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• Educate me - should I buy these prebuilt NAS (which is better) or make my own?

  - by user29336

  I'm trying to learn as much as possible, and I think I've learned quite a bit so bear with me here under my confusion. I found a coupe NAS setups. I'm not sure if one is better than the other, other than the price being higher on some, and some coming with drives VS not. Let me list my setup so you can get an idea of what I want to provide: Macbook Pro Macbook Mini for Media streaming (so far) Windows 7 Gaming Computer Xbox 360 I'd like to provide a storage system for all these devices so they can access files very easily, I'd also like any of these devices to be able to stream media from this storage system. I'd like this storage system to be hassle free in terms of my confidence in the data integrity. If a drive fails, I want to know that I can replace the drive and all my files will still exist. I'd like to access this storage system OUTSIDE of my LAN. If I'm out on a job for work I'd like to go in, or be able to have people DL some files. This brings me to a question, is this what iSCSI is? I'd like this data system to be able to download torrents. I want to mount any drive on this storage system onto my OSX laptop as if it were a local drive attached. (Is this with iSCSI is?) I'd like this system to have a GOOD web based GUI. I don't want to install software to use it. I believe those are the most of my requirements. If I'm missing something that I have no knowledge about, can someone educate me? Here are the systems I found: $729ish on Newegg Lacie 5Big Network 2 (comes with 5TB of space. iSCSI / mac compatible, torrents, nice ui, + others?) Is this overpriced for what it provides? It almost seems like a great deal to me because of the 5TB of space it comes with vs the other NAS systems that don't come with storage but cost $600-700. Should I get a different NAS system? Netgear? Others? Do they have same features? Better? Is it better to buy your own disks? What about making my own? I'm tech savy all around. It seems cheaper to buy a premade one especially with the support/warranty it provides...

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• Is (Ubuntu) Linux file copying algorithm better than Windows 7?

  - by Sarath

  Windows Copying is a real mess ever since Windows Vista. Even Microsoft claims they've improved the performance, from a user perspective, it's not quite visible. Even with single file the copying window appears too much time for 'Calculating' and then finishing the copy(Even after 100% completion some times the dialog remains active). At the same time, I was backing up some files in Ubuntu Linux. I felt it's really fast. Might be a feeling caused by faster UI updates. I read an informative post from Jeff Atwood few years back on Windows File Copying. but what my specific questions are Is (Ubuntu) Linux file performance is better than Windows-7? Are both algorithms, Windows and Linux is making use of multiple threads and pipelining mechanism to improve the speed? If yes, which one is better?

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• Is it better to use a crowded 2.4GHz Wi-Fi channel 1, 6, 11 or "unused" 3, 4, 8, or 9?

  - by Luke

  I understand that 2.4GHz Wi-Fi channels overlap, and that the only non-overlapping channels in the US are 1, 6, and 11. Generally, my signal strength on channels 1, 6, and 11 are much stronger than my neighbors' on the same channel. However, several of the channels may have 4 or 5 others on that same channel. In this scenario, is it better to use 3, 4, 8, or 9? Or is it better to use the crowded channels 1, 6, and 11? As a secondary question, does it even matter that my signal strength is much higher than theirs? Related: Why use wifi channels other than 1, 6 or 11?

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• Could 1 GB of RAM work better than 1.25?

  - by user67082

  This is for a server running Ubuntu Server 10.10. The server is an old desktop PC. It had 2 sticks of 256 MB of 182-pin DDR 400 MHz RAM in it (total 512 MB of RAM). I just ordered a 1 GB stick of compatible RAM for the machine (now would have a total of 1.25 GB of RAM). A friend told me that it might run better if I removed both sticks of 256 MB RAM and used just the 1 GB stick I will be receiving. This seems counterintuitive since then there would only be 1 GB of RAM instead of 1.25; is it possible that it would be better to run with 1 GB or is he totally wrong? Thanks for the help.

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• Would you embrace a new technology that worked better than a VPN?

  - by Jumpto

  Ok so VPNs have been around for ages. Business has been addicted to them as the only method of securing their home servers with their workstations in the field. Even with all their problems and shortcomings. So my question is this: How likely are you to embrace a new technology that promises to work better, secure better and have more features than a VPN? State your reasons for or against. Extra points if you point out what steps the new technology would have to take to knock VPN off its throne.

