Search Results

Search found 18913 results on 757 pages for 'ideas'.

Page 510/757 | < Previous Page | 506 507 508 509 510 511 512 513 514 515 516 517  | Next Page >

• Will you share your SQL Server configuration?

  - by Bill Graziano

  I regularly visit client sites and review their SQL Server configurations.  I come across all kinds of strange settings.  I’ve been thinking about a way to aggregate people’s configurations and see what’s common and what’s unique.  I used to do that with polls on SQLTeam.com.  I think we can find out more interesting things if we look at combinations of settings in relation to size and volume. I’ve been working on an application for another project that is similar.  It will be fairly easy to use that code for this.  I can have something up and running in a few days – if people are interested in it.  I admit that I often come up with ideas that just don’t make sense.  This may be one of them.  One of your biggest concerns has be how secure your data is.  My solution is not to store anything identifying.  The instance name and database names can both be “anonymized” and I don’t store the machine name or IP address or anything to do with logins. Some of the questions I’m curious about are: At what size database does the Enterprise Edition become prevalent? Given the total size of the databases how much RAM is common? How many people have multiple data files?  At what size does that become prevalent? How common is database mirroring?  Replication?  Log shipping? How common is full recovery mode?  At what data size does it become prevalent? I think those are all questions that are easy to answer -- with the right data.  The big question is whether or not people will share their SQL Server configurations.  I understand that organizations in regulated or high security environments can’t participate.  But I think that leaves many, many people that can.  Are you willing to share your configuration and learn about others?  I have a simple sign up form here.  It’s actually a mailing list signup that also captures your edition, number of servers and largest database.  The list will only be used for this project.  Is your SQL Server is configured correctly?  Do you wonder what the next step is as your data grows?  Take a second and sign up.

  Read the article

• Am I deluding myself? Business analyst transition to programmer

  - by Ryan

  Current job: Working as the lead business analyst for a Big 4 firm, leading a team of developers and testers working on a large scale re-platforming project (4 onshore dev, 4 offshore devs, several onshore/offshore testers). Also work in a similar capacity on other smaller scale projects. Extent of my role: Gathering/writing out requirements, creating functional specifications, designing the UI (basically mapping out all front-end aspects of the system), working closely with devs to communicate/clarify requirements and come up with solutions when we hit roadblocks, writing test cases (and doing much of the testing), working with senior management and key stakeholders, managing beta testers, creating user guides and leading training sessions, providing key technical support. I also write quite a few macros in Excel using VBA (several of my macros are now used across the entire firm, so there are maybe around 1000 people using them) and use SQL on a daily basis, both on the SQL compact files the program relies on, our SQL Server data and any Access databases I create. The developers feel that I am quite good in this role because I understand a lot about programming, inherent system limitations, structure of the databases, etc so it's easier for me to communicate ideas and come up with suggestions when we face problems. What really interests me is developing software. I do a fair amount of programming in VBA and have been wanting to learn C# for awhile (the dev team uses C# - I review code occasionally for my own sake but have not had any practical experience using it). I'm interested in not just the business process but also the technical side of things, so the traditional BA role doesn't really whet my appetite for the kind of stuff I want to do. Right now I have a few small projects that managers have given me and I'm finding new ways to do them (like building custom Access applications), so there's a bit here and there to keep me interested. My question is this: what I would like to do is create custom Excel or Access applications for small businesses as a freelance business (working as a one-man shop; maybe having an occasional contractor depending on a project's complexity). This would obviously start out as a part-time venture while I have a day job, but eventually become a full-time job. Am I deluding myself to thinking I can go from BA/part-time VBA programmer to making a full-time go of a freelance business (where I would be starting out just writing custom Excel/Access apps in VBA)? Or is this type of thing not usually attempted until someone gains years of full-time programming experience? And is there even a market for these types of applications amongst small businesses (and maybe medium-sized) businesses?

  Read the article

• No wireless connection using a conceptronic c54i (RT2561/RT61 rev B)

  - by jrosell

  Detected but not working. New install on ubuntu 11.10 using coneptronic C54Ri. As documentation says it uses Ralink drivers.... Any ideas why my wireless does not work? $ lspci -nn | grep -i 'ralink' 01:05.0 Network controller: Ralink corp. RT2561/RT61 rev B 802.11g ifconfig eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:1e:90:e5:af:13 inet addr:192.168.0.197 Bcast:192.168.0.255 Mask:255.255.255.0 inet6 addr: fe80::21e:90ff:fee5:af13/64 Scope:Link UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1 RX packets:28361 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0 TX packets:16858 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 RX bytes:39812172 (39.8 MB) TX bytes:1633405 (1.6 MB) Interrupt:43 Base address:0xc000 lo Link encap:Local Loopback inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0 inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1 RX packets:80 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0 TX packets:80 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 RX bytes:6608 (6.6 KB) TX bytes:6608 (6.6 KB) iwconfig wlan0 wlan0 IEEE 802.11abg ESSIDff/any Mode:Managed Access Point: Not-Associated Tx-Power=0 dBm Retry long limit:7 RTS thrff Fragment thrff Power Managementff lsmod | grep rt rt61pci 27493 0 crc_itu_t 12627 1 rt61pci rt2x00pci 14202 1 rt61pci rt2x00lib 48114 2 rt61pci,rt2x00pci mac80211 272785 2 rt2x00pci,rt2x00lib cfg80211 172392 2 rt2x00lib,mac80211 eeprom_93cx6 12653 1 rt61pci parport_pc 32114 1 parport 40930 3 ppdev,parport_pc,lp lsmod | grep rt [ 2497.816989] phy0 -> rt2x00pci_regbusy_read: Error - Indirect register access failed: offset=0x0000308c, value=0xffffffff [ 2497.827112] phy0 -> rt2x00pci_regbusy_read: Error - Indirect register access failed: offset=0x0000308c, value=0xffffffff [ 2497.837430] phy0 -> rt2x00pci_regbusy_read: Error - Indirect register access failed: offset=0x0000308c, value=0xffffffff [ 2497.847528] phy0 -> rt2x00pci_regbusy_read: Error - Indirect register access failed: offset=0x0000308c, value=0xffffffff [ 2497.847632] phy0 -> rt61pci_wait_bbp_ready: Error - BBP register access faile d, aborting. [ 2497.847637] phy0 -> rt61pci_set_device_state: Error - Device failed to enter state 4 (-5). sudo lshw -C network *-network DISABLED description: Wireless interface product: RT2561/RT61 rev B 802.11g vendor: Ralink corp. physical id: 5 bus info: pci@0000:01:05.0 logical name: wlan0 version: 00 serial: fa:b8:14:58:62:35 width: 32 bits clock: 33MHz capabilities: pm cap_list ethernet physical wireless configuration: broadcast=yes driver=rt61pci driverversion=3.0.0-12-generic firmware=0.8 latency=0 link=no multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11abg resources: irq:16 memory:fdef8000-fdefffff iwlist scan lo Interface doesn't support scanning. eth0 Interface doesn't support scanning. wlan0 Failed to read scan data : Network is down uname -mr 3.0.0-12-generic i686 Edit 1 $ rfkill list all 0: phy0: Wireless LAN Soft blocked: no Hard blocked: no On reboot, sudo lshw -C network returns network is ok. Hovever, WPA keeps on asking the wireless key

