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• Thoughts (on Windows Phone 7) from the MVP Summit

  - by Chris Williams

  Last week I packed off to Redmond, WA for my annual pilgrimage to Microsoft's MVP Summit. I'll spare you all the silly taunting about knowing stuff I can't talk about, etc... and just get to the point. I'm a XNA/DirectX MVP, an ASP Insider and a Languages (VB) Insider... so I actually had access to a pretty broad spectrum of information over the last week. Most of my time was focused on Windows Phone 7 related sessions, and while I can't dig deep into specifics, I can say that Microsoft is definitely not out of the fight for Mobile. The things I saw tell me that Microsoft is listening and paying attention to feedback, looking at what works & what doesn't and they are working their collective asses off to close the gap between Google and Apple. Anyone who has been in this industry for a while can tell you Microsoft does their best work when they are the underdog. They are currently behind, and have a lot of work ahead of them, but this is when they bring all their resources together to solve a problem. After the week I spent in Redmond, and the feedback I heard from other MVPs, and the technological previews I saw... I feel confident in betting heavily on Microsoft to pull this off.

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• Start a new project. Where is the inspiration ?

  - by Kakawait

  The question may seem strange at first glance ... And I may be alone in this situation. But currently I want to improve my skill through learning new framework. however, do a simple "HelloWorld" application does not satisfy me. I think a practical project is required to apprehend the basics of a framework. I know there is many scholar-like project like design a library manager or CMS. But I have recently planned to learn ~3 differents frameworks and I can't find any motivations through "unexciting" project. In the end I have not started any framework ... I'm aware of I do not develop the project of the year ... I'm just looking for something a bit exciting. I do not expect any project subject, anyway stimulation provided by a project is something subjective. But I want to know your inspiration ! (or method to learn framework ^^) I'm talking about web-dev framework but I'm open to any kind information ! Kind regards.

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• Maintaining C/C++/Java skills as a web developer

  - by wwwuser

  When I was in college I learned how to program in C, C++, and Java. Currently, I'm a web developer using front end and back end technologies (HTML/CSS/JS, PHP, MYSQL). While the sorting algorithms and OOP concepts that I learned in college can be applied to web development, I'm looking for ways to keep up my knowledge of all languages. I enjoy programming in C-Style (C/C++/Java) languages and front-end/back-end technologies. Unfortunately, there aren't many options to use C-style languages to build websites. However, I would like to keep up my knowledge and skills in the languages I learned in college as I know they will continue to help me with my growth. What resources are available to keep challenging myself in C-style languages that are relevant to web development? Would contract work for C-style languages be beneficial? Are there sites that offer algorithm challenges? Any help is appreciated. I'm also interested in how others that have asked themselves this have solved this problem.

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• Any mobile-friendly Credit Card billing solutions for mobile sites similar to Bango?

  - by Programmer

  Are there any mobile-friendly Credit Card billing solutions for mobile sites similar to Bango? The advantages of Bango I have seen compared to regular Credit Card solutions that make it considerably "mobile-friendly" are: 1) It does not require the user to enter their full name and billing address to make a payment. The user is only required to enter their Credit Card number, expiration date, and CVC code (if they are in the U.S., they will also have to enter their Zip Code). That is significantly less input than is normally required for Credit Card payments, which is a big plus on small mobile key pads. After a user makes an initial Credit Card payment, their details are stored by Bango, and the next time the user needs to make a payment with the same Credit Card, they just have to click a single link and it processes the payment on their stored Credit Card. Needless to say, this is very convenient for mobile users as it is analogous to Direct Carrier Billing as far as the user is concerned since they won't need to input any details. The downside with Bango is that their fees are higher than others, all payments must be processed via their site and branding, there is a high minimum ($1.99) and a low maximum ($30) on how much you can charge users, and you need to pay a monthly fee on top of the high transaction costs. It is due to the downsides mentioned above that I am looking for an alternative solution that also does the advantages 1) and 2) above. Is there anything like that? I looked at JunglePay and they do neither 1) nor 2).

