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• Java Road Trip: Code to Coast (#javaroadtrip)

  - by Justin Kestelyn

  Hey, have you heard? The Java Road Trip bus may be stopping at a city near you this summer, starting June 14. And your peeps at Oracle Technology Network have donated some goodies. What is the Java Road Trip? Basically, we have packed a rock-star bus with demos (Java FX, Oracle ADF, Java EE 6, JDK 7, GlassFish, Java ME) and are putting it on the road; it will make 20 stops across the U.S. in the next couple of months (and MAY may make a special appearance at JavaOne, if we can find a big enough parking space). In many cases these stops will coincide with Java or Oracle user group meet-ups and will always involve beer, food, and free stuff. Furthermore, engineers from HQ will be flying out at various times to rendezvous with these meet-ups and answer your questions. Also, because this tour will only reach a relatively small number of people, we're working hard to provide a virtual experience: there will be a blogger/videographer/photog/tweeter on board, reporting on its every move. You'll find all this content at java.com/roadtrip, and you can get real-time updates via @java. And this new update: If you're attending ODTUG Kaleidoscope in Washington, D.C., in late June, you'll get a chance to see the Java Bus in all its glory. And don't forget your t-shirt, cup, and screen cleaner, all provided by Oracle Technology Network.

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• Are your personal insecurities screwing up your internal communications?

