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• Archbeat Link-O-Rama Top 10 Facebook Faves for October 20-26, 2013

  - by OTN ArchBeat

  What are the 4,460 fans of the OTN ArchBeat Facebook Page talking about? The list below represents the Top 10 most popular articles, blog posts, and other content from across the community. Enterprise Grade Deployment Considerations for Oracle Identity Manager AD Connector | Firdaus Fraz Oracle Fusion Middleware solution architect Firdaus Fraz illustrates provides best practice recommendations for setting up an enterprise deployment environment for the OIM connector for Microsoft Active Directory. A Roadmap for SOA Development and Delivery | Mark Nelson Do you know the way to S-O-A? Mark Nelson does. His latest blog post, part of an ongoing series, will help to keep you from getting lost along the way. The road ahead for WebLogic 12c | Edwin Biemond Oracle ACE Edwin Biemond shares his thoughts on announced new features in Oracle WebLogic 12.1.3 & 12.1.4 and compares those upcoming releases to Oracle WebLogic 12.1.2. Oracle GoldenGate 12c - New Release, New Features | Michael Rainey Rittman Mead's Michael Rainey takes you on guided tour through the GoldenGate 12c features that "are relevant to data warehouse and data migration work we typically see in the business intelligence world." Reproducing WebLogic Stuck Threads with ADF CreateInsert Operation and ORDER BY Clause | Andrejus Baranovsikis Another post from Oracle ACE Director Andrejus Baranovsikis on dealing with WebLogic Stuck Threads. This one includes a test case application you can download. The Impact of SaaS - The Times They Are A-Changin' | Floyd Teter Oracle ACE Director Floyd Teter shares some truly interesting insight gained in conversations with three Fortune 500 CIOs. Configure Oracle Identity Manager AD/LDAP Authentication | Arda Eralp A step-by-step how-to from a member of the Fusion Middleware Applications Consultancy team. Java-Powered Robot Named NAO Wows Crowds | Tori Wieldt Tori Wieldt interviews a robot and human. Updated ODI Statement of Direction | Robert Schweighardt Heads up Oracle Data Integrator fans! A new product statement of direction document is available, offering "an overview of the strategic product plans for Oracle’s data integration products for bulk data movement and transformation, specifically Oracle Data Integrator (ODI) and Oracle Warehouse Builder (OWB)." Oracle BI Apps 11.1.1.7.1 – GoldenGate Integration - Part 2: Setup and Configuration | Michael Rainey Michael Rainey continues his series with another technical article for you GoldenGate fans. Thought for the Day "Intuition will tell the thinking mind where to look next." — Jonas Salk, American medical researcher and virologist (October 28, 1914 – June 23, 1995) Source: brainyquote.com

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• JS closures - Passing a function to a child, how should the shared object be accessed

  - by slicedtoad

  I have a design and am wondering what the appropriate way to access variables is. I'll demonstrate with this example since I can't seem to describe it better than the title. Term is an object representing a bunch of time data (a repeating duration of time defined by a bunch of attributes) Term has some print functionality but does not implement the print functions itself, rather they are passed in as anonymous functions by the parent. This would be similar to how shaders can be passed to a renderer rather than defined by the renderer. A container (let's call it Box) has a Schedule object that can understand and use Term objects. Box creates Term objects and passes them to Schedule as required. Box also defines the print functions stored in Term. A print function usually takes an argument and uses it to return a string based on that argument and Term's internal data. Sometime the print function could also use data stored in Schedule, though. I'm calling this data shared. So, the question is, what is the best way to access this shared data. I have a lot of options since JS has closures and I'm not familiar enough to know if I should be using them or avoiding them in this case. Options: Create a local "reference" (term used lightly) to the shared data (data is not a primitive) when defining the print function by accessing the shared data through Schedule from Box. Example: var schedule = function(){ var sched = Schedule(); var t1 = Term( function(x){ // Term.print() return (x + sched.data).format(); }); }; Bind it to Term explicitly. (Pass it in Term's constructor or something). Or bind it in Sched after Box passes it. And then access it as an attribute of Term. Pass it in at the same time x is passed to the print function, (from sched). This is the most familiar way for my but it doesn't feel right given JS's closure ability. Do something weird like bind some context and arguments to print. I'm hoping the correct answer isn't purely subjective. If it is, then I guess the answer is just "do whatever works". But I feel like there are some significant differences between the approaches that could have a large impact when stretched beyond my small example.

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• Engine Rendering pipeline : Making shaders generic

  - by fakhir

  I am trying to make a 2D game engine using OpenGL ES 2.0 (iOS for now). I've written Application layer in Objective C and a separate self contained RendererGLES20 in C++. No GL specific call is made outside the renderer. It is working perfectly. But I have some design issues when using shaders. Each shader has its own unique attributes and uniforms that need to be set just before the main draw call (glDrawArrays in this case). For instance, in order to draw some geometry I would do: void RendererGLES20::render(Model * model) { // Set a bunch of uniforms glUniformMatrix4fv(.......); // Enable specific attributes, can be many glEnableVertexAttribArray(......); // Set a bunch of vertex attribute pointers: glVertexAttribPointer(positionSlot, 2, GL_FLOAT, GL_FALSE, stride, m->pCoords); // Now actually Draw the geometry glDrawArrays(GL_TRIANGLES, 0, m->vertexCount); // After drawing, disable any vertex attributes: glDisableVertexAttribArray(.......); } As you can see this code is extremely rigid. If I were to use another shader, say ripple effect, i would be needing to pass extra uniforms, vertex attribs etc. In other words I would have to change the RendererGLES20 render source code just to incorporate the new shader. Is there any way to make the shader object totally generic? Like What if I just want to change the shader object and not worry about game source re-compiling? Any way to make the renderer agnostic of uniforms and attributes etc?. Even though we need to pass data to uniforms, what is the best place to do that? Model class? Is the model class aware of shader specific uniforms and attributes? Following shows Actor class: class Actor : public ISceneNode { ModelController * model; AIController * AI; }; Model controller class: class ModelController { class IShader * shader; int textureId; vec4 tint; float alpha; struct Vertex * vertexArray; }; Shader class just contains the shader object, compiling and linking sub-routines etc. In Game Logic class I am actually rendering the object: void GameLogic::update(float dt) { IRenderer * renderer = g_application->GetRenderer(); Actor * a = GetActor(id); renderer->render(a->model); } Please note that even though Actor extends ISceneNode, I haven't started implementing SceneGraph yet. I will do that as soon as I resolve this issue. Any ideas how to improve this? Related design patterns etc? Thank you for reading the question.

