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• Knowledge Management Feedback

  - by Robert Schweighardt

  Did you know that you can provide feedback on Knowledge Management (KM) articles? It's nice to read a technical article that is well-written, the grammar and spelling are correct, the information is up to date, concise, to the point, easy to understand and it flows from one paragraph to another.  And though we always strive for a well-written article, it doesn't always come out that way. Knowledge Management articles are written by Oracle Support Engineers and we welcome your feedback.  Providing feedback helps to improve Oracle's Knowledge Base.  If you're reading a KM article and you have a comment, please let us know about it.  Maybe it's just to fix a spelling or grammatical error.  Maybe there's a broken link that needs to be fixed.  Maybe it's a suggestion to provide additional information.  Maybe the article contains incorrect information.  Maybe some information in the article is outdated.  Maybe something is not clear in the article.  Whatever it is, we want to hear about it.  We value your input! When you provide feedback it goes directly to the owner of the article.  The owner carefully reviews the comment and decides whether or not to implement it.  Most comments are implemented and we strive to implement them within a week!  For those comments that are not implemented, there is normally a good reason.  It may not be feasible to implement the suggestion or the suggestion may not be correct.  We don't take the decision lightly! So how do you provide feedback? Providing feedback on a KM article depends on whether you're a customer or an Oracle Employee. Customer 1. In the upper right hand corner of the article, click on the little +/- Rate this document icon: Note: The grayed out Comments (0) link will only show a number when there are open comments that are still being evaluated. 2. In the Article Rating window, complete as many of the following optional fields as you like and then click the Send Rating button: Rate the article as Excellent, Good or Poor Specify whether the article helped you or not Specify the ease of finding the article Provide whatever comments you have Employee The interface for Oracle Employees is a little bit different, there are more options. 1. The +/- Rate this document icon is also available to employees and is identical to what the customers have.  Please see Customer section above. 2. The Show document comments link shows all comments that have ever been submitted for the article 3. Employees have an additional way to submit a comment.  Click on the little + Add Comment icon: 4. Fill out the Add Comment fields and click the Add Comment button: We look forward to your feedback!

