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  • Gaming on Cloud

    - by technomad
    Sometimes I wonder the pundits of cloud computing are way to consumed with the enterprise applications. With all the CAPEX / OPEX, ROI-talk taking the center stage, an opportunity to affect masses directly is getting overlooked. I am a self proclaimed die hard gamer. I come from the generation of gamers who started their journey in DOS games like Wolfenstein 3D and Allan Border Cricket (the latter is still a favorite pastime). In the late 90s, a revolution called accelerated graphics started in DirectX and OpenGL. Games got more advanced. Likes of Quake III and Unreal Tournament became the crown jewels of the industry. But with all these advancements, there started a race. A race of GFX giants ATI and NVIDIA to beat each other for better frame and image quality. Revisions to the graphics chipsets became frequent. Games became eye candies but at the cost of more GPU power / memory. Every eagerly awaited title started demanding more muscle power in graphics and PC hardware. Latest games and all the liquid smooth frame rates became the territory of the once with deep pockets who could spend lavishly on latest hardware. Enthusiasts like yours truly, who couldn’t afford this route, started exploring over-clocking, optimized hardware cooling... etc. to pursue the passion. Ever rising cost of hardware requirements lead to rampant piracy of PC games. Gamers were willing to spend on the latest titles, but the ones with tight budget prefer hardware upgrades against a legal copy of the game. It was also fueled by emergence of the P2P file sharing networks. Then came the era of Xbox and PS3s. It solved the major issue of hardware standardization and provided an alternative to ever increasing hardware costs. I have always admired these consoles, but being born and brought up in a keyboard/mouse environment, I still find it difficult to play first person shooters with a gamepad. I leave the topic of PC v/s Consol gaming for another day, but the bottom line is… PC gamers deserve an equally democratized solution. This is where I think Cloud Computing can come to rescue. It can minimize hardware requirements. Virtually end the software piracy and rationalize costs for gamers. Subscription based models like pay-as-you-play. In game rewards, like extended subscription credits for exceptional gamers (oh yes, I have beaten Xaero on nightmare in Quake III, time and again!) Easy deployment for patches and fixes. Better game AI. The list goes on and on… Fortunately, companies like OnLive are thinking in the same direction. Their gaming service is all set to launch on 17th June 2010 in E3 2010 expo in L.A. I wish them all the luck. I hope they will start a trend which will bring the smiles back on the face of budget gamers with the help of cloud computing.

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  • Perspective Is Everything

    - by juanlarios
    Sitting on a window seat on my way back from Seattle I looked out the window and saw the large body of water. I was reminded of childhood memories of running as hard as I could through burning hot sand with the anticipation of the splash of the ocean. Looking out the window the water appeared like a sheet draped over land. I couldn’t help but ponder how perspective changes everything.  Over the last several days I had a chance to attend the MVP Summit in Redmond. I had a great time with fellow MVP’s and the SharePoint Product Group. Although I can’t say much about what was discussed and what is coming in the future, I want to share some realizations I had while experiencing the MVP summit.  The SharePoint Product is ever-improving, full of innovation but also a reactionary embodiment of MVP, client and market feedback. There are several features that come to mind that clients complain about where I have felt helpless in informing them that the features are not as mature as they would like it. Together, we figure out a way to make it work and deal with the limitations. It became clear that there are features that have taken a different purpose in the market place from the original vision. The SP Product group is working hard to react to these changes in vision and make SharePoint better for real life implementations.  It is easy to think that SharePoint should be all things to all people. In reality there are products that are very detailed in specific composites, they do this one thing well but severely lack in other areas.  Its easy sometimes to say, “What was Microsoft thinking with this feature?” the Product group is doing all they can to make the moving pieces better and dealing with challenges with having all of them work together.  Sometimes the features don’t fully embody the vision because of the many challenges, but trust me when I say the product group is really focused on delivery and innovation.  As I was speaking with a fellow MVP throughout the session, we spoke about the iPad 2(ironically announced this past week during the MVP summit) and Microsoft’s possible product answer; I realized the days of reactionary products from MS is over. There are many users that will remember Vista and the painful execution in that product, but there has been a lot of success in Windows 7. There was no rush for a reactionary answer to the Nintendo Wii, as a result a ground breaking and game changing product was brought to market, the XBOX –Kinect! I can’t say much here, but it’s safe to say, expect innovation, and execution of products and technology that will change the market instead of react to them!       There are many things I learned and I would love to share that have to do with perspective, technology, etc… but this is far as I can go in details. This might not be new to you or specifically the message that was shared during the summit. These are just my impressions of the event and the spirit of future vision. Great things ahead!

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  • The new direction of the gaming industry

    - by raccoon_tim
    Just recently I read a great blog post by David Darling, the founder of Codemasters: http://www.develop-online.net/blog/347/Jurassic-consoles-could-become-extinct. In the blog post he talks about how traditional retail games are experiencing a downfall thanks to the increasing popularity of digital distribution. I personally think of retail games as being relics of the past. It does not really make much sense to still keep distributing boxed games when the same game can be elegantly downloaded and updated over the air through a digital distribution channel. The world is not all rainbows, however. One big issue with mixing digital distribution with boxed retail games is that resellers will not condone you selling your game for 10€ digitally while their selling the same game for 70€. The only way to get around this issue is to move to full digital distribution. This has the added benefit of minimizing piracy as the game can be tightly bound to the service you downloaded the game from. Many players are, however, complaining about not being able to play the games offline. Having games tightly bound to the internet is a problem when games are bought from a retailer as we tend to expect that once we have the product we can use it anywhere because we physically own it. The truth is that we don’t actually own the product. Instead, the typical EULA actually states that we only have a license to use the product. We’re not, for instance, allowed to disassemble the product, which the owner is indeed permitted to do. Digital distribution allows us to provide games as services, instead of selling them as standalone products. This means that for a service to work you have to be connected to the internet but you still have the same rights to use the product. It’s really straightforward; if you downloaded a client from the internet you are expected to have an internet connection so you’re able to connect to the server. A game distributed digitally that is built using a client-server architecture has the added benefit of allowing you to play anywhere as long as you have the client installed and you are able to log in with your user information. Your save games can be backed up and your game can continue anywhere. Another development we’re seeing in the gaming industry is the increasing popularity of free-to-play games. These are games that let you play for free but allow you to boost your gaming experience with real world money. The nature of these games is that players are constantly rewarded with new content and the game can evolve according to their way of playing and their wishes can be incorporated into the product. Free-to-play games can quickly gain a large player basis and monetization is done by providing players valuable things to buy making their gaming experience more fun. I am personally very excited about free-to-play games as it’s possible to start building the game together with your players and there is no need to work on the game for 5 years from start to finish and only then see if it’s actually something the players like. This is a typical problem with big movie-like retail games and recent news about Radical Entertainment practically closing its doors paints a clear picture of what can happen when the risk does not pay off: http://news.teamxbox.com/xbox/25874/Prototype-Developer-Radical-Entertainment-Closes/.

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  • iptables syn flood countermeasure

