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• Checkers AI Algorithm

  - by John

  I am making an AI for my checkers game and I'm trying to make it as hard as possible. Here is the current criteria for a move on the hardest difficulty: 1: Look For A Block: This is when a piece is being threatened and another piece can be moved in behind it to protect it. Here is an example: Black Moves |W| |W| |W| |W| | | |W| |W| |W| |W| |W| | | |W| |W| | | | | |W| | | | | | | | | |B| | | | | |B| | | |B| |B| |B| |B| |B| |B| | | |B| |B| |B| |B| White Blocks |W| |W| |W| |W| | | |W| | | |W| |W| |W| |W| |W| |W| | | | | |W| | | | | | | | | |B| | | | | |B| | | |B| |B| |B| |B| |B| |B| | | |B| |B| |B| |B| 2: Move pieces out of danger: if any piece is being threatened, and a piece cannot block for that piece, then it will attempt to move out of the way. If the piece cannot move out of the way without still being in danger, the computer ignores the piece. 3: If the computer player owns any kings, it will attempt to 'hunt down' enemy pieces on the board, if no moves can be made that won't in danger the king or any other pieces, the computer ignores this rule. 4: Any piece that is owned by the computer that is in column 1 or 6 will attempt to go to a side. When a piece is in column 0 or 7, it is in a very strategic position because it cannot get captured while it is in either of these columns 5: It makes an educated random move, the move will not indanger the piece that is moving or any piece that is on the board. 6: If none of the above are possible it makes a random move. This question is not really specific to any language but if all examples could be in Java that would be great, considering this app is written in android. Does anyone see any room for improvement in this algorithm? Anything that would make it better at playing checkers?

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• Teaching myself, as a physicist, to become a better programmer

  - by user787267

  I've always liked physics, and I've always liked coding, so when I got the offer for a PhD position doing numerical physics (details are not relevant, it's mostly parallel programming for a cluster) at a university, it was a no-brainer for me. However, as most physicists, I'm self taught. I don't have broad background knowledge about how to code in an object oriented way, or the name of that specific algorithm that optimizes the search in some kD tree. Since all my work so far has been more concerned about the physics and the scientific results, I undoubtedly have some bad habits - more so because my coding is my own, and not really teamwork. I have mostly used C since it is very straightforward and "what you write is what you get" - no need for fancy abstractions. However, I have recently switched to C++ since I'd like to learn more about the power that comes with abstraction, and it's pretty C-like (syntax-wise at least). How do I teach myself to code in a good, abstract way like a graduate in computer science? I know my code is efficient, but I want it to be elegant as well, and readable. Keep in mind that I don't have time to read several 1000-page tomes about abstract programming. I need to spend time on actual, physics related research (my supervisor would laugh at me if he knew I spent time thinking about how to program elegantly). How do I assess if my work is also good from a programmer's perspective?

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• Why is there never any controversy regarding the switch statement? [closed]

  - by Nick Rosencrantz

  We all know that the gotostatement should only be used on very rare occasions if at all. It has been discouraged to use the goto statement countless places countless times. But why it there never anything like that about the switch statement? I can understand the position that the switch statement should always be avoided since anything with switch can always be expressed by if...else... which is also more readable and the syntax of the switch statement if difficult to remember. Do you agree? What are the arguments in favor of keeping the 'switch` statement? It can also be difficult to use if what you're testing changes from say an integer to an object, then C++ or Java won't be able to perform the switch and neither C can perform switch on something like a struct or a union. And the technique of fall-through is so very rarely used that I wonder why it was never presented any regret of having switch at all? The only place I know where it is best practice is GUI code and even that switch is probably better coded in a more object-oriented way.

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• Alternatives to Professional Version Control

  - by greengit

  We're teaming up with some non programmers (writers) who need to contribute to one of our projects. Now they just don't like the idea of using Git (or anything for that matter) for version controlling their work. I think this is because they just don't find it worthwhile to wrap their heads around the twisted concepts of version control. (when I first introduced them to branching and merging -- they looked like I was offending them.) Now, we're not in a position to educate them or convince them to use it. We're just trying to find alternatives so that we get all their work versioned (which is what we need) -- and they get easy workflow and concentrate on what they do. I have come up with some ideas... tell them to save their work as a separate file every time they make some non-trivial change, and then use a diff on our side to just track changes. write a program (in Python) that implements the "milestones" in CSSEdit in some way. About the project: It is a natural language processing system (written in C + Python). We've hired some writers to prepare inputs for the system in different languages. And as we evolve the software, we'd need those writers to make changes to their inputs (articles). Sometimes the changes are very small (a word or two), and other times big. The reason we need to version control those changes is because every small/big change in the input has the potential to change the system's output dramatically.

