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  • Friday Tips #4

    - by Chris Kawalek
    It's time once again for our Friday tip. Our question today is about how to determine how much video RAM to allocate for your virtual machines in a VDI deployment: Question: How much video RAM do I really need on my VirtualBox VMs? Answer by John Renko, Consulting Developer, Oracle: The answer is in the VirtualBox admin guide but it's seldom followed correctly, usually resulting in excess unused RAM to be allocated. The formula for determining how much RAM to allocate is shown below for a 32 bit fullscreen 22" monitor supporting 1680x1050: bit depth / 8 x horizontal res x vertical res / 1024 / 1024 = MB RAM Which translates to: 32 bits / 8 x 1680 x 1050 / 1024 / 1024 = 6.7 MB If you wanted to support dual 22" monitors, you would need twice that, so 13.4 MB. Anything in excess of what is needed is readily allocated but not used and would be better suited for running more VMs! Thanks John, that tip should help folks squeeze a little more out of their VDI servers. And remember, if you have a question for us, use hash tag #AskOracleVirtualization on Twitter. We'll see you next week with another tip! -Chris 

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  • Open source alternative for Canonical Landscape? [on hold]

    - by netvope
    From Canonical: Landscape is an easy-to-use systems management and monitoring service that enables you to manage multiple Ubuntu machines as easily as one through a simple Web-based interface. However, Landscape is not free. The RedHat counterpart Satellite has a free version called Spacewalk, but it doesn't work on Ubuntu. (There is an attempt to port Spacewalk to Debian, but it doesn't look like it's stable yet.) Are there any open source alternative to Landscape? Better yet, are there any Spacewalk-like software that works for both RedHat-based and Debian-based systems?

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  • Scaling Scrum within a group of 100s of programmers

    - by blunders
    Most Scrum teams lean toward 7-15 people **, though it's not clear how to scale Scrum among 100s of people, or how the effectiveness of a given team might be compared to another team within the group; meaning beyond just breaking the group into Scrum teams of 7-15 people, it's unclear how efforts between the teams are managed, compared, etc. Any suggestions related to either of these topics, or additional related topics that might be of more importance to account for in planning a large scale SCRUM grouping? ** In reviewing research related to the suggested size of software development teams, which appears to be the basis for the suggested Scrum team size, I found what appears to be an error in the research which oddly appears to show that bigger teams (15+ ppl), not smaller teams (7 ppl) are better. UPDATE, "Re: Scrum doesn't scale": Made huge amounts of progress on personally researching the topic, but thought I'd respond to the general belief of some that Scrum doesn't scale by citing a quote from Succeeding with Agile by Mike Cohn : Scrum Does Scale: You have to admire the intellectual honesty of the earliest agile authors. They were all very careful to say that agile methodolgies like Scrum were for small projects. This conservatism wasn’t because agile or Scrum turned out to be unsuited for large projects but because they hadn’t used these processes on large projects and so were reluctant to advise their readers to do so. But, in the years since the Agile Manifesto and the books that came shortly before and after it, we have learned that the principles and practices of agile development can be scaled up and applied on large projects, albeit it with a considerable amount of overhead. Fortunately, if large organizations use the techniques described regarding the role of the product owner, working with a shared product backlog, being mindful of dependencies, coordinating work among teams, and cultivating communities of practice, they can successfully scale a Scrum project. SOURCE: (ran across the book thanks to Ladislav Mrnka answer)

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  • Should I convert my AAC M4A files to MP3?

    - by j0rd4n
    Due to Apple, I have a large majority of my music files in the AAC M4A format. They do NOT have DRM so I don't have to worry about that. I'm getting tired of Apple products and really want to switch to a different brand player (and something more compatible with Linux). It appears most MP3 players support...well...MP3 and not AAC. Should I convert my library to be free of Apple and open to other players? Is this a lossless conversion? Can it be lossless? If I will lose quality, I'm not interested. Am I even doing the right thing? AAC is the better format, but I'm not seeing a lot of support for it yet. I'll be honest and say that I need some education in this department. Any helpful advice is most welcome.

