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• SEO Keyword Research

  - by James

  Hi Everyone, I'm new at SEO and keyword research. I am using Market Samurai as my research tool, and I was wondering if I could ask for your help to identify the best key word to target for my niche. I do plan on incorporating all of them into my site, but I wanted to start with one. If you could give me your input on these keywords, I would appreciate it. This is all new to me :) I'm too new to post pictures, but here are my keywords (Searches, SEO Traffic, and SEO Value / Day): Searches | SEO Traffic | PBR | SEO Value | Average PR/Backlinks of Current Top 10 1: 730 | 307 | 20% | 2311.33 | 1.9 / 7k-60k 2: 325 | 137 | 24% | 822.94 | 2.3 / 7k-60k 3: 398 | 167 | 82% | 589.79 | 1.6 / 7k-60k I'm wondering if the PBR (Phrase-to-broad) value of #1 is too low. It seems like the best value because the SEOV is crazy high. That is like $70k a month. #3 has the highest PBR, but also the lowest SEOV. #2 doesn't seem worth it because of the PR competetion. Might be a little too hard to get into the top page of Google. I'm wondering which keywords to target, and if I should be looking at any other metric to see if this is a profitable niche to jump into. Thanks.

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• Satellite now think for themselves, Skynet becomes self-aware

  - by iamjames

  From the movies-become-reality department comes this little gem: New control system will allow satellites to 'think for themselves' "...engineers from the University of Southampton have developed what they say is the world’s first control system for programing satellites to think for themselves. It’s a cognitive software agent called sysbrain, and it allows satellites to read English-language technical documents, which in turn instruct the satellites on how to do things such as autonomously identifying and avoiding obstacles." Gee, why does this sound so incredibly familiar?  Skynet (Terminator) "In the Terminator storyline, Skynet was originally installed into the U.S. military mainframe to control the national arsenal on August 4, 1997. On August 29 it gained self-awareness[1] and the panicking operators, realizing the extent of its abilities, attempted to shut it down. Skynet perceived the attempt to deactivate it as an attack and came to the conclusion that all of humanity would attempt to destroy it. To defend itself, it determined that humanity should be exterminated." Alright so it's not in control of the national arsenal, but it's only a matter of time before one of these satellites read Snooki's book and convinces a military satellite that we need to be exterminated.

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• VS 11 Beta merge tool is awesome, except for resovling conflicts

  - by deadlydog

  If you've downloaded the new VS 11 Beta and done any merging, then you've probably seen the new diff and merge tools built into VS 11.  They are awesome, and by far a vast improvement over the ones included in VS 2010.  There is one problem with the merge tool though, and in my opinion it is huge.Basically the problem with the new VS 11 Beta merge tool is that when you are resolving conflicts after performing a merge, you cannot tell what changes were made in each file where the code is conflicting.  Was the conflicting code added, deleted, or modified in the source and target branches?  I don't know (without explicitly opening up the history of both the source and target files), and the merge tool doesn't tell me.  In my opinion this is a huge fail on the part of the designers/developers of the merge tool, as it actually forces me to either spend an extra minute for every conflict to view the source and target file history, or to go back to use the merge tool in VS 2010 to properly assess which changes I should take.I submitted this as a bug to Microsoft, but they say that this is intentional by design. WHAT?! So they purposely crippled their tool in order to make it pretty and keep the look consistent with the new diff tool?  That's like purposely putting a little hole in the bottom of your cup for design reasons to make it look cool.  Sure, the cup looks cool, but I'm not going to use it if it leaks all over the place and doesn't do the job that it is intended for. Bah! but I digress.Because this bug is apparently a feature, they asked me to open up a "feature request" to have the problem fixed. Please go vote up both my bug submission and the feature request so that this tool will actually be useful by the time the final VS 11 product is released.

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• What are the best ways to professionally increase your online presence?

  - by Rob S.

