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  • Will Unity skills be interchangeable?

    - by Starkers
    I'm currently learning Unity and working my way through a video game maths primer text book. My goal is to create a racing game for WebGL (using Three.js and maybe Physic.js). I'm well aware that the Unity program shields you from a lot of what's going on and a lot of the grunt work attached to developing even a simple video game, but if I power through a bunch of Unity tutorials, will a lot of the skills I learn translate over to other frameworks/engines? I'm pretty proficient at level design with WebGL, and I'm a good 3D modeller. My weaknesses are definitely AI and Physics. While I am rapidly shoring up my math, and while Physics is undeniably interesting there's only so many hours in the day and there's a wealth of engines out there to take care of this sort of thing. AI does appeal to me a lot more, and is a lot more necessary. AI changes drastically from game to game, is tweaked heavily during development, and the physics is a lot more constant. Will leaning AI concepts in Unity allow me to transfer this knowledge pretty much anywhere? Or will I just be paddling up Unity creek with these skills?

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  • CodePlex Daily Summary for Saturday, November 19, 2011

    CodePlex Daily Summary for Saturday, November 19, 2011Popular ReleasesWPF Converters: WPF Converters V1.2.0.0: support for enumerations, value types, and reference types in the expression converter's equality operators the expression converter now handles DependencyProperty.UnsetValue as argument values correctly (#4062) StyleCop conformance (more or less)Json.NET: Json.NET 4.0 Release 4: Change - JsonTextReader.Culture is now CultureInfo.InvariantCulture by default Change - KeyValurPairConverter no longer cares about the order of the key and value properties Change - Time zone conversions now use new TimeZoneInfo instead of TimeZone Fix - Fixed boolean values sometimes being capitalized when converting to XML Fix - Fixed error when deserializing ConcurrentDictionary Fix - Fixed serializing some Uris returning the incorrect value Fix - Fixed occasional error when...Media Companion: MC 3.423b Weekly: Ensure .NET 4.0 Full Framework is installed. (Available from http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=17718) Ensure the NFO ID fix is applied when transitioning from versions prior to 3.416b. (Details here) Replaced 'Rebuild' with 'Refresh' throughout entire code. Rebuild will now be known as Refresh. mc_com.exe has been fully updated TV Show Resolutions... Resolved issue #206 - having to hit save twice when updating runtime manually Shrunk cache size and lowered loading times f...Windows Azure Toolkit for Social Games: 1.1.1: Version 1.1.1: Updated to use Windows Azure SDK and Tools Version 1.6 Version 1.1.1: Performance improvements Separated Social Gaming Toolkit from Tankster Sample Added Tic-Tac-Toe and Four in a row game Simplified game API Simplified JavaScript Libraries Improved documentationASP.net Awesome Samples (Web-Forms): 1.0 samples: Full Demo VS2008 Very Simple Demo VS2010 (demos for the ASP.net Awesome jQuery Ajax Controls)SharpMap - Geospatial Application Framework for the CLR: SharpMap-0.9-AnyCPU-Trunk-2011.11.17: This is a build of SharpMap from the 0.9 development trunk as per 2011-11-17 For most applications the AnyCPU release is the recommended, but in case you need an x86 build that is included to. For some dataproviders (GDAL/OGR, SqLite, PostGis) you need to also referense the SharpMap.Extensions assembly For SqlServer Spatial you need to reference the SharpMap.SqlServerSpatial assemblySQL Monitor - tracking sql server activities: SQLMon 4.1 alpha 5: 1. added basic schema support 2. added server instance name and process id 3. fixed problem with object search index out of range 4. improved version comparison with previous/next difference navigation 5. remeber main window spliter and object explorer spliter positionAJAX Control Toolkit: November 2011 Release: AJAX Control Toolkit Release Notes - November 2011 Release Version 51116November 2011 release of the AJAX Control Toolkit. AJAX Control Toolkit .NET 4 - Binary – AJAX Control Toolkit for .NET 4 and sample site (Recommended). AJAX Control Toolkit .NET 3.5 - Binary – AJAX Control Toolkit for .NET 3.5 and sample site (Recommended). Notes: - The current version of the AJAX Control Toolkit is not compatible with ASP.NET 2.0. The latest version that is compatible with ASP.NET 2.0 can be found h...MVC Controls Toolkit: Mvc Controls Toolkit 1.5.5: Added: Now the DateRanteAttribute accepts complex expressions containing "Now" and "Today" as static minimum and maximum. Menu, MenuFor helpers capable of handling a "currently selected element". The developer can choose between using a standard nested menu based on a standard SimpleMenuItem class or specifying an item template based on a custom class. Added also helpers to build the tree structure containing all data items the menu takes infos from. Improved the pager. Now the developer ...SharpCompress - a fully native C# library for RAR, 7Zip, Zip, Tar, GZip, BZip2: SharpCompress 0.7: Reworked API to be more consistent. See Supported formats table. Added some more helper methods - e.g. OpenEntryStream (RarArchive/RarReader does not support this) Fixed up testsCODE Framework: 4.0.11115.0: Added support for partial views in the WPF framework, as well as a new helper feature that allows hooking commands/actions to all WPF events.Silverlight Toolkit: Windows Phone Toolkit - Nov 2011 (7.1 SDK): This release is coming soon! What's new ListPicker once again works in a ScrollViewer LongListSelector bug fixes around OutOfRange exceptions, wrong ordering of items, grouping issues, and scrolling events. ItemTuple is now refactored to be the public type LongListSelectorItem to provide users better access to the values in selection changed handlers. PerformanceProgressBar binding fix for IsIndeterminate (item 9767 and others) There is no longer a GestureListener dependency with the C...DotNetNuke® Community Edition: 06.01.01: Major Highlights Fixed problem with the core skin object rendering CSS above the other framework inserted files, which caused problems when using core style skin objects Fixed issue with iFrames getting removed when content is saved Fixed issue with the HTML module removing styling and scripts from the content Fixed issue with inserting the link to jquery after the header of the page Security Fixesnone Updated Modules/Providers ModulesHTML version 6.1.0 ProvidersnoneDotNetNuke Performance Settings: 01.00.00: First release of DotNetNuke SQL update queries to set the DNN installation for optimimal performance. Please review and rate this release... (stars are welcome)SCCM Client Actions Tool: SCCM Client Actions Tool v0.8: SCCM Client Actions Tool v0.8 is currently the latest version. It comes with following changes since last version: Added "Wake On LAN" action. WOL.EXE is now included. Added new action "Get all active advertisements" to list all machine based advertisements on remote computers. Added new action "Get all active user