Search Results

Search found 309 results on 13 pages for 'coin bird'.

Page 10/13 | < Previous Page | 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13  | Next Page >

• SQL Saturday #220 Atlanta May 2013!

  - by Most Valuable Yak (Rob Volk)

  If you love SQL Server training and are near the Atlanta area, or just love us so much you're willing to travel here, please come join us for: SQL SATURDAY #220! The main event is Saturday, May 18.  The event is free, with a $10.00 lunch fee.  The main page has more details here: http://www.sqlsaturday.com/220/eventhome.aspx We are also offering pre-conference sessions on Friday, May 17, by 5 world-renowned presenters: Denny Cherry: SQL Server Security Register! Site Twitter Adam Machanic: Surfing the Multicore Wave: Processors, Parallelism, and Performance Register! Site Twitter Stacia Misner: Languages of BI Register! Site Twitter Bill Pearson: Practical Self-Service BI with PowerPivot for Excel Register! Site Twitter Eddie Wuerch: The DBA Skills Upgrade Toolkit Register! Site Twitter         We have an early bird registration price of $119 until noon EST Friday, March 22.  After that the price goes to $149, a STEAL when you compare it to the PASS Summit price. :) Please click on the links to register and for more information.  You can also follow the hash tag #SQLSatATL on Twitter for more news about this event. Can't wait to see you all there!

  Read the article

• Java SE 7?????????????????????????????????!

  - by OTN-J Master

  Java(Java Platform, Standard Edition:Java SE)????????Java SE 7??????????????????????????????????Java???????????????Java 6??????????Java 7??????????????? ?Windows ?????Java??????????? 1)http://java.com ???????2)”???Java???????”?????????”Java????????”?????3)”Java?????????”???????? ?Java 7??????????????????????Java 7????????????????????????????????????(Mac·Linux·Solaris)?????????? Java SE 7??Fork/Join?NIO?Project Coin????????????????????????????????????????????????????????1????????????????????????????Java??????????????????????Java SE 7?????????????????????????????????????? >> Java Magazine ??? ???[Vol.1] (PDF??)????????!Java 7???~?????Mark Reinhold????Java SE 7??????~ ?????Java Magazine??????????Java 7????????????????????????????????????????????????? >> Java Magazine??????????????????JDK 6?????????????·??????2013?2???????????2013?2?19???????Java SE 6?????????????????·?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????(My Oracle Support(?·??)?????????????)2013?2???????????????Java SE 6????Oracle Technology Network?Java Archive?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????>>Java SE?????·?????????????????????? ??????????????7??????????????????···?????????????????????????? Oracle Java SE ???????????? ?????·??????????????????????????????Oracle Java SE????(Oracle Java SE Advanced?Oracle Java SE Suite)???????????? Oracle Java SE??????????????????????????????EOL(End Of Life)????????????????????????????????????????5???????Oracle Premier Support???????????? ???????Oracle Extended Support??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ???????????????????>> Oracle Java SE Advanced???? (PDF??) OTN??????????????Java???????????Java Developer Newsletter????????? ?????????”???????”?Java Magazine??????????????????????????Java?????????????????????Java??????????????Java??????????????????????????????????????????Java???????Java???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????(???????!) ???2012?12?31??????????????1000????Java & Duke???????????????????????!>> ???????·????·???????

  Read the article

• Learning a new concept - write from scratch or use frameworks?

