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  • Friday Fun: Abduction

    - by Mysticgeek
    Finally another Friday has arrived and it’s time to waste the afternoon on company time playing a flash game. Today we take a look at a fun game called Abduction. Abduction Abduction is a neat game where you snatch people and livestock to sell them on the intergalactic market.   The controls are basic using the arrow keys or W,A,S,D and the left mouse button. Here is the tutorial that you can play first to get the hang of it. While you’re abducting hillbillies, they throw pitch forks and other objects at your craft so you need to avoid them.   The game has several levels to keep you distracted until quitting time. Play Abduction at FreeWebArcade Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Take Screenshots in Firefox the Easy WayFriday Fun: Portal, the Flash VersionFriday Fun: Play Bubble QuodFriday Fun: Gravitee 2Friday Fun: Compulse 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 Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 PCmover Professional How to Browse Privately in Firefox Kill Processes Quickly with Process Assassin Need to Come Up with a Good Name? Try Wordoid StockFox puts a Lightweight Stock Ticker in your Statusbar Explore Google Public Data Visually The Ultimate Excel Cheatsheet

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  • What did programmers do before variable scope, where everything is global?

    - by hydroparadise
    So, I am having to deal with seemingly archiac language (called PowerOn) where I have a main method, a few datatypes to define variables with, and has the ability to have sub-procedures (essentially void methods) that does not return a type nor accepts any arguements. The problem here is that EVERYTHING is global. I've read of these type of languages, but most books take the aproach "Ok, we use to use a horse and cariage, but now, here's a car so let's learn how to work on THAT!" We will NEVER relive those days". I have to admit, the mind is struggling to think outside of scope and extent. Well here I am. I am trying to figure out how to best manage nothing but global variables across several open methods. Yep, even iterators for for loops have to be defined globaly, which I find myself recycling in different parts of my code. My Question: for those that have this type experience, how did programmers deal with a large amount of variables in a global playing field? I have feeling it just became a mental juggling trick, but I would be interested to know if there were any known aproaches.

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  • strange behavior in Box2D+LibGDX when applying impulse

    - by Z0lenDer
    I have been playing around with Box2D and LibGDX and have been using a sample code from DecisionTreeGames as the testing ground. Now I have a screen with four walls and a rectangle shape, lets call it a brick. When I use applyLinearImpulse to the brick, it starts bouncing right and left without any pattern and won't stop! I tried adding friction and increasing the density, but the behavior still remains the same. Here are some of the code that might be useful: method for applying the impulse: center = brick.getWorldCenter(); brick.applyLinearImpulse(20, 0, center.x, center.y); Defining the brick: brick_bodyDef.type = BodyType.DynamicBody; brick_bodyDef.position.set(pos); // brick is initially on the ground brick_bodyDef.angle = 0; brick_body = world.createBody(brick_bodyDef); brick_body.setBullet(true); brick_bodyShape.setAsBox(w,h); brick_fixtureDef.density = 0.9f; brick_fixtureDef.restitution = 1; brick_fixtureDef.shape = brick_bodyShape; brick_fixtureDef.friction=1; brick_body.createFixture(fixtureDef); Walls are defined the same only their bullet value is set to false I would really appreciate it if you could help me have a change this code to have a realistic behavior (i.e. when I apply impulse to the brick it should trip a few times and then stop completely).

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  • Complexity of defense AI

    - by Fredrik Johansson
    I have a non-released game, and currently it's only possible to play with another human being. As the game rules are made up by me, I think it would be great if new players could learn basic game play by playing against an AI opponent. I mean it's not like Tennis, where the majority knows at least the fundamental rules. On the other hand, I'm a bit concerned that this AI implementation can be quite complex. I hope you can help me with an complexity estimation. I've tried to summarize the gameplay below. Is this defense AI very hard to do? Basic Defense Game Play Player Defender can move within his land, i.e. inside a random, non-convex, polygon. This land will also contain obstacles modeled as polygons, that Defender has to move around. Player Attacker has also a land, modeled as another such polygon. Assume that Defender shall defend against Attacker. Attacker will then throw a thingy towards Defender's land. To be rewarded, Attacker wants to hit Defender's land, and Defender will want to strike away the thingy from his land before it stops to prevent Attacker from scoring. To feint Defender, Attacker might run around within his land before the throw, and based on these attacker movements Defender shall then continuously move to the best defense position within his land.

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  • Should I expect my team to have more than a basic proficiency with our source control system?

    - by Joshua Smith
    My company switched from Subversion to Git about three months ago. We had weeks of advance notice prior to the switch. Since I'd never used Git before (or any other DVCS), I read Pro Git and spent a little time spinning up my own repositories and playing around, so that when we switched I'd be able to keep working with minimal pain. Now I'm the 'Git guy' by default. With a couple of exceptions, most of my team still has no idea how Git works. For example, they still think of branches as complete copies of the source code, and even go so far as to clone the repo into multiple folders (one per branch). They generally look at Git as a scary black box. Given the fundamental nature of source control in our daily work (not to mention the ridiculous amount of power Git affords us), I'm of the opinion that any dev who doesn't achieve a certain level of proficiency with it is a liability. Should I expect my team to have at least some understanding of how Git works internally, and how to use it beyond the most basic pull/merge/push operations? Or am I just making something out of nothing?