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• Pie Charts Just Don't Work When Comparing Data - Number 10 of Top 10 Reasons to Never Ever Use a Pie

  - by Tony Wolfram

  When comparing data, which is what a pie chart is for, people have a hard time judging the angles and areas of the multiple pie slices in order to calculate how much bigger one slice is than the others. Pie Charts Don't Work A slice of pie is good for serving up a portion of desert. It's not good for making a judgement about how big the slice is, what percentage of 100 it is, or how it compares to other slices. People have trouble comparing angles and areas to each other. Controlled studies show that people will overestimate the percentage that a pie slice area represents. This is because we have trouble calculating the area based on the space between the two angles that define the slice. This picture shows how a pie chart is useless in determing the largest value when you have to compare pie slices.   You can't compare angles and slice areas to each other. Human perception and cognition is poor when viewing angles and areas and trying to make a mental comparison. Pie charts overload the working memory, forcing the person to make complicated calculations, and at the same time make a decision based on those comparisons. What's the point of showing a pie chart when you want to compare data, except to say, "well, the slices are almost the same, but I'm not really sure which one is bigger, or by how much, or what order they are from largest to smallest. But the colors sure are pretty. Plus, I like round things. Oh,was I suppose to make some important business decision? Sorry." Bad Choices and Bad Decisions Interaction Designers, Graphic Artists, Report Builders, Software Developers, and Executives have all made the decision to use pie charts in their reports, software applications, and dashboards. It was a bad decision. It was a poor choice. There are always better options and choices, yet the designer still made the decision to use a pie chart. I'll expore why people make such poor choices in my upcoming blog entires. (Hint: It has more to do with emotions than with analytical thinking.) I've outlined my opinions and arguments about the evils of using pie charts in "Countdown of Top 10 Reasons to Never Ever Use a Pie Chart." Each of my next 10 blog entries will support these arguments with illustrations, examples, and references to studies. But my goal is not to continuously and endlessly rage against the evils of using pie charts. This blog is not about pie charts. This blog is about understanding why designers choose to use a pie chart. Why, when give better alternatives, and acknowledging the shortcomings of pie charts, do designers over and over again still freely choose to place a pie chart in a report? As an extra treat and parting shot, check out the nice pie chart that Wikipedia uses to illustrate the United States population by state.   Remember, somebody chose to use this pie chart, with all its glorious colors, and post it on Wikipedia for all the world to see. My next blog will give you a better alternative for displaying comparable data - the sorted bar chart.

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• Why does my Messaging Menu code not work when split into functions?

  - by fluteflute

  Below are two python programs. They're exactly the same, except for one is split into two functions. However only the one that's split into two functions doesn't work - the second function doesn't work. Why would this be? Note the code is taken from this useful blog post. Without functions (works): import gtk def show_window_function(x, y): print x print y # get the indicate module, which does all the work import indicate # Create a server item mm = indicate.indicate_server_ref_default() # If someone clicks your server item in the MM, fire the server-display signal mm.connect("server-display", show_window_function) # Set the type of messages that your item uses. It's not at all clear which types # you're allowed to use, here. mm.set_type("message.im") # You must specify a .desktop file: this is where the MM gets the name of your # app from. mm.set_desktop_file("/usr/share/applications/nautilus.desktop") # Show the item in the MM. mm.show() # Create a source item mm_source = indicate.Indicator() # Again, it's not clear which subtypes you are allowed to use here. mm_source.set_property("subtype", "im") # "Sender" is the text that appears in the source item in the MM mm_source.set_property("sender", "Unread") # If someone clicks this source item in the MM, fire the user-display signal mm_source.connect("user-display", show_window_function) # Light up the messaging menu so that people know something has changed mm_source.set_property("draw-attention", "true") # Set the count of messages in this source. mm_source.set_property("count", "15") # If you prefer, you can set the time of the last message from this source, # rather than the count. (You can't set both.) This means that instead of a # message count, the MM will show "2m" or similar for the time since this # message arrived. # mm_source.set_property_time("time", time.time()) mm_source.show() gtk.mainloop() With functions (second function is executed but doesn't actually work): import gtk def show_window_function(x, y): print x print y # get the indicate module, which does all the work import indicate def function1(): # Create a server item mm = indicate.indicate_server_ref_default() # If someone clicks your server item in the MM, fire the server-display signal mm.connect("server-display", show_window_function) # Set the type of messages that your item uses. It's not at all clear which types # you're allowed to use, here. mm.set_type("message.im") # You must specify a .desktop file: this is where the MM gets the name of your # app from. mm.set_desktop_file("/usr/share/applications/nautilus.desktop") # Show the item in the MM. mm.show() def function2(): # Create a source item mm_source = indicate.Indicator() # Again, it's not clear which subtypes you are allowed to use here. mm_source.set_property("subtype", "im") # "Sender" is the text that appears in the source item in the MM mm_source.set_property("sender", "Unread") # If someone clicks this source item in the MM, fire the user-display signal mm_source.connect("user-display", show_window_function) # Light up the messaging menu so that people know something has changed mm_source.set_property("draw-attention", "true") # Set the count of messages in this source. mm_source.set_property("count", "15") # If you prefer, you can set the time of the last message from this source, # rather than the count. (You can't set both.) This means that instead of a # message count, the MM will show "2m" or similar for the time since this # message arrived. # mm_source.set_property_time("time", time.time()) mm_source.show() function1() function2() gtk.mainloop()