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• ArchBeat Link-o-Rama for 2012-08-28

  - by Bob Rhubart

  You may be tempted by IaaS, but you should PaaS on that or your database cloud journey will be a short one "The better option [to IaaS] is to rationalize the deployment stack so that VMs are needed only for exceptional cases," says B. R. Clouse. "By settling on a standard operating system and patch level, you create an infrastructure that potentially all of your databases can share. Now, the building block will be database instances or possibly schemas within databases. These components are the platforms on which you will deploy workloads, hence this is known as Platform as a Service (PaaS)." 'Shadow IT' can be the cloud's best friend | David Linthicum "I do not advocate that IT give up control and allow business units to adopt any old technology they want," says Infoworld cloud computing blogger David Linthicum. "However, IT needs to face reality: For the past three decades or so, corporate IT has been slow on the uptake around the use of productive new technologies." Do you agree? 9 ways cloud will impact IT employment | ZDNet ZDNet blogger Joe McKendrick condenses information from a recent report on how cloud computing will impact IT jobs. Number one on the list: New categories of jobs arising from cloud computing, which include "private cloud developers and administrators, departmental liaisons, integration specialists, cloud architects, and compliance specialists." Yeah, that's right, cloud architects. For more on cloud architects, including what you need to up your game to thrive in the cloud, check out "The Role of the Cloud Architect" on the OTN ArchBeat Podcast. Decisions, Decisions: The art, science, and politics of technology selection "When the time comes for a solution architect to make the final decision about the technologies, standards, and other elements that are to be incorporated into a particular project, what factors weigh most heavily on that decision? It comes as no surprise that among the architects I contacted, business needs top the list." Managing Oracle Exalogic Elastic Cloud with Oracle Enterprise Manager Ops Center Anand Akela's byline is on this post, but "Dr. Jürgen Fleischer, Oracle Enterprise Manager Ops Center Engineering" appears at the end of the post, so it's anybody's guess as to who wrote this thing. But the content includes a complete listing of the Exalogic 2.0.1 Tea Break Snippets series written by a member of the Exalogic team who goes by the name "The Old Toxophilist." So maybe the best thing to do here is ignore the names and focus on the very useful conent. Boost your infrastructure with Coherence into the Cloud | Nino Guarnacci Nino Guarnacci describes a use case that involved managing a variety of data caches that process complex queries and parallel computational operations, in order to maintain the caches in a consistent state on different server instances. Thought for the Day "No one hates software more than software developers." — Jeff Atwood Source: SoftwareQuotes

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• Simplifying C++11 optimal parameter passing when a copy is needed

  - by Mr.C64

  It seems to me that in C++11 lots of attention was made to simplify returning values from functions and methods, i.e.: with move semantics it's possible to simply return heavy-to-copy but cheap-to-move values (while in C++98/03 the general guideline was to use output parameters via non-const references or pointers), e.g.: // C++11 style vector<string> MakeAVeryBigStringList(); // C++98/03 style void MakeAVeryBigStringList(vector<string>& result); On the other side, it seems to me that more work should be done on input parameter passing, in particular when a copy of an input parameter is needed, e.g. in constructors and setters. My understanding is that the best technique in this case is to use templates and std::forward<>, e.g. (following the pattern of this answer on C++11 optimal parameter passing): class Person { std::string m_name; public: template <class T, class = typename std::enable_if < std::is_constructible<std::string, T>::value >::type> explicit Person(T&& name) : m_name(std::forward<T>(name)) { } ... }; A similar code could be written for setters. Frankly, this code seems boilerplate and complex, and doesn't scale up well when there are more parameters (e.g. if a surname attribute is added to the above class). Would it be possible to add a new feature to C++11 to simplify code like this (just like lambdas simplify C++98/03 code with functors in several cases)? I was thinking of a syntax with some special character, like @ (since introducing a &&& in addition to && would be too much typing :) e.g.: class Person { std::string m_name; public: /* Simplified syntax to produce boilerplate code like this: template <class T, class = typename std::enable_if < std::is_constructible<std::string, T>::value >::type> */ explicit Person(std::string@ name) : m_name(name) // implicit std::forward as well { } ... }; This would be very convenient also for more complex cases involving more parameters, e.g. Person(std::string@ name, std::string@ surname) : m_name(name), m_surname(surname) { } Would it be possible to add a simplified convenient syntax like this in C++? What would be the downsides of such a syntax?

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• An Epic Question "How to call a method when the page loads"

  - by Arunkumar Ramamoorthy

  Quite often, there comes a question in OTN, with different subjects, all meaning "How to call a method when my ADF page loads?". More often, people tend to take the approach of ADF Phase Listener by overriding before/afterPhase methods.In this blog, we will go through different options in achieving it.1. Method Call Activity as default activity in Taskflow :If the application is built with taskflows, then this is the best suited approach to take. 1.a. Calling a Data Control Method :To call a Data Control method (ex: A method in AMImpl exposed as client interface), simply Drag and Drop the method as Default Method Call Activity, then draw a control flow case from the method to your page. Once after this, drop the taskflow as region in main page. When we run the main page, the Method Call Activity would be called first, and then the page will be rendered.1.b. Calling a Method in Backing Bean: To call a method in the backing bean before pageload, we can follow the similar approach as above. Instead of binding the Method Call Activity to an action/method binding in pagedef, we bind to the method. Insert a Method Call Activity (and make it as default) from the Component Palette. Double click on to select a method to bind. This approach can also be used, to perform some action in backing bean along with calling a method Data Control (just need to add bindings code in backing bean to execute DC method). 2. Using invokeAction Executable :If the application is built with pages and no taskflows are involved, then this option can be taken into consideration.In the page definition of the page, add an invokeAction Executable and bind it to the method needed to be executed. 3. Using combination of Server and Client Listeners : If the page does not have any page definition, then to call a method in backing bean, this approach can be taken. In this, a serverListener would be added at the document level, which would be calling the method in backing bean. Along with this, a clientListener would be added with "load" type (i.e will be triggered when the page loads), which would queue a serverEvent to trigger the method. 4. Using Page Phase Listener :This should be the last resort. Care should be taken when using this approach since the Phase Listener would be called for each request sent by the client.Zeeshan Baig's blog covers this scenario.