  Read the article

• Oracle Social Network Developer Challenge: HarQen Nodal

  - by Kellsey Ruppel

  Originally posted by Jake Kuramoto on The Apps Lab blog. We wrapped the Oracle Social Network Developer Challenge last week at OpenWorld, and this week, I’ll be sharing all the entries. All the teams that entered our challenge did a ton of work and built really interesting integrations with Oracle Social Network, and I want to showcase their hard work and innovative ideas. Today, I give you Nodal from the HarQen (@harqen) team, Kris Gösser (@krisgosser), Jesse Vogt (@jesse_vogt) and Matt Stockton (@mstockton). The guys from HarQen built Nodal to provide a visual way to navigate your connections and conversations in Oracle Social Network and view relationships. Using Nodal, you can: Search through names and profiles in Oracle Social Network. Choose people and view their social graphs in a visually useful way. Expand nodes in the social graph and add that person’s social graph to the Nodal view for comparison. Move nodes around and lock them in place for easier viewing, using a physics engine for movement. Adjust the physics engine properties according to your viewing preferences. Select nodes in the social graph and create a conversation directly based on the selection. Here are some shots of Nodal. They really don’t do the physics engine justice, but maybe the guys at Harqen will post a video of what they did for your viewing pleasure. #gallery-1 { margin: auto; } #gallery-1 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 33%; } #gallery-1 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-1 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; }   Nodal’s visuals wowed the judges and the audience, and anyone with a decent-sized social network presence understands the need for good network visualization. Tools like Nodal allow you to discover hidden connections in your network and maximize the value of your weak ties and find mavens, a very important key to getting work done. Thanks to the HarQen team for participating in our challenge. We hope they had a good experience. Look for the details of the other entries this week.

  Read the article

• Suggestions for Summer Intern Application Assignments

  - by orangepips

  As part of our application process we want prospective college interns to complete an assignment on their own - either programming or analytical - to give us something tangible to evaluate such as code or a flowchart. I have two ideas for these assignments, one programming and one analytical, I am interested in gathering feedback about these. Programming Assignment Generate an a month's calendar for a given date. The first row should indicate the days of the week (e.g. Sunday - Saturday). Each subsequent row should contain a week's days. The date supplied should be highlighted (e.g. bolded). I am thinking we'll probably proscribe the output format even more strictly - probably down to what the HTML source should look like including CSS classes. Thinking is this forces answerers to actually do some work if they merely copy a solution from the internet. Analytical Assignment Diagram or describe in prose a system for managing a set of traffic lights for traffic at a four way intersection. Each direction (i.e. North, South, East and West) has two lanes (i.e. right and left). The left lane is turn only and has green arrow light to indicate right of way. The system is able to detect if lanes have cars in them and change the lights accordingly. I would expect a flow chart or some prose describing a finite state machine that deals with each contingency. This would hopefully provide some indication of the applicant's ability to reason through a logic problem of sorts and articulate an approach for solving. Areas Seeking Feedback Is it unreasonable to ask this of applicants? If not, is it better to request before or after a phone screen? Are these questions too hard or easy for a collegiate audience? Any suggestions for alternate questions? Do these seem like good tools for analyzing people who would part of a software development life cycle? Programming language suggestions - I'm thinking Java, Python and/or C# (we're actually a ColdFusion shop).

  Read the article

• How do I take responsibility for my code when colleague makes unnecessary improvements without notice?

  - by Jesslyn

  One of my teammates is a jack of all trades in our IT shop and I respect his insight. However, sometimes he reviews my code (he's second in command to our team leader, so that's expected) without a heads up. So sometimes he reviews my changes before they complete the end goal and makes changes right away... and has even broken my work once. Other times, he has made unnecessary improvements to some of my code that is 3+ months old. This annoys me for a few reasons: I am not always given a chance to fix my mistakes He has not taken the time to ask me what I was trying to accomplish when he is confused, which could affect his testing or changes I don't always think his code is readable Deadlines are not an issue and his current workload doesn't require any work in my projects other than reviewing my code changes. Anyways, I have told him in the past to please keep me posted if he sees something in my work that he wants to change so that I could take ownership of my code (maybe I should have said "shortcomings") and he's not been responsive. I fear that I may come off as aggressive when I ask him to explain his changes to me. He's just a quiet person who keeps to himself, but his actions continue. I don't want to banish him from making code changes (not like I could), because we are a team--but I want to do my part to help our team. Added clarifications: We share 1 development branch. I do not wait until all my changes complete a single task because I risk losing some significant work--so I make sure my changes build and do not break anything. My concern is that my teammate doesn't explain the reason or purpose behind his changes. I don't think he should need my blessing, but if we disagree on an approach I thought it would be best to discuss the pros and cons and make a decision once we both understand what is going on. I have not discussed this with our team lead yet as I would prefer to resolve personal disagreements without getting management involved unless it is necessary. Since my concern seemed more of personal issue than a threat to our work, I chose to not bother the team lead. I am working on code review process ideas--to help promote the benefits of more organized code reviews without making it all about my pet peeves.

  Read the article

• What shall I include in a 10 week web technologies course?