    - by Penegal
    I'm trying to adjust my iptables firewall to increase the security of my server, and I found something a bit problematic here : I have to set INPUT policy to ACCEPT and, in addition, to have a rule saying iptables -I INPUT -i eth0 -j ACCEPT. Here comes my script (launched manually for tests) : #!/bin/sh IPT=/sbin/iptables echo "Clearing firewall rules" $IPT -F $IPT -Z $IPT -t nat -F $IPT -t nat -Z $IPT -t mangle -F $IPT -t mangle -Z $IPT -X echo "Defining logging policy for dropped packets" $IPT -N LOGDROP $IPT -A LOGDROP -j LOG -m limit --limit 5/min --log-level debug --log-prefix "iptables rejected: " $IPT -A LOGDROP -j DROP echo "Setting firewall policy" $IPT -P INPUT DROP # Deny all incoming connections $IPT -P OUTPUT ACCEPT # Allow all outgoing connections $IPT -P FORWARD DROP # Deny all forwaring echo "Allowing connections from/to lo and incoming connections from eth0" $IPT -I INPUT -i lo -j ACCEPT $IPT -I OUTPUT -o lo -j ACCEPT #$IPT -I INPUT -i eth0 -j ACCEPT echo "Setting SYN flood countermeasures" $IPT -A INPUT -p tcp -i eth0 --syn -m limit --limit 100/second --limit-burst 200 -j LOGDROP echo "Allowing outgoing traffic corresponding to already initiated connections" $IPT -A OUTPUT -p ALL -m state --state ESTABLISHED,RELATED -j ACCEPT echo "Allowing incoming SSH" $IPT -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 22 -m state --state NEW -m recent --set --name SSH -j ACCEPT echo "Setting SSH bruteforce attacks countermeasures (deny more than 10 connections every 10 minutes)" $IPT -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 22 -m recent --update --seconds 600 --hitcount 10 --rttl --name SSH -j LOGDROP echo "Allowing incoming traffic for HTTP, SMTP, NTP, PgSQL and SolR" $IPT -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 25 -i eth0 -j ACCEPT $IPT -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 80 -i eth0 -j ACCEPT $IPT -A INPUT -p udp --dport 123 -i eth0 -j ACCEPT $IPT -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 5433 -i eth0.2654 -s 172.16.0.2 -j ACCEPT $IPT -A INPUT -p udp --dport 5433 -i eth0.2654 -s 172.16.0.2 -j ACCEPT $IPT -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 8983 -i eth0.2654 -s 172.16.0.2 -j ACCEPT $IPT -A INPUT -p udp --dport 8983 -i eth0.2654 -s 172.16.0.2 -j ACCEPT echo "Allowing outgoing traffic for ICMP, SSH, whois, SMTP, DNS, HTTP, PgSQL and SolR" $IPT -A OUTPUT -p tcp --dport 22 -j ACCEPT $IPT -A OUTPUT -p tcp --dport 25 -o eth0 -j ACCEPT $IPT -A OUTPUT -p tcp --dport 43 -o eth0 -j ACCEPT $IPT -A OUTPUT -p tcp --dport 53 -o eth0 -j ACCEPT $IPT -A OUTPUT -p udp --dport 53 -o eth0 -j ACCEPT $IPT -A OUTPUT -p tcp --dport 80 -o eth0 -j ACCEPT $IPT -A OUTPUT -p udp --dport 80 -o eth0 -j ACCEPT #$IPT -A OUTPUT -p tcp --dport 5433 -o eth0 -d 176.31.236.101 -j ACCEPT #$IPT -A OUTPUT -p udp --dport 5433 -o eth0 -d 176.31.236.101 -j ACCEPT #$IPT -A OUTPUT -p tcp --dport 8983 -o eth0 -d 176.31.236.101 -j ACCEPT #$IPT -A OUTPUT -p udp --dport 8983 -o eth0 -d 176.31.236.101 -j ACCEPT $IPT -A OUTPUT -p tcp --sport 5433 -o eth0.2654 -j ACCEPT $IPT -A OUTPUT -p udp --sport 5433 -o eth0.2654 -j ACCEPT $IPT -A OUTPUT -p tcp --sport 8983 -o eth0.2654 -j ACCEPT $IPT -A OUTPUT -p udp --sport 8983 -o eth0.2654 -j ACCEPT $IPT -A OUTPUT -p icmp -j ACCEPT echo "Allowing outgoing FTP backup" $IPT -A OUTPUT -p tcp --dport 20:21 -o eth0 -d 91.121.190.78 -j ACCEPT echo "Dropping and logging everything else" $IPT -A INPUT -s 0/0 -j LOGDROP $IPT -A OUTPUT -j LOGDROP $IPT -A FORWARD -j LOGDROP echo "Firewall loaded." echo "Maintaining new rules for 3 minutes for tests" sleep 180 $IPT -nvL echo "Clearing firewall rules" $IPT -F $IPT -Z $IPT -t nat -F $IPT -t nat -Z $IPT -t mangle -F $IPT -t mangle -Z $IPT -X $IPT -P INPUT ACCEPT $IPT -P OUTPUT ACCEPT $IPT -P FORWARD ACCEPT When I launch this script (I only have a SSH access), the shell displays every message up to Maintaining new rules for 3 minutes for tests, the server is unresponsive during the 3 minutes delay and then resume normal operations. The only solution I found until now was to set $IPT -P INPUT ACCEPT and $IPT -I INPUT -i eth0 -j ACCEPT, but this configuration does not protect me of any attack, which is a great shame for a firewall. I suspect that the error comes from my script and not from iptables, but I don't understand what's wrong with my script. Could some do-gooder explain me my error, please? EDIT: here comes the result of iptables -nvL with the "accept all input" ($IPT -P INPUT ACCEPT and $IPT -I INPUT -i eth0 -j ACCEPT) solution : Chain INPUT (policy ACCEPT 0 packets, 0 bytes) pkts bytes target prot opt in out source destination 1 52 ACCEPT all -- eth0 * 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 0 0 ACCEPT all -- lo * 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 0 0 LOGDROP tcp -- eth0 * 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 tcp flags:0x17/0x02 limit: avg 100/sec burst 200 0 0 ACCEPT tcp -- * * 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 tcp dpt:22 state NEW recent: SET name: SSH side: source 0 0 LOGDROP tcp -- * * 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 tcp dpt:22 recent: UPDATE seconds: 600 hit_count: 10 TTL-Match name: SSH side: source 0 0 ACCEPT tcp -- eth0 * 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 tcp dpt:25 0 0 ACCEPT tcp -- eth0 * 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 tcp dpt:80 0 0 ACCEPT udp -- eth0 * 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 udp dpt:123 0 0 ACCEPT tcp -- eth0.2654 * 172.16.0.2 0.0.0.0/0 tcp dpt:5433 0 0 ACCEPT udp -- eth0.2654 * 172.16.0.2 0.0.0.0/0 udp dpt:5433 0 0 ACCEPT tcp -- eth0.2654 * 172.16.0.2 0.0.0.0/0 tcp dpt:8983 0 0 ACCEPT udp -- eth0.2654 * 172.16.0.2 0.0.0.0/0 udp dpt:8983 0 0 LOGDROP all -- * * 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 Chain FORWARD (policy ACCEPT 0 packets, 0 bytes) pkts bytes target prot opt in out source destination 0 0 LOGDROP all -- * * 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 Chain OUTPUT (policy ACCEPT 0 packets, 0 bytes) pkts bytes target prot opt in out source destination 0 0 ACCEPT all -- * lo 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 2 728 ACCEPT all -- * * 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 state RELATED,ESTABLISHED 0 0 ACCEPT tcp -- * * 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 tcp dpt:22 0 0 ACCEPT tcp -- * eth0 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 tcp dpt:25 0 0 ACCEPT tcp -- * eth0 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 tcp dpt:43 0 0 ACCEPT tcp -- * eth0 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 tcp dpt:53 0 0 ACCEPT udp -- * eth0 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 udp dpt:53 0 0 ACCEPT tcp -- * eth0 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 tcp dpt:80 0 0 ACCEPT udp -- * eth0 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 udp dpt:80 0 0 ACCEPT tcp -- * eth0.2654 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 tcp spt:5433 0 0 ACCEPT udp -- * eth0.2654 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 udp spt:5433 0 0 ACCEPT tcp -- * eth0.2654 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 tcp spt:8983 0 0 ACCEPT udp -- * eth0.2654 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 udp spt:8983 0 0 ACCEPT icmp -- * * 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 0 0 ACCEPT tcp -- * eth0 0.0.0.0/0 91.121.190.78 tcp dpts:20:21 0 0 LOGDROP all -- * * 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 Chain LOGDROP (5 references) pkts bytes target prot opt in out source destination 0 0 LOG all -- * * 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 limit: avg 5/min burst 5 LOG flags 0 level 7 prefix `iptables rejected: ' 0 0 DROP all -- * * 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 EDIT #2 : I modified my script (policy ACCEPT, defining authorized incoming packets then logging and dropping everything else) to write iptables -nvL results to a file and to allow only 10 ICMP requests per second, logging and dropping everything else. The result proved unexpected : while the server was unavailable to SSH connections, even already established, I ping-flooded it from another server, and the ping rate was restricted to 10 requests per second. During this test, I also tried to open new SSH connections, which remained unanswered until the script flushed rules. Here comes the iptables stats written after these tests : Chain INPUT (policy ACCEPT 0 packets, 0 bytes) pkts bytes target prot opt in out source destination 600 35520 ACCEPT all -- lo * 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 6 360 LOGDROP tcp -- eth0 * 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 tcp flags:0x17/0x02 limit: avg 100/sec burst 200 0 0 LOGDROP tcp -- eth0 * 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 tcp dpt:80 STRING match "w00tw00t.at.ISC.SANS." ALGO name bm TO 65535 0 0 LOGDROP tcp -- * * 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 tcp dpt:80 STRING match "Host: anoticiapb.com.br" ALGO name bm TO 65535 0 0 LOGDROP tcp -- * * 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 tcp dpt:80 STRING match "Host: www.anoticiapb.com.br" ALGO name bm TO 65535 105 8820 ACCEPT icmp -- * * 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 limit: avg 10/sec burst 5 830 69720 LOGDROP icmp -- * * 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 0 0 ACCEPT tcp -- * * 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 tcp dpt:22 state NEW recent: SET name: SSH side: source 0 0 LOGDROP tcp -- * * 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 tcp dpt:22 recent: UPDATE seconds: 600 hit_count: 10 TTL-Match name: SSH side: source 0 0 ACCEPT tcp -- eth0 * 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 tcp dpt:25 0 0 ACCEPT tcp -- eth0 * 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 tcp dpt:80 0 0 ACCEPT udp -- eth0 * 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 udp dpt:80 0 0 ACCEPT udp -- eth0 * 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 udp dpt:123 0 0 ACCEPT tcp -- eth0 * 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 tcp dpt:443 0 0 ACCEPT tcp -- eth0.2654 * 172.16.0.1 0.0.0.0/0 tcp spt:5433 0 0 ACCEPT udp -- eth0.2654 * 172.16.0.1 0.0.0.0/0 udp spt:5433 0 0 ACCEPT tcp -- eth0.2654 * 172.16.0.1 0.0.0.0/0 tcp spt:8983 0 0 ACCEPT udp -- eth0.2654 * 172.16.0.1 0.0.0.0/0 udp spt:8983 16 1684 LOGDROP all -- * * 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 Chain FORWARD (policy ACCEPT 0 packets, 0 bytes) pkts bytes target prot opt in out source destination 0 0 LOGDROP all -- * * 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 Chain OUTPUT (policy ACCEPT 0 packets, 0 bytes) pkts bytes target prot opt in out source destination 600 35520 ACCEPT all -- * lo 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 0 0 LOGDROP tcp -- * eth0 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 tcp dpt:80 owner UID match 33 0 0 LOGDROP udp -- * eth0 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 udp dpt:80 owner UID match 33 116 11136 ACCEPT all -- * * 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 state RELATED,ESTABLISHED 0 0 ACCEPT tcp -- * * 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 tcp dpt:22 0 0 ACCEPT tcp -- * eth0 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 tcp dpt:25 0 0 ACCEPT tcp -- * eth0 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 tcp dpt:53 0 0 ACCEPT udp -- * eth0 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 udp dpt:53 0 0 ACCEPT tcp -- * eth0 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 tcp dpt:80 0 0 ACCEPT udp -- * eth0 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 udp dpt:80 0 0 ACCEPT tcp -- * eth0.2654 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 tcp dpt:5433 0 0 ACCEPT udp -- * eth0.2654 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 udp dpt:5433 0 0 ACCEPT tcp -- * eth0.2654 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 tcp dpt:8983 0 0 ACCEPT udp -- * eth0.2654 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 udp dpt:8983 0 0 ACCEPT icmp -- * * 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 0 0 ACCEPT tcp -- * eth0 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 tcp dpt:43 0 0 ACCEPT tcp -- * eth0 0.0.0.0/0 91.121.190.18 tcp dpts:20:21 7 1249 LOGDROP all -- * * 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 Chain LOGDROP (11 references) pkts bytes target prot opt in out source destination 35 3156 LOG all -- * * 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 limit: avg 1/sec burst 5 LOG flags 0 level 7 prefix `iptables rejected: ' 859 73013 DROP all -- * * 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 Here comes the log content added during this test : Mar 28 09:52:51 localhost kernel: iptables rejected: IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=00:25:90:54:d7:88:10:8c:cf:28:39:80:08:00 SRC=194.51.74.245 DST=176.31.238.3 LEN=52 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=51 ID=55666 DF PROTO=TCP SPT=57504 DPT=22 WINDOW=501 RES=0x00 ACK URGP=0 Mar 28 09:52:51 localhost kernel: iptables rejected: IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=00:25:90:54:d7:88:10:8c:cf:28:39:80:08:00 SRC=194.51.74.245 DST=176.31.238.3 LEN=52 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=51 ID=55667 DF PROTO=TCP SPT=57504 DPT=22 WINDOW=501 RES=0x00 ACK URGP=0 Mar 28 09:52:51 localhost kernel: iptables rejected: IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=00:25:90:54:d7:88:10:8c:cf:28:39:80:08:00 SRC=194.51.74.245 DST=176.31.238.3 LEN=64 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=51 ID=55668 DF PROTO=TCP SPT=57504 DPT=22 WINDOW=501 RES=0x00 ACK URGP=0 Mar 28 09:52:51 localhost kernel: iptables rejected: IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=00:25:90:54:d7:88:10:8c:cf:28:39:80:08:00 SRC=194.51.74.245 DST=176.31.238.3 LEN=64 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=51 ID=55669 DF PROTO=TCP SPT=57504 DPT=22 WINDOW=501 RES=0x00 ACK URGP=0 Mar 28 09:52:52 localhost kernel: iptables rejected: IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=00:25:90:54:d7:88:10:8c:cf:28:39:80:08:00 SRC=194.51.74.245 DST=176.31.238.3 LEN=64 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=51 ID=55670 DF PROTO=TCP SPT=57504 DPT=22 WINDOW=501 RES=0x00 ACK URGP=0 Mar 28 09:52:54 localhost kernel: iptables rejected: IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=00:25:90:54:d7:88:10:8c:cf:28:39:80:08:00 SRC=194.51.74.245 DST=176.31.238.3 LEN=64 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=51 ID=55671 DF PROTO=TCP SPT=57504 DPT=22 WINDOW=501 RES=0x00 ACK URGP=0 Mar 28 09:52:58 localhost kernel: iptables rejected: IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=00:25:90:54:d7:88:10:8c:cf:28:39:80:08:00 SRC=194.51.74.245 DST=176.31.238.3 LEN=64 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=51 ID=55672 DF PROTO=TCP SPT=57504 DPT=22 WINDOW=501 RES=0x00 ACK URGP=0 Mar 28 09:52:59 localhost kernel: iptables rejected: IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=00:25:90:54:d7:88:10:8c:cf:28:39:80:08:00 SRC=176.31.236.101 DST=176.31.238.3 LEN=84 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=63 ID=0 DF PROTO=ICMP TYPE=8 CODE=0 ID=7430 SEQ=6 Mar 28 09:52:59 localhost kernel: iptables rejected: IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=00:25:90:54:d7:88:10:8c:cf:28:39:80:08:00 SRC=176.31.236.101 DST=176.31.238.3 LEN=84 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=63 ID=0 DF PROTO=ICMP TYPE=8 CODE=0 ID=7430 SEQ=7 Mar 28 09:52:59 localhost kernel: iptables rejected: IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=00:25:90:54:d7:88:10:8c:cf:28:39:80:08:00 SRC=176.31.236.101 DST=176.31.238.3 LEN=84 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=63 ID=0 DF PROTO=ICMP TYPE=8 CODE=0 ID=7430 SEQ=8 Mar 28 09:52:59 localhost kernel: iptables rejected: IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=00:25:90:54:d7:88:10:8c:cf:28:39:80:08:00 SRC=176.31.236.101 DST=176.31.238.3 LEN=84 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=63 ID=0 DF PROTO=ICMP TYPE=8 CODE=0 ID=7430 SEQ=9 Mar 28 09:52:59 localhost kernel: iptables rejected: IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=00:25:90:54:d7:88:10:8c:cf:28:39:80:08:00 SRC=176.31.236.101 DST=176.31.238.3 LEN=84 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=63 ID=0 DF PROTO=ICMP TYPE=8 CODE=0 ID=7430 SEQ=59 Mar 28 09:53:00 localhost kernel: iptables rejected: IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=00:25:90:54:d7:88:10:8c:cf:28:39:80:08:00 SRC=176.31.236.101 DST=176.31.238.3 LEN=84 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=63 ID=0 DF PROTO=ICMP TYPE=8 CODE=0 ID=7430 SEQ=152 Mar 28 09:53:01 localhost kernel: iptables rejected: IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=00:25:90:54:d7:88:10:8c:cf:28:39:80:08:00 SRC=176.31.236.101 DST=176.31.238.3 LEN=84 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=63 ID=0 DF PROTO=ICMP TYPE=8 CODE=0 ID=7430 SEQ=246 Mar 28 09:53:02 localhost kernel: iptables rejected: IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=00:25:90:54:d7:88:10:8c:cf:28:39:80:08:00 SRC=176.31.236.101 DST=176.31.238.3 LEN=84 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=63 ID=0 DF PROTO=ICMP TYPE=8 CODE=0 ID=7430 SEQ=339 Mar 28 09:53:03 localhost kernel: iptables rejected: IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=00:25:90:54:d7:88:10:8c:cf:28:39:80:08:00 SRC=176.31.236.101 DST=176.31.238.3 LEN=84 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=63 ID=0 DF PROTO=ICMP TYPE=8 CODE=0 ID=7430 SEQ=432 Mar 28 09:53:04 localhost kernel: iptables rejected: IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=00:25:90:54:d7:88:10:8c:cf:28:39:80:08:00 SRC=176.31.236.101 DST=176.31.238.3 LEN=84 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=63 ID=0 DF PROTO=ICMP TYPE=8 CODE=0 ID=7430 SEQ=524 Mar 28 09:53:05 localhost kernel: iptables rejected: IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=00:25:90:54:d7:88:10:8c:cf:28:39:80:08:00 SRC=176.31.236.101 DST=176.31.238.3 LEN=84 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=63 ID=0 DF PROTO=ICMP TYPE=8 CODE=0 ID=7430 SEQ=617 Mar 28 09:53:06 localhost kernel: iptables rejected: IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=00:25:90:54:d7:88:10:8c:cf:28:39:80:08:00 SRC=176.31.236.101 DST=176.31.238.3 LEN=84 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=63 ID=0 DF PROTO=ICMP TYPE=8 CODE=0 ID=7430 SEQ=711 Mar 28 09:53:07 localhost kernel: iptables rejected: IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=00:25:90:54:d7:88:10:8c:cf:28:39:80:08:00 SRC=176.31.236.101 DST=176.31.238.3 LEN=84 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=63 ID=0 DF PROTO=ICMP TYPE=8 CODE=0 ID=7430 SEQ=804 Mar 28 09:53:08 localhost kernel: iptables rejected: IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=00:25:90:54:d7:88:10:8c:cf:28:39:80:08:00 SRC=176.31.236.101 DST=176.31.238.3 LEN=84 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=63 ID=0 DF PROTO=ICMP TYPE=8 CODE=0 ID=7430 SEQ=897 Mar 28 09:53:16 localhost kernel: iptables rejected: IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=00:25:90:54:d7:88:c0:62:6b:e3:5c:80:08:00 SRC=194.51.74.245 DST=176.31.238.3 LEN=60 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=51 ID=61402 DF PROTO=TCP SPT=57637 DPT=22 WINDOW=5840 RES=0x00 SYN URGP=0 Mar 28 09:53:19 localhost kernel: iptables rejected: IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=00:25:90:54:d7:88:c0:62:6b:e3:5c:80:08:00 SRC=194.51.74.245 DST=176.31.238.3 LEN=60 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=51 ID=61403 DF PROTO=TCP SPT=57637 DPT=22 WINDOW=5840 RES=0x00 SYN URGP=0 Mar 28 09:53:21 localhost kernel: iptables rejected: IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=00:25:90:54:d7:88:10:8c:cf:28:39:80:08:00 SRC=194.51.74.245 DST=176.31.238.3 LEN=64 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=51 ID=55674 DF PROTO=TCP SPT=57504 DPT=22 WINDOW=501 RES=0x00 ACK URGP=0 Mar 28 09:53:25 localhost kernel: iptables rejected: IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=00:25:90:54:d7:88:c0:62:6b:e3:5c:80:08:00 SRC=194.51.74.245 DST=176.31.238.3 LEN=60 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=51 ID=61404 DF PROTO=TCP SPT=57637 DPT=22 WINDOW=5840 RES=0x00 SYN URGP=0 Mar 28 09:53:37 localhost kernel: iptables rejected: IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=00:25:90:54:d7:88:10:8c:cf:28:39:80:08:00 SRC=194.51.74.245 DST=176.31.238.3 LEN=116 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=51 ID=55675 DF PROTO=TCP SPT=57504 DPT=22 WINDOW=501 RES=0x00 ACK PSH URGP=0 Mar 28 09:53:37 localhost kernel: iptables rejected: IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=00:25:90:54:d7:88:10:8c:cf:28:39:80:08:00 SRC=194.51.74.245 DST=176.31.238.3 LEN=116 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=51 ID=55676 DF PROTO=TCP SPT=57504 DPT=22 WINDOW=501 RES=0x00 ACK PSH URGP=0 Mar 28 09:53:37 localhost kernel: iptables rejected: IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=00:25:90:54:d7:88:10:8c:cf:28:39:80:08:00 SRC=194.51.74.245 DST=176.31.238.3 LEN=180 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=51 ID=55677 DF PROTO=TCP SPT=57504 DPT=22 WINDOW=501 RES=0x00 ACK PSH URGP=0 Mar 28 09:53:38 localhost kernel: iptables rejected: IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=00:25:90:54:d7:88:10:8c:cf:28:39:80:08:00 SRC=194.51.74.245 DST=176.31.238.3 LEN=180 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=51 ID=55678 DF PROTO=TCP SPT=57504 DPT=22 WINDOW=501 RES=0x00 ACK PSH URGP=0 Mar 28 09:53:39 localhost kernel: iptables rejected: IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=00:25:90:54:d7:88:10:8c:cf:28:39:80:08:00 SRC=194.51.74.245 DST=176.31.238.3 LEN=180 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=51 ID=55679 DF PROTO=TCP SPT=57504 DPT=22 WINDOW=501 RES=0x00 ACK PSH URGP=0 Mar 28 09:53:39 localhost kernel: iptables rejected: IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=00:25:90:54:d7:88:c0:62:6b:e3:5c:80:08:00 SRC=194.51.74.245 DST=176.31.238.3 LEN=60 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=51 ID=5055 DF PROTO=TCP SPT=57638 DPT=22 WINDOW=5840 RES=0x00 SYN URGP=0 Mar 28 09:53:41 localhost kernel: iptables rejected: IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=00:25:90:54:d7:88:10:8c:cf:28:39:80:08:00 SRC=194.51.74.245 DST=176.31.238.3 LEN=180 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=51 ID=55680 DF PROTO=TCP SPT=57504 DPT=22 WINDOW=501 RES=0x00 ACK PSH URGP=0 Mar 28 09:53:42 localhost kernel: iptables rejected: IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=00:25:90:54:d7:88:c0:62:6b:e3:5c:80:08:00 SRC=194.51.74.245 DST=176.31.238.3 LEN=60 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=51 ID=5056 DF PROTO=TCP SPT=57638 DPT=22 WINDOW=5840 RES=0x00 SYN URGP=0 Mar 28 09:53:45 localhost kernel: iptables rejected: IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=00:25:90:54:d7:88:10:8c:cf:28:39:80:08:00 SRC=194.51.74.245 DST=176.31.238.3 LEN=180 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=51 ID=55681 DF PROTO=TCP SPT=57504 DPT=22 WINDOW=501 RES=0x00 ACK PSH URGP=0 Mar 28 09:53:48 localhost kernel: iptables rejected: IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=00:25:90:54:d7:88:c0:62:6b:e3:5c:80:08:00 SRC=194.51.74.245 DST=176.31.238.3 LEN=60 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=51 ID=5057 DF PROTO=TCP SPT=57638 DPT=22 WINDOW=5840 RES=0x00 SYN URGP=0 If I correctly interpreted these results, they say that ICMP rules were correctly interpreted by iptables, but SSH rules were not. This does not make any sense... Does somebody understand where my error comes from? EDIT #3 : After some more tests, I found out that commenting the SYN flood countermeasure removes the problem. I continue researches in this way but, meanwhile, if somebody sees my anti SYN flood rule error...

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  • Be your own cloud [closed]

    - by Jedi
    I have reasonably many electronic gadgets that can go LAN or WI-FI. But how do you share and/or syncronize all your files among them? Well, between my laptops and my desktop I use Dropbox. A nice way to share files among computers. But what if your HDD on your laptop is not large enough to carry music, pictures and films. Normally you would buy an extern USB HDD and store them there, but then you cannot reach the files from other computers which are not connected to the USB device. Many would say I should use a solution like a cloud with a disc station or something like that. But my needs are follows: A mass storage which can be reached among devices (laptops, desktops, iPhone, Android phone, XBox or Playstation). Has low power requirements and is silent. Can be reached inside home and it would be nice if it could be reached outside home as well. Cheap I have looked around and I have found an wireless router which can share a USB device: D-Link Wireless N HD Media Router. I thought it would be an interesting solution for a simple local cloud solution. D-Link uses a little program called SharePort Plus which mount the USB device to your computer. Unfortunately is the transfer rate to the USB storage device rather disappointing. The transfer rate was 5.8 Mbps even though the distance between the laptop and the router was 2 meter. The same is happening when I use cable from the computer to the router. Another thing is that SharePort Plus only allows one computer be connected to the device at a time. The last thing was something I could live with. I have search on the Internet for other solutions and found this video from Synology. I'm not sure if their solution is the right one. I think a disc station connected to my home LAN could the right solution. What have you done in your home to store and share files among your computers and game consoles?

