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• Why is my USB data transfer so slow?

  - by Dave M G

  Whenever I do any kind of file transfer using USB, whether to a USB stick, or with my Android phone, or anything else, it is ridiculously slow. It says 59.8 KB/sec, which would be an awesome speed if this were 1991 and I was using a modem to dial up to my local BBS. Surely USB technology is better than that...? 37 seconds to move less data than the equivelent of 1 MP3 file? Also, regardless of what it says about speed and time, the reality is much, much slower. I routinely see it say something like "37 seconds left" and have to wait for minutes. Sometimes, if I want to move large amounts of files, it can say it will take 8 hours or more. Is this normal? My computer may not be the most awesome on the market, and about a year old, but it's an i5 with 4GB RAM and modern components, so surely this isn't the hardware's fault. What can I do to get better USB data transfer performance? Also, I did look at this question, but my newbie eyes don't see anything that look like an actual solution, just a lot of discussion about what transfer rates could or should be. Update: As requested in the comments, I've generated a whole bunch of output from the command line, and put it on Ubuntu Pastebin. Please see it here.

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• Cannot usermod -L in LightDM scripts

  - by user95723

  I'm running Xubuntu 12.04 and use the LightDM. I want to restrict access to the machine as a kind of parental control. This is how it should work I hook in a script that executes just before the greeter comes up. Within that script some awk processing will read an entry in a config file and will trigger a usermod -L or usermod -U depending on whether the user is allowed to login. While user is logged, a cron job will count down the entry in the config and forces a xfce4-session-logout if time is up. A cron job running on a server will upload the "credits" on a daily base. How is this idea? That's theory, now for the problems It appears for some unknown reason, the usermod command is not executed, neither as part of a display-setup-script nor within the greeter-setup-script. I wrote a small sandbox script usermod -L johndoe 2error.txt touch /etc/blabla 2error.txt The script is executing, cause the blabla file is existing. That means that the script must have been executed with root privileges. error.txt is empty but the usermod command has just no effect. Is this a bug or a feature. What's wrong? Best regards and thank you Oli

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• How should I group these variables?

  - by stariz77

  I have a shape that will be defined by: char s_type; char color; double height; double width; These variables are scanned in from a request string sent to my server and passed into my printing function, which then prints out the shape. Currently they are just local variables sitting in my main(); however, I was wondering if there would be any advantage in creating a struct containing these variables, and then passing the struct to my printing function? or how else might I improve my program's structure/style, would passing a struct by reference have any kind of performance benefit if there were many requests and therefore many printing function calls? printer(char st, char cr, double ht, double wd); int main() { // Other main functionality. char s_type; char color; double height; double width; sscanf (serv_req, "GET /%c/%c/%lf/%lf", &s_type, &color, &height, &width); printer(s_type, color, height, width); // Other main functionality. return 0; } It seemed "neater" if I had a struct or something that didn't leave me with declarations in the middle of everything else going on in main. I'm interested in structure/style as well as performance. EDIT: didn't mean to put printer declaration inside main.

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• Ubuntu for Phones / Touch vs Android, IOS and BlackBerry OS

  - by Ome Noes

  Currently I have a LG Google Nexus 4 with lots of issues because of the latest android 4.3 update. Since the update my battery drains within 7 hours when in it's standby / idle and even faster when I use it normaly! Before the Nexus 4 I had an Iphone but got sick of IOS because for me it's to much of a closed operating system and I dislike having to work with either Windows or Itunes. At this point neither Google or LG is willing to provide me (and all the others that have similar Nexus 4 problems) with a solution or even a reaction... Also i'm not very fond of the idea that the NSA (and maybe others) can and is currently monitoring millions of Android, IOS and BlackBerry OS devices all over the world. Since i've been using Ubuntu now very happily for almost 5 years I see Ubuntu for Phones / Touch as the only remedy for all this BS. Please be so kind to let me know when you will have a fully functioning version of your Ubuntu for Phones / Touch ready for consumer use. I'm realy sad that the Ubuntu Edge campaign didn't work out and hope to see lots and lots of future smartphones outfitted with Ubuntu a.s.a.p.! Keep up the good work!

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• How to troubleshoot GPU freezes?

