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• BizTalk HL7 Receive Pipeline Exception

  - by Paul Petrov

  If you experience sequence of errors below with BizTalk HL7 MLLP receive ports you may need to request a hotfix from Microsoft. Knowledge base article number is 2454887 but it’s still not available on the KB site. The hotfix is recently released and you may need to open support ticket to get to it. It requires three other hotfixes installed: ·         970492 (DASM 3.7.502.2) ·         973909 (additional ACK codes) ·         981442 (Microsoft.solutions.btahl7.mllp.dll 3.7.509.2) If the exceptions below repeatedly appear in the event log you most likely would be helped by the hotfix: Fatal error encountered in 2XDasm. Exception information is Cannot access a disposed object. Object name: 'CEventingReadStream'. There was a failure executing the receive pipeline: "BTAHL72XPipelines.BTAHL72XReceivePipeline, BTAHL72XPipelines, Version=1.3.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35" Source: "BTAHL7 2.X Disassembler" Receive Port: "ReceivePortName" URI: "IPAddress:portNumber" Reason: Cannot access a disposed object. Object name: 'CEventingReadStream'. The Messaging Engine received an error from transport adapter "MLLP" when notifying the adapter with the BatchComplete event. Reason "Object reference not set to an instance of an object." We’ve been through a lot of troubleshooting with Microsoft Product Support and they did a great job finding an issue and releasing a fix.

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• Releasing an open source project without getting embarrassed

  - by Hopeful

  I've been working by myself on a fairly large open source project for quite a while and it's nearing the point where I'd like to release it. However, I'm self-taught and I don't really know anyone who could adequately review my project. A few years ago, I had released a small bit of code which pretty much got ripped apart (in a critical sense) on the forum where I released it. Even though the code worked, the criticism was accurate but brutal. It prompted me to begin searching for best practices for everything and in the end I feel that it made me a much better developer. I've gone over everything in my project so many times trying to make it perfect that I've lost count. I believe in my project and think it has the potential to help a lot of people and I feel like I've done some cool things in interesting ways with it. Still, because I'm self-taught, I can't help but wonder what gaps exist in my self-education. The way my code was ripped apart last time isn't something I'd like to repeat. I think my two biggest fears with releasing my project that I've poured countless hours into are being absolutely embarrassed because I missed some patently obvious things because of my self-education or, worse, releasing it to the sound of crickets. Is there anyone who has been in a similar situation? I'm not afraid of constructive criticism, so long as it is constructive and not just a rant on how I screwed up. I know there is a code review site on StackExchange, but it's not really set up for large projects and I didn't feel like the community there is large enough yet to get good feedback if I were to post parts of my project piecemeal (I tried with one file). What can I do to give my project at least some measure of success without getting embarrassed or devestated in the process?

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• .NET access to the GPU for compute purposes

  - by Daniel Moth

  In the distant past I talked about GPGPU and Microsoft's then approach of DirectCompute. Since then of course we now have C++ AMP coming out with Visual Studio 11, so there is a mainstream easier way for developers to access the GPU for compute purposes, using C++. The question occasionally arises of how can a .NET developer access the GPU for compute purposes from their C# (or VB) code. The answer is by interoping from the managed code to a native DLL and in the native DLL use C++ AMP. As a long term .NET developer myself, I can tell you this is straightforward. Sure, there could have been a managed wrapper for C++ AMP, but honestly that is the reason we have interop – it doesn't make much sense to invest resources to solve a problem that is already solved (most developer customers would prefer investments in other areas of Visual Studio!). Besides, interoping from C# to C++ is much easier than interoping to some of the other older approaches of GPGPU programming ;-) To help you get started with the interop approach, Igor Ostrovsky has previously shared the "Hello World" version of interoping from C# to C++ AMP in his blog post: How to use C++ AMP from C# …we then were asked specifically about how to interop from C# to C++ AMP in a Metro style application on Windows 8, so Igor delivered again with this post: How to use C++ AMP from C# using WinRT Have fun! Comments about this post by Daniel Moth welcome at the original blog.

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• Oracle PartnerNetwork Syndicated Oracle Showcase Got a Facelift!

