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  • For those of you who are senior developers what do you look for in a new company and development team?

    - by Amy P
    As I move forward in my career new jobs become more difficult to choose between. When I was starting out and for the first 8 years of my career I took the jobs that I could get that would keep me programming on the general technological path that I was on. I am a job hopper, I only stay with a company for between 2 - 3 years. I think that I do this because after 2 years I get bored and unless there are new projects to keep my busy I no longer find work interesting. Now that I am becoming more experienced it is more important for me to only apply for jobs that are interesting and will move my career and my skill set forward. My problem now is that I keep finding jobs where the projects appear to be interesting during the interview but once I get in the company I find the development environment is sub-par and the development team is disjointed. I feel like I am asking the wrong questions during the interview process and don't know what to look for to make sure that the environment I will be working in will be a good one. Now my question: For those of you who are senior developers what do you look for in a new company and development team? I am looking for the key qualities in a company and development team that you look for when interviewing with a company. These qualities are the ones that would give you hints that the company will be a good one to work for.

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  • How Can I Effectively Interview an Oracle Candidate?

    - by Tim Medora
    First, I browsed through SO for matching questions and didn't find one, but please point me in the right direction if this exact question has already been asked. I work with and around programmers of various skill levels on various platforms. I would consider my skills to be strong in terms of relational database design, query development, and basic performance tuning and administration. I'm mid-level when it comes to database theory. My team is looking to me to ensure that we have the best talent on staff, in this case, an engineer experienced in Oracle administration. To me, a well-rounded database administrator, regardless of platform, should also be competent in developing against the database so that is also a requirement. However my database skills are centralized around SQL Server 200x with experience in a few other products like SAP MaxDB, Access, and FoxPro. How can I thoroughly assess the skills of an Oracle engineer? I can ask high-level database theory questions and talk about routine tasks that are common across platforms, but I want to dig deep enough that I can be confident in the people I hire. Normally, I would alternate very specific questions that have a right/wrong answer with architectural questions that might have several valid answers. Does anyone have an interview template, specific questions, or any other knowledge that they can share? Even knowing the meaningful Oracle-related certifications would be a help. Thank you. EDIT: All the answers have been very helpful so far and I have given upvotes to everyone. I'm surprised that there are already 3 close votes on this question as "off topic". To be clear, I am specifically asking how a MS SQL Server engineer (like myself) can effectively interview a person with different but symbiotic skills. The question has already received specific, technical answers which have improved my own database design and programming skills. If this is more appropriate as a community wiki, please convert it.

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  • Scaling along an arbitrary axis (Dealing with non-uniform scale)

    - by Jon
    I'm trying to build my own little engine to get more familiar with the concepts of 3D programming. I have a transform class that on each frame it creates a Scaling Matrix (S), a Rotation Matrix from a Quaternion (R) and concatenates them together (S*R). Once i have SR, I insert the translation values into the bottom of the three columns. So i end up with a transformation matrix that looks like: [SR SR SR 0] [SR SR SR 0] [SR SR SR 0] [tx ty tz 1] This works perfectly in all cases except when rotating an object that has a non-uniform scale. For example a unit cube with ScaleX = 4, ScaleY = 2, ScaleZ = 1 will give me a rectangular box that is 4 times as wide as the depth and twice as high as the depth. If i then translate this around, the box stays the same and looks normal. The problem happens whenever I try to rotate this scaled box. The shape itself becomes distorted and it appears as though the Scale factors are affecting the object on the World X,Y,Z axis rather than the local X,Y,Z axis of the object. I've done some pretty extensive research through a variety of textbooks (Eberly, Moller/Hoffman, Phar etc) and there isn't a ton there to go off of. Online, most of the answers say to avoid non-uniform scaling which I understand the desire to avoid it, but I'd still like to figure out how to support it. The only thing I can think off is that when constructing a Scale Matrix: [sx 0 0 0] [0 sy 0 0] [0 0 sz 0] [0 0 0 1] This is scaling along the World Axis instead of the object's local Direction, Up and Right vectors or it's local Z, Y, X axis. Does anyone have any tips or ideas on how to handle construction a transformation matrix that allows for non-uniform scaling and rotation? Thanks!

