Search Results

Search found 5749 results on 230 pages for 'miles away'.

Page 101/230 | < Previous Page | 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108  | Next Page >

• Get the MakeUseOf eBook Guide to Hacker Proofing Your PC

  - by ETC

  If you’re interested in checking out a solid overview of PC security best practices and tips, our friends over at MakeUseOf.com have released another free book in their computer-oriented eBook series. The fifty-page ebook HackerProof: Your Guide to PC Security covers a variety of topics including types of malware, operating systems and their inherent vulnerabilities, security best practices, tools for protecting your PC, the importance of security prep and backups, and recovering from malware attacks. It’s a nice and compact text, perfect for brushing up on security best practices for your own machine or sending to friends and relatives that could use a little after-school tutoring on keeping their computer secure and out of trouble. The best tip from the book? The overall message to be cautious and be preemptive in your security efforts is a great meta-tip to take away. Up-to-date definition files and a healthy sense of random links and emails attachments goes a long, long way towards staying safe. HackerProof: Your Guide to PC Security [Direct Link via MakeUseOf] Latest Features How-To Geek ETC How to Get Amazing Color from Photos in Photoshop, GIMP, and Paint.NET Learn To Adjust Contrast Like a Pro in Photoshop, GIMP, and Paint.NET Have You Ever Wondered How Your Operating System Got Its Name? Should You Delete Windows 7 Service Pack Backup Files to Save Space? What Can Super Mario Teach Us About Graphics Technology? Windows 7 Service Pack 1 is Released: But Should You Install It? Get the MakeUseOf eBook Guide to Hacker Proofing Your PC Sync Your Windows Computer with Your Ubuntu One Account [Desktop Client] Awesome 10 Meter Curved Touchscreen at the University of Groningen [Video] TV Antenna Helper Makes HDTV Antenna Calibration a Snap Turn a Green Laser into a Microscope Projector [Science] The Open Road Awaits [Wallpaper]

  Read the article

• unity, seeing all instances of same open application windows on all virtual desktop

  - by Nasser M. Abbasi

  I noticed this strange issue with unity. I am using 12.04. The desktop has 4 virtual desktops, which I can switch between using the 'workspace switcher' which is very nice. But I noticed the following: When I have 2 instances of the same app (say 2 different firefox windows, or 2 different terminal windows), in 2 different virtual desktops, then I click on the icon for that application located on the launcher panel (the left long strip with icons on it), then I see the application comes into focus. Then when I click again right away (on the same icon on the launcher), then now all instances of this application that are open come into ONE view (may be on was on desktop 1, and the other was on desktop 3 for example) and then I can now click on the one instance window that I want to select to use. This is all very nice actually. But this does NOT work for all applications! I just tried it, and it worked for firefox, and for gedit and for the gnome terminal. I have one firefox window open in virtual desktop 1, and another window open in virtual desktop 2. I clicked once on the firefox icon, then again, and both windows came into the main desktop and I was able to select which one to use. When I tried the same thing on dolphin file manager, which I also had 2 windows (instances) of it open in 2 different virtual desktops, this behavior did not happen. I clicked again, and nothing happened. Only one remained in focus. So I had to fo look for the second dolphin window the hard way. It looks like some apps are supported by this feature and some are not. How does one make it so that all applications are supported like this? This is a very handy feature. Is it a configuration item somewhere? thanks

  Read the article

• Password-free logins using your email address only?

  - by Mario

  The state of logins is horrendous. With each site having it's own rules for passwords, it can be very hard to remember what variation you used on any given site. Logins are pure pain. One thing I love about Craigslist is that it did away with logins altogether. I know this design may not suit every site, but there's something to their design that beckons to be repeated. OpenID is great on sites that have adopted it, but it's still not standard. Would it be feasible/wise to use an email address as a login and provide no password? The site would send a short-term key directly to your email address. You click on the link and you're in. When you're done, you "logout" and your key is terminated. I've toyed with this idea before. What concerns (i.e. spammers, bots, etc.) would make this impractical or unsafe and could they be overcome?

