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• Persevering & Friday Night Big Ideas

  - by Oracle Accelerate for Midsize Companies

  by Jim Lein, Oracle Midsize Programs Every successful company, personal accomplishment, and philanthropic endeavor starts with one good idea. I have my best ideas on Friday evenings. The creative side of my brain is stimulated by end of week endorphins. Free thinking. Anything is possible. But, as my kids love to remind me, most of Dad's Friday Night Big Ideas (FNBIs) fizzle on the drawing board. Usually there's one barrier blocking the way that seems insurmountable by noon on Monday. For example, trekking the 486 mile Colorado Trail is on my bucket list. Since I have a job, I'll have to do it in bits and pieces--day hikes, weekends, and a vacation week here and there. With my trick neck, backpacking is not an option. How to survive equip myself for overnight backcountry travel was that one seemingly insurmountable barrier.  Persevering Lewis and Clark wouldn't have given up so I explored options and, as I blogged about back in December, I had an FNBI to hire llamas to carry my load. Last weekend, that idea came to fruition. Early Saturday morning, I met up with Bill, the owner of Antero Llamas, for an overnight training expedition along segment 14 of the Colorado Trail with a string of twelve llamas. It was a crash course on learning how to saddle, load, pasture, and mediate squabbles. Amazingly, we left the trailhead with me, the complete novice, at the lead. Instead of trying to impart three decades of knowledge on me in two days, Bill taught me two things: "Go With the Flow" and "Plan B". It worked. There were times I would be lost in thought for long stretches of time until one snort would remind me that I had a string of twelve llamas trailing behind. A funny thing happened along the trail... Up until last Saturday, my plan had been to trek all 28 segments of the trail east to west and sequentially. Out of some self-imposed sense of decorum. That plan presented myriad logistical challenges such as impassable snow pack on the Continental Divide when segment 6 is up next. On Sunday, as we trekked along the base of 14,000 ft peaks, I applied Bill's llama handling philosophy to my quest and came up with a much more realistic and enjoyable strategy for achieving my goal.  Seize opportunities to hike regardless of order. Define my own segments. Go west to east for awhile if it makes more sense. Let the llamas carry more creature comforts. Chill out.  I will still set foot on all 486 miles of the trail. Technically, the end result will be the same.And I and my traveling companions--human and camelid--will enjoy the journey more. Much more. Got Big Ideas of Your Own? Check out Tongal. This growing Oracle customer works with brands to crowd source fantastic ideas for promoting products and services. Your great idea could earn you cash.  Looking for more news and information about Oracle Solutions for Midsize Companies? Read the latest Oracle for Midsize Companies Newsletter Sign-up to receive the latest communications from Oracle’s industry leaders and experts Jim Lein I evangelize Oracle's enterprise solutions for growing midsize companies. I recently celebrated 15 years with Oracle, having joined JD Edwards in 1999. I'm based in Evergreen, Colorado and love relating stories about creativity and innovation whether they be about software, live music, or the mountains. The views expressed here are my own, and not necessarily those of Oracle.

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• Sprinkle Some Magik on that Java Virtual Machine

  - by Jim Connors

  GE Energy, through its Smallworld subsidiary, has been providing geospatial software solutions to the utility and telco markets for over 20 years.  One of the fundamental building blocks of their technology is a dynamically-typed object oriented programming language called Magik.  Like Java, Magik source code is compiled down to bytecodes that run on a virtual machine -- in this case the Magik Virtual Machine. Throughout the years, GE has invested considerable engineering talent in the support and maintenance of this virtual machine.  At the same time vast energy and resources have been invested in the Java Virtual Machine. The question for GE has been whether to continue to make that investment on its own or to leverage massive effort provided by the Java community? Utilizing the Java Virtual Machine instead of maintaining its own virtual machine would give GE more opportunity to focus on application solutions.   At last count, there are dozens, perhaps hundreds of examples of programming languages that have been hosted atop the Java Virtual Machine.  Prior to the release of Java 7, that effort, although certainly possible, was generally less than optimal for languages like Magik because of its dynamic nature.  Java, as a statically typed language had little use for this capability.  In the quest to be a more universal virtual machine, Java 7, via JSR-292, introduced a new bytecode called invokedynamic.  In short, invokedynamic affords a more flexible method call mechanism needed by dynamic languages like Magik. With this new capability GE Energy has succeeded in hosting their Magik environment on top of the Java Virtual Machine.  So you may ask, why would GE wish to do such a thing?  The benefits are many: Competitors to GE Energy claimed that the Magik environment was proprietary.  By utilizing the Java Virtual Machine, that argument gets put to bed.  JVM development is done in open source, where contributions are made world-wide by all types of organizations and individuals. The unprecedented wealth of class libraries and applications written for the Java platform are now opened up to Magik/JVM platform as first class citizens. In addition, the Magik/JVM solution vastly increases the developer pool to include the 9 million Java developers -- the largest developer community on the planet. Applications running on the JVM showed substantial performance gains, in some cases as much as a 5x speed up over the original Magik platform. Legacy Magik applications can still run on the original platform.  They can be seamlessly migrated to run on the JVM by simply recompiling the source code. GE can now leverage the huge Java community.  Undeniably the best virtual machine ever created, hundreds if not thousands of world class developers continually improve, poke, prod and scrutinize all aspects of the Java platform.  As enhancements are made, GE automatically gains access to these. As Magik has little in the way of support for multi-threading, GE will benefit from current and future Java offerings (e.g. lambda expressions) that aim to further facilitate multi-core/multi-threaded application development. As the JVM is available for many more platforms, it broadens the reach of Magik, including the potential to run on a class devices never envisioned just a few short years ago.  For example, Java SE compatible runtime environments are available for popular embedded ARM/Intel/PowerPC configurations that could theoretically host this software too. As compared to other JVM language projects, the Magik integration differs in that it represents a serious commercial entity betting a sizable part of its business on the success of this effort.  Expect to see announcements not only from General Electric, but other organizations as they realize the benefits of utilizing the Java Virtual Machine.

