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  • Purple Cows, Copernicus, and Shampoo – Lessons in Customer Experience

    - by Christina McKeon
    What makes a great customer experience? And, why should you or your organization care? These are the questions that set the stage for the Oracle Customer Experience Summit, which kicked off yesterday in San Francisco. Day 1: The first day was filled with demos and insights from customer experience experts and Oracle customers sharing what it takes to deliver great customer experiences. Author Seth Godin delivered an entertaining presentation that included an in-depth exploration of the always-connected, always-sharing experience revolution that we are witnessing and yes, talked about the purple cow. It turns out that customer experience is your way to be the purple cow. Before everyone headed out to see Pearl Jam and Kings of Leon at the Oracle customer appreciation event, the day wrapped up with a discussion around building a customer-centric culture. Where do you start? Whom does it involve? What are some pitfalls to avoid? Day 2: The second day addressed the details behind all the questions brought up at the end of Day 1. Before you start on a customer experience initiative, Paul Hagen noted that you must understand you will forge a path similar to Copernicus. You will be proposing ideas and approaches that challenge current thinking in your organization. Just as Copernicus' heliocentric theory started a scientific revolution, your customer-centric efforts will start an experience revolution. If you think customer experience is like a traditional marketing approach, think again. It’s not about controlling your customers and leading them where you want them to go. It might sound like heresy to some, but your customers are already in control, whether or not your company realizes and acknowledges it. And, to survive and thrive, you'll have to focus on customers by thinking outside-in and working towards a brand that is better and more authentic. We learned how Vail Resorts takes this customer-centric approach. Employees must experience the mountain themselves and understand the experience from the guest’s standpoint. This has created a culture where employees do things for guests that are not expected. We also learned a valuable lesson in designing and innovating customer-centered experiences from Kerry Bodine. First you make the thing, and then you make the thing right. In this case, the thing is customer experience. Getting customer experience right means iterative prototyping and testing of your ideas. This is where shampoo comes in—think lather, rinse, repeat. Be prepared to keep repeating until the customer experience is right. Many of these sessions will be posted to YouTube in the coming weeks so be sure to subscribe to our CX channel.

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  • ArchBeat Link-o-Rama for 2012-08-29

    - by Bob Rhubart
    ORCLville: OOW 2012 - Crystal BallOracle ACE Director Floyd Teter cooks up some tongue-in-cheek predictions for news and announcements that might come out of Oracle OpenWorld 2012. What's your prediction? Oracle Optimized Solutions at Oracle OpenWorld 2012 | Oracle Hardware Hardware matters, too! The people behind the Oracle Hardware blog have put together a list of Oracle Openworld 2012 sessions focused Oracle Optimized Solutions, "designed, pre-tested, tuned and fully documented architectures for optimal performance and availability." Just plug the session ID numbers into Schedule Builder and you're good to go. AIX Checklist for stable OBIEE deployment | Dick Dunbar "OBIEE is a complicated system with many moving parts and connection points," according to Oracle Business Inteligence escalation engineer Dick Dunbar. "The purpose of this article is to provide a checklist to discuss OBIEE deployment with your systems administrators." Demo for OPN: Coherence Management with EM Cloud Control 12c Oracle Partner Network members can check out a new Coherence Management demo that showcases some of the key capabilities of Management Pack for Oracle Coherence and JVM Diagnostics. "The demo flow showcases the key enhancements made in Enterprise Manager 12c release which includes new customizable performance summary, cache data management and configuration management," according to the WebLogic Partner Community EMEA blog. The Pragmatic Architect: To Boldly Go Where No One Has Gone Before | Frank Buschmann "Many architects have technical knowledge that's both impressive and sound, which is indeed an inevitable basis for design success," says Frank Buschmann. "Yet, a lot of software projects fail or suffer due to severe challenges in their architecture. The key to mastery is how architects approach design, what they value, and where they focus their attention and work." As retail dies, whom will be the winners? | Peter Evans-Greenwood "The problem for many retailers is that how consumers shop has changed but the the retailers haven't adapted, " says Peter Evans-Greenwood. "Their sole virtue was to be the last step in a supply chain delivering somebody else's products to the consumer. However, being the last step in the supply chain is no longer a virtue when consumers skip across channels and can reach around the globe, no longer dependant on or limited to what they can find locally." Thought for the Day "Brains require stimulation. If you're locked into a pattern of work, work, and more work, your brain soon habituates - the same way that it lets you stop hearing a clock ticking. So, if you want to be more effective at work, you must, paradoxically, be less single-minded in your devotion to work. Anything you do—anything—that stimulates new segments of your brain will make you a more effective programmer or analyst. I promise, with a money-back guarantee." — Gerald M. Weinberg Source: SoftwareQuotes.com

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  • Turnkey with LightSwitch

    - by Laila
    Microsoft has long wanted to find a replacement for Microsoft Access. The best attempt yet, which is due out in, or before, September is Visual Studio LightSwitch, with which it is said to be as 'easy as flipping a switch' to use Silverlight to create simple form-driven business applications. It is easy to get confused by the various initiatives from Microsoft. No, this isn't WebMatrix. There is no 'Razor', for this isn't meant for cute little ecommerce sites, but is designed to build simple database-applications of the card-box type. It is more clearly a .NET-based solution to the problem that every business seems to suffer from; the plethora of Access-based, and Excel-based 'private' and departmental database-applications. These are a nightmare for any IT department since they are often 'stealth' applications built by the business in the teeth of opposition from the IT Department zealots. As they are undocumented, it is scarily easy to bring a whole department into disarray by decommissioning a PC tucked under a desk somewhere. With LightSwitch, it is easy to re-write such applications in a standard, maintainable, way, using a SQL Server database, deployed somewhere reasonably safe such as Azure. Even Sharepoint or Windows Communication Foundation can be used as data sources. Oracle's ApEx has taken off remarkably well, and has shaken the perception that, for the business user, Oracle must remain a mystic force accessible only to the priests and acolytes. Microsoft, by comparison had only Access, which was first released in 1992, the year of the Madonna conical bustier. It looks just as dated. Microsoft badly needed an entirely new solution to the same business requirement that led to Access's and Foxpro's long-time popularity, but which had the same allure as ApEx. LightSwitch is sound in its ideas, and comfortingly conventional in its architecture. By giving an easy access to SQL Server databases, and providing a 'thumb and blanket' migration path to Access-heads, LightSwitch seems likely to offer a simple way of pulling more Microsoft users into the .NET community. If Microsoft puts its weight behind it, then it will give some glimmer of hope to the many Silverlight developers that Microsoft is capable of seeing through its .NET revolution.

