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• file acess slow after deletion of many files

  - by stefan

  I recently accidentally created millions of files in one folder (rougly 5 million) and due to limitations I couldn't process them correctly (maximum argument count exceeded for wc / ls and such stuff). So I deleted them, which took quite a while, but now they're gone. I deleted the files with a regular rm. It weren't any system files. So the files are definitively deleted, but the system is very slow on file stuff now. ls, cat and auto-complete by pressing tab freezes the terminal for several seconds. Is this some sort of fragmentation issue? Is it an issue with the files beeing still somehow present?

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• Compute if a function is pure

  - by Oni

  As per Wikipedia: In computer programming, a function may be described as pure if both these statements about the function hold: The function always evaluates the same result value given the same argument value(s). The function result value cannot depend on any hidden information or state that may change as program execution proceeds or between different executions of the program, nor can it depend on any external input from I/O devices. Evaluation of the result does not cause any semantically observable side effect or output, such as mutation of mutable objects or output to I/O devices. I am wondering if it is possible to write a function that compute if a function is pure or not. Example code in Javascript: function sum(a,b) { return a+b; } function say(x){ console.log(x); } isPure(sum) // True isPure(say) // False

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• Simple Little Registry Editor - New Release

  - by Bruce Eitman

  I have posted a new release of the Simple Little Registry Editor found in Windows CE: Simple Little Registry Editor.  This release fixes a problem with writing DWORD values when the most significant bit is set.  The application uses RegistryKey.SetValue.  There seems to be a problem with how the .NET CompactFramework (and the full framework) handle the second argument during the call which causes an exception. So the following does not work: RegistryKey.SetValue( "TestValue", 0xFFFFFFFF, RegistryValueKind.DWord ); But, this does: RegistryKey.SetValue( "TestValue",unchecked((int) 0xFFFFFFFF), RegistryValueKind.DWord ); Copyright © 2012 – Bruce Eitman All Rights Reserved

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• Does syntax really matter in a programming language?

  - by Saif al Harthi

  One of my professors says "the syntax is the UI of a programming language", languages like Ruby have great readability and it's growing, but we see a lot of programmers productive with C\C++, so as programmers does it really matter that the syntax should be acceptable? I would love to know your opinion on that. Disclaimer: I'm not trying to start an argument. I thought this is a good topic of discussion. Update: This turns out to be a good topic. I'm glad you are all participating in it.

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• What should be allowed inside getters and setters?

  - by Botond Balázs

  I got into an interesting internet argument about getter and setter methods and encapsulation. Someone said that all they should do is an assignment (setters) or a variable access (getters) to keep them "pure" and ensure encapsulation. Am I right that this would completely defeat the purpose of having getters and setters in the first place and validation and other logic (without strange side-effects of course) should be allowed? When should validation happen? When setting the value, inside the setter (to protect the object from ever entering an invalid state - my opinion) Before setting the value, outside the setter Inside the object, before each time the value is used Is a setter allowed to change the value (maybe convert a valid value to some canonical internal representation)?

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• Subterranean IL: Generics and array covariance

