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  • Vertical Scrolling In Tile Based XNA Platformer

    - by alec100_94
    I'm making a 2D platformer in XNA 4.0. I have created a working tile engine, which works well for my purposes, and Horizontal Scrolling works flawlessly, however I am having great trouble with Vertical scrolling. I Basically want the camera to scroll up (world to scroll down) when the player reaches a certain Y co-ordinate, and I would also like to automatically scroll back down if coming down, and that co-ordinate is passed. My biggest problem is I have no real way of detecting the direction the player is moving in using only the Y Co-ord. Here Is My Code Code For The Camera Class (which appears to be a very different approach to most camera classes I have seen). using System; using System.Collections.Generic; using System.Linq; using System.Text; using Microsoft.Xna.Framework; namespace Marvin { class Camera : TileEngine { public static bool startReached; public static bool endReached; public static void MoveRight(float speed = 2) { //Moves The Position of Each Tile Right foreach (Tile t in tiles) { if(t!=null) { t.position.X -= speed; } } } public static void MoveLeft(float speed = 2) { //Moves The Position of Each Tile Right foreach (Tile t in tiles) { if(t!=null) { t.position.X += speed; } } } public static void MoveUp(float speed = 2) { foreach (Tile t in tiles) { if(t!=null) { t.position.Y += speed; } } } public static void MoveDown(float speed = 2) { foreach (Tile t in tiles) { if(t!=null) { t.position.Y -= speed; } } } public static void Restrain() { if(tiles.Last().position.X<Main.graphics.PreferredBackBufferWidth-tiles.Last().size.X) { MoveLeft(); endReached = true; } else { endReached = false; } if(tiles[1].position.X>0) { MoveRight(); startReached = true;} else { startReached = false; } } } } Here is My Player Code for Left and Right Scrolling/Moving if (Main.currentKeyState.IsKeyDown(Keys.Right)) { Camera.MoveRight(); if(Camera.endReached) { MoveRight(2); } else { if(marvin.GetRectangle().X!=Main.graphics.PreferredBackBufferWidth-(marvin.GetRectangle().X+marvin.GetRectangle().Width)) { MoveRight(2); Camera.MoveLeft(); } } } if(Main.currentKeyState.IsKeyDown(Keys.Left)) { Camera.MoveLeft(); if(Camera.startReached) { MoveLeft(2); } else { if(marvin.GetRectangle().X!=Main.graphics.PreferredBackBufferWidth-(marvin.GetRectangle().X+marvin.GetRectangle().Width)) { MoveLeft(2); Camera.MoveRight(); } } } Camera.Restrain(); if(marvin.GetRectangle().X>Main.graphics.PreferredBackBufferWidth-marvin.GetRectangle().Width) { MoveLeft(2); } if(marvin.GetRectangle().X<0) { MoveRight(2); } And Here Is My Player Jumping/Falling Code which may cause some conflicts with the vertical camera movement. if (!jumping) { if(!TileEngine.TopOfTileCollidingWith(footBounds)) { MoveDown(5); } else { if(marvin.GetRectangle().Y != TileEngine.LastPlatformStoodOnTop()-marvin.GetRectangle().Height) { float difference = (TileEngine.LastPlatformStoodOnTop()-marvin.GetRectangle().Height) - (marvin.GetRectangle().Y); marvin.SetRectangle(marvin.GetRectangle().X,(int)(marvin.GetRectangle().Y+difference)); armR.SetRectangle(armR.GetRectangle().X,(int)(armR.GetRectangle().Y+difference)); armL.SetRectangle(armL.GetRectangle().X,(int)(armL.GetRectangle().Y+difference)); eyeL.SetRectangle(eyeL.GetRectangle().X,(int)(eyeL.GetRectangle().Y+difference)); eyeR.SetRectangle(eyeR.GetRectangle().X,(int)(eyeR.GetRectangle().Y+difference)); } } } if (Main.currentKeyState.IsKeyDown(Keys.Up) && Main.previousKeyState.IsKeyUp(Keys.Up) && TileEngine.TopOfTileCollidingWith(footBounds)) { jumping = true; } if(jumping) { if(TileEngine.LastPlatformStoodOnTop()>0 && (TileEngine.LastPlatformStoodOnTop() - footBounds.Bottom)<120) { MoveUp(5); } else { jumping = false; } } All player code I have tried for vertical movements has failed, or caused weird results (like falling through platforms), and most have been a variation on the method I described above, hence I have not included it. I would really appreciate some help implementing a simple vertical scrolling into this game, Thanks.

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  • Grub Rescue Unknown Filesystem Error. Grub Corrupted or Filesystem?

    - by nightcrawler
    Now it has happened twice & have been pulling my hairs now... I have installed xubuntu on my external hardisk & have been using it for about 3 months. It has three partitions, one of 500 mb mounted at /boot, 2nd one of 48gb mounted at / & the rest (out of 160gb) is ntfs partition....used as normal external storage. The last storage supposedly acts as a buffer b/w Linux distributions & Win platform, buffer in the sense that it provides a universal channel for data transfers. I have constantly used this external hardisk for data transfers b/w win7 laptop & xubuntu (on this external hd) without any hassle. However, on of my desktops where I have ubuntu I (for the first time) attached this external drive which let me do data transfers where all three partitions properly mounted....but then nasty thing occurred the same that occurred before. I (as usual) tried booting via this external hd (one having xubuntu, one having being formerly used under Ubuntu) I got error Now I am totally devastated because similar thing happened ~6months before when I had fedora 17 in my external hd (instead of xubuntu) & after it was used under ubuntu the same happened...i didn't reported it because I already had planned towards debian instead of rpm! The mystery is that as long as I don't attach this external hd under ubuntu the data never** corrupts whereas under win xp/7 I can use it as a normal usb storage of coarse linux partitions aren’t available under win platforms... **From corrupts I mean hd fails to boot with the error mentioned however cant say whether data within remains untouched? It seems that my grub & or MBR is corrupted. Please sir guide me to solve this issue also why I cant attach & use linux external hds under linux platform Disk /dev/sdc: 160.0 GB, 160041884672 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders, total 312581806 sectors Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes Disk identifier: 0x0004e7d0 Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sdc1 * 2048 976895 487424 83 Linux /dev/sdc2 978942 96874495 47947777 5 Extended /dev/sdc3 96874496 312575999 107850752 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT /dev/sdc5 978944 94726143 46873600 83 Linux /dev/sdc6 94728192 96874495 1073152 82 Linux swap / Solaris I can recall for sure that have seen a thread here when a similar problem occurred & in response someone gave solution of how to mount (now invisible) partitions & recover important data in them. I have misplaced that URL so if any can guide me thither because my important documents resides in / partition What I already have done: Without success I have tried this & related solutions What I plan to do: I believe that filesystem has corrupted & would you recommend solution like this provided I cant recall whether my /boot (500mb) partition was ext4 or ext2 though I am sure that my / (48gb) partition was ext4 UPDATE 1 Attached my external hd under Ubuntu ran followinf command as root grub-install /dev/sdc where /dev/sdc was my external hd containing corrupted xubuntu....it reported all done! I re-ran fdisk -l but to my disappointment it reported Disk /dev/sdc: 160.0 GB, 160041884672 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders, total 312581806 sectors Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes Disk identifier: 0x1b6b9167 Disk /dev/sdc doesn't contain a valid partition table ...& now I can't even access its ntfs partition (former /dev/sdc3) please help? UPDATE 2 TestDisk (by cgsecurity) failed at founding any partition table :( TestDisk 6.13, Data Recovery Utility, November 2011 Christophe GRENIER <[email protected]> http://www.cgsecurity.org Disk /dev/sdc - 160 GB / 149 GiB - CHS 19457 255 63 Partition Start End Size in sectors