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  • Fraud and Anomaly Detection using Oracle Data Mining YouTube-like Video

    - by chberger
    I've created and recorded another YouTube-like presentation and "live" demos of Oracle Advanced Analytics Option, this time focusing on Fraud and Anomaly Detection using Oracle Data Mining.  [Note:  It is a large MP4 file that will open and play in place.  The sound quality is weak so you may need to turn up the volume.] Data is your most valuable asset. It represents the entire history of your organization and its interactions with your customers.  Predictive analytics leverages data to discover patterns, relationships and to help you even make informed predictions.   Oracle Data Mining (ODM) automatically discovers relationships hidden in data.  Predictive models and insights discovered with ODM address business problems such as:  predicting customer behavior, detecting fraud, analyzing market baskets, profiling and loyalty.  Oracle Data Mining, part of the Oracle Advanced Analytics (OAA) Option to the Oracle Database EE, embeds 12 high performance data mining algorithms in the SQL kernel of the Oracle Database. This eliminates data movement, delivers scalability and maintains security.  But, how do you find these very important needles or possibly fraudulent transactions and huge haystacks of data? Oracle Data Mining’s 1 Class Support Vector Machine algorithm is specifically designed to identify rare or anomalous records.  Oracle Data Mining's 1-Class SVM anomaly detection algorithm trains on what it believes to be considered “normal” records, build a descriptive and predictive model which can then be used to flags records that, on a multi-dimensional basis, appear to not fit in--or be different.  Combined with clustering techniques to sort transactions into more homogeneous sub-populations for more focused anomaly detection analysis and Oracle Business Intelligence, Enterprise Applications and/or real-time environments to "deploy" fraud detection, Oracle Data Mining delivers a powerful advanced analytical platform for solving important problems.  With OAA/ODM you can find suspicious expense report submissions, flag non-compliant tax submissions, fight fraud in healthcare claims and save huge amounts of money in fraudulent claims  and abuse.   This presentation and several brief demos will show Oracle Data Mining's fraud and anomaly detection capabilities.  

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  • How to execute a Ruby file in Java, capable of calling functions from the Java program and receiving primitive-type results?

    - by Omega
    I do not fully understand what am I asking (lol!), well, in the sense of if it is even possible, that is. If it isn't, sorry. Suppose I have a Java program. It has a Main and a JavaCalculator class. JavaCalculator has some basic functions like public int sum(int a,int b) { return a + b } Now suppose I have a ruby file. Called MyProgram.rb. MyProgram.rb may contain anything you could expect from a ruby program. Let us assume it contains the following: class RubyMain def initialize print "The sum of 5 with 3 is #{sum(5,3)}" end def sum(a,b) # <---------- Something will happen here end end rubyMain = RubyMain.new Good. Now then, you might already suspect what I want to do: I want to run my Java program I want it to execute the Ruby file MyProgram.rb When the Ruby program executes, it will create an instance of JavaCalculator, execute the sum function it has, get the value, and then print it. The ruby file has been executed successfully. The Java program closes. Note: The "create an instance of JavaCalculator" is not entirely necessary. I would be satisfied with just running a sum function from, say, the Main class. My question: is such possible? Can I run a Java program which internally executes a Ruby file which is capable of commanding the Java program to do certain things and get results? In the above example, the Ruby file asks the Java program to do a sum for it and give the result. This may sound ridiculous. I am new in this kind of thing (if it is possible, that is). WHY AM I ASKING THIS? I have a Java program, which is some kind of game engine. However, my target audience is a bunch of Ruby coders. I don't want to have them learn Java at all. So I figured that perhaps the Java program could simply offer the functionality (capacity to create windows, display sprites, play sounds...) and then, my audience can simply code with Ruby the logic, which basically justs asks my Java engine to do things like displaying sprites or playing sounds. That's when I though about asking this.

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  • When a problem is resolved

    - by Rob Farley
    This month’s T-SQL Tuesday is hosted by Jen McCown, and she’s picked the topic of Resolutions. It’s a new year, and she’s thinking about what people have resolved to do this year. Unfortunately, I’ve never really done resolutions like that. I see too many people resolve to quit smoking, or lose weight, or whatever, and fail miserably. I’m not saying I don’t set goals, but it’s not a thing for New Year. The obvious joke is “1920x1080” as a resolution, but I’m not going there. I think Resolving is a strange word. It makes it sound like I’m having to solve a problem a second time, when actually, it’s more along the lines of solving a problem well enough for it to count as finished. If something has been resolved, a solution has been provided. There is a resolution, through the provision of a solution. It’s a strangeness of English. When I look up the word resolution at dictionary.com, it has 12 options, including “settling of a problem”. There’s a finality about resolution. If you resolve to do something, you’re saying “Yes. This is a done thing. I’m resolving to do it, which means that it may as well be complete already.” I like to think I resolve problems, rather than just solving them. I want my solving to be final and complete. If I tune a query, I don’t want to find that I’m back in there, re-tuning it at some point. Strangely, if I re-solve a problem, that implies that I didn’t resolve it in the first place. I only solved it. Temporarily. We “data-folk” live in a world where the most common answer is “It depends.” Frustratingly, the thing an answer depends on may still be changing in the system in question. That probably means that any solution that is put in place may need reinvestigating at some point later. So do I resolve things? Yes. Am I Chuck Norris, and solve things so well the world would break first? No. Do these two claims happily sit beside each other? No, unfortunately not. But I happily take responsibility for things, and let my clients depend on me to see it through. As far as they are concerned, it is resolved. And so I resolve to keep resolving, right through 2011.

