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• Who broke the build?

  - by Martin Hinshelwood

  I recently sent round a list of broken builds at SSW and asked for them to be fixed or deleted if they are not being used. My colleague Peter came back with a couple of questions which I love as it tells me that at least one person reads my email I think first we need to answer a couple of other questions related to builds in general.   Why do we want the build to pass? Any developer can pick up a project and build it Standards can be enforced Constant quality is maintained Problems in code are identified early What could a failed build signify? Developers have not built and tested their code properly before checking in. Something added depends on a local resource that is not under version control or does not exist on the target computer. Developers are not writing tests to cover common problems. There are not enough tests to cover problems. Now we know why, lets answer Peters questions: Where is this list? (can we see it somehow) You can normally only see the builds listed for each project. But, you have a little application called “Build Notifications” on your computer. It is installed when you install Visual Studio 2010. Figure: Staring the build notification application on Windows 7. Once you have it open (it may disappear into your system tray) you should click “Options” and select all the projects you are involved in. This application only lists projects that have builds, so don’t worry if it is not listed. This just means you are about to setup a build, right? I just selected ALL projects that have builds. Figure: All builds are listed here In addition to seeing the list you will also get toast notification of build failure’s. How can we get more info on what broke the build? (who is interesting too, to point the finger but more important is what) The only thing worse than breaking the build, is continuing to develop on a broken build! Figure: I have highlighted the users who either are bad for braking the build, or very bad for not fixing it. To find out what is wrong with a build you need to open the build definition. You can open a web version by double clicking the build in the image above, or you can open it from “Team Explorer”. Just connect to your project and open out the “Builds” tree. Then Open the build by double clicking on it. Figure: Opening a build is easy, but double click it and then open a build run from the list. Figure: Good example, the build and tests have passed Figure: Bad example, there are 133 errors preventing POK from being built on the build server. For identifying failures see: Solution: Getting Silverlight to build on Team Build 2010 RC Solution: Testing Web Services with MSTest on Team Build Finding the problem on a partially succeeded build So, Peter asked about blame, let’s have a look and see: Figure: The build has been broken for so long I have no idea when it was broken, but everyone on this list is to blame (I am there too) The rest of the history is lost in the sands of time, there is no way to tell when the build was originally broken, or by whom, or even if it ever worked in the first place. Build should be protected by the team that uses them and the only way to do that is to have them own them. It is fine for me to go in and setup a build, but the ownership for a build should always reside with the person who broke it last. Conclusion This is an example of a pointless build. Lets be honest, if you have a system like TFS in place and builds are constantly left broken, or not added to projects then your developers don’t yet understand the value. I have found that adding a Gated Check-in helps instil that understanding of value. If you prevent them from checking in without passing that basic quality gate of “your code builds on another computer” then it makes them look more closely at why they can’t check-in. I have had builds fail because one developer had a “d” drive, but the build server did not. That is what they are there to catch.   If you want to know what builds to create and why I wrote a post on “Do you know the minimum builds to create on any branch?”   Technorati Tags: TFS2010,Gated Check-in,Builds,Build Failure,Broken Build

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• Windows Azure Recipe: Software as a Service (SaaS)

  - by Clint Edmonson

  The cloud was tailor built for aspiring companies to create innovative internet based applications and solutions. Whether you’re a garage startup with very little capital or a Fortune 1000 company, the ability to quickly setup, deliver, and iterate on new products is key to capturing market and mind share. And if you can capture that share and go viral, having resiliency and infinite scale at your finger tips is great peace of mind. Drivers Cost avoidance Time to market Scalability Solution Here’s a sketch of how a basic Software as a Service solution might be built out: Ingredients Web Role – this hosts the core web application. Each web role will host an instance of the software and as the user base grows, additional roles can be spun up to meet demand. Access Control – this service is essential to managing user identity. It’s backed by a full blown implementation of Active Directory and allows the definition and management of users, groups, and roles. A pre-built ASP.NET membership provider is included in the training kit to leverage this capability but it’s also flexible enough to be combined with external Identity providers including Windows LiveID, Google, Yahoo!, and Facebook. The provider model provides extensibility to hook into other industry specific identity providers as well. Databases – nearly every modern SaaS application is backed by a relational database for its core operational data. If the solution is sold to organizations, there’s a good chance multi-tenancy will be needed. An emerging best practice for SaaS applications is to stand up separate SQL Azure database instances for each tenant’s proprietary data to ensure isolation from other tenants. Worker Role – this is the best place to handle autonomous background processing such as data aggregation, billing through external services, and other specialized tasks that can be performed asynchronously. Placing these tasks in a worker role frees the web roles to focus completely on user interaction and data input and provides finer grained control over the system’s scalability and throughput. Caching (optional) – as a web site traffic grows caching can be leveraged to keep frequently used read-only, user specific, and application resource data in a high-speed distributed in-memory for faster response times and ultimately higher scalability without spinning up more web and worker roles. It includes a token based security model that works alongside the Access Control service. Blobs (optional) – depending on the nature of the software, users may be creating or uploading large volumes of heterogeneous data such as documents or rich media. Blob storage provides a scalable, resilient way to store terabytes of user data. The storage facilities can also integrate with the Access Control service to ensure users’ data is delivered securely. Training & Examples These links point to online Windows Azure training labs and examples where you can learn more about the individual ingredients described above. (Note: The entire Windows Azure Training Kit can also be downloaded for offline use.) Windows Azure (16 labs) Windows Azure is an internet-scale cloud computing and services platform hosted in Microsoft data centers, which provides an operating system and a set of developer services which can be used individually or together. It gives developers the choice to build web applications; applications running on connected devices, PCs, or servers; or hybrid solutions offering the best of both worlds. New or enhanced applications can be built using existing skills with the Visual Studio development environment and the .NET Framework. With its standards-based and interoperable approach, the services platform supports multiple internet protocols, including HTTP, REST, SOAP, and plain XML SQL Azure (7 labs) Microsoft SQL Azure delivers on the Microsoft Data Platform vision of extending the SQL Server capabilities to the cloud as web-based services, enabling you to store structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data. Windows Azure Services (9 labs) As applications collaborate across organizational boundaries, ensuring secure transactions across disparate security domains is crucial but difficult to implement. Windows Azure Services provides hosted authentication and access control using powerful, secure, standards-based infrastructure. Developing Applications for the Cloud, 2nd Edition (eBook) This book demonstrates how you can create from scratch a multi-tenant, Software as a Service (SaaS) application to run in the cloud using the latest versions of the Windows Azure Platform and tools. The book is intended for any architect, developer, or information technology (IT) professional who designs, builds, or operates applications and services that run on or interact with the cloud. Fabrikam Shipping (SaaS reference application) This is a full end to end sample scenario which demonstrates how to use the Windows Azure platform for exposing an application as a service. We developed this demo just as you would: we had an existing on-premises sample, Fabrikam Shipping, and we wanted to see what it would take to transform it in a full subscription based solution. The demo you find here is the result of that investigation See my Windows Azure Resource Guide for more guidance on how to get started, including more links web portals, training kits, samples, and blogs related to Windows Azure.

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• obj-c classes and sub classes (Cocos2d) conversion