  - by Simon Cooper

  Arrays in .NET are curious beasts. They are the only built-in collection types in the CLR, and SZ-arrays (single dimension, zero-indexed) have their own commands and IL syntax. One of their stranger properties is they have a kind of built-in covariance long before generic variance was added in .NET 4. However, this causes a subtle but important problem with generics. First of all, we need to briefly recap on array covariance. SZ-array covariance To demonstrate, I'll tweak the classes I introduced in my previous posts: public class IncrementableClass { public int Value; public virtual void Increment(int incrementBy) { Value += incrementBy; } } public class IncrementableClassx2 : IncrementableClass { public override void Increment(int incrementBy) { base.Increment(incrementBy); base.Increment(incrementBy); } } In the CLR, SZ-arrays of reference types are implicitly convertible to arrays of the element's supertypes, all the way up to object (note that this does not apply to value types). That is, an instance of IncrementableClassx2[] can be used wherever a IncrementableClass[] or object[] is required. When an SZ-array could be used in this fashion, a run-time type check is performed when you try to insert an object into the array to make sure you're not trying to insert an instance of IncrementableClass into an IncrementableClassx2[]. This check means that the following code will compile fine but will fail at run-time: IncrementableClass[] array = new IncrementableClassx2[1]; array[0] = new IncrementableClass(); // throws ArrayTypeMismatchException These checks are enforced by the various stelem* and ldelem* il instructions in such a way as to ensure you can't insert a IncrementableClass into a IncrementableClassx2[]. For the rest of this post, however, I'm going to concentrate on the ldelema instruction. ldelema This instruction pops the array index (int32) and array reference (O) off the stack, and pushes a pointer (&) to the corresponding array element. However, unlike the ldelem instruction, the instruction's type argument must match the run-time array type exactly. This is because, once you've got a managed pointer, you can use that pointer to both load and store values in that array element using the ldind* and stind* (load/store indirect) instructions. As the same pointer can be used for both input and output to the array, the type argument to ldelema must be invariant. At the time, this was a perfectly reasonable restriction, and maintained array type-safety within managed code. However, along came generics, and with it the constrained callvirt instruction. So, what happens when we combine array covariance and constrained callvirt? .method public static void CallIncrementArrayValue() { // IncrementableClassx2[] arr = new IncrementableClassx2[1] ldc.i4.1 newarr IncrementableClassx2 // arr[0] = new IncrementableClassx2(); dup newobj instance void IncrementableClassx2::.ctor() ldc.i4.0 stelem.ref // IncrementArrayValue<IncrementableClass>(arr, 0) // here, we're treating an IncrementableClassx2[] as IncrementableClass[] dup ldc.i4.0 call void IncrementArrayValue<class IncrementableClass>(!!0[],int32) // ... ret } .method public static void IncrementArrayValue<(IncrementableClass) T>( !!T[] arr, int32 index) { // arr[index].Increment(1) ldarg.0 ldarg.1 ldelema !!T ldc.i4.1 constrained. !!T callvirt instance void IIncrementable::Increment(int32) ret } And the result: Unhandled Exception: System.ArrayTypeMismatchException: Attempted to access an element as a type incompatible with the array. at IncrementArrayValue[T](T[] arr, Int32 index) at CallIncrementArrayValue() Hmm. We're instantiating the generic method as IncrementArrayValue<IncrementableClass>, but passing in an IncrementableClassx2[], hence the ldelema instruction is failing as it's expecting an IncrementableClass[]. On features and feature conflicts What we've got here is a conflict between existing behaviour (ldelema ensuring type safety on covariant arrays) and new behaviour (managed pointers to object references used for every constrained callvirt on generic type instances). And, although this is an edge case, there is no general workaround. The generic method could be hidden behind several layers of assemblies, wrappers and interfaces that make it a requirement to use array covariance when calling the generic method. Furthermore, this will only fail at runtime, whereas compile-time safety is what generics were designed for! The solution is the readonly. prefix instruction. This modifies the ldelema instruction to ignore the exact type check for arrays of reference types, and so it lets us take the address of array elements using a covariant type to the actual run-time type of the array: .method public static void IncrementArrayValue<(IncrementableClass) T>( !!T[] arr, int32 index) { // arr[index].Increment(1) ldarg.0 ldarg.1 readonly. ldelema !!T ldc.i4.1 constrained. !!T callvirt instance void IIncrementable::Increment(int32) ret } But what about type safety? In return for ignoring the type check, the resulting controlled mutability pointer can only be used in the following situations: As the object parameter to ldfld, ldflda, stfld, call and constrained callvirt instructions As the pointer parameter to ldobj or ldind* As the source parameter to cpobj In other words, the only operations allowed are those that read from the pointer; stind* and similar that alter the pointer itself are banned. This ensures that the array element we're pointing to won't be changed to anything untoward, and so type safety within the array is maintained. This is a typical example of the maxim that whenever you add a feature to a program, you have to consider how that feature interacts with every single one of the existing features. Although an edge case, the readonly. prefix instruction ensures that generics and array covariance work together and that compile-time type safety is maintained. Tune in next time for a look at the .ctor generic type constraint, and what it means.

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• Can the overuse of custom taglibs disrupt the outsourcing of html designers?

