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  • PHP: What's the best way to check equality of $_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER'] ?

    - by Hank
    I have a PHP script that checks the HTTP Referer. if ($_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER'] == 'http://www.example.com/') {...} However, this seems inherintly unsafe ... because what happens if the user goes to 'http://example.com/' or 'http://www.ExaMple.com' (both of which don't match the equality test). Question: what's a better equality test to ensure that the HTTP Referer is coming from 'example.com' ?

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  • md5_file() not working with IP addresses?

    - by Rob
    Here is my code relating to the question: $theurl = trim($_POST['url']); $md5file = md5_file($theurl); if ($md5file != '96a0cec80eb773687ca28840ecc67ca1') { echo 'Hash doesn\'t match. Incorrect file. Reupload it and try again'; When I run this script, it doesn't even output an error. It just stops. It loads for a bit, and then it just stops. Further down the script I implement it again, and it fails here, too: while($row=mysql_fetch_array($execquery, MYSQL_ASSOC)){ $hash = @md5_file($row['url']); $url = $row['url']; mysql_query("UPDATE urls SET hash='" . $hash . "' WHERE url='" . $url . "'") or die("MYSQL is indeed gay: ".mysql_error()); if ($hash != '96a0cec80eb773687ca28840ecc67ca1'){ $status = 'down'; }else{ $status = 'up'; } mysql_query("UPDATE urls SET status='" . $status . "' WHERE url='" . $url . "'") or die("MYSQL is indeed gay: ".mysql_error()); } And it checks all the URL's just fine, until it gets to one with an IP instead of a domain, such as: http://188.72.215.195/config.php In which, again, the script then just loads for a bit, and then stops. Any help would be much appreciated, if you need any more information just ask.

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  • How to handle gender and sexual orientation on a form with select boxes more inclusively?

    - by Drew
    The existing question and the answers for it are not satisfying when one wants to be more inclusive. Gender as Male, Female or No Answer works for some sites, but not others. Taking the view that Gender is not the same as Sex (assigned at birth based on bodily characteristics). Would it be more inclusive to include these two options: Transgender Male, Transgender Female? So instead would more inclusive options be the following? Gender Identity Male Female Transgender Male Transgender Female No Answer Sexual Orientation Straight Lesbian Gay Bisexual Asexual No Answer Gender Expression could also be included, but I think most people would find that too confusing (defined on GLAAD's website linked below) I'm going off what I've read on GLAAD's Transgender Glossary of Terms. Thanks!

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  • The SQL Beat Podcast-Capturing a SQL Rockstar

    - by SQLBeat
      This is the first permissible (waiting for signed disclaimers) episode of the SQL Beat Podcast featuring the gracious and famous Thomas La Rock. We talk about gay marriage, abortion, SQL community and a 9 inch pipe with a hole in it at the tip. No really. If there ever was a gentleman, SQL Rockstar is one and I want to thank him from the bottom of my digital recorder for agreeing to talk to me and my audience. All forty of them will appreciate the candor. Enjoy World. I did. Oh and a special rock start drum intro from me to you. CLICK HERE TO PLAY >>

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  • The SQL Beat Podcast–Capturing a SQL Rockstar

    - by SQLBeat
      This is the first permissible (waiting for signed disclaimers) episode of the SQL Beat Podcast featuring the gracious and famous Thomas La Rock. We talk about gay marriage, abortion, SQL community and a 9 inch pipe with a hole in it at the tip. No really. If there ever was a gentleman, SQL Rockstar is one and I want to thank him from the bottom of my digital recorder for agreeing to talk to me and my audience. All forty of them will appreciate the candor. Enjoy World. I did. Oh and a special rock start drum intro from me to you. CLICK BELOW TO LISTEN >>>>>>>>>CLICK HERE TO PLAY >>>>>>>>> CLICK ABOVE TO SPEAR A FISH INSTEAD

