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• How to turn off screen (DPMS) together with locking session in KDE?

  - by gertvdijk

  First of all, I'm aware a similar question for GNOME is asked here: "Switch off laptop backlight when locking screen". Objective I would like to turn off my screen on locking the session for power saving reasons. Actual problem Locking the screen on Kubuntu (KDE) inevitably triggers the screensaver as far as I can see. There's no screensaver option other than 'Blank screen' together with its background colour set to black that comes just close to my goal. It blanks the screen, but doesn't turn off the screen. Screen's backlight will still be on and not saving any power. Current workaround A workaround via a script + shortcut key is possible, however, it's just a workaround since it doesn't trigger on all ways to lock the session. Therefore, I think it should be possible to have it done more elegantly, for example by providing this option in KDE's configuration dialog of the screensaver. The workaround I am now using is the following. A script that locks the screen and turns off the screen: #!/bin/bash qdbus org.freedesktop.ScreenSaver /ScreenSaver Lock xset dpms force standby and let it run with a shortcut key via a custom menu entry. It works. Here's why I consider it to be a workaround rather than a solution. It doesn't work for other ways to trigger the locking of the session. My actual question(s) Do I need to touching/patching KDE's source? If not what are my options? If so, could someone point me to where I can get started? what do you think is the recommended place in the GUI for configuration? I'm using Kubuntu 12.04 and willing to upgrade to KDE 4.9 or waiting for the 12.10 release.

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• How can I stop a process from moving to the background?

  - by Alex

  I have a machine running Ubuntu server version 12.04.3 LTS. On it, I'm attempting to run a node.js server that needs to stay up and running at all times. I'm running into an issue, however, where periodically I see this happen: [1]+ Stopped sudo node server.js When this happens, I have to manually bring it back with fg, which works fine, at least until it stops again. As far as I can tell, it isn't functioning properly while stopped, since I get no log files in those windows of time. So my question is this: Is there a way to prevent it from being stopped like that? I'm running it in a tmux window, if that changes anything. Also, to address the question before it gets asked: I'm running it as sudo due to some ecryptfs issues I've been having. I was originally running it in my home directory, but when it was left alive for too long things would get out of sync and the file writes it has to do would just stop working. To mitigate that, I moved it out of my home directory, but its new location requires me to use sudo permissions for everything to work correctly. Hopefully that isn't related to the whole background task thing. (sudo and tmux tags included in case one or both turn out to actually be relevant to the solution.)

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• What and all the areas of Linux a PHP developer should know about? (Like just commands of it or something advanced)

  - by droidsites

  I've developed a website using PHP but I implemented it on Windows OS and hosted it on Windows server. I just searched the PHP job market to know the on-going technology requirement and to keep my knowledge up-to-date accordingly with the job market. I see more are asking for LAMP stack. I understand the sort of skills required for a developer in PHP and MySQL. But coming to the Linux and Apache what kind of the skills exactly companies expect from a developer? On what should I be focusing in case of Linux, Apache whilst developing my website using these LAMP stack? I am going to develop a new website and want it to be using LAMP. But I want to know what difference it makes? Why LAMP stack got more demand in the job market compared to WAMP ? Edit: Sorry I thought my question is creating confusion ... so I put my question in different words as What and all the areas of a Linux a PHP developer should know about? (Like just commands of it or something advanced) Note: I am Linux newbie

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• I've inherited 200K lines of spaghetti code -- what now?