  I've been hunting around the job market for a little bit now and I've been shocked by some of the things I am seeing. Software developers who make themselves more "known" online are getting far more and far better positions than people competing against them who are not as well "known" online. After doing some reading on the subject I realized that I actually shouldn't be so shocked by this. We are living in the most fast paced era of mankind and employers want to be able to learn as much as they can about a potential employee before they hire them. The easier we as software developers make it for us to be found it seems the better are chances of landing that dream job become. In some cases, employers are even finding us instead of us applying to them. So what are some of the best ways for me as a software developer to increase my online presence? I already hang around stack exchange sites such as programmers and stack overflow increasing my rep whenever I can. I maintain many open source projects as both a committer and project owner on Google Code and Github. I have a Twitter account, a website, and a blog. What else can I do to give myself a bigger online presence? Additionally, are there any good do's and don'ts for handling your web presence? Bashing your employer is an obvious don't but I'm interested in everything from the most basic to most subtle suggestions to give yourself a more appealing online presence. Thank you very much in advance for your time.

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• New college grad, psychology major, wants to code professionally. Should I get Sun Java-certified?

  - by Anita

  I just graduated from a fairly well-known liberal arts college in May. Interestingly, I majored in psychology, with a concentration in social psychology. In college I took Intro to Computer Science and hated it (used to blame it on myself; now I blame it on the professor :) However, I've always wanted to be a programmer, and finally got my wish by getting hired by a company that was willing to let me learn coding from scratch in exchange for low pay. Well, what do you know, I just got laid off this morning, and need a new job by November to pay the bills. I loved the coding part of my job at the company, and managed to learn enough Java to feel competent in the job and curious to learn more. I think my goal now is to become a professional programmer. I still know very little (never used Swing, for example) but nothing that a good book can't fix. That's the background anyway; sorry for the rambling - I'm still in shock from the layoff :( It seems to me the quickest way to get noticed by companies, without a CS degree, is by getting certification. I'm halfway through studying for the SCJP and can probably sit for an exam in a week or two. Am I right in my assumption that certs will help in my case? And in general, do I have a bat's chance in hell of making it against formally trained programmers? My assets are really just raw intelligence and intense curiosity; well, maybe a love for problem-solving too. Thanks all - feel free to edit/tag the post!

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• New SQL Azure Development Accelerator Core promotional offer announced

  - by Eric Nelson

  This is (almost) a straight copy and paste but represents an important announcement worthy of a little more “exposure” :-) Starting August 1, 2010, we will release a new SQL Azure Development Accelerator Core promotional offer.  This new offer will give you the flexibility to purchase commitment quantities of SQL Azure Business Edition databases independent of other Windows Azure platform services at a deeply discounted monthly price.  The offer is valid only for a six month term.  You may purchase in 10 GB increments the amount of our Business Edition relational database that you require (each Business Edition database is capable of storing up to 50 GB).  The offer price will be $74.95 per 10 GB per month.  This promotional offer represents 25% off of our normal consumption rates.  Monthly Business Edition relational database usage exceeding the purchased commitment amount and usage for other Windows Azure platform services for this offer will be charged at our normal consumption rates.  Please click here for full details of our new SQL Azure Development Accelerator Core offer.  Related Links: Details of 5GB and 50GB databases have been released http://ukazure.ning.com UK community site Getting started with the Windows Azure Platform

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• Suitable SDK to develop quick game?

  - by gRnt

  I'm currently undertaking a personal project at home that I need to turn around inside the next few months (which working full time and still learning programming makes it a tad difficult). I'm looking for suggestions on SDK's or tools (preferably free or that come with games, similar to steam tools) that I can use to develop a "game". I'm OK with coding but have no 3D development skills at all. I've very little experience with mod tools or SDK's at all but I'm hoping someone can point me in the direction of one that does the following: A decent library of prefab 3D models to build scenes. Ability to add scripting to the scene I've used Unity before and would prefer to continue to do so however I really have the worst 3D skills imaginable and can't waste time learning them. I'd be looking for pre-fab items that are both industrial and possibly more lush environments (trees etc). If it makes any difference (due to licencing and what-not) I WILL NOT be selling this game or marketing it in any way and I am a University Student if any places do educations licences. Another alternative would be to source free 3d models elsewhere but again while I'm still learning I have no idea where to look if someone could point me in the right direction I'll do the rest of the digging. Thanks

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• Painting with pixel shaders

