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• MIXing it Up a Bit

  - by andrewbrust

  Another March, another MIX.  For the fifth year running now, Microsoft has chosen to put on a conference aimed less at software development, per se, and more at the products, experiences and designs that software development can generate.  In all four prior MIX events, the focus of the show, its keynotes and breakout sessions has been on Web products.  On day 1 of MIX 2010 that focus shifted to Windows Phone 7 Series (WP7). What little we had seen of WP7 had been shown to us in a keynote presentation, given by Microsoft’s Joe Belfiore, at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain last month.  And today, Mr. Belfiore reprised his showmanship for the MIX 2010 audience.  Joe showed us the ins and outs of WP7 and, in a breakout session, even gave us a sneak peek of Office (specifically, Excel) on WP7.  We didn’t get to see that one month ago in Barcelona, nor did get to see email messages opened for reading, which we saw today. But beyond a tour of the phone itself, impressive though that is, we got to see apps running on it.  Those apps included Associated Press news, Seesmic (a major Twitter client) and Foursquare (a social media darling).  All three ran, ran well, and looked markedly different and better from their corresponding versions on iPhone and Android.  And the games we saw looked even better. To me though, the best demos involved the creation of WP7 apps, using Silverlight in Visual Studio and Expression Blend.  These demos were so effective because they showed important apps being built in very few steps, and by Microsoft executives to boot.  Scott Guthrie showed us how to build a Twitter API app in Visual Strudio.   Jon Harris showed us how to build a photo management and viewer application in Expression Blend, using virtually no code.  Demos of apps built from scratch to F5 without the benefit of a teacher, could be challenging.  But they went off fine, without a hitch and without a ton of opaque, generated code.  Everything written, be it C# or XAML, was easily understood, and the results were impressive. That means lots of developers can do this, and I think it means a lot will.  What I’ve seen, thus far, of iPhone and Android development looks very tedious by comparison.  Development for those platforms involve a collection of tools that integrate only to a point.  Dev work for WP7 involves use of Visual Studio, Silverlight and the same debugging experience .NET developers already know.  This was very exciting for me. All the demos harkened back to days of building apps for with Visual Basic…design the front-end, put in code-behind and then hit F5.  And that makes sense, because the phone platform, and the PC of the early 90s are both, essentially, client OS machines.  The Web was minimal and the “device” was everything. Same is true of this phone.  It’s a client app contraption that fits in your pocket. And if the platforms are comparable, hopefully so too will be the draw of ease-of-development.   WP7 has the potential to make mobile developers want to switch over, and to convince enterprise developers to get into the phone scene.  Will this propel the new phone platform to new heights, and restore Microsoft’s competiveness in the mobile arena? I hope so.  I think so.  And if Microsoft uses developers to build themselves a victory, that would be beneficial and would show that Microsoft has learned from its failures, as well as its successes.  Today I saw a few beautiful apps.  Tomorrow I hope I see a slew of others; maybe not as polished, but plentiful, attractive and stable.  That would be a victory for Microsoft, and for developers.  And it would show everyone else that developers are the kingmakers.  They need cheap, efficient dev tools and lots of respect.  Microsoft has always been the company to provide that.  Hopefully, with WP7, they will return to that persona and see how very timeless it is.

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• Red Gate's on the road in 2012 - Will you catch us?

  - by RedAndTheCommunity

  Annabel Bradford, our Communities and Events Manager, tells all about her experience of our 1st SQL Saturday of the year. The first stop this year was SQL Saturday #104 Colorado Springs, back in early January. I made the trip across from the UK just for this SQL Saturday event, and I'm so glad I did. I picked up Max from Red Gate's Pasadena office and we flew into Colorado Springs airport late on Friday evening to be greeted by freezing temperatures, which was quite a shock after the California sunshine. Rising before the sun, we arrived at Mr Biggs, the venue for the event, in the darkness. It was great to see so many smiling attendees so bright and early on a Saturday morning. Everyone was eager to learn more about SQL Server, and hundreds of people came and chatted with us at the table, saw demos and learnt more about Red Gate tools. The event highlights for the attendees were definitely the unlimited lazer quest, bowling and pool available during the break times. For Max, Grant Fritchey and I on the Red Gate table, the highlights have to be meeting customers and getting the opportunity to meet attendees who'd heard of, but wanted to know more about, Red Gate. We were delighted to hear lots of valuable feedback that we took back to share with the team. As a thank you for sharing insights about their work lives and how they use SQL Server and Red Gate tools, attendees are able to take away Red Gate SQL Server books. We aim to have a range of titles available when we exhibit, so that attendees can choose a book that's going to be most interesting to them, and that they can use as a reference back at the office. Every time I meet a Red Gate user or a member of the SQL community, I'm always overwhelmed by the enthusiasm they have for their industry. Everyone who gives up their time to learn more about their job should be rewarded, and at Red Gate we like to do just that. Red Gate has long supported the SQL community through sponsorship to facilitate user group meetings and community events, but it's only though face-to-face contact that we really get a chance to see the impact of our support. I hope we'll have the chance to see you on the road at some point this year. We'll be at a range of events, including free SQL Saturdays, one day free events 'the Red Gate way', two-day Rallys, and full-week conferences. Next stop is SQL Saturday #109 Silicon Valley on March 3rd where you'll meet Jeff and Arneh, two of our US-based SQL team members. Be sure to ask them any questions you've got about the Red Gate tools, as these guys will be delighted to hear your questions, show you the options, and will make a note of your feedback to send through to the development team. Until the next time. Happy learning! Annabel                         Grant, Max and Annabel at SQL Saturday #104 Colorado Springs

