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  • How to automatically remove Flash history/privacy trail? Or stop Flash from storing it?

    - by Arjan van Bentem
    Many people have heard about third-party cookies, and some browsers even block those by default. Some people may even be using Private Browsing modes. However, only few seem to realise that Adobe's Flash player also leaves a cross-browser trail on your local hard drive, and allows for sending cookie-like information back to the server, including third-party sites. And because it is a plugin, Flash does not take any of the browser's privacy settings into account. Sorry for the long post, but first some details about why using Flash raises a privacy concern, followed by the results of my tests: The Flash player keeps a cross-browser history of the domain names of the Flash-sites your computer has visited. Unlike your browser's history, this history is not limited to a certain number of days. History is also recorded while using so-called Private Browsing modes. It is stored on your hard drive (though, as described below, without going to Adobe's site you won't know what is stored). I am not sure if any date and time information is kept about each visit, but to see the domain names: right-click on some Flash content, open the settings dialog, and click the Help icon or click the Advanced button within the Privacy tab. This opens a browser to the help pages on Adobe.com, where one can click through to the Website Storage Settings panel. One can clear the existing list, but one cannot stop it from being recorded again. Flash allows for storing data on your local hard drive, using so-called Local Shared Objects (aka "Flash Cookies"). Just like HTTP cookies, this data can be sent back to the server, for tracking purposes. They are cross-browser, have no expiration date, and no user defined maximum lifetime can be set in the Flash preferences either. These not being HTTP cookies, they are (of course) not blocked by a browser's cookies preferences and are not removed when the normal HTTP cookies are deleted. Adobe has announced that version 10.1 will obey Private Browsing in most popular browsers, but unfortunately no word about also removing the data whenever normal cookies are deleted manually. And its implementation might be confusing: [..] if the browser is in normal browsing mode when the Flash Player instance is created, then that particular instance will forever be in normal browsing mode (private browsing is turned off). Accordingly, toggling private browsing on or off without refreshing the page or closing the private browsing window will not impact Flash Player. Local Shared Objects are not limited to the site you visit, and third-party storage is enabled by default. At the Global Storage Settings panel one can deselect the default Allow third-party Flash content to store data on your computer. Because of the cross-browser and expiration-less nature (and the fact that few people know about it), I feel that the cross-browser third-party Flash Cookies are more dangerous for visitor tracking than third-party normal HTTP cookies. They are even used to restore plain HTTP cookies that the user tried to delete: "All advertisers, websites and networks use cookies for targeted advertising, but cookies are under attack. According to current research they are being erased by 40% of users creating serious problems," says Mookie Tenembaum, founder of United Virtualities. "From simple frequency capping to the more sophisticated behavioral targeting, cookies are an essential part of any online ad campaign. PIE ["Persistent Identification Element"] will give publishers and third-party providers a persistent backup to cookies effectively rendering them unassailable", adds Tenembaum. [..] To justify this tracking mechanism, UV's Tenembaum said, "The user is not proficient enough in technology to know if the cookie is good or bad, or how it works." When selecting None (zero KB) for Specify the amount of disk space that website websites that you haven't yet visited can use to store information on your computer, and checking Never ask again then some sites do not work. However, the same site might work when setting it to None but without selecting Never ask again, and then choose Deny whenever prompted. Both options would result in zero KB of data being allowed, but the behaviour differs. The plugin also provides a Flash Player cache for Adobe-signed files. I guess these files are not an issue. So: how to automatically delete that information? On a Mac, one can find a settings.sol file and a folder for each visited Flash-website in: $HOME/Library/Preferences/Macromedia/Flash Player/macromedia.com/support/flashplayer/sys/ Deleting the settings.sol file and all the folders in sys, removes the trail from the settings panels. However, the actual Local Shared Ojects are elsewhere (see Wikipedia for locations on other operating systems), in a randomly named subfolder of: $HOME/Library/Preferences/Macromedia/Flash Player/#SharedObjects But then: how to remove this automatically? Simply removing the folders and the settings.sol file every now and then (like by using launchd or Windows' Task Scheduler) may interfere with active browsers. Or is it safe to assume that, given the cross-browser nature, the plugin would not care if things are removed while it is active? Only clearing during log-off may not work for those who hibernate all the time. Firefox users can install BetterPrivacy or Objection to delete the Local Shared Objects (for all others browsers as well). I don't know if that also deletes the trail of website domain names. Or: how to stop Flash from storing a history trail? Change of plans: I'm currently testing prohibiting Flash to write to its own sys and #SharedObjects folders. So far, Flash has not tried to restore permissions (though, when deleting the folders, Flash will of course recreate them). I've not encountered any problems but this may take some while to validate, using multiple browsers and sites. I've not yet found a log that reports errors. On a Mac: cd "$HOME/Library/Preferences/Macromedia/Flash Player/macromedia.com/support/flashplayer" rm -r sys/* chmod u-w sys cd "$HOME/Library/Preferences/Macromedia/Flash Player" # preserve the randomly named subfolders (only preserving the latest would suffice; see below) rm -r \#SharedObjects/*/* chmod -R u-w \#SharedObjects I guess the above chmods cannot be achieved on an old Windows system (I'm not sure about XP and Vista?). Though maybe on Windows one could replace the folders sys and #SharedObjects with dummy files with the same names? Anyone? Obviously, keeping Flash from storing those Local Shared Objects for all sites may cause problems. Some test results (Flash 10 on Mac OS X): When blocking the sys folder (even when leaving the #SharedObjects folder writable) then YouTube won't remember your volume settings while viewing multiple videos. Temporarily allowing write access to the blocked folders while visiting trusted sites (to only create folders for domains you like, maybe including references in settings.sol) solves that. This way, for YouTube, Flash could be allowed to write to sys/#s.ytimg.com and #SharedObjects/s.ytimg.com, while Flash could not create new folders for other domains. One may also need to make settings.sol read-only afterwards, or delete it again. When blocking both the sys and #SharedObjects folders, YouTube and Vimeo work fine (though they might not remember any settings). However, Bits on the Run refuses to even show the video player. This is solved by temporarily unblocking the #SharedObjects folder, to allow Flash to create a subfolder with some random name. Within this folder, it would create yet another folder for the current Flash website (content.bitsontherun.com). Removing that website-specific folder, and blocking both #SharedObjects and the randomly named subfolder, still seems to allow Bits on the Run to operate, even though it still cannot write anything to disk. So: the existence of the randomly named subfolder (even when write protected) is important for some sites. When I first found the #SharedObjects folder, it held many subfolders with random names, some created on the very same day. I wonder when Flash decides it wants a new folder, and how it determines (and remembers) that random name. For a moment I considered not blocking write access for sys and #SharedObjects, but explicitly creating read-only folders for well-known third-party tracking domains (like based on a list from, for example, AdBlock Plus). That way, any other domain could still create Local Shared Objects. But the list would be long, and the domains from AdBlock Plus are probably all third-party domains anyway, so disabling Allow third-party Flash content to store data on your computer might have the very same result. Any experience anyone? (Final notes: if the above links to the settings panels do not work in the future, then use the URL that is known to Flash player as a starting point: www.adobe.com/go/settingsmanager. See also "You Deleted Your Cookies? Think Again" at Wired.com -- which uses Flash cookies itself as well... For the very suspicious using Time Machine: you may want to exclude both folders, for each user, and remove the trace that is already on your backup.)

