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  • Nginx A/B testing

    - by Alex
    Hey, I'm trying to do A/B testing and I'm using Nginx fo this purpose. My Nginx config file looks like this: events { worker_connections 1024; } error_log /usr/local/experiments/apps/reddit_test/error.log notice; http { rewrite_log on; server { listen 8081; access_log /usr/local/experiments/apps/reddit_test/access.log combined; location / { if ($remote_addr ~ "[02468]$") { rewrite ^(.+)$ /experiment$1 last; } rewrite ^(.+)$ /main$1 last; } location /main { internal; proxy_pass http://www.reddit.com/r/lisp; } location /experiment { internal; proxy_pass http://www.reddit.com/r/haskell; } } } This is kind of working, but css and js files woon't load. Can anyone tell me what's wrong with this config file or what would be the right way to do it? Thanks, Alex

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  • Use bug tracker to get things done and manage personal tasks?

    - by Frank
    This is slightly off-topic, but can only be answered by programmers and is useful to many programmers: Do you think it is useful to use a bug tracking system to keep track of personal todo items and to Get Things Done? I have not tried that; in fact, I don't have much experience with bug tracking systems. For my todo lists, I have played around with Google Tasks and Remember The Milk, but both of them have shortcomings: Google Tasks: I like that you can create todo lists easily, can reorder items in the list and easily create hierarchies. But it is way too simplistic and does not allow to tag tasks or move tasks from one list to another. Remember The Milk: It is nice and sleek, but you cannot create hierarchies of tasks, cannot arbitrarily reorder tasks and cannot set dependencies of tasks. That's where a bug tracking system should come in: Since I think (maybe too much?) like a programmer, my tasks have a natural hierarchy and a tree of dependencies, like in a Makefile. Here are two examples: The task of writing my thesis is done when several milestones are done. Some of these milestones can run in parallel (writing background chapter, running experiments A, running experiments B), others depend on each other (writing main chapter depends on first getting results from experiments A). The same is true for more personal goals: I want to host a dinner party, which requires finding a good date, finishing the guest list, making invitations, finding nice recipes, cooking, ... For me, all these tasks involve hierarchical dependencies and milestones that bug tracking systems should be able to handle? Here is an article that explains how to do advanced GTD with Remember The Milk, but he has to use several workarounds: (1) add a general tag 'wait' to tasks that are waiting for others to be completed but you cannot enter the IDs of the tasks that they are waiting for, (2) starting some special tasks with "." so that they are at the top of the alphabetically sorted list and signal that others are 'below' it as subgoals. Bug tracking systems should be able to handle these things much more naturally? Does anyone have experience and can recommend a lightweight bug tracking system that might be good for this? Other requirements: Should run as web app, should allow me to tag a task with several tags (like 'work', 'fun', 'short-task', 'errands', ...).

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  • Is there anything for Python that is like readability.js?

    - by Emre Sevinç
    Hi, I'm looking for a package / module / function etc. that is approximately the Python equivalent of Arc90's readability.js http://lab.arc90.com/experiments/readability http://lab.arc90.com/experiments/readability/js/readability.js so that I can give it some input.html and the result is cleaned up version of that html page's "main text". I want this so that I can use it on the server-side (unlike the JS version that runs only on browser side). Any ideas? PS: I have tried Rhino + env.js and that combination works but the performance is unacceptable it takes minutes to clean up most of the html content :( (still couldn't find why there is such a big performance difference).

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  • Writing csv files with python with exact formatting parameters