  - by Renato Gama

  Yesterday me and a friend were talking about the overuse of custom taglibs! We create taglibs for everything! We create taglibs in order to wrap jQuery UI elements (tabs, button, etc), and other plugins elements as well. We often wrap them together in a single component. We use taglibs in a point that we almost have no pure html within the body tag. Our question is: is this a healthy habit??? Imagine two situations: 1) We hire an html designer and have the cost of a month for him to learn all this stuff. 2) We want to outsource the html development but no company would get our taglib library to learn, OR it become more expensive. We love taglibs as its been a lovely shortcut for javascipt development as we write it only once. What would be the best practices in this sense, and what would you suggest? We are looking for a future-proof solution (or an argument that agrees with ours).

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• 12.10 cifs shares not mounting after modifying /etc/fstab

  - by Doug

  From Ubuntu 11.04 to 12.04 i've been able to mount my nas shares by first making directories in the /media folder, then : sudo gedit /etc/fstab to include the following line for each share I want to auto-mount; //servername/sharename /media/windowsshare cifs guest,uid=1000,iocharset=utf8,codepage=unicode,unicode 0 0 Now, however, I upgraded to 12.10, and suddenly I'm not able to mount the shares after saving /etc/fstab and sudo mount -a, giving me this error: Refer to the mount.cifs(8) manual page (e.g. man mount.cifs) mount error(22): Invalid argument When in Nautilus, The shares are visible under the network tab, unmounted, and when I click on a share, I get the following message: mount: only root can mount //192.168.1.71/photos on /media/photos I checked to ensure smbfs was installed, and no problems there. I'm stumped.

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• "Yes, but that's niche."

  - by Geertjan

  JavaOne 2012 has come to an end though it feels like it hasn't even started yet! What happened, time is a weird thing. Too many things to report on. James Gosling's appearance at the JavaOne community keynote was seen, by everyone (which is quite a lot) of people I talked to, as the highlight of the conference. It was interesting that the software for the Duke's Choice Award winning Liquid Robotics that James Gosling is now part of and came to talk about is a Swing application that uses the WorldWind libraries. It was also interesting that James Gosling pointed out to the conference: "There are things you can't do using HTML." That brings me to the wonderful counter argument to the above, which I spend my time running into a lot: "Yes, but that's niche." It's a killer argument, i.e., it kills all discussions completely in one fell swoop. Kind of when you're talking about someone and then this sentence drops into the conversation: "Yes, but she's got cancer now." Here's one implementation of "Yes, but that's niche": Person A: All applications are moving to the web, tablet, and mobile phone. That's especially true now with HTML5, which is going to wipe away everything everywhere and all applications are going to be browser based. Person B: What about air traffic control applications? Will they run on mobile phones too? And do you see defence applications running in a browser? Don't you agree that there are multiple scenarios imaginable where the Java desktop is the optimal platform for running applications? Person A: Yes, but that's niche. Here's another implementation, though it contradicts the above [despite often being used by the same people], since JavaFX is a Java desktop technology: Person A: Swing is dead. Everyone is going to be using purely JavaFX and nothing else. Person B: Does JavaFX have a docking framework and a module system? Does it have a plugin system?  These are some of the absolutely basic requirements of Java desktop software once you get to high end systems, e.g., banks, defence force, oil/gas services. Those kinds of applications need a web browser and so they love the JavaFX WebView component and they also love the animated JavaFX charting components. But they need so much more than that, i.e., an application framework. Aren't there requirements that JavaFX isn't meeting since it is a UI toolkit, just like Swing is a UI toolkit, and what they have in common is their lack, i.e., natively, of any kind of application framework? Don't people need more than a single window and a monolithic application structure? Person A: Yes, but that's niche. In other words, anything that doesn't fit within the currently dominant philosophy is "niche", for no other reason than that it doesn't fit within the currently dominant philosophy... regardless of the actual needs of real developers. Saying "Yes, but that's niche", kills the discussion completely, because it relegates one side of the conversation to the arcane and irrelevant corners of the universe. You're kind of like Cobol now, as soon as "Yes, but that's niche" is said. What's worst about "Yes, but that's niche" is that it doesn't enter into any discussion about user requirements, i.e., there's so few that need this particular solution that we don't even need to talk about them anymore. Note, of course, that I'm not referring specifically or generically to anyone or anything in particular. Just picking up from conversations I've picked up on as I was scurrying around the Hilton's corridors while looking for the location of my next presentation over the past few days. It does, however, mean that there were people thinking "Yes, but that's niche" while listening to James Gosling pointing out that HTML is not the be-all and end-all of absolutely everything. And so this all leaves me wondering: How many applications must be part of a niche for the niche to no longer be a niche? And what if there are multiple small niches that have the same requirements? Don't all those small niches together form a larger whole, one that should be taken seriously, i.e., a whole that is not a niche?