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  • Conceal packet loss in PCM stream

    - by ZeroDefect
    I am looking to use 'Packet Loss Concealment' to conceal lost PCM frames in an audio stream. Unfortunately, I cannot find a library that is accessible without all the licensing restrictions and code bloat (...up for some suggestions though). I have located some GPL code written by Steve Underwood for the Asterisk project which implements PLC. There are several limitations; although, as Steve suggests in his code, his algorithm can be applied to different streams with a bit of work. Currently, the code works with 8kHz 16-bit signed mono streams. Variations of the code can be found through a simple search of Google Code Search. My hope is that I can adapt the code to work with other streams. Initially, the goal is to adjust the algorithm for 8+ kHz, 16-bit signed, multichannel audio (all in a C++ environment). Eventually, I'm looking to make the code available under the GPL license in hopes that it could be of benefit to others... Attached is the code below with my efforts. The code includes a main function that will "drop" a number of frames with a given probability. Unfortunately, the code does not quite work as expected. I'm receiving EXC_BAD_ACCESS when running in gdb, but I don't get a trace from gdb when using 'bt' command. Clearly, I'm trampimg on memory some where but not sure exactly where. When I comment out the *amdf_pitch* function, the code runs without crashing... int main (int argc, char *argv[]) { std::ifstream fin("C:\\cc32kHz.pcm"); if(!fin.is_open()) { std::cout << "Failed to open input file" << std::endl; return 1; } std::ofstream fout_repaired("C:\\cc32kHz_repaired.pcm"); if(!fout_repaired.is_open()) { std::cout << "Failed to open output repaired file" << std::endl; return 1; } std::ofstream fout_lossy("C:\\cc32kHz_lossy.pcm"); if(!fout_lossy.is_open()) { std::cout << "Failed to open output repaired file" << std::endl; return 1; } audio::PcmConcealer Concealer; Concealer.Init(1, 16, 32000); //Generate random numbers; srand( time(NULL) ); int value = 0; int probability = 5; while(!fin.eof()) { char arr[2]; fin.read(arr, 2); //Generate's random number; value = rand() % 100 + 1; if(value <= probability) { char blank[2] = {0x00, 0x00}; fout_lossy.write(blank, 2); //Fill in data; Concealer.Fill((int16_t *)blank, 1); fout_repaired.write(blank, 2); } else { //Write data to file; fout_repaired.write(arr, 2); fout_lossy.write(arr, 2); Concealer.Receive((int16_t *)arr, 1); } } fin.close(); fout_repaired.close(); fout_lossy.close(); return 0; } PcmConcealer.hpp /* * Code adapted from Steve Underwood of the Asterisk Project. This code inherits * the same licensing restrictions as the Asterisk Project. */ #ifndef __PCMCONCEALER_HPP__ #define __PCMCONCEALER_HPP__ /** 1. What does it do? The packet loss concealment module provides a suitable synthetic fill-in signal, to minimise the audible effect of lost packets in VoIP applications. It is not tied to any particular codec, and could be used with almost any codec which does not specify its own procedure for packet loss concealment. Where a codec specific concealment procedure exists, the algorithm is usually built around knowledge of the characteristics of the particular codec. It will, therefore, generally give better results for that particular codec than this generic concealer will. 2. How does it work? While good packets are being received, the plc_rx() routine keeps a record of the trailing section of the known speech signal. If a packet is missed, plc_fillin() is called to produce a synthetic replacement for the real speech signal. The average mean difference function (AMDF) is applied to the last known good signal, to determine its effective pitch. Based on this, the last pitch period of signal is saved. Essentially, this cycle of speech will be repeated over and over until the real speech resumes. However, several refinements are needed to obtain smooth pleasant sounding results. - The two ends of the stored cycle of speech will not always fit together smoothly. This can cause roughness, or even clicks, at the joins between cycles. To soften this, the 1/4 pitch period of real speech preceeding the cycle to be repeated is blended with the last 1/4 pitch period of the cycle to be repeated, using an overlap-add (OLA) technique (i.e. in total, the last 5/4 pitch periods of real speech are used). - The start of the synthetic speech will not always fit together smoothly with the tail of real speech passed on before the erasure was identified. Ideally, we would like to modify the last 1/4 pitch period of the real speech, to blend it into the synthetic speech. However, it is too late for that. We could have delayed the real speech a little, but that would require more buffer manipulation, and hurt the efficiency of the no-lost-packets case (which we hope is the dominant case). Instead we use a degenerate form of OLA to modify the start of the synthetic data. The last 1/4 pitch period of real speech is time reversed, and OLA is used to blend it with the first 1/4 pitch period of synthetic speech. The result seems quite acceptable. - As we progress into the erasure, the chances of the synthetic signal being anything like correct steadily fall. Therefore, the volume of the synthesized signal is made to decay linearly, such that after 50ms of missing audio it is reduced to silence. - When real speech resumes, an extra 1/4 pitch period of sythetic speech is blended with the start of the real speech. If the erasure is small, this smoothes the transition. If the erasure is long, and the synthetic signal has faded to zero, the blending softens the start up of the real signal, avoiding a kind of "click" or "pop" effect that might occur with a sudden onset. 3. How do I use it? Before audio is processed, call plc_init() to create an instance of the packet loss concealer. For each received audio packet that is acceptable (i.e. not including those being dropped for being too late) call plc_rx() to record the content of the packet. Note this may modify the packet a little after a period of packet loss, to blend real synthetic data smoothly. When a real packet is not available in time, call plc_fillin() to create a sythetic substitute. That's it! */ /*! Minimum allowed pitch (66 Hz) */ #define PLC_PITCH_MIN(SAMPLE_RATE) ((double)(SAMPLE_RATE) / 66.6) /*! Maximum allowed pitch (200 Hz) */ #define PLC_PITCH_MAX(SAMPLE_RATE) ((SAMPLE_RATE) / 200) /*! Maximum pitch OLA window */ //#define PLC_PITCH_OVERLAP_MAX(SAMPLE_RATE) ((PLC_PITCH_MIN(SAMPLE_RATE)) >> 2) /*! The length over which the AMDF function looks for similarity (20 ms) */ #define CORRELATION_SPAN(SAMPLE_RATE) ((20 * (SAMPLE_RATE)) / 1000) /*! History buffer length. The buffer must also be at leat 1.25 times PLC_PITCH_MIN, but that is much smaller than the buffer needs to be for the pitch assessment. */ //#define PLC_HISTORY_LEN(SAMPLE_RATE) ((CORRELATION_SPAN(SAMPLE_RATE)) + (PLC_PITCH_MIN(SAMPLE_RATE))) namespace audio { typedef struct { /*! Consecutive erased samples */ int missing_samples; /*! Current offset into pitch period */ int pitch_offset; /*! Pitch estimate */ int pitch; /*! Buffer for a cycle of speech */ float *pitchbuf;//[PLC_PITCH_MIN]; /*! History buffer */ short *history;//[PLC_HISTORY_LEN]; /*! Current pointer into the history buffer */ int buf_ptr; } plc_state_t; class PcmConcealer { public: PcmConcealer(); ~PcmConcealer(); void Init(int channels, int bit_depth, int sample_rate); //Process a block of received audio samples. int Receive(short amp[], int frames); //Fill-in a block of missing audio samples. int Fill(short amp[], int frames); void Destroy(); private: int amdf_pitch(int min_pitch, int max_pitch, short amp[], int channel_index, int frames); void save_history(plc_state_t *s, short *buf, int channel_index, int frames); void normalise_history(plc_state_t *s); /** Holds the states of each of the channels **/ std::vector< plc_state_t * > ChannelStates; int plc_pitch_min; int plc_pitch_max; int plc_pitch_overlap_max; int correlation_span; int plc_history_len; int channel_count; int sample_rate; bool Initialized; }; } #endif PcmConcealer.cpp /* * Code adapted from Steve Underwood of the Asterisk Project. This code inherits * the same licensing restrictions as the Asterisk Project. */ #include "audio/PcmConcealer.hpp" /* We do a straight line fade to zero volume in 50ms when we are filling in for missing data. */ #define ATTENUATION_INCREMENT 0.0025 /* Attenuation per sample */ #if !defined(INT16_MAX) #define INT16_MAX (32767) #define INT16_MIN (-32767-1) #endif #ifdef WIN32 inline double rint(double x) { return floor(x + 0.5); } #endif inline short fsaturate(double damp) { if (damp > 32767.0) return INT16_MAX; if (damp < -32768.0) return INT16_MIN; return (short)rint(damp); } namespace audio { PcmConcealer::PcmConcealer() : Initialized(false) { } PcmConcealer::~PcmConcealer() { Destroy(); } void PcmConcealer::Init(int channels, int bit_depth, int sample_rate) { if(Initialized) return; if(channels <= 0 || bit_depth != 16) return; Initialized = true; channel_count = channels; this->sample_rate = sample_rate; ////////////// double min = PLC_PITCH_MIN(sample_rate); int imin = (int)min; double max = PLC_PITCH_MAX(sample_rate); int imax = (int)max; plc_pitch_min = imin; plc_pitch_max = imax; plc_pitch_overlap_max = (plc_pitch_min >> 2); correlation_span = CORRELATION_SPAN(sample_rate); plc_history_len = correlation_span + plc_pitch_min; ////////////// for(int i = 0; i < channel_count; i ++) { plc_state_t *t = new plc_state_t; memset(t, 0, sizeof(plc_state_t)); t->pitchbuf = new float[plc_pitch_min]; t->history = new short[plc_history_len]; ChannelStates.push_back(t); } } void PcmConcealer::Destroy() { if(!Initialized) return; while(ChannelStates.size()) { plc_state_t *s = ChannelStates.at(0); if(s) { if(s->history) delete s->history; if(s->pitchbuf) delete s->pitchbuf; memset(s, 0, sizeof(plc_state_t)); delete s; } ChannelStates.erase(ChannelStates.begin()); } ChannelStates.clear(); Initialized = false; } //Process a block of received audio samples. int PcmConcealer::Receive(short amp[], int frames) { if(!Initialized) return 0; int j = 0; for(int k = 0; k < ChannelStates.size(); k++) { int i; int overlap_len; int pitch_overlap; float old_step; float new_step; float old_weight; float new_weight; float gain; plc_state_t *s = ChannelStates.at(k); if (s->missing_samples) { /* Although we have a real signal, we need to smooth it to fit well with the synthetic signal we used for the previous block */ /* The start of the real data is overlapped with the next 1/4 cycle of the synthetic data. */ pitch_overlap = s->pitch >> 2; if (pitch_overlap > frames) pitch_overlap = frames; gain = 1.0 - s->missing_samples * ATTENUATION_INCREMENT; if (gain < 0.0) gain = 0.0; new_step = 1.0/pitch_overlap; old_step = new_step*gain; new_weight = new_step; old_weight = (1.0 - new_step)*gain; for (i = 0; i < pitch_overlap; i++) { int index = (i * channel_count) + j; amp[index] = fsaturate(old_weight * s->pitchbuf[s->pitch_offset] + new_weight * amp[index]); if (++s->pitch_offset >= s->pitch) s->pitch_offset = 0; new_weight += new_step; old_weight -= old_step; if (old_weight < 0.0) old_weight = 0.0; } s->missing_samples = 0; } save_history(s, amp, j, frames); j++; } return frames; } //Fill-in a block of missing audio samples. int PcmConcealer::Fill(short amp[], int frames) { if(!Initialized) return 0; int j =0; for(int k = 0; k < ChannelStates.size(); k++) { short *tmp = new short[plc_pitch_overlap_max]; int i; int pitch_overlap; float old_step; float new_step; float old_weight; float new_weight; float gain; short *orig_amp; int orig_len; orig_amp = amp; orig_len = frames; plc_state_t *s = ChannelStates.at(k); if (s->missing_samples == 0) { // As the gap in real speech starts we need to assess the last known pitch, //and prepare the synthetic data we will use for fill-in normalise_history(s); s->pitch = amdf_pitch(plc_pitch_min, plc_pitch_max, s->history + plc_history_len - correlation_span - plc_pitch_min, j, correlation_span); // We overlap a 1/4 wavelength pitch_overlap = s->pitch >> 2; // Cook up a single cycle of pitch, using a single of the real signal with 1/4 //cycle OLA'ed to make the ends join up nicely // The first 3/4 of the cycle is a simple copy for (i = 0; i < s->pitch - pitch_overlap; i++) s->pitchbuf[i] = s->history[plc_history_len - s->pitch + i]; // The last 1/4 of the cycle is overlapped with the end of the previous cycle new_step = 1.0/pitch_overlap; new_weight = new_step; for ( ; i < s->pitch; i++) { s->pitchbuf[i] = s->history[plc_history_len - s->pitch + i]*(1.0 - new_weight) + s->history[plc_history_len - 2*s->pitch + i]*new_weight; new_weight += new_step; } // We should now be ready to fill in the gap with repeated, decaying cycles // of what is in pitchbuf // We need to OLA the first 1/4 wavelength of the synthetic data, to smooth // it into the previous real data. To avoid the need to introduce a delay // in the stream, reverse the last 1/4 wavelength, and OLA with that. gain = 1.0; new_step = 1.0/pitch_overlap; old_step = new_step; new_weight = new_step; old_weight = 1.0 - new_step; for (i = 0; i < pitch_overlap; i++) { int index = (i * channel_count) + j; amp[index] = fsaturate(old_weight * s->history[plc_history_len - 1 - i] + new_weight * s->pitchbuf[i]); new_weight += new_step; old_weight -= old_step; if (old_weight < 0.0) old_weight = 0.0; } s->pitch_offset = i; } else { gain = 1.0 - s->missing_samples*ATTENUATION_INCREMENT; i = 0; } for ( ; gain > 0.0 && i < frames; i++) { int index = (i * channel_count) + j; amp[index] = s->pitchbuf[s->pitch_offset]*gain; gain -= ATTENUATION_INCREMENT; if (++s->pitch_offset >= s->pitch) s->pitch_offset = 0; } for ( ; i < frames; i++) { int index = (i * channel_count) + j; amp[i] = 0; } s->missing_samples += orig_len; save_history(s, amp, j, frames); delete [] tmp; j++; } return frames; } void PcmConcealer::save_history(plc_state_t *s, short *buf, int channel_index, int frames) { if (frames >= plc_history_len) { /* Just keep the last part of the new data, starting at the beginning of the buffer */ //memcpy(s->history, buf + len - plc_history_len, sizeof(short)*plc_history_len); int frames_to_copy = plc_history_len; for(int i = 0; i < frames_to_copy; i ++) { int index = (channel_count * (i + frames - plc_history_len)) + channel_index; s->history[i] = buf[index]; } s->buf_ptr = 0; return; } if (s->buf_ptr + frames > plc_history_len) { /* Wraps around - must break into two sections */ //memcpy(s->history + s->buf_ptr, buf, sizeof(short)*(plc_history_len - s->buf_ptr)); short *hist_ptr = s->history + s->buf_ptr; int frames_to_copy = plc_history_len - s->buf_ptr; for(int i = 0; i < frames_to_copy; i ++) { int index = (channel_count * i) + channel_index; hist_ptr[i] = buf[index]; } frames -= (plc_history_len - s->buf_ptr); //memcpy(s->history, buf + (plc_history_len - s->buf_ptr), sizeof(short)*len); frames_to_copy = frames; for(int i = 0; i < frames_to_copy; i ++) { int index = (channel_count * (i + (plc_history_len - s->buf_ptr))) + channel_index; s->history[i] = buf[index]; } s->buf_ptr = frames; return; } /* Can use just one section */ //memcpy(s->history + s->buf_ptr, buf, sizeof(short)*len); short *hist_ptr = s->history + s->buf_ptr; int frames_to_copy = frames; for(int i = 0; i < frames_to_copy; i ++) { int index = (channel_count * i) + channel_index; hist_ptr[i] = buf[index]; } s->buf_ptr += frames; } void PcmConcealer::normalise_history(plc_state_t *s) { short *tmp = new short[plc_history_len]; if (s->buf_ptr == 0) return; memcpy(tmp, s->history, sizeof(short)*s->buf_ptr); memcpy(s->history, s->history + s->buf_ptr, sizeof(short)*(plc_history_len - s->buf_ptr)); memcpy(s->history + plc_history_len - s->buf_ptr, tmp, sizeof(short)*s->buf_ptr); s->buf_ptr = 0; delete [] tmp; } int PcmConcealer::amdf_pitch(int min_pitch, int max_pitch, short amp[], int channel_index, int frames) { int i; int j; int acc; int min_acc; int pitch; pitch = min_pitch; min_acc = INT_MAX; for (i = max_pitch; i <= min_pitch; i++) { acc = 0; for (j = 0; j < frames; j++) { int index1 = (channel_count * (i+j)) + channel_index; int index2 = (channel_count * j) + channel_index; //std::cout << "Index 1: " << index1 << ", Index 2: " << index2 << std::endl; acc += abs(amp[index1] - amp[index2]); } if (acc < min_acc) { min_acc = acc; pitch = i; } } std::cout << "Pitch: " << pitch << std::endl; return pitch; } } P.S. - I must confess that digital audio is not my forte...

