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• Financial Management: Why Move to the Cloud?

  - by Kathryn Perry

  A guest post by Terrance Wampler, Vice President, Financials Product Strategy, Oracle I’ve spent my career designing and developing financial management systems, most of it at Oracle. Every single day I either meet with our customers or talk to them on the phone. The time is usually spent discussing various business challenges facing CFOs and Controllers, who are running Oracle’s Financials. Lately, we’ve been talking a lot about cloud computing and whether it makes sense for finance to go to the cloud. Here are some pros and cons that might help you make that decision. Let’s start with the benefits of cloud solutions. The first is savings. With cloud services, you pay only for those commodities that you use. That makes you feel like you're getting better value for your money. Plus, you can preserve your cash for your core business and you can get a better matching of expenses and revenues. So, at the top of the list is lower total cost of ownership. The second point has to do with optimization. With cloud services, you’ll need less IT infrastructure so you can optimize your IT resources for better-value, higher-end projects. This also leads to greater financial visibility, where there's a clear cost for the set of services or features replaced by cloud services. And, the last benefit is what I call acceleration. You can save money by speeding up the initialization and deployment of the project. You don't have to deal with IT infrastructure and you can start implementing right away. We did a quick survey of about 70 CFOs at the CFO Summit last month in New York City. We asked them why they were looking at cloud services, and not necessarily just for financials. The No. 1 response was perceived lower cost of ownership. But of course there are risks to consider. The first thing most people think about in the cloud is security and ownership of data. So, will your data really be safe? Can you meet your own privacy policy requirements? Do you really want your private financial data exposed? Do you trust the provider? Is what you see really your data? Do you own it or is it managed by someone else? Security is a big concern that comes with an emotional component. The next thing in the risk category is reliability. Is the provider proven? You’re taking what you have control over – for example, standards and policies and internal service level agreements – away from your IT department and giving it to someone else. Will you still be able to adapt to shifts in your business? Will the provider be able to grow with your business effectively? Reliability means having a provider that can give you the service infrastructure that you need. And then there’s performance, which has two components in terms of risk. Going forward, will the provider be able to scale the infrastructure or service level if you have new employees or new businesses? And second, will the price you negotiate and the rate you lock in cover additional costs and rising service fees? Another piece is cost. What happens if you don't get the service level you want? What if you end the service? What happens, if after a few years, you send the service out for bid and change service? Can you move your data? Can you move the applications? Do the integrations work? These are cost components people don’t always take into account. And, the final piece is the business case. The perception is that you can get started really quickly with cloud. It has a perceived lower cost of total ownership and it feels cool because it's cloud. But do you have a good business case for moving to the cloud? Your total cost of ownership is over three years; then you’ll renew it, so your TCO is six years. Have you compared that to other internal services that you’re offering? You might already have product that you can run this new business or division on. In that same survey at the CFO Summit, the execs thought the biggest perceived risks were security of data, ability to move data back, and the ability to create a business case to actually justify the risks. So that’s the list of pros and cons. Not to leave you hanging, I will do another post on how to balance these pros and cons and make the right decision for your business.

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• Reflections from the Young Prisms

  - by Oracle OpenWorld Blog Team

   By Karen Shamban The Young Prisms began their musical journey in San Francisco, and it's here they return to bring their unique sound to the Oracle OpenWorld Music Festival.  We asked them to tell us their thoughts on music, performing, and what they like in an audience.  Here's what they had to say: Q. What do you like best about performing in front of a live audience?A. There are a lot of things to love about playing in front of people. The best part is definitely the nights when the energy the audience brings shows through. Although it always differs from city to city and person to person, when you play to a full house and people are really getting into it, it's like no other feeling.Q. How do you use technology in creating and delivering your music?A. Well, we actually use a lot more electronic components than people realize. Pretty much every string instrument played either live or on recording has been filtered through numerous electronic effects. Matt uses somewhere around 12 or 14 every time we play live. Giovanni has six. Most of our writing and demoing is done with drum sequencers and samplers too, so it's safe to say we use technology to our advantage in the writing process. Live is a bit different, since we keep it to the basics with guitars and acoustic drums. We also tend to use projections when we play live, so technology helps us do that fairly easily as well.Q. Do you prefer smaller, intimate venues or larger, louder ones?  Why?A. Couldn’t say we have a real preference in venue size. I mean, its always great to get to play through a massive killer sound system, but small venues when packed full are equally as special if not more so, because of the intimacy of it. Some of my favorite shows I've seen as an audience member/ fan have been at the smaller venues in San Francisco.Q. What about your fans surprises you?A. Sometimes the older guys are a surprise. We've played shows where there are more older guys in their 40s and 50s, who come and stare and take notes at our effects pedals. Then there are kids our age or in their 20s. Sometimes it's surprising to think that the older guys relate to what we're doing more than our peers and friends in our age group.Q. What about your live act surprises your fans?A. I think people are often surprised by how shy we can be. It feels like people expect us to be really rowdy and throw things and make really loud noises and get really aggressive on stage because some of the sounds we use can have an abrasive element to them. People expect Matt to have some kind of Kurt Cobain attitude, which he doesn’t at all. So it seems it surprises people to see musicians playing loud and noisy songs in their early and mid 20s being fairly tame and calm on stage.Q. There are going to be a lot of technical people (you could call them geeks) in the Oracle crowd -- what are they going to love about your performance?A. Hopefully most of them are pedal nerds like we are and like the previously mentioned “older dude crowd.” Besides that I hope they’d be into the projections and group of songs we're going to play for them.Q. What's new and different in the music you're making today, versus a year or two ago?A. I'd say there is more focus on the songwriting now and less of the noise today than last year. I think it's pretty evident on the new record compared to the last two. On the first two records we made as YP, we had another guitar player and songwriter who no longer plays with us. So the process in which we develop songs is different as well.Q. Have you been on tour recently? If so, what do you like about touring, and what do you dislike?A. Touring is amazing. Some people might tell you different if they've been doing it for what they'd call too long, but for us it's really a great chance to play for people who care about the music we're making and also to see and explore the world. Getting to visit so many different cities and explore so many different cultures is amazing. Of course we love getting into cultural foods too. Stefanie is a fashion geek so getting to go to New York as often as we do as well as getting to play in London and Paris is always especially fun for her.Q. Ever think about playing another kind of music? If so, what, and why?A. Never really thought about wanting to do anything drastically different. I think the style of music we play has a lot to do with the stuff we have been listening to both growing up and now. It wasn’t really a conscious decision to make sure it was a certain sound, so I'm not sure we've ever thought about doing a way different genre or whatever like electronic music or country. Although there have been times we've had conversations where we discuss possibly doing quiet sets or using the string synth sounds.Q. What are the top three things people should know about your music?A1. We like noise.A2. We use ambience and atmosphere as much as as we can.A3. Yes, the vocals are supposed to be mixed in with the guitars. Get more info: Oracle OpenWorld Music Festival Young Prisms

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• How do I resolve this exercise on C++? [closed]

