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• How to get that first development job

  - by cju

  I have been in QA for 10 years, trying to get into developement for about 5 of them. I have taken classes in C++, Java and C#. I was able to write some tools and unit tests in C# at my current job and (by all accounts) did a good job of it. However, 8 months ago, my employer tasked me with the responsibility of establishing the new QA group. Now, I'm doing manual testing and deployment with no promise of returning to development. I have looked at the job boards and there are a lot of jobs for Web developers and wondered how I could break into that. I've picked up some books on Ruby on Rails that I plan to work through on the Mac at home, but I'm not sure employers would be interested in anything but commercial web development. Do you have any suggestions on how I can use my experience to get a job as a junior developer? And I mean one that entailes programming...the postings I've seen for junior developer amount to doing all the grunt work besides coding. They should just call them "Technical Secretaries".

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• Is .Net Going to Die As far as Server Apps and Desktop Apps are concerned? [closed]

  - by Graviton

  Possible Duplicate: What does Windows 8 mean for the future of .NET? The Windows 8 preview doesn't mention .Net, and the demo seems to showcase what HTML, CSS and Javascript can do on Windows 8 OS. The impression I get from watching it is that HTML , Javascript is going to figure prominently in Windows 8, even for the traditional windows desktop applications. That, couple with the fact that there is no mentioning of .Net 5 and Visual Studio 2012 or 2013( MS is pretty quick to announce the next generation VS tools) yet, makes me worry that sooner or later, Microsoft will abandon the .Net platform completely. Yes, not just abandoning Silverlight, but the .Net platform in general. Which means that all the desktop apps, server apps you wrote in .Net is going to be obsolete, much like how VB6 apps are now obsolete. Is .Net going to die? Of course you won't find that all .Net apps stop running tomorrow. But will there be a day-- even when at that time Microsoft is alive and kicking-- when .Net apps are looked upon as legacy apps in the way we perceive VB6 apps? Edit: I've changed the wording of the title, so it's not a dupe of existing question. Please take note.

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• Improved Customer Experience, but at what Cost?

  - by Tony Berk

  We can all probably agree that improving your customers' experience is a good thing. But a key question many people are asking is will it help your organization and, in particular, what are the financial benefits?That's a good question, especially when companies ARE experiencing phenomenal return on investment (ROI). Of course, there are many factors that impact ROI or other measures of success, but we'd like to share some success stories as examples of customer experience in action and delivering positive results. If you would like to learn more about the economics of customer experience, see Brian Curran's presentation at the Oracle Customer Experience Summit last month. In this series of blog posts, we'll share actual customer stories. Today's example is Dell, which uses Oracle Real-Time Decisions (RTD) and Siebel CRM as part of their customer experience portfolio to better understand their customers' needs and wants and provide consistent interactions. Regular readers of this blog are probably familiar with Siebel, but RTD may be new to many of you. RTD is a complete decision management solution that delivers real-time decisions and recommendations and automatically renders decisions within a business process to create tailored messaging for every customer interaction.What does that mean? In the video below, Dell describes how customer experience is important not just for one interaction channel, but across all "vehicles." RTD is helping Dell understand customer behavior and communicate with the customer in a more relevant manner, across all communication  or interaction channels including sales and service call centers, email marketing and online. Dell continues to expand use of RTD because the benefits are showing up in sales, service and marketing results including 19% increase in close rates, faster issue resolution and 40% improvement in revenue per click in email marketing. Click here, to learn more about Oracle Customer Experience and stay tuned for more customer spotlights.

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• What is meant by, "A user shouldn't decide whether it is an Admin or not. The Privileges or Security system should."

  - by GlenPeterson

  The example used in the question pass bare minimum data to a function touches on the best way to determine whether the user is an administrator or not. One common answer was: user.isAdmin() This prompted a comment which was repeated several times and up-voted many times: A user shouldn't decide whether it is an Admin or not. The Privileges or Security system should. Something being tightly coupled to a class doesn't mean it is a good idea to make it part of that class. I replied, The user isn't deciding anything. The User object/table stores data about each user. Actual users don't get to change everything about themselves. But this was not productive. Clearly there is an underlying difference of perspective which is making communication difficult. Can someone explain to me why user.isAdmin() is bad, and paint a brief sketch of what it looks like done "right"? Really, I fail to see the advantage of separating security from the system that it protects. Any security text will say that security needs to be designed into a system from the beginning and considered at every stage of development, deployment, maintenance, and even end-of-life. It is not something that can be bolted on the side. But 17 up-votes so far on this comment says that I'm missing something important.