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• How can I work efficiently on a desktop sharing workflow?

  - by OSdave

  I am a freelance Magento developer, based in Spain. One of my clients is a Germany based web development company and they're asking me something I think it's impossible. OK, maybe not impossible but definitely not a preferred way of doing things. One of their clients has a Magento Entreprise installation, which is the paid (and I think proprietary) version of Magento. Their client has forbidden them to download the files from his server. My client is asking me now to study one particular module of the application in order to interact with it from a custom module I'll have to develop. As they have a read-only ssh access to their client's server, they came up with this solution: Set up a desktop/screen sharing session between one of their developer's station and mine, alongsides with a skype conversation. Their idea is that I'll say to the developer: show me file foo.php The developer will then open this foo.php file in his IDE. I'll have then to ask him to show me the bar method, the parent class, etc... Remember that it's a read-only session, so forget about putting a Zend_Debug::log() anywhere, and don't even think about a xDebug breakpoint (they don't use any kind of debugger, sic). Their client has also forbidden them to use any version control system... My first reaction when they explained to me this was (and I actually did say it outloud to them): Well, find another client. but they took it as a joke from me. I understand that in a business point of view rejecting a client is not a good practice, but I think that the condition of this assignment make it impossible to complete. At least according to my workflow. I mean, the way I work or learn a new framework/program is: download all files and copy of db on my pc create a git repository and a branch run the application locally use breakpoints use Zend_Debug::log() write the code and tests commit to git repo upload to (test/staging first if there is one, production if not) server I have agreed to try the desktop sharing session, although I think it will be a waste of time. On one hand I don't mind, they pay me for that time, but I know me and I don't like the sensation of loosing my time. On the other hand, I have other clients for whom I can work according to my workflow. I am about to say to them that I cannot (don't want to) do it. Well, I'll first try this desktop sharing session: maybe I'm wrong and it can actually work. But I like to consider myself as a professional, and I know that I don't know everything. So I try to keep an open mind and I am always willing to learn new stuff. So my questions are: Can this desktop-sharing workflow work? What should be done in order to take the most of it? Taking into account all the obstacles (geographic locations, no local, no git), is there another way for me to work on that project?

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• how to better (inambiguaously) use the terms CAPTCHA and various types of interactions?

