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  • A programmer who doesn't get to program - where to turn? [closed]

    - by Just an Anon
    I'm in my mid 20's, and have been working as a full time programmer / developer for the last ~6 years, with several years of part-time freelancing before this, and three straight years of freelancing in the middle of this short career. I work mostly with PHP and the Drupal framework. By and large, I focus on programming custom pieces of functionality; these, of course, vary greatly from project to project. I've got years of solid experience with OOP (have done some Java & C# years ago, too) including intensive experience with front-end development, and even some design work. I've lead small teams (2-4 people) of developers. And of course, given the large amount of freelancing, I've got decent project- & client-management skills. My problem is staying motivated at any place of employment. In the time mentioned I've worked (full-time) at six local companies. The longest I've stayed at any company was just over a year. I find that I'll get hired and be very excited and motivated for the first few months, but the work quickly gets "stale." By that I mean that the interesting components (ie. the programming) get done, and the rest of the work turns into boring cleanup (move a button, add text, change colours, add a field). I don't get challenged, and I don't feel like I'm learning anything new. This happens repeatedly time and time again, and I always end up leaving for either a new opportunity, or to freelance. I'm wondering if perhaps I've painted myself into a corner with the rather niche work market (although with very high demand and good compensation) and need to explore other career choices. Another possibility is that I may be choosing the wrong places of employment, mostly small agencies, and need to look into working for a larger, more established firm. I find programming, writing code, and architecting solutions very rewarding. When I'm working on an interesting problem I lose all sense of time and 14-16 hours can fly by like minutes. I get the same exciting feeling when I'm doing high-level planning of a complex system, breaking up the work and figuring out how everything will tie-in together. I absolutely hate doing small, "stupid" changes that pose no challenge, yet seem to make up more and more of my work. I want to find a workplace where I will get to work on such tasks, be challenged, and improve in all areas of product development. This maybe a programming job, management, architecture of desktop apps, or may be managing a taco stand on a beach in Mexico - I don't know, and I need some advice and real-world feedback. What are some job areas worth exploring? The requirements are fairly simple: working with computers interacting with others challenging decent pay (I'm making just short of 90k / year with a month of vacation & some benefits, and would like to stay in this range, but am willing to take a temporary cut in pay for a more interesting position) Any advice would be much appreciated!

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  • Why is 0 false?

    - by Morwenn
    This question may sound dumb, but why does 0 evaluates to false and any other [integer] value to true is most of programming languages? String comparison Since the question seems a little bit too simple, I will explain myself a little bit more: first of all, it may seem evident to any programmer, but why wouldn't there be a programming language - there may actually be, but not any I used - where 0 evaluates to true and all the other [integer] values to false? That one remark may seem random, but I have a few examples where it may have been a good idea. First of all, let's take the example of strings three-way comparison, I will take C's strcmp as example: any programmer trying C as his first language may be tempted to write the following code: if (strcmp(str1, str2)) { // Do something... } Since strcmp returns 0 which evaluates to false when the strings are equal, what the beginning programmer tried to do fails miserably and he generally does not understand why at first. Had 0 evaluated to true instead, this function could have been used in its most simple expression - the one above - when comparing for equality, and the proper checks for -1 and 1 would have been done only when needed. We would have considered the return type as bool (in our minds I mean) most of the time. Moreover, let's introduce a new type, sign, that just takes values -1, 0 and 1. That can be pretty handy. Imagine there is a spaceship operator in C++ and we want it for std::string (well, there already is the compare function, but spaceship operator is more fun). The declaration would currently be the following one: sign operator<=>(const std::string& lhs, const std::string& rhs); Had 0 been evaluated to true, the spaceship operator wouldn't even exist, and we could have declared operator== that way: sign operator==(const std::string& lhs, const std::string& rhs); This operator== would have handled three-way comparison at once, and could still be used to perform the following check while still being able to check which string is lexicographically superior to the other when needed: if (str1 == str2) { // Do something... } Old errors handling We now have exceptions, so this part only applies to the old languages where no such thing exist (C for example). If we look at C's standard library (and POSIX one too), we can see for sure that maaaaany functions return 0 when successful and any integer otherwise. I have sadly seen some people do this kind of things: #define TRUE 0 // ... if (some_function() == TRUE) { // Here, TRUE would mean success... // Do something } If we think about how we think in programming, we often have the following reasoning pattern: Do something Did it work? Yes -> That's ok, one case to handle No -> Why? Many cases to handle If we think about it again, it would have made sense to put the only neutral value, 0, to yes (and that's how C's functions work), while all the other values can be there to solve the many cases of the no. However, in all the programming languages I know (except maybe some experimental esotheric languages), that yes evaluates to false in an if condition, while all the no cases evaluate to true. There are many situations when "it works" represents one case while "it does not work" represents many probable causes. If we think about it that way, having 0 evaluate to true and the rest to false would have made much more sense. Conclusion My conclusion is essentially my original question: why did we design languages where 0 is false and the other values are true, taking in account my few examples above and maybe some more I did not think of? Follow-up: It's nice to see there are many answers with many ideas and as many possible reasons for it to be like that. I love how passionate you seem to be about it. I originaly asked this question out of boredom, but since you seem so passionate, I decided to go a little further and ask about the rationale behind the Boolean choice for 0 and 1 on Math.SE :)

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  • Lenvo B450 won't boot on battery only?

    - by Mywiki Witwiki
    We bought a Lenovo B450 laptop almost a year ago. It comes with a NVIDIA GEFORCE with CUDA graphics and so the battery life is terrible. It will only last 1:30 hours max. We try to run it on battery as much as possible but because the battery life is short sometimes we can't notice that the battery is so low until the computer blacks out. Because of the short battery life, the laptop is always plugged on AC power. One night the computer froze. Because it was already late, I just reset the laptop my pressing the power button for 10 seconds. The laptop shut off but I did not bother restarting it. The next morning, the laptop won't turn on on battery only. It will only turn on on AC power. The computer instantly shuts down(improperly) once the adapter is removed. But the battery was at 100% then. Now it is slowly losing charge (currently at 74%). The battery indicator says, "Plugged in, not charging". I want to bring the laptop to school but I can't because it won't be portable at all. Just to summarize it all: 1) The laptop suffered some blackouts already. 2) The laptop was on AC power most of the time. 3) When the computer froze, it was reset (hard shutdown). 4) The laptop won't boot with battery only since then. 5) The laptop will shutdown instantly when AC adapter is removed. 6) The battery won't charge and is gradually losing charge. ======================= UPDATE ============================= We got the battery replaced. Unfortunately, it delivers only 2 hours max of power.

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  • Slow DB Performance. Seems to be memory related.

