Search Results

Search found 12846 results on 514 pages for 'ghost answer'.

Page 53/514 | < Previous Page | 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60  | Next Page >

  • What happens when you close an Adsense account?

    - by rakibtg
    I need to change my payee name, I have asked in Google Adsense product forum one of top contributor replied me: "You will have to close the account & apply again with using your real payee name. That's why they specifically state that the payee name needs to match the full name on your bank account." https://support.google.com/adsense/answer/47333?hl=en This makes sense, but got few question because the support page do not have sufficient content to help me. My questions are: What happens when you close your Adsense account? If I apply again, then what will be the process to re-gain my account? I mean should I have to apply for a website again, then Adsense team will review and approve that? Is there any chance to disapprove my account? What about current check? I have two check in my hand. So, is Google will send those check again to me with my new payee name? Anyone experienced this problem? I have asked it on Google Forum but got no answer!

    Read the article

  • Seek first to understand, then to be understood

    - by BuckWoody
    One of the most important (and most difficult) lessons for a technical professional to learn is to not jump to the solution. Perhaps you’ve done this, or had it happen to you. As the person you’re “listening” to is speaking, your mind is performing a B-Tree lookup on possible solutions, and when the final node of the B-Tree in your mind is reached, you blurt out the “only” solution there is to the problem, whether they are done or not. There are two issues here – both of them fatal if you don’t factor them in. First, your B-Tree may not be complete, or correct. That of course leads to an incorrect response, which blows your credibility. People will not trust you if this happens often. The second danger is that the person may modify their entire problem with a single word or phrase. I once had a client explain a detailed problem to me – and I just KNEW the answer. Then they said at the end “well, that’s what it used to do, anyway. Now it doesn’t do that anymore.” Which of course negated my entire solution – happily I had kept my mouth shut until they finished. So practice listening, rather than waiting for your turn to speak. Let the person finish, let them get the concept out, give them your full attention. They’ll appreciate the courtesy, you’ll look more intelligent, and you both may find the right answer to the problem. Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!

    Read the article

  • How to match responses from a server with their corresponding requests? [closed]

    - by Deele
    There is a server that responds to requests on a socket. The client has functions to emit requests and functions to handle responses from the server. The problem is that the request sending function and the response handling function are two unrelated functions. Given a server response X, how can I know whether it's a response to request X or some other request Y? I would like to make a construct that would ensure that response X is definitely the answer to request X and also to make a function requestX() that returns response X and not some other response Y. This question is mostly about the general programming approach and not about any specific language construct. Preferably, though, the answer would involve Ruby, TCP sockets, and PHP. My code so far: require 'socket' class TheConnection def initialize(config) @config = config end def send(s) toConsole("--> #{s}") @conn.send "#{s}\n", 0 end def connect() # Connect to the server begin @conn = TCPSocket.open(@config['server'], @config['port']) rescue Interrupt rescue Exception => detail toConsole('Exception: ' + detail.message()) print detail.backtrace.join('\n') retry end end def getSpecificAnswer(input) send "GET #{input}" end def handle_server_input(s) case s.strip when /^Hello. (.*)$/i toConsole "[ Server says hello ]" send "Hello to you too! #{$1}" else toConsole(s) end end def main_loop() while true ready = select([@conn, $stdin], nil, nil, nil) next if !ready for s in ready[0] if s == $stdin then return if $stdin.eof s = $stdin.gets send s elsif s == @conn then return if @conn.eof s = @conn.gets handle_server_input(s) end end end end def toConsole(msg) t = Time.new puts t.strftime("[%H:%M:%S]") + ' ' + msg end end @config = Hash[ 'server'=>'test.server.com', 'port'=>'2020' ] $conn = TheConnection.new(@config) $conn.connect() $conn.getSpecificAnswer('itemsX') begin $conn.main_loop() rescue Interrupt rescue Exception => detail $conn.toConsole('Exception: ' + detail.message()) print detail.backtrace.join('\n') retry end

    Read the article

  • How to work with processes?

    - by Viesturs
    I have seen similar questions here, but I didn't get my answer. Maybe it's because I am new to all this and just don't understand. I want my app to work mostly as an indicator. And if user would start it again it would check if it is already running, if it is then give all the input data to that process and quit. So first I need to check if it is running. I saw the answer where you can make a file witch when the program starts and then check if it exists... But what if someone would delete it? Can't I just ask the OS if there is process named "myApp" or something? The next thing I don't really get is how to communicate with the process. How do I give it the input data and what is it going to do with it? Does it work just like starting a new app, through the main() method? I am trying to create this using Quickly. So it would be nice if you can give me some python examples or link to something like that.

    Read the article

  • One sentence descriptions of the various common software licenses?

    - by Rich
    Instead of having to read entire documentation and sift through all the legalese, can someone outline the more common licenses in language that is short and sweet and gets right to the point? Specifically, I'm using a 3rd party control that uses the Apache 2.0 license. My intention is to use this in a proprietary application that I am building for a corporation's use (not resold, but I'm being paid for my work). Does this mean I can or cannot use this control? Does it mean that I must maintain copyright/license information in my code? Does it mean that I must mention copyright/license information in a clearly visible location in the app? EDIT In response to an answer below with a link to an article by Jeff Atwood, the Apache license is described as follows: Apache License Open Permissive 9 Requires derivative works to provide notification of any licensed or proprietary code in a common location. Does this notification need to be in a "common location" in my source code or a common location visible within the app? What if this were a non GUI app (I'm assuming that could very well be my answer)? Thanks for the responses!!!

    Read the article

  • Git for beginners: The definitive practical guide

    - by Adam Davis
    Ok, after seeing this post by PJ Hyett, I have decided to skip to the end and go with git. So what I need is a beginners practical guide to git. "Beginner" being defined as someone who knows how to handle their compiler, understands to some level what a makefile is, and has touched source control without understanding it very well. "Practical" being defined as this person doesn't want to get into great detail regarding what git is doing in the background, and doesn't even care (or know) that it's distributed. Your answers might hint at the possibilities, but try to aim for the beginner that wants to keep a 'main' repository on a 'server' which is backed up and secure, and treat their local repository as merely a 'client' resource. Procedural note: PLEASE pick one and only one of the below topics and answer it clearly and concisely in any given answer. Don't try to jam a bunch of information into one answer. Don't just link to other resources - cut and paste with attribution if copyright allows, otherwise learn it and explain it in your own words (ie, don't make people leave this page to learn a task). Please comment on, or edit, an already existing answer unless your explanation is very different and you think the community is better served with a different explanation rather than altering the existing explanation. So: Installation/Setup How to install git How do you set up git? Try to cover linux, windows, mac, think 'client/server' mindset. Setup GIT Server with Msysgit on Windows How do you create a new project/repository? How do you configure it to ignore files (.obj, .user, etc) that are not really part of the codebase? Working with the code How do you get the latest code? How do you check out code? How do you commit changes? How do you see what's uncommitted, or the status of your current codebase? How do you destroy unwanted commits? How do you compare two revisions of a file, or your current file and a previous revision? How do you see the history of revisions to a file? How do you handle binary files (visio docs, for instance, or compiler environments)? How do you merge files changed at the "same time"? How do you undo (revert or reset) a commit? Tagging, branching, releases, baselines How do you 'mark' 'tag' or 'release' a particular set of revisions for a particular set of files so you can always pull that one later? How do you pull a particular 'release'? How do you branch? How do you merge branches? How do you resolve conflicts and complete the merge? How do you merge parts of one branch into another branch? What is rebasing? How do I track remote branches? How can I create a branch on a remote repository? Other Describe and link to a good gui, IDE plugin, etc that makes git a non-command line resource, but please list its limitations as well as its good. msysgit - Cross platform, included with git gitk - Cross platform history viewer, included with git gitnub - OS X gitx - OS X history viewer smartgit - Cross platform, commercial, beta tig - console GUI for Linux qgit - GUI for Windows, Linux Any other common tasks a beginner should know? Git Status tells you what you just did, what branch you have, and other useful information How do I work effectively with a subversion repository set as my source control source? Other git beginner's references git guide git book git magic gitcasts github guides git tutorial Progit - book by Scott Chacon Git - SVN Crash Course Delving into git Understanding git conceptually I will go through the entries from time to time and 'tidy' them up so they have a consistent look/feel and it's easy to scan the list - feel free to follow a simple "header - brief explanation - list of instructions - gotchas and extra info" template. I'll also link to the entries from the bullet list above so it's easy to find them later.