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  • Java Embedded Releases

    - by Tori Wieldt
    Oracle today announced a new product in its Java Platform, Micro Edition (Java ME) product portfolio, Oracle Java ME Embedded 3.2, a complete client Java runtime Optimized for resource-constrained, connected, embedded systems.  Also, Oracle is releasing Oracle Java Wireless Client 3.2, Oracle Java ME Software Development Kit (SDK) 3.2. Oracle also announced Oracle Java Embedded Suite 7.0 for larger embedded devices, providing a middleware stack for embedded systems. Small is the new big! Introducing Oracle Java ME Embedded 3.2  Oracle Java ME Embedded 3.2 is designed and optimized to meet the unique requirements of small embedded, low power devices such as micro-controllers and other resource-constrained hardware without screens or user interfaces. These include: On-the-fly application downloads and updates Remote operation, often in challenging environments Ability to add new capabilities without impacting the existing functions Support for hardware with as little as 130 kB RAM and 350 kB ROM Oracle Java Wireless Client 3.2 Oracle Java Wireless Client 3.2 is built around an optimized Java ME implementation that delivers a feature-rich application environment for mass-market mobile devices. This new release: Leverages standard JSRs, Oracle optimizations/APIs and a flexible porting layer for device specific customizations, which are tuned to device/chipset requirements Supports advanced tooling functions, such as memory and network monitoring and on-device tooling Offers new support for dual SIM functionality, which is highly useful for mass-market devices supported by multiple carriers with multiple phone connections Oracle Java ME SDK 3.2 Oracle Java ME SDK 3.2 provides a complete development environment for both Oracle Java ME Embedded 3.2 and Oracle Java Wireless Client 3.2. Available for download from OTN, The latest version includes: Small embedded device support In-field and remote administration and debugging Java ME SDK plug-ins for Eclipse and the NetBeans Integrated Development Environment (IDE), enabling more application development environments for Java ME developers. A new device skin creator that developers can use to generate their custom device skins for testing their applications. Oracle Embedded Suite 7.0 The Oracle Java Embedded Suite is a new packaged solution from Oracle (including Java DB, GlassFish for Embedded Suite, Jersey Web Services Framework, and Oracle Java SE Embedded 7 platform), created to provide value added services for collecting, managing, and transmitting data to and from other embedded devices.The Oracle Java Embedded Suite is a complete device-to-data center solution subset for embedded systems.  See Java Me and Java Embedded in Action Java ME and Java Embedded technologies will be showcased for developers at JavaOne 2012 in over 60 conference sessions and BOFs, as well as in the JavaOne Exhibition Hall. For business decision makers, the new event Java Embedded @ JavaOne you learn more about Java Embedded technologies and solutions.

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  • OpenWorld in Small Bites

    - by Kathryn Perry
    Fifty thousand attendees -- that's bigger than the cities some of us live in. Monday morning it took 20 minutes to get from Hall D in Moscone North to a conference room in Moscone South -- the crowds were crushing! A great start to a great week! Larry is as big a name as ever on the program schedule and on the Moscone stage. People were packed in Hall D and clustered around every big screen TV. He stayed on script as he laid out Oracle's SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS strategies. Every seat in Chris Leone's Fusion Apps Cloud Overview was filled on Monday morning. Oracle employees who wanted to get in were turned away. And the same thing happened in the repeat session on Wednesday. Our newest suite of apps is hot! Speaking of hot, the weather was made to order. Then it turned very San Francisco-like on Wednesday afternoon. Downright cold for those who trusted SF temps to hold in the 80's. Who did you follow on Twitter during the conference? So many voices, opinions, and convos! Great combo of social media and sharp minds. Be sure to follow @larryellison, @stevenrmiranda, and @Oracle for updates and MyPOVs. Keywords for the Apps customers at the conference were cloud, mobile, and social. Every day, every session, every speaker. Wednesday afternoon, 4 pm at the Four Seasons hotel. A large roomful of analysts and influencers firing questions at a panel of eight Fusion customers. Steve Miranda moderating. Good energy and a great exchange of information and confidence. Word on the street is that OpenWorld has outgrown San Francisco -- but moving it seems unthinkable. The city isn't just a backdrop for an industry conference - it's a headliner right up there with Larry Ellison and Pearl Jam. As you can imagine, electrical outlets were in high demand at every venue. The most popular hotels and bars near Moscone designed their interiors around accessible electrical power strips. People are plenty willing to buy a drink while they grab a charge. Wednesday afternoon, 4 pm at the Four Seasons hotel. A large roomful of analysts and influencers firing questions at a panel of eight Fusion customers. Steve Miranda moderating. Good energy and a great exchange of information and confidence. Treasure Island in the dark. Eddy Vedder has an amazing voice! And Kings of Leon over delivered on people's expectations. It was cold. It was windy. It was very fun. One analyst said it's the best customer appreciation party in the industry. 

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  • Making A Photo-Sharing App For Android In Eclipse [on hold]

    - by user3694394
    I've only just started developing mobile apps, which is something that I've been wanting to learn for a while now. I'm from an indie games studio, making PC games for around the last 3 years, and I finally decided to move into android app development. The only problem I'm having is that I don't know where to start. The project which I'm aiming to create will be something similar to Instagram, basically a photo-sharing app which allows users to take new photos, or pull them from their device, and add filters to them, before posting them. I have a rough idea of how I could go about doing this, but I need pointing towards any tutorials available for each specific step. So, here's my idea: Create a UI in eclipse (this wont be a problem for me, I should be able to do this fine through xml files) Setup a server-side database to store all user info and uploaded images (the images will need to be converted into byte arrays, and I have no idea how to do this through a database). My best idea would be to use a MySQL database to do this. Add user interactions (likes, favourites, reposts, etc.). This would, again, have to be stored in the database (or, at least, i think it would). Add the ability to take new photos using the phone's camera (I can probably do this anyway, using the Camera API). Add the ability to pull existing photos from the device (again, pretty simple to do). Add the ability to add filters to any photos (I had a look around, and there are some repos and resources which allow you to do this, but they're mainly for iOS development). Add facebook/twitter integration (possibly) to allow phots to be shared to other social networks. Create a news feed which shows users all of the latest photos from their friends, and allows them to post their own images to it. Give all registered users their own wall/page which has their latest posts/images displayed on it. Add the ability to allow users to follow other users, and display their followed users posts on their news feed. Yep. It's not going to be easy, and I don't even know if it's possible for me to do alone in Eclipse. However, this is the plan, and I'm going to do my best to learn everything I need to know to do this successfully. My actual question would be how should I start doing this- where do I begin learning how to do all of this? I've had a look at snapify, which can be edited via Parse, but I won't be spending hundreds of dollars (since I'm 15 and just don't have the available funds) on software. I have extensive knowledge of Java (again, I've been making games for around 3 years, mainly in Java), and various scripting languages. So, hopefully, this will be of some use here. Thanks in advance, Josh.

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  • What does the Spring framework do? Should I use it? Why or why not?

