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• Tech Cast Live - Java and Oracle, One Year Later - February 15th 10AM PST

  - by Cassandra Clark

  Join us for a special live conversation with Ajay Patel, Vice President of Product Development for Application Grid Products and Justin Kestelyn, Director of the Oracle Technology Network. Justin and Ajay will discuss the changes that have come to Java and Oracle since the Sun acquisition, just over a year ago. This live broadcast conversation will include discussion on: - Highlights, challenges and what we learned over the past year - The Future of Java and its importance to Oracle and the community - Oracle's Application Grid product portfolio today Watch Live Event February 15th Watch Archived TechCast Lives You will also have the chance to submit questions to the speakers live on the show, for real-time feedback by using #techcastlive. If your question is read on air we will send you a Free I am the Future of Java t-shirt* *Promotion Details After you have submitted your question and it is read on the live TechCast held February 15th your shirt should arrive in two to four weeks while supplies last. No purchase, payments, or fees are required to receive the gift. Limit one thank you gift per person, and the offer is available only while supplies last. Oracle reserves the right to modify or terminate this offer at any time, for any reason. This offer is not available to Oracle employees or residents of countries subject to U.S. embargo (including Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Sudan, and Syria). Due to Federal Government regulations, this offer is not available to Federal Government customers. Those residing in India or Brazil will be given a substitute gift as we can not ship t-shirts to your country. You are responsible for complying with your employer's policies regarding acceptance of promotional items, and for government laws, regulations and agency policies, if you are a government employee you will not be able to participate. Must be 18 years of age or older. Void where prohibited. Neither Oracle nor any third party assisting Oracle with this offer is responsible for any problems, errors, delays, or technical malfunction related to or impacting this offer. Oracle respects your right to privacy and your information will not be distributed or used for any other purpose. For more information on Oracle's privacy policy, please review our http://www.oracle.com/html/privacy-policy.html. If you have any questions, please contact us at [email protected].

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• Are there any concerns with using a static read-only unit of work so that it behaves like a cache?

  - by Rowan Freeman

  Related question: How do I cache data that rarely changes? I'm making an ASP.NET MVC4 application. On every request the security details about the user will need to be checked with the area/controller/action that they are accessing to see if they are allowed to view it. The security information is stored in the database. For example: User Permission UserPermission Action ActionPermission A "Permission" is a token that is applied to an MVC action to indicate that the token is required in order to access the action. Once a user is given the permission (via the UserPermission table) then they have the token and can therefore access the action. I've been looking in to how to cache this data (since it rarely changes) so that I'm only querying in-memory data and not hitting a database (which is a considerable performance hit at the moment). I've tried storing things in lists, using a caching provider but I either run in to problems or performance doesn't improve. One problem that I constantly run in to is that I'm using lazy loading and dynamic proxies with EntityFramework. This means that even if I ToList() everything and store them somewhere static, the relationships are never populated. For example, User.Permissions is an ICollection but it's always null. I don't want to Include() everything because I'm trying to keep things simple and generic (and easy to modify). One thing I know is that an EntityFramework DbContext is a unit of work that acts with 1st-level caching. That is, for the duration of the unit of work, everything that is accessed is cached in memory. I want to create a read-only DbContext that will exist indefinitely and will only be used to read about permission data. Upon testing this it worked perfectly; my page load times went from 200ms+ to 20ms. I can easily force the data to refresh at certain intervals or simply leave it to refresh when the application pool is recycled. Basically it will behave like a cache. Note that the rest of the application will interact with other contexts that exist per request as normal. Is there any disadvantage to this approach? Could I be doing something different?

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• Releasing the new Sample Browser Phone app

  - by Jialiang

  Originally posted on: http://geekswithblogs.net/Jialiang/archive/2014/06/05/releasing-the-new-sample-browser-phone-app.aspx Starting its journey in 2010, Sample Browser is achieving its tetralogy by releasing a Windows Phone version Sample Browser today. The new Windows Phone app is the fourth milestone of Sample Browser since we released the desktop version and the Visual Studio version in 2012 and the Windows Store version in 2013. This time, by providing a sample browser designed for a ‘walking’ platform in response to MVPs’ suggestions during last year’s MVP Global Summit, we are literally putting a world of code samples "at developers’ fingertips”. If you like to have a code gallery of over 7000 quality code samples in your pocket, then click here to download our Windows Phone Sample Browser and start a fantastic mobile experience. With Windows Phone version Sample Browser and the Internet, you can search for code samples on MSDN at anytime and anywhere you want, 24/7 and–even to bed. You can also check code sample details and share them with your friends. Compared to the other 3 pieces in the tetralogy (desktop version, Visual Studio version, and the Windows Store version), the Windows Phone version Sample Browser sells itself for convenience and instant connectivity. For those who need to reach code samples under mobile circumstances where no PCs is available, Windows Phone version Sample Browser will definitely be the right service you are seeking for. Aside from sharing samples via emails as the other 3 do, the Windows Phone version Sample Browser also allows you to share the sample via SMS and Near Field Communication (NFC).   What's Next Currently, the Windows Phone Sample Browser only supports online MSDN code searching, but we already plan to upgrade Sample Browser to allow users to do ‘Bing code search’, and add and manage their private code snippets.  We will also upgrade the app to universal app. Universal App is a new concept brought up in the Microsoft Build Developer Conference 2014. It is a new development model that allows for a single app to be deployed across multiple Windows devices such as Windows Phone, Windows 8.1, and XBox. Therefore, once we finish upgrading Sample Browser to a universal app, you can synchronize your own code snippets across different devices; You can also mark a code sample as favorite on your Windows Phone and continue to study the sample when you are on your desktop. By then, sharing data between platforms will be a piece of cake. Also, the user experience of Sample Browser on different platforms will be more consistent.  The best is yet to come!   We sincerely suggest you give Sample Browser a try (click here to download). If you love what you see in Sample Browser, please recommend it to your friends and colleagues. If you encounter any problems or have any suggestions for us, please contact us at [email protected]. Your precious opinions and comments are more than welcome.

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• Should I install ubuntu on USB instead of HDD dual-boot?