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  • Live programming help

    - by frazras
    This idea has been floating around my head for a few years. I started some work on it but I just want to know if it is feasible, sensible, or if there is something else like it out there. Dont want to know I was wasting time on a solved issue. Whenever I have a programming issue, this is my sequence: Google it!: That usually brings up a lot of things: blogs, forums, stackoverflow, stackexchange, and even the official docs of the language/framework/cms. Ask on IRC: I format my question and try to get people on IRC to help me. Make a post: I create a post on forums/stackoverflow/stackexchange or shout on twitter with hashtags. Now a lot of the time I am in the middle of a project with a deadline. So I want answers NOW!!! Sometimes just 5-15 minutes worth of attention. Usually by the time I am failing at getting answers at #2, I am imagining how many people are ONLINE NOW with the skill and my exact answer but playing video games, watching youtube or idling online. However, if they were motivated, they would invest the 15 mintes helping me, that would make a world of a difference. I am even in positions where I would PAY for that 15 minutes of instant help. If your rate is as much as $100/hour (relatively good programmer) that is $25 that might save me 3 hours. This help would be live, text chat/skype/phone/screenshare. Should I continue developing this idea or is there a better alternative out there? Or is this even an unfeasible idea?

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  • Elliptical orbit modeling

    - by Nathon
    I'm playing with orbits in a simple 2-d game where a ship flies around in space and is attracted to massive things. The ship's velocity is stored in a vector and acceleration is applied to it every frame as appropriate given Newton's law of universal gravitation. The point masses don't move (there's only 1 right now) so I would expect an elliptical orbit. Instead, I see this: I've tried with nearly circular orbits, and I've tried making the masses vastly different (a factor of a million) but I always get this rotated orbit. Here's some (D) code, for context: void accelerate(Vector delta) { velocity = velocity + delta; // Velocity is a member of the ship class. } // This function is called every frame with the fixed mass. It's a // method of the ship's. void fall(Well well) { // f=(m1 * m2)/(r**2) // a=f/m // Ship mass is 1, so a = f. float mass = 1; Vector delta = well.position - loc; float rSquared = delta.magSquared; float force = well.mass/rSquared; accelerate(delta * force * mass); }

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  • Create Pivot collections much faster than DeepZoomTools CollectionCreator class

    - by John Conwell
    I've been playing with Microsoft Live Labs Pivot to create a hierarchy of collections all linked together to allow someone to explore a hierarchy of data visually. The problem has been the generation time of the entire hierarchy. I end up creating 500 - 600 collections total and it takes hours and hours using the CollectionCreator class that comes with the DeepZoomTools.  So digging around I found a way to make the actual DeepZoom collection creation wicked fast. Dont use the CollectionCreator!  Turns out Pivot doesnt actually use the image pyramid generated by the CollectionCreator. Or if it does, its only when you open a new collection it shows all the images zooming in. But once the zoom in is complete, Pivot uses the individual DeepZoom images. What Pivot does need is the xml generated by the CollectionCreator, which is in a very simple format.  So what i did was manually generate the xml for the collection image pyramid, and then create the folder structure required (one folder per level of the pyramid), and put a single pixel png file in each folder.  Now, I can create the required files and folders for 500 collections in about 10 seconds. Sweet! Now you still have to use the ImageCreator to create a DeepZoom image for each image in the collection and that still takes some time, but at least the total processing time is way better.