  - by Meghan Fritz-Oracle

  Have you seen the recently redesigned OPN Syndicated Oracle Showcase? Our new look makes it even easier to provide your customers with timely, compelling, rich web content that reinforces your expertise and the power of Oracle solutions. OPN continues to provide our Gold level and above partners this content syndication service – available at no additional charge. So, if you aren’t taking advantage of this service – what are you waiting for?Register today to get started and start enjoying these benefits: Dynamic up-to-date Oracle content featuring Applications; Database;Engineered Systems; Middleware; Servers & Storage; Optimized Solutions; and Cloud; Easy Installation – requires just a few lines of code; Seamless integration with existing website styles; Gated assets for lead generation capabilities; Statistics and metrics available to measure effectiveness; Tools and resources available to drive traffic + search engine optimization. Don’t just take our word for it! Check out the redesign for yourself! Questions?If you have questions about our redesign, or if you'd like help customizing the available solution pages, listen to the webinar replay that discusses these items in length.If you’re currently syndicating and you'd like to customize the available solution pages of your Showcase, simply log in to your OPN Syndicated Oracle Showcase Partner Console. If you'd like one-on-one assistance or technical support, don’t hesitate to contact us.Attending Oracle OpenWorld this year?The Oracle Showcase is powered by SharedVue. Stop by the OPN Lounge – a part of OPN Central @ OpenWorld – and meet with our SharedVue representative to learn more about this exciting syndication service.Can’t wait to see you shine brighter!The OPN Communications team

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• sending php mail from localhost

  - by SimplySimon

  I have installed php, mySQL, postfix and sendmail and have set up a simple email script on my local host server. mail() returns 1 (TRUE) when I send an e-mail, however the email does not arrive at the destination. Installation The mail functions are part of the PHP core. There is no installation needed to use these functions. Requirements For the mail functions to be available, PHP requires an installed and working email system. The program to be used is defined by the configuration settings in the php.ini file. Runtime Configuration The behavior of the mail functions is affected by settings in the php.ini file. Mail configuration options: Name Default Description Changeable sendmail_path NULL Unix systems only: Specifies where the sendmail program can be found (usually /usr/sbin/sendmail or /usr/lib/sendmail) PHP_INI_SYSTEM I found it at /usr/lib/sendmail however, I can not find the configuration file, which is where I assume my problem is, as I have not told anything which server I am using to send my mail through. If anyone can help me I would be grateful.

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• How common is it to submit papers to journals or conferences outside of academia?

  - by Furry

  I worked in academia a few years, but more on the D-side of R&D. The race for papers never appealed to me and I'm a practical not theoretical type, but I do like reading papers on certain topics (e.g. Google Papers, NLP, FB papers, ...) a lot. How common is it that normally working developers submit papers to conferences or even journals? It seems to be somewhat common in certain companies (it's not common or encouraged in mine). Do journals or conferences even take papers by an academic nobody (BSc) under consideration? I ask, because I have a few rough ideas and I would just like to bring them into form, one way or the other. Bonus question: Is there a list of CS (in the widest sense) conferences/journals with short descriptions? PS (Four out of five researchers I met published quite some fluffy stuff for my taste. I am no expert, but those people told me sometimes themselves, that the implementation does not matter, just the idea and the presentation. I always wondered about that. I probably could write about ideas all day long (not instantly but with a bit of preparation), but the implementation and the practical part is the really hard part, that academia just does not like to be concerned with. Also many papers actually scream: I was written so the publication list of my author gets longer - which is a waste of time for everyone, and often a waste of tax money, too. When I think of CS-ish papers, I think of running implementations or actual data, like e.g. Google's Map Reduce, Serving Large-scale Batch Computed Data with Project Voldemort or the like.)

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• Am I missing a pattern?

  - by Ryan Pedersen

  I have a class that is a singleton and off of the singleton are properties that hold the instances of all the performance counters in my application. public interface IPerformanceCounters { IPerformanceCounter AccountServiceCallRate { get; } IPerformanceCounter AccountServiceCallDuration { get; } Above is an incomplete snippet of the interface for the class "PerformanceCounters" that is the singleton. I really don't like the plural part of the name and thought about changing it to "PerformanceCounterCollection" but stopped because it really isn't a collection. I also thought about "PerformanceCounterFactory" but it is really a factory either. After failing with these two names and a couple more that aren't worth mentioning I thought that I might be missing a pattern. Is there a name that make sense or a change that I could make towards a standardized pattern that would help me put some polish on this object and get rid of the plural name? I understand that I might be splitting hairs here but that is why I thought that the "Programmers" exchange was the place for this kind of thing. If it is not... I am sorry and I will not make that mistake again. Thanks!