  - by vgv8

  I am working on survey of state-of-the-art and trends of spam prevention techniques. I observe that non-intrusive, transparent to visitor spam prevention techniques (like context-based filtering or honey traps) are frequently called non-captcha. Is it correct understanding of term CAPTCHA which is "type of challenge-response [ 2 ]test used in computing to ensure that the response is not generated by a compute" [ 1 ] and challenge-response does not seem to imply obligatory human involvement. So, which understanding (definition) of term and classification I'd better to stick with? How would I better call CAPTCHA without direct human interaction in order to avoid ambiguity and confusion of terms understnding? How would I better (succinctly and unambiguously) coin the term for captchas requiring human interaction but without typing into textbox? How would I better (succinctly and unambiguously) coin the terms to mark the difference between human interaction with images (playing, drag&dropping, rearranging, clicking with images) vs. just recognizing them (and then typing into a textbox the answer without interaction with images)? PS. The problem is that recognition of a wiggled word in an image or typing the answer to question is also interaction and when I start to use the terms "interaction", "interactive", "captcha", "protection", "non-captcha", "non-interactive", "static", "dynamic", "visible", "hidden" the terms overlap ambiguously with which another (especailly because the definitions or their actual practice of usage are vague or contradictive). [ 1 ] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAPTCHA

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• Which is better Java programming practice: stacking enums and enum constructors, or subclassing?

  - by Arvanem

  Hi folks, Given a finite number of items which differ in kind, is it better to represent them with stacked enums and enum constructors, or to subclass them? Or is there a better approach altogether? To give you some context, in my small RPG program (which ironically is supposed to be simple), a character has different kinds of items in his or her inventory. Items differ based on their type and use and effect. For example, one item of inventory is a spell scroll called Gremlin that adjusts the Utility attribute. Another item might be a sword called Mort that is used in combat and inflicts damage. In my RPG code, I now have tried two ways of representing inventory items. One way was subclassing (for example, InventoryItem - Spell - AdjustingAttributes; InventoryItem - Weapon - Sword) and instantiating each subclass when needed, and assigning values such as names like Gremlin and Mort. The other way was by stacking enums and enum constructors. For example, I created enums for itemCategory and itemSpellTypes and itemWeaponTypes, and the InventoryItem enum was like this: public enum InventoryItem { GREMLIN(itemType.SPELL, itemSpellTypes.ATTRIBUTE, Attribute.UTILITY), MORT(itemType.WEAPON, itemWeaponTypes.SWORD, 30); InventoryItem(itemType typeOfItem, itemSpellTypes spellType, Attribute attAdjusted) { // snip, enum logic here } InventoryItem(itemType typeOfItem, itemWeaponTypes weaponType, int dmg) { // snip, enum logic here } // and so on, for all the permutations of items. } Is there a better Java programming practice than these two approaches? Or if these are the only ways, which of the two is better? Thanks in advance for your suggestions.

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• Of WPF and Winforms, which is the better skills to have in the job market?

  - by CraigJ

  I have a large VB6 desktop app which I would like to upgrade to .NET in order to take advantage of the newer .NET API. I am at a loose end as to whether to adopt WPF or Winforms when creating the new .NET solution. I realise that WPF seems to be in some ways the successor of Winforms. The only thing stopping me taking on WPF for this project is my concern that when the project has been completed the job marketplace will still be calling for Winforms skills and not necessarily WPF. Is this a valid concern? Note: I am aware there are existing questions on "WPF vs Winforms" generally, but this question relates to my specific concern about the job market.

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• More Interactions. Better Interactions.

  - by andrea.mulder

  Only with Oracle CRM On Demand Release 17. Tune in TOMORROW for a live webcast with Anthony Lye, senior vice president of CRM, Tuesday, March 30st at 9:00am PDT / 4:00pm GMT to learn how you can increase sales effectiveness with Oracle CRM On Demand Release 17. Click here to register.

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• Is Oracle Solaris 11 Really Better Than Oracle Solaris 10?

  - by rickramsey

  If you want to be well armed for that debate, study this comparison of the commands and capabilities of each OS before the spittle starts flying: How Solaris 11 Compares to Solaris 10 For instance, did you know that the command to configure your wireless network in Solaris 11 is not wificonfig, but dladm and ipadm for manual configuration, and netcfg for automatic configuration? Personally, I think the change was made to correct the grievous offense of spelling out "config" in the wificonfig command, instead of sticking to the widely accepted "cfg" convention, but loathe as I am to admit it, there may have been additional reasons for the change. This doc was written by the Solaris Documentation Team, and it not only compares the major features and command sequences in Solaris 11 to those in Solaris 10, but it links you to the sections of the documentation that explain them in detail. - Rick Website Newsletter Facebook Twitter

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• Is there a better term than "smoothness" or "granularity" to describe this language feature?

