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• Why do we have reinterpret_cast in C++ when two chained static_cast can do it's job?

  - by Nawaz

  Say I want to cast A* to char* and vice-versa, we have two choices (I mean, many of us think we've two choices, because both seems to work! Hence the confusion!): struct A { int age; char name[128]; }; A a; char *buffer = static_cast<char*>(static_cast<void*>(&a)); //choice 1 char *buffer = reinterpret_cast<char*>(&a); //choice 2 Both work fine. //convert back A *pA = static_cast<A*>(static_cast<void*>(buffer)); //choice 1 A *pA = reinterpret_cast<A*>(buffer); //choice 2 Even this works fine! So why do we have reinterpret_cast in C++ when two chained static_cast can do it's job? Some of you might think this topic is a duplicate of the previous topics such as listed at the bottom of this post, but it's not. Those topics discuss only theoretically, but none of them gives even a single example demonstrating why reintepret_cast is really needed, and two static_cast would surely fail. I agree, one static_cast would fail. But how about two? If the syntax of two chained static_cast looks cumbersome, then we can write a function template to make it more programmer-friendly: template<class To, class From> To any_cast(From v) { return static_cast<To>(static_cast<void*>(v)); } And then we can use this, as: char *buffer = any_cast<char*>(&a); //choice 1 char *buffer = reinterpret_cast<char*>(&a); //choice 2 //convert back A *pA = any_cast<A*>(buffer); //choice 1 A *pA = reinterpret_cast<A*>(buffer); //choice 2 Also, see this situation where any_cast can be useful: Proper casting for fstream read and write member functions. So my question basically is, Why do we have reinterpret_cast in C++? Please show me even a single example where two chained static_cast would surely fail to do the same job? Which cast to use; static_cast or reinterpret_cast? Cast from Void* to TYPE* : static_cast or reinterpret_cast

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• Create a Counter within a For-Loop?

  - by Todd Hartman

  I am a novice programmer and apologize upfront for the complicated question. I am trying to create a lexical decision task for experimental research, in which respondents must decide if a series of letters presented on the screen make a "word" or "not a word". Everything works reasonably well except for the bit where I want to randomly select a word (category A) or nonword (category B) for each of 80 trials from a separate input file (input.txt). The randomization works, but some elements from each list (category A or B) are skipped because I have used "round.catIndex = j;" where "j" is a loop for each successive trial. Because some trials randomly select from Category A and other from Category B, "j" does not move successively down the list for each category. Instead, elements from the Category A list may be selected from something like 1, 2, 5, 8, 9, 10, and so on (it varies each time because of the randomization). To make a long story short(!), how do I create a counter that will work within the for-loop for each trial, so that every word and nonword from Category A and B, respectively, will be used for the lexical decision task? Everything I have tried thus far does not work properly or breaks the javascript entirely. Below is my code snippet and the full code is available at http://50.17.194.59/LDT/trunk/LDT.js. Also, the full lexical decision task can be accessed at http://50.17.194.59/LDT/trunk/LDT.php. Thanks! function initRounds() { numlst = []; for (var k = 0; k<numrounds; k++) { if (k % 2 == 0) numlst[k] = 0; else numlst[k] = 1; } numlst.sort(function() {return 0.5 - Math.random()}) for (var j = 0; j<numrounds; j++) { var round = new LDTround(); if (numlst[j] == 0) { round.category = input.catA.datalabel; } else if (numlst[j] == 1) { round.category = input.catB.datalabel; } // pick a category & stimulus if (round.category == input.catA.datalabel) { round.itemtype = input.catA.itemtype; round.correct = 1; round.catIndex = j; } else if (round.category == input.catB.datalabel) { round.itemtype = input.catB.itemtype; round.correct = 2; round.catIndex = j; } roundArray[i].push(round); } return roundArray; }

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• How do I write object classes effectively when dealing with table joins?

  - by Chris

  I should start by saying I'm not now, nor do I have any delusions I'll ever be a professional programmer so most of my skills have been learned from experience very much as a hobby. I learned PHP as it seemed a good simple introduction in certain areas and it allowed me to design simple web applications. When I learned about objects, classes etc the tutor's basic examnples covered the idea that as a rule of thumb each database table should have its own class. While that worked well for the photo gallery project we wrote, as it had very simple mysql queries, it's not working so well now my projects are getting more complex. If I require data from two separate tables which require a table join I've instead been ignoring the class altogether and handling it on a case by case basis, OR, even worse been combining some of the data into the class and the rest as a separate entity and doing two queries, which to me seems inefficient. As an example, when viewing content on a forum I wrote, if you view a thread, I retrieve data from the threads table, the posts table and the user table. The queries from the user and posts table are retrieved via a join and not instantiated as an object, whereas the thread data is called using my Threads class. So how do I get from my current state of affairs to something a little less 'stupid', for want of a better word. Right now I have a DB class that deals with connection and escaping values etc, a parent db query class that deals with the common queries and methods, and all of the other classes (Thread, Upload, Session, Photo and ones thats aren't used Post, User etc ) are children of that. Do I make a big posts class that has the relevant extra attributes that I retrieve from the users (and potentially threads) table? Do I have separate classes that populate each of their relevant attributes with a single query? If so how do I do that? Because of the way my classes are written, based on what I was taught, my db update row method, or insert method both just take the attributes as an array and update all of that, if I have extra attributes from other db tables in each class then how do I rewrite those methods as obbiously updating automatically like that would result in errors? In short I think my understanding is limited right now and I'd like some pointers when it comes to the fundamentals of how to write more complex classes.

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• Multiset container appears to stop sorting

  - by Sarah

  I would appreciate help debugging some strange behavior by a multiset container. Occasionally, the container appears to stop sorting. This is an infrequent error, apparent in only some simulations after a long time, and I'm short on ideas. (I'm an amateur programmer--suggestions of all kinds are welcome.) My container is a std::multiset that holds Event structs: typedef std::multiset< Event, std::less< Event > > EventPQ; with the Event structs sorted by their double time members: struct Event { public: explicit Event(double t) : time(t), eventID(), hostID(), s() {} Event(double t, int eid, int hid, int stype) : time(t), eventID( eid ), hostID( hid ), s(stype) {} bool operator < ( const Event & rhs ) const { return ( time < rhs.time ); } double time; ... }; The program iterates through periods of adding events with unordered times to EventPQ currentEvents and then pulling off events in order. Rarely, after some events have been added (with perfectly 'legal' times), events start getting executed out of order. What could make the events ever not get ordered properly? (Or what could mess up the iterator?) I have checked that all the added event times are legitimate (i.e., all exceed the current simulation time), and I have also confirmed that the error does not occur because two events happen to get scheduled for the same time. I'd love suggestions on how to work through this. The code for executing and adding events is below for the curious: double t = 0.0; double nextTimeStep = t + EPID_DELTA_T; EventPQ::iterator eventIter = currentEvents.begin(); while ( t < EPID_SIM_LENGTH ) { // Add some events to currentEvents while ( ( *eventIter ).time < nextTimeStep ) { Event thisEvent = *eventIter; t = thisEvent.time; executeEvent( thisEvent ); eventCtr++; currentEvents.erase( eventIter ); eventIter = currentEvents.begin(); } t = nextTimeStep; nextTimeStep += EPID_DELTA_T; } void Simulation::addEvent( double et, int eid, int hid, int s ) { assert( currentEvents.find( Event(et) ) == currentEvents.end() ); Event thisEvent( et, eid, hid, s ); currentEvents.insert( thisEvent ); }

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• How should I handle the case in which a username is already in use?