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• Performance-Based Management Stinks

  - by andyleonard

  Introduction This post is the forty-eighth part of a ramble-rant about the software business. The current posts in this series can be found on the series landing page . This post is about Performance-Based Management (PBM). Almost… In Mere Christianity , C. S. Lewis refutes an argument with the following statement: It has every amiable quality except that of being useful. I feel the same way about PBM. I am a metrics person. I thrive – intellectually, emotionally, and economically – on business intelligence...(read more)

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• PageRank is the Best Indicator of Competition Strength For a Keyword in SEO - New Verifiable Theory

  The major argument against PageRank in SEO is that pages with zero PageRank can be in the top positions even for highly competitive keywords. However, we are left with requiring an explanation as to why "PageRank is Google's view of the importance of this page." It becomes apparent that either Google is misleading us or we have all been misinterpreting Google's statement. From extensive evaluation of the top Google search engine results pages for hundreds of keywords, the author observed that those high positioned web pages with PageRanks of zero have a home page with higher PageRanks, usually three or more.

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• Should a poll framework be closed sourced

  - by samquo

  I was having a chat with a coworker who is working on a polling app and framework. He was asking technical questions and I suggested he open source the application to get more quality opinions from developers who are interested in this problem and are willing to give it heavy though. He has a different point of view which I think is still valid so I want to open this question for discussion here. He says he believes something like a polling framework should not be open sourced because it will reduce its security and validity as people reveal loopholes through which they can cheat. Can't say I completely disagree. I see a somewhat valid point there, but I always believed that solutions by a group of people are almost always better than a solution thought by a single person asking a small number of coworkers, no matter how smart that person is. Again I'm willing to accept that maybe some types of applications are different. Does anyone have an argument in his favor? I'd really like to present your responses to him.

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• Software Productivity Tools-&gt; The Missing Link?

  In an op-ed piece in this months SD Times, I make the argument that software development productivity tools have evolved over the years to become more mainstream. I make the case that while some developers shun tools, in reality they take for granted the tools they are using today that were not available 10 years or so ago, or were not that mature. For example today we use some tools without even thinking such as: SCM, build management, standards enforcement, ORM and UI components. Tools today save a team a tremendous amount of time and are the missing link in the software development process. You can get the March issue of SD Times on the newsstands today or read my article online here. Technorati Tags: Agile Did you know that DotNetSlackers also publishes .net articles written by top known .net Authors? We already have over 80 articles in several categories including Silverlight. Take a look: here.

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• ThinkPad fan control via procfs

  - by asebian

  My ThinkPad W500 used to crash sometimes under heavy load because the automatic control is not speeding up the fan far enough. But I was able to disengage the fan and let it run at full speed in Ubuntu 10.10. But this does not work in my new nice and shiny Ubuntu 11.10. Have a glimpse at fan control device. % ls -l /proc/acpi/ibm/fan -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 2012-03-18 15:46 /proc/acpi/ibm/fan % cat /proc/acpi/ibm/fan status: enabled speed: 3056 level: auto Now become super user in a fresh and clean environment and send control sequence. % exec sudo env -i bash -l $ echo 'level disengaged' >/proc/acpi/ibm/fan bash: echo: write error: Invalid argument What did I miss? Thanks for suggests.

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• Html Buttons with Triangles [migrated]

  - by Dmitry

  I'm looking for the simplest way of creating 'buttons' with bootom-central triangles as follows: |--------| | Text | |---\/---| By buttons/menu items I mean something which will will support atomic mouse behavior for the whole shape's region. No rounded corners just the shape itself. I saw plenty of websites doing thsese buttons lately, but now for some strange reason I couldn't find any. Ideally I'm looking for tutorial links or some general guidances, as the topic might be too big to be covered by one post. Technology scope wise - ideally I'm looking for Html5/Css3 solution. I don't care mouch about old IE support and I think Html5/css3 will give a slicker/more elegant solution. On the way forward I might need to add drop shadows, which is another argument in favour of css3. Thanks.

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• How to install a Lexmark z600 series printer?