  - by Iain

  In September I will be teaching a university module on web technologies. This session will be available to 1st year (freshman) students who don't necessarily have any programming knowledge or know how the web works. In the 2nd semester I will be teaching Flash, which is my specialism, so I know exactly what I am going to teach, but in the 1st semester I will be teaching them web standards technologies - HTML, CSS, JS, jQuery, PHP and MySQL. Where I need advice is how to proportion the emphasis for each part, and which parts of each technology to cover. Another real issue I'm struggling with is how much of the bad old ways should I teach them? Do they need to know about bold as well as strong, etc. UPDATE: based, on your feedback I will only be teaching the latest version of everything - CSS3, HTML5 etc. I'm not sure exactly how long the semester will be but I'm guessing about 10-12 weeks. Each session is a 2 hour lab. Obviously there's only so much I can cover in that time and it will be up to the students to go a research this stuff properly on W3 schools etc. My ideas so far were: Lesson 0 - Course intro and overview of the current tech landscape. What is out there, what will we be learning, what won't we. What is a web server, URL etc. Looking at different example websites and discussing how they work. Lesson 1 - HTML basics (head, body, title, img, table, a, lists, h1, strong etc) Lesson 2 - CSS for styling and layout - fonts, webfonts, float etc Lesson 3 - Intro to programming JS (variables, loops, conditionals, functions) Lesson 4 - more JS programming fundamentals, DOM manipulation Lesson 5 - jQuery - making things fly about and look cool Lesson 6 - XML and Ajax Lesson 7 - PHP basics - syntax, server-side principles Lesson 8 - PHP and MySQL - forms, logins, saving user info Lesson 9 - don't know Lesson 10 - don't know Please let me know if you think this is the right order, what have I missed, how to use any spare sessions etc. Thanks :) UPDATE BASED ON RESPONSES: Thanks for all your responses - some great stuff. To be absolutely clear, this is not a computer science course, it is a practical module on a creative technology course. The emphasis definitely has to be on making cool things work rather than understanding how the backbone of the internet works. That can come later, if the students are interested. At the end of the module I would like the students to be able to produce a web page or pages that does something cool, using some or all of the technologies I cover. Many of these topics are of course far beyond the scope of a 2 hour session, however I do not have the option of reducing the syllabus, I will just have to explain what the technology does and encourage the student to research it in their own time.

  Read the article

• Moved to SSD and now getting "the disk drive for / is not ready yet"

  - by dmt0

  I moved my Ubuntu 12.04 install over to an SSD drive. Copied all directories except for the ones most often written to - var, tmp, ... Reinstalled grub into SSD by booting with live CD and following the commands in this post: How to move Ubuntu to an SSD This seemed to work fine, because when I press "e" in grub menu, I see the expected UUIDs. But right after grub I get could not log bootup: Address already in use the disk drive for / is not ready yet or not present. If I skip, I get same for /tmp /run, and other dirs If I go into manual recovery and do mount -n -o remount,rw / it turns out that everything can mount no problem. Can't get my head around this one. My fstab seems right. grub is right. AHCI in bios is enabled. Why is this happening? What can I do to fix it? When I do drop into shell from this error and get to mount things manually, how do I get the OS to continue loading? Thank you guys for any ideas you can give me. Here's what my fstab looks like right now: # <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass> proc /proc proc defaults 0 0 UUID=67fc8a7a-f1db-485c-88bd-e007c214244f / ext4 defaults,noatime,discard 0 1 # swap was on /dev/sda3 during installation UUID=6bc9cd6c-46b7-43a0-bfac-bd04cc26cfb6 none swap sw 0 0 UUID=7397729b-2125-4b1d-b5eb-28866898d773 /hdd ext4 errors=remount-ro 0 1 /hdd/home /home none bind 0 0 /hdd/run /run none bind 0 0 /hdd/tmp /tmp none bind 0 0 /hdd/var /var none bind 0 0 /dev/scd0 /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto,exec,utf8 0 0 output from blkid: /dev/sda1: LABEL="System Reserved" UUID="EABC56C1BC568849" TYPE="ntfs" /dev/sda2: UUID="7CCC6124CC60D9C2" TYPE="ntfs" /dev/sda3: UUID="6bc9cd6c-46b7-43a0-bfac-bd04cc26cfb6" TYPE="swap" /dev/sda5: UUID="7397729b-2125-4b1d-b5eb-28866898d773" TYPE="ext4" /dev/sdb1: UUID="67fc8a7a-f1db-485c-88bd-e007c214244f" TYPE="ext4" relevant from fdisk -l: Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sdb1 2048 115345407 57671680 83 Linux

  Read the article

• ArchBeat Link-o-Rama for 2012-10-12

  - by Bob Rhubart

  This is your brain on IT architecture. Oracle Technology Network Architect Day in Los Angeles, Oct 25 This is your brain on IT architecture. Stuff your cranium with architecture by attending Oracle Technology Network Architect Day in Los Angeles, October 25, 2012, at the Sofitel Los Angeles, 8555 Beverly Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90048. Technical sessions, panel Q&A, and peer roundtables--plus a free lunch. Register now. WebCenter Sites Gadget Development Concepts Quickstart | John Brunswick What are Gadgets? "At their most basic level they can be thought of as lightweight portlets that run largely on the client side of an architecture," says John Brunswick. "Gadgets provide a cross-platform container to run reusable UI modules that generally expose dynamic information to an end user, allowing for some level of end user customization." ORCLville: OOW 2012 - A Not So Brief Recap Oracle ACE Director Floyd Teter, an Applications & Apps Technology specialists, shares his personal, frank, and and extensive recap or Oracle OpenWorld 2012. Fusion Applications Technical Tips | Naveen Nahata "Setting memory parameters for Admin and Managed servers of various domains in Fusion Applications can be, let us say, a little daunting," says Oracle Fusion Middleware A-Team member Naveen Nahata. "While all this may look complicated and intimidating, it is actually relatively simple once you understand how it all works." Following the Thread in OSB | Antony Reynolds Antony Reynolds recently led an Oracle Service Bus POC in which his team needed to get high throughput from an OSB pipeline. "Imagine our surprise when, on stressing the system, we saw it lock up, with large numbers of blocked threads." He shares the details of the problem and the solution in this extensive technical post. ExaLogic Hackers Night - November 19th Nürnberg Germany | WebLogic Partner Community EMEA Want to get your hands on Oracle Exalogic? Make your way to Nürnberg, Germany for this Exalogic Hacker's Night on November 19, 2012. Experts will be on hand to help you test your ideas. (The blog post is in English, but the event registration page is in German.) Thought for the Day "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds…" — Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803 – April 27, 1882) Source: SoftwareQuotes.com