  - by Gustavo Maciel

  I have an almost full understanding of how 2D Lighting works, saw this post and was tempted to try implementing this in HLSL. I planned to paint each of the layers with shaders, and then, combine them just drawing one on top of another, or just pass the 3 textures to the shader and getting a better way to combine them. Working almost as planned, but I got a little question in the matter. I'm drawing each layer this way: GraphicsDevice.SetRenderTarget(lighting); GraphicsDevice.Clear(Color.Transparent); //... Setup shader SpriteBatch.Begin(SpriteSortMode.Immediate, BlendState.AlphaBlend, SamplerState.LinearClamp, DepthStencilState.None, RasterizerState.CullNone, lightingShader); SpriteBatch.Draw(texture, fullscreen, Color.White); SpriteBatch.End(); GraphicsDevice.SetRenderTarget(darkMask); GraphicsDevice.Clear(Color.Transparent); //... Setup shader SpriteBatch.Begin(SpriteSortMode.Immediate, BlendState.AlphaBlend, SamplerState.LinearClamp, DepthStencilState.None, RasterizerState.CullNone, darkMaskShader); SpriteBatch.Draw(texture, fullscreen, Color.White); SpriteBatch.End(); Where lightingShader and darkMaskShader are shaders that, with parameters (view and proj matrices, light pos, color and range, etc) generate a texture meant to be that layer. It works fine, but I'm not sure if drawing a transparent quad on top of a transparent render target is the best way of doing it. Because I actually just need the position and params. Concluding: Can I paint a texture with shaders without having to clear it and then draw a transparent texture on top of it?

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• How can I add a custom item to the Sound Indicator (and make it clickable more than once)?

  - by con-f-use

  The original question One of the strength of Unity are the various standardized indicators. I want to customize the sound indicator with an additional menu entry that runs a small shell script. I'm not afraid of a little Python code and I hope someone can point me to the right subroutine in the right file. I suspect that will be fairly easy but all the indicators are just so bloated that I can't look through their code in a reasonable time. Any help is appreciated. I know it is possible as the marvelous Skype-Wrapper does it. Edit 2 - Now a dirty DBus hack The one click problem from one edit before has now turned into a DBus problem. Basically we have to tell the sound indicator that our bogus player has terminated now. A dirty hack navigates around that problem: #!/bin/bash # This is '/home/confus/bin/toggleSpeaker.sh' notify-send "Toggle Speaker" "$(date)" qdbus \ com.canonical.indicator.sound \ /org/ayatana/indicator/service \ org.ayatana.indicator.service.Shutdown exit 0 Help from the community is appreciated as I don't have experience any with DBus whatsoever. Edit 1 - Takkat found a solution but only clickable once? For some reason the solution proposed by Takkat has the drawback that the resulting entry in indicator sound can only be clicked once per session. If someone has a fix for, than please comment or answer, you will be upvoted. Here you can see the result: I strongly suspect the issue is related to the .desktop-file in /home/confus/.local/share/application/toggleSpeaker.desktop, which is this: [Desktop Entry] Type=Application Name=toggleSpeaker GenericName=Toggle Speaker Icon=gstreamer-properties Exec=/home/confus/bin/toggleSpeaker.sh Terminal=false And here is a minimal example of the script in /home/confus/bin/toggleSpeaker.sh for your consideration: #!/bin/bash # This is '/home/confus/bin/toggleSpeaker.sh' notify-send "Toggle Speaker" "$(date)" exit 0

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• Best Java Book(s) for an Experienced Developer

  - by Steven Elliott Jr

  I have been a .NET developer now for about the past 5/6 years give or take. I have never done any professional Java development and the last time I really touched it was probably back in college. I have been toying with the Scala language a little bit but nothing serious. Recently, I've been offered an opportunity to do some pretty cool work, but using Java instead of .NET. I think I can get by alright with my current skill set, meaning I already know how to program well and am familiar with languages such as C# and C++, etc. So, the syntax and all that language stuff are really not a problem. What I need is a really good reference book and a book about how to think in Java. Each language/Framework/Stack tries to address things a certain way and I'm sure Java is no different. What are some great Java books that you simply can't live without? Are there any books that talk about the most important parts of Java that must be understood before all else? As a side note, I will be doing mostly Java web development. Not really 100% on what types of stuff they are using for persistence, framework, server, etc. Thanks again for the consideration.

