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• Week in Geek: IPv6 Capable Smartphones Compromise User Privacy Edition

  - by Asian Angel

  This week we learned how to “clone a disk, resize static windows, and create system function shortcuts”, use 45 different services, sites, and apps to help read favorite sites, add MP3 support to Audacity (for saving in MP3 format), install a Wii game loader for easy backups and fast load times, create a Blue Screen of Death in any color, and more. Photo by legofenris. Weekly News Links Photo by The H Security. IPv6: Smartphones compromise users’ privacy Since version 4 of the iOS operating system, Apple’s iPhones, iPads and iPods have been capable of handling IPv6, and most Android devices have been capable since version 2.1. However, the operating systems transfer an ID that discloses information about their users. Dumb phones can be attacked too Much of the discussion of security threats to mobile phones revolves around smartphones, but researchers have found that less advanced “feature phones,” still used by the majority of people around the world, also are vulnerable to attack. SCADA exploit – the dragon awakes The recent publication of an exploit for KingView, a software package for visualising industrial process control systems, appears to be having an effect. Threatpost reports that both the Chinese vendor Wellintech and Chinese CERT (CN-CERT) have now reacted. Sophos: Spam to get more malicious Spam is becoming more malicious in nature as trickery tactics change in line with current user interests, according to a new report released Tuesday by Sophos. Global spam traffic rebounds as Rustock wakes Spam is on the rise after the Rustock botnet awoke from its Christmas slumber, according to Symantec. Cracking WPA keys in the cloud At the forthcoming Black Hat conference, blogger Thomas Roth plans to demonstrate how weak WPA PSKs can be cracked quickly and easily using Amazon’s Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) service. Microsoft Security Advisory: Vulnerability in Internet Explorer could allow remote code execution Provides a link to more details about the vulnerability and shows a work-around/fix for the problem. Adobe plans to make it easier to delete Flash cookies in web browsers The new API, NPAPI:ClearSiteData, will allow Flash cookies – also known as Local Shared Objects (LSO) – to be deleted directly in the browser’s settings. Firefox beta getting new database standard The ninth beta version of Firefox is set to get support for a standard called IndexedDB that provides a database interface useful for offline data storage and other tasks needing information on a browser’s computer. MetroPCS accused of blocking certain Net content MetroPCS is violating the FCC’s recently approved Net neutrality rules by blocking certain Internet content, say several public interest groups. Server and Tools chief Muglia to leave Microsoft in summer 2011 Microsoft veteran and Server & Tools Business (STB) President Bob Muglia is leaving Microsoft, according to an email that CEO Steve Ballmer sent to employees on January 10. Report: DOJ nearing decision on Google-ITA The U.S. Department of Justice is gearing up for a possible formal antitrust investigation into whether or not Google should be allowed to purchase travel software company ITA Software, according to a report. South Korea says Google Street View broke law Police in South Korea reportedly say Google broke the country’s law when its Street View service captured personal data from unsecure Wi-Fi networks. The backlash over Google’s HTML5 video bet Choosing strategies based on what you believe to be long-term benefits is generally a good idea when running a business, but if you manage to alienate the world in the process, the long term may become irrelevant. Google answers critics on HTML5 Web video move Google responded to critics of its decision to drop support for a popular HTML5 video codec by declaring that a royalty-supported standard for Web video will hold the Web hostage. Random TinyHacker Links A Special GiveAway: a Great Book & Great Security Software The team from 7 Tutorials has a special giveaway running during the month of January. Signed copies of their latest book, full 1-year licenses of BitDefender Internet Security 2011 and free 3-month trials for everyone willing to participate. One Click Rooting For Android Phones Here’s a nice tool that helps you root your Android phone effortlessly. New Angry Birds Free version 1.0 Available in the App Store. Google Code University Learn programming at Google Code University. Capture and Share Your Favorite Part Of a YouTube Video SnipSnip.it lets you share only the part of the video that you like. Super User Questions More great questions and answers from this past week’s popular topics at Super User. What are the Windows A: and B: drives used for? Does OS X support linux-like features? What is the easiest way to make a backup of an entire hard disk? Will shifting from Wireless to Wired network result in better performance? Is it legal to install Windows 7 Home Premium Retail inside VMware virtual machine? How-To Geek Weekly Article Recap Enjoy reading through our hottest articles from this past week. The 50 Best Ways to Disable Built-in Windows Features You Don’t Want The Best of CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in 2011 How to Upgrade Windows 7 Easily (And Understand Whether You Should) The Worst of CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in 2011 The How-To Geek Guide to Audio Editing: Basic Noise Removal One Year Ago on How-To Geek More great articles from one year ago filled with helpful geeky goodness for you to enjoy. Share Text & Images the Easy Way with JustPaste.it Start Portable Firefox in Safe Mode Firefox 3.6 Release Candidate Available, Here’s How to Fix Your Incompatible Extensions Protect Your Computer from “Little Hands” with KidSafe Lock Prying Eyes Out of Your Minimized Windows Custom Crocheted Cylon-Cthulhu Hybrid What happens when you let your Cylon Centurion figure and your crocheted Cthulhu spend too many lonely nights together? A Cylon-Cthulhu hybrid, of course! You can get your own from the Cthulhu Chick store over on Etsy. Note: This is not an ad…Ruth is a friend of ours, and this Cylon-Cthulhu hybrid makes the perfect guard for the new MVP trophy in our office. The Geek Note Whether it is a geeky indoor project or just getting outside, we hope that you and your families have a terrific fun-filled weekend! Remember to keep sending those great tips in to us at [email protected]. Photo by qwrrty. Latest Features How-To Geek ETC How to Upgrade Windows 7 Easily (And Understand Whether You Should) The How-To Geek Guide to Audio Editing: Basic Noise Removal Install a Wii Game Loader for Easy Backups and Fast Load Times The Best of CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in 2011 The Worst of CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in 2011 HTG Projects: How to Create Your Own Custom Papercraft Toy Firefox 4.0 Beta 9 Available for Download – Get Your Copy Now The Frustrations of a Computer Literate Watching a Newbie Use a Computer [Humorous Video] Season0nPass Jailbreaks Current Gen Apple TVs IBM’s Jeopardy Playing Computer Watson Shows The Pros How It’s Done [Video] Tranquil Juice Drop Abstract Wallpaper Pulse Is a Sleek Newsreader for iOS and Android Devices

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• Physical Directories vs. MVC View Paths

  - by Rick Strahl

  This post falls into the bucket of operator error on my part, but I want to share this anyway because it describes an issue that has bitten me a few times now and writing it down might keep it a little stronger in my mind. I've been working on an MVC project the last few days, and at the end of a long day I accidentally moved one of my View folders from the MVC Root Folder to the project root. It must have been at the very end of the day before shutting down because tests and manual site navigation worked fine just before I quit for the night. I checked in changes and called it a night. Next day I came back, started running the app and had a lot of breaks with certain views. Oddly custom routes to these controllers/views worked, but stock /{controller}/{action} routes would not. After a bit of spelunking I realized that "Hey one of my View Folders is missing", which made some sense given the error messages I got. I looked in the recycle bin - nothing there, so rather than try to figure out what the hell happened, just restored from my last SVN checkin. At this point the folders are back… but… view access  still ends up breaking for this set of views. Specifically I'm getting the Yellow Screen of Death with: CS0103: The name 'model' does not exist in the current context Here's the full error: Server Error in '/ClassifiedsWeb' Application. Compilation ErrorDescription: An error occurred during the compilation of a resource required to service this request. Please review the following specific error details and modify your source code appropriately.Compiler Error Message: CS0103: The name 'model' does not exist in the current contextSource Error: Line 1: @model ClassifiedsWeb.EntryViewModel Line 2: @{ Line 3: ViewBag.Title = Model.Entry.Title + " - " + ClassifiedsBusiness.App.Configuration.ApplicationName; Source File: c:\Projects2010\Clients\GorgeNet\Classifieds\ClassifiedsWeb\Classifieds\Show.cshtml    Line: 1 Compiler Warning Messages: Show Detailed Compiler Output: Show Complete Compilation Source: Version Information: Microsoft .NET Framework Version:4.0.30319; ASP.NET Version:4.0.30319.272 Here's what's really odd about this error: The views now do exist in the /Views/Classifieds folder of the project, but it appears like MVC is trying to execute the views directly. This is getting pretty weird, man! So I hook up some break points in my controllers to see if my controller actions are getting fired - and sure enough it turns out they are not - but only for those views that were previously 'lost' and then restored from SVN. WTF? At this point I'm thinking that I must have messed up one of the config files, but after some more spelunking and realizing that all the other Controller views work, I give up that idea. Config's gotta be OK if other controllers and views are working. Root Folders and MVC Views don't mix As I mentioned the problem was the fact that I inadvertantly managed to drag my View folder to the root folder of the project. Here's what this looks like in my FUBAR'd project structure after I copied back /Views/Classifieds folder from SVN: There's the actual root folder in the /Views folder and the accidental copy that sits of the root. I of course did not notice the /Classifieds folder at the root because it was excluded and didn't show up in the project. Now, before you call me a complete idiot remember that this happened by accident - an accidental drag probably just before shutting down for the night. :-) So why does this break? MVC should be happy with views in the /Views/Classifieds folder right? While MVC might be happy, IIS is not. The fact that there is a physical folder on disk takes precedence over MVC's routing. In other words if a URL exists that matches a route the pysical path is accessed first. What happens here is that essentially IIS is trying to execute the .cshtml pages directly without ever routing to the Controller methods. In the error page I showed above my clue should have been that the view was served as: c:\Projects2010\Clients\GorgeNet\Classifieds\ClassifiedsWeb\Classifieds\Show.cshtml rather than c:\Projects2010\Clients\GorgeNet\Classifieds\ClassifiedsWeb\Views\Classifieds\Show.cshtml But of course I didn't notice that right away, just skimming to the end and looking at the file name. The reason that /classifieds/list actually fires that file is that the ASP.NET Web Pages engine looks for physical files on disk that match a path. IOW, when calling Web Pages you drop the .cshtml off the Razor page and IIS will serve that just fine. So: /classifieds/list looks and tries to find /classifieds/list.cshtml and executes that script. And that is exactly what's happening. Web Pages is trying to execute the .cshtml file and it fails because Web Pages knows nothing about the @model tag which is an MVC specific template extension. This is why my breakpoints in the controller methods didn't fire and it also explains why the error mentions that the @model key word is invalid (@model is an MVC provided template enhancement to the Razor Engine). The solution of course is super simple: Delete the accidentally created root folder and the problem is solved. Routing and Physical Paths I've run into problems with this before actually. In the past I've had a number of applications that had a physical /Admin folder which also would conflict with an MVC Admin controller. More than once I ended up wondering why the index route (/Admin/) was not working properly. If a physical /Admin folder exists /Admin will not route to the Index action (or whatever default action you have set up, but instead try to list the directory or show the default document in the folder. The only way to force the index page through MVC is to explicitly use /Admin/Index. Makes perfect sense once you realize the physical folder is there, but that's easy to forget in an MVC application. As you might imagine after a few times of running into this I gave up on the Admin folder and moved everything into MVC views to handle those operations. Still it's one of those things that can easily bite you, because the behavior and error messages seem to point at completely different  problems. Moral of the story is: If you see routing problems where routes are not reaching obvious controller methods, always check to make sure there's isn't a physical path being mapped by IIS instead. That way you won't feel stupid like I did after trying a million things for about an hour before discovering my sloppy mousing behavior :-)© Rick Strahl, West Wind Technologies, 2005-2012Posted in MVC   IIS7   Tweet !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs"); (function() { var po = document.createElement('script'); po.type = 'text/javascript'; po.async = true; po.src = 'https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(po, s); })();

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• Contracting as a Software Developer in the UK

