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• Beginner Geek: How to Use Multiple Monitors to Be More Productive

  - by Chris Hoffman

  Many people swear by multiple monitors, whether they’re geeks or just people who need to be productive. Why use just one monitor when you can use two or more and see more at once? Additional monitors allow you to expand your desktop, getting more screen real estate for your open programs. Windows makes it very easy to set up additional monitors, and your computer probably has the necessary ports. Why Use Multiple Monitors? Multiple monitors give you more screen real estate. Hook up multiple monitors to a computer and you can move your mouse back and forth between them, dragging programs between monitors as if you had an extra-large desktop. People who swear by multiple monitors use them to display multiple things on-screen at a time. Rather than Alt+Tabbing and task switching to glance at another window, you can just look over with your eyes and then look back to the program you’re using. Some examples of use cases for multiple monitors include: Coders who want to view their code on one display with the other display reserved for documentation. They can just glance over at the documentation and look back at their primary workspace. Anyone who needs to view something while working. Viewing a web page while writing an email, viewing another document while writing an something, or working with two large spreadsheets and having both visible at once. People who need to keep an eye on information, whether it’s email or up-to-date statistics, while working. Gamers who want to see more of the game world, extending the game across multiple displays. Geeks who just want to watch a video on one screen while doing something else on the other screen. Hooking Up Multiple Monitors Hooking up an additional monitor to your computer should be very simple. Most new computers come with more than one port for a monitor — whether DVI, HDMI, the older VGA port, or a mix. Some computers may include splitter cables that allow you to connect multiple monitors to a single port. Most laptops also come with ports that allow you to hook up an external monitor. Plug a monitor into your laptop’s DVI or VGA port and Windows will allow you to use both your laptop’s integrated display and the external monitor at once. This all depends on the ports your computer has and how your monitor connects. If you have an old VGA monitor lying around and you have a modern laptop with only DVI or HDMI connectors, you may need an adapter that allows you to plug your monitor’s VGA cable into the new port. Be sure to take your computer’s ports into account before you get another monitor for it. Managing Multiple Monitors With Windows Windows makes using multiple monitors easy. Just plug the monitor into the appropriate port on your computer and Windows should automatically extend your desktop onto it. You can now just drag and drop windows between monitors. To control how this works, right-click your Windows desktop and select Screen resolution. Choose an option from the Multiple displays box. The Extend option extends your desktop onto an additional monitor, while the other options are mainly useful if you’re using an additional monitor for presentations — for example, you could mirror your laptop’s desktop onto a large monitor or blank your laptop’s screen while it’s connected to a larger display. Be sure to arrange your monitors properly so Windows understands how your monitors are physically positioned. Windows 8 allows you to extend your Windows taskbar across multiple monitors. You’ll find this option in the taskbar’s options window — right-click the taskbar and select Properties. You can also choose where you want Windows to display taskbar buttons for open programs — on any monitor’s taskbar or only on the taskbar on the associated monitor. Windows 7 doesn’t have these convenient features built-in — your second monitor won’t have a taskbar. To extend your taskbar onto an additional monitor, you’ll need a third-party utility like the free and open-source Dual Monitor Taskbar. If you just have a single monitor, you can also use the Aero Snap feature to quickly place multiple Windows applications side by side. On Windows 7 or 8, press Windows Key + Left or Windows Key + Right to make the current window take up the left or right half of your display. You could also drag any window’s title bar to the left or right edges of your screen and release the window. How useful this feature is depends on your monitor’s size and resolution. If you have a large, high-resolution monitor, it will allow you to see a lot. If you have a smaller laptop monitor with the seemingly standard 1366×768 resolution, you won’t be able to see much of each snapped window at once, so snapping windows may not be practical. Image Credit: Chance Reecher on Flickr, Camp Atterbury Joint Maneuver Training Center on Flickr, Xavier Caballe on Flickr     

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• Thou shalt not put code on a piedestal - Code is a tool, no more, no less

  - by Ralf Westphal

  “Write great code and everything else becomes easier” is what Paul Pagel believes in. That´s his version of an adage by Brian Marick he cites: “treat code as an end, not just a means.” And he concludes: “My post-Agile world is software craftsmanship.” I wonder, if that´s really the way to go. Will “simply” writing great code lead the software industry into the light? He´s alluding to the philosopher Kant who proposed, a human beings should never be treated as a means, but always as an end. But should we transfer this ethical statement into the world of software? I doubt it.   Reason #1: Human beings are categorially different from code. They are autonomous entities who need to find a way of living happily together. To Kant it seemed this goal could only be reached if nobody (ab)used a human being for his/her purposes. Because using a human being, i.e. treating it as a means, would contradict the fundamental autonomy and freedom of human beings. People should hold up a symmetric view of their relationships: Since nobody wants to be (ab)used, nobody should (ab)use anybody else. If you want to be treated decently, with respect, in accordance with your own free will - which means as an end - then do the same to other people. Code is dead, it´s a product, it´s a tool for people to reach their goals. No company spends any money on code other than to save money or earn money in the long run. Code is not a puppy. Enterprises do not commission software development to just feel good in its company. Code is not a buddy. Code is a slave, if you will. A mechanical slave, a non-tangible robot. Code is a tool, is a tool. And if we start to treat it differently, if we elevate its status unduely… I guess that will contort our relationship in a contraproductive way. Please get me right: Just because something is “just a tool”, “just a product” does not mean we should not be careful while designing, building, using it. Right to the contrary. We should be very careful when writing code – but not for the code´s sake! We should be careful because we respect our customers who are fellow human beings who should be treated as an end. If we are careless, neglectful, ignorant when producing code on their behalf, then we´re using them. Being sloppy means you´re caring more for yourself that for your customer. You´re then treating the customer as a means to fulfill some of your own needs. That´s plain unethical behavior.   Reason #2: The focus should always be on your purpose, not on any tool. But if code is treated as an end, then the focus is on the code. That might sound right, because where else should be your focus as a software developer? But, well, I´d say, your focus should be on delivering value to your customer. Because in the end your customer does not care if you write a single line of code. She just wants her problem to be solved. Solving problems is the purpose of any contractor. Code must be treated just as a means, a tool we know how to handle very well. But if we´re really trying to be craftsmen then we should be conscious about exactly that and act ethically. That means we must never be so focused on our tool as to be unable to suggest better solutions to the problems of our customers than code.   I´m all with Paul when he urges us to “Write great code”. Sure, if you need to write code, then by all means do so. Write the best code you can think of – and then try to improve it. Paul has all the best intentions when he signs Brians “treat code as an end” - but as we all know: “The road to hell is paved with best intentions” ;-) Yes, I can imagine a “hell of code focus”. In fact, I don´t need to imagine it, I´m seeing it quite often. Because code hell is whereever two developers stand together and are so immersed in talking about all sorts of coding tricks, design patterns, code smells, technologies, platforms, tools that they lose sight of the big picture. Talking about TDD or SOLID or refactoring is a sign of consciousness – relative to the “cowboy coders” view of the world. But from yet another point of view TDD, SOLID, and refactoring are just cures for ailments within a system. And I fear, if “Writing great code” is the only focus or the main focus of software development, then we as an industry lose the ability to see that. Focus draws a line around something, it defines a horizon for perceptions and thinking. So if we focus on code our horizon ends where “the land of code” ends. I don´t think that should be our professional attitude.   So what about Software Craftsmanship as the next big thing after Agility? I think Software Craftsmanship has an important message for all software developers and beyond. But to make it the successor of the Agility movement seems to miss a point. Agility never claimed to solve all software development problems, I´d say. So to blame it for having missed out on certain aspects of it is wrong. If I had to summarize Agility in one word I´d say “Value”. Agility put value for the customer back in software development. Focus on delivering value early and often – that´s Agility´s mantra. All else follows from that. And I ask you: Is that obsolete? Is delivering value not hip anymore? No, sure not. That´s our very purpose as software developers. So how can Agility become obsolete and need to be replaced? We need to do away with this “either/or”-thinking. It´s either Agility or Lean or Software Craftsmanship or whatnot. Instead we should start integrating concepts and movements. Think “both/and”. Think Agility plus Software Craftsmanship plus Lean plus whatnot. We don´t neet to tear down anything from a piedestal and replace it with a new idol. Instead we should do away with piedestals and arrange whatever is helpful is a circle. Then we can turn to concepts, movements for whatever they are best. After 10 years of Agility we should be able to identify what it was good at – and keep that. Keep Agility around and add whatever Agility was lacking or never concerned with. Add whatever is at the core of Software Craftsmanship. Add whatever is at the core of Lean etc. But don´t call out the age of Post-Agility. Because it better never will end. Because once we start to lose Agility´s core we´re losing focus of the customer.

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• Using Event Driven Programming in games, when is it beneficial?

  - by Arthur Wulf White

  I am learning ActionScript 3 and I see the Event flow adheres to the W3C recommendations. From what I learned events can only be captured by the dispatcher unless, the listener capturing the event is a DisplayObject on stage and a parent of the object firing the event. You can capture the events in the capture(before) or bubbling(after) phase depending on Listner and Event setup you use. Does this system lend itself well for game programming? When is this system useful? Could you give an example of a case where using events is a lot better than going without them? Are they somehow better for performance in games? Please do not mention events you must use to get a game running, like Event.ENTER_FRAME Or events that are required to get input from the user like, KeyboardEvent.KEY_DOWN and MouseEvent.CLICK. I am asking if there is any use in firing events that have nothing to do with user input, frame rendering and the likes(that are necessary). I am referring to cases where objects are communicating. Is this used to avoid storing a collection of objects that are on the stage? Thanks Here is some code I wrote as an example of event behavior in ActionScript 3, enjoy. package regression { import flash.display.Shape; import flash.display.Sprite; import flash.events.Event; import flash.events.EventDispatcher; import flash.events.KeyboardEvent; import flash.events.MouseEvent; import flash.events.EventPhase; /** * ... * @author ... */ public class Check_event_listening_1 extends Sprite { public const EVENT_DANCE : String = "dance"; public const EVENT_PLAY : String = "play"; public const EVENT_YELL : String = "yell"; private var baby : Shape = new Shape(); private var mom : Sprite = new Sprite(); private var stranger : EventDispatcher = new EventDispatcher(); public function Check_event_listening_1() { if (stage) init(); else addEventListener(Event.ADDED_TO_STAGE, init); } private function init(e:Event = null):void { trace("test begun"); addChild(mom); mom.addChild(baby); stage.addEventListener(EVENT_YELL, onEvent); this.addEventListener(EVENT_YELL, onEvent); mom.addEventListener(EVENT_YELL, onEvent); baby.addEventListener(EVENT_YELL, onEvent); stranger.addEventListener(EVENT_YELL, onEvent); trace("\nTest1 - Stranger yells with no bubbling"); stranger.dispatchEvent(new Event(EVENT_YELL, false)); trace("\nTest2 - Stranger yells with bubbling"); stranger.dispatchEvent(new Event(EVENT_YELL, true)); stage.addEventListener(EVENT_PLAY, onEvent); this.addEventListener(EVENT_PLAY, onEvent); mom.addEventListener(EVENT_PLAY, onEvent); baby.addEventListener(EVENT_PLAY, onEvent); stranger.addEventListener(EVENT_PLAY, onEvent); trace("\nTest3 - baby plays with no bubbling"); baby.dispatchEvent(new Event(EVENT_PLAY, false)); trace("\nTest4 - baby plays with bubbling"); baby.dispatchEvent(new Event(EVENT_PLAY, true)); trace("\nTest5 - baby plays with bubbling but is not a child of mom"); mom.removeChild(baby); baby.dispatchEvent(new Event(EVENT_PLAY, true)); mom.addChild(baby); stage.addEventListener(EVENT_DANCE, onEvent, true); this.addEventListener(EVENT_DANCE, onEvent, true); mom.addEventListener(EVENT_DANCE, onEvent, true); baby.addEventListener(EVENT_DANCE, onEvent); trace("\nTest6 - Mom dances without bubbling - everyone is listening during capture phase(not target and bubble phase)"); mom.dispatchEvent(new Event(EVENT_DANCE, false)); trace("\nTest7 - Mom dances with bubbling - everyone is listening during capture phase(not target and bubble phase)"); mom.dispatchEvent(new Event(EVENT_DANCE, true)); } private function onEvent(e : Event):void { trace("Event was captured"); trace("\nTYPE : ", e.type, "\nTARGET : ", objToName(e.target), "\nCURRENT TARGET : ", objToName(e.currentTarget), "\nPHASE : ", phaseToString(e.eventPhase)); } private function phaseToString(phase : int):String { switch(phase) { case EventPhase.AT_TARGET : return "TARGET"; case EventPhase.BUBBLING_PHASE : return "BUBBLING"; case EventPhase.CAPTURING_PHASE : return "CAPTURE"; default: return "UNKNOWN"; } } private function objToName(obj : Object):String { if (obj == stage) return "STAGE"; else if (obj == this) return "MAIN"; else if (obj == mom) return "Mom"; else if (obj == baby) return "Baby"; else if (obj == stranger) return "Stranger"; else return "Unknown" } } } /*result : test begun Test1 - Stranger yells with no bubbling Event was captured TYPE : yell TARGET : Stranger CURRENT TARGET : Stranger PHASE : TARGET Test2 - Stranger yells with bubbling Event was captured TYPE : yell TARGET : Stranger CURRENT TARGET : Stranger PHASE : TARGET Test3 - baby plays with no bubbling Event was captured TYPE : play TARGET : Baby CURRENT TARGET : Baby PHASE : TARGET Test4 - baby plays with bubbling Event was captured TYPE : play TARGET : Baby CURRENT TARGET : Baby PHASE : TARGET Event was captured TYPE : play TARGET : Baby CURRENT TARGET : Mom PHASE : BUBBLING Event was captured TYPE : play TARGET : Baby CURRENT TARGET : MAIN PHASE : BUBBLING Event was captured TYPE : play TARGET : Baby CURRENT TARGET : STAGE PHASE : BUBBLING Test5 - baby plays with bubbling but is not a child of mom Event was captured TYPE : play TARGET : Baby CURRENT TARGET : Baby PHASE : TARGET Test6 - Mom dances without bubbling - everyone is listening during capture phase(not target and bubble phase) Event was captured TYPE : dance TARGET : Mom CURRENT TARGET : STAGE PHASE : CAPTURE Event was captured TYPE : dance TARGET : Mom CURRENT TARGET : MAIN PHASE : CAPTURE Test7 - Mom dances with bubbling - everyone is listening during capture phase(not target and bubble phase) Event was captured TYPE : dance TARGET : Mom CURRENT TARGET : STAGE PHASE : CAPTURE Event was captured TYPE : dance TARGET : Mom CURRENT TARGET : MAIN PHASE : CAPTURE */

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• JNI 'problmatic frame' causes JVM to crash