  - by dlsmith2

  So in advance I'll just say I am a total linux newbie, so be kind. I just downloaded Ubuntu 11.10 and this is my first experience with Linux. I enjoy it so far and actually enjoy it except for when my computer freezes. This has been quite often so far. I've done a little research and it seems my problem is with the GPU. When it does freeze I can move the cursor but cannot click on anything. I also cannot run Alt+F2 xkill. So my only previous experience has been with Windows and I would normally solve an issue like this with Ctrl+Alt+Delete and just shut down the offending program. I do not know how to do this in Ubuntu and not even sure this would even work. Please help me if you can, how do I deal with a freeze without having to resort to a hard shutdown, I cannot seem to run the computer over one hour without experiencing this issue. I tried accessing my GRUB menu on startup but I can't even seem to do that. Also the only real program I have been running whenever this happens seems to be Firefox. Thank you, appreciate any help. After running lspci | grep VGA command prompt: 00:12.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation C67 [GeForce 7150M / nForce 630M] (rev a2)*****

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• Broadcom 4313 doesn't work following 12.04 upgrade

  - by Lucas

  I have an hp G62-228Ca laptop with a BCM4313 previously running Ubuntu 11.10. I ran the 12.04 upgrade last night without much thought. Following the upgrade and mandatory reboot, the wireless card no longer shows up in the network manager, the first time I've had any kind of issues with wireless under Ubuntu. I've done much Googling on the issue but so far I haven't found a permanent solution. Mucking around with some packages though (I've installed five different ones or so), I've managed to devise a workaround that I must run every time I boot the laptop. I have to remove the Broadcom STA driver and reinstall it. Inspiration taken from here: WiFi does not work, Broadcom STA Wireless driver does not work on a BCM4313 After the second modprobe command, the wireless reappears in the network manager and ten seconds after that I'm back on the wifi. If anyone can provide some advice on how to fix this permanently I will be extremely grateful. I'd rather not roll back to 11.10 or reinstall, but I will if I need to. Just let me know if you need the output from any terminal commands. Thanks in advance!

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• Target a specific Button and Style it

  - by CoffeeAddict

  I've got a button inside my div. The image is showing some kind of padding around it <div id="member-name" hidden="true"> <span><button id="expandButton"><img src="~/Content/Images/plus.jpg" /></button></span><p id="member-fullName"></p> </div> Not sure how to get rid of this issue, see the grey around that plus image..I want to get rid of that. Here's the image alone, see that there is nothing around it: here is my css (just various related snippets to all this): div { padding: 0px;} input[type="submit"], input[type="button"], button { background-color: #ffffff; cursor: pointer; font-size: 11px; font-weight: 600; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; width: auto; vertical-align: middle; } #member-name { margin: 30px 0px 0px 0px; height: 20px; font-weight: bold; color: white; padding: 1px 1px 0px 1px; background-color: #d28105; border: 1px solid darkgray; overflow: hidden; } #member-name.p { display: inline-block; } /* #member-name.input[type="submit"] { margin: 0px;padding: 0px; } - this does not work, probably wrong syntax anyway */

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• State Changes in a Component Based Architecture [closed]

  - by Maxem

  I'm currently working on a game and using the naive component based architecture thingie (Entities are a bag of components, entity.Update() calls Update on each updateable component), while the addition of new features is really simple, it makes a few things really difficult: a) multithreading / currency b) networking c) unit testing. Multithreading / Concurrency is difficult because I basically have to do poor mans concurrency (running the entity updates in separate threads while locking only stuff that crashes (like lists) and ignoring the staleness of read state (some states are already updated, others aren't)) Networking: There are no explicit state changes that I could efficiently push over the net. Unit testing: All updates may or may not conflict, so automated testing is at least awkward. I was thinking about these issues a bit and would like your input on these changes / idea: Switch from the naive cba to a cba with sub systems that work on lists of components Make all state changes explicit Combine 1 and 2 :p Example world update: statePostProcessing.Wait() // ensure that post processing has finished Apply(postProcessedState) state = new StateBag() Concurrently( () => LifeCycleSubSystem.Update(state), // populates the state bag () => MovementSubSystem.Update(state), // populates the state bag .... }) statePostProcessing = Future(() => PostProcess(state)) statePostProcessing.Start() // Tick is finished, the post processing happens in the background So basically the changes are (consistently) based on the data for the last tick; the post processing can a) generate network packages and b) fix conflicts / remove useless changes (example: entity has been destroyed - ignore movement etc.). EDIT: To clarify the granularity of the state changes: If I save these post processed state bags and apply them to an empty world, I see exactly what has happened in the game these state bags originated from - "Free" replay capability. EDIT2: I guess I should have used the term Event instead of State Change and point out that I kind of want to use the Event Sourcing pattern