advertisements" to list all user based advertisements for logged on users on remote computers. Added config.ini setting "enablePingTest" to control whether ping test is ru...C.B.R. : Comic Book Reader: CBR 0.3: New featuresAdd magnifier size and scale New file info view in the backstage Add dynamic properties on book and settings Sorting and grouping in the explorer with new design Rework on conversion : Images, PDF, Cbr/rar, Cbz/zip, Xps to the destination formats Images, Cbz and XPS ImprovmentsSuppress MainViewModel and ExplorerViewModel dependencies Add view notifications and Messages from MVVM Light for ViewModel=>View notifications Make thread better on open catalog, no more ihm freeze, less t...Desktop Google Reader: 1.4.2: This release remove the like and the broadcast buttons as Google Reader stopped supporting them (no, we don't like this decission...) Additionally and to have at least a small plus: the login window now automaitcally logs you in if you stored username and passwort (no more extra click needed) Finally added WebKit .NET to the about window and removed Awesomium MD5-Hash: 5fccf25a2fb4fecc1dc77ebabc8d3897 SHA-Hash: d44ff788b123bd33596ad1a75f3b9fa74a862fdbFluent Validation for .NET: 3.2: Changes since 3.1: Fixed issue #7084 (NotEmptyValidator does not work with EntityCollection<T>) Fixed issue #7087 (AbstractValidator.Custom ignores RuleSets and always runs) Removed support for WP7 for now as it doesn't support co/contravariance without crashing.Rawr: Rawr 4.2.7: This is the Downloadable WPF version of Rawr!For web-based version see http://elitistjerks.com/rawr.php You can find the version notes at: http://rawr.codeplex.com/wikipage?title=VersionNotes Rawr AddonWe now have a Rawr Official Addon for in-game exporting and importing of character data hosted on Curse. The Addon does not perform calculations like Rawr, it simply shows your exported Rawr data in wow tooltips and lets you export your character to Rawr (including bag and bank items) like Char...VidCoder: 1.2.2: Updated Handbrake core to svn 4344. Fixed the 6-channel discrete mixdown option not appearing for AAC encoders. Added handling for possible exceptions when copying to the clipboard, added retries and message when it fails. Fixed issue with audio bitrate UI not appearing sometimes when switching audio encoders. Added extra checks to protect against reported crashes. Added code to upgrade encoding profiles on old queued items.New ProjectsAnimateX: silverlight animate basic library C#code build storyboard object basic object build animate engine for silverlight 4.0Api diendandaihoc.vn: api news diendandaihoc.vnAviaCode Interview Project: This is an extension to the Apunta Notas project. It was created for interview purposes.BitTorrentSharp: BitTorrent Sharp is an open source bit torrent protocol and server/client implementation.BizTalk Archiving - SQL and File: BizTalk Message Archiving - it's a pipeline component that can be used for archiving incoming/outgoing message from any adapters. It provides an option to save the message to either file (local, shared, network) or in SQL Server. bpatch: Simple byte patch utilityCourseManager: Course Manager is an Application for course,instructor and students control.dise operating system: the name is get from Divine State. Our goal is to create a real-time, efficient, stable operating system.Electrum: Simple Windows Phone 7 toolkitendrocode: Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat. Ut wisi enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exerci tation ullamcorper suscipit lobortis nisl ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis autem vel eum iriure dolor in hendrerit in vulputate velit esse molestie consequat, vel illum dolore eu feugiat nulla facilisis at vero eros et accumsan et iusto odio dignissim qui blandit praesent luptatum zzril deleni...FinanceTool: FinanceTool makes a visual representation of your spending during a period of time. The Winforms application works on export files from the Dutch ING bank and the SNS bank. It's developed in C# based on .NET 4.0.Kinect Spots: Kinect Spots is a small little app that displays a stylized bubble image based on the input from the Microsoft Kinect's camera.MEF practises: Project Nebula: ASP.NET MVC 3 with Full MEF architectureNesoi 2D game engine: This is a 2D game engine witten for XNA to to use a component based architecture.nullllllllllllll: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~PolytechMango: Mobile application for DI courses Polytech'Tours developed in Windows Phone 7.5 platform Authors : ARKHIS - AZIRAR - FOFANA - JEBARI PowerPartsforSharePoint.CrossSiteViewer: CrossSite Viewer WebPart allows you to view SharePoint list or Document library from other sites without coding. Simply drag and drop the web part onto the page, select the source site collection , web , view and you are done. www.PowerPartsForSharePoint.ComQuix Utilities for SharePoint: Over the past decade of working with SharePoint, I've had to build many quick utilities for one purpose or another. It thus came to pass that it made sense to unify all these utilities together into a single project that I could share with my fellow geeks. The Quix Utilities for SharePoint tool set is a collection of utilities that perform a wide variety of tasks in SharePoint and SharePoint servers.ReactiveMVVM: ReactiveMVVM is MVVM patter, it impovert with Microsoft Reactive Extensions. Can used in silverlight, WPF and WP7. ReactiveMVVM makes it easier for you to develop multithreading program in Silverlight, WPF and WP7 project. To be good work with it, you need know Rx framework. Regatta: Regatta is a Window Phone application for sailboat racing. Its mission is to make it easier for people to participate in sailboat racing. The underlying technology is C# and WP7. Anyone with an interest in sailing and/or Windows Phone technology is welcome to contribute.SF for Windows Phone: This is an C# app for Windows Phone 7 that utilizes API's from www.sf.se to display new movies, closest bio etc.SimManning: SimManning is a C#.NET library containing a discrete-event simulation engine dedicated to manning / staffing, especially for domains involving a succession of phases. An example of basic domain is provided, but the idea is for users to implement their own domain. This originates from a research group of DTU, the Technical University of Denmark.Simple Authentication Toolkit: Simple Authentication ToolkitSparkline Generator: Generate symbols sparklineSSIS Package Configuration Editor: This utility identifies package configuration paths that are not valid and enables you to correct the paths without having to open the package in Business Intelligence Development Studio (BIDS).StreamingSoundtracks.com: My first Windows Phone 7.1 application. 1. Now Playing 2. View Queue 3. View Chat Message 4. Send Chat MessageTravellingEntrepreneur: A simple application for finding Green Government Opportunities for Small Businesses. The application based on your current location retrieves all the government programs for the state of location and then allows you to share your favorite program on Facebook. (US only, WP7).wp7msu: For Windows Phone Programming in MSU.