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  • How can I perform a normal postback on an ASP.NET page with AJAX history enabled?

    - by Nick
    I have an ASP.NET 3.5 page with an update panel and history enabled. It works fine when I perform async postbacks but I get problems when I want to perform a normal postback. The page load happens fine for the normal postback but then I get asynchronous page loads from the script manager which load the ajax history in. If I could have the ajax history not loading for the times I want to perform a normal postback then everything would be fine. Is there anyway to do this?

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  • How to keep history of record updates in MySQL?

    - by Proxium
    I have to create a code in PHP that will allow me to keep the history of record updates in MySQL database so I can find by date an old revision. Here is the example of what I actualy want to achive: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tunisia&action=history The data are mostly Numbers that we record about the company for generating reports and to extract indices. I plan to use codeigniter for it's simplicity and I'm looking for idea about a framework or an opensource project that use the same approche to keep history of modifications in the database.

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  • What is the fastest way to reload history commands begin with certain characters in linux?

    - by gerry
    In Dos we can input the first several characters to filter command history and find proper one rapidly. But how to do the same thing in Linux ? for example when I am testing a local server: cd sudo /etc/init.d/vsftpd start wget ... ls emacs ... sudo /etc/init.d/vsftpd restart sudo /etc/init.d/vsftpd stop ... In Dos you can easily type sudo and switch among the three commands beginning with it using arrow keys. But in Linux, is below command the best we can do ? historty | grep sudo I don't like it, because history can easily become a mess, and it also need mouse action.

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  • How to track history of db tables that include many-to-many mapping tables?

    - by chacmool
    I have seen several questions here on tracking db history, but can't seem to find one that matches our situation. We need to track the history of several tables, some of which are many-to-many linking tables. Eg say we have this schema: EntityA id name EntityB id name ABLink A_id B_id So, tracking changes to EntityA or EntityB seems pretty straightforward. We can keep a log table with the same columns plus a date stamp and user. But what about the links? How do we maintain the set of links that are valid for a given version of the data? We need to be able to recreate a history of the data showing changes in chronological order. So if a link added or deleted, we indicate that. Etc.

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  • goo.gl Api: How to know if URL was added to user's history?

    - by Manuel
    I'm using the goo.gl API as described here. It's easy to use and it works with or without authantication (I'm using OAuth). So, if I provide the OAuth token / secret, the shortened URL is added to the users history. My problem is, that I would like to show to the user that the shortened URL was added to his goo.gl history. The respone you get from the shortening request, however, is always the same, whether you use authorization or not: { "kind": "urlshortener#url", "id": "http://goo.gl/fbsS", "longUrl": "http://www.google.com/" } So, does anyone know a way to find out, if the shortened URL was successfully added to the user's history? Is there a parameter you can add to the request URL that leads to a more detailed result string?

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  • Any web interface to show deployments history with mcollective?

    - by Jason
    I'm using mcollective & puppet for deployments. I would like to know if there is any user interface which allows me to choose a specific package/version and deploy and any user interface i can already use which allows me to show the deployments history and their status. (I saw that glu has a nice user interface i'm looking for something like it, http://linkedin.github.com/glu/docs/latest/html/tutorial.html ) I wondered if i could use glu (so that i can get their deployment history gui if they have a good one...) with mcollective but from what i understand they are parallel frameworks.