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• A Virtual Dilemma

  - by antony.reynolds

  Solving a Gotcha with VirtualBox Guest Additions I was just building a new virtual machine based off an existing image that didn’t have the Virtual Box Guest Additions enabled.  The guest additions allow tight integration between the guest OS and the host environment, providing seemless mouse transfer and the ability to take advantage of full video screen size.  The guest additions need to be linked with the kernel which requires the kernel-devel package to be installed.  After installing this package and then trying to add the guest additions it failed, suggesting that I might not have the kernel-devel package that I had installed.  After a little though I finally realized what had happened.  When I grabbed the kernel-devel package I hadn’t checked the version of my kernel.  The kernel-devel I downloaded didn’t match the revision of the kernel I was running!  Hence my problems.  I upgraded the kernel to the same revision as my kernel-devel package and rebooted.  I had installed dkms so I was pleased to see that my VBox Additions successfully built and the mouse and screen now worked as expected. So now you know my embarrassing story for the day :-)

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• Should GeeksWithBlogs move to the Wordpress Platform?

  - by Martin Hinshelwood

  Geekswithblogs was my first ever blog and my first post was on 22nd June 2006. Since then very little functionality has been added. This is not a complaint, but rather an observation that it is very hard to keep up with all of the blogging capabilities that people want. My point would be: “Why bother!” Vote now for a migration of the awesome Geekswithblogs content from SubText to Wordpress. Having been a long time user of GWB I have been worried of late by my envy of other blogging platforms. I made a number of requests around 10 months ago for things that almost all blogging platforms provide, but which are not available on GWB. Support other comment frameworks – The current comment system is so antiquated that it does not even have the common filters like Facebook, twitter or Google login to help prevent spam. Tags are not listed in the RSS – This can prevent you from getting the Google juice that you deserve 301 redirects to a single URL– If you use a custom URL then all your posts are split between both the GWB URL and the custom one. This is VERY bas for SEO. I realise that it is difficult to find time to add all of the features that all the uber geeks on this site want, so why bother… lets move to the most popular and moded platform available and allow everyone to add whatever widgets they like. Figure: Vote for Geekswithblogs moving to Wordpress Why would I want this? There are over 13k plugins available Easy augmentation model Full mobile support Regular releases lots more… This could be a turning point in the legendary history of Geeks With Blogs, be part of it… What can I do to make this happen? I need your help to make this happen: Vote for it Discuss it

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• Two JavaFX Community Rock Stars Join Oracle

  - by Tori Wieldt

  from Sharat Chander, Director - Java Technology Outreach: These past 24+ months have proved momentous for Oracle's stewardship of Java.  A little over 2 years ago when Oracle completed its acquisition of Sun, a lot of community speculation arose regarding Oracle's Java commitment.  Whether the fears and concerns were legitimate or not, the only way to emphatically demonstrate Oracle's seriousness with moving Java forward was through positive action.  In 2010, Oracle committed to putting Java back on schedule whereby large gaps between release trains would be a thing of the past.  And in 2011, that promise came true.  With the 2011 summer release of JDK 7, the Java ecosystem now had a version brought up to date.  And then in the fall of 2011, JavaFX 2.0 righted the JavaFX ship making rich internet applications a reality. Similar progress between Oracle and the Java community continues to blossom.  New-found relationship investments between Oracle and Java User Groups are taking root.  Greater participation and content execution by the Java community in JavaOne is steadily increasing.  The road ahead is lit with bright lights and opportunities. And now there's more good news to share.  As of April 2nd, two recognized JavaFX technology luminaries and "rock stars" speakers from the Java community are joining Oracle on a new journey. We're proud to have both Jim Weaver and Stephen Chin joining Oracle's Java Evangelist Team.  You'll start to see them involved in many community facing activities where their JavaFX expertise and passion will shine.  Stay tuned! Welcome @JavaFXpert and @SteveonJava !