  - by HJED

  Hi I'm using JNI to access the exiv2 library (written in C++) in Java and I'm getting a weird runtime error in the JNI code. I've tried using various -Xms and -Xmx options, but that seems to have no affect. I've also tried running this code on JDK1.7.0 with the same result. # A fatal error has been detected by the Java Runtime Environment: # # SIGSEGV (0xb) at pc=0x00007ff31807757f, pid=4041, tid=140682078746368 # # JRE version: 6.0_20-b20 # Java VM: OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (19.0-b09 mixed mode linux-amd64 ) # Derivative: IcedTea6 1.9.2 # Distribution: Ubuntu 10.10, package 6b20-1.9.2-0ubuntu2 # Problematic frame: # V [libjvm.so+0x42757f] # # If you would like to submit a bug report, please include # instructions how to reproduce the bug and visit: # https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/openjdk-6/ # --------------- T H R E A D --------------- Current thread (0x000000000190d000): JavaThread "main" [_thread_in_Java, id=4043, stack(0x00007ff319447000,0x00007ff319548000)] siginfo:si_signo=SIGSEGV: si_errno=0, si_code=1 (SEGV_MAPERR), si_addr=0x0000000000000024 Registers: ... Register to memory mapping: RAX=0x0000000000000002 0x0000000000000002 is pointing to unknown location RBX=0x000000000190db90 0x000000000190db90 is pointing to unknown location RCX=0x0000000000000000 0x0000000000000000 is pointing to unknown location RDX=0x00007ff3195463f8 0x00007ff3195463f8 is pointing into the stack for thread: 0x000000000190d000 "main" prio=10 tid=0x000000000190d000 nid=0xfcb runnable [0x0000000000000000] java.lang.Thread.State: RUNNABLE RSP=0x00007ff319546270 0x00007ff319546270 is pointing into the stack for thread: 0x000000000190d000 "main" prio=10 tid=0x000000000190d000 nid=0xfcb runnable [0x0000000000000000] java.lang.Thread.State: RUNNABLE RBP=0x00007ff319546270 0x00007ff319546270 is pointing into the stack for thread: 0x000000000190d000 "main" prio=10 tid=0x000000000190d000 nid=0xfcb runnable [0x0000000000000000] java.lang.Thread.State: RUNNABLE RSI=0x0000000000000024 0x0000000000000024 is pointing to unknown location RDI=0x00007ff3195463e0 0x00007ff3195463e0 is pointing into the stack for thread: 0x000000000190d000 "main" prio=10 tid=0x000000000190d000 nid=0xfcb runnable [0x0000000000000000] java.lang.Thread.State: RUNNABLE R8 =0x000000000190d000 "main" prio=10 tid=0x000000000190d000 nid=0xfcb runnable [0x0000000000000000] java.lang.Thread.State: RUNNABLE R9 =0x000000000190db88 0x000000000190db88 is pointing to unknown location R10=0x00007ff319546300 0x00007ff319546300 is pointing into the stack for thread: 0x000000000190d000 "main" prio=10 tid=0x000000000190d000 nid=0xfcb runnable [0x0000000000000000] java.lang.Thread.State: RUNNABLE R11=0x0000000000000002 0x0000000000000002 is pointing to unknown location R12=0x000000000190d000 "main" prio=10 tid=0x000000000190d000 nid=0xfcb runnable [0x0000000000000000] java.lang.Thread.State: RUNNABLE R13=0x00007ff319546560 0x00007ff319546560 is pointing into the stack for thread: 0x000000000190d000 "main" prio=10 tid=0x000000000190d000 nid=0xfcb runnable [0x0000000000000000] java.lang.Thread.State: RUNNABLE R14=0x00007ff3195463e0 0x00007ff3195463e0 is pointing into the stack for thread: 0x000000000190d000 "main" prio=10 tid=0x000000000190d000 nid=0xfcb runnable [0x0000000000000000] java.lang.Thread.State: RUNNABLE R15=0x0000000000000003 0x0000000000000003 is pointing to unknown location Top of Stack: (sp=0x00007ff319546270) ... Instructions: (pc=0x00007ff31807757f) 0x00007ff31807756f: e2 03 48 03 57 58 31 c9 48 8b 32 48 85 f6 74 03 0x00007ff31807757f: 48 8b 0e 48 89 0a 8b 77 68 83 c0 01 39 f0 7c d1 Stack: [0x00007ff319447000,0x00007ff319548000], sp=0x00007ff319546270, free space=1020k Native frames: (J=compiled Java code, j=interpreted, Vv=VM code, C=native code) V [libjvm.so+0x42757f] V [libjvm.so+0x42866b] V [libjvm.so+0x4275c8] V [libjvm.so+0x4331bd] V [libjvm.so+0x44e5c7] C [libExiff2-binding.so+0x1f16] _ZN7JNIEnv_15CallVoidMethodAEP8_jobjectP10_jmethodIDPK6jvalue+0x40 C [libExiff2-binding.so+0x1b96] _Z8loadIPTCSt8auto_ptrIN5Exiv25ImageEEPKcP7JNIEnv_P8_jobject+0x2ba C [libExiff2-binding.so+0x1d3f] _Z7getVarsPKcP7JNIEnv_P8_jobject+0x176 C [libExiff2-binding.so+0x1de7] Java_photo_exiv2_Exiv2MetaDataStore_impl_1loadFromExiv+0x4b j photo.exiv2.Exiv2MetaDataStore.impl_loadFromExiv(Ljava/lang/String;Lphoto/exiv2/Exiv2MetaDataStore;)V+0 j photo.exiv2.Exiv2MetaDataStore.loadFromExiv2()V+9 j photo.exiv2.Exiv2MetaDataStore.loadData()V+1 j photo.exiv2.Exiv2MetaDataStore.<init>(Lphoto/ImageFile;)V+10 j test.Main.main([Ljava/lang/String;)V+76 v ~StubRoutines::call_stub V [libjvm.so+0x428698] V [libjvm.so+0x4275c8] V [libjvm.so+0x432943] V [libjvm.so+0x447f91] C [java+0x3495] JavaMain+0xd75 --------------- P R O C E S S --------------- Java Threads: ( => current thread ) 0x00007ff2c4027800 JavaThread "Low Memory Detector" daemon [_thread_blocked, id=4060, stack(0x00007ff2c9052000,0x00007ff2c9153000)] 0x00007ff2c4025000 JavaThread "CompilerThread1" daemon [_thread_blocked, id=4059, stack(0x00007ff2c9153000,0x00007ff2c9254000)] 0x00007ff2c4022000 JavaThread "CompilerThread0" daemon [_thread_blocked, id=4058, stack(0x00007ff2c9254000,0x00007ff2c9355000)] 0x00007ff2c401f800 JavaThread "Signal Dispatcher" daemon [_thread_blocked, id=4057, stack(0x00007ff2c9355000,0x00007ff2c9456000)] 0x00007ff2c4001000 JavaThread "Finalizer" daemon [_thread_blocked, id=4056, stack(0x00007ff2c994d000,0x00007ff2c9a4e000)] 0x0000000001984000 JavaThread "Reference Handler" daemon [_thread_blocked, id=4055, stack(0x00007ff2c9a4e000,0x00007ff2c9b4f000)] =>0x000000000190d000 JavaThread "main" [_thread_in_Java, id=4043, stack(0x00007ff319447000,0x00007ff319548000)] Other Threads: 0x000000000197d800 VMThread [stack: 0x00007ff2c9b4f000,0x00007ff2c9c50000] [id=4054] 0x00007ff2c4032000 WatcherThread [stack: 0x00007ff2c8f51000,0x00007ff2c9052000] [id=4061] VM state:not at safepoint (normal execution) VM Mutex/Monitor currently owned by a thread: None Heap PSYoungGen total 18432K, used 316K [0x00007ff2fed30000, 0x00007ff3001c0000, 0x00007ff313730000) eden space 15808K, 2% used [0x00007ff2fed30000,0x00007ff2fed7f0b8,0x00007ff2ffca0000) from space 2624K, 0% used [0x00007ff2fff30000,0x00007ff2fff30000,0x00007ff3001c0000) to space 2624K, 0% used [0x00007ff2ffca0000,0x00007ff2ffca0000,0x00007ff2fff30000) PSOldGen total 42240K, used 0K [0x00007ff2d5930000, 0x00007ff2d8270000, 0x00007ff2fed30000) object space 42240K, 0% used [0x00007ff2d5930000,0x00007ff2d5930000,0x00007ff2d8270000) PSPermGen total 21248K, used 2827K [0x00007ff2cb330000, 0x00007ff2cc7f0000, 0x00007ff2d5930000) object space 21248K, 13% used [0x00007ff2cb330000,0x00007ff2cb5f2f60,0x00007ff2cc7f0000) Dynamic libraries: 00400000-00409000 r-xp 00000000 08:03 141899 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/bin/java 00608000-00609000 r--p 00008000 08:03 141899 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/bin/java 00609000-0060a000 rw-p 00009000 08:03 141899 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/bin/java 01904000-019ad000 rw-p 00000000 00:00 0 [heap] ... 7ff2c820c000-7ff2c8232000 r-xp 00000000 08:03 917704 /lib/libexpat.so.1.5.2 7ff2c8232000-7ff2c8432000 ---p 00026000 08:03 917704 /lib/libexpat.so.1.5.2 7ff2c8432000-7ff2c8434000 r--p 00026000 08:03 917704 /lib/libexpat.so.1.5.2 7ff2c8434000-7ff2c8435000 rw-p 00028000 08:03 917704 /lib/libexpat.so.1.5.2 7ff2c8435000-7ff2c844a000 r-xp 00000000 08:03 917708 /lib/libgcc_s.so.1 7ff2c844a000-7ff2c8649000 ---p 00015000 08:03 917708 /lib/libgcc_s.so.1 7ff2c8649000-7ff2c864a000 r--p 00014000 08:03 917708 /lib/libgcc_s.so.1 7ff2c864a000-7ff2c864b000 rw-p 00015000 08:03 917708 /lib/libgcc_s.so.1 7ff2c864b000-7ff2c8733000 r-xp 00000000 08:03 134995 /usr/lib/libstdc++.so.6.0.14 7ff2c8733000-7ff2c8932000 ---p 000e8000 08:03 134995 /usr/lib/libstdc++.so.6.0.14 7ff2c8932000-7ff2c893a000 r--p 000e7000 08:03 134995 /usr/lib/libstdc++.so.6.0.14 7ff2c893a000-7ff2c893c000 rw-p 000ef000 08:03 134995 /usr/lib/libstdc++.so.6.0.14 7ff2c893c000-7ff2c8951000 rw-p 00000000 00:00 0 7ff2c8951000-7ff2c8af3000 r-xp 00000000 08:03 134599 /usr/lib/libexiv2.so.6.0.0 7ff2c8af3000-7ff2c8cf2000 ---p 001a2000 08:03 134599 /usr/lib/libexiv2.so.6.0.0 7ff2c8cf2000-7ff2c8d0f000 r--p 001a1000 08:03 134599 /usr/lib/libexiv2.so.6.0.0 7ff2c8d0f000-7ff2c8d10000 rw-p 001be000 08:03 134599 /usr/lib/libexiv2.so.6.0.0 7ff2c8d10000-7ff2c8d23000 rw-p 00000000 00:00 0 7ff2c8d42000-7ff2c8d45000 r-xp 00000000 08:03 800718 /home/hjed/libExiff2-binding.so 7ff2c8d45000-7ff2c8f44000 ---p 00003000 08:03 800718 /home/hjed/libExiff2-binding.so 7ff2c8f44000-7ff2c8f45000 r--p 00002000 08:03 800718 /home/hjed/libExiff2-binding.so 7ff2c8f45000-7ff2c8f46000 rw-p 00003000 08:03 800718 /home/hjed/libExiff2-binding.so 7ff2c8f46000-7ff2c8f49000 r--s 0000f000 08:03 141333 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/lib/ext/pulse-java.jar 7ff2c8f49000-7ff2c8f51000 r--s 00066000 08:03 408472 /usr/share/java/gnome-java-bridge.jar ... 7ff2ca559000-7ff2ca55b000 r--s 0001d000 08:03 141354 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/lib/plugin.jar 7ff2ca55b000-7ff2ca560000 r--s 00044000 08:03 141353 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/lib/netx.jar 7ff2ca560000-7ff2ca592000 rw-p 00000000 00:00 0 7ff2ca592000-7ff2ca720000 r--s 038af000 08:03 141833 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/lib/rt.jar ... 7ff31673b000-7ff316742000 r-xp 00000000 08:03 141867 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/lib/amd64/libzip.so 7ff316742000-7ff316941000 ---p 00007000 08:03 141867 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/lib/amd64/libzip.so 7ff316941000-7ff316942000 r--p 00006000 08:03 141867 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/lib/amd64/libzip.so 7ff316942000-7ff316943000 rw-p 00007000 08:03 141867 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/lib/amd64/libzip.so 7ff316943000-7ff31694f000 r-xp 00000000 08:03 921396 /lib/libnss_files-2.12.1.so 7ff31694f000-7ff316b4e000 ---p 0000c000 08:03 921396 /lib/libnss_files-2.12.1.so 7ff316b4e000-7ff316b4f000 r--p 0000b000 08:03 921396 /lib/libnss_files-2.12.1.so 7ff316b4f000-7ff316b50000 rw-p 0000c000 08:03 921396 /lib/libnss_files-2.12.1.so 7ff316b50000-7ff316b5a000 r-xp 00000000 08:03 921398 /lib/libnss_nis-2.12.1.so 7ff316b5a000-7ff316d59000 ---p 0000a000 08:03 921398 /lib/libnss_nis-2.12.1.so 7ff316d59000-7ff316d5a000 r--p 00009000 08:03 921398 /lib/libnss_nis-2.12.1.so 7ff316d5a000-7ff316d5b000 rw-p 0000a000 08:03 921398 /lib/libnss_nis-2.12.1.so 7ff316d5b000-7ff316d63000 r-xp 00000000 08:03 921393 /lib/libnss_compat-2.12.1.so 7ff316d63000-7ff316f62000 ---p 00008000 08:03 921393 /lib/libnss_compat-2.12.1.so 7ff316f62000-7ff316f63000 r--p 00007000 08:03 921393 /lib/libnss_compat-2.12.1.so 7ff316f63000-7ff316f64000 rw-p 00008000 08:03 921393 /lib/libnss_compat-2.12.1.so 7ff316f64000-7ff316f6c000 r-xp 00000000 08:03 141869 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/lib/amd64/native_threads/libhpi.so 7ff316f6c000-7ff31716b000 ---p 00008000 08:03 141869 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/lib/amd64/native_threads/libhpi.so 7ff31716b000-7ff31716c000 r--p 00007000 08:03 141869 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/lib/amd64/native_threads/libhpi.so 7ff31716c000-7ff31716d000 rw-p 00008000 08:03 141869 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/lib/amd64/native_threads/libhpi.so 7ff31716d000-7ff317184000 r-xp 00000000 08:03 921392 /lib/libnsl-2.12.1.so 7ff317184000-7ff317383000 ---p 00017000 08:03 921392 /lib/libnsl-2.12.1.so 7ff317383000-7ff317384000 r--p 00016000 08:03 921392 /lib/libnsl-2.12.1.so 7ff317384000-7ff317385000 rw-p 00017000 08:03 921392 /lib/libnsl-2.12.1.so 7ff317385000-7ff317387000 rw-p 00000000 00:00 0 7ff317387000-7ff3173b2000 r-xp 00000000 08:03 141850 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/lib/amd64/libjava.so 7ff3173b2000-7ff3175b1000 ---p 0002b000 08:03 141850 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/lib/amd64/libjava.so 7ff3175b1000-7ff3175b2000 r--p 0002a000 08:03 141850 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/lib/amd64/libjava.so 7ff3175b2000-7ff3175b5000 rw-p 0002b000 08:03 141850 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/lib/amd64/libjava.so 7ff3175b5000-7ff3175c3000 r-xp 00000000 08:03 141866 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/lib/amd64/libverify.so 7ff3175c3000-7ff3177c2000 ---p 0000e000 08:03 141866 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/lib/amd64/libverify.so 7ff3177c2000-7ff3177c4000 r--p 0000d000 08:03 141866 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/lib/amd64/libverify.so 7ff3177c4000-7ff3177c5000 rw-p 0000f000 08:03 141866 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/lib/amd64/libverify.so 7ff3177c5000-7ff3177cc000 r-xp 00000000 08:03 921405 /lib/librt-2.12.1.so 7ff3177cc000-7ff3179cb000 ---p 00007000 08:03 921405 /lib/librt-2.12.1.so 7ff3179cb000-7ff3179cc000 r--p 00006000 08:03 921405 /lib/librt-2.12.1.so 7ff3179cc000-7ff3179cd000 rw-p 00007000 08:03 921405 /lib/librt-2.12.1.so 7ff3179cd000-7ff317a4f000 r-xp 00000000 08:03 921390 /lib/libm-2.12.1.so 7ff317a4f000-7ff317c4e000 ---p 00082000 08:03 921390 /lib/libm-2.12.1.so 7ff317c4e000-7ff317c4f000 r--p 00081000 08:03 921390 /lib/libm-2.12.1.so 7ff317c4f000-7ff317c50000 rw-p 00082000 08:03 921390 /lib/libm-2.12.1.so 7ff317c50000-7ff3184c4000 r-xp 00000000 08:03 141871 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/lib/amd64/server/libjvm.so 7ff3184c4000-7ff3186c3000 ---p 00874000 08:03 141871 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/lib/amd64/server/libjvm.so 7ff3186c3000-7ff318739000 r--p 00873000 08:03 141871 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/lib/amd64/server/libjvm.so 7ff318739000-7ff318754000 rw-p 008e9000 08:03 141871 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/lib/amd64/server/libjvm.so 7ff318754000-7ff31878d000 rw-p 00000000 00:00 0 7ff31878d000-7ff318907000 r-xp 00000000 08:03 921385 /lib/libc-2.12.1.so 7ff318907000-7ff318b06000 ---p 0017a000 08:03 921385 /lib/libc-2.12.1.so 7ff318b06000-7ff318b0a000 r--p 00179000 08:03 921385 /lib/libc-2.12.1.so 7ff318b0a000-7ff318b0b000 rw-p 0017d000 08:03 921385 /lib/libc-2.12.1.so 7ff318b0b000-7ff318b10000 rw-p 00000000 00:00 0 7ff318b10000-7ff318b12000 r-xp 00000000 08:03 921388 /lib/libdl-2.12.1.so 7ff318b12000-7ff318d12000 ---p 00002000 08:03 921388 /lib/libdl-2.12.1.so 7ff318d12000-7ff318d13000 r--p 00002000 08:03 921388 /lib/libdl-2.12.1.so 7ff318d13000-7ff318d14000 rw-p 00003000 08:03 921388 /lib/libdl-2.12.1.so 7ff318d14000-7ff318d18000 r-xp 00000000 08:03 141838 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/lib/amd64/jli/libjli.so 7ff318d18000-7ff318f17000 ---p 00004000 08:03 141838 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/lib/amd64/jli/libjli.so 7ff318f17000-7ff318f18000 r--p 00003000 08:03 141838 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/lib/amd64/jli/libjli.so 7ff318f18000-7ff318f19000 rw-p 00004000 08:03 141838 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/lib/amd64/jli/libjli.so 7ff318f19000-7ff318f31000 r-xp 00000000 08:03 921401 /lib/libpthread-2.12.1.so 7ff318f31000-7ff319130000 ---p 00018000 08:03 921401 /lib/libpthread-2.12.1.so 7ff319130000-7ff319131000 r--p 00017000 08:03 921401 /lib/libpthread-2.12.1.so 7ff319131000-7ff319132000 rw-p 00018000 08:03 921401 /lib/libpthread-2.12.1.so 7ff319132000-7ff319136000 rw-p 00000000 00:00 0 7ff319136000-7ff31914c000 r-xp 00000000 08:03 917772 /lib/libz.so.1.2.3.4 7ff31914c000-7ff31934c000 ---p 00016000 08:03 917772 /lib/libz.so.1.2.3.4 7ff31934c000-7ff31934d000 r--p 00016000 08:03 917772 /lib/libz.so.1.2.3.4 7ff31934d000-7ff31934e000 rw-p 00017000 08:03 917772 /lib/libz.so.1.2.3.4 7ff31934e000-7ff31936e000 r-xp 00000000 08:03 921379 /lib/ld-2.12.1.so 7ff319387000-7ff319391000 rw-p 00000000 00:00 0 7ff319391000-7ff319447000 rw-p 00000000 00:00 0 7ff319447000-7ff31944a000 ---p 00000000 00:00 0 7ff31944a000-7ff31954d000 rw-p 00000000 00:00 0 7ff319562000-7ff31956a000 rw-s 00000000 08:03 1966453 /tmp/hsperfdata_hjed/4041 7ff31956a000-7ff31956b000 rw-p 00000000 00:00 0 7ff31956b000-7ff31956c000 r--p 00000000 00:00 0 7ff31956c000-7ff31956e000 rw-p 00000000 00:00 0 7ff31956e000-7ff31956f000 r--p 00020000 08:03 921379 /lib/ld-2.12.1.so 7ff31956f000-7ff319570000 rw-p 00021000 08:03 921379 /lib/ld-2.12.1.so 7ff319570000-7ff319571000 rw-p 00000000 00:00 0 7fff0fb03000-7fff0fb24000 rw-p 00000000 00:00 0 [stack] 7fff0fbff000-7fff0fc00000 r-xp 00000000 00:00 0 [vdso] ffffffffff600000-ffffffffff601000 r-xp 00000000 00:00 0 [vsyscall] VM Arguments: jvm_args: -Dfile.encoding=UTF-8 java_command: test.Main Launcher Type: SUN_STANDARD Environment Variables: PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games USERNAME=hjed LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/lib/amd64/server:/usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/lib/amd64:/usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/../lib/amd64 SHELL=/bin/bash DISPLAY=:0.0 Signal Handlers: SIGSEGV: [libjvm.so+0x712700], sa_mask[0]=0x7ffbfeff, sa_flags=0x10000004 SIGBUS: [libjvm.so+0x712700], sa_mask[0]=0x7ffbfeff, sa_flags=0x10000004 SIGFPE: [libjvm.so+0x5d4020], sa_mask[0]=0x7ffbfeff, sa_flags=0x10000004 SIGPIPE: [libjvm.so+0x5d4020], sa_mask[0]=0x7ffbfeff, sa_flags=0x10000004 SIGXFSZ: [libjvm.so+0x5d4020], sa_mask[0]=0x7ffbfeff, sa_flags=0x10000004 SIGILL: [libjvm.so+0x5d4020], sa_mask[0]=0x7ffbfeff, sa_flags=0x10000004 SIGUSR1: SIG_DFL, sa_mask[0]=0x00000000, sa_flags=0x00000000 SIGUSR2: [libjvm.so+0x5d3730], sa_mask[0]=0x00000004, sa_flags=0x10000004 SIGHUP: [libjvm.so+0x5d61a0], sa_mask[0]=0x7ffbfeff, sa_flags=0x10000004 SIGINT: SIG_IGN, sa_mask[0]=0x00000000, sa_flags=0x00000000 SIGTERM: [libjvm.so+0x5d61a0], sa_mask[0]=0x7ffbfeff, sa_flags=0x10000004 SIGQUIT: [libjvm.so+0x5d61a0], sa_mask[0]=0x7ffbfeff, sa_flags=0x10000004 --------------- S Y S T E M --------------- OS:Ubuntu 10.10 (maverick) uname:Linux 2.6.35-24-generic #42-Ubuntu SMP Thu Dec 2 02:41:37 UTC 2010 x86_64 libc:glibc 2.12.1 NPTL 2.12.1 rlimit: STACK 8192k, CORE 0k, NPROC infinity, NOFILE 1024, AS infinity load average:0.25 0.16 0.21 /proc/meminfo: MemTotal: 4048200 kB MemFree: 1230476 kB Buffers: 589572 kB Cached: 911132 kB SwapCached: 0 kB Active: 1321712 kB Inactive: 1202272 kB Active(anon): 1023852 kB Inactive(anon): 7168 kB Active(file): 297860 kB Inactive(file): 1195104 kB Unevictable: 64 kB Mlocked: 64 kB SwapTotal: 7065596 kB SwapFree: 7065596 kB Dirty: 632 kB Writeback: 0 kB AnonPages: 1023368 kB Mapped: 145832 kB Shmem: 7728 kB Slab: 111136 kB SReclaimable: 66316 kB SUnreclaim: 44820 kB KernelStack: 3824 kB PageTables: 27736 kB NFS_Unstable: 0 kB Bounce: 0 kB WritebackTmp: 0 kB CommitLimit: 9089696 kB Committed_AS: 2378396 kB VmallocTotal: 34359738367 kB VmallocUsed: 332928 kB VmallocChunk: 34359397884 kB HardwareCorrupted: 0 kB HugePages_Total: 0 HugePages_Free: 0 HugePages_Rsvd: 0 HugePages_Surp: 0 Hugepagesize: 2048 kB DirectMap4k: 67136 kB DirectMap2M: 4118528 kB CPU:total 8 (4 cores per cpu, 2 threads per core) family 6 model 26 stepping 5, cmov, cx8, fxsr, mmx, sse, sse2, sse3, ssse3, sse4.1, sse4.2, popcnt, ht Memory: 4k page, physical 4048200k(1230476k free), swap 7065596k(7065596k free) vm_info: OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (19.0-b09) for linux-amd64 JRE (1.6.0_20-b20), built on Dec 10 2010 19:45:55 by "buildd" with gcc 4.4.5 time: Sat Jan 1 14:12:27 2011 elapsed time: 0 seconds The java code is: ... public class Main { public static void main(String[] args) { ... ImageFile img = new ImageFile(System.getProperty("user.home") + "/PC100001.JPG"); Exiv2MetaDataStore e = new Exiv2MetaDataStore(img); Iterator<Entry<String, String>> i = e.entrySet().iterator(); while (i.hasNext()) { Entry<String, String> entry = i.next(); System.out.println(entry.getKey() + ":" + entry.getValue()); } //if you switch this print statment with the while loop you get the same error. // System.out.print(e.toString()); } } and /** NB: MetaDataStore is an abstract class that extends HashMap<String,String> */ public class Exiv2MetaDataStore extends MetaDataStore{ ... private final ImageFile F; /** * Creates an meta data store from an ImageFile using Exiv2 * this calls loadData(); * @param f */ public Exiv2MetaDataStore(ImageFile f) { F = f; loadData(); } ... @Override protected void loadData() { loadFromExiv2(); } ... private void loadFromExiv2() { impl_loadFromExiv(F.getAbsolutePath(), this); } private native void impl_loadFromExiv(String path, Exiv2MetaDataStore str); //this method called by the C++ code public void exiv2_reciveElement(String key, String value) { super.put(key,value); } static { Runtime.getRuntime().load("/home/hjed/libExiff2-binding.so"); } } C++ code: #include <exif.hpp> #include <image.hpp> #include <iptc.hpp> #include <exiv2/exiv2.hpp> #include <exiv2/error.hpp> #include <iostream> #include <iomanip> #include <cassert> void loadIPTC(Exiv2::Image::AutoPtr image, const char * path, JNIEnv * env, jobject obj) { Exiv2::IptcData &iptcData = image->iptcData(); //load method jclass cls = env->GetObjectClass(obj); jmethodID mid = env->GetMethodID(cls, "exiv2_reciveElement", "(Ljava/lang/String;Ljava/lang/String;)V"); //is there any IPTC data AND check that method exists if (iptcData.empty() | (mid == NULL)) { std::string error(path); error += ": failed loading IPTC data, there may not be any data"; } else { Exiv2::IptcData::iterator end = iptcData.end(); for (Exiv2::IptcData::iterator md = iptcData.begin(); md != end; ++md) { jvalue values[2]; const char* key = md->key().c_str(); values[0].l = env->NewStringUTF(key); md->value().toString().c_str(); const char* value = md->typeName(); values[2].l = env->NewStringUTF(value); //If I replace the code for values[2] with the commented out code I get the same error. //const char* type = md->typeName(); //values[2].l = env->NewStringUTF(type); env->CallVoidMethodA(obj, mid, values); } } } void getVars(const char* path, JNIEnv * env, jobject obj) { //Load image Exiv2::Image::AutoPtr image = Exiv2::ImageFactory::open(path); assert(image.get() != 0); image->readMetadata(); //Load IPTC data loadIPTC(image, path, env, obj); } JNIEXPORT void JNICALL Java_photo_exiv2_Exiv2MetaDataStore_impl_1loadFromExiv(JNIEnv * env, jobject obj, jstring path, jobject obj2) { const char* path2 = env->GetStringUTFChars(path, NULL); getVars(path2, env, obj); env->ReleaseStringUTFChars(path, path2); } I've searched for a fix for this, but I can't find one. I don't have much experience using C++ so if I've made an obvious mistake in the C code I apologies. Thanks for any help, HJED P.S. This is my first post on this site and I wasn't sure how much of the code I needed to show. Sorry if I've put to much up.