  - by user2147243

  I had Ubuntu 12.04 installed as dual-boot OS on top of Vista on my laptop. Hacked the grub settings to default to Vista (instead of the default Ubuntu -- pain) on startup, and all was OK for occasional Ubuntu use for past 6 months. Then last week I got a strange message about 'lack of disk space' (~50MB free) when installing pxyplot, even though there was still about 6GB free disk space when I checked later. Then today the Ubuntu wouldn't load at all, and checking the HDD partitions in Vista it looked like the 15GB Ubuntu partition was now three smaller partitions! So, I got rid of those partitions and expanded the Vista partition to use the reclaimed space. Now can't restart ('grub rescue' appears and doesn't 'rescue' anything), so I'll have to do a boot recovery using a Vista installation CD. (Not a particularly user-friendly failure mode of the dual-boot installation!) I now have to decide to either a) try installing ubuntu on the HDD again, but don't want to stuff up my Vista ever again, as that is my most used OS, or b) install Ubuntu on a 16GB USB 3.0 stick. Apparently performance from USB won't be as good as from HDD, and running OS from USB stick does lots of r/w so the stick may fail after a few years! Perhaps installing Ubuntu on live USB and setup to then run in RAM would alleviate the performance/USB lifespan problems? If I create a live-USB for Ubuntu OS, will it boot off that when I restart the laptop with it plugged in? Or will I have to change the laptop setting for boot-order whenever I want to boot Ubuntu instead of Vista (that would be even more painful than the grub default boot order putting Ubuntu ahead of the existing Vista OS!) -- update: I recovered my Vista setup using Iolo SystemMechanic Disaster Recovery Tool, and created a bootable USB of Ubuntu 13.10 on an 8GB USB3.0 pendrive, with 4GB of 'persistence' to allow saving of settings, install some packages etc. It worked OK for a couple of test boots, but once I changed the time and desktop wallpaper, the next Ubuntu reboot crashed and I then couldn't get it to boot successfully. So I decided to install Ubuntu 12.04 LTS as a dual-boot again, but this time instead of partitioning the HDD and installing from an ISO DVD I used the wubi.exe tool to install Ubuntu as a dual-boot. Worked very well, although one oddity was that, despite asking how big the make the partition (20GB), the installed Ubuntu appears to be happily installed somewhere within the Vista NTFS file system (no partition shows up in Windows disk manager, and in Ubuntu disk management tool the entire 133 GB of HDD is showing, with ~40GB free space). A nice feature of installing the dual-boot using wubi is that the laptop now uses Windows boot manager on startup, with Vista as the default OS and Ubuntu happily listed as second on the list. So far so good.

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• ConsumeStructuredBuffer, what am I doing wrong?

  - by John

  I'm trying to implement the 3rd exercise in chapter 12 of Introduction to 3D Game Programming with DirectX 11, that is: Implement a Compute Shader to calculate the length of 64 vectors. Previous exercises ask you to do the same with typed buffers and regular structured buffers and I had no problems with them. For what I've read, [Consume|Append]StructuredBuffers are bound to the pipeline using UnorderedAccessViews (as long as they use the D3D11_BUFFER_UAV_FLAG_APPEND, and the buffers have both D3D11_BIND_SHADER_RESOURCE and D3D11_BIND_UNORDERED_ACCESS bind flags). Problem is: my AppendStructuredBuffer works, since I can append data to it and retrieve it from the application to write to a results file, but the ConsumeStructuredBuffer always returns zeroed data. Data is in the buffer, since if I change the UAV to a ShaderResourceView and to a StructuredBuffer in the HLSL side it works. I don't know what I am missing: Should I initialize the ConsumeStructuredBuffer on the GPU, or can I do it when I create the buffer (as I amb currently doing). Is it OK to bind the buffer with a UAV as described above? Do I need to bind it as a ShaderResourceView somehow? Maybe I am missing some step? This is the declaration of buffers in the Compute Shader: struct Data { float3 v; }; struct Result { float l; }; ConsumeStructuredBuffer<Data> gInput; AppendStructuredBuffer<Result> gOutput; And here the creation of the buffer and UAV for input data: D3D11_BUFFER_DESC inputDesc; inputDesc.Usage = D3D11_USAGE_DEFAULT; inputDesc.ByteWidth = sizeof(Data) * mNumElements; inputDesc.BindFlags = D3D11_BIND_SHADER_RESOURCE | D3D11_BIND_UNORDERED_ACCESS; inputDesc.CPUAccessFlags = 0; inputDesc.StructureByteStride = sizeof(Data); inputDesc.MiscFlags = D3D11_RESOURCE_MISC_BUFFER_STRUCTURED; D3D11_SUBRESOURCE_DATA vinitData; vinitData.pSysMem = &data[0]; HR(md3dDevice->CreateBuffer(&inputDesc, &vinitData, &mInputBuffer)); D3D11_UNORDERED_ACCESS_VIEW_DESC uavDesc; uavDesc.Format = DXGI_FORMAT_UNKNOWN; uavDesc.ViewDimension = D3D11_UAV_DIMENSION_BUFFER; uavDesc.Buffer.FirstElement = 0; uavDesc.Buffer.Flags = D3D11_BUFFER_UAV_FLAG_APPEND; uavDesc.Buffer.NumElements = mNumElements; md3dDevice->CreateUnorderedAccessView(mInputBuffer, &uavDesc, &mInputUAV); Initial data is an array of Data structs, which contain a XMFLOAT3 with random data. I bind the UAV to the shader using the Effects framework: ID3DX11EffectUnorderedAccessViewVariable* Input = mFX->GetVariableByName("gInput")->AsUnorderedAccessView(); Input->SetUnorderedAccessView(uav); // uav is mInputUAV Any ideas? Thank you.

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• iTorque for a simple arcade game

  - by Herfus

  I have a basic understanding of programming, but I am no programmer. I've had a couple of a semesters with java programming, so we're talking pretty basic here. I have some scripting experience with game editors where I've created a few (simple) encounters, boss AI, abilities, events and so on. I've mostly done level design with UDK, Source and several other toolsets for a few years now, but I'd like to divert some of the focus to iphone-development. I've participated in a few development projects (source, udk, daot) where I've had a variety of roles (yet never beyond simple scripting). I have just finished prototyping an Iphone game (using game maker) and begun a bit more precise planning on what I'll have to do for the real version. The game is fairly simple, perhaps the best comparison in scope and complexity would be Doodlejump for iPhone. The reason I created the prototype was not just to answer a few questions about the gameplay, but to get some insight into what kind of problems I might face when trying to develop the real thing. I've been looking for engines that I can use for this. iTorque looks, so far, like the best option with a scripting language and WYSIWYG-editor. However the price is fairly steep and I'd like to prepare myself as much as possible before jumping into this, which is why I'm going to ask a few questions here. What kind of difficulties do you think I might run into, considering what you've read so far? Not just with torque, but development in general. I'm making this question mostly to have someone to reality check me. I usually achieve to do what I'm trying to do with scripting, but something tells me there's a very big difference between scripting an AI or an event and creating game logic. Will it be too much of a leap? Just how simple is it to use the Torque scripting language? Obviously I don't expect to be prepared, I expect it to be a learning process. However, I'd still like to be at least a bit confident on the time I'll have to dedicate to this first.