  - by Chris Stevens

  One of the best things about programming is the abundance of different languages. There are general purpose languages like C++ and Java, as well as little languages like XSLT and AWK. When comparing languages, people often use things like speed, power, expressiveness, and portability as the important distinguishing features. There is one characteristic of languages I consider to be important that, so far, I haven't heard [or been able to come up with] a good term for: how well a language scales from writing tiny programs to writing huge programs. Some languages make it easy and painless to write programs that only require a few lines of code, e.g. task automation. But those languages often don't have enough power to solve large problems, e.g. GUI programming. Conversely, languages that are powerful enough for big problems often require far too much overhead for small problems. This characteristic is important because problems that look small at first frequently grow in scope in unexpected ways. If a programmer chooses a language appropriate only for small tasks, scope changes can require rewriting code from scratch in a new language. And if the programmer chooses a language with lots of overhead and friction to solve a problem that stays small, it will be harder for other people to use and understand than necessary. Rewriting code that works fine is the single most wasteful thing a programmer can do with their time, but using a bazooka to kill a mosquito instead of a flyswatter isn't good either. Here are some of the ways this characteristic presents itself. Can be used interactively - there is some environment where programmers can enter commands one by one Requires no more than one file - neither project files nor makefiles are required for running in batch mode Can easily split code across multiple files - files can refeence each other, or there is some support for modules Has good support for data structures - supports structures like arrays, lists, and especially classes Supports a wide variety of features - features like networking, serialization, XML, and database connectivity are supported by standard libraries Here's my take on how C#, Python, and shell scripting measure up. Python scores highest. Feature C# Python shell scripting --------------- --------- --------- --------------- Interactive poor strong strong One file poor strong strong Multiple files strong strong moderate Data structures strong strong poor Features strong strong strong Is there a term that captures this idea? If not, what term should I use? Here are some candidates. Scalability - already used to decribe language performance, so it's not a good idea to overload it in the context of language syntax Granularity - expresses the idea of being good just for big tasks versus being good for big and small tasks, but doesn't express anything about data structures Smoothness - expresses the idea of low friction, but doesn't express anything about strength of data structures or features Note: Some of these properties are more correctly described as belonging to a compiler or IDE than the language itself. Please consider these tools collectively as the language environment. My question is about how easy or difficult languages are to use, which depends on the environment as well as the language.

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• Building websites, which is the better approach MVP or MVC?

  - by Nick

  I'm looking for feedback on MVP and MVC patterns used as basis to build a website. I've used both with a certain degrees of success and failure. Furthermore I've worked in places which have miserable implement MVP across the web, desktop and services layers. I've also seen a few terrible MVC implementations. One thing I've noticed is the MVP stuff-up appear terrible for maintenance or adding any new features compared to the MVC debacles.

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• How do you get better at selling your idea/software/pitch?

  - by Sergio Tapia

  How do I gain the skills to properly pitch my ideas/bids to potential clients? What are the tried and true methods of improving this very necessary skill a freelancer is supposed to have in order to survive? I have a bit of trouble trying to sell my ideas to clients and convince them that this project can be done and done well within the time they ask, but so far I feel I'm lacking in that department and I want to WOW the pants off clients from here on out. Any suggestions?

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• What Problems Are Better Solved By SOAP Over REST?