    - by sangfroid
    So, I'm starting a brand-new project in Java, and am considering using Spring. Why am I considering Spring? Because lots of people tell me I should use Spring! Seriously, any time I've tried to get people to explain what exactly Spring is or what it does, they can never give me a straight answer. I've checked the intros on the SpringSource site, and they're either really complicated or really tutorial-focused, and none of them give me a good idea of why I should be using it, or how it will make my life easier. Sometimes people throw around the term "dependency injection", which just confuses me even more, because I think I have a different understanding of what that term means. Anyway, here's a little about my background and my app : Been developing in Java for a while, doing back-end web development. Yes, I do a ton of unit testing. To facilitate this, I typically make (at least) two versions of a method : one that uses instance variables, and one that only uses variables that are passed in to the method. The one that uses instance variables calls the other one, supplying the instance variables. When it comes time to unit test, I use Mockito to mock up the objects and then make calls to the method that doesn't use instance variables. This is what I've always understood "dependency injection" to be. My app is pretty simple, from a CS perspective. Small project, 1-2 developers to start with. Mostly CRUD-type operations with a a bunch of search thrown in. Basically a bunch of RESTful web services, plus a web front-end and then eventually some mobile clients. I'm thinking of doing the front-end in straight HTML/CSS/JS/JQuery, so no real plans to use JSP. Using Hibernate as an ORM, and Jersey to implement the webservices. I've already started coding, and am really eager to get a demo out there that I can shop around and see if anyone wants to invest. So obviously time is of the essence. I understand Spring has quite the learning curve, plus it looks like it necessitates a whole bunch of XML configuration, which I typically try to avoid like the plague. But if it can make my life easier and (especially) if make it can make development and testing faster, I'm willing to bite the bullet and learn Spring. So please. Educate me. Should I use Spring? Why or why not?

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  • Oracle Customer Success Forum - Batesville - Oracle Sales Cloud - June 24th, 5pm CET

    - by Richard Lefebvre
    Batesville uses Oracle Sales Cloud to create a common platform and standardize processes for business transformation across field sales and telesales. Using real-time KPI dashboards, they are measuring their business success with consistency across their sales reps.We are pleased to invite you to a discussion with Batesville on industry trends, why sales automation is important, reasons for choosing Oracle Sales Cloud, and the vendor evaluation process. Please click on the register button to confirm your attendance by 5:00 p.m. Pacific Time on June 23, 2014.Speakers: Diane Kinker, Director CRM Program Chris Haven, Senior Director Product Management, Oracle (Moderator) Organization Profile:Batesville (www.Batesville.com), a wholly owned subsidiary of Hillenbrand, Inc. (NYSE:HI), is the leader in the North American death care industry. For more than 125 years, Batesville has been dedicated to helping families honor the lives of those they love®. Batesville’s innovation has changed the face of funeral service, from advancements in manufacturing and quality to patented features and memorialization offerings, technology and web-based solutions, and profit-enhancing merchandising systems and room displays. Our history of manufacturing excellence, product innovation, superior customer service and reliable delivery has helped Batesville become – and remain – a market leader. Event Description:In this informal reference call, you will have the opportunity to hear Batesville discuss industry trends, why sales automation is important, the decision making process for choosing Oracle Sales Cloud, and the vendor evaluation process. The call will open with a brief overview, followed by discussion, and an open question and answer session. Please allow one hour for the call.Why Oracle:Batesville looked to transform its sales automation processes. Oracle Sales Cloud met these needs and Batesville’s requirements for: Standardized end-to-end Sales Processes including Sales Performance Management (territory management, quota management and incentive compensation) Mobile capabilities with integration to Microsoft Outlook and Smartphones Creation of the WIG Dashboard (Wildly Important Goal) using reporting and analytics Click the Register Now button to confirm your attendance for this informative event. Registration will close at 5:00 p.m. Pacific Time on June 23, 2014.After you register your information will be forwarded through an Approval Process. Once your registration request has been validated against the invitation database, you will receive an email confirmation with your registration details as long as there is availability. Please be advised that Batesville will revise the registrants list and may dismiss registrations as they see fit. Register Now!

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  • WebLogic Partner Community Newsletter June 2012

    - by JuergenKress
    Dear WebLogic partner community member Happy New fiscal Year FY13 - thanks for the FY12 middleware business! Our WebLogic Partner Community grew very fast to 800+ members! To continue our joint successful business in the new fiscal year our top priorities in FY13 are: Become trained:the next opportunity are the summer camps in Lisbon & Munich or our on-demand training WebLogic 12c & ExaLogic & ADF see our detailed training calendar below. Run your marketing & sales campaign: sales kits, marketing kits, solution catalog add your services to oracle.com, add your events to oracle.com and advertisement Get recognized: OFM awards, partner excellence awards & references & plaques Become Specialized: All of the above makes the Oracle WebLogic 12c & ExaLogic & ADF Specialization! Make sure you get your Specialization benefits! Topics: Key product focus areas will be: ias to WebLogic & ExaLogic, ADF mobile and Oracle Java Cloud platform. Get a sneak preview of our FY13 sales plays (Oracle and Partner confidential) If you can not attend our Summer Camps and our WebLogic 12c Bootcamps please register for the on-demand Oracle WebLogic Server 12c Sales Boot Camp & Oracle WebLogic Server 12c PreSales Boot Camp and the WebLogic Server: Diagnosing Performance Webcast From June 1st 2012 ExaLogic Specialization is mandatory for re-sell! To support you with your opportunities we published the ExaLogic Kit & Cloud Application Foundation kit which includes sales ppt presentations and technical details! We are also highly interested to run a joint iAS to WebLogic upgrade marketing campaign! See you in Lisbon! Jürgen Kress Oracle WebLogic Partner Adoption EMEA To read the newsletter please visit http://tinyurl.com/WebLogicnewsJunea2012 (OPN Account required) To become a member of the WebLogic Partner Community please register at http://www.oracle.com/partners/goto/wls-emea ( OPN account required). If you need support with your account please contact the Oracle Partner Business Center. Blog Twitter LinkedIn Mix Forum Wiki Technorati Tags: WebLogic Community newsletter,WebLogic,WebLogic Community,OPN,Oracle,Jürgen Kress,WebLogic 12c,Fusion Middleware Innovation Awards 2012,SPCEjEnterprise 2012 Benchmark,WebLogic Benchmark Sun,Java training,WebLogic advisor webcast

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  • We need you! Sign up now to give Oracle your feedback on future product design trends at OpenWorld 2012

    - by mvaughan
    By Kathy Miedema, Oracle Applications User Experience Get the most from your Oracle OpenWorld 2012 experience and participate in a usability feedback session, where your expertise will help Oracle develop unbeatable products and solutions. Sign up to attend a one-hour session during Oracle OpenWorld. You’ll learn about Oracle’s future design trends -- including mobile applications and social networking -- and how these trends will affect your users down the road. A street scene from Oracle OpenWorld 2011. Oracle’s usability experts will guide you through practical learning sessions on the user experience of various business applications, middleware, and more. All user feedback sessions will be conducted October 1–3 at the InterContinental San Francisco Hotel on Howard Street, just a few steps away from the Moscone Center. To best match you with a user feedback activity, we will ask you about your role at your company. Our user feedback opportunities include focus groups, surveys, and one-on-one sessions with usability engineers. What do you get out of it? Customer and partner participants in the past have been surprised to learn how tuned in Oracle is to work that their applications users do every day. Oracle’s User Experience team members are trained to listen carefully, ask specific questions, interpret your answers, and work with designers to create products and solutions that suit your needs. Our goal is to help make you and your users more productive and efficient. Learn about Oracle’s process, and take advantage of the chance to give your specific feedback to the designers who create the enterprise applications of your future. See for yourself how Oracle collects feedback and measures its designs for turning them into code. Seats are limited for Oracle’s user feedback sessions, so sign up now by sending an e-mail to [email protected] with the subject line: Sign Me Up for an Oracle OpenWorld 2012 UX Session. For more information about customer feedback sessions and what you can learn from them, please visit the Usable Apps website. When: Monday-Wednesday during OpenWorld 2012, Oct. 1-3 Where: The InterContinental San Francisco Hotel How to sign up: RSVP now by sending an email to [email protected] with the subject line “Sign me up for an OOW 2012 UX Session.” Learn more: Visit the Usable Apps website at Get Involved.