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• An Epic Question "How to call a method when the page loads"

  - by Arunkumar Ramamoorthy

  Quite often, there comes a question in OTN, with different subjects, all meaning "How to call a method when my ADF page loads?". More often, people tend to take the approach of ADF Phase Listener by overriding before/afterPhase methods.In this blog, we will go through different options in achieving it.1. Method Call Activity as default activity in Taskflow :If the application is built with taskflows, then this is the best suited approach to take. 1.a. Calling a Data Control Method :To call a Data Control method (ex: A method in AMImpl exposed as client interface), simply Drag and Drop the method as Default Method Call Activity, then draw a control flow case from the method to your page. Once after this, drop the taskflow as region in main page. When we run the main page, the Method Call Activity would be called first, and then the page will be rendered.1.b. Calling a Method in Backing Bean: To call a method in the backing bean before pageload, we can follow the similar approach as above. Instead of binding the Method Call Activity to an action/method binding in pagedef, we bind to the method. Insert a Method Call Activity (and make it as default) from the Component Palette. Double click on to select a method to bind. This approach can also be used, to perform some action in backing bean along with calling a method Data Control (just need to add bindings code in backing bean to execute DC method). 2. Using invokeAction Executable :If the application is built with pages and no taskflows are involved, then this option can be taken into consideration.In the page definition of the page, add an invokeAction Executable and bind it to the method needed to be executed. 3. Using combination of Server and Client Listeners : If the page does not have any page definition, then to call a method in backing bean, this approach can be taken. In this, a serverListener would be added at the document level, which would be calling the method in backing bean. Along with this, a clientListener would be added with "load" type (i.e will be triggered when the page loads), which would queue a serverEvent to trigger the method. 4. Using Page Phase Listener :This should be the last resort. Care should be taken when using this approach since the Phase Listener would be called for each request sent by the client.Zeeshan Baig's blog covers this scenario.

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• Apprentice Boot Camp in South Africa (Part 1)

  - by Tim Koekkoek

  By Maximilian Michel (DE), Jorge Garnacho (ES), Daniel Maull (UK), Adam Griffiths (UK), Guillermo De Las Nieves (ES), Catriona McGill (UK), Ed Dunlop (UK) The Boot Camp in South Africa was an amazing experience for all of us. The minute we landed, we were made to feel at home from our host Patrick Fitzgerald. The whole family who run the Guest House were also very friendly and always keen to help us. Since we had people from South Africa to show us all the amazing sights and their traditional ways to live their lives, the two weeks were very enjoyable for all of us and we came much closer together as a group. You can read this in the following parts of this report. Enjoy! The first group of Apprentices in Oracle (from left to right): Maximilian Michel (DE), Jorge Garnacho (ES), Daniel Maull (UK), Adam Griffiths (UK), Guillermo De Las Nieves (ES), Catriona McGill (UK), Ed Dunlop (UK) The Training Well, it’s time to talk about the main purpose of our trip to South Africa: the training. Two weeks, two courses. Servers and Storage. Two weeks to learn as much as possible and get the certificate. First week: Eben Pretorius with Servers Boot Camp. Learning about: • Machines: T1000, T2000, T3, T4, M series; • How to connect to the machines: serial and network connections; • Levels of software: ALOM, ILOM, OBP and of course the operating system, Solaris Combined with the practical part (screwdriver in one hand, and antistatic wristband on the other) makes quite a lot of stuff! But fortunately, Eben was able to tell us about everything without making our brains explode. For the second week: Storage Boot Camp with Deon Van Vuuren. Taking a look at the content: • Storage machines; • Connectors and protocols: SCSi, SAS, SATA Fiber Channel. Again, huge amounts of information, but Deon definitely did a great job and helped us learn it all. At the end, there was just one question left. Were we able to pass the exam and get the certificate? Well, what can we say? Just take a closer look at the picture above and make your conclusions! Our lovely Oracle office in Woodmead (near Johannesburg) We are all very proud to receive certification in “Server and Storage Support Fundamentals” together with our trainer Deon Van Vuuren. In summary, in case that you don't remember any of the above, the allies for a field engineer are: • System Handbook • EIS-DVD • A proper toolkit With these tools by our side, we’ll be unbeatable!  In the next article later this week, you can find part 2 of our experiences!

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• Class instance clustering in object reference graph for multi-entries serialization

  - by Juh_

  My question is on the best way to cluster a graph of class instances (i.e. objects, the graph nodes) linked by object references (the -directed- edges of the graph) around specifically marked objects. To explain better my question, let me explain my motivation: I currently use a moderately complex system to serialize the data used in my projects: "marked" objects have a specific attributes which stores a "saving entry": the path to an associated file on disc (but it could be done for any storage type providing the suitable interface) Those object can then be serialized automatically (eg: obj.save()) The serialization of a marked object 'a' contains implicitly all objects 'b' for which 'a' has a reference to, directly s.t: a.b = b, or indirectly s.t.: a.c.b = b for some object 'c' This is very simple and basically define specific storage entries to specific objects. I have then "container" type objects that: can be serialized similarly (in fact their are or can-be "marked") they don't serialize in their storage entries the "marked" objects (with direct reference): if a and a.b are both marked, a.save() calls b.save() and stores a.b = storage_entry(b) So, if I serialize 'a', it will serialize automatically all objects that can be reached from 'a' through the object reference graph, possibly in multiples entries. That is what I want, and is usually provides the functionalities I need. However, it is very ad-hoc and there are some structural limitations to this approach: the multi-entry saving can only works through direct connections in "container" objects, and there are situations with undefined behavior such as if two "marked" objects 'a'and 'b' both have a reference to an unmarked object 'c'. In this case my system will stores 'c' in both 'a' and 'b' making an implicit copy which not only double the storage size, but also change the object reference graph after re-loading. I am thinking of generalizing the process. Apart for the practical questions on implementation (I am coding in python, and use Pickle to serialize my objects), there is a general question on the way to attach (cluster) unmarked objects to marked ones. So, my questions are: What are the important issues that should be considered? Basically why not just use any graph parsing algorithm with the "attach to last marked node" behavior. Is there any work done on this problem, practical or theoretical, that I should be aware of? Note: I added the tag graph-database because I think the answer might come from that fields, even if the question is not.

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• What are the arguments against parsing the Cthulhu way?