  In the battle for web service supremacy SOAP and REST have been battling for years. In my personal opinion this debate should have never existed. Yes, both forms can be used to create an interactive web service, but each form of a service was developed independent of each other to solve two different yet similar problems. Based my research and experience I would have to say that REST should be the preferred web service methodology and SOAP should only be used in specific situations. Note, I did not say that I was against SOAP, and in fact I actually like to use SOAP when it is needed. Criteria for using SOAP: Does the service need a guaranteed level of reliability and security? Did the provider and consumer of the service agreed on a standardized data exchange format? Does the service need data context and state management? If you answer yes to any of these questions, then you may want to consider SOAP as the format for the web service. Another way to look at the relationship between REST and SOAP is to look at the medical field.  For most things a general doctor or you family health care provider can acceptably treat most conditions from the case of a common cold to a broken bone. A general doctor more aligns with REST in my opinion because for most service requirements REST fulfills a projects needs, but what happens if you need more of an advanced examination, you would go to a specialist. A specialist would already have experience dealing with specific issues that you are experiencing giving them specific context to how best treat you going forward. SOAP acts more like a specialist doctor giving that they understand the context of an issue and can treat it based on the state of other patients they have already treated. An example of where I would use SOAP over REST in real life would be a single sign-on application. I n these cases I need to check validate a username and password for authentication and authorization of a web page request. This service would need to maintain state while it authenticated a user and while it validated access to a web page on a subsequent request. This service must process every request for access and not allow caching to ensure that every request is processed and the appropriate users are allowed to view selected web pages. References: Rozlog, M. (2010). REST and SOAP: When Should I Use Each (or Both)? Retrieved 11 20, 2011, from Infoq.com: http://www.infoq.com/articles/rest-soap-when-to-use-each

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• Finance: Friends, not foes!

  - by red@work

  After reading Phil's blog post about his experiences of working on reception, I thought I would let everyone in on one of the other customer facing roles at Red Gate... When you think of a Credit Control team, most might imagine money-hungry (and often impolite) people, who will do nothing short of hunting people down until they pay up. Well, as with so many things, not at Red Gate! Here we do things a little bit differently.   Since joining the Licensing, Invoicing and Credit Control team at Red Gate (affectionately nicknamed LICC!), I have found it fantastic to work with people who know that often the best way to get what you want is by being friendly, reasonable and as helpful as possible. The best bit about this is that, because everyone is in a good mood, we have a great working atmosphere! We are definitely a very happy team. We laugh a lot, even when dealing with the serious matter of playing table football after lunch. The most obvious part of my job is bringing in money. There are few things quite as satisfying as receiving a big payment or one that you've been chasing for a long time. That being said, it's just as nice to encounter the companies that surprise you with a payment bang on time after little or no chasing. It's always a pleasure to find these people who are generous and easy to work with, and so they always make me smile, too. As I'm in one of the few customer facing roles here, I get to experience firsthand just how much Red Gate customers love our software and are equally impressed with our customer service. We regularly get replies from people thanking us for our help in resolving a problem or just to simply say that they think we're great. Or, as is often the case, that we 'rock and are awesome'! When those are the kinds of emails you have to deal with for most of the day, I would challenge anyone to be unhappy! The best thing about my work is that, much like Phil and his counterparts on reception, I get to talk to people from all over the world, and experience their unique (and occasionally unusual) personality traits. I deal predominantly with customers in the US, so I'll be speaking to someone from a high flying multi-national in New York one minute, and then the next phone call will be to a small office on the outskirts of Alabama. This level of customer involvement has led to a lot of interesting anecdotes and plenty of in-jokes to keep us amused! Obviously there are customers who are infuriating, like those who simply tell us that they will pay "one day", and that we should stop chasing them. Then there are the people who say that they ordered the tools because they really like them, but they just can't afford to actually pay for them at the moment. Thankfully these situations are relatively few and far between, and for every one customer that makes you want to scream, there are far, far more that make you smile!

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• Singular or Plural Nouns as file names for better Search & SEO friendlyness? [closed]

  - by Sam

  Possible Duplicate: Should I use singular or plural nouns in a domain name and why? Dear folks, two scenarios where file names should be best representing the search volume by audiences searching for it. Scenario 1 website.org/en/logo.php website.org/en/brochure.php website.org/en/poster.php website.org/en/design.php OR Scenario 2 website.org/en/logos.php website.org/en/brochures.php website.org/en/posters.php website.org/en/designs.php Q1. What do you intuitivly think would be the best? Q2. What do the facts in general show? people search for singular or plural in search? Q3. Do Search engines have common rule of thumb for this? Q4. Should I pick either and go with either scenario consistently or does it depend on the word? Thanks very much for your ideas/suggestions. I reall don't know which one to go for.

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• What is a better abstraction layer for D3D9 and OpenGL vertex data management?