  - by kmote

  I hope this isn't too general of a question; I could really use some seasoned advice. I am newly employed as the sole "SW Engineer" in a fairly small shop of scientists who have spent the last 10-20 years cobbling together a vast code base. (It was written in a virtually obsolete language: G2 -- think Pascal with graphics). The program itself is a physical model of a complex chemical processing plant; the team that wrote it have incredibly deep domain knowledge but little or no formal training in programming fundamentals. They've recently learned some hard lessons about the consequences of non-existant configuration management. Their maintenance efforts are also greatly hampered by the vast accumulation of undocumented "sludge" in the code itself. I will spare you the "politics" of the situation (there's always politics!), but suffice to say, there is not a consensus of opinion about what is needed for the path ahead. They have asked me to begin presenting to the team some of the principles of modern software development. They want me to introduce some of the industry-standard practices and strategies regarding coding conventions, lifecycle management, high-level design patterns, and source control. Frankly, it's a fairly daunting task and I'm not sure where to begin. Initially, I'm inclined to tutor them in some of the central concepts of The Pragmatic Programmer, or Fowler's Refactoring ("Code Smells", etc). I also hope to introduce a number of Agile methodologies. But ultimately, to be effective, I think I'm going to need to hone in on 5-7 core fundamentals; in other words, what are the most important principles or practices that they can realistically start implementing that will give them the most "bang for the buck". So that's my question: What would you include in your list of the most effective strategies to help straighten out the spaghetti (and prevent it in the future)?

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• Ubiquitous Language and Custom types

  - by EdvRusj

  Note that my question is referring to those attributes that even on their own already represent a concept ( ie on their own provide a cohesive meaning ). Thus such attribute needs no additional functional support and as such is self-contained. I'm also well-aware that even with self-contained attributes the custom types may prove beneficial ( for example, they give the ability to add new behavior later, when business requirements change ). Thus, my question focuses only on whether custom types for self-contained attributes really enrich Ubiquitous Language UL a) I've read that in most cases, even simple, self-contained attributes should have custom, more descriptive types rather than basic value types ( double, string ... ), because among other things, descriptive types add to the UL, while the use of basic types instead weakens the language. I understand the importance of UL, but how does having a basic type for a self-contained attribute weaken the language, since with self-contained attributes the name of the attribute already adequately describes the concept and thus contributes to the UL vocabulary? For example, the term person_age already adequately explains the concept of quantifying the number of years a person has: class Person { string person_age; } so what could we possibly gain by also introducing the term ThingAge to the UL: class person { ThingAge person_age; } thanks

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• Is there a typical career path to learn game development "on the job"?

  - by mac

  The extended version of the question is: what is the typical career paths that a developer without specific experience in game development should take if he/she wishes to work in the game development industry? In other words, what are the positions such a programmer might aspire to get hired for, in the game industry? I am asking because it seems to me that - even without direct experience with 3D modelling, physics engines, shaders, etc... - for as much complex as these topics might be - they are still "just" top layers one can learn "on the job" if he/she has already good programming skills and experience in software design (for example during peer-programming sessions). I have no knowledge whatsoever of the game industry, so maybe I am being naïve here, but for all the other programming jobs I previously took, I learnt most of the specificities while working on concrete projects... so I wonder if there is a chance to do the same with game development. Thanks for your time and advice! :) PS: I don't know if this is important or not for answering the question, but scripting languages are the languages I am more proficient in. /mac

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• VS2012 Coded UI Test closes browser by default

  - by Tarun Arora

  *** Thanks to Steve St. Jean for asking this question and Shubhra Maji for answering this question on the ALM champs list *** 01 – Introduction The default behaviour of coded UI tests running in an Internet Explorer browser has changed between MTM 2010 and MTM 2012. When running a Coded UI test recorded in MTM 2012 or VS 2012 at the end of the test execution the instance of the browser is closed by default. 02 – Description Let’s take an example. As you can see the CloseDinnerNowWeb() method is commented out.  In VS 2010, upon running this test the browser would be left open after the test execution completes. In VS 2012 RTM the behaviour has changed. At the end of the test run, the IE window is closed even though there is no command from the test to do so. In the example below when the test runs, it opens 2 IE windows to the website. When the test run completes both the windows are closed, even though there is no command in the test to close the window. 03 – How to change the CUIT behaviour not to close the IE window after test execution? This change to this functionality in VS 2012 is by design. It is however possible to rollback the behaviour to how it originally was in VS 2010 i.e. the IE window will not close after the test execution unless otherwise commanded by the test to do so. To go back to the original functionality, set BrowserWindow.CloseOnPlaybackCleanup = false More details on the CloseOnPlaybackCleanup property can be found here http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/microsoft.visualstudio.testtools.uitesting.applicationundertest.closeonplaybackcleanup.aspx  HTH