  - by user40630

  (Card Shuffling and Dealing) Create a program to shuffle and deal a deck of cards. The program should consist of class Card, class DeckOfCards and a driver program. Class Card should provide: a) Data members face and suit of type int. b) A constructor that receives two ints representing the face and suit and uses them to initialize the data members. c) Two static arrays of strings representing the faces and suits. d) A toString function that returns the Card as a string in the form “face of suit.” You can use the + operator to concatenate strings. Class DeckOfCards should contain: a) A vector of Cards named deck to store the Cards. b) An integer currentCard representing the next card to deal. c) A default constructor that initializes the Cards in the deck. The constructor should use vector function push_back to add each Card to the end of the vector after the Card is created and initialized. This should be done for each of the 52 Cards in the deck. d) A shuffle function that shuffles the Cards in the deck. The shuffle algorithm should iterate through the vector of Cards. For each Card, randomly select another Card in the deck and swap the two Cards. e) A dealCard function that returns the next Card object from the deck. f) A moreCards function that returns a bool value indicating whether there are more Cards to deal. The driver program should create a DeckOfCards object, shuffle the cards, then deal the 52 cards. This above is the exercise I'm trying to solve. I'd be very much appreciated if someone could solve it and explain it to me. The main idea of the program is quite simple. What I don't get is how to build the constructor for the class DeckOfCards and how to generate the 52 cards of the deck with different suits and faces. Untill now I've managed to do this: #include <iostream> #include <vector> using namespace std; /* * */ /* a) Data members face and suit of type int. b) A constructor that receives two ints representing the face and suit and uses them to initialize the data members. c) Two static arrays of strings representing the faces and suits. d) A toString function that returns the Card as a string in the form “face of suit.” You can use the + operator to concatenate strings. */ class Card { public: Card(int, int); string toString(); private: int suit, face; static string faceNames[13]; static string suitNames[4]; }; string Card::faceNames[13] = {"Ace","Two","Three","Four","Five","Six","Seven","Eight","Nine","Ten","Queen","Jack","King"}; string Card::suitNames[4] = {"Diamonds","Clubs","Hearts","Spades"}; string Card::toString() { return faceNames[face]+" of "+suitNames[suit]; } Card::Card(int f, int s) :face(f), suit(s) { } /* Class DeckOfCards should contain: a) A vector of Cards named deck to store the Cards. b) An integer currentCard representing the next card to deal. c) A default constructor that initializes the Cards in the deck. The constructor should use vector function push_back to add each Card to the end of the vector after the Card is created and initialized. This should be done for each of the 52 Cards in the deck. d) A shuffle function that shuffles the Cards in the deck. The shuffle algorithm should iterate through the vector of Cards. For each Card, randomly select another Card in the deck and swap the two Cards. e) A dealCard function that returns the next Card object from the deck. f) A moreCards function that returns a bool value indicating whether there are more Cards to deal. */ class DeckOfCards { public: DeckOfCards(); void shuffleCards(); Card dealCard(); bool moreCards(); private: vector<Card> deck(52); int currentCard; }; int main(int argc, char** argv) { return 0; } DeckOfCards::DeckOfCards() { //I'm stuck here I have no idea of what to take out of here. //I still don't fully get the idea of class inside class and that's turning out as a problem. I try to find a way to set the suits and faces members of the class Card but I can't figure out how. for(int i=0; i<deck.size(); i++) { deck[i]//....There is no function to set them. They must be set when initialized. But how?? } } For easier reading: http://pastebin.com/pJeXMH0f

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• .NET development on a Retina MacBook Pro with Windows 8

  - by Jeff

  I remember sitting in Building 5 at Microsoft with some of my coworkers, when one of them came in with a shiny new 11” MacBook Air. It was nearly two years ago, and we found it pretty odd that the OEM’s building Windows machines sucked at industrial design in a way that defied logic. While Dell and HP were in a race to the bottom building commodity crap, Apple was staying out of the low-end market completely, and focusing on better design. In the process, they managed to build machines people actually wanted, and maintain an insanely high margin in the process. I stopped buying the commodity crap and custom builds in 2006, when Apple went Intel. As a .NET guy, I was still in it for Microsoft’s stack of development tools, which I found awesome, but had back to back crappy laptops from HP and Dell. After that original 15” MacBook Pro, I also had a Mac Pro tower (that I sold after three years for $1,500!), a 27” iMac, and my favorite, a 17” MacBook Pro (the unibody style) with an SSD added from OWC. The 17” was a little much to carry around because it was heavy, but it sure was nice getting as much as eight hours of battery life, and the screen was amazing. When the rumors started about a 15” model with a “retina” screen inspired by the Air, I made up my mind I wanted one, and ordered it the day it came out. I sold my 17”, after three years, for $750 to a friend who is really enjoying it. I got the base model with the upgrade to 16 gigs of RAM. It feels solid for being so thin, and if you’ve used the third generation iPad or the newer iPhone, you’ll be just as thrilled with the screen resolution. I’m typically getting just over six hours of battery life while running a VM, but Parallels 8 allegedly makes some power improvements, so we’ll see what happens. (It was just released today.) The nice thing about VM’s are that you can run more than one at a time. Primarily I run the Windows 8 VM with four cores (the laptop is quad-core, but has 8 logical cores due to hyperthreading or whatever Intel calls it) and 8 gigs of RAM. I also have a Windows Server 2008 R2 VM I spin up when I need to test stuff in a “real” server environment, and I give it two cores and 4 gigs of RAM. The Windows 8 VM spins up in about 8 seconds. Visual Studio 2012 takes a few more seconds, but count part of that as the “ReSharper tax” as it does its startup magic. The real beauty, the thing I looked most forward to, is that beautifully crisp C# text. Consolas has never looked as good as it does at 10pt. as it does on this display. You know how it looks great at 80pt. when conference speakers demo stuff on a projector? Think that sharpness, only tiny. It’s just gorgeous. Beyond that, everything is just so responsive and fast. Builds of large projects happen in seconds, hundreds of unit tests run in seconds… you just don’t spend a lot of time waiting for stuff. It’s kind of painful to go back to my 27” iMac (which would be better if I put an SSD in it before its third birthday). Are there negatives? A few minor issues, yes. As is the case with OS X, not everything scales right. You’ll see some weirdness at times with splash screens and icons and such. Chrome’s text rendering (in Windows) is apparently not aware of how to deal with higher DPI’s, so text is fuzzy (the OS X version is super sharp, however). You’ll also have to do some fiddling with keyboard settings to use the Windows 8 keyboard shortcuts. Overall, it’s as close to a no-compromise development experience as I’ve ever had. I’m not even going to bother with Boot Camp because the VM route already exceeds my expectations. You definitely get what you pay for. If this one also lasts three years and I can turn around and sell it, it’s worth it for something I use every day.

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• Level of detail algorithm not functioning correctly

  - by Darestium

  I have been working on this problem for months; I have been creating Planet Generator of sorts, after more than 6 months of work I am no closer to finishing it then I was 4 months ago. My problem; The terrain does not subdivide in the correct locations properly, it almost seems as if there is a ghost camera next to me, and the quads subdivide based on the position of this "ghost camera". Here is a video of the broken program: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NF_pHeMOju8 The best example of the problem occurs around 0:36. For detail limiting, I am going for a chunked LOD approach, which subdivides the terrain based on how far you are away from it. I use a "depth table" to determine how many subdivisions should take place. void PQuad::construct_depth_table(float distance) { tree[0] = -1; for (int i = 1; i < MAX_DEPTH; i++) { tree[i] = distance; distance /= 2.0f; } } The chuncked LOD relies on the child/parent structure of quads, the depth is determined by a constant e.g: if the constant is 6, there are six levels of detail. The quads which should be drawn go through a distance test from the player to the centre of the quad. void PQuad::get_recursive(glm::vec3 player_pos, std::vector<PQuad*>& out_children) { for (size_t i = 0; i < children.size(); i++) { children[i].get_recursive(player_pos, out_children); } if (this->should_draw(player_pos) || this->depth == 0) { out_children.emplace_back(this); } } bool PQuad::should_draw(glm::vec3 player_position) { float distance = distance3(player_position, centre); if (distance < tree[depth]) { return true; } return false; } The root quad has four children which could be visualized like the following: [] [] [] [] Where each [] is a child. Each child has the same amount of children up until the detail limit, the quads which have are 6 iterations deep are leaf nodes, these nodes have no children. Each node has a corresponding Mesh, each Mesh structure has 16x16 Quad-shapes, each Mesh's Quad-shapes halves in size each detail level deeper - creating more detail. void PQuad::construct_children() { // Calculate the position of the Quad based on the parent's location calculate_position(); if (depth < (int)MAX_DEPTH) { children.reserve((int)NUM_OF_CHILDREN); for (int i = 0; i < (int)NUM_OF_CHILDREN; i++) { children.emplace_back(PQuad(this->face_direction, this->radius)); PQuad *child = &children.back(); child->set_depth(depth + 1); child->set_child_index(i); child->set_parent(this); child->construct_children(); } } else { leaf = true; } } The following function creates the vertices for each quad, I feel that it may play a role in the problem - I just can't determine what is causing the problem. void PQuad::construct_vertices(std::vector<glm::vec3> *vertices, std::vector<Color3> *colors) { vertices->reserve(quad_width * quad_height); for (int y = 0; y < quad_height; y++) { for (int x = 0; x < quad_width; x++) { switch (face_direction) { case YIncreasing: vertices->emplace_back(glm::vec3(position.x + x * element_width, quad_height - 1.0f, -(position.y + y * element_width))); break; case YDecreasing: vertices->emplace_back(glm::vec3(position.x + x * element_width, 0.0f, -(position.y + y * element_width))); break; case XIncreasing: vertices->emplace_back(glm::vec3(quad_width - 1.0f, position.y + y * element_width, -(position.x + x * element_width))); break; case XDecreasing: vertices->emplace_back(glm::vec3(0.0f, position.y + y * element_width, -(position.x + x * element_width))); break; case ZIncreasing: vertices->emplace_back(glm::vec3(position.x + x * element_width, position.y + y * element_width, 0.0f)); break; case ZDecreasing: vertices->emplace_back(glm::vec3(position.x + x * element_width, position.y + y * element_width, -(quad_width - 1.0f))); break; } // Position the bottom, right, front vertex of the cube from being (0,0,0) to (-16, -16, 16) (*vertices)[vertices->size() - 1] -= glm::vec3(quad_width / 2.0f, quad_width / 2.0f, -(quad_width / 2.0f)); colors->emplace_back(Color3(255.0f, 255.0f, 255.0f, false)); } } switch (face_direction) { case YIncreasing: this->centre = glm::vec3(position.x + quad_width / 2.0f, quad_height - 1.0f, -(position.y + quad_height / 2.0f)); break; case YDecreasing: this->centre = glm::vec3(position.x + quad_width / 2.0f, 0.0f, -(position.y + quad_height / 2.0f)); break; case XIncreasing: this->centre = glm::vec3(quad_width - 1.0f, position.y + quad_height / 2.0f, -(position.x + quad_width / 2.0f)); break; case XDecreasing: this->centre = glm::vec3(0.0f, position.y + quad_height / 2.0f, -(position.x + quad_width / 2.0f)); break; case ZIncreasing: this->centre = glm::vec3(position.x + quad_width / 2.0f, position.y + quad_height / 2.0f, 0.0f); break; case ZDecreasing: this->centre = glm::vec3(position.x + quad_width / 2.0f, position.y + quad_height / 2.0f, -(quad_height - 1.0f)); break; } this->centre -= glm::vec3(quad_width / 2.0f, quad_width / 2.0f, -(quad_width / 2.0f)); } Any help in discovering what is causing this "subdivding in the wrong place" would be greatly appreciated.