  - by idealmachine

  I'm a JavaScript programmer and new to PHP and MySQL (want to get into server-side coding). Because I'm trying to learn PHP by building a simple online game (more specifically, correspondence chess), I'm starting by implementing a simple user accounts system. Of course, user registration comes first. What are the best practices for: How I should handle the (likely) possibility that when a user tries to register, the username he has chosen is already in use, particularly when it comes to function return values?($result === true is rather ugly, and I'm not sure whether checking the MySQL error code is the best way to do it either) How to cleanly handle varying page titles?($gPageTitle = '...'; require_once 'bgsheader.php'; is also rather ugly) Anything else I'm doing wrong? In some ways, PHP is rather different from JavaScript... Here is a (rather large) excerpt of the code I have written so far. Note that this is a work in progress and is missing security checks that I will add as my next step. function addUser( $username, $password ) { global $gDB, $gPasswordSalt; $stmt = $gDB->prepare( 'INSERT INTO user(user_name, user_password, user_registration) VALUES(?, ?, NOW())' ); $stmt || trigger_error( 'Failed to prepare statement: ' . htmlspecialchars( $gDB->error ) ); $hashedPassword = hash_hmac( 'sha256', $password, $gPasswordSalt, true ); $stmt->bind_param( 'ss', $username, $hashedPassword ); if( $stmt->execute() ) { return true; } elseif( $stmt->errno == 1062) { return 'exists'; } else { trigger_error( 'Failed to execute statement: ' . htmlspecialchars( $stmt->error ) ); } } $username = $_REQUEST['username']; $password = $_REQUEST['password']; $result = addUser( $username, $password ); if( $result === true ) { $gPageTitle = 'Registration successful'; require_once 'bgsheader.php'; echo '<p>You have successfully registered as ' . htmlspecialchars( $username ) . ' on this site.</p>'; } elseif( $result == 'exists' ) { $gPageTitle = 'Username already taken'; require_once 'bgsheader.php'; echo '<p>Someone is already using the username you have chosen. Please try using another one instead.'; } else { trigger_error('This should never happen'); } require_once 'bgsfooter.php';

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• Custom cell in list in Flash AS3

  - by Stian Flatby

  I am no expert in Flash, and I need some quick help here, without needing to learn everything from scratch. Short story, I have to make a list where each cell contains an image, two labels, and a button. List/Cell example: img - label - label - button img - label - label - button As a Java-programmer, I have tried to quicly learn the syntax and visualness of Flash and AS3, but with no luck so far. I have fairly understood the basics of movie clips etc. I saw a tutorial on how to add a list, and add some text to it. So I dragged in a list, and in the code went list.addItem({label:"hello"}); , and that worked ofc. So i thought if I double-clicked the MC of the list, i would get to tweak some things. In there I have been wandering around different halls of cell-renderers etc. I have now come to the point that I entered the CellRenderer_skinUp or something, and customized it to my liking. When this was done, I expected i could use list.addItem(); and get an empty "version" of my cell, with the img, labels and the button. But AS3 expects an input in addItem. From my object-oriented view, I am thinking that i have to create an object of the cell i have made, but i have no luck reaching it.. I tried to go var test:CellRenderer = list.listItem; list.addItem(test); ..But with no luck. This is just for funsies, but I really want to make this work, however not so much that I am willing to read up on ALOT of Flash and AS3. I felt that I was closing in on the prize, but the compiler expected a semicolon after the variable (list.addItem({test:something});). Note: If possible, I do NOT want this: list.addItem({image:"src",label:"text",label"text",button:"text"}); Well.. It actually is what I want, but I would really like to custom-draw everything. Does anyone get what I am trying to do, and has any answers for me? Am I approaching this the wrong way? I have searched the interwebs for custom list-cells, but with no luck. Please, any guiding here is appreciated! Sti

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• What alternatives do I have for source control and does GIT does that?

  - by RubberDuck

  I work as a freelancer programmer for some clients and also create apps for myself. When I work for myself, obviously I work alone. I generally don't work in a linear way. My big problems today are: I have a lot of apps that use the same classes I have developed; In the past, I put all these common classes on a directory outside all projects and included them on my apps using absolute paths, but this method sucks because by accident (if you forget) you may change a path or the disk and all projects are broken. Then I decided to copy those classes to my projects every time. Because the majority of these classes do not change frequently, I am relatively ok, but when they change, I am in hell; When I change one of these classes I have to propagate the changes to all other apps using copies of them. I have also tried to create frameworks but thanks to Apple, I cannot create frameworks for iOS and have to create libraries and bundles and create a nightmare of paths from one to the other and to the project to make that sh!t works. So, I am done with frameworks/libraries on Xcode until Xcode is a decent IDE. So, I see I need something better to manage my source code. What I need is this (I never used GIT on Xcode. I have read Apple docs but I still have these points): does git locally on Xcode allows me to deal with assets or just code? Can I have the equivalent of a "framework" (code + assets) managed by git locally? Can an entire xcodeproj be managed as a unity? I mean, Suppose I have a xcodeproj created and want GIT to manage it. How do I enable git on a project that was created without it and start designating files for management. (I have enabled git on Xcode's preferences, but all source control menu is grayed out). Is git the best option? Do I have another? Remember that my main condition is that the files should stay on the local computer. Please save me (I am a bit dramatic today). Thanks.

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• Is valgrind crazy or is this is a genuine std map iterator memory leak?

  - by Alberto Toglia

  Well, I'm very new to Valgrind and memory leak profilers in general. And I must say it is a bit scary when you start using them cause you can't stop wondering how many leaks you might have left unsolved before! To the point, as I'm not an experienced in c++ programmer, I would like to check if this is certainly a memory leak or is it that Valgrind is doing a false positive? typedef std::vector<int> Vector; typedef std::vector<Vector> VectorVector; typedef std::map<std::string, Vector*> MapVector; typedef std::pair<std::string, Vector*> PairVector; typedef std::map<std::string, Vector*>::iterator IteratorVector; VectorVector vv; MapVector m1; MapVector m2; vv.push_back(Vector()); m1.insert(PairVector("one", &vv.back())); vv.push_back(Vector()); m2.insert(PairVector("two", &vv.back())); IteratorVector i = m1.find("one"); i->second->push_back(10); m2.insert(PairVector("one", i->second)); m2.clear(); m1.clear(); vv.clear(); Why is that? Shouldn't the clear command call the destructor of every object and every vector? Now after doing some tests I found different solutions to the leak: 1) Deleting the line i-second-push_back(10); 2) adding a delete i-second; after it's been used. 3) Deleting the second vv.push_back(Vector()); and m2.insert(PairVector("two", &vv.back())); statements. Using solution 2) makes Valgring print: 10 allocs, 11 frees Is that OK? As I'm not using new why should I delete? Thanks, for any help!