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• Computer Science Degrees and Real-World Experience

  - by Steven Elliott Jr

  Recently, at a family reunion-type event I was asked by a high school student how important it is to get a computer science degree in order to get a job as a programmer in lieu of actual programming experience. The kid has been working with Python and the Blender project as he's into making games and the like; it sounds like he has some decent programming chops. Now, as someone that has gone through a computer science degree my initial response to this question is to say, "You absolutely MUST get a computer science degree in order to get a job as a programmer!" However, as I thought about this I was unsure as to whether my initial reaction was due in part to my own suffering as a CS student or because I feel that this is actually the case. Now, for me, I can say that I rarely use anything that I learned in college, in terms of the extremely hard math, algorithms, etc, etc. but I did come away with a decent attitude and the willingness to work through tough problems. I just don't know what to tell this kid; I feel like I should tell him to do the CS degree but I have hired so many programmers that majored in things like English, Philosophy, and other liberal arts-type degrees, even some that never went to college. In fact my best developer, falls into this latter category. He got started writing software for his church or something and then it took off into a passion. So, while I know this is one of those juicy potential down vote questions, I am just curious as to what everyone else thinks about this topic. Would you tell a high school kid about this? Perhaps if he/she already knows a good deal of programming and loves it he doesn't need a CS degree and could expand his horizons with a liberal arts degree. I know one of the creators of the Django web framework was a American Literature major and he is obviously a pretty gifted developer. Anyway, thanks for the consideration.

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• AceCypher is an Addictive Cypher Slide Puzzle Game

  - by Akemi Iwaya

  Are you ready for a game that will test your logical thinking skills while providing hours of fun? Then you may want to have a look at this awesome cypher slide puzzler! AceCypher is great puzzle game for those times when you only have a few minutes to play or want a fun way to pass the time while relaxing. The overall premise and style of game play for AceCypher is simple. You move individual rows (left, right) or columns (up, down) one space at a time in order to shift the positions of numbers on the game board through ’round-a-bout’ trading. The goal is to make the four numbers in the red square match the code shown in the upper right corner (including positions). Sounds simple so far, right? But the challenge comes from the random boards you will be given to work with…some will not be too hard to solve while others will tax your brain (and patience!) quite well.     

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• Healthcare and Distributed Data Don't Mix

  - by [email protected]

  How many times have you heard the story?  Hard disk goes missing, USB thumb drive goes missing, laptop goes missing...Not a week goes by that we don't hear about our data going missing...  Healthcare data is a big one, but we hear about credit card data, pricing info, corporate intellectual property...  When I have spoken at Security and IT conferences part of my message is "Why do you give your users data to lose in the first place?"  I don't suggest they can't have access to it...in fact I work for the company that provides the premiere data security and desktop solutions that DO provide access.  Access isn't the issue.  'Keeping the data' is the issue.We are all human - we all make mistakes... I fault no one for having their car stolen or that they dropped a USB thumb drive. (well, except the thieves - I can certainly find some fault there)  Where I find fault is in policy (or lack thereof sometimes) that allows users to carry around private, and important, data with them.  Mr. Director of IT - It is your fault, not theirs.  Ms. CSO - Look in the mirror.It isn't like one can't find a network to access the data from.  You are on a network right now.  How many Wireless ones (wifi, mifi, cellular...) are there around you, right now?  Allowing employees to remove data from the confines of (wait for it... ) THE DATA CENTER is just plain indefensible when it isn't required.  The argument that the laptop had a password and the hard disk was encrypted is ridiculous.  An encrypted drive tells thieves that before they sell the stolen unit for $75, they should crack the encryption and ascertain what the REAL value of the laptop is... credit card info, Identity info, pricing lists, banking transactions... a veritable treasure trove of info people give away on an 'encrypted disk'.What started this latest rant on lack of data control was an article in Government Health IT that was forwarded to me by Denny Olson, an Oracle Principal Sales Consultant in Minnesota.  The full article is here, but the point was that a couple laptops went missing in a couple different cases, and.. well... no one knows where the data is, and yes - they were loaded with patient info.  What were you thinking?Obviously you can't steal data form a Sun Ray appliance... since it has no data, nor any storage to keep the data on, and Secure Global Desktop allows access from Macs, Linux and Windows client devices...  but in all cases, there is no keeping the data unless you explicitly allow for it in your policy.   Since you can get at the data securely from any network, why would you want to take personal responsibility for it?  Both Sun Rays and Secure Global Desktop are widely used in Healthcare... but clearly not widely enough.We need to do a better job of getting the message out -  Healthcare (or insert your business type here) and distributed data don't mix. Then add Hot Desking and 'follow me printing' and you have something that Clinicians (and CSOs) love.Thanks for putting up my blood pressure, Denny.

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• ParticleSystem in Slick2d (with MarteEngine)

  - by Bro Kevin D.