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• Drawing a circle in opengl es android, squiggly boundaries

  - by ladiesMan217

  I am new to OpenGL ES and facing a hard time drawing a circle on my GLSurfaceView. Here's what I have so far. the Circle Class public class MyGLBall { private int points=40; private float vertices[]={0.0f,0.0f,0.0f}; private FloatBuffer vertBuff; //centre of circle public MyGLBall(){ vertices=new float[(points+1)*3]; for(int i=3;i<(points+1)*3;i+=3){ double rad=(i*360/points*3)*(3.14/180); vertices[i]=(float)Math.cos(rad); vertices[i+1]=(float) Math.sin(rad); vertices[i+2]=0; } ByteBuffer bBuff=ByteBuffer.allocateDirect(vertices.length*4); bBuff.order(ByteOrder.nativeOrder()); vertBuff=bBuff.asFloatBuffer(); vertBuff.put(vertices); vertBuff.position(0); } public void draw(GL10 gl){ gl.glPushMatrix(); gl.glTranslatef(0, 0, 0); // gl.glScalef(size, size, 1.0f); gl.glColor4f(1.0f,1.0f,1.0f, 1.0f); gl.glVertexPointer(3, GL10.GL_FLOAT, 0, vertBuff); gl.glEnableClientState(GL10.GL_VERTEX_ARRAY); gl.glDrawArrays(GL10.GL_TRIANGLE_FAN, 0, points/2); gl.glDisableClientState(GL10.GL_VERTEX_ARRAY); gl.glPopMatrix(); } } I couldn't retrieve the screenshot of my image but here's what it looks like As you can see the border has crests and troughs thereby renering it squiggly which I do not want. All I want is a simple curve

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• Microsoft C# Most Valuable Professional

  - by Robz / Fervent Coder

  Recently I was awarded the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) for Visual C#. For those that don’t know it’s an annual award based on nominations from peers and Microsoft. Although there are just over 4,000 MVPs worldwide from all kinds of specializations, there are less than 100 C# MVPs in the US. There is more information at the site: https://mvp.support.microsoft.com The Microsoft MVP Award is an annual award that recognizes exceptional technology community leaders worldwide who actively share their high quality, real world expertise with users and Microsoft. With fewer than 5,000 awardees worldwide, Microsoft MVPs represent a highly select group of experts. MVPs share a deep commitment to community and a willingness to help others. To recognize the contributions they make, MVPs from around the world have the opportunity to meet Microsoft executives, network with peers, and position themselves as technical community leaders. Here is my profile: https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/profile/rob.reynolds I want to thank those that nominated me, without nominations this would never have happened. Thanks to Microsoft for liking me and finding my achievements and contributions to the community to be worth something. It’s good to know when you put in a lot of hard work that you get rewarded! I also want to thank many of the people I have worked with over the last 7 years. You guys have been great and I’m definitely standing on the shoulders of giants! Thanks to KDOT for giving me that first shot into professional programming and the experience and all of the training! A special thanks to @drusellers for kick starting me when I went stale in my learning back in 2007 and for always pushing me and bouncing ideas off of me. Without you I don’t think I would have made it this far. Thanks Alt.NET for keeping it fresh and funky! A very special thank you goes out to my wife for supporting me and locking me in the basement to work on all of my initiatives!

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• Oscillating Sprite Movement in XNA

  - by Nick Van Hoogenstyn

  I'm working on a 2d game and am looking to make a sprite move horizontally across the screen in XNA while oscillating vertically (basically I want the movement to look like a sin wave). Currently for movement I'm using two vectors, one for speed and one for direction. My update function for sprites just contains this: Position += direction * speed * (float)t.ElapsedGameTime.TotalSeconds; How could I utilize this setup to create the desired movement? I'm assuming I'd call Math.Sin or Math.Cos, but I'm unsure of where to start to make this sort of thing happened. My attempt looked like this: public override void Update(GameTime t) { double msElapsed = t.TotalGameTime.Milliseconds; mDirection.Y = (float)Math.Sin(msElapsed); if (mDirection.Y >= 0) mSpeed.Y = moveSpeed; else mSpeed.Y = -moveSpeed; base.Update(t, mSpeed, mDirection); } moveSpeed is just some constant positive integer. With this, the sprite simply just continuously moves downward until it's off screen. Can anyone give me some info on what I'm doing wrong here? I've never tried something like this so if I'm doing things completely wrong, let me know!