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• SSAO Distortion

  - by Robert Xu

  I'm currently (attempting) to add SSAO to my engine, except it's...not really work, to say the least. I use a deferred renderer to render my scene. I have four render targets: Albedo, Light, Normal, and Depth. Here are the parameters for all of them (Surface Format, Depth Format): Albedo: 32-bit ARGB, Depth24Stencil8 Light: 32-bit ARGB, None Normal: 32-bit ARGB, None Depth: 8-bit R (Single), Depth24Stencil8 To generate my random noise map for the SSAO, I do the following for each pixel in the noise map: Vector3 v3 = Vector3.Zero; double z = rand.NextDouble() * 2.0 - 1.0; double r = Math.Sqrt(1.0 - z * z); double angle = rand.NextDouble() * MathHelper.TwoPi; v3.X = (float)(r * Math.Cos(angle)); v3.Y = (float)(r * Math.Sin(angle)); v3.Z = (float)z; v3 += offset; v3 *= 0.5f; result[i] = new Color(v3); This is my GBuffer rendering effect: PixelInput RenderGBufferColorVertexShader(VertexInput input) { PixelInput pi = ( PixelInput ) 0; pi.Position = mul(input.Position, WorldViewProjection); pi.Normal = mul(input.Normal, WorldInverseTranspose); pi.Color = input.Color; pi.TPosition = pi.Position; pi.WPosition = input.Position; return pi; } GBufferTarget RenderGBufferColorPixelShader(PixelInput input) { GBufferTarget output = ( GBufferTarget ) 0; float3 position = input.TPosition.xyz / input.TPosition.w; output.Albedo = lerp(float4(1.0f, 1.0f, 1.0f, 1.0f), input.Color, ColorFactor); output.Normal = EncodeNormal(input.Normal); output.Depth = position.z; return output; } And here is the SSAO effect: float4 EncodeNormal(float3 normal) { return float4((normal.xyz * 0.5f) + 0.5f, 0.0f); } float3 DecodeNormal(float4 encoded) { return encoded * 2.0 - 1.0f; } float Intensity; float Size; float2 NoiseOffset; float4x4 ViewProjection; float4x4 ViewProjectionInverse; texture DepthMap; texture NormalMap; texture RandomMap; const float3 samples[16] = { float3(0.01537562, 0.01389096, 0.02276565), float3(-0.0332658, -0.2151698, -0.0660736), float3(-0.06420016, -0.1919067, 0.5329634), float3(-0.05896204, -0.04509097, -0.03611697), float3(-0.1302175, 0.01034653, 0.01543675), float3(0.3168565, -0.182557, -0.01421785), float3(-0.02134448, -0.1056605, 0.00576055), float3(-0.3502164, 0.281433, -0.2245609), float3(-0.00123525, 0.00151868, 0.02614773), float3(0.1814744, 0.05798516, -0.02362876), float3(0.07945167, -0.08302628, 0.4423518), float3(0.321987, -0.05670302, -0.05418307), float3(-0.00165138, -0.00410309, 0.00537362), float3(0.01687791, 0.03189049, -0.04060405), float3(-0.04335613, -0.00530749, 0.06443053), float3(0.8474263, -0.3590308, -0.02318038), }; sampler DepthSampler = sampler_state { Texture = DepthMap; MipFilter = Point; MinFilter = Point; MagFilter = Point; AddressU = Clamp; AddressV = Clamp; AddressW = Clamp; }; sampler NormalSampler = sampler_state { Texture = NormalMap; MipFilter = Linear; MinFilter = Linear; MagFilter = Linear; AddressU = Clamp; AddressV = Clamp; AddressW = Clamp; }; sampler RandomSampler = sampler_state { Texture = RandomMap; MipFilter = Linear; MinFilter = Linear; MagFilter = Linear; }; struct VertexInput { float4 Position : POSITION0; float2 TextureCoordinates : TEXCOORD0; }; struct PixelInput { float4 Position : POSITION0; float2 TextureCoordinates : TEXCOORD0; }; PixelInput SSAOVertexShader(VertexInput input) { PixelInput pi = ( PixelInput ) 0; pi.Position = input.Position; pi.TextureCoordinates = input.TextureCoordinates; return pi; } float3 GetXYZ(float2 uv) { float depth = tex2D(DepthSampler, uv); float2 xy = uv * 2.0f - 1.0f; xy.y *= -1; float4 p = float4(xy, depth, 1); float4 q = mul(p, ViewProjectionInverse); return q.xyz / q.w; } float3 GetNormal(float2 uv) { return DecodeNormal(tex2D(NormalSampler, uv)); } float4 SSAOPixelShader(PixelInput input) : COLOR0 { float depth = tex2D(DepthSampler, input.TextureCoordinates); float3 position = GetXYZ(input.TextureCoordinates); float3 normal = GetNormal(input.TextureCoordinates); float occlusion = 1.0f; float3 reflectionRay = DecodeNormal(tex2D(RandomSampler, input.TextureCoordinates + NoiseOffset)); for (int i = 0; i < 16; i++) { float3 sampleXYZ = position + reflect(samples[i], reflectionRay) * Size; float4 screenXYZW = mul(float4(sampleXYZ, 1.0f), ViewProjection); float3 screenXYZ = screenXYZW.xyz / screenXYZW.w; float2 sampleUV = float2(screenXYZ.x * 0.5f + 0.5f, 1.0f - (screenXYZ.y * 0.5f + 0.5f)); float frontMostDepthAtSample = tex2D(DepthSampler, sampleUV); if (frontMostDepthAtSample < screenXYZ.z) { occlusion -= 1.0f / 16.0f; } } return float4(occlusion * Intensity * float3(1.0, 1.0, 1.0), 1.0); } technique SSAO { pass Pass0 { VertexShader = compile vs_3_0 SSAOVertexShader(); PixelShader = compile ps_3_0 SSAOPixelShader(); } } However, when I use the effect, I get some pretty bad distortion: Here's the light map that goes with it -- is the static-like effect supposed to be like that? I've noticed that even if I'm looking at nothing, I still get the static-like effect. (you can see it in the screenshot; the top half doesn't have any geometry yet it still has the static-like effect) Also, does anyone have any advice on how to effectively debug shaders?

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• Easy Scaling in XAML (WPF)

  - by Robert May

  Ran into a problem that needed solving that was kind of fun.  I’m not a XAML guru, and I’m sure there are better solutions, but I thought I’d share mine. The problem was this:  Our designer had, appropriately, designed the system for a 1920 x 1080 screen resolution.  This is for a full screen, touch screen device (think Kiosk), which has that resolution, but we also wanted to demo the device on a tablet (currently using the AWESOME Samsung tablet given out at Microsoft Build).  When you’d run it on that tablet, things were ugly because it was at a lower resolution than the target device. Enter scaling.  I did some research and found out that I probably just need to monkey with the LayoutTransform of some grid somewhere.  This project is using MVVM and has a navigation container that we built that lives on a single root view.  User controls are then loaded into that view as navigation occurs. In the parent grid of the root view, I added the following XAML: <Grid.LayoutTransform> <ScaleTransform ScaleX="{Binding ScaleWidth}" ScaleY="{Binding ScaleHeight}" /> </Grid.LayoutTransform> And then in the root View Model, I added the following code: /// <summary> /// The required design width /// </summary> private const double RequiredWidth = 1920; /// <summary> /// The required design height /// </summary> private const double RequiredHeight = 1080; /// <summary>Gets the ActualHeight</summary> public double ActualHeight { get { return this.View.ActualHeight; } } /// <summary>Gets the ActualWidth</summary> public double ActualWidth { get { return this.View.ActualWidth; } } /// <summary> /// Gets the scale for the height. /// </summary> public double ScaleHeight { get { return this.ActualHeight / RequiredHeight; } } /// <summary> /// Gets the scale for the width. /// </summary> public double ScaleWidth { get { return this.ActualWidth / RequiredWidth; } } Note that View.ActualWidth and View.ActualHeight are just pointing directly at FrameworkElement.ActualWidth and FrameworkElement.ActualHeight. That’s it.  Just calculate the ratio and bind the scale transform to it. Hopefully you’ll find this useful. Technorati Tags: WPF,XAML