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• Software design of a browser-based strategic MMO game

  - by Mehran

  I wonder if there are any known tested software designs for Travian-like browser-based strategic MMO games? I mean how would they implement the server of such games or what is stored in database and what is stored in RAM? Is the state of the world stored in one piece or is it distributed among a number of storage? Does anyone know a resource to study the problems and solutions of creating such games? [UPDATE] Suggested in comments, I'm going to give an example how would I design such a project. Even though I'm not sure if I'm proposing the right one. Having stored the world state in a MongoDB, I would implement an event collection in which all the changes to the world will register. Changes that are meant to happen in the future will come with an action date set to the future and those that are to be carried out immediately will be set to now. Having this datastore as the central point of the system, players will issue their actions as events inserted in datastore. At the other end of the system, I'll have a constant-running software taking out events out of the datastore which are due to be carried out and not done yet. Executing an event means apply some update on the world's state and thus the datastore. As scalable as this design sounds, I'm not sure if it will be worth implementing. For one, it is pointless to cache the datastore as most of updates happen once without any follow ups. For instance if you have the growth of resources in your game, you'll be updating the whole world state periodically in which case, having incorporated a cache, you are keeping the whole world in RAM (which most likely is impossible). So can someone come up with a better design?

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• Contract Work - Lessons Learned

  - by samerpaul

  I thought I would write a post of a different nature today, but still relevant to the tech world. I do a lot of contract jobs myself and really enjoy it. It's nice to keep jumping from project to project, and not having to go to an office or keep regular hours, etc. I really enjoy it. I have learned a lot in the past few years of doing it (both from experience and from help given to me from others, and the internet) so I thought I'd share some of that knowledge/experience today.So here's my own personal "lesson's learned" that hopefully will help you if you find yourself doing contract work:Should I take the job?Ok, so this is the first step. Assuming you were given sufficient information about what they want, then you should really think about what you're capable of doing and whether or not you should take this job. Personally, my rule is, if I know it's possible, I'll say yes, even if I don't yet know how to do it. That's because the internet is such a great help, it would be rare to run into an issue that you can't figure out with some help. So if your clients are asking for something that you don't yet know how to program, but you know you can do it on the platform then go for it. How else are you going to learn?Use this rule with some limitation, however. If you're really lacking the expertise or foundation in something, then unless you have tons of time to complete the project, then I wouldn't say yes. For example, I haven't personally done any 3d/openGL programming yet so I wouldn't say yes to a project that extensively uses it. OK, so I want the job, but how much do I charge?This part can be tricky. There is no set formula really, but I have some tips for pricing that will hopefully give you a better idea on how to confidently ask your price and have them accept. Here are some personal guidelinesHow much time do you have to complete the project? If it's shorter than average, then charge more. You can even make a subtle note about this (or not so subtle if they still don't get it.) If it seems too short of a time (i.e. near impossible to complete), be sure to say that. It looks bad to promise a time that you can't keep--and it makes it less likely for them to return to you for work.Your Hourly rate: How long have you been working in that language? Do you have existing projects to back you up? Or previous contacts that can vouch for your work? Are there very few people with your particular skill set? All of these things will lend themselves to setting an hourly rate. I'd also try out a quick google search of what your line of work is, to see what the industry standard is at that point in time.I wouldn't price too low, because you want to make your time worth it. You also want them to feel like they're paying for quality work (assuming you can deliver it :) ). Finally, think about your client. If it's a small business, then don't price it too high if you want the job. If it's an enterprise (like a Fortune company), then don't be afraid to price higher. They have the budget for it.Fixed price: If they want a fixed price project, then you need to think about how many hours it will take you to complete it and multiply it by the hourly rate you set for yourself. Then, honestly, I would add 10-20% on