  First of all, sorry if this sounds very newbie-ish. I'm stuck at making a ParticleSystem I made using Pedigree to work in my game. It's basically an explosion that I want to display whenever an enemy dies. The ParticleSystem has two emitters, smoke and explosion I tried putting it in my Enemy (extends Entity) class Enemy extends Entity class @Override public void update(GameContainer gc, int delta) throws SlickException { super.update(gc, delta); /** bunch of codes */ explosionSystem.update(delta); } @Override public void render(GameContainer gc, Graphics gfx) throws SlickException { super.render(gc, gfx); if(isDestroyed) { explosionSystem.render(x,y); if(explosionSystem.getEmitter(1).completed()) { this.destroy(); } } } And it does not render. I'm not sure if this is the proper way of implementing it, as I've considered creating an Entity to serve as controller for all the Enemies. Right now, I'm just adding enemies every second. So how do I render the ParticleSystem when the enemy dies? If anyone can point me to the right direction. Thank you for your time.

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• Duck checker in Python: does one exist?

  - by elliot42

  Python uses duck-typing, rather than static type checking. But many of the same concerns ultimately apply: does an object have the desired methods and attributes? Do those attributes have valid, in-range values? Whether you're writing constraints in code, or writing test cases, or validating user input, or just debugging, inevitably somewhere you'll need to verify that an object is still in a proper state--that it still "looks like a duck" and "quacks like a duck." In statically typed languages you can simply declare "int x", and anytime you create or mutate x, it will always be a valid int. It seems feasible to decorate a Python object to ensure that it is valid under certain constraints, and that every time that object is mutated it is still valid under those constraints. Ideally there would be a simple declarative syntax to express "hasattr length and length is non-negative" (not in those words. Not unlike Rails validators, but less human-language and more programming-language). You could think of this as ad-hoc interface/type system, or you could think of it as an ever-present object-level unit test. Does such a library exist to declare and validate constraint/duck-checking on Python-objects? Is this an unreasonable tool to want? :) (Thanks!) Contrived example: rectangle = {'length': 5, 'width': 10} # We live in a fictional universe where multiplication is super expensive. # Therefore any time we multiply, we need to cache the results. def area(rect): if 'area' in rect: return rect['area'] rect['area'] = rect['length'] * rect['width'] return rect['area'] print area(rectangle) rectangle['length'] = 15 print area(rectangle) # compare expected vs. actual output! # imagine the same thing with object attributes rather than dictionary keys.

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• How would you refactor nested IF Statements?

  - by saunderl

  I was cruising around the programming blogosphere when I happened upon this post about GOTO's: http://giuliozambon.blogspot.com/2010/12/programmers-tabu.html Here the writer talks about how "one must come to the conclusion that there are situations where GOTOs make for more readable and more maintainable code" and then goes on to show an example similar to this: if (Check#1) { CodeBlock#1 if (Check#2) { CodeBlock#2 if (Check#3) { CodeBlock#3 if (Check#4) { CodeBlock#4 if (Check#5) { CodeBlock#5 if (Check#6) { CodeBlock#6 if (Check#7) { CodeBlock#7 } else { rest - of - the - program } } } } } } } The writer then proposes that using GOTO's would make this code much easier to read and maintain. I personally can think of at least 3 different ways to flatten it out and make this code more readable without resorting to flow-breaking GOTO's. Here are my two favorites. 1 - Nested Small Functions. Take each if and its code block and turn it into a function. If the boolean check fails, just return. If it passes, then call the next function in the chain. (Boy, that sounds a lot like recursion, could you do it in a single loop with function pointers?) 2 - Sentinal Variable. To me this is the easyest. Just use a blnContinueProcessing variable and check to see if it is still true in your if check. Then if the check fails, set the variable to false. How many different ways can this type of coding problem be refactored to reduce nesting and increase maintainability?

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• How to filter a mysql database with user input on a website and then spit the filtered table back to the website? [migrated]

  - by Luke

  I've been researching this on google for literally 3 weeks, racking my brain and still not quite finding anything. I can't believe this is so elusive. (I'm a complete beginner so if my terminology sounds stupid then that's why.) I have a database in mysql/phpmyadmin on my web host. I'm trying to create a front end that will allow a user to specify criteria for querying the database in a way that they don't have to know sql, basically just combo boxes and checkboxes on a form. Then have this form 'submit' a query to the database, and show the filtered tables. This is how the SQL looks in Microsoft Access: PARAMETERS TEXTINPUT1 Text ( 255 ), NUMBERINPUT1 IEEEDouble; // pops up a list of parameters for the user to input SELECT DISTINCT Table1.Column1, Table1.Column2, Table1.Column3,* // selects only the unique rows in these three columns FROM Table1 // the table where this query is happening WHERE (((Table1.Column1) Like TEXTINPUT1] AND ((Table1.Column2)<=[NUMBERINPUT1] AND ((Table1.Column3)>=[NUMBERINPUT1])); // the criteria for the filter, it's comparing the user input parameters to the data in the rows and only selecting matches according to the equal sign, or greater than + equal sign, or less than + equal sign What I don't get: WHAT IN THE WORLD AM I SUPPOSED TO USE (that isn't totally hard)!? I've tried google fusion tables - doesn't filter right with numerical data or empty cells in rows, can't relate tables I've tried DataTables.net, can't filter right with numerical data and can't use SQL without a bunch of indepth knowledge, not even sure it can if you have that.. I've looked into using jQuery with google spreadsheets, doesn't work at all either I have no idea how I'm supposed to build a front end with my database. Every place that looks promising (like zohocreator) is asking for money, and is far too simplified to be able to do the LIKE criteria or SELECT DISTINCT stuff.

