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  • Use a Crayon to Enhance Engraved Lettering on Electronics

    - by ETC
    Whether you’re making a new electronics project or trying to add definition to an old piece, you can use a simple crayon to make etched logos and text pop. At RedToRope, the DIY and project blog of electrical engineering student and tinkering James Williamson, James shares how he used a crayon and a little heat to make the lettering and symbols on his electronics project really pop. It’s an old trick I’ve used many times over the years with firearms but had never thought to use with engraved text on electronics or other devices. You rub the wax into the crevices of the etching, heat the object to melt and level the wax, and then give it a final cleanup buff. Hit up the link below to see the final results of his project as well as all the steps he went through to make the final product look so professional. Laser Engraved, Wax Filled, High Contrast Panels for Electronics Projects [RedToRope via Hacked Gadgets] Latest Features How-To Geek ETC What Can Super Mario Teach Us About Graphics Technology? Windows 7 Service Pack 1 is Released: But Should You Install It? How To Make Hundreds of Complex Photo Edits in Seconds With Photoshop Actions How to Enable User-Specific Wireless Networks in Windows 7 How to Use Google Chrome as Your Default PDF Reader (the Easy Way) How To Remove People and Objects From Photographs In Photoshop Make Efficient Use of Tab Bar Space by Customizing Tab Width in Firefox See the Geeky Work Done Behind the Scenes to Add Sounds to Movies [Video] Use a Crayon to Enhance Engraved Lettering on Electronics Adult Swim Brings Their Programming Lineup to iOS Devices Feel the Chill of the South Atlantic with the Antarctica Theme for Windows 7 Seas0nPass Now Offers Untethered Apple TV Jailbreaking

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  • OS X Lion: Emptying the trash takes "forever": is using rm -r safe?

    - by EOL
    Emptying my Trash in OS X Lion (non securely) is taking about three hours (about 1.5 million files, from a Time Machine backup). I had to stop the process a few times already, because I could not move my laptop with the external harddrive the files are on. This is also a problem because the Trash emptying is restarted from the very beginning each time I empty the Trash again (i.e., files are not deleted when the Trash emptying is aborted). I read that it is faster to use rm -rf on ~/.Trash, in this case. However, is this safe? (I am afraid that does OS X Lion performs tasks behind the scenes—which would explain its slowness—that rm -r does not, which could lead to problems in the future.)

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  • How can I author objects with perspective that fit into a tile-based map but span multiple tiles?

    - by Growler
    I'm creating a tilemap city and trying to figure out the most efficient way to create unique building scenes. The trick is, I need to maintain a sort of 2D, almost-top-down perspective, which is hard to do with buildings or large objects that span multiple tiles. I've tried doing three buildings at a time, and mixing and matching the base layer and colors, like this: This creates a weird overlapping effect, and also doesn't seem that efficient from a production standpoint. But it was the best way to have shadows appear correctly on the neighboring buildings. I'm wondering if modular buildings would be the way to go? That way I can mix and match any set of buildings together as tiles: I guess I would have to risk some perspective and shadowing to get the buildings to align correctly. What sort of authoring process could I use to allow me to create a variety of buildings (or other objects) that maintain this perspective while spanning multiple tiles worth of screen space? Would you recommend creating blank buildings, and then affixing art overlays as necessary to make the buildings unique? Or should they be directly part of the building tile (for example, create a separate tileset of buildings signs and colorings)?

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  • Solaris Tech Day mit Engineering 3.12. Frankfurt