  Read the article

• SQLAuthority News – Mark the Date: October 16, 2013 – Introducing NuoDB Blackbirds: THE Distributed Database

  - by Pinal Dave

  I am very excited to announce first on this blog about the release of NuoDB Blackbirds (NuoDB Release 2.0). NuoDB is my favorite application to work with data now a days. They are increasingly gaining market share as well as brining out new features with their every new release. I was very excited when I learned that NuoDB is releasing their flagship release of 2.0 on October 16, 2013. Interesting enough I will be in USA while this release happens and I will be watching it live during my day time. Even though if I had to stay up the entire night to just watch this release, I would do it. Here is the details of the announcements: Introducing NuoDB Blackbirds: THE Distributed Database Date: October 16, 2013 Time: 1:00 PM EDT Location: Online Registration Link What is the best DBMS architecture to handle today’s and tomorrow’s evolving needs? The days of shared disk are over. The times are “a-changin” and IT infrastructure has to change with them. Join NuoDB live for the introduction of our latest major product release, NuoDB Blackbirds, and take a look at why the NuoDB distributed database architecture is the only answer for customers like Fathom Voice, a leading provider of Voice Over IP (VoIP). NuoDB CEO, Barry Morris, welcomes Cameron Weeks, CEO of Fathom Voice to discuss how his company is using DBMS to break away from the pack and become the hottest player in VoIP. The webcast will include demonstrations of a single, logical database running in multiple geographies and a live Q&A. If due to any reason, you cannot watch it live, do not worry at all, just register at this Registration Link, as after the event you will get the link to watch the event on-demand. You can watch the launch event at any time if you have registered for the launch. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL Tagged: NuoDB

  Read the article

• Never Miss An Important EMail/SMS With Vibration Notifier App

  - by Gopinath

  Worried about missing important emails/sms/missed calls as your mobile vibrates only once when you are away from mobile? Don’t worry! Vibration Notifier app is there to fix the problem on your Android phones. Author describes the app as “When you have a missed call or an unread SMS, the app keeps vibrating every X minutes for Y times or until you turn on the display of your device.” What is best with this app is that you can tweak as you like. Want your mobile to vibrate repeatedly for missed calls alone? You can just check Missed Calls option and un-check mails and SMS. You don’t want your mobile to vibrate forever? Configure to vibrate 5 times (or any other number) . You can even configure it to vibrate until the screen is unlocked. This looks like a very promising app for Android mobiles but the App is not yet available on Android Market. Developer has posted this app on XDA Developers Forum. Vibration Notifier | via Life Hacker This article titled,Never Miss An Important EMail/SMS With Vibration Notifier App, was originally published at Tech Dreams. Grab our rss feed or fan us on Facebook to get updates from us.

  Read the article

• game multiplayer service development

  - by nomad

  I'm currently working on a multiplayer game. I've looked at a number of multiplayer services(player.io, playphone, gamespy, and others) but nothing really hits the mark. They are missing features, lack platform support or cost too much. What I'm looking for is a simple poor man's version of steam or xbox live. Not the game marketplace side of those two but the multiplayer services. User accounts, profiles, presence info, friends, game stats, invites, on/offline messaging. Basically I'm looking for a unified multiplayer platform for all my games across devices. Since I can't find what I'm planning to roll my own piece by piece. I plan to save on server resources by making most of the communication p2p. Things like game data and voice chat can be handled between peers and the server keeps track of user presence and only send updates when needed or requested. I know this runs the risk of cheating but that isn't a concern right now. I plan to run this on a Amazon ec2 micro server for development then move to a small to large instance when finished. I figure user accounts would be the simplest to start with. Users can create accounts online or using in game dialog, login/out, change profile info. The user can access this info online or in game. I will need user authentication and secure communication between server and client. I figure all info will be stored in a database but I dont know how it can be stored securely and accessed from webserver and game services. I would appreciate and links to tutorials, info or advice anyone could provide to get me started. Any programming language is fine but I plan to use c# on the server and c/c++ on devices. I would like to get started right away but I'm in no hurry to get it finished just yet. If you know of a service that already fits my requirements please let me know.