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• BizTalk Envelopes explained

  - by Robert Kokuti

  Recently I've been trying to get some order into an ESB-BizTalk pub/sub scenario, and decided to wrap the payload into standardized envelopes. I have used envelopes before in a 'light weight' fashion, and I found that they can be quite useful and powerful if used systematically. Here is what I learned. The Theory In my experience, Envelopes are often underutilised in a BizTalk solution, and quite often their full potential is not well understood. Here I try to simplify the theory behind the Envelopes within BizTalk.   Envelopes can be used to attach additional data to the ‘real’ data (payload). This additional data can contain all routing and processing information, and allows treating the business data as a ‘black box’, possibly compressed and/or encrypted etc. The point here is that the infrastructure does not need to know anything about the business data content, just as a post man does not need to know the letter within the envelope. BizTalk has built-in support for envelopes through the XMLDisassembler and XMLAssembler pipeline components (these are part of the XMLReceive and XMLSend default pipelines). These components, among other things, perform the following: XMLDisassembler Extracts the payload from the envelope into the Message Body Copies data from the envelope into the message context, as specified by the property schema(s) associated by the envelope schema. Typically, once the envelope is through the XMLDisassembler, the payload is submitted into the Messagebox, and the rest of the envelope data are copied into the context of the submitted message. The XMLDisassembler uses the Property Schemas, referenced by the Envelope Schema, to determine the name of the promoted Message Context element.   XMLAssembler Wraps the Message Body inside the specified envelope schema Populates the envelope values from the message context, as specified by the property schema(s) associated by the envelope schema. Notice that there are no requirements to use the receiving envelope schema when sending. The sent message can be wrapped within any suitable envelope, regardless whether the message was originally received within an envelope or not. However, by sharing Property Schemas between Envelopes, it is possible to pass values from the incoming envelope to the outgoing envelope via the Message Context. The Practice Creating the Envelope Add a new Schema to the BizTalk project:   Envelopes are defined as schemas, with the <Schema> Envelope property set to Yes, and the root node’s Body XPath property pointing to the node which contains the payload. Typically, you’d create an envelope structure similar to this: Click on the <Schema> node and set the Envelope property to Yes. Then, click on the Envelope node, and set the Body XPath property pointing to the ‘Body’ node:   The ‘Body’ node is a Child Element, and its Data Structure Type is set to xs:anyType.  This allows the Body node to carry any payload data. The XMLReceive pipeline will submit the data found in the Body node, while the XMLSend pipeline will copy the message into the Body node, before sending to the destination. Promoting Properties Once you defined the envelope, you may want to promote the envelope data (anything other than the Body) as Property Fields, in order to preserve their value in the message context. Anything not promoted will be lost when the XMLDisassembler extracts the payload from the Body. Typically, this means you promote everything in the Header node. Property promotion uses associated Property Schemas. These are special BizTalk schemas which have a flat field structure. Property Schemas define the name of the promoted values in the Message Context, by combining the Property Schema’s Namespace and the individual Field names. It is worth being systematic when it comes to naming your schemas, their namespace and type name. A coherent method will make your life easier when it comes to referencing the schemas during development, and managing subscriptions (filters) in BizTalk Administration. I developed a fairly coherent naming convention which I’ll probably share in another article. Because the property schema must be flat, I recommend creating one for each level in the envelope header hierarchy. Property schemas are very useful in passing data between incoming as outgoing envelopes. As I mentioned earlier, in/out envelopes do not have to be the same, but you can use the same property schema when you promote the outgoing envelope fields as you used for the incoming schema.  As you can reference many property schemas for field promotion, you can pick data from a variety of sources when you define your outgoing envelope. For example, the outgoing envelope can carry some of the incoming envelope’s promoted values, plus some values from the standard BizTalk message context, like the AdapterReceiveCompleteTime property from the BizTalk message-tracking properties. The values you promote for the outgoing envelope will be automatically populated from the Message Context by the XMLAssembler pipeline component. Using the Envelope Receiving Enveloped messages are automatically recognized by the XMLReceive pipeline, or any other custom pipeline which includes the XMLDisassembler component. The Body Path node will become the Message Body, while the rest of the envelope values will be added to the Message context, as defined by the Property Shemas referenced by the Envelope Schema. Sending The Send Port’s filter expression can use the promoted properties from the incoming envelope. If you want to enclose the sent message within an envelope, the Send Port XMLAssembler component must be configured with the fully qualified envelope name:   One way of obtaining the fully qualified envelope name is copy it off from the envelope schema property page: The full envelope schema name is constructed as <Name>, <Assembly> The outgoing envelope is populated by the XMLAssembler pipeline component. The Message Body is copied to the specified envelope’s Body Path node, while the rest of the envelope fields are populated from the Message Context, according to the Property Schemas associated with the Envelope Schema. That’s all for now, happy enveloping!

