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• Select (loop) or command not working in shell-script

  - by user208098

  I've been tinkering with Linux and Unix for years but still a novice in my mind and recently find myself trying to be more pro with it as I work in IT. So with that notion I'm studying shell scripting. I've hit a snag in ubuntu using the latest version 13.10 Saucy. When I use the select command in a sh script it doesn't work, depending on how I format the command it will either return Unexpected "do" or Unexpected "done". See the following two examples: This section of code produces an unexpected "do" error: #/bin/bash PS3='Please enter your choice' select opt in option1 option2 option3 quit do case $opt in "option1") echo "you chose choice 1" ;; "option2") echo "you chose choice 2" ;; "option3") echo "you chose choice 3" ;; "quit") break ;; *) echo invalid option ;; esac done This section of code produces an unexpected "done" error. #/bin/bash PS3='Please enter your choice' select opt in option1 option2 option3 quit ; do case $opt in "Option1") echo "you chose choice 1" ;; "Option2") echo "you chose choice 2" ;; "Option3") echo "you chose choice 3" ;; "quit") break ;; *) echo invalid option ;; esac done When I enter these parameters into the command line interactively or manually I get the desired result which is a list of choices to choose from. However when executed from a script I get the before mentioned errors. Also a side note I have tried this in Fedora as a script and it worked perfectly so my question is why isn't it working in Ubuntu, is this a difference between RHL and Debian? Or is it a bug in the latest version of Ubuntu? Thanks in advance for any help! KG

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• Comparing Apples and Pairs

  - by Tony Davis

  A recent study, High Costs and Negative Value of Pair Programming, by Capers Jones, pulls no punches in its assessment of the costs-to- benefits ratio of pair programming, two programmers working together, at a single computer, rather than separately. He implies that pair programming is a method rushed into production on a wave of enthusiasm for Agile or Extreme Programming, without any real regard for its effectiveness. Despite admitting that his data represented a far from complete study of the economics of pair programming, his conclusions were stark: it was 2.5 times more expensive, resulted in a 15% drop in productivity, and offered no significant quality benefits. The author provides a more scientific analysis than Jon Evans’ Pair Programming Considered Harmful, but the theme is the same. In terms of upfront-coding costs, pair programming is surely more expensive. The claim of productivity loss is dubious and contested by other studies. The third claim, though, did surprise me. The author’s data suggests that if both the pair and the individual programmers employ static code analysis and testing, then there is no measurable difference in the resulting code quality, in terms of defects per function point. In other words, pair programming incurs a massive extra cost for no tangible return in investment. There were, inevitably, many criticisms of his data and his conclusions, a few of which are persuasive. Firstly, that the driver/observer model of pair programming, on which the study bases its findings, is far from the most effective. For example, many find Ping-Pong pairing, based on use of test-driven development, far more productive. Secondly, that it doesn’t distinguish between “expert” and “novice” pair programmers– that is, independently of other programming skills, how skilled was an individual at pair programming. Thirdly, that his measure of quality is too narrow. This point rings true, certainly at Red Gate, where developers don’t pair program all the time, but use the method in short bursts, while tackling a tricky problem and needing a fresh perspective on the best approach, or more in-depth knowledge in a particular domain. All of them argue that pair programming, and collective code ownership, offers significant rewards, if not in terms of immediate “bug reduction”, then in removing the likelihood of single points of failure, and improving the overall quality and longer-term adaptability/maintainability of the design. There is also a massive learning benefit for both participants. One developer told me how he once worked in the same team over consecutive summers, the first time with no pair programming and the second time pair-programming two-thirds of the time, and described the increased rate of learning the second time as “phenomenal”. There are a great many theories on how we should develop software (Scrum, XP, Lean, etc.), but woefully little scientific research in their effectiveness. For a group that spends so much time crunching other people’s data, I wonder if developers spend enough time crunching data about themselves. Capers Jones’ data may be incomplete, but should cause a pause for thought, especially for any large IT departments, supporting commerce and industry, who are considering pair programming. It certainly shouldn’t discourage teams from exploring new ways of developing software, as long as they also think about how to gather hard data to gauge their effectiveness.

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• Putting DSMD into Remission

  - by Justin Greenwood

  As a programmer with over ten years of professional experience, I've often suffered from DSMD (distraction surplus/motivation deficit) disorder. I know I'm not alone. Many of my colleagues have shared their experiences with this productivity cancer to me in support groups or in moments of inebriated intimacy. Often, I observe friends unknowingly surrendering to it - sitting at their computer, cycling through the same set of web sites (blogs, facebook, youtube, news providers, wikipeida, etc.), over and over again. Intermittently, they get up, take a walk around the office, make small talk with their colleagues, get another cup of coffee, then sit down and start the cycle all over again. It is completely controlled by the subconscious mind and will destroy your ability to get into that groove you used to live in back in your better days. Programming requires extended periods of focused attention, and this type of behavior will really kill productivity and in the end, when deadlines are near, launch your stress level to near emotional breakdown levels.DiagnosisThe best way to diagnose infection is to completely disconnect your devices from the internet while working. If you find yourself launching web browsers every minute or so, then you're down with the sickness.TreatmentA few techniques I've found that will help send this ailment into regression are as follows:Segment your day into two to three hour work segments. For example: 9:00-11:00, 1:00-3:00, 3:30-5:00.Define a few small one to two hour tasks you want to accomplish in your day. Assign each of those tasks to one of the short work segments.If possible, turn off the internet and any other distractions during these work segments (at least until you regain control of your browsing habits) - this includes instant messaging and email. You can check your email and waste time surfing in the hours between work segments.Reward yourself on productive days with a beer or whatever butters your muffins.