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• Making a Living Developing Games

  - by cable729

  I'm in my last year of high school, and I've been looking at colleges. I'm taking a C++ class at a local community college and I don't feel that it's worth it. I could have learned everything in that class in a week. This had me thinking, would a CS degree even be worth it? How much can it teach me if I can learn everything on my own? Even if I do need to learn more advanced subjects, many colleges put their material online AND I can buy a book. Will companies hire me if I don't have a CS degree? If I have a portfolio will I stand a chance? What kind of things are needed in the portfolio? I want to live doing what I love - programming. So I will do it. I'm just not sure that a CS degree will do anything to me. In addition, if there is a benefit to getting a CS degree, what places are the best?

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• What is the correct way to install Gnome Shell 3.6 on Ubuntu 12.10?

  - by user74660

  I don't want to use Ubuntu Gnome Remix because I think it is kind of "incomplete". I prefer to install Gnome Shell on Ubuntu 12.10. I've searched the net for instructions on how to do it and found two different ways: Simply search for Gnome Shell on Ubuntu Software Center and install it. Follow the instructions from this WebUpd8's post. Now, my doubt is: what is the differecen between the two methods? Which is the correct way to do it? Does the first one lack features? If so, which ones? Is the second one better? Why? Is there a third and better method I haven't found? By the way, I have already tried (for testing purposes) the second method (WebUpd8's) and noticed that it installed some apps I really don't want to have, such as AbiWord and Gnumeric, because they are Gnome's default applications. So, "if" the second method is the way to go, I can certainly remove those apps manually, after installation, with no worries, right? Thank you very much for your attention.

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• Workflow: Deploy Operating Systems

  - by Owen Allen

  The Deploy Operating Systems workflow is a workflow document that we added recently. It shows you how to get operating systems up and running in your environment. It's mostly linear, but it's a bit more complicated than some of the others. It's built around a pair of images. In both images, the left side shows the prerequisites for the whole process. Before you can deploy operating systems, you have to have Ops Center fully installed, with libraries set up and hardware already discovered. Once you've done that preparation, the first image walks you through all of the OS deployment steps. First you discover existing operating systems, then you provision Oracle Solaris 10 or Oracle Solaris 11. If you're not planning on using virtualization, then your deployment is done, and you're directed to the operate workflows. If you are interested in virtualization, though, you go on to the second image: The second image walks you through deploying virtualization, sending you to the Deploying Oracle Solaris 10 Zones, Deploying Oracle Solaris 11 Zones, or Deploying Oracle VM Server for SPARC workflows, depending on what kind of virtualization you're planning on using. Once you've done that, you're ready to go on to the operation workflows.

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• What are the memory-management capabilities of MySQL + JDBC (in light of autonomic computing)?

  - by Adel

  I'm interested in implementing some kind of autonomic-computing functionality using MySQL. By autonomic-computing I mean roughly some failsafe abilities, whereby the application appears to be at least slightly "intelligent" For reference, the main parts of autonomic computing we'd like are the "self-configuring" and "self-healing" features (the other two - "self-optimizing" and "self-protecting", are too abstract/futuristic for us, at this time). Sofor example, if we have a sample Java application that utilizes a MySQL database, we might want to automatically restart the MySQL database if we take up too much memory. Or maybe we want to have the ability to dynamiccally adjust the database memory as needed. So for example, when we start the application the database begins with a 56 Megabyte buffer; but then as we insert so many rows we want to have it automatically jump up to 512 MB, then to 1024, until a max of 4096 MB. Does all of the above suggest that MySQL is too "weak" for the task? Do you suggest using Oracle database? My professor believes that by using Java we can basically make up for any memory-management deficiencies that MySQL has in relation to Oracle DB. I'm new to MySQL , but have experience with Oracle. If all of the above sounds wishy-washy, it is because I'm still fleshing it out. thanks

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• Fast, accurate 2d collision

  - by Neophyte

  I'm working on a 2d topdown shooter, and now need to go beyond my basic rectangle bounding box collision system. I have large levels with many different sprites, all of which are different shapes and sizes. The textures for the sprites are all square png files with transparent backgrounds, so I also need a way to only have a collision when the player walks into the coloured part of the texture, and not the transparent background. I plan to handle collision as follows: Check if any sprites are in range of the player Do a rect bounding box collision test Do an accurate collision (Where I need help) I don't mind advanced techniques, as I want to get this right with all my requirements in mind, but I'm not sure how to approach this. What techniques or even libraries to try. I know that I will probably need to create and store some kind of shape that accurately represents each sprite minus the transparent background. I've read that per pixel is slow, so given my large levels and number of objects I don't think that would be suitable. I've also looked at Box2d, but haven't been able to find much documentation, or any examples of how to get it up and running with SFML.

