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• Fast pixelshader 2D raytracing

  - by heishe

  I'd like to do a simple 2D shadow calculation algorithm by rendering my environment into a texture, and then use raytracing to determine what pixels of the texture are not visible to the point light (simply handed to the shader as a vec2 position) . A simple brute force algorithm per pixel would looks like this: line_segment = line segment between current pixel of texture and light source For each pixel in the texture: { if pixel is not just empty space && pixel is on line_segment output = black else output = normal color of the pixel } This is, of course, probably not the fastest way to do it. Question is: What are faster ways to do it or what are some optimizations that can be applied to this technique?

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• How to cut audio file with avconv?

  - by x-yuri

  I have a hard time trying to figure out how to cut a file with avconv. Here's the command I use: avconv -ss 52:13:49 -t 01:13:52 -i RR119Accessibility.wav RR119Accessibility-2.wav But it doesn't work. I get the whole file as a result. Well, almost the whole file. Somehow the resulting file has duration 1:16:31 instead of 1:17:23. Also I believe I executed this command in every possible way: with -ss and -t after -i, with -t specifying ending point, with mp3 files, with specifying audio codec, with ffmpeg. Am I doing it wrong?

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• Is there an open source license that allows any use, except within a GPL/copyleft project? [on hold]

  - by Marcos Scriven

  I would like to open source some code with a permissive license (say MIT/BSD) I would be happy for it to be used both commercially and in any open source project that is not copyleft (GPL being the main one obviously). I looked at the list of non-GPL compatible licenses here: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html#GPLIncompatibleLicenses But none seemed to be quite what I wanted. Is there such a license already? If not, would it even be possible to do this? EDIT: I have been asked to edit this question to clarify. I'm not sure how it's unclear, as that wasn't stated. What I would like to know is simply the answer to the topic - can anyone point to a standard licence that is permissive as possible, while restricting use in copyleft licence. I'm not clear why the question would be suspended by the same person that edited spelling differences (apparently British English is a 'mistake') in the question earlier, and by another that had answered licencing questions in other posts.

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• 2D game collision response: SAT & minimum displacement along a given axis?

  - by Archagon

  I'm trying to implement a collision system in a 2D game I'm making. The separating axis theorem (as described by metanet's collision tutorial) seems like an efficient and robust way of handling collision detection, but I don't quite like the collision response method they use. By blindly displacing along the axis of least overlap, the algorithm simply ignores the previous position of the moving object, which means that it doesn't collide with the stationary object so much as it enters it and then bounces out. Here's an example of a situation where this would matter: According to the SAT method described above, the rectangle would simply pop out of the triangle perpendicular to its hypotenuse: However, realistically, the rectangle should stop at the lower right corner of the triangle, as that would be the point of first collision if it were moving continuously along its displacement vector: Now, this might not actually matter during gameplay, but I'd love to know if there's a way of efficiently and generally attaining accurate displacements in this manner. I've been racking my brains over it for the past few days, and I don't want to give up yet! (Cross-posted from StackOverflow, hope that's not against the rules!)

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• Open Source Client-Based Project Management?

  - by Chuck

  For quite some time I've been searching for a web-based, open-source project management program that I can run on my rented space at Dreamhost to track client projects. dotProject seems nice, but I've never figured out how to create projects that only certain people can access. I'm usually working on two or three projects at a time for different clients, and would like to be able to allow access for each client to their project but not others. So, first of all, can anyone point me to how to do this in dotProject, and baring that, can anyone recommend an open-source solution to this problem?

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• Which kind of sitemap directory should I build for a search based navigation site

  - by Noam

  I have a search based navigation web-site. Each query has filters as well as sort-by. The search results point to end-pages inside the site. Each of those pages has many outlinks to other end-pages. Currently I have a XML sitemap which directs crawlers to all the end pages. I'm trying to add a silo sitemap directory to improve SEO. Assuming this is the right direction I have a couple of options: end pages sorted alphabetically. Pages by major search filters, and then divide alphabetically. Pages for every filter and cross option between them and the sort-by. Which would you recommend and why?