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• Create a system image in Windows 8

  - by Greg Low

  One of the things that I've just come to accept is that the designers of Windows 8 and I think very differently.It'll take a long time to convince me that shutting down the computer is a "setting". Even after using Windows 8 for quite a while now, I still find that I struggle nearly every day, just trying to do things that I previously knew how to do. That's just not a good thing.Today I decided to create a system image as I hadn't made one lately. I started in Control Panel looking for Backup options. That yielded nothing except programs that wanted to "Save backup copies of my files with file history". I thought "oh well, let's just try the new search options". I hit the Windows key and typed "Backup". No, nothing came up there either.I searched again all over the Control Panel options to no avail.So it was time to hit Google again. Once again, clearly lots of people used to know how to do this and have been trying to work out where this option went.The first trick is that there are a bunch of Control Panel options that don't appear in the Control Panel. In the address bar at the top, if you click on Control Panel, you'll find there is an option that says "All Control Panel Options". That is curious given that's where I thought I was when I opened Control Panel. No hint is given on that screen that there are a bunch of hidden options. None the less, I then checked out "all" the options.The option that you need to create a system image in Windows 8 turns out to be the "Windows 7 File Recovery" option that appears in this extended list. Why does it say "Windows 7" when it's for "Windows 8" as well and I'm running "Windows 8"? Why do I have to choose an option that says "File Recovery" to create a system image backup?<sigh>But at least I've recorded it here for the next time I forget where to find it.

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• Effective and simple matching for 2 unequal small-scale point sets

  - by Pavlo Dyban

  I need to match two sets of 3D points, however the number of points in each set can be different. It seems that most algorithms are designed to align images and trimmed to work with hundreds of thousands of points. My case are 50 to 150 points in each of the two sets. So far I have acquainted myself with Iterative Closest Point and Procrustes Matching algorithms. Implementing Procrustes algorithms seems like a total overkill for this small quantity. ICP has many implementations, but I haven't found any readily implemented version accounting for the so-called "outliers" - points without a matching pair. Besides the implementation expense, algorithms like Fractional and Sparse ICP use some statistics information to cancel points that are considered outliers. For series with 50 to 150 points statistic measures are often biased or statistic significance criteria are not met. I know of Assignment Problem in linear optimization, but it is not suitable for cases with unequal sets of points. Are there other, small-scale algorithms that solve the problem of matching 2 point sets? I am looking for algorithm names, scientific papers or C++ implementations. I need some hints to know where to start my search.

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• Microsoft Silverlight 4 Data and Services Cookbook &ndash; Book Review (sort of)

  - by Jim Duffy

  I just received my copy of the Microsoft Silverlight 4 Data and Services Cookbook, co-authored by fellow Microsoft Regional Director, Gill Cleeren, and at first glance I like what I see. I’ve always been a fan of the “cookbook” approach to technical books because they are problem/solution oriented. Often developers need solutions to solve specific questions like “how do I send email from within my .NET application” and so on, and yes, that was a blatant plug to my article explaining how to accomplish just that, but I digress. :-) I also enjoy the cookbook approach because you can just start flipping pages and randomly stop somewhere and see what nugget of information is staring up at you from the page. Anyway, what I like about this book is that it focuses on a specific area of Silverlight development, accessing data and services.  The book is broken down into the following chapters: Chapter 1: Learning the Nuts and Bolts of Silverlight 4 Chapter 2: An Introduction to Data Binding Chapter 3: Advanced Data Binding Chapter 4: The Data Grid Chapter 5: The DataForm Chapter 6: Talking to Services Chapter 7: Talking to WCF and ASMX Services Chapter 8: Talking to REST and WCF Data Services Chapter 9: Talking to WCF RIA Services Chapter 10: Converting Your Existing Applications to Use Silverlight As you can see this book is all about working with Silverlight 4 and data. I’m looking forward to taking a closer look at it. Have a day. :-|

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• Exit stage right...