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  • The SQL Beat Podcast-Capturing a SQL Rockstar

    - by SQLBeat
    This is the first permissible (waiting for signed disclaimers) episode of the SQL Beat Podcast featuring the gracious and famous Thomas La Rock. We talk about gay marriage, abortion, SQL community and generally convivial and ergonomic as will be witnessed by THAT LONG PIPE IN THE CHAIR. If there ever was a gentleman, SQL Rockstar is one and I want to thank him from the bottom of my digital recorder for agreeing to talk to me and my audience. All forty of them will appreciate the candor. Enjoy World. I did. Oh and a special rock start drum intro from me to you. CLICK HERE TO PLAY

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  • Encoding Issue [NSFW]

    - by azz0r
    Hello, I am having issues correcting an encoding type issue on a site. Unfortunately the site is non work safe (gay porn). For the brave: http://www.alphamalemedia.com/index/news Ive tried setting the meta content from utf8 to iso-8859-1. Ive switched tables over to utf8 from latin1_swedish_ci but no luck.

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  • Encoding Issue [NWS]

    - by azz0r
    Hello, I am having issues correcting an encoding type issue on a site. Unfortunately the site is non work safe (gay porn). For the brave: http://www.alphamalemedia.com/index/news Ive tried setting the meta content from utf8 to iso-8859-1. Ive switched tables over to utf8 from latin1_swedish_ci but no luck.

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  • How to restrict focus in textbox

    - by Ashish Singhal
    I have a dialog with few controls. There is a TextBox named txtControl and two Buttons Accept and Cancel. I want that once the focus is in txtControl, the focus should not go away, until I click on Accept or Cancel button. If I try to click on any other control without clicking on Accept or Cancel button, then focus should remains in txtControl. Also I don't want to disable or gay out other controls.

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  • CRM On Demand Performance Tips - Live Web Session on April 20, 2010

    - by Cheryl
    The CRM On Demand Customer Care specialists have another live Web session coming up - this one is about performance - issues, tips, and considerations. This is a part of their Web series, where they pick topics that they hear a lot of questions or concerns about from customers and run live (and free) 1-hour Web sessions about them. Here are the details for this event: Event Title: CRM On Demand Performance Brandon (Hank) Henrie will present some of the top CRM On Demand performance questions and issues that customers raise and some tips and tricks that you can use to avoid them. He will point out good resources that can help and tips for logging performance-related service requests, when all else fails. Date: April 20, 2010 Time: 10:00 am (UTC-07:00 Arizona) How to join: 1. Dial 1-866-682-4770 to access the conference line. 2. Enter the conference code - 6241996 and press # 3. Follow the instructions to record your name and press # 4. Enter the meeting passcode - 1212 and press # 5. Follow the instructions below to join the web portion of the conference. The Web Conference Go to the Oracle Web Conference site: https://strtc.oracle.com Prior to the event: Click the New User button then run the New User Test. (If you have difficulties installing the web conference software try downloading the conference software from the test status window and installing manually.) To join the event: 1. Enter the conference information In the Join Conference box: Conference ID: 6566623 Your Name 2. Click the Join Conference button. Watch for announcements of future sessions on different topics. And, let us know what you think!

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  • Get to Know a Candidate (12 of 25): Andre Barnett&ndash;Reform Party