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  • batch file that detects keystrokes. how?

    - by daniel11
    im designing a collection of video games for the command line (such as deal or no deal, tic tac toe, racing, maze puzzle, connect four, wack a mole, etc.) however it would really make things easier for me if i could make it so that when the user makes a selection (such as what direction to move in the game) , that as soon as they press the arrow keys then it carries out the IF statements that follow. Instead of having to press enter after each selection. something like... :one1 set /p direction1= : IF %direction1%== {ARROW KEY LEFT} goto two2 IF %direction1%== {ARROW KEY RIGHT} goto three3 IF %direction1%== {ARROW KEY UP} goto four4 IF %direction1%== {ARROW KEY DOWN} goto five5 goto one1 Any Ideas?

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  • Which is a better option, OpenGL or a game engine for developing a game for the iphone or ipod touch

    - by balraj
    I am new to OpenGL ES, and I'm about to begin a 3D game for the iphone in which we are showing some car pursuit or racing. Is it possible just with the OpenGL ES or UIKit only, or do I have to use other tools for it? I am comfortable with UIKit but newer to OpenGL/OpenGL ES; which would be better to start this game? Or should I use a game engine? If so, then which game engine would give us the 3D feeling, quality of images and motion, and rendering of the views with the sound effects?

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  • Python Beginner: Selective Printing in loops

    - by Jonathan Straus
    Hi there. I'm a very new python user (had only a little prior experience with html/javascript as far as programming goes), and was trying to find some ways to output only intermittent numbers in my loop for a basic bicycle racing simulation (10,000 lines of biker positions would be pretty excessive :P). I tried in this loop several 'reasonable' ways to communicate a condition where a floating point number equals its integer floor (int, floor division) to print out every 100 iterations or so: for i in range (0,10000): i = i + 1 t = t + t_step #t is initialized at 0 while t_step is set at .01 acceleration_rider1 = (power_rider1 / (70 * velocity_rider1)) - (force_drag1 / 70) velocity_rider1 = velocity_rider1 + (acceleration_rider1 * t_step) position_rider1 = position_rider1 + (velocity_rider1 * t_step) force_drag1 = area_rider1 * (velocity_rider1 ** 2) acceleration_rider2 = (power_rider2 / (70 * velocity_rider1)) - (force_drag2 / 70) velocity_rider2 = velocity_rider2 + (acceleration_rider2 * t_step) position_rider2 = position_rider2 + (velocity_rider2 * t_step) force_drag2 = area_rider1 * (velocity_rider2 ** 2) if t == int(t): #TRIED t == t // 1 AND OTHER VARIANTS THAT DON'T WORK HERE:( print t, "biker 1", position_rider1, "m", "\t", "biker 2", position_rider2, "m"

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  • Collision detection, visual C++

    - by hidden
    Hi, i am trying to do collision detection in visual C++ for a racing game. I found this site http://www.gamedev.net/reference/articles/article735.asp which seems like the thing i need. However i have no idea how to implement this in my code. The idea is that the players race around the course trying to find a tent with a red flag on it. When the collide witht this tent the game displays "player 1 wins" or whoever wins and then quits the game after 3 seconds. If you can help me please let me know as i am running out of time to get this to work. If you need me to send you the code then let me know that as well.

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  • PowerShell: How to add XmlElement to a non-root element

    - by Ariel
    I'm having trouble adding an XmlElement to a non-root element in PowerShell. Basically, given this xml: <clubs> <club name="boca" position="1"> <field>bombonera</field> <field>bombonerita</field> </club> <club name="racing" position="19"> <field>cilindro</field> </club> </clubs> I create an element, $new = $clubs.CreateElement("Barracas") When I try to add this element to a non-root node i.e. $clubs.clubs.club += $new I get Cannot set "club" because only strings can be used as values to set XmlNode properties. What am I missing? Thanks in advance.

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  • What did they program this toy with?

    - by Trix
    A rather strange question: I'm often asking myself with what programming languages things were created. I recently found this toy mini computer I played with when I was 13 or so at home. (Note: It is not one of those toy "notebooks", it's really small and came as an extra with a magazine) "Features": Hadware: LCD with a small field of pixels where the games were going on, besides that some stats such as score, highscore etc. Sounds and horrible music when started A really small "keyboard" with a wire Software: At least 14 or so games, from Snake over Tetris and Breakdown to some abomination of a car racing game A calculator Game selecting menu An alarm clock Inside there is a really small circuit board, I don't want to open the thing up now, though. Can you imagine if the games and "Operating System" of this thing where actually programmed using a language? If yes, what language could it be? If not with a programming language, how else was it created?

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  • How to rotate MXML component round its center like a wheel respectfully to mouse?

    - by Ole Jak
    So I have that panel or any other mxml component. I want somehow to rotate it around like a wheel of a car with which you drive it... loke a Racing wheel... sow like when mousebutton is down it captures pont of component... when you move mouse component rotates (not moves) according to new mouse position... How to rotate MXML component round its center like a wheel respectfully to mouse? welll feel free to edit this question because I know Ive formulated it in a bad way...

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  • Possible conflict with jquery libraries

    - by TooCooL
    http://www.pro-marketing-invest.de/golz-racing/reservierungen I made a wp plugin which makes online reservations for rent a car but I tested it locally with a different wp theme and it worked fine! but when I installed it in this web site for some reason the jquery functions dont work! when I press the fortsetzen button it wont open the other step (its a form with 4 steps). I think it is because of the other jquery functions or libraries that the theme uses, I am frustrated I dont know what is causing this! Any ideas?

