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• Finding unreachable sections of a 2D map

  - by dada

  I don't want you to solve this problem for me, i just want to ask for some ideas. This is the input below, and it represents a map. The 'x' represents land, and the dots - water. So with the 'x' you can represent 'islands' on the map. xxx.x...xxxxx xxxx....x...x ........x.x.x ..xxxxx.x...x ..x...x.xxx.x ..x.x.x...x.. ..x...x...xxx ...xxxxxx.... x............ As you can see, there are some islands which are closed, i.e. if some boat is inside its territory, it won't be able to get out, for ex: ..xxxxx. ..x...x. ..x.x.x. ..x...x. ..xxxxx. And there are some open islands which is possible to get out of them, ex: .xxxxx .x...x .x.x.x .xxx.x The problem is this: For a given NxM map like those above, calculate howm any of the islands are open, and how many are closed. I repeat: I don't want you to solve it, just need some sugestions, ideas for solving. thanks

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• How Does MVC Handle Missing Data Requirements

  - by Don Bakke

  I'm teaching myself MVC concepts in hopes of applying them to a non-OO/procedural development environment. I am pretty sure I understand simple View - Request - Controller - Request - Model - Response - Controller - Response - View flow. What I am struggling with is understanding more complex scenarios. For instance, let's say I have a shopping cart form with a button for 'Calculate Shipping'. Normally a click on this button will follow the above flow. But what if there is missing data, like the zip code? Should the View verify this first and alert the user before making a 'Calculate Shipping' request? Or should the request be made and the Model returns a notification that critical data is missing? If the latter, does the Controller instruct the View to alert the user? What if I wanted to prompt the user for the missing zip code (perhaps in a popup input display) and then automatically request the 'Calculate Shipping' method again? I suppose this gets into the question of how smart a View ought to be. It seems that MVC has evolved due to richer UI and automation (such as with data-binding) and this muddies the water from a purist MVC perspective. Any thoughts are greatly appreciated.

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• Programmatically disable WiredHeadset

  - by tyrone-tudehope

  Hi, I have an HTC Hero with a major issue. It thinks that the headset/headphones are plugged in. I sent it to HTC and they said there is water damage so no fix. I have tried toggleheadset, toggleheadset2. I've rooted my device and installed the Android 2.1 ROM. Now I found out that AudioManager.setRouting and .setWiredHeadsetOn(bool) have been deprecated and subsequently removed. I read a post somewhere about how you can create a wrapper for the AudioSystem class as the setRouting is still available there. I as of yet have not been able to figure out how to go about doing this as the AudioSystem class is hidden in the SDK and the code makes use of native functions. Does anybody know of a way to go about creating and implementing a wrapper for AudioSystem or of another way to disable the headset? P.S. I've cleaned out the headset port so there is no dust or anything sending false signals to the mainboard. Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Tyrone

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• What are the options for overriding Django's cascading delete behaviour?

  - by Tom

  Django models generally handle the ON DELETE CASCADE behaviour quite adequately (in a way that works on databases that don't support it natively.) However, I'm struggling to discover what is the best way to override this behaviour where it is not appropriate, in the following scenarios for example: ON DELETE RESTRICT (i.e. prevent deleting an object if it has child records) ON DELETE SET NULL (i.e. don't delete a child record, but set it's parent key to NULL instead to break the relationship) Update other related data when a record is deleted (e.g. deleting an uploaded image file) The following are the potential ways to achieve these that I am aware of: Override the model's delete() method. While this sort of works, it is sidestepped when the records are deleted via a QuerySet. Also, every model's delete() must be overridden to make sure Django's code is never called and super() can't be called as it may use a QuerySet to delete child objects. Use signals. This seems to be ideal as they are called when directly deleting the model or deleting via a QuerySet. However, there is no possibility to prevent a child object from being deleted so it is not usable to implement ON CASCADE RESTRICT or SET NULL. Use a database engine that handles this properly (what does Django do in this case?) Wait until Django supports it (and live with bugs until then...) It seems like the first option is the only viable one, but it's ugly, throws the baby out with the bath water, and risks missing something when a new model/relation is added. Am I missing something? Any recommendations?

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• Netty options for real-time distribution of small messages to a large number of clients?

  - by user439407

  I am designing a (near) real-time Netty server to distribute a large number of very small messages to a large number of clients across the internet. In internal, go as fast as you can testing, I found that I could do 10k clients no sweat, but now that we are trying to go across the internet, where the latency, bandwidth etc varies pretty wildly we are running into the dreaded outOfMemory issues, even with 2 gigs of RAM. I have tried various workarounds(setting the socket stack sizes smaller, setting high and low water marks, cancelling things that are too old), and they help a little, but they seem to only help a little bit. What would some good ways to optimize Netty for sending large #s of small messages without significant delays? Also, the bulk of the message only consists of one kind of message that I don't particularly care if it doesn't arrive. I would use UDP but because we don't control the client, thats not really a possibility. Is it possible to set a separate timeout solely for this kind of message without affecting the other messages? Any insight you could offer would be greatly appreciated.