    - by Ben Harrison
    I'm having trouble with processing some csv data files for a project. The project's programmer has moved onto greener pastures, and now I'm trying to finish the data analysis up (I did/do the statistical analysis.) The programmer suggested using python/csv reader to help break down the files, which I've had some success with, but not in a way I can use. This code is a little different from what I was trying before. I am essentially attempting to create an array. In the raw data format, the first 7 rows contain no data, and then each column contains 50 experiments, each with 4000 rows, for 200000 some rows total. What I want to do is take each column, and make it an individual csv file, with each experiment in its own column. So it would be an array of 50 columns and 4000 rows for each data type. The code here does break down the correct values, I think the logic is okay, but it is breaking down the opposite of how I want it. I want the separators without quotes (the commas and spaces) and I want the element values in quotes. Right now it is doing just the opposite for both, element values with no quotes, and the separators in quotes. I've spent several hours trying to figure out how to do this to no avail, import csv ifile = open('00_follow_maverick.csv') epistemicfile = open('00_follower_maverick_EP.csv', 'w') reader = csv.reader(ifile) colnum = 0 rownum = 0 y = 0 z = 8 for column in reader: rownum = 4000 * y + z for element in column: writer = csv.writer(epistemicfile) if y <= 50: y = y + 1 writer.writerow([element]) writer.writerow(',') rownum = x * y + z if y > 50: y = 0 z = z + 1 writer.writerow(' ') rownum = x * y + z if z >= 4008: break What is going on: I am taking each row in the raw data file in iterations of 4000, so that I can separate them with commas for the 50 experiments. When y, the experiment indicator here, reaches 50, it resets back to experiment 0, and adds 1 to z, which tells it which row to look at, by the formula of 4000 * y + z. When it completes the rows for all 50 experiments, it is finished. The problem here is that I don't know how to get python to write the actual values in quotes, and my separators outside of quotes. Any help will be most appreciated. Apologies if this seems a stupid question, I have no programming experience, this is my first attempt ever. Thank you.

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  • How should I use random.jumpahead in Python

    - by Peter Smit
    I have a application that does a certain experiment 1000 times (multi-threaded, so that multiple experiments are done at the same time). Every experiment needs appr. 50.000 random.random() calls. What is the best approach to get this really random. I could copy a random object to every experiment and do than a jumpahead of 50.000 * expid. The documentation suggests that jumpahead(1) already scrambles the state, but is that really true? Or is there another way to do this in 'the best way'? (No, the random numbers are not used for security, but for a metropolis hasting algorithm. The only requirement is that the experiments are independent, not whether the random sequence is somehow predictable or so)

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  • Database Design: A proper table design for large number of column values.

    - by Jake
    I wish to perform an experiment many different times. After every trial, I am left with a "large" set of output statistics -- let's say, 1000. I would like to store the outputs of my experiments in a table, but what's the best way...? Option 1 Have a table with 1000 columns. Seems like a bad idea. What if the number of statistics one day exceeds the maximum number of columns? Option 2 Have a table with three columns. Let's say, ID, StatisticType, and StatisticValue. That way, you can have as many statistics as you want. However, reading a single experiments statistics becomes more complicated. Moreover, what if different statistics are different data types?? Any suggestions?

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  • How do browsers/PHP handle characters outside the set characterset?

    - by Maarten
    I'm looking into how characters are handled that are outside of the set characterset for a page. In this case the page is set to iso-8859-1, and the previous programmer decided to escape input using htmlentities($string,ENT_COMPAT). This is then stored into Latin1 tables in Mysql. As the table is set to the same character set as the page, I am wondering if that htmlentities step is needed. I did some experiments on http://floris.workingweb.nl/experiments/characters.php and it seems that for stuff inside Latin1 some characters are escaped, but for example with a Czech name they are not. Is this because those characters are outside of Latin1? If so, then the htmlentities can be removed, as it doesn't help for stuff outside of Latin1 anyway, and for within Latin1 it is not needed as far as I can see now...

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  • jQuery "Autocomplete" plugin is messing up the order of my data