  Read the article

• Best way to implement a simple bullet trajectory

  - by AirieFenix

  I searched and searched and although it's a fair simple question, I don't find the proper answer but general ideas (which I already have). I have a top-down game and I want to implement a gun which shoots bullets that follow a simple path (no physics nor change of trajectory, just go from A to B thing). a: vector of the position of the gun/player. b: vector of the mouse position (cross-hair). w: the vector of the bullet's trajectory. So, w=b-a. And the position of the bullet = [x=x0+speed*time*normalized w.x , y=y0+speed*time * normalized w.y]. I have the constructor: public Shot(int shipX, int shipY, int mouseX, int mouseY) { //I get mouse with Gdx.input.getX()/getY() ... this.shotTime = TimeUtils.millis(); this.posX = shipX; this.posY = shipY; //I used aVector = aVector.nor() here before but for some reason didn't work float tmp = (float) (Math.pow(mouseX-shipX, 2) + Math.pow(mouseY-shipY, 2)); tmp = (float) Math.sqrt(Math.abs(tmp)); this.vecX = (mouseX-shipX)/tmp; this.vecY = (mouseY-shipY)/tmp; } And here I update the position and draw the shot: public void drawShot(SpriteBatch batch) { this.lifeTime = TimeUtils.millis() - this.shotTime; //position = positionBefore + v*t this.posX = this.posX + this.vecX*this.lifeTime*speed*Gdx.graphics.getDeltaTime(); this.posY = this.posY + this.vecY*this.lifeTime*speed*Gdx.graphics.getDeltaTime(); ... } Now, the behavior of the bullet seems very awkward, not going exactly where my mouse is (it's like the mouse is 30px off) and with a random speed. I know I probably need to open the old algebra book from college but I'd like somebody says if I'm in the right direction (or points me to it); if it's a calculation problem, a code problem or both. Also, is it possible that Gdx.input.getX() gives me non-precise position? Because when I draw the cross-hair it also draws off the cursor position. Sorry for the long post and sorry if it's a very basic question. Thanks!

  Read the article

• Software engineering project idea feedback [on hold]

  - by Chris Sewell

  I'm a third year student currently undergoing my project/dissertation section of my degree. I have drafted a proposal for my final year project and would appreciate any feedback. The feedback can be anything constructive either specific to this proposal, the area that I will be working and researching in or my ideas. I will accept all input. Aims My aim is to attempt a proof of concept and prototype a runtime-as-a-service (RaaS). This cloud based runtime will allow clients to dynamically offload tasks or create cloud applications. Currently software-as-a-service (SaaS) cloud applications are purpose built and have a predefined scope in which they can assist or serve the client; this scope cannot be changed without physical alteration to the client and server software. With RaaS the client potentially could define any task it wanted at any time depending on its environment variables, the client and server would then communicate parameters and returns for that task. For the client to utilize a RaaS it must be able to conceive and then define a task using an appropriate XML vocabulary. As the scope of the cloud solution is defined by the client at its runtime, the cloud solution only has to exist for as long as the client requires it to as opposed to a client using a dedicated service. Deliverables The crux of the project will require an XML vocabulary in which the client and server will communicate. I’ll prototype the server application that will dynamically create and manage cloud solutions. The solution will be coded using an interpreted language, such as python or javascript, which can evaluate expressions in runtime or a language that can dynamically compile such as C# or Java. As a further proof of concept I will also produce a mock client that offloads tasks to the server. The report will attempt to explain the different flavours of cloud computing solutions including infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS), platform-as-a-service (PaaS) and SaaS including real world examples and where the use of a RaaS could have improved the overall example solution. Disclaimer: I'm not requesting stakeholders in my project nor am I delegating work. Any materials other than feedback, advice or directions will not be utilized.

  Read the article

• Does it make the game more fun when the user is forced to progress thru the levels sequentially rather than letting them pick and play?

  - by BeachRunnerJoe

  Hello. For the first time in my game, I'm stuck with a real design dilemma. I guess that's a good thing ;) I'm building a word puzzle game that has five levels, each with 30 puzzles. Currently, the user has to solve one puzzle at a time before moving to the next. However, I'm finding the user occasionally gets stuck on a puzzle, at which point they can no longer play until they solve it. This is obviously bad because many people will just quit playing the game and delete the app since they get frustrated and can't play any other puzzles until the current puzzle is solved. The only elegant solution I can find to helping the player get unstuck is changing the design of the game to allow the users to pick any puzzle to play at any time. This way, if they get stuck, they can come back to it later and at least they have other puzzles to play in the meantime. It's my opinion, however, that this new flow design doesn't make the game as fun as the original flow design where the player has to complete a puzzle before moving to the next. To me, it's like anything else, when you only have one of something, it's more enjoyable, but when you have 30 of something, it's far less enjoyable. In fact, when I present the user with 30 puzzles to choose from that they need to solve before unlocking the next level, it almost seems as tho I'm making them feel like it's work they have to do. I even had a tester voluntarily tell me that being forced to complete a puzzle before moving to the next is more motivating. My questions are... Do you agree/disagree? Do you have any suggestions for how I can help the player get unstuck? Thanks so much in advance for your thoughts! EDIT: I should mention that I've already considered a few other solutions to helping the user get unstuck, but none of them seem like good ideas. They are... Add more hints: Currently, the user gets two hints per puzzle. If I increase the hint count, it only makes the game more easy and still leaves the possibility of the user getting stuck. Add a "Show Solution" button: This seems like a bad idea because it's my opinion this takes the fun out of the game for many people who would probably otherwise solve the puzzle if they didn't have the quick option to see the solution.

  Read the article

• How to explain bad software to non-technical people?

  - by mtutty

  In discussing software development with non-technical people (customers, business owners, project sponsors, etc.), I often resort to analogies and metaphors. It's relatively easy and effective to use a "house" or other metaphor for describing the size and complexity of new development. However, we often inherit someone else's code or data, and this approach doesn't seem to hold up as well when trying to explain why we're gutting something that already seems to work. Of course we can point to cycle time and cost to be saved in the future but this generally means nothing to business folks. I know doctors can say "just take this pill," but I'm not sure that software devs have the same authority. Ideas? EDIT: Let me add a bit to the discussion. The specific project I'm talking about has customers that don't realize (or care) about specific aspects of the system we're retiring (i.e., they think it was just fine): The system would save a NEW RECORD every time someone updated a field The system contained tables for reference data. These tables had new records added every day, even though they were duplicates of previous records. And there was no way to tie the reference data used for a particular case at the time it was closed. This is like 99% of the data in the old system. The field NAMES also have spaces, apostrophes and other inappropriate characters in them, making everything harder to work with. In addition to the incredible amount of duplicate data, they have around 1000 XLS files with data they want added to the system. Previously, they would do a spreadsheet for each case in the database, IN ADDITION TO what they typed into the database. Getting rid of this old, unneeded information and piping in the XLS data comprises about 80% of the total project effort, and was not something we could accurately predict. I'm trying to find a concrete way to describe how bad this thing was, mostly so that the customer will understand why the migration process has been so time-consuming. The actual coding was done pretty quickly and the new system works fine, but without the old data they won't be happy. Sorry to get into the weeds, but most of the answers I've seen so far are pretty basic scope/schedule/cost things. I've been doing this for 15 years, so this really is more of a reflective, philosophical question - but without some of the details it can be difficult to really appreciate the awful beauty of this problem.