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  • LinkQ Exception

    - by Ravi
    Hi, I write Linq query for keep on fetching data from database. First loop table don't have record , so throwing exception. After first loop i have record in the database, my query is working properly. Below i specified my query give some suggestion first loop(no records in table) i have to modify query or query have to change. Ex: forloop(History history in historyList) { History history1 = (from p in context.History where p.TransferCode == history.TransferCode select p).First<History>() as History; if(history1 == null) { SaveToDataBase(history); } else { UpdateToDataBase(history1); } } Thinks

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  • What's brewing in the world of Java? (Dec 22nd 2010)

    - by Jacob Lehrbaum
    The nights are getting darker, the email traffic seems to be getting lighter and the holiday season feels like its right around the corner - but the world of Java is still as active as ever and shows no signs of taking a break!  Let's take a look at everything that has been brewing over the past couple of weeks:Product Updates and ResourcesJCP Approves JSRs for Java SE 7, Java SE 8, Project Coin and Lambda (read more)Java SE Update 23 Released, delivers improved performance and enhanced support for right-left languages. (read more or download)New Tutorial: JDK 7 Support in NetBeans IDE 7.0Java EE 6 and Glassfish 3.0 have celebrated their respective one year anniversaries!  (read more) So naturally, it's time to start talking about Java EE 7 (read more)WebcastsOn Demand: Developing Rich Clients for the Enterprise with the JavaFX Composer, Part 1Coming soon: Smarter Devices with Oracle's Embedded Java SolutionsPodcastsJava Spotlight Podcast Episode 7: Interview with Adam Messinger, Vice President of Java Development on Java One Brazil, Java SE Development, OpenJDK, JavaFX 2.0 and more!  The NetBeans team released Episode 53 of the NetBeans Podcast series on December 3rd marking the first episode in nearly 12 months.  Sign of things to come?Community and EventsJavaOne was held for the first time in Brazil this year, and by all accounts it was a great success!  Read more about this exciting first in the following posts from Tori Wieldt (JavaOne Latin America Underway) and Janice Heiss (JavaOne in Brazil)JavaOne was also held in Bejing for the first time last week and was also a huge success. Will try to include coverage of this event in the near futureArticles and InterviewsAn update on JavaServer Faces with Oracle's Ed Burns (read more)Interview with Java Champion Matjaz B. Juric on Cloud Computing, SOA, and Java EE 6 (read more)The 2010 JavaOne Java EE 6 Panel: Where We Are and Where We're Going (read more)Oracle MagazineThe latest issue of Oracle Magazine is up and in what will hopefully be a sign of the future, it includes a number of columns and articles on Java.  First is an editorial from Editor-in-Chief Tom Haunert who shares some insight into the long-standing relationship that Oracle has had with Java. Next up is a Oracle Technology Network Chief Justin Kestelyn's Community Bulletin entitled: Java Evolves.  And finally, Java Champion Adam Bien's feature on Java EE 6: Simplicity by DesignEnjoy!

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  • It’s On! Oracle Open World 2012 Opens Call for Papers is Open

    - by David Hope-Ross
    Oracle OpenWorld is among the world’s largest industry events for good reason. It offers a vast array of learning and networking opportunities in one of the planet’s great cities.  And one of the key reasons for its popularity among procurement and supply chain professionals is the prominence of presentations by customers.   If you’d like to deliver a presentation based on your experience, now is the time to submit your abstract for review by the selection panel. The competition is strong: roughly 18% of entries are accepted each year from more than 3,000 submissions. Review panels are made up of experts both internal and external to Oracle. Successful submissions often (but not exclusively) focus on customer successes, how-tos, or best practices. What’s in it for you? Recognition, for one thing. Accepted sessions are publicized in the content catalog, which goes live in mid-June, and sessions given by external speakers often prove the most popular. Plus, accepted speakers get a complimentary pass to Oracle OpenWorld with access to all sessions and networking events- that could save you up to $2,595!   Be sure designate your session for inclusion in the correct track by selecting  “APPLICATIONS: Supply Chain Management” or “APPLICATIONS: Sourcing and Procurement” from the Primary Track drop down menu.   We look forward to seeing you in San Francisco!

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  • again again again…. it is Oracle Open World 2012

    - by JuergenKress
    Again… again I crashed my knee during kite surfing. Again the right knee, again the outside meniscus, again the same doctor, again the same operation, again they could sew my meniscus, again the same physiotherapy… again I will miss OOW. OOW session you should not miss Oracle PartnerNetwork Exchange Middleware stream Focus on SOA and BPM Focus on BPM For OFM Partner Advisory Councils please contact [email protected] Keynotes and General sessions to attend: Thomas Kurian: Tuesday, October 2 8:45 a.m. 9:45 a.m., Moscone North, Hall D Hasan Rizvi: General session middleware: Tuesday, October 3 10:15 am 11:15 am, Moscone North, Hall D If you can’t make it to San Francisco watch the keynotes live on-demand Tips and tricks for OOW Plan your visit well in advance! Which keynotes & session do you want to attend? Demo Grounds are highly recommended and the best of OOW! Which 1:1 meetings do you want to arrange? Attend a Partner or Customer Advisory Council? Attend a Country or Community Reception? Attire during OOW: casual clothing, comfortable shoes and light luggage! Do not forget to drink water. Sign an international travel and health insurance before you leave home! What we want from you! Send your tweets: twitter.com/soacommunity @soacommunity and share your pictures at http://www.facebook.com/soacommunity SOA & BPM Partner Community For regular information on Oracle SOA Suite become a member in the SOA & BPM Partner Community for registration please visit  www.oracle.com/goto/emea/soa (OPN account required) If you need support with your account please contact the Oracle Partner Business Center. Blog Twitter LinkedIn Mix Forum Technorati Tags: OOW,Oracle Open World,SOA Community,Oracle SOA,Oracle BPM,BPM,Community,OPN,Jürgen Kress

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  • again again again…. it is Oracle Open World 2012

    - by JuergenKress
    Again… again I crashed my knee during kite surfing. Again the right knee, again the outside meniscus, again the same doctor, again the same operation, again they could sew my meniscus, again the same physiotherapy… again I will miss OOW. OOW session you should not miss Oracle PartnerNetwork Exchange Middleware stream CAF Overall (WebLogic Server, Tuxedo, Coherence, Java Cloud Service, GlassFish) Oracle WebLogic Server Oracle Coherence Java Cloud Service GlassFish Traffic Director Tuxedo For OFM Partner Advisory Councils please contact [email protected] Keynotes and General sessions to attend: Thomas Kurian: Tuesday, October 2 8:45 a.m. 9:45 a.m., Moscone North, Hall D Hasan Rizvi: General session middleware: Tuesday, October 3 10:15 am 11:15 am, Moscone North, Hall D If you can’t make it to San Francisco watch the keynotes live on-demand Tips and tricks for OOW Plan your visit well in advance! Which keynotes & session do you want to attend? Demo Grounds are highly recommended and the best of OOW! Which 1:1 meetings do you want to arrange? Attend a Partner or Customer Advisory Council? Attend a Country or Community Reception? Attire during OOW: casual clothing, comfortable shoes and light luggage! Do not forget to drink water. Sign an international travel and health insurance before you leave home! What we want from you! Send your tweets: http://twitter.com/wlscommunity and @wlscommnity share your pictures at http://www.facebook.com/WebLogicCommunity WebLogic Partner Community For regular information become a member in the WebLogic Partner Community please visit: http://www.oracle.com/partners/goto/wls-emea ( OPN account required). If you need support with your account please contact the Oracle Partner Business Center. Blog Twitter LinkedIn Mix Forum Wiki Technorati Tags: Oracle Open World,OOW,WebLogic,WebLogic Community,Oracle,OPN,Jürgen Kress

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  • Guest Post: Using IronRuby and .NET to produce the &lsquo;Hello World of WPF&rsquo;

