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Distinction between API and frontend-backend

- by Jason

I'm trying to write a "standard" business web site. By "standard", I mean this site runs the usual HTML5, CSS and Javascript for the front-end, a back-end (to process stuff), and runs MySQL for the database. It's a basic CRUD site: the front-end just makes pretty whatever the database has in store; the backend writes to the database whatever the user enters and does some processing. Just like most sites out there. In creating my Github repositories to begin coding, I've realized I don't understand the distinction between the front-end back-end, and the API. Another way of phrasing my question is: where does the API come into this picture? I'm going to list some more details and then questions I have - hopefully this gives you guys a better idea of what my actual question is, because I'm so confused that I don't know the specific question to ask. Some more details: I'd like to try the Model-View-Controller pattern. I don't know if this changes the question/answer. The API will be RESTful I'd like my back-end to use my own API instead of allowing the back-end to cheat and call special queries. I think this style is more consistent. My questions: Does the front-end call the back-end which calls the API? Or does the front-end just call the API instead of calling the back-end? Does the back-end just execute an API and the API returns control to the back-end (where the back-end acts as the ultimate controller, delegating tasks)? Long and detailed answers explaining the role of the API alongside the front-end back-end are encouraged. If the answer depends on the model of programming (models other than the Model-View-Controller pattern), please describe these other ways of thinking of the API. Thanks. I'm very confused.

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12.04 No Sound - ALC888 / Radeon 3200HD

- by Ross

Evening all. I have a MSI U230 netbook, MV40 processor, 4Gb RAM with integrated ATI Radeon 3200HD grahics & an ALC888 codec integrated soundcard. It has HDMI out as well. I've tried a few distro's and have been around linux for a short time. I reckon I've settled on Ubuntu 12.04 (32bit) due to it doing pretty much everything I want it to. I'm working with a fresh install right now. I recently re-installed when I was going in circles trying to solve my problem before. I install Ubuntu and it works, except for the sound. I have tried things like reinstalling Alsa, editing my asound.conf file, installing HDA Verb and a few other things. Its at the point where I need to ask for help... Some outputs: ross@ross:~$ aplay -l ** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ** card 0: SB [HDA ATI SB], device 0: ALC888 Analog [ALC888 Analog] Subdevices: 1/1 Subdevice #0: subdevice #0 card 1: HDMI [HDA ATI HDMI], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0] Subdevices: 1/1 Subdevice #0: subdevice #0 ross@ross:~$ uname -r 3.2.0-34-generic-pae ross@ross:~$ lspci | grep VGA 01:05.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI RS780M/RS780MN [Mobility Radeon HD 3200 Graphics] ross@ross:~$ lspci | grep Audio 00:14.2 Audio device: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI SBx00 Azalia (Intel HDA) 01:05.1 Audio device: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI RS780 HDMI Audio [Radeon HD 3000-3300 Series] Added options snd-hda-intel position_fix=1 to alsa-base.conf file Unmuted all in alsamixer Can anyone suggest anything more?

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what receives an ajax call?

- by jbcolmenares

I'm making a site which should (a) take information from the user in the form of files and forms, (b) take that data to the server to be run on a C application, and (c) take the result back and show it to the user. I was told to look for AJAX for the communication with the server. BTW, I'm using rails. I'm trying to understand how AJAX works. From what I understand so far, with rails is pretty easy to make the call. What I can't figure out is, what waits for that call? what process the call? If I understand correctly, with rails I could make a function in ruby and make it so it's called through AJAX, which means -or so I understand- that it gets executed on the server. If I were using PHP, would I need to make an http server to wait for the AJAX calls? I just don't find information about what waits for the call, and that information is processed. Any links, comments or books are welcome!