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• Expectations + Rewards = Innovation

  - by D'Arcy Lussier

  “Innovation” is a heavy word. We regard those that embrace it as “Innovators”. We describe organizations as being “Innovative”. We hold those associated with the word in high regard, even though its dictionary definition is very simple: Introducing something new. What our culture has done is wrapped Innovation in white robes and a gold crown. Innovation is rarely just introducing something new. Innovations and innovators are typically associated with other terms: groundbreaking, genius, industry-changing, creative, leading. Being a true innovator and creating innovations are a big deal, and something companies try to strive for…or at least say they strive for. There’s huge value in being recognized as an innovator in an industry, since the idea is that innovation equates to increased profitability. IBM ran an ad a few years back that showed what their view of innovation is: “The point of innovation is to make actual money.” If the money aspect makes you feel uneasy, consider it another way: the point of innovation is to <insert payoff here>. Companies that innovate will be more successful. Non-profits that innovate can better serve their target clients. Governments that innovate can better provide services to their citizens. True innovation is not easy to come by though. As with anything in business, how well an organization will innovate is reliant on the employees it retains, the expectations placed on those employees, and the rewards available to them. In a previous blog post I talked about one formula: Right Employees + Happy Employees = Productive Employees I want to introduce a new one, that builds upon the previous one: Expectations + Rewards = Innovation  The level of innovation your organization will realize is directly associated with the expectations you place on your staff and the rewards you make available to them. Expectations We may feel uncomfortable with the idea of placing expectations on our staff, mainly because expectation has somewhat of a negative or cold connotation to it: “I expect you to act this way or else!” The problem is in the or-else part…we focus on the negative aspects of failing to meet expectations instead of looking at the positive side. “I expect you to act this way because it will produce <insert benefit here>”. Expectations should not be set to punish but instead be set to ensure quality. At a recent conference I spoke with some Microsoft employees who told me that you have five years from starting with the company to reach a “Senior” level. If you don’t, then you’re let go. The expectation Microsoft placed on their staff is that they should be working towards improving themselves, taking more responsibility, and thus ensure that there is a constant level of quality in the workforce. Rewards Let me be clear: a paycheck is not a reward. A paycheck is simply the employer’s responsibility in the employee/employer relationship. A paycheck will never be the key motivator to drive innovation. Offering employees something over and above their required compensation can spur them to greater performance and achievement. Working in the food service industry, this tactic was used again and again: whoever has the highest sales over lunch will receive a free lunch/gift certificate/entry into a draw/etc. There was something to strive for, to try beyond the baseline of what our serving jobs were. It was through this that innovative sales techniques would be tried and honed, with key servers being top sellers time and time again. At a code camp I spoke at, I was amazed to see that all the employees from one company receive $100 Visa gift cards as a thank you for taking time to speak. Again, offering something over and above that can give that extra push for employees. Rewards work. But what about the fairness angle? In the restaurant example I gave, there were servers that would never win the competition. They just weren’t good enough at selling and never seemed to get better. So should those that did work at performing better and produce more sales for the restaurant not get rewarded because those who weren’t working at performing better might get upset? Of course not! Organizations succeed because of their top performers and those that strive to join their ranks. The Expectation/Reward Graph While the Expectations + Rewards = Innovation formula may seem like a simple mathematics formula, there’s much more going under the hood. In fact there are three different outcomes that could occur based on what you put in as values for Expectations and Rewards. Consider the graph below and the descriptions that follow: Disgruntled – High Expectation, Low Reward I worked at a company where the mantra was “Company First, Because We Pay You”. Even today I still hear stories of how this sentiment continues to be perpetuated: They provide you a paycheck and a means to live, therefore you should always put them as your top priority. Of course, this is a huge imbalance in the expectation/reward equation. Why would anyone willingly meet high expectations of availability, workload, deadlines, etc. when there is no reward other than a paycheck to show for it? Remember: paychecks are not rewards! Instead, you see employees be disgruntled which not only affects the level of production but also the level of quality within an organization. It also means that you see higher turnover. Complacent – Low Expectation, Low Reward Complacency is a systemic problem that typically exists throughout all levels of an organization. With no real expectations or rewards, nobody needs to excel. In fact, those that do try to innovate, improve, or introduce new things into the organization might be shunned or pushed out by the rest of the staff who are just doing things the same way they’ve always done it. The bigger issue for the organization with low/low values is that at best they’ll never grow beyond their current size (and may shrink actually), and at worst will cease to exist. Entitled – Low Expectation, High Reward It’s one thing to say you have the best people and reward them as such, but its another thing to actually have the best people and reward them as such. Organizations with Entitled employees are the former: their organization provides them with all types of comforts, benefits, and perks. But there’s no requirement before the rewards are dolled out, and there’s no short-list of who receives the rewards. Everyone in the company is treated the same and is given equal share of the spoils. Entitlement is actually almost identical with Complacency with one notable difference: just try to introduce higher expectations into an entitled organization! Entitled employees have been spoiled for so long that they can’t fathom having rewards taken from them, or having to achieve specific levels of performance before attaining them. Those running the organization also buy in to the Entitled sentiment, feeling that they must persist the same level of comforts to appease their staff…even though the quality of the employee pool may be suspect. Innovative – High Expectation, High Reward Finally we have the Innovative organization which places high expectations but also provides high rewards. This organization gets it: if you truly want the best employees you need to apply equal doses of pressure and praise. Realize that I’m not suggesting crazy overtime or un-realistic working conditions. I do not agree with the “Glengary-Glenross” method of encouragement. But as anyone who follows sports can tell you, the teams that win are the ones where the coaches push their players to be their best; to achieve new levels of performance that they didn’t know they could receive. And the result for the players is more money, fame, and opportunity. It’s in this environment that organizations can focus on innovation – true innovation that builds the business and allows everyone involved to truly benefit. In Closing Organizations love to use the word “Innovation” and its derivatives, but very few actually do innovate. For many, the term has just become another marketing buzzword to lump in with all the other business terms that get overused. But for those organizations that truly get the value of innovation, they will be the ones surging forward while other companies simply fade into the background. And they will be the organizations that expect more from their employees, and give them their just rewards.

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• Developing Schema Compare for Oracle (Part 1)

  - by Simon Cooper

  SQL Compare is one of Red Gate's most successful SQL Server tools; it allows developers and DBAs to compare and synchronize the contents of their databases. Although similar tools exist for Oracle, they are quite noticeably lacking in the usability and stability that SQL Compare is known for in the SQL Server world. We could see a real need for a usable schema comparison tools for Oracle, and so the Schema Compare for Oracle project was born. Over the next few weeks, as we come up to release of v1, I'll be doing a series of posts on the development of Schema Compare for Oracle. For the first post, I thought I would start with the main pitfalls that we stumbled across when developing the product, especially from a SQL Server background. 1. Schemas and Databases The most obvious difference is that the concept of a 'database' is quite different between Oracle and SQL Server. On SQL Server, one server instance has multiple databases, each with separate schemas. There is typically little communication between separate databases, and most databases are no more than about 1000-2000 objects. This means SQL Compare can register an entire database in a reasonable amount of time, and cross-database dependencies probably won't be an issue. It is a quite different scene under Oracle, however. The terms 'database' and 'instance' are used interchangeably, (although technically 'database' refers to the datafiles on disk, and 'instance' the running Oracle process that reads & writes to the database), and a database is a single conceptual entity. This immediately presents problems, as it is infeasible to register an entire database as we do in SQL Compare; in my Oracle install, using the standard recommended options, there are 63975 system objects. If we tried to register all those, not only would it take hours, but the client would probably run out of memory before we finished. As a result, we had to allow people to specify what schemas they wanted to register. This decision had quite a few knock-on effects for the design, which I will cover in a future post. 2. Connecting to Oracle The next obvious difference is in actually connecting to Oracle – in SQL Server, you can specify a server and database, and off you go. On Oracle things are slightly more complicated. SIDs, Service Names, and TNS A database (the files on disk) must have a unique identifier for the databases on the system, called the SID. It also has a global database name, which consists of a name (which doesn't have to match the SID) and a domain. Alternatively, you can identify a database using a service name, which normally has a 1-to-1 relationship with instances, but may not if, for example, using RAC (Real Application Clusters) for redundancy and failover. You specify the computer and instance you want to connect to using TNS (Transparent Network Substrate). The user-visible parts are a config file (tnsnames.ora) on the client machine that specifies how to connect to an instance. For example, the entry for one of my test instances is: SC_11GDB1 = (DESCRIPTION = (ADDRESS_LIST = (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = simonctest)(PORT = 1521)) ) (CONNECT_DATA = (SID = 11gR1db1) ) ) This gives the hostname, port, and SID of the instance I want to connect to, and associates it with a name (SC_11GDB1). The tnsnames syntax also allows you to specify failover, multiple descriptions and address lists, and client load balancing. You can then specify this TNS identifier as the data source in a connection string. Although using ODP.NET (the .NET dlls provided by Oracle) was fine for internal prototype builds, once we released the EAP we discovered that this simply wasn't an acceptable solution for installs on other people's machines. Due to .NET assembly strong naming, users had to have installed on their machines the exact same version of the ODP.NET dlls as we had on our build server. We couldn't ship the ODP.NET dlls with our installer as the Oracle license agreement prohibited this, and we didn't want to force users to install another Oracle client just so they can run our program. To be able to list the TNS entries in the connection dialog, we also had to locate and parse the tnsnames.ora file, which was complicated by users with several Oracle client installs and intricate TNS entries. After much swearing at our computers, we eventually decided to use a third party Oracle connection library from Devart that we could ship with our program; this could use whatever client version was installed, parse the TNS entries for us, and also had the nice feature of being able to connect to an Oracle server without having any client installed at all. Unfortunately, their current license agreement prevents us from shipping an Oracle SDK, but that's a bridge we'll cross when we get to it. 3. Running synchronization scripts The most important difference is that in Oracle, DDL is non-transactional; you cannot rollback DDL statements like you can on SQL Server. Although we considered various solutions to this, including using the flashback archive or recycle bin, or generating an undo script, no reliable method of completely undoing a half-executed sync script has yet been found; so in this case we simply have to trust that the DBA or developer will check and verify the script before running it. However, before we got to that stage, we had to get the scripts to run in the first place... To run a synchronization script from SQL Compare we essentially pass the script over to the SqlCommand.ExecuteNonQuery method. However, when we tried to do the same for an OracleConnection we got a very strange error – 'ORA-00911: invalid character', even when running the most basic CREATE TABLE command. After much hair-pulling and Googling, we discovered that Oracle has got some very strange behaviour with semicolons at the end of statements. To understand what's going on, we need to take a quick foray into SQL and PL/SQL. PL/SQL is not T-SQL In SQL Server, T-SQL is the language used to interface with the database. It has DDL, DML, control flow, and many other nice features (like Turing-completeness) that you can mix and match in the same script. In Oracle, DDL SQL and PL/SQL are two completely separate languages, with different syntax, different datatypes and different execution engines within the instance. Oracle SQL is much more like 'pure' ANSI SQL, with no state, no control flow, and only the basic DML commands. PL/SQL is the Turing-complete language, but can only do DML and DCL (i.e. BEGIN TRANSATION commands). Any DDL or SQL commands that aren't recognised by the PL/SQL engine have to be passed back to the SQL engine via an EXECUTE IMMEDIATE command. In PL/SQL, a semicolons is a valid token used to delimit the end of a statement. In SQL, a semicolon is not a valid token (even though the Oracle documentation gives them at the end of the syntax diagrams) . When you execute the command CREATE TABLE table1 (COL1 NUMBER); in SQL*Plus the semicolon on the end is a command to SQL*Plus to execute the preceding statement on the server; it strips off the semicolon before passing it on. SQL Developer does a similar thing. When executing a PL/SQL block, however, the syntax is like so: BEGIN INSERT INTO table1 VALUES (1); INSERT INTO table1 VALUES (2); END; / In this case, the semicolon is accepted by the PL/SQL engine as a statement delimiter, and instead the / is the command to SQL*Plus to execute the current block. This explains the ORA-00911 error we got when trying to run the CREATE TABLE command – the server is complaining about the semicolon on the end. This also means that there is no SQL syntax to execute more than one DDL command in the same OracleCommand. Therefore, we would have to do a round-trip to the server for every command we want to execute. Obviously, this would cause lots of network traffic and be very slow on slow or congested networks. Our first attempt at a solution was to wrap every SQL statement (without semicolon) inside an EXECUTE IMMEDIATE command in a PL/SQL block and pass that to the server to execute. One downside of this solution is that we get no feedback as to how the script execution is going; we're currently evaluating better solutions to this thorny issue. Next up: Dependencies; how we solved the problem of being unable to register the entire database, and the knock-on effects to the whole product.

