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• Creating new games on Android and/or iPhone

  - by James Clifton

  I have a succesfull facebook poker game that is running very nicely, now some people have asked if I can port this to other platforms - mainly mobile devices (and I have been asked to make a tablet version, do I really need a seperate version?) I am currently a PHP programmer (and game designer) and I simply dont' have the time to learn Android and other languages - so I have decided to pay third parties to program them (if viable). The information I need to know is what programming language is needed for the following four devices - Android mobile phone, iPhone, iPad and tablets? Can they all run off a central sql database? If they can't then i'm not interested :( Do any of these run FLASH? Have I covered all my main bases here? For example if a person programs for a ANDROID mobile phone is that to much differant to an ANDROID tablet? They will have slightly differant graphics (because the tablet has a greater screen area might as well use it) but do they need to be started from scratch? Same goes for iPhone/iPad, do they really need to be programmed differantly if the only differance is the graphics?

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• Android - big game universe

  - by user1641923

  I am new to an Android development, though I have much experience with Java, C++, PHP programming and a bit experience with vector graphics too (basic 3d Studio Max, Flash, etc). I am starting to work on an Android game. It is going to be a 2D space shooter/RPG, and I am not going to use any game engines and any 3D party libs. I really want to create a very large game universe, or even pseudo-infinite (without visible borders, as if it were a 2D projection of a sphere). It should include 10-12 clusters of 7-8 planets/other space objects and random amount of single asteroids/comets, which player can interact with and also not interactive background. I am looking for a least complicated aproach to create such a universe. My current ideas are: Simply create bitmaps with space scenery background so that they can be tiled seamlessly repeated and construct my 2D universe of this tiles, then place interactive objects (planets, other spaceships) on it. Using vector graphics. I would have a solid color background, some random background objects and gradients here and there. My problems here: Lack of knowledge of how well vector graphics is integrated in Android. Performance? Memory usage? Does Android manage big bitmaps well? Do all of the bitmaps have to be in memory during all game process? I am interested in technical details regarding each of the ideas and a suggestion, which I should go with.

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• Assignments in mock return values

  - by zerkms

  (I will show examples using php and phpunit but this may be applied to any programming language) The case: let's say we have a method A::foo that delegates some work to class M and returns the value as-is. Which of these solutions would you choose: $mock = $this->getMock('M'); $mock->expects($this->once()) ->method('bar') ->will($this->returnValue('baz')); $obj = new A($mock); $this->assertEquals('baz', $obj->foo()); or $mock = $this->getMock('M'); $mock->expects($this->once()) ->method('bar') ->will($this->returnValue($result = 'baz')); $obj = new A($mock); $this->assertEquals($result, $obj->foo()); or $result = 'baz'; $mock = $this->getMock('M'); $mock->expects($this->once()) ->method('bar') ->will($this->returnValue($result)); $obj = new A($mock); $this->assertEquals($result, $obj->foo()); Personally I always follow the 2nd solution, but just 10 minutes ago I had a conversation with couple of developers who said that it is "too tricky" and chose 3rd or 1st. So what would you usually do? And do you have any conventions to follow in such cases?

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• Question regarding Readability vs Processing Time

  - by Jordy

  I am creating a flowchart for a program with multiple sequential steps. Every step should be performed if the previous step is succesful. I use a c-based programming language so the lay-out would be something like this: METHOD 1: if(step_one_succeeded()) { if(step_two_succeeded()) { if(step_three_succeeded()) { //etc. etc. } } } If my program would have 15+ steps, the resulting code would be terribly unfriendly to read. So I changed my design and implemented a global errorcode that I keep passing by reference, make everything more readable. The resulting code would be something like this: METHOD 2: int _no_error = 0; step_one(_no_error); if(_no_error == 0) step_two(_no_error); if(_no_error == 0) step_three(_no_error); if(_no_error == 0) step_two(_no_error); The cyclomatic complexibility stays the same. Now let's say there are N number of steps. And let's assume that checking a condition is 1 clock long and performing a step doesn't take up time. The processing speed of Method1 can be anywhere between 1 and N. The processing speed of Method2 however is always equal to N-1. So Method1 will be faster most of the time. Which brings me to my question, is it bad practice to sacrifice time in order to make the code more readable? And why (not)?