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• How to restrict paddle movement using Farseer Physics engine 3.2

  - by brainydexter

  I am new to using Farseer Physics Engine 3.2(FPE), so please bear with my questions. Also, since FPE 3.2 is based on Box2D, I have been reading Box2D manual and pieces of code scattered in samples to better understand terminology and usage. Pong is usually my testbed whenever I try to do something new. Here is one of the issue I am running into: How can I restrict paddles to move only along Y axis, because the ball comes in and knocks off the paddles and everything floats in space afterwards ? (Box = Rectangle and ball = circle) I know MKS is the unit system, but is there a recommendation for sizes/position to be used ? I know this is a very generic question, but it would be good to know a simple set of values that one could use for making a game as simple as pong. Between box2d and FPE, I have some doubts: what is the recommended way of making a body in FPE ? world.CreateBody() does not exist in FPE Box2d manual recommends never to "new" body(since Box2D uses Small Object allocators), so is there a recommended way in Farseer to create a body (apart from factories) ? In box2d, it is recommended to keep a track of the body object, since it is also the parent to fixture(s). Why is it that in most of the examples, the fixture object is tracked ? Is there a reason why body is not tracked ? Thanks

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• creating bounding box list

  - by Christian Frantz

  I'm trying to create a list of bounding boxes for each cube drawn, so I can use the boxes to intersect with a ray that my mouse position is casting, but I have no idea how. I've created a list that stores the boxes, but how am I getting the values from each box? for (int x = 0; x < mapHeight; x++) { for (int z = 0; z < mapWidth; z++) { cubes.Add(new Vector3(x, map[x, z], z), Matrix.Identity, grass); boxList.Add(something here); } } public Cube(GraphicsDevice graphicsDevice) { device = graphicsDevice; var vertices = new List<VertexPositionTexture>(); BuildFace(vertices, new Vector3(0, 0, 0), new Vector3(0, 1, 1)); BuildFace(vertices, new Vector3(0, 0, 1), new Vector3(1, 1, 1)); BuildFace(vertices, new Vector3(1, 0, 1), new Vector3(1, 1, 0)); BuildFace(vertices, new Vector3(1, 0, 0), new Vector3(0, 1, 0)); BuildFaceHorizontal(vertices, new Vector3(0, 1, 0), new Vector3(1, 1, 1)); BuildFaceHorizontal(vertices, new Vector3(0, 0, 1), new Vector3(1, 0, 0)); cubeVertexBuffer = new VertexBuffer(device, VertexPositionTexture.VertexDeclaration, vertices.Count, BufferUsage.WriteOnly); cubeVertexBuffer.SetData<VertexPositionTexture>(vertices.ToArray()); } There aren't any clearly defined variables for the bounds of each cube created, so where do I create the bounding box from?

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• How to improve batching performance

  - by user4241

  Hello, I am developing a sprite based 2D game for mobile platform(s) and I'm using OpenGL (well, actually Irrlicht) to render graphics. First I implemented sprite rendering in a simple way: every game object is rendered as a quad with its own GPU draw call, meaning that if I had 200 game objects, I made 200 draw calls per frame. Of course this was a bad choice and my game was completely CPU bound because there is a little CPU overhead assosiacted in every GPU draw call. GPU stayed idle most of the time. Now, I thought I could improve performance by collecting objects into large batches and rendering these batches with only a few draw calls. I implemented batching (so that every game object sharing the same texture is rendered in same batch) and thought that my problems are gone... only to find out that my frame rate was even lower than before. Why? Well, I have 200 (or more) game objects, and they are updated 60 times per second. Every frame I have to recalculate new position (translation and rotation) for vertices in CPU (GPU on mobile platforms does not support instancing so I can't do it there), and doing this calculation 48000 per second (200*60*4 since every sprite has 4 vertices) simply seems to be too slow. What I could do to improve performance? All game objects are moving/rotating (almost) every frame so I really have to recalculate vertex positions. Only optimization that I could think of is a look-up table for rotations so that I wouldn't have to calculate them. Would point sprites help? Any nasty hacks? Anything else? Thanks.

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• How do you prefer to handle image spriting in your web projects?

  - by Macy Abbey

  It seems like these days it is pretty much mandatory for web applications to sprite images if they want many images on their site AND a fast load time. (Spriting is the process of combining all images referenced from a style sheet into one/few image(s) with each reference containing a different background position.) I was wondering what method of implementing sprites you all prefer in your web applications, given that we are referring to non-dynamic images which are included/designed by the programming team and not images which are dynamically uploaded by a third party. 1. Add new images to an existing sprite by hand, create new css reference by hand. 2. Generate a sprite server-side from your css files which all reference single images set to be background images of an html element that is the same size of the image you are spriting once per build and update all css references programmatically. 3. Use a sprite generating program to generate a sprite image for you once per release and hand insert the new css class / image into your project. 4. Other methods? I prefer two as it requires very little hand-coding and image editing.

