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  • DBA Best Practices - A Blog Series: Episode 2 - Password Lists

    - by Argenis
      Digital World, Digital Locks One of the biggest digital assets that any company has is its secrets. These include passwords, key rings, certificates, and any other digital asset used to protect another asset from tampering or unauthorized access. As a DBA, you are very likely to manage some of these assets for your company - and your employer trusts you with keeping them safe. Probably one of the most important of these assets are passwords. As you well know, the can be used anywhere: for service accounts, credentials, proxies, linked servers, DTS/SSIS packages, symmetrical keys, private keys, etc., etc. Have you given some thought to what you're doing to keep these passwords safe? Are you backing them up somewhere? Who else besides you can access them? Good-Ol’ Post-It Notes Under Your Keyboard If you have a password-protected Excel sheet for your passwords, I have bad news for you: Excel's level of encryption is good for your grandma's budget spreadsheet, not for a list of enterprise passwords. I will try to summarize the main point of this best practice in one sentence: You should keep your passwords on an encrypted, access and version-controlled, backed-up, well-known shared location that every DBA on your team is aware of, and maintain copies of this password "database" on your DBA's workstations. Now I have to break down that statement to you: - Encrypted: what’s the point of saving your passwords on a file that any Windows admin with enough privileges can read? - Access controlled: This one is pretty much self-explanatory. - Version controlled: Passwords change (and I’m really hoping you do change them) and version control would allow you to track what a previous password was if the utility you’ve chosen doesn’t handle that for you. - Backed-up: You want a safe copy of the password list to be kept offline, preferably in long term storage, with relative ease of restoring. - Well-known shared location: This is critical for teams: what good is a password list if only one person in the team knows where it is? I have seen multiple examples of this that work well. They all start with an encrypted database. Certainly you could leverage SQL Server's native encryption solutions like cell encryption for this. I have found such implementations to be impractical, for the most part. Enter The World Of Utilities There are a myriad of open source/free software solutions to help you here. One of my favorites is KeePass, which creates encrypted files that can be saved to a network share, Sharepoint, etc. KeePass has UIs for most operating systems, including Windows, MacOS, iOS, Android and Windows Phone. Other solutions I've used before worth mentioning include PasswordSafe and 1Password, with the latter one being a paid solution – but wildly popular in mobile devices. There are, of course, even more "enterprise-level" solutions available from 3rd party vendors. The truth is that most of the customers that I work with don't need that level of protection of their digital assets, and something like a KeePass database on Sharepoint suits them very well. What are you doing to safeguard your passwords? Leave a comment below, and join the discussion! Cheers, -Argenis

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  • When things go awry

    - by Phil Factor
    The moment the Entrepreneur opened his mouth on prime-time national TV, spelled out the URL and waxed big on how exciting ‘his’ new website was, I knew I was in for a busy night. I’d designed and built it. All at once, half a million people tried to log into the website. Although all my stress-testing paid off, I have to admit that the network locked up tight long before there was any danger of a database or website problem. Soon afterwards, the Entrepreneur and the Big Boss were there in the autopsy meeting. We picked through all our systems in detail to see how they’d borne the unexpected strain. Mercifully, in view of the sour mood of the Big Boss, it turned out that the only thing we could have done better was buy a bigger pipe to and from the internet. We’d specified that ‘big pipe’ when designing the system. The Big Boss had then railed at the cost and so we’d subsequently compromised. I felt that my design decisions were vindicated. The Big Boss brooded for a while. Then he made the significant comment: “What really ****** me off is the fact that, for ten minutes, we couldn’t take people’s money.” At that point I stopped feeling smug. Had the internet connection been better, the system would have reached its limit and failed rather precipitously, and that wasn’t what he wanted. Then it occurred to me that what had gummed up the connection was all those images on the site, that had made it so impressive for the visitors. If there had been a way to automatically pare down the site to the bare essentials under stress… Hmm. I began to consider disaster-recovery in the broadest sense – maintaining a service in spite of unusual or unexpected events. What he said makes a lot of sense: sacrifice whatever isn’t essential to keep the core service running when we approach the capacity limits. Maybe in IT we should borrow (or revive) the business concept of the ‘Skeleton service’, maintaining only the priority parts under stress, using a process that is well-prepared and carefully rehearsed. How might this work? Whatever the event we have to prepare for, it is all about understanding the priorities; knowing what one can dispense with when the going gets tough. In the event of database disaster, it’s much faster to deploy a skeletal system with only the essential data than to restore the entire system, though there would have to be a reconciliation process to update the revived database retrospectively, once the emergency was over. It isn’t just the database that could be designed for resilience. One could prepare for unusually high traffic in a website by designing a system that degraded gradually to a ‘skeletal’ site, one that maintained the commercial essentials without fat images, JavaScript libraries and razzmatazz. This is all what the Big Boss scathingly called ‘a mere technicality’. It seems to me that what is needed first is a culture of application and database design which acknowledges that we live in a very imperfect world, and react accordingly when things go awry.

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  • Get More From Your Service Request

    - by Get Proactive Customer Adoption Team
    Leveraging Service Request Best Practices Use best practices to get there faster. In the daily conversations I have with customers, they sometimes express frustration over their Service Requests. They often feel powerless to make needed changes, so their sense of frustration grows. To help you avoid some of the frustration you might feel in dealing with your Service Requests (SR), here are a few pointers that come from our best practice discussions. Be proactive. If you can anticipate some of the questions that Support will ask, or the information they may need, try to provide this up front, when you log the SR. This could be output from the Remote Diagnostic Agent (RDA), if this is a database issue, or the output from another diagnostic tool, if you’re an EBS customer. Any information you can supply that helps us understand the situation better, helps us resolve the issue sooner. As you use some of these tools proactively, you might even find the solution to the problem before you log an SR! Be right. Make sure you have the correct severity level. Since you select the initial severity level, it’s easy to accept the default without considering how significant this may be. Business impact is the driving factor, so make sure you take a moment to select the severity level that is appropriate to the situation. Also, make sure you ask us to change the severity level, should the situation dictate. Be responsive! If this is an important issue to you, quickly follow up on any action plan submitted to you by Oracle Support. The support engineer assigned to your Service Request will be able to move the issue forward more aggressively when they have the needed information. This is crucial in resolving your issues in a timely manner. Be thorough. If there are five questions in the action plan, make sure you provide an answer for all five questions in one response, rather than trickling them in one at a time. This will allow the engineer to look at all of the information as a whole and to avoid multiple trips to your SR, saving valuable time and getting you a resolution sooner. Be your own advocate! You know your situation best; make sure Oracle Support understands both how and why this issue is important to you and your company. Use the escalation process if you're concerned that your SR isn't going the right direction, the right pace, or through the right person. Don't wait until you're frustrated and angry. An escalation is as simple as a quick conversation on the phone and can be amazingly effective in getting your issues back on track. The support manager you speak with is empowered to make any needed changes. Be our partner. You can make your support experience better. When your SR has been resolved, you may receive a survey request. This is intended to get your feedback about how your SR went and what we can do to improve your overall support experience. Oracle Support is here to help you. Our goal with any Service Request is to provide the best possible solution as quickly as possible. With your help, we’ll be able to do this with your Service Request too.  