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• Loading page all content and scripts inside another

  - by Robin I Knight

  If you go to this page on our website: http://www.divethegap.com/scuba-diving-programmes-dive-the-gap/dahab-divemaster-training.html The buttons at the bottom that say 'Beginner' 'Open Water Diver' etc.... They take you to another page where you have a series of options and can book. We would like it so that rather than have to navigate to another page it loaded those options and all the scripts that make the calculations in a div on the first page. Depending on which button you press depends on which page it would load inside the div. IFrame does not work as it does not dynamically resize when the collapsible panels are opened. AJAX script at dynamic drive. http://www.dynamicdrive.com/dynamicindex17/ajaxcontent.htm does not work as none of the collapsible panels work, nor does the calculation script. How can this be done. To sum it up it would be like turning the buttons at the bottom of the page into tabs that would display the content from the pages those buttons currently link through to. Is this possible.

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• Hard problem - need help for solving

  - by dada

  I don't want you to solve this problem for me, i just want to ask for some ideas. This is the input below, and it represents a map. The 'x' represents land, and the dots - water. So with the 'x' you can represent 'islands' on the map. xxx.x...xxxxx xxxx....x...x ........x.x.x ..xxxxx.x...x ..x...x.xxx.x ..x.x.x...x.. ..x...x...xxx ...xxxxxx.... x............ As you can see, there are some islands which are closed, i.e. if some boat is inside its territory, it won't be able to get out, for ex: ..xxxxx. ..x...x. ..x.x.x. ..x...x. ..xxxxx. And there are some open islands which is possible to get out of them, ex: .xxxxx .x...x .x.x.x .xxx.x The problem is this: For a given NxM map like those above, calculate howm any of the islands are open, and how many are closed. I repeat: I don't want you to solve it, just need some sugestions, ideas for solving. thanks

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• Java swing app can't find image

  - by KáGé

  Hello, I'm making a torpedo game for school in java with swing gui, please see the zipped source HERE. I use custom button icons and mouse cursors of images stored in the /bin/resource/graphics/default folder's subfolders, where the root folder is the program's root folder (it will be the root in the final .jar as well I suppose) which apart from "bin" contains a "main" folder with all the classes. The relative path of the resources is stored in MapStruct.java's shipPath and mapPath variables. Now Battlefield.java's PutPanel class finds them all right and sets up its buttons' icons fine, but every other class fail to get their icons, e.g. Table.java's setCursor, which should set the mouse cursor for all its elements for the selected ship's image or Field.java's this.button.setIcon(icon); in the constructor, which should set the icon for the buttons of the "water". I watched with debug what happens, and the images stay null after loading, though the paths seem to be correct. I've also tried to write a test file in the image folder but the method returns a filenotfound exception. I've tried to get the path of the class to see if it runs from the supposed place and it seems it does, so I really can't find the problem now. Could anyone please help me? Thank you.

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• Use GIS to get geographic info for a single point

  - by Patrick Scott

  I am not quite sure where to start with this. I only just started looking into this in the past week, but hopefully someone can help point me in the right direction. The goal of my project is to be able to take a geohash, decode it to latitude and longitude, check the point against some GIS data, and find out some information about that point such as the terrain(is this a body of water? A lake? An Ocean? Is this a mountainous area? Is this a field?), altitude, or other useful things. Then simply be able to display that information as a starter. What I have gathered so far is that I need to get some free GIS data (this is for school, so I have no money!). I would like to have world data, and I found some online (http://www.webgis.com/terraindata.html) but I don't know where to go from here. I saw some tools such as PostGIS as a database. I am currently using Java for some other parts of the project, so if possible I would like to stick to Java. Can someone help me out, or point me in the right direction?

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• Who likes #regions in Visual Studio?

  - by Nicholas

  Personally I can't stand region tags, but clearly they have wide spread appeal for organizing code, so I want to test the temperature of the water for other MS developer's take on this idea. My personal feeling is that any sort of silly trick to simplify code only acts to encourage terrible coding behavior, like lack of cohesion, unclear intention and poor or incomplete coding standards. One programmer told me that code regions helped encourage coding standards by making it clear where another programmer should put his or her contributions. But, to be blunt, this sounds like a load of horse manure to me. If you have a standard, it is the programmer's job to understand what that standard is... you should't need to define it in every single class file. And, nothing is more annoying than having all of your code collapsed when you open a file. I know that cntrl + M, L will open everything up, but then you have the hideous "hash region definition" open and closing lines to read. They're just irritating. My most stead fast coding philosophy is that all programmer should strive to create clear, concise and cohesive code. Region tags just serve to create noise and redundant intentions. Region tags would be moot in a well thought out and intentioned class. The only place they seem to make sense to me, is in automatically generated code, because you should never have to read that outside of personal curiosity.