top of that. Why? Because nothing ever works exactly how you want it to. There are lots of times that something "trivial" is way harder than it should be, or something that "should work" doesn't for hours and it eats away at your hourly rate. I can't count the number of times I encountered a logical bug that took away an entire's day work because debuggers don't help in those cases. By adding that padding in, it's still OK to have those days where you don't get as much done as you want. And another useful tip: Depending on your client, and the scope, you most likely want to set that you both sign off on a specification sheet before doing any work, and that any changes will result in a re-evaulation of the price. This is to help protect you from being handed a huge new addition to the project half-way in, without any extra payment.Scope of project: Finally, is it a huge project? Is it really small/fast? This affects how much your client will be willing to pay. If it sounds big, they will be willing to pay more for it. If it seems really small, then you won't be able to get away with a large asking price (as easily).Ok, I priced it, now what?So now that you have the price, you want to make sure it feels justified to your client. I never set a price before I can really think about everything. For example, if you're still in your introduction phase, and they want a price, don't give one! Just comment that you will send them a proposal sheet with all the features outlined, and a price for everything. You don't want to shout out a low number and then deliver something that is way higher. You also don't want to shock them with a big number before they feel like they are getting a great product.Make up a proposal document in a word editor. Personally, I leave the price till the very end. Why? Because by the time they reach the end, you've already discussed all the great features you plan to implement, and how it's the best product they'll ever use, etc etc...so your price comes off as a steal! If you hit them up front with a price, they will read through the document with a negative bias. Think about those commercials on TV. They always go on about their product, then at the end, ask "What would you pay for something like this? $100? $50? How about $20!!". This is not by accident.Scenario: I finished the job way earlier than expectedYou have two options then. You can either polish the hell out of the application, and even throw in a few bonus features (assuming they are in-line with the customer's needs) or you can sit and wait on it until you near your deadline. Why don't you want to turn it in too early? Because you should treat that extra time as a surplus. If you said it is going to take you 3 weeks, and it took you only 1, you have a surplus of 2 weeks. I personally don't want to let them know that I can do a 3 week project in 1 week. Why not? Because that may not always be the case! I may later have a 3 week project that takes all 3 weeks, but if I set a precedent of delivering super early, then the pressure is on for that longer project. It also makes it harder to quote longer times if you keep delivering too early.Feel free to deliver early, but again, don't do it too early. They may also wonder why they paid you for 3 weeks of work if you're done in 1. They may further wonder if the product sucks, or what is wrong with it, if it's done so early, etc.I would just polish the application. Everyone loves polish in their applications. The smallest details are what make an application go from "functional" to "fantastic". And since you are still delivering on time, then they are still going to be very happy with you.Scenario: It's taking way too long to finish this, and the deadline is nearing/here!So this is not a fun scenario to be in, but it'll happen. Sometimes the scope of the project gets out of hand. The best policy here is OPENNESS/HONESTY. Tell them that the project is taking longer than expected, and give a reasonable time for when you think you'll have it done. I typically explain it in a way that makes it sound like it isn't something that I did wrong, but it's just something about the nature of the project. This really goes for any scenario, to be honest. Just continue to stay open and communicative about your progress. This doesn't mean that you should email them every five minutes (unless they want you to), but it does mean that maybe every few days or once a week, give them an update on where you're at, and what's next. They'll be happy to know they are paying for progress, and it'll make it easier to ask for an extension when something goes wrong, because they know that you've been working on it all along.Final tips and thoughts:In general, contract work is really fun and rewarding. It's nice to learn new things all the time, as mandated by the project ,and to challenge yourself to do things you may not have done before. The key is to build a great relationship with your clients for future work, and for recommendations. I am always very honest with them and I never promise something I can't deliver. Again, under promise, over deliver!I hope this has proved helpful!Cheers,samerpaul