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• Issues with shooting in a HTML5 platformer game

  - by fnx

  I'm coding a 2D sidescroller using only JavaScript and HTML5 canvas, and in my game I have two problems with shooting: 1) Player shoots continous stream of bullets. I want that player can shoot only a single bullet even though the shoot-button is being held down. 2) Also, I get an error "Uncaught TypeError: Cannot call method 'draw' of undefined" when all the bullets are removed. My shooting code goes like this: When player shoots, I do game.bullets.push(new Bullet(this, this.scale)); and after that: function Bullet(source, dir) { this.id = "bullet"; this.width = 10; this.height = 3; this.dir = dir; if (this.dir == 1) { this.x = source.x + source.width - 5; this.y = source.y + 16; } if (this.dir == -1) { this.x = source.x; this.y = source.y + 16; } } Bullet.prototype.update = function() { if (this.dir == 1) this.x += 8; if (this.dir == -1) this.x -= 8; for (var i in game.enemies) { checkCollisions(this, game.enemies[i]); } // Check if bullet leaves the viewport if (this.x < game.viewX * 32 || this.x > (game.viewX + game.tilesX) * 32) { removeFromList(game.bullets, this); } } Bullet.prototype.draw = function() { // bullet flipping uses orientation of the player var posX = game.player.scale == 1 ? this.x : (this.x + this.width) * -1; game.ctx.scale(game.player.scale, 1); game.ctx.drawImage(gameData.getGfx("bullet"), posX, this.y); } I handle removing with this function: function removeFromList(list, object) { for (i in list) { if (object == list[i]) { list.splice(i, 1); break; } } } And finally, in the main game loop I have this: for (var i in game.bullets) { game.bullets[i].update(); game.bullets[i].draw(); } I have tried adding if (game.bullets.length > 0) to the main game loop before the above draw&update calls, but I still get the same error.

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• Data Transformation Pipeline

  - by davenewza

  I have create some kind of data pipeline to transform coordinate data into more useful information. Here is the shell of pipeline: public class PositionPipeline { protected List<IPipelineComponent> components; public PositionPipeline() { components = new List<IPipelineComponent>(); } public PositionPipelineEntity Process(Position position) { foreach (var component in components) { position = component.Execute(position); } return position; } public PositionPipeline RegisterComponent(IPipelineComponent component) { components.Add(component); return this; } } Every IPipelineComponent accepts and returns the same type - a PositionPipelineEntity. Code: public interface IPipelineComponent { PositionPipelineEntity Execute(PositionPipelineEntity position); } The PositionPipelineEntity needs to have many properties, many which are unused in certain components and required in others. Some properties will also have become redundant at the end of the pipeline. For example, these components could be executed: TransformCoordinatesComponent: Parse the raw coordinate data into a Coordinate type. DetermineCountryComponent: Determine and stores country code. DetermineOnRoadComponent: Determine and store whether coordinate is on a road. Code: pipeline .RegisterComponent(new TransformCoordinatesComponent()) .RegisterComponent(new DetermineCountryComponent()) .RegisterComponent(new DetermineOnRoadComponent()); pipeline.Process(positionPipelineEntity); The PositionPipelineEntity type: public class PositionPipelineEntity { // Only relevant to the TransformCoordinatesComponent public decimal RawCoordinateLatitude { get; set; } // Only relevant to the TransformCoordinatesComponent public decimal RawCoordinateLongitude { get; set; } // Required by all components after TransformCoordinatesComponent public Coordinate CoordinateLatitude { get; set; } // Required by all components after TransformCoordinatesComponent public Coordinate CoordinateLongitude { get; set; } // Set in DetermineCountryComponent, not required anywhere. // Requires CoordinateLatitude and CoordinateLongitude (TransformCoordinatesComponent) public string CountryCode { get; set; } // Set in DetermineOnRoadComponent, not required anywhere. // Requires CoordinateLatitude and CoordinateLongitude (TransformCoordinatesComponent) public bool OnRoad { get; set; } } Problems: I'm very concerned about the dependency that a component has on properties. The way to solve this would be to create specific types for each component. The problem then is that I cannot chain them together like this. The other problem is the order of components in the pipeline matters. There is some dependency. The current structure does not provide any static or runtime checking for such a thing. Any feedback would be appreciated.

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• MS in Computer Science after BE in electronics

  - by Abhinav

  I am doing my 3rd year Bachelors in Electronics and Electrical Communication but from the first year I have been interested in Computer Science. But at that time it was just my hobby. But in second year when I joined robotics my love for computer science rose. I with my team came in top three in 2 National Competition (Technical fests of different IITs) where we used Image Processing, Hardware interfacing etc. But then I realised that Computer Science is not just about coding. I took many lectures from online free schools like Udacity, Coursera in subjects related to Artificial Intelligence, Building a Search Engine, Design and Analysis of Algorithm, Programming a Robotic Car, Programming Languages, Machine Learning, Software Engineering as a Service, WebApps Engineering, Compilers, Applied Crypotography etc. I also did some courses in Core and Advanced Java in my second year from training institute. I will also be taking course in Statistics, Databases, Discrete Mathematics from 25th June. Now I realized how vast is the field of Computer Science and how efficient you become on deciding algorithms and classifying problems into different subfields which have been thoroughly researched so you don't always do brute force thing or naive programming. Now this field has become kind of passion for me. Adding to the fact I am also doing my 6 months internship in software field in Texas Instruments where I am working on Automation and Algorithms. I also have some 5-6 good college level projects in Softwares and Robotics. I also like Electronics but only some fields like Operating System(this subject was there in Electronics also), Micro Processor, Digital, Computer Architecture, DSPs etc. I really want to pursue MS in some field of Computer Science. I am giving GRE in October/November. Till now I have good CG of around 9.4/10 and my 1 year in college is still left. Do I have any chance that some good University in US will consider me for MS in field related to computer science or Robotics. Also Can you suggest somethings that I can do during this 1 year to increase my chances for MS or should I apply for EECS(Electrical Engineering and Computer Science) and then I can shift more towards Computer Science as my major option. My main aim is to do Phd after Ms in CS if I am able to do that somehow. I know that I have to put much extra effort to understand things in MS than CS undergraduates but I will do that with my full dedication, also when I communicate with my college CS students or during my internship period I didn't feel that I am missing very much stuff that they know and was very comfortable during my internship with software employees.

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• How to become a good team player?