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  • What Counts for a DBA: Skill

    - by drsql
    “Practice makes perfect:” right? Well, not exactly. The reality of it all is that this saying is an untrustworthy aphorism. I discovered this in my “younger” days when I was a passionate tennis player, practicing and playing 20+ hours a week. No matter what my passion level was, without some serious coaching (and perhaps a change in dietary habits), my skill level was never going to rise to a level where I could make any money at the sport that involved something other than selling tennis balls at a sporting goods store. My game may have improved with all that practice but I had too many bad practices to overcome. Practice by itself merely reinforces what we know and what we can figure out naturally. The truth is actually closer to the expression used by Vince Lombardi: “Perfect practice makes perfect.” So how do you get to become skilled as a DBA if practice alone isn’t sufficient? Hit the Internet and start searching for SQL training and you can find 100 different sites. There are also hundreds of blogs, magazines, books, conferences both onsite and virtual. But then how do you know who is good? Unfortunately often the worst guide can be to find out the experience level of the writer. Some of the best DBAs are frighteningly young, and some got their start back when databases were stored on stacks of paper with little holes in it. As a programmer, is it really so hard to understand normalization? Set based theory? Query optimization? Indexing and performance tuning? The biggest barrier often is previous knowledge, particularly programming skills cultivated before you get started with SQL. In the world of technology, it is pretty rare that a fresh programmer will gravitate to database programming. Database programming is very unsexy work, because without a UI all you have are a bunch of text strings that you could never impress anyone with. Newbies spend most of their time building UIs or apps with procedural code in C# or VB scoring obvious interesting wins. Making matters worse is that SQL programming requires mastery of a much different toolset than most any mainstream programming skill. Instead of controlling everything yourself, most of the really difficult work is done by the internals of the engine (written by other non-relational programmers…we just can’t get away from them.) So is there a golden road to achieving a high skill level? Sadly, with tennis, I am pretty sure I’ll never discover it. However, with programming it seems to boil down to practice in applying the appropriate techniques for whatever type of programming you are doing. Can a C# programmer build a great database? As long as they don’t treat SQL like C#, absolutely. Same goes for a DBA writing C# code. None of this stuff is rocket science, as long as you learn to understand that different types of programming require different skill sets and you as a programmer must recognize the difference between one of the procedural languages and SQL and treat them differently. Skill comes from practicing doing things the right way and making “right” a habit.

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  • Setting up your project

    - by ssoolsma
    Before any coding we first make sure that the project is setup correctly. (Please note, that this blog is all about how I do it, and incase i forget, i can return here and read how i used to do it. Maybe you come up with some idea’s for yourself too.) In these series we will create a minigolf scoring cart. Please note that we eventually create a fully functional application which you cannot use unless you pay me alot of money! (And i mean alot!)   1. Download and install the appropriate tools. Download the following: - TestDriven.Net (free version on the bottom of the download page) - nUnit TestDriven is a visual studio plugin for many unittest frameworks, which allows you to run  / test code very easily with a right click –> run test. nUnit is the test framework of choice, it works seamless with TestDriven.   2. Create your project Fire up visual studio and create your DataAccess project:  MidgetWidget.DataAccess is it’s name. (I choose MidgetWidget as name for the solution). Also, make sure that the MidgetWidget.DataAccess project is a c# ClassLibary Hit OK to create the solution. (in the above example the checkbox Create directory for solution is checked, because i’m pointing the location to the root of c:\development where i want MidgetWidget to be created.   3. Setup the database. You should have thought about a database when you reach this point. Let’s assume that you’ve created a database as followed: Table name: LoginKey Fields: Id (PK), KeyName (uniqueidentifier), StartDate (datetime), EndDate (datetime) Table name:  Party Fields: Id (PK), Key (uniqueidentifier, Created (datetime) Table name:  Person Fields: Id(PK),  PartyId (int), Name (varchar) Tablename: Score Fields: Id (PK), Trackid (int), PersonId (int), Strokes (int) Tablename: Track Fields: Id (PK), Name (varchar) A few things to take note about the database setup. I’ve singularized all tablenames (not “Persons“ but “Person”. This is because in a few minutes, when this is in our code, we refer to the database objects as single rows. We retrieve a single Person not a single “Persons” from the database.   4. Create the entity framework In your solution tree create a new folder and call it “DataModel”. Inside this folder: Add new item –> and choose ADO.NET Entity Data Model. Name it “Entities.edmx” and hit  “Add”. Once the edmx is added, open it (double click) and right click the white area and choose “Update model from database…". Now, point it to your database (i include sensitive data in the connectionstring) and select all the tables. After that hit “Finish” and let the entity framework do it’s code generation. Et Voila, after a few seconds you have set up your entity model. Next post we will start building the data-access! I’m off to the beach.

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  • Why Apple’s New SDK Limitation is So Offensive

    - by TStewartDev
    I am not an Apple fanboy, nor have I ever been. However, I have owned a Mac, an iPod, and an iPhone in my lifetime, and for more than a decade, I have defended Apple against the untruths that the haters so enjoy spewing. I encouraged my wife to buy a MacBook when she needed a new laptop two years ago, and I often recommend them to my friends and relatives. I have proudly and happily used my first generation iPhone for nearly three years. Now, for the first time in well over ten years, I find myself ready to swear off Apple and encourage everyone I know to do the same. I was disappointed when Apple wouldn't allow native apps, but I still bought the iPhone. I've stomached their ambiguous app approval process even though it's apparent that Steve may just reject your app because he doesn't like you or feels threatened by you (I'm still lamenting the rejection of the Google Voice app). But, as a developer, I can no longer tolerate Apple's terms and the kind of totalitarian control they indicate Apple wants. In case you are not already familiar, Apple has dictated in their OS 4.0 SDK license agreement (the now infamous Section 3.3.1) that all apps developed for the iPhone must be coded in C, C++, or Objective C, and moreover, that using any cross-compiling platforms is a violation of the agreement. For those of you who aren't developers, let me try to illustrate why this angers those of us who are. Imagine you're a professional writer. You've had articles published in some journals and magazines, and you've got a couple popular books out there, too. You've got an idea for a new book, and so you take it to your publisher. Your publisher agrees that it's a good idea. "But," says the publisher, "we want to hold our books to a tighter standard so that our readers get the experience we want them to have. Therefore, from now on, all our writers may only use words from this list of the 10,000 most common English words. Furthermore, if you cite any other works or quote anyone, they must comply with that same list, or you'll have to rewrite the entire work as well in case our readers want to look up your citation." What do you do? If your work is a children's book, this probably isn't a big deal to you. If it's an autobiography, textbook, or even a novel, though, you're going to have a lot of trouble describing your content with only common words. It's going to take you longer to complete your book, too, since you'll be looking up less common words frequently to see if you can use them. You could always go to another publisher, but this one has the best ability to distribute your book. The next largest distributor can only do a quarter as much. You could abandon the project altogether, but then everyone loses. Isn't this a silly scenario? Who would put such a limitation on writers? Yet this is very much what Apple is doing. They are using their dominant position in the market to coerce developers to write their apps exclusively for the iPhone OS by making it too expensive to write for multiple platforms. It is at least a threefold attack, striking at Adobe who is set to release a compiler that lets Flash source be compiled to iPhone binaries; striking at Google whose Android platform stands the best chance at the moment of providing serious competition to the iPhone; and reinforcing their own strong position by keeping popular apps exclusively to iPhone. And while developers are already very upset about this, the sad fact is that most of us will cave and give in to Apple because consumers don't know any better. They will continue to buy Apple's toy forcing developers to play Apple's maniacal game in order to make any money, at least until Steve Jobs decides he doesn't like them or he intends to release a competing application (bye-bye OpenFeint). Apple has been kept in check on the desktop front by a very dominant Microsoft, but I'm afraid that their success with iPods, iTunes, and iPhones has created a monster that we may have to bear until it is slain by an anti-trust suit or dies with the retirement of Steve Jobs.