    - by Brian Lanham
    DISCLAIMER: This is not a post about “Romney” or “Obama”. This is not a post for whom I am voting. Information sourced for Wikipedia. Barnett is an American politician and entrepreneur. He is the founder of the information technology (IT) company WiseDome Inc.  Barnett was born in Zanesville, Ohio in 1976. He attended Austin Peay State University and Western Governors University.  A former member of the United States Armed Forces, Barnett served in Sarajevo before being wounded in a helicopter accident.  Following his military service, Barnett became a fitness model in New York. In 2001, he founded WiseDome Incorporated, an IT company that provides information technology and data recovery services. Reform Party of the United States of America (RPUSA), generally known as the Reform Party USA or the Reform Party, is a political party in the United States, founded in 1995 by Ross Perot. Perot said Americans were disillusioned with the state of politics—as being corrupt and unable to deal with vital issues—and desired a viable alternative to the Republican and Democratic Parties. The party has nominated different candidates over the years, such as founder Ross Perot, Pat Buchanan, and Ralph Nader. The party's most significant victory came when Jesse Ventura was elected governor of Minnesota in 1998. Since then, the party has been torn by infighting and disagreements, which it seeks to overcome. The Reform Party platform includes the following: * Maintaining a balanced budget, ensured by passing a Balanced Budget Amendment and changing budgeting practices, and paying down the federal debt * Campaign finance reform, including strict limits on campaign contributions and the outlawing of the Political action committee * Enforcement of existing immigration laws and opposition to illegal immigration * Opposition to free trade agreements like the North American Free Trade Agreement and Central America Free Trade Agreement, and a call for withdrawal from the World Trade Organization * Term limits on U.S. Representatives and Senators * Direct election of the United States President by popular vote * Federal elections held on weekends A noticeable absence from the Reform Party platform has been social issues, including abortion and gay rights. Reform Party representatives had long stated beliefs that their party could bring together people from both sides of these issues, which they consider divisive, to address what they considered to be more vital concerns as expressed in their platform. The idea was to form a large coalition of moderates; that intention was overridden in 2001 by the Buchanan takeover which rewrote the RPUSA Constitution to specifically include platform planks opposed to any form of abortion. The Buchananists, in turn, were overridden by the 2002 Convention which specifically reverted the Constitution to its 1996 version and the party's original stated goals. Barnett has Ballot Access in: FL Learn more about Andre Barnett and Reform Party on Wikipedia.

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  • Is there added overhead to looking up a column in a DataTable by name rather than by index?

    - by Ben McCormack
    In a DataTable object, is there added overhead to looking up a column value by name thisRow("ColumnA") rather than by the column index thisRow(0)? In which scenarios might this be an issue. I work on a team that has lots of experience writing VB6 code and I noticed that didn't do column lookups by name for DataTable objects or data grids. Even in .NET code, we use a set of integer constants to reference column names in these types of objects. I asked our team lead why this was so, and he mentioned that in VB6, there was a lot of overhead in looking up data by column name rather than by index. Is this still true for .NET? Example code (in VB.NET, but same applies to C#): Public Sub TestADOData() Dim dt As New DataTable 'Set up the columns in the DataTable ' dt.Columns.Add(New DataColumn("ID", GetType(Integer))) dt.Columns.Add(New DataColumn("Name", GetType(String))) dt.Columns.Add(New DataColumn("Description", GetType(String))) 'Add some data to the data table ' dt.Rows.Add(1, "Fred", "Pitcher") dt.Rows.Add(3, "Hank", "Center Field") 'Method 1: By Column Name ' For Each r As DataRow In dt.Rows Console.WriteLine( _ "{0,-2} {1,-10} {2,-30}", r("ID"), r("Name"), r("Description")) Next Console.WriteLine() 'Method 2: By Column Name ' For Each r As DataRow In dt.Rows Console.WriteLine("{0,-2} {1,-10} {2,-30}", r(0), r(1), r(2)) Next End Sub Is there an case where method 2 provides a performance advantage over method 1?

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  • ASP.NET Web Service returning XML result and nodevalue is always null

    - by kburnsmt
    I have an ASP.NET web service which returns an XMLDocument. The web service is called from a Firefox extension using XMLHttpRequest. var serviceRequest = new XMLHttpRequest(); serviecRequest.setRequestHeader("Content-Type", "text/xml; charset=utf-8"); I consume the result using responseXML. So far so good. But when I iterate through the XML I retrieve nodeValue - nodeValue is always null. When I check the nodeType the nodeType is type 1 (Node.ELEMENT_NODE == 1). Node.NodeValue states all nodes of type Element will return null. In my webservice I have created a string with the XML i.e. xml="Hank" I then create the XmlDocument XmlDocument doc = new XmlDocument(); doc.LoadXML(string); I know I can specify the nodetype using using CreateNode. But when I am just building the xml by appending string values is there a way to change the nodeType to Text so Node.nodeValue will be "content of the text node".