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Quick Script for Adding Skype Groups

- by Robert May

So, I needed to add about 30 people to several different Skype groups today, and I didn’t want to repeat the /add [skypename] thing over and over and over. Building the list was a pain . . . I couldn’t find a good way to extract all of the users in an existing group. There’s probably an api or something, but I just did that part by hand. Adding them to the groups was pretty easy with Windows Scripting Host. Basically, I just ran this: <package> <job id="vbs"> <script language="VBScript"> set WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell") WshShell.AppActivate 4484 WScript.Sleep 100 WshShell.SendKeys "/add user1~" WScript.Sleep 100 … WshShell.SendKeys "/add usern~" WScript.Sleep 100 </script> </job> </package> Add as many users as you need by copying the sendkeys and sleep lines. Then, save the script to a .wsf file. The AppActivate line needs to be changed to have the process id of skype instead of the number there. To get that, open up Task Manager, click on Processes, then find skype.exe and find it’s PID. Before you double click on the file in windows explorer, you’ll need to have created the groups in skype. For each group, open the group, and click in the chat window of the group. Then double click on the WSF file. If you don’t click in the chat window, you will likely get the add user dialog box instead of just adding the users. Technorati Tags: Skype,Script

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Developing a mobile application, how to show help if it contains too much data?

- by MobileDev123

I am developing a mobile application which has many functionality, and I am pretty sure that the design will confuse the user about how to use some functionality so we decided to include some help as we can see them regularly in desktop applications, but later we found that the help text is too long. We don't think that one screen is enough to describe what a user can do. Moreover the project itself is subjected to evolve based on beta stage and user reports. After a lot of thinking and meetings we have decided three options to show the users what they can do. Create the website or blog, so we can let the users know what they can do with this application, the advantage is that it can provide us a good source of marketing, but for that they have to access the site while most part of the application can be used while being offline in earlier versions. Create a section in the application called demos to show the same thing locally, but we are afraid that it will increase the size, that we think can be avoided (and we are planning to avoid if there is any option) Show popups, but we discarded this thinking that pop ups annoys user no matter what the platform is. I want to know from community that which option will you choose, we are also open to accept other ideas if you have.

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What is a generic term for name/identifier? (as opposed to label)

- by d3vid

I need to refer to a number of things that have both an identifier value (used in code and configuration), and a human-readable label. These things include: database columns dropdown items subapplications objects stored in a dictionary I want two unambiguous terms. One to refer to the identifier/value/key. One to refer to the label. As you can see, I'm pretty settled on the latter :) For the former, identifier seems best (not everything is strictly a key, and value and name could refer to the label; although, identifier usually refers only to a variable name), but I would prefer to follow an established practice if there is one. Is there an established term for this? (Please provide a source.) If not, are there any examples of a choice from a significant source (Java APIs, MSDN, a big FLOSS project)? (I wasn't sure if this should be posted here or to English Language & Usage. I thought this was the more appropriate expert audience. Happy to migrate if not.)

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Coarse Collision Detection in highly dynamic environment

- by Millianz

I'm currently working a 3D space game with A LOT of dynamic objects that are all moving (there is pretty much no static environment). I have the collision detection and resolution working just fine, but I am now trying to optimize the collision detection (which is currently O(N^2) -- linear search). I thought about multiple options, a bounding volume hierarchy, a Binary Spatial Partitioning tree, an Octree or a Grid. I however need some help with deciding what's best for my situation. A grid seems unfeasible simply due to the space requirements and cache coherence problems. Since everything is so dynamic however, it seems to be that trees aren't ideal either, since they would have to be completely rebuilt every frame. I must admit I never implemented a physics engine that required spatial partitioning, do I indeed need to rebuild the tree every frame (assuming that everything is constantly moving) or can I update the trees after integrating? Advice is much appreciated - to give some more background: You're flying a space ship in an asteroid field, and there are lots and lots of asteroids and some enemy ships, all of which shoot bullets. EDIT: I came across the "Sweep an Prune" algorithm, which seems like the right thing for my purposes. It appears like the right mixture of fast building of the data structures involved and detailed enough partitioning. This is the best resource I can find: http://www.codercorner.com/SAP.pdf If anyone has any suggestions whether or not I'm going in the right direction, please let me know.

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What should every programmer know about web development?

- by Joel Coehoorn

What things should a programmer implementing the technical details of a web application before making the site public? If Jeff Atwood can forget about HttpOnly cookies, sitemaps, and cross-site request forgeries all in the same site, what important thing could I be forgetting as well? I'm thinking about this from a web developer's perspective, such that someone else is creating the actual design and content for the site. So while usability and content may be more important than the platform, you the programmer have little say in that. What you do need to worry about is that your implementation of the platform is stable, performs well, is secure, and meets any other business goals (like not cost too much, take too long to build, and rank as well with Google as the content supports). Think of this from the perspective of a developer who's done some work for intranet-type applications in a fairly trusted environment, and is about to have his first shot and putting out a potentially popular site for the entire big bad world wide web. Also, I'm looking for something more specific than just a vague "web standards" response. I mean, HTML, JavaScript, and CSS over HTTP are pretty much a given, especially when I've already specified that you're a professional web developer. So going beyond that, Which standards? In what circumstances, and why? Provide a link to the standard's specification.