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• Is there a modified LGPL license that allows static linking?

  - by Petr Pudlák

  úLGPL requires that it if a program uses LGPL-ed library, users must be able to re-link the program with a different version of the library: ... d) Do one of the following: 0) Convey the Minimal Corresponding Source under the terms of this License, and the Corresponding Application Code in a form suitable for, and under terms that permit, the user to recombine or relink the Application with a modified version of the Linked Version to produce a modified Combined Work, in the manner specified by section 6 of the GNU GPL for conveying Corresponding Source. 1) Use a suitable shared library mechanism for linking with the Library. A suitable mechanism is one that (a) uses at run time a copy of the Library already present on the user's computer system, and (b) will operate properly with a modified version of the Library that is interface-compatible with the Linked Version. ... However in some cases, this can pose considerable difficulties. In particular, Haskell programs are almost always statically compiled. Moreover, the compiler does cross-module optimizations so it's very hard to satisfy this condition. (See this link at Haskell Wiki.) Therefore, I'm looking for a standard LGPL-like license that wouldn't require the possibility of re-linking. Some projects use their own modification of LGPL, for example wxWidgets. But I'd rather use some standard license that is somewhat more official, perhaps checked by some law experts, and (L)GPL compatible. Is there some like that? (Also I'd be interested to know if are there some unforeseen consequences of such a modification of LGPL.)

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• Is C and Python enough?

  - by gruszczy

  I am very proficient in Python (including Django), which I use for most tasks. I am also quite confident with C; I am maintaining small file system in userspace written in C. Yet when I am browsing job offers I see everywhere Java/C# and sometimes C++. I have coded profesionally in C++ for half a year in a gaming company, but I don't consider myself a pro. Also I simply despise Java and C#, which I would prefer not to touch ever. But it seems to me, that I am at very unfavorable position, when it comes to career. I am browsing careers.stackoverflow.com and I don't see and pure python or C offers. I would like to find a new job abroad in about 6 months. If I find some python offer, it means doing web development (not my favorite job). Does it mean, that I have to quickly start improving my C++ skills, if I wish to find a satisfying job? What would you suggest me? EDIT Learning new technologies is not an issue. Company I am working in is an integrator. Basically every new project requires learning new technologies, sometimes custom made. During last two years I was writing SQLs by hand, using LDAP, writing GUI in Qt, working on large scale DBMS prototype, making our internal help desk system use gsm modem or writing own report system. In previous job I had to learn from basics everything what I could about games development, because I knew nothing and chose this job only because of the challene it posed. I am all about embracing new technologies. I have used Java in the past and simply didn't like it. It's dull and boring. Doesn't let me do anything cool. I have recently seen some C# in action and seems similar. I don't like it. It's like German. I don't like speaking German.

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• Looking for a comfortable Laptop Cooling Pad? Repurpose a pillow as a Laptop Cooling Pad

  - by Gopinath

  Update: This idea sucks as using a pillow blocks laptop cooling fans and air flow, which in turn would damage the laptop. Thanks Vijay I’ve a HP Pavilion laptop which turns hot quickly and most of the time I would not be able to keep it on my lap after 30 minutes of usage. It’s the same case with my DELL laptop and not to blame any specific brand or model. Most of the budget laptops generate lot of heat and tough to keep them on laps for a long time. They burn skin and the irritation sense leaves me with no option other than throwing them away. While searching for options to beat the heat I found Laptop Cooling Pads on Amazon.They attach to the base of laptops and act like a heat shield/sink to protect thighs from the heat generated by laptops. They are available from around $7 and goes up to $100 depending on the features they offer. After reading reviews I selected a trendy looking and comfortable laptop cooling pad and it was around $25 before shipping and taxes. I’m going to buy one of the cooling pads from Amazon. On a second thought I started searching for options to repurpose any of the house hold items as a laptop cooling pad and save money. The option suggested by wife is to repurpose an old pillow as a laptop cooling pad.  Here is my laptop cooling pad Wow! That is a nice suggestion which saved my thighs from laptop heat as well my wallet from spending $25. Even if I’ve to buy a new pillow I would be able to pickup cheap one from Wal-Mart store for as low as $2.  Also I find it is very comfortable to use a pillow as a Laptop Cooling Pad as they are flexible and automatically adjust to the shape of my body.