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  • Snake Game Help

    - by MuhammadA
    I am making a snake game and learning XNA at the same time. I have 3 classes : Game.cs, Snake.cs and Apple.cs My problem is more of a conceptual problem, I want to know which class is really responsible for ... detecting collision of snake head on apple/itself/wall? which class should increase the snakes speed, size? It seems to me that however much I try and put the snake stuff into snake.cs that game.cs has to know a lot about the snake, like : -- I want to increase the score depending on size of snake, the score variable is inside game.cs, which means now I have to ask the snake its size on every hit of the apple... seems a bit unclean all this highly coupled code. or -- I DO NOT want to place the apple under the snake... now the apple suddenly has to know about all the snake parts, my head hurts when I think of that. Maybe there should be some sort of AppleLayer.cs class that should know about the snake... Whats the best approach in such a simple scenario? Any tips welcome. Game.cs : using System; using System.Collections.Generic; using System.Linq; using Microsoft.Xna.Framework; using Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Audio; using Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Content; using Microsoft.Xna.Framework.GamerServices; using Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Graphics; using Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Input; using Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Media; using Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Design; namespace Snakez { public enum CurrentGameState { Playing, Paused, NotPlaying } public class Game1 : Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Game { private GraphicsDeviceManager _graphics; private SpriteBatch _spriteBatch; private readonly Color _niceGreenColour = new Color(167, 255, 124); private KeyboardState _oldKeyboardState; private SpriteFont _scoreFont; private SoundEffect _biteSound, _crashSound; private Vector2 _scoreLocation = new Vector2(10, 10); private Apple _apple; private Snake _snake; private int _score = 0; private int _speed = 1; public Game1() { _graphics = new GraphicsDeviceManager(this); Content.RootDirectory = "Content"; } /// <summary> /// Allows the game to perform any initialization it needs to before starting to run. /// This is where it can query for any required services and load any non-graphic /// related content. Calling base.Initialize will enumerate through any components /// and initialize them as well. /// </summary> protected override void Initialize() { base.Initialize(); } /// <summary> /// LoadContent will be called once per game and is the place to load /// all of your content. /// </summary> protected override void LoadContent() { _spriteBatch = new SpriteBatch(GraphicsDevice); _scoreFont = Content.Load<SpriteFont>("Score"); _apple = new Apple(800, 480, Content.Load<Texture2D>("Apple")); _snake = new Snake(Content.Load<Texture2D>("BodyBlock")); _biteSound = Content.Load<SoundEffect>("Bite"); _crashSound = Content.Load<SoundEffect>("Crash"); } /// <summary> /// UnloadContent will be called once per game and is the place to unload /// all content. /// </summary> protected override void UnloadContent() { Content.Unload(); } /// <summary> /// Allows the game to run logic such as updating the world, /// checking for collisions, gathering input, and playing audio. /// </summary> /// <param name="gameTime">Provides a snapshot of timing values.</param> protected override void Update(GameTime gameTime) { KeyboardState newKeyboardState = Keyboard.GetState(); if (newKeyboardState.IsKeyDown(Keys.Escape)) { this.Exit(); // Allows the game to exit } else if (newKeyboardState.IsKeyDown(Keys.Up) && !_oldKeyboardState.IsKeyDown(Keys.Up)) { _snake.SetDirection(Direction.Up); } else if (newKeyboardState.IsKeyDown(Keys.Down) && !_oldKeyboardState.IsKeyDown(Keys.Down)) { _snake.SetDirection(Direction.Down); } else if (newKeyboardState.IsKeyDown(Keys.Left) && !_oldKeyboardState.IsKeyDown(Keys.Left)) { _snake.SetDirection(Direction.Left); } else if (newKeyboardState.IsKeyDown(Keys.Right) && !_oldKeyboardState.IsKeyDown(Keys.Right)) { _snake.SetDirection(Direction.Right); } _oldKeyboardState = newKeyboardState; _snake.Update(); if (_snake.IsEating(_apple)) { _biteSound.Play(); _score += 10; _apple.Place(); } base.Update(gameTime); } /// <summary> /// This is called when the game should draw itself. /// </summary> /// <param name="gameTime">Provides a snapshot of timing values.</param> protected override void Draw(GameTime gameTime) { GraphicsDevice.Clear(_niceGreenColour); float frameRate = 1 / (float)gameTime.ElapsedGameTime.TotalSeconds; _spriteBatch.Begin(); _spriteBatch.DrawString(_scoreFont, "Score : " + _score, _scoreLocation, Color.Red); _apple.Draw(_spriteBatch); _snake.Draw(_spriteBatch); _spriteBatch.End(); base.Draw(gameTime); } } } Snake.cs : using System; using System.Collections.Generic; using System.Linq; using System.Text; using Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Graphics; using Microsoft.Xna.Framework; namespace Snakez { public enum Direction { Up, Down, Left, Right } public class Snake { private List<Rectangle> _parts; private readonly Texture2D _bodyBlock; private readonly int _startX = 160; private readonly int _startY = 120; private int _moveDelay = 100; private DateTime _lastUpdatedAt; private Direction _direction; private Rectangle _lastTail; public Snake(Texture2D bodyBlock) { _bodyBlock = bodyBlock; _parts = new List<Rectangle>(); _parts.Add(new Rectangle(_startX, _startY, _bodyBlock.Width, _bodyBlock.Height)); _parts.Add(new Rectangle(_startX + bodyBlock.Width, _startY, _bodyBlock.Width, _bodyBlock.Height)); _parts.Add(new Rectangle(_startX + (bodyBlock.Width) * 2, _startY, _bodyBlock.Width, _bodyBlock.Height)); _parts.Add(new Rectangle(_startX + (bodyBlock.Width) * 3, _startY, _bodyBlock.Width, _bodyBlock.Height)); _direction = Direction.Right; _lastUpdatedAt = DateTime.Now; } public void Draw(SpriteBatch spriteBatch) { foreach (var p in _parts) { spriteBatch.Draw(_bodyBlock, new Vector2(p.X, p.Y), Color.White); } } public void Update() { if (DateTime.Now.Subtract(_lastUpdatedAt).TotalMilliseconds > _moveDelay) { //DateTime.Now.Ticks _lastTail = _parts.First(); _parts.Remove(_lastTail); /* add new head in right direction */ var lastHead = _parts.Last(); var newHead = new Rectangle(0, 0, _bodyBlock.Width, _bodyBlock.Height); switch (_direction) { case Direction.Up: newHead.X = lastHead.X; newHead.Y = lastHead.Y - _bodyBlock.Width; break; case Direction.Down: newHead.X = lastHead.X; newHead.Y = lastHead.Y + _bodyBlock.Width; break; case Direction.Left: newHead.X = lastHead.X - _bodyBlock.Width; newHead.Y = lastHead.Y; break; case Direction.Right: newHead.X = lastHead.X + _bodyBlock.Width; newHead.Y = lastHead.Y; break; } _parts.Add(newHead); _lastUpdatedAt = DateTime.Now; } } public void SetDirection(Direction newDirection) { if (_direction == Direction.Up && newDirection == Direction.Down) { return; } else if (_direction == Direction.Down && newDirection == Direction.Up) { return; } else if (_direction == Direction.Left && newDirection == Direction.Right) { return; } else if (_direction == Direction.Right && newDirection == Direction.Left) { return; } _direction = newDirection; } public bool IsEating(Apple apple) { if (_parts.Last().Intersects(apple.Location)) { GrowBiggerAndFaster(); return true; } return false; } private void GrowBiggerAndFaster() { _parts.Insert(0, _lastTail); _moveDelay -= (_moveDelay / 100)*2; } } } Apple.cs : using System; using System.Collections.Generic; using System.Linq; using System.Text; using Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Graphics; using Microsoft.Xna.Framework; namespace Snakez { public class Apple { private readonly int _maxWidth, _maxHeight; private readonly Texture2D _texture; private readonly Random random = new Random(); public Rectangle Location { get; private set; } public Apple(int screenWidth, int screenHeight, Texture2D texture) { _maxWidth = (screenWidth + 1) - texture.Width; _maxHeight = (screenHeight + 1) - texture.Height; _texture = texture; Place(); } public void Place() { Location = GetRandomLocation(_maxWidth, _maxHeight); } private Rectangle GetRandomLocation(int maxWidth, int maxHeight) { // x and y -- multiple of 20 int x = random.Next(1, maxWidth); var leftOver = x % 20; x = x - leftOver; int y = random.Next(1, maxHeight); leftOver = y % 20; y = y - leftOver; return new Rectangle(x, y, _texture.Width, _texture.Height); } public void Draw(SpriteBatch spriteBatch) { spriteBatch.Draw(_texture, Location, Color.White); } } }

