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  • A* Start path finding in HTML5 Canvas

    - by gyhgowvi
    I'm trying implement A* Start path finding in my games(which are written with JavaScript, HTML5 Canvas). Library for A* Start found this - http://46dogs.blogspot.com/2009/10/star-pathroute-finding-javascript-code.html and now I'm using this library for path finding. And with this library, I'm trying write a simple test, but stuck with one problem. I'm now done when in HTML5 canvas screen click with mouse show path until my mouse.x and mouse.y. Here is a screenshot - http://oi46.tinypic.com/14qxrl.jpg (Pink square: Player, Orange squares: path until my mouse.x/mouse.y) Code how I'm drawing the orange squares until my mouse.x/mouse.y is: 'http://pastebin.com/bfq74ybc (Sorry I do not understand how upload code in my post) My problem is I do not understand how to move my player until path goal. I've tried: 'http://pastebin.com/nVW3mhUM But with this code my player is not beung drawn.(When I run the code, player.x and player.y are equals to 0 and when I click with the mouse I get the path player blink and disappear) Maybe anyone know how to solve this problem? And I'm very very very sorry for my bad English language. :)

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  • How to manage drawing loop when changing render targets

    - by George Duckett
    I'm managing my game state by having a base GameScreen class with a Draw method. I then have (basically) a stack of GameScreens that I render. I render the bottom one first, as screens above might not completely cover the ones below. I now have a problem where one GameScreen changes render targets while doing its rendering. Anything the previous screens have drawn to the backbuffer is lost (as XNA emulates what happens on the xbox). I don't want to just set the backbuffer to preserve its contents as I want this to work on the xbox as well as PC. How should I manage this problem? A few ideas I've had: Render every GameScreen to its own render target, then render them all to the backbuffer. Create some kind of RenderAction queue where a game screen (and anything else I guess) could queue something to be rendered to the back buffer. They'd render whatever they wanted to any render target as normal, but if they wanted to render to the backbuffer they'd stick that in a queue which would get processed once all rendertarget rendering was done. Abstract away from render targets and backbuffers and have some way of representing the way graphics flows and transforms between render targets and have something manage/work out the correct rendering order (and render targets) given what rendering process needs as input and what it produces as output. I think each of my ideas have pros and cons and there are probably several other ways of approaching this general problem so I'm interested in finding out what solutions are out there.

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  • What can I put in my software development blog to make it a good showcase of me?

    - by Sean
    I have been itching to write a software development blog for some time now. The best advice I've received about blog writing is "Write the blog you would have want to read". Its good advice but its only half the story, Once you write a blog it becomes your showcase on the Internet, it is bound to come up on any search conducted by a future colleague or employer. It can be a good thing or it can do some serious damage. So if there are any hiring managers out there, can you give me a few pointers on what it is in a blog that give you a good impression about candidate and/or the kind of stuff that causes you to throw the candidate's resume to the nearest bean? Does a blog have to come up with a clever piece of code every week? (Don’t think I can manage it) Is it OK to blog more then not about development methods to improved quality and productivity (have a lot of ideas about that). Can I blog about stuff I did not try first hand but seems noteworthy?

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  • Ignore collisions with some objects in certain contexts

    - by Paul Manta
    I'm making a racing game with cars in Unity. The car has a boost/nitro powerup. While boosting, I wouldn't want to be deviated when colliding with zombies, but I do want to be deviated when colliding with walls. On the other hand, I don't want to ignore collision with zombies, because I still want to hit them on impact. How should I handle this? Basically, what I want is for the car to not rotate when colliding with certain objects.

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  • Level and Player objects - which should contain which?