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• c# video equivalent to image.fromstream? Or changing the scope of the following script to allow vide

  - by Daniel

  The following is a part of an upload class in a c# script. I'm a php programmer, I've never messed with c# much but I'm trying to learn. This upload script will not handle anything except images, I need to adapt this class to handle other types of media also, or rewrite it all together. If I'm correct, I realize that using (Image image = Image.FromStream(file.InputStream)) basically says that the scope of the following is Image, only an image can be used or the object is discarded? And also that the variable image is being created from an Image from the file stream, which I understand to be, like... the $_FILES array in php? I dunno, I don't really care about making thumbnails right now either way, so if this can be taken out and still process the upload I'm totally cool with that, I just haven't had any luck getting this thing to take anything but images, even when commenting out that whole part of the class... protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e) { string dir = Path.Combine(Request.PhysicalApplicationPath, "files"); if (Request.Files.Count == 0) { // No files were posted Response.StatusCode = 500; } else { try { // Only one file at a time is posted HttpPostedFile file = Request.Files[0]; // Size limit 100MB if (file.ContentLength > 102400000) { // File too large Response.StatusCode = 500; } else { string id = Request.QueryString["userId"]; string[] folders = userDir(id); foreach (string folder in folders) { dir = Path.Combine(dir, folder); if (!Directory.Exists(dir)) Directory.CreateDirectory(dir); } string path = Path.Combine(dir, String.Concat(Request.QueryString["batchId"], "_", file.FileName)); file.SaveAs(path); // Create thumbnail int dot = path.LastIndexOf('.'); string thumbpath = String.Concat(path.Substring(0, dot), "_thumb", path.Substring(dot)); using (Image image = Image.FromStream(file.InputStream)) { // Find the ratio that will create maximum height or width of 100px. double ratio = Math.Max(image.Width / 100.0, image.Height / 100.0); using (Image thumb = new Bitmap(image, new Size((int)Math.Round(image.Width / ratio), (int)Math.Round(image.Height / ratio)))) { using (Graphics graphic = Graphics.FromImage(thumb)) { // Make sure thumbnail is not crappy graphic.SmoothingMode = SmoothingMode.HighQuality; graphic.InterpolationMode = InterpolationMode.High; graphic.CompositingQuality = CompositingQuality.HighQuality; // JPEG ImageCodecInfo codec = ImageCodecInfo.GetImageEncoders()[1]; // 90% quality EncoderParameters encode = new EncoderParameters(1); encode.Param[0] = new EncoderParameter(Encoder.Quality, 90L); // Resize graphic.DrawImage(image, new Rectangle(0, 0, thumb.Width, thumb.Height)); // Save thumb.Save(thumbpath, codec, encode); } } } // Success Response.StatusCode = 200; } } catch { // Something went wrong Response.StatusCode = 500; } } }

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• Converting this code from ASP to PHP

  - by jethomas

  I'll admit I'm a novice programmer and really the only experience I have is in classic ASP. I'm looking for a way to convert this asp code to PHP. For a customer who only has access to a linux box but also as a learning tool for me. Thanks in advance for the help: Recordset and Function: Function pd(n, totalDigits) if totalDigits > len(n) then pd = String(totalDigits-len(n),"0") & n else pd = n end if End Function 'declare the variables Dim Connection Dim Recordset Dim SQL Dim SQLDate SQLDate = Year(Date)& "-" & pd(Month(Date()),2)& "-" & pd(Day(Date()),2) 'declare the SQL statement that will query the database SQL = "SELECT * FROM tblXYZ WHERE element_8 = 2 AND element_9 > '" & SQLDate &"'" 'create an instance of the ADO connection and recordset objects Set Connection = Server.CreateObject("ADODB.Connection") Set Recordset = Server.CreateObject("ADODB.Recordset") 'open the connection to the database Connection.Open "PROVIDER=MSDASQL;DRIVER={MySQL ODBC 5.1 Driver};SERVER=localhost;UID=xxxxx;PWD=xxxxx;database=xxxxx;Option=3;" 'Open the recordset object executing the SQL statement and return records Recordset.Open SQL,Connection Display page/loop: Dim counter counter = 0 While Not Recordset.EOF counter = counter + 1 response.write("<div><td width='200' valign='top' align='center'><a href='" & Recordset("element_6") & "' style='text-decoration: none;'><div id='ad_header'>" & Recordset("element_3") & "</div><div id='store_name' valign='bottom'>" & Recordset("element_5") & "</div><img id='photo-small-img' src='http://xyz.com/files/" & Recordset("element_7") & "' /><br /><div id='ad_details'>"& Recordset("element_4") & "</div></a></td></div>") Recordset.MoveNext If counter = 3 Then Response.Write("</tr><tr>") counter = 0 End If Wend

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• Showing div based on filled form field

  - by Fabio

  I have this script where I use a slider to show some elements of a form. So far so good. The way I'm doing it is by having a slider (can't use a multistep form since it uses a plugin not allowing multistep forms, plus some graphic behaviors) and a button that goes to the next slider. So now I need that button (not part of the form) to show only if a certain field is filled. I tried teh following, but it's not working, I assume some error but can't figure what. My code is as follows: $('#clientname').change(function() { var clientVal = $("input").val() == ''; $(".next").hide(); if ($('#clientname').val() != '').show(); else $('.next').hide(); }); and the html as follows: <div class="b40-right"> <h3>The Basics</h3> <div class="label"> Your Name (required)</div> <div class="inputes"> <span class="wpcf7-form-control-wrap your-name"><input id="clientname" type="text" name="your-name" value="" class="wpcf7-form-control wpcf7-text wpcf7-validates-as-required" size="40" /></span> </div> <div class="label">Your Email (required)</div> <div class="inputes"> <span class="wpcf7-form-control-wrap your-email"><input type="text" name="your-email" value="" class="wpcf7-form-control wpcf7-text wpcf7-email wpcf7-validates-as-required wpcf7-validates-as-email" size="40" /></span> </div> <div class="label">Type of Business</div> <div class="inputes"> <span class="wpcf7-form-control-wrap type-of-business"><textarea name="type-of-business" class="wpcf7-form-control wpcf7-textarea" cols="40" rows="10"></textarea></span> </div> </div> <a class="next" href="javascript:stepcarousel.stepBy('mygallery2', 1)"><img id="nextbut1" src="<?php bloginfo('template_directory'); ?>/images/next.png" alt="" /></a> any help on what am I doing wrong? Is there a better approach/solution? (I'm not a programmer as you may figure) Thank you in advance!

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• Achieving C# "readonly" behavior in C++

  - by Tommy Fisk

  Hi guys, this is my first question on stack overflow, so be gentle. Let me first explain the exact behavior I would like to see. If you are familiar with C# then you know that declaring a variable as "readonly" allows a programmer to assign some value to that variable exactly once. Further attempts to modify the variable will result in an error. What I am after: I want to make sure that any and all single-ton classes I define can be predictably instantiated exactly once in my program (more details at the bottom). My approach to realizing my goal is to use extern to declare a global reference to the single-ton (which I will later instantiate at a time I choose. What I have sort of looks like this, namespace Global { extern Singleton& mainInstance; // not defined yet, but it will be later! } int main() { // now that the program has started, go ahead and create the singleton object Singleton& Global::mainInstance = Singleton::GetInstance(); // invalid use of qualified name Global::mainInstance = Singleton::GetInstance(); // doesn't work either :( } class Singleton { /* Some details ommited */ public: Singleton& GetInstance() { static Singleton instance; // exists once for the whole program return instance; } } However this does not really work, and I don't know where to go from here. Some details about what I'm up against: I'm concerned about threading as I am working on code that will deal with game logic while communicating with several third-party processes and other processes I will create. Eventually I would have to implement some kind of synchronization so multiple threads could access the information in the Singleton class without worry. Because I don't know what kinds of optimizations I might like to do, or exactly what threading entails (never done a real project using it), I was thinking that being able to predictably control when Singletons were instantiated would be a Good Thing. Imagine if Process A creates Process B, where B contains several Singletons distributed against multiple files and/or libraries. It could be a real nightmare if I can not reliably ensure the order these singleton objects are instantiated (because they could depend on each other, and calling methods on a NULL object is generally a Bad Thing). If I were in C# I would just use the readonly keyword, but is there any way I can implement this (compiler supported) behavior in C++? Is this even a good idea? Thanks for any feedback.