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  • Lots of static/crackling noises after ALSA HDA DKMS installation

    - by MartinB
    I am using a Samsung Chronos 7 laptop with the following sound setup: $ head -n 1 /proc/asound/card0/codec* ==> /proc/asound/card0/codec#0 <== Codec: Realtek ALC269VC ==> /proc/asound/card0/codec#3 <== Codec: Intel CougarPoint HDMI With the stock ALSA that comes with Ubuntu 12.04, I do not get any sound out of the headphones when I plug them into the headphone jack. After plugging the headphones in, I have to manually use Alsamixer to increase the volume, so that the headphones become usable. I have been told that this issue is due to my sound chip not being supported in the ALSA version that ships with Precise. A similar question at AskUbuntu and the Ubuntu Community Documentation point me to the ALSA DKMS installation. After installing the dkms module of yesterday's ALSA snapshot and rebooting, the headphone issue is indeed solved. I can now plug my headphones into the jack and instantly have sound on them. However, now I have tons of static noises and crackling when playing sound in VLC player or Skype (Firefox HTML5 playback seems to be fine, unless a Skype sound interferes with it). Is there a fix for this? I tried adding the Alsa PPA and installing the latest ALSA package proper, but that didn't have any effect, only the Alsa DKMS package seems to solve the headphone issue.

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  • pdating modules on VPS [closed]

    - by tertle
    Been trying to install openVPN on a VPS but come into a few problems when trying to start the openvpn server. Service deferred error: IPTablesServiceBase: failed to run iptables-restore [status=1]: ['FATAL: Could not load /lib/modules/2.6.18-028stab070.14/modules.dep: No such file or directory', 'FATAL: Could not load /lib/modules/2.6.18-028stab070.14/modules.dep: No such file or directory', 'iptables-restore: line 46 failed']: internet/base:1175,internet/base:752,internet/process:45,internet/process:306,internet/_baseprocess:48,internet/process:775,internet/_baseprocess:60,svc/pp:116,svc/svcnotify:26,internet/defer:238,internet/defer:307,internet/defer:323,sagent/ipts:105,sagent/ipts:39,util/error:52,util/error:32 service failed to start due to unresolved dependencies: set(['user', 'iptables_openvpn']) service failed to start due to unresolved dependencies: set(['user', 'iptables_openvpn']) service failed to start due to unresolved dependencies: set(['iptables_openvpn']) Anyway so after a bit of playing around and some advice, I found that the linux kernal and modules don't match on my server. uname -r returns: 2.6.18-028stab070.14 and ls /lib/modules returns: 2.6.18-028stab070.7 The server is running OpenVZ and my container uses ubuntu 9.10. So my question is, is it possible for me to update my modules on a VPS and if so how would I do this, or is this something I'll need to try get my host to do? Thanks in advance.

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  • links for 2011-01-03

    - by Bob Rhubart
    Using Solaris zfs + iscsi targets with Oracle VM (Wim Coekaerts Blog) "I was playing with my Oracle VM setup and needed some shared storage that was block based. I did not have a storage array available but I did have a Solaris box, that I use for Oracle VDI, available." - Wim Coekaerts (tags: oracle otn solaris oraclevm virtualization) DanT's GridBlog: Oracle Grid Engine: Changes for a Bright Future at Oracle "Today, we are entering a new chapter in Oracle Grid Engine’s life. Oracle has been working with key members of the open source community to pass on the torch for maintaining the open source code base to the Open Grid Scheduler project hosted on SourceForge." - Dan Templeton (tags: oracle gridengine) Oracle Fusion Middleware Security: How do I secure my services? "I've been up early for a couple of days talking to a customer about how they should secure their services,' says Chris Johnson. "I'm going to tell you what I told them." (tags: oracle fusionmiddleware security) OldSpice your Innovation - Dangers of Status Quo E2.0 | Enterprise 2.0 Blogs "If organizations only leverage E2.0 technologies in a 'me too' fashion, they are essentially using a bucket to bail water from a leaking ship." - John Brunswick (tags: oracle enteprise2.0) The Aquarium: GlassFish in 2011 - What to expect A look into the Glassfish crystal ball... (tags: oracle glassfish) Andrejus Baranovskis's Blog: Fusion Middleware 11g Security - Retrieve Security Groups from ADF 11g Oracle ACE Director Andrejus Baranovskis shows you what to do when you need to access security information directly from an ADF 11g application. (tags: oracle otn fusionmiddleware security adf) @eelzinga: Book review : Oracle SOA Suite 11g R1 Developer's Guide "What I really liked in this book...was the compare/description of the Oracle Service Bus. The authors did a great job on describing functionality of components existing in the SOA Suite and how to model them in your own process." - Oracle ACE Eric ElZinga (tags: oracle oracleace soa bookreview soasuite)

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  • Finding bugs is difficult, right?

    - by Laila
    Something I hear developers tell us all the time is that they take pride in being a developer.and that bugs are a dent in that pride. Someone once told me "I know I have found bugs years later, and it's the worst feeling in the world." So how can you avoid that sinking feeling when you find out a bug has been in production months before someone lets you know about it? Besides, let's face it: hearing about a bug often means a world of pain, because it can take hours to track down where the problem is and more hours (if not days) to fix it. And during that time, you're not working on something new, and that, my friends, is really frustrating! So to cheer you up, we've created a Bug Hunt game, where you battle against the clock to spot bugs. We've really enjoyed putting this together and hope you enjoy playing it too. Once you're done with the bug hunt, we explain how easy it can be to find and fix bugs in real life, using a neat mechanism that we call Automated Error Reporting. Play the game now.