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  • 3 Reasons You Need To Know Something About Every Technology

    - by Tim Murphy
    I make my living as a consultant and a general technologist.  I credit my success to the fact that I have never been afraid to pick up any product, language or platform needed to get the job done.  While Microsoft technologies I my mainstay, I have done work on mainframe and UNIX platforms and have worked with a wide variety of database engines.  Each one has it’s use and most times it is less expensive to find a way to communicate with an existing system than to replace it. So what are the main benefits of expending the effort to learn a new technology? New ways to solve problems Accelerate development Advise clients and get new business opportunities By new technology I mean ones that you haven’t had experience with before.  They don’t have to be the the one that just came out yesterday.  As they say, those who do not learn from history are bound to repeat it.  If you can learn something from an older technology it can be just as valuable as the shiny new one.  Either way, when you add another tool to your kit you get a new view on each problem you face.  This makes it easier to create a sound solution. The next thing you can learn from working with different products and techniques is how to more efficiently develop solve problems.  Many times if you are working with a new language you will find that there are specific design patterns that are used with it in normal use.  These can usually be applied with most languages.  You just needed to be exposed to them. The last point is about helping your clients and helping yourself.  If you can get in on technologies early you will have advantage over your competition in the market.  You will also be able to honestly advise you client on why they should or should not go with a new product.  Being able to compare products and their features is always an ability that stake holders appreciate. You don’t need to learn every detail of a product.  Learn enough to function and get an idea of how to use the technology.  Keep eating those technology Wheaties and you will be ready to go the distance in any project. del.icio.us Tags: Technology,technologists,technology generalist,Software Architecture

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  • One Year Oracle SocialChat - The Movie

    - by mprove
    Tweet | Like | Watch on Vimeo You’ve just watched – hopefully – my first short movie. Thank you! Here is a bit of the back stage story. About 6 weeks ago colleagues from SNBC (Social Network and Business Collaboration) announced a Social Use Case Competition. It was expected to submit a video of 2 to 5 minutes duration on the Social Enterprise (our internal phrase for Enterprise 2.0). Hmm – I had a few vague ideas, but no script – no actors – no experience in film making. Really the best conditions to try something! I chose our weekly SocialChats as my main topic. But if you don’t do Danish Dogma cinema, you still need a script. Hence I played around with the SocialChat’s archive, and all of a sudden a script and even the actors appeared in front of me. The words that you have just seen are weekly topics. Slightly abridged and rearranged to form a story. Exciting, next phase. How to get it on digital celluloid? I have to confess I am still impressed by epic. (Keep in mind, epic was done in 2004.) And my actors – words – call for a typographic style already. The main part was done over a weekend with Apple Keynote. And I even found a wonderful matching soundtrack among my albums: Didge Goes World by Delago. I picked parts of Second Day and Seventh Day. Literally, the rhythm was set, and I "just" had to complete the movie. Tools used – apart from trial and error: Keynote, Pixelmator, GarageBand, iMovie. Finally I want to mention that I am extremely thankful to BSC Music for granting permissions to use the tracks for this short film! Without this sound it would have been just an ordinary slide show. – Internal note: The next SocialChat is on Death by PowerPoint vs. Presentation Zen. CU this Friday 3pm Greenwich / 7am Pacific.

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  • Ubuntu is booting on acer e1-510 laptop, but screen displays nothing

    - by user287602
    Tried loading ubuntu 12.04 (32-bit as well 64 bit) through bootable usb , on a brand new 64-bit acer E1-510 laptop. It shows the 'Try ubuntu without installing screen' and I selected that option. But instead of showing ubuntu's logo(which implies it is loading). I get a blank screen. The screen is on, but it shows nothing. I tried the same on an old model laptop acer aspire 5738 and it worked like a charm. However, I realized that Ubuntu is actually booting on E1-510 and only the display is not working. How did I arrive at this conclusion? When I select on 'Try ubuntu without installing screen', after about 8-10 seconds I see that the WiFi indicator light on the laptop panel switches on(just like when we boot up a Windows OS or even Ubuntu ). I got an idea that the system booted Ubuntu. To confirm this, I tried to adjust volume using keyboard shortcuts. Voila, I can hear the sound of adjusting volume! That means it has already booted Ubuntu. I confirmed this with another step. I pressed the power button once and after two seconds I pressed ENTER. It began the process of switching off and within 5 seconds the laptop was powered off. You may ask, Why is this a confirmation that Ubuntu has booted? This is because in Ubuntu when you press on power button, a dialog box opens with shut down, restart, suspend option- and the shut down option is already selected by default; so all I have to do is press ENTER to shut down. This again proved that Ubuntu was indeed up and running. Unlike previous 'AskUbunutu' posts about Acer e1-510, I must mention that my laptop came WITH the Legacy BIOS mode, so its not really a problem to boot ubuntu from a bootable pendrive. Only the screen is not working. In case you need to know, I am running Windows 7-Ultimate 64 bit on acer e1-510.

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  • Behaviour Trees with irregular updates

    - by Robominister
    I'm interested in behaviour trees that aren't iterated every game tick, but every so often. (Edit: the tree could specify how many frames within the main game loop to wait before running its tick function again). Every theoretical implementation I have seen of behaviour trees talks of the tree search being carried out every game update - which seems necessary, because a leaf node (eg a behaviour, like 'return to base') needs to be constantly checked to see if is still running, failed or completed. Can anyone suggest how I might start implementing a tree that isnt run every tick, or point me in the direction of good material specific to this case (I am struggling to find anything)? My thoughts so far: action leaf nodes (when they start) must only push some kind of action object onto a list for an entity, rather than directly calling any code that makes the entity do something. The list of actions for the entity would be run every frame (update any that need to run, pop any that have completed from the list). the return state from a given action must be fed back into the tree, so that when we run the tree iteration again (and reach the same action leaf node - so the tree has so far determined that we ought to still be trying this action) - that the action has completed, or is still running etc. If my actual action code is running from an action list on an entity, then I possibly need to cancel previously running actions in the list - i am thinking that I can just delete the entire stack of queued up actions. I've seen the idea of ActionLists which block lower priority actions when a higher priority one is added, but this seems like very close logic to behaviour trees, and I dont want to be duplicating behaviour. This leaves me with some questions 1) How would I feed the action return state back into the tree? Its obvious I need to store some information relating to 'currently executing actions' on the entity, and check that in the tree tick, but I can't imagine how. 2) Does having a seperate behaviour tree (for deciding behaviour) and action list (for carrying out actual queued up actions) sound like a reasonable approach? 3) Is the approach of updating a behaviour tree irregularly actually used by anyone? It seems like a nice idea for budgeting ai search time when you have a lot of ai entities to process. (Edit) - I am also thinking about storing a single instance of a given behaviour tree in memory, and providing it by reference to any entity that uses it. So any information about what action was last selected for execution on an entity must be stored in a data context relative to the entity (which the tree can check). (I am probably answering my own questions as i go!) I hope I have expressed my questions adequately! Thanks in advance for any help :)