    - by Franz Haberhauer
    Am Dienstag, den 3. Dezember 2013 haben wir den Chef des Solaris Engineering Markus Flierl mit einigen seiner Engineers und Joost Pronk vom Produkt Management zu Gast in unserer Geschäftstelle in Dreieich (Frankfurt). Wir nutzen diese Gelegenheit, Ihnen bei einem Solaris Tech Day direkt von der Quelle tiefe Einblicke in Solaris-Technologien zu geben: Agenda Time Session Speaker 09:00 Registration and Breakfast 09:45 Oracle Solaris - Strategy, Engineering Insights, Roadmap, and a Glimpse on Solaris in Oracle's IT Markus Flierl 11:15 Coffee 11:35 Oracle Solaris 11.1: The Best Platform for Oracle - The Technologies Behind the Scenes Bart Smaalders 12:35 Lunch 13:25 Solaris Security: Reduce Risk , Deliver Secure Services, and Monitor Compliance Darren Moffat 14:10 Solaris 11 Provisioning and SMF - Insights from the Lead Engineers Bart Smaalders & Liane Praza 14:55 Solaris Data Management - ZFS, NFS, dNFS, ASM, and OISP Integration with the Oracle DB Darren Moffat 15:25 Coffee 15:45 Solaris 10 Patches and Solaris SRUs - News and Best Practices Gerry Haskins 16:30 Cloud Formation: Implementing IaaS in Practice with Oracle Solaris Joost Pronk 17:00 Q&A panel - All presenters and Solaris engineers Bitte registrieren Sie sich hier, um sich einen Platz bei dieser außergewöhnlichen Veranstaltung zu sichern. Es lohnt sich übrigens auch mal in die Blogs von  Markus Flierl mit einem interessanten Beitrag zu Eindrücken und Ausblicken von der Oracle Open World 2013 oder den von  Darren Moffat zu schauen. Gerry Haskins schreibt als Director Solaris Lifecycle Engineering gleich in zwei Blogs - der Patch Corner mit Schwerpunkt Solaris 10 und dem Solaris 11 Maintenance Lifecycle. Bereits in der kommenden Woche findet in Nürnberg die DOAG 2013 Konferenz und Ausstellung mit einem breiten Spektrum an Vorträgen rund um Solaris statt - insbesondere auch mit vielen Erfahrungsberichten aus der Praxis.

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  • Handling multiple Scene in AndEngine

    - by Asad
    I am Developing a game in AndEngine Gles2. I have splash scene, loading scene, menu scene and Level1 scene. I am using a Screen Manager to manage all scenes through which i can easily switch between splash, loading and menu scene, the level1 scene is also loaded from menu perfectly but problem occur when i go back to menu scene on the completion of level, screen turned to black and nothing shown after that. I think the problem is with unloading the resources of Level1 because the switching between other scene is perfect. I can't give complete code, as it is to much lengthy. I am using bitmapTexture region, Sprites, bodies, physics Word, hud and fixtures etc. here is my unload method.. 1 more thing when i loaded the menu scene at the end of level 1 screen turn to black, but the music played and all logs are showed in logcat which i set in menu scene. unload(){ setChildrenIgnorUpdate(); clearChildScene(); clearEntityModifier(); clearTouchAreas(); clearUpdateHandler(); BitmapTextureManager.getInstance().destroyInstance(); destroyPhysics(); } Please Any help...

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  • How Social Can You Get?

    - by Oracle OpenWorld Blog Team
    By Karen Shamban Get Social at Oracle OpenWorld What: Social Plaza @ Oracle OpenWorldWhen: Tuesday, October 2, Noon–8:00 p.m.Where: Mint Plaza, Fifth Street between Mission and Market Hashtag: #oowJoin Oracle’s social media masters—plus hundreds of your soon-to-be-closest friends—at this all-social social. There will be two bars open from 4:30 p.m. until closing, with drink coupons to go 'round. Also on hand will be one of those famous San Francisco gourmet food trucks—check them out also starting at 4:30 p.m. While you’re there, mug at the Social PhotoBooth—maybe while you're drinking a mug. Social Plaza is going to showcase artists at work—face-to-face. Indie music faves Golden State will be stopping by to play, dance-rageous DJ Brandon Arnovick will be spinning discs, and artist Melanie Alves will be painting the scene—and scenes—right there.  Into fashion? Check out the 20 local fashion designers who will be displaying, discussing, and selling their unique designs. And if you want to add to your t-shirt collection, we’ve got a live print screening planned ... the first 300 socializers will get a t-shirt free. But hey—be sure to mix some technology with your social efforts. Watch Larry Ellison’s keynote live from Social Plaza, drink in hand.   See you there. &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;span id=&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;quot;XinhaEditingPostion&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;quot;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/span&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;

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  • Website requests not reaching IIS?

    - by pete the pagan-gerbil
    To start off with a confession, I am not a server admin - just a developer tasked with getting to the root of a problem. Please be gentle! I have an intranet ASP.NET website running in IIS on a virtual machine. The website is not accessed very often (the last IIS log file was modified nearly six months ago). Both the IP address and Host header value are now failing to return the website, and the IIS log still doesn't show any more recent activity. The virtual machine was moved to a different physical location a few months ago, and the IP address for it has changed. Could this be what has broken access to the site? What else should I be checking to solve this? I don't have totally unrestricted access to the building's network settings, structures, etc. I would be grateful for any advice, even if I can't use it myself it'll improve my knowledge of what's going on behind the scenes!