  - by Lucy Boyes

  I do some internal comms as part of my job. Quite a lot of it involves talking to people about stuff. I’m spending the next couple of weeks talking to lots of people about internal comms itself, because we haven’t done a lot of audience/user feedback gathering, and it turns out that if you talk to people about how they feel and what they think, you get some pretty interesting insights (and an idea of what to do next that isn’t just based on guesswork and generalising from self). Three things keep coming up from talking to people about what we suck at  in terms of internal comms. And, as far as I can tell, they’re all examples where personal insecurity on the part of the person doing the communicating makes the experience much worse for the people on the receiving end. 1. Spending time telling people how you’re going to do something, not what you’re doing and why Imagine you’ve got to give an update to a lot of people who don’t work in your area or department but do have an interest in what you’re doing (either because they want to know because they’re curious or because they need to know because it’s going to affect their work too). You don’t want to look bad at your job. You want to make them think you’ve got it covered – ideally because you do*. And you want to reassure them that there’s lots of exciting work going on in your area to make [insert thing of choice] happen to [insert thing of choice] so that [insert group of people] will be happy. That’s great! You’re doing a good job and you want to tell people about it. This is good comms stuff right here. However, you’re slightly afraid you might secretly be stupid or lazy or incompetent. And you’re exponentially more afraid that the people you’re talking to might think you’re stupid or lazy or incompetent. Or pointless. Or not-adding-value. Or whatever the thing that’s the worst possible thing to be in your company is. So you open by mentioning all the stuff you’re going to do, spending five minutes or so making sure that everyone knows that you’re DOING lots of STUFF. And the you talk for the rest of the time about HOW you’re going to do the stuff, because that way everyone will know that you’ve thought about this really hard and done tons of planning and had lots of great ideas about process and that you’ve got this one down. That’s the stuff you’ve got to say, right? To prove you’re not fundamentally worthless as a human being? Well, maybe. But probably not. See, the people who need to know how you’re going to do the stuff are the people doing the stuff. And those are the people in your area who you’ve (hopefully-please-for-the-love-of-everything-holy) already talked to in depth about how you’re going to do the thing (because else how could they help do it?). They are the only people who need to know the how**. It’s the difference between strategy and tactics. The people outside of your bubble of stuff-doing need to know the strategy – what it is that you’re doing, why, where you’re going with it, etc. The people on the ground with you need the strategy and the tactics, because else they won’t know how to do the stuff. But the outside people don’t really need the tactics at all. Don’t bother with the how unless your audience needs it. They probably don’t. It might make you feel better about yourself, but it’s much more likely that Bob and Jane are thinking about how long this meeting has gone on for already than how personally impressive and definitely-not-an-idiot you are for knowing how you’re going to do some work. Feeling marginally better about yourself (but, let’s face it, still insecure as heck) is not worth the cost, which in this case is the alienation of your audience. 2. Talking for too long about stuff This is kinda the same problem as the previous problem, only much less specific, and I’ve more or less covered why it’s bad already. Basic motivation: to make people think you’re not an idiot. What you do: talk for a very long time about what you’re doing so as to make it sound like you know what you’re doing and lots about it. What your audience wants: the shortest meaningful update. Some of this is a kill your darlings problem – the stuff you’re doing that seems really nifty to you seems really nifty to you, and thus you want to share it with everyone to show that you’re a smart person who thinks up nifty things to do. The downside to this is that it’s mostly only interesting to you – if other people don’t need to know, they likely also don’t care. Think about how you feel when someone is talking a lot to you about a lot of stuff that they’re doing which is at best tangentially interesting and/or relevant. You’re probably not thinking that they’re really smart and clearly know what they’re doing (unless they’re talking a lot and being really engaging about it, which is not the same as talking a lot). You’re probably thinking about something totally unrelated to the thing they’re talking about. Or the fact that you’re bored. You might even – and this is the opposite of what they’re hoping to achieve by talking a lot about stuff – be thinking they’re kind of an idiot. There’s another huge advantage to paring down what you’re trying to say to the barest possible points – it clarifies your thinking. The lightning talk format, as well as other formats which limit the time and/or number of slides you have to say a thing, are really good for doing this. It’s incredibly likely that your audience in this case (the people who need to know some things about your thing but not all the things about your thing) will get everything they need to know from five minutes of you talking about it, especially if trying to condense ALL THE THINGS into a five-minute talk has helped you get clear in your own mind what you’re doing, what you’re trying to say about what you’re doing and why you’re doing it. The bonus of this is that by being clear in your thoughts and in what you say, and in not taking up lots of people’s time to tell them stuff they don’t really need to know, you actually come across as much, much smarter than the person who talks for half an hour or more about things that are semi-relevant at best. 3. Waiting until you’ve got every detail sorted before announcing a big change to the people affected by it This is the worst crime on the list. It’s also human nature. Announcing uncertainty – that something important is going to happen (big reorganisation, product getting canned, etc.) but you’re not quite sure what or when or how yet – is scary. There are risks to it. Uncertainty makes people anxious. It might even paralyse them. You can’t run a business while you’re figuring out what to do if you’ve paralysed everyone with fear over what the future might bring. And you’re scared that they might think you’re not the right person to be in charge of [thing] if you don’t even know what you’re doing with it. Best not to say anything until you know exactly what’s going to happen and you can reassure them all, right? Nope. The people who are going to be affected by whatever it is that you don’t quite know all the details of yet aren’t stupid***. You wouldn’t have hired them if they were. They know something’s up because you’ve got your guilty face on and you keep pulling people into meeting rooms and looking vaguely worried. Here’s the deal: it’s a lot less stressful for everyone (including you) if you’re up front from the beginning. We took this approach during a recent company-wide reorganisation and got really positive feedback. People would much, much rather be told that something is going to happen but you’re not entirely sure what it is yet than have you wait until it’s all fixed up and then fait accompli the heck out of them. They will tell you this themselves if you ask them. And here’s why: by waiting until you know exactly what’s going on to communicate, you remove any agency that the people that the thing is going to happen to might otherwise have had. I know you’re scared that they might get scared – and that’s natural and kind of admirable – but it’s also patronising and infantilising. Ask someone whether they’d rather work on a project which has an openly uncertain future from the beginning, or one where everything’s great until it gets shut down with no forewarning, and very few people are going to tell you they’d prefer the latter. Uncertainty is humanising. It’s you admitting that you don’t have all the answers, which is great, because no one does. It allows you to be consultative – you can actually ask other people what they think and how they feel and what they’d like to do and what they think you should do, and they’ll thank you for it and feel listened to and respected as people and colleagues. Which is a really good reason to start talking to them about what’s going on as soon as you know something’s going on yourself. All of the above assumes you actually care about talking to the people who work with you and for you, and that you’d like to do the right thing by them. If that’s not the case, you can cheerfully disregard the advice here, but if it is, you might want to think about the ways above – and the inevitable countless other ways – that making internal communication about you and not about your audience could actually be doing the people you’re trying to communicate with a huge disservice. So take a deep breath and talk. For five minutes or so. About the important things. Not the other things. As soon as you possibly can. And you’ll be fine.   *Of course you do. You’re good at your job. Don’t worry. **This might not always be true, but it is most of the time. Other people who need to know the how will either be people who you’ve already identified as needing-to-know and thus part of the same set as the people in you’re area you’ve already discussed this with, or else they’ll ask you. But don’t bring this stuff up unless someone asks for it, because most of the people in the audience really don’t care and you’re wasting their time. ***I mean, they might be. But let’s give them the benefit of the doubt and assume they’re not.

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• Are R&D mini-projects a good activity for interns?

  - by dukeofgaming

  I'm going to be in charge of hiring some interns for our software department soon (automotive infotainment systems) and I'm designing an internship program. The main productive activity "menu" I'm planning for them consists of: Verification testing Writing Unit Tests (automated, with an xUnit-compliant framework [several languages in our projects]) Documenting Code Updating wiki Updating diagrams & design docs Helping with low priority tickets (supervised/mentored) Hunting down & cleaning compiler/run-time warnings Refactoring/cleaning code against our coding standards But I also have this idea that having them do small R&D projects would be good to test their talent and get them to have fun. These mini-projects would be: Experimental implementations & optimizations Proof of concept implementations for new technologies Small papers (~2-5 pages) doing formal research on the previous two points Apps (from a mini-project pool) These kinds of projects would be pre-defined and very concrete, although new ideas from the interns themselves would be very welcome. Even if a project is too big or is abandoned, the idea would also be to lay the ground work so they can be retaken by another intern or intern team. While I think this is good in concept, I don't know if it could be good in practice, as obviously this would diminish their productivity on "real work" (work with immediate value to the company), but I think it could help bring aboard very bright people and get them to want to stay in the future (which, I think, is the end goal for any internship program). My question here is if these activities are too open ended or difficult for the average intern to accomplish and if R&D is an efficient use of an interns time or if it makes more sense for to assign project work to interns instead.