    - by Thane Brimhall
    I've been working on a several simple games, and I've always come to a decision point where I have to choose whether to have the Level object as an attribute of the Player class or the Player as an attribute of the Level class. I can see arguments for both: The Level should contain the player because it also contains every other entity. In fact it just makes sense this way: "John is in the room." It makes it a bit more difficult to move the player to a new level, however, because then each level has to pass its player object to an upcoming level. On the other hand, it makes programming sense to me to leave the player as the top-level object that is persistent between levels, and the environment changes because the player decides to change his level and location. It becomes very easy to change levels, because all I have to do is replace the level variable on the player. What's the most common practice here? Or better yet, is there a "right" way to architecture this relationship?

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  • Unity displays a black screen when connecting an external monitor

    - by Bragboy
    I upgraded my ubuntu from 10.10 to 11.04 and since that day I have been facing issues with Dual Monitor in Ubuntu. When I connect my second monitor during boot time, everything works fine. But when I use my laptop and try to connect a monitor when I am running Ubuntu, I face a weird black screen issue. To see what I mean, following is a screenshot of the same. Here are the problems that happen Desktop background goes away As you can see on the left hand side of the desktop, the right and top portions are black The usual buttons - power button, mail, volumne etc., on the top panel do not work as expected Plus it suddenly crashses at times. And a lot of n other issues associated with this. Is there any patch/release that has happened for these bugs or should I report it anywhere? Help needed.

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  • How should I study programming languages?

    - by gcc
    I am a student of computer engineering. I have never done any programming before, and as you can understand, I don't know how to study it or how to make my own programs. My English is weak [edited for clarity - ed], and so if you don't like the choices I list, please feel free to provide others. How should I study? How should I learn programming languages? Study completely from a book. Don't study from a book, just try writing code. A mix of the two; study from a book, then try writing code. Study half the book, then write the code by hand on paper. Listed to the teacher, then try to solve general problems (those not from any specific chapter).

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  • How to correctly remove items from Wine Programs menu?

    - by Ivan
    As soon as a Windows application creates a shortcut/directory in Wine Start Menu Programs directory (in particular I do this manually by means of Total Commander and it works), it gets reflected in Ubuntu Wine Programs menu. But when a shortcut/folder is removed (manually, by means of Total Commander again) - Ubuntu Wine Programs menu item persists, and this is an undesirable behaviour. I've once done something causing Wine/Ubuntu to actually refresh the menu state and remove orphan items, but unfortunately I can't remember what. Do you know the way? I am specifically interested in hand-made/removed shortcuts, not installing/uninstalling Windows software.

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  • Upgrading your Internet connection to obselescence

    - by TATWORTH
    Originally posted on: http://geekswithblogs.net/TATWORTH/archive/2013/10/11/upgrading-your-internet-connection-to-obselescence.aspxRecently I was approached by two UK Internet Service Providers to upgrade to a fibre connection. In each case I asked two questions:Can you provide me with a fixed IP Address?Is the equipment to be provided compatible with IPv6?None of the question was satisfactorily answered. One of the persons answering even suggested that granting a fixed IP Address would be a breach of security!I find it very disturbing that two companies that present themselves as innovative should still not be preparing for IPv6. The answer I would have expected was that all new equipment being supplied was IPv6 compatible and that plans were in hand for a switchover to IPv6. Instead new equipment would be supplied that would have to be replaced when IPv6 comes. Equally disturbing was that the call center people who answered did not know why a fixed IP address was important or why the change to IPv6 would have to come.I would rather not name and shame the two companies, however I will be looking elsewhere for my next Internet Service Provider.

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  • XNA shield effect with a Primative sphere problem