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• SQLAuthority News – Live Virtual Classroom New Trend in Technology

  - by nupurdave

  This blog post is by Nupur Dave, who is housewife and works from home. Changing times and a super busy lifestyle have rendered most of us powerless when it comes to doing what we love to do. I feel that a man never ceases to learn and his sole aim is to seek knowledge, and keep growing. However, our tight schedules and packed calendars mean that we really have to struggle to take some time out and follow the path towards learning. Like all working professionals with a family to take care of, I hardly found time to pursue my interests. However, it was getting increasingly important for me to upgrade my skills, not only for my personal quest for knowledge but to also substantiate my professional standing. When I came to know about Koenig Live Virtual Classroom from friends, it piqued my interest. I felt like it was the answer to all my concerns. Without wasting a single minute, I contacted Koenig for a demo class. Here are some of the highlights of Koenig LVC which instantly struck a chord in me: Online Training – Koenig offers 1-on-1 Online Training with the instructor at the other end. Doesn’t matter where I am sitting, in my office or at home, I can connect to my trainer from anywhere. Flexible Timings – The most comfortable part is you get to choose the time that suits you best. Economical -  No need to travel a thousand miles, the experts are right here on your computer screen. So no extra cost of travel, lodging and meals. 24X7 Lab Access: This is again a great feature that proved to be very beneficial in gaining a practical understanding of the subject. Powered by a data center, this facility offers students much to look forward to. 300+ Full Time Certified Experts: Be assured that you are learning from the best people in the industry. Customized Courses: Course material and training delivery is completely customized to suit your specific requirements. Official Courseware: The instructor teaches from official courseware of the vendor, depending on which course you have applied for – be it Microsoft, Cisco, Oracle or any other certification. Take Exam from Anywhere: Post completion of your IT training, you can take your certification exam from anywhere. Again, no need to travel a thousand miles to earn certified status. No Pre-Recorded Sessions: For those who still need clarification, it will be a live online classroom with trainers instructing you in real time. So you won’t get any surprises of getting pre-recorded sessions in place of your live instructor. Koenig’s Live Virtual Classroom methodology greatly exceeded my expectations. The instructor was highly skilled and very professional. I had concerns about the quality of AV on the computer screen, and whether I’ll be able to understand each topic in detail. However, the quality of video and sound, and the learning methodology used was impeccable. If you’re also facing time crunch and other commitment issues which are getting in the way of your professional development, LVC is the best solution to learn and grow. To know more about Student Experiences and Feedback of Koenig LVC, you can view their Testimonials. Reference: Nupur Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com)Filed under: SQL Authority

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• Schliemann's method of programming language learning

  - by DVK

  Background: 19th-century German archeologist Heinrich Schliemann was of course famous for his successful quest to find and excavate the city of Troy (an actual archeological site for the Troy of Homer's Iliad). However, he is just as famous for being an astonishing learner of languages - within the space of two years, he taught himself fluent Dutch, English, French, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese, and later went on to learn seven more, including both modern and ancient Greek. One of the methods he famously used was comparison of a known text, e.g. take a book in a language one is fluent in, take a good translation of a book in a language you wish to learn, and go over them in parallel. (various sources cited the book used by Schliemann to be the Bible, or, as the link above states, a novel). Now, for the actual question. Has anyone used (or heard of) an equivalent of Schliemann's method for learning a new programming language? E.g. instead of basing the leaning on references and tutorials, take a somewhat comprehensive set of programs known to have high-quality code in both languages implementing similar/identical algorithms and learn by comparing them? I'm curious about either personal experiences of applying such an approach, or references to something published, or existance of codebases which could be used for such an approach? What got me thinking about the idea was Project Euler and some code snippets I saw on SO, in C++, Perl and Lisp.

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• UTF-8 character encoding battles json_encode()

  - by Dave Jarvis

  Quest I am looking to fetch rows that have accented characters. The encoding for the column (NAME) is latin1_swedish_ci. The Code The following query returns Abord â Plouffe using phpMyAdmin: SELECT C.NAME FROM CITY C WHERE C.REGION_ID=10 AND C.NAME_LOWERCASE LIKE '%abor%' ORDER BY C.NAME LIMIT 30 The following displays expected values (function is called db_fetch_all( $result )): while( $row = mysql_fetch_assoc( $result ) ) { foreach( $row as $value ) { echo $value . " "; $value = utf8_encode( $value ); echo $value . " "; } $r[] = $row; } The displayed values: 5482 5482 Abord â Plouffe Abord â Plouffe The array is then encoded using json_encode: $rows = db_fetch_all( $result ); echo json_encode( $rows ); Problem The web browser receives the following value: {"ID":"5482","NAME":null} Instead of: {"ID":"5482","NAME":"Abord â Plouffe"} (Or the encoded equivalent.) Question The documentation states that json_encode() works on UTF-8. I can see the values being encoded from LATIN1 to UTF-8. After the call to json_encode(), however, the value becomes null. How do I make json_encode() encode the UTF-8 values properly? One possible solution is to use the Zend Framework, but I'd rather not if it can be avoided.

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• Business Logic Layer Pattern on Rails? MVCL

  - by Fabiano PS

  That is a broad question, and I appreciate no short/dumb asnwers like: "Oh that is the model job, this quest is retarded (period)" PROBLEM Where I work at people created a system over 2 years for managing the manufacture process over demand in the most simplified still broad as possible, involving selling, buying, assemble, The system is coded over Ruby On Rails. The app has been changed lots of times and the result is a mess on callbacks (some are called several times), 200+ models, and fat controllers: Total bad. The QUESTION is, if there is a gem, or pattern designed to handle Rails large app logic? The logic whould be able to fully talk to models (whose only concern would be data format handling and validation) What I EXPECT is to reduce complexity from various controllers, and hard to track callbacks into files with the responsibility to handle a business operation logic. In some cases there is the need to wait for a response, in others, only validation of the input is enough and a bg process would take place. ie: -- Sell some products (need to wait the operation to finish) 1. Set a View able to get the products input 2. Controller gets the product list inputed by employee and call the logic Logic::ExecuteWithResponse('sell', 'products', :prods => @product_list_with_qtt, :when => @date, :employee => current_user() ) This Logic would handle buying order, assemble order, machine schedule, warehouse reservation, and others. Have in mind that a callback on SalesOrder is not enough, since it depends on where it is called (no field for that), depends on the class of the user, among other stuff not visible for the model, or in some cases it would take long for the model to process.

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• How do I align ReSharpers "cleanup code" with Visual Studio's "format document"

  - by Thomas Jespersen

  I'm a big fan of ReSharpers "cleanup code" feature. Especially the Solution wide clean up. But I use Visual Studio's Ctrl+K+D (Format document), it formats the code slightly differed than ReSharper. I'm on a quest to align ReSharper with Visual Studio (not the other way... because you can not share Visual Studio settings in the solution/source control system). So I'm after something like this: <Configuration> <CodeStyleSettings> <Sharing>SOLUTION</Sharing> <CSharp> <FormatSettings> <SPACE_AROUND_MULTIPLICATIVE_OP>True</SPACE_AROUND_MULTIPLICATIVE_OP> <SPACE_BEFORE_TYPEOF_PARENTHESES>False</SPACE_BEFORE_TYPEOF_PARENTHESES> </FormatSettings> </CSharp> </CodeStyleSettings> </Configuration> Which other settings will help ReSharper format code like Visual Studio?