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• Does an inexperienced programmer need an IDE?

  - by Torben Gundtofte-Bruun

  Reading this other question makes me wonder if I (as an absolute beginner PHP programmer) should stick with WAMP and Notepad++ or to switch to some IDE like Eclipse. It's understandable that skilled developers will benefit from a big shiny IDE. But why should an absolute beginner use an IDE? Do the benefits outweigh the extra challenge of learning the IDE on top of learning to develop? Update for clarification: My goal is to get some basic programming experience. By choosing PHP and WAMP (and FogBugz and Kiln) I hope to avoid having to navigate the tricky / messy OS specifics and compiling etc. and just focus on basic functionality like an online user registration form. I've got lots of theoretical understanding from university a decade ago but no practical experience. I want to remedy that with a hobby project that would be similar to a real-world sellable web app. There are so many questions to ask. So many pitfalls I probably have to blunder into. This question is just one piece (my first!) of that puzzle.

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• Are web application usability issues equal to website usability issues?

  - by Kor

  I've been reading two books about web usability issues and tests (Rocket Surgery Made Easy¹ and Prioritizing Web Usability²) and they claim some strategies and typical problems about website usability and how to lead them. However, I want to do a web application, and I think I lost track of what I am trying to solve. These two books claim to work with raw websites (e-commerce, business sites, even intranet), but I'm not sure if everything about web usability is applicable to web application usability. They sure talk about always having available (and usable) the Back button, to focus on short information rather than big amounts of text, etc., but they could be inaccurate in deeper problems that may be easier (or just skippable) in regular websites. Has anybody some experience in this field and could tell me if both web applications and websites share their usability issues? Thanks in advance Edit: Quoting Wikipedia, a website is a collection of related web pages containing images, videos or other digital assets, and a web application is an application that is accessed over a network such as the Internet or an intranet. To sum up, both shows/lets you search/produce information but websites are "simple" in interaction and keep the classics of websites (one-click actions) and the other one is closer to desktop applications in the meaning of their uses and ways of interaction (double click, modal windows, asynchronous calls [to keep you in the same "environment" instead of reloading it] etc.). I don't know if this clarifies the difference. Edit 2: Quoting @Victor and myself, a website is anything running in your browser, but a web application is somewhat running in your browser that could be running in your desktop, with similar behaviors and features. Gmail is a web application that could replace Outlook. GDocs could replace Office. Grooveshark could replace your music player, etc.

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• CMS for coding blog

  - by OrgnlDave

  I've got a server with a LAMP stack and such. I'd like to host a blog-type site (or if there's a free place good for this, that would be cool!) that covers a variety of tutorials, interesting content, etc. There are tons of CMS's out there but if you search for tips on ones that do programming type things well, you get tons of hits about web development. I'd like to know if anyone here has recommendations from actually using a CMS for this type of thing or, short of that, can recommend one - not based on generalities like "Joomla! is great!" I'm looking for the least setup time possible. I'm proficient with CSS and I can design a color scheme, so that's not a big problem. As you can expect, attaching files, pictures, and syntax highlighting are musts (C/C++ ish is good). Ability to group posts, perhaps use tags, etc. would be cool too, but not necessary. As I'm writing this, it almost sounds like it'd be easier to custom-code a small PHP site myself.

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• Ubuntu 12.04 Precise on Dell Inspirion Duo

  - by Roman M. Kos

  I installed 12.04 version of Ubuntu on my Dell Inspiron Duo. After installing with help of program like UNetBootIn or smth like that. ( Besides i have no problem with kernel panic on chargin on/off like in 11.10. ) After that i followed with steps from here, in the first post here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1658635 There left one big problem with touchscreen: When i whant to drag with touchscreen like i`m doing it with mouse (for ex. selecting multile files with mouse) the selectable rectangular doesnot shows while im dragging, when dragging was finished (i put my finger off) it shows the rectangular and hides it. This thing disables all my tries to drag a window or smth else.... Also some time after using touchscreen such things are disabeling: - Often - click from a mouse (after keyboard using functinality restores) - less often - mouse movement disables (sometimes restores sometimes not) - lesser than other - keyboards works but no sygnals accepting (keyoards has indicator, so thay react, mouse of course not) The test from eTouchU utility passes perfeclty. Any idia for solving this problem? P.S.: Im from Ukraine, so sorry if my possible grammar mistakes. P.P.S.: Besides how to know the physicall position of my tabled mode? For automaticall rotating. Like on each rotation do some script.