  - by Nick

  I've been programming (obsessively) since I was 12. I am fairly knowledgeable across the spectrum of languages out there, from assembly, to C++, to Javascript, to Haskell, Lisp, and Qi. But all of my projects have been by myself. I got my degree in chemical engineering, not CS or computer engineering, but for the first time this fall I'll be working on a large programming project with other people, and I have no clue how to prepare. I've been using Windows all of my life, but this project is going to be very unix-y, so I purchased a Mac recently in the hopes of familiarizing myself with the environment. I was fortunate to participate in a hackathon with some friends this past year -- both CS majors -- and excitingly enough, we won. But I realized as I worked with them that their workflow was very different from mine. They used Git for version control. I had never used it at the time, but I've since learned all that I can about it. They also used a lot of frameworks and libraries. I had to learn what Rails was pretty much overnight for the hackathon (on the other hand, they didn't know what lexical scoping or closures were). All of our code worked well, but they didn't understand mine, and I didn't understand theirs. I hear references to things that real programmers do on a daily basis -- unit testing, code reviews, but I only have the vaguest sense of what these are. I normally don't have many bugs in my little projects, so I have never needed a bug tracking system or tests for them. And the last thing is that it takes me a long time to understand other people's code. Variable naming conventions (that vary with each new language) are difficult (__mzkwpSomRidicAbbrev), and I find the loose coupling difficult. That's not to say I don't loosely couple things -- I think I'm quite good at it for my own work, but when I download something like the Linux kernel or the Chromium source code to look at it, I spend hours trying to figure out how all of these oddly named directories and files connect. It's a programming sin to reinvent the wheel, but I often find it's just quicker to write up the functionality myself than to spend hours dissecting some library. Obviously, people who do this for a living don't have these problems, and I'll need to get to that point myself. Question: What are some steps that I can take to begin "integrating" with everyone else? Thanks!

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• Single Responsibility Principle Implementation

  - by Mike S

  In my spare time, I've been designing a CMS in order to learn more about actual software design and architecture, etc. Going through the SOLID principles, I already notice that ideas like "MVC", "DRY", and "KISS", pretty much fall right into place. That said, I'm still having problems deciding if one of two implementations is the best choice when it comes to the Single Responsibility Principle. Implementation #1: class User getName getPassword getEmail // etc... class UserManager create read update delete class Session start stop class Login main class Logout main class Register main The idea behind this implementation is that all user-based actions are separated out into different classes (creating a possible case of the aptly-named Ravioli Code), but following the SRP to a "tee", almost literally. But then I thought that it was a bit much, and came up with this next implementation class UserView extends View getLogin //Returns the html for the login screen getShortLogin //Returns the html for an inline login bar getLogout //Returns the html for a logout button getRegister //Returns the html for a register page // etc... as needed class UserModel extends DataModel implements IDataModel // Implements no new methods yet, outside of the interface methods // Haven't figured out anything special to go here at the moment // All CRUD operations are handled by DataModel // through methods implemented by the interface class UserControl extends Control implements IControl login logout register startSession stopSession class User extends DataObject getName getPassword getEmail // etc... This is obviously still very organized, and still very "single responsibility". The User class is a data object that I can manipulate data on and then pass to the UserModel to save it to the database. All the user data rendering (what the user will see) is handled by UserView and it's methods, and all the user actions are in one space in UserControl (plus some automated stuff required by the CMS to keep a user logged in or to ensure that they stay out.) I personally can't think of anything wrong with this implementation either. In my personal feelings I feel that both are effectively correct, but I can't decide which one would be easier to maintain and extend as life goes on (despite leaning towards Implementation #1.) So what about you guys? What are your opinions on this? Which one is better? What basics (or otherwise, nuances) of that principle have I missed in either design?

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• I'd like to switch from 32-bit to 64-bit within same version

  - by Marty Fried

  I have a 32-bit installation of 11.10 on my 64-bit (4 GB) home AMD system. I have recently read up a bit on 64-bit version, and it seems that it would be a marginally better choice now for me. I have read about several methods to help reinstall all the various apps, using either dpkg's get-selections/set-selections and dselect in various ways, or using synaptic's save/get markings. The problem here is that I've read several variations, and I'm not sure which is best. I have enough disk space to do this with a brand new partition, so I'm not too worried about destroying anything, but I don't really want to make it my life's work, hence my appeal for expert tips. Since it's the same version, would it be safe to copy configuration files from the 32-bit system? I'd guess my home directory and /etc might be enough, and would save at least most of the time to reconfigure. But are there difference in configuration files in either of these directories for 32 vs 64 bits that might cause problems? After reinstalling to 64-bit, I can then continue along the 64 bit path for upgrades, but I thought it would be easier to switch the same version, than to try to reinstall apps and upgrade at the same time. Some methods I've seen suggested, among others: A. From Ubuntu forums On your old system (assuming it is still working), start up Synaptic and go: File->Save Markings and choose a file name along with a location (like a USB drive) that you can use when you have installed your new system). You need to check on the bottom: "Save full state, not only changes" This file contains a list of all your currently installed packages, and when you have installed and booted up your new system (and configured your repositories to the best for your location - as we all do, don't we?) then start up Synaptic and go: File-Read Markings and point it at your saved file, and after that has completed then select Apply to kick off the download & installation of all of those packages you had installed previously! B. From the same discussion: According to section 6.4.9 of the Debian Reference Manual, the following will save both the list of packages installed and their debconf configuration: # dpkg --get-selections "*" >myselections # or use \* # debconf-get-selections > debconfsel.txt and the following will reinstall and reconfigure them: # dselect update # debconf-set-selections < debconfsel.txt # dpkg --set-selections <myselections # apt-get -u dselect-upgrade # or dselect install C. A variation on the above I've seen a lot, this from stackoverflow: dpkg --get-selections > package_list then on the new install: cat package_list | sudo dpkg --set-selections && sudo apt-get dselect-upgrade I don't really understand B, or why it's slightly different than many others.

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• C++ and SDL resource management for 2D game