  Read the article

• need some concrete examples on user stories, tasks and how they relate to functional and technical specifications

  - by gideon

  Little heads up, Im the only lonely dev building/planning/mocking my project as I go. Ive come up with a preview release that does only the core aspects of the system, with good business value and I've coded most of the UI as dirty throw-able mockups over nicely abstracted and very minimal base code. In the end I know quite well what my clients want on the whole. I can't take agile-ish cowboying anymore because Im completely dis-organized and have no paper plan and since my clients are happy, things are getting more complex with more features and ideas. So I started using and learning Agile & Scrum Here are my problems: I know what a functional spec is.(sample): Do all user stories and/or scenarios become part of the functional spec? I know what user stories and tasks are. Are these kinda user stories? I dont see any Business Value reason added to them. I made a mind map using freemind, I had problems like this: Actor : Finance Manager Can Add a Financial Plan into the system because well thats the point of it? What Business Value reason do I add for things like this? Example : A user needs to be able to add a blog article (in the blogger app) because..?? Its the point of a blogger app, it centers around that feature? How do I go into the finer details and system definitions: Actor: Finance Manager Action: Adds a finance plan. This adding is a complicated process with lots of steps. What User Story will describe what a finance plan in the system is ?? I can add it into the functional spec under definitions explaining what a finance plan is and how one needs to add it into the system, but how do I get to the backlog planning from there? Example: A Blog Article is mostly a textual document that can be written in rich text in the system. To add a blog article one must...... But how do you create backlog list/features out of this? Where are the user stories for what a blog article is and how one adds/removes it? Finally, I'm a little confused about the relations between functional specs and user stories. Will my spec contain user stories in them with UI mockups? Now will these user stories then branch out tasks which will make up something like a technical specification? Example : EditorUser Can add a blog article. Use XML to store blog article. Add a form to add blog. Add Windows Live Writer Support. That would be agile tasks but would that also be part of/or form the technical specs? Some concrete examples/answers of my questions would be nice!!

  Read the article

• Oracle OpenWorld / JavaOne Where I'll Be

  - by Shay Shmeltzer

  It's that time of the year again when San Francisco get flooded with Oracle and Java geeks for the annual OpenWorld and JavaOne conferences. Here are some of the places where you'll be able to find me: Sunday has a bunch of great ADF content in the ADF Enterprise Methodology Group track - I'm not sure if I'll make it there but I'm sure those who will will get some serious knowledge transfer. I'm starting Monday at the Keynote for Developers (10:45 in Salon 8 at the Marriott) - that's a great place for ADF developers to start the official week with an overview of what's new and upcoming in the world of development with ADF. While I'm not presenting this session - Chris Tonas who leads the development tools org will -  a demo that I built will be shown. So I'll be sitting in the audience crossing my fingers praying for the demo gods (and the wifi connection to work). My presentation part of the week starts on Monday at 12:15 at Moscone South room 306 where I'll be presenting "CON3004 - Understanding Oracle ADF and Its Role in Oracle Fusion"  . A basic introduction to ADF, it's architecture, development experience and how it integrates and works with the rest of the Fusion Middleware components.  After the session between 2-4 I'll be at the JDeveloper demo booth in Moscone South to answer any questions people might have. Then at 6:15 together with Grant we'll host BOF4492 - How to Get Started with Oracle ADF where we'll try and explain some of the learning paths and resources that are available for people who want to start learning ADF. This is a birds-of-a-feather so we'll also love to hear ideas from the audience about what paths they took and what things work or need improvment. Tuesday is relatively a quite day for me with a shift at the Oracle ADF Essentials pod at JavaOne from 1:30-3:30. There are several very good ADF architecture and best practices sessions on that day - so I'll try and hit those. Wednesday starts with another shift at the JDeveloper booth at JavaOne. Then at 4:30, instead of doing what all the ADF developers should do and heading over to the ADF meetup at the OTN Lounge, I'll be heading over to JavaOne for my CON3770 - Oracle JDeveloper and Oracle ADF: What’s New session. It's been a couple of years since the last time JDeveloper or ADF got any airtime at JavaOne - so it will be a great opportunity to show those in the Java community with open minds our approach to Java development. Now that ADF Essentials offers a free way to develop with ADF on GlassFish, I hope we'll be getting more people from the core Java camp interested in what we have to offer. Thursday is another relaxed day for me - who knows maybe I'll even be able to catch a session or two on that day. If you want to learn more about the ADF related sessions at OOW check out our full list here.

  Read the article

• Achieving decoupling in Model classes

  - by Guven

  I am trying to test-drive (or at least write unit tests) my Model classes but I noticed that my classes end up being too coupled. Since I can't break this coupling, writing unit tests is becoming harder and harder. To be more specific: Model Classes: These are the classes that hold the data in my application. They resemble pretty much the POJO (plain old Java objects), but they also have some methods. The application is not too big so I have around 15 model classes. Coupling: Just to give an example, think of a simple case of Order Header - Order Item. The header knows the item and the item knows the header (needs some information from the header for performing certain operations). Then, let's say there is the relationship between Order Item - Item Report. The item report needs the item as well. At this point, imagine writing tests for Item Report; you need have a Order Header to carry out the tests. This is a simple case with 3 classes; things get more complicated with more classes. I can come up with decoupled classes when I design algorithms, persistence layers, UI interactions, etc... but with model classes, I can't think of a way to separate them. They currently sit as one big chunk of classes that depend on each other. Here are some workarounds that I can think of: Data Generators: I have a package that generates sample data for my model classes. For example, the OrderHeaderGenerator class creates OrderHeaders with some basic data in it. I use the OrderHeaderGenerator from my ItemReport unit-tests so that I get an instance to OrderHeader class. The problem is these generators get complicated pretty fast and then I also need to test these generators; defeating the purpose a little bit. Interfaces instead of dependencies: I can come up with interfaces to get rid of the hard dependencies. For example, the OrderItem class would depend on the IOrderHeader interface. So, in my unit tests, I can easily mock the behaviour of an OrderHeader with a FakeOrderHeader class that implements the IOrderHeader interface. The problem with this approach is the complexity that the Model classes would end up having. Would you have other ideas on how to break this coupling in the model classes? Or, how to make it easier to unit-test the model classes?