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• Development platform for 2D web and mobile games

  - by Robert Vella

  Is there a game development platform -- similar to Torque, or Unity -- which can be used to deploy 2D games on the following platforms: Web iOs Android Xbox Live Arcade (Preferred but not required) And which has an integrated or mature physics engine? Perhaps, even a built in editor? I've looked at the following possibilities but I've found something missing in each one. Of course in each case I may be guilty of misconception. Corona SDK (No web deployment, no windows support) Torque 2D (No web deployment) Flash + Flash Punk or Flixel (No native android deployment, and I'm not sure if it is stable on mobile platforms) Unity + SpriteManager2 (Not really optimised for 2D games, and I haven't seen enough advanced 2D examples -- like say platformers -- to really have any confidence in using it for something like this) Has anyone had any luck with this?

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• Juju bootstrap, install

  - by Robert G.

  I would like to test MAAS + JUJU + OpenStack (I followed the documentation on maas.ubuntu.org) I already made a test environment: 1 MAAS server wich will also run JuJu 10 KVM servers for Openstack The KVM servers are already in "ready" state in MAAS. I would like to set up JuJu but i could not which is drives me crazy. My environments.yaml: environments: maassrv: type: maas maas-server: 'http://${192.168.1.116}/MAAS/' maas-oauth: 'my-key-from-maas' authorized-keys-path: /root/.ssh/id_rsa.pub admin-secret: 1234 default-series: trusty When I run "juju status -e maassrv` : ERROR Unable to connect to environment "maassrv". Please check your credentials or use 'juju bootstrap' to create a new environment. Error details: environment "maassrv" not found OK, it's right, so i should run juju bootstrap -e maassrv: ERROR environment "maassrv" not found When i run the command without the -e switch: error: no environment specified So, I am stuck here, I already added the required ssh keys to maas too. I ran out of ideas why it isn't working.

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• MIA

  - by Robert May

  So, I’ve been missing in action on this blog for quite some time.  I need to rectify that. Part of the reason I’ve been absent is because I haven’t be able to talk about what I’m working on.  A former client watches my blog rather closely, and although we accomplished many good things together, their culture is such that they really don’t like people to freely express their thoughts (you’ll note my blog posts stopped rather abruptly).  I learned some really important lessons about Agile in the last 3 years, and I think its worthwhile to talk about them.  Sometimes things worked really well, sometimes, they failed failed.  Sometimes that failure was me, sometimes it wasn’t. I understand Agile better now, and hopefully, what I have to say will guide others through this process and help others understand Agile better. One thing that I’ve learned is that MANY companies that say they are doing Agile are NOT really doing Agile.  To often, they pick the things they like and don’t follow the process long enough to know what rules they can break, and which ones they shouldn’t.  This is probably the primary reason why Agile fails. So, expect more posts, especially as I’m flying coast to coast. :)

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• Improving the speed of writing code in C#

  - by Robert Harvey

  Laugh if you want, but I used to develop substantial line-of-business applications in VB6, long before the .NET framework came along. Why, when I was your age, we used to walk two miles in the snow, uphill. Both ways... Love it or hate it, VB6 had a REPL-like feel, and a very rapid development cycle. I would like to know how to come closer to that process in C#. In VB6, I could write a function, execute it, debug it and have it fully functional in a few minutes. I am told this is how the Lisp crowd works. It's a very rapid-fire style of programming. In C# I write a function, then I write a unit test for that function (which is OK, I understand the value of that), then I right-click, run test, wait for the project to compile (takes about 10 seconds right now, which would be an eternity for a REPL loop), and get an exception. Honestly, this feels more like my junior college days, when I used to feed punch cards into a hopper and wait for a printout (exaggerating only slightly for effect). Additionally, my tendency nowadays is to make everything public while I'm testing it. Unit testing with private accessors works fine, but you can't trace through the code (unless, of course, I'm doing something wrong) while you're using them. So what I'd like to know is, what adjustments have you made to your development process in C# to streamline it, and make it possible to write and verify your code very rapidly?