  - by Uri Herrera

  It has been a headache trying to install this printer. All the tutorials I found are for older versions of Ubuntu, and none of them work. How can I install this printer? Edit: HOWTO: Install PITA Lexmark Z600 Z615 and Dell Photo Printer 720 Setup Lexmark Z600 and X series printer on Ubuntu (i tried this one, only that it was translated to spanish, but it was the same instructions) HOWTO: Lexmark Printers I always get an error when extracting the converted tars with all of the tuts, invalid argument or the file doesn't exist. Looks like, i was missing some ia32 libs .. and that caused the errors with the tar files, anyways i still can't print now i get this, cups-insecure-filter How to install Lezmark Z600 series printer Here, the OP offers 2 debs, i installed them on a 32 bit Ubuntu install, now the printer gets recognized but still can't print, 'cause i'm missing a filter, "rastertoz600".

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• Can't mount windows partition?

  - by C.J.

  When I try to open the Windows Partition from Ubuntu I receive the error: Unable to mount 55 GB Filesystem Error mounting: mount exited without exit code 13: ntfs_mst_post_read_fixup_warn: magic: 0x04010400 size: 1024 usa_ofs: 1026 usa_count: 1026: Invalid argument Record 6 has no FILE magic (0x4010400) Failed to open inode FILE_Bitmap: Input/output error Failed to mount '/dev/sda2': Input/output error NTFS is either inconsistent, or there is a hardware fault, or it's a SoftRAID/FakeRAID hardware. In the first case run chkdsk /f on Windows then reboot into Windows twice. The usage of the /f parameter is very important! If the device is a SoftRAID/FakeRAID then first activate it and mount a different device under the /dev/mapper/directory, (e.g. /dev/mapper/nvidia_eahaabcc1). Please see the 'dmraid' documentation for more detail. Additionally, I can't open the Windows Partition. I've tried updating it many times but it won't show up on GRUB. Does anybody know what all this means? And how I might fix it? I thank you for any help in advance

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• Initramfs error during boot

  - by PoohJuice

  Boot from (hd0,0) ext3 238ac8ca-9576-443d-8e23-8dd836cd2683 Starting up ... mount: mounting /dev/disk/by-uuid/238ac8ca-9576-443d-8e23-8dd836cd2683 on /root failed: Invalid argument mount: mounting /dev on /root/dev failed: No such file or directory mount: mounting /sys on /root/sys failed: No such file or directory mount: mounting /proc on /root/proc failed: No such file or directory Target filesystem doesn't have requested /sbin/init. No init found. Try passing init= bootarg. BusyBox v1.15.3 (Ubuntu 1:1.15.3-1ubuntu5) built in shell (ash) Enter 'help' for a list of built-in commands.

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• How do you achieve a numeric versioning scheme with Git?

  - by Erlend

  My organization is considering moving from SVN to Git. One argument against moving is as follows: How do we do versioning? We have an SDK distribution based on the NetBeans Platform. As the svn revisions are simple numbers we can use them to extend the version numbers of our plugins and SDK builds. How do we handle this when we move to Git? Possible solutions: Using the build number from hudson (Problem: you have to check hudson to correlate that to an actual git version) Manually upping the version for nightly and stable (Problem: Learning curve, human error) If someone else has encountered a similar problem and solved it, we'd love to hear how.

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• Predicate delegate in C#

  - by Jalpesh P. Vadgama

  I am writing few post on different type of delegates and and this post also will be part of it. In this post I am going to write about Predicate delegate which is available from C# 2.0. Following is list of post that I have written about delegates. Delegates in C#. Multicast delegates in C#. Func delegate in C#. Action delegate in C#. Predicate delegate in C#: As per MSDN predicate delegate is a pointer to a function that returns true or false and takes generics types as argument. It contains following signature. Predicate<T> – where T is any generic type and this delegate will always return Boolean value. The most common use of a predicate delegate is to searching items in array or list. So let’s take a simple example. Following is code for that. Read More

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• Agile Testing Days 2012 – My First Conference!