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• How can I move along an angled collision at a constant speed?

  - by Raven Dreamer

  I have, for all intents and purposes, a Triangle class that objects in my scene can collide with (In actuality, the right side of a parallelogram). My collision detection and resolution code works fine for the purposes of preventing a gameobject from entering into the space of the Triangle, instead directing the movement along the edge. The trouble is, the maximum speed along the x and y axis is not equivalent in my game, and moving along the Y axis (up or down) should take twice as long as an equivalent distance along the X axis (left or right). Unfortunately, these speeds apply to the collision resolution too, and movement along the blue path above progresses twice as fast. What can I do in my collision resolution to make sure that the speedlimit for Y axis movement is obeyed in the latter case? Collision Resolution for this case below (vecInput and velocity are the position and velocity vectors of the game object): // y = mx+c lowY = 2*vecInput.x + parag.rightYIntercept ; ... else { // y = mx+c // vecInput.y = 2(x) + RightYIntercept // (vecInput.y - RightYIntercept) / 2 = x; //if velocity.Y (positive) greater than velocity.X (negative) //pushing from bottom, so push right. if(velocity.y > -1*velocity.x) { vecInput = new Vector2((vecInput.y - parag.rightYIntercept)/2, vecInput.y); Debug.Log("adjusted rightwards"); } else { vecInput = new Vector2( vecInput.x, lowY); Debug.Log("adjusted downwards"); } }

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• Why does SEO based code tips not appear to affect ranking?

  - by Ben

  I've been researching various methods for SEO where pages have precise titles, keywords are highlighted with h tags and tick the many boxes stated in good page mark up for SEO. However when looking at some top ranked search sites on google for key terms they have terrible SEO based mark up. Really long page titles, no tags, limited appearance of keywords in the text and so on. SEO analysis services rate them lower than other sites, yet these sites rank really high. Even with a low number of back-links they are high, so I don't understand how these sites earn the position when they appear inferior to those below them which have better mark up and links. I don't want to cause trouble my mentioning sites or keywords etc. but looking in google at 'executive search' the roughly 5th placed site makes no sense why it should be highly rank, especially with all the added .swfs. The same applies for the top of 'Japan Executive Search'. My main point is that these sites seem to not have all the important structural rules stated in seo page rating applications and general suggested best practice, nor do they show large back-links. It makes me feel like there is no point bothering to write decent mark up if it really doesn't matter. Can anyone explain how sites with such mark-up, and low back-links can outrank well written and structured sites with greater linkage? Sorry if this is a fuzzy question, I want to avoid singling out any sites for example, but it really has me perplexed that sites which appear to ignore the suggested best practices rank so well.

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• Rasbperry Pi Mod Offers One Button Audiobook Playback

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  How do you design an audiobook player for an elderly book lover who doesn’t want to wrestle with new technology? Simple and with a single button interface is a great place to start. This clever and thoughtful build comes to us courtesy of tinker Michael Clemens. His wife’s grandmother, in her 90s, is visually impaired but still loves to take in books via audiobooks. In an effort to make modern MP3 audiobooks accessible to her, Michael built a dedicated audiobook reader based off Rasbperry Pi and programmed it to use a single button. The system boots, loads the audiobook it finds on the attached USB drive, and loads up its track position from memory. Press the button to resume play or, for a refresher, hold the button for four seconds to start the track over. While you may not be in the market for a one-button audiobook player for an elderly relative, the same simple design could be easily adopted, via new scripts, to another function. Hit up the link below to read more about the build. The One Button Audiobook Player [via Hack A Day] How To Play DVDs on Windows 8 6 Start Menu Replacements for Windows 8 What Is the Purpose of the “Do Not Cover This Hole” Hole on Hard Drives?

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• To my lola

  - by Erik Araojo

  Originally posted on: http://geekswithblogs.net/Erik/archive/2013/06/29/153290.aspx I've been staring at the computer for a few minutes now and I honestly don't know what to write.  First I thought of writing about myself, where I was born, where I studied, where I am now... but that seems shallow.  Now that I thought about it.  I'd rather not talk about who I am because it seems irrelevant right now.  What I really want to say is..I'm sad.  Been like this for quite some time now.Nobody knows I'm sad.I tried telling my wife but I guess she didn't think it was serious.  We were having a fight when I told her so she probably thought I was just making up an excuse for my behavior.  And besides, she's not the kind of person who'd put my interests before hers especially when she's got lots of things on her mind.I'm not sad every single day.  Some days I'm perfectly fine.  I actually have no idea when I'd feel sad.  It just happens. I'd wake up cheerful and then before I go to bed I already feel depressed.  I have no idea what triggers it.  On the bed, I'd turn my back to my wife, curl up into a fetal position and start sobbing silently. Awful.  Maybe you're wondering now what's the cause of all this.My grandma passed away and I haven't completely  come to terms with that fact.  I long to see her, talk to her and hold her... but I can't do that anymore because she's gone.  I will never be able to hear her voice and feel her touch again.  To make matters worse, the only person whom I wish would stay beside me whenever I'm feeling miserable and dejected is never around.  She's either working late or out with her friends.  Such is my life at the moment.  I doubt it will improve anytime soon.

