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• How to Build Services from Legacy Applications

  - by Chris Falter

  The SOA consultants invaded the executive suite at your company or agency, preached the true religion, and converted the unbelievers. Now by divine imperative you must convert your legacy applications into a suite of reusable services.  But as usual, you lack the time and resources that you need in order to develop the services properly.  So you googled or bing’ed, found this blog post, and began crying in gratitude.  Yes, as the title implies, I am going to reveal my easy, 3-step, works-every-time process for converting silos of legacy applications into the inventory of services your CIO has been dreaming about.  So just close your eyes and count to 3 … now open them … and here it is…. Not. While wishful thinking is too often the coin of the IT realm, even the most naive practitioner knows that converting legacy applications into reusable services requires more than a magic wand.  The reason is simple: if your starting point is your legacy applications, then you will simply be bolting a web service technology layer on top of your legacy API.  And that legacy API is built in the image of the silo applications.  Enter the wide gate of the legacy API, follow the broad path of generating service interfaces from existing code, and you will arrive at the siloed enterprise destruction that you thought you were escaping. The Straight and Narrow Path This past week I had the opportunity to learn how the FBI Criminal Justice Information Systems department has been transitioning from silo applications to a service inventory.  Lafe Hutcheson, IT Specialist in the architecture group and fellow attendee at an SOA Architect Certification Workshop, was my guide.  Lafe has survived the chaos of an SOA initiative, so it is not surprising that he was able to return from a US Army deployment to Kabul, Afghanistan with nary a scratch.  According to Lafe, building their service inventory is a three-phase process: Model a business process.  This requires intense collaboration between the IT and business wings of the organization, of course.  The FBI uses IBM Websphere tools to model the process with BPMN. Identify candidate services to facilitate the business process. Convert the BPMN to an executable BPEL orchestration, model and develop the services, and use a BPEL engine to run the process.  The FBI uses ActiveVOS for orchestration services. The 12 Step Program to End Your Legacy API Addiction Thomas Erl has documented a process for building a web service inventory that is quite similar to the FBI process. Erl’s process adds a technology architecture definition phase, which allows for the technology environment to influence the inventory blueprint.  For example, if you are using an enterprise service bus, you will probably not need to build your own utility services for logging or intermediate routing.  Erl also lists a service-oriented analysis phase that highlights the 12-step process of applying the principles of service orientation to modeling your services.  Erl depicts the modeling of a service inventory as an iterative process: model a business process, define the relevant technology architecture, define the service inventory blueprint, analyze the services, then model another business process, rinse and repeat.  (Astute readers will note that Erl’s diagram, restricted to analysis and modeling process, does not include the implementation phase that concludes the FBI service development methodology.) The service-oriented analysis phase is where you find the 12 steps that will free you from your legacy API addiction. In a nutshell, you identify the steps in the process that need services; identify the different types of services (agnostic entity services, service compositions, and utility services) that are required; apply service-orientation principles; and normalize the inventory into cohesive service models. Rather than discuss each of the 12 steps individually, I will close by simply referring my readers to Erl’s explanation.

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• Immutable Method in Java

  - by Chris Okyen

  In Java, there is the final keyword in lieu of the const keyword in C and C++. In the latter languages there are mutable and immutable methods such as stated in the answer by Johannes Schaub - litb to the question How many and which are the uses of “const” in C++? Use const to tell others methods won't change the logical state of this object. struct SmartPtr { int getCopies() const { return mCopiesMade; } }ptr1; ... int var = ptr.getCopies(); // returns mCopiesMade and is specified that to not modify objects state. How is this performed in Java?

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• HTG Explains: What Are the Sys Rq, Scroll Lock, and Pause/Break Keys on My Keyboard?

  - by Chris Hoffman

  Glance at your keyboard and chances are you’ll see a few keys you never use near the top-right corner – Sys Rq, Scroll Lock, and Pause / Break. Have you ever wondered what those keys are for? While these keys have been removed from some computer keyboards today, they’re still a common sight — even on new keyboards. Image Credit: ajmexico on Flickr 8 Deadly Commands You Should Never Run on Linux 14 Special Google Searches That Show Instant Answers How To Create a Customized Windows 7 Installation Disc With Integrated Updates

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• Most efficient arc for developing cross-browser support?

  - by Chris Hasbrouck

  I'm curious to hear what approach people take to planning for cross-browser support when developing a website. There are generally two approaches I've seen developers take in their workflow: -optimize for webkit then apply hacks for IE7-9, or -optimize for IE7-8 then apply newer features for IE9/webkit Basically starting at the front of technology and working toward the back, or starting at the back of technology and working toward the front. How do you do things? What advantages or disadvantage do you perceive in the different way of doing things wrt to developing cross-browser support?

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• bootable USB / installation requirements

  - by Chris Wilson

  Originally asked on One Hundred Paper Cuts Answers thread On the official site: http://www.ubuntu.com/netbook/get-ubuntu/download The instructions for creating a bootable USB key for installing Ubuntu Netbook Remix include a line saying: "Insert a USB stick with at least 2GB of free space" I recently installed UNR on a netbook -- in fact, the one I'm using right now -- and I went ahead despite only having a 1GB USB key on hand. Everything went smoothly and installed 100% correctly. If I had waited to go out and buy a 2GB USB key I would have spent that money unnecessarily and wouldn't have been able to use the computer in the meantime. I was wondering if there's a specific rationale for requiring a 2GB USB key, or if the instructions could be changed to indicate that it can be done with only 1GB. Thanks!