  Read the article

• How do you avoid jumping to a solution when under pressure? [closed]

  - by GlenPeterson

  When under a particularly strict programming deadline (like an hour), if I panic at all, my tendency is to jump into coding without a real plan and hope I figure it out as I go along. Given enough time, this can work, but in an interview it's been pretty unsuccessful, if not downright counter-productive. I'm not always comfortable sitting there thinking while the clock ticks away. Is there a checklist or are there techniques to recognize when you understand the problem well enough to start coding? Maybe don't touch the keyboard for the first 5-10 minutes of the problem? At what point do you give up and code a brute-force solution with the hope of reasoning out a better solution later? A related follow-up question might be, "How do you ensure that you are solving the right problem?" Or "When is it most productive to think and design more vs. code some experiments to and figure out the design later?" EDIT: One close vote already, but I'm not sure why. I wrote this in the first person, but I doubt I'm the only programmer to ever choke in an interview. Here is a list of techniques for taking a math test and another for taking an oral exam. Maybe I'm not expressing myself well, but I'm asking if there is a similar list of techniques for handling a programming problem under pressure?

  Read the article

• Change power button to 'Ask' in Xubuntu 13.10

  - by Gully.Moy

  I have recently installed Xubuntu 13.10 on my Vaio vpcea making me a Linux beginner. The problem is that laptop's power button is right on the edge of the bezel making it far too easy to press accidentally, in my opinion a design fault by Sony. At present, when I press the power button it shuts down strait away and as you can imagine, when I'm accidentally pressing it all the time it gets very annoying! So I planned to change it to ask what I would like to do when I press it or at least ask if I'm sure. So I went through the xfce GUI options "Settings Manager" - "Power Manager" to the field "When power button is pressed", but it was already set to "Ask". So I did some digging and found a thread telling me to navigate to /etc/xdg/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml/xfce4-power-manager.xml where it said to find power-button-action and check that value="3". It already did. So I looked some more and found this thread which focuses on acpi scripts. I tried solution 1 & 2 using sudoedit to change the files accordingly (I have made executable bash shell scripts already so I think I followed them correctly), but still no difference. I also found this thread which instructed me to edit /etc/systemd/logind.conf so that HandlePowerKey=ignore. Still no luck. I even tried my own approach to completely disable /etc/acpi/powerbtn.sh by renaming it powerbtn.sh.bak hoping for at least no response from the power button... and I have done many reboots in between... but still it shuts down! I have also read that some people have the file /etc/acpi/events/power_button, but I do not. So does anyone have any other ideas? What else could be executing the shutdown sequence Is there something I'm missing? I haven't undone any of these actions so every one of the above files is currently edited on my computer, with the exception that "Solution 2" automatically undone "Solution 1" above. Thanks guys.

  Read the article

• SQLAuthority News – NuoDB MeetUp on Nov 8, 2012 in Seattle

  - by pinaldave

  I am pleased to let you know that I will be attending again this year’s SQLPASS conference in Seattle and look forward to meeting all of you while at the conference. In the next two weeks, I will provide you with a full agenda of where I will be during PASS. During the week, I will also be stopping by at the NuoDB MeetUp, which will be held close by at the Edge Grill at 1522 6th Ave in Seattle on Thursday, November 8th. This will be an excellent opportunity for you to learn more about their brand new distributed, peer-to-peer database solution, which I believe will revolutionize SQL cloud database technology in the 21th century.  I have been personally following NuoDB for months now and am very excited about the architecture and capabilities of this innovative product. Wiqar Chaudry, NuoDB technology evangelist, will give a presentation and demonstration of their elastically scalable SQL cloud database in this Meetup event.  Prior to joining NuoDB, Wiqar was a Senior Architect at Epsilon, the data intelligence company with big brand name customers in insurance, consumer goods, etc.  He’s also going to discuss how NuoDB compares with Azure, the hometown favorite, and why cloud-based SQL deployment will pave the way for the future. I will be at the NuoDB MeetUp to briefly talk about my own experiences with NuoDB and will be giving away some signed copies of my latest book as well will have some interesting goodies. So please join me and the NuoDB team at their Meetup event. RSVP here. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology Tagged: NuoDB