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• 2D non-tile based map editor

  - by Jonesy

  I am currently developing a relatively simple 2D, topdown oriented adventure game for the iPhone and was wondering what would be the easiest way to create the maps for my game. I figured I would need some kind of visual editor that would give me immediate feedback and would allow me to place all objects in the world exactly where I want them. I could then load the saved representation of the world I create in the editor in my game. So, I am looking for a simple map editor that allows me to do this. All the objects in my game are simply textured rectangles build up from two triangles. All I need to be able to do is position different rectangles/objects in the map, and give them a texture. I am using texture atlases, so it would be useful to be able to assign portions of textures to the objects. I then need to be able to extract all the objects from the saved representation of my maps, together with the name/identifier of the texture(atlas) they use, and the area of the texture atlas. I have looked at some tile-based map editors like Tiled and Ogmo, but they don't seem to be able to do what I want. Any suggestions? EDIT: a more concrete example: something like the GameMaker level editor, but then with added export functionality in a handy format.

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• Traffic estimation for a multiplayer flash game

  - by Steve Addington

  hey, i want to know if my rough traffic estimations are right, it would be for a pretty simple realtime flashgame in the style of haxball (but not as a soccer game) heres a video of it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_xBdFg1RcI So here comes my estimation, i dont know if they are realistic! i hope someone can help me. consider the packet attached as a typical one sent every 200ms, its 148bytes + 64 bytes of header will make around a 200bytes packet. The server will receive 200bytes x 6 players x 5 times a sec=6000bytes/s=5.85Kbytes/s=46.9kbit/s plus he has to send all back to the players, so at this point are 94Kbit/s.The server received all the information, perform the definitive calculation and send the new position to all players, in a bigger packet of around 900bytes that have to be delivered to the others 6, which makes 900bytes x 6 players x 5 times a sec=27000bytes/s=26Kbytes/s=210kbit/s. overall that would be 26kbyte per second. thats like 130mb traffic per hour for a 6player room. but somehow i think the numbers are too high? that would be really much traffic for such a simple game. did i calculate something wrong?

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• VBO and shaders confusion, what's their connection?

  - by Jeffrey

  Considering OpenGL 2.1 VBOs and 1.20 GLSL shaders: When creating an entity like "Zombie", is it good to initialize just the VBO buffer with the data once and do N glDrawArrays() calls per each N zombies? Is there a more efficient way? (With a single call we cannot pass different uniforms to the shader to calculate an offset, see point 3) When dealing with logical object (player, tree, cube etc), should I always use the same shader or should I customize (or be able to customize) the shaders per each object? Considering an entity class, should I create and define the shader at object initialization? When having a movable object such as a human, is there any more powerful way to deal with its coordinates than to initialize its VBO object at 0,0 and define an uniform offset to pass to the shader to calculate its real position? Could you make an example of the Data Oriented Design on creating a generic zombie class? Is the following good? Zombielist class: class ZombieList { GLuint vbo; // generic zombie vertex model std::vector<color>; // object default color std::vector<texture>; // objects textures std::vector<vector3D>; // objects positions public: unsigned int create(); // return object id void move(unsigned int objId, vector3D offset); void rotate(unsigned int objId, float angle); void setColor(unsigned int objId, color c); void setPosition(unsigned int objId, color c); void setTexture(unsigned int, unsigned int); ... void update(Player*); // move towards player, attack if near } Example: Player p; Zombielist zl; unsigned int first = zl.create(); zl.setPosition(first, vector3D(50, 50)); zl.setTexture(first, texture("zombie1.png")); ... while (running) { // main loop ... zl.update(&p); zl.draw(); // draw every zombie }

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• Is C and Python enough?