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• Five Key Strategies in Master Data Management

  - by david.butler(at)oracle.com

  Here is a very interesting Profit Magazine article on MDM: A recent customer survey reveals the deleterious effects of data fragmentation. by Trevor Naidoo, December 2010   Across industries and geographies, IT organizations have grown in complexity, whether due to mergers and acquisitions, or decentralized systems supporting functional or departmental requirements. With systems architected over time to support unique, one-off process needs, they are becoming costly to maintain, and the Internet has only further added to the complexity. Data fragmentation has become a key inhibitor in delivering flexible, user-friendly systems. The Oracle Insight team conducted a survey assessing customers' master data management (MDM) capabilities over the past two years to get a sense of where they are in terms of their capabilities. The responses, by 27 respondents from six different industries, reveal five key areas in which customers need to improve their data management in order to get better financial results. 1. Less than 15 percent of organizations surveyed understand the sources and quality of their master data, and have a roadmap to address missing data domains. Examples of the types of master data domains referred to are customer, supplier, product, financial and site. Many organizations have multiple sources of master data with varying degrees of data quality in each source -- customer data stored in the customer relationship management system is inconsistent with customer data stored in the order management system. Imagine not knowing how many places you stored your customer information, and whether a customer's address was the most up to date in each source. In fact, more than 55 percent of the respondents in the survey manage their data quality on an ad-hoc basis. It is important for organizations to document their inventory of data sources and then profile these data sources to ensure that there is a consistent definition of key data entities throughout the organization. Some questions to ask are: How do we define a customer? What is a product? How do we define a site? The goal is to strive for one common repository for master data that acts as a cross reference for all other sources and ensures consistent, high-quality master data throughout the organization. 2. Only 18 percent of respondents have an enterprise data management strategy to ensure that data is treated as an asset to the organization. Most respondents handle data at the department or functional level and do not have an enterprise view of their master data. The sales department may track all their interactions with customers as they move through the sales cycle, the service department is tracking their interactions with the same customers independently, and the finance department also has a different perspective on the same customer. The salesperson may not be aware that the customer she is trying to sell to is experiencing issues with existing products purchased, or that the customer is behind on previous invoices. The lack of a data strategy makes it difficult for business users to turn data into information via reports. Without the key building blocks in place, it is difficult to create key linkages between customer, product, site, supplier and financial data. These linkages make it possible to understand patterns. A well-defined data management strategy is aligned to the business strategy and helps create the governance needed to ensure that data stewardship is in place and data integrity is intact. 3. Almost 60 percent of respondents have no strategy to integrate data across operational applications. Many respondents have several disparate sources of data with no strategy to keep them in sync with each other. Even though there is no clear strategy to integrate the data (see #2 above), the data needs to be synced and cross-referenced to keep the business processes running. About 55 percent of respondents said they perform this integration on an ad hoc basis, and in many cases, it is done manually with the help of Microsoft Excel spreadsheets. For example, a salesperson needs a report on global sales for a specific product, but the product has different product numbers in different countries. Typically, an analyst will pull all the data into Excel, manually create a cross reference for that product, and then aggregate the sales. The exact same procedure has to be followed if the same report is needed the following month. A well-defined consolidation strategy will ensure that a central cross-reference is maintained with updates in any one application being propagated to all the other systems, so that data is synchronized and up to date. This can be done in real time or in batch mode using integration technology. 4. Approximately 50 percent of respondents spend manual efforts cleansing and normalizing data. Information stored in various systems usually follows different standards and formats, making it difficult to match the data. A customer's address can be stored in different ways using a variety of abbreviations -- for example, "av" or "ave" for avenue. Similarly, a product's attributes can be stored in a number of different ways; for example, a size attribute can be stored in inches and can also be entered as "'' ". These types of variations make it difficult to match up data from different sources. Today, most customers rely on manual, heroic efforts to match, cleanse, and de-duplicate data -- clearly not a scalable, sustainable model. To solve this challenge, organizations need the ability to standardize data for customers, products, sites, suppliers and financial accounts; however, less than 10 percent of respondents have technology in place to automatically resolve duplicates. It is no wonder, therefore, that we get communications about products we don't own, at addresses we don't reside, and using channels (like direct mail) we don't like. An all-too-common example of a potential challenge follows: Customers end up receiving duplicate communications, which not only impacts customer satisfaction, but also incurs additional mailing costs. Cleansing, normalizing, and standardizing data will help address most of these issues. 5. Only 10 percent of respondents have the ability to share data that was mastered in a master data hub. Close to 60 percent of respondents have efforts in place that profile, standardize and cleanse data manually, and the output of these efforts are stored in spreadsheets in various parts of the organization. This valuable information is not easily shared with the rest of the organization and, more importantly, this enriched information cannot be sent back to the source systems so that the data is fixed at the source. A key benefit of a master data management strategy is not only to clean the data, but to also share the data back to the source systems as well as other systems that need the information. Aside from the source systems, another key beneficiary of this data is the business intelligence system. Having clean master data as input to business intelligence systems provides more accurate and enhanced reporting.  Characteristics of Stellar MDM When deciding on the right master data management technology, organizations should look for solutions that have four main characteristics: enterprise-grade MDM performance complete technology that can be rapidly deployed and addresses multiple business issues end-to-end MDM process management with data quality monitoring and assurance pre-built MDM business relevant applications with data stores and workflows These master data management capabilities will aid in moving closer to a best-practice maturity level, delivering tremendous efficiencies and savings as well as revenue growth opportunities as a result of better understanding your customers.  Trevor Naidoo is a senior director in Industry Strategy and Insight at Oracle. 

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• Loosely Coupled Tabs in Java Editor

  - by Geertjan

  One of the NetBeans Platform 7.1 API enhancements is the @MultiViewElement.Registration annotation. That lets you add a new tab to any existing NetBeans editor. Really powerful since I didn't need to change the sources (or even look at the sources) of the Java editor to add the "Visualizer" tab to it, as shown below: Right now, the tab doesn't show anything, that will come in the next blog entry. The point here is to show how to set things up so that you have a new tab in the Java editor, without needing to touch any of the NetBeans IDE sources: And here's the code, take note of the annotation, which registers the JPanel for the "text/x-java" MIME type: import javax.swing.Action; import javax.swing.JComponent; import javax.swing.JPanel; import javax.swing.JToolBar; import org.netbeans.core.spi.multiview.CloseOperationState; import org.netbeans.core.spi.multiview.MultiViewElement; import org.netbeans.core.spi.multiview.MultiViewElementCallback; import org.openide.awt.UndoRedo; import org.openide.loaders.DataObject; import org.openide.util.Lookup; import org.openide.util.NbBundle; import org.openide.windows.TopComponent; @MultiViewElement.Registration(displayName = "#LBL_Visualizer", iconBase = "org/java/vis/icon.gif", mimeType = "text/x-java", persistenceType = TopComponent.PERSISTENCE_NEVER, preferredID = "JavaVisualizer", position = 3000) @NbBundle.Messages({     "LBL_Visualizer=Visualizer" }) public class JavaVisualizer extends JPanel implements MultiViewElement {     private JToolBar toolbar = new JToolBar();     private DataObject obj;     private MultiViewElementCallback mvec;     public JavaVisualizer(Lookup lkp) {         obj = lkp.lookup(DataObject.class);         assert obj != null;     }     @Override     public JComponent getVisualRepresentation() {         return this;     }     @Override     public JComponent getToolbarRepresentation() {         return toolbar;     }     @Override     public Action[] getActions() {         return new Action[0];     }     @Override     public Lookup getLookup() {         return obj.getLookup();     }     @Override     public void componentOpened() {     }     @Override     public void componentClosed() {     }     @Override     public void componentShowing() {     }     @Override     public void componentHidden() {     }     @Override     public void componentActivated() {     }     @Override     public void componentDeactivated() {     }     @Override     public UndoRedo getUndoRedo() {         return UndoRedo.NONE;     }     @Override     public void setMultiViewCallback(MultiViewElementCallback mvec) {         this.mvec = mvec;     }     @Override     public CloseOperationState canCloseElement() {         return CloseOperationState.STATE_OK;     } } It's a fair amount of code, but mostly pretty self-explanatory. The loosely coupled tabs are applicable to all NetBeans editors, not just the Java editor, which is why the "History" tab is now available to all editors throughout NetBeans IDE. In the next blog entry, you'll see the integration of the Visual Library into the panel I embedded in the Java editor.

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• Opposite Force to Apply to a Collided Rigid Body?

  - by Milo

  I'm working on the physics for my GTA2-like game so I can learn more about game physics. The collision detection and resolution are working great. I'm now just unsure how to compute the force to apply to a body after it collides with a wall. My rigid body looks like this: /our simulation object class RigidBody extends Entity { //linear private Vector2D velocity = new Vector2D(); private Vector2D forces = new Vector2D(); private float mass; private Vector2D v = new Vector2D(); //angular private float angularVelocity; private float torque; private float inertia; //graphical private Vector2D halfSize = new Vector2D(); private Bitmap image; private Matrix mat = new Matrix(); private float[] Vector2Ds = new float[2]; private Vector2D tangent = new Vector2D(); private static Vector2D worldRelVec = new Vector2D(); private static Vector2D relWorldVec = new Vector2D(); private static Vector2D pointVelVec = new Vector2D(); private static Vector2D acceleration = new Vector2D(); public RigidBody() { //set these defaults so we don't get divide by zeros mass = 1.0f; inertia = 1.0f; setLayer(LAYER_OBJECTS); } protected void rectChanged() { if(getWorld() != null) { getWorld().updateDynamic(this); } } //intialize out parameters public void initialize(Vector2D halfSize, float mass, Bitmap bitmap) { //store physical parameters this.halfSize = halfSize; this.mass = mass; image = bitmap; inertia = (1.0f / 20.0f) * (halfSize.x * halfSize.x) * (halfSize.y * halfSize.y) * mass; RectF rect = new RectF(); float scalar = 10.0f; rect.left = (int)-halfSize.x * scalar; rect.top = (int)-halfSize.y * scalar; rect.right = rect.left + (int)(halfSize.x * 2.0f * scalar); rect.bottom = rect.top + (int)(halfSize.y * 2.0f * scalar); setRect(rect); } public void setLocation(Vector2D position, float angle) { getRect().set(position.x,position.y, getWidth(), getHeight(), angle); rectChanged(); } public Vector2D getPosition() { return getRect().getCenter(); } @Override public void update(float timeStep) { doUpdate(timeStep); } public void doUpdate(float timeStep) { //integrate physics //linear acceleration.x = forces.x / mass; acceleration.y = forces.y / mass; velocity.x += (acceleration.x * timeStep); velocity.y += (acceleration.y * timeStep); //velocity = Vector2D.add(velocity, Vector2D.scalarMultiply(acceleration, timeStep)); Vector2D c = getRect().getCenter(); v.x = getRect().getCenter().getX() + (velocity.x * timeStep); v.y = getRect().getCenter().getY() + (velocity.y * timeStep); setCenter(v.x, v.y); forces.x = 0; //clear forces forces.y = 0; //angular float angAcc = torque / inertia; angularVelocity += angAcc * timeStep; setAngle(getAngle() + angularVelocity * timeStep); torque = 0; //clear torque } //take a relative Vector2D and make it a world Vector2D public Vector2D relativeToWorld(Vector2D relative) { mat.reset(); Vector2Ds[0] = relative.x; Vector2Ds[1] = relative.y; mat.postRotate(JMath.radToDeg(getAngle())); mat.mapVectors(Vector2Ds); relWorldVec.x = Vector2Ds[0]; relWorldVec.y = Vector2Ds[1]; return relWorldVec; } //take a world Vector2D and make it a relative Vector2D public Vector2D worldToRelative(Vector2D world) { mat.reset(); Vector2Ds[0] = world.x; Vector2Ds[1] = world.y; mat.postRotate(JMath.radToDeg(-getAngle())); mat.mapVectors(Vector2Ds); worldRelVec.x = Vector2Ds[0]; worldRelVec.y = Vector2Ds[1]; return worldRelVec; } //velocity of a point on body public Vector2D pointVelocity(Vector2D worldOffset) { tangent.x = -worldOffset.y; tangent.y = worldOffset.x; pointVelVec.x = (tangent.x * angularVelocity) + velocity.x; pointVelVec.y = (tangent.y * angularVelocity) + velocity.y; return pointVelVec; } public void applyForce(Vector2D worldForce, Vector2D worldOffset) { //add linear force forces.x += worldForce.x; forces.y += worldForce.y; //add associated torque torque += Vector2D.cross(worldOffset, worldForce); } @Override public void draw( GraphicsContext c) { c.drawRotatedScaledBitmap(image, getPosition().x, getPosition().y, getWidth(), getHeight(), getAngle()); } public Vector2D getVelocity() { return velocity; } public void setVelocity(Vector2D velocity) { this.velocity = velocity; } } The way it is given force is by the applyForce method, this method considers angular torque. I'm just not sure how to come up with the vectors in the case where: RigidBody hits static entity RigidBody hits other RigidBody that may or may not be in motion. Would anyone know a way (without too complex math) that I could figure out the opposite force I need to apply to the car? I know the normal it is colliding with and how deep it collided. My main goal is so that say I hit a building from the side, well the car should not just stay there, it should slowly rotate out of it if I'm more than 45 degrees. Right now when I hit a wall I only change the velocity directly which does not consider angular force. Thanks!

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• Memento with optional state?

  - by Korey Hinton

  EDIT: As pointed out by Steve Evers and pdr, I am not correctly implementing the Memento pattern, my design is actually State pattern. Menu Program I built a console-based menu program with multiple levels that selects a particular test to run. Each level more precisely describes the operation. At any level you can type back to go back one level (memento). Level 1: Server Type? [1] Server A [2] Server B Level 2: Server environment? [1] test [2] production Level 3: Test type? [1] load [2] unit Level 4: Data Collection? [1] Legal docs [2] Corporate docs Level 4.5 (optional): Load Test Type [2] Multi TIF [2] Single PDF Level 5: Command Type? [1] Move [2] Copy [3] Remove [4] Custom Level 6: Enter a keyword [setup, cleanup, run] Design States PROBLEM: Right now the STATES enum is the determining factor as to what state is BACK and what state is NEXT yet it knows nothing about what the current memento state is. Has anyone experienced a similar issue and found an effective way to handle mementos with optional state? static enum STATES { SERVER, ENVIRONMENT, TEST_TYPE, COLLECTION, COMMAND_TYPE, KEYWORD, FINISHED } Possible Solution (Not-flexible) In reference to my code below, every case statement in the Menu class could check the state of currentMemo and then set the STATE (enum) accordingly to pass to the Builder. However, this doesn't seem flexible very flexible to change and I'm struggling to see an effective way refactor the design. class Menu extends StateConscious { private State state; private Scanner reader; private ServerUtils utility; Menu() { state = new State(); reader = new Scanner(System.in); utility = new ServerUtils(); } // Recurring menu logic public void startPromptingLoop() { List<State> states = new ArrayList<>(); states.add(new State()); boolean redoInput = false; boolean userIsDone = false; while (true) { // get Memento from last loop Memento currentMemento = states.get(states.size() - 1) .saveMemento(); if (currentMemento == null) currentMemento = new Memento.Builder(0).build(); if (!redoInput) System.out.println(currentMemento.prompt); redoInput = false; // prepare Memento for next loop Memento nextMemento = null; STATES state = STATES.values()[states.size() - 1]; // get user input String selection = reader.nextLine(); switch (selection) { case "exit": reader.close(); return; // only escape case "quit": nextMemento = new Memento.Builder(first(), currentMemento, selection).build(); states.clear(); break; case "back": nextMemento = new Memento.Builder(previous(state), currentMemento, selection).build(); if (states.size() <= 1) { states.remove(0); } else { states.remove(states.size() - 1); states.remove(states.size() - 1); } break; case "1": nextMemento = new Memento.Builder(next(state), currentMemento, selection).build(); break; case "2": nextMemento = new Memento.Builder(next(state), currentMemento, selection).build(); break; case "3": nextMemento = new Memento.Builder(next(state), currentMemento, selection).build(); break; case "4": nextMemento = new Memento.Builder(next(state), currentMemento, selection).build(); break; default: if (state.equals(STATES.CATEGORY)) { String command = selection; System.out.println("Executing " + command + " command on: " + currentMemento.type + " " + currentMemento.environment); utility.executeCommand(currentMemento.nickname, command); userIsDone = true; states.clear(); nextMemento = new Memento.Builder(first(), currentMemento, selection).build(); } else if (state.equals(STATES.KEYWORD)) { nextMemento = new Memento.Builder(next(state), currentMemento, selection).build(); states.clear(); nextMemento = new Memento.Builder(first(), currentMemento, selection).build(); } else { redoInput = true; System.out.println("give it another try"); continue; } break; } if (userIsDone) { // start the recurring menu over from the beginning for (int i = 0; i < states.size(); i++) { if (i != 0) { states.remove(i); // remove all except first } } reader = new Scanner(System.in); this.state = new State(); userIsDone = false; } if (!redoInput) { this.state.restoreMemento(nextMemento); states.add(this.state); } } } }

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• Orchestrating the Virtual Enterprise