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• Why is CS never a topic of conversation of the layman? [closed]

  - by hydroparadise

  Granted, every profession has it's technicalities. If you are an MD, you better know the anatomy of the human body, and if you are astronomer, you better know your calculus. Yet, you don't have to know these more advance topics to know that smoking might give you lung cancer because of carcinogens or the moon revolves around the earth because of gravity (thank you Discovery Channel). There's sort of a common knowledge (at least in more developed countries) of these more advanced topics. With that said, why are things like recursive descent parsing, BNF, or Turing machines hardly ever mentioned outsided 3000 or 4000 level classes in a university setting or between colleagues? Even back in my days before college in my pursuit of knowledge on how computers work, these very important topics (IMHO) never seem to get the light of day. Many different sources and sites go into "What is a processor?" or "What is RAM?", or "What is an OS?". You might get lucky and discover something about programming languages and how they play a role in how applications are created, but nothing about the tools for creating the language itself. To extend this idea, Dennis Ritchie died shortly after Steve Jobs, yet Dennis Ritchie got very little press compared to Steve Jobs. So, the heart of my question: Does the public in general not care to hear about computer science topics that make the technology in their lives work, or does the computer science community not lend itself to the general public to close the knowledge gap? Am I wrong to think the general public has the same thirst for knowledge on how things work as I do? Please consider the question carefully before answering or vote closing please.

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• Views : ViewControllers, many to one, or one to one?

  - by conor

  I have developed an Android application where, typically, each view (layout.xml) displayed on the screen has it's own corresponding fragment (for the purpose of this question I may refer to this as a ViewController). These views and Fragments/ViewControllers are appropriately named to reflect what they display. So this has the effect of allowing the programmer to easily pinpoint the files associated with what they see on any given screen. The above refers to the one to one part of my question. Please note that with the above there are a few exceptions where very similar is displayed on two views so the ViewController is used for two views. (Using a simple switch (type) to determine what layout.xml file to load) On the flip side. I am currently working on the iOS version of the same app, which I didn't develop. It seems that they are adopting more of a one-to-many (ViewController:View) approach. There appears to be one ViewController that handles the display logic for many different types of views. In the ViewController are an assortment of boolean flags and arrays of data (to be displayed) that are used to determine what view to load and how to display it. This seems very cumbersome to me and coupled with no comments/ambiguous variable names I am finding it very difficult to implement changes into the project. What do you guys think of the two approaches? Which one would you prefer? I'm really considering putting in some extra time at work to refactor the iOS into a more 1:1 oriented approach. My reasoning for 1:1 over M:1 is that of modularity and legibility. After all, don't some people measure the quality of code based on how easy it is for another developer to pick up the reigns or how easy it is to pull a piece of code and use it somewhere else?

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• How do I use an API?

  - by GRardB

  Background I have no idea how to use an API. I know that all APIs are different, but I've been doing research and I don't fully understand the documentation that comes along with them. There's a programming competition at my university in a month and a half that I want to compete in (revolved around APIs) but nobody on my team has ever used one. We're computer science majors, so we have experience programming, but we've just never been exposed to an API. I tried looking at Twitter's documentation, but I'm lost. Would anyone be able to give me some tips on how to get started? Maybe a very easy API with examples, or explaining essential things about common elements of different APIs? I don't need a full-blown tutorial on Stack Overflow; I just need to be pointed in the right direction. Update The programming languages that I'm most fluent in are C (simple text editor usually) and Java (Eclipse). In an attempt to be more specific with my question: I understand that APIs (and yes, external libraries are what I was referring to) are simply sets of functions. Question I guess what I'm trying to ask is how I would go about accessing those functions. Do I need to download specific files and include them in my programs, or do they need to be accessed remotely, etc.?