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• How do I get wireless and video working on a Sony Vaio vpc-z21x9r

  - by Alex

  OS: Ubuntu 11.10 Kernel: 2.6.37.6 Laptop: sony vaio vpc-z21x9r The problem: I can't change level of screen backlight; also can't enable wi-fi. While using 3.0 kernel everything is ok, but the laptop discharges too quickly. Results for lspci 02:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation Centrino Wireless-N + WiMAX 6150 (rev 5f) VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 09) there is no wlan0 in ifconfig -a too. I've fount that kernel should already have drivers for this graphics controller, but when i load up in restore mode, it writes "fall" while trying to load up some video drivers. To change the level of backlight i've alrady tried: xbacklight -set XX , smartdimmer -s XX and got this init_ nvclock() failed! also sudo setpci -s 00:02.0 F4.B=XX with no results. As for wi-fi, i've found driver but i don't understand how to install it. Here it is How can I fix these problems? Thank you for your help and time! Also tried to fix problems with backlight writing GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash nomodeset acpi_backlight=vendor Still no results. Is there any sense in recompiling kernel, I mean 2.6.37.6. Can it make any improvements in the situation?

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• Web hosting providers for businesses (with offsite backups, disaster recovery options, etc.) [closed]

  - by Harry Muscle

  Possible Duplicate: How to find web hosting that meets my requirements? I'm wondering if anyone can point me in the direction of a couple of web hosting providers that are geared towards businesses. By this I mean providers that make it easy to create daily off site backups, are aware that websites require disaster recovery options and have these in place or are able to assist with them, etc. We currently have about a dozen sites with various providers, however, I've been asked to consolidate all of these into one provider and create a full disaster recovery plan. Unfortunately it seems like most providers are geared towards average users that don't require all these extra bells and whistles that businesses need. For example, HostGator, which is a very popular and well reviewed provider, doesn't even allow you to schedule full backups, they have to be manually requested via cPanel and then downloaded once available. If anyone can point out a couple companies that might be able to help with these sorts of things that would be much appreciated. Thanks, Harry P.S. I should also add that we are hoping to stay away from having to manage our own server, we're hoping for a fully managed solution like what HostGator would offer for example.

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• Installing nvidia drivers causes computer to boot to command prompt.

  - by levesque

  Hi, I have an Asus u30jc laptop, which comes with the Optimus prime graphics card switching technology that is now supported under 2.6.35, so I decided to give it a try. First I made sure the discrete graphics card was activated and then I installed the drivers proposed by the ubuntu software repository (nvidia-current). However, after rebooting all I got was a command prompt. My graphics card is a nvidia 310M. This is on Ubuntu 10.10 64 bits. What can I do to diagnose/identify the source of this problem? UPDATE: The messsages in my syslog tell me to check the xorg log: Oct 11 12:42:59 u30jc-test gdm-binary[1095]: WARNING: GdmDisplay: display lasted 0.053144 seconds Oct 11 12:42:59 u30jc-test gdm-simple-slave[1450]: WARNING: Unable to load file '/etc/gdm/custom.conf': No such file or directory Oct 11 12:42:59 u30jc-test gdm-binary[1095]: WARNING: GdmDisplay: display lasted 0.038176 seconds Oct 11 12:42:59 u30jc-test gdm-binary[1095]: WARNING: GdmLocalDisplayFactory: maximum number of X display failures reached: check X server log for errors Which I did. I found this message in my /var/log/Xorg.0.log : Fatal server error: [ 113.540] no screens found [ 113.540] What does that mean?

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• Cannot see boot options after editing grub background

  - by cipricus

  After solving this problem I managed to get myself into truble again out of nothing by trying to change the display of the dual boot option page in Boot Customizer. I have changed the background, the fonts size (I have increased them) and font style (I have chosen UnDotum). But Boot Customizer gave me an error (I mean a message that the application was closed unexpectedly or smth). I have restarted BootCustomizer and the settings were there. When I rebooted, instead of the normal boot options list, just the background image that I had selected and nothing else. I used Boot Repair to repair grub, it says it did it successfully, but I still get the background image when I try to boot. Any ideas? (Could it be the matter that I chose UnDotum font style? That was installed in Lubuntu - but how could it be accessible in displaying boot options?) The contents of etc/default/grub are: # If you change this file, run 'update-grub' afterwards to update # /boot/grub/grub.cfg. # For full documentation of the options in this file, see: # info -f grub -n 'Simple configuration' GRUB_DEFAULT=0 GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT=0 GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT_QUIET=true GRUB_TIMEOUT=10 GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR=`lsb_release -i -s 2> /dev/null || echo Debian` GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash" GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="" # Uncomment to enable BadRAM filtering, modify to suit your needs # This works with Linux (no patch required) and with any kernel that obtains # the memory map information from GRUB (GNU Mach, kernel of FreeBSD ...) #GRUB_BADRAM="0x01234567,0xfefefefe,0x89abcdef,0xefefefef" # Uncomment to disable graphical terminal (grub-pc only) #GRUB_TERMINAL=console # The resolution used on graphical terminal # note that you can use only modes which your graphic card supports via VBE # you can see them in real GRUB with the command `vbeinfo' #GRUB_GFXMODE=640x480 # Uncomment if you don't want GRUB to pass "root=UUID=xxx" parameter to Linux #GRUB_DISABLE_LINUX_UUID=true # Uncomment to disable generation of recovery mode menu entries #GRUB_DISABLE_RECOVERY="true" # Uncomment to get a beep at grub start #GRUB_INIT_TUNE="480 440 1" I have tried to modify etc/default/grub: GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT=0 to 10 GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT_QUIET=true to false and GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash" to "" but it doesn't help Also, using Shift doesn't make the list visible. I am looking for something like a command that would reset grub options to default. [When trying to reinstall grub i get to this window in term:

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• How to experience gradual improvement of knowledge while a newbie does .NET maintenance programming?

