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  • Is text-only mode a saving or a problem for battery savings?

    - by Robottinosino
    A friend is flying to the US from Europe and asked me a very thought-provoking question, which I am not remotely able to answer with substance so I am asking it here: How to absolutely maximise battery life on an Ubuntu (laptop) install? do not rush to mark this as duplicate, there is an important point here: does -GNOME- help or worsen battery life? Let me provide some context: The only task he needs to perform is: edit text files in Vim. He is unsure whether running GNOME will drain his battery life more or actually save him some battery life given the smarts of GNOME's power management features like "switch this peripheral to -power save- after X minutes..." (GNOME might just be a configuration front-end for settings that are governed by command-line utils for all I know?) He could perfectly well boot the system in text-only mode and use the automatic 6 virtual consoles for his needs, if that's a saving at all over running tmux (I think so because of all the smart buffering/history/etc the latter does by default?) Exactly how would you advise him to run his laptop during his flight? What I told him already: power off WiFi in the BIOS, not from the "GUI" power off Bluetooth switch off the courtesy light and use low monitor brightness play music off of his phone, not mp3blaster do not use his tiny portable mouse (and do not attach any other USB gimmicks like "screen light", etc) stop development services he will not be using, especially apache2, tomcat, dovecot, postgresql, etc. Potentially: - switch off his cron jobs? (he does an rsync + tar + 7za of his "work in progress" every so often) I think the above is standard stuff one could get off StackExchange, and with many duplicates... the core of this question is, I think: __ will running Ubuntu in text-only mode be a saving in terms of battery life or a problem? why? (provide some technical arguments) __ I think it will be a saving but I am also scared about "other things" detecting and enabling advanced chipset power management features only when some services are started.. and fear these "services" may be off in text-only mode?

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  • Less graphics power all the sudden (Intel HD 3000)

    - by queueoverflow
    I have a Intel Sandy Bridge i5 with the HD 3000 graphics card. I used to be able to play Urban Terror and Nexuiz comfortably with 85 and 60 frames per seconds until mid/end of October 2012, the former even on a full HD display with that many frames. Now I have around 30 to 45 on the smaller laptop screen and around 20 to 30 on the external monitor. Did something happen to Kubuntu 12.04 so that it has less graphics performance than previously? Update I looked into the system monitor and could not detect anything being at the maximum. The four CPU cores were pretty much bored, the 8 GB RAM were filled with maybe 2 GB. And I ran intel_cpu_top and did not notice anything at its limit. See the output. after Kernel bisecting I now did a kernel bisect and tried 3.2.0-23, 3.2.0-27, 3.2.0-29 and 3.2.0-30 and all had full graphics power. Interestingly, I then had full power when I just booted back into the regular 3.2.0-32 kernel. This does not make sense to me …

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  • Garage Sale Code &ndash; Everything must go!

    - by mbcrump
    Garage Sale Code     The term “Garage Sale Code” came from a post by Scott Hanselman. He defines Garage Sale Code as: Complete – It’s a whole library or application. Concise – It does one discrete thing. Clear – It’ll work when you get it. Cheap – It’s free or < 25 cents. (Quite Possibly) Crap – As with a Garage Sale, you’ll never know until you get it home if it’s useless. With the code I’ve posted here, you’ll get all 5 of those things (with an emphasis on crap). All of the projects listed below are available on CodePlex with full source code and executables (for those that just want to run it).  I plan on keeping this page updated when I complete projects that benefit the community.  You can always find this page again by swinging by http://garagesale.michaelcrump.net or you can keep on driving and find another sale. Name Description Language/Technology Used WPF Alphabet WPF Alphabet is a application that I created to help my child learn the alphabet. It displays each letter and pronounces it using speech synthesis. It was developed using WPF and c# in about 3 hours (so its kinda rough). C#, WPF Windows 7 Playlist Generator This program allows you to quickly create wvx video playlist for Windows Media Center. This functionality is not included in WMC and is useful if you want to play video files back to back without selecting the next file. It is also useful to queue up video files to keep children occupied! C#, WinForms Windows 7 Automatic Playlist Creator This application is designed to create W7MC playlist automatically whenever you want. You can select if you want the playlist sorted Alphabetical, by Creation Date or Random. C#, WinForms, Console Generator Twitter Message for Live Writer This is a plug-in for Windows Live Writer that generates a twitter message with your blog post name and a TinyUrl link to the blog post. It will do all of this automatically after you publish your post. C#, LiveWriter API

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  • using NetBeans for rotate a figure in a label [migrated]

    - by user134812
    I was reading this post: http://forums.netbeans.org/post-8864.html and what I have done so far is to make a jFrame in NetBeans, on it I have drawn a jPanel and inisde the panel I have drawn a jLabel on it and use the icon property to put an image on it; until now all is so far so good. I would like to make a program that everytime I click on the figure it rotates it to the right. Actually I have found the following code: public class RotateImage extends JPanel{ // Declare an Image object for us to use. Image image; // Create a constructor method public RotateImage(){ super(); // Load an image to play with. image = Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().getImage("Duke_Blocks.gif"); } public void paintComponent(Graphics g){ Graphics2D g2d=(Graphics2D)g; // Create a Java2D version of g. g2d.translate(170, 0); // Translate the center of our coordinates. g2d.rotate(1); // Rotate the image by 1 radian. g2d.drawImage(image, 0, 0, 200, 200, this); } but for what I see this code is for making the panel and other components from scratch, for my purposes it is not so good because I need to put several figures on my jFrame. Could somebody can give me a hint how to do this?

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  • What makes you look like a bad developer (ie a hacker) [on hold]

    - by user134583
    This comes from a lot of people about me, so I have to look at myself. So I would wonder what make one a bad developer (ie a hacker). These are a few things about me I used IDE intensively, all features, you name it: auto-completion, refactoring, quick fixes, open type, view hierarchy, API documentation, etcc When I deal with writing code for a project in domain I am not used to (I can't have fluency in this, this is new), I only have a very rough high level ideas. I don't use the standard modeling diagrams for early detail planning. Unorthodox diagrams that I invented when I need to draw the design in details. I don't use UML or similar, I find them not enough. I divide the sorts of diagram I drew into 3 types. Very high level diagrams which probably can be understood by almost anybody. Data entity diagram used for modeling data objects only (like ER diagrams and tree for inheritances and composition). Action diagrams for agents/classes and their interactions on data objects they contain. Constantly changing the interface (public methods) between interacting agents/classes if the need arises. I am more refrained when the interface and the module have matured Write initial concept code in a quick hackie way just so that the module works in the general cases so that I can play around with it. The module will be re-factored intensively after playing around so I could see more corner cases that I couldn't or (wouldn't want) anticipate before writing code. Using JUnit for integration-like test by using TestSuite class and ordering Unit test classes in the suite Using debugger almost anytime there is a problem instead of reading the code Constantly search on the internet for how to do some thing with some library that I haven't used a lot. So judgment, am I a bad developer? a hacker? Put in other words, to make sure this is not considered off-topic: - Is this bad practice to make your code too agile during incubating/prototyping phase of software development - Is it bad practice to use JUnit for integration testing, (I know there are other framework for integration testing, but those frameworks are for a specific products, not general)

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  • Game 30% done on HTML5. Maybe it was a bad idea. Should I change to Unity3d? [on hold]

    - by Dokkat
    I'm creating a 3d game on HTML5. It's 30% complete and the hard part is already coded. The server is on node.js.Now I'm realizing that maybe it was not a wise choice. This is because I realized: Three.js still has many bugs. I don't see the same thing on every machine. Each browser, OS, can give different results. I'm afraid my clients will have a great stress installing my game properly. I have tons of sprites and models on my game. I wonder if my clients will have to load all them again everytime they want to play? I wonder if a Node.js server will be fast enough to handle it, and I'm afraid it won't be scalable. What would you advise me? Should I continue and finish the game on HTML5 or is it better to remake it on something else, like Unity3d for the client and (what?) for the server?

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  • How can I get nVidia CUDA or OpenCL working on a laptop with nVidia discrete card/Intel Integrated Graphics?

    - by PeterDC
    Background: I'm a 3D artist (as a hobby) and have recently started using Ubuntu 12.04 LTS as a dual-boot with Windows 7. It's running on my a fairly new 64-bit Toshiba laptop with an nVidia GeForce GT 540M GPU (graphics card). It also, however has Intel Integrated Graphics (which I suspect Ubuntu's been using). So, when I render my 3D scenes to images on Windows, I am able to choose between using my CPU or my nVidia GPU (faster). From the 3D application, I can set the GPU to use either CUDA or OpenCL. In Ubuntu, there's no GPU option. After doing (too much?) research on the issues with Linux and the nVidia Optimus technology, I am slightly more enlightened, but a lot more confused. I don't care one bit about the Optimus technology, as battery life is not by any means an issue for me. Here's my question: What can I do to be able to use CUDA-utilizing programs (such as Blender) on my nVidia GPU in Ubuntu? Will I need nVidia drivers? (I have heard they don't play nicely with Optimus setups on Linux.) Is there at least a way to use OpenCL on my GPU in Ubuntu?

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  • Scala - learning by doing

    - by wrecked
    coming from the PHP-framework symfony (with Apache/MySQL) I would like to dive into the Scala programming language. I already followed a few tutorials and had a look at Lift and Play. Java isn't a stranger to me either. However the past showed that it's easiest to learn things by just doing them. Currently we have a little - mostly ajax-driven - application build on symfony at my company. My idea is to just build a little project similar to this one which might gets into production in the future. The app should feature: High scalability and performance a backend-server web-interface and a GUI-client There are plenty of questions arising when I think of this. First of all: Whats the best way to accomplish a easy to maintain, structured base for it? Would it be best to establish a socket based communication between pure-scala server/client and accessing that data via Lift or is building a Lift-app serving as a server and connecting the gui-client (via REST?) the better way? Furthermore I wounder which database to choose. I'm familiar with (My)SQL but feel like a fool beeing confronted with all these things like NoSQL, MongoDB and more. Thanks in advance!

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  • Can you recommend a game server for a facebook board game?

    - by Yekmer Simsek
    I am seeking a game server that will scale well. All commercial and/or free software alternatives are welcome. Game will be a boardgame that is similar to poker. Some technical details are listed below. There will be a table which consists of 4 people, to send them message I need a channel manager. A table will be ready to play for at least 5 minutes. There should be a reliable channel manager. People will wait for some time(i.e.) and if they are not playing they will be kicked by server, so there will be a reliable timed task queue to execute some tasks. It should be quick enough to response and show the changes to all 4 people on that table simultaneously.To achive this server should have a powerfull I/O library. I think to use inmemory to have quick response times, but it comes with scalability problems. And some variables should be thread safe so a variable should be thread safe between multiple nodes. Flash(AS3) and Unity (.Net 2.0 C# mono) client API's should be available for socket connection. PS: I am using Reddwarf server, it lacks of documentation and multiple node.

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  • Can I legally make a free clone of a game and use the same name? [closed]

    - by BlueMonkMN
    I gather from Is it legally possible to make a clone of the game? and How closely can a game resemble another game without legal problems that I should not try to profit from a clone if it is using the same assets, and, I presume, the same name. My question is whether it's legal to make a game like "Set" or "Catch Phrase", using the same name, and release it for free. What would I be risking if I did so -- just a take down notice, or could there be financial risk too? Edit: I guess my real question is whether the legal freedom is greater for a free game than one that is trying to make a profit. I just want a version of the game I can play remotely. Edit 2: I don't understand why this is being considered off-topic. I read the FAQ and it says it'S OK to ask questions about project management, which includes Publishing. And naming a game is a key aspect to publishing. That's what my question is about - choosing a legal name for my game with the consideration that I might post/publish it.

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  • Ubuntu 12.10 and nVidia drivers don't like each other?

    - by mingos
    I decided to upgrade both my computers from Precise to Quantal. What a mistake that was. My laptop has a nVidia GT 330M card, while the desktop has an nVidia 9600 GT. In both cases everything goes great as long as I use the Nouveau driver (ugh!). Can't really play games (Amnesia... and hoping for Steam Beta participation...), even though it's OK for work. Now, ever since 9.04 or so, I just installed nvidia-current and all just worked. Since 12.10, after installing nVidia drivers, Unity won't start at all (hangs with only the wallpaper displayed, no cursor or widgets), Gnome Shell is permanently in fallback mode. Now, I have tried on both computers, with multiple clean installs on Ubuntu (two separate downloads, just in case), one from Ubuntu Gnome Remix. And additionally, Fedora 17, which seems to suffer from the same issue. Tried all nVidia driver suggestions available in Software Sources, and even compiled the drivers myself. I tried several versions of the driver to exclude an issue with the newest one. In my frustration, I have switched to Windows (which, ironically, "just works" with my hardware), but still hold a twin OS configuration on the desktop and would like to use Ubuntu again. So, can anyone point me to where the issue might lie?

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  • Should my web app have its own domain name?

    - by Daniero
    I'm going to get a domain name for my personal web page. It will contain my blog, photos and other personal stuff, plus different web apps and tools that I'm working on. I have put quite a lot of work in one of the web apps, and I think it has great potential. It covers a niche in a way that no other page has done before and I can see great possibilities to expand it. Via links to webstores and ads I think it could even make some money, and if I play it right this could be the place to go when you're into the specific niche that it covers (sorry for being so vague). My question is, would it be better for a (potentially great) web app like this to have its own domain name (nameofmyapp.com) instead of being a subpage of my personal page (mypersonaldomain.com/nameofmyapp)? Is the web app more likely to be found by others, via Google etc, with its own domain name? Could a "subpage" give more attention (visitors) to my personal page? pros and cons?

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  • Are you satisfied with your programming? [closed]

    - by Richart Bremer
    If you are a programmer, are you satisfied with it? I really love to code. I code all kinds of things. I used to play computer games but they are not that interesting compared to developing a new search algorithm or similar. But sometimes I look into the future and see myself being 80 years old, sitting in front of a computer and everything I will have written will be rewritten because the programming languages do not exist anymore. I look back on my life and think "that's it?". Everything I wrote in the past is virtual and ultimately gone. I tried other things but coding is the only thing that does it for me. And at the same time I think I am wasting my life. What about you? Disclaimer: I presume this is the best forum for this question. If you don't agree suggest better place to migrate the question. If you can't, don't close it. Thank you.