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  • Keeping multiple root directories in a single partition

    - by intuited
    I'm working out a partition scheme for a new install. I'd like to keep the root filesystem fairly small and static, so that I can use LVM snapshots to do backups without having to allocate a ton of space for the snapshot. However, I'd also like to keep the number of total partitions small. Even with LVM, there's inevitably some wasted space and it's still annoying and vaguely dangerous to allocate more. So there seem to be a couple of different options: Have the partition that will contain bulky, variable files, like /srv, /var, and /home, be the root partition, and arrange for the core system state — /etc, /usr, /lib, etc. — to live in a second partition. These files can (I think) be backed up using a different backup scheme, and I don't think LVM snapshots will be necessary for them. The opposite: putting the big variable directories on the second partition, and having the essential system directories live on the root FS. Either of these options require that certain directories be pointers of some variety to subdirectories of a second partition. I'm aware of two different ways to do this: symlinks and bind-mounts. Is one better than the other for this purpose? Is there another option? Do any of the various Ubuntu installation media/strategies support this style of partition layout?

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  • Dual Screens with Widescreen monitors?

    - by nmuntz
    I want to build a new computer and purchase new monitor(s). At my old job I had two 20" 4:3 and I absolutely loved this setup. However, the stores in my country only seem to have widescreen monitors nowadays, and the only 4:3 LCDs i have been able to find are 17". My question is: Do widescreens suck for using them as dual monitors? Can anyone with this setup comment on their experience with having multiple widescreen monitors? Would it be better to get three 17" 4:3 LCDs instead of two widescreens? If i go with widescreens, should i go with the smallest ones i can find? Purchasing a single big widescreen monitor is not an option for me, since being able to maximize an app on a specific area of the screen is a must have for me and im not willing to use "hacky" apps for this purpose that do a crappy job. Thanks in advance for your advise.

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  • How to structure an application that combines WCF and WPF

    - by CiaranG
    I'm in the process of learning how to use WCF (Windows Communication Foundation) to allow a client/server desktop application to communicate. The application's UI will be implemented using WPF, and we will probably use SQL Server for our database. What I'm struggling with, is understanding how to structure such an application. From what I've read, there are three components of a WCF application (which in the examples I've seen have existed as separate projects): A WCF service A WCF service host A WCF service client My question then, is - should these projects solely implement the functionality of sending/receiving data from the client/server? Would it make better sense this way? Would it make sense to create a separate WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation) project to implement the UI for the application? And so, when I need to send/receive data from the client/server, I could simply invoke the operations provided in the WCF projects that I have created? For anyone who has built similar applications previously, perhaps you could explain what worked best for you in terms of structuring your application? For example, if I create a user registration page. When the user clicks the 'Register' button, the client application will need to send the data to the server. In this case, could I just invoke the methods provided in the WCF projects to send the data? Also, what data structures worked best for you when sending/receiving data? My initial thought is sending/receiving XML containing the data. Is this an option that is easy to implement? I realise that answers to this question may well be a matter of opinion - unless there are specific best practices that I'm not aware of. Thank you

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  • Vista: "connect to a network" does not load (can't set up VPN)

    - by Arkaaito
    I'm trying to connect to my office VPN from home. One small problem: my home desktop uses Vista (64-bit, Ultimate edition). On Vista, you're supposed to set up a VPN like so: Open the control panel Click on Network Click on "Connect to a Network" Configure a new connection of type "Office" The problem is, when I click on the link for "Connect to a Network", nothing happens. Can anyone suggest how I should go about troubleshooting this? (Or am I better off just upgrading to Windows 7?)

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  • User Friendly port knocker (port knocking client) for Windows?

