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• Listen to Local FM Radio in Windows 7 Media Center

  - by DigitalGeekery

  If you have a supported tuner card and connected FM antenna, you can listen to your favorite local over-the-air FM stations in Windows 7 Media Center. Before the FM radio option will be available in Windows Media Center, you’ll need to have a TV or Radio tuner card installed and configured. If you have a TV tuner card installed, you may already have a Radio tuner as well. Many TV tuner cards also have built in FM tuners. Open Windows Media Center, scroll the “Music” and over to “Radio.” Click on “FM Radio.”   The radio will turn on and you’ll see the current station number listed in the white box. Just below are standard “Seek” and “Tune” buttons, as well as “Preset” options. Tuning works just like a typical FM radio. Click on the (-) or (+) buttons to “Tune” or “Seek” up and down the dial. If you already know the frequency of the station, enter the numbers using the numeric keypad on the remote control or keyboard. To save the current station you’re listening to as a preset, click on the “Save as Preset” button. Type in a custom name for your preset station and click “Save.”   Once you set your presets, they will also be available on the main FM Radio screen. The transport controls at the bottom of the screen also allow you to control Volume, Pause, Play, Skip back, and Skip forward. Fast Forward and Rewind, however, are not supported.   This is a nice option if you’d like to listen to your local FM favorites on your computer, especially if those stations aren’t available online. If you don’t have an FM tuner and want to listen to thousands of online radio streams, check out our article on RadioTime in WMC. Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Listen to Over 100,000 Radio Stations in Windows Media CenterListen To XM Radio with Windows Media Center in Windows 7Using Netflix Watchnow in Windows Vista Media Center (Gmedia)Schedule Updates for Windows Media CenterIntegrate Hulu Desktop and Windows Media Center in Windows 7 TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 PCmover Professional The Growth of Citibank Quickly Switch between Tabs in IE Windows Media Player 12: Tweak Video & Sound with Playback Enhancements Own a cell phone, or does a cell phone own you? Make your Joomla & Drupal Sites Mobile with OSMOBI Integrate Twitter and Delicious and Make Life Easier

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• My Body Summary template for Orchard

  - by Bertrand Le Roy

  By default, when Orchard displays a content item such as a blog post in a list, it uses a very basic summary template that removes all markup and then extracts the first 200 characters. Removing the markup has the unfortunate effect of removing all styles and images, in particular the image I like to add to the beginning of my posts. Fortunately, overriding templates in Orchard is a piece of cake. Here is the Common.Body.Summary.cshtml file that I drop into the Views/Parts folder of pretty much all Orchard themes I build: @{ Orchard.ContentManagement.ContentItem contentItem = Model.ContentPart.ContentItem; var bodyHtml = Model.Html.ToString(); var more = bodyHtml.IndexOf("<!--more-->"); if (more != -1) { bodyHtml = bodyHtml.Substring(0, more); } else { var firstP = bodyHtml.IndexOf("<p>"); var firstSlashP = bodyHtml.IndexOf("</p>"); if (firstP >=0 && firstSlashP > firstP) { bodyHtml = bodyHtml.Substring(firstP, firstSlashP + 4 - firstP); } } var body = new HtmlString(bodyHtml); } <p>@body</p> <p>@Html.ItemDisplayLink(T("Read more...").ToString(), contentItem)</p> .csharpcode, .csharpcode pre { font-size: small; color: black; font-family: consolas, "Courier New", courier, monospace; background-color: #ffffff; /*white-space: pre;*/ } .csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; } .csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; } .csharpcode .str { color: #006080; } .csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; } .csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; } .csharpcode .asp { background-color: #ffff00; } .csharpcode .html { color: #800000; } .csharpcode .attr { color: #ff0000; } .csharpcode .alt { background-color: #f4f4f4; width: 100%; margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .lnum { color: #606060; } This template does not remove any tags, but instead looks for an HTML comment delimiting the end of the post’s intro: <!--more--> This is the same convention that is being used in WordPress, and it’s easy to add from the source view in TinyMCE or Live Writer. If such a comment is not found, the template will extract the first paragraph (delimited by <p> and </p> tags) as the summary. And if it finds neither, it will use the whole post. The template also adds a localizable link to the full post.

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• Summit Old, Summit New, Summit Borrowed...

  - by Rob Farley

  PASS Summit is coming up, and I thought I’d post a few things. Summit Old... At the PASS Summit, you will get the chance to hear presentations by the SQL Server establishment. Just about every big name in the SQL Server world is a regular at the PASS Summit, so you will get to hear and meet people like Kalen Delaney (@sqlqueen) (who just recently got awarded MVP status for the 20th year running), and from all around the world such as the UK’s Chris Webb (@technitrain) or Pinal Dave (@pinaldave) from India. Almost all the household names in SQL Server will be there, including a large contingent from Microsoft. The PASS Summit is by far the best place to meet the legends of SQL Server. And they’re not all old. Some are, but most of them are younger than you might think. ...Summit New... The hottest topics are often about the newest technologies (such as SQL Server 2012). But you will almost certainly learn new stuff about older versions too. But that’s not what I wanted to pick on for this point. There are many new speakers at every PASS Summit, and content that has not been covered in other places. This year, for example, LobsterPot’s Roger Noble (@roger_noble) is giving a presentation for the first time. He’s a regular around the Australian circuit, but this is his first time presenting to a US audience. New Zealand’s Paul White (@sql_kiwi) is attending his first PASS Summit, and will be giving over four hours of incredibly deep stuff that has never been presented anywhere in the US before (I can’t say the world, because he did present similar material in Adelaide earlier in the year). ...Summit Borrowed... No, I’m not talking about plagiarism – the talks you’ll hear are all their own work. But you will get a lot of stuff you’ll be able to take back and apply at work. The PASS Summit sessions are not full of sales-pitches, telling you about how great things could be if only you’d buy some third-party vendor product. It’s simply not that kind of conference, and PASS doesn’t allow that kind of talk to take place. Instead, you’ll be taught techniques, and be able to download scripts and slides to let you perform that magic back at work when you get home. You will definitely find plenty of ideas to borrow at the PASS Summit. ...Summit Blue Yeah – and there’s karaoke. Blue - Jason - SQL Karaoke - YouTube

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• Why is a fully transparent pixel still rendered?

  - by Mr Bell

  I am trying to make a pixel shader that achieves an effect similar to this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1uZvurrhig&feature=related My basic idea is render the scene to a temp render target then Render the previously rendered image with a slight fade on to another temp render target Draw the current scene on top of that Draw the results on to a render target that persists between draws Draw the results on to the screen But I am having problems with the fading portion. If I have my pixel shader return a color with its A component set to 0, shouldn't that basically amount to drawing nothing? (Assuming that sprite batch blend mode is set to AlphaBlend) To test this I have my pixel shader return a transparent red color. Instead of nothing being drawn, it draws a partially transparent red box. I hope that my question makes sense, but if it doesnt please ask me to clarify Here is the drawing code public override void Draw(GameTime gameTime) { GraphicsDevice.SamplerStates[1] = SamplerState.PointWrap; drawImageOnClearedRenderTarget(presentationTarget, tempRenderTarget, fadeEffect); drawImageOnRenderTarget(sceneRenderTarget, tempRenderTarget); drawImageOnClearedRenderTarget(tempRenderTarget, presentationTarget); GraphicsDevice.SetRenderTarget(null); drawImage(backgroundTexture); drawImage(presentationTarget); base.Draw(gameTime); } private void drawImage(Texture2D image, Effect effect = null) { spriteBatch.Begin(0, BlendState.AlphaBlend, SamplerState.PointWrap, null, null, effect); spriteBatch.Draw(image, new Rectangle(0, 0, width, height), Color.White); spriteBatch.End(); } private void drawImageOnRenderTarget(Texture2D image, RenderTarget2D target, Effect effect = null) { GraphicsDevice.SetRenderTarget(target); drawImage(image, effect); } private void drawImageOnClearedRenderTarget(Texture2D image, RenderTarget2D target, Effect effect = null) { GraphicsDevice.SetRenderTarget(target); GraphicsDevice.Clear(Color.Transparent); drawImage(image, effect); } Here is the fade pixel shader sampler TextureSampler : register(s0); float4 PixelShaderFunction(float2 texCoord : TEXCOORD0) : COLOR0 { float4 c = 0; c = tex2D(TextureSampler, texCoord); //c.a = clamp(c.a - 0.05, 0, 1); c.r = 1; c.g = 0; c.b = 0; c.a = 0; return c; } technique Fade { pass Pass1 { PixelShader = compile ps_2_0 PixelShaderFunction(); } }

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• What Counts For a DBA: Simplicity

  - by Louis Davidson

  Too many computer processes do an apparently simple task in a bizarrely complex way. They remind me of this strip by one of my favorite artists: Rube Goldberg. In order to keep the boss from knowing one was late, a process is devised whereby the cuckoo clock kisses a live cuckoo bird, who then pulls a string, which triggers a hat flinging, which in turn lands on a rod that removes a typewriter cover…and so on. We rely on creating automated processes to keep on top of tasks. DBAs have a lot of tasks to perform: backups, performance tuning, data movement, system monitoring, and of course, avoiding being noticed.  Every day, there are many steps to perform to maintain the database infrastructure, including: checking physical structures, re-indexing tables where needed, backing up the databases, checking those backups, running the ETL, and preparing the daily reports and yes, all of these processes have to complete before you can call it a day, and probably before many others have started that same day. Some of these tasks are just naturally complicated on their own. Other tasks become complicated because the database architecture is excessively rigid, and we often discover during “production testing” that certain processes need to be changed because the written requirements barely resembled the actual customer requirements.   Then, with no time to change that rigid structure, we are forced to heap layer upon layer of code onto the problematic processes. Instead of a slight table change and a new index, we end up with 4 new ETL processes, 20 temp tables, 30 extra queries, and 1000 lines of SQL code.  Report writers then need to build reports and make magical numbers appear from those toxic data structures that are overly complex and probably filled with inconsistent data. What starts out as a collection of fairly simple tasks turns into a Goldbergian nightmare of daily processes that are likely to cause your dinner to be interrupted by the smartphone doing the vibration dance that signifies trouble at the mill. So what to do? Well, if it is at all possible, simplify the problem by either going into the code and refactoring the complex code to simple, or taking all of the processes and simplifying them into small, independent, easily-tested steps.  The former approach usually requires an agreement on changing underlying structures that requires countless mind-numbing meetings; while the latter can generally be done to any complex process without the same frustration or anger, though it will still leave you with lots of steps to complete, the ability to test each step independently will definitely increase the quality of the overall process (and with each step reporting status back, finding an actual problem within the process will be definitely less unpleasant.) We all know the principle behind simplifying a sequence of processes because we learned it in math classes in our early years of attending school, starting with elementary school. In my 4 years (ok, 9 years) of undergraduate work, I remember pretty much one thing from my many math classes that I apply daily to my career as a data architect, data programmer, and as an occasional indentured DBA: “show your work”. This process of showing your work was my first lesson in simplification. Each step in the process was in fact, far simpler than the entire process.  When you were working an equation that took both sides of 4 sheets of paper, showing your work was important because the teacher could see every step, judge it, and mark it accordingly.  So often I would make an error in the first few lines of a problem which meant that the rest of the work was actually moving me closer to a very wrong answer, no matter how correct the math was in the subsequent steps. Yet, when I got my grade back, I would sometimes be pleasantly surprised. I passed, yet missed every problem on the test. But why? While I got the fact that 1+1=2 wrong in every problem, the teacher could see that I was using the right process. In a computer process, the process is very similar. We take complex processes, show our work by storing intermediate values, and test each step independently. When a process has 100 steps, each step becomes a simple step that is tested and verified, such that there will be 100 places where data is stored, validated, and can be checked off as complete. If you get step 1 of 100 wrong, you can fix it and be confident (that if you did your job of testing the other steps better than the one you had to repair,) that the rest of the process works. If you have 100 steps, and store the state of the process exactly once, the resulting testable chunk of code will be far more complex and finding the error will require checking all 100 steps as one, and usually it would be easier to find a specific needle in a stack of similarly shaped needles.  The goal is to strive for simplicity either in the solution, or at least by simplifying every process down to as many, independent, testable, simple tasks as possible.  For the tasks that really can’t be done completely independently, minimally take those tasks and break them down into simpler steps that can be tested independently.  Like working out division problems longhand, have each step of the larger problem verified and tested.

