Search Results

Search found 3152 results on 127 pages for 'centurion games'.

Page 111/127 | < Previous Page | 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118  | Next Page >

  • Execption Error in c#

    - by Kumu
    using System; using System.Collections.Generic; using System.ComponentModel; using System.Data; using System.Drawing; using System.Linq; using System.Text; using System.Windows.Forms; using System.IO; using System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Binary; namespace FoolballLeague { public partial class MainMenu : Form { FootballLeagueDatabase footballLeagueDatabase; Game game; Login login; public MainMenu() { InitializeComponent(); changePanel(1); } public MainMenu(FootballLeagueDatabase footballLeagueDatabaseIn) { InitializeComponent(); footballLeagueDatabase = footballLeagueDatabaseIn; } private void Form_Loaded(object sender, EventArgs e) { } private void gameButton_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) { int option = 0; changePanel(option); } private void scoreboardButton_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) { int option = 1; changePanel(option); } private void changePanel(int optionIn) { gamePanel.Hide(); scoreboardPanel.Hide(); string title = "Football League System"; switch (optionIn) { case 0: gamePanel.Show(); this.Text = title + " - Game Menu"; break; case 1: scoreboardPanel.Show(); this.Text = title + " - Display Menu"; break; } } private void logoutButton_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) { login = new Login(); login.Show(); this.Hide(); } private void addGameButton_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) { if ((homeTeamTxt.Text.Length) == 0) MessageBox.Show("You must enter a Home Team"); else if (homeScoreUpDown.Value > 9 || homeScoreUpDown.Minimum < 0) MessageBox.Show("You must enter one digit between 0 and 9"); else if ((awayTeamTxt.Text.Length) == 0) MessageBox.Show("You must enter a Away Team"); else if (homeScoreUpDown.Value > 9 || homeScoreUpDown.Value < 0) MessageBox.Show("You must enter one digit between 0 to 9"); else { //checkGameInputFields(); game = new Game(homeTeamTxt.Text, int.Parse(homeScoreUpDown.Value.ToString()), awayTeamTxt.Text, int.Parse(awayScoreUpDown.Value.ToString())); MessageBox.Show("Home Team -" + '\t' + homeTeamTxt.Text + '\t' + "and" + '\r' + "Away Team -" + '\t' + awayTeamTxt.Text + '\t' + "created"); footballLeagueDatabase.AddGame(game); //clearCreateStudentInputFields(); } } private void timer1_Tick(object sender, EventArgs e) { displayDateAndTime(); } private void displayDateAndTime() { dateLabel.Text = DateTime.Today.ToLongDateString(); timeLabel.Text = DateTime.Now.ToShortTimeString(); } private void displayResultsButton_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) { Game game = new Game(homeTeamTxt.Text, int.Parse(homeScoreUpDown.Value.ToString()), awayTeamTxt.Text, int.Parse(awayScoreUpDown.Value.ToString())); gameResultsListView.Items.Clear(); gameResultsListView.View = View.Details; ListViewItem row = new ListViewItem(); row.SubItems.Add(game.HomeTeam.ToString()); row.SubItems.Add(game.HomeScore.ToString()); row.SubItems.Add(game.AwayTeam.ToString()); row.SubItems.Add(game.AwayScore.ToString()); gameResultsListView.Items.Add(row); } private void displayGamesButton_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) { Game game = new Game("Home", 2, "Away", 4);//homeTeamTxt.Text, int.Parse(homeScoreUpDown.Value.ToString()), awayTeamTxt.Text, int.Parse(awayScoreUpDown.Value.ToString())); modifyGamesListView.Items.Clear(); modifyGamesListView.View = View.Details; ListViewItem row = new ListViewItem(); row.SubItems.Add(game.HomeTeam.ToString()); row.SubItems.Add(game.HomeScore.ToString()); row.SubItems.Add(game.AwayTeam.ToString()); row.SubItems.Add(game.AwayScore.ToString()); modifyGamesListView.Items.Add(row); } } } This is the whole code and I got same error like previous question. Unhandled Execption has occuredin you application.If you click...............click Quit.the application will close immediately. Object reference not set to an instance of an object. And the following details are in the error message. See the end of this message for details on invoking just-in-time (JIT) debugging instead of this dialog box. ***** Exception Text ******* System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object. at FoolballLeague.MainMenu.addGameButton_Click(Object sender, EventArgs e) in C:\Users\achini\Desktop\FootballLeague\FootballLeague\MainMenu.cs:line 91 at System.Windows.Forms.Control.OnClick(EventArgs e) at System.Windows.Forms.Button.OnMouseUp(MouseEventArgs mevent) at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WmMouseUp(Message& m, MouseButtons button, Int32 clicks) at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WndProc(Message& m) at System.Windows.Forms.ButtonBase.WndProc(Message& m) at System.Windows.Forms.Button.WndProc(Message& m) at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.WndProc(Message& m) at System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.Callback(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam) ***** Loaded Assemblies ******* mscorlib Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0 Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.4927 (NetFXspW7.050727-4900) CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/Microsoft.NET/Framework64/v2.0.50727/mscorlib.dll ---------------------------------------- FootballLeague Assembly Version: 1.0.0.0 Win32 Version: 1.0.0.0 CodeBase: file:///C:/Users/achini/Desktop/FootballLeague/FootballLeague/bin/Debug/FootballLeague.exe ---------------------------------------- System.Windows.Forms Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0 Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.4927 (NetFXspW7.050727-4900) CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Windows.Forms/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Windows.Forms.dll ---------------------------------------- System Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0 Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.4927 (NetFXspW7.050727-4900) CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.dll ---------------------------------------- System.Drawing Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0 Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.4927 (NetFXspW7.050727-4900) CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Drawing/2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/System.Drawing.dll ---------------------------------------- System.Configuration Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0 Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.4927 (NetFXspW7.050727-4900) CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Configuration/2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/System.Configuration.dll ---------------------------------------- System.Xml Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0 Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.4927 (NetFXspW7.050727-4900) CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Xml/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Xml.dll ***** JIT Debugging ******* To enable just-in-time (JIT) debugging, the .config file for this application or computer (machine.config) must have the jitDebugging value set in the system.windows.forms section. The application must also be compiled with debugging enabled. For example: When JIT debugging is enabled, any unhandled exception will be sent to the JIT debugger registered on the computer rather than be handled by this dialog box. I need to add the games to using the addGameButton and the save those added games and display them in the list view (gameResultsListView). Now I can added a game and display in the list view.But when I pressed the button addGameButton I got the above error message. If you can please give me a solution to this problem.