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• How to start and maintain an after-work project

  - by Sam

  I work as a full time developer. My workplace, however, is very limiting in the technologies and programming languages I can use. All of the work is done in C++. It is clear that C++ is rapidly losing (or maybe already lost) its leading position. (please don't flame me, I have years and years of C++ experience, and I love this language, I am merely stating a fact). I have a few ideas for java/android projects as well as a project I would like to implement in C#. I see this as a way for me to stay current with the job market's trends and I hope that it will help me find my next job in a more up to date area. So here's the problem, my normal workday is 10-11 hours, after finishing with the kids and house chores I get about 1-2.5 hours before I am too tired to think much less code. at that point I am going to bed frustrated, disappointed with myself for not being able to stick with my plans, and then I wake up the next morning to do it all again. I have a few hours more during the weekends but clearly I would need to do something different if I want to reach any of my goals. Is there any way for me to make better use of the time I have? Did any of you guys have a similar problem, and had succefully resolved it?

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• How to get started in the development industry? [closed]

  - by Peter Fren

  My life is coding. I was born in 1982 and my first computer was an amiga. I started learning Amiga BASIC. To cut a long story short, I know many things about several programming languages. Being unemployed(I achieved the german abitur, should be similar to a high school degree and I studied a few semesters of mechanical engineering in 2002(I learned JAVA back then)) I have no idea how to use this ability. I have never done commissional work, every task I solved was based on my own wishes and desires. I do not know how to write a FSD or PRD or put it into code. So the question is, why should anyone hire me? I specialized in kinect development but all jobs I applied for on odesk and similar were awarded to others without me knowing why. I don't know what I should do with my skills professionally. What do you suggest? As this board has weird rules, tell me where to find answers if this is the wrong place.

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• The last word on C++ AMP...

  - by Daniel Moth

  Well, not the last word, but the last blog post I plan to do here on that topic. Over the last 12 months, I have published 45 blog posts related to C++ AMP on the Parallel Programming in Native Code, and the rest of the team has published even more. Occasionally I'll link to some of them from my own blog here, but today I decided to stop doing that - so if you relied on my personal blog pointing you to C++ AMP content, it is time you subscribed to the msdn blog. I will continue to blog about other topics here of course, so stay tuned. So, for the last time, I encourage you to read the latest two blog posts I published on the team blog bringing together essential reading material on C++ AMP Learn C++ AMP - a collection of links to take you from zero to hero. Present on C++ AMP - a walkthrough on how to give a presentation including slides. Got questions on C++ AMP? Hit the msdn forum! Comments about this post by Daniel Moth welcome at the original blog.

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• Is error suppression acceptable in role of logic mechanism?

  - by Rarst

  This came up in code review at work in context of PHP and @ operator. However I want to try keep this in more generic form, since few question about it I found on SO got bogged down in technical specifics. Accessing array field, which is not set, results in error message and is commonly handled by following logic (pseudo code): if field value is set output field value Code in question was doing it like: start ignoring errors output field value stop ignoring errors The reasoning for latter was that it's more compact and readable code in this specific case. I feel that those benefits do not justify misuse (IMO) of language mechanics. Is such code is being "clever" in a bad way? Is discarding possible error (for any reason) acceptable practice over explicitly handling it (even if that leads to more extensive and/or intensive code)? Is it acceptable for programming operators to cross boundaries of intended use (like in this case using error handling for controlling output)? Edit I wanted to keep it more generic, but specific code being discussed was like this: if ( isset($array['field']) ) { echo '<li>' . $array['field'] . '</li>'; } vs the following example: echo '<li>' . @$array['field'] . '</li>';