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  • What is 'Ubuntu Unity' (for the Desktop)?

    - by Martin
    Ok, so there's the buzz of Canonical (wanting to) switch for new Ubuntu version from the GNOME default desktop to their own Unity shell. (I hope that's accurate.) It seems I can not totally fathom what Unity actually is. For looking at its homepage it currently is firmly targeted at netbooks and the somehow different usage model on these. Is it a classical desktop? -- Taskbar? Shortcuts? Is the difference between Ubuntu(GNOME)+Unity more/less pronounced than the difference between Ubuntu and Kubuntu? Will "my parents" be able to get the interface if they've been using the classical gnome desktop so far? Edit: I would not like to split this up into more specific questions, as What is Unity? is exactly what the people I set up Ubuntu boxes for will ask me if they hear that the newer Ubuntu version is using that instead of the Desktop -- and it might well happen someone phrases it like that :-) I will certainly not give them the link to the HP as the explanation there does not lay out if it is a desktop or something more or something less: (It does not for me - therefore I'm asking here.) Unity is designed for netbooks and related touch-based devices. It includes [...] that makes it fast and easy to access [...] while removing screen elements that are rarely used in mobile and netbook computing. (emphasis mine) -- the explanation there doesn't even mention the desktop-PC! Unity has a vertical task management panel on the left-hand side and a menu panel at the top of the screen. [...] This sounds like a re-themed normal desktop. Clicking on an icon will give the target application focus if it is already running or launch it if it is not already running. If you click the ... Aha. Sounds like Windows 7. ... icon of an application that already has focus, Unity will activate an Expose-style view of all the open windows associated with that application. No clue what that's supposed to be. So it would really be nice if someone could explain for non desktop-design-terms experts what Unity is.

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  • Managing Joomla via Android

    Surprisingly, it was only today that I actually looked for possible solutions to write more content for my blog. Since quite some time I'm using my Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 for all kind of social media activities like Google+, FB, etc. but also for my casual mail during the evening hours. And yes, I feel a little bit guilty about missing the chance to use my tablet to write some content here... OK, only a little bit. ;-) These are not the droids you are looking for But those lazy times are over! While searching the Play Store with the expression 'joomla' I got three interesting hits: - Joomla Admin Mobile! - Joooid - Joomla! Security Checklist After reading the reviews I installed the two later apps. Joomla! Security Checklist The author clearly outlines here that the app is primarily for his personal purpose to have safety checklist at hand at anytime. I guess that any reader of this article has an Android based smartphone or tablet, so that simple app should be part of your toolbox when using Joomla! for your websites. Joooid plugin & app Although I was looking for an app that could work with the default XML RPC interface of Joomla I have to admit that this combination of an enhanced Web service suits me better, mainly due to performance reason. The official website has not only the downloads for Joomla versions 1.5 - 2.5 but also very good and easy to follow step-by-step instructions to prepare your server for the Android app. It will take you less than 5 minutes to get it up and running. For safety reasons, I recommend that you should configure your Web server to have an additional authentication layer on the plugins folder. The smartphone app has the ability to run against HTTP authentication. Personally, I like the look and feel of the app. It is a little bit different compared to the web UI but still easy to use. In fact, this article is the first one written in the Joooid app. At the moment, I only miss the ability to have list tags. Quick and easy Writing full-fledged articles with images, a couple of hyperlinks and some styling here and there should be left to the desktop. At least for the moment. Let's see whether I'm going to change my mind on this during the upcoming months... I'll give it a try, and hope to publish at least once per month to write some content using Joooid. Actually, it would be great to have some feedback about other Joomla! clients in the wild.

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  • Rotating WebLogic Server logs to avoid large files using WLST.

    - by adejuanc
    By default, when WebLogic Server instances are started in development mode, the server automatically renames (rotates) its local server log file as SERVER_NAME.log.n.  For the remainder of the server session, log messages accumulate in SERVER_NAME.log until the file grows to a size of 500 kilobytes.Each time the server log file reaches this size, the server renames the log file and creates a new SERVER_NAME.log to store new messages. By default, the rotated log files are numbered in order of creation filenamennnnn, where filename is the name configured for the log file. You can configure a server instance to include a time and date stamp in the file name of rotated log files; for example, server-name-%yyyy%-%mm%-%dd%-%hh%-%mm%.log.By default, when server instances are started in production mode, the server rotates its server log file whenever the file grows to 5000 kilobytes in size. It does not rotate the local server log file when the server is started. For more information about changing the mode in which a server starts, see Change to production mode in the Administration Console Online Help.You can change these default settings for log file rotation. For example, you can change the file size at which the server rotates the log file or you can configure a server to rotate log files based on a time interval. You can also specify the maximum number of rotated files that can accumulate. After the number of log files reaches this number, subsequent file rotations delete the oldest log file and create a new log file with the latest suffix.  Note: WebLogic Server sets a threshold size limit of 500 MB before it forces a hard rotation to prevent excessive log file growth. To Rotate via WLST : #invoke WLSTC:\>java weblogic.WLST#connect WLST to an Administration Serverawls:/offline> connect('username','password')#navigate to the ServerRuntime MBean hierarchywls:/mydomain/serverConfig> serverRuntime()wls:/mydomain/serverRuntime>ls()#navigate to the server LogRuntimeMBeanwls:/mydomain/serverRuntime> cd('LogRuntime/myserver')wls:/mydomain/serverRuntime/LogRuntime/myserver> ls()-r-- Name myserver-r-- Type LogRuntime-r-x forceLogRotation java.lang.Void :#force the immediate rotation of the server log filewls:/mydomain/serverRuntime/LogRuntime/myserver> cmo.forceLogRotation()wls:/mydomain/serverRuntime/LogRuntime/myserver> The server immediately rotates the file and prints the following message: <Mar 2, 2012 3:23:01 PM EST> <Info> <Log Management> <BEA-170017> <The log file C:\diablodomain\servers\myserver\logs\myserver.log will be rotated. Reopen the log file if tailing has stopped. This can happen on some platforms like Windows.><Mar 2, 2012 3:23:01 PM EST> <Info> <Log Management> <BEA-170018> <The log file has been rotated to C:\diablodomain\servers\myserver\logs\myserver.log00001. Log messages will continue to be logged in C:\diablodomain\servers\myserver\logs\myserver.log.> To specify the Location of the archived Log Files The following command specifies the directory location for the archived log files using the -Dweblogic.log.LogFileRotationDir Java startup option: java -Dweblogic.log.LogFileRotationDir=c:\foo-Dweblogic.management.username=installadministrator-Dweblogic.management.password=installadministrator weblogic.Server For more information read the following documentation ; Using the WebLogic Scripting Tool http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E13222_01/wls/docs103/config_scripting/using_WLST.html Configuring WebLogic Logging Services http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E12840_01/wls/docs103/logging/config_logs.html