    Read the article

  • http server implentation, the page does not show properly

    - by none
    well, as i am doing a small project of coding an http server. the code is at http://code.google.com/p/reactor/ the current puzzle is when asked to parse a page with java script and css. As an http server it just sends a page (copied from another website) and it parsed inproperly. when a simple html page is been parse , by my firefox, it shows ok, however when parsing a more complex page(css+javascript) the page is all wired like this : ???? ????? if(getCookie('pais999')==null){varisToplayerDouble="True";isToplayerDouble=(isToplayerDouble=="True")?true:falsevarToplayerCookieName='pais999';varTopLayerCookieExpiredDays=1;varToplayerLink='http://xads.zedo.com/ads2/c?a=239671;g=0;c=455000000;i=0;x=7168;n=455;s=0;k=http://www.pais.co.il/Pais/Games/Lotto/';varToplayerImpression='http://l4.zedo.com/log/p.gif?a=239671;c=455000000;x=7168;n=455;e=i;i=0;s=0;z='+Math.random();varToplayerBigPath='pais/January2007/98one_toplayer.swf';varToplayerSmallPath='pais/January2007/98one_reminder.swf';varToplayerBigWidth=1005;varToplayerBigHeight=500;varToplayerSmallWidth=100;varToplayerSmallHeight=100;varToplayerBigLeft=(0==0)?resWidth/2-ToplayerBigWidth/2:resWidth/2-ToplayerBigWidth/2+0varToplayerBigTop=0;varToplayerSmallLeft=resWidth-ToplayerSmallWidth-0;varToplayerSmallTop=0;varSecondsToChangeBigToSmall=15;}elseif(getCookie('NF999')==null){varisToplayerDouble="True";isToplayerDouble=(isToplayerDouble=="True")?true:falsevarToplayerCookieName='NF999';varTopLayerCookieExpiredDays=1;varToplayerLink='http://xads.zedo.com/ads2/c?a=238663;g=0;c=455000000;i=0;x=7168;n=455;s=0;k=http://www.new-pharm.co.il/SkiGame/?ToolID=OLJD8O';varToplayerImpression='http://l4.zedo.com/log/p.gif?a=238663;c=455000000;x=7168;n=455;e=i;i=0;s=0;z='+Math.random();varToplayerBigPath='NewFarm/Ski/995ONE_TopLayer_550x360.swf';varToplayerSmallPath='NewFarm/Ski/995ONE_Reminder_100x100.swf';varToplayerBigWidth=550;varToplayerBigHeight=360;varToplayerSmallWidth=100;varToplayerSmallHeight=100;varToplayerBigLeft=(0==0)?resWidth/2-ToplayerBigWidth/2:resWidth/2-ToplayerBigWidth/2+0varToplayerBigTop=0;varToplayerSmallLeft=resWidth-ToplayerSmallWidth-0;varToplayerSmallTop=0;varSecondsToChangeBigToSmall=15;}elseif(1==0){}$("divToplayerBig").style.width=ToplayerBigWidth;$("divToplayerBig").style.height=ToplayerBigHeight;$("divToplayerBig").style.left=resWidth/2-ToplayerBigWidth/2;$("divToplayerSmall").style.width=ToplayerSmallWidth;$("divToplayerSmall").style.height=ToplayerSmallHeight;$("divToplayerSmall").style.right=ToplayerSmallWidthvartopOff=0;if(ToplayerBigTop0)topOff=resHeight-ToplayerBigHeight+ToplayerBigTop;varisMain=false;#divToplayerBig{position:absolute;right:20px;bottom:1px;}bodydiv#divToplayerBig{position:fixed;}#divToplayerSmall{position:absolute;right:20px;bottom:10px;}bodydiv#divToplayerSmall{position:fixed;}????|??????LIVE|???????????|ONE???????|ONETV |????'??|BigONE|?????????| CrazyONE | where the source code of the html is : ONE:???:??????????????????????????? ????  ????? if(getCookie('pais999')==null){varisToplayerDouble="True";isToplayerDouble=(isToplayerDouble=="True")?true:falsevarToplayerCookieName='pais999';varTopLayerCookieExpiredDays=1;varToplayerLink='http://xads.zedo.com/ads2/c?a=239671;g=0;c=455000000;i=0;x=7168;n=455;s=0;k=http://www.pais.co.il/Pais/Games/Lotto/';varToplayerImpression='http://l4.zedo.com/log/p.gif?a=239671;c=455000000;x=7168;n=455;e=i;i=0;s=0;z='+Math.random();varToplayerBigPath='pais/January2007/98one_toplayer.swf';varToplayerSmallPath='pais/January2007/98one_reminder.swf';varToplayerBigWidth=1005;varToplayerBigHeight=500;varToplayerSmallWidth=100;varToplayerSmallHeight=100;varToplayerBigLeft=(0==0)?resWidth/2-ToplayerBigWidth/2:resWidth/2-ToplayerBigWidth/2+0varToplayerBigTop=0;varToplayerSmallLeft=resWidth-ToplayerSmallWidth-0;varToplayerSmallTop=0;varSecondsToChangeBigToSmall=15;}elseif(getCookie('NF999')==null){varisToplayerDouble="True";isToplayerDouble=(isToplayerDouble=="True")?true:falsevarToplayerCookieName='NF999';varTopLayerCookieExpiredDays=1;varToplayerLink='http://xads.zedo.com/ads2/c?a=238663;g=0;c=455000000;i=0;x=7168;n=455;s=0;k=http://www.new-pharm.co.il/SkiGame/?ToolID=OLJD8O';varToplayerImpression='http://l4.zedo.com/log/p.gif?a=238663;c=455000000;x=7168;n=455;e=i;i=0;s=0;z='+Math.random();varToplayerBigPath='NewFarm/Ski/995ONE_TopLayer_550x360.swf';varToplayerSmallPath='NewFarm/Ski/995ONE_Reminder_100x100.swf';varToplayerBigWidth=550;varToplayerBigHeight=360;varToplayerSmallWidth=100;varToplayerSmallHeight=100;varToplayerBigLeft=(0==0)?resWidth/2-ToplayerBigWidth/2:resWidth/2-ToplayerBigWidth/2+0varToplayerBigTop=0;varToplayerSmallLeft=resWidth-ToplayerSmallWidth-0;varToplayerSmallTop=0;varSecondsToChangeBigToSmall=15;}elseif(1==0){}$("divToplayerBig").style.width=ToplayerBigWidth;$("divToplayerBig").style.height=ToplayerBigHeight;$("divToplayerBig").style.left=resWidth/2-ToplayerBigWidth/2;$("divToplayerSmall").style.width=ToplayerSmallWidth;$("divToplayerSmall").style.height=ToplayerSmallHeight;$("divToplayerSmall").style.right=ToplayerSmallWidthvartopOff=0;if(ToplayerBigTop0)topOff=resHeight-ToplayerBigHeight+ToplayerBigTop;varisMain=false;#divToplayerBig{position:absolute;right:20px;bottom:1px;}bodydiv#divToplayerBig{position:fixed;}div#divToplayerBig{right:auto;bottom:auto;left:expression((-20-divToplayerBig.offsetWidth+(document.documentElement.clientWidth?document.documentElement.clientWidth:document.body.clientWidth)+(ignoreMe2=document.documentElement.scrollLeft?document.documentElement.scrollLeft:document.body.scrollLeft))+'px');top:expression((0-divToplayerBig.offsetHeight-topOff+(document.documentElement.clientHeight?document.documentElement.clientHeight:document.body.clientHeight)+(ignoreMe=document.documentElement.scrollTop?document.documentElement.scrollTop:document.body.scrollTop))+'px');}#divToplayerSmall{position:absolute;right:20px;bottom:10px;}bodydiv#divToplayerSmall{position:fixed;}div#divToplayerSmall{right:auto;bottom:auto;left:expression((-20-divToplayerSmall.offsetWidth+(document.documentElement.clientWidth?document.documentElement.clientWidth:document.body.clientWidth)+(ignoreMe2=document.documentElement.scrollLeft?document.documentElement.scrollLeft:document.body.scrollLeft))+'px');top:expression((0-divToplayerSmall.offsetHeight+(document.documentElement.clientHeight?document.documentElement.clientHeight:document.body.clientHeight)+(ignoreMe=document.documentElement.scrollTop?document.documentElement.scrollTop:document.body.scrollTop))+'px');}varisTopTrans=(ToplayerBigPath.indexOf("transparent")-1)?false:true;varisRemTrans=(ToplayerSmallPath.indexOf("transparent")-1)?false:true;vartop1session=3;vartop2session=5;InitToplayer(isTopTrans,isRemTrans);window.onload=StartToplayer;????|??????LIVE|???????????|ONE???????|ONETV |????'??|BigONE|?????????|  CrazyONE |????????????????????????????????????????????????????????19/01/07  19:30?????????????????????-?????:?????????????????????????19/01/07  18:43??????????????:??????????????????????19/01/07  17:41???:??????????????????????????????????19/01/07  16:49?????:??????"?????????????/?????1:2,??????"??????19/01/07  16:45????????????????????????????,?????2.5???????????????19/01/07  16:37???????:???"?????????????????-19:30?????????????19/01/07  14:32?????"?????????-18:30?????????"????????,????'??????19/01/07  14:45????????????????????????????????"?:??????????????19/01/07  14:37??????????:??????????????????????????????0:019/01/07  13:46varswfPeleSmall=newSWFObject("http://images.one.co.il/images/PeleEmulator/emulator_pelephone_01a.swf","peleSmall",160,470,"6","#FFFFFF");swfPeleSmall.addParam("quality","high");swfPeleSmall.addParam("wmode","transparent");swfPeleSmall.write("divPeleSmall");varswfPeleBig=newSWFObject("http://images.one.co.il/images/PeleEmulator/emulator_pelephone_02d.swf","peleBig",400,470,"6","#FFFFFF");swfPeleBig.addParam("quality","high");swfPeleBig.addParam("wmode","transparent");swfPeleBig.write("divWithBig");???:???????????????????????????????????????-ONE????????????????????????????????????????????.????????,???????????1:2,?????????????:"???????????"DisplayFlash("W_S_round_border_pic.swf","156","201","1","style=position:absolute");?????????????????????????(??????)?????????                          19/01/20077:26???????????????(????)????????????????????????????6:3,5:7?-5:7???????????????????????,???????23?????.?????,????????????????????????????????,???????????????????????????????????????????,????????????????????.??????????????????????????,??????????????????????????.????????????????????????????-1:1?????????.?????????????????????????????'?????????????????????????????.?????????????.???????????????????????????????(16???????),???????????????????????????????????????3???????,???????????????????????.????????- (only part of of the page presentation in firefox and page source html) why is it happening? what is midding in the http response? StringBuffer tResponse = new StringBuffer(); tResponse.append("HTTP/1.1 200 OK\n"); tResponse.append("Date: "+new Date().toString() +'\n'); tResponse.append("server: http-reactor/0.1-dev\n"); tResponse.append("last-Modified:"+ d.toString() +'\n'); tResponse.append("Content-Type: text/html; charset=windows-1255\n"); tResponse.append("Accept-Language: he; q=1.0, en; q=0.5:); tResponse.append("Content-Length: "+tFileContent.length()+'\n'); tResponse.append('\n'); tResponse.append(tFileContent); public StringBuffer FetchData(String FileName) throws FileNotFoundException{ StringBuffer tFileContent = new StringBuffer(); if (FileName.contains("../")) throw new SecurityException(); if (FileName.equals("/")) FileName = "\\index.html"; FileName.replace('/', '\\'); File f = new File(_root + FileName); Scanner scanner = new Scanner(f); while(scanner.hasNext()) tFileContent.append(scanner.next()); return generateResponse(tFileContent,f.lastModified()); } private StringBuffer generateResponse(StringBuffer tFileContent, long l) { StringBuffer tResponse = new StringBuffer(); Date d = new Date(l); tResponse.append("HTTP/1.1 200 OK\n"); tResponse.append("Date: "+new Date().toString() +'\n'); tResponse.append("server: http-reactor/0.1-dev\n"); tResponse.append("last-Modified:"+ d.toString() +'\n'); tResponse.append("Content-Type: text/html; charset=windows-1255\n"); tResponse.append("Accept-Language: he; q=1.0, en; q=0.5:); tResponse.append("Content-Length: "+tFileContent.length()+'\n'); tResponse.append('\n'); tResponse.append(tFileContent); return tResponse; }

    Read the article

  • This Week in Geek History: Gmail Goes Public, Deep Blue Wins at Chess, and the Birth of Thomas Edison

    - by Jason Fitzpatrick
    Every week we bring you a snapshot of the week in Geek History. This week we’re taking a peek at the public release of Gmail, the first time a computer won against a chess champion, and the birth of prolific inventor Thomas Edison. Gmail Goes Public It’s hard to believe that Gmail has only been around for seven years and that for the first three years of its life it was invite only. In 2007 Gmail dropped the invite only requirement (although they would hold onto the “beta” tag for another two years) and opened its doors for anyone to grab a username @gmail. For what seemed like an entire epoch in internet history Gmail had the slickest web-based email around with constant innovations and features rolling out from Gmail Labs. Only in the last year or so have major overhauls at competitors like Hotmail and Yahoo! Mail brought other services up to speed. Can’t stand reading a Week in Geek History entry without a random fact? Here you go: gmail.com was originally owned by the Garfield franchise and ran a service that delivered Garfield comics to your email inbox. No, we’re not kidding. Deep Blue Proves Itself a Chess Master Deep Blue was a super computer constructed by IBM with the sole purpose of winning chess matches. In 2011 with the all seeing eye of Google and the amazing computational abilities of engines like Wolfram Alpha we simply take powerful computers immersed in our daily lives for granted. The 1996 match against reigning world chest champion Garry Kasparov where in Deep Blue held its own, but ultimately lost, in a  4-2 match shook a lot of people up. What did it mean if something that was considered such an elegant and quintessentially human endeavor such as chess was so easy for a machine? A series of upgrades helped Deep Blue outright win a match against Kasparov in 1997 (seen in the photo above). After the win Deep Blue was retired and disassembled. Parts of Deep Blue are housed in the National Museum of History and the Computer History Museum. Birth of Thomas Edison Thomas Alva Edison was one of the most prolific inventors in history and holds an astounding 1,093 US Patents. He is responsible for outright inventing or greatly refining major innovations in the history of world culture including the phonograph, the movie camera, the carbon microphone used in nearly every telephone well into the 1980s, batteries for electric cars (a notion we’d take over a century to take seriously), voting machines, and of course his enormous contribution to electric distribution systems. Despite the role of scientist and inventor being largely unglamorous, Thomas Edison and his tumultuous relationship with fellow inventor Nikola Tesla have been fodder for everything from books, to comics, to movies, and video games. Other Notable Moments from This Week in Geek History Although we only shine the spotlight on three interesting facts a week in our Geek History column, that doesn’t mean we don’t have space to highlight a few more in passing. This week in Geek History: 1971 – Apollo 14 returns to Earth after third Lunar mission. 1974 – Birth of Robot Chicken creator Seth Green. 1986 – Death of Dune creator Frank Herbert. Goodnight Dune. 1997 – Simpsons becomes longest running animated show on television. Have an interesting bit of geek trivia to share? Shoot us an email to [email protected] with “history” in the subject line and we’ll be sure to add it to our list of trivia. Latest Features How-To Geek ETC Here’s a Super Simple Trick to Defeating Fake Anti-Virus Malware How to Change the Default Application for Android Tasks Stop Believing TV’s Lies: The Real Truth About "Enhancing" Images The How-To Geek Valentine’s Day Gift Guide Inspire Geek Love with These Hilarious Geek Valentines RGB? CMYK? Alpha? What Are Image Channels and What Do They Mean? Clean Up Google Calendar’s Interface in Chrome and Iron The Rise and Fall of Kramerica? [Seinfeld Video] GNOME Shell 3 Live CDs for OpenSUSE and Fedora Available for Testing Picplz Offers Special FX, Sharing, and Backup of Your Smartphone Pics BUILD! An Epic LEGO Stop Motion Film [VIDEO] The Lingering Glow of Sunset over a Winter Landscape Wallpaper