    - by Ekevoo
    It seems "It's me" is the most popular port knocking client for windows… Except… it sucks. It works for console-savvy users such as me, but, unsurprisingly, all my users hate console windows. I know better than to force it upon them. I would love to have a nice port knocker for Windows that would be windowed, have launchers, and be easily provisionable (i.e. I tell my user to paste some settings or import some file by double clicking it). To be honest, just not being console-based would be enough.

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  • Extreme Optimization Numerical Libraries for .NET – Part 1 of n

    - by JoshReuben
    While many of my colleagues are fascinated in constructing the ultimate ViewModel or ServiceBus, I feel that this kind of plumbing code is re-invented far too many times – at some point in the near future, it will be out of the box standard infra. How many times have you been to a customer site and built a different variation of the same kind of code frameworks? How many times can you abstract Prism or reliable and discoverable WCF communication? As the bar is raised for whats bundled with the framework and more tasks become declarative, automated and configurable, Information Systems will expose a higher level of abstraction, forcing software engineers to focus on more advanced computer science and algorithmic tasks. I've spent the better half of the past decade building skills in .NET and expanding my mathematical horizons by working through the Schaums guides. In this series I am going to examine how these skillsets come together in the implementation provided by ExtremeOptimization. Download the trial version here: http://www.extremeoptimization.com/downloads.aspx Overview The library implements a set of algorithms for: linear algebra, complex numbers, numerical integration and differentiation, solving equations, optimization, random numbers, regression, ANOVA, statistical distributions, hypothesis tests. EONumLib combines three libraries in one - organized in a consistent namespace hierarchy. Mathematics Library - Extreme.Mathematics namespace Vector and Matrix Library - Extreme.Mathematics.LinearAlgebra namespace Statistics Library - Extreme.Statistics namespace System Requirements -.NET framework 4.0  Mathematics Library The classes are organized into the following namespace hierarchy: Extreme.Mathematics – common data types, exception types, and delegates. Extreme.Mathematics.Calculus - numerical integration and differentiation of functions. Extreme.Mathematics.Curves - points, lines and curves, including polynomials and Chebyshev approximations. curve fitting and interpolation. Extreme.Mathematics.Generic - generic arithmetic & linear algebra. Extreme.Mathematics.EquationSolvers - root finding algorithms. Extreme.Mathematics.LinearAlgebra - vectors , matrices , matrix decompositions, solvers for simultaneous linear equations and least squares. Extreme.Mathematics.Optimization – multi-d function optimization + linear programming. Extreme.Mathematics.SignalProcessing - one and two-dimensional discrete Fourier transforms. Extreme.Mathematics.SpecialFunctions

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  • Access Log Files

    - by Matt Watson
    Some of the simplest things in life make all the difference. For a software developer who is trying to solve an application problem, being able to access log files, windows event viewer, and other details is priceless. But ironically enough, most developers aren't even given access to them. Developers have to escalate the issue to their manager or a system admin to retrieve the needed information. Some companies create workarounds to solve the problem or use third party solutions.Home grown solution to access log filesSome companies roll their own solution to try and solve the problem. These solutions can be great but are not always real time, and don't account for the windows event viewer, config files, server health, and other information that is needed to fix bugs.VPN or FTP access to log file foldersCreate programs to collect log files and move them to a centralized serverModify code to write log files to a centralized placeExpensive solution to access log filesSome companies buy expensive solutions like Splunk or other log management tools. But in a lot of cases that is overkill when all the developers need is the ability to just look at log files, not do analytics on them.There has to be a better solution to access log filesStackify recently came up with a perfect solution to the problem. Their software gives developers remote visibility to all the production servers without allowing them to remote desktop in to the machines. They can get real time access to log files, windows event viewer, config files, and other things that developers need. This allows the entire development team to be more involved in the process of solving application defects.Check out their product to learn morehttp://www.Stackify.com