  - by Chris George

  I’d like to give you a bit of background first… so please bear with me! In 1996, whilst studying for my final year of my degree, I applied for a job as a C++ Developer at a small software house in Hertfordshire  After bodging up the technical part of the interview I didn’t get the job, but was offered a position as a QA Engineer instead. The role sounded intriguing and the pay was pretty good so in the absence of anything else I took it. Here began my career in the world of software testing! Back then, testing/QA was often an afterthought, something that was bolted on to the development process and very much a second class citizen. Test automation was rare, and tools were basic or non-existent! The internet was just starting to take off, and whilst there might have been testing communities and resources, we were certainly not exposed to any of them. After 8 years I moved to another small company, and again didn’t find myself exposed to any of the changes that were happening in the industry. It wasn’t until I joined Red Gate in 2008 that my view of testing and software development as a whole started to expand. But it took a further 4 years for my view of testing to be totally blown open, and so the story really begins… In May 2012 I was fortunate to land the role of Head of Test Engineering. Soon after, I received an email with details for the “Agile Testi However, in my new role, I decided that it was time to bite the bullet and at least go to one conference. Perhaps I could get some new ideas to supplement and support some of the ideas I already had.ng Days” conference in Potsdam, Germany. I looked over the suggested programme and some of the talks peeked my interest. For numerous reasons I’d shied away from attending conferences in the past, one of the main ones being that I didn’t see much benefit in attending loads of talks when I could just read about stuff like that on the internet. So, on the 18th November 2012, myself and three other Red Gaters boarded a plane at Heathrow bound for Potsdam, Germany to attend Agile Testing Days 2012. Tutorial Day – “Software Testing Reloaded” We chose to do the tutorials on the 19th, I chose the one titled “Software Testing Reloaded – So you wanna actually DO something? We’ve got just the workshop for you. Now with even less powerpoint!”. With such a concise and serious title I just had to see what it was about! I nervously entered the room to be greeted by tables, chairs etc all over the place, not set out and frankly in one hell of a mess! There were a few people in there playing a game with dice. Okaaaay… this is going to be a long day! Actually the dice game was an exercise in deduction and simplification… I found it very interesting and is certainly something I’ll be using at work as a training exercise! (I won’t explain the game here cause I don’t want to let the cat out of the bag…) The tutorial consisted of several games, exploring different aspects of testing. They were all practical yet required a fair amount of thin king. Matt Heusser and Pete Walen were running the tutorial, and presented it in a very relaxed and light-hearted manner. It was really my first experience of working in small teams with testers from very different backgrounds, and it was really enjoyable. Matt & Pete were very approachable and offered advice where required whilst still making you work for the answers! One of the tasks was to devise several strategies for testing some electronic dice. The premise was that a Vegas casino wanted to use the dice to appeal to the twenty-somethings interested in tech, but needed assurance that they were as reliable and random as traditional dice. This was a very interesting and challenging exercise that forced us to challenge various assumptions, determine/clarify requirements but most of all it was frustrating because the dice made a very very irritating beeping noise. Multiple that by at least 12 dice and I was dreaming about them all that night!! Some of the main takeaways that were brilliantly demonstrated through the games were not to make assumptions, challenge requirements, and have fun testing! The tutorial lasted the whole day, but to be honest the day went very quickly! My introduction into the conference experience started very well indeed, and I would talk to both Matt and Pete several times during the 4 days. Days 1,2 & 3 will be coming soon…  

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• Is is common to use the command pattern for property get/sets?

  - by k rey

  Suppose I have a controller class with a bunch of properties. Each time a property is changed, I would like to update the model. Now also suppose that I use the command pattern to perform model updates. Is it common to use command classes within property get and sets of the controller class or is there a better way? Here is an example of what I am currently using: class MyController { private int _myInt; public int MyInt { get { return _myInt; } set { MyCommand cmd = new MyCommand(); cmd.Argument = _myInt; cmd.Execute(); // Command object updates the model } } }

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• Does anyone prefer proportional fonts?

  - by Jason Baker

  I was reading the wikipedia article on programming style and noticed something in an argument against vertically aligned code: Reliance on mono-spaced font; tabular formatting assumes that the editor uses a fixed-width font. Most modern code editors support proportional fonts, and the programmer may prefer to use a proportional font for readability. To be honest, I don't think I've ever met a programmer who preferred a proportional font. Nor can I think of any really good reasons for using them. Why would someone prefer a proportional font?