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• Ubuntu 13.04 alongside Windows 8 - How to partition from Windows

  - by mengelkoch

  I plan to install Ubuntu 13.04 alongside Windows 8, and I'm looking for a CLEAR answer on how to conduct partitioning appropriately. I'm very new to all of this so a thorough explanation with minimal jargon would be great. I have an Acer Aspire M5 x64 with 6G RAM. I think I already figured out how to deal with the fast startup, UEFI and SecureBoot issues (I disabled fast startup and disabled Secure Boot). I am able to boot into Ubuntu from a LiveUSB, and I think I am ready to install Ubuntu. Note - despite some advice found here, I do have to disable SecureBoot to boot 13.04 from my LiveUSB. From what I have read here, it seems that I should (at least at first) create the partitions from WITHIN Windows 8, not from the LiveUSB, to avoid reported problems. I have run compmgmt.msc and I see the existing partitions. I see the following: Disk 0: 400 MB Recovery; 300 MB EFI System; Acer (C:) 444.95 GB (Boot, Page File, Crash Dump, Primary Partition); 20 GB Recovery Disk 1: 3.74 GB Primary Partition; 14.90 GB Primary Partition I gather I need to create a mounting point '/' Partition (??), a swap partition, and a home partition. Please explain what these are, how big they should be, how I create them from Windows Disk Management, and anything else I need to know. Eventually, I plan to fully replace Windows 8 with Ubuntu, but for now I want to run alongside Windows 8 and not screw things up. I don't have any critical files saved on this computer yet. Thanks.

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• Who is a CMS really for?

  - by Eirc man

  I have started lately discovering Content Management Systems, and I was wondering, who is really CMS for? What I mean by that: is it only for companies, small businesses or individuals, that pays a contractor to make a website that it's users can just upload content through a easy interface. Or is it used also by programmers, to build their own websites, projects? Would a Facebook, Tweeter, StackExhange ever started by using a CMS, a very powerful one for example. Would you as a programmer build your own "fancy" website on top of a CMS, for example like Typo3, or you would build it from scratch? P.S To be more clear is a summary: What I mean to begin with is, would I as a developer choose a CMS to develop a website that can be scaled with a big base of users, be stuck if I choose to start with a CMS system. What if I build a website using CMS, and the website explodes in popularity, and then I wanted to add much more functionality that I have planed, is it possible that the CMS will limit the growth, because it might have not been build for that kind of scale?

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• Book Review: Professional ASP.Net MVC4

  - by Sam Abraham

  The past few weeks have been particularly busy as I continue to dedicate a bigger portion of my free time to refreshing my memory and enhancing my knowledge of best practices pertaining to technologies we plan on using for a major upcoming project. In this blog post, I will be providing a brief overview of my latest reading “Professional ASP.Net MVC4” by Jon Galloway, Phil Haack, Brad Wilson and K. Scott Allen. This book is a must read for web developers looking to enhance their MVC expertise with best practices and tips shared from recognized industry experts. This book takes the reader on a 16-chapter long journey towards being a better ASP.NET MVC developer with chapter 16 putting all information covered in practical context by dissecting the implementation of Nuget.org, a real-life open-source, ASP.NET MVC project.  All code samples referenced in this book are conveniently accessible via NuGet, a free, open-source Library package manager that installs as a Visual Studio Extension. Chapters 2, 3 and 4 thoroughly cover MVC’s various components: Controllers “C”, Views “V” and Models “M” respectively. Chapter 5 covers additional extension methods (Helpers) provided to speed and ease the use of common HTML elements such as forms, textboxes, grids, to name a few… Chapter 6 tackles built-in validation while providing examples and use cases on implementing custom validation that plugs into the MVC framework. Chapters 7 thru 13 discusses the latest on Membership, Ajax, Routing, NuGet and the ASP.Net Web API. Chapters 12 (Dependency Injection) and 13 (Unit Testing) demonstrate a big competitive advantage of MVC with its ease of test-ability and plug-ability. Chapters 14 and 15 targets the advanced developer showcasing how to extend MVC to customize and replace every piece in the framework.In conclusion, I strongly recommend Professional ASP.NET MVC 4 as an excellent read for both developers already using MVC as well as those getting started with the framework.   Many thanks to the Wiley/Wrox User Group Program for their support of our West Palm Beach Developers’ Group.  You can access my reviews of books I recently read: Professional ASP.NET Design Patterns Professional WCF 4.0 Inside Windows Communication Foundation Inside Microsoft SQL Server 2008 series

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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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• Is there a secure way to add a database troubleshooting page to an application?

  - by Josh Yeager

  My team makes a product (business management software) that our customers install on their own servers. The product uses a SQL database for data storage and app configuration. There have been quite a few cases where something strange happened in the customer's database (caused by bugs in our app and also sometimes admins who mess with the database). To figure out what is wrong with the data, we have to send SQL scripts to the customer and tell them how to run them on the database server. Then, once we know how to fix it, we have to send another script to repair the data. Is there a secure way to add a page in our application that allows an application admin to enter SQL scripts that read and write directly to the database? Our support team could use that to help customers run these scripts, without needing direct access to the SQL server. My big concerns are that someone might abuse this power to get data they shouldn't have and maybe to erase or modify data that they shouldn't be able to modify. I'm not worried about system admins, because they could find another way to do the same thing. But what if someone else got access to the form? Is there any way to do this kind of thing securely?