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  • How should VertexBuffers be used with Multiple Monitors in DirectX 9

    - by Joshua C
    I am currently using DirectX 9 on a machine with two GPUs and three monitors. I am currently trying to draw a triangle on each monitor using vertexbuffers; A directx helloworld with multiple monitors if you will. I am familiar with some DirectX coding, but new to multiple monitor DirectX coding. I may be going about this the wrong way, so please do correct me if I'm doing something wrong. I have created a Direct3D Device for each enumerated adapter sharing the same Form handle. This allows me to successfully use all three monitors in full-screen mode. For Each Adapter In Direct3D.Adapters Dim PresentParameters As New PresentParameters 'Setup PresentParameters PresentParameters.Windowed = False PresentParameters.DeviceWindowHandle = MainForm.Handle Dim Device as New Device(Direct3D, Adapter.Adapter, DeviceType.Hardware, PresentParameters.DeviceWindowHandle, CreateFlags.HardwareVertexProcessing, PresentParameters) Device.SetRenderState(RenderState.Lighting, False) Devices.Add(Device) Next I can also draw text to each device successfully using a different Font for each Device. When I render a triangle using a different VertexBuffer for each Device, only two monitors display the triangle. One of the two monitors on the same GPU, and the monitor on it's own GPU display properly. VertexBuffer = New VertexBuffer(Device, 4 * Marshal.SizeOf(GetType(ColoredVertex)), Usage.WriteOnly, VertexFormat.None, Pool.Managed) Dim Verts = VertexBuffer.Lock(0, 0, LockFlags.None) Verts.WriteRange({ New ColoredVertex(-.5, -.5, 1, ForeColor), New ColoredVertex(0, .5, 1, ForeColor), New ColoredVertex(.5, -.5, 1, ForeColor) }) VertexBuffer.Unlock() VertexDeclaration = New VertexDeclaration(Device, { New VertexElement(0, 0, DeclarationType.Float3, DeclarationMethod.Default, DeclarationUsage.Position, 0), New VertexElement(0, 12, DeclarationType.Color, DeclarationMethod.Default, DeclarationUsage.Color, 0), VertexElement.VertexDeclarationEnd }) Render Code: Device.SetStreamSource(0, VertexBuffer, 0, Marshal.SizeOf(GetType(ColoredVertex))) Device.VertexDeclaration = VertexDeclaration Device.DrawPrimitives(PrimitiveType.TriangleList, 0, 1) I have to assume the fact that they share the same physical card comes into play. Should I use multiple buffers on the same card, and if so, how? Or what is the way I should access the VertexBuffer across Devices? Another thought I had was the non working monitor acts like there are no lights. Is turning off lighting on each device on the same card causing issues somehow?

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  • Collider2D and Rigidbody2D, how do they work?

    - by user42646
    I have been learning JavaScript and Unity for a week now. I learned how to make Cube as a Ground and another Cube as a player and I used this code to make the Player Cube move forward and backward and jumping var walkspeed: float = 5.0; var jumpheight: float = 250.0; var grounded = false; function Update() { rigidbody.freezeRotation = true; if (Input.GetKey("a")) transform.Translate(Vector3(-1, 0, 0) * Time.deltaTime * walkspeed); if (Input.GetKey("d")) transform.Translate(Vector3(1, 0, 0) * Time.deltaTime * walkspeed); if (Input.GetButton("Jump")) { Jump(); } } function OnCollisionEnter(hit: Collision) { grounded = true; } function Jump() { if (grounded == true) { rigidbody.AddForce(Vector3.up * jumpheight); grounded = false; } } I also learned how to make a character hit box. how to make a sprite and animation. pretty much the basic stuff. Couple of days ago I created simple ground in Photoshop and a simple character and imported them to Unity3D. Whenever I use my code above the character keeps falling from the scene. Like the character has nothing to stand on. After thinking about it it make sense because I really didn't make anything to make the player character understand that he should stand on something so I started reading about this issue and I realized that there is something called Collider2D and Rigidbody2D. Now I'm really stuck here I just don't know what to do. I applied the rigibody2d to my character picture and the Collider2D to the ground picture but whenever I play the project the gravity makes my character falls down. This is my question: How can I make the rigibody2d object realize that it shouldn't fall if there is a Collider2D object under it? So when I jump it's going to jump and the gravity going to bring it back to the ground.

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  • Why does Ubuntu 12.10 Beta2 insist on commiting changes to the partition table?

    - by Uten
    Why does Ubuntu 12.10 Beta2 insist on commiting changes to the partition table even as no real changes has been done? This is a show stopper for me as I'm installing without a CD/DVD ROM. This is how I go about it. I downloaded the iso image and extracted vmlinuz and initrd.lz to the same folder I keep the iso image. Configured grub (0.9x) to boot /ubuntu/vmlinuz with the iso image like this: title ubuntu live-cd kernel /ubuntu/vmlinuz boot=casper iso-scan/filename=/ubuntu/ubuntu-12.10-beta2-desktop-i386.iso ro quiet splash initrd /ubuntu/initrd.lz boot This works well and I get a running livecd session. The iso image is mounted on /isomedia (or something similar). The spare HD space where I want to install Ubuntu is in the logical area (at the wery end of the disk). I have tried both to use the space as empty and preformated with ext4. After selecting the partition and selecting "use as ext4" and selecting a mountpoint (/) I get the message: "The installer needs to commit changes to partition tables, but cannot do so because partitions on the following mount points could not be unmounted" "/isomedia" (or something similar). Is this a "feature" of the installer? To insist that everything is unmounted even if no changes is nescesary (as fare as I understand). It's probably a safety feature but is it needed? I have cahnged layouts with parted and gparted (at the end of the disk) for years without any failures. I understand that booting the iso image like this is not the common way. But it is just such a beautifull way of doing it when you hav a running system and want to play with another. Any one had any success installing Ubuntu (12.10 beta2 ) like this? Best regards Uten

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  • Social Network ( Help) [on hold]

    - by brunocascio
    I am in a great "problem" so to speak , and I need opinions to decide. The problem is to create a social network without knowing the number of users who use it (but if thinking if they were sufficient ) . The question is which language and framework to use .... I do not mind having to learn new technologies and / or languages ??. I am among PHP ( Laravel - Symfony - other? ) Ruby ( Ruby on Rails 4? ) Javascript ( Ember , express, locomotive , other? ) Python ( Django ) Java ( Grails , Play, other?) I have experience in both PHP and frameworks. In Symfony developed part of it, but I got tired having to do a thousand configurations for all . I know very little about Ruby , but I saw very easy . I do not know are saying the performance. Javascript costs me to get used to their paradigm , and do not know if at all sure to cover everything with Javascript. Django and python ( very poor knowledge ) Java , experience in data structure and android , but not web . Regarding the / s databases: In my head I have to MongoDB and costs change of opinion by another database with respect to documentation and EASE performance . But .......... frameworks have no support at all clear . I also thought of mixing technologies for using a tecnlogía backend and the frontend other. As I read in the new social network Origo . They use Symfony for REST and javascript for the frontend . ( Backbone , Underscore and RequireJS ) What do you recommend me ?

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  • Referencing movie clips from within an actionscript class

    - by Ant
    Hi all, I have been given the task of adding a scoring system to various flash games. This simply involves taking input, adding functionality such as pausing and replaying and then outputting the score, time left etc. at the end. I've so far successfully edited two games. Both these games used the "actions" code on frames. The latest game I'm trying to do uses an actionscript class which makes it both easier and harder. I'm not very adept at flash at all, but I've worked it out so far. I've added various movie clips that are to be used for displaying the pause screen background, buttons for replaying etc. I've been showing and hiding these using: back._visible = true; //movie clip, instance of back (back.png) I doubt it's best practice, but it's quick and has been working. However, now with the change of coding style to classes, this doesn't seem to work. I kinda understand why, but I'm now unsure how to hide/show these elements. Any help would be greatly appreciated :) I've attached the modified AS. class RivalOrbs extends MovieClip { var infinite_levels, orbs_start, orbs_inc, orbs_per_level, show_timer, _parent, one_time_per_level, speed_start, speed_inc_percent, max_speed, percent_starting_on_wrong_side, colorize, colors, secs_per_level; function RivalOrbs() { super(); mc = this; this.init(); } // End of the function function get_num_orbs() { if (infinite_levels) { return (orbs_start + (level - 1) * orbs_inc); } else if (level > orbs_per_level.length) { return (0); } else { return (orbs_per_level[level - 1]); } // end else if } // End of the function function get_timer_str(secs) { var _loc2 = Math.floor(secs / 60); var _loc1 = secs % 60; return ((_loc2 > 0 ? (_loc2) : ("0")) + ":" + (_loc1 >= 10 ? (_loc1) : ("0" + _loc1))); } // End of the function function frame() { //PLACE PAUSE CODE HERE if (!Key.isDown(80) and !Key.isDown(Key.ESCAPE)) { _root.offKey = true; } else if (Key.isDown(80) or Key.isDown(Key.ESCAPE)) { if (_root.offKey and _root.game_mode == "play") { _root.game_mode = "pause"; /* back._visible = true; btn_resume._visible = true; btn_exit._visible = true; txt_pause._visible = true; */ } else if (_root.offKey and _root.game_mode == "pause") { _root.game_mode = "play"; } _root.offKey = false; } if (_root.game_mode == "pause" or paused) { return; } else { /* back._visible = false; btn_resume._visible = false; btn_exit._visible = false; txt_pause._visible = false; */ } if (show_timer && total_secs != -1 || show_timer && _parent.timesup) { _loc7 = total_secs - Math.ceil((getTimer() - timer) / 1000); var diff = oldSeconds - (_loc7 + additional); if (diff > 1) additional = additional + diff; _loc7 = _loc7 + additional; oldSeconds = _loc7; trace(oldSeconds); mc.timer_field.text = this.get_timer_str(Math.max(0, _loc7)); if (_loc7 <= -1 || _parent.timesup) { if (one_time_per_level) { _root.gotoAndPlay("Lose"); } else { this.show_dialog(false); return; } // end if } // end if } // end else if var _loc9 = _root._xmouse; var _loc8 = _root._ymouse; var _loc6 = {x: _loc9, y: _loc8}; mc.globalToLocal(_loc6); _loc6.y = Math.max(-mc.bg._height / 2 + gap / 2, _loc6.y); _loc6.y = Math.min(mc.bg._height / 2 - gap / 2, _loc6.y); mc.wall1._y = _loc6.y - gap / 2 - mc.wall1._height / 2; mc.wall2._y = _loc6.y + gap / 2 + mc.wall1._height / 2; var _loc5 = true; for (var _loc4 = 0; _loc4 < this.get_num_orbs(); ++_loc4) { var _loc3 = mc.stage["orb" + _loc4]; _loc3.x_last = _loc3._x; _loc3.y_last = _loc3._y; _loc3._x = _loc3._x + _loc3.x_speed; _loc3._y = _loc3._y + _loc3.y_speed; if (_loc3._x < l_thresh) { _loc3.x_speed = _loc3.x_speed * -1; _loc3._x = l_thresh + (l_thresh - _loc3._x); _loc3.gotoAndPlay("hit"); } // end if if (_loc3._x > r_thresh) { _loc3.x_speed = _loc3.x_speed * -1; _loc3._x = r_thresh - (_loc3._x - r_thresh); _loc3.gotoAndPlay("hit"); } // end if if (_loc3._y < t_thresh) { _loc3.y_speed = _loc3.y_speed * -1; _loc3._y = t_thresh + (t_thresh - _loc3._y); _loc3.gotoAndPlay("hit"); } // end if if (_loc3._y > b_thresh) { _loc3.y_speed = _loc3.y_speed * -1; _loc3._y = b_thresh - (_loc3._y - b_thresh); _loc3.gotoAndPlay("hit"); } // end if if (_loc3.x_speed > 0) { if (_loc3._x >= m1_thresh && _loc3.x_last < m1_thresh || _loc3._x >= m1_thresh && _loc3._x <= m2_thresh) { if (_loc3._y <= mc.wall1._y + mc.wall1._height / 2 || _loc3._y >= mc.wall2._y - mc.wall2._height / 2) { _loc3.x_speed = _loc3.x_speed * -1; _loc3._x = m1_thresh - (_loc3._x - m1_thresh); _loc3.gotoAndPlay("hit"); } // end if } // end if } else if (_loc3._x <= m2_thresh && _loc3.x_last > m2_thresh || _loc3._x >= m1_thresh && _loc3._x <= m2_thresh) { if (_loc3._y <= mc.wall1._y + mc.wall1._height / 2 || _loc3._y >= mc.wall2._y - mc.wall2._height / 2) { _loc3.x_speed = _loc3.x_speed * -1; _loc3._x = m2_thresh + (m2_thresh - _loc3._x); _loc3.gotoAndPlay("hit"); } // end if } // end else if if (_loc3.side == 1 && _loc3._x > 0) { _loc5 = false; } // end if if (_loc3.side == 2 && _loc3._x < 0) { _loc5 = false; } // end if } // end of for if (_loc5) { this.end_level(); } // end if } // End of the function function colorize_hex(mc, hex) { var _loc4 = hex >> 16; var _loc5 = (hex ^ hex >> 16 << 16) >> 8; var _loc3 = hex >> 8 << 8 ^ hex; var _loc2 = new flash.geom.ColorTransform(0, 0, 0, 1, _loc4, _loc5, _loc3, 0); mc.transform.colorTransform = _loc2; } // End of the function function tint_hex(mc, hex, amount) { var _loc4 = hex >> 16; var _loc5 = hex >> 8 & 255; var _loc3 = hex & 255; this.tint(mc, _loc4, _loc5, _loc3, amount); } // End of the function function tint(mc, r, g, b, amount) { var _loc4 = 100 - amount; var _loc1 = new Object(); _loc1.ra = _loc1.ga = _loc1.ba = _loc4; var _loc2 = amount / 100; _loc1.rb = r * _loc2; _loc1.gb = g * _loc2; _loc1.bb = b * _loc2; var _loc3 = new Color(mc); _loc3.setTransform(_loc1); } // End of the function function get_num_levels() { if (infinite_levels) { return (Number.MAX_VALUE); } else { return (orbs_per_level.length); } // end else if } // End of the function function end_level() { _global.inputTimeAvailable = _global.inputTimeAvailable - (60 - oldSeconds); ++level; _parent.levelOver = true; if (level <= this.get_num_levels()) { this.show_dialog(true); } else { _root.gotoAndPlay("Win"); } // end else if } // End of the function function get_speed() { var _loc3 = speed_start; for (var _loc2 = 0; _loc2 < level - 1; ++_loc2) { _loc3 = _loc3 + _loc3 * (speed_inc_percent / 100); } // end of for return (Math.min(_loc3, Math.max(max_speed, speed_start))); } // End of the function function init_orbs() { var _loc6 = this.get_speed(); var _loc7 = Math.max(1, Math.ceil(this.get_num_orbs() * (percent_starting_on_wrong_side / 100))); for (var _loc3 = 0; _loc3 < this.get_num_orbs(); ++_loc3) { var _loc2 = null; if (_loc3 % 2 == 0) { _loc2 = mc.stage.attachMovie("Orb1", "orb" + _loc3, _loc3); _loc2.side = 1; if (colorize && color1 != -1) { this.colorize_hex(_loc2.orb.bg, color1); } // end if _loc2._x = Math.random() * (mc.bg._width * 4.000000E-001) - mc.bg._width * 2.000000E-001 - mc.bg._width / 4; } else { _loc2 = mc.stage.attachMovie("Orb2", "orb" + _loc3, _loc3); _loc2.side = 2; if (colorize && color2 != -1) { this.colorize_hex(_loc2.orb.bg, color2); } // end if _loc2._x = Math.random() * (mc.bg._width * 4.000000E-001) - mc.bg._width * 2.000000E-001 + mc.bg._width / 4; } // end else if _loc2._width = _loc2._height = orb_w; _loc2._y = Math.random() * (mc.bg._height * 8.000000E-001) - mc.bg._height * 4.000000E-001; if (_loc3 < _loc7) { _loc2._x = _loc2._x * -1; } // end if var _loc5 = Math.random() * 60; var _loc4 = _loc5 / 180 * 3.141593E+000; _loc2.x_speed = Math.cos(_loc4) * _loc6; _loc2.y_speed = Math.sin(_loc4) * _loc6; if (Math.random() >= 5.000000E-001) { _loc2.x_speed = _loc2.x_speed * -1; } // end if if (Math.random() >= 5.000000E-001) { _loc2.y_speed = _loc2.y_speed * -1; } // end if } // end of for } // End of the function function init_colors() { if (colorize && colors.length >= 2) { color1 = colors[Math.floor(Math.random() * colors.length)]; for (color2 = colors[Math.floor(Math.random() * colors.length)]; color2 == color1; color2 = colors[Math.floor(Math.random() * colors.length)]) { } // end of for this.tint_hex(mc.side1, color1, 40); this.tint_hex(mc.side2, color2, 40); } else { color1 = -1; color2 = -1; } // end else if } // End of the function function get_total_secs() { if (show_timer) { if (secs_per_level.length > 0) { if (level > secs_per_level.length) { return (secs_per_level[secs_per_level.length - 1]); } else { return (secs_per_level[level - 1]); } // end if } // end if } // end else if return (-1); } // End of the function function start_level() { trace ("start_level"); _parent.timesup = false; _parent.levelOver = false; _parent.times_up_comp.start_timer(); this.init_orbs(); mc.level_field.text = "LEVEL " + level; total_secs = _global.inputTimeAvailable; if (total_secs > 60) total_secs = 60; timer = getTimer(); paused = false; mc.dialog.gotoAndPlay("off"); } // End of the function function clear_orbs() { for (var _loc2 = 0; mc.stage["orb" + _loc2]; ++_loc2) { mc.stage["orb" + _loc2].removeMovieClip(); } // end of for } // End of the function function show_dialog(new_level) { mc.back._visible = false; trace("yes"); paused = true; if (new_level) { this.init_colors(); } // end if this.clear_orbs(); mc.dialog.gotoAndPlay("level"); if (!new_level || _parent.timesup) { mc.dialog.level_top.text = "Time\'s Up!"; /* dyn_line1.text = "Goodbye " + _global.inputName + "!"; dyn_line2.text = "You scored " + score; //buttons if (_global.inputTimeAvailable > 60) btn_replay._visible = true; btn_resume._visible = false; btn_exit._visible = false; txt_pause._visible = false; sendInfo = new LoadVars(); sendLoader = new LoadVars(); sendInfo.game_name = 'rival_orbs'; sendInfo.timeavailable = _global.inputTimeAvailable; if (sendInfo.timeavailable < 0) sendInfo.timeavailable = 0; sendInfo.id = _global.inputId; sendInfo.score = level*_global.inputFactor; sendInfo.directive = 'record'; //sendInfo.sendAndLoad('ncc1701e.aspx', sendLoader, "GET"); sendInfo.sendAndLoad('http://keyload.co.uk/output.php', sendLoader, "POST"); */ } else if (level > 1) { mc.dialog.level_top.text = "Next Level:"; } else { mc.dialog.level_top.text = ""; } // end else if mc.dialog.level_num.text = "LEVEL " + level; mc.dialog.level_mid.text = "Number of Orbs: " + this.get_num_orbs(); _root.max_level = level; var _this = this; mc.dialog.btn.onRelease = function () { _this.start_level(); }; } // End of the function function init() { var getInfo = new LoadVars(); var getLoader = new LoadVars(); getInfo.directive = "read"; getInfo.sendAndLoad('http://keyload.co.uk/input.php', getLoader, "GET"); getLoader.onLoad = function (success) { if (success) { _global.inputId = this.id; _global.inputTimeAvailable = this.timeavailable; _global.inputFactor = this.factor; _global.inputName = this.name; } else { trace("Failed"); } } _root.game_mode = "play"; /* back._visible = false; btn_exit._visible = false; btn_replay._visible = false; btn_resume._visible = false; txt_pause._visible = false; */ l_thresh = -mc.bg._width / 2 + orb_w / 2; t_thresh = -mc.bg._height / 2 + orb_w / 2; r_thresh = mc.bg._width / 2 - orb_w / 2; b_thresh = mc.bg._height / 2 - orb_w / 2; m1_thresh = -wall_w / 2 - orb_w / 2; m2_thresh = wall_w / 2 + orb_w / 2; this.show_dialog(true); mc.onEnterFrame = frame; } // End of the function var mc = null; var orb_w = 15; var wall_w = 2; var l_thresh = 0; var r_thresh = 0; var t_thresh = 0; var b_thresh = 0; var m1_thresh = 0; var m2_thresh = 0; var color1 = -1; var color2 = -1; var level = 1; var total_secs = 30; var gap = 60; var timer = 0; var additional = 0; var oldSeconds = 0; var paused = true; var _loc7 = 0; } // End of Class