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• Vote of Disconfidence to Entity Framework

  - by Ricardo Peres

  A friend of mine has found the following problem with Entity Framework 4: Two simple classes and one association between them (one to many): One condition to filter out soft-deleted entities (WHERE Deleted = 0): 100 records in the database; A simple query: 1: var l = ctx.Person.Include("Address").Where(x => (x.Address.Name == "317 Oak Blvd." && x.Address.Number == 926) || (x.Address.Name == "891 White Milton Drive" && x.Address.Number == 497)); Will produce the following SQL: 1: SELECT 2: [Extent1].[Id] AS [Id], 3: [Extent1].[FullName] AS [FullName], 4: [Extent1].[AddressId] AS [AddressId], 5: [Extent202].[Id] AS [Id1], 6: [Extent202].[Name] AS [Name], 7: [Extent202].[Number] AS [Number] 8: FROM [dbo].[Person] AS [Extent1] 9: LEFT OUTER JOIN [dbo].[Address] AS [Extent2] ON ([Extent2].[Deleted] = 0) AND ([Extent1].[AddressId] = [Extent2].[Id]) 10: LEFT OUTER JOIN [dbo].[Address] AS [Extent3] ON ([Extent3].[Deleted] = 0) AND ([Extent1].[AddressId] = [Extent3].[Id]) 11: LEFT OUTER JOIN [dbo].[Address] AS [Extent4] ON ([Extent4].[Deleted] = 0) AND ([Extent1].[AddressId] = [Extent4].[Id]) 12: LEFT OUTER JOIN [dbo].[Address] AS [Extent5] ON ([Extent5].[Deleted] = 0) AND ([Extent1].[AddressId] = [Extent5].[Id]) 13: LEFT OUTER JOIN [dbo].[Address] AS [Extent6] ON ([Extent6].[Deleted] = 0) AND ([Extent1].[AddressId] = [Extent6].[Id]) 14: ... 15: WHERE ((N'317 Oak Blvd.' = [Extent2].[Name]) AND (926 = [Extent3].[Number])) 16: ... And will result in 680 MB of memory being taken! Now, Entity Framework has been historically known for producing less than optimal SQL, but 680 MB for 100 entities?! According to Microsoft, the problem will be addressed in the following version, there is a Connect issue open. There is even a whitepaper, Performance Considerations for Entity Framework 5, which talks about some of the changes and optimizations coming on version 5, but by reading it, I got even more concerned: “Once the cache contains a set number of entries (800), we start a timer that periodically (once-per-minute) sweeps the cache.” Say what?! The next version of Entity Framework will spawn timer threads?! When Code First came along, I thought it was a step in the right direction. Sure, it didn’t include some things that NHibernate did for quite some time – for example, different strategies for Id generation that do not rely on IDENTITY columns, which makes INSERT batching impossible, or support for enumerated types – but I thought these would come with the time. Now, enumerated types have, but so did… timer threads! I’m afraid Entity Framework is becoming a monster.

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• The Red Gate Guide to SQL Server Team based Development Free e-book

  - by Mladen Prajdic

  After about 6 months of work, the new book I've coauthored with Grant Fritchey (Blog|Twitter), Phil Factor (Blog|Twitter) and Alex Kuznetsov (Blog|Twitter) is out. They're all smart folks I talk to online and this book is packed with good ideas backed by years of experience. The book contains a good deal of information about things you need to think of when doing any kind of multi person database development. Although it's meant for SQL Server, the principles can be applied to any database platform out there. In the book you will find information on: writing readable code, documenting code, source control and change management, deploying code between environments, unit testing, reusing code, searching and refactoring your code base. I've written chapter 5 about Database testing and chapter 11 about SQL Refactoring. In the database testing chapter (chapter 5) I cover why you should test your database, why it is a good idea to have a database access interface composed of stored procedures, views and user defined functions, what and how to test. I talk about how there are many testing methods like black and white box testing, unit and integration testing, error and stress testing and why and how you should do all those. Sometimes you have to convince management to go for testing in the development lifecycle so I give some pointers and tips how to do that. Testing databases is a bit different from testing object oriented code in a way that to have independent unit tests you need to rollback your code after each test. The chapter shows you ways to do this and also how to avoid it. At the end I show how to test various database objects and how to test access to them. In the SQL Refactoring chapter (chapter 11) I cover why refactor and where to even begin refactoring. I also who you a way to achieve a set based mindset to solve SQL problems which is crucial to good SQL set based programming and a few commonly seen problems to refactor. These problems include: using functions on columns in the where clause, SELECT * problems, long stored procedure with many input parameters, one subquery per condition in the select statement, cursors are good for anything problem, using too large data types everywhere and using your data in code for business logic anti-pattern. You can read more about it and download it here: The Red Gate Guide to SQL Server Team-based Development Hope you like it and send me feedback if you wish too.

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• Cannot dual Windows XP and Ubuntu

  - by Fabio Machado

  I am new to Ubuntu and at the moment I am trying to get Ubuntu 12.10 to one of my machines. The machine is a Pentium 4 @ 3.06, 2Gb RAM, 200GB Hard Drive and a NVidia GeForce 8800 GT. A few days ago, I tried Ubuntu without installing and it worked perfectly. Yesterday, I decided to formatted the hard drive and divide my hard drive into four partitions: 1 for the XP, 1 for Ubuntu, 1 for swamp and 1 where I will have my documents. Everything went great, I installed XP and then Ubuntu but I did something wrong on the partition window (Ubunto partion window) that I ended up without boot loader. This morning, I formatted everything again, installed XP and when I went to install Ubuntu (with the same DVD as before) the problems started. First, I had a black screen with a msg written with white text saying something like: unable to find a medium containing a live file system. After I burned another CD and tried again, I got stuck at the red dots (loading screen). I then went online and I read somewhere that it could be the CD, so I checked the integrity of the CD and everything was fine. I also unplugged all USBs connected to the computer and nothing changed. I goggled further options to try to solve my problem and some users suggested that people having these types of problems should try the alternate installation, which if I am not wrong is for networks. I then tried to install and yes the installation process was different from the normal CD, but it did get stuck on a page where it was doing something, like: ...finding ethd0 and it was stuck on the 100%. I tried USB installation as well and it also got stuck at the red dots (I do not have USB 3.0 on the computer in question). I have burned 5 different CD's and all at low speed. I checked the integrity and all are fine. I downloaded other distribution as well as other versions of Ubuntu and I still cannot install or even run the Live CD of Ubuntu or any other distribution. What is really annoying me is that everything was working perfectly before, when I first tried to install Ubuntu. Anyway, any help is welcome. Edit: My boot load is normal, no errors and all the hardware is working fine. I forgot to mention that after the loading screen (red dots) gets stuck, the DVD drive and the hard drive goes into idle state. I also restored the default values of the BIOS and no luck.

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• Best pathfinding for a 2D world made by CPU Perlin Noise, with random start- and destinationpoints?

  - by Mathias Lykkegaard Lorenzen

  I have a world made by Perlin Noise. It's created on the CPU for consistency between several devices (yes, I know it takes time - I have my techniques that make it fast enough). Now, in my game you play as a fighter-ship-thingy-blob or whatever it's going to be. What matters is that this "thing" that you play as, is placed in the middle of the screen, and moves along with the camera. The white stuff in my world are walls. The black stuff is freely movable. Now, as the player moves around he will constantly see "monsters" spawning around him in a circle (a circle that's larger than the screen though). These monsters move inwards and try to collide with the player. This is the part that's tricky. I want these monsters to constantly spawn, moving towards the player, but avoid walls entirely. I've added a screenshot below that kind of makes it easier to understand (excuse me for my bad drawing - I was using Paint for this). In the image above, the following rules apply. The red dot in the middle is the player itself. The light-green rectangle is the boundaries of the screen (in other words, what the player sees). These boundaries move with the player. The blue circle is the spawning circle. At the circumference of this circle, monsters will spawn constantly. This spawncircle moves with the player and the boundaries of the screen. Each monster spawned (shown as yellow triangles) wants to collide with the player. The pink lines shows the path that I want the monsters to move along (or something similar). What matters is that they reach the player without colliding with the walls. The map itself (the one that is Perlin Noise generated on the CPU) is saved in memory as two-dimensional bit-arrays. A 1 means a wall, and a 0 means an open walkable space. The current tile size is pretty small. I could easily make it a lot larger for increased performance. I've done some path algorithms before such as A*. I don't think that's entirely optimal here though.

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• ArchBeat Link-o-Rama for 2012-07-10

  - by Bob Rhubart

  Free Event Today: Virtual Developer Day: Oracle Fusion Development This free event—another in the ongoing series of OTN Virtual Developer Days—focuses on Oracle Fusion development, and features three session tracks plus hands-on labs. Agenda and session abstracts are available now so you can be ready for the live event when it kicks off today, July 10, 9am to 1pm PST / 12pm to 4pm EST / 1pm to 5pm BRT. Podcast: The Role of the Cloud Architect - Part 1/3 In part one of this three-part conversation, cloud architects Ron Batra (AT&T) and James Baty (Oracle) talk about how cloud computing is driving the supply-chaining of IT and the "democratization of the activity of architecture." Middleware and Cloud Computing Book | Tom Laszewski Cloud migration expert Tom Laszewski describes Middleware and Cloud Computing by Frank Munz as "one of only a couple books that really discuss AWS and Oracle in depth." Cloud computing moves from fad to foundation | David Linthicum "When enterprises make cloud computing work, they view the application of the technology as a trade secret of sorts, so there are no press releases or white papers," says David Linthicum. "Indeed, if you see one presentation around a successful cloud computing case study, you can bet you're not hearing about 100 more." Oracle Real-Time Decisions: Combined Likelihood Models | Lukas Vermeer Lukas Vermeer concludes his extensive series of posts on decision models with a look "an advanced approach to amalgamate models, taking us to a whole new level of predictive modeling and analytical insights; combination models predicting likelihoods using multiple child models." Running Oracle BPM 11g PS5 Worklist Task Flow and Human Task Form on Non-SOA Domain | Andrejus Baranovskis "With a standard setup, both the BPM worklist application and the Human task form run on the same SOA domain, where the BPM process is running," says Oracle ACE Director Andrejus Baranovskis. "While this work fine, this is not what we want in the development, test and production environment." BAM design pointers | Kavitha Srinivasan "When using EMS (Enterprise Message Source) as a BAM feed, the best practice is to use one EMS to write to one Data Object," says Oracle Fusion Middleware A-Team blogger Kavitha Srinivasan. "There is a possibility of collisions and duplicates when multiple EMS write to the same row of a DO at the same time." Changes in SOA Human Task Flow (Run-Time) for Fusion Applications | Jack Desai Oracle Fusion Middleware A-Team blogger Jack Desai shares a troubleshooting tip. Thought for the Day "A program which perfectly meets a lousy specification is a lousy program." — Cem Kaner Source: SoftwareQuotes.com

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• A Quick HLSL Question (How to modify some HLSL code)

  - by electroflame

  Thanks for wanting to help! I'm trying to create a circular, repeating ring (that moves outward) on a texture. I've achieved this, to a degree, with the following code: float distance = length(inTex - in_ShipCenter); float time = in_Time; ///* Simple distance/time combination */ float2 colorIndex = float2(distance - time, .3); float4 shipColor = tex2D(BaseTexture, inTex); float4 ringColor = tex2D(ringTexture, colorIndex); float4 finalColor; finalColor.rgb = (shipColor.rgb) + (ringColor.rgb); finalColor.a = shipColor.a; // Use the base texture's alpha (transparency). return finalColor; This works, and works how I want it to. The ring moves outward from the center of the texture at a steady rate, and is constrained to the edges of the base texture (i.e. it won't continue past an edge). However, there are a few issues with it that I would like some help on, though. They are: By combining the color additively (when I set finalColor.rgb), it makes the resulting ring color much lighter than I want (which, is pretty much the definition of additive blending, but I don't really want additive blending in this case). I would really like to be able to pass in the color that I want the ring to be. Currently, I have to pass in a texture that contains the color of the ring, but I think that doing it that way is kind of wasteful and overly-cumbersome. I know that I'm probably being an idiot over this, so I greatly appreciate the help. Some other (possibly relevant) information: I'm using XNA. I'm applying this by providing it to a SpriteBatch (as an Effect). The SpriteBatch is using BlendState.NonPremultiplied. Thanks in advance! EDIT: Thanks for the answers thus far, as they've helped me get a better grasp of the color issue. However, I'm still unsure of how to pass a color in and not use a texture. i.e. Can I create a tex2D by using a float4 instead of a texture? Or can I make a texture from a float4 and pass the texture in to the tex2D? DOUBLE EDIT: Here's some example pictures: With the effect off: With the effect on: With the effect on, but with the color weighting set to full: As you can see, the color weighting makes the base texture completely black (The background is black, so it looks transparent). You can also see the red it's supposed to be, and then the white-ish it really is when blended additively.