    - by David
    I am seeing a pooorly performing web app with a SQL 2005 backend. The db is on a w2k3 machine with 4GB RAM. When I run perfmon on it I see the following. Page life expectancy is low. Consistently under 300 while the Buffer cache hit ratio is always 99% +. The target server memory is always 1618304 and the total server memory is always a number just below that. So it seems that it isn't grabbing enough of the available memory. I have AWE enabled, with the lock pages right for the SQL service account and have set a maximum of 2.25Gb... but it doesn't go near that. When I restart the SQL service the page life expectancy goes much higher, 1000+, and the total target memory starts at 0 and slowly works its way back up to the previous limit. Then it hits the limit and the page life expectancy goes back down massively to <300. So I'm guessing there is something limiting the amount of memory. Any ideas on what that would be and how I can fix it?

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  • Best ways to teach a beginner to program?

    - by Justin Standard
    Original Question I am currently engaged in teaching my brother to program. He is a total beginner, but very smart. (And he actually wants to learn). I've noticed that some of our sessions have gotten bogged down in minor details, and I don't feel I've been very organized. (But the answers to this post have helped a lot.) What can I do better to teach him effectively? Is there a logical order that I can use to run through concept by concept? Are there complexities I should avoid till later? The language we are working with is Python, but advice in any language is welcome. How to Help If you have good ones please add the following in your answer: Beginner Exercises and Project Ideas Resources for teaching beginners Screencasts / blog posts / free e-books Print books that are good for beginners Please describe the resource with a link to it so I can take a look. I want everyone to know that I have definitely been using some of these ideas. Your submissions will be aggregated in this post. Online Resources for teaching beginners: A Gentle Introduction to Programming Using Python How to Think Like a Computer Scientist Alice: a 3d program for beginners Scratch (A system to develop programming skills) How To Design Programs Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs Learn To Program Robert Read's How To Be a Programmer Microsoft XNA Spawning the Next Generation of Hackers COMP1917 Higher Computing lectures by Richard Buckland (requires iTunes) Dive into Python Python Wikibook Project Euler - sample problems (mostly mathematical) pygame - an easy python library for creating games Create Your Own Games With Python ebook Foundations of Programming for a next step beyond basics. Squeak by Example Recommended Print Books for teaching beginners Accelerated C++ Python Programming for the Absolute Beginner Code by Charles Petzold

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  • Are there code signing certificates cheaper than US$99 per year? [closed]

    - by gerryLowry
    K Software discounts Comodo code signing certificates to US$99 per year. In the past, I've seen Commodo code signing certificates for US$80. I'm excluding CAcert which AFAIK are FREE but are not covered by browsers like Internet Explorer AFAIK. QUESTION: What is the best price per year for a code signing certificate? Thank you ~~ gerry (lowry) Edit: **THIS SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN CLOSED** from the FAQ: http://stackoverflow.com/faq ---------------------------- What kind of questions can I ask here? Programming questions, of course! As long as your question is: * detailed and specific <====== YES! * written clearly and simply <====== YES! * of interest to other programmers <====== YES! I've been programming for over 40 years. http://gerrylowryprogrammer.com/ I've taught computer programming at the community college level. I'm a Star level contributer to forums.asp.net. http://forums.asp.net/members/gerrylowry.aspx IMO, I've a very good idea what is of interest to other programmers. MORE INFORMATION http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_signing http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms537361%28VS.85%29.aspx also: via Google: code signing Ensuring the integrity of code and executables that one distributes is just as much about programming as is knowing how to flip bits in assembler, use delegates in C#, and use the BDD context/specification still of "test first testing".

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  • Robot Simulation in Java

    - by Eddy Freeman
    Hi Guys, I am doing a project concerning robot simulation and i need help. I have to simulate the activities of a robot in a warehouse. I am using mindstorm robots and lego's for the warehouse. The point here is i have to simulate all the activities of the robot on a Java GUI. That is whenever the robot is moving, users have to see it on the GUI a moving object which represents the robot. When the roads/rails/crossings of the warehouse changes it must also be changed on the screen. The whole project is i have to simulate whatever the robot is doing in the warehouse in real-time. Everything must happen in real-time I am asking which libraries in Java i can use to do this simulations in real-time and if someone can also point me to any site for good information. Am asking for libraries in Java that i can use to visualize the simulation in real-time. All suggestions are welcome. Thanks for your help.

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  • Getting SSL to work with Apache/Passenger on OSX

    - by jonnii
    I use apache/passenger on my development machine, but need to add SSL support (something which isn't exposed through the control panel). I've done this before in production, but for some reason I can't seem to get it work on OSX. The steps I've followed so far are from a default apache osx install: Install passenger and passenger preference pane. Add my rails app (this works) Create my ca.key, server.crt and server.key as detailed on the apple website. At this point I need to start editing the apache configs, so I added: # Apache knows to listen on port 443 for ssl requests. Listen 443 Listen 80 I thought I'd try editing the passenger pref pane generated config first to get everything working, when I add: It starts off looking like this <VirtualHost *:80> ServerName myapp.local DocumentRoot "/Users/jonnii/programming/ruby/myapp/public" RailsEnv development <Directory "/Users/jonnii/programming/ruby/myapp/public"> Order allow,deny Allow from all </Directory> </VirtualHost> I then append this: <VirtualHost *:443> ServerName myapp.local DocumentRoot "/Users/jonnii/programming/ruby/myapp/public" RailsEnv development <directory "/Users/jonnii/programming/ruby/myapp/public"> Order allow,deny Allow from all </directory> # SSL Configuration SSLEngine on SSLCipherSuite ALL:!ADH:!EXPORT56:RC4+RSA:+HIGH:+MEDIUM:+LOW:+SSLv2:+EXP SSLOptions +FakeBasicAuth +ExportCertData +StdEnvVars +StrictRequire #Self Signed certificates SSLCertificateFile /private/etc/apache2/ssl.key/server.crt SSLCertificateKeyFile /private/etc/apache2/ssl.key/server.key SSLCertificateChainFile /private/etc/apache2/ssl.key/ca.crt SetEnvIf User-Agent ".*MSIE.*" nokeepalive ssl-unclean-shutdown downgrade-1.0 force-response-1.0 </VirtualHost> The files referenced all exist (I doubled checked that), but now when I restart my apache I can't even get to myapp.local. However apache can still server the default page when I click on it in the sharing preference panel. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

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  • Problem inserting android.text.format.Time.toMillis value into SQLite DB on droid

    - by schusselig
    I'm writing an app for Android OS, and I need to store some time values in the SQLite DB. I have been using android.text.format.Time to store the time values in the app, and then inserting the values as millis into the DB as REAL values. On the SDK emulator, everything works perfectly. On the sole phone I've had the opportunity to test my app (so far), my duration code doesn't work as expected. Some relevant code: private static final String DATABASE_CREATE = "create table " + DATABASE_TABLE + " (" + KEY_ROWID + " integer primary key autoincrement, " + KEY_START + " REAL, " + KEY_STOP + " REAL, " + KEY_DUR + " REAL );"; ... private SQLiteDatabase mDb; ContentValues timerValues = new ContentValues(); ... timerValues.put(KEY_START, stime.toMillis(false)); timerValues.put(KEY_STOP, etime.toMillis(false)); timerValues.put(KEY_DURATION, stime.toMillis(false)-etime.toMillis(false)); int result = mDb.insert(DATABASE_TABLE, null, timerValues); I pull this data from two separate functions with slightly different bits of code, both using Time.set(long millis), both giving incorrect results: The start and stop values come back correct, but the duration comes out 17 hours too large. Am I missing something about calculating durations or does this just seem like there's something "special" about this particular droid? I'll have another droid to test on Monday, but any ideas are appreciated.