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  • Data classes: getters and setters or different method design

    - by Frog
    I've been trying to design an interface for a data class I'm writing. This class stores styles for characters, for example whether the character is bold, italic or underlined. But also the font-size and the font-family. So it has different types of member variables. The easiest way to implement this would be to add getters and setters for every member variable, but this just feels wrong to me. It feels way more logical (and more OOP) to call style.format(BOLD, true) instead of style.setBold(true). So to use logical methods insteads of getters/setters. But I am facing two problems while implementing these methods: I would need a big switch statement with all member variables, since you can't access a variable by the contents of a string in C++. Moreover, you can't overload by return type, which means you can't write one getter like style.getFormatting(BOLD) (I know there are some tricks to do this, but these don't allow for parameters, which I would obviously need). However, if I would implement getters and setters, there are also issues. I would have to duplicate quite some code because styles can also have a parent styles, which means the getters have to look not only at the member variables of this style, but also at the variables of the parent styles. Because I wasn't able to figure out how to do this, I decided to ask a question a couple of weeks ago. See Object Oriented Programming: getters/setters or logical names. But in that question I didn't stress it would be just a data object and that I'm not making a text rendering engine, which was the reason one of the people that answered suggested I ask another question while making that clear (because his solution, the decorator pattern, isn't suitable for my problem). So please note that I'm not creating my own text rendering engine, I just use these classes to store data. Because I still haven't been able to find a solution to this problem I'd like to ask this question again: how would you design a styles class like this? And why would you do that? Thanks on forehand!

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  • Learning OO for a C Programmer

    - by Holysmoke
    I've been programming professionally in C, and only C, for around 10 years in a variety of roles. As would be normal to expect, I understand the idioms of the language fairly well and beyond that also some of the design nuances - which APIs to make public, who calls what, who does what, what is supposed to reentrant and so on. I grew up reading 'Writing Solid Code', it's early C edition, not the one based on C++. However, I've never ever programmed in an OO language. Now, I want to migrate to writing applications for iPhone (maybe android), so want to learn to use Objective-C and use it with a degree of competence fitting a professional programmer. How do I wrap my head around the OO stuff? What would be your smallest reading list suggestion to me. Is there a book that carries some sort of relatively real world example OO design Objective-C? Besides, the reading what source code would you recommend me to go through. How to learn OO paradigm using Objective-C?

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  • Why do programmers write closed source applications and then make them free? [closed]

    - by Ken
    As an entrepreneur/programmer who makes a good living from writing and selling software, I'm dumbfounded as to why developers write applications and then put them up on the Internet for free. You've found yourself in one of the most lucrative fields in the world. A business with 99% profit margin, where you have no physical product but can name your price; a business where you can ship a buggy product and the customer will still buy it. Occasionally some of our software will get a free competitor, and I think, this guy is crazy. He could be making a good living off of this but instead chose to make it free. Do you not like giant piles of money? Are you not confident that people would pay for it? Are you afraid of having to support it? It's bad for the business of programming because now customers expect to be able to find a free solution to every problem. (I see tweets like "is there any good FREE software for XYZ? or do I need to pay $20 for that".) It's also bad for customers because the free solutions eventually break (because of a new OS or what have you) and since it's free, the developer has no reason to fix it. Customers end up with free but stale software that no longer works and never gets updated. Customer cries. Developer still working day job cries in their cubicle. What gives? PS: I'm not looking to start an open-source/software should be free kind of debate. I'm talking about when developers make a closed source application and make it free.

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  • good literature for teaching object oriented thinking in C [closed]

    - by Dipan Mehta
    Quite often C is the primary platform for the development. And when things are large scale, I have seen partitioning of the system as different objects is quite a natural thing. Some or many of the object orientated analysis and design principles are used here very well. This is not a debate question about whether or not C is a good candidate for object oriented programming or not. This is also NOT a question how to do OO in C. You can refer to this question and there are probably many such citations. As far as I am concerned, I have learned some of this things while working with many open source and commercial projects. (libjpeg, ffmpeg, Gstreamer which is based on GObject). I can probably extend a few references that explains some of these concepts such as - 1. Event Helix article, 2. Linux Mag article 3. one of my answers which links Schreiner's reference. Unfortunately, when we induct younger folks, it seems too hard to make them learn all of it the hard way. Usually, when we say it's C, a general reaction is to throw away all of the "Object thinking". Looking for help extending above references from those who have been in the similar areas of work. Are there any good formal literature that explains how Object thinking can be made to use while you are working in C? I have seen tons of book on general "object oriented paradigms" but they all focus on advanced languages mostly not in C. You see most C books - but most focus only on the syntax and the obfuscated corners of C and that's it. There are hardly ANY good reference, specially books or any systematic (I mean formal) literature on how to apply OO in C. This is very surprising given that so many large scale open source projects use C which are truly using this very well; but we hardly see any good formal literature on this subject.