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• Remote Working & Relocation

  - by James Burgess

  Sorry if this question is a duplicate, I did some extensive searching and found nothing on quite the same topic (though a couple on partially-overlapping topics). Recently, whilst on holiday in Munich, Germany, I was taken aback by the sheer number of programming-related posts available in the city that I easily qualify for (both in terms of knowledge, and experience). The advertised working environments seemed good and the pay seemed to be at least as good as what I'd expect here in the UK. Probably 80% of the advertisements I saw on the underground were for IT-related jobs, and a good 60% of those I was easily qualified for. At the moment, I work as a freelancer mostly on web and small software projects, but seeing the vast availability of jobs in Munich versus my local area has me thinking about remote working. I'm unable to relocate for a job for the next 3 years (my wife has a contract to continue being a doctor at her current hospital for that time) but would almost certainly be open to it after that (after all, my wife and I both love Munich). In the meanwhile, I would be very interested in remote-working. So, my question is thus do companies ever take on remote workers (even with semi-frequent trips to the office) from abroad, with a view to later relocation? And, if so, how do you go about broaching the topic with a recruiter when getting in contact about a job posting? Language isn't a barrier for me, here, as 90% of the jobs I've looked up in Munich don't require German speakers (seems they have a big recruiting market abroad). I'm also under no illusions about the disadvantages of remote working, but I'm more interested in the viability of the scenario rather than the intricacies (at least at this point). I'd really appreciate any contributions, especially from those who have experience with working in such a scenario!

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• Is there such thing as a "theory of system integration"?

  - by Jeff

  There is a plethora of different programs, servers, and in general technologies in use in organizations today. We, programmers, have lots of different tools at our disposal to help solve various different data, and communication challenges in an organization. Does anyone know if anyone has done an serious thinking about how systems are integrated? Let me give an example: Hypothetically, let's say I own a company that makes specialized suits a'la Iron Man. In the area of production, I have CAD tools, machining tools, payroll, project management, and asset management tools to name a few. I also have nice design space, where designers show off their designs on big displays, some touch, some traditional. Oh, and I also have one of these new fangled LEED Platinum buildings and it has number of different computer controlled systems, like smart window shutters that close when people are in the room, a HVAC system that adjusts depending on the number of people in the building, etc. What I want to know is if anyone has done any scientific work on trying to figure out how to hook all these pieces together, so that say my access control system is hooked to my payroll system, and my phone system allowing my never to swipe a time card, and to have my phone follow me throughout the building. This problem is also more than a technology challenge. Every technology implementation enables certain human behaviours, so the human must also be considered as a part of the system. Has anyone done any work in how effectively weave these components together? FYI: I am not trying to build a system. I want to know if anyone has thoroughly studied the process of doing a large integration project, how they develop their requirements, how they studied the human behaviors, etc.

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• Contract Work - Lessons Learned