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  • How to introduce a computer illiterate 50-year old to programming [closed]

    - by sunday
    The other day my dad asked me a question that I would have never expected from him. "How can I learn C++?" My dad is turning 56 this year and computers are a distant concept for him. He doesn't know how to use a phone very well besides calling numbers (no speed dial or contacts); though he has started to learn computers a little better - to the point that he knows how to open the internet (in Windows) and browse around (and has successfully completed several job applications entirely on his own online, of which he was offered positions too). But still, these are too narrow-windowed experiences to mean much, really. While he may not have the background, my dad knows how to read. And I mean reading as a skill, not just an ability. He has little to no college education (financial problems, family, etc.) and was fortunate enough to finish high school, but still taught himself to become a master electrician and has been one for almost 30 years now. He did the same with guitar, learning to play at a very professional level and has been praised for his skill. In high school, he picked up a weight lifting book - and was the only person in his high school at the time to qualify officially as an "athlete" by national standards. In all cases, he just needed something to read. Something to teach him. He absorbs information like a sponge. I have no doubt in my dad's motivation or capability of doing this, so my general goal is simply: Get my dad into the world of computers, and get him on the road to programming. I strongly believe that once I get him through the fundamentals, his drive and reading skill will keep him going on this own. So I'm asking you all: where should I start with all this? And what are the best resources out there? Should I get him to start Linux instead of Windows? Is C++ a bad idea? Remember, he needs to (IMO) learn computers first, and then get that first grasp (the "Hello world" experience) of programming. For money's sake and at top preference, I'd like free online resources that he can read, but by all means any good suggestions in print or paid-for-online are welcome (that I could possibly look into later to purchase). And also, I intend to start him off with C++ (no Python, Java, etc.), because I know it the best and will be able to help him along the way with code. (I have minimal knowledge right now in other languages). Edit: I'm getting a lot of persistent suggestions to use Python. The only reason I wanted to do C++ is that I KNOW it and can be THERE when my dad needs help. My VERY FIRST exposure to programming ever was Java. I learned Java, and I got good at it. I open to other suggestions, but please provide an effective application of your suggestions. EDIT #2: I understand my approach/thinking/knowledge could be lacking here. I'm a sophomore level undergraduate CS major. If you don't agree with anything in my post, tell me why - give me ideas, information - that's why I'm asking in the first place. To narrow down my general goal to specific reachable goals.

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  • JTF Tranlsation Festival 2011

    - by user13133135
    ?????????????????????? (MT) ??????????????????????? JTF ????????????????????????????????????????????????? ???5??!???21?JTF???????? ? ??:2011?11?29?(?)9:30~20:30(??9:00) ? ??:??????????(????)?(??) ? ??:(?)?????? ??:JTF?????????? ? http://www.jtf.jp/jp/festival/festival_top.html ????????????????????????????????MT ????????????????????????????????????????????????? 90 ???!??(!?)?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ????????????????? http://www.jtf.jp/jp/festival/festival_program.html#koen_04 ?????????????????????????????? English:  It's been a while since the last post... I have been working on machine translation (MT) and post editing (PE) for Japanese.  Last year was my first step in MT+PE area, and I would take this year as an advanced step.  I plan to talk over Post editing 2011 (Advanced Step) on November 27 at JTF Translation Festival.  ?5 days before application due? 21st JTF Translation Festival ? Date:Nov 29, 2011 Tuesday 9:30~20:30(Gate open: 9:00) ? Place:Arcadia Ichigaya Tokyo ? http://www.jtf.jp/jp/festival/festival_top.html In this session, I would like to expand the thought on "how to best utilize MT and PE" either from the view of Client and Translator.  I will show some examples of post editing as a guideline to know what is the best way and most effective way to do post-edit for Japanese.  Also, I will discuss what is the best practice for MT users (Client). The session lasts 90 minutes... sound a little long for me, but I want to spend more time for discussion than last year.  It would be great to exchange thought or experiences about MT and PE.  What is your concerns or problems in the daily work with MT ?  If you have some, please bring them to my session at JTF Translation Festival.  Here is my session details (Japanese): http://www.jtf.jp/jp/festival/festival_program.html#koen_04 Here is the outline of my session: What is the advantage of MT ? Does it solve all the problems about cost, resource, and quality ?  Well, it is not a magic.  So, you cannot expect all at once.  When you have a problem, there are 3 options... 1. Be patient and wait until everything is ready, 2. Run a workaround using anything available now, 3. Find out something completely new and spend time and money. This time, I will focus Option 2 - do something with what we already have.  That is, I will discuss how we can best utilize MT in our daily business.  My view is two ways: From Client point of view, and From Translator point of view Looking forward to meeting many people and exchanging thoughts and information!

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  • Cloud Fact for Business Managers #3: Where You Data Is, and Who Has Access to It Might Surprise You

    - by yaldahhakim
    Written by: David Krauss While data security and operational risk conversations usually happen around the desk of a CCO/CSO (chief compliance and/or security officer), or perhaps the CFO, since business managers are now selecting cloud providers, they need to be able to at least ask some high-level questions on the topic of risk and compliance.  While the report found that 76% of adopters were motivated to adopt cloud apps because of quick access to software, most of these managers found that after they made a purchase decision their access to exciting new capabilities in the cloud could be hindered due to performance and scalability constraints put forth  by their cloud provider.  If you are going to let your business consume their mission critical business applications as a service, then it’s important to understand who is providing those cloud services and what kind of performance you are going to get.  Different types of departments, companies and industries will all have unique requirements so it’s key to take this also into consideration.   Nothing puts a CEO in a bad mood like a public data breach or finding out the company lost money when customers couldn’t buy a product or service because your cloud service provider had a problem.  With 42% of business managers having seen a data security breach in their department associated directly with the use of cloud applications, this is happening more than you think.   We’ve talked about the importance of being able to avoid information silos through a unified cloud approach and platform.  This is also important when keeping your data safe and secure, and a key conversation to have with your cloud provider.  Your customers want to know that their information is protected when they do business with you, just like you want your own company information protected.   This is really hard to do when each line of business is running different cloud application services managed by different cloud providers, all with different processes and controls.   It only adds to the complexity, and the more complex, the more risky and the chance that something will go wrong. What about compliance? Depending on the cloud provider, it can be difficult at best to understand who has access to your data, and were your data is actually stored.  Add to this multiple cloud providers spanning multiple departments and it becomes very problematic when trying to comply with certain industry and country data security regulations.  With 73% of business managers complaining that having cloud data handled externally by one or more cloud vendors makes it hard for their department to be compliant, this is a big time suck for executives and it puts the organization at risk. Is There A Complete, Integrated, Modern Cloud Out there for Business Executives?If you are a business manager looking to drive faster innovation for your business and want a cloud application that your CIO would approve of, I would encourage you take a look at Oracle Cloud.  It’s everything you want from a SaaS based application, but without compromising on functionality and other modern capabilities like embedded business intelligence, social relationship management (for your entire business), and advanced mobile.  And because Oracle Cloud is built and managed by Oracle, you can be confident that your cloud application services are enterprise-grade.  Over 25 Million users and 10 thousands companies around the globe rely on Oracle Cloud application services everyday – maybe your business should too.  For more information, visit cloud.oracle.com. Additional Resources •    Try it: cloud.oracle.com•    Learn more: http://www.oracle.com/us/corporate/features/complete-cloud/index.html•    Research Report: Cloud for Business Managers: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

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  • F# Objects &ndash; Integration with the other .Net Languages &ndash; Part 2