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• How do I ban a wifi network in Network Manager?

  - by Chris Conway

  My wifi connection drops sometimes and, for some reason, Network Manager attempts to connect to my neighbor's network, which requires a password that I don't know. The network in question is not listed in the "Edit Connections..." dialog and I can find no reference to it in any configuration file, but still the password dialog pops up every time my main connection drops. Is there a way to blacklist a wireless network so that the Network Manager will never attempt to connect to it? Or, equivalently, how can I remove the configuration data that causes the Network Manager to attempt to connect to this particular network?

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• How to stop fan running always on Asus P8P76LE motherboard with ATI Radeon HD6900

  - by Chris Good

  I'm using Ubuntu 12.04 LTS. I'm not sure if it is the CPU (i7) fan or the video card fan. I've tried using lm-sensors & fancontrol sudo sensors-detect Now follows a summary of the probes I have just done. Just press ENTER to continue: Driver `w83627ehf': * ISA bus, address 0x290 Chip `Nuvoton NCT6776F Super IO Sensors' (confidence: 9) Driver `coretemp': * Chip `Intel digital thermal sensor' (confidence: 9) To load everything that is needed, add this to /etc/modules: # Chip drivers coretemp w83627ehf Like many people, I'm also getting error: /usr/sbin/pwmconfig: There are no pwm-capable sensor modules installed Here is the output of sensors: # sensors radeon-pci-0100 Adapter: PCI adapter temp1: +71.0°C coretemp-isa-0000 Adapter: ISA adapter Physical id 0: +44.0°C (high = +80.0°C, crit = +98.0°C) Core 0: +44.0°C (high = +80.0°C, crit = +98.0°C) Core 1: +40.0°C (high = +80.0°C, crit = +98.0°C) Core 2: +43.0°C (high = +80.0°C, crit = +98.0°C) Core 3: +42.0°C (high = +80.0°C, crit = +98.0°C) I'm hoping some-one has already solved this for my configuration because this seems to be a problem for many people and there are many different suggestions.

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• OpenGL ES Basic Fragment Shader help with transparency

  - by Chris

  I have just spent my first half hour playing with the shader language. I have modified the basic program I have which renders the texture, to allow me to colour the texture. varying vec2 texCoord; uniform sampler2D texSampler; /* Given the texture coordinates, our pixel shader grabs the corresponding * color from the texture. */ void main() { //gl_FragColor = texture2D(texSampler, texCoord); gl_FragColor = vec4(0,1,0,1)*vec4(texture2D(texSampler,texCoord).xyz,1); } I have noticed how this affects my transparent textures, and I believe I am loosing the alpha channel which would explain why previously transparent area's appear totally black. If I use the following line instead, I am shown the transparent area's gl_FragColor = vec4(0,1,0,1)*vec4(texture2D(texSampler,texCoord).aaa,1); How can I retain the transparency after this modification to the colour? I have seen various things about a .w property, and also luminous, but my tweaks with those and the .aaa property are not working XD

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• Computing a normal matrix in conjunction with gluLookAt

  - by Chris Smith

  I have a hand-rolled camera class that converts yaw, pitch, and roll angles into a forward, side, and up vector suitable for calling gluLookAt. Using this camera class I can modify the model-view matrix to move about the 3D world just fine. However, I am having trouble when using this camera class (and associated model-view matrix) when trying to perform directional lighting in my vertex shader. The problem is that the light direction, (0, 1, 0) for example, is relative to where the 'camera is looking' and not the actual world coordinates. (Or is this eye coordinates vs. model coordinates?) I would like the light direction to be unaffected by the camera's viewing direction. For example, when the camera is looking down the Z axis the ground is lit correctly. However, if I point the camera straight at the ground, then it goes dark. This is (I think) because the light direction is parallel with the camera's 'up' vector which is perpendicular with the ground's normal vector. I tried computing the normal matrix without taking the camera's model view into account, but then none of my objects were rotated correctly. Sorry if this sounds vague. I suspect there is a straight forward answer, but I'm not 100% clear on how the normal matrix should be used for transforming vertex normals in my vertex shader. For reference, here is pseudo code for my rendering loop: pMatrix = new Matrix(); pMatrix = makePerspective(...) mvMatrix = new Matrix() camera.apply(mvMatrix); // Calls gluLookAt // Move the object into position. mvMatrix.translatev(position); mvMatrix.rotatef(rotation.x, 1, 0, 0); mvMatrix.rotatef(rotation.y, 0, 1, 0); mvMatrix.rotatef(rotation.z, 0, 0, 1); var nMatrix = new Matrix(); nMatrix.set(mvMatrix.get().getInverse().getTranspose()); // Set vertex shader uniforms. gl.uniformMatrix4fv(shaderProgram.pMatrixUniform, false, new Float32Array(pMatrix.getFlattened())); gl.uniformMatrix4fv(shaderProgram.mvMatrixUniform, false, new Float32Array(mvMatrix.getFlattened())); gl.uniformMatrix4fv(shaderProgram.nMatrixUniform, false, new Float32Array(nMatrix.getFlattened())); // ... gl.drawElements(gl.TRIANGLES, this.vertexIndexBuffer.numItems, gl.UNSIGNED_SHORT, 0); And the corresponding vertex shader: // Attributes attribute vec3 aVertexPosition; attribute vec4 aVertexColor; attribute vec3 aVertexNormal; // Uniforms uniform mat4 uMVMatrix; uniform mat4 uNMatrix; uniform mat4 uPMatrix; // Varyings varying vec4 vColor; // Constants const vec3 LIGHT_DIRECTION = vec3(0, 1, 0); // Opposite direction of photons. const vec4 AMBIENT_COLOR = vec4 (0.2, 0.2, 0.2, 1.0); float ComputeLighting() { vec4 transformedNormal = vec4(aVertexNormal.xyz, 1.0); transformedNormal = uNMatrix * transformedNormal; float base = dot(normalize(transformedNormal.xyz), normalize(LIGHT_DIRECTION)); return max(base, 0.0); } void main(void) { gl_Position = uPMatrix * uMVMatrix * vec4(aVertexPosition, 1.0); float lightWeight = ComputeLighting(); vColor = vec4(aVertexColor.xyz * lightWeight, 1.0) + AMBIENT_COLOR; } Note that I am using WebGL, so if the anser is use glFixThisProblem(...) any pointers on how to re-implement that on WebGL if missing would be appreciated.