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  • Simple in-place discrete fourier transform ( DFT )

    - by Adam
    I'm writing a very simple in-place DFT. I am using the formula shown here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discrete_Fourier_transform#Definition along with Euler's formula to avoid having to use a complex number class just for this. So far I have this: private void fft(double[] data) { double[] real = new double[256]; double[] imag = new double[256]; double pi_div_128 = -1 * Math.PI / 128; for (int k = 0; k < 256; k++) { for (int n = 0; n < 256; n++) { real[k] += data[k] * Math.Cos(pi_div_128 * k * n); imag[k] += data[k] * Math.Sin(pi_div_128 * k * n); } data[k] = Math.Sqrt(real[k] * real[k] + imag[k] * imag[k]); } } But the Math.Cos and Math.Sin terms eventually go both positive and negative, so as I'm adding those terms multiplied with data[k], they cancel out and I just get some obscenely small value. I see how it is happening, but I can't make sense of how my code is perhaps mis-representing the mathematics. Any help is appreciated. FYI, I do have to write my own, I realize I can get off-the shelf FFT's.

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  • Small-o(n^2) implementation of Polynomial Multiplication

    - by AlanTuring
    I'm having a little trouble with this problem that is listed at the back of my book, i'm currently in the middle of test prep but i can't seem to locate anything regarding this in the book. Anyone got an idea? A real polynomial of degree n is a function of the form f(x)=a(n)x^n+?+a1x+a0, where an,…,a1,a0 are real numbers. In computational situations, such a polynomial is represented by a sequence of its coefficients (a0,a1,…,an). Assuming that any two real numbers can be added/multiplied in O(1) time, design an o(n^2)-time algorithm to compute, given two real polynomials f(x) and g(x) both of degree n, the product h(x)=f(x)g(x). Your algorithm should **not** be based on the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) technique. Please note it needs to be small-o(n^2), which means it complexity must be sub-quadratic. The obvious solution that i have been finding is indeed the FFT, but of course i can't use that. There is another method that i have found called convolution, where if you take polynomial A to be a signal and polynomial B to be a filter. A passed through B yields a shifted signal that has been "smoothed" by A and the resultant is A*B. This is supposed to work in O(n log n) time. Of course i am completely unsure of implementation. If anyone has any ideas of how to achieve a small-o(n^2) implementation please do share, thanks.

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  • are there code signing certificates cheaper than US $99 per year? [closed]

    - by gerryLowry
    ksoftware discounts Commodo code signing certificates to US $99 per year. in the past, I've seen Commodo code signing certificates for US $80. I'm excluding CAcert which AFAIK are FREE but are not covered by browsers like IE AFAIK. QUESTION: What is the best price per year for a code signing certificate? Thank you ~~ gerry (lowry) Edit: **THIS SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN CLOSED** from the FAQ: http://stackoverflow.com/faq ---------------------------- What kind of questions can I ask here? Programming questions, of course! As long as your question is: * detailed and specific <====== YES! * written clearly and simply <====== YES! * of interest to other programmers <====== YES! I've been programming for over 40 years. http://gerrylowryprogrammer.com/ I've taught computer programming at the community college level. I'm a Star level contributer to forums.asp.net. http://forums.asp.net/members/gerrylowry.aspx imo, I've a very good idea what is of interest to other programmers. MORE INFORMATION Ensuring the integrity of code and executables that one distributes is just as much about programming as is knowing how to flip bits in assembler, use delegates in c#, and use the BDD context/specification still of "test first testing".

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  • Writing fortran robust and "modern" code

    - by Blklight
    In some scientific environments, you often cannot go without FORTRAN as most of the developers only know that idiom, and there is lot of legacy code and related experience. And frankly, there are not many other cross-platform options for high performance programming ( C++ would do the task, but the syntax, zero-starting arrays, and pointers are too much for most engineers ;-) ). I'm a C++ guy but I'm stuck with some F90 projects. So, let's assume a new project must use FORTRAN (F90), but I want to build the most modern software architecture out of it. while being compatible with most "recent" compilers (intel ifort, but also including sun/HP/IBM own compilers) So I'm thinking of imposing: global variable forbidden, no gotos, no jump labels, "implicit none", etc. "object-oriented programming" (modules with datatypes + related subroutines) modular/reusable functions, well documented, reusable libraries assertions/preconditions/invariants (implemented using preprocessor statements) unit tests for all (most) subroutines and "objects" an intense "debug mode" (#ifdef DEBUG) with more checks and all possible Intel compiler checks possible (array bounds, subroutine interfaces, etc.) uniform and enforced legible coding style, using code processing tools C stubs/wrappers for libpthread, libDL (and eventually GPU kernels, etc.) C/C++ implementation of utility functions (strings, file operations, sockets, memory alloc/dealloc reference counting for debug mode, etc.) ( This may all seem "evident" modern programming assumptions, but in a legacy fortran world, most of these are big changes in the typical programmer workflow ) The goal with all that is to have trustworthy, maintainable and modular code. Whereas, in typical fortran, modularity is often not a primary goal, and code is trustworthy only if the original developer was very clever, and the code was not changed since then ! (i'm a bit joking here, but not much) I searched around for references about object-oriented fortran, programming-by-contract (assertions/preconditions/etc.), and found only ugly and outdated documents, syntaxes and papers done by people with no large-scale project involvement, and dead projects. Any good URL, advice, reference paper/books on the subject?