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  • Them and us

    - by Plip
    As much as we try and create inclusive societies throughout the globe time and time again we revert to our tribal and clan origins back in the distant past, be those line split across the obvious like  Nationality, Religion or even the Football teams we follow. Microsoft to me has always been a “them”. I was always on the outside looking in, free to say as I wished and have an external objective viewpoint. Now, after my first week (well four days but who’s counting) Microsoft is an “us” for me. So when I look up in the Atrium of Building 1 at Microsoft’s UK headquarters I see banners like the one above and I already genuinely feel a part of this much bigger community. I looked up at that and I felt a sense of pride to be part of something bigger, something which is out there touching peoples lives everywhere (for the good and the bad). My objectivity has made me who I am today. I’m open to other ideas and concepts, I’ve worked hard to be understanding across the board be it from technology through to cultural differences in my life and it’s vital to me that I preserve that so I now have to learn how I balance the “them” of Microsoft to the “us” of Microsoft and maintain the objectivity. It’s my job to advise people on the best way to do things, which won’t always mean “Use Microsoft Technology X”, sometimes it’ll be my responsibility to say “Don’t use Microsoft Technology X”. My first and foremost responsibility is to the customer, to give them the best advice that I can and I want to maintain that. Yeah, I’m sure I’ll be tarred by some as a Microsoft guy, for many years I’ve had just that, but those out there in the non Microsoft communities I’ve engaged in I think know that I’m the first to say when I think something is a bit naff. So, here’s my ask to you ‘the community’. Keep me honest. If I start to sound like a fanboi I want you to find me and give me a slap. It’s all too easy to forget reality sometimes and I want to make sure I stay well and truly routed in that reality. Also, no matter how much I embed myself within Microsoft I fear I will never understand Microsoft’s marketing team. In the Gents just under the WP7 banner shown above I was faced with this. Draw your own conclusions on what it’s message is.

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  • Please Help Me Install Firestorm?

    - by Elle Caszatt
    I have been trying for hours just to install one program. In this time, I've tried my best to follow directions and not screw everything up but I have. I'm new to Linux. I tried to install Firestorm and this is what happened: parent@ubuntu:~$ sudo '/home/parent/Downloads/Phoenix_Firestorm-Release_i686_4.2.1.29803/install.sh' [sudo] password for parent: Enter the desired installation directory [/opt/firestorm-install]: /home/parent/downloads - Installing to /home/parent/downloads /home/parent/Downloads/Phoenix_Firestorm-Release_i686_4.2.1.29803/install.sh: line 80: /home/parent/downloads/etc/refresh_desktop_app_entry.sh: Permission denied parent@ubuntu:~$ sudo opt/firestorm-install sudo: opt/firestorm-install: command not found parent@ubuntu:~$ ./etc/refresh_desktop_app_entry.sh bash: ./etc/refresh_desktop_app_entry.sh: No such file or directory parent@ubuntu:~$ sudo '/home/parent/Downloads/Phoenix_Firestorm-Release_i686_4.2.1.29803/install.sh' Enter the desired installation directory [/opt/firestorm-install]: /home/parent - Backing up previous installation to /home/parent.backup-2012-08-27 - Installing to /home/parent cp: cannot stat `/home/parent/Downloads/Phoenix_Firestorm-Release_i686_4.2.1.29803/*': No such file or directory Failed parent@ubuntu:~$ Now whenever I go into my files it says it can't find anything. Like Cannot find home/parent/Downloads. Now, I KNOW there are downloads. I don't know why it's doing this all of a sudden. I'm so frustrated that I'm ready to just go back to Windows. I've already had to uninstall/reinstall Ubuntu once today. It's looking like I"m going to have to do it again. How can I fix my file problem that I'm now having and can someone please, please tell me how to install Firestorm? I mean they don't even have their repository listed. It's ridiculous to have to go through this over a program. Spotify wasn't hard at all to install so why is this? Someone please help, and I'm sorry if I sound like a total idiot. I'm pretty tech savvy but I'm honestly pretty upset after struggling with this for hours. Edit Okay, I see the problem with the directory files (showing the error I mentioned above when I try to click on them). I can only access my downloads, desktop, ect, through the backup that was created when I tried to install Firestorm. It's like that's the real home now. How can I get it back to the way it was? Edit Ubuntu has stopped working for me on reboot now. It doesn't go past the login screen. This is exactly what happened when I had to uninstall it before after trying to install Firestorm. Maybe I'm giving up too easily but I think I'm just going to go back to Windows. If this is what's going to happen every time I innocently try to install a program then it's just not worth it. I installed it specifically to run Firestorm because Windows sucks up a lot of CPU and causes lag. I still appreciate any input but this is just too much hassle for something that shouldn't be hard.

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  • "static" as a semantic clue about statelessness?

    - by leoger
    this might be a little philosophical but I hope someone can help me find a good way to think about this. I've recently undertaken a refactoring of a medium sized project in Java to go back and add unit tests. When I realized what a pain it was to mock singletons and statics, I finally "got" what I've been reading about them all this time. (I'm one of those people that needs to learn from experience. Oh well.) So, now that I'm using Spring to create the objects and wire them around, I'm getting rid of static keywords left and right. (If I could potentially want to mock it, it's not really static in the same sense that Math.abs() is, right?) The thing is, I had gotten into the habit of using static to denote that a method didn't rely on any object state. For example: //Before import com.thirdparty.ThirdPartyLibrary.Thingy; public class ThirdPartyLibraryWrapper { public static Thingy newThingy(InputType input) { new Thingy.Builder().withInput(input).alwaysFrobnicate().build(); } } //called as... ThirdPartyLibraryWrapper.newThingy(input); //After public class ThirdPartyFactory { public Thingy newThingy(InputType input) { new Thingy.Builder().withInput(input).alwaysFrobnicate().build(); } } //called as... thirdPartyFactoryInstance.newThingy(input); So, here's where it gets touchy-feely. I liked the old way because the capital letter told me that, just like Math.sin(x), ThirdPartyLibraryWrapper.newThingy(x) did the same thing the same way every time. There's no object state to change how the object does what I'm asking it to do. Here are some possible answers I'm considering. Nobody else feels this way so there's something wrong with me. Maybe I just haven't really internalized the OO way of doing things! Maybe I'm writing in Java but thinking in FORTRAN or somesuch. (Which would be impressive since I've never written FORTRAN.) Maybe I'm using staticness as a sort of proxy for immutability for the purposes of reasoning about code. That being said, what clues should I have in my code for someone coming along to maintain it to know what's stateful and what's not? Perhaps this should just come for free if I choose good object metaphors? e.g. thingyWrapper doesn't sound like it has state indepdent of the wrapped Thingy which may itself be mutable. Similarly, a thingyFactory sounds like it should be immutable but could have different strategies that are chosen among at creation. I hope I've been clear and thanks in advance for your advice!