    Read the article

  • How does this decorator make a call to the 'register' method?

    - by BryanWheelock
    I'm trying to understand what is going on in the decorator @not_authenticated. The next step in the TraceRoute is to the method 'register' which is also located in django_authopenid/views.py which I just don't understand because I don't see anywhere that register is even mentioned in signin() How is the method 'register' called? def not_authenticated(func): """ decorator that redirect user to next page if he is already logged.""" def decorated(request, *args, **kwargs): if request.user.is_authenticated(): next = request.GET.get("next", "/") return HttpResponseRedirect(next) return func(request, *args, **kwargs) return decorated @not_authenticated def signin(request,newquestion=False,newanswer=False): """ signin page. It manage the legacy authentification (user/password) and authentification with openid. url: /signin/ template : authopenid/signin.htm """ request.encoding = 'UTF-8' on_failure = signin_failure next = clean_next(request.GET.get('next')) form_signin = OpenidSigninForm(initial={'next':next}) form_auth = OpenidAuthForm(initial={'next':next}) if request.POST: if 'bsignin' in request.POST.keys() or 'openid_username' in request.POST.keys(): form_signin = OpenidSigninForm(request.POST) if form_signin.is_valid(): next = clean_next(form_signin.cleaned_data.get('next')) sreg_req = sreg.SRegRequest(optional=['nickname', 'email']) redirect_to = "%s%s?%s" % ( get_url_host(request), reverse('user_complete_signin'), urllib.urlencode({'next':next}) ) return ask_openid(request, form_signin.cleaned_data['openid_url'], redirect_to, on_failure=signin_failure, sreg_request=sreg_req) elif 'blogin' in request.POST.keys(): # perform normal django authentification form_auth = OpenidAuthForm(request.POST) if form_auth.is_valid(): user_ = form_auth.get_user() login(request, user_) next = clean_next(form_auth.cleaned_data.get('next')) return HttpResponseRedirect(next) question = None if newquestion == True: from forum.models import AnonymousQuestion as AQ session_key = request.session.session_key qlist = AQ.objects.filter(session_key=session_key).order_by('-added_at') if len(qlist) > 0: question = qlist[0] answer = None if newanswer == True: from forum.models import AnonymousAnswer as AA session_key = request.session.session_key alist = AA.objects.filter(session_key=session_key).order_by('-added_at') if len(alist) > 0: answer = alist[0] return render('authopenid/signin.html', { 'question':question, 'answer':answer, 'form1': form_auth, 'form2': form_signin, 'msg': request.GET.get('msg',''), 'sendpw_url': reverse('user_sendpw'), }, context_instance=RequestContext(request)) Looking at the request, it seems that account/register/ does reference the register method with 'PATH_INFO': u'/account/register/' Here is the request: <WSGIRequest GET:<QueryDict: {}>, POST:<QueryDict: {u'username': [u'BryanWheelock'], u'email': [u'[email protected]'], u'bnewaccount': [u'Signup']}>, COOKIES:{'__utma': '127460431.1218630960.1266769637.1266769637.1266864494.2', '__utmb': '127460431.3.10.1266864494', '__utmc': '127460431', '__utmz': '127460431.1266769637.1.1.utmcsr=(direct)|utmccn=(direct)|utmcmd=(none)', 'sessionid': 'fb15ee538320170a22d3a3a324aad968'}, META:{'CONTENT_LENGTH': '74', 'CONTENT_TYPE': 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded', 'DOCUMENT_ROOT': '/usr/local/apache2/htdocs', 'GATEWAY_INTERFACE': 'CGI/1.1', 'HTTP_ACCEPT': 'application/xml,application/xhtml+xml,text/html;q=0.9,text/plain;q=0.8,image/png,*/*;q=0.5', 'HTTP_ACCEPT_CHARSET': 'ISO-8859-1,utf-8;q=0.7,*;q=0.3', 'HTTP_ACCEPT_ENCODING': 'gzip,deflate,sdch', 'HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE': 'en-US,en;q=0.8', 'HTTP_CACHE_CONTROL': 'max-age=0', 'HTTP_CONNECTION': 'close', 'HTTP_COOKIE': '__utmz=127460431.1266769637.1.1.utmcsr=(direct)|utmccn=(direct)|utmcmd=(none); __utma=127460431.1218630960.1266769637.1266769637.1266864494.2; __utmc=127460431; __utmb=127460431.3.10.1266864494; sessionid=fb15ee538320170a22d3a3a324aad968', 'HTTP_HOST': 'workproject.com', 'HTTP_ORIGIN': 'http://workproject.com', 'HTTP_REFERER': 'http://workproject.com/account/signin/complete/?next=%2F&janrain_nonce=2010-02-22T18%3A49%3A53ZG2KXci&openid.ns=http%3A%2F%2Fspecs.openid.net%2Fauth%2F2.0&openid.mode=id_res&openid.op_endpoint=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Faccounts%2Fo8%2Fud&openid.response_nonce=2010-02-22T18%3A49%3A53Znxxxxxxxxxw&openid.return_to=http%3A%2F%2Fworkproject.com%2Faccount%2Fsignin%2Fcomplete%2F%3Fnext%3D%252F%26janrain_nonce%3D2010-02-22T18%253A49%253A53ZG2KXci&openid.assoc_handle=AOQobUepU4xs-kGg5LiyLzfN3RYv0I0Jocgjf_1odT4RR9zfMFpQVpMg&openid.signed=op_endpoint%2Cclaimed_id%2Cidentity%2Creturn_to%2Cresponse_nonce%2Cassoc_handle&openid.sig=Jf76i2RNhqpLTJMjeQ0nnQz6fgA%3D&openid.identity=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Faccounts%2Fo8%2Fid%3Fid%3DAItxxxxxxxxxs9CxHQ3PrHw_N5_3j1HM&openid.claimed_id=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Faccounts%2Fo8%2Fid%3Fid%3DAItOaxxxxxxxxxxx4s9CxHQ3PrHw_N5_3j1HM', 'HTTP_USER_AGENT': 'Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10_5_8; en-US) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/5.0.307.7 Safari/532.9', 'HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR': '96.8.31.235', 'PATH': '/usr/bin:/bin', 'PATH_INFO': u'/account/register/', 'PATH_TRANSLATED': '/home/spirituality/webapps/work/spirit_app.wsgi/account/register/', 'QUERY_STRING': '', 'REMOTE_ADDR': '127.0.0.1', 'REMOTE_PORT': '59956', 'REQUEST_METHOD': 'POST', 'REQUEST_URI': '/account/register/', 'SCRIPT_FILENAME': '/home/spirituality/webapps/spirituality/spirit_app.wsgi', 'SCRIPT_NAME': u'', 'SERVER_ADDR': '127.0.0.1', 'SERVER_ADMIN': '[no address given]', 'SERVER_NAME': 'workproject.com', 'SERVER_PORT': '80', 'SERVER_PROTOCOL': 'HTTP/1.0', 'SERVER_SIGNATURE': '', 'SERVER_SOFTWARE': 'Apache/2.2.12 (Unix) mod_wsgi/2.5 Python/2.5.4', 'mod_wsgi.application_group': 'www.workProject.com|', 'mod_wsgi.callable_object': 'application', 'mod_wsgi.listener_host': '', 'mod_wsgi.listener_port': '25931', 'mod_wsgi.process_group': '', 'mod_wsgi.reload_mechanism': '0', 'mod_wsgi.script_reloading': '1', 'mod_wsgi.version': (2, 5), 'wsgi.errors': <mod_wsgi.Log object at 0xb7ce0038>, 'wsgi.file_wrapper': <built-in method file_wrapper of mod_wsgi.Adapter object at 0xb7e94b18>, 'wsgi.input': <mod_wsgi.Input object at 0x999cc78>, 'wsgi.multiprocess': True, 'wsgi.multithread': False, 'wsgi.run_once': False, 'wsgi.url_scheme': 'http', 'wsgi.version': (1, 0)}>

    Read the article

  • My Optin form doesn't work in Internet Explorer, but works fine in Firefox.