  Read the article

• External hard drive issue

  - by Blind Fish

  I am running Ubuntu 12.04 and I have a 500GB external hard drive, formatted in ext4, which I have used for about a year to store batches of data that I am sifting through. About once a week I move a chunk of data from the external drive to my internal drive for processing. As I do that I delete the data from the external drive and empty the trash, thereby clearing up space on the external and also preventing myself from grabbing stuff that I've already sorted through. The vast majority of this is text files, but there are a few .jpegs and .mp4s thrown in, if that matters. Anyway, this has been working without a hitch for nearly a year. So today I plug in the drive and I have an odd issue. I was able to move folders from the external over to my internal drive with no problem, but when I tried to delete those files I was unable to do so. I kept getting the "unable to send file to trash, do you wish to delete permanently?" message. I clicked yes / delete all, but no files were actually deleted. It just sat there. Even worse, while the system was trying in vain to delete those files I was unable to move more files over. In short, I was stuck. I canceled the operation, unmounted and remounted the drive, and then I had an even bigger problem. I have a spreadsheet of all the different folders on there ( exactly 818 ) and yet when I opened the drive in Nautilus, it was only finding 512 folders. So I had 306 missing folders, but my free space was unchanged. Immediately I think that the drive may be corrupted. I went into Disk Utility and ran the check disk option. It said that the drive was NOT clean, but offered no remedy or option to repair. I went back into the drive in Nautilus and once again attempted to delete the files I had already moved. Same issue. I clicked on Details and it said that it was unable to create a trashing file I/O error. I've looked, and it's not a permissions issue. The drive and all folders that are in it all belong to me, and they are all read / write. I've started running badblocks on the drive, but it looks like that is going to take several hours to complete. Any ideas?

  Read the article

• OpenGL ES 2 jittery camera movement

  - by user16547

  First of all, I am aware that there's no camera in OpenGL (ES 2), but from my understanding proper manipulation of the projection matrix can simulate the concept of a camera. What I'm trying to do is make my camera follow my character. My game is 2D, btw. I think the principle is the following (take Super Mario Bros or Doodle Jump as reference - actually I'm trying to replicate the mechanics of the latter): when the caracter goes beyond the center of the screen (in the positive axis/direction), update the camera to be centred on the character. Else keep the camera still. I did accomplish that, however the camera movement is noticeably jittery and I ran out of ideas how to make it smoother. First of all, my game loop (following this article): private int TICKS_PER_SECOND = 30; private int SKIP_TICKS = 1000 / TICKS_PER_SECOND; private int MAX_FRAMESKIP = 5; @Override public void run() { loops = 0; if(firstLoop) { nextGameTick = SystemClock.elapsedRealtime(); firstLoop = false; } while(SystemClock.elapsedRealtime() > nextGameTick && loops < MAX_FRAMESKIP) { step(); nextGameTick += SKIP_TICKS; loops++; } interpolation = ( SystemClock.elapsedRealtime() + SKIP_TICKS - nextGameTick ) / (float)SKIP_TICKS; draw(); } And the following code deals with moving the camera. I was unsure whether to place it in step() or draw(), but it doesn't make a difference to my problem at the moment, as I tried both and neither seemed to fix it. center just represents the y coordinate of the centre of the screen at any time. Initially it is 0. The camera object is my own custom "camera" which basically is a class that just manipulates the view and projection matrices. if(character.getVerticalSpeed() >= 0) { //only update camera if going up float[] projectionMatrix = camera.getProjectionMatrix(); if( character.getY() > center) { center += character.getVerticalSpeed(); cameraBottom = center + camera.getBottom(); cameraTop = center + camera.getTop(); Matrix.orthoM(projectionMatrix, 0, camera.getLeft(), camera.getRight(), center + camera.getBottom(), center + camera.getTop(), camera.getNear(), camera.getFar()); } } Any thought about what I should try or what I am doing wrong? Update 1: I think I updated every value you can see on screen to check whether the jittery movement is affected by that, but nothing changed, so something must be fundamentally flawed with my approach/calculations.

  Read the article

• sony vaio WLAN problem using 12.04

  - by Fredrik

  I'm unable to get my WLAN to work for my Sony Vaio model VPCF23C5E No problem connecting from windows, smartphones etc. $ sudo lshw -C network; lsb_release -a; uname -a; sudo rfkill list; dmesg | grep -i firm *-network description: Wireless interface product: AR9485 Wireless Network Adapter vendor: Atheros Communications Inc. physical id: 0 bus info: pci@0000:02:00.0 logical name: wlan0 version: 01 serial: 64:27:37:92:99:0f width: 64 bits clock: 33MHz capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list rom ethernet physical wireless configuration: broadcast=yes driver=ath9k driverversion=3.2.0-29-generic firmware=N/A latency=0 link=no multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11bgn resources: irq:16 memory:f7000000-f707ffff memory:f7080000-f708ffff *-network description: Ethernet interface product: RTL8111/8168B PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller vendor: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. physical id: 0 bus info: pci@0000:05:00.0 logical name: eth0 version: 06 serial: f0:bf:97:dd:b2:bd size: 1Gbit/s capacity: 1Gbit/s width: 64 bits clock: 33MHz capabilities: pm msi pciexpress msix vpd bus_master cap_list ethernet physical tp mii 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd 1000bt 1000bt-fd autonegotiation configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=r8169 driverversion=2.3LK-NAPI duplex=full firmware=rtl_nic/rtl8168e-1.fw ip=192.168.1.4 latency=0 link=yes multicast=yes port=MII speed=1Gbit/s resources: irq:50 ioport:9000(size=256) memory:e2104000-e2104fff memory:e2100000-e2103fff LSB Version: core-2.0-amd64:core-2.0-noarch:core-3.0-amd64:core-3.0-noarch:core-3.1-amd64:core-3.1-noarch:core-3.2-amd64:core-3.2-noarch:core-4.0-amd64:core-4.0-noarch Distributor ID: Ubuntu Description: Ubuntu 12.04.1 LTS Release: 12.04 Codename: precise Linux siriedit 3.2.0-29-generic #46-Ubuntu SMP Fri Jul 27 17:03:23 UTC 2012 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux 1: phy0: Wireless LAN Soft blocked: no Hard blocked: no 2: hci0: Bluetooth Soft blocked: no Hard blocked: no [ 1.287449] [Firmware Bug]: ACPI: BIOS _OSI(Linux) query ignored [ 18.273582] [Firmware Bug]: ACPI(NGFX) defines _DOD but not _DOS Seen some proposed solution e.g. Wireless network cannot be enabled for Sony VAIO E series but answers there don't solve my problem... I'm out of ideas :-( What else can I check? update $ ifconfig -a eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr f0:bf:97:dd:b2:bd inet addr:192.168.1.4 Bcast:192.168.1.255 Mask:255.255.255.0 inet6 addr: fe80::f2bf:97ff:fedd:b2bd/64 Scope:Link UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1 RX packets:5072 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0 TX packets:4444 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 RX bytes:4568435 (4.5 MB) TX bytes:610624 (610.6 KB) Interrupt:50 Base address:0xc000 lo Link encap:Local Loopback inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0 inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1 RX packets:1498 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0 TX packets:1498 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 RX bytes:114156 (114.1 KB) TX bytes:114156 (114.1 KB) wlan0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 64:27:37:92:99:0f inet addr:192.168.1.5 Bcast:192.168.1.255 Mask:255.255.255.0 inet6 addr: fe80::6627:37ff:fe92:990f/64 Scope:Link UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1 RX packets:1277 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0 TX packets:472 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 RX bytes:483155 (483.1 KB) TX bytes:61031 (61.0 KB)

