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• How do software projects go over budget and under-deliver?

  - by Carlos

  I've come across this story quite a few times here in the UK: NHS Computer System Summary: We're spunking £12 Billion on some health software with barely anything working. I was sitting the office discussing this with my colleagues, and we had a little think about. From what I can see, all the NHS needs is a database + middle tier of drugs/hospitals/patients/prescriptions objects, and various GUIs for doctors and nurses to look at. You'd also need to think about security and scalability. And you'd need to sit around a hospital/pharmacy/GPs office for a bit to figure out what they need. But, all told, I'd say I could knock together something with that kind of structure in a couple of days, and maybe throw in a month or two to make it work in scale. * If I had a few million quid, I could probably hire some really excellent designers to make a maintainable codebase, and also buy appropriate hardware to run the system on. I hate to trivialize something that seems to have caused to much trouble, but to me it looks like just a big distributed CRUD + UI system. So how on earth did this project bloat to £12B without producing much useful software? As I don't think the software sounds so complicated, I can only imagine that something about how it was organised caused this mess. Is it outsourcing that's the problem? Is it not getting the software designers to understand the medical business that caused it? What are your experiences with projects gone over budget, under delivered? What are best practices for large projects? Have you ever worked on such a project? EDIT *This bit seemed to get a lot of attention. What I mean is I could probably do this for say, 30 users, spending a few tens of thousands of pounds. I'm not including stuff I don't know about the medical industry and government, but I think most people who've been around programming are familiar with that kind of database/front end kind of design. My point is the NHS project looks like a BIG version of this, with bells and whistles, notably security. But surely a budget millions of times larger than mine could provide this?

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• Dynamically load and call delegates based on source data

  - by makerofthings7

  Assume I have a stream of records that need to have some computation. Records will have a combination of these functions run Sum, Aggregate, Sum over the last 90 seconds, or ignore. A data record looks like this: Date;Data;ID Question Assuming that ID is an int of some kind, and that int corresponds to a matrix of some delegates to run, how should I use C# to dynamically build that launch map? I'm sure this idea exists... it is used in Windows Forms which has many delegates/events, most of which will never actually be invoked in a real application. The sample below includes a few delegates I want to run (sum, count, and print) but I don't know how to make the quantity of delegates fire based on the source data. (say print the evens, and sum the odds in this sample) using System; using System.Threading; using System.Collections.Generic; internal static class TestThreadpool { delegate int TestDelegate(int parameter); private static void Main() { try { // this approach works is void is returned. //ThreadPool.QueueUserWorkItem(new WaitCallback(PrintOut), "Hello"); int c = 0; int w = 0; ThreadPool.GetMaxThreads(out w, out c); bool rrr =ThreadPool.SetMinThreads(w, c); Console.WriteLine(rrr); // perhaps the above needs time to set up6 Thread.Sleep(1000); DateTime ttt = DateTime.UtcNow; TestDelegate d = new TestDelegate(PrintOut); List<IAsyncResult> arDict = new List<IAsyncResult>(); int count = 1000000; for (int i = 0; i < count; i++) { IAsyncResult ar = d.BeginInvoke(i, new AsyncCallback(Callback), d); arDict.Add(ar); } for (int i = 0; i < count; i++) { int result = d.EndInvoke(arDict[i]); } // Give the callback time to execute - otherwise the app // may terminate before it is called //Thread.Sleep(1000); var res = DateTime.UtcNow - ttt; Console.WriteLine("Main program done----- Total time --> " + res.TotalMilliseconds); } catch (Exception e) { Console.WriteLine(e); } Console.ReadKey(true); } static int PrintOut(int parameter) { // Console.WriteLine(Thread.CurrentThread.ManagedThreadId + " Delegate PRINTOUT waited and printed this:"+parameter); var tmp = parameter * parameter; return tmp; } static int Sum(int parameter) { Thread.Sleep(5000); // Pretend to do some math... maybe save a summary to disk on a separate thread return parameter; } static int Count(int parameter) { Thread.Sleep(5000); // Pretend to do some math... maybe save a summary to disk on a separate thread return parameter; } static void Callback(IAsyncResult ar) { TestDelegate d = (TestDelegate)ar.AsyncState; //Console.WriteLine("Callback is delayed and returned") ;//d.EndInvoke(ar)); } }

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• Are there any drawbacks to the Major.Minor.YMDD.Build version strategy?

  - by Chu

  I'm trying to come up with a good version strategy to fit our specific needs. We've proposed settling on this and I wanted to ask the question to see if anyone's experience would suggest avoiding this or altering it in any way. Here's our proposal: Versions are released in this format: MAJOR.MINOR.YMDD.BN. Here it is broken out: MAJOR & MINOR are typical; we'll increase MINOR when we feel code and new feature sets warrants it; once every few months most likely. MAJOR will increase ~yearly. YMDD: Y will be the last digit of the current year, so "1" for 2011, "2" for 2012, etc. A non-padded month will be used to keep the number smaller (9 instead of 09 for example). DD of course is the day, padded with a zero for days under 10. BN: BN is the build number and increases by one anytime we make a change to a branch of the code represented by the build, for example: If were to make a build today, our release would be version 5.0.1707.1. I release to QA today and 3 days from now QA finds that a change broke the save functionality on a page. Instead of me changing our current development code, I'd go back to the code that I used to create version 5.0.1707.1, make the fix there, then increase the BN portion of the version and would then re-release 5.0.1707.2 back to QA. In short, anytime a change is made to a branched version that isn't the active dev branch, we'd use the original version number and increase only the BN portion (even if the change happened 3 days, 3 weeks or 3 months from the initial release of that version). Anytime we make a new release from our Active dev branch, we'd come up with a new version based on the M/D of the release using the outlined strategy. We do this once every 2-3 weeks. Are there holes or pitfalls with this? If so, what are they? Thanks EDIT To clarify one point that I didn't get out very well - Oct/Nov/Dec will be two digits, it's only the year that won't be. So 9 for Sept, 10 for Oct, 11 for Nov, etc.

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• Customer won't decide, how to deal?