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• How can I host a website on a dynamically-assigned IP address?

  - by nick

  I recently upgraded my internet to the point that it is much faster and more reliable than my current webhost. I would like to move my current domain to be hosted at home, but my IP address is dynamic. As far as I know, I only get a new IP when I restart my modem and or router (which is almost never) or when cable one (my ISP) pushes out a firmware update (rarely). There are a few ways I can see doing this: Convince my ISP to give me a static IP Assign my router my current IP to force a static IP (which might work?) Set my DNS record to my current IP address and update it on the rare occasions that it changes. Obviously I'm hoping that the first one works, but I don't want to pay a lot of extra money (if that's what it takes) to get a static IP address. Which of these options will work most reliably?

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• Using Delegates in C# (Part 1)

  - by rajbk

  This post provides a very basic introduction of delegates in C#. Part 2 of this post can be read here. A delegate is a class that is derived from System.Delegate.  It contains a list of one or more methods called an invocation list. When a delegate instance is “invoked” with the arguments as defined in the signature of the delegate, each of the methods in the invocation list gets invoked with the arguments. The code below shows example with static and instance methods respectively: Static Methods 1: using System; 2: using System.Linq; 3: using System.Collections.Generic; 4: 5: public delegate void SayName(string name); 6: 7: public class Program 8: { 9: [STAThread] 10: static void Main(string[] args) 11: { 12: SayName englishDelegate = new SayName(SayNameInEnglish); 13: SayName frenchDelegate = new SayName(SayNameInFrench); 14: SayName combinedDelegate =(SayName)Delegate.Combine(englishDelegate, frenchDelegate); 15: 16: combinedDelegate.Invoke("Tom"); 17: Console.ReadLine(); 18: } 19: 20: static void SayNameInFrench(string name) { 21: Console.WriteLine("J'ai m'appelle " + name); 22: } 23: 24: static void SayNameInEnglish(string name) { 25: Console.WriteLine("My name is " + name); 26: } 27: } We have declared a delegate of type SayName with return type of void and taking an input parameter of name of type string. On line 12, we create a new instance of this delegate which refers to a static method - SayNameInEnglish.  SayNameInEnglish has the same return type and parameter list as the delegate declaration.  Once a delegate is instantiated, the instance will always refer to the same target. Delegates are immutable. On line 13, we create a new instance of the delegate but point to a different static method. As you may recall, a delegate instance encapsulates an invocation list. You create an invocation list by combining delegates using the Delegate.Combine method (there is an easier syntax as you will see later). When two non null delegate instances are combined, their invocation lists get combined to form a new invocation list. This is done in line 14.  On line 16, we invoke the delegate with the Invoke method and pass in the required string parameter. Since the delegate has an invocation list with two entries, each of the method in the invocation list is invoked. If an unhandled exception occurs during the invocation of one of these methods, the exception gets bubbled up to the line where the invocation was made (line 16). If a delegate is null and you try to invoke it, you will get a System.NullReferenceException. We see the following output when the method is run: My name is TomJ'ai m'apelle Tom Instance Methods The code below outputs the same results as before. The only difference here is we are creating delegates that point to a target object (an instance of Translator) and instance methods which have the same signature as the delegate type. The target object can never be null. We also use the short cut syntax += to combine the delegates instead of Delegate.Combine. 1: public delegate void SayName(string name); 2: 3: public class Program 4: { 5: [STAThread] 6: static void Main(string[] args) 7: { 8: Translator translator = new Translator(); 9: SayName combinedDelegate = new SayName(translator.SayNameInEnglish); 10: combinedDelegate += new SayName(translator.SayNameInFrench); 11:  12: combinedDelegate.Invoke("Tom"); 13: Console.ReadLine(); 14: } 15: } 16: 17: public class Translator { 18: public void SayNameInFrench(string name) { 19: Console.WriteLine("J'ai m'appelle " + name); 20: } 21: 22: public void SayNameInEnglish(string name) { 23: Console.WriteLine("My name is " + name); 24: } 25: } A delegate can be removed from a combination of delegates by using the –= operator. Removing a delegate from an empty list or removing a delegate that does not exist in a non empty list will not result in an exception. Delegates are invoked synchronously using the Invoke method. We can also invoke them asynchronously using the BeginInvoke and EndInvoke methods which are compiler generated.