  Read the article

• The problems with Avoiding Smurf Naming classes with namespaces

  - by Daniel Koverman

  I pulled the term smurf naming from here (number 21). To save anyone not familiar the trouble, Smurf naming is the act of prefixing a bunch of related classes, variables, etc with a common prefix so you end up with "a SmurfAccountView passes a SmurfAccountDTO to the SmurfAccountController", etc. The solution I've generally heard to this is to make a smurf namespace and drop the smurf prefixes. This has generally served me well, but I'm running into two problems. I'm working with a library with a Configuration class. It could have been called WartmongerConfiguration but it's in the Wartmonger namespace, so it's just called Configuration. I likewise have a Configuration class which could be called SmurfConfiguration, but it is in the Smurf namespace so that would be redundant. There are places in my code where Smurf.Configuration appears alongside Wartmonger.Configuration and typing out fully qualified names is clunky and makes the code less readable. It would be nicer to deal with a SmurfConfiguration and (if it was my code and not a library) WartmongerConfiguration. I have a class called Service in my Smurf namespace which could have been called SmurfService. Service is a facade on top of a complex Smurf library which runs Smurf jobs. SmurfService seems like a better name because Service without the Smurf prefix is so incredibly generic. I can accept that SmurfService was already a generic, useless name and taking away smurf merely made this more apparent. But it could have been named Runner, Launcher, etc and it would still "feel better" to me as SmurfLauncher because I don't know what a Launcher does, but I know what a SmurfLauncher does. You could argue that what a Smurf.Launcher does should be just as apparent as a Smurf.SmurfLauncher, but I could see `Smurf.Launcher being some kind of class related to setup rather than a class that launches smurfs. If there is an open and shut way to deal with either of these that would be great. If not, what are some common practices to mitigate their annoyance?

  Read the article

• Friday Fun: Building Blasters 2

  - by Mysticgeek

  After dealing with unnecessary spreadsheets and TPS reports all week, it’s time to waste time playing a flash game. Today we take a look at Building Blasters 2 where you strategically place explosives to bring down structures. Building Blasters 2 You need to place explosives carefully to clear areas in the red level, keep bystanders safe, and manage your budget. After placing the explosives on the structure, you can set the amount of time that passes before they blow. This comes in handy when you reach advanced levels. When you’re ready to start the demolition click on the Detonate button and watch the buildings fall. If you don’t achieve the objectives, you will get the Demolition Error screen and can replay the level. After you’ve received enough money, you’ll get a message between missions telling you there is enough money to buy items in the shop. You can get enhanced destructive devices such as nitroglycerin, a wrecking ball, call in an air strike and more… If you’re sick of the pointy haired boss dragging you down all week, pretend the structures are the office building and destroy away. Building Blasters 2 is a great way to have fun and let off steam so you can enjoy your weekend. Play Building Blasters 2 For additional fun games to play, make sure and check out the How-To Geek Arcade. Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Friday Fun: Demolition CityFriday Fun: Cargo BridgeFriday Fun: Portal, the Flash VersionFriday Fun: VehiclesFriday Fun: Play Bubble Quod TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips Xobni Plus for Outlook All My Movies 5.9 CloudBerry Online Backup 1.5 for Windows Home Server Snagit 10 10 Superb Firefox Wallpapers OpenDNS Guide Google TV The iPod Revolution Ultimate Boot CD can help when disaster strikes Windows Firewall with Advanced Security – How To Guides