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  • Jump and run HTML5 Game Framework

    - by user1818924
    We're developing a jump and run game with HTML5 and JavaScript and have to build an own game framework for this. Here we have some difficulties and would like to ask you for some advice: we have a "Stage" object, which represents the root of our game and is a global div-wrapper. The stage can contain multiple "Scenes", which are also div-elements. We would implement a Scene for the playing task, for pause, etc. and switch between them. Each scene can therefore contain multiple "Layers", representing a canvas. These Layer contain "ObjectEntities", which represent images or other shapes like rectangles, etc. Each Objectentity has its own temporaryCanvas, to be able to draw images for one entity, whereas another contains a rectangle. We set an activeScene in our Stage, so when the game is played, just the active scene is drawn. Calling activeScene.draw(), calls all sublayers to draw, which draw their entities (calling drawImage(entity.canvas)). But is this some kind of good practive? Having multiple canvas to draw? Each gameloop every layer-context is cleared and drawn again. E.g. we just have a still Background-Layer, … wouldn't it be more useful to draw this once and not to clear it everytime and redraw it? Or should we use a global canvas for example in the Stage and just use this canvas to draw? But we thought this would be to expensive... Other question: Do you have any advice how we could dive into implementing an own framework? Most stuff we find online relies on existing frameworks or they just implement their game without building a framework.

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  • HTML5 game engine for a 2D or 2.5D RPG style "map walk"

    - by stargazer
    please help me to choose a HTML5 game engine or Javascript libraries I want to do the following in the game: when the game starts a part the huge map (full size of the map: about 7 screens) is shown. The map itself is completely designed in the editor mapeditor.org (or in some comparable editor - if you know a good alternative to mapeditor.org - let me know) and loaded at runtime or at design time. The game engine should support loading of isometric maps (well, in worst case only orthogonal maps will be sufficient) both "tile layer" and "object layer" from mapeditor.org should be supported. Scrolling/performance of this map should be fast enough. The map and the game should be either in 2D (orthogonal map) or in 2.5D (isometric map) The game engine should support movement of sprites with animation. Let say I have a sprite for "human" with animation sequences showing "walking" in 8 directions - it should be imported into game engine and should "walk" on the map without writing a lot of Javascript code. Automatic scrolling of the map the "human" nears the screen border. Collision detection, "solid" objects. The mapeditor.org supports properies on tiles. Let say I assign a "solid" property to some tiles in editor. It should be easy to check this "solid" property in the game engine and implement kind of "solid" behavior, so the animanted sprites do not walk through the walls. Collision detection - it should be easy to implement some custom functionality like "when sprite A is close to sprite B - call this function" Showing "dialogs" or popup windows on top of the map - should be easy to implement. Cross-browser audio support - (it is implemented quite well in construct 2 from scirra, so I'm looking for the comparable audio quality) The game itself is a king of RPG but without fighting scenes and without huge "inventory". The main character just walking on the map, discovers some things, there are dialogs and sounds. The functionality of this example from sprite.js http://batiste.dosimple.ch/sprite.js/tests/mapeditor/map_reader.html is very close to what I'm developing. But I'm not a Javascript guru (and a very lazy guy) and would like to write even less Javascript code as in the example...

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  • State of the art Culling and Batching techniques in rendering

    - by Kristian Skarseth
    I'm currently working with upgrading and restructuring an OpenGL render engine. The engine is used for visualising large scenes of architectural data (buildings with interior), and the amount of objects can become rather large. As is the case with any building, there is a lot of occluded objects within walls, and you naturally only see the objects that are in the same room as you, or the exterior if you are on the outside. This leaves a large number of objects that should be occluded through occlusion culling and frustum culling. At the same time there is a lot of repetative geometry that can be batched in renderbatches, and also a lot of objects that can be rendered with instanced rendering. The way I see it, it can be difficult to combine renderbatching and culling in an optimal fashion. If you batch too many objects in the same VBO it's difficult to cull the objects on the CPU in order to skip rendering that batch. At the same time if you skip the culling on the cpu, a lot of objects will be processed by the GPU while they are not visible. If you skip batching copletely in order to more easily cull on the CPU, there will be an unwanted high amount of render calls. I have done some research into existing techniques and theories as to how these problems are solved in modern graphics, but I have not been able to find any concrete solution. An idea a colleague and me came up with was restricting batches to objects relatively close to eachother e.g all chairs in a room or within a radius of n meeters. This could be simplified and optimized through use of oct-trees. Does anyone have any pointers to techniques used for scene managment, culling, batching etc in state of the art modern graphics engines?