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  • Investment scheme for a PC game the project

    - by Alex Kamen
    Good day everyone, I am working on a PC game project that has 3 phases planned, micro, macro and mmo versions [if confused, see a brief description at the bottom]. I have found a potential investor for the micro version of the game, but naturally, he requested a detailed plan of how the game will pay back. And the problem is that micro version itself is not supposed to be monetized much, other than some ads and limited in-game currency utilization. The idea is that with this combat demo already at hand, it should be possible to get a really large enough investment (millions of dollars) and use it to pay back the initial small one (thousands of dollars) and take the project into macro phase, which will really make profit. This way, everybody is going to win, provided that I can deliver the end-product. Yet while I am confident of that both the conception of the macro and the real game-play of the micro versions are going to be appealing, I don’t know how to obtain any guarantee of that I will be able to get funded once I have the prototype ready. And without that, I won’t receive the funds for the prototype in the first place! To summarize, my question is: how to figure out my future possibilities of getting funded once I have combat demo out, basically “whom to write to and what”. Ideally, I would like some sort of a preliminary agreement with a game publisher, something that would basically state “If the developer provides the product in time and in quality corresponding to the specifications given, the publisher guarantees to allocate funds for distribution and further development, thereby acquiring the right to X part of all future profits”. Does this sound sane? It’s just that I don’t want to sell all of my rights out straight away by taking a big outside investment while the project is in such early stage. I would appreciate if you would share your thoughts on this kind of scheme, and be sure to ask questions as I am sure I must have forgotten to mention a ton of important things, like the fact that initial funds are going to be spent on outsourcing (living in Siberia is really just great). [here’s a brief outline of what each version will feature] [micro] 1) turn based tactical combat rules 2) character development 3) arena/tournament system [macro] 4) ai-ruled dynamic interactive worlds 5) global map adventuring 6) strategic rpg + god simulator gameplay [mmo] 7) Persistent worlds system 8) Social structures system (“guilds/clans”) 9) god-simulation on the mmo scale P.S. Obviously, these features are incremental, so that mmo version has all 9.

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  • What arguments can I use to "sell" the BDD concept to a team reluctant to adopt it?

    - by S.Robins
    I am a bit of a vocal proponent of the BDD methodology. I've been applying BDD for a couple of years now, and have adopted StoryQ as my framework of choice when developing DotNet applications. Even though I have been unit testing for many years, and had previously shifted to a test-first approach, I've found that I get much more value out of using a BDD framework, because my tests capture the intent of the requirements in relatively clear English within my code, and because my tests can execute multiple assertions without ending the test halfway through - meaning I can see which specific assertions pass/fail at a glance without debugging to prove it. This has really been the tip of the iceberg for me, as I've also noticed that I am able to debug both test and implementation code in a more targeted manner, with the result that my productivity has grown significantly, and that I can more easily determine where a failure occurs if a problem happens to make it all the way to the integration build due to the output that makes its way into the build logs. Further, the StoryQ api has a lovely fluent syntax that is easy to learn and which can be applied in an extraordinary number of ways, requiring no external dependencies in order to use it. So with all of these benefits, you would think it an easy to introduce the concept to the rest of the team. Unfortunately, the other team members are reluctant to even look at StoryQ to evaluate it properly (let alone entertain the idea of applying BDD), and have convinced each other to try and remove a number of StoryQ elements from our own core testing framework, even though they originally supported the use of StoryQ, and that it doesn't impact on any other part of our testing system. Doing so would end up increasing my workload significantly overall and really goes against the grain, as I am convinced through practical experience that it is a better way to work in a test-first manner in our particular working environment, and can only lead to greater improvements in the quality of our software, given I've found it easier to stick with test first using BDD. So the question really comes down to the following: What arguments can I use to really drive the point home that it would be better to use StoryQ, or at the very least apply the BDD methodology? Can you point me to any anecdotal evidence that I can use to support my argument to adopt BDD as our standard method of choice? What counter arguments can you think of that could suggest that my wish to convert the team efforts to BDD might be in error? Yes, I'm happy to be proven wrong provided the argument is a sound one. NOTE: I am not advocating that we rewrite our tests in their entirety, but rather to simply start working in a different manner for all future testing work.

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  • Legitimate use of the Windows "Documents" folder in programs.

    - by romkyns
    Anyone who likes their Documents folder to contain only things they place there knows that the standard Documents folder is completely unsuitable for this task. Every program seems to want to put its settings, data, or something equally irrelevant into the Documents folder, despite the fact that there are folders specifically for this job1. So that this doesn't sound empty, take my personal "Documents" folder as an example. I don't ever use it, in that I never, under any circumstances, save anything into this folder myself. And yet, it contains 46 folders and 3 files at the top level, for a total of 800 files in 500 folders. That's 190 MB of "documents" I didn't create. Obviously any actual documents would immediately get lost in this mess. My question is: can anything be done to improve the situation sufficiently to make "Documents" useful again, say over the next 5 years? Can programmers be somehow educated en-masse not to use it as a dumping ground? Could the OS start reporting some "fake" location hidden under AppData through the existing APIs, while only allowing Explorer and the various Open/Save dialogs to know where the "real" Documents folder resides? Or are any attempts completely futile or even unnecessary? 1For the record, here's a quick summary of the various standard directories that should be used instead of "Documents": RoamingAppData for user-specific data and settings. This is the directory to use for user-specific non-temporary data. Anything placed here will be available on any machine that a given user logs on to in networks where this is configured. Do not place large files here though, because they slow down login/logout in such environments. LocalAppData for user-and-machine-specific data and settings. This data differs for every user and every machine. This is also where very large user-specific data should be placed. ProgramData for machine-specific data and settings. These are the same regardless of which user is logged on, and will not roam to other machines in a network. GetTempPath for all files that may be wiped without loss of data when not in use. This is also the place for things like caches, because like temporary data, a cache does not need to be backed up. Place your huge cache here and you'll save your user some backup trouble. "Documents" itself should only ever be used if the user specified it manually by entering a path or selecting it in a Save dialog. That is the only time it is ever appropriate to save stuff in "Documents".