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• What are my choices for server side sandboxed scripting?

  - by alfa64

  I'm building a public website where users share data and scripts to run over some data. The scripts are run serverside in some sort of sandbox without other interaction this cycle: my Perl program reads from a database a User made script, adds the data to be processed into the script ( ie: a JSON document) then calls the interpreter, it returns the response( a JSON document or plain text), i save it to the database with my perl script. The script should be able to have some access to built in functions added to the scripting language by myself, but nothing more. So i've stumbled upon node.js as a javascript interpreter, and and hour or so ago with Google's V8(does v8 makes sense for this kind of thing?). CoffeeScript also came to my mind, since it looks nice and it's still Javascript. I think javascript is widespread enough and more "sandboxeable" since it doesn't have OS calls or anything remotely insecure ( i think ). by the way, i'm writing the system on Perl and Php for the front end. To improve the question: I'm choosing Javascript because i think is secure and simple enough to implement with node.js, but what other alternatives are for achieving this kind of task? Lua? Python? I just can't find information on how to run a sandboxed interpreter in a proper way.

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• Creating a Corporate Data Hub

  - by BuckWoody

  The Windows Azure Marketplace has a rich assortment of data and software offerings for you to use – a type of Software as a Service (SaaS) for IT workers, not necessarily for end-users. Among those offerings is the “Data Hub” – a  codename for a project that ironically actually does what the codename says. In many of our organizations, we have multiple data quality issues. Finding data is one problem, but finding it just once is often a bigger problem. Lots of departments and even individuals have stored the same data more than once, and in some cases, made changes to one of the copies. It’s difficult to know which location or version of the data is authoritative. Then there’s the problem of accessing the data. It’s fairly straightforward to publish a database, share or other location internally to store the data. But then you have to figure out who owns it, how it is controlled, and pass out the various connection strings to those who want to use it. And then you need to figure out how to let folks access the internal data externally – bringing up all kinds of security issues. Finally, in many cases our user community wants us to combine data from the internally sources with external data, bringing up the security, strings, and exploration features up all over again. Enter the Data Hub. This is an online offering, where you assign an administrator and data stewards. You import the data into the service, and it’s available to you - and only you and your organization if you wish. The basic steps for this service are to set up the portal for your company, assign administrators and permissions, and then you assign data areas and import data into them. From there you make them discoverable, and then you have multiple options that you or your users can access that data. You’re then able, if you wish, to combine that data with other data in one location. So how does all that work? What about security? Is it really that easy? And can you really move the data definition off to the Subject Matter Experts (SME’s) that know the particular data stack better than the IT team does? Well, nothing good is easy – but using the Data Hub is actually pretty simple. I’ll give you a link in a moment where you can sign up and try this yourself. Once you sign up, you assign an administrator. From there you’ll create data areas, and then use a simple interface to bring the data in. All of this is done in a portal interface – nothing to install, configure, update or manage. After the data is entered in, and you’ve assigned meta-data to describe it, your users have multiple options to access it. They can simply use the portal – which actually has powerful visualizations you can use on any platform, even mobile phones or tablets.     Your users can also hit the data with Excel – which gives them ultimate flexibility for display, all while using an authoritative, single reference for the data. Since the service is online, they can do this wherever they are – given the proper authentication and permissions. You can also hit the service with simple API calls, like this one from C#: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh921924  You can make HTTP calls instead of code, and the data can even be exposed as an OData Feed. As you can see, there are a lot of options. You can check out the offering here: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/sqlazurelabs/labs/data-hub.aspx and you can read the documentation here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh921938

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• How can a developer realize the full value of his work [closed]