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  • Styling Windows Phone Silverlight Applications

    - by Tim Murphy
    If you have not developed with styles in Silverlight/XAML then it can be challenging and resources can be sparse depending on how deep you get.  One thing that you need to understand is what level you can apply styles and how much they can cascade.  What I am finding is that this doesn’t go to the level that we are used to in HTML and CSS. While styles can be defined at a page level if you want to share styles throughout your application they should be defined in the App.xaml file.  This is of course analogous to placing a style in your HTML file versus an external CSS file.  This is the type of style I will concentrate on in this post. The first thing to look it how styles associate to elements.  TargetType defines the object type that your style will apply to.  In the example below the style is targeting the TextBlock object type. <Style x:Key="TextBlockSmallGray" TargetType="TextBlock"> Next we use a Setter which allows you to apply values for specific attributes of the target object type.  The setters can be a simple value or complex.  The first example here is simply applying a color to the background property of the target. <Setter Property="Background" Value="White"/> The second setter example here is for the same property, but we are applying a the definition of a LinearGradientBrush. <Setter Property="Background"> <Setter.Value> <LinearGradientBrush> <GradientStop Offset="0" Color="Black"/> <GradientStop Offset="1" Color="White"/> </LinearGradientBrush> </Setter.Value> </Setter> The last thing I want to cover here is that you can leverage the system styles and then override or extend them.  The BasedOn attribute of the Style tag allows this sort of inheritance.  In the example below I am going to start with the PhoneTextTitleStyle and then override properties as needed. <Style x:Key="TextBlockTitle" BasedOn="{StaticResource PhoneTextTitle1Style}" TargetType="TextBlock"> So now that we have our styles defined applying it is fairly straight forward.  Add the style name as a static resource to the style property of the element in your page and off you go. <Grid x:Name="LayoutRoot" Style="{StaticResource PageGridStyle}"> So this is one step in creating consistency in your application’s look.  In future posts I will dig a little deeper. del.icio.us Tags: windows phone 7,mobile development,windows phone 7 development,.NET,software development,design,UX

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  • Data Virtualization: Federated and Hybrid

    - by Krishnamoorthy
    Data becomes useful when it can be leveraged at the right time. Not only enterprises application stores operate on large volume, velocity and variety of data. Mobile and social computing are in the need of operating in foresaid data. Replicating and transferring large swaths of data is one challenge faced in the field of data integration. However, smaller chunks of data aggregated from a variety of sources presents and even more interesting challenge in the industry. Over the past few decades, technology trends focused on best user experience, operating systems, high performance computing, high performance web sites, analysis of warehouse data, service oriented architecture, social computing, cloud computing, and big data. Operating on the ‘dark data’ becomes mandatory in the future technology trend, although, no solution can make dark data useful data in a single day. Useful data can be quantified by the facts of contextual, personalized and on time delivery. In most cases, data from a single source may not be complete the picture. Data has to be combined and computed from various sources, where data may be captured as hybrid data, meaning the combination of structured and unstructured data. Since related data is often found across disparate sources, effectively integrating these sources determines how useful this data ultimately becomes. Technology trends in 2013 are expected to focus on big data and private cloud. Consumers are not merely interested in where data is located or how data is retrieved and computed. Consumers are interested in how quick and how the data can be leveraged. In many cases, data virtualization is the right solution, and is expected to play a foundational role for SOA, Cloud integration, and Big Data. The Oracle Data Integration portfolio includes a data virtualization product called ODSI (Oracle Data Service Integrator). Unlike other data virtualization solutions, ODSI can perform both read and write operations on federated/hybrid data (RDBMS, Webservices,  delimited file and XML). The ODSI Engine is built on XQuery, hence ODSI user can perform computations on data either using XQuery or SQL. Built in data and query caching features, which reduces latency in repetitive calls. Rightly positioning ODSI, can results in a highly scalable model, reducing spend on additional hardware infrastructure.

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  • [JAVA]How to make my Oracle update/insert action through JAVA faster?

    - by gunbuster363
    [JAVA]How to make my Oracle update/insert action through JAVA faster? Hi everyone, I am facing a problem in my company that is - our program's speed is not fast enough. To be more specific, we are telecommunication company and this program handle call/internet serfing transaction made by every mobile phone users in our city. Because the amount of download content made by the iphone users is just too much, our program cannot handle them fast enough. The situation is, the amount of transaction made by users are double of the transaction processed by our program. Most of the running time of the program are dominated by DB transactions. I've search through the internet and browsed some sites ( for example: http://www.javaperformancetuning.com/tips/rawtips.shtml ) talking about java performace in DB, but I cannot find a suggestion suitable for us. these advices are not applicable/already used, for instance: 1)Use prepared statements. Use parametrized SQL Already used prepared statement. Each time will use different parameter by clear parameters and set parameters. 2)Tune the SQL to minimize the data returned (e.g. not 'SELECT *'). Sure, already used. 3)Use connection pooling. We hold a single connection during the program's execution. And I doubt that pooling cannot solve the problem because our program act as 1 user, so there are no problem for concurrent access to DB. If anyone of you think pooling is good, please tell me why. Thanks. 4)Try to combine queries and batch updates. Cannot do it. Every query/insert/update is depend on the database's information. For example, we look up the DB for the client's information, if we cannot find his usage, we insert the usage into DB, otherwise we do update. 5)Close resources (Connections, Statements, ResultSets) when finished Sure. 6)Select the fastest JDBC driver. I don't know. I've search on the internet about the type of driver available and I am very confused. We use oracle.jdbc.driver.OracleDriver and we use thin instead of oci, that's all I know. In addition, our program is a two-tier way ( java <- oracle ) 7)turn off auto-commit already done that. Looking forwards to any helps, thank you very much.

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  • Business Intelligence goes Big Data