    - by MarkPearl
    So in part one of my posting I covered the real basics of object creation. Today I will hopefully dig a little deeper… My expert F# book brings up an interesting point – properties in F# are just syntactic sugar for method calls. This makes sense… for instance assume I had the following object with the property exposed called Firstname. type Person(Firstname : string, Lastname : string) = member v.Firstname = Firstname I could extend the Firstname property with the following code and everything would be hunky dory… type Person(Firstname : string, Lastname : string) = member v.Firstname = Console.WriteLine("Side Effect") Firstname   All that this would do is each time I use the property Firstname, I would see the side effect printed to the screen saying “Side Effect”. Member methods have a very similar look & feel to properties, in fact the only difference really is that you declare that parameters are being passed in. type Person(Firstname : string, Lastname : string) = member v.FullName(middleName) = Firstname + " " + middleName + " " + Lastname   In the code above, FullName requires the parameter middleName, and if viewed from another project in C# would show as a method and not a property. Precomputation Optimizations Okay, so something that is obvious once you think of it but that poses an interesting side effect of mutable value holders is pre-computation of results. All it is, is a slight difference in code but can result in quite a huge saving in performance. Basically pre-computation means you would not need to compute a value every time a method is called – but could perform the computation at the creation of the object (I hope I have got it right). In a way I battle to differentiate this from lazy evaluation but I will show an example to explain the principle. Let me try and show an example to illustrate the principle… assume the following F# module namespace myNamespace open System module myMod = let Add val1 val2 = Console.WriteLine("Compute") val1 + val2 type MathPrecompute(val1 : int, val2 : int) = let precomputedsum = Add val1 val2 member v.Sum = precomputedsum type MathNormalCompute(val1 : int, val2 : int) = member v.Sum = Add val1 val2 Now assume you have a C# console app that makes use of the objects with code similar to the following… using System; using myNamespace; namespace CSharpTest { class Program { static void Main(string[] args) { Console.WriteLine("Constructing Objects"); var myObj1 = new myMod.MathNormalCompute(10, 11); var myObj2 = new myMod.MathPrecompute(10, 11); Console.WriteLine(""); Console.WriteLine("Normal Compute Sum..."); Console.WriteLine(myObj1.Sum); Console.WriteLine(myObj1.Sum); Console.WriteLine(myObj1.Sum); Console.WriteLine(""); Console.WriteLine("Pre Compute Sum..."); Console.WriteLine(myObj2.Sum); Console.WriteLine(myObj2.Sum); Console.WriteLine(myObj2.Sum); Console.ReadKey(); } } } The output when running the console application would be as follows…. You will notice with the normal compute object that the system would call the Add function every time the method was called. With the Precompute object it only called the compute method when the object was created. Subtle, but something that could lead to major performance benefits. So… this post has gone off in a slight tangent but still related to F# objects.

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  • The new direction of the gaming industry

    - by raccoon_tim
    Just recently I read a great blog post by David Darling, the founder of Codemasters: http://www.develop-online.net/blog/347/Jurassic-consoles-could-become-extinct. In the blog post he talks about how traditional retail games are experiencing a downfall thanks to the increasing popularity of digital distribution. I personally think of retail games as being relics of the past. It does not really make much sense to still keep distributing boxed games when the same game can be elegantly downloaded and updated over the air through a digital distribution channel. The world is not all rainbows, however. One big issue with mixing digital distribution with boxed retail games is that resellers will not condone you selling your game for 10€ digitally while their selling the same game for 70€. The only way to get around this issue is to move to full digital distribution. This has the added benefit of minimizing piracy as the game can be tightly bound to the service you downloaded the game from. Many players are, however, complaining about not being able to play the games offline. Having games tightly bound to the internet is a problem when games are bought from a retailer as we tend to expect that once we have the product we can use it anywhere because we physically own it. The truth is that we don’t actually own the product. Instead, the typical EULA actually states that we only have a license to use the product. We’re not, for instance, allowed to disassemble the product, which the owner is indeed permitted to do. Digital distribution allows us to provide games as services, instead of selling them as standalone products. This means that for a service to work you have to be connected to the internet but you still have the same rights to use the product. It’s really straightforward; if you downloaded a client from the internet you are expected to have an internet connection so you’re able to connect to the server. A game distributed digitally that is built using a client-server architecture has the added benefit of allowing you to play anywhere as long as you have the client installed and you are able to log in with your user information. Your save games can be backed up and your game can continue anywhere. Another development we’re seeing in the gaming industry is the increasing popularity of free-to-play games. These are games that let you play for free but allow you to boost your gaming experience with real world money. The nature of these games is that players are constantly rewarded with new content and the game can evolve according to their way of playing and their wishes can be incorporated into the product. Free-to-play games can quickly gain a large player basis and monetization is done by providing players valuable things to buy making their gaming experience more fun. I am personally very excited about free-to-play games as it’s possible to start building the game together with your players and there is no need to work on the game for 5 years from start to finish and only then see if it’s actually something the players like. This is a typical problem with big movie-like retail games and recent news about Radical Entertainment practically closing its doors paints a clear picture of what can happen when the risk does not pay off: http://news.teamxbox.com/xbox/25874/Prototype-Developer-Radical-Entertainment-Closes/.

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  • ABCpdf7 Not Rendering Images using AddImageUrl

    - by ddango
    Fairly exotic it seems to me. We recently upgraded/migrated from Windows Server 2003 to 2008, and now it seems that images cannot be rendered when using Doc.AddImageUrl(). (when the pdf is saved, the images appear at the correct dimensions, but the IE8 missing image x shows up). If I understand correctly, ABCpdf uses IE rendering internally for this sort of thing. We thought it might be a permission issue, but we've check IE ESC and that seems to be configured as they suggest. Has anyone else run into a similar problem? Perhaps a code configuration is needed? Not the entire snippet, but the ABCpdf7 stuff: using (Doc doc = new Doc()) { doc.HtmlOptions.PageCacheEnabled = false; doc.HtmlOptions.UseNoCache = true; doc.HtmlOptions.PageCacheClear(); doc.HtmlOptions.PageCachePurge(); doc.HtmlOptions.UseResync = true; doc.HtmlOptions.ImageQuality = 25; int pageID = doc.AddImageUrl(url + "&guid=" + url.GetHashCode()); while (true) { if (!doc.Chainable(pageID)) break; doc.Page = doc.AddPage(); pageID = doc.AddImageToChain(pageID); } // file saving etc. }

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  • export data from WCF Service to excel

    - by Dave
    I need to provide an export to excel feature for a large amount of data returned from a WCF web service. The code to load the datalist is as below: List<resultSet> r = myObject.ReturnResultSet(myWebRequestUrl); //call to WCF service myDataList.DataSource = r; myDataList.DataBind(); I am using the Reponse object to do the job: Response.Clear(); Response.Buffer = true; Response.ContentType = "application/vnd.ms-excel"; Response.AddHeader("Content-Disposition", "attachment; filename=MyExcel.xls"); StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder(); StringWriter sw = new StringWriter(sb); HtmlTextWriter tw = new HtmlTextWriter(sw); myDataList.RenderControl(tw); Response.Write(sb.ToString()); Response.End(); The problem is that WCF Service times out for large amount of data (about 5000 rows) and the result set is null. When I debug the service, I can see the window for saving/opening the excel sheet appear before the service returns the result and hence the excel sheet is always empty. Please help me figure this out.

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  • iPhone Inspiration Stories...

    - by Luis Tovar
    So we have all heard of these overnight millionaires in the app store. We know it would be great, but somewhat unlikely to do ourselves. What I do know is, that learning and developing for the iPhone can sometimes be overwhelming. I continue to push on and learn more and more, even when my brain just cant take anymore I turn my mac on and read up on how to do new and different things I haven't done yet in my app yet. I would like to see a few post's of a common day developer's story and how their life has improved now that they are sitting up on the golden pedestal of an iphone developer. I look at these Dice.com jobs on think how nice it would be to be making that kind of money offered for an experienced iphone developer. Im on my way... and while I'm on that road i'd like to look over and see your story... Please include how you got into iPhone development and any apps you have out there and your success with them. Care to share?