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• Time Passes

  - by Robert May

  It’s been half a year since my last post.  My how time flies.  My new years resolution is to post more frequently.  After a short stint at a local company, which shall remain nameless, I’m back at Veracity.  Overall, Veracity Solutions is one of the best companies I’ve worked for, and I’m relieved to be back. So, this year, I’m going to do the following on my blog: Finish the Agile posts I started (IN MAY!!!). Blog about some code for a logging helper to make debug logging easier. Blog some resharper snippets to help with logging. Blog a Unity Container helper to allow you to specify dependency mappings with attributes on interfaces. If I can accomplish all of those, I’ll have done well this year, and since I’ve put this out to the public, I’m accountable for it, right? Technorati Tags: Agile,logging

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• Wacom Bamboo CTH460L issues in Ubuntu 10.04

  - by Robert Smith

  I recently bought a Wacom Bamboo Pen & Touch CTH460L. I installed doctormo PPA, however, the pen functionality didn't work and the touch was very glitchy (when I touched it, it immediately double clicked and began to drag elements in the screen). I tried to configure it using the wacom-utility package in the Synaptic Package Manager (version 1.21-1) but that didn't work either. Then I followed this post (#621, written by aaaalex), and after some problems trying to restart Ubuntu (graphics related problems), the pen works fine (it could be better, though) but the touch functionality doesn't work anymore. Currently I have installed xserver-xorg-input-wacom (1:0.10.11-0ubuntu7), wacom-dkms (0.8.10.2-1ubuntu1) and wacom-utility. The Wacom Utility only displays an "options" field under "Wacom BambooPT 2FG 4X5" but no other option to configure it. What is the correct way to get this tablet working on Ubuntu 10.04?. By the way, currently I can't start Ubuntu properly when the tablet is connected (in that case, Ubuntu start in low graphics mode). I need to connect it later.

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• How can I fix the "TERM environment variable not set" warning in eclipse

  - by Robert

  I'm running ubuntu 12.04 LTS and working with eclipse (juno) on a c++ project. I keep getting "TERM environment variable not set" in the console while trying to run the program. I realize this means the variable needs to get set. My question is what should it be set to and how do I set it? I've read that it should be 'xterm' in a few places. So I added export TERM=xterm in my .profile and while eclipse stopped giving me the warning, instead it would output unreadable garbage everynow and then (not a side effect of the program). It did display the program output but intermixed were weird characters. This leads me to believe it's not 'xterm' I should be setting TERM to. Or I'm setting it in an incorrect way. Any help is appreciated. Sample output: **TERM environment variable not set.** Please make a selection ----------------------- 1. Create a budget 2. Edit a budget 3. Display a budget 4. Save a budget 5. Load a budget 6. Exit What is your selection: 1 **TERM environment variable not set.** Enter the name of your budget: etc The program continues to execute as expected but the message is highly annoying As someone has commented, I do use system("clear") which is likely the source of the warning? Either way, is this likely just an eclipse issue or something I can fix in ubuntu/linux

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• What is the correct UI interface to learn for creating Windows phone 8 apps? [closed]

  - by Robert Oschler

  I am a veteran Delphi 6 programmer transitioning to C# development. My first project is a open source library that will have a minimal user interface since it is meant to be used as a Component primarily on desktop PCs running Visual Studio. My next project is going to be a Windows 8 phone app and I intend for that platform to be my primary focus for future C# development, not the desktop. My concern is that I waste as little time as possible learning a presentation framework that will benefit or distract me from writing Windows 8 phone apps. The plethora of framework names I have already encountered include, WinForms, WPF (Windows Presentation Framework), Silverlight, Silverlight Mobile, Metro and there may be others. Given my goal outlined in the first paragraph above, I have a few questions: 1) Which of the frameworks should I use for the small amount of UI work I will do with the desktop Component project that will help me the most, or hurt me the least, when I move to Windows 8 phone app development? 2) Which is the correct framework to study for developing Windows 8 phone apps? 3) Any awesome tutorials, resources or books you have run into targeted towards veteran programmers from other platforms? I read about the Portable Library Tools on this Stack Overflow thread: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5522355/windows-phone-7-wpf-sharing-a-codebase But the reply by Simon Guindon seemed to indicate to me that it's not the best solution for writing a competitive Windows 8 phone app.

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• How to configure apache2 to just save certain POST requests without even passing them to application?

  - by Robert Grezan

  I'm running apache in front of glassfish server using BalancerMember. For performance reasons I would like that POST requests on certain endpoint are just saved to a file without passing them to application (and to return correct HTTP return code). How to configure apache to do that? EDIT: In other words, if a POST request is for path "http://example.com/upload" then the content of the post (body) should go into a file.