  - by Crazy Eddie

  I write software that involves the use of measured quantities, many input by the user, most displayed, that are fed into calculation models to simulate various physical thing-a-majigs. We have created a data type that allows us to associate a numeric value with a unit, we call these "quantities" (big duh). Quantities and units are unique to dimension. You can't attach kilogram to a length for example. Math on quantities does automatic unit conversion to SI and the type is dimension safe (you can't assign a weight to a pressure for example). Custom UI components have been developed that display the value and its unit and/or allow the user to edit them. Dimensionless quantities, having no units, are a single, custom case implemented within the system. There's a set of related quantities such that our target audience apparently uses them interchangeably. The quantities are used in special units that embed the conversion factors for the related quantity dimensions...in other words, when using these units converting from one to another simply involves multiplying the value by 1 to the dimensional difference. However, conversion to/from the calculation system (SI) still involves these factors. One of these related quantities is a dimensionless one that represents a ratio. I simply can't get the "customer" to recognize the necessity of distinguishing these values and their use. They've picked one and want to use it everywhere, customizing the way we deal with it in special places. In this case they've picked one of the dimensions that has a unit...BUT, they don't want there to be a unit (GRR!!!). This of course is causing us to implement these special overrides for our UI elements and such. That of course is often times forgotten and worse...after a couple months everyone forgets why it was necessary and why we're using this dimensional value, calling it the wrong thing, and disabling the unit. I could just ignore the "customer" and implement the type as the dimensionless quantity, which makes most sense. However, that leaves the team responsible for figuring it out when they've given us a formula using one of the other quantities. We have to not only figure out that it's happening, we have to decide what to do. This isn't a trivial deal. The other option is just to say to hell with it, do it the customer's way, and let it waste continued time and effort because it's just downright confusing as hell. However, I can't count the amount of times someone has said, "Why is this being done this way, it makes no sense at all," and the team goes off the deep end trying to figure it out. What would you do? Currently I'm still attempting to convince them that even if they use terms interchangeably, we at the least can't do that within the product discussion. Don't have high hopes though.

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• Learn programming backwards, or "so I failed the FizzBuzz test. Now what?"

  - by moraleida

  A Little Background I'm 28 today, and I've never had any formal training in software development, but I do have two higher education degrees equivalent to a B.A in Public Relations and an Executive MBA focused on Project Management. I've worked on those fields for about 6 years total an then, 2,5 years ago I quit/lost my job and decided to shift directions. After a month thinking things through I decided to start freelancing developing small websites in WordPress. I self-learned my way into it and today I can say I run a humble but successful career developing themes and plugins from scratch for my clients - mostly agencies outsourcing some of their dev work for medium/large websites. But sometimes I just feel that not having studied enough math, or not having a formal understanding of things really holds me behind when I have to compete or work with more experienced developers. I'm constantly looking for ways to learn more but I seem to lack the basics. Unfortunately, spending 4 more years in Computer Science is not an option right now, so I'm trying to learn all I can from books and online resources. This method is never going to have NASA employ me but I really don't care right now. My goal is to first pass the bar and to be able to call myself a real programmer. I'm currently spending my spare time studying Java For Programmers (to get a hold on a language everyone says is difficult/demanding), reading excerpts of Code Complete (to get hold of best practices) and also Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software (to grasp the inner workings of computers). TL;DR So, my current situation is this: I'm basically capable of writing any complete system in PHP (with the help of Google and a few books), integrating Ajax, SQL and whatnot, and maybe a little slower than an experienced dev would expect due to all the research involved. But I was stranded yesterday trying to figure out (not Google) a solution for the FizzBuzz test because I didn't have the if($n1 % $n2 == 0) method modulus operator memorized. What would you suggest as a good way to solve this dilemma? What subjects/books should I study that would get me solving problems faster and maybe more "in a programmers way"? EDIT - Seems that there was some confusion about what did I not know to solve FizzBuzz. Maybe I didn't express myself right: I knew the steps needed to solve the problem. What I didn't memorize was the modulus operator. The problem was in transposing basic math to the program, not in knowing basic math. I took the test for fun, after reading about it on Coding Horror. I just decided it was a good base-comparison line between me and formally-trained devs. I just used this as an example of how not having dealt with math in a computer environment before makes me lose time looking up basic things like modulus operators to be able to solve simple problems.

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• Recovering an Ubuntu installation - Ubuntu eats itself after 'sudo apt-get install -f'

  - by Tony Martin

  Updater (I assume) put a no entry style alert icon on the panel which informed me that certain package dependencies were not up to snuff. Upgrades were thereafter only partial. The dialogue advised that I sudo apt-get install -f. I did this hoping that app-get would fulfil dependencies and replace corrupted files and watched it systematically remove every component of linux, both the stuff I had installed and the core ubuntu packages. I could only assume at this stage that this was in preparation for a fresh install but, of course, I know better now - if you find yourself with apt-get warning you that you are about to remove several hundred packages and asking you to type an involved confirmation string seek advice before proceeding. I digress. This was a 64 bit install of 12.04. All that is left is grub pointing to a couple of windows recovery partitions on the hard drive. Thankfully the Ext4 partition is reachable from a stick boot. EDIT: I've logged onto the machine with a 64 bit stick and can see the file structure left behind by apt-get after {ahem} fixing. My first instinct was to run install from the stick but it seemed to want to do another install rather than a repair. My question then: is there a way to recover the current installation so that if I reinstall the packages I had they will pick up the original settings? I'm particularly worried about losing email from evolution - the rest I could probably lash back together. As for the use of PPA I'm not sure what you're driving at. I generally use Ubuntu Software Centre to install software, though I have used terminal scripts to add new repositories and software successfully following guidance on various websites. The most recent change I made was a downgrade of Wine in an attempt to install and run excel2007 (a necessity, I think, as I have VBA work to do). The installer had stalled and had to be killed. I wonder if that corrupted whatever database holds a model of the package installation structure. I would also be interested to know how this disaster came about. I see people in the know recommending the sudo apt-get install -f as a fairly innocuous cure in similar circumstances. Thanks for your attention, Tony Martin p.s. Do please forgive the rant aspects of the original post. It's hard to write rationally with a large hole in the pit of your stomach.

