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• JavaScript Sucks.

  - by Matt Watson

  JavaScript Sucks. Yes, I said it. Microsoft's announcement of TypeScript got me thinking today. Is this a step in the right direction? It sounds like it fixes a lot of problems with JavaScript development. But is it really just duct tape and super glue for a programming model that needs to be replaced?I have had a love hate relationship with JavaScript, like most developers who would prefer avoiding client side code. I started doing web development over 10 years ago and I have done some pretty cool stuff with JavaScript. It has came a long ways and is the universal standard these days for client side scripting in the web browser. Over the years the browsers have become much faster at processing JavaScript. Now people are even trying to use it on the server side via node.js. OK, so why do I think JavaScript sucks?Well first off, as an enterprise web application developer, I don't like any scripting or dynamic languages. I like code that compiles for lots of obvious reasons. It is messy to code with and lacks all kinds of modern programming features. We spend a lot of time trying to hack it to do things it was never really designed for.Ever try to use different jQuery based plugins that require conflicting jQuery versions? Yeah, that sucks.How about trying to figure out how to make 20 javascript include files load quicker as one request? Yeah that sucks too.Performance? Let me just point to the old Facebook mobile app made with JS & HTML5. It sucked. Enough said.How about unit testing JavaScript? I've never tried it, but it sure sounds like fun.My biggest problem with JavaScript is code security. If I make some awesome product, there is no way to protect my code. How can we expect game makers to write apps in 100% JavaScript and HTML5 if they can't protect their intellectual property?There are compiling tools like Closure, unit test frameworks, minify, coffee script, TypeScript and a bunch of other tools. But to me, they all try to make up for the weaknesses and problems with JavaScript. JavaScript is a mess and we spend a lot of time trying to work around all of it's problems. It is possible to program in Silverlight, Java or Flash and run that in the browser instead of JavaScript, but they all have their own problems and lack universal mobile support. I believe Microsoft's new TypeScript is a step forward for JavaScript, but I think we need to start planning to go a whole different direction. We need a new universal client side programming model, because JavaScript sucks.

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• Mass emailing bouncebacks- Sendblaster

  - by Matt

  I am currently using a mass emailer called sendblaster- if anyone has experience using this program for mass emails any help would be fantastic. The program has a feature that allows you to track reads and opens of emails sent, however the problem i have is with delivery failures/bouncebacks. The "manage bouncebacks" feature is very confusing, and appears to be incapable of showing which email addresses have bounced. For some reason the sender address does not receive delivery failures as with other mass email programs that I've used. If anyone knows a way to efficiently manage the delivery failures/bounceback using this program please help! Thanks

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• Xinet tftp timeout

  - by Matt Mootz

  I trying to set up a PXE boot server. Everything is working but the TFTP client is timing out. TFTP connection timeout I am using this to setup the TFTP server. http://www.davidsudjiman.info/2006/03/27/installing-and-setting-tftpd-in-ubuntu/ /etc/xinet.d/tftp service tftp { protocol = udp port = 69 socket_type = dgram wait = yes user = nobody server = /usr/sbin/in.tftpd server_args = /tftpboot disable = no } ps ax|grep tftp doesn't return it running. any idea's what could be wrong?

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• Should I swap from WCF to NserviceBus

  - by Matt Roberts

  We have a central server that sends and recieves messages from a number of PCs that are located on client networks in various locations. To facilitate this, currently I'm using WCF with TCPNetBindings, using duplex communication secured with certificates. Now, we have a number of issues with this - mainly that we are being asked to support "disconnected mode" (we need to be fault tolerant). From what I know, there is no simple way to do this using the WCF stack - we'd need to implement something and perhaps use msmq. I've been looking at NServiceBus lately, and from I can see it seems to fit the bill well - fault tolerance, messages can be sent over the internet via a simple http gateway, etc. I know it's well respected in the community, and I can see why from looking into it. So, my question is...Does employing NServiceBus sound like a sensible idea, or does anyone have any other suggestions / real world experience that relate to this? I guess I'm worried of introducing a new tech that I know relatively little about, and facing problems with things like securing it, setting everything up in a reliable way, gotchas along the way.. I'm also wary of "gold-plating" the architecture, and choosing something shiny that will end up bogging me down in implementation versus sticking with WCF and just making it work for me.. Thanks!