  - by Peter Korn

  I joined Sun Microsystems in December of 1996, not quite 17 years ago. Over the course of those years, it has been my great pleasure and honor to work with a many talented folks, on a many incredible projects - first at Sun, and then at Oracle. In those nearly 17 years, we made quite a few platforms and products accessible - including Java, GNOME, Solaris, and Linux. We pioneered many of the accessibility techniques that are now used throughout the industry, including accessibility API techniques which first appeared in the Java and GNOME accessibility APIs; and screen access techniques like the API-based switch access of the GNOME Onscreen Keyboard. Our work was recognized as groundbreaking by many in the industry, both through awards for the innovations we had delivered (such as those we received from the American Foundation for the Blind), and awards of money to develop new innovations (the two European Commission accessibility grants we received). Our knowledge and expertise contributed to the first Section 508 accessibility standard, and provided significantly to the upcoming refresh of that standard, to the European Mandate 376 accessibility standard, and to a number of web accessibility standards. After 17 years of helping Sun and Oracle accomplish great things, it is time to start a new chapter... Today is my last day at Oracle. It is not, however, my last day in the field of accessibility. Next week I will begin working with another group of great people, and I am very much looking forward to the great things I will help contribute to in the future. Starting tomorrow, please follow me on my new, still under constriction, Wordpress blog: http://peterkorn.wordpress.com/.

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• Windows Azure v1.7 Spring Release Today&ndash;New Management Dashboard

  - by ToStringTheory

  Today, Microsoft will be publicly releasing a new version of Azure for public consumption.  The web conference, at http://www.meetwindowsazure.com will be airing at 1 PM PST.  They have already released an update to the Service Dashboard that can be accessed by going to http://manage.windowsazure.com.  I have some images of the new dashboard here that I have gathered and removed any PII from.  Let me know what you think! Images You should be able to click any of the images for a full resolution image. Tutorial The first thing you get after signing in is the tutorial: Landing After the tutorial completes, you get a screen with services that are active on your account on the left, and a list of ALL services (db/blob/SQL Azure) on the right.  I like the quick access to services across any of my subscriptions: Service Information These are images from a running web site with several roles.  I love how easy they have made many of the features: SQL Azure They have given some great quick functionality for looking at your DB information: Storage Here is the basic information that they give you for any storage accounts you have: Adding Services Super quick and easy to add services with the new UI: Conclusion I am EXCITED!  As you may have seen in the left side of my blog, I am an MCPD in Azure Development, and I must say that I am excited to see Microsoft moving forward with the technology and not letting it stagnate.  After as much as I have fought the other Azure dashboard, I like the friendliness and fluidity of this one. The important thing to note about ALL of the images above: this is HTML, not Silverlight.  The responsiveness is FAST on all of the actions I completed, and I believe that this is a big step forward for Azure… So, what do you think?

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• Design practice for securing data inside Azure SQL

  - by Sid

  Update: I'm looking for a specific design practice as we try to build-our-own database encryption. Azure SQL doesn't support many of the encryption features found in SQL Server (Table and Column encryption). We need to store some sensitive information that needs to be encrypted and we've rolled our own using AesCryptoServiceProvider to encrypt/decrypt data to/from the database. This solves the immediate issue (no cleartext in db) but poses other problems like Key rotation (we have to roll our own code for this, walking through the db converting old cipher text into new cipher text) metadata mapping of which tables and which columns are encrypted. This is simple when it's just couple of columns (send an email to all devs/document) but that quickly gets out of hand ... So, what is the best practice for doing application level encryption into a database that doesn't support encryption? In particular, what is a good design to solve the above two bullet points? If you had specific schema additions would love it if you could give details ("Have a NVARCHAR(max) column to store the cipher metadata as JSON" or a SQL script/commands). If someone would like to recommend a library, I'd be happy to stay away from "DIY" too. Before going too deep - I assume there isn't any way I can add encryption support to Azure by creating a stored procedure, right?

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• How to make a text search template?