  - by Stu

  I have recently been trying to learn about MVVM and all of the associated concepts such as repositories, mediators, data access. I made a decision that I would not use any frameworks for this so that I could gain a better understanding of how everything worked. I’m beginning to wonder if that was the best idea because I have hit some problems which I am not able to solve, even with the help of Stack Overflow! Writing from scratch I still feel that you have a much better understanding of something when you have been in the guts of it than if you were at a higher level. The other side of that coin is that you are in the guts of something that you don't fully understand which will lead to bad design decisions. This then makes it hard to get help because you will create unusual scenarios which are less likely to occur when you working within the confines of a framework. I have found that there are plenty of tutorials on the basics of a concept but very few that take you all the way from novice to expert. Maybe I should be looking at a book for this? Using frameworks The biggest motivation for me to use frameworks is that they are much more likely to be used in the workplace than a custom rolled solution. This can be quite a benefit when starting a new job if it's one less thing you have to learn. I feel that there is much better support for a framework than a custom solution which makes sense; many more people are using the framework than the solution that you created. The level of help is much wider as well, from basic questions to really specific, detailed questions. I would be interested to hear other people's views on this. When you are learning something new, should you/do you use frameworks or not? Why? If it's a combination of both, when do you stop one and move on to the other?

  Read the article

• End of Public Updates for Java SE 6

  - by Tori Wieldt

  It's important for developers and systems administrators to either make the transition over to Java SE 7 or to work with Oracle to get updates via the Java SE Support program. Have you updated to Java SE 7? Along with great features (Fork/Join, NIO, Project Coin), Java SE 7 is being updated and patched regularly. Java SE 7 has been out for over a year and is ready to download.  The last publicly available release of Oracle JDK 6 is to be released in February, 2013. This means that after 19 February 2013, all new security updates, patches and fixes for Java SE 6 and Java SE 5 will only be available through My Oracle Support and will thus require a commercial license with Oracle.    In the event you are not ready to migrate to Java SE 7, Oracle offers: Java SE Support for continued access to critical bug fixes and security fixes as well as general maintenance for JDK 6. Additionally, Java SE Advanced and Suite offers superior diagnostics and manageability tools that minimize the costs of deployment, monitoring and maintenance of Java-based IT environments. The Java SE Support Roadmap reflects an updated timeline for the End of Public Updates for JDK 6. The End of Public Updates date has been extended from November 2012 to February 2013, to allow some more time for the transition to JDK 7. Older releases of Java SE 6 will still be available on the Java SE archive, but will require a commercial license with Oracle for any new security updates, patches and fixes.  Th End of Public Updates for Java SE 6 will not impact the usage, availability, patching of Java SE 6 used for Fusion Middleware 11g and 12c. The support schedule for Java SE used for and in Fusion Middleware is not impacted by this announcement. For More Information Visit the Java SE page on Oracle.com.

  Read the article

• 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).

  Read the article

• Advanced TSQL training

  - by Dave Ballantyne

  Over the past few years, Ive had it on my to do list to write and deliver and full-scale SQLServer training course and not just an hour long bite size session at user groups and conferences.  To me, SQLServer development is not just knowing and remembering the syntax of commands.  Sometimes I semi-jest that i have “Written a merge statement without looking up the syntax”, but I know from my interactions on and off line that I am far from alone in this.  In any case we have an awesome tool in the internet which is great at looking things up. When developing SQL Server based solutions,  of more importance is knowing the internals of the engine.  SQL Server is a complex piece of software and we need to be able to understand to a fairly low level ( you can always dive deeper ) the choices that it makes and why it makes them in order to deliver performant, reliable, predictable and scalable systems to our customers and end-users. This is the view i shall be taking over two days in March (19th and 20th) in London and ,TBH, one I dont see taken often enough. Early bird discounts are available until 31Dec. Full details of the course and a high level view of the bullet points we shall be covering are available at the Technitrain site ( http://tinyurl.com/TSQLTraining )

  Read the article

• Is there any way to facilitate switching windows in Ubuntu?

  - by Ivan

  I'm just a student who received my laptop from my uncle, who's a coder, so I'm still getting used to working with ubuntu. I recently upgraded ubuntu from an earlier version, and everything seems to be pretty great. The only thing is that when I open a program, or file, or whatever, it takes up the whole screen. I can only close it by going to the far top left of my screen, or by ctrl+W. Anyways, I find it really hard to switch between programs. For example I really like to have my windows that are open to be accessible by clicking on their icon at the bottom of the screen... Great when writing or researching. Anyways, I really just want to find an easier way to switch windows. Also, I used to love the way I could cube-rotate my screen, and just drag files from one desktop to another, with compiz. Now, its sort of like flipping a coin when I switch windows, is there any way to get my desktop cube back? And yes, I have enabled all the old settings I used to use with compiz. Sorry if what I'm asking is very basic, I know how to use a computer, I'm just not really familiar with the interface! Any help is greatly appreciated.