  - by amir

  I started my career as a software developer about 6 months ago. This is my first job, and I am the only developer in this company. I gained .NET knowledge by self study and also by doing some university projects. Our systems have old foundations based on an earlier version of .NET, and I'm starting to feel that I am not improving since I am a maintenance programmer here. Everything is old and my manager is not really taking any chances on gradually improving the software. What is your opinion? What should I do? I am newbie and also work hard to find my way through. There is no other developer, not even a senior one to help me here. I need your advice on my situation. And one last thing, can I get a new job with doing maintenance programming? I mean don't managers say that you do not have the experience of developing a new software from scratch? I feel redundant, what do I do?

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• A new clients come into my web agency. How to configure email and social accounts to work better? [on hold]

  - by Marco Panichi

  I created websites for many years but still have not found the right way to organize all the email and social accounts of every clients. I mean, every web agency follows dozens of customers. Each client needs at least Google Analytics, AdWords, a Facebook page, a Twitter profile, a Youtube channel, probably a listing on Google Places and maybe a Mail Chimp (or similar) account. The web agency, in my opinion, must own these accounts, use them to deliver results to the customer and -of course- make them available to the customer for two reasons: - The customer must be able to see how things are going - The client must have the ability to change web agency without suffering The web agency, however, has many problems in having all of these accounts. For example, I like the idea of having a Gmail account for each client and from that account use all the products of Google. But is not possible to create more than many Gmail account from the same ip address and with the same phone number. The web agency could invite the customer to create his own accounts but: - This is not necessary a value for the customer (indeed...) - The web agency would manage them, however, from the same ip address, incurring in problems - If phone verification occurs, the web agency has to disturb the customer for verification Have you the same problem? How to solve it?

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• Does Google sometime prevent new white hat sites from ranking at all in some verticals?

  - by JVerstry

  Assuming someone wants to implement a new viagra or akai berry e-commerce website. There is a lot of competition and this site does not really bring something new, other than a new online counter to buy products at a nice price. Assuming this site does not use any black hat techniques and that it stays with Google quality guidelines, and assuming it has no (or few) backlinks (from non-authoritative websites). Assuming this website's pages are indexed properly in Webmaster Tool, and that no penalties are reported. No site improvements are suggested. Google crawls the site daily as reported in GWT. No robots.txt configuration issues. Does Google sometime decide to no rank this site for any user query (for weeks), because of lack of original content? The reason I am asking this is that I am trying to understand the possible cause of a similar situation I am observing with two sites. If so, what is the way out to start ranking for these site? If not, does it mean the cause is elsewhere for sure? Any confirmed info to get out of the maze is welcome.

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• Good 2D Platformer Physics

  - by Joe Wreschnig

  I have a basic character controller set up for a 2D platformer with Box2D, and I'm starting to tweak it to try to make it feel good. Physics engines have a lot of knobs to tweak, and it's not clear to me, writing with a physics engine for the first time, which ones I should use. Should jumping apply a force for several ticks? An impulse? Directly set velocity? How do I stop the avatar from sticking to walls without taking away all its friction (or do I take away all the friction, but only in the air)? Should I model the character as a capsule? A box with rounded corners? A box with two wheels? Just one big wheel? I feel like someone must have done this before! There seem to be very few resources available on the web that are not "baby's first physics", which all cut off where I'm hoping someone has already solved the issues. Most examples of physics engines for platformers have floaty-feeling controls, or in-air jumps, or easily exploitable behavior when temporary penetration is too high, etc. Some examples of what I mean: A short tap of jump jumps a short distance; a long tap jumps higher. Short skidding when stopping or reversing directions at high velocity. Standing stably on inclines (but maybe sliding down them when ducking). Analog speed when using an analog controller. All the other things that separate good platformers from bad platformers. Dare I suggest, stable moving platforms? I'm not really looking for "hey, do this." Obviously, the right thing to do is dependent on what I want in the game. But I'm hoping someone somewhere has gone through the possibilities and said "well technique A does feature X well, technique B does Y well, but that doesn't work with C", or has some worked examples beyond "if (key == space) character.impulse(0, 1)"

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• using Moniker.com's nameservers

  - by user7519

  I have a VPS with A2Hosting for which i need to upgrade the OS. However, they've changed their VPS packages and forced me to order a new one. I went with an "unmanaged" package and have only just realised that they do not provide any DNS service at all, not even nameservers. Support tells me that "since your domain is not hosted with us, but with Moniker, you would not be able to use these nameservers. Your domain registrar should have a set of default nameservers that you can use, then create a A record to point to" my IP address. Moniker does provide for using their nameservers but i'm confused about which "pre-defined zone configuration" to use. They are: Domain Parking Domain Parking with Email Forwarding URL and Email Forwarding URL Forwarding URL Forwarding & CoolHandle Email I just want to use their nameserver and then create A & MX records pointing to the VPS. What do they mean by forwarding? I get the feeling it's a service that i don't want. Or, is it that i need to have a pre-defined zone only temporarily, and THEN set the A & MX? Which of these should i choose.