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  • Program crash on deque from queue

    - by SwedishGit
    My first question asked here, so please excuse if I fail to include something... I'm working on a homework project, which basically consists of creating a "Jukebox" (importing/exporting albums from txt files, creating and "playing" a playlist, etc.). I've become stuck on one point: When "playing" the playlist, which consists of a self-made Queue, a copy of it is made from which songs are dequeued and printed out with a time delay. This appears to run fine on the first run through the program, but if the "play" option is chosen again (with the same playlist, created from a different menu option), it crashes before managing to print the first song. It also crashes if creating a new playlist, but then it manages to print some songs (seem to depend on the number of songs in the first/new playlists...) before crashing. With printouts I've been able to track the crashing down to being on the "item = n-data" call in the deque function... but can't get my head around why this would crash. Below is the code I think should be relevant... let me know if there are other parts that would help if I include. Edit: The Debug Error shown on crash is: R6010 abort() has been called The method to play from the playlist: void Jukebox::playList() { if(songList.getNodes() > 0) { Queue tmpList(songList); Song tmpSong; while(tmpList.deque(tmpSong)) { clock_t temp; temp = clock () + 2 * CLOCKS_PER_SEC ; while (clock() < temp) {} } } else cout << "There are no songs in the playlist!" << endl; } Queue: // Queue.h - Projekt-uppgift // Håkan Sjölin 2014-05-31 //----------------------------------------------------------------------------- #ifndef queue_h #define queue_h #include "Song.h" using namespace std; typedef Song Item; class Node; class Queue { private: Node *first; Node *last; int nodes; public: Queue():first(nullptr),last(nullptr),nodes(0){}; ~Queue(); void enque(Item item); bool deque(Item &item); int getNodes() const { return nodes; } void empty(); }; #endif // Queue.cpp - Projekt-uppgift // Håkan Sjölin 2014-05-31 //----------------------------------------------------------------------------- #include "queue.h" using namespace std; class Node { public: Node *next; Item data; Node (Node *n, Item newData) : next(n), data(newData) {} }; //------------------------------------------------------------------------------ // Funktionsdefinitioner för klassen Queue //------------------------------------------------------------------------------ //------------------------------------------------------------------------------ // Destruktor //------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Queue::~Queue() { while(first!=0) { Node *tmp = first; first = first->next; delete tmp; } } //------------------------------------------------------------------------------ // Lägg till data sist i kön //------------------------------------------------------------------------------ void Queue::enque(Item item) { Node *pNew = new Node(0,item); if(getNodes() < 1) first = pNew; else last->next = pNew; last = pNew; nodes++; } //------------------------------------------------------------------------------ // Ta bort data först i kön //------------------------------------------------------------------------------ bool Queue::deque(Item &item) { if(getNodes() < 1) return false; //cout << "deque: test2" << endl; Node *n = first; //cout << "deque: test3" << endl; //cout << "item = " << item << endl; //cout << "first = " << first << endl; //cout << "n->data = " << n->data << endl; item = n->data; //cout << "deque: test4" << endl; first = first->next; //delete n; nodes--; if(getNodes() < 1) // Kön BLEV tom last = nullptr; return true; } //------------------------------------------------------------------------------ // Töm kön //------------------------------------------------------------------------------ void Queue::empty() { while (getNodes() > 0) { Item item; deque(item); } } //------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Song: // Song.h - Projekt-uppgift // Håkan Sjölin 2014-05-15 //----------------------------------------------------------------------------- #ifndef song_h #define song_h #include "Time.h" #include <string> #include <iostream> using namespace std; class Song { private: string title; string artist; Time length; public: Song(); Song(string pTitle, string pArtist, Time pLength); // Setfunktioner void setTitle(string pTitle); void setArtist(string pArtist); void setLength(Time pLength); // Getfunktioner string getTitle() const { return title;} string getArtist() const { return artist;} Time getLength() const { return length;} }; ostream &operator<<(ostream &os, const Song &song); istream &operator>>(istream &is, Song &song); #endif // Song.cpp - Projekt-uppgift // Håkan Sjölin 2014-05-15 //----------------------------------------------------------------------------- #include "Song.h" #include "Constants.h" #include <iostream> //------------------------------------------------------------------------------ // Definiering av Songs medlemsfunktioner //------------------------------------------------------------------------------ // Fövald konstruktor //------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Song::Song() { } //------------------------------------------------------------------------------ // Initieringskonstruktor //------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Song::Song(string pTitle, string pArtist, Time pLength) { title = pTitle; artist = pArtist; length = pLength; } //------------------------------------------------------------------------------ // Setfunktioner //------------------------------------------------------------------------------ //------------------------------------------------------------------------------ // setTitle // Ange titel //------------------------------------------------------------------------------ void Song::setTitle(string pTitle) { title = pTitle; } //------------------------------------------------------------------------------ // setArtist // Ange artist //------------------------------------------------------------------------------ void Song::setArtist(string pArtist) { artist = pArtist; } //------------------------------------------------------------------------------ // setTitle // Ange titel //------------------------------------------------------------------------------ void Song::setLength(Time pLength) { length = pLength; } //--------------------------------------------------------------------------- // Överlagring av utskriftsoperatorn //--------------------------------------------------------------------------- ostream &operator<<(ostream &os, const Song &song) { os << song.getTitle() << DELIM << song.getArtist() << DELIM << song.getLength(); return os; } //--------------------------------------------------------------------------- // Överlagring av inmatningsoperatorn //--------------------------------------------------------------------------- istream &operator>>(istream &is, Song &song) { string tmpString; Time tmpLength; getline(is, tmpString, DELIM); song.setTitle(tmpString); getline(is, tmpString, DELIM); song.setArtist(tmpString); is >> tmpLength; is.get(); song.setLength(tmpLength); return is; } //--------------------------------------------------------------------------- Album: // Album.h - Projekt-uppgift // Håkan Sjölin 2014-05-17 //----------------------------------------------------------------------------- #ifndef album_h #define album_h #include "Song.h" #include <string> #include <vector> #include <iostream> using namespace std; class Album { private: string name; vector<Song> songs; public: Album(); Album(string pNameTitle, vector<Song> pSongs); // Setfunktioner void setName(string pName); // Getfunktioner string getName() const { return name;} vector<Song> getSongs() const { return songs;} int getNumberOfSongs() const { return songs.size();} Time getTotalTime() const; void addSong(Song pSong); bool operator<(const Album &album) const; }; ostream &operator<<(ostream &os, const Album &album); istream &operator>>(istream &is, Album &album); #endif // Album.cpp - Projekt-uppgift // Håkan Sjölin 2014-05-17 //----------------------------------------------------------------------------- #include "Album.h" #include "Constants.h" #include <iostream> #include <string> //------------------------------------------------------------------------------ // Definiering av Albums medlemsfunktioner //------------------------------------------------------------------------------ // Fövald konstruktor //------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Album::Album() { } //------------------------------------------------------------------------------ // Initieringskonstruktor //------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Album::Album(string pName, vector<Song> pSongs) { name = pName; songs = pSongs; } //------------------------------------------------------------------------------ // Setfunktioner //------------------------------------------------------------------------------ //------------------------------------------------------------------------------ // setName // Ange namn //------------------------------------------------------------------------------ void Album::setName(string pName) { name = pName; } //------------------------------------------------------------------------------ // addSong // Lägg till song //------------------------------------------------------------------------------ void Album::addSong(Song pSong) { songs.push_back(pSong); } //------------------------------------------------------------------------------ // getTotalTime // Returnera total speltid //------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Time Album::getTotalTime() const { Time tTime(0,0,0); for(Song s : songs) { tTime = tTime + s.getLength(); } return tTime; } //--------------------------------------------------------------------------- // Mindre än //--------------------------------------------------------------------------- bool Album::operator<(const Album &album) const { return getTotalTime() < album.getTotalTime(); } //--------------------------------------------------------------------------- // Överlagring av utskriftsoperatorn //--------------------------------------------------------------------------- ostream &operator<<(ostream &os, const Album &album) { os << album.getName() << endl; os << album.getNumberOfSongs() << endl; for (size_t i = 0; i < album.getSongs().size(); i++) os << album.getSongs().at(i) << endl; return os; } //--------------------------------------------------------------------------- // Överlagring av inmatningsoperatorn //--------------------------------------------------------------------------- istream &operator>>(istream &is, Album &album) { string tmpString; int tmpNumberOfSongs; Song tmpSong; getline(is, tmpString); album.setName(tmpString); is >> tmpNumberOfSongs; is.get(); for (int i = 0; i < tmpNumberOfSongs; i++) { is >> tmpSong; album.addSong(tmpSong); } return is; } //--------------------------------------------------------------------------- Time: // Time.h - Projekt-uppgift // Håkan Sjölin 2014-05-15 //----------------------------------------------------------------------------- #ifndef time_h #define time_h #include <iostream> using namespace std; class Time { private: int hours; int minutes; int seconds; public: Time(); Time(int pHour, int pMinute, int pSecond); // Setfunktioner void setHour(int pHour); void setMinute(int pMinute); void setSecond(int pSecond); // Getfunktioner int getHour() const { return hours;} int getMinute() const { return minutes;} int getSecond() const { return seconds;} Time operator+(const Time &time) const; bool operator==(const Time &time) const; bool operator<(const Time &time) const; }; ostream &operator<<(ostream &os, const Time &time); istream &operator>>(istream &is, Time &Time); #endif // Time.cpp - Projekt-uppgift // Håkan Sjölin 2014-05-15 //----------------------------------------------------------------------------- #include "Time.h" #include <iostream> //------------------------------------------------------------------------------ // Definiering av Times medlemsfunktioner //------------------------------------------------------------------------------ // Fövald konstruktor //------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Time::Time() { } //------------------------------------------------------------------------------ // Initieringskonstruktor //------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Time::Time(int pHour, int pMinute, int pSecond) { setHour(pHour); setMinute(pMinute); setSecond(pSecond); } //------------------------------------------------------------------------------ // Setfunktioner //------------------------------------------------------------------------------ //------------------------------------------------------------------------------ // setHour // Ange timme //------------------------------------------------------------------------------ void Time::setHour(int pHour) { if(pHour>-1) hours = pHour; else hours = 0; } //------------------------------------------------------------------------------ // setMinute // Ange minut //------------------------------------------------------------------------------ void Time::setMinute(int pMinute) { if(pMinute < 60 && pMinute > -1) { minutes = pMinute; } else minutes = 0; } //------------------------------------------------------------------------------ // setSecond // Ange sekund //------------------------------------------------------------------------------ void Time::setSecond(int pSecond) { if(pSecond < 60 && pSecond > -1) { seconds = pSecond; } else seconds = 0; } //--------------------------------------------------------------------------- // Överlagring av utskriftsoperatorn //--------------------------------------------------------------------------- ostream &operator<<(ostream &os, const Time &time) { os << time.getHour()*3600+time.getMinute()*60+time.getSecond(); return os; } //--------------------------------------------------------------------------- // Överlagring av inmatningsoperatorn //--------------------------------------------------------------------------- istream &operator>>(istream &is, Time &time) { int tmp; is >> tmp; time.setSecond(tmp%60); time.setMinute((tmp/60)%60); time.setHour(tmp/3600); return is; } //--------------------------------------------------------------------------- // Likhet //-------------------------------------------------------------------------- bool Time::operator==(const Time &time) const { return hours == time.getHour() && minutes == time.getMinute() && seconds == time.getSecond(); } //--------------------------------------------------------------------------- // Mindre än //--------------------------------------------------------------------------- bool Time::operator<(const Time &time) const { if(hours == time.getHour()) { if(minutes == time.getMinute()) { return seconds < time.getSecond(); } else { return minutes < time.getMinute(); } } else { return hours < time.getHour(); } } //--------------------------------------------------------------------------- // Addition //--------------------------------------------------------------------------- Time Time::operator+(const Time &time) const { return Time(hours+time.getHour() + (minutes+time.getMinute() + (seconds+time.getSecond())/60)/60, (minutes+time.getMinute() + (seconds+time.getSecond())/60)%60, (seconds+time.getSecond())%60); } //--------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thanks in advance for any help! Edit2: Didn't think of including the more detailed crash info (as it didn't show in the crash pop-up, so to say). Anyway, here it is: Output: 'Jukebox.exe' (Win32): Loaded 'C:\Users\Håkan\Documents\Studier - IT\Objektbaserad programmering i C++\Inlämningsuppgifter\Projekt\Jukebox\Debug\Jukebox.exe'. Symbols loaded. 'Jukebox.exe' (Win32): Loaded 'C:\Windows\SysWOW64\ntdll.dll'. Cannot find or open the PDB file. 'Jukebox.exe' (Win32): Loaded 'C:\Windows\SysWOW64\kernel32.dll'. Cannot find or open the PDB file. 'Jukebox.exe' (Win32): Loaded 'C:\Windows\SysWOW64\KernelBase.dll'. Cannot find or open the PDB file. 'Jukebox.exe' (Win32): Loaded 'C:\Windows\SysWOW64\msvcp110d.dll'. Symbols loaded. 'Jukebox.exe' (Win32): Loaded 'C:\Windows\SysWOW64\msvcr110d.dll'. Symbols loaded. The thread 0xe50 has exited with code 0 (0x0). Unhandled exception at 0x0083630C in Jukebox.exe: 0xC0000005: Access violation reading location 0x0000003C. Call stack: > Jukebox.exe!Song::getLength() Line 27 C++ Jukebox.exe!operator<<(std::basic_ostream<char,std::char_traits<char> > & os, const Song & song) Line 59 C++ Jukebox.exe!Queue::deque(Song & item) Line 55 C++ Jukebox.exe!Jukebox::playList() Line 493 C++ Jukebox.exe!Jukebox::play() Line 385 C++ Jukebox.exe!Jukebox::run() Line 536 C++ Jukebox.exe!main() Line 547 C++ Jukebox.exe!__tmainCRTStartup() Line 536 C Jukebox.exe!mainCRTStartup() Line 377 C kernel32.dll!754d86e3() Unknown [Frames below may be incorrect and/or missing, no symbols loaded for kernel32.dll] ntdll.dll!7748bf39() Unknown ntdll.dll!7748bf0c() Unknown