    - by Alliances & Channels Redaktion
    Big Data stellt die nächste große Herausforderung für die IT-Branche dar: Massen von Daten aus immer mehr Quellen – aus sozialen Netzwerken, Telekommunikations- und Weblogs, RFID-Lesern etc. – müssen logisch verknüpft, in Echtzeit integriert und verarbeitet werden. Doch wie sieht es mit der praktischen Umsetzung aus? Eine europaweite Studie von Steria Mummert Consulting zeigt: Lediglich 28 % der Unternehmen haben bereits heute eine übergreifende, abgestimmte Business-Intelligence-Strategie implementiert. Vorherrschend sind BI-Insellösungen, die schon jetzt an den Grenzen ihrer Kapazität arbeiten. Daten werden also bisher nur eingeschränkt als wertschöpfende Ressource genutzt! Das Ergebnis der Studie klingt erschreckend, doch Unternehmen können es zu Ihrem Vorteil nutzen: Wer jetzt das Thema Big Data anpackt, kann sich einen gewinnbringenden Vorsprung vor dem Wettbewerb sichern. Wie sieht die Analyse-Umgebung der Zukunft aus? Wie und wo kann Big Data für den Geschäftserfolg genutzt werden? Antworten darauf liefert die Kunden-Event Reihe von Oracle und dem Oracle Platinum Partner Steria Mummert Consulting: Hier werden Strategien entwickelt, wie Unternehmen mit Information Discovery ihr BI-Potenzial auf dem Weg zur Big Data Schritt für Schritt ausbauen können. Highlights aus München Durchweg positives Feedback haben wir aus München, der ersten Station der Eventreihe am 23.7., erhalten: Nicht nur die tolle Location, das "La Villa" im Bamberger Haus, überzeugte. Die 31 Teilnehmerinnen und Teilnehmer konnten auch inhaltlich eine Menge mitnehmen – unter anderem einen konkreten Vorschlag für ihre eigene Roadmap in Richtung Big Data. Die Ausgangsfrage des Tages lautete – einfach und umfassend zugleich: Wie können wir den Überblick in einer komplexen Welt behalten? Den Status quo in Europa für Business Intelligence präsentierte Steria Mummert Consulting entlang der Europäischen biMA®-Studie 2012/13. Anhand von Anwendungsbeispielen aus ihrer Praxis präsentierten die geladenen Experten von Oracle und Steria Mummert Consulting verschiedene Lösungsansätze. Eine sehr anschauliche Demo zu Endeca zeigte beispielsweise, wie einfach und flexibel ein Dashboard sein kann: Hier gibt es keine vordefinierten Reports, stattdessen können Entscheider die Filter einfach per Drag & Drop verändern und bekommen so einen individuell sturkturierten Überblick über ihre Daten. Einen Ausblick bot die Session zu Oracle Business Analytics für mobile Anwendungen und Real-Time Decisions. Fazit: eine gelungene Mischung aus Überblicks-Informationen und ganz konkreten Ideen für die spezifischen Anwendungsbereiche der Kunden. Die Eventreihe „BI goes Big Data“ macht im August in Hamburg und Frankfurt Station. Die kostenfreie Veranstaltung findet zusammen mit Steria Mummert Consulting statt und richtet sich an Endkunden. In Hamburg am 14.8.2013 – zur AnmeldungIn Frankfurt a.M. am 20.8.2013 – zur Anmeldung

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  • Business Intelligence goes Big Data

    - by Alliances & Channels Redaktion
    Big Data stellt die nächste große Herausforderung für die IT-Branche dar: Massen von Daten aus immer mehr Quellen – aus sozialen Netzwerken, Telekommunikations- und Weblogs, RFID-Lesern etc. – müssen logisch verknüpft, in Echtzeit integriert und verarbeitet werden. Doch wie sieht es mit der praktischen Umsetzung aus? Eine europaweite Studie von Steria Mummert Consulting zeigt: Lediglich 28 % der Unternehmen haben bereits heute eine übergreifende, abgestimmte Business-Intelligence-Strategie implementiert. Vorherrschend sind BI-Insellösungen, die schon jetzt an den Grenzen ihrer Kapazität arbeiten. Daten werden also bisher nur eingeschränkt als wertschöpfende Ressource genutzt! Das Ergebnis der Studie klingt erschreckend, doch Unternehmen können es zu Ihrem Vorteil nutzen: Wer jetzt das Thema Big Data anpackt, kann sich einen gewinnbringenden Vorsprung vor dem Wettbewerb sichern. Wie sieht die Analyse-Umgebung der Zukunft aus? Wie und wo kann Big Data für den Geschäftserfolg genutzt werden? Antworten darauf liefert die Kunden-Event Reihe von Oracle und dem Oracle Platinum Partner Steria Mummert Consulting: Hier werden Strategien entwickelt, wie Unternehmen mit Information Discovery ihr BI-Potenzial auf dem Weg zur Big Data Schritt für Schritt ausbauen können. Highlights aus München Durchweg positives Feedback haben wir aus München, der ersten Station der Eventreihe am 23.7., erhalten: Nicht nur die tolle Location, das "La Villa" im Bamberger Haus, überzeugte. Die 31 Teilnehmerinnen und Teilnehmer konnten auch inhaltlich eine Menge mitnehmen – unter anderem einen konkreten Vorschlag für ihre eigene Roadmap in Richtung Big Data. Die Ausgangsfrage des Tages lautete – einfach und umfassend zugleich: Wie können wir den Überblick in einer komplexen Welt behalten? Den Status quo in Europa für Business Intelligence präsentierte Steria Mummert Consulting entlang der Europäischen biMA®-Studie 2012/13. Anhand von Anwendungsbeispielen aus ihrer Praxis präsentierten die geladenen Experten von Oracle und Steria Mummert Consulting verschiedene Lösungsansätze. Eine sehr anschauliche Demo zu Endeca zeigte beispielsweise, wie einfach und flexibel ein Dashboard sein kann: Hier gibt es keine vordefinierten Reports, stattdessen können Entscheider die Filter einfach per Drag & Drop verändern und bekommen so einen individuell sturkturierten Überblick über ihre Daten. Einen Ausblick bot die Session zu Oracle Business Analytics für mobile Anwendungen und Real-Time Decisions. Fazit: eine gelungene Mischung aus Überblicks-Informationen und ganz konkreten Ideen für die spezifischen Anwendungsbereiche der Kunden. Die Eventreihe „BI goes Big Data“ macht im August in Hamburg und Frankfurt Station. Die kostenfreie Veranstaltung findet zusammen mit Steria Mummert Consulting statt und richtet sich an Endkunden. In Hamburg am 14.8.2013 – zur AnmeldungIn Frankfurt a.M. am 20.8.2013 – zur Anmeldung

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  • A starting point for Use Cases and User Stories

    - by Mike Benkovich
    Originally posted on: http://geekswithblogs.net/benko/archive/2013/07/23/a-starting-point-for-use-cases-and-user-stories.aspxSoftware is a challenging business and is rife with opportunities to go wrong. Over the years a number of methodologies have evolved to help make sure that things go right. In an effort to contribute to this I’ve created a list of user stories that I think should be included and sometimes are just assumed. Note this is a work in progress, so I’m looking for your feedback. I’m curious what you would add or change in my list. · As a DBA I am working with a Normalized data model that reflects an agreed upon logical model for the system · As a DBA I am using consistent names for my fields which match the naming standards of my organization · As a DBA my model supports simple CRUD operations against all the entities · As an Application Architect the UI has been validated against the Business requirements and a complete set of user story’s have been created · As an Application Architect the database model has been validated against the UI · As an Application Architect we have a logical business model that describes all the known and/or expected usage of the system during the software’s expected lifecycle · As an Application Architect we have a Deployment diagram that describes how the application components will be deployed · As an Application Architect we have a navigation diagram that describes the typical application flow · As an Application Architect we have identified points of interaction which describes how the UI interacts with the services and the data storage · As an Application Architect we have identified external systems which may now or in the future use the data of this application and have adapted the logical model to include these interactions · As an Application Architect we have identified existing systems and tools that can be extended and/or reused to help this application achieve it’s business goals · As a Project Manager all team members understand the goals of each release and iteration as they are planned · As a Project Manager all team members understand their role and the roles of others · As a Project Manager we have support of the business to do the right thing even if it is not the expedient thing · As a Test/QA Analyst we have created a simulation environment for testing the system which does not use sensitive data and accurately reflects the scenarios of all the data that will be supported by the system · As a Test/QA Analyst we have identified the matrix of supported clients used to access the system including the likely browsers, mobile devices and other interfaces to work with the application · As a Test/QA Analyst we have created exit criteria for each user story that match the requirements of the business story that was used to create them · As a Test/QA Analyst we have access to a Test environment that is isolated from production and staging environments · As a Test/QA Analyst there we have a way to reset the environment so we can rerun tests when a new version of the software becomes available · As a Test/QA Analyst I am able to automate portions of the test process Thoughts? -mike