  - by KuruptedMagi

  My first question is about stateManagers. I do not use the singleton pattern (read many random posts with various reasons not to use it), I have gameStateManager which runs the pointer cCurrentGameState-render(), etc. I want to make a transitioning game, this engine should ideally cover both a platformer and a bird's eye RPG (with some recoding, I just mean the base engine), both of which will load different levels and events, such as world map, dungeon, shops, etc. So I then thought, rather then having to store all this data within all the states, I would break the engine into gameStates, and playStates... when gameState reaches gameStatePlay(), gameStatePlay simply runs the usual handleInput, logic, and render for the playStates, just as the low level gameStateManager does. This lets me store all the player data within the base playstate class without storing useless data in the gameStates. Now I have added a seperate mapEditor, which uses editorStates from gameStateEditor. Is this too much usage of the gameState concept? It seems to work pretty well for me, so I was wondering if I am too far off a common implementation of this. My second question is on image resources. I have my sprite class with nothing but static members, mainly loadImage, applySurface, and my screen pointer. I also have a map pairing imageName enums with actual SDL_Surface pointers, and one pairing clipNumber enums with a wrapper class for a vector of clips, so that each reference in the map can have different amounts of clips with different sizes. I thought it would be better to store all these images, and screen within one static body, since 20 different goblins all use the same sprite sheet, and all need to print to the same screen, and of course, this way I do not need to pass my screen reference to every little entity. The imageMap seems to work very well, I can even add the ability to search through the map at creation of entity type to see if a particular image at creation, creating if it doesnt exist, and destroying the image if the last entity that needs it was just destroyed. The vectored clip map however, seems to take too long to initialize, so if i run past the state that initializes them to fast, the game crashes <. Plus, the clip map call is half of this line =P SPRITE::applySurface( cEditorMap.cTiles[x][y].iX, cEditorMap.cTiles[x][y].iY, SPRITE::mImages[ IMAGE_TILEMAP ], SPRITE::screen, SPRITE::mImageClips[IMAGE_TILEMAP]->clips.at( cEditorMap.cTiles[x][y].iTileType ) ); Again, do I have the right idea? I like the imageMap, but am I better off with each entity storing its own clips? My last question is about collision detection. I only grasp the basics, will look at per-pixel and circular soon, but how can I determine which side the collision comes from with just the basic square collision detection, I tried breaking each entity into 4 collision zones, but that just gave me problems with walking through walls and the like <. Also, is per-pixel color collision a good way to decide what collision just occured, or is checking multiple colors for multiple entities too taxing each cycle?

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• HDMI sound gone, can't figure out how to turn it back on

  - by Oli

  I have had an Acer Revo box as a media centre for a while. I recently installed Ubuntu Server (10.10) on it and polished it up with nodm (one of the most simple ways to launch an X session) and installed boxee. It's been working fine for over a month. It's just running ALSA. I've had problems with PulseAudio/Boxee/HDMI before so I wanted to keep it simple. And that worked. It pushed both PCM and digital (AAC and various Dolby codecs) over HDMI perfectly. But I restarted it the other day after mucking around with some nfs configuration and now there isn't any sound. The hardware is an ION chipset. Nvidia 9400M graphics with Nvidia MCP79/7A audio. One thing I have noticed is there doesn't appear to be any sign of a IEC958 device. A traditional fix in the past for fresh installs has been to load alsamixer, find the IEC device and toggle its mute but I can't. I'm certain this used to represent the HDMI output. It just doesn't seem to exist any more unless I run sudo alsa-utils restart while boxee is running, when I see it in an error message: * Shutting down ALSA... [ OK ] * Setting up ALSA... * warning: 'alsactl restore' failed with error message 'alsactl: set_control:1388: Cannot write control '2:0:0:IEC958 Playback Default:0' : Operation not permitted'... ...done. When nodm (and thus boxee) aren't running, I don't see this error but alsamixer still doesn't show the IEC channel. aplay -l gives: card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 0: ALC662 rev1 Analog [ALC662 rev1 Analog] Subdevices: 1/1 Subdevice #0: subdevice #0 card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0] Subdevices: 0/1 Subdevice #0: subdevice #0 Its section in lshw reads: *-multimedia description: Audio device product: MCP79 High Definition Audio vendor: nVidia Corporation physical id: 8 bus info: pci@0000:00:08.0 version: b1 width: 32 bits clock: 66MHz capabilities: pm bus_master cap_list configuration: driver=HDA Intel latency=0 maxlatency=5 mingnt=2 resources: irq:22 memory:fae78000-fae7bfff I was running on the stock PAE kernel but now it's running on 2.6.37.1. I upgraded to see if that fixed things; it didn't. I'm considering a reinstall but I hate doing that because a) there's a bit of custom configuration in getting X and Boxee to start on boot and b) I don't know what the problem is. If I reinstall this time, I'll end up doing that every time the sound breaks. I love Ubuntu but I don't want to install it once a month. Is there any way to forcibly reset all alsa settings and restart from scratch (without doing a reinstall)? Any other tips? If you need more information, just ask.

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• 2D Animation Smoothness - Delta time vs. Kinematics

  - by viperld002

  I'm animating a sprite in 2D with key frames of rotation and xy-positions. I've recently had a discussion with someone saying that when the device (happens to be an iPad using cocos2D) hits a performance bump due to whatever else the user may be doing, lag will arise and that the best way to fight it is to not use actual positions, but velocities, accelerations and torques with kinematics. His message is to evaluate the positions and rotations from these speeds at the current point in time. I've never experienced a situation where I've heard of using kinematics to stem lag in 2D animations and am not sure of how effective it could be. Also, it seems to be overkill. The application is not networked so it's all running on a local device. The desired effect is that the animation always plays as closely as it can to the target frame rate. Wouldn't the technique suffer the same problems as just using the time since the last frame or a fixed time step since the kinematics would also require some time value to perform the calculation? What techniques could you suggest to best achieve the desired effect? EDIT 1 Thank you for your responses, they are very illuminating. I want to clarify my question before choosing an answer however, to make sure that this post really serves it's purpose. I have a sprite of a ball, and a text file with 3 arrays worth of information (rotation,translations x, translations y) with each unit of information existing as a key frame to be stepped through (0 to 49 and back to 0 to replay it again). I have this playing by interpolating from the current key frame to the next, every n-units of time. The animation is visibly correct when compared to a video I was given of it, and it is smooth because of the interpolations between the key frames. This is the existing state of the project. There are no physics simulated, only a static animation of a ball moving in a way an artist specifically designed. Should I, instead of rotation in degrees and translations by positions in space, derive velocities, accelerations and torques to express this static animation as a function of time? As in, position now = foo(time now), where foo uses kinematics.

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• Is MongoDB a good choice or not for my application?

  - by shubham

  I have a Reporting application which stores the reports in xml format as recieved from source (XML schema is not defined, it can be any format) and those reports contain some keys and values. Like jobid, setid be keys for 1 type of report and userid, groupId for another type of report etc. The type of keys that can be referred from the document is determined by the namespaces used in the xml doc. These keys are stored on the basis of namespace used in the xml document. For e.g. If a tag in xml fragment uses namespace= "myspace1", then I have keys A and B for myspace1 stored in another table. It will fetch those keys from that table for this namespace, look for their values in xml doc and store it in another table along with the pointer to this xml document (Id of a record storing complete xml document in a cell). Use cases: When the user comes and queries for that key and value, I return the document or a set of documents that are having those key/value pairs. When the user comes and queries for a certain key and provide a name for xslt (pre stored), I fetch the set of documents fulfilling that criteria and convert that xml to html with the specified xslt. When the user comes and asks for a particular fragment of a doc then it can fetch a subset from a particular document also. When the user comes and queries for top x values of a certain key, I return the set of documents that are having top 10 values of that key. I am using DB2 database for its support of xml along with relational capabilities. That makes easier for me to run xpath expressions and fetch values of keys and also aggregate a set of documents fullfilling a criteria, all on the database side. Problems: DB2 stores XML doc of upto 2GB in size. Retrieval is very slow. If some thing involves many documents, then it takes significant time for things to show up in browser, and the user has to wait. Can MongoDb help in this case, as it is document oriented? can I do xml related xpath queries and document transformations on db side? Or is it ok to use both in such a case?