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  • Linear regression confidence intervals in SQL

    - by Matt Howells
    I'm using some fairly straight-forward SQL code to calculate the coefficients of regression (intercept and slope) of some (x,y) data points, using least-squares. This gives me a nice best-fit line through the data. However we would like to be able to see the 95% and 5% confidence intervals for the line of best-fit (the curves below). What these mean is that the true line has 95% probability of being below the upper curve and 95% probability of being above the lower curve. How can I calculate these curves? I have already read wikipedia etc. and done some googling but I haven't found understandable mathematical equations to be able to calculate this. Edit: here is the essence of what I have right now. --sample data create table #lr (x real not null, y real not null) insert into #lr values (0,1) insert into #lr values (4,9) insert into #lr values (2,5) insert into #lr values (3,7) declare @slope real declare @intercept real --calculate slope and intercept select @slope = ((count(*) * sum(x*y)) - (sum(x)*sum(y)))/ ((count(*) * sum(Power(x,2)))-Power(Sum(x),2)), @intercept = avg(y) - ((count(*) * sum(x*y)) - (sum(x)*sum(y)))/ ((count(*) * sum(Power(x,2)))-Power(Sum(x),2)) * avg(x) from #lr Thank you in advance.

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  • Access denied when trying to access my database.

    - by Sergio Tapia
    Here's my code: <html> <head> </head> <body> <?php $user = mysql_real_escape_string($_GET["u"]); $pass = mysql_real_escape_string($_GET["p"]); $query = "SELECT * FROM usario WHERE username = '$user' AND password = '$pass'"; mysql_connect(localhost, "root", ""); @mysql_select_db("multas") or die( "Unable to select database"); $result=mysql_query($query); if(mysql_numrows($result) > 0){ echo 'si'; } ?> </body> </html> And here's the error I get when I try to run it Warning: mysql_real_escape_string() [function.mysql-real-escape-string]: Access denied for user 'ODBC'@'localhost' (using password: NO) in C:\xampp\htdocs\useraccess.php on line 7 Warning: mysql_real_escape_string() [function.mysql-real-escape-string]: A link to the server could not be established in C:\xampp\htdocs\useraccess.php on line 7 Warning: mysql_real_escape_string() [function.mysql-real-escape-string]: Access denied for user 'ODBC'@'localhost' (using password: NO) in C:\xampp\htdocs\useraccess.php on line 8 Warning: mysql_real_escape_string() [function.mysql-real-escape-string]: A link to the server could not be established in C:\xampp\htdocs\useraccess.php on line 8 Warning: mysql_numrows() expects parameter 1 to be resource, boolean given in C:\xampp\htdocs\useraccess.php on line 16

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  • C# using the "this" keyword in this situation?

    - by Alex
    Hi, I've completed a OOP course assignment where I design and code a Complex Number class. For extra credit, I can do the following: Add two complex numbers. The function will take one complex number object as a parameter and return a complex number object. When adding two complex numbers, the real part of the calling object is added to the real part of the complex number object passed as a parameter, and the imaginary part of the calling object is added to the imaginary part of the complex number object passed as a parameter. Subtract two complex numbers. The function will take one complex number object as a parameter and return a complex number object. When subtracting two complex numbers, the real part of the complex number object passed as a parameter is subtracted from the real part of the calling object, and the imaginary part of the complex number object passed as a parameter is subtracted from the imaginary part of the calling object. I have coded this up, and I used the this keyword to denote the current instance of the class, the code for my add method is below, and my subtract method looks similar: public ComplexNumber Add(ComplexNumber c) { double realPartAdder = c.GetRealPart(); double complexPartAdder = c.GetComplexPart(); double realPartCaller = this.GetRealPart(); double complexPartCaller = this.GetComplexPart(); double finalRealPart = realPartCaller + realPartAdder; double finalComplexPart = complexPartCaller + complexPartAdder; ComplexNumber summedComplex = new ComplexNumber(finalRealPart, finalComplexPart); return summedComplex; } My question is: Did I do this correctly and with good style? (using the this keyword)?

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  • How to learn how to program?

    - by twinbornJoint
    I would like to know the best methods for learning to program. I've been directed towards the Python language because I was told it is good for beginners. I ultimately want to make games for OS X/iPhone. My problem is that I understand what I read but I can't apply my knowledge to anything. I am a programming noob. Should I stick with Python? (is there a better language I should be learning?) Where can I learn programming theory? I get very hyper when reading my book sometimes, any tips on staying calm and focusing? What are effective ways to learn how to program? Are there standard exercises for programming? (I feel solving problems helps my understanding immensely) Ultimately I feel like I am in a never ending tunnel that leads me no where. It feels like I am just completely unable to pursue anything in the world of programming, yet it is something I want to do very much. Thanks.

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  • Better use a tuple or numpy array for storing coordinates

    - by Ivan
    Hi, I'm porting an C++ scientific application to python, and as I'm new to python, some problems come to my mind: 1) I'm defining a class that will contain the coordinates (x,y). These values will be accessed several times, but they only will be read after the class instantiation. Is it better to use an tuple or an numpy array, both in memory and access time wise? 2) In some cases, these coordinates will be used to build a complex number, evaluated on a complex function, and the real part of this function will be used. Assuming that there is no way to separate real and complex parts of this function, and the real part will have to be used on the end, maybe is better to use directly complex numbers to store (x,y)? How bad is the overhead with the transformation from complex to real in python? The code in c++ does a lot of these transformations, and this is a big slowdown in that code. 3) Also some coordinates transformations will have to be performed, and for the coordinates the x and y values will be accessed in separate, the transformation be done, and the result returned. The coordinate transformations are defined in the complex plane, so is still faster to use the components x and y directly than relying on the complex variables? Thank you

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  • Ajax and JSF 1.1 using hidden iframe with "proxy forms", what do you think about this development st

    - by Steel Plume
    Hi, currently I am using yet 1.1 specs, so I am trying to make simple what is too complex for me :p, managing backing beans with conflicting navigation rules, external params breaking rules and so on... for example when I need a backing bean used by other "views" simply I call it using FacesContext inside other backing beans, but often it's too wired up to JSF navigation/initialization rules to be really usable, and of course more simple is more useful become the FacesContext. So with only a bit of cross browser Javascript (simply a form copy and a read-write on a "proxy" form), I create a sort of proxy form inside the main user page (totally disassociated from JSF navigation rules, but using JSF taglibs). Ajax gives me flexibility on the user interaction, but data is always managed by JSF. Pratically I demand all "fictious" user actions to an hidden "iframe" which build up all needed forms according JSF rules, then a javascript simply clone its form output and put it into the user view level (CSS for showing/hiding real command buttons and making pretty), the user plays around and when he click submit, a script copies all "proxied" form values into the real JSF form inside the "iframe" that invokes the real submit of the form, what it returns is obviously dependent by your choice. Now JSF is really a pleasure :-p My real interest is to know what are your alternative strategy for using pure Ajax and JSF 1.1 without adopting middle layer like ajax4jsf and others, all good choices but too much "plugins" than specs.