    - by Max Williams
    I'm using Jorn Zaefferer's Autocomplete plugin on a couple of different pages. In both instances, the order of displayed strings is a little bit messed up. Example 1: array of strings: basically they are in alphabetical order except for General Knowledge which has been pushed to the top: General Knowledge,Art and Design,Business Studies,Citizenship,Design and Technology,English,Geography,History,ICT,Mathematics,MFL French,MFL German,MFL Spanish,Music,Physical Education,PSHE,Religious Education,Science,Something Else Displayed strings: General Knowledge,Geography,Art and Design,Business Studies,Citizenship,Design and Technology,English,History,ICT,Mathematics,MFL French,MFL German,MFL Spanish,Music,Physical Education,PSHE,Religious Education,Science,Something Else Note that Geography has been pushed to be the second item, after General Knowledge. The rest are all fine. Example 2: array of strings: as above but with Cross-curricular instead of General Knowledge. Cross-curricular,Art and Design,Business Studies,Citizenship,Design and Technology,English,Geography,History,ICT,Mathematics,MFL French,MFL German,MFL Spanish,Music,Physical Education,PSHE,Religious Education,Science,Something Else Displayed strings: Cross-curricular,Citizenship,Art and Design,Business Studies,Design and Technology,English,Geography,History,ICT,Mathematics,MFL French,MFL German,MFL Spanish,Music,Physical Education,PSHE,Religious Education,Science,Something Else Here, Citizenship has been pushed to the number 2 position. I've experimented a little, and it seems like there's a bug saying "put things that start with the same letter as the first item after the first item and leave the rest alone". Kind of mystifying. I've tried a bit of debugging by triggering alerts inside the autocomplete plugin code but everywhere i can see, it's using the correct order. it seems to be just when its rendered out that it goes wrong. Any ideas anyone? max EDIT - reply to Clint Thanks for pointing me at the relevant bit of code btw. To make diagnosis simpler i changed the array of values to ["carrot", "apple", "cherry"], which autocomplete re-orders to ["carrot", "cherry", "apple"]. Here's the array that it generates for stMatchSets: stMatchSets = ({'':[#1={value:"carrot", data:["carrot"], result:"carrot"}, #3={value:"apple", data:["apple"], result:"apple"}, #2={value:"cherry", data:["cherry"], result:"cherry"}], c:[#1#, #2#], a:[#3#]}) So, it's collecting the first letters together into a map, which makes sense as a first-pass matching strategy. What i'd like it to do though, is to use the given array of values, rather than the map, when it comes to populating the displayed list. I can't quite get my head around what's going on with the cache inside the guts of the code (i'm not very experienced with javascript).

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  • Open Technology: Nanorobots Answer to US Navy

    - by adrianocavalcanti
    Hi Everybody, Just wondering if some has some suggestion about open technology licensing. I have been working on nanotechnology -- here some info: * Nanorobot Technology: What to Expect from Science - A Personal Letter in Answer to United States Navy http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/general-10/nanorobot-technology-what-to-expect-from-science-814060 and started an initiative towards open nanotechnology since last october. All comments and suggestions are highly appreciated.

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  • How do we, as a community, help encourage programming in public schools? (Or state Schools for the U

    - by NoMoreZealots
    PRIMARY MOTIVATION My office gets involved with the "First Robotics" competitions and one thing that lingers year to year is the students typically have no preparation for doing even simple programming as part of the public schools system. While the science classes provide some basic grasp of mechanical and electrical concepts, by in large computer programming gets no coverage from the curriculum. (This my be different in other areas of the country/world.) What makes it worse is there is only a short period of time you have to prepare the student's and help them design the robot. Talking to some professors from local colleges, it's a problem because you can't assume even the most basic understanding for freshman CS majors. Languages like Python, Lua and BASIC are simple enough for at least high school level students, if not younger. SCOPE So how do you get public schools to support a programming, at least to the level of "Try it in BASIC" examples that used to be at the end of a chapter in my Algebra book? At least enough to prepare them for event's such as the FIRST Robotic competitions. Which the primary objectives are to teach problem solving and team work, and to possible foster an interest in Math, Science and Engineering in general. (Not force feed to them, as some people her seem to be implying.) Edit: Why teach kids: (Since 2000 CS enrollment in US colleges has decreased by 70% while college enrollment has increased, this is a PROBLEM.) Saying there is no value in teaching someone programming in Jr./High school because they might think "they know programming." Is like saying there's no value in teaching High school science and physics, because they might decide they "know physics." Leading to abuse like: "I passed a high school physics class, I'm going to develop a Unified Quantum Gravitational Theory." Better Prepared students are better students. Instead it would allows college programs to raise the bar on the entry level courses, allowing students to be weeded out based on their understanding of more advanced material. Plus people who did poorly in that in topic in High school aren't as likely to say "I think there's money in computer's so I'll computer science." Plus if people take it in high school and decide THEN that it's not for them, it's better than them wasting their money to PAY a college to figure that out. The result is that people who take the degree are more likely to succeed and be there for the RIGHT reasons. (i.e. It's what they REALLY want to do. And that's REALLY the key to being good at anything.) Programming is like anything else, the more practice and genuine interest you have the better you get. If you start them later, they get less practice. The earlier give them the opportunity to start, the more practice they will get. All other things equal, the more practice the better the programmer.