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• When is a Use Case layer needed?

  - by Meta-Knight

  In his blog post The Clean Architecture Uncle Bob suggests a 4-layer architecture. I understand the separation between business rules, interfaces and infrastructure, but I wonder if/when it's necessary to have separate layers for domain objects and use cases. What added value will it bring, compared to just having the uses cases as "domain services" in the domain layer? The only useful info I've found on the web about a use case layer is an article by Martin Fowler, who seems to contradict Uncle Bob about its necessity: At some point I may run into the problems, and then I'll make a Use Case Controller - but only then. And even when I do that I rarely consider the Use Case Controllers to occupy a separate layer in the system architecture. Edit: I stumbled upon a video of Uncle Bob's Architecture: The Lost Years keynote, in which he explains this architecture in depth. Very informative.

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• Data-tier Applications in SQL Server 2008 R2

  - by BuckWoody

  I had the privilege of presenting to the Adelaide SQL Server User Group in Australia last evening, and I covered the Data Access Component (DAC) and the Utility Control Point (UCP) from SQL Server 2008 R2. Here are some links from that presentation:   Whitepaper: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff381683.aspx Tutorials: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee210554(SQL.105).aspx From Visual Studio: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd193245(VS.100).aspx Restrictions and capabilities by Edition: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc645993(SQL.105).aspx    Glen Berry's Blog entry on scripts for UCP/DAC: http://www.sqlservercentral.com/blogs/glennberry/archive/2010/05/19/sql-server-utility-script-from-24-hours-of-pass.aspx    Objects supported by a DAC: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee210549(SQL.105).aspx   Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!

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• Building a custom Xsession with VNC access

  - by Disco

  I have a small project where I'll need to build a very minimal X11 environnement for a cyber coffee kind shop. My idea is to have a simple server which will create a dozen of VNC Daemon listening on a different port (each port = one client). The server is working, i can connect using vnc to different port. Now i'm looking for a solution to create a customized desktop for each client; with a bare minimum of apps which i want to be able to add for each user. Like user1 will have app1 and app2, user2 will have app1 only etc. I plan to use openbox as a WM but no clue on 'how' to add custom icons on the desktop of it. Any clue, starting point would be interesting.

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• What are the relative merits for implementing an Erlang-style "Continuation" pattern in C#

  - by JoeGeeky

  What are the relative merits (or demerits) for implementing an Erlang-style "Continuation" pattern in C#. I'm working on a project that has a large number of Lowest priority threads and I'm wondering if my approach may be all wrong. It would seem there is a reasonable upper limit to the number of long-running threads that any one Process 'should' spawn. With that said, I'm not sure what would signal the tipping-point for too many thread or when alternate patterns such as "Continuation" would be more suitable. In this case, many of the threads do a small amount of work and then sleep until woken to go again (Ex. Heartbeat, purge caches, etc...). This continues for the life of the Process.

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• Calculating the position of an object with regards to current position using OpenGL like matrices

  - by spartan2417

  i have a 1st person camera that collides with walls, i also have a small sphere in front of my camera denoted by the camera position plus the distance ahead. I cannot get the postion of the sphere but i have the position of my camera. e.g. i need to find the position of the point or at the very least find away of calculating the position using the camera positions. code: static Float P_z = 0; P_z = -15; PushMatrix(); LoadMatrix(&Inv); Material(SCEGU_AMBIENT, 0x00000066); TranslateXYZ(0,0,P_z); ScaleXYZ(0.1f,0.1f,0.1f); pointer.Render(); PopMatrix(); where Inv is the camera positions (Inv.w.x,Inv.w.z), pointer is the sphere.