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• Cry Engine 3 vs UDK

  - by Daniele Riccardelli

  I'm new here and I hope that other people may find this question interesting. Me and a bunch of guys from my University are thinking about getting started in game development, but, even though the game design is kind of ready, we are stucked at the point "which Engine should we choose". At first, we were thinking about Unity3D Free, in particular because we are pretty familiar with C# and, even better, it's completely free, but on the other hand there are some cons like no dynamic shadowing that make the realization of our game kinda hard. So, we are thinking about moving either to UDK or Cry Engine, since they are not as expensive as Unity3D Pro (at least before the game deployment) . The thing we are worried the most, though, is that we are kind of scared about the support for team work(i mean, that we might find it hard to coordinate our efforts without software support), since in Unity3D the team features are part of purchasable content, and we are not interested in paying that much for a project we are not even sure we can complete. So, finally, I hope one of you knows the mentioned engines enough to give us a tip telling which one offers better team features and is advisable for guys that have barely worked before on videogames but have good object oriented programming skills. Probably might be helpful for your suggestion, if i say that our game is an exploration game. Thanks to anybody who's going to answer.

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• What's wrong with circular references?

  - by dash-tom-bang

  I was involved in a programming discussion today where I made some statements that basically assumed axiomatically that circular references (between modules, classes, whatever) are generally bad. Once I got through with my pitch, my coworker asked, "what's wrong with circular references?" I've got strong feelings on this, but it's hard for me to verbalize concisely and concretely. Any explanation that I may come up with tends to rely on other items that I too consider axioms ("can't use in isolation, so can't test", "unknown/undefined behavior as state mutates in the participating objects", etc.), but I'd love to hear a concise reason for why circular references are bad that don't take the kinds of leaps of faith that my own brain does, having spent many hours over the years untangling them to understand, fix, and extend various bits of code. Edit: I am not asking about homogenous circular references, like those in a doubly-linked list or pointer-to-parent. This question is really asking about "larger scope" circular references, like libA calling libB which calls back to libA. Substitute 'module' for 'lib' if you like. Thanks for all of the answers so far!

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• Best way to go for simple online multi-player games?

  - by Mr_CryptoPrime

  I want to create a trivia game for my website. The graphic design does not have to be too fancy, probably no more advanced than a typical flash game. It needs to be secure because I want users to be able to play for real money. It also needs to run fast so users don't spend their time frustrated with game freezing. Compatibility, as with almost all online products, is key because of the large target market. I am most acquainted with Java programming, but I don't want to do it in Java if there is something much better. I am assuming I will have to utilize a variety of different languages in order for everything to come together. If someone could point out the main structure of everything so I could get a good start that would be great! 1) Language choice for simple secure online multiplayer games? 2) Perhaps use a database like MySQL, stored on a secure server for the trivia questions? 3) Free educational resources and even simpler projects to practice? Any ideas or suggestions would be helpful...Thanks!

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• Maker Faire Report - Teaching Kids Java SE Embedded for Internet of Things (IoT)

  - by hinkmond

  I had a great time at this year's Maker Faire 2014 in San Mateo, Calif. where Jake Kuramoto and the AppsLab crew including Noel Portugal, Anthony Lai, Raymond, and Tony set up a super demo at the DiY table. It was a simple way to learn how Java SE Embedded technology could be used to code the Internet of Things (IoT) devices on the table. The best part of our set-up was seeing the kids sit down and do some coding without all the complexity of a Computer Science course. It was very encouraging to see how interested the kids were when walking them through the programming steps, then seeing their eyes light up when telling them, "You just coded a Java enabled Internet of Things device!" as the Raspberry Pi-connected devices turned on or started to move from their Java Embedded program. See: The AppsLab at Maker Faire It will be interesting to see how this next generation of kids grow up with all these Internet of Things devices around them and watch how they will program them. Hopefully, they will be using Java SE Embedded technology to do so. From the looks of it at this year's Maker Faire, we might have a bunch of motivated young Java SE Embedded coders coming up the ranks soon. Well, they have to get through middle school first, but they're on their way! Hinkmond