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  • please help me to add the html fields in the following link [closed]

    - by user237389
    Link Name: http://business.careerbuilderinstitute.com/testportal/webservices/iscapi.asmx/CreateUser html code register.html <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /> <title>Web-Service User Registration Form</title> </head> <body> <b style="font-size:20px; color:#3366CC">CreateUser</b><br/><br/> Create a user account. User may be assigned to a particular hierarchy level.<br/><br/> <b>Test</b><br/><br/> To test the operation using the HTTP POST protocol, click the 'Invoke' button. <form action="http://business.careerbuilderinstitute.com/testportal/webservices/iscapi.asmx/CreateUser" method="POST"/> <table width="542" border="0" style="margin-left:25px;"> <tr> <th width="172" style="background-color:#c0c0c0;">Parameter</th> <th width="360" style="background-color:#c0c0c0;">Value</th> </tr> <tr> <input name="authorizationId" type="text" value="TestService" size="60" /> </tr> <tr> <input name="passcode" type="hidden" value="welcome" size="60"/> </tr> <tr> <input name="organizationId" type="hidden" value="27" size="60"/> </tr> <tr> <input name="globalUniqueId" type="hidden" value="GUID" size="60"/> </tr> <tr> <input name="hierarchyID" type="hidden" value="0" size="60"/> </tr> <tr> <input name="hireDate" type="hidden" value="1" size="60"/> </tr> <tr> <input name="studentProfileId" type="hidden" value="0" size="60"/> </tr> <tr> <input name="alternateId" type="hidden" value="0" size="60"/> </tr> <tr> <input name="alternateId2" type="hidden" value="0" size="60"/> </tr> <tr> <input name="alternateId3" type="hidden" value="0" size="60"/> </tr> <tr> <input name="ssn" type="hidden" value="0" size="60"/> </tr> <tr> <input name="license" type="hidden" value="0" size="60"/> </tr> <tr> <input name="comments" type="hidden" value="0" size="60"/> </tr> <tr> <input name="clientDrive" type="hidden" value="0" size="60"/> </tr> <tr> <input name="nickname" type="hidden" value="0" size="60"/> </tr> <tr> <input name="photoIcon" type="hidden" value="0" size="60"/> </tr> <tr> <input name="cellPhone" type="hidden" value="0" size="60"/> </tr> <tr> <input name="blogUniformResourceLocator" type="hidden" value="0" size="60"/> </tr> <tr> <input name="userResume" type="hidden" value="0" size="60"/> </tr> <tr> <input name="resumeAttach" type="hidden" value="0" size="60"/> </tr> <tr> <input name="education" type="hidden" value="0" size="60"/> </tr> <tr> <input name="experience" type="hidden" value="0" size="60"/> </tr> <tr> <input name="reflections" type="hidden" value="0" size="60"/> </tr> <tr> <input name="storeFrontID" type="hidden" value="0" size="60"/> </tr> <!-- <tr> <input name="resumeAttach" type="hidden" value="0" size="60"/> </tr> --> <tr> <input name="siteadministrator" type="hidden" value="0" size="60" /> </tr> <tr> <input name="instructor" type="hidden" value="0" size="60" /> </tr> <tr> <input name="student" type="hidden" value="1" size="60" /> </tr> <tr> <input name="supervisor" type="hidden" value="0" size="60"/> </tr> <!-- "This field should be passed in the URL with Account did" <tr> <input name="hierarchyID" type="hidden" value="0" size="60"/> </tr> "This field is not required" <tr> <input name="studentProfileId" type="hidden" value="" /> </tr> <tr> --> </tr> <tr> <th scope="row" align="left">firstName:</th> <td><input name="firstName" type="text" size="60" id="firstName"/></td> </tr> <tr> <th scope="row" align="left">lastName:</th> <td><input name="lastName" type="text" size="60"/></td> </tr> <tr> <th scope="row" align="left">userName:</th> <td><input name="userName" type="text" size="60" /></td> </tr> <tr> <th scope="row" align="left">password:</th> <td><input name="password" type="password" size="60" /></td> </tr> <tr> <th scope="row" align="left">email:</th> <td><input name="email" type="text" size="60" /></td> </tr> <tr> </tr> <tr> <th scope="row" align="left">organization:</th> <td><input name="organization" type="text" size="60" /></td> </tr> <tr> <th scope="row" align="left">jobTitle:</th> <td><input name="jobTitle" type="text" size="60" /></td> </tr> <tr> <th scope="row" align="left">department:</th> <td><input name="department" type="text" size="60" /></td> </tr> <tr> <th scope="row" align="left">location:</th> <td><input name="location" type="text" size="60" /></td> </tr> <th scope="row" align="left">phone:</th> <td><input name="phone" type="text" size="60" /></td> </tr> <tr> <th scope="row" align="left">fax:</th> <td><input name="fax" type="text" size="60" /></td> </tr> <tr> <th scope="row" align="left">address:</th> <td><input name="address" type="text" size="60" /></td> </tr> <tr> <th scope="row" align="left">address2:</th> <td><input name="address2" type="text" size="60" /></td> </tr> <tr> <th scope="row" align="left">city:</th> <td><input name="city" type="text" size="60" /></td> </tr> <tr> <th scope="row" align="left">state:</th> <td><input name="state" type="text" size="60" /></td> </tr> <tr> <th scope="row" align="left">country:</th> <td><input name="country" type="text" size="60" /></td> </tr> <tr> <th scope="row" align="left">zip:</th> <td><input name="zip" type="text" size="60" /></td> </tr> <tr> </tr> <tr> </tr> <tr> </tr> <tr> </tr> <tr> </tr> <tr> </tr> <tr> </tr> <tr> </tr> <tr> </tr> <tr> </tr> <tr> </tr> <tr> </tr> <tr> <input name="languagePreference" type="hidden" value="1" size="60" /> </tr> <tr> <input name="active" type="hidden" value="1" size="60" /> </tr> <tr> <th scope="row" align="left"></th> <td><input name="Invoke" type="submit" value="Invoke" /></td> </tr> </table> </form> </body> </html>

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  • OpenGL 3.x Assimp trouble implementing phong shading (normals?)

    - by Defcronyke
    I'm having trouble getting phong shading to look right. I'm pretty sure there's something wrong with either my OpenGL calls, or the way I'm loading my normals, but I guess it could be something else since 3D graphics and Assimp are both still very new to me. When trying to load .obj/.mtl files, the problems I'm seeing are: The models seem to be lit too intensely (less phong-style and more completely washed out, too bright). Faces that are lit seem to be lit equally all over (with the exception of a specular highlight showing only when the light source position is moved to be practically right on top of the model) Because of problems 1 and 2, spheres look very wrong: picture of sphere And things with larger faces look (less-noticeably) wrong too: picture of cube I could be wrong, but to me this doesn't look like proper phong shading. Here's the code that I think might be relevant (I can post more if necessary): file: assimpRenderer.cpp #include "assimpRenderer.hpp" namespace def { assimpRenderer::assimpRenderer(std::string modelFilename, float modelScale) { initSFML(); initOpenGL(); if (assImport(modelFilename)) // if modelFile loaded successfully { initScene(); mainLoop(modelScale); shutdownScene(); } shutdownOpenGL(); shutdownSFML(); } assimpRenderer::~assimpRenderer() { } void assimpRenderer::initSFML() { windowWidth = 800; windowHeight = 600; settings.majorVersion = 3; settings.minorVersion = 3; app = NULL; shader = NULL; app = new sf::Window(sf::VideoMode(windowWidth,windowHeight,32), "OpenGL 3.x Window", sf::Style::Default, settings); app->setFramerateLimit(240); app->setActive(); return; } void assimpRenderer::shutdownSFML() { delete app; return; } void assimpRenderer::initOpenGL() { GLenum err = glewInit(); if (GLEW_OK != err) { /* Problem: glewInit failed, something is seriously wrong. */ std::cerr << "Error: " << glewGetErrorString(err) << std::endl; } // check the OpenGL context version that's currently in use int glVersion[2] = {-1, -1}; glGetIntegerv(GL_MAJOR_VERSION, &glVersion[0]); // get the OpenGL Major version glGetIntegerv(GL_MINOR_VERSION, &glVersion[1]); // get the OpenGL Minor version std::cout << "Using OpenGL Version: " << glVersion[0] << "." << glVersion[1] << std::endl; return; } void assimpRenderer::shutdownOpenGL() { return; } void assimpRenderer::initScene() { // allocate heap space for VAOs, VBOs, and IBOs vaoID = new GLuint[scene->mNumMeshes]; vboID = new GLuint[scene->mNumMeshes*2]; iboID = new GLuint[scene->mNumMeshes]; glClearColor(0.4f, 0.6f, 0.9f, 0.0f); glEnable(GL_DEPTH_TEST); glDepthFunc(GL_LEQUAL); glEnable(GL_CULL_FACE); shader = new Shader("shader.vert", "shader.frag"); projectionMatrix = glm::perspective(60.0f, (float)windowWidth / (float)windowHeight, 0.1f, 100.0f); rot = 0.0f; rotSpeed = 50.0f; faceIndex = 0; colorArrayA = NULL; colorArrayD = NULL; colorArrayS = NULL; normalArray = NULL; genVAOs(); return; } void assimpRenderer::shutdownScene() { delete [] iboID; delete [] vboID; delete [] vaoID; delete shader; } void assimpRenderer::renderScene(float modelScale) { sf::Time elapsedTime = clock.getElapsedTime(); clock.restart(); if (rot > 360.0f) rot = 0.0f; rot += rotSpeed * elapsedTime.asSeconds(); glClear(GL_COLOR_BUFFER_BIT | GL_DEPTH_BUFFER_BIT | GL_STENCIL_BUFFER_BIT); viewMatrix = glm::translate(glm::mat4(1.0f), glm::vec3(0.0f, -3.0f, -10.0f)); // move back a bit modelMatrix = glm::scale(glm::mat4(1.0f), glm::vec3(modelScale)); // scale model modelMatrix = glm::rotate(modelMatrix, rot, glm::vec3(0, 1, 0)); //modelMatrix = glm::rotate(modelMatrix, 25.0f, glm::vec3(0, 1, 0)); glm::vec3 lightPosition( 0.0f, -100.0f, 0.0f ); float lightPositionArray[3]; lightPositionArray[0] = lightPosition[0]; lightPositionArray[1] = lightPosition[1]; lightPositionArray[2] = lightPosition[2]; shader->bind(); int projectionMatrixLocation = glGetUniformLocation(shader->id(), "projectionMatrix"); int viewMatrixLocation = glGetUniformLocation(shader->id(), "viewMatrix"); int modelMatrixLocation = glGetUniformLocation(shader->id(), "modelMatrix"); int ambientLocation = glGetUniformLocation(shader->id(), "ambientColor"); int diffuseLocation = glGetUniformLocation(shader->id(), "diffuseColor"); int specularLocation = glGetUniformLocation(shader->id(), "specularColor"); int lightPositionLocation = glGetUniformLocation(shader->id(), "lightPosition"); int normalMatrixLocation = glGetUniformLocation(shader->id(), "normalMatrix"); glUniformMatrix4fv(projectionMatrixLocation, 1, GL_FALSE, &projectionMatrix[0][0]); glUniformMatrix4fv(viewMatrixLocation, 1, GL_FALSE, &viewMatrix[0][0]); glUniformMatrix4fv(modelMatrixLocation, 1, GL_FALSE, &modelMatrix[0][0]); glUniform3fv(lightPositionLocation, 1, lightPositionArray); for (unsigned int i = 0; i < scene->mNumMeshes; i++) { colorArrayA = new float[3]; colorArrayD = new float[3]; colorArrayS = new float[3]; material = scene->mMaterials[scene->mNumMaterials-1]; normalArray = new float[scene->mMeshes[i]->mNumVertices * 3]; unsigned int normalIndex = 0; for (unsigned int j = 0; j < scene->mMeshes[i]->mNumVertices * 3; j+=3, normalIndex++) { normalArray[j] = scene->mMeshes[i]->mNormals[normalIndex].x; // x normalArray[j+1] = scene->mMeshes[i]->mNormals[normalIndex].y; // y normalArray[j+2] = scene->mMeshes[i]->mNormals[normalIndex].z; // z } normalIndex = 0; glUniformMatrix3fv(normalMatrixLocation, 1, GL_FALSE, normalArray); aiColor3D ambient(0.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f); material->Get(AI_MATKEY_COLOR_AMBIENT, ambient); aiColor3D diffuse(0.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f); material->Get(AI_MATKEY_COLOR_DIFFUSE, diffuse); aiColor3D specular(0.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f); material->Get(AI_MATKEY_COLOR_SPECULAR, specular); colorArrayA[0] = ambient.r; colorArrayA[1] = ambient.g; colorArrayA[2] = ambient.b; colorArrayD[0] = diffuse.r; colorArrayD[1] = diffuse.g; colorArrayD[2] = diffuse.b; colorArrayS[0] = specular.r; colorArrayS[1] = specular.g; colorArrayS[2] = specular.b; // bind color for each mesh glUniform3fv(ambientLocation, 1, colorArrayA); glUniform3fv(diffuseLocation, 1, colorArrayD); glUniform3fv(specularLocation, 1, colorArrayS); // render all meshes glBindVertexArray(vaoID[i]); // bind our VAO glDrawElements(GL_TRIANGLES, scene->mMeshes[i]->mNumFaces*3, GL_UNSIGNED_INT, 0); glBindVertexArray(0); // unbind our VAO delete [] normalArray; delete [] colorArrayA; delete [] colorArrayD; delete [] colorArrayS; } shader->unbind(); app->display(); return; } void assimpRenderer::handleEvents() { sf::Event event; while (app->pollEvent(event)) { if (event.type == sf::Event::Closed) { app->close(); } if ((event.type == sf::Event::KeyPressed) && (event.key.code == sf::Keyboard::Escape)) { app->close(); } if (event.type == sf::Event::Resized) { glViewport(0, 0, event.size.width, event.size.height); } } return; } void assimpRenderer::mainLoop(float modelScale) { while (app->isOpen()) { renderScene(modelScale); handleEvents(); } } bool assimpRenderer::assImport(const std::string& pFile) { // read the file with some example postprocessing scene = importer.ReadFile(pFile, aiProcess_CalcTangentSpace | aiProcess_Triangulate | aiProcess_JoinIdenticalVertices | aiProcess_SortByPType); // if the import failed, report it if (!scene) { std::cerr << "Error: " << importer.GetErrorString() << std::endl; return false; } return true; } void assimpRenderer::genVAOs() { int vboIndex = 0; for (unsigned int i = 0; i < scene->mNumMeshes; i++, vboIndex+=2) { mesh = scene->mMeshes[i]; indexArray = new unsigned int[mesh->mNumFaces * sizeof(unsigned int) * 3]; // convert assimp faces format to array faceIndex = 0; for (unsigned int t = 0; t < mesh->mNumFaces; ++t) { const struct aiFace* face = &mesh->mFaces[t]; std::memcpy(&indexArray[faceIndex], face->mIndices, sizeof(float) * 3); faceIndex += 3; } // generate VAO glGenVertexArrays(1, &vaoID[i]); glBindVertexArray(vaoID[i]); // generate IBO for faces glGenBuffers(1, &iboID[i]); glBindBuffer(GL_ELEMENT_ARRAY_BUFFER, iboID[i]); glBufferData(GL_ELEMENT_ARRAY_BUFFER, sizeof(GLuint) * mesh->mNumFaces * 3, indexArray, GL_STATIC_DRAW); // generate VBO for vertices if (mesh->HasPositions()) { glGenBuffers(1, &vboID[vboIndex]); glBindBuffer(GL_ARRAY_BUFFER, vboID[vboIndex]); glBufferData(GL_ARRAY_BUFFER, mesh->mNumVertices * sizeof(GLfloat) * 3, mesh->mVertices, GL_STATIC_DRAW); glEnableVertexAttribArray((GLuint)0); glVertexAttribPointer((GLuint)0, 3, GL_FLOAT, GL_FALSE, 0, 0); } // generate VBO for normals if (mesh->HasNormals()) { normalArray = new float[scene->mMeshes[i]->mNumVertices * 3]; unsigned int normalIndex = 0; for (unsigned int j = 0; j < scene->mMeshes[i]->mNumVertices * 3; j+=3, normalIndex++) { normalArray[j] = scene->mMeshes[i]->mNormals[normalIndex].x; // x normalArray[j+1] = scene->mMeshes[i]->mNormals[normalIndex].y; // y normalArray[j+2] = scene->mMeshes[i]->mNormals[normalIndex].z; // z } normalIndex = 0; glGenBuffers(1, &vboID[vboIndex+1]); glBindBuffer(GL_ARRAY_BUFFER, vboID[vboIndex+1]); glBufferData(GL_ARRAY_BUFFER, mesh->mNumVertices * sizeof(GLfloat) * 3, normalArray, GL_STATIC_DRAW); glEnableVertexAttribArray((GLuint)1); glVertexAttribPointer((GLuint)1, 3, GL_FLOAT, GL_FALSE, 0, 0); delete [] normalArray; } // tex coord stuff goes here // unbind buffers glBindVertexArray(0); glBindBuffer(GL_ARRAY_BUFFER, 0); glBindBuffer(GL_ELEMENT_ARRAY_BUFFER, 0); delete [] indexArray; } vboIndex = 0; return; } } file: shader.vert #version 150 core in vec3 in_Position; in vec3 in_Normal; uniform mat4 projectionMatrix; uniform mat4 viewMatrix; uniform mat4 modelMatrix; uniform vec3 lightPosition; uniform mat3 normalMatrix; smooth out vec3 vVaryingNormal; smooth out vec3 vVaryingLightDir; void main() { // derive MVP and MV matrices mat4 modelViewProjectionMatrix = projectionMatrix * viewMatrix * modelMatrix; mat4 modelViewMatrix = viewMatrix * modelMatrix; // get surface normal in eye coordinates vVaryingNormal = normalMatrix * in_Normal; // get vertex position in eye coordinates vec4 vPosition4 = modelViewMatrix * vec4(in_Position, 1.0); vec3 vPosition3 = vPosition4.xyz / vPosition4.w; // get vector to light source vVaryingLightDir = normalize(lightPosition - vPosition3); // Set the position of the current vertex gl_Position = modelViewProjectionMatrix * vec4(in_Position, 1.0); } file: shader.frag #version 150 core out vec4 out_Color; uniform vec3 ambientColor; uniform vec3 diffuseColor; uniform vec3 specularColor; smooth in vec3 vVaryingNormal; smooth in vec3 vVaryingLightDir; void main() { // dot product gives us diffuse intensity float diff = max(0.0, dot(normalize(vVaryingNormal), normalize(vVaryingLightDir))); // multiply intensity by diffuse color, force alpha to 1.0 out_Color = vec4(diff * diffuseColor, 1.0); // add in ambient light out_Color += vec4(ambientColor, 1.0); // specular light vec3 vReflection = normalize(reflect(-normalize(vVaryingLightDir), normalize(vVaryingNormal))); float spec = max(0.0, dot(normalize(vVaryingNormal), vReflection)); if (diff != 0) { float fSpec = pow(spec, 128.0); // Set the output color of our current pixel out_Color.rgb += vec3(fSpec, fSpec, fSpec); } } I know it's a lot to look through, but I'm putting most of the code up so as not to assume where the problem is. Thanks in advance to anyone who has some time to help me pinpoint the problem(s)! I've been trying to sort it out for two days now and I'm not getting anywhere on my own.