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  • Streamed mp3 only plays for 1 second

    - by angel6
    Hi, I'm using the plaympeg.c (modified) code of smpeg as a media player. I've got ffserver running as a streaming server. I'm a streaming an mp3 file over http. But when I run plaympeg.c, it plays the streamed file only for a second. When I run plaympeg again, it starts off from where it left and plays for 1 second. Does anyone know why this happens an how to fix it? I've tested it out on WMP and it plays the entire file in one go. So, i guess it's not a problem with the streaming or ffserver.conf include include include include /* #ifdef unix */ include include include include include include include define NET_SUPPORT /* General network support */ define HTTP_SUPPORT /* HTTP support */ ifdef NET_SUPPORT include include include include endif include "smpeg.h" ifdef NET_SUPPORT int tcp_open(char * address, int port) { struct sockaddr_in stAddr; struct hostent * host; int sock; struct linger l; memset(&stAddr,0,sizeof(stAddr)); stAddr.sin_family = AF_INET ; stAddr.sin_port = htons(port); if((host = gethostbyname(address)) == NULL) return(0); stAddr.sin_addr = *((struct in_addr *) host-h_addr_list[0]) ; if((sock = socket(AF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, IPPROTO_TCP)) < 0) return(0); l.l_onoff = 1; l.l_linger = 5; if(setsockopt(sock, SOL_SOCKET, SO_LINGER, (char*) &l, sizeof(l)) < 0) return(0); if(connect(sock, (struct sockaddr *) &stAddr, sizeof(stAddr)) < 0) return(0); return(sock); } ifdef HTTP_SUPPORT int http_open(char * arg) { char * host; int port; char * request; int tcp_sock; char http_request[1024]; char c; printf("\nin http_open passed parameter = %s\n",arg); /* Check for URL syntax */ if(strncmp(arg, "http://", strlen("http://"))) return(0); /* Parse URL */ port = 80; host = arg + strlen("http://"); if((request = strchr(host, '/')) == NULL) return(0); request++ = 0; if(strchr(host, ':') != NULL) / port is specified */ { port = atoi(strchr(host, ':') + 1); *strchr(host, ':') = 0; } /* Open a TCP socket */ if(!(tcp_sock = tcp_open(host, port))) { perror("http_open"); return(0); } /* Send HTTP GET request */ sprintf(http_request, "GET /%s HTTP/1.0\r\n" "User-Agent: Mozilla/2.0 (Win95; I)\r\n" "Pragma: no-cache\r\n" "Host: %s\r\n" "Accept: /\r\n" "\r\n", request, host); send(tcp_sock, http_request, strlen(http_request), 0); /* Parse server reply */ do read(tcp_sock, &c, sizeof(char)); while(c != ' '); read(tcp_sock, http_request, 4*sizeof(char)); http_request[4] = 0; if(strcmp(http_request, "200 ")) { fprintf(stderr, "http_open: "); do { read(tcp_sock, &c, sizeof(char)); fprintf(stderr, "%c", c); } while(c != '\r'); fprintf(stderr, "\n"); return(0); } return(tcp_sock); } endif endif void update(SDL_Surface *screen, Sint32 x, Sint32 y, Uint32 w, Uint32 h) { if ( screen-flags & SDL_DOUBLEBUF ) { SDL_Flip(screen); } } /* Flag telling the UI that the movie or song should be skipped */ int done; void next_movie(int sig) { done = 1; } int main(int argc, char *argv[]) { int use_audio, use_video; int fullscreen; int scalesize; int scale_width, scale_height; int loop_play; int i, pause; int volume; Uint32 seek; float skip; int bilinear_filtering; SDL_Surface *screen; SMPEG *mpeg; SMPEG_Info info; char *basefile; SDL_version sdlver; SMPEG_version smpegver; int fd; char buf[32]; int status; printf("\nchecking command line options "); /* Get the command line options */ use_audio = 1; use_video = 1; fullscreen = 0; scalesize = 1; scale_width = 0; scale_height = 0; loop_play = 0; volume = 100; seek = 0; skip = 0; bilinear_filtering = 0; fd = 0; for ( i=1; argv[i] && (argv[i][0] == '-') && (argv[i][1] != 0); ++i ) { if ( strcmp(argv[i], "--fullscreen") == 0 ) { fullscreen = 1; } else if ((strcmp(argv[i], "--seek") == 0)||(strcmp(argv[i], "-S") == 0)) { ++i; if ( argv[i] ) { seek = atol(argv[i]); } } else if ((strcmp(argv[i], "--volume") == 0)||(strcmp(argv[i], "-v") == 0)) { ++i; if (i >= argc) { fprintf(stderr, "Please specify volume when using --volume or -v\n"); return(1); } if ( argv[i] ) { volume = atoi(argv[i]); } if ( ( volume < 0 ) || ( volume 100 ) ) { fprintf(stderr, "Volume must be between 0 and 100\n"); volume = 100; } } else { fprintf(stderr, "Warning: Unknown option: %s\n", argv[i]); } } printf("\nuse video = %d, use audio = %d\n",use_video, use_audio); printf("\ngoing to check input parameters\n"); if defined(linux) || defined(FreeBSD) /* Plaympeg doesn't need a mouse */ putenv("SDL_NOMOUSE=1"); endif /* Play the mpeg files! */ status = 0; for ( ; argv[i]; ++i ) { /* Initialize SDL */ if ( use_video ) { if ((SDL_Init(SDL_INIT_VIDEO) < 0) || !SDL_VideoDriverName(buf, 1)) { fprintf(stderr, "Warning: Couldn't init SDL video: %s\n", SDL_GetError()); fprintf(stderr, "Will ignore video stream\n"); use_video = 0; } printf("\ninitialised video\n"); } if ( use_audio ) { if ((SDL_Init(SDL_INIT_AUDIO) < 0) || !SDL_AudioDriverName(buf, 1)) { fprintf(stderr, "Warning: Couldn't init SDL audio: %s\n", SDL_GetError()); fprintf(stderr, "Will ignore audio stream\n"); use_audio = 0; } } /* Allow Ctrl-C when there's no video output */ signal(SIGINT, next_movie); printf("\nchecking defined supports\n"); /* Create the MPEG stream */ ifdef NET_SUPPORT printf("\ndefined NET_SUPPORT\n"); ifdef HTTP_SUPPORT printf("\ndefined HTTP_SUPPORT\n"); /* Check if source is an http URL */ printf("\nabout to call http_open\n"); printf("\nhere we go\n"); if((fd = http_open(argv[i])) != 0) mpeg = SMPEG_new_descr(fd, &info, use_audio); else endif endif { if(strcmp(argv[i], "-") == 0) /* Use stdin for input */ mpeg = SMPEG_new_descr(0, &info, use_audio); else mpeg = SMPEG_new(argv[i], &info, use_audio); } if ( SMPEG_error(mpeg) ) { fprintf(stderr, "%s: %s\n", argv[i], SMPEG_error(mpeg)); SMPEG_delete(mpeg); status = -1; continue; } SMPEG_enableaudio(mpeg, use_audio); SMPEG_enablevideo(mpeg, use_video); SMPEG_setvolume(mpeg, volume); /* Print information about the video */ basefile = strrchr(argv[i], '/'); if ( basefile ) { ++basefile; } else { basefile = argv[i]; } if ( info.has_audio && info.has_video ) { printf("%s: MPEG system stream (audio/video)\n", basefile); } else if ( info.has_audio ) { printf("%s: MPEG audio stream\n", basefile); } else if ( info.has_video ) { printf("%s: MPEG video stream\n", basefile); } if ( info.has_video ) { printf("\tVideo %dx%d resolution\n", info.width, info.height); } if ( info.has_audio ) { printf("\tAudio %s\n", info.audio_string); } if ( info.total_size ) { printf("\tSize: %d\n", info.total_size); } if ( info.total_time ) { printf("\tTotal time: %f\n", info.total_time); } /* Set up video display if needed */ if ( info.has_video && use_video ) { const SDL_VideoInfo *video_info; Uint32 video_flags; int video_bpp; int width, height; /* Get the "native" video mode */ video_info = SDL_GetVideoInfo(); switch (video_info->vfmt->BitsPerPixel) { case 16: case 24: case 32: video_bpp = video_info->vfmt->BitsPerPixel; break; default: video_bpp = 16; break; } if ( scale_width ) { width = scale_width; } else { width = info.width; } width *= scalesize; if ( scale_height ) { height = scale_height; } else { height = info.height; } height *= scalesize; video_flags = SDL_SWSURFACE; if ( fullscreen ) { video_flags = SDL_FULLSCREEN|SDL_DOUBLEBUF|SDL_HWSURFACE; } video_flags |= SDL_ASYNCBLIT; video_flags |= SDL_RESIZABLE; screen = SDL_SetVideoMode(width, height, video_bpp, video_flags); if ( screen == NULL ) { fprintf(stderr, "Unable to set %dx%d video mode: %s\n", width, height, SDL_GetError()); continue; } SDL_WM_SetCaption(argv[i], "plaympeg"); if ( screen->flags & SDL_FULLSCREEN ) { SDL_ShowCursor(0); } SMPEG_setdisplay(mpeg, screen, NULL, update); SMPEG_scaleXY(mpeg, screen->w, screen->h); } else { SDL_QuitSubSystem(SDL_INIT_VIDEO); } /* Set any special playback parameters */ if ( loop_play ) { SMPEG_loop(mpeg, 1); } /* Seek starting position */ if(seek) SMPEG_seek(mpeg, seek); /* Skip seconds to starting position */ if(skip) SMPEG_skip(mpeg, skip); /* Play it, and wait for playback to complete */ SMPEG_play(mpeg); done = 0; pause = 0; while ( ! done && ( pause || (SMPEG_status(mpeg) == SMPEG_PLAYING) ) ) { SDL_Event event; while ( use_video && SDL_PollEvent(&event) ) { switch (event.type) { case SDL_VIDEORESIZE: { SDL_Surface *old_screen = screen; SMPEG_pause(mpeg); screen = SDL_SetVideoMode(event.resize.w, event.resize.h, screen->format->BitsPerPixel, screen->flags); if ( old_screen != screen ) { SMPEG_setdisplay(mpeg, screen, NULL, update); } SMPEG_scaleXY(mpeg, screen-w, screen-h); SMPEG_pause(mpeg); } break; case SDL_KEYDOWN: if ( (event.key.keysym.sym == SDLK_ESCAPE) || (event.key.keysym.sym == SDLK_q) ) { // Quit done = 1; } else if ( event.key.keysym.sym == SDLK_RETURN ) { // toggle fullscreen if ( event.key.keysym.mod & KMOD_ALT ) { SDL_WM_ToggleFullScreen(screen); fullscreen = (screen-flags & SDL_FULLSCREEN); SDL_ShowCursor(!fullscreen); } } else if ( event.key.keysym.sym == SDLK_UP ) { // Volume up if ( volume < 100 ) { if ( event.key.keysym.mod & KMOD_SHIFT ) { // 10+ volume += 10; } else if ( event.key.keysym.mod & KMOD_CTRL ) { // 100+ volume = 100; } else { // 1+ volume++; } if ( volume 100 ) volume = 100; SMPEG_setvolume(mpeg, volume); } } else if ( event.key.keysym.sym == SDLK_DOWN ) { // Volume down if ( volume 0 ) { if ( event.key.keysym.mod & KMOD_SHIFT ) { volume -= 10; } else if ( event.key.keysym.mod & KMOD_CTRL ) { volume = 0; } else { volume--; } if ( volume < 0 ) volume = 0; SMPEG_setvolume(mpeg, volume); } } else if ( event.key.keysym.sym == SDLK_PAGEUP ) { // Full volume volume = 100; SMPEG_setvolume(mpeg, volume); } else if ( event.key.keysym.sym == SDLK_PAGEDOWN ) { // Volume off volume = 0; SMPEG_setvolume(mpeg, volume); } else if ( event.key.keysym.sym == SDLK_SPACE ) { // Toggle play / pause if ( SMPEG_status(mpeg) == SMPEG_PLAYING ) { SMPEG_pause(mpeg); pause = 1; } else { SMPEG_play(mpeg); pause = 0; } } else if ( event.key.keysym.sym == SDLK_RIGHT ) { // Forward if ( event.key.keysym.mod & KMOD_SHIFT ) { SMPEG_skip(mpeg, 100); } else if ( event.key.keysym.mod & KMOD_CTRL ) { SMPEG_skip(mpeg, 50); } else { SMPEG_skip(mpeg, 5); } } else if ( event.key.keysym.sym == SDLK_LEFT ) { // Reverse if ( event.key.keysym.mod & KMOD_SHIFT ) { } else if ( event.key.keysym.mod & KMOD_CTRL ) { } else { } } else if ( event.key.keysym.sym == SDLK_KP_MINUS ) { // Scale minus if ( scalesize > 1 ) { scalesize--; } } else if ( event.key.keysym.sym == SDLK_KP_PLUS ) { // Scale plus scalesize++; } else if ( event.key.keysym.sym == SDLK_f ) { // Toggle filtering on/off if ( bilinear_filtering ) { SMPEG_Filter *filter = SMPEGfilter_null(); filter = SMPEG_filter( mpeg, filter ); filter-destroy(filter); bilinear_filtering = 0; } else { SMPEG_Filter *filter = SMPEGfilter_bilinear(); filter = SMPEG_filter( mpeg, filter ); filter-destroy(filter); bilinear_filtering = 1; } } break; case SDL_QUIT: done = 1; break; default: break; } } SDL_Delay(1000/2); } SMPEG_delete(mpeg); } SDL_Quit(); if defined(HTTP_SUPPORT) if(fd) close(fd); endif return(status); }