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• C#, .NET 4.5 and Visual Studio 2012

  - by subodhnpushpak

  While I continue my affair with iOS / Android (which is now my bread / butter literally ); I also have managed to keep myself excited enough for all of new windows Stuff. Thanks to Priti Pushpak (my wife) for all the amazing Windows Phone 7 apps she is creating and uploading on appHub… I kind of like refreshing feel of win8 and apps. I also have fair bit of exposure on iPhone / iPad; Mac apps and I do put my two cents for win8 as well. If not an instant hit; win8 apps surely grows on you. So eventually win8 platform is here to stay. (oh yes and I cannot tell you how much hope I have for WP8 platform as well). Nevertheless; here is few topics I covered in a session on .Net 4.5  and on popular demand I am posting it all here… Note that for the demo you must have Win8 installed along with VS2012. The Demo includes a ASP .NET Web API http://www.slideshare.net/spushpak/new-features-in-net-45-c-and-vs2012 New features in .NET 4.5, C# and VS2012 from Subodh Pushpak The slide deck, demo and the session recording is at: http://sdrv.ms/R1thCf and https://www.dropbox.com/sh/0ogfayv0djfafyg/hfw5mNLaz9

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• Drupal migration failed

  - by Marco

  First of all, I'm new to Drupal and the work I have to do is some kind of too hard. My old colleague (webmaster) had a server with a multisite Drupal 6 installation. Sites and their dirs were (e.g.) Sites Site directory b.a.mycompany.com /drupal_install_dir/sites/b.a.mycompany.com c.a.mycompany.com /drupal_install_dir/sites/c.a.mycompany.com d.a.mycompany.com /drupal_install_dir/sites/d.a.mycompany.com Unluckily my colleague moved and server hdd aren't in my hands: all I have is a backup of /drupal_install_dir and three sql dumps (one for each site). I had to restore three sites, but changing them as z.mycompany.com/b z.mycompany.com/c z.mycompany.com/d Beeing a sysadmin, I Extracted tar.gz backup file under wwwroot (let's call full path to extracted directory /new_install_dir) Restored three databases Created mysql users and give them correct GRANTS on databases Then (trying to restore at least first site) I changed /new_install_dir/sites/settings.php putting correct database connection data and new basepath. But there is no way I can see my new site, simply it doesn't work. Watching /var/log/apache2/error.log I saw Drupal searching for main drupal database; so I created that db too setting user and grants, but dump file is empty. Well, now I can run something like install.php or update.php, but my site is not shown. Is there something I can do? Do I have to walk another way? Consider I searched the web, but I'm not able to find a guide that can help me for my problem. Ah, I forgot: before producing the backup, my colleague set site in maintenance mode. When I try to run z.mycompany.com/?q=user (trying to login) nothing happens. I'm really stuck...

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• webgame engine how does it works

  - by TWCrap

  Hy all, first off all, don't yell that i shouldn't start with it, i just want to know how that works... The thing is, how does the engine of an webgame works. A game like tribalwars, grepolis and forge of empires. How does that keeping alive work. I mean, a user is building an building, and quit the browser... The building is build even when the session of the user is expired. but the points of the user is updated when the building is finished... So how does that works. What do you guys think? do they have some kind of cronjob that is fired every second, and that walks throug the database, and search for finished buildings, and update's the stuff? or do you guys think that they do it difrent?!? I hope that i was clear. -NOTE- i don't need anny code, i'm just intrested in the progress behind the game... Greetingz Marc

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• 13.04 Temp Save, rt3290, Kernel downgrade

  - by user170534

  It's kind of a multiplying but I didn't wanted to open more than one topics. I'd have a fresh install of Ubuntu with tlp configured and using acpi_call to keep 7670M turned off. I was a short time arch user and with openbox and firefox it was about 60 to 70 degrees; wanted to turn to a stable release just for this reason. acpitz-virtual-0 Adapter: Virtual device temp1: +50.0°C radeon-pci-0100 Adapter: PCI adapter temp1: -128.0°C coretemp-isa-0000 Adapter: ISA adapter Physical id 0: +56.0°C (high = +87.0°C, crit = +105.0°C) Core 0: +54.0°C (high = +87.0°C, crit = +105.0°C) Core 1: +55.0°C (high = +87.0°C, crit = +105.0°C) The temperature is not seriously high yet can be lower. Another issue is my wifi card, rt3290: The rt2800pci module is fine and all that but the download performance is pretty bad alongside of annoying signal range and the prop. driver gives a conf error about some specific rt2860 code and integrales in pci_dev file. If I blank off the error making variables, module loads but the driver is unused. Since the driver is old, I was thinking of downgrading the kernel of raring to 3.7 or may be 3.6. Should &-or can I?