  Read the article

• New grad; To overcome complete lack of experience, should I ditch a creative pet project in lieu of one that would demonstrate more applicable skills?

  - by Hart Simha

  I am currently working on a project on github that I think would be a good demonstration of my initiative, creativity and enthusiasm. It is an educational game I am developing in pygame that enables the user to learn to improve their development productivity by using vim, specifically with python, though learning to code faster with vim should be transferable to any language. I think this is something that might have a mass appeal and benefit to a lot of people in a measurable way. -However- I am graduating from college in a month (my degree is computer science with a minor in English), with no experience that is relevant to helping me get any kind of job in the field, and a gpa that doesn't tout my merits. I could pursue a career in game development, but it's not necessarily what I'm most interested in, and see myself applying to startups around the country. To the places I am looking at applying, showing that I have experience with pygame is going to be largely irrelevant, except in demonstration of my ability to code, period. A lot of skills that ARE more marketable, such a data modeling, GIS, mobile application, development, javascript, .net framework, and various web development technologies, are not going to be showcased by this project (on the upside, employers do like to see familiarity with git and python). I'm wondering if I should sink all my free time in the next couple of months into this project, since I'm motivated and interested in it, and if the value of being able to demonstrate ambition and 'good ideas' (for lack of a better term, and in my own opinion) will compensate for the absence of demonstrating more sought-after skills. I am probably at a point where I should either commit fully to this project now, or put it on the backburner in favor of something else, and I am leaning towards continuing with what I am already working on, because I think it's a great idea, and something achievable to me with enough dedication over the next couple months. But the most important thing to me is being able to get a job out of college, which I am exceedingly concerned about as the professional landscape which I am navigating for the first time is a lot more intimidating than I could have anticipated, with almost every job (even short-term contract positions) requiring years of experience which I lack. So in brief, the common denominator to answering the question "How can I overcome experience requirements for a job" seems to be "Show off your own project." I want to know WHICH project I should work on to best increase my chances of getting a job out of college, keeping in mind that I have no experience. I believe this question is applicable to any new grad that lacks demonstrable experience.

  Read the article

• Fuji camera "mounts" but folder not in Dolphin After Kubuntu 13.10 upgrade

  - by user207207

  Fuji camera mount reported in attached devices but not visible in Dolphin After Kubuntu 13.10 upgrade Have reinstalled the driver, and a few other suggestions, for other cameras mounts failing on previous Ubuntu upgrades. I have already spent a couple of hours trying to get my photo's off the camera, very annoying. Worked perfectly in 11.04, 11.10, 12.04, 12.10 and 13.04. dmesg | tail; lsusb; lsb_release -a [ 6181.858786] CPUM: APIC 03 at 00000000fee00000 (mapped at ffffc90009400000) - ver 0x80050010, lint0=0x10700 lint1=0x10400 pc=0x00400 thmr=0x10000 [17261.396236] CPUM: APIC 00 at 00000000fee00000 (mapped at ffffc90000c6a000) - ver 0x80050010, lint0=0x10700 lint1=0x00400 pc=0x00400 thmr=0x10000 [17261.396239] CPUM: APIC 03 at 00000000fee00000 (mapped at ffffc90000c72000) - ver 0x80050010, lint0=0x10700 lint1=0x10400 pc=0x00400 thmr=0x10000 [17261.396241] CPUM: APIC 02 at 00000000fee00000 (mapped at ffffc90000c70000) - ver 0x80050010, lint0=0x10700 lint1=0x10400 pc=0x00400 thmr=0x10000 [17261.396255] CPUM: APIC 01 at 00000000fee00000 (mapped at ffffc90000c6e000) - ver 0x80050010, lint0=0x10700 lint1=0x10400 pc=0x00400 thmr=0x10000 [32456.884907] usb 2-5: new high-speed USB device number 2 using ehci-pci [32457.654046] usb 2-5: New USB device found, idVendor=04cb, idProduct=01e8 [32457.654050] usb 2-5: New USB device strings: Mfr=0, Product=2, SerialNumber=3 [32457.654052] usb 2-5: Product: Digital Camera [32457.654053] usb 2-5: SerialNumber: 4C3230302020091117CAA59WP18548 Bus 002 Device 002: ID 04cb:01e8 Fuji Photo Film Co., Ltd Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub Bus 001 Device 003: ID 2013:024f PCTV Systems nanoStick T2 290e Bus 001 Device 002: ID 046d:082d Logitech, Inc. HD Pro Webcam C920 Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub No LSB modules are available. Distributor ID: Ubuntu vissibleDescription: Ubuntu 13.10 Release: 13.10 Codename: saucy sudo apt-get install gvfs-bin gvfs-mount gphoto2://[usb:002,002] Error mounting location: Error initializing camera: -108: No such file or directory ...... I have reported a bug in Dolphin, which has been transferred to Solid. Further information : I ran solid-hardware list details udi = '/org/kde/solid/udev/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:04.1/usb2/2-5' parent = '/org/kde/solid/udev' (string) vendor = '04cb' (string) product = 'Digital Camera' (string) description = 'Camera' (string) Block.major = 189 (0xbd) (int) Block.minor = 137 (0x89) (int) Block.device = '/dev/bus/usb/002/010' (string) Camera.supportedProtocols = {'ptp'} (string list) Camera.supportedDrivers = {'gphoto'} (string list) I still can't get my photo's off, I can see the folders using the Gimp menu. If anyone has got any ideas, I'm willing to try them.