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  • My Thoughts on Reinventing the Wheel

    - by Matt Christian
    For awhile now I've known that XNA Game Studio contains built-in scene management however I still built my own for each engine.  Obviously it was redundant and probably inefficient due to the amount of searching and such I was required to do.  And even though I knew this, why did I continue to do it? I've always been very detail oriented, probably part of my mild OCD.  But when it comes to technology I believe in both reinventing the wheel and not reinventing it all at the same time.  Here's what I imagine most programmers doing.  When they pick up XNA, they're typically focused on 'I want to make a game with as little code as possible'.  This is great and XNA GS is a great tool, but what will it do for programmers that want to make games with XNA?  If they don't have any prior experience with other tools they will probably not ever learn scene management. So is it better to leverage code and risk not learning valuable techniques, or write it all yourself and fight through the headaches and hours of time you may spend on something already built?

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  • Drive configuration for 5 large databases

    - by Mr. Flibble
    I've got 5 databases, each 300GB, currently on a RAID 5 array consisting of 5 drives. All the databases are used heavily, at the same time, so drive speed is an issue. Would I see better performance if I got rid of the RAID 5 configuration and just put each database on a separate drive? The redundancy provided by RAID 5 is not necessary due to mirroring elsewhere. Will the server then be able to perform reads / writes to different databases drives in parallel? More so at least than when it's in RAID? This is all on Windows 2003 / SQL 2008.

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  • Writing cross-platforms Types, Interfaces and Classes/Methods in C++

    - by user827992
    I'm looking for the best solution to write cross-platform software, aka code that I write and that I have to interface with different libraries and platforms each time. What I consider the easiest part, correct me if I'm wrong, is the definition of new types, all I have to do is to write an hpp file with a list of typedefs, I can keep the same names for each new type across the different platforms so my codebase can be shared without any problem. typedefs also helps me to redefine a better scope for my types in my code. I will probably end up having something like this: include |-windows | |-types.hpp |-linux | |-types.hpp |-mac |-types.hpp For the interfaces I'm thinking about the same solution used for the types, a series of hpp files, probably I will write all the interfaces only once since they rely on the types and all "cross-platform portability" is ensured by the work done on the types. include | |-interfaces.hpp | |-windows | |-types.hpp |-linux | |-types.hpp |-mac | |-types.hpp For classes and methods I do not have a real answer, I would like to avoid 2 things: the explicit use of pointers the use of templates I want to avoid the use of the pointers because they can make the code less readable for someone and I want to avoid templates just because if I write them, I can't separate the interface from the definition. What is the best option to hide the use of the pointers? I would also like some words about macros and how to implement some OS-specifics calls and definitions.

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  • Firefox: box mode?

    - by Peter Mortensen
    What is the "box mode" (for a lack of a better word) in Firefox? How can I exit it again? If I hold down the Ctrl key and left click while the cursor is over some element on a page it becomes boxed: Firefox seems to go into some special mode. What is this mode for? How can I go back to normal mode? Installed add-ons in Firefox: BetterPrivacy 1.29, NoScript 1.9.0.6 and SQLite Manager 0.4.7. (Microsoft .NET Framework Assistent 1.0 is disabled.) Platform: Firefox 3.0.6, Windows XP 64 bit SP2, 8 GB RAM.

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  • Allow and restrict remote sql server access

    - by Michel
    Hi, I want to expose my sql server instance via the internet. I've been programming asp.net to sql server for a long time, but for the first time i'm hosting the sql server myself instead of the clients server. So what i want to do is move my sql server from my dev machine at home to a virtual server (yet to hire). But of course i don't want anyone to just enter my sql server but just a few persons. So what i was thinking was to allow only a few ip addresses to the sql server instance. Can anyone tell me how i can expose my sql server to the internet and limit the access to the instance to only a few ip addresses? And ehm, if you know even better ways to secure it, i'd be happy, because this is the first time for me :) Michel

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  • Will Your Brand Survive the Age of Digital Darwinism?