  Read the article

• Video Of Uncontacted Tribe In Brazilian Forest

  - by Gopinath

  The dense forest of Amazon is not only the land of rare species and trees but also a home of many tribal communities who were never contacted by civilized humans. Recently BBC along with Survival International Group (a tribal advocacy group) scanned the dense Brazilian jungle and discovered an uncontacted tribal group believed to be Panoa Indians. They live in resource rich areas which are primary targets of mining & logging industries. In order to unearth the resources, often these tribes shot dead or chased away to new lands. The video footage and photographs of the tribes are released to bring awareness about these tribes and also urge governments to take necessary steps to protect them. Tess Thackara, Survival International’s U.S. coordinator says We’re trying to bring awareness to uncontacted tribes, because they are so vulnerable. Governments often deny that they exist, We’re releasing these images because we need evidence to prove they’re there.   via wired & bbc This article titled,Video Of Uncontacted Tribe In Brazilian Forest, was originally published at Tech Dreams. Grab our rss feed or fan us on Facebook to get updates from us.

  Read the article

• What is a legal way to use music from registered authors in a game?

  - by mm24

  I have recently asked a question about music in games like Guitar Hero. I have found that that in Europe (at least) if I do want to use a track composed by a musician member of a royalty collecting society I need to pay a flat fee to the society and not only to the member. So a "one-to-one" agreement is not valid and the society can come up to me and ask me for money for each download. Even if for FREE! This is a fee sheet list of the UK agency: for fee, see "Permanent download services" It is about 1,200 GBP for less than 22,000 copies and they DON'T specify anything more and they said me on the phone that I need to wait and see how many downloads I get before knowing the price. This is kind of crazy as If I give away the App for free I will have to PAY 1,200 GBP!! I am shocked and I feel very bad. One agency suggested me to use a fake name of the artist, but in this way is not fair to my collaborators as what they hope is that the App gets lots of downloads and in this way that other people will get to know about them and hopefully commission them more work. The other solution is to work only with non registered musicians. The question here to you is: Has anyone found a legal way to use music from registered authors in a game?

  Read the article

• Inconsistent movement / line-of-sight around obstacles on a hexagonal grid

  - by Darq

  In a roguelike game I've been working on, one of my core design goals has been to allow the player to "Play the game, not the grid." In essence, I want the player's positioning to be tactical because of elements in the game world, not simply because some grid tiles are more advantageous than others, in relation to enemies. I am fine with world geometry not being realistic, but it needs to be consistent. In this process I have ran into most of the common problems (Square tiles? Diagonal movement, LOS, corner cases, etc.) and have moved to a hexagonal tile grid. For the most part this has been great, and I've not had too many inconsistencies. Recently however I have been stumped by the following: Points A and B are both distance 4 from the player (red lines). Line-of-sight to both are blocked by walls (black tiles). However, due to the hexagonal grid, A can be reached in 4 moves, whereas B requires 5 moves (blue lines). On a hex grid, "shortest path" seems divorced from "direct path", there may be multiple shortest paths to any point, but there is only one direct path (or two in some situations). This is fine, geometry need not be realistic. However this also seems inconsistent, similar obstacles are more effective in some positions than in others. A player running away from an enemy should be able to run in any direction, increasing the distance between the two actors. However when placing obstacles or traps between themselves and enemies, the player is best served by running in one of the six directions that don't have multiple shortest paths. Is there a way to rationalise this? Am I missing something that makes this behaviour consistent? Or is there a way to make this behaviour consistent? I am most certainly over-thinking this, but as it is one of my goals, I should do it due diligence.

  Read the article

• How to connect to internet using huawei E303C datacard

  - by Rahul Choudhary

  It is very difficult to use ubuntu. After six hours of research on various websites and ubuntu blogs I was unable to connect to internet using my Huawei DataCard E303C. I wonder that if it takes so much long time to figure out how to connect to internet using a 3g datacard (Huawei E303C) to connect to internet, then how would I do my daily computing tasks using ubuntu. Is there anyone who can help me with that. My personal practical experiences says that using ubuntu instead of windows is not different but tough. Yes it is very tough to use ubuntu. Why it cannot be like we double click and software gets installed as it happens in windows and why we always have to use terminal to install everything. Why everything in ubuntu is very difficult and tough to accomplish. I am drifting away from ubuntu. Can any developer at ubuntu help keep my interest in ubuntu? Is there anyone who can lure me to use ubuntu again?