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• How To Enable Aero Glass-Style Transparency in Windows 8

  - by Chris Hoffman

  Aero Glass is gone in Windows 8. If you really miss Aero Glass, there’s a trick you can use to re-enable the transparent window title bars and borders – although Microsoft doesn’t want us to. Microsoft has removed a lot of the code that makes Aero Glass, once an important Windows feature, possible. This trick doesn’t work perfectly – the blur effect has been removed by Microsoft and graphical corruption can occur in some situations. 6 Ways Windows 8 Is More Secure Than Windows 7 HTG Explains: Why It’s Good That Your Computer’s RAM Is Full 10 Awesome Improvements For Desktop Users in Windows 8

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• How to Tell If Your Computer is Overheating and What to Do About It

  - by Chris Hoffman

  Heat is a computer’s enemy. Computers are designed with heat dispersion and ventilation in mind so they don’t overheat. If too much heat builds up, your computer may become unstable or suddenly shut down. The CPU and graphics card produce much more heat when running demanding applications. If there’s a problem with your computer’s cooling system, an excess of heat could even physically damage its components. Is Your Computer Overheating? When using a typical computer in a typical way, you shouldn’t have to worry about overheating at all. However, if you’re encountering system instability issues like abrupt shut downs, blue screens, and freezes — especially while doing something demanding like playing PC games or encoding video — your computer may be overheating. This can happen for several reasons. Your computer’s case may be full of dust, a fan may have failed, something may be blocking your computer’s vents, or you may have a compact laptop that was never designed to run at maximum performance for hours on end. Monitoring Your Computer’s Temperature First, bear in mind that different CPUs and GPUs (graphics cards) have different optimal temperature ranges. Before getting too worried about a temperature, be sure to check your computer’s documentation — or its CPU or graphics card specifications — and ensure you know the temperature ranges your hardware can handle. You can monitor your computer’s temperatures in a variety of different ways. First, you may have a way to monitor temperature that is already built into your system. You can often view temperature values in your computer’s BIOS or UEFI settings screen. This allows you to quickly see your computer’s temperature if Windows freezes or blue screens on you — just boot the computer, enter the BIOS or UEFI screen, and check the temperatures displayed there. Note that not all BIOSes or UEFI screens will display this information, but it is very common. There are also programs that will display your computer’s temperature. Such programs just read the sensors inside your computer and show you the temperature value they report, so there are a wide variety of tools you can use for this, from the simple Speccy system information utility to an advanced tool like SpeedFan. HWMonitor also offer this feature, displaying a wide variety of sensor information. Be sure to look at your CPU and graphics card temperatures. You can also find other temperatures, such as the temperature of your hard drive, but these components will generally only overheat if it becomes extremely hot in the computer’s case. They shouldn’t generate too much heat on their own. If you think your computer may be overheating, don’t just glance as these sensors once and ignore them. Do something demanding with your computer, such as running a CPU burn-in test with Prime 95, playing a PC game, or running a graphical benchmark. Monitor the computer’s temperature while you do this, even checking a few hours later — does any component overheat after you push it hard for a while? Preventing Your Computer From Overheating If your computer is overheating, here are some things you can do about it: Dust Out Your Computer’s Case: Dust accumulates in desktop PC cases and even laptops over time, clogging fans and blocking air flow. This dust can cause ventilation problems, trapping heat and preventing your PC from cooling itself properly. Be sure to clean your computer’s case occasionally to prevent dust build-up. Unfortunately, it’s often more difficult to dust out overheating laptops. Ensure Proper Ventilation: Put the computer in a location where it can properly ventilate itself. If it’s a desktop, don’t push the case up against a wall so that the computer’s vents become blocked or leave it near a radiator or heating vent. If it’s a laptop, be careful to not block its air vents, particularly when doing something demanding. For example, putting a laptop down on a mattress, allowing it to sink in, and leaving it there can lead to overheating — especially if the laptop is doing something demanding and generating heat it can’t get rid of. Check if Fans Are Running: If you’re not sure why your computer started overheating, open its case and check that all the fans are running. It’s possible that a CPU, graphics card, or case fan failed or became unplugged, reducing air flow. Tune Up Heat Sinks: If your CPU is overheating, its heat sink may not be seated correctly or its thermal paste may be old. You may need to remove the heat sink and re-apply new thermal paste before reseating the heat sink properly. This tip applies more to tweakers, overclockers, and people who build their own PCs, especially if they may have made a mistake when originally applying the thermal paste. This is often much more difficult when it comes to laptops, which generally aren’t designed to be user-serviceable. That can lead to trouble if the laptop becomes filled with dust and needs to be cleaned out, especially if the laptop was never designed to be opened by users at all. Consult our guide to diagnosing and fixing an overheating laptop for help with cooling down a hot laptop. Overheating is a definite danger when overclocking your CPU or graphics card. Overclocking will cause your components to run hotter, and the additional heat will cause problems unless you can properly cool your components. If you’ve overclocked your hardware and it has started to overheat — well, throttle back the overclock! Image Credit: Vinni Malek on Flickr     

