new setting.  The incredibly short time frame (one weekend for a deliverable project) and intense motivation to succeed provides a huge opportunity for learning from peers.  I’d personally like to thank off the developers with whom I worked – I learned something from each and every one of you.  I hope to see and work with all of you again someday. GiveCamp provides an opportunity for you to work outside of your comfort zone. While it’s always nice to be an expert, it’s also valuable to work on a project where you have little or no direct experience.  My team focused on a complete reworking of our organizations message and a complete new website redesign and deployment using WordPress.  While I’d used WordPress for my blog, and had some experience, this is completely unrelated to my professional work.  In fact, nobody on our team normally worked directly with the technologies involved – yet together we managed to succeed in delivering our goals.  As developers, it’s easy to want to stay abreast of new technology surrounding our expertise, but its rare that we get a chance to sit down and work on something practical that is completely outside of our normal realm of work.  I’m a desktop developer by trade, and spent much of the weekend working with CSS and Photoshop.  Many of the projects organizations need don’t match perfectly with the skill set in the room – yet all of the software professionals rose to the occasion and delivered practical, usable applications. GiveCamp is a short term, known commitment. While this seems obvious, I think it’s an important aspect to remember.  This is a huge part of what makes it successful – you can work, completely focused, on a project, then walk away completely when you’re done.  There is no expectation of continued involvement.  While many of the professionals I’ve talked to are willing to contribute some amount of their time beyond the camp, this is not expected. The freedom this provides is immense.  In addition, the motivation this brings is incredibly valuable.  Every developer in the room was very focused on delivering in time – you have one shot to get it as good as possible, and leave it with the organization in a way that can be maintained by them.  This is a rare experience – and excellent practice at time management for everyone involved. GiveCamp provides a great way to meet and network with your peers. Not only do you get to network with other software professionals in your area – you get to network with amazing people.  Every single person in the room is there to try to help people.  The balance of altruism, intelligence, and expertise in the room is something I’ve never before experienced. During the presentations of what was accomplished, I felt blessed to participate.  I know many people in the room were incredibly touched by the level of dedication and accomplishment over the weekend. GiveCamp is fun. At the end of the experience, I would have signed up again, even if it was a painful, tedious weekend – merely due to the amazing accomplishments achieved throughout the event.  However, the event is fun.  Everybody I talked to, the entire weekend, was having a good time.  While there were many faces focused into a near grimace at times (including mine, I’ll admit), this was always in response to a particularly challenging problem or task.  The challenges just added to the overall enjoyment of the weekend – part of why I became a developer in the first place is my love for challenge and puzzles, and a short deadline using unfamiliar technology provided plenty of opportunity for puzzles.  As soon as people would stand up, it was another smile.   If you’re a developer, I’d recommend looking at GiveCamp more closely.  Watch for an event in your area.  If there isn’t one, consider building a team and organizing an event.  The experience is worth the commitment. 

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• Day 4 - Game Sprites In Action

  - by dapostolov

  Yesterday I drew an image on the screen. Most exciting, but ... I spent more time blogging about it then actual coding. So this next little while I'm going to streamline my game and research and simply post key notes. Quick notes on the last session: The most important thing I wanted to point out were the following methods:           spriteBatch.Begin(SpriteBlendMode.AlphaBlend);           spriteBatch.Draw(sprite, position, Color.White);           spriteBatch.End(); The spriteBatch object is used to draw Textures and a 2D texture is called a Sprite A texture is generally an image, which is called an Asset in XNA The Draw Method in the Game1.cs is looped (until exit) and utilises the spriteBatch object to draw a Scene To begin drawing a Scene you call the Begin Method. To end a Scene you call the End Method. And to place an image on the Scene you call the Draw method. The most simple implementation of the draw method is:           spriteBatch.Draw(sprite, position, Color.White); 1) sprite - the 2D texture you loaded to draw 2) position - the 2d vector, a set of x & y coordinates 3) Color.White - the tint to apply to the texture, in this case, white light = nothing, nada, no tint. Game Sprites In Action! Today, I played around with Draw methods to get comfortable with their "quirks". The following is an example of the above draw method, but with more parameters available for us to use. Let's investigate!             spriteBatch.Draw(sprite, position2, null, Color.White, MathHelper.ToRadians(45.0f), new Vector2(sprite.Width / 2, sprite.Height / 2), 1.0F, SpriteEffects.None, 0.0F); The parameters (in order): 1) sprite  the texture to display 2) position2 the position on the screen / scene this can also be a rectangle 3) null the portion of the image to display within an image null = display full image this is generally used for animation strips / grids (more on this below) 4) Color.White Texture tinting White = no tint 5) MathHelper.ToRadians(45.0f) rotation of the object, in this case 45 degrees rotates from the set plotting point. 6) new Vector(0,0) the plotting point in this case the top left corner the image will rotate from the top left of the texture in the code above, the point is set to the middle of the image. 7) 1.0f Image scaling (1x) 8) SpriteEffects.None you can flip the image horizontally or vertically 9) 0.0f The z index of the image. 0 = closer, 1 behind? And playing around with different combinations I was able to come up with the following whacky display:   Checking off Yesterdays Intention List: learn game development terminology (in progress) - We learned sprite, scene, texture, and asset. how to place and position (rotate) a static image on the screen (completed) - The thing to note was, it's was in radians and I found a cool helper method to convert degrees into radians. Also, the image rotates from it's specified point. how to layer static images on the screen (completed) - I couldn't seem to get the zIndex working, but one things for sure, the order you draw the image in also determines how it is rendered on the screen. understand image scaling (in progress) - I'm not sure I have this fully covered, but for the most part plug a number in the scaling field and the image grows / shrinks accordingly. can we reuse images? (completed) - yes, I loaded one image and plotted the bugger all over the screen. understand how framerate is handled in XNA (in progress) - I hacked together some code to display the framerate each second. A framerate of 60 appears to be the standard. Interesting to note, the GameTime object does provide you with some cool timing capabilities, such as...is the game running slow? Need to investigate this down the road. how to display text , basic shapes, and colors on the screen (in progress) - i got text rendered on the screen, and i understand containing rectangles. However, I didn't display "shapes" & "colors" how to interact with an image (collision of user input?) (todo) how to animate an image and understand basic animation techniques (in progress) - I was able to create a stripe animation of numbers ranging from 1 - 4, each block was 40 x 40 pixles for a total stripe size of 160 x 40. Using the portion (source Rectangle) parameter, i limited this display to each section at varying intervals. It was interesting to note my first implementation animated at rocket speed. I then tried to create a smoother animation by limiting the redraw capacity, which seemed to work. I guess a little more research will have to be put into this for animating characters / scenes. how to detect colliding images or screen edges (todo) - but the rectangle object can detect collisions I believe. how to manipulate the image, lets say colors, stretching (in progress) - I haven't figured out how to modify a specific color to be another color, but the tinting parameter definately could be used. As for stretching, use the rectangle object as the positioning and the image will stretch to fit! how to focus on a segment of an image...like only displaying a frame on a film reel (completed) - as per basic animation techniques what's the best way to manage images (compression, storage, location, prevent artwork theft, etc.) (todo) Tomorrows Intention Tomorrow I am going to take a stab at rendering a game menu and from there I'm going to investigate how I can improve upon the code and techniques. Intention List: Render a menu, fancy or not Show the mouse cursor Hook up click event A basic animation of somesort Investigate image / menu techniques D.