  Read the article

• 3ds Max error dialog: "Instancing not supported for this action"

  - by monsto

  "Instancing not supported for this action” is the dialog I get. My favorite part is that, according to google and yahoo, apparently i am the only person in the history of mankind to experience these words together in this order, let along get this message from Max. Thanks, autodesk, for putting this dialog in special for me! So I’ve created my model (nws) and was setting up a Skin Wrap. Selected "Face Deformation", added the base-skin for weight, checked “weight all points”. . . clicked “convert to skin” and got that dialog. My model doesn’t have a whole lot of elements to it, I had a left and right appendage that came from a base model (skyrim). so, i did a clonecopy of all 3 of my elements, just to be sure nothing was instanced… and VOILA! Same error message. the only other elements are an imported NIF mesh and skeleton. Any idea where this is coming from or how I can make it go away so that I can export my mesh?

  Read the article

• Pointer position way off in Java Application menu's when using gnome-shell

  - by Hailwood

  When using any java application in gnome-shell if the window is maximised the pointer position is way off; but only on the menu's, in the editor, or the side panel, the pointer is fine. This only presents itself when the window is maximized, and it seems that the further away from 0x0 the window is when you maximise it, the bigger the pointer offset. From what I have gathered it has to do with the window not updating it's size when it gets maximised. The other issue is that when a gnome-shell notification appears, when clicking on it, I lose the ability to type in the editor, I can select text etc, but can't give it focus to type. I must bring up some other text input (e.g. right click on a file on the left, select rename, which brings up a rename dialog) after that I can type in the editor again. So, how can I fix this? Below is as much information as I can think to provide $ gnome-shell --version GNOME Shell 3.6.1 $ java -version java version "1.7.0_09" Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.7.0_09-b05) Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 23.5-b02, mixed mode) $ file /etc/alternatives/java /etc/alternatives/javac /etc/alternatives/java: symbolic link to '/usr/lib/jvm/java-7-oracle/jre/bin/java' /etc/alternatives/javac: symbolic link to '/usr/lib/jvm/java-7-oracle/bin/javac'

  Read the article

• No NFC for the iPhone, and here's why

  - by David Dorf

  I, like many others in the retail industry, was hoping the iPhone 5 would include an NFC chip that enabled a mobile wallet.  In previous postings I've discussed the possible business case and the foreshadowing of Passbook, but it wasn't meant to be.  A few weeks ago I was considering all the rumors, and it suddenly occurred to me that it wasn't in Apple's best interest to support an NFC chip.  Yes they have patents in this area, but perhaps they are more defensive than indicating new development. Steve Jobs wanted to always win, but more importantly he didn't want others to win at his expense.  It drove him nuts that Windows was more successful than MacOS, and clearly he was bothered by Samsung and other handset manufacturers copying the iPhone.  But he was most angry at Google for their stewardship of Android. If the iPhone 5 had an NFC chip, who would benefit most?  Google Wallet is far and away the leader in NFC-based payments via mobile phones in the US.  Even without Steve at the helm, Apple isn't going to do anything to help Google.  Plus Apple doesn't like to do things in an open way -- then they lose control.  For example, you don't see iPhones with expandable memory, replaceable batteries, or USB connectors.  Adding a standards-based NFC chip just isn't in their nature. So I don't think Apple is holding back on the NFC chip for the 5S or 6.  It just isn't going to happen unless they can figure out how to prevent others from benefiting from it. All the other handset manufacturers will use NFC as a differentiator, which may be enough to keep Google and Isis afloat, and of course Square and PayPal aren't betting on NFC anyway.  This isn't the end of alternative payments, its just a major speed bump.