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• Teach Your Kid to Code (&hellip;and Vote early!)

  - by Steve Michelotti

  Next Tuesday I will be at the CMAP main meeting presenting Teach Your Kid to Code. Next Tuesday is of course Election Day so you have to make sure you vote early in order to get over to CMAP for the 7:00PM presentation. I will be co-presenting this talk with my 5th grade son. Here is the abstract: Have you ever wanted a way to teach your kid to code? For that matter, have you ever wanted to simply be able to explain to your kid what you do for a living? Putting things in a context that a kid can understand is not as easy as it sounds. If you are someone curious about these concepts, this is a “can’t miss” presentation that will be co-presented by Justin Michelotti (5th grader) and his father. Bring your kid with you to CMAP for this fun and educational session. We will show tools you may not have been aware of like SmallBasic and Kodu – we’ll even throw in a little Visual Studio and Windows 8! Concepts such as variables, conditionals, loops, and functions will be covered while we introduce object oriented concepts without any of the confusing words. Kids are not required for entry! I promise this will be an entertaining presentation! We hope to see you (and your kids) there. Click here for details.

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• HTML5 game engine for a 2D or 2.5D RPG style "map walk"

  - by stargazer

  please help me to choose a HTML5 game engine or Javascript libraries I want to do the following in the game: when the game starts a part the huge map (full size of the map: about 7 screens) is shown. The map itself is completely designed in the editor mapeditor.org (or in some comparable editor - if you know a good alternative to mapeditor.org - let me know) and loaded at runtime or at design time. The game engine should support loading of isometric maps (well, in worst case only orthogonal maps will be sufficient) both "tile layer" and "object layer" from mapeditor.org should be supported. Scrolling/performance of this map should be fast enough. The map and the game should be either in 2D (orthogonal map) or in 2.5D (isometric map) The game engine should support movement of sprites with animation. Let say I have a sprite for "human" with animation sequences showing "walking" in 8 directions - it should be imported into game engine and should "walk" on the map without writing a lot of Javascript code. Automatic scrolling of the map the "human" nears the screen border. Collision detection, "solid" objects. The mapeditor.org supports properies on tiles. Let say I assign a "solid" property to some tiles in editor. It should be easy to check this "solid" property in the game engine and implement kind of "solid" behavior, so the animanted sprites do not walk through the walls. Collision detection - it should be easy to implement some custom functionality like "when sprite A is close to sprite B - call this function" Showing "dialogs" or popup windows on top of the map - should be easy to implement. Cross-browser audio support - (it is implemented quite well in construct 2 from scirra, so I'm looking for the comparable audio quality) The game itself is a king of RPG but without fighting scenes and without huge "inventory". The main character just walking on the map, discovers some things, there are dialogs and sounds. The functionality of this example from sprite.js http://batiste.dosimple.ch/sprite.js/tests/mapeditor/map_reader.html is very close to what I'm developing. But I'm not a Javascript guru (and a very lazy guy) and would like to write even less Javascript code as in the example...

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• Camunda BPM 7.0 on WebLogic 12c

  - by JuergenKress

  If we go on tour together with Oracle I think we have to have camunda BPM running on the Oracle WebLogic application server 12c (WLS in short). And one of our enterprise customers asked - so I invested a Sunday and got it running (okay - to be honest - I needed quite some help from our Java EE server guru Christian). In this blog post I give a step by step description how run camunda BPM on WLS. Please note that this is not an official distribution (which would include a sophisticated QA, a comprehensive documentation and a proper distribution) - it was my personal hobby. And I did not fire the whole test suite agains WLS - so there might be some issues. We will do the real productization as soon as we have a customer for it (let us know if this is interesting for you). Necessary steps After installing and starting up WLS (I used the zip distribution of WLS 12c by the way) you have to do: Add a datasource Add shared libraries Add a resource adapter (for the Job Executor using a proper WorkManager from WLS) Add an EAR starting up one process engine Add a WAR file containing the REST API Add other WAR files (e.g. cockpit) and your own process applications Actually that sounds more work to do than it is ;-) So let's get started: Add a datasource Add a datasource via the Administration Console (or any other convenient way on WLS - I should admit that personally I am not the WLS expert). Make sure that you target it on your server - this is not done by default: Read the full article here. For regular information become a member in the WebLogic Partner Community please visit: http://www.oracle.com/partners/goto/wls-emea ( OPN account required). If you need support with your account please contact the Oracle Partner Business Center. Blog Twitter LinkedIn Mix Forum Wiki Technorati Tags: Camunda,BPM,JavaEE7,WebLogic Community,Oracle,OPN,Jürgen Kress

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• w00t! First post!

  - by blaird

  So, I busted my old blog and hadn't been keeping up with it. Decided it would be easier on me to use software that I didn't maintain, so several months ago I signed up for a GWB account. You are a witness to procrastination at its finest!  I was remarking to my friend Abby that I hadn't written anything in ages, that I've typed a bunch in the last 5 years or so, but that the typing belonged to someone else as work product, was boring technical mumbo jumbo, or was only good before it spoiled, that project/job/technology/tweet based freshness window that us geeks have to deal with. In short, I just didn't feel like it. So forgive the rambling sentences and my grammatical failures, you have Abby to thank ;) On the technology front I've been working with WPF, WCF and a whole lot of other alphabet soup in terms of patterns. I'm starting to get spoiled on Visual Studio 2010, and may have made a mistake by evaluating the ultimate version. Because I'm a .NET geek and an outdoor geek, expect a hodgepodge. It's nearly Easter, which for the garden means a whole lot of things. I've already started getting seed out, and started working soil. It feels good to get real dirt on your hands.