  - by Lewis

  Hi I'm using this version of cocos2d: https://github.com/krzysztofzablocki/CCNode-SFGestureRecognizers Which supports the UIGestureRecognizer within a CCLayer in a cocos2d scene like so: @interface HelloWorldLayer : CCLayer <UIGestureRecognizerDelegate> { } Now I want to make this custom gesture work within the scene, attaching it to a sprite in cocos2d: #import <Foundation/Foundation.h> #import <UIKit/UIGestureRecognizerSubclass.h> @protocol OneFingerRotationGestureRecognizerDelegate <NSObject> @optional - (void) rotation: (CGFloat) angle; - (void) finalAngle: (CGFloat) angle; @end @interface OneFingerRotationGestureRecognizer : UIGestureRecognizer { CGPoint midPoint; CGFloat innerRadius; CGFloat outerRadius; CGFloat cumulatedAngle; id <OneFingerRotationGestureRecognizerDelegate> target; } - (id) initWithMidPoint: (CGPoint) midPoint innerRadius: (CGFloat) innerRadius outerRadius: (CGFloat) outerRadius target: (id) target; - (void)reset; - (void)touchesBegan:(NSSet *)touches withEvent:(UIEvent *)event; - (void)touchesMoved:(NSSet *)touches withEvent:(UIEvent *)event; - (void)touchesEnded:(NSSet *)touches withEvent:(UIEvent *)event; - (void)touchesCancelled:(NSSet *)touches withEvent:(UIEvent *)event; @end #include <math.h> #import "OneFingerRotationGestureRecognizer.h" @implementation OneFingerRotationGestureRecognizer // private helper functions CGFloat distanceBetweenPoints(CGPoint point1, CGPoint point2); CGFloat angleBetweenLinesInDegrees(CGPoint beginLineA, CGPoint endLineA, CGPoint beginLineB, CGPoint endLineB); - (id) initWithMidPoint: (CGPoint) _midPoint innerRadius: (CGFloat) _innerRadius outerRadius: (CGFloat) _outerRadius target: (id <OneFingerRotationGestureRecognizerDelegate>) _target { if ((self = [super initWithTarget: _target action: nil])) { midPoint = _midPoint; innerRadius = _innerRadius; outerRadius = _outerRadius; target = _target; } return self; } /** Calculates the distance between point1 and point 2. */ CGFloat distanceBetweenPoints(CGPoint point1, CGPoint point2) { CGFloat dx = point1.x - point2.x; CGFloat dy = point1.y - point2.y; return sqrt(dx*dx + dy*dy); } CGFloat angleBetweenLinesInDegrees(CGPoint beginLineA, CGPoint endLineA, CGPoint beginLineB, CGPoint endLineB) { CGFloat a = endLineA.x - beginLineA.x; CGFloat b = endLineA.y - beginLineA.y; CGFloat c = endLineB.x - beginLineB.x; CGFloat d = endLineB.y - beginLineB.y; CGFloat atanA = atan2(a, b); CGFloat atanB = atan2(c, d); // convert radiants to degrees return (atanA - atanB) * 180 / M_PI; } #pragma mark - UIGestureRecognizer implementation - (void)reset { [super reset]; cumulatedAngle = 0; } - (void)touchesBegan:(NSSet *)touches withEvent:(UIEvent *)event { [super touchesBegan:touches withEvent:event]; if ([touches count] != 1) { self.state = UIGestureRecognizerStateFailed; return; } } - (void)touchesMoved:(NSSet *)touches withEvent:(UIEvent *)event { [super touchesMoved:touches withEvent:event]; if (self.state == UIGestureRecognizerStateFailed) return; CGPoint nowPoint = [[touches anyObject] locationInView: self.view]; CGPoint prevPoint = [[touches anyObject] previousLocationInView: self.view]; // make sure the new point is within the area CGFloat distance = distanceBetweenPoints(midPoint, nowPoint); if ( innerRadius <= distance && distance <= outerRadius) { // calculate rotation angle between two points CGFloat angle = angleBetweenLinesInDegrees(midPoint, prevPoint, midPoint, nowPoint); // fix value, if the 12 o'clock position is between prevPoint and nowPoint if (angle > 180) { angle -= 360; } else if (angle < -180) { angle += 360; } // sum up single steps cumulatedAngle += angle; // call delegate if ([target respondsToSelector: @selector(rotation:)]) { [target rotation:angle]; } } else { // finger moved outside the area self.state = UIGestureRecognizerStateFailed; } } - (void)touchesEnded:(NSSet *)touches withEvent:(UIEvent *)event { [super touchesEnded:touches withEvent:event]; if (self.state == UIGestureRecognizerStatePossible) { self.state = UIGestureRecognizerStateRecognized; if ([target respondsToSelector: @selector(finalAngle:)]) { [target finalAngle:cumulatedAngle]; } } else { self.state = UIGestureRecognizerStateFailed; } cumulatedAngle = 0; } - (void)touchesCancelled:(NSSet *)touches withEvent:(UIEvent *)event { [super touchesCancelled:touches withEvent:event]; self.state = UIGestureRecognizerStateFailed; cumulatedAngle = 0; } @end Header file for view controller: #import "OneFingerRotationGestureRecognizer.h" @interface OneFingerRotationGestureViewController : UIViewController <OneFingerRotationGestureRecognizerDelegate> @property (nonatomic, strong) IBOutlet UIImageView *image; @property (nonatomic, strong) IBOutlet UITextField *textDisplay; @end then this is in the .m file: gestureRecognizer = [[OneFingerRotationGestureRecognizer alloc] initWithMidPoint: midPoint innerRadius: outRadius / 3 outerRadius: outRadius target: self]; [self.view addGestureRecognizer: gestureRecognizer]; Now my question is, is it possible to add this custom gesture into the cocos2d project found on that github, and if so, what do I need to change in the OneFingerRotationGestureRecognizerDelegate to get it to work within cocos2d. Because at the minute it is setup in a standard iOS project and not a cocos2d project and I do not know enough about UIViews and classing/ sub classing in obj-c to get this to work. Also it seems to inherit from a UIView where cocos2d uses CCLayer. Kind regards, Lewis. I also realise I may have not included enough code from the custom gesture project for readers to interpret it fully, so the full project can be found here: https://github.com/melle/OneFingerRotationGestureDemo

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• JPRT: A Build & Test System

  - by kto

  DRAFT A while back I did a little blogging on a system called JPRT, the hardware used and a summary on my java.net weblog. This is an update on the JPRT system. JPRT ("JDK Putback Reliablity Testing", but ignore what the letters stand for, I change what they mean every day, just to annoy people :\^) is a build and test system for the JDK, or any source base that has been configured for JPRT. As I mentioned in the above blog, JPRT is a major modification to a system called PRT that the HotSpot VM development team has been using for many years, very successfully I might add. Keeping the source base always buildable and reliable is the first step in the 12 steps of dealing with your product quality... or was the 12 steps from Alcoholics Anonymous... oh well, anyway, it's the first of many steps. ;\^) Internally when we make changes to any part of the JDK, there are certain procedures we are required to perform prior to any putback or commit of the changes. The procedures often vary from team to team, depending on many factors, such as whether native code is changed, or if the change could impact other areas of the JDK. But a common requirement is a verification that the source base with the changes (and merged with the very latest source base) will build on many of not all 8 platforms, and a full 'from scratch' build, not an incremental build, which can hide full build problems. The testing needed varies, depending on what has been changed. Anyone that was worked on a project where multiple engineers or groups are submitting changes to a shared source base knows how disruptive a 'bad commit' can be on everyone. How many times have you heard: "So And So made a bunch of changes and now I can't build!". But multiply the number of platforms by 8, and make all the platforms old and antiquated OS versions with bizarre system setup requirements and you have a pretty complicated situation (see http://download.java.net/jdk6/docs/build/README-builds.html). We don't tolerate bad commits, but our enforcement is somewhat lacking, usually it's an 'after the fact' correction. Luckily the Source Code Management system we use (another antique called TeamWare) allows for a tree of repositories and 'bad commits' are usually isolated to a small team. Punishment to date has been pretty drastic, the Queen of Hearts in 'Alice in Wonderland' said 'Off With Their Heads', well trust me, you don't want to be the engineer doing a 'bad commit' to the JDK. With JPRT, hopefully this will become a thing of the past, not that we have had many 'bad commits' to the master source base, in general the teams doing the integrations know how important their jobs are and they rarely make 'bad commits'. So for these JDK integrators, maybe what JPRT does is keep them from chewing their finger nails at night. ;\^) Over the years each of the teams have accumulated sets of machines they use for building, or they use some of the shared machines available to all of us. But the hunt for build machines is just part of the job, or has been. And although the issues with consistency of the build machines hasn't been a horrible problem, often you never know if the Solaris build machine you are using has all the right patches, or if the Linux machine has the right service pack, or if the Windows machine has it's latest updates. Hopefully the JPRT system can solve this problem. When we ship the binary JDK bits, it is SO very important that the build machines are correct, and we know how difficult it is to get them setup. Sure, if you need to debug a JDK problem that only shows up on Windows XP or Solaris 9, you'll still need to hunt down a machine, but not as a regular everyday occurance. I'm a big fan of a regular nightly build and test system, constantly verifying that a source base builds and tests out. There are many examples of automated build/tests, some that trigger on any change to the source base, some that just run every night. Some provide a protection gateway to the 'golden' source base which only gets changes that the nightly process has verified are good. The JPRT (and PRT) system is meant to guard the source base before anything is sent to it, guarding all source bases from the evil developer, well maybe 'evil' isn't the right word, I haven't met many 'evil' developers, more like 'error prone' developers. ;\^) Humm, come to think about it, I may be one from time to time. :\^{ But the point is that by spreading the build up over a set of machines, and getting the turnaround down to under an hour, it becomes realistic to completely build on all platforms and test it, on every putback. We have the technology, we can build and rebuild and rebuild, and it will be better than it was before, ha ha... Anybody remember the Six Million Dollar Man? Man, I gotta get out more often.. Anyway, now the nightly build and test can become a 'fetch the latest JPRT build bits' and start extensive testing (the testing not done by JPRT, or the platforms not tested by JPRT). Is it Open Source? No, not yet. Would you like to be? Let me know. Or is it more important that you have the ability to use such a system for JDK changes? So enough blabbering on about this JPRT system, tell me what you think. And let me know if you want to hear more about it or not. Stay tuned for the next episode, same Bloody Bat time, same Bloody Bat channel. ;\^) -kto

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• State of the (Commerce) Union: What the healthcare.gov hiccups teach us about the commerce customer experience

  - by Katrina Gosek

  Guest Post by Brenna Johnson, Oracle Commerce Product A lot has been said about the healthcare.gov debacle in the last week. Regardless of your feelings about the Affordable Care Act, there’s a hidden issue in this story that most of the American people don’t understand: delivering a great commerce customer experience (CX) is hard. It shouldn’t be, but it is. The reality of the government’s issues getting the healthcare site up and running smooth is something we in the online commerce community know too well.  If there’s one thing the botched launch of the site has taught us, it’s that regardless of the size of your budget or the power of an executive with a high-profile project, some of the biggest initiatives with the most attention (and the most at stake) don’t go as planned. It may even give you a moment of solace – we have the same issues! But why?  Organizations engage too many separate vendors with different technologies, running sections or pieces of a site to get live. When things go wrong, it takes time to identify the problem – and who or what is at the center of it. Unfortunately, this is a brittle way of setting up a site, making it susceptible to breaks, bugs, and scaling issues. But, it’s the reality of running a site with legacy technology constraints in today’s demanding, customer-centric market. This approach also means there’s also a lot of cooks in lots of different kitchens. You’ve got development and IT, the business and the marketing team, an external Systems Integrator to bring it all together, a digital agency or consultant, QA, product experts, 3rd party suppliers, and the list goes on. To complicate things, different business units are held responsible for different pieces of the site and managing different technologies. And again – due to legacy organizational structure and processes, this is all accepted as the normal State of the Union. Digital commerce has been commonplace for 15 years. Yet, getting a site live, maintained and performing requires orchestrating a cast of thousands (or at least, dozens), big dollars, and some finger-crossing. But it shouldn’t. The great thing about the advent of mobile commerce and the continued maturity of online commerce is that it’s forced organizations to think from the outside, in. Consumers – whether they’re shopping for shoes or a new healthcare plan – don’t care about what technology issues or processes you have behind the scenes. They just want it to work.  They want their experience to be easy, fast, and tailored to them and their needs – whatever they are. This doesn’t sound like a tall order to the American consumer – especially since they interact with sites that do work smoothly.  But the reality is that it takes scores of people, teams, check-ins, late nights, testing, and some good luck to get sites to run, and even more so at Black Friday (or October 1st) traffic levels.  The last thing on a customer’s mind is making excuses for why they can’t buy a product – just get it to work. So what is the government doing? My guess is working day and night to get the site performing  - and having to throw big money at the problem. In the meantime they’re sending frustrated online users to the call center, or even a location where a trained “navigator” can help them in-person to complete their selection. Sounds a lot like multichannel commerce (where broken communication between siloed touchpoints will only frustrate the consumer more). One thing we’ve learned is that consumers spend their time and money with brands they know and trust. When sites are easy to use and adapt to their needs, they tend to spend more, come back, and even become long-time loyalists. Achieving this may require moving internal mountains, but there’s too much at stake to ignore the sea change in how organizations are thinking about their customer. If the thought of re-thinking your internal teams, technologies, and processes sounds like a headache, think about the pain associated with losing valuable customers – and dollars. Regardless if you’re in B2B or B2C, it’s guaranteed that your competitors are making CX a priority. Those early to the game who have made CX a priority have already begun to outpace their competition. So as you’re planning for 2014, look to the news this week. Make sure the customer experience is a focus at your organization. Expectations are at record highs. Map your customer’s journey, and think from the outside, in. How easy is it for your customers to do business with you? If they interact with many touchpoints across your organization, are the call center, website, mobile environment, or brick and mortar location in sync? Do you have the technology in place to achieve this? It’s time to give the people what they want!