  - by Frez

  Normal 0 false false false EN-GB X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0cm; mso-para-margin-right:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0cm; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi; mso-fareast-language:EN-US;} Having had some 15 years’ experience of working as a software contractor, I am often asked by developers who work as permanent employees (permies) about the pros and cons of working as a software consultant through my own limited company and whether the move would be a good one for them. Whilst it is possible to contract using other financial vehicles such as umbrella companies, this article will only consider limited companies as that is what I have experience of using. Contracting or consultancy requires a different mind-set from being a permanent member of staff, and not all developers are capable of this shift in attitude. Whilst you can look forward to an increase in the money you take home, there are real risks and expenses you would not normally be exposed to as a permie. So let us have a look at the pros and cons: Pros: More money There is no doubt that whilst you are working on contracts you will earn significantly more than you would as a permanent employee. Furthermore, working through a limited company is more tax efficient. Less politics You really have no need to involve yourself in office politics. When the end of the day comes you can go home and not think or worry about the power struggles within the company you are contracted to. Your career progression is not tied to the company. Expenses from gross income All your expenses of trading as a business will come out of your company’s gross income, i.e. before tax. This covers travelling expenses provided you have not been at the same client/location for more than two years, internet subscriptions, professional subscriptions, software, hardware, accountancy services and so on. Cons: Work is more transient Contracts typically range from a couple of weeks to a year, although will most likely start at 3 months. However, most contracts are extended either because the project you have been brought in to help with takes longer to deliver than expected, the client decides they can use you on other aspects of the project, or the client decides they would like to use you on other projects. The temporary nature of the work means that you will have down-time between contracts while you secure new opportunities during which time your company will have no income. You may need to attend several interviews before securing a new contract. Accountancy expenses Your company is a separate entity and there are accountancy requirements which, unless you like paperwork, means your company will need to appoint an accountant to prepare your company’s accounts. It may also be worth purchasing some accountancy software, so talk to your accountant about this as they may prefer you to use a particular software package so they can integrate it with their systems. VAT You will need to register your company for VAT. This is tax neutral for you as the VAT you charge your clients you will pass onto the government less any VAT you are reclaiming from expenses, but it is additional paperwork to undertake each quarter. It is worth checking out the Fixed Rate VAT Scheme that is available, particularly after the initial expenses of setting up your company are over. No training Clients take you on based on your skills, not to train you when they will lose that investment at the end of the contract, so understand that it is unlikely you will receive any training funded by a client. However, learning new skills during a contract is possible and you may choose to accept a contract on a lower rate if this is guaranteed as it will help secure future contracts. No financial extras You will have no free pension, life, accident, sickness or medical insurance unless you choose to purchase them yourself. A financial advisor can give you all the necessary advice in this area, and it is worth taking seriously. A year after I started as a consultant I contracted a serious illness, this kept me off work for over two months, my client was very understanding and it could have been much worse, so it is worth considering what your options might be in the case of illness, death and retirement. Agencies Whilst it is possible to work directly for end clients there are pros and cons of working through an agency.  The main advantage is cash flow, you invoice the agency and they typically pay you within a week, whereas working directly for a client could have you waiting up to three months to be paid. The downside of working for agencies, especially in the current difficult times, is that they may go out of business and you then have difficulty getting the money you are owed. Tax investigation It is possible that the Inland Revenue may decide to investigate your company for compliance with tax law. Insurance is available to cover you for this. My personal recommendation would be to join the PCG as this insurance is included as a benefit of membership, Professional Indemnity Some agencies require that you are covered by professional indemnity insurance; this is a cost you would not incur as a permie. Travel Unless you live in an area that has an abundance of opportunities, such as central London, it is likely that you will be travelling further, longer and with more expense than if you were permanently employed at a local company. This not only affects you monetarily, but also your quality of life and the ability to keep fit and healthy. Obtaining finance If you want to secure a mortgage on a property it can be more difficult or expensive, especially if you do not have three years of audited accounts to show a mortgage lender.   Caveat This post is my personal opinion and should not be used as a definitive guide or recommendation to contracting and whether it is suitable for you as an individual, i.e. I accept no responsibility if you decide to take up contracting based on this post and you fare badly for whatever reason.

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• Rebuilding CoasterBuzz, Part III: The architecture using the "Web stack of love"

  - by Jeff

  This is the third post in a series about rebuilding one of my Web sites, which has been around for 12 years. I hope to relaunch in the next month or two. More: Part I: Evolution, and death to WCF Part II: Hot data objects I finally hit a point in the re-do of CoasterBuzz where I feel like the major pieces are in place... rewritten, ported and what not, so that I can focus now on front-end design and more interesting creative problems. I've been asked on more than one occasion (OK, just twice) what's going on under the covers, so I figure this might be a good time to explain the overall architecture. As it turns out, I'm using a whole lof of the "Web stack of love," as Scott Hanselman likes to refer to it. Oh that Hanselman. First off, at the center of it all, is BizTalk. Just kidding. That's "enterprise architecture" humor, where every discussion starts with how they'll use BizTalk. Here are the bigger moving parts: It's fairly straight forward. A common library lives in a number of Web apps, all of which are (or will be) powered by ASP.NET MVC 4. They all talk to the same database. There is the main Web site, which also has the endpoint for the Silverlight-based Feed app. The cstr.bz site handles redirects, which are generated when news items are published and sent to Twitter. Facebook publishing is handled via the RSS Graffiti Facebook app. The API site handles requests from the Windows Phone app. The main site depends very heavily on POP Forums, the open source, MVC-based forum I maintain. It serves a number of functions, primarily handling users. These user objects serve in non-forum roles to handle things like news and database contributions, maintaining track records (coaster nerd for "list of rides I've been on") and, perhaps most importantly, paid club memberships. Before I get into more specifics, note that the "glue" for everything is Ninject, the dependency injection framework. I actually prefer StructureMap these days, but I started with Ninject in POP Forums a long time ago. POP Forums has a static class, PopForumsActivation, that new's up an instance of the container, and you can call it from where ever. The downside is that the forums require Ninject in your MVC app as the default dependency resolver. At some point, I'll decouple it, but for now it's not in the way. In the general sense, the entire set of apps follow a repository-service-controller-view pattern. Repos just do data access, service classes do business logic, controllers compose and route, views view. The forum also provides Scoring Game functionality. The Scoring Game is a reasonably abstract framework to award users points based on certain actions, and then award achievements when a certain number of point events happen. For example, the forum already awards a point when someone plus-one's a post you made. You can set up an achievement that says, "Give the user an award when they've had 100 posts plus'd." It also does zero-point entries into the ledger, so if you make a post, you could award an achievement based on 100 posts made. Wiring in the scoring game to CoasterBuzz functionality is just a matter of going to the Ninject container and getting an instance of the event publisher, and passing it events. Forum adapters were introduced into POP Forums a few versions ago, and they can intercept the model generated for forum topic lists and threads and designate an alternate view. These are used to make the "Day in Pictures" forum, where users can upload photos as frame-by-frame photo threads. Another adapter adds an association UI, so users can associate specific amusement parks with their trip report posts. The Silverlight-based Feed app talks to a simple JSON endpoint in the main app. This uses an underlying library I wrote ages ago, simply called Feeds, that aggregates event information. You inherit from a base class that creates instances of a publisher interface, and then use that class to send it an event type and any number of data fields. Feeds has two publishers: One is to the database, and that's used for the endpoint that talks to the Silverlight app. The second publisher publishes to Twitter, if the event is of the type "news." The wiring is a little strange, because for the new posts and topics events, I'm actually pulling out the forum repository classes from the Ninject container and replacing them with overridden methods to publish. I should probably be doing this at the service class level, but whatever. It's my mess. cstr.bz doesn't do anything interesting. It looks up the path, and if it has a match, does a 301 redirect to the long URL. The API site just serves up JSON for the Windows Phone app. The Windows Phone app is Silverlight, of course, and there isn't much to it. It does use the control toolkit, but beyond that, it relies on a simple class that creates a Webclient and calls the server for JSON to deserialize. The same class is now used by the Feed app, which used to use WCF. Simple is better. Data access in POP Forums is all straight SQL, because a lot of it was ported from the ASP.NET version. Most CoasterBuzz data access is handled by the Entity Framework, using the code-first model. The context class in this case does a lot of work to make sure that the table and key mapping works, since much of it breaks from the normal conventions of EF. One of the more powerful things you can do with EF, once you understand the little gotchas, is split tables by row into different entities. For example, a roller coaster photo has everything in the same row, including the metadata, the thumbnail bytes and the image itself. Obviously, if you want to get a list of photos to iterate over in a view, you don't want to get the image data. The use of navigation properties makes it easier to get just what you want. The front end includes Razor views in MVC, and jQuery is used for client-side goodness. I'm also using jQuery UI in a few places, for tabs, a dialog box and autocomplete. I'm also, tentatively, using jQuery Mobile. I've already ported most forum views to Mobile, but they need some work as v1.1 isn't finished yet. I'm not sure if I'll ship CoasterBuzz with mobile views or not yet. It's on the radar, but not something in my delivery criteria. That covers all of the big frameworks in play. Next time I hope to talk more about the front-end experience, which to me is where most of the fun is these days. Hoping to launch in the next month or two. Getting tired of looking at the old site!

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• At times, you need to hire a professional.

  - by Phil Factor

  After months of increasingly demanding toil, the development team I belonged to was told that the project was to be canned and the whole team would be fired.  I’d been brought into the team as an expert in the data implications of a business re-engineering of a major financial institution. Nowadays, you’d call me a data architect, I suppose.  I’d spent a happy year being paid consultancy fees solving a succession of interesting problems until the point when the company lost is nerve, and closed the entire initiative. The IT industry was in one of its characteristic mood-swings downwards.  After the announcement, we met in the canteen. A few developers had scented the smell of death around the project already hand had been applying unsuccessfully for jobs. There was a sense of doom in the mass of dishevelled and bleary-eyed developers. After giving vent to anger and despair, talk turned to getting new employment. It was then that I perked up. I’m not an obvious choice to give advice on getting, or passing,  IT interviews. I reckon I’ve failed most of the job interviews I’ve ever attended. I once even failed an interview for a job I’d already been doing perfectly well for a year. The jobs I’ve got have mostly been from personal recommendation. Paradoxically though, from years as a manager trying to recruit good staff, I know a lot about what IT managers are looking for.  I gave an impassioned speech outlining the important factors in getting to an interview.  The most important thing, certainly in my time at work is the quality of the résumé or CV. I can’t even guess the huge number of CVs (résumés) I’ve read through, scanning for candidates worth interviewing.  Many IT Developers find it impossible to describe their  career succinctly on two sides of paper.  They leave chunks of their life out (were they in prison?), get immersed in detail, put in irrelevancies, describe what was going on at work rather than what they themselves did, exaggerate their importance, criticize their previous employers, aren’t  aware of the important aspects of a role to a potential employer, suffer from shyness and modesty,  and lack any sort of organized perspective of their work. There are many ways of failing to write a decent CV. Many developers suffer from the delusion that their worth can be recognized purely from the code that they write, and shy away from anything that seems like self-aggrandizement. No.  A resume must make a good impression, which means presenting the facts about yourself in a clear and positive way. You can’t do it yourself. Why not have your resume professionally written? A good professional CV Writer will know the qualities being looked for in a CV and interrogate you to winkle them out. Their job is to make order and sense out of a confused career, to summarize in one page a mass of detail that presents to any recruiter the information that’s wanted. To stand back and describe an accurate summary of your skills, and work-experiences dispassionately, without rancor, pity or modesty. You are no more capable of producing an objective documentation of your career than you are of taking your own appendix out.  My next recommendation was more controversial. This is to have a professional image overhaul, or makeover, followed by a professionally-taken photo portrait. I discovered this by accident. It is normal for IT professionals to face impossible deadlines and long working hours by looking more and more like something that had recently blocked a sink. Whilst working in IT, and in a state of personal dishevelment, I’d been offered the role in a high-powered amateur production of an old ex- Broadway show, purely for my singing voice. I was supposed to be the presentable star. When the production team saw me, the air was thick with tension and despair. I was dragged kicking and protesting through a succession of desperate grooming, scrubbing, dressing, dieting. I emerged feeling like “That jewelled mass of millinery, That oiled and curled Assyrian bull, Smelling of musk and of insolence.” (Tennyson Maud; A Monodrama (1855) Section v1 stanza 6) I was then photographed by a professional stage photographer.  When the photographs were delivered, I was amazed. It wasn’t me, but it looked somehow respectable, confident, trustworthy.   A while later, when the show had ended, I took the photos, and used them for work. They went with the CV to job applications. It did the trick better than I could ever imagine.  My views went down big with the developers. Old rivalries were put immediately to one side. We voted, with a show of hands, to devote our energies for the entire notice period to getting employable. We had a team sourcing the CV Writer,  a team organising the make-overs and photographer, and a third team arranging  mock interviews. A fourth team determined the best websites and agencies for recruitment, with the help of friends in the trade.  Because there were around thirty developers, we were in a good negotiating position.  Of the three CV Writers we found who lived locally, one proved exceptional. She was an ex-journalist with an eye to detail, and years of experience in manipulating language. We tried her skills out on a developer who seemed a hopeless case, and he was called to interview within a week.  I was surprised, too, how many companies were experts at image makeovers. Within the month, we all looked like those weird slick  people in the ‘Office-tagged’ stock photographs who stare keenly and interestedly at PowerPoint slides in sleek chromium-plated high-rise offices. The portraits we used still adorn the entries of many of my ex-colleagues in LinkedIn. After a months’ worth of mock interviews, and technical Q&A, our stutters, hesitations, evasions and periphrastic circumlocutions were all gone.  There is little more to relate. With the résumés or CVs, mugshots, and schooling in how to pass interviews, we’d all got new and better-paid jobs well  before our month’s notice was ended. Whilst normally, an IT team under the axe is a sad and depressed place to belong to, this wonderful group of people had proved the power of organized group action in turning the experience to advantage. It left us feeling slightly guilty that we were somehow cheating, but I guess we were merely leveling the playing-field.