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  • What can be the cause of new bugs appearing somewhere else when a known bug is solved?

    - by MainMa
    During a discussion, one of my colleagues told that he has some difficulties with his current project while trying to solve bugs. "When I solve one bug, something else stops working elsewhere", he said. I started to think about how this could happen, but can't figure it out. I have sometimes similar problems when I am too tired/sleepy to do the work correctly and to have an overall view of the part of the code I was working on. Here, the problem seems to be for a few days or weeks, and is not related to the focus of my colleague. I can also imagine this problem arising on a very large project, very badly managed, where teammates don't have any idea of who does what, and what effect on other's work can have a change they are doing. This is not the case here neither: it's a rather small project with only one developer. It can also be an issue with old, badly maintained and never documented codebase, where the only developers who can really imagine the consequences of a change had left the company years ago. Here, the project just started, and the developer doesn't use anyone's codebase. So what can be the cause of such issue on a fresh, small-size codebase written by a single developer who stays focused on his work? What may help? Unit tests (there are none)? Proper architecture (I'm pretty sure that the codebase has no architecture at all and was written with no preliminary thinking), requiring the whole refactoring? Pair programming? Something else?

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  • Making money from a custom built interpreter?

    - by annoying_squid
    I have been making considerable progress lately on building an interpreter. I am building it from NASM assembly code (for the core engine) and C (cl.exe the Microsoft compiler for the parser). I really don't have a lot of time but I have a lot of good ideas on how to build this so it appeals to a certain niche market. I'd love to finish this but I need to face reality here ... unless I can make some good monetary return on my investment, there is not a lot of time for me to invest. So I ask the following questions to anyone out there, especially those who have experience in monetizing their programs: 1) How easy is it for a programmer to make good money from one design? (I know this is vague but it will be interesting to hear from those who have experience or know of others' experiences). 2) What are the biggest obstacles to making money from a programming design? 3) For the parser, I am using the Microsoft compiler (no IDE) I got from visual express, so will this be an issue? Will I have to pay royalties or a license fee? 4) As far as I know NASM is a 2-clause BSD licensed application. So this should allow me to use NASM for commericial development unless I am missing something? It's good to know these things before launching into the meat and potatoes of the project.

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  • Putting DSMD into Remission

    - by Justin Greenwood
    As a programmer with over ten years of professional experience, I've often suffered from DSMD (distraction surplus/motivation deficit) disorder. I know I'm not alone. Many of my colleagues have shared their experiences with this productivity cancer to me in support groups or in moments of inebriated intimacy. Often, I observe friends unknowingly surrendering to it - sitting at their computer, cycling through the same set of web sites (blogs, facebook, youtube, news providers, wikipeida, etc.), over and over again. Intermittently, they get up, take a walk around the office, make small talk with their colleagues, get another cup of coffee, then sit down and start the cycle all over again. It is completely controlled by the subconscious mind and will destroy your ability to get into that groove you used to live in back in your better days. Programming requires extended periods of focused attention, and this type of behavior will really kill productivity and in the end, when deadlines are near, launch your stress level to near emotional breakdown levels.DiagnosisThe best way to diagnose infection is to completely disconnect your devices from the internet while working. If you find yourself launching web browsers every minute or so, then you're down with the sickness.TreatmentA few techniques I've found that will help send this ailment into regression are as follows:Segment your day into two to three hour work segments. For example: 9:00-11:00, 1:00-3:00, 3:30-5:00.Define a few small one to two hour tasks you want to accomplish in your day. Assign each of those tasks to one of the short work segments.If possible, turn off the internet and any other distractions during these work segments (at least until you regain control of your browsing habits) - this includes instant messaging and email. You can check your email and waste time surfing in the hours between work segments.Reward yourself on productive days with a beer or whatever butters your muffins.

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  • Does Agile force developers to work more?