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• Beginners guide to developing optimization software

  - by Florenc

  I am novice in "serious" programming i.e. applications that deal with real-life applications and software projects that go beyond school assignments. My interests include optimization, operations research, algorithms and lately i discovered how much I do like software design/development/engineering. I have already developed some simple desktop applications for some "famous" problems like TSP using heuristc approaches, a VRP solver (in progress) and so on. While developing this kind of software I actually used basic concepts taught at school such as object-orientation analysis and design. But, I found these courses rather elementary and quite boring (for my expectations). So I decided to go a little further and start developing "real" software (and this is where I realized how important and interesting software engineering/design is.) Now, here's my issue: I can not find a "study guide" for developing software of this kind. Currently, there are numerous resources out there (books, websites, tutorials) in designing and developing complex IS, web applications, smartphone apps but I can't find a book for example entitled "optimization software development". Definetly, someone could claim that "design patterns apply to software in general" but that's not my point. My point is that I could simply use my imagination for "simple" implementations, but what happens, when my imagination can not go further? In other words I'm looking for a guide/path to bridge the gap between: Mathematics-Algorithm Design-Software Engineering-Optimization-Software development

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• How do I become a developer?

  - by ATester

  Since many of you are already there I figured this might be a great place to invite ideas and suggestion for becoming a software developer. My background I have some basic knowledge of programming in VB and C++ from a course I had pursued 8 years ago. My main drawback is a lack of experience in software since I was in a teaching career until a year ago. I am working as a QA tester and finally got a chance to write some automation tests scripts using C#. I didn't have any prior knowledge of C# but I was able to figure my way through it. Questions Given this context: Would anyone have any ideas as to what would be a good approach to learn enough to actually be able to work as a developer? Does anyone have any suggestions as to what kind of learning path to adopt and which approaches speed up learning curve? Would pursuing university course be helpful in terms of knowledge gained? Are certification exams a way to go for a beginner? Are community college courses useful? What about courses offered by private institutes/centers? Any suggestion for some good books?

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• A few questions about how JavaScript works

  - by KayoticSully

  I originally posted on Stack Overflow and was told I might get some better answers here. I have been looking deeply into JavaScript lately to fully understand the language and have a few nagging questions that I can not seem to find answers to (Specifically dealing with Object Oriented programming. I know JavaScript is meant to be used in an OOP manner I just want to understand it for the sake of completeness). Assuming the following code: function TestObject() { this.fA = function() { // do stuff } this.fB = testB; function testB() { // do stuff } } TestObject.prototype = { fC : function { // do stuff } } What is the difference between functions fA and fB? Do they behave exactly the same in scope and potential ability? Is it just convention or is one way technically better or proper? If there is only ever going to be one instance of an object at any given time, would adding a function to the prototype such as fC even be worthwhile? Is there any benefit to doing so? Is the prototype only really useful when dealing with many instances of an object or inheritance? And what is technically the "proper" way to add methods to the prototype the way I have above or calling TestObject.prototype.functionName = function(){} every time? I am looking to keep my JavaScript code as clean and readable as possible but am also very interested in what the proper conventions for Objects are in the language. I come from a Java and PHP background and am trying to not make any assumptions about how JavaScript works since I know it is very different being prototype based. Also are there any definitive JavaScript style guides or documentation about how JavaScript operates at a low level? Thanks!