    - by Eric Nelson
    [You might want to also read other GuestPosts on my blog – or contribute one?] On the 26th and 27th of March (2010) myself and Edd Morgan of Microsoft will be popping along to the Scottish Ruby Conference. I dabble with Ruby and I am a huge fan whilst Edd is a “proper Ruby developer”. Hence I asked Edd if he was interested in creating a guest post or two for my blog on IronRuby. This is the second of those posts. If you should stumble across this post and happen to be attending the Scottish Ruby Conference, then please do keep a look out for myself and Edd. We would both love to chat about all things Ruby and IronRuby. And… we should have (if Amazon is kind) a few books on IronRuby with us at the conference which will need to find a good home. This is me and Edd and … the book: Order on Amazon: http://bit.ly/ironrubyunleashed Using IronRuby and .NET to produce the ‘Hello World of WPF’ In my previous post I introduced, to a minor extent, IronRuby. I expanded a little on the basics of by getting a Rails app up-and-running on this .NET implementation of the Ruby language — but there wasn't much to it! So now I would like to go from simply running a pre-existing project under IronRuby to developing a whole new application demonstrating the seamless interoperability between IronRuby and .NET. In particular, we'll be using WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation) — the component of the .NET Framework stack used to create rich media and graphical interfaces. Foundations of WPF To reiterate, WPF is the engine in the .NET Framework responsible for rendering rich user interfaces and other media. It's not the only collection of libraries in the framework with the power to do this — Windows Forms does the trick, too — but it is the most powerful and flexible. Put simply, WPF really excels when you need to employ eye candy. It's all about creating impact. Whether you're presenting a document, video, a data entry form, some kind of data visualisation (which I am most hopeful for, especially in terms of IronRuby - more on that later) or chaining all of the above with some flashy animations, you're likely to find that WPF gives you the most power when developing any of these for a Windows target. Let's demonstrate this with an example. I give you what I like to consider the 'hello, world' of WPF applications: the analogue clock. Today, over my lunch break, I created a WPF-based analogue clock using IronRuby... Any normal person would have just looked at their watch. - Twitter The Sample Application: Click here to see this sample in full on GitHub. Using Windows Presentation Foundation from IronRuby to create a Clock class Invoking the Clock class   Gives you The above is by no means perfect (it was a lunch break), but I think it does the job of illustrating IronRuby's interoperability with WPF using a familiar data visualisation. I'm sure you'll want to dissect the code yourself, but allow me to step through the important bits. (By the way, feel free to run this through ir first to see what actually happens). Now we're using IronRuby - unlike my previous post where we took pure Ruby code and ran it through ir, the IronRuby interpreter, to demonstrate compatibility. The main thing of note is the very distinct parallels between .NET namespaces and Ruby modules, .NET classes and Ruby classes. I guess there's not much to say about it other than at this point, you may as well be working with a purely Ruby graphics-drawing library. You're instantiating .NET objects, but you're doing it with the standard Ruby .new method you know from Ruby as Object#new — although, the root object of all your IronRuby objects isn't actually Object, it's System.Object. You're calling methods on these objects (and classes, for example in the call to System.Windows.Controls.Canvas.SetZIndex()) using the underscored, lowercase convention established for the Ruby language. The integration is so seamless. The fact that you're using a dynamic language on top of .NET's CLR is completely abstracted from you, allowing you to just build your software. A Brief Note on Events Events are a big part of developing client applications in .NET as well as under every other environment I can think of. In case you aren't aware, event-driven programming is essentially the practice of telling your code to call a particular method, or other chunk of code (a delegate) when something happens at an unpredictable time. You can never predict when a user is going to click a button, move their mouse or perform any other kind of input, so the advent of the GUI is what necessitated event-driven programming. This is where one of my favourite aspects of the Ruby language, blocks, can really help us. In traditional C#, for instance, you may subscribe to an event (assign a block of code to execute when an event occurs) in one of two ways: by passing a reference to a named method, or by providing an anonymous code block. You'd be right for seeing the parallel here with Ruby's concept of blocks, Procs and lambdas. As demonstrated at the very end of this rather basic script, we are using .NET's System.Timers.Timer to (attempt to) update the clock every second (I know it's probably not the best way of doing this, but for example's sake). Note: Diverting a little from what I said above, the ticking of a clock is very predictable, yet we still use the event our Timer throws to do this updating as one of many ways to perform that task outside of the main thread. You'll see that all that's needed to assign a block of code to be triggered on an event is to provide that block to the method of the name of the event as it is known to the CLR. This drawback to this is that it only allows the delegation of one code block to each event. You may use the add method to subscribe multiple handlers to that event - pushing that to the end of a queue. Like so: def tick puts "tick tock" end timer.elapsed.add method(:tick) timer.elapsed.add proc { puts "tick tock" } tick_handler = lambda { puts "tick tock" } timer.elapsed.add(tick_handler)   The ability to just provide a block of code as an event handler helps IronRuby towards that very important term I keep throwing around; low ceremony. Anonymous methods are, of course, available in other more conventional .NET languages such as C# and VB but, as usual, feel ever so much more elegant and natural in IronRuby. Note: Whether it's a named method or an anonymous chunk o' code, the block you delegate to the handling of an event can take arguments - commonly, a sender object and some args. Another Brief Note on Verbosity Personally, I don't mind verbose chaining of references in my code as long as it doesn't interfere with performance - as evidenced in the example above. While I love clean code, there's a certain feeling of safety that comes with the terse explicitness of long-winded addressing and the describing of objects as opposed to ambiguity (not unlike this sentence). However, when working with IronRuby, even I grow tired of typing System::Whatever::Something. Some people enjoy simply assuming namespaces and forgetting about them, regardless of the language they're using. Don't worry, IronRuby has you covered. It is completely possible to, with a call to include, bring the contents of a .NET-converted module into context of your IronRuby code - just as you would if you wanted to bring in an 'organic' Ruby module. To refactor the style of the above example, I could place the following at the top of my Clock class: class Clock include System::Windows::Shape include System::Windows::Media include System::Windows::Threading # and so on...   And by doing so, reduce calls to System::Windows::Shapes::Ellipse.new to simply Ellipse.new or references to System::Windows::Threading::DispatcherPriority.Render to a friendlier DispatcherPriority.Render. Conclusion I hope by now you can understand better how IronRuby interoperates with .NET and how you can harness the power of the .NET framework with the dynamic nature and elegant idioms of the Ruby language. The manner and parlance of Ruby that makes it a joy to work with sets of data is, of course, present in IronRuby — couple that with WPF's capability to produce great graphics quickly and easily, and I hope you can visualise the possibilities of data visualisation using these two things. Using IronRuby and WPF together to create visual representations of data and infographics is very exciting to me. Although today, with this project, we're only presenting one simple piece of information - the time - the potential is much grander. My day-to-day job is centred around software development and UI design, specifically in the realm of healthcare, and if you were to pay a visit to our office you would behold, directly above my desk, a large plasma TV with a constantly rotating, animated slideshow of charts and infographics to help members of our team do their jobs. It's an app powered by WPF which never fails to spark some conversation with visitors whose gaze has been hooked. If only it was written in IronRuby, the pleasantly low ceremony and reduced pre-processing time for my brain would have helped greatly. Edd Morgan blog Related Links: Getting PhP and Ruby working on Windows Azure and SQL Azure

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  • Contents farms, scrapers sites, aggregators real world examples? [closed]