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Prevent mail flagged as spam when switching mail servers (new SPF records)?

- by Jakobud

For our business, we send out a significant amount of newsletter alerts to customers that sign up for it on our website. We used to send this mail directly from our web server via PHP. But because the web server limited us to the number of emails we could send per day, we purchased a VM server at a different host (that doesn't throttle email) and we are going to use that account solely for sending out the emails. Anyways, now that the SPF records are going to be different from what they used to be and the source mail server is different, what steps need to be taken to prevent these emails being flagged as spam? I know in Gmail, it's pretty smart about determining if the person actually sending the email is sending it from the server it expects (for flagging Phishing emails, etc). We don't want that to happen to our emails. Just sending a couple test emails out, Gmail's shows the SPF record saying: Authentication-Results: mx.google.com; spf=neutral (google.com: XXX.XXX.23.176 is neither permitted nor denied by best guess record for domain of [email protected]) [email protected] So is there anything we need to do with regards to SPF records as we move forward?

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Hallmarks of a Professional PHP Programmer

- by Scotty C.

I'm a 19 year old student who really REALLY enjoys programming, and I'm hoping to glean from your years of experience here. At present, I'm studying PHP every chance I get, and have been for about 3 years, although I've never taken any formal classes. I'd love to some day be a programmer full time, and make a good career of it. My question to you is this: What do you consider to be the hallmarks or traits of a professional programmer? Mainly in the field of PHP, but other, more generalized qualifications are also more than welcome, as I think PHP is more of a hobbyist language and may not be the language of choice in the eyes of potential employers. Please correct me if I'm wrong. Above all, I don't want to wast time on something that isn't worth while. I'm currently feeling pretty confident in my knowledge of PHP as a language, and I know that I could build just about anything I need and have it "work", but I feel sorely lacking in design concepts and code structure. I can even write object oriented code, but in my personal opinion, that isn't worth a hill of beans if it isn't organized well. For this reason, I bought Matt Zandstra's book "PHP Objects, Patterns, and Practice" and have been reading that a little every day. Anyway, I'm starting to digress a little here, so back to the original question. What advice would you give to an aspiring programmer who wants to make an impact in this field? Also, on a side note, I've been working on a project with a friend of mine that would give a fairly good idea of where I'm at coding wise. I'm gonna give a link, I don't want anyone to feel as though I'm pushing or spamming here, so don't click it if you don't want to. But if you are interested on giving some feedback there as well, you can see the code on github. I'm known as The Craw there. https://github.com/PureChat/PureChat--Beta-/tree/

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How to distribute python GTK applications?

- by Nik

This is in correlation with the previous question I asked here. My aim is to create and package an application for easy installation in Ubuntu and other debian distributions. I understand that the best way to do this is by creating .deb file with which users can easily install my application on their system. However, I would also like to make sure my application is available in multiple languages. This is why I raised the question before which you can read here. In the answers that were provided, I was asked to use disutils for my packaging. I am however missing the bigger picture here. Why is there a need to include a setup.py file when I distribute my application in .deb format? My purpose is to ensure that users do not need to perform python setup.py to install my application but rather just click on the .deb file. I already know how to create a deb file from the excellent tutorial available here. It clearly shows how to edit rules, changelog and everything required to create a clean deb file. You can look at my application source code and folder structure at Github if it helps you better understand my situation. Please note I have glanced through the official python documentation found here. But I am hoping that I would get an answer which would help even a lame man understand since my knowledge is pretty poor in this regard.