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• node.js beginner tutorials?

  - by TreyK

  Hey all, I'm working on creating my first real node.js http server, and I'm sort of drowning in it. As a good teacher of mine always said, "I'll just shove you in the water for now, and then I'll show you how to swim." Fortunately, she wasn't a swimming instructor, but it's a good analogy nonetheless. I feel like I've jumped into node.js and I've only found a ping pong ball to help, that is to say, most of the tutorials I've read stop shortly after the "Hello World" example and I've mostly been trying to make sense of copied and pasted code (or they assume I have knowledge of lower level HTTP and webserver concepts that have been done for me as an Apache/PHP developer). I have experience in both client-side Javascript and PHP, but node seems to be a beast all of its own. I don't quite have the low-level knowledge that seems necessary for creating a node server, and connect, which seems to be a nice module for simplifying things, seems quite sparsely explained, even in the docs on its Git. Where could I find some tutorials to help me in this situation? TL;DR - Are there any tutorials for node.js that go beyond "Hello World" but don't require much low-level knowledge? Or any tutorials that explain lower-level HTTP and webserver concepts that I would need to effectively create a node HTTP server? Thanks for any help. -Trey

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• What are the arguments against the inclusion of server side scripting in JavaScript code blocks?

  - by James Wiseman

  I've been arguing for some time against embedding server-side tags in JavaScript code, but was put on the spot today by a developer who seemed unconvinced The code in question was a legacy ASP application, although this is largely unimportant as it could equally apply to ASP.NET or PHP (for example). The example in question revolved around the use of a constant that they had defined in ServerSide code. 'VB Const MY_CONST: MY_CONST = 1 If sMyVbVar = MY_CONST Then 'Do Something End If //JavaScript if (sMyJsVar === "<%= MY_CONST%>"){ //DoSomething } My standard arguments against this are: Script injection: The server-side tag could include code that can break the JavaScript code Unit testing. Harder to isolate units of code for testing Code Separation : We should keep web page technologies apart as much as possible. The reason for doing this was so that the developer did not have to define the constant in two places. They reasoned that as it was a value that they controlled, that it wasn't subject to script injection. This reduced my justification for (1) to "We're trying to keep the standards simple, and defining exception cases would confuse people" The unit testing and code separation arguments did not hold water either, as the page itself was a horrible amalgam of HTML, JavaScript, ASP.NET, CSS, XML....you name it, it was there. No code that was every going to be included in this page could possibly be unit tested. So I found myself feeling like a bit of a pedant insisting that the code was changed, given the circumstances. Are there any further arguments that might support my reasoning, or am I, in fact being a bit pedantic in this insistence?

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• Approaches for cross server content sharing?

  - by Anonymity

  I've currently been tasked with finding a best solution to serving up content on our new site from another one of our other sites. Several approaches suggested to me, that I've looked into include using SharePoint's Lists Web Service to grab the list through javascript - which results in XSS and is not an option. Another suggestion was to build a server side custom web service and use SharePoint Request Forms to get the information - this is something I've only very briefly looked at. It's been suggested that I try permitting the requesting site in the HTTP headers of the serving site since I have access to both. This ultimately resulted in a semi-working solution that had major security holes. (I had to include username/password in the request to appease AD Authentication). This was done by allowing Access-Control-Allow-Origin: * The most direct approach I could think of was to simply build in the webpart in our new environment to have the authors manually update this content the same as they would on the other site. Are any one of the suggestions here more valid than another? Which would be the best approach? Are there other suggestions I may be overlooking? I'm also not sure if WebCrawling or Content Scrapping really holds water here...

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• What is the fastest way to find duplicates in multiple BIG txt files?

  - by user2950750

  I am really in deep water here and I need a lifeline. I have 10 txt files. Each file has up to 100.000.000 lines of data. Each line is simply a number representing something else. Numbers go up to 9 digits. I need to (somehow) scan these 10 files and find the numbers that appear in all 10 files. And here comes the tricky part. I have to do it in less than 2 seconds. I am not a developer, so I need an explanation for dummies. I have done enough research to learn that hash tables and map reduce might be something that I can make use of. But can it really be used to make it this fast, or do I need more advanced solutions? I have also been thinking about cutting up the files into smaller files. To that 1 file with 100.000.000 lines is transformed into 100 files with 1.000.000 lines. But I do not know what is best: 10 files with 100 million lines or 1000 files with 1 million lines? When I try to open the 100 million line file, it takes forever. So I think, maybe, it is just too big to be used. But I don't know if you can write code that will scan it without opening. Speed is the most important factor in this, and I need to know if it can be done as fast as I need it, or if I have to store my data in another way, for example, in a database like mysql or something. Thank you in advance to anybody that can give some good feedback.