  - by gruszczy

  I am very proficient in Python (including Django), which I use for most tasks. I am also quite confident with C; I am maintaining small file system in userspace written in C. Yet when I am browsing job offers I see everywhere Java/C# and sometimes C++. I have coded profesionally in C++ for half a year in a gaming company, but I don't consider myself a pro. Also I simply despise Java and C#, which I would prefer not to touch ever. But it seems to me, that I am at very unfavorable position, when it comes to career. I am browsing careers.stackoverflow.com and I don't see and pure python or C offers. I would like to find a new job abroad in about 6 months. If I find some python offer, it means doing web development (not my favorite job). Does it mean, that I have to quickly start improving my C++ skills, if I wish to find a satisfying job? What would you suggest me? EDIT Learning new technologies is not an issue. Company I am working in is an integrator. Basically every new project requires learning new technologies, sometimes custom made. During last two years I was writing SQLs by hand, using LDAP, writing GUI in Qt, working on large scale DBMS prototype, making our internal help desk system use gsm modem or writing own report system. In previous job I had to learn from basics everything what I could about games development, because I knew nothing and chose this job only because of the challene it posed. I am all about embracing new technologies. I have used Java in the past and simply didn't like it. It's dull and boring. Doesn't let me do anything cool. I have recently seen some C# in action and seems similar. I don't like it. It's like German. I don't like speaking German.

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• Thoughts on iPhone, Flash, IE

  - by guybarrette

  It’s interesting to see the debate caused by the iPhone debate over Flash.  In the new version of the iPhone Developer Program License Agreement, Apple bans Flash and Monotouch: 3.3.1 — Applications may only use Documented APIs in the manner prescribed by Apple and must not use or call any private APIs. Applications must be originally written in Objective-C, C, C++, or JavaScript as executed by the iPhone OS WebKit engine, and only code written in C, C++, and Objective-C may compile and directly link against the Documented APIs (e.g., Applications that link to Documented APIs through an intermediary translation or compatibility layer or tool are prohibited). In Adobe’s last SEC filing, they list the iPhone/iPad as a threat to their business. http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/796343/000079634310000007/form_10q.htm#riskfactors We offer our desktop application-based products primarily on Windows and Macintosh platforms. We generally offer our server-based products on the Linux platform as well as the Windows and UNIX platforms. To the extent that there is a slowdown of customer purchases of personal computers on either the Windows or Macintosh platform or in general, to the extent that we have difficulty transitioning product or version releases to new Windows and Macintosh operating systems, or to the extent that significant demand arises for our products or competitive products on other platforms before we choose and are able to offer our products on these platforms our business could be harmed. Additionally, to the extent new releases of operating systems or other third-party products, platforms or devices, such as the Apple iPhone or iPad, make it more difficult for our products to perform, and our customers are persuaded to use alternative technologies, our business could be harmed. I had a conversation recently about IE9 and people were asking why is Microsoft spending money and resources to build IE9 now that we have Silverlight.  It makes just no sense to put so much efforts to support HTML 5 in IE because it’s overlapping with Silverlight, no?  Well, what if Chrome became the dominant browser and all of a sudden, Google would remove the object tag?  Would Microsoft be in the same position as Adobe is right now on the iPhone? What do you think? var addthis_pub="guybarrette";

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• How to protect UI components using OPSS Resource Permissions