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• Why is math taught "backwards"? [closed]

  - by Yorirou

  A friend of mine showed me a pretty practical Java example. It was a riddle. I got excited and quickly solved the problem. After it, he showed me the mathematical explanation of my solution (he proved why is it good), and it was completely clear for me. This seems like natural approach for me: solve problems, and generalize. This is very familiar to me, I do it all the time when I am programming: I write a function. When I have to write a similar function, I generalize the problem, grab the generic parts, and refactor them to a function, and solve the original problems as a specialization of the general function. At the university (or at least where I study), things work backwards. The professors shows just the highest possible level of the solutions ("cryptic" mathematical formulas). My problem is that this is too abstract for me. There is no connection of my previous knowledge (== reality in my sense), so even if I can understand it, I can't really learn it properly. Others are learning these formulas word-by-word, and get good grades, since they can write exactly the same to the test, but this is not an option for me. I am a curious person, I can learn interesting things, but I can't learn just text. My brain is for storing toughts, not strings. There are proofs for the theories, but they are also really hard to understand because of this, and in most of the cases they are omitted. What is the reason for this? I don't understand why is it a good idea to show the really high level of abstraction and then leave the practical connections (or some important ideas / practical motivations) out?

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• Are there legitimate reasons for returning exception objects instead of throwing them?

  - by stakx

  This question is intended to apply to any OO programming language that supports exception handling; I am using C# for illustrative purposes only. Exceptions are usually intended to be raised when an problem arises that the code cannot immediately handle, and then to be caught in a catch clause in a different location (usually an outer stack frame). Q: Are there any legitimate situations where exceptions are not thrown and caught, but simply returned from a method and then passed around as error objects? This question came up for me because .NET 4's System.IObserver<T>.OnError method suggests just that: exceptions being passed around as error objects. Let's look at another scenario, validation. Let's say I am following conventional wisdom, and that I am therefore distinguishing between an error object type IValidationError and a separate exception type ValidationException that is used to report unexpected errors: partial interface IValidationError { } abstract partial class ValidationException : System.Exception { public abstract IValidationError[] ValidationErrors { get; } } (The System.Component.DataAnnotations namespace does something quite similar.) These types could be employed as follows: partial interface IFoo { } // an immutable type partial interface IFooBuilder // mutable counterpart to prepare instances of above type { bool IsValid(out IValidationError[] validationErrors); // true if no validation error occurs IFoo Build(); // throws ValidationException if !IsValid(…) } Now I am wondering, could I not simplify the above to this: partial class ValidationError : System.Exception { } // = IValidationError + ValidationException partial interface IFoo { } // (unchanged) partial interface IFooBuilder { bool IsValid(out ValidationError[] validationErrors); IFoo Build(); // may throw ValidationError or sth. like AggregateException<ValidationError> } Q: What are the advantages and disadvantages of these two differing approaches?

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• Is learning C# as a first language a mistake?

  - by JuniorDeveloper1208

  I know there are similar questions on here, which I've read, but I recently read this post by Joel Spolsky: How can I teach a bright person, with no programming experience, how to program? And it got me thinking about my way of learning and whether it might actually be harmful in the long run. I've dabbled with various languages but C# is my first serious one, I've read "Head First C#" and created a few projects. But after reading the post above I've found it a bit disheartening that I may be going about it all wrong, obviously I respect Joel's opinion which is what has thrown me a bit. I've started reading "Code" as recommended in the reading list and I'm finding it pretty hard going, although enjoyable. I feel like it's taken the shine off of my "noobish hacking about" in Visual Studio. So now I'm unsure as to what path I should take? Should I take a step back and follow Joel's advice and start reading? I guess my main aim is just to become a good programmer, like everyone else, but I don't want to be going into bad practice by learning a .NET language when someone who's opinion I respect thinks that it is harmful. Thoughts?

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• Partner Webcast – Oracle Weblogic 12c for New Projects - 07 Nov 2013