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• Starcraft II on Wine - Ubuntu 12.04

  - by Robert Segerson

  I know this might seem like a repeat question, but I've literally looked over 100 threads on how to get SC2 to work on ubuntu 12.04 through wine and none have worked. I downloaded wine new today, and inserted my purchased SC2 disk. When I try to open the installer (installer.exe) with wine, an error appear saying: "No installer data could be found. If this problem persists, please contact Blizzard Technical Support." I searched for solutions to mediate this issue and was directed to the following source: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1435314 . I followed directions through until I got to ls I tried various combinations of (ls installer.exe, ls'/home/rothic/Desktop/Installer.exe, etc.) All come back with "no such file or directory". Im not sure what to do, the next step would be to replace the "starcraft_installer" with the starcraft installer file, which Im not sure how to do (very new to linux). I tried WINEPREFIX=~/.wine_starcraft/ wine starcraft_installer and it says "wine: cannot find L"C:\windows\system32\starcraft_installer.exe" despite it being on the desktop as advised. Any suggestions on where to go from here?

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• Cool examples of procedural pixel shader effects?

  - by Robert Fraser

  What are some good examples of procedural/screen-space pixel shader effects? No code necessary; just looking for inspiration. In particular, I'm looking for effects that are not dependent on geometry or the rest of the scene (would look okay rendered alone on a quad) and are not image processing (don't require a "base image", though they can incorporate textures). Multi-pass or single-pass is fine. Screenshots or videos would be ideal, but ideas work too. Here are a few examples of what I'm looking for (all from the RenderMonkey samples): PS - I'm aware of this question; I'm not asking for a source of actual shader implementations but instead for some inspirational ideas -- and the ones at the NVIDIA Shader Library mostly require a scene or are image processing effects. EDIT: this is an open-ended question and I wish there was a good way to split the bounty. I'll award the rep to the best answer on the last day.

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• Quick Script for Adding Skype Groups

  - by Robert May

  So, I needed to add about 30 people to several different Skype groups today, and I didn’t want to repeat the /add [skypename] thing over and over and over.  Building the list was a pain . . . I couldn’t find a good way to extract all of the users in an existing group.  There’s probably an api or something, but I just did that part by hand. Adding them to the groups was pretty easy with Windows Scripting Host.  Basically, I just ran this: <package>    <job id="vbs">       <script language="VBScript">          set WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")          WshShell.AppActivate 4484          WScript.Sleep 100          WshShell.SendKeys "/add user1~"          WScript.Sleep 100 …          WshShell.SendKeys "/add usern~"          WScript.Sleep 100       </script>    </job> </package> Add as many users as you need by copying the sendkeys and sleep lines.  Then, save the script to a .wsf file.  The AppActivate line needs to be changed to have the process id of skype instead of the number there.  To get that, open up Task Manager, click on Processes, then find skype.exe and find it’s PID. Before you double click on the file in windows explorer, you’ll need to have created the groups in skype.  For each group, open the group, and click in the chat window of the group.  Then double click on the WSF file.  If you don’t click in the chat window, you will likely get the add user dialog box instead of just adding the users. Technorati Tags: Skype,Script

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• Is there a language between C and C++?

  - by Robert Martin

  I really like the simple and transparent nature of C: when I write C code I feel unencumbered by "leaky abstractions" and can almost always make a shrewd guess as to the assembly I'm producing. I also like the simple, familiar syntax for C. However, C doesn't have these simple, helpful doodads that C++ offers like classes, simplified non-cstring handling, etc. I know that it's all possible to implement in C using jump tables and the like, but that's a bit wordy at times, and not very type-safe for various reasons. I'm not a fan of the over-emphasis on objects in C++, though, and I'm gun shy of the 'new' operator and the like. C++ seems to have just a few too many hiccups to, for instance, be used as a system programming language. Does there exist a language that sits between C and C++ on the scale of widgets and doodads? Disclaimer: I mean this as purely a factual question. I do not intend to anger you because I don't share your view that C{,++} is good enough to do whatever I'm planning.

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• Can windows XP be better than any Ubuntu (and Linux) distro for an old PC?

  - by Robert Vila

  The old laptop is a Toshiba 1800-100: CPU: Intel Celeron 800h Ram 128 MB (works ok) HDD: 15GB (works ok) Graphics adapter: Integrated 64-bit AGP graphics accelerator, BitBIT, 3D graphic acceleration, 8 MB Video RAM Only WindowsXP is installed, and works ok: it can be used, but it is slow (and hateful). I thought that I could improve performance (and its look) easily, since it is an old PC (drivers and everything known for years...) by installing a light Linux distro. So, I decided to install a light or customized Ubuntu distro, or Ubuntu/Debian derivative, but haven't been successful with any; not even booting LiveCDs: not even AntiX, not even Puppy. Lubuntu wiki says that it won't work because the last to releases need more ram (and some blogs say much more cpu -even core duo for new Lubuntu!-), let alone Xubuntu. The problems I have faced are: 1.There are thousands of pages talking about the same 10/15 lightweight distros, and saying more or less the same things, but NONE talks about a simple thing as to how should the RAM/swap-partition proportion be for this kind of installations. NONE! 2.Loading the LiveCD I have tried several different boot options (don't understand much about this and there's ALWAYS a line of explanation missing) and never receive error messages. Booting just stops at different stages but often seems to stop just when the X server is going to start. I am able to boot to command line. 3.I ignore whether the problem is ram size or a problem with the graphics driver (which surprises me because it is a well known brand and line of computers). So I don't know if doing a partition with a swap partition would help booting the LiveCD. 4.I would like to try the graphical interface with the LiveCD before installing. If doing the swap partition for this purpose would help. How can I do the partition? I tried to use Boot Rescue CD, but it advises me against continuing forward. I would appreciate any ideas as regards these questions. Thank you

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• Why do I have man pages of commands that don't exist?