  - by smarmy53

  I have been assigned the task of implementing a Domain Specific Language for a tool that may become quite important for the company. The language is simple but not trivial, it already allows nested loops, string concatenation, etc. and it is practically sure that other constructs will be added as the project advances. I know by experience that writing a lexer/parser by hand -unless the grammar is trivial- is a time consuming and error prone process. So I was left with two options: a parser generator à la yacc or a combinator library like Parsec. The former was good as well but I picked the latter for various reasons, and implemented the solution in a functional language. The result is pretty spectacular to my eyes, the code is very concise, elegant and readable/fluent. I concede it may look a bit weird if you never programmed in anything other than java/c#, but then this would be true of anything not written in java/c#. At some point however, I've been literally attacked by a co-worker. After a quick glance at my screen he declared that the code is uncomprehensible and that I should not reinvent parsing but just use a stack and String.Split like everybody does. He made a lot of noise, and I could not convince him, partially because I've been taken by surprise and had no clear explanation, partially because his opinion was immutable (no pun intended). I even offered to explain him the language, but to no avail. I'm positive the discussion is going to re-surface in front of management, so I'm preparing some solid arguments. These are the first few reasons that come to my mind to avoid a String.Split-based solution: you need lot of ifs to handle special cases and things quickly spiral out of control lots of hardcoded array indexes makes maintenance painful extremely difficult to handle things like a function call as a method argument (ex. add( (add a, b), c) very difficult to provide meaningful error messages in case of syntax errors (very likely to happen) I'm all for simplicity, clarity and avoiding unnecessary smart-cryptic stuff, but I also believe it's a mistake to dumb down every part of the codebase so that even a burger flipper can understand it. It's the same argument I hear for not using interfaces, not adopting separation of concerns, copying-pasting code around, etc. A minimum of technical competence and willingness to learn is required to work on a software project after all. (I won't use this argument as it will probably sound offensive, and starting a war is not going to help anybody) What are your favorite arguments against parsing the Cthulhu way?* *of course if you can convince me he's right I'll be perfectly happy as well

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• Oracle SOA Partner Community Forum Lisbon, Portugal &ndash; April 21st 2010

  - by Jürgen Kress

  We would like to invite you to attend our SOA Partner Community Forum that will be in held in Lisbon, April 21, 2010 The Oracle SOA Partner Community Forum is a wonderful opportunity to: Meet with Oracle SOA and BPM Product management Exchange thoughts and knowledge with SOA and BPM experts Learn from successful SOA implementation Network within the Oracle SOA Partner Community During this highly informative event you can learn about partner success stories, participate in an array of breakout sessions, exchange information with other partners and enjoy a vibrant panel discussion. Places are limited, so register today. Registration only takes a few minutes and it is free of charge. By registration you will confirm that you will attend to the event. Seminar is free. In the event that you cancel your registration after April 16th 2010 Oracle may request that you will pay late cancellation fee of € 150. Please visit our website for further information. Alternatively, if you require assistance or have any queries please contact Jürgen Kress. Agenda 10:00     Welcome & Introduction 10:15     SOA Cloud presentation 11:15     SOA Partner Sales Campaign 12:30     Lunch break 13:15     Partner Reference Case 14:15     BPMN 2.0 15:00     Cocktail reception   Location: Lagoas Park Hotel 2740-245, Porto Salvo, Oeiras For partners with BPM 11g opportunities we will offer an advanced workshop on Thursday April 22nd and Friday April 23rd hosted by Clemens Utschig-Utschig. If you are interested please contact Jürgen Kress.   Quotes from previous SOA Partner Community Forums "The SOA Partner Community Forum was a first-rate event that provided a balanced agenda of vendor-specific and vendor-neutral content pertaining to modern-day service-oriented computing technologies and practices. I enjoyed the opportunity to provide an objective voice on the topics I consider most important for today's IT practitioners to fully leverage the many patterns, principles, and service technology innovations that comprise the next-generation SOA platform." Thomas Erl, SOA Systems Inc., SOASchool.com “The Community is an excellent forum for Partners to hear about each others success stories on SOA, especially BPEL and ODI” Jørn F. Schurink, Competence Expert Oracle Technologies Logica “The Community is the best source for information around Oracle SOA a wonderful platform with many interesting contacts and discussions”. Torsten Winterberg, Opitz Consulting “The regular meetings of the SOA Partner Community are a perfectly organized platform for learning the latest in Oracle SOA tooling by extraordinary speakers and for vivid discussions with practitioners about SOA challenges and design solutions. This is the best opportunity to build and deepen a network with the brightest and most passionate protagonists in Oracle SOA world in EMEA.” Hajo Normann, HP Services Technorati Tags: soa partner community forum,soa,event

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• Will polishing my current project be a better learning experience than starting a new one?

  - by Alejandro Cámara

  I started programming many years ago. Now I'm trying to make games. I have read many recommendations to start cloning some well known games like galaga, tetris, arkanoid, etc. I have also read that I should go for the whole game (including menus, sound, score, etc.). Yesterday I finished the first complete version of my arkanoid clone. But it is far from over. I can still work on it for months (I program as a hobby in my free time) implementing a screen resolution switcher, remap of the control keys, power-ups falling from broken bricks, and a huge etc. But I do not want to be forever learning how to clone ONE game. I have the urge to get to the next clone in order to apply some design ideas I have come upon while developing this arkanoid clone (at the same time I am reading the GoF book and much source code from Ludum Dare 21 game contest). So the question is: Should I keep improving the arkanoid clone until it has all the features the original game had? or should I move to the next clone (there are almost infinite games to clone) and start mending the things I did wrong with the previous clone? This can be a very subjective question, so please restrain the answers to the most effective way to learn how to make my own games (not cloning someone ideas). Thank you! CLARIFICATION In order to clarify what I have implemented I make this list: Features implemented: Bouncing capabilities (the ball bounces on walls, on bricks, and on the bar). Sounds when bouncing on bricks and the bar, and when the player wins or loses. Basic title menu (new game and exit only). Also in-game menu and win/lose menus. Only three levels, but the map system is so easy I do not think it will teach me much (am I wrong?). Features not-implemented: Power-ups when breaking the bricks. Complex bricks (with more than one "hit point" and invincible). Better graphics (I am not really good at it). Programming polishing (use more intensively the design patterns). Here's a link to its (minimal) webpage: http://blog.acamara.es/piperine/ I kind of feel ashamed to show it, so please do not hit me too hard :-) My question was related to the not-implemented features. I wondered what was the fastest (optimal) path to learn. 1) implement the not-implemented features in this project which is getting big, or 2) make a new game which probably will teach me those lessons and new ones. ANSWER I choose @ashes999 answer because, in my case, I think I should polish more and try to "ship" the game. I think all the other answers are also important to bear in mind, so if you came here having the same question, before taking a rush decision read all the discussion. Thank you all!