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  • Microsoft and Application Architectures

    Microsoft has dealt with several kinds of application architectures to include but not limited to desktop applications, web applications, operating systems, relational database systems, windows services, and web services. Because of the size and market share of Microsoft, virtually every modern language works with or around a Microsoft product. Some of the languages include: Visual Basic, VB.Net, C#, C++, C, ASP.net, ASP, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Java and XML. From my experience, Microsoft strives to maintain an n-tier application standard where an application is comprised of multiple layers that perform specific functions, for example: presentation layer, business layer, data access layer are three general layers that just about every formally structured application contains. The presentation layer contains anything to do with displaying information to the screen and how it appears on the screen. The business layer is the middle man between the presentation layer and data access layer and transforms data from the data access layer in to useable information to be stored later or sent to an output device through the presentation layer. The data access layer does as its name implies, it allows the business layer to access data from a data source like MS SQL Server, XML, or another data source. One of my favorite technologies that Microsoft has come out with recently is the .Net Framework. This framework allows developers to code an application in multiple languages and compiles them in to one intermediate language called the Common Language Runtime (CLR). This allows VB and C# developers to work seamlessly together as if they were working in the same project. The only real disadvantage to using the .Net Framework is that it only natively runs on Microsoft operating systems. However, Microsoft does control a majority of the operating systems currently installed on modern computers and servers, especially with personal home computers. Given that the Microsoft .Net Framework is so flexible it is an ideal for business to develop applications around it as long as they wanted to commit to using Microsoft technologies and operating systems in the future. I have been a professional developer for about 9+ years now and have seen the .net framework work flawlessly in just about every instance I have used it. In addition, I have used it to develop web applications, mobile phone applications, desktop applications, web service applications, and windows service applications to name a few.

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  • At $20/month Windows Azure host my website with 99.97% uptime

    - by Gopinath
    Couple of years ago a reliable and decent performing Windows hosting was not affordable to many enthusiastic developers who want to try a startup idea or build a hobby site. I tried to start an ASP.NET website few years ago to provide services like – Mobile Tracing, Vehicle Tracing. But due to high cost of Windows hosting I developed those services using PHP (not an easy task for .NET developer) and hosted on them Linux servers.  But with recent evolution of Windows Azure, hosting ASP.NET websites on highly reliable servers is affordable. Today anyone can host a high responsive and available ASP.NET website for just $20/month using Windows Azure. My website coziie.com is running on Windows Azure and serves close to quarter millions visitors a month with 99.97% of uptime and most of the page load times are less than 3 seconds. All I spend to run this website is just around $20, if you translate it to India rupees its roughly Rs.1000. The web sever of coziie.com is powered by a single Extra Small Web role instance and the backend is powered by a SQL Azure instance. Azure is quite impressive to provide 99.97% of uptime. Response times during peak are around 3 seconds and on nomarl loads it is around 1.5 seconds. Here is the report of uptime provided by Royal Pingdom over last one year For just $20/month Windows Azure takes care of the following apart from hosting Patches up Windows OS to the latest version Upgrades ASP.NET to the latest version – coziie.com is running on ASP.NET MVC 3 and soon I’ll upgrade it to ASP.NET MVC 4 Hosts data on latest and best version Sql Server database SQL Azure maintains 3 copies of database and automatically recovers in case of server failures and disasters. I never worry about database backups/restore. Provides staging environment for deploying applications for testing purpose and move them to production – I upgrade  twice a month on average With Windows Azure I no longer focus on server maintenance or data backups. They are taken up by Microsoft team and I just focus on building my website. Wish there is a low cost Linux version of Windows Azure so that I can stop worrying about server maintenance of this blog!! If you are looking for a Windows hosting, look no further than Windows Azure. If you find $20/month is a bit expensive to start with you may explore Azure Website (sort of shared hosted environment) which is free to start with and as your traffic grows you can move to paid hosting.

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  • Seeking advice on tools and technology for my new game [closed]

    - by k.k. slider
    I'm a C# developer who has been programming a game in my spare time using XNA and Visual Studio. The game's logic is mostly done and I've completed a prototype that has most of the functionality of (what I envision to be) the final game. However, having heard about the uncertain future and (possibly) limited audience for XNA games, I'm looking to switch platforms... but I don't know what technology would best suit my needs. Below are some specifics about my game and what exactly I'm looking for, if you're interested: The game is a 2D turn-based tactical RPG (strategy game) for two players. It is a basic sprite and tile based game with animations and sound. 3D capabilities are not necessary. I'd like to allow players to compete with others online, and have a basic ranking/matchmaking system. I will probably need something that can interact with a server and a database (the game is turn-based and has no RNG, so cheating would be easy to detect even if most computation is done client-side and minimal data is sent to the server). Ideally, I would be able to release an early version of the game and have people give feedback as I develop additional features (similar to Minecraft). I'd prefer to have a way to release periodic updates to the game instead of releasing an absolute final product. To reach the widest possible audience, I'd prefer technology that allows me to release on PC, Android, iOS, and (maybe) Mac. This is a game with simple mouse inputs which can fit on a mobile touch screen. The game should be monetizable. If I find success with this game, then I may consider becoming a full-time indie game developer. I have several other game ideas and have learned quite a bit from my first attempt at game development. My first thought was an F2P/microtransaction model, but I'm open to other suggestions. Language isn't a primary concern of mine, since I have a decent amount of experience using several languages to program large projects. I'm willing to spend money (e.g. on a developer's license), but the more expensive it gets, the more hesitant I am to use it. I've looked into the following solutions... there are a LOT of tools out there... if anyone has experience with any of these and would like to recommend/reject any of them, it would be helpful. C#/.NET (XNA/MonoGame/SDL/SlimDX/Xamarin/ExEn/ANX?) HTML5/JS (AppMobi/PhoneGap/Marmalade/FlashCanvas/Cordova/libRocket?) Python (Pyglet/Pygame/Kivy?) Java (JavaFX/libGDX?) Unity/Construct 2/Cocos2D/NME/Corona/other game creation software? I'd like something that can do 2D and isn't limited by being too high-level. Other languages (Lua/LOVE? Moai?) Thanks for answering this rather long and tedious question...

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  • How do I maintain a really poorly written code base?

    - by onlineapplab.com
    Recently I got hired to work on existing web application because of NDA I'm not at liberty to disclose any details but this application is working online in sort of a beta testing stage before official launch. We have a few hundred users right now but this number is supposed to significantly increase after official launch. The application is written in PHP (but it is irrelevant to my question) and is running on a dual xeon processor standalone server with severe performance problems. I have seen a lot of bad PHP code but this really sets new standards, especially knowing how much time and money was invested in developing it. it is as badly coded as possible there is PHP, HTML, SQL mixed together and code is repeated whenever it is necessary (especially SQL queries). there are not any functions used, not mentioning any OOP there are four versions of the app (desktop, iPhone, Android + other mobile) each version has pretty much the same functionality but was created by copying the whole code base, so now there are some differences between each version and it is really hard to maintain the database is really badly designed, which is causing severe performance problems also for fixing some errors in PHP code there is a lot of database triggers used which are updating data on SELECT and on INSERT so any testing is a nightmare Basically, any sin of a bad programming you can imagine is there for example it is not only possible to use SQL injections in literally every place but you can log into app if you use a login which doesn't exist and an empty password. The team which created this app is not working on it any more and there is an outsourced team which suggested that there are some problems but was never willing to deal with the elephant in the room partially because they've got a very comfortable contract and partially due to lack of skills (just my opinion). My job was supposed to be fixing some performance problems and extending existing functionality but first thing I was asked to do was a review of the existing code base. I've made my review and it was quite a shock for the management but my conclusions were after some time finally confirmed by other programmers. Management made it clear that it is not possible to start rewriting this app from scratch (which in my opinion should be done). We have to maintain its operable state and at the same time fix performance errors and extend the functionality. My question is, as I don't want just to patch the existing code, how to transform this into properly written app while keeping the existing code working at the same time? My plan is: Unify four existing versions into common code base (fixing only most obvious errors). Redesign db and use triggers to populate it with data (so data will be maintained in two formats at the same time) All new functionality will be written as separate project. Step by step transfer existing functionality into the new project After some time everything will be in the new project Some explanation about #2, right now it is practically impossible to make any updates in existing db any change requires reviewing whole code and making changes in many places. Is such plan feasible at all? Another solution is to walk away and leave the headache to someone else.