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  • Obtaining MFC Feature Pack GUI elements in .NET WinForms

    - by Cody Gray
    The MFC Feature Pack (and VS 2010) adds out-of-the-box support for several "modern" GUI elements (such as MDI with tabbed documents, the ribbon, and a Visual Studio-style interface with docking panels). These are a boon to those of us that have to support legacy MFC-based applications and want to update their look-and-feel, and a sign that Microsoft has not completely abandoned unmanaged C++ development. However, with the push so strongly in favor of .NET, WinForms, and managed code (and for plenty of good reasons), there seems little reason to develop new applications in unmanaged C++/MFC. The question then becomes how does one obtain these GUI elements in a WinForms application. Almost all of the add-ons and libraries I have found so far cost money, and introduce additional dependencies. I don't have a budget to buy third-party libraries, and the controls provided by Microsoft in MFC for free seem sufficient for our needs. But I still have reservations about learning MFC to develop a new application. Not only does the investment in time seem significant (by all accounts, MFC seems particularly difficult to learn, even for experienced .NET developers--although I am willing to try), but the question of MFC's lifespan is raised as well. Certainly, given the millions of lines of code and existing apps written in native C++, it will be around for some time, but the handwriting seems to be on the wall, so to speak, that it's no longer Microsoft's touted development platform. It seems like these features should be available by now in WinForms without the need for third-party add-ons, or devoting a lot of time and resources to custom-drawing EVERYTHING. Am I just missing something? I find very little online that compares these new features of MFC to what is available in WinForms, mainly because most everything written on MFC pre-dated its most recent update, before which it looked admitted "dated," and with its other flaws, was hardly an appealing platform for new development. With the very recent release of VS 2010, we have a while to wait before WinForms gets updated again. What routes are you guys taking for applications whose customers demand a modern-looking UI on a budget?

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  • Xcode: Unable to open project... cannot be opened because the project file cannot be parsed...

    - by Chris Butler
    Hi everyone. I have been working for a while to create an iPhone app. Today when my battery was low, I was working and constantly saving my source files then the power went out... Now when I plugged my computer back in and it is getting good power I try to open my project file and I get an error: "Unable to Open Project Project ... cannot be opened because the project file cannot be parsed." Is there a way that people know of that I can recover from this? I tried using an older project file and re inserting it and then compiling. It gives me a funky error which is probably because it isn't finding all the files it wants... I really don't want to rebuild my project from scratch if possible. Thanks in advance. EDIT Ok, I did a diff between this and a slightly older project file that worked and saw that there was some corruption in the file. After merging them (the good and newest parts) it is now working. Great points about the SVN. I have one, but there has been some funkiness trying to sync XCode with it. I'll definitely spend more time with it now... ;-) Thanks for everyone's comments and suggestions.

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  • Cannot get Correct month for a call from call log history

    - by Nishant Kumar
    I am trying to extract information from the call log of the android. I am getting the call date that is one month back from the actual time of call. I mean to say that the information extracted by my code for the date of call is one mont back than the actual call date. I have the following in the Emulator: I saved a contact. Then I made a call to the contact. Code: I have 3 ways of extracting call Date information but getting the same wrong result. My code is as follows: /* Make the query to call log content */ Cursor callLogResult = context.getContentResolver().query( CallLog.Calls.CONTENT_URI, null, null, null, null); int columnIndex = callLogResult.getColumnIndex(Calls.DATE); Long timeInResult = callLogResult.getLong(columnIndex); /* Method 1 to change the milliseconds obtained to the readable date formate */ Time time = new Time(); time.toMillis(true); time.set(timeInResult); String callDate= time.monthDay+"-"+time.month+"-"+time.year; /* Method 2 for extracting the date from tha value read from the column */ Calendar calendar = Calendar.getInstance(); calendar.setTimeInMillis(time); String Month = calendar.get(Calendar.MONTH) ; /* Method 3 for extracting date from the result obtained */ Date date = new Date(timeInResult); String mont = date.getMonth() While using the Calendar method , I also tried to set the DayLight SAving Offset but it didnot worked, calendar.setTimeZone(TimeZone.getTimeZone("Europe/Paris")); int DST_OFFSET = calendar.get( Calendar.DST_OFFSET ); // DST_OFFSET Boolean isSet = calendar.getTimeZone().useDaylightTime(); if(isSet) calendar.set(Calendar.DST_OFFSET , 0); int reCheck = calendar.get(Calendar.DST_OFFSET ); But the value is not set to 0 in recheck. I am getting the wrong month value by using this also. Please some one help me where I am wrong? or is this the error in emulator ?? Thanks, Nishant Kumar Engineering Student

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  • Drawing custom graphics on the iPhone: CALayer vs. CGContext

    - by Henry Cooke
    Hi all, I have an application in which I'm doing some custom drawing, a bunch of lines on a gradient background, like so (ignore the text, they're just UILabels): At the moment, that's all done by starting a new CGContext, drawing stuff into it with CGContextDrawLinearGradient and CGContextStrokePath, then finally saving the resulting image with UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext. The positioning info is calculated while I'm laying out those labels, so it'd be a PITA (and duplication of effort) to calculate it all over again when the containing UIView is drawn with drawRect, so I'm drawing it ahead of time into a UIImage. All works fine, so far so good. However, I have a sneaking suspicion that it may be more efficient to use CALayers to do this drawing. My (cursory) understanding of the difference between the two approaches is that a CALayer is more like a bunch of instructions to draw stuff, and so takes up less memory until it's actually drawn onscreen, whereas drawing everything into a UIImage ahead of time means that you've got a sodding great bitmap kicking around in memory all the time, whether it's drawn or not. Is that a correct understanding? What is generally considered to be the best way of drawing custom images on the iPhone?

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  • Log in/out of Gmail chat programmatically, clicking Gmail's span "links"

    - by endolith
    At work, I use Gmail's chat, since it's encrypted and logs chats without installing or saving anything to the hard drive. At home, I use Pidgin. When I log into GMail at home, I have to log out of chat, or messages will end up in the wrong place. When I log into GMail at work, I have to log back in to chat. In other words, when I start Firefox at home, I want Gmail's chat disabled automatically. When I start Firefox at work, I want Gmail's chat enabled automatically. Is there a way to use a Greasemonkey script or similar to force logging in and logging out on specific machines? It would seem simple enough; just follow a URL or simulate clicking a link. Unfortunately, Gmail doesn't use actual links. While logged out: <span tabindex="0" role="link" action="si" class="az9OKd">Sign into chat</span> While logged in, in drop-down menu: <div tabindex="-1" id=":1mj" role="menuitem" class="oA" value="si"><div class="uQ c6"/>Sign into chat</div> <div tabindex="-1" id=":8f" role="menuitem" class="oA" value="sia"><div class="uQ c5"/>Sign into AIM®</div> <div tabindex="-1" id=":8e" role="menuitem" class="oA" value="so"><div class="uQ df"/>Sign out of chat</div> At bottom of page: <span id=":im" class="l8 ou" tabindex="0" role="link">turn off chat</span> <span id=":im" class="l8 ou" tabindex="0" role="link">turn on chat</span> Anyone know how to "click" these non-links with JavaScript or access their functions? I would imagine that "so" means "sign out", "si" means "sign in", and "sia" means "sign in AIM". Can I somehow call these actions directly? Is there some other alternative for disabling chat?