    - by Allen
    I have the following code for my optin form: <script language="JavaScript"> function checkSub(){ if (document.signup.email.value.indexOf('@', 0) == -1) { alert("Please fill in your valid Email address.\nYour email should be in the following format: [email protected]"); document.signup.email.focus(); return false} else if (!document.signup.terms.checked) { alert("You must read and agree to the terms"); document.signup.terms.focus(); return false} else { switch(document.signup.extra1.value) { case "Platinum": answer = confirm("By clicking OK you confirm that you have\nalready entered the World Cup Giveaway\nas a Platinum upgrade contributor.\n\nIf you have not yet entered the giveaway\nclick Cancel.\n\nYou can enter using the link at the\nbottom of the page.\n\nIf you have already entered the giveaway\nusing a link other than my invitation link\nyou are not eligible for this offer."); if (!answer) { return false} break; case "Gold": answer = confirm("By clicking OK you confirm that you have\nalready entered the World Cup Giveaway\nas a Gold upgrade contributor.\n\nIf you have not yet entered the giveaway\nclick Cancel.\n\nYou can enter using the link at the\nbottom of the page. \n\nIf you have already entered the giveaway\nusing a link other than my invitation link\nyou are not eligible for this offer."); if (!answer) { return false} break; default: alert("You must sign up as a contributor to the \nWorld Cup Giveaway to take advantage of \nthis offer.\n\nPlease click the link at the bottom of this \npage or at the blog post mentioned below \nto sign up.\n\nIf you have already signed up using \nthis link, please select the upgrade level\nyou chose on signup or select \"Free\" if \nyou signed up as a free contributor.\n\nIf you have already entered the giveaway\nusing a link other than my invitation link\nyou are not eligible for this offer.\n\nNote: This page may not function properly\nif viewed in languages other than English."); return false} } } </script> <form action="http://ebizac.com/ar/optin.php" method="post" name="signup" onsubmit="return checkSub()"> <input type=hidden name="action" value="addlead"> <input type=hidden name="member" value="2315"> <input type=hidden name="auto" value="7584"> <input type=hidden name="thankyou" value="http://plr.forinternetnewbies.com/Offer1"> <input type=hidden name="resubsetting" value="Y"> <input type=hidden name="resubredirect" value=""> <input type=hidden name="invalid_redirect" value=""> <div style="padding:0 0 0 10px;"> <table border=0 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=2><tr><td class="label"><font size="2" face="arial, verdana">Name:</font></td><td><input type=text size=20 name="fname"></td></tr> <tr><td class="label" width="150"><font size="2" face="arial, verdana">Email address:</font></span></td><td><input type=text size=20 name="email"></td></tr> <tr><td class="label"><font size="2" face="arial, verdana">Upgrade Level:</font></td><td><select size=1 name="extra1"><option>Haven't Joined Yet</option><option>Platinum</option><option>Gold</option><option>Silver</option><option>Free</option></td></tr> <tr><td></td><td align=center><input type="checkbox" name="terms" value="agree">I agree to the terms as described on the <a href="http://short9.com/blog0522-sp" target="_blank">blog post</a> </td></tr> <tr><td></td><td align=center><input type="submit" value="Contribute Now"></td></tr></table></div></form> Everything does what I expect in Firefox, but in Internet Explorer the switch statement always goes to the default case. I tested with an extra alert(signup.extra1.value) in the default case and it shows an empty string. What could be the problem here?

    Read the article

  • Survey Data Model - How to avoid EAV and excessive denormalization?

    - by AlexDPC
    Hi everyone, My database skills are mediocre at best and I have to design a data model for survey data. I have spent some thoughts on this and right now I feel that I am stuck between some kind of EAV model and a design involving hundreds of tables, each with hundreds of columns (and thousands of records). There must be a better way to do this and I hope that the wise folks on this forum can help me. I have already searched various forums, but I couldn't really find a solution. If it has already been given elsewhere, please excuse me and provide me with a link so I can read it up. Some assumptions about the data I have to deal with: Each survey consists of 1 to n questionnaires Each questionnaire consists of 100-2,000 questions (please ignore that 2,000 questions really sound like a lot to answer...) Questions can be of various types: multiple-choice, free text, a number (like age, income, percentages, ...) Each survey involves 10-200 countries (These are not the respondents. The respondents are actually people in the countries.) Depending on the type of questionnaire, each questionnaire is answered by 100-20,000 respondents per country. A country can adapt the questionnaires for a survey, i.e. add, remove or edit questions The data for one country is gathered in a separate database in that country. There is no possibility for online integration from the start. The data for all countries has to be integrated later. This means for example, if a country has deleted a question, that data must somehow be derived from what they sent in order to achieve a uniform design across all countries I will have to write the integration and cleaning software, which will need to work with every country's data In the end the data needs to be exported to flat files, one rectangular grid per country and questionnaire. I have already discussed this topic with people from various backgrounds and have not come to a good solution yet. I mainly got two kinds of opinions. The domain experts, who are used to working with flat files (spreadsheet-style) for data processing and analysis vote for a denormalized structure with loads of tables and columns as I described above (1 table per country and questionnaire). This sounds terrible to me, because I learned that wide tables are to be avoided, it will be annoying to determine which columns are actually in a table when working with it, the database will become cluttered with hundreds of tables (or I even need to set up multiple databases, each with a similar yet a bit differetn design), etc. O-O-programmers vote for a strongly "normalized" design, which would effectively lead to a central table containing all the answers from all respondents to all questions. This table would either need to contain a column of type sql_variant type or multiple answer columns with different types to store answers of different types (multiple choice, free text, ..). The former would essentially be a EAV model. I tend to follow Joe Celko here, who strongly discourages its use (he calls it OTLT or "One True Lookup Table"). The latter would imply that each row would contain null cells for the not applicable types by design. Another alternative I could think of would be to create one table per answer type, i.e., one for multiple-choice questions, one for free text questions, etc.. That's not so generic, it would lead to a lot of union joins, I think and I would have to add a table if a new answer type is invented. Sorry for boring you with all this text and thank you for your input! Cheers, Alex PS: I asked the same question here: http://www.eggheadcafe.com/community/aspnet/13/10242616/survey-data-model--how-to-avoid-eav-and-excessive-denormalization.aspx