  - by Jubbat

  I, honestly, don't want to work as a developer in a company anymore after all I have seen. I want to continue developing software, yes, but not in the way I see it all around me. And I'm in London, a city that congregates lots of great developers from the whole world, so it shouldn't be a problem of location. So, what are my concerns? First of all, best case scenario: you are paying managers salary out of yours. You are consistently underpaid by making up for the average manager negative net return plus his whole salary. Typical scenario. I am a reasonably good developer with common sense who cares for readable code with attention to basic principles. I have found way too often, overconfident and arrogant developers with a severe lack of common sense. Personally, I don't want to follow TDD or Agile practices like all the cool kids nowadays. I would read about them, form my own opinion and take what I feel is useful, but don't follow it sheepishly. I want to work with people who understand that you have to design good interfaces, you absolutely have to document your code, that readability is at the top of your priorities. Also people who don't have a cargo cult mentality too. For instance, the same person who asked me about design patterns in a job interview, later told me that something like a List of Map of Vector of Map of Set (in Java) is very readable. Why would someone ask me about design patterns if they can't even grasp encapsulation? These kind of things are the norm. I've seen many examples. I've seen worse than that too, from very well paid senior devs, by the way. Every second that you spend working with people with such lack of common sense and clear thinking, you are effectively losing money by being terribly inefficient with your time. Yet, with all these inefficiencies, the average developer earns a high salary. So I tried working on my own then, although I don't like the idea. I prefer healthy exchange of opinions and ideas and task division. I then did a bit of online freelancing for a while but I think working in a sweatshop might be more enjoyable. Also, I studied computer engineering and you are in an environment in which your client will presume you don't have any formal education because there is no way to prove it. Again, you are undervalued. You could try building a product, yes. But, of course, luck is a big factor. I wonder if there is a way to work in something you can do well, software development, and be valued for the quality of your work and be paid accordingly, and where you and only you get fairly paid for the value you generate. I know that what I have written seems somehow unlikely but I strongly feel this way. Hopefully someone will understand me and has already figured this out. I don't think I'm alone in this kind of feeling.

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• What kind of language will replace C++ as C++ replaced C ? [closed]

  - by jokoon

  I think I'm not totally wrong when thinking that C++0x (or C++1x) is still C++, just better, with functionnalities coming from boost. I can't stop thinking that computer sciences, even with all that has been made so far, have to evolve again. I don't really like D since it just try to be some sort of "what C++ should have been", and Go seems to be too sophisticated when I dig a little into it, especially after watching some presentation video like this one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKnDgT73v8s The first thing that come into my mind is a new kind of syntax to directly handle specific datatypes and containers such as map, vectors, queues... What kind of things are researchers thinking about ? What are the real features that could make C++ better or a new C-like language could invent ? Does Go features such things ? Would there be a new kind of syntax that would "unbloat" C++ while keeping its advantages ? Could C++ have some of the interesting stuff of languages such as C# and ObjC ? EDIT: Please consider that I'm talking about a system language, not a VM/CLI/bytecode thing.

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• We are moving an Access based corporate front-end into a Web-based App

  - by Max Vernon

  We have an enterprise application with a front end written in Microsoft Access 2003 that has evolved over the past 6 years. The back end data, and a fair amount of back-end logic is contained within several Microsoft SQL Server databases. This front end app consists of around 180 forms, and over 120,000 lines of code, and interacts with VB.Net DLLs that support various critical functions used by our sales force. The current system makes use of 3 monitors to display various information; the Access app uses COM+ to control Microsoft Outlook and Internet Explorer for various purposes. The Access front end sometimes occupies 2 screens, automatically resizing itself based on Windows API-reported screen dimensions. The app also uses a Google map to present data to our agents, and allows two-way interactivity with the map through COM+ connectivity to JavaScript contained in the Google map. At the urging of senior management, we are looking to completely rewrite this application using some web-based technology, such as ASP.Net or perhaps a LAMP stack (the thinking with the LAMP stack thing is "free" is pretty cheap). We want to move to a web-based app so we can eliminate the dependency on our physical location for hiring new sales force members. Currently, our main office is full to capacity, and we need to continue growing the company. Does anyone have any thoughts on what would be the best technology to use for a web-based app of this magnitude? Keeping in mind the app is dependent on back-end services on our existing infrastructure. The app handles financial data and personal customer data, among other things. [I've looked at Best practices for moving large MS Access application towards .Net? and read the answers, and most of the comments. Interesting reading, and has some valid points, but our C.O.O. and contracted Software Architect are pushing for a full web-based app, not a .Net Windows App]

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• Co-worker uses ridiculous commenting convention, how to cope? [closed]

  - by Jessica Friedman

  A co-worker in the small start-up I work at writes (C++) code like this: // some class class SomeClass { // c'tor SomeClass(); // d'tor ~SomeClass(); // some function void someFunction(int x, int y); }; // some function void SomeClass::someFunction(int x, int y) { // init worker m_worker.init(); // log LOG_DEBUG("Worker initialized"); // find current cache auto it = m_currentCache.find(); // flush if (it->flush() == false) { // return return false } // return return true } This is how he writes 100% of his code: a spacer line, a useless comment which says nothing other than what is plainly stated in the following statement, and the statement itself. This is absolutely driving me insane. A simple class written by him spans 3 times as much as it's supposed to, It looks well commented but the comments contain no new information. In fact the code is completely undocumented in any normal definition of "documentation". All of the comments are just a repetition of what is written in C++ in the following line. I've confronted him several times about it and each time he seems to understand what I am saying but then goes on to not change his coding and not fix old code which is written like this. I've went on and on again and again about the distinct disadvantages of writing code like this but nothing get through to him. Other co-workers doesn't seem to mind it as much and management doesn't seem to really care. What do I do? (sorry for the rant)

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• First Project a big one, How much should we charge?