  - by Flipper

  I am not really sure what to call this, but I am looking for a way to have a "template" for my code to go by when searching for text. I am working on a project where a summary for a piece of text is supplied to the user. I want to allow the user to select a piece of text on the page so that the next time they come across a similar page I can find the text. For instance, lets say somebody goes to foxnews.com and selects the article like in the image below. Then whenever they go to any other foxnews.com article I would be able to identify the text for the article and summarize it for them. But an issue I see with this is for a site like Stack Exchange where you have multiple comments to be selected (like below) which means that I would have to be able to recursively search for all separate pieces of text. Requirements Be able to keep pieces of text separate from each other. Possible Issues DIV's may not contain ids, classes, or names. A piece of text may span across multiple DIVs How to recognize where an old piece of text ends and a new begins. How to store this information for later searching?

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• Old Fglrx Driver - AMD Radeon HD 3200 - ubuntu won't start

  - by Yohannes

  I've been using Ubuntu 12.04 64 bit for about 2 weeks now and I installed the latest Fglrx driver (Graphics Card- AMD HD 3200, PC- Acer Aspire 5336, 4GB RAM, 500GB Harddrive). The problem is that sometimes video's lag and play out of sync sometimes the windows take long to show up after I've clicked them etc. After looking around I found a video on Youtube by Ubuntu help guy and in the video he recommended using an older driver if you have an older graphics card, his was about 4 years old (same as mine) and he used the 11.10 catalyst driver so I decided to try it. I removed the previous installation of the driver and then installed the 11.10 driver. However, when I restarted it instead of going to the GUI it goes to a terminal like window and asks for my login. Now its pretty clear I need to remove the old driver and go back to using the latest one. The only problem is I'm not sure where I saved the latest driver and in order to connect to the Internet I need to change /etc/resolv.conf (I use a static IP). So what should I do? Also anyone from personal experience, what propitiatory driver works best with my graphics card? As in the version. Thanks

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• Rendering a DOM across multiple displays

  - by meetamit

  I'm building a data-driven animation with HTML and javascript to run in a web browser. I would like to display it tiled across three 1080p monitors. This essentially yields a viewport that's 5760px wide and 1080px tall. Pretty large. Does anyone have experience setting up something like this? I have many questions below, but any tip would be appreciated: Is it reasonable to expect a DOM to render into such a large viewport size at close to 60fps? I might choose to use canvas, instead of SVG or HTML, but that would yield a giant canvas. Can a canvas with such high resolution be performant? Of course everything depends on the complexity of the graphics I want to render, but I'm looking to remove that factor from this question, so assume I'm asking about a canvas animation that can run at 60fps at 1920x1080 resolution. Would it run roughly as fast at 3 times the width? Would three.js and WebGL be a more proper approach at that resolution? How do you actually cause Chrome or FF to span 3 monitors at full screen? Do I need a 3rd party solution of any kind? Thanks!

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• Unity , libgdx, or something else to develop my first game for Android?

  - by capcom

  I want to start by saying that I absolutely love Unity (even more when I team it up with Blender). I really want to start developing games for Android, but it seems like Unity poses way too many roadblocks in terms of which devices it supports (and even if it does support them, it doesn't work well on all of them). I've been looking around for alternatives, and found something called libgdx. Well, it's nothing like Unity unfortunately, but at least it seems like I may be able to reach a larger audience in the market. I'd like to start by making 2D games, but with 3D graphics (say, imported from Blender). I can do this very easily in Unity, and it seems like it should be alright with libgdx too. But I really want to know if ditching Unity is a smart idea, considering how comfortable I am with it already, and how much I like it. Finally, is libgdx something you would recommend considering my requirements/situation? BTW, I am quite familiar with Eclipse too. Many thanks. Feel free to request further details.

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• How do you apply to a company way out of your league?