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• Business Layer Pattern on Rails? MVCL

  - by Fabiano PS

  That is a broad question, and I appreciate no short/dumb asnwers like: "Oh that is the model job, this quest is retarded (period)" PROBLEM Where I work at people created a system over 2 years for managing the manufacture process over demand in the most simplified still broad as possible, involving selling, buying, assemble, The system is coded over Ruby On Rails. The result has been changed lots of times and the result is a mess on callbacks (some are called several times), 200+ models, and fat controllers: Total bad. The QUESTION is, if there is a gem, or pattern designed to handle Rails large app logic? The logic whould be able to fully talk to models (whose only concern would be data format handling and validation) What I EXPECT is to reduce complexity from various controllers, and hard to track callbacks into files with the responsibility to handle a business operation logic. In some cases there is the need to wait for a response, in others, only validation of the input is enough and a bg process would take place. ie: -- Sell some products (need to wait the operation to finish) 1. Set a View able to get the products input 2. Controller gets the product list inputed by employee and call the logic Logic::ExecuteWithResponse('sell', 'products', :prods => @product_list_with_qtt, :when => @date, :employee => current_user() ) This Logic would handle buying order, assemble order, machine schedule, warehouse reservation, and others

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• Video-codec rater by image comparison algorithm?

  - by Andreas Hornig

  Hi, perhaps anyone knows if this is possible. comparing image quality is almost imposible to describe without subjective influences. When someone rates an image quality as good there is at least one person, that doesn't think so. human preferences are always different. So, I would like to know if there is away to "rate" the image quality by an algorithm that compares the original image to the produced one in following issues colour change(difference pixel by pixel blur rate artifacts and macroblocking the first one would be the easiest one because you could check just the diffeence in colours and can give 3 values in +- of each hex-value both last once I don't know if this is possible, but the blocking could be detected by edge-finding. and the king's quest would be to do that for more then just one image, because video is done with several frames. perhaps you expert programmers could tell me, if such an automated algo can be done to bring some objective measurement divice into rating image quality. this could perhaps calm down some h.264 is better than x264 and better than vp8 and blaaah people :) Andreas 1st posted here http://www.hdtvtotal.com/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=viewtopic&p=9705

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• Get instance of type inheriting from base class, implementing interface, using StructureMap

  - by Ben

  Continuing on my quest for a good plugin implementation I have been testing the StructureMap assembly scanning features. All plugins will inherit from abstract class PluginBase. This will provide access to common application services such as logging. Depending on it's function, each plugin may then implement additional interfaces, for example, IStartUpTask. I am initializing my plugins like so: Scan(x => { x.AssembliesFromPath(HttpContext.Current.Server.MapPath("~/Plugins"), assembly => assembly.GetName().Name.Contains("Extension")); x.AddAllTypesOf<PluginBase>(); }); The difficulty I am then having is how to work against the interface (not the PluginBase) in code. It's easy enough to work with PluginBase: var plugins = ObjectFactory.GetAllInstances<PluginBase>(); foreach (var plugin in plugins) { } But specific functionality (e.g. IStartUpTask.RunTask) is tied to the interface, not the base class. I appreciate this may not be specific to structuremap (perhaps more a question of reflection). Thanks, Ben

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• Can I cross compile with gcc for an old version of a Linux distro on my Ubuntu 9.10?

  - by Johan

  Hi, I have some old hardware with an old version of say SuSE linux running on it. Now I have this fancy development machine running Ubuntu 9.10. Some of the tools I use to compile my C app (written in Python 2.6.x) are not available on the old SuSe box. So... is it possible to compile for that old machine on my dev box? I have the following steps in mind, but would like to cross-check before venturing off into this quest: 1. Find out which static/shared libs my app needs and find/build target version of them 2. Also find the corresponding header files 3. Feed the correct flags to gcc to use the target headers and libraries 4. Feed the correct flags to gcc to use the correct architecture (i386/i686), or do I need a cross-compilation toolchain. 5. Compile, upload and enjoy ;-) I regularly use avr-gcc and cc65, both are cross compiling. I know that you set up a coss compiler for developing something like a gumstix, so it should be possible to do the same for old/other Linux distros, not? C

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• Linker, Libraries & Directories Information

  - by m00st

  I've finished both my C++ 1/2 classes and we did not cover anything on Linking to libraries or adding additional libraries to C++ code. I've been having a hay-day trying to figure this out; I've been unable to find basic information linking to objects. Initially I thought the problem was the IDE (Netbeans; and Code::Blocks). However I've been unable to get wxWidgets and GTKMM setup. Can someone point me in the right direction on the terminology and basic information about #including files and linking files in a Cpp application? Basically I want/need to know everything in regards to this process. The difference between .dll, .lib, .o, .lib.a, .dll.a. The difference between a .h and a "library" (.dll, .lib correct?) I understand I need to read the compiler documentation I am using; however all compilers (that I know of) use linker and headers; I need to learn this information. Please point me in the right direction! :] So far on my quest I've found out: Linker links libraries already compiled to your project. .a files are static libraries (.lib in windows) .dll in windows is a shared library (.so in *nix) Thanks

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• What makes good web form styling for business applications?

  - by ProfK

  Styling forms (form elements) is something that even Eric Meyer prefers to avoid. However, most business forms, and that is where styling is at issue; 'contact us' forms are easy to style, put window estate at a premium, with more 'document level' (e.g. invoice) fields, plus 'detail level' (e.g. invoice line) fields. Factors I often find at play are: At my minimum, at least two horizontally adjacent fieldsets are required. In applications vs. public web pages, fixed positioning vs fluid layout is often better. Quantity of content is important, vs. exaggerated readability. Users know the system, and cues etc. take a back seat. In light of factors like these, is there any available guidence for styling web form based applications? Are there any CSS or JavaScript frameworks that would make my quest to style these applications better than Visual Studios still pathetic 'Auto-format' (what drugs were those people on? I will never take them.)

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• Why does Android allocate more memory than needed when loading images

  - by Simon

  Folks, I don't think that this is a duplicate and is NOT one of those how do I avoid OOMs questions. This is a genuine quest for knowledge so hold off on those down votes please... Imagine I have a JPEG of 500x500 pixels. I load it as ARGB_8888 which is as "bad as it gets". I would expect Android to allocate 500x500x4 bytes = a little under 1MB however, look at a heap dump and you will see that Android allocates significantly more, often factors of 5-10 times greater. You frequently see questions on here about OOMS where the stack trace shows a heap request of say 15MB and it is ALWAYS much larger than is required simply to hold the bytes of the image. The OP usually catches some downvotes then is bombarded with stock answers and comments about using less memory (thanks Romain!) and in scaling. I think there is more than meets the eye here. Anybody know why this is? If there is no apparent answer, I will put together an SSCCE if it helps. PS. I assume that JPEG vs PNG etc is irrelevant since we're talking about the memory usage of the backing bitmap which is simply x times y times BPP - or am I being slow?