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• Why JSF Matters (to You)

  - by reza_rahman

        "Those who have knowledge, don’t predict. Those who predict, don’t have knowledge."                                                                                                    – Lao Tzu You may have noticed Thoughtworks recently crowned the likes AngularJS, etc imminent successors to server-side web frameworks. They apparently also deemed it necessary to single out JSF for righteous scorn. I have to say as I was reading the analysis I couldn't help but remember they also promptly jumped on the Ruby, Rails, Clojure, etc bandwagon a good few years ago seemingly similarly crowing these dynamic languages imminent successors to Java. I remember thinking then as I do now whether the folks at Thoughtworks are really that much smarter than me or if they are simply more prone to the Hipster buzz of the day. I'll let you make the final call on that one. I also noticed mention of "J2EE" in the context of JSF and had to wonder how up-to-date or knowledgeable the person writing the analysis actually was given that the term was basically retired almost a decade ago. There's one thing that I am absolutely sure about though - as a long time pretty happy user of JSF, I had no choice but to speak up on what I believe JSF offers. If you feel the same way, I would encourage you to support the team behind JSF whose hard work you may have benefited from over the years. True to his outspoken character PrimeFaces lead Cagatay Civici certainly did not mince words making the case for the JSF ecosystem - his excellent write-up is well worth a read. He specifically pointed out the practical problems in going whole hog with bare metal JavaScript, CSS, HTML for many development teams. I'll admit I had to smile when I read his closing sentence as well as the rather cheerful comments to the post from actual current JSF/PrimeFaces users that are apparently supposed to be on a gloomy death march. In a similar vein, OmniFaces developer Arjan Tijms did a great job pointing out the fact that despite the extremely competitive server-side Java Web UI space, JSF seems to manage to always consistently come out in either the number one or number two spot over many years and many data sources - do give his well-written message in the JAX-RS user forum a careful read. I don't think it's really reasonable to expect this to be the case for so many years if JSF was not at least a capable if not outstanding technology. If fact if you've ever wondered, Oracle itself is one of the largest JSF users on the planet. As Oracle's Shay Shmeltzer explains in a recent JSF Central interview, many of Oracle's strategic products such as ADF, ADF Mobile and Fusion Applications itself is built on JSF. There are well over 3,000 active developers working on these codebases. I don't think anyone can think of a more compelling reason to make sure that a technology is as effective as possible for practical development under real world conditions. Standing on the shoulders of the above giants, I feel like I can be pretty brief in making my own case for JSF: JSF is a powerful abstraction that brings the original Smalltalk MVC pattern to web development. This means cutting down boilerplate code to the bare minimum such that you really can think of just writing your view markup and then simply wire up some properties and event handlers on a POJO. The best way to see what this really means is to compare JSF code for a pretty small case to other approaches. You should then multiply the additional work for the typical enterprise project to try to understand what the productivity trade-offs are. This is reason alone for me to personally never take any other approach seriously as my primary web UI solution unless it can match the sheer productivity of JSF. Thanks to JSF's focus on components from the ground-up JSF has an extremely strong ecosystem that includes projects like PrimeFaces, RichFaces, OmniFaces, ICEFaces and of course ADF Faces/Mobile. These component libraries taken together constitute perhaps the largest widget set ever developed and optimized for a single web UI technology. To begin to grasp what this really means, just briefly browse the excellent PrimeFaces showcase and think about the fact that you can readily use the widgets on that showcase by just using some simple markup and knowing near to nothing about AJAX, JavaScript or CSS. JSF has the fair and legitimate advantage of being an open vendor neutral standard. This means that no single company, individual or insular clique controls JSF - openness, transparency, accountability, plurality, collaboration and inclusiveness is virtually guaranteed by the standards process itself. You have the option to choose between compatible implementations, escape any form of lock-in or even create your own compatible implementation! As you might gather from the quote at the top of the post, I am not a fan of crystal ball gazing and certainly don't want to engage in it myself. Who knows? However far-fetched it may seem maybe AngularJS is the only future we all have after all. If that is the case, so be it. Unlike what you might have been told, Java EE is about choice at heart and it can certainly work extremely well as a back-end for AngularJS. Likewise, you are also most certainly not limited to just JSF for working with Java EE - you have a rich set of choices like Struts 2, Vaadin, Errai, VRaptor 4, Wicket or perhaps even the new action-oriented web framework being considered for Java EE 8 based on the work in Jersey MVC... Please note that any views expressed here are my own only and certainly does not reflect the position of Oracle as a company.

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• Sort latitude and longitude coordinates into clockwise ordered quadrilateral

  - by Dave Jarvis

  Problem Users can provide up to four latitude and longitude coordinates, in any order. They do so with Google Maps. Using Google's Polygon API (v3), the coordinates they select should highlight the selected area between the four coordinates. Solutions and Searches http://www.geocodezip.com/map-markers_ConvexHull_Polygon.asp http://softsurfer.com/Archive/algorithm_0103/algorithm_0103.htm http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2374708/how-to-sort-points-in-a-google-maps-polygon-so-that-lines-do-not-cross http://stackoverflow.com/questions/242404/sort-four-points-in-clockwise-order http://en.literateprograms.org/Quickhull_%28Javascript%29 Graham's scan seems too complicated for four coordinates Sort the coordinates into two arrays (one by latitude, the other longitude) ... then? Jarvis March algorithm? Question How do you sort the coordinates in (counter-)clockwise order, using JavaScript? Code Here is what I have so far: // Ensures the markers are sorted: NW, NE, SE, SW function sortMarkers() { var ns = markers.slice( 0 ); var ew = markers.slice( 0 ); ew.sort( function( a, b ) { if( a.position.lat() < b.position.lat() ) { return -1; } else if( a.position.lat() > b.position.lat() ) { return 1; } return 0; }); ns.sort( function( a, b ) { if( a.position.lng() < b.position.lng() ) { return -1; } else if( a.position.lng() > b.position.lng() ) { return 1; } return 0; }); var nw; var ne; var se; var sw; if( ew.indexOf( ns[0] ) > 1 ) { nw = ns[0]; } else { ne = ns[0]; } if( ew.indexOf( ns[1] ) > 1 ) { nw = ns[1]; } else { ne = ns[1]; } if( ew.indexOf( ns[2] ) > 1 ) { sw = ns[2]; } else { se = ns[2]; } if( ew.indexOf( ns[3] ) > 1 ) { sw = ns[3]; } else { se = ns[3]; } markers[0] = nw; markers[1] = ne; markers[2] = se; markers[3] = sw; } What is a better approach? The recursive Convex Hull algorithm is overkill for four points in the data set. Thank you.

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• Shawn Wildermuth violating MVVM in MSDN article?

  - by rasx

  This may be old news but back in March 2009, Shawn Wildermuth, his article, “Model-View-ViewModel In Silverlight 2 Apps,” has a code sample that includes DataServiceEntityBase: // COPIED FROM SILVERLIGHTCONTRIB Project for simplicity /// <summary> /// Base class for DataService Data Contract classes to implement /// base functionality that is needed like INotifyPropertyChanged. /// Add the base class in the partial class to add the implementation. /// </summary> public abstract class DataServiceEntityBase : INotifyPropertyChanged { /// <summary> /// The handler for the registrants of the interface's event /// </summary> PropertyChangedEventHandler _propertyChangedHandler; /// <summary> /// Allow inheritors to fire the event more simply. /// </summary> /// <param name="propertyName"></param> protected void FirePropertyChanged(string propertyName) { if (_propertyChangedHandler != null) { _propertyChangedHandler(this, new PropertyChangedEventArgs(propertyName)); } } #region INotifyPropertyChanged Members /// <summary> /// The interface used to notify changes on the entity. /// </summary> event PropertyChangedEventHandler INotifyPropertyChanged.PropertyChanged { add { _propertyChangedHandler += value; } remove { _propertyChangedHandler -= value; } } #endregion What this class implies is that the developer intends to bind visuals directly to data (yes, a ViewModel is used but it defines an ObservableCollection of data objects). Is this design diverging too far from the guidance of MVVM? Now I can see some of the reasons why Shawn would go this way: what Shawn can do with DataServiceEntityBase is this sort of thing (which is intimate with the Entity Framework): // Partial Method to support the INotifyPropertyChanged interface public partial class Game : DataServiceEntityBase { #region Partial Method INotifyPropertyChanged Implementation // Override the Changed partial methods to implement the // INotifyPropertyChanged interface // This helps with the Model implementation to be a mostly // DataBound implementation partial void OnDeveloperChanged() { base.FirePropertyChanged("Developer"); } partial void OnGenreChanged() { base.FirePropertyChanged("Genre"); } partial void OnListPriceChanged() { base.FirePropertyChanged("ListPrice"); } partial void OnListPriceCurrencyChanged() { base.FirePropertyChanged("ListPriceCurrency"); } partial void OnPlayerInfoChanged() { base.FirePropertyChanged("PlayerInfo"); } partial void OnProductDescriptionChanged() { base.FirePropertyChanged("ProductDescription"); } partial void OnProductIDChanged() { base.FirePropertyChanged("ProductID"); } partial void OnProductImageUrlChanged() { base.FirePropertyChanged("ProductImageUrl"); } partial void OnProductNameChanged() { base.FirePropertyChanged("ProductName"); } partial void OnProductTypeIDChanged() { base.FirePropertyChanged("ProductTypeID"); } partial void OnPublisherChanged() { base.FirePropertyChanged("Publisher"); } partial void OnRatingChanged() { base.FirePropertyChanged("Rating"); } partial void OnRatingUrlChanged() { base.FirePropertyChanged("RatingUrl"); } partial void OnReleaseDateChanged() { base.FirePropertyChanged("ReleaseDate"); } partial void OnSystemNameChanged() { base.FirePropertyChanged("SystemName"); } #endregion } Of course MSDN code can seen as “toy code” for educational purposes but is anyone doing anything like this in the real world of Silverlight development?

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• How to use c++0x thread in Android NDK?

  - by m-ric

  I am trying to compile this simple program with android-ndk-r8b: jni/hello_jni.cpp #include <iostream> #include <thread> void hello() { std::cout << "Hi i'm a thread!!!" << std::endl; } int main() { std::thread th(hello); th.join(); return 0; } jni/Application.mk APP_OPTIM := release APP_MODULES := hello_thread APP_STL := gnustl_static jni/Android.mk LOCAL_PATH := $(call my-dir) include $(CLEAR_VARS) LOCAL_CPPFLAGS += -std=c++0x -frtti LOCAL_MODULE := hello_thread LOCAL_LDLIBS := -L$(SYSROOT)/usr/lib -pthread LOCAL_SRC_FILES := hello_thread.cpp include $(BUILD_EXECUTABLE) ndk-build returns me an error arguin that 'thread' is not a member of 'std'. I issued ndk-build -n to get the compilation command and issued it alone in my shell: /home/evigier/android-ndk-r8b/toolchains/arm-linux-androideabi-4.6/prebuilt/linux-x86/bin/arm-linux-androideabi-g++ -MMD -MP -MF /home/evigier/eclipse_workspace/hello_thread/obj/local/armeabi/objs/hello_thread/hello_thread.o.d -fpic -ffunction-sections -funwind-tables -fstack-protector -D__ARM_ARCH_5__ -D__ARM_ARCH_5T__ -D__ARM_ARCH_5E__ -D__ARM_ARCH_5TE__ -march=armv5te -mtune=xscale -msoft-float -fno-exceptions -fno-rtti -mthumb -Os -fomit-frame-pointer -fno-strict-aliasing -finline-limit=64 -I/home/evigier/android-ndk-r8b/sources/cxx-stl/gnu-libstdc++/4.6/include -I/home/evigier/android-ndk-r8b/sources/cxx-stl/gnu-libstdc++/4.6/libs/armeabi/include -I/home/evigier/eclipse_workspace/hello_thread/jni -DANDROID -Wa,--noexecstack -std=c++0x -frtti -O2 -DNDEBUG -g -I/home/evigier/android-ndk-r8b/platforms/android-14/arch-arm/usr/include -c /home/evigier/eclipse_workspace/hello_thread/jni/hello_thread.cpp -o /home/evigier/eclipse_workspace/hello_thread/obj/local/armeabi/objs/hello_thread/hello_thread.o Compile++ thumb : hello_thread <= hello_thread.cpp In file included from /home/evigier/android-ndk-r8b/platforms/android-14/arch-arm/usr/include/stdio.h:55:0, from /home/evigier/android-ndk-r8b/platforms/android-14/arch-arm/usr/include/wchar.h:33, from /home/evigier/android-ndk-r8b/sources/cxx-stl/gnu-libstdc++/4.6/include/cwchar:46, from /home/evigier/android-ndk-r8b/sources/cxx-stl/gnu-libstdc++/4.6/include/bits/postypes.h:42, from /home/evigier/android-ndk-r8b/sources/cxx-stl/gnu-libstdc++/4.6/include/iosfwd:42, from /home/evigier/android-ndk-r8b/sources/cxx-stl/gnu-libstdc++/4.6/include/ios:39, from /home/evigier/android-ndk-r8b/sources/cxx-stl/gnu-libstdc++/4.6/include/ostream:40, from /home/evigier/android-ndk-r8b/sources/cxx-stl/gnu-libstdc++/4.6/include/iostream:40, from jni/hello_thread.cpp:4: /home/evigier/android-ndk-r8b/platforms/android-14/arch-arm/usr/include/sys/types.h:124:9: error: 'uint64_t' does not name a type /home/evigier/eclipse_workspace/hello_thread/jni/hello_thread.cpp: In function 'int main()': /home/evigier/eclipse_workspace/hello_thread/jni/hello_thread.cpp:14:5: error: 'thread' is not a member of 'std' /home/evigier/eclipse_workspace/hello_thread/jni/hello_thread.cpp:14:17: error: expected ';' before 'th' /home/evigier/eclipse_workspace/hello_thread/jni/hello_thread.cpp:15:5: error: 'th' was not declared in this scope I read a lot of threads/questions about POSIX threads and C++ threads, but still cannot find my answer. My arm-linux-androideabi/include/c++/4.6/thread file defines class thread in std only: #if defined(_GLIBCXX_HAS_GTHREADS) && defined(_GLIBCXX_USE_C99_STDINT_TR1) They don't seem to be defined in my sdk (c++config.h). But how can I possibly turn them on safely? Do i need to compile my own toolchain to use (non-p)threads? My host computer is : Linux evigier-ThinkPad-X220 3.0.0-17-generic #30-Ubuntu SMP Thu Mar 8 20:45:39 UTC 2012 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

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• Which version of MSXML should I use?