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• In XSLT, how can you sort using an indirect key?

  - by edholder

  I am having trouble getting xsl:sort to understand the scope of the attributes I am referencing. Here is an XML sample document to illustrate: <Root> <DrinkSelections> <Drink id=1000 name="Coffee"/> <Drink id=1001 name="Water"/> <Drink id=1002 name="Tea"/> <Drink id=1003 name="Almost But Not Quite Entirely Unlike Tea"/> </DrinkSelections> <CustomerOrder> <Drinks> <Drink oid="1001"/> <Drink oid="1002"/> <Drink oid="1003"/> </Drinks> </CustomerOrder </Root> I want to produce a list of drinks (sorted by name) contained in the CustomerOrder. Here is the XSLT code I am fiddling with: <xsl:for-each select="/Root/CustomerOrder/Drinks/Drink"> <xsl:sort select="/Root/DrinkSelections/Drink[@id = @oid]/@name"/> <xsl:variable name=var_oid select="@oid"/> <xsl:value-of select="/Root/DrinkSelections/Drink[@id = $var_oid]/@name"/> </xsl:for-each> Apparently, the xsl:sort command is trying to apply the "oid" attribute to the Drink elements in DrinkSelections, rather than local Drink element. I can get around this using a variable, as in the xsl:value-of statement. But since xsl:sort must be the first statement after the xsl:for-each statement, I can't insert the xsl:variable statement before xsl:sort. Is there a way to explicitly state that the attribute value should be taken from the "local" element?

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• whats a sure shot way to make sure objects appear correctly positioned on stage

  - by dubbeat

  Hi, I've being having a lot of trouble recently getting objects (UIComponents containing movieclips) to appear correctly in the right positions. For example, my current dilema is I have a container that is 3 layers deep. outer layer inner layer display layer This hiearachy was built in CS4 as a movieclip. In the display layer in CS4 I figured out where I want to place 16 different "box" movieclips. I dont want to create these boxes maunually at design time, instead I want to add them at run time. So I know what container I want to add my boxes to. I know what positions they "would" be at in CS4 environment. Whats the best way to add them in the correct locations with code? The "box" I'm trying to add in a movieclip held inside of a UIComponent. Is there a "rule of thumb" to do this type of thing? I'm sure I'm going to encounter this problem again and again and I'd like to just blow the problem out of the water once and for all with the "right way" to do this.

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• Stopping a MATLAB GUI callback

  - by leonhart88

  Dear All, I have a START and STOP button. When I hit START, i run a bunch of code in my callback. It's basically a sequential "script" that opens valves, dispenses water and then closes the valves...there is no while() loop and it doesn't repeat. I want to be able to stop this process at any time using the STOP button. Most of the related answers I've seen are in the cases where a while() loop is used. Some people have also suggested to periodically check if the STOP button was pressed (using a variable or handle variable). Since I do not have a while loop, I can't solve it that way. Also, I'd like to be able to exit immediately, without having to periodically check (because checking multiple times in my code would be ugly and confusing). Is there a way to terminate the callback which was interrupted by the STOP button? If not, is it possible to have the START button run a .m file and then have the STOP button terminate that .m file? The worst case scenario would be to check a variable periodically. UPDATE: Well, looks like the worst case scenario is what is suggested by MATLAB... http://www.mathworks.com/support/solutions/en/data/1-33IK85/index.html?product=ML&solution=1-33IK85 Thanks.

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• Recursion - Ship Battle

  - by rgorrosini

  I'm trying to write a little ship battle game in java. It is 100% academic, I made it to practice recursion, so... I want to use it instead of iteration, even if it's simpler and more efficient in most some cases. Let's get down to business. These are the rules: Ships are 1, 2 or 3 cells wide and are placed horizontally only. Water is represented with 0, non-hit ship cells are 1, hit ship cells are 2 and sunken ships have all it's cells in 3. With those rules set, I'm using the following array for testing: int[][] board = new int[][] { {0, 1, 2, 0, 1, 0}, {0, 0, 1, 1, 1, 0}, {0, 3, 0, 0, 0, 0}, {0, 0, 2, 1, 2, 0}, {0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1}, }; It works pretty good so far, and to make it more user-friendly I would like to add a couple of reports. these are the methods I need for them: Given the matrix, return the amount of ships in it. Same as a), but separating them by state (amount of non-hit ships, hit and sunken ones). I will need a hand with those reports, and I would like to get some ideas. Remember it must be done using recursion, I want to understand this, and the only way to go is practice! Thanks a lot for your time and patience :).