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• Finding it Hard to Deliver Right Customer Experience: Think BPM!

  - by Ajay Khanna

  Our relationship with our customers is not a just a single interaction and we should not treat it like one. A customer’s relationship with a vendor is like a journey which starts way before customer makes a purchase and lasts long after that. The journey may start with customer researching a product that may lead to the eventual purchase and may continue with support or service needs for the product. A typical customer journey can be represented as shown below: As you may notice, customers tend to use multiple channels to interact with a company throughout their journey.  They also expect that they should get consistent experience, no matter what interaction channel they may choose. Customers do not like to repeat the information they have already provided and expect companies to remember their preferences, and offer them relevant products and services. If the company fails to meet this expectation, customers not only will abandon the purchase and go to the competitor but may also influence others’ purchase decision. Gone are the days when word of mouth was the only medium, and the customer could influence “Six” others. This is the age of social media and customer’s good or bad experience, especially bad get highly amplified and may influence hundreds of others. Challenges that face B2C companies today include: Delivering consistent experience: The reason that delivering consistent experience is challenging is due to fragmented data, disjointed systems and siloed multichannel interactions. Customers tend to get different service quality if they use web vs. phone vs. store. They get different responses from different service agents or get inconsistent answers if they call sales vs. service group in the company. Such inconsistent experiences result in lower customer satisfaction or NPS (net promoter score) numbers. Increasing Revenue: To stay competitive companies frequently introduce new products and services. Delay in launching such offerings has a significant impact on revenue realization. In addition to new product revenue, there are multiple opportunities to up-sell and cross-sell that impact bottom line. If companies are not able to identify such opportunities, bring a product to market quickly, or not offer the right product to the right customer at the right time, significant loss of revenue may occur. Ensuring Compliance: Companies must be compliant to ever changing regulations, these could be about Know Your Customer (KYC), Export/Import regulations, or taxation policies. In addition to government agencies, companies also need to comply with the SLA that they have committed to their customers. Lapse in meeting any of these requirements may lead to serious fines, penalties and loss in business. Companies have to make sure that they are in compliance will all such regulations and SLA commitments, at any given time. With the advent of social networks and mobile technology, companies not only need to focus on process efficiency but also on customer engagement. Improving engagement means delivering the customer experience as the customer is expecting and interacting with the customer at right time using right channel. Customers expect to be able to contact you via any channel of their choice (web, email, chat, mobile, social media), purchase via any viable channel (web, phone, store, mobile). Customers expect companies to understand their particular needs and remember their preferences on repeated visits. To deliver such an integrated, consistent, and contextual experience, power of BPM in must. Your company may be organized in departments like Marketing, Sales, Service. You may hold prospect data in SFA, order information in ERP, customer issues in CRM. However, the experience delivered to the customer must not be constrained by your system legacy. BPM helps in designing the right experience for the right customer and integrates all the underlining channels, systems, applications to make sure right information will be delivered to the right knowledge worker or to the customer every single time.     Orchestrating information across all systems (MDM, CRM, ERP), departments (commerce, merchandising, marketing service) and channels (Email, phone, web, social)  is the key, and that’s what BPM delivers. In addition to orchestrating systems and channels for consistency, BPM also provides an ability for analysis and decision management. By using data from historical transactions, social media and from other systems, users can determine the customer preferences, customer value, and churn propensity. This information, in the context, is then used while making a decision at a process step. Working with real-time decision management system can also suggest right up-sell or cross-sell offers, discounts or next-best-action steps for a particular customer. Timely action on customer issues or request is also a key tenet of a good customer experience. BPM’s complex event processing capabilities help companies to take proactive actions before issues get escalated. BPM system can be designed to listen to a certain event patters then deduce from those customer situations (credit card stolen, baggage lost, change of address) and do a triage before situation goes out of control. If such a situation arises you can send alerts to right people or immediately invoke corrective actions. Last but not least one of BPM’s key values is to drive continuous improvement. Learning about customers past experiences, interactions and social conversations, provide valuable insight. Such insight can be used to improve products, customer facing processes, and customer experience. You may take these insights as an input to design better more efficient and customer friendly sales, contact center or self-service processes. If customer experience is important for your business, make sure you have incorporated BPM as a part of your strategy to design, orchestrate and improve your customer facing processes.

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• JPRT: A Build & Test System

  - by kto

  DRAFT A while back I did a little blogging on a system called JPRT, the hardware used and a summary on my java.net weblog. This is an update on the JPRT system. JPRT ("JDK Putback Reliablity Testing", but ignore what the letters stand for, I change what they mean every day, just to annoy people :\^) is a build and test system for the JDK, or any source base that has been configured for JPRT. As I mentioned in the above blog, JPRT is a major modification to a system called PRT that the HotSpot VM development team has been using for many years, very successfully I might add. Keeping the source base always buildable and reliable is the first step in the 12 steps of dealing with your product quality... or was the 12 steps from Alcoholics Anonymous... oh well, anyway, it's the first of many steps. ;\^) Internally when we make changes to any part of the JDK, there are certain procedures we are required to perform prior to any putback or commit of the changes. The procedures often vary from team to team, depending on many factors, such as whether native code is changed, or if the change could impact other areas of the JDK. But a common requirement is a verification that the source base with the changes (and merged with the very latest source base) will build on many of not all 8 platforms, and a full 'from scratch' build, not an incremental build, which can hide full build problems. The testing needed varies, depending on what has been changed. Anyone that was worked on a project where multiple engineers or groups are submitting changes to a shared source base knows how disruptive a 'bad commit' can be on everyone. How many times have you heard: "So And So made a bunch of changes and now I can't build!". But multiply the number of platforms by 8, and make all the platforms old and antiquated OS versions with bizarre system setup requirements and you have a pretty complicated situation (see http://download.java.net/jdk6/docs/build/README-builds.html). We don't tolerate bad commits, but our enforcement is somewhat lacking, usually it's an 'after the fact' correction. Luckily the Source Code Management system we use (another antique called TeamWare) allows for a tree of repositories and 'bad commits' are usually isolated to a small team. Punishment to date has been pretty drastic, the Queen of Hearts in 'Alice in Wonderland' said 'Off With Their Heads', well trust me, you don't want to be the engineer doing a 'bad commit' to the JDK. With JPRT, hopefully this will become a thing of the past, not that we have had many 'bad commits' to the master source base, in general the teams doing the integrations know how important their jobs are and they rarely make 'bad commits'. So for these JDK integrators, maybe what JPRT does is keep them from chewing their finger nails at night. ;\^) Over the years each of the teams have accumulated sets of machines they use for building, or they use some of the shared machines available to all of us. But the hunt for build machines is just part of the job, or has been. And although the issues with consistency of the build machines hasn't been a horrible problem, often you never know if the Solaris build machine you are using has all the right patches, or if the Linux machine has the right service pack, or if the Windows machine has it's latest updates. Hopefully the JPRT system can solve this problem. When we ship the binary JDK bits, it is SO very important that the build machines are correct, and we know how difficult it is to get them setup. Sure, if you need to debug a JDK problem that only shows up on Windows XP or Solaris 9, you'll still need to hunt down a machine, but not as a regular everyday occurance. I'm a big fan of a regular nightly build and test system, constantly verifying that a source base builds and tests out. There are many examples of automated build/tests, some that trigger on any change to the source base, some that just run every night. Some provide a protection gateway to the 'golden' source base which only gets changes that the nightly process has verified are good. The JPRT (and PRT) system is meant to guard the source base before anything is sent to it, guarding all source bases from the evil developer, well maybe 'evil' isn't the right word, I haven't met many 'evil' developers, more like 'error prone' developers. ;\^) Humm, come to think about it, I may be one from time to time. :\^{ But the point is that by spreading the build up over a set of machines, and getting the turnaround down to under an hour, it becomes realistic to completely build on all platforms and test it, on every putback. We have the technology, we can build and rebuild and rebuild, and it will be better than it was before, ha ha... Anybody remember the Six Million Dollar Man? Man, I gotta get out more often.. Anyway, now the nightly build and test can become a 'fetch the latest JPRT build bits' and start extensive testing (the testing not done by JPRT, or the platforms not tested by JPRT). Is it Open Source? No, not yet. Would you like to be? Let me know. Or is it more important that you have the ability to use such a system for JDK changes? So enough blabbering on about this JPRT system, tell me what you think. And let me know if you want to hear more about it or not. Stay tuned for the next episode, same Bloody Bat time, same Bloody Bat channel. ;\^) -kto