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• Taking advantage of an "Intel Turbo Memory" card for swap or fast bootup

  - by Brian Ballsun-Stanton

  I have an X61 thinkpad (currently running 10.10) that I purchased 3 years ago. I splurged a little and got a Turbo Memory expansion to improve my windows boots. When I installed 10.04 (and subsquently upgraded to 10.10) there was no Turbo Memory support and there's an awful lot of noise on searches. 1) Is there any support for Intel Turbo Memory in 11.04 or trivially compilable into the kernel as swap, suspend, hibernate point, or boot partition? 2) If there is, should I bother trying to use it?

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• Getting Started with 2d Game Dev (C++): DirectX or OpenGL?

  - by Dfowj

  So, i'm a student looking to get my foot in the door of game development and im looking to do something 2D, maybe a tetris/space invaders/something-with-a-little-mouse-interaction clone. I pointed my searches in the direction of C++ and 2d and was eventually lead to DirectX/OpenGL Now as i understand it, all these packages will do for me is draw stuff on a screen. And thats all i really care about at this point. Sound isn't necessary. Input can be handled with stdlib probably. So, for a beginner trying to create a basic game in C++, would you recommend DirectX or OpenGL? Why? What are some key feature differences between the two? Which is more usable?

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• Thoughts about MVC

  - by ayyash

  so i figured this one out, as a newcomer to the web development scene from the telecom biz, where we dealt with low level hardware API's, and a C++ fanboy, i tend to be bothered by automagical code, yes i appreciate the effort that went into it, and i certainly appreciate the luxury it provides to get more things done, but i just don't get it. so i decided to change that, and start investigating the new MVC based web apps, and at first it was like hitting a brick wall, i knew MVC from MFC days, so i'm familiar with the pattern, but i just couldn't get my head around the web version of it, till i came to realize the routing, is actually a separate feature to be inspected, much like understanding how LINQ works by better understanding anonymous objects. and so this article serve as an introduction to the following blogs where i share my views of how asp.net routing works, and then leverage that to the MVC level, and play around that field for a bit. as with most of my shared knowladge that may seem trivial to some, but i guess a newcomer's point of view can be useful for some folks out there.

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• Custom Russian Phonetic Keyboard

  - by roman

  I tried to custom Russian phonetic keyboard through Terminal. To do this I wrote: cd /usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/ then: sudo gedit ru The document " ru (/usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols) - gedit " appeared on the desktop. I changed all the keys that suited me, saved the file and restarted the computer. However, the changes didn't work out. I checked the document again. The changes are there, but the keys still code for the old layout. I think I am missing some important point. Please help. By the way I get in Terminal this message: ** (gedit:14887): WARNING **: Could not load Gedit repository: Typelib file for namespace 'GtkSource', version '3.0' not found (gedit:14887): IBUS-WARNING **: The owner of /home/roma/.config/ibus/bus is not root! What does this mean?

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• Seek Steering Behavior with Target Direction for Group of Fighters

  - by SebastianStehle

  I am implementing steering algorithms with group management for spaceships (fighters). I select a leader and assign the target positions for the other spaceships based on the target position of the leader and an offset. This works well. But when my spaceships arrive they all have a different direction. I want them to keep to look in the same direction (target - start). I also want to combine this behavior with a minimum turning radius that is based on the speed. The only idea I have is to calculate a path for each spaceship with an point before the target position, so the ships have some time left to turn into the right position. But I dont know if this is a good idea. I guess there will be a lot of rare cases where this can cause a problem. So the question is, if anybody knows how to solve this problem and has some (simple code) or pseudocode for me or at least some good explanation.