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• Installed Ubuntu 14.04LTS

  - by user291729

  On my laptop which came pre-installed with Windows 8.1. Felt I needed to see the competition for myself to establish which was a better OS. So I followed the channels to dual boot. All seemed fine and I accessed Ubuntu with no issues after selecting this from the menu to select the OS. I should add that the boot method was changed to legacy. However, since using Ubuntu, I no longer have the ability to select the OS. The laptop simply logs straight into Ubuntu. I therefore attempted to access the recovery options, only it appears the Windows 8 bootloader has somehow been corrupted as I am now told to use the Windows 8 recovery disc (which, as this was pre-installed - I do not have). Left with no other alternative, I have scoured these forums without success, and so I am hoping someone in the know (or who has experienced similar) can help. I have tried boot repair again without success. On rebooting I am only presented with a basic splash screen asking me to select Ubuntu, Memtest, Windows 8 Recovery or Windows 8 Bootloader (The bootloaders again require I insert the disc). I have tried Code: cat /boot/grub/grub.cfg df -h sudo fdisk -l cat /proc/partitions # # DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE # # It is automatically generated by grub-mkconfig using templates # from /etc/grub.d and settings from /etc/default/grub # ### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/00_header ### if [ -s $prefix/grubenv ]; then set have_grubenv=true load_env fi if [ "${next_entry}" ] ; then set default="${next_entry}" set next_entry= save_env next_entry set boot_once=true else set default="0" fi if [ x"${feature_menuentry_id}" = xy ]; then menuentry_id_option="--id" else menuentry_id_option="" fi export menuentry_id_option if [ "${prev_saved_entry}" ]; then set saved_entry="${prev_saved_entry}" save_env saved_entry set prev_saved_entry= save_env prev_saved_entry set boot_once=true fi function savedefault { if [ -z "${boot_once}" ]; then saved_entry="${chosen}" save_env saved_entry fi } function recordfail { set recordfail=1 if [ -n "${have_grubenv}" ]; then if [ -z "${boot_once}" ]; then save_env recordfail; fi; fi } function load_video { if [ x$feature_all_video_module = xy ]; then insmod all_video else insmod efi_gop insmod efi_uga insmod ieee1275_fb insmod vbe insmod vga insmod video_bochs insmod video_cirrus fi } if [ x$feature_default_font_path = xy ] ; then font=unicode else insmod part_gpt insmod ext2 set root='hd0,gpt9' if [ x$feature_platform_search_hint = xy ]; then search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root --hint-bios=hd0,gpt9 --hint-efi=hd0,gpt9 --hint-baremetal=ahci0,gpt9 d2f10f36-e3bb-4d83-a9b8-5d456fc454ad else search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root d2f10f36-e3bb-4d83-a9b8-5d456fc454ad fi font="/usr/share/grub/unicode.pf2" fi if loadfont $font ; then set gfxmode=800x600 load_video insmod gfxterm set locale_dir=$prefix/locale set lang=en_GB insmod gettext fi terminal_output gfxterm if [ "${recordfail}" = 1 ] ; then set timeout=-1 else if [ x$feature_timeout_style = xy ] ; then set timeout_style=menu set timeout=20 # Fallback normal timeout code in case the timeout_style feature is # unavailable. else set timeout=20 fi fi ### END /etc/grub.d/00_header ### ### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme ### set menu_color_normal=white/black set menu_color_highlight=black/light-gray if background_color 44,0,30; then clear fi ### END /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme ### ### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/10_linux ### function gfxmode { set gfxpayload="${1}" if [ "${1}" = "keep" ]; then set vt_handoff=vt.handoff=7 else set vt_handoff= fi } if [ "${recordfail}" != 1 ]; then if [ -e ${prefix}/gfxblacklist.txt ]; then if hwmatch ${prefix}/gfxblacklist.txt 3; then if [ ${match} = 0 ]; then set linux_gfx_mode=keep else set linux_gfx_mode=text fi else set linux_gfx_mode=text fi else set linux_gfx_mode=keep fi else set linux_gfx_mode=text fi export linux_gfx_mode menuentry 'Ubuntu' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os $menuentry_id_option 'gnulinux-simple-d2f10f36-e3bb-4d83-a9b8-5d456fc454ad' { recordfail load_video gfxmode $linux_gfx_mode insmod gzio insmod part_gpt insmod ext2 set root='hd0,gpt9' if [ x$feature_platform_search_hint = xy ]; then search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root --hint-bios=hd0,gpt9 --hint-efi=hd0,gpt9 --hint-baremetal=ahci0,gpt9 d2f10f36-e3bb-4d83-a9b8-5d456fc454ad else search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root d2f10f36-e3bb-4d83-a9b8-5d456fc454ad fi linux /boot/vmlinuz-3.13.0-29-generic root=UUID=d2f10f36-e3bb-4d83-a9b8-5d456fc454ad ro vga=789 quiet quiet splash $vt_handoff initrd /boot/initrd.img-3.13.0-29-generic } submenu 'Advanced options for Ubuntu' $menuentry_id_option 'gnulinux-advanced-d2f10f36-e3bb-4d83-a9b8-5d456fc454ad' { menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 3.13.0-29-generic' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os $menuentry_id_option 'gnulinux-3.13.0-29-generic-advanced-d2f10f36-e3bb-4d83-a9b8-5d456fc454ad' { recordfail load_video gfxmode $linux_gfx_mode insmod gzio insmod part_gpt insmod ext2 set root='hd0,gpt9' if [ x$feature_platform_search_hint = xy ]; then search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root --hint-bios=hd0,gpt9 --hint-efi=hd0,gpt9 --hint-baremetal=ahci0,gpt9 d2f10f36-e3bb-4d83-a9b8-5d456fc454ad else search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root d2f10f36-e3bb-4d83-a9b8-5d456fc454ad fi echo 'Loading Linux 3.13.0-29-generic ...' linux /boot/vmlinuz-3.13.0-29-generic root=UUID=d2f10f36-e3bb-4d83-a9b8-5d456fc454ad ro vga=789 quiet quiet splash $vt_handoff echo 'Loading initial ramdisk ...' initrd /boot/initrd.img-3.13.0-29-generic } menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 3.13.0-29-generic (recovery mode)' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os $menuentry_id_option 'gnulinux-3.13.0-29-generic-recovery-d2f10f36-e3bb-4d83-a9b8-5d456fc454ad' { recordfail load_video insmod gzio insmod part_gpt insmod ext2 set root='hd0,gpt9' if [ x$feature_platform_search_hint = xy ]; then search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root --hint-bios=hd0,gpt9 --hint-efi=hd0,gpt9 --hint-baremetal=ahci0,gpt9 d2f10f36-e3bb-4d83-a9b8-5d456fc454ad else search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root d2f10f36-e3bb-4d83-a9b8-5d456fc454ad fi echo 'Loading Linux 3.13.0-29-generic ...' linux /boot/vmlinuz-3.13.0-29-generic root=UUID=d2f10f36-e3bb-4d83-a9b8-5d456fc454ad ro recovery nomodeset vga=789 quiet echo 'Loading initial ramdisk ...' initrd /boot/initrd.img-3.13.0-29-generic } menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 3.13.0-24-generic' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os $menuentry_id_option 'gnulinux-3.13.0-24-generic-advanced-d2f10f36-e3bb-4d83-a9b8-5d456fc454ad' { recordfail load_video gfxmode $linux_gfx_mode insmod gzio insmod part_gpt insmod ext2 set root='hd0,gpt9' if [ x$feature_platform_search_hint = xy ]; then search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root --hint-bios=hd0,gpt9 --hint-efi=hd0,gpt9 --hint-baremetal=ahci0,gpt9 d2f10f36-e3bb-4d83-a9b8-5d456fc454ad else search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root d2f10f36-e3bb-4d83-a9b8-5d456fc454ad fi echo 'Loading Linux 3.13.0-24-generic ...' linux /boot/vmlinuz-3.13.0-24-generic root=UUID=d2f10f36-e3bb-4d83-a9b8-5d456fc454ad ro vga=789 quiet quiet splash $vt_handoff echo 'Loading initial ramdisk ...' initrd /boot/initrd.img-3.13.0-24-generic } menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 3.13.0-24-generic (recovery mode)' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os $menuentry_id_option 'gnulinux-3.13.0-24-generic-recovery-d2f10f36-e3bb-4d83-a9b8-5d456fc454ad' { recordfail load_video insmod gzio insmod part_gpt insmod ext2 set root='hd0,gpt9' if [ x$feature_platform_search_hint = xy ]; then search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root --hint-bios=hd0,gpt9 --hint-efi=hd0,gpt9 --hint-baremetal=ahci0,gpt9 d2f10f36-e3bb-4d83-a9b8-5d456fc454ad else search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root d2f10f36-e3bb-4d83-a9b8-5d456fc454ad fi echo 'Loading Linux 3.13.0-24-generic ...' linux /boot/vmlinuz-3.13.0-24-generic root=UUID=d2f10f36-e3bb-4d83-a9b8-5d456fc454ad ro recovery nomodeset vga=789 quiet echo 'Loading initial ramdisk ...' initrd /boot/initrd.img-3.13.0-24-generic } } ### END /etc/grub.d/10_linux ### ### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/20_linux_xen ### ### END /etc/grub.d/20_linux_xen ### ### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+ ### menuentry 'Memory test (memtest86+)' { insmod part_gpt insmod ext2 set root='hd0,gpt9' if [ x$feature_platform_search_hint = xy ]; then search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root --hint-bios=hd0,gpt9 --hint-efi=hd0,gpt9 --hint-baremetal=ahci0,gpt9 d2f10f36-e3bb-4d83-a9b8-5d456fc454ad else search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root d2f10f36-e3bb-4d83-a9b8-5d456fc454ad fi knetbsd /boot/memtest86+.elf } menuentry 'Memory test (memtest86+, serial console 115200)' { insmod part_gpt insmod ext2 set root='hd0,gpt9' if [ x$feature_platform_search_hint = xy ]; then search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root --hint-bios=hd0,gpt9 --hint-efi=hd0,gpt9 --hint-baremetal=ahci0,gpt9 d2f10f36-e3bb-4d83-a9b8-5d456fc454ad else search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root d2f10f36-e3bb-4d83-a9b8-5d456fc454ad fi linux16 /boot/memtest86+.bin console=ttyS0,115200n8 } ### END /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+ ### ### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ### menuentry 'Windows Recovery Environment (loader) (on /dev/sda2)' --class windows --class os $menuentry_id_option 'osprober-chain-7A6A69D66A698FA5' { insmod part_gpt insmod ntfs set root='hd0,gpt2' if [ x$feature_platform_search_hint = xy ]; then search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root --hint-bios=hd0,gpt2 --hint-efi=hd0,gpt2 --hint-baremetal=ahci0,gpt2 7A6A69D66A698FA5 else search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 7A6A69D66A698FA5 fi drivemap -s (hd0) ${root} chainloader +1 } menuentry 'Windows 8 (loader) (on /dev/sda3)' --class windows --class os $menuentry_id_option 'osprober-chain-8C88-80F7' { insmod part_gpt insmod fat set root='hd0,gpt3' if [ x$feature_platform_search_hint = xy ]; then search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root --hint-bios=hd0,gpt3 --hint-efi=hd0,gpt3 --hint-baremetal=ahci0,gpt3 8C88-80F7 else search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 8C88-80F7 fi drivemap -s (hd0) ${root} chainloader +1 } set timeout_style=menu if [ "${timeout}" = 0 ]; then set timeout=10 fi ### END /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ### ### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/30_uefi-firmware ### ### END /etc/grub.d/30_uefi-firmware ### ### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/40_custom ### # This file provides an easy way to add custom menu entries. Simply type the # menu entries you want to add after this comment. Be careful not to change # the 'exec tail' line above. ### END /etc/grub.d/40_custom ### ### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/41_custom ### if [ -f ${config_directory}/custom.cfg ]; then source ${config_directory}/custom.cfg elif [ -z "${config_directory}" -a -f $prefix/custom.cfg ]; then source $prefix/custom.cfg; fi ### END /etc/grub.d/41_custom ### # # DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE # # It is automatically generated by grub-mkconfig using templates # from /etc/grub.d and settings from /etc/default/grub # ### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/00_header ### if [ -s $prefix/grubenv ]; then set have_grubenv=true load_env fi if [ "${next_entry}" ] ; then set default="${next_entry}" set next_entry= save_env next_entry set boot_once=true else set default="0" fi if [ x"${feature_menuentry_id}" = xy ]; then menuentry_id_option="--id" else menuentry_id_option="" fi export menuentry_id_option if [ "${prev_saved_entry}" ]; then set saved_entry="${prev_saved_entry}" save_env saved_entry set prev_saved_entry= save_env prev_saved_entry set boot_once=true fi function savedefault { if [ -z "${boot_once}" ]; then saved_entry="${chosen}" save_env saved_entry fi } function recordfail { set recordfail=1 if [ -n "${have_grubenv}" ]; then if [ -z "${boot_once}" ]; then save_env recordfail; fi; fi } function load_video { if [ x$feature_all_video_module = xy ]; then insmod all_video else insmod efi_gop insmod efi_uga insmod ieee1275_fb insmod vbe insmod vga insmod video_bochs insmod video_cirrus fi } if [ x$feature_default_font_path = xy ] ; then font=unicode else insmod part_gpt insmod ext2 set root='hd0,gpt9' if [ x$feature_platform_search_hint = xy ]; then search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root --hint-bios=hd0,gpt9 --hint-efi=hd0,gpt9 --hint-baremetal=ahci0,gpt9 d2f10f36-e3bb-4d83-a9b8-5d456fc454ad else search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root d2f10f36-e3bb-4d83-a9b8-5d456fc454ad fi font="/usr/share/grub/unicode.pf2" fi if loadfont $font ; then set gfxmode=800x600 load_video insmod gfxterm set locale_dir=$prefix/locale set lang=en_GB insmod gettext fi terminal_output gfxterm if [ "${recordfail}" = 1 ] ; then set timeout=-1 else if [ x$feature_timeout_style = xy ] ; then set timeout_style=menu set timeout=20 # Fallback normal timeout code in case the timeout_style feature is # unavailable. else set timeout=20 fi fi ### END /etc/grub.d/00_header ### ### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme ### set menu_color_normal=white/black set menu_color_highlight=black/light-gray if background_color 44,0,30; then clear fi ### END /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme ### ### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/10_linux ### function gfxmode { set gfxpayload="${1}" if [ "${1}" = "keep" ]; then set vt_handoff=vt.handoff=7 else set vt_handoff= fi } if [ "${recordfail}" != 1 ]; then if [ -e ${prefix}/gfxblacklist.txt ]; then if hwmatch ${prefix}/gfxblacklist.txt 3; then if [ ${match} = 0 ]; then set linux_gfx_mode=keep else set linux_gfx_mode=text fi else set linux_gfx_mode=text fi else set linux_gfx_mode=keep fi else set linux_gfx_mode=text fi export linux_gfx_mode menuentry 'Ubuntu' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os $menuentry_id_option 'gnulinux-simple-d2f10f36-e3bb-4d83-a9b8-5d456fc454ad' { recordfail load_video gfxmode $linux_gfx_mode insmod gzio insmod part_gpt insmod ext2 set root='hd0,gpt9' if [ x$feature_platform_search_hint = xy ]; then search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root --hint-bios=hd0,gpt9 --hint-efi=hd0,gpt9 --hint-baremetal=ahci0,gpt9 d2f10f36-e3bb-4d83-a9b8-5d456fc454ad else search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root d2f10f36-e3bb-4d83-a9b8-5d456fc454ad fi linux /boot/vmlinuz-3.13.0-29-generic root=UUID=d2f10f36-e3bb-4d83-a9b8-5d456fc454ad ro vga=789 quiet quiet splash $vt_handoff initrd /boot/initrd.img-3.13.0-29-generic } submenu 'Advanced options for Ubuntu' $menuentry_id_option 'gnulinux-advanced-d2f10f36-e3bb-4d83-a9b8-5d456fc454ad' { menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 3.13.0-29-generic' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os $menuentry_id_option 'gnulinux-3.13.0-29-generic-advanced-d2f10f36-e3bb-4d83-a9b8-5d456fc454ad' { recordfail load_video gfxmode $linux_gfx_mode insmod gzio insmod part_gpt insmod ext2 set root='hd0,gpt9' if [ x$feature_platform_search_hint = xy ]; then search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root --hint-bios=hd0,gpt9 --hint-efi=hd0,gpt9 --hint-baremetal=ahci0,gpt9 d2f10f36-e3bb-4d83-a9b8-5d456fc454ad else search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root d2f10f36-e3bb-4d83-a9b8-5d456fc454ad fi echo 'Loading Linux 3.13.0-29-generic ...' linux /boot/vmlinuz-3.13.0-29-generic root=UUID=d2f10f36-e3bb-4d83-a9b8-5d456fc454ad ro vga=789 quiet quiet splash $vt_handoff echo 'Loading initial ramdisk ...' initrd /boot/initrd.img-3.13.0-29-generic } menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 3.13.0-29-generic (recovery mode)' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os $menuentry_id_option 'gnulinux-3.13.0-29-generic-recovery-d2f10f36-e3bb-4d83-a9b8-5d456fc454ad' { recordfail load_video insmod gzio insmod part_gpt insmod ext2 set root='hd0,gpt9' if [ x$feature_platform_search_hint = xy ]; then search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root --hint-bios=hd0,gpt9 --hint-efi=hd0,gpt9 --hint-baremetal=ahci0,gpt9 d2f10f36-e3bb-4d83-a9b8-5d456fc454ad else search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root d2f10f36-e3bb-4d83-a9b8-5d456fc454ad fi echo 'Loading Linux 3.13.0-29-generic ...' linux /boot/vmlinuz-3.13.0-29-generic root=UUID=d2f10f36-e3bb-4d83-a9b8-5d456fc454ad ro recovery nomodeset vga=789 quiet echo 'Loading initial ramdisk ...' initrd /boot/initrd.img-3.13.0-29-generic } menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 3.13.0-24-generic' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os $menuentry_id_option 'gnulinux-3.13.0-24-generic-advanced-d2f10f36-e3bb-4d83-a9b8-5d456fc454ad' { recordfail load_video gfxmode $linux_gfx_mode insmod gzio insmod part_gpt insmod ext2 set root='hd0,gpt9' if [ x$feature_platform_search_hint = xy ]; then search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root --hint-bios=hd0,gpt9 --hint-efi=hd0,gpt9 --hint-baremetal=ahci0,gpt9 d2f10f36-e3bb-4d83-a9b8-5d456fc454ad else search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root d2f10f36-e3bb-4d83-a9b8-5d456fc454ad fi echo 'Loading Linux 3.13.0-24-generic ...' linux /boot/vmlinuz-3.13.0-24-generic root=UUID=d2f10f36-e3bb-4d83-a9b8-5d456fc454ad ro vga=789 quiet quiet splash $vt_handoff echo 'Loading initial ramdisk ...' initrd /boot/initrd.img-3.13.0-24-generic } menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 3.13.0-24-generic (recovery mode)' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os $menuentry_id_option 'gnulinux-3.13.0-24-generic-recovery-d2f10f36-e3bb-4d83-a9b8-5d456fc454ad' { recordfail load_video insmod gzio insmod part_gpt insmod ext2 set root='hd0,gpt9' if [ x$feature_platform_search_hint = xy ]; then search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root --hint-bios=hd0,gpt9 --hint-efi=hd0,gpt9 --hint-baremetal=ahci0,gpt9 d2f10f36-e3bb-4d83-a9b8-5d456fc454ad else search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root d2f10f36-e3bb-4d83-a9b8-5d456fc454ad fi echo 'Loading Linux 3.13.0-24-generic ...' linux /boot/vmlinuz-3.13.0-24-generic root=UUID=d2f10f36-e3bb-4d83-a9b8-5d456fc454ad ro recovery nomodeset vga=789 quiet echo 'Loading initial ramdisk ...' initrd /boot/initrd.img-3.13.0-24-generic } } ### END /etc/grub.d/10_linux ### ### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/20_linux_xen ### ### END /etc/grub.d/20_linux_xen ### ### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+ ### menuentry 'Memory test (memtest86+)' { insmod part_gpt insmod ext2 set root='hd0,gpt9' if [ x$feature_platform_search_hint = xy ]; then search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root --hint-bios=hd0,gpt9 --hint-efi=hd0,gpt9 --hint-baremetal=ahci0,gpt9 d2f10f36-e3bb-4d83-a9b8-5d456fc454ad else search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root d2f10f36-e3bb-4d83-a9b8-5d456fc454ad fi knetbsd /boot/memtest86+.elf } menuentry 'Memory test (memtest86+, serial console 115200)' { insmod part_gpt insmod ext2 set root='hd0,gpt9' if [ x$feature_platform_search_hint = xy ]; then search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root --hint-bios=hd0,gpt9 --hint-efi=hd0,gpt9 --hint-baremetal=ahci0,gpt9 d2f10f36-e3bb-4d83-a9b8-5d456fc454ad else search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root d2f10f36-e3bb-4d83-a9b8-5d456fc454ad fi linux16 /boot/memtest86+.bin console=ttyS0,115200n8 } ### END /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+ ### ### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ### menuentry 'Windows Recovery Environment (loader) (on /dev/sda2)' --class windows --class os $menuentry_id_option 'osprober-chain-7A6A69D66A698FA5' { insmod part_gpt insmod ntfs set root='hd0,gpt2' if [ x$feature_platform_search_hint = xy ]; then search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root --hint-bios=hd0,gpt2 --hint-efi=hd0,gpt2 --hint-baremetal=ahci0,gpt2 7A6A69D66A698FA5 else search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 7A6A69D66A698FA5 fi drivemap -s (hd0) ${root} chainloader +1 } menuentry 'Windows 8 (loader) (on /dev/sda3)' --class windows --class os $menuentry_id_option 'osprober-chain-8C88-80F7' { insmod part_gpt insmod fat set root='hd0,gpt3' if [ x$feature_platform_search_hint = xy ]; then search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root --hint-bios=hd0,gpt3 --hint-efi=hd0,gpt3 --hint-baremetal=ahci0,gpt3 8C88-80F7 else search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 8C88-80F7 fi drivemap -s (hd0) ${root} chainloader +1 } set timeout_style=menu if [ "${timeout}" = 0 ]; then set timeout=10 fi ### END /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ### ### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/30_uefi-firmware ### ### END /etc/grub.d/30_uefi-firmware ### ### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/40_custom ### # This file provides an easy way to add custom menu entries. Simply type the # menu entries you want to add after this comment. Be careful not to change # the 'exec tail' line above. ### END /etc/grub.d/40_custom ### ### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/41_custom ### if [ -f ${config_directory}/custom.cfg ]; then source ${config_directory}/custom.cfg elif [ -z "${config_directory}" -a -f $prefix/custom.cfg ]; then source $prefix/custom.cfg; fi ### END /etc/grub.d/41_custom ### john@john-SVE1713Y1EB:~$ ^C john@john-SVE1713Y1EB:~$ ^C john@john-SVE1713Y1EB:~$ df -h Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on /dev/sda9 84G 7.1G 73G 9% / none 4.0K 0 4.0K 0% /sys/fs/cgroup udev 3.9G 4.0K 3.9G 1% /dev tmpfs 794M 1.4M 793M 1% /run none 5.0M 0 5.0M 0% /run/lock none 3.9G 80K 3.9G 1% /run/shm none 100M 52K 100M 1% /run/user /dev/sdc1 7.5G 2.2G 5.4G 29% /media/john/DYLANMUSIC /dev/sr0 964M 964M 0 100% /media/john/Ubuntu 14.04 LTS amd64 /dev/sdb1 1.9T 892G 972G 48% /media/john/Storage Main WARNING: GPT (GUID Partition Table) detected on '/dev/sda'! The util fdisk doesn't support GPT. Use GNU Parted. Disk /dev/sda: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 121601 cylinders, total 1953525168 sectors Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes Disk identifier: 0x4e2ccf75 Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sda1 1 1953525167 976762583+ ee GPT Partition 1 does not start on physical sector boundary. Disk /dev/sdc: 8011 MB, 8011120640 bytes 41 heads, 41 sectors/track, 9307 cylinders, total 15646720 sectors Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes Disk identifier: 0xc3072e18 Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sdc1 8064 15646719 7819328 b W95 FAT32 Disk /dev/sdb: 2000.4 GB, 2000398934016 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 243201 cylinders, total 3907029168 sectors Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes Disk identifier: 0xc7d968ff Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sdb1 64 3907029119 1953514528 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT major minor #blocks name 8 0 976762584 sda 8 1 266240 sda1 8 2 1509376 sda2 8 3 266240 sda3 8 4 131072 sda4 8 5 841012780 sda5 8 6 358400 sda6 8 7 35376128 sda7 8 8 1024 sda8 8 9 89501696 sda9 8 10 8337408 sda10 11 0 987136 sr0 8 32 7823360 sdc 8 33 7819328 sdc1 8 16 1953514584 sdb 8 17 1953514528 sdb1 I am no expert on this and I'm at a loss as how to correct this without having to re-format everything and reinstall Windows 8. However, if I'm to try using Ubuntu again then there is the risk this problem may come back. Again, I did not do anything manually - the installer did everything (with the exception of changing the boot to Legacy to allow the booting of another bootloader). LiveCD works but doesn't give me the options that I've seen here and as mentioned earlier, only boot recovery only gives me the options as mentioned earlier. Also this fails to load via USB (possibly because HDD comes before USB in the boot order?). Being used to a Windows environment, the Ubuntu (and Linux) environment is a dive at a less than comfortable depth at present (but one I fully intend to get to grips with - especially the commands being more common via Terminal). I very much appreciate the help with this guys.