  Read the article

• Are there opportunities working as full-time paid programmer for Non-profit organizations

  - by Rick

  Some recent events in my life have made me want to contribute more to causes I believe in rather than just working for a profit-driven company. I have been thinking that if I could find a non-profit organization that I like and believe in then I might feel more fulfilled working for them. I have a decent amount of web development experience and currently work as a Java / Spring web developer. I realize the compensation wouldn't have the same "ceiling" potential as for-profit but am wondering if its possible to get at least something close to a market rate for work as I am planning to start a family sometime soon and still need a legitimate income. If anyone has any knowledge or experience about this sort of thing would be happy to hear from you. EDIT: Without getting in to too much personal detail, I have a relative who recently passed away who suffered from a mental illness so while it doesn't have to be an organization specifically dedicated to this, I am hoping to work for something along these lines at least where there is more of a social cause rather than just working on an open-source project whose only cause is the advancement of technology.

  Read the article

• Tracking state of a one time event on a big website

  - by Mattis

  Assume a website with 250 million active users. I add a new feature to the website. Once a user visits I want to use a short tutorial to teach them how to use said feature. I only want them to complete the tutorial once (or actively click it away). What is the smart way to code the verification check for this? How do I track the progress in the database? Having a separate table with like NewTutorial_completed = 1 for user_id = 21312315 would just snowball. It also feels intuitively bad to check for every one-time event for every user on every page view. While writing the question I got one idea, to have a separate event log that is checked periodically for any new action the user need to see or perform. I push events to this log and once they are completed they are removed from the log. No need to store NewTutorial_completed = 1-type variables this way. I am sure this is a common problem. I would appreciate any input on what best practice is.

  Read the article

• Good Scoop: The PeopleSoft/IBM Backstory

  - by [email protected]

  By Brian Dayton on April 12, 2010 11:15 AM Sometimes you're searching for something online and you find an unrelated, bonus nugget. Last week I stumbled across an interesting blog post from Chris Heller of a PeopleSoft consulting shop in San Ramon, CA called Grey Sparling. I don't know these guys. But Chris, who apparently used to work on the PeopleTools team, wrote a great article on a pre-acquisition, would-be deal between IBM and PeopleSoft that would have standardized PeopleSoft on IBM technology. The behind-the-scenes perspective is interesting. His commentary on the challenges that the company and PeopleSoft customers would have encountered if the deal had gone through was also interesting: · "No common ownership. It's hard enough to get large groups of people to work together when they work for the same company, but with two separate companies it is much, much harder. Even within Oracle, progress on Fusion applications was slow until Thomas Kurian took over Fusion applications in addition to Fusion middleware." · "No customer buy-in. PeopleSoft customers weren't asking for a conversion to WebSphere, so the fact that doing that could have helped PeopleSoft stay independent wouldn't have meant much to them, especially since the cost of moving to whatever a "PeopleSoft built on WebSphere" would have been significant." · "No executive buy-in. This is related to the previous point, but it's worth calling out separately. If Oracle had walked away and the deal with IBM had gone through, and PeopleSoft customers got put through the wringer as part of WebSphere move, all of the PeopleSoft project teams would be put in the awkward position of explaining to their management why these additional costs and headaches were happening. Essentially they would need to "sell" the partnership internally to their own management team. That's not a fun conversation to have." I'm not surprised that something like this was in the works. But I did find the inside scoop and Heller's perspective on the challenges particularly interesting. Especially the advantages of aligning development of applications and infrastructure development under one roof. Here's a link to the whole blog entry.

  Read the article

• Is unit testing development or testing?

  - by Rubio

  I had a discussion with a testing manager about the role of unit and integration testing. She requested that developers report what they have unit and integration tested and how. My perspective is that unit and integration testing are part of the development process, not the testing process. Beyond semantics what I mean is that unit and integration tests should not be included in the testing reports and systems testers should not be concerned about them. My reasoning is based on two things. Unit and integration tests are planned and performed against an interface and a contract, always. Regardless of whether you use formalized contracts you still test what e.g. a method is supposed to do, i.e. a contract. In integration testing you test the interface between two distinct modules. The interface and the contract determine when the test passes. But you always test a limited part of the whole system. Systems testing on the other hand is planned and performed against the system specifications. The spec determines when the test passes. I don't see any value in communicating the breadth and depth of unit and integration tests to the (systems) tester. Suppose I write a report that lists what kind of unit tests are performed on a particular business layer class. What is he/she supposed to take away from that? Judging what should and shouldn't be tested from that is a false conclusion because the system may still not function the way the specs require even though all unit and integration tests pass. This might seem like useless academic discussion but if you work in a strictly formal environment as I do, it's actually important in determining how we do things. Anyway, am I totally wrong? (Sorry for the long post.)