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• Oracle RightNow CX for Good Customer Experiences

  - by Andreea Vaduva

  Oracle RightNow CX is all about the customer experience, it’s about understanding what drives a good interaction and it’s about delivering a solution which works for our customers and by extension, their customers. One of the early guiding principles of Oracle RightNow was an 8-point strategy to providing good customer experiences. Establish a knowledge foundation Empowering the customer Empower employees Offer multi-channel choice Listen to the customer Design seamless experiences Engage proactively Measure and improve continuously The application suite provides all of the tools necessary to deliver a rewarding, repeatable and measurable relationship between business and customer. The Knowledge Authoring tool provides gap analysis, WYSIWIG editing (and includes HTML rich content for non-developers), multi-level categorisation, permission based publishing and Web self-service publishing. Oracle RightNow Customer Portal, is a complete web application framework that enables businesses to control their own end-user page branding experience, which in turn will allow customers to self-serve. The Contact Centre Experience Designer builds a combination of workspaces, agent scripting and guided assistances into a Desktop Workflow. These present an agent with the tools they need, at the time they need them, providing even the newest and least experienced advisors with consistently accurate and efficient information, whilst guiding them through the complexities of internal business processes. Oracle RightNow provides access points for customers to feedback about specific knowledge articles or about the support site in general. The system will generate ‘incidents’ based on the scoring of the comments submitted. This makes it easy to view and respond to customer feedback. It is vital, more now than ever, not to under-estimate the power of the social web – Facebook, Twitter, YouTube – they have the ability to cause untold amounts of damage to businesses with a single post – witness musician Dave Carroll and his protest song on YouTube, posted in response to poor customer services from an American airline. The first day saw 150,000 views and is currently at 12,011,375. The Times reported that within 4 days of the post, the airline’s stock price fell by 10 percent, which represented a cost to shareholders of $180 million dollars. It is a universally acknowledged fact, that when customers are unhappy, they will not come back, and, generally speaking, it only takes one bad experience to lose a customer. The idea that customer loyalty can be regained by using social media channels was the subject of a 2011 Survey commissioned by RightNow and conducted by Harris Interactive. The survey discovered that 68% of customers who posted a negative review about a holiday on a social networking site received a response from the business. It further found that 33% subsequently posted a positive review and 34% removed the original negative review. Cloud Monitor provides the perfect mechanism for seeing what is being said about a business on public Facebook pages, Twitter or YouTube posts; it allows agents to respond proactively – either by creating an Oracle RightNow incident or by using the same channel as the original post. This leaves step 8 – Measuring and Improving: How does a business know whether it’s doing the right thing? How does it know if its customers are happy? How does it know if its staff are being productive? How does it know if its staff are being effective? Cue Oracle RightNow Analytics – fully integrated across the entire platform – Service, Marketing and Sales – there are in excess of 800 standard reports. If this were not enough, a large proportion of the database has been made available via the administration console, allowing users without any prior database experience to write their own reports, format them and schedule them for e-mail delivery to a distribution list. It handles the complexities of table joins, and allows for the manipulation of data with ease. Oracle RightNow believes strongly in the customer owning their solution, and to provide the best foundation for success, Oracle University can give you the RightNow knowledge and skills you need. This is a selection of the courses offered: RightNow Customer Service Administration Rel 12.02 (3 days) Available as In Class and Live Virtual Class (Release 11.11 is available as In Class, Live Virtual Class and Training On Demand) This course familiarises users with the tasks and concepts needed to configure and maintain their system. RightNow Customer Portal Designer and Contact Center Experience Designer Administration Rel 12.02 (2 days) Available as In Class and Live Virtual Class (Release 11.11 is available as In Class, Live Virtual Class and Training On Demand) This course introduces basic CP structure and how to make changes to the look, feel and behaviour of their self-service pages RightNow Analytics Rel 12.02 (2 days) Available as In Class, Live Virtual Class and Training On Demand (Release 11.11 is available as In Class and Live Virtual Class) This course equips users with the skills necessary to understand data supplied by standard reports and to create custom reports RightNow Integration and Customization For Developers Rel 12.02 (5-days) Available as In Class and Live Virtual Class (Release 11.11 is available as In Class, Live Virtual Class and Training On Demand) This course is for experienced web developers and offers an introduction to Add-In development using the Desktop Add-In Framework and introduces the core knowledge that developers need to begin integrating Oracle RightNow CX with other systems A full list of courses offered can be found on the Oracle University website. For more information and course dates please get in contact with your local Oracle University team. On top of the Service components, the suite also provides marketing tools, complex survey creation and tracking and sales functionality. I’m a fan of the application, and I think I’ve made that clear: It’s completely geared up to providing customers with support at point of need. It can be configured to meet even the most stringent of business requirements. Oracle RightNow is passionate about, and committed to, providing the best customer experience possible. Oracle RightNow CX is the application that makes it possible. About the Author: Sarah Anderson worked for RightNow for 4 years in both in both a consulting and training delivery capacity. She is now a Senior Instructor with Oracle University, delivering the following Oracle RightNow courses: RightNow Customer Service Administration RightNow Analytics RightNow Customer Portal Designer and Contact Center Experience Designer Administration RightNow Marketing and Feedback