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• SQL Authority News – Secret Tool Box of Successful Bloggers: 52 Tips to Build a High Traffic Top Ranking Blog

  - by Pinal Dave

  When I started this blog, it was meant as a bookmark for myself for helpful tips and tricks.  Gradually, it grew into a blog that others were reading and commenting on.  While SQL and databases are my first love and the reason I started this blog, the side effect was that I discovered I loved writing.  I discovered a secret goal I didn’t even know I wanted – I wanted to become an author.  For a long time, writing this blog satisfied that urge.  Gradually, though, I wanted to see my name in print. 12th Book Over the past few years I have authored and co-authored a number of books – they are all based on my knowledge of SQL Server, and were meant to spread my years of experience into the world, to share what I have learned with my community.  I currently have elevan of these “manuals” available for sale.  As exciting as it was to see my name in print, I still felt that there was more I could do as an author. That is when I realized that I am more than just a SQL expert.  I have been writing this blog now for more than 10 years, and it grew from a personal bookmark to a thriving website with over 2 million views per month.  I thought to myself “I could write a book about how to create a successful blog!”  And that is exactly what I did.  I am extremely excited to share with all of you my new book – “Secret Toolbox of Successful Bloggers.” A Labor of Love This project has been a labor of love for me.  It started out as a series for this blog – I would post one article a week until I felt the topic had been covered.  I found that as I wrote, new topics kept popping up in my mind, and eventually this small blog series grew into a full book.  The blog series was large enough to last a whole year, so I definitely thought that it could be a full book.  Ideas on how to become a successful blogger were so frequent that, I will admit, I feel like there is so much I left out of this book.  I had a lot more to say than I originally thought! I am so excited to be sharing this book with all of you.  I am so passionate about this topic, and I feel like there are so many people who can benefit from this book.  I know that when I started this blog, I did not know what I was doing, and I would have loved a “helping hand” to tell what to do and what not to do.  If this book can act that way to any of my readers, I feel it is a success. Rules of Thumb If you are interested in the topic of becoming a blogger, as you read this book, keep in mind that it is suggestions only.  Blogging is so new to the world that while there are “rules of thumb” about what to do and what not to do, a map of steps (“first, do x, then do y”) is not going to work for every single blogger.  This book is meant to encourage new bloggers to put their content out there in the world, to be brave and create a community like the one I have here at SQL Authority.  I have gained so much from this community, I wanted to give something back, and this book is just one small part. I hope that everyone who reads this books finds at least one helpful tip, and that everyone can experience the joy of blogging.  That is the whole reason I wrote this book, and what I hope everyone takes away from it. Where Can You Get It? You can get the book from following URL: Kindle eBook | Print Book Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)Filed under: About Me, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQLAuthority Author Visit, T SQL

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• Euler angles to Cartesian Coordinates for use with gluLookAt

  - by notrodash

  I have searched all of the internet but just couldn't find the answer. I am using LibGDX and this is part of my code that loops over and over: public void render() { GL11 gl = Gdx.gl11; float centerX = (float)Math.cos(yaw) * (float)Math.cos(pitch); float centerY = (float)Math.sin(yaw) * (float)Math.cos(pitch); float centerZ = (float)Math.sin(pitch); System.out.println(centerX+" "+centerY+" "+centerZ+" ~ "+GDXRacing.camera.position.x+" "+GDXRacing.camera.position.y+" "+GDXRacing.camera.position.z); Gdx.glu.gluLookAt(gl, GDXRacing.camera.position.x, GDXRacing.camera.position.y, GDXRacing.camera.position.z, centerX, centerY, centerZ, 0, 1, 0); if(Gdx.input.isKeyPressed(Keys.A)) { yaw--; } if(Gdx.input.isKeyPressed(Keys.D)) { yaw++; } } I might just be bad at the math, but I dont get it. Does someone have a good explanation and an idea about how to deal with this? I am trying to make a first person camera. By the way, the camera is translated by +10 on the Z axis. Currently when I run the application, this is what I get: Watch video in browser | Download video (for those who cant download the video, everything shakes in a clockwise/anticlockwise action, depending on if I increase or decrease the Yaw value) -Thank you. [edit] and with this code: public void render() { GL11 gl = Gdx.gl11; float centerX = (float)(MathUtils.cosDeg(yaw)*4); float centerY = 0; float centerZ = (float)(MathUtils.sinDeg(yaw)*4); System.out.println(centerX+" "+centerY+" "+centerZ+" ~ "+GDXRacing.camera.position.x+" "+GDXRacing.camera.position.y+" "+GDXRacing.camera.position.z); Gdx.glu.gluLookAt(gl, GDXRacing.camera.position.x, GDXRacing.camera.position.y, GDXRacing.camera.position.z, centerX, centerY, centerZ, 0, 1, 0); if(Gdx.input.isKeyPressed(Keys.A)) { yaw--; } if(Gdx.input.isKeyPressed(Keys.D)) { yaw++; } } it slowly swings from the left to the right. This approach worked for turning left and right for 2d games though. What am I doing wrong?

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• Webcast Replay : SANS Institute Product Review of Oracle Identity Manager

  - by B Shashikumar

  Thanks to everyone who attended the SANS Institute webinar covering the product review of Oracle Identity Manager. And a special thanks to our guest speakers from SuperValu - Phillip Black and Patrick Abreo. If you missed the webcast, you can catch a replay here  And here are the slides that were used in the webcast.  There were many questions that we could not answer as we ran out of time. We have captured some of the questions with responses below. Is Oracle Identity Analytics still offered as a separate product or is it part of Oracle Identity Manager? Oracle Identity Manager and Oracle Identity Analytics are now offered as part of Oracle Identity Governance Suite. OIA and OIM share a common UI architecture, common data model and common support for connected and disconnected resources.  When requesting new access/entitlements is there an approval process? Yes. We leverage SOA BPEL-based workflows for approvals  Are the identity self service capabilities based on Oracle ADF? Yes they are completely based on Oracle ADF  Can you give some examples of personalization and customization with Oracle Identity Manager 11gR2? With the new UI config framework we can enable different levels of UI customization. Customers now have the ability to Point & click to customize; or drag and drop customization without any need for coding. So users can easily personalize the interface of their application within the browser. For example, they can change the logo, Rearrange, hide Home Page regions; regularly searched items can be saved and re-used; Searchable & search results columns can be configured; Sorting preferences are remembered and so on. For more sophisticated customization, Customers can also edit the standard JSF within the page to alter business rules, modify page flows, page layouts and other items. Can you explain the role of sandboxes in customization? Customers can make their custom changes within a sandbox so that it doesn’t impact their production environment. They can make their changes, validate those changes, stage and then commit those changes without affecting production users. This is similar to how source code control systems like perforce work To watch a replay of the webcast, click here

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• Export all SSIS packages from msdb using Powershell