  - by Thanos Terentes Printzios

  Fast-growing organizations need to stay agile in the face of changing customer, business or market requirements. Oracle WebLogic Server 12c is the industry's best application server platform that allows you to quickly develop and deploy reliable, secure, scalable and manageable enterprise Java EE applications.WebLogic Server Java EE applications are based on standardized, modular components. WebLogic Server provides a complete set of services for those modules and handles many details of application behavior automatically, without requiring programming. New project applications are created by Java programmers, Web designers, and application assemblers. Programmers and designers create modules that implement the business and presentation logic for the application. Application assemblers assemble the modules into applications that are ready to deploy on WebLogic Server. Build and run high-performance enterprise applications and services with Oracle WebLogic Server 12c, available in three editions to meet the needs of traditional and cloud IT environments. Join us, in this webcast, as we will show you how WebLogic Server 12c helps you building and deployingenterprise Java EE applications with support for new features for lowering cost of operations, improving performance, enhancing scalability. Agenda Oracle WebLogic Server Introduction Application Development on WebLogic Using Java EE Overview of the Application Deployment Process Monitoring Application Performance Q&A November 07th, 2013 -  9am UTC/11am EET Delivery FormatThis FREE online LIVE eSeminar will be delivered over the Web. Registrations received less than 24hours prior to start time may not receive confirmation to attend. Duration: 1 hour REGISTER NOW For any questions please contact us at partner.imc-AT-beehiveonline.oracle-DOT-com Stay Connected Oracle Newsletters

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• So now Google has said no to old browsers when can the rest of us follow suit?

  - by Richard

  Google recently announced that they will no longer support older browsers on Aug 1st: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-13639875 http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2011/06/our-plans-to-support-modern-browsers.html For this reason, soon Google Apps will only support modern browsers. Beginning August 1st, we’ll support the current and prior major release of Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer and Safari on a rolling basis. Each time a new version is released, we’ll begin supporting the update and stop supporting the third-oldest version. There is nothing worse than looking at the patching of code that takes place to support older browsers. If we could all move towards a standards only web (I'm looking at you IE9) then surely we could spend more time programming good web apps and less trying to make them run equally on terrible non standards compliant older browsers. So when can the rest of us expect to be able to tell our clients that we no longer support older browsers? Because it seems that large corporates will continue to run older browsers and even if google chrome frame can be installed without admin privileges (it's coming soon, currently in beta) we can't expect all users to be motivated to do this. I appreciate any thoughts.

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• How to factorize code in Unreal Kismet (i.e. "Material Function"s for Kismet)

  - by Georges Dupéron

  In the Unreal Development Kit, when using the Material Editor, one can factorize frequently-used groups of nodes by creating a Material Function (content Browser ? right-click ? new matrial function, IIRC). When defining the behaviour of some actor in Kismet, one can easily have a dozen nodes involved. If I have many actors that share the same behaviour, then I'll copy-paste these nodes, and change the variables so they point to the other actors. This leads to inconsistencies (a modification in the behaviour of an actor isn't propagated in the copy-pasted nodes), complexity (you end up with hundreds of nodes), and generally useless effort. My question is : Can I create a "kismet function", just like a material function ? Note: I'd rather avoid using UnrealScript. I don't even know where to type UnrealScripts, don't know where the documentation is and more generally don't have enough time to invest in learning UnrealScript. This "kismet function" feature must be usable by graphists (with little programming knowledge). If a (simple) script suffices to add this feature in the Kismet editor, so that one can create several "functions" without using UnrealScript, then fine, but I don't really want to have to write a script each time I want to factorize a few nodes. Thanks for any information !

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• Event handler generation in Visual Studio 2012

  - by Jalpesh P. Vadgama

  This post will be a part of Visual Studio 2012 feature series There are lots of new features there in visual studio 2012. Event handler generation is one of them. In earlier version of visual studio there was no way to create event handler from source view directly.  Now visual studio 2012 have event handler generation functionality. So if you are editing an event view in source view intellisense will display add new event handler template and once you click on it. It will create a new event handler in the cs file. It will also put a eventhandler name against event name so you don’t need to write that. So, let’s take a simple example of button click event so once I write onclick attribute their smart intellisense will pop up . Now once you click on <Create New Event> It will create event handler in .cs file like following. It will also put submitButton_Click on onClick attribute. Hope you liked it. Stay tuned for more. Till then happy programming..