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• Is there really anything to gain with complex design? [duplicate]

  - by SB2055

  This question already has an answer here: What is enterprise software, exactly? 8 answers I've been working for a consulting firm for some time, with clients of various sizes, and I've seen web applications ranging in complexity from really simple: MVC Service Layer EF DB To really complex: MVC UoW DI / IoC Repository Service UI Tests Unit Tests Integration Tests But on both ends of the spectrum, the quality requirements are about the same. In simple projects, new devs / consultants can hop on, make changes, and contribute immediately, without having to wade through 6 layers of abstraction to understand what's going on, or risking misunderstanding some complex abstraction and costing down the line. In all cases, there was never a need to actually make code swappable or reusable - and the tests were never actually maintained past the first iteration because requirements changed, it was too time-consuming, deadlines, business pressure, etc etc. So if - in the end - testing and interfaces aren't used rapid development (read: cost-savings) is a priority the project's requirements will be changing a lot while in development ...would it be wrong to recommend a super-simple architecture, even to solve a complex problem, for an enterprise client? Is it complexity that defines enterprise solutions, or is it the reliability, # concurrent users, ease-of-maintenance, or all of the above? I know this is a very vague question, and any answer wouldn't apply to all cases, but I'm interested in hearing from devs / consultants that have been in the business for a while and that have worked with these varying degrees of complexity, to hear if the cool-but-expensive abstractions are worth the overall cost, at least while the project is in development.

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• what's the difference between Routed Events and Attached Events?

  - by vverma01

  I tried to find through various sources but still unable to understand difference between routed events and attached events in WPF. Most of the places of reference for attached event following example is used: <StackPanel Button.Click="StackPanel_Click"> <Button Content="Click Me!" Height="35" Width="150" Margin="5" /> </StackPanel> Explained as: stack panel do not contain Click event and hence Button.Click event is attached to Stack Panel. Where as msdn says: You can also name any event from any object that is accessible through the default namespace by using a typename.event partially qualified name; this syntax supports attaching handlers for routed events where the handler is intended to handle events routing from child elements, but the parent element does not also have that event in its members table. This syntax resembles an attached event syntax, but the event here is not a true attached event. Instead, you are referencing an event with a qualified name. According to MSDN information as pasted above, the above example of Buttons and StackPanel is actually a routed event example and not true attached event example. In case if above example is truly about usage of attached event (Button.Click="StackPanel_Click") then it's in contradiction to the information as provided at MSDN which says Another syntax usage that resembles typename.eventname attached event syntax but is not strictly speaking an attached event usage is when you attach handlers for routed events that are raised by child elements. You attach the handlers to a common parent, to take advantage of event routing, even though the common parent might not have the relevant routed event as a member. A similar question was raised in this Stack Overflow post, but unfortunately this question was closed before it could collect any response. Please help me to understand how attached events are different from routed events and also clarify the ambiguity as pointed above.

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• Server-side Architecture for Online Game