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  • Control layout using graphviz twopi

    - by vy32
    I am trying to draw a graph showing search prefixes using twopi. I have a simple input file and am getting this output: (full image) Here is the input file: digraph search { // ordering=out; // color=blue; // rank=same; // overlap=scale; rankdir=LR; root=root; ranksep=1.25; overlap=true; "root"; a [color=none,fontsize=12]; b [color=none,fontsize=12]; c [color=none,fontsize=12]; d [color=none,fontsize=12]; e [color=none,fontsize=12]; f [color=none,fontsize=12]; #g [color=none,fontsize=12]; h [color=none,fontsize=12]; i [color=none,fontsize=12]; j [color=none,fontsize=12]; k [color=none,fontsize=12]; l [color=none,fontsize=12]; m [color=none,fontsize=12]; n [color=none,fontsize=12]; o [color=none,fontsize=12]; p [color=none,fontsize=12]; q [color=none,fontsize=12]; r [color=none,fontsize=12]; s [color=none,fontsize=12]; t [color=none,fontsize=12]; u [color=none,fontsize=12]; v [color=none,fontsize=12]; w [color=none,fontsize=12]; x [color=none,fontsize=12]; y [color=none,fontsize=12]; #ga [color=none,fontsize=12]; gb [color=none,fontsize=12]; gc [color=none,fontsize=12]; gd [color=none,fontsize=12]; ge [color=none,fontsize=12]; gf [color=none,fontsize=12]; gg [color=none,fontsize=12]; gh [color=none,fontsize=12]; gi [color=none,fontsize=12]; gj [color=none,fontsize=12]; gk [color=none,fontsize=12]; gl [color=none,fontsize=12]; gm [color=none,fontsize=12]; gn [color=none,fontsize=12]; go [color=none,fontsize=12]; gp [color=none,fontsize=12]; gq [color=none,fontsize=12]; gr [color=none,fontsize=12]; gs [color=none,fontsize=12]; gt [color=none,fontsize=12]; gu [color=none,fontsize=12]; gv [color=none,fontsize=12]; gw [color=none,fontsize=12]; gx [color=none,fontsize=12]; gy [color=none,fontsize=12]; gaa [color=none,fontsize=12]; gab [color=none,fontsize=12]; gac [color=none,fontsize=12]; gad [color=none,fontsize=12]; gae [color=none,fontsize=12]; gaf [color=none,fontsize=12]; gag [color=none,fontsize=12]; gah [color=none,fontsize=12]; gai [color=none,fontsize=12]; gaj [color=none,fontsize=12]; gak [color=none,fontsize=12]; gal [color=none,fontsize=12]; gam [color=none,fontsize=12]; gan [color=none,fontsize=12]; gao [color=none,fontsize=12]; gap [color=none,fontsize=12]; gaq [color=none,fontsize=12]; #gaz [color=none,fontsize=12]; gas [color=none,fontsize=12]; gat [color=none,fontsize=12]; gau [color=none,fontsize=12]; gav [color=none,fontsize=12]; gaw [color=none,fontsize=12]; gax [color=none,fontsize=12]; gay [color=none,fontsize=12]; gaza [color=none,fontsize=12]; gazb [color=none,fontsize=12]; gazc [color=none,fontsize=12]; gazd [color=none,fontsize=12]; gaze [color=none,fontsize=12]; #gazf [color=none,fontsize=12]; gazg [color=none,fontsize=12]; gazh [color=none,fontsize=12]; gazi [color=none,fontsize=12]; gazj [color=none,fontsize=12]; gazk [color=none,fontsize=12]; gazl [color=none,fontsize=12]; gazm [color=none,fontsize=12]; gazn [color=none,fontsize=12]; gazo [color=none,fontsize=12]; gazp [color=none,fontsize=12]; gazq [color=none,fontsize=12]; gazr [color=none,fontsize=12]; gazs [color=none,fontsize=12]; gazt [color=none,fontsize=12]; gazu [color=none,fontsize=12]; gazv [color=none,fontsize=12]; gazw [color=none,fontsize=12]; gazx [color=none,fontsize=12]; gazy [color=none,fontsize=12]; root -> a [minlen=2]; root -> b [minlen=2]; root -> c [minlen=2]; root -> d [minlen=2]; root -> e [minlen=2]; root -> f [minlen=2]; root -> g [minlen=2]; root -> h [minlen=2]; root -> i [minlen=2]; root -> j [minlen=2]; root -> k [minlen=2]; root -> l [minlen=2]; root -> m [minlen=2]; root -> n [minlen=2]; root -> o [minlen=2]; root -> p [minlen=2]; root -> q [minlen=2]; root -> r [minlen=2]; root -> s [minlen=20]; root -> t [minlen=2]; root -> u [minlen=2]; root -> v [minlen=2]; root -> w [minlen=2]; root -> x [minlen=2]; root -> y [minlen=2]; root -> 0 [minlen=2]; root -> 1 [minlen=2]; root -> 2 [minlen=2]; root -> 3 [minlen=2]; root -> 4 [minlen=2]; root -> 5 [minlen=2]; root -> 6 [minlen=2]; root -> 7 [minlen=2]; root -> 8 [minlen=2]; root -> 9 [minlen=2]; root -> "." [minlen=2]; g -> ga ; g -> gb ; g -> gc ; g -> gd ; g -> ge ; g -> gf ; g -> gg ; g -> gh ; g -> gi ; g -> gj ; g -> gk ; g -> gl ; g -> gm ; g -> gn ; g -> go ; g -> gp ; g -> gq ; g -> gr ; g -> gs ; g -> gt ; g -> gu ; g -> gv ; g -> gw ; g -> gx ; g -> gy ; ga -> gaa ; ga -> gab ; ga -> gac ; ga -> gad ; ga -> gae ; ga -> gaf ; ga -> gag ; ga -> gah ; ga -> gai ; ga -> gaj ; ga -> gak ; ga -> gal ; ga -> gam ; ga -> gan ; ga -> gao ; ga -> gap ; ga -> gaq ; ga -> gaz ; ga -> gas ; ga -> gat ; ga -> gau ; ga -> gav ; ga -> gaw ; ga -> gax ; ga -> gay ; gaz -> gaza ; gaz -> gazb ; gaz -> gazc ; gaz -> gazd ; gaz -> gaze ; gaz -> gazf ; gaz -> gazg ; gaz -> gazh ; gaz -> gazi ; gaz -> gazj ; gaz -> gazk ; gaz -> gazl ; gaz -> gazm ; gaz -> gazn ; gaz -> gazo ; gaz -> gazp ; gaz -> gazq ; gaz -> gazr ; gaz -> gazs ; gaz -> gazt ; gaz -> gazu ; gaz -> gazv ; gaz -> gazw ; gaz -> gazx ; gaz -> gazy ; gazo -> "Blue Tuesday" ; "Blue Tuesday" [ fontsize=10]; // Layout engines: circo dot fdp neato nop nop1 nop2 osage patchwork sfdp twopi } This output is generated with: twopi -os1.png -Tpng s1.dot I'm posting here because the printout is pretty dreadful. All of the nodes hung of "gaz" are overlapping; I've tried specifying nodesep and it is simply ignored. I would like to see the lines from root to the single letters further apart, but again, I can't control that. This seems to be a bug in twopi. The documentation says it should clearly follow these directives, but it doesn't seem to. My questions: Is there any way to make twopi behave? Failing that, is there a better layout engine to use? Thanks.