  Read the article

• Java?????????????????????? Java Developer Workshop??!

  - by rika.tokumichi

  2011?5?19????????????????????Java Developer Workshop????????????????????Java??????????Java????????????????????????? ?????5???????????????????????????/???????Java?????????????Java SE(Standard Edition)?Java ME(Micro Edition)?Java FX???????????????????????????????????????? ??????·???????? Embedded Java???????????Greg Bollella ??????????????????????????????????·???????? Embedded Java?????????????Greg Bollella????Java SE????????????????????????????Java ME?Embedded Java????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ????????????????????Java SE 7??????????????????????????? Java ONE?????????????????Java SE 7?Hotspot????????JRockit?2??JVM?????????HotRockit??????Java SE 7?2011?7?28??????????Java SE 8?2012???????????????????????????????????? JDK7?????????????????????JVM??????????????Project Coin????????????ClassLoader???????????????????????????(Project Lambda)?????????(Project Jigsaw)??JDK8??????????????????????? (??????????????http://openjdk.java.net/projects/jdk7/features/????????) ?????????????????????????????????????????Java??????????????????????????????Java SE for Embedded?Oracle Java ME Embedded Client????Java?????????????????????????????????? ???????Java SE?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ???????????Java Embedded Global Business Unit ???? ???????????????Java Embedded Global Business Unit ????????Java FX 2.0??????????????????????????????Java FX 2.0?????????????????????????????????????????? ???????????????????·??????????????????????????????????????·???????????????????????????? ?????????? Sun Middleware Globalization ??????? ???? ???????????????????????????? Sun Middleware Globalization ??????? ????????NetBeans 7.0 ??????????????????? 2011?4????????????NetBeans 7.0??????JDK7???????HTML5???????PHP????????????????????????NetBeans 7.0?JDK7?????????Java???????????????????????????????????????????????? ????????????????? ?????????????? ???????????????????OSGi????????????????????OSGi?????????????OSGi Alliance???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ???????????????????????????????????????????????????? ???Java?????????????????Blu-ray Java????????????????? ???????? ???????????????!Blu-ray Java???????????????????????Blu-ray Java??????API?????????????????????????????????? ????????????????????????Java+Ricoh: Create, Share, and Think as one.?????????Java???????????????????????Embedded Software Architecture?????????????????????Ricoh Developer Program???????????????????????????/?????????????Java?????????????????????????????????RICOH & Java Developer Challenge?????????? ?????????????????????????????????????????~SIAWASE~ ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ??????????????????????Java Developer Workshop??????Java???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

  Read the article

• ?Java SE 7 ?????? ???????????

  - by user13137856

  7?7?(?)14:00~??????????????????Java SE 7 ?????? ???????????????NetBeans ???????????????????7.0 ?????? JDK7 ????????????????????????????????????????? Java SE 7 ?????? ??????  ??:2011?7?7?(?)14:00 ~19:00  ??: ????????13F???????  ??: ????? + ??? Java ??????(?? ??? ?) Java SE 7 + 8 ???(?? ??) HotRockit +Java ? New ????????(? ??) NetBeans 7.0 + Project Coin ???(?? ??) InvokeDynamic ???(?? ??) Fork/Join Framework????Lambda??(?? ?? ?) ???New I/O(?? ?? ?) ?????????????????????????????????????????????