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• Socket.io v.9 with Actionscript

  - by funseiki

  I'm attempting to develop an online multiplayer game using Node.js for the server and Flash to display the client. I've been reading up a bit and have found quite a few recommendations for the socket.io library. I've also found a github project which exposes code to help facilitate communication between an Actionscript 3.0 client and a server using socket.io. The project I mentioned is a bit dated and doesn't seem to have support for the latest version of socket.io, so I was wondering if leveraging this framework (socket.io, that is) would be the most ideal way to go. I have found a simple project that uses the standard 'net' module for node.js, but because there a few options available, I'm a little lost as to which one to go with. I'm currently leaning towards just using the regular 'net' module as it is already familiar to me. Since much of the client is already coded up, I'd really like to not switch over to using the HTML5 canvas just yet (but using socket.io would make a transition in the future more friendly, I think?). Any advice/direction on this matter would be much appreciated, though I do realize that there may be no one right answer. Edit: To be more specific, are there any client-side socket.io frameworks available that allow for communication between an Actionscript 3.0 client and a socket.io server and are robust enough to support current/future versions of socket.io? If not, what are the alternatives?

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• Disk failure is imminent Laptop Hard drive ~5 months old

  - by Drew

  There's another post about this, but I don't have enough 'points' to say anything on that thread. So I'll start my own ... with more details! My computer still boots, but gnome domain reports problems with HDD smart. This has been confirmed in the bios as it makes me press f1 to boot up now. I tried running HDD disk check in the bios, but it fails running the tests. As in, running the tests failed not that the tests themselves indicated a failed drive. Here is what disk utility is reporting as failing: Reallocated Sector Count FAILING Normalized: 132 Worst: 132 Threshold: 140 Value: 544 Current Pending Sector Count WARNING Normalized: 200 Worst: 1 Threshold: 0 Value: 2 Is this related to the insane number of DRDY errors on the drive? kernel: [51345.233069] ata1.00: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x0 action 0x0 kernel: [51345.233076] ata1.00: BMDMA stat 0x4 kernel: [51345.233081] ata1.00: failed command: READ DMA kernel: [51345.233090] ata1.00: cmd c8/00:00:00:8b:4a/00:00:00:00:00/e0 tag 0 dma 131072 in kernel: [51345.233092] res 51/40:00:a8:8b:4a/10:04:00:00:00/e0 Emask 0x9 (media error) kernel: [51345.233097] ata1.00: status: { DRDY ERR } kernel: [51345.233103] ata1.00: error: { UNC } kernel: [51345.291929] ata1.00: configured for UDMA/100 kernel: [51345.291944] ata1: EH complete kernel: [51347.682748] ata1.00: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x0 action 0x0 kernel: [51347.682754] ata1.00: BMDMA stat 0x4 kernel: [51347.682759] ata1.00: failed command: READ DMA kernel: [51347.682768] ata1.00: cmd c8/00:00:00:8b:4a/00:00:00:00:00/e0 tag 0 dma 131072 in kernel: [51347.682770] res 51/40:00:a8:8b:4a/10:04:00:00:00/e0 Emask 0x9 (media error) kernel: [51347.682774] ata1.00: status: { DRDY ERR } kernel: [51347.682777] ata1.00: error: { UNC } Did Ubuntu 10.10 and/or EXT4 eat my work laptop? What steps can I take to backup my important information, which is probably the home folder. Please include steps to recover my data on the new hard drive as well. It does me little good to have backups I can't use.

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• Why is it that software is still easily pirated today?

  - by mohabitar

  I've always been curious about this. Now I wouldn't call myself a programmer yet, but I'm learning, so maybe the answer to this is obvious. It just seems a little hard to believe that with all of our technological advances and the billions of dollars spent on engineering the most unbelievable and mind-blowing software, we still have no other means of protecting against piracy then a "serial number/activation key". I'm sure a ton of money, maybe even billions, went into creating Windows 7 or Office and even Snow Leopard, yet I can get it for free in less than 20 minutes. Same for all of Adobe's products, which are probably the easiest. I guess my question is: can there exist a fool proof and hack proof method of protecting your software against piracy? If not realistically, how about theoretically possible? Or no matter what mechanisms these companies deploy, hackers can always find a way around it? EDIT: So apparently, the answer is no. There's pretty much no way. And so I'm sure these big companies have realized this as well. Should they adopt another sales model rather than charging a crapload for their software (I know its justified and they put a lot of hard work into their software, but its still a lot of money). Are there any alternative solutions that will benefit both the company and the user (i.e. if you purchase our product, we'll apply $X dollars to your account that will apply to future purchases from our company)?