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  • Good Scoop: The PeopleSoft/IBM Backstory

    - by [email protected]
    By Brian Dayton on April 12, 2010 11:15 AM Sometimes you're searching for something online and you find an unrelated, bonus nugget. Last week I stumbled across an interesting blog post from Chris Heller of a PeopleSoft consulting shop in San Ramon, CA called Grey Sparling. I don't know these guys. But Chris, who apparently used to work on the PeopleTools team, wrote a great article on a pre-acquisition, would-be deal between IBM and PeopleSoft that would have standardized PeopleSoft on IBM technology. The behind-the-scenes perspective is interesting. His commentary on the challenges that the company and PeopleSoft customers would have encountered if the deal had gone through was also interesting: · "No common ownership. It's hard enough to get large groups of people to work together when they work for the same company, but with two separate companies it is much, much harder. Even within Oracle, progress on Fusion applications was slow until Thomas Kurian took over Fusion applications in addition to Fusion middleware." · "No customer buy-in. PeopleSoft customers weren't asking for a conversion to WebSphere, so the fact that doing that could have helped PeopleSoft stay independent wouldn't have meant much to them, especially since the cost of moving to whatever a "PeopleSoft built on WebSphere" would have been significant." · "No executive buy-in. This is related to the previous point, but it's worth calling out separately. If Oracle had walked away and the deal with IBM had gone through, and PeopleSoft customers got put through the wringer as part of WebSphere move, all of the PeopleSoft project teams would be put in the awkward position of explaining to their management why these additional costs and headaches were happening. Essentially they would need to "sell" the partnership internally to their own management team. That's not a fun conversation to have." I'm not surprised that something like this was in the works. But I did find the inside scoop and Heller's perspective on the challenges particularly interesting. Especially the advantages of aligning development of applications and infrastructure development under one roof. Here's a link to the whole blog entry.

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  • Indexing Service filter daemon keeps crashing on WinXP; something worse underneath?

    - by IVR Avenger
    The Indexing Service filter daemon keeps crashing on my WinXP Pro machine, with the following error message: "Indexing Service filter daemon has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience." Not a big deal, I can click "Don't Send Error Report" all day. But what's going on, here? Is this a service that I need? Is the frequent crashing indicative of something worse that's happening behind the scenes? Thanks!

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  • SQLAuthority News – Download Whitepaper – Choosing a Tabular or Multidimensional Modeling Experience in SQL Server 2012 Analysis Services

    - by pinaldave
    Data modeling is the most important task for any BI professional. Matter of the fact, the biggest challenge is to organizing disparate data into an analytic model that effectively and efficiently supports the reporting and analysis. SQL Server 2012 introduces BI Semantic Model (BISM), a single model that can support a broad range of reporting and analysis while blending two Analysis Services modeling experiences behind the scenes. Multidimensional modeling – enables BI professionals to create sophisticated multidimensional cubes using traditional online analytical processing (OLAP). Tabular modeling – provides self-service data modeling capabilities to business and data analysts. As data modeling is evolving and business needs are growing new technologies and tools are emerging to help end users to make the necessary adjustment to the reporting and analysis needs. This white paper is will provide practical guidance to help you decide which SQL Server 2012 Analysis Services modeling experience – tabular or multidimensional. Do let me know what do is your opinion as a comment. In simple word – I would like to know when will you use Tabular modeling and when Multidimensional modeling? Download Choosing a Tabular or Multidimensional Modeling Experience in SQL Server 2012 Analysis Services Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: Business Intelligence, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQL White Papers, T SQL, Technology

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  • Read On Phone Pushes Data from Your Desktop to the Appropriate Android App