  - by Draiken

  basically I have a game client that has communicate with a server for almost every action it takes, the game is in Java (using LWJGL) and right now I will start making the server. The base of the game is normally one client communicating with the server alone, but I will require later on for several clients to work together for some functionalities. I've already read how authentication server should be sepparated and I intend on doing it. The problem is I am completely inexperienced in this kind of server-side programming, all I've ever programmed were JSF web applications. I imagine I'll do socket connections for pretty much every game communication since HTML is very slow, but I still don't really know where to start on my server. I would appreciate reading material or guidelines on where to start, what architecture should the game server have and maybe some suggestions on frameworks that could help me getting the client-server communication. I've looked into JNAG but I have no experience with this kind of thing, so I can't really tell if it is a solid and good messaging layer. Any help is appreciated... Thanks ! EDIT: Just a little more information about the game. It is intended to be a very complex game with several functionalities, making some functionalities a "program" inside the program. It is not an usual game, like FPS or RPG but I intend on having a lot of users using these many different "programs" inside the game. If I wasn't clear enough, I'd really appreciate people that have already developed games with java client/server architecture, how they communicated, any frameworks, apis, messaging systems, etc. It is not a question of lack of knowledge of language, more a question for advice, so I don't end up creating something that works, but in the later stages will have to be rewriten for any kind of limiting reason. PS: sorry if my english is not perfect...

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• The right way to add images to Monogame/Windows

  - by ashes999

  I'm starting out with MonoGame. For now, I'm only targeting Windows (desktop -- not Windows 8 specifically). I've used a couple of XNA products in the past (raw XNA, FlatRedBall, SilverSprite), so I may have a misunderstanding about how I should add images to my content. How do I add images to my project? Currently, I created a new Monogame project, added a folder called "Content," and added images under there; the only caveat is that I need to set the Copy to Output Directory action to one of the Copy ones. It seems strange, because my "raw" XNA project just last week had a Content project in it (XNA Framework Content Pipeline, according to VS2010), which compiled my images to XNB (I think). It seems like Monogame doesn't use the same content pipeline, but I'm not sure. Edit: My question is not about "how do I get the XNA content pipeline to work with Monogame." My question is "why would I want to use the XNA content pipeline in Monogame?" Because there are (at least) two solutions (that I see today): Add the images to the Monogame project and set the Copy to Output Directory options to copy. Add a XNA content pipeline project and add my images to that instead; reference it from my MOnogame project. Which solution should I use, and why? I currently have a working version with the first option.

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• Storing data offline with javascript

  - by Walker

  My question is about storing data offline and potentially whether I will need to bring in an outside programmer or could this be learned within a few weeks? The website I am working on will have an interface where users will login and go through a series of quizzes in the form of checkbox, drop down menus, and others. Each page/quiz area could have 20-100 total checkboxes in a series of 3-5 rows because of the comprehensive nature of course. This I can do - I know how to code the quiz and return a correct or incorrect answer based on each individual checkbox and present a cumulative score (ie: you got 57% correct). The issue lies in the fact that I would like to save the users results and keep them informed of their progress. When they complete all of the quizzes, I would like to have a visual output of their performance in each area. Storing the output from their results offline is where I think I may run into a problem with my lack of coding experience. I would also like to have a sidebar with their progress of each section (10-15) with a green percentage completion bar or a % correct which would draw from this. I have never had to code something that stores information like this offline - so back to my question - would it be better to learn the language needed or bring in a coder/developer for the back end stuff.

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• Good design for class with similar constructors

  - by RustyTheBoyRobot

  I was reading this question and thought that good points were made, but most of the solutions involved renaming one of the methods. I am refactoring some poorly written code and I've run into this situation: public class Entity { public Entity(String uniqueIdentifier, boolean isSerialNumber) { if (isSerialNumber) { this.serialNumber = uniqueIdentifier; //Lookup other data } else { this.primaryKey = uniqueIdentifier; // Lookup other data with different query } } } The obvious design flaw is that someone needed two different ways to create the object, but couldn't overload the constructor since both identifiers were of the same type (String). Thus they added a flag to differentiate. So, my question is this: when this situation arises, what are good designs for differentiating between these two ways of instantiating an object? My First Thoughts You could create two different static methods to create your object. The method names could be different. This is weak because static methods don't get inherited. You could create different objects to force the types to be different (i.e., make a PrimaryKey class and a SerialNumber class). I like this because it seems to be a better design, but it also is a pain to refactor if serialNumber is a String everywhere else.