    Read the article

  • Surface Review from Canadian Guy Who Didn&rsquo;t Go To Build

    - by D'Arcy Lussier
    I didn’t go to Build last week, opted to stay home and go trick-or-treating with my daughters instead. I had many friends that did go however, and I was able to catch up with James Chambers last night to hear about the conference and play with his Surface RT and Nokia 920 WP8 devices. I’ve been using Windows 8 for a while now, so I’m not going to comment on OS features – lots of posts out there on that already. Let me instead comment on the hardware itself. Size and Weight The size of the tablet was awesome. The Windows 8 tablet I’m using to reference this against is the one from Build 2011 (Samsung model) we received as well as my iPad. The Surface RT was taller and slightly heavier than the iPad, but smaller and lighter than the Samsung Win 8 tablet. I still don’t prefer the default wide-screen format, but the Surface RT is much more usable even when holding it by the long edge than the Samsung. Build Quality No issues with the build quality, it seemed very solid. But…y’know, people have been going on about how the Surface RT materials are so much better than the plastic feeling models Samsung and others put out. I didn’t really notice *that* much difference in that regard with the Surface RT. Interesting feature I didn’t expect – the Windows button on the device is touch-sensitive, not a mechanical one. I didn’t try video or anything, so I can’t comment on the media experience. The kickstand is a great feature, and the way the Surface RT connects to the combo case/keyboard touchcover is very slick while being incredibly simple. What About That Touch Cover Keyboard? So first, kudos to Microsoft on the touch cover! This thing was insanely responsive (including the trackpad) and really delivered on the thinness I was expecting. With that said, and remember this is with very limited use, I would probably go with the Type Cover instead of the Touch Cover. The difference is buttons. The Touch Cover doesn’t actually have “buttons” on the keyboard – hence why its a “touch” cover. You tap on a key to type it. James tells me after a while you get used to it and you can type very fast. For me, I just prefer the tactile feeling of a button being pressed/depressed. But still – typing on the touch case worked very well. Would I Buy One? So after playing with it, did I cry out in envy and rage that I wasn’t able to get one of these machines? Did I curse my decision to collect Halloween candy with my kids instead of being at Build getting hardware? Well – no. Even with the keyboard, the Surface RT is not a business laptop replacement device. While Office does come included, you can’t install any other applications outside of Windows Store Apps. This might be limiting depending on what other applications you need to have available on your computer. Surface RT is a great personal computing device, as long as you’re not already invested in a competing ecosystem. I’ve heard people make statements that they’re going to replace all the iPads in their homes with Surface tablets. In my home, that’s not feasible – my wife and daughters have amassed quite a collection of games via iTunes. We also buy all our music via iTunes as well, so even with the XBox streaming music service now available we’re still tied quite tightly to iTunes. So who is the Surface RT for? In my mind, if you’re looking for a solid, compact device that provides basic business functionality (read: email) or if you have someone that needs a very simple to use computer for email, web browsing, etc., then Surface RT is a great option. For me, I’m waiting on the Samsung Ativ Smart PC Pro and am curious to see what changes the Surface Pro will come with.

    Read the article

  • Friday Fun: The Search For Wondla

    - by Asian Angel
    The best day of the week is finally here again, so it is time to have some fun while waiting to go home for the weekend. The game we have for you today takes you far into humanity’s future where you journey with Eva Nine in her quest to find other humans. Note: Today’s game comes with a double bonus! First, there is a sequel game that you can move on to once you have completed the first one. Second, there are three wallpapers available in multiple sizes for those who enjoy the characters and artwork presented in the game (see below). The Search For Wondla The object of the game is to find the differences between two similar looking images based on artwork from The Search For Wondla by Tony DiTerlizzi. Are you ready to join Eva Nine in her quest to find other humans in the future? Note: There is a version available for those who would like to play The Search For Wondla on their iPads! The first game has 28 levels of difference finding goodness for you to work through. Each level will list the minimum number of differences that you need to find to progress to the next level. If you need a hint along the way just click on the Shake or Reveal options at the bottom of the game play window. Get a level completed quickly enough and you get bonus points! There will also be differences in the images for individual levels each time you play the game, so have fun! Note: The second game has 12 levels to complete. To give you a good feel for the game we have covered the first six levels here and provided seven clues for each level (you are only required to find a minimum of five). Eva Nine viewing the holographic outdoor projections in the main hub of her living quarters… Eva Nine is in a grumpy mood as Muthr visits her at bedtime… Eva Nine in her secret hideaway visiting old “childhood friends” as she contemplates her recent survival test failure. Eva Nine viewing the entire set of floor plans for the underground sanctuary where she was born and has been growing up. Eva Nine’s escape to the surface as the underground sanctuary is attacked by the bounty hunter creature Besteel. Eva Nine on the surface for the first time in her young life. Will she be successful in her quest? There is only one way to find out! Play The Search For Wondla Part 1 Play The Search For Wondla Part 2 Bonus Content If you have enjoyed this game you can learn more about the book and download the three wallpapers shown here by visiting the link below! Note: The wallpapers come in the following sizes: 1024*768, 1280*800, 1280*1024, 1440*900, iPhone, iPhone4, and iPad (click on the Extras link at the bottom of the page). Visit the Search For Wondla Homepage Do you enjoy playing difference finding games? Then you will definitely want to have a look at another wonderful game that we have covered here: Friday Fun: Isis Latest Features How-To Geek ETC The How-To Geek Guide to Learning Photoshop, Part 8: Filters Get the Complete Android Guide eBook for Only 99 Cents [Update: Expired] Improve Digital Photography by Calibrating Your Monitor The How-To Geek Guide to Learning Photoshop, Part 7: Design and Typography How to Choose What to Back Up on Your Linux Home Server How To Harmonize Your Dual-Boot Setup for Windows and Ubuntu Hang in There Scrat! – Ice Age Wallpaper How Do You Know When You’ve Passed Geek and Headed to Nerd? On The Tip – A Lamborghini Theme for Chrome and Iron What if Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner were Human? [Video] Peaceful Winter Cabin Wallpaper Store Tabs for Later Viewing in Opera with Tab Vault

    Read the article

  • Silverlight Cream for March 28, 2010 -- #823

    - by Dave Campbell
    In this Issue: Michael Washington, Andy Beaulieu, Bill Reiss, jocelyn, Shawn Wildermuth, Cameron Albert, Shawn Oster, Alex Yakhnin, ondrejsv, Giorgetti Alessandro, Jeff Handley, SilverLaw, deepm, and Kyle McClellan. Shoutouts: If I've listed this before, it's worth another... Introduction to Prototyping with SketchFlow (twelve video series) and on the same page is Creating a Beehive Game with Behaviors in Blend 3 (ten video series) Shawn Oster announced his Slides + Code + Video from ‘An Introduction to Developing Applications for Microsoft Silverlight’ from MIX10 Tim Heuer announced earlier this week: Silverlight Client for Facebook updated for Silverlight 4 RC Nikhil Kothari announced the availability of his MIX10 Talk - Slides and Code András Velvárt backed up his great MIX09 effort with MIX10.Zoomery.com... everything in one DZ effort... thanks András! Andy Beaulieu posted his material for his Code Camp 13 in Waltham: Windows Phone: Silverlight for Casual Games From SilverlightCream.com: Silverlight MVVM - The Revolution Has Begun Michael Washington did an awesome tutorial on MVVM and Silverlight creating a simple Silverlight File Manager. The post has a link to the tutorial at CodeProject... great tutorial. Windows Phone 7 + Silverlight Performance Andy Beaulieu has a post up we should all bookmark... getting a handle on the graphics performance of our app on WP7. Great examples, and external links. Space Rocks game step 6: Keyboard handling Bill Reiss has a post up about keyboard input for the WP7 game he's building ... this is Episode 6 ... you're working along with him, right? Panoramic Navigation on Windows Phone 7 with No Code! jocelyn at InnovativeSingapore (I found this by way of Shawn's post), has a Panoramic Navigation template out there for WP7 for all of us to grab... great post about it too. My First WP7 Application Shawn Wildermuth has been playing with WP7 development and has his XBOX Game library app up on the emulator... all with source of course Silverlight and Windows Phone 7 Game Cameron Albert built a web-based game called 'Shape Attack' and also did it for WP7 to compare the performance... check it out for yourself, but hey, it's game source for the phone... cool :) Changing the Onscreen Keyboard layout in Silverlight for Windows Phone using InputScope Shawn Oster has a cool post on changing the keyboard on WP7 to go along with what you're expecting the user to type... how cool is that?? Deep Zoom on WP7 Check out the quick work Alex Yakhnin made of putting DeepZoom on WP7... all source included. How to: Create a sketchy Siverlight GroupBox in Blend/SketchFlow ondrejsv has the xaml up to take Tim Greenfield's GroupBox control and insert it into SketchFlow. Silverlight / Castle Windsor – implementing a simple logging framework Giorgetti Alessandro posted about CastleWindsor for Silverlight, and a logging system inherited from LevelFilteredLogger in the absence of Log4Net. DomainDataSource in a ViewModel Jeff Handley responds to a common forum post about using DomainDataSource in a ViewModel. Read his comments on AutoLoad and ElementName Bindins. Digital Jugendstil TextEffect (Art Nouveau) - Silverlight 3 SilverLaw has a cool TagCloud demo and a UserControl he calls Art Nouveau up at the Expression Gallery... not for a business app, I don't think :) Configuring your DomainService for a Windows Phone 7 application deepm discusses RIA Services for WP7 and how to enable a WP7 app to communicate with a DomainService. Writing a Custom Filter or Parameter for DomainDataSource Kyle McClellan by way of Jeff Handley's blog, is discussing how to leverage the custom parameter types you defined in the previous version of RIA Services. Stay in the 'Light! Twitter SilverlightNews | Twitter WynApse | WynApse.com | Tagged Posts | SilverlightCream Join me @ SilverlightCream | Phoenix Silverlight User Group Technorati Tags: Silverlight    Silverlight 3    Silverlight 4    Windows Phone MIX10