    Read the article

  • Developer Training – Various Options for Maximum Benefit – Part 4

    - by pinaldave
    Developer Training - Importance and Significance - Part 1 Developer Training – Employee Morals and Ethics – Part 2 Developer Training – Difficult Questions and Alternative Perspective - Part 3 Developer Training – Various Options for Developer Training – Part 4 Developer Training – A Conclusive Summary- Part 5 If you have been reading this series, by now you are aware of all the pros and cons that can come along with training.  We’ve asked and answered hard questions, and investigated them “whys” and “hows” of training.  Now it is time to talk about all the different kinds of training that are out there! On Job Training The most common type of training is on the job training.  Everyone receives this kind of education – even experts who come in to consult have to be taught where the printer, pens, and copy machines are.  If you are thinking about more concrete topics, though, on the job training can be some of the easiest to come across.  Picture this: someone in the company whom you really admire is hard at work on a project.  You come up to them and ask to help them out – if they are a busy developer, the odds are that they will say “yes, please!”   If you phrase your question as an offer of help, you can receive training without ever putting someone in the awkward position of acting as a mentor.  However, some people may want the task of being a mentor.  It can never hurt to ask.  Most people will be more than willing to pass their knowledge along. Extreme Programming If your company and coworkers are willing, you can even investigate Extreme Programming.  This is a type of programming that allows small teams to quickly develop code and products that are released with almost immediate user feedback.  You can find more information at http://www.extremeprogramming.org/.  If this is something your company could use, suggest it to your supervisor.  Even if they say no, it will make it clear that you are a go-getter who is interested in new and exciting projects.  If the answer is yes, then you have the opportunity to get some of the best on the job training around. In Person Training Click on Image to Enlarge When you say the word “training,” most people’s minds go back to the classroom, an image they are familiar with.  While training doesn’t always have to be in a traditional setting, because it is so familiar it can also be the most valuable type of training.  There are many ways to get training through a live instructor.  Some companies may be willing to send a representative to you, where employees will get training, sometimes food and coffee, and a live instructor who can answer questions immediately.  Sometimes these trainers are also able to do consultations at the same time, which can invaluable to a company.  If you are the one to asks your supervisor for a training session that can also be turned into a consultation, you may stick in their minds as an incredibly dedicated employee.  If you can’t find a representative, local colleges can also be a good resource for free or cheap classes – or they may have representatives coming who are willing to take on a few more students. Benefits of On Demand Developer Training Of course, you can often get the best of all these types of training with online or On Demand training.  You can get the benefit of a live instructor who is willing to answer questions (although in this case, usually through e-mail or other online venues), there are often real-world examples to follow along – like on the job training – and best of all you can learn whenever you have the time or need.  Did a problem with your server come up at midnight when all your supervisors are safe at home and probably in bed?  No problem!  On Demand training is especially useful if you need to slow down, pause, or rewind a training session.  Not even a real-life instructor can do that! When I was writing this blog post, I felt that each of the subject, which I have covered can be blog posts of itself. However, I wanted to keep the the blog post concise and so touch based on three major training aspects 1) On Job Training 2) In Person Training and 3) Online training. Here is the question for you – is there any other kind of training methods available, which are effective and one should consider it? If yes, what are those, I may write a follow up blog post on the same subject next week. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: Developer Training, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

    Read the article

  • Feedback on "market manipulation", a peripheral game mechanic for a satirical MMO

    - by BerndBrot
    This question asks for feedback on a specific game-mechanic. Since there is not one right feedback on a game mechanic, I tried to provide enough context and guidelines to still make it possible for users to rate answers and to accept an answer as the best answer (following these criteria from Writer.SE's meta website). Please comment if you have any suggestions on how I could improve the question in that regard. So, let's begin with the game itself and some of its elements which are relevant for this question. Context I'm working on a satirical, text-based multiplayer adventure and role-playing game set in modern-day London. The game resolves around the concept of sin and features a myriad of (venomous) allusions to all the things that go wrong in this world. Players can choose between character classes like bullshit artist (consultant), bankster, lawyer, mobster, celebrity, politician, etc. In order to complete the game, the player has to live so sinfully with regard to any of the seven deadly sins that a demon is willing to offer them a contract of sponsorship. On their quest to live a sinful live, characters explore more and more locations of modern-day London (on a GoogleMap), fight "monsters" like insurance sales agents or Jehovah's Witnesses, and complete quests, like building a PowerPoint presentation out of marketing buzz words or keeping up a number of substance abuse effects in order to progress on the gluttony path. Battles are turn based with both combatants having a deck of cards, with which they try to make their enemy give in to temptations of all sorts. Tempted enemies sometimes become contacts (an item drop mechanic), which can be exploited for various benefits, depending on their area of influence (finance, underworld, bureaucracy, etc.), level of influence, and kind of sway that the player has over them (bribed, seduced, threatened, etc.) Once a contract has been exploited, the player loses that contact. Most actions require turns. Turns are limited, but refill each day. Criteria A number of peripheral game mechanics are supposed to represent real world abuses and mischief in a humorous way integrate real world data and events to strengthen the feeling of relevance of the game's humor with regard to real world problems add fun ways of interacting with other players add ways for players to express themselves through game-play Market manipulation is one such peripheral game mechanic and should fulfill all of these goals. Market manipulation This is my initial design of the mechanic: Players can enter the London Stock Exchange (LSE) (without paying a turn) LSE displays the stock prices of a number of companies in industries like weapons or tobacco as well as some derivatives based on wheat and corn. The stock prices are calculated based on the actual stock prices of these companies and derivatives (in real time) any market manipulations that were conducted by the players any market corrections of the system Players can buy and sell shares with cash, a resource in the game, at current in-game market value (without paying a turn). Players can manipulate the market, i.e. let the price of a share either rise or fall, by some amount, over a certain period of time. Manipulating the market requires 1 turn A contact in the financial sector (see above). The higher the level of influence of the contact, the stronger the effect of the manipulation on the stock price, and/or the shorter it takes for the manipulation to manifest itself. Market manipulation also adds a crime to the player's record. (There are a multitude of ways to take care of that, but it is still another "cost" of market manipulations.) The system continuously corrects market manipulations by letting the in-game prices converge towards their real world counterparts at a rate of 2% of the difference between the two per hour. Because of this market correction mechanism, pushing up prices (and screwing down prices) becomes increasingly difficult the higher (lower) the price already is. Whenever food prices reach a certain level, in-game stories are posted about hunger catastrophes happening somewhere far, far away (maybe with links to real world news stories). Whenever a player sells a certain number of shares with a sufficiently high margin, they are mentioned in that day's in-game financial news. Since the number of stock options is very limited, players will inevitably collide in their efforts to manipulate the market in their favor. Hopefully, it will also be a fun side-arena for guilds and covenants to fight each other. Question(s) What do you think of this mechanism given the criteria for peripheral game mechanics that I specified for my game? Do you have any ideas how the mechanic could be improved with regard to these criteria (or otherwise)? Could it be improved to allow for more expressive game-play, or involve an allusion to some other real world madness (like short selling, leveraging, or some other banking magic)? Are there any game-theoretic problems with this mechanic, like maybe certain dominant individual strategies that, collectively, lead to every player profiting and thus eliminating the idea of market manipulation PVP? Also, if you like (or dislike) this question, feel free to participate in the discussion on GDSE meta: "Should we be more lax with regard to SE's question/answer format to make game design questions possible?"

    Read the article

  • Big Data – What is Big Data – 3 Vs of Big Data – Volume, Velocity and Variety – Day 2 of 21

    - by Pinal Dave
    Data is forever. Think about it – it is indeed true. Are you using any application as it is which was built 10 years ago? Are you using any piece of hardware which was built 10 years ago? The answer is most certainly No. However, if I ask you – are you using any data which were captured 50 years ago, the answer is most certainly Yes. For example, look at the history of our nation. I am from India and we have documented history which goes back as over 1000s of year. Well, just look at our birthday data – atleast we are using it till today. Data never gets old and it is going to stay there forever.  Application which interprets and analysis data got changed but the data remained in its purest format in most cases. As organizations have grown the data associated with them also grew exponentially and today there are lots of complexity to their data. Most of the big organizations have data in multiple applications and in different formats. The data is also spread out so much that it is hard to categorize with a single algorithm or logic. The mobile revolution which we are experimenting right now has completely changed how we capture the data and build intelligent systems.  Big organizations are indeed facing challenges to keep all the data on a platform which give them a  single consistent view of their data. This unique challenge to make sense of all the data coming in from different sources and deriving the useful actionable information out of is the revolution Big Data world is facing. Defining Big Data The 3Vs that define Big Data are Variety, Velocity and Volume. Volume We currently see the exponential growth in the data storage as the data is now more than text data. We can find data in the format of videos, musics and large images on our social media channels. It is very common to have Terabytes and Petabytes of the storage system for enterprises. As the database grows the applications and architecture built to support the data needs to be reevaluated quite often. Sometimes the same data is re-evaluated with multiple angles and even though the original data is the same the new found intelligence creates explosion of the data. The big volume indeed represents Big Data. Velocity The data growth and social media explosion have changed how we look at the data. There was a time when we used to believe that data of yesterday is recent. The matter of the fact newspapers is still following that logic. However, news channels and radios have changed how fast we receive the news. Today, people reply on social media to update them with the latest happening. On social media sometimes a few seconds old messages (a tweet, status updates etc.) is not something interests users. They often discard old messages and pay attention to recent updates. The data movement is now almost real time and the update window has reduced to fractions of the seconds. This high velocity data represent Big Data. Variety Data can be stored in multiple format. For example database, excel, csv, access or for the matter of the fact, it can be stored in a simple text file. Sometimes the data is not even in the traditional format as we assume, it may be in the form of video, SMS, pdf or something we might have not thought about it. It is the need of the organization to arrange it and make it meaningful. It will be easy to do so if we have data in the same format, however it is not the case most of the time. The real world have data in many different formats and that is the challenge we need to overcome with the Big Data. This variety of the data represent  represent Big Data. Big Data in Simple Words Big Data is not just about lots of data, it is actually a concept providing an opportunity to find new insight into your existing data as well guidelines to capture and analysis your future data. It makes any business more agile and robust so it can adapt and overcome business challenges. Tomorrow In tomorrow’s blog post we will try to answer discuss Evolution of Big Data. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: Big Data, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL

    Read the article

  • SQL SERVER – Solution – Puzzle – SELECT * vs SELECT COUNT(*)

    - by pinaldave
    Earlier I have published Puzzle Why SELECT * throws an error but SELECT COUNT(*) does not. This question have received many interesting comments. Let us go over few of the answers, which are valid. Before I start the same, let me acknowledge Rob Farley who has not only answered correctly very first but also started interesting conversation in the same thread. The usual question will be what is the right answer. I would like to point to official Microsoft Connect Items which discusses the same. RGarvao https://connect.microsoft.com/SQLServer/feedback/details/671475/select-test-where-exists-select tiberiu utan http://connect.microsoft.com/SQLServer/feedback/details/338532/count-returns-a-value-1 Rob Farley count(*) is about counting rows, not a particular column. It doesn’t even look to see what columns are available, it’ll just count the rows, which in the case of a missing FROM clause, is 1. “select *” is designed to return columns, and therefore barfs if there are none available. Even more odd is this one: select ‘blah’ where exists (select *) You might be surprised at the results… Koushik The engine performs a “Constant scan” for Count(*) where as in the case of “SELECT *” the engine is trying to perform either Index/Cluster/Table scans. amikolaj When you query ‘select * from sometable’, SQL replaces * with the current schema of that table. With out a source for the schema, SQL throws an error. so when you query ‘select count(*)’, you are counting the one row. * is just a constant to SQL here. Check out the execution plan. Like the description states – ‘Scan an internal table of constants.’ You could do ‘select COUNT(‘my name is adam and this is my answer’)’ and get the same answer. Netra Acharya SELECT * Here, * represents all columns from a table. So it always looks for a table (As we know, there should be FROM clause before specifying table name). So, it throws an error whenever this condition is not satisfied. SELECT COUNT(*) Here, COUNT is a Function. So it is not mandetory to provide a table. Check it out this: DECLARE @cnt INT SET @cnt = COUNT(*) SELECT @cnt SET @cnt = COUNT(‘x’) SELECT @cnt Naveen Select 1 / Select ‘*’ will return 1/* as expected. Select Count(1)/Count(*) will return the count of result set of select statement. Count(1)/Count(*) will have one 1/* for each row in the result set of select statement. Select 1 or Select ‘*’ result set will contain only 1 result. so count is 1. Where as “Select *” is a sysntax which expects the table or equauivalent to table (table functions, etc..). It is like compilation error for that query. Ramesh Hi Friends, Count is an aggregate function and it expects the rows (list of records) for a specified single column or whole rows for *. So, when we use ‘select *’ it definitely give and error because ‘*’ is meant to have all the fields but there is not any table and without table it can only raise an error. So, in the case of ‘Select Count(*)’, there will be an error as a record in the count function so you will get the result as ’1'. Try using : Select COUNT(‘RAMESH’) and think there is an error ‘Must specify table to select from.’ in place of ‘RAMESH’ Pinal : If i am wrong then please clarify this. Sachin Nandanwar Any aggregate function expects a constant or a column name as an expression. DO NOT be confused with * in an aggregate function.The aggregate function does not treat it as a column name or a set of column names but a constant value, as * is a key word in SQL. You can replace any value instead of * for the COUNT function.Ex Select COUNT(5) will result as 1. The error resulting from select * is obvious it expects an object where it can extract the result set. I sincerely thank you all for wonderful conversation, I personally enjoyed it and I am sure all of you have the same feeling. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: CodeProject, Pinal Dave, PostADay, Readers Contribution, Readers Question, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Puzzle, SQL Query, SQL Scripts, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQLServer, T SQL, Technology

    Read the article

  • Selling Visual Studio ALM

    - by Tarun Arora
    Introduction As a consultant I have been selling Application Lifecycle Management services using Visual Studio and Team Foundation Server. I’ve been contacted various times by friends working in organization telling me that ALM processes in their company were benchmarked when dinosaurs walked the earth. Most of these individuals already know the great features Microsoft ALM tools offer and are keen to start a conversation with the CIO but don’t exactly know where to start. It is very important how you engage in your first conversation, if you start the conversation with ‘There is this great tooling from Microsoft which offers amazing features to boost developer productivity, … ‘ from experience I can tell you the reply from your CIO would be ‘I already know! Our existing landscape has a combination of bleeding edge open source and cutting edge licensed tools which already cover these features quite well, more over Microsoft products have a high licensing cost associated to them.’ You will always find it harder to sell by feature, the trick is to highlight the gap in the existing processes & tools and then highlight the impact of these gaps to the overall development processes, by now you would have captured enough attention to show off how the ALM tooling offered by Microsoft not only fills those gaps but offers great value adds to take their development practices to the next level. Rangers ALM Assessment Guide Image 1 – Welcome! First look at the Rangers ALM assessment guide Most organization already have some processes in place to cover aspects of ALM. How do you go about proving that there isn’t enough cover in place? This is where Visual Studio ALM Rangers ALM Assessment guide can help. The ALM assessment guide is really a tool that helps you gather information about Development practices and processes within a customer's environment. Several questionnaires are used to identify the current state of individual development lifecycle areas and decide on a desired state for those processes. It also presents guidance and roll-up summaries to help with recommendations moving forward. The ALM Rangers assessment guide can be downloaded from here. Image 2 – ALM Assessment guide divided into different functions of SDLC The assessment guide is divided into different functions of Software Development Lifecycle (listed below), this gives you the ability to access how mature the company is in different areas of SDLC. Architecture & Design Requirement Engineering & UX Development Software Configuration Management Governance Deployment & Operations Testing & Quality Assurance Project Planning & Management Each section has a set of questions, fill in the assessment by selecting “Never/Sometimes/Always” from the Answer column in the question sheets.  Each answer has weightage to the overall score. Each question has a link next to it, clicking the link takes you to the Reference sheet which gives you more details about the question along with a reason for “why you need to ask this question?”, “other ways to phrase the question” and “what to expect as an answer from the customer”. The trick is to engage the customer in a discussion. You need to probe a lot, listen to the customer and have a discussion with several team members, preferably without management to ensure that you receive candid feedback. This reminds me of a funny incident when during an ALM review a customer told me that they have a sophisticated semi-automated application deployment process, further discussions revealed that deployment actually involved 72 manual configuration steps per production node. Such observations can be recorded in the Issue Brainstorming worksheet for further consideration later. It is also worth mentioning the different levels of ALM maturity to the customer. By default the desired state of ALM maturity is set to Standard, it is possible to set a desired state by area, you should strive for Advanced or Dynamic, it always helps by explaining the classification and advantages. Image 3 – ALM levels by description The ALM assessment guide helps you arrive at a quantitative measure of the company’s ALM maturity. The resultant graph plotted on a spider’s web shows you the company’s current state of ALM maturity and the desired state of ALM maturity. Further since the results are classified by area you can immediately spot the areas where the customer needs immediate help. Image 4 – The spiders web! The red cross icons are areas shouting out for immediate attention, the yellow exclamation icons are areas that need improvement. These icons are calculated on the difference between the Current State of ALM maturity VS the Desired state of ALM maturity. Image 5 – Results by area Conclusion To conclude the Rangers ALM assessment guide gives you the ability to, Measure the customer’s current ALM maturity level Understand the ALM maturity level the customer desires to achieve Capture a healthy list of issues the customer wants to brainstorm further Now What’s next…? Download and get started with the Rangers ALM Assessment Guide. If you have successfully captured the above listed three pieces of information you are in a great state to make recommendations on the identified areas highlighting the benefits that Visual Studio ALM tools would offer. In the next post I will be covering how to take the ALM assessment results as the base to actually convert your recommendation into a sell.  Remember to subscribe to http://feeds.feedburner.com/TarunArora. I would love to hear your feedback! If you have any recommendations on things that I should consider or any questions or feedback, feel free to leave a comment. *** A special thanks goes out to fellow ranges Willy, Ethem and Philip for reviewing the blog post and providing valuable feedback. ***