  - by Cheeso

  Seems like this would be a common question, though I could not find it on SO. Which version of MSXML should I use in my applications, and more importantly, how should I decide? There is MSXML3, 4, 5 and 6. I recently posted some code in calling-wcf-service-by-vbscript that used MSXML v4. AnthonyWJones posted that I shouldn't use 4, but instead 3 or 6, but probably 3. Certainly not v5! Why? I'd like to know more about the criteria for selecting the version of MSXML to use in my apps. Bonus question: Does anyone have a summary of the differences between the various versions of MSXML over time? Summary so far: MSXML6 Should be first choice. was released in 2006, and includes perf and compliance fixes. Use this if you can. It's good. There are no merge modules; to bundle the MSXML6 runtime with your app, MS suggests packaging the MSXML6 msi file. MSXML6 is an upgrade from MSXML3/4 but does not replace them, because it discontinues some features. You can get the MSI here. MSXML3 Second choice. Most widely deployed version. Originally shipped in March 2000. Actively maintained, no new features. Currently supported, if you are on SP5 (shipped in 2005) or later. SP7 is current (also from 2005). MSXML5 was released only as part of MS-Office. Currently supported by Microsoft, but only as part of Office, not for building apps. Don't build apps that depend on MSXML5: Verboten. MSXML4 originally shipped? Currently in "maintenance mode". Microsoft is encouraging people to move off MSXML4 to MSXML6. Currently supported if you are on MSXML4SP2 or later, which shipped in 2003. download MSXML4SP2 here. Can be redisributed. Using the right version of MSXML in Internet Explorer is a good entry on the blog from Microsoft's xmlteam.

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• VBA - Access 03 - Iterating through a list box, with an if statement to evaluate

  - by Justin

  So I have a one list box with values like DeptA, DeptB, DeptC & DeptD. I have a method that causes these to automatically populate in this list box if they are applicable. So in other words, if they populate in this list box, I want the resulting logic to say they are "Yes" in a boolean field in the table. So to accomplish this I am trying to use this example of iteration to cycle through the list box first of all, and it works great: dim i as integer dim myval as string For i = o to me.lstResults.listcount - 1 myVal = lstResults.itemdata(i) Next i if i debug.print myval, i get the list of data items that i want from the list box. so now i am trying to evaluate that list so that I can have an UPDATE SQL statement to update the table as i need it to be done. so, i know this is a mistake, but this is what i tried to do (giving it as an example so that you can see what i am trying to get to here) dim sql as string dim i as integer dim myval as string dim db as database sql = "UPDATE tblMain SET " for i = 0 to me.lstResults.listcount - 1 myval = lstResults.itemdata(i) If MyVal = "DeptA" Then sql = sql & "DeptA = Yes" ElseIF myval = "DeptB" Then sql = sql & "DeptB = Yes" ElseIf MyVal = "DeptC" Then sql = sql & "DeptC = Yes" ElseIf MyVal = "DeptD" Then sql = sql & "DeptD = Yes" End If Next i debug.print (sql) sql = sql & ";" set db= currentdb db.execute(sql) msgbox "Good Luck!" So you can see why this is going to cause problems because the listbox that these values (DeptA, DeptB, etc) automatically populate in are dynamic....there is rarely one value in the listbox, and the list of values changes per OrderID (what the form I am using this on populates information for in the first place; unique instance). I am looking for something that will evaluate this list one at a time (i.e. iterate through the list of values, and look for "DeptA", and if it is found add yes to the SQL string, and if it not add no to the SQL string, then march on to the next iteration). Even though the listbox populates values dynamically, they are set values, meaning i know what could end up in it. Thanks for any help, Justin

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• XML Parsing Error - C#

  - by Indebi

  My code is having an XML parsing error at line 7 position 32 and I'm not really sure why Exact Error Dump 5/1/2010 10:21:42 AM System.Xml.XmlException: An error occurred while parsing EntityName. Line 7, position 32. at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.Throw(Exception e) at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.Throw(String res, Int32 lineNo, Int32 linePos) at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.HandleEntityReference(Boolean isInAttributeValue, EntityExpandType expandType, Int32& charRefEndPos) at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.ParseAttributeValueSlow(Int32 curPos, Char quoteChar, NodeData attr) at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.ParseAttributes() at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.ParseElement() at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.ParseElementContent() at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.Read() at System.Xml.XmlLoader.LoadNode(Boolean skipOverWhitespace) at System.Xml.XmlLoader.LoadDocSequence(XmlDocument parentDoc) at System.Xml.XmlLoader.Load(XmlDocument doc, XmlReader reader, Boolean preserveWhitespace) at System.Xml.XmlDocument.Load(XmlReader reader) at System.Xml.XmlDocument.Load(String filename) at Lookoa.LoadingPackages.LoadingPackages_Load(Object sender, EventArgs e) in C:\Users\Administrator\Documents\Visual Studio 2010\Projects\Lookoa\Lookoa\LoadingPackages.cs:line 30 Xml File, please note this is just a sample because I want the program to work before I begin to fill this repository <repo> <Packages> <TheFirstPackage id="00001" longname="Mozilla Firefox" appver="3.6.3" pkgver="0.01" description="Mozilla Firefox is a free and open source web browser descended from the Mozilla Application Suite and managed by Mozilla Corporation. A Net Applications statistic put Firefox at 24.52% of the recorded usage share of web browsers as of March 2010[update], making it the second most popular browser in terms of current use worldwide after Microsoft's Internet Explorer." cat="WWW" rlsdate="4/8/10" pkgloc="http://google.com"/> </Packages> <categories> <WWW longname="World Wide Web" description="Software that's focus is communication or primarily uses the web for any particular reason."> </WWW> <Fun longname="Entertainment & Other" description="Music Players, Video Players, Games, or anything that doesn't fit in any of the other categories."> </Fun> <Work longname="Productivity" description="Application's commonly used for occupational needs or, stuff you work on"> </Work> <Advanced longname="System & Security" description="Applications that protect the computer from malware, clean the computer, and other utilities."> </Advanced> </categories> </repo> Small part of C# Code //Loading the Package and Category lists //The info from them is gonna populate the listboxes for Category and Packages Repository.Load("repo.info"); XmlNodeList Categories = Repository.GetElementsByTagName("categories"); foreach (XmlNode Category in Categories) { CategoryNumber++; CategoryNames[CategoryNumber] = Category.Name; MessageBox.Show(CategoryNames[CategoryNumber]); } The Messagebox.Show() is just to make sure it's getting the correct results

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• Volunteer for a potential employer?

  - by EoRaptor013

  I've been looking for work since March, and haven't had much luck. Recently, however, I interviewed with a small company near my home for a C#, .NET, SQL development position. I hit it off very well with the hiring manager during the phone screen, and even more so during the face to face. Unfortunately, I failed the practical test: wiring up a web form, creating a couple of SQL stored procedures, saving new data with validation, and creating a minimal search screen. I knew what I was doing, but I was too slow to meet their standards as all the work needed to be done within an hour. Nevertheless, I really liked the place, the environment, the people who I would have been working with, and the boss. (I gave the company an 11 on Joel's 12 point scale.) So, the obvious next step was to scrape the rust off. I've been trying to create little projects for myself, but I don't know that I've been effective in getting any faster. What with all that goes into creating a project, I'm not heads-down coding as much as I think I need. Now, with all that introduction, here's the question. I have been thinking about calling the hiring manager at that place, and asking him to let me volunteer for three or four weeks, with no strings attached. I think it would benefit me, and wouldn't cost him anything (as long as I didn't slow the existing people down!). At the end of that period, he might, or might not, be inclined to hire me, but even if not, I would have had as much as 160 hours of in the trenches development. Maybe not all shiny, but no more rust, I would think. Does this plan make any sense at all? I certainly don't want to sound desperate (although, I'm not far from being there), and I very much need the tuneup, lube, and change the oil. What's the downside, if any, to me doing this? Do any of you see red flags going up—either from the prerspective of the hiring manager, or from the perspective of a developer?

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• Jquery getJSON populate select menu question...

  - by Scott

  I am populating a select menu with getJSON. I am wondering if there's a way that I can use jQuery's .each function to bring in these values? Surely there must be an easier way to accomplish this...maybe? PHP file: <?php $queryMonth = "SELECT monthID, month FROM months"; $result = $db->query($queryMonth); while($rowMonth = $db->fetch_assoc($result)) : $data[] = $rowMonth; endwhile; echo json_encode($data); ?> The jQuery: $.getJSON('selectMenus.php', function(data){ $("select.month").append("<option value=" + data[0].monthID + ">" + data[0].month + "</option>"); $("select.month").append("<option value=" + data[1].monthID + ">" + data[1].month + "</option>"); $("select.month").append("<option value=" + data[2].monthID + ">" + data[2].month + "</option>"); $("select.month").append("<option value=" + data[3].monthID + ">" + data[3].month + "</option>"); $("select.month").append("<option value=" + data[4].monthID + ">" + data[4].month + "</option>"); $("select.month").append("<option value=" + data[5].monthID + ">" + data[5].month + "</option>"); $("select.month").append("<option value=" + data[6].monthID + ">" + data[6].month + "</option>"); $("select.month").append("<option value=" + data[7].monthID + ">" + data[7].month + "</option>"); $("select.month").append("<option value=" + data[8].monthID + ">" + data[8].month + "</option>"); $("select.month").append("<option value=" + data[9].monthID + ">" + data[9].month + "</option>"); $("select.month").append("<option value=" + data[10].monthID + ">" + data[10].month + "</option>"); $("select.month").append("<option value=" + data[11].monthID + ">" + data[11].month + "</option>"); }); my json output looks like this: [{"monthID":"1","month":"January"},{"monthID":"2","month":"February"},{"monthID":"3","month":"March"},{"monthID":"4","month":"April"},{"monthID":"5","month":"May"},{"monthID":"6","month":"June"},{"monthID":"7","month":"July"},{"monthID":"8","month":"August"},{"monthID":"9","month":"Septemeber"},{"monthID":"10","month":"October"},{"monthID":"11","month":"November"},{"monthID":"12","month":"December"}]

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• Does this MSDN article violate MVVM?