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• Speakers, Please Check Your Time

  - by AjarnMark

  Woodrow Wilson was once asked how long it would take him to prepare for a 10 minute speech. He replied "Two weeks". He was then asked how long it would take for a 1 hour speech. "One week", he replied. 2 hour speech? "I'm ready right now," he replied.  Whether that is a true story or an urban legend, I don’t really know, but either way, it is a poignant reminder for all speakers, and particularly apropos this week leading up to the PASS Community Summit. (Cross-posted to the PASS Professional Development Virtual Chapter blog #PASSProfDev.) What’s the point of that story?  Simply this…if you have plenty of time to do your presentation, you don’t need to prepare much because it is easy to throw in more and more material to stretch out to your allotted time.  But if you are on a tight time constraint, then it will take significant preparation to distill your talk down to only the essential points. I have attended seven of the last eight North American Summit events, and every one of them has been fantastic.  The speakers are great, the material is timely and relevant, and the networking opportunities are awesome.  And every year, there is one little thing that just bugs me…speakers going over their allotted time.  Why does it bother me so?  Well, if you look at a typical schedule for a Summit, you’ll see that there are six or more sessions going on at the same time, and only 15 minutes to move from one to another.  If you’re trying to maximize your training dollar by attending something during every session time slot, and you don’t want to be the last guy trying to squeeze into the middle of the row, then those 15 minutes can be critical.  All the more so if you need to stop and use the bathroom or if you have to hike to the opposite end of the convention center.  It is really a bad position to find yourself having to choose between learning the last key points of Speaker A who is going over time, and getting over to Speaker B on time so you don’t miss her key opening remarks. And frankly, I think it is just rude.  Yes, the speakers are the function, after all they are bringing the content that the rest of us are paying to learn.  But it is also an honor to be given the opportunity to speak at a conference like this, and no one speaker is so important that the conference would be a disaster without him.  Speakers know when they submit their abstract, long before the conference, how much time they will have.  It has been the same pattern at the Summit for at least the last eight years.  Program Sessions are 75 minutes long.  Some speakers who have a good track record, and meet other qualifying criteria, are extended an invitation to present a Spotlight Session which is 90 minutes (a 20% increase).  So there really is no excuse.  It’s not like you were promised a 2-hour segment and then discovered when you got here that it was only 75 minutes.  In fact, it’s not like PASS advertised 90-minute sessions for everyone and then a select few were cut back to only 75.  As a speaker, you know well before you get here which type of session you are doing and how long it is, so as a professional, you should plan accordingly. Now you might think that this only happens to rookies, but I’ll tell you that some of the worst offenders are big-name veterans who draw huge attendance numbers for their sessions.  Some attendees blow this off as, “Hey, it’s so-and-so, and I’d stay here for hours and listen to him/her talk.”  To which I would reply, “Then they should have submitted for a pre- or post-conference day-long seminar instead, but don’t try to squeeze your day-long talk into a 90-minute session.”  Now I don’t really believe that these speakers are being malicious or just selfishly trying to extend their time in the spotlight.  I think that most of them are merely being undisciplined and did not trim their presentation sufficiently, or allowed themselves to get off-track (often in a generous attempt to help someone in the audience with a question or problem that really should have been noted for further discussion after the session). So here is my recommendation…my plea, even.  TRIM THE FAT!  Now.  Before it’s too late.  Before you even get on the airplane, take a long, hard look at your presentation and eliminate some of the points that you originally thought you had to make, but in reality are not truly crucial to your main topic.  Delete a few slides.  Test your demos and have them already scripted rather than typing them during your talk.  It is better to cut out too much and end up with plenty of time at the end for Questions & Answers.  And you can always keep some notes on the stuff that you cut out so that you could fill it back in at the end as bonus material if you really do end up with a whole bunch of time on your hands.  But I don’t think you will.  And if you do, that will look even better to the audience as it will look like you’re giving them something extra that not every audience gets.  And they will thank you for that.

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• To Make Diversity Work, Managers Must Stop Ignoring Difference

  - by HCM-Oracle

  By Kate Pavao - Originally posted on Profit Executive coaches Jane Hyun and Audrey S. Lee noticed something during their leadership development coaching and consulting: Frustrated employees and overwhelmed managers. “We heard from voices saying, ‘I wish my manager understood me better’ or ‘I hope my manager would take the time to learn more about me and my background,’” remembers Hyun. “At the same token, the managers we were coaching had a hard time even knowing how to start these conversations.”  Hyun and Lee wrote Flex to address some of the fears managers have when it comes to leading diverse teams—such as being afraid of offending their employees by stumbling into sensitive territory—and also to provide a sure-footed strategy for becoming a more effective leader. Here, Hyun talks about what it takes to create innovate and productive teams in an increasingly diverse world, including the key characteristics successful managers share. Q: What does it mean to “flex”? Hyun: Flexing is the art of switching between leadership styles to work more effectively with people who are different from you. It’s not fundamentally changing who you are, but it’s understanding when you need to adapt your style in a situation so that you can accommodate people and make them feel more comfortable. It’s understanding the gap that might exist between you and others who are different, and then flexing across that gap to get the result that you're looking for. It’s up to all of us, not just managers, but also employees, to learn how to flex. When you hire new people to the organization, they're expected to adapt. The new people in the organization may need some guidance around how to best flex. They can certainly take the initiative, but if you can give them some direction around the important rules, and connect them with insiders who can help them figure out the most critical elements of the job, that will accelerate how quickly they can contribute to your organization. Q: Why is it important right now for managers to understand flexing? Hyun: The workplace is becoming increasingly younger, multicultural and female. The numbers bear it out. Millennials are entering the workforce and becoming a larger percentage of it, which is a global phenomenon. Thirty-six percent of the workforce is multicultural, and close to half is female. It makes sense to better understand the people who are increasingly a part of your workforce, and how to best lead them and manage them as well. Q: What do companies miss out on when managers don’t flex? Hyun: There are high costs for losing people or failing to engage them. The estimated costs of replacing an employee is about 150 percent of that person’s salary. There are studies showing that employee disengagement costs the U.S. something like $450 billion a year. But voice is the biggest thing you miss out on if you don’t flex. Whenever you want innovation or increased productivity from your people, you need to figure out how to unleash these things. The way you get there is to make sure that everybody’s voice is at the table. Q: What are some of the common misassumptions that managers make about the people on their teams? Hyun: One is what I call the Golden Rule mentality: We assume when we go to the workplace that people are going to think like us and operate like us. But sometimes when you work with people from a different culture or a different generation, they may have a different mindset about doing something, or a different approach to solving a problem, or a different way to manage some situation. When see something that’s different, we don't understand it, so we don't trust it. We have this hidden bias for people who are like us. That gets in the way of really looking at how we can tap our team members best potential by understanding how their difference may help them be effective in our workplace. We’re trained, especially in the workplace, to make assumptions quickly, so that you can make the best business decision. But with people, it’s better to remain curious. If you want to build stronger cross-cultural, cross-generational, cross-gender relationships, before you make a judgment, share what you observe with that team member, and connect with him or her in ways that are mutually adaptive, so that you can work together more effectively. Q: What are the common characteristics you see in leaders who are successful at flexing? Hyun: One is what I call “adaptive ability”—leaders who are able to understand that someone on their team is different from them, and willing to adapt his or her style to do that. Another one is “unconditional positive regard,” which is basically acceptance of others, even in their vulnerable moments. This attitude of grace is critical and essential to a healthy environment in developing people. If you think about when people enter the workforce, they're only 21 years old. It’s quite a formative time for them. They may not have a lot of management experience, or experience managing complex or even global projects. Creating the best possible condition for their development requires turning their mistakes into teachable moments, and giving them an opportunity to really learn. Finally, these leaders are not rigid or constrained in a single mode or style. They have this insatiable curiosity about other people. They don’t judge when they see behavior that doesn’t make sense, or is different from their own. For example, maybe someone on their team is a less aggressive than they are. The leader needs to remain curious and thinks, “Wow, I wonder how I can engage in a dialogue with this person to get their potential out in the open.”