  - by Robert Vila

  What is panel-test-applets for?? I don't know. But if I want to know I type: $ whatis panel-test-applets The answer is: panel-test-applets (1) - display installed applets I have the man page too, and I can read it: $ man panel-test-applets But there is no program with that name. Maybe the command is not very useful, but is its man page more useful? Does someone know how to install that program or what is its man page for when you cannot execute the program? I can't even execute the command: $ panel-test-applets nor $ panel-test-applets --help which is the only thing its man page talks about!!

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• OpenGL and gluUnProject, 3d object following mouse

  - by Robert

  i have a 3d object and i want him to "follow" my mouse position, so i use gluUnProject function to convert screen coordinates to 3d world coordinates and i translate this object with the new coordinates. Its working but i have a problem, my object can follow my mouse but he is moving extremely fast, when i move my mouse a little bit(something like 2 pixels), its moving extremly fast in the 3d world. I want something like that : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90zS8SVUAIY (red circle following mouse). Thanks for your help.

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• Why has there been no serious research in statistical programming languages for 25 years?

  - by Robert

  The two main statistical languages today are S (in the form of R) and SAS, which today pretty much have the form they had 25 years ago. Whatever usability problems or worker productivity problems they had then, they still have today. I'm a data language designer, and I look at, largely, four aspects: Usability (learning curve & readability - here Python scores high) Productivity (how long it takes to finish your work) Flexibility (SAS and R don't have problems here, but a macro library will) Reliability (in the QA/reproducibility sense, usually a PL does better than a GUI here) By the way, I have a language that can produce complex statistical tables much faster than SAS (like 25 lines of code instead of several hundred lines of code). And I'm going to produce a language for data cleaning that will be great for usability (it'll be my third).

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• BizTalk Send Ports, Delivery Notification and ACK / NACK messages

  - by Robert Kokuti

  Recently I worked on an orchestration which sent messages out to a Send Port on a 'fire and forget' basis. The idea was that once the orchestration passed the message to the Messagebox, it was left to BizTalk to manage the sending process. Should the send operation fail, the Send Port got suspended, and the orchestration completed asynchronously, regardless of the Send Port success or failure. However, we still wanted to log the sending success, using the ACK / NACK messages. On normal ports, BizTalk generates ACK / NACK messages back to the Messagebox, if the logical port's Delivery Notification property is set to 'Transmitted'. Unfortunately, this setting also causes the orchestration to wait for the send port's result, and should the Send Port fail, the orchestration will also receive a 'DeliveryFailureException' exception. So we may end up with a suspended port and a suspended orchestration - not the outcome wanted here, there was no value in suspending the orchestration in our case. There are a couple of ways to fix this: 1. Catch the DeliveryFailureException  (full type name Microsoft.XLANGs.BaseTypes.DeliveryFailureException) and do nothing in the orchestration's exception block. Although this works, it still slows down the orchestration as the orchestration still has to wait for the outcome of the send port operation. 2. Use a Direct Port instead, and set the ACK request on the message Context, prior passing to the port: msgToSend(BTS.AckRequired) = true; This has to be done in an expression shape, as a Direct logical port does not have Delivery Notification property - make sure to add a reference to Microsoft.BizTalk.GlobalPropertySchemas. Setting this context value in the message will cause the messaging agent to create an appropriate ACK or NACK message after the port execution. The ACK / NACK messages can be caught and logged by dedicated Send Ports, filtering on BTS.AckType value (which is either ACK or NACK). ACK/NACK messages are treated in a special way by BizTalk, and a useful feature is that the original message's context values are copied to the ACK/NACK message context - these can be used for logging the right information. Other useful context properties of the ACK/NACK messages: -  BTS.AckSendPortName can be used to identify the original send port. - BTS.AckOwnerID, aka http://schemas.microsoft.com/BizTalk/2003/system-properties.AckOwnerID - holds the instance ID of the failed Send Port - can be used to resubmit / terminate the instance Someone may ask, can we just turn off the Delivery Notification on a 'normal' port, and set the AckRequired property on the message as for a Direct port. Unfortunately, this does not work - BizTalk seems to remove this property automatically, if the message goes through a port where Delivery Notification is set to None.