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Best Java Book(s) for an Experienced Developer

- by Steven Elliott Jr

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

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Powershell variables to string

- by Mike Koerner

I'm new to powershell. I'm trying to write an error handler to wrap around my script. Part of the error handler is dumping out some variable settings. I spent a while trying to do this and couldn't google a complete solution so I thought I'd post something. I want to display the $myinvocation variable. In powershell you can do this PS C:\> $myInvocation for my purpose I want to create a stringbuilder object and append the $myinvocation info. I tried this $sbOut = new-object System.Text.Stringbuilder $sbOut.appendLine($myinvocation) $sbOut.ToString() This produces Capacity MaxCapacity Length -------- ----------- ------ 86 2147483647 45 System.Management.Automation.InvocationInfo This is not what I wanted so I tried $sbOut.appendLine(($myinvocation|format-list *)) This produced Capacity MaxCapacity Length -------- ----------- ------ 606 2147483647 305 Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.Internal.Format.FormatStartData Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.Internal.Format.GroupStartData Micros oft.PowerShell.Commands.Internal.Format.FormatEntryData Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.Internal.Format.GroupEndData Microsoft.Powe rShell.Commands.Internal.Format.FormatEndData Finally I figured out how to produce what I wanted: $sbOut = new-object System.Text.Stringbuilder [void]$sbOut.appendLine(($myinvocation|out-string)) $sbOut.ToString() MyCommand : $sbOut = new-object System.Text.Stringbuilder [void]$sbOut.appendLine(($myinvocation|out-string)) $sbOut.ToString() BoundParameters : {} UnboundArguments : {} ScriptLineNumber : 0 OffsetInLine : 0 HistoryId : 13 ScriptName : Line : PositionMessage : InvocationName : PipelineLength : 2 PipelinePosition : 1 ExpectingInput : False CommandOrigin : Runspace Note the [void] in front of the stringbuilder variable doesn't show the Capacity,MaxCapacity of the stringbuilder object. The pipe to out-string makes the output a string. It's not pretty but it works.

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Little mysterious RowMatch

- by kishore.kondepudi(at)oracle.com

Incidentally this was the first piece of code i ever wrote in ADF.The requirement was we have tax rates which are read from a table.And there can be different type of tax rates called certificates or exceptions based on the rate_type column in the tax rates table.The simplest design i chose was to create an EO on the tax rates table and create two VO's called CertificateVO and ExceptionVO based on the same EO.So far so good.I wrote all the business logic in the EO and completed the model project.The CertificateVO has the query as select * from tax_rates TaxRateEO where rate_type='CERTIFICATE' and similary the ExceptionVO is also built.The UI is pretty simple and it has two tabs called Certificates and Exceptions and each table has a button to create a tax rate.The certificate tab is driven by CertificateVO and exception tab is driven by ExceptionVO.The CertificateVO has default value of rate_type set to 'CERTIFICATE' and ExceptionVO has default value of rate_type to 'EXCEPTION' to default values for new records.So far so good.But on running the UI i noticed a strange thing,When i create a new row in Certificate i see the same row in Exception too and vice-versa.i.e; what ever row i create in one VO it also appears in the second one although it shouldn't be.I couldn't understand the reason for behavior even though an explicit where clause is present.Digging through documentation i found that ADF doesnt apply the where clause to new rows instead it applies something called as RowMatch to them.RowMatch in simple terms is a where condition applied to the VO rows at runtime.Since we had both VO's based on the same EO we have the same entity cache.The filter factor for new rows to be shown in VO at runtime is actually RowMatch than the where clause defined in the VO.The default RowMatch is empty as a result any new row appears in both the VO's since its from same entity cache.The solution to this problem is to use polymorphic view objects which can do the row filter based on configuration or override the getRowMatch() method in the VOImpl and pass the custom where filter instead of default RowMatch.Eg:@Overridepublic RowMatch getRowMatch(){ return new RowMatch("rate_type='CERTIFICATE'");}similarly for ExceptionVO too.With proper RowMatch in place new rows will route themselves to appropriate VO.PS: The behavior(Same row pushed to both VO's from entity cache) is also called as ViewLink Consistency.Try it out!

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What should I learn that I missed by not going to school?