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  • career planning advice [closed]

    - by JDB
    Possible Duplicate: Are certifications worth it? I am at the point in my career where people start to veer off into either management-type roles or they focus on solidifying their technical skills to stay in the development game for the long-haul. Here's my story: I've got a degree in economics, an MA in Political Science and an MBA in Finance and Management. In addition, I've done coursework in advanced math and software development (although no degree in math or software). All-in-all, I've got 13 years of post-secondary education under my belt. I, however, currently work as a software developer using C# for desktop, Silverlight, Flex and javascript for web, and objective c for mobile. I've been in software development for the past 3.3 years, and it seems like it comes pretty easy to me. I work in a field called "geospatial information systems," which just involves customization and manipulation of geospatial data. Right now I am looking at one of several certifications. Given this background, which of these certifications has the highest ceiling? CFA PMP various development/technological certifications from Microsoft, etc. Other? My academic and work experience are all heavy on the analytical/development side, esp. so given the MBA and the B.S. in Econ. The political science degree was really a lot of stats. So it seems that I would be good pursuing more of the CFA/analytical role. This is a difficult path, however, because I have no work experience in the financial sector, and the developers in finance are all "quants," which again, I am OK with, but I haven't done much statistical modeling in the past 3.3 years. The PMP would require knowledge of best practices as it pertains explicitly to software development. I also don't enjoy a lot of business travel, a common theme for most PMP jobs I've seen. If certifications is the route, which would you recommend? Anything else? I've thought about going back to try to knock out a B.S. in C.S., but I wasn't sure how long that would take, or what would be involved. Thoughts or recommendations? Thanks in advance! I turn 32 this weekend, which is what has forced me to think about these issues.

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  • Addressing threats introduced by the BYOD trend

    - by kyap
    With the growth of the mobile technology segment, enterprises are facing a new type of threats introduced by the BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) trend, where employees use their own devices (laptops, tablets or smartphones) not necessarily secured to access corporate network and information.In the past - actually even right now, enterprises used to provide laptops to their employees for their daily work, with specific operating systems including anti-virus and desktop management tools, in order to make sure that the pools of laptop allocated are spyware or trojan-horse free to access the internal network and sensitive information. But the BYOD reality is breaking this paradigm and open new security breaches for enterprises as most of the username/password based systems, especially the internal web applications, can be accessed by less or none protected device.To address this reality we can adopt 3 approaches:1. Coué's approach: Close your eyes and assume that your employees are mature enough to know what he/she should or should not do.2. Consensus approach: Provide a list of restricted and 'certified' devices to the internal network. 3. Military approach: Access internal systems with certified laptop ONLYIf you choose option 1: Thanks for visiting my blog and I hope you find the others entries more useful :)If you choose option 2: The proliferation of new hardware and software updates every quarter makes this approach very costly and difficult to maintain.If you choose option 3: You need to find a way to allow the access into your sensitive application from the corporate authorized machines only, managed by the IT administrators... but how? The challenge with option 3 is to find out how end-users can restrict access to certain sensitive applications only from authorized machines, or from another angle end-users can not access the sensitive applications if they are not using the authorized machine... So what if we find a way to store the applications credential secretly from the end-users, and then automatically submit them when the end-users access the application? With this model, end-users do not know the username/password to access the applications so even if the end-users use their own devices they will not able to login. Also, there's no need to reconfigure existing applications to adapt to the new authenticate scheme given that we are still leverage the same username/password authenticate model at the application level. To adopt this model, you can leverage Oracle Enterprise Single Sign On. In short, Oracle ESSO is a desktop based solution, capable to store credentials of Web and Native based applications. At the application startup and if it is configured as an esso-enabled application - check out my previous post on how to make Skype essso-enabled, Oracle ESSO takes over automatically the sign-in sequence with the store credential on behalf of the end-users. Combined with Oracle ESSO Provisioning Gateway, the credentials can be 'pushed' in advance from an actual provisioning server, like Oracle Identity Manager or Tivoli Identity Manager, so the end-users can login into sensitive application without even knowing the actual username and password, so they can not login with other machines rather than those secured by Oracle ESSO.Below is a graphical illustration of this approach:With this model, not only you can protect the access to sensitive applications only from authorized machine, you can also implement much stronger Password Policies in terms of Password Complexity as well as Password Reset Frequency but end-users will not need to remember the passwords anymore.If you are interested, do not hesitate to check out the Oracle Enterprise Single Sign-on products from OTN !

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  • How Do I Do Alpha Transparency Properly In XNA 4.0?

    - by Soshimo
    Okay, I've read several articles, tutorials, and questions regarding this. Most point to the same technique which doesn't solve my problem. I need the ability to create semi-transparent sprites (texture2D's really) and have them overlay another sprite. I can achieve that somewhat with the code samples I've found but I'm not satisfied with the results and I know there is a way to do this. In mobile programming (BREW) we did it old school and actually checked each pixel for transparency before rendering. In this case it seems to render the sprite below it blended with the alpha above it. This may be an artifact of how I'm rendering the texture but, as I said before, all examples point to this one technique. Before I go any further I'll go ahead and paste my example code. public void Draw(SpriteBatch batch, Camera camera, float alpha) { int tileMapWidth = Width; int tileMapHeight = Height; batch.Begin(SpriteSortMode.Texture, BlendState.AlphaBlend, SamplerState.PointWrap, DepthStencilState.Default, RasterizerState.CullNone, null, camera.TransformMatrix); for (int x = 0; x < tileMapWidth; x++) { for (int y = 0; y < tileMapHeight; y++) { int tileIndex = _map[y, x]; if (tileIndex != -1) { Texture2D texture = _tileTextures[tileIndex]; batch.Draw( texture, new Rectangle( (x * Engine.TileWidth), (y * Engine.TileHeight), Engine.TileWidth, Engine.TileHeight), new Color(new Vector4(1f, 1f, 1f, alpha ))); } } } batch.End(); } As you can see, in this code I'm using the overloaded SpriteBatch.Begin method which takes, among other things, a blend state. I'm almost positive that's my problem. I don't want to BLEND the sprites, I want them to be transparent when alpha is 0. In this example I can set alpha to 0 but it still renders both tiles, with the lower z ordered sprite showing through, discolored because of the blending. This is not a desired effect, I want the higher z-ordered sprite to fade out and not effect the color beneath it in such a manner. I might be way off here as I'm fairly new to XNA development so feel free to steer me in the correct direction in the event I'm going down the wrong rabbit hole. TIA

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