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• How to shoot a triangle out of an asteroid which floats all of the way up to the screen?

  - by Holland

  I currently have an asteroid texture loaded as my "test player" for the game I'm writing. What I'm trying to figure out how to do is get a triangle to shoot from the center of the asteroid, and keep going until it hits the top of the screen. What happens in my case (as you'll see from the code I've posted), is that the triangle will show, however it will either be a long line, or it will just be a single triangle which stays in the same location as the asteroid moving around (that disappears when I stop pressing the space bar), or it simply won't appear at all. I've tried many different methods, but I could use a formula here. All I'm trying to do is write a space invaders clone for my final in C#. I know how to code fairly well, my formulas just need work is all. So far, this is what I have: Main Logic Code protected override void Draw(GameTime gameTime) { GraphicsDevice.Clear(ClearOptions.Target, Color.Black, 1, 1); mAsteroid.Draw(mSpriteBatch); if (mIsFired) { mPositions.Add(mAsteroid.LastPosition); mRay.Fire(mPositions); mIsFired = false; mRay.Bullets.Clear(); mPositions.Clear(); } base.Draw(gameTime); } Draw Code public void Draw() { VertexPositionColor[] vertices = new VertexPositionColor[3]; int stopDrawing = mGraphicsDevice.Viewport.Width / mGraphicsDevice.Viewport.Height; for (int i = 0; i < mRayPos.Length(); ++i) { vertices[0].Position = new Vector3(mRayPos.X, mRayPos.Y + 5f, 10); vertices[0].Color = Color.Blue; vertices[1].Position = new Vector3(mRayPos.X - 5f, mRayPos.Y - 5f, 10); vertices[1].Color = Color.White; vertices[2].Position = new Vector3(mRayPos.X + 5f, mRayPos.Y - 5f, 10); vertices[2].Color = Color.Red; mShader.CurrentTechnique.Passes[0].Apply(); mGraphicsDevice.DrawUserPrimitives<VertexPositionColor>(PrimitiveType.TriangleStrip, vertices, 0, 1); mRayPos += new Vector2(0, 1f); mGraphicsDevice.ReferenceStencil = 1; } }

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• Retreiving upcoming calendar events from a Google Calendar

  - by brian_ritchie

  Google has a great cloud-based calendar service that is part of their Gmail product.  Besides using it as a personal calendar, you can use it to store events for display on your web site.  The calendar is accessible through Google's GData API for which they provide a C# SDK. Here's some code to retrieve the upcoming entries from the calendar:  .csharpcode, .csharpcode pre { font-size: small; color: black; font-family: Consolas, "Courier New", Courier, Monospace; background-color: #ffffff; /*white-space: pre;*/ } .csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; } .csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; } .csharpcode .str { color: #006080; } .csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; } .csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; } .csharpcode .asp { background-color: #ffff00; } .csharpcode .html { color: #800000; } .csharpcode .attr { color: #ff0000; } .csharpcode .alt { background-color: #f4f4f4; width: 100%; margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .lnum { color: #606060; } 1: public class CalendarEvent 2: { 3: public string Title { get; set; } 4: public DateTime StartTime { get; set; } 5: } 6:   7: public class CalendarHelper 8: { 9: public static CalendarEvent[] GetUpcomingCalendarEvents 10: (int numberofEvents) 11: { 12: CalendarService service = new CalendarService("youraccount"); 13: EventQuery query = new EventQuery(); 14: query.Uri = new Uri( 15: "http://www.google.com/calendar/feeds/userid/public/full"); 16: query.FutureEvents = true; 17: query.SingleEvents = true; 18: query.SortOrder = CalendarSortOrder.ascending; 19: query.NumberToRetrieve = numberofEvents; 20: query.ExtraParameters = "orderby=starttime"; 21: var events = service.Query(query); 22: return (from e in events.Entries select new CalendarEvent() 23: { StartTime=(e as EventEntry).Times[0].StartTime, 24: Title = e.Title.Text }).ToArray(); 25: } 26: } There are a few special "tricks" to make this work: "SingleEvents" flag will flatten out reoccurring events "FutureEvents", "SortOrder", and the "orderby" parameters will get the upcoming events. "NumberToRetrieve" will limit the amount coming back  I then using Linq to Objects to put the results into my own DTO for use by my model.  It is always a good idea to place data into your own DTO for use within your MVC model.  This protects the rest of your code from changes to the underlying calendar source or API.