    Read the article

  • SQL SERVER – Recover the Accidentally Renamed Table

    - by pinaldave
    I have no answer to following question. I saw a desperate email marked as urgent delivered in my mailbox. “I accidentally renamed table in my SSMS. I was scrolling very fast and I made mistakes. It was either because I double clicked or clicked on F2 (shortcut key for renaming). However, I have made the mistake and now I have no idea how to fix this. I am in big trouble. Help me get my original tablename.” I have seen many similar scenarios in my life and they give me a very good opportunity to preach wisdom but when the house is burning, we cannot talk about how we should have conserved the water earlier. The goal at that point is to put off the fire as fast as we can. I decided to answer this email with my best knowledge. If you have renamed the table, I think you pretty much is out of luck. Here are few things which you can do which can give you idea about what your tablename can be if you are lucky. Method 1: (Not Recommended but try your luck) Check your naming convention of your system. I have often seen that many organizations name their index as IX_TableName_Colms or name their keys as FK_TableName1_TableName2_Cols. If your organization is following the same you can get the name from your table, you may refer your keys. Again, note that this is quite possible that your tablename was already renamed and your keys were not updated. This can easily lead you to select incorrect name. I think follow this if you are confident or move to the next method. Method 2: (Not Recommended but try your luck) This method is also based on your orgs naming convention. If you use the name of the table in any columnname (some organizations use tablename in their incremental identity column name), you can get that name from there. Method 3: (Not Recommended but try your luck) If you know where your table was used in your stored procedures, you can script your stored procedure and find the name of the table back. Method 4: (Try your luck) All the best organizations first create a data model of the schema and there is good chance that this table is used there, you should take your chances and refer original document. If your organization is good at managing docs or source code, you will get the name of the table back for sure. Method 5: (It WORKS but try on a development server) There is no sure way to get you the name of the table which you accidentally renamed however, there is one way which will work for sure. You need to take your latest full backup and restore it on your development server (remember not on production or where you have renamed this column). Now restore latest differential file of the full backup. Now restore all the log files one by one making sure that you are restoring before the point of time of you renamed the tablename. Now go to explore and this will give you the name of the table which you have renamed. If you are confident that the same table existed with the same name when the last full backup was made, you do not have to go to all the steps. You can just get the name of the table directly from last backup’s restore. Read the article about Backup Timeline. Wisdom: How can I miss to preach wisdom when I get the opportunity to do so? Here are a few points to remember. Use a different account to explore production environment. Do not use the same account which have all the rights and permissions all the time. Use the account which has read only permissions if there are no modification required. Use policy based management to prevent changes which are accidental. If there was policy of valid names, the accidental change of the table was not possible unless it was intentional delibarate changes. Have a proper auditing of the system in place. You can use DDL triggers but be careful with its usage (get it reviewed properly first). (Add your suggestion here) I guess Method 5 will work all the time (using point in time restore). Everything else is chance of luck and if you are lucky are bad – you will get further incorrect name. Now go back and read the first line of this blog. Out of five method four methods are just lucky guesses. The method 5 will work but again it is a lengthy process if the size of the database is huge or if you do not have full backup. Did I miss anything obvious? Please leave a comment and I will publish your answer with due credit. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Puzzle, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

    Read the article

  • SQL SERVER – Not Possible – Delete From Multiple Table – Update Multiple Table in Single Statement

    - by pinaldave
    There are two questions which I get every single day multiple times. In my gmail, I have created standard canned reply for them. Let us see the questions here. I want to delete from multiple table in a single statement how will I do it? I want to update multiple table in a single statement how will I do it? The answer is – No, You cannot and you should not. SQL Server does not support deleting or updating from two tables in a single update. If you want to delete or update two different tables – you may want to write two different delete or update statements for it. This method has many issues – from the consistency of the data to SQL syntax. Now here is the real reason for this blog post – yesterday I was asked this question again and I replied my canned answer saying it is not possible and it should not be any way implemented that day. In the response to my reply I was pointed out to my own blog post where user suggested that I had previously mentioned this is possible and with demo example. Let us go over my conversation – you may find it interesting. Let us call the user DJ. DJ: Pinal, can we delete multiple table in a single statement or with single delete statement? Pinal: No, you cannot and you should not. DJ: Oh okey, if that is the case, why do you suggest to do that? Pinal: (baffled) I am not suggesting that. I am rather suggesting that it is not possible and it should not be possible. DJ: Hmm… but in that case why did you blog about it earlier? Pinal: (What?) No, I did not. I am pretty confident. DJ: Well, I am confident as well. You did. Pinal: In that case, it is my word against your word. Isn’t it? DJ: I have proof. Do you want to see it that you suggest it is possible? Pinal: Yes, I will be delighted too. (After 10 Minutes) DJ: Here are not one but two of your blog posts which talks about it - SQL SERVER – Curious Case of Disappearing Rows – ON UPDATE CASCADE and ON DELETE CASCADE – Part 1 of 2 SQL SERVER – Curious Case of Disappearing Rows – ON UPDATE CASCADE and ON DELETE CASCADE – T-SQL Example – Part 2 of 2 Pinal: Oh! DJ: I know I was correct. Pinal: Well, oh man, I did not mean there what you mean here. DJ: I did not understand can you explain it further. Pinal: Here we go. The example in the other blog is the example of the cascading delete or cascading update. I think you may want to understand the concept of the foreign keys and cascading update/delete. The concept of cascading exists to maintain data integrity. If there primary keys get deleted the update or delete reflects on the foreign key table to maintain the key integrity and data consistency. SQL Server follows ANSI Entry SQL with regard to referential integrity between PrimaryKey and ForeignKey columns which requires the inserting, updating, and deleting of data in related tables to be restricted to values that preserve the integrity. This is all together different concept than deleting multiple values in a single statement. When I hear that someone wants to delete or update multiple table in a single statement what I assume is something very similar to following. DELETE/UPDATE Table 1 (cols) Table 2 (cols) VALUES … which is not valid statement/syntax as well it is not ASNI standards as well. I guess, after this discussion with DJ, I realize I need to do a blog post so I can add the link to this blog post in my canned answer. Well, it was a fun conversation with DJ and I hope it the message is very clear now. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Joins, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

    Read the article

  • What Keeps You from Changing Your Public IP Address and Wreaking Havoc on the Internet?