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• GitHub: Are there external tools for managing issues list vs. project backlog

  - by DXM

  Recently I posted one of my the projects1 on GitHub and as I was exploring capabilities of the site, I noticed they have a rather decent issue tracking section. I want to use that section as a) other people can report bugs if they'd like and b) other people can see which bugs I'm aware of. However, as others have noted, issues list cannot be prioritized in order to create a project backlog. For now my backlog has been a text file, but I'd like to be able to have it integrated so the same information isn't maintained in different places. Having a fully ordered list, which is something we also practice at work, has been very useful as I can open one file, start with line 1 and fire off 2 or 3 items in one sitting without having to go back to a full issues/stories bucket. GitHub doesn't offer this. What GitHub does offer is a very nice and clean API so issues can easily be exported into anything else. I've searched to see if there are other websites (like Trello) that integrate with GitHub issues, but did not find anything. Does anyone know of such a product, service or offline tool? Those that use GitHub, what is your experience in managing backlog? I kinda hate the idea of manually managing two disconnected lists like some people seem to be doing with Wiki project pages. 1 - are shameless plugs allowed no this site? Searched but didn't find a definite answer. If it's bad practice, STOP and don't read further As a developer I got sick and tired of navigating to same set of folders 30 times a day, so I wrote a little, auto-collapsible utility that gets stuck to the desktop and allows easy access to the folders you constantly use.

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• What's the best algorithm for... [closed]

  - by Paska

  Hi programmers! Today come out a little problem. I have an array of coordinates (latitude and longitude) maded in this way: [0] = "45.01234,9.12345" [1] = "46.11111,9.12345" [2] = "47.22222,9.98765" [...] etc In a loop, convert these coordinates in meters (UTM northing / UTM easting) and after that i convert these coords in pixel (X / Y) on screen (the output device is an iphone) to draw a route line on a custom map. [0] = "512335.00000,502333.666666" [...] etc The returning pixel are passed to a method that draw a line on screen (simulating a route calculation). [0] = "20,30" [1] = "21,31" [2] = "25,40" [...] etc As coordinate (lat/lon) are too many, i need to truncate lat/lon array eliminating the values that doesn't fill in the map bound (the visible part of map on screen). Map bounds are 2 couple of coords lat/lon, upper left and lower right. Now, what is the best way to loop on this array (NOT SORTED) and check if a value is or not in bound and after remove the value that is outside? To return a clean array that contains only the coords visible on screen? Note: the coords array is a very big array. 4000/5000 couple of items. This is a method that should be looped every drag or zoom. Anyone have an idea to optimize search and controls in this array? many thanks, A

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• TechEd 2010 Day Two – No SQL Server in Sight

  - by BuckWoody

  Today I worked the booth at TechEd 2010, manning the new “Surface” computer, which is just the coolest object on the planet. After that I didn’t attend a single SQL Server session – instead I’ve been frequenting SharePoint, Microsoft Office, and even the High-Performance Computing sessions. The reason is that I get really high quality SQL Server presentations at PASS, SQL Saturdays, and online from Microsoft and other vendors. While there are SQL Server sessions here (after all, I’m giving one of them!) I tend to try and see things that I don’t normally get to learn about. And the cross-pollination between those technologies and mine is fantastic.     I’ve even managed to go to an Entity Framework presentation for the developers. I actually have (a little) more respect for that technology – and I’ve modified my presentation to encompass more of that information. So whenever you have the chance, take a walk outside your comfort zone. Even at PASS and SQL Saturdays (and certainly online) you can investigate technologies other than the ones you know best.  Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!

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• How to show or direct a business analyst to a data modelling subject?