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  • Review of Samsung Focus Windows Phone 7

    - by mbcrump
    I recently acquired a Samsung Focus Windows Phone 7 device from AT&T and wanted to share what I thought of it as an end-user. Before I get started, here are several of my write-ups for the Windows Phone 7. You may want to check out the second article titled: Hands-on WP7 Review of Prototype Hardware. From start to finish with the final version of Visual Studio Tools for Windows Phone 7 Hands-on : Windows Phone 7 Review on Prototype Hardware. Deploying your Windows Phone 7 Application to the actual hardware. Profile your Windows Phone 7 Application for Free Submitting a Windows Phone 7 Application to the Market. Samsung Focus i917 Phone Size: Perfect! I have been carrying around a Dell Streak (Android) and it is about half the size. It is really nice to have a phone that fits in your pocket without a lot of extra bulk. I bought a case for the Focus and it is still a perfect size.  The phone just feels right. Screen: It has a beautiful Super AMOLED 480x800 screen. I only wish it supported a higher resolution. The colors are beautiful especially in an Xbox Live Game.   3G: I use AT&T and I've had spotty reception. This really can't be blamed on the phone as much as the actual carrier. Battery: I've had excellent battery life compared to my iPhone and Android devices. I usually use my phone throughout the day on and off and still have a charge at the end of the day.  Camera/Video: I'm still looking for the option to send the video to YouTube or the Image to Twitter. The images look good, but the phone needs a forward facing camera. I like the iPhone/Android (Dell Streak) camera better. Built-in Speaker: Sounds great. It’s not a wimpy speaker that you cannot hear.  CPU: Very smooth transitioning from one screen to another. The prototype Windows Phone 7 that I had, was no where near as smooth. (It was also running a slower processor though). OS: I actually like the OS but a few things could be better. CONS: Copy and Paste (Supposed to come in the next update) We need more apps (Pandora missing was a big one for me and Slacker’s advertisement sucks!). As time passes, and more developers get on board then this will be fixed. The browser needs some major work. I have tried to make cross-platform (WP7, Android, iPhone and iPad) web apps and the browser that ships with WP7 just can’t handle it.  Apps need to be organized better. Instead of throw them all on one screen, it would help to allow the user to create categories. PROS: Hands down the best gaming experience on a phone. I have all three major phones (iphone, android and wp7). Nothing compares to the gaming experience on the WP7. The phone just works. I’ve had a LOT of glitches with my Android device. I’ve had maybe 2 with my WP7 device. Exchange and Office support are great. Nice integration with Twitter/Facebook and social media. Easy to navigate and find the information you need on one screen. Let’s look at a few pictures and we will wrap up with my final thoughts on the phone. WP7 Home Screen. Back of the phone is as stylish. It is hard to see due to the shadow but it is a very thin phone. What’s included? Manuals Ear buds Data Cable plus Power Adapter Phone Click a picture to enlarge So, what are my final thoughts on the Phone/OS? I love the Samsung Focus and would recommend it to anyone looking for a WP7 device. Like any first generation product, you need to give it a little while to mature. Right now the phone is missing several features that we are all used to using. That doesn’t mean a year from now it will be in the same situation. (I sure hope we won’t). If you are looking to get into mobile development, I believe WP7 is the easiest platform to develop from. This is especially true if you have a background in Silverlight or WPF.    Subscribe to my feed

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  • Some New .NET Toys (Repost)

    - by Kevin Grossnicklaus
    Last week I was fortunate enough to spend time in Redmond on Microsoft’s campus for the 2011 Microsoft MVP Summit. It was great to hang out with a number of old friends and get the opportunity to talk tech with the various product teams up at Microsoft. The weather wasn’t exactly sunny but Microsoft always does a great job with the Summit and everyone had a blast (heck, I even got to run the bases at SafeCo field) While much of what we saw is covered under NDA, there a ton of great things in the pipeline from Microsoft and many things that are already available (or just became so) that I wasn’t necessarily aware of. The purpose of this post is to share some of the info I learned on resources and tools available to .NET developers today. Please let me know if you have any questions (or if you know of something else cool which might benefit others). Enjoy! Visual Studio 2010 SP1 Microsoft has issued the RTM release of Visual Studio 2010 SP1. You can download the full SP1 on MSDN as of today (March 10th to the general public) and take advantage of such things as: Silverlight 4 is included in the box (as opposed to a separate install) Silverlight 4 Profiling WCF RIA Services SP1 Intellitrace for 64-bit and SharePoint ASP.NET now easily supports IIS Express and SQL CE Want a description of all that’s new beyond the above biased list (which arguably only contains items I think are important)? Check out this KB article. Portable Library Tools CTP Without much fanfare Microsoft has released a CTP of a new add-in to Visual Studio 2010 which simplifies code sharing between projects targeting different runtimes (i.e. Silverlight, WPF, Win7 Phone, XBox). With this Add-In installed you can add a new project of type “Portable Library” and specify which platforms you wish to target. Once that is done, any code added to this library will be limited to use only features which are common to all selected frameworks. Other projects can now reference this portable library and be provided assemblies custom built to their environment. This greatly simplifies the current process of sharing linked files between platforms like WPF and Silverlight. You can find out more about this CTP and how it works on this great blog post. Visual Studio Async CTP Microsoft has also released a CTP of a set of language and framework enhancements to provide a much more powerful asynchronous programming model. Due to the focus on async programming in all types of platforms (and it being the ONLY option in Silverlight and Win7 phone) a move towards a simpler and more understandable model is always a good thing. This CTP (called Visual Studio Async CTP) can be downloaded here. You can read more about this CTP on this blog post. MSDN Code Samples Gallery Microsoft has also launched new code samples gallery on their MSDN site: http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/. This site allows you to easily search for small samples of code related to a particular technology or platform. If a sample of code you are looking for is not found, you can request one via the site and other developers can see your request and provide a sample to the site to suit your needs. You can also peruse requested samples and, if you find a scenario where you can provide value, upload your own sample for the benefit of others. Samples are packaged into the VS .vsix format and include any necessary references/dependencies. By using .vsix as the deployment mechanism, as samples are installed from the site they are kept in your Visual Studio 2010 Samples Gallery and kept for your future reference. If you get a chance, check out the site and see how it is done. Although a somewhat simple concept, I was very impressed with their implementation and the way they went about trying to suit a need. I’ll definitely be looking there in the future as need something or want to share something. MSDN Search Capabilities Another item I learned recently and was not aware of (that might seem trivial to some) is the power of the MSDN site’s search capabilities. Between the Code Samples Gallery described above and the search enhancements on MSDN, Microsoft is definitely investing in their platform to help provide developers of all skill levels the tools and resources they need to be successful. What do I mean by the MSDN search capability and why should you care? If you go to the MSDN home page (http://msdn.microsoft.com) and use the “Search MSDN with Big” box at the very top of the page you will see some very interesting results. First, the search actually doesn’t just search the MSDN library it searches: MSDN Library All Microsoft Blogs CodePlex StackOverflow Downloads MSDN Magazine Support Knowledgebase (I’m not sure it even ends there but the above are all I know of) Beyond just searching all the above locations, the results are formatted very nicely to give some contextual information based on where the result came from. For example, if a keyword search returned results from CodePlex, each row in the search results screen would include a large amount of information specific to CodePlex such as: Looking at the above results immediately tells you everything from the page views to the CodePlex ratings. All in all, knowing that this much information is indexed and available from a single search location will lead me to utilize this as one of my initial searches for development information.

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  • Day 1 - Finding Like Minds

    - by dapostolov
    So, is being a Game Developer any different from being an IT Developer? I picture a poorly lit environment where I get to purchase my own desk lamp; I'm thinking one of those huge lava lamps that pump out so much heat you could fry an egg on it. To my right: a "great wall" of empty coke cans dwarf me. Eating my last slice of pizza I look across my desk to see a fellow developer with a smug look on his face;  he's just coded his latest module for the game and it looks like he's in nirvana. My duty, of course, is to remind him to keep focused on the job at hand. So, picking up my trusty elastic and aerodynamically crafted paper bullet I begin a 10 minute war of welts and laughter which is promptly abrupted by our Project Manager demanding more details from our morning Scrum meeting. After providing about 5 minutes of geek speak and several words of comfort to make his eyes glaze over...it hits me, the idea for the module...beckoning my developer friend over, we quickly shoo the Project Manager away and begin our brainstorming frenzy ... now, where'd I put that full can of coke? OK. OK. This isn't probably the most ideal game developer environment, but it definitely sounds fun to me...and from what I gather is nothing like most game development companies. But I'm not doing this blog series to "go pro"; like I stated in my first post I want to make a 2D game from an idea my best friend and I drummed up long, long ago. I'm in this for the passion AND I want to see how easy it is for us .Net Developers to create a game. So where do I start? Where can I find like minded individuals? What technologies are there? What do I need to make a video game? The questions are endless....AND...since I already have an idea ... lets start with ... Technology (yes, I'm a geek, live with it...) Technology OK. Predominantly, games are still made in C++ or even C. I'm not sure how much assembly code is floating around lately, however, that is not my concern. I do know C / C++ from my past, enough to even get me by, but I'm mainly interested in a recent, not-so-new, technology called XNA. What is XNA? XNA allows us .Net Developers to make 2D / 3D games for windows, Xbox*, and Windows Mobile 7*. * = for a nominal fee *cough* The following link is your one stop shop to XNA game development: http://creators.xna.com/en-US/education/gettingstarted The above site hosts information such as: - getting started - a sample/instructional shooter game in 2D / 3D with code (if I'm taking too long for you in this blog series) - downloads - starter kits... http://creators.xna.com/en-US/education/starterkits/ And of course...forums. You can also subscribe and pay for their premium membership which gets you some pretty awesome tutorials, resources, downloads, and premium community support. Some general Wiki information about XNA: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XNA_%28Microsoft%29 Community Support OK. Let's move on to industry and community support. Apart from XNA, there are some really cool sites out there, I just haven't found all of them yet. However, I found a really cool Game Development website called Gamastura. You can click on the following link to get you there: http://www.gamasutra.com/ The site is 100% dedicated to "The Art & Business of Making Games". Armed with blogs, twitter, jobs/resumes and most importantly industry news; one could subscribe to the feed and got lost in the wealth of information it provides. On a side note: I remember Gamasutra being around when my best friend and I wanted to make a video game...meaning, they've been around for a while now. I think the most beneficial aspect of this site is to understand the industry you want to get into. Otherwise, it's just a cool site to keep up to date with the industry in general. Another Community Support option is LinkedIn. Amongst the land of extremely bloated achievements and responsibilities lay 3 groups (that I have found) that deal with game development.: http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=59205 - Game Developers http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=824817 - DirectX Game Developer Network http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=756587 - DirectX Developers The Game Developers group in LinkedIn is by far the most active of the three and could possibly provide a wealth of support. What I've done thus far: - I lightly researched the XNA technology - I looked around for some community sites to assist me - I downloaded the XNA Game Studio 3.1 on my PC and installed it on my IDE - I even tried both tutorials! http://creators.xna.com/en-US/education/gettingstarted/bgintro/chapter1   Best Regards D.

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  • Silverlight Cream Monday WP7 App Review # 1

    - by Dave Campbell
    I'm going to try something here... if it seems useful, I'll continue, if it doesn't, I'll stop... so give me feedback! There are *lots* of Apps in the WP7 Marketplace, and heaven help me, but the Marketplace sucks for finding stuff. I won't rehash what's already been said in the blogs, but I agree with one and all. I went out last Saturday to find 2 apps that I knew were released, and couldn't do so on my device. Even in the Zune app, it took quite a while to find them... ok, I'll back off a bit, because I just found out I can do 'Search' now if I know the name... I didn't think that was working before. So my thought is on Monday (like today), I will post a review of 5 apps/games I either use or have played with on my device. These are strictly my opinions, you understand, but hey... it's better than a poke in the eye with an iPhone! A few disclaimers:     Feel free to write me about your app and tell me about it. While it would be very cool to receive a whole bunch of xap files to review, at this point, for technical reasons, I'm unable to side-load my device. Since I plan on only doing this one day a week, and only 5, I may never get caught up, so if you send me some info, be patient. Re: games ... remember I'm old... I'm from the era of Colossal Cave and Zork. Duke-Nukem 2D and Captain Comic were awesome. I don't own an XBOX or any other game system, so take game reviews from my perspective -- who knows, it may be refreshing :) I won't pay for an app or game just to try it. If you expect me to test-drive your app, it's going to have to have a Free Trial. In this Issue:   Jingo! is the first app I bought, just to see what the experience was like. It's very much like a game we used to play in school in the Army in 1971 on paper we passed around. Sort of a cross between hangman and Mastermind, you try to figure out the hidden word in 5 tries. You get really good at 5-letter words after a while. I like this because you have to think, and you're not pressured by a clock Jingo! is by James Furdell and is $1.99 I reviewed René Schulte's Pictures Lab a while back, and have not changed my mind. This is an excellent app for playing with any photo on your device... one you've just taken, one you've synced from your PC, or one you've saved from email. I like this because you can get some cool effects for your photos, and it just works. Pictures Lab is by Schulte Software Development and is $1.99 Since I work as a consultant, and from home, I wanted something I could track my time with. I've test-driven all the contenders I could find so far on the phone, and so far I like ONTRACK! the best. If asked, I have some suggestions, but it's probably just the way I work or think. What I do like is I can tap a project to start/stop/restart a counter, and at the end of the day it shows me how much time I've been working. If there's a way to make an adjustment in case you forget to tap the counter, I don't know how to do it, and that's my biggest complaint. I like this because you can get a daily readout which you can also email as a spreadsheet. The daily results display is very good. ONTRACK! is by Qmino and is $2.99 Remember Item 4 above... I've been playing guitar for 48 years... obviously since before the invention of 'tuners', so I'm not as dependent upon these as some folks are. I've tried some in the past and have always felt I can do just as good by ear (I have perfect relative pitch). So, I gave this app by András Velvárt a dance just to see how it works, and it is surprisingly good. If you're used to one of the stage tuners this may take a little getting used to, but it does the job. The difference with this one is there is no real 'null' point inside which you can think your guitar is in tune. The soundwave stays visible on the device, and if it's moving to the right, your string is flat, if it's moving to the left, your string is sharp. Getting it exact might be tricky, but it is exact! If you need to rely on a tuner, this is a good choice in my opinion, exactly because of the sensitivity.. tune up with this and you're dead-on. Guitar Tuner is by Kinabalu Innovation Limited and is $0.99 Popper 2 is the WP7 version of a wildly popular game by Bill Reiss named Dr. Popper. You can get a trial, or you can now get a free lite version of the game. Popper 2 is a fast-paced bubble breaker game. I find it something fun to play when I just want to buzz out, but maybe the best review is that my daughter didn't want to give my phone back when I showed it to her, and always wants to grab my phone to play 'that game'. A fun distraction with great graphics and a great price Popper 2 is by Blue Rose Systems, LLC and is $1.29 Let me know what you think of the idea of doing reviews, or the layout/whatever, and Stay in the 'Light!   Twitter SilverlightNews | Twitter WynApse | WynApse.com | Tagged Posts | SilverlightCream Join me @ SilverlightCream | Phoenix Silverlight User Group Technorati Tags: Silverlight    Silverlight 3    Silverlight 4    Windows Phone MIX10