    - by Jason Fitzpatrick
    What exactly is preventing you (or anyone else) from changing their IP address and causing all sorts of headaches for ISPs and other Internet users? Today’s Question & Answer session comes to us courtesy of SuperUser—a subdivision of Stack Exchange, a community-driven grouping of Q&A web sites. The Question SuperUser reader Whitemage is curious about what’s preventing him from wantonly changing his IP address and causing trouble: An interesting question was asked of me and I did not know what to answer. So I’ll ask here. Let’s say I subscribed to an ISP and I’m using cable internet access. The ISP gives me a public IP address of 60.61.62.63. What keeps me from changing this IP address to, let’s say, 60.61.62.75, and messing with another consumer’s internet access? For the sake of this argument, let’s say that this other IP address is also owned by the same ISP. Also, let’s assume that it’s possible for me to go into the cable modem settings and manually change the IP address. Under a business contract where you are allocated static addresses, you are also assigned a default gateway, a network address and a broadcast address. So that’s 3 addresses the ISP “loses” to you. That seems very wasteful for dynamically assigned IP addresses, which the majority of customers are. Could they simply be using static arps? ACLs? Other simple mechanisms? Two things to investigate here, why can’t we just go around changing our addresses, and is the assignment process as wasteful as it seems? The Answer SuperUser contributor Moses offers some insight: Cable modems aren’t like your home router (ie. they don’t have a web interface with simple point-and-click buttons that any kid can “hack” into). Cable modems are “looked up” and located by their MAC address by the ISP, and are typically accessed by technicians using proprietary software that only they have access to, that only runs on their servers, and therefore can’t really be stolen. Cable modems also authenticate and cross-check settings with the ISPs servers. The server has to tell the modem whether it’s settings (and location on the cable network) are valid, and simply sets it to what the ISP has it set it for (bandwidth, DHCP allocations, etc). For instance, when you tell your ISP “I would like a static IP, please.”, they allocate one to the modem through their servers, and the modem allows you to use that IP. Same with bandwidth changes, for instance. To do what you are suggesting, you would likely have to break into the servers at the ISP and change what it has set up for your modem. Could they simply be using static arps? ACLs? Other simple mechanisms? Every ISP is different, both in practice and how close they are with the larger network that is providing service to them. Depending on those factors, they could be using a combination of ACL and static ARP. It also depends on the technology in the cable network itself. The ISP I worked for used some form of ACL, but that knowledge was a little beyond my paygrade. I only got to work with the technician’s interface and do routine maintenance and service changes. What keeps me from changing this IP address to, let’s say, 60.61.62.75 and mess with another consumer’s internet access? Given the above, what keeps you from changing your IP to one that your ISP hasn’t specifically given to you is a server that is instructing your modem what it can and can’t do. Even if you somehow broke into the modem, if 60.61.62.75 is already allocated to another customer, then the server will simply tell your modem that it can’t have it. David Schwartz offers some additional insight with a link to a white paper for the really curious: Most modern ISPs (last 13 years or so) will not accept traffic from a customer connection with a source IP address they would not route to that customer were it the destination IP address. This is called “reverse path forwarding”. See BCP 38. Have something to add to the explanation? Sound off in the the comments. Want to read more answers from other tech-savvy Stack Exchange users? Check out the full discussion thread here.     

    Read the article

  • How Can I Safely Destroy Sensitive Data CDs/DVDs?

    - by Jason Fitzpatrick
    You have a pile of DVDs with sensitive information on them and you need to safely and effectively dispose of them so no data recovery is possible. What’s the most safe and efficient way to get the job done? Today’s Question & Answer session comes to us courtesy of SuperUser—a subdivision of Stack Exchange, a community-driven grouping of Q&A web sites. The Question SuperUser reader HaLaBi wants to know how he can safely destroy CDs and DVDs with personal data on them: I have old CDs/DVDs which have some backups, these backups have some work and personal files. I always had problems when I needed to physically destroy them to make sure no one will reuse them. Breaking them is dangerous, pieces could fly fast and may cause harm. Scratching them badly is what I always do but it takes long time and I managed to read some of the data in the scratched CDs/DVDs. What’s the way to physically destroy a CD/DVD safely? How should he approach the problem? The Answer SuperUser contributor Journeyman Geek offers a practical solution coupled with a slightly mad-scientist solution: The proper way is to get yourself a shredder that also handles cds – look online for cd shredders. This is the right option if you end up doing this routinely. I don’t do this very often – For small scale destruction I favour a pair of tin snips – they have enough force to cut through a cd, yet are blunt enough to cause small cracks along the sheer line. Kitchen shears with one serrated side work well too. You want to damage the data layer along with shearing along the plastic, and these work magnificently. Do it in a bag, cause this generates sparkly bits. There’s also the fun, and probably dangerous way – find yourself an old microwave, and microwave them. I would suggest doing this in a well ventilated area of course, and not using your mother’s good microwave. There’s a lot of videos of this on YouTube – such as this (who’s done this in a kitchen… and using his mom’s microwave). This results in a very much destroyed cd in every respect. If I was an evil hacker mastermind, this is what I’d do. The other options are better for the rest of us. Another contributor, Keltari, notes that the only safe (and DoD approved) way to dispose of data is total destruction: The answer by Journeyman Geek is good enough for almost everything. But oddly, that common phrase “Good enough for government work” does not apply – depending on which part of the government. It is technically possible to recover data from shredded/broken/etc CDs and DVDs. If you have a microscope handy, put the disc in it and you can see the pits. The disc can be reassembled and the data can be reconstructed — minus the data that was physically destroyed. So why not just pulverize the disc into dust? Or burn it to a crisp? While technically, that would completely eliminate the data, it leaves no record of the disc having existed. And in some places, like DoD and other secure facilities, the data needs to be destroyed, but the disc needs to exist. If there is a security audit, the disc can be pulled to show it has been destroyed. So how can a disc exist, yet be destroyed? Well, the most common method is grinding the disc down to destroy the data, yet keep the label surface of the disc intact. Basically, it’s no different than using sandpaper on the writable side, till the data is gone. Have something to add to the explanation? Sound off in the the comments. Want to read more answers from other tech-savvy Stack Exchange users? Check out the full discussion thread here.     