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  • How to push further as a programmer?

    - by MaXX
    For the last, hmm, 6 months I've been reading into Programming in C, I got myself K&Rv2, BEEJ's socket guide, Expert C programming, Linux Systems Programming, the ISO/IEC 9899:1999 specification (real, and not draft). After receiving them from Amazon, I got Linux installed, and got to it. I'm done with K&R, about halfway through Expert C Programming, but still feel weak as a programmer, I'm sure it takes much more than 6 months of reading to become truly skilled, but my question is this: I've done all the exercises in K&Rv2 (in chapter 1) and some in other chapters, most of which are generally really boring. How do I lift my skills, and become truly great? I've invested money, time and a general lifestyle for something I truly desire, but I'm not sure how exactly to achieve it. Could someone explain to me, perhaps if I need to continuously code, what exactly I'm to code? I'm pretty sure, coding up hello world programs isn't going to teach me any more than I already know about anything. A friend of mine said "read" (with emphasis on read) a man page a day, but reading is all I do, I want to do, but I'm not sure what! I'm interested in security, but I'm not sure as a novice what to code that would be considered enough. Ah, I hope you don't delete this paste :) Thanks

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  • C++: Conceptual problem in designing an intepreter

    - by sub
    I'm programming an interpreter for an experimental programming language (educational, fun,...) So far, everything went well (Tokenizer & Parser), but I'm getting a huge problem with some of the data structures in the part that actually runs the tokenized and parsed code. My programming language basically has only two types, int and string, and they are represented as C++ strings (std class) and ints Here is a short version of the data structure that I use to pass values around: enum DataType { Null, Int, String } class Symbol { public: string identifier; DataType type; string stringValue; int intValue; } I can't use union because string doesn't allow me to. This structure above is beginning to give me a headache. I have to scatter code like this everywhere in order to make it work, it is beginning to grow unmaintainable: if( mySymbol.type == Int ) { mySymbol.intValue = 1234; } else { mySymbol.stringValue = "abcde"; } I use the Symbol data structure for variables, return values for functions and general representation of values in the programming language. Is there any better way to solve this? I hope so!

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  • Oracle Enterprise Manager 11g Application Management Suite for Oracle E-Business Suite Now Available

    - by chung.wu
    Oracle Enterprise Manager 11g Application Management Suite for Oracle E-Business Suite is now available. The management suite combines features that were available in the standalone Application Management Pack for Oracle E-Business Suite and Application Change Management Pack for Oracle E-Business Suite with Oracle's market leading real user monitoring and configuration management capabilities to provide the most complete solution for managing E-Business Suite applications. The features that were available in the standalone management packs are now packaged into Oracle E-Business Suite Plug-in 4.0, which is now fully certified with Oracle Enterprise Manager 11g Grid Control. This latest plug-in extends Grid Control with E-Business Suite specific management capabilities and features enhanced change management support. In addition, this latest release of Application Management Suite for Oracle E-Business Suite also includes numerous real user monitoring improvements. General Enhancements This new release of Application Management Suite for Oracle E-Business Suite offers the following key capabilities: Oracle Enterprise Manager 11g Grid Control Support: All components of the management suite are certified with Oracle Enterprise Manager 11g Grid Control. Built-in Diagnostic Ability: This release has numerous major enhancements that provide the necessary intelligence to determine if the product has been installed and configured correctly. There are diagnostics for Discovery, Cloning, and User Monitoring that will validate if the appropriate patches, privileges, setups, and profile options have been configured. This feature improves the setup and configuration time to be up and operational. Lifecycle Automation Enhancements Application Management Suite for Oracle E-Business Suite provides a centralized view to monitor and orchestrate changes (both functional and technical) across multiple Oracle E-Business Suite systems. In this latest release, it provides even more control and flexibility in managing Oracle E-Business Suite changes.Change Management: Built-in Diagnostic Ability: This latest release has numerous major enhancements that provide the necessary intelligence to determine if the product has been installed and configured correctly. There are diagnostics for Customization Manager, Patch Manager, and Setup Manager that will validate if the appropriate patches, privileges, setups, and profile options have been configured. Enhancing the setup time and configuration time to be up and operational. Customization Manager: Multi-Node Custom Application Registration: This feature automates the process of registering and validating custom products/applications on every node in a multi-node EBS system. Public/Private File Source Mappings and E-Business Suite Mappings: File Source Mappings & E-Business Suite Mappings can be created and marked as public or private. Only the creator/owner can define/edit his/her own mappings. Users can use public mappings, but cannot edit or change settings. Test Checkout Command for Versions: This feature allows you to test/verify checkout commands at the version level within the File Source Mapping page. Prerequisite Patch Validation: You can specify prerequisite patches for Customization packages and for Release 12 Oracle E-Business Suite packages. Destination Path Population: You can now automatically populate the Destination Path for common file types during package construction. OAF File Type Support: Ability to package Oracle Application Framework (OAF) customizations and deploy them across multiple Oracle E-Business Suite instances. Extended PLL Support: Ability to distinguish between different types of PLLs (that is, Report and Forms PLL files). Providing better granularity when managing PLL objects. Enhanced Standard Checker: Provides greater and more comprehensive list of coding standards that are verified during the package build process (for example, File Driver exceptions, Java checks, XML checks, SQL checks, etc.) HTML Package Readme: The package Readme is in HTML format and includes the file listing. Advanced Package Search Capabilities: The ability to utilize more criteria within the advanced search package (that is, Public, Last Updated by, Files Source Mapping, and E-Business Suite Mapping). Enhanced Package Build Notifications: More detailed information on the results of a package build process. Better, more detailed troubleshooting guidance in the event of build failures. Patch Manager:Staged Patches: Ability to run Patch Manager with no external internet access. Customer can download Oracle E-Business Suite patches into a shared location for Patch Manager to access and apply. Supports highly secured production environments that prohibit external internet connections. Support for Superseded Patches: Automatic check for superseded patches. Allows users to easily add superseded patches into the Patch Run. More comprehensive and correct Patch Runs. Removes many manual and laborious tasks, frees up Apps DBAs for higher value-added tasks. Automatic Primary Node Identification: Users can now specify which is the "primary node" (that is, which node hosts the Shared APPL_TOP) during the Patch Run interview process, available for Release 12 only. Setup Manager:Preview Extract Results: Ability to execute an extract in "proof mode", and examine the query results, to determine accuracy. Used in conjunction with the "where" clause in Advanced Filtering. This feature can provide better and more accurate fine tuning of extracts. Use Uploaded Extracts in New Projects: Ability to incorporate uploaded extracts in new projects via new LOV fields in package construction. Leverages the Setup Manager repository to access extracts that have been uploaded. Allows customer to reuse uploaded extracts to provision new instances. Re-use Existing (that is, historical) Extracts in New Projects: Ability to incorporate existing extracts in new projects via new LOV fields in package construction. Leverages the Setup Manager repository to access point-in-time extracts (snapshots) of configuration data. Allows customer to reuse existing extracts to provision new instances. Allows comparative historical reporting of identical APIs, executed at different times. Support for BR100 formats: Setup Manager can now automatically produce reports in the BR100 format. Native support for industry standard formats. Concurrent Manager API Support: General Foundation now provides an API for management of "Concurrent Manager" configuration data. Ability to migrate Concurrent Managers from one instance to another. Complete the setup once and never again; no need to redefine the Concurrent Managers. User Experience Management Enhancements Application Management Suite for Oracle E-Business Suite includes comprehensive capabilities for user experience management, supporting both real user and synthetic transaction based user monitoring techniques. This latest release of the management suite include numerous improvements in real user monitoring support. KPI Reporting: Configurable decimal precision for reporting of KPI and SLA values. By default, this is two decimal places. KPI numerator and denominator information. It is now possible to view KPI numerator and denominator information, and to have it available for export. Content Messages Processing: The application content message facility has been extended to distinguish between notifications and errors. In addition, it is now possible to specify matching rules that can be used to refine a selected content message specification. Note this is only available for XPath-based (not literal) message contents. Data Export: The Enriched data export facility has been significantly enhanced to provide improved performance and accessibility. Data is no longer stored within XML-based files, but is now stored within the Reporter database. However, it is possible to configure an alternative database for its storage. Access to the export data is through SQL. With this enhancement, it is now more easy than ever to use tools such as Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition to analyze correlated data collected from real user monitoring and business data sources. SNMP Traps for System Events: Previously, the SNMP notification facility was only available for KPI alerting. It has now been extended to support the generation of SNMP traps for system events, to provide external health monitoring of the RUEI system processes. Performance Improvements: Enhanced dashboard performance. The dashboard facility has been enhanced to support the parallel loading of items. In the case of dashboards containing large numbers of items, this can result in a significant performance improvement. Initial period selection within Data Browser and reports. The User Preferences facility has been extended to allow you to specify the initial period selection when first entering the Data Browser or reports facility. The default is the last hour. Performance improvement when querying the all sessions group. Technical Prerequisites, Download and Installation Instructions The Linux version of the plug-in is available for immediate download from Oracle Technology Network or Oracle eDelivery. For specific information regarding technical prerequisites, product download and installation, please refer to My Oracle Support note 1224313.1. The following certifications are in progress: * Oracle Solaris on SPARC (64-bit) (9, 10) * HP-UX Itanium (11.23, 11.31) * HP-UX PA-RISC (64-bit) (11.23, 11.31) * IBM AIX on Power Systems (64-bit) (5.3, 6.1)