  - by rasx

  This may be old news but back in March 2009, this article, “Model-View-ViewModel In Silverlight 2 Apps,” has a code sample that includes DataServiceEntityBase: // COPIED FROM SILVERLIGHTCONTRIB Project for simplicity /// <summary> /// Base class for DataService Data Contract classes to implement /// base functionality that is needed like INotifyPropertyChanged. /// Add the base class in the partial class to add the implementation. /// </summary> public abstract class DataServiceEntityBase : INotifyPropertyChanged { /// <summary> /// The handler for the registrants of the interface's event /// </summary> PropertyChangedEventHandler _propertyChangedHandler; /// <summary> /// Allow inheritors to fire the event more simply. /// </summary> /// <param name="propertyName"></param> protected void FirePropertyChanged(string propertyName) { if (_propertyChangedHandler != null) { _propertyChangedHandler(this, new PropertyChangedEventArgs(propertyName)); } } #region INotifyPropertyChanged Members /// <summary> /// The interface used to notify changes on the entity. /// </summary> event PropertyChangedEventHandler INotifyPropertyChanged.PropertyChanged { add { _propertyChangedHandler += value; } remove { _propertyChangedHandler -= value; } } #endregion What this class implies is that the developer intends to bind visuals directly to data (yes, a ViewModel is used but it defines an ObservableCollection of data objects). Is this design diverging too far from the guidance of MVVM? Now I can see some of the reasons Why would we go this way: what we can do with DataServiceEntityBase is this sort of thing (which is intimate with the Entity Framework): // Partial Method to support the INotifyPropertyChanged interface public partial class Game : DataServiceEntityBase { #region Partial Method INotifyPropertyChanged Implementation // Override the Changed partial methods to implement the // INotifyPropertyChanged interface // This helps with the Model implementation to be a mostly // DataBound implementation partial void OnDeveloperChanged() { base.FirePropertyChanged("Developer"); } partial void OnGenreChanged() { base.FirePropertyChanged("Genre"); } partial void OnListPriceChanged() { base.FirePropertyChanged("ListPrice"); } partial void OnListPriceCurrencyChanged() { base.FirePropertyChanged("ListPriceCurrency"); } partial void OnPlayerInfoChanged() { base.FirePropertyChanged("PlayerInfo"); } partial void OnProductDescriptionChanged() { base.FirePropertyChanged("ProductDescription"); } partial void OnProductIDChanged() { base.FirePropertyChanged("ProductID"); } partial void OnProductImageUrlChanged() { base.FirePropertyChanged("ProductImageUrl"); } partial void OnProductNameChanged() { base.FirePropertyChanged("ProductName"); } partial void OnProductTypeIDChanged() { base.FirePropertyChanged("ProductTypeID"); } partial void OnPublisherChanged() { base.FirePropertyChanged("Publisher"); } partial void OnRatingChanged() { base.FirePropertyChanged("Rating"); } partial void OnRatingUrlChanged() { base.FirePropertyChanged("RatingUrl"); } partial void OnReleaseDateChanged() { base.FirePropertyChanged("ReleaseDate"); } partial void OnSystemNameChanged() { base.FirePropertyChanged("SystemName"); } #endregion } Of course MSDN code can seen as “toy code” for educational purposes but is anyone doing anything like this in the real world of Silverlight development?

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• Evaluating points in time by months, but without referencing years in Rails

  - by MikeH

  FYI, There is some overlap in the initial description of this question with a question I asked yesterday, but the question is different. My app has users who have seasonal products. When a user selects a product, we allow him to also select the product's season. We accomplish this by letting him select a start date and an end date for each product. We're using date_select to generate two sets of drop-downs: one for the start date and one for the end date. Including years doesn't make sense for our model. So we're using the option: discard_year => true When you use discard_year => true, Rails sets a year in the database, it just doesn't appear in the views. Rails sets all the years to either 0001 or 0002 in our app. Yes, we could make it 2009 and 2010 or any other pair. But the point is that we want the months and days to function independent of a particular year. If we used 2009 and 2010, then those dates would be wrong next year because we don't expect these records to be updated every year. My problem is that we need to dynamically evaluate the availability of products based on their relationship to the current month. For example, assume it's March 15. Regardless of the year, I need a method that can tell me that a product available from October to January is not available right now. If we were using actual years, this would be pretty easy. For example, in the products model, I can do this: def is_available? (season_start.past? && season_end.future?) end I can also evaluate a start_date and an end_date against current_date However, in setup I've described above where we have arbitrary years that only make sense relative to each other, these methods don't work. For example, is_available? would return false for all my products because their end date is in the year 0001 or 0002. What I need is a method just like the ones I used as examples above, except that they evaluate against current_month instead of current_date, and past? and future months instead of years. I have no idea how to do this or whether Rails has any built in functionality that could help. I've gone through all the date and time methods/helpers in the API docs, but I'm not seeing anything equivalent to what I'm describing. Thanks.

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• Possible to use Python with Intel's Atom Developer SDK (C/C++)?

  - by Jordan Magnuson

  So I've made a game in Python and PyGame. Now I'm interested in submitting the game to Intel's March Developer Challenge. However, the developer challenge requires use of Intel's Atom Developer SDK (http://appdeveloper.intel.com/en-us/sdk), which only has API's for C and C++. I'm new to Python and PyGame, and have no experience in C or C++. My question is, would it be possible to somehow implement Intel's Atom SDK through/with/from a Python application (as the first link above suggests)? I've read up a little bit on embedding/extending Python into/with C, but I'm not entirely sure what to embed or where. I mean, I know I can do things like this in C: #include <Python.h> int main(int argc, char *argv[]) { Py_Initialize(); PyRun_SimpleString("from time import time,ctime\n" "print 'Today is',ctime(time())\n"); Py_Finalize(); return 0; } But what do I do about all my dependencies on Python and Pygame, for people that don't have those installed on their machines? Normally Py2Exe takes care of compacting the required dependencies (I've managed to package my game into an exe/zip), but how do I take care of that stuff in the context of embedding within C? Can I somehow work with py2exe on this, or do I need to do something entirely different for embedding within C? It seems like it would be a lot easier to go the route of extending Python with the C validation code, rather than trying to embed my whole game within C, but I think that's not an option, "because the library provided is currently only available as a Visual Studio 2008 '.lib'", meaning the application has to be compiled with Visual Studio...? Any help, thoughts, or ideas are much appreciated! You can find the complete SDK Developer's Guide on the intel site above, but here is their "Hello World" using the C Language API: #include <stdio.h> #include “adpcore.h” int main( int argc, char* argv[] ) { ADP_RET_CODE ret_code; const ADP_APPLICATIONID myApplicationID = {{ 0x12345678,0x11112222,0x33331234,0x567890ab}}; if ((ret_code = ADP_Initialize()) != ADP_SUCCESS ){ printf( “ERROR: exiting” ); exit( -1 ); } if (( ret_code = ADP_IsAuthorized( myApplicationId )) == ADP_AUTHORIZED ) printf( “Hello World” ); else printf( “Not authorized to run” ); exit 0; } 35 Page SDK Developer Guide: http:// appdeveloper.intel.com/sites/files/pages/SDK%20Developer%20Guide.pdf

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• Generate a list of file names based on month and year arithmetic

  - by MacUsers

  How can I list the numbers 01 to 12 (one for each of the 12 months) in such a way so that the current month always comes last where the oldest one is first. In other words, if the number is grater than the current month, it's from the previous year. e.g. 02 is Feb, 2011 (the current month right now), 03 is March, 2010 and 09 is Sep, 2010 but 01 is Jan, 2011. In this case, I'd like to have [09, 03, 01, 02]. This is what I'm doing to determine the year: for inFile in os.listdir('.'): if inFile.isdigit(): month = months[int(inFile)] if int(inFile) <= int(strftime("%m")): year = strftime("%Y") else: year = int(strftime("%Y"))-1 mnYear = month + ", " + str(year) I don't have a clue what to do next. What should I do here? Update: I think, I better upload the entire script for better understanding. #!/usr/bin/env python import os, sys from time import strftime from calendar import month_abbr vGroup = {} vo = "group_lhcb" SI00_fig = float(2.478) months = tuple(month_abbr) print "\n%-12s\t%10s\t%8s\t%10s" % ('VOs','CPU-time','CPU-time','kSI2K-hrs') print "%-12s\t%10s\t%8s\t%10s" % ('','(in Sec)','(in Hrs)','(*2.478)') print "=" * 58 for inFile in os.listdir('.'): if inFile.isdigit(): readFile = open(inFile, 'r') lines = readFile.readlines() readFile.close() month = months[int(inFile)] if int(inFile) <= int(strftime("%m")): year = strftime("%Y") else: year = int(strftime("%Y"))-1 mnYear = month + ", " + str(year) for line in lines[2:]: if line.find(vo)==0: g, i = line.split() s = vGroup.get(g, 0) vGroup[g] = s + int(i) sumHrs = ((vGroup[g]/60)/60) sumSi2k = sumHrs*SI00_fig print "%-12s\t%10s\t%8s\t%10.2f" % (mnYear,vGroup[g],sumHrs,sumSi2k) del vGroup[g] When I run the script, I get this: [root@serv07 usage]# ./test.py VOs CPU-time CPU-time kSI2K-hrs (in Sec) (in Hrs) (*2.478) ================================================== Jan, 2011 211201372 58667 145376.83 Dec, 2010 5064337 1406 3484.07 Feb, 2011 17506049 4862 12048.04 Sep, 2010 210874275 58576 145151.33 As I said in the original post, I like the result to be in this order instead: Sep, 2010 210874275 58576 145151.33 Dec, 2010 5064337 1406 3484.07 Jan, 2011 211201372 58667 145376.83 Feb, 2011 17506049 4862 12048.04 The files in the source directory reads like this: [root@serv07 usage]# ls -l total 3632 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1144972 Feb 9 19:23 01 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 556630 Feb 13 09:11 02 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 443782 Feb 11 17:23 02.bak -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1144556 Feb 14 09:30 09 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 370822 Feb 9 19:24 12 Did I give a better picture now? Sorry for not being very clear in the first place. Cheers!! Update @Mark Ransom This is the result from Mark's suggestion: [root@serv07 usage]# ./test.py VOs CPU-time CPU-time kSI2K-hrs (in Sec) (in Hrs) (*2.478) ========================================================== Dec, 2010 5064337 1406 3484.07 Sep, 2010 210874275 58576 145151.33 Feb, 2011 17506049 4862 12048.04 Jan, 2011 211201372 58667 145376.83 As I said before, I'm looking for the result to b printed in this order: Sep, 2010 - Dec, 2010 - Jan, 2011 - Feb, 2011 Cheers!!

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• Please , Explain these java code ..?

  - by soma

  I want understand these code before java lab exam especially methode import javax.swing.; import java.util.; import java.text.*; public class EnglishCalendar { public static String[] months = { "January" , "February" , "March", "April" , "May" , "June", "July" , "August" , "September", "October" , "November" , "December" }; public static int days[] = { 31, 28, 31, 30, 31, 30, 31, 31, 30, 31, 30, 31 }; private void showMonth(int m, int y) { int lead_spaces = 0; if (m < 0 || m > 11) { System.out.println("It should be 1 to 12"); } else { System.out.println(); System.out.println(" " + months[m] + " " + y); System.out.println(); GregorianCalendar cal = new GregorianCalendar(y, m, 0); System.out.println("Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa "); lead_spaces = cal.get(Calendar.DAY_OF_WEEK); int day_of_month = days[m]; if (cal.isLeapYear(cal.get(Calendar.YEAR)) && m == 1){ day_of_month++;} for (int i = 0; i < lead_spaces; i++) { System.out.print(" "); } for (int i = 1; i <= day_of_month; i++) { if (i < 10) System.out.print(" "); System.out.print(i); if ((lead_spaces + i) % 7 == 0) { System.out.println(); } else { System.out.print(" "); } } System.out.println(); } } private static void doSimpleDateFormat() { Calendar now = Calendar.getInstance(); SimpleDateFormat formatter = new SimpleDateFormat("E yyyy.MM.dd 'at' hh:mm:ss a zzz"); System.out.print(" \n It is now : " + formatter.format(now.getTime())); System.out.println(); } public static void main(String[] args) { String mo = JOptionPane.showInputDialog("Month"); String ye = JOptionPane.showInputDialog("Year"); int mon = new Integer(mo).intValue(); int yea = new Integer(ye).intValue(); EnglishCalendar k = new EnglishCalendar(); k.showMonth(mon - 1 , yea); doSimpleDateFormat(); } }

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• Multi-tenant ASP.NET MVC – Introduction