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  • HTG Reviews the CODE Keyboard: Old School Construction Meets Modern Amenities

    - by Jason Fitzpatrick
    There’s nothing quite as satisfying as the smooth and crisp action of a well built keyboard. If you’re tired of  mushy keys and cheap feeling keyboards, a well-constructed mechanical keyboard is a welcome respite from the $10 keyboard that came with your computer. Read on as we put the CODE mechanical keyboard through the paces. What is the CODE Keyboard? The CODE keyboard is a collaboration between manufacturer WASD Keyboards and Jeff Atwood of Coding Horror (the guy behind the Stack Exchange network and Discourse forum software). Atwood’s focus was incorporating the best of traditional mechanical keyboards and the best of modern keyboard usability improvements. In his own words: The world is awash in terrible, crappy, no name how-cheap-can-we-make-it keyboards. There are a few dozen better mechanical keyboard options out there. I’ve owned and used at least six different expensive mechanical keyboards, but I wasn’t satisfied with any of them, either: they didn’t have backlighting, were ugly, had terrible design, or were missing basic functions like media keys. That’s why I originally contacted Weyman Kwong of WASD Keyboards way back in early 2012. I told him that the state of keyboards was unacceptable to me as a geek, and I proposed a partnership wherein I was willing to work with him to do whatever it takes to produce a truly great mechanical keyboard. Even the ardent skeptic who questions whether Atwood has indeed created a truly great mechanical keyboard certainly can’t argue with the position he starts from: there are so many agonizingly crappy keyboards out there. Even worse, in our opinion, is that unless you’re a typist of a certain vintage there’s a good chance you’ve never actually typed on a really nice keyboard. Those that didn’t start using computers until the mid-to-late 1990s most likely have always typed on modern mushy-key keyboards and never known the joy of typing on a really responsive and crisp mechanical keyboard. Is our preference for and love of mechanical keyboards shining through here? Good. We’re not even going to try and hide it. So where does the CODE keyboard stack up in pantheon of keyboards? Read on as we walk you through the simple setup and our experience using the CODE. Setting Up the CODE Keyboard Although the setup of the CODE keyboard is essentially plug and play, there are two distinct setup steps that you likely haven’t had to perform on a previous keyboard. Both highlight the degree of care put into the keyboard and the amount of customization available. Inside the box you’ll find the keyboard, a micro USB cable, a USB-to-PS2 adapter, and a tool which you may be unfamiliar with: a key puller. We’ll return to the key puller in a moment. Unlike the majority of keyboards on the market, the cord isn’t permanently affixed to the keyboard. What does this mean for you? Aside from the obvious need to plug it in yourself, it makes it dead simple to repair your own keyboard cord if it gets attacked by a pet, mangled in a mechanism on your desk, or otherwise damaged. It also makes it easy to take advantage of the cable routing channels in on the underside of the keyboard to  route your cable exactly where you want it. While we’re staring at the underside of the keyboard, check out those beefy rubber feet. By peripherals standards they’re huge (and there is six instead of the usual four). Once you plunk the keyboard down where you want it, it might as well be glued down the rubber feet work so well. After you’ve secured the cable and adjusted it to your liking, there is one more task  before plug the keyboard into the computer. On the bottom left-hand side of the keyboard, you’ll find a small recess in the plastic with some dip switches inside: The dip switches are there to switch hardware functions for various operating systems, keyboard layouts, and to enable/disable function keys. By toggling the dip switches you can change the keyboard from QWERTY mode to Dvorak mode and Colemak mode, the two most popular alternative keyboard configurations. You can also use the switches to enable Mac-functionality (for Command/Option keys). One of our favorite little toggles is the SW3 dip switch: you can disable the Caps Lock key; goodbye accidentally pressing Caps when you mean to press Shift. You can review the entire dip switch configuration chart here. The quick-start for Windows users is simple: double check that all the switches are in the off position (as seen in the photo above) and then simply toggle SW6 on to enable the media and backlighting function keys (this turns the menu key on the keyboard into a function key as typically found on laptop keyboards). After adjusting the dip switches to your liking, plug the keyboard into an open USB port on your computer (or into your PS/2 port using the included adapter). Design, Layout, and Backlighting The CODE keyboard comes in two flavors, a traditional 87-key layout (no number pad) and a traditional 104-key layout (number pad on the right hand side). We identify the layout as traditional because, despite some modern trapping and sneaky shortcuts, the actual form factor of the keyboard from the shape of the keys to the spacing and position is as classic as it comes. You won’t have to learn a new keyboard layout and spend weeks conditioning yourself to a smaller than normal backspace key or a PgUp/PgDn pair in an unconventional location. Just because the keyboard is very conventional in layout, however, doesn’t mean you’ll be missing modern amenities like media-control keys. The following additional functions are hidden in the F11, F12, Pause button, and the 2×6 grid formed by the Insert and Delete rows: keyboard illumination brightness, keyboard illumination on/off, mute, and then the typical play/pause, forward/backward, stop, and volume +/- in Insert and Delete rows, respectively. While we weren’t sure what we’d think of the function-key system at first (especially after retiring a Microsoft Sidewinder keyboard with a huge and easily accessible volume knob on it), it took less than a day for us to adapt to using the Fn key, located next to the right Ctrl key, to adjust our media playback on the fly. Keyboard backlighting is a largely hit-or-miss undertaking but the CODE keyboard nails it. Not only does it have pleasant and easily adjustable through-the-keys lighting but the key switches the keys themselves are attached to are mounted to a steel plate with white paint. Enough of the light reflects off the interior cavity of the keys and then diffuses across the white plate to provide nice even illumination in between the keys. Highlighting the steel plate beneath the keys brings us to the actual construction of the keyboard. It’s rock solid. The 87-key model, the one we tested, is 2.0 pounds. The 104-key is nearly a half pound heavier at 2.42 pounds. Between the steel plate, the extra-thick PCB board beneath the steel plate, and the thick ABS plastic housing, the keyboard has very solid feel to it. Combine that heft with the previously mentioned thick rubber feet and you have a tank-like keyboard that won’t budge a millimeter during normal use. Examining The Keys This is the section of the review the hardcore typists and keyboard ninjas have been waiting for. We’ve looked at the layout of the keyboard, we’ve looked at the general construction of it, but what about the actual keys? There are a wide variety of keyboard construction techniques but the vast majority of modern keyboards use a rubber-dome construction. The key is floated in a plastic frame over a rubber membrane that has a little rubber dome for each key. The press of the physical key compresses the rubber dome downwards and a little bit of conductive material on the inside of the dome’s apex connects with the circuit board. Despite the near ubiquity of the design, many people dislike it. The principal complaint is that dome keyboards require a complete compression to register a keystroke; keyboard designers and enthusiasts refer to this as “bottoming out”. In other words, the register the “b” key, you need to completely press that key down. As such it slows you down and requires additional pressure and movement that, over the course of tens of thousands of keystrokes, adds up to a whole lot of wasted time and fatigue. The CODE keyboard features key switches manufactured by Cherry, a company that has manufactured key switches since the 1960s. Specifically the CODE features Cherry MX Clear switches. These switches feature the same classic design of the other Cherry switches (such as the MX Blue and Brown switch lineups) but they are significantly quieter (yes this is a mechanical keyboard, but no, your neighbors won’t think you’re firing off a machine gun) as they lack the audible click found in most Cherry switches. This isn’t to say that they keyboard doesn’t have a nice audible key press sound when the key is fully depressed, but that the key mechanism isn’t doesn’t create a loud click sound when triggered. One of the great features of the Cherry MX clear is a tactile “bump” that indicates the key has been compressed enough to register the stroke. For touch typists the very subtle tactile feedback is a great indicator that you can move on to the next stroke and provides a welcome speed boost. Even if you’re not trying to break any word-per-minute records, that little bump when pressing the key is satisfying. The Cherry key switches, in addition to providing a much more pleasant typing experience, are also significantly more durable than dome-style key switch. Rubber dome switch membrane keyboards are typically rated for 5-10 million contacts whereas the Cherry mechanical switches are rated for 50 million contacts. You’d have to write the next War and Peace  and follow that up with A Tale of Two Cities: Zombie Edition, and then turn around and transcribe them both into a dozen different languages to even begin putting a tiny dent in the lifecycle of this keyboard. So what do the switches look like under the classicly styled keys? You can take a look yourself with the included key puller. Slide the loop between the keys and then gently beneath the key you wish to remove: Wiggle the key puller gently back and forth while exerting a gentle upward pressure to pop the key off; You can repeat the process for every key, if you ever find yourself needing to extract piles of cat hair, Cheeto dust, or other foreign objects from your keyboard. There it is, the naked switch, the source of that wonderful crisp action with the tactile bump on each keystroke. The last feature worthy of a mention is the N-key rollover functionality of the keyboard. This is a feature you simply won’t find on non-mechanical keyboards and even gaming keyboards typically only have any sort of key roller on the high-frequency keys like WASD. So what is N-key rollover and why do you care? On a typical mass-produced rubber-dome keyboard you cannot simultaneously press more than two keys as the third one doesn’t register. PS/2 keyboards allow for unlimited rollover (in other words you can’t out type the keyboard as all of your keystrokes, no matter how fast, will register); if you use the CODE keyboard with the PS/2 adapter you gain this ability. If you don’t use the PS/2 adapter and use the native USB, you still get 6-key rollover (and the CTRL, ALT, and SHIFT don’t count towards the 6) so realistically you still won’t be able to out type the computer as even the more finger twisting keyboard combos and high speed typing will still fall well within the 6-key rollover. The rollover absolutely doesn’t matter if you’re a slow hunt-and-peck typist, but if you’ve read this far into a keyboard review there’s a good chance that you’re a serious typist and that kind of quality construction and high-number key rollover is a fantastic feature.  The Good, The Bad, and the Verdict We’ve put the CODE keyboard through the paces, we’ve played games with it, typed articles with it, left lengthy comments on Reddit, and otherwise used and abused it like we would any other keyboard. The Good: The construction is rock solid. In an emergency, we’re confident we could use the keyboard as a blunt weapon (and then resume using it later in the day with no ill effect on the keyboard). The Cherry switches are an absolute pleasure to type on; the Clear variety found in the CODE keyboard offer a really nice middle-ground between the gun-shot clack of a louder mechanical switch and the quietness of a lesser-quality dome keyboard without sacrificing quality. Touch typists will love the subtle tactile bump feedback. Dip switch system makes it very easy for users on different systems and with different keyboard layout needs to switch between operating system and keyboard layouts. If you’re investing a chunk of change in a keyboard it’s nice to know you can take it with you to a different operating system or “upgrade” it to a new layout if you decide to take up Dvorak-style typing. The backlighting is perfect. You can adjust it from a barely-visible glow to a blazing light-up-the-room brightness. Whatever your intesity preference, the white-coated steel backplate does a great job diffusing the light between the keys. You can easily remove the keys for cleaning (or to rearrange the letters to support a new keyboard layout). The weight of the unit combined with the extra thick rubber feet keep it planted exactly where you place it on the desk. The Bad: While you’re getting your money’s worth, the $150 price tag is a shock when compared to the $20-60 price tags you find on lower-end keyboards. People used to large dedicated media keys independent of the traditional key layout (such as the large buttons and volume controls found on many modern keyboards) might be off put by the Fn-key style media controls on the CODE. The Verdict: The keyboard is clearly and heavily influenced by the needs of serious typists. Whether you’re a programmer, transcriptionist, or just somebody that wants to leave the lengthiest article comments the Internet has ever seen, the CODE keyboard offers a rock solid typing experience. Yes, $150 isn’t pocket change, but the quality of the CODE keyboard is so high and the typing experience is so enjoyable, you’re easily getting ten times the value you’d get out of purchasing a lesser keyboard. Even compared to other mechanical keyboards on the market, like the Das Keyboard, you’re still getting more for your money as other mechanical keyboards don’t come with the lovely-to-type-on Cherry MX Clear switches, back lighting, and hardware-based operating system keyboard layout switching. If it’s in your budget to upgrade your keyboard (especially if you’ve been slogging along with a low-end rubber-dome keyboard) there’s no good reason to not pickup a CODE keyboard. Key animation courtesy of Geekhack.org user Lethal Squirrel.       