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• Writing a SQL Azure Book - Notes

  - by Herve Roggero

  Over the last few months I have had the opportunity to ramp up significantly on SQL Azure.  In fact I will be the co-author of Pro SQL Azure, published by Apress. This is going to be a book on how to best leverage SQL Azure, both from a technology and design standpoint. Talking about design, one of the things I realized is that understanding the key limitations and boundary parameters of Azure in general, and more specifically SQL Azure, will play an important role in making sounds design decisions that both meet reasonable performance requirements and minimize the costs associated with running a cloud computing solution.   The book touches on many design considerations including link encryption, pricing model, design patterns, and also some important performance techniques that need to be leveraged when developing in Azure, including Caching, Lazy Properties and more.   Finally I started working with Shards and how to implement them in Azure to ensure database scalability beyond the current size limitations. Implementing shards is not simple, and the book will address how to create a shard technology within your code to provide a scale-out mechanism for your SQL Azure databases.   As you can see, there are many factors to consider when designing a SQL Azure database. While we can think of SQL Azure as a cloud version of SQL Server, it is best to look at it as a new platform to make sure you don’t make any assumptions on how to best leverage it.

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• Gray "apply" button in NetworkManager openvpn connection window

  - by user20627

  I installed all the necessary packages for the networkmanager-openvpn function to function. The openvpn-connection-setting are successfully imported into the networkmanger via the conf file but the apply button is grayed out, so that actually saving and using the connection isn't possible? Does anyone know, where the problem is? It's a fresh install of Ubuntu 10.10 after the upgrade from 10.04 sent the networkmanger down the drain. I was told the following: Sounds like a policy issue. read this thread: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1616355 look carefully in the file mentioned, at the element. What is there ? "No" will cause the action detailed to be unavailable. Ideally "yes" or "auth_admin_keep" should be there. They will either allow all access, or prompt for a admin password. The above does not seem to work for me - It still has a gray apply button. If I choose a file for User certificate as well as CA Certificate "which is all openvpn supplies and needs" and a key file it will allow me to click apply - but obviously wont connect. :l I am at a lost end.

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• Stencyl or flash limitation?

  - by FlightOfGrey

  I have found that Stencyl doesn't seem to be very good at handling very many actors in a game. I had been trying to implement some basic AI at the moment all the behaviours were: wander (pick a random point and move directly to it) and wrap around screen (if it goes off the top of the screen it appears at the bottom). Even with these simple behaviours and calculations the frame rate dropped dramatically when there were more then 50 actors on screen: 10 actors: 60fps 50 actors: 30-50fps 75 actors: ~30fps 100 actors: 15-20fps 200 actors: 8-10fps I had planned on having a maximum of around 200 actors but I see that's no longer an option and implementing a more complicated AI system with flocking behaviour, looking at creating a game in a similar vein to flOw. I understand that a game is perfectly playable at 30fps but this is a super simple test with ultra simple graphics, no animations and no sounds is child's play in terms of calculations to be made. Is this a limitation with Stencyl or is it flash? Should I simply scale the scope of the game down or is there a better game engine that exports to .swf that I should look into?

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• What are some arguments AGAINST using EntityFramework?

  - by Rachel

  The application I am currently building has been using Stored procedures and hand-crafted class models to represent database objects. Some people have suggested using Entity Framework and I am considering switching to that since I am not that far into the project. My problem is, I feel the people arguing for EF are only telling me the good side of things, not the bad side :) My main concerns are: We want Client-Side validation using DataAnnotations, and it sounds like I have to create the client-side models anyways so I am not sure that EF would save that much coding time We would like to keep the classes as small as possible when going over the network, and I have read that using EF often includes extra data that is not needed We have a complex database layer which crosses multiple databases, and I am not sure EF can handle this. We have one Common database with things like Users, StatusCodes, Types, etc and multiple instances of our main databases for different instances of the application. SELECT queries can and will query across all instances of the databases, however users can only modify objects that are in the database they are currently working on. They can switch databases without reloading the application. Object modes are very complex and there are often quite a few joins involved Arguments for EF are: Concurrency. I wouldn't have to code in checks to see if the record was updated before each save Code Generation. EF can generate partial class models and POCOs for me, however I am not positive this would really save me that much time since I think we would still need to create the client-side models for validation and some custom parsing methods. Speed of development since we wouldn't need to create the CRUD stored procedures for every database object Our current architecture consists of a WPF Service which handles database calls via parameterized Stored Procedures, POCO objects that go to/from the WCF service and the WPF client, and the WPF client itself which transforms POCOs into class Models for the purpose of Validation and DataBinding.

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• Code Measuring and Metrics Tools?