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• MediaElement fails after several plays.

  - by basilkot

  Hi! I have a problem with MediaElement control. I've put six MediaElements on my form, then I start them and change played files by timer. After several times, these elements stop playing. Here is the sample XAML: <Grid> <Grid.RowDefinitions> <RowDefinition Height="*" /> <RowDefinition Height="*" /> </Grid.RowDefinitions> <Grid.ColumnDefinitions> <ColumnDefinition Width="*" /> <ColumnDefinition Width="*" /> <ColumnDefinition Width="*" /> </Grid.ColumnDefinitions> <MediaElement x:Name="element1" UnloadedBehavior="Close" LoadedBehavior="Manual" Grid.Column="0" Grid.Row="0" /> <MediaElement x:Name="element2" UnloadedBehavior="Close" LoadedBehavior="Manual" Grid.Column="1" Grid.Row="0" /> <MediaElement x:Name="element3" UnloadedBehavior="Close" LoadedBehavior="Manual" Grid.Column="2" Grid.Row="0" /> <MediaElement x:Name="element4" UnloadedBehavior="Close" LoadedBehavior="Manual" Grid.Column="0" Grid.Row="1" /> <MediaElement x:Name="element5" UnloadedBehavior="Close" LoadedBehavior="Manual" Grid.Column="1" Grid.Row="1" /> <MediaElement x:Name="element6" UnloadedBehavior="Close" LoadedBehavior="Manual" Grid.Column="2" Grid.Row="1" /> Here is the sample code: // The code below repeats for each MediaElement List<string> playlist1 = new List<string>() { @"file1.wmv", @"file2.wmv", @"file3.wmv", @"file4.wmv" }; DispatcherTimer timer1 = null; int index1 = 0; ... void Window1_Loaded(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e) { timer1 = new DispatcherTimer(); timer1.Tick += new EventHandler(timer1_Elapsed); timer1.Interval = TimeSpan.FromSeconds(10); element1.Source = new Uri(playlist1[index1]); timer1.Start(); element1.Play(); ... } void timer1_Elapsed(object sender, EventArgs e) { Dispatcher.BeginInvoke(DispatcherPriority.Normal, (System.Threading.ThreadStart)delegate() { element1.Stop(); element1.Close(); timer1.Stop(); index1++; if (index1 >= playlist1.Count) { index1 = 0; } element1.Source = new Uri(playlist1[index1]); timer1.Start(); element1.Play(); }); } ... Does anybody have similar problems?

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• Is there an algorithm for converting quaternion rotations to Euler angle rotations?

  - by Will Baker

  Is there an existing algorithm for converting a quaternion representation of a rotation to an Euler angle representation? The rotation order for the Euler representation is known and can be any of the six permutations (i.e. xyz, xzy, yxz, yzx, zxy, zyx). I've seen algorithms for a fixed rotation order (usually the NASA heading, bank, roll convention) but not for arbitrary rotation order. Furthermore, because there are multiple Euler angle representations of a single orientation, this result is going to be ambiguous. This is acceptable (because the orientation is still valid, it just may not be the one the user is expecting to see), however it would be even better if there was an algorithm which took rotation limits (i.e. the number of degrees of freedom and the limits on each degree of freedom) into account and yielded the 'most sensible' Euler representation given those constraints. I have a feeling this problem (or something similar) may exist in the IK or rigid body dynamics domains. Solved: I just realised that it might not be clear that I solved this problem by following Ken Shoemake's algorithms from Graphics Gems. I did answer my own question at the time, but it occurs to me it may not be clear that I did so. See the answer, below, for more detail. Just to clarify - I know how to convert from a quaternion to the so-called 'Tait-Bryan' representation - what I was calling the 'NASA' convention. This is a rotation order (assuming the convention that the 'Z' axis is up) of zxy. I need an algorithm for all rotation orders. Possibly the solution, then, is to take the zxy order conversion and derive from it five other conversions for the other rotation orders. I guess I was hoping there was a more 'overarching' solution. In any case, I am surprised that I haven't been able to find existing solutions out there. In addition, and this perhaps should be a separate question altogether, any conversion (assuming a known rotation order, of course) is going to select one Euler representation, but there are in fact many. For example, given a rotation order of yxz, the two representations (0,0,180) and (180,180,0) are equivalent (and would yield the same quaternion). Is there a way to constrain the solution using limits on the degrees of freedom? Like you do in IK and rigid body dynamics? i.e. in the example above if there were only one degree of freedom about the Z axis then the second representation can be disregarded. I have tracked down one paper which could be an algorithm in this pdf but I must confess I find the logic and math a little hard to follow. Surely there are other solutions out there? Is arbitrary rotation order really so rare? Surely every major 3D package that allows skeletal animation together with quaternion interpolation (i.e. Maya, Max, Blender, etc) must have solved exactly this problem?

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• jquery - establishing truths when loading inline javascript via AJAX

  - by yaya3

  I have thrown together a quick prototype to try and establish a few very basic truths regarding what inline JavaScript can do when it is loaded with AJAX: index.html <html> <head> <script src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1/jquery.min.js"></script> </head> <body> <script type="text/javascript"> $('p').css('color','white'); alert($('p').css('color')); // DISPLAYS FIRST but is "undefined" $(document).ready(function(){ $('#ajax-loaded-content-wrapper').load('loaded-by-ajax.html', function(){ $('p').css('color','grey'); alert($('p').css('color')); // DISPLAYS LAST (as expected) }); $('p').css('color','purple'); alert($('p').css('color')); // DISPLAYS SECOND }); </script> <p>Content not loaded by ajax</p> <div id="ajax-loaded-content-wrapper"> </div> </body> </html> loaded-by-ajax.html <p>Some content loaded by ajax</p> <script type="text/javascript"> $('p').css('color','yellow'); alert($('p').css('color')); // DISPLAYS THIRD $(document).ready(function(){ $('p').css('color','pink'); alert($('p').css('color')); // DISPLAYS FOURTH }); </script> <p>Some content loaded by ajax</p> <script type="text/javascript"> $(document).ready(function(){ $('p').css('color','blue'); alert($('p').css('color')); // DISPLAYS FIFTH }); $('p').css('color','green'); alert($('p').css('color')); // DISPLAYS SIX </script> <p>Some content loaded by ajax</p> Notes: a) All of the above (except the first) successfully change the colour of all the paragraphs (in firefox 3.6.3). b) I've used alert instead of console.log as console is undefined when called in the 'loaded' HTML. Truths(?): $(document).ready() does not treat the 'loaded' HTML as a new document, or reread the entire DOM tree including the loaded HTML JavaScript that is contained inside 'loaded' HTML can effect the style of existing DOM nodes One can successfully use the jQuery library inside 'loaded' HTML to effect the style of existing DOM nodes One can not use the firebug inside 'loaded' HTML can effect the existing DOM (proven by Note a) Am I correct in deriving these 'truths' from my tests (test validity)? If not, how would you test for these?