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  • Friday Fun: Play Tetris in Google Chrome

    - by Asian Angel
    Do you prefer playing classic games rather than the newer ones? Then get ready for some classic goodness with the JC-Tetris extension for Google Chrome. JC-Tetris in Action When you click on your new “JC-Tetris Toolbar Button” a new mini-Chrome window will open with the game displayed inside. This could be very convenient for those who would like or need to pause the game, minimize the window, and finish the game later. All that is needed to play are the four “Arrow Keys & the Space Bar”. Note: The text was small when the window first opened during our test so we used the “Ctrl +” keyboard shortcut twice to enlarge it. You may or may not experience similar text size results. Like any Tetris game things start out “quietly enough” but this one speeds up quickly, so be prepared! Notice that you do get a warning of what is waiting to drop onto the game board on the left side. Whenever you complete a game you will see this small window asking if you would like to enter a name for the score…you can easily ignore/bypass the window by clicking “Cancel”. Another game and a much better result. Do not be surprised if you feel that little burst of “rushed panic” at the end! Conclusion JC-Tetris is an enjoyable way to relax when you need a break. The ability to pause the game and minimize it for later makes it even better. Have fun! Links Download the JC-Tetris extension (Google Chrome Extensions) Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Friday Fun: Get Your Mario OnFriday Fun: First Person TetrisFriday Fun: Play MineSweeper in Google ChromeFriday Fun: Play 3D Rally Racing in Google ChromeHow to Make Google Chrome Your Default Browser 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 DVDFab 6 Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 Dark Side of the Moon (8-bit) Norwegian Life If Web Browsers Were Modes of Transportation Google Translate (for animals) Out of 100 Tweeters Roadkill’s Scan Port scans for open ports

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  • Oracle Enterprise Innovation Days

    - by Lara Ermacora
    Si è tenuto lo scorso 10 e 11 novembre l'appuntamento con l'innovazione marcato Oracle. L' Oracle Enterprise Innovation Days, alla sua seconda edizione, ha portato a Bologna tutte le aziende che pensano all'innovazione come leva principale per difendere e rafforzare la propria competitività. All'interno di un panorama, come quello odierno, complesso ed eterogeneo si è discusso a lungo di approcci strategici, soluzioni possibili e sono state portate d'esempio alcune esperienze significative. Fra gli ospiti dell'evento Rajan Krishnan, Vice President, Applications Product Development and Product Management for EMEA, ha presentato le strategie applicative di Oracle aprendo così la discussione sulla tematica principale della sessione plenaria: Oracle Fusion Applications. Il suo intervento è stato subito seguito da Enrico Pagliarini, giornalista del sole 24 ore che ha intervistato 3 diverse coppie Partner / Cliente per approfondire con loro i progetti altamente innovativi a cui le loro aziende hanno collaborato.  Si è parlato di Enel Servizi Srl che grazie ad Accenture ha portato la soluzione Syebel Energy CRM alla sua attuale versione 8.0 per una migliore gestione dei clienti all'interno del mercato libero caratterizzato dalla sua alta competitività; Prysmian che, a fronte dell'acquisizione della società olandese Draka, insieme a Reply, ha deciso di rimodellare il processo di Reporting Civilistico e Gestionale di gruppo, creando una nuova applicazione che soddisfi i requisiti della nuova organizzazione nascente; Kinexia e Waste Italia precedentemente parte del gruppo Unendo e ora divisesi l'una nel mercato dei rinnovabili l'altra in quello dello smaltimento rifiuti che con l'aiuto di Deloitte si sono dotate della soluzione full outsourcing JDE, a seguito di  una sw selection tra JDE, SAP e altre soluzioni italiane.Durante la cena altri due momenti hanno attirato l'attenzione dei partecipanti: la presentazione di Michele Stroligo, giovanissimo  Designer Team Member Oracle Racing e i Reference Customer Award ovvero le premiazioni dei clienti che si sono contraddistinti come migliori referenze nei diversi mercati con diversi prodotti. I premi sono stati assegnati a: FIAT, Enel, Boiron Laboratoires, Champion Europe, Mediaset, Coeclerici. Il pomeriggio ha interessato invece vari percorsi di approfondimento declinati sulle diverse figure professionali concludendosi con la presentazione del Tenente Colonello Marco Lant delle Frecce Tricolori, esempio di eccellezza italiana noto in tutto il mondo. La giornata si è conclusa con la cena di gala nel famoso palazzo Re Enzo che troneggia sulla piazza principale della città.  La mattinata del secondo giorno è stata interamente dedicata all'approfondimento degli argomenti di maggior interesse attraverso tavoli interattivi e workshop a cura dei partner Oracle. L'evento si è poi concluso con una serie di iniziative culturali dedicate ai congressisti. A breve sarà disponibile il sito dedicato all'evento con tutte le foto della giornata, i video degli interventi più salienti, potrete inoltre scaricare tutte le presentazioni fatte durante i lavori. Rimani aggiornato sull'Oracle Enterprise Innovation Days 2011 visitando il blog! Strategie Applicative di Oracle - Rajan Krishnan bologna nov 2011 View more presentations from Oracle Apps - Italia .

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  • Friday Fun: Play Your Favorite 8-Bit NES Games Online

    - by Mysticgeek
    We finally made it to another Friday and once again we bring you some NES fun to waste the rest of the day before the weekend. Today we take a look at a site that contains a lot of classic NES games you can play online. vNES VirtualNES.com contains hundreds of vintage NES games you can play online. If you’re old enough to remember, when the NES came out, it breathed life back into home console gaming. Here we will take a look at a few of the games they offer that will certainly bring back memories. Super Mario Bros 3 which is a personal favorite from the 8-bit era.   Play Super Mario Bros 3 Excite Bike was one of the coolest dirt bike racing games at the time as it even allowed you to create your own tracks.   Play ExciteBike Of course The Legend of Zelda was one of the first fantasy games many an hour have been spent on. Play The Legend of Zelda We’d be remiss if we didn’t bring up Pac-man since the game recently celebrated it’s 30th anniversary. Play Pac-Man If you don’t like the default keyboard controls you can change them on the Options page. Join their forum and more…this site will definitely bring you back to the good old 8-bit NES days.   The site contains hundreds of different games for you to get on your old school NES fix. If you’re sick of waiting for the whistle to blow, this site will bring you back to the good old days when you had nothing to do but mash buttons all day. Play NES Games at virtualnes.com Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Friday Fun: Get Your Mario OnFriday Fun: Go Retro with PacmanFriday Fun: Five More Time Wasting Online GamesFriday Fun: Online Flash Games to Usher in the WeekendFriday Fun: Online Sports Flash Games 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 HippoRemote Pro 2.2 Xobni Plus for Outlook All My Movies 5.9 CloudBerry Online Backup 1.5 for Windows Home Server Awesome World Cup Soccer Calendar Nice Websites To Watch TV Shows Online 24 Million Sites Windows Media Player Glass Icons (icons we like) How to Forecast Weather, without Gadgets Outlook Tools, one stop tweaking for any Outlook version

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  • My First 5K, the recap.