  - by David

  I'm in the process of setting up a build server for personal projects. This server will handle all the normal CI stuff, including running large suites of tests (unit, integration, automated UI). While I'm working out the kinks for including code coverage output with MSTest, it occurs to me that there may be lots of tools out there which give me additional metrics other than just code coverage. FxCop comes to mind as an example. Though I'm sure there are others. Anything that can generate useful reportable data and metrics would be good. Whether it's class dependency charts (looking for Law of Demeter violations, for example), analyses of the uses of classes/functions (looking for a function that isn't used in the system other than just the tests, for example), and so on. I'm not sure the right way to formulate the question, since polling questions or "What's your favorite code analysis tool" aren't very good. But I'm essentially just looking for recommendations on what metrics to gather and the tools that can gather them. The eventual vision for something like this is to have the CI server run a bunch of automated tests and analysis tools and track performance metrics over time. Imagine a dashboard full of graphs plotting these metrics over time. The lines should all relatively be at an equilibrium, and if one starts to stray toward the negative then it's an early indication of problems with the code. In the age old struggle to quantify code quality with management, this sounds like a potentially helpful means of doing just that.

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• Who writes the words? A rant with graphs.

  - by Roger Hart

  If you read my rant, you'll know that I'm getting a bit of a bee in my bonnet about user interface text. But rather than just yelling about the way the world should be (short version: no UI text would suck), it seemed prudent to actually gather some data. Rachel Potts has made an excellent first foray, by conducting a series of interviews across organizations about how they write user interface text. You can read Rachel's write up here. She presents the facts as she found them, and doesn't editorialise. The result is insightful, but impartial isn't really my style. So here's a rant with graphs. My method, and how it sucked I sent out a short survey. Survey design is one of my hobby-horses, and since some smartarse in the comments will mention it if I don't, I'll step up and confess: I did not design this one well. It was potentially ambiguous, implicitly excluded people, and since I only really advertised it on Twitter and a couple of mailing lists the sample will be chock full of biases. Regardless, these were the questions: What do you do? Select the option that best describes your role What kind of software does your organization make? (optional) In your organization, who writes the text on your software user interfaces? (for example: button names, static text, tooltips, and so on) Tick all that apply. In your organization who is responsible for user interface text? Who "owns" it? The most glaring issue (apart from question 3 being a bit broken) was that I didn't make it clear that I was asking about applications. Desktop, mobile, or web, I wouldn't have minded. In fact, it might have been interesting to categorize and compare. But a few respondents commented on the seeming lack of relevance, since they didn't really make software. There were some other issues too. It wasn't the best survey. So, you know, pinch of salt time with what follows. Despite this, there were 100 or so respondents. This post covers the overview, and you can look at the raw data in this spreadsheet What did people do? Boring graph number one: I wasn't expecting that. Given I pimped the survey on twitter and a couple of Tech Comms discussion lists, I was more banking on and even Content Strategy/Tech Comms split. What the "Others" specified: Three people chipped in with Technical Writer. Author, apparently, doesn't cut it. There's a "nobody reads the instructions" joke in there somewhere, I'm sure. There were a couple of hybrid roles, including Tech Comms and Testing, which sounds gruelling and thankless. There was also, an Intranet Manager, a Creative Director, a Consultant, a CTO, an Information Architect, and a Translator. That's a pretty healthy slice through the industry. Who wrote UI text? Boring graph number two: Annoyingly, I made this a "tick all that apply" question, so I can't make crude and inflammatory generalizations about percentages. This is more about who gets involved in user interface wording. So don't panic about the number of developers writing UI text. First off, it just means they're involved. Second, they might be good at it. What? It could happen. Ours are involved - they write a placeholder and flag it to me for changes. Sometimes I don't make any. It's also not surprising that there's so much UX in the mix. Some of that will be people taking care, and crafting an understandable interface. Some of it will be whatever text goes on the wireframe making it into production. I'm going to assume that's what happened at eBay, when their iPhone app purportedly shipped with the placeholder text "Some crappy content goes here". Ahem. Listing all 17 "other" responses would make this post lengthy indeed, but you can read them in the raw data spreadsheet. The award for the approach that sounds the most like a good idea yet carries the highest risk of ending badly goes to whoever offered up "External agencies using focus groups". If you're reading this, and that actually works, leave a comment. I'm fascinated. Who owned UI text Stop. Bar chart time: Wow. Let's cut to the chase, and by "chase", I mean those inflammatory generalizations I was talking about: In around 60% of cases the person responsible for user interface text probably lacks the relevant expertise. Even in the categories I count as being likely to have relevant skills (Marketing Copywriters, Content Strategists, Technical Authors, and User Experience Designers) there's a case for each role being unsuited, as you'll see in Rachel's blog post So it's not as simple as my headline. Does that mean that you personally, Mr Developer reading this, write bad button names? Of course not. I know nothing about you. It rather implies that as a category, the majority of people looking after UI text have neither communication nor user experience as their primary skill set, and as such will probably only be good at this by happy accident. I don't have a way of measuring those frequency of those accidents. What the Others specified: I don't know who owns it. I assume the project manager is responsible. "copywriters" when they wish to annoy me. the client's web maintenance person, often PR or MarComm That last one chills me to the bone. Still, at least nobody said "the work experience kid". You can see the rest in the spreadsheet. My overwhelming impression here is of user interface text as an unloved afterthought. There were fewer "nobody" responses than I expected, and a much broader split. But the relative predominance of developers owning and writing UI text suggests to me that organizations don't see it as something worth dedicating attention to. If true, that's bothersome. Because the words on the screen, particularly the names of things, are fundamental to the ability to understand an use software. It's also fascinating that Technical Authors and Content Strategists are neck and neck. For such a nascent discipline, Content Strategy appears to have made a mark on software development. Or my sample is skewed. But it feels like a bit of validation for my rant: Content Strategy is eating Tech Comms' lunch. That's not a bad thing. Well, not if the UI text is getting done well. And that's the caveat to this whole post. I couldn't care less who writes UI text, provided they consider the user and don't suck at it. I care that it may be falling by default to people poorly disposed to doing it right. And I care about that because so much user interface text sucks. The most interesting question Was one I forgot to ask. It's this: Does your organization have technical authors/writers? Like a lot of survey data, that doesn't tell you much on its own. But once we get a bit dimensional, it become more interesting. So taken with the other questions, this would have let me find out what I really want to know: What proportion of organizations have Tech Comms professionals but don't use them for UI text? Who writes UI text in their place? Why this happens? It's possible (feasible is another matter) that hundreds of companies have tech authors who don't work on user interfaces because they've empirically discovered that someone else, say the Marketing Copywriter, is better at it. And once we've all finished laughing, I'll point out that I've met plenty of tech authors who just aren't used to thinking about users at the point of need in the way UI text and embedded user assistance require. If you've got what I regard, perhaps unfairly, as the bad kind of tech author - the old-school kind with the thousand-page pdf and the grammar obsession - if you've got one of those then you probably are better off getting the UX folk or the copywriters to do your UI text. At the very least, they'll derive terminology from user research.