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• Numpy/Python performing terribly vs. Matlab

  - by Nissl

  Novice programmer here. I'm writing a program that analyzes the relative spatial locations of points (cells). The program gets boundaries and cell type off an array with the x coordinate in column 1, y coordinate in column 2, and cell type in column 3. It then checks each cell for cell type and appropriate distance from the bounds. If it passes, it then calculates its distance from each other cell in the array and if the distance is within a specified analysis range it adds it to an output array at that distance. My cell marking program is in wxpython so I was hoping to develop this program in python as well and eventually stick it into the GUI. Unfortunately right now python takes ~20 seconds to run the core loop on my machine while MATLAB can do ~15 loops/second. Since I'm planning on doing 1000 loops (with a randomized comparison condition) on ~30 cases times several exploratory analysis types this is not a trivial difference. I tried running a profiler and array calls are 1/4 of the time, almost all of the rest is unspecified loop time. Here is the python code for the main loop: for basecell in range (0, cellnumber-1): if firstcelltype == np.array((cellrecord[basecell,2])): xloc=np.array((cellrecord[basecell,0])) yloc=np.array((cellrecord[basecell,1])) xedgedist=(xbound-xloc) yedgedist=(ybound-yloc) if xloc>excludedist and xedgedist>excludedist and yloc>excludedist and yedgedist>excludedist: for comparecell in range (0, cellnumber-1): if secondcelltype==np.array((cellrecord[comparecell,2])): xcomploc=np.array((cellrecord[comparecell,0])) ycomploc=np.array((cellrecord[comparecell,1])) dist=math.sqrt((xcomploc-xloc)**2+(ycomploc-yloc)**2) dist=round(dist) if dist>=1 and dist<=analysisdist: arraytarget=round(dist*analysisdist/intervalnumber) addone=np.array((spatialraw[arraytarget-1])) addone=addone+1 targetcell=arraytarget-1 np.put(spatialraw,[targetcell,targetcell],addone) Here is the matlab code for the main loop: for basecell = 1:cellnumber; if firstcelltype==cellrecord(basecell,3); xloc=cellrecord(basecell,1); yloc=cellrecord(basecell,2); xedgedist=(xbound-xloc); yedgedist=(ybound-yloc); if (xloc>excludedist) && (yloc>excludedist) && (xedgedist>excludedist) && (yedgedist>excludedist); for comparecell = 1:cellnumber; if secondcelltype==cellrecord(comparecell,3); xcomploc=cellrecord(comparecell,1); ycomploc=cellrecord(comparecell,2); dist=sqrt((xcomploc-xloc)^2+(ycomploc-yloc)^2); if (dist>=1) && (dist<=100.4999); arraytarget=round(dist*analysisdist/intervalnumber); spatialsum(1,arraytarget)=spatialsum(1,arraytarget)+1; end end end end end end Thanks!

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• Inlining an array of non-default constructible objects in a C++ class

  - by porgarmingduod

  C++ doesn't allow a class containing an array of items that are not default constructible: class Gordian { public: int member; Gordian(int must_have_variable) : member(must_have_variable) {} }; class Knot { Gordian* pointer_array[8]; // Sure, this works. Gordian inlined_array[8]; // Won't compile. Can't be initialized. }; As even beginner C++ users know, the language guarantees that all members are initialized when constructing a class. And it doesn't trust the user to initialize everything in the constructor - one has to provide valid arguments to the constructors of all members before the body of the constructor even starts. Generally, that's a great idea as far as I'm concerned, but I've come across a situation where it would be a lot easier if I could actually have an array of non-default constructible objects. The obvious solution: Have an array of pointers to the objects. This is not optimal in my case, as I am using shared memory. It would force me to do extra allocation from an already contended resource (that is, the shared memory). The entire reason I want to have the array inlined in the object is to reduce the number of allocations. This is a situation where I would be willing to use a hack, even an ugly one, provided it works. One possible hack I am thinking about would be: class Knot { public: struct dummy { char padding[sizeof(Gordian)]; }; dummy inlined_array[8]; Gordian* get(int index) { return reinterpret_cast<Gordian*>(&inlined_array[index]); } Knot() { for (int x = 0; x != 8; x++) { new (get(x)) Gordian(x*x); } } }; Sure, it compiles, but I'm not exactly an experienced C++ programmer. That is, I couldn't possibly trust my hacks less. So, the questions: 1) Does the hack I came up with seem workable? What are the issues? (I'm mainly concerned with C++0x on newer versions of GCC). 2) Is there a better way to inline an array of non-default constructible objects in a class?

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• How to Automatically Refresh Data on Page Using Ajax on an Interval?

  - by Karnak

  I would like to load an XML file every 30 seconds and display its contents inside an HTML page. So far I know how to load the file, but I don't know how to automatically refresh it and display its updated contents. It would also be great if it did some error checking and if it displayed error.png image when it's not able to load data.xml file. Here is my code: <head> <script> window.XMLHttpRequest { xmlhttp = new XMLHttpRequest(); } xmlhttp.open("GET", "data.xml", false); xmlhttp.send(); loadXMLDoc = xmlhttp.responseXML; f = loadXMLDoc.getElementsByTagName("foo") function buildBar(i) { qux = (f[i].getElementsByTagName("qux")[0].childNodes[0].nodeValue); document.getElementById("displayBar").innerHTML = qux; } </script> </head> <body> <script> document.write("<ul>"); for (var i = 0; i < f.length; i++) { document.write("<li onclick='buildBar(" + i + ")'>"); document.write(f[i].getElementsByTagName("bar")[0].childNodes[0].nodeValue); document.write("</li>"); } document.write("</ul>"); </script> <div id="displayBar"> </div> </body> After searching the internet for a few hours I found many examples on how to do this, but I didn't know how to implement it in my particular case. I am not a programmer, so please be kind. I would really appriciate any help. It would mean a lot.

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• Advice needed: stay with Java team or move to C++ team?

  - by user68759

  Some background - I have been programming in Java as a professional for the last few years. This is mainly using Java SE. I have also touched bits and pieces of other various Java technologies and have some basic knowledge about them. I consider my self as an intermediate Java programmer. I like Java very much. I think it is only going to get bigger. Recently, my manager asked my opinion on whether I would like to be transferred to another team within the company that is developing a product in C++. This is mainly because my current Java team simply didn't make enough money due to poor sales and the economic downturn. Now, I have never had any experience with C++ nor have I ever coded a single line of code in C++. I have always wanted to learn it and now is my chance. But I really want to make sure I get benefit out of it in the future, in the sense that I will have the skills that will still be on-demand in the future. So, what do you experts think? Is C++ still the language to learn these days to secure yourself for the future? What will I learn more in C++ but not in Java? And are they worthy to learn considering the current and possible future demands in IT industry? (Apart from the obvious more control over memory management and something along that line.) What is a good excuse to refuse the offer in order to stay with the Java team? I don't want to blatantly refuse it because you can never predict the future and I could possibly come back to my manager in the future and ask him to transfer me to the C++ team. How do I say it nicely that I am taking the offer but I would like to still be involved with Java one way or another, such as when there is a new Java project I would like to be considered. I have to admit that I am kind of 50-50 at the moment. I want to learn C++ for the sake of improving my skills and also helping my company to reduce the fund required for the Java team. But it is also hard for me to leave Java because I know Java is going to get bigger, so I am afraid of getting behind when I start concentrating on C++. I could, of course, decide to just join the C++ team, and then spend my free time reading about Java to keep in touch with it, but I thought I would ask anyway in case some people can point out the strong points of either over the other given the current and possibly future circumstances.