  - by frank.nimphius

  v\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} o\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} w\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} .shape {behavior:url(#default#VML);} Normal 0 false 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:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} table.MsoTableGrid {mso-style-name:"Table Grid"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-priority:59; mso-style-unhide:no; border:solid black 1.0pt; mso-border-alt:solid black .5pt; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-border-insideh:.5pt solid black; mso-border-insidev:.5pt solid black; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";} ADF security protects ADF bound pages, bounded task flows and ADF Business Components entities with framework specific JAAS permissions classes (RegionPermission, TaskFlowPermission and EntityPermission). If used in combination with the ADF security expression language and security checks performed in Java, this protection already provides you with fine grained access control that can also be used to secure UI components like buttons and input text field. For example, the EL shown below disables the user profile panel tabs for unauthenticated users: <af:panelTabbed id="pt1" position="above">   ...   <af:showDetailItem        text="User Profile" id="sdi2"                                       disabled="#{!securityContext.authenticated}">   </af:showDetailItem>   ... </af:panelTabbed> The next example disables a panel tab item if the authenticated user is not granted access to the bounded task flow exposed in a region on this tab: <af:panelTabbed id="pt1" position="above">   ...   <af:showDetailItem text="Employees Overview" id="sdi4"                        disabled="#{!securityContext.taskflowViewable         ['/WEB-INF/EmployeeUpdateFlow.xml#EmployeeUpdateFlow']}">   </af:showDetailItem>   ... </af:panelTabbed> Security expressions like shown above allow developers to check the user permission, authentication and role membership status before showing UI components. Similar, using Java, developers can use code like shown below to verify the user authentication status: ADFContext adfContext = ADFContext.getCurrent(); SecurityContext securityCtx = adfContext.getSecurityContext(); boolean userAuthenticated = securityCtx.isAuthenticated(); Note that the Java code lines use the same security context reference that is used with expression language. But is this all that there is? No ! The goal of ADF Security is to enable all ADF developers to build secure web application with JAAS (Java Authentication and Authorization Service). For this, more fine grained protection can be defined using the ResourcePermission, a generic JAAS permission class owned by the Oracle Platform Security Services (OPSS).  Using the ResourcePermission  class, developers can grant permission to functional parts of an application that are not protected by page or task flow security. For example, an application menu allows creating and canceling product shipments to customers. However, only a specific user group - or application role, which is the better way to use ADF Security - is allowed to cancel a shipment. To enforce this rule, a permission is needed that can be used declaratively on the UI to hide a menu entry and programmatically in Java to check the user permission before the action is performed. Note that multiple lines of defense are what you should implement in your application development. Don't just rely on UI protection through hidden or disabled command options. To create menu protection permission for an ADF Security enable application, you choose Application | Secure | Resource Grants from the Oracle JDeveloper menu. The opened editor shows a visual representation of the jazn-data.xml file that is used at design time to define security policies and user identities for testing. An option in the Resource Grants section is to create a new Resource Type. A list of pre-defined types exists for you to create policy definitions for. Many of these pre-defined types use the ResourcePermission class. To create a custom Resource Type, for example to protect application menu functions, you click the green plus icon next to the Resource Type select list. The Create Resource Type editor that opens allows you to add a name for the resource type, a display name that is shown when granting resource permissions and a description. The ResourcePermission class name is already set. In the menu protection sample, you add the following information: Name: MenuProtection Display Name: Menu Protection Description: Permission to grant menu item permissions OK the dialog to close the resource permission creation. To create a resource policy that can be used to check user permissions at runtime, click the green plus icon in the Resources section of the Resource Grants section. In the Create Resource dialog, provide a name for the menu option you want to protect. To protect the cancel shipment menu option, create a resource with the following settings Resource Type: Menu Protection Name: Cancel Shipment Display Name: Cancel Shipment Description: Grant allows user to cancel customer good shipment   A new resource Cancel Shipmentis added to the Resources panel. Initially the resource is not granted to any user, enterprise or application role. To grant the resource, click the green plus icon in the Granted To section, select the Add Application Role option and choose one or more application roles in the opened dialog. Finally, you click the process action to define the policy. Note that permission can have multiple actions that you can grant individually to users and roles. The cancel shipment permission for example could have another action "view" defined to determine which user should see that this option exist and which users don't. To use the cancel shipment permission, select the disabled property on a command item, like af:commandMenuItem and click the arrow icon on the right. From the context menu, choose the Expression Builder entry. Expand the ADF Bindings | securityContext node and click the userGrantedResource option. Hint: You can expand the Description panel below the EL selection panel to see an example of how the grant should look like. The EL that is created needs to be manually edited to show as #{!securityContext.userGrantedResource[               'resourceName=Cancel Shipment;resourceType=MenuProtection;action=process']} OK the dialog so the permission checking EL is added as a value to the disabled property. Running the application and expanding the Shipment menu shows the Cancel Shipments menu item disabled for all users that don't have the custom menu protection resource permission granted. Note: Following the steps listed above, you create a JAAS permission and declaratively configure it for function security in an ADF application. Do you need to understand JAAS for this? No!  This is one of the benefits that you gain from using the ADF development framework. To implement multi lines of defense for your application, the action performed when clicking the enabled "Cancel Shipments" option should also check if the authenticated user is allowed to use process it. For this, code as shown below can be used in a managed bean public void onCancelShipment(ActionEvent actionEvent) {       SecurityContext securityCtx =       ADFContext.getCurrent().getSecurityContext();   //create instance of ResourcePermission(String type, String name,   //String action)   ResourcePermission resourcePermission =     new ResourcePermission("MenuProtection","Cancel Shipment",                            "process");        boolean userHasPermission =          securityCtx.hasPermission(resourcePermission);   if (userHasPermission){       //execute privileged logic here   } } Note: To learn more abput ADF Security, visit http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E17904_01/web.1111/b31974/adding_security.htm#BGBGJEAHNote: A monthly summary of OTN Harvest blog postings can be downloaded from ADF Code Corner. The monthly summary is a PDF document that contains supporting screen shots for some of the postings: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/developer-tools/adf/learnmore/index-101235.html

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• What are the factors affecting a new programming language?