  Read the article

• Two UIViews, one UIViewController (in one UINavigationController)

  - by jdandrea

  Given an iPhone app with a UITableViewController pushed onto a UINavigationController, I would like to add a right bar button item to toggle between the table view and an "alternate" view of the same data. Let's also say that this other view uses the same data but is not a UITableView. Now, I know variations on this question already exist on Stack Overflow. However, in this case, that alternate view would not be pushed onto the UINavigationController. It would be visually akin to flipping the current UIViewController's table view over and revealing the other view, then being able to flip back. In other words, it's intended to take up a single spot in the UINavigationController hierarchy. Moreover, whatever selection you ultimately make from within either view will push a common UIViewController onto the UINavigationController stack. Still more info: We don't want to use a separate UINavigationController just to handle this pair of views, and we don't want to split these apart via a UITabBarController either. Visually and contextually, the UX is meant to show two sides of the same coin. It's just that those two sides happen to involve their own View Controllers in normal practice. Now … it turns out I have already gone and quickly set this up to see how it might work! However, upon stepping back to examine it, I get the distinct impression that I went about it in a rather non-MVC way, which of course concerns me a bit. Here's what I did at a high level. Right now, I have a UIViewController (not a UITableViewController) that handles all commonalities between the two views, such as fetching the raw data. I also have two NIBs, one for each view, and two UIView objects to go along with them. (One of them is a UITableView, which is a kind of UIView.) I switch between the views using animation (easy enough). Also, in an effort to keep things encapsulated, the now-split-apart UITableView (not the UIViewController!) acts as its own delegate and data source, fetching data from the VC. The VC is set up as a weak, non-retained object in the table view. In parallel, the alternate view gets at the raw data from the VC in the exact same way. So, there are a few things that smell funny here. The weak linking from child to parent, while polite, seems like it might be wrong. Making a UITableView the table's data source and delegate also seems odd to me, thinking that a view controller is where you want to put that per Apple's MVC diagrams. As it stands now, it would appear as if the view knows about the model, which isn't good. Loading up both views in advance also seems odd, because lazy loading is no longer in effect. Losing the benefits of a UITableViewController (like auto-scrolling to cells with text fields) is also a bit frustrating, and I'd rather not reinvent the wheel to work around that as well. Given all of the above, and given we want that "flip effect" in the context of a single spot on a single UINavigationController, and given that both views are two sides of the same coin, is there a better, more obvious way to design this that I'm just happening to miss completely? Clues appreciated!

  Read the article

• Moving a sprite around the circumference of a circle in Cocos2d-iPhone

  - by CircleOfLife

  I am new to Cocos2d. I have taken a look at the documentation at it looks pretty simple compared to what you need to do using basic Iphone classes such as UIAnimation etc. I want to move a Sprite (eg. Bird, Plane or Car) around the center of a circle around its circumference, smoothly so that even the sprite rotates accordingly. How is this possible in Cocos2d? It would be very helpful if someone can post some basic code. Thanks.

  Read the article

• IE8 and P3P problems again,

  - by MSolution

  Have been browsing across the net, and seems everyone who got into this mess, really slogged to get out of it,... and now my turn! http://stackoverflow.com/questions/999534/ie-p3p-iframe-and-blocked-cookies-works-until-page-host-page-has-personal-info been reading alot, and i have a very simple p3p policy here: http: // bit.ly/cCyGi5 and corresponding P3P compact policy: P3P: CP="COM DEM INT NAV OTC PRE PUR STA NOI DSP COR ADMi DEVi OUR BUS" I have validated my P3P policy via the validator at w3c, I have tried "privacy bird" IE extension, and it says my P3P.xml matches with my privacy settings, and has no conflict, my compact policy matches with my P3P policy, coz some where i read IE7 matches the two!!! If i lower my privacy settings in IE, the cookies get restricted, and if i further lower it to allow all, it gets thru, so it is my P3P compact policy the coz, and needs fixing. If someone can guide me in the right direction, or if i can hire someone for an hour or two to look into it. M.