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  • Is your team is a high-performing team?

    As a child I can remember looking out of the car window as my father drove along the Interstate in Florida while seeing prisoners wearing bright orange jump suits and prison guards keeping a watchful eye on them. The prisoners were taking part in a prison road gang. These road gangs were formed to help the state maintain the state highway infrastructure. The prisoner’s primary responsibilities are to pick up trash and debris from the roadway. This is a prime example of a work group or working group used by most prison systems in the United States. Work groups or working groups can be defined as a collection of individuals or entities working together to achieve a specific goal or accomplish a specific set of tasks. Typically these groups are only established for a short period of time and are dissolved once the desired outcome has been achieved. More often than not group members usually feel as though they are expendable to the group and some even dread that they are even in the group. "A team is a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, performance goals, and approach for which they are mutually accountable." (Katzenbach and Smith, 1993) So how do you determine that a team is a high-performing team?  This can be determined by three base line criteria that include: consistently high quality output, the promotion of personal growth and well being of all team members, and most importantly the ability to learn and grow as a unit. Initially, a team can successfully create high-performing output without meeting all three criteria, however this will erode over time because team members will feel detached from the group or that they are not growing then the quality of the output will decline. High performing teams are similar to work groups because they both utilize a collection of individuals or entities to accomplish tasks. What distinguish a high-performing team from a work group are its characteristics. High-performing teams contain five core characteristics. These characteristics are what separate a group from a team. The five characteristics of a high-performing team include: Purpose, Performance Measures, People with Tasks and Relationship Skills, Process, and Preparation and Practice. A high-performing team is much more than a work group, and typically has a life cycle that can vary from team to team. The standard team lifecycle consists of five states and is comparable to a human life cycle. The five states of a high-performing team lifecycle include: Formulating, Storming, Normalizing, Performing, and Adjourning. The Formulating State of a team is first realized when the team members are first defined and roles are assigned to all members. This initial stage is very important because it can set the tone for the team and can ultimately determine its success or failure. In addition, this stage requires the team to have a strong leader because team members are normally unclear about specific roles, specific obstacles and goals that my lay ahead of them.  Finally, this stage is where most team members initially meet one another prior to working as a team unless the team members already know each other. The Storming State normally arrives directly after the formulation of a new team because there are still a lot of unknowns amongst the newly formed assembly. As a general rule most of the parties involved in the team are still getting used to the workload, pace of work, deadlines and the validity of various tasks that need to be performed by the group.  In this state everything is questioned because there are so many unknowns. Items commonly questioned include the credentials of others on the team, the actual validity of a project, and the leadership abilities of the team leader.  This can be exemplified by looking at the interactions between animals when they first meet.  If we look at a scenario where two people are walking directly toward each other with their dogs. The dogs will automatically enter the Storming State because they do not know the other dog. Typically in this situation, they attempt to define which is more dominating via play or fighting depending on how the dogs interact with each other. Once dominance has been defined and accepted by both dogs then they will either want to play or leave depending on how the dogs interacted and other environmental variables. Once the Storming State has been realized then the Normalizing State takes over. This state is entered by a team once all the questions of the Storming State have been answered and the team has been tested by a few tasks or projects.  Typically, participants in the team are filled with energy, and comradery, and a strong alliance with team goals and objectives.  A high school football team is a perfect example of the Normalizing State when they start their season.  The player positions have been assigned, the depth chart has been filled and everyone is focused on winning each game. All of the players encourage and expect each other to perform at the best of their abilities and are united by competition from other teams. The Performing State is achieved by a team when its history, working habits, and culture solidify the team as one working unit. In this state team members can anticipate specific behaviors, attitudes, reactions, and challenges are seen as opportunities and not problems. Additionally, each team member knows their role in the team’s success, and the roles of others. This is the most productive state of a group and is where all the time invested working together really pays off. If you look at an Olympic figure skating team skate you can easily see how the time spent working together benefits their performance. They skate as one unit even though it is comprised of two skaters. Each skater has their routine completely memorized as well as their partners. This allows them to anticipate each other’s moves on the ice makes their skating look effortless. The final state of a team is the Adjourning State. This state is where accomplishments by the team and each individual team member are recognized. Additionally, this state also allows for reflection of the interactions between team members, work accomplished and challenges that were faced. Finally, the team celebrates the challenges they have faced and overcome as a unit. Currently in the workplace teams are divided into two different types: Co-located and Distributed Teams. Co-located teams defined as the traditional group of people working together in an office, according to Andy Singleton of Assembla. This traditional type of a team has dominated business in the past due to inadequate technology, which forced workers to primarily interact with one another via face to face meetings.  Team meetings are primarily lead by the person with the highest status in the company. Having personally, participated in meetings of this type, usually a select few of the team members dominate the flow of communication which reduces the input of others in group discussions. Since discussions are dominated by a select few individuals the discussions and group discussion are skewed in favor of the individuals who communicate the most in meetings. In addition, Team members might not give their full opinions on a topic of discussion in part not to offend or create controversy amongst the team and can alter decision made in meetings towards those of the opinions of the dominating team members. Distributed teams are by definition spread across an area or subdivided into separate sections. That is exactly what distributed teams when compared to a more traditional team. It is common place for distributed teams to have team members across town, in the next state, across the country and even with the advances in technology over the last 20 year across the world. These teams allow for more diversity compared to the other type of teams because they allow for more flexibility regarding location. A team could consist of a 30 year old male Italian project manager from New York, a 50 year old female Hispanic from California and a collection of programmers from India because technology allows them to communicate as if they were standing next to one another.  In addition, distributed team members consult with more team members prior to making decisions compared to traditional teams, and take longer to come to decisions due to the changes in time zones and cultural events. However, team members feel more empowered to speak out when they do not agree with the team and to notify others of potential issues regarding the work that the team is doing. Virtual teams which are a subset of the distributed team type is changing organizational strategies due to the fact that a team can now in essence be working 24 hrs a day because of utilizing employees in various time zones and locations.  A primary example of this is with customer services departments, a company can have multiple call centers spread across multiple time zones allowing them to appear to be open 24 hours a day while all a employees work from 9AM to 5 PM every day. Virtual teams also allow human resources departments to go after the best talent for the company regardless of where the potential employee works because they will be a part of a virtual team all that is need is the proper technology to be setup to allow everyone to communicate. In addition to allowing employees to work from home, the company can save space and resources by not having to provide a desk for every team member. In fact, those team members that randomly come into the office can actually share one desk amongst multiple people. This is definitely a cost cutting plus given the current state of the economy. One thing that can turn a team into a high-performing team is leadership. High-performing team leaders need to focus on investing in ongoing personal development, provide team members with direction, structure, and resources needed to accomplish their work, make the right interventions at the right time, and help the team manage boundaries between the team and various external parties involved in the teams work. A team leader needs to invest in ongoing personal development in order to effectively manage their team. People have said that attitude is everything; this is very true about leaders and leadership. A team takes on the attitudes and behaviors of its leaders. This can potentially harm the team and the team’s output. Leaders must concentrate on self-awareness, and understanding their team’s group dynamics to fully understand how to lead them. In addition, always learning new leadership techniques from other effective leaders is also very beneficial. Providing team members with direction, structure, and resources that they need to accomplish their work collectively sounds easy, but it is not.  Leaders need to be able to effectively communicate with their team on how their work helps the company reach for its organizational vision. Conversely, the leader needs to allow his team to work autonomously within specific guidelines to turn the company’s vision into a reality.  This being said the team must be appropriately staffed according to the size of the team’s tasks and their complexity. These tasks should be clear, and be meaningful to the company’s objectives and allow for feedback to be exchanged with the leader and the team member and the leader and upper management. Now if the team is properly staffed, and has a clear and full understanding of what is to be done; the company also must supply the workers with the proper tools to achieve the tasks that they are asked to do. No one should be asked to dig a hole without being given a shovel.  Finally, leaders must reward their team members for accomplishments that they achieve. Awards could range from just a simple congratulatory email, a party to close the completion of a large project, or other monetary rewards. Managing boundaries is very important for team leaders because it can alter attitudes of team members and can add undue stress to the team which will force them to loose focus on the tasks at hand for the group. Team leaders should promote communication between team members so that burdens are shared amongst the team and solutions can be derived from hearing the opinions of multiple sources. This also reinforces team camaraderie and working as a unit. Team leaders must manage the type and timing of interventions as to not create an even bigger mess within the team. Poorly timed interventions can really deflate team members and make them question themselves. This could really increase further and undue interventions by the team leader. Typically, the best time for interventions is when the team is just starting to form so that all unproductive behaviors are removed from the team and that it can retain focus on its agenda. If an intervention is effectively executed the team will feel energized about the work that they are doing, promote communication and interaction amongst the group and improve moral overall. High-performing teams are very import to organizations because they consistently produce high quality output and develop a collective purpose for their work. This drive to succeed allows team members to utilize specific talents allowing for growth in these areas.  In addition, these team members usually take on a sense of ownership with their projects and feel that the other team members are irreplaceable. References: http://blog.assembla.com/assemblablog/tabid/12618/bid/3127/Three-ways-to-organize-your-team-co-located-outsourced-or-global.aspx Katzenbach, J.R. & Smith, D.K. (1993). The Wisdom of Teams: Creating the High-performance Organization. Boston: Harvard Business School.