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• Using my own code in freelance projects.

  - by Witchunter

  I have been into freelance business for more than 2 years. While doing projects for other people, I've build a compilation of common tasks that I implement in projects and put them into code. It's kind of a library with some functions that I can reuse without having to rewrite the same thing dozen times. I'm talking about accessing Access databases, downloading information from FTP and similar stuff. Is this acceptable from a legal point of view? What's the difference in reusing the old code and rewriting it from the scratch (using you own brain again, therefore the exact same logic)? I do not hold any copyright to it, of course, and provide the source code for these classes to my clients.

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• Why write clean, refactored code?

  - by Shamal Karunarathne

  Hi programming lovers, This is a question I've been asking myself for a long time. Thought of throwing out it to you. From my experience of working on several Java based projects, I've seen tons of codes which we call 'dirty'. The unconventional class/method/field naming, wrong way of handling of exceptions, unnecessarily heavy loops and recursion etc. But the code gives the intended results. Though I hate to see dirty code, it's time taking to clean them up and eventually comes the question of "is it worth? it's giving the desired results so what's the point of cleaning?" In team projects, should there be someone specifically to refactor and check for clean code? Or are there situations where the 'dirty' codes fail to give intended results or make the customers unhappy? Do feel free to comment and reply. And tell me if I'm missing something here. Thanks.

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• Cannot assign keys to Wacom scroll wheel anymore

  - by UncleZeiv

  Hi all, my Wacom Graphire 4 used to work perfectly well until, I think, Ubuntu 10.4. At that point something changed in the configuration and I couldn't assign a key to the scroll wheel anymore (note: the pad's scroll wheel, not the mouse's), i.e this command: xsetwacom set "Wacom Graphire4 6x8 pad" AbsWDn "key +" returns silently without error but nothing happens. Same goes for AbsWUp, RelWDn, RelWUp. Apparently though the problem is even deeper as pressing the wheel in a xev window doesn't seem to have any effect. Moreover I am thoroughly confused on how the various pieces (kernel driver, xorg driver, evdev, HAL, xinput?) are supposed to work together and if the wacom module that ships with Ubuntu is the one from linuxwacom or not. Any ideas? I don't want to become an X.org hacker just to understand what's going on... it used to work! NOTE: I have already read question 3940, but that's not the same problem.

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• Rebooting problem

  - by Vinoth

  After restarting my ubuntu PC, I am getting a dialog window showing "Your system is running in low graphics mode" and after clicking on 'OK', I was prompted with three options 1. Run in low graphics mode for just one session 2. Reconfigure graphics 3. Troubleshoot the error 4. Exit to console login When I troubleshoot the error, its showing the black screen with following lines which I remember: we do not own /var/log/pm-powersave.log ....................................... couldn't write bytes: Broken pipe ....................................... ....................................... Starting System V runlevel compatibility got strucked at this point. Actually before restarting, I have changed the owner for all the files under the directory "/var/log" and "/var/lib". Is there any relation with the above issue. Please help me out to resolve the issue. Its urgent.