  - by confuzzled

  Two of my cousins and I started a freelance computer repair/web design business just to make some money on the side during college, and received our first major web design project about three weeks ago. Now we've created websites before, but it was mostly for family businesses and have never really charged money, and most of the websites have been static, and don't really require a CMS. This project, however, was a big one (for us anyways). We created a news site that had several categories, we created the banners, we created a classifieds page (not a web app just something static that they control). Several links, a few graphical assets, CSS drop down menu, RSS feed from a different news site, weather, all the normal stuff you would find on a regular news site. On top of that we put in all the usual Joomla stuff (search, Jcomments, Jslide pictures, JCE, etc.). Then we uploaded the first 10 articles they gave us, and we are going to train them how to use Joomla. Now, at first we decided for 700 dollars. I assumed they just wanted a simple blog like website where they can upload articles. But then we had a meeting, and they asked for a lot more. Note: we did not hard code the template from scratch, but customized the gantry framework to fit their needs. We did code quite a bit however. I estimate that we put in about 50-60 hours in total. I'm wondering if 700 dollars is a bit low, this price is definitely not set in stone. Please keep in mind that this is our first project, and we are newbies, please be kind. Thank You!

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• how should I design Objects around this business requirement?

  - by brainydexter

  This is the business requirement: " A Holiday Package (e.g. New York NY Holiday Package) can be offered in different ways based on the Origin city: From New Delhi to NY From Bombay to NY NY itself ( Land package ) (Bold implies default selection) a. and b. User can fly from either New Delhi or Bombay to NY. c. NY is a Land package, where a user can reach NY by himself and is a standalone holidayPackage. " Let's say I have a class that represents HolidayPackage, Destination (aka City). public class HolidayPackage{ Destination holidayCity; ArrayList<BaseHolidayPackageVariant> variants; BaseHolidayPackageVariant defaultVariant; } public abstract class BaseHolidayPackageVariant { private Integer variantId; private HolidayPackage holidayPackage; private String holidayPackageType; } public class LandHolidayPackageVariant extends BaseHolidayPackageVariant{ } public class FlightHolidayPackageVariant extends BaseHolidayPackageVariant{ private Destination originCity; } What data structure/objects should I design to support: options a default within those options Sidenote: A HolidayPackage can also be offered in different ways based on Hotel selections. I'd like to follow a design which I can leverage to support that use case in the future. This is the backend design I have in mind.

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• Should you put personal beliefs in your program?

  - by TheLQ

  Recently I've found two examples of programmer's personal beliefs in programs that have removed or crippled useful functionality uTorrent using KB (rarely used) vs Kb (what most ISPs and other programs use as their metric) in their current connection speed. Various attempts by others and me to give options to at least give an option to show in Kb have ended with "ISPs should use KB" Kleopatra (gpg4Win key manager) not having PGP Key Pictures since they "give a false sense of security" and "increase the size of certificates". While the latter is true, the former is debatable. Both of these hurt the program and its usefulness to me. uTorrent's forums used to be filled with people saying they have 10 Mb download pipe but uTorrent only goes up to 2 MB (not knowing that Mb != MB), and with feature requests to show in Mb. Kleopatra has lost usefulness to me since I don't have the functionality to add pictures to PGP keys. These all are political statements; developers attempting to make change in, in their minds important, issues. But should this come at a cost to end user functionality? If a programmer heavily believes X but everyone else believes Y, should the programmer refuse to add support for Y because in their mind X is horrible? In short, should a programmer make political statements in their program?

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• New Version 3.1 Endeca Information Discovery Now Available