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• Advancing my Embedded knowledge.....with a CS degree.

  - by Mercfh

  So I graduated last December with a B.S. in Computer Science, in a pretty good well known engineering college. However towards the end I realized that I actually like Assembly/Lower level C programming more than I actually enjoy higher level abstracted OO stuff. (Like I Programmed my own Device Drivers for USB stuff in Linux, stuff like that) But.....I mean we really didn't concentrate much on that in college, perhaps an EE/CE degree would've been better, but I knew the classes......and things weren't THAT much different. I've messed around with Atmel AVR's/Arduino stuff (Mostly robotics) and Linux Kernals/Device Drivers. but I really want to enhance my skills and maybe one day get a job doing embedded stuff. (I have a job now, it's An entry level software dev/tester job, it's a good job but not exactly what my passion lies in) (Im pretty good with C and certain ASM's for specific microcontrollers) Is this even possible with a CS degree? or am I screwed? (since technically my degree usually doesn't involve much embedded stuff) If Im NOT screwed then what should I be studying/learning? How would I even go about it........ I guess I could eventually say "Experienced with XXXX Microcontrollers/ASM/etc...." but still, it wouldn't be the same as having a CE/EE degree. Also....going back to college isn't an option. just fyi. edit: Any book recommendations for "getting used to this stuff" I have ARM System-on-Chip Architecture (2nd edition) it's good.....for ARM stuff lol

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• Simple monitoring of a Raspberry Pi powered screen - Part 2

  - by Chris Houston

  If you have read my previous blog post Raspberry Pi entrance signed backed by Umbraco - Part 1 which describes how we used a Raspberry Pi to drive an Entrance sign for QV Offices you will have seen I mentioned a follow up post about monitoring the sign.As the sign is mounted in the entrance of the building on the ground floor and the reception is on the 1st floor, this meant that if there was a fault of any kind showing on the screen, the first person to see this was inevitably one of QV Offices' clients as they walked into the building.Although the QV Offices' team were able to check the Umbraco website address that the sign uses, this did not always mean that everything was working as expected. We noticed a couple of times that the sign had Wifi issues (it is now hard wired) and this caused the Chromium browser to render a 404 error when it tried to refresh the screen.The simple monitoring solutionWe added the following line to our refresh script, so that after the sign had been refreshed a screen shot of the Raspberry Pi would be taken:import -display :0 -window root ~/screenshot.jpgFinally we wrote a small Crontab task that ran on a QV Offices Mac that grabs this screen shot and saved it on the desktop, admittedly we have used a package that it not mega secure, but in reality this is an internal system that only runs an office sign, so we are not to concerned about it being hacked.*/5 * * * * /usr/local/bin/sshpass -p 'password' /usr/bin/scp [email protected]:screenshot.jpg Desktop/QVScreenShot.jpgAs the file icon updates, if the image changes, this gives a quick visual indication of the status of the sign, if for some reason the icon does not look correct the QV Offices administrator can just click on the file to see the exact image currently displayed on the sign.Sometimes a quick and easy solution is better than a more complex and expensive one.

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• Precautions during SSH

  - by Shagun

  I recently had to give away my Ubuntu 12.10 root password to one of my friends so that he could SSH into my system and send some files to me. Now he is my friend and I trust him so I was not reluctant in sharing my password. And I did change it afterwards. But it just struck me how can I view all the commands that were executed by some other user remote logging into my system (obviously not my friend. I mean in general).To what extent can they access my data (especially my passwords eg I use Last Pass so can they access my account passwords as well??) And if they open any browser after logging into my system do they have access to all my passwords provided I have saved them using the "remember password" option given by chrome Also what precautions I should take when I am allowing some one to remote login in my system and how can I track the various commands used by them or the changes they made in my system. Also is there some simple way to get notified whenever some one logs into my system apart from checking the /var/log/auth.log file??

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• What's the best way to learn/increase problem-solving skills?