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• Having a hard time having consecutive animations for an attack

  - by Kelby Styler

  So I've been trying to figure this out for about 8 hours now...It's driving me nuts because I am pretty sure that it is something dead simple that I am just not understanding. I had everything working fine when I was just cycling through the animation: Idle - Attack - Attack 1 - Attack 2. Just in an infinite loop. The problem now is that I want it to go Attack - check if x time passes if ctrl pressed before x passes move to Attack 1, if not move back to Idle - Then either Attack 1 or Idle depending on how long has passed. I've almost gotten it a few time, but something always happens where it falls apart if I press ctrl too fast or after multiple cycles of the animation. Any help would be appreciated, I'm just at my wits end on this one. I've been looking at this so long that I just don't know where to go anymore. Code is below, here is the controller using UnityEngine; using System.Collections; public class MeleeAttack : MonoBehaviour { public int damage; public bool Attack; public bool Attack1; public bool Attack2; public bool Idle; private Animator animator; private int attnum = 0; private float count = 2f; private float timeLeft; //Gives value to damage output void MAttackDmg () { if (Input.GetKeyDown (KeyCode.RightControl) || Input.GetKeyDown (KeyCode.LeftControl)) { switch (attnum) { case (0): Attack = true; damage = 2; animator.SetBool ("Attack", Attack); attnum++; Idle = false; animator.SetBool ("Idle", Idle); timeLeft = count; break; case (1): Attack1 = true; damage = 2; animator.SetBool ("Attack1", Attack1); attnum++; Idle = false; animator.SetBool ("Idle", Idle); timeLeft = count; break; case (2): Attack2 = true; damage = 2; animator.SetBool ("Attack2", Attack2); attnum = 0; Idle = false; animator.SetBool ("Idle", Idle); timeLeft = count; break; } } if (Input.GetKeyUp (KeyCode.RightControl) || Input.GetKeyUp (KeyCode.LeftControl)) { switch (attnum) { case (0): Debug.Log ("false"); damage = 0; if (timeLeft <= 0f) { Attack2 = false; animator.SetBool ("Attack2", Attack2); Debug.Log ("t1"); Idle = true; animator.SetBool ("Idle", Idle); attnum = 0; timeLeft = count; } break; case (1): Debug.Log ("false1"); damage = 0; if (timeLeft <= 0f) { Debug.Log ("t2"); Attack = false; animator.SetBool ("Attack", Attack); Idle = true; animator.SetBool ("Idle", Idle); attnum = 0; timeLeft = count; } break; case (2): Debug.Log ("false2"); damage = 0; if (timeLeft <= 0f) { Attack1 = false; animator.SetBool ("Attack1", Attack1); Debug.Log ("t3"); Idle = true; animator.SetBool ("Idle", Idle); attnum = 0; timeLeft = count; } break; } } } // Use this for initialization void Awake () { animator = GetComponent<Animator> (); } // Update is called once per frame void Update () { timeLeft -= Time.deltaTime;; MAttackDmg (); } void Start (){ timeLeft = count; } }

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• 11415 compile errors FTW?!