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  • Problem Solving vs. Solution Finding

    - by ryanabr
    By enlarge, most developers fall into these two camps I will try to explain what I mean by way of example. A manager gives the developer a task that is communicated like this: “Figure out why control A is not loading on this form”. Now, right there it could be argued that the manager should probably have given better direction and said something more like: “Control A is not loading on the Form, fix it”. They might sound like the same thing to most people, but the first statement will have the developer problem solving the reason why it is failing. The second statement should have the developer looking for the solution to make it work, not focus on why it is broken. In the end, they might be the same thing, but I usually see the first approach take way longer than the second approach. The Problem Solver: The problem solver’s approach to fixing something that is broken is likely to take the error or behavior that is being observed and start to research it using a tool like Google, or any other search engine. 7/10 times this will yield results for the most common of issues. The challenge is in the other 30% of issues that will take the problem solver down the rabbit hole and cause them not to surface for days on end while every avenue is explored for the cause of the problem. In the end, they will probably find the cause of the issue and resolve it, but the cost can be days, or weeks of work. The Solution Finder: The solution finder’s approach to a problem will begin the same way the Problem Solver’s approach will. The difference comes in the more difficult cases. Rather than stick to the pure “This has to work so I am going to work with it until it does” approach, the Solution Finder will look for other ways to get the requirements satisfied that may or may not be using the original approach. For example. there are two area of an application of externally equivalent features, meaning that from a user’s perspective, the behavior is the same. So, say that for whatever reason, area A is now not working, but area B is working. The Problem Solver will dig in to see why area A is broken, where the Solution Finder will investigate to see what is the difference between the two areas and solve the problem by potentially working around it. The other notable difference between the two types of developers described is what point they reach before they re-emerge from their task. The problem solver will likely emerge with a triumphant “I have found the problem” where as the Solution Finder will emerge with the more useful “I have the solution”. Conclusion At the end of the day, users are what drives features in software development. With out users there is no need for software. In todays world of software development with so many tools to use, and generally tight schedules I believe that a work around to a problem that takes 8 hours vs. the more pure solution to the problem that takes 40 hours is a more fruitful approach.

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  • Nails vs Screws (C# List vs Dictionary)

    - by MarkPearl
    General This may sound like a typical noob statement, but I’m finding out in a very real way that just because you have a solution to a problem, doesn’t necessarily mean it is the best solution. This was reiterated to me when a friend of mine suggested I look at using Dictionaries instead of Lists for a particular problem – he was right, I have always just assumed that because lists solved my problem I did not need to look elsewhere. So my new manifesto to counter this ageless problem is as follows… Look for a solution that will logically work Once you have a solution look for possible alternatives Decide why your current solution is the best approach compared to the alternatives If it is.. use it till something better comes along, if it isnt…. change What’s the difference between Lists & Dictionaries Both lists and dictionaries are used to store collections of data. Assume we had the following declarations… var dic = new Dictionary<string, long>(); var lst = new List<long>(); long data;   With a list, you simply add the item to the list and it will add the item to the end of the list. lst.Add(data); With a dictionary, you need to specify some sort of key and the data you want to add so that it can be uniquely identified. dic.Add(uniquekey, data);   Because with a dictionary you now have unique identifier, in the background they provide all sort’s of optimized algorithms to find your associated data. What this means is that if you are wanting to access your data it is a lot faster than a List. So when is it appropriate to use either class? For me, if I can guarantee that each item in my collection will have a unique identifier, then I will use Dictionaries instead of Lists as there is a considerable performance benefit when accessing each data item. If I cannot make this sort of guarantee, then by default I will use a list. I know this is all really basic, and I hope I haven’t missed some fundamental principle… If anyone would like to add their 2 cents, please feel free to do so…

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  • Why can't I install Microsoft Office 2007 in Ubuntu 11.04?

    - by DK new
    I am very new to Ubuntu and only just getting a hang of it, and my questions might sound stupid especially because I am a learner in terms of techie things as well. So because of the nature of work where everyone uses stupid Windows and Microsoft, I need to have access to MS Office 2007/2010 as documents with too many tables or images open all haywire in Libre Office (which has otherwise been great!). I have been reading up about installing MS Office through WINE/PlayonLinux, but have been unsuccessful so far. I downloaded a MS Office 2007 package from Pirate Bay, which I extracted into a folder. I tried numerous different ways to install through WINE and PlayonLinux, but will discuss the one which seems to be getting me somewhere. http://www.webupd8.org/2011/01/how-to-install-microsoft-office-2007-in.html ..... Initially, when I would click on the install button of MS Office, I get a message saying "The install location you selected does not have 1558MB free space. Free up space from the selected install location or choose a different install location". The install location in this case said "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office", which confused me as I don't have drives named as C, Z etc. I went to configure WINE and under the drives tab, created a drive named A with the path location /media/cd025f16-433b-4a90-abb6-bb7a025d0450/. Also the space thing is confusing as I have at least 450GB of unused space on my computer. anyways, when I selected the A drive for installation, the installation starts, but soon I get the following error message, "Office cannot find Office.en-us\OfficeLR.Cab. Browse to a valid installation source" .... The part saying "OfficeLR.Cab" have said different things after the Office bit every time I have made an attempt. When I select the Office.en-us sub-folder or any other folder within the folder where MS Office 2007 is saved, it says "invalid source"! I have been trying to get this sorted since 15hrs now (addictive!) and have learnt loads of things in the process, but have not managed to crack it. It might be something stupidly simple I am not aware off that is stopping it. I would really appreciate some help! Thanks a lot.. Also I am still getting used to the language, so might have many questions Also I am using Ubuntu 11.04 (tag 11.04). Also I think I don't have windows -- when my friend installed Ubuntu on my new laptop which had Windows 7, he was trying to keep windows in a separate partition, but something happened and windows was not there! Looking forward to some support! Again thanks a lot