  - by tucaz

  Hi all! I'm not sure this is the right place to ask this question, neither if this is the right way to ask this question but I hope you help me if it is not. I work as a programmer since I was 15 (will be 24 next week) so learning programming logic was somehow natural during the course of my career and I think that it helped me to get pretty good problem-solving. One thing none of us (programmers) can deny is that programming logic helps us in a lot of fields outside computer programming. So I'd say it is a very valuable resource that one should learn. My girlfriend is not a programmer and graduated in college on a non related course (Foreign Relations) because she didn't know what to study back then. As the years passed she discovered that she liked Logistics and started to work with it almost two years ago. However, since she does not have a technical background (not even basic Math) she is really having a hard time with it. She is already trying to catch up with Math, but even simple questions/brain-teasers are hard to her. For example, trying to find the missing numbers of this sequence: 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, _, _, 34 and so on. We know that this is Fibonacci but if we didn't we would probably be able to get to the correct answer just by "guessing" (using our acquired problem-solving skills). I'm not sure if problem-solving skills or logic are the correct name for it, but this is what I mean: quick solve problems, brain-teasers, find patterns, have a "sharp" mind. So, the question is: what is the best way for someone to learn this kind of skills without being a programmer (or studying algorithms and such)? If you say it is a book, could you please recommend one? Thanks a lot!

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• How is constant buffer allocation handled in DX11?

  - by Marek

  I'm starting with DX11 and I'm not sure if I'm doing the things right. I want to have both pixel and vertex shader program in one file. Both use some shared and some different constant buffers. So it looks like this: Shader.fx cbuffer ForVS : register(b0) { float4x4 wvp; }; cbuffer ForVSandPS : register(b1) { float4 stuff; float4 stuff2; }; cbuffer ForVS2 : register(b2) { float4 stuff; float4 stuff2; }; cbuffer ForPS : register(b3) { float4 stuff; float4 stuff2; }; .... And in code I use mContext->VSSetConstantBuffers( 0, 1, bufferVS); mContext->VSSetConstantBuffers( 1, 1, bufferVS_PS); mContext->VSSetConstantBuffers( 2, 1, bufferVS2); mContext->PSSetConstantBuffers( 1, 1, bufferVS_PS); mContext->PSSetConstantBuffers( 3, 1, bufferPS); The numbering of buffers in PS is what bugs me, is it alright to bind random slots to shaders (in this example 1 and 3)? Does that mean it still uses just two buffers or does it initialize 0 and 2 buffer pointers to empty? Thank you.

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• How to explain a layperson why a developer should not be interrupted while neck-deep in coding?

  - by András Szepesházi

  If you just consider the second part of my question, "Why a developer should not be interrupted while neck-deep in coding", that has been discussed a number of times by smart people. Heck, even the co-founder of SO, Joel Spolsky, wrote a blog post about "getting in the zone" and "being knocked out of the zone" and why it takes an average of 15 minutes to achieve productivity when participating in complex, software development related tasks. So I think the why has been established. What I'm interested in is how to explain all that to somebody who doesn't know beans about Beans (khmm I mean software development). How to tell the wife, or the funny guy from accounting at the workplace, or the long time friend who pings you on Skype every 30 minutes with a "Wazzzzzzup?!", that all the interruptions have a much deeper impact on your work than the obvious 30 seconds they took from your time. Obviously you can't explain it by sentences like "I have to juggle a lot of variable names in my short term memory" unless you want to be the target of blank stares or friendly abuse. I'd like to be able to explain all that to non-developers in a way that will make them clearly understand - without being offensive, elitist or too technical. EDIT: Thanks to everyone for their great insights. I've accepted EpsilonVector's answer as his analogy was the closest one to my original needs. The "falling asleep" explanation is neither offensive nor technical, almost anyone can relate to it, and the consequences of getting disturbed while falling asleep or while being in the zone are very similar: you experience frustration and you "lose" 15-20 minutes of time.

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• Turn-based Client-Server Card Game - Unicast (TCP) or Multicast (UDP)

  - by LDM91

  I am currently planning to make a card game project where the clients will communicate with the server in a turn-based and synchronous manner using messages sent over sockets. The problem I have is how to handle the following scenario: (Client takes it turn and sends its action to server) Client sends a message telling the server its move for the turn (e.g. plays the card 5 from its hand which needs to placed onto the table) Server receives messages and updates game state (server will hold all game state). Server iterates through a list of connected clients and sends a message to tell of them change in state Clients all refresh to display the state This is all based on using TCP, and looking at it now it seems a bit like the Observer pattern. The reason this seems to be an issue to me is this message doesn't seem to be point-to-point like the others as I want to send it to all the clients, and doesn't seem very efficient sending the same message in that way. I was thinking about using multicasting with UDP as then I could send the message to all the clients, however wouldn't this mean that the clients would in theory be able to message each other? There is of course the synchronous aspect as well, though this could be put on top of the UDP I guess. Basically, I would like to know what would be good practice as this project is really all about learning, and even though it won't be big enough to encounter performance issues from this I would like to consider them anyway. However, please note I am not interested in using message oriented middleware as a solution (I have experience with using MOM and I'm interested in considering other options excluding MOM if TCP sockets is a bad idea!).