    - by Shooshpanchick
    Looking at common Agile practices it seems to me that they (intentionally or unintentionally?) force developer to spend more time actually working as opposed to reading blogs/articles, chatting, coffee breaks and just plain procrastinating. In particular: 1) Pair programming - the biggest work-forcer, just because it is inconvenient to do all that procrastination when there are two of you sitting together. 2) Short stories - when you have a HUGE chunk of work that must be done in e.g. a month, it is pretty common to slack off in the first three weeks and switch to OMG DEADLINE mode for the last one. And with the little chunks (that must be done in a day or less) it is exact opposite - you feel that time is tight, there is no space for maneuvering, and you will be held accountable for the task pretty soon, so you start working immediately. 3) Team communication and cohesion - when you underperform in a slow, distanced and silent environment it may feel ok, but when at the end of the day at Scrum meeting everyone boasts what they have accomplished and you have nothing to say you may actually feel ashamed. 4) Testing and feedback - again, it prevents you from keeping tasks "99% ready" (when it's actually around 20%) until the deadline suddenly happens. Do you feel that under Agile you work more than under "conventional" methodologies? Is this pressure compensated by the more comfortable environment and by the feeling of actually getting right things done quickly?

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  • How do I get others to see past my prior inexperience?

    - by Kevin
    My core question is how do I proceed from the following predicament. I will be honest with you, I wasted my College Experience. I slacked off and didn't take any of my comp sci classes that seriously, somehow i still got out with a 3.25 GPA. But truth be told I learned nothing. I befriended most of my professors who went pretty lenient on me in terms of grading. However, I basically came out of College knowing how to program a simple calculator in VB.Net. I was (to my great surprise) hired by a very large respected company in Denver as a Junior developer. Well the long and the short of it is that I knew so little about programming that I quickly became the office pariah and was almost fired due to my incompetence. It has been 8 months now and I feel I have learned some basic things and I am not as picked on as I used to be by the other developers. However, everyone hates me and the first few months have given the other developers a horrible perception of me. I am no longer afraid of code or learning, but I have put my self in the precarious position of being the scapegoat of our department. I hate going to work every day because no one there is my friend and pretty much everyone is hostile to me. What should I do? Any advice?

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  • How to get Visual Studio 2010 Express Edition on Windows 7

    - by thanigai
    Visual studio 2010 is an amzing release from Microsoft. I have tried the beta 1,2 of Visual Studio 2010 and finally the full version is released. I am also interested in the latest edition of Windows which nothing but our Windows 7. Next to Vista I like this version very much. Out of curiosity I have installed the prebuild version of Windows 7. I tried installing the express edition here and it failed making me disappointed. I tried two or three times and finally I decided to download the trial version of Windows 7. After that I can install the Visual Studio 2010 express edition easily. I have given the link below from where I have downloaded the file. http://www.microsoft.com/express/downloads/ Here the link give is through Web PI Installer. Other option is you can download the ISO image file and burn them to a disc or use a virtual disc This Visual Web developer will provide the Sql Server engine alone. To get a Sql Server Management Studio get from the following link http://www.microsoft.com/express/Database/InstallOptions.aspx That's it all the things necessary for the web application programming is ready. Ah I forget to tell about the Silverlight. Please find the Silverlight 4 latest tools from the below link (WCF RIA services is the main update) http://www.silverlight.net/getstarted/ Silverlight 4 Tools(http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=eff8a0da-0a4d-48e8-8366-6ddf2ecad801&displaylang=en) Expression Blend 4 trial(http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=88484825-1b3c-4e8c-8b14-b05d025e1541&displaylang=en) I think the reader would have enjoyed on how to get these things. Please let me know if you are not clear with any of these things.  Thanks, Thani

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  • Automated testing tool development challenges (for embedded software)

    - by Karthi prime
    My boss want to come up with the proposal for the following tool: An IDE: Able to build, compile, debug, via JTAG programming for the micro-controller. A Test Suite, reads the code in the IDE, auto generates the test cases, and it gives the in-target unit testing results(which is done by controlling code execution in the micro-controller via IDE). A no-overhead code coverage tool which interacts with the test suite and IDE. My work is to obtain the high level architecture of this tool, so as to proceed further. My current knowledge: There are tool-chains available from the chip manufacturer for the micro-controllers which can be utilized along with an open-source IDE like Eclipse, and along with an open-source burner, a complete IDE for a micro-controller can be done. Test cases can be auto-generated by reading the source file through the process of parsing, scripting, based on keywords. Test suite must be able to command the IDE to control, through breakpoints, and read the register contents from the microcontroller - This enables the in-target unit testing. An no-overhead code coverage should be done by no-overhead code instrumentation so as to execute those in the resource constraint environment of the micro-controller. I have the following questions: Any advice on the validity of my understanding? What are the challenges I will have during the development? What are the helpful open-source tools regarding this? What is the development time for this software? Thanks

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  • What are some efficient ways to set up my environment when working on a remote site?