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• Warnings When Undo Isn't Possible

  - by ultan o'broin

  Enjoyed this post Never Use a Warning When you Mean Undo by Aza Raskin. It makes sense never to warn users if an undo option is possible. The examples given are from the web space. Here's the conclusion: Warnings cause us to lose our work, to mistrust our computers, and to blame ourselves. A simple but foolproof design methodology solves the problem: "Never use a warning when you mean undo." And when a user is deleting their work, you always mean undo. However, in enterprise apps you may find that an undo option isn't technically possible or desirable. Objects may be shared, part of a flow elsewhere, or undoing something committed to the database (a rollback I guess) may not be feasible if it becomes locked by another process. Plus, what constitutes user ownership of objects isn't always clear to users. The implications of delete (and other) actions need to be clearly communicated out in advance. Really, warnings are important in the enterprise space. Data has a very high value, and users can perform a wide variety of actions that may risk that data, not always within the application itself (at browser level, for example). That said, throwing warnings all over the place when an undo option is possible is annoying. Instead, treat warnings with respect. When there is no undo option possible, use warning messages to communicate potentially dangerous or irrecoverable actions or the downstream consequences of user actions on the process or task flow. Force the user to respond to a warning message by using a modal dialog with clearly labeled action buttons. Here's a couple of examples. A great article that got me thinking. Let's see more like that. Let's not forget there's more types of messages than just error messages. User assistance and user experience professionals need to understand when best to use confirmation, information, and warning types too!

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• Finding the right back-end developer

  - by John Watson

  I am creating a websites for mobile phone tests. Users can post their own tests and combine it with an existing rating of each product. I do only front-end development and I have no idea about back-end - php, sql, etc. I am not sure I should operate the website without this knowledge but my first thought is to get a professional whom I would give my website to, so that he can do the rest. Only thing is that I need to update it regularly and post my own tests. I don't know how that works and how I should approach this. My understanding is that, after I have finished the website (written in HTML, CSS, JavaScript/jQuery), I would go and find a php programmer and tell me to put it online, make it secure, make sure that the open-source facility (users post their own tests) and that it runs smoothly with the host/server I've chosen. Could you tell me if my approach makes sense (is that the way how to do it)? What should I consider when searching the right back-end developer concerning the right price performance, trust, etc. ?

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• Are More Comments Better in High-Turnover Environments?

  - by joshin4colours

  I was talking with a colleague today. We work on code for two different projects. In my case, I'm the only person working on my code; in her case, multiple people work on the same codebase, including co-op students who come and go fairly regularly (between every 8-12 months). She said that she is liberal with her comments, putting them all over the place. Her reasoning is that it helps her remember where things are and what things do since much of the code wasn't written by her and could be changed by someone other than her. Meanwhile, I try to minimize the comments in my code, putting them in only in places with a unobvious workaround or bug. However, I have a better understanding of my code overall, and have more direct control over it. My opinion in that comments should be minimal and the code should tell most of the story, but her reasoning makes sense too. Are there any flaws in her reasoning? It may clutter the code but it ultimately could be quite helpful if there are many people working on it in the short- to medium-run.

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• What is a good basic/flexible cms for a small website? [closed]

  - by Samuel

  Possible Duplicate: Which Content Management System (CMS) should I use? I'm designing a very basic portfolio website for an artist. It features a blog, portfolio, cv and contact page. I've handcoded the basics of this site in php/java, as it is a very small website (and I like coding by hand). But I need a simple cms backend for the dynamic parts of the website (the blog/portfolio). The big systems (ruby, joomla, wordpress) are far too invasive for my liking (and frankly a bit beyond my capabilities). Wordpress for example, requires too much adaptation of the design to the wordpress structure, and ruby is far too extensive for a simple site like this (in my opinion). So what I'm looking for is a (preferably open source) cms that has a simple backend for the artist to use as a blogger, with a mysql database for the content, that will allow me to insert content with simple tags (using smarty tags for example), but is otherwise not too invasive or demanding in terms of the required page structure. Does anyone know of a good cms that fits this description? p.s.: I have tried phpnews and cmsmadesimple, but phpnews was a litte too basic (but very close too what I'm looking for) and cmsmadesimple was way too slow (but otherwise also pretty close too what I wanted, though a bit too extensive).

