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• Desktop Fun: Star Trek Wallpapers

  - by Asian Angel

  If you are a Star Trek fan then doubtless you have a favorite series and starship(s) that you love. Get ready to enjoy viewing the fleet of ships that we have gathered together for you in our Star Trek Wallpaper collection. Note: Click on the picture to see the full-size image—these wallpapers vary in size so you may need to crop, stretch, or place them on a colored background in order to best match them to your screen’s resolution. Note: This particular wallpaper can be trimmed up height-wise to fit your monitor’s size very nicely. For more fun wallpapers be certain to visit our new Desktop Fun section. Looking for some great icons to go with your new Star Trek wallpaper? Then be certain to check out our Sci-Fi Icon Packs collection here. Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Desktop Customization: Sci-Fi Icon PacksWindows 7 Welcome Screen Taking Forever? Here’s the Fix (Maybe)Desktop Fun: Starship Theme WallpapersDesktop Fun: Underwater Theme WallpapersDesktop Fun: Starscape Theme Wallpapers TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips DVDFab 6 Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 Microsoft’s “How Do I ?” Videos Home Networks – How do they look like & the problems they cause Check Your IMAP Mail Offline In Thunderbird Follow Finder Finds You Twitter Users To Follow Combine MP3 Files Easily QuicklyCode Provides Cheatsheets & Other Programming Stuff

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• Java Slick2d - Mouse picking how to take into account camera

  - by Corey

  When I move it it obviously changes the viewport so my mouse picking is off. My camera is just a float x and y and I use g.translate(-cam.cameraX+400, -cam.cameraY+300); to translate the graphics. I have the numbers hard coded just for testing purposes. How would I take into account the camera so my mouse picking works correctly. double mousetileX = Math.floor((double)mouseX/tiles.tileWidth); double mousetileY = Math.floor((double)mouseY/tiles.tileHeight); double playertileX = Math.floor(playerX/tiles.tileWidth); double playertileY = Math.floor(playerY/tiles.tileHeight); double lengthX = Math.abs((float)playertileX - mousetileX); double lengthY = Math.abs((float)playertileY - mousetileY); double distance = Math.sqrt((lengthX*lengthX)+(lengthY*lengthY)); if(input.isMousePressed(Input.MOUSE_LEFT_BUTTON) && distance < 4) { if(tiles.map[(int)mousetileX][(int)mousetileY] == 1) { tiles.map[(int)mousetileX][(int)mousetileY] = 0; } } That is my mouse picking code

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• what are some good interview questions for a position that consists of reviewing code for security vulnerabilities?

  - by John Smith

  The position is an entry-level position that consists of reading C++ code and identifying lines of code that are vulnerable to buffer overflows, out-of-bounds reads, uncontrolled format strings, and a bunch of other CWE's. We don't expect the average candidate to be knowledgeable in the area of software security nor do we expect him or her to be an expert computer programmer; we just expect them to be able to read the code and correctly identify vulnerabilities. I guess I could ask them the typical interview questions: reverse a string, print a list of prime numbers, etc, but I'm not sure that their ability to write code under pressure (or lack thereof) tells me anything about their ability to read code. Should I instead focus on testing their knowledge of C++? Ask them if they understand what a pointer is and how bitwise operators work? My only concern about asking that kind of question is that I might unfairly weed out people who don't happen to have the knowledge but have the ability to acquire it. After all, it's not like they will be writing a single line of code, and it's not like we are looking only for people who already know C++, since we are willing to train the right candidate. (It is true that I could ask those questions only to those candidates who claim to know C++, but I'd like to give the same "test" to everyone.) Should I just focus on trying to get an idea of their level of intelligence? In other words, should I get them to talk and pay attention to the way they articulate their thoughts, and so on?