    Read the article

  • Increase the size of Taskbar Preview Thumbnails in Windows 7

    - by Matthew Guay
    Taskbar thumbnail previews are incredibly useful in Windows 7, but for some users they may be too small.  Here’s a tool to help you make your taskbar thumbnail previews just like you want them. A few years ago we featured a tool to increase the size of your thumbnail previews in Windows Vista, but unfortunately this application doesn’t work correctly in Windows 7.  However, there is a new tool for Windows 7 that lets you customize your taskbar thumbnail previews even more in Windows 7.  With it, you can change almost anything about your taskbar thumbnail previews.  The default taskbar thumbnails are nice, but may be too small for users with vision problems or with very high resolution monitors.  Whatever your need, this is a great tool to make the thumbnails looks and work just like you want. Let’s get started Download the Windows 7 Taskbar Thumbnail Customizer (link below), and unzip the files.  Run the Windows 7 Taskbar Thumbnail Customizer when you’re done.  Simply double-click on it; you don’t need to run it as administrator. Now, you change the size, spacing, margin, and delay time of your taskbar thumbnails.  The Delay Time setting is very handy; to speed things up, we set it to 0 so there’s no delay between when you mouse-over a taskbar icon to when you see the thumbnail.  Simply drag the slider to the size (or time in the delay settings) you want, and click Apply settings.  Windows Explorer will automatically restart, and your new taskbar thumbnails will be ready to use. Here is the default Windows 7 thumbnail preview of a video playing in Media player: And here’s the taskbar thumbnail enlarged to 380px.  Now you can really watch a video from your taskbar thumbnail. The larger taskbar thumbnails show up a little different in Internet Explorer.  It shows a larger preview of your active tab, and smaller previews of your other tabs.  Notice also that Aero peek shows the tab you’re hovering over in Internet Explorer, but the tab name in IE’s toolbar doesn’t change to the one you’re previewing.   Here we increased the width between the thumbnails, while keeping the thumbnails at their default size.  This could be useful if you have trouble selecting the correct preview, and we can imagine it would be a very useful modification on touch screens. And, if you ever take your changes too far, and want to revert to your default Windows 7 taskbar thumbnail previews, simply run the Customizer again and select Restore Defaults.  Windows Explorer will restart again, and your taskbar thumbnails will be back to their default settings.   Conclusion This tool makes it safe and easy to change the size, spacing, and more of your taskbar thumbnail previews.  And since you can always revert to the default settings, you can experiment without fear of messing up your computer.  If you’d prefer to change the settings manually without using a dedicated application, here’s a list of the registry changes you can make to accomplish this by hand. Link Download the Windows 7 Taskbar Thumbnail Customizer from The Windows Club Vista Users: Increase Size of Windows Vista Taskbar Previews Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Bounty(Paid!) for Increasing Windows Vista Taskbar Preview SizeGet Vista Taskbar Thumbnail Previews in Windows XPVista Style Popup Previews for Firefox TabsIncrease Size of Windows Vista Taskbar PreviewsWhat is dwm.exe And Why Is It Running? 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 Are You Blocked On Gtalk? Find out Discover Latest Android Apps On AppBrain The Ultimate Guide For YouTube Lovers Will it Blend? iPad Edition Penolo Lets You Share Sketches On Twitter Visit Woolyss.com for Old School Games, Music and Videos

    Read the article

  • Rendering Linear Gradients using the HTML5 Canvas

    - by dwahlin
    Related HTML5 Canvas Posts: Getting Started with the HTML5 Canvas Rendering Text with the HTML5 Canvas Creating a Line Chart using the HTML5 Canvas New Pluralsight Course: HTML5 Canvas Fundamentals Gradients are everywhere. They’re used to enhance toolbars or buttons and help add additional flare to a web page when used appropriately. In the past we’ve always had to rely on images to render gradients which works well, but isn’t necessarily the most efficient (although 1 pixel wide images do work well). CSS3 provides a great way to render gradients in modern browsers (see http://www.colorzilla.com/gradient-editor for a nice online gradient generator tool) but it’s not the only option. If you’re working with charts, games, multimedia or other HTML5 Canvas applications you can also use gradients and render them on the client-side without relying on images. In this post I’ll introduce how to use linear gradients and discuss the different functions that can be used to create them.   Creating Linear Gradients Linear gradients can be created using the 2D context’s createLinearGradient function. The function takes the starting x,y coordinates and ending x,y coordinates of the gradient:   createLinearGradient(x1, y1, x2, y2);   By changing the start and end coordinates you can control the direction that the gradient renders. For example, adding the following coordinates causes the gradient to render from left to right since the y value stays at 0 for both points while the x value changes from 0 to 200. var lgrad = ctx.createLinearGradient(0, 0, 200, 0); Here’s an example of how changing the coordinates affects the gradient direction:   Once a linear gradient object has been created you can set color stops using the addColorStop() function. It takes the location where the color should appear in the gradient with 0 being the beginning and 1 being at the end (0.5 would be in the middle) as well as the color to display in the gradient. lgrad.addColorStop(0, 'white'); lgrad.addColorStop(1, 'gray');   An example of combining createLinearGradient() with addColorStop() is shown next:   Using createLinearGradient() var canvas = document.getElementById('myCanvas'); var ctx = canvas.getContext('2d'); var lgrad = ctx.createLinearGradient(0, 0, 200, 0); lgrad.addColorStop(0, 'white'); lgrad.addColorStop(1, 'gray'); ctx.fillStyle = lgrad; ctx.fillRect(0, 0, 200, 200); ctx.strokeRect(0, 0, 200, 200); This code renders a white to gray gradient as shown next: A live example of using createLinearGradient() is shown next. Click the Result tab to see the code in action.   In the next post on the HTML5 Canvas I’ll take a look at radial gradients and how they can be used. In the meantime, if you’re interested in learning more about the HTML5 Canvas and how it can be used in your Web or Windows 8 applications, check out my HTML5 Canvas Fundamentals course from Pluralsight. It has over 4 1/2 hours of canvas goodness packed in it.

    Read the article

  • Listen to Online Radio with Antenna

    - by Asian Angel
    Are you looking for some fresh new music to listen to at home or at work? With Antenna you can listen to online radio stations from all over the world. Note: Requires Adobe AIR (download link at bottom of article). Antenna in Action Once you have completed the installation and started Antenna up this is the window that you will see. The left side will have a “browsing pane” where you can search for the stations that you would like to listen to using the various categories. Based on the stations that you choose the background map will change location to match the stations locations. Here is a closer look at the “Categories Bar”. For our first example we used the “Country Category” to find our first station to listen to. When you choose a country you will be presented with a list of the stations available for that country. To start listening to a particular station just double click on the appropriate entry line. A closer look at the “browser pane” with our first station playing. Notice the “Reliability Indicator” that will be available for each listing…some may be better than others and you can use this to choose the best streaming stations from the list. In the upper left corner you will notice three icons…each will open a small pop-up window with a specific purpose. The first icon will open up the “About Window”. If you need to contact Antenna’s creator or would like to place a request for a station to be added to the app then this is the best way to do it. The second icon will open up a Antenna specific chat window. The third icon will allow you to set a default location and make adjustments to some of the app’s settings. Recording Audio The “Recording Function” is the only area where we experienced some “quirkiness” with the app. To start recording press the “Round White Button”… Note: Based on feedback on the app creator’s webpage some people have experienced the same problem as we did during our tests with the app failing to complete the recordings. Hopefully this bug will be fixed with the next release. Once recording has started the button will turn red. Click on the button again to stop recording. Once you have stopped recording you will see the following message window appear and the main window will be shaded over with a whitish color until you click “OK”. Conclusion Regardless of the slight quirkiness in recording online music Antenna more than makes up for it with the terrific selection of online stations and streaming capability. New fresh music for you to listen to is only a click or two away… Links Download Antenna (Antenna Homepage) Download Antenna at Softpedia Download Adobe AIR Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Listen to Local FM Radio in Windows 7 Media CenterListen to Over 100,000 Radio Stations in Windows Media CenterListen To XM Radio with Windows Media Center in Windows 7Listen and Record Over 12,000 Online Radio Stations with RadioSureWeekend Fun: Watch Television on Your PC with AnyTV 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 Will it Blend? iPad Edition Penolo Lets You Share Sketches On Twitter Visit Woolyss.com for Old School Games, Music and Videos Add a Custom Title in IE using Spybot or Spyware Blaster When You Need to Hail a Taxi in NYC Live Map of Marine Traffic

    Read the article

  • Craig Mundie's video

    - by GGBlogger
    Timothy recently posted “Microsoft Shows Off Radical New UI, Could Be Used In Windows 8” on Slashdot. I took such grave exception to his post that I found it necessary to my senses to write this blog. We need to go back many years to the days of hand cranked calculators and early main frame computers. These devices had singular purposes – they were “number crunchers” used to make accounting easier. The front facing display in early mainframes was “blinken lights.” The calculators did provide printing – in the form of paper tape and the mainframes used line printers to generate reports as needed. We had other metaphors to work with. The typewriter was/is a mechanical device that substitutes for a type setting machine. The originals go back to 1867 and the keyboard layout has remained much the same to this day. In the earlier years the Morse code telegraphs gave way to Teletype machines. The old ASR33, seen on the left in this photo of one of the first computers I help manufacture, used a keyboard very similar to the keyboards in use today. It also generated punched paper tape that we generated to program this computer in machine language. Everything considered this computer which dates back to the late 1960s has a keyboard for input and a roll of paper as output. So in a very rudimentary fashion little has changed. Oh – we didn’t have a mouse! The entire point of this exercise is to point out that we still use very similar methods to get data into and out of a computer regardless of the operating system involved. The Altair, IMSAI, Apple, Commodore and onward to our modern machines changed the hardware that we interfaced to but changed little in the way we input, view and output the results of our computing effort. The mouse made some changes and the advent of windowed interfaces such as Windows and Apple made things somewhat easier for the user. My 4 year old granddaughter plays here Dora games on our computer. She knows how to start programs, use the mouse, play the game and is quite adept so we have come some distance in making computers useable. One of my chief bitches is the constant harangues leveled at Microsoft. Yup – they are a money making organization. You like Apple? No problem for me. I don’t use Apple mostly because I’m comfortable in the Windows environment but probably more because I don’t like Apple’s “Holier than thou” attitude. Some think they do superior things and that’s also fine with me. Obviously the iPhone has not done badly and other Apple products have fared well. But they are expensive. I just build a new machine with 4 Terabytes of storage, an Intel i7 Core 950 processor and 12 GB of RAMIII. It cost me – with dual monitors – less than 2000 dollars. Now to the chief reason for this blog. I’m going to continue developing software for as long as I’m able. For that reason I don’t see my keyboard, mouse and displays changing much for many years. I also don’t think Microsoft is going to spoil that for me by making radical changes to my developer experience. What Craig Mundie does in his video here:  http://www.ispyce.com/2011/02/microsoft-shows-off-radical-new-ui.html is explore the potential future of computer interfaces for the masses of potential users. Using a computer today requires a person to have rudimentary capabilities with keyboards and the mouse. Wouldn’t it be great if all they needed was hand gestures? Although not mentioned it would also be nice if computers responded intelligently to a user’s voice. There is absolutely no argument with the fact that user interaction with these machines is going to change over time. My personal prediction is that it will take years for much of what Craig discusses to come to a cost effective reality but it is certainly coming. I just don’t believe that what Craig discusses will be the future look of a Window 8.