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  • Understanding exceptional cases

    - by Justin
    I've been studying the use of exceptions in various php projects (such as Doctrine and Zend Framework). Exceptions seem to be thrown when unordinary input/state occurs. A perfect example is Doctrine throwing an exception when you try to use a invalid query string. I think the creators of the doctrine api understood that first, you can't query data by using an invalid DQL statement, and a developer should immediately be warned that an error has occurred, rather then letting execution continue with the possibility of an error code going un-checked. I also bet that this simplifies reading the code. I can't think of a situation where you would want to use an invalid DQL statement, except unit testing. Since this is true, it's better to avoid plaguing a bunch of code with null/error checks and use exceptions. I've read in books that exceptions shouldn't be thrown when validating dating user input. I've seen examples where of where the guideline is broken. One example is the Zend framework. If supplying an invalid controller or action name, an exception is thrown. Unlike doctrine, the user has more direct control over this sort of input. I know you can configure an error controller and set up a 404 message or what have you, but I'm curious why they have used an exception in this scenario? I guess you can argue the Zend Framework does not know how to continue processing the quest. One last example Is I wrote a function to return some html based on a given resource type. This resource type is hard-coded and sent when a user interacts with a web site (such as clicking a button to display the form to input data). I don't expect users to be mucking around with the request type. Under normal operating conditions, the resource type should be valid. To clean up some logic, I was going to throw an exception if a particular form wasn't found. This is mainly to find the correct form associated with a resource type so proper validation can occur. Does this sound like a valid use case for an exception? Right now it's pretty trivial, but I do plan to implement a restful consumer and re-using a function to map resources to their validation services would be very useful. I can then catch the exception and based on the consumer, return an error message suitable for the request type...

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  • Legal concerns with orchestrating a music submission contest

    - by Amplify91
    My team and I are getting pretty far along in the development of our latest game and have been thinking about audio. We decided to host an audio submission contest where we will offer a little cash and some equity stake in the game as prizes. We are also giving away copies of the game to participants. We hope not only to find audio for our game, but to meet some cool sound artists and promote the game a bit through the process. First of all, is this even a good idea? What are some potential dangers in doing this? Will it even be well received among artists? Secondly, I wrote up some Terms and Conditions in my best legal-speak to try to protect us and clarify how the contest will be run. Are these sufficient to make sure everyone involved is treated fairly and is legally protected? They are as follows: All submissions (The Submission) must be licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License (CC-BY-3.0) By applying a CC-BY-3.0 license, you (The Submitter) expressly give Detour Games (and all members wherein) permission to copy, distribute, transmit, modify, adapt, and make commercial use of The Submission. The Submitter must own all rights to The Submission and be within their rights to license it as specified and submit it. The Submitter claims responsibility for the legality of The Submission. If The Submission is found to infringe on the rights of a person or entity other than those of The Submitter, Detour Games will not be held liable as all responsibility and liability for the legality of The Submission is that of The Submitter's. No more than two free copies of The Game per submitter. All flat cash prizes will only be disbursed pending the success of our first $5,000 Kickstarter campaign. These prizes will be disbursed 30 days after Detour Games receives the Kickstarter funds. All equity prizes (percentage of profits) are defined as the given percent of total profits after costs for a period of one year (12 months) after the release of RAW. These prizes will be disbursed semi-annually. All prize money will be disbursed through either an electronic fund transfer through a service such as PayPal or by a mailed money order. It is The Submitter's responsibility to cooperate with Detour Games in the disbursement of the funds. Detour Games reserves the right to change these Terms and Conditions at any time without notice. By participating in the contest, The Submitter agrees to and accepts all terms and conditions listed. What else could I do (legally) to protect everyone involved?

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  • Damaged external NTFS hard disk

    - by Thanos
    A few days ago, I used my external hard disk (a 2TB Seagate) in order to transfer some files on Windows Vista. During that, I noticed some malfunctions on my system (it was running too slow, Windows Explorer crashed). When Explorer crashed, file transportation stopped. I was afraid, but I tried to access my files and it seemed to be working. I tried to open a movie (from the external disk) but it couldn't load. I thought of restarting, but this took sooo long... So I unplugged the hard disk and at that time it managed to shut down. I logged on to Windows Vista but the hard disk couldn't be mounted. I plugged it but nothing happened. I unplugged it and I heard this specific sound that notifies that something has been unplugged. I thought of logging to Ubuntu 10.04 and see what I can do. I plugged the hard disk, but I couldn't see it. I opened GParted but I couldn't see it either. I tried with Disc Utility and there it was! I tried to mount it but a got an error message stating that an error occured with Windows, there is a file (0,0) that has problem or something like that. It suggested to log into Windows and run chkdsk /f and reboot twice. The thing is that I am somehow afraid to do so because I don't really know the impact on that. Plus I don't trust doing even a check on Vista... I finally risked it and I typed chkdsk/f on a cmd. I cannot, however, actually run it because I don't have admin privileges. So from search I found chkdsk, I right cliked and selected “run as administrator”. It run but I got a message like NTFS file system. It should check at the coming restart. At that point I am mistaken. I thought that f meant F but this is not the case here... Does anyone have any suggestions and advice?