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  • Built-in GZip/Deflate Compression on IIS 7.x

    - by Rick Strahl
    IIS 7 improves internal compression functionality dramatically making it much easier than previous versions to take advantage of compression that’s built-in to the Web server. IIS 7 also supports dynamic compression which allows automatic compression of content created in your own applications (ASP.NET or otherwise!). The scheme is based on content-type sniffing and so it works with any kind of Web application framework. While static compression on IIS 7 is super easy to set up and turned on by default for most text content (text/*, which includes HTML and CSS, as well as for JavaScript, Atom, XAML, XML), setting up dynamic compression is a bit more involved, mostly because the various default compression settings are set in multiple places down the IIS –> ASP.NET hierarchy. Let’s take a look at each of the two approaches available: Static Compression Compresses static content from the hard disk. IIS can cache this content by compressing the file once and storing the compressed file on disk and serving the compressed alias whenever static content is requested and it hasn’t changed. The overhead for this is minimal and should be aggressively enabled. Dynamic Compression Works against application generated output from applications like your ASP.NET apps. Unlike static content, dynamic content must be compressed every time a page that requests it regenerates its content. As such dynamic compression has a much bigger impact than static caching. How Compression is configured Compression in IIS 7.x  is configured with two .config file elements in the <system.WebServer> space. The elements can be set anywhere in the IIS/ASP.NET configuration pipeline all the way from ApplicationHost.config down to the local web.config file. The following is from the the default setting in ApplicationHost.config (in the %windir%\System32\inetsrv\config forlder) on IIS 7.5 with a couple of small adjustments (added json output and enabled dynamic compression): <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <configuration> <system.webServer> <httpCompression directory="%SystemDrive%\inetpub\temp\IIS Temporary Compressed Files"> <scheme name="gzip" dll="%Windir%\system32\inetsrv\gzip.dll" staticCompressionLevel="9" /> <dynamicTypes> <add mimeType="text/*" enabled="true" /> <add mimeType="message/*" enabled="true" /> <add mimeType="application/x-javascript" enabled="true" /> <add mimeType="application/json" enabled="true" /> <add mimeType="*/*" enabled="false" /> </dynamicTypes> <staticTypes> <add mimeType="text/*" enabled="true" /> <add mimeType="message/*" enabled="true" /> <add mimeType="application/x-javascript" enabled="true" /> <add mimeType="application/atom+xml" enabled="true" /> <add mimeType="application/xaml+xml" enabled="true" /> <add mimeType="*/*" enabled="false" /> </staticTypes> </httpCompression> <urlCompression doStaticCompression="true" doDynamicCompression="true" /> </system.webServer> </configuration> You can find documentation on the httpCompression and urlCompression keys here respectively: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms690689%28v=vs.90%29.aspx http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa347437%28v=vs.90%29.aspx The httpCompression Element – What and How to compress Basically httpCompression configures what types to compress and how to compress them. It specifies the DLL that handles gzip encoding and the types of documents that are to be compressed. Types are set up based on mime-types which looks at returned Content-Type headers in HTTP responses. For example, I added the application/json to mime type to my dynamic compression types above to allow that content to be compressed as well since I have quite a bit of AJAX content that gets sent to the client. The UrlCompression Element – Enables and Disables Compression The urlCompression element is a quick way to turn compression on and off. By default static compression is enabled server wide, and dynamic compression is disabled server wide. This might be a bit confusing because the httpCompression element also has a doDynamicCompression attribute which is set to true by default, but the urlCompression attribute by the same name actually overrides it. The urlCompression element only has three attributes: doStaticCompression, doDynamicCompression and dynamicCompressionBeforeCache. The doCompression attributes are the final determining factor whether compression is enabled, so it’s a good idea to be explcit! The default for doDynamicCompression='false”, but doStaticCompression="true"! Static Compression is enabled by Default, Dynamic Compression is not Because static compression is very efficient in IIS 7 it’s enabled by default server wide and there probably is no reason to ever change that setting. Dynamic compression however, since it’s more resource intensive, is turned off by default. If you want to enable dynamic compression there are a few quirks you have to deal with, namely that enabling it in ApplicationHost.config doesn’t work. Setting: <urlCompression doDynamicCompression="true" /> in applicationhost.config appears to have no effect and I had to move this element into my local web.config to make dynamic compression work. This is actually a smart choice because you’re not likely to want dynamic compression in every application on a server. Rather dynamic compression should be applied selectively where it makes sense. However, nowhere is it documented that the setting in applicationhost.config doesn’t work (or more likely is overridden somewhere and disabled lower in the configuration hierarchy). So: remember to set doDynamicCompression=”true” in web.config!!! How Static Compression works Static compression works against static content loaded from files on disk. Because this content is static and not bound to change frequently – such as .js, .css and static HTML content – it’s fairly easy for IIS to compress and then cache the compressed content. The way this works is that IIS compresses the files into a special folder on the server’s hard disk and then reads the content from this location if already compressed content is requested and the underlying file resource has not changed. The semantics of serving an already compressed file are very efficient – IIS still checks for file changes, but otherwise just serves the already compressed file from the compression folder. The compression folder is located at: %windir%\inetpub\temp\IIS Temporary Compressed Files\ApplicationPool\ If you look into the subfolders you’ll find compressed files: These files are pre-compressed and IIS serves them directly to the client until the underlying files are changed. As I mentioned before – static compression is on by default and there’s very little reason to turn that functionality off as it is efficient and just works out of the box. The one tweak you might want to do is to set the compression level to maximum. Since IIS only compresses content very infrequently it would make sense to apply maximum compression. You can do this with the staticCompressionLevel setting on the scheme element: <scheme name="gzip" dll="%Windir%\system32\inetsrv\gzip.dll" staticCompressionLevel="9" /> Other than that the default settings are probably just fine. Dynamic Compression – not so fast! By default dynamic compression is disabled and that’s actually quite sensible – you should use dynamic compression very carefully and think about what content you want to compress. In most applications it wouldn’t make sense to compress *all* generated content as it would generate a significant amount of overhead. Scott Fortsyth has a great post that details some of the performance numbers and how much impact dynamic compression has. Depending on how busy your server is you can play around with compression and see what impact it has on your server’s performance. There are also a few settings you can tweak to minimize the overhead of dynamic compression. Specifically the httpCompression key has a couple of CPU related keys that can help minimize the impact of Dynamic Compression on a busy server: dynamicCompressionDisableCpuUsage dynamicCompressionEnableCpuUsage By default these are set to 90 and 50 which means that when the CPU hits 90% compression will be disabled until CPU utilization drops back down to 50%. Again this is actually quite sensible as it utilizes CPU power from compression when available and falling off when the threshold has been hit. It’s a good way some of that extra CPU power on your big servers to use when utilization is low. Again these settings are something you likely have to play with. I would probably set the upper limit a little lower than 90% maybe around 70% to make this a feature that kicks in only if there’s lots of power to spare. I’m not really sure how accurate these CPU readings that IIS uses are as Cpu usage on Web Servers can spike drastically even during low loads. Don’t trust settings – do some load testing or monitor your server in a live environment to see what values make sense for your environment. Finally for dynamic compression I tend to add one Mime type for JSON data, since a lot of my applications send large chunks of JSON data over the wire. You can do that with the application/json content type: <add mimeType="application/json" enabled="true" /> What about Deflate Compression? The default compression is GZip. The documentation hints that you can use a different compression scheme and mentions Deflate compression. And sure enough you can change the compression settings to: <scheme name="deflate" dll="%Windir%\system32\inetsrv\gzip.dll" staticCompressionLevel="9" /> to get deflate style compression. The deflate algorithm produces slightly more compact output so I tend to prefer it over GZip but more HTTP clients (other than browsers) support GZip than Deflate so be careful with this option if you build Web APIs. I also had some issues with the above value actually being applied right away. Changing the scheme in applicationhost.config didn’t show up on the site  right away. It required me to do a full IISReset to get that change to show up before I saw the change over to deflate compressed content. Content was slightly more compressed with deflate – not sure if it’s worth the slightly less common compression type, but the option at least is available. IIS 7 finally makes GZip Easy In summary IIS 7 makes GZip easy finally, even if the configuration settings are a bit obtuse and the documentation is seriously lacking. But once you know the basic settings I’ve described here and the fact that you can override all of this in your local web.config it’s pretty straight forward to configure GZip support and tweak it exactly to your needs. Static compression is a total no brainer as it adds very little overhead compared to direct static file serving and provides solid compression. Dynamic Compression is a little more tricky as it does add some overhead to servers, so it probably will require some tweaking to get the right balance of CPU load vs. compression ratios. Looking at large sites like Amazon, Yahoo, NewEgg etc. – they all use Related Content Code based ASP.NET GZip Caveats HttpWebRequest and GZip Responses © Rick Strahl, West Wind Technologies, 2005-2011Posted in IIS7   ASP.NET  

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  • Load and Web Performance Testing using Visual Studio Ultimate 2010-Part 3

    - by Tarun Arora
    Welcome back once again, in Part 1 of Load and Web Performance Testing using Visual Studio 2010 I talked about why Performance Testing the application is important, the test tools available in Visual Studio Ultimate 2010 and various test rig topologies, in Part 2 of Load and Web Performance Testing using Visual Studio 2010 I discussed the details of web performance & load tests as well as why it’s important to follow a goal based pattern while performance testing your application. In part 3 I’ll be discussing Test Result Analysis, Test Result Drill through, Test Report Generation, Test Run Comparison, Asp.net Profiler and some closing thoughts. Test Results – I see some creepy worms! In Part 2 we put together a web performance test and a load test, lets run the test to see load test to see how the Web site responds to the load simulation. While the load test is running you will be able to see close to real time analysis in the Load Test Analyser window. You can use the Load Test Analyser to conduct load test analysis in three ways: Monitor a running load test - A condensed set of the performance counter data is maintained in memory. To prevent the results memory requirements from growing unbounded, up to 200 samples for each performance counter are maintained. This includes 100 evenly spaced samples that span the current elapsed time of the run and the most recent 100 samples.         After the load test run is completed - The test controller spools all collected performance counter data to a database while the test is running. Additional data, such as timing details and error details, is loaded into the database when the test completes. The performance data for a completed test is loaded from the database and analysed by the Load Test Analyser. Below you can see a screen shot of the summary view, this provides key results in a format that is compact and easy to read. You can also print the load test summary, this is generated after the test has completed or been stopped.         Analyse the load test results of a previously run load test – We’ll see this in the section where i discuss comparison between two test runs. The performance counters can be plotted on the graphs. You also have the option to highlight a selected part of the test and view details, drill down to the user activity chart where you can hover over to see more details of the test run.   Generate Report => Test Run Comparisons The level of reports you can generate using the Load Test Analyser is astonishing. You have the option to create excel reports and conduct side by side analysis of two test results or to track trend analysis. The tools also allows you to export the graph data either to MS Excel or to a CSV file. You can view the ASP.NET profiler report to conduct further analysis as well. View Data and Diagnostic Attachments opens the Choose Diagnostic Data Adapter Attachment dialog box to select an adapter to analyse the result type. For example, you can select an IntelliTrace adapter, click OK and open the IntelliTrace summary for the test agent that was used in the load test.   Compare results This creates a set of reports that compares the data from two load test results using tables and bar charts. I have taken these screen shots from the MSDN documentation, I would highly recommend exploring the wealth of knowledge available on MSDN. Leaving Thoughts While load testing the application with an excessive load for a longer duration of time, i managed to bring the IIS to its knees by piling up a huge queue of requests waiting to be processed. This clearly means that the IIS had run out of threads as all the threads were busy processing existing request, one easy way of fixing this is by increasing the default number of allocated threads, but this might escalate the problem. The better suggestion is to try and drill down to the actual root cause of the problem. When ever the garbage collection runs it stops processing any pages so all requests that come in during that period are queued up, but realistically the garbage collection completes in fraction of a a second. To understand this better lets look at the .net heap, it is divided into large heap and small heap, anything greater than 85kB in size will be allocated to the Large object heap, the Large object heap is non compacting and remember large objects are expensive to move around, so if you are allocating something in the large object heap, make sure that you really need it! The small object heap on the other hand is divided into generations, so all objects that are supposed to be short-lived are suppose to live in Gen-0 and the long living objects eventually move to Gen-2 as garbage collection goes through.  As you can see in the picture below all < 85 KB size objects are first assigned to Gen-0, when Gen-0 fills up and a new object comes in and finds Gen-0 full, the garbage collection process is started, the process checks for all the dead objects and assigns them as the valid candidate for deletion to free up memory and promotes all the remaining objects in Gen-0 to Gen-1. So in the future when ever you clean up Gen-1 you have to clean up Gen-0 as well. When you fill up Gen – 0 again, all of Gen – 1 dead objects are drenched and rest are moved to Gen-2 and Gen-0 objects are moved to Gen-1 to free up Gen-0, but by this time your Garbage collection process has started to take much more time than it usually takes. Now as I mentioned earlier when garbage collection is being run all page requests that come in during that period are queued up. Does this explain why possibly page requests are getting queued up, apart from this it could also be the case that you are waiting for a long running database process to complete.      Lets explore the heap a bit more… What is really a case of crisis is when the objects are living long enough to make it to Gen-2 and then dying, this is definitely a high cost operation. But sometimes you need objects in memory, for example when you cache data you hold on to the objects because you need to use them right across the user session, which is acceptable. But if you wanted to see what extreme caching can do to your server then write a simple application that chucks in a lot of data in cache, run a load test over it for about 10-15 minutes, forcing a lot of data in memory causing the heap to run out of memory. If you get to such a state where you start running out of memory the IIS as a mode of recovery restarts the worker process. It is great way to free up all your memory in the heap but this would clear the cache. The problem with this is if the customer had 10 items in their shopping basket and that data was stored in the application cache, the user basket will now be empty forcing them either to get frustrated and go to a competitor website or if the customer is really patient, give it another try! How can you address this, well two ways of addressing this; 1. Workaround – A x86 bit processor only allows a maximum of 4GB of RAM, this means the machine effectively has around 3.4 GB of RAM available, the OS needs about 1.5 GB of RAM to run efficiently, the IIS and .net framework also need their share of memory, leaving you a heap of around 800 MB to play with. Because Team builds by default build your application in ‘Compile as any mode’ it means the application is build such that it will run in x86 bit mode if run on a x86 bit processor and run in a x64 bit mode if run on a x64 but processor. The problem with this is not all applications are really x64 bit compatible specially if you are using com objects or external libraries. So, as a quick win if you compiled your application in x86 bit mode by changing the compile as any selection to compile as x86 in the team build, you will be able to run your application on a x64 bit machine in x86 bit mode (WOW – By running Windows on Windows) and what that means is, you could use 8GB+ worth of RAM, if you take away everything else your application will roughly get a heap size of at least 4 GB to play with, which is immense. If you need a heap size of more than 4 GB you have either build a software for NASA or there is something fundamentally wrong in your application. 2. Solution – Now that you have put a workaround in place the IIS will not restart the worker process that regularly, which means you can take a breather and start working to get to the root cause of this memory leak. But this begs a question “How do I Identify possible memory leaks in my application?” Well i won’t say that there is one single tool that can tell you where the memory leak is, but trust me, ‘Performance Profiling’ is a great start point, it definitely gets you started in the right direction, let’s have a look at how. Performance Wizard - Start the Performance Wizard and select Instrumentation, this lets you measure function call counts and timings. Before running the performance session right click the performance session settings and chose properties from the context menu to bring up the Performance session properties page and as shown in the screen shot below, check the check boxes in the group ‘.NET memory profiling collection’ namely ‘Collect .NET object allocation information’ and ‘Also collect the .NET Object lifetime information’.    Now if you fire off the profiling session on your pages you will notice that the results allows you to view ‘Object Lifetime’ which shows you the number of objects that made it to Gen-0, Gen-1, Gen-2, Large heap, etc. Another great feature about the profile is that if your application has > 5% cases where objects die right after making to the Gen-2 storage a threshold alert is generated to alert you. Since you have the option to also view the most expensive methods and by capturing the IntelliTrace data you can drill in to narrow down to the line of code that is the root cause of the problem. Well now that we have seen how crucial memory management is and how easy Visual Studio Ultimate 2010 makes it for us to identify and reproduce the problem with the best of breed tools in the product. Caching One of the main ways to improve performance is Caching. Which basically means you tell the web server that instead of going to the database for each request you keep the data in the webserver and when the user asks for it you serve it from the webserver itself. BUT that can have consequences! Let’s look at some code, trust me caching code is not very intuitive, I define a cache key for almost all searches made through the common search page and cache the results. The approach works fine, first time i get the data from the database and second time data is served from the cache, significant performance improvement, EXCEPT when two users try to do the same operation and run into each other. But it is easy to handle this by adding the lock as you can see in the snippet below. So, as long as a user comes in and finds that the cache is empty, the user locks and starts to get the cache no more concurrency issues. But lets say you are processing 10 requests per second, by the time i have locked the operation to get the results from the database, 9 other users came in and found that the cache key is null so after i have come out and populated the cache they will still go in to get the results again. The application will still be faster because the next set of 10 users and so on would continue to get data from the cache. BUT if we added another null check after locking to build the cache and before actual call to the db then the 9 users who follow me would not make the extra trip to the database at all and that would really increase the performance, but didn’t i say that the code won’t be very intuitive, may be you should leave a comment you don’t want another developer to come in and think what a fresher why is he checking for the cache key null twice !!! The downside of caching is, you are storing the data outside of the database and the data could be wrong because the updates applied to the database would make the data cached at the web server out of sync. So, how do you invalidate the cache? Well if you only had one way of updating the data lets say only one entry point to the data update you can write some logic to say that every time new data is entered set the cache object to null. But this approach will not work as soon as you have several ways of feeding data to the system or your system is scaled out across a farm of web servers. The perfect solution to this is Micro Caching which means you cache the query for a set time duration and invalidate the cache after that set duration. The advantage is every time the user queries for that data with in the time span for which you have cached the results there are no calls made to the database and the data is served right from the server which makes the response immensely quick. Now figuring out the appropriate time span for which you micro cache the query results really depends on the application. Lets say your website gets 10 requests per second, if you retain the cache results for even 1 minute you will have immense performance gains. You would reduce 90% hits to the database for searching. Ever wondered why when you go to e-bookers.com or xpedia.com or yatra.com to book a flight and you click on the book button because the fare seems too exciting and you get an error message telling you that the fare is not valid any more. Yes, exactly => That is a cache failure! These travel sites or price compare engines are not going to hit the database every time you hit the compare button instead the results will be served from the cache, because the query results are micro cached, its a perfect trade-off, by micro caching the results the site gains 100% performance benefits but every once in a while annoys a customer because the fare has expired. But the trade off works in the favour of these sites as they are still able to process up to 30+ page requests per second which means cater to the site traffic by may be losing 1 customer every once in a while to a competitor who is also using a similar caching technique what are the odds that the user will not come back to their site sooner or later? Recap   Resources Below are some Key resource you might like to review. I would highly recommend the documentation, walkthroughs and videos available on MSDN. You can always make use of Fiddler to debug Web Performance Tests. Some community test extensions and plug ins available on Codeplex might also be of interest to you. The Road Ahead Thank you for taking the time out and reading this blog post, you may also want to read Part I and Part II if you haven’t so far. If you enjoyed the post, remember to subscribe to http://feeds.feedburner.com/TarunArora. Questions/Feedback/Suggestions, etc please leave a comment. Next ‘Load Testing in the cloud’, I’ll be working on exploring the possibilities of running Test controller/Agents in the Cloud. See you on the other side! Thank You!   Share this post : CodeProject