  - by samerpaul

  I thought I would write a post of a different nature today, but still relevant to the tech world. I do a lot of contract jobs myself and really enjoy it. It's nice to keep jumping from project to project, and not having to go to an office or keep regular hours, etc. I really enjoy it. I have learned a lot in the past few years of doing it (both from experience and from help given to me from others, and the internet) so I thought I'd share some of that knowledge/experience today.So here's my own personal "lesson's learned" that hopefully will help you if you find yourself doing contract work:Should I take the job?Ok, so this is the first step. Assuming you were given sufficient information about what they want, then you should really think about what you're capable of doing and whether or not you should take this job. Personally, my rule is, if I know it's possible, I'll say yes, even if I don't yet know how to do it. That's because the internet is such a great help, it would be rare to run into an issue that you can't figure out with some help. So if your clients are asking for something that you don't yet know how to program, but you know you can do it on the platform then go for it. How else are you going to learn?Use this rule with some limitation, however. If you're really lacking the expertise or foundation in something, then unless you have tons of time to complete the project, then I wouldn't say yes. For example, I haven't personally done any 3d/openGL programming yet so I wouldn't say yes to a project that extensively uses it. OK, so I want the job, but how much do I charge?This part can be tricky. There is no set formula really, but I have some tips for pricing that will hopefully give you a better idea on how to confidently ask your price and have them accept. Here are some personal guidelinesHow much time do you have to complete the project? If it's shorter than average, then charge more. You can even make a subtle note about this (or not so subtle if they still don't get it.) If it seems too short of a time (i.e. near impossible to complete), be sure to say that. It looks bad to promise a time that you can't keep--and it makes it less likely for them to return to you for work.Your Hourly rate: How long have you been working in that language? Do you have existing projects to back you up? Or previous contacts that can vouch for your work? Are there very few people with your particular skill set? All of these things will lend themselves to setting an hourly rate. I'd also try out a quick google search of what your line of work is, to see what the industry standard is at that point in time.I wouldn't price too low, because you want to make your time worth it. You also want them to feel like they're paying for quality work (assuming you can deliver it :) ). Finally, think about your client. If it's a small business, then don't price it too high if you want the job. If it's an enterprise (like a Fortune company), then don't be afraid to price higher. They have the budget for it.Fixed price: If they want a fixed price project, then you need to think about how many hours it will take you to complete it and multiply it by the hourly rate you set for yourself. Then, honestly, I would add 10-20% on top of that. Why? Because nothing ever works exactly how you want it to. There are lots of times that something "trivial" is way harder than it should be, or something that "should work" doesn't for hours and it eats away at your hourly rate. I can't count the number of times I encountered a logical bug that took away an entire's day work because debuggers don't help in those cases. By adding that padding in, it's still OK to have those days where you don't get as much done as you want. And another useful tip: Depending on your client, and the scope, you most likely want to set that you both sign off on a specification sheet before doing any work, and that any changes will result in a re-evaulation of the price. This is to help protect you from being handed a huge new addition to the project half-way in, without any extra payment.Scope of project: Finally, is it a huge project? Is it really small/fast? This affects how much your client will be willing to pay. If it sounds big, they will be willing to pay more for it. If it seems really small, then you won't be able to get away with a large asking price (as easily).Ok, I priced it, now what?So now that you have the price, you want to make sure it feels justified to your client. I never set a price before I can really think about everything. For example, if you're still in your introduction phase, and they want a price, don't give one! Just comment that you will send them a proposal sheet with all the features outlined, and a price for everything. You don't want to shout out a low number and then deliver something that is way higher. You also don't want to shock them with a big number before they feel like they are getting a great product.Make up a proposal document in a word editor. Personally, I leave the price till the very end. Why? Because by the time they reach the end, you've already discussed all the great features you plan to implement, and how it's the best product they'll ever use, etc etc...so your price comes off as a steal! If you hit them up front with a price, they will read through the document with a negative bias. Think about those commercials on TV. They always go on about their product, then at the end, ask "What would you pay for something like this? $100? $50? How about $20!!". This is not by accident.Scenario: I finished the job way earlier than expectedYou have two options then. You can either polish the hell out of the application, and even throw in a few bonus features (assuming they are in-line with the customer's needs) or you can sit and wait on it until you near your deadline. Why don't you want to turn it in too early? Because you should treat that extra time as a surplus. If you said it is going to take you 3 weeks, and it took you only 1, you have a surplus of 2 weeks. I personally don't want to let them know that I can do a 3 week project in 1 week. Why not? Because that may not always be the case! I may later have a 3 week project that takes all 3 weeks, but if I set a precedent of delivering super early, then the pressure is on for that longer project. It also makes it harder to quote longer times if you keep delivering too early.Feel free to deliver early, but again, don't do it too early. They may also wonder why they paid you for 3 weeks of work if you're done in 1. They may further wonder if the product sucks, or what is wrong with it, if it's done so early, etc.I would just polish the application. Everyone loves polish in their applications. The smallest details are what make an application go from "functional" to "fantastic". And since you are still delivering on time, then they are still going to be very happy with you.Scenario: It's taking way too long to finish this, and the deadline is nearing/here!So this is not a fun scenario to be in, but it'll happen. Sometimes the scope of the project gets out of hand. The best policy here is OPENNESS/HONESTY. Tell them that the project is taking longer than expected, and give a reasonable time for when you think you'll have it done. I typically explain it in a way that makes it sound like it isn't something that I did wrong, but it's just something about the nature of the project. This really goes for any scenario, to be honest. Just continue to stay open and communicative about your progress. This doesn't mean that you should email them every five minutes (unless they want you to), but it does mean that maybe every few days or once a week, give them an update on where you're at, and what's next. They'll be happy to know they are paying for progress, and it'll make it easier to ask for an extension when something goes wrong, because they know that you've been working on it all along.Final tips and thoughts:In general, contract work is really fun and rewarding. It's nice to learn new things all the time, as mandated by the project ,and to challenge yourself to do things you may not have done before. The key is to build a great relationship with your clients for future work, and for recommendations. I am always very honest with them and I never promise something I can't deliver. Again, under promise, over deliver!I hope this has proved helpful!Cheers,samerpaul

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• design in agile process

  - by ying

  Recently I had an interview with dev team in a company. The team uses agile + TDD. The code exercise implements a video rental store which generates statement to calc total rental fee for each type of video (new release, children, etc) for a customer. The existing code use object like: Statement to generate statement and calc fee where big switch statement sits to use enum to determine how to calc rental fee customer holds a list of rentals movie base class and derived class for each type of movie (NEW, CHILDREN, ACTION, etc) The code originally doesn't compile as the owner was assumed to be hit by a bus. So here is what I did: outlined the improvement over object model to have better responsibility for each class. use strategy pattern to replace switch statement and weave them in config But the team says it's waste of time because there is no requirement for it and UAT test suite works and is the only guideline goes into architecture decision. The underlying story is just to get pricing feature out and not saying anything about how to do it. So the discussion is focused on why should time be spent on refactor the switch statement. In my understanding, agile methodology doesn't mean zero design upfront and such code smell should be avoided at the beginning. Also any unit/UAT test suite won't detect such code smell, otherwise sonar, findbugs won't exist. Here I want to ask: is there such a thing called agile design in the agile methodology? Just like agile documentation. how to define agile design upfront? how to know enough is enough? In my understanding, ballpark architecture and data contract among components should be defined before/when starting project, not the details. Am I right? anyone can explain what the team is really looking for in this kind of setup? is it design aspect or agile aspect? how to implement minimum viable product concept in the agile process in the real world project? Is it must that you feel embarrassed to be MVP?