  - by AaronLS

  Our business analysts pushed hard to collect data through a spreadsheet. I am the programmer responsible for importing that data. Usually when they push hard for something like this, I never know how well it will work out until a few weeks later when I have time assigned to work on the task of programming the import of the data. I have tried to do as much as possible along the way, named ranges, data validations, etc. But I usually don't have time to take a detailed look at all the data and compare to the destination in the database to determine how well it matches up. A lot of times there will be maybe a little table of items that somehow I have to relate to something else in the database, but there are not natural or business keys present that would allow me to do so. Make the best of this, trying to write something that can compare strings and make a best guess at it and then go through the effort of creating interfaces for a user to match the imported data to the destination. I feel like if the business analyst was actually creating a data model, they would be forced to think about these relationships, and have an appreciation for the need of natural or business keys to be part of the spreadsheet for the purposes of smoothly importing the data. The closest they come to business analysis is a big flat list of fields, and that would be fine if it were like any other data dictionary and include data types+relationships, but it isn't. They are just a bunch of names. No indication of what type of data they might hold, and it is up to me to guess. When I have pushed for more detail, they say that it is just busy work. How can I explain the importance of data modelling? How can I tell them what it is and how to do it? It feels impossible, because they don't have an appreciation for its importance. They do however, usually have an interest in helping out in whatever way they can, it's just this in particular has never gotten a motivated response.

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• I know fundamental programming. But how do I get started in game development now?

  - by Rohan Menon

  I'm a 20 year old programming student. I know fundamental programming in BASIC, C, C++ and JAVA. What I wanted to ask is, where do I go from here? Are there any books that the community can mention that will help me develop a game or at least learn game development? I've had a lot of ideas and really want to make some sort of prototype to see if I'm suited for the industry. I really don't mind learning any new languages but I need to know what I should begin with. A good book that will help with a little more understanding as I go up will be very helpful. Maybe a tutorial to develop some basic 2D games like a side-scroller, snake or pocket tanks in an easy to understand SDK? I know that to get some credit under your belt, you need to be able to make a few games on your own. Also, what platform should I start on? The PC, iOS or Android (as an introduction) for now. I don't want to get into high level game design just yet. Just something a bit basic to help out in future development. Anything pointing me in the right direction will be really really helpful. Edit: Also, I want to say that I'm looking towards this from a game designer's point of view more than a game programmer. I want suggestions on any SDKs or easy to use programs I can use to understand game design. Then delve deeper into the programming after that. Not as employment but as developing your own games (for now).

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• Is creating a separate pool for each individual png image in the same class appropriate?

  - by Panzercrisis

  I'm still possibly a little green about object-pooling, and I want to make sure something like this is a sound design pattern before really embarking upon it. Take the following code (which uses the Starling framework in ActionScript 3): [Embed(source = "/../assets/images/game/misc/red_door.png")] private const RED_DOOR:Class; private const RED_DOOR_TEXTURE:Texture = Texture.fromBitmap(new RED_DOOR()); private const m_vRedDoorPool:Vector.<Image> = new Vector.<Image>(50, true); . . . public function produceRedDoor():Image { // get a Red Door image } public function retireRedDoor(pImage:Image):void { // retire a Red Door Image } Except that there are four colors: red, green, blue, and yellow. So now we have a separate pool for each color, a separate produce function for each color, and a separate retire function for each color. Additionally there are several items in the game that follow this 4-color pattern, so for each of them, we have four pools, four produce functions, and four retire functions. There are more colors involved in the images themselves than just their predominant one, so trying to throw all the doors, for instance, in a single pool, and then changing their color properties around isn't going to work. Also the nonexistence of the static keyword is due to its slowness in AS3. Is this the right way to do things?

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• Better way to generate enemies of different sub-classes