    Read the article

  • Gamify your Web

    - by Isabel F. Peñuelas
    Yesterday Valencia welcomed the Gamification World Congress that I follow virtually through #GWC2012. BBVA, Iberia, Ligeresa, Axe, Wayra, ESADE, GlaxoSmithKline, Macmillan, Gamisfaction, Nomaders, Blaffin were among the companies presenting success stories on gaming. It has been proved that people remember things easily when an emotion is created. The marketing expectations around Gamification techniques have a lot to do with Neuromarketing theories. There are a lot of expectations on internal enterprise Gamification. In the public Web some sectors are taking the lead on following the trend. The Gartner Analyst Brian Burke opened another Gamification recent event in Madrid remembering that “Gamification is mostly about Engagement”, and this can be applied both to customers or employees. Gamification and Banking The experience of the Spanish Financial Group BBVA that just launched BBVA Game was also presented a week ago at the BBVA Innovation Centre during the event “Gamification & Banking: a fad or a serious business?” . One of the objectives of the BBVA Game was to double the name of registered users. “People like the efficiency of the online channel want to keep a one-to-one contact with the brand”-explained Bernardo Crespo. Another interested data coming out the BBVA presentation was that “only 20% of Spanish users –out of the total holders of Bank Accounts in the country- is familiar with the use of a Web Site to consult their bank accounts”, the project aims also to reverse this situation helping people to learn making a heavy use of the Video in the gaming context. In general Banking presenters seem to agree that Gamification techniques are helping to increase the time spent on the Web. Gamification and Health Using Gamification techniques for chronic illness rehabilitation was another topic of the World Congress. Here you can find some ideas and experiences What can games do for the health (In Spanish) I have personally started my own mental-health gaming project at http://www.lumosity.com/ Gamification in the Enterprise I really recommend Reading this excellent post of Ultan ÓBroin my Introduction to Gamification and Applications. Employee´s motivation and learning are experiencing a 360º turn and it looks than some of us will become soon the Dragon of the year instead of the Employee of the Year. Using Web 2.0 Tools for Gamification Projects  What type of tools do we need for a quick-win Gamification project? To certain extend Gamification can be considered an evolution of the participative Web. Badging, avatars, points and awards, leader boards, progress charts, virtual currencies, gifting and giving challenges and quests are common components and elements. The Web is offering new development frameworks to that purpose as this Avatar Framework from Paypal or Badgeville to include in web applications. Besides, tools to create communities around a game are required to comment, share and vote players as well as for an efficient multimedia management. Due to its entirely open architecture, its community features, and its multimedia and imaging solutions is were I see WebCenter as a tool helping brands to success. Link to Sources & Recommended Readings YouTube Video of BBVAGame presentation Where To Apply Gamification In Your Incentive Jim Calhoun Cancer Challenge Ride and Walkh For my Spanish Readers El aburrimiento es el enemigo número uno del éxito

    Read the article

  • Algorithm for querying linearly through a non-linear list of questions

    - by JoshLeaves
    For a multiplayers trivia game, I need to supply my users with a new quizz in a desired subject (Science, Maths, Litt. and such) at the start of every game. I've generated about 5K quizzes for each subject and filled my database with them. So my 'Quizzes' database looks like this: |ID |Subject |Question +-----+------------+---------------------------------- | 23 |Science | What's water? | 42 |Maths | What's 2+2? | 99 |Litt. | Who wrote "Pride and Prejudice"? | 123 |Litt. | Who wrote "On The Road"? | 146 |Maths | What's 2*2? | 599 |Science | You know what's cool? |1042 |Maths | What's the Fibonacci Sequence? |1056 |Maths | What's 42? And so on... (Much more detailed/complex but I'll keep the exemple simple) As you can see, due to technical constraints (MongoDB), my IDs are not linear but I can use them as an increasing suite. So far, my algorithm to ensure two users get a new quizz when they play together is the following: // Take the last played quizzes by P1 and P2 var q_one = player_one.getLastPlayedQuizz('Maths'); var q_two = player_two.getLastPlayedQuizz('Maths'); // If both of them never played in the subject, return first quizz in the list if ((q_one == NULL) && (q_two == NULL)) return QuizzDB.findOne({subject: 'Maths'}); // If one of them never played, play the next quizz for the other player // This quizz is found by asking for the first quizz in the desired subject where // the ID is greater than the last played quizz's ID (if the last played quizz ID // is 42, this will return 146 following the above example database) if (q_one == NULL) return QuizzDB.findOne({subject: 'Maths', ID > q_two}); if (q_two == NULL) return QuizzDB.findOne({subject: 'Maths', ID > q_one}); // And if both of them have a lastPlayedQuizz, we return the next quizz for the // player whose lastPlayedQuizz got the higher ID if (q_one > q_two) return QuizzDB.findOne({subject: 'Maths', ID > q_one}); else return QuizzDB.findOne({subject: 'Maths', ID > q_two}); Now here comes the real problem: Once I get to the end of my database (let's say, P1's last played quizz in 'Maths' is 1056, P2's is 146 and P3 is 1042), following my algorithm, P1's ID is the highest so I ask for the next question in 'Maths' where ID is superior to 1056. There is nothing, so I roll back to the beginning of my quizz list (with a random skipper to avoid having the first question always show up). P1 and P2's last played will then be 42 and they will start fresh from the beginning of the list. However, if P1 (42) plays against P3 (1042), the resulting ID will be 1056...which P1 already played two games ago. Basically, players who just "rolled back" to the beginning of the list will be brought back to the end of the list by players who still haven't rolled back. The rollback WILL happen in the end, but it'll take time and there'll be a "bottleneck" at the beginning and at the end. Thus my question: What would be the best algorith to avoid this bottleneck and ensure players don't get stuck endlessly on the same quizzes? Also bear in mind that I've got some technical constraints: I can't get a random question in a subject (ie: no "QuizzDB.findOne({subject: 'Maths'}).skip(random());"). It's cool to skip on one to twenty records, but the MongoDB documentation warns against skipping too many documents. I would like to avoid building an array of every quizz played by each player and find the next non-played in the database with a $nin. Thanks for your help

    Read the article

  • MIXing it Up a Bit

    - by andrewbrust
    Another March, another MIX.  For the fifth year running now, Microsoft has chosen to put on a conference aimed less at software development, per se, and more at the products, experiences and designs that software development can generate.  In all four prior MIX events, the focus of the show, its keynotes and breakout sessions has been on Web products.  On day 1 of MIX 2010 that focus shifted to Windows Phone 7 Series (WP7). What little we had seen of WP7 had been shown to us in a keynote presentation, given by Microsoft’s Joe Belfiore, at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain last month.  And today, Mr. Belfiore reprised his showmanship for the MIX 2010 audience.  Joe showed us the ins and outs of WP7 and, in a breakout session, even gave us a sneak peek of Office (specifically, Excel) on WP7.  We didn’t get to see that one month ago in Barcelona, nor did get to see email messages opened for reading, which we saw today. But beyond a tour of the phone itself, impressive though that is, we got to see apps running on it.  Those apps included Associated Press news, Seesmic (a major Twitter client) and Foursquare (a social media darling).  All three ran, ran well, and looked markedly different and better from their corresponding versions on iPhone and Android.  And the games we saw looked even better. To me though, the best demos involved the creation of WP7 apps, using Silverlight in Visual Studio and Expression Blend.  These demos were so effective because they showed important apps being built in very few steps, and by Microsoft executives to boot.  Scott Guthrie showed us how to build a Twitter API app in Visual Strudio.   Jon Harris showed us how to build a photo management and viewer application in Expression Blend, using virtually no code.  Demos of apps built from scratch to F5 without the benefit of a teacher, could be challenging.  But they went off fine, without a hitch and without a ton of opaque, generated code.  Everything written, be it C# or XAML, was easily understood, and the results were impressive. That means lots of developers can do this, and I think it means a lot will.  What I’ve seen, thus far, of iPhone and Android development looks very tedious by comparison.  Development for those platforms involve a collection of tools that integrate only to a point.  Dev work for WP7 involves use of Visual Studio, Silverlight and the same debugging experience .NET developers already know.  This was very exciting for me. All the demos harkened back to days of building apps for with Visual Basic…design the front-end, put in code-behind and then hit F5.  And that makes sense, because the phone platform, and the PC of the early 90s are both, essentially, client OS machines.  The Web was minimal and the “device” was everything. Same is true of this phone.  It’s a client app contraption that fits in your pocket. And if the platforms are comparable, hopefully so too will be the draw of ease-of-development.   WP7 has the potential to make mobile developers want to switch over, and to convince enterprise developers to get into the phone scene.  Will this propel the new phone platform to new heights, and restore Microsoft’s competiveness in the mobile arena? I hope so.  I think so.  And if Microsoft uses developers to build themselves a victory, that would be beneficial and would show that Microsoft has learned from its failures, as well as its successes.  Today I saw a few beautiful apps.  Tomorrow I hope I see a slew of others; maybe not as polished, but plentiful, attractive and stable.  That would be a victory for Microsoft, and for developers.  And it would show everyone else that developers are the kingmakers.  They need cheap, efficient dev tools and lots of respect.  Microsoft has always been the company to provide that.  Hopefully, with WP7, they will return to that persona and see how very timeless it is.