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• New Computer

  - by Matt Christian

  Last night I received my computer that was ordered with my tax return money.  Here are the specs of my old computer: - Pentium 4 Processor - 3-4 GB RAM - ~256 GB HDD space (2 drives) - nVidia card (AGP 8x) Sorry I can't be more specific, my memory is gone :p  Here are the new computer specs (mostly): - 2.8ghz Pentium i7 quadcore - 6 GB RAM - 1 TB HDD space (1 drive) - 1 GB Radeon card (PCI-X) I also got a new monitor (22" Asus with HDMI) so will be using my 19" widescreen as a secondary monitor. If I remember I'll hop on here and post the specifics later on...

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• What can Haskell's type system do that Java's can't?

  - by Matt Fenwick

  I was talking to a friend about the differences between the type systems of Haskell and Java. He asked me what Haskell's could do that Java's couldn't, and I realized that I didn't know. After thinking for a while, I came up with a very short list of minor differences. Not being heavy into type theory, I'm left wondering whether they're formally equivalent. To try and keep this from becoming a subjective question, I'm asking: what are the major, non-syntactical differences between their type systems? I realize some things are easier/harder in one than in the other, and I'm not interested in talking about those. And to make it more specific, let's ignore Haskell type extensions since there's so many out there that do all kinds of crazy/cool stuff.

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• Project Corndog: Viva el caliente perro!

  - by Matt Christian

  During one of my last semesters in college we were required to take a class call Computer Graphics which tried (quite unsuccessfully) to teach us a combination of mathematics, OpenGL, and 3D rendering techniques.  The class itself was horrible, but one little gem of an idea came out of it.  See, the final project in the class was to team up and create some kind of demo or game using techniques we learned in class.  My friend Paul and I teamed up and developed a top down shooter that, given the stringent timeline, was much less of a game and much more of 3D objects floating around a screen. The idea itself however I found clever and unique and decided it was time to spend some time developing a proper version of our idea.  Project Corndog as it is tentatively named, pits you as a freshly fried corndog who broke free from the shackles of fair food slavery in a quest to escape the state fair you were born in.  Obviously it's quite a serious game with undertones of racial prejudice, immoral practices, and cheap food sold at high prices. The game itself is a top down shooter in the style of 1942 (NES).  As a delicious corndog you will have to fight through numerous enemies including hungry babies, carnies, and the corndog serial-killer himself the corndog eating champion!  Other more engaging and frighteningly realistic enemies await as the only thing between you and freedom. Project Corndog is being developed in Visual Studio 2008 with XNA Game Studio 3.1.  It is currently being hosted on Google code and will be made available as an open source engine in the coming months.

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• What can Haskell's type system do that Java's can't and vice versa?

  - by Matt Fenwick

  I was talking to a friend about the differences between the type systems of Haskell and Java. He asked me what Haskell's could do that Java's couldn't, and I realized that I didn't know. After thinking for a while, I came up with a very short list of minor differences. Not being heavy into type theory, I'm left wondering whether they're formally equivalent. To try and keep this from becoming a subjective question, I'm asking: what are the major, non-syntactical differences between their type systems? I realize some things are easier/harder in one than in the other, and I'm not interested in talking about those. And to make it more specific, let's ignore Haskell type extensions since there's so many out there that do all kinds of crazy/cool stuff.

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• Gnome Do does not autostart and save shortcuts

  - by Matt

  For some reason the autostart of Gnome-Do will not work in 11.10. I've installed Gnome-Do via the Ubuntu Software Center. Then I changed the shortcut to launch Gnome-Do and marked the option to autostart Gnome-Do within Gnome-Do. In order to verify the autostart, I checked whether it's also found in the autostart applications (which it was). However, upon every restart I have to start Gnome-Do manually via the unity launcher and change the shortcut again.