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• Windows 8 for productivity?

  - by Charles Young

  At long last I’ve started using Windows 8.  I boot from a VHD on which I have installed Office, Visio, Visual Studio, SQL Server, etc.  For a week, now, I’ve been happily writing code and documents and using Visio and PowerPoint.  I am, very much, a ‘productivity’ user rather than a content consumer.   I spend my days flitting between countless windows and browser tabs displayed across dual monitors.  I need to access a lot of different functionality and information in as fluid a fashion as possible. With that in mind, and like so many others, I was worried about Windows 8.  The Metro interface is primarily about content consumption on touch-enabled screens, and not really geared for people like me sitting in front of an 8-core non-touch laptop and an additional Samsung monitor.  I still use a mouse, not my finger.  And I create more than I consume. Clearly, Windows 8 won’t be viable for people like me unless Metro keeps out of my hair when using productivity and development tools.  With this in mind, I had long expected Microsoft to provide some mechanism for switching Metro off.  There was a registry hack in last year’s Developer Preview, but this capability has been removed.   That’s brave.  So, how have things worked out so far? Well, I am really quite surprised.  When I played with the Developer Preview last year, it was clear that Metro was unfinished and didn’t play well enough with the desktop.  Obviously I expected things to improve, but the context switching from desktop to full-screen seemed a heavy burden to place on users.  That sense of abrupt change hasn’t entirely gone away (how could it), but after a few days, I can’t say that I find it burdensome or irritating.   I’ve got used very quickly to ‘gesturing’ with my mouse at the bottom or top right corners of the screen to move between applications, using the Windows key to toggle the Start screen and generally finding my way around.   I am surprised at how effective the Start screen is, given the rather basic grouping features it provides.  Of course, I had to take control of it and sort things the way I want.  If anything, though, the Start screen provides a better navigation and application launcher tool than the old Start menu. What I didn’t expect was the way that Metro enhances the productivity story.  As I write this, I’ve got my desktop open with a maximised Word window.  However, the desktop extends only across about 85% of the width of my screen.  On the left hand side, I have a column that displays the new Metro email client.  This is currently showing me a list of emails for my main work account.  I can flip easily between different accounts and read my email within that same column.  As I work on documents, I want to be able to monitor my inbox with a quick glance. The desktop, of course, has its own snap feature.  I could run the desktop full screen and bring up Outlook and Word side by side.  However, this doesn’t begin to approach the convenience of snapping the Metro email client.  Consider that when I snap a window on the desktop, it initially takes up 50% of the screen.  Outlook doesn’t really know anything about snap, and doesn’t adjust to make effective use of the limited screen estate.  Even at 50% screen width, it is difficult to use, so forget about trying to use it in a Metro fashion. In any case, I am left with the prospect of having to manually adjust everything to view my email effectively alongside Word.  Worse, there is nothing stopping another window from overlapping and obscuring my email.  It becomes a struggle to keep sight of email as it arrives.  Of course, there is always ‘toast’ to notify me when things arrive, but if Outlook is obscured, this just feels intrusive. The beauty of the Metro snap feature is that my email reader now exists outside of my desktop.   The Metro app has been crafted to work well in the fixed width column as well as in full-screen.  It cannot be obscured by overlapping windows.  I still get notifications if I wish.  More importantly, it is clear that careful attention has been given to how things work when moving between applications when ‘snapped’.  If I decide, say to flick over to the Metro newsreader to catch up with current affairs, my desktop, rather than my email client, obligingly makes way for the reader.  With a simple gesture and click, or alternatively by pressing Windows-Tab, my desktop reappears. Another pleasant surprise is the way Windows 8 handles dual monitors.  It’s not just the fact that both screens now display the desktop task bar.  It’s that I can so easily move between Metro and the desktop on either screen.  I can only have Metro on one screen at a time which makes entire sense given the ‘full-screen’ nature of Metro apps.  Using dual monitors feels smoother and easier than previous versions of Windows. Overall then, I’m enjoying the Windows 8 improvements.  Strangely, for all the hype (“Windows reimagined”, etc.), my perception as a ‘productivity’ user is more one of evolution than revolution.  It all feels very familiar, but just better.

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• UML assignment question

  - by waitinforatrain

  Hi guys, Sorry, I know this is a very lame question to ask and not of any use to anyone else. I have an assignment in UML due tomorrow and I don't even know the basics (all-nighter ahead!). I'm not looking for a walkthrough, I simply want your opinion on something. The assignment is as follows (you only need to skim over it!): ============= Gourmet Surprise (GS) is a small catering firm with five employees. During a typical weekend, GS caters fifteen events with twenty to fifty people each. The business has grown rapidly over the past year and the owner wants to install a new computer system for managing the ordering and buying process. GS has a set of ten standard menus. When potential customers call, the receptionist describes the menus to them. If the customer decides to book an event (dinner, lunch, picnic, finger food etc.), the receptionist records the customer information (e.g., name, address, phone number, etc.) and the information about the event (e.g., place, date, time, which one of the standard menus, total price) on a contract. The customer is then faxed a copy of the contract and must sign and return it along with a deposit (often a credit card or by check) before the event is officially booked. The remaining money is collected when the catering is delivered. Sometimes, the customer wants something special (e.g., birthday cake). In this case, the receptionist takes the information and gives it to the owner who determines the cost; the receptionist then calls the customer back with the price information. Sometimes the customer accepts the price, other times, the customer requests some changes that have to go back to the owner for a new cost estimate. Each week, the owner looks through the events scheduled for that weekend and orders the supplies (e.g., plates) and food (e.g., bread, chicken) needed to make them. The owner would like to use the system for marketing as well. It should be able to track how customers learned about GS, and identify repeat customers, so that GS can mail special offers to them. The owner also wants to track the events on which GS sent a contract, but the customer never signed the contract and actually booked a GS. Exercise: Create an activity diagram and a use case model (complete with a set of detail use case descriptions) for the above system. Produce an initial domain model (class diagram) based on these descriptions. Elaborate the use cases into sequence diagrams, and include any state diagrams necessary. Finally use the information from these dynamic models to expand the domain model into a full application model. ============= In your opinion, do you think this question is asking me to come up with a package for an online ordering system to replace the system described above, or to create UML diagrams that facilitate the existing telephone-based system?

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• Best programming aids for a quadriplegic programmer

  - by Peter Rowell

  Before you jump to conclusions, yes, this is programming related. It covers a situation that comes under the heading of, "There, but for the grace of God, go you or I." This is brand new territory for me so I'm asking for some serious help here. A young man, Honza Ripa, in a nearby town did the classic Dumb Thing two weeks after graduating from High School -- he dove into shallow water in the Russian River and had a C-4/C-5 break, sometimes called a Swimming Pool break. In a matter of seconds he went from an exceptional golfer and wrestler to a quadriplegic. (Read the story ... all of us should have been so lucky as to have a girlfriend like Brianna.) That was 10 months ago and he has regained only tiny amounts of control of his right index finger and a couple of other hand/foot motions, none of them fine-grained. His total control of his computer (currently running Win7, but we can change that as needed) is via voice command. Honza's not dumb. He had a 3.7 GPA with AP math and physics. The Problems: Since all of his input is via voice command, he is concerned that the predominance of special characters in programming will require vast amount of verbose commands. Does anyone know of any well done voice input system specifically designed for programmers? I'm thinking about something that might be modal--e.g. you say "Python input" and it goes into a macro mode for doing class definitions, etc. Given all of the RSI in programmer-land there's got to be something out there. What OS(es) does it run on? I am planning on teaching him Python, which is my preferred language for programming and teaching. Are there any applications / whatevers that are written in Python and would be a particularly good match for engaging him mentally while supporting his disability? One of his expressed interests is in stock investing, but that not might be a good starting point for a brand-new programmer. There are a lot of environments (Flash, JavaScript, etc) that are not particularly friendly to people with accessibility challenges. I vaguely remember (but cannot find) a research project that basically created an overlay system on top of a screen environment and then allowed macro command construction on top of the screen image. If we can get/train this system, we may be able to remove many hurdles to using the net. I am particularly interested in finding open source Python-based robotics and robotic prostheses projects so that he can simultaneously learn advanced programming concepts while learning to solve some of his own immediate problems. I've done a ton of googling on this, but I know there things I'm missing. I'm asking the SO community to step up to the plate here. I know this group has the answers, so let me hear them! Overwhelm me with the opportunities that any of us might have/need to still program after such a life-changing event.