  - by John Murphy

  During the American Industrial Revolution, the Ford Motor Company did it all. It turned raw materials into a showroom full of Model Ts. It owned a steel mill, a glass factory, and an automobile assembly line. The company was both self-sufficient and innovative and went on to become one of the largest and most profitable companies in the world. Nowadays, it's unusual for any business to follow this vertical integration model because its much harder to be best in class across such a wide a range of capabilities and services. Instead, businesses focus on their core competencies and outsource other business functions to specialized suppliers. They exchange vertical integration for collaboration. When done well, all parties benefit from this arrangement and the collaboration leads to the creation of an agile, lean and successful "virtual enterprise." Case in point: For Sun hardware, Oracle outsources most of its manufacturing and all of its logistics to third parties. These are vital activities, but ones where Oracle doesn't have a core competency, so we shift them to business partners who do. Within our enterprise, we always retain the core functions of product development, support, and most of the sales function, because that's what constitutes our core value to our customers. This is a perfect example of a virtual enterprise.  What are the implications of this? It means that we must exchange direct internal control for indirect external collaboration. This fundamentally changes the relative importance of different business processes, the boundaries of security and information sharing, and the relationship of the supply chain systems to the ERP. The challenge is that the systems required to support this virtual paradigm are still mired in "island enterprise" thinking. But help is at hand. Developments such as the Web, social networks, collaboration, and rules-based orchestration offer great potential to fundamentally re-architect supply chain systems to better support the virtual enterprise.  Supply Chain Management Systems in a Virtual Enterprise Historically enterprise software was constructed to automate the ERP - and then the supply chain systems extended the ERP. They were joined at the hip. In virtual enterprises, the supply chain system needs to be ERP agnostic, sitting above each of the ERPs that are distributed across the virtual enterprise - most of which are operating in other businesses. This is vital so that the supply chain system can manage the flow of material and the related information through the multiple enterprises. It has to have strong collaboration tools. It needs to be highly flexible. Users need to be able to see information that's coming from multiple sources and be able to react and respond to events across those sources.  Oracle Fusion Distributed Order Orchestration (DOO) is a perfect example of a supply chain system designed to operate in this virtual way. DOO embraces the idea that a company's fulfillment challenge is a distributed, multi-enterprise problem. It enables users to manage the process and the trading partners in a uniform way and deliver a consistent user experience while operating over a heterogeneous, virtual enterprise. This is a fundamental shift at the core of managing supply chains. It forces virtual enterprises to think architecturally about how best to construct their supply chain systems.  Case in point, almost everyone has ordered from Amazon.com at one time or another. Our orders are as likely to be fulfilled by third parties as they are by Amazon itself. To deliver the order promptly and efficiently, Amazon has to send it to the right fulfillment location and know the availability in that location. It needs to be able to track status of the fulfillment and deal with exceptions. As a virtual enterprise, Amazon's operations, using thousands of trading partners, requires a very different approach to fulfillment than the traditional 'take an order and ship it from your own warehouse' model. Amazon had no choice but to develop a complex, expensive and custom solution to tackle this problem as there used to be no product solution available. Now, other companies who want to follow similar models have a better off-the-shelf choice -- Oracle Distributed Order Orchestration (DOO).  Consider how another of our customers is using our distributed orchestration solution. This major airplane manufacturer has a highly complex business and interacts regularly with the U.S. Government and major airlines. It sits in the middle of an intricate supply chain and needed to improve visibility across its many different entities. Oracle Fusion DOO gives the company an orchestration mechanism so it could improve quality, speed, flexibility, and consistency without requiring an organ transplant of these highly complex legacy systems. Many retailers face the challenge of dealing with brick and mortar, Web, and reseller channels. They all need to be knitted together into a virtual enterprise experience that is consistent for their customers. When a large U.K. grocer with a strong brick and mortar retail operation added an online business, they turned to Oracle Fusion DOO to bring these entities together. Disturbing the Peace with Acquisitions Quite often a company's ERP system is disrupted when it acquires a new company. An acquisition can inject a new set of processes and systems -- or even introduce an entirely new business like Sun's hardware did at Oracle. This challenge has been a driver for some of our DOO customers. A large power management company is using Oracle Fusion DOO to provide the flexibility to rapidly integrate additional products and services into its central fulfillment operation. The Flip Side of Fulfillment Meanwhile, we haven't ignored similar challenges on the supply side of the equation. Specifically, how to manage complex supply in a flexible way when there are multiple trading parties involved? How to manage the supply to suppliers? How to manage critical components that need to merge in a tier two or tier three supply chain? By investing in supply orchestration solutions for the virtual enterprise, we plan to give users better visibility into their network of suppliers to help them drive down costs. We also think this technology and full orchestration process can be applied to the financial side of organizations. An example is transactions that flow through complex internal structures to minimize tax exposure. We can help companies manage those transactions effectively by thinking about the internal organization as a virtual enterprise and bringing the same solution set to this internal challenge.  The Clear Front Runner No other company is investing in solving the virtual enterprise supply chain issues like Oracle is. Oracle is in a unique position to become the gold standard in this market space. We have the infrastructure of Oracle technology. We already have an Oracle Fusion DOO application which embraces the best of what's required in this area. And we're absolutely committed to extending our Fusion solution to other use cases and delivering even more business value.

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• WebSocket API 1.1 released!

  - by Pavel Bucek

  Its my please to announce that JSR 356 – Java API for WebSocket maintenance release ballot vote finished with majority of “yes” votes (actually, only one eligible voter did not vote, all other votes were “yeses”). New release is maintenance release and it addresses only one issue:  WEBSOCKET_SPEC-226. What changed in the 1.1? Version 1.1 is fully backwards compatible with version 1.0, there are only two methods added to javax.websocket.Session: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 /** * Register to handle to incoming messages in this conversation. A maximum of one message handler per * native websocket message type (text, binary, pong) may be added to each Session. I.e. a maximum * of one message handler to handle incoming text messages a maximum of one message handler for * handling incoming binary messages, and a maximum of one for handling incoming pong * messages. For further details of which message handlers handle which of the native websocket * message types please see {@link MessageHandler.Whole} and {@link MessageHandler.Partial}. * Adding more than one of any one type will result in a runtime exception. * * @param clazz   type of the message processed by message handler to be registered. * @param handler whole message handler to be added. * @throws IllegalStateException if there is already a MessageHandler registered for the same native *                               websocket message type as this handler. */ public void addMessageHandler(Class<T> clazz, MessageHandler.Whole<T> handler); /** * Register to handle to incoming messages in this conversation. A maximum of one message handler per * native websocket message type (text, binary, pong) may be added to each Session. I.e. a maximum * of one message handler to handle incoming text messages a maximum of one message handler for * handling incoming binary messages, and a maximum of one for handling incoming pong * messages. For further details of which message handlers handle which of the native websocket * message types please see {@link MessageHandler.Whole} and {@link MessageHandler.Partial}. * Adding more than one of any one type will result in a runtime exception. * * * @param clazz   type of the message processed by message handler to be registered. * @param handler partial message handler to be added. * @throws IllegalStateException if there is already a MessageHandler registered for the same native *                               websocket message type as this handler. */ public void addMessageHandler(Class<T> clazz, MessageHandler.Partial<T> handler); Why do we need to add those methods? Short and not precise version: to support Lambda expressions as MessageHandlers. Longer and slightly more precise explanation: old Session#addMessageHandler method (which is still there and works as it worked till now) does rely on getting the generic parameter during the runtime, which is not (always) possible. The unfortunate part is that it works for some common cases and the expert group did not catch this issue before 1.0 release because of that. The issue is really clearly visible when Lambdas are used as message handlers: 1 2 3 session.addMessageHandler(message -> { System.out.println("### Received: " + message); }); There is no way for the JSR 356 implementation to get the type of the used Lambda expression, thus this call will always result in an exception. Since all modern IDEs do recommend to use Lambda expressions when possible and MessageHandler interfaces are single method interfaces, it basically just scream “use Lambdas” all over the place but when you do that, the application will fail during runtime. Only solution we currently have is to explicitly provide the type of registered MessageHandler. (There might be another sometime in the future when generic type reification is introduced, but that is not going to happen soon enough). So the example above will then be: 1 2 3 session.addMessageHandler(String.class, message -> { System.out.println("### Received: " + message); }); and voila, it works. There are some limitations – you cannot do 1 List<String>.class , so you will need to encapsulate these types when you want to use them in MessageHandler implementation (something like “class MyType extends ArrayList<String>”). There is no better way how to solve this issue, because Java currently does not provide good way how to describe generic types. The api itself is available on maven central, look for javax.websocket:javax.websocket-api:1.1. The reference implementation is project Tyrus, which implements WebSocket API 1.1 from version 1.8.

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• Stepping outside Visual Studio IDE [Part 1 of 2] with Eclipse

  - by mbcrump

  “If you're walking down the right path and you're willing to keep walking, eventually you'll make progress." – Barack Obama In my quest to become a better programmer, I’ve decided to start the process of learning Java. I will be primary using the Eclipse Language IDE. I will not bore you with the history just what is needed for a .NET developer to get up and running. I will provide links, screenshots and a few brief code tutorials. Links to documentation. The Official Eclipse FAQ’s Links to binaries. Eclipse IDE for Java EE Developers the Galileo Package (based on Eclipse 3.5 SR2)  Sun Developer Network – Java Eclipse officially recommends Java version 5 (also known as 1.5), although many Eclipse users use the newer version 6 (1.6). That's it, nothing more is required except to compile and run java. Installation Unzip the Eclipse IDE for Java EE Developers and double click the file named Eclipse.exe. You will probably want to create a link for it on your desktop. Once, it’s installed and launched you will have to select a workspace. Just accept the defaults and you will see the following: Lets go ahead and write a simple program. To write a "Hello World" program follow these steps: Start Eclipse. Create a new Java Project: File->New->Project. Select "Java" in the category list. Select "Java Project" in the project list. Click "Next". Enter a project name into the Project name field, for example, "HW Project". Click "Finish" Allow it to open the Java perspective Create a new Java class: Click the "Create a Java Class" button in the toolbar. (This is the icon below "Run" and "Window" with a tooltip that says "New Java Class.") Enter "HW" into the Name field. Click the checkbox indicating that you would like Eclipse to create a "public static void main(String[] args)" method. Click "Finish". A Java editor for HW.java will open. In the main method enter the following line.      System.out.println("This is my first java program and btw Hello World"); Save using ctrl-s. This automatically compiles HW.java. Click the "Run" button in the toolbar (looks like a VCR play button). You will be prompted to create a Launch configuration. Select "Java Application" and click "New". Click "Run" to run the Hello World program. The console will open and display "This is my first java program and btw Hello World". You now have your first java program, lets go ahead and make an applet. Since you already have the HW.java open, click inside the window and remove all code. Now copy/paste the following code snippet. Java Code Snippet for an applet. 1: import java.applet.Applet; 2: import java.awt.Graphics; 3: import java.awt.Color; 4:  5: @SuppressWarnings("serial") 6: public class HelloWorld extends Applet{ 7:  8: String text = "I'm a simple applet"; 9:  10: public void init() { 11: text = "I'm a simple applet"; 12: setBackground(Color.GREEN); 13: } 14:  15: public void start() { 16: System.out.println("starting..."); 17: } 18:  19: public void stop() { 20: System.out.println("stopping..."); 21: } 22:  23: public void destroy() { 24: System.out.println("preparing to unload..."); 25: } 26:  27: public void paint(Graphics g){ 28: System.out.println("Paint"); 29: g.setColor(Color.blue); 30: g.drawRect(0, 0, 31: getSize().width -1, 32: getSize().height -1); 33: g.setColor(Color.black); 34: g.drawString(text, 15, 25); 35: } 36: } The Eclipse IDE should look like Click "Run" to run the Hello World applet. Now, lets test our new java applet. So, navigate over to your workspace for example: “C:\Users\mbcrump\workspace\HW Project\bin” and you should see 2 files. HW.class java.policy.applet Create a HTML page with the following code: 1: <HTML> 2: <BODY> 3: <APPLET CODE=HW.class WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=100> 4: </APPLET> 5: </BODY> 6: </HTML> Open, the HTML page in Firefox or IE and you will see your applet running.  I hope this brief look at the Eclipse IDE helps someone get acquainted with Java Development. Even if your full time gig is with .NET, it will not hurt to have another language in your tool belt. As always, I welcome any suggestions or comments.

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• Need personal advice on how to get out of a company..

  - by SOfan

  Hi, I am an SO user since past 6 months and this is the first time I am turning to SO for personal help. I have asked technical questions before with my real ID. I am stuck inside a service based IT company for the past one year and haven't been able to decide if to leave it, when to leave it and how to leave it. I had taken 2 weeks LWP on medical reason roughly at end of 1 year and then soon after reporting, I applied for 2 months more LWP (on medical/personal ground) with the intention of working on my health,take up a hobby class to ward off depression,pessimism, to have some fun in life, and to look for a job which I really would be excited about - that interests me and which matches with my strength. My leave starts from this Monday. So in any case, I had hard set in mind that I will leave the company after I join them back hopefully with some job offer already in hand (after figuring out what I want do). Neither I can stand the past project,past colleagues,company, HR, pathetically low salary. But if I really listen to my heart, I don't want to have to go back to that office after my sabbatical and again have to see those people. I will have to resign it after my sabbatical ends. Then HR people perhaps wont like it, may even accuse me on face or behind back that primary purpose of my leave must have been to hunt for a better job and I lied about medical and person reasons. Also, if they get nasty and force me to serve 2 months notice period. There is no way I see myself after sabbatical resuming in old project or starting new work. It will be a pain. Since they have already approved 2 months leave and stuff, ideally if they want, they should be just able to relieve me right on the next day after I join back. But, I don't know if they want to get nasty, will they mention about my 2 months sabbatical leave in my experience letter or more scary, the term medical/personal reason. I have hard earned my experience here, have worked against my will, mostly it has been painful and slogged like anything, because I realize the importance of work experience in IT industry. I don't have greed to have those 2 months included extra in my experience letter, but I don't want to mess up with my experience letter in a way which makes my next employer ask question, get suspicious, or be wary if I have any medical reason going on. Being an emotional,moody person or somebody who can't be in an environment, once my mind and heart starts hating it. I think it perhaps is best, if I resign on Monday itself telling them (in polite manner) something that look I took sabbatical for some reason but I don't want to resume working in the company after my sabbatical ends. So please accept my resignation. Now tell me what you want to do about my leave request, my notice period and when you are willing to relieve me. What should I write and how? Some background: I am working in an IT company in India.I am overqualified in the company. It is grossly underpaying me. My education qualifications far exceed anyone's in the whole company being a CS undergrad as well as a CS grad. I joined this company after finishing the grad. I had self-doubts about my skills and interest as a programmer. I like doing research oriented work, though didn't have any particular success during grad. My life here has been very hectic. The project containing many many sub-projects has kept me on my toes and I have never really liked the work. I have been playing against my strength. Also the company strict internet usage policy (you can't read gmails, can't browse any non-work related sites not even news). When working for a client, from the machine we can't even check company related emails.For this one has to go to kiosk like 5 machines in a small room etc. Most of the times those machines are not available, so it was not unusual to keep making rounds to these kiosk machines to check company emails, browse company related emails etc.So it was not so easy to keep in touch with company related basic affairs for a not particular careful person. Things like this which are new to me, make me feel restricted. I am an undecisive person with a sense of failure, self-doubt, not meeting up unrealistic expectation. Somewhere at back of mind, I envy my classmates who make a smooth transition from company to company without causing any gap in their resume. I on other hand have gaps in resume. I get tired after working in a place for sometime. problem with colleagues in general. I am not particular great with people, have few friends, not known for a fun nature, rather serious, scholar. I am not a typical conventional female. I think females are usually more disciplined. But I am not so. I reach office late (though after informing manager). I don't want to blame them entirely, because from my past, it is not unusual for me to get undecisive on things. Also I had doubts about my ability as researched and to succeed there. of building a relationship in a group, to have something to talk about, newspaper. I get cut-off from people. peer pressure. I make blunders in coding, lose patience. Consciously or unconsciously I feel contempt for people here, work here, environment here. I have doubts that either I go to a place which does innovation, does research oriented work, product biggies, have great motivated people, have competent people passionate about products they are building. But then I also doubt my ability to survive there. I have identified that an idea job for me would be 4 days a week, a high salary job. When among people in company/team, I can't think much. I need some time at home to read good authentic books written in good style on what work I am doing.So that I am comfortable with my understanding of work. I get into pressure easily under deadline and need 5th day to cool myself off. I took for 2 weeks leave, because each day was hell for me. May be the depression phase of bipolar is on and also partially it could be that being a work centered person, who derives happiness,self-esteem from work, haven't been enjoying work and have been working for the sole person of proving stability, and ability to stick, against all odds, and facing what challenges I see, bonding with people, identifying opportunities to learn in given task etc.have been averaging one day LWP in 1 week or 10 days. or may be because of my nature,ADD,not being able to switch context,out of touch with news, don't have a circle of friends with who I enjoy. less knowledge in general to talk about, just some technical stuff.anyway, so due to emotional reason, some practical reason etc, I wanted to be very sure before leaving. So my leave starts from Monday and I should feel happy about it. I have taken the leave to for a few purposes - to take care of my health by regular yoga/exercise (with project on, I just can't do anything regular), reassess myself to see what I want to try next which work I might like, look for next job, take up a hobby which I like say singing. I am not clear on my career,job aspiration. I have tried my hands on research. During this year appraisal yesterday, I even had some conflict with my last manager. In meeting with me one on one, he would say all nice things about me, but in feedback to new manager, he hasn't given any excellent feedback. It is all only good. I am angry at this old Manager. Also new manager also scolded me as I didn't agree to his appraisal and waited to hear myself from old Manager. He kind of scolded me for wasting his time. Am I being unethical somewhere? I am always very conscious of if I am cheating anywhere. What advice I am seeking? How to resign and what to write in resignation letter

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• “It’s only test code…”

  - by Chris George

  “Let me hack this in, it’s only test code”, “Don’t worry about getting it reviewed, it’s only test code”, “It doesn’t have to be elegant or efficient, it’s only test code”… do these phrases sound familiar? Chances are if you’ve working with test automation, at one point or other you will have heard these phrases, you have probably even used them yourself! What is certain is that code written under this “it’s only test code” mantra will come back and bite you in the arse! I’ve recently encountered a case where a test was giving a false positive, therefore hiding a real product bug because that test code was very badly written. Firstly it was very difficult to understand what the test was actually trying to achieve let alone how it was doing it, and this complexity masked a simple logic error. These issues are real and they do happen. Let’s take a step back from this and look at what we are trying to do. We are writing test code that tests product code, and we do this to create a suite of tests that will help protect our software against regressions. This test code is making sure that the product behaves as it should by employing some sort of expected result verification. The simple cases of these are generally not a problem. However, automation allows us to explore more complex scenarios in many more permutations. As this complexity increases then so does the complexity of the test code. It is at this point that code which has not been architected properly will cause problems.   Keep your friends close… So, how do we make sure we are doing it right? The development teams I have worked on have always had Test Engineers working very closely with their Software Engineers. This is something that I have always tried to take full advantage of. They are coding experts! So run your ideas past them, ask for advice on how to structure your code, help you design your data structures. This may require a shift in your teams viewpoint, as contrary to this section title and folklore, Software Engineers are not actually the mortal enemy of Test Engineers. As time progresses, and test automation becomes more and more ingrained in what we do, the two roles are converging more than ever. Over the 16 years I have spent as a Test Engineer, I have seen the grey area between the two roles grow significantly larger. This serves to strengthen the relationship and common bond between the two roles which helps to make test code activities so much easier!   Pair for the win Possibly the best thing you could do to write good test code is to pair program on the task. This will serve a few purposes. you will get the benefit of the Software Engineers knowledge and experience the Software Engineer will gain knowledge on the testing process. Sharing the love is a wonderful thing! two pairs of eyes are always better than one… And so are two brains. Between the two of you, I will guarantee you will derive more useful test cases than if it was just one of you.   Code reviews Another policy which certainly pays dividends is the practice of code reviews. By having one of your peers review your code before you commit it serves two purposes. Firstly, it forces you to explain your code. Just the act of doing this will often pick up errors in your code. Secondly, it gets yet another pair of eyes on your code! I cannot stress enough how important code reviews are. The benefits they offer apply as much to product code as test code. In short, Software and Test Engineers should all be doing them! It can be extended even further by getting test code reviewed by a Software Engineer and a Test Engineer, and likewise product code. This serves to keep both functions in the loop with changes going on within your code base.   Learn from your devs I briefly touched on this earlier but I’d like to go into more detail here. Pairing with your Software Engineers when writing your test code is such an amazing opportunity to improve your coding skills. As I sit here writing this article waiting to be called into court for jury service, it reminds me that it takes a lot of patience to be a Test Engineer, almost as much as it takes to be a juror! However tempting it is to go rushing in and start writing your automated tests, resist that urge. Discuss what you want to achieve then talk through the approach you’re going to take. Then code it up together. I find it really enlightening to ask questions like ‘is there a better way to do this?’ Or ‘is this how you would code it?’ The latter question, especially, is where I learn the most. I’ve found that most Software Engineers will be reluctant to show you the ‘right way’ to code something when writing tests because they perceive the ‘right way’ to be too complicated for the Test Engineer (e.g. not mentioning LINQ and instead doing something verbose). So by asking how THEY would code it, it unleashes their true dev-ness and advanced code usually ensues! I would like to point out, however, that you don’t have to accept their method as the final answer. On numerous occasions I have opted for the more simple/verbose solution because I found the code written by the Software Engineer too advanced and therefore I would find it unreadable when I return to the code in a months’ time! Always keep the target audience in mind when writing clever code, and in my case that is mostly Test Engineers.  