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• Access Log Files

  - by Matt Watson

  Some of the simplest things in life make all the difference. For a software developer who is trying to solve an application problem, being able to access log files, windows event viewer, and other details is priceless. But ironically enough, most developers aren't even given access to them. Developers have to escalate the issue to their manager or a system admin to retrieve the needed information. Some companies create workarounds to solve the problem or use third party solutions.Home grown solution to access log filesSome companies roll their own solution to try and solve the problem. These solutions can be great but are not always real time, and don't account for the windows event viewer, config files, server health, and other information that is needed to fix bugs.VPN or FTP access to log file foldersCreate programs to collect log files and move them to a centralized serverModify code to write log files to a centralized placeExpensive solution to access log filesSome companies buy expensive solutions like Splunk or other log management tools. But in a lot of cases that is overkill when all the developers need is the ability to just look at log files, not do analytics on them.There has to be a better solution to access log filesStackify recently came up with a perfect solution to the problem. Their software gives developers remote visibility to all the production servers without allowing them to remote desktop in to the machines. They can get real time access to log files, windows event viewer, config files, and other things that developers need. This allows the entire development team to be more involved in the process of solving application defects.Check out their product to learn morehttp://www.Stackify.com

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• My Thoughts on Reinventing the Wheel

  - by Matt Christian

  For awhile now I've known that XNA Game Studio contains built-in scene management however I still built my own for each engine.  Obviously it was redundant and probably inefficient due to the amount of searching and such I was required to do.  And even though I knew this, why did I continue to do it? I've always been very detail oriented, probably part of my mild OCD.  But when it comes to technology I believe in both reinventing the wheel and not reinventing it all at the same time.  Here's what I imagine most programmers doing.  When they pick up XNA, they're typically focused on 'I want to make a game with as little code as possible'.  This is great and XNA GS is a great tool, but what will it do for programmers that want to make games with XNA?  If they don't have any prior experience with other tools they will probably not ever learn scene management. So is it better to leverage code and risk not learning valuable techniques, or write it all yourself and fight through the headaches and hours of time you may spend on something already built?

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• How to make a battle system in a mobile indie game more fun and engaging

  - by Matt Beckman

  I'm developing an indie game for mobile platforms, and part of the game involves a PvP battle system (where the target player is passive). My vision is simple: the active player can select a weapon/item, then attack/use, and display the calculated outcome. I have a concept for battle modifiers that affect stats to make it more interesting, but I'm not convinced the vision is complete. I've received some inspiration from the game engine that powers Modern War/Kingdom Age/Crime City, but I want more control to make it more fun. In those games, you don't have the option to select weapons or use items, and the "battling" screen is simply 3D eye candy. Since this will be an indie game, I won't be spending $$$ on a team of professional 3D artists/animators, so my edge needs to be different. How would you make a battle system like this more fun and engaging?

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• How to remove trailing slashes from URL with .htaccess?

  - by Matt

  The situation Across the entire domain, we'd like the URLs to hide file extensions and remove trailing slashes, independent of the domain name itself (as in, works on any domain). Sample of our directory structure We're not using index.* files except for the homepage. / /index.php /account.php /account /subscriptions.php /login.php /login /reset-password.php The goal Some examples of how these files might be requested, and how they should look in the browser: / and index.php -- mydomain.com (literally just the bare domain name). /account.php or /account/ or /account -- mydomain.com/account /account/subscriptions.php or /account/subscriptions/ or /account/subscriptions -- mydomain.com/account/subscriptions As you can see, there are several ways to access each webpage, but no matter which of the 2 or 3 ways you use to get there, it only shows the one preferred URL in the browser. The question How is this done with .htaccess using mod_rewrite? I've banged my head against the wall trying to figure this out, but in general, the rewrite flow would seem to be something like this: External 301 redirect ( mydomain.com/account/ -- mydomain.com/account ) Internally append .php ( mydomain.com/account -- mydomain.com/account.php ) I've been Googling this all day, read thousands of lines of documentation and config texts, and have tried several dozen times... I think more brains on this would help a lot. UPDATE We found an answer our question (see below).

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• Get Social At The Oracle Social Summit, November 14–15, 2012, Wynn Las Vegas

  - by Michael Hylton

  More and more power has shifted to the customer with the advent of social media networks—beyond the direct control of the brand. Customers today have so many resources available to them to share their experiences about brands, both positive and negative—it’s astounding and it can be difficult to sift through. Do you know what your customers are saying about your brand? Join top brand marketers, agency executives, and social development leaders for networking and sharing of best practices with industry peers at the Oracle Social Summit, November 14–15, 2012, at the Wynn in Las Vegas, NV. At the Summit you will learn how: Marketing Leaders are bringing key parts of their enterprise together with Social Relationship Management Social Content & Community Managers implement best practices and share tips-of-the-trade for managing a brand's social presence Social Agency & Marketing Developers stay ahead of new social technologies and development best practices Speakers include David Kirkpatrick, founder and CEO of Techonomy Media and author of The Facebook Effect; Reggie Bradford, Oracle Senior Vice President; Matt Dickman, EVP of Social Business Innovation, Weber Shandwick; Matt Thomson, VP of Business Development & Platform, Klout; Lyndsay Iorio, Social Media & Communications Manager, NBC Sports Group; Teresa Caro, VP Social Marketing, Engauge; and many more.  Click here to learn more and register for this exciting social event!