  - by jamiet

  Have you ever wanted to dump all the SSIS packages stored in msdb out to files? Of course you have, who wouldn’t? Right? Well, at least one person does because this was the subject of a thread (save all ssis packages to file) on the SSIS forum earlier today. Some of you may have already figured out a way of doing this but for those that haven’t here is a nifty little script that will do it for you and it uses our favourite jack-of-all tools … Powershell!!   Imagine I have the following package folder structure on my Integration Services server (i.e. in [msdb]): There are two packages in there called “20110111 Chaining Expression components” & “Package”, I want to export those two packages into a folder structure that mirrors that in [msdb]. Here is the Powershell script that will do that:   Param($SQLInstance = "localhost") #####Add all the SQL goodies (including Invoke-Sqlcmd)##### add-pssnapin sqlserverprovidersnapin100 -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue add-pssnapin sqlservercmdletsnapin100 -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue cls $Packages = Invoke-Sqlcmd -MaxCharLength 10000000 -ServerInstance $SQLInstance -Query "WITH cte AS ( SELECT cast(foldername as varchar(max)) as folderpath, folderid FROM msdb..sysssispackagefolders WHERE parentfolderid = '00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000' UNION ALL SELECT cast(c.folderpath + '\' + f.foldername as varchar(max)), f.folderid FROM msdb..sysssispackagefolders f INNER JOIN cte c ON c.folderid = f.parentfolderid ) SELECT c.folderpath,p.name,CAST(CAST(packagedata AS VARBINARY(MAX)) AS VARCHAR(MAX)) as pkg FROM cte c INNER JOIN msdb..sysssispackages p ON c.folderid = p.folderid WHERE c.folderpath NOT LIKE 'Data Collector%'" Foreach ($pkg in $Packages) { $pkgName = $Pkg.name $folderPath = $Pkg.folderpath $fullfolderPath = "c:\temp\$folderPath\" if(!(test-path -path $fullfolderPath)) { mkdir $fullfolderPath | Out-Null } $pkg.pkg | Out-File -Force -encoding ascii -FilePath "$fullfolderPath\$pkgName.dtsx" }   To run it simply change the “localhost” parameter of the server you want to connect to either by editing the script or passing it in when the script is executed. It will create the folder structure in C:\Temp (which you can also easily change if you so wish – just edit the script accordingly). Here’s the folder structure that it created for me: Notice how it is a mirror of the folder structure in [msdb]. Hope this is useful! @Jamiet

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• Failed 12.04 installation

  - by Rob Sayer

  I tried installing Ubuntu 12.04 today. Not an upgrade, a new installation. It didn't work. My computer specs: Computer: Compaq presario CQ-104CA OS: Windows 7 Home 64 bit CPU: AMD V140 BIOS: latest Graphics: amd m880g with ati mobility radeon hd 4250 Wireless: atheros ar9285 Internal HD:SATA I wasn't connected to the internet at the time ... I know of a number of people who have installed ubuntu unconnected and just updated later. It seemed to go normally until I got to the part where I chose to install dual boot linux/windows. Then, the screen went black and the following test appeared (I left out the [OK]'s): checking battery state starting crash report submission daemon stating cpu interrupts balancing daemon stopping system V runlevel compatibility starting configure network device security stopping configure network device security stopping cold plug devices stopping log initial device creation starting enable remaining boot-time encrypting devices starting configure network device security starting save udev log and update rules stopping save udev log and update rules stopping enable remaining boot-time encrypted block devices checking for running unattended-upgrades acpid: exiting speech-dispatcher disabled: edit /etc/default/speech-disorder At this point, the CD is ejected. Then nothing. If I press the return key, it boots Windows. I don't think that's what's supposed to happen. Thinking the cd media or dvd drive may have been faulty, I downloaded the .iso again and made a bootable USB stick, as per your instructions. This time there was no cryptic crash screen. It just booted windows. I can't find any log files it may have left. Thinking the amd64 version may have been the wrong one, I tried downloading the x86 version. Same thing, both from cd and usb drive. Note I downloaded both files twice. I doubt it was a corrupted d/l. This is supposed to be a simple, transparent install. I went to the time and trouble of looking up my devices and drivers re ubuntu beforehand, and was prepared to do some configuration, though I know someone who has the same wireless device and his worked righted out of the box. But I spent over 3 hours trying to install it with only the above to show for it.

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• CMS vs Admin Panel?

  - by Bob

  Okay, so this probably seems like an unusual, more grammar related question, but I was unsure of what to call it. If you use a software such as vBulletin or MyBB or even Blogger and you're the administrator (or other, lesser position such as moderator) of the forum, or publisher/author of the blog, you generally have access to something of an "admin panel". For example, vBulletin's admin panel looks like this and Blogger's admin panel looks something like this. While they both look different and do different things, the goal is fundamentally the same: to provide the user with a method for adding, modifying, or deleting content... to let them control and administrate their forum or blog. Also, they're both made specifically by the company for use in a specific product. Now, there's also options like Drupal. It seems to offer quite a bit more and be quite a bit more generalized. How does something like this work? If you were freelancing, would you deploy a website with Drupal, or would it be something the client might already have installed on their own server? I've never really used Drupal, only heard about it, so please let me know. Also, there seems to be other options like cPanel, a sort of global CMS that allows you to administrate over your entire website. How do those work in comparison to Drupal, or the administrative panels with vBulletin? They seem to serve related, but different purposes. Basically, what is the norm? If I'm developing a web application for a group that needs to be able to edit their website without the need to go into the code or the database (or rather, wants to act in a graphical, easy-to-use content-management/admin panel), would it also be necessary to write my own miniature admin panel? Or would I be able to send them off knowing that they have cPanel? Or could something like Drupal fill this void? Again, I'm a little new to web development, and I'm working on planning out my first, real, large website. So I need a little advice on the standards and expectations for web development - security and coding practices aside, what should I be looking for as far as usability and administration for the client (who will be running the site once I'm done creating the website)? Any extra tips would also be appreciated! Oh, and just a little bit: I'm writing the website using Ruby on the Sinatra framework (both Ruby and Sinatra are things I'm fairly comfortable with) and I'm not being paid to make the website (and I will also be a user, and one of the three administrators of the website) - it's being built for a club I'm in.