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• Compute the AES-encryption key given the plaintext and its ciphertext?

  - by Null Pointers etc.

  I'm tasked with creating database tables in Oracle which contain encrypted strings (i.e., the columns are RAW). The strings are encrypted by the application (using AES, 128-bit key) and stored in Oracle, then later retrieved from Oracle and decrypted (i.e., Oracle itself never sees the unencrypted strings). I've come across this one column that will be one of two strings. I'm worried that someone will notice and presumably figure out what those two values to figure out the AES key. For example, if someone sees that the column is either Ciphertext #1 or #2: Ciphertext #1: BF,4F,8B,FE, 60,D8,33,56, 1B,F2,35,72, 49,20,DE,C6. Ciphertext #2: BC,E8,54,BD, F4,B3,36,3B, DD,70,76,45, 29,28,50,07. and knows the corresponding Plaintexts: Plaintext #1 ("Detroit"): 44,00,65,00, 74,00,72,00, 6F,00,69,00, 74,00,00,00. Plaintext #2 ("Chicago"): 43,00,68,00, 69,00,63,00, 61,00,67,00, 6F,00,00,00. can he deduce that the encryption key is "Buffalo"? 42,00,75,00, 66,00,66,00, 61,00,6C,00, 6F,00,00,00. I'm thinking that there should be only one 128-bit key that could convert Plaintext #1 to Ciphertext #1. Does this mean I should go to a 192-bit or 256-bit key instead, or find some other solution? (As an aside, here are two other ciphertexts for the same plaintexts but with a different key.) Ciphertext #1 A ("Detroit"): E4,28,29,E3, 6E,C2,64,FA, A1,F4,F4,96, FC,18,4A,C5. Ciphertext #2 A ("Chicago"): EA,87,30,F0, AC,44,5D,ED, FD,EB,A8,79, 83,59,53,B7.

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• Can I remove the systems from a component entity system?

  - by nathan

  After reading a lot about entity/component based engines. I feel like there is no real definition for this kind of engine. Reading this thread: Implementing features in an Entity System and the linked article made me think a lot. I did not feel that comfortable using System concept so I'll write something else, inspired by this pattern. I'd like to know if you think it's a good way to organize game code and what improvements can be made. Regarding a more strict implementation of entity/component based engine, is my solution viable? Do I risk getting stuck at any point due to the lack of flexibility of this implementation (or anything else)? My engine, as for entity/component patterns has entities and components, no systems since the game logic is handled by components. Also, I think the main difference is the fact that my engine will use inherence and OOP concepts in general, I mean, I don't try to minimize them. Entity: an entity is an abstract class. It holds his position, width and height, scale and a list of linked components. The current implementation can be found here (java). Every frame, the entity will be updated (i.e all the components linked to this entity will be updated), and rendered, if a render component is specified. Component: like for entity, a component is an abstract class that must be extended to create new components. The behavior of an entity is created through his components collection. The component implementation can be found here. Components are updated when the owning entity is updated or for only one specific component (render component), rendered. Here is an example of a logic component (i.e not a renderable component, a component that's updated each frame) in charge of listening for keyboard events and a render component in charge of display a plain sprite (i.e not animated).

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• How to build a "traffic AI"?

  - by Lunikon

  A project I am working on right now features a lot of "traffic" in the sense of cars moving along roads, aircraft moving aroun an apron etc. As of now the available paths are precalculated, so nodes are generated automatically for crossings which themselves are interconnected by edges. When a character/agent spawns into the world it starts at some node and finds a path to a target node by means of a simply A* algorithm. The agent follows the path and ultimately reaches its destination. No problem so far. Now I need to enable the agents to avoid collisions and to handle complex traffic situations. Since I'm new to the field of AI I looked up several papers/articles on steering behavior but found them to be too low-level. My problem consists less of the actual collision avoidance (which is rather simple in this case because the agents follow strictly defined paths) but of situations like one agent leaving a dead-end while another one wants to enter exactly the same one. Or two agents meeting at a bottleneck which only allows one agent to pass at a time but both need to pass it (according to the optimal route found before) and they need to find a way to let the other one pass first. So basically the main aspect of the problem would be predicting traffic movement to avoid dead-locks. Difficult to describe, but I guess you get what I mean. Do you have any recommendations for me on where to start looking? Any papers, sample projects or similar things that could get me started? I appreciate your help!

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