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  • Is Social Media The Vital Skill You Aren’t Tracking?

    - by HCM-Oracle
    By Mark Bennett - Originally featured in Talent Management Excellence The ever-increasing presence of the workforce on social media presents opportunities as well as risks for organizations. While on the one hand, we read about social media embarrassments happening to organizations, on the other we see that social media activities by workers and candidates can enhance a company’s brand and provide insight into what individuals are, or can become, influencers in the social media sphere. HR can play a key role in helping organizations make the most value out of the activities and presence of workers and candidates, while at the same time also helping to manage the risks that come with the permanence and viral nature of social media. What is Missing from Understanding Our Workforce? “If only HP knew what HP knows, we would be three-times more productive.”  Lew Platt, Former Chairman, President, CEO, Hewlett-Packard  What Lew Platt recognized was that organizations only have a partial understanding of what their workforce is capable of. This lack of understanding impacts the company in several negative ways: 1. A particular skill that the company needs to access in one part of the organization might exist somewhere else, but there is no record that the skill exists, so the need is unfulfilled. 2. As market conditions change rapidly, the company needs to know strategic options, but some options are missed entirely because the company doesn’t know that sufficient capability already exists to enable those options. 3. Employees may miss out on opportunities to demonstrate how their hidden skills could create new value to the company. Why don’t companies have that more complete picture of their workforce capabilities – that is, not know what they know? One very good explanation is that companies put most of their efforts into rating their workforce according to the jobs and roles they are filling today. This is the essence of two important talent management processes: recruiting and performance appraisals.  In recruiting, a set of requirements is put together for a job, either explicitly or indirectly through a job description. During the recruiting process, much of the attention is paid towards whether the candidate has the qualifications, the skills, the experience and the cultural fit to be successful in the role. This makes a lot of sense.  In the performance appraisal process, an employee is measured on how well they performed the functions of their role and in an effort to help the employee do even better next time, they are also measured on proficiency in the competencies that are deemed to be key in doing that job. Again, the logic is impeccable.  But in both these cases, two adages come to mind: 1. What gets measured is what gets managed. 2. You only see what you are looking for. In other words, the fact that the current roles the workforce are performing are the basis for measuring which capabilities the workforce has, makes them the only capabilities to be measured. What was initially meant to be a positive, i.e. identify what is needed to perform well and measure it, in order that it can be managed, comes with the unintended negative consequence of overshadowing the other capabilities the workforce has. This also comes with an employee engagement price, for the measurements and management of workforce capabilities is to typically focus on where the workforce comes up short. Again, it makes sense to do this, since improving a capability that appears to result in improved performance benefits, both the individual through improved performance ratings and the company through improved productivity. But this is based on the assumption that the capabilities identified and their required proficiencies are the only attributes of the individual that matter. Anything else the individual brings that results in high performance, while resulting in a desired performance outcome, often goes unrecognized or underappreciated at best. As social media begins to occupy a more important part in current and future roles in organizations, businesses must incorporate social media savvy and innovation into job descriptions and expectations. These new measures could provide insight into how well someone can use social media tools to influence communities and decision makers; keep abreast of trends in fast-moving industries; present a positive brand image for the organization around thought leadership, customer focus, social responsibility; and coordinate and collaborate with partners. These measures should demonstrate the “social capital” the individual has invested in and developed over time. Without this dimension, “short cut” methods may generate a narrow set of positive metrics that do not have real, long-lasting benefits to the organization. How Workforce Reputation Management Helps HR Harness Social Media With hundreds of petabytes of social media data flowing across Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, businesses are tapping technology solutions to effectively leverage social for HR. Workforce reputation management technology helps organizations discover, mobilize and retain talent by providing insight into the social reputation and influence of the workforce while also helping organizations monitor employee social media policy compliance and mitigate social media risk.  There are three major ways that workforce reputation management technology can play a strategic role to support HR: 1. Improve Awareness and Decisions on Talent Many organizations measure the skills and competencies that they know they need today, but are unaware of what other skills and competencies their workforce has that could be essential tomorrow. How about whether your workforce has the reputation and influence to make their skills and competencies more effective? Many organizations don’t have insight into the social media “reach” their workforce has, which is becoming more critical to business performance. These features help organizations, managers, and employees improve many talent processes and decision making, including the following: Hiring and Assignments. People and teams with higher reputations are considered more valuable and effective workers. Someone with high reputation who refers a candidate also can have high credibility as a source for hires.   Training and Development. Reputation trend analysis can impact program decisions regarding training offerings by showing how reputation and influence across the workforce changes in concert with training. Worker reputation impacts development plans and goal choices by helping the individual see which development efforts result in improved reputation and influence.   Finding Hidden Talent. Managers can discover hidden talent and skills amongst employees based on a combination of social profile information and social media reputation. Employees can improve their personal brand and accelerate their career development.  2. Talent Search and Discovery The right technology helps organizations find information on people that might otherwise be hidden. By leveraging access to candidate and worker social profiles as well as their social relationships, workforce reputation management provides companies with a more complete picture of what their knowledge, skills, and attributes are and what they can in turn access. This more complete information helps to find the right talent both outside the organization as well as the right, perhaps previously hidden talent, within the organization to fill roles and staff projects, particularly those roles and projects that are required in reaction to fast-changing opportunities and circumstances. 3. Reputation Brings Credibility Workforce reputation management technology provides a clearer picture of how candidates and workers are viewed by their peers and communities across a wide range of social reputation and influence metrics. This information is less subject to individual bias and can impact critical decision-making. Knowing the individual’s reputation and influence enables the organization to predict how well their capabilities and behaviors will have a positive effect on desired business outcomes. Many roles that have the highest impact on overall business performance are dependent on the individual’s influence and reputation. In addition, reputation and influence measures offer a very tangible source of feedback for workers, providing them with insight that helps them develop themselves and their careers and see the effectiveness of those efforts by tracking changes over time in their reputation and influence. The following are some examples of the different reputation and influence measures of the workforce that Workforce Reputation Management could gather and analyze: Generosity – How often the user reposts other’s posts. Influence – How often the user’s material is reposted by others.  Engagement – The ratio of recent posts with references (e.g. links to other posts) to the total number of posts.  Activity – How frequently the user posts. (e.g. number per day)  Impact – The size of the users’ social networks, which indicates their ability to reach unique followers, friends, or users.   Clout – The number of references and citations of the user’s material in others’ posts.  The Vital Ingredient of Workforce Reputation Management: Employee Participation “Nothing about me, without me.” Valerie Billingham, “Through the Patient’s Eyes”, Salzburg Seminar Session 356, 1998 Since data resides primarily in social media, a question arises: what manner is used to collect that data? While much of social media activity is publicly accessible (as many who wished otherwise have learned to their chagrin), the social norms of social media have developed to put some restrictions on what is acceptable behavior and by whom. Disregarding these norms risks a repercussion firestorm. One of the more recognized norms is that while individuals can follow and engage with other individual’s public social activity (e.g. Twitter updates) fairly freely, the more an organization does this unprompted and without getting permission from the individual beforehand, the more likely the organization risks a totally opposite outcome from the one desired. Instead, the organization must look for permission from the individual, which can be met with resistance. That resistance comes from not knowing how the information will be used, how it will be shared with others, and not receiving enough benefit in return for granting permission. As the quote above about patient concerns and rights succinctly states, no one likes not feeling in control of the information about themselves, or the uncertainty about where it will be used. This is well understood in consumer social media (i.e. permission-based marketing) and is applicable to workforce reputation management. However, asking permission leaves open the very real possibility that no one, or so few, will grant permission, resulting in a small set of data with little usefulness for the company. Connecting Individual Motivation to Organization Needs So what is it that makes an individual decide to grant an organization access to the data it wants? It is when the individual’s own motivations are in alignment with the organization’s objectives. In the case of workforce reputation management, when the individual is motivated by a desire for increased visibility and career growth opportunities to advertise their skills and level of influence and reputation, they are aligned with the organizations’ objectives; to fill resource needs or strategically build better awareness of what skills are present in the workforce, as well as levels of influence and reputation. Individuals can see the benefit of granting access permission to the company through multiple means. One is through simple social awareness; they begin to discover that peers who are getting more career opportunities are those who are signed up for workforce reputation management. Another is where companies take the message directly to the individual; we think you would benefit from signing up with our workforce reputation management solution. Another, more strategic approach is to make reputation management part of a larger Career Development effort by the company; providing a wide set of tools to help the workforce find ways to plan and take action to achieve their career aspirations in the organization. An effective mechanism, that facilitates connecting the visibility and career growth motivations of the workforce with the larger context of the organization’s business objectives, is to use game mechanics to help individuals transform their career goals into concrete, actionable steps, such as signing up for reputation management. This works in favor of companies looking to use workforce reputation because the workforce is more apt to see how it fits into achieving their overall career goals, as well as seeing how other participation brings additional benefits.  Once an individual has signed up with reputation management, not only have they made themselves more visible within the organization and increased their career growth opportunities, they have also enabled a tool that they can use to better understand how their actions and behaviors impact their influence and reputation. Since they will be able to see their reputation and influence measurements change over time, they will gain better insight into how reputation and influence impacts their effectiveness in a role, as well as how their behaviors and skill levels in turn affect their influence and reputation. This insight can trigger much more directed, and effective, efforts by the individual to improve their ability to perform at a higher level and become more productive. The increased sense of autonomy the individual experiences, in linking the insight they gain to the actions and behavior changes they make, greatly enhances their engagement with their role as well as their career prospects within the company. Workforce reputation management takes the wide range of disparate data about the workforce being produced across various social media platforms and transforms it into accessible, relevant, and actionable information that helps the organization achieve its desired business objectives. Social media holds untapped insights about your talent, brand and business, and workforce reputation management can help unlock them. Imagine - if you could find the hidden secrets of your businesses, how much more productive and efficient would your organization be? Mark Bennett is a Director of Product Strategy at Oracle. Mark focuses on setting the strategic vision and direction for tools that help organizations understand, shape, and leverage the capabilities of their workforce to achieve business objectives, as well as help individuals work effectively to achieve their goals and navigate their own growth. His combination of a deep technical background in software design and development, coupled with a broad knowledge of business challenges and thinking in today’s globalized, rapidly changing, technology accelerated economy, has enabled him to identify and incorporate key innovations that are central to Oracle Fusion’s unique value proposition. Mark has over the course of his career been in charge of the design, development, and strategy of Talent Management products and the design and development of cutting edge software that is better equipped to handle the increasingly complex demands of users while also remaining easy to use. Follow him @mpbennett

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