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• Avoiding Duplicate Content Penalties on a Corporate/Franchise website

  - by heath

  My question is really an extension of a previous question that was ported from stackoverflow and closed so I cannot edit it. The basic gist is a regional franchise company has decided to force all independent stores into one website look; they currently all have their own domains and completely different websites. After reading the helpful answers and looking over some links provided, I think my solution is to put a 301 on each franchise store site (acme-store1.com, acme-store2.com, etc) back to the main corporate site (acme.com). All of the company history, product info, etc (about 90% of the entire site) applies to all stores. However, each store should have some exclusive content such as staff, location pictures, exclusive events and promotions, etc. I originally thought that I would simply do something like acme.com/store1/staff, acme.com/store2/staff, etc for the store exclusive content and then acme.com/our-company, for example, would cover all stores. However, I now see two issues that I don't know how to solve. They want to see site stats based on what store site they came from. If a user comes from acme-store1.com, is redirected to acme.com and hits several pages, don't I need to somehow keep that original site in the new url to track each page in that user's session and show they originally came from acme-store1.com? Each store is still independently owned and is essentially still in competition with the other stores, albeit, in less competition than they are with other brands. This is important because each store would like THEIR contact info, links to their social media pages, their mailing list sign-up and customer requests on EVERY page. So if a user originally goes to acme-store1.com and is redirected to acme.com, it still should look to the user that it's all about store 1, even though 90% of the content will be exactly the same as it is in the store 2, store 3 and corporate site. For example, acme.com/our-company would have the same company history, same header/footer/navigation, BUT depending on the original site the user came from, it would display contact and links to THAT store. If someone came directly to the corporate site, it would display their contact and links (they have their own as well). I was considering that all redirects would be to store1.acme.com, store2.acme.com, etc (or acme.com/store1) and then I can dynamically add the contact info and appropriate links based on the subdomain or subfolder. But, then I have to worry about duplicate content penalties because, again, about 90% of the text in these "subdomains" are all the same. For reference, this is a PHP5 site. I've already written a compact framework utilizing templates and mod-rewrite that I've used for other sites. Is this an easy fix that I'm just not grasping? Any suggestions?

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• How exactly is Google Webmaster Tools measuring "Site Performance"?

  - by Rémi

  I've been working for two months now on improving our response time (mainly server side) on a new forum (a brand new product on a technical point of view) we've launched in Germany a few month ago and I'm a lot surprised by the results I get. I monitor our response time using Apache logs and our own implementation of Boomerang beacon. Using my stats, I can see that our new product responds in about 680 ms where our old product was responding in about 1050 ms. On the other side, Google Webmaster Tool tells us that our pages have an average reponse time of about 1500 ms today where it was 700 three months ago with our old product. I've figured that GWT was taking client side metrics into account so I've added some measures on our Boomerang beacon and everything looks just fine. I've also ran some random pages on ySlow and Google's Page Speed and everything looks better than it was before. We event have a 82% on Google's Page Speed tool which is quite cool for a site with some ads in it :) Lately, we have signed a deal with Akamai to use two of their products : CDN for our static files (we were using another CDN before but it wasn't very effective) and RMA to improve Networks routes. We have also introduced a new agressive cache mecanism to ensure that most of the pages served to crawlers are cached by our memcache grid. After checking my metrics, it seems that this changes have improved from 650ms to about 500ms, which is good (still not great but it is definitly an improvement). But webmaster tools continues to report an increasing average response time where we see it decreasing in the same time. Have you ever had the same kind of wierd behavior on your sites while doing performance improvements ? Do you have any idea how to monitor the same thing Google does with Site Performance in Google Webmaster Tools so that we could improve our site and constantly check if it is what Google wants ? Edit 2011/07/26 : Thanks for your answers guys ! Nevertheless, I was not precise enough. The main issue we have is not with the Site Performance page but with the Crawl Stats one for now. We probably found an issue on our side with some very slow pages (around 3000 ms !!) and we are trying to fix them. I'll keep you posted as soon I'll have some infos. Thanks again !

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• SCCM 2007 Collections per OU

  - by VirtualizeIT

  Recently I wanted to create our SCCM collections setup as our Active Directory structure. I finally figured out how to create collections per OU of the domain. I decided to create a simple tutorial that may help other IT professionals the steps to complete this task.   1. Open the ConfigMgr and navigation to the collections. To navigate to the collections go to Site Database>Computer Management>Collections. 2. In the ‘Collections’ right-click and select New Collections. Then it will pop up a Wizards so you can enter the name of the collection and any notes that you may want to add that is associated with the collection.                       3. Next, select the database icon. In the ‘Name’ textbox enter the name of the query. I named mine ‘Query’ just for simplicity sake. After you enter the name select ‘Edit Query Statement…’ 4. Select the ‘Criteria’ tab 5. Select the icon that looks like a sun. 6. At this point you should see a dialog box like this…                     7. Next, click the ‘select’ button. 8. Under the ‘Attribute class’ scroll through until you see ’System Resource’ and for the ‘Attribute"’ scroll through you see ‘System OU Name’. It should look something like this…                 9. After that select OK. 10. In the ‘Value’ textbox enter the string that is associated with the OU in your domain. NOTE: If you don’t know your string name for your OU you can simply go to “Active Directory Users and Computers” and right-click on the OU and select properties. In the ‘object’ tab you should see the string under the ‘Canonical name of object”. That is the string that you put in the ‘Value’ text box. 11. After you enter the OU string name press OK>OK>OK>NEXT>NEXT>FINISH.   That’s it!   I hope this tutorial has help you understand how to create a collection through your OU structure.

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• Set Covering : Runtime hang\error at function call in c

  - by EnthuCrazy

  I am implementing a set covering application which uses cover function int cover(set *skill_list,set *player_list,set *covering) Suppose skill_set={a,b,c,d,e}, player_list={s1,s2,s3} then output coverin ={s1,s3} where say s1={a,b,c}, s3={d,e} and s2={b,d}. Now when I am calling this function it's hanging at run (set_cover.exe stopped working). Here is my cover function: typedef struct Spst_{ void *key; set *st; }Spst; int cover(set *skill_list,set *player_list,set *covering) { Liste *member,*max_member; Spst *subset; set *intersection; void **data; int max_size; set_init(covering); //to initialize set covering initially while(skill_list->size>0&&player_list->size>0) { max_size=0; for(member=player_list->head;member!=NULL;member=member->next) { if(set_intersection(intersection,((Spst *)(member->data))->st,skill_list)!=0) return -1; if(intersection->size>max_size) { max_member=member; max_size=intersection->size; } set_destroy(intersection); //at the end of iteration } if(max_size==0) //to check for no covering return -1; subset=(Spst *)max_member->data; //to insert max subset from play list to covering set set_inselem(covering,subset); for(member=(((Spst *)max_member->data)->st->head);member!=NULL;member=member->next) //to rem elem from skill list { data=(void **)member->data; set_remelem(skill_list,data); } set_remelem(player_list,(void **)subset); //to rem subset from set of subsets play list } if(skill_list->size>0) return -1; return 0; } Now assuming I have defined three set type sets(as stated above) and calling from main as cover(skills,subsets,covering);=> runtime hang Here Please give inputs on the missing link in this or the prerequisites for a proper call to this function type required. EDIT: Assume other functions used in cover are tested and working fine.