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• Unit testing ASP.NET Web API controllers that rely on the UrlHelper

  - by cibrax

  UrlHelper is the class you can use in ASP.NET Web API to automatically infer links from the routing table without hardcoding anything. For example, the following code uses the helper to infer the location url for a new resource,public HttpResponseMessage Post(User model) { var response = Request.CreateResponse(HttpStatusCode.Created, user); var link = Url.Link("DefaultApi", new { id = id, controller = "Users" }); response.Headers.Location = new Uri(link); return response; } That code uses a previously defined route “DefaultApi”, which you might configure in the HttpConfiguration object (This is the route generated by default when you create a new Web API project). The problem with UrlHelper is that it requires from some initialization code before you can invoking it from a unit test (for testing the Post method in this example). If you don’t initialize the HttpConfiguration and Request instances associated to the controller from the unit test, it will fail miserably. After digging into the ASP.NET Web API source code a little bit, I could figure out what the requirements for using the UrlHelper are. It relies on the routing table configuration, and a few properties you need to add to the HttpRequestMessage. The following code illustrates what’s needed,var controller = new UserController(); controller.Configuration = new HttpConfiguration(); var route = controller.Configuration.Routes.MapHttpRoute( name: "DefaultApi", routeTemplate: "api/{controller}/{id}", defaults: new { id = RouteParameter.Optional } ); var routeData = new HttpRouteData(route, new HttpRouteValueDictionary { { "id", "1" }, { "controller", "Users" } } ); controller.Request = new HttpRequestMessage(HttpMethod.Post, "http://localhost:9091/"); controller.Request.Properties.Add(HttpPropertyKeys.HttpConfigurationKey, controller.Configuration); controller.Request.Properties.Add(HttpPropertyKeys.HttpRouteDataKey, routeData);  The HttpRouteData instance should be initialized with the route values you will use in the controller method (“id” and “controller” in this example). Once you have correctly setup all those properties, you shouldn’t have any problem to use the UrlHelper. There is no need to mock anything else. Enjoy!!.

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• The Workshop Technique Handbook

  - by llowitz

  The #OUM method pack contains a plethora of information, but if you browse through the activities and tasks contained in OUM, you will see very few references to workshops.  Consequently, I am often asked whether OUM supports a workshop-type approach.  In general, OUM does not prescribe the manner in which tasks should be conducted, as many factors such as culture, availability of resources, potential travel cost of attendees, can influence whether a workshop is appropriate in a given situation.  Although workshops are not typically called out in OUM, OUM encourages the project manager to group the OUM tasks in a way that makes sense for the project. OUM considers a workshop to be a technique that can be applied to any OUM task or group of tasks.  If a workshop is conducted, it is important to identify the OUM tasks that are executed during the workshop.  For example, a “Requirements Gathering Workshop” is quite likely to Gathering Business Requirements, Gathering Solution Requirements and perhaps Specifying Key Structure Definitions. Not only is a workshop approach to conducting the OUM tasks perfectly acceptable, OUM provides in-depth guidance on how to maximize the value of your workshops.  I strongly encourage you to read the “Workshop Techniques Handbook” included in the OUM Manage Focus Area under Method Resources. The Workshop Techniques Handbook provides valuable information on a variety of workshop approaches and discusses the circumstances in which each type of workshop is most affective.  Furthermore, it provides detailed information on how to structure a workshops and tips on facilitating the workshop. You will find guidance on some popular workshop techniques such as brainstorming, setting objectives, prioritizing and other more specialized techniques such as Value Chain Analysis, SWOT analysis, the Delphi Technique and much more. Workshops can and should be applied to any type of OUM project, whether that project falls within the Envision, Manage or Implementation focus areas.  If you typically employ workshops to gather information, walk through a business process, develop a roadmap or validate your understanding with the client, by all means continue utilizing them to conduct the OUM tasks during your project, but first take the time to review the Workshop Techniques Handbook to refresh your knowledge and hone your skills. 