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• Backup Azure Tables with the Enzo Backup API

  - by Herve Roggero

  In case you missed it, you can now backup (and restore) Azure Tables and SQL Databases using an API directly. The features available through the API can be found here: http://www.bluesyntax.net/backup20api.aspx and the online help for the API is here: http://www.bluesyntax.net/EnzoCloudBackup20/APIIntro.aspx. Backing up Azure Tables can’t be any easier than with the Enzo Backup API. Here is a sample code that does the trick: // Create the backup helper class. The constructor automatically sets the SourceStorageAccount property StorageBackupHelper backup = new StorageBackupHelper("storageaccountname", "storageaccountkey", "sourceStorageaccountname", "sourceStorageaccountkey", true, "apilicensekey"); // Now set some properties… backup.UseCloudAgent = false;                                       // backup locally backup.DeviceURI = @"c:\TMP\azuretablebackup.bkp";    // to this file backup.Override = true; backup.Location = DeviceLocation.LocalFile; // Set optional performance options backup.PKTableStrategy.Mode = BSC.Backup.API.TableStrategyMode.GUID; // Set GUID strategy by default backup.MaxRESTPerSec = 200; // Attempt to stay below 200 REST calls per second // Start the backup now… string taskId = backup.Backup(); // Use the Environment class to get the final status of the operation EnvironmentHelper env = new EnvironmentHelper("storageaccountname", "storageaccountkey", "apilicensekey"); string status = env.GetOperationStatus(taskId);   As you can see above, the code is straightforward. You provide connection settings in the constructor, set a few options indicating where the backup device will be located, set optional performance parameters and start the backup. The performance options are designed to help you backup your Azure Tables quickly, while attempting to keep under a specific threshold to prevent Storage Account throttling. For example, the MaxRESTPerSec property will attempt to keep the overall backup operation under 200 rest calls per second. Another performance option if the Backup Strategy for Azure Tables. By default, all tables are simply scanned. While this works best for smaller Azure Tables, larger tables can use the GUID strategy, which will issue requests against an Azure Table in parallel assuming the PartitionKey stores GUID values. It doesn’t mean that your PartitionKey must have GUIDs however for this strategy to work; but the backup algorithm is tuned for this condition. Other options are available as well, such as filtering which columns, entities or tables are being backed up. Check out more on the Blue Syntax website at http://www.bluesyntax.net.

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• Mock RequireJS define dependencies with config.map

  - by Aligned

  Originally posted on: http://geekswithblogs.net/Aligned/archive/2014/08/18/mock-requirejs-define-dependencies-with-config.map.aspxI had a module dependency, that I’m pulling down with RequireJS that I needed to use and write tests against. In this case, I don’t care about the actual implementation of the module (it’s simple enough that I’m just avoiding some AJAX calls). EDIT: make sure you look at the bottom example after the edit before using the config.map approach. I found that there is an easier way. I did not want to change the constructor of the consumer as I had a chain of changes that would have to be made and that would have been to invasive for this task. I found a question on StackOverflow with a short, but helpful answer from “Artem Oboturov”. We can use the config.map from RequireJs to achieve this. Here is some code: A module example (“usefulModule” in Common/Modules/usefulModule.js): define([], function() { "use strict"; var testMethod = function() { ... }; // add more functionality of the module return { testMethod; } }); A consumer of usefulModule example: define([ "Commmon/Modules/usefulModule" ], function(usefulModule) { "use strict"; var consumerModule = function(){ var self = this; // add functionality of the module } }); Using config.map in the html of the test runner page (and in your Karma config –> I’m still trying to figure this out): map: {'*': { // replace usefulModule with a mock 'Common/Modules/usefulModule': '/Tests/Specs/Common/usefulModuleMock.js' } } With the new mapping, Require will load usefulModuleMock.js from Tests/Specs/Common instead of the real implementation. Some of the answers on StackOverflow mentioned Squire.js, which looked interesting, but I wasn’t ready to introduce a new library at this time. That’s all you need to be able to mock a depency in RequireJS. However, there are many good cases when you should pass it in through the constructor instead of this approach.   EDIT: After all that, here’s another, probably better way: The consumer class, updated: define([ "Commmon/Modules/usefulModule" ], function(UsefulModule) { "use strict"; var consumerModule = function(){ var self = this; self.usefulModule = new UsefulModule(); // add functionality of the module } }); Jasmine test: define([ "consumerModule", "/UnitTests/Specs/Common/Mocks/usefulModuleMock.js" ], function(consumerModule, UsefulModuleMock){ describe("when mocking out the module", function(){ it("should probably just override the property", function(){ var consumer = new consumerModule(); consumer.usefulModule = new UsefulModuleMock(); }); }); });   Thanks for letting me think out loud :-).

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• How to integrate Java ME SDK 3.2 with NetBeans

  - by SungmoonCho

  Many people like to use Java ME SDK with IDEs. We provided instructions on how to integrate the SDK with NetBeans through the download page, and also through the release note, however, let me explain it here once again with some screen shots. 1. Download Java ME SDK and NetBeans plugin from here. 2. Install Java ME SDK first. You will have the emulator and the runtime on your machine. Also please unarchive the NetBeans plugin somewhere. 3. Launch NetBeans. 4. Go to "Tools" - "Plugins". 5. Check out the "Installed" tab. Check "Show details". If you see the previous version of Java ME SDK Tools installed already. Check those to uninstall them. 6. Go to "Settings" tab. 7. Click "Add", and provide the location of NetBeans plugin. In my case, it is "file:/C:/Users/sungcho/Downloads/nb-me-sdk-plugins-uc/updates.xml". Don't forget to add "updates.xml" at the end. 8. Click "Okay" 9. Click "Available Plugins" tab. 10. If you scroll down, you will see three Java ME SDK Tools. Check "Java ME SDK Tools" plugin. Also check others as you desire. 11. Follow the instruction and install them. 12. Restart NetBeans 13. That is it. Done. Now you will see Oracle Java ME SDK 3.2 in your Java Platform list.