- by BinaryMuse

I'm a software engineer at a local university, and I feel I'm able to competently do my job, but recently I've been interested in "filling in" the gaps in my knowledge. I suspect I would have learned some of this in school; for example, I don't have a lot of knowledge of sorting algorithms (something I feel is pretty common in college). So, what knowledge am I likely missing by not going to college that I could study on my own? Bonus points for listing resources that might put me on the right track! Some background: I've programmed in PHP, Java, and Ruby (more seriously in Java and Ruby than PHP); I have some experience with C/C++, though my workload doesn't really lend itself to those languages; I work mostly (recently) with the web, using frameworks such as CakePHP and Rails. I'm familiar with SQL (though probably not with some of the theory). Note: The university I work for has no technical classes, so taking courses on the university's dime is a great idea but not possible for me. :)

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How do I boot Ubuntu Cloud images in vmware?

- by Graham

I want to run an Ubuntu cloud image on on VMWare. I've gotten pretty far but want to know how to set the OVF properties in a way that VMWare understands in order to pass parameters to cloud-init. This is what I've done: Install VMWare Player 4.0.4, using the vmware workstation 8.0.2 / player 4.0.2 fix for linux 3.2+ patch to get around the compilation failure for virtual ethernet module. Download precise-server-cloudimg-amd64.ovf, and also the QCOW2 .img file (220MB) Run qemu-img convert -O vmdk precise-server-cloudimg-amd64-disk1.img precise-server-cloudimg-amd64-disk1.vmdk to convert the image from QCOW2 to VMDK Edit the OVF to change the extension and ovf:size on the <File> element and set ovf:format="http://www.vmware.com/interfaces/specifications/vmdk.html#sparse" on the <Disk> element. Edit the OVF to remove all the <Property> elements because vmplayer was complaining about unrecognised elements. Run the OVF in vmplayer. Alternatively, run ovftool to convert to vmx and run the vmx. Unfortunately I can't log in as "ubuntu" at the prompt because the OVF properties haven't been provided to cloud-init. How should I do this?

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Example of DOD design (on a generic Zombie game)

- by Jeffrey

I can't seem to find a nice explanation of the Data Oriented Design for a generic zombie game (it's just an example, pretty common example). Could you make an example of the Data Oriented Design on creating a generic zombie class? Is the following good? Zombie list class: class ZombieList { GLuint vbo; // generic zombie vertex model std::vector<color>; // object default color std::vector<texture>; // objects textures std::vector<vector3D>; // objects positions public: unsigned int create(); // return object id void move(unsigned int objId, vector3D offset); void rotate(unsigned int objId, float angle); void setColor(unsigned int objId, color c); void setPosition(unsigned int objId, color c); void setTexture(unsigned int, unsigned int); ... void update(Player*); // move towards player, attack if near } Example: Player p; Zombielist zl; unsigned int first = zl.create(); zl.setPosition(first, vector3D(50, 50)); zl.setTexture(first, texture("zombie1.png")); ... while (running) { // main loop ... zl.update(&p); zl.draw(); // draw every zombie } Or would creating a generic World container that contains every action from bite(zombieId, playerId) to moveTo(playerId, vector) to createPlayer() to shoot(playerId, vector) to face(radians)/face(vector); and contains: std::vector<zombie> std::vector<player> ... std::vector<mapchunk> ... std::vector<vbobufferid> player_run_animation; ... be a good example? Whats the proper way to organize a game with DOD?

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Can thousands of backlinks from the same site harm PageRank?

- by Dejan Pelzel

I just noticed that one particular site has almost 7000 backlinks linking back to our website. The site is something like a news aggregator and for each post they created around 20 (sometimes much more) backlinks back to our page and they basically linked over 400 pages. I am beginning to get concerned that this amount of links might harm our page. They seem to have more backlinks to our page than all the other pages combined and more backlinks that our website has pages. We have seen a massive negative effect going on for quite a while and the PageRank seems to have dropped to None (Not even 0). But I am not sure when and why exactly that happened seeing that PageRank updates take quite a while to appear. The site linking to us is otherwise pretty reputable and doesn't seem to be having any problems with their rank. (PR 6 actually) I was thinking of using the Google disavow tool for this site, but I don't want to make things even worse. Do you think these are harmful? If so, how do I fix this? Thanks :)

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Desktop forgets theme?