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• Silverlight Cream Monday WP7 App Review # 1

  - by Dave Campbell

  I'm going to try something here... if it seems useful, I'll continue, if it doesn't, I'll stop... so give me feedback! There are *lots* of Apps in the WP7 Marketplace, and heaven help me, but the Marketplace sucks for finding stuff. I won't rehash what's already been said in the blogs, but I agree with one and all. I went out last Saturday to find 2 apps that I knew were released, and couldn't do so on my device. Even in the Zune app, it took quite a while to find them... ok, I'll back off a bit, because I just found out I can do 'Search' now if I know the name... I didn't think that was working before. So my thought is on Monday (like today), I will post a review of 5 apps/games I either use or have played with on my device. These are strictly my opinions, you understand, but hey... it's better than a poke in the eye with an iPhone! A few disclaimers:     Feel free to write me about your app and tell me about it. While it would be very cool to receive a whole bunch of xap files to review, at this point, for technical reasons, I'm unable to side-load my device. Since I plan on only doing this one day a week, and only 5, I may never get caught up, so if you send me some info, be patient. Re: games ... remember I'm old... I'm from the era of Colossal Cave and Zork. Duke-Nukem 2D and Captain Comic were awesome. I don't own an XBOX or any other game system, so take game reviews from my perspective -- who knows, it may be refreshing :) I won't pay for an app or game just to try it. If you expect me to test-drive your app, it's going to have to have a Free Trial. In this Issue:   Jingo! is the first app I bought, just to see what the experience was like. It's very much like a game we used to play in school in the Army in 1971 on paper we passed around. Sort of a cross between hangman and Mastermind, you try to figure out the hidden word in 5 tries. You get really good at 5-letter words after a while. I like this because you have to think, and you're not pressured by a clock Jingo! is by James Furdell and is $1.99 I reviewed René Schulte's Pictures Lab a while back, and have not changed my mind. This is an excellent app for playing with any photo on your device... one you've just taken, one you've synced from your PC, or one you've saved from email. I like this because you can get some cool effects for your photos, and it just works. Pictures Lab is by Schulte Software Development and is $1.99 Since I work as a consultant, and from home, I wanted something I could track my time with. I've test-driven all the contenders I could find so far on the phone, and so far I like ONTRACK! the best. If asked, I have some suggestions, but it's probably just the way I work or think. What I do like is I can tap a project to start/stop/restart a counter, and at the end of the day it shows me how much time I've been working. If there's a way to make an adjustment in case you forget to tap the counter, I don't know how to do it, and that's my biggest complaint. I like this because you can get a daily readout which you can also email as a spreadsheet. The daily results display is very good. ONTRACK! is by Qmino and is $2.99 Remember Item 4 above... I've been playing guitar for 48 years... obviously since before the invention of 'tuners', so I'm not as dependent upon these as some folks are. I've tried some in the past and have always felt I can do just as good by ear (I have perfect relative pitch). So, I gave this app by András Velvárt a dance just to see how it works, and it is surprisingly good. If you're used to one of the stage tuners this may take a little getting used to, but it does the job. The difference with this one is there is no real 'null' point inside which you can think your guitar is in tune. The soundwave stays visible on the device, and if it's moving to the right, your string is flat, if it's moving to the left, your string is sharp. Getting it exact might be tricky, but it is exact! If you need to rely on a tuner, this is a good choice in my opinion, exactly because of the sensitivity.. tune up with this and you're dead-on. Guitar Tuner is by Kinabalu Innovation Limited and is $0.99 Popper 2 is the WP7 version of a wildly popular game by Bill Reiss named Dr. Popper. You can get a trial, or you can now get a free lite version of the game. Popper 2 is a fast-paced bubble breaker game. I find it something fun to play when I just want to buzz out, but maybe the best review is that my daughter didn't want to give my phone back when I showed it to her, and always wants to grab my phone to play 'that game'. A fun distraction with great graphics and a great price Popper 2 is by Blue Rose Systems, LLC and is $1.29 Let me know what you think of the idea of doing reviews, or the layout/whatever, and Stay in the 'Light!   Twitter SilverlightNews | Twitter WynApse | WynApse.com | Tagged Posts | SilverlightCream Join me @ SilverlightCream | Phoenix Silverlight User Group Technorati Tags: Silverlight    Silverlight 3    Silverlight 4    Windows Phone MIX10