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• Simulate Golf Game Strategy

  - by Mitchel Sellers

  I am working on what at best could be considered a "primitive" golf game, where after a certain bit of randomness is introduced I need to play out a hole of golf. The hole is static and I am not concerned about the UI aspect as I just have to draw a line on a graphic of the hole after the ball has been hit showing where it traveled. I'm looking for input on thoughts of how to manage the "logic" side of the puzzle, below are some of my thoughts on the matter, input, suggestions, or references are greatly appreciated. Map out the hole into an array with a specific amount of precision, noting the type of surface: out of bounds, fairway, rough, green, sand, water, and most important the hole. Map out "regions" and if the ball is contained inside one of these regions setup parameters for "maximum" angle of departure. (For example the first part of the hole the shot must be between certain angles Using the current placement of the ball, and the region contained in #2, define a routine to randomly select the shooting angle, and power then move the ball, adjust the trajectory and move again. I know this isn't the "most elegant" solution, but in reality, we are looking for a quick and dirty solution, as I just have to do this a few times, set it and forget it afterward. From a languages perspective I'll be using ASP.NET and C# to get this done.

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• SQL SERVER – A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words – A Collection of Inspiring and Funny Posts by Vinod Kumar

  - by pinaldave

  One of the most popular quotes is: A picture is worth a thousand words. Working on this concept I started a series over my blog called the “Picture Post”. Rather than rambling over tons of material over text, we are trying to give you a capsule mode of the blog in a quick glance. Some of the picture posts already available over my blog are: Correlation of Ego and Work: Ego and Pride most of the times become a hindrance when we work inside a team. Take this cue, the first ever Picture post was published. Simple and easy to understand concept. Would want to say, Ego is the biggest enemy to humans. Read Original Post. Success (Perception Vs Reality): Personally, have always thought success is not something the talented achieve with the opportunity presented to them, but success is developed using the opportunity in hand now. In this fast paced world where success is pre-defined and convoluted by metrics it is hard to understand how complex it can sometimes be. So I took a stab at this concept in a simple way. Read Original Post. Doing Vs Saying: As Einstein would describe, Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Given the amount of information we get, it is difficult to keep track, learn and implement the same. If you were ever reminded of your college days, there will always be 5-6 people doing different things and we naturally try to emulate what they are doing. This could be from competitive exams GMAT, GRE, CAT, Higher-Ed, B-School hunting etc. Rather than saying you are going to do, it is best to do and then say!!! Read Original Picture Post. Your View Vs Management View: Being in the corporate world can be really demanding and we keep asking this question – “Why me?” when the performance appraisal process ends. In this post I just want to ask you one frank opinion – “Are you really self-critical in your assessments?”. If that is the case there shouldn’t be any heartburns or surprises. If you had just one thing to take back, well forget what others are getting but invest time in making yourself better because that is going to take you longer and further in your career. Read Picture Post. Blogging lifecycle for majority: I am happy and fortunate to be in this blog post because this picture post surely doesn’t apply to SQLAuthority where consistency and persistence have been the hallmark of the blog. For the majority others, who have a tendency to start a blog, get into slumber for a while and write saying they want to get back to blogging, the picture post was specifically done for them. Paradox of being someone else: It is always a dream that we want to become somebody and in this process of doing so, we become nobody. In this constant tussle of lost identity we forget to enjoy the moment that is in front of us. I just depicted this using a simple analogy of our constant struggle to get to the other side, just to realize we missed the wonderful moments. Grass is not greener on the other side, but grass is greener where we water the surface. Read Picture Post. And on the lighter side… Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: About Me, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

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• Pet Store Loyalty Programs: I'm Not Loyal Yet!