    - by ETC
    Read On Phone is a free Android application that intelligently pushes data to your phone from your bowser. Rather than simply opening the URL on your phone, it opens the appropriate application for the task and formats text. Most send-to-phone type tools simply take the URL of the web page you’re looking at on your computer and shuttle it to your phone. Read On Phone is a more active and effective tool. When you send a page that is text, it formats the text for easy reading on your phone. When you send a YouTube video, map, or telephone number, it opens up the appropriate tool on your phone such as your YouTube viewer, Google Maps, or your phone dialer. In addition to that handy functionality Read On Phone also includes adjustments for day and night reading, font size, auto-scrolling, and pagination. Read On Phone is available as both a Chrome extension and as a bookmarklet for cross-browser use. Hit up the link below for additional information. Read On Phone Latest Features How-To Geek ETC Should You Delete Windows 7 Service Pack Backup Files to Save Space? What Can Super Mario Teach Us About Graphics Technology? Windows 7 Service Pack 1 is Released: But Should You Install It? How To Make Hundreds of Complex Photo Edits in Seconds With Photoshop Actions How to Enable User-Specific Wireless Networks in Windows 7 How to Use Google Chrome as Your Default PDF Reader (the Easy Way) Read On Phone Pushes Data from Your Desktop to the Appropriate Android App MetroTwit is a Sleek Native Twitter Client for Your Windows System Make Efficient Use of Tab Bar Space by Customizing Tab Width in Firefox See the Geeky Work Done Behind the Scenes to Add Sounds to Movies [Video] Use a Crayon to Enhance Engraved Lettering on Electronics Adult Swim Brings Their Programming Lineup to iOS Devices

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  • Abstraction, Politics, and Software Architecture

    Abstraction can be defined as a general concept and/or idea that lack any concrete details. Throughout history this type of thinking has led to an array of new ideas and innovations as well as increased confusion and conspiracy. If one was to look back at our history they will see that abstraction has been used in various forms throughout our past. When I was growing up I do not know how many times I heard politicians say “Leave no child left behind” or “No child left behind” as a major part of their campaign rhetoric in regards to a stance on education. As you can see their slogan is a perfect example of abstraction because it only offers a very general concept about improving our education system but they do not mention how they would like to do it. If they did then they would be adding concrete details to their abstraction thus turning it in to an actual working plan as to how we as a society can help children succeed in school and in life, but then they would not be using abstraction. By now I sure you are thinking what does abstraction have to do with software architecture. You are valid in thinking this way, but abstraction is a wonderful tool used in information technology especially in the world of software architecture. Abstraction is one method of extracting the concepts of an idea so that it can be understood and discussed by others of varying technical abilities and backgrounds. One ways in which I tend to extract my architectural design thoughts is through the use of basic diagrams to convey an idea for a system or a new feature for an existing application. This allows me to generically model an architectural design through the use of views and Unified Markup Language (UML). UML is a standard method for creating a 4+1 Architectural View Models. The 4+1 Architectural View Model consists of 4 views typically created with UML as well as a general description of the concept that is being expressed by a model. The 4+1 Architectural View Model: Logical View: Models a system’s end-user functionality. Development View: Models a system as a collection of components and connectors to illustrate how it is intended to be developed.  Process View: Models the interaction between system components and connectors as to indicate the activities of a system. Physical View: Models the placement of the collection of components and connectors of a system within a physical environment. Recently I had to use the concept of abstraction to express an idea for implementing a new security framework on an existing website. My concept would add session based management in order to properly secure and allow page access based on valid user credentials and last user activity.  I created a basic Process View by using UML diagrams to communicate the basic process flow of my changes in the application so that all of the projects stakeholders would be able to understand my idea. Additionally I created a Logical View on a whiteboard while conveying the process workflow with a few stakeholders to show how end-user will be affected by the new framework and gaining additional input about the design. After my Logical and Process Views were accepted I then started on creating a more detailed Development View in order to map how the system will be built based on the concept of components and connections based on the previously defined interactions. I really did not need to create a Physical view for this idea because we were updating an existing system that was already deployed based on an existing Physical View. What do you think about the use of abstraction in the development of software architecture? Please let me know.

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  • My Dog, Cross-Channel Shopping, and Fusion SCM