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• Software development company business plan

  - by Navi

  I apologize in advance if this is the wrong forum for this question, so please forward me to the right place. I have about 10 years professional experience as software developer. Mostly on the Java platform doing server side programs. I have picked up a bit of Linux skills on the way as well. I know HTML and Javascript, so I can make a website that would not be too ugly, but I am not going to win any prizes with it. In fact I think I am pretty terrible in the user interface department. My initial plan is to do Android development. I read a few Android books and tried making a few apps. Since it is Java based I think I got the technical side down. Lately I have been thinking about iphone and Mac development, because of the relevant app store/development programs. The trouble is I don't know Objective C. As a side question, how long would it take me to become proficient in Objective C? Considering that I am working on my own and could hire somebody to help me for a short time for low wages if necessary what are my options? What are the pro and cons of the development programs app stores of Android and Apple? Which development/app stores are out there beside the ones I mentioned? Do you think it is necessary to find funds to get me started or should I just use my savings? If you have positive/negative experiences in a similar situations can you please share them? Thanks for your help.

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• Adding files and folders to a Root Folder (inode/directory)

  - by xBaldwin

  Ok so I'm fairly new to Ubuntu and wasn't even the one who put it one this computer(my friend did while I was storing it at his house because I was in the middle of transitioning between houses), but It's on here so I need to learn what I can so I can use it more effectively. My question at the moment is "Would it be safe to add files/folders to a folder (inode/directory) that requires Root access?" I continue to be informed by the system that the directory I am using is running low on space which I found odd seeing how I should have a lot more room on this computer. That's when I started looking at the directories and found that there are two with a bunch of un-used space on them. One says it has 46.9 GB of free space and the other has 24.9 GB of free space. Seems like a complete waste to not use that space and yet they both say they require Root access to add to them. I know that Root folders and files are normally all system folders and files. I also know that changing or deleting them can mess up the computer which right now I cant afford to do. I just don't know if it would mess anything up to add something to those folders. Thank you in advance to anyone who takes the time to reply and try to teach me about how all that works. I really do appreciate it and will do the same if by some crazy (completely unlikely) reason I have an answer to your question. :-)`

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• User Switching in XFCE 12.04 with LightDM and dumping unneeccesary Gnome libs

  - by user111120

  I'm an elder non-techie Mac-to-Linux convert trying to play the linux tech game by ear, so please be gentle! :) I am running XFCE Ubuntu 12.04 totally on a 8-gig flash drive and it's fantastic. I am starting to run into potential space issues (down to 1.0 gig free from 1.9 gigs since being installed last summer), most likely because of growing Thunderbird mail files, and this prompted my question. I just installed lightDM on my system because I want the ability to switch users in XFCE if I follow instructions on another blog. They advised using LightDM instead of GDM because LightDM doesn't download Gnome libraries. That's great since I need the space, but my question is how can I tell whether I don't already have Gnome libraries installed from other updates and such? And can I minimize having any Gnome libraries? The method for me to switch users entails creating a "fast-user-switch" file in /usr/local/bin; is there any easier way? One last thing so I din't have topen another needless thread; while experimenting I somehow lost the share folder in one of my accounts. Is there any way to get a share folder back? Thanks for any tips! Jim in NYC

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• Can org.freedesktop.Notifications.CloseNotification(uint id) be triggered and invoked via DBus?