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• Liskov principle: violation by type-hinting

  - by Elias Van Ootegem

  According to the Liskov principle, a construction like the one below is invalid, as it strengthens a pre-condition. I know the example is pointless/nonsense, but when I last asked a question like this, and used a more elaborate code sample, it seemed to distract people too much from the actual question. //Data models abstract class Argument { protected $value = null; public function getValue() { return $this->value; } abstract public function setValue($val); } class Numeric extends Argument { public function setValue($val) { $this->value = $val + 0;//coerce to number return $this; } } //used here: abstract class Output { public function printValue(Argument $arg) { echo $this->format($arg); return $this; } abstract public function format(Argument $arg); } class OutputNumeric extends Output { public function format(Numeric $arg)//<-- VIOLATION! { $format = is_float($arg->getValue()) ? '%.3f' : '%d'; return sprintf($format, $arg->getValue()); } } My question is this: Why would this kind of "violation" be considered harmful? So much so that some languages, like the one I used in this example (PHP), don't even allow this? I'm not allowed to strengthen the type-hint of an abstract method but, by overriding the printValue method, I am allowed to write: class OutputNumeric extends Output { final public function printValue(Numeric $arg) { echo $this->format($arg); } public function format(Argument $arg) { $format = is_float($arg->getValue()) ? '%.3f' : '%d'; return sprintf($format, $arg->getValue()); } } But this would imply repeating myself for each and every child of Output, and makes my objects harder to reuse. I understand why the Liskov principle exists, don't get me wrong, but I find it somewhat difficult to fathom why the signature of an abstract method in an abstract class has to be adhered to so much stricter than a non-abstract method. Could someone explain to me why I'm not allowed to hind at a child class, in a child class? The way I see it, the child class OutputNumeric is a specific use-case of Output, and thus might need a specific instance of Argument, namely Numeric. Is it really so wrong of me to write code like this?

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• ASP.NET Membership Password Hash -- .NET 3.5 to .NET 4 Upgrade Surprise!

  - by David Hoerster

  I'm in the process of evaluating how my team will upgrade our product from .NET 3.5 SP1 to .NET 4. I expected the upgrade to be pretty smooth with very few, if any, upgrade issues. To my delight, the upgrade wizard said that everything upgraded without a problem. I thought I was home free, until I decided to build and run the application. A big problem was staring me in the face -- I couldn't log on. Our product is using a custom ASP.NET Membership Provider, but essentially it's a modified SqlMembershipProvider with some additional properties. And my login was failing during the OnAuthenticate event handler of my ASP.NET Login control, right where it was calling my provider's ValidateUser method. After a little digging, it turns out that the password hash that the membership provider was using to compare against the stored password hash in the membership database tables was different. I compared the password hash from the .NET 4 code line, and it was a different generated hash than my .NET 3.5 code line. (Tip -- when upgrading, always keep a valid debug copy of your app handy in case you have to step through a lot of code.) So it was a strange situation, but at least I knew what the problem was. Now the question was, "Why was it happening?" Turns out that a breaking change in .NET 4 is that the default hash algorithm changed to SHA256. Hey, that's great -- stronger hashing algorithm. But what do I do with all the hashed passwords in my database that were created using SHA1? Well, you can make two quick changes to your app's web.config and everything will be OK. Basically, you need to override the default HashAlgorithmTypeproperty of your membership provider. Here are the two places to do that: 1. At the beginning of your element, add the following element: <system.web> <machineKey validation="SHA1" /> ... </system.web> 2. On your element under , add the following hashAlgorithmType attribute: <system.web> <membership defaultProvider="myMembership" hashAlgorithmType="SHA1"> ... </system.web> After that, you should be good to go! Hope this helps.

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• Content from Oracle Business Analytics Partner Forum 2013

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

  Normal 0 false false false EN-GB X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 This year’s EMEA Partner Forum (11th June - 14th June, 2013 in Milan, Italy) was well attended with 120 partners from countries around Europe and the Middle East. The presentation content for the main Plenary day and for the OBI, and Hyperion 11.1.2.3 breakout sessions is available to partners who attended. If you could not make it, and would like access to this material, please email to [email protected]. You can also get additional Hyperion content from the EPM Solution Factory page: for logon details please contact [email protected]. The keynote by Oracle VP Rich Clayton set the agenda, plus many partners presented their experiences, including Accenture, Deloitte, Tech Edge, iConsulting, RealDecoy, Rittman-Mead, and Aorta, covering a variety of topics such as: · 21st Century Business Analytics · The 21st Century CFO · Driving Profitability through Customer Experience · Exalytics Case Studies For details on the agenda and multi-day breakout sessions download here the Agenda.pdf. /* 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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• Launch 2010 Technical Readiness Unofficial Q&amp;A.

  - by mbcrump

  I had an email from one of my readers about the 2010 Technical Readiness Series. Please read below: Hi Michael, I noticed you blogged a while back that you were going to attend MS 2010 Launch event. I’m going to the session in Seattle on May 27, is it worth it to attend? Also, I’m wondering if they give any free software away like VS2010 Pro? Any decent vendors? Looking forward to hearing back from you. I decided this information would probably benefit several instead of just responding back to the reader. In case you are not aware, MS has a 2010 launch event showing VS2010, Office 2010, SharePoint 2010 and SQL Server 2008R2.  You can sign up for an event here: https://microsoft.crgevents.com/Register2010/Content/Event_Selection.aspx I’ve answered the questions asked below. Q: Is it worth going? A: It is if you have had little or no exposure to the latest 2010 products. Most people are familiar with VS2010, but have not seen SharePoint 2010 Office 2010 or Windows Phone 7. It is designed to get you up to speed very quickly. If you have watched most of the MIX videos and keep up with .NET in general, you will benefit more by having the ability to ask questions.    Q: Did you get any free software? A: No, only demos including: VS2010/Office 2010 – They give you a link to the url where you can download the trial version. Windows 7 Enterprise – You get a DVD with the trial version loaded. Q: Do they give away any cool swag? A: Just a Microsoft T-Shirt (XL). Q: What about the vendor selection? A: At the event that I went to, most vendors were pushing SharePoint products. There wasn’t a lot of variety in the selection. Most vendors were giving away the typical pens, buttons and stickers and trial software. If you have any other questions, feel free to contact me. I will answer and add to this un-official FAQ.