  - by Sam Hocevar

  My rendering code has always been OpenGL. I now need to support a platform that does not have OpenGL, so I have to add an abstraction layer that wraps OpenGL and Direct3D 9. I will support Direct3D 11 later. TL;DR: the differences between OpenGL and Direct3D cause redundancy for the programmer, and the data layout feels flaky. For now, my API works a bit like this. This is how a shader is created: Shader *shader = Shader::Create( " ... GLSL vertex shader ... ", " ... GLSL pixel shader ... ", " ... HLSL vertex shader ... ", " ... HLSL pixel shader ... "); ShaderAttrib a1 = shader->GetAttribLocation("Point", VertexUsage::Position, 0); ShaderAttrib a2 = shader->GetAttribLocation("TexCoord", VertexUsage::TexCoord, 0); ShaderAttrib a3 = shader->GetAttribLocation("Data", VertexUsage::TexCoord, 1); ShaderUniform u1 = shader->GetUniformLocation("WorldMatrix"); ShaderUniform u2 = shader->GetUniformLocation("Zoom"); There is already a problem here: once a Direct3D shader is compiled, there is no way to query an input attribute by its name; apparently only the semantics stay meaningful. This is why GetAttribLocation has these extra arguments, which get hidden in ShaderAttrib. Now this is how I create a vertex declaration and two vertex buffers: VertexDeclaration *decl = VertexDeclaration::Create( VertexStream<vec3,vec2>(VertexUsage::Position, 0, VertexUsage::TexCoord, 0), VertexStream<vec4>(VertexUsage::TexCoord, 1)); VertexBuffer *vb1 = new VertexBuffer(NUM * (sizeof(vec3) + sizeof(vec2)); VertexBuffer *vb2 = new VertexBuffer(NUM * sizeof(vec4)); Another problem: the information VertexUsage::Position, 0 is totally useless to the OpenGL/GLSL backend because it does not care about semantics. Once the vertex buffers have been filled with or pointed at data, this is the rendering code: shader->Bind(); shader->SetUniform(u1, GetWorldMatrix()); shader->SetUniform(u2, blah); decl->Bind(); decl->SetStream(vb1, a1, a2); decl->SetStream(vb2, a3); decl->DrawPrimitives(VertexPrimitive::Triangle, NUM / 3); decl->Unbind(); shader->Unbind(); You see that decl is a bit more than just a D3D-like vertex declaration, it kinda takes care of rendering as well. Does this make sense at all? What would be a cleaner design? Or a good source of inspiration?

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• How can I better implement A star algorithm with a very large set of nodes?

  - by Stephen

  I'm making a game with nodejs in which many enemies must converge on the player as the player moves around a relatively open space (right now it is an open field with few obstacles, but eventually there may be some small buildings in the field with 1 or 2 rooms). It's a multiplayer game using websockets, so the server needs to keep track of enemies and players. I found this javascript A* library which I've modified to be used on the server as a nodejs module. The library utilizes a Binary Heap to track the nodes for the algorithm, so it should be pretty fast (and indeed, with a small grid, say 100x100 it is lightning fast). The problem is that my game is not really tile-based. As the player moves around the map, he is moving on a more or less 1-to-1 per-pixel coordinate system (the player can move in 8 directions, 1 or 2 pixels at a time). In preliminary tests, on an 800x600 field, the path-finding can take anywhere from 400 to 1000 ms. Multiply that by 10 enemies and the game starts to get pretty choppy. I have already set it up so that each enemy will only do a path-finding call once per second or even as slow as once every 2 seconds (they have to keep updating their path because the players can move freely). But even with this long interval, there are noticeable lag spikes or chops every couple of seconds as the enemies update their paths. I'm willing to approach the problem of path-finding differently, if there's another option. I'm assuming that the real problem is the enormous grid (800x600). It also occurs to me that maybe the large arrays are to blame, as I've read that V8 has trouble with large arrays.

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• Is it better to hard code data or find an algorithm?