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• Diophantine Equation [closed]

  - by ANIL

  In mathematics, a Diophantine equation (named for Diophantus of Alexandria, a third century Greek mathematician) is a polynomial equation where the variables can only take on integer values. Although you may not realize it, you have seen Diophantine equations before: one of the most famous Diophantine equations is: X^n+Y^n=Z^n We are not certain that McDonald's knows about Diophantine equations (actually we doubt that they do), but they use them! McDonald's sells Chicken McNuggets in packages of 6, 9 or 20 McNuggets. Thus, it is possible, for example, to buy exactly 15 McNuggets (with one package of 6 and a second package of 9), but it is not possible to buy exactly 16 nuggets, since no non- negative integer combination of 6's, 9's and 20's adds up to 16. To determine if it is possible to buy exactly n McNuggets, one has to solve a Diophantine equation: find non-negative integer values of a, b, and c, such that 6a + 9b + 20c = n. Problem 1 Show that it is possible to buy exactly 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, and 55 McNuggets, by finding solutions to the Diophantine equation. You can solve this in your head, using paper and pencil, or writing a program. However you chose to solve this problem, list the combinations of 6, 9 and 20 packs of McNuggets you need to buy in order to get each of the exact amounts. Given that it is possible to buy sets of 50, 51, 52, 53, 54 or 55 McNuggets by combinations of 6, 9 and 20 packs, show that it is possible to buy 56, 57,..., 65 McNuggets. In other words, show how, given solutions for 50-55, one can derive solutions for 56-65. Problem 2 Write an iterative program that finds the largest number of McNuggets that cannot be bought in exact quantity. Your program should print the answer in the following format (where the correct number is provided in place of n): "Largest number of McNuggets that cannot be bought in exact quantity: n" Hints: Hypothesize possible instances of numbers of McNuggets that cannot be purchased exactly, starting with 1 For each possible instance, called n, a. Test if there exists non-negative integers a, b, and c, such that 6a+9b+20c = n. (This can be done by looking at all feasible combinations of a, b, and c) b. If not, n cannot be bought in exact quantity, save n When you have found six consecutive values of n that in fact pass the test of having an exact solution, the last answer that was saved (not the last value of n that had a solution) is the correct answer, since you know by the theorem that any amount larger can also be bought in exact quantity

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• jquery - loading inline javascript via AJAX

  - by yaya3

  I have thrown together a quick prototype to try and establish a few very basic truths regarding what inline JavaScript can do when it is loaded with AJAX: index.html <html> <head> <script src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1/jquery.min.js"></script> </head> <body> <script type="text/javascript"> $('p').css('color','white'); alert($('p').css('color')); // DISPLAYS FIRST but is "undefined" $(document).ready(function(){ $('#ajax-loaded-content-wrapper').load('loaded-by-ajax.html', function(){ $('p').css('color','grey'); alert($('p').css('color')); // DISPLAYS LAST (as expected) }); $('p').css('color','purple'); alert($('p').css('color')); // DISPLAYS SECOND }); </script> <p>Content not loaded by ajax</p> <div id="ajax-loaded-content-wrapper"> </div> </body> </html> loaded-by-ajax.html <p>Some content loaded by ajax</p> <script type="text/javascript"> $('p').css('color','yellow'); alert($('p').css('color')); // DISPLAYS THIRD $(document).ready(function(){ $('p').css('color','pink'); alert($('p').css('color')); // DISPLAYS FOURTH }); </script> <p>Some content loaded by ajax</p> <script type="text/javascript"> $(document).ready(function(){ $('p').css('color','blue'); alert($('p').css('color')); // DISPLAYS FIFTH }); $('p').css('color','green'); alert($('p').css('color')); // DISPLAYS SIX </script> <p>Some content loaded by ajax</p> Notes: a) All of the above (except the first) successfully change the colour of all the paragraphs (in firefox 3.6.3). b) I've used alert instead of console.log as console is undefined when called in the 'loaded' HTML. Truths(?): $(document).ready() does not treat the 'loaded' HTML as a new document, or reread the entire DOM tree including the loaded HTML, it is pointless inside AJAX loaded content JavaScript that is contained inside 'loaded' HTML can effect the style of existing DOM nodes One can successfully use the jQuery library inside 'loaded' HTML to effect the style of existing DOM nodes One can not use the firebug inside 'loaded' HTML can effect the existing DOM (proven by Note a) Am I correct in deriving these 'truths' from my tests (test validity)? If not, how would you test for these?

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• Would Ruby on Rails be appropriate for this Foreign Language project?

  - by Lynne Overesch-Maister

  I'm a Spanish professor & computer groupie. About 15 years ago, I authored in HyperCard a series of verb conjugation programs that are now completely out of date with respect to System OS X. I would like to redo these programs myself because I had a lot of fun doing them last time (mostly I coded while my son played in Leaps and Bounds, you know, one of those places where parents take their kids & let them run wild through the tubes...). Colleagues have mentioned using Flash, Director, and various other solutions, but I saw a presentation on RoR at our SIDLIT conference today, and was inspired. I will be parsing and comparing strings (and there are other features on top of that, but that is the main one), "adding" strings relationally indexed in some kind of database(s). It will also have to handle various foreign characters (accents, upside down question marks, etc.). On top of the main process of the program, it will have to provide a practice vs. test mode, keep track of specific answers as well as totals right/wrong, and print a report. Would this be either easier and/or more efficiently done in RoR than in other languages. I am pretty sure that it will work on a Microsoft server, right? Because I think that is where most of our stuff is. I would be programming either on a Mac or a PC, whichever you think is easier. So, in summary, is RoR the way for me to go with this project? If I have some (little) experience programming in Hypercard and C, should I be able to pick RoR up fairly quickly? What things will I need to start (I already saw something called Redhills foreign key migration plugin, which I assume would be beneficial)? I still have my old scripts from hypercard, however what I would really like to do is to combine all six of my former tense-specific programs into one larger program. I figure that it wouldn't be too hard to reference the individual tenses in some way--could that be a class? Many thanks for any help you can give me on this forum.

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• Soon to be PhD in Computer Science - Which Path to Follow?

  - by mttr

  I am going to submit my PhD thesis within the next six months. My PhD is on managing the availabiity of large-scale distributed systems, so I have some experience actually building non-trivial systems (+ I have four years experience working as a programmer). I am now trying to figure out what I should do following the PhD. I enjoy research (a quick definition: identify problem, come up with solution, ask interesting questions, find ways to answer them, build system, experiment, contribute some new knowledge and publish). I also like teaching and supervising students. It would seem that a career in academia is the ideal thing to do (can work on non-trivial problems and contribute something of use to some or more people). However, a career in academia has two significant drawbacks. First, it can be difficult to gain access to real systems with real users which then display real problems. This creates the danger that you do work that seems important (to you and maybe to some of your colleagues), but is not really relevant to anything or anyone. Second, the pay is pretty sad. Apparently, you have to sacrifice this for the privilege of doing research. I enjoy programming, but don't just want to hack some web-based system for the rest of my life. That is, working in IT for a bank is not a future I see myself enjoying. I want to work on interesting problms (that's difficult to define clearly): things where you don't know how to start, that take some time to figure out and attack, that require a rigorous approach to demonstrate that the problem has been solved, and problems that need a solution in the real world. Give the experience of people on stackoverflow, what do you think suitable options are and why (or alternatively, what gaps in my thinking does the above reveal)? Is industrial research (aka IBM Research, Microsoft Research) the only alternative avenue to a career in academia? What other areas, companies, occupations, etc. could provide me with stimulating, inspiring work? Which regions, countries am I most likely to find such work? Please share your experience.

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• Which mobile operating system should I code for?

  - by samgoody

  It seems as though mobile computing has fully arrived. I would like to rewrite two of our programs for mobile devices, but am a bit lost as to which platform to target. Complicating this decision: I would need to learn the relevant languages and IDEs - my coding to date has been almost all web based (PHP, JS, Actionscript, etc. Some ASPX). Most users seem to be religious about their mobile decision, so oral conversations leave me more confused then enlightened. I do not yet own a smartphone - will have to buy one once I know which platform to be aiming for. Both of my programs are more for business users, (one is only useful for C.P.A.s). I am a single developer, and cannot develop for more than one platform at a time. Getting it right is important. Based on what I've found on the web, I would've expected RIM to be a shoo-in, and the general order to be as follows: RIM Blackberry - More of them than any other brand. Despite naysayers, they've had double the sales (or perhaps 5X the sales) of any other smartphone, and have continued to grow. And, they have business users. Android - According to Schmidt, they have outsold everyone else except RIM (though I can't find where I read that now), and they are just getting started. According to Comscore, they are already at 8% of the market and expected to hit Shcmidt's claims within six months. Nokia - The largest worldwide. If they would just make up between Maemo or Symbian, I would be far less confused. iPhone - Much more competition by other apps, fewer sales to be had, and a overlord that can delay or cancel my app at any time. Is Cocoa hard to learn? Windows Mobile - Word is that version 7 will not be backwards compatible and losing market share. Palm WebOS - Perhaps this should go first, as it is the only one that offers tools to make my life easy as a web application developer. No competition in marketplace. But not very many users either. However, a search on StackOverflow shows a hugely disproportionate number of iPhone questions versus Blackberry. Likewise, there are clearly more apps on iPhone, so it must be getting developer love. What is the one platform I should develop for? Please back up your answer with the logic.