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  • DataGridView row is still dirty after committing changes

    - by Ecyrb
    DataGridView.IsCurrentRowDirty remains true after I commit changes to the database. I want to set it to false so it doesn't trigger RowValidating when it loses focus. I have a DataGridView bound to a BindingList<T>. I handle the CellEndEdit event and save changes to the database. After saving those changes I would like DataGridView.IsCurrentRowDirty to be set to true, since all cells in the row are up-to-date; however, it's set to false. This causes problems for me because when the row does lose focus it will trigger RowValidating, which I handle and validate all three cells in. So even though all the cells are valid and none are dirty it will still validate them all. That's a waste. Here's an example of what I have: void dataGridView_CellValidating(object sender, DataGridViewCellValidatingEventArgs e) { // Ignore cell if it's not dirty if (dataGridView.isCurrentCellDirty) return; // Validate current cell. } void dataGridView_RowValidating(object sender, DataGridViewCellCancelEventArgs e) { // Ignore Row if it's not dirty if (!dataGridView.IsCurrentRowDirty) return; // Validate all cells in the current row. } void dataGridView_CellEndEdit(object sender, DataGridViewCellEventArgs e) { // Validate all cells in the current row and return if any are invalid. // If they are valid, save changes to the database // This is when I would expect dataGridView.IsCurrentRowDirty to be false. // When this row loses focus it will trigger RowValidating and validate all // cells in this row, which we already did above. } I've read posts that said I could call the form's Validate() method, but that will cause RowValidating to fire, which is what I'm trying to avoid. Any idea how I can set DataGridView.IsCurrentRowDirty to true? Or maybe a way to prevent RowValidating from unnecessarily validating all the cells?

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  • Changing the Android emulator locale automatically

    - by Christopher
    For automated testing (using Hudson) I have a script that generates a bunch of emulators for many combinations of Android OS version, screen resolution, screen density and language. This works fine, except for the language part. I need to find a way to change the Android system locale automatically. Here's some approaches I can think of, in order of preference: Extracting/editing/repacking a QEMU image directly before starting the emulator Running some sort of system-locale-changing APK on the emulator after startup Changing the locale settings on the emulator filesystem after startup Changing the locale settings in some SQLite DB on the emulator after startup Running a key sequence (via the emulator's telnet interface) that would open the settings app and change the locale Manually starting the emulator for each platform version, changing the locale by hand in the settings, saving it and archiving the images for later deployment Any ideas whether this can be done, either via the above methods or otherwise? Do you know where locale settings are persisted to/read from by the system? Solution: Thanks to dtmilano's info about the relevant properties, and some further investigation on my part, I came up with a solution even better and simpler simpler than all the ideas above! I have updated the answer below with the details.

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  • jqGrid local data manipulation; problem with row ids when deleting and adding new rows

    - by Sam
    I'm using jqGrid as a client side grid input, allowing the user to input multiple records before POSTing all the data back at once. I'm having a problem where if the user has added a few records (say 3 ) the id's for the records will be 1,2,3. if the user deletes record 2, you're left with 1 and 3 for the id of the records. When the user now adds a new records, jqGrid assigns that records the id 3 again since it just seems to count the total records and increments it by one for the new record. This causes problems when selecting rows as now the row id's are 1, 3 and 3. Does anyone know how to access the row ids of records as I could probably use the afterSubmit event and reassign the row id's increasing from 1. ( so after i delete row id 2, this will set the other row id's to 1 and 2) Any other suggestions to solve this problem? Thanks edit I've solved this with the following code for the delete navGrid button }).navGrid('#pager', {add:true, del:true, refresh:false, search:false}, { ... }, ##edit parameters { ... }, ##add parameters {reloadAfterSubmit:false, clearAfterAdd:false, afterComplete: function () { ## clear and readd the row data so the row ids are sequential var savedData= $("#inputgrid").jqGrid('getRowData'); $("#inputgrid").jqGrid('clearGridData'); $("#inputgrid").jqGrid('addRowData', 'rn', savedData); } } ##delete parameters ); Basically just saving the grid data and then re-adding it so that the rowids are sequential again. For some reason it causes the row numbers down the left side to go start from 2 instead of one. Edit this was solved by using the latest jqGrid code in GitHub (27th April 2010)

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  • AppEngine JRuby - OutOfMemoryError: Java heap space - can it be solved?

    - by elado
    I use AppEngine JRuby on Rails (SDK version 1.3.3.1) - a problem I encounter often is that after a few requests the server is getting really SLOW, until it dies and throws OutOfMemoryError on the terminal (OSX). The requests themselves are very lightweight, not more than looking for an entity or saving it, using DataMapper. On appspot, this problem is not happening. Is there any way to enlarge the heap space for JRuby? The exception log: Exception in thread "Timer-2" java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: Java heap space Apr 29, 2010 8:08:22 AM com.google.apphosting.utils.jetty.JettyLogger warn WARNING: Error for /users/close_users java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: Java heap space at org.jruby.RubyHash.internalPut(RubyHash.java:480) at org.jruby.RubyHash.internalPut(RubyHash.java:461) at org.jruby.RubyHash.fastASet(RubyHash.java:837) at org.jruby.RubyArray.makeHash(RubyArray.java:2998) at org.jruby.RubyArray.makeHash(RubyArray.java:2992) at org.jruby.RubyArray.op_diff(RubyArray.java:3103) at org.jruby.RubyArray$i_method_1_0$RUBYINVOKER$op_diff.call(org/jruby/RubyArray$i_method_1_0$RUBYINVOKER$op_diff.gen) at org.jruby.runtime.callsite.CachingCallSite.call(CachingCallSite.java:146) at org.jruby.ast.CallOneArgNode.interpret(CallOneArgNode.java:57) at org.jruby.ast.LocalAsgnNode.interpret(LocalAsgnNode.java:123) at org.jruby.ast.NewlineNode.interpret(NewlineNode.java:104) at org.jruby.ast.BlockNode.interpret(BlockNode.java:71) at org.jruby.runtime.InterpretedBlock.evalBlockBody(InterpretedBlock.java:373) at org.jruby.runtime.InterpretedBlock.yield(InterpretedBlock.java:346) at org.jruby.runtime.InterpretedBlock.yield(InterpretedBlock.java:303) at org.jruby.runtime.Block.yield(Block.java:194) at org.jruby.RubyArray.collect(RubyArray.java:2354) at org.jruby.RubyArray$i_method_0_0$RUBYFRAMEDINVOKER$collect.call(org/jruby/RubyArray$i_method_0_0$RUBYFRAMEDINVOKER$collect.gen) at org.jruby.runtime.callsite.CachingCallSite.callBlock(CachingCallSite.java:115) at org.jruby.runtime.callsite.CachingCallSite.call(CachingCallSite.java:122) at org.jruby.ast.CallNoArgBlockNode.interpret(CallNoArgBlockNode.java:64) at org.jruby.ast.CallNoArgNode.interpret(CallNoArgNode.java:61) at org.jruby.ast.LocalAsgnNode.interpret(LocalAsgnNode.java:123) at org.jruby.ast.NewlineNode.interpret(NewlineNode.java:104) at org.jruby.ast.BlockNode.interpret(BlockNode.java:71) at org.jruby.ast.EnsureNode.interpret(EnsureNode.java:98) at org.jruby.ast.BeginNode.interpret(BeginNode.java:83) at org.jruby.ast.NewlineNode.interpret(NewlineNode.java:104) at org.jruby.ast.BlockNode.interpret(BlockNode.java:71) at org.jruby.ast.EnsureNode.interpret(EnsureNode.java:96) at org.jruby.internal.runtime.methods.InterpretedMethod.call(InterpretedMethod.java:201) at org.jruby.internal.runtime.methods.DefaultMethod.call(DefaultMethod.java:183)