    - by Sparky41
    I'm having issue with a shield effect i'm trying to develop. I want to do a shield effect that surrounds part of a model like this: http://i.imgur.com/jPvrf.png I currently got this: http://i.imgur.com/Jdin7.png (The red likes are a simple texture a black background with a red cross in it, for testing purposes: http://i.imgur.com/ODtzk.png where the smaller cross in the middle shows the contact point) This sphere is drawn via a primitive (DrawIndexedPrimitives) This is how i calculate the pieces of the sphere using a class i've called Sphere (this class is based off the code here: http://xbox.create.msdn.com/en-US/education/catalog/sample/primitives_3d) public class Sphere { // During the process of constructing a primitive model, vertex // and index data is stored on the CPU in these managed lists. List vertices = new List(); List indices = new List(); // Once all the geometry has been specified, the InitializePrimitive // method copies the vertex and index data into these buffers, which // store it on the GPU ready for efficient rendering. VertexBuffer vertexBuffer; IndexBuffer indexBuffer; BasicEffect basicEffect; public Vector3 position = Vector3.Zero; public Matrix RotationMatrix = Matrix.Identity; public Texture2D texture; /// <summary> /// Constructs a new sphere primitive, /// with the specified size and tessellation level. /// </summary> public Sphere(float diameter, int tessellation, Texture2D text, float up, float down, float portstar, float frontback) { texture = text; if (tessellation < 3) throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException("tessellation"); int verticalSegments = tessellation; int horizontalSegments = tessellation * 2; float radius = diameter / 2; // Start with a single vertex at the bottom of the sphere. AddVertex(Vector3.Down * ((radius / up) + 1), Vector3.Down, Vector2.Zero);//bottom position5 // Create rings of vertices at progressively higher latitudes. for (int i = 0; i < verticalSegments - 1; i++) { float latitude = ((i + 1) * MathHelper.Pi / verticalSegments) - MathHelper.PiOver2; float dy = (float)Math.Sin(latitude / up);//(up)5 float dxz = (float)Math.Cos(latitude); // Create a single ring of vertices at this latitude. for (int j = 0; j < horizontalSegments; j++) { float longitude = j * MathHelper.TwoPi / horizontalSegments; float dx = (float)(Math.Cos(longitude) * dxz) / portstar;//port and starboard (right)2 float dz = (float)(Math.Sin(longitude) * dxz) * frontback;//front and back1.4 Vector3 normal = new Vector3(dx, dy, dz); AddVertex(normal * radius, normal, new Vector2(j, i)); } } // Finish with a single vertex at the top of the sphere. AddVertex(Vector3.Up * ((radius / down) + 1), Vector3.Up, Vector2.One);//top position5 // Create a fan connecting the bottom vertex to the bottom latitude ring. for (int i = 0; i < horizontalSegments; i++) { AddIndex(0); AddIndex(1 + (i + 1) % horizontalSegments); AddIndex(1 + i); } // Fill the sphere body with triangles joining each pair of latitude rings. for (int i = 0; i < verticalSegments - 2; i++) { for (int j = 0; j < horizontalSegments; j++) { int nextI = i + 1; int nextJ = (j + 1) % horizontalSegments; AddIndex(1 + i * horizontalSegments + j); AddIndex(1 + i * horizontalSegments + nextJ); AddIndex(1 + nextI * horizontalSegments + j); AddIndex(1 + i * horizontalSegments + nextJ); AddIndex(1 + nextI * horizontalSegments + nextJ); AddIndex(1 + nextI * horizontalSegments + j); } } // Create a fan connecting the top vertex to the top latitude ring. for (int i = 0; i < horizontalSegments; i++) { AddIndex(CurrentVertex - 1); AddIndex(CurrentVertex - 2 - (i + 1) % horizontalSegments); AddIndex(CurrentVertex - 2 - i); } //InitializePrimitive(graphicsDevice); } /// <summary> /// Adds a new vertex to the primitive model. This should only be called /// during the initialization process, before InitializePrimitive. /// </summary> protected void AddVertex(Vector3 position, Vector3 normal, Vector2 texturecoordinate) { vertices.Add(new VertexPositionNormal(position, normal, texturecoordinate)); } /// <summary> /// Adds a new index to the primitive model. This should only be called /// during the initialization process, before InitializePrimitive. /// </summary> protected void AddIndex(int index) { if (index > ushort.MaxValue) throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException("index"); indices.Add((ushort)index); } /// <summary> /// Queries