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• How do I get adobe flash working in Chrome or Chromium on Ringtail?

  - by Matt H

  I have recently upgraded to Ringtail and for some reason flash isn't working on either Chrome or Chromium. It works in firefox but I prefer Chrome as my browser so switching to firefox when a website containing flash appears is a bit annoying. According to just about every source, flash it built into Chrome and should just work even on Ubuntu. I tried removing chrome and reinstalling it, but the problem persists. I've checked about://plugins and flash is enabled. Yet when you visit http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/welcome/ What I see is "No plugin available to display this content". about://version shows Google Chrome 28.0.1500.52 (Official Build 207119) OS Linux Blink 537.36 (@152651) JavaScript V8 3.18.5.8 Flash 11.7.700.203 User Agent Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/28.0.1500.52 Safari/537.36 Command Line /opt/google/chrome/google-chrome --blacklist-accelerated-compositing --flag-switches-begin --enable-sync-favicons --sync-keystore-encryption --flag-switches-end Executable Path /opt/google/chrome/google-chrome How do I get flash working in Chrome or Chromium?

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• E160 ubuntu 12.04 can't detect the modem

  - by Matt

  i've got problem with e160 on ubuntu 12.04. I'cant configure network manager and connect because NM can't see the e160. I;ve tried lot of solutions with no result. ateusz@mateusz-Aspire-5738:~$ sudo usb_modeswitch -v 0x12d1 -p 0x1003 -H [sudo] password for mateusz: aLooking for default devices ... found matching product ID adding device Found device in default mode, class or configuration (1) Accessing device 002 on bus 001 ... Getting the current device configuration ... OK, got current device configuration (1) Using first interface: 0x00 Using endpoints 0x01 (out) and 0x82 (in) Not a storage device, skipping SCSI inquiry USB description data (for identification) ------------------------- Manufacturer: HUAWEI Technology Product: HUAWEI Mobile Serial No.: not provided ------------------------- Sending Huawei control message ... OK, Huawei control message sent - Run lsusb to note any changes. Bye. Dmesg [ 521.480062] usb 1-4: reset high-speed USB device number 4 using ehci_hcd [ 521.617792] option 1-4:1.1: GSM modem (1-port) converter detected [ 521.617945] usb 1-4: GSM modem (1-port) converter now attached to ttyUSB0 [ 521.618062] option 1-4:1.0: GSM modem (1-port) converter detected [ 521.618232] usb 1-4: GSM modem (1-port) converter now attached to ttyUSB1 [ 530.840276] option: option_instat_callback: error -108 [ 530.840455] option1 ttyUSB1: GSM modem (1-port) converter now disconnected from ttyUSB1 [ 530.840484] option 1-4:1.0: device disconnected [ 537.680378] option1 ttyUSB0: GSM modem (1-port) converter now disconnected from ttyUSB0 [ 537.680398] option 1-4:1.1: device disconnected [ 537.792088] usb 1-4: reset high-speed USB device number 4 using ehci_hcd [ 537.929549] option 1-4:1.1: GSM modem (1-port) converter detected [ 537.929702] usb 1-4: GSM modem (1-port) converter now attached to ttyUSB0 [ 537.929818] option 1-4:1.0: GSM modem (1-port) converter detected [ 537.929993] usb 1-4: GSM modem (1-port) converter now attached to ttyUSB1 [ 547.224294] option: option_instat_callback: error -108 [ 547.224470] option1 ttyUSB1: GSM modem (1-port) converter now disconnected from ttyUSB1 [ 547.224511] option 1-4:1.0: device disconnected [ 556.988066] tty_ldisc_hangup: waiting (usb-storage) for ttyUSB0 took too long, but we keep waiting... [ 558.990663] option1 ttyUSB0: GSM modem (1-port) converter now disconnected from ttyUSB0 [ 558.990698] option 1-4:1.1: device disconnected [ 559.100068] usb 1-4: reset high-speed USB device number 4 using ehci_hcd [ 559.241293] option 1-4:1.1: GSM modem (1-port) converter detected [ 559.241446] usb 1-4: GSM modem (1-port) converter now attached to ttyUSB0 [ 559.241565] option 1-4:1.0: GSM modem (1-port) converter detected [ 559.241739] usb 1-4: GSM modem (1-port) converter now attached to ttyUSB1 [ 568.728283] option: option_instat_callback: error -108 [ 568.728466] option1 ttyUSB1: GSM modem (1-port) converter now disconnected from ttyUSB1 [ 568.728496] option 1-4:1.0: device disconnected lsusb Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub Bus 006 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub Bus 007 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub Bus 008 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub Bus 002 Device 003: ID 064e:a103 Suyin Corp. Acer/HP Integrated Webcam [CN0314] Bus 005 Device 002: ID 09da:c20a A4 Tech Co., Ltd Bus 001 Device 002: ID 12d1:1003 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. E220 HSDPA Modem / E230/E270/E870 HSDPA/HSUPA Modem