  - by zowens

  I’ve read a few different blogs that talk about multi-tenancy and how to resolve some of the issues surrounding multi-tenancy. What I’ve come to realize is that these implementations overcomplicate the issues and give only a muddy implementation! I’ve seen some really illogical code out there. I have recently been building a multi-tenancy framework for internal use at eagleenvision.net. Through this process, I’ve realized a few different techniques to make building multi-tenant applications actually quite easy. I will be posting a few different entries over the issue and my personal implementation. In this first post, I will discuss what multi-tenancy means and how my implementation will be structured.   So what’s the problem? Here’s the deal. Multi-tenancy is basically a technique of code-reuse of web application code. A multi-tenant application is an application that runs a single instance for multiple clients. Here the “client” is different URL bindings on IIS using ASP.NET MVC. The problem with different instances of the, essentially, same application is that you have to spin up different instances of ASP.NET. As the number of running instances of ASP.NET grows, so does the memory footprint of IIS. Stack Exchange shifted its architecture to multi-tenancy March. As the blog post explains, multi-tenancy saves cost in terms of memory utilization and physical disc storage. If you use the same code base for many applications, multi-tenancy just makes sense. You’ll reduce the amount of work it takes to synchronize the site implementations and you’ll thank your lucky stars later for choosing to use one application for multiple sites. Multi-tenancy allows the freedom of extensibility while relying on some pre-built code.   You’d think this would be simple. I have actually seen a real lack of reference material on the subject in terms of ASP.NET MVC. This is somewhat surprising given the number of users of ASP.NET MVC. However, I will certainly fill the void ;). Implementing a multi-tenant application takes a little thinking. It’s not straight-forward because the possibilities of implementation are endless. I have yet to see a great implementation of a multi-tenant MVC application. The only one that comes close to what I have in mind is Rob Ashton’s implementation (all the entries are listed on this page). There’s some really nasty code in there… something I’d really like to avoid. He has also written a library (MvcEx) that attempts to aid multi-tenant development. This code is even worse, in my honest opinion. Once I start seeing Reflection.Emit, I have to assume the worst :) In all seriousness, if his implementation makes sense to you, use it! It’s a fine implementation that should be given a look. At least look at the code. I will reference MvcEx going forward as a comparison to my implementation. I will explain why my approach differs from MvcEx and how it is better or worse (hopefully better).   Core Goals of my Multi-Tenant Implementation The first, and foremost, goal is to use Inversion of Control containers to my advantage. As you will see throughout this series, I pass around containers quite frequently and rely on their use heavily. I will be using StructureMap in my implementation. However, you could probably use your favorite IoC tool instead. <RANT> However, please don’t be stupid and abstract your IoC tool. Each IoC is powerful and by abstracting the capabilities, you’re doing yourself a real disservice. Who in the world swaps out IoC tools…? No one!</RANT> (It had to be said.) I will outline some of the goodness of StructureMap as we go along. This is really an invaluable tool in my tool belt and simple to use in my multi-tenant implementation. The second core goal is to represent a tenant as easily as possible. Just as a dependency container will be a first-class citizen, so will a tenant. This allows us to easily extend and use tenants. This will also allow different ways of “plugging in” tenants into your application. In my implementation, there will be a single dependency container for a single tenant. This will enable isolation of the dependencies of the tenant. The third goal is to use composition as a means to delegate “core” functions out to the tenant. More on this later.   Features In MvcExt, “Modules” are a code element of the infrastructure. I have simplified this concept and have named this “Features”. A feature is a simple element of an application. Controllers can be specified to have a feature and actions can have “sub features”. Each tenant can select features it needs and the other features will be hidden to the tenant’s users. My implementation doesn’t require something to be a feature. A controller can be common to all tenants. For example, (as you will see) I have a “Content” controller that will return the CSS, Javascript and Images for a tenant. This is common logic to all tenants and shouldn’t be hidden or considered a “feature”; Content is a core component.   Up next My next post will be all about the code. I will reveal some of the foundation to the way I do multi-tenancy. I will have posts dedicated to Foundation, Controllers, Views, Caching, Content and how to setup the tenants. Each post will be in-depth about the issues and implementation details, while adhering to my core goals outlined in this post. As always, comment with questions of DM me on twitter or send me an email.

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• The Windows Browser Ballot Screen Offers Web Browser Choice to European Users

  - by Matthew Guay

  Since March, our friends across the pond in Europe get to decide which browser they want to install with their Windows OS. Today we thought we would take a look at the ballot choices, some are well known, and others you may not have heard of. Windows users in European countries should start seeing the so called “Browser Ballot Screen” after installing the Windows Update KB976002 (link below). The browser ballot offers a dozen different browsers, including some you’ve likely never heard of.  They each have some unique features, and are all free, and here we take a quick look at each of them. Internet Explorer 8 Internet Explorer is the world’s most used web browser, as it’s bundled with Windows. It also includes several unique features, including Accelerators that make it easy to search or find a map of a location, and InPrivate filtering to directly control what sites can get personal information.  Additionally, it offers great integration with Windows Touch and the new taskbar in Windows 7. IE 8 runs on Windows XP and newer, and is bundled with Windows 7. Mozilla Firefox 3.6 Firefox is the most popular browser other than Internet Explorer.  It is the modern descendant of Netscape, and is loved by web developers for its adherence to web standards, openness, and expandability.  It offers thousands of Add-ons and themes to let you customize it to fit your preferences. The most recent version has added Personas, which are quick, lightweight themes to let you personalize the look your browser. It’s open source, and runs on all modern versions of Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. Of course thanks to Asian Angel, our resident browser expert, you can check out several articles regarding this popular IE alternative. Google Chrome 4 Google Chrome has gained an impressive amount of market share during its short time in the market. It offers a minimalistic interface and fast speeds with intensive web applications. The address bar is also a search bar, so you can enter a search query or web address and quickly get the information you need. With version 4 you can add a growing number of extensions, personalize it with a variety of stylish themes, and automatically translate foreign websites into your own language. Opera 10.50 Although Opera has been around for over a decade, relatively few users have used it. With the new 10.50 release, Opera has many unique features packed in a sleek UI. It integrates great with Aero and the Windows 7 taskbar, and lets you preview the contents of your websites in the tab bar. It also includes Opera Unite, a small personal web server to make file sharing easy, Opera Turbo to speed up your internet when the connection is slow, and Opera Link to keep all your copies of Opera in sync. It’s a popular browser on many mobile devices, and version 10.50 has a lot of enhancements. Apple Safari 4 Safari is the default browser in Mac OS X, and starting with version 3 it has been available for Windows as well. It’s based on Webkit, the popular new rendering engine that provides great speed and standards compatibility.  Safari 4 lets you browse your browsing history in a unique Coverflow interface, and shows your Top Sites in a fancy, 3D interface.  It’s also great for viewing mobile websites for the iPhone and other mobile devices through Developer Tools. Flock 2.5 Based on the popular Firefox core, Flock brings a multitude of social features to your browsing experience. You can view the latest YouTube videos, Flickr pictures, update your favorite social network, and keep up with your webmail thanks to It’s integration with a wide variety of services. You can even post to your blog through the integrated blog editor. If your time online is mostly spent in social services, this may be a browser you want to check out. Maxthon 2.5 Maxthon is a unique browser that builds on Internet Explorer to bring more features with IE’s rendering. Formerly known as MyIE2, Maxthon was popular for bringing tabbed browsing with IE rendering during the days of IE 6.  Today Maxthon supports a wide range of plugins and skins, so you can customize it however you want. It includes mouse gestures, a web accelerator to speed up pokey internet connections, a content blocker to remove unwanted content from sites, an online account to backup your favorites, and a nice download manager. Avant Browser Another nice browser based on Internet Explorer, Avant brings a wide variety of features in a nice brushed-metal interface. It includes an integrated AutoFill for forms, mouse gestures, customizable skins, and privacy protection features. It also includes a Flash blocker that will only load flash in webpages when you select them. You can also integrate Avant with an online account to store your bookmarks, feeds, settings and passwords online. Sleipnir Sleipnir is a customizable browser meant for advance users that is quite popular in Japan. It’s built on the Trident engine and virtually every aspect of is customizable unlike Internet Explorer.   FlashPeak SlimBrowser SlimBrowser from FlashPeak incorporates a lot of features like Popup Killer, Auto Login, site filtering and more. It’s based on Internet Explorer but offers a lot more customizable options out of the box.   K-meleon This basic browser is light on system resources and based on the Gecko engine. It’s been in development for years on SourceForge, and if you like to tweak virtually any aspect of your browser, this might be a good choice for you.   GreenBrowser GreenBrowser is based on Internet Explorer and is available in several languages. It has a large amount of features out of the box and is light on system resources.   Conclusion The European Union asked for more choices in the web browser they could choose from when installing Windows, and with the Browser Ballot Screen, they certainly get a variety to choose from.  If you’ve tried out some of the lesser known browsers, or think some important ones have been left out, leave a comment and tell us about it. Learn More About the Browser Ballot Screen and Download Alternatives to IE Windows Update KB976002 Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Set the Default Browser on Ubuntu From the Command LineQuick Tip: Empty Internet Explorer 7 Cache when Browser is ClosedView Hidden Files and Folders in Ubuntu File BrowserSet the Default Browser and Email Client in UbuntuAccess Multiple Browsers from Firefox with Browser View Plus TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 PCmover Professional Play Music in Chrome by Simply Dragging a File 15 Great Illustrations by Chow Hon Lam Easily Sync Files & Folders with Friends & Family Amazon Free Kindle for PC Download Stretch popurls.com with a Stylish Script (Firefox) OldTvShows.org – Find episodes of Hitchcock, Soaps, Game Shows and more

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• ASP.NET GZip Encoding Caveats