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  • System speakers not recognized

    - by Kyle Maxwell
    Since upgrading to Xubuntu 13.10, sound has not functioned properly (e.g. screeching when playing Skype notifications). Now, however, it does not function at all. pavucontrol only shows Dummy Output and does not recognize the built-in speakers on my Dell Precision M4600. Possibly related, the sound indicator applet does not come up when I click on it, only showing a small white bar underneath it. I have purged and reinstalled pulseaudio. lspci -v shows: 00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family High Definition Audio Controller (rev 04) Subsystem: Dell Precision M4600 Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 56 Memory at f2560000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K] Capabilities: <access denied> Kernel driver in use: snd_hda_intel 01:00.1 Audio device: NVIDIA Corporation GF106 High Definition Audio Controller (rev a1) Subsystem: Dell Device 14a3 Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 17 Memory at f0080000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K] Capabilities: <access denied> Kernel driver in use: snd_hda_intel The "Capabilities: <access denied" line makes me wonder if there's a permissions issue, as the Log Out applet now shows "Restart" and "Shutdown" grayed out. groups shows me in: kmaxwell adm dialout cdrom sudo dip plugdev fuse lpadmin netdev sambashare vboxusers

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  • Rant - Why is Windows Azure not available in Africa?

    - by Allan Rwakatungu
    Yesterday at the .NET user group meeting in Kampala Uganda  I gave a talk on cloud computing with Windows Azure  (details will be in my next blog post). The guys where excited. Without owning they own inftrastucture and at low cost they can build scalable , highly available applications. Not quite. Azure accounts are only available to people in particular countries - none from Africa. I attended PDC in 2008 when Microsoft unleashed Windows Azure. One of the case studies to show the benefits ofr cloud computing was a project in Africa for an education service in Ethiopia. The point they where making was that the cloud was perfect for scenarios where computing infrastructure is not sophiscated, like Ethiopia. Perfect , i thought. So i got my beta account from PDC and started playing around in the cloud. Then Azure goes live , my beta account does not work any more and I cant pay because am from Uganda. Microsoft , this sucks. I dont know the reasons for Microsoft doing this, but am sure we can work out something. We in Africa need the cloud more than anybody else in the world. Setting up data centers that are higly scalable and available for our startups is not an option we have. But we also cant pay for cloud computing with Microsoft. Microsoft, we know we are a tiny insigficant market for a company your size, but your excluding us only continues to widen the digital divide. Microsoft , how about you have a reseller model for cloud computing. Instead of trying to deal direclty with each client you have local partners who help you sell and bill your cloud services. I think that would lead to Windows Azure being available in Africa. I can help you resell in Uganda.

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  • Setting Krypton Light to Screen Pixels

    - by Adam Jerrett
    So a few days back, I started playing around with Krypton XNA for 2D lighting in my game. I noticed in general, that spawning a light at (0,0) with Krypton causes the light to appear in, pretty much, the centre of the game screen. Is there any way to change this so a Krypton light's "starting point" at [0,0] would spawn at the top left of the screen, and thus follow the standard screen co-ordinates for position? I ask because currently I'm busy working on my game where my spawn point is [512,512]. With hard code, the closest I've got to the light being "central" to this point is the vector position [12,-20], which makes no sense and is impossible to craft, mathematically, if I want the light to move with the camera (the position [480,512] maps roughly to [10,-20]). So, is there any way to "normalise" the krypton lights to use standard screen co-ordinates? If you guys can, play around with the demo from the site and please see if you can find anything out about it. Documentation on the engine is rather scarce, so it's difficult to find anything relevant to my "pixel-perfect" need. It might just also be something in the code with regards to the matrices that I'm not fully understanding. Any help would be useful. Thanks.

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  • How do you get past the Analysis to Paralysis when working on a new project?

    - by Cape Cod Gunny
    I've been struggling with how to get my project going. I've got an old software package that is in need of desparate rewrite. I haven't compiled the source code since 2004. It still sells, it's stable but does require the “Run this program in compatibility mode for:” on a lot of the newer windows systems. It's also one of those hard coded 640 X 480 screen resolution programs. Yuck! I can't seem to get started with this rewrite. I'm constantly fiddling around with different things. I'll play around with different fluid layouts for a while. Then I start looking around at how the main menu should work/look. I quickly find out that there's this thing called "Cool Bars" and I'll spend hours playing with that. Then I start thinking about stuff like "Oh I need to make sure that the screen sizes are preserved so when the application gets relaunched it remebers how the screens were positioned." Which leads to what happens if they have two monitors? Which leads to what happens if they have a quad screen? Yikes it's got to stop. I have always been a slow starter. I think about stuff long and hard up front. This has always plagued me. Once I get my mind made up then bam... I'm off and running. I'm looking for advice from some other one-person software companies that can help someone like me get off to a quicker start?

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  • Input/Output console window in XNA

    - by Will Bagley
    I am currently making a simple game in XNA but am at a point where testing various aspect gets a bit tricky, especially when you have to wait till you have 1000 score to see if your animation is playing correctly etc. Of course i could just edit the starting variable in the code before I launched but I have recently been interested in trying to implement a console style window which can print out values and take input to alter public variables during run-time. I am aware that VS has the immediate window which achieves a similar thing but i would prefer mine is an actual part of the game with the intention that the user may have limited access to it in the future. Some of the key things i have yet to find an answer to after looking around for a while are: how i would support free text entry how i would access variables during runtime how i would edit these variable I have also read about using a property grid from windows form aps (and partially reflection) which looked like it could simplify a lot of things but i am not sure how I would get that running inside my XNA game window or how i would get it to not look out of place (as the visual aspect of is seems to be aimed just for development time viewing). All in all I'm quite open to any suggestions on how to approach this task as currently I'm not sure where to start. Thanks in advance.