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• Burned CD-R are not identical to the input iso image, why?

  - by Grumbel

  I have the issue that sometimes when I burn an iso image to a CD-R with: sudo wodim -v driveropts=burnfree -data dev=/dev/scd0 input.iso And then read it back out again with: sudo dd if=/dev/cdrom of=output.iso dd: reading `/dev/cdrom': Input/output error ... That I end up with two iso images that are not identical, namely the output.iso is missing 2048 bytes at the end. When I however mount the iso image or CD-R and compare the actual files on the mountpoint, both are identical. Is that expected behavior or is that an actually incorrect burn of the data? And if its expected, how can I verify that the burn process was successful? The reason why I ask in the first place is that it seems to be reproducible behavior, certain iso images come out 2048 bytes short, even on repeated burns, but all burned CD-Rs are under themselves identical. Also what is the reason behind the: dd: reading `/dev/cdrom': Input/output error As it happens always, I assume it is normal, but what is the technical reason behind it? I assume CDs don't allow the device to detect the size directly, so dd reads till it encounters the end the hard way. Edit: User karol on superusers.com mentioned that both the size issue and the read error are the result of using -tao (default) in wodim instead of -dao mode. I couldn't yet test it, but it sounds like the most plausible explanation so far.

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• Touchpad hardware button disables keyboard too

  - by jjg

  I have an old but nice Samsung X50 running MM which has a key between the touchpad buttons which disables the touchpad. Very nice, no-one like to brush against the touchpad while typing. It seems to be a hardware feature -- a BIOS style window appears at the top left of the screen when you press it saying "touchpad off"; and when you press it again it says "touchpad on", and so it is, but now the keyboard has no effect in X, I can type nothing except to meta-ctl F1 to the console. After a reboot the problem persists; and the only way I have found to fix it is to blow away .gconf are replace it with a copy I made in happier times. Deleting/modifying .gconf/desktop/gnome/peripherals/touchpad/%gconf.xml does not fix the problem. There is no way to turn off the switch in BIOS without losing the touchpad. I would prise the thing out with a screwdriver if I could, but it's a work machine. This button is the bane of my life, hanging over me like a sword of Damocles.

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• C#: A "Dumbed-Down" C++?

  - by James Michael Hare

  I was spending a lovely day this last weekend watching my sons play outside in one of the better weekends we've had here in Saint Louis for quite some time, and whilst watching them and making sure no limbs were broken or eyes poked out with sticks and other various potential injuries, I was perusing (in the correct sense of the word) this month's MSDN magazine to get a sense of the latest VS2010 features in both IDE and in languages. When I got to the back pages, I saw a wonderful article by David S. Platt entitled, "In Praise of Dumbing Down"  (msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/ee336129.aspx).  The title captivated me and I read it and found myself agreeing with it completely especially as it related to my first post on divorcing C++ as my favorite language. Unfortunately, as Mr. Platt mentions, the term dumbing-down has negative connotations, but is really and truly a good thing.  You are, in essence, taking something that is extremely complex and reducing it to something that is much easier to use and far less error prone.  Adding safeties to power tools and anti-kick mechanisms to chainsaws are in some sense "dumbing them down" to the common user -- but that also makes them safer and more accessible for the common user.  This was exactly my point with C++ and C#.  I did not mean to infer that C++ was not a useful or good language, but that in a very high percentage of cases, is too complex and error prone for the job at hand. Choosing the correct programming language for a job is a lot like choosing any other tool for a task.  For example: if I want to dig a French drain in my lawn, I can attempt to use a huge tractor-like backhoe and the job would be done far quicker than if I would dig it by hand.  I can't deny that the backhoe has the raw power and speed to perform.  But you also cannot deny that my chances of injury or chances of severing utility lines or other resources climb at an exponential rate inverse to the amount of training I may have on that machinery. Is C++ a powerful tool?  Oh yes, and it's great for those tasks where speed and performance are paramount.  But for most of us, it's the wrong tool.  And keep in mind, I say this even though I have 17 years of experience in using it and feel myself highly adept in utilizing its features both in the standard libraries, the STL, and in supplemental libraries such as BOOST.  Which, although greatly help with adding powerful features quickly, do very little to curb the relative dangers of the language. So, you may say, the fault is in the developer, that if the developer had some higher skills or if we only hired C++ experts this would not be an issue.  Now, I will concede there is some truth to this.  Obviously, the higher skilled C++ developers you hire the better the chance they will produce highly performant and error-free code.  However, what good is that to the average developer who cannot afford a full stable of C++ experts? That's my point with C#:  It's like a kinder, gentler C++.  It gives you nearly the same speed, and in many ways even more power than C++, and it gives you a much softer cushion for novices to fall against if they code less-than-optimally.  A bug is a bug, of course, in any language, but C# does a good job of hiding and taking on the task of handling almost all of the resource issues that make C++ so tricky.  For my money, C# is much more maintainable, more feature-rich, second only slightly in performance, faster to market, and -- last but not least -- safer and easier to use.  That's why, where I work, I much prefer to see the developers moving to C#.  The quantity of bugs is much lower, and we don't need to hire "experts" to achieve the same results since the language itself handles those resource pitfalls so prevalent in poorly written C++ code.  C++ will still have its place in the world, and I'm sure I'll still use it now and again where it is truly the correct tool for the job, but for nearly every other project C# is a wonderfully "dumbed-down" version of C++ -- in the very best sense -- and to me, that's the smart choice.