    - by Christie Flanagan
    It’s the end of business as usual.  Trends such as the mobile web, social media, gamification and real-time are forcing businesses to rethink the way they operate.  At the same time, people are embracing a new digital culture across ever expanding networks.  Together, these trends have given rise to a new breed of connected consumer, one that is ready to shake the very foundation of business today.  This is the age of Digital Darwinism – where society and technology evolve faster than your ability to adapt.  How well poised is your brand to survive and thrive in this new environment? Attend this webcast to hear Altimeter Group digital analyst and futurist, Brian Solis, discuss the rise of connected consumerism and learn how brands can survive Digital Darwinism by better understanding customer expectations, disruptive technology, and the new opportunities that arise from them. You will learn: How brands are being redefined in the digital consumer landscape and what they can do to create and steer these experiences Why consumer influence is growing and how businesses can use this to their advantage How to connect with a rising audience through new touchpoints between consumers, brands, and influencers Why you need to create a culture of change to earn trust, influence and significance among today’s connected customers Register now.

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  • How to Setup Your Verizon FIOS Router with OpenDNS or Google DNS

    - by The Geek
    Are you still using your service provider’s DNS servers? You might have heard about Comcast’s DNS servers dying and taking down the internet for anybody not using the more reliable OpenDNS or Google DNS. Here’s how to set it up on your Verizon FIOS router for every device on your network. There’s lots of other reasons to use OpenDNS or Google DNS other than just their rock-solid reliability—they are often much faster than your ISP’s DNS server, and in the case of OpenDNS, there’s loads of extra features like content filtering, typo correction, anti-phishing, and child protection controls. If you’re using Windows, be sure and check out some of our other articles on the subject: Speed Up Your Web Browsing with Google Public DNS Easily Add OpenDNS To Your Router Protect Your Kids Online Using Open DNS Otherwise, keep reading for how to set it up on your router. Latest Features How-To Geek ETC The Complete List of iPad Tips, Tricks, and Tutorials The 50 Best Registry Hacks that Make Windows Better The How-To Geek Holiday Gift Guide (Geeky Stuff We Like) LCD? LED? Plasma? The How-To Geek Guide to HDTV Technology The How-To Geek Guide to Learning Photoshop, Part 8: Filters Improve Digital Photography by Calibrating Your Monitor Deathwing the Destroyer – WoW Cataclysm Dragon Wallpaper Drag2Up Lets You Drag and Drop Files to the Web With Ease The Spam Police Parts 1 and 2 – Goodbye Spammers [Videos] Snow Angels Theme for Windows 7 Exploring the Jungle Ruins Wallpaper Protect Your Privacy When Browsing with Chrome and Iron Browser

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  • Oracle tuning optimizer index cost adj and optimizer index caching

    - by Darryl Braaten
    What is the correct way to set the optimizer index cost adj parameter for Oracle. As a developer I have observed huge performance improvements as this parameter is lowered. Common queries are reduced from 2 seconds to 200ms. There are lots of warnings on the net that lowering this value will cause dire issues with the database, but no detail is given on what will start going wrong. I am currently only seeing only an upside, much improved application performance and no downside. I need to better understand the possible negative repercussions of adjusting these parameters.

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  • Push or Pull Mobile Coupons?