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• Boost MultiIndex - objects or pointers (and how to use them?)?

  - by Sarah

  I'm programming an agent-based simulation and have decided that Boost's MultiIndex is probably the most efficient container for my agents. I'm not a professional programmer, and my background is very spotty. I've two questions: Is it better to have the container contain the agents (of class Host) themselves, or is it more efficient for the container to hold Host *? Hosts will sometimes be deleted from memory (that's my plan, anyway... need to read up on new and delete). Hosts' private variables will get updated occasionally, which I hope to do through the modify function in MultiIndex. There will be no other copies of Hosts in the simulation, i.e., they will not be used in any other containers. If I use pointers to Hosts, how do I set up the key extraction properly? My code below doesn't compile. // main.cpp - ATTEMPTED POINTER VERSION ... #include <boost/multi_index_container.hpp> #include <boost/multi_index/hashed_index.hpp> #include <boost/multi_index/member.hpp> #include <boost/multi_index/ordered_index.hpp> #include <boost/multi_index/mem_fun.hpp> #include <boost/tokenizer.hpp> typedef multi_index_container< Host *, indexed_by< // hash by Host::id hashed_unique< BOOST_MULTI_INDEX_MEM_FUN(Host,int,Host::getID) > // arg errors here > // end indexed_by > HostContainer; ... int main() { ... HostContainer testHosts; Host * newHostPtr; newHostPtr = new Host( t, DOB, idCtr, 0, currentEvents ); testHosts.insert( newHostPtr ); ... } I can't find a precisely analogous example in the Boost documentation, and my knowledge of C++ syntax is still very weak. The code does appear to work when I replace all the pointer references with the class objects themselves. As best I can read it, the Boost documentation (see summary table at bottom) implies I should be able to use member functions with pointer elements.

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• Apache outputs all urls of a second domain as a subfolder of the primary domain name

  - by s_rathbone

  Hi all, would anyone be able to possibly give me some guidance.. Basically, i have a 'shared hosting' account with a large internet hosting provider, and my account lets me have multiple seperate domains within this folder structure.(note: not aliased domains and not sub domains). so, my goal is to have 2 domains set up. i have already purchased the two domain names i need: The first domain is the 'primary' domain name for the root folder(eg. www.example1.com) and the second domain name is set for one of its sub folders(eg. www.example2.com is set to the folder www.example1.com/sites/music). The problem is that when apache returns a page of the second domain back to the browser, apache writes the hyperlinks as if it's a sub folder of the first domain ( eg. www.example2.com/index.html. comes out as http://www.example1.com/sites/music/index.html). Now, I have done some reading on this, looking though "Apache: the definitive guide"(o'reilly), and although it was useful, couldn't really find the answer. i'm guessing this issue is most likely an apache setup issue in http.conf, rather than an issue with the hosting company itself (which is why im posting it here) and I have also been to the official documentation for apache site, and i am guessing i might need to use something like the rewritebase directive in htaccess files.. but im really not sure, im more of a java programmer guy, and have been struggling with this for a couple of days. Any guidance would be REALLY appreciated. If it helps, my hosting company is godaddy, and my sites are hosted on linux. My problem was originally with wordpress which i reinstalled a number of times in various ways to correct the problem, but ive just done a test with a very simple static html, and it still has the same issue with relative urls like this: <html> <head></head><body><a href="images/dog.html">Pictures of Dogs</a></body> </html> However, it is fine if i hardcode the urls like this: <html> <head></head><body><a href="http://www.example2.com/images/dog.html">Pictures of Dogs</a></body> </html> Thanks heaps, Steve R NOW FIXED Ok, the problem has now been fixed, and i didn't need to modify any .conf or .htaccess files. The problem was, that when I went to install the second application into a second domain from the godaddy site, one of the setup questions is that it asks you which site you want it installed to. after that it asks for the desired folder path. However, the problem was that the second domain name was already pointing to the correct subfolder of the primary domain. So when I started installing wordpress again and came to the menu to select which site it was for, and it listed only the primary domain as an option, i assumed that this was like a label of "which hosting account?", or "which primary domain will your application will be installed under?" because I already knew that in the next step i was specifiying the folder. In order to correct this, you must make sure that your second domain is added to your domain list so that it will be listed as an option during the installation process. For further details please read tystips.com/archives/52/how2-save-money-host-multiple-wordpress-blogs-on-a-single-godaddy-hosting-account/

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• I cut-to-move DCIM folder to ext SD when an auto android OS update popped up b4 I could choose target - Cannot recover 200+ photos

  - by ZeroG

  I was downloading my Exhibit II's DCIM camera folder (with month's of photos inside) to its external SD card, in order to transfer them into my laptop. In my overconfidence, I hurriedly chose cut-to-move (rather than copy-to-move) when KABOOM! —an automatic Android OS update popped up before I could choose the target!!! I figured everything was in cache & calmly tried to go through with the update. But that was not a typically seamless event. It showed downloading icon but hmm… since I rooted the phone it brought the command line up & recovery sequence. But neither Android nor I had yet downloaded any alternate custom ROM Files to internal SD to update from! So were they trying to make me unroot my phone by giving me some bogus update on the fly or just give me a hard time in trying to hand me down an unrooted ROM that I'd have to figure out how to root again? Yes, I know there was that blurb about overwriting a file of the same name but I was trying to shake the darn stubborn update being forced on my phone during this precarious moment. I thought I had frozen or turned off all those auto-updates previously. Anyway, phones are small & fingers are big (sigh)... I tried to reboot into safe mode but the resultant photo file was partially overwritten (200 files had names but Zero bytes in them). I thought maybe it was still hung in cache or deposited somewhere else but I have searched everywhere with file managers. Since I did not have Titanium backing up camera, photo folder or gallery, I cannot recover 200+ photos. Dumb. You can understand my dilemma as I am involved in the arts & although just a camera phone, most of these photos were historic & aesthetic or at least as to subject matter. Photo-ops don't reoccur. I have tried a couple of recovery apps from the market like Search Duplicates & Recover to no avail. I was only able to salvage stuff I'd sent out in messages. I've got several decades in computers & this is such a miserable beginner's piece of bad luck I can't believe it happened to me. They were precious photos! Yes, I turned on Titanium since & yes I even tried USB to laptop recoveries. Being on a MacBookPro I'm trying androidfiletransfer.dmg, but I'd have to upgrade to Peach Sunrise to get above Android 3.0 for that App to recognize the phone via USB & the programmer says installation zeros your data, so that pretty much toasts any secret hidden places where these photos may have been deposited. Don't want to do that & am still trying to find them. They certainly didn't make it to my external SD Card. If any of you techies out there know anything, please help & thanks. Despite decades of being in computing, unfamiliar & ever-changing hard or software can humble even the most seasoned veterans.

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• How to set up a centralized backup server with lots of offsite workstations, intermittent internet connectivity, and stubborn users?