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• Ball bouncing at a certain angle and efficiency computations

  - by X Y

  I would like to make a pong game with a small twist (for now). Every time the ball bounces off one of the paddles i want it to be under a certain angle (between a min and a max). I simply can't wrap my head around how to actually do it (i have some thoughts and such but i simply cannot implement them properly - i feel i'm overcomplicating things). Here's an image with a small explanation . One other problem would be that the conditions for bouncing have to be different for every edge. For example, in the picture, on the two small horizontal edges i do not want a perfectly vertical bounce when in the middle of the edge but rather a constant angle (pi/4 maybe) in either direction depending on the collision point (before the middle of the edge, or after). All of my collisions are done with the Separating Axes Theorem (and seem to work fine). I'm looking for something efficient because i want to add a lot of things later on (maybe polygons with many edges and such). So i need to keep to a minimum the amount of checking done every frame. The collision algorithm begins testing whenever the bounding boxes of the paddle and the ball intersect. Is there something better to test for possible collisions every frame? (more efficient in the long run,with many more objects etc, not necessarily easy to code). I'm going to post the code for my game: Paddle Class public class Paddle : Microsoft.Xna.Framework.DrawableGameComponent { #region Private Members private SpriteBatch spriteBatch; private ContentManager contentManager; private bool keybEnabled; private bool isLeftPaddle; private Texture2D paddleSprite; private Vector2 paddlePosition; private float paddleSpeedY; private Vector2 paddleScale = new Vector2(1f, 1f); private const float DEFAULT_Y_SPEED = 150; private Vector2[] Normals2Edges; private Vector2[] Vertices = new Vector2[4]; private List<Vector2> lst = new List<Vector2>(); private Vector2 Edge; #endregion #region Properties public float Speed { get {return paddleSpeedY; } set { paddleSpeedY = value; } } public Vector2[] Normal2EdgesVector { get { NormalsToEdges(this.isLeftPaddle); return Normals2Edges; } } public Vector2[] VertexVector { get { return Vertices; } } public Vector2 Scale { get { return paddleScale; } set { paddleScale = value; NormalsToEdges(this.isLeftPaddle); } } public float X { get { return paddlePosition.X; } set { paddlePosition.X = value; } } public float Y { get { return paddlePosition.Y; } set { paddlePosition.Y = value; } } public float Width { get { return (Scale.X == 1f ? (float)paddleSprite.Width : paddleSprite.Width * Scale.X); } } public float Height { get { return ( Scale.Y==1f ? (float)paddleSprite.Height : paddleSprite.Height*Scale.Y ); } } public Texture2D GetSprite { get { return paddleSprite; } } public Rectangle Boundary { get { return new Rectangle((int)paddlePosition.X, (int)paddlePosition.Y, (int)this.Width, (int)this.Height); } } public bool KeyboardEnabled { get { return keybEnabled; } } #endregion private void NormalsToEdges(bool isLeftPaddle) { Normals2Edges = null; Edge = Vector2.Zero; lst.Clear(); for (int i = 0; i < Vertices.Length; i++) { Edge = Vertices[i + 1 == Vertices.Length ? 0 : i + 1] - Vertices[i]; if (Edge != Vector2.Zero) { Edge.Normalize(); //outer normal to edge !! (origin in top-left) lst.Add(new Vector2(Edge.Y, -Edge.X)); } } Normals2Edges = lst.ToArray(); } public float[] ProjectPaddle(Vector2 axis) { if (Vertices.Length == 0 || axis == Vector2.Zero) return (new float[2] { 0, 0 }); float min, max; min = Vector2.Dot(axis, Vertices[0]); max = min; for (int i = 1; i < Vertices.Length; i++) { float p = Vector2.Dot(axis, Vertices[i]); if (p < min) min = p; else if (p > max) max = p; } return (new float[2] { min, max }); } public Paddle(Game game, bool isLeftPaddle, bool enableKeyboard = true) : base(game) { contentManager = new ContentManager(game.Services); keybEnabled = enableKeyboard; this.isLeftPaddle = isLeftPaddle; } public void setPosition(Vector2 newPos) { X = newPos.X; Y = newPos.Y; } public override void Initialize() { base.Initialize(); this.Speed = DEFAULT_Y_SPEED; X = 0; Y = 0; NormalsToEdges(this.isLeftPaddle); } protected override void LoadContent() { spriteBatch = new SpriteBatch(GraphicsDevice); paddleSprite = contentManager.Load<Texture2D>(@"Content\pongBar"); } public override void Update(GameTime gameTime) { //vertices array Vertices[0] = this.paddlePosition; Vertices[1] = this.paddlePosition + new Vector2(this.Width, 0); Vertices[2] = this.paddlePosition + new Vector2(this.Width, this.Height); Vertices[3] = this.paddlePosition + new Vector2(0, this.Height); // Move paddle, but don't allow movement off the screen if (KeyboardEnabled) { float moveDistance = Speed * (float)gameTime.ElapsedGameTime.TotalSeconds; KeyboardState newKeyState = Keyboard.GetState(); if (newKeyState.IsKeyDown(Keys.Down) && Y + paddleSprite.Height + moveDistance <= Game.GraphicsDevice.Viewport.Height) { Y += moveDistance; } else if (newKeyState.IsKeyDown(Keys.Up) && Y - moveDistance >= 0) { Y -= moveDistance; } } else { if (this.Y + this.Height > this.GraphicsDevice.Viewport.Height) { this.Y = this.Game.GraphicsDevice.Viewport.Height - this.Height - 1; } } base.Update(gameTime); } public override void Draw(GameTime gameTime) { spriteBatch.Begin(SpriteSortMode.Texture,null); spriteBatch.Draw(paddleSprite, paddlePosition, null, Color.White, 0f, Vector2.Zero, Scale, SpriteEffects.None, 0); spriteBatch.End(); base.Draw(gameTime); } } Ball Class public class Ball : Microsoft.Xna.Framework.DrawableGameComponent { #region Private Members private SpriteBatch spriteBatch; private ContentManager contentManager; private const float DEFAULT_SPEED = 50; private float speedIncrement = 0; private Vector2 ballScale = new Vector2(1f, 1f); private const float INCREASE_SPEED = 50; private Texture2D ballSprite; //initial texture private Vector2 ballPosition; //position private Vector2 centerOfBall; //center coords private Vector2 ballSpeed = new Vector2(DEFAULT_SPEED, DEFAULT_SPEED); //speed #endregion #region Properties public float DEFAULTSPEED { get { return DEFAULT_SPEED; } } public Vector2 ballCenter { get { return centerOfBall; } } public Vector2 Scale { get { return ballScale; } set { ballScale = value; } } public float SpeedX { get { return ballSpeed.X; } set { ballSpeed.X = value; } } public float SpeedY { get { return ballSpeed.Y; } set { ballSpeed.Y = value; } } public float X { get { return ballPosition.X; } set { ballPosition.X = value; } } public float Y { get { return ballPosition.Y; } set { ballPosition.Y = value; } } public Texture2D GetSprite { get { return ballSprite; } } public float Width { get { return (Scale.X == 1f ? (float)ballSprite.Width : ballSprite.Width * Scale.X); } } public float Height { get { return (Scale.Y == 1f ? (float)ballSprite.Height : ballSprite.Height * Scale.Y); } } public float SpeedIncreaseIncrement { get { return speedIncrement; } set { speedIncrement = value; } } public Rectangle Boundary { get { return new Rectangle((int)ballPosition.X, (int)ballPosition.Y, (int)this.Width, (int)this.Height); } } #endregion public Ball(Game game) : base(game) { contentManager = new ContentManager(game.Services); } public void Reset() { ballSpeed.X = DEFAULT_SPEED; ballSpeed.Y = DEFAULT_SPEED; ballPosition.X = Game.GraphicsDevice.Viewport.Width / 2 - ballSprite.Width / 2; ballPosition.Y = Game.GraphicsDevice.Viewport.Height / 2 - ballSprite.Height / 2; } public void SpeedUp() { if (ballSpeed.Y < 0) ballSpeed.Y -= (INCREASE_SPEED + speedIncrement); else ballSpeed.Y += (INCREASE_SPEED + speedIncrement); if (ballSpeed.X < 0) ballSpeed.X -= (INCREASE_SPEED + speedIncrement); else ballSpeed.X += (INCREASE_SPEED + speedIncrement); } public float[] ProjectBall(Vector2 axis) { if (axis == Vector2.Zero) return (new float[2] { 0, 0 }); float min, max; min = Vector2.Dot(axis, this.ballCenter) - this.Width/2; //center - radius max = min + this.Width; //center + radius return (new float[2] { min, max }); } public void ChangeHorzDirection() { ballSpeed.X *= -1; } public void ChangeVertDirection() { ballSpeed.Y *= -1; } public override void Initialize() { base.Initialize(); ballPosition.X = Game.GraphicsDevice.Viewport.Width / 2 - ballSprite.Width / 2; ballPosition.Y = Game.GraphicsDevice.Viewport.Height / 2 - ballSprite.Height / 2; } protected override void LoadContent() { spriteBatch = new SpriteBatch(GraphicsDevice); ballSprite = contentManager.Load<Texture2D>(@"Content\ball"); } public override void Update(GameTime gameTime) { if (this.Y < 1 || this.Y > GraphicsDevice.Viewport.Height - this.Height - 1) this.ChangeVertDirection(); centerOfBall = new Vector2(ballPosition.X + this.Width / 2, ballPosition.Y + this.Height / 2); base.Update(gameTime); } public override void Draw(GameTime gameTime) { spriteBatch.Begin(); spriteBatch.Draw(ballSprite, ballPosition, null, Color.White, 0f, Vector2.Zero, Scale, SpriteEffects.None, 0); spriteBatch.End(); base.Draw(gameTime); } } Main game class public class gameStart : Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Game { GraphicsDeviceManager graphics; SpriteBatch spriteBatch; public gameStart() { graphics = new GraphicsDeviceManager(this); Content.RootDirectory = "Content"; this.Window.Title = "Pong game"; } protected override void Initialize() { ball = new Ball(this); paddleLeft = new Paddle(this,true,false); paddleRight = new Paddle(this,false,true); Components.Add(ball); Components.Add(paddleLeft); Components.Add(paddleRight); this.Window.AllowUserResizing = false; this.IsMouseVisible = true; this.IsFixedTimeStep = false; this.isColliding = false; base.Initialize(); } #region MyPrivateStuff private Ball ball; private Paddle paddleLeft, paddleRight; private int[] bit = { -1, 1 }; private Random rnd = new Random(); private int updates = 0; enum nrPaddle { None, Left, Right }; private nrPaddle PongBar = nrPaddle.None; private ArrayList Axes = new ArrayList(); private Vector2 MTV; //minimum translation vector private bool isColliding; private float overlap; //smallest distance after projections private Vector2 overlapAxis; //axis of overlap #endregion protected override void LoadContent() { spriteBatch = new SpriteBatch(GraphicsDevice); paddleLeft.setPosition(new Vector2(0, this.GraphicsDevice.Viewport.Height / 2 - paddleLeft.Height / 2)); paddleRight.setPosition(new Vector2(this.GraphicsDevice.Viewport.Width - paddleRight.Width, this.GraphicsDevice.Viewport.Height / 2 - paddleRight.Height / 2)); paddleLeft.Scale = new Vector2(1f, 2f); //scale left paddle } private bool ShapesIntersect(Paddle paddle, Ball ball) { overlap = 1000000f; //large value overlapAxis = Vector2.Zero; MTV = Vector2.Zero; foreach (Vector2 ax in Axes) { float[] pad = paddle.ProjectPaddle(ax); //pad0 = min, pad1 = max float[] circle = ball.ProjectBall(ax); //circle0 = min, circle1 = max if (pad[1] <= circle[0] || circle[1] <= pad[0]) { return false; } if (pad[1] - circle[0] < circle[1] - pad[0]) { if (Math.Abs(overlap) > Math.Abs(-pad[1] + circle[0])) { overlap = -pad[1] + circle[0]; overlapAxis = ax; } } else { if (Math.Abs(overlap) > Math.Abs(circle[1] - pad[0])) { overlap = circle[1] - pad[0]; overlapAxis = ax; } } } if (overlapAxis != Vector2.Zero) { MTV = overlapAxis * overlap; } return true; } protected override void Update(GameTime gameTime) { updates += 1; float ftime = 5 * (float)gameTime.ElapsedGameTime.TotalSeconds; if (updates == 1) { isColliding = false; int Xrnd = bit[Convert.ToInt32(rnd.Next(0, 2))]; int Yrnd = bit[Convert.ToInt32(rnd.Next(0, 2))]; ball.SpeedX = Xrnd * ball.SpeedX; ball.SpeedY = Yrnd * ball.SpeedY; ball.X += ftime * ball.SpeedX; ball.Y += ftime * ball.SpeedY; } else { updates = 100; ball.X += ftime * ball.SpeedX; ball.Y += ftime * ball.SpeedY; } //autorun :) paddleLeft.Y = ball.Y; //collision detection PongBar = nrPaddle.None; if (ball.Boundary.Intersects(paddleLeft.Boundary)) { PongBar = nrPaddle.Left; if (!isColliding) { Axes.Clear(); Axes.AddRange(paddleLeft.Normal2EdgesVector); //axis from nearest vertex to ball's center Axes.Add(FORMULAS.NormAxisFromCircle2ClosestVertex(paddleLeft.VertexVector, ball.ballCenter)); } } else if (ball.Boundary.Intersects(paddleRight.Boundary)) { PongBar = nrPaddle.Right; if (!isColliding) { Axes.Clear(); Axes.AddRange(paddleRight.Normal2EdgesVector); //axis from nearest vertex to ball's center Axes.Add(FORMULAS.NormAxisFromCircle2ClosestVertex(paddleRight.VertexVector, ball.ballCenter)); } } if (PongBar != nrPaddle.None && !isColliding) switch (PongBar) { case nrPaddle.Left: if (ShapesIntersect(paddleLeft, ball)) { isColliding = true; if (MTV != Vector2.Zero) ball.X += MTV.X; ball.Y += MTV.Y; ball.ChangeHorzDirection(); } break; case nrPaddle.Right: if (ShapesIntersect(paddleRight, ball)) { isColliding = true; if (MTV != Vector2.Zero) ball.X += MTV.X; ball.Y += MTV.Y; ball.ChangeHorzDirection(); } break; default: break; } if (!ShapesIntersect(paddleRight, ball) && !ShapesIntersect(paddleLeft, ball)) isColliding = false; ball.X += ftime * ball.SpeedX; ball.Y += ftime * ball.SpeedY; //check ball movement if (ball.X > paddleRight.X + paddleRight.Width + 2) { //IncreaseScore(Left); ball.Reset(); updates = 0; return; } else if (ball.X < paddleLeft.X - 2) { //IncreaseScore(Right); ball.Reset(); updates = 0; return; } base.Update(gameTime); } protected override void Draw(GameTime gameTime) { GraphicsDevice.Clear(Color.Aquamarine); spriteBatch.Begin(SpriteSortMode.BackToFront, BlendState.AlphaBlend); spriteBatch.End(); base.Draw(gameTime); } } And one method i've used: public static Vector2 NormAxisFromCircle2ClosestVertex(Vector2[] vertices, Vector2 circle) { Vector2 temp = Vector2.Zero; if (vertices.Length > 0) { float dist = (circle.X - vertices[0].X) * (circle.X - vertices[0].X) + (circle.Y - vertices[0].Y) * (circle.Y - vertices[0].Y); for (int i = 1; i < vertices.Length;i++) { if (dist > (circle.X - vertices[i].X) * (circle.X - vertices[i].X) + (circle.Y - vertices[i].Y) * (circle.Y - vertices[i].Y)) { temp = vertices[i]; //memorize the closest vertex dist = (circle.X - vertices[i].X) * (circle.X - vertices[i].X) + (circle.Y - vertices[i].Y) * (circle.Y - vertices[i].Y); } } temp = circle - temp; temp.Normalize(); } return temp; } Thanks in advance for any tips on the 4 issues. EDIT1: Something isn't working properly. The collision axis doesn't come out right and the interpolation also seems to have no effect. I've changed the code a bit: private bool ShapesIntersect(Paddle paddle, Ball ball) { overlap = 1000000f; //large value overlapAxis = Vector2.Zero; MTV = Vector2.Zero; foreach (Vector2 ax in Axes) { float[] pad = paddle.ProjectPaddle(ax); //pad0 = min, pad1 = max float[] circle = ball.ProjectBall(ax); //circle0 = min, circle1 = max if (pad[1] < circle[0] || circle[1] < pad[0]) { return false; } if (Math.Abs(pad[1] - circle[0]) < Math.Abs(circle[1] - pad[0])) { if (Math.Abs(overlap) > Math.Abs(-pad[1] + circle[0])) { overlap = -pad[1] + circle[0]; overlapAxis = ax * (-1); } //to get the proper axis } else { if (Math.Abs(overlap) > Math.Abs(circle[1] - pad[0])) { overlap = circle[1] - pad[0]; overlapAxis = ax; } } } if (overlapAxis != Vector2.Zero) { MTV = overlapAxis * Math.Abs(overlap); } return true; } And part of the Update method: if (ShapesIntersect(paddleRight, ball)) { isColliding = true; if (MTV != Vector2.Zero) { ball.X += MTV.X; ball.Y += MTV.Y; } //test if (overlapAxis.X == 0) //collision with horizontal edge { } else if (overlapAxis.Y == 0) //collision with vertical edge { float factor = Math.Abs(ball.ballCenter.Y - paddleRight.Y) / paddleRight.Height; if (factor > 1) factor = 1f; if (overlapAxis.X < 0) //left edge? ball.Speed = ball.DEFAULTSPEED * Vector2.Normalize(Vector2.Reflect(ball.Speed, (Vector2.Lerp(new Vector2(-1, -3), new Vector2(-1, 3), factor)))); else //right edge? ball.Speed = ball.DEFAULTSPEED * Vector2.Normalize(Vector2.Reflect(ball.Speed, (Vector2.Lerp(new Vector2(1, -3), new Vector2(1, 3), factor)))); } else //vertex collision??? { ball.Speed = -ball.Speed; } } What seems to happen is that "overlapAxis" doesn't always return the right one. So instead of (-1,0) i get the (1,0) (this happened even before i multiplied with -1 there). Sometimes there isn't even a collision registered even though the ball passes through the paddle... The interpolation also seems to have no effect as the angles barely change (or the overlapAxis is almost never (-1,0) or (1,0) but something like (0.9783473, 0.02743843)... ). What am i missing here? :(