  - by Mike.Hallett(at)Oracle-BI&EPM

  Normal 0 false false false EN-GB X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 Business User Self-Service Data Mash-up Analysis and Discovery integrated with OBI11g and Hadoop Oracle Endeca Information Discovery 3.1 (OEID) is a major release that incorporates significant new self-service discovery capabilities for business users, including agile data mashup, extended support for unstructured analytics, and an even tighter integration with Oracle BI.  · Self-Service Data Mashup and Discovery Dashboards: business users can combine information from multiple sources, including their own up-loaded spreadsheets, to conduct analysis on the complete set.  Creating discovery dashboards has been made even easier by intuitive drag-and drop layouts and wizard-based configuration.  Business users can now build new discovery applications in minutes, without depending on IT. · Enhanced Integration with Oracle BI: OEID 3.1 enhances its’ native integration with Oracle Business Intelligence Foundation. Business users can now incorporate information from trusted BI warehouses, leveraging dimensions and attributes defined in Oracle’s Common Enterprise Information Model, but evolve them based on the varying day-to-day demands and requirements that they personally manage. · Deep Unstructured Analysis: business users can gain new insights from a wide variety of enterprise and public sources, helping companies to build an actionable Big Data strategy.  With OEID’s long-standing differentiation in correlating unstructured information with structured data, business users can now perform their own text mining to identify hidden concepts, without having to request support from IT. They can augment these insights with best in class keyword search and pattern matching, all in the context of rich, interactive visualizations and analytic summaries. · Enterprise-Class Self-Service Discovery:  OEID 3.1 enables IT to provide a powerful self-service platform to the business as part of a broader Business Analytics strategy, preserving the value of existing investments in data quality, governance, and security.  Business users can take advantage of IT-curated information to drive discovery across high volumes and varieties of data, and share insights with colleagues at a moment’s notice. · Harvest Content from the Web with the Endeca Web Acquisition Toolkit:  Oracle now provides best-of-breed data access to website content through the Oracle Endeca Web Acquisition Toolkit.  This provides an agile, graphical interface for developers to rapidly access and integrate any information exposed through a web front-end.  Organizations can now cost-effectively include content from consumer sites, industry forums, government or supplier portals, cloud applications, and myriad other web sources as part of their overall strategy for data discovery and unstructured analytics. For more information: OEID 3.1 OTN Software and Documentation Download And Endeca available for download on Software Delivery Cloud (eDelivery) New OEID 3.1 Videos on YouTube Oracle.com Endeca Site /* 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:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0cm; mso-para-margin-right:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0cm; line-height:115%; 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-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi; mso-fareast-language:EN-US;}

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• Coordinate spaces and transformation matrices

  - by Belgin

  I'm trying to get an object from object space, into projected space using these intermediate matrices: The first matrix (I) is the one that transforms from object space into inertial space, but since my object is not rotated or translated in any way inside the object space, this matrix is the 4x4 identity matrix. The second matrix (W) is the one that transforms from inertial space into world space, which is just a scale transform matrix of factor a = 14.1 on all coordinates, since the inertial space origin coincides with the world space origin. /a 0 0 0\ W = |0 a 0 0| |0 0 a 0| \0 0 0 1/ The third matrix (C) is the one that transforms from world space, into camera space. This matrix is a translation matrix with a translation of (0, 0, 10), because I want the camera to be located behind the object, so the object must be positioned 10 units into the z axis. /1 0 0 0\ C = |0 1 0 0| |0 0 1 10| \0 0 0 1/ And finally, the fourth matrix is the projection matrix (P). Bearing in mind that the eye is at the origin of the world space and the projection plane is defined by z = 1, the projection matrix is: /1 0 0 0\ P = |0 1 0 0| |0 0 1 0| \0 0 1/d 0/ where d is the distance from the eye to the projection plane, so d = 1. I'm multiplying them like this: (((P x C) x W) x I) x V, where V is the vertex' coordinates in column vector form: /x\ V = |y| |z| \1/ After I get the result, I divide x and y coordinates by w to get the actual screen coordinates. Apparenly, I'm doing something wrong or missing something completely here, because it's not rendering properly. Here's a picture of what is supposed to be the bottom side of the Stanford Dragon: Also, I should add that this is a software renderer so no DirectX or OpenGL stuff here.

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• What Color is your Jetpack ?

  - by JoshReuben

  I’m a programmer, Im approaching 40, and I’m fairly decent at my job – I’ll keep doing what I’m doing for as long as they let me!   So what are your career options if you know how to code? A Programmer could be ..   An Algorithm developer Pros Interesting High barriers of entry, potential for startup competitive factor Cons Do you have the skill, qualifications? What are working conditions n this mystery niche ? micro-focus An Academic Pros Low pressure Job security – or is this an illusion ? Cons Low Pay Need a PhD A Software Architect Pros: strategic, rather than tactical Setting technology platform and high level vision You say how it should work, others have to figure out why its not working the way its supposed to ! broad view – you are paid to learn (how do you con people into paying for you to learn ??) Cons: Glorified developer – more often than not! competitive – everyone wants to do it ! loose touch with underlying tech in tough times, first guy to get the axe ! A Software Engineer Pros: interesting, always more to learn fun I can do it Fallback Cons: Nothing new under the sun – been there, done that Dealing with poor requirements, deadlines, other peoples code, overtime C#, XAML, Web - Low barriers of entry –> à race to the bottom A Team leader Pros: Setting code standards and proposing technology choices Cons: Glorified developer – more often than not! Inspecting other peoples code and debugging the problems they cannot fix Dealing with mugbies and prima donas Responsible for QA of others A Project Manager Pros No need for debugging other peoples code Cons Low barrier of entry High pressure Responsible for QA of others Loosing touch with technology A lot of bullshit meetings Have to be an asshole A Product Manager Pros No need for debugging other peoples code Learning new skillset of sales and marketing Cons Travel (I'm a family man) May need to know the bs details of an uninteresting product things I want to work with: AI, algorithms, Numerical Computing, Mathematica, C++ AMP – unfortunately, the work here is few & far between. VS & TFS Extensibility, DSLs (Workflow , Lightswitch), Code Generation – one day, code will write code ! Unity3D, WebGL – fun, fun, fun ! Modern Web – Knockout, SignalR, MVC, Node.Js ??? (tentative – I'll wait until things stabilize as this area is undergoing a pre-Cambrian explosion) Things I don’t want to work with: (but will if I'm asked to !) C# – same old, same old – not learning anything new here Old code – blech ! Environment with code & fix mentality , ad hoc requirements, excessive overtime Pc support, System administration – even after 20 years, people still ask you to do this sometimes ! debugging – my skills are just not there yet Oracle Old tech: VB 6, XSLT, WinForms, Net 3.51 or less Old style Web dev Information Systems: ASP.NET webforms, Reporting services / crystal reports, SQL Server CRUD with manual data layer, XAML MVVM – variations of the same concept, ad nauseaum. Low barriers of entry –> race to the bottom.  Metro – an elegant API coupled to a horrendous UX – I'll wait for market penetration viability before investing further in this.   Conclusion So if you are in a slump, take heart: Programming is a great career choice compared to every other job !