  - by Zac B

  This might be an impossible question. Context: We have a bunch of computers across around 1000 users. We have a centralized office where 900 of the users work, most of the time. Most of the computers are laptops. They are very frequently coming on and off the network for hours at a time. Users often take their computers home and do lots of work from home. In addition, there are a handful of users who work elsewhere in the country, who are offline (no internet connection whatsoever) for more than half of the time they use their machines. All of the machines are Windows 7/XP. Problem: People are always losing data. One day someone accidentally deletes a bunch of files. The next day someone else installs a bad driver or tries to mess with something in system32 and needs a personal data backup/reinstall of Windows. Because of how many of our business operations are done without an internet connection, and how frequently computers come on- and offline, it's unfeasible to make users use network storage for all of their data. We tried giving them Dropboxes, and they stored their files elsewhere. We bought and deployed Altiris, and they uninstalled it and blamed us when they couldn't get files back that they accidentally deleted while they were offline and hadn't taken a backup in months. We tried teaching them backup best-practices, and using scheduled sync tools to upload things to the network drives, and they turned them off because they "looked like viruses". It doesn't help that many of these users are pretty high up in the business and are not amicable to any sort of "you need to do something regularly because we say so" solution. Question: Other than finding another job where IT is treated differently and users are willing to follow best practices, how would people recommend I implement a file backup solution that supports the following: Backs up to a centralized server over LAN or WAN whenever a network link becomes available, or on a schedule. Supports interrupted/resumed backups (and hopefully file-delta only backups), since connections to the network (WAN or LAN) are often slow and only open for half an hour or so. Supports relatively rapid, "I accidentally deleted the TPS reports! Oh no!" single-file recovery, ideally administered from the central backup server rather than the client PC. Supports local-to-local file delta backup on a schedule, so that users without a network connection for a few days can still retrieve accidental deletions or whatnot. Ideally, the local stored backups would be pushed up to the server whenever network link is available. Isn't configurable on the clients without certain credentials. Because the CFOs (who won't give up their admin rights on the domain) will disable it if they can. Backs up the entire hard drive. There are people who are self-righteous about storing things in C:\, or in the recycle bin, or in the C:\Windows dir (yes, I know). I'm fine integrating multiple products/solutions, or scripting different programs together myself (I'm a somewhat competent programmer), but I've been drawing a blank on where to start. Dropbox is folder-specific, Altiris doesn't cope with LAN outages or interrupted/resumed backups, Volume Shadow Copy is awesome for a local-to-local solution, but I don't know how to push days of stored shadow copies up to a server in a 2 hour window of network access. The company is fine with spending decent money on this, thousands (USD) on a server, and hundreds on clients, if necessary. I want to emphasize that this isn't a shopping list request. While I wish there was a program out there that did what I want, I've looked pretty hard, and not found anything that fits the bill. Instead, I'm hoping for ideas on where to start hacking things together from scratch/from different technologies to make something stable that works. Cheers!

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• Issues Converting Plain Text Into Microsoft Word Bulleted Lists

  - by user787832

  I'm a programmer. I hate status reports. I found a way to live with it. While I am working in my IDE ( Visual Slickedit ) I keep a plain text file open in one of the file/buffer tabs. As I finish things I just jot down a quick note into that file. At the end of the week that becomes my weekly status report. Example entries: The Datatables.net plugin runs very slowly in IE 8 with more than 2,000 records. I changed the way I did the server side code to process the data to make less work for the plugin to get decent performance for the IE 8 users. I made a class to wrap data from the new data collection objects into the legacy data holder objects. This will let the new database code be backward compatible with the legacy code until we can replace it. I found the bug reported by Jane. The software is fine. The database we use for the test site has data that is corrupted in a way it wouldn't be for production site At the end of the month I go back to each weekly *.txt file and paste all of the entries into a MS Word file for a monthly report. I give the monthly report to a liason to the contracting company who has to compile everyone's monthly reports into a single MS Word 2007 document. His problem, soon to be my problem, comes when he highlights my paragraphs like the ones above to put bullets in front of my paragraphs. When he highlights my notes to put bullets in front of them with MS Word 2007, Word rearranges the text a bit and the new line chars/carriage returns stagger the text so the text is no longer in neat chunks. This: I found the bug reported by Jane. The software is fine. The database we use for the test site has data that is corrupted in a way it wouldn't be for production site Becomes This: I found the bug reported by Jane. The software is fine. The database we use for the test site has data that is corrupted in a way it wouldn't be for production site I tried turning word wrap on in my IDE for the text files I put my status notes in. It just puts some kind of newline character in anyway. Searching/Replacing those chars in the text files has the result of destroying the paragraphs. Once my notes are pasted into MS Word, Word automatically translates them into paragraph breaks. Searching/Replacing them there has similar results. Blank lines separating the notes disappears. One big mess. What I would like is to be able to keep adding my status notes to a text file as I am now, but do something different when I paste the notes into MS Word such that my liason can select the text, hit the bulleting command and NOT have the staggered text as shown above. Any ideas? Thanks much in advance Steve

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• Capistrano + Nginx + Passenger = 403

  - by slimchrisp

  I asked this over at stackoverflow as well, but still haven't received any answers that have helped me to solve this problem. I have spent almost a week at this point trying to solve the issue, and I'm just not making any headway. It seems that this issue is pretty common, but none of the solutions I found online work for me. A buddy of mine is actually creating the same setup, and he is having the same issue. After a few days stuck with the 403 error I started over using this tutorial: http://blog.ninjahideout.com/posts/a-guide-to-a-nginx-passenger-and-rvm-server I had hoped starting from scratch using this tutorial would work, but no dice. Either way, if you view the tutorial you can see what steps I have taken. Here is essentially what I have going on. I have a VPS account on linode.com Server OS is Ubuntu 10.04 Local OS (shouldn't matter, but just so you know) used to deploy with Capistrano is Snow Leopard 10.6.6 I use RVM on the server. Version is 1.2.2 I was previously on ruby-1.9.2-p0 [ i386 ], but per the tutorial listed above I switched to ree-1.8.7-2010.02 [ i386 ]. Running 'which ruby' from the command line verifies that I am using 1.8.7 with the following output: /usr/local/rvm/rubies/ree-1.8.7-2010.02/bin/ruby passenger -v prints the following: Phusion Passenger version 3.0.2 Running 'nginx -v' gives me a message that the command nginx could not be found. The server is definitely there and running as I can use nginx to serve static files, but this could have something to do with my problem. I have two users dealing with the install. root which I used to install everything, and deployer which is a user I created specifically to for deploying my applications My web app directory is in the deployer user's home directory as follows: /home/deployer/webapps/mysite.com/public Per Capistrano default deploy, a symbolic link called current is created in the public folder, and points to /home/deployer/webapps/mysite.com/public/releases/most_current_release I have chmodded the deployer directory recursively to 777 /opt/nginx permissions: rwxr-xr-x /usr/local/rvm/gems/ree-1.8.7-2010.02/gems/passenger-3.0.2 permissions: rwxrwsrwx My nginx config file has gone through just short of eternity variations, but currently looks like this: ================================================================================== worker_processes 1; events { worker_connections 1024; } http { passenger_root /usr/local/rvm/gems/ree-1.8.7-2010.02/gems/passenger-3.0.2; passenger_ruby /usr/local/rvm/bin/passenger_ruby; include mime.types; default_type application/octet-stream; sendfile on; keepalive_timeout 65; server { # listen *:80; server_name mysite.com www.mysite.com; root /home/deployer/webapps/mysite.com/public/current; passenger_enabled on; passenger_friendly_error_pages on; access_log logs/mysite.com/server.log; error_log logs/mysite.com/error.log info; error_page 500 502 503 504 /50x.html; location = /50x.html { root html; } } } ================================================================================== I bounce nginx, hit the site, and boom. 403, and logs say directory index of /home/deployer... is forbidden As others with a similar problem have said, you can drop an index.html into the public/releases/current_release and it will render. But rails no worky. That's basically it. At this point I have just about completely exhausted every possible solution attempt I can think of. I am a programmer and definitely not a sysadmin, so I am 99% sure this has something to do with permissions that I have hosed, but for the life of me I just can't figure out where. If anyone can help I would really really appreciate it. If there's any specific permission things you want me to check (ie groups/permissions), can you please include the commands to do so as well. Hopefully this will help others in the future who read this post. Let me know if there is any other information I can provide, and thanks in advance!!!