  - by ruth.donohue

  After two years of constantly being asked (aka "pestered) by my now eight-year-old daughter for a dog (or any pet that is more interactive than a goldfish), I've finally compromised with a hamster purely by chance. Friends of ours had recently brought home a female hamster, and (surprise, surprise) two weeks later, they were looking for homes for 11 baby hamster pups. Since the pups were not yet ready to be weaned from their mother, my daughter and I had several weeks to get ready -- and we spent that extra time visiting a number of local pet stores and purchasing an assortment of hamster books, toys, exercise equipment, food, bedding, and cage -- not cheap! Now, I'm usually an online shopper (i.e. I love reading user reviews and comparing prices), but for kids, there is absolutely no online substitute for actually walking into a store and physically picking out something you want. We have two competing pet shops within close proximity to where we live, and I signed up for their rewards programs to get discounts on select items. I'm sure it takes a while to get my data into the system (after all, I did fill out a form the old-fashioned way), but as it has been more than two weeks for one store and over a week for the other, the window of opportunity is getting smaller as we by now pretty much have most of what we think we need. Everything I've purchased has been purely hamster or small animal related, so in an ideal world, the stores would have me easily figured out as a hamster owner. Here is what I would be expecting of a loyalty rewards program: Point me to some useful links, either information provied by the company or external websites where I can learn more. Any value-add a business can provide to make my life easier makes me a much more loyal customer. What things can I expect as a new pet owner? Any hamster communities? Any hamster-related events? Any vets that specialize in small animals in the vicinity? Send me an email with other related products I may be interested in. Upsell and cross-sell to me. We've go the basics and a couple of luxuries, but at this point, I'm pretty excited (surprisingly) about the hamster, and my daughter is footing the bill with her birthday and Christmas money. She and I would be more than happy to spend her money! Get this information to me faster. As I mentioned, my window of opportunity is getting smaller, as eithe rmy daughter's money will run out on other things or we'll start losing the thrill of buying new hamster toys and treats. I realize this is easier said than done, and undoubtedly, the stores are getting value knowing my basic customer information and purchase history. Buth, they could really benefit by delivering a loyalty program that really earned my loyalty. "Goldeen" needs a new water bottle, yogurt chips, and chew toys as he doesn't seem to like the ones we bought. So for now, I'll just go to whichever store is the most convenient. Oh, and just for fun (not related to this post), here are a couple of videos my daughter really got a kick out of watching: Hamster on a Piano Tic in a Spin-Dryer

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• Home Energy Management & Automation with Windows Phone 7

  A number of people at Clarity are personally interested in home energy conservation and home automation. We feel that a mobile device is a great fit for bringing this idea to fruition. While this project is merely a concept and not directly associated with Microsofts Hohm web service, it provides a great model for communicating the concept. I wanted to take the idea a step further and combine saving energy in your home with the ability to track water usage and control your home devices. I designed an application that focuses on total home control and not just energy usage. Application Overview By monitoring home consumption in real time and with yearly projections users can pinpoint vampire devices, times of high or low consumption, and wasteful patterns of energy use. Energy usage meters indicate total current consumption as well as individual device consumption. Users can then use the information to take action, make adjustments, and change their consumption behaviors. The app can be used to automate certain systems like lighting, temperature, or alarms. Other features can be turned on an off at the touch of a toggle switch on your phone, away from home. Forget to turn off the TV or shut the garage door? No problem, you can do it from your phone. Through settings you can enable and disable features of the phone that apply to your home making it a completely customized and convenient experience. To be clear, this equates to more security, big environmental impact, and even bigger savings.   Design and User Interface  Since this panorama application is designed for win phone 7 devices, it complies with the UI Design and Interaction Guide for wp7. I developed the frame and page hierarchy from existing examples. The interface takes advantage of the interactive nature of touch screens with slider controls, pivot control views, and toggle switches to turn on and off devices (not shown in mockup). I followed recommendations for text based elements and adapted the tile notifications to display the most recent user activity. For example, the mockup indicates upon launching the app that the last thing you did was program the thermostat. This model is great for quick launching common user actions. One last design feature to point out is the technical reasons for supplying both light and dark themes for the app. Since this application is targeting energy consumption it only makes sense to consider the effect of the apps background color or image on the phones energy use. When displaying darker colors like black the OLED display may use less power, extending battery life. Other Considerations For now I left out options of wind and solar powered energy options because they are not available to everyone. Renewable energy sources and new technologies associated with them are definitely ideas to keep in mind for a next iteration. Another idea to explore for such an application would be to include a savings model similar to mint.com. In addition to general energy-saving recommendations the application could recommend customized ways to save based on your current utility providers and available options in your area. If your television or refrigerator is guilty of sucking a lot of energy then you may see recommendations for energy star products that could save you even more money! Did you know that DotNetSlackers also publishes .net articles written by top known .net Authors? We already have over 80 articles in several categories including Silverlight. Take a look: here.

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• upgraded "Compiz' and "Unity", now no Unity 3D on screen