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• How to Install the MATE Desktop & Go Back to GNOME 2 on Ubuntu

  - by Chris Hoffman

  If you long for the days of GNOME 2 and just can’t get along with Unity or GNOME 3, MATE is here to save you. It’s an actively developed fork of GNOME 2, and it’s easily installable on Ubuntu. MATE isn’t available in Ubuntu’s repositories, but the MATE developers offer an official repository for Ubuntu. Unlike some methods that recommend you use Linux Mint’s repository on Ubuntu, this won’t mess up your system. How to Own Your Own Website (Even If You Can’t Build One) Pt 1 What’s the Difference Between Sleep and Hibernate in Windows? Screenshot Tour: XBMC 11 Eden Rocks Improved iOS Support, AirPlay, and Even a Custom XBMC OS

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• Best SEO practices for mobile URLs: 301, rel=canonical, or something else?

  - by Chris

  I am developing a site with a mobile version and am trying to figure the appropriate way to manage the URLs for search engines. So far I've considered: Having a separate mobile site (m.example.com) with rel="canonical" links to the regular site. Putting both the mobile site and full site on one URL (example.com), and doing user agent sniffing. Another opinion: Spencer: "If you have a mobile site at a separate location or URL, you should 301 redirect each and every mobile page to its corresponding page on your main website. Employ user agent detection so that the mobile optimized version is served up if someone's coming in from a hand-held. - http://developer.practicalecommerce.com/articles/1722-Mobile-site-Development-Best-Practices-for-SEO-Usability Both 2 and 3 make it hard for a user who wants to switch to the full site or mobile site manually, but I'm not sure 1 is the best alternative. What's the best way to write URLs for a mobile site?

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• Recommendations for adjustable sit-stand workstations?

  - by Chris Phillips

  Recently, I've been feeling the discomfort of sitting at my desk all day long. I'm fairly active, stretch, and take regular breaks, but some days it's still pretty uncomfortable to sit all day long, whether in a nice chair or on an exercise ball. I would really like able to stand at my computer for part of the day. My current setup is a large desk with two 26" lcds and a 17" laptop. I don't mind if the laptop isn't adjustable, as I don't use it as regularly as the monitors. I would like to be able to fairly easily switch from a sitting position to a standing position and back again as necessary. I've been looking into adjustable height desks and stands and found that they tend to be either really expensive, or don't quite meet my needs. (For example, the Ergotron WorkFit-S Dual LCD workstation looks like the ideal feature set at a reasonable price, but won't fit with my monitors.) Any suggestions or thoughts? Update: fixed a typo. Thanks @RDL!

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• libgdx intersection problem between rectangle and circle

  - by Chris

  My collision detection in libgdx is somehow buggy. player.png is 20*80px and ball.png 25*25px. Code: @Override public void create() { // ... batch = new SpriteBatch(); playerTex = new Texture(Gdx.files.internal("data/player.png")); ballTex = new Texture(Gdx.files.internal("data/ball.png")); player = new Rectangle(); player.width = 20; player.height = 80; player.x = Gdx.graphics.getWidth() - player.width - 10; player.y = 300; ball = new Circle(); ball.x = Gdx.graphics.getWidth() / 2; ball.y = Gdx.graphics.getHeight() / 2; ball.radius = ballTex.getWidth() / 2; } @Override public void render() { Gdx.gl.glClearColor(1, 1, 1, 1); Gdx.gl.glClear(GL10.GL_COLOR_BUFFER_BIT); camera.update(); // draw player, ball batch.setProjectionMatrix(camera.combined); batch.begin(); batch.draw(ballTex, ball.x, ball.y); batch.draw(playerTex, player.x, player.y); batch.end(); // update player position if(Gdx.input.isKeyPressed(Keys.DOWN)) player.y -= 250 * Gdx.graphics.getDeltaTime(); if(Gdx.input.isKeyPressed(Keys.UP)) player.y += 250 * Gdx.graphics.getDeltaTime(); if(Gdx.input.isKeyPressed(Keys.LEFT)) player.x -= 250 * Gdx.graphics.getDeltaTime(); if(Gdx.input.isKeyPressed(Keys.RIGHT)) player.x += 250 * Gdx.graphics.getDeltaTime(); // don't let the player leave the field if(player.y < 0) player.y = 0; if(player.y > 600 - 80) player.y = 600 - 80; // check collision if (Intersector.overlaps(ball, player)) Gdx.app.log("overlaps", "yes"); }

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• Agile Testing Days 2012 – Day 3 – Agile or agile?