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  • Some New .NET Downloads and Resources

    - by Kevin Grossnicklaus
    Last week I was fortunate enough to spend time in Redmond on Microsoft’s campus for the 2011 Microsoft MVP Summit.  It was great to hang out with a number of old friends and get the opportunity to talk tech with the various product teams up at Microsoft.  The weather wasn’t exactly sunny but Microsoft always does a great job with the Summit and everyone had a blast (heck, I even got to run the bases at SafeCo field) While much of what we saw is covered under NDA, there a ton of great things in the pipeline from Microsoft and many things that are already available (or just became so) that I wasn’t necessarily aware of.  The purpose of this post is to share some of the info I learned on resources and tools available to .NET developers today.  Please let me know if you have any questions (or if you know of something else cool which might benefit others). Enjoy! Visual Studio 2010 SP1 Microsoft has issued the RTM release of Visual Studio 2010 SP1.  You can download the full SP1 on MSDN as of today (March 10th to the general public) and take advantage of such things as: Silverlight 4 is included in the box (as opposed to a separate install) Silverlight 4 Profiling WCF RIA Services SP1 Intellitrace for 64-bit and SharePoint ASP.NET now easily supports IIS Express and SQL CE Want a description of all that’s new beyond the above biased list (which arguably only contains items I think are important)?  Check out this KB article. Portable Library Tools CTP Without much fanfare Microsoft has released a CTP of a new add-in to Visual Studio 2010 which simplifies code sharing between projects targeting different runtimes (i.e. Silverlight, WPF, Win7 Phone, XBox).   With this Add-In installed you can add a new project of type “Portable Library” and specify which platforms you wish to target.  Once that is done, any code added to this library will be limited to use only features which are common to all selected frameworks.  Other projects can now reference this portable library and be provided assemblies custom built to their environment.  This greatly simplifies the current process of sharing linked files between platforms like WPF and Silverlight.  You can find out more about this CTP and how it works on this great blog post. Visual Studio Async CTP Microsoft has also released a CTP of a set of language and framework enhancements to provide a much more powerful asynchronous programming model.   Due to the focus on async programming in all types of platforms (and it being the ONLY option in Silverlight and Win7 phone) a move towards a simpler and more understandable model is always a good thing. This CTP (called Visual Studio Async CTP) can be downloaded here.  You can read more about this CTP on this blog post. MSDN Code Samples Gallery Microsoft has also launched new code samples gallery on their MSDN site: http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/.   This site allows you to easily search for small samples of code related to a particular technology or platform.  If a sample of code you are looking for is not found, you can request one via the site and other developers can see your request and provide a sample to the site to suit your needs.  You can also peruse requested samples and, if you find a scenario where you can provide value, upload your own sample for the benefit of others.  Samples are packaged into the VS .vsix format and include any necessary references/dependencies.  By using .vsix as the deployment mechanism, as samples are installed from the site they are kept in your Visual Studio 2010 Samples Gallery and kept for your future reference. If you get a chance, check out the site and see how it is done.  Although a somewhat simple concept, I was very impressed with their implementation and the way they went about trying to suit a need.  I’ll definitely be looking there in the future as need something or want to share something. MSDN Search Capabilities Another item I learned recently and was not aware of (that might seem trivial to some) is the power of the MSDN site’s search capabilities.  Between the Code Samples Gallery described above and the search enhancements on MSDN, Microsoft is definitely investing in their platform to help provide developers of all skill levels the tools and resources they need to be successful. What do I mean by the MSDN search capability and why should you care? If you go to the MSDN home page (http://msdn.microsoft.com) and use the “Search MSDN with Big” box at the very top of the page you will see some very interesting results.  First, the search actually doesn’t just search the MSDN library it searches: MSDN Library All Microsoft Blogs CodePlex StackOverflow Downloads MSDN Magazine Support Knowledgebase (I’m not sure it even ends there but the above are all I know of) Beyond just searching all the above locations, the results are formatted very nicely to give some contextual information based on where the result came from.  For example, if a keyword search returned results from CodePlex, each row in the search results screen would include a large amount of information specific to CodePlex such as: Looking at the above results immediately tells you everything from the page views to the CodePlex ratings.  All in all, knowing that this much information is indexed and available from a single search location will lead me to utilize this as one of my initial searches for development information.

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  • Silverlight Cream Monday WP7 App Review # 2

    - by Dave Campbell
    Today's Review (alphabetic order): GooNews, Grocery Shopping List, Need for Speed, SurfCube, and United Nations News. I'm a day late if these are going to be 'Monday' posts, but there are lots of apps, lots of goodness, and lots of email, so I might try to do 2 a week, we'll see. So once again I've got a small review of 5 apps that are either on my phone or have been. Disclaimers at the end. In this Issue:   GooNews is a very cool app from Shawn Wildermuth (AgiliTrain). I don't know if he uses this as a demo during his instruction, but it definitely serves a purpose... wanna pick up the top news items from Google on a never-ending basis? ... this is it. You can add your own keyword searches, and send stories to InstaPaper or share via email. I like this because it brings me the news quickly and updated, and works great. GooNews is by AgiliTrain and is Free This was a request by the author, and actually surprised me. I'm a big one for lists, but I would have just done a OneNote list to SkyDrive and to my phone. This app is a lot more than that, but will take you some setup to make it be 'yours'. For obvious reasons, there are no unit prices on things, so you have to set that up to get some idea of the cost of what you're shopping for. But if you do that, you'll get a nice total. Lots of thought went into the various categories and you can add your own. There's a bit of animation on the category selection that's nice. He seems to have covered all the bases necessary to use this, even shopping 'plans' that can be saved, and emailing of lists. As I said, I'm more of a raw list person, but if you take the time to set this up, it should work very nicely for you. Grocery Shopping List is by Grocery Shopper and is $0.99 ($1.99 after Feb 1) with a free trial. This was my 2nd commercial game I bought, and the one I've played the most. I ran the trial, thought it worked great, and bought it. I've had a lot of fun with this... there's no gas pedal.. your foot is in the carbeurator from the GO!, and unless you wanna tap the screen and brake like a little girl, just hang onto the steering wheel (the phone), and guide your way through. Hours of fun and challenges here. I like this because it's got some challenge to it, and the cars seem to be very realistic in their reactions. Need for Speed Undercover is by Electronic Arts is $4.99 and has a free trial. SurfCube Browser is another app by the folks that did the GuitarTuner I reviewed on Monday. You have to see SurfCube to believe it. You've probably seen the YouTube video, if not check SilverlightCream number 1017. The app works very solid, and just as the video demonstrates. I downloaded and tried this, and it immediately did 2 things: bought it, and pinned it to my start page. I like this because it's fun to work with, and it works great as a browser. I'm about *this* close to replacing the IE tile on my front page with SurfCube. SurfCube Browser is by Kinabalu Innovation Limited and is $1.99 and has a free trial. Coming in with another News app is United Nations News by Justin Angel. This is definitely a news aggregator for 'grown ups'... news, photos, videos, and radio broadcsts from the international community all in one very slick app. This is an amazingly well thought-out and complete app. Even better yet, Justin has the code on CodePlex. A very well-done International news aggregator. United Nations News is by Justin Angel and is Free. A few disclaimers: Feel free to write me about your app and tell me about it. While it would be very cool to receive a whole bunch of xap files to review, at this point, for technical reasons, I'm unable to side-load my device. Since I plan on only doing this one day a week (twice if I find time), and only 5, I may never get caught up, so if you send me some info, be patient. Re: games ... remember I'm old... I'm from the era of Colossal Cave and Zork. Duke-Nukem 2D and Captain Comic were awesome. I don't own an XBOX or any other game system, so take game reviews from my perspective -- who knows, it may be refreshing :) I won't pay for an app or game just to try it. If you expect me to test-drive your app, it's going to have to have a Free Trial. I'm still playing with the format, comments are welcome. I decided I should alphabetize the list today... so there's no order implied Let me know what you think of the idea of doing reviews, or the layout/whatever, and Stay in the 'Light! Twitter SilverlightNews | Twitter WynApse | WynApse.com | Tagged Posts | SilverlightCream Join me @ SilverlightCream | Phoenix Silverlight User Group Technorati Tags: Silverlight    Silverlight 3    Silverlight 4    Windows Phone MIX10

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  • My Feelings About Microsoft Surface

    - by Valter Minute
    Advice: read the title carefully, I’m talking about “feelings” and not about advanced technical points proved in a scientific and objective way I still haven’t had a chance to play with a MS Surface tablet (I would love to, of course) and so my ideas just came from reading different articles on the net and MS official statements. Remember also that the MVP motto begins with “Independent” (“Independent Experts. Real World Answers.”) and this is just my humble opinion about a product and a technology. I know that, being an MS MVP you can be called an “MS-fanboy”, I don’t care, I hope that people can appreciate my opinion, even if it doesn’t match theirs. The “Surface” brand can be confusing for techies that knew the “original” surface concept but I think that will be a fresh new brand name for most of the people out there. But marketing department are here to confuse people… so I can understand this “recycle” of an existing name. So Microsoft is entering the hardware arena… for me this is good news. Microsoft developed some nice hardware in the past: the xbox, zune (even if the commercial success was quite limited) and, last but not least, the two arc mices (old and new model) that I use and appreciate. In the past Microsoft worked with OEMs and that model lead to good and bad things. Good thing (for microsoft, at least) is market domination by windows-based PCs that only in the last years has been reduced by the return of the Mac and tablets. Google is also moving in the hardware business with its acquisition of Motorola, and Apple leveraged his control of both the hardware and software sides to develop innovative products. Microsoft can scare OEMs and make them fly away from windows (but where?) or just lead the pack, showing how devices should be designed to compete in the market and bring back some of the innovation that disappeared from recent PC products (look at the shelves of your favorite electronics store and try to distinguish a laptop between the huge mass of anonymous PCs on displays… only Macs shine out there…). Having to compete with MS “official” hardware will force OEMs to develop better product and bring back some real competition in a market that was ruled only by prices (the lower the better even when that means low quality) and no innovative features at all (when it was the last time that a new PC surprised you?). Moving into a new market is a big and risky move, but with Windows 8 Microsoft is playing a crucial move for its future, trying to be back in the innovation run against apple and google. MS can’t afford to fail this time. I saw the new devices (the WinRT and Pro) and the specifications are scarce, misleading and confusing. The first impression is that the device looks like an iPad with a nice keyboard cover… Using “HD” and “full HD” to define display resolution instead of using the real figures and reviving the “ClearType” brand (now dead on Win8 as reported here and missed by people who hate to read text on displays, like myself) without providing clear figures (couldn’t you count those damned pixels?) seems to imply that MS was caught by surprise by apple recent “retina” displays that brought very high definition screens on tablets.Also there are no specifications about the processors used (even if some sources report NVidia Tegra for the ARM tablet and i5 for the x86 one) and expected battery life (a critical point for tablets and the point that killed Windows7 x86 based tablets). Also nothing about the price, and this will be another critical point because other platform out there already provide lots of applications and have a good user base, if MS want to enter this market tablets pricing must be competitive. There are some expansion ports (SD and USB), so no fixed storage model (even if the specs talks about 32-64GB for RT and 128-256GB for pro). I like this and don’t like the apple model where flash memory (that it’s dirt cheap used in thumdrives or SD cards) is as expensive as gold (or cocaine to have a more accurate per gram measurement) when mounted inside a tablet/phone. For big files you’ll be able to use external media and an SD card could be used to store files that don’t require super-fast SSD-like access times, I hope. To be honest I really don’t like the marketplace model and the limitation of Windows RT APIs (no local database? from a company that based a good share of its success on VB6+Access!) and lack of desktop support on the ARM (even if the support is here and has been used to port office). It’s a step toward the consumer market (where competitors are making big money), but may impact enterprise (and embedded) users that may not appreciate Windows 8 new UI or the limitations of the new app model (if you aren’t connected you are dead ). Not having compatibility with the desktop will require brand new applications and honestly made all the CPU cycles spent to convert .NET IL into real machine code in the past like a huge waste of time… as soon as a new processor architecture is supported by Windows you still have to rewrite part of your application (and MS is pushing HTML5+JS and native code more than .NET in my perception). On the other side I believe that the development experience provided by Visual Studio is still miles (or kilometres) ahead of the competition and even the all-uppercase menu of VS2012 hasn’t changed this situation. The new metro UI got mixed reviews. On my side I should say that is very pleasant to use on a touch screen, I like the minimalist design (even if sometimes is too minimal and hides stuff that, in my opinion, should be visible) but I should also say that using it with mouse and keyboard is like trying to pick your nose with boxing gloves… Metro is also very interesting for embedded devices where touch screen usage is quite common and where having an application taking all the screen is the norm. For devices like kiosks, vending machines etc. this kind of UI can be a great selling point. I don’t need a new tablet (to be honest I’m pretty happy with my wife’s iPad and with my PC), but I may change my opinion after having a chance to play a little bit with those new devices and understand what’s hidden under all this mysterious and generic announcements and specifications!

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  • Windows Phone 8 Launch Event Summary

    - by Tim Murphy
    Today was the official coming out party for Windows Phone 8.  Below is a summary of the launch event.  There is a lot here to stay with me. They started with a commercial staring Joe Belfiore show how his Windows Phone 8 was personal too him which highlights something I think Microsoft has done well over the last couple of event: spotlight how Windows Phone is a different experience from other smartphones.  Joe actually called iPhone and Android “tired old metaphors" and explained that the idea around Windows Phone was to “reinvent the smartphone around you” as “the most personal smartphone operating system”.  The is the message that they need to drive home in their adds. The only real technical aspect we found out was that they have optimized the operating system around the dual core Qualcomm Snapdragon chip set.  It seems like all of the other hardware goodies had already been announced.  The remainder of the event was centered around new features of the OS and app announcements. So what are we getting?  The integrated features included lock screen live tile, Data Sense, Rooms and Kids corner.  There wasn’t a lot of information about it, but Joe also talked about apps not just having live tiles, but being live apps that could integrate with wallet and the hub. The lock screen will now be able to be personalized with live tile data or even a photo slide show.  This gives the lock screen an even better ability to give you the information you want to know before you even unlock the phone. The Kids Corner allows you as a parent to setup an area on your phone that you kids can go into an use it without disturbing your apps.  They can play games or use apps that you have designated and will only see those apps.  It even has a special lock screen gesture just for the kids corner. Rooms allow you to organize your phone around the groups of people in your life.  You get a shared calendar, a room wall as well as shared notes beyond just being able to send messages to a group.  You can also invite people not on the Windows Phone platform to access an online version of the room. Data Sense is a new feature that gives you better control and understanding of your data plan usage.  You can see which applications are using data and it can automatically adjust they way your phone behaves as you get close to your data limit. Add to these features the fact that the entire Windows ecosystem is integrated with SkyDrive and you have an available anywhere experience that is unequaled by any other platform.  Your document, photos and music are available on your Windows Phone, Window 8 device and Xbox.  SkyDrive also doesn’t limit how long you can keep files like the competing cloud platforms and give more free storage. It was interesting the way they made the launch event more personal.  First Joe brought out his own kids to demo the Kids Corner.  They followed this up by bringing out Jessica Alba to discuss her experience on the Windows Phone 8.  They need to keep putting a face on the product instead of just showing features as a cold list. Then we get to apps.  We knew that the new Skype was coming, but we found out that it was created in such a way that it can receive calls without running consistently in the background which would eat up battery.  This announcement was follow by the coming Facebook app that is optimized for Windows Phone 8.  As a matter of fact they indicated that just after launch the marketplace would have 46 out of the top 50 apps used by all smartphone platforms.  In a rational world this tide with over 120,000 apps currently in the marketplace there should be no more argument about the Windows Phone ecosystem. For those of us who develop for Windows Phone and weren’t on the early adoption program will finally get access to the SDK tomorrow after an announcement at Build (more waiting).  Perhaps we will get a few new features then. In the end I wouldn’t say there were any huge surprises, but I am really excited about getting my hands on the devices next month and starting to develop.  Stay tuned. del.icio.us Tags: Windows Phone,Windows Phone 8,Winodws Phone 8 Launch,Joe Belfiore,Jessica Alba