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• Encrypt SSD or not?

  - by JamesBradbury

  My desktop machine is running Ubuntu 12.04 (and will probably stay with it until the next LTS). I've got a new 120GB SSD on the way as my existing 420GB spinning disk. If it makes any difference I'll be dual-booting with Windows 7 across both disks too. I've read some helpful answers here about /home setup and enabling TRIM, which I intend to follow. So most of my /home will be on the SSD, with only photos, videos and music on the spinning disk. The question is, when I reinstall Ubuntu from CD or USB, whether I should encrypt the SSD? Specifically: I'm reading that drive wear isn't much of an issue with modern SSDs as they last decades even if you spam them. Is this true? How big a performance reduction will encrypting cause (I have an i7 Sandybridge, so I guess it can cope)? Is it more important from a security point of view to encrypt an SSD? I think I read somewhere that it may be hard to reliably wipe data. By all means answer even if you only know about one of those things.

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• Most effective way to do daily standup meeting when a few people are remote

  - by Burhan Ali

  I am a software developer in a small team of seven. We are not an Agile (with a big 'A') team but are experimenting with some aspects of agile. One of these is the daily "standup" meeting. The difficulty here is that for two days of the week we have at least one person working from home so the full team isn't available in the same room. What is the best way to carry out a daily standup in this situation? Some facts that may be relevant: We all work in a single open plan room. We use Skype in our company. We don't have any video conferencing capability. We all work the same hours so there are no timezone complexities involved. The development manager is one of the people who works from home one day a week. Things we have tried: Conference call using Skype: This is tricky for those in the office because you can hear people speak in the room and then a split second later through the headset. This can e very distracting. Conference phone: Awful experience. Hard to get them to work and poor quality audio. Text-based updates using Skype. This is not as engaging and is no different than just firing off a status email in the morning. I have seen other questions about remote collaboration but they are mainly about completely remote teams and/or teams that span multiple time zones. We are not affected by either of these problems. What can we do to make our standup meetings better in these circumstances?

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• Recommended storage scheme for home server? (LVM/JBOD/RAID 5...)

  - by j-g-faustus

  Are there any guidelines for which storage scheme(s) makes most sense for a multiple-disk home server? I am assuming a separate boot/OS disk (so bootability is not a concern, this is for data storage only) and 4-6 storage disks of 1-2 TB each, for a total storage capacity in the range 4-12 TB. The file system is ext4, I expect there will be only one big partition spanning all disks. As far as I can tell, the alternatives are individual disks pros: works with any combination of disk sizes; losing a disk loses only the data on that disk; no need for volume management. cons: data management is clumsy when logical units (like a "movies" folder) are larger than the capacity of any single drive. JBOD span pros: can merge disks of any size. cons: losing a disk loses all data on all disks LVM pros: can merge disks of any size; relatively simple to add and remove disks. cons: losing a disk loses all data on all disks RAID 0 pros: speed cons: losing one drive loses all data; disks must be same size RAID 5 pros: data survives losing one disk cons: gives up one disk worth of capacity; disks must be same size RAID 6 pros: data survives losing two disks cons: gives up two disks worth of capacity; disks must be same size I'm primarily considering either LVM or JBOD span simply because it will let me reuse older, smaller-capacity disks when I upgrade the system. The runner-up is RAID 0 for speed. I'm planning on having full backups to a separate system, so I expect the extra redundancy from RAID levels 5 or 6 won't be important. Is this a fair representation of the alternatives? Are there other considerations or alternatives I have missed? And what would you recommend?

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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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• Data Movement and the Decision Matrix

  - by BuckWoody

  Maybe it’s my military background, or maybe I’ve always had this predilection, but I like to use two devices when I need to make a complex decision: A checklist and a decision matrix. I like to use a checklist because it ensures that I remember the big bits of what I need to do, and brings up questions or areas that I didn’t think about when evaluating options for the decision. And the decision matrix – that’s the thing I use to actually lay out those options. It’s simply a spreadsheet-like grid (I use Excel, but paper and pencil works as well) that lays out the requirements or advantages for the decision across the top, and the options I have on the left-hand side. Then in the “cells” I put whether or not that option on the left will meet the requirement in that column. I then simply “weight” each cell to organize the choices by best-fit. The right answer (or answers) will float right to the top. I was asked yesterday about options for moving data in SQL Server to another system. There are just dozens of ways to do this, from bcp to Replication, each with certain advantages and costs. But asking the questions for the top row first helped me show the person that it isn’t a particular technology that is important, it’s laying out those requirements and thinking about which elements are more important than the other. For instance, is it more important to have the data moved all the time, or is it OK if that happens once in a while? Does the data have to move in two directions or just one? All of these will help that answer jump right out. Try it sometime – it’s a great learning exercise, since it will force you to focus on filling out the matrix. The answer is out there, Neo. Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!

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• Why do I need a framework?