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• Cancel UITouch Events When View Covered By Modal UIViewController

  - by kkrizka

  Hi there, I am writing an application where the user has to move some stuff on the screen using his fingers and drop them. To do this, I am using the touchesBegan,touchesEnded... function of each view that has to be moved. The problem is that sometimes the views are covered by a view displayed using the [UIViewController presentModalViewController] function. As soon as that happens, the UIView that I was moving stops receiving the touch events, since it was covered up. But there is no event telling me that it stopped receiving the events, so I can reset the state of the moved view. The following is an example that demonstrates this. The functions are part of a UIView that is being shown in the main window. It listens to touch events and when I drag the finger for some distance, it presents a modal view that covers everything. In the Run Log, it prints what touch events are received. - (void)touchesBegan:(NSSet *)touches withEvent:(UIEvent *)event { NSLog(@"touchesBegan"); touchStart=[[touches anyObject] locationInView:self]; } - (void)touchesMoved:(NSSet *)touches withEvent:(UIEvent *)event { CGPoint touchAt=[[touches anyObject] locationInView:self]; float xx=(touchAt.x-touchStart.x)*(touchAt.x-touchStart.x); float yy=(touchAt.y-touchStart.y)*(touchAt.y-touchStart.y); float rr=xx+yy; NSLog(@"touchesMoved %f",rr); if(rr > 100) { NSLog(@"Show modal"); [viewController presentModalViewController:[UIViewController new] animated:NO]; } } - (void)touchesEnded:(NSSet *)touches withEvent:(UIEvent *)event { NSLog(@"touchesEnded"); } - (void)touchesCancelled:(NSSet *)touches withEvent:(UIEvent *)event { NSLog(@"touchesCancelled"); } But when I test the application and trigger the modal dialog to be displayed, the following is the output in the Run Log. [Session started at 2010-03-27 16:17:14 -0700.] 2010-03-27 16:17:18.831 modelTouchCancel[2594:207] touchesBegan 2010-03-27 16:17:19.485 modelTouchCancel[2594:207] touchesMoved 2.000000 2010-03-27 16:17:19.504 modelTouchCancel[2594:207] touchesMoved 4.000000 2010-03-27 16:17:19.523 modelTouchCancel[2594:207] touchesMoved 16.000000 2010-03-27 16:17:19.538 modelTouchCancel[2594:207] touchesMoved 26.000000 2010-03-27 16:17:19.596 modelTouchCancel[2594:207] touchesMoved 68.000000 2010-03-27 16:17:19.624 modelTouchCancel[2594:207] touchesMoved 85.000000 2010-03-27 16:17:19.640 modelTouchCancel[2594:207] touchesMoved 125.000000 2010-03-27 16:17:19.641 modelTouchCancel[2594:207] Show modal Any suggestions on how to reset the state of a UIView when its touch events are interrupted by a modal view?

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• Implement looped movement animation with tap to cancel

  - by Nader

  Hi All; My app is based around a grid and an image that moves within a grid that is contained within a scrollview. I have an imageview that I am animating from one cell to another in time with a slow finger movement and recentering the scrollview. That is rather straight forward. I have also implement the ability to detect a swipe and therefore move the image all the way to the end of the grid and the uiscrollview recentering. I have even implemented the ability to detect a subsequent tap and freeze the swiped movement. The issue with the swipe movement is that the UIScrollView will scroll all the way to the end before the Image reaches the end and so I have to wait for the image to arrive. Also, when I freeze the movement of the image, I have to re-align the image to a cell (which I can do). I have come to the realization that I have to animate the image one cell at a time for swipes and recentering the uiscrollview before moving the image to the next cell. I have attempted to implement this but I cannot come up with a solution that works or works properly. Can anyone suggest how I go about implementing this? Even if you are able to put up code from a different example or sudo code, it would help a lot as I cannot workout how this should be done, should I be using selectors, a listener in delegates, I just simply lack the experience to solve this design pattern. Here is some code: Note that the sprite is an UIImageView - (void)animateViewToPosition:(SpriteView *)sprite Position:(CGPoint)pos Duration:(CFTimeInterval)duration{ CGMutablePathRef traversePath = CGPathCreateMutable(); CGPathMoveToPoint(traversePath, NULL, sprite.center.x, sprite.center.y); CGPathAddLineToPoint(traversePath, NULL, pos.x, pos.y); CAKeyframeAnimation *traverseAnimation = [CAKeyframeAnimation animationWithKeyPath:kAnimatePosition]; traverseAnimation.duration = duration; traverseAnimation.removedOnCompletion = YES; traverseAnimation.timingFunction = [CAMediaTimingFunction functionWithName:kCAMediaTimingFunctionLinear]; traverseAnimation.delegate = sprite; traverseAnimation.path = traversePath; CGPathRelease(traversePath); [sprite.layer addAnimation:traverseAnimation forKey:kAnimatePosition]; sprite.center = pos; }

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• Implement looped movement animation with tap to cancel

  - by Nader

  Hi All; My app is based around a grid and an image that moves within a grid that is contained within a scrollview. I have an imageview that I am animating from one cell to another in time with a slow finger movement and recentering the scrollview. That is rather straight forward. I have also implement the ability to detect a swipe and therefore move the image all the way to the end of the grid and the uiscrollview recentering. I have even implemented the ability to detect a subsequent tap and freeze the swiped movement. The issue with the swipe movement is that the UIScrollView will scroll all the way to the end before the Image reaches the end and so I have to wait for the image to arrive. Also, when I freeze the movement of the image, I have to re-align the image to a cell (which I can do). I have come to the realization that I have to animate the image one cell at a time for swipes and recentering the uiscrollview before moving the image to the next cell. I have attempted to implement this but I cannot come up with a solution that works or works properly. Can anyone suggest how I go about implementing this? Even if you are able to put up code from a different example or sudo code, it would help a lot as I cannot workout how this should be done, should I be using selectors, a listener in delegates, I just simply lack the experience to solve this design pattern. Here is some code: Note that the sprite is an UIImageView - (void)animateViewToPosition:(SpriteView *)sprite Position:(CGPoint)pos Duration:(CFTimeInterval)duration{ CGMutablePathRef traversePath = CGPathCreateMutable(); CGPathMoveToPoint(traversePath, NULL, sprite.center.x, sprite.center.y); CGPathAddLineToPoint(traversePath, NULL, pos.x, pos.y); CAKeyframeAnimation *traverseAnimation = [CAKeyframeAnimation animationWithKeyPath:kAnimatePosition]; traverseAnimation.duration = duration; traverseAnimation.removedOnCompletion = YES; traverseAnimation.timingFunction = [CAMediaTimingFunction functionWithName:kCAMediaTimingFunctionLinear]; traverseAnimation.delegate = sprite; traverseAnimation.path = traversePath; CGPathRelease(traversePath); [sprite.layer addAnimation:traverseAnimation forKey:kAnimatePosition]; sprite.center = pos;

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• UIScrollView works as expected but scrollRectToVisible: does nothing

  - by mahboudz

  HI. I have used UIScrollView before, and am using it now, and never had a problem. I'm now adding it to an old app, and while it works as expected (I can look at the contents, scroll around with my finger, all the bounds and sizes are setup right so there is no empty space in the content, etc.), I just can't get scrollToRectVisible to work. I have even simplified the call so that it merely moves to the 0,0 position: [scrollView scrollRectToVisible:CGRectMake(0, 0, 10, 10) animated:YES]; or move it to 0,200: [scrollView scrollRectToVisible:CGRectMake(0, 200, 10, 10) animated:YES]; I even made a quick app to test this and I can get scrollRectToVisible to work there as I expect. But in my old app, I can't seem to make it do anything. I can make the scrollView scroll with setContentOffset:, but that's not what I want. This scrollView and its contents are defined in the nib by IB and used with an IBOutlet. The only code I am using in my app to handle the scrollView is [scrollView setContentSize:CGSizeMake(scrollView.contentSize.width, imageView.frame.size.height)]; (I'm only interested in vertical scrolling not horizontal). Has anyone run into a problem like this? I have compared the scrollView attributes in both apps and they are identical. ADDENDUM: My scrollViews frame is: 0.000000 0.000000 480.000000 179.000000 My scrollViews contentSize is: 0.000000 324.000000 It still acts like the rect I want to scroll to is already visible and no scrolling is needed. Not sure if that is what is happening. This is just the darnest thing. Seems like such an easy thing to resolve... ADDENDUM #2: This is how I am making do without scrollRectToVisible: CGPoint point = myRect.origin; if (![clefScrollView pointInside:point withEvent:nil]) { point.x = 0; if (point.y > clefScrollView.contentSize.height - clefScrollView.bounds.size.height) point.y = clefScrollView.contentSize.height - clefScrollView.bounds.size.height; [clefScrollView setContentOffset:point animated: YES]; } Everything else about this scrollView works as expected, but scrollRectToVisible. WHY?!? Any wild guesses?

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• Is there a path of least resistance that a newcomer to graphics-technology-adoption can take at this point in the .NET graphics world?