  - by george rowell

  ref: Close button on notify-osd? Bookmark: Can org.freedesktop.Notifications.CloseNotification(uint id) be triggered and invoked via DBus? Currently, this script dbus-monitor "interface='org.freedesktop.Notifications'" | \ grep --line-buffered "member=Notify" | \ sed -u -e 's/.*/killall notify-osd/g' | \ bash will kill all pending notifications. It would be better to finesse the specific target OSD notification to cancel, by using org.freedesktop.Notifications.CloseNotification(uint id). Is there an interface method that can put this on (in?) the DBus to fire when a particular notify event occurs? The method will need to get the notify PID to use as the argument for CloseNotification(uint id). Alternatively, qdbus org.freedesktop.Notifications \ /org/freedesktop/Notifications \ org.freedesktop.Notifications.CloseNotification(uint id) could be used from the shell, if the (uint id) argument could be determined. The actual command syntax would use an integer in place of (uint id). Perhaps a better question to ask first might be "How is the DBus address for a notification found?". In hindsight the previous question "How is the (uint id) for a notification found?" is rhetorical! This previous answer: http://askubuntu.com/a/186311/89468 provided details so either method below can be used: gdbus call --session --dest org.freedesktop.DBus \ --object-path / \ --method org.freedesktop.DBus.GetConnectionUnixProcessID :1.16 returning: (uint32 8957,) or qdbus --literal --session org.freedesktop.DBus / \ org.freedesktop.DBus.GetConnectionUnixProcessID :1.16 returning: 8957

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• How do I use an API?

  - by GRardB

  Background I have no idea how to use an API. I know that all APIs are different, but I've been doing research and I don't fully understand the documentation that comes along with them. There's a programming competition at my university in a month and a half that I want to compete in (revolved around APIs) but nobody on my team has ever used one. We're computer science majors, so we have experience programming, but we've just never been exposed to an API. I tried looking at Twitter's documentation, but I'm lost. Would anyone be able to give me some tips on how to get started? Maybe a very easy API with examples, or explaining essential things about common elements of different APIs? I don't need a full-blown tutorial on Stack Overflow; I just need to be pointed in the right direction. Update The programming languages that I'm most fluent in are C (simple text editor usually) and Java (Eclipse). In an attempt to be more specific with my question: I understand that APIs (and yes, external libraries are what I was referring to) are simply sets of functions. Question I guess what I'm trying to ask is how I would go about accessing those functions. Do I need to download specific files and include them in my programs, or do they need to be accessed remotely, etc.?

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• What are some internet trends that you've noticed over the past ~10 years? [closed]

  - by Michael

  I'll give an example of one that I've noticed: the number of web sites that ask for your email address (GOOG ID, YAHOO! ID, etc.) has skyrocketed. I can come up with no legitimate reason for this other than (1) password reset [other ways to do this], or (2) to remind you that you have an account there, based upon the time of your last visit. Why does a web site need to know your email address (Google ID, etc.) if all you want to do is... download a file (no legit reason whatsoever) play a game (no legit reason whatsoever) take an IQ test or search a database (no legit reason whatsoever) watch a video or view a picture (no legit reason whatsoever) read a forum (no legit reason whatsoever) post on a forum (mildly legit reason: password reset) newsletter (only difference between a newsletter and a blog is that you're more likely to forget about the web site than you are to forget about your email address -- the majority of web sites do not send out newsletters, however, so this can't be the justification) post twitter messages or other instant messaging (mildly legit reason: password reset) buy something (mildly legit reasons: password reset + giving you a copy of a receipt that they can't delete, as receipts stored on their server can be deleted) On the other hand, I can think of plenty of very shady reasons for asking for this information: so the NSA, CIA, FBI, etc. can very easily track what you do by reading your email or asking GOOG, etc. what sites you used your GOOG ID at to use the password that you provide for your account in order to get into your email account (most people use the same password for all of their accounts), find all of your other accounts in your inbox, and then get into all of those accounts sell your email address to spammers These reasons, I believe, are why you are constantly asked to provide your email address. I can come up with no other explanations whatsoever. Question 1: Can anyone think of any legitimate or illegitimate reasons for asking for someone's email address? Question 2: What are some other interesting internet trends of the past ~10 years?