  - by emcb

  First, my background: I'm in the market for a new job I have ~2 years experience under my belt Nothing on my resume would JUMP out at you Thus far in my career I've been able to become productive quickly and have been continually praised by managers and coworkers for my abilities to learn and produce. I don't mean to be bragging here, but I want to get across that (at least in my mind) I could be categorized as "very promising young developer" I've been job hunting for a little while now and like most job seekers I've found a handful of companies that are basically "dream" jobs (think Fog Creek or 37Signals). If I were to apply to a company like that in the normal recruitment channels, my resume would probably not make it past the first set of filters. Now, I accept that I'm a longshot for a job at the hottest companies out there, but in my job search I've had a little success in applying for positions I'm not qualified for simply by doing something a little different: sending an email outlining how I don't meet the qualifications but stating why I would do well in the job anyways. In other cases, I've outright asked for a small project/problem that would be representative of the work to prove I can do the job, since I didn't have the specific skills on my resume yet. What I'm wondering is: If I'm not qualified on paper for a particular job, what creative/unique/impressive methods have you thought of or seen work to at least get an interview? For the sake of argument, assume I really am a "very promising young developer". I would love to hear from people who are responsible for hiring - I'd like to hear examples of techniques that got someone noticed when they otherwise wouldn't have. Clarification: I know that I need to continue building my resume to continue advancing. But I'm in the job search NOW, so I'm looking for other approaches

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• Is now the right time to move to .NET 4?

  - by bconlon

  The reason I pose this question is that I'm looking at WPF development and so using the latest version seems sensible. However, this means rolling out the .NET 4 runtime to PCs on old versions of the framework. Windows XP is still the number one O/S (estimated 40%+ market share). To run .NET 4 on XP requires Service Pack 3, and although it is good practice to move to the latest service packs, often large companies are slow to keep up due to the extensive testing involved. In fact, .NET 4 is not installed as standard with any Windows O/S as yet - Windows 7 and 2008 Server R2 have 3.5 installed. This is not quite as big an issue as it was for .NET 3.5 as .NET 4 is significantly smaller as it doesn't include the older runtimes - .NET 3.5 SP1 included .NET 3 and .NET 2 and was 250MB, although this was reduced by doing a web install. The size is also reduced a bit if you target the .NET 4 Client Profile, which should be OK for many WPF applications, and I think this may be rolled out as part of Windows service packs soon. But still, if your application is only 4-5 MB and you need 40-50 MB of Framework it is worth consideration before jumping in and using the new shiny features. #

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• Kindle App for WP7 arrives

  - by dotgeek

  If you had asked me if I was interested in owning a Kindle device, then my response a couple months back would have been a flat out no back then. So what has changed between now on then you might be asking me then? I would have to say watching my wife enjoy the many books in digital form has peeked my interest to start with now. Was that enough for me to buy a Kindle though? Not just yet, but that is where the Windows Phone 7 comes in for me once again. It’s no secret that I’ve wanted this device and yes it does have a number of Apps that I think I’ll really enjoy. The latest must have App for me, will most certainly be the Kindle App for Windows Phone 7, released from Amazon today. I’ve already started playing around with the PC version of Kindle software and I’m looking at purchasing any future books in digital form now. So it’s a given once I have a Windows Phone 7 device, that I’ll be enjoying some of my favorite books, while I’m on the go I think and via this App. Tonight I actually had a chance to check out the WP7 Kindle App on a friends device and I was really pleased with how it looked and performed. Now if the planets could only manage to lineup for me and allow Verizon and Microsoft to come to terms on the releasing of WP7 CDMA devices, I just might be able to really enjoy some of this on my own. Do I rule out ever having an actual Kindle device? Not at all, but I do plan on having the WP7 device well before that day ever comes though.

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• Facebook Like javascript related to Time Spent Downloading a page Increase in GWT?

  - by donaldthe

  Hi, I installed the Facebook Like button Javascript version on my website on December 15th. Take a look at this report from Google Webmaster Central. Crawl stats Googlebot activity in the last 90 days The crawl stats are from Googlebot which as far as I know doesn't execute Javascript. Could the Facebook Like Javascript code, "The XFBML version" be related to large spike in Time spent downloading a page? (By the way the huge spike in November was caused by a mistake where every image request was getting a 301.) I'm not sure what caused the spike to go down by half somewhere in December. It may have been related to a faulty setting in web.config. I'm at a loss as to what I can do about this or even how to tell if this is my problem or Googlebots crawl problem. Here is the Facebook code I am using to create the like button. It is right after the opening body tag <div id="fb-root"></div> <script> window.fbAsyncInit = function() { FB.init({appId: 'xxxxx', status: true, cookie: true, xfbml: true}); }; (function() { var e = document.createElement('script'); e.async = true; e.src = document.location.protocol + '//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js'; document.getElementById('fb-root').appendChild(e); }()); ` and this creates the like box: <fb:like show_faces="false"></fb:like> If the Javascript can't be the problem any ideas on where to start looking would be appreciated.