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  • CodePlex Daily Summary for Saturday, March 24, 2012

    CodePlex Daily Summary for Saturday, March 24, 2012Popular Releasesmenu4web: menu4web 0.0.3: menu4web 0.0.3Craig's Utility Library: Craig's Utility Library 3.1: This update adds about 60 new extension methods, a couple of new classes, and a number of fixes including: Additions Added DateSpan class Added GenericDelimited class Random additions Added static thread friendly version of Random.Next called ThreadSafeNext. AOP Manager additions Added Destroy function to AOPManager (clears out all data so system can be recreated. Really only useful for testing...) ORM additions Added PagedCommand and PageCount functions to ObjectBaseClass (same as M...SQL Monitor - managing sql server performance: SQLMon 4.2 alpha 14: 1. improved accuracy of logic fault checking in analysisMapWindow 6 Desktop GIS: MapWindow 6.1.1: MapWindow 6 Desktop GIS is an open source desktop GIS for Microsoft Windows that is built upon the DotSpatial Library. This release requires .Net 4 (Client Profile). Are you a software developer?Instead of downloading MapWindow for development purposes, get started with with the DotSpatial templateDotSpatial: DotSpatial 1.1: This is a Minor Release. See the changes in the issue tracker. Minimal -- includes DotSpatial core and essential extensions Extended -- includes debugging symbols and additional extensions Just want to run the software? End user (non-programmer) version available branded as MapWindow Want to add your own feature? Develop a plugin, using the template and contribute to the extension feed (you can also write extensions that you distribute in other ways). Components are available as NuGet pa...Indiefreaks Game Framework: 0.9.2.0: Feature: Added SunBurn engine v2.0.18.7 support (doesn't support versions below). Feature: Added GammaCorrection Post processor to allow developers or even players to tweak the Gamma of the game depending on their screen (courtesy of bamyazi) Feature: Added Windows, Xbox 360 & WP7 enabled StorageManager (based on Nick Gravelyn's EasyStorage) to read/write files for player or game data. Feature: Added VirtualGamePad feature for WP7 allowing developers to define Touch areas on screen and mapped...Code for Rapid C# Windows Development eBook + LINQPad and Data Tools: LLBLGen LINQPad Data Context Driver Version 2.1: Sixth release of a LLBLGen Pro Typed Data Context Driver for LINQPad. For LLBLGen Pro versions 3.1 and 3.5(coming). New features:When you switch the query language to SQL, LINQPad updates the Schema Explorer to show SQL column names rather than CLR property names Connection dialog unloads assemblies when it has closed down so they are no longer locked - this allows them to be rebuilt while LINQPad is still open Connection dialog includes a button to quickly add assemblies needed for the...People's Note: People's Note 0.40: Version 0.40 adds an option to compact the database from the profile screen. Compacting a database can make it smaller and faster by removing empty spaces left over by editing, moving, and deleting notes. To install: copy the appropriate CAB file onto your WM device and run it.Microsoft All-In-One Code Framework - a centralized code sample library: C++, .NET Coding Guideline: Microsoft All-In-One Code Framework Coding Guideline This document describes the coding style guideline for native C++ and .NET (C# and VB.NET) programming used by the Microsoft All-In-One Code Framework project team.WebDAV for WHS: Version 1.0.67: - Added: Check whether the Remote Web Access is turned on or not; - Added: Check for Add-In updates;Image 3D Viewer: Image 3D Viewer: WPF .Net 3.5 .Net 4 .Net 4.5Phalanger - The PHP Language Compiler for the .NET Framework: 3.0 (March 2012) for .NET 4.0: March release of Phalanger 3.0 significantly enhances performance, adds new features and fixes many issues. See following for the list of main improvements: New features: Phalanger Tools installable for Visual Studio 2011 Beta "filter" extension with several most used filters implemented DomDocument HTML parser, loadHTML() method mail() PHP compatible function PHP 5.4 T_CALLABLE token PHP 5.4 "callable" type hint PCRE: UTF32 characters in range support configuration supports <c...Nearforums - ASP.NET MVC forum engine: Nearforums v8.0: Version 8.0 of Nearforums, the ASP.NET MVC Forum Engine, containing new features: Internationalization Custom authentication provider Access control list for forums and threads Webdeploy package checksum: abc62990189cf0d488ef915d4a55e4b14169bc01 Visit Roadmap for more details.BIDS Helper: BIDS Helper 1.6: This beta release is the first to support SQL Server 2012 (in addition to SQL Server 2005, 2008, and 2008 R2). Since it is marked as a beta release, we are looking for bug reports in the next few months as you use BIDS Helper on real projects. In addition to getting all existing BIDS Helper functionality working appropriately in SQL Server 2012 (SSDT), the following features are new... Analysis Services Tabular Smart Diff Tabular Actions Editor Tabular HideMemberIf Tabular Pre-Build ...Json.NET: Json.NET 4.5 Release 1: New feature - Windows 8 Metro build New feature - JsonTextReader automatically reads ISO strings as dates New feature - Added DateFormatHandling to control whether dates are written in the MS format or ISO format, with ISO as the default New feature - Added DateTimeZoneHandling to control reading and writing DateTime time zone details New feature - Added async serialize/deserialize methods to JsonConvert New feature - Added Path to JsonReader/JsonWriter/ErrorContext and exceptions w...SCCM Client Actions Tool: SCCM Client Actions Tool v1.11: SCCM Client Actions Tool v1.11 is the latest version. It comes with following changes since last version: Fixed a bug when ping and cmd.exe kept running in endless loop after action progress was finished. Fixed update checking from Codeplex RSS feed. The tool is