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• Building an MVC application using QuickBooks

  - by dataintegration

  RSSBus ADO.NET Providers can be used from many tools and IDEs. In this article we show how to connect to QuickBooks from an MVC3 project using the RSSBus ADO.NET Provider for QuickBooks. Although this example uses the QuickBooks Data Provider, the same process can be used with any of our ADO.NET Providers. Creating the Model Step 1: Download and install the QuickBooks Data Provider from RSSBus. Step 2: Create a new MVC3 project in Visual Studio. Add a data model to the Models folder using the ADO.NET Entity Data Model wizard. Step 3: Create a new RSSBus QuickBooks Data Source by clicking "New Connection", specify the connection string options, and click Next. Step 4: Select all the tables and views you need, and click Finish to create the data model. Step 5: Right click on the entity diagram and select 'Add Code Generation Item'. Choose the 'ADO.NET DbContext Generator'. Creating the Controller and the Views Step 6: Add a new controller to the Controllers folder. Give it a meaningful name, such as ReceivePaymentsController. Also, make sure the template selected is 'Controller with empty read/write actions'. Before adding new methods to the Controller, create views for your model. We will add the List, Create, and Delete views. Step 7: Right click on the Views folder and go to Add -> View. Here create a new view for each: List, Create, and Delete templates. Make sure to also associate your Model with the new views. Step 10: Now that the views are ready, go back and edit the RecievePayment controller. Update your code to handle the Index, Create, and Delete methods. Sample Project We are including a sample project that shows how to use the QuickBooks Data Provider in an MVC3 application. You may download the C# project here or download the VB.NET project here. You will also need to install the QuickBooks ADO.NET Data Provider to run the demo. You can download a free trial here. To use this demo, you will also need to modify the connection string in the 'web.config'.

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• Cloning a dual boot system from HDD to SSD

  - by Alex

  I'm planning on replacing my laptop's HDD with a 256GB SSD, but I have a dual-boot (12.04 and Windows 7) setup and I'd like to be able to directly migrate Ubuntu over without having to reinstall and lose all of my settings. GParted reports the following partition setup on my HDD. I am, of course, able to modify it if necessary. /dev/sda1 (NTFS) 66.92 out of 200.00 MB used I'm honestly not sure what this partition is for. Maybe for Windows 7 system files? I'm hesitant to mess with it. (edit; it turns out it is a partition for Windows recovery files in the event of OS corruption, so I don't want to remove it. Plus it also appears to be a major pain to remove anyways) /dev/sda2 (NTFS) 116.35 out of 339.06 GB used (boot) This partition is the C:/ drive on my Windows installation. I don't use it on my Ubuntu installation, except it is the boot partition and thus has grub on it. /dev/sda4 (extended) > /dev/sda5 (ext4) 14.49 out of 91.34 GB used > /dev/sda6 (linux-swap) 5.92 GB These are my Ubuntu partitions. /sda5 contains my documents and all of the files I use on Ubuntu, and (as far as I know) the system files for Ubuntu itself (it's the partition I created when prompted by the Live-DVD installer). /sda6 is, of course, the swap partition which I only need for hibernation (6GB of RAM). /dev/sda3 (NTFS) 9.89 out of 14.75 GB used This is an annoying partition that Lenovo created to store some drivers and files that I might need later on. For example, it allows me to use OneKeyRecovery for a quick factory recovery if absolutely necessary, not sure if that'll work on an SSD. It also contains not-so-important files for bloatware installation. In total, my HDD only has about 150GB of files on it so it should fit comfortably on the SSD. The problem is, I want to exactly migrate my files, partitions, OSes, MBR, etc. from my HDD to my SSD and I'm not quite sure how to do this. I've seen CloneZilla referenced before, but I'm not all too experienced and the documentation for it quite frankly seems a bit like a foreign language to me. So, put simply, is there any way I can exactly clone this HDD to an SSD without a massive headache? Also, if it matters, I'll probably be using an external hard drive case (as recommended in online tutorials) to externally attach the SSD to my laptop during the cloning process due to the lack of two hard drive slots in the machine.

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• Live CD has black screen HP DV6

  - by Shaun Killingbeck

  Attempting to install/try ubuntu (11.10, 12.04) on my new laptop, using a liveCD (and tried USB). I get the purple screen (with the man/keyboard at the bottom) and after that the screen flashes bright white before going black. Ubuntu continues to load in the background, with login sound etc but the screen is off. I have tried as many different solutions as I could find including: using nomodestep, xforcevesa, i915.modeset=0, and also now i915.modeset=1 in boot options (seperately): varying consequences, but either I end up at a blinking cursor with no prompt, a command line (startx fails: no screen found), or the original blank screen again Tried booting from VirtualBox - it crashes at the same place the screen would go blank when using a CD/USB tried 11.04: I don't have this problem BUT when trying to install, I get a ubi-partman error 141 (possibly down to the three partitions that came on my laptop... not sure why HP needed there own separate partition for HP Tools...) Model: HP Pavillion DV6 6B08SA Processor: AMD Quad-Core A6-3410MX APU with Radeon HD 6545G2 Dual Graphics (1.6 GHZ 4 MB L2 cache ) Chipset: AMD RS880M Any help would be greatly appreciated. I just want to be able to partition the drive and install Ubuntu. I'm assuming the issue is graphics card related, although I have no confirmation of that. Update: Tried the ?orkarounds on https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/Troubleshooting/BlankScreen - set gfxpayload=text changed nothing, removing splash did nothing and setting vesafb.nonsense=1 did nothing either. I'd like to be able to collect some log information somehow, but I can't get to a command line from the liveCD. tried using the latest 12.04 beta, same issue tried nomodeset without splash or quiet. get the following (tail of) output before it freezes on that screen: * Starting configure network device security [OK] * Starting configure network device [OK] [ 25.720899] ieee80211 phy0: w1_ops_config: change monitor mode: false (implement) [ 25.720923] ieee80211 phy0: w1_ops_config: change power-save mode: false (implement) * Starting restore sound card(s') mixer state(s) [fail] [ 25.721849] ieee80211 phy0: w1_ops_bss_info_changed: qos enabled: false (implement) * Stopping save kernel messages [OK] * Starting bluetooth [OK] * PulseAudio configured for per-user sessions saned disabled; edit /etc/default/saned [ 25.988016] hci_cmd_timer: hci0 command tx timeout [ 26.207225] bad LUN (0:1) [ 26.223735] bad target number (1:0) [ 26.252111] bad target number (2:0) [ 26.272170] bad target number (3:0) [ 26.300154] bad target number (4:0) [ 26.328162] bad target number (5:0) [ 26.344180] bad target number (6:0) [ 26.368142] bad target number (7:0) * Checking battery state... [OK] * Stopping System V runlevel capability [OK] Does this give any indication of the problem? the false (implement) messages also reappear when I press the power button to ask it to shutdown, followed by a [fail] status for killing remaining processes.