the index of the current vertex. This starts at /// zero, and increments every time AddVertex is called. /// </summary> protected int CurrentVertex { get { return vertices.Count; } } public void InitializePrimitive(GraphicsDevice graphicsDevice) { // Create a vertex declaration, describing the format of our vertex data. // Create a vertex buffer, and copy our vertex data into it. vertexBuffer = new VertexBuffer(graphicsDevice, typeof(VertexPositionNormal), vertices.Count, BufferUsage.None); vertexBuffer.SetData(vertices.ToArray()); // Create an index buffer, and copy our index data into it. indexBuffer = new IndexBuffer(graphicsDevice, typeof(ushort), indices.Count, BufferUsage.None); indexBuffer.SetData(indices.ToArray()); // Create a BasicEffect, which will be used to render the primitive. basicEffect = new BasicEffect(graphicsDevice); //basicEffect.EnableDefaultLighting(); } /// <summary> /// Draws the primitive model, using the specified effect. Unlike the other /// Draw overload where you just specify the world/view/projection matrices /// and color, this method does not set any renderstates, so you must make /// sure all states are set to sensible values before you call it. /// </summary> public void Draw(Effect effect) { GraphicsDevice graphicsDevice = effect.GraphicsDevice; // Set our vertex declaration, vertex buffer, and index buffer. graphicsDevice.SetVertexBuffer(vertexBuffer); graphicsDevice.Indices = indexBuffer; graphicsDevice.BlendState = BlendState.Additive; foreach (EffectPass effectPass in effect.CurrentTechnique.Passes) { effectPass.Apply(); int primitiveCount = indices.Count / 3; graphicsDevice.DrawIndexedPrimitives(PrimitiveType.TriangleList, 0, 0, vertices.Count, 0, primitiveCount); } graphicsDevice.BlendState = BlendState.Opaque; } /// <summary> /// Draws the primitive model, using a BasicEffect shader with default /// lighting. Unlike the other Draw overload where you specify a custom /// effect, this method sets important renderstates to sensible values /// for 3D model rendering, so you do not need to set these states before /// you call it. /// </summary> public void Draw(Camera camera, Color color) { // Set BasicEffect parameters. basicEffect.World = GetWorld(); basicEffect.View = camera.view; basicEffect.Projection = camera.projection; basicEffect.DiffuseColor = color.ToVector3(); basicEffect.TextureEnabled = true; basicEffect.Texture = texture; GraphicsDevice device = basicEffect.GraphicsDevice; device.DepthStencilState = DepthStencilState.Default; if (color.A < 255) { // Set renderstates for alpha blended rendering. device.BlendState = BlendState.AlphaBlend; } else { // Set renderstates for opaque rendering. device.BlendState = BlendState.Opaque; } // Draw the model, using BasicEffect. Draw(basicEffect); } public virtual Matrix GetWorld() { return /*world */ Matrix.CreateScale(1f) * RotationMatrix * Matrix.CreateTranslation(position); } } public struct VertexPositionNormal : IVertexType { public Vector3 Position; public Vector3 Normal; public Vector2 TextureCoordinate; /// <summary> /// Constructor. /// </summary> public VertexPositionNormal(Vector3 position, Vector3 normal, Vector2 textCoor) { Position = position; Normal = normal; TextureCoordinate = textCoor; } /// <summary> /// A VertexDeclaration object, which contains information about the vertex /// elements contained within this struct. /// </summary> public static readonly VertexDeclaration VertexDeclaration = new VertexDeclaration ( new VertexElement(0, VertexElementFormat.Vector3, VertexElementUsage.Position, 0), new VertexElement(12, VertexElementFormat.Vector3, VertexElementUsage.Normal, 0), new VertexElement(24, VertexElementFormat.Vector2, VertexElementUsage.TextureCoordinate, 0) ); VertexDeclaration IVertexType.VertexDeclaration { get { return VertexPositionNormal.VertexDeclaration; } } } A simple call to the class to initialise it. The Draw method is called in the master draw method in the Gamecomponent. My current thoughts on this are: The direction of the weapon hitting the ship is used to get the middle position for the texture Wrap a texture around the drawn sphere based on this point of contact Problem is i'm not sure how to do this. Can anyone help or if you have a better idea please tell me i'm open for opinion? :-) Thanks.