  - by lvictorino

  First of all I know my question may sounds idiot but I am no "beginner". In fact I work as game developer for several years now and I know some things about code :) But as this is no related to game development I am a bit lost. I am writing a big script (something about GIS) in Python, using a lot of data stored in a database. I made a first version of my script, and now, I'd like to re-design the whole thing. I read some advice about using a framework (like Django) for database queries. But as my script only "SELECT" informations I was wondering about the real benefits to use a framework. It seems that it adds a lot of complexity and useless embedded features (useless for my specific script) for the benefits that it will bring. Am I wrong? EDIT: few spec of this "script". Its purpose is to get GIS data on an enormous database (if you ever worked with openstreetmap you know what I mean ~= 200Go) and to manipulate this data in order to produce nice map images. Queries are not numerous (select streets, select avenues, select waterways, select forests... and so on for a specific area) but query results may be more than 10.000 rows. I'd like to sell this script as a service, so yes it's meant to stay.

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• Multiplayer online game engine/pipeline

  - by Slav

  I am implementing online multiplayer game where client must be written in AS3 (Flash) to embed game into browser and server in C++ (abstract part of which is already written and used with other games). Networking models may differ from each other, but currently I'm looking toward game's logic run on both client and server parts but they're written on different languages while it's not the main problem. My previous game (pretty big one - was implemented with efforts of ~5 programmers in 1.5 years) was mainly "written" within electronic tables as structured objects with implemented inheritance: was written standalone tool which generated AS3 and C++ (languages of platforms to which the game was published) using specified electronic tables file (.xls or .ods). That file contained ~50 tables with ~50 rows and ~50 columns each and was mainly written by game designers which do not know any programming languages. But that game was single-player. Having declared problem with my currently implementing MMO, I'm looking toward some vast pipeline, where will be resolved such problems like: game objects descriptions (which starships exist within game, how much HP they have, how fast move, what damage deal...) actions descriptions (what players or NPCs can do: attack each other, collect resources, build structures, move, teleport, cast spells) - actions are transmitted through server between clients influences (what happens when specified action applied on specified object, e.i "Ship A attacked Ship B: field "HP" of Ship B reduced by amount of field "damage" of Ship A" Influences can be much more difficult, yes, e.i. "damage is twice it's size when Ship has =5 allies around him in a 200 units range during night" and so on. If to be able to write such logic within some "design document" it will be easily possible to: let designers to do their job without programmer's intervention or any bug-prone programming validate described logic transfer (transform, convert) to any programming language where it will be executed Did somebody worked on something like that? Is there some tools/engines/pipelines which concernes with it? How to handle all of this problems simultaneously in a best way or do I properly imagine my tasks and problems to myself?

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• Regulation of the software industry

  - by Flexo

  Every few years someone proposes tighter regulation for the software industry. This IEEE article has been getting some attention lately on the subject. If software engineers who write programs for systems that expose the public to physical or financial risk knew they would be tested on their competence, the thinking goes, it would reduce the flaws and failures in code—and maybe save a few lives in the bargain. I'm skeptical about the value and merit of this. To my mind it looks like a land grab by those that proposed it. The quote that clinches that for me is: The exam will test for basic knowledge, not mastery of subject matter because the big failures (e.g. THERAC-25) seem to be complex, subtle issues that "basic knowledge" would never be sufficient to prevent. Ignoring any local issues (such as existing protections of the title Engineer in some jurisdictions): The aims are noble - avoid the quacks/charlatans1 and make that distinction more obvious to those that buy their software. Can tighter regulation of the software industry ever achieve it's original goal? 1 Exactly as regulation of the medical profession was intended to do.

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• Office arangement - comfort vs. teamwork?

  - by finrod

  Our team works in an open-space office. Luckily the cubicles are quite big (L shaped tables for everyone!), there is quite a lot of space so we are not sandwiched. Without going into further detail, there are comfortable spots (window), normal spots and stupid spots (near the corridor). Until recently, the development team of twelve engineers was seated so that all types of spots were occupied and we were all close together. In the old arrangement, verbal communication was very easy - half of the team was withing talking distance. The other half was like ten steps away. Often times I could ask, discuss, solve problems without leaving the cube. Most of the communication is work related, no bullshit or mental masturbation that would unnecessarily distract others. Now we have moved to another part of the building and have larger space to occupy. At this point, everyone could pick their spot. Naturally all stupid spots are left empty (for the poor newcomers to occupy bwehaha). In the new arrangement, the development team is stretched across the floor and some of the key engineers are seated 'far' from each other - definitely not within talking distance. I have yet to experience how this works out but am getting concerned that team work and communication may have been traded for personal comfort. Finally the questions... What do you think is better office arrangement? Such that allows for free verbal communication but trading for some developer's comfort, or such that potentially hinders verbal communication but makes developer's more comfortable in their spot? Or maybe it does not matter at all and we will evolve to be efficient in any arrangement? What is your personal experience? Note - yes I read books and posts how workplace is important in our job. However in this case - we are all still in open space and the difference between the different spots are not really groundbreaking. So I'm thinking the little comfort that few developers gain is not worth the loss of easy communication.

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