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• Optimize master-detail insert statements

  - by Dave Jarvis

  Quest After a day of running (against nearly 1 GB of data), a set of statements are tumbling down to 40 inserts per second. I am looking to increase that by an order of magnitude or two. SQL Code The code to insert the information comes in two parts: a master record and detail records. The master record: INSERT INTO MONTH_REF (DISTRICT_ID, STATION_ID, CATEGORY_ID, YEAR, MONTH) VALUES ('101', '0066', '010', 1984, 07); The detail records: INSERT INTO DAILY (MONTH_REF_ID, AMOUNT, DAILY_FLAG_ID, DAY) VALUES ((SELECT ID FROM MONTH_REF M WHERE M.DISTRICT_ID = '101' AND M.STATION_ID = '0066' AND M.CAT EGORY_ID = '010' AND M.YEAR = 1984 AND M.MONTH = 07), 0, ' ', 1); INSERT INTO DAILY (MONTH_REF_ID, AMOUNT, DAILY_FLAG_ID, DAY) VALUES ((SELECT ID FROM MONTH_REF M WHERE M.DISTRICT_ID = '101' AND M.STATION_ID = '0066' AND M.CAT EGORY_ID = '010' AND M.YEAR = 1984 AND M.MONTH = 07), 0.5, ' ', 2); INSERT INTO DAILY (MONTH_REF_ID, AMOUNT, DAILY_FLAG_ID, DAY) VALUES ((SELECT ID FROM MONTH_REF M WHERE M.DISTRICT_ID = '101' AND M.STATION_ID = '0066' AND M.CAT EGORY_ID = '010' AND M.YEAR = 1984 AND M.MONTH = 07), 0, 'T', 3); Proposed Solution INSERT INTO MONTH_REF (DISTRICT_ID, STATION_ID, CATEGORY_ID, YEAR, MONTH) VALUES ('101', '0066', '010', 1984, 07); SET @month_ref_id := (SELECT LAST_INSERT_ID()); INSERT INTO DAILY (MONTH_REF_ID, AMOUNT, DAILY_FLAG_ID, DAY) VALUES (@month_ref_id, 0, ' ', 1); INSERT INTO DAILY (MONTH_REF_ID, AMOUNT, DAILY_FLAG_ID, DAY) VALUES (@month_ref_id, 0.5, ' ', 2); INSERT INTO DAILY (MONTH_REF_ID, AMOUNT, DAILY_FLAG_ID, DAY) VALUES (@month_ref_id, 0, 'T', 3); Constraints The MONTH_REF table has an AUTO_INCREMENT primary key and is indexed on it. The DAILY table has no index and no primary key. A primary key can be added to the DAILY table, if it would help. Question Is there a more efficient way to execute the (billion or so) insert statements than the proposed solution? Thank you!

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• Eclipse > Javascript > Code highlighting not working with Object Notation

  - by Redsandro

  I am using Eclipse Helios with PDT, and when I am editing JavaScript files with the default JavaScript Editor (JSDT), code highlighting (Mark Occurrences) is not working for half of the code, for example JSON-style (or Object Literal if you will) declarations. Little example: Foo = {}; Foo.Bar = Foo.Bar || {}; Foo.Bar = { bar: function(str) { alert(str) }, baz: function(str) { this.bar(str); // This bar *is* highlighted though } }; Foo.Bar.baz('text'); No Bar, bar or baz is highlighted. For now, I humbly edit the JavaScript part of projects in Notepad++ because it just highlights every occurrence of whatever is currently selected. Is there a common practice for Eclipse JavaScript developers to get code highlighting work correctly, using the popular Object Literal notation? An option or update I missed? -update- I have found that code highlighting depends on the code being properly outlined. Altough commonly used, Object Literal outlining still seems rare in javascript editors. the Spket Javascript Editor does partial Object Literal outlining, and the Aptana Javascript Editor does full Object Literal outlining. But both loses other important functionality. A quest for the editor with the least loss of functionality is currently in progress in this question.

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• What do you call a set of Javascript closures that share a common context?

  - by Ed Stauff

  I've been trying to learn closures (in Javascript), which kind of hurts my brain after way too many years with C# and C++. I think I now have a basic understanding, but one thing bothers me: I've visited lots of websites in this Quest for Knowledge, and nowhere have I seen a word (or even a simple two-word phrase) that means "a set of Javascript closures that share a common execution context". For example: function CreateThingy (name, initialValue) { var myName = name; var myValue = initialValue; var retObj = new Object; retObj.getName = function() { return myName; } retObj.getValue = function() { return myValue; } retObj.setValue = function(newValue) { myValue = newValue; } return retObj; }; From what I've read, this seems to be one common way of implementing data hiding. The value returned by CreateThingy is, of course, an object, but what would you call the set of functions which are properties of that object? Each one is a closure, but I'd like a name I can used to describe (and think about) all of them together as one conceptual entity, and I'd rather use a commonly accepted name than make one up. Thanks! -- Ed

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• Oracle Query Optimization: Why is My Second Query Faster?

  - by Patrick Cuff

  I was having some performance issues with an Oracle query, so I downloaded a trial of the Quest SQL Optimizer for Oracle, which made some changes that dramatically improved the query's performance. I'm not exactly sure why the recommended query had such an improvement; can anyone provide an explanation? Before: SELECT t1.version_id, t1.id, t2.field1, t3.person_id, t2.id FROM table1 t1, table2 t2, table3 t3 WHERE t1.id = t2.id AND t1.version_id = t2.version_id AND t2.id = 123 AND t1.version_id = t3.version_id AND t1.VERSION_NAME <> 'AA' order by t1.id Plan Cost: 831 Elapsed Time: 00:00:21.40 Number of Records: 40,717 After: SELECT /*+ USE_NL_WITH_INDEX(t1) */ t1.version_id, t1.id, t2.field1, t3.person_id, t2.id FROM table2 t2, table3 t3, table1 t1 WHERE t1.id = t2.id + 0 AND t1.version_id = t2.version_id + 0 AND t2.id = 123 AND t1.version_id = t3.version_id + 0 AND t1.VERSION_NAME || '' <> 'AA' AND t3.version_id = t2.version_id + 0 order by t1.id Plan Cost: 686 Elapsed Time: 00:00:00.95 Number of Records: 40,717 Questions: Why does re-arranging the order of the tables in the FROM clause help? Why does adding + 0 to the WHERE clause comparisons help? Why does || '' <> 'AA' in the WHERE clause VERSION_NAME comparison help? Is this a more efficient way of handling possible nulls on this column?