    - by Kathryn Perry
    A guest post by Mark Carson, Director, Oracle Fusion Supply Chain Management I was walking my dog Max in an open space behind my house. As we tromped through the tall weeds I remembered it is tick season and that I should get Max some protection. While he sniffed merrily in the tick infested brush, I started shopping in the middle of an open field on my phone. I thought it would be convenient to pick up the tick medicine from a pet store on the way home. Searching the pet store website I saw that they had the medicine, but there was no information on whether the store had any in stock and there were no options for shipping it to the store for pickup. I could return it, but not pick it up which seamed kind of odd. I really didn't feel like making calls to the local stores to find out if they had it. Since the product is popular, I tried one of the large 'everything' stores. Browsing its website I could see that it could be shipped to me, shipped to the store for free, and that the store nearest to me had it in stock. Needless to say, this store became a better option. This experience is a small example of why retailers, distributors, and manufactures have placed a high priority on enabling 'cross-channel commerce.' Shoppers like you and me expect to be able to search, compare, buy and return products on-line and over the phone using a variety of devices including PDAs, tablets and in-store kiosks. The pet store lost my business because its web channel had limited information about its stores. I have spoken with many customers and prospects about cross-channel commerce. They all realize the business implications and urgency behind cross-channel commerce but recognize there are challenges to enable it. New and existing applications must be integrated together globally through a consistent cross-channel business process. Integration is required between applications that provide the initial shopping experience and delivery applications associated with warehouses, stores, and partners. The enablement must be accomplished in a flexible way to react to fast-changing product portfolios and new acquisitions, while at the same time minimizing costs through reuse of existing systems. Meanwhile, the business must continue to grow and decision makers need to balance new capability with peak seasons. The challenges above are not unique to retail. Any customer in any industry who has multiple points for capturing orders and multiple points for fulfilling orders will face these challenges. With this in mind, we had a unique opportunity in Fusion SCM to re-think how to build a set of modular and flexible applications in the order management space that would make these challenges easier to conquer. The results are Fusion Distributed Order Orchestration and Global Order Promising. These applications can help companies, such as the pet store, enable true cross-channel commerce. The apps provide highly adaptable and flexible business processes to automate order orchestration across multiple cross-channel systems. They also show a global view of supply across warehouses, stores, and partners for real-time availability and more accurate order promising. Additional capability includes a standards-based integration framework for seamless execution and the ability to reuse existing systems for faster and lower cost implementations. OK, that was a mouthful of features and benefits. As Max waited to cross the street (he can do basic math too), I wondered if he could relate. He does not care about leash laws, pick-up courtesy, where he can/can't walk, what time of day it is, or even ticks. He does not care about how all these things could make walking complicated. He just wants to walk. Similarly, customers just want to shop and companies just want to make it easier to sell and deliver. You can learn more about Distributed Order Orchestration and Global Order Promising in cross-channel here.

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  • Convenience of mySQL over xml

    - by Bonechilla
    Currently I use XML to store specific information to correctly load a few things such as a list of specfied characters, scenes and music, Once more I use JAXB in combination with standard compression/decompression(ZIP) functionality to store a list of extrenous data. This data is called to add functionality to the character, somewhat like Skills in an RPG. Each skill is seperated into its own XML file with a grandlist which contains the names of each file with their extensions omitted and zipped in folder that gets encrypted. At first using xml was working fine however as the skill list grow i worry about its stability. I was wondering if I should begin storing the data in mySQL. Originally I planned to simply convert everything to JSON over xml but i think possibly mySQL would be a better move. Can anyone inform me of the key difference and pros and cons of each I guess i'm looking for the best way to store the data more conviently and would be easier to operate on. The data is mostly primatives and strings and the only arraylist of values i have i can just concat into a single field and parse later Edit: If I am going in the right direction with XML would it make sense to convert it to JSON and use maybe Kyro or EclipseLink JAXB (MOXy)

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  • Suitable SDK to develop quick game?

    - by gRnt
    I'm currently undertaking a personal project at home that I need to turn around inside the next few months (which working full time and still learning programming makes it a tad difficult). I'm looking for suggestions on SDK's or tools (preferably free or that come with games, similar to steam tools) that I can use to develop a "game". I'm OK with coding but have no 3D development skills at all. I've very little experience with mod tools or SDK's at all but I'm hoping someone can point me in the direction of one that does the following: A decent library of prefab 3D models to build scenes. Ability to add scripting to the scene I've used Unity before and would prefer to continue to do so however I really have the worst 3D skills imaginable and can't waste time learning them. I'd be looking for pre-fab items that are both industrial and possibly more lush environments (trees etc). If it makes any difference (due to licencing and what-not) I WILL NOT be selling this game or marketing it in any way and I am a University Student if any places do educations licences. Another alternative would be to source free 3d models elsewhere but again while I'm still learning I have no idea where to look if someone could point me in the right direction I'll do the rest of the digging. Thanks

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  • Insurers Pushed to Transform Their Business