    - by Marco Demaio
    Contents farm, scrappers, aggregators real world examples? Could you plz clarify me: efreedom.com is a scraper site, not a content farm? Because it simply copies and pastes contents from stackoverflow. ehow.com and squidoo.com are contents farm? They don't copy and paste contents they just generate fresh new user generated content, but too much and too quickly. expert-exchange.com is NOT a content farm or a scraper site, right?! It's simply that many people (an me too) hates it (they also wrote to Matt Cutts) because it shows up hight in Google providing a useless question with no answer. There are also many sites that act as 'contents aggregators in the form of specialized directories' (let's call them CASD), I don't know how to else define them. Do they have a specific definition? Anyway are these type of CASD contents farms or scrapers sites or what else? Basically these CASD search for all sites of the same type i.e. “restaurants websites”, they copy and paste the contents found in “Restaurant A” and create in their aggregator site a new page called “Restaurant A”, then they do the same for all websites of the same type, thus creating a sort of directory of restaurants. Later on these CASD also sends an email to the owner of “Restaurant A” (usually the email is on the website) with a user and password to let him modify/update its own page on the CASD site. Later on these CASD might ask for money to the owner of “Restaurant A” because they bring him traffic, otherwise they remove its page on the aggregator. Someone could call these simply directories, but I think a directory is different because is something you need to add your site into by filling a form and not something that steals contents from your existing site without a specific acceptance from the site's owner. I also really wonder how Google will sort out all these mess sites packed of contents that show up more and more and everywhere in search results.

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  • How popular is ITIL in the rest of the world?

    - by Oz123
    I am sorry if this question is not 100% Programming wise, I just didn't know where to ask. Consider yourself lucky if you don't know what ITIL is. You can understand from my tone I don't like it - I find ITIL the complete opposite of how IT Company should work, being too bureaucratic and complicated. In Germany, where I work, it seems to be very popular, and I have been asked in several job interviews if I know ITIL. Do you know popular is it in the rest of the world? Should I worry about ITIL or I can snub it? I must also ask my European colleagues - Why do you think is ITIL so popular? Is there a strong empirical evidence that ITIL does work? By empirical, I mean not personal experiences of the kind "We are a company that is working with ITIL...". I can hardly imagine a multi-million dollar company like Apple or Google work with ITIL, but I can also hardly see how it can benefit small companies...

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  • How do I scroll to follow my sprite in the physical world?

    - by Esteban Quintero
    I am using andengine to make a game where a sprite (player) is going up across the stage, and I want the camera to stay centred on the sprite the entire time. This is my world so far: final Rectangle ground = new Rectangle(0, CAMERA_HEIGHT - 2, CAMERA_WIDTH, 2, vertexBufferObjectManager); final Rectangle roof = new Rectangle(0, 0, CAMERA_WIDTH, 2, vertexBufferObjectManager); final Rectangle left = new Rectangle(0, 0, 2, CAMERA_HEIGHT, vertexBufferObjectManager); final Rectangle right = new Rectangle(CAMERA_WIDTH - 2, 0, 2, CAMERA_HEIGHT, vertexBufferObjectManager); final FixtureDef wallFixtureDef = PhysicsFactory.createFixtureDef(0, 0.5f, 0.5f); PhysicsFactory.createBoxBody(this.mPhysicsWorld, ground, BodyType.StaticBody, wallFixtureDef); PhysicsFactory.createBoxBody(this.mPhysicsWorld, roof, BodyType.StaticBody, wallFixtureDef); PhysicsFactory.createBoxBody(this.mPhysicsWorld, left, BodyType.StaticBody, wallFixtureDef); PhysicsFactory.createBoxBody(this.mPhysicsWorld, right, BodyType.StaticBody, wallFixtureDef); /* Create two sprits and add it to the scene. */ this.mScene.setBackground(autoParallaxBackground); this.mScene.attachChild(ground); this.mScene.attachChild(roof); this.mScene.attachChild(left); this.mScene.attachChild(right); this.mScene.registerUpdateHandler(this.mPhysicsWorld); The problem is that when the sprite reaches the top wall, it crashes. How can I fix this?

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  • NINTENDO, EDCON and ALLEGIS GROUP @ Oracle Open World 2012 Conference Session (CON9418): The Business Case for Oracle Exalogic: A Customer Perspective

    - by Sanjeev Sharma
     Are you looking to deliver breakthrough performance for packaged and custom  applications? For many front-office applications such as Oracle WebCenter Sites, Oracle Transportation Management, and Oracle’s ATG and Siebel product families,  improved  performance leads directly to greater revenue or cost savings from the business - a  compelling  proposition. For back-office applications, improved performance has tangible benefits  in terms of  footprint reductions. For all applications, Oracle Exalogic and Oracle Exadata provide an engineered solution that provides shorter time to value and lower operational costs.  Edcon is a leading clothing, footwear and textiles (CFT) retailing group in southern Africa trading through a range of retail formats. The Company has grown from opening it's first store in 1929, to ten retail brands trading in over 1000 stores in South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Swaziland and Lesotho. Edcon's retail business has, through recent acquisitions, added top stationery and houseware brands as well as general merchandise to its CFT portfolio. Edcon was looking to consolidate their existing middleware components (Weblogic and Oracle SOA) and retail applications (Retek, Siebel and E-Business Suite) on a common platform and turned to Oracle Exalogic. With Oracle Exalogic, Edcon is able to derive significant HW CAPEX savings, improve response-time of core business applications and mitigate operating risk. Hear senior business leaders from Nintendo, Edcon and Allegis Group discuss how the business value of  leveraging Oracle Exalogic at the following conference session at Oracle Open World 2012: Session:  CON9418 - The Business Case for Oracle Exalogic: A Customer PerspectiveDate: Monday, 1 Oct, 2012Time: 1:45 pm - 2:45 pm (PST)Venue: Moscone South (306)

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  • Are my negative internship experiences representative of the real world? [closed]

    - by attemptAtAnonymity
    I'm curious if my current experiences as an intern are representative of actual industry. As background, I'm through the better part of two computing majors and a math major at a major university; I've aced every class and adored all of them, so I'd like to think that I'm not terrible at programming. I got an internship with one of the major software companies, and half way through now I've been shocked at the extraordinarily low quality of code. Comments don't exist, it's all spaghetti code, and everything that could be wrong is even worse. I've done a ton of tutoring/TAing, so I'm very used to reading bad code, but the major industry products I've been seeing trump all of that. I work 10-12 hours a day and never feel like I'm getting anywhere, because it's endless hours of trying to figure out an undocumented API or determine the behavior of some other part of the (completely undocumented) product. I've left work hating the job every day so far, and I desperately want to know if this is what is in store for the rest of my life. Did I draw a short straw on internships (the absurdly large paychecks imply that it's not a low quality position), or is this what the real world is like?

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  • Are my negative internship experiences respresentative of the real world?

    - by attemptAtAnonymity
    I'm curious if my current experiences as an intern are representative of actual industry. As background, I'm through the better part of two computing majors and a math major at a major university; I've aced every class and adored all of them, so I'd like to think that I'm not terrible at programming. I got an internship with one of the major software companies, and half way through now I've been shocked at the extraordinarily low quality of code. Comments don't exist, it's all spaghetti code, and everything that could be wrong is even worse. I've done a ton of tutoring/TAing, so I'm very used to reading bad code, but the major industry products I've been seeing trump all of that. I work 10-12 hours a day and never feel like I'm getting anywhere, because it's endless hours of trying to figure out an undocumented API or determine the behavior of some other part of the (completely undocumented) product. I've left work hating the job every day so far, and I desperately want to know if this is what is in store for the rest of my life. Did I draw a short straw on internships (the absurdly large paychecks imply that it's not a low quality position), or is this what the real world is like?