  - by Rao

  For the past 5 months or so, I've spent time learning C# using Andrew Troelsen's book and getting familiar with stuff in the .NET 4 stack... bits of ADO.NET, EF4 and a pinch of WCF to taste. I'm really interested in graphics development (not for games though), which is why I chose to go the .NET route when I decided choose from either Java or .NET to learn... since I heard about WPF and saw some sexy screenshots and all. I'm even almost done with the 4 WPF chapters in Troelsen's book. Now, all of a sudden I saw some post on a forum about how "WPF was dead" in the face of something called Silverlight. I searched more and saw all the confusion going on at present... even stuff like "Silverlight is dead too!" wrt HTML5. From what I gather, we are in a delicate period of time that will eventually decide which technology will stabilize, right? Even so, as someone new moving into UI & graphics development via .NET, I wish I could get some guidance from people more experienced people. Maybe I'm reading too much? Maybe I have missed some pieces of information? Maybe a path exists that minimizes tears of blood? In any case, here is a sample vomiting of my thoughts on which I'd appreciate some clarification or assurance or spanking: My present interest lies in desktop development. But on graduating from college, I wish to market myself as a .NET developer. The industry seems to be drooling for web stuff. Can Silverlight do both equally well? (I see on searches that SL works "out of browser"). I have two fair-sized hobby projects planned that will have hawt UIs with lots of drag n drop, sliding animations etc. These are intended to be desktop apps that will use reflection, database stuff using EF4, networking over LAN, reading-writing of files... does this affect which graphics technology can be used? At some laaaater point, if I become interested in doing a bit of 3D stuff in .NET, will that affect which technologies can be used? Or what if I look up to the heavens, stick out my middle finger, and do something crazy like go learn HTML5 even though my knowledge of it can be encapsulated in 2 sentences? Sorry I seem confused so much, I just want to know if there's a path of least resistance that a newcomer to graphics-technology-adoption can take at this point in the graphics world.

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• Why is this OpenGL ES code slow on iPhone?

  - by f3r3nc

  I've slightly modified the iPhone SDK's GLSprite example while learning OpenGL ES and it turns out to be quite slow. Even in the simulator (on the hw worst) so I must be doing something wrong since it's only 400 textured triangles. const GLfloat spriteVertices[] = { 0.0f, 0.0f, 100.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f, 100.0f, 100.0f, 100.0f }; const GLshort spriteTexcoords[] = { 0,0, 1,0, 0,1, 1,1 }; - (void)setupView { glViewport(0, 0, backingWidth, backingHeight); glMatrixMode(GL_PROJECTION); glLoadIdentity(); glOrthof(0.0f, backingWidth, backingHeight,0.0f, -10.0f, 10.0f); glMatrixMode(GL_MODELVIEW); glClearColor(0.3f, 0.0f, 0.0f, 1.0f); glVertexPointer(2, GL_FLOAT, 0, spriteVertices); glEnableClientState(GL_VERTEX_ARRAY); glTexCoordPointer(2, GL_SHORT, 0, spriteTexcoords); glEnableClientState(GL_TEXTURE_COORD_ARRAY); // sprite data is preloaded. 512x512 rgba8888 glGenTextures(1, &spriteTexture); glBindTexture(GL_TEXTURE_2D, spriteTexture); glTexImage2D(GL_TEXTURE_2D, 0, GL_RGBA, width, height, 0, GL_RGBA, GL_UNSIGNED_BYTE, spriteData); free(spriteData); glTexParameteri(GL_TEXTURE_2D, GL_TEXTURE_MIN_FILTER, GL_LINEAR); glEnable(GL_TEXTURE_2D); glBlendFunc(GL_ONE, GL_ONE_MINUS_SRC_ALPHA); glEnable(GL_BLEND); } - (void)drawView { .. glClear(GL_COLOR_BUFFER_BIT); glLoadIdentity(); glTranslatef(tx-100, ty-100,10); for (int i=0; i<200; i++) { glTranslatef(1, 1, 0); glDrawArrays(GL_TRIANGLE_STRIP, 0, 4); } .. } drawView is called every time the screen is touched or the finger on the screen is moved and tx,ty are set to the x,y coordinates where that touch happened. I've also tried using GLBuffer, when translation was pre-generated and there was only one DrawArray but gave the same performance (~4 FPS). ===EDIT=== Meanwhile I've modified this so that much smaller quads are used (sized: 34x20) and much less overlapping is done. There are ~400 quads-800 triangles spread on the whole screen. Texture size is 512x512 atlas and RGBA_8888 while the texture coordinates are in float. The code is very ugly in terms of API efficiency: there are two MatrixMode change along with two loads and two translation then a drawarrays for a triangle strip (quad). Now this produces ~45 FPS.

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• Composite Views and View Controllers

  - by BillyK

  Hi, I'm somewhat new to Android and am in the process of designing an application with a couple fairly complex views. One of the views is intended to involve a complex view displaying information associated with model objects and segregated into several different views; the navigation of which is meant to be achieved using sliding effects (i.e. sliding one's finger across the screen to traverse from one screen to the next, etc). The view itself will be used to host multiple sets of views for varying types of model objects, but with a general structure that is reused between them all. As a rough example, the view might come up to display information about a person (the model object), displaying several details views: a view for general information, a view displaying a list of hobbies, and a view displaying a list of other individuals associated with their social network. The same general view, when given a model object representing a particular car would give several different views: A general view with details, A view containing photo images for that vehicle, a view representing locations which it could be purchased from, and a view providing a list of related cars. (NOTE: This is not the real data involved, but is representative of the general intent for the view). The subviews will NOT cover the entire screen real-estate and other features within the view should be both visible and able to be interacted with by the user. The idea here is that there is a general view structure that is reusable and which will manage a set of subviews dynamically generated based upon the type of model object handed to the view. I'm trying to determine the appropriate way to leverage the Android framework in order to best achieve this without violating the integrity of the framework. Basically, I'm trying to determine how to componentize this larger view into reusable units (i.e. general view, model-specific sub-view controllers, and individual detail views). To be more specific, I'm trying to determine if this view is best designed as a composite of several custom View classes or a composite of several Activity classes. I've seen several examples of custom composite views, but they typically are used to compose simple views without complex controllers and without attention to the general Activity lifecycle (i.e. storing and retrieving data related to the model objects, as appropriate). On the other hand, the only real example I've seen regarding a view comprised of a composite of Activities is the TabActivity itself, and that isn't customizable in the fashion that would be necessary for this. Does anyone have any suggestions as to the appropriate way to structure my view to achieve the application framework I'm looking for? Views? Activities? Something else? Any guidance would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

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• Moving a unit precisely along a path in x,y coordinates

  - by Adam Eberbach

  I am playing around with a strategy game where squads move around a map. Each turn a certain amount of movement is allocated to a squad and if the squad has a destination the points are applied each turn until the destination is reached. Actual distance is used so if a squad moves one position in the x or y direction it uses one point, but moving diagonally takes ~1.4 points. The squad maintains actual position as float which is then rounded to allow drawing the position on the map. The path is described by touching the squad and dragging to the end position then lifting the pen or finger. (I'm doing this on an iPhone now but Android/Qt/Windows Mobile would work the same) As the pointer moves x, y points are recorded so that the squad gains a list of intermediate destinations on the way to the final destination. I'm finding that the destinations are not evenly spaced but can be further apart depending on the speed of the pointer movement. Following the path is important because obstacles or terrain matter in this game. I'm not trying to remake Flight Control but that's a similar mechanic. Here's what I've been doing, but it just seems too complicated (pseudocode): getDestination() { - self.nextDestination = remove_from_array(destinations) - self.gradient = delta y to destination / delta x to destination - self.angle = atan(self.gradient) - self.cosAngle = cos(self.angle) - self.sinAngle = sin(self.angle) } move() { - get movement allocation for this turn - if self.nextDestination not valid - - getNextDestination() - while(nextDestination valid) && (movement allocation remains) { - - find xStep and yStep using movement allocation and sinAngle/cosAngle calculated for current self.nextDestination - - if current position + xStep crosses the destination - - - find x movement remaining after self.nextDestination reached - - - calculate remaining direct path movement allocation (xStep remaining / cosAngle) - - - make self.position equal to self.nextDestination - - else - - - apply xStep and yStep to current position - } - round squad's float coordinates to integer screen coordinates - draw squad image on map } That's simplified of course, stuff like sign needs to be tweaked to ensure movement is in the right direction. If trig is the best way to do it then lookup tables can be used or maybe it doesn't matter on modern devices like it used to. Suggestions for a better way to do it? an update - iPhone has zero issues with trig and tracking tens of positions and tracks implemented as described above and it draws in floats anyway. The Bresenham method is more efficient, trig is more precise. If I was to use integer Bresenham I would want to multiply by ten or so to maintain a little more positional accuracy to benefit collisions/terrain detection.

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• CGAffineTransformMakeRotation goes the other way after 180 degrees (-3.14)

  - by TheKillerDev

  So, i am trying to do a very simple disc rotation (2d), according to the user touch on it, just like a DJ or something. It is working, but there is a problem, after certain amount of rotation, it starts going backwards, this amount is after 180 degrees or as i saw in while logging the angle, -3.14 (pi). I was wondering, how can i achieve a infinite loop, i mean, the user can keep rotating and rotating to any side, just sliding his finger? Also a second question is, is there any way to speed up the rotation? Here is my code right now: #import <UIKit/UIKit.h> @interface Draggable : UIImageView { CGPoint firstLoc; UILabel * fred; double angle; } @property (assign) CGPoint firstLoc; @property (retain) UILabel * fred; @end @implementation Draggable @synthesize fred, firstLoc; - (id)initWithFrame:(CGRect)frame { self = [super initWithFrame:frame]; angle = 0; if (self) { // Initialization code } return self; } -(void)handleObject:(NSSet *)touches withEvent:(UIEvent *)event isLast:(BOOL)lst { UITouch *touch =[[[event allTouches] allObjects] lastObject]; CGPoint curLoc = [touch locationInView:self]; float fromAngle = atan2( firstLoc.y-self.center.y, firstLoc.x-self.center.x ); float toAngle = atan2( curLoc.y-(self.center.y+10), curLoc.x-(self.center.x+10)); float newAngle = angle + (toAngle - fromAngle); NSLog(@"%f",newAngle); CGAffineTransform cgaRotate = CGAffineTransformMakeRotation(newAngle); self.transform = cgaRotate; if (lst) angle = newAngle; } -(void)touchesBegan:(NSSet *)touches withEvent:(UIEvent *)event { UITouch *touch =[[[event allTouches] allObjects] lastObject]; firstLoc = [touch locationInView:self]; }; -(void) touchesMoved:(NSSet *)touches withEvent:(UIEvent *)event { [self handleObject:touches withEvent:event isLast:NO]; }; -(void) touchesEnded:(NSSet *)touches withEvent:(UIEvent *)event { [self handleObject:touches withEvent:event isLast:YES]; } @end And in the ViewController: UIImage *tmpImage = [UIImage imageNamed:@"theDisc.png"]; CGRect cellRectangle; cellRectangle = CGRectMake(-1,self.view.frame.size.height,tmpImage.size.width ,tmpImage.size.height ); dragger = [[Draggable alloc] initWithFrame:cellRectangle]; [dragger setImage:tmpImage]; [dragger setUserInteractionEnabled:YES]; dragger.layer.anchorPoint = CGPointMake(.5,.5); [self.view addSubview:dragger]; I am open to new/cleaner/more correct ways of doing this too. Thanks in advance.