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• Validation in Silverlight

  - by Timmy Kokke

  Getting started with the basics Validation in Silverlight can get very complex pretty easy. The DataGrid control is the only control that does data validation automatically, but often you want to validate your own entry form. Values a user may enter in this form can be restricted by the customer and have to fit an exact fit to a list of requirements or you just want to prevent problems when saving the data to the database. Showing a message to the user when a value is entered is pretty straight forward as I’ll show you in the following example.     This (default) Silverlight textbox is data-bound to a simple data class. It has to be bound in “Two-way” mode to be sure the source value is updated when the target value changes. The INotifyPropertyChanged interface must be implemented by the data class to get the notification system to work. When the property changes a simple check is performed and when it doesn’t match some criteria an ValidationException is thrown. The ValidatesOnExceptions binding attribute is set to True to tell the textbox it should handle the thrown ValidationException. Let’s have a look at some code now. The xaml should contain something like below. The most important part is inside the binding. In this case the Text property is bound to the “Name” property in TwoWay mode. It is also told to validate on exceptions. This property is false by default.   <StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal"> <TextBox Width="150" x:Name="Name" Text="{Binding Path=Name, Mode=TwoWay, ValidatesOnExceptions=True}"/> <TextBlock Text="Name"/> </StackPanel>   The data class in this first example is a very simplified person class with only one property: string Name. The INotifyPropertyChanged interface is implemented and the PropertyChanged event is fired when the Name property changes. When the property changes a check is performed to see if the new string is null or empty. If this is the case a ValidationException is thrown explaining that the entered value is invalid.   public class PersonData:INotifyPropertyChanged { private string _name; public string Name { get { return _name; } set { if (_name != value) { if(string.IsNullOrEmpty(value)) throw new ValidationException("Name is required"); _name = value; if (PropertyChanged != null) PropertyChanged(this, new PropertyChangedEventArgs("Name")); } } } public event PropertyChangedEventHandler PropertyChanged=delegate { }; } The last thing that has to be done is letting binding an instance of the PersonData class to the DataContext of the control. This is done in the code behind file. public partial class Demo1 : UserControl { public Demo1() { InitializeComponent(); this.DataContext = new PersonData() {Name = "Johnny Walker"}; } }   Error Summary In many cases you would have more than one entry control. A summary of errors would be nice in such case. With a few changes to the xaml an error summary, like below, can be added.           First, add a namespace to the xaml so the control can be used. Add the following line to the header of the .xaml file. xmlns:Controls="clr-namespace:System.Windows.Controls;assembly=System.Windows.Controls.Data.Input"   Next, add the control to the layout. To get the result as in the image showed earlier, add the control right above the StackPanel from the first example. It’s got a small margin to separate it from the textbox a little.   <Controls:ValidationSummary Margin="8"/>   The ValidationSummary control has to be notified that an ValidationException occurred. This can be done with a small change to the xaml too. Add the NotifyOnValidationError to the binding expression. By default this value is set to false, so nothing would be notified. Set the property to true to get it to work.   <TextBox Width="150" x:Name="Name" Text="{Binding Name, Mode=TwoWay, ValidatesOnExceptions=True, NotifyOnValidationError=True}"/>   Data annotation Validating data in the setter is one option, but not my personal favorite. It’s the easiest way if you have a single required value you want to check, but often you want to validate more. Besides, I don’t consider it best practice to write logic in setters. The way used by frameworks like WCF Ria Services is the use of attributes on the properties. Instead of throwing exceptions you have to call the static method ValidateProperty on the Validator class. This call stays always the same for a particular property, not even when you change the attributes on the property. To mark a property “Required” you can use the RequiredAttribute. This is what the Name property is going to look like:   [Required] public string Name { get { return _name; } set { if (_name != value) { Validator.ValidateProperty(value, new ValidationContext(this, null, null){ MemberName = "Name" }); _name = value; if (PropertyChanged != null) PropertyChanged(this, new PropertyChangedEventArgs("Name")); } } }   The ValidateProperty method takes the new value for the property and an instance of ValidationContext. The properties passed to the constructor of the ValidationContextclass are very straight forward. This part is the same every time. The only thing that changes is the MemberName property of the ValidationContext. Property has to hold the name of the property you want to validate. It’s the same value you provide the PropertyChangedEventArgs with. The System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotation contains eight different validation attributes including a base class to create your own. They are: RequiredAttribute Specifies that a value must be provided. RangeAttribute The provide value must fall in the specified range. RegularExpressionAttribute Validates is the value matches the regular expression. StringLengthAttribute Checks if the number of characters in a string falls between a minimum and maximum amount. CustomValidationAttribute Use a custom method to validate the value. DataTypeAttribute Specify a data type using an enum or a custom data type. EnumDataTypeAttribute Makes sure the value is found in a enum. ValidationAttribute A base class for custom validation attributes All of these will ensure that an validation exception is thrown, except the DataTypeAttribute. This attribute is used to provide some additional information about the property. You can use this information in your own code.   [Required] [Range(0,125,ErrorMessage = "Value is not a valid age")] public int Age {   It’s no problem to stack different validation attributes together. For example, when an Age is required and must fall in the range from 0 to 125:   [Required, StringLength(255,MinimumLength = 3)] public string Name {   Or in one row like this, for a required Name with at least 3 characters and a maximum of 255:   Delayed validation Having properties marked as required can be very useful. The only downside to the technique described earlier is that you have to change the value in order to get it validated. What if you start out with empty an empty entry form? All fields are empty and thus won’t be validated. With this small trick you can validate at the moment the user click the submit button.   <TextBox Width="150" x:Name="NameField" Text="{Binding Name, Mode=TwoWay, ValidatesOnExceptions=True, NotifyOnValidationError=True, UpdateSourceTrigger=Explicit}"/>   By default, when a TwoWay bound control looses focus the value is updated. When you added validation like I’ve shown you earlier, the value is validated. To overcome this, you have to tell the binding update explicitly by setting the UpdateSourceTrigger binding property to Explicit:   private void SubmitButtonClick(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e) { NameField.GetBindingExpression(TextBox.TextProperty).UpdateSource(); }   This way, the binding is in two direction but the source is only updated, thus validated, when you tell it to. In the code behind you have to call the UpdateSource method on the binding expression, which you can get from the TextBox.   Conclusion Data validation is something you’ll probably want on almost every entry form. I always thought it was hard to do, but it wasn’t. If you can throw an exception you can do validation. If you want to know anything more in depth about something I talked about in this article let me know. I might write an entire post to that.

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• What do you use to store all of your personal data?

  - by codeflunky

  I have been on a quest for years to find the perfect tool to store all "my stuff". You know... personal information, code snippets, software keys, people's birthdays, whatever. There are lots of tools out there for this sort of thing, but I've never found any of them quite what I need. Ideally, I would just be able to type some notes, tag them (I don't like the idea of folder organization... too cumbersome) and then easily search and retrieve what I need later. It seems so simple, but for some reason I just can't find it. I currently use Backpack (sometimes), which is OK, but I hate the fact that you always have to create "pages" to store things. I don't want to have to do that. I want to just type some notes, tag it and save. That's it. And Backpack didn't even have search for a long time. What I do like about Backpack is that it's fast and it's web based. I've tried some desktop apps, which probably came closer to the functionality I want, but I just hate being tied to a single machine. I want to be able to get to my stuff anywhere, so the web based thing is a definite requirement. Anyway, I'm thinking about writing my own thing for this if I can't find anything, but before I make the attempt, I was wondering if anyone has any suggestions? I've used Backpack, Zoho Planner, Stikkit and Google Notes so far, and they are not quite to my liking. Anyone? (Sorry if this is off-topic, but I figured you guys might be legitimately into this kind of thing... you know, storing code snippets and such.) UPDATE: I've been using Evernote for a few days, and it is exactly what I've been looking for. It is totally tag based and allows both online and offline usage. The desktop app sits in your system tray and allows you to add whatever you want on the fly either as text notes or clippings from the browser. It also syncs it to the web (if you want) where you can get to it from anywhere using their web client. They even have a mobile client which I haven't used, but I will try it soon. Thanks again 18hrs. I wish I could give you 10 upvotes.