downloadable as a ZIP file that contains four files: ClientActionsTool.hta – The tool itself. Cmdkey.exe – command line tool for managing cached credentials. This is needed for alternate credentials feature when running the HTA...WebSocket4Net: WebSocket4Net 0.5: Changes in this release fixed the wss's default port bug improved JsonWebSocket supported set client access policy protocol for silverlight fixed a handshake issue in Silverlight fixed a bug that "Host" field in handshake hadn't contained port if the port is not default supported passing in Origin parameter for handshaking supported reacting pings from server side fixed a bug in data sending fixed the bug sending a closing handshake with no message which would cause an excepti...SuperWebSocket, a .NET WebSocket Server: SuperWebSocket 0.5: Changes included in this release: supported closing handshake queue checking improved JSON subprotocol supported sending ping from server to client fixed a bug about sending a closing handshake with no message refactored the code to improve protocol compatibility fixed a bug about sub protocol configuration loading in Mono improved BasicSubProtocol added JsonWebSocketSessionSurvey™ - web survey & form engine: Survey™ 2.0: The new stable Survey™ Project 2.0.0.1 version contains many new features like: Technical changes: - Use of Jquery, ASTreeview, Tabs, Tooltips and new menuprovider Features & Bugfixes: Survey list and search function Folder structure for surveys New Menustructure Library list New Library fields User list and search functions Layout options for a survey with CSS, page header and footer New IP filter security feature Enhanced Token Management New Question fields as ID, Alias...Speed up Printer migration using PrintBrm and it's configuration files: BRMC.EXE: Run the tool from the extracted directory of the printbrm backup. You can use the following command to extract a backup file to a directory - PRINTBRM.EXE -R -D C:\TEMP\EXPAND -F C:\TEMP\PRINTERBACKUP.PRINTEREXPORTNew ProjectsAsp.NET Url Router: 1.Url rewritting. 2.Provider regex matcher 3.Support custom url validate handler.BC-Web: ch projectCape: Dynamically generates Capistrano recipes for Rake tasks.cstgamebgs: Project for wp7GCalculator: GCalculator for performing basic arithmetic operations. Windows Sidebar Gadget invacc: Invacc- for inventory and Account Onlineirgsh-node: Worker nodes of BlankOn Package Factory - http://irgsh.blankonlinux.or.id/irgsh-repo: Repository manager node of BlankOn Package Factory - http://irgsh.blankonlinux.or.id/irgsh-web: Web interface and task manager of BlankOn Package Factory - http://irgsh.blankonlinux.or.id/Kinect Explorer For SharePoint 2010: Kinect Explorer for SharePoint is a tool which provide Natural User Interface to browse through SharePoint sites. Use body gestures to browse, read, move, copy documents. Use Speech services to read-out the files.MCU: mcu devMVC3ShellCode: MVC3ShellCode MVC3ShellCode MVC3ShellCode MVC3ShellCode MVC3ShellCode MVC3ShellCode NetWatch: NetWatch - network watchdog Small application primary designed for network connectivity monitoring. You can configure set of network tests (ping, http, ...) and time plan for this tests. Application is running in windows notification area and notife you each problem. NMortgage: The goal of this project will be to give a prospective home buyer or an existing home owner the insight they need to explore effects of different repayment strategies or different mortgage structures. Nucleo.NET MVP: The Nucleo MVP framework provides a Model-View-Presenter approach that isn't obtrusive, can be utilized in multiple environments, and is versatile. Providing a lot of features you see in other frameworks, the Nucleo MVP framework provides many extensibility points, pretty much allowing you to rewrite most of the framework. It features dynamic injection support, presenter and view initializers (like what you see in ASP.NET MVC), model property injection, attribute- and convention-based vie...P2PShare: This project is to build a new and moden System for p2p file shearing supporting downloads from HTTP, HTTPS, FTP support for P2Pshare client list servers so files can point to a server or a host only file so no servers are used and only p2p is usedPipeLayer: proyecto de sistemas inteligentespython-irgsh: Python library for BlankOn Package Factory - http://irgsh.blankonlinux.or.id/RamGec XNA Controls - Window Elements Library for XNA Solutions: Lightweight, ultra-high performance and flexible library for displaying and managing Window Controls for XNA system. Features its own Window Designer for creating custom windows and controls.RPG Character Generators and Tools: Various tools for pen and paper style role playing games.Screen scraper: A program that can be used to download public domain MP3 and other media such as pdf documents.SharePoint Bdc request library: The given set of classes simplifies an access to the external data, which can be reached through BDC. The library allows to make simple requests for values from external data source, using a BDC Entity Instance Identifier(s) or a value of a certain BDC Entity field. Developed to interact with Business Data Connectivity of SharePoint 2010.testtom03232012git01: testtom03232012git01testtom03232012git02: testtom03232012git02the north star uc: University projectTyphon: Typhon is a role playing simulation management application, much like Nova, but written in MVC/C#.VRE LabTrove-SharePoint connector: The VRE LabTrove-SharePoint Connector provides a means of integrating the ability to view, post to, and edit posts stored in a LabTrove electronic laboratory notebook from within the familiar environment of Microsoft SharePoint. Once installed and configured, these Web Parts give SharePoint users a straightforward way to interact with any LabTrove installation that they wish to use. They also facilitate users to attach data that is stored in a SharePoint Document Library to the LabTrove posts...