  Read the article

• Integer Linear Programming Java: Multiple Open Source and Commercial tools are available. Which one

  - by Sandeep Jindal

  Hi, I need to use Integer Linear Programming API/Tool for my application. Though my application is in Java but I don’t mind calling an EXE (Tool) from Java providing input using file (MPS, etc). My search analysis is as follows: There are multiple Open Source and Commercial tools available to solve ILP Following I found and think are useful for my needs. 1. Gnu LP Kit(GLPK): I think this is the oldest and probably most stable and efficient 2. IP_Solve: Has good reviews about it. 3. JavaILP: Found this, but not much reviews about it 4. Apache Common-Math: Supports LP but not ILP, so ruled out. 5. Coin-OR Can you please suggest which one shall be the best in terms of stability, efficiency, acceptance, etc Regards Sandeep Jindal

  Read the article

• Classical Round Table algorithm?

  - by user1795954

  Coins with different value are spread in circle around a round table . We can choose any coin such that for any two adjacent pair of coins , atleast one must be selected (both maybe selected too) . In such condition we have to find minimum possible value of coins selected . I have to respect time complexity so instead of using naive recursive bruteforce , i tried doing it using dynamic programming . But i get Wrong Answer - my algorithm is incorrect . If someone could suggest an algorithm to do it dynamically , i could code myself in c++ . Also maximum number of coins is 10^6 , so i think O(n) solution exists .

  Read the article

• Why use I-prefix for interfaces in Java?

  - by Lars Andren

  Is there some reason why people use I-prefix for interfaces in Java? It seems to be a C#-convention spilling over. For C# it makes sense, as the answers to this question explains. However, for Java a class declaration clearly states which class that is extended and which interfaces that are implemented: public class Crow extends Animal implements Bird I think Joshua Bloch didn't suggest this in Effective Java, and I think he usually makes a lot of sense. I get the I-verbing as presented in an answer to the question above, but is there some other use with this convention for Java?

  Read the article

• Making change recursively: How do I modify my algorithm to print all combinations?

  - by cb

  I have an algorithm that recursively makes change in the following manner: public static int makeChange(int amount, int currentCoin) { //if amount = zero, we are at the bottom of a successful recursion if (amount == 0){ //return 1 to add this successful solution return 1; //check to see if we went too far }else if(amount < 0){ //don't count this try if we went too far return 0; //if we have exhausted our list of coin values }else if(currentCoin < 0){ return 0; }else{ int firstWay = makeChange(amount, currentCoin-1); int secondWay = makeChange(amount - availableCoins[currentCoin], currentCoin); return firstWay + secondWay; } } However, I'd like to add the capability to store or print each combination as they successfully return. I'm having a bit of a hard time wrapping my head around how to do this. The original algorithm was pretty easy, but now I am frustrated. Any suggestions? CB

  Read the article

• JSON Search and remove in php?

  - by moogeek

  Hello! I have a session variable $_SESSION["animals"] containing a deep json object with values: $_SESSION["animals"]='{ "0":{"kind":"mammal","name":"Pussy the Cat","weight":"12kg","age":"5"}, "1":{"kind":"mammal","name":"Roxy the Dog","weight":"25kg","age":"8"}, "2":{"kind":"fish","name":"Piranha the Fish","weight":"1kg","age":"1"}, "3":{"kind":"bird","name":"Einstein the Parrot","weight":"0.5kg","age":"4"}, }'; For example, I want to find the line with "Piranha the Fish" and then remove it (and json_encode it again as it was). How to do this? I guess i need to search in json_decode($_SESSION["animals"],true) resulting array and find the parent key to remove but i'm stucked anyways.