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  • Send raw data to USB parallel port after upgrading to 11.10 oneiric

    - by zaphod
    I have a laser cutter connected via a generic USB to parallel adapter. The laser cutter speaks HPGL, as it happens, but since this is a laser cutter and not a plotter, I usually want to generate the HPGL myself, since I care about the ordering, speed, and direction of cuts and so on. In previous versions of Ubuntu, I was able to print to the cutter by copying an HPGL file directly to the corresponding USB "lp" device. For example: cp foo.plt /dev/usblp1 Well, I just upgraded to Ubuntu 11.10 oneiric, and I can't find any "lp" devices in /dev anymore. D'oh! What's the preferred way to send raw data to a parallel port in Ubuntu? I've tried System Settings Printing + Add, hoping that I might be able to associate my device with some kind of "raw printer" driver and print to it with a command like lp -d LaserCutter foo.plt But my USB to parallel adapter doesn't seem to show up in the list. What I do see are my HP Color LaserJet, two USB-to-serial adapters, "Enter URI", and "Network Printer". Meanwhile, over in /dev, I do see /dev/ttyUSB0 and /dev/ttyUSB1 devices for the 2 USB-to-serial adapters. I don't see anything obvious corresponding to the HP printer (which was /dev/usblp0 prior to the upgrade), except for generic USB stuff. For example, sudo find /dev | grep lp produces no output. I do seem to be able to print to the HP printer just fine, though. The printer setup GUI gives it a device URI starting with "hp:" which isn't much help for the parallel adapter. The CUPS administrator's guide makes it sound like I might need to feed it a device URI of the form parallel:/dev/SOMETHING, but of course if I had a /dev/SOMETHING I'd probably just go on writing to it directly. Here's what dmesg says after I disconnect and reconnect the device from the USB port: [ 924.722906] usb 1-1.1.4: USB disconnect, device number 7 [ 959.993002] usb 1-1.1.4: new full speed USB device number 8 using ehci_hcd And here's how it shows up in lsusb -v: Bus 001 Device 008: ID 1a86:7584 QinHeng Electronics CH340S Device Descriptor: bLength 18 bDescriptorType 1 bcdUSB 1.10 bDeviceClass 0 (Defined at Interface level) bDeviceSubClass 0 bDeviceProtocol 0 bMaxPacketSize0 8 idVendor 0x1a86 QinHeng Electronics idProduct 0x7584 CH340S bcdDevice 2.52 iManufacturer 0 iProduct 2 USB2.0-Print iSerial 0 bNumConfigurations 1 Configuration Descriptor: bLength 9 bDescriptorType 2 wTotalLength 32 bNumInterfaces 1 bConfigurationValue 1 iConfiguration 0 bmAttributes 0x80 (Bus Powered) MaxPower 96mA Interface Descriptor: bLength 9 bDescriptorType 4 bInterfaceNumber 0 bAlternateSetting 0 bNumEndpoints 2 bInterfaceClass 7 Printer bInterfaceSubClass 1 Printer bInterfaceProtocol 2 Bidirectional iInterface 0 Endpoint Descriptor: bLength 7 bDescriptorType 5 bEndpointAddress 0x82 EP 2 IN bmAttributes 2 Transfer Type Bulk Synch Type None Usage Type Data wMaxPacketSize 0x0020 1x 32 bytes bInterval 0 Endpoint Descriptor: bLength 7 bDescriptorType 5 bEndpointAddress 0x02 EP 2 OUT bmAttributes 2 Transfer Type Bulk Synch Type None Usage Type Data wMaxPacketSize 0x0020 1x 32 bytes bInterval 0 Device Status: 0x0000 (Bus Powered)

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  • Imperative vs. component based programming [closed]

    - by AlexW
    I've been thinking about how programming and more specifically the teaching of programming is advocated amongst the community (online). Often I've heard that Ruby and RoR is an ideal platform for learning to program. I completely disagree... RoR and Ruby are based on the application of the component based paradigm, which means they are ideal for rapid application development. This is much like the MVC model in PHP and ASP.NET But, learning a proper imperative language like Java or C/C++ (or even Perl and PHP) is the only way for a new programmer to explore logic itself, and not get too bogged down in architectural concerns like the need for separation of concerns, and the preference for components. Maybe it's a personal preference thing. I rather think that the most interesting aspects to programming are the procedural bits of code I write that actually do stuff rather than the project planning, and modelling that comes about from fully object oriented engineering or simply using the MVC model. I know this may sound confused to some of you. I feel strongly though that the best way for programming to be taught is through imperative and procedural methods. Architectural (component) methods come later, if at all. After all, none of the amazing algorithms that exist were based on OOP practice! It's all procedural code when it comes to the 'magic'. OOP is useful in creating products and utilities. Algorithms are what makes things happen, and move data around, and so imperative (and/or procedural) code are what matters most. When I see programmers recommending Ruby on Rails to newbie developers, I think it's just so wrong. Just because you write less code with Ruby does not make it easier to do! It's the opposite... you have to know loads more to appreciate its succinct nature. New coders who really want to understand the nuts and bolts of coding need to go away and figure out writing methods/functions (i.e. imperative programming) and working in procedural style, in order to grasp the fundamentals, first, before looking into architectural ways of working. So, my question is: should Ruby ever be recommended as a first language? I think no (obviously)... what arguments are there for it?

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  • Cannot boot from K/Ubuntu install disk on my UEFI system

    - by user93241
    I just got a new system and have been trying to get it set up w/ Win7 & Kubuntu dual-boot, but I've got a major problem. The BIOS of my motherboard (an Asus Crosshair 990FX) is strictly UEFI -- there is no legacy support mode available. I've been reading up on how to get Kubuntu installed in UEFI mode but no matter what I try I cannot seem to even boot into my install CD/USB key properly. I can get as far as the selection screen ("Try Kubuntu", "Install Kubuntu"...) but this screen starts off not appearing correctly. If I try moving the cursor around it sometimes seems to correct itself and show me my choices. But once I select "Try Kubuntu" it starts loading, the screen goes black and then proceeds to flicker -- about once every 5-10 seconds or so. This continues indefinitely. I've tried this with both Kubuntu & Ubuntu installation media, even the AMD64+Mac Ubuntu variety that is supposed to be a lot more flexible w.r.t. UEFI. The only hint I've had that the system might have booted correctly is a little drum sound that plays when booting from the Ubuntu install disk. Well, that and the fact that when I hit my system's power button it seems to shut down correctly, even ejecting the CD at the end. This might be a video driver issue; my system has two nVidia 550's, one of which is attached to my primary monitor. (The secondary isn't hooked up yet.) I'll keep looking over similar questions but any advice would be greatly appreciated. UPDATE: I've tried booting into my 12.04 install CD twice now, each time using two different options supplied by my BIOS. One seemed to offer the ability to boot into my CD under UEFI mode -- this didn't even produce the initial boot menu. The other method offers the ability to boot into my CD NOT under UEFI mode. This DOES produce the boot menu, but after this point it seems I still cannot get to a proper video mode to see what's going on.

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