- by Marcelo Cantos

I am running Ubuntu in VirtualBox (on a Windows 7 host). Several times now, the top-level menu bar, the task bar — and seemingly every system dialog — have forgotten the out-of-the-box "Ambiance" theme they conform to when I first installed the system. Window captions still preserve the theme, but pretty much nothing else does. I have searched high and low on Google for assistance with this problem. Everything I've found suggests either running some gconf reset or deleting .gconf* .gnome* and other similar directories. I have followed all this advice and nothing works. I still get a boring Windows-95-style gray 3D look and feel. On previous occasions, after much messing around I've given up and rebooted the VM instance, and been pleasantly suprised to see the original "Ambience" theme restored throughout the UI, but invariably it disappears again some time later, usually after a reboot, so I can never figure out what I did that broke it. Here's a sample from Ubuntu's site of what I want it to look like. And here's a screenshot of my system as it currently looks. Also note that my GNOME Terminals normally have a nice purple semi-translucent look, and as can be seen from the screenshot, they are now just a solid matte white. This last time (just yesterday), trying numerous combinations all the usual tricks and rebooting several times hasn't fixed it, so here I am on SU wondering: How do I recover the out-of-the-box theme for my Gnome/Ubuntu desktop, noting that blowing away all config files — as suggested in many places online — fails to achieve this? It might help to know that it seems to fail either after I resize the VM instance, forcing the Ubuntu desktop to resize itself, or after I play around with Compiz settings. I haven't been able to figure out which of these it is, and it could be neither. Given the amount of pain I have had to go through to get things back to normal (and given that I am at a loss as to how to do so), it has proven difficult to definitively isolate the cause.

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How do I structure code and builds for continuous delivery of multiple applications in a small team?

- by kingdango

Background: 3-5 developers supporting (and building new) internal applications for a non-software company. We use TFS although I don't think that matters much for my question. I want to be able to develop a deployment pipeline and adopt continuous integration / deployment techniques. Here's what our source tree looks like right now. We use a single TFS Team Project. $/MAIN/src/ $/MAIN/src/ApplicationA/VSSOlution.sln $/MAIN/src/ApplicationA/ApplicationAProject1.csproj $/MAIN/src/ApplicationA/ApplicationAProject2.csproj $/MAIN/src/ApplicationB/... $/MAIN/src/ApplicationC $/MAIN/src/SharedInfrastructureA $/MAIN/src/SharedInfrastructureB My Goal (a pretty typical promotion pipeline) When a code change is made to a given application I want to be able to build that application and auto-deploy that change to a DEV server. I may also need to build dependencies on Shared Infrastructure Components. I often also have some database scripts or changes as well If developer testing passes I want to have an manually triggered but automated deploy of that build on a STAGING server where end-users will review new functionality. Once it's approved by end users I want to a manually triggered auto-deploy to production Question: How can I best adopt continuous deployment techniques in a multi-application environment? A lot of the advice I see is more single-application-specific, how is that best applied to multiple applications? For step 1, do I simply setup a separate Team Build for each application? What's the best approach to accomplishing steps 2 and 3 of promoting latest build to new environments? I've seen this work well with web apps but what about database changes

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Why is it that software is still easily pirated today?

- by mohabitar

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

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"io: postinst-must-call-ldconfig" when creating a package

- by egarcia

I'm trying to create an ubuntu .deb package for the (pretty awesome) Io Language. I am not the developer of that language, so I'm not familiar with its sourcecode yet. This is my first attempt at creating a .deb file. In order to create the .deb, I'm following these instructions: http://www.webupd8.org/2010/01/how-to-create-deb-package-ubuntu-debian.html So far I've been able to create a .deb file (io_2010.06.01-1_amd64.deb) and a changes file (io_201.06.01-1_amd64.changes). I'm using lintian to check the changes file, and it reports an issue I don't know how to resolve: $ lintian -Ivi io_2010.06.01-1_amd64.changes ... (lots of messages) I: io: no-symbols-control-file usr/lib/libiovmall.so I: io: no-symbols-control-file usr/lib/libgarbagecollector.so I: io: no-symbols-control-file usr/lib/libbasekit.so E: io: postinst-must-call-ldconfig usr/lib/libiovmall.so N: N: The package installs shared libraries in a directory controlled by the N: dynamic library loader. Therefore, the package must call "ldconfig" in N: its postinst script. N: N: Refer to Debian Policy Manual section 8.1.1 (ldconfig) for details. N: N: Severity: serious, Certainty: certain N: N: Removing /tmp/OYuNShEHYz ... I've read the debian manual 8.8 section. I think I understand what the problem is (I need to make sure that ldconfig is invoked "somewhere", possibly on a place called "posinst") but I don't know how to resolve it (i.e. where this "posinsts" file is and how should I change it). The current way of installing Io in Ubuntu is basically running sudo make install and then sudo ldconfig. Maybe the makefile should be modified so ldconfig is called from it? I don't know. Thanks a lot.