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• College Courses through distance learning

  - by Matt

  I realize this isn't really a programming question, but didn't really know where to post this in the stackexchange and because I am a computer science major i thought id ask here. This is pretty unique to the programmer community since my degree is about 95% programming. I have 1 semester left, but i work full time. I would like to finish up in December, but to make things easier i like to take online classes whenever I can. So, my question is does anyone know of any colleges that offer distance learning courses for computer science? I have been searching around and found a few potential classes, but not sure yet. I would like to gather some classes and see what i can get approval for. Class I need: Only need one C SC 437 Geometric Algorithms C SC 445 Algorithms C SC 473 Automata Only need one C SC 452 Operating Systems C SC 453 Compilers/Systems Software While i only need of each of the above courses i still need to take two more electives. These also have to be upper 400 level classes. So i can take multiple in each category. Some other classes I can take are: CSC 447 - Green Computing CSC 425 - Computer Networking CSC 460 - Database Design CSC 466 - Computer Security I hoping to take one or two of these courses over the summer. If not, then online over the regular semester would be ok too. Any help in helping find these classes would be awesome. Maybe you went to a college that offered distance learning. Some of these classes may be considered to be graduate courses too. Descriptions are listed below if you need. Thanks! Descriptions Computer Security This is an introductory course covering the fundamentals of computer security. In particular, the course will cover basic concepts of computer security such as threat models and security policies, and will show how these concepts apply to specific areas such as communication security, software security, operating systems security, network security, web security, and hardware-based security. Computer Networking Theory and practice of computer networks, emphasizing the principles underlying the design of network software and the role of the communications system in distributed computing. Topics include routing, flow and congestion control, end-to-end protocols, and multicast. Database Design Functions of a database system. Data modeling and logical database design. Query languages and query optimization. Efficient data storage and access. Database access through standalone and web applications. Green Computing This course covers fundamental principles of energy management faced by designers of hardware, operating systems, and data centers. We will explore basic energy management option in individual components such as CPUs, network interfaces, hard drives, memory. We will further present the energy management policies at the operating system level that consider performance vs. energy saving tradeoffs. Finally we will consider large scale data centers where energy management is done at multiple layers from individual components in the system to shutting down entries subset of machines. We will also discuss energy generation and delivery and well as cooling issues in large data centers. Compilers/Systems Software Basic concepts of compilation and related systems software. Topics include lexical analysis, parsing, semantic analysis, code generation; assemblers, loaders, linkers; debuggers. Operating Systems Concepts of modern operating systems; concurrent processes; process synchronization and communication; resource allocation; kernels; deadlock; memory management; file systems. Algorithms Introduction to the design and analysis of algorithms: basic analysis techniques (asymptotics, sums, recurrences); basic design techniques (divide and conquer, dynamic programming, greedy, amortization); acquiring an algorithm repertoire (sorting, median finding, strong components, spanning trees, shortest paths, maximum flow, string matching); and handling intractability (approximation algorithms, branch and bound). Automata Introduction to models of computation (finite automata, pushdown automata, Turing machines), representations of languages (regular expressions, context-free grammars), and the basic hierarchy of languages (regular, context-free, decidable, and undecidable languages). Geometric Algorithms The study of algorithms for geometric objects, using a computational geometry approach, with an emphasis on applications for graphics, VLSI, GIS, robotics, and sensor networks. Topics may include the representation and overlaying of maps, finding nearest neighbors, solving linear programming problems, and searching geometric databases.