    - by Calvin Glenn
    Everyone in the P&C industry has heard it “We can’t do it.” “Nobody wants to do it.” “We can’t afford to do it.”  Unfortunately, what they’re referencing are the reasons many insurers are still trying to maintain their business processing on legacy policy administration systems, attempting to bide time until there is no other recourse but to give in, bite the bullet, and take on the monumental task of replacing an entire policy administration system (PAS). Just the thought of that project sends IT, Business Users and Management reeling. However, is that fear real?  It is a bit daunting when one realizes that a complete policy administration system replacement will touch most every function an insurer manages, from quoting and rating, to underwriting, distribution, and even customer service. With that, everyone has heard at least one horror story around a transformation initiative that has far exceeded budget and the promised implementation / go-live timeline.    But, does it have to be that hard?  Surely, in the age where a person can voice-activate their DVR to record a TV program from a cell phone, there has to be someone somewhere who’s figured out how to simplify this process. To be able to help insurers, of all sizes, transform and grow their business while also delivering on their overall objectives of providing speed to market, straight-through-processing for applications, quoting, underwriting, and simplified product development. Maybe we’re looking too hard and the answer is simple and straight-forward. Why replace the entire machine when all it really needs is a new part…a single enterprise rating system? This core, modular piece of the policy administration system is the foundation of product development and rate management that enables insurers to provide the right product at the right price to the right customer through the best channels at any given moment in time. The real benefit of a single enterprise rating system is the ability to deliver enhanced business capabilities, such as improved product management, streamlined underwriting, and speed to market. With these benefits, carriers have accomplished a portion of their overall transformation goal. Furthermore, lessons learned from the rating project can be applied to the bigger, down-the-road PAS project to support the successful completion of the overall transformation endeavor. At the recent Oracle OpenWorld Conference in San Francisco, information was shared with attendees about a recent “go-live” project from an Oracle Insurance Tier 1 insurer who did what is proposed above…replaced just the rating portion of their legacy policy administration system with Oracle Insurance Insbridge Rating and Underwriting.  This change provided the insurer greater flexibility to set rates that better reflect risk while enabling the company to support its market segment strategy. Using the Oracle Insurance Insbridge enterprise rating solution, the insurer was able to reduce processing time for agents and underwriters, gained the ability to support proprietary rating models and improved pricing accuracy.      There is mounting pressure on P&C insurers to produce growth and show net profitability in the midst of modest overall industry growth, large weather-related losses and intensifying competition for market share.  Insurers are also being asked to improve customer service, offer a differentiated value proposition and simplify insurance processes.  While the demands are many there is an easy answer…invest in and update the most mission critical application in your arsenal, the single enterprise rating system. Download the Podcast to listen to “Stand-Alone Rating Engine - Leading Force Behind Core Transformation Projects in the P&C Market,” a podcast originally recorded in October 2013. Related Resources: White Paper: Stand-Alone Rating Engine: Leading Force Behind Core Transformation Projects in the P&C Market Webcast On Demand: Stand-Alone Rating Engine and Core Transformation for P&C Insurers Don’t forget to keep up with us year-round: Facebook: www.facebook.com/oracleinsurance Twitter: www.twitter.com/oracleinsurance YouTube: www.youtube.com/oracleinsurance

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  • Video compression artifacts in Flash

    - by lvanderhart
    This only started happening in the past two days, which seems very odd to me. Everything worked flawlessly up until now, and I use my my computer as my primary TV. Flash video from Hulu and Amazon, for no apparent reason, now have lots of artifacts in them. Some scenes are ok, but some are completely scrambled and unwatchable. My connection is a 15mb fios, and bandwidth tests indicate my connection speed is ok. I've tried the latest production version of Flash, as well as the 10.1RC4. Same problem. Enabling or disabling hardware acceleration in Flash makes no difference (with the scrambling issue, quality is better overall with hardware). Using a different H264 codec doesn't clean up the issue, although the scrambling does look different. I'm kind of stumped. The only thing I can think of now is to reinstall windows, which is obviously a drastic step. Edit: Forgot to say: Windows 7, Athlon 64X2, Geforce GTS 250

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  • In the days of modern computing, in 'typical business apps' - why does performance matter?

    - by Prog
    This may seem like an odd question to some of you. I'm a hobbyist Java programmer. I have developed several games, an AI program that creates music, another program for painting, and similar stuff. This is to tell you that I have an experience in programming, but not in professional development of business applications. I see a lot of talk on this site about performance. People often debate what would be the most efficient algorithm in C# to perform a task, or why Python is slow and Java is faster, etc. What I'm trying to understand is: why does this matter? There are specific areas of computing where I see why performance matters: games, where tens of thousands of computations are happening every second in a constant-update loop, or low level systems which other programs rely on, such as OSs and VMs, etc. But for the normal, typical high-level business app, why does performance matter? I can understand why it used to matter, decades ago. Computers were much slower and had much less memory, so you had to think carefully about these things. But today, we have so much memory to spare and computers are so fast: does it actually matter if a particular Java algorithm is O(n^2)? Will it actually make a difference for the end users of this typical business app? When you press a GUI button in a typical business app, and behind the scenes it invokes an O(n^2) algorithm, in these days of modern computing - do you actually feel the inefficiency? My question is split in two: In practice, today does performance matter in a typical normal business program? If it does, please give me real-world examples of places in such an application, where performance and optimizations are important.