    - by Prefix
    Hello fellow Programmers, I am still a relatively new programmer and have recently gotten my first on-campus programming position. I am the sole dev responsible for 8 domains as well as 3 small sized PHP web apps. The campus has its web environment divided into staging and live servers -- we develop on the staging via SFTP and then push the updates to the live server through a web GUI. I use Sublime Text 2 and the Sublime SFTP plugin currently for all my dev work (its my preferred editor). If I am just making an edit to a page I'll open that individual file via the ftp browser. If I am working on the PHP web app projects, I have the app directory mapped to a local folder so that when I save locally the file is auto-uploaded through Sublime SFTP. I feel like this workflow is slow and sub-optimal. How can I improve my workflow for working with remote content? I'd love to set up a local environment on my machine as that would eliminate the constant SFTP upload/download, but as I said there are many sites and the space required for a local copy of the entire domain would be quite large and complex; not to mention keeping it updated with whatever the latest on the staging server is would be a nightmare. Anyone know how I can improve my general web dev workflow from what I've described? I'd really like to cut out constantly editing over FTP but I'm not sure where to start other than ripping the entire directory and dumping it into XAMP.

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  • Planning milestones and time

    - by Ignas
    I was hired by a marketing company a year ago initially for link building / SEO stuff, but I'm actually a Web developer and took the job just in desperation to have one (I'm still quite young and just finished 2nd year of University). From the 3rd day my boss realised that I'm not into that stuff at all and since he had an idea of a web based app we started to plan it. I estimated that it shouldn't take me longer than two months to do it, but as I was making it we soon realised that we want to add more and more stuff to make it even better. So the development on my own lasted for about 4 months, but then it became an enterprise size app and we hired another programmer to work along me. The guy was awesome at what he did, but because I was assigned to be programmer/project manager I had to set up milestones with deadlines and we missed most of them, because most of the time it was too much work, and my lack of experience kept me setting really optimistic deadlines. We still kept adding features and had changed the architecture of the application twice. My boss is a great guy and he gets that when we add features it expands the time frame in which things should be done so he wasn't angry at me nor the other guy. But I was feeling bad (I still am) that I suck at planning. I gained loads of experience from the programming side, but I still lack the management/planning skills which make me go nuts. So over the last year I have dedicated probably about 8 months of work to this app (obviously my studies affected it) and we're launching as a closed beta this month. So my question is how do I get better at planning/managing a project, how do you estimate the times? What do you take into consideration when setting goals. I'm working alone again because the other guy moved from the city. But I'm sure we'll be hiring to help me maintain it so I need to get better at it. Any hints, points or anything on the topic are appreciated.

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  • December 2012 OTN Member Offers

    - by Cassandra Clark - OTN
    Our partners have answered the special offer call just in time for you to either shop for the tech professional in your life or share the list below with someone who keeps asking you what you want for the holidays.  Go right to the Oracle Technology Network Member Discount Page or read on for more details. Oracle  Store has extended their 10% Savings through December 31st 2012.Oracle Press - Oracle Technology Network members get 40% off the latest Oracle Press book by Oracle ACE Directors Ben Prusinski and Gustavo Gonzalez, Oracle E-Business Suite Financials Handbook, Third Edition in print and ebook format. CRC Press - Has added 3 NEW titles!  Get 20% off the below title at checkout. Secure Java: For Web Application Development Open Source Data Warehousing and Business Intelligence Developing Essbase Applications: Advanced Techniques for Finance and IT Professional Oracle Embedded Programming and Application Development Packt Publishing - Get 25% off the print books and get 35% off the eBooks listed below. You will need to be logged in for the discounts to apply at checkout and codes expire December 31st 2012. Getting Started with Oracle Data Integrator 11g: A Hands-On Tutorial Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition 11g: A Hands-On Tutorial Oracle Certified Associate, Java SE 7 Programmer Study Guide Safari Online-  Give the Gift of Knowledge This Holiday SeasonGive your friends and colleagues the gift of Safari Books Online! With an ever-expanding library of books and videos from more than 100 publishers (including Oracle Press), a subscription to Safari Books Online is the gift that always fits, helping your friends learn new skills and stay current. Starting at $42.99, gift subscriptions are available for 1, 3, 6 and 12 months. Get all of this and more at the Oracle Technology Network Member Discount Page!