  - by Chris George

  Another early start for my last Lean Coffee of the conference, and again it was not wasted. We had some really interesting discussions around how to determine what test automation is useful, if agile is not faster, why do it? and a rather existential discussion on whether unicorns exist! First keynote of the day was entitled “Fast Feedback Teams” by Ola Ellnestam. Again this relates nicely to the releasing faster talk on day 2, and something that we are looking at and some teams are actively trying. Introducing the notion of feedback, Ola describes a game he wrote for his eldest child. It was a simple game where every time he clicked a button, it displayed “You’ve Won!”. He then changed it to be a Win-Lose-Win-Lose pattern and watched the feedback from his son who then twigged the pattern and got his younger brother to play, alternating turns… genius! (must do that with my children). The idea behind this was that you need that feedback loop to learn and progress. If you are not getting the feedback you need to close that loop. An interesting point Ola made was to solve problems BEFORE writing software. It may be that you don’t have to write anything at all, perhaps it’s a communication/training issue? Perhaps the problem can be solved another way. Writing software, although it’s the business we are in, is expensive, and this should be taken into account. He again mentions frequent releases, and how they should be made as soon as stuff is ready to be released, don’t leave stuff on the shelf cause it’s not earning you anything, money or data. I totally agree with this and it’s something that we will be aiming for moving forwards. “Exceptions, Assumptions and Ambiguity: Finding the truth behind the story” by David Evans started off very promising by making references to ‘Grim up North’ referring to the north of England. Not sure it was appreciated by most of the audience, but it made me laugh! David explained how there are always risks associated with exceptions, giving the example of a one-way road near where he lives, with an exception sign giving rights to coaches to go the wrong way. Therefore you could merrily swing around the corner of the one way road straight into a coach! David showed the danger in making assumptions with lyrical quotes from Lola by The Kinks “I’m glad I’m a man, and so is Lola” and with a picture of a toilet flush that needed instructions to operate the full and half flush. With this particular flush, you pulled the handle all the way down to half flush, and half way down to full flush! hmmm, a bit of a crappy user experience methinks! Then through a clever use of a passage from the Jabberwocky, David then went onto show how mis-translation/ambiguity is the can completely distort the original meaning of something, and this is a real enemy of software development. This was all helping to demonstrate that the term Story is often heavily overloaded in the Agile world, and should really be stripped back to what it is really for, stating a business problem, and offering a technical solution. Therefore a story could be worded as “In order to {make some improvement}, we will { do something}”. The first ‘in order to’ statement is stakeholder neutral, and states the problem through requesting an improvement to the software/process etc. The second part of the story is the verb, the doing bit. So to achieve the ‘improvement’ which is not currently true, we will do something to make this true in the future. My PM is very interested in this, and he’s observed some of the problems of overloading stories so I’m hoping between us we can use some of David’s suggestions to help clarify our stories better. The second keynote of the day (and our last) proved to be the most entertaining and exhausting of the conference for me. “The ongoing evolution of testing in agile development” by Scott Barber. I’ve never had the pleasure of seeing Scott before… OMG I would love to have even half of the energy he has! What struck me during this presentation was Scott’s explanation of how testing has become the role/job that it is (largely) today, and how this has led to the need for ‘methodologies’ to make dev and test work! The argument that we should be trying to converge the roles again is a very valid one, and one that a couple of the teams at work are actively doing with great results. Making developers as responsible for quality as testers is something that has been lost over the years, but something that we are now striving to achieve. The idea that we (testers) should be testing experts/specialists, not testing ‘union members’, supports this idea so the entire team works on all aspects of a feature/product, with the ‘specialists’ taking the lead and advising/coaching the others. This leads to better propagation of information around the team, a greater holistic understanding of the project and it allows the team to continue functioning if some of it’s members are off sick, for example. Feeling somewhat drained from Scott’s keynote (but at the same time excited that alot of the points he raised supported actions we are taking at work), I headed into my last presentation for Agile Testing Days 2012 before having to make my way to Tegel to catch the flight home. “Thinking and working agile in an unbending world” with Pete Walen was a talk I was not going to miss! Having spoken to Pete several times during the past few days, I was looking forward to hearing what he was going to say, and I was not disappointed. Pete started off by trying to separate the definitions of ‘Agile’ as in the methodology, and ‘agile’ as in the adjective by pronouncing them the ‘english’ and ‘american’ ways. So Agile pronounced (Ajyle) and agile pronounced (ajul). There was much confusion around what the hell he was talking about, although I thought it was quite clear. Agile – Software development methodology agile – Marked by ready ability to move with quick easy grace; Having a quick resourceful and adaptable character. Anyway, that aside (although it provided a few laughs during the presentation), the point was that many teams that claim to be ‘Agile’ but are not, in fact, ‘agile’ by nature. Implementing ‘Agile’ methodologies that are so prescriptive actually goes against the very nature of Agile development where a team should anticipate, adapt and explore. Pete made a valid point that very few companies intentionally put up roadblocks to impede work, so if work is being blocked/delayed, why? This is where being agile as a team pays off because the team can inspect what’s going on, explore options and adapt their processes. It is through experimentation (and that means trying and failing as well as trying and succeeding) that a team will improve and grow leading to focussing on what really needs to be done to achieve X. So, that was it, the last talk of our conference. I was gutted that we had to miss the closing keynote from Matt Heusser, as Matt was another person I had spoken too a few times during the conference, but the flight would not wait, and just as well we left when we did because the traffic was a nightmare! My Takeaway Triple from Day 3: Release often and release small – don’t leave stuff on the shelf Keep the meaning of the word ‘agile’ in mind when working in ‘Agile Look at testing as more of a skill than a role  

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• ASP.NET MVC WebService - Security for Industrial Android Clients