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  • 2012&ndash;The End Of The World Review

    - by Tim Murphy
    The end of the world must be coming.  Not because the Mayan calendar says so, but because Microsoft is innovating more than Apple.  It has been a crazy year, with pundits declaring not that the end of the world is coming, but that the end of Microsoft is coming.  Let’s take a look at what 2012 has brought us. The beginning of year is a blur.  I managed to get to TechEd in June which was the first time that I got to take a deep dive into Windows 8 and many other things that had been announced in 2011.  The promise I saw in these products was really encouraging.  The thought of being able to run Windows 8 from a thumb drive or have Hyper-V native to the OS told me that at least for developers good things were coming. I finally got my feet wet with Windows 8 with the developer preview just prior to the RTM.  While the initial experience was a bit of a culture shock I quickly grew to love it.  The media still seems to hold little love for the “reimagined” platform, but I think that once people spend some time with it they will enjoy the experience and what the FUD mongers say will fade into the background.  With the launch of the OS we finally got a look at the Surface.  I think this is a bold entry into the tablet market.  While I wish it was a little more affordable I am already starting to see them in the wild being used by non-techies. I was waiting for Windows Phone 8 at least as much as Windows 8, probably more.  The new hardware, better marketing and new OS features I think are going to finally push us to the point of having a real presence in the smartphone market.  I am seeing a number of iPhone users picking up a Nokia Lumia 920 and getting rid of their brand new iPhone 5.  The only real debacle that I saw around the launch was when they held back the SDK from general developers. Shortly after the launch events came Build 2012.  I was extremely disappointed that I didn’t make it to this year’s Build.  Even if they weren’t handing out Surface and Lumia devices I think the atmosphere and content were something that really needed to be experience in person.  Hopefully there will be a Build next year and it’s schedule will be announced soon.  As you would expect Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 development were the mainstay of the conference, but improvements in Azure also played a key role.  This movement of services to the cloud will continue and we need to understand where it best fits into the solutions we build. Lower on the radar this year were Office 2013, SQL Server 2012, and Windows Server 2012.  Their glory stolen by the consumer OS and hardware announcements, these new releases are no less important.  Companies will see significant improvements in performance and capabilities if they upgrade.  At TechEd they had shown some of the new features of Windows Server 2012 around hardware integration and Hyper-V performance which absolutely blew me away.  It is our job to bring these important improvements to our company’s attention so that they can be leveraged. Personally, the consulting business in 2012 was the busiest it has been in a long time.  More companies were ready to attack new projects after several years of putting them on the back burner.  I also worked to bring back momentum to the Chicago Information Technology Architects Group.  Both the community and clients are excited about the new technologies that have come out in 2012 and now it is time to deliver. What does 2013 have in store.  I don’t see it be quite as exciting as 2012.  Microsoft will be releasing the Surface Pro in January and it seems that we will see more frequent OS update for Windows.  There are rumors that we may see a Surface phone in 2013.  It has also been announced that there will finally be a rework of the XBox next fall.  The new year will also be a time for us in the development community to take advantage of these new tools and devices.  After all, it is what we build on top of these platforms that will attract more consumers and corporations to using them. Just as I am 99.999% sure that the world is not going to end this year, I am also sure that Microsoft will move on and that most of this negative backlash from the media is actually fear and jealousy.  In the end I think we have a promising year ahead of us. del.icio.us Tags: Microsoft,Pundits,Mayans,Windows 8,Windows Phone 8,Surface

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  • Windows 8/Surface Lunch Event Summary

    - by Tim Murphy
    Today was a big day for Microsoft with two separate launch event.  The first for Windows 8 and all of it’s hardware partners.  The second was specifically to introduce the Microsoft Windows 8 Surface tablet.  Below are some of the take-aways I got from the webcasts. Windows 8 Launch The three general area that Microsoft focused on were the release of the OS itself, the public unveiling of the Windows Store and the new devices available from its hardware partners. The release of the OS focused on the fact that it will be available at mid-night tonight for both new PCs and for upgrades.  I can’t say that this interested me that much since it was already known to most people.  I think what they did show well was how easy the OS really is to use. The Windows Store is also not a new feature to those of us who have been running the pre-release versions of Windows 8 or have owned Windows Phone 7 for the past 2 years.  What was interesting is that the Windows Store launches with more apps available than any other platforms store at their respective launch.  I think this says a lot about how Microsoft focuses on the ability of developers to create software and make it available.  The of course were sure to emphasize that the Windows Store has better monetary terms for developers than its competitors. The also showed off the fact that XBox Music streaming is available for to all Windows 8 user for free.  Couple this with the Bing suite of apps that give you news, weather, sports and finance right out of the box and I think most people will find the environment a joy to use. I think the hardware demo, while quick and furious, really show where Windows shine: CHOICE!  They made a statement that over 1000 devices have been certified for Windows 8.  They showed tablets, laptops, desktops, all-in-ones and convertibles.  Since these devices have industry standard connectors they give a much wider variety of accessories and devices that you can use with them. Steve Balmer then came on stage and tried to see how many times he could use the “magical”.  He focused on how the Windows 8 OS is designed to integrate with SkyDrive, Skype and Outlook.com.  He also enforced that they think Windows 8 is the best choice for the Enterprise when it comes to protecting data and integrating across devices including Windows Phone 8. With that we were left to wait for the second event of the day. Surface Launch The second event of the day started with kids with magnets.  Ok, they were adults, but who doesn’t like playing with magnets.  Steven Sinofsky detached and reattached the Surface keyboard repeatedly, clearly enjoying himself.  It turns out that there are 4 magnets in the cover, 2 for alignment and 2 as connectors. They then went to giving us the details on the display.  The 10.6” display is optically bonded to the case and is optimized to reduce glare.  I think this came through very well in the demonstrations. The properties of the case were also a great selling point.  The VaporMg allowed them to drop the device on stage, on purpose, and continue working.  Of course they had to bring out the skate boards made from Surface devices. “It just has to feel right” was the reason they gave for many of their design decisions from the weight and size of the device to the way the kickstand and camera work together.  While this gave you the feeling that the whole process was trial and error you could tell that a lot of science went into the specs.  This included making sure that the magnets were strong enough to hold the cover on and still have a 3 year old remove the cover without effort. I am glad that they also decided the a USB port would be part of the spec since it give so many options.  They made the point that this allows Surface to leverage over 420 million existing devices.  That works for me. The last feature that I really thought was important was the microSD port.  Begin stuck with the onboard memory has been an aggravation of mine with many of the devices in the market today. I think they did job of really getting the audience to understand why you want this platform and this particular device.  Using personal examples like creating a video of a birthday party and being in it or the fact that the device was being used to live blog the event and control the lights and presentation.  They showed very well that it was not only fun but very capable of getting real work done.  Handing out tablets to the crowd didn’t hurt either.  In the end I really wanted a Surface even though I really have no need for one on a daily basis.  Great job Microsoft! del.icio.us Tags: Windows 8,Win8,Windows 8 Luanch

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  • In 3D camera math, calculate what Z depth is pixel unity for a given FOV

    - by badweasel
    I am working in iOS and OpenGL ES 2.0. Through trial and error I've figured out a frustum to where at a specific z depth pixels drawn are 1 to 1 with my source textures. So 1 pixel in my texture is 1 pixel on the screen. For 2d games this is good. Of course it means that I also factor in things like the size of the quad and the size of the texture. For example if my sprite is a quad 32x32 pixels. The quad size is 3.2 units wide and tall. And the texcoords are 32 / the size of the texture wide and tall. Then the frustum is: matrixFrustum(-(float)backingWidth/frustumScale,(float)backingWidth/frustumScale, -(float)backingHeight/frustumScale, (float)backingHeight/frustumScale, 40, 1000, mProjection); Where frustumScale is 800 for a retina screen. Then at a distance of 800 from camera the sprite is pixel for pixel the same as photoshop. For 3d games sometimes I still want to be able to do this. But depending on the scene I sometimes need the FOV to be different things. I'm looking for a way to figure out what Z depth will achieve this same pixel unity for a given FOV. For this my mProjection is set using: matrixPerspective(cameraFOV, near, far, (float)backingWidth / (float)backingHeight, mProjection); With testing I found that at an FOV of 45.0 a Z of 38.5 is very close to pixel unity. And at an FOV of 30.0 a Z of 59.5 is about right. But how can I calculate a value that is spot on? Here's my matrixPerspecitve code: void matrixPerspective(float angle, float near, float far, float aspect, mat4 m) { //float size = near * tanf(angle / 360.0 * M_PI); float size = near * tanf(degreesToRadians(angle) / 2.0); float left = -size, right = size, bottom = -size / aspect, top = size / aspect; // Unused values in perspective formula. m[1] = m[2] = m[3] = m[4] = 0; m[6] = m[7] = m[12] = m[13] = m[15] = 0; // Perspective formula. m[0] = 2 * near / (right - left); m[5] = 2 * near / (top - bottom); m[8] = (right + left) / (right - left); m[9] = (top + bottom) / (top - bottom); m[10] = -(far + near) / (far - near); m[11] = -1; m[14] = -(2 * far * near) / (far - near); } And my mView is set using: lookAtMatrix(cameraPos, camLookAt, camUpVector, mView); * UPDATE * I'm going to leave this here in case anyone has a different solution, can explain how they do it, or why this works. This is what I figured out. In my system I use a 10th scale unit to pixels on non-retina displays and a 20th scale on retina displays. The iPhone is 640 pixels wide on retina and 320 pixels wide on non-retina (obsolete). So if I want something to be the full screen width I divide by 20 to get the OpenGL unit width. Then divide that by 2 to get the left and right unit position. Something 32 units wide centered on the screen goes from -16 to +16. Believe it or not I have an excel spreadsheet do all this math for me and output all the vertex data for my sprite sheet. It's an arbitrary thing I made up to do .1 units = 1 non-retina pixel or 2 retina pixels. I could have made it .01 units = 2 pixels and someday I might switch to that. But for now it's the other. So the width of the screen in units is 32.0, and that means the left most pixel is at -16.0 and the right most is at 16.0. After messing a bit I figured out that if I take the [0] value of an identity modelViewProjection matrix and multiply it by 16 I get the depth required to get 1:1 pixels. I don't know why. I don't know if the 16 is related to the screen size or just a lucky guess. But I did a test where I placed a sprite at that calculated depth and varied the FOV through all the valid values and the object stays steady on screen with 1:1 pixels. So now I'm just calculating the unityDepth that way. If someone gives me a better answer I'll checkmark it.

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  • Where is my object allocation and memory leak in this iPhone/objective C code?