  Read the article

• sampling integers uniformly efficiently in python using numpy/scipy

  - by user248237

  I have a problem where depending on the result of a random coin flip, I have to sample a random starting position from a string. If the sampling of this random position is uniform over the string, I thought of two approaches to do it: one using multinomial from numpy.random, the other using the simple randint function of Python standard lib. I tested this as follows: from numpy import * from numpy.random import multinomial from random import randint import time def use_multinomial(length, num_points): probs = ones(length)/float(length) for n in range(num_points): result = multinomial(1, probs) def use_rand(length, num_points): for n in range(num_points): rand(1, length) def main(): length = 1700 num_points = 50000 t1 = time.time() use_multinomial(length, num_points) t2 = time.time() print "Multinomial took: %s seconds" %(t2 - t1) t1 = time.time() use_rand(length, num_points) t2 = time.time() print "Rand took: %s seconds" %(t2 - t1) if __name__ == '__main__': main() The output is: Multinomial took: 6.58072400093 seconds Rand took: 2.35189199448 seconds it seems like randint is faster, but it still seems very slow to me. Is there a vectorized way to get this to be much faster, using numpy or scipy? thanks.

  Read the article

• NETCF - Displaying custom shaped form in compact framework

  - by Nullstr1ng

  Hi guys, I am developing some small little application that sits on the screen and on top of all window and flies around the screen, could be a bird or a butterfly or a fish. But I have a little bit of problem. How do I redraw the background without my images included? or how do I copy the background (not the wallpaper) behind my form with image? is it possible to have a custom shaped form also? currently, the app looks like this the 2nd image with X is what I currently have (it has some sort of tearing) and it's supposed to be the 1st one with check mark.

  Read the article

• Literate Haskell (.lhs) and Haddock

  - by finnsson

  At the moment I'm only using Haddock but after seeing some really interesting examples (e.g. this gist ) of literate Haskell I'm interested in trying it out in a project. The questions I got are: What do you write as Haddock comments and what do you write in the literate part? How do you scale literate programming to multiple files? Can anyone point me to an example where literate programming is used in a package with multiple modules? What is your experience of using literate programming in larger packages? Which flavour (markdown, latex, ...) of literate Haskell is preferred? Why are you programming in literate Haskell or plain vanilla Haskell? Are you programming in both styles and if so why? Do you prefer block-style (\begin{code}) or Bird-style (>)? Why?

  Read the article

• Capturing system command output as a string

  - by dreeves

  Perl and PHP do this with backticks. For example: $output = `ls`; This code returns a directory listing into the variable $output. A similar function, system("ls"), returns the operating system return code for the given command. I'm talking about a variant that returns whatever the command prints to stdout. (There are better ways to get the list of files in a directory; the example code is an example of this concept.) How do other languages do this? Is there a canonical name for this function? (I'm going with "backtick"; though maybe I could coin "syslurp".)

  Read the article

• Clojure: using *command-line-args* in the script rather than REPL

  - by Teflon Mac

  I've clojure running within Eclipse. I want to pass arguments to clojure when running it. In the below the arguments are available in the REPL but not in the script itself. What do I need to do such that in the below typing arg1 in the REPL will return the first argument? Script: (NS Test) (def arg1 (nth *command-line-args* 0)) After clicking on the Eclipse "Run"... Clojure 1.1.0 1:1 user=> #<Namespace test> 1:2 test=> arg1 nil 1:3 test=> *command-line-args* ("bird" "dog" "cat" "pig") 1:4 test=> (def arg2 (nth *command-line-args* 1)) #'test/arg2 1:5 test=> arg2 "dog" 1:6 test=>

  Read the article

• Create a picture with GD containing other images

  - by Jensen

  Hi, I would like to create a picture in PHP with GD composed by different other pictures. For example I have 6 pictures (or more) and I would like to create ONE picture who contain these different pictures. The Difficulty is that my final picture must have a fixed width and height (304x179), so if the different pictures are too big they must be cut. This is an example from IconFinder : This picture is composed by 6 images, but the 3rd bird (green) is cutted, and the 4, 5 and 6 are cutted in the bottom. This is what I want, can you give me some help to write this code in PHP ? Thanks