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• Strange spam posts not making sense

  - by Paaland

  I'm running a web site with a forum where one small part is open for posting from unregistered users. The site uses captcha, but still some spam posts get through every day. Here is the thing. All of the messages follow the same pattern, but all also come from different IP's. That makes me thing this is some sort of automated scripted "attack" from a botnet of some sorts. The strange thing is that all the messages start with six random characters and contains a couple of links. The words have no meaning and the domains in the links does not even exist. Why would anyone use time and resources spreading these things? Below you can see two of these messages: A5Zfs6 exrzvrbspntz, [url=http://nktqoqllnuab.com/]nktqoqllnuab[/url], [link=http://wtrenldadvsy.com/]wtrenldadvsy[/link], [http://rnlrqfgdvdot.com/] O2oLpL nqeffxhryfdk, [url=http://jutyurbpfxow.com/]jutyurbpfxow[/url], [link=http://jpcdtmdalpow.com/]jpcdtmdalpow[/link], [http://qopqwqxwjdjx.com/] Since all the messages come from different IP's I can't see blocking those will help much. For now I'm considering just dropping all messages following this pattern since it's quite easy to match with a regexp. Have anyone else seen these kinds of messages or know the point of posting them?

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• What's the best way to learn/increase problem-solving skills?

  - by tucaz

  Hi all! I'm not sure this is the right place to ask this question, neither if this is the right way to ask this question but I hope you help me if it is not. I work as a programmer since I was 15 (will be 24 next week) so learning programming logic was somehow natural during the course of my career and I think that it helped me to get pretty good problem-solving. One thing none of us (programmers) can deny is that programming logic helps us in a lot of fields outside computer programming. So I'd say it is a very valuable resource that one should learn. My girlfriend is not a programmer and graduated in college on a non related course (Foreign Relations) because she didn't know what to study back then. As the years passed she discovered that she liked Logistics and started to work with it almost two years ago. However, since she does not have a technical background (not even basic Math) she is really having a hard time with it. She is already trying to catch up with Math, but even simple questions/brain-teasers are hard to her. For example, trying to find the missing numbers of this sequence: 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, _, _, 34 and so on. We know that this is Fibonacci but if we didn't we would probably be able to get to the correct answer just by "guessing" (using our acquired problem-solving skills). I'm not sure if problem-solving skills or logic are the correct name for it, but this is what I mean: quick solve problems, brain-teasers, find patterns, have a "sharp" mind. So, the question is: what is the best way for someone to learn this kind of skills without being a programmer (or studying algorithms and such)? If you say it is a book, could you please recommend one? Thanks a lot!

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• Geekswithblogs.net Influencer Programm

  - by Staff of Geeks

  Recently, @StaffOfGeeks announced to a select group of bloggers, the Geekswithblogs.net Influencer Program.  Here is a little detail about the program. Description (from Influencer Page): Geekswithblogs.net is a community of bloggers passionate about contributing information to the world of developers and IT professionals. Our bloggers are some of the best in the world and receive honors on a regular basis for outside companies (such as the Microsoft© MVP Program). The Geekswithblogs.net Influencer Program is our way as Staff of Geeks to show our appreciation for those bloggers who have the greatest influence on the site. Each influencer in the program is awarded by the amount of posts, views, and comments they receive on their posts in the previous quarter. Each quarter, we select the top 25 bloggers of influence and give them special access to products and services we have obtained through our network of partners. Here is how it works.  Each quarter we select the top 25 bloggers bases on the amount of posts that created in that quarter, and apply points to the views and comments those posts receive.  The selection is purely off of the numbers, we do not select any based on any other basis.  In fact in the first round, several of our key bloggers did not qualify in the top 25.  Though they are still loved dearly, we wanted a program that anyone could be a part of if they put in the hard work. This said, the first quarter ends at the end of March and we will have another round of influencers joining us.  Keep the posts rolling and maybe you will be selected as an influencer! Visit the influencers page to see who has the greatest influence on Geekswithblogs right now.   Technorati Tags: Geekswithblogs

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• An experiment: unlimited free trial