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• Directory paths for resources and assets

  - by The Communist Duck

  If I have a file stucture for my final, released game something like: Main folder Media Images Other assets Sounds Executable List item And a different one for my 'in development' project, with the same Media folder but: Main Source and .obj, etc. Media with everything Bin folder with executable I obviously cannot hardcode file pathnames into this, like: "../Media/Image/evilguy.png" or "Media/Image/foo.jpg" because they wouldn't work with one of the builds and would require a lot of switching names. Instead, does it make sense for my resource manager, that loads everything, to have some kind of prefix path? Then, I can just do Get("foo.jpg") or Get("Sounds/boom.ogg") And simply switch out, for the final release, the ctr argument from the relative path for the development build to the release layout? If not, how have other people sorted these sorts of things out?

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• Knowing your user is key--Part 1: Motivation

  - by erikanollwebb

  I was thinking where the best place to start in this blog would be and finally came back to a theme that I think is pretty critical--successful gamification in the enterprise comes down to knowing your user.  Lots of folks will say that gamification is about understanding that everyone is a gamer.  But at least in my org, that argument won't play for a lot of people.  Pun intentional.  It's not that I don't see the attraction to the idea--really, very few people play no games at all.  If they don't play video games, they might play solitaire on their computer.  They may play card games, or some type of sport.  Mario Herger has some great facts on how much game playing there is going on at his Enterprise-Gamification.com website. But at the end of the day, I can't sell that into my organization well.  We are Oracle.  We make big, serious software designed run your whole business.  We don't make Angry Birds out of your financial reporting tools.  So I stick with the argument that works better.  Gamification techniques are really just good principals of user experience packaged a little differently.  Feedback?  We already know feedback is important when using software.  Progress indicators?  Got that too.  Game mechanics may package things in a more explicit way but it's not really "new".  To know how to use game mechanics, and what a user experience team is important for, is totally understanding who our users are and what they are motivated by. For several years, I taught college psychology courses, including Motivation.  Motivation is generally broken down into intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.  There's intrinsic, which comes from within the individual.  And there's extrinsic, which comes from outside the individual.  Intrinsic motivation is that motivation that comes from just a general sense of pleasure in the doing of something.  For example, I like to cook.  I like to cook a lot.  The kind of cooking I think is just fun makes other people--people who don't like to cook--cringe.  Like the cake I made this week--the star-spangled rhapsody from The Cake Bible: two layers of meringue, two layers of genoise flavored with a raspberry eau de vie syrup, whipped cream with berries and a mousseline buttercream, also flavored with raspberry liqueur and topped with fresh raspberries and blueberries. I love cooking--I ask for cooking tools for my birthday and Christmas, I take classes like sushi making and knife skills for fun.  I like reading about you can make an emulsion of egg yolks, melted butter and lemon, cook slowly and transform them into a sauce hollandaise (my use of all the egg yolks that didn't go into the aforementioned cake).  And while it's nice when people like what I cook, I don't do it for that.  I do it because I think it's fun.  My former boss, Ultan Ó Broin, loves to fish in the sea off the coast of Ireland.  Not because he gets prizes for it, or awards, but because it's fun.  To quote a note he sent me today when I asked if having been recently ill kept him from the beginning of mackerel season, he told me he had already been out and said "I can fish when on a deathbed" (read more of Ultan's work, see his blogs on User Assistance and Translation.). That's not the kind of intensity you get about something you don't like to do.  I'm sure you can think of something you do just because you like it. So how does that relate to gamification?  Gamification in the enterprise space is about uncovering the game within work.  Gamification is about tapping into things people already find motivating.  But to do that, you need to know what that user is motivated by. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is one of those areas where over-the-top gamification seems to work (not to plug a competitor in this space, but you can search on what Bunchball* has done with a company just a little north of us on 101 for the CRM crowd).  Sales people are naturally competitive and thrive on that plus recognition of their sales work.  You can use lots of game mechanics like leaderboards and challenges and scorecards with this type of user and they love it.  Show my whole org I'm leading in sales for the quarter?  Bring it on!  However, take the average accountant and show how much general ledger activity they have done in the last week and expose it to their whole org on a leaderboard and I think you'd see a lot of people looking for a new job.  Why?  Because in general, accountants aren't extraverts who thrive on competition in their work.  That doesn't mean there aren't game mechanics that would work for them, but they won't be the same game mechanics that work for sales people.  It's a different type of user and they are motivated by different things. To break this up, I'll stop here and post now.  I'll pick this thread up in the next post. Thoughts? Questions? *Disclosure: To my knowledge, Oracle has no relationship with Bunchball at this point in time.

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