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• Calculated Fields - Idiosyncracies

  - by PointsToShare

  © 2011 By: Dov Trietsch. All rights reserved Calculated Fields and some of their Idiosyncrasies Did you try to write a calculate field formula directly into the screen? Good Luck – You’ll need it! Calculated Fields are a sophisticated OOB feature of SharePoint, so you could think that they are best left to the end users – at least to the power users. But they reach their limits before the “Professionals “do, and the tough ones come back to us anyway. Back to business; the simpler the formula, the easier it is. Still, use your favorite editor to write it, then cut it and paste it to the ridiculously small window. What about complex formulae? Write them in steps! Here is a case in point and an idiosyncrasy or two. Our welders need to be certified and recertified every two years. Some of them are certifiable…., but I digress. To be certified you need to pass an eye exam, and two more tests – test A and test B. for each of those you have an expiry date. When renewed, each expiry date is advanced by two years from the date of renewal. My users wanted a visual clue so that when the supervisor looks at the list, she’ll have a KPI symbol telling her if anything expired (Red), is going to expire within the next 90 days (Yellow) or is not to be worried about (green). Not all the dates are filled and any blank date implies a complete lack of certification in the particular requirement. Obviously, I needed to figure the minimal of these 3 dates – a simple enough formula: =MIN([Date_EyeExam], {Date_TestA], [Date_TestB]). Aha! Here is idiosyncrasy #1. When one of the dates is a null, MIN(Date1, Date2) returns the non null date. Null is construed as “Far, far away”. The funny thing is that when you compare it to Today, the null is the lesser one. So a null it is less than today, but not when MIN is calculated. Now, to me the fact that the welder does not have an exam date, is synonymous with his exam being prehistoric, or at least past due. So here is what I did: Solution: Let’s set a blank date to 1/1/1800. How will we do that? Use the IF. IF([Field] rel relValue, TrueValue, FalseValue). rel is any relationship operator <, >, <=, >=, =, <>. If the field is related to the relValue as prescribed, the “IF” returns the TrueValue, otherwise it returns the FalseValue. Thus: =IF([SomeDate]="",1/1/1800,[SomeDate]) will return 1/1/1800 if the date is blank and the date itself if not. So, using this formula, if the welder missed an exam, the returned exam date will be far in the past. It would be nice if we could take such a formula and make it into a reusable function. Alas, here is a calculated field serious shortcoming: You cannot write subs and functions!! Aha, but we can use interim calculated fields! So let’s create 3 calculated fields as follows: 1: c_DateTestA as a calculated field of the date type, with the formula:  IF([Date_TestA]="",1/1/1800,[Date_TestA]) 2: c_DateTestB as a calculated field of the date type, with the formula:  IF([Date_TestB]="",1/1/1800,[Date_TestB]) 3: c_DateEyeExam as a calculated field of the date type, with the formula:  IF([Date_EyeExam]="",1/1/1800,[Date_EyeExam]) And now use these to get c_MinDate. This is again a calculated field of type date with the formula: MIN(c_DateTestA, cDateTestB, c_DateEyeExam) Note that I missed the square parentheses. In “properly named fields – where there are no embedded spaces, we don’t need the square parentheses. I actually strongly recommend using underscores in place of spaces in all the field names in your lists. Among other things, it makes using CAML much simpler. Now, we still need to apply the KPI to this minimal date. I am going to use the available KPI graphics that come with SharePoint and are always available in your 12 hive. "/_layouts/images/kpidefault-2.gif" is the Red KPI "/_layouts/images/kpidefault-1.gif" is the Yellow KPI "/_layouts/images/kpidefault-0.gif" is the Green KPI And here is the nested IF formula that will do the trick: =IF(c_MinDate<=Today,"/_layouts/images/kpidefault-2.gif", IF(cMinDate<Today+90,"/_layouts/images/kpidefault-1.gif","/_layouts/images/kpidefault-0.gif")) Nice! BUT when I tested, it did not work! This is Idiosyncrasy #2: A calculated field based on a calculated field based on a calculated field does not work. You have to stop at two levels! Back to the drawing board: We have to reduce by one level. How? We’ll eliminate the c_DateX items in the formula and replace them with the proper IF formulae. Notice that this needs to be done with precision. You are much better off in doing it in your favorite line editor, than inside the cramped space that SharePoint gives you. So here is the result: MIN(IF([Date_TestA]="",1/1/1800,[ Date_TestA]), IF([Date_TestB]="",1/1/1800,[ Date_TestB]), 1/1/1800), IF([Date_EyeExam]="",1/1/1800,[Date_EyeExam])) Note that I bolded the parentheses and painted them red. They have to match for this formula to work. Now we can leave the KPI formula as is and test again. This time with SUCCESS! Conclusion: build the inner functions first, and then embed them inside the outer formulae. Do this as long as necessary. Use your favorite line editor. Limit yourself to 2 levels. That’s all folks! Almost! As soon as I finished doing all of the above, my users added yet another level of complexity. They added another test, a test that must be passed, but never expires and asked for yet another KPI, this time in Black to denote that any test is not just past due, but altogether missing. I just finished this. Let’s hope it ends here! And OH, the formula  =IF(c_MinDate<=Today,"/_layouts/images/kpidefault-2.gif",IF(cMinDate<Today+90,"/_layouts/images/kpidefault-1.gif","/_layouts/images/kpidefault-0.gif")) Deals with “Today” and this is a subject deserving a discussion of its own!  That’s all folks?! (and this time I mean it)

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• Simplifying Human Capital Management with Mobile Applications

  - by HCM-Oracle

  By Aaron Green If you're starting to think 'mobility' is a recurring theme in your reading, you'd be right. For those who haven't started to build organisational capabilities to leverage it, it's fair to say you're late to the party. The good news: better late than never. Research firm eMarketer says the worldwide smartphone audience will total 1.75 billion this year, while communications technology and services provider Ericsson suggests smartphones will triple to 5.6 billion globally by 2019. It should be no surprise, smart phone adoption is reaching the farthest corners of the globe; the subsequent impact of enterprise applications enabled by these devices is driving business performance improvement and will continue to do so. Companies using advanced workforce analytics can add significantly to the bottom line, while impacting customer satisfaction, quality and productivity. It's a statement that makes most business leaders sit forward in their chairs. Achieving these three standards is like sipping The Golden Elixir for the business world. No-one would argue their importance. So what are 'advanced workforce analytics?' Simply, they're unprecedented access to workforce trends and performance markers. Many are made possible by a mobile world and the enterprise applications that come with it on smart devices. Some refer to it as 'the consumerisation of IT'. As this phenomenon has matured and become more widely appreciated it has impacted the spectrum of functional units within an enterprise differently, but powerfully. Whether it's sales, HR, marketing, IT, or operations, all have benefited from a more mobile approach. It has been the catalyst for improvement in, and management of, the employee experience. The net result of which is happier customers. The obvious benefits but the lesser realised impact Most people understand that mobility allows for greater efficiency and productivity, collaboration and flexibility, but how that translates into business outcomes within the various functional groups is lesser known. In actuality mobility has helped galvanise partnerships between cross-functional groups within the enterprise. Where in some quarters it was once feared mobility could fragment a workforce, its rallying cry of support is coming from what you might describe as an unlikely source - HR. As the bedrock of an enterprise, it is conceivable HR might contemplate the possible negative impact of a mobile workforce that no-longer sits in an office, at the same desks every day. After all, who would know what they were doing or saying? How would they collaborate? It's reasonable to see why HR might have a legitimate claim to try and retain as much 'perceived control' as possible. The reality however is mobility has emancipated human capital and its management. Mobility and enterprise applications are expediting decision making. Google calls it Zero Moment of Truth, or ZMOT. It enables smoother operation and can contribute to faster growth. From a collaborative perspective, with the growing use of enterprise social media, which in many cases is being driven by HR, workforce planning and the tangible impact of change is much easier to map. This in turn provides a platform from which individuals and teams can thrive. With more agility and ability to anticipate, staff satisfaction and retention is higher, and real time feedback constant. The management team can save time, energy and costs with more accurate data, which is then intelligently applied across the workforce to truly engage with staff, customers and partners. From a human capital management (HCM) perspective, mobility can help you close the loop on true talent management. It can enhance what managers can offer and what employees can provide in return. It can create nested relationships and powerful partnerships. IT and HR - partners and stewards of mobility One effect of enterprise mobility is an evolution in the nature of the relationship between HR and IT from one of service provision to partnership. The reason for the dynamic shift is largely due to the 'bring your own device' (BYOD) movement, which is transitioning to a 'bring your own application' (BYOA) scenario. As enterprise technology has in some ways reverse-engineered its solutions to help manage this situation, the partnership between IT (the functional owner) and HR (the strategic enabler) is deeply entrenched. And it has to be. The CIO and the HR leader are faced with compliance and regulatory issues and concerns around information security and personal privacy on a daily basis, complicated by global reach and varied domestic legislation. There are tens of thousands of new mobile apps entering the market each month and, unlike many consumer applications which get downloaded but are often never opened again after initial perusal, enterprise applications are being relied upon by functional groups, not least by HR to enhance people management. It requires a systematic approach across all applications in use within the enterprise in order to ensure they're used to best effect. No turning back, and no desire to With real time analytics on performance and the ability for immediate feedback, there is no turning back for managers. In my experience with Oracle, our customers' operational efficiency is at record levels. It's clear as a result of the combination of individual KPIs and organisational goals, CIOs have been able to give HR leaders the ability to build predictive models that feed into an enterprise organisations' evolving strategy. It also helps them ensure regulatory compliance much more easily. Once an arduous task, with mobile enabled automation and quality data, compliance is simpler. Their world has changed for the better. For the CIO, mobility also assists them to optimise performance. While it doesn't come without challenges, mobile-enabled applications and the native experience users have with them means employees don't need high-level technical expertise to train users. It reduces the training and engagement required from the IT team so they can focus on other things that deliver value to the bottom line; all the while lowering the cost of assets and related maintenance work by simplifying processes. Rewards of a mobile enterprise outweigh risks With mobile tools allowing us to increasingly integrate our personal and professional lives, terms like "office hours" are becoming irrelevant, so work/life balance is a cultural must. Enterprises are expected to offer tools that enable workers to access information from anywhere, at any time, from any device. Employees want simplicity and convenience but it doesn't stop at private enterprise. This is a societal shift. Governments, which traditionally have been known to be slower to adopt newer technology, are also offering support for local businesses to go mobile. Several state government websites have advice on how to create mobile apps and more. And as recently as last week the Victorian Minister for Technology Gordon Rich-Phillips unveiled his State government's ICT roadmap for the next two years, which details an increased use of the public cloud, as well as mobile communications, and improved access to online data-sets. Tech giants are investing significantly in solutions designed to simplify mobile deployment and enablement. The mobility trend is creating a wave of change in the industry and driving transformation in the enterprise. If you're not on that wave, the business risk continues to rise as your competitiveness drops. Aaron is the Vice President of HCM Strategy at Oracle Corporation where he is responsible for researching and identifying emerging trends in the practice of Human Resources and works to deliver industry-leading technology solutions. Other responsibilities include, ownership of Oracle's innovative HCM solutions across JAPAC and enabling organisations to transform and modernise their workforce tools. Follow him on Twitter @aaronjgreen

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• how to label a cuboid using open gl?

  - by usha

  hi this is how my 3dcuboid looks ,i have attached complete code , i want to label this cuboid using different name across sides how is it possible using opengl in android...plz help me out public class MyGLRenderer implements Renderer { Context context; Cuboid rect; private float mCubeRotation; // private static float angleCube = 0; // Rotational angle in degree for cube (NEW) // private static float speedCube = -1.5f; // Rotational speed for cube (NEW) public MyGLRenderer(Context context) { rect = new Cuboid(); this.context = context; } public void onDrawFrame(GL10 gl) { // TODO Auto-generated method stub gl.glClear(GL10.GL_COLOR_BUFFER_BIT | GL10.GL_DEPTH_BUFFER_BIT); gl.glLoadIdentity(); // Reset the model-view matrix gl.glTranslatef(0.2f, 0.0f, -8.0f); // Translate right and into the screen gl.glScalef(0.8f, 0.8f, 0.8f); // Scale down (NEW) gl.glRotatef(mCubeRotation, 1.0f, 1.0f, 1.0f); // gl.glRotatef(angleCube, 1.0f, 1.0f, 1.0f); // rotate about the axis (1,1,1) (NEW) rect.draw(gl); mCubeRotation -= 0.15f; //angleCube += speedCube; } public void onSurfaceChanged(GL10 gl, int width, int height) { // TODO Auto-generated method stub if (height == 0) height = 1; // To prevent divide by zero float aspect = (float)width / height; // Set the viewport (display area) to cover the entire window gl.glViewport(0, 0, width, height); // Setup perspective projection, with aspect ratio matches viewport gl.glMatrixMode(GL10.GL_PROJECTION); // Select projection matrix gl.glLoadIdentity(); // Reset projection matrix // Use perspective projection GLU.gluPerspective(gl, 45, aspect, 0.1f, 100.f); gl.glMatrixMode(GL10.GL_MODELVIEW); // Select model-view matrix gl.glLoadIdentity(); // Reset } public void onSurfaceCreated(GL10 gl, EGLConfig config) { // TODO Auto-generated method stub gl.glClearColor(0.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f, 1.0f); // Set color's clear-value to black gl.glClearDepthf(1.0f); // Set depth's clear-value to farthest gl.glEnable(GL10.GL_DEPTH_TEST); // Enables depth-buffer for hidden surface removal gl.glDepthFunc(GL10.GL_LEQUAL); // The type of depth testing to do gl.glHint(GL10.GL_PERSPECTIVE_CORRECTION_HINT, GL10.GL_NICEST); // nice perspective view gl.glShadeModel(GL10.GL_SMOOTH); // Enable smooth shading of color gl.glDisable(GL10.GL_DITHER); // Disable dithering for better performance }} public class Cuboid{ private FloatBuffer mVertexBuffer; private FloatBuffer mColorBuffer; private ByteBuffer mIndexBuffer; private float vertices[] = { //width,height,depth -2.5f, -1.0f, -1.0f, 1.0f, -1.0f, -1.0f, 1.0f, 1.0f, -1.0f, -2.5f, 1.0f, -1.0f, -2.5f, -1.0f, 1.0f, 1.0f, -1.0f, 1.0f, 1.0f, 1.0f, 1.0f, -2.5f, 1.0f, 1.0f }; private float colors[] = { // R,G,B,A COLOR 0.0f, 1.0f, 0.0f, 1.0f, 0.0f, 1.0f, 0.0f, 1.0f, 1.0f, 0.5f, 0.0f, 1.0f, 1.0f, 0.5f, 0.0f, 1.0f, 1.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f, 1.0f, 1.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f, 1.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f, 1.0f, 1.0f, 1.0f, 0.0f, 1.0f, 1.0f }; private byte indices[] = { // VERTEX 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7 REPRESENTATION FOR FACES 0, 4, 5, 0, 5, 1, 1, 5, 6, 1, 6, 2, 2, 6, 7, 2, 7, 3, 3, 7, 4, 3, 4, 0, 4, 7, 6, 4, 6, 5, 3, 0, 1, 3, 1, 2 }; public Cuboid() { ByteBuffer byteBuf = ByteBuffer.allocateDirect(vertices.length * 4); byteBuf.order(ByteOrder.nativeOrder()); mVertexBuffer = byteBuf.asFloatBuffer(); mVertexBuffer.put(vertices); mVertexBuffer.position(0); byteBuf = ByteBuffer.allocateDirect(colors.length * 4); byteBuf.order(ByteOrder.nativeOrder()); mColorBuffer = byteBuf.asFloatBuffer(); mColorBuffer.put(colors); mColorBuffer.position(0); mIndexBuffer = ByteBuffer.allocateDirect(indices.length); mIndexBuffer.put(indices); mIndexBuffer.position(0); } public void draw(GL10 gl) { gl.glFrontFace(GL10.GL_CW); gl.glVertexPointer(3, GL10.GL_FLOAT, 0, mVertexBuffer); gl.glColorPointer(4, GL10.GL_FLOAT, 0, mColorBuffer); gl.glEnableClientState(GL10.GL_VERTEX_ARRAY); gl.glEnableClientState(GL10.GL_COLOR_ARRAY); gl.glDrawElements(GL10.GL_TRIANGLES, 36, GL10.GL_UNSIGNED_BYTE, mIndexBuffer); gl.glDisableClientState(GL10.GL_VERTEX_ARRAY); gl.glDisableClientState(GL10.GL_COLOR_ARRAY); } } public class Draw3drect extends Activity { private GLSurfaceView glView; // Use GLSurfaceView // Call back when the activity is started, to initialize the view @Override protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) { super.onCreate(savedInstanceState); glView = new GLSurfaceView(this); // Allocate a GLSurfaceView glView.setRenderer(new MyGLRenderer(this)); // Use a custom renderer this.setContentView(glView); // This activity sets to GLSurfaceView } // Call back when the activity is going into the background @Override protected void onPause() { super.onPause(); glView.onPause(); } // Call back after onPause() @Override protected void onResume() { super.onResume(); glView.onResume(); } }