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  • Attributes of an Ethical Programmer?

    - by ahmed
    Software that we write has ramifications in the real world. If not, it wouldn't be very useful. Thus, it has the potential to sweep across the world faster than a deadly manmade virus or to affect society every bit as much as genetic manipulation. Maybe we can't see how right now, but in the future our code will have ever-greater potential for harm or good. Of course, there's the issue of hacking. That's clearly a crime. Or is it that clear? Isn't hacking acceptable for our government in the event of national security? What about for other governments? Cases of life-and-death emergency? Tracking down deadbeat parents? Screening the genetic profile of job candidates? Where is the line drawn? Who decides? Do programmers have responsibility for how their code is used? What if a programmer writes code to pry into confidential information or copy-protected material? Does he bear responsibility along with the person who used the program? What about a programmer who knowingly or unknowingly writes code to "fix the books?" Should he be liable?

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  • Right mix of planning and programing on a new project

    - by WarrenFaith
    I am about to start a new project (a game, but thats unimportant). The basic idea is in my head but not all the details. I don't want to start programming without planning, but I am seriously fighting my urge to just do it. I want some planning before to prevent refactoring the whole app just because a new feature I could think of requires it. On the other hand, I don't want to plan multiple months (spare time) and start that because I have some fear that I will lose my motivation in this time. What I am looking for is a way of combining both without one dominating the other. Should I realize the project in the way of scrum? Should I creating user stories and then realize them? Should I work feature driven? (I have some experience in scrum and the classic "specification to code" way.)

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  • Best accounting software for freelance/contractor programmer? [closed]

    - by user1352034
    I know this isn't exactly a programming question but I am hoping to find some programmers who freelance or do contractor work in the US. I have started to work on side jobs and have been billing my clients using Paypal. I then would store those records in a Google excel doc but realize this will get out of hand as time goes on and am looking for a good solution. I am no accountant so I am not sure of everything I would need but I am guessing basic invoicing, expenses, reporting, integration with paypal, etc.. Any contractors or freelancers in here could recommend what they use? I have researched a few but would like to hear what other people are using and how it is working out for them. Thanks for your time!

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  • Code Smell: Inheritance Abuse

    - by dsimcha
    It's been generally accepted in the OO community that one should "favor composition over inheritance". On the other hand, inheritance does provide both polymorphism and a straightforward, terse way of delegating everything to a base class unless explicitly overridden and is therefore extremely convenient and useful. Delegation can often (though not always) be verbose and brittle. The most obvious and IMHO surest sign of inheritance abuse is violation of the Liskov Substitution Principle. What are some other signs that inheritance is The Wrong Tool for the Job even if it seems convenient?

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  • Can't disable giant cursors (from accessibility mode)

    - by jackweirdy
    I've just installed ubuntu 12.04 from a livecd. Out of curiosity, I enabled the accessibility options for people who are hard of sight. As you can guess this does the usual stuff of inverting colours, increasing text size and making the cursor larger. Having finished the installation I booted into the new system to find accessibility mode was still installed. From the lightdm login screen I disabled this which switched colours and text size back to default, however it's only the pointer cursor that has gone back to default. To put it another way, the "hand" icon that you get when hovering over a link, the cursor which appears when typing and pretty much every other cursor on the system are still large. I've looked on the Universal Access menu, but there's no option to disable large cursors. I've tried toggling accessibility on and off but to no avail.

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  • Markup format or script for data files?