  - by KDiTraglia

  So lets pretend I have an enemy class that has some generic implementation and inheriting from it I have all the specific enemies of my game. There are points in my code that I need to check whether an enemy is a specific type, but in Java I have found no easier way than this monstrosity... //Must be a better way to do this if ( enemy.class.isAssignableFrom(Ninja.class) ) { ... } My partner on the project saw these and changed them to use an enum system instead public class Ninja extends Enemy { //EnemyType is an enum containing all our enemy types public EnemyType = EnemyTypes.NINJA; } if (enemy.EnemyType = EnemyTypes.NINJA) { ... } I also have found no way to generate enemies on varying probabilities besides this for (EnemyTypes types : enemyTypes) { if ( (randomNext = (randomNext - types.getFrequency())) < 0 ) { enemy = createEnemy(types.getEnemyType()); break; } } private static Enemy createEnemy(EnemyType type) { switch (type) { case NINJA: return new Ninja(new Vector2D(rand.nextInt(getScreenWidth()), 0), determineSpeed()); case GORILLA: return new Gorilla(new Vector2D(rand.nextInt(getScreenWidth()), 0), determineSpeed()); case TREX: return new TRex(new Vector2D(rand.nextInt(getScreenWidth()), 0), determineSpeed()); //etc } return null } I know java is a little weak at dynamic object creation, but is there a better way to implement this in a way such like this for (EnemyTypes types : enemyTypes) { if ( (randomNext = (randomNext - types.getFrequency())) < 0 ) { //Change enemyTypes to hold the classes of the enemies I can spawn enemy = types.getEnemyType().class.newInstance() break; } } Is the above possible? How would I declare enemyTypes to hold the classes if so? Everything I have tried so far as generated compile errors and general frustration, but I figured I might ask here before I completely give up to the huge mass that is the createEveryEnemy() method. All the enemies do inherit from the Enemy class (which is what the enemy variable is declared as). Also is there a better way to check which type a particular enemy that is shorter than enemy.class.isAssignableFrom(Ninja.class)? I'd like to ditch the enums entirely if possible, since they seem repetitive when the class name itself holds that information.

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• Recruiters intentionally present one good candidate for an available job

  - by Jeff O

  Maybe they do it without realizing. The recruiter's goal is to fill the job as soon as possible. I even think they feel it is in their best interest that the candidate be qualified, so I'm not trying to knock recruiters. Aren't they better off presenting 3 candidates, but one clearly stands out? The last thing they want from their client is a need to extend the interview process because they can't decide. If the client doesn't like any of them, you just bring on your next good candidate. This way they hedge their bet a little. Any experience, insight or ever heard of a head-hunter admit this? Does it make sense? There has to be a reason why the choose such unqualified people. I've seen jobs posted that clearly state they want someone with a CS degree and the recruiter doesn't take it literally. I don't have a CS degree or Java experience and still they think I'm a possible fit.

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• Profit at Oracle OpenWorld 2012

  - by user462779

  It's only a week away: Oracle OpenWorld descends on San Francisco from September 30 to October 4. It's always a frantic week for the Profit editorial staff, but here's a few thing we've got going in San Francisco that you'll want to watch out for: Profit on Oracle OpenWorld Live: The Oracle video team will be broadcasting live from the event all week. I have a few interesting on-air interviews booked, including a conversation with business/technology researcher Andrew Mcafee (Monday Oct 1 @ 11:45am), Acorn Paper CEO David Weissberg (Tuesday, Oct 2 @ 12:15pm) and Abhay Parasnis, Oracle Senior Vice President, Oracle Public Cloud (Wednesday, Oct 3, @ 10:45am). Profit in the Oracle Partner Network Lounge: This summer, I worked with the amazing Oracle Partner Network (OPN) team to create the Profit Oracle Specialized Partner Edition 2012. It's a great catalog of Oracle partner success stories and insight into the OPN strategy from its leadership. Look for the special issue of Profit in the Oracle PartnerNetwork Lounge: the place where partners can meet formally or informally with colleagues, customers, prospects, and other industry professionals. Moscone South, Exhibit Hall, Room 100 Oracle Customer Experience Summit @ OpenWorld: There's been a lot of discussion within my editorial team (and content published, as well)about Customer Experience. To keep pace with this evolving subject, I'll be attending this special embedded conference on Wednesday and Thursday (Oct. 3-4). Especially looking forward to Seth Godin's presentation: he was one of the first experts we interviewed forProfit Online five years ago. The Executive Edge @ OpenWorld: Of course, my Oracle OpenWorld is mostly filled with meetings/interviews with Oracle customers about completed Oracle projects and the strategic impact of enterprise IT on business. The ideal place for these conversations is The Executive Edge @ OpenWorld embedded conference. Samovar Tea Lounge at Moscone Center: I spend my down time on the roof of Moscone North, preparing for meetings or having impromptu conversations with attendees at this little oasis overlooking Yerba Buena Gardens. Fee free to drop my for a chat! See you in San Francisco! -Aaron Lazenby

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