  - by OghmaOsiris

  I've been working on a boardgame that has a hex grid as the board (the upper right grid in the image below) Since the board will never change and the spaces on the board will always be linked to the same other spaces around it, should I just hard code every space with the values that I need? Or should I use various algorithms to calculate links and traversals? To be more specific, my board game is a 4 player game where each player has a 5x5x5x5x5x5 hex grid (again, the upper right grid in th eimage above). The object is to get from the bottom of the grid to the top, with various obstacles in the way, and each players being able to attack eachother from the edge of their grid onto other players based on a range multiplier. Since the players grid will never change and the distance of any arbitrary space from the edge of the grid will always be the same, should I just hard code this number into each of the spaces, or should I still use a breadth first search algorithm when players are attacking? The only con I can think of for hard coding everything is that I'm going to code 9+ 2(5+6+7+8) = 61 individual cells. Is there anything else that I'm missing that I should consider using more complex algorithms?

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• Is there a better term than "smoothness" or "granularity" to describe this language feature?

  - by Chris

  One of the best things about programming is the abundance of different languages. There are general purpose languages like C++ and Java, as well as little languages like XSLT and AWK. When comparing languages, people often use things like speed, power, expressiveness, and portability as the important distinguishing features. There is one characteristic of languages I consider to be important that, so far, I haven't heard [or been able to come up with] a good term for: how well a language scales from writing tiny programs to writing huge programs. Some languages make it easy and painless to write programs that only require a few lines of code, e.g. task automation. But those languages often don't have enough power to solve large problems, e.g. GUI programming. Conversely, languages that are powerful enough for big problems often require far too much overhead for small problems. This characteristic is important because problems that look small at first frequently grow in scope in unexpected ways. If a programmer chooses a language appropriate only for small tasks, scope changes can require rewriting code from scratch in a new language. And if the programmer chooses a language with lots of overhead and friction to solve a problem that stays small, it will be harder for other people to use and understand than necessary. Rewriting code that works fine is the single most wasteful thing a programmer can do with their time, but using a bazooka to kill a mosquito instead of a flyswatter isn't good either. Here are some of the ways this characteristic presents itself. Can be used interactively - there is some environment where programmers can enter commands one by one Requires no more than one file - neither project files nor makefiles are required for running in batch mode Can easily split code across multiple files - files can refeence each other, or there is some support for modules Has good support for data structures - supports structures like arrays, lists, and especially classes Supports a wide variety of features - features like networking, serialization, XML, and database connectivity are supported by standard libraries Here's my take on how C#, Python, and shell scripting measure up. Python scores highest. Feature C# Python shell scripting --------------- --------- --------- --------------- Interactive poor strong strong One file poor strong strong Multiple files strong strong moderate Data structures strong strong poor Features strong strong strong Is there a term that captures this idea? If not, what term should I use? Here are some candidates. Scalability - already used to decribe language performance, so it's not a good idea to overload it in the context of language syntax Granularity - expresses the idea of being good just for big tasks versus being good for big and small tasks, but doesn't express anything about data structures Smoothness - expresses the idea of low friction, but doesn't express anything about strength of data structures or features Note: Some of these properties are more correctly described as belonging to a compiler or IDE than the language itself. Please consider these tools collectively as the language environment. My question is about how easy or difficult languages are to use, which depends on the environment as well as the language.

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• Is it better to have AWS EC2 and RDS is the same Availability Zone?

  - by Dan

  I run a web app in an AWS EC2 instance and the database for the app in an RDS instance both in Amazon Web Services Region East-1. However, one of them is in Availability Zone 1a and the other is in 1d. Am I getting all the speed benefits of having both instances in the same "data center" (East-1) even if they are in different Availability Zones, or can I optimize by moving them to the same Availability Zone?

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• Way in over my head! (Dealing with better programmers)

  - by darkman

  I've just been hired to be part of a group that is developing in C++. Before, I've been coding on and off at my job for the past 11 years (some C, some Fortran, some C++). The coding I've done was mostly maintaining and adding new features to one of our systems. The code, being 10 years old, did not contain all the modern C++ stuff. Lo and behold, my new job is filled with programmers with 5-10 years experience of pure coding and they all use the most modern aspects of C++ (C++11, template, lambda, etc, etc). They are expecting someone with that same experience... Well, I've been working for 15 years total but when I looked at their code, I couldn't understand half of it! :-| Anyone been in that situation? What would you recommend?

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