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What is the best way to "carve" a terrain created from a heightmap?

- by tigrou

I have a 3d landscape created from a heightmap. I'd like to "carve" some holes in that terrain. That will allow me to create bridges, caverns and tunnels inside it. That operation will be done in the game editor so it doesn't need to be realtime. In the end, rendering is done using traditional polygons. What would be the best/easiest way to do that ? I already think about several solutions : Solution 1 1) Create voxels from the heightmap (very easy). In other words, fill a 3D array like this : voxels[32][32][32] from the heightmap values. 2) Carve holes in the voxels as i want (easy too). 3) Convert voxels to polygons using some iso-surface extraction technique (like marching cubes). 4) Reduce (decimate) polygons created in 3). This technique seems to be the most promising for giving good results (untested). However the problem with marching cubes is that they tends to produce lots of polygons thus reducing them is mandatory. Implementing 4) also seems not trivial, i have read several papers on the web and it seems pretty complex. I was also unable to find an example, code snippet or something to start writing an algorithm for triangle mesh decimation. Maybe there is a special decimation algorithm (simpler) for meshes created from marching cubes ? Solution 2 1) Create some triangle mesh from the heighmap (easy). 2) Apply severals 3D boolean operation (eg: subtraction with a sphere) to carve the mesh. 3) apply some procedure to reduce polygons (optional). Operation 2) seems to be very complex and to be honest i have no idea how to do that. Also applying many boolean operation seems to be slow and will maybe degrade the triangle mesh every time a boolean operation is applied.

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A few unpleasant facts about Visual Studio 2012.

- by Ilya Verbitskiy

I have been playing with Visual Studio 2012 for the last couple of days. New IDE is pretty good, but, unfortunately, I found a few unpleasant facts. First of all, new release is coming without Visual Studio setup projects. I am disappointed, because I am using it for my pet project – Easy Shutdown. The tool is a small widget-like application which allows you to reboot, log out or shut down you PC. I have not done any decision yet, but I would probably migrate to WiX. The second surprise is Microsoft will not add Visual Studio macros to the next release. Since I am lazy guy, I like small hacks using macros. For example I have macros to refresh all projects or attach to IIS. The only way how to solve the problem is to convert your macros to Visual Studio plugin. I have not tried it yet, but I will definitely do in the nearest future. The third fact, I do not like, is Visual Studio default themes. May be somebody like it, but they are hard to adopt after Visual Studio 2010. Fortunately there is a solution. Matthew Johnson released Visual Studio 2012 Color Theme Editor. It comes with a few predefined themes. I really like the Blue one.

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12.04 - How do I Fix Grub Error 15 on New Dual Boot Install

- by Garth

I just installed 12.04 to Dual Boot (separate partitions) with an existing Win 7. Upon reboot after install things freeze after Grub 1.5 with a Grub Error 15 message. Is there any easy way to fix this? (I am posting this from my second computer) UPDATE: I managed to boot into both 12.04 and Win7 using BIOS: Selected the disk with the Win7 'C' Partition: resulted in the same error message Rebooted, tried the disk with the Ubuntu Partitions: *Grub Menu loaded: Managed to boot 12.04, rebooted, used BIOS again: Managed to boot Win 7 So, I have access to my computer again (thru BIOS), but this has been a pretty crappy install experience. Garth I used the the Final release 12.04 Ubuntu install disk, reformatted all Linux partitions, and expected a simple clean install. Other than specifying the Ubuntu Partitions, I did a basic install of 12.04. No way I did do anything to get this crap error failure! I have no idea why my install resulted in a Grub-15 error. CLOSED - Answered my own Question: I burned a RescuTux Disk and used it to recover grub2 (simplest and easiest way for me. http://www.supergrubdisk.org/category/download/rescatuxdownloads/ Garth

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