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  • Returning a list from a function in Python

    - by Jasper
    Hi, I'm creating a game for my sister, and I want a function to return a list variable, so I can pass it to another variable. The relevant code is as follows: def startNewGame(): while 1: #Introduction: print print """Hello, You will now be guided through the setup process. There are 7 steps to this. You can cancel setup at any time by typing 'cancelSetup' Thankyou""" #Step 1 (Name): print print """Step 1 of 7: Type in a name for your PotatoHead: """ inputPHName = raw_input('|Enter Name:|') if inputPHName == 'cancelSetup': sys.exit() #Step 2 (Gender): print print """Step 2 of 7: Choose the gender of your PotatoHead: input either 'm' or 'f' """ inputPHGender = raw_input('|Enter Gender:|') if inputPHGender == 'cancelSetup': sys.exit() #Step 3 (Colour): print print """Step 3 of 7: Choose the colour your PotatoHead will be: Only Red, Blue, Green and Yellow are currently supported """ inputPHColour = raw_input('|Enter Colour:|') if inputPHColour == 'cancelSetup': sys.exit() #Step 4 (Favourite Thing): print print """Step 4 of 7: Type your PotatoHead's favourite thing: """ inputPHFavThing = raw_input('|Enter Favourite Thing:|') if inputPHFavThing == 'cancelSetup': sys.exit() # Step 5 (First Toy): print print """Step 5 of 7: Choose a first toy for your PotatoHead: """ inputPHFirstToy = raw_input('|Enter First Toy:|') if inputPHFirstToy == 'cancelSetup': sys.exit() #Step 6 (Check stats): while 1: print print """Step 6 of 7: Check the following details to make sure that they are correct: """ print print """Name:\t\t\t""" + inputPHName + """ Gender:\t\t\t""" + inputPHGender + """ Colour:\t\t\t""" + inputPHColour + """ Favourite Thing:\t""" + inputPHFavThing + """ First Toy:\t\t""" + inputPHFirstToy + """ """ print print "Enter 'y' or 'n'" inputMCheckStats = raw_input('|Is this information correct?|') if inputMCheckStats == 'cancelSetup': sys.exit() elif inputMCheckStats == 'y': break elif inputMCheckStats == 'n': print "Re-enter info: ..." print break else: "The value you entered was incorrect, please re-enter your choice" if inputMCheckStats == 'y': break #Step 7 (Define variables for the creation of the PotatoHead): MFCreatePH = [] print print """Step 7 of 7: Your PotatoHead will now be created... Creating variables... """ MFCreatePH = [inputPHName, inputPHGender, inputPHColour, inputPHFavThing, inputPHFirstToy] time.sleep(1) print "inputPHName" print time.sleep(1) print "inputPHFirstToy" print return MFCreatePH print "Your PotatoHead varibles have been successfully created!" Then it is passed to another function that was imported from another module from potatohead import * ... welcomeMessage() MCreatePH = startGame() myPotatoHead = PotatoHead(MCreatePH) the code for the PotatoHead object is in the potatohead.py module which was imported above, and is as follows: class PotatoHead: #Initialise the PotatoHead object: def __init__(self, data): self.data = data #Takes the data from the start new game function - see main.py #Defines the PotatoHead starting attributes: self.name = data[0] self.gender = data[1] self.colour = data[2] self.favouriteThing = data[3] self.firstToy = data[4] self.age = '0.0' self.education = [self.eduScience, self.eduEnglish, self.eduMaths] = '0.0', '0.0', '0.0' self.fitness = '0.0' self.happiness = '10.0' self.health = '10.0' self.hunger = '0.0' self.tiredness = 'Not in this version' self.toys = [] self.toys.append(self.firstToy) self.time = '0' #Sets data lists for saving, loading and general use: self.phData = (self.name, self.gender, self.colour, self.favouriteThing, self.firstToy) self.phAdvData = (self.name, self.gender, self.colour, self.favouriteThing, self.firstToy, self.age, self.education, self.fitness, self.happiness, self.health, self.hunger, self.tiredness, self.toys) However, when I run the program this error appears: Traceback (most recent call last): File "/Users/Jasper/Documents/Programming/Potato Head Game/Current/main.py", line 158, in <module> myPotatoHead = PotatoHead(MCreatePH) File "/Users/Jasper/Documents/Programming/Potato Head Game/Current/potatohead.py", line 15, in __init__ self.name = data[0] TypeError: 'NoneType' object is unsubscriptable What am i doing wrong? -----EDIT----- The program finishes as so: Step 7 of 7: Your PotatoHead will now be created... Creating variables... inputPHName inputPHFirstToy Then it goes to the Tracback -----EDIT2----- This is the EXACT code I'm running in its entirety: #+--------------------------------------+# #| main.py |# #| A main module for the Potato Head |# #| Game to pull the other modules |# #| together and control through user |# #| input |# #| Author: |# #| Date Created / Modified: |# #| 3/2/10 | 20/2/10 |# #+--------------------------------------+# Tested: No #Import the required modules: import time import random import sys from potatohead import * from toy import * #Start the Game: def welcomeMessage(): print "----- START NEW GAME -----------------------" print "==Print Welcome Message==" print "loading... \t loading... \t loading..." time.sleep(1) print "loading..." time.sleep(1) print "LOADED..." print; print; print; print """Hello, Welcome to the Potato Head Game. In this game you can create a Potato Head, and look after it, like a Virtual Pet. This game is constantly being updated and expanded. Please look out for updates. """ #Choose whether to start a new game or load a previously saved game: def startGame(): while 1: print "--------------------" print """ Choose an option: New_Game or Load_Game """ startGameInput = raw_input('>>> >') if startGameInput == 'New_Game': startNewGame() break elif startGameInput == 'Load_Game': print "This function is not yet supported" print "Try Again" print else: print "You must have mistyped the command: Type either 'New_Game' or 'Load_Game'" print #Set the new game up: def startNewGame(): while 1: #Introduction: print print """Hello, You will now be guided through the setup process. There are 7 steps to this. You can cancel setup at any time by typing 'cancelSetup' Thankyou""" #Step 1 (Name): print print """Step 1 of 7: Type in a name for your PotatoHead: """ inputPHName = raw_input('|Enter Name:|') if inputPHName == 'cancelSetup': sys.exit() #Step 2 (Gender): print print """Step 2 of 7: Choose the gender of your PotatoHead: input either 'm' or 'f' """ inputPHGender = raw_input('|Enter Gender:|') if inputPHGender == 'cancelSetup': sys.exit() #Step 3 (Colour): print print """Step 3 of 7: Choose the colour your PotatoHead will be: Only Red, Blue, Green and Yellow are currently supported """ inputPHColour = raw_input('|Enter Colour:|') if inputPHColour == 'cancelSetup': sys.exit() #Step 4 (Favourite Thing): print print """Step 4 of 7: Type your PotatoHead's favourite thing: """ inputPHFavThing = raw_input('|Enter Favourite Thing:|') if inputPHFavThing == 'cancelSetup': sys.exit() # Step 5 (First Toy): print print """Step 5 of 7: Choose a first toy for your PotatoHead: """ inputPHFirstToy = raw_input('|Enter First Toy:|') if inputPHFirstToy == 'cancelSetup': sys.exit() #Step 6 (Check stats): while 1: print print """Step 6 of 7: Check the following details to make sure that they are correct: """ print print """Name:\t\t\t""" + inputPHName + """ Gender:\t\t\t""" + inputPHGender + """ Colour:\t\t\t""" + inputPHColour + """ Favourite Thing:\t""" + inputPHFavThing + """ First Toy:\t\t""" + inputPHFirstToy + """ """ print print "Enter 'y' or 'n'" inputMCheckStats = raw_input('|Is this information correct?