  - by Rick Strahl

  GZip encoding in ASP.NET is pretty easy to accomplish using the built-in GZipStream and DeflateStream classes and applying them to the Response.Filter property.  While applying GZip and Deflate behavior is pretty easy there are a few caveats that you have watch out for as I found out today for myself with an application that was throwing up some garbage data. But before looking at caveats let’s review GZip implementation for ASP.NET. ASP.NET GZip/Deflate Basics Response filters basically are applied to the Response.OutputStream and transform it as data is written to it through the ASP.NET Response object. So a Response.Write eventually gets written into the output stream which if a filter is also written through the filter stream’s interface. To perform the actual GZip (and Deflate) encoding typically used by Web pages .NET includes the GZipStream and DeflateStream stream classes which can be readily assigned to the Repsonse.OutputStream. With these two stream classes in place it’s almost trivially easy to create a couple of reusable methods that allow you to compress your HTTP output. In my standard WebUtils utility class (from the West Wind West Wind Web Toolkit) created two static utility methods – IsGZipSupported and GZipEncodePage – that check whether the client supports GZip encoding and then actually encodes the current output (note that although the method includes ‘Page’ in its name this code will work with any ASP.NET output). /// <summary> /// Determines if GZip is supported /// </summary> /// <returns></returns> public static bool IsGZipSupported() { string AcceptEncoding = HttpContext.Current.Request.Headers["Accept-Encoding"]; if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(AcceptEncoding) && (AcceptEncoding.Contains("gzip") || AcceptEncoding.Contains("deflate"))) return true; return false; } /// <summary> /// Sets up the current page or handler to use GZip through a Response.Filter /// IMPORTANT: /// You have to call this method before any output is generated! /// </summary> public static void GZipEncodePage() { HttpResponse Response = HttpContext.Current.Response; if (IsGZipSupported()) { string AcceptEncoding = HttpContext.Current.Request.Headers["Accept-Encoding"]; if (AcceptEncoding.Contains("deflate")) { Response.Filter = new System.IO.Compression.DeflateStream(Response.Filter, System.IO.Compression.CompressionMode.Compress); Response.Headers.Remove("Content-Encoding"); Response.AppendHeader("Content-Encoding", "deflate"); } else { Response.Filter = new System.IO.Compression.GZipStream(Response.Filter, System.IO.Compression.CompressionMode.Compress); Response.Headers.Remove("Content-Encoding"); Response.AppendHeader("Content-Encoding", "gzip"); } } } As you can see the actual assignment of the Filter is as simple as: Response.Filter = new DeflateStream(Response.Filter, System.IO.Compression.CompressionMode.Compress); which applies the filter to the OutputStream. You also need to ensure that your response reflects the new GZip or Deflate encoding and ensure that any pages that are cached in Proxy servers can differentiate between pages that were encoded with the various different encodings (or no encoding). To use this utility function now is trivially easy: In any ASP.NET code that wants to compress its Response output you simply use: protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e) { WebUtils.GZipEncodePage(); Entry = WebLogFactory.GetEntry(); var entries = Entry.GetLastEntries(App.Configuration.ShowEntryCount, "pk,Title,SafeTitle,Body,Entered,Feedback,Location,ShowTopAd", "TEntries"); if (entries == null) throw new ApplicationException("Couldn't load WebLog Entries: " + Entry.ErrorMessage); this.repEntries.DataSource = entries; this.repEntries.DataBind(); } Here I use an ASP.NET page, but the above WebUtils.GZipEncode() method call will work in any ASP.NET application type including HTTP Handlers. The only requirement is that the filter needs to be applied before any other output is sent to the OutputStream. For example, in my CallbackHandler service implementation by default output over a certain size is GZip encoded. The output that is generated is JSON or XML and if the output is over 5k in size I apply WebUtils.GZipEncode(): if (sbOutput.Length > GZIP_ENCODE_TRESHOLD) WebUtils.GZipEncodePage(); Response.ContentType = ControlResources.STR_JsonContentType; HttpContext.Current.Response.Write(sbOutput.ToString()); Ok, so you probably get the idea: Encoding GZip/Deflate content is pretty easy. Hold on there Hoss –Watch your Caching Or is it? There are a few caveats that you need to watch out for when dealing with GZip content. The fist issue is that you need to deal with the fact that some clients don’t support GZip or Deflate content. Most modern browsers support it, but if you have a programmatic Http client accessing your content GZip/Deflate support is by no means guaranteed. For example, WinInet Http clients don’t support GZip out of the box – it has to be explicitly implemented. Other low level HTTP clients on other platforms too don’t support GZip out of the box. The problem is that your application, your Web Server and Proxy Servers on the Internet might be caching your generated content. If you return content with GZip once and then again without, either caching is not applied or worse the wrong type of content is returned back to the client from a cache or proxy. The result is an unreadable response for *some clients* which is also very hard to debug and fix once in production. You already saw the issue of Proxy servers addressed in the GZipEncodePage() function: // Allow proxy servers to cache encoded and unencoded versions separately Response.AppendHeader("Vary", "Content-Encoding"); This ensures that any Proxy servers also check for the Content-Encoding HTTP Header to cache their content – not just the URL. The same thing applies if you do OutputCaching in your own ASP.NET code. If you generate output for GZip on an OutputCached page the GZipped content will be cached (either by ASP.NET’s cache or in some cases by the IIS Kernel Cache). But what if the next client doesn’t support GZip? She’ll get served a cached GZip page that won’t decode and she’ll get a page full of garbage. Wholly undesirable. To fix this you need to add some custom OutputCache rules by way of the GetVaryByCustom() HttpApplication method in your global_ASAX file: public override string GetVaryByCustomString(HttpContext context, string custom) { // Override Caching for compression if (custom == "GZIP") { string acceptEncoding = HttpContext.Current.Response.Headers["Content-Encoding"]; if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(acceptEncoding)) return ""; else if (acceptEncoding.Contains("gzip")) return "GZIP"; else if (acceptEncoding.Contains("deflate")) return "DEFLATE"; return ""; } return base.GetVaryByCustomString(context, custom); } In a page that use Output caching you then specify: <%@ OutputCache Duration="180" VaryByParam="none" VaryByCustom="GZIP" %> To use that custom rule. It’s all Fun and Games until ASP.NET throws an Error Ok, so you’re up and running with GZip, you have your caching squared away and your pages that you are applying it to are jamming along. Then BOOM, something strange happens and you get a lovely garbled page that look like this: Lovely isn’t it? What’s happened here is that I have WebUtils.GZipEncode() applied to my page, but there’s an error in the page. The error falls back to the ASP.NET error handler and the error handler removes all existing output (good) and removes all the custom HTTP headers I’ve set manually (usually good, but very bad here). Since I applied the Response.Filter (via GZipEncode) the output is now GZip encoded, but ASP.NET has removed my Content-Encoding header, so the browser receives the GZip encoded content without a notification that it is encoded as GZip. The result is binary output. Here’s what Fiddler says about the raw HTTP header output when an error occurs when GZip encoding was applied: HTTP/1.1 500 Internal Server Error Cache-Control: private Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8 Date: Sat, 30 Apr 2011 22:21:08 GMT Content-Length: 2138 Connection: close ?`I?%&/m?{J?J??t??` … binary output striped here Notice: no Content-Encoding header and that’s why we’re seeing this garbage. ASP.NET has stripped the Content-Encoding header but left our filter intact. So how do we fix this? In my applications I typically have a global Application_Error handler set up and in this case I’ve been using that. One thing that you can do in the Application_Error handler is explicitly clear out the Response.Filter and set it to null at the top: protected void Application_Error(object sender, EventArgs e) { // Remove any special filtering especially GZip filtering Response.Filter = null; … } And voila I get my Yellow Screen of Death or my custom generated error output back via uncompressed content. BTW, the same is true for Page level errors handled in Page_Error or ASP.NET MVC Error handling methods in a controller. Another and possibly even better solution is to check whether a filter is attached just before the headers are sent to the client as pointed out by Adam Schroeder in the comments: protected void Application_PreSendRequestHeaders() { // ensure that if GZip/Deflate Encoding is applied that headers are set // also works when error occurs if filters are still active HttpResponse response = HttpContext.Current.Response; if (response.Filter is GZipStream && response.Headers["Content-encoding"] != "gzip") response.AppendHeader("Content-encoding", "gzip"); else if (response.Filter is DeflateStream && response.Headers["Content-encoding"] != "deflate") response.AppendHeader("Content-encoding", "deflate"); } This uses the Application_PreSendRequestHeaders() pipeline event to check for compression encoding in a filter and adjusts the content accordingly. This is actually a better solution since this is generic – it’ll work regardless of how the content is cleaned up. For example, an error Response.Redirect() or short error display might get changed and the filter not cleared and this code actually handles that. Sweet, thanks Adam. It’s unfortunate that ASP.NET doesn’t natively clear out Response.Filters when an error occurs just as it clears the Response and Headers. I can’t see where leaving a Filter in place in an error situation would make any sense, but hey - this is what it is and it’s easy enough to fix as long as you know where to look. Riiiight! IIS and GZip I should also mention that IIS 7 includes good support for compression natively. If you can defer encoding to let IIS perform it for you rather than doing it in your code by all means you should do it! Especially any static or semi-dynamic content that can be made static should be using IIS built-in compression. Dynamic caching is also supported but is a bit more tricky to judge in terms of performance and footprint. John Forsyth has a great article on the benefits and drawbacks of IIS 7 compression which gives some detailed performance comparisons and impact reviews. I’ll post another entry next with some more info on IIS compression since information on it seems to be a bit hard to come by. Related Content Built-in GZip/Deflate Compression in IIS 7.x HttpWebRequest and GZip Responses © Rick Strahl, West Wind Technologies, 2005-2011Posted in ASP.NET   IIS7  

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• Oracle Data Mining a Star Schema: Telco Churn Case Study

  - by charlie.berger

  There is a complete and detailed Telco Churn case study "How to" Blog Series just posted by Ari Mozes, ODM Dev. Manager.  In it, Ari provides detailed guidance in how to leverage various strengths of Oracle Data Mining including the ability to: mine Star Schemas and join tables and views together to obtain a complete 360 degree view of a customer combine transactional data e.g. call record detail (CDR) data, etc. define complex data transformation, model build and model deploy analytical methodologies inside the Database  His blog is posted in a multi-part series.  Below are some opening excerpts for the first 3 blog entries.  This is an excellent resource for any novice to skilled data miner who wants to gain competitive advantage by mining their data inside the Oracle Database.  Many thanks Ari! Mining a Star Schema: Telco Churn Case Study (1 of 3) One of the strengths of Oracle Data Mining is the ability to mine star schemas with minimal effort.  Star schemas are commonly used in relational databases, and they often contain rich data with interesting patterns.  While dimension tables may contain interesting demographics, fact tables will often contain user behavior, such as phone usage or purchase patterns.  Both of these aspects - demographics and usage patterns - can provide insight into behavior.Churn is a critical problem in the telecommunications industry, and companies go to great lengths to reduce the churn of their customer base.  One case study1 describes a telecommunications scenario involving understanding, and identification of, churn, where the underlying data is present in a star schema.  That case study is a good example for demonstrating just how natural it is for Oracle Data Mining to analyze a star schema, so it will be used as the basis for this series of posts...... Mining a Star Schema: Telco Churn Case Study (2 of 3) This post will follow the transformation steps as described in the case study, but will use Oracle SQL as the means for preparing data.  Please see the previous post for background material, including links to the case study and to scripts that can be used to replicate the stages in these posts.1) Handling missing values for call data recordsThe CDR_T table records the number of phone minutes used by a customer per month and per call type (tariff).  For example, the table may contain one record corresponding to the number of peak (call type) minutes in January for a specific customer, and another record associated with international calls in March for the same customer.  This table is likely to be fairly dense (most type-month combinations for a given customer will be present) due to the coarse level of aggregation, but there may be some missing values.  Missing entries may occur for a number of reasons: the customer made no calls of a particular type in a particular month, the customer switched providers during the timeframe, or perhaps there is a data entry problem.  In the first situation, the correct interpretation of a missing entry would be to assume that the number of minutes for the type-month combination is zero.  In the other situations, it is not appropriate to assume zero, but rather derive some representative value to replace the missing entries.  The referenced case study takes the latter approach.  The data is segmented by customer and call type, and within a given customer-call type combination, an average number of minutes is computed and used as a replacement value.In SQL, we need to generate additional rows for the missing entries and populate those rows with appropriate values.  To generate the missing rows, Oracle's partition outer join feature is a perfect fit.  select cust_id, cdre.tariff, cdre.month, minsfrom cdr_t cdr partition by (cust_id) right outer join     (select distinct tariff, month from cdr_t) cdre     on (cdr.month = cdre.month and cdr.tariff = cdre.tariff);   ....... Mining a Star Schema: Telco Churn Case Study (3 of 3) Now that the "difficult" work is complete - preparing the data - we can move to building a predictive model to help identify and understand churn.The case study suggests that separate models be built for different customer segments (high, medium, low, and very low value customer groups).  To reduce the data to a single segment, a filter can be applied: create or replace view churn_data_high asselect * from churn_prep where value_band = 'HIGH'; It is simple to take a quick look at the predictive aspects of the data on a univariate basis.  While this does not capture the more complex multi-variate effects as would occur with the full-blown data mining algorithms, it can give a quick feel as to the predictive aspects of the data as well as validate the data preparation steps.  Oracle Data Mining includes a predictive analytics package which enables quick analysis. begin  dbms_predictive_analytics.explain(   'churn_data_high','churn_m6','expl_churn_tab'); end; /select * from expl_churn_tab where rank <= 5 order by rank; ATTRIBUTE_NAME       ATTRIBUTE_SUBNAME EXPLANATORY_VALUE RANK-------------------- ----------------- ----------------- ----------LOS_BAND                                      .069167052          1MINS_PER_TARIFF_MON  PEAK-5                   .034881648          2REV_PER_MON          REV-5                    .034527798          3DROPPED_CALLS                                 .028110322          4MINS_PER_TARIFF_MON  PEAK-4                   .024698149          5From the above results, it is clear that some predictors do contain information to help identify churn (explanatory value > 0).  The strongest uni-variate predictor of churn appears to be the customer's (binned) length of service.  The second strongest churn indicator appears to be the number of peak minutes used in the most recent month.  The subname column contains the interior piece of the DM_NESTED_NUMERICALS column described in the previous post.  By using the object relational approach, many related predictors are included within a single top-level column. .....   NOTE:  These are just EXCERPTS.  Click here to start reading the Oracle Data Mining a Star Schema: Telco Churn Case Study from the beginning.    

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• Ada and 'The Book'