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• Your Next IT Job

  - by BuckWoody

  Some data professionals have worked (and plan to work) in the same place for a long time. In organizations large and small, the turnover rate just isn’t that high. This has not been my experience. About every 3-5 years I’ve changed either roles or companies. That might be due to the IT environment or my personality (or a mix of the two), but the point is that I’ve had many roles and worked for many companies large and small throughout my 27+ years in IT. At one point this might have been a detriment – a prospective employer looks at the resume and says “it seems you’ve moved around quite a bit.” But I haven’t found that to be the case all the time –in fact, in some cases the variety of jobs I’ve held has been an asset because I’ve seen what works (and doesn’t) in other environments, which can save time and money. So if you’re in the first camp – great! Stay where you are, and continue doing the work you love. but if you’re in the second, then this post might be useful. If you are planning on making a change, or perhaps you’ve hit a wall at your current location, you might start looking around for a better paying job – and there’s nothing wrong with that. We all try to make our lives better, and for some that involves more money. Money, however, isn’t always the primary motivator. I’ve gone to another job that doesn’t have as many benefits or has the same salary as the current job I’m working to gain more experience, get a better work/life balance and so on. It’s a mix of factors that only you know about. So I thought I would lay out a few advantages and disadvantages in the shops I’ve worked at. This post isn’t aimed at a single employer, but represents a mix of what I’ve experienced, and of course the opinions here are my own. You will most certainly have a different take – if so, please post a response! I also won’t mention a specific industry – I’ve worked everywhere from medical firms, legal offices, retail, billing centers, manufacturing, government, even to NASA. I’m focusing here mostly on size and composition. And I’m making some very broad generalizations here – I am fully aware that a small company might have great benefits and a large company might allow a lot of role flexibility.  your mileage may vary – and again, post those comments! Small Company To me a “small company” means around 100 people or less – sometimes a lot less. These can be really fun, frustrating places to to work. Advantages: a great deal of flexibility, a wide range of roles (often at the same time), a large degree of responsibility, immediate feedback, close relationships with co-workers, work directly with your customer. Disadvantages: Too much responsibility, little work/life balance, immature political structure, few (if any) benefits. If the business is family-owned, they can easily violate work/life boundaries. Medium Size company In my experience the next size company I would work for involves from a few hundred people to around five thousand. Advantages: Good mobility – fairly easy to get promoted, acceptable benefits, more defined responsibilities, better work/life balance, balanced load for expertise, but still the organizational structure is fairly simple to understand. Disadvantages: Pay is not always highest, rapid changes in structure as the organization grows, transient workforce. You may not be given the opportunity to work with another technology if someone already “owns” it. Politics are painful at this level as people try to learn how to do it. Large Company When you get into the tens of thousands of folks employed around the world, you’re in a large company. Advantages: Lots of room to move around – sometimes you can work (as I have) multiple jobs through the years and yet stay at the same company, building time for benefits, very defined roles, trained managers (yes, I know some of them are still awful – trust me – I DO know that), higher-end benefits, long careers possible, discounts at retailers and other “soft” benefits, prestige. For some, a higher level of politics (done professionally) is a good thing. Disadvantages: You could become another faceless name in the crowd, might not allow a great deal of flexibility,  large organizational changes might take away any control you have of your career. I’ve also seen large layoffs happen, and good people get let go while “dead weight” is retained. For some, a higher level of politics is distasteful. So what are your experiences? Share with the group! Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!

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