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• Why is CS never a topic of conversation of the layman? [closed]

  - by hydroparadise

  Granted, every profession has it's technicalities. If you are an MD, you better know the anatomy of the human body, and if you are astronomer, you better know your calculus. Yet, you don't have to know these more advance topics to know that smoking might give you lung cancer because of carcinogens or the moon revolves around the earth because of gravity (thank you Discovery Channel). There's sort of a common knowledge (at least in more developed countries) of these more advanced topics. With that said, why are things like recursive descent parsing, BNF, or Turing machines hardly ever mentioned outsided 3000 or 4000 level classes in a university setting or between colleagues? Even back in my days before college in my pursuit of knowledge on how computers work, these very important topics (IMHO) never seem to get the light of day. Many different sources and sites go into "What is a processor?" or "What is RAM?", or "What is an OS?". You might get lucky and discover something about programming languages and how they play a role in how applications are created, but nothing about the tools for creating the language itself. To extend this idea, Dennis Ritchie died shortly after Steve Jobs, yet Dennis Ritchie got very little press compared to Steve Jobs. So, the heart of my question: Does the public in general not care to hear about computer science topics that make the technology in their lives work, or does the computer science community not lend itself to the general public to close the knowledge gap? Am I wrong to think the general public has the same thirst for knowledge on how things work as I do? Please consider the question carefully before answering or vote closing please.

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• Using a random string to authenticate HMAC?

  - by mrwooster

  I am designing a simple webservice and want to use HMAC for authentication to the service. For the purpose of this question we have: a web service at example.com a secret key shared between a user and the server [K] a consumer ID which is known to the user and the server (but is not necessarily secret) [D] a message which we wish to send to the server [M] The standard HMAC implementation would involve using the secret key [K] and the message [M] to create the hash [H], but I am running into issues with this. The message [M] can be quite long and tends to be read from a file. I have found its very difficult to produce a correct hash consistently across multiple operating systems and programming languages because of hidden characters which make it into various file formats. This is of course bad implementation on the client side (100%), but I would like this webservice to be easily accessible and not have trouble with different file formats. I was thinking of an alternative, which would allow the use a short (5-10 char) random string [R] rather than the message for autentication, e.g. H = HMAC(K,R) The user then passes the random string to the server and the server checks the HMAC server side (using random string + shared secret). As far as I can see, this produces the following issues: There is no message integrity - this is ok message integrity is not important for this service A user could re-use the hash with a different message - I can see 2 ways around this Combine the random string with a timestamp so the hash is only valid for a set period of time Only allow each random string to be used once Since the client is in control of the random string, it is easier to look for collisions I should point out that the principle reason for authentication is to implement rate limiting on the API service. There is zero need for message integrity, and its not a big deal if someone can forge a single request (but it is if they can forge a very large number very quickly). I know that the correct answer is to make sure the message [M] is the same on all platforms/languages before hashing it. But, taking that out of the equation, is the above proposal an acceptable 2nd best?

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• Where have I been for the last month?

  - by MarkPearl

  So, I have been pretty quiet for the last month or so. True, it has been holiday time and I went to Cape Town for a stunning week of sunshine and blue skies, but the second I got back home I spent the remainder of my holiday on my pc viewing tutorials on www.tekpub.com Craig Shoemaker, who I got in contact with because of his podcast, sent me a 1 month free subscription to the site and it has been really appreciated. I have done a lot of WPF programming in the past, but not any asp.net stuff and so I used the time to get a peek at asp.net mvc2 as well as a bunch of other technologies. I just wished I had more spare time to do the rest of the videos. While I didn’t understand all of what was being shown on the asp.net stuff (it required previous asp.net expertise), the site was a really good jump start to someone wanting to learn a new technology and broaden the horizons and I would highly recommend it, My only gripe is that in South Africa we have limited bandwidth and bandwidth speeds and so I spent a lot of my monthly bandwidth on the site and had to top up with my ISP several times because of the high quality video captures that the site did. I would have preferred to download the video’s, but apparently that is only available to people who have the yearly subscription fee. Other than that, great site and thanks a ton Craig!

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