  - by Koning Baard

  Hello. This is something I've really never seen but, I downloaded the source code of the sine wave example at http://www.audiosynth.com/sinewavedemo.html . It is in an old Project Builder Project format, and I want to compile it with Xcode (GCC). However, Xcode gives me 11415 compile errors. The first few are (all in the precompilation of AppKit.h): /Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.6.sdk/System/Library/Frameworks/Foundation.framework/Headers/NSObject.h:31:0 /Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.6.sdk/System/Library/Frameworks/Foundation.framework/Headers/NSObject.h:31: error: expected identifier or '(' before '-' token /Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.6.sdk/System/Library/Frameworks/Foundation.framework/Headers/NSObject.h:33:0 /Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.6.sdk/System/Library/Frameworks/Foundation.framework/Headers/NSObject.h:33: error: expected identifier or '(' before '-' token /Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.6.sdk/System/Library/Frameworks/Foundation.framework/Headers/NSObject.h:35:0 /Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.6.sdk/System/Library/Frameworks/Foundation.framework/Headers/NSObject.h:35: error: expected identifier or '(' before '-' token /Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.6.sdk/System/Library/Frameworks/Foundation.framework/Headers/NSObject.h:36:0 /Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.6.sdk/System/Library/Frameworks/Foundation.framework/Headers/NSObject.h:36: error: expected identifier or '(' before '-' token /Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.6.sdk/System/Library/Frameworks/Foundation.framework/Headers/NSObject.h:37:0 /Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.6.sdk/System/Library/Frameworks/Foundation.framework/Headers/NSObject.h:37: error: expected identifier or '(' before '-' token /Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.6.sdk/System/Library/Frameworks/Foundation.framework/Headers/NSObject.h:38:0 /Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.6.sdk/System/Library/Frameworks/Foundation.framework/Headers/NSObject.h:38: error: expected identifier or '(' before '-' token /Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.6.sdk/System/Library/Frameworks/Foundation.framework/Headers/NSObject.h:40:0 /Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.6.sdk/System/Library/Frameworks/Foundation.framework/Headers/NSObject.h:40: error: expected identifier or '(' before '-' token /Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.6.sdk/System/Library/Frameworks/Foundation.framework/Headers/NSObject.h:42:0 /Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.6.sdk/System/Library/Frameworks/Foundation.framework/Headers/NSObject.h:42: error: expected identifier or '(' before '@' token /Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.6.sdk/System/Library/Frameworks/Foundation.framework/Headers/NSObject.h:48:0 /Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.6.sdk/System/Library/Frameworks/Foundation.framework/Headers/NSObject.h:48: error: expected identifier or '(' before '@' token /Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.6.sdk/System/Library/Frameworks/Foundation.framework/Headers/NSObject.h:54:0 /Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.6.sdk/System/Library/Frameworks/Foundation.framework/Headers/NSObject.h:54: error: expected identifier or '(' before '@' token /Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.6.sdk/System/Library/Frameworks/Foundation.framework/Headers/NSObject.h:59:0 /Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.6.sdk/System/Library/Frameworks/Foundation.framework/Headers/NSObject.h:59: error: expected identifier or '(' before '-' token /Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.6.sdk/System/Library/Frameworks/Foundation.framework/Headers/NSObject.h:61:0 /Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.6.sdk/System/Library/Frameworks/Foundation.framework/Headers/NSObject.h:61: error: expected identifier or '(' before '@' token /Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.6.sdk/System/Library/Frameworks/Foundation.framework/Headers/NSObject.h:69:0 /Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.6.sdk/System/Library/Frameworks/Foundation.framework/Headers/NSObject.h:69: error: expected identifier or '(' before '+' token /Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.6.sdk/System/Library/Frameworks/Foundation.framework/Headers/NSObject.h:71:0 /Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.6.sdk/System/Library/Frameworks/Foundation.framework/Headers/NSObject.h:71: error: expected identifier or '(' before '+' token /Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.6.sdk/System/Library/Frameworks/Foundation.framework/Headers/NSValue.h:39:0 /Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.6.sdk/System/Library/Frameworks/Foundation.framework/Headers/NSValue.h:39: error: expected identifier or '(' before '-' token /Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.6.sdk/System/Library/Frameworks/Foundation.framework/Headers/NSValue.h:40:0 /Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.6.sdk/System/Library/Frameworks/Foundation.framework/Headers/NSValue.h:40: error: expected identifier or '(' before '-' token /Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.6.sdk/System/Library/Frameworks/Foundation.framework/Headers/NSValue.h:41:0 /Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.6.sdk/System/Library/Frameworks/Foundation.framework/Headers/NSValue.h:41: error: expected identifier or '(' before '-' token /Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.6.sdk/System/Library/Frameworks/Foundation.framework/Headers/NSValue.h:42:0 /Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.6.sdk/System/Library/Frameworks/Foundation.framework/Headers/NSValue.h:42: error: expected identifier or '(' before '-' token /Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.6.sdk/System/Library/Frameworks/Foundation.framework/Headers/NSValue.h:43:0 /Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.6.sdk/System/Library/Frameworks/Foundation.framework/Headers/NSValue.h:43: error: expected identifier or '(' before '-' token /Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.6.sdk/System/Library/Frameworks/Foundation.framework/Headers/NSValue.h:44:0 /Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.6.sdk/System/Library/Frameworks/Foundation.framework/Headers/NSValue.h:44: error: expected identifier or '(' before '-' token /Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.6.sdk/System/Library/Frameworks/Foundation.framework/Headers/NSValue.h:45:0 /Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.6.sdk/System/Library/Frameworks/Foundation.framework/Headers/NSValue.h:45: error: expected identifier or '(' before '-' token /Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.6.sdk/System/Library/Frameworks/Foundation.framework/Headers/NSValue.h:46:0 /Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.6.sdk/System/Library/Frameworks/Foundation.framework/Headers/NSValue.h:46: error: expected identifier or '(' before '-' token Some of the code is: HAL.c /* * HAL.c * Sinewave * * Created by james on Fri Apr 27 2001. * Copyright (c) 2001 __CompanyName__. All rights reserved. * */ #include "HAL.h" #include "math.h" appGlobals gAppGlobals; OSStatus appIOProc (AudioDeviceID inDevice, const AudioTimeStamp* inNow, const AudioBufferList* inInputData, const AudioTimeStamp* inInputTime, AudioBufferList* outOutputData, const AudioTimeStamp* inOutputTime, void* device); #define FailIf(cond, handler) \ if (cond) { \ goto handler; \ } #define FailWithAction(cond, action, handler) \ if (cond) { \ { action; } \ goto handler; \ } // ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ // ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ // HAL Sample Code ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ // ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ // ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ //#define noErr 0 //#define false 0 OSStatus SetupHAL (appGlobalsPtr globals) { OSStatus err = noErr; UInt32 count, bufferSize; AudioDeviceID device = kAudioDeviceUnknown; AudioStreamBasicDescription format; // get the default output device for the HAL count = sizeof(globals->device); // it is required to pass the size of the data to be returned err = AudioHardwareGetProperty(kAudioHardwarePropertyDefaultOutputDevice, &count, (void *) &device); fprintf(stderr, "kAudioHardwarePropertyDefaultOutputDevice %d\n", err); if (err != noErr) goto Bail; // get the buffersize that the default device uses for IO count = sizeof(globals->deviceBufferSize); // it is required to pass the size of the data to be returned err = AudioDeviceGetProperty(device, 0, false, kAudioDevicePropertyBufferSize, &count, &bufferSize); fprintf(stderr, "kAudioDevicePropertyBufferSize %d %d\n", err, bufferSize); if (err != noErr) goto Bail; // get a description of the data format used by the default device count = sizeof(globals->deviceFormat); // it is required to pass the size of the data to be returned err = AudioDeviceGetProperty(device, 0, false, kAudioDevicePropertyStreamFormat, &count, &format); fprintf(stderr, "kAudioDevicePropertyStreamFormat %d\n", err); fprintf(stderr, "sampleRate %g\n", format.mSampleRate); fprintf(stderr, "mFormatFlags %08X\n", format.mFormatFlags); fprintf(stderr, "mBytesPerPacket %d\n", format.mBytesPerPacket); fprintf(stderr, "mFramesPerPacket %d\n", format.mFramesPerPacket); fprintf(stderr, "mChannelsPerFrame %d\n", format.mChannelsPerFrame); fprintf(stderr, "mBytesPerFrame %d\n", format.mBytesPerFrame); fprintf(stderr, "mBitsPerChannel %d\n", format.mBitsPerChannel); if (err != kAudioHardwareNoError) goto Bail; FailWithAction(format.mFormatID != kAudioFormatLinearPCM, err = paramErr, Bail); // bail if the format is not linear pcm // everything is ok so fill in these globals globals->device = device; globals->deviceBufferSize = bufferSize; globals->deviceFormat = format; Bail: return (err); } /* struct AudioStreamBasicDescription { Float64 mSampleRate; // the native sample rate of the audio stream UInt32 mFormatID; // the specific encoding type of audio stream UInt32 mFormatFlags; // flags specific to each format UInt32 mBytesPerPacket; // the number of bytes in a packet UInt32 mFramesPerPacket; // the number of frames in each packet UInt32 mBytesPerFrame; // the number of bytes in a frame UInt32 mChannelsPerFrame; // the number of channels in each frame UInt32 mBitsPerChannel; // the number of bits in each channel }; typedef struct AudioStreamBasicDescription AudioStreamBasicDescription; */ // ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ // This is a simple playThru ioProc. It simply places the data in the input buffer back into the output buffer. // Watch out for feedback from Speakers to Microphone OSStatus appIOProc (AudioDeviceID inDevice, const AudioTimeStamp* inNow, const AudioBufferList* inInputData, const AudioTimeStamp* inInputTime, AudioBufferList* outOutputData, const AudioTimeStamp* inOutputTime, void* appGlobals) { appGlobalsPtr globals = appGlobals; int i; double phase = gAppGlobals.phase; double amp = gAppGlobals.amp; double pan = gAppGlobals.pan; double freq = gAppGlobals.freq * 2. * 3.14159265359 / globals->deviceFormat.mSampleRate; int numSamples = globals->deviceBufferSize / globals->deviceFormat.mBytesPerFrame; // assume floats for now.... float *out = outOutputData->mBuffers[0].mData; for (i=0; i<numSamples; ++i) { float wave = sin(phase) * amp; phase = phase + freq; *out++ = wave * (1.0-pan); *out++ = wave * pan; } gAppGlobals.phase = phase; return (kAudioHardwareNoError); } // ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ OSStatus StartPlayingThruHAL(appGlobalsPtr globals) { OSStatus err = kAudioHardwareNoError; if (globals->soundPlaying) return 0; globals->phase = 0.0; err = AudioDeviceAddIOProc(globals->device, appIOProc, (void *) globals); // setup our device with an IO proc if (err != kAudioHardwareNoError) goto Bail; err = AudioDeviceStart(globals->device, appIOProc); // start playing sound through the device if (err != kAudioHardwareNoError) goto Bail; globals->soundPlaying = true; // set the playing status global to true Bail: return (err); } // ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ OSStatus StopPlayingThruHAL(appGlobalsPtr globals) { OSStatus err = kAudioHardwareNoError; if (!globals->soundPlaying) return 0; err = AudioDeviceStop(globals->device, appIOProc); // stop playing sound through the device if (err != kAudioHardwareNoError) goto Bail; err = AudioDeviceRemoveIOProc(globals->device, appIOProc); // remove the IO proc from the device if (err != kAudioHardwareNoError) goto Bail; globals->soundPlaying = false; // set the playing status global to false Bail: return (err); } Sinewave.m // // a very simple Cocoa CoreAudio app // by James McCartney [email protected] www.audiosynth.com // // Sinewave - this class implements a sine oscillator with dezippered control of frequency, pan and amplitude // #import "Sinewave.h" // define a C struct from the Obj-C object so audio callback can access data typedef struct { @defs(Sinewave); } sinewavedef; // this is the audio processing callback. OSStatus appIOProc (AudioDeviceID inDevice, const AudioTimeStamp* inNow, const AudioBufferList* inInputData, const AudioTimeStamp* inInputTime, AudioBufferList* outOutputData, const AudioTimeStamp* inOutputTime, void* defptr) { sinewavedef* def = defptr; // get access to Sinewave's data int i; // load instance vars into registers double phase = def->phase; double amp = def->amp; double pan = def->pan; double freq = def->freq; double ampz = def->ampz; double panz = def->panz; double freqz = def->freqz; int numSamples = def->deviceBufferSize / def->deviceFormat.mBytesPerFrame; // assume floats for now.... float *out = outOutputData->mBuffers[0].mData; for (i=0; i<numSamples; ++i) { float wave = sin(phase) * ampz; // generate sine wave phase = phase + freqz; // increment phase // write output *out++ = wave * (1.0-panz); // left channel *out++ = wave * panz; // right channel // de-zipper controls panz = 0.001 * pan + 0.999 * panz; ampz = 0.001 * amp + 0.999 * ampz; freqz = 0.001 * freq + 0.999 * freqz; } // save registers back to object def->phase = phase; def->freqz = freqz; def->ampz = ampz; def->panz = panz; return kAudioHardwareNoError; } @implementation Sinewave - (void) setup { OSStatus err = kAudioHardwareNoError; UInt32 count; device = kAudioDeviceUnknown; initialized = NO; // get the default output device for the HAL count = sizeof(device); // it is required to pass the size of the data to be returned err = AudioHardwareGetProperty(kAudioHardwarePropertyDefaultOutputDevice, &count, (void *) &device); if (err != kAudioHardwareNoError) { fprintf(stderr, "get kAudioHardwarePropertyDefaultOutputDevice error %ld\n", err); return; } // get the buffersize that the default device uses for IO count = sizeof(deviceBufferSize); // it is required to pass the size of the data to be returned err = AudioDeviceGetProperty(device, 0, false, kAudioDevicePropertyBufferSize, &count, &deviceBufferSize); if (err != kAudioHardwareNoError) { fprintf(stderr, "get kAudioDevicePropertyBufferSize error %ld\n", err); return; } fprintf(stderr, "deviceBufferSize = %ld\n", deviceBufferSize); // get a description of the data format used by the default device count = sizeof(deviceFormat); // it is required to pass the size of the data to be returned err = AudioDeviceGetProperty(device, 0, false, kAudioDevicePropertyStreamFormat, &count, &deviceFormat); if (err != kAudioHardwareNoError) { fprintf(stderr, "get kAudioDevicePropertyStreamFormat error %ld\n", err); return; } if (deviceFormat.mFormatID != kAudioFormatLinearPCM) { fprintf(stderr, "mFormatID != kAudioFormatLinearPCM\n"); return; } if (!(deviceFormat.mFormatFlags & kLinearPCMFormatFlagIsFloat)) { fprintf(stderr, "Sorry, currently only works with float format....\n"); return; } initialized = YES; fprintf(stderr, "mSampleRate = %g\n", deviceFormat.mSampleRate); fprintf(stderr, "mFormatFlags = %08lX\n", deviceFormat.mFormatFlags); fprintf(stderr, "mBytesPerPacket = %ld\n", deviceFormat.mBytesPerPacket); fprintf(stderr, "mFramesPerPacket = %ld\n", deviceFormat.mFramesPerPacket); fprintf(stderr, "mChannelsPerFrame = %ld\n", deviceFormat.mChannelsPerFrame); fprintf(stderr, "mBytesPerFrame = %ld\n", deviceFormat.mBytesPerFrame); fprintf(stderr, "mBitsPerChannel = %ld\n", deviceFormat.mBitsPerChannel); } - (void)setAmpVal:(double)val { amp = val; } - (void)setFreqVal:(double)val { freq = val * 2. * 3.14159265359 / deviceFormat.mSampleRate; } - (void)setPanVal:(double)val { pan = val; } - (BOOL)start { OSStatus err = kAudioHardwareNoError; sinewavedef *def; if (!initialized) return false; if (soundPlaying) return false; // initialize phase and de-zipper filters. phase = 0.0; freqz = freq; ampz = amp; panz = pan; def = (sinewavedef *)self; err = AudioDeviceAddIOProc(device, appIOProc, (void *) def); // setup our device with an IO proc if (err != kAudioHardwareNoError) return false; err = AudioDeviceStart(device, appIOProc); // start playing sound through the device if (err != kAudioHardwareNoError) return false; soundPlaying = true; // set the playing status global to true return true; } - (BOOL)stop { OSStatus err = kAudioHardwareNoError; if (!initialized) return false; if (!soundPlaying) return false; err = AudioDeviceStop(device, appIOProc); // stop playing sound through the device if (err != kAudioHardwareNoError) return false; err = AudioDeviceRemoveIOProc(device, appIOProc); // remove the IO proc from the device if (err != kAudioHardwareNoError) return false; soundPlaying = false; // set the playing status global to false return true; } @end Can anyone help me compiling this example? I'd really appriciate it. Thanks