  - by Chris Nevill

  I'm trying to design a system that will allow a bunch of Android devices to securely log into an ASP.NET MVC REST Web service. At present neither side are implemented. However there is an ASP.NET MVC website which the web service will site along side. This is currently using forms authentication. The idea will be that the Android devices will download data from the web service and then be able to work offline storing data in their own local databases, where users will be able to make updates to that data, and then syncing updates back to the main server where possible. The web service will be using HTTPS to prevent calls being intercepted and reduce the risk of calls being intercepted. The system is an industrial system and will not be in used by the general Android population. Instead only authorized Android devices will be authorized by the Web Service to make calls. As such I was thinking of using the Android devices serial number as a username and then a generated long password which the device will be able to pick up - once the device has been authorized server side. The device will also have user logins - but these will not be to log into the web service - just the device itself - since the device and user must be able to work offline. So usernames and passwords will be downloaded and stored on the devices themselves. My question is... what form of security is best setup on the web service? Should it use forms Authentication? Should the username and password just be passed in with each GET/POST call or should it start a session as I have with the website? The Android side causes more confusion. There seems to be a number of options here Spring-Android, Volley, Retrofit, LoopJ, Robo Spice which seems to use the aforementioned Spring, Retrofit or Google HttpClient. I'm struggling to find a simple example which authenticates with a forms based authentication system. Is this because I'm going about this wrong? Is there another option that would better suite this?

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• How to Save Hundreds or Thousands of Dollars on Cell Phone Service

  - by Chris Hoffman

  Cell phone contracts are bad. You get a seemingly cheap phone up front, but you more than pay for the cost of the phone over two years. Prepaid phone plans are surging in North America for a reason. Prepaid phone plans will be cheaper and more flexible than traditional contracts with big carriers for many people. However much you use your phone, there’s a good chance you can save money with a prepaid service. No More Contracts Here’s how cell phone service typically works in North America: You get a subsidized phone for “free”, $99, or $199. You sign up for a two-year contract and more than pay back the cost of that phone over the length of the contract. This is similar to leasing something or purchasing it on a credit card and paying it back over two years — you spend less up front, but you’re paying more in the long run. But this isn’t the only option. You could opt for a cheaper prepaid service that doesn’t lock you into a contract. If you don’t use your phone much, you could just pay for what you use and avoid the hefty cell phone bills. If you use your phone a lot, you could get a cheaper plan, too. Now, this certainly isn’t for everyone. If you want the latest iPhone or Galaxy smartphone every two years and require a 4G data connection, prepaid services may not be for you. On the other hand, if you don’t need the latest phone, you can save money here. You can also save a huge amount of money if you don’t use your phone much. Phone Options When you choose your prepaid or contract-free service, you’ll often be able to purchase a phone from them. You’ll generally be able to find dirt-cheap dumbphones and the cheapest, slowest Android phones for not very much money. If you are able to buy a top-of-the-line smartphone, you’ll have to pay the full, unsubsidized price. That’s $649 for either an iPhone 5S or Samsung Galaxy S4. Whatever phones the service provider offers, you could always buy a phone elsewhere — for example, you could buy an unsubsidized iPhone direct from Apple and then take it to your cell phone service of choice. Most services will allow you to get a SIM card and pop it into your existing phone rather than purchasing a phone. If you can get a hand-me-down smartphone, you can often save quite a bit of money. For example, you may have a family member upgrading from an iPhone 4S to an iPhone 5S. You could take their phone to a prepaid carrier and have a nicer phone on a cheap cell phone plan. If you brought an old smartphone to a big carrier like AT&T or Verizon, they wouldn’t give you a discount on your monthly plan. You’d have to pay the same amount of money every month as if you had gotten a subsidized phone. Google’s Nexus phones are also great options for people looking to buy smartphones and pay up-front. Google’s Nexus 4 offered a modern, almost top-of-the-line Android smartphone experience at $299 or $349 when it came out last year. Google will soon be releasing the Nexus 5 and it’s expected to be priced at $349. That’s certainly a lot more than a cheap phone, but it’s a fairly high-end smartphone at almost half the price of an iPhone 5S or Galaxy S4. Nexus phones can be purchased online from Google’s Play Store. Service Options When choosing a service, you need to consider what you actually use. If you’re someone who only uses your phone rarely, you can get plans that will allow you to pay as little as a few dollars per month. If you’re someone who’s usually in range of Wi-Fi, you may not need much data at all. If you want a plan with unlimited talk, texting, and data usage, you can get it for much cheaper than you’d pay on a major carrier like AT&T. The options here range from pay-as-you-go plans, like the ones offered by T-Mobile, which allow you to put a certain amount of money in and only drain that balance when you actually use minutes, texts, or data. If you only make a few calls and send a few texts per month, you’d only pay a few bucks. On the other end, Walmart’s Straight Talk service is a popular option that offers unlimited talk, texting, and data at $45 per month. Which service is right for you depends on a lot of things, including your usage and what each network’s coverage is like in your area. You’ll want to do some research of your own before choosing a service. Prepaid services also offer you even more flexibility after you choose one. If you’re not happy or a better deal comes along, you can switch — you’re not locked into your service for two years and you won’t pay an early termination fee. Image Credit: Intel Free Press on Flickr, Jon Fingas on Flickr, John Karakatsanis on Flickr, kendalkinggroup on Flickr     

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• Beginner Geek: How to Use Multiple Monitors to Be More Productive