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• WPF: Problem with TreeView databinding

  - by Am

  Hi, I have a tree view defined as follows: <TreeView Grid.Row="0" Grid.Column="0" Margin="0" FlowDirection="LeftToRight" ItemTemplate="{StaticResource NavigationHeaderTemplate}" Name="TreeView2"> </TreeView> The data binding is: public class ViewTag : INotifyPropertyChanged { private string _tagName; public string TagName { get { return _tagName; } set { _tagName = value; PropertyChanged(this, new PropertyChangedEventArgs("Tag Name")); } } private ObservableCollection<ViewTag> _childTags; public ObservableCollection<ViewTag> ChildTags { get { return _childTags; } set { _childTags = value; OnPropertyChanged(new PropertyChangedEventArgs("Child Tags")); } } #region INotifyPropertyChanged Members public event PropertyChangedEventHandler PropertyChanged; public void OnPropertyChanged(PropertyChangedEventArgs e) { if (PropertyChanged != null) PropertyChanged(this, e); } #endregion public ViewTag(string tagName, ObservableCollection<ViewTag> childTags) { _tagName = tagName; _childTags = childTags; } } And my test binding is: List<ViewTag> tempTags = new List<ViewTag>(); ViewTag t1, t2, t3, t4, t5, t6; t1 = new ViewTag("Computers", null); t2 = new ViewTag("Chemistry", null); t3 = new ViewTag("Physics", null); var t123 = new ObservableCollection<ViewTag>(); t123.Add(t1); t123.Add(t2); t123.Add(t3); t4 = new ViewTag("Science", t123); var t1234 = new ObservableCollection<ViewTag>(); t1234.Add(t4); t5 = new ViewTag("All Items", t1234); t6 = new ViewTag("Untagged", null); var tall = new ObservableCollection<ViewTag>(); tall.Add(t5); tall.Add(t6); xy.Add(new ViewNavigationTree() { Header = "Tags", Image = "img/tags2.ico", Children = tall }); var rootFolders = eDataAccessLayer.RepositoryFacrory.Instance.MonitoredDirectoriesRepository.Directories.ToList(); var viewFolders = new ObservableCollection<ViewTag>(); foreach (var vf in rootFolders) { viewFolders.Add(new ViewTag(vf.FullPath, null)); } xy.Add(new ViewNavigationTree() { Header = "Folders", Image = "img/folder_16x16.png", Children = viewFolders }); xy.Add(new ViewNavigationTree() { Header = "Authors", Image = "img/user_16x16.png", Children = null }); xy.Add(new ViewNavigationTree() { Header = "Publishers", Image = "img/powerplant_32.png", Children = null }); TreeView2.ItemsSource = xy; Problem is, the tree only shows: + Tags All Items Untagged + Folders dir 1 dir 2 ... Authors Publishers The items I added under "All Items" aren't displayed. Being a WPF nub, i can't put my finger on the problem. Any help will be greatly appriciated.

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• iPhone - NSURLConnection does not receive data

  - by Jukurrpa

  Hi, I have a pretty weird problem with NSURLRequest. I'm using them to make an asynchronous image loading in an UITableView. The first time the tableView displays, all connections from NSURLRequests open correctly but receive absolutely no data, regardless of how long I wait. But as soon as I scroll down in the tableView, the newly created requests for the new cells work perfectly! The only way for the images on top of the tableView to load is to make them disappear by scrolling down and then up again, in order to create new requests. Here is what I do in "cellForRowAtIndexPath": UITableViewCell* cell = [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:@"Cell"]; if (cell == nil) { cell = [[UITableViewCell alloc] initWIthFrame:CGRectMake(0, 0, 300, 60)]; AsyncUIImageView imageView = [[AsynUIImageView alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0, 0, 60, 60)]; imageView.tag = IMG_VIEW // an enum for tags [cell addSubView:imageView]; [imageView release]; } AsyncUIImageView imageView = (AsyncUIImageView*)[cell viewWithTag:IMG_VIEW]; // I do a few cache checks here, but if the image aint cached I do this: [imageView loadImageFromURL:@"http://someurl.com/somepix.jpg"]; // all urls are different, just an example The AsyncUIImageView inherits from UIImageView and contains an NSURLConnection which opens upon calling the loadImageFromURL method: (void) loadImageFromURL:(NSString*)filename { if (self.connection != nil) [self.connection release]; if (self.data != nil) [self.data release]; NSURLRequest* request = [NSURLRequest requestWithURL:[[NSURL alloc] initWithString:fileName] cachePolicy:NSURLRequestUseProtocolCachePolicy timeoutInterval:10.0]; self.connection = [[NSURLConnection alloc] initWithRequest:request delegate:self]; if (self.connection == nil) return; self.data = [[NSMutableData data] retain]; } I've created the delegate methods "connection: didReceiveData", which appends received data to self.data and "connectionDidFinishLoading" which sets the image and closes the connection once the transfer is complete. These work, but are never called for the first requests I create. I suspect this bug to come from the main thread not giving the first requests the control so they can execute themselves, as the same behavior happens if I keep my finger on the screen after a scroll: connections open themselves, but no data is received until I stop touching the screen. What am I doing wrong?

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• How can I represent a line of music notes in a way that allows fast insertion at any index?

  - by chairbender

  For "fun", and to learn functional programming, I'm developing a program in Clojure that does algorithmic composition using ideas from this theory of music called "Westergaardian Theory". It generates lines of music (where a line is just a single staff consisting of a sequence of notes, each with pitches and durations). It basically works like this: Start with a line consisting of three notes (the specifics of how these are chosen are not important). Randomly perform one of several "operations" on this line. The operation picks randomly from all pairs of adjacent notes that meet a certain criteria (for each pair, the criteria only depends on the pair and is independent of the other notes in the line). It inserts 1 or several notes (depending on the operation) between the chosen pair. Each operation has its own unique criteria. Continue randomly performing these operations on the line until the line is the desired length. The issue I've run into is that my implementation of this is quite slow, and I suspect it could be made faster. I'm new to Clojure and functional programming in general (though I'm experienced with OO), so I'm hoping someone with more experience can point out if I'm not thinking in a functional paradigm or missing out on some FP technique. My current implementation is that each line is a vector containing maps. Each map has a :note and a :dur. :note's value is a keyword representing a musical note like :A4 or :C#3. :dur's value is a fraction, representing the duration of the note (1 is a whole note, 1/4 is a quarter note, etc...). So, for example, a line representing the C major scale starting on C3 would look like this: [ {:note :C3 :dur 1} {:note :D3 :dur 1} {:note :E3 :dur 1} {:note :F3 :dur 1} {:note :G3 :dur 1} {:note :A4 :dur 1} {:note :B4 :dur 1} ] This is a problematic representation because there's not really a quick way to insert into an arbitrary index of a vector. But insertion is the most frequently performed operation on these lines. My current terrible function for inserting notes into a line basically splits the vector using subvec at the point of insertion, uses conj to join the first part + notes + last part, then uses flatten and vec to make them all be in a one-dimensional vector. For example if I want to insert C3 and D3 into the the C major scale at index 3 (where the F3 is), it would do this (I'll use the note name in place of the :note and :dur maps): (conj [C3 D3 E3] [C3 D3] [F3 G3 A4 B4]), which creates [C3 D3 E3 [C3 D3] [F3 G3 A4 B4]] (vec (flatten previous-vector)) which gives [C3 D3 E3 C3 D3 F3 G3 A4 B4] The run time of that is O(n), AFAIK. I'm looking for a way to make this insertion faster. I've searched for information on Clojure data structures that have fast insertion but haven't found anything that would work. I found "finger trees" but they only allow fast insertion at the start or end of the list. Edit: I split this into two questions. The other part is here.

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• Javascript auto calculating with (+) and (-)

  - by Josh

  I need some help finding the error in my javascript calculation. I need to calculate the sum of my input boxes automatically and have my user be able to edit the calculation using + or - buttons. The code I have already does the calculation automatically if you manually enter the numbers, but pressing the + or - does not change the calculation. Here is the code: <html> <head> <script language="javascript"> function Calc(className){ var elements = document.getElementsByClassName(className); var total = 0; for(var i = 0; i < elements.length; ++i){ total += parseInt(elements[i].value); } document.form0.total.value = total; } function addone(field) { field.value = Number(field.value) + 1; } function subtractone(field) { field.value = Number(field.value) - 1; } </script> </head> <body> <form name="form0" id="form0"> 1: <input type="text" name="box1" id="box1" class="add" value="0" onKeyUp="Calc('add')" onChange="updatesum()" onClick="this.focus();this.select();" /> <input type="button" value=" + " onclick="addone(box1);"> <input type="button" value=" - " onclick="subtractone(box1);"> <br /> 2: <input type="text" name="box2" id="box2" class="add" value="0" onKeyUp="Calc('add')" onClick="this.focus();this.select();" /> <input type="button" value=" + " onclick="addone(box2);"> <input type="button" value=" - " onclick="subtractone(box2);"> <br /> 3: <input type="text" name="box3" id="box3" class="add" value="0" onKeyUp="Calc('add')" onClick="this.focus();this.select();" /> <input type="button" value=" + " onclick="addone(box3);"> <input type="button" value=" - " onclick="subtractone(box3);"> <br /> <br /> Total: <input readonly style="border:0px; font-size:14; color:red;" id="total" name="total"> </form> </body></html> Im sure the issue must be small, I just cant put my finger on it.