    - by Spottswoode
    Hello, I'm still a rookie when it comes to this programming gig and was wondering if someone could help me smooth out this code. Functionally, the code works great and does what I need it to do. But when I run the performance tool the allocation graph peaks, the CPU load is high, there's a leak(s), and I've also confirmed when running on my iPhone it seems noticeably slower then the rest of the components in my app. I'd appreciate any advice/tips/help anyone could give me. :) Thanks in advance! .h file // // Time_CalculatorViewController.h // Time Calculator // // Created by Adam Soloway on 2/19/10. // Copyright Legacy Pilots 2010. All rights reserved. // #import <UIKit/UIKit.h> @interface Time_CalculatorViewController : UIViewController { //BOOL moveViewUp; //CGFloat scrollAmount; IBOutlet UILabel *hoursLabel; IBOutlet UILabel *minutesLabel; IBOutlet UILabel *hoursDecimalLabel; IBOutlet UILabel *minutesDecimalLabel; IBOutlet UILabel *errorLabel; IBOutlet UITextField *minTextField1; IBOutlet UITextField *minTextField2; IBOutlet UITextField *minTextField3; IBOutlet UITextField *minTextField4; IBOutlet UITextField *minTextField5; IBOutlet UITextField *minTextField6; IBOutlet UITextField *minTextField7; IBOutlet UITextField *minTextField8; IBOutlet UITextField *minTextField9; IBOutlet UITextField *minTextField10; IBOutlet UITextField *hourTextField1; IBOutlet UITextField *hourTextField2; IBOutlet UITextField *hourTextField3; IBOutlet UITextField *hourTextField4; IBOutlet UITextField *hourTextField5; IBOutlet UITextField *hourTextField6; IBOutlet UITextField *hourTextField7; IBOutlet UITextField *hourTextField8; IBOutlet UITextField *hourTextField9; IBOutlet UITextField *hourTextField10; IBOutlet UIButton *resetAll; NSString *minutesString1; NSString *minutesString2; NSString *minutesString3; NSString *minutesString4; NSString *minutesString5; NSString *minutesString6; NSString *minutesString7; NSString *minutesString8; NSString *minutesString9; NSString *minutesString10; NSString *hoursString1; NSString *hoursString2; NSString *hoursString3; NSString *hoursString4; NSString *hoursString5; NSString *hoursString6; NSString *hoursString7; NSString *hoursString8; NSString *hoursString9; NSString *hoursString10; int hourDecimalNumber; int totalTime; int leftOverMinutes; int minuteNumber1; int minuteNumber2; int minuteNumber3; int minuteNumber4; int minuteNumber5; int minuteNumber6; int minuteNumber7; int minuteNumber8; int minuteNumber9; int minuteNumber10; int hourNumber1; int hourNumber2; int hourNumber3; int hourNumber4; int hourNumber5; int hourNumber6; int hourNumber7; int hourNumber8; int hourNumber9; int hourNumber10; } //- (void)scrollTheView:(BOOL)movedUp; - (void)calculateTime; - (IBAction)resetAllValues; @end .m file // // Time_CalculatorViewController.m // Time Calculator // // Created by Adam Soloway on 2/19/10. // Copyright Legacy Pilots 2010. All rights reserved. // #import "Time_CalculatorViewController.h" @implementation Time_CalculatorViewController - (void)touchesBegan:(NSSet *)touches withEvent:(UIEvent *)event { if( minTextField1.editing || minTextField2.editing || minTextField3.editing || minTextField4.editing || minTextField5.editing || minTextField6.editing || minTextField7.editing || minTextField8.editing || minTextField9.editing || minTextField10.editing || hourTextField1.editing || hourTextField2.editing || hourTextField3.editing || hourTextField4.editing || hourTextField5.editing || hourTextField6.editing || hourTextField7.editing || hourTextField8.editing || hourTextField9.editing || hourTextField10.editing) { [minTextField1 resignFirstResponder]; [minTextField2 resignFirstResponder]; [minTextField3 resignFirstResponder]; [minTextField4 resignFirstResponder]; [minTextField5 resignFirstResponder]; [minTextField6 resignFirstResponder]; [minTextField7 resignFirstResponder]; [minTextField8 resignFirstResponder]; [minTextField9 resignFirstResponder]; [minTextField10 resignFirstResponder]; [hourTextField1 resignFirstResponder]; [hourTextField2 resignFirstResponder]; [hourTextField3 resignFirstResponder]; [hourTextField4 resignFirstResponder]; [hourTextField5 resignFirstResponder]; [hourTextField6 resignFirstResponder]; [hourTextField7 resignFirstResponder]; [hourTextField8 resignFirstResponder]; [hourTextField9 resignFirstResponder]; [hourTextField10 resignFirstResponder]; [self calculateTime]; //if (moveViewUp) [self scrollTheView:NO]; } [super touchesBegan:touches withEvent:event]; } /* // The designated initializer. Override to perform setup that is required before the view is loaded. - (id)initWithNibName:(NSString *)nibNameOrNil bundle:(NSBundle *)nibBundleOrNil { if (self = [super initWithNibName:nibNameOrNil bundle:nibBundleOrNil]) { // Custom initialization } return self; } */ /* // Implement loadView to create a view hierarchy programmatically, without using a nib. - (void)loadView { } */ // Implement viewDidLoad to do additional setup after loading the view, typically from a nib. - (void)viewDidLoad { [super viewDidLoad]; } /* // Override to allow orientations other than the default portrait orientation. - (BOOL)shouldAutorotateToInterfaceOrientation:(UIInterfaceOrientation)interfaceOrientation { // Return YES for supported orientations return (interfaceOrientation == UIInterfaceOrientationPortrait); } */ - (void)didReceiveMemoryWarning { // Releases the view if it doesn't have a superview. [super didReceiveMemoryWarning]; // Release any cached data, images, etc that aren't in use. } - (void)viewDidUnload { // Release any retained subviews of the main view. // e.g. self.myOutlet = nil; } - (void)dealloc { [minutesString1 release]; [minutesString2 release]; [minutesString3 release]; [minutesString4 release]; [minutesString5 release]; [minutesString6 release]; [minutesString7 release]; [minutesString8 release]; [minutesString9 release]; [minutesString10 release]; [hoursString1 release]; [hoursString2 release]; [hoursString3 release]; [hoursString4 release]; [hoursString5 release]; [hoursString6 release]; [hoursString7 release]; [hoursString8 release]; [hoursString9 release]; [hoursString10 release]; [super dealloc]; } -(BOOL)textFieldShouldReturn:(UITextField *)theTextField { //[minTextField10 resignFirstResponder]; //if (moveViewUp) [self scrollTheView:NO]; [self calculateTime]; return YES; } - (IBAction)resetAllValues { minTextField1.text = 0; minTextField2.text = 0; minTextField3.text = 0; minTextField4.text = 0; minTextField5.text = 0; minTextField6.text = 0; minTextField7.text = 0; minTextField8.text = 0; minTextField9.text = 0; minTextField10.text = 0; hourTextField1.text = 0; hourTextField2.text = 0; hourTextField3.text = 0; hourTextField4.text = 0; hourTextField5.text = 0; hourTextField6.text = 0; hourTextField7.text = 0; hourTextField8.text = 0; hourTextField9.text = 0; hourTextField10.text = 0; totalTime = 0; leftOverMinutes = 0; hoursLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"0"]; hourDecimalNumber = 0; hoursDecimalLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%i", hourDecimalNumber]; minutesDecimalLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"0"]; self.calculateTime; } - (void)calculateTime { minutesString1 = minTextField1.text; minutesString2 = minTextField2.text; minutesString3 = minTextField3.text; minutesString4 = minTextField4.text; minutesString5 = minTextField5.text; minutesString6 = minTextField6.text; minutesString7 = minTextField7.text; minutesString8 = minTextField8.text; minutesString9 = minTextField9.text; minutesString10 = minTextField10.text; hoursString1 = hourTextField1.text; hoursString2 = hourTextField2.text; hoursString3 = hourTextField3.text; hoursString4 = hourTextField4.text; hoursString5 = hourTextField5.text; hoursString6 = hourTextField6.text; hoursString7 = hourTextField7.text; hoursString8 = hourTextField8.text; hoursString9 = hourTextField9.text; hoursString10 = hourTextField10.text; minuteNumber1 = [minutesString1 intValue]; minuteNumber2 = [minutesString2 intValue]; minuteNumber3 = [minutesString3 intValue]; minuteNumber4 = [minutesString4 intValue]; minuteNumber5 = [minutesString5 intValue]; minuteNumber6 = [minutesString6 intValue]; minuteNumber7 = [minutesString7 intValue]; minuteNumber8 = [minutesString8 intValue]; minuteNumber9 = [minutesString9 intValue]; minuteNumber10 = [minutesString10 intValue]; hourNumber1 = ([hoursString1 intValue] * 60); hourNumber2 = ([hoursString2 intValue] * 60); hourNumber3 = ([hoursString3 intValue] * 60); hourNumber4 = ([hoursString4 intValue] * 60); hourNumber5 = ([hoursString5 intValue] * 60); hourNumber6 = ([hoursString6 intValue] * 60); hourNumber7 = ([hoursString7 intValue] * 60); hourNumber8 = ([hoursString8 intValue] * 60); hourNumber9 = ([hoursString9 intValue] * 60); hourNumber10 = ([hoursString10 intValue] * 60); totalTime = (hourNumber1 + hourNumber2 +hourNumber3 +hourNumber4 +hourNumber5 +hourNumber6 +hourNumber7 +hourNumber8 +hourNumber9 +hourNumber10 + minuteNumber1 + minuteNumber2 + minuteNumber3 + minuteNumber4 + minuteNumber5 +minuteNumber6 + minuteNumber7 + minuteNumber8 + minuteNumber9 + minuteNumber10); if (totalTime <= 59) { leftOverMinutes = totalTime; hoursLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"0"]; hourDecimalNumber = 0; hoursDecimalLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%i", hourDecimalNumber]; errorLabel.hidden = TRUE; } else if (totalTime >59 && totalTime <= 119){ leftOverMinutes = totalTime - 60; hoursLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"1"]; hourDecimalNumber = 1; hoursDecimalLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%i", hourDecimalNumber]; errorLabel.hidden = TRUE; } else if (totalTime >119 && totalTime <= 179){ leftOverMinutes = totalTime - 120; hoursLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"2"]; hourDecimalNumber = 2; hoursDecimalLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%i", hourDecimalNumber]; errorLabel.hidden = TRUE; } else if (totalTime >179 && totalTime <= 239){ leftOverMinutes = totalTime - 180; hoursLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"3"]; hourDecimalNumber = 3; hoursDecimalLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%i", hourDecimalNumber]; errorLabel.hidden = TRUE; } else if (totalTime >239 && totalTime <= 299){ leftOverMinutes = totalTime - 240; hoursLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"4"]; hourDecimalNumber = 4; hoursDecimalLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%i", hourDecimalNumber]; errorLabel.hidden = TRUE; } else if (totalTime >299 && totalTime <= 359){ leftOverMinutes = totalTime - 300; hoursLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"5"]; hourDecimalNumber = 5; hoursDecimalLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%i", hourDecimalNumber]; errorLabel.hidden = TRUE; } else if (totalTime >359 && totalTime <= 419){ leftOverMinutes = totalTime - 360; hoursLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"6"]; hourDecimalNumber = 6; hoursDecimalLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%i", hourDecimalNumber]; errorLabel.hidden = TRUE; } else if (totalTime >419 && totalTime <= 479){ leftOverMinutes = totalTime - 420; hoursLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"7"]; hourDecimalNumber = 7; hoursDecimalLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%i", hourDecimalNumber]; errorLabel.hidden = TRUE; } else if (totalTime >479 && totalTime <= 539){ leftOverMinutes = totalTime - 480; hoursLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"8"]; hourDecimalNumber = 8; hoursDecimalLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%i", hourDecimalNumber]; errorLabel.hidden = TRUE; } else if (totalTime >539 && totalTime <= 599){ leftOverMinutes = totalTime - 540; hoursLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"9"]; hourDecimalNumber = 9; hoursDecimalLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%i", hourDecimalNumber]; errorLabel.hidden = TRUE; } else if (totalTime >599 && totalTime <= 659){ leftOverMinutes = totalTime - 600; hoursLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"10"]; hourDecimalNumber = 10; hoursDecimalLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%i", hourDecimalNumber]; errorLabel.hidden = TRUE; } else if (totalTime >659 && totalTime <= 719){ leftOverMinutes = totalTime - 660; hoursLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"11"]; hourDecimalNumber = 11; hoursDecimalLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%i", hourDecimalNumber]; errorLabel.hidden = TRUE; } else if (totalTime >719 && totalTime <= 779){ leftOverMinutes = totalTime - 720; hoursLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"12"]; hourDecimalNumber = 12; hoursDecimalLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%i", hourDecimalNumber]; errorLabel.hidden = TRUE; } else if (totalTime >779 && totalTime <= 839){ leftOverMinutes = totalTime - 780; hoursLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"13"]; hourDecimalNumber = 13; hoursDecimalLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%i", hourDecimalNumber]; errorLabel.hidden = TRUE; } else if (totalTime >839 && totalTime <= 899){ leftOverMinutes = totalTime - 840; hoursLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"14"]; hourDecimalNumber = 14; hoursDecimalLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%i", hourDecimalNumber]; errorLabel.hidden = TRUE; } else if (totalTime >899 && totalTime <= 959){ leftOverMinutes = totalTime - 900; hoursLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"15"]; hourDecimalNumber = 15; hoursDecimalLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%i", hourDecimalNumber]; errorLabel.hidden = TRUE; } else if (totalTime >959 && totalTime <= 1019){ leftOverMinutes = totalTime - 960; hoursLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"16"]; hourDecimalNumber = 16; hoursDecimalLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%i", hourDecimalNumber]; errorLabel.hidden = TRUE; } else if (totalTime >1019 && totalTime <= 1079){ leftOverMinutes = totalTime - 1020; hoursLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"17"]; hourDecimalNumber = 17; hoursDecimalLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%i", hourDecimalNumber]; errorLabel.hidden = TRUE; } else if (totalTime >1079 && totalTime <= 1139){ leftOverMinutes = totalTime - 1080; hoursLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"18"]; hourDecimalNumber = 18; hoursDecimalLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%i", hourDecimalNumber]; errorLabel.hidden = TRUE; } else if (totalTime >1139 && totalTime <= 1199){ leftOverMinutes = totalTime - 1140; hoursLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"19"]; hourDecimalNumber = 19; hoursDecimalLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%i", hourDecimalNumber]; errorLabel.hidden = TRUE; } else if (totalTime >1199 && totalTime <= 1259){ leftOverMinutes = totalTime - 1200; hoursLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"20"]; hourDecimalNumber = 20; hoursDecimalLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%i", hourDecimalNumber]; errorLabel.hidden = TRUE; } else if (totalTime >1259 && totalTime <= 1319){ leftOverMinutes = totalTime - 1260; hoursLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"21"]; hourDecimalNumber = 21; hoursDecimalLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%i", hourDecimalNumber]; errorLabel.hidden = TRUE; } else if (totalTime >1319 && totalTime <= 1379){ leftOverMinutes = totalTime - 1320; hoursLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"22"]; hourDecimalNumber = 22; hoursDecimalLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%i", hourDecimalNumber]; errorLabel.hidden = TRUE; } else if (totalTime >1379 && totalTime <= 1439){ leftOverMinutes = totalTime - 1380; hoursLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"23"]; hourDecimalNumber = 23; hoursDecimalLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%i", hourDecimalNumber]; errorLabel.hidden = TRUE; } else if (totalTime >1439 && totalTime <= 1499){ leftOverMinutes = totalTime - 1440; hoursLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"24"]; hourDecimalNumber = 24; hoursDecimalLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%i", hourDecimalNumber]; errorLabel.hidden = TRUE; } else if (totalTime >1499 && totalTime <= 1559){ leftOverMinutes = totalTime - 1500; hoursLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"25"]; hourDecimalNumber = 25; hoursDecimalLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%i", hourDecimalNumber]; errorLabel.hidden = TRUE; } else if (totalTime >1559 && totalTime <= 1619){ leftOverMinutes = totalTime - 1560; hoursLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"26"]; hourDecimalNumber = 26; hoursDecimalLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%i", hourDecimalNumber]; errorLabel.hidden = TRUE; } else if (totalTime >1619 && totalTime <= 1679){ leftOverMinutes = totalTime - 1620; hoursLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"27"]; hourDecimalNumber = 27; hoursDecimalLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%i", hourDecimalNumber]; errorLabel.hidden = TRUE; } else if (totalTime >1679 && totalTime <= 1739){ leftOverMinutes = totalTime - 1680; hoursLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"28"]; hourDecimalNumber = 28; hoursDecimalLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%i", hourDecimalNumber]; errorLabel.hidden = TRUE; } else if (totalTime >1739 && totalTime <= 1799){ leftOverMinutes = totalTime - 1740; hoursLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"29"]; hourDecimalNumber = 29; hoursDecimalLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%i", hourDecimalNumber]; errorLabel.hidden = TRUE; } else if (totalTime >1799 && totalTime <= 1859){ leftOverMinutes = totalTime - 1800; hoursLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"30"]; hourDecimalNumber = 30; hoursDecimalLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%i", hourDecimalNumber]; errorLabel.hidden = TRUE; } else if (totalTime >1859){ hoursLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"Error"]; hoursDecimalLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"Error"]; errorLabel.hidden = FALSE; } //Minutes Label if (leftOverMinutes < 10) { minutesLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"0%d", leftOverMinutes]; } else minutesLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%d", leftOverMinutes]; //Minutes Decimal Label if (leftOverMinutes >=0 && leftOverMinutes <=2) { minutesDecimalLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"0"]; } else if (leftOverMinutes >=3 && leftOverMinutes <=8){ minutesDecimalLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"1"]; } else if (leftOverMinutes >=9 && leftOverMinutes <=14){ minutesDecimalLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"2"]; } else if (leftOverMinutes >=15 && leftOverMinutes <=20){ minutesDecimalLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"3"]; } else if (leftOverMinutes >=21 && leftOverMinutes <=26){ minutesDecimalLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"4"]; } else if (leftOverMinutes >=27 && leftOverMinutes <=32){ minutesDecimalLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"5"]; } else if (leftOverMinutes >=33 && leftOverMinutes <=38){ minutesDecimalLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"6"]; } else if (leftOverMinutes >=39 && leftOverMinutes <=44){ minutesDecimalLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"7"]; } else if (leftOverMinutes >=45 && leftOverMinutes <=50){ minutesDecimalLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"8"]; } else if (leftOverMinutes >=51 && leftOverMinutes <=56){ minutesDecimalLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"9"]; } else if (leftOverMinutes >=57 && leftOverMinutes <=60){ minutesDecimalLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"0"]; hourDecimalNumber = hourDecimalNumber + 1; hoursDecimalLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%i", hourDecimalNumber]; } } @end

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  • XNA - Keyboard text input

    - by Sekhat
    Okay, so basically I want to be able to retrieve keyboard text. Like entering text into a text field or something. I'm only writing my game for windows. I've disregarded using Guide.BeginShowKeyboardInput because it breaks the feel of a self contained game, and the fact that the Guide always shows XBOX buttons doesn't seem right to me either. Yes it's the easiest way, but I don't like it. Next I tried using System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow. I created a class that inherited from it, and passed it the Games window handle, implemented the WndProc function to catch WM_CHAR (or WM_KEYDOWN) though the WndProc got called for other messages, WM_CHAR and WM_KEYDOWN never did. So I had to abandon that idea, and besides, I was also referencing the whole of Windows forms, which meant unnecessary memory footprint bloat. So my last idea was to create a Thread level, low level keyboard hook. This has been the most successful so far. I get WM_KEYDOWN message, (not tried WM_CHAR yet) translate the virtual keycode with Win32 funcation MapVirtualKey to a char. And I get my text! (I'm just printing with Debug.Write at the moment) A couple problems though. It's as if I have caps lock on, and an unresponsive shift key. (Of course it's not however, it's just that there is only one Virtual Key Code per key, so translating it only has one output) and it adds overhead as it attaches itself to the Windows Hook List and isn't as fast as I'd like it to be, but the slowness could be more due to Debug.Write. Has anyone else approached this and solved it, without having to resort to an on screen keyboard? or does anyone have further ideas for me to try? thanks in advance. note: This is cross posted from the XNA Creators Forums, so if I get an answer there I'll post it here and Vice-Versa Question asked by Jimmy Maybe I'm not understanding the question, but why can't you use the XNA Keyboard and KeyboardState classes? My comment: It's because though you can read keystates, you can't get access to typed text as and how it is typed by the user. So let me further clarify. I want to implement being able to read text input from the user as if they are typing into textbox is windows. The keyboard and KeyboardState class get states of all keys, but I'd have to map each key and combination to it's character representation. This falls over when the user doesn't use the same keyboard language as I do especially with symbols (my double quotes is shift + 2, while american keyboards have theirs somewhere near the return key).

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  • Cell contents changing for rows present outside the height of tableview(to see this cells, we shud s

    - by wolverine
    I have set the size of the tableView that I show as the popoverController as 4*rowheight. And I am using 12cells in the tableView. Each cell contains an image and a label. I can see all the cells by scrolling. Upto 5th cell its ok. After th2 5th cell, the label and the image that I am using in the first four cells are being repeated for the remaining cells. And If I select the cell, the result is accurately shown. But when I again take the tableView, the image and labels are not accurate even for the first 5 cells. All are changed but the selection is giving the correct result. Can anyone help me?? - (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath { static NSString *CellIdentifier = @"Cell"; UITableViewCell *cell = [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:CellIdentifier]; if (cell == nil) { cell = [self tableviewCellWithReuseIdentifier:CellIdentifier rowNumber:indexPath.row]; } //tableView.backgroundColor = [UIColor clearColor]; return cell; } - (UITableViewCell *)tableviewCellWithReuseIdentifier:(NSString *)identifier rowNumber:(NSInteger)row { CGRect rect; rect = CGRectMake(0.0, 0.0, 360.0, ROW_HEIGHT); UITableViewCell *cell = [[[UITableViewCell alloc] initWithFrame:rect reuseIdentifier:identifier] autorelease]; UIImageView *myImageView = [[UIImageView alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(10.00, 10.00, 150.00, 100.00)]; myImageView.tag = IMAGE_TAG; [cell.contentView addSubview:myImageView]; [myImageView release]; UILabel *label = [[UILabel alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(170.00, -10.00, 170.00, 80.00)]; label.tag = LABEL_TAG; [label setBackgroundColor:[UIColor clearColor]]; [label setTextColor:[UIColor blackColor]]; [label setFont:[UIFont fontWithName:@"AmericanTypewriter" size:22]]; [label setTextAlignment:UITextAlignmentLeft]; [cell.contentView addSubview:label]; [label release]; if (row == 0) { UIImageView *imageView = (UIImageView *)[cell viewWithTag:IMAGE_TAG]; imageView.image = [UIImage imageNamed:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"cover_v.jpg"]]; UILabel *mylabel = (UILabel *)[cell viewWithTag:LABEL_TAG]; mylabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"COVER PAGE"]; } }

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  • Issues with Verizon's "Network Extender" device talking on my home network.