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• Accessing host LVM partition from Windows XP through Virt.manager 0.8.5 / Qemu / KVM

  - by Nico de Smidt

  Hi, requested use case is having a Windows XP SP3 guest running in 64bit Ubuntu. (Linux pcs 2.6.35-22-server #35-Ubuntu SMP Sat Oct 16 22:02:33 UTC 2010 x86_64 GNU/Linux) I want this guest to access an LVM LV on the Ubuntu disk. I've setup the following LVM config: --- Logical volume --- LV Name /dev/storage/sdc1 VG Name storage LV UUID Zg5IMC-OlqB-prL5-fgg4-3A9A-OgKP-oZ0QkJ LV Write Access read/write LV Status available # open 0 LV Size 1.01 GiB Current LE 259 Segments 1 Allocation inherit Read ahead sectors auto - currently set to 256 Block device 251:3 -- 1) I've setup a storage pool for /dev/storage 2) I've mkfs.vfat /dev/storage/sdc1 3) and made a virtual IDE disk in the virt-manager setup for the guest. Target device: IDE Disk 2 Source path: /dev/storage/sdc1 -- Now when running XP (guest) Windows sees a new disk in Disk Manager and want's to install a partition on it, since it believes the drive is empty. After formatting from within Windows I can put data on the new disk volume. -- Back in Ubuntu however I cannot access this this any more since it created a partition within an LVM Logical Volume. Running fdisk -l shows the following: root@pcs:/media# fdisk -l /dev/storage/sdc1 Disk /dev/storage/sdc1: 1086 MB, 1086324736 bytes 32 heads, 63 sectors/track, 1052 cylinders Units = cylinders of 2016 * 512 = 1032192 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes Disk identifier: 0x8d72e4f4 Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/storage/sdc1p1 1 1050 1058368+ c W95 FAT32 (LBA) -- which seems fine to me, but when trying to mount /dev/storage/sdc1p1 I get the following error: mount /dev/storage/sdc1p1 /media/xp mount: special device /dev/storage/sdc1p1 does not exist which makes sense since in lvdisplay sdc1p1 does not exist Main question: I want to mount the vfat partition in both Ubuntu and XP What am I missing here????? regards, and thanks for your consideration. Nico

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• How do I express subtle relationships in my data?

  - by Chuck H

  "A" is related to "B" and "C". How do I show that "B" and "C" might, by this context, be related as well? Example: Here are a few headlines about a recent Broadway play: 1 - David Mamet's Glengarry Glen Ross, Starring Al Pacino, Opens on Broadway 2 - Al Pacino in 'Glengarry Glen Ross': What did the critics think? 3 - Al Pacino earns lackluster reviews for Broadway turn 4 - Theater Review: Glengarry Glen Ross Is Selling Its Stars Hard 5 - Glengarry Glen Ross; Hey, Who Killed the Klieg Lights? Problem: Running a fuzzy-string match over these records will establish some relationships, but not others, even though a human reader could pick them out from context in much larger datasets. How do I find the relationship that suggests #3 is related to #4? Both of them can be easily connected to #1, but not to each other. Is there a (Googlable) name for this kind of data or structure? What kind of algorithm am I looking for? Goal: Given 1,000 headlines, a system that automatically suggests that these 5 items are all probably about the same thing. To be honest, it's been so long since I've programmed I'm at a loss how to properly articulate this problem. (I don't know what I don't know, if that makes sense). This is a personal project and I'm writing it in Python. Thanks in advance for any help, advice, and pointers!

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• Learning to code first game, few questions on basic game development and 3D

  - by ProgrammerByDay

  I've been programming for a while, and I'm concurrently learning how to make a basic game and slimdx, and wanted to talk to someone to hopefully get a few pointers. I've read that Tetris is the "Hello, world" of game programming, which made sense to me, so I decided to give it a shot. I've been able to code up a basic version in a few hours, which I'm quite happy with, but I had a few questions about 3D programming. Right now I'm using Direct3D to do display the blocks without any textures (just colored squares). I have a data structure (2d array of bytes, where each byte denotes the presence of a block and its color) which is the "game board," and on every render() call I create a new vertex buffer of the existing squares in the game board, and draw those primitives. This feels very inefficient, and I wondering what would be the idiomatic way of doing this in a 3D world, with matrix/rotations/translation operations. I know 3D is overkill for such a project, but I want to learn any 3d concepts that I can while I'm doing it. I understand that what you'd usually want to do is keep the same vertices/vertex buffers but manipulate them with matrices to achieve rotations/translations, etc. To do so, I assume what would happen is I'd have one vertex buffer for the "active" piece, since that'll be constantly rotated and moved, and have one vertex buffer for the frozen pieces on the bottom of the board, which is pretty much stationary, but will need to be changed/recreated when the active piece becomes frozen. Right now I'm just clearing and redrawing on every render call, which seems like the easiest way to do things, although I wonder if there's a more efficient way to deal with changes. Obviously there are a lot of questions I'm asking here, but if you can even just point me a step or two ahead in terms of how I should be thinking, it'd be great. Thanks

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• Should we write detailed architecture design or just an outline when designing a program?