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• The battle between Java vs. C#

  The battle between Java vs. C# has been a big debate amongst the development community over the last few years. Both languages have specific pros and cons based on the needs of a particular project. In general both languages utilize a similar coding syntax that is based on C++, and offer developers similar functionality. This being said, the communities supporting each of these languages are very different. The divide amongst the communities is much like the political divide in America, where the Java community would represent the Democrats and the .Net community would represent the Republicans. The Democratic Party is a proponent of the working class and the general population. Currently, Java is deeply entrenched in the open source community that is distributed freely to anyone who has an interest in using it. Open source communities rely on developers to keep it alive by constantly contributing code to make applications better; essentially they develop code by the community. This is in stark contrast to the C# community that is typically a pay to play community meaning that you must pay for code that you want to use because it is developed as products to be marketed and sold for a profit. This ties back into my reference to the Republicans because they typically represent the needs of business and personal responsibility. This is emphasized by the belief that code is a commodity and that it can be sold for a profit which is in direct conflict to the laissez-faire beliefs of the open source community. Beyond the general differences between Java and C#, they also target two different environments. Java is developed to be environment independent and only requires that users have a Java virtual machine running in order for the java code to execute. C# on the other hand typically targets any system running a windows operating system and has the appropriate version of the .Net Framework installed. However, recently there has been push by a segment of the Open source community based around the Mono project that lets C# code run on other non-windows operating systems. In addition, another feature of C# is that it compiles into an intermediate language, and this is what is executed when the program runs. Because C# is reduced down to an intermediate language called Common Language Runtime (CLR) it can be combined with other languages that are also compiled in to the CLR like Visual Basic (VB) .Net, and F#. The allowance and interaction between multiple languages in the .Net Framework enables projects to utilize existing code bases regardless of the actual syntax because they can be compiled in to CLR and executed as one codebase. As a software engineer I personally feel that it is really important to learn as many languages as you can or at least be open to learn as many languages as you can because no one language will work in every situation.  In some cases Java may be a better choice for a project and others may be C#. It really depends on the requirements of a project and the time constraints. In addition, I feel that is really important to concentrate on understanding the logic of programming and be able to translate business requirements into technical requirements. If you can understand both programming logic and business requirements then deciding which language to use is just basically choosing what syntax to write for a given business problem or need. In regards to code refactoring and dynamic languages it really does not matter. Eventually all projects will be refactored or decommissioned to allow for progress. This is the way of life in the software development industry. The language of a project should not be chosen based on the fact that a project will eventually be refactored because they all will get refactored.

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• Glue Records creation

  - by FFrewin

  I need some information on the following issue, as I would like to have it clear on my mind. I have a VPS server. All my sites hosted on this VPS are using as NameServer .gr domain, like ns1.greekdomain.gr & ns2.greekdomain.gr . The .gr domain name is a domain I own with a greek registar. Now, I want to move 2 websites with .co.uk domain names to my VPS. The co.uk domain names are registered with a UK based registar. When I went in the domain management panel, I did changed the nameservers of my domains to my ns.greekdomain.gr ns. However the panel returns an error about invalid nameservers. After digging, I found that my nameservers are not valid because they do not exist as records in the .co.uk registry. And here it starts my big trouble. The .co.uk registart tells me that I have to ask my hosting provider / .gr registar to create a new record to the .uk registry for my nameservers. The .gr registar tells me that my uk registar needs to create a new record for my ns. From Nominet (.co.uk) registry, the one employee tells me that I need to ask my uk registar, the other employee (seemed to not understand what I was asking) told me that they cannot change my nameservers for me, and she told me to contact anyone else (old hosting provider, uk registar, .gr registar) to help me with that. I can't find help from nobody. I try since the last week to transfer my websites to my VPS and I can't. So, the question is who is responsible and who is able to create glue records for my nameservers ?