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• What is the best way to implement collision detection using Bullet physics engine and a track generated from a curve?

  - by tigrou

  I am developing a small racing game were the track is generated from a curve. As said above, the track is generated, but not infinite. The track of one level could fit with no problem in memory and will contain a reasonably small amount of triangles. For collisions, I would like to use Bullet physics engine and know what is the best way to handle collisions with the track efficiently. NOTE : The track will be stored as a static rigid body (mass = 0). The player will be represented by a sphere shape for collisions. Here is some possibilities i have in mind : Create one rigid body, then, put all triangles of the track (except non collidable stuff) into it. Result : 1 body with many triangles (eg : 30000 triangles) Split the track into several sections (eg: 10 sections). Then, for each section, create a rigid body and put corresponding triangles in it. Result : small amount of bodies with relatively small amount of triangles (eg : 1500 triangles per section). Split the track into many sub-sections (eg : 1200 sections). Here one subsection = very small step when generating the curve. Again for each sub-section, create a body and put triangles in it. Result : many bodies with very small amount of triangles (eg : 20 triangles). Advantage : it could be possible to "extra data" to each of the subsection, that could be used when handling collisions. Same as 2, but only put sections N and N+1 in physics engine (where N = current section where the player is). When player reach section N+1, unload section N and load section N+2 and so on... Issue : harder to implement, problems if the player suddenly "jump" from one section to another (eg : player fly away from section N, and fall on section N + 4 that was underneath : no collision handled, player will fall into void ) Same as 4, but with many sub-sections. Issues : since subsections are very small there will be constantly new bodies added and removed to physics engine at runtime. Possibilities for player to accidently skip some sections and fall into the void are higher than 4.

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• Nvidia GT218 repository drivers don't work

  - by user1042840

  I upgraded all packages with sudo apt-get upgrade command on my Ubuntu 10.04 box and I have Ubuntu 12.04 3.2.0-29-generic-pae now. I have two monitors and the following GPU: 01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GT218 [NVS 300] (rev a2) After upgrading to 12.04, I somehow lost my previous setup with one common workspace stretched across two monitors. When Ubuntu starts only one monitor is on. I can see the message on the active monitor: Not optimum mode. Recommended mode: 1680x1050 60Hz I used Nvidia proprietary drivers on 10.04 but now jockey-text --list shows: xorg:nvidia_current - NVIDIA accelerated graphics driver (Proprietary, Disabled, Not in use) xorg:nvidia_current_updates - NVIDIA accelerated graphics driver (post-release updates) (Proprietary, Enabled, Not in use) When I run sudo nvidia-settings it says You do not appear to be using the NVIDIA X driver. Please edit your X configuration file (just run `nvidia-xconfig` as root), and restart the X server.' I typed nvidia-xconfig and rebooted, but jockey-text --list says the same after the reboot: Not in use. The same with nvidia-current - Enabled but Not in use. I also tried nvidia-173 but I ended up in tty immediately at startup so I removed it. I used to have some problems with Nvidia proprietary drivers on 10.04, I had to put paths to EDID files in /etc/X11/xorg.conf explicitly, but the resolution was as recommended and both monitors were working. If I understand correctly, nouveau drivers are used now by default because the resolution is still quite high, definitely not 800x600, xrandr showed: xrandr: Failed to get size of gamma for output default Screen 0: minimum 320 x 400, current 1600 x 1200, maximum 1600 x 1200 default connected 1600x1200+0+0 0mm x 0mm 1600x1200 66.0* 1280x1024 76.0 1024x768 76.0 800x600 73.0 640x480 73.0 640x400 0.0 320x400 0.0 1680x1050_60.00 (0x4f) 146.2MHz h: width 1680 start 1784 end 1960 total 2240 skew 0 clock 65.3KHz v: height 1050 start 1053 end 1059 total 1089 clock 60.0Hz However, colors seem a bit faded and blurry with nouveau drivers. Mouse cursor is invisible if it's placed inside Firefox window, and only one monitor is working. I like open source and if it's possible I'd prefer to use nouveau drivers but a few things should be fixed. I'm curious why nvidia-current drivers from the repository don't work now. I read it has something to do with the new X11 server in Ubuntu 12.04, is it true? How can I get it back to work?

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• Data Model Dissonance

  - by Tony Davis

  So often at the start of the development of database applications, there is a premature rush to the keyboard. Unless, before we get there, we’ve mapped out and agreed the three data models, the Conceptual, the Logical and the Physical, then the inevitable refactoring will dog development work. It pays to get the data models sorted out up-front, however ‘agile’ you profess to be. The hardest model to get right, the most misunderstood, and the one most neglected by the various modeling tools, is the conceptual data model, and yet it is critical to all that follows. The conceptual model distils what the business understands about itself, and the way it operates. It represents the business rules that govern the required data, its constraints and its properties. The conceptual model uses the terminology of the business and defines the most important entities and their inter-relationships. Don’t assume that the organization’s understanding of these business rules is consistent or accurate. Too often, one department has a subtly different understanding of what an entity means and what it stores, from another. If our conceptual data model fails to resolve such inconsistencies, it will reduce data quality. If we don’t collect and measure the raw data in a consistent way across the whole business, how can we hope to perform meaningful aggregation? The conceptual data model has more to do with business than technology, and as such, developers often regard it as a worthy but rather arcane ceremony like saluting the flag or only eating fish on Friday. However, the consequences of getting it wrong have a direct and painful impact on many aspects of the project. If you adopt a silo-based (a.k.a. Domain driven) approach to development), you are still likely to suffer by starting with an incomplete knowledge of the domain. Even when you have surmounted these problems so that the data entities accurately reflect the business domain that the application represents, there are likely to be dire consequences from abandoning the goal of a shared, enterprise-wide understanding of the business. In reading this, you may recall experiences of the consequence of getting the conceptual data model wrong. I believe that Phil Factor, for example, witnessed the abandonment of a multi-million dollar banking project due to an inadequate conceptual analysis of how the bank defined a ‘customer’. We’d love to hear of any examples you know of development projects poleaxed by errors in the conceptual data model. Cheers, Tony

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• System freezes while not in use, how do I fix this?