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• MD5 vertex skinning problem extending to multi-jointed skeleton (GPU Skinning)

  - by Soapy

  Currently I'm trying to implement GPU skinning in my project. So far I have achieved single joint translation and rotation, and multi-jointed translation. The problem arises when I try to rotate a multi-jointed skeleton. The image above shows the current progress. The left image shows how the model should deform. The middle image shows how it deforms in my project. The right shows a better deform (still not right) inverting a certain value, which I will explain below. The way I get my animation data is by exporting it to the MD5 format (MD5mesh for mesh data and MD5anim for animation data). When I come to parse the animation data, for each frame, I check if the bone has a parent, if not, the data is passed in as is from the MD5anim file. If it does have a parent, I transform the bones position by the parents orientation, and the add this with the parents translation. Then the parent and child orientations get concatenated. This is covered at this website. if (Parent < 0){ ... // Save this data without editing it } else { Math3::vec3 rpos; Math3::quat pq = Parent.Quaternion; Math3::quat pqi(pq); pqi.InvertUnitQuat(); pqi.Normalise(); Math3::quat::RotateVector3(rpos, pq, jv); Math3::vec3 npos(rpos + Parent.Pos); this->Translation = npos; Math3::quat nq = pq * jq; nq.Normalise(); this->Quaternion = nq; } And to achieve the image to the right, all I need to do is to change Math3::quat::RotateVector3(rpos, pq, jv); to Math3::quat::RotateVector3(rpos, pqi, jv);, why is that? And this is my skinning shader. SkinningShader.vert #version 330 core smooth out vec2 vVaryingTexCoords; smooth out vec3 vVaryingNormals; smooth out vec4 vWeightColor; uniform mat4 MV; uniform mat4 MVP; uniform mat4 Pallete[55]; uniform mat4 invBindPose[55]; layout(location = 0) in vec3 vPos; layout(location = 1) in vec2 vTexCoords; layout(location = 2) in vec3 vNormals; layout(location = 3) in int vSkeleton[4]; layout(location = 4) in vec3 vWeight; void main() { vec4 wpos = vec4(vPos, 1.0); vec4 norm = vec4(vNormals, 0.0); vec4 weight = vec4(vWeight, (1.0f-(vWeight[0] + vWeight[1] + vWeight[2]))); normalize(weight); mat4 BoneTransform; for(int i = 0; i < 4; i++) { if(vSkeleton[i] != -1) { if(i == 0) { // These are interchangable for some reason // BoneTransform = ((invBindPose[vSkeleton[i]] * Pallete[vSkeleton[i]]) * weight[i]); BoneTransform = ((Pallete[vSkeleton[i]] * invBindPose[vSkeleton[i]]) * weight[i]); } else { // These are interchangable for some reason // BoneTransform += ((invBindPose[vSkeleton[i]] * Pallete[vSkeleton[i]]) * weight[i]); BoneTransform += ((Pallete[vSkeleton[i]] * invBindPose[vSkeleton[i]]) * weight[i]); } } } wpos = BoneTransform * wpos; vWeightColor = weight; vVaryingTexCoords = vTexCoords; vVaryingNormals = normalize(vec3(vec4(vNormals, 0.0) * MV)); gl_Position = wpos * MVP; } The Pallete matrices are the matrices calculated using the above code (a rotation and translation matrix get created from the translation and quaternion). The invBindPose matrices are simply the inverted matrices created from the joints in the MD5mesh file. Update 1 I looked at GLM to compare the values I get with my own implementation. They turn out to be exactly the same. So now i'm checking if there's a problem with matrix creation... Update 2 Looked at GLM again to compare matrix creation using quaternions. Turns out that's not the problem either.