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  • Java - problems with polymorphism

    - by cc0
    I have a book class, then a novel- and a science book class that extend the book class. I made an ArrayList using the book class, then inserted the novels and the science books into that. Now I'm trying to iterate through the ArrayList to count how many novels are there. How can I tell? Would love to see some examples of this! I've been at it for a while.

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  • Microsoft Press Deal of the Day - 5/April/2012 - Windows® Internals, Part 1, Sixth Edition

    - by TATWORTH
    Today's Deal of the day from Microsoft Press at http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0790145305930.do is Windows® Internals, Part 1, Sixth Edition."Delve inside Windows architecture and internals—guided by a team of internationally renowned internals experts. Fully updated for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2, this classic guide delivers key architectural insights on system design, debugging, performance, and support—along with hands-on experiments to experience Windows internal behavior firsthand."

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  • Feature (de)activation error “The web or site was not found” and Application Pool

    - by panjkov
    I am using Microsoft IW Demo VM (2010-10A) for my experiments related to SharePoint, in all cases when I don’t have time (read: when I’m lazy) to create complete SharePoint Dev environment. Problem This particular time I was playing around with site-scoped features and newly created site collection. So here is my workflow: Create feature with feature receiver Deploy to Site Collection from Visual Studio using “No Activation” deployment profile Activate feature from “Site Collection Features” interface...(read more)

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  • A new name for unit tests

    - by Will
    I never used to like unit testing. I always thought it increased the amount of work I had to do. Turns out, that's only true in terms of the actual number of lines of code you write and furthermore, this is completely offset by the increase in the number of lines of useful code that you can write in an hour with tests and test driven development. Now I love unit tests as they allow me to write useful code, that quite often works first time! (knock on wood) I have found that people are reluctant to do unit tests or start a project with test driven development if they are under strict time-lines or in an environment where others don't do it, so they don't. Kinda like, a cultural refusal to even try. I think one of the most powerful things about unit testing is the confidence that it gives you to undertake refactoring. It also gives new found hope, that I can give my code to someone else to refactor/improve, and if my unit tests still work, I can use the new version of the library that they modified, pretty much, without fear. It's this last aspect of unit testing that I think needs a new name. The unit test is more like a contract of what this code should do now, and in the future. When I hear the word testing, I think of mice in cages, with multiple experiments done on them to see the effectiveness of a compound. This is not what unit testing is, we're not trying out different code to see what is the most affective approach, we're defining what outputs we expect with what inputs. In the mice example, unit tests are more like the definitions of how the universe will work as opposed to the experiments done on the mice. Am I on crack or does anyone else see this refusal to do testing and do they think it's a similar reason they don't want to do it? What reasons do you / others give for not testing? What do you think their motivations are in not unit testing? And as a new name for unit testing that might get over some of the objections, how about jContract? (A bit Java centric I know :), or Unit Contracts?

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  • SQL SERVER – Fix: Error: 10920 Cannot drop user-defined function. It is being used as a resource governor classifier

    - by pinaldave
    If you have not read my SQL SERVER – Simple Example to Configure Resource Governor – Introduction to Resource Governor yesterday’s detailed primer on Resource Governor, I suggest you go ahead and read it before continuing this article. After reading the article the very first email I received was as follows: “Pinal, I configured resource governor on my development server and it worked fine with tests I ran. After doing some tests, I decided to remove the resource governor and as a first step I disabled it however, I was not able to drop the classification function during the process of the clean up. It was continuously giving me following error. Msg 10920, Level 16, State 1, Line 1 Cannot drop user-defined function myudfname. It is being used as a resource governor classifier. Would you please give me solution?” The original email was really this short and there is no other information. I am glad he has done experiments on development server and not on the production server. Production server must not be the playground of the experiments. I think I have covered the answer of this error in an earlier blog post. If the user disables the Resource Governor it is still not possible to drop the function because it can be enabled again and when enabled it can still use the same function. Here is the simple resolution of the how one can drop the classifier function (do this only if you are not going to use the function). The reason the classifier function can’t be dropped because it is associated with resource governor. Create a new classified function for your resource governor or just assign NULL as described in the following T-SQL Script and you will be able to drop the function without error. ALTER RESOURCE GOVERNOR WITH (CLASSIFIER_FUNCTION = NULL) GO ALTER RESOURCE GOVERNOR DISABLE GO DROP FUNCTION dbo.UDFClassifier GO I am glad that user asked me question instead of doing something radically different, which can leave the server in the unusable state. I am aware of this only method to avoid this error. Is there any better way to achieve the same? Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Error Messages, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