  - by Alex.Davies

  The .NET Demon team have just implemented an experiment that is quite a break from Red Gate's normal business model. Instead of the tool expiring after the trial period, it now continues to work, but with a new message that appears after the tool has saved you a certain amount of time. The rationale is that a user that stops using .NET Demon because the trial expired isn't doing anyone any good. We'd much rather people continue using it forever, as long as everyone that finds it useful and can afford it still pays for it. Hopefully the message appearing is annoying enough to achieve that, but not for people to uninstall it. It's true that many companies have tried it before with mixed results, but we have a secret weapon. The perfect nag message? The neat thing for .NET Demon is that we can easily measure exactly how much time .NET Demon has saved you, in terms of unnecessary project builds that Visual Studio would have done. When you press F5, the message shows you the time saved, and then makes you wait a shorter time before starting your application. Confronted with the truth about how amazing .NET Demon is, who can do anything but buy it? The real secret though, is that while you wait, .NET Demon gives you entertainment, in the form of a picture of a cute kitten. I've only had time to embed one kitten so far, but the eventual aim is for a random different kitten to appear each time. The psychological health benefits of a dose of kittens in the daily life of the developer are obvious. My only concern is that people will complain after paying for .NET Demon that the kittens are gone.

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• How to remove a box2d body when collision happens?

  - by Ayham

  I’m still new to java and android programming and I am having so much trouble Removing an object when collision happens. I looked around the web and found that I should never handle removing BOX2D bodies during collision detection (a contact listener) and I should add my objects to an arraylist and set a variable in the User Data section of the body to delete or not and handle the removing action in an update handler. So I did this: First I define two ArrayLists one for the faces and one for the bodies: ArrayList<Sprite> myFaces = new ArrayList<Sprite>(); ArrayList<Body> myBodies = new ArrayList<Body>(); Then when I create a face and connect that face to its body I add them to their ArrayLists like this: face = new AnimatedSprite(pX, pY, pWidth, pHeight, this.mBoxFaceTextureRegion); Body BoxBody = PhysicsFactory.createBoxBody(mPhysicsWorld, face, BodyType.DynamicBody, objectFixtureDef); mPhysicsWorld.registerPhysicsConnector(new PhysicsConnector(face, BoxBody, true, true)); myFaces.add(face); myBodies.add(BoxBody); now I add a contact listener and an update handler in the onloadscene like this: this.mPhysicsWorld.setContactListener(new ContactListener() { private AnimatedSprite face2; @Override public void beginContact(final Contact pContact) { } @Override public void endContact(final Contact pContact) { } @Override public void preSolve(Contact contact,Manifold oldManifold) { } @Override public void postSolve(Contact contact,ContactImpulse impulse) { } }); scene.registerUpdateHandler(new IUpdateHandler() { @Override public void reset() { } @Override public void onUpdate(final float pSecondsElapsed) { } }); My plan is to detect which two bodies collided in the contact listener by checking a variable from the user data section of the body, get their numbers in the array list and finally use the update handler to remove these bodies. The questions are: Am I using the arraylist correctly? How to add a variable to the User Data (the code please). I tried removing a body in this update handler but it still throws me NullPointerException , so what is the right way to add an update handler and where should I add it. Any other advices to do this would be great. Thanks in advance.

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• SPUtility.SendMail and the 2048 Character Limit

  - by Damon

  We were in the middle of testing a web part responsible for gathering information from visitors to our Client's website and emailing it to someone responsible for responding to the request.  During testing, however, it was brought to our attention that the message was cutting off at 2048 characters.  Now, 2048 is one of those numbers that is usually indicative of some computational limit, but I was hopeful that Microsoft had thought through the possibility of emailing more than 2048 characters from SharePoint.  Luckily I was right. and wrong. As it turns out, SPUtility.SendMail is not limited to any specific character limit as far as I can tell.  However, each LINE of text that you send via SendMail cannot exceed 2048 characters.  Since we were sending an HTML email it was constructed entirely without line breaks, far exceeding the 2048 character limit and ultimately helping to educate me about this obscure technical limitation whose only benefit thus far is offering me something to rant about on my blog.  The fix is simple, just put in a carriage return and a line break often enough to avoid going past the 2048 character limit.  I'm sure someone can present a great technical reason for the 2048 character limit, but it seems fairly arbitrary since the "\r\n" that got appended to the string are ultimately just characters too.