  - by user18432

  Today when I logged in to my Ubuntu 12.04, the update manager told me of some upgrades. Compiz and Unity were in those upgrades. After I installed the upgrades, I can no longer get the Unity panel on the left side of screen or the systray at the top of screen. I now have to run Ubuntu 12.04 with Unity 2D. My laptop is a HP Pavilion dv9000 with Nvidia GeForce Go 7600 video. I tried to run "unity --reset" but it says there are serious issues with compiz. I have cut & pasted the read out from the terminal below. [09:35:02] xxxxxxx@L01U1204:~$ unity --reset unity-panel-service: no process found Checking if settings need to be migrated ...no Checking if internal files need to be migrated ...no Backend : gconf Integration : true Profile : unity Adding plugins Initializing core options...done compiz (core) - Warn: failed to receive ConfigureNotify event on 0x2e00004 compiz (core) - Warn: failed to receive ConfigureNotify event on 0x580005a compiz (core) - Warn: failed to receive ConfigureNotify event on 0x3600006 compiz (core) - Warn: failed to receive ConfigureNotify event on 0x3200255 compiz (core) - Warn: failed to receive ConfigureNotify event on 0x1600002 compiz (core) - Warn: failed to receive ConfigureNotify event on 0x1400002 Initializing composite options...done Initializing opengl options...done Initializing decor options...done Initializing vpswitch options...done Initializing snap options...done Initializing mousepoll options...done Initializing resize options...done Initializing place options...done Initializing move options...done Initializing wall options...done Initializing grid options...done I/O warning : failed to load external entity "/home/brwright/.compiz/session/10afaca1703486b216133648409481824100000130110002" Initializing session options...done Initializing gnomecompat options...done Initializing animation options...done Initializing fade options...done Initializing unitymtgrabhandles options...done Initializing workarounds options...done Initializing scale options...done compiz (expo) - Warn: failed to bind image to texture Initializing expo options...done Initializing ezoom options...done compiz (core) - Error: Couldn't load plugin '/usr/lib/compiz/libunityshell.so' : /usr/lib/compiz/libunityshell.so: undefined symbol: _ZNK5unity4dash10Controller6windowEv compiz (core) - Error: Couldn't load plugin 'unityshell' compiz (core) - Warn: unhandled ConfigureNotify on 0x7000090! compiz (core) - Warn: this should never happen. you should probably file a bug about this. compiz (core) - Warn: unhandled ConfigureNotify on 0x7000093! compiz (core) - Warn: this should never happen. you should probably file a bug about this. compiz (core) - Warn: unhandled ConfigureNotify on 0x7000096! compiz (core) - Warn: this should never happen. you should probably file a bug about this. compiz (core) - Warn: unhandled ConfigureNotify on 0x7000099! compiz (core) - Warn: this should never happen. you should probably file a bug about this. compiz (core) - Warn: unhandled ConfigureNotify on 0x700009c! compiz (core) - Warn: this should never happen. you should probably file a bug about this. compiz (core) - Warn: unhandled ConfigureNotify on 0x700009f! compiz (core) - Warn: this should never happen. you should probably file a bug about this. Initializing annotate options...done Initializing blur options...done Initializing clone options...done Initializing colorfilter options...done Initializing commands options...done Initializing cube options...done Initializing imgjpeg options...done Initializing kdecompat options...done Initializing mag options...done Initializing neg options...done Initializing obs options...done Initializing opacify options...done Initializing put options...done Initializing resizeinfo options...done Initializing ring options...done Initializing rotate options...done Initializing scaleaddon options...done Initializing screenshot options...done Initializing shift options...done Initializing staticswitcher options...done Initializing switcher options...done Initializing thumbnail options...done Initializing unityshell options...done Initializing water options...done Initializing winrules options...done Initializing wobbly options...done Setting Update "main_menu_key" Setting Update "run_key" Starting gtk-window-decorator As you can see the terminal never comes back to the CI prompt. I must do a control C to get to the CI prompt, but then the OS is frozen. I have to reboot and run Unity 2D in able to do anything on my laptop. I hope I have explained this enough and provided some useful info. I am at a loss to understand what the problem is, or what exactly what is causing the problem. Is it Unity or Compiz? Can anyone help?

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• Algorithm for querying linearly through a non-linear list of questions