|') if inputMCheckStats == 'cancelSetup': sys.exit() elif inputMCheckStats == 'y': break elif inputMCheckStats == 'n': print "Re-enter info: ..." print break else: "The value you entered was incorrect, please re-enter your choice" if inputMCheckStats == 'y': break #Step 7 (Define variables for the creation of the PotatoHead): MFCreatePH = [] print print """Step 7 of 7: Your PotatoHead will now be created... Creating variables... """ MFCreatePH = [inputPHName, inputPHGender, inputPHColour, inputPHFavThing, inputPHFirstToy] time.sleep(1) print "inputPHName" print time.sleep(1) print "inputPHFirstToy" print return MFCreatePH print "Your PotatoHead varibles have been successfully created!" #Run Program: welcomeMessage() MCreatePH = startGame() myPotatoHead = PotatoHead(MCreatePH) The potatohead.py module is as follows: #+--------------------------------------+# #| potatohead.py |# #| A module for the Potato Head Game |# #| Author: |# #| Date Created / Modified: |# #| 24/1/10 | 24/1/10 |# #+--------------------------------------+# Tested: Yes (24/1/10) #Create the PotatoHead class: class PotatoHead: #Initialise the PotatoHead object: def __init__(self, data): self.data = data #Takes the data from the start new game function - see main.py #Defines the PotatoHead starting attributes: self.name = data[0] self.gender = data[1] self.colour = data[2] self.favouriteThing = data[3] self.firstToy = data[4] self.age = '0.0' self.education = [self.eduScience, self.eduEnglish, self.eduMaths] = '0.0', '0.0', '0.0' self.fitness = '0.0' self.happiness = '10.0' self.health = '10.0' self.hunger = '0.0' self.tiredness = 'Not in this version' self.toys = [] self.toys.append(self.firstToy) self.time = '0' #Sets data lists for saving, loading and general use: self.phData = (self.name, self.gender, self.colour, self.favouriteThing, self.firstToy) self.phAdvData = (self.name, self.gender, self.colour, self.favouriteThing, self.firstToy, self.age, self.education, self.fitness, self.happiness, self.health, self.hunger, self.tiredness, self.toys) #Define the phStats variable, enabling easy display of PotatoHead attributes: def phDefStats(self): self.phStats = """Your Potato Head's Stats are as follows: ---------------------------------------- Name: \t\t""" + self.name + """ Gender: \t\t""" + self.gender + """ Colour: \t\t""" + self.colour + """ Favourite Thing: \t""" + self.favouriteThing + """ First Toy: \t""" + self.firstToy + """ Age: \t\t""" + self.age + """ Education: \t""" + str(float(self.eduScience) + float(self.eduEnglish) + float(self.eduMaths)) + """ -> Science: \t""" + self.eduScience + """ -> English: \t""" + self.eduEnglish + """ -> Maths: \t""" + self.eduMaths + """ Fitness: \t""" + self.fitness + """ Happiness: \t""" + self.happiness + """ Health: \t""" + self.health + """ Hunger: \t""" + self.hunger + """ Tiredness: \t""" + self.tiredness + """ Toys: \t\t""" + str(self.toys) + """ Time: \t\t""" + self.time + """ """ #Change the PotatoHead's favourite thing: def phChangeFavouriteThing(self, newFavouriteThing): self.favouriteThing = newFavouriteThing phChangeFavouriteThingMsg = "Your Potato Head's favourite thing is " + self.favouriteThing + "." #"Feed" the Potato Head i.e. Reduce the 'self.hunger' attribute's value: def phFeed(self): if float(self.hunger) >=3.0: self.hunger = str(float(self.hunger) - 3.0) elif float(self.hunger) < 3.0: self.hunger = '0.0' self.time = str(int(self.time) + 1) #Pass time #"Exercise" the Potato Head if between the ages of 5 and 25: def phExercise(self): if float(self.age) < 5.1 or float(self.age) > 25.1: print "This Potato Head is either too young or too old for this activity!" else: if float(self.fitness) <= 8.0: self.fitness = str(float(self.fitness) + 2.0) elif float(self.fitness) > 8.0: self.fitness = '10.0' self.time = str(int(self.time) + 1) #Pass time #"Teach" the Potato Head: def phTeach(self, subject): if subject == 'Science': if float(self.eduScience) <= 9.0: self.eduScience = str(float(self.eduScience) + 1.0) elif float(self.eduScience) > 9.0 and float(self.eduScience) < 10.0: self.eduScience = '10.0' elif float(self.eduScience) == 10.0: print "Your Potato Head has gained the highest level of qualifications in this subject! It cannot learn any more!" elif subject == 'English': if float(self.eduEnglish) <= 9.0: self.eduEnglish = str(float(self.eduEnglish) + 1.0) elif float(self.eduEnglish) > 9.0 and float(self.eduEnglish) < 10.0: self.eduEnglish = '10.0' elif float(self.eduEnglish) == 10.0: print "Your Potato Head has gained the highest level of qualifications in this subject! It cannot learn any more!" elif subject == 'Maths': if float(self.eduMaths) <= 9.0: self.eduMaths = str(float(self.eduMaths) + 1.0) elif float(self.eduMaths) > 9.0 and float(self.eduMaths) < 10.0: self.eduMaths = '10.0' elif float(self.eduMaths) == 10.0: print "Your Potato Head has gained the highest level of qualifications in this subject! It cannot learn any more!" else: print "That subject is not an option..." print "Please choose either Science, English or Maths" self.time = str(int(self.time) + 1) #Pass time #Increase Health: def phGoToDoctor(self): self.health = '10.0' self.time = str(int(self.time) + 1) #Pass time #Sleep: Age, change stats: #(Time Passes) def phSleep(self): self.time = '0' #Resets time for next 'day' (can do more things next day) #Increase hunger: if float(self.hunger) <= 5.0: self.hunger = str(float(self.hunger) + 5.0) elif float(self.hunger) > 5.0: self.hunger = '10.0' #Lower Fitness: if float(self.fitness) >= 0.5: self.fitness = str(float(self.fitness) - 0.5) elif float(self.fitness) < 0.5: self.fitness = '0.0' #Lower Health: if float(self.health) >= 0.5: self.health = str(float(self.health) - 0.5) elif float(self.health) < 0.5: self.health = '0.0' #Lower Happiness: if float(self.happiness) >= 2.0: self.happiness = str(float(self.happiness) - 2.0) elif float(self.happiness) < 2.0: self.happiness = '0.0' #Increase the Potato Head's age: self.age = str(float(self.age) + 0.1) The game is still under development - There may be parts of modules that aren't complete, but I don't think they're causing the problem

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  • Problem retrieving Strings from varbinary columns using HIbernate and MySQL

    - by user303396
    Hello, Here's my scenario. I save a bunch of Strings containing asian characters in MySQL using Hibernate. These strings are written in varbinary columns. Everything works fine during the saving operation. The DB contains the correct values (sequence of bytes). If I query (again using Hibernate) for the Strings that I saved I get the correct results. But when Hibernate fills the entity to which the Strings belong with the values from the DB I get different values then the ones I used in the query that retrieved them. Instead of receiving the correct values I receive a bunch of FFFD replacement characters. For example: if I store "??" in the DB and then I query for it, the resulting String will be \uFFFD\uFFFD\uFFFD\uFFFD\uFFFD\uFFFD. the DB connection has the following parameters set useUnicode=true&characterEncoding=UTF-8, I've tried using the true UTF-8 configurations for Hibernate but that didn't solve the problem What am I missing? Any suggestions? Thanks

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