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  • How do I get my programs to communicate with each other

    - by Benjamin Lindqvist
    I'm basically just getting started with programming. The problem I have with progressing is that I have a hard time learning stuff just for the sake of knowing them - I do better when there's a problem to be solved or a task to be completed so I can learn 'on the job'. So I'm interested in starting some interesting project. I know the basics of Python, Java, Matlab and some C++ aswell and I know enough about microcontrollers to make LED blink etc. The type of stuff I'm looking for is for example scraping some weather forecast site (with Python) and outputting the chance of rain to a LCD display, or a program that makes chrome open and log in to facebook if I say "HAL, time for facebook", or more generally, a program that reads serial/USB input, looks for certain sequences and sends instructions to some other program if it finds one. Do you open some kind of shared stream in which one program reads and one writes? What do I need to read up on to do accomplish this myself? I have no experience with linux or the linux terminal, but looking over peoples shoulders makes me suspect that's what people use. Is that correct?

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  • How to adopt scrum agile methodology for a small .Net team

    - by Thabo
    I am working on a small product based company developing .Net applications. There is a small team with 5-6 developers. I am a person responsible for planning everything. But my primary role is Software developer. Now our current project is very unstable because of poor organization. Today my boss called me and told to submit a report about required resources, appropriate methodology, required man power and their salary scales to make the current project success. I know I don’t have enough organization skills and I need to go deep in my programming skills. So I need to focus only in the development. So I can’t manage the project anymore. Now I am searching some other ways to make ongoing development success. My questions are What is the suitable agile methodology to my team? Is Scrum is suitable for above mentioned scenario? If we adopt Scrum, what we have to do next? (I think hiring new one to manage the project is more suitable. So we have to get Scrum master and some other developers.) Are there any resources (books, Blogs and etc) to get some tips and advices to solve this problem? If Scrum is not a suitable methodology for our scenario, what else can be more suitable methodology to adopt? Can anyone give a good solution for my problem?

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  • Advanced PHP book [closed]

    - by Aaditi Sharma
    I've gone and stumbled across a lot of recommendations for PHP books, including on SO, however could not find a reasonable & convincible answer for this. Is there a really good advanced book for PHP. Background: I've done almost 8 months in PHP. I know the basics. I go through php.net very often. I've played around with Codeigniter, amongst other frameworks. I've been doing JavaScript for almost 2 years, and specifically thank Douglas Crockford for this, I completely changed the way I code JavaScript. I spend a lot of time travelling, and would love to read a book about PHP, that includes the awesome parts and even when something doesn't quite work in PHP. (As a note a lot of previous answers on SO and programmers give varied results.) I have to place an order through a library which has it's limitations. One book that some of experienced PHP programmers could recommend would be helpful. I have gone through http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1711/what-is-the-single-most-influential-book-every-programmer-should-read and http://stackoverflow.com/questions/194812/list-of-freely-available-programming-books, which do NOT have books related to PHP.

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  • Dynamic model interactions

    - by Richard
    I am just curious as to how in many games (namely games like arkham asylum/city, manhunt, hitman) do they make it so that your character can "grab" a character in front of you and do stuff to them. I know this may sound very confusing but for an example go to youtube and search "hitman executions", and the first video is an example of what i'm asking. Basically I'm wondering how they make your model dynamically interact with whatever other model you come across, so in hitman when you come up behind some one with the fibre wire you strangle the other character or if you have the anesthetic you come up behind some person and put your hand over there mouth while they struggle and slowly go to the floor where you lay them down. I am confused as to whether it was animated to use two models using specific bone/skeletal identifiers, if it is just two completely separate animations that are played at the correct time to make it look like they are actually interacting or something else all together. I am not an animator so i assume most of what i just said is not right but i hope that some one can understand what i mean and provide an answer. PS) I am a programmer and I am in the process of building a hitmanesque game, just because i love that style of game and I want to increase my skills on something fun, so if you do know what i'm talking about have some examples with involving both models and programming (i use c++ and mainly Ogre3D at the moment but i am getting into unity and XNA) i would greatly appreciate it. Thanks.