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

  - by David Paquette

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

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• Can higher-order functions in FP be interpreted as some kind of dependency injection?

  - by Giorgio

  According to this article, in object-oriented programming / design dependency injection involves a dependent consumer, a declaration of a component's dependencies, defined as interface contracts, an injector that creates instances of classes that implement a given dependency interface on request. Let us now consider a higher-order function in a functional programming language, e.g. the Haskell function filter :: (a -> Bool) -> [a] -> [a] from Data.List. This function transforms a list into another list and, in order to perform its job, it uses (consumes) an external predicate function that must be provided by its caller, e.g. the expression filter (\x -> (mod x 2) == 0) [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10] selects all even numbers from the input list. But isn't this construction very similar to the pattern illustrated above, where the filter function is the dependent consumer, the signature (a -> Bool) of the function argument is the interface contract, the expression that uses the higher-order is the injector that, in this particular case, injects the implementation (\x -> (mod x 2) == 0) of the contract. More in general, can one relate higher-order functions and their usage pattern in functional programming to the dependency injection pattern in object-oriented languages? Or in the inverse direction, can dependency injection be compared to using some kind of higher-order function?

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• Would a typical corporate firewall block a Java applet having the following behaviour

  - by auser

  I'm thinking of developing a proxy-like program to forward ports on a remote PC to a local PC (for example SSH). Assume that both local and remote PCs are running behind typical firewalls (i.e. consumer broadband router firewall, Windows firewall or corporate firewalls). The program will be a Java program which the user will run on both the remote and local PC. The remote client will periodically poll a central server to determine whether there are pending client connections. A session could be initiated as follows: The local client contacts the central server and request the current connection details for a specific remote client. The central server responds with the remote server's last received IP address and port. The next time the remote server polls the central server, the client's IP address and port are returned. The remote server initiates a connection to the local client using the IP address and port returned by the central server and listens for a response on a random port. The remote server will pass the value of the port it's listening on to central server. Goto 1, if client fails to connect to server. Would this work or will a typical firewall block the interactions.

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• OpenJDK6 At a Glance

  - by user9158633

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

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• Public JCP EC Meeting - 26 June

  - by heathervc

  The first 2012 public JCP Executive Committee (EC) Teleconference Meeting is scheduled for next Tuesday, 26 June at 8:00 AM Pacific Time (PDT).  This meeting is open to the participation of all (members and non-members).  JCP 2.8 (JSR 348) set the requirement for the JCP to hold two public teleconferences each year for the developer community to meet with the JCP EC.  There will also be a public EC Face to Face Meeting during the 2012 JavaOne Conference; details to follow soon.  The meeting details for Tuesday morning are below.  Please participate! Meeting details Date & Time Tuesday June 26, 2012, 8:00 - 9:00 am PDT Location Teleconference Dial-in +1 (866) 682-4770 Conference code: 627-9803 Security code: 52732 ("JCPEC" on your phone handset) For global access numbers see http://www.intercall.com/oracle/access_numbers.htm Or +1 (408) 774-4073 WebEx Browse for the meeting from https://jcp.webex.com No registration required (enter your name and email address) Password : 52732 Agenda JCP.next status: overview of JSRs 355 and 358 JCP events at JavaOne Annual awards Improving communications between the EC and the community Q&A Note The call will be recorded and the recording published on jcp.org, so those who are unable to join in real-time will still be able to participate.

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• Why can't I compare two Texture2D's?