    Read the article

  • Getting input from keyboard

    - by SAMIR BHOGAYTA
    When you type on the keyboard the keystrokes go to a particular application, the active application. The active application receives the input from the keyboard. This means the application has input focus. There are two events for a key on a keyboard, when the key is pressed and when it is released. No it's not a single event as you might expect if you have no prior programming experience, in shooter games for example when you keep the forward key pressed (KeyDown) the player goes forward, and when it isn't pressed (KeyUp) the player stays put. The event that occurs when the key is pressed is called KeyPress. It occurs between KeyDown and KeyUp, and therefore acts similar to KeyDown. Similar to the way we handle OnPaint and other events we also handle the OnKeyDown event (because we want the event to occur when the key is pressed and not when it is released) by overriding it. Try the code below and test it. You will understand the role of each property. protected override void OnKeyDown(KeyEventArgs keyEvent) { // Gets the key code lblKeyCode.Text = "KeyCode: " + keyEvent.KeyCode.ToString(); // Gets the key data; recognizes combination of keys lblKeyData.Text = "KeyData: " + keyEvent.KeyData.ToString(); // Integer representation of KeyData lblKeyValue.Text = "KeyValue: " + keyEvent.KeyValue.ToString(); // Returns true if Alt is pressed lblAlt.Text = "Alt: " + keyEvent.Alt.ToString(); // Returns true if Ctrl is pressed lblCtrl.Text = "Ctrl: " + keyEvent.Control.ToString(); // Returns true if Shift is pressed lblShift.Text = "Shift: " + keyEvent.Shift.ToString(); } How do I find out when the user presses a specific key? As you probably imagine, this will be easily accomplished using 'if'. if (keyEvent.KeyCode == Keys.A) { MessageBox.Show("'A' was pressed."); } Probably most beginners would be tempted to do this: if (keyEvent.KeyCode == "A") .... which is definitely incorrect because we can't compare System.Windows.Forms.Keys to a string. Also note that in the example we are using 'keyEvent.KeyCode', that means that even if we have other shift keys pressed (Alt, Ctrl, Shift, Windows...) simultaneous with A, the if condition returns true because it doesn't recognize key combinations. If we want to ignore key combinations (Alt+A, Ctrl+Shift+A), etc. we need to use 'keyEvent.KeyData' of course: if (keyEvent.KeyData == Keys.A) { MessageBox.Show("'A', and only A, was pressed."); } When you right click on a file in Windows Explorer and you have the Shift key pressed you get the additional 'Open with...' item in the menu. This and many others are cases when you need to use the mouse button together with the keyboard. The following code will change the background color of the form only if the form is clicked while the Ctrl key on the keyboard is pressed. If the Ctrl key is unpressed and the form is clicked nothing happens. private void Form1_Click(object sender, System.EventArgs e) { Keys modKey = Control.ModifierKeys; if(modKey == Keys.Control) { this.BackColor = Color.Yellow; } } If you have further questions feel free to ask them and also check the following pages at MSDN: KeyUp Event KeyPress Event KeyDown Event

    Read the article

  • SFML fail to load image as texture

    - by zyeek
    I have come to a problem with the code below ... Using SFML 2.0 #include <SFML/Graphics.hpp> #include <iostream> #include <list> int main() { float speed = 5.0f; // create the window sf::RenderWindow window(sf::VideoMode(sf::VideoMode::getDesktopMode().height - 300, 800), "Bricks"); // Set game window position on the screen window.setPosition( sf::Vector2i(sf::VideoMode::getDesktopMode().width/4 + sf::VideoMode::getDesktopMode().width/16 , 0) ); // Allow library to accept repeatitive key presses (i.e. holding key) window.setKeyRepeatEnabled(true); // Hide mouse cursor //window.setMouseCursorVisible(false); // Limit 30 frames per sec; the minimum for all games window.setFramerateLimit(30); sf::Texture texture; if (!texture.loadFromFile("tile.png", sf::IntRect(0, 0, 125, 32))) { std::cout<<"Could not load image\n"; return -1; } // Empty list of sprites std::list<sf::Sprite> spriteContainer; bool gameFocus = true; // run the program as long as the window is open while (window.isOpen()) { sf::Vector2i mousePos = sf::Mouse::getPosition(window); // check all the window's events that were triggered since the last iteration of the loop sf::Event event; while (window.pollEvent(event)) { float offsetX = 0.0f, offsetY = 0.0f; if(event.type == sf::Event::GainedFocus) gameFocus = !gameFocus; else if(event.type == sf::Event::LostFocus) gameFocus = !gameFocus; if(event.type == sf::Event::KeyPressed) { if (event.key.code == sf::Keyboard::Space) { if(gameFocus) { // Create sprite and add features before putting it into container sf::Sprite sprite(texture); sprite.scale(.9f,.7f); sf::Vector2u textSize = texture.getSize(); sprite.setPosition(sf::Vector2f(mousePos.x-textSize.x/2.0f, mousePos.y - textSize.y/2.0f)); spriteContainer.push_front(sprite); } } if(event.key.code == sf::Keyboard::P) std::cout << spriteContainer.size() << std::endl; if( event.key.code == sf::Keyboard::W ) offsetY -= speed; if( event.key.code == sf::Keyboard::A ) offsetX -= speed; if( event.key.code == sf::Keyboard::S ) offsetY += speed; if( event.key.code == sf::Keyboard::D ) offsetX += speed; } // "close requested" event: we close the window if (event.type == sf::Event::Closed || event.key.code == sf::Keyboard::Escape) window.close(); // Move all sprites synchronously for (std::list<sf::Sprite>::iterator sprite = spriteContainer.begin(); sprite != spriteContainer.end(); ++sprite) sprite->move(offsetX, offsetY); //sprite.move(offsetX,offsetY); } // clear the window with black color window.clear(sf::Color::Black); // draw everything here... // window.draw(...); // Draw all sprites in the container for (std::list<sf::Sprite>::iterator sprite = spriteContainer.begin(); sprite != spriteContainer.end(); ++sprite) window.draw(*sprite); // end the current frame window.display(); } return 0; } A couple weeks ago it worked flawlessly to my expectation, but now that I come back to it and I am having problems importing the image as a texture "tile.png". I don't understand why this is evening happening and the only message I get via the terminal is "Cannot load image ..." then a bunch of random characters. My libraries are for sure working, but now I am not sure why the image is not loading. My image is in the same directory as with my .h and .cpp files. This is an irritating problem that keep coming up for some reason and is always a problem to fix it. I import my libraries via my own directory "locals" which contain many APIs, but I specifically get SFML, and done appropriately as I am able to open a window and many other stuff.

    Read the article

  • regarding the Windows Phone 7 series, XNA and Visual Basic

    - by Chris Williams
    as long as we're talking about VB... I figured I would share this as well. Hi everyone, I'm about to express a sentiment that might ruffle a few feathers, but I think most of you know me well enough to know I love like accept VB for what it is and that what I'm about to say is with good intentions. (The rest of you, who don't know me, please take my word for it.) The world is full of VB developers, I was one of them for a long time. I think it's safe to assume that none of us are ignorant people who require handholding. We're working professionals, making a living by using our skills as developers. I'm also willing to bet that quite a few of us are fluent in C# as well as VB. It may not be your preferred language, but many of you can do it and you prove that nearly every day. Honestly, I don't know ANY developers or consultants that have only known ONE language ever. So it pains me greatly when I see the word "CAN'T" being tossed around like a crutch... as in "we CAN'T develop for the windows phone or we CAN'T develop XNA games." At MIX, Microsoft hath decreed that C# is the language of choice for developing for the Windows Phone 7. I think it's a safe bet that you won't see VB support if it isn't there already. (Just like XNA... which is up to version 4.0 by now.)  So what? (Yeah... I said it.) I think everyone here can agree that actual coding is only one part of software design and development. There is nothing stopping ANY of you from beginning the process of designing your killer phone app, writing up specs, requirements, doing UI design, workflow, mockups, storyboards, art, etc.... None of these things are language dependent. IF by the time you've got that stuff out of the way, and there's still no VB support, then start doing some rapid prototyping of your app in C# (I know, I know... heresy!)  You still have to spend time learning how the phone does things, what UI tricks do what, what paradigms make sense, how to use to accelerometer and the tilt and the multitouch functionality. I can guarantee you that time spent doing this is a great investment, no matter WHAT extension your code files have. Eventually, you may have a working prototype. IF by this time, there's STILL no VB support... fret not, you've made significant progress on your app. You've designed it, prototyped it, figured out how to use the phone specific features... so you might as well finish it and pat yourself on the back for learning something new... and possibly being first to market with your new app. I'll be happy to argue any and all of these points online or off with anyone who cares to do so, but there is one undeniable point that you simply can't argue:  Your potential customers do not care AT ALL what programming language you used to write the app they are about to purchase. They care that it works. If your biggest concern is being first to market, than stop complaining and get busy because you're running out of time and the 3000+ people who were at MIX certainly aren't waiting for you. They've already started working on their apps.

    Read the article

  • Site Review: Facebook.com and Blockbuster.com - Navigation Schemes

    After cycling through a list of my favorite sites I decided to select Facebook.com and Blockbuster.com for this  post because I found their navigation schemes very intuitive. Facebook in my opinion took a very simplistic and minimalistic approach when they designed their site and its navigation. For example, when you login to your account you will find on the upper left hand side a generic section of the site common areas to all users like news, messages, events, photos and friends. Below this in a separate navigation menu is a list of applications that a user has elected to access through bookmarks. Finally in the upper right hand corner of the site contains links to administer the user’s account like account settings, public profile, and a link back to the users’ home page. Blockbuster on the other had tried to make site navigation a little more slick by using a menu-submenu approach to navigation where user can click on things like Rent, Buy, On Demand, Games, Stores, and Gifts and a submenu of corresponding items appears below the original menu item. In addition they also took this approach and added categorized lists of movies that they offer on the homepage so that users can click on an item like “DVD Spotlight” and a list of movies represented as actual DVD box cases appear on the user’s screen so they can scroll through the list by using left and right arrows on either side of the images displayed. Both Facebook and Blockbuster have more than one navigation groupings because their respected sites are so large and offer an absorbent amount of features. Because of this reason they have to group the main functionality of information in to logical groups based on their actions they perform and the access to specific information. For example it would not make sense for Facebook to include a particular game you like to play within your account with a section pertaining to account administration. The game link would be completely out of place and really confuse the users experience because the groupings where not logically grouped. In addition I think that Facebook users would benefit if Facebook allowed its users to specify what they want on the general navigation from within their site or at least create a section to show frequently accessed pages or favorite sections. Finally regarding additional navigation, I think blockbuster users really benefit from the submenu system of categorizing data, and if fact Blockbuster even allows them to refine the information they are looking for through the use of secondary submenu systems allowing users to really drill down in to what they are looking for to learn more on. I do not think that having more than one navigation bar on a web page is not confusing for the user. For example if you have a navigation bar at the top of your page and at the bottom will allow users to move around the website easier because they can utilize the navigation closest to where their cursor is on the page. In regards to designers forcing all the navigation in to one navigation bar, I think it would be hard for the user to fully understand what is going on based on the size and complexity of the site they are dealing with. For example Blockbuster has a ton of content that could not easily be put in to one navigation bar. From my experience with both Facebook and Blockbuster, they both do a good job with cross browser compatibility. I have had no issues with either site in IE, Firefox, Chrome, and Safari over the years. In addition, I do not believe that either Facebook or Blockbuster require any additional plug-in to utilize their navigation bars.