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  • The Proper Use of the VM Role in Windows Azure

    - by BuckWoody
    At the Professional Developer’s Conference (PDC) in 2010 we announced an addition to the Computational Roles in Windows Azure, called the VM Role. This new feature allows a great deal of control over the applications you write, but some have confused it with our full infrastructure offering in Windows Hyper-V. There is a proper architecture pattern for both of them. Virtualization Virtualization is the process of taking all of the hardware of a physical computer and replicating it in software alone. This means that a single computer can “host” or run several “virtual” computers. These virtual computers can run anywhere - including at a vendor’s location. Some companies refer to this as Cloud Computing since the hardware is operated and maintained elsewhere. IaaS The more detailed definition of this type of computing is called Infrastructure as a Service (Iaas) since it removes the need for you to maintain hardware at your organization. The operating system, drivers, and all the other software required to run an application are still under your control and your responsibility to license, patch, and scale. Microsoft has an offering in this space called Hyper-V, that runs on the Windows operating system. Combined with a hardware hosting vendor and the System Center software to create and deploy Virtual Machines (a process referred to as provisioning), you can create a Cloud environment with full control over all aspects of the machine, including multiple operating systems if you like. Hosting machines and provisioning them at your own buildings is sometimes called a Private Cloud, and hosting them somewhere else is often called a Public Cloud. State-ful and Stateless Programming This paradigm does not create a new, scalable way of computing. It simply moves the hardware away. The reason is that when you limit the Cloud efforts to a Virtual Machine, you are in effect limiting the computing resources to what that single system can provide. This is because much of the software developed in this environment maintains “state” - and that requires a little explanation. “State-ful programming” means that all parts of the computing environment stay connected to each other throughout a compute cycle. The system expects the memory, CPU, storage and network to remain in the same state from the beginning of the process to the end. You can think of this as a telephone conversation - you expect that the other person picks up the phone, listens to you, and talks back all in a single unit of time. In “Stateless” computing the system is designed to allow the different parts of the code to run independently of each other. You can think of this like an e-mail exchange. You compose an e-mail from your system (it has the state when you’re doing that) and then you walk away for a bit to make some coffee. A few minutes later you click the “send” button (the network has the state) and you go to a meeting. The server receives the message and stores it on a mail program’s database (the mail server has the state now) and continues working on other mail. Finally, the other party logs on to their mail client and reads the mail (the other user has the state) and responds to it and so on. These events might be separated by milliseconds or even days, but the system continues to operate. The entire process doesn’t maintain the state, each component does. This is the exact concept behind coding for Windows Azure. The stateless programming model allows amazing rates of scale, since the message (think of the e-mail) can be broken apart by multiple programs and worked on in parallel (like when the e-mail goes to hundreds of users), and only the order of re-assembling the work is important to consider. For the exact same reason, if the system makes copies of those running programs as Windows Azure does, you have built-in redundancy and recovery. It’s just built into the design. The Difference Between Infrastructure Designs and Platform Designs When you simply take a physical server running software and virtualize it either privately or publicly, you haven’t done anything to allow the code to scale or have recovery. That all has to be handled by adding more code and more Virtual Machines that have a slight lag in maintaining the running state of the system. Add more machines and you get more lag, so the scale is limited. This is the primary limitation with IaaS. It’s also not as easy to deploy these VM’s, and more importantly, you’re often charged on a longer basis to remove them. your agility in IaaS is more limited. Windows Azure is a Platform - meaning that you get objects you can code against. The code you write runs on multiple nodes with multiple copies, and it all works because of the magic of Stateless programming. you don’t worry, or even care, about what is running underneath. It could be Windows (and it is in fact a type of Windows Server), Linux, or anything else - but that' isn’t what you want to manage, monitor, maintain or license. You don’t want to deploy an operating system - you want to deploy an application. You want your code to run, and you don’t care how it does that. Another benefit to PaaS is that you can ask for hundreds or thousands of new nodes of computing power - there’s no provisioning, it just happens. And you can stop using them quicker - and the base code for your application does not have to change to make this happen. Windows Azure Roles and Their Use If you need your code to have a user interface, in Visual Studio you add a Web Role to your project, and if the code needs to do work that doesn’t involve a user interface you can add a Worker Role. They are just containers that act a certain way. I’ll provide more detail on those later. Note: That’s a general description, so it’s not entirely accurate, but it’s accurate enough for this discussion. So now we’re back to that VM Role. Because of the name, some have mistakenly thought that you can take a Virtual Machine running, say Linux, and deploy it to Windows Azure using this Role. But you can’t. That’s not what it is designed for at all. If you do need that kind of deployment, you should look into Hyper-V and System Center to create the Private or Public Infrastructure as a Service. What the VM Role is actually designed to do is to allow you to have a great deal of control over the system where your code will run. Let’s take an example. You’ve heard about Windows Azure, and Platform programming. You’re convinced it’s the right way to code. But you have a lot of things you’ve written in another way at your company. Re-writing all of your code to take advantage of Windows Azure will take a long time. Or perhaps you have a certain version of Apache Web Server that you need for your code to work. In both cases, you think you can (or already have) code the the software to be “Stateless”, you just need more control over the place where the code runs. That’s the place where a VM Role makes sense. Recap Virtualizing servers alone has limitations of scale, availability and recovery. Microsoft’s offering in this area is Hyper-V and System Center, not the VM Role. The VM Role is still used for running Stateless code, just like the Web and Worker Roles, with the exception that it allows you more control over the environment of where that code runs.