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• Using multiple diagrams per model in Entity Framework 5.0

  - by nikolaosk

  I have downloaded .Net framework 4.5 and Visual Studio 2012 since it was released to MSDN subscribers on the 15th of August.For people that do not know about that yet please have a look at Jason Zander's excellent blog post .Since then I have been investigating the many new features that have been introduced in this release.In this post I will be looking into theIn order to follow along this post you must have Visual Studio 2012 and .Net Framework 4.5 installed in your machine.Download and install VS 20120 using this link.My machine runs on Windows 8 and Visual Studio 2012 works just fine. I have also installed in my machine SQL Server 2012 developer edition. I have also downloaded and installed AdventureWorksLT2012 database.You can download this database from the codeplex website.   Before I start showcasing the demo I want to say that I strongly believe that Entity Framework is maturing really fast and now at version 5.0 can be used as your data access layer in all your .Net projects.I have posted extensively about Entity Framework in my blog.Please find all the EF related posts here. In this demo I will show you how to split an entity model into multiple diagrams using the new enhanced EF designer. We will not build an application in this demo.Sometimes our model can become too large to edit or view.In earlier versions we could only have one diagram per EDMX file.In EF 5.0 we can split the model into more diagrams.1) Launch VS 2012. Express edition will work fine.2) Create a New Project. From the available templates choose a Web Forms application  3) Add a new item in your project, an ADO.Net Entity Data Model. I have named it AdventureWorksLT.edmx.Then we will create the model from the database and click Next.Create a new connection by specifying the SQL Server instance and the database name and click OK.Then click Next in the wizard.In the next screen of the wizard select all the tables from the database and hit Finish.4) It will take a while for our .edmx diagram to be created. When I select an Entity (e.g Customer) from my diagram and right click on it,a new option appears "Move to new Diagram".Make sure you have the Model Browser window open.Have a look at the picture below 5) When we do that a new diagram is created and our new Entity is moved there.Have a look at the picture below  6) We can also right-click and include the related entities. Have a look at the picture below. 7) When we do that the related entities are copied to the new diagram.Have a look at the picture below  8) Now we can cut (CTRL+X) the entities from Diagram2 and paste them back to Diagram1.9) Finally another great enhancement of the EF 5.0 designer is that you can change colors in the various entities that make up the model.Select the entities you want to change color, then in the Properties window choose the color of your choice. Have a look at the picture below. To recap we have demonstrated how to split your entity model in multiple diagrams which comes handy in EF models that have a large number of entities in them Hope it helps!!!!

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• Installed LibreOffice 4 with ppa, how do I remove it and go back to LibreOffice 3?

  - by MMA

  EDIT This question is not at all a duplicate of How to downgrade from LibreOffice 4.0 to 3.6? The above mentioned question talks about downgrading from a specific version of LibreOffice, namely from 4.0 to 3.6. The solutions mentioned are not the ones I am looking for. They will work but I wanted a general solution without using PPA or downloading .deb files for from a higher version to a lower version. The above solutions suggest either downloading .deb files for LibreOffice 3.6 or adding repository for it. Furthermore, some of the answers put out-of-proportion~(applicable for the solution, however) stress on use of synaptic, not general command-line-solution. That made me wonder, at this very moment, if I take a fresh computer, and install Ubuntu 12.04, LibreOffice installation will work without a hitch. Then why I can not install LibreOffice in my 12.04 machine today from simple command line? This answer to my question, clarified everything. I need to use ppa-purge so that this resets all packages from a PPA to the standard versions released for my distribution. Basically it is like a way to restore my system back to the way it was before my installed packages from a PPA. This article further elaborates the idea. The above mentioned answer worked perfectly for me. Actually, this was an education for me since it taught me how do downgrade a package that was added via PPA. I had upgraded from LibreOffice 3 to LibreOffice 4 using the PPA. Now since I found that LibreOffice 4 has some issues, including handling my native language, I want to move back to LibreOffice 3. In order to accomplish this, I removed the LibreOffice config directory from my home and then purged LibreOffice from my machine. sudo apt-get purge libreoffice-* Then I removed the relevant PPA's using the sudo apt-add-repository --remove command. And then ran sudo apt-get update. Now, when I try to install LibreOffice using the command sudo apt-get install libreoffice I get an avalanche of output about unmet dependencies, something like, The following packages have unmet dependencies: libreoffice : Depends: libreoffice-core (= 1:3.5.7-0ubuntu4) but it is not going to be installed (snipped) If I dig the issue further, by using the command, sudo apt-get install libreoffice-core I get The following packages have unmet dependencies: libreoffice-core : Depends: libreoffice-common (> 1:3.5.7) but it is not going to be installed Depends: libexttextcat0 (>= 2.2-8) but it is not going to be installed Depends: ure (>= 3.5.7~) but it is not going to be installed E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages. Could you please tell me how do I install LibreOffice 3 in my machine? I am using Ubuntu 12.04 LTS.

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• Blender to 3ds max to cal3d format

  - by Kaliber64

  There are quite a few questions on cal3d but they are old and don't apply anymore. In Blender(must be 2.49a for python script to work!!!): I have a scene with 7 meshes, 1 armature, 10 bones. I tried going to one mesh to simplify it but doesn't change anything. I found a small blend file that was used for cal3d and it exported just fine. So I tried to copy it's setup with no success. EDIT*8/13/2012 In the last week here is what I have found so far. I made the mesh in the newest blender(2.62?) and exported it to import it in the old one(2.49a). Did an animation in the old one because importing new blend files to old blenders, its just said it would lose keyframe data and all was good. And then you get the last problem of it not exporting meshes. BUT I found that meshes made in the old one export regardless. I can't find any that won't export. So if I used the old blender to remake my model I could get it to export :) At this point I found a modified release of cal3d (because the most core model variable would not initiate as I made a really small test subject in old blender instead of remaking my big one which took 4 hours.) which fixes the morph objects and adds what cal3d left off with. Under their license they have to release the modification but it has no documentation so I have to figure it out on my own. Its mostly the same. But with this lib it came with a 3ds max exporter. My question now is how do I transfer armature and mesh information from blender to 3ds max in order to export into cal3d format. Every time I try the models are see through and small and there are no bones. The formats I have tried to import are .3ds .obj(mesh only) and COLLADA. In all of them the mesh is invisible and no bones. It says the default texture is on so I should be able to see it. All the vertices are present I found a vertex highlighter so I can see those. If any of this is confusing let me know so I can clear it up. Its late .<=sleep.