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• ImageView place at center on click in gallery view

  - by TGMCians

  i used gallery view in which i place multiple imageview dynamically but on click imageview place at center and second question how to start first imageview from left of screen. I do not want to change the place until user scroll horizontally by finger . Is there any way to achieve this. Please help for this.. private class ImageAdapter extends BaseAdapter{ public ImageAdapter() { //To set blank at bottom and make visible TextView textView = (TextView)findViewById(R.id.textView2); textView.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE); //To set the visibility visible of gallery myGallery.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE); } public int getCount() { return ProductItemArray.Image_URL.length; } public Object getItem(int position) { return null; } public long getItemId(int position) { return 0; } public View getView(int position, View arg1, ViewGroup arg2) { ImageView bottomImageView = new ImageView(context); if(Helper.isTablet(context)) bottomImageView.setLayoutParams(new Gallery.LayoutParams(VirtualMirrorActivity.convertDpToPixel(100, context), VirtualMirrorActivity.convertDpToPixel(100, context))); else bottomImageView.setLayoutParams(new Gallery.LayoutParams(VirtualMirrorActivity.convertDpToPixel(80, context), VirtualMirrorActivity.convertDpToPixel(80, context))); UrlImageViewHelper.setUrlDrawable(bottomImageView, ProductItemArray.Image_URL[position]); bottomImageView.setBackgroundResource(R.layout.border); return bottomImageView; } } myGallery.setAdapter(new ImageAdapter()); myGallery.setSelection(1); myGallery.setOnItemClickListener(new OnItemClickListener() { @Override public void onItemClick(AdapterView<?> parent, View view, final int position, long arg3) { linearLayout.removeView(frameImageView); Thread newThread = new Thread(new Runnable() { public void run() { URL url_1 = null; try { isAlreadyExistInWishlist = false; VMProductListPaging.productUrl = ProductItemArray.Image_small_URL[position]; VMProductListPaging.productId = ProductItemArray.productId[position]; VMProductListPaging.productName = ProductItemArray.product_Name[position]; url_1 = new URL(ProductItemArray.Image_small_URL[position]); bmp = BitmapFactory.decodeStream(url_1.openConnection().getInputStream()); isExecuted = true; bitmapHandler.sendMessage(bitmapHandler.obtainMessage()); } catch (Exception e) { //Toast.makeText(context,"Sorry!! This link appears to be broken",Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show(); } } }); newThread.start(); } }); Layout.xml <Gallery android:id="@+id/galleryView" android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:spacing="5dp" android:layout_below="@+id/sendPhoto" android:layout_marginTop="10dp" android:visibility="gone"/>

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• When i add a bitmap to an array list the last element is duplicated in previous indexes

  - by saxofone2

  I'm trying to implement a personal way of undo/redo in a finger paint-like app. I have in synthesis three objects: the Main class (named ScorePadActivity), the relative Main Layout (with buttons, menus, etc, as well as a View object where I create my drawings), and a third object named ArrayList where i'm writing the undo/redo code. The problem is, when I press the undo button nothing happens, but if I draw anything again "one-time" and press undo, the screen is updated. If I draw many times, to see any changes happen on screen I have to press the undo button the same number of times I have drawn. Seems like (as in title) when I add a bitmap to the array list the last element is duplicated in previous indexes, and for some strange reason, everytime I press the Undo Button, the system is ok for one time, but starts to duplicate until the next undo. The index increase is verified with a series of System.out.println inserted in code. Now when I draw something on screen, the array list is updated with the code inserted after the invocation of touchup(); method in motionEvent touch_up(); } this.arrayClass.incrementArray(mBitmap); mPath.rewind(); invalidate(); and in ArrayList activity; public void incrementArray(Bitmap mBitmap) { this._mBitmap=mBitmap; _size=undoArray.size(); undoArray.add(_size, _mBitmap); } (All Logs removed for clear reading) The undo button in ScorePadActivity calls the undo method in View activity: Button undobtn= (Button)findViewById(R.id.undo); undobtn.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() { public void onClick(View v) { mView.undo(); } }); in View activity: public void undo() { this.mBitmap= arrayClass.undo(); mCanvas = new Canvas(mBitmap); mPath.rewind(); invalidate(); } that calls the relative undo method in ArrayList activity: public Bitmap undo() { // TODO Auto-generated method stub _size=undoArray.size(); if (_size>1) { undoArray.remove(_size-1); _size=undoArray.size(); _mBitmap = ((Bitmap) undoArray.get(_size-1)).copy(Bitmap.Config.ARGB_8888,true); } return _mBitmap; } return mBitmap and invalidate: Due to my bad English I have made a scheme to make the problem more clear: I have tried with HashMap, with a simple array, I have tried to change mPath.rewind(); with reset();, new Path(); etc but nothing. Why? Sorry for the complex answer, i want give you a great thanks in advance. Best regards

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• Issue 15: The Benefits of Oracle Exastack

  - by rituchhibber

       SOLUTIONS FOCUS The Benefits of Oracle Exastack Paul ThompsonDirector, Alliances and Solutions Partner ProgramsOracle EMEA Alliances & Channels RESOURCES -- Oracle PartnerNetwork (OPN) Oracle Exastack Program Oracle Exastack Ready Oracle Exastack Optimized Oracle Exastack Labs and Enablement Resources Oracle Exastack Labs Video Tour SUBSCRIBE FEEDBACK PREVIOUS ISSUES Exastack is a revolutionary programme supporting Oracle independent software vendor partners across the entire Oracle technology stack. Oracle's core strategy is to engineer software and hardware together, and our ISV strategy is the same. At Oracle we design engineered systems that are pre-integrated to reduce the cost and complexity of IT infrastructures while increasing productivity and performance. Oracle innovates and optimises performance at every layer of the stack to simplify business operations, drive down costs and accelerate business innovation. Our engineered systems are optimised to achieve enterprise performance levels that are unmatched in the industry. Faster time to production is achieved by implementing pre-engineered and pre-assembled hardware and software bundles. Our strategy of delivering a single-vendor stack simplifies and reduces costs associated with purchasing, deploying, and supporting IT environments for our customers and partners. In parallel to this core engineered systems strategy, the Oracle Exastack Program enables our Oracle ISV partners to leverage a scalable, integrated infrastructure that delivers their applications tuned, tested and optimised for high-performance. Specifically, the Oracle Exastack Program helps ISVs run their solutions on the Oracle Exadata Database Machine, Oracle Exalogic Elastic Cloud, and Oracle SPARC SuperCluster T4-4 - integrated systems products in which the software and hardware are engineered to work together. These products provide OPN members with a lower cost and high performance infrastructure for database and application workloads across on-premise and cloud based environments. Ready and Optimized Oracle Partners can now leverage our new Oracle Exastack Program to become Oracle Exastack Ready and Oracle Exastack Optimized. Partners can achieve Oracle Exastack Ready status through their support for Oracle Solaris, Oracle Linux, Oracle VM, Oracle Database, Oracle WebLogic Server, Oracle Exadata Database Machine, Oracle Exalogic Elastic Cloud, and Oracle SPARC SuperCluster T4-4. By doing this, partners can demonstrate to their customers that their applications are available on the latest major releases of these products. The Oracle Exastack Ready programme helps customers readily differentiate Oracle partners from lesser software developers, and identify applications that support Oracle engineered systems. Achieving Oracle Exastack Optimized status demonstrates that an OPN member has proven itself against goals for performance and scalability on Oracle integrated systems. This status enables end customers to readily identify Oracle partners that have tested and tuned their solutions for optimum performance on an Oracle Exadata Database Machine, Oracle Exalogic Elastic Cloud, and Oracle SPARC SuperCluster T4-4. These ISVs can display the Oracle Exadata Optimized, Oracle Exalogic Optimized or Oracle SPARC SuperCluster Optimized logos on websites and on all their collateral to show that they have tested and tuned their application for optimum performance. Deliver higher value to customers Oracle's investment in engineered systems enables ISV partners to deliver higher value to customer business processes. New innovations are enabled through extreme performance unachievable through traditional best-of-breed multi-vendor server/software approaches. Core product requirements can be launched faster, enabling ISVs to focus research and development investment on core competencies in order to bring value to market as quickly as possible. Through Exastack, partners no longer have to worry about the underlying product stack, which allows greater focus on the development of intellectual property above the stack. Partners are not burdened by platform issues and can concentrate simply on furthering their applications. The advantage to end customers is that partners can focus all efforts on business functionality, rather than bullet-proofing underlying technologies, and so will inevitably deliver application updates faster. Exastack provides ISVs with a number of flexible deployment options, such as on-premise or Cloud, while maintaining one single code base for applications regardless of customer deployment preference. Customers buying their solutions from Exastack ISVs can therefore be confident in deploying on their own networks, on private clouds or into a public cloud. The underlying platform will support all conceivable deployments, enabling a focus on the ISV's application itself that wouldn't be possible with other vendor partners. It stands to reason that Exastack accelerates time to value as well as lowering implementation costs all round. There is a big competitive advantage in partners being able to offer customers an optimised, pre-configured solution rather than an assortment of components and a suggested fit. Once a customer has decided to buy an Oracle Exastack Ready or Optimized partner solution, it will be up and running without any need for the customer to conduct testing of its own. Operational costs and complexity are also reduced, thanks to streamlined customer support through standardised configurations and pro-active monitoring. 'Engineered to Work Together' is a significant statement of Oracle strategy. It guarantees smoother deployment of a single vendor solution, clear ownership with no finger-pointing and the peace of mind of the Oracle Support Centre underpinning the entire product stack. Next steps Every OPN member with packaged applications must seriously consider taking steps to become Exastack Ready, or Exastack Optimized at the first opportunity. That first step down the track is to talk to an expert on the OPN Portal, at the Oracle Partner Business Center or to discuss the next steps with the closest Oracle account manager. Oracle Exastack lab environments and other technical enablement resources are available for OPN members wishing to further their knowledge of Oracle Exastack and qualify their applications for Oracle Exastack Optimized. New Boot Camps and Guided Learning Paths (GLPs), tailored specifically for ISVs, are available for Oracle Exadata Database Machine, Oracle Exalogic Elastic Cloud, Oracle Linux, Oracle Solaris, Oracle Database, and Oracle WebLogic Server. More information about these GLPs and Boot Camps (including delivery dates and locations) are posted on the OPN Competency Center and corresponding OPN Knowledge Zones. Learn more about Oracle Exastack labs and ISV specific enablement resources. "Oracle Specialized partners are of course front-and-centre, with potential customers clearly directed to those partners and to Exadata Ready partners as a matter of priority." --More OpenWorld 2011 highlights for Oracle partners and customers Oracle Application Testing Suite 9.3 application testing solution for Web, SOA and Oracle Applications Oracle Application Express Release 4.1 improving the development of database-centric Web 2.0 applications and reports Oracle Unified Directory 11g helping customers manage the critical identity information that drives their business applications Oracle SOA Suite for healthcare integration Oracle Enterprise Pack for Eclipse 11g demonstrating continued commitment to the developer and open source communities Oracle Coherence 3.7.1, the latest release of the industry's leading distributed in-memory data grid Oracle Process Accelerators helping to simplify and accelerate time-to-value for customers' business process management initiatives Oracle's JD Edwards EnterpriseOne on the iPad meeting the increasingly mobile demands of today's workforces Oracle CRM On Demand Release 19 Innovation Pack introducing industry-leading hosted call centre and enterprise-marketing capabilities designed to drive further revenue and productivity while reducing costs and improving the customer experience Oracle's Primavera Portfolio Management 9 for businesses delivering on project portfolio goals with increased versatility, transparency and accuracy Oracle's PeopleSoft Human Capital Management (HCM) 9.1 On Demand Standard Edition helping customers manage their long-term investment in enterprise-wide business applications New versions of Oracle FLEXCUBE Universal Banking and Oracle FLEXCUBE Investor Servicing for Financial Institutions, as well as Oracle Financial Services Enterprise Case Management, Oracle Financial Services Pricing Management, Oracle Financial Management Analytics and Oracle Tax Analytics Oracle Utilities Network Management System 1.11 offering new modelling and analysis features to improve distribution-grid management for electric utilities Oracle Communications Network Charging and Control 4.4 helping communications service providers (CSPs) offer their customers more flexible charging options Plus many, many more technology announcements, enhancements, momentum news and community updates -- Oracle OpenWorld 2012 A date has already been set for Oracle OpenWorld 2012. Held once again in San Francisco, exhibitors, partners, customers and Oracle people will gather from 30 September until 4 November to meet, network and learn together with the rest of the global Oracle community. Register now for Oracle OpenWorld 2012 and save $$$! We'll reward your early planning for Oracle OpenWorld 2012 with reduced rates. Super Saver deals are now available! -- Back to the welcome page