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  • Gene Hunt Says:

    - by BizTalk Visionary
    "She's as nervous as a very small nun at a penguin shoot"   "He's got fingers in more pies than a leper on a cookery course" "You so much as belch out of line and I'll have your scrotum on a barbed wire plate" "Let's go play slappyface" "your surrounded by armed barstewards" “Right, get out and find this murdering scum right now!” [pause] “Scratch that, we start 9am sharp tomorrow, it's beer-o-clock.” "So then Cartwright, you're such a good Detective.... Go and Detect me a packet of Garibaldies" "You're not the one who is going to have to knit himself a new arsehole after 25 years of aggressive male love in prison" “A dream for me is Diana Dors and a bottle of chip fat." “A dream for me is Diana Dors and a bottle of chip fat." “They reckon you've got concussion - but personally, I couldn't give a tart's furry cup if half your brains are falling out. Don't ever waltz into my kingdom playing king of the jungle.” “You great... soft... sissy... girlie... nancy... french... bender... Man-United supporting POOF!!” “Drugs eh? What's the point. They make you forget, make you talk funny, make you see things that aren't there. My old grandma got all of that for free when she had a stroke.” “He's Dead! It's quite serious!” “Fanny in the flat...Nice Work” “SoopaDoopa” “Tits in a Jumper!” “Drop your weapons! You are surrounded by armed bastards!” “It's 1973, almost dinnertime. I'm 'avin 'oops!” “Trust the Gene Genie!” “I wanna hump Britt Ekland...What're we gonna do...!” “Was that 'E' and you don't know the rest?! or you going 'Eeee, I Dunno'” “Good Girl! Prostate probe and no jelly. “ “Give over, it's nothing like Spain!” “I'll come over your houses and stamp on all your toys!” “The Wizard will sort it out. It's cos of the wonderful things he does” “Cartwright can jump up and down on his knackers!” “It's not a windup love, he really thinks like this!” “Women! You can't say two words to them” “I was thinking, maybe, a Berni Inn!” “If I wanted a bollocking for drinking too much...!” “Shhhh...hear that...that's the sound of this case being closed! “Chicken!? In a basket!?” “Seems a large quantity of cocaine...” “You probably thought he kept his cock in his keks!” “The tail-end of Rays demotion speech!” “Stephen Warren is gay!?” “You're a smart boy, use your initiative!” “Don't be such a Jessie!” “I find the idea of a bird brushing her teeth...!” “Never been tempted to the Magic talcum powder?” “Make sure she's got nice tits!” “You're more likely to find an ostrich with a plum up it's arse!” “Drink this lot under the table and have a pint on the way home!” “Never be a female Prime Minister!” “Pub? Pub! pub!.....Pub!” “Thou shalt not suck off rent boys!” “The number for the special clinic is on the notice board!” “If me uncle had tits, would he be me auntie!” “Got your vicars in a twist!” “We Done?!” “Your mates got balls...If they were any bigger he'd need a wheelbarrow!” “The Ending - from 'I want to go home' to the end music.”

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  • Backpacks and Booth Paint: TechEd 2012