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• TFS 2010 PowerTools Released

  - by Matt deClercq

  The TFS 2010 Power Tools were released on the 23rd. Check out the link for download and info.   TFS 2010 PowerTools

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• 5 Ways Microsoft Can Improve the Windows 8 Start Screen

  - by Matt Klein

  After having used Windows 8 over the past few months, we’ve found a few ways Microsoft could immediately improve the Start Screen to make it less disorienting and more usable, not only for tablets but desktops and laptops as well. It’s safe to say that the one thing Windows 8 doesn’t lack is criticism. Since the Consumer Preview debuted in February, it has proven to be one of the most polarizing Windows releases ever. But regardless of whether you love or hate it, Windows 8 is where Microsoft’s venerable operating system is headed. Portable computing is here to stay and if the company is to survive, let alone remain relevant, it has to change, adapt, embrace, and extend. Perhaps the single most universally controversial change to Windows is Microsoft’s decision to remove the Start button (or orb, if you’ve moved beyond XP) and with it, what we know to be the Start Menu. In their place we now have a Start hot corner (a workable alternative) and the newly redesigned Metro Start Screen. The Start Screen is, if nothing else, different. Beyond a doubt, there has not been such a radical redesign of Windows’ Start functionality since it went to a two-column design with a nested “All Programs” menu in Windows XP. The Start Screen can be a little jarring because it requires users to not only relearn what they’ve known for nearly two decades but to also rethink the way they interact with Windows. However, the Start Screen maintains its core elements: a Start “menu”, a place for all installed programs (All apps), and a search pane. The Start Screen is attractive, clean, bold, and very imperfect. Here are five changes we’d like to see in the Start Screen before Windows 8 goes gold … How to Make Your Laptop Choose a Wired Connection Instead of Wireless HTG Explains: What Is Two-Factor Authentication and Should I Be Using It? HTG Explains: What Is Windows RT and What Does It Mean To Me?

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• Managing Eclipse projects in source control

  - by Matt Phillips

  I've been using eclipse for a long time to do development. One of the problems I've come across when working on other people's projects is if they come from source control, some of the eclipse project files "default.properties" and other xml config files are missing. Its usually a big pain in the butt to get the project running in eclipse. I understand the reasoning to not have certain files tracked because they may be full of specific stuff to a certain eclipse install. How do all of you manage that?

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• Alternative ways to make a battle system in a mobile indie game more fun and engaging

  - by Matt Beckman

  I'm developing an indie game for mobile platforms, and part of the game involves a PvP battle system (where the target player is passive). My vision is simple: the active player can select a weapon/item, then attack/use, and display the calculated outcome. I have a concept for battle modifiers that affect stats to make it more interesting, but I'm not convinced this by itself will add enough of a fun factor. I've received some inspiration from the game engine that powers Modern War/Kingdom Age/Crime City, but I want more control to make it more fun. In those games, you don't have the option to select weapons or use items, and the "battling" screen is simply 3D eye candy. Since this will be an indie game, I won't be spending $$$ on a team of professional 3D artists/animators, so my edge needs to be different. What are some alternatives to expensive eye candy that you or others have used to make a non-3D PvP game more fun and engaging? Did the alternative concepts survive the release?

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• Ashamed to admit using jQuery?

  - by Matt Stevens

  Something I've noticed over the past few weeks is how many big commercial websites use jQuery combined with lots of plugins - but don't admit it. They will rename the main library to something obscure, as well as the plugins. Quite a few will even remove the comments that contain the MIT/GPL license information. (just noticed today that odeon.co.uk have done exactly this) Why are they doing this? are they abashed by the face that they are using a free and open source library?