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• Deep in the Heart of Texas

  - by Applications User Experience

  Author: Erika Webb, Manager, Fusion Applications UX User Assistance When I was first working in the usability field, the only way I could consider conducting a usability study was to bring a potential user to a lab environment where I could show them whatever I was interested in learning more about and ask them questions. While I hate to reveal just how long I have been working in this field, let's just say that pads of paper and a stopwatch were key tools for any test I conducted. Over the years, I have worked in simple labs with basic video taping equipment and not much else, and I have worked in corporate environments with sophisticated usability labs and state-of-the-art equipment. Years ago, we conducted all usability studies at the location of the user. If we wanted to see if there were any differences between users in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles, we went to those places to run the test. A lab environment is very useful for many test situations. However, there has always been a debate in the usability field about whether bringing someone into a lab environment, however friendly we make it, somehow intrinsically changes the behavior of the user as compared to having them work in their own environment, at their own desk, and on their own computer. We developed systems to create a portable usability lab, so that we could go to the users that we needed to test.  Do lab environments change user behavior patterns? Then 9/11 hit. You may not remember, but no planes flew for weeks afterwards. Companies all over the world couldn't fly-in employees for meetings. Suddenly, traveling to the location of the users had an additional difficulty. The company I was working for at the time had usability specialists stuck in New York for days before they could finally rent a car and drive home to Colorado. This changed the world pretty suddenly, and technology jumped on the change. Companies offering Internet meeting tools were strugglinguntil no one could travel. The Internet boomed with collaboration tools that enabled people to work together wherever they happened to be. This change in technology has made a huge difference in my world. We use collaborative tools to bring our product concepts and ideas to the user across the Internet. As a global company, we benefit from having users from all over the world inform our designs. We now run usability studies with users all over the world in a single day, a feat we couldn't have accomplished 10 years ago by plane! Other technology companies have started to do more of this type of usability testing, since the tools have improved so dramatically. Plus, in our busy world, it's not always easy to find users who can take the time away from their jobs to come to our labs. reaching users where it is convenient for them greatly improves the odds that people do participate. I manage a team of usability specialists who live in India and California, whlie I live in Colorado. We have wonderful labs that we bring users into to show them our products. But very often, we run our studies remotely. We used to take the lab to the users now we use the labs, but we let the users stay where they are. We gain users who might not have been able to leave work to come to our labs, and they get to use the system they are familiar with. And we gain users nearly anywhere that we can set up an Internet connection, as long as the users have a phone, a broadband connection, and a compatible Web browser (with no pop-up blockers). After we recruit participants in a traditional manner, we send them an invitation to participate through the use of a telephone conference call and Web conferencing tool. At Oracle, we use Oracle Web Conference part of Oracle Collaboration Suite, which enables us to give the user control of the mouse, while we present a prototype or wireframe pictures. We can record the sessions over the Web and phone conference. We send the users instructions, plus tips to ensure that we won't have problems sharing screens. In some cases, when time is tight, we even run a five-minute "test session" with users a day in advance to be sure that we can connect. Prior to the test, we send users a participant script that contains information about the study, including any questionnaires. This is exactly the same script we give to participants who come to the labs. We ask users to print this before the beginning of the session. We generally run these studies by having a usability engineer in our usability labs, so that we can record the session as though the user were in the lab with us. Roughly 80% of our application software usability testing at Oracle is performed using remote methods. The probability of getting a   remote test participant decreases the higher up the person is in the target organization. We have a methodology checklist available to help our usability engineers work through the remote processes.

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• JavaOne 2011: Content review process and Tips for submissions

  - by arungupta

  The Technical Sessions, Birds of Feather, Panels, and Hands-on labs (basically all the content delivered at JavaOne) forms the backbone of the conference. At this year's JavaOne conference you'll have access to the rock star speakers, the ability to engage with luminaries in the hallways, and have beer (or 2) with community peers in designated areas. Even though the conference is Oct 2-6, 2011, and will be bigger and better than last year's conference, the Call for Paper submission and review/selection evaluation started much earlier.In previous years, I've participated in the review process and this year I was honored to serve as co-lead for the "Enterprise Service Architecture and Cloud" track with Ludovic Champenois. We had a stellar review team with an equal mix of Oracle and external community reviewers. The review process is very overwhelming with the reviewers going through multiple voting iterations on each submission in order to ensure that the selected content is the BEST of the submitted lot. Our ultimate goal was to ensure that the content best represented the track, and most importantly would draw interest and excitement from attendees. As always, the number and quality of submissions were just superb, making for a truly challenging (and rewarding) experience for the reviewers. As co-lead I tried to ensure that I applied a fair and balanced process in the evaluation of content in my track. . Here are some key steps followed by all track leads: Vote on sessions - Each reviewer is required to vote on the sessions on a scale of 1-5 - and also provide a justifying comment. Create buckets - Divide the submissions into different buckets to ensure a fair representation of different topics within a track. This ensures that if a particular bucket got higher votes then the track is not exclusively skewed towards it. Top 7 - The review committee provides a list of the top 7 talks that can be used in the promotional material by the JavaOne team. Generally these talks are easy to identify and a consensus is reached upon them fairly quickly. First cut - Each track is allocated a total number of sessions (including panels), BoFs, and Hands-on labs that can be approved. The track leads then start creating the first cut of the approvals using the casted votes coupled with their prior experience in the subject matter. In our case, Ludo and I have been attending/speaking at JavaOne (and other popular Java-focused conferences) for double digit years. The Grind - The first cut is then refined and refined and refined using multiple selection criteria such as sorting on the bucket, speaker quality, topic popularity, cumulative vote total, and individual vote scale. The sessions that don't make the cut are reviewed again as well to ensure if they need to replace one of the selected one as a potential alternate. I would like to thank the entire Java community for all the submissions and many thanks to the reviewers who spent countless hours reading each abstract, voting on them, and helping us refine the list. I think approximately 3-4 hours cumulative were spent on each submission to reach an evaluation, specifically the border line cases. We gave our recommendations to the JavaOne Program Committee Chairperson (Sharat Chander) and accept/decline notifications should show up in submitter inboxes in the next few weeks. Here are some points to keep in mind when submitting a session to JavaOne next time: JavaOne is a technology-focused conference so any product, marketing or seemingly marketish talk are put at the bottom of the list.Oracle Open World and Oracle Develop are better options for submitting product specific talks. Make your title catchy. Remember the attendees are more likely to read the abstract if they like the title. We try our best to recategorize the talk to a different track if it needs to but please ensure that you are filing in the right track to have all the right eyeballs looking at it. Also, it does not hurt marking an alternate track if your talk meets the criteria. Make sure to coordinate within your team before the submission - multiple sessions from the same team or company does not ensure that the best speaker is picked. In such case we rely upon your "google presence" and/or review committee's prior knowledge of the speaker. The reviewers may not know you or your product at all and you get 750 characters to pitch your idea. Make sure to use all of them, to the last 750th character. Make sure to read your abstract multiple times to ensure that you are giving all the relevant information ? Think through your presentation and see if you are leaving out any important aspects.Also look if the abstract has any redundant information that will not required by the reviewers. There are additional sections that allow you to share information about the speaker and the presentation summary. Use them to blow the horn about yourself and any other relevant details. Please don't say "call me at xxx-xxx-xxxx to find out the details" :-) The review committee enjoyed reviewing the submissions and we certainly hope you'll have a great time attending them. Happy JavaOne!