    - by Aaron
    The game I'm designing will be mainly written in a high level scripting language (leaning towards either Lua or Squirrel) with a C++ core. In addition to scripts I'm also going to need different data files. Many data files will be for static information such as graphical assets and monster types. I'd also want to create and update data files at runtime for user information like option settings and game saves. Can I get away with using plain script files (i.e. .lua or .nut files) for my data files, or is it better to use dedicated markup formats like XML or YAML? If I use script files, loaded separately from my true scripts, then I wouldn't need an extra library to read those files. Scripting languages like Lua also have table syntax that lend themselves towards data definition. On the other hand I'd have to write my own schema check code. These languages also don't seem to support serialization "out of the box" like the markup format libraries do.

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  • Almost Realtime Data and Web application

    - by Chris G.
    I have a computer that is recording 100 different data points into an OPC server. I've written a simple OPC client that can read all of this data. I have a front-end website on a different network that I would like to consume this data. I could easily set the OPC client to send the data to a SQL server and the website could read from it, but that would be a lot of writes. If I wanted the data to be updated every 10 seconds I'd be writing to the database every 10 seconds. (I could probably just serialize the 100 points to get 1 write / 10 seconds but that would also limit my ability to search the data later). This solution wouldn't scale very well. If I had 100 of these computers the situation would quickly grow out of hand. Obviously I am well out of my league here and I have no experience with working with a large amount of data like this. What are my options and what should I research?

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  • Collision and Graphics integration

    - by Shlomi Atia
    I'm a little confused about the integration between collision and graphics. They both need to share the same position in the world. The most obvious choice is the center of the entity, which is good for bounding volumes and fixed sized sprites. However, for characters with variable height size sprites like this: http://gamemedia.wcgame.ru/data/2011-07-17/game-sprite-sheet.jpg This is no longer good. The character won't align to the ground if I'll draw it from the center. I can just make the sprites the same height, but it will be a waste of memory (the largest sprite is 4 times larger then the smallest one). Even then, this is not an option at all with skeletal sprites like this one: http://user-generated-content.java-gaming.org/img-vault/212a171fc1ebb27ab77608fb9b2dd9bd9205361ce6300b21a7f8d06d025fbbd8.png It seems that the graphics need to be drawn from the ground for characters, but not for other images such as scenery and obstacles. The only solution I could think of was having another position called draw-position, which is the entity center for images, and is the the bottom of the collision volume for characters. Then when I draw relative to that position, it should work properly. I haven't found any references for something like that, so I'm kinda insecure about it. Does anyone knows of a better approach for this problem? Thanks

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  • Getting "boot error" when trying to boot from USB

    - by Jon Ball
    I'm wanting to try out Ubuntu, so followed the instructions for how to install Ubuntu onto a USB. I downloaded the .iso file, then the pendrivelinux 3 part process to make the USB bootable. I can see what looks like a full list of files on the USB (including the wubi.exe application and the syslinux folder). When I try to restart the computer with the USB in, I get the Dell start up screen, and then a black screen with "Boot Error" in the top right hand corner. Setup options (default) are to boot from Removable Device, then Hard Disc. USB is brand new, straight out of the packet. Computer: Dell Inspiron 530S BIOS: 1.0.13 OS: Windows Vista Home Edition USB: EMTEC 8Gb, formatted to FAT32 I've tried some of the tips in other help topics (holding down CTRL key while restarting, removing all other USB devices). I tried to reformat the USB to something other than FAT32, but my only other options were NTFS or exFAT (not FAT16 which was suggested in another topic).

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  • Why doesn't Microsoft support virtualizing a Server OS on Windows 7?

    - by Nathan DeWitt
    Microsoft doesn't support any server operating systems in Windows Virtual PC. Virtual Server 2005 doesn't run on Windows 7. Hyper-V is great, but I don't want to run Server 2008 as my main OS, and I love having Windows 7 run on the bare metal. I don't want to mess around with a dual boot. My only option to continue developing in Windows 7 with a virtual server environment on hand is VMWare or VirtualBox. Other members in my team use Hyper-V, and VHDs are common. I'd prefer to be able to use their VHDs, so that leaves me VirtualBox. Does anyone know if Microsoft is planning on bringing server virtualization back to the workstation?