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  • How should game objects be aware of each other?

    - by Jefffrey
    I find it hard to find a way to organize game objects so that they are polymorphic but at the same time not polymorphic. Here's an example: assuming that we want all our objects to update() and draw(). In order to do that we need to define a base class GameObject which have those two virtual pure methods and let polymorphism kicks in: class World { private: std::vector<GameObject*> objects; public: // ... update() { for (auto& o : objects) o->update(); for (auto& o : objects) o->draw(window); } }; The update method is supposed to take care of whatever state the specific class object needs to update. The fact is that each objects needs to know about the world around them. For example: A mine needs to know if someone is colliding with it A soldier should know if another team's soldier is in proximity A zombie should know where the closest brain, within a radius, is For passive interactions (like the first one) I was thinking that the collision detection could delegate what to do in specific cases of collisions to the object itself with a on_collide(GameObject*). Most of the the other informations (like the other two examples) could just be queried by the game world passed to the update method. Now the world does not distinguish objects based on their type (it stores all object in a single polymorphic container), so what in fact it will return with an ideal world.entities_in(center, radius) is a container of GameObject*. But of course the soldier does not want to attack other soldiers from his team and a zombie doesn't case about other zombies. So we need to distinguish the behavior. A solution could be the following: void TeamASoldier::update(const World& world) { auto list = world.entities_in(position, eye_sight); for (const auto& e : list) if (auto enemy = dynamic_cast<TeamBSoldier*>(e)) // shoot towards enemy } void Zombie::update(const World& world) { auto list = world.entities_in(position, eye_sight); for (const auto& e : list) if (auto enemy = dynamic_cast<Human*>(e)) // go and eat brain } but of course the number of dynamic_cast<> per frame could be horribly high, and we all know how slow dynamic_cast can be. The same problem also applies to the on_collide(GameObject*) delegate that we discussed earlier. So what it the ideal way to organize the code so that objects can be aware of other objects and be able to ignore them or take actions based on their type?

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  • In the Mobile and Tablet World, How Much is Too Much?

    - by andrewbrust
    The week of April 26th was a huge one in the world of mobile and tablet devices,  There were so many individual developments, announcements and solidifications of strategy, it’s almost impossible to believe they occurred in the same month, let alone the same week. Things started with Apple and Gizmodo having a Law and Order moment over the latter’s procurement of what appears to be the former’s 4th gen iPhone prototype.  We found out on the 26th that Gizmodo blogger Jason Chen’s apartment was raided by police and, honestly, that was a bit much. But Apple didn’t stop there.  They also published Steve Job’s critique of Adobe Flash and his explanation of Cupertino’s embargo of Flash on iPhones, iPods and iPads.  If you ask me, this too, was a bit much. Apple finished up the week by releasing the 3G version of its iPad product to the US market. I like (iLike?) my WiFi iPad.  The idea of getting a version of it that required a second 3G service monthly subscription, is, well, a bit  much. Microsoft was in the news too.  It killed a project it hadn’t even acknowledged the existence of: the Courier tablet.  That’s a bit much too.  If a tree falls in the woods, and Microsoft says they can’t hear it anyway, could they really have chopped it down? Maybe Microsoft Research should have licensed some of Courier’s technology from other parts of Microsoft.  Then maybe they could have kept the product alive.  Ask HTC: they’re going to be licensing technology from Microsoft because Redmond insists that Google’s Android operating system infringes on certain of their patents.  And since HTC now builds a number of handsets on Android, instead of being beholden, as they once were, to Windows Mobile, that means they can keep making their products.  Why does HTC have to pay the royalties, and not Google?  Maybe Microsoft decided that going after GOOG would have been a bit much, even for them. The agreement came not a moment to soon: HTC released their “Droid Incredible” (that name’s a bit much), an Android 2.1 handset with amazing hardware and HTC’s own Sense UI, on April 30th (this past Friday). This phone is very well-reviewed.  Maybe that’s why Google basically decided to beg off introducing a version of its Nexus One phone (also manufactured by HTC) on the Verizon Wireless network.  Google backing down?  That’s incredible, if not also a bit much. And that brings us to HP.  Which this week announced its acquisition of Palm and its webOS mobile phone touch-oriented operating system.  HP also killed its own Slate initiative.  Apparently HP realized that Windows 7, even with a proprietary HP touch UI added on top, is no match for the iPad.  I’m guessing they think webOS might work a bit better,  And I’m wondering if HP even wants to use webOS for phone handsets, beyond the Pre and Pixi.  Using it just for slate devices would be a bit extreme, but maybe not too much. Honestly, this was not Microsoft’s best week.  It killed a project and a close partner did likewise.  Then that same partner bought a competing OS product, while another partner released their new product that uses yet another competing OS platform. What did Microsoft actually produce this past week? An update to its Windows Phone 7 developer tools that actually works with the version of Visual Studio 2010 released on April 12th, and the version of Silverlight released three days later. That took three weeks to get synced up, and that’s a bit much too. But at least it happened. Windows Phone 7 is Microsoft’s best hope for a comeback in the SmartPhone market and to offer a credible touch-based tablet device.  This week, two of Microsoft’s slate initiatives died, and its only mobile phone victory was around its competitor’s operating system.  I hope the new platform gets Redmond out of the PC ghetto and into the classes of device that get people really excited today.  If it can’t, that would be a bit much; probably too much.  And, as the signs at the Lonestar Cafe in NYC used to say, too much ain’t enough.

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  • Collision Detection Problems

    - by MrPlosion
    So I'm making a 2D tile based game but I can't quite get the collisions working properly. I've taken the code from the Platformer Sample and implemented it into my game as seen below. One problem I'm having is when I'm on the ground for some strange reason I can't move to the left. Now I'm pretty sure this problem is from the HandleCollisions() method because when I stop running it I can smoothly move around with no problems. Another problem I'm having is when I'm close to a tile the character jitters very strangely. I will try to post a video if necessary. Here is the HandleCollisions() method: Thanks. void HandleCollisions() { Rectangle bounds = BoundingRectangle; int topTile = (int)Math.Floor((float)bounds.Top / World.PixelTileSize); int bottomTile = (int)Math.Ceiling((float)bounds.Bottom / World.PixelTileSize) - 1; int leftTile = (int)Math.Floor((float)bounds.Left / World.PixelTileSize); int rightTile = (int)Math.Ceiling((float)bounds.Right / World.PixelTileSize) - 1; isOnGround = false; for(int x = leftTile; x <= rightTile; x++) { for(int y = topTile; y <= bottomTile; y++) { if(world.Map[y, x].Collidable == true) { Rectangle tileBounds = new Rectangle(x * World.PixelTileSize, y * World.PixelTileSize, World.PixelTileSize, World.PixelTileSize); Vector2 depth = RectangleExtensions.GetIntersectionDepth(bounds, tileBounds); if(depth != Vector2.Zero) { if(Math.Abs(depth.Y) < Math.Abs(depth.X)) { isOnGround = true; position = new Vector2(position.X, position.Y + depth.Y); } else { position = new Vector2(position.X + depth.X, position.Y); } bounds = BoundingRectangle; } } } }

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