    - by David Dorf
    Mobile phones allow consumers to receive coupons in context, which increases their relevance and therefore redemption rates. Using your current location, you can get coupons that can be redeemed nearby for the things you want now. Receiving a coupon for something you wanted last week or something you might buy next month just isn't as valuable. I previously talked about Placecast and their concept of pushing offers to mobile phones that transgress "geo-fences" around points of interest, like store locations. This push model is an automatic reminder there are good deals just up ahead. This model works well in dense cities where people walk, but I question how effective it will be in the suburbs where people are driving. McDonald's recently ran a campaign in Finland where they pushed offers to GPS devices when cars neared their restaurants. Amazingly, they achieved a 7% click-through rate. But 8coupons.com sees things differently. They prefer the pull model that requires customers to initiate a search for nearby coupons, and they've done some studies to better understand what "nearby" means. It turns out that there are concentric search circles that emanate from your home and work. From inner to outer, people search for food, drink, shopping, and entertainment. Intuitively, that feels about right. So the question is, do consumers prefer the push or pull model for offers? No doubt the market is big enough for both. These days its not good enough to just know who your customers are -- you also need to know where they are so you can catch them in the right moment. According to Borrell Associates, redemption rates of mobile coupons are 10x that of traditional mail and newspaper coupons. One thing is for sure; assuming 85% of consumers regularly spend money within 5 miles of home and work, location-based coupons make tons of sense.

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  • MySQL & tmpfs : performance

    - by Serty Oan
    I was wondering if, and how much, using tmpfs could improve MySQL performance and how it should be done ? My guess would be to do mount -t tmpfs -o size=256M /path/to/mysql/data/DatabaseName, and to use the database normally but maybe I'm wrong (I'm using MyISAM tables only). Will a hourly rsync between the tmpfs /path/to/mysql/data/DatabaseName and /path/to/mysql/data/DatabaseName_backup penalize performances ? If so, how should I make the backup of the tmpfs database ? So, is it a good way to do things, is there a better way or am I losing my time ?

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  • Thumbs Up or Thumbs Down – Intel Debuts Prototype Palm-Reading Tech to Replace Passwords [Poll]

    - by Asian Angel
    This week Intel debuted prototype palm-reading tech that could serve as a replacement for our current password system. Our question for you today is do you think this is the right direction to go for better security or do you feel this is a mistake? Photo courtesy of Jane Rahman. Needless to say password security breaches have been a hot topic as of late, so perhaps a whole new security model is in order. It would definitely eliminate the need to remember a large volume of passwords along with circumventing the problem of poor password creation/selection. At the same time the new technology would still be in the ‘early stages’ of development and may not work as well as people would like. Long-term refinement would definitely improve its performance, but would it really be worth pursuing versus the actual benefits? From the blog post: Intel researcher Sridhar Iyendar demonstrated the technology at Intel’s Developer Forum this week. Waving a hand in front of a “palm vein” detector on a computer, one of Iyendar’s assistants was logged into Windows 7, was able to view his bank account, and then once he moved away the computer locked Windows and went into sleeping mode. How to Get Pro Features in Windows Home Versions with Third Party Tools HTG Explains: Is ReadyBoost Worth Using? HTG Explains: What The Windows Event Viewer Is and How You Can Use It

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  • ArchBeat Link-o-Rama for November 15, 2012

    - by Bob Rhubart
    WLST Starting and Stopping a WebLogic Environment | Rene van Wijk Oracle ACE Rene van Wijk explores how to start a server with as little input as possible. Developing and Enforcing a BYOD Policy | Darin Pendergraft Darin Pendergraft's post includes links to a recent Mobile Access Policy Survey by SANS as well as registration information for a Nov 15 webcast featuring security expert Tony DeLaGrange from Secure Ideas, SANS instructor, attorney and technology law expert Ben Wright, and Oracle IDM product manager Lee Howarth. Cloud Integration White Paper Now Available |Bruce Tierney Bruce Tierney shares an overview of Cloud Integration - A Comprehensive Solution, a new white paper he co-authored with David Baum, Rajesh Raheja, Bruce Tierney, and Vijay Pawar. My iPad & This Cloud Thing | Floyd Teter Oracle ACE Director Floyd Teter explains why the Cloud is making it possible for him to use his iPad for tasks previously relegated to his laptop, and why this same scenario is likely to play out for a great many people. 3 steps to a cloud database strategy that works | InfoWorld "Every day, cloud-based databases add more features, decrease in cost, and become better at handling prime-time business," says InfoWorld blogger David Linthicum. "However, enterprise IT is reluctant to move data to public clouds, citing the tried-and-true excuses of security, privacy, and compliance. Although some have valid points, their reasons often boil down to 'I don't wanna.'" Oracle VM Templates for EBS 12.1.3 for Exalogic Now Available | Elke Phelps "The templates contain all the required elements to create an Oracle E-Business Suite R12 demonstration system on an Exalogic server," says Elke Phelps. "You can use these templates to quickly build an EBS 12.1.3 demonstration environment, bypassing the operating system and the software install (via the EBS Rapid Install)." Thought for the Day "A good plan executed today always beats a perfect plan executed tomorrow." — George S. Patton (November 11, 1885 - December 21, 1945) Source: SoftwareQuotes.com