  - by EpsilonVector

  When I'm doing design for a task, I keep fighting this nagging feeling that aside from being a general outline it's going to be more or less ignored in the end. I'll give you an example: I was writing a frontend for a device that has read/write operations. It made perfect sense in the class diagram to give it a read and a write function. Yet when it came down to actually writing them I realized they were literally the same function with just one line of code changed (read vs write function call), so to avoid code duplication I ended up implementing a do_io function with a parameter that distinguishes between operations. Goodbye original design. This is not a terribly disruptive change, but it happens often and can happen in more critical parts of the program as well, so I can't help but wondering if there's a point to design more detail than a general outline, at least when it comes to the program's architecture (obviously when you are specifying an API you have to spell everything out). This might be just the result of my inexperience in doing design, but on the other hand we have agile methodologies which sort of say "we give up on planning far ahead, everything is going to change in a few days anyway", which is often how I feel. So, how exactly should I "use" design?

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• How do graphics programmers deal with rendering vertices that don't change the image?

  - by canisrufus

  So, the title is a little awkward. I'll give some background, and then ask my question. Background: I work as a web GIS application developer, but in my spare time I've been playing with map rendering and improving data interchange formats. I work only in 2D space. One interesting issue I've encountered is that when you're rendering a polygon at a small scale (zoomed way out), many of the vertices are redundant. An extreme case would be that you have a polygon with 500,000 vertices that only takes up a single pixel. If you're sending this data to the browser, it would make sense to omit ~499,999 of those vertices. One way we achieve that is by rendering an image on a server and and sending it as a PNG: voila, it's a point. Sometimes, though, we want data sent to the browser where it can be rendered with SVG (or canvas, or webgl) so that it can be interactive. The problem: It turns out that, using modern geographic data sets, it's very easy to overload SVG's rendering abilities. In an effort to cope with those limitations, I'm trying to figure out how to visually losslessly reduce a data set for a given scale and map extent (and, if necessary, for a known map pixel width and height). I got a great reduction in data size just using the Douglas-Peucker algorithm, and I believe I was able to get it to keep the polygons true to within one pixel. Unfortunately, Douglas-Peucker doesn't preserve topology, so it changed how borders between polygons got rendered. I couldn't readily find other algorithms to try out and adapt to the purpose, but I don't have much CS/algorithm background and might not recognize them if I saw them.

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• Using XML as data storage

  - by Kian Mayne

  I was thinking about the XML format and the following quote: “XML is not a database. It was never meant to be a database. It is never going to be a database. Relational databases are proven technology with more than 20 years of implementation experience. They are solid, stable, useful products. They are not going away. XML is a very useful technology for moving data between different databases or between databases and other programs. However, it is not itself a database. Don't use it like one.“ -Effective XML: 50 Specific Ways to Improve Your XML by Elliotte Rusty Harold (page 230, Part 4, Item 41, 2nd paragraph) This seems to really stress that XML should not be used for data storage and should only be used for program to program interoperability. Personally, I disagree and .NET's app.config file that's used to store a program's settings is an example of data storage in an XML file. However for databases rather than configurations etc XML should not be used. To develop my point, I will use two examples: A) Data about customers with fields that are all on one level i.e. there are a number of fields all relating to one customer with no children B) Data about configuration of an application where nested fields and properties make a lot of sense So my question is, Is this still a valid statement and is it now acceptable to store data using XML? EDIT: I've sent an email to the author of that quote to ask for his input/extra context.

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• Should one always know what an API is doing just by looking at the code?