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  • How can a code editor effectively hint at code nesting level - without using indentation?

    - by pgfearo
    I've written an XML text editor that provides 2 view options for the same XML text, one indented (virtually), the other left-justified. The motivation for the left-justified view is to help users 'see' the whitespace characters they're using for indentation of plain-text or XPath code without interference from indentation that is an automated side-effect of the XML context. I want to provide visual clues (in the non-editable part of the editor) for the left-justified mode that will help the user, but without getting too elaborate. I tried just using connecting lines, but that seemed too busy. The best I've come up with so far is shown in a mocked up screenshot of the editor below, but I'm seeking better/simpler alternatives (that don't require too much code). [Edit] Taking the heatmap idea (from: @jimp) I get this and 3 alternatives - labelled a, b and c: The following section describes the accepted answer as a proposal, bringing together ideas from a number of other answers and comments. As this question is now community wiki, please feel free to update this. NestView The name for this idea which provides a visual method to improve the readability of nested code without using indentation. Contour Lines The name for the differently shaded lines within the NestView The image above shows the NestView used to help visualise an XML snippet. Though XML is used for this illustration, any other code syntax that uses nesting could have been used for this illustration. An Overview: The contour lines are shaded (as in a heatmap) to convey nesting level The contour lines are angled to show when a nesting level is being either opened or closed. A contour line links the start of a nesting level to the corresponding end. The combined width of contour lines give a visual impression of nesting level, in addition to the heatmap. The width of the NestView may be manually resizable, but should not change as the code changes. Contour lines can either be compressed or truncated to keep acheive this. Blank lines are sometimes used code to break up text into more digestable chunks. Such lines could trigger special behaviour in the NestView. For example the heatmap could be reset or a background color contour line used, or both. One or more contour lines associated with the currently selected code can be highlighted. The contour line associated with the selected code level would be emphasized the most, but other contour lines could also 'light up' in addition to help highlight the containing nested group Different behaviors (such as code folding or code selection) can be associated with clicking/double-clicking on a Contour Line. Different parts of a contour line (leading, middle or trailing edge) may have different dynamic behaviors associated. Tooltips can be shown on a mouse hover event over a contour line The NestView is updated continously as the code is edited. Where nesting is not well-balanced assumptions can be made where the nesting level should end, but the associated temporary contour lines must be highlighted in some way as a warning. Drag and drop behaviors of Contour Lines can be supported. Behaviour may vary according to the part of the contour line being dragged. Features commonly found in the left margin such as line numbering and colour highlighting for errors and change state could overlay the NestView. Additional Functionality The proposal addresses a range of additional issues - many are outside the scope of the original question, but a useful side-effect. Visually linking the start and end of a nested region The contour lines connect the start and end of each nested level Highlighting the context of the currently selected line As code is selected, the associated nest-level in the NestView can be highlighted Differentiating between code regions at the same nesting level In the case of XML different hues could be used for different namespaces. Programming languages (such as c#) support named regions that could be used in a similar way. Dividing areas within a nesting area into different visual blocks Extra lines are often inserted into code to aid readability. Such empty lines could be used to reset the saturation level of the NestView's contour lines. Multi-Column Code View Code without indentation makes the use of a multi-column view more effective because word-wrap or horizontal scrolling is less likely to be required. In this view, once code has reach the bottom of one column, it flows into the next one: Usage beyond merely providing a visual aid As proposed in the overview, the NestView could provide a range of editing and selection features which would be broadly in line with what is expected from a TreeView control. The key difference is that a typical TreeView node has 2 parts: an expander and the node icon. A NestView contour line can have as many as 3 parts: an opener (sloping), a connector (vertical) and a close (sloping). On Indentation The NestView presented alongside non-indented code complements, but is unlikely to replace, the conventional indented code view. It's likely that any solutions adopting a NestView, will provide a method to switch seamlessly between indented and non-indented code views without affecting any of the code text itself - including whitespace characters. One technique for the indented view would be 'Virtual Formatting' - where a dynamic left-margin is used in lieu of tab or space characters. The same nesting-level data used to dynamically render the NestView could also used for the more conventional-looking indented view. Printing Indentation will be important for the readability of printed code. Here, the absence of tab/space characters and a dynamic left-margin means that the text can wrap at the right-margin and still maintain the integrity of the indented view. Line numbers can be used as visual markers that indicate where code is word-wrapped and also the exact position of indentation: Screen Real-Estate: Flat Vs Indented Addressing the question of whether the NestView uses up valuable screen real-estate: Contour lines work well with a width the same as the code editor's character width. A NestView width of 12 character widths can therefore accommodate 12 levels of nesting before contour lines are truncated/compressed. If an indented view uses 3 character-widths for each nesting level then space is saved until nesting reaches 4 levels of nesting, after this nesting level the flat view has a space-saving advantage that increases with each nesting level. Note: A minimum indentation of 4 character widths is often recommended for code, however XML often manages with less. Also, Virtual Formatting permits less indentation to be used because there's no risk of alignment issues A comparison of the 2 views is shown below: Based on the above, its probably fair to conclude that view style choice will be based on factors other than screen real-estate. The one exception is where screen space is at a premium, for example on a Netbook/Tablet or when multiple code windows are open. In these cases, the resizable NestView would seem to be a clear winner. Use Cases Examples of real-world examples where NestView may be a useful option: Where screen real-estate is at a premium a. On devices such as tablets, notepads and smartphones b. When showing code on websites c. When multiple code windows need to be visible on the desktop simultaneously Where consistent whitespace indentation of text within code is a priority For reviewing deeply nested code. For example where sub-languages (e.g. Linq in C# or XPath in XSLT) might cause high levels of nesting. Accessibility Resizing and color options must be provided to aid those with visual impairments, and also to suit environmental conditions and personal preferences: Compatability of edited code with other systems A solution incorporating a NestView option should ideally be capable of stripping leading tab and space characters (identified as only having a formatting role) from imported code. Then, once stripped, the code could be rendered neatly in both the left-justified and indented views without change. For many users relying on systems such as merging and diff tools that are not whitespace-aware this will be a major concern (if not a complete show-stopper). Other Works: Visualisation of Overlapping Markup Published research by Wendell Piez, dated from 2004, addresses the issue of the visualisation of overlapping markup, specifically LMNL. This includes SVG graphics with significant similarities to the NestView proposal, as such, they are acknowledged here. The visual differences are clear in the images (below), the key functional distinction is that NestView is intended only for well-nested XML or code, whereas Wendell Piez's graphics are designed to represent overlapped nesting. The graphics above were reproduced - with kind permission - from http://www.piez.org Sources: Towards Hermenutic Markup Half-steps toward LMNL