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  • What Counts for a DBA: Humility

    - by drsql
    In football (the American sort, naturally,) there are a select group of players who really hope to never have their names called during the game. They are members of the offensive line, and their job is to protect other players so they can deliver the ball to the goal to score points. When you do hear their name called, it is usually because they made a mistake and the player that they were supposed to protect ended up flat on his back admiring the clouds in the sky instead of advancing towards the goal to scoring point. Even on the rare occasion their name is called for a good reason, it is usually because they were making up for a teammate who had made a mistake and they covered up for them. The role of offensive lineman is a very good analogy for the role of the admin DBA. As a DBA, you are called on to be barely visible and rarely heard, protecting the company data assets tenaciously, even though the enemies to our craft surround us on all sides:. Developers: Cries of ‘foul!’ often ensue when the DBA says that they want data integrity to be stringently enforced and that documentation is needed so they can support systems, mostly because every error occurrence in the enterprise will be initially blamed on the database and fall to the DBA to troubleshoot. Insisting too loudly may bring those cries of ‘foul’ that somewhat remind you of when your 2 year old daughter didn't want to go to bed. The result of this petulance is that the next "enemy" gets involved. Managers: The concerns that motivate DBAs to argue will not excite the kind of manager who gets his technical knowledge from a glossy magazine filled with buzzwords, charts, and pretty pictures. However, the other programmers in the organization will tickle the buzzword void with a stream of new-sounding ideas and technologies constantly, along with warnings that if we did care about data integrity and document things, the budget would explode! In contrast, the arguments for integrity of data and supportability tend to be about as exciting as watching grass grow, and far too many manager types seem to prefer to smoke it than watch it. Packaged Applications: The DBA is rarely given a chance to review a new application that is being demonstrated for the enterprise, and rarer still is the DBA that gets a veto of an application because the database it uses has clearly been created by an architect that won't read a data modeling book because he is already married. More often than not this leads to hours of work for the DBA trying to performance-tune a database with a menagerie of rules that must be followed to stay within the  application support agreement, such as no changing indexes on a third party schema even though there are 10 billion rows instead of the 10 thousand when the system was last optimized. Hardware Failures: Physical disks, networking devices, memory, and backup devices all come with a measure known as ‘mean time before failure’ and it is never listed in centuries or eons. More like years, and the term ‘mean’ indicates that half of the devices are expected to fail before that, which by my calendar means any hour of any day that it wants to fail it will. But the DBA sucks it up and does the task at hand with a humility that makes them nearly invisible to all but the most observant person in the organization. The best DBAs I know are so proactive in their relentless pursuit of perfection that they detect many of the bugs (which they seldom caused) in the system well before they become a problem. In the end the DBA gets noticed for one of same two reasons as the offensive lineman. You make a mistake, like dropping a critical production database that had never been backed up; or when a system crashes for any reason whatsoever and they are on the spot with troubleshooting and system restoration plans that have been well thought out, tested, and tested again. Not because there is any glory in it, but because it is what they do.   Note: The characteristics of the professions referred to in this blog are meant to be overstated stereotypes for humorous effect, and even some DBAs aren't quite this perfect. If you are reading this far and haven’t hand written a 10 page flaming comment about how you are a _______ and you aren’t like this, that is awesome. Not every situation applies to everyone, but if you have never worked with a bad packaged app, a magazine trained manager, programmers that aren’t team players, or hardware that occasionally failed, relax and go have a unicorn sandwich before you wake up.