  - by Fiona

  I am trying to use an accessor, as it seems to me that that is the only way to accomplish what I want to do. Here is my code: Game1.cs public class GroundTexture { private Texture2D dirt; public Texture2D Dirt { get { return dirt; } set { dirt = value; } } } public class Main : Game { public static Texture2D texture = tile.Texture; GroundTexture groundTexture = new GroundTexture(); public static Texture2D dirt; protected override void LoadContent() { Tile tile = (Tile)currentLevel.GetTile(20, 20); dirt = Content.Load<Texture2D>("Dirt"); groundTexture.Dirt = dirt; Texture2D texture = tile.Texture; } protected override void Update(GameTime gameTime) { if (texture == groundTexture.Dirt) { player.TileCollision(groundBounds); } base.Update(gameTime); } } I removed irrelevant information from the LoadContent and Update functions. On the following line: if (texture == groundTexture.Dirt) I am getting the error Operator '==' cannot be applied to operands of type 'Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Graphics.Texture2D' and 'Game1.GroundTexture' Am I using the accessor correctly? And why do I get this error? "Dirt" is Texture2D, so they should be comparable. This using a few functions from a program called Realm Factory, which is a tile editor. The numbers "20, 20" are just a sample of the level I made below: tile.Texture returns the sprite, which here is the content item Dirt.png Thank you very much! (I posted this on the main Stackoverflow site, but after several days didn't get a response. Since it has to do mainly with Texture2D, I figured I'd ask here.)

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• Advice on developing a social network [on hold]

  - by Siraj Mansour

  I am doing research on assembling a team, using the right tools, and the cost to develop a highly responsive social network that is capable of dealing with a lot of users. Similar to the Facebook concept but using the basics package for now. Profile, friends, posts, updates, media upload/download, streaming, chat and Inbox messaging are all in the package. We certainly do not expect it to be as popular as Facebook or handle the same number of users and requests, but in its own game it has to be a monster, and expandable for later on. Neglecting the hosting, and servers part, i am looking for technical advise and opinions, on what kind of team i need ? how many developers ? their expertise ? What are the right tools ? languages ? frameworks ? environments ? Any random ideas about the infrastructure ? Quick thoughts on the development process ? Please use references, if you have any to support your ideas. Development cost mere estimation ? NEGLECTING THE COST OF SERVERS I know my question is too broad but my knowledge is very limited and i need detailed help, for any help you can offer i thank you in advance.

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• Upgrade went wrong, laptop essentially 'bricked'

  - by hexagonheat

  I have an old netbook I was trying to upgrade from 10.04 to 10.10. Ubuntu was in the process of upgrading when everything completely froze. I left it sit for an hour but it would not respond to anything. So I powered down the machine and it didn't have the necessary files to run Ubuntu. I went to the terminal and it told me to put in some command that I can not remember to 'rebuild' something. That takes me to now, when I turn on the laptop it comes up with a screen "GNU GRUB version 1.98+20100804-5ubuntu3.3" and has a bunch of options such as: 1. Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.35-32-generic 2. Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.35-32-generic (recover mode) etc. (there are like 15 of these with different numbers after 2.6.35 and the word 'generic'. It doesn't seem to matter what I pick, it will go to the "Ubuntu" loading screen with the colored dots but then every time it will freeze and I have to reboot to the same thing. I can't seem to get a terminal prompt anywhere either. Any ideas? I can't think of what to do :(

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• Why is my model's scale changing after rotating it?

  - by justnS

  I have just started a simple flight simulator and have implemented Roll and pitch. In the beginning, testing went very well; however, after about 15-20 seconds of constantly moving the thumbsticks in a random or circular motion, my model's scale begins to grow. At first I thought the model was moving closer to the camera, but i set break points when it was happening and can confirm the translation of my orientation matrix remains 0,0,0. Is this a result of Gimbal Lock? Does anyone see an obvious error in my code below? public override void Draw( Matrix view, Matrix projection ) { Matrix[] transforms = new Matrix[Model.Bones.Count]; Model.CopyAbsoluteBoneTransformsTo( transforms ); Matrix translateMatrix = Matrix.Identity * Matrix.CreateFromAxisAngle( _orientation.Right, MathHelper.ToRadians( pitch ) ) * Matrix.CreateFromAxisAngle( _orientation.Down, MathHelper.ToRadians( roll ) ); _orientation *= translateMatrix; foreach ( ModelMesh mesh in Model.Meshes ) { foreach ( BasicEffect effect in mesh.Effects ) { effect.World = _orientation * transforms[mesh.ParentBone.Index]; effect.View = view; effect.Projection = projection; effect.EnableDefaultLighting(); } mesh.Draw(); } } public void Update( GamePadState gpState ) { roll = 5 * gpState.ThumbSticks.Left.X; pitch = 5 * gpState.ThumbSticks.Left.Y; }