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• Visiting the Emtel Data Centre

  Back in February at the first event of the Emtel Knowledge Series (EKS) I spoke to various people at Emtel about their data centre here on the island. I was trying to see whether it would be possible to arrange a meeting over there for a selected group of our community members. Well, let's say it like this... My first approach wasn't that promising and far from successful but during the following months there were more and more occasions to get in touch with the "right" contact persons at Emtel to make it happen... Setting up an appointment and pre-requisites The major improvement came during a Boot Camp for Windows Phone 8.1 App development organised by Microsoft Indian Ocean Islands in cooperation with Emtel at the Emtel World, Ebene. Apart from learning bits and pieces regarding Universal Apps I took the opportunity to get in touch with Arvin Lockee, Sales Executive - Data, during our lunch break. And this really kicked off the whole procedure. Prior to get access to the Emtel data centre it is requested that you provide full name and National ID of anyone going to visit. Also, it should be noted that there was only a limited amount of seats available. Anyways, packed with this information I posted through the usual social media channels. Responses came in very quickly and based on First-come, first-serve (FCFS) principle I noted down the details and forwarded them to Emtel in order to fix a date and time for the visit. In preparation on our side, all attendees exchanged contact details and we organised transport options to go to the data centre in Arsenal. The day before and on the day of our meeting, Arvin send me a reminder to check whether everything is still confirmed and ready to go... Of course, it was! Arriving at the Emtel Data Centre As I'm coming from Flic En Flac towards the North, we agreed that I'm going to pick up a couple of young fellows near the old post office in Port Louis. All went well, except that Sean eventually might be living in another time zone compared to the rest of us. Anyway, after some extended stop we were complete and arrived just in time in Arsenal to meet and greet with Ish and Veer. Again, Emtel is taking access procedures to their data centre very serious and the gate stayed close until all our IDs had been noted and compared to the list of registered attendees. Despite having a good laugh at the mixture of old and new ID cards it was a straight-forward processing. The ward was very helpful and guided us to the waiting area at the entrance section of the building. Shortly after we were welcomed by Kamlesh Bokhoree, the Data Centre Officer. He gave us brief introduction into the rules and regulations during our visit, like no photography allowed, not touching the buttons, and following his instructions through the whole visit. Of course! Inside the data centre Next, he explained us the multi-factor authentication system using a combination of bio-metric data, like finger print reader, and "classic" pin panel. The Emtel data centre provides multiple services and next to co-location for your own hardware they also offer storage options for your backup and archive data in their massive, fire-resistant vault. Very impressive to get to know about the considerations that have been done in choosing the right location and how to set up the whole premises. It should also be noted that there is 24/7 CCTV surveillance inside and outside the buildings. Strengths of the Emtel TIER 3 Data Centre, Mauritius Finally, we were guided into the first server room. And wow, the whole setup is cleverly planned and outlined in the architecture. From the false floor and ceilings in order to provide optimum air flow, over to the separation of cold and hot aisles between the full-size server racks, and of course the monitored air conditions in order to analyse and watch changes in temperature, smoke detection and other parameters. And not surprisingly everything has been implemented in two independent circuits. There is a standardised classification for the construction and operation of data centres world-wide, and the Emtel's one has been designed to be a TIER 4 building but due to the lack of an alternative power supplier on the island it is officially registered as a TIER 3 compliant data centre. Maybe in the long run there might be a second supplier of energy next to CEB... time will tell. Luckily, the data centre is integrated into the National Fibre Optic Gigabit Ring and Emtel already connects internationally through diverse undersea cable routes like SAFE & LION/LION2 out of Mauritius and through several other providers for onwards connectivity. The data centre is part of the National Fibre Optic Gigabit Ring and has redundant internet connectivity onwards. Meanwhile, Arvin managed to join our little group of geeks and he supported Kamlesh in answering our technical questions regarding the capacities and general operation of the data centre. Visiting the NOC and its dedicated team of IT professionals was surely one of the visual highlights. Seeing their wall of screens to monitor any kind of activities on the data lines, the managed servers and the activity in and around the building was great. Even though I'm using a multi-head setup since years I cannot keep it up with that setup... ;-) But I got a couple of ideas on how to improve my work spaces here at the office. Clear advantages of hosting your e-commerce and mobile backends locally After the completely isolated NOC area we continued our Q&A session with Kamlesh and Arvin in the second server room which is dedictated to shared environments. On first thought it should be well-noted that there is lots of space for full-sized racks and therefore co-location of your own hardware. Actually, given the feedback that there will be upcoming changes in prices the facilities at the Emtel data centre are getting more and more competitive and interesting for local companies, especially small and medium enterprises. After seeing this world-class infrastructure available on the island, I'm already considering of moving one of my root servers abroad to be co-located here on the island. This would provide an improved user experience in terms of site performance and latency. This would be a good improvement, especially for upcoming e-commerce solutions for two of my local clients. Later on, we actually started the conversation of additional services that could be a catalyst for the local market in order to attract more small and medium companies to take the data centre into their evaluations regarding online activities. Until today Emtel does not provide virtualised server environments but there might be ongoing plans in the future to cover this field as well. Emtel is a mobile operator and internet connectivity provider in the first place, entering a market of managed and virtualised server infrastructures including capacities in terms of cloud storage and computing are rather new and there is a continuous learning curve at Emtel, too. You cannot just jump into a new market and see how it works out... And I appreciate Emtel's approach towards a solid fundament and then building new services on top of that. Emtel as a future one-stop-shop service provider for all your internet and telecommunications needs. Emtel's promotional video about their TIER 3 data centre in Arsenal, Mauritius More details are thoroughly described in Emtel's brochure of their data centre. Check out their PDF document here. Thanks for this opportunity Visiting and walking through the Emtel data centre for more than 2 hours was a great experience. As representative of the Mauritius Software Craftsmanship Community (MSCC) I would like to thank anyone at Emtel involved in the process of making it happen, and especially to Arvin Lockee and Kamlesh Bokhoree for their time and patience in explaining the infrastructure and answering all the endless questions from our members. Thank You!

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