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• Getting developers and support to work together

  - by Matt Watson

  Agile development has ushered in the norm of rapid iterations and change within products. One of the biggest challenges for agile development is educating the rest of the company. At my last company our biggest challenge was trying to continually train 100 employees in our customer support and training departments. It's easy to write release notes and email them to everyone. But for complex software products, release notes are not usually enough detail. You really have to educate your employees on the WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHY, WHEN of every item. If you don't do this, you end up with customer service people who know less about your product than your users do. Ever call a company and feel like you know more about their product than their customer service people do? Yeah. I'm talking about that problem.WHO does the change effect?WHAT was the actual change?WHERE do I find the change in the product?WHY was the change made? (It's hard to support something if you don't know why it was done.)WHEN will the change be released?One thing I want to stress is the importance of the WHY something was done. For customer support people to be really good at their job, they need to understand the product and how people use it. Knowing how to enable a feature is one thing. Knowing why someone would want to enable it, is a whole different thing and the difference in good customer service. Another challenge is getting support people to better test and document potential bugs before escalating them to development. Trying to fix bugs without examples is always fun... NOT. They might as well say "The sky is falling, please fix it!"We need to over train the support staff about product changes and continually stress how they document and test potential product bugs. You also have to train the sales staff and the marketing team. Then there is updating sales materials, your website, product documentation and other items there are always out of date. Every product release causes this vicious circle of trying to educate the rest of the company about the changes.Do we need to record a simple video explaining the changes and email it to everyone? Maybe we should  use a simple online training type app to help with this problem. Ultimately the struggle is taking the time to do the training, but it is time well spent. It may save you a lot of time answering questions and fixing bugs later. How do we efficiently transfer key product knowledge from developers and product owners to the rest of the company? How have you solved these issues at your company?

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• "Oracle Certified Expert, Java Platform, Enterprise Edition 6 Java Persistence API Developer" Preparation

  - by Matt

  I have been working with Hibernate for a fews years now, and I want to solidify and demonstrate my knowledge by taking the Oracle JPA certification, also known as: "Oracle Certified Expert, Java Platform, Enterprise Edition 6 Java Persistence API Developer (CX-310-094)" There is a training course provided by Oracle: "Building Database Driven Applications with JPA (SL-370-EE6)" But this costs $1800 and I think it would be overkill for my needs. Ideally, I would like a self study guide that will cover everything in the exam. I have looked for books and these seem like possibilities: Pro JPA 2: Mastering the Java Persistence API (Expert's Voice in Java Technology) and Beginning Java EE 6 with GlassFish 3 2nd Edition (Expert's Voice in Java Technology) But these aren't checklist type study guides as far as I am aware. I found the official SCJP study guide very useful, but I think the equivalent text for the JPA exam isn't out yet. If anyone has taken this exam, I would be grateful to hear how you prepared for it. Thanks!

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• Should we be able to deploy a single package to the SSIS Catalog?

  - by jamiet

  My buddy Sutha Thiru sent me an email recently asking about my opinion on a particular nuance of the project deployment model in SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) 2012 and I’d like to share my response as I think it warrants a wider discussion. Sutha asked: Jamie What is your take on this? http://www.mattmasson.com/index.php/2012/07/can-i-deploy-a-single-ssis-package-from-my-project-to-the-ssis-catalog/ Overnight I was talking to Matt who confirmed that they got no plans to change the deployment model. For example if we have following scenrio how do we do deploy? Sprint 1 Pkg1, 2 & 3 has been developed and deployed to UAT. Once signed off its been deployed to Live. Sprint 2 Pkg 4 & 5 been developed. During this time users raised a bug on Pkg2. We want to make the change to Pkg2 and deploy that to UAT and eventually to LIVE without releasing Pkg 4 &5. How do we do it? Matt pointed me to his blog entry which I have seen before . http://www.mattmasson.com/index.php/2012/02/thoughts-on-branching-strategies-for-ssis-projects/ Thanks Sutha My response: Personally, even though I've experienced the exact problem you just outlined, I agree with the current approach. I steadfastly believe that there should not be a way for an unscrupulous developer to slide in a new version of a package under the covers. Deploying .ispac files brings a degree of rigour to your operational processes. Yes, that means that we as SSIS developers are going to have to get better at using source control and branching properly but that is no bad thing in my opinion. Claiming to be proper "developers" is a bit of a cheap claim if we don't even do the fundamentals correctly. I would be interested in the thoughts of others who have used the project deployment model. Do you agree with my point of view? @Jamiet

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