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• open-sshd service withou pam support !! How can I add pam support to sshd? Ubuntu

  - by marc.riera

  Hi, I'm using AD as my user account server with ldap. Most of the servers run with UsePam yes except this one, it has lack of pam support on sshd. root@linserv9:~# ldd /usr/sbin/sshd linux-vdso.so.1 => (0x00007fff621fe000) libutil.so.1 => /lib/libutil.so.1 (0x00007fd759d0b000) libz.so.1 => /usr/lib/libz.so.1 (0x00007fd759af4000) libnsl.so.1 => /lib/libnsl.so.1 (0x00007fd7598db000) libcrypto.so.0.9.8 => /usr/lib/libcrypto.so.0.9.8 (0x00007fd75955b000) libcrypt.so.1 => /lib/libcrypt.so.1 (0x00007fd759323000) libc.so.6 => /lib/libc.so.6 (0x00007fd758fc1000) libdl.so.2 => /lib/libdl.so.2 (0x00007fd758dbd000) /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00007fd759f0e000) I have this packages installed root@linserv9:~# dpkg -l|grep -E 'pam|ssh' ii denyhosts 2.6-2.1 an utility to help sys admins thwart ssh hac ii libpam-modules 0.99.7.1-5ubuntu6.1 Pluggable Authentication Modules for PAM ii libpam-runtime 0.99.7.1-5ubuntu6.1 Runtime support for the PAM library ii libpam-ssh 1.91.0-9.2 enable SSO behavior for ssh and pam ii libpam0g 0.99.7.1-5ubuntu6.1 Pluggable Authentication Modules library ii libpam0g-dev 0.99.7.1-5ubuntu6.1 Development files for PAM ii openssh-blacklist 0.1-1ubuntu0.8.04.1 list of blacklisted OpenSSH RSA and DSA keys ii openssh-client 1:4.7p1-8ubuntu1.2 secure shell client, an rlogin/rsh/rcp repla ii openssh-server 1:4.7p1-8ubuntu1.2 secure shell server, an rshd replacement ii quest-openssh 5.2p1_q13-1 Secure shell root@linserv9:~# What I'm doing wrong? thanks. Edit: root@linserv9:~# cat /etc/pam.d/sshd # PAM configuration for the Secure Shell service # Read environment variables from /etc/environment and # /etc/security/pam_env.conf. auth required pam_env.so # [1] # In Debian 4.0 (etch), locale-related environment variables were moved to # /etc/default/locale, so read that as well. auth required pam_env.so envfile=/etc/default/locale # Standard Un*x authentication. @include common-auth # Disallow non-root logins when /etc/nologin exists. account required pam_nologin.so # Uncomment and edit /etc/security/access.conf if you need to set complex # access limits that are hard to express in sshd_config. # account required pam_access.so # Standard Un*x authorization. @include common-account # Standard Un*x session setup and teardown. @include common-session # Print the message of the day upon successful login. session optional pam_motd.so # [1] # Print the status of the user's mailbox upon successful login. session optional pam_mail.so standard noenv # [1] # Set up user limits from /etc/security/limits.conf. session required pam_limits.so # Set up SELinux capabilities (need modified pam) # session required pam_selinux.so multiple # Standard Un*x password updating. @include common-password

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• New-ManagedContentSettings - not working properly under Exchange 2010

  - by mfinni

  I have a client that is divesting a business unit into a new AD forest, Exchange org, etc. We're using Quest tools to migrate users and mailboxes. However, I have to build the new infrastructure to match the old one. In the old one, we're using Managed Folder Mailbox Policies to limit (or allow) retention. They started with Exchange 2007 and never upgraded to Retention Policies; oh well. So, in the old environment, when you use a 2007 server to define a new Managed Content Setting, you can pick "Email" from the dropdown for MessageClass. This is a display name; the actual MessageClass values are thus: MessageClass : IPM.Note;IPM.Note.AS/400 Move Notification Form v1.0;IPM.Note.Delayed;IPM.Note.Exchange.ActiveSync.Report;IPM.Note.JournalReport.Msg;IPM.Note.JournalReport.Tnef;IPM.Note.Microsoft.Missed.Voice;IPM.Note.Rules.OofTemplate.Microsoft;IPM.Note.Rules.ReplyTemplate.Microsoft;IPM.Note.Secure.Sign;IPM.Note.SMIME;IPM.Note.SMIME.MultipartSigned;IPM.Note.StorageQuotaWarning;IPM.Note.StorageQuotaWarning.Warning;IPM.Notification.Meeting.Forward;IPM.Outlook.Recall;IPM.Recall.Report.Success;IPM.Schedule.Meeting.*;REPORT.IPM.Note.NDR If I take that and try to mangle it into a new cmdlet for Ex2010 in my new environment here's what I get New-ManagedContentSettings -Name "Delete Messages older then 90 days" -FolderName "Entire Mailbox" -RetentionEnabled $True -AgeLimitForRetention 90 -TriggerForRetention WhenDelivered -RetentionAction DeleteAndAllowRecovery -MessageClass "IPM.Note","IPM.Note.AS/400MoveNotificationFormv1.0","IPM.Note.Delayed","IPM.Note.Exchange.ActiveSync.Report","IPM.Note.JournalReport.Msg","IPM.Note.JournalReport.Tnef","IPM.Note.Microsoft.Missed.Voice","IPM.Note.Rules.OofTemplate.Microsoft","IPM.Note.Rules.ReplyTemplate.Microsoft","IPM.Note.Secure.Sign","IPM.Note.SMIME","IPM.Note.SMIME.MultipartSigned","IPM.Note.StorageQuotaWarning","IPM.Note.StorageQuotaWarning.Warning","IPM.Notification.Meeting.Forward","IPM.Outlook.Recall","IPM.Recall.Report.Success","IPM.Schedule.Meeting.*","REPORT.IPM.Note.NDR" -whatif Invoke-Command : Cannot bind parameter 'MessageClass' to the target. Exception setting "MessageClass": "The length of t he property is too long. The maximum length is 255 and the length of the value provided is 518." At C:\Users\MFinnigan.sa\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Exchange\RemotePowerShell\pfexcas02.fve.ad.5ssl.com\pfexcas02.fve.ad .5ssl.com.psm1:28204 char:29 + $scriptCmd = { & <<<< $script:InvokeCommand ` + CategoryInfo : WriteError: (:) [New-ManagedContentSettings], ParameterBindingException + FullyQualifiedErrorId : ParameterBindingFailed,Microsoft.Exchange.Management.SystemConfigurationTasks.NewManaged ContentSettings So, the config object can store all that mess, but I can't fit it in through the cmdlet to create the object. Lovely. Any ideas?