    - by The Un-T Guy
    Arriving in the parking lot of the Orange County Convention Center, I immediately knew I was in the right place. As far as the eye could see, the acres of asphalt were awash in backpacks, quirky (to be kind) outfits, and bad haircuts. This was the place. This was Microsoft Mecca v2012 for geeks and nerds, the Central Florida event of the year, a gathering of high tech professionals whose skills I both greatly respect and, frankly, fear a little. I was wholly and completely out of element, a dork in a vast sea of geek jumbo. It like was wearing dockers and a golf shirt walking into a RenFaire, but one with really crappy costumes and no turkey legs...save those attached to some of the attendees. Of course the corporate whores...errrr, vendors were in place, ready to parlay the convention's fre-nerd-ic energy into millions of dollars by convincing the big-brained and under-sexed in the crowd (i.e., virtually all of them...present company excluded, of course) that their product or service was the only thing standing between them and professional success, industry fame, and clear skin. "With KramTech 2012," they seemed to scream, "you will be THE ROCK STAR of your company's IT department!" As car shows and tattoo parlors learned long ago, Tech companies seem to believe that the best way to attract the attention of this crowd is through the hint of the promise of sex. They recruit and deploy an army of "sales reps" whose primary qualifications appear to be long hair, short skirts, high heels, and a vagina. Unlike their distant cousins in the car and body art industries, however, this sub-species of booth paint (semi-gloss decoration that adds nothing to the substance of the product) seems torn between committing to being all-out sex objects and recognition that they are in the presence of intelligent, discerning people. People who are smart enough to know exactly what these vendors are doing. Also unlike their distant car show and tattoo shop cousins, these young women (what…are there no gay tech professionals who could use some eye candy?) seem to realize that while IT remains a male-dominated field, there are ever-increasing numbers of intelligent, capable, strong professional women – women who’ve battled to make it in this field through hard work and work performance rather than a hard body and performing after work. This is not to say that all of the young female sales reps are there only because of their physical attributes. Many are competent, intelligent, and driven -- not to mention attractive. They're working hard on the front lines of delivering the next generation of technology. The distinction is pretty clear, however, between these young professionals and the booth paint. The former enthusiastically deliver credible information about the products they’re hawking. The latter are positioned in the aisles, uncomfortably avoiding eye contact as they struggle to operate the badge readers. Surprisingly, not all of the women in attendance seemed to object to the objectification of their younger sisters. One IT professional woman who came of age in the industry (mostly in IT marketing) said, “I have no problem with it. I was a ‘booth babe’ for years and it doesn’t bother me at all.” Others, however, weren’t quite so gracious. One woman I spoke with, an IT manager from Cheyenne, Wyoming, said it was demeaning and frankly, as more and more women grow into IT management positions, not a great marketing idea. “Using these young women is, to me, no different than vendors giving out t-shirts to attract attention. It’s sad because it’s still hard for a woman to be respected in the IT field and this just perpetuates the outdated notion that IT is a male-dominated field.” She went on to say that decisions by vendors to employ these young women in this “inappropriate way” could impact her purchasing decisions. “I might be swayed toward a vendor who has women on staff who are intelligent and dynamic rather than the vendors who use the ‘decoration’ girls.” So in many ways, the IT industry is no different than most other industries as it struggles to maximize performance by finding and developing talent – all of the talent, not just the 50% with a penis. Women in IT, like their brethren, struggle to find their niche in the field, to grow professionally, and reach for the brass ring, struggling to overcome obstacles as they climb the mountain of professional success in a never-ending cycle of economic uncertainty. But as (generally) well-educated and highly-trained professionals, they are probably better positioned than those in many other industries. Beside, they’ve got one other advantage over their non-IT counterparts as they attempt their ascent to the summit: They’ve already got the backpacks.

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  • My Thoughts On the Xbox 180