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  • How to Share Links Between Any Browser and Any Smartphone

    - by Justin Garrison
    It happens all the time, you find an article to read but then nature calls. Do you take your laptop with you? With site to phone you can share links between any browser and any smartphone with a single click. If you have Android you may be familiar with this functionality with Google’s Chrome to phone, or with webOS’ Neato! But what if you have an iPhone, Blackberry or Windows Phone 7 device? That is where site to phone comes in handy. It not only supports every major mobile smartphone operating system, but it also supports every major web browser Latest Features How-To Geek ETC The Complete List of iPad Tips, Tricks, and Tutorials The 50 Best Registry Hacks that Make Windows Better The How-To Geek Holiday Gift Guide (Geeky Stuff We Like) LCD? LED? Plasma? The How-To Geek Guide to HDTV Technology The How-To Geek Guide to Learning Photoshop, Part 8: Filters Improve Digital Photography by Calibrating Your Monitor These 8-Bit Mario Wood Magnets Put Video Games on Your Fridge Christmas Themes 4 Pack for Chrome and Iron Browser Enjoy the First Total Lunar Eclipse in 372 Years This Evening Gmail’s Free Calling Extended Through 2011 Voice Search Brings Android-Style Voice Search to Google Chrome X-Mas Origins: Santa – Fun X-Men and Santa Mashup [Video]

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  • Checkers AI Algorithm

    - by John
    I am making an AI for my checkers game and I'm trying to make it as hard as possible. Here is the current criteria for a move on the hardest difficulty: 1: Look For A Block: This is when a piece is being threatened and another piece can be moved in behind it to protect it. Here is an example: Black Moves |W| |W| |W| |W| | | |W| |W| |W| |W| |W| | | |W| |W| | | | | |W| | | | | | | | | |B| | | | | |B| | | |B| |B| |B| |B| |B| |B| | | |B| |B| |B| |B| White Blocks |W| |W| |W| |W| | | |W| | | |W| |W| |W| |W| |W| |W| | | | | |W| | | | | | | | | |B| | | | | |B| | | |B| |B| |B| |B| |B| |B| | | |B| |B| |B| |B| 2: Move pieces out of danger: if any piece is being threatened, and a piece cannot block for that piece, then it will attempt to move out of the way. If the piece cannot move out of the way without still being in danger, the computer ignores the piece. 3: If the computer player owns any kings, it will attempt to 'hunt down' enemy pieces on the board, if no moves can be made that won't in danger the king or any other pieces, the computer ignores this rule. 4: Any piece that is owned by the computer that is in column 1 or 6 will attempt to go to a side. When a piece is in column 0 or 7, it is in a very strategic position because it cannot get captured while it is in either of these columns 5: It makes an educated random move, the move will not indanger the piece that is moving or any piece that is on the board. 6: If none of the above are possible it makes a random move. This question is not really specific to any language but if all examples could be in Java that would be great, considering this app is written in android. Does anyone see any room for improvement in this algorithm? Anything that would make it better at playing checkers?

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