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• SQL Server suddenly using only a small portion of CPU.

  - by hermiod

  We've got a Windows 2008 R2 server running SQL Server 2008. All of a sudden, the SQLServer process is refusing to go above 20% CPU usage. As of last week, when running a heavy query against the db it would rise to 100% usage as I would expect. We've had this server for a while and it seems strange that it would just suddenly have this limit. This limit is causing our queries to take a lot longer than they normally would. No one has (knowingly at least) made any changes to the server configuration. After a bit of investigation, I discovered the sys.dm_os_sys_memory view. This shows 'available physical memory is high' bu at the same time the available physical memory is 339552kb where as the total is 4193848kb. It is worth noting that this is a virtual server running on vmware. Is there a setting somewhere with in SQL Server that sets the maximum CPU usage? I've found the settings in resource governor, although this is currently off as it always has been. We have recently started using Spotlight for SQL Server by Quest Software. It's playback database was located on this server for a short time this morning, I first noticed the problem shortly afterwards, although I hadn't been doing any queries prior to this so I don't know if this is the point at which the problem began, however the database was working as expected on Friday afternoon. The Windows log shows that the following settings were applied to the SpotlightPlaybackDatabase when it was created. 02/21/2011 08:45:02,spid60,Unknown,Setting database option TORN_PAGE_DETECTION to ON for database SpotlightPlaybackDatabase. 02/21/2011 08:45:02,spid60,Unknown,Setting database option MULTI_USER to ON for database SpotlightPlaybackDatabase. 02/21/2011 08:45:02,spid60,Unknown,Setting database option READ_WRITE to ON for database SpotlightPlaybackDatabase. 02/21/2011 08:45:02,spid60,Unknown,Setting database option AUTO_UPDATE_STATISTICS to ON for database SpotlightPlaybackDatabase. 02/21/2011 08:45:02,spid60,Unknown,Setting database option AUTO_CREATE_STATISTICS to ON for database SpotlightPlaybackDatabase. 02/21/2011 08:45:02,spid60,Unknown,Setting database option ANSI_WARNINGS to OFF for database SpotlightPlaybackDatabase. 02/21/2011 08:45:02,spid60,Unknown,Setting database option CONCAT_NULL_YIELDS_NULL to ON for database SpotlightPlaybackDatabase. 02/21/2011 08:45:02,spid60,Unknown,Setting database option RECOVERY to SIMPLE for database SpotlightPlaybackDatabase. 02/21/2011 08:45:02,spid60,Unknown,Setting database option QUOTED_IDENTIFIER to OFF for database SpotlightPlaybackDatabase. 02/21/2011 08:45:02,spid60,Unknown,Setting database option AUTO_CLOSE to OFF for database SpotlightPlaybackDatabase. Could any of these settings changes modified the settings applied to the whole server?

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• XNA Notes 007

  - by George Clingerman

  Every week I keep wondering if there’s going to be enough activity in the community to keep doing these notes on a weekly basis and every week I’m reminded of just how awesome and active the XNA community is. There’s engines being made, tutorials being created, games being crafted. There’s information being shared, questions being answered and then there’s another whole community around the Xbox LIVE Indie Games themselves. It’s really incredibly to just watch all that’s going on and I’m glad I’m playing a small part in all of this. So here’s what I noticed happening in the XNA community last week. If there’s things I’m missing, always feel free to let me know. I love learning about new corners of the XNA community that I wasn’t aware of or just have been missing! XNA Developers: Uditha Bandara held an XNA Game Development Workshops at Singapore Universities http://uditha.wordpress.com/2011/02/18/xna-game-development-workshops-at-singapore-universities-event-update/ Binary Tweed gives his talks about Indie City and gives his opinion on the false promise of digital distribution http://www.develop-online.net/news/37053/OPINION-The-false-promise-of-digital-distribution Kris Steele posts his Trivia or Die postmortem http://www.krissteele.net/blogdetails.aspx?id=246 @MadNinjaSkills (James Johnston) posts his feelings on testing for XBLIG http://www.ezmuze.co.uk/101 Simon (@DDReaper) posts hints and tips for XNA developers to help get the size of their projects down http://twitter.com/#!/DDReaper/status/38279440924545024 http://xna-uk.net/blogs/darkgenesis/archive/2011/02/17/look-at-the-size-of-that-thing.aspx Michael B. McLaughlin proving why he should be an XNA MVP posts the list of commonly used value types in XNA games http://geekswithblogs.net/mikebmcl/archive/2011/02/17/list-of-commonly-used-value-types-in-xna-games.aspx http://twitter.com/#!/mikebmcl/status/38166541354811392 Paul Powell (@ITSligoPaul) posts about a common sprite batch as a game service http://itspaulsblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/xna-common-sprite-batch-as-game-service.html @SigilXNA (John Defenbaugh) posts his new level editor video for the sequel to Opac’s Journey http://twitter.com/SigilXNA/statuses/36548174373982209 http://twitter.com/#!/SigilXNA/status/36548174373982209 http://youtu.be/QHbmxB_2AW8 @jwatte updates kW Animation for XNA 4.0 http://www.enchantedage.com/xna-animation @DSebJ posts Blender to SunBurn http://twitter.com/#!/DSebJ/status/36564920224976896 http://dsebj.evolvingsoftware.com/?p=187 Ads and WP7 Games - @mechaghost shares his revenue data for his ad based games http://www.occasionalgamer.com/2011/02/09/ads-and-wp7-games/ Xbox LIVE Indie Games (XBLIG): Steven Hurdle posts day 100 of his quest to find a fantastic XBLIG purchase every day http://writingsofmassdeduction.com/2011/02/17/day-100-radiangames-ballistic/ Xbox 360 Indie Game Buying Guide - 12 games for $60 including several Xbox LIVE Indie games! (although if the XNA community was asked we could have recommended 60 games for $60...) http://www.indiegamemag.com/xbox360-indie-games-buying-guide/ The best selling Xbox LIVE Indie games of 2010 http://www.1up.com/news/xbox-live-most-popular-games I’d buy that for a dollar! - the California Literary Review points out a few gems on the XBLIG marketplace (and other places) where you can game on the cheap. http://calitreview.com/14125 Armless Octopus Episode 39 - The Indie Gem Octocast http://www.armlessoctopus.com/2011/02/17/armless-octocast-episode-39-the-indie-gem-octocast/ Ska Studios posts a plethora of updates http://www.ska-studios.com/2011/02/11/good-morning-gato-49/ http://www.ska-studios.com/2011/02/14/vampire-smile-valentines/ http://www.ska-studios.com/2011/02/16/the-dishwasher-vs-finds-a-home/ Kotaku posts about the Xbox LIVE Indie Game that makes you go Pew Pew Pew Pew Pew Pew http://kotaku.com/#!5760632/the-game-that-makes-you-go-pew-pew-pew-pew-pew-pew-pew GameMarx continues to be active and doing a ton for the XBLIG community reviews and Top 5 indie games of the week 2/4-2/10 http://www.gamemarx.com/video/the-show/22/ep-9-february-11-2010.aspx a new podcast Xbox Indie New Releases http://twitter.com/#!/gamemarx/status/36888849107910656 http://www.gamemarx.com/news/2011/02/13/a-new-podcast-xbox-indie-new-releases.aspx @MasterBlud uploads Indocalypse XBLIG Collections #2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzCZSv075mc&feature=youtu.be&a http://twitter.com/#!/MasterBlud/status/37100029697064960 Just Press Start interviews Michael Hicks from MichaelArts, 18 year old creator of Honor in Vengeance http://justpressstart.net/?p=465 Achievement Locked interviews Kris Steele of FunInfused Games http://xboxindies.wordpress.com/2011/02/11/interview-fun-infused-games/ XNA Game Development: XNA -UK launches their XAP test service to help the XNA community http://xna-uk.net/blogs/news/archive/2011/02/18/xna-uk-xap-test-service-now-live.aspx Transmute shows off a video of the standard character editor http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqH6gErG948&feature=youtu.be Microsoft Tech Student introduces their first tech student of the month.  Meet Daniel Van Tassel from the University of Utah and learn how he created an Xbox LIVE Indie Game using XNA Studio http://blogs.msdn.com/b/techstudent/archive/2010/12/22/introducing-our-first-tech-student-of-the-month-daniel-van-tassel.aspx XNA for Silverlight Developers Part 3 - Animation (transforms) http://www.silverlightshow.net/items/XNA-for-Silverlight-developers-Part-3-Animation-transforms.aspx XNA for Silverlight Developers Part 4 - Animation (frame based) http://www.silverlightshow.net/items/XNA-for-Silverlight-developers-Part-4-Animation-frame-based.aspx @suhinini tweets about an XNA Sprite Font generation tool http://twitter.com/#!/suhinini/status/36841370131890176 http://www.nubik.com/SpriteFont/ XNATouch 1.5 is out and in it’s words is faster, simpler, more reliable and has the XNA 4.0 API http://monogame.codeplex.com/releases/view/60815 IndieCity is hosting marketing workshops for Indie Developers (UK and US) http://forums.create.msdn.com/forums/p/75197/457654.aspx#457654 New York Students - Learn XNA and Silverlight for Xbox 360 and Windows Phone 7 http://forums.create.msdn.com/forums/p/72753/456964.aspx#456964 http://blogs.msdn.com/b/andrewparsons/archive/2011/01/13/learn-to-build-your-own-games-for-xbox-360-and-windows-phone-7.aspx http://blogs.msdn.com/b/andrewparsons/archive/2011/01/13/build-a-game-in-48-hours-win-a-kinect-or-windows-phone-7.aspx Extra Credits: Videogame Music http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/extra-credits/2019-Videogame-Music Steve Pavlina posts an article with useful information for all XNA/XBLIG developers http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2011/02/completion-vs-perfection/