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• Reflection and the params Keyword

  - by Robert May

  I’ve had to look this up a couple of times, and there’s not much out there, so I end up guessing the same answer over and over. When using MethodBase.GetParameters() to get an array of ParameterInfo object, I often want to get a count of the number of parameters that are out, optional, params, etc.  For out and optional, you can simply check ParameterInfo.IsOut or ParameterInfo.IsOptional or any number of other “Attributes”. However, for params, there isn’t a property on ParameterInfo.  Instead, you have to do this: info.GetCustomAttributes(typeof(ParamArrayAttribute), true) This will get you a set of all of the attributes that are the ParamArrayAttribute, which you can then turn into a linq statement that looks like this: methodParameters.Count(info => info.GetCustomAttributes(typeof(ParamArrayAttribute), true).Count() > 0); Which, assuming that methodParameters is the result of MethodBase.GetParameters, will give you a count of the number of parameters that have the params keyword.  Of course, there can be only one, but who’s counting! Now, hopefully, the next time I try to look this up, my own blog will get the values. Technorati Tags: Reflection

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• Agile Executives

  - by Robert May

  Over the years, I have experienced many different styles of software development. In the early days, most of the development was Waterfall development. In the last few years, I’ve become an advocate of Scrum. As I talked about last month, many people have misconceptions about what Scrum really is. The reason why we do Scrum at Veracity is because of the difference it makes in the life of the team doing Scrum. Software is for people, and happy motivated people will build better software. However, not all executives understand Scrum and how to get the information from development teams that use Scrum. I think that these executives need a support system for managing Agile teams. Historical Software Management When Henry Ford pioneered the assembly line, I doubt he realized the impact he’d have on Management through the ages. Historically, management was about managing the process of building things. The people were just cogs in that process. Like all cogs, they were replaceable. Unfortunately, most of the software industry followed this same style of management. Many of today’s senior managers learned how to manage companies before software was a significant influence on how the company did business. Software development is a very creative process, but too many managers have treated it like an assembly line. Idea’s go in, working software comes out, and we just have to figure out how to make sure that the ideas going in are perfect, then the software will be perfect. Lean Manufacturing In the manufacturing industry, Lean manufacturing has revolutionized Henry Ford’s assembly line. Derived from the Toyota process, Lean places emphasis on always providing value for the customer. Anything the customer wouldn’t be willing to pay for is wasteful. Agile is based on similar principles. We’re building software for people, and anything that isn’t useful to them doesn’t add value. Waterfall development would have teams build reams and reams of documentation about how the software should work. Agile development dispenses with this work because excessive documentation doesn’t add value. Instead, teams focus on building documentation only when it truly adds value to the customer. Many other Agile principals are similar. Playing Catch-up Just like in the manufacturing industry, many managers in the software industry have yet to understand the value of the principles of Lean and Agile. They think they can wrap the uncertainties of software development up in a nice little package and then just execute, usually followed by failure. They spend a great deal of time and money trying to exactly predict the future. That expenditure of time and money doesn’t add value to the customer. Managers that understand that Agile know that there is a better way. They will instead focus on the priorities of the near term in detail, and leave the future to take care of itself. They have very detailed two week plans with less detailed quarterly plans. These plans are guided by a general corporate strategy that doesn’t focus on the exact implementation details. These managers also think in smaller features rather than large functionality. This adds a great deal of value to customers, since the features that matter most are the ones that the team focuses on in the near term and then are able to deliver to the customers that are paying for them. Agile managers also realize that stale software is very costly. They know that keeping the technology in their software current is much less expensive and risky than large rewrites that occur infrequently and schedule time in each release for refactoring of the existing software. Agile Executives Even though Agile is a better way, I’ve still seen failures using the Agile process. While some of these failures can be attributed to the team, most of them are caused by managers, not the team. Managers fail to understand what Agile is, how it works, and how to get the information that they need to make good business decisions. I think this is a shame. I’m very pleased that Veracity understands this problem and is trying to do something about it. Veracity is a key sponsor of Agile Executives. In fact, Galen is this year’s acting president for Agile Executives. The purpose of Agile Executives is to help managers better manage Agile teams and see better success. Agile Executives is trying to build a community of executives that range from managers interested in Agile to managers that have successfully adopted Agile. Together, these managers can form a community of support and ideas that will help make Agile teams more successful. Helping Your Team You can help too! Talk with your manager and get them involved in Agile Executives. Help Veracity build the community. If your manager understands Agile better, he’ll understand how to help his teams, which will result in software that adds more value for customers. If you have any questions about how you can be involved, please let me know. Technorati Tags: Agile,Agile Executives

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• 12.10 does not boot sometimes from the hard drive, but it does consistently from the CD

  - by Robert

  I have recently switched from Windows 7 to Ubuntu 12.10. I have installed Ubuntu 12.10 and I cleared everything from my computer, but it randomly stops at different screens. Only a purple screen comes up. I can choose Ubuntu from a list and a blinking white dot appears in the top left corner. The previous things happen and the Ubuntu login screen appears an I can log in. It is random. and I have not changed anything. I can always insert the bootable CD and it will work every time.

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