    - by Chris Williams
    It was a nice day to be outside (and trust me, those aren't words you'll hear from me often.) I got to the site around 7:45, hit the pre-reg table and got my number along with a goody bag full of coupons for racing gear, a water bottle and a tshirt. Oh and a map. Stashed all that stuff in the jeep, emptied my pockets of everything but my iPhone and my jeep key, and proceeded to walk around for a bit as people started showing up and signing in. It was fairly breezy, and there was definitely a storm coming... but it was anyone's guess on when it would actually arrive. It was interesting to see everyone who was participating. If I had to guess, I would say the event was 60-70% women, with a pretty broad distribution of age... as young as 13 to well over 60 (in both genders.) I don't know exactly how many folks were there, but it was well over 300. Eventually it was time to kick things off, and everyone made their way to the start line. All of the 5k and 10k runners were mixed together, starting at the same time. All the walkers and the people with strollers or dogs were in the back. It was pretty chaotic at first, once things started, but it thinned out fairly quickly. The 10k people and the hardcore runners sped ahead of everyone else and the walkers gradually lagged behind. The 5K course was pretty nice, winding around a lake down in Eden Prairie. The 10K course overlapped most of ours, but branched off a couple times too. I didn't run the whole time, but I started the race running and I ended it running, and did a mix of walking and running along the way. I met my goals, which were a) don't ever stop and b) don't be last. The weather managed to hold out for the entire race. It never got too hot, there was a nice breeze and it was mostly overcast. Pretty much perfect in my book. About 20-30 minutes after I left, the rain came down pretty hard. I had a good time, and will most likely do more of them. We'll see.

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  • F1 Pit Pragmatics

    - by mikef
    "I hate computers. No, really, I hate them. I love the communications they facilitate, I love the conveniences they provide to my life. but I actually hate the computers themselves." - Scott Merrill, 'I hate computers: confessions of a Sysadmin' If Scott's goal was to polarize opinion and trigger raging arguments over the 'real reasons why computers suck', then he certainly succeeded. Impassioned vitriol sits side-by-side with rational debate. Yet Scott's fundamental point is absolutely on the money - Computers are a means to an end. The IT industry is finally starting to put weight behind the notion that good User Experience is an absolutely crucial goal, a cause championed by the likes of Microsoft's Bill Buxton, and which Apple's increasingly ubiquitous touch screen interface exemplifies. However, that doesn't change the fact that, occasionally, you just have to man up and deal with complex systems. In fact, sometimes you just need to sacrifice everything else in the name of performance. You'll find a perfect example of this Faustian bargain in Trevor Clarke's fascinating look into the (diabolical) IT infrastructure of modern F1 racing - high performance, high availability. high everything. To paraphrase, each car has up to 100 sensors, transmitting around 30Gb of data over the course of a race (70% in real-time). This data is then processed by no less than 3 servers (per car) so that the engineers in the pit have access to telemetry, strategy information, timing feeds, a connection back to the operations room in the team's home base - the list goes on. All of this while the servers are exposed "to carbon dust, oil, vibration, rain, heat, [and] variable power". Now, this is admittedly an extreme context where there's no real choice but to use complex systems where ease-of-use is, at best, a secondary concern. The flip-side is seen in small-scale personal computing such as that seen in Apple's iDevices, which are incredibly intuitive but limited in their scope. In terms of what kinds of systems they prefer to use, I suspect that most SysAdmins find themselves somewhere along this axis of Power vs. Usability, and which end of this axis you resonate with also hints at where you think the IT industry should focus its energy. Do you see yourself in the F1 pit, making split-second decisions, wrestling with information flows and reticent hardware to bend them to your will? If so, I imagine you feel that computers are subtle tools which need to be tuned and honed, using the advanced knowledge possessed only by responsible SysAdmins (If you have an iPhone, I suspect it's jail-broken). If the machines throw enigmatic errors, it's the price of flexibility and raw power. Alternatively, would you prefer to have your role more accessible, with users empowered by knowledge, spreading the load of managing IT environments? In that case, then you want hardware and software to have User Experience as their primary focus, and are of the "means to an end" school of thought (you're probably also fed up with users not listening to you when you try and help). At its heart, the dichotomy is between raw power (which might be difficult to use) and ease-of-use (which might have some limitations, but you can be up and running immediately). Of course, the ultimate goal is a fusion of flexibility, power and usability all in one system. It's achievable in specific software environments, and Red Gate considers it a target worth aiming for, but in other cases it's a goal right up there with cold fusion. I think it'll be a long time before we see it become ubiquitous. In the meantime, are you Power-Hungry or a Champion of Usability? Cheers, Michael Francis Simple Talk SysAdmin Editor

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  • WPF zoom canvas and maintain scroll position

    - by Alex McBride
    I have a Canvas element, contained within a ScrollViewer, which I'm zooming using ScaleTransform. However, I want to be able to keep the scroll position of the viewer focused on the same part of the canvas after the zoom operation has finished. Currently when I zoom the canvas the scroll position of the viewer stays where it was and the place the user was viewing is lost. I'm still learning WPF, and I've been going backwards and forwards a bit on this, but I can't figure out a nice XAML based way to accomplish what I want. Any help in this matter would be greatly appreciated and would aid me in my learning process. Here is the kind of code I'm using... <Grid> <ScrollViewer Name="TrackScrollViewer" HorizontalScrollBarVisibility="Auto" VerticalScrollBarVisibility="Auto"> <Canvas Width="2560" Height="2560" Name="TrackCanvas"> <Canvas.LayoutTransform> <ScaleTransform ScaleX="{Binding ElementName=ZoomSlider, Path=Value}" ScaleY="{Binding ElementName=ZoomSlider, Path=Value}"/> </Canvas.LayoutTransform> <!-- Some complex geometry describing a motor racing circuit --> </Canvas> </ScrollViewer> <StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal" Margin="8" VerticalAlignment="Top" HorizontalAlignment="Left"> <Slider Name="ZoomSlider" Width="80" Minimum="0.1" Maximum="10" Value="1"/> <TextBlock Margin="4,0,0,0" VerticalAlignment="Center" Text="{Binding ElementName=ZoomSlider, Path=Value, StringFormat=F1}"/> </StackPanel> </Grid>

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  • Does anyone else get worn out using Scrum, finishing sprint after sprint?