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• LCM says Smart List import is complete but actually its not...Here are probable reasons

  - by RahulS

  First of all some basics of smart list: Administrators use Smart Lists to create custom drop-down lists that users access from data form cells. When clicking in cells whose members are associated with a Smart List (as a member property), users select items from drop-down lists instead of entering data. Users cannot type in cells that contain Smart Lists. Smart Lists display in cells as down arrows that expand when users click into the cells. Below link will give you more information on Smart Lists: http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E17236_01/epm.1112/hp_admin/enum_pg.html I got a simple query today, "The LCM process generates and indicates a status of "Complete", however, the 3,018 records do not appear in the Planning application. No error exists in the log to identify the problem." Things which can be checked in this case: 1. Spaces are not allowed in the Entry Name, 2. Spaces are allowed in the Entry Label, 3. The name must start with an alpha character or underscore, 4. Valid characters for the remaining part of the name must be alpha, numeric, or an underscore, 5. Enter a name that is unique within the smart list, 6. I am not sure about the limits but I have seen 22,000 members loaded fine, 7. ID for every entry should be unique,  8. IDs need not to be consecutive, Ex: It was go from 1 to 100 then 500 to 900 then 1900 to 4500 etc. While import .xml file using LCM there were no errors in the foundation and LCM migration logs, but when checked in the HyS9PlanningSysErr.log, few errors were found:Ex: The name Data_Coord_(Prod)_ACS is invalid, The name Sr_Dir_b+Medcd_Gvt_Rel_Sls_Mkt is invalid, The name entered is invalid. Enter a name that is unique within the smart list, Also, we can Load Smart List dimensions and Smart List dimension entries using the /DS:HSP_SMARTLISTS parameter in outlineload utility: OutlineLoad /A:acpt /U:admin /M /I:c:/smartlist_create1.csv /DS:HSP_SMARTLISTS /L:c:/OutlineLogs/outlineLoad.log /X:c:/OutlineLogs/outlineLoad.exc SmartList Name, Operation, Label, Display Order, Missing Label, Use Form Missing Label, Entry ID, Entry Name, Entry Label SL1,addsmartlist,SL1Label,,,,,, SL1,addEntry,,,,,,entry1,entrylabel1 SL1,addEntry,,,,,,entry2,entrylabel2 Cheers..!!! Rahul S. http://www.facebook.com/pages/HyperionPlanning/117320818374228

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• Build Dependencies and Silverlight 4

  - by Kyle Burns

  At my current position, I’ve been doing quite a bit of Silverlight development and have also been working with TFS2010 build services to enable continuous integration.  One of the critical pieces of a successful continuous build setup (and also one of the benefits of having one) is that the build system should be able to “get latest” against the source repository and immediately build with no errors.  This can break down both in an automated build scenario and a “new guy” scenario when the solution has external dependencies that may not be present in the build environment. The method that I use to address the dependency issue is to store all of the binaries upon which my solution depends in a folder under the solution root called “Reference Items”.  I keep this folder as part of the solution and check all of the binaries into source control so when I get the latest version of the solution from source control all of the binaries are downloaded to my machine as well and gets me closer to the ideal where a new developer installs the development IDE, get latest and can immediately build and run unit tests before jumping into coding the feature of the day. This all sounds pretty good (and it is), but a little while back I ran into one of those little hiccups that requires a little manual intervention.  The issue that I ran into is that with Silverlight (at least version 4), the behavior of the “Add Reference” command when adding reference to a DLL that is present in the GAC is to omit the HintPath element that it includes with regular .Net projects, so even if the DLL is setting in the Reference Items folder and downloaded to the build machine it cannot be found at compile time and the build will fail. To work around this behavior, you need to be comfortable editing the XML project files generated by Visual Studio (in my case this is typically a .csproj file).  Simply open the project file in your favorite text editor, find the Reference element that refers to the component, and modify the XML to include the HintPath.  Here’s a before and after example of the component that ultimately led me to the investigation behind this post: Before: <Reference Include="Telerik.Windows.Controls, Version=2011.2.920.1040, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=5803cfa389c90ce7, processorArchitecture=MSIL" /> After: <Reference Include="Telerik.Windows.Controls, Version=2011.2.920.1040, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=5803cfa389c90ce7, processorArchitecture=MSIL">       <HintPath>..\Reference Items\Telerik.Windows.Controls.dll</HintPath>     </Reference>

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• My program at #MIX10

  - by Laurent Bugnion

  Getting ready to fly to Vegas and MIX10 is really an exciting time! It is also a very busy time, because we are working on a few projects that will be shown on stage, I have my presentation to prepare, and of course as always the book… though these days it has been a bit on the back burner to be honest ;) I arrive in Vegas on Sunday evening around 10PM, so I won’t be able to make it to the traditional IdentityMine dinner this year. I am sure it will be fun nonetheless! My session: Understanding the MVVM pattern http://live.visitmix.com/MIX10/Sessions/EX14 My session is scheduled on the first day, which is awesome, so I am crossing my fingers and hoping that the MIX team doesn’t change it at the last minute… The session will take place on Monday, the 15th of March, 2PM, Room Lagoon F Important: remember that the USA are moving to Summer time on Sunday, so don’t forget to adjust your watches!! Ask the Experts On Monday evening, I will attend the Ask the Experts event, which is taking place between 5Pm and 6:30PM in the main meal hall. This will be a great occasion to grab a beer and talk about code. The Commons MIX has a great place called the Commons, a great location to chill between sessions, and meet tons of interesting people. I love the Commons and plan to spend a lot of time there to meet as many people as I can. Parties I was invited to a few parties, and will do my best to avoid conflicts :) I plan to be at the following events: Silverlight Mixers on Monday evening Insiders MIX party on Tuesday Silverlight partner happy hour on Tuesday too This is a lot of fun, but at the same time we all know that the best value of a conference is to meet people face to face. This is just the right occasion.  And on Thursday… On Thursday I will be attending a Silverlight event at the Luxor. It will be a very busy day, perfect way to end the conference. I fly back home on Friday morning, but due to a long stop in Washington DC (where I intend to go downtown and take pictures… except if the weather is bad, in which case I will probably go to the museum of flight), I will reach home only on Sunday. Getting hold of me The best way to reach me during MIX is to send me a message on Twitter. I will regularly tweet my location at the conference, so make sure to come and meet me. I am eager to make new friends, to talk about the fantastic jobs we did in WPF and Silverlight over the past year and hear your war stories! http://www.twitter.com/lbugnion   Laurent Bugnion (GalaSoft) Subscribe | Twitter | Facebook | Flickr | LinkedIn