    - by Logan
    I recently switched my phone service to Verizon from ATT, and I get somewhat spotty service in my house. I called them and they sent me a "network extender" device for free. Its a femtocell that connects to my home network. The directions that come with it are very dumbed down, basically just say to connect it to your router and put it near a window (so it can get a GPS signal, it has to make sure its within the correct area before operating). The problem I'm having is the network light on it stays red. The troubleshooting information that came with it tells me this means there is a bad network connection. Its connected through an ASUS router running DD-WRT. No other devices on my network have a problem with it, including a Western Digital WDLIVE device, mine and my wife's cell phones (via wifi), a Wii, and an Xbox. If I connect the device directly to my cable modem, the light goes blue (which means good) and it starts working. So this tells me that its definately a configuration issue with my router. Verizon basically washed their hands of me when I connected it to my cable modem, and told me that its a router issue and to try a different router. Because normal people just have extra routers laying around their houses... When I connect it to the router, I can watch the DHCP Clients list on the status page, and the MAC of the network extender quickly fills up the clients list, grabbing every available DHCP address. Its like it grabs an address, can't connect to the internet, releases it, grabs another, then another, then another. So in the DHCP server settings I assigned a static IP to its MAC. This made it quit doing what it was doing before, but its still not working. I found the ports I needed to open on verizon's website, and opened them in the port forwarding config on my router. This still didn't help. So, I tried setting the network extender device's IP as the DMZ IP on the router. This still did no good. I called Verizon back and got the tech to write up a report which he passed on to a "senior network tech" who I got a call back from a few hours ago. This guy told me that while an ASUS router isn't listed as a supported device, he's not really sure why its not working. He suggested restoring the firmware to stock ASUS firmware and trying again. I have a very hard time believing its DD-WRT doing this, since every other device is working just fine with it. But its also not the Network Extender, since it works just fine when connected directly to the modem. At this point I'm out of ideas, and the next step is to restore the stock firmware on my router, and then going to walmart and getting a linksys WRT-54G to try. Is there anything else I could try before going that drastic? Cliffs- -Network extender won't work behind router, works when connected directly to cable modem. -Extender goes nuts when allowed to pick its own DHCP address, I had to assign it a static IP. -Won't work when correct ports are forwarded to it -Won't work with a DMZ address.

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  • Do hard drive enclosures fail/is it the HDD or enclosure?

    - by x0a
    I'm having a whole host of problems with an external hard drive that was working just fine a couple of hours ago. I've had this problem before once, and that was about 3 months ago, here's what I documented: So a couple of hours ago I turned off all my computers and shut off the power to all my devices in my room, then went and turned the power off at the main switch so I could change an outlet. A couple hours later, after I've already slowly turned everything back on, I go to my xbox to try and watch a movie and it can't seem to list any of the movies I've got. So I go to my desktop to find that my external hard drive isn't there.. even though it's on and connected. It's also stationary and hidden behind something so there's not a whole lot of tampering/physical wear to that external. I plug it into my laptop to try and see what's going on. It starts making this endless loud screeching noise. None of that clicking that's usually associated with hd damage. It's not listed in my computers, and it shows up in Disk Management as "uninitialized" asking me to choose between two different partition types. After carefully disconnecting it and connecting it back, it asks me to format it, which I cancel. I start googling about my issue, starting to accept the situation, torn as hell and helpless and just about ready to toss the thing. Suddenly the screeching stops, after almost 45 minutes of it going, and Disk Management lists the drive as "Online" and "Healthy". Explorer pops up with all my files! I'm still being really careful with it and weary and treating it as though it's in fragile shape. I've downloaded some S.M.A.R.T. software to read the values and everything is listed as "OK" . No reallocated sectors, no read errors, no seek errors. I also ran a quick self-test, which completed without error. Everything seems fine. It looks to be a perfectly healthy external hard drive. So what the hell was that about? Was it doing some sort of maintenance or self-test? How am I supposed to tell the difference? I would've undoubtedly killed the drive for sure if had it gone on a bit longer. I've got the same problem now, with one exception: it doesn't magically reappear after the screeching stops. Occasionally I manage to get some S.M.A.R.T. diagnostics information, which basically reads everything as fine. The only problem is that my HD isn't initializing (so I can't access anything in it). I'm able to successfully run a quick smart test but not an extended one (I've only tried it once but got conflicting indications as to whether it was actually making any progress or not (was stuck on Random read test). So, final question (if all else fails): Could the hard drive enclosure be failing rather than the HDD? Is this a likely possibility at all? How would I know?

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  • Test All Features of Windows Phone 7 On Your PC

    - by Matthew Guay
    Are you developer or just excited about the upcoming Windows Phone 7, and want to try it out now?  Thanks to free developer tools from Microsoft and a new unlocked emulator rom, you can try out most of the exciting features today from your PC. Last week we showed you how to try out Windows Phone 7 on your PC and get started developing for the upcoming new devices.  We noticed, however, that the emulator only contains Internet Explorer Mobile and some settings.  This is still interesting to play around with, but it wasn’t the full Windows Phone 7 experience. Some enterprising tweakers discovered that more applications were actually included in the emulator, but were simply hidden from users.  Developer Dan Ardelean then figured out how to re-enable these features, and released a tweaked emulator rom so everyone can try out all of the Windows Phone 7 features for themselves.  Here we’ll look at how you can run this new emulator image on your PC, and then look at some interesting features in Windows Phone 7. Editor Note: This modified emulator image is not official, and isn’t sanctioned by Microsoft. Use your own judgment when choosing to download and use the emulator. Setting Up Emulator Rom To test-drive Windows Phone 7 on your PC, you must first download and install the Windows Phone Developer Tools CTP (link below).  Follow the steps we showed you last week at: Try out Windows Phone 7 on your PC today.  Once it’s installed, go ahead and run the default emulator as we showed to make sure everything works ok. Once the Windows Phone Developer Tools are installed and running, download the new emulator rom from XDA Forums (link below).  This will be a zip file, so extract it first. Note where you save the file, as you will need the address in the next step. Now, to run our new emulator image, we need to open the emulator in command line and point to the new rom image.  To do this, browse to the correct directory, depending on whether you’re running the 32 bit or 64 bit version of Windows: 32 bit: C:\Program Files\Microsoft XDE\1.0\ 64 bit: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft XDE\1.0\ Hold your Shift key down and right-click in the folder.  Choose Open Command Window here. At the command prompt, enter XDE.exe followed by the location of your new rom image.  Here, we downloaded the rom to our download folder, so at the command prompt we entered: XDE.exe C:\Users\Matthew\Downloads\WM70Full\WM70Full.bin The emulator loads … with the full Windows Phone 7 experience! To make it easier, let’s make a shortcut on our desktop to load the emulator with the new rom directly.  Right-click on your desktop (or any folder you want to create the shortcut in), select New, and then Shortcut. Now, in the box, we need to enter the path for the emulator followed by the location of our rom.  Both items must be in quotes.  So, in our test, we entered the following: 32 bit: “C:\Program Files\Microsoft XDE\1.0\” “C:\Users\Matthew\Downloads\WM70Full\WM70Full.bin” 64 bit: “C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft XDE\1.0\” “C:\Users\Matthew\Downloads\WM70Full\WM70Full.bin” Make sure to enter the correct location of the new emulator rom for your computer, and keep both items in separate quotes.  Click next when you’ve entered the location. Name the shortcut; we named it Windows Phone 7, but simply enter whatever you’d like.  Click Finish when you’re done. You should now have a nice Windows Phone icon and your fully functional shortcut!  Double-click it to run the Windows Phone 7 emulator as above. Features in the Unlocked Windows Phone 7 Emulator So let’s look at what you can do with this new emulator.  Almost everything you’ve seen in demos from the Mobile World Conference and Mix’10 are right here for you to play with.  Here’s the application menu, which you can access by clicking on the arrow on the top of the home screen, which shows how much stuff they’ve got in this!   And, of course, even the home screen itself shows much more activity than it did in the original emulator. Let’s check out some of these sections.  Here’s Zune running on Windows Phone 7, and the Zune Marketplace.  The animations are beautiful, so be sure to check this out yourself. The new picture hub is much nicer than any picture viewer included with Windows Mobile in the past…   Stay productive, and on schedule with the new Calendar. The XBOX hub gives us only a hint of things to come, and the links to games now are simply placeholders. Here’s a look at the Office hub.  This doesn’t show up on the homescreen right now, but you can access it in the applications menu.  Office obviously still has a lot of work left on it, but even at a glance here it looks like it includes a lot more functionality than Office Mobile in Windows Mobile 6. Here’s a look at each of the three apps: Word, Excel, and OneNote, and the formatting pallet in Office apps.   This emulator also includes a lot more settings than the default one, including settings for individual applications. You can even activate the screen lock, and try out the lift-to-peek-or-unlock feature… Finally, this version of Windows Phone 7 includes a very nice SystemInfo app with an advanced task manager.  We hope this is still available when the actual phones are released. Conclusion If you’re excited about the upcoming Windows Phone 7 series, or simply want to learn more about what’s coming, this is a great way to test it out.  With these exciting new hubs and applications, there’s something here for everyone.  Let us know what you like most about Windows Phone 7 and what your favorite app or hub is. Links Please note: These roms are not officially supported by Microsoft, and could be taken down. Download the unlocked Windows Phone 7 emulator from XDA Forums – click the link in this post to download How the unlocked emulator image was created Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Try out Windows Phone 7 on your PC todayGet stats on your Ruby on Rails codeDisable Windows Vista’s Built-in CD/DVD Burning FeaturesWeek in Geek – The Slick Windows 7 File Copy Animation EditionGeek Fun: Virtualized Old School Windows – Windows 95 TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 PCmover Professional Get Better Windows Search With UltraSearch Scan News With NY Times Article Skimmer SpeedyFox Claims to Speed up your Firefox Beware Hover Kitties Test Drive Mobile Phones Online With TryPhone Ben & Jerry’s Free Cone Day, 3/23/10

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  • Why Fusion Middleware matters to Oracle Applications and Fusion Applications customers?

    - by Harish Gaur
    Did you miss this general session on Monday morning presented by Amit Zavery, VP of Oracle Fusion Middleware Product Management? There will be a recording made available shortly and in the meanwhile, here is a recap. Amit presented 5 strategies customers can leverage today to extend their applications. Figure 1: 5 Oracle Fusion Middleware strategies to extend Oracle Applications & Oracle Fusion Apps 1. Engage Everyone – Provide intuitive and social experience for application users using Oracle WebCenter 2. Extend Enterprise – Extend Oracle Applications to mobile devices using Oracle ADF Mobile 3. Orchestrate Processes – Automate key organization processes across on-premise & cloud applications using Oracle BPM Suite & Oracle SOA Suite 4. Secure the core – Provide single sign-on and self-service provisioning across multiple apps using Oracle Identity Management 5. Optimize Performance – Leverage Exalogic stack to consolidate multiple instance and improve performance of Oracle Applications Session included 3 demonstrations to illustrate these strategies. 1. First demo highlighted significance of mobile applications for unlocking existing investment in Applications such as EBS. Using a native iPhone application interacting with e-Business Suite, demo showed how expense approval can be mobile enabled with enhanced visibility using BI dashboards. 2. Second demo showed how you can extend a banking process in Siebel and Oracle Policy Automation with Oracle BPM Suite.Process starts in Siebel with a customer requesting a loan, and then jumps to OPA for loan recommendations and decision making and loan processing with approvals in handled in BPM Suite. Once approvals are completed Siebel is updated to complete the process. 3. Final demo showcased FMW components inside Fusion Applications, specifically WebCenter. Boeing, Underwriter Laboratories and Electronic Arts joined this quest and discussed 3 different approaches of leveraging Fusion Middleware stack to maximize their investment in Oracle Applications and/or Fusion Applications technology. Let’s briefly review what these customers shared during the session: 1. Extend Fusion Applications We know that Oracle Fusion Middleware is the underlying technology infrastructure for Oracle Fusion Applications. Architecturally, Oracle Fusion Apps leverages several components of Oracle Fusion Middleware from Oracle WebCenter for rich collaborative interface, Oracle SOA Suite & Oracle BPM Suite for orchestrating key underlying processes to Oracle BIEE for dash boarding and analytics. Boeing talked about how they are using Oracle BPM Suite 11g, a key component of Oracle Fusion Middleware with Oracle Fusion Apps to transform their supply chain. Tim Murnin, Director of Supply Chain talked about Boeing’s 5 year supply chain transformation journey. Boeing’s Integrated and Information Management division began with automation of critical RFQ process using Oracle BPM Suite. This 1st phase resulted in 38% reduction in labor costs for RFP. As a next step in this effort, Boeing is now creating a platform to enable electronic Order Management. Fusion Apps are playing a significant role in this phase. Boeing has gone live with Oracle Fusion Product Hub and efforts are underway with Oracle Fusion Distributed Order Orchestration (DOO). So, where does Oracle BPM Suite 11g fit in this equation? Let me explain. Business processes within Fusion Apps are designed using 2 standards: Business Process Execution Language (BPEL) and Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN). These processes can be easily configured using declarative set of tools. Boeing leverages Oracle BPM Suite 11g (which supports BPMN 2.0) and Oracle SOA Suite (which supports BPEL) to “extend” these applications. Traditionally, customizations are done within an app using native technologies. But, instead of making process changes within Fusion Apps, Boeing has taken an approach of building “extensions” layer on top of the application. Fig 2: Boeing’s use of Oracle BPM Suite to orchestrate key supply chain processes across Fusion Apps 2. Maximize Oracle Applications investment Fusion Middleware appeals not only to Fusion Apps customers, but is also leveraged by Oracle E-Business Suite, PeopleSoft, Siebel and JD Edwards customers significantly. Using Oracle BPM Suite and Oracle SOA Suite is the recommended extension strategy for Oracle Fusion Apps and Oracle Applications Unlimited customers. Electronic Arts, E-Business Suite customer, spoke about their strategy to transform their order-to-cash process using Oracle SOA Suite, Oracle Foundation Packs and Oracle BAM. Udesh Naicker, Sr Director of IT at Elecronic Arts (EA), discussed how growth of social and digital gaming had started to put tremendous pressure on EA’s existing IT infrastructure. He discussed the challenge with millions of micro-transactions coming from several sources – Microsoft Xbox, Paypal, several service providers. EA found Order-2-Cash processes stretched to their limits. They lacked visibility into these transactions across the entire value chain. EA began by consolidating their E-Business Suite R11 instances into single E-Business Suite R12. EA needed to cater to a variety of service requirements, connectivity methods, file formats, and information latency. Their integration strategy was tactical, i.e., using file uploads, TIBCO, SQL scripts. After consolidating E-Business suite, EA standardized their integration approach with Oracle SOA Suite and Oracle AIA Foundation Pack. Oracle SOA Suite is the platform used to extend E-Business Suite R12 and standardize 60+ interfaces across several heterogeneous systems including PeopleSoft, Demantra, SF.com, Workday, and Managed EDI services spanning on-premise, hosted and cloud applications. EA believes that Oracle SOA Suite 11g based extension strategy has helped significantly in the followings ways: - It helped them keep customizations out of E-Business Suite, thereby keeping EBS R12 vanilla and upgrade safe - Developers are now proficient in technology which is also leveraged by Fusion Apps. This has helped them prepare for adoption of Fusion Apps in the future Fig 3: Using Oracle SOA Suite & Oracle e-Business Suite, Electronic Arts built new platform for order processing 3. Consolidate apps and improve scalability Exalogic is an optimal platform for customers to consolidate their application deployments and enhance performance. Underwriter Laboratories talked about their strategy to run their mission critical applications including e-Business Suite on Exalogic. Christian Anschuetz, CIO of Underwriter Laboratories (UL) shared how UL is on a growth path - $1B to $2.5B in 5 years- and planning a significant business transformation from a not-for-profit to a for-profit business. To support this growth, UL is planning to simplify its IT environment and the deployment complexity associated with ERP applications and technology it runs on. Their current applications were deployed on variety of hardware platforms and lacked comprehensive disaster recovery architecture. UL embarked on a mission to deploy E-Business Suite on Exalogic. UL’s solution is unique because it is one of the first to deploy a large number of Oracle applications and related Fusion Middleware technologies (SOA, BI, Analytical Applications AIA Foundation Pack and AIA EBS to Siebel UCM prebuilt integration) on the combined Exalogic and Exadata environment. UL is planning to move to a virtualized architecture toward the end of 2012 to securely host external facing applications like iStore Fig 4: Underwrites Labs deployed e-Business Suite on Exalogic to achieve performance gains Key takeaways are: - Fusion Middleware platform is certified with major Oracle Applications Unlimited offerings. Fusion Middleware is the underlying technological infrastructure for Fusion Apps - Customers choose Oracle Fusion Middleware to extend their applications (Apps Unlimited or Fusion Apps) to keep applications upgrade safe and prepare for Fusion Apps - Exalogic is an optimum platform to consolidate applications deployments and enhance performance

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