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  • lowering the use of the memory controller in OpenCL based applications

    - by user827992
    With my first experiments I noticed that OpenCL is a good technology but often hampered by the X86 architecture and finding a mid-range VGA driven by a low-end chipset is not that unusual in the real world scenarios, sometimes this can happen with some high-end VGA too. Are there some caching techniques? Something that can bypass this inconvenience in some ways. The amount of dedicated memory on today's VGA is usually high, it's possible to use this memory to create some kind of buffer with instructions.

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  • Watch syntax help

    - by Jason
    In my Systems Programming class, there are weekly programming experiments, and I'm having trouble with the current one. The objective is to write a C program that slowly writes a string of text to a file, metered by usleep() in a 100 count for loop. The goal of the experiment is to observe the file size buffer in action via the watch command. However, I can't get it to work using watch -d ./output What syntax do I need for the watch command to see the changes made to the file size?

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  • The Important Relationship Between SEO and Google - Google Dominates

    Let's face it when it comes to SEO, Google (commonly known as the Big G) has its final say. After all, when it comes to searching some information online people would always go for Google. All they do is key-in the keyword on the search box and click the search button. Few seconds after, results will be given. Google is a big company and has been the subject of a lot of experiments when it comes to SEO.

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  • cloning a kvm guest os to a vmdk file

    - by Bond
    I have a production environment where I am having 4 Guest OS running on a Ubuntu server which uses kvm. These OS are in an LVM based setup.I want these Virtual Machines to be in a vmdk format also.Where people would do experiments with these Virtual Machines so this in a vmware environment (or it can be Xen too) would be different from the kvm server.I would not have any control on that other environment so I want to give people vmdk images of these virtual machines. The production Virtual Machines will still keep running on kvm server but the VMs on which experiments would be done would be of type vmdk.(vmdk is a constraint) Here is output of lvscan ACTIVE '/dev/abcd/lvm1' [100.00 GiB] inherit ACTIVE '/dev/abcd/lvm2' [150.00 GiB] inherit ACTIVE '/dev/abcd/lvm3' [50.00 GiB] inherit ACTIVE '/dev/abcd/lvm4' [100.00 GiB] inherit I was reading man page of qemu-img and what I understand is I need to first create a qcow image file which I need to populate and then convert that to a vmdk file. Is that understanding correct? Now suppose /dev/abcd/lvm4 is the virtual machine with which I am going to start this experiment.I can shutdown the production VMs for some time to do this. So is the following way correct to go on server 1 (where kvm is running) qemu-img convert -c -f raw -O vmdk /dev/abcd/lvm4 /backup/lvm4.img or it will affect the lvm4 on kvm server 1. I do not want the VM running on original server to at all loose its any of the content but also have a vmdk file for each of the Guest OS on kvm. Before I proceed with any of the above things on the production machine I just want to make sure that I am doing the correct thing so I asking here.

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  • Principles of Big Data By Jules J Berman, O&rsquo;Reilly Media Book Review