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• Can I make a business in teaching home users Ubuntu [on hold]

  - by Dorgaldir

  I was thinking about a way to bring Ubuntu to the bigger public, since it has great advantages for people in the lower income class that only use a PC for basic usage. They pay for a windows licence without actually needing windows because 95% of what they do is in a browser and the other 5% is typing a word document or making a simpel Excel sheet. So for these people something like Ubuntu is ideal, they can prolong the life of their old PC or laptop with Ubuntu and thus saving extra money. And as we all know, saving money is not only interesting for the lowest of income but for most of us. But when I talk to people they don't want to use Ubuntu because they know Windows and they don't know this, they'll complain about having to adapt to windows 8 but adapting to Ubuntu seems a bridge too far. But what if someone in the neighborhood gave simple Ubuntu courses. Teaching people about Ubuntu, stuff like: What is an OS What is Ubuntu How do I obtain Ubuntu How do I install Ubuntu How do I set up my email in Ubuntu How do I make a text document in Ubuntu How do I update my facebook wall in Ubuntu ... Simple basic PC usage, but within Ubuntu. But as much as I would like to work for free all day, I can't do this for free for people outside of my social circle. So I was wondering if it is possible to make a business and make money with giving Ubuntu courses, or are their steps to be taken before this is possible. However... Do I need an Ubuntu or Canonical license? Do I need to get a certificate? Do I have to make some kind of deal or contract with Canonical? Just to be clear this is all just an idea in my head at this point, I'm just gathering information. I'm not a teacher at a school, just a programmer that is thinking about options in life. Thanks in advance!

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• Does lesser wide screen fit better than a large one?

  - by artaxerxe

  About 3 weeks ago I changed my job. At the former workplace, I had 2 monitors for doing programming (GUI and core programming). Here, at the place where I am, the administrators gave me a laptop (15.6 inch) and wanted to provide me a wider screen additional to the laptop's one. I said that for now I want to test as it is, with the laptop's screen. I also want to mention, that in the current job I'm not targeted for GUI development. My feeling until now (but it can be just a feeling) is that working on this single not so wide screen, I'm not so weary after a full day work as I was with 2 wide monitors. Does anyone have any recommendations on this problem? Does lesser screens (in my case exclusively 15.6 inch vs 20 inch screens) affect your eyes? If anyone have any knowledge about, please feel free to say what's your opinion. P.S. I think that's a good site for this kind of question. Otherwise, please guide me on what site from StackExchange should I put it. Thanks.

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• How do 2D physics engines solve the problem of resolving collisions along tiled walls/floors in non-grid-based worlds?

  - by ssb

  I've been working on implementing my SAT algorithm which has been coming along well, but I've found that I'm at a wall when it comes to its actual use. There are plenty of questions regarding this issue on this site, but most of them either have no clear, good answer or have a solution based on checking grid positions. To restate the problem that I and many others are having, if you have a tiled surface, like a wall or a floor, consisting of several smaller component rectangles, and you traverse along them with another rectangle with force being applied into that structure, there are cases where the object gets caught on a false collision on an edge that faces the inside of the shape. I have spent a lot of time thinking about how I could possibly solve this without having to resort to a grid-based system, and I realized that physics engines do this properly. What I want to know is how they do this. What do physics engines do beyond basic SAT that allows this kind of proper collision resolution in complex environments? I've been looking through the source code to Box2D trying to find out how they do it but it's not quite as easy as looking at a Collision() method. I think I'm not good enough at physics to know what they're doing mathematically and not good enough at programming to know what they're doing programmatically. This is what I aim to fix.

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• Rendering 8 bit graphics

  - by Matjaz Muhic

  I have a strong programming background just not from game development. I only made some pong and snake in high school and I did some OpenGL in college. I want to make my own game engine. Nothing fancy just a simple 2D game engine. But because I'm kinda old school and feeling retro. I want graphics to look like old 8 bit games (megaman, contra, super mario, ...). So how were the old games made back then? I want the simplest approach. Were they also using assets (images) like newer engines now do? How do you achieve this kind of rendering using OpenGL? Keep in mind. Simplest solution. I want to know how it was made back then and how I can replicate that. Doesn't even have to be OpenGL. I can draw on window canvas. I do want to make it from scratch basically.