  - by JoshLeaves

  For a multiplayers trivia game, I need to supply my users with a new quizz in a desired subject (Science, Maths, Litt. and such) at the start of every game. I've generated about 5K quizzes for each subject and filled my database with them. So my 'Quizzes' database looks like this: |ID |Subject |Question +-----+------------+---------------------------------- | 23 |Science | What's water? | 42 |Maths | What's 2+2? | 99 |Litt. | Who wrote "Pride and Prejudice"? | 123 |Litt. | Who wrote "On The Road"? | 146 |Maths | What's 2*2? | 599 |Science | You know what's cool? |1042 |Maths | What's the Fibonacci Sequence? |1056 |Maths | What's 42? And so on... (Much more detailed/complex but I'll keep the exemple simple) As you can see, due to technical constraints (MongoDB), my IDs are not linear but I can use them as an increasing suite. So far, my algorithm to ensure two users get a new quizz when they play together is the following: // Take the last played quizzes by P1 and P2 var q_one = player_one.getLastPlayedQuizz('Maths'); var q_two = player_two.getLastPlayedQuizz('Maths'); // If both of them never played in the subject, return first quizz in the list if ((q_one == NULL) && (q_two == NULL)) return QuizzDB.findOne({subject: 'Maths'}); // If one of them never played, play the next quizz for the other player // This quizz is found by asking for the first quizz in the desired subject where // the ID is greater than the last played quizz's ID (if the last played quizz ID // is 42, this will return 146 following the above example database) if (q_one == NULL) return QuizzDB.findOne({subject: 'Maths', ID > q_two}); if (q_two == NULL) return QuizzDB.findOne({subject: 'Maths', ID > q_one}); // And if both of them have a lastPlayedQuizz, we return the next quizz for the // player whose lastPlayedQuizz got the higher ID if (q_one > q_two) return QuizzDB.findOne({subject: 'Maths', ID > q_one}); else return QuizzDB.findOne({subject: 'Maths', ID > q_two}); Now here comes the real problem: Once I get to the end of my database (let's say, P1's last played quizz in 'Maths' is 1056, P2's is 146 and P3 is 1042), following my algorithm, P1's ID is the highest so I ask for the next question in 'Maths' where ID is superior to 1056. There is nothing, so I roll back to the beginning of my quizz list (with a random skipper to avoid having the first question always show up). P1 and P2's last played will then be 42 and they will start fresh from the beginning of the list. However, if P1 (42) plays against P3 (1042), the resulting ID will be 1056...which P1 already played two games ago. Basically, players who just "rolled back" to the beginning of the list will be brought back to the end of the list by players who still haven't rolled back. The rollback WILL happen in the end, but it'll take time and there'll be a "bottleneck" at the beginning and at the end. Thus my question: What would be the best algorith to avoid this bottleneck and ensure players don't get stuck endlessly on the same quizzes? Also bear in mind that I've got some technical constraints: I can't get a random question in a subject (ie: no "QuizzDB.findOne({subject: 'Maths'}).skip(random());"). It's cool to skip on one to twenty records, but the MongoDB documentation warns against skipping too many documents. I would like to avoid building an array of every quizz played by each player and find the next non-played in the database with a $nin. Thanks for your help

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• Software Architecture verses Software Design

  Recently, I was asked what the differences between software architecture and software design are. At a very superficial level both architecture and design seem to mean relatively the same thing. However, if we examine both of these terms further we will find that they are in fact very different due to the level of details they encompass. Software Architecture can be defined as the essence of an application because it deals with high level concepts that do not include any details as to how they will be implemented. To me this gives stakeholders a view of a system or application as if someone was viewing the earth from outer space. At this distance only very basic elements of the earth can be detected like land, weather and water. As the viewer comes closer to earth the details in this view start to become more defined. Details about the earth’s surface will start to actually take form as well as mane made structures will be detected. The process of transitioning a view from outer space to inside our earth’s atmosphere is similar to how an architectural concept is transformed to an architectural design. From this vantage point stakeholders can start to see buildings and other structures as if they were looking out of a small plane window. This distance is still high enough to see a large area of the earth’s surface while still being able to see some details about the surface. This viewing point is very similar to the actual design process of an application in that it takes the very high level architectural concept or concepts and applies concrete design details to form a software design that encompasses the actual implementation details in the form of responsibilities and functions. Examples of these details include: interfaces, components, data, and connections. In review, software architecture deals with high level concepts without regard to any implementation details. Software design on the other hand takes high level concepts and applies concrete details so that software can be implemented. As part of the transition between software architecture to the creation of software design an evaluation on the architecture is recommended. There are several benefits to including this step as part of the transition process. It allows for projects to ensure that they are on the correct path as to meeting the stakeholder’s requirement goals, identifies possible cost savings and can be used to find missing or nonspecific requirements that cause ambiguity in a design. In the book “Evaluating Software Architectures: Methods and Case Studies”, they define key benefits to adding an architectural review process to ensure that an architecture is ready to move on to the design phase. Benefits to evaluating software architecture: Gathers all stakeholders to communicate about the project Goals are clearly defined in regards to the creation or validation of specific requirements Goals are prioritized so that when conflicts occur decisions will be made based on goal priority Defines a clear expectation of the architecture so that all stakeholders have a keen understanding of the project Ensures high quality documentation of the architecture Enables discoveries of architectural reuse  Increases the quality of architecture practices. I can remember a few projects that I worked on that could have really used an architectural review prior to being passed on to developers. This project was to create some new advertising space on the company’s website in order to sell space based on the location and some other criteria. I was one of the developer selected to lead this project and I was given a high level design concept and a long list of ever changing requirements due to the fact that sales department had no clear direction as to what exactly the project was going to do or how they were going to bill the clients once they actually agreed to purchase the Ad space. In my personal opinion IT should have pushed back to have the requirements further articulated instead of forcing programmers to code blindly attempting to build such an ambiguous project.  Unfortunately, we had to suffer with this project for about 4 months when it should have only taken 1.5 to complete due to the constantly changing and unclear requirements. References  Clements, P., Kazman, R., & Klein, M. (2002). Evaluating Software Architectures. Westford, Massachusetts: Courier Westford. 

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