    - by Compudicted
    Originally posted on: http://geekswithblogs.net/Compudicted/archive/2013/11/04/principles-of-big-data-by-jules-j-berman-orsquoreilly-media.aspx A fantastic book! Must be part, if not yet, of the fundamentals of the Big Data as a field of science. Highly recommend to those who are into the Big Data practice. Yet, I confess this book is one of my best reads this year and for a number of reasons: The book is full of wisdom, intimate insight, historical facts and real life examples to how Big Data projects get conceived, operate and sadly, yes, sometimes die. But not only that, the book is most importantly is filled with valuable advice, accurate and even overwhelming amount of reference (from the positive side), and the author does not event stop there: there are numerous technical excerpts, links and examples allowing to quickly accomplish many daunting tasks or make you aware of what one needs to perform as a data practitioner (excuse my use of the word practitioner, I just did not find a better substitute to it to trying to reference all who face Big Data). Be aware that Jules Berman’s background is in medicine, naturally, this book discusses this subject a lot as it is very dear to the author’s heart I believe, this does not make this book any less significant however, quite the opposite, I trust if there is an area in science or practice where the biggest benefits can be ripped from Big Data projects it is indeed the medical science, let’s make Cancer history! On a personal note, for me as a database, BI professional it has helped to understand better the motives behind Big Data initiatives, their underwater rivers and high altitude winds that divert or propel them forward. Additionally, I was impressed by the depth and number of mining algorithms covered in it. I must tell this made me very curious and tempting to find out more about these indispensable attributes of Big Data so sure I will be trying stretching my wallet to acquire several books that go more in depth on several most popular of them. My favorite parts of the book, well, all of them actually, but especially chapter 9: Analysis, it is just very close to my heart. But the real reason is it let me see what I do with data from a different angle. And then the next - “Special Considerations”, they are just two logical parts. The writing language is of this book is very acceptable for all levels, I had no technical problem reading it in ebook format on my 8” tablet or a large screen monitor. If I would be asked to say at least something negative I have to state I had a feeling initially that the book’s first part reads like an academic material relaxing the reader as the book progresses forward. I admit I am impressed with Jules’ abilities to use several programming languages and OSS tools, bravo! And I agree, it is not too, too hard to grasp at least the principals of a modern programming language, which seems becomes a defacto knowledge standard item for any modern human being. So grab a copy of this book, read it end to end and make yourself shielded from making mistakes at any stage of your Big Data initiative, by the way this book also helps build better future Big Data projects. Disclaimer: I received a free electronic copy of this book as part of the O'Reilly Blogger Program.

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  • iPad Impressions

    - by Aaron Lazenby
    So, I spent some quality time with my new iPad on Saturday. Here are things I like/don't like: -- Don't like that it has to sync with iTunes before you use it: I was traveling and left my laptop at home thinking I'd use this iPad thing instead. But the first thing it asked me to do is connect it to a laptop. Ugh. Had to borrow my mother-in-law's MacBook Pro just to get the iPad rolling. -- Like that magazines and newspapers are forever changed: And I think for the better...it's why I bought this thing in the first place. I spent significant time with The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Time Magazine and Popular Science on the iPad. Sliding stories around, jumping from section to section, enlarging images = all excellent experiences. Actually prefer iPad magazine to print, which will require a major shift in editorial strategy, summed up by Popular Science's Mark Jannot in his editor's note "What defines a magazine? Curated expertise--not paper." -- Don't like the screwy human factors: I actually enjoy the virtual keyboard (although I think I'm in the minority), but you have to hunch over to look down at what you're typing. Bad technology ergonomics have already jacked my body in various ways. The iPad just introduced a new one.-- Like the multitouch: In fact, it's awesome. Hands down. Probably will have the most lasting impact on the personal computing industry as a whole.   -- Don't like that it's heavy: If you plan to read in bed, you'd better double up on the creatine and curls. Holding this thing up on your own gets pretty uncomfortable. -- Like the Netfilx app: I wanted to watch "The Big Lebowski," so I did. That is all. -- Don't like that people feel 3G is necessary: For $30 a month? Please. I'm already accustomed to limiting my laptop internet use to readily available free wi-fi. Why do I expect anything different with the iPad? Most anyplace I have time to sit and read/use a computer (cafe, airport, you house, library, etc.) has free wi-fi. I can live without web surfing in your car. That's what the iPhone is for. -- Don't like that not everyone was ready in day one: I'm looking at you Facebook. No iPad app for launch? Lame. iPhone apps scaled-up to work on the iPad look grainy and cheap. Not a quality befitting this beautiful $700 piece of glass.Verdict: I'm bringing it to COLLABORATE 08 and seeing if I can go the whole week using only the iPad. If I can trade this thing for my laptop, I know it's a winner. For now, I'm enjoying Popular Science.