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• Understanding dot notation

  - by Starkers

  Here's my interpretation of dot notation: a = [2,6] b = [1,4] c = [0,8] a . b . c = (2*6)+(1*4)+(0*8) = 12 + 4 + 0 = 16 What is the significance of 16? Apparently it's a scalar. Am I right in thinking that a scalar is the number we times a unit vector by to get a vector that has a scaled up magnitude but the same direction as the unit vector? So again, what is the relevance of 16? When is it used? It's not the magnitude of all the vectors added up. The magnitude of all of them is calculated as follows: sqrt( ax * ax + ay * ay ) + sqrt( bx * bx + by * by ) + sqrt( cx * cx + cy * cy) sqrt( 2 * 2 + 6 * 6 ) + sqrt( 1 * 1 + 4 * 4 ) + sqrt( 0 * 0 + 8 * 8) sqrt( 4 + 36 ) + sqrt( 1 + 16 ) + sqrt( 0 + 64) sqrt( 40 ) + sqrt( 17 ) + sqrt( 64) 6.3 + 4.1 + 8 10.4 + 8 18.4 So I don't really get this diagram: Attempting with sensible numbers: a = [1,0] b = [4,3] a . b = (1*0) + (4*3) = 0 + 12 = 12 So what exactly is a . b describing here? The magnitude of that vector? Because that isn't right: the 'a.b' vector = [4,0] sqrt( x*x + y*y ) sqrt( 4*4 + 0*0 ) sqrt( 16 + 0 ) 4 So what is 12 describing?

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• game play strategy in an arena

  - by joulesm

  I am writing a player's behavior for an arena game, and I'm wondering if you can offer some strategies. I'm writing it in Python, but I'm just interested in the high level game play. Here are the game aspects: Arena is a circle of a given size. The arena size shrinks every round to help break ties. Players are much smaller circles, can be on teams of 1 or 2 players. Players attack by colliding with other players, and based on the physics of the collision (speed of both players, angle), one could force another player out of the arena. Once a player is out of the arena, they are out of the game (for that round). The goal is to be the only team with players left in the arena. All other players have been pushed (through collisions or mistakes) out of the arena. It is possible for there to be no winner if the last two players exit the arena at the same time. Once the player has been programmed, the game just runs. There is no human intervention in the game. I'm thinking it's easiest to implement a few simple programmatic rules for my player to follow. For example, stay close to center of the arena, attack opponents from the inner side of the arena, etc. Are there any good simple game strategies? Would adding a random aspect to the game help? For example, to avoid predictability by the other team or something. Thanks in advance.

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• How can I make permanent death in a MUD seem acceptable and fair to players?

  - by Luke Laupheimer

  I have considered writing a MUD for years, and I have a lot of ideas my friends think are really cool (and that's how I'd hope to get anywhere -- word of mouth). Thing is, there's one thing I have always wanted, that my friends and strangers hated: permanent death. Now, the emotional response I get to this is visceral revulsion, every time. I'm pretty sure I am the only person that wants this, or if I'm not, I'm a tiny minority. Now, the reason I want it is because I want the actions of the players to matter. Unlike a lot of other MUDs, which have a set of static city-states and social institutions etc, I want the things my players do, should I get any, to actually change the situation. And that includes killing people. If you kill someone, you didn't send them to time out, you killed them. What happens when you kill people? They go away. They don't come back in half an hour to smack talk you some more. They're gone. Forever. By making death non-permanent, you make death not matter. It would be similar if a climax to a character's arc is getting a speeding ticket. It cheapens it. Non-permanent death cheapens death. How can I: 1) Convince my players (and random people!) that this is actually a good idea?, or 2) Find some other way to make death and violence matter as much as it does in real life (except within the game, of course) sans character deletion? What alternatives are there out there?