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• What is involved with writing a lobby server?

  - by Kira

  So I'm writing a Chess matchmaking system based on a Lobby view with gaming rooms, general chat etc. So far I have a working prototype but I have big doubts regarding some things I did with the server. Writing a gaming lobby server is a new programming experience to me and so I don't have a clear nor precise programming model for it. I also couldn't find a paper that describes how it should work. I ordered "Java Network Programming 3rd edition" from Amazon and still waiting for shipment, hopefully I'll find some useful examples/information in this book. Meanwhile, I'd like to gather your opinions and see how you would handle some things so I can learn how to write a server correctly. Here are a few questions off the top of my head: (may be more will come) First, let's define what a server does. It's primary functionality is to hold TCP connections with clients, listen to the events they generate and dispatch them to the other players. But is there more to it than that? Should I use one thread per client? If so, 300 clients = 300 threads. Isn't that too much? What hardware is needed to support that? And how much bandwidth does a lobby consume then approx? What kind of data structure should be used to hold the clients' sockets? How do you protect it from concurrent modification (eg. a player enters or exists the lobby) when iterating through it to dispatch an event without hurting throughput? Is ConcurrentHashMap the correct answer here, or are there some techniques I should know? When a user enters the lobby, what mechanism would you use to transfer the state of the lobby to him? And while this is happening, where do the other events bubble up? Screenshot : http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/695/sansrewyh.png/

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• Which hard disk drive is which?

  - by djeikyb

  I want to know which hard disk drive corresponds to which device path. It's trivial to match the hard disk stats (brand, size) with the dev path, but I want more. I want to know which drive is which inside my case. What's a good way to go about getting this info? Rules: I am a lazy bum. I don't want to tear apart my server to remove all the drives, then add back one by one. A reboot is acceptable. The drives are inconveniently scrunched together in the case. All label information is hidden. The case can be opened. Most disks are SATA, so theoretically hot swappable. Unplugging cables is fair game. Bonus: For a cli only solution. I'll award answer to the best/easiest gui or cli answer, and give a bounty to the next-best answer of the other kind. Or maybe the other way around, because the bounty is worth more points.

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• Draw "vision cone" / targetting element onto game world

  - by gkimsey

  I'm wanting to indicate various things using a "pie slice" sort of shape as below. Similar to vision cones in stealth game minimaps, or targetting indicators in RTS type games for frontal area attacks. Something generic enough to be used for both would be ideal. I need to be able to procedurally (and efficiently) change things like the slice width and length, color, transparency, position in the world, etc. For my particular situation, there's no concern with elevation, funky terrain, or really any third axis at all as far as this element is concerned. I have two first inclinations on how to accomplish this: 1) Manually generate the vertices for a main triangle, (possibly two, superimposed to get the border effect), a handful more to approximate the arc at the end, and roll it into a mesh. 2) Use some sort of 2D drawing library to create a circle and mask it off at the right angles, render to texture, and use that. For reference, I have some experience with Ogre3D, but I'm not attached to it as this is a mostly academic pursuit at the moment. Other technologies that might be better at accomplishing this are more than welcome. Finally, I'm kind of curious about how to do a "flashlight" or similar 3D effect that could produce the same result, but on all surfaces in the lit area.

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• Can you use programming for a greater good? [closed]

  - by jdoig

  What are the paths one could take to use their programming skills to benefit mankind (good causes, scientific or medical advancement, etc)? Problem: I dropped out of school, learnt programming, on my own, from text books and the internet. I have 7+ years of commercial experience from web applications to big data to mobile apps. But all I seem to do is make rich people richer with the vain hope that one day I'll be the guy with the good idea using other people to make myself richer. I googled for simular posts on the subject and saw a lot of people saying... "Just do your 9-5 job and donate a lot to charity"... I'm sorry to sound selfish but thats not what makes me tick; I need to be invested in and excited about the project at hand; it's not only got to be for a greater good but it's got to kick arse and feel good doing it too... Does that kind of job exist? Does it involve programming? What other skills do I need? (Apologies if this question is too 'fluffy' or 'wishy-washy', but if it is a pointer to where else I could ask it would be appreciated)

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