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• How to Effectively Create Bullet Patterns

  - by SoulBeaver

  I'm currently creating a top-down shooter like Touhou. The most important factor of the game is that there are many diverse patterns and ways at which bullets are generated and shot at the player, see this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Nb5Ohbt1Sg#start=0:60;end=9:53; At the moment, I'm using a class "Pattern" which has a series of steps on moving and shooting. However, I feel this method is quite laborous as I have to create a new Pattern for each attack and perhaps new Bullet classes that will implement a certain behavior. This question received a comment suggesting I should look into BulletML for easy creation and storage of bullets with a specific pattern. It looks decent, but it led me to wonder, what other solutions do you have that I should take into consideration? Update My current design is as follows: An example of an implemented pattern: My GigasPattern first executes a teleport which moves Alice to a certain point (X, Y) on the screen. After this is completed, the pattern starts using the Mover to move the sprite around (whereas teleporting has separate effects and animation). These are of no concern, really, as they are quite simple. The Shooter also creates various Attacks, which are classes again that the Shooter can use to create various patterns of bullets, much like the one in the question I posted. Once the Mover has reached it's destination, both it and the shooter stop and return to an inactive state. The pattern completes, is removed by the AI and a new one gets chosen.

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• AS3 How to check on non transparent pixels in a bitmapdata?

  - by Opoe

  I'm still working on my window cleaning game from one of my previous questions I marked a contribution as my answer, but after all this time I can't get it to work and I have to many questions about this so I decided to ask some more about it. As a sequel on my mentioned previous question, my question to you is: How can I check whether or not a bitmapData contains non transparent pixels? Subquestion: Is this possible when the masked image is a movieclip? Shouldn't I use graphics instead? Information I have: A dirtywindow movieclip on the bottom layer and a clean window movieclip on layer 2(mc1) on the layer above. To hide the top layer(the dirty window) I assign a mask to it. Code // this creates a mask that hides the movieclip on top var mask_mc:MovieClip = new MovieClip(); addChild(mask_mc) //assign the mask to the movieclip it should 'cover' mc1.mask = mask_mc; With a brush(cursor) the player wipes of the dirt ( actualy setting the fill from the mask to transparent so the clean window appears) //add event listeners for the 'brush' brush_mc.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_DOWN,brushDown); brush_mc.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_UP,brushUp); //function to drag the brush over the mask function brushDown(dragging:MouseEvent):void{ dragging.currentTarget.startDrag(); MovieClip(dragging.currentTarget).addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME,erase) ; mask_mc.graphics.moveTo(brush_mc.x,brush_mc.y); } //function to stop dragging the brush over the mask function brushUp(dragging:MouseEvent):void{ dragging.currentTarget.stopDrag(); MovieClip(dragging.currentTarget).removeEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME,erase); } //fill the mask with transparant pixels so the movieclip turns visible function erase(e:Event):void{ with(mask_mc.graphics){ beginFill(0x000000); drawRect(brush_mc.x,brush_mc.y,brush_mc.width,brush_mc.height); endFill(); } }

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• Is error suppression acceptable in role of logic mechanism?

  - by Rarst

  This came up in code review at work in context of PHP and @ operator. However I want to try keep this in more generic form, since few question about it I found on SO got bogged down in technical specifics. Accessing array field, which is not set, results in error message and is commonly handled by following logic (pseudo code): if field value is set output field value Code in question was doing it like: start ignoring errors output field value stop ignoring errors The reasoning for latter was that it's more compact and readable code in this specific case. I feel that those benefits do not justify misuse (IMO) of language mechanics. Is such code is being "clever" in a bad way? Is discarding possible error (for any reason) acceptable practice over explicitly handling it (even if that leads to more extensive and/or intensive code)? Is it acceptable for programming operators to cross boundaries of intended use (like in this case using error handling for controlling output)? Edit I wanted to keep it more generic, but specific code being discussed was like this: if ( isset($array['field']) ) { echo '<li>' . $array['field'] . '</li>'; } vs the following example: echo '<li>' . @$array['field'] . '</li>';

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