  - by markmnl

  Recently I have been developing my own API and with that invested interest in API design I have been keenly interested how I can improve my API design. One aspect that has come up a couple times is (not by users of my API but in my observing discussion about the topic): one should know just by looking at the code calling the API what it is doing. For example see this discussion on GitHub for the discourse repo, it goes something like: foo.update_pinned(true, true); Just by looking at the code (without knowing the parameter names, documentation etc.) one cannot guess what it is going to do - what does the 2nd argument mean? The suggested improvement is to have something like: foo.pin() foo.unpin() foo.pin_globally() And that clears things up (the 2nd arg was whether to pin foo globally, I am guessing), and I agree in this case the later would certainly be an improvement. However I believe there can be instances where methods to set different but logically related state would be better exposed as one method call rather than separate ones, even though you would not know what it is doing just by looking at the code. (So you would have to resort to looking at the parameter names and documentation to find out - which personally I would always do no matter what if I am unfamiliar with an API). For example I expose one method SetVisibility(bool, string, bool) on a FalconPeer and I acknowledge just looking at the line: falconPeer.SetVisibility(true, "aerw3", true); You would have no idea what it is doing. It is setting 3 different values that control the "visibility" of the falconPeer in the logical sense: accept join requests, only with password and reply to discovery requests. Splitting this out into 3 method calls could lead to a user of the API to set one aspect of "visibility" forgetting to set others that I force them to think about by only exposing the one method to set all aspects of "visibility". Furthermore when the user wants to change one aspect they almost always will want to change another aspect and can now do so in one call.

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• apt-get does not work with proxy

  - by tommyk

  For a command sudo apt-get update I get following error W: Failed to fetch http://ch.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/maverick-updates/multiverse/binary-i386/Packages.gz 407 Proxy Authentication Required ( The ISA Server requires authorization to fulfill the request. Access to the Web Proxy filter is denied. ) I am running Ubuntu 10.10 installed on Windows XP using VirtualBox. For internet connections I am using proxy server with an authentication. I tried to use gnome-network-proxy tool to set proxy settings system-wide. After that /etc/environment has been updated by http_proxy variable with the format http://my_proxy:port/, there were no authentication data. I checked this with firefox. Browser asked my for login and password and everything was working fine. It was unfortunately not the case for apt-get. I have also tried to do as described here. Unfortunately it does not work. May it be somehow related to the fact that a proxy is in a Windows domain, any ideas ? EDIT: My proxy name is http-proxy. Is '-' a special character here ?

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• Policy Administration is the Top 2011 IT Priority for Insurers

  - by helen.pitts(at)oracle.com

  The current issue of Insurance Networking News includes an interesting column by Novarica's Matt Josefowicz.  Recent research by the firm revealed that policy administration replacement or extension is the most common strategic IT project for insurers this year.  The article goes on to note that insurers are keenly focused on the business capabilities that can be delivered once the system is in production as well as the ability to leverage agile development methodologies and true business/IT collaboration during implementation. The results are not too surprising given that policy administration is a mission-critical system for life and annuity insurers.  As Josefowicz notes, "Core systems are called core for a reason--they are at the heart of the insurer's ability to function.  Replacing them is not to be done lightly, but failing to replace them can mean diminishing the ability to compete or function effectively as a company." Insurers can no longer rely on inflexible policy administration systems that impede their ability to rapidly configure and bring to innovative new products, add riders, support changing business processes and take advantage of market opportunities.  The ability to leverage the policy administration systems to better service customers and distribution channels by providing real-time access to policy information throughout the policy lifecycle is also critical to sustain loyalty and further fuel growth.Insurers can benefit from a modern, adaptive policy administration system, like Oracle Insurance Policy Administration for Life and Annuity.  You can learn more about the industry's most highly advanced, rules-based system, which is unmatched for its highly flexible, rules-based configurability, performance and extensibility, as well as global market industry trends by viewing a complimentary, on-demand Webcast, Adapt, Transform and Grow:  Accelerate Speed to Market with Adaptive Insurance Policy Administration.Data conversions can be a daunting process for many insurers when deciding to modernize, in particular when consolidating from multiple, disparate legacy policy administration systems to a single new platform.  Migrating from a legacy system requires a well-thought out approach that builds on the industry's best thinking from previous modernization efforts and takes data migration off the critical path by leveraging proven methodology and tools to capitalize on the new system's capabilities.  We'll discuss more about this approach in a future Oracle Insurance blog.Helen Pitts is senior product marketing manager for Oracle Insurance's life and annuities solutions.

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