    Read the article

  • Avoiding coupling

    - by Seralize
    It is also true that a system may become so coupled, where each class is dependent on other classes that depend on other classes, that it is no longer possible to make a change in one place without having a ripple effect and having to make subsequent changes in many places.[1] This is why using an interface or an abstract class can be valuable in any object-oriented software project. Quote from Wikipedia Starting from scratch I'm starting from scratch with a project that I recently finished because I found the code to be too tightly coupled and hard to refactor, even when using MVC. I will be using MVC on my new project aswell but want to try and avoid the pitfalls this time, hopefully with your help. Project summary My issue is that I really wish to keep the Controller as clean as possible, but it seems like I can't do this. The basic idea of the program is that the user picks wordlists which is sent to the game engine. It will pick random words from the lists until there are none left. Problem at hand My main problem is that the game will have 'modes', and need to check the input in different ways through a method called checkWord(), but exactly where to put this and how to abstract it properly is a challenge to me. I'm new to design patterns, so not sure whether there exist any might fit my problem. My own attempt at abstraction Here is what I've gotten so far after hours of 'refactoring' the design plans, and I know it's long, but it's the best I could do to try and give you an overview (Note: As this is the sketch, anything is subject to change, all help and advice is very welcome. Also note the marked coupling points): Wordlist class Wordlist { // Basic CRUD etc. here! // Other sample methods: public function wordlistCount($user_id) {} // Returns count of how many wordlists a user has public function getAll($user_id) {} // Returns all wordlists of a user } Word class Word { // Basic CRUD etc. here! // Other sample methods: public function wordCount($wordlist_id) {} // Returns count of words in a wordlist public function getAll($wordlist_id) {} // Returns all words from a wordlist public function getWordInfo($word_id) {} // Returns information about a word } Wordpicker class Wordpicker { // The class needs to know which words and wordlists to exclude protected $_used_words = array(); protected $_used_wordlists = array(); // Wordlists to pick words from protected $_wordlists = array(); /* Public Methods */ public function setWordlists($wordlists = array()) {} public function setUsedWords($used_words = array()) {} public function setUsedWordlists($used_wordlists = array()) {} public function getRandomWord() {} // COUPLING POINT! Will most likely need to communicate with both the Wordlist and Word classes /* Protected Methods */ protected function _checkAvailableWordlists() {} // COUPLING POINT! Might need to check if wordlists are deleted etc. protected function _checkAvailableWords() {} // COUPLING POINT! Method needs to get all words in a wordlist from the Word class } Game class Game { protected $_session_id; // The ID of a game session which gets stored in the database along with game details protected $_game_info = array(); // Game instantiation public function __construct($user_id) { if (! $this->_session_id = $this->_gameExists($user_id)) { // New game } else { // Resume game } } // This is the method I tried to make flexible by using abstract classes etc. // Does it even belong in this class at all? public function checkWord($answer, $native_word, $translation) {} // This method checks the answer against the native word / translation word, depending on game mode public function getGameInfo() {} // Returns information about a game session, or creates it if it does not exist public function deleteSession($session_id) {} // Deletes a game session from the database // Methods dealing with game session information protected function _gameExists($user_id) {} protected function _getProgress($session_id) {} protected function _updateProgress($game_info = array()) {} } The Game /* CONTROLLER */ /* "Guess the word" page */ // User input $game_type = $_POST['game_type']; // Chosen with radio buttons etc. $wordlists = $_POST['wordlists']; // Chosen with checkboxes etc. // Starts a new game or resumes one from the database $game = new Game($_SESSION['user_id']); $game_info = $game->getGameInfo(); // Instantiates a new Wordpicker $wordpicker = new Wordpicker(); $wordpicker->setWordlists((isset($game_info['wordlists'])) ? $game_info['wordlists'] : $wordlists); $wordpicker->setUsedWordlists((isset($game_info['used_wordlists'])) ? $game_info['used_wordlists'] : NULL); $wordpicker->setUsedWords((isset($game_info['used_words'])) ? $game_info['used_words'] : NULL); // Fetches an available word if (! $word_id = $wordpicker->getRandomWord()) { // No more words left - game over! $game->deleteSession($game_info['id']); redirect(); } else { // Presents word details to the user $word = new Word(); $word_info = $word->getWordInfo($word_id); } The Bit to Finish /* CONTROLLER */ /* "Check the answer" page */ // ?????????????????? ( http://pastebin.com/cc6MtLTR ) Make sure you toggle the 'Layout Width' to the right for a better view. Thanks in advance. Questions To which extent should objects be loosely coupled? If object A needs info from object B, how is it supposed to get this without losing too much cohesion? As suggested in the comments, models should hold all business logic. However, as objects should be independent, where to glue them together? Should the model contain some sort of "index" or "client" area which connects the dots? Edit: So basically what I should do for a start is to make a new model which I can more easily call with oneliners such as $model->doAction(); // Lots of code in here which uses classes! How about the method for checking words? Should it be it's own object? I'm not sure where I should put it as it's pretty much part of the 'game'. But on another hand, I could just leave out the 'abstraction and OOPness' and make it a method of the 'client model' which will be encapsulated from the controller anyway. Very unsure about this.

    Read the article

  • How can you use Windows Backup with a TrueCrypt encrypted backup destination?

    - by Burly
    Background There are numerous backup solutions out there for Windows and they come in many different forms. From a file copy and/or syncing tool like SyncBackSE to whole hard drive backup utilities based on Volume Shadow Copy like Acronis TrueImage or Norton Ghost to block level copy tools like dd. Each of these solutions offers different pros and cons versus the "Windows Backup and Restore Center" feature built-in to Windows Vista and Windows 7. I am not interested in discussing alternative backup solutions here however, as that has already been covered by numerous other questions. Contraints There are two "types" of backup supported by the "Windows Backup and Restore Center"(WBRC): - File backup (which Windows calls "Back Up Files") - Full System Backup (which Windows calls "Complete PC Backup) I am interested in a solution which supports either and/or both types of backup with WBRC. Questions How can you use a TrueCrypt encrypted mount point as the destination for the built-in "Windows Backup and Restore Center" feature in Windows Vista and 7? See-Also Volume Shadow Copy based backup that works with TrueCrypt References Backup and Restore Center Windows Vista - Backup and Restore Center Windows 7 - Backup and Restore Center

    Read the article

  • Sony Vaio Hard Drive replacement won't boot

    - by AJ Bovaird
    I'm working on a Sony Vaio VGN-CR120e. I've cloned the original SATA 1.5 drive with Norton Ghost on to 2 new hard drives, the second of which is a Seagate 7200.4 320Gb 7200 RPM, with the jumper set to limit to SATA 1.5. (The first drive is a WD Scorpio Black 320Gb 7200RMP, which has no SATA 1.5 override support). Neither of the cloned drives will boot - I immediately get a BlackSOD saying: "Windows failed to start blah blah blah" "File \Windows\system32\winload.exe" "Status: 0xc000000e" "Info: The selected entry could not be loaded because the application is missing or corrupt." I've done this hundreds of times on other PC's, and this is the first time I've encountered such an error. Does anyone have any suggestions or advice on how to proceeed, as I would rather not reinstall Vista unless absolutely necessary.

    Read the article

  • Create Google Maps screenshots at regular intervals

    - by Dave Jarvis
    Background People are concerned that building a pipeline to the West Coast of Canada will increase the number of oil tankers, thus increasing the probability of a major oil spill, thereby creating an environmental catastrophe. The AIS Live Ships Map website captures real-time Marine Traffic updates using a Google Maps interface. While it is possible to obtain data from an AIS data feed, often the feeds are either pay-for-use, or otherwise encumbered with license restrictions. Problem The AIS Live Ships website presents a map in the browser: The map above has had its location interactively changed to focus on the area in question: the northern straight of Vancouver Island. Question How would you create a service that captures the map every 30 minutes and that could run, with neither user-intervention nor a significant memory footprint, for a few years? Idea #1 Create a virtual machine. Install and run a light-weight browser. Use Shutter to take captures at regular intervals. Idea #2 Use Python's Ghost Webkit to automate the captures. Thank you!

    Read the article

  • Memory cache Ubuntu 9.10 server x86 doesn't work as expected

    - by Matthijs
    We're using an Ubuntu 9.10 server to transfer Ghost-image files. We configured it only with Samba. And the DOS-clients connect to Samba. The latest updates are installed and so far the servers is running fine. When we image 10 pc's with the same image of 2 files of 2GB there's no disk activity. Everything is loaded in the RAM. There's 4GB in the server. But when we use 2 pc's with 2 different image files of 500 MB (8x) files then there's a lot of continuous disk activity. The speed is lower. So it seems that Ubuntu doesn't cache more then one big file. Are there settings to change this behaviour?

    Read the article

  • Why is Apple System Image Utility so slow?

    - by Jon Rhoades
    I'm using Apple System Image Utility (SIU) on Snow Leopard 10.6.2 and I am rather disturbed it takes over Three hours to make a Netrestore or Netboot image. I'm using as the donor machine a brand new iMac and as the imaging machine a brand new iMac connected using target disk mode & Firewire 800. The hard drive size and subsequent image is about 8GB. To restore the image over the network takes about 4 minutes. Given that Norton Ghost will take an image in about 5 minutes (or less on newer machines) over USB2, why is the Mac over an order of magnitude slower?

    Read the article

  • How to generate a round-numbers graph in Excel?

    - by tcheregati
    folks! Now, I have an Excel file with measurements I made of some color patches (I work at a Press company), with a device called spectrophotometer. Here it is: https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B0i8fdSf2ihzRlFYNWd4anItenM Density and Hue are two characteristics of each color patch. The thing is: I'm looking at a non-linear increase between the 25 Color Density measurements I took, but I NEED to know exactly how the color's Hue changes as the color's Density increases. For that, I needed Excel to give me round numbers for the X axis (for example 0,70 to 1,50 in 0,05 increments). And for that, obviously, I needed Excel to calculate the probable Hue Values corresponding to those ghost/round/not-given values of Density (like a kind of advanced rule of three). So, can anyone help me on that? Thanks a lot!

    Read the article

< Previous Page | 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60  | Next Page >