    Read the article

  • Help me get my 3D camera to look like the ones in RTS

    - by rFactor
    I am a newbie in 3D game development and I am trying to make a real-time strategy game. I am struggling with the camera currently as I am unable to make it look like they do in RTS games. Here is my Camera.cs class using System; using System.Collections.Generic; using System.Linq; using System.Text; using Microsoft.Xna.Framework; using Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Input; namespace BB { public class Camera : Microsoft.Xna.Framework.GameComponent { public Matrix view; public Matrix projection; protected Game game; KeyboardState currentKeyboardState; Vector3 cameraPosition = new Vector3(600.0f, 0.0f, 600.0f); Vector3 cameraForward = new Vector3(0, -0.4472136f, -0.8944272f); BoundingFrustum cameraFrustum = new BoundingFrustum(Matrix.Identity); // Light direction Vector3 lightDir = new Vector3(-0.3333333f, 0.6666667f, 0.6666667f); public Camera(Game game) : base(game) { this.game = game; } public override void Initialize() { this.view = Matrix.CreateLookAt(this.cameraPosition, this.cameraPosition + this.cameraForward, Vector3.Up); this.projection = Matrix.CreatePerspectiveFieldOfView(MathHelper.PiOver4, this.game.renderer.aspectRatio, 1, 10000); base.Initialize(); } /* Handles the user input * @ param GameTime gameTime */ private void HandleInput(GameTime gameTime) { float time = (float)gameTime.ElapsedGameTime.TotalMilliseconds; currentKeyboardState = Keyboard.GetState(); } void UpdateCamera(GameTime gameTime) { float time = (float)gameTime.ElapsedGameTime.TotalMilliseconds; // Check for input to rotate the camera. float pitch = 0.0f; float turn = 0.0f; if (currentKeyboardState.IsKeyDown(Keys.Up)) pitch += time * 0.001f; if (currentKeyboardState.IsKeyDown(Keys.Down)) pitch -= time * 0.001f; if (currentKeyboardState.IsKeyDown(Keys.Left)) turn += time * 0.001f; if (currentKeyboardState.IsKeyDown(Keys.Right)) turn -= time * 0.001f; Vector3 cameraRight = Vector3.Cross(Vector3.Up, cameraForward); Vector3 flatFront = Vector3.Cross(cameraRight, Vector3.Up); Matrix pitchMatrix = Matrix.CreateFromAxisAngle(cameraRight, pitch); Matrix turnMatrix = Matrix.CreateFromAxisAngle(Vector3.Up, turn); Vector3 tiltedFront = Vector3.TransformNormal(cameraForward, pitchMatrix * turnMatrix); // Check angle so we cant flip over if (Vector3.Dot(tiltedFront, flatFront) > 0.001f) { cameraForward = Vector3.Normalize(tiltedFront); } // Check for input to move the camera around. if (currentKeyboardState.IsKeyDown(Keys.W)) cameraPosition += cameraForward * time * 0.4f; if (currentKeyboardState.IsKeyDown(Keys.S)) cameraPosition -= cameraForward * time * 0.4f; if (currentKeyboardState.IsKeyDown(Keys.A)) cameraPosition += cameraRight * time * 0.4f; if (currentKeyboardState.IsKeyDown(Keys.D)) cameraPosition -= cameraRight * time * 0.4f; if (currentKeyboardState.IsKeyDown(Keys.R)) { cameraPosition = new Vector3(0, 50, 50); cameraForward = new Vector3(0, 0, -1); } cameraForward.Normalize(); // Create the new view matrix view = Matrix.CreateLookAt(cameraPosition, cameraPosition + cameraForward, Vector3.Up); // Set the new frustum value cameraFrustum.Matrix = view * projection; } public override void Update(Microsoft.Xna.Framework.GameTime gameTime) { HandleInput(gameTime); UpdateCamera(gameTime); } } } The problem is that the initial view is looking in a horizontal direction. I would like to have an RTS like top down view (but with a slight pitch). Can you help me out?

    Read the article

  • Windows Phone 7 Series - Tools and Resources

    - by TechTwaddle
    Unless you've been living in the caves of Lascaux for the past couple of days, you probably know what's happening in the world of Windows Phone. Microsoft unveiled the developer tools required to develop applications and games for Windows Phone 7 at MIX10 a couple of days back. Silverlight and XNA being the major frameworks, no big surprise there. And the best news of all is that all the development tools are free! So if you are planning to develop apps for Windows Phone 7, read on. The first place, or more appropriately hub, for you is the Windows Phone Developer Portal. It has most of the information you need to get you started. Now there is a ton of information available at other places too. In this post, I take time to put all the information that I found useful at one place, and I'll keep updating this as and when I find new stuff.   Setting up the development environment 1. Install Windows Phone Developer Tools CTP (Community Technology Preview) This will install Visual Studio 2010 Express, Silverlight, XNA framework and emulator for Windows Phone 7. It also installs a few support tools. 2. Expression Blend 4 for Windows Phone:     - Install Expression Blend 4 beta     - Install Expression Blend Add-in Preview for Windows Phone     - Install Expression Blend SDK Preview for Windows Phone Installing the above tools should set your machine up for development. I installed the tools on my Windows Vista SP1 machine and the process went smoothly without running into any major hitch. Note that the tools won't install on Windows XP, read the release notes of the CTP. Resources and Documentation 1. Microsoft Windows Phone 7 Series Developer Training Kit 2. Programming Windows Phone 7 Series by Charles Petzold. Contains few chapters only. Gives a good preview. 3. MSDN documentation for Windows Phone 7 Development 4. A sample chapter from Learning Windows Phone Programming [PDF] by Yochay Kiriaty and Jaime Rodriguez. Complete book will be available at a later time. 5. Windows Phone 7 Developer Forum - where you can ask questions and problems you run into and the experts are there to help you. 6. For Silverlight visit silverlight.net and for XNA game development, the XNA Creators Club is the place to go, also make sure you follow Michael Klutcher's and Shawn Hargreaves' blog. 7. And finally the MIX'10 website. Most of the sessions will be available for download later (some are already available). Click on the Windows Phone tag to get all the session details and downloads.   If you are completely new to Silverlight and XNA (like me), and C# makes some sense to you then I suggest you go through the Developer Training Kit. It gives a good start and ramps you up pretty quickly.

    Read the article

  • Thoughts on ODTUG Kscope12

    - by thatjeffsmith
    The rodeo rocked! This wasn’t my first rodeo, and it wasn’t my first Kscope, but it was probably my favorite one. What is Kscope? It’s the annual conference for the Oracle Development Tools User Group. 1,000+ attendees from 20+ countries with an average Jeff Klout score of 65. I just made that metric and score up, but this conference attracts the best and brightest in the Oracle database space. I’m not just talking about the speakers either. The attendees are all top notch. They actively participate in sessions, make an effort to get to know their fellow conference mates, and often turn into volunteers and speakers. Developers that enjoy unit testing, understand the importance of modeling your data, and are eager to understand the Oracle CBO – these are traits that describe the ‘average’ ODTUG developer. 2012′s event was held in San Antonio. Yes, it was very hot. But this might have been the nicest Marriott property I’ve ever visited, and I’ve stayed at some nice ones in Hawaii and St. Thomas. They had free WiFi everywhere – the rooms, the Conference Center, the lobby, bars, everywhere. And it worked. The after hours events were very fun. I embarrassed myself several times, but that’s OK. The rodeo was an awesome event and the Thirsty Games experience was something I hope does not make it onto YouTube or Facebook — talking to you Chet Justice. I finally got to meet and spend some time with some folks I’ve always wanted to get to know better, @timothyjgorman, @alexgorbachev, @lj_dobson, @dschleis, @kentGraziano, @chriscmuir, @GaloBalda, @patch72, and many, many more! I even made some new friends thanks to the Mentor program and @carol_finn. 2013′s event will be in New Orleans. If you haven’t joined ODTUG or haven’t made it to Kscope, go ahead and mark your calendars. I had 3 presentations this year. Sunday’s was not a good performance, and I want to apologize to anyone who was there and was hoping for more. My Tips and Debugging sessions on Monday and Tuesday were more to my liking, and I enjoyed them as a presenter. I hope you enjoyed them as an attendee. I understand that my slidedecks were corrupted on the ODTUG site, and I’m working with the coordinator now to get those fixed ASAP. Apparently the 2 most well-received Tips was the /*CSV*/ formatting hint and recalling your previous SQL history via the keyboard. I’ll be doing a follow-up webinar with ODTUG in a few weeks for those members that weren’t able to see my Tips and Debugger sessions in San Antonio. I’ll be sure to post details on that here when I have the details. My next scheduled conference is Oracle Open World, and I may have a couple of shows after that to round out 2012.

    Read the article

  • App Stores&ndash;In All Things, Its Quality Over Quantity

    - by D'Arcy Lussier
    Everybody has an opinion about Windows 8. People love it, people hate it, people are meh about it, people are apparently buying it from Microsoft stores in NYC as if it was water before a natural disaster…if there’s one thing that Microsoft product launches do well, its the ability to bring out strong emotional responses. Over at eweek.com, Don Reisinger wrote about 5 good and bad things about Windows 8. Yes, another opinion piece on WIndows 8. I figured since this one had good and bad it might be worthwhile to read. I then came across #10 on his list, and figured “What the hell…might as well post a bit of a rant on Windows 8 myself!” Here’s #10: 10. Bad: Too few apps Unfortunately, Microsoft wasn’t able to get too many developers to start producing applications for its Windows 8 Store. Microsoft hasn’t yet released official numbers, but some have said that the marketplace has less than 8,000 programs. Considering Apple’s App Store has 100 times that, it’s about time Microsoft starts leaning on developers to get more programs into its store. Believe me, Microsoft *has* been leaning on developers to get apps into the store. I’ve been asked at least 5 or 6 times from 5 or 6 different friends at Microsoft about whether I was going to write a Windows 8 app. I think Microsoft felt they had to try and address the number of apps available in their marketplace, since some people (like Don) would draw comparisons to the number of apps in the Apple marketplace. I feel for Microsoft in this, since the number of apps in a marketplace are an empty stat. Quality of Quantity I have an iPad that my family (wife, 10yo daughter, 3yo daughter) use. We all have our own apps installed on it. In addition, my wife has an iPhone 4S that she also installs apps on. As someone who gets asked by his kids often whether they can buy/download an app, the vast majority of the vast catalogue of iOS marketplace apps are crap! Do you realize how many “free” games are out there, only to really be not-free because you have to purchase in-game content to make the game actually playable? And how about searching – with such a vast array of apps and such high numbers of craptastic ones, trying to find something is incredibly difficult and can be frustrating. I would rather see that Microsoft has 8000 high quality apps in their store at launch, instead of 800000 that were mostly junk. Too Few Apps?! And seriously, 8000 is not a small number. How many iOS apps have I actually bought between the iPad and iPhone? I’ll be generous and say 30…heck, let’s round it up to 40. It’s not like I have 10,000 apps installed on my iPad, nor will that ever happen! So if people have, at the *launch* of a new platform ecosystem, EIGHT THOUSAND apps to choose from, I don’t see that as a fail at all! It should be noted that most of the most common apps (Netflix, Skype, etc.) are available for Windows 8 at launch – I guess I’ll have to wait a few weeks for My Pony Ranch and all its clones to start showing up; pity. Let’s Check Back in a Year So look, let’s check back in a year’s time and see what the app store looks like. My hope is that Microsoft doesn’t continue to push quantity over quality. Even knowing the optics that # of apps in the store carries and the pressure to catch Apple and Android marketplaces, I hope Microsoft avoids the scenario where there’s a good percentage of apps in the Windows Store that are utter rubbish and finding the gems will be cumbersome. But if that happens, we can thank guys like Dan who raised the false issue of app count at the launch for it.