    - by Chris Gardner
    Originally posted on: http://geekswithblogs.net/freestylecoding/archive/2013/06/21/my-thoughts-on-the-xbox-180.aspx Everyone seems to be putting their 0.00237 cents into the wishing well over Microsoft's recent decision to reverse the DRM policy on the Xbox One. However, there have been a few issues that nobody has touched. As such, I have decided to dig 0.00237 cents out of my pocket. First, let me be clear about this point. I do not support the decision to reverse the DRM policy on the Xbox One. I wanted that point to be expressed first and unambiguously. I will say it again. I do not support the decision to reverse the DRM policy on the Xbox One. Now that I have that out of the way, let me go into my rationale. This decision removes most of the cool features that enticed me to pre-order the console. No, I didn't cancel my pre-order. There is still five months before the release of the console, and there is still a plethora of information that we, as consumers, do not have. With that, it should be noted that much of the talk in this post is speculation and rhetoric. I do not have any insider information that you do not possess. The persistent connection would have allowed the console to do many of the functions for which we have been begging. That demo where someone was playing Ryse, seamlessly accepted a multiplayer challenge in Killer Instinct, played the match (and a rematch,) and then jumped back into Ryse. That's gone, if you bought the game on disc. The new, DRM free system will require the disc in the system to play a game. That bullet point where one Xbox Live account could have up to 10 slave accounts so families could play together, no matter where they were located. That's gone as well. The promise of huge, expansive, dynamically changing worlds that was brought to us with the power of cloud computing. Well, "the people" didn't want there to be a forced, persistent connection. As such, developers can't rely on a connection and, as such, that feature is gone. This is akin to the removal of the hard drive on the Xbox 360. The list continues, but the enthusiast press has enumerated the list far better than I wish. All of this is because the Xbox team saw the HUGE success of Steam and decided to borrow a few ideas. Yes, Steam. The service that everyone hated for the first six months (for the same reasons the Xbox One is getting flack.) There was an initial growing pain. However, it is now lauded as the way games distribution should be handled. Unless you are Microsoft. I do find it curious that many of the features were originally announced for the PS4 during its unveiling. However, much of that was left strangely absent for Sony's E3 press conference. Instead, we received a single, static slide that basically said the exact opposite of Microsoft's plans. It is not farfetched to believe that slide came into existence during the approximately seven hours between the two media briefings. The thing that majorly annoys me over this whole kerfuffle is that the single thing that caused the call to arms is, really, not an issue. Microsoft never said they were going to block used sales. They said it was up to the publisher to make that decision. This would have allowed publishers to reclaim some of the costs of development in subsequent sales of the product. If you sell your game to GameStop for 7 USD, GameStop is going to sell it for 55 USD. That is 48 USD pure profit for them. Some publishers asked GameStop for a small cut. Was this a huge, money grubbing scheme? Well, yes, but the idea was that they have to handle server infrastructure for dormant accounts, etc. Of course, GameStop flatly refused, and the Online Pass was born. Fortunately, this trend didn’t last, and most publishers have stopped the practice. The ability to sell "licenses" has already begun to be challenged. Are you living in the EU? If so, companies must allow you to sell digital property. With this precedent in place, it's only a matter of time before other areas follow suit. If GameStop were smart, they should have immediately contacted every publisher out there to get the rights to become a clearing house for these licenses. Then, they keep their business model and could reduce their brick and mortar footprint. The digital landscape is changing. We need to not block this process. As Seth MacFarlane best said "Some issues are so important that you should drag people kicking and screaming." I believe this was said on an episode of Real Time with Bill Maher about the issue of Gay Marriages. Much like the original source, this is an issue that we need to drag people to the correct, progressive position. Microsoft, as a company, actually has the resources to weather the transition period. They have a great pool of first and second party developers that can leverage this new framework to prove the validity. Over time, the third party developers will get excited to use these tools. As an old C++ guy, I resisted C# for years. Now, I think it's one of the best languages I've ever used. I have a server room and a Co-Lo full of servers, so I originally didn't see the value in Azure. Now, I wish I could move every one of my projects into the cloud. I still LOVE getting physical packaging, which my music and games collection will proudly attest. However, I have started to see the value in pure digital, and have found ways to integrate this into the ways I consume those products. I can, honestly, understand how some parts of the population would be very apprehensive about this new landscape. There were valid arguments about people with no internet access. There are ways to combat these problems. These methods do not require us to throw the baby out with the bathwater. However, the number of people in the computer industry that I have seen cry foul is truly appalling. We are the forward looking people that help show how technology can improve people's lives. If we can't see the value of the brief pain involved with an exciting new ecosystem, than who will?

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