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  • Algorithm for querying linearly through a non-linear list of questions

    - by JoshLeaves
    For a multiplayers trivia game, I need to supply my users with a new quizz in a desired subject (Science, Maths, Litt. and such) at the start of every game. I've generated about 5K quizzes for each subject and filled my database with them. So my 'Quizzes' database looks like this: |ID |Subject |Question +-----+------------+---------------------------------- | 23 |Science | What's water? | 42 |Maths | What's 2+2? | 99 |Litt. | Who wrote "Pride and Prejudice"? | 123 |Litt. | Who wrote "On The Road"? | 146 |Maths | What's 2*2? | 599 |Science | You know what's cool? |1042 |Maths | What's the Fibonacci Sequence? |1056 |Maths | What's 42? And so on... (Much more detailed/complex but I'll keep the exemple simple) As you can see, due to technical constraints (MongoDB), my IDs are not linear but I can use them as an increasing suite. So far, my algorithm to ensure two users get a new quizz when they play together is the following: // Take the last played quizzes by P1 and P2 var q_one = player_one.getLastPlayedQuizz('Maths'); var q_two = player_two.getLastPlayedQuizz('Maths'); // If both of them never played in the subject, return first quizz in the list if ((q_one == NULL) && (q_two == NULL)) return QuizzDB.findOne({subject: 'Maths'}); // If one of them never played, play the next quizz for the other player // This quizz is found by asking for the first quizz in the desired subject where // the ID is greater than the last played quizz's ID (if the last played quizz ID // is 42, this will return 146 following the above example database) if (q_one == NULL) return QuizzDB.findOne({subject: 'Maths', ID > q_two}); if (q_two == NULL) return QuizzDB.findOne({subject: 'Maths', ID > q_one}); // And if both of them have a lastPlayedQuizz, we return the next quizz for the // player whose lastPlayedQuizz got the higher ID if (q_one > q_two) return QuizzDB.findOne({subject: 'Maths', ID > q_one}); else return QuizzDB.findOne({subject: 'Maths', ID > q_two}); Now here comes the real problem: Once I get to the end of my database (let's say, P1's last played quizz in 'Maths' is 1056, P2's is 146 and P3 is 1042), following my algorithm, P1's ID is the highest so I ask for the next question in 'Maths' where ID is superior to 1056. There is nothing, so I roll back to the beginning of my quizz list (with a random skipper to avoid having the first question always show up). P1 and P2's last played will then be 42 and they will start fresh from the beginning of the list. However, if P1 (42) plays against P3 (1042), the resulting ID will be 1056...which P1 already played two games ago. Basically, players who just "rolled back" to the beginning of the list will be brought back to the end of the list by players who still haven't rolled back. The rollback WILL happen in the end, but it'll take time and there'll be a "bottleneck" at the beginning and at the end. Thus my question: What would be the best algorith to avoid this bottleneck and ensure players don't get stuck endlessly on the same quizzes? Also bear in mind that I've got some technical constraints: I can't get a random question in a subject (ie: no "QuizzDB.findOne({subject: 'Maths'}).skip(random());"). It's cool to skip on one to twenty records, but the MongoDB documentation warns against skipping too many documents. I would like to avoid building an array of every quizz played by each player and find the next non-played in the database with a $nin. Thanks for your help

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  • Programming activities for high school kids who have no idea what CS or programming is

    - by pointdxt
    I work at a small high school that's in a very high poverty area. There are only a handful of seniors that are thinking about applying to be an engineer of some sort in college and only 1 kid that applied for Computer Science (he has a couple acceptances so far!). He's been talking to me a lot as I majored in Computer Science as well and he is very excited about it. Unfortunately, our school doesn't have a Computer Science course of any kind so he asks me a lot of stuff. I want to help him out since he's really excited about majoring in CS but I don't know where to begin. I could say put Linux on a computer, go online and go research stuff like I did but this kid needs some direction and he doesn't even know what Linux is let alone have a free computer around for that sort of thing. He doesn't know much about CS but is keenly interested in having a computer do all sorts of things but I don't know how to help him in a meaningful way. Any advice? I'm not a teacher at the school so I'm not a great educator, I do IT at the school.

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