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• Mobile development, recommended computer configuration?

  - by MikaelW

  Hi, For the last 4 weeks, I have been trying to get into mobile development. Done a couple of tutorials, read some books, developed a couple of dummy Android apps. The thing is my computer is a 5 years old laptop, it is slow and time has come to replace it and I’m looking at different offers online. Have you got any recommendations? Is there any must-have that should make my developer life easier in the future? Is there anything specific that may be useful at a more advanced stage of development that I just can’t think of right now on the hardware side? (I mean apart from good proc, lots of RAM, many USB ports...) One thing I can think of is to have three OS on the same workstation: Windows, Unix and MacOS (so far I focused on android/java/eclipse but am interested in Iphone/objC/xcode as well) but that’s more on the software side. Anyway, would be grateful for any recommendations. Thanks in advance! Mikael PS: I’m quite free on the budget side of things PPS: I'm aware it's not really a programming question but will still be of interest to some programmers here.

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• Is there a simple, flat, XML-based query-able data storage solution? [closed]

  - by alex gray

  I have been in long pursuit of an XML-based query-able data store, and despite continued searches and evaluations, I have yet to find a solution that meets the my needs, which include: Data is wholly contained within XML nodes, in flat text files. There is a "native" - or at least unobtrusive - method with which to perform Create/Read/Update/Delete (CRUD) operations onto the "schema". I would consider access via http, XHR, javascript, PHP, BASH, or PERL to be unobtrusive, dependent on the complexity of the set of dependencies. Server-side file-system reads and writes. A client-side interface element, accessible in any browser without a plug-in. Some extra, preferred (but optional) requirements include: Respond to simple SQL, or similarly syntax queries. Serve the data on a bare bones https server, with no "extra stuff", either via XMLHTTPRequest, HTTP proper, or JSON. A few thoughts: What I'm looking for may be possible via some Java server implementations, but for the sake of this question, please do not suggest that - unless it meets ALL the requirements. Java, especially on the client-side is not really an option, nor is it appealing from a development viewpoint.* I know walking the filesystem is a stretch, and I've heard it's possible with XPATH or XSLT, but as far as I know, that's not ready for primetime, nor even yet a recommendation. However the ability to recursively traverse the filesystem is needed for such a system to be of useful facility. At this point, I have basically implemented what I described via, of all things, CGI and Bash, but there has to be an easier way. Thoughts?

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• How to decide if I should take a profit sharing offer or insist on hard cash

  - by Icode4food

  I am currently the sole developer at the very beginning stages of what I think could be a successful startup. My question is simply how to go about determining if I am interested in accepting a permanent stock in the enterprise or if I should insist on hard cash. This startup is seeking venture capital and it is looking likely that they will get something, I don't know how much. I know very little about the business plan or financial operations at all. The founders have experience with other startup type devours that have been successful. From a business perspective I have a reasonable amount of confidence in them. However, I have never met them face to face. They have offered me a partnership in the project but I'm fairly confident that I don't want to do that. I have done some work for them and they really like me so I'm not to afraid of loosing the position all together. I am a young developer with no experience with this sort of thing and need some experience to point me in the right direction. How to I begin to evaluate how much stock or what percentage of the profit should I ask for? Any suggestions at all would be appreciated! P.S. Any suggestions for better tags?