    - by Simucal
    I'm with a pretty small startup and we started using a form of a Scrum/Agile development cycle. In many ways I enjoy Scrum. We have relatively short sprints (2 weeks) and I like the Burndown Chart to track the teams progress. I also like the Feature Board so I always know what I should be doing next. It feels good taking down a feature's card from the board, completing it and then putting it in the burn down pile. However, we are now entering in our 18th Sprint release cycle and I'm starting to feel a little burnt out. It isn't that I don't like job or my co-workers, it is just that these sprints are... well, sprints. From start to finish I literally feel like I'm racing against the clock to maintain our development velocity. When we are done with the sprint we spend one day planning the next sprints feature set and estimates and then off we go again. For people who work in a mature Agile/Scrum development process, is this normal? Or are we missing something? Is there normally time in a Scrum enviornment that is unassigned/untracked to get done some minor things and to clear your head?

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  • Virgin STI Help

    - by Mutuelinvestor
    I am working on a horse racing application and I'm trying to utilize STI to model a horse's connections. A horse's connections is comprised of his owner, trainer and jockey. Over time, connections can change for a variety of reasons: The horse is sold to another owner The owner switches trainers or jockey The horse is claimed by a new owner As it stands now, I have model this with the following tables: horses connections (join table) stakeholders (stakeholder has three sub classes: jockey, trainer & owner) Here are my clases and associations: class Horse < ActiveRecord::Base has_one :connection has_one :owner_stakeholder, :through => :connection has_one :jockey_stakeholder, :through => :connection has_one :trainer_stakeholder, :through => :connection end class Connection < ActiveRecord::Base belongs_to :horse belongs_to :owner_stakeholder belongs_to :jockey_stakeholder belongs_to :trainer_stakeholder end class Stakeholder < ActiveRecord::Base has_many :connections has_many :horses, :through => :connections end class Owner < Stakeholder # Owner specific code goes here. end class Jockey < Stakeholder # Jockey specific code goes here. end class Trainer < Stakeholder # Trainer specific code goes here. end One the database end, I have inserted a Type column in the connections table. Have I modeled this correctly. Is there a better/more elegant approach. Thanks in advance for you feedback. Jim

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  • Building Paypal based membership website - total noob - would appreciate help

    - by Ali
    this is a follow up on my question on paypal integration. I'm working ona membership site for racing fans. My membership site has 3 membership levels - free, gold and premium. When a user signs up he/she can gets a free membership on the spot but has the option to upgrade to a gold membership for 4 Dollars a month or a premium membership for 10 Dollars a month. I've gone through the paypal integration guide a few times though and have a vague understanding of how to get this to work. I think the recurring payments option would be fine enough - however I don't know how do I implement this in my system. Like when a user decides to go for a paid account i.e. Gold or premium from basic - what should I do on both my code side and on the paypal account side - I'd really appreciate if anyone would outline what I'd have to do here. Plus when a user decides to upgrade from lets say a Gold to a premium account - there is the issue of computing how much should be charged to upgrade his/her account eg: a user has been billed for 4 dollars and the next day opts to go for a premium account so assuming that the surplus for the rest of the month is 5 dollars and further from that all payments would be recurring 10 dollars monthly - how do I implement this? And in case a user decides to downgrade from a premium account of 10 dollars a month to a gold account of 4 dollars a month - how do I handle the surplus which would have to be refunded for that month alone and changing the membership? And like wise if someone wishes to cancel membership and go to having a free account - how do I refund whatever is owed and cancel the subscription. I'm sorry if it sounds like I'm asking to be spoon fed :( I'm quite new to this and this is for a client and I would really appreciate all the help here and really have to get this working right. Thanks again everyone - waiting for all your replies.

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  • Offline Mapping API

    - by Aaron M
    Are there any services available that allow me to manipulate maps in an offline setting? I am working on a project that requires me to take a map and based on features on the map, generate a game world. I have looked at a few of the API's for different providers: Google, ms, etc. The API's I looked seem to be strictly showing a user a map. I am looking for something that allows me to create a derivative of a map (the Gameworld), that will never be seen by the public, and is only used by the game engine. However one caveat is that I would like to be able to link the derivative created for use by the game engine, with something I can show the user. As an example. Think of a cross country racing sim. Users cannot control the vehicles directly in this game, they can only control the cars setup, driver, etc. I create a gameworld from a map. The gameworld data (driver position, etc) is overlayed onto a real map. A race might last several days. The only interaction users have with the real map is viewing their position on the map, and where they are in relation to the others. I don't want to violate the terms of the API here. I read Googles API TOS, and it seems to me that creating the gameworld would violdate their TOS. The features I really need are the following The ability to locate a specific place on the map by lat/long The ability/rights to grab those maps and save them as an image file temporarily for processing The ability/rights to store a gameworld that is based on the real map The ability to show a user a map with an overlay (this is optional. I can use googles API, or any other one that supports lat/long.)

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  • Should I pass a SqlDataReader by reference or not when passing it out to multiple threads.

    - by deroby
    Hi all, being new to c# I've run into this 'conundrum' when passing around a SqlDataReader between different threads. Without going into too much detail, the idea is to have a main thread fetching data from the database (a large recordset) and then have a helper-task run through this record by record and doing some stuff based upon the contents of this. There is no feedback to the recordset, it simply wades through until no records are left. This works fine, but given the nature of the job at hand it should be possible to have this job spread over different threads (CPUs) to maximize throughput (the order of execution is of no significance). The question then becomes, when I pass this recordset in a SqlDataReader, do I have to use ref or not ? It kind of boils down to the question : if I pass the object around without specifying ref, won't it create new copies in memory and have records processed n times ? Or, don't I risk having the record-position being moved forward while not all fields have been fully read yet ? The latter seems more like a 'data racing' issue and probably is covered by the lock()ing mechanism (or not?). My initial take on the problem was that it doesn't really hurt passing the variable using ref, yet as a colleague put it : "you only need ref when you're doing something wrong" =) Additionally using ref restricts me from applying a Using() construction too which isn't very nice either. I thus create a "basic" project that tackles the same approach but without the ref notation. Tests so far show that it works flawlessly on a Core2Duo (2cpu) using any number of threads, yet I'm still a bit wary... What do you experts think about this ? Use ref or not ? You can find the test-project here as it seems I can't upload it to this question directly ?!? ps: it's just a test-project and I'm new to c#, so please be gentle on me when breaking down the code =P

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  • How do i find if an object is before or after a waypoint?