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• Programming by dictation?

  - by Andrew M

  ie. you speak out the code, and someone else across the room types it in Anyone tried this? Obviously the person taking the dictation would need to be a coder too, so you didn't have to explain everything and go into tedious detail (not 'open bracket, new line...' but more like 'create a new class called myParser that takes three arguments, first one is...'). I thought of it because sometimes I'm too easily distracted at my computer. Surrounded by buttons, instant gratification a click away, the world at my fingertips. To get stuff done, I want to get away, write my code on paper. But that would mean losing access to necessary resources, and necessitate tedious typing-up later on. The solution? Dictate. Pros: no chance to check reddit, stackexchange, gmail, etc. code while you pace the room, lie down, play billiards, whatever train your brain to think more abstractedly (have to visualize things if you can't just see the screen) skip the tedious details (closing brackets etc.) the typist gets to shadow a more experienced programmer and learn how they work the typist can provide assistance/suggestions external pressure of typist expecting instructions, urging you to stay focussed Cons might be too hard might not work any better rather inefficient use of assisting programmer need to find/pay someone to do this

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• C/C++: Who uses the logical operator macros from iso646.h and why?

  - by Jaime Soto

  There has been some debate at work about using the merits of using the alternative spellings for C/C++ logical operators in iso646.h: and && and_eq &= bitand & bitor | compl ~ not ! not_eq != or || or_eq |= xor ^ xor_eq ^= According to Wikipedia, these macros facilitate typing logical operators in international (non-US English?) and non-QWERTY keyboards. All of our development team is in the same office in Orlando, FL, USA and from what I have seen we all use the US English QWERTY keyboard layout; even Dvorak provides all the necessary characters. Supporters of using the iso646.h macros claim we should them because they are part of the C and C++ standards. I think this argument is moot since digraphs and trigraphs are also part of these standards and they are not even supported by default in many compilers. My rationale for opposing these macros in our team is that we do not need them since: Everybody on our team uses the US English QWERTY keyboard layout; C and C++ programming books from the US barely mention iso646.h, if at all; and new developers may not be familiar with iso646.h (this is expected if they are from the US). /rant Finally, to my set of questions: Does anyone in this site use the iso646.h logical operator macros? Why? What is your opinion about using the iso646.h logical operator macros in code written and maintained on US English QWERTY keyboards? Is my digraph and trigraph analogy a valid argument against using iso646.h with US English QWERTY keyboard layouts? EDIT: I missed two similar questions in StackOverflow: Is anybody using the named boolean operators? Which C++ logical operators do you use: and, or, not and the ilk or C style operators? why?

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• Graphics performance of 945GME

  - by l0b0

  Edit: Since setting Appearance - Visual Effects up to a stunning "Normal", I now get ~35 FPS in glxgears right after login, with nothing else running :( I'm getting terrible graphics performance in NeverWinter Nights (native with SoU+HotU+CEP2) on my Eee PC 1005HAB. Even with all graphics settings (including the "advanced" ones) at minimum I get about 2-10 FPS, depending on the scene. Firefox is really sluggish as well - Changing tabs often takes a second, scrolling is laggy, and typing this I notice the delay between pressing keys and seeing the text on screen. The rest of the OS is running OK, although general performance seems to be even worse than my old Eee PC 900. glxgears gives about 60 FPS, which is apparently as it should be (synchronized with the monitor refresh rate). Bugs like Launchpad #252094 and the instructions for Reverting the Jaunty Xorg intel driver to 2.4 are old enough that I'm afraid following the instructions would render the system unusable. Are there any tips for improving graphics performance on this system that are still relevant for 10.10? $ uname -a Linux l0b0eee 2.6.35-28-generic #49-Ubuntu SMP Tue Mar 1 14:40:58 UTC 2011 i686 GNU/Linux $ lspci -nn | grep VGA 00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GME Express Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:27ae] (rev 03) $ glxinfo name of display: :0.0 display: :0 screen: 0 direct rendering: Yes server glx vendor string: SGI server glx version string: 1.4 ...

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