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• Render 2 images that uses different shaders

  - by Code Vader

  Based on the giawa/nehe tutorials, how can I render 2 images with different shaders. I'm pretty new to OpenGl and shaders so I'm not completely sure whats happening in my code, but I think the shaders that is called last overwrites the first one. private static void OnRenderFrame() { // calculate how much time has elapsed since the last frame watch.Stop(); float deltaTime = (float)watch.ElapsedTicks / System.Diagnostics.Stopwatch.Frequency; watch.Restart(); // use the deltaTime to adjust the angle of the cube angle += deltaTime; // set up the OpenGL viewport and clear both the color and depth bits Gl.Viewport(0, 0, width, height); Gl.Clear(ClearBufferMask.ColorBufferBit | ClearBufferMask.DepthBufferBit); // use our shader program and bind the crate texture Gl.UseProgram(program); //<<<<<<<<<<<< TOP PYRAMID // set the transformation of the top_pyramid program["model_matrix"].SetValue(Matrix4.CreateRotationY(angle * rotate_cube)); program["enable_lighting"].SetValue(lighting); // bind the vertex positions, UV coordinates and element array Gl.BindBufferToShaderAttribute(top_pyramid, program, "vertexPosition"); Gl.BindBufferToShaderAttribute(top_pyramidNormals, program, "vertexNormal"); Gl.BindBufferToShaderAttribute(top_pyramidUV, program, "vertexUV"); Gl.BindBuffer(top_pyramidTrianlges); // draw the textured top_pyramid Gl.DrawElements(BeginMode.Triangles, top_pyramidTrianlges.Count, DrawElementsType.UnsignedInt, IntPtr.Zero); //<<<<<<<<<< CUBE // set the transformation of the cube program["model_matrix"].SetValue(Matrix4.CreateRotationY(angle * rotate_cube)); program["enable_lighting"].SetValue(lighting); // bind the vertex positions, UV coordinates and element array Gl.BindBufferToShaderAttribute(cube, program, "vertexPosition"); Gl.BindBufferToShaderAttribute(cubeNormals, program, "vertexNormal"); Gl.BindBufferToShaderAttribute(cubeUV, program, "vertexUV"); Gl.BindBuffer(cubeQuads); // draw the textured cube Gl.DrawElements(BeginMode.Quads, cubeQuads.Count, DrawElementsType.UnsignedInt, IntPtr.Zero); //<<<<<<<<<<<< BOTTOM PYRAMID // set the transformation of the bottom_pyramid program["model_matrix"].SetValue(Matrix4.CreateRotationY(angle * rotate_cube)); program["enable_lighting"].SetValue(lighting); // bind the vertex positions, UV coordinates and element array Gl.BindBufferToShaderAttribute(bottom_pyramid, program, "vertexPosition"); Gl.BindBufferToShaderAttribute(bottom_pyramidNormals, program, "vertexNormal"); Gl.BindBufferToShaderAttribute(bottom_pyramidUV, program, "vertexUV"); Gl.BindBuffer(bottom_pyramidTrianlges); // draw the textured bottom_pyramid Gl.DrawElements(BeginMode.Triangles, bottom_pyramidTrianlges.Count, DrawElementsType.UnsignedInt, IntPtr.Zero); //<<<<<<<<<<<<< STAR Gl.Disable(EnableCap.DepthTest); Gl.Enable(EnableCap.Blend); Gl.BlendFunc(BlendingFactorSrc.SrcAlpha, BlendingFactorDest.One); Gl.BindTexture(starTexture); //calculate the camera position using some fancy polar co-ordinates Vector3 position = 20 * new Vector3(Math.Cos(phi) * Math.Sin(theta), Math.Cos(theta), Math.Sin(phi) * Math.Sin(theta)); Vector3 upVector = ((theta % (Math.PI * 2)) > Math.PI) ? Vector3.Up : Vector3.Down; program_2["view_matrix"].SetValue(Matrix4.LookAt(position, Vector3.Zero, upVector)); // make sure the shader program and texture are being used Gl.UseProgram(program_2); // loop through the stars, drawing each one for (int i = 0; i < stars.Count; i++) { // set the position and color of this star program_2["model_matrix"].SetValue(Matrix4.CreateTranslation(new Vector3(stars[i].dist, 0, 0)) * Matrix4.CreateRotationZ(stars[i].angle)); program_2["color"].SetValue(stars[i].color); Gl.BindBufferToShaderAttribute(star, program_2, "vertexPosition"); Gl.BindBufferToShaderAttribute(starUV, program_2, "vertexUV"); Gl.BindBuffer(starQuads); Gl.DrawElements(BeginMode.Quads, starQuads.Count, DrawElementsType.UnsignedInt, IntPtr.Zero); // update the position of the star stars[i].angle += (float)i / stars.Count * deltaTime * 2 * rotate_stars; stars[i].dist -= 0.2f * deltaTime * rotate_stars; // if we've reached the center then move this star outwards and give it a new color if (stars[i].dist < 0f) { stars[i].dist += 5f; stars[i].color = new Vector3(generator.NextDouble(), generator.NextDouble(), generator.NextDouble()); } } Glut.glutSwapBuffers(); } The same goes for the textures, whichever one I mention last gets applied to both object?