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• Going from a math career to a cs career: how to do it?

  - by Joseph

  Hey, I'm looking for some advice on how to successfully make the transition from mathematics to CS. My academic background is in mathematics (BS and MSc), and I've taken loads of math courses as well. You name it, and I took it: Measure Theory, Algebra, PDES, Manifolds, Complex Analysis, etc. I progressed quite far along this track, and at one point, I thought I would be a professional mathematician...But around the time I was finishing my MSc, I really got sick of it. Studying very abstract mathematics was fun, but it really lost it's appeal to me. Outside of a couple hundred people, I'm not sure if anybody would understand my research. I did not want to be 60 years old and say that my only contribution to the world consisted of published papers. Anyways, I've been an off and on hobbyist programmer since 2002. I've programmed in C and Java (just small projects), and I really started to be drawn to the area as time passed. There's a real appeal to CS work because, well, it actually means something to other people out there! I enjoy all parts of it: designing webpages (a real artistic appeal). On the other end, I do enjoy toying with compilers and more nitty-gritty stuff as well. Suffice to say, I have broad interests out there. Anyways, I know it's a bit late, but I was wondering if there were other folks out there who made the change, and if so, how I could do so. I know I have some fairly big gaps to fill in terms of data structures, lack of internship experience, etc. But I really would like to make this work. So my question is simply: How can I make the switch from math to CS? To pay the bills, I'll be doing financial analysis for a company, but I'd like to eventually transition into a developer type position. I've been reading "Algorithm Design" by Tardos and doing all the problems. It's not hard to make progress since the problems are far more concrete than the stuff I've been doing the past six years. I feel I can make fairly rapid progress in picking up all the materials from data structures, etc. but none of it can substitute the past several years I've lost. Anyways, I'm eager to learn but would love some advice/concrete direction. Thanks, Joseph

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• What is the best algorithm for this problem?

  - by mark

  What is the most efficient algorithm to solve the following problem? Given 6 arrays, D1,D2,D3,D4,D5 and D6 each containing 6 numbers like: D1[0] = number D2[0] = number ...... D6[0] = number D1[1] = another number D2[1] = another number .... ..... .... ...... .... D1[5] = yet another number .... ...... .... Given a second array ST1, containing 1 number: ST1[0] = 6 Given a third array ans, containing 6 numbers: ans[0] = 3, ans[1] = 4, ans[2] = 5, ......ans[5] = 8 Using as index for the arrays D1,D2,D3,D4,D5 and D6, the number that goes from 0, to the number stored in ST1[0] minus one, in this example 6, so from 0 to 6-1, compare each res array against each D array My algorithm so far is: I tried to keep everything unlooped as much as possible. EML := ST1[0] //number contained in ST1[0] EML1 := 0 //start index for the arrays D While EML1 < EML if D1[ELM1] = ans[0] goto two if D2[ELM1] = ans[0] goto two if D3[ELM1] = ans[0] goto two if D4[ELM1] = ans[0] goto two if D5[ELM1] = ans[0] goto two if D6[ELM1] = ans[0] goto two ELM1 = ELM1 + 1 return 0 //bad row of numbers, if while ends two: EML1 := 0 start index for arrays Ds While EML1 < EML if D1[ELM1] = ans[1] goto two if D2[ELM1] = ans[1] goto two if D3[ELM1] = ans[1] goto two if D4[ELM1] = ans[1] goto two if D5[ELM1] = ans[1] goto two if D6[ELM1] = ans[1] goto two ELM1 = ELM1 + 1 return 0 three: EML1 := 0 start index for arrays Ds While EML1 < EML if D1[ELM1] = ans[2] goto two if D2[ELM1] = ans[2] goto two if D3[ELM1] = ans[2] goto two if D4[ELM1] = ans[2] goto two if D5[ELM1] = ans[2] goto two if D6[ELM1] = ans[2] goto two ELM1 = ELM1 + 1 return 0 four: EML1 := 0 start index for arrays Ds While EML1 < EML if D1[ELM1] = ans[3] goto two if D2[ELM1] = ans[3] goto two if D3[ELM1] = ans[3] goto two if D4[ELM1] = ans[3] goto two if D5[ELM1] = ans[3] goto two if D6[ELM1] = ans[3] goto two ELM1 = ELM1 + 1 return 0 five: EML1 := 0 start index for arrays Ds While EML1 < EML if D1[ELM1] = ans[4] goto two if D2[ELM1] = ans[4] goto two if D3[ELM1] = ans[4] goto two if D4[ELM1] = ans[4] goto two if D5[ELM1] = ans[4] goto two if D6[ELM1] = ans[4] goto two ELM1 = ELM1 + 1 return 0 six: EML1 := 0 start index for arrays Ds While EML1 < EML if D1[ELM1] = ans[0] return 1 //good row of numbers if D2[ELM1] = ans[0] return 1 if D3[ELM1] = ans[0] return 1 if D4[ELM1] = ans[0] return 1 if D5[ELM1] = ans[0] return 1 if D6[ELM1] = ans[0] return 1 ELM1 = ELM1 + 1 return 0 As language of choice, it would be pure c

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• Algorithm to Render a Horizontal Binary-ish Tree in Text/ASCII form

  - by Justin L.

  It's a pretty normal binary tree, except for the fact that one of the nodes may be empty. I'd like to find a way to output it in a horizontal way (that is, the root node is on the left and expands to the right). I've had some experience expanding trees vertically (root node at the top, expanding downwards), but I'm not sure where to start, in this case. Preferably, it would follow these couple of rules: If a node has only one child, it can be skipped as redundant (an "end node", with no children, is always displayed) All nodes of the same depth must be aligned vertically; all nodes must be to the right of all less-deep nodes and to the left of all deeper nodes. Nodes have a string representation which includes their depth. Each "end node" has its own unique line; that is, the number of lines is the number of end nodes in the tree, and when an end node is on a line, there may be nothing else on that line after that end node. As a consequence of the last rule, the root node should be in either the top left or the bottom left corner; top left is preferred. For example, this is a valid tree, with six end nodes (node is represented by a name, and its depth): [a0]------------[b3]------[c5]------[d8] \ \ \----------[e9] \ \----[f5] \--[g1]--------[h4]------[i6] \ \--------------------[j10] \-[k3] Which represents the horizontal, explicit binary tree: 0 a / \ 1 g * / \ \ 2 * * * / \ \ 3 k * b / / \ 4 h * * / \ \ \ 5 * * f c / \ / \ 6 * i * * / / \ 7 * * * / / \ 8 * * d / / 9 * e / 10 j (branches folded for compactness; * representing redundant, one-child nodes; note that *'s are actual nodes, storing one child each, just with names omitted here for presentation sake) (also, to clarify, I'd like to generate the first, horizontal tree; not this vertical tree) I say language-agnostic because I'm just looking for an algorithm; I say ruby because I'm eventually going to have to implement it in ruby anyway. Assume that each Node data structure stores only its id, a left node, and a right node. A master Tree class keeps tracks of all nodes and has adequate algorithms to find: A node's nth ancestor A node's nth descendant The generation of a node The lowest common ancestor of two given nodes Anyone have any ideas of where I could start? Should I go for the recursive approach? Iterative?

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• Help with Arrays in Objective C.