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• What *exactly* gets screwed when I kill -9 or pull the power?

  - by Mike

  Set-Up I've been a programmer for quite some time now but I'm still a bit fuzzy on deep, internal stuff. Now. I am well aware that it's not a good idea to either: kill -9 a process (bad) spontaneously pull the power plug on a running computer or server (worse) However, sometimes you just plain have to. Sometimes a process just won't respond no matter what you do, and sometimes a computer just won't respond, no matter what you do. Let's assume a system running Apache 2, MySQL 5, PHP 5, and Python 2.6.5 through mod_wsgi. Note: I'm most interested about Mac OS X here, but an answer that pertains to any UNIX system would help me out. My Concern Each time I have to do either one of these, especially the second, I'm very worried for a period of time that something has been broken. Some file somewhere could be corrupt -- who knows which file? There are over 1,000,000 files on the computer. I'm often using OS X, so I'll run a "Verify Disk" operation through the Disk Utility. It will report no problems, but I'm still concerned about this. What if some configuration file somewhere got screwed up. Or even worse, what if a binary file somewhere is corrupt. Or a script file somewhere is corrupt now. What if some hardware is damaged? What if I don't find out about it until next month, in a critical scenario, when the corruption or damage causes a catastrophe? Or, what if valuable data is already lost? My Hope My hope is that these concerns and worries are unfounded. After all, after doing this many times before, nothing truly bad has happened yet. The worst is I've had to repair some MySQL tables, but I don't seem to have lost any data. But, if my worries are not unfounded, and real damage could happen in either situation 1 or 2, then my hope is that there is a way to detect it and prevent against it. My Question(s) Could this be because modern operating systems are designed to ensure that nothing is lost in these scenarios? Could this be because modern software is designed to ensure that nothing lost? What about modern hardware design? What measures are in place when you pull the power plug? My question is, for both of these scenarios, what exactly can go wrong, and what steps should be taken to fix it? I'm under the impression that one thing that can go wrong is some programs might not have flushed their data to the disk, so any highly recent data that was supposed to be written to the disk (say, a few seconds before the power pull) might be lost. But what about beyond that? And can this very issue of 5-second data loss screw up a system? What about corruption of random files hiding somewhere in the huge forest of files on my hard drives? What about hardware damage? What Would Help Me Most Detailed descriptions about what goes on internally when you either kill -9 a process or pull the power on the whole system. (it seems instant, but can someone slow it down for me?) Explanations of all things that could go wrong in these scenarios, along with (rough of course) probabilities (i.e., this is very unlikely, but this is likely)... Descriptions of measures in place in modern hardware, operating systems, and software, to prevent damage or corruption when these scenarios occur. (to comfort me) Instructions for what to do after a kill -9 or a power pull, beyond "verifying the disk", in order to truly make sure nothing is corrupt or damaged somewhere on the drive. Measures that can be taken to fortify a computer setup so that if something has to be killed or the power has to be pulled, any potential damage is mitigated. Thanks so much!

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• Week in Geek: US Govt E-card Scam Siphons Confidential Data Edition

  - by Asian Angel

  This week we learned how to “back up photos to Flickr, automate repetitive tasks, & normalize MP3 volume”, enable “stereo mix” in Windows 7 to record audio, create custom papercraft toys, read up on three alternatives to Apple’s flaky iOS alarm clock, decorated our desktops & app docks with Google icon packs, and more. Photo by alexschlegel. Random Geek Links It has been a busy week on the security & malware fronts and we have a roundup of the latest news to help keep you updated. Photo by TopTechWriter.US. US govt e-card scam hits confidential data A fake U.S. government Christmas e-card has managed to siphon off gigabytes of sensitive data from a number of law enforcement and military staff who work on cybersecurity matters, many of whom are involved in computer crime investigations. Security tool uncovers multiple bugs in every browser Michal Zalewski reports that he discovered the vulnerability in Internet Explorer a while ago using his cross_fuzz fuzzing tool and reported it to Microsoft in July 2010. Zalewski also used cross_fuzz to discover bugs in other browsers, which he also reported to the relevant organisations. Microsoft to fix Windows holes, but not ones in IE Microsoft said that it will release two security bulletins next week fixing three holes in Windows, but it is still investigating or working on fixing holes in Internet Explorer that have been reportedly exploited in attacks. Microsoft warns of Windows flaw affecting image rendering Microsoft has warned of a Windows vulnerability that could allow an attacker to take control of a computer if the user is logged on with administrative rights. Windows 7 Not Affected by Critical 0-Day in the Windows Graphics Rendering Engine While confirming that details on a Critical zero-day vulnerability have made their way into the wild, Microsoft noted that customers running the latest iteration of Windows client and server platforms are not exposed to any risks. Microsoft warns of Office-related malware Microsoft’s Malware Protection Center issued a warning this week that it has spotted malicious code on the Internet that can take advantage of a flaw in Word and infect computers after a user does nothing more than read an e-mail. *Refers to a flaw that was addressed in the November security patch releases. Make sure you have all of the latest security updates installed. Unpatched hole in ImgBurn disk burning application According to security specialist Secunia, a highly critical vulnerability in ImgBurn, a lightweight disk burning application, can be used to remotely compromise a user’s system. Hole in VLC Media Player Virtual Security Research (VSR) has identified a vulnerability in VLC Media Player. In versions up to and including 1.1.5 of the VLC Media Player. Flash Player sandbox can be bypassed Flash applications run locally can read local files and send them to an online server – something which the sandbox is supposed to prevent. Chinese auction site touts hacked iTunes accounts Tens of thousands of reportedly hacked iTunes accounts have been found on Chinese auction site Taobao, but the company claims it is unable to take action unless there are direct complaints. What happened in the recent Hotmail outage Mike Schackwitz explains the cause of the recent Hotmail outage. DOJ sends order to Twitter for Wikileaks-related account info The U.S. Justice Department has obtained a court order directing Twitter to turn over information about the accounts of activists with ties to Wikileaks, including an Icelandic politician, a legendary Dutch hacker, and a U.S. computer programmer. Google gets court to block Microsoft Interior Department e-mail win The U.S. Federal Claims Court has temporarily blocked Microsoft from proceeding with the $49.3 million, five-year DOI contract that it won this past November. Google Apps customers get email lockdown Companies and organisations using Google Apps are now able to restrict the email access of selected users. LibreOffice Is the Default Office Suite for Ubuntu 11.04 Matthias Klose has announced some details regarding the replacement of the old OpenOffice.org 3.2.1 packages with the new LibreOffice 3.3 ones, starting with the upcoming Ubuntu 11.04 (Natty Narwhal) Alpha 2 release. Sysadmin Geek Tips Photo by Filomena Scalise. How to Setup Software RAID for a Simple File Server on Ubuntu Do you need a file server that is cheap and easy to setup, “rock solid” reliable, and has Email Alerting? This tutorial shows you how to use Ubuntu, software RAID, and SaMBa to accomplish just that. How to Control the Order of Startup Programs in Windows While you can specify the applications you want to launch when Windows starts, the ability to control the order in which they start is not available. However, there are a couple of ways you can easily overcome this limitation and control the startup order of applications. Random TinyHacker Links Using Opera Unite to Send Large Files A tutorial on using Opera Unite to easily send huge files from your computer. WorkFlowy is a Useful To-do List Tool A cool to-do list tool that lets you integrate multiple tasks in one single list easily. Playing Flash Videos on iOS Devices Yes, you can play flash videos on jailbroken iPhones. Here’s a tutorial. Clear Safari History and Cookies On iPhone A tutorial on clearing your browser history on iPhone and other iOS devices. Monitor Your Internet Usage Here’s a cool, cross-platform tool to monitor your internet bandwidth. Super User Questions See what the community had to say on these popular questions from Super User this week. Why is my upload speed much less than my download speed? Where should I find drivers for my laptop if it didn’t come with a driver disk? OEM Office 2010 without media – how to reinstall? Is there a point to using theft tracking software like Prey on my laptop, if you have login security? Moving an “all-in-one” PC when turned on/off How-To Geek Weekly Article Recap Get caught up on your HTG reading with our hottest articles from this past week. How to Combine Rescue Disks to Create the Ultimate Windows Repair Disk How To Boot 10 Different Live CDs From 1 USB Flash Drive What is Camera Raw, and Why Would a Professional Prefer it to JPG? Did You Know Facebook Has Built-In Shortcut Keys? The How-To Geek Guide to Audio Editing: The Basics One Year Ago on How-To Geek Enjoy looking through our latest gathering of retro article goodness. Learning Windows 7: Create a Homegroup & Join a New Computer To It How To Disconnect a Machine from a Homegroup Use Remote Desktop To Access Other Computers On a Small Office or Home Network How To Share Files and Printers Between Windows 7 and Vista Allow Users To Run Only Specified Programs in Windows 7 The Geek Note That is all we have for you this week and we hope your first week back at work or school has gone very well now that the holidays are over. Know a great tip? Send it in to us at [email protected]. Photo by Pamela Machado. Latest Features How-To Geek ETC HTG Projects: How to Create Your Own Custom Papercraft Toy How to Combine Rescue Disks to Create the Ultimate Windows Repair Disk What is Camera Raw, and Why Would a Professional Prefer it to JPG? The How-To Geek Guide to Audio Editing: The Basics How To Boot 10 Different Live CDs From 1 USB Flash Drive The 20 Best How-To Geek Linux Articles of 2010 Arctic Theme for Windows 7 Gives Your Desktop an Icy Touch Install LibreOffice via PPA and Receive Auto-Updates in Ubuntu Creative Portraits Peek Inside the Guts of Modern Electronics Scenic Winter Lane Wallpaper to Create a Relaxing Mood Access Your Web Apps Directly Using the Context Menu in Chrome The Deep – Awesome Use of Metal Objects as Deep Sea Creatures [Video]