  - by Chris Hoffman

  Many people swear by multiple monitors, whether they’re geeks or just people who need to be productive. Why use just one monitor when you can use two or more and see more at once? Additional monitors allow you to expand your desktop, getting more screen real estate for your open programs. Windows makes it very easy to set up additional monitors, and your computer probably has the necessary ports. Why Use Multiple Monitors? Multiple monitors give you more screen real estate. Hook up multiple monitors to a computer and you can move your mouse back and forth between them, dragging programs between monitors as if you had an extra-large desktop. People who swear by multiple monitors use them to display multiple things on-screen at a time. Rather than Alt+Tabbing and task switching to glance at another window, you can just look over with your eyes and then look back to the program you’re using. Some examples of use cases for multiple monitors include: Coders who want to view their code on one display with the other display reserved for documentation. They can just glance over at the documentation and look back at their primary workspace. Anyone who needs to view something while working. Viewing a web page while writing an email, viewing another document while writing an something, or working with two large spreadsheets and having both visible at once. People who need to keep an eye on information, whether it’s email or up-to-date statistics, while working. Gamers who want to see more of the game world, extending the game across multiple displays. Geeks who just want to watch a video on one screen while doing something else on the other screen. Hooking Up Multiple Monitors Hooking up an additional monitor to your computer should be very simple. Most new computers come with more than one port for a monitor — whether DVI, HDMI, the older VGA port, or a mix. Some computers may include splitter cables that allow you to connect multiple monitors to a single port. Most laptops also come with ports that allow you to hook up an external monitor. Plug a monitor into your laptop’s DVI or VGA port and Windows will allow you to use both your laptop’s integrated display and the external monitor at once. This all depends on the ports your computer has and how your monitor connects. If you have an old VGA monitor lying around and you have a modern laptop with only DVI or HDMI connectors, you may need an adapter that allows you to plug your monitor’s VGA cable into the new port. Be sure to take your computer’s ports into account before you get another monitor for it. Managing Multiple Monitors With Windows Windows makes using multiple monitors easy. Just plug the monitor into the appropriate port on your computer and Windows should automatically extend your desktop onto it. You can now just drag and drop windows between monitors. To control how this works, right-click your Windows desktop and select Screen resolution. Choose an option from the Multiple displays box. The Extend option extends your desktop onto an additional monitor, while the other options are mainly useful if you’re using an additional monitor for presentations — for example, you could mirror your laptop’s desktop onto a large monitor or blank your laptop’s screen while it’s connected to a larger display. Be sure to arrange your monitors properly so Windows understands how your monitors are physically positioned. Windows 8 allows you to extend your Windows taskbar across multiple monitors. You’ll find this option in the taskbar’s options window — right-click the taskbar and select Properties. You can also choose where you want Windows to display taskbar buttons for open programs — on any monitor’s taskbar or only on the taskbar on the associated monitor. Windows 7 doesn’t have these convenient features built-in — your second monitor won’t have a taskbar. To extend your taskbar onto an additional monitor, you’ll need a third-party utility like the free and open-source Dual Monitor Taskbar. If you just have a single monitor, you can also use the Aero Snap feature to quickly place multiple Windows applications side by side. On Windows 7 or 8, press Windows Key + Left or Windows Key + Right to make the current window take up the left or right half of your display. You could also drag any window’s title bar to the left or right edges of your screen and release the window. How useful this feature is depends on your monitor’s size and resolution. If you have a large, high-resolution monitor, it will allow you to see a lot. If you have a smaller laptop monitor with the seemingly standard 1366×768 resolution, you won’t be able to see much of each snapped window at once, so snapping windows may not be practical. Image Credit: Chance Reecher on Flickr, Camp Atterbury Joint Maneuver Training Center on Flickr, Xavier Caballe on Flickr     

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• How to Get Pro Features in Windows Home Versions with Third Party Tools

  - by Chris Hoffman

  Some of the most powerful Windows features are only available in Professional or Enterprise editions of Windows. However, you don’t have to upgrade to Windows Professional to use these powerful features – use these free alternatives instead. These features include the ability to access your desktop remotely, encrypt your hard drive, run Windows XP in a window, change advanced settings in group policy, use Windows Media Center, run an operating system off a USB stick, and more. How to Get Pro Features in Windows Home Versions with Third Party Tools HTG Explains: Is ReadyBoost Worth Using? HTG Explains: What The Windows Event Viewer Is and How You Can Use It

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• What languages are most commonly used in medical research?

  - by Chris Taylor

  For someone about to go into a career in medical research, what language would be the most useful to learn? From my limited experience (I have been a researcher in mathematics and in finance) I have been able to recommend looking at R (for statistics) Matlab (for general numeric processing) and Python (for general purpose programming with statistics/numerics as an add-on) but I don't know which of those (if any) are in common use -- or if there are other, more specialized languages that are used. To be clear, I'm not talking about a professional programmer working in a medical setting. I am talking about a medical or genetics researcher who uses programming to analyse data, or generally to help get their work done.

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• Is there a better term than "smoothness" or "granularity" to describe this language feature?