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  • Legacy Code Retreat Questions

    - by MarkPearl
    I recently heard of the concept of a Legacy Code Retreat. Since I have attended and helped facilitate some normal Code Retreats I thought it might be interesting in trying a Legacy Code Retreat, but I have a few questions on how a legacy CR differs from a normal one. If anyone has attended a Legacy CR and has some suggestions on how best to host these event’s please leave a comment on what has worked for you in the past or if you have any answers to my questions below… Should you restrict the languages that people can do the sessions in? In the normal CR’s I have been involved in the past we have had people attend and code in their programming language of choice. A normal CR lends itself to  this because each session starts with no code. With a legacy CR each session seems to start with an existing code base. Is there some sort of limitation on the languages that people can work in during the sessions? If not, how do you give them a base to start from? What happens as the beginning of each session? In the normal CR that I have attended each session would have a constraint set on it – i.e. no if statements used, no primitives, etc. With a legacy CR it seems more like patterns for refactoring are learned. Does the facilitator explain the pattern used before the session starts or are they just given a code base to start from and an objective to achieve

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  • Open Source Projects for Beginning Coders?

    - by MattDMo
    After working as a molecular biologist at the bench for many years, I lost my job last year and am thinking about a career change. I've been using open-source software and doing Linux system administration since the mid 90s, and have written/improved some small shell/Perl/PHP scripts, and am very comfortable building from source, but never progressed to creating non-trivial programs de novo. I want to move to actually learning real programming skills and contributing back to the community, with the possible eventual goal of getting into bioinformatics as a career in the future. I'm a stay-at-home dad now, so I have some time on my hands. I've done a lot of research on languages, and have settled on Python as my major focus for now. I'm set up on GitHub, but haven't forked anything yet. I've looked around OpenHatch some, but nothing really grabbed me. I've heard the advice to work on what you use/love, but that category is so broad that I'm having trouble finding any one thing to get started on. What are your suggestions for getting started? How do you pick a project that will welcome your (possibly amateurish) help? With a fairly limited skill set, how do you find a request that you can handle? What are common newbie mistakes to avoid? Any other advice?

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  • You are or will be a laid off programmer - what do you do a year ago, right now, tomorrow, and next week?

    - by Adam Davis
    Many programmers, software engineers, and other technology professionals are out of work, facing layoffs, or are unprepared for layoffs though they feel secure right now. What should every programmer do right now (even if secure in their current job) to prepare them for layoffs down the road? If your boss came to your cubicle while you read this and laid you off: What would you do immediately after? What would you do tomorrow? What would you do next week? It obvious that one should always have an up to date resume, always get recommendations from people when they see you at your best (not when you're looking for a new job), etc. What are the things, step by step, that every programmer should do (or should consider doing) long before they are laid off, when they're laid off, and shortly after being laid off? This is a question with many possible facets. While I want to encourage discussion to center around programming career based answers, please reconsider before downvoting someone because they're thinking in terms of how they're going to prevent going into debt. Bonus catch-22 type question: You can study a new language or technology while out of work, but most places want you to have more than 1-2 months experience in a working environment, not just from a learning exercise. Is it worthwhile to place a priority on new (ideally in demand) skills, or should you instead hone existing skills?

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  • Memory limiting solutions for greedy applications that can crash OS?

    - by Hooked
    I use my computer for scientific programming. It has a healthy 8GB of RAM and 12GB of swap space. Often, as my problems have gotten larger, I exceed all of the available RAM. Rather than crashing (which would be preferred), it seems Ubuntu starts loading everything into swap, including Unity and any open terminals. If I don't catch a run-away program in time, there is nothing I can do but wait - it takes 4-5 minutes to switch to a command prompt eg. Ctrl-Alt-F2 where I can kill the offending process. Since my own stupidity is out of scope of this forum, how can I prevent Ubuntu from crashing via thrashing when I use up all of the available memory from a single offending program? At-home experiment*! Open a terminal, launch python and if you have numpy installed try this: >>> import numpy >>> [numpy.zeros((10**4, 10**4)) for _ in xrange(50)] * Warning: may have adverse effects, monitor the process via iotop or top to kill it in time. If not, I'll see you after your reboot.

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