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  • How to switch to a generic kernel in a headless Ubuntu Server 12.04?

    - by chmike
    I just got a dedicated server with Ubuntu 12.04 installed with a custom compiled kernel. Since I would like to install VirtualBox and this custom kernel doesn't support dynamic module loading (for security) I need to change the kernel. I'm running some Ubuntu servers for years but never palyed with grub and a headless computer. When the command update-grub is run it shows the different kernel it finds. Here is what I see Generating grub.cfg ... Found linux image: /boot/bzImage-3.2.13-xxxx-grs-ipv6-64 Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-34-generic Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-3.2.0-34-generic No volume groups found done The first one is the active one as seen with uname -r. To me it looks like the second kernel is the one I should use. But I don't know how to configure grub2 to use it. The computer is also configured with a software RAID using mdadm I guess. Never used that before. I don't know if playing with the grub of changing kernel could brake this. What must I do to set the generic kernel as the default one so that I can get VirtualBox running.

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  • Weekend Project: Build a Fireball Launcher

    - by Jason Fitzpatrick
    What’s more fun than playing with fire? Shooting it from your hands. Put on your robe and wizard hat, make a stop at the hardware store, and spend the weekend trying to convince your friends you’ve acquired supernatural powers. Over at MAKE Magazine, Joel Johnson explains the impetus for his project: A stalwart of close-quarter magicians for years, the electronic flash gun is a simple device: a battery-powered, hand-held ignitor that uses a “glo-plug” to light a bit of flash paper and cotton, shooting a fireball a few feet into the air. You can buy one from most magic shops for around $50, but if you build one on your own, you’ll not only save a few bucks, you’ll also learn how easy it is to add fire effects to almost any electronics project. (And what gadget couldn’t stand a little more spurting flame?) The parts list is minimal but the end effect is pretty fantastic. Hit up the link below for the full build guide, plenty of warnings, and a weekend project that’s sure to impress. How to Own Your Own Website (Even If You Can’t Build One) Pt 3 How to Sync Your Media Across Your Entire House with XBMC How to Own Your Own Website (Even If You Can’t Build One) Pt 2

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  • Optimal communication pattern to update subscribers

    - by hpc
    What is the optimal way to update the subscriber's local model on changes C on a central model M? ( M + C - M_c) The update can be done by the following methods: Publish the updated model M_c to all subscribers. Drawback: if the model is big in contrast to the change it results in much more data to be communicated. Publish change C to all subscribes. The subscribers will then update their local model in the same way as the server does. Drawback: The client needs to know the business logic to update the model in the same way as the server. It must be assured that the subscribed model stays equal to the central model. Calculate the delta (or patch) of the change (M_c - M = D_c) and transfer the delta. Drawback: This requires that calculating and applying the delta (M + D_c = M_c) is an cheap/easy operation. If a client newly subscribes it must be initialized. This involves sending the current model M. So method 1 is always required. Think of playing chess as a concrete example: Subscribers send moves and want to see the latest chess board state. The server checks validity of the move and applies it to the chess board. The server can then send the updated chessboard (method 1) or just send the move (method 2) or send the delta (method 3): remove piece on field D4, put tower on field D8.

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  • Developing games using virtualization on macOS (or Linux) [on hold]

    - by zpinner
    From what I've seen, most of the gamedev tools and engines (that could generate cross platform games) are not supported on Mac. Havok/Project Anarchy, UDK, GameMaker, e.g. . Basically, the only options I found are: Unity3d and monogame + xamarin. Unity is nice and I've been playing with it for some time, but the free version is quite limited when we're talking about shaders, that made me consider that as an indie developer, I might want more freedom to experiment new things, without paying the expensive unity license. I didn't try monogame + xamarin yet, and altough XNA is a very nice game framework, I'd like to have more freedom to experiment and finish a game first before paying for the IDE, which is not possible with the current Xamarin business model. That leaves me with the thought that I must go back to windows, which I'd preferably do it partially, if it's possible. Using BootCamp is something that I'd like to avoid, since it's a pain to reboot when changing OS and that would probably force me to become a 100% windows user. Is there anyone actually developing a game using virtualization solutions like parallels or vmwareFusion? How was your experience?

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  • KDE: How can I select audio output device for mplayer?

    - by grimripper
    I recently installed Kubuntu 13.10 64-bit, and I'm having a problem with selecting audio output device. In Phonon, when I select audio device preference order and press Apply, Amarok and Dragon will immediately switch to the preferred device. VLC and SMplayer are not affected. VLC has its own setting for selecting the output device, but SMplayer remains a problem. It always plays audio on internal audio, and I can't change output to HDMI. How can I select HDMI for SMplayer's audio output device? I don't know if it matters, but when I select HDMI audio in Phonon and click Test, the test sound plays on the internal audio output as well. In the hardware settings tab, the front left and front right test buttons play audio on HDMI. Also, volume up/down buttons affect HDMI volume when SMplayer is focused. This would make sense if I could get SMplayer to play audio over HDMI, but it would be better if the volume keys affected SMplayer's own volume, or the "mplayer2: audio stream" which appears in volume control while mplayer is playing. EDIT: I've recompiled mplayer with alsa support, and can now select the audio output device from SMplayer's settings. Didn't affect the issue with Phonon of course, but it's a suitable workaround.

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  • How to improve Minecraft-esque voxel world performance?

    - by SomeXnaChump
    After playing Minecraft I marveled a bit at its large worlds but at the same time I found them extremely slow to navigate, even with a quad core and meaty graphics card. Now I assume Minecraft is fairly slow because: A) It's written in Java, and as most of the spatial partitioning and memory management activities happen in there, it would naturally be slower than a native C++ version. B) It doesn't partition its world very well. I could be wrong on both assumptions; however it got me thinking about the best way to manage large voxel worlds. As it is a true 3D world, where a block can exist in any part of the world, it is basically a big 3D array [x][y][z], where each block in the world has a type (i.e BlockType.Empty = 0, BlockType.Dirt = 1 etc.) Now, I am assuming to make this sort of world perform well you would need to: A) Use a tree of some variety (oct/kd/bsp) to split all the cubes out; it seems like an oct/kd would be the better option as you can just partition on a per cube level not a per triangle level. B) Use some algorithm to work out which blocks can currently be seen, as blocks closer to the user could obfuscate the blocks behind, making it pointless to render them. C) Keep the block object themselves lightweight, so it is quick to add and remove them from the trees. I guess there is no right answer to this, but I would be interested to see peoples' opinions on the subject. How would you improve performance in a large voxel-based world?

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