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• JavaOne 2011: Content review process and Tips for submissions

  - by arungupta

  The Technical Sessions, Birds of Feather, Panels, and Hands-on labs (basically all the content delivered at JavaOne) forms the backbone of the conference. At this year's JavaOne conference you'll have access to the rock star speakers, the ability to engage with luminaries in the hallways, and have beer (or 2) with community peers in designated areas. Even though the conference is Oct 2-6, 2011, and will be bigger and better than last year's conference, the Call for Paper submission and review/selection evaluation started much earlier.In previous years, I've participated in the review process and this year I was honored to serve as co-lead for the "Enterprise Service Architecture and Cloud" track with Ludovic Champenois. We had a stellar review team with an equal mix of Oracle and external community reviewers. The review process is very overwhelming with the reviewers going through multiple voting iterations on each submission in order to ensure that the selected content is the BEST of the submitted lot. Our ultimate goal was to ensure that the content best represented the track, and most importantly would draw interest and excitement from attendees. As always, the number and quality of submissions were just superb, making for a truly challenging (and rewarding) experience for the reviewers. As co-lead I tried to ensure that I applied a fair and balanced process in the evaluation of content in my track. . Here are some key steps followed by all track leads: Vote on sessions - Each reviewer is required to vote on the sessions on a scale of 1-5 - and also provide a justifying comment. Create buckets - Divide the submissions into different buckets to ensure a fair representation of different topics within a track. This ensures that if a particular bucket got higher votes then the track is not exclusively skewed towards it. Top 7 - The review committee provides a list of the top 7 talks that can be used in the promotional material by the JavaOne team. Generally these talks are easy to identify and a consensus is reached upon them fairly quickly. First cut - Each track is allocated a total number of sessions (including panels), BoFs, and Hands-on labs that can be approved. The track leads then start creating the first cut of the approvals using the casted votes coupled with their prior experience in the subject matter. In our case, Ludo and I have been attending/speaking at JavaOne (and other popular Java-focused conferences) for double digit years. The Grind - The first cut is then refined and refined and refined using multiple selection criteria such as sorting on the bucket, speaker quality, topic popularity, cumulative vote total, and individual vote scale. The sessions that don't make the cut are reviewed again as well to ensure if they need to replace one of the selected one as a potential alternate. I would like to thank the entire Java community for all the submissions and many thanks to the reviewers who spent countless hours reading each abstract, voting on them, and helping us refine the list. I think approximately 3-4 hours cumulative were spent on each submission to reach an evaluation, specifically the border line cases. We gave our recommendations to the JavaOne Program Committee Chairperson (Sharat Chander) and accept/decline notifications should show up in submitter inboxes in the next few weeks. Here are some points to keep in mind when submitting a session to JavaOne next time: JavaOne is a technology-focused conference so any product, marketing or seemingly marketish talk are put at the bottom of the list.Oracle Open World and Oracle Develop are better options for submitting product specific talks. Make your title catchy. Remember the attendees are more likely to read the abstract if they like the title. We try our best to recategorize the talk to a different track if it needs to but please ensure that you are filing in the right track to have all the right eyeballs looking at it. Also, it does not hurt marking an alternate track if your talk meets the criteria. Make sure to coordinate within your team before the submission - multiple sessions from the same team or company does not ensure that the best speaker is picked. In such case we rely upon your "google presence" and/or review committee's prior knowledge of the speaker. The reviewers may not know you or your product at all and you get 750 characters to pitch your idea. Make sure to use all of them, to the last 750th character. Make sure to read your abstract multiple times to ensure that you are giving all the relevant information ? Think through your presentation and see if you are leaving out any important aspects.Also look if the abstract has any redundant information that will not required by the reviewers. There are additional sections that allow you to share information about the speaker and the presentation summary. Use them to blow the horn about yourself and any other relevant details. Please don't say "call me at xxx-xxx-xxxx to find out the details" :-) The review committee enjoyed reviewing the submissions and we certainly hope you'll have a great time attending them. Happy JavaOne!

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• Announcing the New Virtual Briefing Center

  - by Theresa Hickman

  Do you want to hear about real-world customer success stories? Or listen to Oracle Application leaders discuss the value in the latest releases of Oracle Application products? Do you want one place to download up-to-date content, including white papers, podcasts, webcasts and presentations? Did you miss the Virtual Trade Show at the beginning of 2011? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then the Virtual Briefing Center is the place to get up-to-date Oracle product information for Oracle E-Business Suite, PeopleSoft, JD Edwards, Fusion, Siebel and Hyperion across multiple product areas from financials, procurement, supply chain, CRM, Performance Management, and more. Every month we will have "Monthly Spotlights" to showcase new content. The following lists the upcoming live webcasts in July 2011: Weds. July 6, 2011 at 9:00 a.m. PST/12:00 p.m. EST: Hear about Amway’s upgrade to Oracle E-Business Suite 12.1 and how they stabilized financial modules, especially the month-end close processes. Thurs. July 14, 2011 at 9:00 a.m. PST/12:00 p.m. EST: Hear West Corporation share their PeopleSoft 9.1 upgrade, resulting in improved self-service, more robust reporting capabilities and new workflow and processes. Thurs. July 21, 2011 at 9:00 a.m. PST/12:00 p.m. EST: Learn how MFlex improved their operations, saved manpower and reduced time to close with their upgrade to JD Edwards EnterpriseOne 9.0. Thurs. July 28, 2011 at 9:00 a.m. PST/12:00 p.m. EST: IEEE discusses their upgrade to Siebel 8.1 using open web service architecture for faster SOA enablement allowing them to scale their membership capacity by 250%. If you cannot attend any of the above live events, that's OK because each of the webcasts in this series will be recorded and available on demand. And for you Financials folks who may have missed the webcasts from the Virtual Trade Show earlier this year, you can view them on demand by Visiting the Resource Library: Planning Your Successful Upgrade to Oracle E-Business Suite Financials 12.1. In this session, Bryant and Stratton College talk about their upgrade. Planning Your Successful Upgrade to PeopleSoft Financials 9.1. In this session, the University of Central Florida share their upgrade story. Fusion Financials: The New Standard for Finance. In this session, Terrance Wampler, the VP of Financial Application Strategy discusses the business value of Oracle's next generation financial applications and how customers can take advantage of Fusion Financials alongside their existing investments. What are you waiting for? Register now!

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• Registering InputListener in libGDX

  - by JPRO

  I'm just getting started with libGDX and have run into a snag registering an InputListener for a button. I've gone through many examples and this code appears correct to me but the associated callback never triggers ("touched" is not printed to console). I'm just posting the code with the abstract game screen and the implementing screen. The application starts successfully with a label of "Exit" in the bottom left hand corner, but clicking the button/label does nothing. I'm guessing the fix is something simple. What am I overlooking? public abstract class GameScreen<T> implements Screen { protected final T game; protected final SpriteBatch batch; protected final Stage stage; public GameScreen(T game) { this.game = game; this.batch = new SpriteBatch(); this.stage = new Stage(0, 0, true); } @Override public final void render(float delta) { update(delta); // Clear the screen with the given RGB color (black) Gdx.gl.glClearColor(0f, 0f, 0f, 1f); Gdx.gl.glClear(GL20.GL_COLOR_BUFFER_BIT); stage.act(delta); stage.draw(); } public abstract void update(float delta); @Override public void resize(int width, int height) { stage.setViewport(width, height, true); } @Override public void show() { Gdx.input.setInputProcessor(stage); } // hide, pause, resume, dipose } public class ExampleScreen extends GameScreen<MyGame> { private TextButton exitButton; public ExampleScreen(MyGame game) { super(game); } @Override public void show() { super.show(); TextButton.TextButtonStyle buttonStyle = new TextButton.TextButtonStyle(); buttonStyle.font = Font.getFont("Origicide", 32); buttonStyle.fontColor = Color.WHITE; exitButton = new TextButton("Exit", buttonStyle); exitButton.addListener(new InputListener() { @Override public void touchUp (InputEvent event, float x, float y, int pointer, int button) { System.out.println("touched"); } }); stage.addActor(exitButton); } @Override public void update(float delta) { } }

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• Stop YouTube Videos from Automatically Playing in Chrome

  - by The Geek

  If you’ve actually used the internet before, you’ve probably come across a page with an auto-playing YouTube clip, and chances are good it was a rather annoying one. Here’s how to stop them from starting automatically in Chrome. We’ve already told you how to stop them from automatically playing if you’re a Firefox user (best answer: use Flashblock!), but now it’s time for Chrome users to get their turn. Use the Stop Autoplay for YouTube Extension The great thing about this extension is that it stops the video from playing, but it allows it to continue buffering, so when you do feel like playing the video, it’ll already be downloaded—really useful for people with slower internet connections. There’s no UI or anything fancy, just head to the extension page and click the Install button. If you want to get rid of it later, use the Tools –> Extensions menu (or you can type chrome://extensions/ into your address bar), and then click the Uninstall link for that add-on.   Download Stop Autoplay for YouTube [Google Chrome Extensions] Using FlashBlock for Chrome If you really wanted to, you could just disable Flash across the board using FlashBlock for Chrome. Once you’ve installed the extension, you won’t see any Flash elements anywhere, and you’ll have to move your mouse over them and click to enable them each time. When I installed the extension the first time, I noticed that YouTube was already in the allow list. I’m not sure if that’s the default setting or not, but you can use the icon in the address bar, or the Options from the Extensions panel to get to the settings page, and from there you can remove anything from the White List that you wouldn’t want. Another nice feature about Flash Block is that it can also block Silverlight, or you could simply uninstall or remove unnecessary Chrome plug-ins. Download FlashBlock for Chrome Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Stop YouTube Videos from Automatically Playing in FirefoxDisable YouTube Comments while using ChromeApologies About An Awful Audio AdvertisementImprove YouTube Video Viewing in Google ChromeWatch YouTube Videos in Cinema Style in Firefox TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips DVDFab 6 Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 Follow Finder Finds You Twitter Users To Follow Combine MP3 Files Easily QuicklyCode Provides Cheatsheets & Other Programming Stuff Download Free MP3s from Amazon Awe inspiring, inter-galactic theme (Win 7) Case Study – How to Optimize Popular Wordpress Sites

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• Database-as-a-Service on Exadata Cloud

  - by Gagan Chawla

  Note – Oracle Enterprise Manager 12c DBaaS is platform agnostic and is designed to work on Exadata/non-Exadata, physical/virtual, Oracle/non Oracle platforms and it’s not a mandatory requirement to use Exadata as the base platform. Database-as-a-Service (DBaaS) is an important trend these days and the top business drivers motivating customers towards private database cloud model include constant pressure to reduce IT Costs and Complexity, and also to be able to improve Agility and Quality of Service. The first step many enterprises take in their journey towards cloud computing is to move to a consolidated and standardized environment and Exadata being already a proven best-in-class popular consolidation platform, we are seeing now more and more customers starting to evolve from Exadata based platform into an agile self service driven private database cloud using Oracle Enterprise Manager 12c. Together Exadata Database Machine and Enterprise Manager 12c provides industry’s most comprehensive and integrated solution to transform from a typical silo’ed environment into enterprise class database cloud with self service, rapid elasticity and pay-per-use capabilities.   In today’s post, I’ll list down the important steps to enable DBaaS on Exadata using Enterprise Manager 12c. These steps are chalked down based on a recent DBaaS implementation from a real customer engagement - Project Planning - First step involves defining the scope of implementation, mapping functional requirements and objectives to use cases, defining high availability, network, security requirements, and delivering the project plan. In a Cloud project you plan around technology, business and processes all together so ensure you engage your actual end users and stakeholders early on in the project right from the scoping and planning stage. Setup your EM 12c Cloud Control Site – Once the project plan approval and sign off from stakeholders is achieved, refer to EM 12c Install guide and these are some important tips to follow during the site setup phase - Review the new EM 12c Sizing paper before you get started with install Cloud, Chargeback and Trending, Exadata plug ins should be selected to deploy during install Refer to EM 12c Administrator’s guide for High Availability, Security, Network/Firewall best practices and options Your management and managed infrastructure should not be combined i.e. EM 12c repository should not be hosted on same Exadata where target Database Cloud is to be setup Setup Roles and Users – Cloud Administrator (EM_CLOUD_ADMINISTRATOR), Self Service Administrator (EM_SSA_ADMINISTRATOR), Self Service User (EM_SSA_USER) are the important roles required for cloud lifecycle management. Roles and users are managed by Super Administrator via Setup menu –> Security option. For Self Service/SSA users custom role(s) based on EM_SSA_USER should be created and EM_USER, PUBLIC roles should be revoked during SSA user account creation. Configure Software Library – Cloud Administrator logs in and in this step configures software library via Enterprise menu –> provisioning and patching option and the storage location is OMS shared filesystem. Software Library is the centralized repository that stores all software entities and is often termed as ‘local store’. Setup Self Update – Self Update is one of the most innovative and cool new features in EM 12c framework. Self update can be accessed via Setup -> Extensibility option by Super Administrator and is the unified delivery mechanism to get all new and updated entities (Agent software, plug ins, connectors, gold images, provisioning bundles etc) in EM 12c. Deploy Agents on all Compute nodes, and discover Exadata targets – Refer to Exadata discovery cookbook for detailed walkthrough to ensure successful discovery of Exadata targets. Configure Privilege Delegation Settings – This step involves deployment of privilege setting template on all the nodes by Super Administrator via Setup menu -> Security option with the option to define whether to use sudo or powerbroker for all provisioning and patching operations. Provision Grid Infrastructure with RAC Database on Compute Nodes – Software is provisioned in this step via a provisioning profile using EM 12c database provisioning. In case of Exadata, Grid Infrastructure and RAC Database software is already deployed on compute nodes via OneCommand from Oracle, so SSA Administrator just needs to discover Oracle Homes and Listener as EM targets. Databases will be created as and when users request for databases from cloud. Customize Create Database Deployment Procedure – the actual database creation steps are "templatized" in this step by Self Service Administrator and the newly saved deployment procedure will be used during service template creation in next step. This is an important step and make sure you have locked all the required variables marked as locked as ‘Y’ in this table. Setup Self Service Portal – This step involves setting up of zones, user quotas, service templates, chargeback plan. The SSA portal is setup by Self Service Administrator via Setup menu -> Cloud -> Database option and following guided workflow. Refer to DBaaS cookbook for details. You also have an option to customize SSA login page via steps documented in EM 12c Cloud Administrator’s guide Final Checks – Define and document process guidelines for SSA users and administrators. Get your SSA users trained on Self Service Portal features and overall DBaaS model and SSA administrators should be familiar with Self Service Portal setup pieces, EM 12c database lifecycle management capabilities and overall EM 12c monitoring framework. GO LIVE – Announce rollout of Database-as-a-Service to your SSA users. Users can login to the Self Service Portal and request/monitor/view their databases in Exadata based database cloud. Congratulations! You just delivered a successful database cloud implementation project! In future posts, we will cover these additional useful topics around database cloud – DBaaS Implementation tips and tricks – right from setup to self service to managing the cloud lifecycle ‘How to’ enable real production databases copies in DBaaS with rapid provisioning in database cloud Case study of a customer who recently achieved success with their transformational journey from traditional silo’ed environment on to Exadata based database cloud using Enterprise Manager 12c. More Information – Podcast on Database as a Service using Oracle Enterprise Manager 12c Oracle Enterprise Manager 12c Installation and Administration guide, Cloud Administration guide DBaaS Cookbook Exadata Discovery Cookbook Screenwatch: Private Database Cloud: Set Up the Cloud Self-Service Portal Screenwatch: Private Database Cloud: Use the Cloud Self-Service Portal Stay Connected: Twitter |  Face book |  You Tube |  Linked in |  Newsletter