  - by Chris

  One of the best things about programming is the abundance of different languages. There are general purpose languages like C++ and Java, as well as little languages like XSLT and AWK. When comparing languages, people often use things like speed, power, expressiveness, and portability as the important distinguishing features. There is one characteristic of languages I consider to be important that, so far, I haven't heard [or been able to come up with] a good term for: how well a language scales from writing tiny programs to writing huge programs. Some languages make it easy and painless to write programs that only require a few lines of code, e.g. task automation. But those languages often don't have enough power to solve large problems, e.g. GUI programming. Conversely, languages that are powerful enough for big problems often require far too much overhead for small problems. This characteristic is important because problems that look small at first frequently grow in scope in unexpected ways. If a programmer chooses a language appropriate only for small tasks, scope changes can require rewriting code from scratch in a new language. And if the programmer chooses a language with lots of overhead and friction to solve a problem that stays small, it will be harder for other people to use and understand than necessary. Rewriting code that works fine is the single most wasteful thing a programmer can do with their time, but using a bazooka to kill a mosquito instead of a flyswatter isn't good either. Here are some of the ways this characteristic presents itself. Can be used interactively - there is some environment where programmers can enter commands one by one Requires no more than one file - neither project files nor makefiles are required for running in batch mode Can easily split code across multiple files - files can refeence each other, or there is some support for modules Has good support for data structures - supports structures like arrays, lists, and especially classes Supports a wide variety of features - features like networking, serialization, XML, and database connectivity are supported by standard libraries Here's my take on how C#, Python, and shell scripting measure up. Python scores highest. Feature C# Python shell scripting --------------- --------- --------- --------------- Interactive poor strong strong One file poor strong strong Multiple files strong strong moderate Data structures strong strong poor Features strong strong strong Is there a term that captures this idea? If not, what term should I use? Here are some candidates. Scalability - already used to decribe language performance, so it's not a good idea to overload it in the context of language syntax Granularity - expresses the idea of being good just for big tasks versus being good for big and small tasks, but doesn't express anything about data structures Smoothness - expresses the idea of low friction, but doesn't express anything about strength of data structures or features Note: Some of these properties are more correctly described as belonging to a compiler or IDE than the language itself. Please consider these tools collectively as the language environment. My question is about how easy or difficult languages are to use, which depends on the environment as well as the language.

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• Deeper Unity search indexing

  - by Chris Bauer

  Unity is currently only indexing and displaying a shallow set of file results. Suppose I want to open the file "/home/Music/Creedence Clearwater Revival/Willy and the Poor Boys/The-Midnight-Special.mp3". I open the "Files and Folders" lens and type "The Midnight Special". Unfortunately, the song doesn't display. I try "Willy and the Poor Boys" but that folder doesn't display either. The only folder that does display in the lens is "Music". Therefore I must open the "Music" folder then navigate through the entire directory tree to open the file I want. How do I get a deeper index of files to display in the "Files and Folders" lens? Thanks for your help!

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• 3D Camera Problem

  - by Chris

  I allow the user to look around the scene by holding down the left mouse button and moving the mouse. The problem that I have is I can be facing one direction, I move the mouse up and the view tilts up, I move down and the view titles down. If I spin around 180 my left and right still works fine, but when I move the mouse up the view tilts down, and when I move the mouse down the view titles up. This is the code I am using, can anyone see what the problem with the logic is? var viewDir = g_math.subVector(target, g_eye); var rotatedViewDir = []; rotatedViewDir[0] = (Math.cos(g_mouseXDelta * g_rotationDelta) * viewDir[0]) - (Math.sin(g_mouseXDelta * g_rotationDelta) * viewDir[2]); rotatedViewDir[1] = viewDir[1]; rotatedViewDir[2] = (Math.cos(g_mouseXDelta * g_rotationDelta) * viewDir[2]) + (Math.sin(g_mouseXDelta * g_rotationDelta) * viewDir[0]); viewDir = rotatedViewDir; rotatedViewDir[0] = viewDir[0]; rotatedViewDir[1] = (Math.cos(g_mouseYDelta * g_rotationDelta * -1) * viewDir[1]) - (Math.sin(g_mouseYDelta * g_rotationDelta * -1) * viewDir[2]); rotatedViewDir[2] = (Math.cos(g_mouseYDelta * g_rotationDelta * -1) * viewDir[2]) + (Math.sin(g_mouseYDelta * g_rotationDelta * -1) * viewDir[1]); g_lookingDir = rotatedViewDir; var newtarget = g_math.addVector(rotatedViewDir, g_eye);

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• Fight for your rights as a video gamer.

  - by Chris Williams

  Soon, the U.S. Supreme Court may decide whether to hear a case that could have a lasting impact on computer and video games. The case before the Court involves a law passed by the state of California attempting to criminalize the sale of certain computer and video games. Two previous courts rejected the California law as unconstitutional, but soon the Supreme Court could have the final say. Whatever the Court's ruling, we must be prepared to continue defending our rights now and in the future. To do so, we need a large, powerful movement of gamers to speak with one voice and show that we won't sit back while lawmakers try to score political points by scapegoating video games and treating them differently than books, movies, and music. If the Court decides to hear the case, we're going to need thousands of activists like you who can help defend computer and video games by writing letters to editors, calling into talk radio stations, and educating Americans about our passion for and appreciation of computer and video games. You can help build this movement right now by inviting all your friends and fellow gamers to join the Video Game Voters Network. Use our simple tool to send an email to everyone you know asking them to stand up for gaming rights: http://videogamevoters.org/movement You can also help spread the word through Facebook and Twitter, or you can simply forward this email to everyone you know and ask them to sign up at videogamevoters.org. Time after time, courts continue to reject politicians' efforts to restrict the sale of computer and video games. But that doesn't mean the politicians will stop trying anytime soon -- in fact, it means they're likely to ramp up their efforts even more. To stop them, we must make it clear that gamers will continue to stand up for free speech -- and that the numbers are on our side. Help make sure we're ready and able to keep fighting for our gaming rights. Spread the word about the Video Game Voters Network right now: http://videogamevoters.org/movement Thank you. -- Video Game Voters Network

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