  - by NJTechie

  Problem : Take an integer as input and print out number equivalents of each number from input. I hacked my thoughts to work in this case but I know it is not an efficient solution. For instance : 110 Should give the following o/p : one one zero Could someone throw light on effective usage of Arrays for this problem? #import <Foundation/Foundation.h> int main (int argc, const char * argv[]) { NSAutoreleasePool * pool = [[NSAutoreleasePool alloc] init]; int input, i=0, j,k, checkit; int temp[i]; NSLog(@"Enter an integer :"); scanf("%d", &input); checkit = input; while(input > 0) { temp[i] = input%10; input = input/10; i++; } if(checkit != 0) { for(j=i-1;j>=0;j--) { //NSLog(@" %d", temp[j]); k = temp[j]; //NSLog(@" %d", k); switch (k) { case 0: NSLog(@"zero"); break; case 1: NSLog(@"one"); break; case 2: NSLog(@"two"); break; case 3: NSLog(@"three"); break; case 4: NSLog(@"four"); break; case 5: NSLog(@"five"); break; case 6: NSLog(@"six"); break; case 7: NSLog(@"seven"); break; case 8: NSLog(@"eight"); break; case 9: NSLog(@"nine"); break; default: break; } } } else NSLog(@"zero"); [pool drain]; return 0; }

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• Web Services Primer for a WinForms Developer?

  - by Unicorns

  I've been writing client/server applications with Winforms for about six years now, but I have yet to venture into the web space (neither ASP.NET nor web services). Given the direction that the job market has been heading for some time and the fact that I have a basic curiosity, I'd like to get involved with writing web services, but I don't know where to start. I've read about various options (XML/SOAP vs. JSON, REST vs...well, actually I don't know what it's called, etc.), but I'm not sure what sort of criteria are in play when making the determination to use one or the other. Obviously, I'd like to leverage the tools that I have (Visual Studio, the .NET framework, etc.) without hamstringing myself into only targeting a particular audience (i.e. writing the service in such a way as to make it difficult to consume from a Windows Mobile/Android/iPhone client, for example). For the record, my plan--for now--is to use WCF for my web service development, but I'm open to using another .NET approach if that's advisable. I realize that this question is pretty open-ended so it may get closed, but here are some things I'm wondering: What are some things to consider when choosing the type of web service (REST, etc.) I intend to write? Is it possible (and, if so, feasible) to move from one approach to another? Can web services be written in an event-driven way? As I said I'm a Winforms developer, so I'm used to objects raising events for me to react to. For instance, if I have two clients connected to my service, is there a way for me to "push" information to one of them as a result of an action by the other? If this is possible, is this advisable or am I just not thinking about it correctly? What authentication mechanisms seem to work best for public-facing services? What about if I plan to have different types of OS'es and clients connecting to the service? Is there a generally accepted platform-agnostic approach? In the line of authentication, is this something that I should be doing myself (authenticating an managing sessions, etc.) or is this something should be handled at the framework level and I just define exactly how it should work? If that's the case, how do I tell who the requester has authenticated themselves as? I started writing an authentication mechanism (simple username/password combinations stored in the database and a corresponding session table with a GUID key) within my service and just requiring that key to be passed with every operation (other than logging in, of course), but I want to make sure that I'm not reinventing the wheel here. However, I also don't want to clutter up the server with a bunch of machine user accounts just to use Basic authentication. I'm also under the impression that Digest (and of course Windows) authentication requires a machine (or AD) user account.

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• How can I show a div, then hide the other divs when a link is clicked?

  - by Abriel

  I am right now trying to hide six divs while showing only one of the divs. I've tried JavaScript and in jQuery, but nothing seems to work! Click here to get to the website. I would like to know if it has to do with my CSS, jQuery, or the HTML. Or is there an easier way of doing this? HTML: <div id="resourceLinks"> <a href="#" name="resource" id="resource1">General&nbsp;Information</a><br /> <a href="#" name="resource" id="resource2">Automatic&nbsp;401(k)</a><br /> <a href="#" name="resource" id="resource3">Consumer&nbsp;Fraud</a><br /> <a href="#" name="resource" id="resource4">Direct&nbsp;Deposit</a><br /> <a href="#" name="resource" id="resource5">Diversity</a><br /> <a href="#" name="resource" id="resource6">Women</a><br /> <a href="#" name="resource" id="resource7">Young&nbsp;Adults&nbsp;(20s&nbsp;-&nbsp;40s)</a> </div> <div id="resource1></div> <div id="resource2></div> <div id="resource3></div> <div id="resource4></div> <div id="resource5></div> <div id="resource6></div> <div id="resource7></div> CSS: #resource1, #resource2, #resource3, #resource4, #resource5, #resource6, #resource7 { position: absolute; margin-left: 400px; margin-top: -10px; width: 300px; padding-bottom: 120px; } #resourceLinks { position: fixed; margin-left: -450px; z-index: 3; margin-top: 180px; font-size: 16px; } jQuery: $(document).ready(function(){ $('#resourceLinks a').click(function (selected) { var getName = $(this).attr("id"); var projectImages = $(this).attr("name"); $(function() { $(".resource").hide().removeClass("current"); $("#" + projectImages ).show("normal").addClass("current"); }); }); });

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• Why is my variable uninitialized in a separate if test?

  - by user2932733

  For the first run, I need to use dates that are six months prior to the last MySQL date $row_recent[0]. For all of the runs after 1, I am using a previous variable to store the previous date and then decrease the date by 6 months. I have confirmed that the first if test produces the expected result. (MySQL date - 6 Months). However, the second if test outputs $startdate6m as the PHP default due to $previous_6m being uninitialized. Any idea why it won't recognize $previous_6m = $initial6m? <?php while ($run_number < 15) { $run_number++; if($run_number == 1){ if ($month <= 06){ $year6m = date("Y", strtotime($row_recent[0]))-1; $month6m = str_pad((12-(6-date("m", strtotime($row_recent[0])))), 2, "0", STR_PAD_LEFT); $startdate6m = "'".$year6m."-".$month6m."-01'"; $end_date = $startdate6m; $initial6m = $startdate6m; } else{ $year6m = date("Y", strtotime($row_recent[0])); $month6m = str_pad(date("m", strtotime($row_recent[0]))-6, 2, "0", STR_PAD_LEFT); $startdate6m = "'".$year6m."-".$month6m."-01'"; $end_date = $startdate6m; $initial6m = $startdate6m; } } $previous_6m = $initial6m; if($run_number > 1){ # 6 Month # Decrement date by 6 months $month6m = date("m", strtotime($previous_6m)); if ($month6m <= 06){ $year6m = date("Y", strtotime($previous_6m))-1; $month6m = str_pad((12-(6-date("m", strtotime($previous_6m)))), 2, "0", STR_PAD_LEFT); $startdate6m = "'".$year6m."-".$month6m."-01'"; $end_date = $startdate6m; } else{ $year6m = date("Y", strtotime($previous_6m)); $month6m = str_pad(date("m", strtotime($previous_6m))-6, 2, "0", STR_PAD_LEFT); $startdate6m = "'".$year6m."-".$month6m."-01'"; $end_date = $startdate6m; } } $previous_6m = $startdate6m; } ?>

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• How to define an extern, C struct returning function in C++ using MSVC?

  - by DK

  The following source file will not compile with the MSVC compiler (v15.00.30729.01): /* stest.c */ #ifdef __cplusplus extern "C" { #endif struct Test; extern struct Test make_Test(int x); struct Test { int x; }; extern struct Test make_Test(int x) { struct Test r; r.x = x; return r; } #ifdef __cplusplus } #endif Compiling with cl /c /Tpstest.c produces the following error: stest.c(8) : error C2526: 'make_Test' : C linkage function cannot return C++ class 'Test' stest.c(6) : see declaration of 'Test' Compiling without /Tp (which tells cl to treat the file as C++) works fine. The file also compiles fine in DigitalMars C and GCC (from mingw) in both C and C++ modes. I also used -ansi -pedantic -Wall with GCC and it had no complaints. For reasons I will go into below, we need to compile this file as C++ for MSVC (not for the others), but with functions being compiled as C. In essence, we want a normal C compiler... except for about six lines. Is there a switch or attribute or something I can add that will allow this to work? The code in question (though not the above; that's just a reduced example) is being produced by a code generator. As part of this, we need to be able to generate floating point nans and infinities as constants (long story), meaning we have to compile with MSVC in C++ mode in order to actually do this. We only found one solution that works, and it only works in C++ mode. We're wrapping the code in extern "C" {...} because we want to control the mangling and calling convention so that we can interface with existing C code. ... also because I trust C++ compilers about as far as I could throw a smallish department store. I also tried wrapping just the reinterpret_cast line in extern "C++" {...}, but of course that doesn't work. Pity. There is a potential solution I found which requires reordering the declarations such that the full struct definition comes before the function foward decl., but this is very inconvenient due to the way the codegen is performed, so I'd really like to avoid having to go down that road if I can.

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