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• 2D water with dynamic waves

  - by user1103457

  New Super Mario Bros has really cool 2D water that I'd like to learn how to create. Here's a video showing it. When something hits the water, it creates a wave. There are also constant "background" waves. You can get a good look at the constant waves just after 00:50 when the camera isn't moving. I assume the splashes in NSMB work as in the first part of this tutorial. But in NSMB the water also has constant waves on the surface, and the splashes look very different. Another difference is that in the tutorial, if you create a splash, it first creates a deep "hole" in the water at the origin of the splash. In new super mario bros this hole is absent or much smaller. I am referring to the splashes that the player creates when jumping in and out of the water. How do they create the constant waves and the splashes? I am especially interested in the splashes, and how they work together with the constant waves. I am programming in XNA. I've tried this myself, but couldn't really get it all to work well together. Bonus questions: How do they create the light spots just under the surface of the waves and how do they texture the deeper parts of the water? This is the first time I try to create water like this. EDIT: I assume the constant waves are created using a sine function. The splashes are probably created in a way like in the tutorial. (But they are not the same, so I am still interested in how to make this kind of splashes) But I have a lot of trouble combining those things. I know I can use the sine function to set the height of a specific watercolumn but the splashes are using the speed, to determine the new height. I can't figure out how to combine those. Not that I am not asking how the developers of new super mario bros did this exactly. I am just interested in ways to recreate an effect like it. This week I have an examweek so I don't have time to work on the code. After this week I will spend a lot of time on it. But I am constantly thinking about it, so that's why I will be checking comments etc. I just won't be looking at the code since it might be too time-consuming.

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• Efficiently separating Read/Compute/Write steps for concurrent processing of entities in Entity/Component systems

  - by TravisG

  Setup I have an entity-component architecture where Entities can have a set of attributes (which are pure data with no behavior) and there exist systems that run the entity logic which act on that data. Essentially, in somewhat pseudo-code: Entity { id; map<id_type, Attribute> attributes; } System { update(); vector<Entity> entities; } A system that just moves along all entities at a constant rate might be MovementSystem extends System { update() { for each entity in entities position = entity.attributes["position"]; position += vec3(1,1,1); } } Essentially, I'm trying to parallelise update() as efficiently as possible. This can be done by running entire systems in parallel, or by giving each update() of one system a couple of components so different threads can execute the update of the same system, but for a different subset of entities registered with that system. Problem In reality, these systems sometimes require that entities interact(/read/write data from/to) each other, sometimes within the same system (e.g. an AI system that reads state from other entities surrounding the current processed entity), but sometimes between different systems that depend on each other (i.e. a movement system that requires data from a system that processes user input). Now, when trying to parallelize the update phases of entity/component systems, the phases in which data (components/attributes) from Entities are read and used to compute something, and the phase where the modified data is written back to entities need to be separated in order to avoid data races. Otherwise the only way (not taking into account just "critical section"ing everything) to avoid them is to serialize parts of the update process that depend on other parts. This seems ugly. To me it would seem more elegant to be able to (ideally) have all processing running in parallel, where a system may read data from all entities as it wishes, but doesn't write modifications to that data back until some later point. The fact that this is even possible is based on the assumption that modification write-backs are usually very small in complexity, and don't require much performance, whereas computations are very expensive (relatively). So the overhead added by a delayed-write phase might be evened out by more efficient updating of entities (by having threads work more % of the time instead of waiting). A concrete example of this might be a system that updates physics. The system needs to both read and write a lot of data to and from entities. Optimally, there would be a system in place where all available threads update a subset of all entities registered with the physics system. In the case of the physics system this isn't trivially possible because of race conditions. So without a workaround, we would have to find other systems to run in parallel (which don't modify the same data as the physics system), other wise the remaining threads are waiting and wasting time. However, that has disadvantages Practically, the L3 cache is pretty much always better utilized when updating a large system with multiple threads, as opposed to multiple systems at once, which all act on different sets of data. Finding and assembling other systems to run in parallel can be extremely time consuming to design well enough to optimize performance. Sometimes, it might even not be possible at all because a system just depends on data that is touched by all other systems. Solution? In my thinking, a possible solution would be a system where reading/updating and writing of data is separated, so that in one expensive phase, systems only read data and compute what they need to compute, and then in a separate, performance-wise cheap, write phase, attributes of entities that needed to be modified are finally written back to the entities. The Question How might such a system be implemented to achieve optimal performance, as well as making programmer life easier? What are the implementation details of such a system and what might have to be changed in the existing EC-architecture to accommodate this solution?

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• Default values - are they good or evil?

  - by Andrew

  The question about default values in general - default return function values, default parameter values, default logic for when something is missing, default logic for handling exceptions, default logic for handling the edge conditions etc. For a long time I considered default values to be a "pure evil" thing, something that "cloaks the catastrophe" and results in a very hard do find bugs. But recently I started to think about default values as some sort of a technical debt ... which is not a straight bad thing but something that could provide some "short term financing" get us to survive the project (how many of us could afford to buy a house without taking out the mortgage?). When I say a "short term" - I don't mean - "do something quickly first and do refactor it out later before it hits the production". No - I am talking about relying on a hardcoded default values in a production software. Granted - it could cause some issues, but what if it only going to cause a single trouble in a whole year. Again - I am talking about the "average" mainstream software here (not a software for a nuclear power station) - the average web site or a UI application for the accounting software, meaning that people lives are not at stake, nor millions of dollars. Again, from my experience, business users would rather live with the software which "works somehow", rather then wait for a perfect one. And the use of default values helps a lot if you develop a software in a RAD style. But again - the longest debug sessions I have spent were because of the bugs introduced by a default value which either stopped being "a default" along the way or because a small subsystem has recently been upgraded and as a result of this upgrade it does not handle the default correctly (e.g. empty list vs null, or null string vs empty string). So my question is - are the default values good or evil. And if they are a technical debt - how do measure up how much you can borrow so you can afford the repayments? Would really appreciate any input. Cheers. EDIT: If I am using the default values as a way to cut the corners during the development - and if the corners cutting results in a bugs and issues - what is the methodology to recover from these issues?

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