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• Highlights from the Oracle Customer Experience Summit @ OpenWorld

  - by Kathryn Perry

  A guest post by David Vap, Group Vice President, Oracle Applications Product Development The Oracle Customer Experience Summit was the first-ever event covering the full breadth of Oracle's CX portfolio -- Marketing, Sales, Commerce, and Service. The purpose of the Summit was to articulate the customer experience imperative and to showcase the suite of Oracle products that can help our customers create the best possible customer experience. This topic has always been a very important one, but now that there are so many alternative companies to do business with and because people have such public ways to voice their displeasure, it's necessary for vendors to have multiple listening posts in place to gauge consumer sentiment. They need to know what is going on in real time and be able to react quickly to turn negative situations into positive ones. Those can then be shared in a social manner to enhance the brand and turn the customer into a repeat customer. The Summit was focused on Oracle's portfolio of products and entirely dedicated to customers who are committed to building great customer experiences within their businesses. Rather than DBAs, the attendees were business people looking to collaborate with other like-minded experts and find out how Oracle can help in terms of technology, best practices, and expertise. The event was at the Westin St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco as part of Oracle OpenWorld. We had eight hundred people attend, which was great for the first year. Next year, there's no doubt in my mind, we can raise that number to 5,000. Alignment and Logic Oracle's Customer Experience portfolio is made up of a combination of acquired and organic products owned by many people who are new to Oracle. We include homegrown Fusion CRM, as well as RightNow, Inquira, OPA, Vitrue, ATG, Endeca, and many others. The attendees knew of the acquisitions, so naturally they wanted to see how the products all fit together and hear the logic behind the portfolio. To tell them about our alignment, we needed to be aligned. To accomplish that, a cross functional team at Oracle agreed on the messaging so that every single Oracle presenter could cover the big picture before going deep into a product or topic. Talking about the full suite of products in one session produced overflow value for other products. And even though this internal coordination was a huge effort, everyone saw the value for our customers and for our long-term cooperation and success. Keynotes, Workshops, and Tents of Innovation We scored by having Seth Godin as our keynote speaker ? always provocative and popular. The opening keynote was a session orchestrated by Mark Hurd, Anthony Lye, and me. Mark set the stage by giving real-world examples of bad customer experiences, Anthony clearly articulated the business imperative for addressing these experiences, and I brought it all to life by taking the audience around the Customer Lifecycle and showing demos and videos, with partners included at each of the stops around the lifecycle. Brian Curran, a VP for RightNow Product Strategy, presented a session that was in high demand called The Economics of Customer Experience. People loved hearing how to build a business case and justify the cost of building a better customer experience. John Kembel, another VP for RightNow Product Strategy, held a workshop that customers raved about. It was based on the journey mapping methodology he created, which is a way to talk to customers about where they want to make improvements to their customers' experiences. He divided the audience into groups led by facilitators. Each person had the opportunity to engage with experts and peers and construct some real takeaways. From left to right: Brian Curran, John Kembel, Seth Godin, and George Kembel The conference hotel was across from Union Square so we used that space to set up Innovation Tents. During the day we served lunch in the tents and partners showed their different innovative ideas. It was very interesting to see all the technologies and advancements. It also gave people a place to mix and mingle and to think about the fringe of where we could all take these ideas. Product Portfolio Plus Thought Leadership Of course there is always room for improvement, but the feedback on the format of the conference was positive. Ninety percent of the sessions had either a partner or a customer teamed with an Oracle presenter. The presentations weren't dry, one-way information dumps, but more interactive. I just followed up with a CEO who attended the conference with his Head of Marketing. He told me that they are using John Kembel's journey mapping methodology across the organization to pull people together. This sort of thought leadership in these highly competitive areas gives Oracle permission to engage around the technology. We have to differentiate ourselves and it's harder to do on the product side because everyone looks the same on paper. But on thought leadership ? we can, and did, take some really big steps. David VapGroup Vice PresidentOracle Applications Product Development

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• How to Achieve Real-Time Data Protection and Availabilty....For Real

  - by JoeMeeks

  There is a class of business and mission critical applications where downtime or data loss have substantial negative impact on revenue, customer service, reputation, cost, etc. Because the Oracle Database is used extensively to provide reliable performance and availability for this class of application, it also provides an integrated set of capabilities for real-time data protection and availability. Active Data Guard, depicted in the figure below, is the cornerstone for accomplishing these objectives because it provides the absolute best real-time data protection and availability for the Oracle Database. This is a bold statement, but it is supported by the facts. It isn’t so much that alternative solutions are bad, it’s just that their architectures prevent them from achieving the same levels of data protection, availability, simplicity, and asset utilization provided by Active Data Guard. Let’s explore further. Backups are the most popular method used to protect data and are an essential best practice for every database. Not surprisingly, Oracle Recovery Manager (RMAN) is one of the most commonly used features of the Oracle Database. But comparing Active Data Guard to backups is like comparing apples to motorcycles. Active Data Guard uses a hot (open read-only), synchronized copy of the production database to provide real-time data protection and HA. In contrast, a restore from backup takes time and often has many moving parts - people, processes, software and systems – that can create a level of uncertainty during an outage that critical applications can’t afford. This is why backups play a secondary role for your most critical databases by complementing real-time solutions that can provide both data protection and availability. Before Data Guard, enterprises used storage remote-mirroring for real-time data protection and availability. Remote-mirroring is a sophisticated storage technology promoted as a generic infrastructure solution that makes a simple promise – whatever is written to a primary volume will also be written to the mirrored volume at a remote site. Keeping this promise is also what causes data loss and downtime when the data written to primary volumes is corrupt – the same corruption is faithfully mirrored to the remote volume making both copies unusable. This happens because remote-mirroring is a generic process. It has no  intrinsic knowledge of Oracle data structures to enable advanced protection, nor can it perform independent Oracle validation BEFORE changes are applied to the remote copy. There is also nothing to prevent human error (e.g. a storage admin accidentally deleting critical files) from also impacting the remote mirrored copy. Remote-mirroring tricks users by creating a false impression that there are two separate copies of the Oracle Database. In truth; while remote-mirroring maintains two copies of the data on different volumes, both are part of a single closely coupled system. Not only will remote-mirroring propagate corruptions and administrative errors, but the changes applied to the mirrored volume are a result of the same Oracle code path that applied the change to the source volume. There is no isolation, either from a storage mirroring perspective or from an Oracle software perspective.  Bottom line, storage remote-mirroring lacks both the smarts and isolation level necessary to provide true data protection. Active Data Guard offers much more than storage remote-mirroring when your objective is protecting your enterprise from downtime and data loss. Like remote-mirroring, an Active Data Guard replica is an exact block for block copy of the primary. Unlike remote-mirroring, an Active Data Guard replica is NOT a tightly coupled copy of the source volumes - it is a completely independent Oracle Database. Active Data Guard’s inherent knowledge of Oracle data block and redo structures enables a separate Oracle Database using a different Oracle code path than the primary to use the full complement of Oracle data validation methods before changes are applied to the synchronized copy. These include: physical check sum, logical intra-block checking, lost write validation, and automatic block repair. The figure below illustrates the stark difference between the knowledge that remote-mirroring can discern from an Oracle data block and what Active Data Guard can discern. An Active Data Guard standby also provides a range of additional services enabled by the fact that it is a running Oracle Database - not just a mirrored copy of data files. An Active Data Guard standby database can be open read-only while it is synchronizing with the primary. This enables read-only workloads to be offloaded from the primary system and run on the active standby - boosting performance by utilizing all assets. An Active Data Guard standby can also be used to implement many types of system and database maintenance in rolling fashion. Maintenance and upgrades are first implemented on the standby while production runs unaffected at the primary. After the primary and standby are synchronized and all changes have been validated, the production workload is quickly switched to the standby. The only downtime is the time required for user connections to transfer from one system to the next. These capabilities further expand the expectations of availability offered by a data protection solution beyond what is possible to do using storage remote-mirroring. So don’t be fooled by appearances.  Storage remote-mirroring and Active Data Guard replication may look similar on the surface - but the devil is in the details. Only Active Data Guard has the smarts, the isolation, and the simplicity, to provide the best data protection and availability for the Oracle Database. Stay tuned for future blog posts that dive into the many differences between storage remote-mirroring and Active Data Guard along the dimensions of data protection, data availability, cost, asset utilization and return on investment. For additional information on Active Data Guard, see: Active Data Guard Technical White Paper Active Data Guard vs Storage Remote-Mirroring Active Data Guard Home Page on the Oracle Technology Network

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• Day 1 - Finding Like Minds

  - by dapostolov

  So, is being a Game Developer any different from being an IT Developer? I picture a poorly lit environment where I get to purchase my own desk lamp; I'm thinking one of those huge lava lamps that pump out so much heat you could fry an egg on it. To my right: a "great wall" of empty coke cans dwarf me. Eating my last slice of pizza I look across my desk to see a fellow developer with a smug look on his face;  he's just coded his latest module for the game and it looks like he's in nirvana. My duty, of course, is to remind him to keep focused on the job at hand. So, picking up my trusty elastic and aerodynamically crafted paper bullet I begin a 10 minute war of welts and laughter which is promptly abrupted by our Project Manager demanding more details from our morning Scrum meeting. After providing about 5 minutes of geek speak and several words of comfort to make his eyes glaze over...it hits me, the idea for the module...beckoning my developer friend over, we quickly shoo the Project Manager away and begin our brainstorming frenzy ... now, where'd I put that full can of coke? OK. OK. This isn't probably the most ideal game developer environment, but it definitely sounds fun to me...and from what I gather is nothing like most game development companies. But I'm not doing this blog series to "go pro"; like I stated in my first post I want to make a 2D game from an idea my best friend and I drummed up long, long ago. I'm in this for the passion AND I want to see how easy it is for us .Net Developers to create a game. So where do I start? Where can I find like minded individuals? What technologies are there? What do I need to make a video game? The questions are endless....AND...since I already have an idea ... lets start with ... Technology (yes, I'm a geek, live with it...) Technology OK. Predominantly, games are still made in C++ or even C. I'm not sure how much assembly code is floating around lately, however, that is not my concern. I do know C / C++ from my past, enough to even get me by, but I'm mainly interested in a recent, not-so-new, technology called XNA. What is XNA? XNA allows us .Net Developers to make 2D / 3D games for windows, Xbox*, and Windows Mobile 7*. * = for a nominal fee *cough* The following link is your one stop shop to XNA game development: http://creators.xna.com/en-US/education/gettingstarted The above site hosts information such as: - getting started - a sample/instructional shooter game in 2D / 3D with code (if I'm taking too long for you in this blog series) - downloads - starter kits... http://creators.xna.com/en-US/education/starterkits/ And of course...forums. You can also subscribe and pay for their premium membership which gets you some pretty awesome tutorials, resources, downloads, and premium community support. Some general Wiki information about XNA: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XNA_%28Microsoft%29 Community Support OK. Let's move on to industry and community support. Apart from XNA, there are some really cool sites out there, I just haven't found all of them yet. However, I found a really cool Game Development website called Gamastura. You can click on the following link to get you there: http://www.gamasutra.com/ The site is 100% dedicated to "The Art & Business of Making Games". Armed with blogs, twitter, jobs/resumes and most importantly industry news; one could subscribe to the feed and got lost in the wealth of information it provides. On a side note: I remember Gamasutra being around when my best friend and I wanted to make a video game...meaning, they've been around for a while now. I think the most beneficial aspect of this site is to understand the industry you want to get into. Otherwise, it's just a cool site to keep up to date with the industry in general. Another Community Support option is LinkedIn. Amongst the land of extremely bloated achievements and responsibilities lay 3 groups (that I have found) that deal with game development.: http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=59205 - Game Developers http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=824817 - DirectX Game Developer Network http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=756587 - DirectX Developers The Game Developers group in LinkedIn is by far the most active of the three and could possibly provide a wealth of support. What I've done thus far: - I lightly researched the XNA technology - I looked around for some community sites to assist me - I downloaded the XNA Game Studio 3.1 on my PC and installed it on my IDE - I even tried both tutorials! http://creators.xna.com/en-US/education/gettingstarted/bgintro/chapter1   Best Regards D.

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