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• Optimizing a thread safe Java NIO / Serialization / FIFO Queue [migrated]

  - by trialcodr

  I've written a thread safe, persistent FIFO for Serializable items. The reason for reinventing the wheel is that we simply can't afford any third party dependencies in this project and want to keep this really simple. The problem is it isn't fast enough. Most of it is undoubtedly due to reading and writing directly to disk but I think we should be able to squeeze a bit more out of it anyway. Any ideas on how to improve the performance of the 'take'- and 'add'-methods? /** * <code>DiskQueue</code> Persistent, thread safe FIFO queue for * <code>Serializable</code> items. */ public class DiskQueue<ItemT extends Serializable> { public static final int EMPTY_OFFS = -1; public static final int LONG_SIZE = 8; public static final int HEADER_SIZE = LONG_SIZE * 2; private InputStream inputStream; private OutputStream outputStream; private RandomAccessFile file; private FileChannel channel; private long offs = EMPTY_OFFS; private long size = 0; public DiskQueue(String filename) { try { boolean fileExists = new File(filename).exists(); file = new RandomAccessFile(filename, "rwd"); if (fileExists) { size = file.readLong(); offs = file.readLong(); } else { file.writeLong(size); file.writeLong(offs); } } catch (FileNotFoundException e) { throw new RuntimeException(e); } catch (IOException e) { throw new RuntimeException(e); } channel = file.getChannel(); inputStream = Channels.newInputStream(channel); outputStream = Channels.newOutputStream(channel); } /** * Add item to end of queue. */ public void add(ItemT item) { try { synchronized (this) { channel.position(channel.size()); ObjectOutputStream s = new ObjectOutputStream(outputStream); s.writeObject(item); s.flush(); size++; file.seek(0); file.writeLong(size); if (offs == EMPTY_OFFS) { offs = HEADER_SIZE; file.writeLong(offs); } notify(); } } catch (IOException e) { throw new RuntimeException(e); } } /** * Clears overhead by moving the remaining items up and shortening the file. */ public synchronized void defrag() { if (offs > HEADER_SIZE && size > 0) { try { long totalBytes = channel.size() - offs; ByteBuffer buffer = ByteBuffer.allocateDirect((int) totalBytes); channel.position(offs); for (int bytes = 0; bytes < totalBytes;) { int res = channel.read(buffer); if (res == -1) { throw new IOException("Failed to read data into buffer"); } bytes += res; } channel.position(HEADER_SIZE); buffer.flip(); for (int bytes = 0; bytes < totalBytes;) { int res = channel.write(buffer); if (res == -1) { throw new IOException("Failed to write buffer to file"); } bytes += res; } offs = HEADER_SIZE; file.seek(LONG_SIZE); file.writeLong(offs); file.setLength(HEADER_SIZE + totalBytes); } catch (IOException e) { throw new RuntimeException(e); } } } /** * Returns the queue overhead in bytes. */ public synchronized long overhead() { return (offs == EMPTY_OFFS) ? 0 : offs - HEADER_SIZE; } /** * Returns the first item in the queue, blocks if queue is empty. */ public ItemT peek() throws InterruptedException { block(); synchronized (this) { if (offs != EMPTY_OFFS) { return readItem(); } } return peek(); } /** * Returns the number of remaining items in queue. */ public synchronized long size() { return size; } /** * Removes and returns the first item in the queue, blocks if queue is empty. */ public ItemT take() throws InterruptedException { block(); try { synchronized (this) { if (offs != EMPTY_OFFS) { ItemT result = readItem(); size--; offs = channel.position(); file.seek(0); if (offs == channel.size()) { truncate(); } file.writeLong(size); file.writeLong(offs); return result; } } return take(); } catch (IOException e) { throw new RuntimeException(e); } } /** * Throw away all items and reset the file. */ public synchronized void truncate() { try { offs = EMPTY_OFFS; file.setLength(HEADER_SIZE); size = 0; } catch (IOException e) { throw new RuntimeException(e); } } /** * Block until an item is available. */ protected void block() throws InterruptedException { while (offs == EMPTY_OFFS) { try { synchronized (this) { wait(); file.seek(LONG_SIZE); offs = file.readLong(); } } catch (IOException e) { throw new RuntimeException(e); } } } /** * Read and return item. */ @SuppressWarnings("unchecked") protected ItemT readItem() { try { channel.position(offs); return (ItemT) new ObjectInputStream(inputStream).readObject(); } catch (ClassNotFoundException e) { throw new RuntimeException(e); } catch (IOException e) { throw new RuntimeException(e); } } }

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• How do I ensure that a JPanel Shrinks when the parent frame is resized?

  - by dah

  I have a basic notes panel that I'm looking to shrink the width of when the parent jframe is resized but it isn't happening. I'm using nested gridbaglayouts. package com.protocase.notes.views; import com.protocase.notes.controller.NotesController; import com.protocase.notes.model.Subject; import com.protocase.notes.model.Note; import com.protocase.notes.model.database.PMSNotesAdapter; import java.awt.Color; import java.awt.GridBagConstraints; import java.awt.GridBagLayout; import javax.swing.BorderFactory; import javax.swing.JButton; import javax.swing.JLabel; import javax.swing.JPanel; import javax.swing.JScrollPane; /** * @author DavidH */ public class NotesViewer extends JPanel { // <editor-fold defaultstate="collapsed" desc="Attributes"> private Subject subject; private NotesController controller; //</editor-fold> // <editor-fold defaultstate="collapsed" desc="Getters N' Setters"> /** * Gets back the current subject. * @return */ public Subject getSubject() { return subject; } public NotesController getController() { return controller; } public void setController(NotesController controller) { this.controller = controller; } /** * Should clear the panel of the current subject and load the details for * the other object. * @param subject */ public void setSubject(Subject subject) { this.subject = subject; } //</editor-fold> // <editor-fold defaultstate="collapsed" desc="Constructor"> /** * -- Sets up a note viewer with a subject and a controller. Likely this * would be the constructor used if you were passing off from another * NoteViewer or something else that used a notes adapter or controller. * @param subject * @param controller */ public NotesViewer(Subject subject, NotesController controller) { this.subject = subject; this.controller = controller; initComponents(); } /** * -- Sets up a note view with a subject and creates a new controller. This * would be the constructor typically chosen if choosing notes was * infrequent and only one or two notes needs to be displayed. * @param subject */ public NotesViewer(Subject subject) { this(subject, new NotesController(new PMSNotesAdapter())); } /** * -- Sets up a note view without a subject and creates a new controller. * This would be for a note viewer without any notes, perhaps populating * as you choose values in another form. * @param subject */ public NotesViewer() { this(null); } //</editor-fold> // <editor-fold defaultstate="collapsed" desc="initComponents()"> /** * Sets up the view for the NotesViewer */ private void initComponents() { // -- Make a new panel for the header JPanel panel = new JPanel(); panel.setLayout(new GridBagLayout()); GridBagConstraints c = new GridBagConstraints(); c.gridx = 0; c.fill = GridBagConstraints.HORIZONTAL; c.gridy = 0; c.weightx = .5; //c.anchor = GridBagConstraints.NORTHWEST; JLabel label = new JLabel("Viewing Notes for [Subject]"); label.setAlignmentX(JLabel.LEFT_ALIGNMENT); label.setBorder(BorderFactory.createLineBorder(Color.YELLOW)); panel.add(label); JButton newNoteButton = new JButton("New"); c = new GridBagConstraints(); // c.fill = GridBagConstraints.HORIZONTAL; c.gridx = 1; c.gridy = 0; c.weightx = .5; c.anchor = GridBagConstraints.EAST; panel.add(newNoteButton, c); // -- NotePanels c = new GridBagConstraints(); c.fill = GridBagConstraints.HORIZONTAL; c.weightx = 1; c.weighty = 1; c.gridx = 0; c.gridwidth = 2; int y = 1; for (Note n : subject.getNotes()) { c.gridy = y++; panel.add(new NotesPanel(n, controller), c); } this.setLayout(new GridBagLayout()); GridBagConstraints pc = new GridBagConstraints(); pc.gridx = 0; pc.gridy = 0; pc.weightx = 1; pc.weighty = 1; pc.fill = GridBagConstraints.BOTH; panel.setBackground(Color.blue); JScrollPane scroll = new JScrollPane(); scroll.setViewportView(panel); //scroll.setHorizontalScrollBarPolicy(JScrollPane.HORIZONTAL_SCROLLBAR_NEVER); this.add(scroll, pc); //this.add(panel, pc); // -- Add it all to the layout } //</editor-fold> // <editor-fold defaultstate="collapsed" desc="private methods"> //</editor-fold> } package com.protocase.notes.views; import com.protocase.notes.controller.NotesController; import com.protocase.notes.model.Note; import java.awt.CardLayout; import java.awt.Color; import java.awt.Component; import java.awt.Dimension; import java.awt.GridBagConstraints; import java.awt.GridBagLayout; import java.awt.event.ActionEvent; import java.awt.event.ActionListener; import java.text.DateFormat; import java.text.SimpleDateFormat; import javax.swing.BorderFactory; import javax.swing.JButton; import javax.swing.JLabel; import javax.swing.JPanel; import javax.swing.JScrollPane; import javax.swing.JTextArea; import javax.swing.JTextField; import javax.swing.border.BevelBorder; import javax.swing.border.Border; import javax.swing.border.MatteBorder; /** * @author dah01 */ public class NotesPanel extends JPanel { // <editor-fold defaultstate="collapsed" desc="Attributes"> private Note note; private NotesController controller; private CardLayout cardLayout; private JTextArea viewTextArea; private JTextArea editTextArea; //</editor-fold> // <editor-fold defaultstate="collapsed" desc="Getters N' Setters"> public NotesController getController() { return controller; } public void setController(NotesController controller) { this.controller = controller; } public Note getNote() { return note; } public void setNote(Note note) { this.note = note; } //</editor-fold> // <editor-fold defaultstate="collapsed" desc="Constructor"> /** * Sets up a note panel that shows everything about the note. * @param note */ public NotesPanel(Note note, NotesController controller) { this.note = note; cardLayout = new CardLayout(); this.setLayout(cardLayout); // -- Setup the layout manager. this.setBackground(new Color(199, 187, 192)); this.setBorder(new BevelBorder(BevelBorder.RAISED)); // -- ViewPanel this.add("ViewPanel", initViewPanel()); this.add("EditPanel", initEditPanel()); } //</editor-fold> // <editor-fold defaultstate="collapsed" desc="EditPanel"> private JPanel initEditPanel() { JPanel editPanel = new JPanel(); editPanel.setLayout(new GridBagLayout()); GridBagConstraints c = new GridBagConstraints(); c.fill = GridBagConstraints.HORIZONTAL; c.gridy = 0; c.weightx = 1; c.weighty = 0.3; editPanel.add(initCreatorLabel(), c); c.gridy++; editPanel.add(initEditTextScroll(), c); c.gridy++; c.anchor = GridBagConstraints.WEST; c.fill = GridBagConstraints.NONE; editPanel.add(initEditorLabel(), c); c.gridx++; c.anchor = GridBagConstraints.EAST; editPanel.add(initSaveButton(), c); return editPanel; } private JScrollPane initEditTextScroll() { this.editTextArea = new JTextArea(note.getContents()); editTextArea.setLineWrap(true); editTextArea.setWrapStyleWord(true); JScrollPane scrollPane = new JScrollPane(editTextArea); scrollPane.setAlignmentX(JScrollPane.LEFT_ALIGNMENT); Border b = scrollPane.getViewportBorder(); MatteBorder mb = BorderFactory.createMatteBorder(2, 2, 2, 2, Color.BLUE); scrollPane.setBorder(mb); return scrollPane; } private JButton initSaveButton() { final CardLayout l = this.cardLayout; final JPanel p = this; final NotesController c = this.controller; final Note n = this.note; final JTextArea noteText = this.viewTextArea; final JTextArea textToSubmit = this.editTextArea; ActionListener al = new ActionListener() { @Override public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) { //controller.saveNote(n); noteText.setText(textToSubmit.getText()); l.next(p); } }; JButton saveButton = new JButton("Save"); saveButton.addActionListener(al); saveButton.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(62, 26)); return saveButton; } //</editor-fold> // <editor-fold defaultstate="collapsed" desc="ViewPanel"> private JPanel initViewPanel() { JPanel viewPanel = new JPanel(); viewPanel.setLayout(new GridBagLayout()); GridBagConstraints c = new GridBagConstraints(); c.fill = GridBagConstraints.HORIZONTAL ; c.gridy = 0; c.weightx = 1; c.weighty = 0.3; viewPanel.add(initCreatorLabel(), c); c.gridy++; viewPanel.add(this.initNoteTextArea(), c); c.fill = GridBagConstraints.NONE; c.anchor = GridBagConstraints.WEST; c.gridy++; viewPanel.add(initEditorLabel(), c); c.gridx++; c.anchor = GridBagConstraints.EAST; viewPanel.add(initEditButton(), c); return viewPanel; } private JLabel initCreatorLabel() { DateFormat formatter = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd"); if (note != null) { String noteBy = "Note by " + note.getCreator(); String noteCreated = formatter.format(note.getDateCreated()); JLabel creatorLabel = new JLabel(noteBy + " @ " + noteCreated); creatorLabel.setAlignmentX(JLabel.LEFT_ALIGNMENT); return creatorLabel; } else { System.out.println("NOTE IS NULL"); return null; } } private JScrollPane initNoteTextArea() { // -- Setup the notes area. this.viewTextArea = new JTextArea(note.getContents()); viewTextArea.setEditable(false); viewTextArea.setLineWrap(true); viewTextArea.setWrapStyleWord(true); JScrollPane scrollPane = new JScrollPane(viewTextArea); scrollPane.setAlignmentX(JScrollPane.LEFT_ALIGNMENT); return scrollPane; } private JLabel initEditorLabel() { // -- Setup the edited by label. JLabel editorLabel = new JLabel(" -- Last edited by " + note.getLastEdited() + " at " + note.getDateModified()); editorLabel.setAlignmentX(Component.LEFT_ALIGNMENT); return editorLabel; } private JButton initEditButton() { final CardLayout l = this.cardLayout; final JPanel p = this; ActionListener ar = new ActionListener() { @Override public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) { l.next(p); } }; JButton editButton = new JButton("Edit"); editButton.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(62,26)); editButton.addActionListener(ar); return editButton; } //</editor-fold> // <editor-fold defaultstate="collapsed" desc="Grow Width When Resized"> @Override public Dimension getPreferredSize() { int fw = this.getParent().getSize().width; int fh = super.getPreferredSize().height; return new Dimension(fw,fh); } //</editor-fold> }

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• ADF Reusable Artefacts

  - by Arda Eralp

  Primary reusable ADF Business Component: Entity Objects (EOs) View Objects (VOs) Application Modules (AMs) Framework Extensions Classes Primary reusable ADF Controller: Bounded Task Flows (BTFs) Task Flow Templates Primary reusable ADF Faces: Page Templates Skins Declarative Components Utility Classes Certain components will often be used more than once. Whether the reuse happens within the same application, or across different applications, it is often advantageous to package these reusable components into a library that can be shared between different developers, across different teams, and even across departments within an organization. In the world of Java object-oriented programming, reusing classes and objects is just standard procedure. With the introduction of the model-view-controller (MVC) architecture, applications can be further modularized into separate model, view, and controller layers. By separating the data (model and business services layers) from the presentation (view and controller layers), you ensure that changes to any one layer do not affect the integrity of the other layers. You can change business logic without having to change the UI, or redesign the web pages or front end without having to recode domain logic. Oracle ADF and JDeveloper support the MVC design pattern. When you create an application in JDeveloper, you can choose many application templates that automatically set up data model and user interface projects. Because the different MVC layers are decoupled from each other, development can proceed on different projects in parallel and with a certain amount of independence. ADF Library further extends this modularity of design by providing a convenient and practical way to create, deploy, and reuse high-level components. When you first design your application, you design it with component reusability in mind. If you created components that can be reused, you can package them into JAR files and add them to a reusable component repository. If you need a component, you may look into the repository for those components and then add them into your project or application. For example, you can create an application module for a domain and package it to be used as the data model project in several different applications. Or, if your application will be consuming components, you may be able to load a page template component from a repository of ADF Library JARs to create common look and feel pages. Then you can put your page flow together by stringing together several task flow components pulled from the library. An ADF Library JAR contains ADF components and does not, and cannot, contain other JARs. It should not be confused with the JDeveloper library, Java EE library, or Oracle WebLogic shared library. Reusable Component Description Data Control Any data control can be packaged into an ADF Library JAR. Some of the data controls supported by Oracle ADF include application modules, Enterprise JavaBeans, web services, URL services, JavaBeans, and placeholder data controls. Application Module When you are using ADF Business Components and you generate an application module, an associated application module data control is also generated. When you package an application module data control, you also package up the ADF Business Components associated with that application module. The relevant entity objects, view objects, and associations will be a part of the ADF Library JAR and available for reuse. Business Components Business components are the entity objects, view objects, and associations used in the ADF Business Components data model project. You can package business components by themselves or together with an application module. Task Flows & Task Flow Templates Task flows can be packaged into an ADF Library JAR for reuse. If you drop a bounded task flow that uses page fragments, JDeveloper adds a region to the page and binds it to the dropped task flow. ADF bounded task flows built using pages can be dropped onto pages. The drop will create a link to call the bounded task flow. A task flow call activity and control flow will automatically be added to the task flow, with the view activity referencing the page. If there is more than one existing task flow with a view activity referencing the page, it will prompt you to select the one to automatically add a task flow call activity and control flow. If an ADF task flow template was created in the same project as the task flow, the ADF task flow template will be included in the ADF Library JAR and will be reusable. Page Templates You can package a page template and its artifacts into an ADF Library JAR. If the template uses image files and they are included in a directory within your project, these files will also be available for the template during reuse. Declarative Components You can create declarative components and package them for reuse. The tag libraries associated with the component will be included and loaded into the consuming project. You can also package up projects that have several different reusable components if you expect that more than one component will be consumed. For example, you can create a project that has both an application module and a bounded task flow. When this ADF Library JAR file is consumed, the application will have both the application module and the task flow available for use. You can package multiple components into one JAR file, or you can package a single component into a JAR file. Oracle ADF and JDeveloper give you the option and flexibility to create reusable components that best suit you and your organization. You create a reusable component by using JDeveloper to package and deploy the project that contains the components into a ADF Library JAR file. You use the components by adding that JAR to the consuming project. At design time, the JAR is added to the consuming project's class path and so is available for reuse. At runtime, the reused component runs from the JAR file by reference.