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  • In Case You Weren’t There: Blogwell NYC

    - by Mike Stiles
    0 0 1 1009 5755 Vitrue 47 13 6751 14.0 Normal 0 false false false EN-US JA X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";} Your roving reporter roved out to another one of Socialmedia.org’s fantastic Blogwell events, this time in NYC. As Central Park and incredible weather beckoned, some of the biggest brand names in the world gathered to talk about how they’re incorporating social into marketing and CRM, as well as extending social across their entire organizations internally. Below we present a collection of the live tweets from many of the key sessions GE @generalelectricJon Lombardo, Leader of Social Media COE How GE builds and extends emotional connections with consumers around health and reaps the benefits of increased brand equity in the process. GE has a social platform around Healthyimagination to create better health for people. If you and a friend are trying to get healthy together, you’ll do better. Health is inherently. Get health challenges via Facebook and share with friends to achieve goals together. They’re creating an emotional connection around the health context. You don’t influence people at large. Your sphere of real influence is around 5-10 people. They find relevant conversations about health on Twitter and engage sounding like a friend, not a brand. Why would people share on behalf of a brand? Because you tapped into an activity and emotion they’re already having. To create better habits in health, GE gave away inexpensive, relevant gifts related to their goals. Create the context, give the relevant gift, get social acknowledgment for giving it. What you get when you get acknowledgment for your engagement and gift is user generated microcontent. GE got 12,000 unique users engaged and 1400 organic posts with the healthy gift campaign. The Dow Chemical Company @DowChemicalAbby Klanecky, Director of Digital & Social Media Learn how Dow Chemical is finding, training, and empowering their scientists to be their storytellers in social media. There are 1m jobs coming open in science. Only 200k are qualified for them. Dow Chemical wanted to use social to attract and talk to scientists. Dow Chemical decided to use real scientists as their storytellers. Scientists are incredibly passionate, the key ingredient of a great storyteller. Step 1 was getting scientists to focus on a few platforms, blog, Twitter, LinkedIn. Dow Chemical social flow is Core Digital Team - #CMs – ambassadors – advocates. The scientists were trained in social etiquette via practice scenarios. It’s not just about sales. It’s about growing influence and the business. Dow Chemical trained about 100 scientists, 55 are active and there’s a waiting list for the next sessions. In person social training produced faster results and better participation. Sometimes you have to tell pieces of the story instead of selling your execs on the whole vision. Social Media Ethics Briefing: Staying Out of TroubleAndy Sernovitz, CEO @SocialMediaOrg How do we get people to share our message for us? We have to have their trust. The difference between being honest and being sleazy is disclosure. Disclosure does not hurt the effectiveness of your marketing. No one will get mad if you tell them up front you’re a paid spokesperson for a company. It’s a legal requirement by the FTC, it’s the law, to disclose if you’re being paid for an endorsement. Require disclosure and truthfulness in all your social media outreach. Don’t lie to people. Monitor the conversation and correct misstatements. Create social media policies and training programs. If you want to stay safe, never pay cash for social media. Money changes everything. As soon as you pay, it’s not social media, it’s advertising. Disclosure, to the feds, means clear, conspicuous, and understandable to the average reader. This phrase will keep you in the clear, “I work for ___ and this is my personal opinion.” Who are you? Were you paid? Are you giving an honest opinion based on a real experience? You as a brand are responsible for what an agency or employee or contactor does in your behalf. SocialMedia.org makes available a Disclosure Best Practices Toolkit. Socialmedia.org/disclosure. The point is to not ethically mess up and taint social media as happened to e-mail. Not only is the FTC cracking down, so is Google and Facebook. Visa @VisaNewsLucas Mast, Senior Business Leader, Global Corporate Social Media Visa built a mobile studio for the Olympics for execs and athletes. They wanted to do postcard style real time coverage of Visa’s Olympics sponsorships, and on a shoestring. Challenges included Olympic rules, difficulty getting interviews, time zone trouble, and resourcing. Another problem was they got bogged down with their own internal approval processes. Despite all the restrictions, they created and published a variety of and fair amount of content. They amassed 1000+ views of videos posted to the Visa Communication YouTube channel. Less corporate content yields more interest from media outlets and bloggers. They did real world video demos of how their products work in the field vs. an exec doing a demo in a studio. Don’t make exec interview videos dull and corporate. Keep answers short, shoot it in an interesting place, do takes until they’re comfortable and natural. Not everything will work. Not everything will get a retweet. But like the lottery, you can’t win if you don’t play. Promoting content is as important as creating it. McGraw-Hill Companies @McGrawHillCosPatrick Durando, Senior Director of Global New Media McGraw-Hill has 26,000 employees. McGraw-Hill created a social intranet called Buzz. Intranets create operational efficiency, help product dev, facilitate crowdsourcing, and breaks down geo silos. Intranets help with talent development, acquisition, retention. They replaced the corporate directory with their own version of LinkedIn. The company intranet has really cut down on the use of email. Long email threats become organized, permanent social discussions. The intranet is particularly useful in HR for researching and getting answers surrounding benefits and policies. Using a profile on your company intranet can establish and promote your internal professional brand. If you’re going to make an intranet, it has to look great, work great, and employees are going have to want to go there. You can’t order them to like it. 

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