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• 6 Interesting Facts About NASA’s Mars Rover ‘Curiosity’

  - by Gopinath

  Humans quest for exploring the surrounding planets to see whether we can live there or not is taking new shape today. NASA’s Mars probing robot, Curiosity, blasted off today on its 9 months journey to reach Mars and explore it for the possibilities of life there. Scientist says that Curiosity is one most advanced rover ever launched to probe life on other planets. Here is the launch video and some analysis by a news reporter Lets look at the 6 interesting facts about the mission 1. It’s as big as a car Curiosity is the biggest ever rover ever launched by NASA to probe life on outer planets. It’s as big as a car and almost double the size of its predecessor rover Spirit. The length of Curiosity is around 9 feet 10 inches(3 meters), width is 9 feet 1 inch (2.8 meters) and height is 7 feet (2.1 meters). 2. Powered by Plutonium – Lasts 24×7 for 23 months The earlier missions of NASA to explore Mars are powered by Solar power and that hindered capabilities of the rovers to move around when the Sun is hiding. Due to dependency of Sun the earlier rovers were not able to traverse the places where there is no Sun light. Curiosity on the other hand is equipped with a radioisotope power system that generates electricity from the heat emitted by plutonium’s radioactive decay. The plutonium weighs around 10 pounds and can generate power required for operating the rover close to 23 weeks. The best part of the new power system is, Curiosity can roam around in darkness, light and all year around. 3. Rocket powered backpack for a science fiction style landing The Curiosity is so heavy that NASA could not use parachute and balloons to air-drop the rover on the surface of Mars like it’s previous missions. They are trying out a new science fiction style air-dropping mechanism that is similar to sky crane heavy-lift helicopter. The landing of the rover begins first with entry into the Mars atmosphere protected by a heat shield. At about 6 miles to the surface, the heat shield is jettisoned and a parachute is deployed to glide the rover smoothly. When the rover touches 3 miles above the surface, the parachute is jettisoned and the eight motors rocket backpack is used for a smooth and impact free landing as shown in the image. Here is an animation created by NASA on the landing sequence. If you are interested in getting more detailed information about the landing process check this landing sequence picture available on NASA website 4. Equipped with Star Wars style laser gun Hollywood movie directors and novelist always imagined aliens coming to earth with spaceships full of laser guns and blasting the objects which comes on their way. With Curiosity the equations are going to change. It has a powerful laser gun equipped in one of it’s arms to beam laser on rocks to vaporize them. This is not part of any assault mission Curiosity is expected to carry out, the laser gun is will be used to carry out experiments to detect life and understand nature. 5. Most sophisticated laboratory powered by 10 instruments Around 10 state of art instruments are part of Curiosity rover and the these 10 instruments form a most advanced rover based lab ever built by NASA. There are instruments to cut through rocks to examine them and other instruments will search for organic compounds. Mounted cameras can study targets from a distance, arm mounted instruments can study the targets they touch. Microscopic lens attached to the arm can see and magnify tiny objects as tiny as 12.5 micro meters. 6. Rover Carrying 1.24 million names etched on silicon Early June 2009 NASA launched a campaign called “Send Your Name to Mars” and around 1.24 million people registered their names through NASA’s website. All those 1.24 million names are etched on Silicon chips mounted onto Curiosity’s deck. If you had registered your name in the campaign may be your name is going to reach Mars soon. Curiosity On Web If you wish to follow the mission here are few links to help you NASA’s Curiosity Web Page Follow Curiosity on Facebook Follow @MarsCuriosity on Twitter Artistic Gallery Image of Mars Rover Curiosity A printable sheet of Curiosity Mission [pdf] Images credit: NASA This article titled,6 Interesting Facts About NASA’s Mars Rover ‘Curiosity’, was originally published at Tech Dreams. Grab our rss feed or fan us on Facebook to get updates from us.

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