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• Scripting language for filling out web form

  - by ityler22

  I have a job as an intern at a technology company, I was given the unfortunate job of performing some data entry into our web management system. The information entered into the web form is stored in a MySQL DB. Upon receiving the data I realized I would have to submit this online form about 1000 different times all consisting of about 10 different text fields / check boxes per form. (So in other words, would be completely mind numbing and be a ridiculous waste of time and resources, or so I thought...) Having used databases a good bit prior to this, my immediate reaction was to just write a short MySQL script to bulk import all of the data, especially since it was already presented to me in an excel spreadsheet ready to go. Thought it may have been some sort of a test since it seemed too obvious. I wrote the script which consisted of about 10 lines of code but was then informed I couldn't be trusted with MySQL Admin privileges to run said script. So my next thought would be to write a script to just enter the information through the web form (Which will take ten times longer but it's what I have to) Being unfamiliar with scripting of this nature (seems like I would need something similar to a bot, but the good kind) I was unsure of how to proceed to do this. Is there a preferred language to use to enter the data i have into the web form I do have access to? I'm not particularly looking for this to be done for me by any means just a nice point in the right direction as far as what scripting language to use and how to pair that with the data I have that needs to be entered. Thanks for the help/ valuable input! EDIT: Is there a way to perform this using perl without having access to place any files on the server? Would I be able to run some Javascript loops to pull the data out of .csv or just a .txt format with line delimiters and insert it into the web form?

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• A quick hello to the Western Kentucky .NET User Group

  - by Muljadi Budiman

  A few days back, I got a chance to speak at the Western Kentucky .NET User Group meeting in Murray, Kentucky.  The opportunity came up because the original speaker, Jeff Blankenburg, had another obligation and was thus unable to come to this meeting.  I volunteered to deliver his presentation, which is an overview of MIX10 conference. It was a great experience for me; got to drive around and do a little bit of sight-seeing – can’t say I’ve ever been to Kentucky before, so first trip ever there.  I got to meet the user group’s current lead, Tom Turner and got to chat and discuss about all kinds of stuff with the other members.  Cheers to Matt Gawarecki and Brandon Sharp! The presentation itself mostly covers new features in Visual Studio 2010, which was recently released on April 12 – got to demonstrate Historical Debugging in IntelliTrace, Parallel Stacks, View Call Hierarchy and show some Extensions.  We also covered some of the new functionalities in Silverlight 4 (using webcams, drag & drop support among others) and I got to show off Scott Guthrie’s Windows Phone 7 Twitter app.  Altogether, it was quite a bit to cover in 70 minutes or so, but I think everyone enjoyed it. Jeff provided me with the presentation slides (which I modify a bit) and demo applications; so I’m putting it up here for those that may be interested in downloading them.  Please keep in mind that all the demos were made with VS2010 RC, so there may be slight tweaks to get it to work on the RTM version.

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• Discovering Your Project

  - by Tim Murphy

  The discovery phase of any project is both exciting and critical to the project’s success.  There are several key points that you need to keep in mind as you navigate this process. The first thing you need to understand is who the players in the project are and what their motivations are for the project.  Leaving out a key stakeholder in the resulting product is one of the easiest ways to doom your project to fail.  The better the quality of the input you have at this early phase the better chance you will have of creating a well accepted deliverable. The next task you should tackle is to gather the goals for the project.  Specifically, what does the company expect to get for the money they are about to layout.  This seems like a common sense task, but you would be surprised how many teams to straight to building the system.  Even if you are following an agile methodology I believe that this is critical. Inventorying the resources that already exists gives you an idea what you are going to have to build and what you can leverage at lower risk.  This list should include documentation, servers, code repositories, databases, languages, security systems and supporting teams.  All of these are “resources” that can effect the cost and delivery schedule of your project. Finally, you need to verify what you have found and documented with the stakeholders and subject matter experts.  Documentation that has not been reviewed is actually a list of assumptions and we all know that assumptions are the mother of all screw ups. If you give the discovery phase of your project the attention that it deserves your project has a much better chance of success. I would love to hear what other people find important for this phase.  Please leave comments on this post so we can share the knowledge. del.icio.us Tags: Project discovery,documentation,business analysis,architecture

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• How do you price your work?

  - by Dr.Kameleon

  Well, let me explain : This has really been an issue for me, for such a long time. And what is worse - since coding is something I simply ADORE (I would definitely do it, even if there was no payment involved whatsoever..) - is that I always end up feeling somewhat awkward... Anyway... So, here's the deal : You start working on a project, you may have something in your mind, and even if you're lucky enough and the client needs no "cost estimates" beforehand, sooner or later you'll face the ultimate dilemma of pricing your own work. So, how do YOU do it? By estimating the time you put into it? (obviously, this is not exact, 'coz perhaps a more capable coder will need much less time for the very same thing than a not-so-competent coder + even the very same coder may not "perform" equally at all times) By the Lines of code you've written? (obviously, this is not a measure either : a 10-line script that does exactly the same with a 1000-line script is, at least for me, "better") By taking into account the level of complexity of the project and, perhaps, how specialised the subject is? By taking into account other factors? (e.g. the value of the project for your customer)