    - by BoMann Andersen
    Im working on a racing game for a school project. Using Visual studio 10 pro, and Irrlicht. Sorry for bad grammar ., and its my first question so not sure if its done right. How i want it to work is that i make waypoints at different points on the track, and then i run my waypoint check to see if a car is past its next waypoint (the next it "needs" to go past), if yes then it updates the next waypoint, else nothing. The way i hope this will work is, i make a vector from n to n+1, then find the vector that is perpendicular to the first vector at n. Then i see if the object is in front or behind that vector. I found a Gamedev.net forumpost that helped me make this function: void Engine::checkWaypoint(Vehicle* vehicle) { btVector3 vector = waypoints[vehicle->nextWaypoint]; // n btVector3 nextVector = waypoints[vehicle->nextWaypoint + 1]; // n+1 vector = nextVector - vector; // First vector btVector3 pos = btVector3(vehicle->position.X,vehicle->position.Y,vehicle->position.Z); float product = vector.dot(pos - waypoints[vehicle->nextWaypoint]); // positiv = before, negative = behind if(product < 0) vehicle->nextWaypoint += 1; } Current bugs with this is: Updates the nextwaypoint more then ones without going past a new point. When it gets to the end and resets, it stops triggering on the first waypoints. So my questions: Is this an good way to do this? Did i do it right?

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  • The Top Ten Security Top Ten Lists

    - by Troy Kitch
    As a marketer, we're always putting together the top 3, or 5 best, or an assortment of top ten lists. So instead of going that route, I've put together my top ten security top ten lists. These are not only for security practitioners, but also for the average Joe/Jane; because who isn't concerned about security these days? Now, there might not be ten for each one of these lists, but the title works best that way. Starting with my number ten (in no particular order): 10. Top 10 Most Influential Security-Related Movies Amrit Williams pulls together a great collection of security-related movies. He asks for comments on which one made you want to get into the business. I would have to say that my most influential movie(s), that made me want to get into the business of "stopping the bad guys" would have to be the James Bond series. I grew up on James Bond movies: thwarting the bad guy and saving the world. I recall being both ecstatic and worried when Silicon Valley-themed "A View to A Kill" hit theaters: "An investigation of a horse-racing scam leads 007 to a mad industrialist who plans to create a worldwide microchip monopoly by destroying California's Silicon Valley." Yikes! 9. Top Ten Security Careers From movies that got you into the career, here’s a top 10 list of security-related careers. It starts with number then, Information Security Analyst and ends with number one, Malware Analyst. They point out the significant growth in security careers and indicate that "according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the field is expected to experience growth rates of 22% between 2010-2020. If you are interested in getting into the field, Oracle has many great opportunities all around the world.  8. Top 125 Network Security Tools A bit outside of the range of 10, the top 125 Network Security Tools is an important list because it includes a prioritized list of key security tools practitioners are using in the hacking community, regardless of whether they are vendor supplied or open source. The exhaustive list provides ratings, reviews, searching, and sorting. 7. Top 10 Security Practices I have to give a shout out to my alma mater, Cal Poly, SLO: Go Mustangs! They have compiled their list of top 10 practices for students and faculty to follow. Educational institutions are a common target of web based attacks and miscellaneous errors according to the 2014 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report.    6. (ISC)2 Top 10 Safe and Secure Online Tips for Parents This list is arguably the most important list on my list. The tips were "gathered from (ISC)2 member volunteers who participate in the organization’s Safe and Secure Online program, a worldwide initiative that brings top cyber security experts into schools to teach children ages 11-14 how to protect themselves in a cyber-connected world…If you are a parent, educator or organization that would like the Safe and Secure Online presentation delivered at your local school, or would like more information about the program, please visit here.” 5. Top Ten Data Breaches of the Past 12 Months This type of list is always changing, so it's nice to have a current one here from Techrader.com. They've compiled and commented on the top breaches. It is likely that most readers here were effected in some way or another. 4. Top Ten Security Comic Books Although mostly physical security controls, I threw this one in for fun. My vote for #1 (not on the list) would be Professor X. The guy can breach confidentiality, integrity, and availability just by messing with your thoughts. 3. The IOUG Data Security Survey's Top 10+ Threats to Organizations The Independent Oracle Users Group annual survey on enterprise data security, Leaders Vs. Laggards, highlights what Oracle Database users deem as the top 12 threats to their organization. You can find a nice graph on page 9; Figure 7: Greatest Threats to Data Security. 2. The Ten Most Common Database Security Vulnerabilities Though I don't necessarily agree with all of the vulnerabilities in this order...I like a list that focuses on where two-thirds of your sensitive and regulated data resides (Source: IDC).  1. OWASP Top Ten Project The Online Web Application Security Project puts together their annual list of the 10 most critical web application security risks that organizations should be including in their overall security, business risk and compliance plans. In particular, SQL injection risks continues to rear its ugly head each year. Oracle Audit Vault and Database Firewall can help prevent SQL injection attacks and monitor database and system activity as a detective security control. Did I miss any?

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  • HTG Explains: Are You Using IPv6 Yet? Should You Even Care?