    Read the article

  • Hide and Unhide Worksheets and Workbooks in Excel 2007 & 2010

    - by DigitalGeekery
    Hiding worksheets can be a simple way to protect data in Excel, or just a way reduce the clutter of a some tabs. Here are a couple very easy ways to hide and unhide worksheets and workbooks in Excel 2007 / 2010. Hiding a Worksheet Select the Worksheet you’d like to hide by clicking on the tab at the bottom. By holding down the Ctrl key while clicking you can select multiple tabs at one time. On the Home tab, click on Format, which can be found in the Cells group. Under Visibility,  select Hide & Unhide, then Hide Sheet.   You can also simply right-click on the tab, and select Hide.   Your worksheet will no longer be visible, however, the data contained in the worksheet can still be referenced on other worksheets.   Unhide a Worksheet To unhide a worksheet, you just do the opposite. On the Home tab, click on Format in the Cells group and then under Visibility,  select Hide & Unhide, then Unhide Sheet.   Or, you can right-click on any visible tab, and select Unhide.   In the Unhide pop up window, select the worksheet to unhide and click “OK.” Note: Although you can hide multiple sheets at once, you can only unhide one sheet at a time. Very Hidden Mode While hidden mode is nice, it’s not exactly ultra-secure. If you’d like to pump the security up a notch, there is also Very Hidden mode. To access Very Hidden setting, we’ll have to use the built-in Visual Basic Editor by hitting the Alt + F11 keys. Select the worksheet you wish to hide from the dropdown list under Properties or by single clicking the worksheet in the VBAProject window. Next, set the Visible property to  2 – xlSheetVeryHidden. Close out of the Visual Basic Editor when finished.   When the Very Hidden attribute is set on a worksheet, Unhide Sheet is still unavailable from within the Format setting on the Home tab.   To remove the Very Hidden attribute and display the worksheet again, go back into the Visual Basic Editor by hitting Alt + F11 again and setting the Visible property back to –1 – xlSheetVisible.  Close out of the Editor when finished. Hiding a Workbook To hide the entire Workbook, select the View tab, and then click the Hide button. You’ll see the Workbook has disappeared. Unhide a Workbook Select the View tab and click Unhide… … and your Workbook will be visible again.   Just a few simple ways to hide and unhide your Excel worksheets and workbooks. Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips How To Copy Worksheets in Excel 2007 & 2010Add Background Pictures To Excel 2007 WorksheetsMake Row Labels In Excel 2007 Freeze For Easier ReadingImport Microsoft Access Data Into ExcelMagnify Selected Cells In Excel 2007 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 Discover Latest Android Apps On AppBrain The Ultimate Guide For YouTube Lovers Will it Blend? iPad Edition Penolo Lets You Share Sketches On Twitter Visit Woolyss.com for Old School Games, Music and Videos Add a Custom Title in IE using Spybot or Spyware Blaster

    Read the article

  • Windows Azure Recipe: Social Web / Big Media

    - by Clint Edmonson
    With the rise of social media there’s been an explosion of special interest media web sites on the web. From athletics to board games to funny animal behaviors, you can bet there’s a group of people somewhere on the web talking about it. Social media sites allow us to interact, share experiences, and bond with like minded enthusiasts around the globe. And through the power of software, we can follow trends in these unique domains in real time. Drivers Reach Scalability Media hosting Global distribution Solution Here’s a sketch of how a social media application might be built out on Windows Azure: Ingredients Traffic Manager (optional) – can be used to provide hosting and load balancing across different instances and/or data centers. Perfect if the solution needs to be delivered to different cultures or regions around the world. Access Control – this service is essential to managing user identity. It’s backed by a full blown implementation of Active Directory and allows the definition and management of users, groups, and roles. A pre-built ASP.NET membership provider is included in the training kit to leverage this capability but it’s also flexible enough to be combined with external Identity providers including Windows LiveID, Google, Yahoo!, and Facebook. The provider model has extensibility points to hook into other identity providers as well. Web Role – hosts the core of the web application and presents a central social hub users. Database – used to store core operational, functional, and workflow data for the solution’s web services. Caching (optional) – as a web site traffic grows caching can be leveraged to keep frequently used read-only, user specific, and application resource data in a high-speed distributed in-memory for faster response times and ultimately higher scalability without spinning up more web and worker roles. It includes a token based security model that works alongside the Access Control service. Tables (optional) – for semi-structured data streams that don’t need relational integrity such as conversations, comments, or activity streams, tables provide a faster and more flexible way to store this kind of historical data. Blobs (optional) – users may be creating or uploading large volumes of heterogeneous data such as documents or rich media. Blob storage provides a scalable, resilient way to store terabytes of user data. The storage facilities can also integrate with the Access Control service to ensure users’ data is delivered securely. Content Delivery Network (CDN) (optional) – for sites that service users around the globe, the CDN is an extension to blob storage that, when enabled, will automatically cache frequently accessed blobs and static site content at edge data centers around the world. The data can be delivered statically or streamed in the case of rich media content. Training These links point to online Windows Azure training labs and resources where you can learn more about the individual ingredients described above. (Note: The entire Windows Azure Training Kit can also be downloaded for offline use.) Windows Azure (16 labs) Windows Azure is an internet-scale cloud computing and services platform hosted in Microsoft data centers, which provides an operating system and a set of developer services which can be used individually or together. It gives developers the choice to build web applications; applications running on connected devices, PCs, or servers; or hybrid solutions offering the best of both worlds. New or enhanced applications can be built using existing skills with the Visual Studio development environment and the .NET Framework. With its standards-based and interoperable approach, the services platform supports multiple internet protocols, including HTTP, REST, SOAP, and plain XML SQL Azure (7 labs) Microsoft SQL Azure delivers on the Microsoft Data Platform vision of extending the SQL Server capabilities to the cloud as web-based services, enabling you to store structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data. Windows Azure Services (9 labs) As applications collaborate across organizational boundaries, ensuring secure transactions across disparate security domains is crucial but difficult to implement. Windows Azure Services provides hosted authentication and access control using powerful, secure, standards-based infrastructure. See my Windows Azure Resource Guide for more guidance on how to get started, including links web portals, training kits, samples, and blogs related to Windows Azure.

    Read the article

  • Windows Phone 7 Silverlight / XNA development talk

    - by subodhnpushpak
    Hi, I presented on Windows Phone 7 app development using Silverlight. Here are few pics from the event Windows Phone 7 development VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL     I demonstrated the Visual studio, emulator capabilities/ features. An demo on Wp7 app communication with an OData Service, along with a demo on XNA app. There was lot of curious questions; I am listing them here because these keep on popping up again and again: 1. What tools does it takes to develop Wp7 app? Are they free? A typical WP7 app can be developed either using Silverlight or XNA. For developers, Visual Studio 2010 is a good choice as it provides an integrated development environment with lots of useful project templates; which makes the task really easy. For designers, Blend may be used to develop the UI in XAML. Both the tools are FREE (express version) to download and very intuitive to use. 2. What about the learning curve? If you know C#, (or any other programming language), learning curve is really flat. XAML (used for UI) may be new for you, but trust me; its very intuitive. Also you can use Microsoft Blend to generate the UI (XAML) for you. 3. How can I develop /test app without using actual device? How can I be sure my app runs as expected on actual device? The WP7 SDK comes along with an excellent emulator; which you can use for development/ testing on a computer. Later you can just change a setting and deploy the application on WP7. You will require Zune software for deploying the application on phone along with Developers key from WP7 marketplace. You can obtain key from marketplace by filling a form. The whole process for registering  is easy; just follow the steps on the site. 4. Which one should I use? Silverlight or XNA? Use Silverlight for enterprise/ business / utility apps. Use XNA for Games app. While each platform is capable / strong and may be used in conjunction as well; The methodologies used for development in these platforms are very different. XNA works on typical Do..While loop where as Silverlight works on event based methodology. 5. Where are the learning resources? Are they free? There is lots of stuff on WP7. Most of them are free. There is a excellent free book by Charles Petzold to download and http://www.microsoft.com/windowsphone is full of demos /todos / vidoes. All the exciting stuff was captured live and you can view it here; in case you were not able to catch it live!! @ http://livestre.am/AUfx. My talk starts from 3:19:00 timeline in the video!! Is there an app you miss on WP7? Do let me know about it and I may work on it for free !!! Keep discovering. Keep is Simple. WP7. Subodh

    Read the article

  • 5 Ways to Celebrate the Release of Internet Explorer 9

    - by David Wesst
    The day has finally come: Microsoft has released a web browser that is awesome. On Monday night, Microsoft officially introduced the world to the latest edition to its product family: Internet Explorer 9. That makes March 14, 2011 (also known as PI day) the official birthday of Microsoft’s rebirth in the world of web browsing. Just like any big event, you take some time to celebrate. Here are a few things that you can do to celebrate the return of Internet Explorer. 1. Download It If you’re not a big partier, that’s fine. The one thing you can do (and definitely should) is download it and give it a shot. Sure, IE may have disappointed you in the past, but believe me when I say they really put the effort in this time. The absolute least you can do is give it a shot to see how it stands up against your favourite browser. 2. Get yourself an HTML5 Shirt One of the coolest, if not best parts of IE9 being released is that it officially introduces HTML5 as a fully supported platform from Microsoft. IE9 supports a lot of what is already defined in the HTML5 technical spec, which really demonstrates Microsoft’s support of the new standard. Since HTML5 is cool on the web, it means that it is cool to wear it too. Head over to html5shirt.com and get yourself, or your staff, or your whole family, an HTML5 shirt to show the real world that you are ready for the future of the web. 3. HTML5-ify Something Okay, so maybe a shirt isn’t enough for you. Maybe you need start using HTML5 for real. If you have a blog, or a website, or anything out there on the web, celebrate IE9 adding some HTML5 to your site. Whether that is updating old code, adding something new, or just changing your WordPress theme, definitely take a look at what HTML5 can do for you. 4. Help Kill Old IE and Upgrade your Organization See this? This is sad. Upgrading web browsers in an large enterprise or organization is not a trivial task. A lot of companies will use the excuse of not having the resources to upgrade legacy web applications they were built for a specific version of IE and it doesn’t render correctly in legacy browsers. Well, it’s time to stop the excuses. IE9 allows you to define what version of Internet Explorer you would like it to emulate. It takes minimal effort for the developer, and will get rid of the excuses. Show your IT manager or software development team this link and show them how easy it is to make old code render right in the latest and greatest from the IE team. 5. Submit an Entry for DevUnplugged So, you’ve made it to number five eh? Well then, you must be pretty hardcore to make it this far down the list. Fine, let’s take it to the next level and build an HTML5 game. That’s right. A game. Like a video game. HTML5 introduces some amazing new features that can let you build working video games using HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript. Plus, Microsoft is celebrating the launch of IE9 with a contest where you can submit an HTML5 game (or audio application) and have a chance to win a whack of cash and other prizes. Head here for the full scoop and rules for the DevUnplugged. This post also appears at http://david.wes.st

    Read the article

< Previous Page | 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118  | Next Page >