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• Twitter traffic might not be what it seems

  - by Piet

  Are you using bit.ly stats to measure interest in the links you post on twitter? I’ve been hearing for a while about people claiming to get the majority of their traffic originating from twitter these days. Now, I’ve been playing with the twitter ruby gem recently, doing various experiments which I’ll not go into detail here because they could be regarded as spamming… if I’d conduct them on a large scale, that is. It’s scary to see people actually engaging with @replies crafted with some regular expressions and eliza-like trickery on status updates found using the twitter api. I’m wondering how Twitter is going to contain the coming spam-flood. When posting links I used bit.ly as url shortener, since this one seems to be the de-facto standard on twitter. A nice thing about bit.ly is that it shows some basic stats about the redirects it performs for your shortened links. To my surprise, most links posted almost immediately resulted in several visitors. Now, seeing that I was posting the links together with some information concerning what the link is about, I concluded that the people who were actually clicking the links should be very targeted visitors. This felt a bit like free adwords, and I suddenly started to understand why everyone was raving about getting traffic from twitter. How wrong I was! (and I think several 1000 online marketers with me) On the destination site I used a traffic logging solution that works by including a little javascript snippet in your pages. It seemed that somehow all visitors disappeared after the bit.ly redirect and before getting to the site, because I was hardly seeing any visitors there. So I started investigating what was happening: by looking at the logfiles of the destination site, and by making my own ’shortened’ urls by doing redirects using a very short domain name I own. This way, I could check the apache access_log before the redirects. Most user agents turned out to be bots without a doubt. Here’s an excerpt of user-agents awk’ed from apache’s access_log for a time period of about one hour, right after posting some links: AideRSS 2.0 (postrank.com) Java/1.6.0_13 Java/1.6.0_14 libwww-perl/5.816 MLBot (www.metadatalabs.com/mlbot) Mozilla/4.0 (compatible;MSIE 5.01; Windows -NT 5.0 - real-url.org) Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Twitturls; +http://twitturls.com) Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Viralheat Bot/1.0; +http://www.viralheat.com/) Mozilla/5.0 (Danger hiptop 4.6; U; rv:1.7.12) Gecko/20050920 Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-us; rv:1.9.0.2) Gecko/2008092313 Ubuntu/9.04 (jaunty) Firefox/3.5 OpenCalaisSemanticProxy PycURL/7.18.2 PycURL/7.19.3 Python-urllib/1.17 Twingly Recon twitmatic Twitturly / v0.6 Wget/1.10.2 (Red Hat modified) Wget/1.11.1 (Red Hat modified) Of the few user-agents that seem ‘real’ at first, half are originating from an ip-address used by Amazon EC2. And I doubt people are setting op proxies on there. Oh yeah, Googlebot (the real deal, from a legit google owned address) is sucking up posted links like fresh oysters. I guess google is trying to make sure in advance to never be beaten by twitter in the ‘realtime search’ department. Actually, I think it’d be almost stupid NOT to post any new pages/posts/websites on Twitter, it must be one of the fastest ways to get a Googlebot visit. Same experiment with a real, established twitter account Now, because I was posting the url’s either as ’status’ messages or directed @people, on a test-account with hardly any (human) followers, I checked again using the twitter accounts from a commercial site I’m involved with. These accounts all have between 500 and 1000 targeted (I think) followers. I checked the destination access_logs and also added ‘my’ redirect after the bit.ly redirect: same results, although seemingly a bit higher real visitor/bot ratio. Btw: one of these account was ‘punished’ with a 1 week lock recently because the same (1 one!) status update was sent that was sent right before using another account. They got an email explaining the lock because the account didn’t act according to their TOS. I can’t find anything in their TOS about it, can you? I don’t think Twitter is on the right track punishing a legit account, knowing the trickery I had been doing with it’s api went totally unpunished. I might be wrong though, I often am. On the other hand: this commercial site reported targeted traffic and actual signups from visitors coming from Twitter. The ones that are really real visitors are also very targeted. I’m just not sure if the amount of work involved could hold up against an adwords campaign. Reposting the same link over and over again helps On thing I noticed: It helps to keep on reposting the same links with regular intervals. I guess most people only look at their first page when checking out recent posts of the ones they’re following, or don’t look too far back when performing a search. Now, this probably isn’t according to the twitter TOS. Actually, it might be spamming but no-one is obligated to follow anyone else of course. This way, I was getting more real visitors and less bots. To my surprise (when my programmer’s hat is on) there were still repeated visits from the same bots coming from the same ip-addresses. Did they expect to find something else when visiting for a 2nd or 3rd time? (actually,this gave me an idea: you can’t change a link once it’s posted, but you can change where it redirects to) Most bots were smart enough not to follow the same link again though. Are you successful in getting real visitors from Twitter? Are you only relying on bit.ly to provide traffic stats?

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