  - by Saurav Sengupta

  I am developing a new general-purpose programming language of my own design. It's currently my own personal project. I have read of some experts saying that new languages do not usually survive (unfortunately I can't find a reference to that right now). What are the most substantial problems that a new language faces? The language syntax is similar to C/Python families, it does not use S-expressions, and it is an imperative language, but I'm doing first-class functions in it to provide the facilities of currying. In particular, I am concentrating on translating the source language to an intermediate language for execution by an interpreter, but I'm not in a position to translate to native code yet. What would be the issues with that? I've not personally used many non-native code languages, so I'm not well aware of the performance issues on today's machines. I also can't decide upon a lexer and parser generator. What would be the pros and cons of Flex and Yacc vs. hand-made? And what benefits will LLVM provide? I need to get the interpreter ready as quickly as possible. Finally, what factors will affect the language's use post release? I am planning a small library of essentials and full documentation for the first phase.

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• Introducing the Industry's First Analytics Machine, Oracle Exalytics

  - by Manan Goel

  Analytics is all about gaining insights from the data for better decision making. The business press is abuzz with examples of leading organizations across the world using data-driven insights for strategic, financial and operational excellence. A recent study on “data-driven decision making” conducted by researchers at MIT and Wharton provides empirical evidence that “firms that adopt data-driven decision making have output and productivity that is 5-6% higher than the competition”. The potential payoff for firms can range from higher shareholder value to a market leadership position. However, the vision of delivering fast, interactive, insightful analytics has remained elusive for most organizations. Most enterprise IT organizations continue to struggle to deliver actionable analytics due to time-sensitive, sprawling requirements and ever tightening budgets. The issue is further exasperated by the fact that most enterprise analytics solutions require dealing with a number of hardware, software, storage and networking vendors and precious resources are wasted integrating the hardware and software components to deliver a complete analytical solution. Oracle Exalytics In-Memory Machine is the world’s first engineered system specifically designed to deliver high performance analysis, modeling and planning. Built using industry-standard hardware, market-leading business intelligence software and in-memory database technology, Oracle Exalytics is an optimized system that delivers answers to all your business questions with unmatched speed, intelligence, simplicity and manageability. Oracle Exalytics’s unmatched speed, visualizations and scalability delivers extreme performance for existing analytical and enterprise performance management applications and enables a new class of intelligent applications like Yield Management, Revenue Management, Demand Forecasting, Inventory Management, Pricing Optimization, Profitability Management, Rolling Forecast and Virtual Close etc. Requiring no application redesign, Oracle Exalytics can be deployed in existing IT environments by itself or in conjunction with Oracle Exadata and/or Oracle Exalogic to enable extreme performance and best in class user experience. Based on proven hardware, software and in-memory technology, Oracle Exalytics lowers the total cost of ownership, reduces operational risk and provides unprecedented analytical capability for workgroup, departmental and enterprise wide deployments. Click here to learn more about Oracle Exalytics.  

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• agile as our first project management methodology [closed]

  - by Hasan Khan

  we are a small web development company that has till now been working on client projects. we employed little to no project management and that has cost us a lot. we've used only the barest of tools (wireframing, prototyping etc) but no formal project management process has been put into place. we've learnt from our mistakes and want to prevent them from happening in the future. also, we are looking to develop our own products and we understand that putting in a proper project management paradigm will help. after a lot of research, we've sort of settled on agile for a few reasons: agile seems to scale well with team size. our team is small right now and we hope to grow and agile seems to be a process that we can put in place now and grow with. agile will help us with customers who just can't seem to make up their minds and keep changing requirements. we'd appreciate the community's thoughts on this. is this a correct way to think? will agile be a good system to put into place, where there has been none till now? are there any resources that may help us in our position? pretty much all of the resources that we've found start by comparing agile to x (where x = any management methodology) and why its better than x and how agile can be implemented in place of x. we're looking for resources that can help us out in our particular situation. thanks for all your help!

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• 2D non-tile based map editor

  - by user5468

  I am currently developing a relatively simple 2D, topdown oriented adventure game for the iPhone and was wondering what would be the easiest way to create the maps for my game. I figured I would need some kind of visual editor that would give me immediate feedback and would allow me to place all objects in the world exactly where I want them. I could then load the saved representation of the world I create in the editor in my game. So, I am looking for a simple map editor that allows me to do this. All the objects in my game are simply textured rectangles build up from two triangles. All I need to be able to do is position different rectangles/objects in the map, and give them a texture. I am using texture atlases, so it would be useful to be able to assign portions of textures to the objects. I then need to be able to extract all the objects from the saved representation of my maps, together with the name/identifier of the texture(atlas) they use, and the area of the texture atlas. I have looked at some tile-based map editors like Tiled and Ogmo, but they don't seem to be able to do what I want. Any suggestions? EDIT: a more concrete example: something like the GameMaker level editor, but then with added export functionality in a handy format.

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