  - by PHLAK

  Bare with me, the following is a bit winded. I have Ubuntu 10.10 Desktop 64-bit installed on my laptop and up until a few weeks ago it has been running great. Then one day, while I was not using the laptop it froze. I was logged in as my user but had locked the screen locked and closed the lid. I didn't notice that it had frozen until I opened the lid and wiggled the mouse to try and log in. The screen remained black and I got no response. I immediately tried Alt + F2, F3, F4, etc. but got no response. The only thing I could do was hold the power button to power off the machine. The freezing has happened as quickly as within 10-20 minutes of the system being logged off and lid closed and as long as 4-6 hours. My machine is NOT configured to go into standby when plugged in and this has happened both on AC power and battery. Troubleshooting I have performed: I uninstalled programs I knew that I had installed between when it was working fine and having problems. Those programs were CrashPlan, Shutter and Conky. After uninstalling ALL of these programs the freezing still occurs. Next, I decided to SSH into the machine from my desktop and leave an htop and tail of the syslog running. Here are screenshots of the last thing shown on both when the system froze: htop, syslog Here is a dump of my syslog after another freeze. The freeze happened at 9:14 and I didn't notice it until about 10 minutes later and rebooted, hence the 10 minute gap from 9:14 to 9:24. In the above syslog dump I noticed a lot of NVRM: os_raise_smp_barrier(), invalid context! and upon investigating that message learned it was from the proprietary Nvidia driver I had installed. Thinking this could be part of the problem I uninstalled the Nvidia driver and reverted to using the Nouveau driver. The computer still froze after a few hours. Lastly, thinking the problem could be caused by overheating I used compressed air to blow out any dust in the CPU vents and all other openings on the laptop. None of the above troubleshooting has helped and the freezing still occurs. What other steps can I take to troubleshoot and/or fix this problem? Note: Yesterday X started to eat up a lot of CPU power and eventually froze my system while I was forwarding an X session over SSH (from another PC to my laptop). I'm unsure if this is related or not as it doesn't match any of the symptoms of the problem above. Aside from this, the system has never frozen while in use, even under heavy load. EDIT: I just ran Memtest86+ and it made it through two passes without any errors. Just eliminating possible causes here.

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• Another question about handling game states

  - by Eva

  I'm making a game designed with the entity-component paradigm that uses systems to communicate between components as explained here. I've reached the point in my development that I need to add game states (such as paused, playing, level start, round start, game over, etc.), but I'm not sure how to do it with my framework. I've looked at this code example on game states which everyone seems to reference, but I don't think it fits with my framework. It seems to have each state handling its own drawing and updating. My framework has a SystemManager that handles all the updating using systems. For example, here's my RenderingSystem class: public class RenderingSystem extends GameSystem { private GameView gameView_; /** * Constructor * Creates a new RenderingSystem. * @param gameManager The game manager. Used to get the game components. */ public RenderingSystem(GameManager gameManager) { super(gameManager); } /** * Method: registerGameView * Registers gameView into the RenderingSystem. * @param gameView The game view registered. */ public void registerGameView(GameView gameView) { gameView_ = gameView; } /** * Method: triggerRender * Adds a repaint call to the event queue for the dirty rectangle. */ public void triggerRender() { Rectangle dirtyRect = new Rectangle(); for (GameObject object : getRenderableObjects()) { GraphicsComponent graphicsComponent = object.getComponent(GraphicsComponent.class); dirtyRect.add(graphicsComponent.getDirtyRect()); } gameView_.repaint(dirtyRect); } /** * Method: renderGameView * Renders the game objects onto the game view. * @param g The graphics object that draws the game objects. */ public void renderGameView(Graphics g) { for (GameObject object : getRenderableObjects()) { GraphicsComponent graphicsComponent = object.getComponent(GraphicsComponent.class); if (!graphicsComponent.isVisible()) continue; GraphicsComponent.Shape shape = graphicsComponent.getShape(); BoundsComponent boundsComponent = object.getComponent(BoundsComponent.class); Rectangle bounds = boundsComponent.getBounds(); g.setColor(graphicsComponent.getColor()); if (shape == GraphicsComponent.Shape.RECTANGULAR) { g.fill3DRect(bounds.x, bounds.y, bounds.width, bounds.height, true); } else if (shape == GraphicsComponent.Shape.CIRCULAR) { g.fillOval(bounds.x, bounds.y, bounds.width, bounds.height); } } } /** * Method: getRenderableObjects * @return The renderable game objects. */ private HashSet<GameObject> getRenderableObjects() { return gameManager.getGameObjectManager().getRelevantObjects( getClass()); } } Also all the updating in my game is event-driven. I don't have a loop like theirs that simply updates everything at the same time. I like my framework because it makes it easy to add new GameObjects, but doesn't have the problems some component-based designs encounter when communicating between components. I would hate to chuck it just to get pause to work. Is there a way I can add game states to my game without removing the entity-component design? Does the game state example actually fit my framework, and I'm just missing something?

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• Can see samba shares but not access them

  - by nitefrog

  For the life of me I cannot figure this one out. I have samba installed and set up on the ubuntu box and on the Win7 box I CAN SEE all the shares I created. I created two users on ubuntu that map to the users in windows. On ubuntu they are both admins, user A & B on Windows User A is admin and user B is poweruser. User A can see both shares and access them, but user B can see everythin, but only access the homes directory, the other directory throws an error. I have two drives in Ubuntu and this is the smb.config file (I am new to samba): [global] workgroup = WORKGROUP server string = %h server (Samba, Ubuntu) wins support = no dns proxy = yes name resolve order = lmhosts host wins bcast log file = /var/log/samba/log.%m max log size = 1000 syslog = 0 panic action = /usr/share/samba/panic-action %d security = user encrypt passwords = true passdb backend = tdbsam obey pam restrictions = yes unix password sync = yes passwd program = /usr/bin/passwd %u passwd chat = *Enter\snew\s*\spassword:* %n\n *Retype\snew\s*\spassword:* %n\n *password\supdated\ssuccessfully* . pam password change = yes map to guest = bad user ; usershare max shares = 100 usershare allow guests = yes And here is the share section: Both user A & B can access this from windows. No problems. [homes] comment = Home Directories browseable = no writable = yes Both User A & B can see this share, but only user A can access it. User B get an error thrown. [stuff] comment = Unixmen File Server path = /media/data/appinstall/ browseable = yes ;writable = no read only = yes hosts allow = The permission for the media/data/appinstall/ is as follows: appInstall properties: share name: stuff Allow others to create and delete files in this folder is cheeked Guest access (for people without a user account) is checked permissions: Owner: user A Folder Access: Create and delete files File Access: --- Group: user A Folder Access: Create and delete files File Access: --- Others Folder Access: Create and delete files File Access: --- I am at a loss and need to get this work. Any ideas? The goal is to have a setup like this. 3 users on window machines. Each user on the data drive will have their own personal folder where they are the ones that can only access, then another folder where 2 of the users will have read only and one user full access. I had this setup before on windows, but after what happened I am NEVER going back to windows, so Unix here I am to stay! I am really stuck. I am running Ubuntu 11. I could reformat again and put on version 10 if that would make life easier. I have been dealing with this since Wed. 3pm. Thanks.