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• Organization &amp; Architecture UNISA Studies &ndash; Chap 4

  - by MarkPearl

  Learning Outcomes Explain the characteristics of memory systems Describe the memory hierarchy Discuss cache memory principles Discuss issues relevant to cache design Describe the cache organization of the Pentium Computer Memory Systems There are key characteristics of memory… Location – internal or external Capacity – expressed in terms of bytes Unit of Transfer – the number of bits read out of or written into memory at a time Access Method – sequential, direct, random or associative From a users perspective the two most important characteristics of memory are… Capacity Performance – access time, memory cycle time, transfer rate The trade off for memory happens along three axis… Faster access time, greater cost per bit Greater capacity, smaller cost per bit Greater capacity, slower access time This leads to people using a tiered approach in their use of memory   As one goes down the hierarchy, the following occurs… Decreasing cost per bit Increasing capacity Increasing access time Decreasing frequency of access of the memory by the processor The use of two levels of memory to reduce average access time works in principle, but only if conditions 1 to 4 apply. A variety of technologies exist that allow us to accomplish this. Thus it is possible to organize data across the hierarchy such that the percentage of accesses to each successively lower level is substantially less than that of the level above. A portion of main memory can be used as a buffer to hold data temporarily that is to be read out to disk. This is sometimes referred to as a disk cache and improves performance in two ways… Disk writes are clustered. Instead of many small transfers of data, we have a few large transfers of data. This improves disk performance and minimizes processor involvement. Some data designed for write-out may be referenced by a program before the next dump to disk. In that case the data is retrieved rapidly from the software cache rather than slowly from disk. Cache Memory Principles Cache memory is substantially faster than main memory. A caching system works as follows.. When a processor attempts to read a word of memory, a check is made to see if this in in cache memory… If it is, the data is supplied, If it is not in the cache, a block of main memory, consisting of a fixed number of words is loaded to the cache. Because of the phenomenon of locality of references, when a block of data is fetched into the cache, it is likely that there will be future references to that same memory location or to other words in the block. Elements of Cache Design While there are a large number of cache implementations, there are a few basic design elements that serve to classify and differentiate cache architectures… Cache Addresses Cache Size Mapping Function Replacement Algorithm Write Policy Line Size Number of Caches Cache Addresses Almost all non-embedded processors support virtual memory. Virtual memory in essence allows a program to address memory from a logical point of view without needing to worry about the amount of physical memory available. When virtual addresses are used the designer may choose to place the cache between the MMU (memory management unit) and the processor or between the MMU and main memory. The disadvantage of virtual memory is that most virtual memory systems supply each application with the same virtual memory address space (each application sees virtual memory starting at memory address 0), which means the cache memory must be completely flushed with each application context switch or extra bits must be added to each line of the cache to identify which virtual address space the address refers to. Cache Size We would like the size of the cache to be small enough so that the overall average cost per bit is close to that of main memory alone and large enough so that the overall average access time is close to that of the cache alone. Also, larger caches are slightly slower than smaller ones. Mapping Function Because there are fewer cache lines than main memory blocks, an algorithm is needed for mapping main memory blocks into cache lines. The choice of mapping function dictates how the cache is organized. Three techniques can be used… Direct – simplest technique, maps each block of main memory into only one possible cache line Associative – Each main memory block to be loaded into any line of the cache Set Associative – exhibits the strengths of both the direct and associative approaches while reducing their disadvantages For detailed explanations of each approach – read the text book (page 148 – 154) Replacement Algorithm For associative and set associating mapping a replacement algorithm is needed to determine which of the existing blocks in the cache must be replaced by a new block. There are four common approaches… LRU (Least recently used) FIFO (First in first out) LFU (Least frequently used) Random selection Write Policy When a block resident in the cache is to be replaced, there are two cases to consider If no writes to that block have happened in the cache – discard it If a write has occurred, a process needs to be initiated where the changes in the cache are propagated back to the main memory. There are several approaches to achieve this including… Write Through – all writes to the cache are done to the main memory as well at the point of the change Write Back – when a block is replaced, all dirty bits are written back to main memory The problem is complicated when we have multiple caches, there are techniques to accommodate for this but I have not summarized them. Line Size When a block of data is retrieved and placed in the cache, not only the desired word but also some number of adjacent words are retrieved. As the block size increases from very small to larger sizes, the hit ratio will at first increase because of the principle of locality, which states that the data in the vicinity of a referenced word are likely to be referenced in the near future. As the block size increases, more useful data are brought into cache. The hit ratio will begin to decrease as the block becomes even bigger and the probability of using the newly fetched information becomes less than the probability of using the newly fetched information that has to be replaced. Two specific effects come into play… Larger blocks reduce the number of blocks that fit into a cache. Because each block fetch overwrites older cache contents, a small number of blocks results in data being overwritten shortly after they are fetched. As a block becomes larger, each additional word is farther from the requested word and therefore less likely to be needed in the near future. The relationship between block size and hit ratio is complex, and no set approach is judged to be the best in all circumstances.   Pentium 4 and ARM cache organizations The processor core consists of four major components: Fetch/decode unit – fetches program instruction in order from the L2 cache, decodes these into a series of micro-operations, and stores the results in the L2 instruction cache Out-of-order execution logic – Schedules execution of the micro-operations subject to data dependencies and resource availability – thus micro-operations may be scheduled for execution in a different order than they were fetched from the instruction stream. As time permits, this unit schedules speculative execution of micro-operations that may be required in the future Execution units – These units execute micro-operations, fetching the required data from the L1 data cache and temporarily storing results in registers Memory subsystem – This unit includes the L2 and L3 caches and the system bus, which is used to access main memory when the L1 and L2 caches have a cache miss and to access the system I/O resources

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• MVC Razor Engine For Beginners Part 1

  - by Humprey Cogay, C|EH, E|CSA

  I. What is MVC? a. http://www.asp.net/mvc/tutorials/older-versions/overview/asp-net-mvc-overview II. Software Requirements for this tutorial a. Visual Studio 2010/2012. You can get your free copy here Microsoft Visual Studio 2012 b. MVC Framework Option 1 - Install using a standalone installer http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=30683 Option 2 - Install using Web Platform Installer http://www.microsoft.com/web/handlers/webpi.ashx?command=getinstallerredirect&appid=MVC4VS2010_Loc III. Creating your first MVC4 Application a. On the Visual Studio click file new solution link b. Click Other Project Type>Visual Studio Solutions and on the templates window select blank solution and let us name our solution MVCPrimer. c. Now Click File>New and select Project d. Select Visual C#>Web> and select ASP.NET MVC 4 Web Application and Enter MyWebSite as Name e. Select Empty, Razor as view engine and uncheck Create a Unit test project f. You can now view a basic MVC 4 Application Structure on your solution explorer g. Now we will add our first controller by right clicking on the controllers folder on your solution explorer and select Add>Controller h. Change the name of the controller to HomeController and under the scaffolding options select Empty MVC Controller. i. You will now see a basic controller with an Index method that returns an ActionResult j. We will now add a new View Folder for our Home Controller. Right click on the views folder on your solution explorer and select Add> New Folder> and name this folder Home k. Add a new View by right clicking on Views>Home Folder and select Add View. l. Name the view Index, and select Razor(CSHTML) as View Engine, All checkbox should be unchecked for now and click add. m. Relationship between our HomeController and Home Views Sub Folder n. Add new HTML Contents to our newly created Index View o. Press F5 to run our MVC Application p. We will create our new model, Right click on the models folder of our solution explorer and select Add> Class. q. Let us name our class Customer r. Edit the Customer class with the following code s. Open the HomeController by double clickin HomeController of our Controllers folder and edit the HomeControllerusing System; using System.Collections.Generic; using System.Linq; using System.Web; using System.Web.Mvc;   namespace MyWebSite.Controllers {     public class HomeController : Controller     {         //         // GET: /Home/           public ActionResult Index()         {             return View();         }           public ActionResult ListCustomers()         {             List<Models.Customer> customers = new List<Models.Customer>();               //Add First Customer to Our Collection             customers.Add(new Models.Customer()                     {                         Id = 1,                         CompanyName = "Volvo",                         ContactNo = "123-0123-0001",                         ContactPerson = "Gustav Larson",                         Description = "Volvo Car Corporation, or Volvo Personvagnar AB, is a Scandinavian automobile manufacturer founded in 1927"                     });                 //Add Second Customer to Our Collection             customers.Add(new Models.Customer()                     {                         Id = 2,                         CompanyName = "BMW",                         ContactNo = "999-9876-9898",                         ContactPerson = "Franz Josef Popp",                         Description = "Bayerische Motoren Werke AG,  (BMW; English: Bavarian Motor Works) is a " +                                       "German automobile, motorcycle and engine manufacturing company founded in 1917. "                     });                 //Add Third Customer to Our Collection             customers.Add(new Models.Customer()             {                 Id = 3,                 CompanyName = "Audi",                 ContactNo = "983-2222-1212",                 ContactPerson = "Karl Benz",                 Description = " is a multinational division of the German manufacturer Daimler AG,"             });               return View(customers);         }     } } t. Let us now create a view for this Class, But before continuing Press Ctrl + Shift + B to rebuild the solution, this will make the previously created model on the Model class drop down of the Add View Menu. Right click on the views>Home folder and select Add>View u. Let us name our View as ListCustomers, Select Razor(CSHTML) as View Engine, Put a check mark on Create a strongly-typed view, and select Customer (MyWebSite.Models) as model class. Slect List on the Scaffold Template and Click OK. v. Run the MVC Application by pressing F5, and on the address bar insert Home/ListCustomers, We should now see a web page similar below.   x. You can edit ListCustomers.CSHTML to remove and add HTML codes @model IEnumerable<MyWebSite.Models.Customer>   @{     Layout = null; }   <!DOCTYPE html>   <html> <head>     <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width" />     <title>ListCustomers</title> </head> <body>     <h2>List of Customers</h2>     <table border="1">         <tr>             <th>                 @Html.DisplayNameFor(model => model.CompanyName)             </th>             <th>                 @Html.DisplayNameFor(model => model.Description)             </th>             <th>                 @Html.DisplayNameFor(model => model.ContactPerson)             </th>             <th>                 @Html.DisplayNameFor(model => model.ContactNo)             </th>         </tr>         @foreach (var item in Model) {         <tr>             <td>                 @Html.DisplayFor(modelItem => item.CompanyName)             </td>             <td>                 @Html.DisplayFor(modelItem => item.Description)             </td>             <td>                 @Html.DisplayFor(modelItem => item.ContactPerson)             </td>             <td>                 @Html.DisplayFor(modelItem => item.ContactNo)             </td>                   </tr>     }         </table> </body> </html> y. Press F5 to run the MVC Application   z. You will notice some @HTML.DisplayFor codes. These are called HTML Helpers you can read more about HTML Helpers on this site http://www.w3schools.com/aspnet/mvc_htmlhelpers.asp   That’s all. You now have your first MVC4 Razor Engine Web Application . . .

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• Multithreading in lwjgl getting rid of sleep.

  - by pangaea

  I'm trying to use multithreading in my game. However, I can't seem to get rid of the sleep. If I don't it's a blank screen, as there is no time for the computer to actually render the triangleMob as it can't access getArrayList(), in my main class I have a TriangleMob arraylist. If I delay it, then it can access the previousMob and it renders. If I don't, then it's blank screen. Can I get rid of the delay? Also, is this a bad way to multithread? Surely, this should be fast. I need multithreading so can you please not suggest not using it. public class TriangleMob extends Thread implements Runnable { private static int count=0; private int objectDisplayList; private static ArrayList<TriangleMob> previousMob = new ArrayList<TriangleMob>(); private static ArrayList<TriangleMob> currentMob = new ArrayList<TriangleMob>(); private static ArrayList<TriangleMob> laterMob = new ArrayList<TriangleMob>(); private Vector3f position = new Vector3f(0f,0f,0f); private Vector3f movement = new Vector3f(0f,0f,0f); public TriangleMob() { // Create the display list CreateDisplayList(); count++; } public TriangleMob(Vector3f position) { // Create the display list CreateDisplayList(); this.position = position; count++; } private void CreateDisplayList() { objectDisplayList = glGenLists(1); glNewList(objectDisplayList, GL_COMPILE); { double topPoint = 0.75; glBegin(GL_TRIANGLES); glColor4f(1, 1, 0, 1f); glVertex3d(0, topPoint, -5); glColor4f(0, 0, 1, 1f); glVertex3d(-1, -0.75, -4); glColor4f(0, 0, 1, 1f); glVertex3d(1, -.75, -4); glColor4f(1, 1, 0, 1f); glVertex3d(0, topPoint, -5); glColor4f(0, 0, 1, 1f); glVertex3d(1, -0.75, -4); glColor4f(0, 0, 1, 1f); glVertex3d(1, -0.75, -6); glColor4f(1, 1, 0, 1f); glVertex3d(0, topPoint, -5); glColor4f(0, 0, 1, 1f); glVertex3d(1, -0.75, -6); glColor4f(0, 0, 1, 1f); glVertex3d(-1, -.75, -6); glColor4f(1, 1, 0, 1f); glVertex3d(0, topPoint, -5); glColor4f(0, 0, 1, 1f); glVertex3d(-1, -0.75, -6); glColor4f(0, 0, 1, 1f); glVertex3d(-1, -.75, -4); glEnd(); glColor4f(1, 1, 1, 1); } glEndList(); } public static int getCount() { return count; } public Vector3f getMovement() { return movement; } public Vector3f getPosition() { return position; } public synchronized int getObjectList() { return objectDisplayList; } public synchronized static ArrayList<TriangleMob> getArrayList(){ if(previousMob != null) { return previousMob; } previousMob.add(new TriangleMob()); return previousMob; } public synchronized void move(Vector3f movement) { // If you want to move in all 3 axis position.x += movement.x; position.y += movement.y; position.z += movement.z; } public synchronized void render() { glPushMatrix(); glTranslatef(-position.x, -position.y, -position.z); glCallList(objectDisplayList); glPopMatrix(); } public synchronized static void setTriangleMob(ArrayList<TriangleMob> triangleMobSet) { laterMob = triangleMobSet; } private synchronized void setPreTriangleMob(ArrayList<TriangleMob> currentMob2) { previousMob = currentMob2; } public void run(){ while(true) { if(laterMob == null) { currentMob = laterMob; System.out.println("Copying"); } for(int i=0; i<currentMob.size(); i++) { currentMob.get(i).move(new Vector3f(0.1f,0.01f,0.01f)); } setPreTriangleMob(currentMob); try { sleep(1L); } catch (InterruptedException e) { // TODO Auto-generated catch block e.printStackTrace(); } } } }

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• Inside Red Gate - Be Reasonable!

  - by simonc

  As I discussed in my previous posts, divisions and project teams within Red Gate are allowed a lot of autonomy to manage themselves. It's not just the teams though, there's an awful lot of freedom given to individual employees within the company as well. Reasonableness How Red Gate treats it's employees is embodied in the phrase 'You will be reasonable with us, and we will be reasonable with you'. As an employee, you are trusted to do your job to the best of you ability. There's no one looking over your shoulder, no one clocking you in and out each day. Everyone is working at the company because they want to, and one of the core ideas of Red Gate is that the company exists to 'let people do the best work of their lives'. Everything is geared towards that. To help you do your job, office services and the IT department are there. If you need something to help you work better (a third or fourth monitor, footrests, or a new keyboard) then ask people in Information Systems (IS) or Office Services and you will be given it, no questions asked. Everyone has administrator access to their own machines, and you can install whatever you want on it. If there's a particular bit of software you need, then ask IS and they will buy it. As an example, last year I wanted to replace my main hard drive with an SSD; I had a summer job at school working in a computer repair shop, so knew what to do. I went to IS and asked for 'an SSD, a SATA cable, and a screwdriver'. And I got it there and then, even the screwdriver. Awesome. I screwed it in myself, copied all my main drive files across, and I was good to go. Of course, if you're not happy doing that yourself, then IS will sort it all out for you, no problems. If you need something that the company doesn't have (say, a book off Amazon, or you need some specifications printing off & bound), then everyone has a expense limit of £100 that you can use without any sign-off needed from your managers. If you need a company credit card for whatever reason, then you can get it. This freedom extends to working hours and holiday; you're expected to be in the office 11am-3pm each day, but outside those times you can work whenever you want. If you need a half-day holiday on a days notice, or even the same day, then you'll get it, unless there's a good reason you're needed that day. If you need to work from home for a day or so for whatever reason, then you can. If it's reasonable, then it's allowed. Trust issues? A lot of trust, and a lot of leeway, is given to all the people in Red Gate. Everyone is expected to work hard, do their jobs to the best of their ability, and there will be a minimum of bureaucratic obstacles that stop you doing your work. What happens if you abuse this trust? Well, an example is company trip expenses. You're free to expense what you like; food, drink, transport, etc, but if you expenses are not reasonable, then you will never travel with the company again. Simple as that. Everyone knows when they're abusing the system, so simply don't do it. Along with reasonableness, another phrase used is 'Don't be an a**hole'. If you act like an a**hole, and abuse any of the trust placed in you, even if you're the best tester, salesperson, dev, or manager in the company, then you won't be a part of the company any more. From what I know about other companies, employee trust is highly variable between companies, all the way up to CCTV trained on employee's monitors. As a dev, I want to produce well-written & useful code that solves people's problems. Being able to get whatever I need - install whatever tools I need, get time off when I need to, obtain reference books within a day - all let me do my job, and so let Red Gate help other people do their own jobs through the tools we produce. Plus, I don't think I would like working for a company that doesn't allow admin access to your own machine and blocks Facebook! Cross posted from Simple Talk.

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