  Read the article

• Ask the Readers: Do You Use the Command Line?

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  Despite over two decades of GUI interfaces many power users still turn to the command prompt. This week we want to hear about when and how you use the command prompt on your computer. Long ago in a time before you could manipulate your computer with a mouse and a series of buttons and windows, the command line ruled all. Even after years of GUI development and refinement many people still turn to the command line to get things done. This week we want to hear all about your command line tips and tricks. Do you use the default command line for your OS? Have you enhanced it? Replaced it? What keeps you coming back to the command line when everyone happily works away in the OS’s GUI? Sound off in the comments and don’t forget to check back in on Friday to see the What You Said roundup. What is a Histogram, and How Can I Use it to Improve My Photos?How To Easily Access Your Home Network From Anywhere With DDNSHow To Recover After Your Email Password Is Compromised

  Read the article

• KERPOOOOW!

  - by Matt Christian

  Recently I discovered the colorful world of comic books.  In the past I've read comics a few times but never really got into them.  When I wanted to start a collection I decided either video games or comics yet stayed away from comics because I am less familiar with them. In any case, I stopped by my local comic shop and picked up a few comics and a few trade paperbacks.  After reading them and understanding their basic flow I began to enjoy not only the stories but the art styles hiding behind those little white bubbles of text (well, they're USUALLY white).  My first stop at the comic store I ended up with: - Nemesis #1 (cover A) - Shuddertown #1 (cover A I think) - Daredevil: King of Hell's Kitchen Trade Paperback - Peter Parker: Spiderman - One Small Break Trade Paperback It took me about 3-4 days to read all of that including re-reading the single issues and glancing over the beginning of Daredevil again.  After a week of looking around online I knew a little more about the comics I wanted to pick up and the kind of art style I enjoyed.  While Peter Parker: Spiderman was ok, I really enjoyed the detailed, realistic look of Daredevil and Shuddertown. Now, a few years back I picked up the game The Darkness for PS3.  I knew it was based off a comic but never read the comic.  I decided I'd pick up a few issues of it and ended up with: - The Darkness #80 (cover A) - The Darkness #81 (cover A) - The Darkness #82 (cover A) - The Darkness #83 (cover A) - The Darkness Shadows and Flame #1  (one-shot; cover A) - The Darkness Origins: Volume 1 Trade Paperback (contains The Darkness #1-6) - New Age boards and bags for storing my comics The Darkness is relatively good though jumping from issue #6 to issue #80 I lost a bit on who the enemy in the current series is.  I think out of all of them, issue #83 was my favorite of them. I'm signed up at the local shop to continue getting Nemesis, The Darkness, and Shuddertown, and I'll probably pick up a few different ones this weekend...

  Read the article

• What music player for Ubuntu is *most* like Cog?

  - by mattshepherd

  Cog is, far and away, my favourite music player. File browser on the left panel, pull a folder into the right panel, it plays the files you pull into the main box. Simple! Easy! Nice! Especially since I store all my music on my non-primary drive. Cog doesn't care where I keep my music! It just deals with whatever folder I tell it to monitor. I also have about 200 gigs of music. It's a problem, I know. I can't find a player this simple and elegant in Ubuntu. Amarok: doesn't handle non-primary drives very well. Banshee: kinda good, but fussy browsing/playlist systems. Audacious: no file browser; it also crashes whenever I try to "import" all my music. All I want -- seriously -- is something where I can look at my MP3 folder, drag a folder onto a playlist, and have that playlist play the songs.

  Read the article

< Previous Page | 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108  | Next Page >