  Read the article

• After startup, display reverts to one desktop duplicated on both screens

  - by Skilldrick

  I have a Samsung R530 laptop. I'm actually running Linux Mint, which is based on Ubuntu (which is why I thought it would be OK to post this here). I'm now getting exactly the same problem on Ubuntu 10.10. I've got it setup with a secondary LCD monitor, and I've changed the display settings so the laptop screen and monitor are at optimal resolution, with the desktop shared between them. After startup though (typically around 10-30 seconds) the display reverts to 1024 x 768 on both screens, and the display is duplicated (i.e. both screens show the same thing). I think this is something to do with my video card, as I had the same problem when I was running Arch Linux. Any ideas? Edit: 00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset Memory Controller Hub (rev 09) 00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 09) 00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 09) 00:1a.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4 (rev 03) 00:1a.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #5 (rev 03) 00:1a.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #6 (rev 03) 00:1a.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #2 (rev 03) 00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) HD Audio Controller (rev 03) 00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 03) 00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 4 (rev 03) 00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 03) 00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 03) 00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 03) 00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #1 (rev 03) 00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev 93) 00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation ICH9M LPC Interface Controller (rev 03) 00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation ICH9M/M-E SATA AHCI Controller (rev 03) 00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 03) 02:00.0 Network controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR9285 Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express) (rev 01) 04:00.0 Ethernet controller: Marvell Technology Group Ltd. 88E8040 PCI-E Fast Ethernet Controller It seems it's Intel, not Nvidia. I have a current work around, which is to have a launcher to a script containing xrandr --output LVDS1 --mode 1366x768 --output HDMI1 --mode 1280x1024 --left-of LVDS1 on my desktop, and to run it after the displays revert, but it's not ideal.

  Read the article

• Separating logic and data in browser game

  - by Tesserex

  I've been thinking this over for days and I'm still not sure what to do. I'm trying to refactor a combat system in PHP (...sorry.) Here's what exists so far: There are two (so far) types of entities that can participate in combat. Let's just call them players and NPCs. Their data is already written pretty well. When involved in combat, these entities are wrapped with another object in the DB called a Combatant, which gives them information about the particular fight. They can be involved in multiple combats at once. I'm trying to write the logic engine for combat by having combatants injected into it. I want to be able to mock everything for testing. In order to separate logic and data, I want to have two interfaces / base classes, one being ICombatantData and the other ICombatantLogic. The two implementers of data will be one for the real objects stored in the database, and the other for my mock objects. I'm now running into uncertainties with designing the logic side of things. I can have one implementer for each of players and NPCs, but then I have an issue. A combatant needs to be able to return the entity that it wraps. Should this getter method be part of logic or data? I feel strongly that it should be in data, because the logic part is used for executing combat, and won't be available if someone is just looking up information about an upcoming fight. But the data classes only separate mock from DB, not player from NPC. If I try having two child classes of the DB data implementer, one for each entity type, then how do I architect that while keeping my mocks in the loop? Do I need some third interface like IEntityProvider that I inject into the data classes? Also with some of the ideas I've been considering, I feel like I'll have to put checks in place to make sure you don't mismatch things, like making the logic for an NPC accidentally wrap the data for a player. Does that make any sense? Is that a situation that would even be possible if the architecture is correct, or would the right design prohibit that completely so I don't need to check for it? If someone could help me just layout a class diagram or something for this it would help me a lot. Thanks. edit Also useful to note, the mock data class doesn't really need the Entity, since I'll just be specifying all the parameters like combat stats directly instead. So maybe that will affect the correct design.

  Read the article

• Does it make the game more fun when the user is forced to progress through the levels sequentially rather than letting them pick and play?

  - by BeachRunnerJoe

  Hello. For the first time in my game, I'm stuck with a real design dilemma. I guess that's a good thing ;) I'm building a word puzzle game that has five levels, each with 30 puzzles. Currently, the user has to solve one puzzle at a time before moving to the next. However, I'm finding the user occasionally gets stuck on a puzzle, at which point they can no longer play until they solve it. This is obviously bad because many people will probably just quit playing the game and delete the app. The only elegant solution I can find to helping the player get unstuck is changing the design of the game to allow the users to pick any puzzle to play at any time. This way, if they get stuck, they can come back to it later and at least they have other puzzles to play in the meantime. It's my opinion, however, that this new flow design doesn't make the game as fun as the original flow design where the player has to complete a puzzle before moving to the next. To me, it's like anything else, when you only have one of something, it's more enjoyable, but when you have 30 of something, it's far less enjoyable. In fact, when I present the user with 30 puzzles to choose from, I'm concerned I might be making them feel like it's a lot of work they have to do and that's bad. I even had a tester voluntarily tell me that being forced to complete a puzzle before moving to the next is actually motivating. My questions are... Do you agree/disagree? Do you have any suggestions for how I can help the player get unstuck? Thanks so much in advance for your thoughts! EDIT: I should mention that I've already considered a few other solutions to helping the user get unstuck, but none of them seem like good ideas. They are... Add more hints: Currently, the user gets two hints per puzzle. If I increase the hint count, it only makes the game more easy and still leaves the possibility of the user getting stuck. Add a "Show Solution" button: This seems like a bad idea because it's my opinion this takes the fun out of the game for many people who would probably otherwise solve the puzzle if they didn't have the quick option to see the solution.

  Read the article

• Strategy for avoiding duplicate object ids for data shared across devices using iCloud

  - by rmaddy

  I have a data intensive iOS app that is not using CoreData nor does it support iCloud synching (yet). All of my objects are created with unique keys. I use a simple long long initialized with the current time. Then as I need a new key I increment the value by 1. This has all worked well for a few years with the app running isolated on a single device. Now I want to add support for automatic data sync across devices using iCloud. As my app is written, there is the possibility that two objects created on two different devices could end up with the same key. I need to avoid this possibility. I'm looking for ideas for solving this issue. I have a few requirements that the solution must meet: 1) The key needs to remain a single integral data type. Converting all existing keys to a compound key or to a string or other type would affect the entire code base and likely result in more bugs than it's worth. 2) The solution can't depend on an Internet connection. A user must be able to run the app and add data even with no Internet connection. The data should still resolve properly later when the data syncs through iCloud once a connection is available. I'll accept one exception to this rule. If no other option is available, I may be open to requiring an Internet connection the first time the app's data is initialized. One idea I have been toying around with in my head is logically splitting the integer key into two parts. The high 4 or 5 bits could be used as some sort of device id while the rest represents the actual key. The fuzzy part is figuring out how to come up with non-conflicting device ids that fit in a few bits. This should be viable since I don't need to deal will millions of devices. I just need to deal with the few devices that would be shared by a given iCloud account. I'm open to suggestions. Thanks.

  Read the article

< Previous Page | 506 507 508 509 510 511 512 513 514 515 516 517  | Next Page >