  - by Phil Factor

  The long friendship between Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace created one of the most exciting and mysterious of collaborations ever to have resulted in a technological breakthrough. The fireworks that created by the collision of two prodigious mathematical and creative talents resulted in an invention, the Analytical Engine, which went on to change society fundamentally. However, beyond that, we just don't know what the bulk of their collaborative work was about:;  it was done in strictest secrecy. Even the known outcome of their friendship, the first programmable computer, was shrouded in mystery. At the time, nobody, except close friends and family, had any idea of Ada Byron's contribution to the invention of the ‘Engine’, and how to program it. Her great insight was published in August 1843, under the initials AAL, standing for Ada Augusta Lovelace, her title then being the Countess of Lovelace. It was contained in a lengthy ‘note’ to her translation of a publication that remains the best description of Babbage's amazing Analytical Engine. The secret identity of the person behind those enigmatic initials was finally revealed by Prince de Polignac who, seventy years later, wrote to Ada's daughter to seek confirmation that her mother had, indeed, been the author of the brilliant sentences that described so accurately how Babbage's mechanical computer could be programmed with punch-cards. L.F. Menabrea's paper on the Analytical Engine first appeared in the 'Bibliotheque Universelle de Geneve' in October 1842, and Ada translated it anonymously for Taylor's 'Scientific Memoirs'. Charles Babbage was surprised that she had not written an original paper as she already knew a surprising amount about the way the machine worked. He persuaded her to at least write some explanatory notes. These notes ended up extending to four times the length of the original article and represented the first published account of how a machine could be programmed to perform any calculation. Her example of programming the Bernoulli sequence would have worked on the Analytical engine had the device’s construction been completed, and gave Ada an unassailable claim to have invented the art of programming. What was the reason for Ada's secrecy? She was the only legitimate child of Lord Byron, who was probably the best known celebrity of the age, so she was already famous. She was a senior aristocrat, with titles, a fortune in money and vast estates in the Midlands. She had political influence, and was the cousin of Lord Melbourne, who was the Prime Minister at that time. She was friendly with the young Queen Victoria. Her mathematical activities were a pastime, and not one that would be considered by others to be in keeping with her roles and responsibilities. You wouldn't dare to dream up a fictional heroine like Ada. She was dazzlingly beautiful and talented. She could speak several languages fluently, and play some musical instruments with professional skill. Contemporary accounts refer to her being 'accomplished in science, art and literature'. On top of that, she was a brilliant mathematician, a talent inherited from her mother, Annabella Milbanke. In her mother's circle of literary and scientific friends was Charles Babbage, and Ada's friendship with him dates from her teenage zest for Mathematics. She was one of the first people he'd ever met who understood what he had attempted to achieve with the 'Difference Engine', and with whom he could converse as intellectual equals. He arranged for her to have an education from the most talented academics in the country. Ada melted the heart of the cantankerous genius to the point that he became a faithful and loyal father-figure to her. She was one of the very few who could grasp the principles of the later, and very different, ‘Analytical Engine’ which was designed from the start to tackle a variety of tasks. Sadly, Ada Byron's life ended less than a decade after completing the work that assured her long-term fame, in November 1852. She was dying of cancer, her gambling habits had caused her to run up huge debts, she'd had more than one affairs, and she was being blackmailed. Her brilliant but unempathic mother was nursing her in her final illness, destroying her personal letters and records, and repaying her debts. Her husband was distraught but helpless. Charles Babbage, however, maintained his steadfast paternalistic friendship to the end. She appointed her loyal friend to be her executor. For years, she and Babbage had been working together on a secret project, known only as 'The Book'. We have a clue to what it was in a letter written by her nine years earlier, on 11th August 1843. It was a joint project by herself and Lord Lovelace, her husband, and was intended to involve Babbage's 'undivided energies'. It involved 'consulting your Engine' (it required Babbage’s computer). The letter gives no hint about the project except for the high-minded nature of its purpose, and its highly mathematical nature.  From then on, the surviving correspondence between the two gives only veiled references to 'The Book'. There isn't much, since Babbage later destroyed any letters that could have damaged her reputation within the Establishment. 'I cannot spare the book today, which I am very sorry for. At the moment I want it for constant reference, but I think you can have it tomorrow' (Oct 1844)  And 'I will send you the book directly, and you can say, when you receive it, how long you will want to keep it'. (Nov 1844)  The two of them were obviously intent on the work: She writes, four years later, 'I have an engagement for Wednesday which will prevent me from attending to your wishes about the book' (Dec 1848). This was something that they both needed to work on, but could not do in parallel: 'I will send the book on Tuesday, and it can be left with you till Friday' (11 Feb 1849). After six years work, it had been so well-handled that it was beginning to fall apart: 'Don't forget the new cover you promised for the book. The poor book is very shabby and wants one' (20 Sept 1849). So what was going on? The word 'book' was not a code-word: it was a real book, probably a 'printer's blank', plain paper, but properly bound so printers and publishers could show off how the published work might look. The hints from the correspondence are of advanced mathematics. It is obvious that the book was travelling between them, back and forth, each one working on it for less than a week before passing it back. Ada and her husband were certainly involved in gambling large sums of money on the horses, and so most biographers have concluded that the three of them were trying to calculate the mathematical odds on the horses. This theory has three large problems. Firstly, Ada's original letter proposing the project refers to its high-minded nature. Babbage was temperamentally opposed to gambling and would scarcely have given so much time to the project, even though he was devoted to Ada. Secondly, Babbage would have very soon have realized the hopelessness of trying to beat the bookies. This sort of betting never attracts his type of intellectual background. The third problem is that any work on calculating the odds on horses would not need a well-thumbed book to pass back and forth between them; they would have not had to work in series. The original project was instigated by Ada, along with her husband, William King-Noel, 1st Earl of Lovelace. Charles Babbage was invited to join the project after the couple had come up with the idea. What could William have contributed? One might assume that William was a Bertie Wooster character, addicted only to the joys of the turf, but this was far from the truth. He was a scientist, a Cambridge graduate who was later elected to be a Fellow of the Royal Society. After Eton, he went to Trinity College, Cambridge. On graduation, he entered the diplomatic service and acted as secretary under Lord Nugent, who was Lord Commissioner of the Ionian Islands. William was very friendly with Babbage too, able to discuss scientific matters on equal terms. He was a capable engineer who invented a process for bending large timbers by the application of steam heat. He delivered a paper to the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1849, and received praise from the great engineer, Isambard Kingdom Brunel. As well as being Lord Lieutenant of the County of Surrey for most of Victoria's reign, he had time for a string of scientific and engineering achievements. Whatever the project was, it is unlikely that William was a junior partner. After Ada's death, the project disappeared. Then, two years later, Babbage, through one of his occasional outbursts of temper, demonstrated that he was able to decrypt one of the most powerful of secret codes, Vigenère's autokey cipher.  All contemporary diplomatic and military messages used a variant of this cipher. Babbage had made three important discoveries, namely, the mathematical law of this cipher, the principle of the key periodicity, and the technique of the symmetry of position. The technique is now known as the Kasiski examination, also called the Kasiski test, but Babbage got there first. At one time, he listed amongst his future projects, the writing of a book 'The Philosophy of Decyphering', but it never came to anything. This discovery was going to change the course of history, since it was used to decipher the Russians’ military dispatches in the Crimean war. Babbage himself played a role during the Crimean War as a cryptographical adviser to his friend, Rear-Admiral Sir Francis Beaufort of the Admiralty. This is as much as we can be certain about in trying to make sense of the bulk of the time that Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace worked together. Nine years of intensive work, involving the 'Engine' and a great deal of mathematics and research seems to have been lost: or has it? I've argued in the past http://www.simple-talk.com/community/blogs/philfactor/archive/2008/06/13/59614.aspx that the cracking of the Vigenère autokey cipher, was a fundamental motive behind the British Government's support and funding of the 'Difference Engine'. The Duke of Wellington, whose understanding of the military significance of being able to read enemy dispatches, was the most steadfast advocate of the project. If the three friends were actually doing the work of cracking codes by mathematical techniques that used the techniques of key periodicity, and symmetry of position (the use of a book being passed quickly to and fro is very suggestive), intending to then use the 'Engine' to do the routine cracking of each dispatch, then this is a rather different story. The project was Ada and William's idea. (William had served in the diplomatic service and would be familiar with the use of codes). This makes Ada Lovelace the initiator of a project which, by giving both Britain, and probably the USA, a diplomatic and military advantage in the second part of the Nineteenth century, changed world history. Ada would never have wanted any credit for cracking the cipher, and developing the method that rendered all contemporary military and diplomatic ciphering techniques nugatory; quite the reverse. And it is clear from the gaps in the record of the letters between the collaborators that the evidence was destroyed, probably on her request by her irascible but intensely honorable executor, Charles Babbage. Charles Babbage toyed with the idea of going public, but the Crimean war put an end to that. The British Government had a valuable secret, and intended to keep it that way. Ada and Charles had quite often discussed possible moneymaking projects that would fund the development of the Analytic Engine, the first programmable computer, but their secret work was never in the running as a potential cash cow. I suspect that the British Government was, even then, working on the concealment of a discovery whose value to the nation depended on it remaining so. The success of code-breaking in the Crimean war, and the American Civil war, led to the British and Americans  subsequently giving much more weight and funding to the science of decryption. Paradoxically, this makes Ada's contribution even closer to the creation of Colossus, the first digital computer, at Bletchley Park, specifically to crack the Nazi’s secret codes.

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• NINE Questions with Michelle Juett

  - by NINEQuestions

  Michelle Juett is one of the more interesting people I know, even though we’ve never met face to face. She’s part artist, part techie and all cool. We “met” via my good buddy George Clingerman and have plotting to take over the world, errr… I mean “collaborating” ever since. If you happen to live in the Seattle area, you can catch her and her work at Sakura Con on April 2-4, 2010 and various other gamer and art cons throughout the year. You can also find her on Twitter as @Shelldragon. Now that you know a little bit, I’ll let her tell you the rest of the story in these NINE Questions: 1. Where are you from? I was born in Clearwater, Florida. I like to tell people I'm from the Bermuda Triangle, it just makes explaining myself so much easier. My family moved to Washington when I was 5 and I've been in the Pacific Northwest ever since. We like to QQ about the rain but we really love the green trees and clean water. 2. What do you do? I fight evil by moonlight and win love by daylight.. or something like that.  I’ve been in quality assurance for games during the day since January 2008 and an artist for life. I currently work in QA for a really awesome game company in Bellevue.  At home, I work on personal digital art, making game assets as well as other random freelance projects as they pop up. 3. How did you get to where you are now? I'm still not where I want to be but I'm getting closer. The biggest piece of advice I can give is to work hard and never settle for the minimum required. I tend to overwork myself but I've never regretted it. You can want something really bad but if you aren't willing to work for it, then you can't expect it to just happen. I've always drawn and had an unhealthy love for video games that I was told I’d grow out of.  I knew I would not ‘grow out’ of games and that real adults make them and I could too. After I graduated, in searching for jobs, I discovered game testing. I figured this would be a good way to get my foot in the door and start networking. I’ve worked with consoles, websites and now, PC games.  I stuck with my journey, although it has been a rocky one, daylighting as a tester and moonlighting as an artist. I'm still on that journey but I wouldn't have it any other way. Test has given me a perspective that is difficult, if not impossible, to obtain any other way. It gives an unconditional respect for other hard working testers and an insight into creative problem solving. 4. So video game testing probably sounds WAY cooler than the reality. What's it like? What's a given day for you? Game testers don't get a lot of respect because of their stigmas and the fact most people don't actually know what we do.  People hear about the opening and closing disc trays all day. Many places do treat their testers like numbers. It all depends on where you work and how awesome your company is. I've had to deal with a lot of bad work situations to get to a really good one. QA exists to ensure the game is as flawless and enjoyable as it can be by the time it has to leave the nest and go out into the world. This includes everything obvious: “can I beat the level and save the princess?” to the more obscure: ‘What happens when I lose internet connection while trying to save right before falling into a pit to my death while holding the jump key then my cat pulls out my memory card and hides it in her litter box?” On the dev side, for developers, testers can be very scary people. Especially when the test team is not in house and you can’t see each other’s faces.  I've seen both sides. We don't mean to hurt your feelings. We really DO love you and want your game to be the best it can be! It can be some serious tough love. 5. You are also an accomplished artist. Got any major projects right now you'd like to talk about? LOL, I don't know if I’d say I'm an accomplished artist just yet. I’m still a long way from where I want to be. I figure that’s what makes you grow though: the desire to never stop improving. I like QA but I want to be a full time artist. I was lucky enough to register for a table at Sakura Con in the 11 second window that the tables sold out. As such, I’ll be selling my wares in the Artist Alley April 2-4th. Part of preparing for this is actually making the art to be sold there. Anime is a fun pass time but I don’t draw a whole lot of it so I’m making up for lost time. As I seem to enjoy burying myself in work, I’m an art lead for a secret project that’s so secret I might be killed tonight for even mentioning it. I also take on various freelance projects and do what I can to help out indie games. I discovered the XNA community a year and a half ago and developed a love for Indies when I was writing a weekly newsletter on XBLA news. I’m a little late to the party but I find myself in a unique position where I am an artist and also have technical skills in games. While not programmer myself, I have a lot of game sense and experience. I hope to make some awesome happen. Lastly, I have an ongoing web comic Shell’s Angels) that tends to get neglected when I get busy. I still love drawing comics and keep a little book with me to sketch down ideas as they pop into my head. I may pick it back up again as a larger project sometime in the future. 6. Can you talk about any of the other freelance projects you're doing or are you sworn to secrecy on those too? We wouldn't want a team of game developer ninjas to take you out or anything. All my projects are currently 2d. I have personal projects such as the ongoing comic as well as a graphic novel I've been picking at here and there. My main focus until April is Sakura Con, Sakura Con, Sakura Con.  I see it as a great way to get exposure and convention experience. I found out I love conventions a couple years ago and I want to get more involved in them. 7. As an artist, what is your weapon of choice? What do you use to get most of your stuff done? I am a Photoshop Hero and I have the hoodie to prove it. (http://www.pennyarcademerch.com/pah090011.html) I've dabbled in other paint programs but I always gravitate back to Photoshop. She is my one true love. I'd like to learn programs like Flash or Anime Studio when I get a bit more time because of their animation abilities. I've worked on frame by frame animation forever but I would love to learn 2d rigging. Still, nothing can compare to a simple sketchpad and a pencil. I always have one on me in case I come across or think of something interesting and can't get to a computer. If the Courier ever comes to exist it will be an ideal weapon for me. 8. You did some videos too, depicting the art creation process. What was the motivation behind those? The creative process is just as important as the final product, if not more so.  I've always loved watching speed paint videos and wanted to try it out myself. Turns out it's a lot of work and time but it's definitely fun to go back and rewatch them. Art isn't always the end result and is more often the process itself. 9. Got any interesting tattoos? Designed any for yourself or other people? Not yet, but not for lack of desire. I've toiled over what and where for years. Last year, I finally decided the back of my shoulders would be the place. Like anything permanent, I want it to have meaning. I thought of somehow incorporating games but I couldn't find something I felt would stand the test of time even with all the classic sprite games. I'm very picky so we'll see if I can get something solid decided. Come see me at Sakura Con April 2 -4!!!

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