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• Why CoffeeScript is tough to maintain

  - by Renso

  I recently started trying out CoffeeScript only to find out that it caused more headaches. The abstraction level of jQuery was perfect, it did not dictate to coders how to design their code, it just works. However, I recently posted a request to the CoffeeScript team to consider introducing curly braces to help with more complex code to control the flow of logic. For example a if-then-else with many nested levels can be near impossible to debug without tracing through it when using CoffeeScript. Also with IDEs like Visual Studio, regular JavaScript intellicense and auto-formatting make it easy to appropriate indent nested levels without any work on the part of the developer and reading it is not that hard, especially with some extensions that show vertical lines in the code editor to help see what is nested within what part of the code.However with CoffeeScript that is not the case. The samples given in the CoffeeScript web site are of course just simple examples to explain the features and one gets excited pretty quick over the powerful shortcuts. I tried to convert a piece of JavaScript over to CoffeeScript and gave up since you need to first of all remove ALL non CoffeeScript coding constructs for it to even compile. However js2coffee can help with that. However to keep track of nested levels became something that was simply not manageable using CoffeeScript.Furthermore, any coding language that controls the flow of logic by indentation is extremely dangerous for obvious reasons. I liked CoffeeScript a lot, but the fact that the logical flow of the code is controlled by how much you indent code, spaces or tabs, is not reliable as there is no way the programmer has an easy way of knowing what parts of the code will get hit when the code spans a page.When I suggested introducing curly braces in CoffeeScript the team, one contributor advised me that my code needs to be re-designed! Needless to say that is absurd. When I included a piece of the code he asked my if it was legacy code. It's like saying to a Java programmer, sorry you cannot use Java because we don't agree with how you write your code.jashkenas from the CoffeeScript blog gave some great suggestions and made the point that introducing curly braces would be very problematic for them as they use them to denote objects. Makes sense, but I would still love to see some way to replace code flow control with spaces and indentation to something more concrete and human readable.

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• I need to move an entity to the mouse location after i rightclick

  - by I.Hristov

  Well I've read the related questions-answers but still cant find a way to move my champion to the mouse position after a right-button mouse-click. I use this code at the top: float speed = (float)1/3; And this is in my void Update: //check if right mouse button is clicked if (mouse.RightButton == ButtonState.Released && previousButtonState == ButtonState.Pressed) { // gets the position of the mouse in mousePosition mousePosition = new Vector2(mouse.X, mouse.Y); //gets the current position of champion (the drawRectangle) currentChampionPosition = new Vector2(drawRectangle.X, drawRectangle.Y); // move champion to mouse position: //handles the case when the mouse position is really close to current position if (Math.Abs(currentChampionPosition.X - mousePosition.X) <= speed && Math.Abs(currentChampionPosition.Y - mousePosition.Y) <= speed) { drawRectangle.X = (int)mousePosition.X; drawRectangle.Y = (int)mousePosition.Y; } else if (currentChampionPosition != mousePosition) { drawRectangle.X += (int)((mousePosition.X - currentChampionPosition.X) * speed); drawRectangle.Y += (int)((mousePosition.Y - currentChampionPosition.Y) * speed); } } previousButtonState = mouse.RightButton; What that code does at the moment is on a click it brings the sprite 1/3 of the distance to the mouse but only once. How do I make it move consistently all the time? It seems I am not updating the sprite at all. EDIT I added the Vector2 as Nick said and with speed changed to 50 it should be OK. I tried it with if ButtonState.Pressed and it works while pressing the button. Thanks. However I wanted it to start moving when single mouse clicked. It should be moving until reaches the mousePosition. The Edit of Nick's post says to create another Vector2, But I already have the one called mousePosition. Not sure how to use another one. //gets a Vector2 direction to move *by Nick Wilson Vector2 direction = mousePosition - currentChampionPosition; //make the direction vector a unit vector direction.Normalize(); //multiply with speed (number of pixels) direction *= speed; // move champion to mouse position if (currentChampionPosition != mousePosition) { drawRectangle.X += (int)(direction.X); drawRectangle.Y += (int)(direction.Y); } } previousButtonState = mouse.RightButton;

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• Virtual Lab part 2&ndash;Templates, Patterns, Baselines

  - by Geoff N. Hiten

  Once you have a good virtualization platform chosen, whether it is a desktop, server or laptop environment, the temptation is to build “X”.  “X” may be a SharePoint lab, a Virtual Cluster, an AD test environment or some other cool project that you really need RIGHT NOW.  That would be doing it wrong. My grandfather taught woodworking and cabinetmaking for twenty-seven years at a trade school in Alabama.  He was the first instructor hired at that school and the only teacher for the first two years.  His students built tables, chairs, and workbenches so the school could start its HVAC courses.   Visiting as a child, I also noticed many extra “helper” stands, benches, holders, and gadgets all built from wood.  What does that have to do with a virtual lab, you ask?  Well, that is the same approach you should take.  Build stuff that you will use.  Not for solving a particular problem, but to let the Virtual Lab be part of your normal troubleshooting toolkit. Start with basic copies of various Operating Systems.  Load and patch server and desktop OS environments.  This also helps build your collection of ISO files, another essential element of a virtual Lab.  Once you have these “baseline” images, you can use your Virtualization software’s snapshot capability to freeze the image.  Clone the snapshot and you have a brand new fully patched machine in mere moments.  You may have to sysprep some of the Microsoft OS environments if you are going to create a domain environment or experiment with clustering.  That is still much faster than loading and patching from scratch. So once you have a stock of raw materials (baseline images in this case) where should you start.  Again, my grandfather’s workshop gives us the answer.  In the shop it was workbenches and tables to hold large workpieces that made the equipment more useful.  In a Windows environment the same role falls to the fundamental network services:  DHCP, DNS, Active Directory, Routing, File Services, and Storage services.  Plan your internal network setup.  Build out an AD controller with all the features listed.  Make the actual domain an isolated domain so it will not care about where you take it.  Add the Microsoft iSCSI target.  Once you have this single system, you can leverage it for almost any network environment beyond a simple stand-alone system. Having these templates and fundamental infrastructure elements ready to run means I can build a quick lab in minutes instead of hours.  My solutions are well-tested, my processes fully documented with screenshots, and my plans validated well before I have to make any changes to client systems.  the work I put in is easily returned in increased value and client satisfaction.

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