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  • Matrix.CreateBillboard centre rotation problem

    - by Chris88
    I'm having an issue with Matrix.CreateBillboard and a textured Quad where the center axis seems to be positioned incorrectly to the quad object which is rotating around a center point: Using: BasicEffect quadEffect; Drawing the quad shape: Left = Vector3.Cross(Normal, Up); Vector3 uppercenter = (Up * height / 2) + origin; LowerLeft = uppercenter + (Left * width / 2); LowerRight = uppercenter - (Left * width / 2); UpperLeft = LowerLeft - (Up * height); UpperRight = LowerRight - (Up * height); Where height and width are float values passed in (it draws a square) Draw method: quadEffect.View = camera.view; quadEffect.Projection = camera.projection; quadEffect.World = Matrix.CreateBillboard(Origin, camera.cameraPosition, Vector3.Up, camera.cameraDirection); GraphicsDevice.BlendState = BlendState.Additive; foreach (EffectPass pass in quadEffect.CurrentTechnique.Passes) { pass.Apply(); GraphicsDevice.DrawUserIndexedPrimitives <VertexPositionNormalTexture>( PrimitiveType.TriangleList, Vertices, 0, 4, Indexes, 0, 2); } GraphicsDevice.BlendState = BlendState.Opaque; In the screenshots below i draw the image at Vector3(32f, 0f, 32f) The screenshots below show you the position of the quad in relation to the red cross. The red cross shows where it should be drawn http://i.imgur.com/YwRYj.jpg http://i.imgur.com/ZtoHL.jpg It rotates around the red cross position

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  • How to Name Groups of Apps on the Windows 8 Metro Start Screen

    - by Taylor Gibb
    The Windows 8 Start Screen certainly takes some getting use to, however, one of the things that I really miss about the Start Menu was how i was able to categorize my installed applications. While you cant create folders on the Start Screen, you can group your applications. To get started head over to the Metro Start Screen and move your mouse to the bottom right-hand corner, clicking on the small icon. Now right click on the group of apps that you want to name. Make Your Own Windows 8 Start Button with Zero Memory Usage Reader Request: How To Repair Blurry Photos HTG Explains: What Can You Find in an Email Header?

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  • Sang Shin is back!

    - by arungupta
    Sang Shin is back at Oracle. He is well known for his wide range of Java tutorials at javapassion.com. As a former Sun evangelist, he helped GlassFish and Java EE adoption and continued to do even after his days at Sun. In his current role, he will help evangelize and drive adoption of the Java EE platform, GlassFish, and WebLogic server. You will see him online, speaking at conferences, blogging, and at our different social media channels. Say hello to him whenever you meet him. Here is what Sang had to say about his comeback: I AM BACK to where it all started. It sure felt like coming back home and it's good to see the first hand the spirit of innovation still is alive and well here in Oracle especially on Java front. Looking forward to be engaged with everyone in Java EE community with Passion again! Looking forward to working with Sang! You can ping him at @javapassion.

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  • Which Graphics/Geometry abstraction to choose?

    - by Robz
    I've been thinking about the design for a browser app on the HTML5 canvas that simulates a 2D robot zooming around, sensing the world around it. I decided to do this from scratch just for fun. I need shapes, like polygons, circles, and lines in order to model the robot and the world it lives in. These shapes need to be drawn with different appearance attributes, like border/fill style/width/color. I also need to have geometry functions to detect intersections and containment for the robot's sensors and so that the robot doesn't go inside stuff. One idea for functions is to have two totally separate libraries, one to implement graphics (like drawShape(context, shape)) and one for geometry operations (like shapeIntersectsShape(shape1, shape2)). Or, in a more object-oriented approach, the shape objects themselves could implement methods to do their own graphics (shape.draw(context)) and geometry operations (shape1.intersects(shape2)). Then there is the data itself: whether the data to draw a shape and the data to do geometric operations on that shape should be encapsulated within the same object, or be separate structures (where one would contain the other, or both be contained inside another structure). How do existing applications that do graphics/geometry stuff deal with this? Is there one model that is best, or is each good for certain applications? Should the fact that I'm using Javascript instead of a more classical language change how I approach the design?

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