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  • How to Manage Technical Employees

    - by Ajarn Mark Caldwell
    In my current position as Software Engineering Manager I have been through a lot of ups and downs with staffing, ranging from laying-off everyone who was on my team as we went through the great economic downturn in 2007-2008, to numerous rounds of interviewing and hiring contractors, full-time employees, and converting some contractors to employee status.  I have not yet blogged much about my experiences, but I plan to do that more in the next few months.  But before I do that, let me point you to a great article that somebody else wrote on The Unspoken Truth About Managing Geeks that really hits the target.  If you are a non-technical person who manages technical employees, you definitely have to read that article.  And if you are a technical person who has been promoted into management, this article can really help you do your job and communicate up the line of command about your team.  When you move into management with all the new and different demands put on you, it is easy to forget how things work in the tech subculture, and to lose touch with your team.  This article will help you remember what’s going on behind the scenes and perhaps explain why people who used to get along great no longer are, or why things seem to have changed since your promotion. I have to give credit to Andy Leonard (blog | twitter) for helping me find that article.  I have been reading his series of ramble-rants on managing tech teams, and the above article is linked in the first rant in the series, entitled Goodwill, Negative and Positive.  I have read a handful of his entries in this series and so far I pretty much agree with everything he has said, so of course I would encourage you to read through that series, too.

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  • Convience of mySQL over xml

    - by Bonechilla
    Currently I use XML to store specific information to correctly load a few things such as a list of specfied characters, scenes and music, Once more I use JAXB in combination with standard compression/decompression(ZIP) functionality to store a list of extrenous data. This data is called to add functionality to the character, somewhat like Skills in an RPG. Each skill is seperated into its own XML file with a grandlist which contains the names of each file with their extensions omitted and zipped in folder that gets encrypted. At first using xml was working fine however as the skill list grow i worry about its stability. I was wondering if I should begin storing the data in mySQL. Originally I planned to simply convert everything to JSON over xml but i think possibly mySQL would be a better move. Can anyone inform me of the key difference and pros and cons of each I guess i'm looking for the best way to store the data more conviently and would be easier to operate on. The data is mostly primatives and strings and the only arraylist of values i have i can just concat into a single field and parse later

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  • The best way to structure/design game code

    - by Edward
    My question is quite broad and related to the 2D game code design/architecture/structure. Usually the main game consists of the main loop where you update & render your world states. However, it's recommended for many purposes to separate rendering from the game-logic and so on. I am kinda confused about the whole situation. Many game engines/libs/sdks don't follow separation schema. They propagate a way where you define some scenes/stages and they contain some objects and the scene/stage controls the user input and so on. For example, in cocos2d(-x) and libgdx (stage2d) the games are usually done the way that the update logic happens at the same time/place as rendering. Also, the propagated way is to have a structure where an object knows how to draw itself - which is not a separation of updating & rendering. The same with Flash based games, they are usually done the way when an object (class) contains a swf or a texture and some data and holds some update logic itself, or updated from main Scene. And again this object already knows how to draw itself via "addChild". Also, some people recommend to use MVC pattern, which will require to completely obey the structure of those engines/libs/sdks. Maybe I am overthinking everything, but I am totally confused. I would be grateful if somebody could point me to a correct direction with the game code structures. What is your way of doing things in libgdx/cocos2d/flash?

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  • How do I get Windows 7 wallpaper to display the company logo properly?

    - by David Silva Smith
    Windows 7 is not displaying our company background properly. Curves show pixelation and straight lines are jagged. I'm working with a scalable vector graphics (SVG) image that I've exported to the same resolution (pixel dimensions, to be technical) as the desktop, which is 1440x900. I have tried exporting the image as a .png, .jpg, and .bmp. All of these look correct in an image viewing program, such as Windows Photo Viewer and Paint, but when I set the Windows background to these images, curves show pixelation and straight lines are jagged. Reading online, it seems that behind the scenes, Windows is converting the image to a .jpg with low quality compression, which is causing the issue. I've tried setting the image as a background through Internet Explorer, saving it as a .jpg, and putting the file in the Windows photo directory as suggested in some online forums, but none of those solutions have fixed my issue.

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