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• Questions before I revamp my rendering engine to use shaders (GLSL)

  - by stephelton

  I've written a fairly robust rendering engine using OpenGL ES 1.1 (fixed-function.) I've been looking into revamping the engine to use OpenGL ES 2.0, which necessitates that I use shaders. I've been absorbing information all day long and still have some questions. Firstly, lighting. The fixed-function pipeline is guaranteed to have at least 8 lights available. My current engine finds lights that are "close" to the primitives being drawn and enables them; I don't know how many lights are going to be enabled until I draw a given model. Nothing is dynamically allocated in GLSL, so I have to define in a shader some number of lights to be used, right? So if I want to stick with 8, should I write my general purpose shader to have 8 lights and then use uniforms to tell it how many / which lights to use? Which brings me to another question: should I be concerned with the amount of data I'm allocating in a shader? Recent video cards have hundreds of "stream processors." If I've got a fragment shader being used on some number of fragments in a given triangle, I assume they must each have their own stack to work on. Are read-only variables copied here, or read when needed? My initial goal is to rework my code so that it is virtually identical to the current implementation. What I have in mind is to create my own matrix stack so that I can implement something along the lines of push/popMatrix and apply all my translations, rotations, and scales to this matrix, then provide the matrix to the vertex shader so that it can make very quick vertex translations. Is this approach sound? Edit: My original intention was to ask if there was a tutorial that would explain the bare minimum necessary to jump from fixed-function to using shaders. Thanks!

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• Generating random tunnels

  - by IVlad

  What methods could we use to generate a random tunnel, similar to the one in this classic helicopter game? Other than that it should be smooth and allow you to navigate through it, while looking as natural as possible (not too symmetric but not overly distorted either), it should also: Most importantly - be infinite and allow me to control its thickness in time - make it narrower or wider as I see fit, when I see fit; Ideally, it should be possible to efficiently generate it with smooth curves, not rectangles as in the above game; I should be able to know in advance what its bounds are, so I can detect collisions and generate powerups inside the tunnel; Any other properties that let you have more control over it or offer optimization possibilities are welcome. Note: I'm not asking for which is best or what that game uses, which could spark extended discussion and would be subjective, I'm just asking for some methods that others know about or have used before or even think they might work. That is all, I can take it from there. Also asked on stackoverflow, where someone suggested I should ask here too. I think it fits in both places, since it's as much an algorithm question as it is a gamedev question, IMO.

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• How do I simplify a 2D game grid for level management while keeping its by-pixel features?

  - by Eric Thoma

  (I cross-posted this from StackOverflow as this seems to be a more appropriate forum. I've looked around a little here and I did not find an answer, so I hope this is not a recurring question.) This is a question dealing with 2D world design. I am playing around by creating a 2D bird's eye view shooter game, and I am looking to make the game sleek and advanced. I hope to be able to write physics so projectiles have momentum and knock-down properties. I am immediately running into the problem of world design. I need a way to have level files that store everything there is about a game. This is easiest by just having a grid of objects. But there are thin-walls and other objects that don't seem to fit into a traditional cell of a grid. I want to be able to fit all these together so I can streamline level design; so I don't have to put in the exact pixel-specific start and end of a wall. There doesn't seem to be an obvious translation from level file to game without forcing myself into a pacman-life scenario, meaning a scenario where the game feels boxy and discrete. There is a contrast between the smoothly (relatively) moving characters and finite jumps in a grid. I would appreciate an answer that would describe implementation options or point me to resources that do. I would also appreciate references to sites that teach game design. The language I am using is Java (although I would love to use C or C++, but I can never find convenient resources in those languages). Thank you for any answers. Please leave any questions in the space below; I will be able to answer them later tonight (28th Nov).

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• What Computing/Programming Qualifications should I aspire for

  - by indevel

  I am a computing science post graduate in my first job from after my degree. During my 12 month review my boss posed the question "What can we do for you in terms of progressing your career?". This got me thinking, after university I hadn't really thought about what other qualifications were available. So this is my question, what courses/qualifications should I be looking to do. Which are highly regarded and which would be really useful to complete. I've searched Google it but all I see is a jumble of courses with no idea of the credibility of each. Any help is much appreciated. I'm traditionally a systems architect, but with this job I've turned to more embedded work so Id like to edge towards electronics, embedded programming, real time OS to help with my work also it would be more likely to be accepted if it was related to my job. Finally UK based courses/ qualifications are a must as travel is probably out of the question. Help me grow as a programmer.

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