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• Monitor the Weather from Your Windows 7 Taskbar

  - by Asian Angel

  Keeping up with the weather forecast can be hard when you are extra busy with work. If you need a simple but nice looking way to integrate weather monitoring into your Taskbar then join us as we look at WeatherBar. Setting Up & Using WeatherBar To get started unzip the following files, place them in an appropriate “Program Files Folder”, and create a shortcut. When you start WeatherBar for the first time you will be presented with the following window and a random/default location. To get WeatherBar set up for your location there are only two settings to adjust (using the “Pencil & Gear Buttons”). Clicking on the “Pencil Button” will open up this small window…enter the name of your location and click “OK”. Next click on the “Gear Button” where you can choose the “Update Interval” and “Measurement Format” that best suits your needs. Click “OK” when finished and WeatherBar will be ready to go. That definitely looks nice. When you are finished viewing this window minimize it to the “Taskbar Icon” instead of clicking on the “Close Button”…otherwise the entire app will close. Left click on the “Taskbar Icon” to bring the window back up… Hovering the mouse over the “Taskbar Icon” provides a nice thumbnail of the weather forecast. Right clicking on the “Taskbar Icon” will display a nice mini forecast. Conclusion While WeatherBar may not be for everyone it does provide a nice easy way to monitor the weather from your “Taskbar” without taking up a lot of room. Links Download WeatherBar Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Monitor the Weather for Your Location in ChromeCheck Weather Conditions in Real-time with Weather WatcherMonitor CPU, Memory, and Disk IO In Windows 7 with Taskbar MetersTaskbar Eliminator Does What the Name Implies: Hides Your Windows TaskbarBring Misplaced Off-Screen Windows Back to Your Desktop (Keyboard Trick) TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips DVDFab 6 Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 Home Networks – How do they look like & the problems they cause Check Your IMAP Mail Offline In Thunderbird Follow Finder Finds You Twitter Users To Follow Combine MP3 Files Easily QuicklyCode Provides Cheatsheets & Other Programming Stuff Download Free MP3s from Amazon

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• Make the Taskbar Buttons Switch to the Last Active Window in Windows 7

  - by The Geek

  The new Windows 7 taskbar’s Aero Peek feature, with the live thumbnails of every window, is awesome… but sometimes you just want to be able to click the taskbar button and have the last open window show up instead. Here’s a quick hack to make it work better. To better understand the problem, imagine having nine windows of the same type open on your screen, but you are primarily working in just one of the windows at a time. So every time you want to switch back, you have to click the taskbar button, and then choose the one you are using from the list, which can be pretty annoying… Now if you know your Windows 7 shortcuts, you’d know that you can simply hold down the Ctrl key while clicking on the taskbar button, and the last window will show up. In fact, you can keep holding down the Ctrl key and keep clicking, and Windows will cycle through the open windows. It’s a useful shortcut, but hardly something you want to do every single time. Instead, we’ll use a quick registry hack to make the normal click switch to the last open window—if you still want to see the thumbnail list, just hover your mouse over the button for half a second to see the full list. Manual Registry Hack for Last Active Window Open up regedit.exe through the start menu search or run box, and then head down to the following registry key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced Once you’re there, create a new 32-bit DWORD value on the right hand side, give it the name LastActiveClick, and set the value to 1. Once you are done, it should look something like this: Once you are done, you’ll have to log off and back on, or you can kill Explorer.exe through Task Manager and re-open it. Download the Registry Hack Instead Since you probably don’t feel like registry hacking, we’ve provided you an easy downloadable version. You can simply download the file, extract it, and then double-click on the LastActiveClick.reg file. Once you are done, you’ll have to log off and back on, just like with the manual registry hack. Download LastActiveClick Registry Hack from howtogeek.com Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Make the Windows 7 Taskbar Work More Like Windows XP or VistaStupid Geek Tricks: Select Multiple Windows on the TaskbarReorganize Your Taskbar Buttons and Tray Icons in XP/VistaKeyboard Ninja: Create a Hotkey to Switch to Your Open Outlook WindowTaskbar Eliminator Does What the Name Implies: Hides Your Windows Taskbar TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips DVDFab 6 Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 Gadfly is a cool Twitter/Silverlight app Enable DreamScene in Windows 7 Microsoft’s “How Do I ?” Videos Home Networks – How do they look like & the problems they cause Check Your IMAP Mail Offline In Thunderbird Follow Finder Finds You Twitter Users To Follow

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• In a multidisciplicary team, how much should each member's skills overlap?

  - by spade78

  I've been working in embedded software development for this small startup and our team is pretty small: about 3-4 people. We're responsible for all engineering which involves an RF device controlled by an embedded microcontroller that connects to a PC host which runs some sort of data collection and analysis software. I have come to develop these two guidelines when I work with my colleagues: Define a clear separation of responsibilities and make sure each person's contribution to the final product doesn't overlap. Don't assume your colleagues know everything about their responsibilities. I assume there is some sort of technology that I will need to be competent at to properly interface with the work of my colleagues. The first point is pretty easy for us. I do firmware, one guy does the RF, another does the PC software, and the last does the DSP work. Nothing overlaps in terms of two people's work being mixed into the final product. For that to happen, one guy has to hand off work to another guy who will vet it and integrate it himself. The second point is the heart of my question. I've learned the hard way not to trust the knowledge of my colleagues absolutley no matter how many years experience they claim to have. At least not until they've demonstrated it to me a couple of times. So given that whenever I develop a piece of firmware, if it interfaces with some technology that I don't know then I'll try to learn it and develop a piece of test code that helps me understand what they're doing. That way if my piece of the product comes into conflict with another piece then I have some knowledge about possible causes. For example, the PC guy has started implementing his GUI's in .NET WPF (C#) and using LibUSBdotNET for USB access. So I've been learning C# and the .NET USB library that he uses and I build a little console app to help me understand how that USB library works. Now all this takes extra time and energy but I feel it's justified as it gives me a foothold to confront integration problems. Also I like learning this new stuff so I don't mind. On the other hand I can see how this can turn into a time synch for work that won't make it into the final product and may never turn into a problem. So how much experience/skills overlap do you expect in your teammates relative to your own skills? Does this issue go away as the teams get bigger and more diverse?

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