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• When to use each user research method

  - by user12277104

  There are a lot of user research methods out there, but sometimes we get stuck in a rut, conducting all formative usability testing before coding, or running surveys to gather satisfaction data. I'll be the first to admit that it happens to me, but to get out of a rut, it just takes a minute to look at where I am in the design & development cycle, what kind(s) of data I need, and what methods are available to me. We need reminders, or refreshers, every once in a while. One tool I've found useful is a graphic organizer that I created many years ago. It's been through several revisions, as I've adapted it to the product cycles of the places I've worked, changed my mind about how to categorize it, and added methods that I've used or created over time. I shared a version of this table at the 2012 International UPA conference, and I was contacted by someone yesterday who wanted to use it in a university course on user-center design. I was flattered at the the thought, but embarrassed, because I was sure it needed updating -- that was a year ago, after all. But I opened it today, and really, there's not much I'd change -- sure, I could add some nuance regarding what types of formative testing, such as modality (remote, unmoderated remote, or in-person) or flavor of testing (RITE, RITE-Krug, comparative, performance), but I think it's pretty much ok as is. Click on the image below, to get the full-size PDF. And whether it's entirely "right" or "wrong" isn't the whole value of looking at these methods across the product lifecycle. The real value lies in the reminder that I have options. And what those options are change as the field changes, so while I don't expect this graphic to have an eternal shelf life, it's still ok a year after I last updated it. That said, if you find something missing or out of place, let me know :) 

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• Object construction design

  - by James

  I recently started to use c# to interface with a database, and there was one part of the process that appeared odd to me. When creating a SqlCommand, the method I was lead to took the form: SqlCommand myCommand = new SqlCommand("Command String", myConnection); Coming from a Java background, I was expecting something more similar to SqlCommand myCommand = myConnection.createCommand("Command String"); I am asking, in terms of design, what is the difference between the two? The phrase "single responsibility" has been used to suggest that a connection should not be responsible for creating SqlCommands, but I would also say that, in my mind, the difference between the two is partly a mental one of the difference between a connection executing a command and a command acting on a connection, the latter of which seems less like what I have been lead to believe OOP should be. There is also a part of me wondering if the two should be completely separate, and should only come together in some sort of connection.execute(command) method. Can anyone help clear up these differences? Are any of these methods "more correct" than the others from an OO point of view? (P.S. the fact that c# is used is completely irrelevant. It just highlighted to me that different approaches were used)

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• Entity system in Lua, communication with C++ and level editor. Need advice.

  - by Notbad

  Hi!, I know this is a really difficult subject. I have been reading a lot this days about Entity systems, etc... And now I'm ready to ask some questions (if you don't mind answering them) because I'm really messed. First of all, I have a 2D basic editor written in Qt, and I'm in the process of adding entitiy edition. I want the editor to be able to receive RTTI information from entities to change properties, create some logic being able to link published events to published actions (Ex:A level activate event throws a door open action), etc... Because all of this I guess my entity system should be written in scripting, in my case Lua. In the other hand I want to use a component based design for my entities, and here starts my questions: 1) Should I define my componentes en C++? If I do this en C++ won't I loose all the RTTI information I want for my editor?. In the other hand, I use box2d for physics, if I define all my components in script won't it be a lot of work to expose third party libs to lua? 2) Where should I place the messa system for my game engine? Lua? C++?. I'm tempted to just have C++ object to behave as servers, offering services to lua business logic. Things like physics system, rendering system, input system, World class, etc... And for all the other things, lua. Creation/Composition of entities based on components, game logic, etc... Could anyone give any insight on how to accomplish this? And what aproach is better?. Thanks in advance, HexDump.

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• Ubuntu Server 11.10 boot, white terminal with garbled black text

  - by SpeedCrazy

  I just installed Ubuntu server 11.10 and the install went fine. This system is running on an Intel Pentium II board with onboard graphics. However when I try to boot into Ubuntu I get a white terminal with garbled black text. I have tried various grub 'fixes' as googling the issue seemed to suggest it was a res or grub related issue. I cannot ssh in so the issue does affect Linux as well. I have had no luck with anything thus far and am at my wits end. This was my first Ubuntu excursion as my friend told me it was better for servers than CentOS because it was easier... Not so much.... Does anyone have any ideas as to what the issue could be? When answering bear in mind I am an Ubuntu noob and Linux novice. As of 1/26/12 I have tried to add the console=ttyl line to the /etc/default/grub and run update-grub. This results in the line in the boot parameters that normally reads: linux /vmlunz-3.0.0-12-generic-pae root=/dev/mapper/dev-root rovt.handoff=7 now reads: linux /vmlunz-3.0.0-12-generic-pae root=/dev/mapper/dev-root ro console=ttyl vt.handoff=7 This does not work. Is there anyway to have console=ttyl inserted on a line by itself? I am at my wits ends, Thanks for all your help, Speed

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