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• Why would GLCapabilities.setHardwareAccelerated(true/false) have no effect on performance?

  - by Luke

  I've got a JOGL application in which I am rendering 1 million textures (all the same texture) and 1 million lines between those textures. Basically it's a ball-and-stick graph. I am storing the vertices in a vertex array on the card and referencing them via index arrays, which are also stored on the card. Each pass through the draw loop I am basically doing this: gl.glBindBuffer(GL.GL_ARRAY_BUFFER, <buffer id>); gl.glBindBuffer(GL.GL_ELEMENT_ARRAY_BUFFER, <buffer id>); gl.glDrawElements(GL.GL_POINTS, <size>, GL.GL_UNSIGNED_INT, 0); gl.glBindBuffer(GL.GL_ARRAY_BUFFER, <buffer id>); gl.glBindBuffer(GL.GL_ELEMENT_ARRAY_BUFFER, <buffer id>); gl.glDrawElements(GL.GL_LINES, <size>, GL.GL_UNSIGNED_INT, 0); I noticed that the JOGL library is pegging one of my CPU cores. Every frame, the run method internal to the library is taking quite long. I'm not sure why this is happening since I have called setHardwareAccelerated(true) on the GLCapabilities used to create my canvas. What's more interesting is that I changed it to setHardwareAccelerated(false) and there was no impact on the performance at all. Is it possible that my code is not using hardware rendering even when it is set to true? Is there any way to check? EDIT: As suggested, I have tested breaking my calls up into smaller chunks. I have tried using glDrawRangeElements and respecting the limits that it requests. All of these simply resulted in the same pegged CPU usage and worse framerates. I have also narrowed the problem down to a simpler example where I just render 4 million textures (no lines). The draw loop then just doing this: gl.glEnableClientState(GL.GL_VERTEX_ARRAY); gl.glEnableClientState(GL.GL_INDEX_ARRAY); gl.glClear(GL.GL_COLOR_BUFFER_BIT | GL.GL_DEPTH_BUFFER_BIT); gl.glMatrixMode(GL.GL_MODELVIEW); gl.glLoadIdentity(); <... Camera and transform related code ...> gl.glEnableVertexAttribArray(0); gl.glEnable(GL.GL_TEXTURE_2D); gl.glAlphaFunc(GL.GL_GREATER, ALPHA_TEST_LIMIT); gl.glEnable(GL.GL_ALPHA_TEST); <... Bind texture ...> gl.glBindBuffer(GL.GL_ARRAY_BUFFER, <buffer id>); gl.glBindBuffer(GL.GL_ELEMENT_ARRAY_BUFFER, <buffer id>); gl.glDrawElements(GL.GL_POINTS, <size>, GL.GL_UNSIGNED_INT, 0); gl.glDisable(GL.GL_TEXTURE_2D); gl.glDisable(GL.GL_ALPHA_TEST); gl.glDisableVertexAttribArray(0); gl.glFlush(); Where the first buffer contains 12 million floats (the x,y,z coords of the 4 million textures) and the second (element) buffer contains 4 million integers. In this simple example it is simply the integers 0 through 3999999. I really want to know what is being done in software that is pegging my CPU, and how I can make it stop (if I can). My buffers are generated by the following code: gl.glBindBuffer(GL.GL_ARRAY_BUFFER, <buffer id>); gl.glBufferData(GL.GL_ARRAY_BUFFER, <size> * BufferUtil.SIZEOF_FLOAT, <buffer>, GL.GL_STATIC_DRAW); gl.glVertexAttribPointer(0, 3, GL.GL_FLOAT, false, 0, 0); and: gl.glBindBuffer(GL.GL_ELEMENT_ARRAY_BUFFER, <buffer id>); gl.glBufferData(GL.GL_ELEMENT_ARRAY_BUFFER, <size> * BufferUtil.SIZEOF_INT, <buffer>, GL.GL_STATIC_DRAW); ADDITIONAL INFO: Here is my initialization code: gl.setSwapInterval(1); //Also tried 0 gl.glShadeModel(GL.GL_SMOOTH); gl.glClearDepth(1.0f); gl.glEnable(GL.GL_DEPTH_TEST); gl.glDepthFunc(GL.GL_LESS); gl.glHint(GL.GL_PERSPECTIVE_CORRECTION_HINT, GL.GL_FASTEST); gl.glPointParameterfv(GL.GL_POINT_DISTANCE_ATTENUATION, POINT_DISTANCE_ATTENUATION, 0); gl.glPointParameterfv(GL.GL_POINT_SIZE_MIN, MIN_POINT_SIZE, 0); gl.glPointParameterfv(GL.GL_POINT_SIZE_MAX, MAX_POINT_SIZE, 0); gl.glPointSize(POINT_SIZE); gl.glTexEnvf(GL.GL_POINT_SPRITE, GL.GL_COORD_REPLACE, GL.GL_TRUE); gl.glEnable(GL.GL_POINT_SPRITE); gl.glClearColor(clearColor.getX(), clearColor.getY(), clearColor.getZ(), 0.0f); Also, I'm not sure if this helps or not, but when I drag the entire graph off the screen, the FPS shoots back up and the CPU usage falls to 0%. This seems obvious and intuitive to me, but I thought that might give a hint to someone else.