    - by Chris Hoffman
    IPv6 is extremely important for the long-term health of the Internet. But is your Internet service provider providing IPv6 connectivity yet? Does your home network support it? Should you even care if you’re using IPv6 yet? Switching from IPv4 to IPv6 will give the Internet a much larger pool of IP addresses. It should also allow every device to have its own public IP address, rather than be hidden behind a NAT router. IPv6 is Important Long-Term IPv6 is very important for the long-term health of the Internet. There are only about 3.7 billion public IPv4 addresses. This may sound like a lot, but it isn’t even one IP address for each person on the planet. Considering people have more and more Internet-connected devices — everything from light bulbs to thermostats are starting to become network-connected — the lack of IP addresses is already proving to be a serious problem. This may not affect those of us in well-off developed countries just yet, but developing countries are already running out of IPv4 addresses. So, if you work at an Internet service provider, manage Internet-connected servers, or develop software or hardware — yes, you should care about IPv6! You should be deploying it and ensuring your software and hardware works properly with it. It’s important to prepare for the future before the current IPv4 situation becomes completely unworkable. But, if you’re just typical user or even a typical geek with a home Internet connection and a home network, should you really care about your home network just yet? Probably not. What You Need to Use IPv6 To use IPv6, you’ll need three things: An IPv6-Compatible Operating System: Your operating system’s software must be capable of using IPv6. All modern desktop operating systems should be compatible — Windows Vista and newer versions of Windows, as well as modern versions of Mac OS X and Linux. Windows XP doesn’t have IPv6 support installed by default, but you shouldn’t be using Windows XP anymore, anyway. A Router With IPv6 Support: Many — maybe even most — consumer routers in the wild don’t support IPv6. Check your router’s specifications details to see if it supports IPv6 if you’re curious. If you’re going to buy a new router, you’ll probably want to get one with IPv6 support to future-proof yourself. If you don’t have an IPv6-enabled router yet, you don’t need to buy a new one just to get it. An ISP With IPv6 Enabled:  Your Internet service provider must also have IPv6 set up on their end. Even if you have modern software and hardware on your end, your ISP has to provide an IPv6 connection for you to use it. IPv6 is rolling out steadily, but slowly — there’s a good chance your ISP hasn’t enabled it for you yet. How to Tell If You’re Using IPv6 The easiest way to tell if you have IPv6 connectivity is to visit a website like testmyipv6.com. This website allows you to connect to it in different ways — click the links near the top to see if you can connect to the website via different types of connections. If you can’t connect via IPv6, it’s either because your operating system is too old (unlikely), your router doesn’t support IPv6 (very possible), or because your ISP hasn’t enabled it for you yet (very likely). Now What? If you can connect to the test website above via IPv6, congratulations! Everything is working as it should. Your ISP is doing a good job of rolling out IPv6 rather than dragging its feet. There’s a good chance you won’t have IPv6 working properly, however. So what should you do about this — should you head to Amazon and buy a new IPv6-enabled router or switch to an ISP that offers IPv6? Should you use a “tunnel broker,” as the test site recommends, to tunnel into IPv6 via your IPv4 connection? Well, probably not. Typical users shouldn’t have to worry about this yet. Connecting to the Internet via IPv6 shouldn’t be perceptibly faster, for example. It’s important for operating system vendors, hardware companies, and Internet service providers to prepare for the future and get IPv6 working, but you don’t need to worry about this on your home network. IPv6 is all about future-proofing. You shouldn’t be racing to implement this at home yet or worrying about it too much — but, when you need to buy a new router, try to buy one that supports IPv6. Image Credit: Adobe of Chaos on Flickr, hisperati on Flickr, Vox Efx on Flickr     

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  • The Joy Of Hex

    - by Jim Giercyk
    While working on a mainframe integration project, it occurred to me that some basic computer concepts are slipping into obscurity. For example, just about anyone can tell you that a 64-bit processor is faster than a 32-bit processer. A grade school child could tell you that a computer “speaks” in ‘1’s and ‘0’s. Some people can even tell you that there are 8 bits in a byte. However, I have found that even the most seasoned developers often can’t explain the theory behind those statements. That is not a knock on programmers; in the age of IntelliSense, what reason do we have to work with data at the bit level? Many computer theory classes treat bit-level programming as a thing of the past, no longer necessary now that storage space is plentiful. The trouble with that mindset is that the world is full of legacy systems that run programs written in the 1970’s.  Today our jobs require us to extract data from those systems, regardless of the format, and that often involves low-level programming. Because it seems knowledge of the low-level concepts is waning in recent times, I thought a review would be in order.       CHARACTER: See Spot Run HEX: 53 65 65 20 53 70 6F 74 20 52 75 6E DECIMAL: 83 101 101 32 83 112 111 116 32 82 117 110 BINARY: 01010011 01100101 01100101 00100000 01010011 01110000 01101111 01110100 00100000 01010010 01110101 01101110 In this example, I have broken down the words “See Spot Run” to a level computers can understand – machine language.     CHARACTER:  The character level is what is rendered by the computer.  A “Character Set” or “Code Page” contains 256 characters, both printable and unprintable.  Each character represents 1 BYTE of data.  For example, the character string “See Spot Run” is 12 Bytes long, exclusive of the quotation marks.  Remember, a SPACE is an unprintable character, but it still requires a byte.  In the example I have used the default Windows character set, ASCII, which you can see here:  http://www.asciitable.com/ HEX:  Hex is short for hexadecimal, or Base 16.  Humans are comfortable thinking in base ten, perhaps because they have 10 fingers and 10 toes; fingers and toes are called digits, so it’s not much of a stretch.  Computers think in Base 16, with numeric values ranging from zero to fifteen, or 0 – F.  Each decimal place has a possible 16 values as opposed to a possible 10 values in base 10.  Therefore, the number 10 in Hex is equal to the number 16 in Decimal.  DECIMAL:  The Decimal conversion is strictly for us humans to use for calculations and conversions.  It is much easier for us humans to calculate that [30 – 10 = 20] in decimal than it is for us to calculate [1E – A = 14] in Hex.  In the old days, an error in a program could be found by determining the displacement from the entry point of a module.  Since those values were dumped from the computers head, they were in hex. A programmer needed to convert them to decimal, do the equation and convert back to hex.  This gets into relative and absolute addressing, a topic for another day.  BINARY:  Binary, or machine code, is where any value can be expressed in 1s and 0s.  It is really Base 2, because each decimal place can have a possibility of only 2 characters, a 1 or a 0.  In Binary, the number 10 is equal to the number 2 in decimal. Why only 1s and 0s?  Very simply, computers are made up of lots and lots of transistors which at any given moment can be ON ( 1 ) or OFF ( 0 ).  Each transistor is a bit, and the order that the transistors fire (or not fire) is what distinguishes one value from  another in the computers head (or CPU).  Consider 32 bit vs 64 bit processing…..a 64 bit processor has the capability to read 64 transistors at a time.  A 32 bit processor can only read half as many at a time, so in theory the 64 bit processor should be much faster.  There are many more factors involved in CPU performance, but that is the fundamental difference.    DECIMAL HEX BINARY 0 0 0000 1 1 0001 2 2 0010 3 3 0011 4 4 0100 5 5 0101 6 6 0110 7 7 0111 8 8 1000 9 9 1001 10 A 1010 11 B 1011 12 C 1100 13 D 1101 14 E 1110 15 F 1111   Remember that each character is a BYTE, there are 2 HEX characters in a byte (called nibbles) and 8 BITS in a byte.  I hope you enjoyed reading about the theory of data processing.  This is just a high-level explanation, and there is much more to be learned.  It is safe to say that, no matter how advanced our programming languages and visual studios become, they are nothing more than a way to interpret bits and bytes.  There is nothing like the joy of hex to get the mind racing.

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