  Read the article

• Four Emerging Payment Stories

  - by David Dorf

  The world of alternate payments has been moving fast of late.  Innovation in this area will help both consumers and retailers, but probably hurt the banks (at least that's the plan).  Here are four recent news items in this area: Dwolla, a start-up in Iowa, is trying to make credit cards obsolete.  Twelve guys in Des Moines are using $1.3M they raised to allow businesses to skip the credit card networks and avoid the fees.  Today they move about $1M a day across their network with an average transaction size of $500. Instead of charging merchants 2.9% plus $.30 per transaction, Dwolla charges a quarter -- yep, that coin featuring George Washington. Dwolla (Web + Dollar = Dwolla) avoids the credit networks and connects directly to bank accounts using the bank's ACH network.  They are signing up banks and merchants targeting both B2B and C2B as well as P2P payments.  They leverage social networks to notify people they have a money transfer, and also have a mobile app that uses GPS location. However, all is not rosy.  There have been complaints about unexpected chargebacks and with debit fees being reduced by the big banks, the need is not as pronounced.  The big banks are working on their own network called clearXchange that could provide stiff competition. VeriFone just bought European payment processor Point for around $1B.  By itself this would not have caught my attention except for the fact that VeriFone also announced the acquisition of GlobalBay earlier this month.  In addition to their core business of selling stand-beside payment terminals, with GlobalBay they get employee-operated mobile selling tools and with Point they get a very big payment processing platform. MasterCard and Intel announced a partnership around payments, starting with PayPass, MasterCard's new payment technology.  Intel will lend its expertise to add additional levels of security, which seems to be the biggest barrier for consumer adoption.  Everyone is scrambling to get their piece of cash transactions, which still represents 85% of all transactions. Apple was awarded another mobile payment patent further cementing the rumors that the iPhone 5 will support NFC payments.  As usual, Apple is upsetting the apple cart (sorry) by moving control of key data from the carriers to Apple.  With Apple's vast number of iTunes accounts, they have a ready-made customer base to use the payment infrastructure, which I bet will slowly transition people away from credit cards and toward cheaper ACH.  Gary Schwartz explains the three step process Apple is taking to become a payment processor. Below is a picture I drew representing payments in the retail industry. There's certainly a lot of innovation happening.

  Read the article

• Algorithm for spreading labels in a visually appealing and intuitive way

  - by mac

  Short version Is there a design pattern for distributing vehicle labels in a non-overlapping fashion, placing them as close as possible to the vehicle they refer to? If not, is any of the method I suggest viable? How would you implement this yourself? Extended version In the game I'm writing I have a bird-eye vision of my airborne vehicles. I also have next to each of the vehicles a small label with key-data about the vehicle. This is an actual screenshot: Now, since the vehicles could be flying at different altitudes, their icons could overlap. However I would like to never have their labels overlapping (or a label from vehicle 'A' overlap the icon of vehicle 'B'). Currently, I can detect collisions between sprites and I simply push away the offending label in a direction opposite to the otherwise-overlapped sprite. This works in most situations, but when the airspace get crowded, the label can get pushed very far away from its vehicle, even if there was an alternate "smarter" alternative. For example I get: B - label A -----------label C - label where it would be better (= label closer to the vehicle) to get: B - label label - A C - label EDIT: It also has to be considered that beside the overlapping vehicles case, there might be other configurations in which vehicles'labels could overlap (the ASCII-art examples show for example three very close vehicles in which the label of A would overlap the icon of B and C). I have two ideas on how to improve the present situation, but before spending time implementing them, I thought to turn to the community for advice (after all it seems like a "common enough problem" that a design pattern for it could exist). For what it's worth, here's the two ideas I was thinking to: Slot-isation of label space In this scenario I would divide all the screen into "slots" for the labels. Then, each vehicle would always have its label placed in the closest empty one (empty = no other sprites at that location. Spiralling search From the location of the vehicle on the screen, I would try to place the label at increasing angles and then at increasing radiuses, until a non-overlapping location is found. Something down the line of: try 0°, 10px try 10°, 10px try 20°, 10px ... try 350°, 10px try 0°, 20px try 10°, 20px ...

  Read the article

< Previous Page | 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13  | Next Page >