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• The Internet of Things Is Really the Internet of People

  - by HCM-Oracle

  By Mark Hurd - Originally Posted on LinkedIn As I speak with CEOs around the world, our conversations invariably come down to this central question: Can we change our corporate cultures and the ways we train and reward our people as rapidly as new technology is changing the work we do, the products we make and how we engage with customers? It’s a critical consideration given today’s pace of disruption, which already is straining traditional management models and HR strategies. Winning companies will bring innovation and vision to their employees and partners by attracting people who will thrive in this emerging world of relentless data, predictive analytics and unlimited what-if scenarios. So, where are we going to find employees who are as familiar with complex data as I am with orderly financial statements and business plans? I’m not just talking about high-end data scientists who most certainly will sit at or near the top of the new decision-making pyramid. Global organizations will need creative and motivated people who will devote their time to manipulating, reviewing, analyzing, sorting and reshaping data to drive business and delight customers. This might seem evident, but my conversations with business people across the globe indicate that only a small number of companies get it. In the past few years, executives have been busy keeping pace with seismic upheavals, including the rise of social customer engagement, the rapid acceleration of product-development cycles and the relentless move to mobile-first. But all of that, I think, is the start of an uphill climb to the top of a roller-coaster. Today, about 10 billion devices across the globe are connected to the Internet. In a couple of years, that number will probably double, and not because we will have bought 10 billion more computers, smart phones and tablets. This unprecedented explosion of Big Data is being triggered by the Internet of Things, which is another way of saying that the numerous intelligent devices touching our everyday lives are all becoming interconnected. Home appliances, food, industrial equipment, pets, pharmaceutical products, pallets, cars, luggage, packaged goods, athletic equipment, even clothing will be streaming data. Some data will provide important information about how to run our businesses and lead healthier lives. Much of it will be extraneous. How does a CEO cope with this unimaginable volume and velocity of data, much less harness it to excite and delight customers? Here are three things CEOs must do to tackle this challenge: 1) Take care of your employees, take care of your customers. Larry Ellison recently noted that the two most important priorities for any CEO today revolve around people: Taking care of your employees and taking care of your customers. Companies in today’s hypercompetitive business environment simply won’t be able to survive unless they’ve got world-class people at all levels of the organization. CEOs must demonstrate a commitment to employees by becoming champions for HR systems that empower every employee to fully understand his or her job, how it ties into the corporate framework, what’s expected of them, what training is available, and how they can use an embedded social network to communicate, collaborate and excel. Over the next several years, many of the world’s top industrialized economies will see a turnover in the workforce on an unprecedented scale. Across the United States, Europe, China and Japan, the “baby boomer” generation will be retiring and, by 2020, we’ll see turnovers in those regions ranging from 10 to 30 percent. How will companies replace all that brainpower, experience and know-how? How will CEOs perpetuate the best elements of their corporate cultures in the midst of this profound turnover? The challenge will be daunting, but it can be met with world-class HR technology. As companies begin replacing up to 30 percent of their workforce, they will need thousands of new types of data-native workers to exploit the Internet of Things in the service of the Internet of People. The shift in corporate mindset here can’t be overstated. The CEO has to be at the forefront of this new way of recruiting, training, motivating, aligning and developing truly 21-century talent. 2) Start thinking today about the Internet of People. Some forward-looking companies have begun pursuing the “democratization of data.” This allows more people within a company greater access to data that can help them make better decisions, move more quickly and keep pace with the changing interests and demands of their customers. As a result, we’ve seen organizations flatten out, growing numbers of well-informed people authorized to make decisions without corporate approval and a movement of engagement away from headquarters to the point of contact with the customer. These are profound changes, and I’m a huge proponent. As I think about what the next few years will bring as companies become deluged with unprecedented streams of data, I’m convinced that we’ll need dramatically different organizational structures, decision-making models, risk-management profiles and reward systems. For example, if a car company’s marketing department mines incoming data to determine that customers are shifting rapidly toward neon-green models, how many layers of approval, review, analysis and sign-off will be needed before the factory starts cranking out more neon-green cars? Will we continue to have organizations where too many people are empowered to say “No” and too few are allowed to say “Yes”? If so, how will those companies be able to compete in a world in which customers have more choices, instant access to more information and less loyalty than ever before? That’s why I think CEOs need to begin thinking about this problem right now, not in a year or two when competitors are already reshaping their organizations to match the marketplace’s new realities. 3) Partner with universities to help create a new type of highly skilled workers. Several years ago, universities introduced new undergraduate as well as graduate-level programs in analytics and informatics as the business need for deeper insights into the booming world of data began to explode. Today, as the growth rate of data continues to soar, we know that the Internet of Things will only intensify that growth. Moreover, as Big Data fuels insights that can be shaped into products and services that generate revenue, the demand for data scientists and data specialists will go on unabated. Beyond that top-level expertise, companies are going to need data-native thinkers at all levels of the organization. Where will this new type of worker come from? I think it’s incumbent on the business community to collaborate with universities to develop new curricula designed to turn out graduates who can capitalize on the data-driven world that the Internet of Things is surely going to create. These new workers will create opportunities to help their companies in fields as diverse as product design, customer service, marketing, manufacturing and distribution. They will become innovative leaders in fashioning an entirely new type of workforce and organizational structure optimized to fully exploit the Internet of Things so that it becomes a high-value enabler of the Internet of People. Mark Hurd is President of Oracle Corporation and a member of the company's Board of Directors. He joined Oracle in 2010, bringing more than 30 years of technology industry leadership, computer hardware expertise, and executive management experience to his role with the company. As President, Mr. Hurd oversees the corporate direction and strategy for Oracle's global field operations, including marketing, sales, consulting, alliances and channels, and support. He focuses on strategy, leadership, innovation, and customers.

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