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• MatheMagics - Guess My Age - Method 2

  - by PointsToShare

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

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• Improving the efficiency of my bloom/glow shader

  - by user1157885

  I'm making a neon style game where everything is glowing but the glow I have is kinda small and I want to know if there's an efficient way to increase the size of it other than increasing the pixel sample iterations. Right now I have something like this: float4 glowColor = tex2D(glowSampler, uvPixel); //Makes the inital lines brighter/closer to white if (glowColor.r != 0 || glowColor.g != 0 || glowColor.b != 0) { glowColor += 0.5; } //Loops over the weights and offsets and samples from the pixels based on those numbers for (int i = 0; i < 20; i++) { glowColor += tex2D(glowSampler, uvPixel + glowOffsets[i] + 0.0018) * glowWeights[i]; } finalColor += glowColor; for the offsets it moves up, down, left and right (5 times each so it loops over 20 times) and the weights just lower the glow amount the further away it gets. The method I was using before to increase it was to increase the number of iterations from 20 to 40 and to increase the size of the offset/weight array but my computer started to have FPS drops when I was doing this so I was wondering how can I make the glow bigger/more vibrant without making it so CPU/Gcard intensive?

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• Is the way I'm implementing my genetic algorithm right?

  - by Mhjr

  In my graduation project, I am asked to use a genetic algorithm (any variation of it can be chosen) to generate valid timetables. What I did was make a simple program that generates unique sequences representing genes, the sequence is described below: (sorry if it's mathematically incorrect) The only variable in the sequence is the room element, so basically the program takes a tree that goes like this: [Course] -(contains)-> [Units] -(contains)-> [Offerings] -(contains)-> [Instructors] -(contains)-> [Rooms] Each course can have n units (duplicates). Each unit can have n offerings (lectures,lab session, excercises,...). Each offering has only 1 instructor. Each instructor (or the whole lecture composed from the four elements of the sequence) has multiple rooms. When a timetable is initialized, one of these sequences that differ in rooms will be taken into the timetable, so the difference in genes (sequences) of each timetable will be just the rooms random choice and the difference between chromosomes (timetables) will be time placements of these genes (sequences). My question is, before I proceed in implementing what I described, is it valid? Is the representation used here for chromosomes a permutation representation?

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• Ask the Readers: What Do You Have Set as Your Homepage?

  - by Mysticgeek

  When if comes to setting a homepage in your browser, it’s really based on personal preference. Today we want to know what you have set as your homepage in your favorite browser. Browser Homepage There are a lot of search sites that allow you to customize your homepage such as iGoogle, MSN, and Yahoo. Some people enjoy having a homepage set up as a dashboard of sorts. While others like simplicity and set it to Google or leave it blank. Not surprisingly in a small office or corporation you will see a lot of workstations set to MSN or the company SharePoint site. Unfortunately, a lot of free software tries to change you default homepage as well, like in this example when installing Windows Live Essentials. Make sure to avoid this by not rushing through software install wizards, and carefully opt out of such options. What is set as your homepage in your favorite web browser…both for work and at home? Leave us a comment and join in the discussion! Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Ask the Readers: Which Web Browser Do You Use?How-To Geek Comment PolicyMysticgeek Blog: A Look at Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1 on Windows XPSet the Default Browser on Ubuntu From the Command LineAnnouncing the How-To Geek Forums TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips Xobni Plus for Outlook All My Movies 5.9 CloudBerry Online Backup 1.5 for Windows Home Server Snagit 10 Get a free copy of WinUtilities Pro 2010 World Cup Schedule Boot Snooze – Reboot and then Standby or Hibernate Customize Everything Related to Dates, Times, Currency and Measurement in Windows 7 Google Earth replacement Icon (Icons we like) Build Great Charts in Excel with Chart Advisor

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